Mighty Man of Valor Tribe 2026-05-17 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com. Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com. Okay. So last week, Lisa and I were in North Carolina for a wedding, and it was great. Did the wedding of some family friends whose daughter was getting married, and when we first met them, she was just seven years old. And so to be able to do their wedding in North Carolina was great and not only that but it was a awesome cultural experience. The first time I've been up in a holler. We would just call it a canyon but they called it a holler. Yep. And for the wedding reception, you know, great plated meal and everything but then when it kind came came time for the dancing, it was, there was no, there was no DJ. It was just a small little band and it was bluegrass and then out comes a collar for square dancing or what they call clogging or stomping something. Stomping. And yeah and it was it was a lot of fun because the band all came from, like, three miles down the road. In that holler, they they grew up playing music and it was yeah. So it was it was there were it was no soggy bottom boys but there was really close. It was it was a close second and so. I know. I know. Well, I don't know. Maybe Amanda had you whipped into a frenzy last week but didn't she do great y'all? And where is Amanda? Alright. Well, she's not here to receive her praise but I love it when we have such a strong and deep bench of leaders here at Tribe that can lead us, that can bring the word, and I love the the wisdom, maturity, and the woman's grace that she operates in as she brings the word and so we were on our way back that day. So, between like rental cars and airports, we were able to tune in and so, great job, Amanda and I said all that for you not to be here but just pass it on. Amanda, are you in their bathroom? Also, while we are talking about the lax, we need to recognize and honor our very own Troy Bolton. Who is the the the lead character in the movie High School Musical, right? Remember? But we had Oliver Lack playing the coach, but he did more than that. He was the real Troy Bolton because he crushed it in football all of these years in high school and then jumps into doing plays with the high school. And so how many of you guys got to see that this weekend? Yes. So, good job, Oliver Lack. Stole the show. Stole the show once again with those dance moves and the golden pipes that you have and. Let me think about that. Yes. Yes. We can we can honor the mustache. Yeah. Well, I think that's really all that I have in our preamble this morning. Oh, one other thing. You'll hear a little bit more about this this at the end of this morning's conversation as we share offering and announcements. But today, there'll be a gathering on the town square. If you remember the the, president Trump has created an invitation for a nationwide day of prayer in preparation for America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday this summer. And so, there are going to be collection of various churches from around the valley gathered on the town square. And so you are all invited, and Amanda will have more about that. It's today at 2PM on the Town Square. Now, what I want to do is honor and recognize Amanda Lack for the great job that she did last week preaching. Well, you missed it. Bragged up your boy. Bragged you up. Just go back and listen to the live stream. Oh, I did. So, one last thing, there's a connect card in your seat that you've just swooped onto the floor. Please, if you're new or visiting, you can fill that out and on the back, there's an opportunity to write down a prayer request. We take these very seriously whenever we gather for staff meeting. We love to lift these things up. Also, it's you could fill out that information to jump on the tribe text blast from time to time. We let y'all know about what we're doing and where we're meeting and where we're going and so you can get on the tribe text blast as well. With that in mind, let's jump into the conversation that we're going to have today and we're going to we're going to pick up where I'd left off two weeks ago with this idea of working harder and not smarter. So, we started a conversation a few weeks ago called Work Smarter and Not Harder and if you remember, we looked at a story in first Kings and when you look at chapter five verse six, let's go ahead and turn there. First Kings chapter five verse six, there is a little almost throwaway statement. It sounds like it's like a like a an advertisement or something. Why is that in there? But there's some beautiful significance of that statement that we began having a conversation about two weeks ago and we're going to continue to have it this week. First Kings chapter five verse six. King Solomon is talking. He is made a trade agreement with the king of Sidon and they are going that nation is going to supply the nation of Israel with all the timber that they need in order to construct the temple. If you remember, god gave the plans to King David but he told David, there's too much blood on your hands but your son is going to build the temple. So, King Solomon makes all of these arrangements to begin construction for the temple and one of those, you need timber to build and so, to the north in what would be today modern modern day Lebanon, King Solomon makes an agreement with King Sidon and King Sidon says, wow, we'll supply you with all the timber that you need and then, this verse jumps up on the screen. As you know, I mean, we all knew that, right? You didn't have to tell us. As you know, we knew that. There is no one among us who can cut timber like the Sidonians. Press that on a T shirt. This is where our conversation started because several weeks ago, maybe over a month ago, I was chewing on this verse and considering it, thinking about this verse, and while it does not implicitly say it in the text, it only only makes this comment. We can safely, reasonably assume that in order for Sidonians to have a reputation of being lumberjacks, number one, they gotta have the right tools, and those tools need to be what? Sharp. You have to have sharp tools so that you can work smarter and not harder. In the same way that the Sidonians had sharp tools, we too must keep our tools sharp. This is still a little bit of a review. We have to keep our tools sharp. Well, what are our tools? And then we talked about this. Our tools are the gifts and talents god gives us to accomplish our unique calling. Our tools are the gifts and talent god gives us to accomplish our unique calling. Then we said that the tools that we've been given, they can either be sharp or dull. God gives us the tool but whose job is it to keep that tool sharp? Our job. This is really important because I think that a lot of people may recognize one area of talent or skill that they may have, and they may be thankful and acknowledge the Lord in having that. But when it comes to sharpening that tool maybe they think that it just happens magically or naturally, or they ask god to sharpen it. God will equip us with the tools, but it is our job to keep them sharp. Our tools are the gifts and talent god gives us to accomplish our unique calling and then, we went to define that more because we're not just talking about axes and files and skill saw blades but we're going deeper than that to the spiritual meaning and what we said is a dull tool is a gift or talent that's used in the flesh. And then we said a sharp tool is a gift or talent used in the spirit. And if you if you rewind the tape and think back, the example that we ended up talking about mostly was think about Moses. He had the the the gift and the talent to be a liberator and when he used it in the flesh, what was the result? One dead Egyptian and how many Hebrew slaves were liberated? None. When he was operating in the flesh. God gave him a forty year time out. He went to the backside of the Desert Of Midian. Met with god. God's like, alright, let's try it again. Now that you're 80, remember the gifts and calling of god are irrevocable. You got those. Let's try it again. This time, he was submitted and surrendered to the spirit and he was operating out of the gifts and talents that god gave him, surrendered to god's leadership, walking in the spirit, and what was the result? How many Egyptians died? Well, I mean, all of the all of the all of Pharaoh's army. But then how many Hebrew slaves were freed? All of them. So, we talked about and then we talked about understanding. We can operate in our natural understanding and that'll get us about so far but then, we looked at the gift of understanding when it's surrendered to, submitted to the leadership of god's holy spirit and Paul talks about like, may you grow and super abound. The Greek word is super abound. In your understanding how much god loves you and then he goes on in his great letter of Ephesians and so, those these things sparked a next conversation that we're going to get into today because I had people text me and then a few people ask me like, well, what about what what's the difference between a gift and a talent and a calling and anointing and and all of these different things and I think that often times, they are used interchangeably and they have a moderate effectiveness effectiveness when they're used interchangeably. However, if we were to slow down, be a little bit more precise, and dive into what god has to say about these various attributes that make up a person, we will gain clarity and insight and focus and help us to utilize the gifts and talents when we can define them. What god has given us to fulfill our unique calling, keeping our tools Now, what if Lissa hadn't been here? Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that would be the least of our word. Yeah, I know. Aren't we glad mama's back in the house? Alright. So, today, we're going to talk about identity. If you have your Bible with you this morning, let's turn to Judges chapter six. Judges chapter six. We're going to let god's word begin to untangle some of these words and their Judges chapter six. And you know, I like for us to do it together, not all read at the same time together but take turns reading. So, would somebody please read? You could probably take this all in one shot. Judges chapter six verses 11 through 16. We have the mic in the room so that all of our families who are trying to get away for the off season before the summer chaos starts. They get a little bit of time but they can tune in, watch the live stream, and so we have the mic in the room for that. Alright, Terminator Matt. Thank you. Alright. This print is extremely small so hang in there with me. I'm sorry. And I just went to the eye doctor and they're like, woah, buddy. I think I'm gonna I got Renee's got a pair right there. I got this. The lighting is well. Okay. The angel of the lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash, the Abisrite. Where his son, Gideon, was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the lord is with you, mighty warrior. Pardon me, my lord, Gideon replied. But if the lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that that our ancestors told us about when they said, did not the lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now, the lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Mideon. The lord turned to him and said, go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Mideon's hand. Am I not sending you? Pardon me, my lord, Gideon replied, but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family. The lord answered, I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive. Woah. There's so much to unpack in these few verses about the topic in the subject of identity. Let's first talk about how you think Gideon saw himself. What does Gideon have to say about himself? Put your nose in tech in the text, consider it, and I'd love to hear what what what do you see? Yes. He says, but on the least of my family and then he takes it more and what else does he say? Well, how, yes, how can I do it? Yes, and and the smallest clan on the whole tribe of Manasseh. I'm the smallest fish in the smallest sea. And I'm hiding the smallest hole in the ground. Alright. So, some of you know from several years ago, a series that we did on tribulation about ancient about ancient grain harvesting and processing, what they would do, how they would harvest grain, dry it out, thresh it, separate the wheat from the trap, chaff, and throw up and there's a little model of a tribulum which is a threshing sledge used to crush the grain and help separate the husk from the actual kernel of wheat and when it comes time after the sled has gone around and around, separated the wheat from the chaff, then the farmer comes with his winnowing fork and what does he do? Yes, he throws it up into the air. The wind blows away the chaff, the grain falls to the ground, the grain is collected, and then it's continued on to be processed. How well does wheat separate from chaff when you're doing it in a hole in the ground? Not very well. So, in this regard, this is a thought that I'm having in this moment. In this regard, is Gideon's tool of processing sharp or dull. Super dull, super inefficient. So, we could continue to look at and then extrapolate these things that Gideon thought about himself. But let's look at what god has to say about Gideon. What does god say about Gideon? Extrapolate. Yes, you may. You have permission to, right? Yes, he says, I'll be with you but there's there's that's what he's going to do for Gideon but there's a statement of identity. Yes. Mighty warrior. The lord is with you. He greets Gideon by speaking his identity over him. Mighty warrior, mighty man of valor. Does that seem a little bit incongruous with what Gideon is doing at the moment when he meets up with the lord? He's hiding. He's threshing wheat in a wine press. He knows that he's the weakest, the littlest fish, and the littlest pond. But then god comes along and says, Gideon, mighty man of valor. There's a great, there's a great preacher with a British accent. His his name escapes me right now. He always Graham Cook and he comes up stage whenever he travels and preaches. And he he gets up on stage and he takes his shoes off. He likes to preach barefoot. I don't know. That's kinda cool. And he preaches about this. And I love he has an imaginary dialogue that he reads into the text and Gideon is there like working away hiding from the Midianites and trying to go about his his job and god says, Gideon, mighty man of valor and Gideon turns around and says, are there two of us named Gideon in here? He's like, who are you? Gideon says, who are you talking about? Who possibly could you be speaking to? Now, here's a question. Whose label of identity is correct? Gideon or the lord? Oop and I just thought of that this could be a trick question. So, give me your answer. And Gideon. Is it not true that Gideon was the smallest and the weakest and a scaredy cat? I mean, those things were true. But there was a greater and a higher level of truth that god was speaking to Gideon. In the same way that when a plane takes off as the wheels leave the ground, does gravity shut off on that plane? No. Gravity is still there but a higher law is at work and what's the higher law? The law of aerodynamics creating lift over the shape of the wing. Gravity doesn't stop working. But there's a higher law at play. Those things were true about Gideon but here's one of the amazing things about god. Is he operates and calls us to and speaks to us at a higher level. When it comes to identity, our identity answers the question, who am I? And you can't ask that question, who am I, without thinking of one of the greatest movies that Hollywood ever produced that I would like to play a clip for you now of. It's okay. Yeah. It's okay. When god approached Gideon and said, mighty man of valor. What had Gideon accomplished up until that point? In my notes, I wrote down one word and I'll spell it for you. N U F F I N. Nothing. He ain't done nothing yet. This is really important. So many times, we and or the world that we live in tries to define our identity by some other criteria other than the lord. How many times have we fallen into that trap? Bethany, what were you gonna say or ask? I was just wondering to get a little bit more context for this because I'm not For the movie? No. Well, okay. So Zoolander is a supermodel. I'm not really familiar with this story. So, Zoolander is the name of or no. That was it? Gideon. Gideon. Alright. So, in the book of in the book of the this is pre king over the nation of Israel. So, the nation of Israel was led by a series of men and one woman, Deborah, who when the nation came under a season of crisis, god would sovereignly touch and pick a person to rise up as a leader for the nation of Israel to lead them out of trouble and back to the heart of god and when their season was done, then the lord would move on to someone else. People like Barak, we have Gideon here who gets a couple of chapters. Deborah Samson is another one of the leaders that rise up during this time and so, what I've done here with Judges chapter six is tee up the story and the unspoken invitation is for you this week at your leisure is to go back and read that story and see how Gideon grew into his identity. Using the gifts and skills that god had given him to accomplish the unique mission that god had for him and how Gideon steps into his identity as a mighty man of valor. It's really cool. Does that help? Does that answer your question? Okay. So, listen to Your identity isn't based on your performance, your position, or even your preference. And I understand that for many of you, this may seem basic, rudimentary, maybe almost even insulting of your spiritual growth and maturity intelligence. But we live in a world surrounded by people. And by pressures of society and the medical industry and politicians and voices on social media that will try to impose your identity on you. I know who you are better than you do and even Gideon didn't quite know who was his who his identity was. So, who Gideon? He thought himself as one way but look at this, our identity isn't based on our performance, on our position, or even our preference. So, in that regard, if our identity isn't based on those things, then, how do we get our identity? I wrote this down on my notes. Only the creator has the authority to define his creation. Not society, not your young forming brain that thinks you're one thing one day and another thing another day. Not Strava. Only the creator has the authority to define his creation. Couple of weeks ago, a a a friend of ours were on our group text, and Amanda's a teacher. And she sent us some pictures of some children's Play Doh artwork creation and she's like, this will be a fun game. Try to guess the creation of these kids and all of us were wrong about all of their answers and any good parent who gets their child's artwork on paper when it comes home that night, any good parent doesn't say, yes, but they ask, tell me about. So, tell me about this. What is this? Because you're thinking, yeah, you you never say, what is this? But tell me about this because if you were to come to that to that child's artwork and be like, that is the most lovely giraffe I have ever seen. It's hardly ever a giraffe. It's a skyscraper. Now, who is right? Is mom who sees the big, tall, yellow object with brown spots on it? Is mom right? That it is a giraffe? No. What if it looks like a giraffe? Doesn't matter. Who's right? The artist is right because it is their creation. They and they alone have the authority to give identity to their creation. Isaiah 29 verse 16. Isaiah speaking to the nation of Israel and by extension the rest of us. He says, how foolish can you be? He, who's the he in this? The lord. He is the potter and he is certainly greater than you. The clay. Should the created thing say of the one who made it? He didn't make me. Does a jar ever say the potter who made me is stupid? It's a rhetorical question with an obvious answer. Specific audience as I feel compelled to say may feel redundant or elementary. But can you imagine if this same conversation were had at the high school, on the town square, on social media? The amount of arguing in in disagreement. The Bible is very very clear in the book of Genesis that he created animals after their kind And then he did something different than all of the animal kingdom when he created us, homo sapiens. We have some similar forms, blood vessels, bone structures, muscles, as some animals, but we are different. We are not animals. We are not animals. We're not a higher animal. We are not a smarter animal. We are not a more evolved animal. We are not animals. We're not. We are different. We are created at a higher, superior order of magnitude. And I know that even by just saying this, perhaps, maybe not specifically anybody in here, but certainly generationally, what I just said is controversial and maybe even offensive to somebody because they have just gulped down what college professors in society says about our identity. But the truth of God stands and remains. We are created of a different order. We are of a different kind. I just feel led to just say it one more time. We are not animals. We are superior to animals. With that comes a responsibility of stewardship. But what is our identity? If we're not animals, if we're not what society tells us, if we're not what we think of ourselves this day or what social media tells us, what is our identity? Well, the god, the Bible is very clear. We are god's image bearers. We bear his image. No other animal does. All of creation reflects his brilliance, his beauty, his intelligence, his creativity, various other attributes. He's so smart. I mean, talk about physics. What? He's so smart. He's got such a good eye for colors. He's so creative. Ever seen a platypus? He's so creative. He's whimsical. He's funny. He's got an incredible attention to detail. The intricacies of a flower. And we are his image bearers. We carry his image. Our identity is to be an image bearer of god in and outside of the womb. At conception, we are an incredible, unique, one of a kind creation by God that bears his image at conception. Also, we are god's children. He is our creator. He is our father. And whether you know it or not or believe it or not, even if you don't like it, even if you reject this, He is our maker. And that statement of fact is objectively intrinsically true. Humanity, I invite you. Check the sole of your boot. You will see to whom you belong. On the bottom of your boot is not written Andy. The name Yahweh is written. He is your maker. He is your creator. Now let me ask you a bit of a metaphysical question. Why does for the most part, humanity reject the name written on the bottom of their boot and they go through great links to write some other name, erase it, scratch it off, burn it off, surgerize it off. Why does god why does humanity reject god for the most part as their creator, father? What do you think? Raise your hand. We'll get you the mic. Yeah. Go ahead. Pride. Alright. So tell us more about pride. You said pride. Tell us more about that. I think it's because we don't want a creator. We want to know that we are self created, that we are we are responsible, and we are the ones we're we can puff ourselves up and say, well, I did that. I I'm an I'm an amazing person because I work hard at this, and I'm you know, I've done this because I go to the gym, and I you know, it's we want that credit. And to me, that's that's our pride. That's what gets in our way in so many things, and so people don't wanna look up and say, thank you, Lord, for what you've given me. It's I've worked hard. I've earned this. I've done this. Yes. I am master of my faith, captain of my own destiny is what society would say. There's more to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kinda to touch on that. It's we wanna be our own god. Basically it. We want to be our own god. Here's, listen. Society and ever increasing vehemency and measure in the days ahead will reject god, reject his creator's authority over our life because if he created us, we are then responsible to him. And because of the pride in our heart, we don't want to be responsible to him. We'll be responsible to a god and we will think of ourselves as god. This is such a deep core issue. Are you are you picking up what I'm putting down? And think of it for those of you who have invited Jesus into your heart, made him the leader of your life. Before that moment, you were your own god. You had rejected god. You were rebellious to god. Your creator, your father society, when you leave the doors of this church, the church that I used to go to over the exit, it had a sign that says, you are now entering your mission field as you left the building. The mission field that you're about to step into has rejected largely for the most notion that god is their creator because deep down, they know that if god is their creator, that intrinsically what comes with that is a sense of moral responsibility to that god. And instead of saying, I have been given these gifts and talents, I better sharpen them and use them that all to accomplish the assignment that you've given me here on Earth and I better keep my tools sharp. The idea is I'm going to create myself. But it does not change the reality of how god set up this universe. So we are our identity, all of humanity is created in the image of god. But then there's something a different dimension that kicks in when a person invites Jesus into their heart and makes him the leader of their life. I'm going to the best that you can do, I've got one, two, three, four, five, six. Verses to share with you. We're not going to turn to each of them but write them down so that you can come back and unpack them. This week, Alright? If you've invited Jesus into your heart, you are a new creation. Not from lux maxing or bone smashing. Yeah. I'm trying to throw out some, teenage lingo. My son taught me. Second Corinthians five seventeen tells us that we are creation. Romans eight fifteen tells us that we have been adopted back into his family. So, we're a part of his family in eternity because we are his children but we are born estranged from the family. And when we invite Jesus into our heart, ask him to forgive us of our sin, make him the leader of our life, we get adopted back into his family. Did we not sing about that this morning? According to Romans six fourteen, we are no longer slaves to sin. According to Romans eight thirty seven, we are more than a conqueror. It don't matter if you if you have to file for bankruptcy. It don't matter if cancer ravages your body. It don't matter if you don't have any friends. It none of that matters. There is a higher truth that transcends our feelings, our emotions, and even our experiences. In Jesus, we are, you are more than a conqueror. What is the worst that could happen? You're imprisoned for following Jesus, separated from your family, all of your assets seized, your bank account frozen, you're beheaded in public. That's the worst that could happen Despite that, you're more than a conqueror. And then among many, many, many, many others, according to Jeremiah 31 verse three, Ephesians one four through five, and first John three through one, among many other places, you are deeply loved by god. That's so good. Let's just go through it one more time. You are a new creation. You have been adopted back into his family. You are no longer a slave. You are more than a conqueror and you are deeply loved by God. How do you think your life would be different tomorrow if you embraced just these five truths about your identity, how would you live differently? How would you approach social media differently? How would you view the news differently? How would you interact with friends at school or at work? How would you how would your thought life when you're left all to yourself be different? If you had a full understanding and really, as they say in Texas, grab the hold of your identity. Thoughts or questions about this and then we're going to do one last thing and land on the plane. Renee. I put a fleece out K. And said if you brought if you said thoughts, I would share this. And so in the story of Gideon, after the Lord told him that he was a warrior, he put a fleece out. And after that, it was confirmed to him what his calling was because somebody was given a dream about a loaf of bread rolling down a hill. Mhmm. And he may not have accomplished anything in the world's eyes, but he was a pretty good bread baker, I'm guessing. And considering what is required to bake bread, and he did it from scratch. He had to get the wheat. He had to separate He had to crush it. He had to, you know, knead it. He had to do all these things and it seemed like nothing to the world but god was preparing him. It requires patience. It requires persistence. It requires a whole slew of things that probably is required to be a warrior. And so even if we don't think our contribution is all that great, god's preparing us and whether we're walking in our calling right now, he's preparing us. The goal is to seek to accomplish what he's preparing us for. And so that's what I thought. I may just be a little bread baker. Holy cow. I have never made the connection treading the wine press with wheat, thresh, threshing the wheat, and then the barley loaf. What if his occupation or his gifts and talents and skills were baking? Lord, you would use me to be a liberator of Israel? I'm just a baker. I can make a really flaky crust. But I don't know how to swing a sword. Don't raise your hand. Anybody in here ever felt completely inadequate for what was set in front of them? You just might be a Gideon. Well, Renee, you've just preached the most incredible message. To me, my life has changed. I will never look at the story of Gideon again ever the same. That was incredible. I wasn't raising my hand, but I was doing Karate Kid because that was the immediate hyperlink I got. Movie reference. As Renee was going through that beautiful bakers, I was thinking wax on, wax off. What does this have to do with? Of practicing Yes. And and taking steps to to prepare in a way that you don't see the ultimate result coming together out of faithfulness and maybe a couple of smacks on the hand to be disciplined. Let's take just a moment and invite the Holy Spirit to add his exclamation mark to the conversation that we've had this morning. We're going to we're going to spend a couple of weeks talking about a few more dynamics and dimensions. Next week, we're gonna talk about calling. And then we're gonna talk about gifts and then we're gonna look at how all of those things interplay with one another and how often times we get them confused and mixed up our identity with our gifts. Or our calling with our identity. Or our vocation. So, we're going to but let's just invite the Holy Spirit to speak to us. God, I ask that your Holy Spirit would speak to us about our identity and by the power of your holy spirit in this moment or for those watching the live stream at a later time or if you're watching the live stream right now, that you would convict us of where we have been getting our identity from that's anything other than you. You are our creator. So, you may need to repent first. I'm sorry for believing myself as fill in the blank. Broken, no good, never to be healed, damaged goods, failure thinking of yourself as amazing in your own strength Repent. Then wonderful, amazing Holy Spirit, will you once again show us maybe underneath layers of scuffs and insults and what the world has tried to put on us. Wipe all of that away and show us once again the name written on the bottom of our shoe which is your name. Claiming ownership. Or you just do some business with the lord for a moment Let's do something together. We don't we don't often do this but I'd like to lead us in a confession. So, here's how it's gonna look. See how it works. So, I'm gonna have you repeat after me. Not yet but I'll say the whole thing first. I'm going to lead you in this and you're going to say, I renounce the lie that the world would try to tell me that I am. So, we'll say all of that part out loud and then, you fill in the blank how the holy spirit would lead you and you can do that privately because that's between you and the lord. And you will get out of this moment what you put into it. If you're like, I renounce it. Don't know. Man, that's probably about what you'll get out of it. But ask the lord Holy Spirit, what would that what would the world try to tell me that is different than what you have to say about me? Hold that in your mind Now, let's just say this together. I renounce. I renounce. The identity. The identity. That the world. That Would try to put on me. Would to put Now, you fill in the mic in your heart. Father, would you listen to the prayer that your people are crying out to you? That they would reject the identity that the world, that they themselves or that old dirty devil would try to put on them. Now, let's say this together. I am. I am a new creation. A new creation. Am. I am. Adopted. Adopted. Into his family. Back into his I am. I am. No longer. No A slave to sin. A slave to sin. Am. I am. More. More. Than a conqueror. Than a conqueror. I am. I am. Deeply loved. Deeply loved. By my father. By my father. Just loud enough for your own voice to hear it. Allow the affections of your heart to open up and flow to him. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for being so good to him. Let's stand of god Amen. You can have a seat for just a moment. I was thinking and reflecting as Brian was speaking today and just thinking about how kind of two two things came to my mind. Number one, even though it's not preferable, a dull tool will can get the job done. Be rough. You get injured. You'd be on the struggle bus but it can get the job done. So the Lord and his sovereignty gives us free will to use that dual tool if we choose. So just because we're a believer doesn't make our tool sharp automatically. So I just thought that was worth emphasizing. And then number two, even if you are plugged in and you are sharpening your tools and you do have a sharp axe, to use our metaphor, it doesn't mean the job is easy. I think it's easier than a dull, but life has hard hard assignments. But, boy, it's easier to you not easier. It's better to use the sharper axe than the dull one. You're still gonna swing. You're still gonna sweat. It's still gonna suck. But let's choose by our surrender to use the sharp one. Yeah. And I'm thinking as we as we transition to this time, we'll get you guys out of here in just a couple minutes but as we bring our tithe and our offering to the lord, it's about your heart posture to his. It's not about the cash, it's about your surrender to him and when we bring a portion of our hard earned finances, whatever church, local church you go to and give to. It's an act of surrender. That's a little thing that keeps our acts sharp to keep with our metaphor because we're surrendering something that we kind of feel like we need. So, let's think about that. I'm going to as we pray for the tithe and offering, tithe is what we bring consistently to the lord. That's what we pray about. We say, heavenly father, what do you want me to give today? What would keep my heart in check? And then, just let him speak to you with that. And if you don't feel like, I mean, he's not probably gonna speak in an audible voice every Sunday. Give $72 You know, that's probably not gonna happen. But you know in your heart, you know in your heart what you need to give or just consistently, Connor's good at this. Just give 10%. That's what tithe means. So, if you're confused about that, please talk to me later. I have lots of thoughts about our tithe but let me pray for us as a family. Oh heavenly father, we just love you so very much. Thank you so much for who you are. Thank you that even though in John sixteen thirty three, Jesus says, you will have trouble in this world but take heart because I've overcome. So, thank you that even though we have to keep swinging this axe in life that you have overcome and like we said today, we have overcome. We are more than conquerors in you. Doesn't mean we have to go through the sludge before we get there and we look forward to the restoration of all things but thank you that you hold our hand through this stuff. Lord, we just love you so much. Thank you for opportunity we have at our local church to give, not only to be a blessing to our community and to be able to provide things for people and point them to you. That's the practical part of our tithe but thank you that you do a supernatural piece too where you change us from the inside out. We help calibrate our heart to yours. We just love you and adore you for who you are and that you are so faithful and that you never change. In Jesus name, amen. A quick few things like you heard Brian say on the town square today at 02:00. Look for us. We'll be praying for our nation. You don't have to go to town square to pray for our nation but it does. You should can do it every day. But it's just a statement when we're together and we're making that commitment and we're making a public declaration that we're praying in for our nation. Like like you heard me say last week, leaders gonna fail, Right? People gonna fail, but God never fails. Jesus is so faithful even when leaders are not. So no matter who's in office ever, whether you agree or not, we need to pray for them. The second thing, the men's Bible study, it's been going on for a few weeks but even if you haven't been at all, it's never too late to jump in. So, tomorrow at 6PM, every Monday at 6PM for the next few weeks, there's a meal and then studying first Timothy? First and second Timothy. There's a lot of leadership stuff in there. And then by a show of hands, next week is Memorial Day weekend, and a lot of people go out of town. How many of you, just curious with a show of hands, will be here next week in sun? Okay. So that's a good amount. We're gonna traditionally, it's lower numbers, so we're just gonna combine. It'll still be here at the TMC, but next week, one service only right in the middle, 10AM. So just come. Your family. So, you can see all your families. So, if you forget, you'll either be early or late but come at ten. Brian, praise him. Alright. You're right on time. If you do that next week. Everybody stand up. Let me pray for you. Lord, thank you. Thank you that you are creator. Thank you that you don't mess up. You don't make mistakes. You don't make accidents. Thank you. Thank you for creating us fearfully, wonderfully. You knew all of the days of our life as you are knitting our life together in our mama's womb. God, I ask that as we go through this week, you would speak to us about our identity. We would lean into who you say that we are. Lord Jesus, to We're do winter. And we tell you one more time that we love you too, Jesus. We pray these things. In Jesus name, the strong son of god and everybody said, amen. I love you so very much. Can't wait to see you next week. Remember, you got this.