The Fourth Man in the Fire
Tribe
2025-01-12

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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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.

As we get into this morning's conversation, we're going to normally, when we when we get into God's word, we take a bunch of laps on one chairlift. Today, we're gonna ride a couple of different lifts, so just make sure you you stay with me. I was gonna use a frog and lily pad analogy, which equally works just as well. We're gonna hop from lily pad to lily pad. We're gonna we're gonna go to a couple of different passages today, but I thought the ski analogy would work much better, and it resonates stronger with me.

The first lift we're gonna ride is Isaiah chapter 43. So I'll give you a moment to turn there. And while you are waiting for Isaiah 43 to load, let me, right off the bat, start by checking in with you about worship. And here's the question that I have for you for worship. I I want to to see if and there might not be anybody.

That's okay. But I wanna see if there's anybody here that during worship, you felt like the Lord put a picture or a word on your heart that was not perhaps just for you. It could apply to you personally, but was for maybe this gathering, unique gathering of believers here today this morning. Okay? Oh, it look at all this.

Let's start with the mic and we'll go around this way. I saw three hands and there could be others but Ian, what did you have? And the reason why we have the mic in the room, we could probably hear you without the mic but for all of our families that are watching and participating with service online, they get to hear your lovely British voice.

So this is this is something I actually saw, something actually happened, but it's a picture, and it's a picture that just will not leave me. So about three weeks ago, I came downstairs with my big dog, Johnny, who was dying. I could see the life coming out of his eyes. So he rushed him to the vet, and she saved him, you know. In the waiting room, whilst we were waiting, Johnny managed to sit in the corner on the bench.

He's a 100 pound Bernese Mountain Dog and Jimmy, our little mix farm dog, 30 pounds, knew something was up and Johnny was in danger. He sat in front of him and puffed his little chest up and to protect him. And that image was you may think you're a big dog, but you're in a corner and you're gonna die. And What I saw though what our little dog Jimmy did for Johnny. That's what Jesus did for us first time around He sat and covered us

when we were in a corner dying Not by might, not by power. I mean, our little dog, what could he have done to protect

him, but he put himself there to protect him. And that picture, I cannot get out of my mind, out my heart. And that is Jesus's promise. Whether you're a big dog, whatever, whatever situation, you're in a corner, and you're gonna die. And he's there if you accept that, if you receive that.

So

okay. The end of verse three of that passage, and then right here to Janet, who's gonna be next. Isaiah 43, the end of verse three into four says, I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom. I gave Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Others were given in exchange for you.

I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You were honored and I love you. Jesus didn't have to have our back as we were dying, unable to save ourselves in the corner. But he rescued us because we are precious to him.

The Lord has really impressed upon me to pray for some really big things, seemingly impossible things. And I'm I'm excited and I'm trusting even though I don't understand. But the word that popped into my head at the close of worship was expectant. And I think when we're praying, we also need to be expectant. And I felt like the Lord just gave me that word for this season.

That's awesome. Expectant prayer. Expectant prayer. And that's what's going to get the angels on the edge of their seats listening. Did you hear what she's praying?

Oh. To Clay over here. Thank you, b. Was there another one? Oh, lord, did you have something?

Oh. Okay. Thank you. All the way over to Clay.

This morning, god just revealed something to me that I had I really and I think a lot of us kind of overlook. If you'll take indulge me and look to your left and look to your right, you're looking at the church. So many times, we get disillusioned that the church is a building and it is not. We are the church. And god works through us.

Be patient. And god gives us a lot of reminders. I mean, I I think, you know, we should be in our book, in our in our word every day, and I'm here to say that I'm not. But when I do, god reveals so much to me. It is just amazing.

The reminders. Romans fifteen fifteen just so you have a verse to go to is one that talks about him reminding us. It's okay. Don't have to memorize the Bible. Just stay in the word and exercise what god shows you each and every day.

Mhmm. So good. Let's come up here. So if you're unfamiliar or unaccustomed to what we're doing to Mike Law right here, B. This is not unusual.

Church in a bar is unusual, but our format for us that call tribe home is not unusual. Our format is less of a monologue and more of a dialogue where we can have a conversation with one another. And, yes, I understand that if you're used to, like, the worship, the sermon, the whatever else happens, and then the, you know, and the thing and the stuff and then the dismissal that this is a little bit it's different. It can also be a little bit uncomfortable, and it can be a little bit, like, disconcerting. Like like, why are so far more people talking than the the preacher?

Don't worry. I'll get my words in. But also, just what Clay said. Like, this is the church. And at Tribe, our particular format for as long as god has us in this unique season will be more conversational where we can engage with one another and we can engage with the text and and hear from the Holy Spirit living inside of and speaking through other members of the congregation, not just the guy upfront.

Yeah. During worship, I was just thinking about that that passage a lot about the lady that was bleeding for twelve years and and how immediate faith brings about breakthrough and healing. You know? Like, I was waiting through some darkness the other day, and it was pretty dark. And Jesus left in the flesh, but he didn't leave in the spirit.

And, like, as soon as I touch the spirit, as soon as I let the spirit, it's immediate. It's it's not delayed. Yeah. So that was what was on my mind during worship was just how immediate the healing and breakthrough is with faith. And I can go from darkness to light immediately.

So

good. James chapter four verse seven. You don't need to turn there. Says, so humble your humble yourselves before god. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Come close to god, and he will come close to you. As soon as we press in, the Bible also says, let us press in to know the Lord, and surely he will respond as the coming of the dawn or the rains of early spring. Isaiah 43, we're gonna read, just the first four verses, and I'll go ahead and read that to you. But now, oh Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. Oh Israel, the one who formed you says, do not be afraid for I have ransomed you.

I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up. The flames will not consume you.

For I am the Lord your God, the holy one of Israel, your savior. And then as we just read, I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom. I gave Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Others were given in exchange for you. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me.

You are honored, and I love you. The news feed on all of our phones and computers and TV has been dominated by the fires in California right now. At at present count, over 10,000 structures have been completely wiped off the map with fire. Thousands and thousands of people displaced from their homes, their livelihoods, their business gone up in ashes. For some people, it was their life savings poured into a business that their grandparents had, and in a matter of hours, gone.

We've seen more and more firsthand accounts of people who come back to their their neighborhoods that they left from as they were fleeing the flames of the fire, speechless and in tears. It's and all they can say over and over and over and over is it's all gone. It's all gone. I'm curious. Has anybody in here ever lost like a house to fire?

Is that just Sisto? It is the worst. It's not like a thief that will come in and take valuables, which is also terrible and awful. The fire burns through and levels everything. It's no respecter of, oh, well, that's a special family heirloom.

I'm not gonna burn that. Nope. It gets the KitchenAid mixer and the birth certificates and the passports and the valuables and your favorite pair of jammies. And it has it has impacted the lives of thousands and thousands of people. And I didn't check the news this morning, but from what I've heard over the last few days that leadership is telling people in the surrounding region that we're not out of the woods yet to expect more loss.

Thousands of people impacted hundreds and hundreds of churches, Christian churches in the area burned to the ground. Where are congregations meeting today? Are they meeting today? Are they able to meet today? Do they even wanna meet today?

When you talked about this not being a place but a community of people, Church buildings were burned, but individual communities gathering together as Christians called the church were untouched by the flames of fire. So I had a I had a direction planned for today, but I think we're I was gonna I was gonna take us on a tour of of certain lifts, but these are the lifts that we're gonna end up taking a couple of laps on together today. Isaiah 43 verse two, when you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. Look at this.

When you walk through the fire of oppression, when you look at that verse in, let's say, a more traditional translation, New King James, King James, it doesn't use that word oppression. It just talks about the fire. When you go through the fire, you will not be burned up. The flames will not consume you. What hyperlink does your brain go to when you think, when you read that, when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned up.

The flames will not consume you. Where does your mind go? What hyperlink to another Bible story? The Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. There's a great sermon titled fourth man in the fire by, a guy by the name of Oral Roberts.

He preached a long time ago in the seventies, but he talked a lot about the fourth man in the fire. It was only in the fire that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had an encounter Jesus. It is in the fire of tribulation that there is an opportunity to encounter Jesus. We all like the encounter part with Jesus. Few of us are willing to walk through the flames in order to get the encounter.

What will the residents of Pasadena do in the flames? Will they encounter the fourth man in the fire? The Golden Globes were recently I don't know how long ago a month? I don't know. How long ago?

Last week. Oh. See oh, boy. Just so recently, not one acknowledgment, mention, or thank you given to the god of the Bible. But on interviews, I see a lot of famous people now asking about where was god during these during the fire.

What is god doing? You weren't able to give him credit for all of your tremendous success, but you're looking to him for answers and for somebody to blame now. When you walk through the fire of oppression, tribulation, difficulty, hardship, heartbreak, calamity, You will not be burned up. The flames will not consume you. Interestingly enough, it doesn't say that you won't go through a metamorphosis.

What it says is you will not be obliterated. Fire changes. That's part of the nature of fire. We tend to see fire as something, most typically, as destructive, but fire takes matter and transforms it from one state to another. In verse two, let's do a quick word count.

So look in your Bible. There's one word that is repeated more than once. What is that word and how many times is it repeated? What's the word? Alright.

Alright. How about a phrase of two words? Say it again. When you. And the word that I wanna look at, you can underline in your Bible to give you hope.

When? When? Meaning you will. Meaning, you will. Not if but when.

I think maybe in times past, people appear in my position made these great claims. If you just give your life to Jesus, then everything is going to be great. He's going to make your life better. All of your troubles will go away. It's true and it's so not true at the same time.

Your life stops becoming your own when you surrender it to Jesus. And there will still be fires that you must walk through. When you, you will walk through fires. The difference for Christians about when they walk through fires is that we have the rest of the words in this verse. We can expect that we will walk through fires.

Fires may come sweeping down upon us from the hills above. But we have a promise from the lord you will not be burned up. Is that verse written on your helmet? Coulson, if not, you better get a Sharpie, one that's fireproof and just write it right on there. I will not be burned up.

The flames will not consume me. I'm a come out smelling like smoke and have black boogers for about a month, But it will not consume me. So now, on one hand, we have great comfort as a promise from the Lord. But we should hold this concept of fire in its transformative nature in tension with the next lift that we're gonna ski over to right now. Hold on just a second, Amanda.

Let's ski over to first Corinthians chapter three. Okay. Go.

While you're skiing, listen to my little nugget. I find the word walk very interesting as to as well. It really sticks out to me because normally our our nature, if you're on fire, you would be sprinting or stop, drop, and roll. Right? Like, we would not be walking.

So I think it's a very intentional word that we see in scripture that indicates surrender and trust. So if you're a believer and you're walking through fire doesn't mean it's pleasant and it doesn't mean you enjoy it, but there's an element of trust where you're like the refinement is happening and it's gonna take as long as it's gonna take, and I'm walking because I'm trusting. So I find that I don't know. That word just stood out stood out to me today. Walking through fire doesn't make sense.

You sprint through. You Yeah. Stop, drop, and roll. Do everything but walk.

Yeah. When you walk through the fires of oppression. Oh, that it's so rich. Alright. We wanna hold Isaiah 43 intention.

Yeah. Joy.

When Amanda said that, I just immediately hyperlinked to Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valleys of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And that same idea of we're not sprinting through the valleys of the shadow of death. We're walking, but we're walking through. We're not stopping either is an important part of that.

And I think that it is similar to when you being repeated over and over to notice that it also doesn't say he will pluck you out of the fires just like with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He doesn't come and just pull you out. That there is a fire that you will walk through and that's where the refinement happens. And I think too many times we get hung up on, just get me out of this. I just don't wanna feel uncomfortable anymore instead of allowing, like Amanda was saying, with surrender, allowing God to do his work in the midst of that.

Yeah. Walking with confidence and sobriety, trusting that even though there are flames of opposition, difficulty, calamity all around me, I'll not be consumed. To be held in tension with the next lift that we're gonna hop on. First Corinthians chapter three. I'll I'll start in verse one so that we have a good context of what Paul is saying.

He's writing to the church in Corinth, and he says this, dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you, I couldn't talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk to you though you belong as though you belong to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren't ready for anything stronger, and you still aren't ready. Thanks, Paul. For you're still controlled by your sinful nature.

You are jealous of one another and quarrel with one another. Doesn't that prove you though you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren't you living like people of the world? When one of you says, I'm a follower of Paul, and another says, I follow Apollos. Aren't you acting just like people of the world?

After all, who is Apollo? Who is Paul? We are only god's servants through whom you believed the good news. Each of us did the work the lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts and Apollos watered it, But it was God who made it grow.

It it is not important who does the planting or who does the watering. What's important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters works together with the same purpose, and both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are God's workers, and you are God's field. And he's like, and I'm gonna jump metaphors.

You are god's building. Because of god's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have, Jesus Christ.

There's a lyrics to old hymn that says, on Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Verse 12. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire.

Here's the word, and here's what connects these two passages together. Fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss.

The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames. We'll stop right there. Primarily, we're gonna look at verse 12 through 15, but we started in verse one to just give us a little bit of background and context. Can somebody if you were sitting down at Pearl Street Bagel having a bible study with a friend of yours that knows nothing about the gospel. And they say, hey.

Can we get together and read the bible together? You're like, great. Fantastic. Meet a Pearl Street. And they open their Bible to this passage, and they say, let's start let's let's read first Corinthians chapter three verse 12 through 14.

They read those passages out loud, and they go, what in the world is this guy talking about? What comes to your mind that you might say that could help them understand what Paul is talking about? Think about your answer. Let me read verses 12 through fourteen one more time. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.

But on judgement day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

What might be one thing you would say to a person who asks you to help them understand or explain what Paul is talking about. I love how so many of you are looking right at the text. You're thinking about it. You're considering it. I love that.

Back to the basics? Alright. Just say it from right there and I'll repeat it in the mic. I like clay. Clay's like, let's get the let's get the conversation back on terrain.

I'm very comfortable and familiar with. Good tactic. First Corinthians three, that's good, but let me let me show you this verse. I like it. It's good.

It's good. Start with start them with the basics. That's good. What else might you say about these few verses here? Connor, over here.

In the gym? Yep.

In conversations with non believers, I like to put it in their terms as often as possible. And those verses made me think of, like, nothing easy was ever worth doing. Like, or nothing of value is ever free. Like, the suggestion Paul is making with the different materials, I think goes into, like, it's a whole lot harder to build something out of gold, and it costs a whole lot more to build something out of gold than it does to build it out of straw. But when the fire comes, the gold is gonna hold up and the straw is not.

Okay.

Colin, right there.

I guess I just point to verse 11 before that is just no one can lay any foundation other than the one we have is Jesus Christ. So that's your base and then everything you're building in your life is off of that base of Jesus. And so Yeah.

That's good. Paul is saying, think of your life like a building and all that you do with your life, all of your thoughts, all of your actions, all of your choices, all of your decisions, where you spend your money, where you spend your time is constructing something. It's and and that phrase is not unusual to people, the life you're building. Build the life you want, And we build that with our priorities, our choices. Well, the construction materials that we use fit into one of two categories.

Wood, hay, or straw or those things that are imperishable. And then there will come for each and every person a day and time where all that we have constructed will be evaluated. And how will it be evaluated? With what? Fire.

So years ago, I I think maybe I've told this story once in here before, but I will never ever ever forget it. Years ago, I was doing youth ministry, and there was this this little guy that would come to student ministry, and his name was Greg. We called him cowboy Greg because he worked on the little Ginny ranch, you know, like, down in Bondurant. And, I mean, this guy was like like I mean, he had he had, like, more cowboy, real cowboy in his pinky than all of us combined in this room. And he smelled like horses, and he would come in and, like, he had, like I don't know.

He'd wear, like, three or four Carhartt jackets at a time. And you're like, hey, cowboy Greg. And you give him a hug and just hay and horse dander would come off of him. And he he worked at this ranch, and I said, I know absolutely nothing about about ranching. Like, is it, like, is it cold, hard work in the winter?

And he's like, oh, you should come feed the cows with me some morning. And I was like, yeah. Great. Let's let's do it. Isaac and I were were road hunting around that area this fall.

And so he's like, well well, come on. Meet me meet me, and we'll we'll go feed cattle. And I was like, okay. Great. And I was like, all bundled up in my gear, and, you know, I look like such a city slicker probably.

And he's like, alright. Well, we gotta we gotta meet at 04:30. And I was like, oh, 04:30AM. Like, maybe I'll get up that early for for climbing for an alpine start, but to go feed cows, like I mean, I don't know what their deal is, why they have to get up so early. So we go, and he he he literally is, like, in, like, like, a ranch hand, like, cowboy shack.

And maybe some of you can, like, actually legitimately picture this, but it's just like you would see, like, in a movie. He was literally cooking beans on in a can on a burner of a stove. Bee's like, go on. This was years ago. And and so, like like, I passed on the beans, and we get into the the truck.

We we drive, out to the first place that we're gonna feed, and he meets, like like, the ranch hand foreman or so. And this guy climbs up into the sealed cab of his big giant tractor. And I was like, how are we gonna fit three people in the cab of that tractor? But I was not in the cab of the tractor nor was cowboy Greg. He had a cowboy hat on.

His ears were exposed all day long. I don't know how he did that. And so we hook up this big, like, wagon, and then our job is to ride between, like, the PTO, like, takeoff thing that's coming like, very dangerous thing that's coming out that's hooked to a shaft of another thing that we load the hay on that spits the hay out for the cows. And I was like, there's about six different ways I could die right here holding on to the back of this, like, tractor. And he's, like, throwing the hay out, and I'm like, hanging on for dear life.

And we we finished feeding the horses on or cows on on one lot, and then we're going through a fence on another lot. And it was so cold that some metal part on the the the the hay shooter outer breaks. And from the enclosed cab, I could hear that cowboy foreman weave together a web of explicatives that would reach from here down to Pinedale. And we have to drive the the the the tractor back to the shop, And the the the cowboy, who's, like, on supplemental oxygen and chain smoking in the cab, like, opens up the cab door, and he's like, you get that. Just heard welder and fixed and then a bunch of new cuss words that I hadn't even heard.

And so so cowboy Greg hops off of the off the tractor, and he goes into this welding shop that was, like like I don't know. It's like Willy Wonka's, like, wonderland of, like, farm implements and fixing things. And he grabs the welder, and he's, like, welding this thing. I was like, how does he even know how to do that? And and then by that time, the old cowboy comes out of the cab of the tractor, and Greg has spent so much time, like, fixing this part that's gonna go back on the tractor.

And he takes his welding glove off, hangs up his stuff, and hands the part to the old cowboy. And Greg was so proud of his work, and the cowboy is looking at it carefully. He's looking at it. It's time for evaluation of his work. And then he he he takes the part, and he holds it up as high over his head as he possibly can, and he slams it on the ground as hard as he can, 10 times trying to break it.

And I thought I was gonna have a heart attack. I mean, I thought he was gonna have a heart attack, but I was like, why would you do that to Greg's work? He just spent all of this time fixing this broken part, and here you are bashing it on the ground. Let me ask you this. Why did that old cowboy do that?

Why did he do that?

To make sure

To test it. To make sure that it didn't break. In life, we try to build a life that we want God to handle delicately and gently. You did such good work there. I'm so proud of you.

Here's a participation trophy. That's not how life works, is it? That cowboy was doing Greg a favor by testing his work with fire. If that part, which was not intended to be slammed to the ground over and over, could handle that kind of stress, it meant that it was a good solid weld and could hold up the stress in the stress of how it was intended to be used. That cowboy rewarded Greg's work with fire.

All of our lives will be tested with fire. The things that we have built with wood, hay, and straw, as Connor said, I I think it was you, talked about building with cheap materials. It will be exposed under the transformative nature of fire. What are you investing your life in? Are you building a life with wood, hay, and straw?

Things that are temporary? Things that are not eternal? Or are you building a life with precious and valuable building materials? Gold, silver, and jewels. So I know what you might be thinking.

How do I know? Well, there's two ways that you can tell. One is you could just wait and see. It will your life will pass through the fire. Whoops.

Guess that was maybe gold plated. Or it looked shiny. You could you could always ask for the fire to not pass through your life, but that's just not an option. Your life will pass through fire. The fire is no respecter of your intentions.

The fire does what fire does. It it burns wood, hay, and stubble. What does it do to gold? It refines it. It makes it more valuable.

How can that same fire do both? That's just the nature of fire. The question is, what are you building your life out of? Are you taking shortcuts? Are you using the gifts and skills and talents that god has given you and you're building your own life, following your own selfish ambitions and desires?

Wood, hay, and straw. Are you taking your selfish ambitions and desires apart from the will of god and doing things for the kingdom of god? You cannot manipulate him. The fire will find you out. But I used all of my social media influence to raise money to build an orphanage in Romania.

Did god call you to do that? Or if you were to be really honest, was that an idea that you came up with? It will burn if it's not of the lord. Now before judgment, judgment comes in in types and shadows on this side. Imagine people standing, looking at just the foundation of the Hollywood life that they built.

Gone. What do they have to show for it? Gone. Films that we've already forgotten about. Award speeches that were vapid and just make my eyes burn because they're so offensive.

Or well, people so there's a there's a there's a fire that comes, and it maybe it's a real fire. There's a fire at the end. Our lives will be evaluated. The Bible describes Jesus. And what does the Bible describe Jesus in the book of Revelation?

What do his eyes look like? They burn like fire. Jesus will look at you and through you and past all of your facade and all of your your carefully curated life that you present out to the world and he will see you as you really are. His eyes burn like fire. There's that judgment, but there is a different kind of judgment that we can submit ourselves to before the final judgment.

And picture it this way, and then we're gonna turn to one more verse, and then we're gonna go to communion together. So picture it this way. Imagine you come into class and the teacher says, today is the test. The test the test is today? Yep.

Here's the test. Here's your pencil. Turn the test over. You may begin. And you're like, maybe you studied.

Maybe you knew it was coming. Maybe you're more like me that was like, test. What? I I didn't I didn't know it was a test. Take the test, and then the teacher says, alright.

This test is going to be graded, but the grade will not be entered into the books yet. Take the test, and here is the answer key. See how you did. Use this as a practice before the real exam where your grade will be entered. I feel like you dodged a bullet there.

Let's see how I did. See where my areas of weakness are. See where the areas that I did well on the test. Compare that with the standard, and then I can use that test. I can take it home and study and evaluate it.

There is a fire that we can invite on our own lives. Jesus, examine my life. I receive your refiner's fire in my life. Evaluate. Search my heart, oh god, and point out any offensive way in me.

I was pointing at Amanda because I know that's one of her top three favoritest verses of all time. We can invite the refiner's fire to burn away the wood, hay, and the straw. But then we're left with, well, how do I build out of gold? That'll take us to our last chairlift that we're gonna ride. How does a person acquire gold to build with?

Book of Revelation has an answer for us. Where in Revelation, Brian? I had that bookmark. He's talking to the churches. It's the naked, wretched, and blind.

Help me. Three, eighteen, 17. Yes. Whoo. Good job, team.

Revelation three verse 15. Jesus is speaking to the church in Laodicea, and he says, I know all the things that you do, that you're neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other. But since you are lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth. You say, I'm rich.

I have everything I want. I don't need a thing. But what you don't realize is that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. So I advise you, buy gold from me. Gold that has, what, been purified by fire.

Then you will be rich. Also, buy white garments from me so that you will not be ashamed of your nakedness. An ointment for your eyes so that you will be able to see. So here's the idea. When we use the life that we have been given, the talents, the gifts, the skills, the resources.

When we use it to construct a life selfishly, unapart from apart from the lordship of Jesus. Those amazing talents that you have, it's as though you're building with wood, hay, and straw. When those same gifts, skills, and talents in your life is surrendered to the leadership of Jesus, what you build has eternal significance and value in the lord's eyes. And it will far outlast what those around you are building with. We're playing the long game here.

So when you come to him, this is how it looks. You come to him and you say, Lord Jesus, examine my life. I invite your refiner's fire into my life. Examine how I'm spending my money. Examine my thoughts about my own life and accomplishments.

Look at my priorities. Look at where I spend my money. Look at the things that I value. Look what I try to hide from you. I surrender it to the flames of your transformative love.

And burn away anything that doesn't belong. Now there's a catch. Is he gonna? And if you allow him to to to burn away that thing that is most important to you than anything else like, ugh, you can have that. You can have that.

You can have that. For for some of you, you're holding on. I feel like the Lord would say you're holding on to an identity of yourself that is inconsistent and incongruent with the identity that the Lord has for you. It doesn't matter how hard you hold on to it, how much you wanna argue with him and plead your case. The the refining fire of the gaze of Jesus will burn that up.

And like it says, you, yourself, may escape, but like a person escaping through a wall of flames with very little reward on the other side. Why would you place so much emphasis on that aspect of your identity? That the lord is like, that's not even how I see you. Why are you holding on to that? Here's how I see you And how he sees you will far outlast how you see yourself, how you want others to see you, and how society expects to see you.

Let it burn. So by way of prayer and ministry time, we'll just go right into communion, and we're going to receive communion together today. And what I want you to think of during communion as not only encounter with the Lord in his great faithfulness, but think of it as an encounter with the man whose eyes burn like fire. Allow him to burn his light and his love and truth through the house of your life. You, Jesus, that your word describes you as an all consuming fire.

Thank you for your fire that burns in our life, that burns away the wood, hay, and stubble because you love us so much. You care so much. You are passionate about your relationship with us. So, we thank you for your fire that burns and refines through our life and father, we pray for the thousands, the tens of thousands of people that are being affected by the wildfires right now in California. Lord, we ask that you would be merciful.

We ask that you would be merciful on families, in homes, in properties, animals, people's livelihoods that they would not harden their hearts towards you but soften their hearts towards you and call out and that you would answer them and be merciful. God, we ask that there would be a breakout of miracles of your provision and your safety and help for these people in California, Lord. God, I command a blessing over each and every member of our Tribe fam here today. Give us a great week. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong son of god and everybody said, amen.

I love you guys so very much. Have a great week and remember, Ian, you got this.