I am so glad uh to get a chance to fill in for Justin for a couple weeks. And uh several of you on Facebook saw that we were he we both wore the same shirt basically on Facebook when we did the the tease, and he's like, Well, we should all wear gray on Sunday. I'm like, Great, now I'm gonna wear gray on Sunday. So it is really cool to be with you guys. I want you to think of a time where you made a move. You moved from something that was maybe uncomfortable to something even more uncomfortable just because you knew it was the right decision to make. That that move. And and try to grab that back because I want to take that idea of making a move. Because for me, in the last nine months, I've I've literally made a couple just simple moves that have changed everything. And I have sensed and I've seen in the last time I was here about a month or so ago, I just shared about the experience I had with the um the whole heart surgery and just that that move that God has made in my life to where I'm seeing him more clearly, I'm hearing him more vividly, and my life has just changed. But this morning, what I want to just kind of dive into is the idea that we've been going through here of breakthrough. Do I have a breakthrough? And I want to identify a couple areas that we can have a breakthrough because I'm experiencing this. And the first is really kind of a big picture, kind of a breakthrough by asking a simple question: who is God? Now, not in a definition, we're not trying to define God, but I want to get very personal, very intimate, very much where you and I are. Because I vividly remember being 13 and realizing there is a God, I am not him, and and and I was scared to death because I'm like, if, but what if I let God into my life? What if I open the door of my life and let him in? What is he gonna do? And I was scared to death. And I literally, if you've heard my story in the past, you know that this is the reality of it. I thought if if I let God into my life, what is he gonna do? I was 13. I'm like, is is he gonna make me marry an ugly woman? Is he gonna send me to Africa? I mean, I was scared. These were big things. I was 13. I'm like, is he gonna make me give up something I've longed for all my life? And I was I was scared to death. And here's the reality of today. I've walked with the Lord almost four decades now, and I still have to make that decision. I invited him into my life, and Christ has radically changed my life for the good in every way. But there are points of my life where I still have fears. And I would say this: if there is a fear in your life today or a frustration in your life today, that's the area where you have to, and I have to ask, who is God in that area? Is it me holding on, going, I need control more than I need resolution. I need control more than I need peace and the answer, but I I have to be in control at some level. Now I'll go and I'll learn some verses and I'll try some some uh truth, but I have to be in control. And what I've discovered, the breakthrough I've had is that when those frustrations or those fears pop up, that is the area where I have the opportunity and I have to make the decision perpetually. Okay, God, you're God. You're God in that area. And when I do that, when I make that move, that move from me being in control to him being in control, it makes all the difference. That's the first move. The first move is getting away from my control into his deal. And I love this. There's a pastor out in Phoenix, I was in Phoenix last week, and uh I love this phrase. He said, the only way to overcome fear is with a bigger fear. I was like, what? And it's like I don't understand that. And he basically just, if I'm afraid of being out of shape, then I'm gonna do something when I'm more afraid of being out of shape than being comfortable. And I've got to have a bigger fear. And the truth is, is until we fear God, if we're in control, we have to have a bigger fear that me working it out is not going to be as good as God working it out, because he has a plan. And I've got to submit to that fear of him being bigger. And I love that he picked that story during communion to share that you know what? The the prodigal son, the son that went away, his fear of rejection of his father was overwhelmed by his conditions, and he's like, even my father's servants are better. So that fear is not as big as me, my desire to submit to him. And I'm like, I love that story. If I will get it, if I were to put it this way, one of my favorite verses has become, and it's been since going through the heart issue that I did in Isaiah 41, 10, and this is God speaking to you and I. And if you'll get that fear and that frustration clearly in our minds, he says, Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed or frustrated, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. I shared my heart story. If you have not heard it, you can go back and check it out. But let me give you one piece of it was just that the morning before my quadruple bypass open heart surgery, I'd ask people to pray for me. And uh I had a couple people, and I lost the political correctness. This is just a quick recap, because I had a couple people go, hey, thinking about you. And I'm like, okay, you can think about me later. Go ahead and pray for me now, okay? Because I don't want to get to heaven and Jesus goes, nobody asked, okay? I didn't want to get to that point. And that is funny, but that really was my thought, and I just I don't know exactly how all prayer works. Next week we'll look at that in great detail, which is really exciting. But I just remember going, I prayed that, and then I got through it, and I shared that story at a youth conference. One of the leaders, a seminary student, came up and she said, You know what, can I talk to you? I'm like, Absolutely. And we got alone, she was very respectful. She goes, I just have a problem with what you said. And I said, What problem? She goes, Well, you make it sound like if you get enough people to pray for you, you get what you want. And I said, You missed it completely. I said, So what I actually said was, I prayed and I asked people to pray for me, yes. And I prayed on the way into surgery, and I prayed, God, I want to see my wife again, I want to see my kids. I was just being honest with God. But then I experienced what I can only describe as perfect peace. And she said, Yes, perfect peace, but because you have that, I'm like, oh, you missed the timeline. I said, I had that perfect peace while I was laying on the table before I was out. Nothing circumstantially had changed. Nothing. I still had a crappy heart in the bottom two percent. I was still facing literally death, and yet I had perfect peace, and none of it was resolved. I said, only God can do that. She was like, Oh, I guess you're right. I'm like, see, the point is not me being in control. Me was my point, was losing complete control and my fear being in the one who says, I am with you, I will strengthen you, I will help you. Now I I can't explain it. I know some people that literally did not make it through that, didn't even make it to that. I don't know how it all works, but I know that when I make the move from me being in control to God being in control, peace, power, and perspective start to flow in a way that I didn't have before. And if I get to that point where I'm like, okay, Lord, this is where I want to be. I read this other book, kind of cool. You can go back and count it if you want to, but it says the word became flesh and dwelled among us, Jesus. So God became a man. But as a man, there's a wonderful recording in the book of John of Jesus' life. In the book of John, God in the flesh, Jesus Himself, uh, over a hundred and thirty times in one book literally communicates his complete dependency and reliance on God the Father. I can't do this on my own. The one who sent me is still with me, and I only do what he desires. He had this complete reliance. Well, if God in the flesh is dependent and reliant on God the Father, is that not a move that we need to make saying, okay, Lord, I need to move from me being in control to you being in control? The second move I've noticed, and this is this is really big, is the move from a mindset. For too long I've slipped into it. It wasn't intentional, but the mindset of going, you know what, God, I I see your truth, and I'm gonna try to do this as best as I can, and I put obedience to the truth. Nothing wrong with obedience to the truth, unless the mindset is, I'm doing this, God, for you, for your truth, for you, and then, okay, Lord, when I ask you for something, you need to give that to me. It's a for mentality. That God, look what Jesus did for you. What are you gonna do for him? And I heard that many times growing up as a young believer. Look what Jesus did. He died on the cross, he took your sins, he forgave you, he gave you life, and life, he gave the opportunity for life abundantly. What are you gonna do for him? And see, here's the problem that's not in scripture. That's not in the truth. What is in the truth is we have to have a preposition transition from doing for God to doing with God. And look at that Isaiah verse again. It says, Do not fear for I am with you. God longs for us to experience life with him. In Ephesians 3, 16 through 20, it gives us this beautiful example of how God longs to interact with us. And this transition of not God being out there somewhere and we're trying to transact him to do something for us. But look what he says in uh in Ephesians 3, 16 through 20. That he would give you, according to the riches of his glory, power to be strengthened by his spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height, and this is my favorite line in all of it, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine, according to the power that is that works in us. See, it's not about doing for, it's about doing with. It's that connection with him. And then the question comes, well, if I'm doing it with him, what if I mess up? And and I don't want to mess up, or I don't want to do it. And then I love this in Romans 8.28, it says, and we know that all things, God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. Once I say, Okay, God, you're God, I am not. Lord, I'm not interested in doing for you, I'm interested in doing with you. It changes everything. Now, let me give you an example of this that I think I shared here a couple years ago. My brother and I were up in Montana visiting relatives, that's where our relatives live. And my uncle had said, Hey, let's go up in the mountains, let's ride around. And while we're riding around, he said, Hey, I'm pretty sure there's a mine up here, and I think it's still active. We ought to go by and check it out. We're like, Yeah, what kind of mine? He said, Well, it's a sapphire mine. It's one of only two in the world that has this particular kind of sapphire. I'm like, that would be so cool. So sure enough, he goes down a couple dirt roads and we find it. And it's not like a hole in the ground mine. It was literally beside a river, it was this huge contraption higher than the ceiling in here. And it was so cool because as we looked at this, it was like, man, but we didn't see anybody around. And so we just kind of parked the truck and got out and said, Well, let's just check it out. And we're just looking. And this older woman comes out of a from behind a trailer and she goes, Hey, can I help you guys? We're like, Yeah, we're just kind of checking out. Is this the sapphire mine? And she goes, Yes. She goes, Are you jewelers? And we're like, well, no, we're just out here. And we said, How does it work? And she said, Well, it's like, this is this is awesome. She goes, it's like, you know, twelve hundred dollars for half a day and two thousand for a full day. Like, that's awesome. Um, how much for like five minutes? And she goes, Oh, you you you're not in the industry, and we're like, no, no, no, we're from Georgia and we're just up here checking it out. And she goes, Well, I tell you what, um, I can I can show you how it works and uh and I can just show you, I gotta run a test bit here anyway, and uh 20 bucks, I'll show you how it all works. We're like, deal. We gave her 20 bucks, and she turns on this huge contraption and runs these crushed rocks, and she takes a bunch of them and she puts them in a uh a box with a screen on the bottom and then puts it in water and sifts it out, puts it in water and sifts it out. Now it's a bunch of rocks. She takes a piece of foam and she turns it over and she takes the box off and she said, Okay, now you can pick out the sapphires. We're like, Awesome. This is wow, that's awesome. What's a sapphire look like? And she was like, Okay, you guys really don't know this. Now, see, I had read, I can tell you, I had geology in college, and I had read about different rocks. I could tell you some of the makeup of them, I could tell you about sapphires, but I had no idea what I'm looking for, looking at. And she said, Well, they're kind of the clearer ones, and I'm like, okay, and and and so she picks one up. Oh, there, she, and and she goes, Uh, yep, that's one. And she gave us this little film box and she put it in there, and we're like, okay. And then so we're looking at them, and so we start asking, is it is this one? She goes, um, no. Okay, is that how about this one? Uh no. And so finally she was like, you know what you do? She goes, if you think one is a sapphire, what you do is you take it in your hand, you get a little bit of water, and you rub it. And if you rub it and you look, if it comes clear, it's a sapphire. If it gets milky looking or just more dark, it's a quartz. It's just quartz, and that's not as valuable, like, okay, so we're like, mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm. And sure enough, now I'll show these to you afterwards. It's kind of cool, but these these are a bunch of raw, uncut sapphires. And it was like, this is so cool. But I can tell you this, we knew where they were, we knew what they were, but without the woman who owned the mine and did it regularly, we would have never found the sapphires. Ever. Because they're they were there, they're obvious to somebody who knows what they're doing. Well, see, here's the deal: the abundant life is obvious to the one who created it. And our details of life are right there. And there's a bunch of rocks in our life, aren't there? That which we just get through and they're just kind of in the way. But it's it's that, like, Lord, is this is this the one? Is this what I was here for today? Is this the one that's important? Is this it? And when we're doing life with God, then then we sense him within us guiding us through that. Lord, how about this one? And then God will just kind of whisper in our hearts, we'll rub it this way. And if it comes clear, then yes, that's it. And it's it's it's only obvious when we're with him. If I move to let him be God, if I move to do life with him, I start to realize that life is really functioning in one of two ways. And here's the last move that I've kind of made that's really making breakthroughs in my life. And it's the move from being drained in a day that's draining me on a regular basis to a day that's overflowing. And I want the overflowing. I'm old enough now to realize that I don't want whatever I want. I want what is best. And I know enough to know that I don't know what I don't know. And so when I read that verse in Ephesians 3 19, it says that I would that you would know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. I'm like, I want to know that. I want to know what surpasses what I can know. And I can't do that without him. But when I say, okay, Lord, I'm I'm in, I'm there, what does that look like? Now I want you to think for just a second, I don't want you to say anything, and I definitely don't want you to point at anybody, but I want you to think, what drained you during the week? Okay? Again, don't point, stop pointing, stop pointing. Because if we will get to that point, we're like, okay, Lord, this is it, that is the area where God is like, hey, that that's where I can empower you. I want you to experience overflowing, not draining, but we can't get it without Him. Now I can tell you very vividly one of the areas, and it's a mindset that we're afraid of being corrected. And there's a great proverb that says that he who hates correction is stupid. It actually says that. But see, I want to get to the point where I realize, like in Proverbs 30 in 3.12, it says, because the Lord disciplines those he loves. As a father, the son, he he delights in. I want to live in that world. And I want to be there. I want to get to the point where my buddy, I was in Phoenix last week, I shared that. My buddy Steve says it all the time. He says, Are you living with powerful effort or effortless power?

I'm like, I want the second one.

That's the one I want. Well, I have to make a move to living from a life that is draining to overflowing. To do that, I've got to start depending on God in a more specific way and realize that He is about doing it with me. I'll give you one specific example, and it really does tie into marriage. So if you're married here today, this is an illustration that's going to help. How many of you are married? Raise your hands real quick, married. All right. You can take this to the bank because it's it's awesome. It kind of pulls all these together, all in one. There's a wonderful verse in Ephesians 5, 28 and 29. It says, in this way, a man ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord cares for the church. He's given us a glimpse of how he cares for us. And God wants us to be together. Now, I don't know if you've heard this part or not, but it it's a true story. Heather and I went to Mexico, and while we were down there, we just did something fun every day. And this idea of with in our marriage, I've heard this said. You can either be right or you can be happy. And I've heard that, and I'm like, okay, I get that. And and part of it, it's really true, but here's what I've learned I I don't have to be right. And although I want to be happy, what I found is there's something more in marriage. You can be right or happy or together. And I want to be together. And so we had a great time on this trip, and every day we did something together. We went to the little market one day, we went to see the iguanas one day, we did, we just did something specifically fun together that we didn't do before. One day she goes, Hey, I want a paddle board. I'm like, awesome. Let's paddleboard. And the little resort we had had these little paddle boards, and we're like, let's go. And so we get on the paddleboards like this is awesome. And we and and and I think his name was Juan. One's like, okay, this is the situation. No, no, um, you see the dock over there, don't go to this dock. So that's the boundary. And then to the dolphin is up, don't go to past the dolphins, it's over there. Um, and uh 80 yards out, big current. Don't go 100 yards out, you end up South America. Don't go 100 yards out. I'm like, okay, note to self-boundary, boundary. Well, Heather, we get out on the paddleboard. She goes, I want to see the dolphins. So we go over to the dock and we're looking under and we can see the dolphins. This is awesome. We get to see dolphins, this is awesome. And then she goes, You know what? We ought to go around the dock. I bet we can see better. I'm like, well, Juan said, Don't go around the dock. This is the boundary. She goes, What it, what are you, the paddle board police? And I was like, Well, no. And she starts paddling, and all I'm gonna say is, I got nothing against Adam. I understand what he went through at that point, okay? Because as she started going, I'm like, um, okay, okay. And I followed her right around the corner. And we got around the corner, and sure enough, it was like, this is amazing. It opened up and we saw pods of dolphins everywhere. I'm like, this is amazing. But then out of nowhere, we hear. I'm like, what is that? Maybe it's the paddle board police. And I turned around. Now Heather is here. We're looking. I turn around. There's a ship. It's not a boat. It's a ship. And it's coming straight at us. And I look, and we're where it's gonna dock. And I'm like, ha! And out of, I just I glanced at Heather, and I'm like, we gotta go. And I start paddling for all I'm worth to get out of the way of this ship. And he starts honking more. I'm like, I'm gonna go if I can. And I get around the corner and and I'm literally around the corner out of the way, and I'm like, huh. And then he starts honking more. I'm like, dude, I am nowhere close to the dock. And as I said, dock, and I pointed back, there's my wife in no man's land going, huh? And I'm thought, she's not gonna make it. I was like, go the other way. I mean, within five seconds, she starts paddling the other way, and the ship comes in, and I lose sight of her, and I'm like, oh, that was a good 20 years. Um I hope she made it. And the ship parked, and I'm like, I gotta go out so I can see if she made it, and I'm getting around the ship, and there's my wife. She's about 90 yards off the beach, paddling for all she's worth. And she's going about this fast because she was in the current, and I'm like, oh, and she looks at me in desperation and she goes, What do I do? And I I got nothing. The only thing I could think was how harder. And she kind of waved at me with one finger, and I have never felt more helpless and more of a complete failure than at any time in my life. I'm like, I I just I failed. And she kept coming, and I paddled out there, and I and I got next to her and she was exhausted. I said, just grab my board. And I paddled and we went crazy for about five, ten minutes, finally got out of the current, got around, and we're in the little cove and we're both exhausted, and we're laying on the paddle boards, and she goes, Why did you leave me?

And I was like, I got nothing. I said, I told you we shouldn't have gone around the dock.

I just and she kind of looked at me and she's like, I know, but did you left me? And then we just started dying laughing. And we realized in that moment, you know what? I don't want to be right, and I don't need to be happy. I want to be together. And and in marriage, that's where I am, and I realize as I as I share that, that is one quality that God gives us. And when I move to the reality of being drained, and I can't, we can get drained by trying to do the truth on our own. We can get drained by trying to do life on our own. We can get drained by trying to control situations. And the whole time God is going, Why don't you move from you being controlled to me? Why don't you move from trying to do it for me and let me doing it with you? Because I will never leave you and I'll never forsake you. And if you do that, then you're gonna move from being drained to being overflowing in every situation. And I realize this too, a beautiful example, and I'll wrap it up, but a beautiful example I read in a book by Brian Goins about marriage, and he's just talking about how a lot of times we chase what we think is gonna make us happy. And he gives me the example of this uh Jack Russell terrier that he has, a little dog, and he says he's blowing bubbles for his kids one day, and this Jack Russell could not let the bubbles hit the ground. He was just barren. If you know a Jack Russell, they're hyper, and he's just like bar, bar. And he says, and he watched him and he'd blow bubbles and blow bubbles. This dog was running crazy. He said, Every time the dog would line one up and jump up and bite it, and for a second, just like yes, and then it was like and it tastes bad, but then he would get distracted and he'd go and bite another one. Same thing, and then he would just he kept doing this. And he says, This what a stupid dog. So then God kind of hit him and he's like, That's what you're doing. He says, When you're looking outward at something outside your marriage, and you think, Wow, that would make me happy, that would bring me fulfillment, that would do it. And he used this line and it just hit me between the eyes. He said, It is easier to lust after fantasy than cherish reality. I was like, oh, much too convicting. Let's move on. And in Ephesians 5, 28, where it says, But a husband loves his wife because he never hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it and cherishes it. He he literally just says, I'm going to nourish this and cherish it. It's changed everything from me to from going, look what I'm doing for you. Now you owe me this, to going, you know what? I don't care. We had a situation a couple weeks ago where we had we kind of butted heads. I she she wanted me to take lead on it, and then she came in in the middle of that, and and it just became a quagmare. And afterwards I said, you know what? I want to debrief that. She goes, Okay, I know I was wrong. I was wrong. I just I apologize. Now let's just move on. And I'm like, I can't I can't. And it wasn't a happy moment, but it was a meaningful moment because I can't move on. I said, I don't care if I was right or you were right. I want us to be together on this. And I said, if you want me to take the lead, I want to take the lead. If you want to take the lead, I'll support you in it. But we got to be together on this. And in marriage, it is the same in a relationship with the Lord of going, you know what, God, I I want this in my life. And the nourish part of it, um, it's just it's just a great bonus. We, I'm a, I'm a guy, I love food. I love it. And I eat like three times a day, sometimes four, because I love it. And the question God just really put on my heart was, can stop doing this out of a mindset of for her and and doing it together. I feed my dogs a couple times a day, and they're very happy. And I give them a treat a couple times a day, and they think I am just amazing. And God hit me and goes, You do you know what your wife's nourishment is? What's her love language? Are you are you feeding her a couple days? Are you pouring into her? Because when you do, something happens where you you're connecting together, and I start doing this out of an overflow, it's it's mind blowing. But this morning I would just, I want to just encourage us to make a move. Move. Move from being in control. And if there's a frustration or a fear, realize the only way to overcome fear is with a bigger fear. And when I fear God, I fear nothing else. And saying, okay, is God in control of this? Move from doing for God to doing with God. And then move and say, where am I overwhelmed? Where am I drained right now? Because if I will do those first two moves, then I'll start experiencing that I can serve out of an overflow. Those are some of the biggest breakthroughs I've had. And there's a combination. Let me pray, and then I want to share one more piece of combination. And just pray with me. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you that we have the opportunity to give you control of any situation. Ultimately, Lord, we have that opportunity to first give you control and invite you into our lives to be God, the controller and the runner of our lives. But as we walk with you, Lord, you give us the freedom to take those reins back in several areas. And Lord, I pray that today that you would lay firmly on our minds whatever it is that we need to let go of, and that we would move from doing for you and hoping you do for us to just doing with you. And Lord, I pray that you would move us and experience this life from being drained to being overflowing. So, Father, I pray we'd start that this week. And we love you and thank you for that. You are with us, and you are the power that gets us through it. And it's only through the gift of Jesus, the power that raised him from the dead, that lives in those of us who have accepted you that we pray. Amen. There's a breakthrough I've had of truth, of how do I take the truth and see it become reality in my life and listening to his spirit and how those two work together in such a way that every day I am literally hearing and seeing God more vividly and clearly. And that combination of knowing how to discern his voice and him moving on a daily basis is a breakthrough that I want to share next week. And I hope you can make it back. Thanks for letting me share today. I'll see you next week.