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Hey. Hey. How's it going? Hey.
As you saw there, we're starting a new series today, God, Man, King, which is kind of the theme of the book of Matthew that we're gonna be going through. It's the gospel of who is Jesus. And we'll be taking that apart and seeing what does it mean for him to be this God who became a man who is the king. And what does that look like was entailed today in Matthew one, our big idea to open the series, is we're gonna see that God is with us.
God is with us. And we need to know that because if we know he's with us and we understand what that means, it helps us to believe him more. And when we believe him, we'll do more than just believe in him. We'll trust him,
and then we'll go the path he wants to walk with us. And because the truth is, if if you don't really understand he's with you, he's for you, he dove into this world to be with us, you'll sometimes freak out with where he asked us to go. It can get a little scary,
of where he wants to take us. Matter of fact, the way I wanna open today is is give an example. Because one of the things that we do as a church that we just have to believe God that could be very scary is we've always been about church planting and helping other churches.
And even though churches, you know, we should be that way, a lot of times we get into our own little kingdom, we get worried, new church comes into the area, you're worried about them stealing your sheep and and all of that. And and if you could steal someone else's sheep, they probably weren't your sheep in the first place. But the the the truth is that I think God has asked us,
especially me as a leader when I planted this church to hold it like this, because this isn't my kingdom. This isn't my church. My son, when he's little used to say, well, dad, you can do that because you own the church. And I go, no. Sometimes I feel like the church owns me. But
and we've always been about helping and planting other church, like, helping churches. We've helped churches that we didn't start. Like, few well, not long ago, I had my friend, David Elijah, pastor up in Utah, doing great ministry.
But you know what? He didn't have anyone help him along the way, and God blessed him anyways, and he was burning out a little bit. So we're pouring into his team, we're trying to help, and I actually challenged us.
And that's what I love. It's not just me doing this. If you're new here, you came to a church that gets it. We trust God this way. And I challenge us. I go, you know what? He needs to have some support.
And in one weekend, you guys gave enough that he has one full year of support already so he could do it, what he wanted to do. So well done. We've planted four daughter churches just in
the last year and a half, And they're all doing exceptionally well. And that's and we send support. I encourage you to pray about going. We've given them financial support. We coach them. We do all that. The thing that gets scarier is when you start to send people out from within. And that's more recently, we had Flatiron Church, which their team came. They came from the outside, but I got to know them. They came and did a year with us as a residency,
and they went down the street. Now that's where churches start to freak out. You gotta trust God because they ended up taking about 200 people and and and several $100,000 a year in giving because good people went, generous people went, which is what they need. And then it gets scary
because it may be what God wants you to do, but the path he has you take sometimes isn't painless, But it works. You know why? Because every time someone's left, people here have stepped up.
And new people and people that have been sitting on the sidelines have stepped in. Well, we're about to do something even scarier. We're sending a bunch of our own right now. Again, and I want to introduce you to the people that are going go start Echoes Church,
and they're going to come on out here. I think you'll recognize many of them, but a couple of these guys come on out.
Why don't you guys introduce yourself? I'm not sure if they know who you are. Yes. My name is Daniel. It's really nice to meet all of you beautiful people. This is my amazing wife Ashley who loves public speaking. So I'll just give her the microphone and she can take it from here.
And then this is my good buddy Joshua and he can introduce his wife. Yeah. My name is Joshua Paul. This is my wife Rihanna. Very excited to be with you all this weekend. Hey.
You saw Joshua was in the band. He led one of the songs today. That might you might recognize him from a few minutes ago. But how many of you remember when Joshua was on our was on our staff here? And does anybody in this service go that far It means you're really old. So you've here for a long time. I
don't know if some of you remember, but he was the guy he was the first drummer we ever had when he was 10 years old, 12 years old. And he looked like animal from, the Muppets. All you see is this hair and arms
beating away and very talented. Went on and done some great things. Most recently been the head of leading worship at Sun Valley, who's our partner in this this church plant, actually, because he's been there for a long time, so we're doing this together. But but yeah. So we've we've invited them up here because we just wanna talk about, you know,
this church plant. Echoes. But the first thing is what how did you know, we you go way back. You've been here a long time, but how did you guys connect? Was it Christian Mingle? What was it? Yes. It was it was actually farmersonly.com.
So I got hired here six years ago. Josh was on staff here, I don't know, ten or twelve years ago. But he was in town. He was on staff at a church out in Vegas at the time. He happened to be in town. I met them briefly and then about a year later, they moved back here and he took the job at Sun Valley,
and then he joined our church softball team. Whether you believe it or not, Bill actually used to play softball. He never really ran, but he was on the softball team. And so we just became friends as we played softball together.
And then, know, we just would hang out occasionally. And then about a year ago, we started to really feel like God was stirring something in our heart that we weren't sure what was on the other side of that. And just kind of coincidentally,
Josh and I were having lunch and I was kind of having this conversation with him. And then he started to articulate like they were kind of going through a very similar thing. And so out of this kind of random friendship where he used to be on staff here, and I'm on staff here, we started to go, man maybe God is doing something with us together.
And about a year ago we started to have this crazy idea that maybe we would start a church together. Yeah. It was absolutely a God thing. So Daniel and I are having lunch talking about what's next. He shares this idea. I didn't express any interest but in back of my mind I was like maybe.
I go home talk to my wife about it. Her first reaction is not a chance but then we continue the conversation and then when she actually said like hey let's ask some questions. Let's look into this. That was a
pivotal point for us because I know throughout our marriage when the Holy Spirit speaks through her to affirm something in me it's a reminder for me that we're aligned and that God is moving through it and so from there we continue to meet more regularly. Now we are here today excited to launch this thing. Yeah.
But again this thing six years ago when I got hired to Bill you can't be around Rock Point and not hear about church planting. Right? It's just what we do is what this guy's heart beats for And he said six years ago, you should really consider church planting. You would do a great job. And I just was like, not in a million years. I will never plant a church. I have zero desire. And I wasn't just saying that. I really mean that. Even right now, I'm still like, God, are you sure you want us to do this? Right? But it's again, I think sometimes Jesus said hold my communion cup. That's right. I'm not gonna do this. Yeah. And again, think sometimes what God asks us to do is incredibly scary. It pushes you beyond your comfort zones, but I think somewhere in there is this really incredible intimacy that you find with God. And I think risking it all for his kingdom is what we're supposed to be about. And so that's why we're here today.
So you guys came together because you heard the call that God sent out to all tall tatted pastors. That's right. Tall, tatted pastors unite. And you came together. And and and what does that look like, like, going forward? Like,
tell us about what's what what are you doing and the weirdness of because this is not normal, what we're doing here. Yeah. And how that's been kind of in a cool way weird, but just different,
and and and, like, some people just don't even understand. Yeah. For you know, like, we've had people in our own church, like Yeah. Are you aware that Daniel's doing this? He's filming videos on our campus. Yeah. I'm like, really? I'm gonna fire that guy right now.
That's actually the typical way though. But tell us about That's right. What you're doing and and and the whole weirdness in all of this. Yes. So, again, you gotta come up with a church name. Like you said, Tall and Tattooed was already taken, so we settled for Echoes Church.
Echoes comes out of Acts two two. Again, if you come to our interest tonight Monday, we'll walk through what all of that means. And, if you've been at Rock Point for a while and you've seen this, like we bring church churches up here. We go, hey. Go with them. Pray about it. I can't tell you how abnormal it is. It's not
a common thing for senior pastor to be this open with his church, with his platform, to really not try to build his own kingdom, but to build God's. And truthfully, most of the people in my position
when you say, hey, I feel like God's planting wants me to plant a church. That's kind of code language for, okay, that's your two week notice. Good luck. We'll see you on the way out and you just don't have a job anymore. And so many of my friends have gone through that. And so I think but again, part of why I think God has done such an incredible thing here at Rock Point and just we've seen this supernatural pouring out of his spirit and thousands of people getting saved and baptized.
I truly believe is because of what and how Bill leads this thing. I think that God trusts him with a lot because he's watched how he's done this this whole time. And so this dude is amazing. He's an incredible friend and champion and cheerleader. Again,
he's all of our biggest fans and so but it's not normal. So we're honored and privileged to get to be a part of that. Again, we will be planting in January. We'll kind of grand open in January. Right now we're trying to build a team. And so if you have any level of interest in that, would love to have you come outside. We have booths out in the lobby. We'd love to talk to you, answer any questions that you have. And Monday night, tomorrow night, we'll be here talking about our first interest night, and just kind of talking logistics.
What are we doing? Where are we going? Where's the building? All of that stuff, we'll talk through tomorrow night and how you can be a part of that. And even if you go, hey, we know we're not gonna go, which is totally okay, and you're gonna stay here, we would still love just to have you praying for us. We really believe that this is something that is going to expand God's kingdom, and it's not something that the enemy is stoked on. And so we just need God's people to be praying for us. And so we we covet your prayers if that's the least that you could do.
And and and like Daniel said, it's like, thank you. You're about to make me cry before I have to still preach a sermon here, normally you just make me cry when I watch you preach. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Different experience, but same outcome. Take that whichever way you want. I'm just teasing, but
what he said, thank you for the comment. But I think the reason this works, like a lot of churches get scared, because I'm inviting many of you to go. If God's laying on your especially those of you that get the idea of serving and financially giving,
he doesn't need a bunch of people to come and just sit and watch. I like his preaching. I'm gonna go. But if all you're gonna do is do that here, then you might as well go with him too, so then we can have room here.
But the reality is pray about it, because I think God's gonna send several types of people. It's it's one, the coolness why I hold it like this is I know that God is with us. And when I am confident that God's with me, I will trust what he's asked me to do even if it sounds scary or doesn't make sense.
And the reason this works is I am blessed to lead a church that most of us feel the same way. And I'm thankful for you. The reason I can get up confidently do this is I think some of you are gonna go, and you're gonna be awesome, and it's gonna help this church, and they're gonna reach people right away.
The also is there's gonna be some of you that have been on the sidelines. You might have in church for a long time, but you've never engaged financially. You've never engaged in serving. But all of a sudden, him getting up and they're going has sparked something in you.
And you're gonna go, and you're gonna get connected. That's actually a way to grow you in your faith. By by getting you to go with them, you're gonna step up for the first time. And so I'm super pumped about that.
And and and so we want and then the third way is the reason I know it works, is every time someone's gone, it's an opportunity for us that you could help plant this church by not even going.
But if you've been kinda you're newer or you've been on the outside or, like, we're gonna talk about a you feel like I just I'm just I I believe in God, but I've been having a hard time believing God.
And so you you've never engaged in in these practical ways to help a church be a church, like help us build buildings, help us, you know, pay the rent, help us to do the ministry and all that. This is your chance to step into the gap that's gonna be created by those who go.
And I know that's gonna grow you too. Because sometimes you look around and you're new and you're like, well, they seem to have the room full. They have the nice buildings. They don't need me, and what does my little giving matter? It's huge. Because God wants you to be a part of the team too.
He wants you to not just believe in God, but believe God. He doesn't want you just to come to be at a church meeting. He wants us to be the church. So this is an opportunity for me to tell you, it's a scary way to say, we need you to step into that.
And you always have. People have always stepped into the gap. And I guarantee there's some of you in this room that you feel challenged right now. Some are gonna step out into the gap with them. Many of you are gonna stay and step into this gap. And you know what's gonna happen?
God is gonna use our belief. He's gonna empower it with his strength and his might. And both churches are gonna grow because the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
And that's an opportunity to do this. So I am actually saying thank you. Those of you that have been faithful, that have stepped into the gap, this is why it works, to be honest. Amen. It's because of them and their willingness. So thank you. So you talked of just even prayers. I'm gonna pray. Go talk to him. Come on Monday night, but I'm just gonna pray for you guys right now. How does Thank that you.
Father God, I just thank you. I thank you for my friends. I thank you for the privilege of getting to know these families. I thank you for the incredible responsibility you've given me to be in their lives. And Lord I thank you for their hearts, their gifts, their passion.
And I pray right now for the relationship with you and and their families that you would grow them closer to you no matter what because they're about to step into all kinds of chaos. Lord is and and and Lord, I know that you'll be with them. I thank you for Echo's Church. Echo's Church.
I thank you that you have a sense of humor, Lord, and you gave one to me.
But Lord, I just pray now that you will bless this church. It will echo. People will echo the life of you through these guys, through all the other team people that are going in, all the people you're gonna draw to them. I just pray that in the end, because we did this, that both at Rock Point and Echoes Church and this movement you've asked us to be a part of, that there will be thousands upon thousands upon tens of thousands of people that will be in your kingdom for all of eternity praising you because you allowed us to do this. And I just pray this in the mighty holy name of Jesus. Amen.
Love you guys.
I mean, don't get me wrong. Daniel's dead to me now that he's leaving, but in full disclosure, I try to say a wisecrack to him every service, but after last night, I realized he's too good at the comebacks, so I wait till he's walking off stage. And they've already muted his mic.
So that's really kind of a good way of landing this this this series we started is is what does it mean for God to be with us? It means as we understand what that really is, it frees us to understand he's with us, he's for us, all we have to do is trust him. That's it.
He'll he'll do the rest. Because the book of Matthew, it was one of the four gospels. There's four gospels. They're all written about the life of Christ. They all take a little bit different point of view. Matthew was a tax collector. He's a Jew, and he writes from the perspective of the Jewish end of things. Like, I want the people of Israel to understand this is the promised Messiah King from the Old Testament. So he'll quote prophecy a little bit more, and it'll be
about that. But he's landing who is Jesus, and the bottom line is he is the God man who is king. He is God who became a man and becomes king. And that that that's critical. It's critical because what Jesus did in becoming a man was he is with us. But not only has God always been with us, in Jesus, God joined us.
He got on the field with us during the game. He cannot he experienced what it's like to be a human being.
So that means not only did he create us and know everything, he created the game. He's playing the game. He got in the game with us. So he was a baby. Pooped his pants. He was a teenager. He had trials. He had he got tired. He got hungry. He would get upset, but he never sinned.
He was betrayed. He was murdered. He knew what it's like to have friends turn on him. He knows from a human point of view exactly how it feels. So there is nothing that you've experienced in hurt or loss or or frustrate. There is nothing that we've experienced that God in through Jesus did not experience as well.
So that he's always been with us, but Jesus brings a whole new layer. And that's why in the book it opens up with look. Verse one of Matthew says this.
This is the record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and Abraham. Right there, it gives you the point and the outline of the book.
When it says a descendant of David, that's the king. King David was the greatest king of Israel, and he and and he promised him, there will be a king in the line of David, a direct descendant. That will be the king of kings and the lord of lords. It'll be forever. And that's Jesus.
And that's why it gives his genealogy. He's in the line of David and Abraham.
And then it says, he will also be descendant of Abraham. Abraham was the man that god called out that he started the whole Hebrew nation, and he says, I'm gonna bless the whole world through you. You're gonna be a great nation, and you're gonna do this thing. And he says, and you're gonna have a child. And when he says, great nation, Abraham was like, wait. What are you talking about? I'm in my seventies, and my wife is barren. How is that gonna work? He goes, trust me. He didn't have that kid till he's 99 years old.
But it says when he told him that, he says he believed God. See, he was made right with God because of the grace of God, the power of God, the strength of God. All he had to do was believe God. But after that child's born, God asked him to go up and offer him as a sacrifice, which makes no sense.
Well then God of course stops him and brings a sacrifice. And what that was, was he's a child of Abraham, meaning child of David means he's the sovereign son that was promised. Child of Abraham means he's the sacrificial son.
Isaac didn't have to be offered because what he was trying to say is there's gonna come a time when I as the father am gonna let my son be sacrificed for all people.
So He's saying that's what it is. Now the reason it does it reverse in this verse says David first, then Abraham, because in the Bible Abraham comes first, because He just gave you the outline of the book. He talks the first 12 chapters, really emphasize how this God became a man, but he's the king.
He's the king. Then at the end of the book, it starts going towards the Easter story, and it starts talking about how he is the sacrificial servant. In other words, if you've been in church, it starts off first describing he is the Lion of Judah, and the last part is he's the Lamb of God.
And it says, So then the story goes on in Matthew one. It goes and it gives his whole genealogy, show he's a man, and then it comes down and starts talking about this miraculous birth of Jesus.
Joseph now finds out he's engaged to be married, and he finds out that his wife to be is pregnant,
and he's like, not cool with that, because he goes, I didn't do it. And so he's doing the he's like, I don't wanna cause problems. I do like her, but you know I'm just gonna divorce this thing quietly and an angel visits him with a message from God. Says, No, you need to trust God. You need to believe him. That's not what you think is going on. And then he quotes a passage from the book of Isaiah to him. And this is what gets him to realize what's going on. It's found in verse 23 of Matthew one. It says this, Look,
the virgin will conceive a child. She will give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God is with us. That's Isaiah seven fourteen. And it says, There will be a virgin that's gonna conceive because it's gonna be the God man. And then he gets it. And he's like, All right, I'm gonna believe you.
He now knows that, Oh, you're talking about my wife to be. That whole prophecy was saying that she's gonna be the virgin, and this God is going to take on humanity. Well, what does that mean to be God with us? I already told you the one layer. It jumps a layer
when he says he became in. That's important because now he's experienced what we've experienced. He's not just with us, he's joined us. But what about the God part? What does it mean for God to become a man? Who is with us? Who is this Emmanuel, which means God is with us?
Well, what I wanna do is look quickly because I think this will help us understand what it means is if you go back into Isaiah,
Isaiah seven is where it said, Emmanuel, God is with us. Two chapters later in Isaiah it describes some characteristics, some titles of who this Emmanuel is. So who is Jesus that came to join us and what does that mean? That when he's with us, this is what is with us and what does that look like?
It says, and you've probably heard this verse before, we had Easter last week. We're already talking Christmas right now. So we just crammed it together. Let's go. Let's go. Isaiah nine:six says this, For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. So he's talking about humanity now. A man.
But he says the government will rest on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of peace. So now you know it's, yeah, he'll be born, but he wasn't created when he was born. He's already existed. He's God who took on humanity.
And so that list right there, those four things it says at the end, I just wanna walk through them really quick and explain what they really mean. They seem self explanatory. Here's the part I need you to stay with me on. The thing you think it means,
Inigo Montoya and Princess Bride, you keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means. Inconceivable. The thing you think it means, most of it does mean that. But you will never experience that meaning of it if you don't accept and understand the upfront deeper first meaning. Okay?
You're not gonna get to that without going through this. Here's what I mean. Let's look. And I'm gonna do this list a little bit out of order here. The first one I wanna talk about is everlasting father because it says he's a child, but he's gonna be everlasting father. What does that mean? He's God. Jesus didn't just
start to exist when he took on humanity. That word for everlasting father really means the originator of eternity. It means he's always existed. He was already God. Matter of fact, Jesus shows up in the Old Testament. He's doing Jesus he thinks. There's Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three in one,
but the unity, the Father and when I think about the whole story of man and what God the Father thought it, the Son bought it, the Holy Spirit brought it. And that's kind of how it works. But what's going on here is when you think of who Jesus was, Jesus is the God we could see. He's the God that could show us the way. He's the God that'll be the one. The father you can't see, the spirit you can't see, but Jesus we can see. And he showed up and was the God you could see even in the old testament. Matter of fact, there's a phrase for every time you see this angel of the Lord appear,
that's talking about deity because every time it's worship, he accepts worship, whoever this is, he gives declaration of God. It is God. And he'll show up in a theophany. He hasn't taken on humanity yet, but he'll show up looking like a man. He'll show up and talk to you. Sometimes he just appears and he gets involved. He's the God who can see you and the God who sees.
He's mentioned 50 times or 56 times in 51 verses. And it's interesting this angel of Lord shows up in a way that's powerful. To give you examples, the first time the angel of the Lord appears, which is Jesus pre incarnate, meaning before the flesh, he shows up and he speaks to a woman named Hagar in in Genesis 16.
And essentially, the first time he shows up and actually speaks to someone, it's it's this woman that's not even a Jew. She was a servant to Sarah. Abraham and Sarah, the one that God called out and said, Are gonna have a child? They're like, Ah, we're older and I Well, they're in their 70s. Well, now they're getting older. They still haven't had a child,
and they do what a lot of us do. They believed God, but then they started to say, Maybe we need to make this happen. So Sarah gets an idea of, You know what? It's a common thing. It's accepted practice. They take my servant, marry her, and you can produce an heir. So he does. But as he gets married and he does this,
Hagar now starts to act poorly towards Sarah, disrespectful and all that, because she's like, Hey, I'm the wife that's gonna produce an heir since you can't. And that gets Sarah mad.
And so she goes to Abraham and says, you know, this is all your fault, which makes no sense because it was Sarah's idea. Well, makes sense if you're married.
Kinda teasing. And it's really So abdicates, Well, it doesn't matter to me. It's your problem, man. She's your servant. Do what you want. So then she starts mistreating Hagar, and so Hagar runs away. So nobody in this story is doing the right thing. Hagar acted arrogant.
Sarah had a crazy idea. Abraham agreed. When it goes south, it's like nobody is really, really listening to God all that much in the midst of it. But guess what? God was still with them. God was still gonna bless them.
And so what happened? Hagar runs away and that's the first time this angel of the Lord appears and speaks to her and says, you're gonna be okay. I'm gonna take care of you. You're pregnant. You're gonna have a child. He's gonna be a boy. And I will make him into a great nation.
And she's like, Really? Goes, Yeah, but you need to go back. What he challenged her to do is go back and be You can't control Sarah, can't control, but you can control who you You can trust me on who you need to be. Go back and show respect, which is a crazy idea.
But she says in there, she gives a name for God. She goes, at that moment she realized, gave this title for God, the God who sees me.
Do you know that for God to be with us, it means He's the God who sees you? And some of you are trying to be faithful. Some of you are running away on the desert because you've actually helped cause part of the problem. Some of it's out of your control like Hagar, but some of it is you've acted arrogantly in the scenario.
And here's the cool thing. God still sees you. He still loves you. He's still with you. He wants you to take his hand and trust him and be with him. He's there because He's the everlasting Father. He's the originator of eternity. That's who Jesus is and He sees you. Then it says Prince of Peace.
That's another one, peace. When you hear Prince of Peace, yeah, he brings peace. And you're like, well, doesn't seem like I got peace. Hagar probably didn't feel much peace in her life at that moment. Here's the thing. The kind of peace we want is the lack of problems.
That's not the peace that it's talking about when it says Prince of Peace. He does talk about a peace that you can have despite problems, a peace that transcends all understanding, the feeling of peace and contentment,
but that only will come to you if you used to understand what the Prince of Peace is, the real peace you need. And when you engage that and understand God's with you, it's not the absence of conflict that is peace, it's the presence of harmony.
And the harmony is Prince of Peace meant the Shalom Peace, meaning He came to make us have peace with God.
You need to make peace with God. Some of you are with God because he's not giving you the peace you want in the way you want. And he's like, no, that's not what you need. You need to have a relationship with me again. You need to trust me and trust that I know more than you because I'm the everlasting father.
That's the peace he came to bring. And if you don't engage in that peace and surrender to his love and understand that first and foremost, I need to be at peace with the God who created me, and the only way is that's why Jesus came into this world was to bring that peace at the cross,
if you don't get it, you will never experience the other kind of peace. You'll have moments where you're happy, but you'll never truly be content.
But if you have that true peace with God and you engage in it and you trust God, you will then have as the New Testament is a peace that surpasses all understanding. Surpasses all understanding is you'll be surprisingly calm and hopeful in moments that most people freak out.
You will be able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil because God is with you. Psalms 23. But that only comes when you engage in the other peace. And a lot of us say, I won't trust the peace of God until he gives me the peace in my life. That's not how it works.
What we really need is peace with God, and that's what Jesus came to bring. And the most misunderstood is wonderful counselor.
When you hear wonderful counselor, may, oh, I went to this person. They were so nice to me. They were sweet. They explained stuff. It was so great. They gave me some pretty good advice, and I think I'll listen to some of it. The two words wonderful counselor
is first of all, that counselor term is not what you think counselor is. Give me some advice and I decide what to do. That word for counsel is the counsel that a king gives you. It's like you go, you get an audience for the king and you say, here's my problem. And then he says, here's what you're gonna do.
It's not I decide. You just went before the king. He is the king. It's not counsel as, take it or leave it. He's like, I am telling you the plan. His word is our counsel.
His word is the king saying, this is how life works. This is how we need to live. And he says, he's the wonderful counselor. And then you say, okay. Wonderful. That means awesome. Right? No. That word for wonderful still means what wonderful means in our culture. Once again, we're back to the prince's pride. We keep using a word that I don't think we understand what it means.
The actual definition of wonderful, especially in the word here in the in the Hebrew means this, beyond our human comprehension, experience, or even imagination.
That's neutral. That could be a good thing. There could be a good thing. You're like, I can't even comprehend how good this is. It can also be a not so good thing. Like God is asking the council is He's asking me to
plant a church when we're trying to raise more money to build a building. And I'm gonna tell people that are giving and generous to go away. That makes no sense. That's like giving when I don't think I have anything to give. Hint. Hint.
It's wonderful. Meaning, I wonder how this is gonna work. I can't see how it works. I don't get it. It's like Job in the book of in the Old Testament. Job had all these horrible things happen and he felt like he stayed faithful to God because God owes me an explanation.
You realize God never answered his question as to why? All God did was reveal himself. And once he saw God, for he was, he says, I have spoken with words without knowledge, things that were too wonderful for me. Did anything wonderful from our definition? No. What he was saying is, I don't get it.
I'm never gonna get it because God is bigger than me.
So when it says he's the wonderful counselor, meaning he is gonna come and he's gonna say, here's where I need you to go. I'm with you. I'm for you. But you gotta understand, I created this whole playing field. I created this game, and not only did I create it, I got on the field with you, and I'm right there with you. I'm gonna show you how to do because I love you. And there's gonna be times that when you're learning to play a game, you're learning to get in the flight, you just don't get it.
And there are right now things that God's word that I've challenged you. And usually, if I'm the one challenging you, you don't get it and you get mad at me.
You realize the answer isn't once I understand God, I'll listen to Him. The more you listen to Him, the more you start to understand Him. The reason I can let Daniel go and encourage people to go is all the other times. See, on the you get to that wonderful by going through this wonderful.
That wonderful confusion where you wonder, but you trust. It's why I bring up time and money a lot. I don't do a series on it. I just bring it up because here's the deal. Jesus talked about money more than He talked about heaven and hell. You know why? Because that's the thing in our culture we get stuck on. My happiness is
about how's my time spent, and do I have enough resource to do the things I want? You really think it's money that's gonna give you happiness and contentment. Not the Lord.
And so then he says, I want you to trust me first with it because I'm gonna do something you can never do with it and do greater than you would. Be like, but if I do that I won't have what I want.
That's step one. Trusting God with your money. If you can't trust him with your money, you really probably aren't trusting God with your life at all. Because that's the first thing. Because that's where we live.
And now some of you are getting mad at me because you're scared. It's too wonderful for you. I don't know how that's gonna work and you're making me mad because you're telling me to trust God. You know why? Because the last thing, He's the mighty God.
And mighty God says prevailing hero that has power to make His will happen. You won't see the mighty God work if you don't listen to the wonderful counsel.
In other words, you can believe in God all you want, but you're not really gonna have the peace and the contentment and understanding until I trust the counsel that doesn't make any sense to me.
And that's my job, is to encourage us to do it. Because I want us to get to the other wonderful. I want you to get where I am. I am fully confident in the things we've asked to do because I know God's with us and I know I'm doing what he said to do. Every
time we build a building, stuff goes weird. Every time we do anything where we trust God, financially, anything. It never works out the way I saw it in my head. And now I've stopped worrying. I go in my head. I go, You know what? This is gonna be fun now. Now I go, I wonder how it's gonna work this time.
You only get there by going through the fear of trusting.
And sometimes He says, Go back to Abraham and Sarah. Go back to the path. Be respectful. Do this thing that makes no sense to you and wait for my might to come. And that's really what happens with with with with Hagar. If you go back into the Genesis story, she does go back. She went back
and was back for years and years and years. She had her child. Sarah still hasn't had a child. It's like thirteen years later or more. So now her kid's getting bigger. And now Sarah's finally pregnant.
And it must have been awkward the whole time. She showed respect when Sarah's probably like bitter because she's had a kid and she doesn't. Sarah knows, Oh, I guess you're the one. It was my idea, but now I'm mad. And then all of a sudden she gets pregnant. So now she's like, Free. God really did show up. He was with us. And so then she gets mad, goes to her husband and says, you gotta get rid of the slave and her son.
Not your wife, the slave, and not even say so, and the boy. She won't acknowledge that that's his wife and that's his child. Cause she's like, I'm done with this. Get rid of my problem that I created.
And Abraham's like upset and he goes to the Lord. The Lord says, actually weird. He gives him wonderful He's like, do what your wife said. And he's like, wait, that's sad. He goes, it's not you that makes it happen. You just need to trust me.
So that's where I wanna pick up the story. Look what happens in Genesis 21. It says right here, it says,
so Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food in a container of water, and strapped them on Hagar's shoulders.
Then he sent her away with her son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Beersheba. So she goes back, trusts him, shows respect. It was probably awkward the whole time, you know, because the second Sarah has a son, you're out of here. So there was some seething kind of issue all those years.
And the second happens, she trusted God. The God that sees me, now she's wandering aimlessly in the desert after years of going through what he said. Anyone been there? Anyone feel that way right now? Your relationship with God right now is because it's wonderful counsel. You don't see how it's gonna work. It makes no sense. We actually live in a desert. So some of us are literally wandering in a desert as we speak.
And it says, When the water was gone, it gets even worse. It says, She put the boy in the shade of a bush. Then she went and sat down by herself a 100 yards away. She says, I don't want to watch the boy die, she said, as she burst into tears.
I mean, that's about as close as you can get. You're at the end. You're at the end of anything you can do with. You're at the end of yourself. But here's the key with God and his wonderful counsel and why some of you when I say, Hey guys, let's get practical. Trust him in the ways that are practical.
Don't just believe in God. Believe him. Be a part of what he's called us to do. And you're like, but it led to this? Yeah. You see, when you get to the end of yourself, you've now just got to the beginning of God. When you get to the end of yourself,
when you fight things and you won't trust God and you want it, it's because you're trying to do it. The mighty God will do it. Just believe him. Because at that moment she's crying and says, But God heard the boy crying and the angel of God, the angel of the Lord Jesus, called to Hagar from heaven. What's wrong?
Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy crying and he as he lies there. Go to him and comfort him for I will make a great nation from his descendants. That doesn't seem like it's possible, does it? Then God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well full of water.
She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink. Then goes on to say, grew up out there, became skilled, married a woman. He goes on to lead a great nation.
But it was hard getting there.
What promise of God? Are you just, I won't listen to His counsel because I'm afraid it'll never work. Or maybe you're in the middle of listening to his counsel and it seems like it's not working and you want to quit right now. Don't quit because he is Emmanuel God with us. He's the Emmanuel God with us.
He is the wonderful counselor. He is the everlasting Father. He is the Prince of Priests and He is the mighty God. And the cool thing about God with us in Matthew is, like I said, He's always been with us. He's always been for us. When He was born, when He took on human, He got on the field with us.
And that reminds me of yesterday. I got to go to my grandson Phoenix, four year old, this is his first tee ball game. What I like to call tee ball is chaos and crying with a snack at the end. It's kind of a rite of passage for parents, it's a tough one. As
he's playing, he gets out there and he went into it. I said, How's he handling it? Like most kids, nervously excited.
He gets the idea and the concept he wants to do it, but yet you're still nervous about, I don't know how this works. Little scared. So you get them out on the field. That's why they have the they do a half an hour practice and half hour game. They keep it quick. You know, every team, you line up, one team's on the field, one team gets to hit the tee. Everyone gets the bat once, you switch. Once, you're done, and you move on.
Well, in that process, when they're doing this, he gets out there nervously excited. So what they do is the dads and and one of the kids, even the mom, they go out on the field and they're right there with their kid to encourage them.
And and Phoenix starts off that nervous excitement. I'm not sure about I wanna do it. And that's where a lot of you are with God. I wanna do this, but I'm not sure. Is this gonna really gonna work? What's gonna and we fight God a little bit on the process because it scares us. And we don't wanna fully surrender. That's And what he didn't like, okay, we're gonna bat. And
then he's like, kinda being selfish. I wanna go up first and practice. But then in the game, he was afraid of it. Then they go out in the game and start turn to field.
He goes out there. There's his dad standing right with him. Dad's our worship pastor, David. And he handled his son way better than I did with my son when he was in t ball. He's out there waiting. Balls get hit.
And he's waiting because he said, hey. You gotta field the ball. So he doesn't understand the game. So he's sitting here and he's back further. So little kids run across the front and they grab the ball. He starts to get angry.
He finally gets so mad he goes all full Billy Martin if you're old enough to know who that is throws his hat on the ground throws his glove on the ground just starts yelling and he walks over sits down on third base facing the outfield and all you see is this.
His dad walks over to him and talks to him. He's calm. He's like, Come on. Come on. You gotta do this. Trust me. Trust me. Finally gets him to get up and he kind of smiles, puts his hat back on, gets his glove. Happens again.
Even more mad. Gets him back in the game. He finally understands And his problem was he kept saying was mad because he's like, I'm mad if I don't touch the ball every time. Are you mad when the game doesn't get played the way you want it played? But his dad calmly said, No. Trust me. This is how it works.
Well then he goes to get up. He was all excited about it. He gets up and he sees all the people and he freaks out and like everyone's batting. He's the last batter on his team, second team to bat. Once he swings, game over.
So he starts talking to his dad's standing there watching. He goes, what's going on? You see him talking and he's like and I know what everyone parents thinking. Even I was thinking this is my own grandson. Just swing the bat so we can leave.
We give you a snack to stuff it in your mouth to make you forget how torturous you just made this whole process.
And I think that's you know and so he finally hits the ball and then like every kid they hit the ball and they forget to run. So you say run and they go and they run. No not faze. He goes hits the ball won't run. His dad's like come on you gotta run. You gotta run. And he's like no.
She stands there, doesn't run. Everyone else runs, touches the home. Everyone that was on base runs around. Even the other team decided to run around as they were fielding. They knew so they all ran and touched him. He stands there and then you get, okay. Good. At least it's over. They do the high five. He's an outgoing kid. That can't be hard to say good job to their team. They go out there. Everyone's doing it. He won't do it. His dad literally took his hand. It was the only time he's little bit four years old and made him high five one kid. Then he pulled away and he goes, how dare you do that? Don't make me do what you know is right and walks away.
Maybe that's us with God guys.
God's trying to get you. He's encouraging. He's with you the whole time, but you don't like how the game's played because you're at cost you're nervous. You want to, but it's scary. You want to, but you don't feel like you can. You want to, but you don't understand. You want to, but you want something different and you're getting mad at God.
He's on the field with you because he loves you.
Matter of fact, it all ends with when they do that, he won't do that. Then they go over and they're getting their snack. And then the coach pulls a medal out. And he goes, I have one of these for each game. It goes to the best sportsmanship award. And one kid had a great attitude. Did everything he was asked. Wasn't selfish. Did all the stuff. He even got hit in the face with a line drive. One kid actually hit the ball hard up. He was up close. Hit him right in the face. He cried a little, then got back in position.
So of course, he got the medal. And at that point, Phoenix just throws, gets up. He had his batting helmet on. So goes into the dugout, throws it, smashes things, goes over to the bench, and is wailing and just all of sudden, he sits down.
And his mom goes over. He's like, what is going on? She goes back over. He's he's totally ticked off and his feelings are hurt because he wanted the sportsmanship medal.
You're using the word, and I don't think you know what it means. The whole idea was simply this. If he had a sportsmanship medal, they should have taken it away from him. He's like, what? I was out there. Why am I not getting what I want? Could that be you?
Then the cool thing is his dad just talked to him. He got the snack. He calmed down. He did go over and give one person a high five. One kid left. And then they walked off the field, and he grabbed his dad's hand.
His dad stayed patient because he loves him. His dad stayed with him because he loves him. But his dad tried to still counsel him and push him because he knows more than he knows. He knows the game. He knows why it's created. He knows that he's there to help him succeed at it.
But he needs to believe his dad. How about you? God is right there. Jesus, God with us, means he got in the game that he created. Became one of us, and he's on the field right next to you, not to harm you, but to help you. And when you don't understand the game, you just need to believe
because he is with you. Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you that you are with us. I thank you for your word. I thank you that that that, Jesus, you are the God who sees us. We see you, and you joined us. So I pray for myself, anyone in this room right now, that we would not only believe in you, we would believe you.
And we would take your hand as you walk us through this game called life. That we would trust you with the scary things, that we would go where you're going because you're with us. May we stay with you. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Yeah. And make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.