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  NOT LAYING UP FOR OURSELVES
  by Dan Young
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God
and not seeking earthly treasures or success for fulfillment. It
highlights the need to balance work and rest, avoid overworking or
spiritual laziness, and prioritize personal devotion to the Lord,
family, and ministry. The message encourages trusting in God's
provision, finding rest in Him, and sharing the good news with others.

Topics: "Surrender to God", "Trust in God's Provision"
Scripture References: Matthew 6:19, Matthew 11:28, Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 139:23, Mark 9:24, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Isaiah 30:15, Isaiah 26:3, Isaiah 40:8

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God and not
seeking earthly treasures or success for fulfillment. It highlights the
need to balance work and rest, avoid overworking or spiritual laziness,
and prioritize personal devotion to the Lord, family, and ministry. The
message encourages trusting in God's provision, finding rest in Him, and
sharing the good news with others.

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CONTENT
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If we go back a few verses in Matthew chapter 6 verse 19, it says, Do
not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust
destroy and where thieves break in and steal. And I think sometimes we
have anxiety a lot of the time because we're trying to get ahead, and
we're striving to get ahead, to make provision for our lives, our
family, our futures. And a lot of the time we get anxious because we
don't have maybe the perfect situation in life.

I know I do. A lot of the time, a perfect example of this would be me
running my business and taking on more work than we can actually handle.
And what's the purpose of it? Well, one, we want to please our
customers, but two, sometimes we try to get ahead, to be successful.

And that's not always the best situation either because it produces
stress and overload and too many burdens. And sometimes we do that. We
take on too much for ourselves.

And in the end, we get frustrated with the situation because we're
wondering why is it so difficult? Why does it feel like I never have any
rest or any break? And that's just because we constantly are looking to
feed our flesh and our appetites with something or some work or some job
or some task, and it never ends. Once that one ends, we have a new one.
And once that one ends, there's another one.

And we can never sit and actually rest and renew our minds. And so
sometimes it's our own fault. Sometimes it's our own fault that we get
into situations where we have anxiety.

And so we need to learn how to balance that out. I shared last week
about going too far on either side of the road. It's the same with this.

We can be overworked where we're doing too much and we're taking on too
much ourselves, or we can be very lazy spiritually. We can be
spiritually lazy. It says the lazy man, he folds his hands, a little
sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of arms to rest, and his need
will come upon him like an arm robber.

So you can have both aspects. And you need to be able to understand and
discern where you are at personally. You know, I don't believe it's
God's will that we would be overworked to the point of exhaustion.

No, I don't think that that's God's will. And even in the ministry, I
don't believe it's God's work that we would be exhausted to the point of
even ministering the gospel. I don't think the ministry of the gospel
should overtake and be a greater priority than your own family.

No, the first thing in our life must be our own personal devotion to the
Lord. The second thing should be our family. And then the third thing
should be your ministry.

And those things should be kept in the right order. Otherwise, you can
cause things in your life. The other thing that can take precedence over
the Lord in your life is your job, your career, the things that you
enjoy, the things that you like doing.

They can take over your heart and they can consume you. And you neglect
the things that you need to do. And that's not good either.

We need to learn to discern our lives. We have to get light on ourselves
and judge ourselves rightly so the Lord doesn't have to get our
attention. He doesn't have to wake us up in some sense and say, hey,
which direction are you going? Why are you doing that? Why is this thing
consuming your life? What is it? Do not lay up for yourselves treasures
on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and
steal.

And this is literally the number one thing. Jesus wouldn't have spoken
about this if he knew that we weren't going to go through this
temptation. And we constantly want more Richards.

We constantly want more, more, more, especially in the North American
lifestyle. In fact, right now you can see lots of people complaining
that the interest rates are going higher in Canada. But the reality is
the interest rates are actually not that high.

They're not. People's mortgages go up by maybe 30, $40 a month, but
they're complaining about it. Why? Because for the last five years, the
interest rates in Canada were like 0% and people just need to have more.

We got to get more because we can get more and that's what satisfies
them. That's the trap in North America. Constantly our flesh is being
bombarded.

Flesh is being bombarded to have more. A perfect example of this, I
remember when I went to, on a business trip to Las Vegas, it was our
convention for the place that I was working at at the time and I
remember just being bombarded nonstop while you're there. It's nonstop
bombardment while you're on that strip.

I'm like, man, I felt like I had a headache at the end of the day. So I
was like, man, your flesh is constantly being bombarded at these
situations. And I was like, I don't like this place.

But you know, here we are here in our lives here and we're constantly
looking at doing stuff and getting stuff done and we forget to sit at
Jesus' feet and just listen to him. We forget to sit there. And this is
why I believe we have anxiety.

This is why I believe we have fear. This is why we have burdens, is
because we can't rest. And the number one thing that produces unrest in
a person's life is a love of money, is a desire for more, is getting
ahead.

And you can get your eyes off of Jesus real quick onto these things,
this passing pleasure, this futile gold, this futile silver, this thing
that can protect you and your family. You can get your eyes off of
Christ and you can miss what God has for you on a day-to-day basis
because you're sitting there trying to get ahead. You're trying to
figure out your life.

No, my friends, we need to put the Lord first. He has to be first in our
hearts. He has to be first in our lives.

And we have to learn to be led by the Spirit. I know the Holy Spirit
sometimes tells me, Dan, you just need to put it down and I need you to
renew your mind and I need you to listen to me at this point. But I tell
you, every day it's a battle.

I own two businesses and I constantly think about them, nonstop. I dream
about them because I'm thinking about them all the time. And that's not
good.

Lord, my mind needs to be on you. My heart and my soul need to be fixed
on you, the true treasure. This is why we are Christians, because we
have such a great precious pearl.

We have such a great value. We have a so great of a salvation that can
be worked out in our lives and I know so little of it. So I encourage
us, all of us, to not lay up for ourselves treasures on earth.

These things are gonna fade away. Do not, verse 20, but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is,
there will be your harp, Isil.

Also, you can have a ministry and your name, building up a name and
ministry, can be a treasure. Being somebody who ministers to other
people can be a treasure. You can be totally doing it out of self-
sufficiency.

You have not been called by God. And I will explain this, that there are
many missionaries, many ministers, who have gone to school, they've
gotten a degree, and they go out and this is their career. But it hasn't
been the calling of God.

Some of you would say, well, I haven't been called to preach the gospel.
No, my friends, we are Christians. We need to be lights in wherever we
are at, whether it's at the workplace.

But some of us, the Lord has called to work. He's called us to work and
to be a witness and a testimony in that sphere that He's given us. Some
of us, He's given gifts to minister the gospel, to share the gospel with
those around us.

And we can't be shy about that. We have to be, ask the Lord to fill us
with the spirit, to be encouraged by that. But the main thing is that we
are living for the Lord on this earth, not for our earthly gain.

Not for our earthly gain. For where your treasure is, your heart will be
there also. And these are the things that we constantly are battling
with, not in allowing our heart to be overtaken with the thorns, which
are the cares of life, the desires for pleasure, the desires for other
things.

And what does it do? It chokes out, it chokes out the seed in your life.
It chokes out the plants, the life of Jesus growing in your life. That's
what it does.

It totally puts you in a stranglehold. You'll find yourself being
depressed, discouraged, overworked, and you're wondering, Lord, why did
you allow me to do all this? Why am I doing this? And I don't believe
the Lord asked you to do any of it. I believe you took it on yourself.

And this is why you see many ministers nowadays, many missionaries, they
have gone to do these works for the Lord, and the Lord hasn't called
them, and they're disgruntled, they're bitter. And I have to ask myself
the same question. I have to ask myself the same question.

Lord, am I doing this for you, or am I doing this for honor? Am I doing
it because you have called me, or is it because I've just been put in a
position to do it? I don't want to be in that, my friends. I want to do
what the Lord wants me to do. And so I have to ask myself many times,
Lord, I feel heavy in the situation I'm in.

Well, then maybe you need to ask the Lord if you got yourself into a
situation you shouldn't have been in. There's two aspects to it. On one
side, that's one aspect.

The other side is yes, the Lord is bringing you into a place of dying
every day, where you have to take up your cross, you have to die to
yourself, and you have to carry the load and the burden that the Lord
has put on your back. And why is the Lord doing it? He wants to keep us
weak, dependent on him, but he's trying to conform us to the image of
Christ. And one way he does that, when he puts heavy workloads on us,
which seems like it, is so that he can break our strong will.

He can break our strong will, so that we can become broken vessels,
useful to the Master. And the only way to do that sometimes is through a
job, through raising children, through doing whatever the Lord has given
you to do. He's allowing it in your life because he's trying to break
your pride.

He's trying to bring you to a place where you can become useful to him.
And you know what, as much as I hate getting put into weak situations
where the Lord keeps me weak, sometimes I tell the Lord, I'm like, Lord,
when is it going to stop? And I have to ask myself, have I taken on too
much? Or, Lord, are you wanting me to endure in this situation? Are you
wanting me to carry the cross and learn to give thanks and to praise
your name and to humble myself in this situation? I will do it, Lord. I
will do it.

You know, and it's difficult. But look what it says here. The lamp of
the body is the eye.

If therefore your eye is clear or your eye is healthy, your whole body
will be full of light. This is what gets us in trouble, you guys, is our
eyes turn off of Jesus and they get fixated on earthly things. Whatever
it is that takes over your heart, what is it? That's where your eye is.

Sometimes it can even have a name for yourself. There's people
throughout the whole world. You can look at them on YouTube or social
media and they are literally what they are called social media
influencers.

And they literally bombard and people follow them and this is their
whole life. Their eye is on earthly things, but the whole root of it is
self because you want to be known as somebody who's an influencer in
those areas. You can do this in a carnal way, but you can also do it in
a spiritual way.

You can become a notable speaker. You can become someone who's been used
mightily by God. And you have to guard yourself against these things
because that's not God's will for you.

There's only one person who receives the glory, my friends, at the end
of our days. Do you know who receives the glory? It's Jesus for what he
did for us by dying on the cross and shedding his blood for my sin. So
as much as we're trying to attain to an earthly glory, and it's good to
be faithful in what you're doing.

It's good. You have to understand that, but it can't overtake your
heart. I had a brother once ask me, he says, Dan, when does a lawful
thing become unlawful? And I said, when it takes over your heart.

And he says, that's right. That's when you know it becomes an unlawful
thing. So if you're consumed by anything, it can be an idol, even your
own ministry, being known as somebody who's a good speaker.

You have to learn to die to that. There's many countless examples of
Jesus where they come to make him king. And what does he do? He goes and
he hides himself.

And he says, you know what? I'm going to be rejected by this generation,
and I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be crucified. And his
disciples didn't understand it.

And many times we don't understand it when the Lord allows all of our
ambitions and all of our desirings to fail. He allows them to fail. Why?
Because he doesn't want us to be exalted in this generation.

He wants us to be exalted in the eyes of the Lord. So praise God when
you fail. Praise God when he puts you through the mill and the
grindstone and brings you to nothing.

Because you know what? That's his goal, is so that we become nothing, so
that he becomes everything. And we can only say, Lord, it's not I. It's
Christ who lives within me. It's not I who's done it.

And it's you who've done it, Lord. This is why it has to be of faith and
not of our own doing. And this is why on all of our strivings, he allows
the burden to get heavy, and he allows it to fail, so that we learn to
trust in him.

This is how our eye becomes healthy when we fix our eyes on him. If we
turn to 2 Corinthians 1, you know, I have a friend of mine. He has four
children.

And his wife just passed away. She was 40. Had a brain tumor.

And she passed away. The doctors removed the brain tumor, and then they
left her, and they didn't put her on any monitoring devices. And they
left her for two days just thinking she was going to be fine.

And during that time, she passed away. They didn't monitor her. And they
neglected it.

And this guy is so frustrated with this. You know, the other day, he
texted me, I need some snow tires. And I said, well, I'll pray that the
Lord helps you find some.

He found some on Facebook Marketplace for so cheap, I couldn't believe
it. I was like, what? You could sell those again and double the price.
Like, you could.

Like, you could literally take them and sell them and double your money.
But I was like, brother, the Lord loves you. And I sent him this verse
in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who
comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort
those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted by God.

This person does not know the Lord, is not following the Lord, but he's
been through a terrible circumstance. His wife passed away. He has four
young children.

He's got to raise them himself. And I just, I was burdened for him. And
I'm like, Lord, what's the purpose in all of this? And like, I didn't
know, but I know that the Lord comforted him in this situation.

He said, you know, he actually reminded me of a few things that he could
see God's hand in. I'm like, this is how much the Lord loves a man who
doesn't even follow him. And you know how much more the Lord loves us,
my friends.

How much the Lord loves us. And so we have to remember this, that the
Lord comforts us in all of our affliction so that we may be able to
comfort those who are also going through affliction. So you guys are
wondering, why am I going through affliction? One, it's to break our
pride, but it's also to produce in us a heart of compassion, a heart of
gentleness, a heart of patience.

And so the Lord allows us to fail. I don't know if you guys can trace it
back, but whenever we get to a place of confidence, like we did
something, I'm telling you, it's a short while later that the thing just
fails. And I'm like, why, Lord? Why did you allow it to fail? He allows
it to fail because he wants us to not rely on ourselves, but in God who
raises the dead.

Look at what it says in verse 8. For we do not want you to be unaware,
brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia. And we were
burdened excessively beyond our strength so that we despaired even of
life. They despaired even of life.

Indeed, we have the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. That's
amazing. So that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises
the dead.

God does not want us to be dependent on ourselves. He wants us to be
dependent on him. He is the one who gives us wisdom.

He is the one who gives us strength to even make money. He's the one who
gives us strength to even fulfill our daily duties. He's the one who
does it.

And we have to remember that he's the one who's given us the gifts and
the abilities to do the things that we do. He's even put the desire in
your heart to learn the things that you are doing. And so we have to
remember, Lord, you get first precedence.

I desire that during the day when the Lord speaks to me that I'm able to
discern that he's talking to me and I can stop what I'm doing and I can
renew my mind and listen to him. I was thankful for that the other day
because in the middle of the day I had a moment where I stopped and I
was like, Lord, what do you want to say to me? The Lord was just saying,
be patient. Just be patient.

Patience is such a hard thing, guys. Such a hard thing that we have to
learn. Patience.

Love is patient, but the fruit of patience is gentleness, kindness. When
you're a patient person, we don't get angry. A fool rushes into things
to get involved in stuff and he never can slow down.

He's always, I've got to do this and I've got to do this and I've got to
do this and then they can't do it so then they lay the burden on other
people and I'm like, Lord, I don't want to be like that and I do do
that. I do do that and I don't want to be like that. Why? Because I want
to get something for my own life.

I want to get some peace and patience in my own life. No. You're making
the wrong decision.

You weren't led by the Spirit and you have to learn to be able to
discern that in your own life. It says in Isaiah 28, look at what it
says here. We're always rushing guys but try to get ahead.

Isaiah 28 verse 16. He won't be in a hurry. He's not going to rush to
get it all done.

Guys, it doesn't have to happen overnight. It doesn't have to happen
overnight. The Lord is able to tear down all the things that we build in
three days and raise it up again.

So all those things that we work for in our life, we have to be careful
that it's not for our glory. It's not for our ministry. It's not for our
lives.

It's because the Lord has given it to us. Not because we went and sought
it and found it. I know many missionaries probably who went to do a work
and it wasn't sent by God.

They went and they were never sent. They went and they were never sent
and we need to examine ourselves. Lord, did I went? Or did you send me?
And we have to wait until we hear clearly until the Lord sends us and
asks us to.

And you know the Lord, He's patient with us. He wishes that none would
perish but He's also patient with us sometimes for us to come to faith.
To take a gentle step of faith.

And He will constantly, how He does that is He doesn't force you. He
doesn't pressure you. He gently nudges you and He constantly leaves it
in the back of your mind.

I remember one time I was given an opportunity to take a job. I'd just
gotten married. I'd worked at Fraser Way RV and my needs were more than
what I was making at the time.

And I was thinking, Lord, I need to take a step of faith. So I sent out
three resumes and I got three opportunities and they offered me a job
and I was fearful. And I said, no, I can't do it.

I can't do it. But afterwards, I felt in my heart that I made the wrong
decision. I felt like I lost my peace.

I was like, Lord, I feel like I've done the wrong thing here. And you
know what? So I just left it to the Lord. I said, Lord, I made a
mistake.

I feel like in my heart you wanted me to take a step of faith and I
didn't. But it was sitting in the back of my mind. The Lord wasn't, you
bad guy.

No, he was, he just reminded me that, Dan, like I wanted you to take
that step of faith. But you'll never know until you do. I was like,
okay.

Sure enough, I was kind of regretting it for at least two months. Lord.
And then they called me back.

Do you want the job? And by this time, the Lord had helped me learn at
that time that I needed to come to faith. And I said, okay, well, I'll
come to faith on this matter. I'll take that.

And it was, and I had peace and joy afterwards. Like I was making the
right decision. I said, Lord, if it's not your decision and it's because
I'm desiring to get more money and I'm desiring this, it wasn't because
of that.

Lord, you know my needs and I'm asking you to help me. Like David
shared, you know my needs. You're going to provide for me.

Then you got to help me to take a good step in the right direction. But
if it's not your will, I'm asking you to slam the door in my face.
Please close the door, Lord.

Like, don't let me do it. Because there were times and times past where
I wanted to leave and the Lord would slam the door in my face. And then
this time, the Lord encouraged me.

I felt like he released me and says, you know what? You've learned your
lesson here. I have something more for you here. I want to teach you
something.

And that was when it was the right time. See, because I had to wait. I
had to be patient.

You know, recently, we sold our home, but we haven't bought another
home. And our home, since the time that we bought it to the time where
we're at, increased in value. You know what? Almost every single year me
and my wife were wanting to go and look for a bigger home for me and my
family.

We need more space. But the Lord closed the door. But you know, this
last time, the Lord said, no, I want you to take this step of faith.

I want you to sell it. I want you to just repent. And so I obeyed what
the Lord did.

But it was a long time before the Lord finally gave us that thing. But I
had to take the step of faith. I had to make that decision to do that
thing at that time.

And because I was led by the Lord, the Lord's been helping us. We have
to be mindful of when the Lord puts these gentle nudges in our hearts
when we're supposed to take that step of faith. Because he cares for us,
but he wants us to walk by faith.

He's not going to force us. He wants us to learn to be patient, to wait
on him. It says right here, a costly cornerstone for the foundation
firmly placed, and he who believes in it will not be disturbed.

And now I want to go back to Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26 verse 1. It says, In
that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong
city.

He sets up walls and ramparts for security. Open the gates that the
righteous nation may enter, the one that remains faithful. The steadfast
in mind, thou wilt keep in perfect peace because he trusts in me.

You know, whenever we lose our peace in our mind, we have to ask
ourselves, why do I have no peace? Whenever the Lord brings you in a
situation where it's difficult, but he brought you into the situation,
meaning you came into the situation and you're wondering, Lord, you led
me here and now it's become very difficult. What do you do in that
situation? Do you run from that situation? No. You need to learn to
stand your ground and to overcome in that situation.

You need to trust the Lord there. The Lord led you. Now it's difficult.

That's okay. You have to trust the Lord in those situations. It says
right here, the steadfast in mind, you will keep in perfect peace
because he trusts in you.

So the Lord desires it that when we go through difficulties and trials,
that we would not be so easily shaken or moved, but we would learn to
trust the Lord in those situations. We would learn to rely on him, to
keep our mind fixed on him, to allow my eyes not to get fixed on the
situation, but to fix my eyes on the Lord who allows the situation in my
life, who's also going to lead me and guide me. Sometimes he won't get
you out of the situation and that's a lot of the time what we're
pleading for.

Lord, get me out of this situation. But the Lord desires that
spiritually we would get to a point where we don't cry to get out of a
situation, where we learn to give thanks in the situation where we're in
and where we can learn to have peace. A perfect example of this was when
Peter got thrown in prison and the next day he was going to be martyred.

He was going to be killed and what was he doing the night before? He was
sleeping. He was sleeping in his cell. In fact, he was sleeping so much
that the angel had to arouse him like a man who gets awoken from a
dream.

You know, you wake up from a dream and you're just, oh, what was that?
Peter had to get woken up like that. That's how deep of a sleep the guy
was in. The guy had such perfect peace.

He was just like, you know, wake up, man, wake up. You know, that's how
deep of a sleep he was in. He wasn't in a light sleep walking around his
thing.

You know, the other person, an example of that would be Paul. I think
it's Silas. They're sitting in prison and they're literally giving
thanks and praising God at midnight and everybody in the cell can hear
them.

They learn to give thanks in that situation. Can we learn to give
thanks? This is how we know we've grown spiritually is when we can learn
to praise the Lord and we can learn to rest in the situations that he
brings us into. Peter, what had he done? He had done what God asked him
to do.

He preached the gospel and now he's being persecuted for preaching the
gospel. And you know what? I think there's a lot of ministers who
probably get discouraged because they want, you know, they preach the
gospel and now they're getting persecuted for preaching the true gospel.
And they're probably getting discouraged thinking, Lord, you asked me to
share these things.

You asked me to speak them. You asked me to preach this word. And people
may persecute them for that but that doesn't mean that God didn't ask
them to.

Jeremiah said the exact same thing. Lord, you put your words in my
mouth. I'm only speaking what you tell me to speak and these people hate
me for it.

I'm so discouraged. You're like an unreliable stream to me, Lord. And
what does God say to Jeremiah? He says to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, if you
learn to take the things that are worthless and turn them into a
treasure or take the treasure out of the things that are worthless then
you will be my spokesman.

You know, and we have to learn to do that, guys. We have to learn to
take our situations that could be difficult, bleak, sometimes very
minimal, sometimes very long and enduring and we have to say, Lord,
you're teaching me a great lesson in this. What is it? And I'm going to
learn to give thanks in that situation.

You know, Peter, people were praying for Peter at that time and this is
why we need to pray for each other. That's why we need to ask for
prayer. I was encouraged when people asked for prayer today.

I was like, this is good. We need to pray for one another. This is
something that we don't do enough of here, guys.

Prayer is a foundational cornerstone of overcoming in our situations
because it shows that we're not relying on ourselves and we're relying
on who? We're relying on the Lord for help, for strength, for power, for
grace. What did we sing today? Let us come boldly to the throne of grace
in time of need. My friends and Christians, brothers, we need to come
boldly to the Lord in time of need.

Ask for grace. Lord, help me to do the task that you've given me to do.
It's a very small task but I want to be faithful in it.

Give me the strength to do it. Give me the words. Give me your life.

Give me your Holy Spirit. Help me to be faithful. Help me to be a
servant, not to be a king.

You didn't call us to be kings, Lord. This is why we get anxious
sometimes even as parents. We can get anxious because we want to rule as
a king over our kids.

We need to learn to come alongside them and help them. Especially when
the kids are teenagers or young adults. Parents need to help them, to
support them.

This is one of the greatest challenges is when teenagers are going
through difficult seasons and there's nobody there to support them
because they're being tempted. They don't have many friends. They're
being discouraged.

They feel like they're trying to fit in in this world. No, my friends.
Parents need to come alongside their kids at that time and encourage
them even more.

It's easy to do that when they're kids because the kids can forget
quickly. But when they're young and they're growing and they're getting
to be in the teenage years, you need to support them. You need to be
there for them.

You need to pray for them. You need to spend time with them because
they're going to get so influenced by the things in this world because
that's when their hearts are very open to it. They're influenced at that
age.

We need to, you know, it came strong in my heart to share that and I
just hope that we can encourage one another in those situations. Verse
four, trust in the Lord forever for in the Lord, the Lord, for in God,
the Lord, we have an everlasting rock. That's amazing.

We have an everlasting rock. We just read that in the other verse. He is
a precious cornerstone.

If we skip ahead here to verse 15, it says, Lord, you have increased the
nation, O Lord. You have increased the nation and you are glorified. You
have extended all the borders of the land.

O Lord, they sought thee in distress. They could only whisper a prayer.
Thy chastening was upon them.

This is when we pray, my friends. We pray when we're going through
difficulty, when the Lord is chastening us. You know, the Lord's
discipline is never easy, but it's good for us that the Lord disciplines
us.

Our brother Zach shared the other day, he said, you know, if you're
getting disciplined, you know, the men who the Lord knows who will do
the greatest damage to Satan's kingdom and also create, you know, have
the greatest impact for God's kingdom, those are the ones who get the
sharpest rebukes from the Lord. And he gave an example of Peter. He
said, Peter, get thee behind me, Satan.

You know, imagine if the Lord said that to you. I mean, I'd be pretty
discouraged. You know, I get pretty discouraged when he chastises me,
but, you know, imagine if he said to me, get thee behind me, Satan.

I mean, I would be, oh man, this is what you think of me, Lord? You
know? In fact, so much when the disciples were sitting at the last
supper, he says, yet one of you is a devil. And everyone, is it me,
Lord? You know, they were asking sincerely, is it me, Lord? Yes, my
friends, we can be devils. We can.

We can betray the Lord for money. That's why they saw him and got
anxious, because of money. More money, Lord.

We need more money. We don't need more money, you guys. We need more of
Jesus.

We need more of the Holy Spirit. We need more power. If our needs
require it, then we can ask the Lord to give us faith in those
situations.

But we need more of the Lord. And our heart can't be focused on these
things, set on these things, lest we perish building ourselves a little
empire here on this earth. All because we can have a little bit more
square footage in the home.

We don't need more square footage. We need more square footage in our
hearts. I don't need white paint on the walls, some good whitewash.

No. I need a clean heart, and a clean spirit, and a willing spirit.
Lord, sustain me with a willing spirit, and I will teach transgressors
your ways.

Help me, Lord, to learn from the discipline that you give me. Help me to
see what's important and what is not important. Lord, your chastening
was upon them.

As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, she rise and
cries out in her labor pains. Thus we were before thee, O Lord. We were
pregnant.

We writhed in labor. We gave birth, as it were, only to win. We could
not accomplish deliverance for the earth, nor were inhabitants of the
world born.

It's amazing that they came to a place where they could acknowledge that
they could not accomplish deliverance on this earth. They could do
nothing. You know, it's a wonderful privilege if you guys can come to a
place where you start to realize I can do nothing.

Some of us say, I can do nothing, Lord, but in your heart you are strong
as a bull. You are strong as a bull, and you can get lots done. And you
say it with your lips, but it's not true in your heart.

And this is where we need the gospel to become real in our lives. This
is how we're gonna have more impact in people around us, guys, is when
it doesn't come out of our mouths, it actually becomes real in our
lives. Many of us have lots to say.

We have lots of ministering to do, but God isn't always calling us to
minister. He's calling us to be close to Him, to have fellowship with
Him, and out of that we will minister. It doesn't mean we sit and read
our Bible for six hours in the day and then we have lots to say.

That doesn't mean it. No, it means that we do the tasks that God has
given us to do with all of our heart for the glory of God, and out of
that testimony the Lord can create in you a vessel where He can pour out
His Spirit and it can be overflowing to people around you. It's not
God's will always that we have to go and minister.

No, sometimes it's God's will that we would learn to follow Him day by
day, and as He brings things into our lives, we can welcome them with
open arms, and we can trust Him in those situations. If we turn to
Isaiah 30, Isaiah 30, verse 15, For thus says the Lord, the Holy One of
Israel, has said, In repentance and rest you shall be saved. In
repenting and returning and rest you shall be saved.

In quietness and trust is your strength, but you are not willing. You
know, the greatest challenge I think that the Lord has with His children
is that He would learn to bring them to a place of quietness and trust
and not unrest. I'm talking to a place where He can still your soul,
where you can learn to rest in the situations that you're in and have
quietness of heart.

I struggle with this because I always have to be doing something. You
know, you ever see guys, they always have to be doing something. We
gotta do this, we gotta do this, we gotta get this, we gotta go over
here, we gotta get that part of that.

That is not what God wants us to do. You will just load people up with
burdens too heavy to bear. No, God's desire is that we would come to a
place of quietness and trust.

That doesn't necessarily mean that we sit and read our Bible like a monk
for eight hours a day No, it means that in the situations we're in, we
don't get rattled, we don't get moved, we can trust the Lord. We can
say, Lord, you've brought this season in my life, you've given me four
weeks of rest, I can trust and learn to be quiet. Not stirred up,
frustrated, anxious.

That's not what God wants. He wants us to learn to be at rest. You know,
God has brought you into a new season where He gives you new
responsibilities.

You pass the first test, maybe this whole thing is a test right now.
Maybe this whole thing is a test to see what we're going to do in the
situations. You know, maybe the whole situation that you're in right now
is a test to see what you're going to run after, what's going to bother
you, what's going to trouble your soul, what are you going to think
about, how are you going to try to get out of the situation you're in.

Maybe the whole thing is a test to see if you're just willing to lay it
on the altar and just say, Lord, not my will, your will be done. Are we
willing to get on the altar of God and allow Him to crucify us so that
we learn to sit still, so that we become like a dead man who's been
crucified with Christ. You know, I'll tell you this, we say that we're
crucified with Christ, but when you kick a dead man, what does the dead
man do? Nothing.

But when you get kicked and somebody says something to you in a wrong
way, what do we do? Those are fighting words, sir. Well, I've got
something to say to you. How dare you misuse me, mistreat me, talk to me
that way.

No, when I have a customer who comes in and we have done all that we
can. You know, the other day we worked on this guy's motorhome. It's a
1980s motorhome.

It hadn't ran in three years. The gas inside of it smelled like rotten
eggs. And he's like, I want you to get it running.

Take it as long as you want. Man, I watch my technicians literally get
covered in fuel. I watch my technicians literally drop the fuel tanks,
have some brackets snap, had to do all the rewiring, build up the new
carburetor.

This is an old carburetor. There's nobody around who rebuilds
carburetors anymore unless you can find an old guy with a beard. Like
literally, there's not many people who rebuild carburetors.

Okay? But we were able to. It was a miracle. My tech actually took it
home to his dad who rebuilt it and brought it back.

I couldn't believe it. My guys worked so hard on it. Finally, we got it
back to him.

We made it roadworthy and it runs. And it runs really good. It was a
disgusting thing.

In the end, he leaves me a one-star review. Took too long to get it back
to me. That's all he said.

I was mad. I was like, what? I'm obviously not a dead man because I need
to be crucified. He leaves me a one-star review.

Took too long to get it back. And I'm like, you know, I pride myself in
getting a good review. But I got a one-star review.

And you know, I remember we were going to Joshua House that night. And
on the whole way up, I'm feeling just so mad. I'd just seen it.

I was like, Lord, here you are sending me to go preach the gospel and
this is what you send me before I go. Yes, my friends, the Lord, he will
only use humble people. And he obviously saw that he needed a good
humbling.

And you know what? There's probably other customers who weren't
satisfied with the service. They probably weren't and they may not have
said it, but I bet you there are. And I need to have a low estimation of
myself, a low estimation of myself.

You know what? People who don't have a low estimation of themselves,
they can go and minister all the time. They got lots to do. They got
things to do, people to see, things to build.

You know, a low estimation of yourself is saying, Lord, I can't do
nothing unless you do it in me. You know what? So the Lord told me in my
heart, you need to write him back a kind email and just explain the
situation to him and I did. And I said, you know, I pray that, you know,
your vehicle will have many, many years to come that it will work for
you and I do apologize for the delay.

And you know what? I realized, Lord, I've got to get a little lower. I
need to get a little bit humbler. I felt bad.

You know, I said I appreciate and I'm thankful for the technicians I
have who worked hard on this vehicle to try to get it up and running.
They didn't just sit there and like not try to get it up and running.
They didn't just go sit in the RV and lie down and just think, how am I
going to fix this thing? No.

They got out there under the thing with all of its rust out of Alberta
got covered in the rust. We had to dump the fuel. It's going everywhere.

It smells bad. It's toxic chemicals. It's so bad.

And here they are working their butts off and then this is what happens.
And you know, that's when the Lord sometimes tests us in our humility is
when you've given all that you have and you have to get a little bit
lower. You'll have to get a little bit lower and the Lord leaves you a
one-star review.

And you're just like, Lord, why a one-star review? And you know what?
The attitude is attitude in it. Sometimes I'll get a dream where
somebody does something to me in my dream and I'm retaliate to that
person and the Lord just shows you strong bull. You're not that humble.

You have false humility. False humility. You need to get even a little
bit more humble.

And the Lord, he desires that. Some people get dreams here. You can't go
by dreams.

You need to go by the word of God. You guys, you need to be careful. But
the dream, a lot of the time is for us.

It's for us to judge ourselves rightly. Because in Job 33, it says this,
I speak to a man once in a dream. When sleep falls upon men, I open
their ears so that they would receive instruction to keep a man back
from his pride, from their pride.

Sometimes the Lord will give you a dream about some other people or some
situation and you can pray for them about how to handle it. Maybe the
Lord will give you wisdom like he did Joseph, like he did those guys
when Jesus was there and the Lord spoke to him with the wise men. You
know, the Lord is able to do that, to give you wisdom.

Sometimes, the majority of the time, it's so that it will keep you back
from your own pride because we don't see our own pride a lot of the
time. And this whole situation with this guy leaving this one-star
review was because of my pride. I needed to hear it and I needed to
judge myself rightly.

Lord, I can do better. I can run my business better. Help me to do it
better next time, Lord.

Help me. Forgive me, I said to the man. In repentance and rest, you
shall be saved.

Lord, I need to repent. I need to keep repenting. In quietness and
strength, in trust is your strength.

But you were not willing, it says, and you said, no, we will flee on
horses. What does this mean? What does this symbolize here? It
symbolizes that you're going to rely upon your own strength. A horse
symbolizes your own strength.

The Lord does not delight in the legs of a horse, but he delights in
those who fear the Lord and wait for his love and kindness. When you
say, I'm going to flee on horses, I'm going to figure this situation,
I'm going to try to get yourself out of that situation, the Lord won't
allow it. When you say, Lord, work out your salvation, work out your
plan for my life through this circumstance.

And you know what? The Lord will do that when he puts you into a dreary,
lonely, difficult situation where all you have is the Lord. And there's
nobody who will understand you. There is nobody who will come alongside
you.

Nobody will support you in your burdens. And it's only the Lord. And
this is how we grow.

We come close to him. He puts you in situations where you feel
meaningless and you realize, Lord, I don't do this for these things. I
do it because of you and what you have done for me.

And my reward is with you. My portion is with you. Verse 18, it says,
Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore he waits
on high to have compassion on you.

For the Lord is a God of justice. How blessed are those who long for
him. I love Isaiah because there's so many good things about those
things.

If we turn to Isaiah 40, Comfort, oh comfort my people. Verse 1 says,
The Lord speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare
has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of
the Lord's hand double for all her sins. You know, he's saying, call out
to your people and comfort them, guys.

The Lord's discipline has been in your life, but now the Lord has made a
price, paid the price of your sin. And we can have rejoice in that
situation, that the Lord, we can come to him. We have an advocate.

If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, he paid
the price for our sin. We can come to him and say, Lord, forgive me of
my sin.

Cleanse me. Lord, you have dealt with me because of my iniquity, because
of my pride, but now the comfort of the Lord comes after he has dealt
with us in those situations, when he sees that there's a humility and a
brokenness. Verse three, a voice is calling.

Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert
a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain
and hill be made low.

And let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad
valley. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will
see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. This is a
wonderful thing is that the Lord is able to bring every high thing in
our lives low.

And he's able to bring every low thing up. You know, many of us have low
self-esteem. We have low self-esteem because we do not trust that the
Lord loves us in the situation.

And we think that we need to be different than the way that God's
created us. And my mother, praise God for Godly mothers, I remember one
time she said to me, she said, Daniel, you know, just because one person
and a bunch of people say that this is the way it needs to be done,
you're the kind of person that will sit back and look at the whole
situation and take both accounts into perspective. She says, you have
always been like this when you were young.

And I used to feel like it was a fault because I wouldn't agree with
everybody. I wouldn't agree with everybody. I would step back and I
would wait to hear from the Lord to see if what they were saying was
true, even though the majority of it would say and go in that direction.

And I would wait to hear from the Lord. And sometimes it would cost me
and I would be bothered by it because I'm like, Lord, why do I do that?
Why do I do that? Why don't I just agree with everybody? Why do I always
have to sit back and take into account what is being done and take a
bigger picture and just say, Lord, what do you want me to hear? And the
Lord, my mom said to me, praise God for a comforting mom. She says, God
made you that way, dad.

And he made no mistake in it. And so don't regret or forget that the
Lord made you the way that you are. He loves you and he didn't make a
mistake in the way that you are.

No, he made you that way because he wants to use you and teach you
things in your way and in your way and in your personality. Just because
a whole bunch of people say it needs to be done doesn't necessarily mean
it needs to be done, especially in a church setting. You need to learn
to hear from the Spirit.

And that's why I always encourage brothers to share because if it's the
same brother week after week, no, there's other, sometimes they don't
have the word of the Lord. Sometimes I don't have the word of the Lord,
you guys. Just because I get up and speak doesn't mean that it's what
God wants to say.

We need to hear what God wants to say. And sometimes there's other
brothers in here who are walking closer with the Lord than maybe I am
this week and they have more of a prophetic word than I do. And you need
to be willing to get up and share that.

And just because it's your responsibility doesn't mean that God's given
you the words to do it or the ability to do it. It's like leading
worship. So many worship pastors take it so lightly.

It's not a light thing. I am not a gifted musician, but I take it
seriously. It's important to me that I lead people in such a way that it
glorifies God and not man.

And so I'm willing to be humble in a way that maybe my abilities aren't
the best, but what's important to me is that people's hearts are open to
the Lord and the ground and their hearts are warm by their worship. And
I was encouraged by my mom when she said that to me because she said,
let every high thing be brought low and every valley be lifted up. And
when I had low self-esteem, the Lord said, don't get discouraged by it.

Don't look down by it. No. He brings it up and He encourages you.

And the things that He brings you down is when you get proud and strong
and rebellious. You don't submit to authority. You have everything right
and that person doesn't know a thing.

You know, that's the worst. It's always that situation when children are
towards their parents. But the parents have been down the road, but the
children a lot of the time they don't understand that.

And this is where the Lord tests us in humility. Verse six, a voice
says, call out. And then He answered, what shall I call out? All flesh
is grass and its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows
upon it. Surely the people are grass. Surely the riches of this world
are worthless.

Surely the things that we are striving to attain for will reap nothing
in the end and will reap no eternal value. How big your bank account
will bring no eternal value. How big your house is will bring no eternal
value.

How nice your car is. How successful your business is will bring no
eternal value. God will ask you how faithful you were in the things that
He's given you to do, but He's also gonna ask you, were you seeking
after your own glory in the things that you did and was it influencing
the decisions that you were making? If it was, then it brings nothing
and the Lord will cause that to be burned up in the fire on the Day of
Judgment.

Take care how you build. Some build with wood, straw, stubble. The works
of man done under the power of men's strength for the glory of man.

All of that is gonna be wood and that can be in your ministry for the
glory of yourself so you can be known as a spiritual person. No, you
can't be The ones who build with precious stones, gold and silver are
the ones who've been tested and tried, refined in the fire, have been
brought to nothing and the work that they do is done by the Spirit of
God, led by the Spirit of God for the glory of God. For the glory of
God.

We need to do things for the glory of the Lord. The grass withers, the
flower fades. All the things we seek after, all the glory wants when the
breath of the Lord blows upon us.

When the breath of the Lord blows upon us and all of our works and our
striving and all of our work Some of us struggle with bitterness because
we're proud. Some of us struggle with self-pity. We have self-pity and
we woe ourselves, woe to ourselves, woe to me.

That's self-pity, my friends. That's not true repentance. That's worldly
sorrow.

We have to be careful that we don't have worldly sorrow. Pour me in the
situation that I'm in. Know, my friends, did you know that God has
chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the
kingdom of God? Know, my friends, blessed are the poor for theirs is the
kingdom of God.

He doesn't say, blessed are the rich. No, he says, blessed are the poor.
They have an opportunity to come to the Lord.

You want to know why more miracles are done in poor countries than they
are done in rich and wealthy countries? You want to know why? Because
they have need of him and they have no resources to rely upon. They look
to the Lord. We have to be careful that we don't become rich and
increased in goods and we have need of nothing.

This is how we become lukewarm. When you become lukewarm, you start to
make provision for things in your life that God doesn't want to be
there. Little sins, little things, little things of the world, things
that you normally would not do under full conviction, but things that,
yeah, it's okay, it's lawful.

Just because it's lawful doesn't mean it's going to be beneficial and it
doesn't mean that you're going to grow as a Christian. No, you become
lukewarm because you're skilled at learning to do the things that are
lawful. But no, a spiritual person is someone who learns to do the
things that are profitable.

You know, my wife during the day, she struggles sometimes as to what to
do and I said, you know, the most profitable thing that you can do right
now is serve the Lord and He will show you what to do during the day. He
will give you little things, little hints, little joys, things like that
and to do it faithfully because these are the things that stand forever.
It says, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God
stands forever.

The word of our God stands forever. The word of God stands forever. Get
yourself up on a high mountain, oh Zion, bearer of good news.

You know guys, we have good news so when we have good news, we can share
that good news with people. Comfort my people. You've received a portion
for your sins but now there's forgiveness in Christ and all the things
that you're seeking after, they're going to wither, they're going to
fade, but the word of God is going to stand forever and these are the
things that you should be seeking after.

That's good news, my friends and if you have that desire in your heart,
you can get up on a high mountain and you can start preaching that
gospel. He says, the highest mountain. You know every year there's
thousands of people who climb upon Everest and they think that there's
glory there.

There's no glory there. You know every year they have NFL football
seasons or NHL hockey seasons and they think that there's a glory in
getting us to know there's no glory there, my friends. No, the best
news, my friends, is the word of God.

The best news, my friends, is Jesus. He's the one. He's the one who's
going to get all the glory.

That's the person who has the best news, not the news that we read on
the TV every day. Do not fear. It says, bearer of good news.

Lift up your voice mightily. Don't hold it back. Don't be shy about the
gospel.

There's something great there. Lift your voice mightily. Preach the good
news.

Share it with people. Tell people about Jesus and the hope that we have.
When people come into your path, don't be shy.

Don't be so caught up in your own agenda that you miss the opportunity
that God has given to you. Many times I'll be out doing a task that I
have to get done and the Lord will bring somebody into my path that I
need to share the good news with. What is that good news? That there's
hope in Jesus.

Repent. Return to Him and rest and you will find quietness for your
souls. Lift it up and it says do not fear.

My friends, we don't need to fear. Some of us, we have a spirit of fear.
I get fearful when I think about sharing the gospel.

People know, my friends, we do not need to fear. Everybody needs to hear
and the Lord wants to raise up men and women who will do that for Him,
who will share that gospel even to His own people. Verse 11, like a
shepherd, He will tend His flock.

In His arm, He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom and He
will gently lead the nursing ewes. This is amazing. It's just like Peter
when He comes to Him.

Peter, do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than these?
He says this and He says the exact same thing. He says to the shepherd,
He will tend the flock. In His arms, He will gather the lambs and this
is what Jesus will do for us, you guys.

He will tend the flock. He will gather His lambs and He will nursing,
care for us, gently care for us. You guys think that the Lord, you know,
my dad was hard on me and I feel like sometimes the Lord is that way but
you know what? Jesus loves us guys and He will tenderly care for us.

He will lift us up and help us. We must remember that. I'll share at the
end of verse Isaiah 40 here.

Verse 23, it says, He it is who reduces rulers to nothing. He makes the
judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted.

Scarcely have they been sown. Scarcely has their talks taken root in the
earth but He merely blows on them and they wither and the storm carries
them away like stubble. We have elections right now.

We have governments that are in place in North America that are wicked,
that have turned away from God. They promote every lawless thing that
God hates and you know, because of it, our nations are going to go
through some very difficult times but you know what? This should bring
us comfort here that no matter who's in charge that the Lord is able to
blow on them and they will wither quickly and you will literally see the
downfall of our North American society start to come lower. You will
start to see them struggle which we are even though they act like we
don't but we as a time right now we have to learn my friends to find and
take refuge in the Lord for He is our source of strength because no
matter what happens whether prosperity or whether there be very much
difficulty that we can find our source of strength in who? In the Rock.

We can find our strength in Him. He who believes in Him will not be in a
hurry. We won't need to run.

We can trust the Lord that He can strengthen us in the place that we're
at. Scarcely has their talk taken root in the earth and He merely blows
on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like stubble. To
whom will you liken me that I should be His equal says the Lord.

This is awesome. To whom will you liken me that I shall be the President
of the United States? The President of Russia? The President of China?
Who will you liken it to? No one is like Him. No one is like Him.

No one is going to stop Him. He is the Lord of Lords and the King of
Kings and He rules the earth. He's able to shake all that can be shaken
so that those things which cannot be shaken will remain.

He is the God of heaven and earth. He is the one who will help us. He is
the one who is going to satisfy us.

He is the one who is going to give us strength for the days ahead. He is
the one who is going to give us faith and encouragement to move forward
with Him. He is the one who is going to fill our soul and our hearts
with every good thing.

Who are you going to liken me that I should be His equal? Lift up your
eyes on high and see those who created these stars. The one who leads
forth their host by number. He calls them all by name because of the
greatness of His might and the strength of His power.

Not one of them is missing. God's great. His might is great and His
power is great.

Jesus Christ will help us. He will lead us. Not one of them is missing.

Jesus said not one of them shall be missing. We must remember that. He
says He cared for them till the end.

And I encouraged my children the other day. I said one day children
Jesus is going to care for you till the end. He's going to care for you
till the end.

Leave me Lord. Why do you say O Jacob and Assert O Israel my way is
hidden from the Lord and the justice due me escapes the notice of God.
They even say that today in the nation of Israel.

Why do you say it? Why do we feel like we're going through these
situations? And why do we say it? Why do you not see the justice that's
due to me Lord? Sometimes I find myself praying Lord deal with that
person. Lord deal with that person. And finally I said Lord deal with
me.

Deal with me Lord. Forgive them Lord. Help me to forgive them and deal
with me.

Turn the eyes off of what other people are doing to you and turn your
eyes onto yourself and say Lord keep dealing with me. Keep dealing with
me until I become like you. And if you're using that thing right now as
a tool to make me more like you then praise God for that tool.

You know I like buying a snap on tool. They have a lifetime warranty.
You know what's better than a lifetime warranty? Is the tools that God
uses in your life to make you more like Jesus.

Those cannot be bought my friends. Those are much more valuable. Trust
me.

These things fail. They fail but Jesus has the best tools in our life.
Let us allow him to use those tools.

Don't be stubborn and rebellious. Wives submit to your husbands. Submit
to them.

Don't be stubborn and rebellious thinking that they don't know nothing.
Sarah probably had that challenge with Abraham when Sarah went down to
Egypt and she had to go into Pharaoh's harem. She probably thought
Abraham was a bit of a dewey.

You know what are you doing here Abraham? Why did you take me down here?
I told you we should not have done this. Here I am out there and there
you are. She probably saw him through the window but you know what? She
probably saw the hand of God work on behalf of Abraham to help him.

She probably realized after maybe this happened. I don't know. It's not
written.

Sarah submitted to Abraham and said but I guarantee you in that
situation it wasn't easy because she was there for some time. Because of
the greatness of his might and the strength of his power not one of them
is missing. Why do you say O Jacob and assert my way is hidden from the
Lord and the justice to me escapes the notice of God.

Do you not know have you not heard the everlasting God the Lord the
creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His
understanding is inscrutable. God does not become weary or tired and his
understanding is inscrutable.

It means that nobody can match it. He gives strength to the weary and to
him who lacks might he increases power. Praise God I lack might today I
was weary today but the Lord is able to increase my power and my
strength.

Though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly
yet those who wait yet those who hope in the Lord will gain new
strength. They will melt up with wings like eagles they shall run and
not get tired they shall walk and not become weary. Those who wait for
the Lord will gain new strength.

The word there is hope. Waiting and hope go hand in hand. We hope for
what we do not see.

With perseverance we will wait eagerly for it. My friends hope and
patience. My friends what is your hope? Is your hope set on the things
of the earth or is your hope set in him? You know what I'll be honest my
hope a lot of the time is set on things of the earth but most
importantly I want my hope to be set on him.

So Lord I repent help me Lord to rest I don't have to do all these
things help me to rest and to set my mind on you. I teach my kids a song
it's encouraging it says They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and
not grow weary and walk and not faint Isaiah 40 31 As we learn the
verses of the Bible we'll remember them in days of trials from our
hearts we'll cry to your Father we believe your word You know what we
have to believe is word. That song was given to me before I was married
I was a single brother and the Lord gave me that song I still sing it to
my kids and we sing it together Let's keep waiting on the Lord guys and
let's cry to our Father for he will hear our prayers Let's pray Lord we
thank you for this day thank you for hearing from heaven and coming and
meeting with us Lord let your name be praised help us Lord to learn and
to keep these things Help me Lord not to seek for glory but to seek for
your glory Help me to be found faithful Lord I won't grow weary and
tired I will wait on you to fill me with strength anew to run the race
that's set before me fixing my eyes on you Jesus in your name we pray
Amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/dDtdoqowVaM.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/dan-young/not-laying-up-for-ourselves/
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