This sermon emphasizes the importance of total dependence on God, likening believers to sheep who need a shepherd. It delves into the concept of the worst sin being independence from God, drawing parallels to Adam and Eve's choice in the Garden of Eden. The speaker highlights the need for faith, not in our own strength, but in God's ability to lead and guide us in all aspects of life, especially in overcoming sin and seeking Him above all else.

Surely goodness mercy will pursue you all the days of your life when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death God will be with us. I will not fear His rod and his staff they comfort me He prepares a table for me All of those things are predicated on the first sentence The Lord is my shepherd If the Lord is my shepherd What does that make me? sheep Do you consider yourself sheep You know what sheep are like you think they know how to avoid the cliffs of life You think they've got a chance against the ravenous wolves, but the sheep will not fear if the sheep know they have a shepherd and The sheep allowed the shepherd to lead them And I think that that is where I want to speak on tonight that we may recognize that we all like sheep have gone our own way and have gone astray and If left to ourselves, we will continue to go our own way astray from the Lord We must continuously look at ourselves as sheep in dire need of a shepherd Whatever we do Even as we speak and do God's Word and do God's will and speak God's Word. So let's pray Father I need you There is no point me speaking if you do not Quicken my words and find soft hearts That are tender to your spirit and that can be changed Father God over my words and let it be a pleasing offering to you. Let our hearts Oh God be pleasing offerings to you as We worship you in Jesus name. Amen Yeah, the title of my talk was called the worst sin Have you ever thought about it? You know as a Christian we say that Jesus came to save us from our sins All of our sins now as we grow as Christians There are some things that we used to do before we were Christians that we no longer do now that we are Christians If we used to think it was okay to commit adultery before we were Christians now as Christians we say we shouldn't if we used to think we could steal and cheat other people of money now that we are Christians we say we shouldn't and Then we start to do those things and we say God we're not sinning like we used to I hope all of us are Intent or not trying not to sin. That's what Jesus died to save us from But is it possible? Is it possible that we may be? Dealing with some sins that God says good But that way we may be overlooking and completely ignoring some of the biggest sins Is it possible that the worst of all sins are some is something that we as Christians are very guilty of I Know that that was true in my life for many years and it continues to be a struggle and I want to talk about it today and I'm not saying that all sins are graded differently in a bit in a very logical or theological I'm not trying to have a debate on that stuff All sins are all sin is sin The Holy the Holy God can't stand any kind of sin but I want to use scripture to show you how what why I think that there's a particular sin that I consider the worst of all sins and I hope you will get the meaning out of it and pay special attention to it Some all of us hopefully have heard the news last week where there was a tragic accident and a fire ravaged some homes in San Bruno and lives were lost and property was destroyed and The pictures of it or the video of it on TV was hard to watch But what was left in its wake was devastation houses that existed a minute before were completely decimated and I haven't seen this side, but I got to see another Fire ravaged area some time ago and it was actually in a resort And so it was a beautiful piece of land before this I was with somebody who had actually vacationed there But now fire had gone through it and it was completely ravaged You could see microwaves still there with plates inside of it. People were probably making meals and then the fire went through it ravaged it Torn to the ground in an instant and when I saw that and when I heard the this news I was reminded of 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 11 through 15 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if any man builds upon the foundation the one which with gold silver precious stones wood haystraw each man's work will become evident for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire and The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work If any man's work which he has built upon it remains He shall receive a reward if any man's work is burned up He shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet. So as through fire Verse 11 is very clear. The foundation is Jesus Christ There is no foundation on which other people can build any kind of structure that will stand or accept the foundation of Jesus Christ That's crystal clear But what 1 Corinthians 3 11 through 15 is talking about are people who are building on top of that foundation So we're talking about Christians People who name the name of Jesus who trust Jesus and say God you Jesus you are the foundation on which I'm going to build Everything and what we build is what we call our spiritual life it's an analogy the house being a picture of our spiritual life and we're building certain things and Hopefully as we're growing older more mature in the faith. We're getting the house is getting more complete But it is going to be tested one day that's what Paul tells me and it's going to be tested By fire not by pictures looking at it saying that look kind of pretty it's going to be tested by fire Wouldn't it be tragic if I was standing before God and I was looking at my house and the Holy Spirit To purging fire goes through it and burnt up everything and I thought I had this great spiritual life in God. I Have the foundation so I'm gonna go to heaven. It says that in verse 15, but I thought I had this house. I Thought God I'm gonna get a reward because of how I've lived my life here built on your foundation Burnt up Wouldn't that be tragic it? I I'm scared. I'm I hope that that would never be the case But that head that healthy sense of fear has opened my eyes to what is The sin the underlying worst sin that can cause this entire structure that I build To be one day decimated, but also it tells me how I can prevent that from happening So I want to share that with you and in order for us to see why I consider it the worst sin One of the reasons I do that is because I go all the way back to the beginning When God created man and woman in his image Innocent without sin Not a speck of sin in them Put them in the Garden of Eden And in that garden there were two trees that had spiritual significance God created all the trees but there were two trees in the Garden of Eden that had spiritual significance and We read about those two trees in Genesis chapter 2 verse 9 it says that out of the ground God caused every tree to be to be grown that is pleasing to the sight and including that was the tree of life and also the tree of knowledge of good and evil and And God says in verse 16 and 17 the Lord God Commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden you can freely eat have your fill go at it It's all for you to enjoy But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it You shall surely die if you were God and you had just created humans and You had to tell them there's only one thing I don't want you to do man and woman. What would it be? Would you tell man? Don't eat from the tree of Shouting at your wife as you tell your wife don't eat from the tree called shouting at your spouse. Don't eat from that Do anything else? Let's get a little bit more Harder we're saying okay. Don't eat from the tree off beating up your spouse Is that evil? There's the tree of life on the one hand. What is the other tree? I don't want you to eat out of If there was humankind and we had to choose one of two choices Would it be the tree of life and the tree of what's the worst in? rape pedophilia Incest whatever you murder Put that name in there. Is that the tree you'd say don't eat out of that tree when God in his wisdom put two trees in the Garden of Eden. He had the tree of life We understand that for us to have spiritual life We need to eat out of that tree, but here on the other hand is the tree of knowledge of good and evil Tell me what's so wrong about knowing good versus evil Is there something so terribly wrong of now knowing hey, I know that's good that's evil Why did God say never eat out of that? Let's see Genesis chapter 3 where We see that we did fall Genesis 3 4 through 6 and the serpent said to the woman you surely shall not die For God knows that in the day you eat from it. Your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil When the woman saw that the tree was good for the food It was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise You see anything wrong in there I Want something that's good for food. Is that such a terrible thing? It looks appealing to eat. Isn't that that's such a terrible thing and look it's even getting even better I could become wise through it. What's so bad about that? So she took from the fruit and ate and she gave it also to her husband who was with her and he also ate What is so bad about eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that God said that's the one Thing I don't want you to do This is it Because he knew that when we ate out of the tree of knowledge of good and evil We would know Good and evil and So we wouldn't need to go to God To find out what is good and evil. I wouldn't need God anymore I would be like God so the serpent told her and Then I would know good and evil and I can say thank you God for creating me Thank you God for giving me this great garden, but I've got it from here I've got good and I got evil and I know the difference So, thank you very much. I'll do a good job of maintaining that And that was the day that sin entered into the human race before that Adam didn't and Eve didn't know good and evil and the difference What would they have to do eat out of the tree of life? Go to God Interact with him and God would tell them what was good and evil in the moment and God said the one thing I don't want you to do is to be independent From me and you've got to see how big a sin this is This very sin has caused the most drastic Changes in people It is this Independent spirit. So eating out of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is basically saying God I want to live life independent of you The first person who ever said that was not Adam and Eve it was the devil and The devil said in Isaiah chapter 14 verse 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will make myself like the most high God I don't want to be greater than you. I'm not that proud. I just want to be equal to you Let's be partners Let's be co-gods I've been given a lot of gifts. I'm think I can make a good decision 99.9% of the times so let's be equal now and In an instant the most exalted angel became a devil That's right. It's continued through all of mankind We saw how sin first entered into the human race when Adam and Eve said I don't want to eat out of the tree of life I want to know good and evil for myself and these humans who are created in the image of God himself sinned and then if you fast-forward of thousands of years you come to the time of Christ and You find that the Mosaic law preaching Pharisees Crucified the very Messiah That they were longing for they searched the Scriptures day and night. They kept reading the Scriptures day and night Longing for a Messiah. That's what they were longing for Jesus the Messiah walks right into their midst and their eyes are blinded to it Because and Jesus says these words in John chapter 5 verse 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life But these words point to me I Have the words of eternal life The Word of God is sacred the Word of God does not come by come back empty and void But the Word of God is sent to point you to him Not to a way of life not to a morality not to a moral code and for thousands of years Humankind have tried to make their way through life By creating systems by creating religions by creating philosophies that say this is good And that is evil do this and don't do that And it's not Christians. It's all over humankind. We've got different religions because of that But it plagues all of humankind this fundamental desire in each of us to be independent of God and You say no, but now I'm in Christ. So yeah, I trust Jesus and I want him to I want I trust him alone To save me but Paul says that's just the foundation What about since then what about since we accepted Jesus into our heart what about everything we are doing since then in the faith If a man of God Like a let's say the Apostle Paul was to come and speak to abundant life What do you think he would say? I'd love to know in Fact, I mean a few churches in the first century did get to find out because he did write letters to them The church in Ephesus got a letter written to them the church in Philippi got a letter written to them You know among all the churches that Paul wrote to there was one church where Paul had nothing good to say On every other church he has started out with some commendation, but also exhorting correcting all kinds of things To the church in Corinth, which is plagued with all kinds of messiness Even there he starts on one Corinthians with a good little bit of goodness that he commends them for but a church which was probably more morally upright in some senses of the word got no commendation at all and That is the church in Galatia, and I want you to read this in Galatians chapter 3 verse 1 This is what Paul says To this church, and I want you to understand this their problem, which was why Paul used the strongest language against them He says you foolish Galatians who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified This is how the Amplified Bible says it you poor and silly and thoughtless and Unreflecting and senseless Galatians Do we need any more words to go along with that to tell us what he really thinks? The message paraphrase says you crazy Galatians that someone put a spell on you Have you taken leave of your senses? Have you absolutely lost your mind? Are you mad? Why Paul what are we doing? That's so wrong. This is the only thing verse 2 and 3 This is the only thing I want to find out from you Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? That having begun with the Spirit you are now being perfected by the flesh You've accepted the foundation as Jesus Christ you began with the Spirit You didn't think you could make it into heaven on your own You're good with that. But now you're trying to build a house. You're trying to live this Christian life Depending on yourself and Paul says you're mad. You're crazy. You've taken leave of your senses and Paul goes on with that in Galatians chapter 3 verse 10 He says for as many as are of the works of the law Which law the law of God that God gave as much as you're trying to work out all these things That are God commanded you to do are under a curse Because it says cursed is everyone who does not abide by all that is written in the law to perform them And I think some of us may say we do pretty good at some of them But I don't think any of us would say we're performing all the things in the law And then Paul says you're all under a curse accepted Jesus Galatians had done that Begun with the Spirit but under a curse When I saw that I could be a Christian and still living a cursed life it opened my eyes To the worse and I could be guilty of from committing even as a Christian Doesn't tell me it tells me though in Galatians 3 as well how to get out of it And that's the good news God tells me how to get out of it And that's what I want to spend my the rest of my time with telling you we don't have to be under the curse But here's the way out Galatians chapter 3 verse 13 and 14 Christ Redeemed us from the curse of the law Having become a curse for us. I Don't have the time for me to expand on this But I would commend a meditation on Christ Becoming a curse. I want to say that reverently but on the cross the Father looked at Christ and Christ became cursed by the Holy God For you and for me if you have trouble Understanding the price Jesus paid for you meditate On the fact that Jesus was cursed by the Father God because of my sin I Don't have time for that today, but meditate on it Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree in order and here is why that happened Jesus paid such a big price so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham Might come to people like you and me so that we might receive the promise of the Holy Spirit Who can help us overcome sin through faith And it says in verse 9 those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer How do I get out of the dealing with the worst sin, which is independence from God I Must have faith Not to take me to heaven not To take me out of hell but for everything For the foundation as well as for the house Do you have faith a life of continuing faith in Jesus Have you begun with the Spirit? but now are trying to labor through sins and addictions by your own strength Then the Apostle Paul Inspired by the Holy Spirit will call you lovingly and gently. He'll call you mad He'll say have you absolutely lost your mind this is not the gospel So I want to spend the rest of the time talking about faith and What faith means to me and how I understand what this word faith means? Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 is a famous verse about faith if you wanted to know also Why I say that I call Independence from God or the lack of faith the worst sin is because I read here that without faith it is impossible not mostly impossible not once in a while possible, but impossible to please him Please him in the foundation. I need faith please him in the superstructure. I need faith Now here's the problem all of us know probably would say yes, I knew some deep you we need faith but I want to dispel some of the misconceptions you might have about what faith is and Have you evaluate your life differently on whether you have faith from this day forward a lot of us think about faith And think that this is something in which you have to be strong You have this picture in your mind of this unbelievably incredibly Hulk That will help you get through troubles so when I read by faith Noah did this I have this man of this big guy Not maybe not on the outside physically, but inside he was a spiritual guy just walking around defeating sin punching him in the jaw and By faith Moses and by faith David and by faith all these people have this picture of this big strong guy And even when I say and when I hear on people saying you must have more faith a lot of times It's you must have more faith, and you clench your fist and you say come on have more faith We must believe God come on. That's not and you clench your fist and you think God Maybe one day. I'll have that kind of faith. That's not faith Hebrews 11 verse 6 I hope that the spirit will open your eyes to what faith is based on the Bible Hebrews 11 verse 6 he who comes to God this is the second part of Hebrews 11 6 because it says without faith that is impossible to please him because he who comes to God must believe that he is and That he is a rewarder of those who seek him let's take that first one we must believe that he is What does that mean does that simply mean that we must believe that God exists? I? Think it's more than that. I Think there are a lot of people who believe that God exists. I don't have the kind of faith that God is looking for What does it mean to? Come to God you're coming to God so by definition you're saying he is so that's not what it means It says he who comes to God must believe that he is no if you're coming to God You're already saying God you exist. It's more than just saying God you exist It's saying he is What does that mean? This is how I understand it when I say God you are I am also saying something about myself God you are I am Not he is I am not God you are God I am Nothing it says in Psalms a broken and a contrite spirit. He will not despise That's God Compared to you I am NOT You alone are Not whether I need to have children or not, that's not what is You is you are You alone are not my issues. Not my agenda. Not my dreams all of that. I'm not You are Do you have faith? Second one is a total dependence on God because I am nothing and he is a rewarder of those who seek him God I am nothing but I am Confident. No, I am fully confident that you will reward those who seek him Tell me family of God. What does God reward those who are looking for him? They will get him Do you want him? Do you want him or do you want his stuff tell me his healing his ministry his Blessings or do you want him? God I don't know the promises that I can give you for those who want his stuff. I Don't know how to guarantee that once in a while. I can have some success stories of people who get his stuff And we exalt those testimonies and make it about getting his stuff and we read others Answers to prayer where God gave them his stuff and they say we want that too There's no promise for his stuff. He gives it to whoever he pleases but He is a rewarder Hundred times out of hundred for those who seek him. They will get him. I Know many people who have sought for his stuff who has not who have not got his stuff But I have not met a single person who have genuinely sought for him who have not received him And I'm not talking about receiving him just for eternal life to get to heaven I'm talking about the fullness of him the absolute beauty of Jesus to make every sin little by little more and more Reprehensible That I don't get rid of sin because I'm trying to work out a better living program But because Jesus is becoming more and more beautiful to me that I'd much rather we would be with the more beautiful person Jesus He is a rewarder of those who seek him. He will give me him The problem is I don't want him really I want his stuff Then I don't have faith I don't have the faith that the Bible talks about and then we're guilty of saying God. I want your stuff whenever I Need it really, but otherwise I live independent of you. I Can manage all these other things but but but but now finances are getting a little tough I really need you God, but you give me a new job. All right, cool. I got it from here on I'm on my own. We'll manage till the next crisis Then I need you God Do you want him? I? Guarantee you 100% out of 100 times out of hundred with a hundred percent success rate based on the authority of God's Word that God will give you him But he finds so few people with faith When the Son of Man comes again, will he find faith on this earth what come on God really? Yes People who see that he alone is that I am NOT and people who say God I want only you I seek you Will he find faith on the earth family of God, you know, I always would have loved to have been like Adam To have been positioned I wish I was Adam not Adam was Adam I wish I was Adam and that I had been given the choice To be like tree of life tree of knowledge of good and evil and I'm convinced that I had taken the right choice Am I the only one or The other you feel like man Adam, what were you thinking, you know, the Bible says that if any man is in Christ He is a new creation All the oldest passed away behold all things are now new You know how I take that to mean that now that I'm in Christ God places me now in the Garden of Eden and he says there are only two trees of Spiritual significance than you eat out of you can eat out of the tree of life which represents dependence on God all you can eat out of the tree of knowledge of good and evil as you study your Bible you'd refine your laws and of you but you parse all the Greek and the Hebrew to know exactly what is this between this and that and God says you can continue going that route Knowledge of good and evil. I know it's a fine-tuning of that little concept Look I'm not knocking all of that doctrine is very important. I'm not knocking it at all But for our personal life God says will you eat out of the tree of life? Will you choose? dependence on me or choose independence Why is it that Jesus said? It is harder for a camel to go. It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God then for a camel To go through a needle's eye It isn't because it's a sin to be rich some people think that But it is not There's no word in Scripture that says it's sinful to be rich. God gives more money to some than to others But Jesus did say it's extremely difficult for rich people to enter the kingdom of God because There's a strong temptation for rich people to lean and to depend on their wealth That they say God I don't need you for 99% of problems. I got a bank account That right the right amount of check and I can solve most of my problems Very hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God because of that instinct So what do rich people have to do they have to fight that instinct God I put no confidence in my bank account For some of us who don't have a lot in our bank account. That's easy But for others who have more It's harder Now money may not be your hang-up that gets you to be independent from God. It may be your intellect I'm I can figure out every problem. God's given me such gifted intelligence That I can just pretty much find a way to manage my way through all of these issues Independent from God But I'll do anything. I'll even do Christian ministry. I'll fill my life We're doing all kinds of things for you God Just to stifle the voice of God telling you eat from the tree of life Hang out with me Depend on me to live life like don't be a Martha be a Mary who sits at my feet more the whole story of the Bible revolves around God trying to tell humans you don't have to do all these things Life is fundamentally about you learning to depend on me more and more That may be at the end of your life when you're 99 You'll be on your deathbed and you'd be so desirous for him for the person of him that God will say come on up and you can have all of me and that life becomes a progressive journey of Getting to depend on him more and more Not that we come to do all these great things for God let God do whatever he wants to do through us But that our lives every one of you whether you're a housewife whether God's destined you to preach to millions It doesn't make a difference the question before that before you by God Fundamentally is gonna be did you depend on me or did you depend on yourself? So insert whatever job you have insert whatever calling you have Insert whatever you think God's called you to do and the questions God's asking you is are you gonna bring me and allow me? to be your depender and I this sermon is always the thought of this always convicts me more than almost anything I think of because I find how often my deceitful heart makes Christianity about many other things except this That I make it about everything else except about finding out how my spirituality is doing from a dependence on God metric I'm doing pretty good with pornography. I'm doing pretty good with not getting angry God's given me grace in a lot of these areas, but dependence on God not doing too good and God opened my eyes to see you can build all this over superstructure But if you're not doing all of these things Fighting sin overcoming sin getting victory over sin being faithful in all of these areas, but if you're not Constantly depending on me the fire will burn it up Because you're eating subtly out of the tree of knowledge of good and evil It doesn't mean that I completely just go back to doing whatever I'm doing not at all But I it means that I say every day God up till today my track record looks great But where would I be without you if I try to live today? Thinking just because I've got three years or five years or 15 years and not coming into this sin that today I'll just be able to skip through it No, the devil is crafty like a serpent Just because I've been faithful with my eyes for three years doesn't mean today is gonna be different. Come on We all know that just because we've been living faithful to God for a while doesn't mean all of a sudden Oh, we can just you know saunter through life God hates that God loves a broken and a contrite spirit even among Christians People who say God I want to depend on you I want to give you two pictures that helped me with this one is the picture of a bridge when we're trying to cross the Racing rivers of life and God says cross that and that Intimidating river is my lust or my anger or my unforgiveness and I look at it and say God I had could never cross that river And so I said God's told me to cross this river. So maybe I go work out every day Lifting making myself the greatest triathlete or whatever it is And then somehow after failing many times in the river pushing me back one day I make it to the other side and I say there you go God I did it and I look back and I tell other people come on. You can do it. Maybe you're not lifting hard enough You're not trying hard enough. You got to just do more have more faith And I clenched my fist and say come on try harder And God says that was not the way I intended you to cross this river there is a bridge You didn't have to do all of that. You have to depend on it though But no God that this shows none of me if I walk through the bridge It'll all be depending on the bridge to walk through it. That's the point precisely But sometimes we look at the bridge and we think of that bridge as being this rickety little bridge called Jesus Now God nope Holy Spirit, I don't know if you can take me through this it's plagued my generations for centuries Rickety little bridge called Jesus can't get me through it You got to see Jesus like the Golden Gate Stormy rivers how many of you walk over the Golden Bridge walking? Whoa, I don't know about this bridge You see the river going underneath but you have confidence in the bridge You have faith That's what it means. It says nothing about you. It says everything about Jesus He is a rewarder of those who seek him confidence and The other picture that I never get tired of sharing with you is the picture of a little child Who knows that he has to cross through many different? traffic stops and Buzzing traffic going back and word and that's my sins and this selfish word that keeps besetting me and God says cross those streets But many times I get tried to cross the street and maybe I get better than some and so I like try to play a Virtual game of frogger, you know frogger like okay go miss this truck go forward Okay, then I get to halfway through the bank Then I've got these logs and watch out for the crocodiles and these bugs coming across and might hit you finally BAM made it to one Well, then you go for another sin And you get through this whole process and then you get smashed when you get that and you go back to square one you try harder Trying to cross these traffics and God says I've been standing here the whole time you needed to reach out your hand more often Unless you become like a little child You can't make it Why are you trying to cross all these streets? I'll never forget a picture that I saw visually when I was in another country and I was there was a camp and I was interacting with a couple who were in their 80s and They had been married for over 60 years and we were talking for a little bit and then they turned to walk away and it will going back to that cabin and Most peculiar thing I saw as they turned to walk around almost to a beat Almost at the exact same Microsecond both hands reached down for the other There was no marriage program. They went to that said at one point two seconds drop right hand and Expect left hand to grab and reach you This was not something that the husband was telling and I better get this, right? I better get this, right? I better grab a hold of this No For years they had learned that it was better to live life walking hand in hand That 60 years it was instinct to the beat precisely and I saw in that a picture of me and Jesus and Sometimes it takes me days To reach out my hand and grab a hold of Jesus In the way I dress the way I want to show off In the way, I want to do my own thing What is it for you? Are you reaching out for the hand of Jesus and asking him how you should dress dear sisters? In a way that could make men stumble Maybe it's taking days reach out to him a little quicker If it's taking five days, maybe every fourth day. Look at those outfits and Every fourth day, maybe it is guys. I'm not kidding guys every fourth day. Look at what you're watching on the internet Maybe some harmless sites are getting you in trouble Reach out for his hand Don't try to cross those streets on your own. God didn't design it that way Maybe you'll make it through but it won't be pleasing to God because God wants faith God wants us to reach out our hand to him all the time total dependence And I hope I can live for another 50 years at least but I'll tell you something I say this before God honestly for a few years. My prayer has been that I live for many more years But with only one reason Because I want to perfect how quickly I reach out for his hand because I want to have Total dependence on God not most of the way dependence on God and I've got a ways to go And I need time I need practice and don't believe the lie of the devil That you don't have an example Don't I say this very carefully, but very intentionally don't believe the lie of the devil that Jesus did it any differently Jesus too When he was in this earth did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but emptied himself took upon the role of a servant and Constantly looked at his father You think I'm making this up John chapter 7 verse 16 read these verses and be amazed This is Jesus Who at the age of 12 was astounding the the leaders of the law? He says this my teaching is not mine You think there was a more gifted man than Jesus? But even yet Jesus said my teaching is not mine, but the father's who sent me I am NOT teaching what I have come up in my own brain. I'm always asking God God. What are your words? That I will say Very indicting for somebody like me who stands up and speaks God are these my words or your words I? Must live in an increasing fear of that and this other verse in John chapter 5 Verse 19 this remember who's saying this this is Jesus The one we worship when he was in this earth. He says the son can do nothing of himself really Jesus you Nothing yeah me nothing. I am only always looking at the father Father you want me to go here. I'll go I Know there's a great need in Bethany Lazarus is really sick. I could really help him heal him Father should I go nope stay right where you are Okay, staying right where I am But he's sick stay right where you are Three days dead father. What are you doing? Go raise him from the dead now, okay? I'll go The father son did nothing on his own He always did what he saw the father doing family We have such a savior We have such an example a forerunner who walked before us who never did his own will John chapter 5 verse 13 never sought to do his own will and That I hope gives you an understanding of what Jesus means in John 15 5 where he says I am the vine You are the branches apart from me You can do nothing I Can do all kinds of things, but I can't do anything of spiritual value one last thing. Thank you for being patient one last thing I need to stress this Doing God's will and leaning on him and depending on him is not about everything in this life There were many trees in the garden that God created But only trees two trees that have spiritual significance in the same way We don't flip a coin and say should I go to in and out or should I not go to in and out for lunch? God, I'm waiting for you. No I'm not gonna move until you tell me to go to in and out No, I don't want to know whether I should go to Michigan or Wisconsin University, Michigan University, Wisconsin So I write an M and I write a W and I put it in the hat and I pull out a letter and it says M But then I realize if I I don't know if I'm reading it the right way because I flip it the other way around It's University of Wisconsin. What do I do? It's not about those things the areas in which I'm talking about is it's got to do with sin I don't need to be more specific. You all know the areas where God's pointing you sing that I want to work on that. I Don't want you to fix it in your own, right? I want you to lean on me more I want you to depend on me more and if you fall and you fall into that sin All that proves is that you're not depending on me like you should So in the trials of your life Where you are walking separate from God in the areas of sin where you find yourself estranged from God It is in those areas that God is asking you. I want total dependence Placing no confidence in your flesh placing no confidence in your exceedingly deceitful heart Let's pray Father I Father I thank you Lord that you are a merciful God and I bow reverentially before you Knowing how far I come in the most important test of my life on whether I'm being fully dependent on you Father I need your help We need your help We have missed the way into many side roads for so long Father we repent with brokenness. We want to make this only and always about you God If ever we needed you we need you now in Jesus name