My God My Strength - Week 1

[00:00:01] Amen. Amen. Church, go ahead and be seated. Go ahead and be seated. Good morning, Christ Church. [00:00:07] Good to see you guys. Good to have you guys here with us. As Tina said, my name is Javon. I get the opportunity to serve as the campus pastor over at Old Brooklyn. So Old Brooklyn says hi, and as she says, I am your distant cousin that you didn't know about. That annoying one, right, that talks fast and sweats a lot. All right, so you laugh too hard at that. [00:00:32] But I am so excited to be with you guys and I'm excited to give your Pastor Chet some well deserved time off. So you got me for a few weeks, guys. Got me. All right, so buckle in. [00:00:45] Buckle in. [00:00:47] But it's exciting to be back here. It's exciting to preach to you guys. And every time I come to West Campus, I. I am blown away time and time again by the work that God is doing. And I know you hear that a lot and that's a good thing. [00:01:02] Don't take that for granted. I know you hear Tina and chatting them bring out how much God has been doing. But friends, can I tell you, I'm here to remind you God is at work through this campus and I'm thankful for all the good that he's doing, but also the good that he's going to continually do as well in your future. So, man, it's so wonderful to be here. And today I'm going to be starting a little miniseries with you guys for the next several weeks and it's titled My God, My Strength. [00:01:33] That's the title of our, of what we're going to be talking about. My God, my strength. And we're going to be anchored in this specific psalm. A specific Psalm, Psalm 144. So if you have your copy of the Scriptures on your devices or your Bibles or will be on the screen for you, we're going to be walking through this psalm, a psalm by David, a prayer by David, as we study these next several weeks. And I'm gonna pick up at verse one. I'm only gonna do two verses today for the sake of time, I'm only gonna do two verses. [00:02:03] But I am excited to preach this as a whole as the weeks to come. So it says this verse 1, Psalm 144. It says, Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. He is my steadfast love, my fortress, my stronghold. [00:02:21] He is my shield in whom I take refuge, who subdues people under me. O Lord, what is man that you Regard him and the Son of Man that you think of him. Man is like breath and his days are like passing shadows. Part your heavens, O Lord. Come down and touch the mountains that they may smoke, flash forth your lightning and scatter them. Shoot your arrows and route them. Reach down from on high and set me free and rescue me from the deep waters. From the grasp of foreigners whose mouths speak falsehood. [00:02:53] Falsehood whose right hands are deceitful. Verse 9. I love this. I will sing to you a new song, O God, on a harp of 10 strings I will make music to you, to him who gives victory to kings, who frees his servant David from the deadly sword. Set me free and rescue me. From the grasp of foreigners whose mouths speak falsehood, whose right hands are deceitful. Then our songs will be like plants nurtured in their youth. Our daughters will be like the corner pillars carved adorn a palace. Our storehouses will be full, supplying all manner of produce. Our flocks will bring forth thousands, tens of thousands in our fields. Our oxen will bear great loads and there will be no breach in the walls, no going into captivity, no cry of lament in our streets. Blessed are the people of whom this is so. Blessed are the people whose God is. Is the Lord. Let's pray. [00:03:56] Lord, you are our God and our strength. [00:04:00] Father, for many of us today, this message is so timely. [00:04:04] And you're a God who speaks, and you're a God who acts. And you're a God who is near. [00:04:11] And Lord, speak and act and draw near in the areas where, Lord, we are needy because many in this room today are needy and they're needing of your strength. [00:04:24] Speak to us in a way that, Lord, that doesn't just give us good feelings and give us a moment, but it causes us to live differently, live with more faith, live with more courage and live boldly before you. [00:04:40] But Lord, it's not going to be the preacher that does that. [00:04:44] It's going to be your spirit that does that. [00:04:46] For they don't need my opinions, they don't need my why sayings. They need your presence in your spirit to lead them and guide them. So, Lord, be present, speak to us and guide us into all that is true. [00:05:00] We love you and we honor you. In Christ's wonderful and perfect name is who we pray. Amen, Amen and Amen. [00:05:10] My God, my strength. I love when people ask me, they always say, like, where do you get your inspiration for your sermons? And I always say, whatever I'm going through in life, I just write it down. [00:05:21] So if you see that this sermon is very personal, there's a reason, right? I've been anchored in Psalm 144 for quite some time, for the last several months. And I'm excited to present it to you guys. And we're walking through My God, my strength. And speaking of strength, my boys are really into superheroes. They love superheroes. They know that their dad is a big nerd. Like, I'm really into fiction. I'm really into all the superheroes. You name them, I love them. I know them. I've watched them. I've read them. I know about it all. [00:05:58] And one of the questions that they always ask me is, dad, who is the strongest? [00:06:04] They always ask me that. Who's the strongest? See, now, in my house, we teach our kids three things. We teach our kids love, Jesus, Michael Jordan is the goat, and Batman is the best. That's what we teach him. [00:06:15] Am I right? [00:06:16] If you can't get all three, we'll send you somewhere else. [00:06:21] And they're doing okay so far. But they're always asking me, dad, who would win in a fight? [00:06:26] Batman or this guy? Superman or this guy? Wonder Woman or this guy? They are always asking me, who's the strongest? Right. And here I am, I'm talking to them about, you know, the characters and their feats. Because every character, you know, possesses a lot of strength, but also every character has a weakness. [00:06:48] Every character has a weakness. Sure, Superman's great, but we all know his weakness, right? [00:06:53] Right. [00:06:54] And, you know, when I think about that moment, I think about life's greatest question isn't always who's the strongest? [00:07:03] I believe life's greatest question is, where do you draw your strength from? [00:07:10] Where do you draw your strength from? Because here's the truth, friends. Here's the truth. You ready? Everyone in this room has a Kryptonite. [00:07:19] Everyone in this room has a weakness. [00:07:22] Everyone in this room has limits. No matter your credit score, no matter how much money you make, no matter the career path that you're on, no matter who'd you marry, no matter what you have or what you like, everything and everyone in this room, this room has a weakness. We all have limitations. And I even. I think an even deeper question to ask is, what do we do with them? [00:07:44] What do we do with our weaknesses? Right? See, I believe this, and I believe this is kind of where the psalm is going to point us towards more and more. I believe this, that the signs of our weaknesses or our weaknesses are signs not to try harder. Isn't that the message of the world lately. Try harder, do better, be better, become more disciplined. [00:08:09] All that has some value, right? All that is great, right? But fundamentally, I think it overlooks a greater purpose. [00:08:19] See our weaknesses, they're not signs just to try harder or do better. They're not signs just to suppress and overlook and ignore them and act like they're not even there. [00:08:30] No, friends, I believe this, that our weaknesses, your limitations are a gracious reminder that you were never meant to live off your strength alone. [00:08:44] Can I get an Amen Church? [00:08:46] I believe your weaknesses are a gracious reminder from your heavenly Father. You are not meant to live life off your own strength. [00:08:56] I love the words of the very famous Martin Luther, old school theologian. He says this. With us there is nothing but weakness, but with God there is nothing but strength. [00:09:08] With us there is nothing but weakness, but with God there is nothing but strength. And this is the, this is the, the direction we're going in today. And this is kind of how we're going to land. I'm sorry, how we're going to emphasize what David, the writer of this psalm, wants us to understand. He wants us to understand this truth, that our weaknesses become the doorway to experience God's strength. [00:09:35] That our weaknesses, the things that you're not so great at, the things that you hide, the things that come out more than your own credit card, the things that come out in your life, they are the pathway and the doorway to experience the strength that is in God. [00:09:54] Right? The strength that is in God. And that's David's heartbeat as we read this psalm. If you don't know, David wrote a lot of psalms. Wrote a lot of them, not all of them, but he wrote a whole lot of them. And this psalm elevates who God is and what God does. And David starts off by reminding us who God is. Look what David says in verse one in Psalm 144. Again, we're going to spend only on two verses today. But David starts off, he says, blessed be the God. Oh, sorry. Blessed be the Lord. [00:10:27] Yahweh. Blessed be the Lord, my rock. I love how David starts off in his psalm. Right? Because spoiler alert, David has some frustrations in his life. He's going to talk about them just a little bit. You may have caught onto it as you were reading throughout this psalm, but David has some frustrations. But you know what I love about this psalm? [00:10:46] This psalm, it doesn't start with David's frustration. [00:10:51] David doesn't begin with his fears. [00:10:53] He doesn't begin with his failures. He doesn't begin with his enemies. He begins with worship. [00:11:01] He says, blessed. This word in the Hebrew, it just means to extol, to give praise to God. David praises God right out the gate. Before he talks about his problems, he talks about his God, right? But before he talks about his problems, which he will get into, right? Gives us a little bit of context. He first wants to extol and lift up God first. And look what David says. He says, blessed be the Lord, my rock, my sons, they love collecting rocks. Pray for them, y'. All. They just love. [00:11:38] Some of you with toddlers today probably can sympathize with that. We can just go on a walk. I'm just trying to get my steps in. And they're trying to collect rocks everywhere we go. Stop, dad. No, I need to get my heart rate up. Shut up. You know. [00:11:51] You know. Well, stop. I mean, you know, they're grabbing rocks. I kid you. One time we were on like a walk and these guys came back with 50 different rocks, right? And they're so impressed by the rock. Well, as we were walking and as we continue to walk, they noticed a boulder. They noticed this huge boulder. And they said, dad, look, if we just get this rock, then we'll be rich. I'm like, it don't work like that, son. [00:12:13] Don't work like that. But then he goes over. There's a lot of construction where we live. And he goes over, and both of them, my six and my four year old, they're both trying to move this rock, but the rock is too heavy. The rock is immovable. They're trying to move it, but they're not strong enough. [00:12:31] And so what do they do? They come over to dad. They say, dad, you work out? [00:12:36] I'm like, yes, I do, son. You're right about that. [00:12:38] Yes, I do. Say it again. No. [00:12:41] And he says, can you move it? I said, yes, of course your father can move it. I'm strong. You should see what I do in the gym. Of course I'm strong, y'. All. I can't move this thing. [00:12:52] I was putting my back. I was putting my legs into it. I got low and I was pushing off my heels, and I just was raw, raw, raw. And I just couldn't move it. Right, right. The rock was immovable. [00:13:06] It wasn't going anywhere. [00:13:08] It was strong. [00:13:10] And David, when he says God is his rock, it symbolizes God is the one who can't be moved. [00:13:19] Because let's just be honest, friends, there are just some things in our lives that are bigger than us, right? There's just some things in our lives that are bigger than us. Right? But here's what's beautiful about God. What typically moves us doesn't move him. [00:13:38] What frustrates us doesn't frustrate God. [00:13:42] What gets us bent out of shape doesn't get God bent out of shape. God is unchanging. God is strong. What David wants to highlight and emphasize for us today, that God is our rock, meaning this. That God is the. Is our foundation and the source for strength. [00:14:02] God is the foundation and our source for strength. He is a rock. It symbolizes strength. That God is unmovable, that God is constant. That God is strong. [00:14:17] That's what David declares in this particular psalm. Now, I find it interesting. David says, God is my rock. My kids, they always say, mine, mine. My toy, my Batman. I say, no, that's my Batman. But anyway, they mine, mine, mine. My juice, my. This. Right? Right. Cause to them, they're trying to possess it. They're saying, it's theirs. Right? Notice David doesn't say, God is a rock. [00:14:46] He says, he is my rock. [00:14:50] David says, God, he is the greatest possession that I hold onto. God is not just some distant deity who looks at us. No, God is personal to David. [00:15:04] He is personal to David. What is this indicating? Well, this indicates that to David, for David, he was completely dependent on God. [00:15:15] Now, you got to understand that David, he was a warrior king. David was a man's man. He probably had calluses all over his hands. He was a man's man. He was strong. He knew battles. He fought everywhere he went. I mean, we know about David's life. He had a great reputation, right? He had great influence. But you know what David says and what David reminds us time and time again that his experience alone is not enough. [00:15:41] That his ability alone is not enough. [00:15:44] That his influence alone is not enough. But God, his rock, he is enough. [00:15:52] He is enough. And here's the one thing I want you to understand about the Christian life. The Christian life. Never. Listen to this. The Christian life never outgrows dependency on God. [00:16:06] It never outgrows dependency on God. You know what maturity looks like? Maturity isn't becoming more independent in Christianity. Maturity is becoming more dependent. [00:16:19] Right? Right. My son, my six and a half year old, he's getting older, right? Right. He's getting older. He's pouring his own milk. [00:16:28] It gets everywhere. But he's doing it, doing it by himself. He doesn't need me anymore. [00:16:32] But that's not the Christian life. The Christian life is never going to become more independent because here's the truth, friends, you were created to be dependent. [00:16:42] Jesus calls you the sheep. [00:16:44] And what do sheep need? [00:16:46] A shepherd. [00:16:48] Right. Sheep don't do life on their own. They rely on who? The shepherd. [00:16:54] Right. And you and I, we were created to be dependent people, to depend on him for everything. I depend on God to help me to become the husband that he wants me to be. I depend on God to help him to help me to become the Father and the leader and the person that he wants me to be. Because the temptation is this, friends. And I believe this is for all of us. The temptation is that we would rely on our own strengths, on our own abilities, on our own experience, on our own talents. But here's the one thing I know life is really good at. Exposing that we are not enough. [00:17:33] Life is a great way of doing that. You know what life is really good at and what I need life to do for me more and more. And what we need for us today is to remind us how much we need God. [00:17:45] Right? I know that sounds unsettling, but think about our world. Think about our culture. Our culture says, trust in yourself. [00:17:53] They got movies built after this. [00:17:55] We got songs built after this. Believe in yourself right now, all that may have some value, but again, I think it misses a bigger purpose. You want to know one that makes me throw up every time? [00:18:07] Follow your heart. [00:18:09] You ever heard that? [00:18:11] But you know who's the one that lies to you the most? [00:18:14] You. [00:18:16] Right. [00:18:17] You know who deceives you the most? [00:18:20] You. [00:18:21] Right. But you know what the Bible says. [00:18:23] Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. [00:18:35] See, we need this constant reminder, friends, that we alone life has a really good way of exposing that we are needy and that we are dependent. And that's good. [00:18:46] Right? And here's what David ultimately teaches us. And here's the next point. [00:18:50] Strength begins with surrender. [00:18:55] Strength begins with surrender. [00:18:58] Right. [00:18:59] Strength begins with surrender. It's going to God and say, this area of my life has no way of succeeding unless you're supplying your strength. [00:19:10] This area of my life that I will not overcome, I will not conquer, I will not endure unless I am looking more to you. Which means this. The answer to your weaknesses is not found in yourself, but it's found in God. Your rock, the strong one. [00:19:33] The strong one. Right. The answer to your weaknesses is not found in yourself, but it's found in God. Your rock, the strong one. Now, I love how David continues this. This is what really just made me baffle when I read this. He says this in verse. Back to verse one. He says, blessed be the Lord, my rock. But this part is very interesting. Who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle? As I said before, David was a warrior king. He was familiar with battle. He was always in a fight. [00:20:08] He was constantly fighting, right? He was always at war with other nations and whatnot. But I love that, what he's doing here. He's praising God not because life is easy. [00:20:19] He's praising God because God prepares him for what life brings to him. [00:20:27] Does that make sense? [00:20:29] He says he trains my hands for war. [00:20:32] That doesn't sound like great language, does it? I don't like war. You don't like war. He trains my fingers for battle, right? [00:20:42] This all seems weird. This all seems crazy, what David is saying. [00:20:47] He says that God is not just the source of strength, he's the one who supplies you with his strength. [00:20:53] The goddess is not the place where we look to him because he is strong, but God equips us. [00:21:00] That God empowers us for the battles we face. [00:21:05] Now, David's battles are very different than your battles, because here's the one thing that I noticed that every one of us have in this room is that every one of us is fighting something. [00:21:14] Every one of us is in some type of battle. [00:21:19] It might not be David's, where it's like, you know, enemy territory, but some of the things that you're fighting is mentally, emotionally, right? It may even be physically. [00:21:33] Some of you, maybe you're battling laziness, unforgiveness, anger, lust, you name it. We're at war in life, right? [00:21:47] For many of us, we are in constant war with the things either before us or things that are going on in us. [00:21:56] That's what David said. And you know what David beautifully says? [00:21:59] God doesn't just remove my battles. [00:22:02] God merely works in me through my battles. [00:22:06] He trains me. [00:22:09] He equips me. He works in me, meaning this, that my battles alone are not useless. [00:22:16] My battles alone, they are purposeful. [00:22:19] They have meaning in them. Because for a lot of us. Can we just be honest? For a lot of us, our instinct when tension happens is to escape, right? God, get rid of this. [00:22:33] God, get rid of her. [00:22:35] God, get rid of them. [00:22:36] God, get rid of this problem and all of that. And I get it. And maybe that's been a lot of us throughout our lives lately. My son, he loves playing video games with me. Oh, he loves it. [00:22:50] Oh, he loves playing video games. We always play Mario or Diddy? Donkey Kong Smash. Oh, it's awesome. [00:22:57] I love it. But you know the one thing that's annoying? Homeboy always wants to play on Easy Mode. [00:23:05] He always wants to go on Easy Mode. You know what he always does? He always. He always, like, here's the thing. He always wants to reward without the struggle. [00:23:14] That's what he wants. He wants the reward without the struggle, right? So always put it on Easy Mode. Like, bro, like, you know, we'll get more points. Shut up, Dad. I know what I'm doing, you know, and it's just. It's crazy, right? And I think sometimes that is a lot of us when it comes to God, we just want Easy Mode. [00:23:33] We just want comfort. And that's great. And I understand that, because maybe for a lot of you, you're asking for God to take some things away. [00:23:42] God, take away my addiction. God, take away this difficulty in my marriage. God, take away this diagnosis. God, take away this fear. God, take away. And it's not that. Listen to the. It's not that those prayers are bad. Please do not hear me say that God welcomes those prayers. [00:24:00] God wants us to pray in that type of way. [00:24:03] God wants his children to come to him and request to him what is on their hearts. But perhaps a greater prayer is this. And I want you to write this down. Lord, make me into the kind of person that can stand faithfully in the battle. [00:24:23] Notice, there's a difference. It's not asking God to take it away. [00:24:27] It's God, help me to be strong in this. [00:24:32] Help me to be strong in this. [00:24:34] Right? Because one thing that I know is that we often want God to eliminate the battles and the challenges. While God wants to use our battles to prepare us to produce a good work in us. And some of the greatest work God will ever do in your life will be in the battles that you face. [00:24:55] You know, the one thing people always ask me when I'm out there preaching, when I'm just leading, people always ask me after my sermon, pastor, I want to get closer to God. And they name off all the things. You know, reading more, going to church, praying, listening to sermons, listening to worship music, all that stuff. [00:25:12] I believe all that stuff is essential. But you know, the one thing I told somebody, literally last week, they came up to me, they said, how do I grow closer to God? [00:25:22] And I say, you know, God one way. How I notice God's nearness has been in my battles. [00:25:32] Because one thing I can tell you right now, friends, battles are unpleasant, but they have been the very place where God became very real. [00:25:43] Struggle stinks, it hurts. [00:25:49] But one thing that I can say that was gifted in all of it is I've never felt the nearness of my heavenly Father more than before. [00:25:59] Because God doesn't waste our battles. [00:26:02] He uses them as training grounds to prepare us to grow something in us that wasn't there before. [00:26:09] God does a great way of preparing us in the battle. [00:26:15] So David rests his confidence on that reality within his life. But I love how David continues in verse two, David ups up the the how God is personal to him. Look what he says. He says this. Look at this beautiful language. He says he meaning God. [00:26:31] God is my steadfast love, my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer. He is my shield in whom I take refuge and subdues the people under me. I love David's language. In this, David draws his confidence. [00:26:50] David draws his confidence not just in the power of God, but in the presence of God. [00:26:57] He rests his confidence in God's presence. [00:27:02] Right? David says God is my refuge. God is my stronghold. God is my deliverer. All of this, this language that he's using, it is all nothing but protection language. But let's be clear, friends. God's protection doesn't mean the absence of conflict. No, God's protection is the certainty of his presence. [00:27:22] There's a difference. [00:27:24] It's not God taking away everything that is hard. It is him being present with you, preparing you, strengthening you through what is hard. [00:27:34] It is very essence of his presence more and more. Because here's the reality, friends, life is just overwhelming for us. Am I right? [00:27:44] Life has just been overwhelming. We've been overwhelmed because of the difficulty in our marriages, with raising these kids. Oh, gosh, raising these kids is hard. [00:27:54] With our jobs, with our families and their brokenness, with our own inconsistencies. And here's the thing about the overwhelmed. We can't avoid it. [00:28:04] We can't avoid the overwhelm. It comes up time and time again. But here's the hope. [00:28:11] The hope is not the strength of your faith, but the strength of God's grip onto you. [00:28:20] Because there are days where, friends, my faith feels weak. [00:28:24] Can I get an amen? There are days where I feel like my prayers stink, where I kind of rush through my devotion, that I kind of rush through my moment with God. I kind of rush through it. I just want to be done with it because I'm so consumed by all that is happening in my life. But here's the certainty of the Christian life. The certainty of the Christian life is this, friends, and it's this alone. It is not your strength that secures you. [00:28:50] It's the one who was strong that secured you. [00:28:55] Meaning this. And this is where David wants us to know. God is the one who faithfully holds us together. [00:29:02] When everything feels like it's falling apart, that reality needs to be true for us today. [00:29:09] Because the second part, living in that everything feels like it's falling apart. [00:29:17] Everything feels earth shattering, and you're confused and you're running around trying to figure out what's next. [00:29:27] But we need to exist in the first part. We've been living in the second, but now we need to draw our faith and trust in the first part. And the first part is, God is the one who faithfully holds you together, who faithfully holds you tight. He is the one that keeps you to the end, and he'll be faithful to do it. And that's what David's been saying. This God, who is my rock, who is my fortress, who is my stronghold, who is my deliverer, who is my refuge, he's the one who will be faithful to keep me to the end. This is where I draw my hope. Not that I am strong enough, but he is strong enough. Heck, that's the gospel in and of itself. It is Jesus doing for you what you cannot do for yourself. [00:30:12] Is God doing for you what you cannot do for yourself, because he will keep you to the end. [00:30:21] My son, my oldest, he loves. Loves animals. He loves telling me about animals, right? I can care less. I just care about protein shakes and working out, okay? [00:30:31] I'm like, son, when you gonna do some burpees with me? And he's like, well, yeah, look at this bird. You know? And. [00:30:37] But, you know, he loves telling me about animals. And there's one animal he told me about was a rock badger. Never heard of it before. [00:30:44] I'm like, what are we going at with this? And I was interested to learn about the rock badger and what he told me. He says that this rock badger, it's a very tiny, small animal. And this animal, it is. How could I say? Very vulnerable. [00:30:59] Very vulnerable. And it's not a predator. [00:31:03] It's known as the prey. [00:31:05] And predators love going after the rock badgers because they look vulnerable, they're weak, they're defenseless. [00:31:16] And the rock badgers, in order for them to escape, in order for them to escape a danger, they have to run to what we call rocks, right? That's why they're called the rock badger. [00:31:29] Never knew that. I was like, oh, that makes sense. The rock Badger. Because they often, when life became threatening or when they felt threatened, they ran to the rock. [00:31:39] And I thought about that moment, friends. And I said to myself, that's you and I. [00:31:44] Cause there's one thing you can't do is make yourself a refuge. [00:31:50] There's one thing you can't do is make yourself a fortress. You know what? The rock, Badger doesn't do it. Let me toughen up and fight on this, Wolf. No, I need to run to the one who keeps me safe. [00:32:05] He doesn't say, oh, let me muster up enough strength against this lion. No, I need to go somewhere where I'm secure, and that's you and I today. [00:32:17] I can't make myself a refuge. You can't make yourself strong. [00:32:23] But in Jesus, he has provided that for us. [00:32:28] Because in Christ, those who are weak are safe and secure. [00:32:38] Jesus says so wonderfully in the Gospels as he wraps up in the Sermon on the Mount, he wraps up. He says something beautiful. You might remember this. Jesus says, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who has built their house on a solid rock. [00:33:00] Psalm 144 points us to Jesus, the rock. [00:33:06] Notice Jesus says, everyone who does their own thing lives off their own strength, their own knowledge, their own wisdom. [00:33:14] No, he says, everyone who hears my words would be like a wise person who builds their house on a solid rock. And love what Jesus continues. He says, the rain came, the winds beat up against the house, the flood, it rose, all of that. But the house didn't fall. Why? [00:33:40] Because of its great structure. [00:33:42] Because of its great windows. [00:33:44] Because the door was a place and the new doorknobs? [00:33:47] No, because it was built on the rock. [00:33:53] Because every one of us is building our lives on something today. [00:33:57] But Jesus tells us, and Jesus reminds us so wonderfully and so beautifully that the storms of life, when we build our lives on him, that the storms of life, they may shake us, but when we're built on Christ, they can never destroy us. [00:34:17] When Christ is the foundation. When Christ is the place of strength. [00:34:22] And some of you today, you are running on empty. [00:34:27] The meter is empty today. [00:34:30] But let me tell you right now what makes us full of faith. [00:34:37] Because when we look to the one who was strong, and that's Jesus Christ, the rock. I've been in a very hard season these last several months. [00:34:51] I was diagnosed with a disease that is causing my eyesight to decrease more and more. [00:35:02] Some of you may have noticed it as you walked in. And something was different and off about me. [00:35:07] And it feels like a battle every day. [00:35:11] The battle just have enough energy to play with my kids. [00:35:16] The battle just to make a sermon for people that I don't even feel like I believe in. [00:35:26] And it's easy to lose strength. [00:35:31] But I've noticed more and more in that season of life, in this season of life, that I had to lose a part of me so I can look to him who is strong, who is strong. [00:35:49] And I've never relied on Jesus more and more in my life. Lately, I thought I relied on him, but lately it's been like, lord, it's you and you alone. [00:36:01] I can't make myself strong. I can't make this disease go away. I can't make it go. I can't. [00:36:08] But he's preparing me in this battle. [00:36:12] He's strengthening me in this battle. [00:36:15] He's the one who's going to sustain me to the end. [00:36:19] And what is true for me is also true for you, our God, our fortress, our rock, Jesus Christ, the strong one. [00:36:34] When life tells you you're weak, look to the one who is strong. [00:36:39] Let's pray. [00:36:43] Dear Heavenly Father, I love you and I thank you. I pray that today we would be people who would tell ourselves that our strength doesn't come from our abilities, what we do right, what we have, but it's in who we have. [00:37:03] Jesus Christ. [00:37:05] For many of us today, Lord, we are struggling in a battle today. [00:37:10] We are battling so many things, and we're waiting for the next step and the step after that, and the step after that. But, Lord, I pray today we would have the faith to say, when I am weak, you are made strong. [00:37:28] Where I am desperate, you remain powerful. [00:37:34] Where I am needy, you are present providing and supplying more of your presence. [00:37:43] So would you, O Lord, breathe the life of faith in all of us today that we may carry forward and say, in God is who I draw my strength from. [00:37:58] And I pray that that reality will become more and more real to us, prepare us, strengthen us, and sustain us to the end. It's in your son's perfect name. Amen.