Details Matter | James Buntrock

This episode dives into a powerful message titled “Details Matter,” exploring how God works through precision, purpose, and intentional design in every area of life. From the intricacies of creation to biblical examples like Noah, Moses, and the fulfillment of prophecy through Jesus, the teaching highlights how even the smallest instructions carry significance. Listeners are encouraged to pursue a deeper understanding of God’s will, align their desires with His word, and trust the Holy Spirit for guidance especially in uncertain moments. It’s a faith-building reminder that God’s plan is both detailed and personal, and when we stay aligned with Him, every step leads toward purpose, victory, and transformation.

Transcript

Overflow And Opening Prayer

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm gonna get started with what God was showing me. He was showing me some things, and I just wan show you what he was showing me. The pastor says to preach out of the overflow, and so this is kind of the overflow. If you're if you're not filled up, then you can't overflow. And so it's incumbent on us who, you know, if we're gonna get up here, we gotta stay full of something. And uh you're gonna get the overflow of whatever it is we're full of, and uh it's better if we're full of his word than anything else. And so thank God for his word. Thank God for his word. I got a message titled Tonight, Details Matter. And um I've kind of spoken it already, spoken it out, but I just want to pray this out. So, Heavenly Father, I thank you for your holy written word tonight. Holy Spirit, thank you for bringing this word to make it to come alive, helping me to articulate the things that you once said. Lord, I pray that everyone under the sound of my voice is gonna hear precisely the details that matter to them, the details that pertain to them right here and now, that they're gonna receive exactly what it is that they need to receive, so that they can be empowered and equipped and confident to do the things that you've called them to do. And Lord, I thank you for leading us, for guiding us, for ordering our steps. Jesus, you lead us into victory, you lead us into triumph. You're not leading us into trouble, but you're leading us through it and on the other side and into the celebration, the victory dance on the other side. And so, Lord, I thank you for that victory that we have in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so again, the message titled tonight is Details Matter. And uh, this is what I'm ministering tonight, is in the context of uh this being a year of new things. And uh anytime there's new things, there's new instructions, there's new ways, there's new strategies, there's something new. If it's a new thing, it means that we haven't had it or we haven't done it before. And we've got to be open to some sort of change on our side. And so I just wanted to uh go over some examples. We'll spend a little time tonight kind of building our our faith and expectation for what new things could mean and what those what that might mean for us uh by looking at examples in both the old and the new testament. Um you go all the way back to the very beginning in Genesis, where God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. It was in a in a in a state or a condition of chaos. And the solution to chaos was that the Holy Spirit hovered over the chaos, and then God began to speak. And he spoke some things, and the chaos responded, and it got in order. And he said, Let there be light, and there was light. And so it started with chaos moving to order, and then light happened, and then everything else happened after that. And uh, you know, how many watched the uh the the Artemis uh space mission or any part of that, the the the launch of that rocket and and the space mission? I think it was 10 days. Uh they went around the earth a time or two and then kind of slingshotted US Earth's gravity to accelerate them in closer, and then they changed their trajectory and launched out and towards deep space, and they were headed to a point in space, not where the moon was, but where the moon was going to be at a precise moment in time. They were on an intersectory path with the orbit of the moon, so that when the moon is right there, they didn't hit the moon, but that they were passing right by the moon and to the backside of the moon. I mean, you think about the precision of the details, the timing of things, it had to be just perfect. And uh and then they used the lunar gravity to uh to pull that spaceship in closer and around the backside so that it didn't just keep off going into deep space somewhere, but they used the the moon's gravity to to cause that spaceship to begin to turn around around the moon. And as it rotated around the moon, now it's in kind of an orbit around the moon, and then they broke free of that orbit and began to fall, literally fall back to Earth, because the Earth is the bigger body in space and it has more gravity. And so once they kind of escaped the immediate bounds of the moon, use that slingshot effect to get around the moon and come back a little bit closer to Earth, they were moving pretty slow, relatively slow to what speed they had been moving. And so, you know, that they were moving away from Earth, and Earth's gravity is pulling on them, and they're slowing down, and then they kind of get into the moon's gravity and they start to speed up around the back side of the moon, and they come around the other side and they they leave the orbit, and moon's gravity is pulling on them one way, but the earth's gravity is stronger and it's pulling the other way, and slowly they start to accelerate back to Earth, they're falling back to Earth. And then the pr the precision of coming back to Earth, I mean, they're accelerating faster than any projectile that we have on this. I mean, we I could shoot a rifle and it wouldn't come close to the speed that they were going. That bullet would not come close. They were going, you know, 35 or 40,000 miles an hour through space towards Earth, and then they have to enter the Earth's atmosphere. And the Earth's atmosphere is, you know, it it would produce so much friction that it would just burn that spaceship up if they just came right into the atmosphere. And so they had a very precise angle that they had to approach the Earth atmosphere, and they actually bounced off the atmosphere one time and then came back in a little bit slower the next time, and they approached at an angle that was just right so that they didn't come in too fast and literally too hot, and and they didn't they didn't fall too long with that level of heat built up, and the parachutes deployed, and they slowed down to 19 miles per hour before they splashed down in the Pacific. I mean, the precision was just amazing, and somehow man was able to make those calculations and get all up just right. And so you look at the level of precision and details there with what man did, but then take it a step further, and you know, one of those astronauts um he was an atheist when he left. But by the time he got back, he was something different, or he was ready to receive something different, and he acknowledged, you know, when he saw that medical officer and the cross around his neck, he said he just broke and cried. He said, because nothing else could explain what he saw and witnessed. What did he see and witness? He saw the majesty of God's creation. He saw as a scientist, he saw the details of God's creation from a perspective that he had never been privy to before. And there was only one thing that could explain what he saw and experienced. And he saw that answer in the cross of Jesus. So much for atheism. We had to launch all the atheists into space. We'd have a lot fewer atheists when it's all said and done. But the precision and the details of creation, you think about the seasons that we have and how life on this planet depends on the earth having seasons. You know, not all seasons have not all planets have seasons. The earth has a season because it doesn't spin around an axis this way, it spins around a tilted axis. And that tilted axis is rotating around the sun. So that at one point in time, around that rotation around the sun, the southern hemisphere is closer to the sun, and the southern hemisphere gets warmed more than the northern hemisphere, and then it makes this traverse around, and then the northern hemisphere is closer to the sun, and the northern hemisphere becomes warmer, and the southern hemisphere becomes colder, and we have life on this planet that is sustained simply because we have seasons. And God put that in into such a precise thing. You look at the cellular level of what God created, and everything comes down to just the most micro of particles that have to behave in a particular way in order to life for life to exist. I mean, it's just amazing the details that God put in this thing when he spoke and said, Let there be light. And he created the earth and and separated the ground from the water and then caused plants to grow and and caused fish to exist in the sea and birds to exist in the air and animals to walk on the earth. And then he put man on the earth and created man in his image. So that's different than how he created the animals. The animals weren't created in his image, but man was created in his image. We're a three-part being. God is exists in three parts: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And we exist in three parts. We have a spirit, we are a spirit, and we live in this fleshly body, and we have a mind, a will, an intellect. You know, it's made up of our emotions. And we exist in those three parts. And then He got God gave man the authority to rule over the earth, to have dominion over it, to subdue it. And uh, and Adam, I mean, he gave Adam a brain to name the animals, to start naming stuff. I mean, I don't know how you come up with names for that many creatures on the earth, but Adam did. You know, and those are that's divine inspiration that that Adam received from God. And so there he was in the garden, walking with God. God made him a wife because it's not good for man to be alone. God created the institution of marriage. He created the two genders. There are no others. In fact, it's really two sexes, and gender has more to do with with linguistics and language, and this whole concept of multiple genders out there is really just the devil perverting what God created. There were two sexes, he made the male and female, cause them to be joined together, and the two shall become one under the union of marriage, and and created man so that we could reproduce after our kind, and we could produce other spirit beings. A spirit is born for the first time when a man and a woman come together under the union of marriage. I mean, that's it's amazing that the details that God put in place. And so the details matter. There's lots of places. We could give lots of examples, and I'm just I just picked a few to talk about tonight, just to get your mind thinking about the details and the instructions of God and how God instructs man on these details. He gave Adam the instruction that of every tree in the garden you may freely eat. But of this one tree of the knowledge of good and evil, do not eat, or you shall surely die. The day you eat of it, you will die. And man violated his instruction, and then we end up with the fallen condition of man and the curse that exists from not walking in the way that God instructed. God didn't have to curse the earth, it was just you walk in the way that God instructs, and there's blessing, and then you walk in the other way, and it's the antithesis of God, it's the antithesis of blessing, it's the opposite, and you end up in the curse. And so that's where the earth is. It's living in under the condition of the curse. And so God was not pleased with uh with the condition of man in that time. And uh he saw Noah and he was okay with Noah, and he instructed Noah to build an ark. He said, There's gonna be a lot of rain and a lot of water, and I need you to build an ark. And Noah's like, a what? Because and what's rain? Because until that time, God didn't water the earth with rain. Rain didn't exist before that time. And when God flooded the earth, I mean, there was water coming down, there was water coming up, there was water sideways, it was everywhere and it covered the covered the earth. But he preserved his creation, he preserved Noah, he gave him a plan, he gave him very specific instructions on what to do. What would happen if Noah didn't didn't uh uh follow those instructions? What would what where would we be if Noah skipped one of these steps? Thank God he didn't he he didn't skip the steps. But uh, you know, he gave very specific instructions. Noah had never built a boat, he wasn't a boat builder. People didn't build boats that I know of, and he instructs them, and he didn't really instruct him to build a boat. Because a boat is something that is is uh has got some design to it so that water it breaks through the water at one end and it and it cuts its way through the water, and boats typically have some means of propulsion, a sail, oars, a motor, something uh to propel the boat, and and a way to steer the boat. So a boat is a vehicle designed to move through the water and to be steered. What he instructed Noah to build was a box, an arc, which is like a cabinet. And so really it was designed just to float and just to preserve, but not to not to have any direction or course to sail. And so he gave specific instructions: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, about 30 cubits high, and a cubit was uh the pinky to the to the thumb on a man's hand, and so it was a a generality of a measurement, it wasn't a precise measurement on a ruler, but 300 cubits by 50 by 30. Uh, it had multiple compartments and rooms according to God's instructions. It was required to have a roof, and it even indicated so much that the roof would be one cubit above the walls that supported it. And so there was ventilation that God allowed. So it's going to keep the water out, but God even allowed a cubit width of space between the roof and the top of the wall so that you could have some ventilation in there. And he required it to have one door, one getting in point only, uh, three levels, uh, a lower, a second, a third level. And the door was so big that man couldn't shut it. And it required God to close them inside. I mean, it was very unique, very, very specific things, and then the instructions for the animals and the provisions, and and somehow got uh uh Noah had knowledge enough to fill in the blanks with with all the things that he was going to need besides that, and and it all worked, and we've got creation that was preserved because of righteous Noah, and thank God he got it right. I just wish he didn't bring mosquitoes on the ark. I'm not sure. Maybe maybe they came after, I don't know. So when when Moses uh was instructed by God to give the law to the Israelites, um there were some warnings that went with this. He said, You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. And so uh uh Moses gave the gave the law as God articulated it to him when the Ten Commandments were rolled out. Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak to in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. I'm gonna tell you some details, and you need to care enough about these details not to just hear it once, but to learn them. And you learn them so that you can be careful to observe them, because these details that I'm gonna give you matter. And so then he gave them ten very important details, the ten commandments. And again came a warning. Um, you shall walk in in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, that it may prolong your days in the land which uh which uh you shall possess. He warned them that you can't you shall not turn to the left or to the right. Uh very specific details. And you want more details, you could just go right on through the book of Leviticus and read a lot of fun details in there. Um, but we're not gonna do that tonight. Thank God for the book of Leviticus. When Moses was leading the Israelites through the desert, and the Israelites were complaining, and Moses was turning around and complaining to God about these people that he tasked them with. These people are ready to stone me. Who knew they were gonna want water in the desert? These people are so ridiculous, they're asking for everything. Okay, then so Moses complains to God and God instructs Moses, all right, I'm gonna I want you to do this. I want you to take the staff and uh remember the staff that he had struck the water with um the Red Sea and part of the Red Sea. He said, I want you to take that one and uh and I want you to strike this rock. I'm gonna tell you to go to a certain rock, certain place, stand on the rock, and I want you to strike the rock. And when you do, water's gonna flow out and the people be watered. And the estimate that Pastor gives is somewhere around three million Jews, plus their animals, got watered. So I mean that had to be a pretty spectacular sight. And God, all he instructed him was strike the rock that I tell you to, and this is gonna happen. And then later, you know, they're they're at a different point, different place in time, different place in the wilderness, and they're thirsty again, and uh they're complaining again, so the whole scene kind of repeats itself, and God says, This time I want you to speak to the rock. I want you to stand on this rock, I want you to take that staff that you had in your hand, and I want you to speak to the rock. And Moses was so fed up with him, he had a temper problem, and he was fed up with the Israelites that he struck the rock again, but not once, but twice. And God was angry with him. Why? Because details matter. There was a type and shadow where Jesus was struck once for us in our place. He was struck one time, and that was the demonstration. He was struck one time, and when he was struck, living water flowed out of him, and we get the benefit of that. But Moses got mad, and instead of speaking to the rock, he struck it twice, and he violated the type and shadow that God had designed in the Old Testament. So here you get to see this is the detail that mattered that God put in place, and there was a failure, and you got to see the end result. Well, God still redeemed the situation, the people still got watered, they got what they need. Water came out, people were watered, animals were watered, all was well except for one guy, Moses. And he he had to let Moses know. He said, You violated this thing. I said to speak, and you struck it twice. You're gonna get to see the promised land, and that's it. You will not get to go in. You know, so there are consequences for getting things wrong. But that was a type and shadow of Jesus. You know, in in the Old Testament, and and I did not go through, let me just preface this, I did not count, I did not go through and count all the times that there was a reference to Jesus or a prophetic thing about Jesus or the Messiah in the Old Testament. Um, but uh a lot of people have. Uh some very smart people have have tried to tabulate this, and none of them agree. But it's somewhere between something approaching 300 times to maybe as many as five or six hundred times in the Old Testament, there is a reference or an allusion to Jesus or the Messiah in the Old Testament. I mean, anywhere going back from hundreds of years to thousands of years before Christ. There were prophecies about Jesus coming. In fact, you can go in every book of the Bible, you can find Jesus. There's a reference to Jesus in every book of the Bible. It's all the way back in Genesis from the beginning of time. It is right back there. There's a reference to Jesus in the beginning of time. In Genesis 3.15, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed, and talking to uh about the devil here, and and her seed, and his head shall bruise your head, and your uh and you shall bruise his heel. And so what what are we talking about there? The devil is under the foot. That's a it's a it's a sign of of triumphing over or or uh defeating the devil, and so the devil is under our feet. We are the body of Christ, and he is the head of this body, and the devil is under our feet, is under his feet, so he's under our feet. And so there's enmity between her seed and his seed, and and and the and the seed of of the woman will will bruise the head of the devil, and the and the head of the devil will bruise his heel. And so, right there in Genesis 3.15 is really a prophetic testimony of not just Jesus, but an outcome of what was designed, what God put in place. Um you could go back to Isaiah in Isaiah 7.14. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. That's in Isaiah 7.14. You know, just a few short books before Jesus gets on the scene, which is about 700 years. I mean, these are some spectacular details of the prophecies going back hundreds and thousands of years, predicting Jesus stepping on the scene again in the future, and all of these details matter. Now, there is some uh statistical analysis that's been done, and I got to look this up. Um, for a single person to fulfill only eight of these prophecies, one person, if if one person fulfilled eight of these prophecies, and this person existed in the New Testament times, so that would be like Old Testament prophecies, pick eight of your favorite ones, and you got one person in the New Testament who fulfills eight of these things. Statistically, the likelihood of that happening is what I'll describe as extremely unlikely. Just eight. Now remember, there's somewhere between probably 300 plus, I'll just say 300 plus prophecies in the Old Testament regarding Jesus. And for eight of them to occur would be extremely unlikely in statistical terms. And statistically, the way the math works out, for 48 or more of these prophecies to be fulfilled by one person out of the New Testament, the only way to statistically, proper statistically describe that occurrence, for 48 of these prophecies to be fulfilled would be divine fulfillment, is the way statisticians put it. Like there is no other explanation. I have traveled around the moon and escaped Earth's gravity, and I came back and saw the cross, and there is no other explanation for what I saw and experienced. There is only one answer. Scientifically, there is only one way to describe what they experienced, and that's Jesus is real. And his word is true. In Galatians chapter 3, verse 13, this is referencing something going back to Deuteronomy. And so you got the New Testament that, you know, Paul often did this reference the occurrences in the Old Testament. Here's just one example. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, where is it written? In Deuteronomy 21, 23, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. How many times did Jesus say, I'm doing this right now so that it might be fulfilled what was written? I mean, he literally did stuff just to check the box and go on to the next one. He's got a long list of things to check, somewhere between 300 and 600 of these things, depending on who you talk to. And he's checking the boxes so that it might be fulfilled. Check, so that it might be fulfilled. And he's doing these things and checking them off. And things are getting checked off that list faster and faster, and his return is imminent. We are getting closer and closer to his return. All these details matter. You think about John chapter one. He goes all the way back to the beginning. It says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John, John the Baptist had an amazing revelation right here about Jesus from the very beginning in Genesis. And then in verse 14 he said, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, and the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word that was in the beginning. Nothing was created without the word. And then suddenly, how does that happen? The word became flesh and dwelt among us. I don't know, but it happened, and we have this word, and this word speaks to Jesus all throughout in every book. Jesus said these words in Matthew chapter 5, verse 17, he said, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot and or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. I don't know how big a jot or a tittle is, but I think it's a pretty small thing, like a micro thing. And like he's saying, every every detail, even the smallest ones, matter, and all of them are going to get fulfilled. And he's fulfilled. He did it. He didn't leave anything off. He did it all. He said even the very hairs of your head are numbered. Now let's look over in Colossians chapter 1, verse 9. I haven't even gotten to the crux of the message, but it was kind of fun going through those details because details matter. Was that interesting to anyone? Does that does that spark and build faith about who God is and what he did what he did and the details that he created? It's amazing to think about for me. I hope it is for you. Colossians 1, verse 9. Paul starts off in this verse here. He said, For this reason. Okay, for what reason? So now you've got to go back up and read the other reasons before I'm not going to do that. I'll just shorten it up and say that Paul heard about the Colossians and their faith and love for all the saints. And they were, you know, they were doing something good and they were on the right trail. And so Paul writes, For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with all with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. He's praying for the knowledge of his will. Of whose will? God's will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son, of His love, in whom we have redemption through the blood, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. I mean, I kind of look at this right here, and little bits of it jumped out to me when I think about the beginning of creation. In the beginning, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Holy Spirit hovered over something and then began to speak and brought light. And so you read these verses right here, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us, he qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. And he delivered us from the power of darkness, and I could just say, in the chaos condition that we were in, and conveyed us into the kingdom of God, of the Son, of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. I mean, he re He brought, you know, there was something that fell out of a good condition, and He brought it right back into a pristine, orderly condition where every detail is in the right place. I mean, that's amazing to me what He's done. But Paul is praying here that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. That you may be filled with the with the knowledge of his will. Think about that. God has a will for your life, he has a plan for your life. And Paul is praying for this group of people to have the knowledge that God has for their life. He wants them to have a knowledge about what God's plan is for their life. Being filled with the knowledge of his will. In all wisdom and spiritual understanding. He also wants you to have all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Like we're praying for things here that kind of begins. If you had those things, if you had God's knowledge and his wisdom and his spiritual understanding, like now you're kind of approaching the level of God here. And is that okay to pray for? Yes, it is. Paul's praying this for this group of people right here. And you have the same right to these things. God wants you to know what he knows, he wants you to have what he has, he wants you to experience what he's experiencing. He brought you into his class of being and made a place for you at his table, and he wants you to know all the details. Now, James is a little bit harsher in what he says. That's why I like him so much. He doesn't beat around the bush, he doesn't take him any time to get there. He just goes right there. But in James chapter 4, he said, Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have, you murder and covet and cannot obtain, you fight in war, yet you do not have because you do not ask, you knuckleheads. Pastor, we're here, you doofuses. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss. And so these people were a group of people that were living in a in a rough condition and they were having all kinds of problems, and they had generally they had strife. They were at war in some form or fashion, and they did not have what they desired because they one, they didn't ask, and then when they did ask, they asked amiss. And what does it mean to ask amiss? They didn't approach God the right way, they didn't use the magic word please or pretty please with sugar on top, they didn't say all those things. No, they were asking outside of God's will for something. The Holy Spirit will never help you do anything that violates this word or that violates his will for your life. Remember, we can pray and ask to know that we be filled with the knowledge of his will for our life. And then we so if we have the knowledge of his will for our life, and then we aim at something different, and we ask the Holy Spirit to help us get the different thing over here, he's not going to help you, and you are going to have hell in your life. You're getting it's gonna get rough because you're not aiming at God's will and plan and purpose for your life. And you have a purpose, and it's an amazing purpose, and there are incredible details that you need to walk out and enjoy along the way. And we can know these things, we can know some stuff, but we got to ask according to his will, and his word is his will. And we can have the logos here, but we can also have the revelation knowledge that we prayed for at the beginning of this service that the Holy Spirit was going to breathe on this word, and you're gonna have knowledge about something specific to you in your life, and this is gonna help you. And then a little bit later in that uh same chapter, James chapter 4, um, it says, but he gives, um it says, therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And so there's hope. You know, James is not completely harsh all the time. He's a little rough, a little salty, but he does have a heart. And God, he wants you to know that God gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit yourself to God. Don't run from God, don't run away from God, don't turn away from God. Submit yourself to God because God's a good heavenly father and he wants good things for you. Resist the devil, don't resist God. Stop resisting God's plan for your life and start resisting the devil's plan for your life. Resist the devil. And when you do, he's gonna flee from you. When you you don't even have to like beat or destroy or pummel the devil, it's just a resistance. And when you resist, then he flees from you. Like that doesn't sound hard. Just resist the devil and he flees from you. Draw near to God and he'll draw near to you. When you put it in those terms, it doesn't sound so bad. It's not so hard. Romans 8 28 says that all things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. How many in here love God? All right. Most of y'all love God, that's good. How many of y'all are called according to his purpose? All right, so that's the rest of y'all. We're all called according to his purpose. If you're born into his kingdom, you have a purpose. And it's his purpose, and you have a calling for that, and he wants you to fulfill that. I'm gonna look at Psalm 25 because I started reading that at the beginning of this service. I I uh used this scripture this morning uh with regard to the offering. Um, but Psalm 25 in verse 9, it says, The humble he guides in justice, and the humble he teaches his way. And all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenants and his testimonies. Verse 12 says, Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him, the one who fears the Lord, God will teach in his way that God chooses, that God chooses. And he will dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth, and the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him. These secrets are not from us, they're for us. And if you start aligned with his aligning with his purpose and his plan and where he's positioned you, you get to know some stuff. We get the inside scoop. It's an unfair advantage, and we're justified in knowing some things. Look over in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. We'll read a couple of verses here. And this is one that we often quote around here. It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And verse two, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now, Pastor has shared revelation out of this verse right here with you that he has lived and experienced. And again, the revelation is the God-breathed word where the Holy Spirit takes a piece of this written word and lights it up to you personally, where there's a very um right now application in your life. And it may not exactly be the context that that scripture was written in. It's just the Holy Spirit talking to you through his word about your present situation. And that's really a lot of the revelation knowledge right there, is how that comes. And so he had a point in his life where he made some decisions, and maybe they weren't um God's best decision for him. And he describes it this way that it was uh God's um allowable or permissive will for him to go. Technically, you look at God's word and God will permit you to do anything because we are free-will being beings. We can we can choose to obey God or obey the devil. And so we, you know, there's a whole spectrum right there of where we could walk off into. And so, you know, God allows what we allow too. He's also assigned us authority to bind things and loose things. And, you know, the things that are bound here on earth have a corresponding uh spiritual consequence of other things being bound in the spirit realm. And we allow things in the earthly realm, we're allowing other things to operate in the spirit realm. And so we are put into a position where we have authority and we can walk in that authority and we can do right, we can do wrong, or we can do anything in between. And so there's the permissive will of God where Pastor describes a scenario where he uh and his family got up and moved to Corpus Christi, and he didn't believe afterwards that it was God's best. He had some regrets about that. Um, I don't have the same regrets that he had about that because he moved to Corpus Christi and ended up in a church where ultimately I was later in that same church, and and we had some mutual friends that that knew Claire and that also knew me later, and they were the ones that were trying to match us up together and ultimately did, and we got married because of what Pastor calls God's permissive will. I call it God's perfect will. We'll arm wrestle over that one, I guess. But remember, I said that all things, according to Romans 8.28, all things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. And so whether you're off in God's permissive will or out of God's will, at any point in time that you repent, turn around, draw near to God, at any point in time that you resist the devil and come closer to God, he draws near to you, and things turn around. And the the facts, the conditions are subject to change. We don't deny the facts exist, they exist. A fact is a fact. But facts in this realm are subject to change, and so they can work together for our good. And so I believe it worked together for the good anyway. And he has a testimony, and I have a testimony, and I'm pretty okay with that. But I want to look at that verse, and so we talk about it in terms of that revelation because that's pastor's experience. Um, but let's look at some words here in that scripture. It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly, acceptable to God, which is a reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. And so do not conform to this world. Christians, um, Paul is urging them right here, don't be squeezed into the world's mold for your life. The world has a way of doing things, the world has expectations for how people ought to be, and we are not it. And so don't let the outside world, the people of this world, the traditions of this world squeeze you into that mold. Um, you get squeezed into this mold right here, God's word. And so that then it comes to being transformed, be transformed. That word transformed in the Greek is be metamorphosed, be changed from the inside out. That is, you change the way of your thinking. And it and not not really the outward appearance. I mean, I guess it if you change the way of your thinking and you're living for the devil, then you might look a certain way, and then when you start living for God, you might look another way. So it can change your outward appearance, but it's the inside out. You're metamorphosed from the inside out, and that comes by the renewing of your mind by the washing of the water of the word. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And our mind is renewed when we intake his word, when we feed on his word. And then it's and we do that for this purpose that we may prove something. Well, God's word doesn't need any proving. God doesn't, you know, it's just his word. And it's real and it's true whether we believe it or not. And so the proving there uh is a Greek word uh that means to determine, examine, test, or approve something. And it's it's really, I guess the Greek word is is is similar to in that time, it would be how they tested metal, they used fire to test the metal to determine the purity, they used heat to determine the purity of a metal. And so I I relate this to experience right here. Um, don't be conformed to the world, but be metamorphosed from the inside out by renewing your mind with the word of God so that we can prove or demonstrate or determine through experience that we're experiencing. We can determine and experience through our experience, we can determine something through experience something. What is it we're determining? Um that we may determine what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Um the Greek words right there, three different words, three unique words, three unique meanings. Um the the Greek word for good, agathos, is beneficial and righteous. It's not harmful, it's something that's beneficial to you. And so that we may prove what is beneficial. And the second word there, Greek word, teleos. I'm sorry, the Greek word uh erorestos, um, which means acceptable. So we've got good, which is beneficial, so that we may prove what is beneficial. And the the word for accepted acceptable there or pleasing is in harmony with God's nature. That word means in harmony with God's nature, so that we may prove what is beneficial and in harmony with God's nature. And then there's a third word, telelos, which is perfect, complete, mature, without flaws, and not lacking anything. And so, really, these are three words that it takes to describe the whole of what God wants us to walk out, so that we may prove what is beneficial in harmony with God's nature and complete without flaws and lacking nothing. Those three words are a combination in this scripture, in this context, you have to put those three words together to get the picture of what it is we're supposed to be able to prove out by being changed from the inside through God's word and making and presenting our body as a living sacrifice, consecrating ourselves to Him. In John 15, verse 7 and 8, and this is another familiar verse here. If you abide in me, Jesus is speaking here, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you'll ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. Well, we got to go back to the understanding, you'll ask what you desire. Well, I desire something over here contrary to God's plan for my life. Well, then you're not gonna get it. Why? Because it starts out by saying, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you will ask what you desire. If you when you get to this point where you're abiding in Jesus and his words are abiding in you, then what you desire is his word and his plan. And you're not asking amiss. You're asking in alignment with his word. And when you do that, it shall be done for you. It doesn't say it might be done for you. It's there's a there's an outside possibility it'll be done for you. It says it shall be done for you. And by this my father is glorified that you bear my much fruit, so you will be my disciples. In other words, like people are gonna know you as my disciples when you desire something and you put a demand on it, you ask, and you get it. And God's word is working in your life, and people around you see that, and they're gonna be like, Oh, those are Jesus' disciples right there. You're gonna be known. That's part of your reputation. You will be transformed, you have consecrated yourself, you've made yourself available to God's word for his purpose, for his plan in your life. You you rolled your way off and you consecrated yourself to him. You adopted his word on the inside, and you've been transformed and renewed, and you're now proving out your experiencing in a demonstration in life for others around you. Because anytime you're experiencing something, they're spectators, and they're watching, they're we're watching how you responded to things, or watching what's going on in your life, and you're proving what is that beneficial and harmonious to God's uh nature and complete and perfect thing without flaws. And you're proving that, you're demonstrating that, you're experiencing it with an audience, and people around you get to see. Those details matter, and we get to pray to know things. We get to pray to know and be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that we can walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power. For all patience and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us. He qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, and he delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his son, of his love, in whom. We have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of sins. We get to have those things. We get to aim for those things. We get to ask for those things. And when we ask, we're going to get it. I want you to have those things. You know, I know sometimes when you're in the middle of experiencing something, sometimes you don't know how to pray. Sometimes things get tough, and you're not even really sure in the moment what is God's will for my life in this moment. Is it really God's will that I go this way? It doesn't look quite right. It doesn't seem quite right, but I've been surprised before. And you know, we start mentally engaging on these things, and then we just don't really know. And your spirit can know stuff because it's in tune with the Holy Spirit. And your brain, you know, will find out at some point later down the road what the right thing was. But when you're engaged with your brain, when you're experiencing things, when you're in the middle of trouble, when you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and you just don't know what's up and what's down and what way to go, and how should I pray and what should I ask for? I don't want to ask amiss. I know I should ask for something, but how can I know what that is? Romans 8 26 says, likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, our feebleness of body and mind. The Holy Spirit is working for you. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercessions for us with groanings which can't be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercessions for the saints according to the will of God. He's praying God's will in your life. And you want to at least have your voice be in tune with what the Holy Spirit is interceding for you for. If you want to be in tune with what the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's interceding for you right now, with groanings that can't be uttered. And if you want to be in tune with that, then you need to also take time to pray in the Holy Spirit. You don't pray with your mental understanding, God, I don't know what's right, what's up, what's down right now. I'm not sure if this is your will or not. Doesn't seem like it, but I've been wrong before. I don't really know how to pray. I'm just going to pray in the Holy Spirit. And you'll never miss that way. You will pray God's perfect will. Praying in the Holy Spirit. You can look things up in here, you can find things, you'll get revelation out of this word. But in the absence of that, you've got a secret weapon. It's the Holy Spirit. He will never leave you nor forsake you. And he's given you a tool, a secret communication. The devil doesn't understand it. The devil can't crack the code. It's your spirit talking to his spirit at a level that your brain will never understand. Ultimately, your brain can know some stuff. But you're going to have a download of those details to walk. And your brain won't know the details. But what you will know is the next step. And you take that step and you're going to know the next step. And you take that one and you're going to know the next step. And pretty soon you're walking in the way that you should go. You're walking out the plan of God in your life, and you won't miss. And so that's my heart for you tonight. That you not miss. That you be filled with the knowledge of His will, that you have spiritual understanding and heaven's wisdom. And that you not miss. And if you do, there's still mercy every day. And if you do miss and you're not quite in the exact, right, perfect plan, you know, the spectacular things can still happen because all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

unknown 47:29

Amen.