Job 28

Welcome to Crossings. My name's Tyler, and I serve as campus pastor right here at Crossings El Mirage, and I want to welcome you to service today. Before we get started, I want to make you aware of a couple of ways that you can connect with us today. The first, if you have a phone with you, you can send a text message with the word Crossings no space to the number 940-00. Or, if you'd like to use the cards that are in the seat back in front of you, we've got three cards that'll direct you on ways that you can get connected this week. The first is the new card. If you're new to Crossings over the last few weeks, we would love to connect with you. Take some time to fill out that card during our service today and drop it in one of the black boxes, and then we'll follow up with you this week with some more information. The next card is the next card. Take some time to use that card if you're interested in taking some next steps in your faith journey, things like baptism, joining a group, or even serving. And then lastly, and I believe most importantly, is the prayer card. And I want to guarantee you that if you take time today to fill out that prayer card, all of those come to me, and I get to pray over each of them individually. So, if you've got things big or small going on in your life, please feel free to share those with us. We'd be happy to pray over them. Hey, as we get prepared for some God-honoring worship, I want to encourage you to go into service today with an expectant spirit. We know that God will do big things in our midst, and so I want to encourage you to enter this time with an expectant spirit. Now, let's get prepared for some God-honoring >> Sing it out. I'll shake it off the heaviness. I'll shake it off the heaviness. I'm dancing out of my regrets. I'm throwing caution to the wind. No, I am not ashamed to praise like this. Some say it's foolishness. But I say it's worth the risk. I can't believe what Jesus did. No, I am not ashamed to praise like this. Where are those chains that once held me? I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. My sin is gone. How can it be? I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. Look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I'll sing. I'll dance cuz I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. Thank God I'm free. Oh, we thank you for freedom. I've found a friend that never quits. No other love is good as this. And I don't care what anyone says. I'll never be ashamed to praise like this. Where are those chains that once held me? I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. My sin is gone. How can it be? I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. Look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I'll sing. I'll dance cuz I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. Thank God Now, I'm free. You took the cross and you broke your body. You shed your blood. Now, the sinner can't. My debt is paid and my record is clean. I couldn't do it, so you did it for me. You took the cross and you broke your body. You shed your blood. Now, the sinner can't. My debt is paid and my record is clean. I couldn't do it, so you did it for >> You took the cross. >> You took the cross and you broke your >> You shed your blood. My debt is paid. I couldn't do it. Only God can do it. Only God can do Only God can do Only God can do Only God can do I broke those chains. There are those chains that once held me. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. My sin is gone. How can I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. Look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. I'll sing. I'll dance cuz I'm free. I'm free. I'm free. You took the cross. You took the cross and you broke your body. You shed your blood. Now, the sinner can't. My debt is paid and my record is I couldn't do it, so you did it >> You took the cross. >> You took the cross and you broke your body. >> You shed your blood. My debt is paid. Oh, I couldn't do it. Only God can do Only God can do it. Only King Jesus can do it. Only >> Yes, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. >> My Jesus my savior, Lord, there is none like you. All of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. And let every breath all that I am never cease to worship you. Shout to Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing. Power and majesty praise to the king. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your hands. Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have in you. My Jesus, my savior, Lord, there is none like you. All of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath, all that I am, and never cease to worship you. Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing. Power and majesty, praise to the king. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your hands. Forever I'll love you. Forever I'll stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have. Shout to the Lord all the earth. Power and majesty, praise to the king. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your hands. Forever I'll love you. Forever I'll stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have. Oh, nothing compares to the promise I have. Oh, nothing compares to the promise I have. In it >> Well, good morning and welcome. We're going to step into an intentional time of prayer here. So, if you got a Bible today, go ahead and open that up. We're going to start in Isaiah chapter 53 and in Isaiah chapter 53, we're going to set the course for our time together as we prepare to observe communion. So, as we look at Isaiah 53, if you locate the communion elements in the seat that you're in and kind of prepare those. I chose Isaiah 53 for our prayer time today because I think it is a great reminder that often times as we do things rhythmically, they can become mundane, normal, or just something we do every once in a while. But my hope and encouragement for you and I today is that we would spend a very intentional time remembering the weight of what it takes for us to be able to observe communion. And so I want to read for us today out of Isaiah chapter 53 beginning of verse 3 as we prepare to observe communion. Isaiah chapter 53 says this, He was despised and rejected by men. A man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone that people turned away from. He was despised and we didn't value him. Yet he himself bore our sickness and he carried our pains. But we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities. The punishment for our peace was on him. And we are healed by his wounds. As we get ready to observe communion, I just want to encourage us to take an intentional pause here to reflect on the weight of what Jesus did by bearing our punishment. As a matter of fact, as scripture would say in verse 5, the punishment for our peace was upon him. And so I just want to encourage us to take a deep breath, to step back, to spend time praying and reflecting on exactly what it took for us to be able to observe communion on a day like this that he was punished so that our peace would be upon him. So let's spend some time praying, thanking God, but also reflecting on what it takes for us to observe communion. Let's do that now. >> God, we come before you thankful for the reality of what it takes for us to be able to observe communion. God, as we prepare to do that here in just a few moments, we simply take a step back and acknowledge the fact that the punishment for our peace is upon you. That you sent your son to die on a cross for us because you loved us that much. God, I pray that we wouldn't lose sight of that life-changing truth, but that it would be something that sticks with us and guides us on a daily basis. God, we pray all this in your name. So, we step into our time of communion. We'll begin with the bread and the words of 1 Corinthians chapter 11, which are so clear and guide us today. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, beginning in second half of verse 23, says this, "On the night when he was betrayed, that is Jesus, Jesus took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" Verse 25, he continues by saying this, "In the same way, he also took the cup after supper and said, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. And I love what verse 26 reminds us of often. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. It becomes an act of worship. And with that in mind, let's stand as we continue in God-honoring worship. >> I don't want anything but you. You're more than every dream come true. All other things I thought I wanted don't come close to knowing you. Now that I'm yours and you are mine our love is the secret that I find. I'll spend forever in the pleasure I found looking in your eyes. Give me Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. More than silver, more than You are the treasure that I long for. Now that I've tasted of your goodness, nothing else will satisfy. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have all this all this world. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have all all this world. Just give me Jesus. I only want Jesus. I only want Jesus. I only want Jesus. I don't want anyone else. I need anything else. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. I don't want anyone else. I don't need anything else. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. I don't want anyone else. I don't need anything else. You are my one thing. You are my I don't want anyone else. I don't need anything else. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. You are my one thing. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. Jesus. You can have all of this world. You can have all of this world. You can all of this world. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. Jesus. You can have all of this world. You can have all of this world. I don't want anyone else. I don't need anything >> Good morning everyone. Welcome to Cross Church. My name is Ruby. I work with the kids ministry. Welcome if it's your first time today. We're so happy that you're here today. I have a few announcements. There's cards in front of you or behind you. The first card is the new card. If you're new here today, please fill one out. We would love to get to know you and just hear about how you got to come to Cross Church today. And then our next card is next card is the next card and it's if you've been here before or if you want to get connected with the small group or you want to serve with any ministry. And then our prayer card is our prayer card. If you guys need any prayers of any sort, we would love for you guys to fill one out, put it in the black box behind at the end. And then Pastor Tyler prays for all these cards during the week. And then we have a few announcements. We We have the SPs tonight. So, if you serve in any kind of way, we would love to have you guys there tonight. It's at 5:00 p.m. Um there will be child care and there's still room for you guys to register and it's tonight at 5:00. And then our next event is the fall festival, which is next Sunday. We'll have train and just a lot of fun for the kiddos. So, bring come out, bring your family. It'll be between the services. Um and then also our giving. None of this stuff can be done without your giving and your generosity. Um so, I'll give you guys 30 seconds to do that. Thank you. >> Well, good morning and welcome to Cross Church El Mirage. Whether you're here in the room or if you're joining us um online, we're so glad that you joined us today for worship. Today we are going to be in Job chapter 28. So, if you got a Bible, uh flip there, click there, make your way somehow to Job 28. It's going to be a great text for us today. But, before we get started, we're going to do something kind of unique. We've never done this before on a Sunday morning. Uh we've been doing the SPs, which is our Excellence in Service Performance Yearly Awards for the last few years now. So, it's a fun time where we get to celebrate and honor all of our volunteers. We actually give out awards at that event, but this year, we've been announcing our award winners here at each location. So, I'm going to catch you up to speed on three of our award winners for the typical categories. And then, Ruby, our kids ministry leads can actually be able to give away a special award uh that we created for someone unique here in our location. And so, we are giving away this year custom shoes. So, if you see one of our award winners wearing these shoes that are pretty legit, you need to know this, they're kind of a big deal, okay? They don't come in cowboy boots, but that's okay. We'll let it slide this time. Here's the deal. Um our award winners uh are as follows. So, if you see these people, tell them thank you. Um or if you see them wearing the shoes, make sure that you celebrate them as well. Our newcomer of the year um is Kate Torres, who has showed up on the scene and done incredible, serves in basically all the ministries in the life of our church. We're so thankful for her. She's our newcomer of the year. Super excited for her. Um our uh second one is the Servant of the Year. She's actually not with us today. Funny enough, Kate's actually serving right now as newcomer of the year during this service. So, uh Servant of the Year is someone who's not with us, not in town this week, but makes all of the stuff that you see on a Sunday morning happen um from communion to a bunch of different first impressions elements. And that award winner is Lori Slaughter. So, if you know her, give her a call, celebrate her. Pretty excited um about all that God's doing there. You can save your applause later. Some of you are like, "Can I come up? Can I Can I" Just hang on. Um and then, our third award winner is Making Jesus Known. Uh one of the things you know about Cross Church is that Making Jesus Known is at the core of who we are. It's absolutely important for who we are. And so, we actually gave that award to T.J. O'Connor, who joined our church, has been baptized in our church, been married, and now feels a call to preach, preached his first sermon here. Super excited about that. So, celebrate those people if you know them. We'll do that tonight. Uh Um but Ruby, would you give away our special award today? >> So, our special award is volunteer of the year and it's Heather Oken. We're just so >> Absolutely. You got to come up and get your certificate. Yeah. >> Um Heather has been serving since uh our church has launched and she's done such an amazing job and we appreciate all the work that you've done and she works in the nursery and she always helps. She rocks VBS. She's always our number one. So, thank you for that. Yeah. >> Excellent. Thank you so much, Heather. Yeah, if you have a child, a young child, which we have a lot of here at our church and they've been served well, it's because of Heather. So, we're super thankful for her. Um well, let's get down to business today. We are going to be in Job chapter 28. So, if you'll again make your way there. Job chapter 28 um is an interesting place where we find ourselves. Uh if you've been with us through this sermon series, you know we've been uh taking multiple chapters at once. We kind of been doing this skip, hop, and jump strategy to get through all of these different things, but what we're doing today as we begin to see a shift in the text, we're slowing things down a little bit and we're going to focus in on just Job chapter 28. If you've been with us since the beginning, maybe you're joining us for the first time. I want to catch everybody together up to speed. In Job chapter 1, we have a conversation between God and Satan where God grants Satan permission to test Job. God has full confidence this that Job will stand the test or the trial. So, God gives him permission to test Job. He is able to test him, but he can't take his life. So, he gives parameters for it and that's exactly what happens. Job's friends come. They sit with him. Um they walk through this season with him and then at the end of that season, um one of the really important things that happens is they begin to dialogue and they go through this for about 20 chapters and we get to the end of this and what we find is that in chapter 28, Job begins to have a sort of a shift in the conversation. He begins to have a change of heart, if you will, where he goes from ending his pity party to beginning the search for answers. And really, that's where today's sermon title comes from, digging for answers. Because, here's the truth, we all have questions that we ask. I was laughing with the first service about the way in which uh 50, 20, 30, even 40 years ago, we searched for answers differently. All right? Um 30 and 40 years ago, we used these things that young people don't know about called encyclopedias. All right? It's an incredible You can actually buy a whole set of them and let them sit on a shelf and collect dust, right? And you can buy them. Now, um my generation was the one that was around when the invention of Google came to be. And so, now, when you were digging or searching for an answer, you could go straight to Google. And now, kids today have this thing called AI, which will give you an answer. You don't know if it's true or not, but you'll get an answer nonetheless. That's a different um conversation entirely. But, here's the deal. Our search for answers has taken a shift every generation. It's changed. But, at the core is the search for answers. I laughed with first service, if you were 30 and 40 years ago, if you were on a road trip with family members or friends, and you thought you were right about something, and you also had someone in the car that thought they were right, there was no way to settle the argument. Whoever just was more confident became the person that was right. They didn't have Google. And so, this search for answers is kind of central to who we are as people. And Job is experiencing this shift as well, the search for answers. Uh as we take a turn into where the scriptures will lead us today, on a deep and spiritual level, I believe we all have questions that we are asking when it comes to our faith. Deep questions, like, why would God take this person now? Why is this thing happening to me right now? God, what are you doing for me and to me in this season? You can fill in the blank with whatever the question you're asking. But, the truth is, we are all asking questions and digging for answers. And what we're going to find today is that Job gives us a five-step process really naturally through his sort of progression that gives us a roadmap for how we should dig for answers as well. And so if you'll read with me, we're going to read in Job chapter 28. We're going to start reading in verse 12. Job 28:12 says this, "But where can wisdom be found? And where is understanding located? No one can know its value. Since it cannot be found in the land of the living. The ocean depths say, 'It is not in me.' While the sea declares, 'I don't have it.' Gold cannot be exchanged for it. And silver cannot be weighed out for its price." Let's skip down to verse 20 which says this, "Where does wisdom come from? And where is understanding located? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the sky." We'll take a pause there as we step in today. Here's the question. When we go digging for answers, what should we do? How exactly do we go about the process of searching for answers? This five-step process begins with a very important first step, which will begin our note taking for today with this idea. The first step is to look to who has the answers. We should look to the person that does have the answers. One of the unique um characteristics of Job's dialogue here, this poetic conversation that he's having, is he says in verse 14, "The ocean depths say about wisdom, 'It is not in me.' While the sea declares, 'I don't have it.' If I could offer you a 2026 translation for this, there are going to be a million resources in the world today that scream at us, 'I have the answer for wisdom.' But underneath the surface, they all say this same thing that they do not have true wisdom. There is only one source of true wisdom, and that is from God himself. True wisdom comes from God himself. As a matter of fact, let me remind you of the words of Nehemiah that the God of the heavens has the answers. And for you today, what we find in Job is that Job goes straight to God for the answers to his questions. I love that he is so clear in his communication. He isn't happy about it, right? We have this conversation where Job is pushing back and everything's darkness and sad and dreary, kind of like the weather today, amen? Some of us are like, it's a struggle. It's a snow day almost to get here. But here's the deal. Job is going through this dialogue with God, and he is asking deep questions like, "Why is it so hard to find you? Why don't you answer me? Why don't you fix this? Why don't you do this?" And it's in these conversations that he is digging for answers, and he starts by looking to the person that has the answers. If you here today are searching for answers, let me give you two things you can begin doing right now today to search for answers. Look to God. The first source where we can find answers from God is the Bible. All right? It shouldn't shock you that the pastor would say the Bible has the answers. Now, uh the sort of caveat that most people would give is this. They would say, "Well, pastor, it doesn't tell me who I should marry or what job I should take or what city I should live in." But it does give us enough guidance for life that if we follow that guidance, our lives will go according to his good plan. Let me encourage you today to read your Bible to find answers. Uh matter of fact, um I spent about 10 years doing student ministry working with 6th through 12th graders. And I love how teenagers phrase things, all right? Uh sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes I think, "What are you talking about?" One time, I will never forget, a teenager looked at me. We were talking about finding answers from God and answers in the Bible, and he said, "You know, he says, 'Pastor, sometimes it just feels like God's playing this cosmic game of hide and seek with the answers to my faith.'" And I thought, you know, that's so true. It can feel like that, that God is playing a cosmic version of hide and seek with the answers to our deep faith questions. But the truth is that we have God's fully divine inspired word given to us. And as a matter of fact, scripture itself would teach us that all scripture, not 80 or 90 or even 50%, all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for you and I. Understand it. Scripture has answers. The second thing that you can do to find answers for the questions that you're asking is to pray. Is to talk to God himself. If you are looking for answers today from God, pray. Pray. And pray some more. And when you feel like you've prayed enough, pray a little more and I promise you it will go well for you. One of the things that I laugh about often is that kids today um don't understand what it's like just to sit and wait and be bored. Right? They're always entertained. Even us as adults now. While we wait at the gas pump now, there's a screen that has things playing for us. It's commercials. Like I It takes 5 minutes, maybe, all right? But we are always entertained. There's always a screen or something. We never just sit in the silence. One of the things that we look at as a reminder here is this, we look to God for answers, we need to be reminded to pray. To pray. To create space in our daily lives where we can consistently pray, being reminded that prayer is a dialogue where God speaks to us and we speak to him. So, we should both search for answers in the scriptures, but also in praying, understanding that answers from God are not hide and go seek, but they are available to us if we will look to the person who has the answers. Second thing that we see as we walk through this story and see Job's progression in digging for answers is the second thing you need to be able to do is understand what you are seeking. You need to understand what you're seeking. Verse 2 says this, "But where can wisdom be found? And where is understanding located? No one can know its value since it cannot be found in the land of the living." Job says, "I want wisdom. That's what I'm searching for. That's what I'm seeking for." And he has a clear, concise direction knowing exactly what it is that he is looking for. It's similar to what we find in the words of Colossians chapter 2 that would say this in verses 2 and 3, "I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love so that they may have all the riches of the complete understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery that is Jesus. In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." You see what Job was searching for is wisdom and knowledge which is found in Christ. Understanding what you are seeking is valuable. Now, here's the process that I think we must get to is that we must also understand that what we're seeking might challenge us in the way that we look. As a matter of fact, Mark chapter 10 reminds us of this with the rich young ruler. You see a rich young wrong young ruler? Wrong ruler? Yes. Halloween hangover, it's okay. All right. Um here's the deal. It's the rich young ruler that goes to Jesus seeking eternal life and he says, "All right, what do I need to do? What's the thing?" Jesus answers it. He gives him the information, but it's not the information that changes the rich young ruler's heart. As a matter of fact, the rich young ruler doesn't respond. He leaves that conversation with his head hung because he's not willing to give up what he has. For us today, we need to be reminded that what we are seeking will change who we are. We need to understand deeply what it is that we are searching after. The thing that we are seeking after will change our course and direction in life. So, we need to understand exactly what it is that we are looking for or else we will not know it when we find it. Third thing that we see as we look through this sort of process that Job goes through, is we need to to decide when we are going all in. We need to decide when we are going all in. Job in Job chapter 1 is asked by his wife, "Why don't you just give up your integrity and forget God? He's clearly not going to help you out." But from chapter 1 of Job all the way through 28 and the rest of the book, Job continues to plod along. He is all in. The reminder for us today is of the difference between the fear of the Lord and knowledge of the Lord. As a matter of fact, you'll see in Job chapter 28:28, he said to mankind, "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to turn from evil is understanding." You see, the fear of the Lord is different than knowledge of the Lord. It is not enough for us simply to know about God. The difference is the 18 in between our head and our heart where we go from knowing about God to knowing God personally. As a matter of fact, scripture would say that even the demons believe in God and shudder. But that doesn't change or lead to heart transformation. We must both know of the Lord and fear the Lord. You see, as we look at this, we have to decide when we are going all in. The difference being, we can know about God, but knowing about God won't sustain us in our seasons like Job where things get difficult. I was reminded of the story of a missionary William Borden. Um he is different in me in that he was born uh quite a few years ago, but he was also a student at Yale. Um and he didn't believe in C's get degrees, which I believe in. So, a little bit of a difference there. Smart guy, went to Yale, gave it all up because God radically transformed him. And in his early 20s, he set out on a mission to evangelize the world. At age 25, he passes away in Egypt on his way to China, um just wanting to share the gospel around the world. Now, most of us would look at this and say, "That's sad. Seems like he was cut down in the middle of an incredible important process." But, as a matter of fact, he was living out what he deeply believed. He had gone all in in his faith, much like Job had. He demonstrated what it looks like for us. And one of the stories came out about him and his Bible in particular that I firmly believe is one of the greatest quotes you'll ever hear about a missionary in your entire life. Here's the quote of what William Borden wrote wrote in his Bible multiple times as he was heading out, as God was changing him as he went on on his missionary trip. He said this phrase, "No reserves, no retreats, no regrets." Let me just repeat it. I just had chills every time I read it this past week. A guy who had aged 25 in the prime of his life loses it all for the sake of the gospel, but gains it all because of the kingdom of God, said, "No reserves, no retreats, and no regrets." My hope for you and I as people of God who follow God is that, much like Job, we would go all in with our faith, even in the difficult times, even in the moments where we would say, "Everything is darkness. There's no light in the darkness, period, but I still follow God." No reserves, no retreats, no regrets. You see, Job was wrestling in this process not if he believes in God, but what to do next with God. He continues have moments of clarity and continuing his faith, and it radically shapes the future of his life. Fourth step in this process that Job demonstrates for us is that we need to follow where wisdom leads. Follow where wisdom leads. You've heard the phrase that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it Good. Most of you have heard this phrase. This phrase is a reminder that knowing information does not always lead to action. As a matter of fact, as we look at Job here, one of the things that's true of Job's story all throughout the dialogue with him and his three best friends is that they are sometimes doing a great job, more so than others, pointing him back to Jesus. They encourage him in his faith. Why don't you just turn and repent, trust God. Why don't you try doing things God's way and all of these different things they give and some moments where they're not as helpful, but here's what we find in Job 28. A demonstration that Job has to be willing to follow where wisdom leads. As you look at Job 28, chapter 28 verse 28 is so clear. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. And to turn away from evil is understanding. But simply knowing that won't change our hearts. As a matter of fact, as you look at this, there's plenty of people that would say, "I know in order to live God's way, I need to leave the evil things behind and trust God." But they aren't willing to do it. For us, the reminder being as we read a text like this that we need to follow where wisdom leads us. In this verse 28 very clearly, we should turn from evil and fear the Lord. The best way I could explain this to you in a real world example is that following where wisdom leads means knowing both the direction, but also taking the action to get to that intended direction. Um I tell people in my personal fitness journey uh of trying to be healthy that I know exactly where it is that I want to go. I know exactly where the path is that gets me there. What gets in the way is that I make the decision to get off of that path and I decide to do this thing called live moss and I end up at Taco Bell far too often and that gets in the way of my personal fitness, all right? Now, in very limited cases, it's worth it, all right? But here's the deal. My choices don't line up with my end goal. I don't follow where the wisdom leads, I follow where my heart leads me. It leads me astray. I want to remind you today as you think about your personal faith. As we look at this concept, we need to be a people that follow where God's word leads us. To say yes to his way and no to our way. Two ways you can do that this week. Number one, be rooted in your faith. Do something every single day to be rooted in your faith. Read scripture, listen to a podcast. We have more resources to information that changes us, helps us to be rooted than ever before. We have really incredible music at our disposal, right? The Christian music of years past wasn't as good as it is today, all right? It's come a long way. So, we have incredible resources. Take advantage of it. Do something every single day to become rooted in your faith. But, also be willing to take steps to be ready when God answers your prayers. One of the things I've prayed often over the last few years being here in Cross Church El Mirage is um God, would you just help me to be your hands and feet today? A simple prayer, uh but admittedly a bit of a dangerous prayer. Because I don't know if you know this, but sometimes God answers our prayers in ways that we don't always see fit. They don't always fit our plans. Uh I remember about 3 years ago I prayed that prayer. It was one of my first summers here at Cross Church El Mirage. It was before we met for church weekly. It was the end of July and I was doing some facilities work. So, I needed some extra parts. And so, I'd prayed that morning, God help me to be your hands and feet. And I went to Walmart in the middle of the day in the middle of the heat. I got a great parking spot up front. I go into park. And God answered my prayer and it caught me off guard. Because I had prayed, Lord help me to be your hands and feet. I parked with jumper cables in my back seat. Happened to be next to this guy named Tony who lives right here in the city who had his hood up. And it was in the middle of the heat and I thought, ah I guess I'll help this guy out because God, you answered my prayer. So, I guess I should do what you you know, you what you called me to. And so I step in I have this conversation over about 20 minutes I get to jump his battery get him back on his way. In that process we got to have this great conversation where I shared the gospel with him where he also shared with me his life story about how he had had a traumatic injury and he ended up doing Uber just to make ends meet and he needed to get back on the road to continue making money so it really helped it made a huge difference in his life. It was such a blessing and he shared all of this in this conversation. But I almost missed it because while I prayed for an opportunity and God brought it I wasn't ready for the opportunity when it came. Let me encourage you today. Follow where wisdom leads be rooted in your faith but also be ready for what it is that God will do when he answers those prayers. The fifth thing I want you to see that I think is very helpful for us today is this idea that we should allow the information to shape your why. If I were to ask you this question right now don't answer out loud. But here's the question I want you to think about. Why do you follow Jesus? Why do you follow Jesus? Some people would say I follow Jesus because you know it's what my parents did. So I felt like I should do it. Some people would say I follow Jesus cuz I don't know I just grew up going to church so we just we go to church that's what we do on Sundays. It's what's on the calendar. Some of us would say now I I follow Jesus because he's changed my life. Ultimately the answer to the question of why you follow Jesus is important. And it's not one that our parents or our friends or our family can make for us it's an individual decision that we must make. So when it's in this process of digging for answers we should allow the information to shape our why. Job's answer to the question why do you follow Jesus is shaped by the fact that God radically changed his life and it should be the same for us. Two categories of information that changes our why. Number one, physical evidence should change our why. I tell this story often and work through this with individuals, but the Bible itself is some of the greatest evidence for the Christian faith that you could ever imagine. Uh I remind people often that the God who created the Bible is the same God who created all of science, which the world wants us to believe is against the God of the Bible, but newsflash, God created both science and the Bible, they do in fact line up and agree. Let me remind you that the Bible itself is some of the greatest physical evidence. As we go throughout the years, we begin to find more and more physical evidence throughout the world that supports what scripture teaches. We have the idea that textual fluency, all of the words of scripture come together, although written by so many different people, to support the singular idea that Jesus is king. So, we have all of this physical evidence that points to the fact that our faith is true, and that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the second element that I think is equally important in this story. It's personal experience. I could tell you time after time after time, and all different stories about people in this very church that answer the question, "Why do you follow Jesus?" by saying, "Over the last year, God has radically changed my life. God saved me and changed my life." I got to perform weddings here of people that say, "God has changed my life over these last couple years, and I couldn't do anything less than follow Jesus. Why? He changed my life." And for you today, I just I want to ask if it's okay if I share my story. Is that Is it okay with you? Good, you answered yes. The first service didn't answer, so I told them anyway, so all right. I just want to tell you my story today. Nothing flashy or fancy. It was at a First Baptist Church in Holdenville, Oklahoma, which is a tiny little town, if you blink, you miss it, kind of town. I grew up there. At 6 years old, I was sitting in the back corner of the church. I wasn't quite a back row Baptist, but pretty close, sitting with my parents and I was sitting next to my mom at 6 years old. Uh there was a pastor on a Monday night preaching a revival service and I will never forget it was real and evident and it changed the rest of my life. It felt as if the preacher was preaching exactly to me. And I remember it came time for the response and Tim the youth pastor went down and was ready to receive people and I remember turning to my mom and saying, "That's me. Let's go." But she did what most moms would do. She said, "We'll talk about it later." To which I said, "No. That's me. We're going." She walked me down the aisle. I met Tim the youth pastor. We went to a side room. It was uh painted Noah's Ark. I'll never forget. And in the process of about 15 minutes, in no uncertain terms, Tim the youth pastor shared the exact gospel with me, explained everything to me, and I responded to the gospel right there in that moment. Was baptized shortly after. And can I just tell you this today? My personal experience is why I follow Jesus. Because he changed my life. But it's also the experience I have on a daily basis. Where every single time I try to run from what God's doing in my life and how he's blessing me, he lovingly, but firmly, picks me up, dusts me off, and puts me back on course. Can I just share with you today this truth? Not only does God love you, but he has a plan for you. And that ultimately the words of scripture is true of what we see in 2 Peter chapter 3, that God is not slack concerning his promise, wishing that all would come to faith and repentance in him. God has good plans for us. He is a good good father who loves us. And let me encourage you today, if the question for you of why you follow Jesus is anything other than the truth that he's changed your life, here's my promise. I will hang out as long as it takes to process that question. So that you can have complete confidence of why you follow Jesus and that you can have complete confidence in your faith and trust in Jesus. If you do me a favor, bow your heads. I want to pray over you today as a church. As we pray in this moment, let's be reminded of what Job 28 teaches us. God, we come before you. God, when it comes to this concept of digging for answers, um God, our prayer today is that you would help us to be a people that go to the source, the right source of information. That we go to the person who has the answers. That we've decided when we're going all in. And ultimately, God, that what we find as we search for answers would shape the question, why do we follow Jesus? God, my prayer is that here on the corner of Peoria and El Mirage, that there would be a group of people that would say in answer to that question, we follow Jesus because he has changed and transformed our lives. God, my prayer is that you would help us to put aside any of the things that uh keep us from answering that question correctly, that keep us from following where wisdom leads. And ultimately, that as a people, we would follow the lead of Job, and that we would continue to run to you for answers, understanding that nothing else in the world can satisfy like you. God, we are so thankful that you sent your son to be the punishment for our sins, and that ultimately, because of that, we're able to be restored back to you. God, we thank you for all of this. Pray all of this in your name. Amen. Let's stand as we continue in God-honoring worship. >> You give life. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope. light. You restore every heart that is broken. Great are you, Lord. It's your breath and our love. So, we pour out our praise. Pour out our praises. Your breath and our love. So, we pour out our Great are you, Lord. You are love. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You restore every heart that is broken. Great are you, Lord. It's your breath and our love. So, we pour out our Pour out our praises. and our love. So, we pour out our It's your breath and our love. So, we pour out our Pour out our and our love. So, we pour out >> Sing all the earth. All the earth will shout your praise. Our hearts will cry, our souls will sing. Great are you. >> All the will shout your Our hearts will cry. Our souls will sing. Great are you. All the will shout your Our hearts will cry. Our souls will sing. Great are you. >> is your praise. And our So, we pour out our praise. Pour out is your And our So, we out our Pour out is your And our So, we out our Pour out is your And our So, we out our Pour out Great are you, Lord. Great are you, Lord. >> You guys can sit