Trusting God: The Ripple Effects of Our Choices

1. "Man, what a wonderful moment in a family's life where you get to come before your church and you get to display your beautiful children that the Lord has blessed you with. And so I just wanted to clarify, like there's a few things that we're doing in this moment. And so the first one is that we, we are proclaiming that Luca is dedicated to Christ. That word dedicated means set apart. We see this all throughout scripture. This isn't a new concept. Like we see parents in scripture that the Lord has blessed with children. They are committing these children back to the Lord. They're saying, we're going to trust God with our children. That's ultimately what we're saying in this moment. Because even though you may not feel this, God loves them more than you do. God loves your children. He loves your children more than you do. And we trust that he is a more faithful father than we will ever be. And so we are entrusting them back to the Lord." [00:27:10] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "We're committing as parents and the church to represent the gospel to Luca and Sienna through our own personal relationship with Jesus. The way we can share the gospel most with our children is by falling more and more in love with Jesus. It's not teaching them a set of rules or a religion. It's about teaching them about a relationship with Jesus through our own personal relationship with Jesus. So do you, Karina, Christian, commit to representing the gospel through your own personal relationship with Jesus? If so, say we do. Awesome. Church, this is also for you too. You get to represent the gospel to these children and to all the children in the church by living out the gospel in front of them by falling more in love with Jesus. So church, will you commit to representing the gospel through your own personal relationship with Jesus? If so, say we do. Awesome. And the last thing we're doing in this moment is we're receiving a picture of the new life we are given in Christ." [00:28:27] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "We, as adults, in case you didn't know this, we are helpless and hopeless without Jesus. Just like an infant doesn't do a whole lot for you as parents, right? We get to serve and love our children. That's how God serves and loves us. He's given his life for us. And John 3, Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless we allow ourselves to be in the form of a baby, to understand that we are helpless and hopeless without Jesus, dependent on him alone." [00:29:25] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "And so we make decisions, and those decisions, both good and bad decisions, have a ripple effect that not only impact and affect our own lives, but then it also impacts and affects the lives of everybody else around them. And so we're going to be jumping into Joshua chapter 7. And in Joshua chapter 7, we're going to see the ripple effect of one man's sin and how it impacted the community around him. So let me pray for us, and then we're just going to go ahead and dive right in. Sound good? All right, let's pray." [00:46:08] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "God, you have something to speak to us. This is a morning that we get to come before you and really begin to deal with some of the deep-rooted issues that we have in our lives and lay them at your feet where we find mercy and grace. God, I thank you for every other church in our community that stands firm on the goodness of your gospel, stands firm on Jesus alone, by faith alone, through grace alone. God, I think of our sending church, Summit Church, and how they've continually just poured into us and have helped and served us. God, that's thank you for Pastor Joe at Summit Gateway, that you are continuing to use them to impact that community. Thank you for their partner church, Gateway Church, with Pastor Zach and Pastor Sam, Lord, and how you're doing a mighty work in them. God, I thank you that we get to partner with these churches and lift up your name for your glory as all of us who profess faith in you will be worshiping you in heaven together." [00:47:05] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "And so they enter, come up to the walls of Jericho. What does God do? He tears down the walls. Not just tears them down somewhat, but he flattens the walls of Jericho. And then they go in, and they take over the city. And so at the end of Joshua chapter six, we see some commands from God. Now, here's what I want us to understand. These are clear commands. When God instructs his people, he gives clear commands. So this is what he says. This is Joshua chapter six, verse 17. Everything within the city shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. What does that mean? Destroy it all. Destroy it all. Destroy everything in the city of Jericho. Now, verse 19. God's instruction leaves no room for doubt. He gave them a clear instruction, clear commands, and this is what they were supposed to do. Destroy everything. Keep the gold. Keep the gold and the silver and bronze and iron and dedicate those things to the Lord. Put them in the Lord's treasury." [00:50:34] (78 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And I think similarly to their story, often we read God's commands, we hear God's commands, and if we were fully honest, we don't necessarily really care to pay attention. We know maybe what God says. We know what his word would say, but we don't really pay attention. I mean, anybody take a test in high school or middle school where you were told to study, but then you didn't study? It's a multiple choice test, right? So you feel like, oh, I listened enough in Sunday school. I don't really need to study. So you go into the test, and you're like, yeah, it's multiple choice. I'll just find the best answer. And then when you can't find the best answer, it's always D because it's all the above, right? And so they're all kind of somewhat right, and then you choose D. But here's the deal. When we look at this, we think that maybe we're smart enough. Maybe I'm smart enough to filter through the multiple choice. Maybe I know enough, and I'm experienced enough, or I've lived enough life that I know what the right answer's gonna be, and I think too often we do that with God's word." [00:51:55] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "We treat it like a multiple choice test. We don't open it. We don't read it. We don't study. Maybe we go to church every now and again. We listen to a podcast or something, and we think, yeah, we've got enough information that when the time comes, I'll probably make the right choice. When the time comes, there's a couple of options that are gonna be before me, and hopefully I'll just choose the best option out of the ones that are before me. That's not how God's commands work for his people. You don't read the Bible and think, well, when the time comes, I'm just gonna do what's right. God always makes his plans, and he makes his desires known, but I think that we are just not listening. We don't care. We don't care, or honestly, we think we know better." [00:52:51] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "And then there's other things like exhaustion. You're just exhausted. And so when you're exhausted, you make bad choices. Maybe misunderstanding. Maybe you grew up and you were listening to the radio, or you went to a church that they taught bad theology. And so you just heard something said over and over again, and you heard something, you know, a phrase said on the radio, and then you started repeating it. And then you went out to the store, and you bought a little poster that, you know, you framed and put in your bathroom, and then you see it every day. But it's wrong. It's not the Word of God, but for some reason, we've made it out to be. And so we think, oh, the Bible's all about us getting rich and having prosperity. And it's, no, that's not actually the context of what those verses mean. But we grew up in a church, or we grew up in a culture where that's what we were told, and so we just ended up believing it. Maybe it's just a misunderstanding of God's Word that we've been taught wrongly." [00:55:19] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "And so these things have community consequences. They impact and destroy everyone around us. And these hidden sins, which are not so hidden, by the way. I think we think that we're better at masking these things than we are. But we're not. Like people know. But then we end up living our lives like people know. And so we're constantly like putting up this huge wall that we don't let people in. We have these hidden sins. It's very similar to this. It's in our lives we have these sins that we end up. It's going to be loud, by the way. We have these sins that we deal with. Day in, day out. We're not actually bringing these things to God. They're just building. And the Bible invites us and calls us to repent. To bring these things to God." [01:14:26] (65 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)