hey guys Pastor Matt here um one of our visions at the Village Church is we want to be a place that resources liberally the big C church of Jesus Christ and if by his grace we might leave a kingdom legacy with those resources we want to be all about that and so thanks for watching this sermon or preparing to watch this sermon and I I'm praying that you're watching this in community in conjunction with your ongoing disciplehip at a local church and and if by the grace of God this becomes one of those things that continues to build up your faith encourage your walk fuel your love for Jesus would you consider giving to the ministries of the Village Church it's actually really simple you could either do it in the app or you can go to the villageurch.net net back/g and do it there i hope that the next chunk of time as you watch this sermon you find your affections for Jesus soaring you find courage flood back into your bones and you fall more deeply in love with Jesus than you are at this moment god bless you [Music] [Music] hi church uh my name is Maresha i've been a member at the village i've been a member at the village for three years and today I'll be reading Romans 11:es 33-36 oh the depth of the riches and the wisdom and and the knowledge of God how unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor and who has ever given to God that he should be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever amen this is the word of the Lord thanks be to God hey good morning how are we good all right if you have your Bibles let's go ahead and turn there uh Romans 11 we're just going to look at those uh three verses in uh some detail uh maybe you've noticed this maybe you haven't let me just kind of loop you in uh if you've noticed the last month or so like what you're seeing in your ESV is a little bit different than what I'm reading from the stage for about a year now I've been playing around with the CSV the Christian Standard uh version of the Bible i find it more readable so I like it i'm not trying to make a decision for 5,000 people to run out and buy a new Bible nor have we even made the decision to replace the the the chair Bibles with CSB but that's it is just a more readable version and faithful to the original languages so uh I like that but again I think that's neither here nor there but just I know I can see some of you when I'm reading go and that's that's what's happening so you're not crazy uh that that's what's going on so this is week two uh in our Yahweh series and really what we're talking about is God's godness if I could kind of just condense it we're we're talking about things that are only true about God theologians uh call this his incommunicable attributes it's things that you and I can never be but that God is and that's important because God and God alone is self-defining uh what I mean by that and I'm trying to say this nicely it does not matter what you think about God god is uh right you our tendency uh and this is all last week's sermon but I'm not I don't have time to preach too but let me just briefly catch you up um our tendency I is to kind of create God in our own image he's just an idealized version of us um the problem is um God is uh and God has revealed himself to us he has not hidden himself uh and so for us to create a God in our own image uh is idolatry it's to worship a God that is not the God as he's revealed himself to us and so we've been diving into that and I said this last week it's a dangerous thing to do and it's a dangerous thing to do and it's hard for us uh we would prefer a series on marriage or raising children or finances or sex or anything like that that would be more fun than seeing God rightly because when you see God rightly you see yourself rightly and we are far smaller than we think we are as long as God's a just an idealized version of ourselves we can have a little bit of swagger right we can read the text like God's all about us right but when you see God for who he is you get you get maybe a little bit of an understanding of what the fear of the Lord is which is good news because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom right so that's what we've been covering uh I want to tackle transcendence today that's what I want to try to tackle i don't know when it happened to me uh I don't know if it was Star Wars or Star Trek or Alien or I think the best of all of them the last Starf Fighter i know I just aged myself in this room you can hear the Gen Xers going "Yeah the video game got Yeah that one." Uh but man I have been just freaked out in the best way about space since I was a kid like the thought of space the stars like I was dialed in on us trying to get these astronauts home you can think whatever you want about Elon Musk and Doge i just need him to keep sending those rockets up and if you're a podcaster who's listening the spirit's like "Bless Pastor Matt get me on one of those rockets right i I want to be up there." Like Elsie my wife no thank you but but I I want to if I can just go touch the fringes of it I'm I'm all in on that like I'm freaked out by it and and in 1995 um NASA found this this hole in the sky the way they described it was like if you put a like a a grain of sand in your between your fingers and you held it out at arms length they found a dark spot in the sky no stars nothing visible and and they moved the Hubble telescope open there and they opened up the lens on it and for 10 days they just left it open this this spot of of blackness in the sky 10 days later here are some of the images that came in from the Hubble telescope you can keep going this next one's my favorite like bam now what they what this did what this discovery that happened in 1995 right what this discovery led scientists to believe I is that the universe has close to a trillion galaxies in it not stars galaxies like remember like Milky Way galaxy a trillion of those now transcendence is the Bible letting us know that God has named every star and hung them in the sky transcendence is the prophet Isaiah saying that the universe sits in the palm of God's hand it is small he is big if I could just define it for you here's transcendence to exist above and independent from to rise above surpass succeed like you and I we will never exist above creation it's just never going to no matter what you attain whatever I attain we're not going to exist uh above and independent from creation we are dependent on and we dwell in god sits outside of time and space so that all of it is small and he's everywhere at once he's never thinned out by his presence which means in the furthest reaches of the universe God is there in his fullness and right here in the room he is here in his fullness he's never spread too thin this is transcendence and it makes the brain hurt a little bit and I just want to lean into that um two things I want you to take away from God's transcendence so you're you're leaving here and this clock says 33 minutes i don't care what that clock says uh but when we're done here and my part here in uh 35 or so minutes and we do the stuff we're going to do at the end and you're dismissed into what should be a beautiful day here's the two things I want you carrying with you one God and God alone is unccreated he has always been he He He is unccreated the second thing was that God in his unccreated nature rules and reigns over all of creation those are the two things god and God alone is uncreated god and God alone rules and reigns over all of creation that that's what I want to try to convince you of from the word of God so if you have your Bibles let's look at that first verse romans 11 starting in verse 33 oh the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God how unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways now I love how this builds on itself so that when we get to the hard part we understand the why behind the difficulty right he here's how he's going to start oh the riches that God is infinite in wealth why well because he's uncreated everything that exists he created and therefore belongs to him there is nothing that exists that is not rightly his there is nothing that is anywhere in the universe that he doesn't sit over rightly and declare mine this makes him infinitely wealthy the Bible talks about this adnauseium psalm 24:1 the earth and everything in it the world and its inhabitants belong to the Lord but since we've been looking at galaxies that we didn't know existed until 1995 let's do Deuteronomy 10:14 the heavens indeed the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God as does the earth and everything in it so the earth is the Lord's and everything therein that's us and the farthest reaches of the galaxies th those those are his two and then if you want your brain to bend just a little bit god is infinitely wealthy not just because everything actually belongs to him including you and me but he can make more of whatever he wants out of nothing like I can't do that you can't do that let's say that um I'm going to build on to my house as you know my my parents get a little bit older and we're going to move uh Janet Big Steve in with us and so we're getting that ready here's what I'm going to need i'm going to need a general contractor that knows what he's doing both the both parts of those sentences are important right general contractor who knows what he's doing i'm going to need concrete i'm going to need wood uh I'm going to need a plumber right i Big Steve and Janet they're going to need a bathroom uh I I'm going to need Right i'm gonna need and then I'm gonna have to pay for it which isn't easy in the current economy right i'm gonna need all of that that is not how God works like everything that exists he just spoke into being he just told it to be and there it was can you imagine that kind of wealth like you don't need resources you just say it and there it is right like I if this is transcendent wealth then who's not broke like if this is the wealth of God then our boy Elon and Jeff Bezos it's like they're on assistance right like what kind of wealth can compete with this wealth well there isn't a wealth that compete with this wealth everything belongs to him everything belongs to him including it's been a long time since I've said this so let let's lean in including you and me regardless of belief god does not need you to believe in him for you to belong to him your belonging to him is just not salvific you tracking with me so I've often times said it this way nobody no human being gets to choose whether or not their lives glorify God you will glorify God as a trophy of his grace or you will glorify God by being the recipient of his right just justice i I'm trying to make the appeal that you come over here i'm trying to make the appeal week in and week out over here if you've been coming and you're like man he just always preaching the gospel yeah yeah I am you give me the subject I'm looping it to the gospel right because that's the the power of God unto salvation i you should fire me if I ever stop you should You should get somebody up here who'll do that for you it's unloving for me not to tie everything back to the good news that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners now above it like not just above his wealth but attached to this transcendence and this is the one we really need to spend a little bit of time on because it's going to help us it's going to be scary and it's going to help us not only is he deep in riches but he's also deep in what he calls here wisdom and knowledge like God knows in a way that is above and detached from anything you and I can get our minds around he is beyond us in this way like he knows every fact of history he he knows nothing of conspiracy theories because there ain't no secrets from him that's right uh he knows every fact and here's where for me it's like looking into space it it starts making me nervous the more that I think about it not not only does he know everything at a macro level so he knows all about those long before we found these galaxies he was delighting in them right but he also knows everything at the most microscopic level he knows every molecule every atom he's not theorizing a about dark matter he knows everything that is macro micro but he also knows and this is the thing that's scary to look into he knows how every event creates other events playing into other events playing into other events playing into other events throughout human history like I can't even read the sentence I wrote wi without feeling like I need caffeine or nicotine or something to help my brain function at a higher level so here here's what I wrote he knows how all events and actions relate to each other and affect each other when an event happens he sees not only that event but the eternal chain of effects that flow from it and all the events that will be caused by it and the events that will be caused by the effects of that event now he knows all of that without ever feeling stressed out yes like man I just tried to walk through my week with Andrea my assistant and started rocking back and forth but God here like on a universe level knows all of it amen well this makes me dumb compared to his transcendent wisdom and knowledge this makes me ignorant this introduces a lot of mystery and if I could be pastoral for a second there have been seasons of my life both as a pastor and just as a Christian where God's moving in my life is not only discombobulating but disheartening and I wish I could explain to you all those really hard questions about why kids get sick and why accidents i mean I can I can put it under the umbrella of the universe is broken by sin but man there's mystery there you know why there's mystery there because I'm not transcendent and so there'll always be mystery here's the illustration I've tried to use with you for um 20 something years um let's say you and I went to see the first Lord of the Rings so we need to set aside about nine hours and um we we we buy our tickets and and we're late so the movie's already started and it's going and then we get we get one second to run in and look at the screen and so we run in and we look at the screen and then we come back out and there's somebody waiting for us tell me what the movie was about well gosh it looked like there was a I don't I don't know what the right term is i think he was a dwarf or something in it there's a guy with pointy ears we'd have no concept no concept of what the movie was about who was good who was bad what was right what was wrong we We'd have nothing and when the Bible talks about us not being transcendent talks about our humanity it it it reminds us how short we're here how little we know like he talks about man being like the dew on the grass here in the morning gone by the afternoon like that that's our scope of knowledge but God's transcendence says he sits outside seeing all knowing the ripple effects and he and he alone which means something could happen in my life that's so disruptive and disorienting to me that two generations later give me everything that's in my heart to want that does not make it less painful does not make it less disorienting it just lets me look upon the glory of the Lord with hope yes right like I'm not trying to lie to you i'm not trying to set you up like you want to never feel pain that's not going to happen anybody who tells you that's not going to happen or Jesus is going to take that away is a liar but he'll be with you in it he'll be with you in it right thi this his wisdom and knowledge being what it is gives me everresent hope even in the discombobulation even in the pain even in the disorientation this is God's transcendence he's above us and this is necessary for us to understand where he goes next where he just says that God is unjudgable god is inscrable like who are you to question God like what could you possibly know that you could put him in the dock like who's representing you you you're representing yourself like who what court have you taken him to who's who's the judge of the only one who is unccreated in the universe he has no judge you will not win that case in fact if you've got a background in church you know a little about the story of Job bible tells us God's on his throne satan walks in god asks him what he's been up to pay attention when God asks questions he don't need to know stuff ask Satan what what he been up to i've been judging uh the the hearts of man the children of man and and God's like "Have you considered my boy Job?" Now if Job knew what was coming he's like "Don't worry about me he can bother another brother over in Assyria he should check out that brother." And Satan says back to God "Well of course he loves you look at how many kids he has look how much money he has look at the favor that rest on him you let me take his m material desires from him he'll curse your name and God says basically bet but don't touch him don't take his wealth take uh everything but don't touch him love how the enemy is always leashed so Satan goes out and he does it and we see that Job in a single day loses all his wealth loses all his children in a horrific accident the only thing left is his wife and she says "Are you still holding on to your integrity curse God and die you fool." So I've always joked that I'd probably try to bargain with the Lord to give me back one of those donkeys and take this woman um or we could just let them know we've got a great program here at TBC we're serious about marriages being reconciled in the Lord maybe they should sign up and join us on Wednesday night um and and this is what happens to Job and then unfortunately for Job his friend group is a herd of morons like just the in all of scripture the biggest group of idiot friends imaginable happen to be Job's friends which sidebar you are becoming like your three closest relationships i'd pay attention to that maybe subtract maybe add you and you alone know but if you're running with a herd of morons you're on the clock to becoming a all right and so here's Job surrounded by morons and throughout the book of Job here's what he wants he wants to plead his case before God he wants to plead with God why this is not just why this shouldn't have happened why like this is throughout every time one of Job's idiot friends throw terrible theology at him he listens and then he he just demands I I want to hear it before God Almighty this man's a fool that's not true i want to plead my case then God help our boy in verse 38 god shows up and gives him the opportunity here it is 38 verse1 i'm going to read 18 verses i can read three full chapters job 38 starting in verse one then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind he said "Who is this who obscures my counsel with ignorant words?" That's a tough inner you know first first kind of who is this that doesn't know what the heck he's talking about who who is this that's saying things that are ignorant yes well how could God say you're like he's being cruel no he's transcendent he's transcendent get ready to answer me like a man when I question you you will inform me and then he this is three chapters of questions where were you when I established the earth tell me if you have understanding who fixed its dimensions certainly you know who stretched out a measuring line across it who supports its foundations or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy now Job's like us who who are the sons of glory what what do you mean the right he's just exposing him with every question who enclosed the sea behind the doors when it burst from the womb when I made the clouds its garment and total darkness its blanket when I determined its boundaries and put its bars and doors in place when I declare to the ocean you may come this far but no farther your proud wave stop here have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned to the dawn its place so it may seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it the earth is changed as clay is by a seal its hills stand out like the folds of a garment light is withheld from the wicked and the arm raised in violence is broken have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the ocean have the gates of death been revealed to you have you seen the gates of deep darkness have you comprehended the extent of the earth tell me you know all this well no job's not Job's not getting ready to answer any of these questions god is exposing that he is not transcendent but God is like he asked Job "Did you tell the ocean where to stop?" No no I I I told the ocean where to stop now think about what we know that that means God's going "Yeah I hung the moon like that yeah I put gravity in play yeah I It's not We're not being dumb as Christians we we we know that that that God's created a natural order that he stands behind and in and through and with and and and he set it in motion he's asking "Hey tell me about the last time you told the earth to roll around so that you see the sunrise when did you schedule that tell me when you did." Oh yeah yeah no I'm I'm doing all of those things you are not doing all of these things this is God being infinite in wisdom and knowledge and us lacking it in a way that would make us good gods that would make us good gods i've oftenimes told you I don't believe anyone has been meaner to you than you have i don't think anybody's lied to you more frequently than you have lied to you i don't think anyone's betrayed you more than you have betrayed you i don't think anyone's dropped the ball in your life quite like you have dropped the ball in your life and yet our confidence in our own reign and rule is persistent constantly believing that our way is better than God's might be for us even though we can't can't see past the week sometimes can't see past the day sometime can't see into the next hour like God is infinite in wisdom and knowledge and infinite in wealth and then let's pick it up in verse 34 we'll read 34 and 35 here for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor and who has ever given to God that he should be repaid well we know some of the mind of the Lord right like we know some like I couldn't talk about his transcendence if we didn't know some we wouldn't even know he was there he would be so far beyond he'd be incomprehensible but God has chosen to reveal himself to us that's the whole point of this series that God is that God has communicated we're not groping in the dark trying to figure it out he has made himself known next week I'm going to be talking about his eternality you know how I know that because he's let me know a little bit of his mind the week after that his immutability he's unchanging how do I know that because he's let me know i said last week that he is holy but he is also love and his holiness informs his love where'd I get that well we were in the text we know some of the mind of the Lord but nobody knows it in such a way that they could counsel him okay if we were honest we would just really like him to be our Aaron boy if we were and I don't even think we can be i think we're it's so easy to self-justify it's so easy to judge others and let ourselves off the hook that we know people like that no we would love it if God just ding ding ding answered our bell and ran those errands for us helped this happen help this happen make this happen i want this give me this give me that give my kids this give my spouse this give me God will be no one's Aaron boy come on there is no one in this room with enough wisdom and knowledge and insight to ever counsel him i'm not saying we don't bring our broken hearts before the Lord i'm not saying that i'm not saying in times of disorientation we don't plead for what we want and what we want to see twice Jesus asked different people "What would you like me to do?" That's not what I'm talking about i'm talking about presuming upon the Lord like your way of the world going is better and smarter than his way of reigning and ruling that that's and I love you it's nonsensical that you even think of yourself in a category like that but here's what's wild it's not prefrontal cortex stuff that's not how we're thinking about it you're not thinking I'm a better God than God you're just thinking that God's too small to help you so you'll handle it well that's God in your image isn't it i mean an idealized version of you but it's just God in your image that's what we're trying to confront in this series that he's not a better version of you he's completely different than you and that's actually some of the best news in the universe and then uh I love this last part and who has ever given to God that God might repay him well we've already covered this no one why cuz you don't have anything to give that's not already his not even yourself but I am continually stunned at people whose faith begins to waver because they believe God owes them like they they have done good they stopped doing bad they've started doing good they even go to church once or twice a month and and they're no longer getting high and they're no longer right what What would you fill in the blank with your story i'm no long I'm doing this and man God should just be pumped about you i've given you all this and I ask for this one thing which is always absurd we're asking for a billion things all the time in our hearts we want more comfort we want more ease we want it all to go our way i do i do i'm not looking for resistance i like the wind in my sails bring rowing i want like wind in my sails right but but we don't have anything to give him that would put him in our debt it's not that we can't give him it's that it won't put him in our debt let me show you this is my boy um CS Lewis talking about this this is in mere Christianity by the way if you've never read it just commend it to you every faculty you have your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment is given you by God if you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to his service you could not give him anything that was not in a sense his own already so that when we talk of a man doing anything for God or giving anything to God I will tell you what that is really like it's like a small child going to its father and saying "Daddy give me six pence," which is money to buy you a birthday present of course the father does and he is pleased with the child's present it is all very nice and proper but only an idiot would think that the father is six pence to the good on the transaction when a man has made these two discoveries God can really get to work it is after this that real life begins the man is now awake if you are my age you might remember the band Six Pence None the Richer this is where they got that um Lewis is basically saying when you try to give to God you are simply giving to God what was already his and and that he enjoys that he doesn't reject that in the way that um when my kids historically have needed money to buy me a birthday present i have happily given them that money and they have maybe happily bought me a present a lot of times for less value than the money I gave them pocket a little bit that may or may not be true i don't know um but what Lewis is saying is only an idiot thinks he's $20 richer after his kid bought him a $20 gift that he gave him the money for this is what it's like when you try to put God in your debt you can't because everything's already his this is transcendence but here's here's the good news the good news is that the opposite side of the coin of transcendence is imminent the God who is above us has decided to dwell among us and if you are a Christian has decided to dwell in us let let me show you this exodus 6:7 i will take you as my people i will be your God you will know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians exodus 33:14 "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest." Joshua 1:9 "The Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Matthew 28:20 I am with you always to the very end of the age i've told you before that if you could boil Genesis to Revelation down to three words it would be God with us this transcendent infinitely wealthy infinitely knowledgeable God full of wisdom and wealth has decided to not only make himself known but to draw near to us and pull us into all that wealth and power and knowledge and let us build our lives on it and let us put our trust in it this is the good news of his transcendence he has not stayed far and above he has come near to dwell in so about a month ago we were talking about full surrender in here it's it's almost a theme and when you came in you got a little piece of paper and near the end of the service what I wanted you to do what I asked you to do is write down on the piece of paper here are things that are difficult for me to surrender do you remember that anybody remember that okay three of you do great well so so the three of you you're if you're not I'm going to catch you up so we laid those down at the end of the service what I did I was like "Hey would you come up here and will you just will you just lay those cards up here like as a symbolic I'm handing this to you Lord?" And I was honest you might have to hand it back later this afternoon and again tomorrow and again after that but this is that first step of I don't want to carry this and lay it down and man thousands of cards up here so we gathered all those cards took them back in my green room and just tried to categorize them like I I'm I am trying to get in your business here's what I mean if that's where you're struggling oh my gosh I want to preach right into that i I need to I would have guessed wrong at at what the pain points were in front of me i would have guessed wrong uh way wrong like what I thought was number one was like number three and and so this this was helpful for me to see this is the stuff that's crushing me th this is the stuff that I'm having a hard time handing to the Lord this is the stuff that man I am trying to manipulate and manage and control and I'm exhausted and uh overwhelmed and and and frustrated and here's a thought the more you see God as he is the more anxiety and fear is driven out of our lives and the more we see a God of our own imagination the more we know it's on us and we better grind the offer of the gospel is rest rest how that the one who is not broke loves you and is drawn near that the one who does know where you do not know can be trusted that that where we are powerless i don't know if you ever like like if you got kids you know and if you don't know yet you're going to know just how powerless you are in that space there's an illusion of control it's absurd it's you don't you know what I mean control i mean you've got resources that well can dry up on them but you can't control them right like when that panic sets in you know where I we can take it well there there's someone who who is there there's someone who can there there's a place for me to trust that the cross of Jesus Christ is the objective evidence that he's for me and not against me that the resurrection is that victory is done and he's offering it to me and I can receive it in repentance and faith and when we talk about God being transcended it's the best news in the world for those of us who have put our trust in him like what can you what scenario can you lay on that that makes God confused or not know what to do what scenario might you give him where he's going to have to get some counselors to figure out your life there's not one like he is infinite in knowledge and wisdom and he is infinite in counsel and care and this eminence was made visible in the coming of the second person of the trinity in physical form Emmanuel God with us and it was made even more pronounced like I don't know if you that do you know that Jesus said it's better that I leave like Jesus said I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to indwell you and he he's trying to go like if you're like oh if I could just have a face to face with Jesus Jesus said actually there's something better than that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit what you need is the Holy Spirit even told his disciples I'm going away so you can get what you need right so that this transcendence now dwell dwells inside those who by faith have believed in the finished work of Jesus transcendent yes creates confidence creates courage creates an embracing of his reign over our lives but his eminence provides care provides peace meets us in the low places with his goodness and grace reminds us that we're not alone we will need that over and over again life's hard can be very painful this is the promise of the gospel that God has come down that God has made a way that Christ is here to renew all that massive power has been brought to bear for us for the glory of God and so maybe you're um here this morning and you've never surrendered to this like maybe you got baptized long time ago so you wouldn't go to hell that's not what I'm talking about that's a very different thing than saying Jesus is the king of my life like salvation is not I just don't want to go to hell salvation is given a new heart by the Holy Spirit at which we begin to orient our lives around the person and work of Jesus and so I wonder if you're in here you just never you just never said yes you've just been the king or queen of your own life and maybe by the grace of God you've come in really tired today man great news you you can leave handing all that stuff off to the one who can actually carry it but I think more likely in the room I think some of that's in the room but I think more likely in the room is a lot of us who have been following the Lord for a while and for some reason or another uh we think we we've either put him in our debt or he can't actually help with these things like these things it's just hard for me to believe that I can trust you with them or um yeah I I maybe I won't like your plan which is probably not like but how could we even understand it augustine my boy said that life in this world is like having your face pressed against a stained glass window right like you see some blue over here some red some yellow you got no concept of the beauty of what God's weaving and doing the promise is one day we do get to see the window but here in life there's going to be a lot of mystery a lot of disorienting difficult days but the promise is yeah I'll be right there with you this transcendent God who's out in those galaxies in his fullness be right there with you in your bedroom at night yes right there with you when you can't sleep because you feel overwhelmed by Right there in the doctor's office right there in the treatment center right there in the you fill in the blanks when you don't know how you're going to pay your mortgage right there and that's the promise god with us and so how do you respond when you see God rightly will you repent you humble yourself and repent i am not he is i will trust him so why don't you do me a favor won't you bow your heads close your eyes we're almost done here man if you're here this morning and you your confession would be "Oh man have I have never fully said yes to Jesus Christ like that uh he I I have not asked him to be my king i have not surrendered my whole life to him um and if that's who he is I want to turn from being my own god i want to turn from being my own king or queen and I want to put my trust fully in him if that's you and you're in here and you're like I've never done that i I need to do that something in me today is calling me towards that if that's you would you just lift your hand high up in the room just never done that feel like I need to do that okay praise God all right why don't we put our hands down and then maybe you're here and you've been following the Lord for a while and I I always want to kind of frame it like this because I never want to shame you but like over time through a period of difficulty or uh through a period of disorientation and anxiety um you have began to kind of crawl back up on that throne and try to manage and manipulate and control aspects of your life because you just don't believe that he's strong enough or powerful enough or the pain feels too great for you to actually trust Tim and if that's you and you're in the room you just raise your hand go that's me man i' I've got I've got for whatever reason I keep trying to run this thing yeah all over the room it It happens yeah okay praise God why don't we put our hands down here's what I want to do uh I'm going to pray for us while I'm praying some men and women are going to come up front uh they're just our prayer team folk and they're going to be here for you that's why they're here for you uh man and if you raised your hand and you were like "Man I I I have not trusted that kind of transcendent God i have never given him my full life." We would love to pray for you today uh we'll even baptize you man we've got shorts and t-shirts and towels and this place freaks out when we need baptized so if you want to go that route today I want you to head up here immediately talk with one of our prayer team members we got a couple of questions we just want to make sure you fully understand what you're saying yes to and man we will baptize you today and celebrate uh our faces off the other offer is that if you raised your hand and there was a lot of you that said "Man I am I am back on that throne for this area of mine i'm back on that throne for this area of my life." Uh we're we're up here for you uh if you want to receive prayer for that you want to receive some care in that would you let us be that for you will you let us be that for you and so I'd invite you up man you just come up and grab a hand and go man I am in a dark space and here's why or if you want to just go I'm I I don't trust him i I hear what that guy up there is saying i'm having a hard time trusting him let me give you a little bit of my backstory that's why I'm having a hard time trusting let us enter that space with you like you're not going to make us gasp i promise you you're not going to disorient anybody on this prayer team we We know what's in front of us and so will you come receive from this transcendent God who's made himself known let me pray for us father thank you you are above and over and through even as the passage ends for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever amen and so we seek to orient our lives around the one uh that all things are from him all things are through him and all things ultimately will be to him and so we seek to give you all the glory and honor and praise and it's for your beautiful name I pray amen