Why Success Won't Satisfy You | Run To Win | Ernest Smith

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching every week really some podcasts that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now enjoy this Bible teaching. One of the reasons we chose Denver was because it was a church planter's graveyard. The likelihood is we wouldn't be here in two years. The way that God called me into ministry and church planting, I went on a mission trip and they asked us to do a Bible study. And I remember praying, God, if you want me to be a full-time ministry, I don't know how, but just let me know. So I teach this lesson and immediately I knew. My name is Ernest Smith. I'm a lead pastor at Front Range Church in Castle Rock, Colorado. I'm married to my beautiful wife, Sarah. We have two kids, Wyatt and Waverly. About 13 years in, I'm wrestling with what does God want for me. I realize that every reason to plan a church was biblical and every reason not to was fear. And I thought, am I going to live my life based on fear or based on God's word? My professor, he said, I think you need to move to Denver and plan a church. The scariest part about planning a church is the realization that more than likely you're going to fail. Thank God we very quickly found strategic launch network and Lake Point and feeling like maybe somebody else has got my back. God moved us out here because he knew some of my son's uniqueness and some of the things that we would walk through as a family. He knew we needed this place. When my son was, I think, five years old and we got a diagnosis for him and I just was weeping. And I was going, God, what do I do? I guess my son. And I don't have the finances to help him. And I felt like the Lord said, I want you to call Steve. Call Pastor Steve and I said, hey, here's the situation. I'm not asking you to do anything. I just need you to know it's one of the overseers. Pastor Steve called all of my overseers and together they rallied and they figured out how to help us financially to be able to get my son the therapy that he needed. One of the most significant things that we've seen God use our church for is reaching the special needs families here in our area. My son has some special needs. We went to an egg hunt and it was a miserable experience. God began to like move in our hearts that the one you do something. So we did. The special egg hunt is one of the most significant things that we do to reach our community and to care for families that in many ways are the most unreached group in our nation. The first year I think we had 350, 400 people show up. We had parents that would say, my kid has never been able to take a picture with the Easter Bunny. Every parent has a dream for their child. We're allowing them to have maybe a little taste of that dream even if it's just for a moment. Every special needs family in this area has heard about our egg hunt, knows about our church because the word of mouth it spreads very, very quickly. I'll never forget God bringing us here and telling me it was not just because I love these people, but because I love your family. That's my biggest prayer that we'd be grounded on in his word and we'd be obedient. It's not about the building, it's about reaching people who are spiritually disconnected and need Jesus. I hope that every special needs parent family feels when they walk into our church you are loved and you are seen. Ten years ago I never could imagine we would have such a thriving community of people who love Jesus and deeply, deeply love this community. This is what the kingdom looks like. Seeing people from every background, different religions, different ethnicities, finding Christ. Yeah, we're not done. We're just getting started. Well, welcome to Lake Point. My name is Ernest Smith. I'm so grateful to be with you. I want to welcome all of you joining us at another location. Maybe you're at Forney or Mesquite or East Dallas or let's give it up for Roy City. They're having their second preview service. Man, we love you guys. We're excited to see what God is going to do there. I just want to go and apologize. I think this was probably the wrong weekend for me to speak because this weekend is the weekend that the Denver Broncos are playing America's team, the Cowboys. I just want to go and apologize. You guys are going to lose. But hey, here's the bright side. Cowboys fans are used to being disappointed. So it's just another weekend. It's all good. We're grateful. Grateful that you're here. Man, Lake Point, I want to say how thankful I am for you. I mean, when we started this church planning journey, we didn't know what to do. We didn't know how to do it. I met a guy named Pastor Steve Shrew, the founder of Lake Point. I met him in 2012. Yeah, Pastor Steve's amazing. And I remember thinking, man, this guy's brilliant. He knows what he's doing. He's a great leader. If I could just stick close to him, then maybe I'll learn some things. I remember getting the phone call from Strategic Launch Network, which is the church planning network that you guys started. And they said, hey, Lake Point and us were behind you. And it was the first time I thought maybe this whole church planning thing is not going to end in a ball of flames. So maybe we have a chance. And you guys have come through. You've had our back since day one. You've sent mission teams to help serve us. Many of your staff have helped us in different ways. We've had life groups that have cared for us, prayed for us, encouraged us all along the way. And Lake Point, you've been a massive part of our story. I remember being here when Pastor Steve handed off the baton to Pastor Josh as he repelled from the ceiling. It was amazing. And I remember thinking, is Pastor Josh going to be similar to Pastor Steve? Is he going to have the same love and the same heart for church planters and for pastors? And can I just tell you that you guys have an unbelievable lead pastor? He's incredible. I don't know if you know how blessed you are to have him leading you, but Pastor Josh, he is the real deal. He is the real deal. He'll text me up. And he cares about, like, he deeply cares about you guys. He deeply cares about the global church, but also like nobody pastors like myself. He'll text me or call me and say, man, I just listened to one of your messages. And here's what God taught me through that. And he's just always been so supportive. And so I want to say Pastor Steve, thank you. Pastor Josh, I honor you. I'm grateful for you. And Lake Point, we wouldn't be where we are as a church without you. I'm so, so grateful. God is using you and not just our church, but in churches and in ministries all around the world. So I just want to applaud you and say thank you, Lake Point, for all that you do. You're making a difference even when you don't know it. This church planning experience has been one learned big learning experience for me. I've learned a lot about people, a lot about my family, a lot about God, and a lot about myself. And one of the things that God keeps teaching me over and over is, Ernest, your idea of success is not always and is rarely my idea of success. That what you view as successful, Ernest, is not the way that God views success. For me, I don't know about you, but for me, I like to play a little comparison game. I will compare myself to pretty much anybody. And it's not usually positive. I'll think, man, why isn't our church as big as Lake Point? Or why am I not as buff as Pastor Josh? You know, or why am I not named whatever it is that I could compare myself right out of the will of God? Like, I'll think about other people and why they're more successful than me and wonder, man, what God, what are you doing in my life? God, why aren't you allowing me to do these certain things? And it all stems from this desire to be successful. And I think successful, being successful can be a good thing. It can be a thing that you give God glory and give Him, you know, the honor that He is due. But in many ways, it can also become an idol. And that idol of success or achievement can come crashing down at some point in our lives. I love what pastor Tim Keller, who was a great pastor in New York, here's what he says about success. He says, more than other idols, personal success and achievement lead to a sense that we ourselves are God, that our security and value rest in our own wisdom, strength, and performance. He's saying that if you and I, that success is not bad, but if we put success as the thing in our lives that we're going after, that if we achieve certain things, then we'll find happiness and satisfaction and joy and all of it. If we place those things above our own relationship with God, then those things will be destructive. We've all seen it. We saw, we've seen marriages that have been destroyed by the pursuit of success. We've seen families and kids that have walked away from their parents because of this. We've seen businesses destroyed. We know how destructive it can be, and yet we still long to be successful. We long to achieve. So where's the line? I mean, how do you know what you're doing is truly for God or if it's for yourself, it's for your own success and your own name. Well, another question maybe to ask is who do you view as successful? Like what is success to you? You know what success is based on who you believe is successful. For you, maybe it's a parent that you know that you're like, man, I feel like they are successful in what they do, or maybe it's a business owner, or maybe it's an athlete or a superstar, or maybe it's a social media influencer, that you think if I could just be like that person, then I'll get what I long for. For me growing up, I was an athlete. I wanted to be a professional baseball player. I felt like that was really the only support you could be overweight and still professional athletes. I'm like, sign me up for that right there. And so growing up, I grew up in the 80s and the 90s, and I had one hero. And if you grew up during that time and you followed baseball, maybe your hero was like Ken Griffey Jr., or maybe like John Smoles. Like those would have been great choices. My choice was Jose Kinsacow. Now, a few of you might know who he is. He's a guy that married Madonna for about this long and then was also wrapped up in drug scandals that like my hero didn't age very well. Let's just put it that way. Man, I wanted to be like him though. He had the fame. He had the money. He was at the top of his game. I wanted to be that because I thought that's what success was, that that would give me the happiness that I was longing for in life. And yet when you hear certain athletes that have achieved the greatest that they can achieve, you hear their words and they're missing something. I mean, like Tom Brady, he after his third Super Bowl win, here's what he said. He said, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there has to be something greater out there for me? AJ Brown, who just won the Super Bowl in February, he said, I've never been a champion at the highest level before, but I thought my hard work would be justified by winning at all. And it wasn't. Mike Tyson, one of the greatest boxers of all time. He's being interviewed and the interviewer says, man, Mike, look at all this history. Look at the belt and the gloves. And Mike throws down the belt and he says, this is nothing. You know, like that's, I'll be honest, if he was standing right here, I wouldn't say that, but he's not. So success may bring fame. It may bring the money. It may bring the things that we think are important, but it ultimately doesn't give us what we long for. What we long for is hope for peace, for joy, for real life. And those things can only be given to us by God. So how do we get there? Like, how do we receive those things in our lives? Today, we're going to look at kind of an obscure story from the Old Testament. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to 2 Kings chapter five. If you don't have your Bibles, no worries, it's going to be up on the screen. We're going to look at a guy named Naaman. And we're going to jump straight into a story. 2 Kings chapter five, verse one, here's what it says. It says, now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. So Naaman, his mean means pleasant. And this guy all throughout the passage is described as someone who is honorable, someone who is great. He's so great that God used him. He was a part of the Syrian army, the enemies of Israel. God uses him to defeat the nation of Israel, to defeat the evil king, King Ahab. Like God didn't use a lot of people in the Old Testament to defeat Israel. And yet he uses this guy named Naaman. He was a great warrior, a great man. And then look at continue verse one. He says he was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. That kind of takes a weird turn. Like all these great things about him is that he's a valiant warrior. Oh, by the way, he had leprosy. What's interesting is that Naaman had a lot of control, a lot of success in his life. He could control everything that he did. He cannot control his health. And leprosy, it wasn't just like a rash, a skin disease. It was something that would kill him. It was something that he had to stay away from other people because they could get it as well. So it isolated him. You can imagine what he's walking through. He's a very successful person, and yet he can't control his own health. Look at verse two. Now, bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. So you have these Aram in Israel. They're at peace at this point, but there's these border skirmishes that go on. And one of these happens and these people that go over to Israel and they take this girl back as a slave. And most scholars would say this girl was like 10, 11, 12, maybe 13 years old. She's very young. And now she's a slave in somebody's house. She kind of becomes the center point of the next verse. Look at verse three. She said to her mistress, if only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria, the prophet she's talking about as Elijah, one of the greatest prophets that Israel has ever had. He says only if he would only see him, he would cure him of his leprosy. Here's what I find fascinating. You've got this girl, this nameless slave. You can imagine she wants to be somewhere else. She wants to be home with her friends, with her family, and yet she finds herself in a circumstance she didn't ask for and she doesn't long for. And yet she remains faithful to God in the midst of that. Like not just faithful to God, but God uses her in this moment to create a miracle that will have international significance. And I think that God is still in the same business today of using common people, nameless people in many ways, people like me, people like you, in a way to draw people to himself. That God's just looking for people who are going to be faithful in their current situation. That you may not have asked for the situation you're in. You may not want it. It may be painful, but God's going, will you be faithful in the midst of that? And if you will, he'll use you to draw others to himself. Let's not skip over her story. It's really important for each one of us. So Naaman hears this. He hears this, this, this prophet in Israel that he can cure him. And so Naaman goes to the king of Aram and he says, can, can I go to Israel? And the king says, yes, I can, in fact, let me give you a letter to send to the king of Israel. So he knows we're not there to fight or anything like that. So Naaman gets his donkey, his chariots, and he fills everything up. The Bible says that he's got a ton of money to come and try to, to pay for this, this healing. In fact, it's so much money. Today's equivalent would be $7.5 million. So he's got a letter from the king, $7.5 million, and he's going to get himself some healing. Look at verse seven. It says, as soon as the king of Israel reads this letter, he tore his clothes and said, am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me? Now the king of Israel, he's a little overdramatic. Okay. It's like, oh dude, he's like, who am I? I'm not God. I can't heal this guy of leprosy. You must be here to fight me for some reason. Elijah, he hears what's happening. He hears that some guys come there to see him. So he says, hey, bring him over to my house. Bring the guy to me. Then look at verse nine. It says, so Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elijah's house. Elijah sent a messenger to say to him, go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will be restored and you'll be cleansed. I love what happens here. Because Naaman, this very successful guy, he's got a letter from the king. He's got $7.5 million. He goes and he's going to go find this prophet. He goes to Elijah's door and Elijah doesn't even come outside the house. Like Elijah doesn't even open up the window. He's like, hey man, if you'll just go dip yourself in the Jordan. No, he sends his servant out to meet Naaman. Now here's the deal. If you come over to my house today with a pickup truck full of money, it doesn't have to be $7.5 million. It could be $750. I'm going to come meet you. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to come outside and shake your head. Elijah's like, I don't care. And Naaman, this must infuriate him. Look what happens next in verse 11. It says, but Naaman went away angry and said, I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord, his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Naaman isn't used to this. How dare Elijah? Doesn't he know who I am? Doesn't he know that I'm the one that defeated Israel? Doesn't he know how powerful I am? That I'm a valiant soldier? That I'm a good guy? That I have all this money? I have a letter from the king? Does he not know who I am? He wants him to come out and perform this great ceremony, this big spectacle. Like, whoa, look at this guy. Get healed. Wave your hand across my leprosy and then I'll be healed. That's what he's expecting. That's what he's wanting. And he doesn't get what he wants. And this makes him angry. Here's what I know about successful people. Successful people aren't successful because they don't get what they want. Like they're usually in control. They usually know what they're doing. They know what they need to do and they go out and they do those things and they find success. Naaman has always found success. He knows what he wants. He wants respect from Elijah. He wants to be honored and he wants to be healed. But he gets angry. I mean, we're told that this guy is a good guy. He's an honorable guy. Why does he get mad? I mean, he's not some guy that just blows up at everything. So why does he get angry in this moment? Because the idol of success has to be maintained. When you seek after certain things in your life that are not God, when you seek after achievement and if I could just get this, and I could just have this lifestyle, and I could just have this house, I could just have this job title, if I could just get this, and once you get there, that level of success has to be maintained. It's why people will work crazy hours and destroy themselves and their family to keep a paycheck or to keep a certain title or keep a certain reputation around the office. It's why parents will do certain things to try to control their kids. If you're a parent, you know what I'm talking about. Your kid can do something in your house and you can be like, oh man, whatever. I'm not even dealing with that right now. They do that same thing in public and you're like, what are you doing? You're embarrassing me because we have to maintain that we're a certain type of parent, that we know what we're doing, that we're in control. So we try to maintain and control everything around us because that level of success has to be maintained in our lives. We do this with our, the type of living that we have, our lifestyle that we have. We want certain things. We want to be able to do certain things and when something comes up against us, we don't want to change any of that. What will people think? So like when you go into the grocery store and eggs are like eight bazillion dollars and it costs a kidney to get out of the grocery store, you don't stop your 42 streaming services. I can't do that. I've got this level of lifestyle that I have to maintain. And so we think that we have to maintain this level of success. And here's what I know about the idol of success. The idol of success, either you remove it from its place and you put God back in his place or it will come crashing down on you. And when it comes crashing down on you, it leaves a wake of destruction. It destroys marriages and families and relationships with kids and businesses and churches, all the things. Now again, success is not a bad thing. It's just that being the thing that we go after, the achievement, the certain things we think, this will bring me happiness. This will give me ultimately what I want. When we seek after those things and we take God off of his throne, then that idol of success will come crashing down. But the beautiful thing is we get a choice. We can remove the idol of success today and put God back where he belongs or it will come crashing down. Naaman, he's trying to maintain the same level of success. Look who I am. Look how great I am. Look at all the things I've been able to do in my life and now he's not getting what he wants and he's becoming angry over it. It's destroying him. Look at verse 12. It says, are not Abana and Pharpah the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? What's he talking about here? You got to remember Elijah just said, Elijah says, hey, I want you to go dip yourself in the Jordan River seven times. And so he says, but aren't these rivers not better than the Jordan? He says, couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed so we turn and went off in a rage? That may sound strange, but once you get to know these three rivers, then it makes sense. You see Naaman, he's from Syria and in Syria there's these two rivers, the Abana and the Pharpah that flow through it, flow through Damascus. And these rivers are beautiful. I mean, they're crystal clear and where they converge, the Arabs used to call it the garden of the world. That's how beautiful it was. They would look at it and go, man, this is the pinnacle. This is the garden of the world. And then you contrast that with the Jordan River. The Jordan River, some of you have been there. It's muddy, it's nasty. In fact, we have a picture of all three. You've got the Pharpah and the Abana that they converge right there. It's beautiful. And then you have the Jordan River, which is where Jesus was baptized. And it is muddy and nasty. And Elijah says, I want you to go dip yourself in that muddy, nasty water seven times. And that's how you're going to be cleansed. And Naaman goes, I don't get it. I'm going to question this. So he questions the practicality of the command. He's like, how would me dipping myself in muddy water bring cleansing to my body? Like, that doesn't make sense. If I wanted to go dip myself in water, I can do it in the waters that I've gone to quite often. Like, why wouldn't I go to those waters, the clean waters, then maybe that will heal me. You're telling me go to muddy water. He questions the practicality. Not only that, he questions the simplicity. So what you're telling me, Elijah, all I have to do is go take a bath and I'm going to be healed of leprosy. That's crazy. Nobody else has been able to heal me of leprosy. There's no medicine. There's no cure. But you're telling me I just need to go dunk myself in water. It just sounds too simple. I wonder how many people, maybe how many people here today are watching online, how many people are missing out on the healing that God has for you in your life, because we question the simplicity and the practicality of the gospel. I wonder how many of us think about the gospel message and think it just sounds too simple. And so we keep dealing with the spiritual leprosy that we have in our lives when God's going, I have healing for you. What is the gospel message? Just simply this, that you and I were all sinners. What is sin? Sin means that you don't measure up to God's perfect standard. So unless you're perfect, you're a sinner. If you're a sinner, you're in the same company as me. The problem with sin is that it separates us from God. Like God can't be with sin. So when we sin, we separate ourselves from him and there's nothing you can do to be made right with God. You can't come to church enough. You can't give enough. You can't do enough good things. There's nothing you can do to be made right with God. The only way to be made right with God is through what Jesus did for you and I. You see, the Bible says that for the wages, the consequences of sin is death, meaning the results of our sin should have resulted in us dying. But Jesus came and took that punishment on himself. He died for you and I. But the beauty is, yeah, the beauty is he didn't stay dead. He rose from the dead three days later to show his power over sin and over death and he offers us life. He offers us life. Here's what I know. Here's what I know. There's some of us that we came in here today for God to tell you that message right there. For some of us, we don't even know why we're here. Maybe for some of you, you came because your mama invited you. Maybe because a girl was coming or maybe you were just in traffic and they just directed you right on in and you're like, that's weird. I don't know why you're here, but I know that God drew you here. He knows your name. He knows your story. He knows exactly what you need and he is offering healing from spiritual leprosy called sin through what Jesus has done for us. He's offering that to you and I. I firmly believe that some of us have walked into this place and maybe we've never checked out church before. It's our first time. Trust me, come back next week. Pastor Josh is way better than me. Come back. But maybe this is your first time and God's going, I brought you here for a specific purpose. For some of you, I can't shake this feeling as I was praying this morning. There's some of you, whether it's here at Rock Wall, maybe one of the other campuses are online that you're going, this is my last chance. Today is the last day that you're giving God any opportunity to move in your life and you thought, you know what, I'll try church one last time and if it doesn't work, I'm done. I'm gonna end my life. And if that's you, I'm so grateful that you're here. Our God knows you and he sees you and he deeply cares about you so much so that he sent Jesus to die on the cross for your sins so that you can't have hope, so you can't have life, so you can truly experience healing. Very similar healing that Naaman experiences. Let's continue. Look at verse 13. He says, Naaman's servant went to him and said, my father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then when he tells you, just wash yourself and be cleansed? So he went down, dipped himself in the Jordan seven times as the man of God had told him and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. So immediately, Naaman hears this, he goes, washes himself seven times in the Jordan and he's healed. He's healed. Now what's interesting is that it wasn't Naaman's power that healed him, it wasn't his reputation that healed him, it wasn't his money that healed him, it was simply the grace of God. It was simply God choosing to do something great in his life. Now Naaman had to be obedient, but Naaman just had to simply surrender and that's something that he learned in this. He found out that true success is found in surrender. He's been seeking success his entire life and he's realizing at this moment that true success in life is found in surrender. Here's what I know about human beings, that you and I, we will pursue success and achievement and going after this thing and if I can have this, if I can just get this and at some point in our lives, it might be when you're 20, you're really lucky, might be in your 30s or 40s, might be when you're in your 80s, but at some point you're gonna realize the pursuit of those things didn't get you what you ultimately wanted. We ultimately want God's best in our lives, we want peace and we want hope and we want joy and we want life and all of those things and the only way to truly receive them is to submit to God, trusting that he is in control, trusting that God has got you. Yeah, he's got you. He sees you, he knows you, he's good enough and powerful enough to get your back. We just have to trust that he's in control and when we do then we respond like Naaman responded. Look at this last verse with me, verse 15. It says, then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God, he stood before him and said, now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel, so please accept a gift from your servant. True success is knowing, it's seeing, it's trusting that God is in control. It's firmly believing that he's good enough and big enough to take anything that you give him and that if you do give him that thing, whatever it is or those things, he'll come through. You'll see incredible things happen in your life, but honestly this is hard, at least it is for me. Can I be honest with a couple thousand of my closest friends? Man, I'm a control freak. I like to be in control. Anybody else admit they like to be in control? Good, 16 of you. Awesome. Liars, we long to be in control. I don't want you in control, I don't want to be out of control, I have a really hard time trusting that God is in control and yet he constantly is going, will you trust me? Will you trust me? He's taught me this over and over in church planting. I mean, when we started and didn't know what we were doing, trust him that he's in control. We've gone through many challenging moments as a church. COVID was one of those. Now, we were portable for 10 and a half years, so we got kicked out of the school that we were in and we're doing parking lot worship services and in our state in Colorado was crazy. They had spies coming into churches to then report back to the governor about what we were doing and if we were wearing masks and all this crazy stuff that was happening and I'm going, God, you better be in control. And he's just going, just trust me. But more than the church planting journey, God's been teaching me this over and over in my life, especially over the last year and a half. About a year and a half ago, my wife had a pretty traumatic situation happen at her work. It was so bad that we had to get the Civil Rights Commission involved. As a part of that, she chose to step down from a job and a career that she loved. And over the last year and a half, we've just been walking through emotional hardships and mental hardships, financial hardships because of losing the paycheck, just all these different things. And throughout it, what I want to do is I want to control everything. I want to control the work situation. I want to control the investigation. I want to control the income. I want to control all these different things. And like, I'm a man, I got this. We're okay. And try to control everything as God's going. Will you just let me be in control? Will you just trust me that I'm good enough and powerful enough to do what I need to do in this situation? My wife, she's really good about releasing that to God. It takes me a little bit longer. I'm a little bit more stubborn. But as I've been releasing this situation over to him, God's been showing up in unbelievable ways. My wife has received incredible healing. God's been using her in the life of many women in our church who've gone through a very similar situation. And I'm watching my wife flourish in ministry, not ministry attached to a paycheck, but ministry attached to eternal impact. And, and through it all, our trust in God is being deepened. We're realizing more and more every day how good he is, how powerful he is, how he is a provider, and all of those things that it's easy to preach about and a lot harder to live when you're walking through it. But we all walk through it. So here's my question to you. Is there something in your life that you've been trying to control? Thinking that if I can just get this, then I'll look a certain way. I'll have a certain reputation. I'll have whatever it may be. But is it an area that maybe you're controlling thinking that, and if I can just control this thing, then I'll be okay. I'll get what I ultimately want. Maybe it's in your business. Talk to so many people after each service that I've been starting businesses or right now in the midst of challenges in their business and going, and I have to learn to just give up control to God. Maybe it's in your marriage. Maybe your spouse and you aren't on the same page and you think, if I can just control this situation, then we'll be in a better spot. Then they'll do what I want them to do or whatever case may be. Maybe it's with your kids. Maybe for some of us, our kids have walked away from the Lord. With every fiber in your being, you want them to experience the joy of God again. You want them back in the house of God. You'll do anything you can to get them to come back. God's going, will you just trust me that I love your kids more than you do? Maybe you're like me and you're a parent of a special needs kid and you're like, man, I don't know what to do. God, I don't know what my next step is. God's just going, just trust me. I made them. I know what they need. I know what you need. Maybe it's in your health. Maybe you've been given a diagnosis recently that is not good. And the doctors say it's not going to be long or whatever. I mean, Naaman was given the same diagnosis and God brought complete healing. I'm not saying that if you give something over to God, that man, everything turns around in your favor. But I am saying that nothing turns around in your favor unless we give it over to God. That we have to trust him. We have to release control. Maybe, maybe you're wrestling with your faith. I felt like maybe you were one of the people I was talking to earlier and God's saying, I brought you here to hear these words. Come home. Come home. We see, receive what Christ has done for you. Recommit your life to Christ. Trust that God is in control. You're still going to have questions and doubts and that's totally fine. But trust him that he sees you. He knows you. He loves you and he's saying, come home. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to pray for us. And as I do, I'm going to ask you to do something with your posture. I'm going to ask you as I pray for you that you would, you would pray with open hands. If you would say there's an area of my life that I can see I'm trying to control, then I'm going to ask you identify that area as I'm praying and then pray with open hands and let God take it. Here's what I know. When you're controlling something, you're holding onto it like this and you can't give it away. You also can't what? Receive. So if God has something for you today, open those hands and go, God, here it is. I want to receive whatever you have for me. So I'm going to pray for us. Let your posture, your heart posture and your hand posture just be open and go, God, I'm giving you this area of my life and I want to receive whatever you want for me. Father, we come before you and we thank you for your mercy and your grace. God, I thank you that you see each person in this room, in every room. You see those who are watching online. God, you know every one of us, you know our names, you know our stories and God, you have been drawing us to yourself. For some of us, Father, that's receiving you for the first time. It's accepting that gospel message of what you did on the cross, Jesus. For others of us, it's a recommitment to you. It's coming back home to you. Father, for some of us, there's an area of our life. We know you, we love you, but we've been trying to control this. Thank God, we now come before you with a posture of openness and we say, God, take this. I give it to you. Father, whatever you have for us, I receive. I pray, Father, that you would heal marriages. And Father, you would bring kids back home. I pray, Father, that you would provide healing physically for those who need it. I pray, Father, for the prodigal to come home. I pray, God, that you would show up and be the provider that some of us need you to be financially. God, you know we're each of one of us, one of us is that, Father, so we give to you and we receive from you. God, we thank you. We trust that you are good and powerful in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hang on. Stay right here. Lake Point Family, will you help me honor and thank Pastor Ernest for being here? Bro. Look at that. Amen. Amen. Amen. So, hey, stay standing real quick. Let me say something. There's something you're doing that a lot of you don't know that you're doing. So, I want to encourage you in this. Whether you know it or not, you have planted more than 80 churches in the hardest to reach cities and states in North America through the church planning network that Lake Point started called the Strategic Launch Network. Pastor Ernest was one of those dudes and these guys like, you know, how I've kind of described these are like the Navy Seals of the Kingdom of God. Whatever is the city where the least people know Jesus, wherever are the places where there's the most opposition to the gospel, these guys go, I want to go there and I want to beat back the darkness in that city and that place. And 11 years ago, this man decided at great cost and risk to his family, his health and his future. He decided to go into a place like that and God has blessed him. Now he's reaching thousands of people for Jesus right outside of Denver. So, these are kind of guys like, we want to honor when they're here. And so, let me just, like I'm saying this to you, but it's also to Ernest. When a man like this comes to Lake Point, they should always be heroes in our midst. And so, Lake Point family, thank you for helping me honor this guy. And Ernest, you know, you son of the house man, like 11 years partnership here. And so, we know Ernest is, they're taking a lot of ground. They've also got a lot of obstacles to overcome. And so, Ernest, on behalf of these people, people at Lake Point, we here's a $25,000 for your church to help you reach more people for Jesus. Well loved, yeah. But amen. Okay. Now, Lake Point family, that's right. Let me explain what just happened. I just gave away money that you haven't given yet. So, I took a step of faith. And so, so we are from now to the end of the year, receiving what we call our annual missions offering. This is the offering where 100% of this offering we give away. And it goes to fund things like our 80, the 80 churches that we've planted and counting. We're doing 10 new churches per year now in these cities. So, the Strategic Launch Network, it goes to fund our more than 20 international partners in countries all over the world reaching people for Christ. And this is the offering that funds our more than 40 local partners in the DFW area helping the last lost, least and lonely with the love of Jesus. And so, here's what I'm asking you to do. I'm asking you to do what my family is doing right now. I'm asking you to pray and ask God what we, he would have you give above and beyond your normal giving to the annual missions offering. So, begin praying for that. And you can give a one of three ways to that. You'll see a little envelope on the seat in front of you that says annual missions offering. You put a gift in there. Number two, you can write a check and in the subject line, just put AMO and we'll know that stands for annual missions offering. Or you can text the word give to the number 20401 and choose annual missions offering from that drop down menu. And 100% of that will go to that offering. All right. Well, here's what we're getting ready to do. We're getting ready to receive our regular giving. So, you can give to that in the buckets they come by, boxes next to the doors on your way out. You can text the word give the number 20411. But right now, let's worship King Jesus both as we give and as we sing. Let's go.