Ordinary Faith And A Dysfunctional Family

April 20, 2026

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Little time.
And so I need to go on and getinto this.
Let's do this vision statement.
If we can do this together, ifwe can put that vision statement
up as we are trying to get thisdown in our soul.
Come on, let's read together.
We exist to help people becomefollowers of Jesus who

(00:21):
experience life change incommunity and make a difference.
Amen.
Amen.
That is where we're trying togo.
That's who we are.
We have three guiding metrics.
Are we growing as followers ofJesus?
Are we experiencing life changein the community?

(00:41):
And are we making a difference?
Is that simple?
That's simple.
And really that leads into ourseries ordinary faith for an
extraordinary God.
Extraordinary God.
Ordinary faith for anextraordinary God.
I know some of us have this ideathat you gotta have this super

(01:03):
duper lead tall buildings in asingle bound faith.
You know, it's got to besuperior to anybody else for God
to use us.
Amen.

(01:24):
And that's all they got has.
And that's what I hope tobelieve the Lord wants to show
us in our text for today.
Our meditation text comes from 1Corinthians chapter 1, verses 27
through 29.
Let us put this on the screen.
Let us read this together.

(01:45):
Here we go.
But God chose the foolish thingsof the world to shame the wise.
God chose the weak things of theworld to shame the strong.
God chose the lowly things ofthis world and the despised
things and the things that arenot to nullify the things that

(02:09):
are.
Amen.
Paul there was talking abouthimself.
He said, I can't even speakwell, but God used it with his
power to bring salvation to theCorinthian church.
Amen.
Chooses the unthinkable thingsto do his will.
Amen.

(02:31):
Yeah, the folk we wouldn'tchoose.
That's who God chooses.
Isn't that good news?
Yes, Lord.
And our text comes from Genesis25, verses 21 through 26.
Does not cover the entire story.
I want to encourage you to readall of chapter 25, really to 27.
And you really can go to 36.
It's the story of Joseph, Jacob.

(02:53):
But for our time, we're justgoing to focus on this context,
the early part of his life,beginning at verse 21.
Here's what it says.
And the Lord answered hisprayer.
And his wife Rebecca becamepregnant.

(03:15):
The babies jostled.
One translation said theystruggled with each other within
her.
And she said, Why is thishappening to me?
So she went to inquire of theLord.
And the Lord said to her, Twonations are in your womb, and
two peoples from within you willbe separated.

(03:36):
One people will be stronger thanthe other, and the older will
serve the younger.
The time came for her to givebirth.
There were twin boys in herwomb.
The first came out was red, andhis whole body was like a hairy
garment.
So they named him Esau.
And after this, his brother cameout, and with his hand grasping

(04:00):
Esau's heel, some say he'llcatcher.
So he was named Jacob.
And Isaac was 60 years old whenRebekah gave birth to them.
Amen.
I want to talk about ordinaryfaith and a dysfunctional
family.

(04:22):
Ordinary faith.
Tell your neighbor, you thinkyour family messed up.
Amen.
Just hold on for just a minute.
As we stated last Sunday, wesaid without thinking, most
Christians have been trained tobelieve that the significant
people in God's kingdom are onlythe superstars.

(04:51):
What we hope to show is that Goduses people of ordinary faith.
But today I'm gonna go a littlebit further and suggest that
most Christians also have beentrained to believe that the
significant people in God'skingdom come from perfect
backgrounds.

(05:11):
They come from good functioningfamilies.
And thus we tend to believe thatour family history, our family
background, and any resultingmissteps disqualifies us from
God's kingdom purposes.
We tell ourselves God can neveruse me because you don't know my

(05:34):
family story.
And for the record, everyfamily's got some kind of
dysfunction in it, amen.
Tell your neighbor, your familyain't so holy to escape
dysfunctionality, amen.
All God's children gotdysfunction, amen.

(05:59):
If anyone came out of adysfunctional family, it was
Joseph.
And I think it's apropos toquote the late Old Testament
scholar Walter Brugelman here.
He calls God, based on thisstory, he calls God the God of
inversion.
And in our parlance, that meanshe's the God that will flip the
script.

(06:20):
In other words, you think Godwill choose this person, but God
will choose the unlikely person.
We think God's gonna choose theperson with the right education,
with the right pedigree, the onethat grew up on the right side
of the tracks.
And yet God chooses the one wewould never choose.

(06:40):
And that's the case here withIsaac this morning.
We never would have chosen, I'mnot Isaac, with Jacob this
morning, we never would havechosen Jacob to be the pastor of
a church.
Too much mess in his family,y'all.
We wouldn't choose him to be ourpastor.
We never would have chosen himto be an elected official to

(07:02):
represent us in Congress.
The social media scandal wouldbe too much to bear.
And yet God chooses him with nopurpose, no reason, only because
he's good.
And God wants to fulfill hispurposes.
So I'm gonna drop my thesisstatement because I gotta run in

(07:24):
a hurry.
I got a lot to cover and alittle time to cover.
So here it is.
Here's my thesis statement.
God knows how to work our storywith all the ugly details.
I need to say that again, don'tI?
God knows how to work our storywith all the ugly details.
And ordinary faith is not apristine and perfect faith.

(07:46):
But ordinary faith says, inspite of the ugly details, I'm
still holding on to my God.
Because my story is not finisheduntil God writes the last
chapter.
So what I want to do today is Iwant to make some passing
observations of four charactersin this story: Isaac, Rebekah,
Jacob, and Esau.

(08:07):
And then I want to conclude thiswith some very quick guidelines
for an ordinary faith.
First, I want to look at Isaac'sfaith, Jacob's daddy.
At the onset, we are quicklyalerted to Isaac's faith.
He's a man of faith because thetext opens up describing him as
a man of prayer.

(08:27):
Text says Isaac prayed to theLord on behalf of his wife
because she was childless.
And the Bible says the Lordanswered her prayer.
That word for prayer, the verb,it's a word that literally means
to plead for her.
And if I can drop a footnotehere, brothers, it does our
families well when our wives andour children hear us pray for

(08:51):
them.
Not saying that wives andchildren ought not to pray, but
there's something about God thatmoves his heart when the head of
the house, the priest of thehome, prays for his family.
And you ain't got to call all ofthe saints to pray for somebody.
Just say a word of prayer, andyou'll be surprised how much God
will bless that.

(09:12):
And that's what Jacob does here.
He pleads for his wife.
And based on what the text saysin verse 26, it would suggest
that he prayed 20 years for hiswife.
That's a long time, y'all.
20 years and no answer.
And what that means is prayer issurely an engagement with God's

(09:35):
presence.
But it also involves disciplineand confidence to believe that
God will do what he will do.
In other words, we got torecognize when it comes to
prayer, just because God don'tanswer in the first four hours,
that don't mean God is hasstopped working in your
situation.
Sometimes God uses the lengthand the time to answer our

(09:57):
prayer, to build somediscipline, some faith, and some
strength in us.
We come asking God for onething, and God says, okay, I'm
gonna give you what you askedfor, but you're gonna have a
stronger prayer life.
You're gonna be stronger in yourworship life, you're gonna be
stronger in your walk with me.
You're gonna really learn how tolean on me in hard times.

(10:19):
Tell your neighbor, God knowshow to do it.
He'll teach you how to pray whenyou don't know how to pray.
Prayer is an engagement withGod's presence.
And just because I don't feelit, that doesn't mean God is not
there.
Plenty of times, plenty of timesI've come into church and I

(10:39):
didn't feel it.
Plenty of times I've gotten myknees and I didn't feel it.
But I called on him in house.
And it amazes me when I go aheadand call on him in house.
Does anybody know God knows howto show up?
Keep on praying, keep ontrusting, keep on calling.
If you don't feel nothing, I'mdare you to call on God.

(11:03):
He'll answer when you call.
Oh, yes, he will.
But also, too, I gotta say thisanswer prayer usually comes with
a divine footnote.
Many times we ask for one thingand God will answer it.
But you better believe God isgonna put his slaver in it.
That's what happened here withEsau.

(11:23):
He prayed to the Lord.
Lord, I I need you to, I needyou to help my wife bear a
child.
God said, Oh, you you didn'tpray the right thing.
He didn't just bless her withone, bless her with two.
Somebody said, Amen.
And then not only that, he put aword behind it, he says, Look,
the older one gonna start gonnaserve the younger one.

(11:47):
That's not what Isaac expected.
Because sometimes when I ask Godfor something, he'll attach a
divine footnote to how theanswer is supposed to operate.
Hear God in this one prayer, heis upending the conventional
cultural way of structure andhow a family is to be ordered.

(12:11):
In that day, all the inheritancewent to the oldest child: the
land, the authority, the money,everything.
But God is for the underdog,y'all.
God is for the marginal.
This is a text about justice.
And as Walter Bruegerman said,he'll invert things, he'll flip

(12:33):
the script to show you how muchpower he had.
And it was not what Isaacexpected.
Because sometimes the answercomes with a footnote.
Tell your neighbor, be carefulfor what you pray for.
Be careful.
Here's all I'm saying.

(12:53):
Leave room for God to work theanswer his way.
Sometimes, hear me.
Sometimes when we pray for whatwe want, say here it is, I'm
sorry.
Sometimes when we pray for whatwe want, God wants a whole lot
more than what we want.
You praying to get your billspaid.

(13:14):
God says, No, I want to raise upa whole community that can get
their bills paid.
You you praying for help foryourself.
God said, No, I want to put allthe hospitals out of business
forever.
That sometimes the prayer we askfor is too short-sighted, and
God has a bigger vision for whathe wants to accomplish through

(13:36):
your praying.
And we got to leave room thatsometimes, whatever answer we
expect, God may be doing alittle bit more.
Now, now I gotta deal with theugly details in this because
there's some ugly details inthis, and what I love about this
story is that God works in spiteof the ugly details.

(13:57):
Now, when you go to chapter 27,uh Isaac knew what the answer to
his prayer was.
But he he was gonna ignore it nomatter what.
He had his mind made up to blessEsau.
That's what he was gonna do.

(14:18):
He was disobedient, and yet, inspite of his disobedience, God
kept working in his life inspite of the ugly details.
Hear me today.
There's a difference betweenconsequences and judgment.
A lot of times when we'redisobedient or if we've sinned

(14:38):
against God, we think God'sgonna judge us.
Trust me, you don't want God tojudge you.
And a lot of times we don't evenunderstand when God judges us
when he's judging us.
See, the judgment of God is notfire and brimstone, it's not the
wipe us out, it's not the curseus with disease.
God just does this when hejudges us.
Okay, you all by yourself.
Go right ahead.

(14:59):
You all by yourself.
And and to try to live lifewithout God is painful.
Y'all not hearing me today.
So he doesn't judge us, but hewill allow us to experience
consequences.
Now, why does he allowconsequences?
Because we need to learn alesson.

(15:20):
Consequences doesn't mean thatGod is mad with us, he just
wants us to learn that's not theright way.
Okay, y'all not hearing me.
Okay, you tell your name, youadded two minutes to the sermon.
Okay.
So let me say it like this.
Some of us can testify.
They told you, don't marry them.

(15:48):
Okay.
They told you, don't do it,don't do it.
Mama told you, big mama toldyou, your cousin told you, your
enemy told you.
I don't even like you, but youdon't want to get married to
that.
You did it anyway.
And when they broke your heart,guess what?

(16:08):
You didn't make that mistakeagain, did you?
Tell your neighbor, that'sconsequences.
God was not trying to judge us,but he's teaching us a lesson so
that we don't go that way inhim.
Okay, I'm gonna move on.
All right, here we go.
That's what God was doing withIsaac, teaching him
consequences.
And the consequence was hedidn't see both of his sons ever

(16:29):
again because he disobeyed God.
And yet God still kept workinghis story in spite of the ugly
details.
Let me move on.
Rebecca's resolve.
Rebecca was also a woman offaith.
Watch how God blesses her.
Isaac prayed.
God didn't answer Isaac.
Isaac prayed.

(16:50):
He gave the answer to Rebecca.
The revelation didn't come toIsaac.
Brothers, she can hear from Godtoo.
That don't mean you get to tellhim what to do, though, sisters.
Preach, Pastor.
But she heard from God too.

(17:10):
She was a woman of faith.
To the point that in a propheticsense, God trusted her with
divine revelation.
So there's a sense that even herspirituality is being
acknowledged.
But where they mess up is, is inverse 27.
The boys grew up, Esau became askillful hunter.

(17:34):
Isaac, who had a taste for wildgame, loved Esau, but Rebecca
loved Jacob.
Rebecca and Isaac both startedplaying favorites.
That was her mistake.
She loved Jacob at the expenseof her own son, Esau.

(17:57):
And Isaac loved Esau at theexpense of his own son, Jacob.
Tell your neighbor, dysfunction.
I hope we know by now that weought not play favorites with
our children.
Come on now.
I hope we know that right now.
I hope we know by now.

(18:17):
This is the quickest path to allkinds of dysfunctionality.
Let me tell you something.
I've been passing for most of mylife.
And the one thing that adultchildren struggle to get over is
whether or not that parent lovedthe other child more than them.

(18:38):
And I know we say I tried tolove them differently because
they had different needs.
That's not the issue.
If the child perceives that onegot more than the other, we need
God's wisdom to make sure thatit comes out balanced and fair.
And I hope to God, hope to Godwe didn't got delivered from

(19:00):
this.
See, there was a time when I wasyounger, parents would love the
lighter child more than thedarker child.
Tell your neighbor, I hope we'vegotten over that.
Or here's one, they like the onewith the pretty hair over the
nappy hair.
And to every child that gotnappy hair, here's what Pastor

said (19:21):
keep your hair nappy.
Because God is the one that madeyou, and everything that God
made in his image is not ugly.
I hope we've gotten over thisfavorites.
I hope we've gotten over that.
And what that means is, andhere's where Rebecca made the

(19:43):
mistake.
She she knew the culture, sheknew that the oldest child is
the one that's gonna get theblessing.
She knew what her husband wasgonna do, but she didn't trust
God to make the vision areality.
So she took things into her ownhands.
I'm gonna help God out.
Stop it, ladies.

(20:05):
He doesn't need your help.
He wants to hear your prayers.
That's a different thing.
She thought she could help Godout, and she had him dress up to
look, sound, and smell likeEsau.
And the consequence was shenever saw either one again.

(20:28):
Consequences.
Yet, in spite of the uglydetails, God kept working her
story.
I'm going somewhere.
Third one, Esau's mindset.
Esau lived for the moment.
That's what his problem was.
A great hunter, man's man, buthe lived for the moment.

(20:52):
You drop down to verse 29through 34.
He had been out hunting, comesin from the country.
The text says he's famished.
He's starving.
And he says to his brotherJacob, quick, let me have some
of that red stew.
I'm famished.
And Joseph said, First, sell meyour birthright.
We're gonna talk about him in aminute.
He said, Look, I'm about to dieanyway.

(21:14):
What's the sense in dying if Iif the birthright ain't gonna do
me any good?
So Esau had a fleshly mindset.
No spirituality whatsoever.
He lived for the moment.
Here it is.
Esau lived for short-termgratification.
He was impulsive.

(21:35):
Hear me well.
Short-term gratificationeventually leads to long term,
unseen, painful loss.
What we feel in the moment hasrepercussions long term.
Love may give you what you needin the moment and long term, but

(21:56):
lust will take you much furtherthan you ever intended.
That's the story with Esau.
Esau lived for his appetite.
He made a decision in themoment.
He had to have it right now.
I got to have it right now.
I'ma die if I don't get it rightnow.

(22:18):
I got to buy it right now.
I gotta get married right now.
I gotta have it right now.
And then two weeks after theymarried, I'm ready to get
divorced.
Because it's impulsive.
Because it's flesh, it'semotional, it's blinding.

(22:42):
Text says in Proverbs 23 and 2,and put a knife to your throat
if you are a man of greatappetite.
Paul says in Galatians 5:16,walk in the spirit and you shall
not gratify the desires of theflesh.
When we live for the moment, wecan spend a lifetime cleaning up
the mess.

(23:03):
And that's exactly what happenedto Esau.
Later on in his story, it sayshe married two Canaanite women.
Not because it was interracial,but because it was interfaith.
God had told Israel, I don'twant you hanging out with those
folk who worship other God.

(23:24):
God is not anti-interracial.
Say amen.
He's anti-interfaith.
Amen.
He couldn't, he wouldn't listento that.
And so when he learns that he'sgonna lose the birthright, what
does he do?
He runs out and marries somebodywithin his own clan.
Thinking it's gonna clean up themess he already made with the

(23:45):
two others.
And a whole lot of folk operatelike that.
You haven't even healed from thefirst one, and you think the
next one is gonna clean up fromwhat you did.
No, get delivered first from thefirst set.
Calm down and get yourself rightbefore you try to hop in
somebody else's bed.
Preach, Pastor, I am.

(24:08):
My Lord.
So the ugly details for Esau isnot ugly details.
Hear me well.
He's an unspiritual man.
Because when you look at Esau'slife throughout the scriptures,
he's never presented in apositive light.
Matter of fact, Malachi reallygoes left on him.

(24:30):
God says in Malachi, Jacob Ihave loved, but Esau I hated.
Strong words.
Why would God say that?
Why would he use such strongwords to Esau?
Here it is.
Because he had blessed Esau overand over again, and not one time
did he pray.
Not one time did he pause toworship.
Not one time did he stop to givethanks.

(24:51):
He knows that the only reason hegot what he got was because the
Lord was watching over hisbehind.
And not one time did he pause togive thanks to God.
He was an unspiritual person.
So watch this.
It's not ugly details in Esau'slife, it's the fatal details.
God does not force himself uponanybody.

(25:14):
He wants us to come willingly tohim.
But if you know God has donesomething for you, you better
say thank you.
You better bless his name.
You better let the world know ifit had not been for the Lord on
my side.
God has been too good to me tokeep myself quiet.

(25:35):
Am I the only one in here thatknows what God can do?
Let the redeemer of the Lord saysomething.
For what he's done in your life.
If you know if it had not beenfor the Lord, you wouldn't even

(25:58):
be here.
You ought to testify.
That's what made God mad.
And I know that's stronglanguage.
I don't have time to get intowhat that hate means.
If you got a question for that,ask me later.
How I would got it, ask melater.

(26:19):
I ain't got time to get throughall that now.
Explain it.
Let me get to the fourth one sowe can get to the finish this
thing up.
Jacob scheme.
Jacob is a classic opportunist.
In a word, Jacob is slick.
Slick Rick Jacob.
Always got something up hissleeve.

(26:39):
And you better believe thenarrative is always gonna
benefit him.
No matter who was wrong, nomatter who was at fault, somehow
it's gonna land.
You either offended him or heshould be the beneficiary.
Jacob lived for Jacob.
So look what he says to hisbrother.
This is his brother.

(27:01):
He says, I'm famished.
Give me some of that stew.
Without even thinking.
Sell me your birthright.
He's vulnerable.
Now, I don't think the boy wasstarving.
Let's be clear on that.
Everybody knows he's overplayingit.
Negro, you ain't hungry.
Stop it.
But but here is a man that'ssomewhat vulnerable, and he

(27:23):
takes advantage of him at hisweakest point.
He's a classic opportunist.
He's a manipulator.
And yet God deals with Jacob.
His brother Esau, when he hadtricked him and had tricked
Isaac into bestowing theblessing.

(27:45):
Even though let's clear that up.
How many of y'all know Isaacdidn't have a blessing to give?
Y'all do know that, right?
See, that's that's the Achilles'heel of the story.
Isaac didn't have no blessing topass on.
God is the only one that canbless.
I don't want no man to bless me.
I want Almighty God to bless me.
Let's be clear on that.

(28:05):
So so Isaac didn't even have theauthority.
But after he had tricked Esauout of the blessing, Esau said,
Look at him.
That's his name.
He's a heel catcher.
He'll trip you up.
He'll steal from you.
He'll make it seem likeeverything is fine.
But the whole while, he's tryingto manipulate.

(28:29):
And I'm gonna just say it likethis.
This is simple.
This is real simple.
I'm gonna say it like the oldfolk.
What goes around comes around.
Say neighbor, ugly details.
God was faithful to him.
God protected Jacob, protectedhim, preserved his life.

(28:49):
But what goes around camearound.
And so then the same way hedeceived his brother Esau,
deceived his father Isaac, andlied.
He ran into his slick uncle,Laban.
And the text says he didn't foolhim once, but ten times.

(29:10):
Tell your neighbor, there'salways somebody slicker than you
out there.
But watch this.
Through all that, God was stillwatching over him.
Every time Laban changed wages,God took the little wages he had
and gave him more.
Every time he changed the termsof the contract, Laban changed
the terms of the contract andsaid, Well, you can only have

(29:31):
these sheets, the speckledsheets and the spotted sheets.
God would bless and enrich thosesheep and cause them to multiply
while Laban's sheep didn't goanywhere.
Every time that Laban tried tochange the contract, God, who is
an inverter, he can flip thescript.
Flip the script on Laban andbless Jake.
I don't know who I'm talking to.

(29:52):
Don't be mad at what folk havedone to you.
God will take the little thatthey threw at you and he'll
multiply that and bless you timeand time again.
Let me go on three things veryquickly.
Three things.
God knows how to work our storywith all the ugly details.

(30:14):
Three things.
Number one, trust God to orderyour steps.
Ordinary faith says this, God, Idon't always understand all the
details.
I don't always understand howyou work.
I'm actually a little skepticalof some things you allow, but
I'm gonna trust you to order mysteps.
Because remember the revelation,it was a destiny revelation.

(30:38):
Two nations are worn in yourwomb.
God had already ordained whatwas gonna happen to Jacob and
Esau.
While they were in the womb,hear me well.
I don't care what your mama didto you, I don't care what your
daddy said, I don't care whatyour grandma said, I don't care

(30:59):
what your friend said, I don'tcare what your resume said, I
don't care what your employersaid.
God had a plan for you while youwere even in the womb, and God
will fulfill it.
Let me tell you my problem.

(31:21):
And what happens is the devilknows how to multiply our pain
and our misery, and it becomesso much it overshadows the
vision that God has for ourlives.
And so the first step for someof us is just to trust that, in
spite of all that I'm goingthrough, God has a plan for my
life.

(31:42):
God has a destiny before I waseven born.
God had already charted mysteps.
You know what that means?
He wasn't surprised by the uglydetails in your life, he wasn't
surprised by them in my life.
But he knew that was a part ofthe narrative.
And God said, I knew that wasgonna happen in chapter three,

(32:03):
but baby, you ain't seen chapterfour yet.
You ain't seen chapter five.
I knew that's what you weregonna go through in chapter
four, but wait till you see myconclusion to your story.
Trust God that you have adestiny and that if we trust

(32:24):
him, he'll make that thinghappen.
Can I share this personally?
So I'm struggling with thispreaching thing when I'm
younger, back when dinosaursroamed the earth.
I'm struggling with thispreaching thing, and I didn't
really made up my mind, I'm notgonna do it.
I'll just be a good servant inthe Lord, in the Lord's army.

(32:48):
I'll serve in the church.
That was my plan.
And so I was in sales, and andLisa can testify to this.
Everything I sold was like gold.
It was gold.
I I could sell you snake oil fora premium.
Yes, I could.
Once I had a target.

(33:08):
Matter of fact, my whole salescareer, I had one month I didn't
get a bonus.
Every month that I worked as,no, not every month, I'm sorry,
every quarter, every quarterthat I worked as a salesperson,
I hit my number and above.
Matter of fact, the Lordreminded me, brought back one
time, I had taken over anaccount, and the previous

(33:29):
salesperson had loaded up thisaccount with product, which was
gonna kill my numbers for thequarter.
Because you got all theseproducts where they don't need
to buy no product, it'd be likenext quarter till they buy
something.
So it's gonna kill my numbers.
I got the planning and workingwith my supervisor.
I planned a radio program, gotall that product out of that

(33:51):
customer's inventory that hebought enough product for that
quarter, and I still hit mynumber.
So I mean, everything, I mean,everything I got involved in
terms of sales, I could sell it.
So I'm I'm I'm about a year awayfrom deciding to come to
seminary.
I'm doing well, I'm thinkingabout taking another job in

(34:12):
sales that was more money.
And the Lord, it was so clear, Iwas on the freeway.
It was it was clear as day.
I'm not saying he came down andspoke, you know, had a cup of
coffee with me.
I know some folk get that.
That ain't how it happened.
But it was clear as day.
He said, Oh, okay, so you cansell anything to anybody, make

(34:36):
all this money, and you can'teven shed my goodness to tell
people to get them to buy in howgood I am.
That thing leveled me.
And it let me know then God hada He watched, he had to put me
in sales to get me here.

(34:57):
That's all I'm saying.
He had to put me there to get mehere because I never would have
agreed to it and never wouldhave seen it.
Why am I telling this story?
God has a destiny for everysingle person in here.
I don't care what has happenedto you, I don't care what you

(35:19):
have done, I don't care whatfolk have said, I don't care
what the folk have tried todiscount about you, it's all a
lie.
It is not gonna be done untilGod said it's done.
Let me give you my next point.
Here's my next one.
Trust God with your destiny.
Here's the second one.
Trust God's wisdom for yourdecisions.
Hear me well.

(35:40):
Ugly details are the result ofquick, impulsive, bad decisions.
When we make impulsivedecisions, we're adding an ugly
detail to our story.
And here's all I'm saying.
Slow down.
Just slow down.

(36:00):
Pause.
Tell them, well, you know,that's that's really nice, but I
need to pray about that.
Well, you know what?
Let me let me just give me sometime to think about that.
You know, I don't know.
I don't know if I'm ready tomake that decision today.
Pray about it.
And then after you pray aboutit, guess what you should do

(36:21):
again?
Pray about it again.
And then after you pray aboutit, sit down and talk to
somebody.
Talk to somebody who's wise.
It's interesting in the text.
Uh uh, Abraham advised Isaac onhis relationship choices.

(36:43):
But Isaac and Rebecca neverreally advised their children
about their relationships.
Hear me, young people.
Hear me well, young people.
I know sometimes you don't wantto hear from your parents, but
they've lived five times whereyou're trying to get.
And if you can't even talk tothem about your relationship

(37:05):
decisions, you ought to talk tosomebody that's been where
you're trying to go.
Because a lot of times they seestuff you ain't never seen.
They can look at people, no,baby, that ain't gonna work.
I know you love that, but thatain't gonna work for you.
That's a headache waiting tohappen.
They see things you cannot see.

(37:25):
Wisdom.
And a lot of times, look, andand and surely as old
individuals, we gotta do betterhow we offer wisdom.
Amen.
Say amen.
Sometimes we come with that hardline.
Okay, that ain't the way youshare wisdom, amen.
But sometimes, y'all, you youyou have to ask and seek other

(37:47):
counsel.
I ain't shame to say it.
I ain't shame to say it.
When I got time to where I feltLisa was the one, and she'll
tell you.
I was running her by everybody.
So I ain't making that mistakeagain.
Nah, we ain't constantly tellyour neighbor consequences.

(38:07):
Teach you a lesson.
Everybody, I mean mama, daddy,grandmama, granddaddy, friend,
cousin.
Well, why are we going to yourinterview?
I just want them to see whatthey think about you.
Because a lot of times whenyou're involved emotionally,
there are just things you cannotsee.

(38:28):
Do I have one witness in herecan testify today?
And sometimes you need somebodyobjective, somebody who's not
invested as you to look at thatthing.
Turn it over.
Well, have you considered this,baby?
That's wisdom.

(38:49):
We've got to trust God's wisdom.
Ugly details come out of that.
Beware of the impulsivedecision.
Stay away from that.
Seek wisdom, seek otherindividuals that have been
there.

And here's my last one (39:02):
embrace God's grace.
The reason why God continues towrite our story in spite of the
ugly details is one word, grace.
And here's what I mean.
Stop looking at grace as a past.
Well, I got away with this.
No, you didn't get away withanybody, anything.
Stop thinking that.

(39:24):
No, what God is saying is look,I'm trying to hold back some
consequences and hope that youwould come to the light.
You don't want the consequencesto come on.
Come on, somebody.
You know, if God allow all theconsequences that we deserve, a
lot of us wouldn't even be heretoday.
And so what I'm saying isembrace God's grace.

(39:46):
In other words, understand thatGod always works from the bigger
picture and not the uglydetails.
And if he works from the biggerpicture, we also need to trust
him with the bigger picture ofour lives.
And trust him for how he'sworking in our life.

(40:06):
Embrace God's grace.
Don't just live under it,embrace it.
Live and respond to it in a waythat blesses your life.
Let me wrap this thing up.
And so I've been really amazedby this whole Artemis II mission

(40:28):
that they did.
That 10-day mission.
And I've been reading a numberof articles and just kind of
amazed by the whole thing.
Some of them say they had aspiritual experience and God
bless you.
God bless you.
But I'm just amazed and, youknow, how they, you know, they
splash down.
And you know, even to this day,six minutes, there's no

(40:48):
communication, and they they'rein that darkness for a while and
what have you.
But real what really got me waswhen they got to the dark side
of the moon.
And did y'all see that picture?
They didn't have it up.
Okay, I thought they would.
They got to the dark side of themoon and they looked back at the

(41:09):
earth.
There it is.
Thank you.
Y'all understand.
Wasn't that a beautiful picture?
Absolutely beautiful.
A big picture.
And I said, you know what?
That's a picture of God's grace.
At a distance, it's onebeautiful picture.
But now think about the detailsthat happen on earth every

(41:31):
single day.
Think about the details.
We at war.
Gas prices keep going up, stillgoing up.
We got a crazy president, amen.
Countries divided.
Families are a mess.
Some of us don't know how we'regonna make it.

(41:52):
You know what?
We're dealing with mental healthissues, vaccine issues.
When you get close and get lostin the details, you're ready to
throw up your hand.
But when you back off and seethe big picture, it's beautiful.
That's a picture of God's grace.

(42:13):
When God looks at our life, healways works from the big
picture.
In other words, we make themistake of getting caught up in
all the details.
And what we need to do is stepback like God and see the big

(42:35):
picture of what God is doing inour lives.
So we get caught up on thedetails.
Oh, that person broke my heart.
But God steps back and sees thebig picture.
But you ought to see what I'veset up for you over here.
Stop focusing on the details andstep back and trust God with the

(42:58):
big picture of your life.
What happened to you in onemoment that doesn't define you.
God has a plan for your story.
And your story is a big picture.
And when God continues andfinishes writing your story,
it's going to be beautiful.

(43:19):
Tell your neighbor, ordinaryfaith.
Ordinary faith, that's all.
All four of these characters hadordinary faith.
And any one of them, God couldhave used to carry forward the
story.
But he did it with Jacob.
And in spite of all his issues,he would learn from his

(43:40):
consequences.
But God was with him.
Because God was focused on thebig picture and not the details.
I'm done.
Let's take a moment and prepareour hearts for the Lord's
Supper.

(44:04):
What am I trying to say?
Stop getting lost into thelittle details of the things
that have happened to you.
God is always focused on the bigpicture of your life and the
ordinary faith to move thatforward.
God has a plan for you to make adifference, to be used by Him.

(44:28):
It's not your skill, it's notyour gifts.
It's not whether or not you hadthe perfect background.
It's whether you are available.
And do you trust what God wantsto do in your life?
That's the issue.
Ordinary faith.
Lord, I just come as I am.

(44:48):
I bring nothing.
That's why the meditation versewas so meaningful.
God takes the stuff that nobodywants.
And he says, I'll take it andI'll make something great out of
it.
Don't forget what he toldIsrael.
He told Israel, just justhumbled them.

(45:09):
I didn't choose y'all becausey'all were the greatest on the
earth.
He said, Matter of fact, y'allthe least.
News flash.
Didn't nobody want you.
But I took the least and madey'all great.
And many times we miss and thinkthat it's something I can bring.
No, God said, just be available.

(45:30):
Just trust me.
And if you trust me, we'll walkthis thing out step by step.
We'll make this thing happen forhis glory.
Come on, let's buy for a word ofprayer.