Loyal To The Wrong Thing - Tim Timberlake

On this powerful Palm Sunday message, we dive into the tension between tradition and true relationship with God. As Stephen stands trial, he exposes a dangerous pattern: people becoming loyal to systems, structures, and past moves of God—while missing God Himself.

This message challenges us to examine our hearts: Are we pursuing Jesus, or just preserving what’s familiar? Through the lives of Joshua, David, and Solomon, we uncover how sincere devotion can drift into control—and how intimacy with the Holy Spirit is the only path to true transformation.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in routine, disconnected from God, or unsure if you’re truly following Him—this word is for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, I'm Tim Timberlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church Podcast. I hope this message encouraged you, strengthened your faith, and gave you something you can carry into your week. If you'd like to stay connected, I encourage you to join us live every Sunday at 9 a.m. or eleven A.M. on YouTube. We would love to have you there. And if you're ever in the Jacksonville, Florida area, come see us in person. We have a seat saved for you. Thanks again for being with us. We're so grateful for you. And see you next time. Chapter 7. We're going to pick up at verse number 45 today. And I believe God has a word for you. I believe he's going to speak to you. I believe he's going to change your mind. I believe he's going to build your faith. And I believe you're going to leave differently than how you came. Because that's the way the Holy Spirit works. And so I encourage you, get your hopes up. Because he never fails. He's never lost. He is and will always be victorious over every situation, over every season, over every circumstance you could ever face. And so the word of God, it is true. Scripture says it is sharp like a two-edged sword. It will cut away at everything trying to develop around you. It will cut away at everything that's trying to allow you to look more like yourself than you do Jesus. The word of God will cut away at every selfish desire if you apply it. So I encourage you, don't just be a hearer of the word of God, be a doer of the word of God. And allow the word of God to change you. Acts chapter 7. Beginning at verse number 45. The NASB translation reads, And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers until the time of David. David found favor in God's sight. And he asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built the house for him. And having received it in their turn, our fathers bought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers until the time of David. David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built the house for him. For a moment, I want to utilize these three verses. In Acts chapter 7 for our subject matter, as we continue to march the Acts of the Apostles, entitled Loyal to the Wrong Thing. Loyal to the Wrong Thing. Let's pray. Spirit of the Living God, we ask that you would fall fresh in this place. We ask that you would speak to those that are listening to the various parts of the world. We thank you that your presence is not limited to a room. It is not limited to a space. But you are everywhere, all at one time. And so we ask that you would be with our brothers and sisters that are watching right now in other continents and in other cities and other regions. We thank you, God, that you are with us and you are for us. Your word says, God, if you are for us, who or what can stand against us? And so we thank you for victory. And we give you all the glory, we give you all the honor, we give you all the praise in the matchless name of Jesus the Christ, our king. If you're glad he's still alive and well, come on. Put those hands together. Put those hands together in the overflow. Hallelujah. You can take your seat in Jesus' name. Stefan, he is standing trial in front of the Sanhedrin Council. The Sanhedrin Council were religious leaders who are responsible for a lot of things in this particular region. And he's defending his life. He's standing on trial. They are threatening to kill him for three things that they are alleging and accusing him of doing. The first thing is blaspheming God. They are accusing him of blaspheming God because he is saying that he has traveled with God. He has seen him in the flesh. He has seen his God do incredible things, heal people that needed to be healed, set free people that needed to be set free, brought people back from the dead who were once dead. And he's telling the Sanhedrin Council, I've seen it with my own eyes. I have seen God in the flesh. His name is Jesus Christ. And you are doing the same thing that your forefathers did when they say they believed, they have made other idols, they have worshipped other gods, and you are doing the same thing by crucifying the Savior you say you're waiting for. And so they accuse him of blaspheming God. They accuse him of blaspheming Moses. They accuse him of blaspheming the temple because of his stance on the presence of God over a place. Amen. I want you to know God is not limited to a place. God is everywhere. And he does whatever he wants to do whenever he wants to do it. And sometimes we don't see God's unlimited power because we have a limited perspective. And right here from the very beginning, I need you to understand this the Jesus you see is the Jesus you get. That's why Jesus said, In my hometown, I could only do some miracles there. What was available to all was only received by a few because they could not see it. So the Jesus you see is the Jesus you get. If your Jesus is limited to just being a carpenter, you'll never experience him as a healer. If your Jesus is limited to you just getting what you need, then he is not in fact Jesus. He is a genie in a bottle. So the Jesus you see is the Jesus you get. A lot of us are not experiencing the Jesus of the Bible because we have not visualized, we have not received enough of the information through the Word of God to give us a vivid picture of who he actually is beyond who we think he is. I just came to tell you, Jesus is not who you think he is. Are you listening to me? He is not who you think he is, he is who he says he is. And what you say lines up with what he says, then you begin to see him the way he desires for you to see him. And so, Stefan, he's going through some of the incredible patriarchs of the Word of God, and he's modeling a system that they need to break. He is demonstrating a cycle that humanity has followed throughout all of history, and the cycle is that God sends a deliverer to free his people. The people get free and they carry themselves back into captivity, maybe not physically, but mentally and spiritually by the decisions that they make. And he's telling them your Savior has come and you crucified him. And I'm telling you that his spirit is here to set you free, and you're trying to limit him by your expectations, your perspective, and your limited viewpoint, and you have to take the restrictions off of those things so you can experience the power of the Holy Spirit the way he desires for you to. And he continues to march through the Old Testament to teach them about some of the great men and women of the Old Testament. And here we find ourselves at verse 45 saying, and having received it in their turn, he's utilizing these incredible men as an example to show us their shortcomings in trying to do things the right way. Our fathers bought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers until the time of David. And David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob, but it was Solomon who built a house for him. Let's look at verse 45 as we break this passage down verse by verse, line upon line, precept upon precept, word by word. It starts by saying, having received in their own turn. This is language that gives us the understanding that faith is stewarded, not owned. You cannot own faith, but you can steward it. And if you steward it the wrong way, you won't see the right results. Scripture teaches us each person is given the same measure of faith. So the person sitting beside you does not have more faith than you have. They just steward it differently than you do. Just like each and every one of us are given the same amount of muscles. We can all testify and agree that our bodies don't always look like the people who develop their bodies more than we do. And you can look at them and say, Man, they got so many more muscles than I do. No, they don't. They actually have the same amount of muscles, they just develop their muscles differently than you have. You watch them develop their muscles. They actually put in the work to develop their muscles. You're sitting there looking at their workout routine on Instagram and TikTok instead of being in the gym developing your own. Y'all don't want to talk to me, it's okay. The same thing about our faith. We can look at someone else's life and say, Man, I want faith like they have, but you don't understand the hell that they've had to go through to steward their faith well. So be very careful and cautious with admiring someone else's development of the faith they're stewarding instead of stewarding your own. Faith is stewarded, not owned. Having received it in their own term. Which teaches us that each generation inherits responsibility, not just revelation. We think revelation is hereditary. No, because your parents had revelation does not mean you will have revelation. It takes intimacy to develop revelation, it takes time to develop revelation, it takes private encounters and moments to develop revelation. Hear me when I tell you this: public faith will inform you, but it is intimacy developed in privacy that will reveal the person of Jesus to you in a way you never thought was possible. And so each generation inherits responsibility. We are responsible to teach the generation coming behind us about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're responsible to be good stewards over the faith and the finances that God hasn't entrusted us with. It is not our mindset nor mentality to think that we are entitled to revelation because we have had someone else in our lives that had that revelation. That's arrogance, that's pride, that's ego. Therein lies where we sit in 2026. We think we are deserving of something because the generation ahead of us worked for it. We don't deserve anything. Thank God for grace that says, if you just spend some time with me, I'll show you things that even your parents did not see. And you'll walk into seasons that your parents did not get a chance to walk in, but they prayed for. And the very fact that you will walk into the seasons means that I am still a faithful God who has not broken a promise because I'm still rewarding the prayers they prayed over you before you even knew who you were. And so it says, it was brought in with Joshua. This is the ark. This was a symbol of God's presence. The ark was mobile, it moved with the children of Israel, it moved with the people of God, it went into the wilderness with them. And as long as they honored the presence of God, they moved in the right direction. When they stopped honoring the presence of God and they start mixing and mingling other idols and other gods and doing other practices and thinking to themselves, we can get away with the mixture of spirituality instead of the dedication and loyalty to the Savior, they began to fail. Stephan is teaching the Sanhedrin Council a valuable lesson. The lesson that he's teaching them is that God's presence is not static. The presence of God it advances, it disrupts, and it gives direction. And here we are thinking that we can instruct the presence of God to do what we want him to do. And so we have church language that we use, and we think we're giving the Holy Spirit authority to do something, so we say stuff like have your way. He don't need you to tell him to have his way, he goes have his way regardless of what you say. We tell him stuff like this is your house. He knows whose house it is. Because we're used to church language based upon what we've heard our forefathers say, and the matriarchs of the family say, because we don't have a personal revelation of Jesus Christ ourselves. And so we pray the prayers that we heard other people pray without developing a prayer language ourselves. We say the things we've heard other people say because we have not heard from God to hear what he desires for us to say. So we become echoes of culture and society instead of hearing the voice of God to echo what his voice says. And we live in this cycle of talking about what God did instead of what God is doing. God's presence is not static. It advances, it disrupts, it gives direction, it leads. Because God never intended his presence to be preserved. He intended his presence to be carried. Write this down. You can be loyal to a move of God and miss God moving. Look at me for a second. Don't be more loyal to the name of a church than you are your relationship with Jesus Christ. You can be loyal to a move of God and miss God moving. Hear me, look at me for a second. I say this with love. This is for everybody watching online because I know you are. Don't be more loyal to your denomination than you are your relationship with Jesus Christ. Because some of us carry tradition as if it's revelation. And it's not revelation, it's tradition and practices and things put in place by people to keep control over something that is contrary to what God has already freed. So you can be loyal to a move of God and miss God moving. Hear me, you don't inherit God's presence by bloodline, you steward it by obedience. And you see God move at the speed of your obedience. And when you obey his last command, and when you obey his word, then you begin to see his hand move on your behalf like you could never dream or imagine.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

And the reality is, is some of us are not seeing God's hand move, not because God isn't moving.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Some of us aren't seeing God's hand move because we got our backs turned to it. You can be loyal to a move of God and miss God moving. The presence of God is not furniture to admire. The presence of God is a fire to advance you. For the children of Israel, it was a fire at nighttime and it was a cloud by day. To Moses, it was the voice in the burning bush. To David, it was five smooth stones placed in a sling that would kill Goliath. Who is he to you? You have to know him for yourself. You have to know him intimately. You have to know him for yourself. You cannot know the God of your parents through their lens and think that God will be intimate with you because you have not developed a relationship with him. And the reality is that some of us are standing on our parents' faith because we think our parents' faith will get us into eternity with Jesus Christ. And it will not. You don't inherit the kingdom of God because your parents pass on their beliefs to you. You inherit the kingdom of God when you make a conscious decision to follow Jesus Christ. And this is where we are in 2026. Some people want the promise without carrying the presence that makes it all possible in the first place. And so we have routine without revelation. And if the Holy Spirit wants to move beyond our little devotional, we call it the devil. Because we got our routine down pat. We wake up in the morning, we go to our favorite chair, cup of coffee, we read our scripture, we spend three minutes reading that scripture, and we pray for that scripture, and we say, Thank you, God. I'm gonna have a good day in Jesus' name. And we think that's intimacy with him. And we have routine without revelation. And we make demands to God, we make demands from God, and we don't even have a revelation of who he is. We read scriptures and we only read the ones of what we see him doing for other people. And we have little sayings like what he's done for others, he'll do the same thing for me. No, he won't. Especially if you're living in sin. And you expect God to bless your mess? You expect God to bless the decisions he has delivered you from that you keep going back to, and you keep blaming the devil. No, it's your choices, and God will not bless the poor choices you continue to make without being accountable to him. So we got routines without revelation. And we know how to do church, but we don't know intimacy with Jesus Christ. So we would depend on churchly faith more than the word of God. What we desire. And if Jesus does not answer those things, then we stop coming to church. Because we want to control. We want to control God. We want to control where God is, we want to control how God moves. We want to control how timely He moves. God, I need you to move in an hour and 20 minutes. If you don't move within that, you ain't gonna move today for me. Or maybe it ain't service, maybe maybe it's your relationship. God, I've been I've been single 15 years. And you start reminding him of the time that you've been single, that you've been making demands for him to do and fulfill in your life. And when God does not meet you at your expectations, you stop talking to him. Because surely a God that does not answer you cannot hear you. Surely a God that does not give you your demands is not good. This is the garbage that we've been taught. So $2,026. The Lord is gonna speak to you. Maybe you don't have two thousand twenty-six, but I want you to get your twist and we manipulate and we think of God's word for control. The rhythm. But you've lost the reason. And you know how you want control? Because you disguise control as discernment. Look at what the passage says. Verse 45. Verse 45 says, and having received it in their own turn, our fathers bought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers until the time of David. Scripture continues. David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for God, the God of Jacob. He tried to confine what God never called to be permanent in a position. God's presence was kept in a tent, which represents mobility, which means God was moving from place to place. People to people. David, having found favor from God, says, Now I want to control where and how God moves because he's been good to me. And I want to determine how he's good to other people. And I truly believe that David had the right intentions, but he had the wrong instruction manual. It says he found favor. David had relational intimacy and not just religious duty because favor comes from the heart posture, not from performance. And because of that favor, look at what he asked. He has to find a dwelling place. He asked to find a dwelling place. Here's the danger in that.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

And if we're not careful, we'll get so consumed with what we are building for God that we forget to ask God what he wants us to build. Loyal to the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

He wanted to house what God never asked to be confined. I truly believe that David loved God deeply, but he still thought through the lens of limitations. God had always dwelled in a tent up until this point, a sign of mobility. David wanted to transition that model from a movement to making God a monument. And here's the insight for us. Even your sincere devotion can drift into control if you don't develop intimacy with Jesus. Try to micromanage him. You try to tell him what you want to do. You try to tell him when you want to go to church. You try to tell him what you go do and what you're not going to do. You try to protect and cover sin in your life that he's telling you you need to get into my hand so I can free you from it. But no, Lord, we love playing with this little sin. We love entertaining this little demon.

unknown 24:07

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

And we keep him around our house. Have little Buddha manuals. Because we want to control God. We want a God that we can control. And when we get tired of seeing him on our little windowsill, we pick that little Buddha up, we take him to the shower. He looks at our shower every single night. And you wonder why you got migraines and why you stressed and why you're dealing with anxiety. You got a little Buddha at your dinner table. And then we shrink them down, we put them on a little necklace. And then you put them beside the little Hindu God. They pair it up, they sitting beside each other. Because we want a God that we can control. We don't want to serve a God that will tell us no. You're wrong. You are living in sin. You need me, not because you are good, but because I am good. We don't want that because we want control. And you can love God deeply and still try to reduce Him to something you can manage. I want you to think about this for a second. When's the last time you tried to manage God? Maybe you don't use the term management, but you have conversations of exchange. God, I'll do this for you if you do this for me. Try to control them. Try to manage them. God, if you do this for me, I'll do this for you. It's 11 o'clock o'clock to cruise. I can talk to y'all like this. Some of y'all were out late last night. Had a little too much to drink. Hugging that toilet, you made promises to God. God, if you just get me through this. I promise to God I won't do it again. God, if you just let me wake up tomorrow morning, I promise you I'm gonna go to church. Because we love a God that we can make exchanges with and try to control. You can love God deeply and still try to reduce Him to something you can manage. Point number two is this loyalty to your perspective can make you blind to His presence. I want you to think about this. Some of your strongest convictions today were never God's commands. They were passed down from generation to generation. And you feel convicted about something that God does not feel convicted about. You carry a conviction that's not even in the word of God because someone else told you you need to be convicted over that. And so some of our strongest convictions have been passed down from generation to generation, but not passed down through the word of God. And if it is a strong conviction and it is in the word of God, a lot of times we take it out of context because we don't have a revelation of what God's Word says. We have the information that's been given to us by the generation that went before us that didn't really understand what God was saying because they received it from somebody else, and they received it from somebody else. And it's like telephone. You pass that message along until it becomes so diluted it no longer has power. And so just because it honors God in your mind doesn't mean it reflects God's design for your life. It says that David found favor with God. And he desired to build a dwelling place for God without asking God, is this what you desire for me to do? And so loyalty to your perspective can make you blind to his presence. Your passion for God does not excuse your misunderstanding of God. And we have a lot of people that are passionate for God, but because you're passionate does not mean you're powerful. It's a term the seasoned saints used to use. Oh, they're very zealous. Which means you got a lot of energy, but not a lot of revelation. And you need both. You need the energy to run in obedience after the things that God desires for you to run after, but you also need revelation to know when to run. Some of us get excited that we got a word from God, we got a word from God, we got a word from God. But did you listen for the timing of it? Because the timing of God is just as important as the instructions that God gave you. Are you listening to me?

unknown 29:26

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

And some prayers that you pray, they sound spiritual, but they are still rooted in control. And you are loyal. You are absolutely loyal. You're just loyal to the wrong thing. You are more loyal to what you want than you are than what God said. And when that becomes our reality, the danger in that is not that we love God too little, it's that we love him in a way that limits him just to fit our lifestyle. And when he doesn't do what we want him to do, we don't love him the same. We don't have the same intensity, we don't have the same intimacy. We don't talk to him how we used to talk to him. We just talk to him and pass it. Remember when you first met your love? How you used to talk to him? Stay up on the phone, y'all be talking about nothing? What you want to talk about? I don't know. What you want to talk about? I don't know. Y'all just happy to be on the phone with each other. Some years go by. It goes from what you want to talk about, but don't talk to me. Don't talk to me. Don't, don't, don't talk to me. And if it ain't, don't talk to me, it's don't talk to me like that. Y'all know I'm telling you the truth. And some of us treat God like that. When we first developed a relationship with Him, God, what you want to talk about? I'll talk about anything. God, who you want me to talk to? I'll talk to them about you all the days of my life. And you start praying prayers, and those prayers don't start getting answered. And God, like, where you been? God, don't talk to me. I got a witness right there. Don't talk to me. Don't talk to me. Don't talk. You ain't answered my prayers. You you ain't done what I want you to do. And because you ain't done what I want you to do, I don't want to talk to you. And you can absolutely try to limit God based upon what you want Him to do in your life. And Stefan, he is teaching the Sanhedrin Council while his life is standing trial. You are doing the thing that you are saying I have done, and you are disguising it as discernment. Just because God favors you, it doesn't mean he agrees with every idea you have about him. The scripture teaches us God favored David. In the same sentence, it says that David desired to build a dwelling place for God without asking God what it is he wanted him to do. How does that relate to us in this context? We build environments that make people feel close to God without ever requiring them to follow him. And so we're more concerned about how people feel when they come than we are that we lift up the name of Jesus and please the one who matters most. And so we we get so consumed with the consumerism of Christianity because Christianity now is popular. Everybody says that they are Christian. And they're not following Jesus Christ. I saw a pastor on some podcast two weeks ago saying that she was also a practicing witch. Like, how? I'll tell you how we get this confused. Because we want to be associated with anyone we think is successful. And so whenever we define Christ as successful, we want to associate with Christ, control the narrative, control him, limit him to a particular corner in our lifestyle so that we can benefit from it. And it works to our advantage instead of making us sacrifice and surrender to him. And so we build environments that make people feel close to God without ever requiring them to follow him. That's why we can go in services and environments and churches and not feel convicted when we leave. That's why we can go into environments where we talk about Jesus but never encourage people to know him because we want people to know us. It's about my name, it's about the name of our church. And you're gonna know Jesus, but you're gonna know Jesus through me. I'm telling you, you don't got to go through nobody else to discover intimacy with Jesus Christ. If you've been going here any amount of time, I always say you this don't take my word for it. Look at the word of God.

unknown 34:24

Open the book.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

And so what we what we have a tendency of doing, we we don't resist God outright. We redesign him until he fits what we've already decided to keep. And we we we think we can build a God. We'll take a little bit of this holiness, a little bit of this healing power, a little bit of this deliverance, and we'll try to put into a little package and say, okay, work for me now. My physical body's in pain. Heal me, or I won't pray to you no more. I lost my job. I need another job. If you don't give me a job, I'm not gonna seek your face. And we we limit Jesus to our demands instead of his purpose and plan for our lives. And so we celebrate access to God while avoiding surrender to him. We'll celebrate moments, but we won't celebrate conviction. And we define a success in service based upon the emotion we express, not the sin we left at the altar. It's okay, it's okay, we're gonna make it through our promise, our promise, our promise, our promise. We've become more committed to preserving what works more than we have been committed to discerning what's true. And so we've learned how to host moments with God without letting God have authority over our lives. And this is what Stefan is telling the Sanhedrin Council as he utilizes the life of David and the life of Solomon. He's utilizing them to allow the Sanhedrin council to know something that you intend to do well can absolutely become an idol if you don't talk to the person you're doing it for. We measure spiritual success by what we can build, not by what we're willing to lay down. We gotta move. Point number three is this. The greatest idols aren't always evil. Oftentimes they're inherited. Look at what happens in the passage. Verse 47. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Again, not asking God what he actually wanted. This must be God because I heard my father say he wanted to do it. It must be the will of God because my father endeavored to do it. And sometimes we don't ask God what he desires for us or from us. We ask people, what do you think God wants? Because we've become more dependent on people's voices than we have been dependent on the voice of God. But Solomon, look at that passage. This is a language that shifts us from desires to execution. He executed on instructions that God did not give him. And Stefan's point in this is we begin to equate the house of God with God Himself. Not because God is holy, but because we've had a part in building it. How do we know this? Because we talk about the house more than we talk about the owner of the house. And it becomes about fixtures in the house. And it becomes about things in the house. And it becomes about the systems and the structures and the order that's put in the house instead of the owner of the house, asking him, what do you want? How do you want us to move? Where do you want us to go? Where do you desire for us to position this in this particular place in the gathering? What do you want from us? What do you need from us? And we don't ask the owner of the house that we're in what he desires because we're so fascinated with this house that we no longer have a fascination and stand in awe of him. This is what the temple became a substitute for. The temple became a substitute for obedience. And when you turn what God allowed into what God requires, you create an idol of something that God used to use. And so the greatest idols aren't always evil. Oftentimes they are inherited. Hear me, when structure replaces sensitivity, religion replaces relationship. And some of us are very religious, but we have no intimacy. And so we have practice with no power. And we think our practices and our routines will equate to us becoming more like Jesus Christ, and they will not. Your intimacy with Christ allows you to become more like him. Why? Because you become like who you spend time with. And spending time around him is not the same as spending time with him. When structure replaces sensitivity, religion replaces relationships. This is what Stefan was teaching the Sanhedrin Council. The temple was never meant to contain God, it was meant to point people to him. But if we marvel at the structure more than we do at his presence, the structure becomes our God. And his presence is no longer there. So hear me. The greatest tragedy in this passage is not losing the presence. Here's the greatest tragedy. It's thinking you still have it when you don't. Just let that sink in for a second. Because some of you in this moment, you think that you still have the presence of God. But you don't have the presence of God. You have your opinion of the presence of God. And God's presence is no longer there. The danger is thinking that you have the presence of God when you don't. Moses said, God, if you take us into the promised land and your presence is not there, I don't desire to be there either. David said, Don't take your spirit away from me. Why? Because something happened in each of their lives that allowed them to see we can build something for God and his presence not be there because we would have focused more on what we were building than we were the person we were building it for. And you can absolutely be loyal and still be loyal to the wrong thing. That's why on this day we celebrate what Jesus did as he entered into the city, and people cried, Hosanna! And then they crucified him because they were more loyal to a system they created than the person that came to break them from the system that was holding them in bondage. And the same crowd that welcomed him rejected him because he didn't fit what they built. And some of you aren't faithful to Jesus because he doesn't fit into what you built, he doesn't fit into the life you built, he doesn't fit into the goals you have, the dreams, the aspirations, your Pinterest wall, your dream board.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

He doesn't fit into those things. And so you're not consistent in your time with him because he doesn't fit into the limitations you want him to fit into. And I'm telling you, God is so much bigger than your limited perspective of him, he's so much better than your viewpoint. He's so much greater than what you can ever think of or imagine. So don't chase after your word, chase after the word of God, and every single time you chase after this word, he says, This word will supersede your expectations.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

That's why your word will fail you, but God never will.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

You will let you down, but God will never let you down. You you will bring promises to yourself, and God will never break promises to you.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

You will bring promises to God, but God always keeps his promises because he cannot lie.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

And it's not that you're good, it's not that you got your stuff together, it's that he said it, and therefore, if he said it, he cannot take back what he said. And so, God, he does not love the sin that you're in, and that's why he's making these promises to you.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

He loves him on the inside of you, that's why he declares the word of God to you. And here we are thinking I got to have it because God said it. No, no, God is gonna see it through because he spoke it over himself. And he loves himself. And he's a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. And he is faithful to his promises that he's declared over you because he cannot lie, even when you do. Jesus didn't come to dwell in our little system. He came to become the temple, to become the Savior, to become the righteous redeemer that we all have a desperate need of receiving. He is the one true living God. And whatever he allows us to steward, we we cannot think to ourselves, we own it. And it is great because we have a hand in building it. No, it's great because he defines it as that. A temple that was never meant to contain him. Stephen is teaching the Sanhedrin Council. What you're trying to do is contain, you're trying to limit, you're trying to restrict God, but you cannot restrict. A God that cannot be restricted. I just want to remind you of the God that we should. The children of Israel turned their backs on God. He still was faithful. He was just, but he was faithful. They made other idols. And God sent them a deliverer to remind them that there is only one true living God. And every single time you turn your back on God, God sends someone across your path to remind you that He is faithful when you are faithless. That He is good when you're not. That He is great and greatly to be praised. My encouragement to you today is to be loyal, but be loyal to the right person and be loyal to the right thing. Do not be loyal to the wrong things. Do not be more loyal to a system and a structure that you created it and you're loyal to it because you created it than you are the presence of God. I want you to ask yourself this question. When is the last time you asked the Holy Spirit what he wanted? Not what you want, but when is the last time you asked him, What do you want from me today? How can I serve you? How can I give to you what it is you need?

SPEAKER_01 46:40

How and what can I do? When is the last time you asked him what it is he desires from you? Not what he wants what it is he desires from you.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

We become so selfish. Our relationship is all about us. So we don't need to ask him what does he desire. We only tell him what we want, what we need, what we desire. Because we think that Jesus serves us. Instead of our lives being dedicated to serve him. Just like the people welcoming Jesus into the city on that Palm Sunday, they honored the city but missed the king. They celebrated a moment, but they resisted the mission. They wanted a Messiah who would fit inside of their structure. Not one who would redefine everything for their lives. That's the fear we have. We fear if we completely surrender and submit, Jesus will completely redefine our lives the way he desires to, and that's the point. Not that he would enhance our life, that he would redefine our life, that he would give us a life and a life worth living. See, without Jesus, you exist, but with Jesus, you begin to live and you begin to understand what life is about. And you you have this understanding that your life is not about you, your life is about lifting up the name of Jesus Christ and pointing other people towards him. So don't be loyal to the wrong thing. If you're listening to me right now, you know that you've been loyal to the wrong thing. You've been loyal to people who cannot save you, you've been loyal to systems and structures that cannot deliver you. You've been more loyal to your job and your occupation and your hustle and your entrepreneurial endeavors and you have your relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been more loyal to people, your family, your friends, you've been more loyal to whatever it is that God gave you as a gift. Some of you are so loyal to your gift that you've forgotten the gift giver. And all you want to talk about is your gift, but you don't want to talk about the person that gave it to you. If you're here, whether you're in this room, whether you're in one of our overflows, and you know, you know that you need to develop a loyal intimacy with Jesus Christ because you've been loyal to the wrong things. I want you to lift both hands right now. Lift them up. Lift them up. Now I want you to think about those things you've been loyal to, those idols, those false gods, those people. I want you to repeat this prayer after me, Lord. Take my sin, destroy my sin, burn every false idol, kill every false God, and allow your spirit to be the thing I chase after, I follow, I pursue. I want to be like you. And in order for me to be like you, I have to turn away from the choices and the decisions that I have made. And today, God, I turn from my selfishness, I turn from my wickedness, I turn from my pride, I turn from my sin, and I turn towards you, and I ask that you would save me. I confess that I am in dire need of your grace and your mercy, and I believe within my heart of hearts that you and you alone are the only one mighty enough to save me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. I want you to think about his grace. This is how powerful his grace is. His grace knows what you are going to think before you think it. And it goes ahead of you, and it stands in the gap for you. And his grace will wait for you to choose it. Or you can choose to continue to do what you want to do when you want to do it. Grace is not a license for us to sin and do whatever we want to do. Grace is a gift given to us to apply to our lives when we miss the mark. How many of you are grateful for his grace and his mercy? Yeah, handclaps are great for a good movie. No, no, no. Think about this. Think, think just for a second. Where would you be without his grace? I I truly believe it warrants more than the same thing we give the good shows and the good plays and the good concerts and the good people.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

Where would you be without his grace? Where would you be with none of his mercy? If it had not been for the love of your time, where would the love would you be? Thank him for his grace. Aren't you glad his mercy found you? Aren't you glad his grace keeps you? Aren't you glad his love lifted you? Come on, if you're thankful for the sacrifice that Jesus made, I want you to lift your hands. I want you to open your mouth. I want you to thank them from the fruit of your lips.

SPEAKER_00 54:20

May not be well with my mind, but it is well with my soul. May not be well on my job, but it is well with my soul. It may not be well in my household, but it is well with my soul. I refuse to be more loyal to a system that God separated himself from than I am to the presence of the true and living Savior. It is well with my soul. Lift those hands. Lift those hands. Somebody thank him for his grace and his mercy. I said his grace is sufficient. New mercies every morning, daily prayer. His grace is sufficient.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

It is well with my soul.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

It is well. So we give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. Even when circumstances and situations are not, he is good.