Ryan Swanson: Let's take our Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 27.

Genesis chapter 27 is where we'll begin.

I'm excited for the opportunity here to be a part of this conference here.

I don't want you to be deceived.

I'm actually quite a bit younger than the rest of the speakers.

In fact, I think if I thought correctly through this, every single one of the other speakers taught me in college.

But it's a privilege.

You're a little bit out of my league, but that's okay.

It's going to be the Holy Spirit speaking tonight, I trust, so we're on the same page.

Genesis chapter 27 Just mentioned real briefly.

It was mentioned about the court app.

We do have some A new release coming out 2.0 is coming soon and perhaps in the next month here that will add Some neat new features.

I won't go deeply into it If you want to talk to me about that at the table join us out there.

We're going to have a a streak counter built into the app It's not a streak for purity as in i've been Cleaned for 30 days or something like that that can actually do more harm than good if we're focused on that.

It's just a streak for consistency.

How long have I been consistently checking in and accountable with my group so I'm not conveniently skipping days to check in when it might have been a rough day.

And so we have that and also a mentorship email, a way to bring pastors in and other mentors that may not be a part of the accountability group, but where they can be aware of what's going on to be sure that we have the weight of what we're confessing continually added in there.

So there's some neat things and that's all I'll say about it now but feel free pastors or individuals if you'd like to come speak to us at the table afterwards.

Of course we have some merch back there as well so come and see us there.

Genesis chapter 27.

This is similar to Mr.

Bazar's session earlier and I'm glad that he struck there because it is a knife edge issue that we're going to be dealing with and I'd much rather he get into the deep waters first because he's used to it he's always there so I appreciate him but what that means is if you really want to you can go out some wrong windows tonight and so I'm trusting that we're going to have some mature listeners as we go through and study the passage that could be I

I think remarkably life-changing for us if we'll accept this and understand what the Lord has for us here.

Genesis chapter 27, we'll be reading from the life of Jacob.

And of course, Jacob here, you know the story, I won't get into it.

We'll just pick up here at this point, which is where Jacob has manipulated for his father's blessing on him.

And he has stolen that, what was supposed to be for his brother.

And let's pick up in verse 19.

And Jacob said, this is Genesis chapter 27, Jacob said unto the father, I am Esau, my firstborn, I have done according as thou badest me, I pray thee, sit and eat my venison, that thy soul may bless me.

And Isaac said unto thy son, how is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son?

And he said, because the Lord thy God brought it to me.

Now the words I want us to focus on here, as Jacob is saying to his father, the Lord thy God brought it to me.

We're going to look at this journey that Jacob went on from the time that the God of the Old Testament was just the God of Abraham and Isaac to when he is now the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The title of the message tonight is Not Your Daddy's God.

Let's pray.

Lord, I pray you direct here and that we would only take the application that you are giving to hearts right now.

Guide me to say only what should be said, and we'll trust you for the outcome here.

We pray this in your name.

Amen.

Not your daddy's God.

Jacob here is going to be on a journey.

He's going to need a God of his own at this point.

He's about to be sent out of his home, and he's going to need a God in his life.

And Daddy's not going to be there.

So I want to look at several points that we can glean from this passage that are phenomenal to help us understand when and how we can accept the God of our fathers to be our own God.

Let's turn to chapter 28 now and pick up here when we see first a command that's given.

This is the heart of Jacob's parents speaking to him in Genesis chapter 28 in verse 1.

And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said unto him, thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

Arise, go to Padinoram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother.

And God Almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee, to thy seed, with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.

Now he's already heard in the previous chapter, he's already received the blessing from his dad, and now he hears it again, this transfer of the Abrahamic covenant.

By the way, you've heard the phrase, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, used all throughout the Old Testament, especially here.

Why is that so significant?

Why do Jews constantly point back to these patriarchs in their appeal to God's covenant?

Well, it's because that God's covenant was given to a lineage.

And it was given to a people, God's chosen people.

And for them in this dispensation, if they wanted to appeal to and accept God's promise to them, they had to appeal to the fact that I'm a Jew and Abraham's my father.

And Isaac is my father and Jacob is my father.

See, that's the significance of this.

But again, it wasn't always the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

What happened here?

So this Abrahamic covenant is being transferred.

It's being handed down to Jacob.

Now this applies to you so that your seed also will never be extinguished from the earth.

That promise is given to Jacob.

But there's also a command here that's given to Jacob.

He's not supposed to take a wife from his neighbors here.

He's supposed to go to his mother's family and marry his cousin.

How many of you would obey if your parents told you to do that?

Thankfully, we live in a different day and a different dispensation, and I don't think it's going to be required of anyone here.

It's not going to be required of anyone here.

But that's what Jacob is told to do.

Don't marry these people.

That's not going to be, don't marry the Canaanites.

That's not what God has for you.

You need to go back to the people of God and find a wife there for you.

And the first step in Jacob's journey to having his daddy's God be his own was that he obeyed.

He was right in line with his authorities.

Verse number 5.

Or verse number 7.

And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and was gone to Padinorim.

He obeyed.

You know, when I first introduce this series or this message tonight and say that we're going to be talking about how you, you yourself, individually can hear from God.

You yourself as a teenager can hear God's voice and you shouldn't just be dependent on what other people are telling you to do.

Some of you will go out and start thinking right away, oh yeah, yeah because I've had some things for a while now that I disagreed with my parents on and yeah maybe this is what I need to to go back to them and say hey have you read this passage before?

Because God is my God and He's telling me something different than He's telling you.

No, you know what?

Based on this scripture and others, I don't think you'll ever hear from God until you are in line with the authorities that God has placed in your life.

That has to be number one.

Jacob was obedient to his parents.

He obeyed in verse number seven.

Look down at verse number 12.

Then as we move on, First, Jacob was obedient to his authorities.

But let's see what happens to Jacob here.

He needs, if God's going to be his God, he's got to hear from him.

So let's see what happens here.

And he, that's Jacob, dreamed in verse number 12, and behold, a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it, and behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land wherein thou liest, to thee will I give it, And to thy seed and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth.

And thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.

And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

And behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.

And will bring thee again into this land for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

Now the interesting thing about this is essentially what God just told him through the stream.

was the Abrahamic covenant.

It wasn't really something brand new.

He had already heard this blessing from his father twice.

And trust me, being that this was, he was a descendant of Abraham, he knew the Abrahamic covenant.

And so he could have then seen this dream, and at this point, and man, just picture this, ladder going up to heaven, angels ascending, descending, all this stuff going on, just to hear something he already knew.

But did he respond and say, God, tell me something I don't know?

All of this, and it's just for, I already knew about the Abraham.

Ah, man, I was hoping you had something more for me.

That's not what he says.

No, this is a big deal.

But it's almost exactly what his father had just told him.

So let's see how he responds in verse number 16.

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep.

And he said, surely the Lord is in this place.

And I knew it not.

And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place?

This is none other but the house of God.

And this is the gate of heaven.

Does it sound like he looked up to God and said, tell me something I don't know?

No, this was a big deal.

But it wasn't just a big deal because God was telling him something different than his authorities.

No.

It was because of the source.

This was a big deal because it came straight from God himself.

And that was so important to him.

This is like it's like it never happened.

You mean God speaking to me?

I've always gone to my dad.

My dad's always told me what God says.

But now God's talking to me.

Is that okay?

You see, not only was Jacob obedient to his parents, but the message that was given was consistent with his parents.

It was consistent with his authorities.

Now, when we talk about a message like this and encourage young people to follow the Holy Spirit, sometimes we as parents get a little bit, we start to sweat a little bit.

because maybe there's times when we've been put up against a young person who has a different view of what God wants or what God thinks.

And sadly, we can view the Holy Spirit as a liability in our home and in our parenting.

Now, I just want us to think on this real quick, Because a huge responsibility as parents, and we'll get to this a little bit later as well, is to lead our young people to be able to do this, to hear from God.

But sometimes we're too afraid to do that because we're afraid they'll go out the window or say, Mom, I don't believe that's what God has.

He's telling me this.

Why is he telling you that?

Or, Dad, I don't think that's what God has for us.

The message is consistent.

It's consistent.

It's the same.

What Jacob hears from God is what he heard from his parents.

The important thing about you as a young person developing a relationship with God is not so that you can come out from under and come up with some new idea on who God is.

The idea of not being sold out to your daddy's God is not that you're looking for a different God.

It's just that he needs to be your own.

See, the message is consistent.

You see, if you get this and you as a parent are walking in the Spirit and you're leading your child to be walking in the Spirit, the message is consistent.

And the Holy Spirit becomes not a liability, but the greatest asset to your parenting.

Because when you establish something in your home, as I believe God has led us in this way, and the Holy Spirit reaffirms it in the heart of your child, oh man, you'll never have to establish that again.

See, the Holy Spirit's not something to be afraid of.

He should be welcome in every part, and especially in leading our young people.

Young people, the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you.

You, individually.

You.

He must.

He must speak to you.

And I'm afraid that our churches are filled with Christians that do what they're told.

but sadly they're lacking a whole lot of purpose in life because they haven't heard from God.

They're trying to follow their daddy's God and there's coming a day when that's not going to be enough.

That day's coming for Jacob.

If you're looking for a God to give you salvation, I know one.

If you're looking for a God to give you victory, I know one.

If you're looking for a God to give you direction, I know one, but it's not your daddy's God.

He's mine and he can be yours.

He's got to be yours.

Now, I'm not just talking about salvation here, though.

Because I understand the majority of us in here have accepted Christ as our Savior.

And if you haven't, tonight's the night.

The God of those that you're in.

Maybe you're a father.

Maybe not.

Maybe you come from a home that they're not saved.

but I'm telling you the God of the Bible can be yours today.

You can accept Him for your salvation and that peace that passeth all understanding can begin in your heart tonight.

But I'm talking to many people and you've been saved for years.

You've known about God like Jacob.

And you've been receiving His direction through your parents.

By the way, not a wrong thing.

That's how God designed it to be initially, right?

A little bit later, We'll talk about what that transition looks like.

But the God of your fathers needs to be yours if you're going to be prepared for what's ahead.

And get this, probably even to be prepared for some of the steps that God's given you this week.

Now think about this.

Because we were just in a session that I thought was very powerful.

And when we were talking about the evangelism, that discussion session, It was really just a vision casting session is what it was.

And I love that we heard from some of y'all, those that were here.

And I think that there were many, many hearts that were touched as in, this is how I'm going to see God use me to give the gospel at home.

But you will not be able to accomplish that without a relationship with God.

It's not going to happen.

Why is it so hard to drum up this kind of passion enough to give someone the gospel?

You know why?

Because you're trying to tell them about your daddy's God.

He's not your own.

What has Jesus done for you?

What has Jesus saved you from?

That's how you give the gospel.

Just go start telling what Jesus has done for you.

Now, look, many of us have seen God work in our families and in our parents, and we've seen miracles done.

Jacob had seen a fair amount of those.

But that's not enough.

God wants to do those for you.

He was obedient to his authorities.

He was right where God wanted him.

Secondly, the message that he received was consistent with his authorities.

So let's read on here and see what more Jacob does with his response.

In verse number 19, or sorry, verse number 18, and Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillows and set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it.

And he called the name of that place Bethel.

But the name of that city was called Luz at first.

And Jacob vowed a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on so that I come again to my father's house in peace.

Then shall the Lord be my God.

He says, God, if you do this, if all this comes to pass that you just presented, that's enough.

And by the way, the word that's used here, when it says if, it actually sounds like he's saying, okay, I'll wait out and see if it happens.

The subjunctive in the Greek could be and perhaps should be translated there, since.

Since you've said this.

Since you've promised this.

Sorry, not the Greek, the Hebrew.

There we go.

Since you've promised.

I told you I'm out of my realm here, guys.

Since you've promised this, guess what?

I believe it.

You're my God.

I've heard from you now.

That's all.

And we understand.

Not only was he obedient to his authorities, and the message was consistent with his authorities, but when he heard God's word, it was sufficient for action.

That's all he needed.

That's all he needed.

It's like Peter, like we heard about in Dr.

Jim's session, 0100.

He's standing in the boat, and he asks one request to the Lord.

He didn't just see Christ coming and cannonball into the water.

Did you notice that?

It wouldn't surprise us for Peter.

But that's not what he did.

He had one request lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water.

He just needed to know it was jesus He needed to know it was jesus and he just needed one word come and that's all he needed to know And then he did it And you see That's all we need to know We need to know that it's god that's calling that's leading us to a certain thing and we need to hear his voice come And if you will hear god's voice you can trust him whatever that is many of you have heard God's voice this

afternoon you heard it yesterday you heard it maybe it was in one of the earlier messages by Mr.

Basler the opening message on surrender maybe it was on the fear of man whatever it is God has spoken to you and his words should be sufficient for action it was for Jacob that's all he needed to know he said okay God because you've said this, because you've promised me this, because you're speaking to me.

You are my God.

Wow.

Have you experienced God speaking to you?

It will change your life and perspective.

The effectiveness you have is dependent on whether or not God is yours.

Back in 2018, I was on the way to Australia to do an internship there.

And I took a pit stop in Ireland on the way because John Sigma was marrying Emma at the time.

Where are the Sikmas in here?

There's some Sikmas.

Okay, they're in the back.

So I was going to that wedding.

Well, I figured while I was there, might as well do some sightseeing since we're over there.

I'd never been to the UK before.

And so I decided I would fly into Dublin.

And then after the wedding, I wanted to take the ferry across from Dublin to Hollyhead, Wales, with a rental car, and then drive through Wales up into Scotland and back down into England, and then I would fly out of London to Australia.

So that was the plan.

And I was traveling by myself, and I was pretty excited about this, started booking things, got my flights, got everything good to go.

then I was going to look at the rental cars, and I figured out if you rent a car in Dublin, Ireland, and this is one way what I wanted to do was travel across the Irish Sea and leave it in London, and then fly out from there, they charge you an $1,100 drop-off fee, because you're dropping it off on the other side of the Irish Sea.

Bummer.

So I got this plan.

All right, so here's my plan.

When I get there, I'm going to take the ferry across, rent the car on the other side of the Irish Sea, then take it back for the wedding in Dublin, then go back over, do the sightseeing, and leave it on that side where I rented it from.

Sound like a good plan?

Please say yes.

All right.

So I was told that that trip, that ferry trip on the Stenoline Ferry would be about $30.

I checked it, I looked it up, and sure enough, put in two-way with the car, comes up $30.

So I'm like, that's just definitely, I mean, I was pretty proud of myself, to be honest.

I was pretty proud of myself.

So I got this all figured out.

I mean, life hacks right here, right?

And so I got this figured out, and I booked it.

I booked the car, prepaid it, got this thing good to go.

Rented the car from Hollyhead, Wales.

Now, then I went to, and this is about the day before, I think it was the night before I fly out.

So then I go back over to the Stenoline Ferry website, and I'm about to book this ferry.

And so it's coming up and saying $30, two-way with car, great, add to cart.

I go to my cart, and it's like $500.

I'm like, what?

I do it back and forth several times.

Same thing.

I'm going to blame it on the system, not user error.

You can think what you want.

But somehow i'm looking at this saying there is no are you serious and i've already booked the car There's no way That I can afford as a college student to pay 500 bucks for a ferry ride right now And uh, so I didn't So I get on the plane the next morning having no idea what i'm gonna do And now i'm looking you gotta understand this is a this is a big deal for me I'm a big boy now i'm going across the world I'm

gonna spend some time in australia all by myself and we're off to a great start right rented a car in the wrong country So i'm on the airplane And i'm just fussing to the lord about this like ah man i've been trusting you so much for this trip And i'm excited to see you work in australia and everything and I don't know if i'm even going to get there now I don't know what's going to happen And the lord just said very clearly don't worry

about it.

I got it and I literally laughed in my seat on the airplane.

If you can somehow clean up this mess, I'll trust you for anything, God.

But I had complete peace after that.

Just somehow, I didn't know what was going to happen, but I just wasn't going to worry about it, because there was nothing I could do about it.

So why not trust God at this point?

So I did.

And I just had complete peace about it.

Went, and then we're setting up for the wedding, And I'm talking to John Sickman, the groom.

And he said, hey, Ryan, I was wondering if tomorrow, because you're going to have a rental car, right?

I said, yes, yes, right.

I rented a car.

He said, I was wondering if you'd be willing to go to the airport, double in the airport and pick up Pastor Van Gelderen.

I said, no problem.

No problem at all.

I can do that.

And I'm smiling inside, because God told me he's got it.

Somehow.

and we're just stacking the odds against him at this point, and I'm laughing to see how he gets us out of this, right?

And so then John goes on, and he says, okay, so when, just to be sure this is going to work, when is your car, when are you picking that up?

And so I told him the time, yeah, it's tomorrow morning at 10.30 a.m.

He said, okay, yeah, that should work out.

And he said, so where are you picking it up from?

That was the wrong question.

I said, it's a long story.

You really don't need to know that.

No, you know that place called Wales that's over there on the other side of the ocean over there?

Yeah, it's over there.

Long story.

So I explained to him what happened, and just laughing about it.

I didn't know what he was going to say.

But when I told him the route that I was planning to take, Stenoline Ferry, Dublin, Ireland, to Holyhead, Wales, he kind of went like this and he said hang on a second and he went and he disappeared and he comes back with two pieces of paper in his hand and he said you know this is really odd Ryan but like a week ago some of us went to I don't know what it was some kind of a home show or something and they had a

door prize drawing and he said you know my wife and I our fiancé, we won two tickets, Stenoline Ferry, two-way, with car, Dublin Island to Hollyhead Ways.

He said, it's going to expire while we're on our honeymoon.

We're not going to get to use this.

Why don't you take it?

I said, no, I'm good.

Man, I was so excited.

not but look because God spoke and God came through he came through and that's just a small area but you know what that did for me now I'm looking ahead at an internship in Australia thinking God you've got this you've got this and we saw God do some incredible things there remarkable things in Australia and God because you did that because you said this it's sufficient it's sufficient and I'll trust you for anything you see that was a new thing for me I didn't have

my daddy beside me but I had my daddy's God because he was mine now you see so we need to be in line and obedient to our authorities in the center of God's will we can expect that what God tells us is going to be in line with and supporting what our authorities have given us.

But when God speaks, it needs to be sufficient.

And we need to be ready to act when God speaks.

I want you to turn over to 1 Samuel 3.

We'll end in this passage here.

1 Samuel 3.

Because as we get practical here and think, well, how does this work?

How do you make this transition from being dependent on your parents to being dependent on God?

By the way, the idea of independence is not in Scripture.

Dependence on the authorities God has given you to dependence directly on the Lord and the Holy Spirit to lead you.

That's how that transfer should be.

And we'll see that played out here.

In 1 Samuel chapter 3, again, just giving a quick back story to something many of us are familiar with.

It's the story of Samuel as a boy.

But before then, his parents, Hannah and Elkhana, is how I think of them.

Hannah and Elkhana, because I'm a deer hunter, and we've got to get that in there.

So, Hannah and Elkhana is how I remember it.

But the two of them, Hannah was barren, and she was praying and said, God, I want a child, and if you give me a child, I'll give him back to you.

That's what she said, and God did.

God gave her a son named Samuel.

She waited until he was nursed and then eventually gave him off to Eli, the high priest.

And get this, Eli really was his acting father.

Eli raised him.

Yes, he was a PK, a priest kid, an HPK, a high priest kid.

He was way up there with some of y'all.

But he was raised by Eli.

So it was essentially his father.

So as we look here, let's start reading in verse number 1 of 1 Samuel chapter 3.

And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli.

And the word of the Lord was precious in those days.

There was no open vision.

And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place.

And his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see.

And there the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.

And Samuel was laid down to sleep.

That the Lord called Samuel.

And he answered, Here am I.

And he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callest me.

And he said, I called not, lie down again.

And he went and lay down.

And the Lord called yet again, Samuel.

And Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me.

And he answered, I called not, my son, lie down again.

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord.

Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.

Hmm, wasn't his God yet.

And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me.

And Eli perceived that the Lord had called him.

Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.

So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.

Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth.

And he did speak.

And Samuel, for the first time, heard from the Lord.

And we're actually told at the beginning of the passage that this is a time, probably more like the present, where there was no open vision.

This was a big deal.

And Caman spoke to Samuel just like he wants to speak to some of y'all.

And Caman spoke to him.

Now there's a couple of really interesting things about this passage.

Number one, aren't you encouraged that God was willing to keep calling?

Because sometimes we don't pick up the phone, right?

And he could have gone on to 2 Samuel at this point or 3rd.

But he didn't.

He kept calling.

He kept calling.

But the interesting thing about this is we see a responsibility of a father, again an acting father here of Eli.

But why did Samuel keep running to dad?

because at this point God had always spoken through dad you see it's like okay I recognize that voice I've heard that before and I don't care what time of night obedient to authorities in line with his authorities he's running to his dad wow some of us would just roll over he ran to his dad what is it what three times he runs back to his dad and wakes him back up right No, my dad's calling me.

I've heard this before.

This is going to be dad, right?

No.

And you see, at this point, Eli picks up on something.

All this time, by the way, it's estimated that Samuel will be about 12 years old at this point.

So for all these years, Eli's thinking, God's always spoken through me to get to my son here, this boy I'm raising, Samuel.

but now God's speaking directly to him at 12 years old.

So his parenting changes to just, here's what God has for you, and do as I say because that's what God has.

And his parenting shifts to, here's how you can hear from God.

Wow.

And he leads Samuel to be able to answer to God Almighty.

and so the God was not just the God of Eli at that point but the God of Samuel now some of you say well I mean that's great but my parents aren't here hearing this message so my parents don't have that heart and they're not trying to teach me to hear from God you know some of it it's not that it's necessarily in those words because I I don't remember my parents saying, here's how you answer when God calls on you.

But there was a whole lot I could glean based on their relationship and know how to answer to God.

Some of you maybe don't have that parent in your life, but you've got a pastor, someone else that cares that can lead you that way.

But getting back to parents, getting back to your father, did you know that many times, I'm not going to say every time, but many times your dad will be for you what you make him.

Some of you need to go to your dad and say, Dad, I know I haven't treated you right.

I haven't respected you.

And when you've told me things in the past, I've kind of brushed it off.

But I want what you have.

And I can tell you've got a relationship with God that I don't have.

And Dad, I'm asking you, will you teach me to hear from God?

Speaker 4: Wow.

Wow.

saying every father but a lot of fathers are going to rise to that saying son I'm not perfect but here's what I've learned about how to answer to God and you see you can make your dad the dad that you always wanted and you always waited for yeah maybe he's waiting too when he knows that you want it your dad many times will be what you make him so some of you the application here is to go to a father and say hey I'm ready

will you lead me Will you teach me?

Because I want what you have.

That's what some of us need to do.

Again, I think there's many here that have been faced with a step that we need to take, that maybe we're excited about.

But maybe you're looking at this and saying, I've tried this before and that didn't work.

And I've made commitments to give the gospel before.

I've made commitments to tell my parents about sin before and confess.

and you need to look at God tonight and saying, look, your word's sufficient.

If you've told me to do this, which I believe you have, then it's on you.

I'm trusting you.

You see, he's given a promise, like Dr.

Jim preached, was it last night, about the grace that's available and some of you need to say, God, you've told me that if I follow through and I confess these things and get these things right, that grace will be available in God because you've said it, that's sufficient.

and I'm going to do it.

And when you see that God's grace truly is sufficient, you can bank on the fact that is my God.

We need to hear from God, young people.

We need to hear from God.

But some of you, and I'll end with this, some of you say, but I've searched for God before.

But I've called for Him before.

But I've sat down and prayed before and said, God, would you speak to me?

And he never showed up.

And so I've just, what's the use?

God will speak to other people, but he won't speak to me.

You know, there's a fascinating verse of scripture that says if you, God's speaking, if you'll seek for me, you'll find me.

If you search for me with all your heart.

There's something very unique about the concept behind that word search.

It's not just looking for something.

I look from my wallet about three times a week when I lose it.

But there comes a time when I give up.

And it stinks, but when I just say, okay, forget it, I give up.

And at this point, I haven't found it for a couple weeks.

I've been driving without a license.

I just need to get a new license.

I need to get new credit cards, go through the process, get a new wallet.

How many of you had to do that before because you lost your wallet?

All two of us.

Okay, thank you.

That was not much of a help.

Thank you, Grayson, from my church.

He didn't really.

He's just trying to help me out.

So we go through the process, and then once you get everything, you get your license, and you have to go through the old DMV process, and you get your credit card and get everything, and then you change your sheets, and there's your wallet slid in there.

Maybe if I change my sheets more than every.

That was as a college student, okay?

So you've done worse, I'm sure.

But that's not a search.

That's looking for something.

I was driving a couple years ago and noticed a sign on a telephone pole.

It was a missing person's sign.

Search.

And it said missing and it gave the name and it was, I read the message there and it was clearly from a parent that was looking for a child.

The sign was old and tattered, torn, weathered.

I thought, I wonder how long before they come and take that down.

You ever thought about that?

I don't think they will If they don't find that child I don't think there will be a day when that mom drives back up and say I give up And takes the sign down.

I don't think it'll happen.

You know why?

Because a search Has no expiration date Otherwise, it's not a search If you come and you tell me that Yeah, I mean I've tried I've I've sat down a couple of times and prayed and asked God to show up, but He didn't, so I just gave up.

I can tell you it wasn't a search.

You need to declare a search for your God.

There's a whole lot going on with the hurricanes right now, and I've been involved in some of the search and rescue, search and recovery, just north of us, an hour north of us in North Carolina.

And by the way, the numbers there could easily be in the thousands of deaths, Easily, despite what we're hearing.

So, just terrible.

It would have been, I think, a week and a half ago, I got a call from someone down in Florida that said, I'm missing a relative.

Can you go up and look for them?

They said it came through, actually, we have a drone photography business that came through on a lead generation service, and this person says, I'm going to hire you to go up there and do that and look for them.

So we thought, sure, we'll go up and take a day and see if we can find your relative.

So we did and they were safe at home just had no way of communicating So we brought them some water and it was all great And then this lady who was just ecstatic that we had found her family She said do you mind if I post online the fact that you're doing this for people And I I didn't realize how the need at this point and I just said sure Well word got out it was that post was shared over 400 times in two hours

And as you can imagine my phone was ringing off the hook My wife was there taking notes as i'm taking calls and checking text messages and just we just couldn't keep up It was just immediately overwhelmed with people calling in saying I haven't heard from my family Can you please go search for my family and tell me if they're okay?

They said even just here's what their house looks like.

Here's the picture of it on the side of the mountain Can you just confirm send me a picture so I know it's still there and hasn't slid off in a mudslide And I tell you that we got so many requests that we just couldn't do it We just we just couldn't and i'm listening to these voicemails dozens of these things People weeping on the phone saying please Would you find my loved ones?

And i'm telling you what in the in this stuff that we've been involved in there in the In the search and recovery of the bodies Is very important to give closure to some families who otherwise would spend their entire lives wondering and searching you know that happens in wars happened to vietnam mia soldiers gone missing and dads spend the rest of their careers flying around different areas looking for their son trying to find them they could have been dead but who knows because a search

has no expiration date i don't think we've really searched for god with all our hearts If you really want god to be your god You need to search for him.

You need to get desperate for him.

He's ready He's wanting to speak to you as much and more as you want him But he does require a search And he's ready to speak to you He wants to be your god.

He wants to lead you See this god wants to not only save you He wants to give you the victory in these things that have been preached on this week.

He wants to give you direction for these things.

He wants to do it.

He wants to do it as your God.

And I'm afraid that we found purpose in so many other things that we're not as desperate to find them anymore.

God wants to speak to you.

God has a plan.

and he wants to be, as Oswald Chambers put it, God wants to be as original, and he put it this way, he said, let God be as original with other people as he was with you.

Here's the point, have you ever noticed how first generation Christians are sometimes the most strong in what they believe?

They're the ones that, man, they're not moving.

They're not moving, it's what we lose something as we pass it on.

Do you know why?

It's because we don't realize that every one of us are first generation Christians.

I'm not a Christian because my daddy was a Christian.

I had to choose to be a Christian.

You see, God took a risk when he gave you a free will.

He could have just put it in the DNA and everyone from Adam would automatically be a Christian, someone that followed him, but that's not what happened.

He took a risk because it was worth the risk to him to have individuals, not robots, that would choose him.

And just because your daddy's a Christian and your daddy's got a God doesn't mean that that's all God has for you.

You need to seek him individually.

He's waiting.

He's ready.

He wants to hear from you.

Let's bow our heads.