I'm in Judges chapter six and chapter seven.

We continue our series called Unpossible.

And let me just say from the get go, you know, wherever you are right now, I wanna encourage you to keep coming along this journey with us.

It's probably one of the most important journeys we've ever taken, concerning the relationship we have with God, how God sees our lives, the things he's trying to do in our lives, and the extraordinary life that is available for every Christ follower to live.

I've got a friend, let me just start with a friend of mine, a very close friend, and he's going through a very difficult time right now.

In fact, he's about my age, so 35, no, just kidding.

He's in his early 60s, and he not too long ago lost his job.

Now, this is a guy who's been in the same job for many, many years, very well qualified.

There's something definitely happened in our culture today where the older you get, the more experienced you get.

Sometimes this qualifies you for a job because they know they're gonna have to pay you more for your expertise so a lot of companies go for younger more inexperienced, but also a less economic strain on the business or the company So my friend is in this position where he's wondering, you know, how am I gonna finish?

Am I gonna finish well?

How am I gonna live out the rest of my life?

And there's a concern that is God gonna provide a job for me so that I can continue to feed my family, continue to do the things that I wanted to do in my older age?

Now, what I've noticed, and I mentioned this last week, is I'm very, very good at giving him words of encouragement.

Man, I'm quoting Scripture.

I'm talking about the sovereignty of God and how God looks down and sees everything and how he's omniscient.

He knows everything that's coming.

He's omnipotent, he's all powerful, and can take it all, connect all the dots, and do amazing things in your life.

I mean, in the words of Tony Campalo, sometimes I'm so good with my words, I take notes on myself.

So, you know, You're thinking when somebody else is suffering, man, you're really good at saying what you've been taught and I think what you actually believe.

The problem happens when the same tragedy or a deep tragedy strikes our own lives.

Then suddenly, even though down deep inside, we still believe in the omnipotence, all powerful God, the omniscience of God, all knowingness of God.

And the issue isn't so much that we don't trust God, it's more that we don't trust ourselves.

We start asking questions like, well, since I'm in this predicament, I've obviously done something wrong to deserve this.

So we start, doing kind of a review of our lives over the last few months or years, and we're thinking, okay, what have I done to deserve this?

In the book of Job, we learn sometimes the things that happen to us have very little to do with us and more to do with the glory of God.

And that's something as Christ followers, we know that we are owned, we've been bought with a price, and God has the sovereign right to do with us and to use us for his glory.

But there's still a part of us that says, I can endure the what, no matter what it is, if I know the why.

And the reason that so many preachers deal with the book of Job, even though we're in Judges, even though we deal with the book of Job, we do so because we know that his story in a very real way is our story.

Because Job maintains his trust and faith and commitment in God, even though he has no idea what's happening or why it's come upon him.

And his response as we read the book of Job ushers in this cosmic victory as if Job's response to his pain and suffering mattered, mattered in the larger scheme of things.

Now the point we've tried to make in this series is that you and I will never know what is coming.

and we will never know from where it's coming or how long it's gonna last.

That's just the way life is.

But just because we are limited in our knowledge of these things, that does not mean that we are.

that there's nothing about which we can be certain.

There are certainties, absolute certainties, for instance.

Nothing comes into our lives without God's foreknowledge.

Nothing surprises God.

God saw it coming, could have stopped it, could have prevented it, but has allowed it.

For some reason, we may never know, at least not in the short term.

Second, as we talked about last week, we were told, and we use this verse again and again to go back to the Bible.

comfort each other and we should.

In Romans chapter 8 verse 28 we're told that all things work together for the good of those who are for those who love God and called according to his purpose.

And we talked about that Greek word synergism, or synergeo, which is a word that means you can take two things that in and of themselves are not beneficial, combine them, work them together, and bring about something beautiful.

The example we used last week is table salt, which is composed of two poisons, sodium and chlorine, yet put them together and voila, you have something beneficial and inviting.

And we're told that God works together.

synergy or synergio, all things, no matter what it is, even our own sin, he's able to take after repentance and work it together for something that is glorious.

And then third, we know with certainty, and you'd have to be a little older to get this, but we are all like the Jeffersons in God's eyes.

We're always moving on up.

And 2 Corinthians 3.18, one of my favorite passages, and we all.

who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Now notice, the Bible tells us that we see clearly now with unveiled faces, we see what God is doing in our lives and he is moving us through the circumstances of our lives from glory to glory to glory.

We are climbing the glory ladder until we get to the top and are fully and completely conformed to the image of Christ.

Now, giving these truths, this whole series, and we're gonna do a review from time to time because we gotta keep this train rolling in the right direction.

In this series, given these truths, we must begin to live in a different way from the rest of humanity when it comes to our response to the unfortunate events of our lives.

We have to go against the grain, against the flow.

And I'm hoping in the series that all of us can have that aha moment.

Remember what we said Stephen Covey stated in his book, he said, employees, this is the reason businesses started to succeed, employees realized they need not be controlled by eternal forces, or rather external forces, that should say, but instead could shape unfortunate events into individual and corporate wins by altering their response and perspective.

I find that amazing, that a business could recognize something that the Bible has taught for centuries.

There's no need for you and I to be controlled by external circumstances.

But if we learn to respond to the unfortunate events of our lives, we can actually turn them around, God turns them around, not as disadvantages, but advantages for the glory of God and for our ultimate success.

That's when I had my aha moment, and I realized there's gotta be seven resolutions in the scripture.

And if we make those seven resolutions, we don't have to be controlled by any external circumstance.

I believe this has been God's intention for us all along, that you and I would respond to the unfortunate events of our lives, the small ones, when someone steps in front of us.

in line at coffee clatch when somebody cuts us off on the 210, or the big ones when the doctor tells us we have a disease that is quite serious, when we enter into a season of deep depression or anxiety, when we lose our job, when we lose our relationship, when we lose our control.

The story of Gideon gives us that perspective change.

And we talked about last week how he's facing incredible odds.

135,000 against 32,000.

Farmers against well-trained warriors.

And they're in this position because of their rebellion, but when God decides to deliver them, when He decides that He's gonna create in Gideon a giant killer, He doesn't even mention the sin or the failure.

comes to Gideon and he says, I've chosen you to do something extraordinary.

And I wanna say to you, that my friends, is what God says to every single one of us.

I see nowhere in scripture where God wants to save you and then leave you alone, for you to go back to your old way of living.

He wants to move us from glory to glory so that our life becomes a masterclass, that God engages us.

so that we may live an extraordinary life.

You know, I wanna go back to one thing before I get to the resolution.

That potter's wheel illustration that I've mentioned many times that astounds me because the potter's wheel seems to me to be painful.

But when a potter has clay on the wheel and it's not forming or conforming to the desired shape or form, He will often take the clay and throw it down and slam it onto the ground and start all over.

And sometimes, quite frankly, there have been periods in my life where I feel like the potter, I'm the clay, and God says, you know what?

You're not conforming, you're not cooperating.

I'm going to have to slam you down and start over.

So we said that resolution number one is that I will see the unfortunate events of my life as faith builders leading to the greatest accomplishments of my life.

I am saying that God deliberately causes, allows, even sovereignly ordains pain and suffering, even unfortunate circumstances into our lives to equip us, even force us to trust Him.

to pull the rug out from under us so the only thing we can do is run to Him.

When we lose our job, when we're in financial disarray, when we've got a negative health report.

In any situation where we see no recovery, God allows it to come into our lives in order that we may appeal to Him, come to Him and realize He's our only hope, and then as He delivers us from the situation.

Our faith and trust in Him grows so that we can move up the next ladder on the glory train, so that we can become everything God wants us to become.

That's hard to take, and there's a lot of people who are uncomfortable with that, but the reality is if we're going to be trained for greatness, the first resolution we have to make and understand is that when unfortunate events come into our lives, God knew, God saw, God understands that He's doing something majestic, and if we will trust Him and Him He will deliver us.

Now here's resolution two.

We say, I will confirm or affirm that God will often...

now this is gonna be even more difficult than the first one...

I will affirm that God will often require me to do something that seems unreasonable.

I will affirm that God will often require me, at least in my human wisdom, to do something that seems unreasonable.

I'm in Judges chapter seven, verse one and two.

Early in the morning, Jerubal, that is Gideon, and all his men camped at the spring of Herod.

The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.

The Lord said to Gideon, you have too many men.

I cannot deliver Midian into their hands or their hands or their hands.

For Israel would boast against me, my own strength has saved me." Now let's stay together here.

What's happening?

God has built Gideon's faith in the supernatural by supernatural demonstrations.

Gideon is now ready to advance to the next phase of his spiritual boot camp.

That's what life basically is for us folks, a spiritual boot camp.

Here's the situation from Gideon's vantage point.

There's 135,000 well-trained Midianite warriors.

They've set up camp near the Hill of Moreh.

The Bible tells us the Israelites set up camp, or their tents rather, a generation adjacent to the spring of Herod.

Now, I wanna show you on a map.

If I were to take you to Israel today, I could show you how the Hill of Moreh sits just above, resides just above the Spring of Harod.

So that whatever's happening at the spring would be in full view of the Midianite camp.

Now as Gideon does the math, he's got 135,000 warriors.

No, that's the Midianites.

He has, Gideon that is, 32,000 farmers.

So, he approaches the spring with 32,000 farmers as the 135,000 Midianites look on.

Now, Gideon's coming to this first board meeting in Gideon, or in Judges chapter 7, thinking that God is going to give him some special military strategy.

He knows he's outnumbered significantly.

At this point, he's four to one.

And again, they're warriors versus farmers with picks and shovels.

He goes to the meeting, imagine his consternation in verse two when God speaks to Gideon and says you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.

Now if you're Gideon, you're thinking what is this?

Is this some kind of new math?

What do you mean we have too many men?

We're significantly outnumbered.

The odds as they presently stand are four to one.

And if that's not bad enough, the Midianites are well experienced and we're just a bunch of farmers.

Now what's interesting again is God does not feel the need to explain.

God sees exactly what he's going to do and how he's going to do it.

And why he doesn't share that plan immediately with Gideon, we don't know.

What we do know is that God's knowledge and understanding of this battle far exceed our own, far exceeds our own.

We're not omniscient, he is, we're unable to see what's coming.

And even if we did, we really couldn't do much about it.

Second, our knowledge is limited, not merely of what's coming, but what is happening all around us at the same time.

We don't know what the enemy's thinking.

We don't know their strategy.

God does.

We don't know what they plan to do.

We don't know what move on the chessboard comes next.

And we don't know what move on the chessboard will bring us ultimate victory.

Simply put, there are simply too many moving parts, too many dots to be connected.

God on the other hand would know every intricate detail about this situation.

He controls all the moving parts.

He knows exactly what we need to do to win the war and the battle.

Given all the variables, he knows what we have to do to succeed in every endeavor.

Therefore, and this is important, what may seem irrational and illogical to you becomes logical to God.

Because if you're limited knowledge becomes actually the key to victory.

So because God sees everything and knows how he intends to bring about this victory, he simply says to Gideon, Gideon, I know this isn't going to make much sense to you, but you have too many men.

I'm going to have to sift the army if you're going to be victorious.

And he says, Gideon, I'm going to give you two tests.

Now Gideon, I'm amazed there's no pushback here.

He knows the odds are four to one.

Gideon is already growing in his faith because of his relationship with God.

There's no pushback.

He admits his own limitation and he says, okay God, what do you want me to do?

Now here's what God tells him to do.

Let's see if we can understand this.

God says, Gideon, I want you to take the men down to the spring of Herod and remember this will be right adjacent to the enemy camp.

And I want you to give the men two tests.

First of all, I want you to take these 32,000 men and I want you to ask them a simple question.

I want you to shout to them, raise your hand if you're afraid to go into battle.

And he says, if you are afraid to go into battle, God said, you count all those who raise their hand and you tell everyone who raises their hands to pack up their tent and their stuff and go home.

Now you can imagine what Gideon was thinking.

thinking.

In precise words in verse three, announced to the army, anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.

Now if I were an Israelite, again from a human perspective, I might take this opportunity to skedaddle.

Skedaddle is a word we use back in East Tennessee quite often.

It just simply means to depart quickly.

I'm out of here.

I would pick up my stuff and go home.

We're outnumbered four to one.

I'm a farmer.

They're warriors.

We're about to be slaughtered and annihilated.

But then think about it.

If you pick up your gear and go home, you're not alone.

home, where are you going to go?

You're just delaying the inevitable.

The Midianites are coming down every year, have been for seven years, and impoverishing the land of Israel.

So you might go home to your camp, but it's only a matter of time.

You're going to die eventually.

You either fight now with God or fight later alone.

Moreover, the entire scenario is not a new one, rather a restating of something God made clear years earlier when he said, when you go to war against your enemies and see horses chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them.

Because the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, will be with you.

When you are about to go into battle, the priests shall come forward and address the army.

He shall say, Here, Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies.

Do not be fainthearted or afraid.

Do not panic or be terrified of them.

For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." So God has been very clear, once I send you into battle, the battle belongs to me, and the God who brought you out of Egypt, remember you thought I couldn't do that, I did that.

The God who brought you out of Egypt, the battle belongs to Him.

If he says, if God says you're going to be victorious, you're going to be victorious.

It's God we're talking about here.

And the God who delivered you in the past will deliver you again by his word and his way.

And you can stand in the valley analyzing the odds until the cows come home and the paralysis from analysis will do you no good or the paralysis by overanalyzing everything.

There's a thing called walking in the Spirit, where it may not make sense, but you know you've heard the voice of God.

If you wait till everything makes sense when you hear from God, you're never going to move into the extraordinary life, and you're going to miss out on some of life's greatest adventures.

Now from a practical standpoint, fear is also contagious.

One coward breeds another coward.

God knew that.

Fear was spread through the camp like wildfire.

And then you would have a bunch of warriors not doing what God requires them to do, thinking and acting in their own power and strength.

So out of the 32,000 men, guess how many people raised their hands?

22,000 raised their hands, packed up their tents, and headed for home.

22,000 of the 32,000, God said, tell them to pack up their stuff, pack up their tents, and go home.

I try to put myself in Gideon's place, and I probably would be thinking, why?

I just lost two thirds of an already ill-equipped and ill-trained army.

But there's no time for rebuttal because as the 22,000 men are headed over the hill home, God speaks to Gideon again.

He gives him a second test.

So 22,000 men left while 10,000 remain, but the Lord said this to Gideon, there are still too many men.

Take down to the water, or them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there.

If I say this one shall go with you, he shall go, but if I say this one shall not go with you, he shall not go.

So Gideon took the men down to the water.

There the Lord told him, separate those who lap the water with their tongues, as would a dog from those who kneel down to drink.

300 of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs.

All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

The Lord said to Gideon.

With the 300 men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.

Let all the others go home With a fear test completed Gideon God says still has too many men and the second test must be applied.

So he moves for four to one odds and Then 22,000 men leave so he's down to 13 to 1 odds 10,000 against 135,000 And the Bible says in verse one that Jerubabel, remember, and all his men camped at the spring of Herod.

So again, as these 22,000 men are packing up their tents and going home, the Midianite warriors are watching this from above.

Now, you say, well, why didn't they attack immediately?

Now they're significantly, they significantly outnumber the Israelites, and the only answer I know to that is I don't know.

But God knew they would not.

He's still in charge.

He knows what he's doing.

Now here's the reasoning.

Because the spring.

of Herod is adjacent to the hill of Moreh.

If you get down in the stream and you drink like a dog drinks, okay, some of them are going to get down on one knee and they're going to take the water and bring it to their mouths and quench their thirst.

Others according to the test are going to get down on both knees and they're going to get down and lap the water as a dog would with his tongue.

Everybody that got down on all fours and lapped the water with their tongues, they were told to go home.

The reason most probably is where the first test was a fear test, this is more of a fervency test, a test of seriousness.

So if I get down and I lap the water like this, that means I'm getting my need met, but I also have one eye on the enemy.

I'm taking this battle seriously.

But if I get down on all fours and I lap the water like a dog would, I've taken my eyes completely off the enemy.

I'm not that serious about the enemy.

My own interest resides in getting my own need met.

So God gives this test.

And let me just stop right there just for a moment.

It's these tests that God sends us that we think are not significant.

These little things that happen every day, little things.

that we think aren't that important, that God takes note of, and continues to send those same tests our way until we pass, so that the next event, and the next event, and it's always working us up towards some extraordinary event in our lives.

So that our response to seemingly insignificant tests, those we face, Each day often becomes the determining factor of what God will do in our lives.

And our response to those tests is the difference between a mediocre life and an extraordinary life.

And the life that constantly loses the battle, constantly fails test after test after test is the one that is destined for mediocrity.

I can't stress that enough.

It's not only the test that comes into your life of how you will respond to the big things, it's also how you will respond to the little things.

When someone gossips or slanders about you, when someone wounds you, when someone hurts you, when someone betrays you, when you don't get what you think you're entitled to, all those little tests, when somebody cuts in front of you, the little tests, God sees every single one of them.

And if you wonder sometimes why those tests keep happening to you, it's because you haven't past it yet, and until you pass that test, you can't move from glory to glory.

Remember the old philosophical question?

I love it.

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

In response to that query, someone quipped these words, there once was a man who said God must think it exceedingly odd if he finds that this tree continues to be when there's no one about in the quad.

Dear sir, your astonishment is odd.

I'm always about in the quad and that's why this tree will continue to be since observed by yours faithfully God The point is, nothing is hidden from God.

Of course it makes a sound because God hears it.

God is an active participant in every single event of your life.

And I'm trying to get you to see not only the big ones, but down to the minute ones, the small ones.

From the way you respond to the guy who cuts you off in traffic or cuts line at the coffee shop to the way you respond when unfortunate news turns your world upside down, God is always watching.

Immanuel means God with us, it means exactly that.

Now that would be terrifying if it weren't for the grace and mercy of God.

Because remember, even when we fail those tests, salvation, forgiveness comes to the cross but greatness comes through obedience.

Salvation comes to the cross, but greatness comes through obedience.

And if you think you can live in direct disobedience to God in any area of your life and experience extraordinary life, you'll get by for a while on your own talents and abilities, but sooner or later, your sins will find you out.

God loves you, but you're stuck.

You're stuck, you're not going anywhere.

And you're definitely not going to achieve your greatest potential.

If you want to get the most out of your life, if you want to be used by God for extraordinary things, if you want to escape this life of mediocrity into the land of extraordinary adventure, you must develop the crucial habit of obeying God even when it seems unreasonable to you.

Your willingness to follow His instruction determines His willingness to pour out His divine energy into your life.

Following Jesus unconditionally leads to adventures and victories beyond what you could hope or imagine.

My Christian friends always tell me, especially my younger ones, they passionately desire to experience life like Joseph and Esther and Abraham and Moses.

Do you know the unfortunate events they faced?

Do you know the difficult commands God instructed them to follow?

Joseph's pathway to the palace was through a prison cell.

Moses' way to the promised land was through 40 years in the wilderness without gaining entrance.

Esther's way into the king's court was through the threatened genocide of her people.

In every one of those heroic narratives, the one or ones who experienced the extraordinary life, miraculous, adventurous life, also encountered numerous unfortunate predicaments.

and in each instance, they were required to obey the hard word.

And they did.

And quite frankly, in other stories in the Bible, if God gave the hard word and someone disobeyed, he's still gracious.

Lamentations, his mercies are new every day, but that didn't prevent God from placing them into a similar situation until they graduated the course.

If they obeyed, God moved them to the next phase of the journey that ultimately ended in this intoxicating euphoria.

Now again, along the way, can I tell you that the sad truth for many Christ followers is they never make it out of the faith-building phase.

Oh, that's so sad.

Because they refuse to trust that God's way is the better way.

And so God just keeps sending them these unfortunate events throughout the entire course of their lives until they decide they're going to trust God's way is the best way and obey the hard word.

I know some of you think that I talk too much about sexual purity.

The only reason I do that is because it is the test of our time.

The Judeo-Christian sexual ethic is challenged on every front.

Hollywood, media, television, journal articles, whatever it is.

Habitually sleeping with a boyfriend or girlfriend before marriage indicates a belief that God's way is archaic and your way is better.

And when you're living in that kind of life, there's no way you're ever going to move to the extraordinary life until you come to terms with that.

And dating and marrying someone who doesn't share your passion for Jesus indicates your apathetic cavalier attitude toward God's instruction.

Now you're stuck.

Still loved, but you're stuck.

Slandering your way into a favored position.

you don't trust God to provide will not work.

It may give you immediate pleasure but you'll end up sacrificing your future.

Withholding your first fruits from God displays doubt and skepticism that God will provide every need and also reveals the truth of your heart.

You're stuck.

Making poor choices with regard to entertainment reveals a Kevlar attitude toward holiness and a lack of commitment toward God's word and the renewing of one's mind that you may learn what is good and acceptable.

Such attitudes restrict God's ability to use you for grand purposes and design.

The more we live outside of his parameters, the longer we stay stuck in mediocre lives.

And there are hundreds of decisions we make every single day, which reflect our loyalty or disloyalty to God.

Let me say it again.

Our response to seemingly insignificant tests will often be the determining factor of what God will or will not do in our lives.

And many will miss out on the God-ordained adventurous experiences because they've never made it past the first phase of.

faith and trust in God's way, in God's Word, and they've never obeyed the hard word.

Now here's the good news and the bad news.

God is patient and long-suffering and will never give up on you.

He will continue to test you until you graduate.

He will keep pulling the rug out from under you until you fall into his arms.

Your best life.

And he does that not because he dislikes you or hates you.

He does that because he knows that your best life as his child is on the other side of obeying the hard word.

There's a blogger that I follow, her name is Diana Simons.

I guess that's the way you pronounce it.

I've only seen it, I haven't heard it.

it's pronounced.

Let me tell you what she says.

She says, I would like to suggest that God is unreasonable not because of what He asks of us is just too difficult, but because we can't reason Him fully.

In other words, we're highly unqualified to evaluate or calculate the workings and doings of God.

So what does it say about us when we look at God's word and we say, well, I'm not sure I agree with that?

She goes on.

When it comes to understanding what God is doing in the world and more specifically in our lives, we are like ants on a Rembrandt.

We crawl across the dark brown and think that all of life is dark brown.

Then we hit green and think, oh, this is much better, now all of life is green.

But soon comes the dark blue and then a splash of yellow, a streak of red, and then another patch of brown.

On we journey from one color to another, never realizing that God is actually painting a masterpiece in our lives using all of the colors of the palette.

One day, we will discover that every color had its place, had a reason, nothing was wasted or out of sync.

Just as there is a time and a season for everything, there's also a color for every stage of life's journey.

When the painting is finished, we will discover that we were part of his masterpiece from the very beginning.

Every phase of our lives has God's paintbrush written all over it.

Every event a test to measure our growth in faith.

Because remember, he's building giant killers.

Can I just say to you, if you're stuck and you feel as though you're not being used for anything great.

In fact, you may even feel that right now you're holding on for dear life.

This is the perfect time to ask God to give you a Jesus revelation.

and to reveal to you that area in your life where you're in direct disobedience, fallaciously believing that your disobedience will not impact the quality of your life.

This is a great time then when God opens your eyes to that reality or truth, that you repent and move on.

Because until you do, yeah, God's grace is there, God loves you, God saves you, but you're stuck.

You're stuck in a mediocre life when God has so much more for you.

Commit to chase hard after resolution two.

I will affirm that God will often require me to do something that seems unreasonable, knowing that my obedience leads to the greatest adventures and victories of my life.

Now just stay with me.

When God told Gideon to shift his army, do you think Gideon thought that such a command was unreasonable or reasonable?

Well, that's easy.

He would have thought that's unreasonable.

Four to one, thirteen to one, and now, after these two tests, we're going to learn later what's unreasonable.

There's 300 men left.

Now the odds are 450 to one.

And when the odds are 450 to one, the only way you can be victorious is God.

The more reasonable thing, For Gideon to have done it, I'm sure, not sure, but I suspect that what Gideon thought God was going to say to him was to blow the trumpet and call the Ephraimites to come and help and let's at least get this thing even.

In fact, later on in the text, the Ephraimites are mad that Gideon did not call them, but God wasn't trying to increase the numbers.

He was trying to increase their faith and their trust in God's ability to deliver.

But had he disobeyed in any area of his life, then the battle would have been lost.

I have so many examples of this in personal relationships that God has given me throughout the course of my life.

I've mentioned my friend Coach Tony Bennett.

When I think of how Tony gave up an NBA contract to stay in New Zealand.

when he was looking at $3.3 million and he turns it down to make 30,000 a year because he said that God called him to stay in New Zealand and to do ministry and that the day for coaching would come.

And then I look at his life now because he obeyed the hard word.

Look at how God uses him now.

But if Tony had said no, would his life have turned out the same way?

I'm not sure.

I think of my friend Clive Raharuy that I often talk about, this entrepreneur who starts businesses, launches them, sells them off, starts more businesses.

How he just shows up in LA a few years ago and says, I've sold everything, I've got no job, but I'm here because I believe God wants to take the gospel to the world.

And then I look at how he lived by, strictly by faith, lived in the Spirit, and over the course of years.

God continued to provide and now here we are, where literally millions all over the globe are hearing the gospel in their own language.

I think of my friend, I'm not gonna use his name because it's still too raw, but my friend that I have that lives on the other side of the states, who's been through the fire.

When the markets crashed, when real estate crashed in 2008, all of this he had built up began to fade away.

He lost his friends.

Even his church did not respond well to him.

He was deeply wounded and hurt.

As long as he had money and things, he was everybody's friend.

When he lost everything, everybody betrayed, everybody left him.

But God told him, hey, pay back your creditors.

Tell them, meet with him, don't run, do the right thing.

He even had a season where his wife left him and God told him, hey, I'm gonna restore this.

Remain faithful.

Do what you note.

Obey the hard word.

Keep the lines of communications open with your wife.

Keep the lines of communication open with your creditors.

And he stays in that hard season when he feels like he's alone on an island and he does everything that God asks him to do while being somewhat mad at God, I have to tell you.

But he says, I'm gonna obey the hard word.

And then on the other side of that, to see him now where his marriage is restored, where he's giving millions and millions of dollars to places in Africa to dig wells, start churches?

And I go back and I look at that and I think, what if he had not obeyed the hard word?

Because that would have been a hard word.

For my friend Tony to remain in New Zealand and do ministry seemed unreasonable.

For my friend Clive to sell everything and move to LA seemed, had to seem unreasonable.

And for my other friend to take his wife back into his home to forgive those who had abandoned him, had to have seemed unreasonable.

And yet they passed the test.

So the ultimate question comes for all of us now.

Given the fact that God sees every event in your life, that He sees what's coming before you do, He sees all the moving parts around you, He sees all the decisions that everyone's going to make around you, your boss, your spouse, your children, everyone and everything.

Are you willing now to be used by God for something extraordinary, for an extraordinary victory?

But are you stuck?

Are you stuck because you won't trust and obey the hard word?

You know, I didn't know this, but Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers, Jurassic, do you know that he's a Christ follower?

But I read a story this past week.

Do you know that he was struggling?

I think he was working at a supermarket in Hawaii.

And his life was going nowhere.

He was making a lot of bad choices.

And then one day he came outside of the local market.

He encountered a man named Henry.

Pratt says, I should have been nervous around this guy because he just looked different.

But for some strange reason, I wasn't.

And he said, then this man Henry spoke to me and said, young man, God instructed me to speak to you.

Pratt goes on to not tell us everything because it's very private, but Pratt ended up following this guy Henry to church.

And at church, Chris says, I heard the voice of God to change the path that I'm on.

He gave me a hard word to turn my back on this group of friends that were leading me down a path of destruction.

He said, I realized the sin that I had in my life, and that day I received Christ and I've never looked back.

I knew it would be risky following Jesus because I'd have to leave the job that I was presently in, I'd have to leave the friendships I had.

My family might even abandon me.

But I also knew that this road I was on was very foolish, very risky.

I decided right then and there I would obey God no matter how hard the word was, as long as God would keep speaking to me like he had that day.

He said, by the way, I've never seen Henry again, never.

And where I live, it's a small town.

It's almost like God sent an angel to me in one moment at one time.

But I told God, you give me the hard words and I will obey.

And God keeps giving me the hard words.

And I don't know if you know this, but Hollywood has made significant efforts to cancel Chris Pratt.

But yet when you read his story, is he unhappy?

Anything but.

And he keeps quoting, you can gain the world and lose your soul.

Actors like Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington, Jim Conviesal, many others have been canceled by Hollywood, but they've come together in places like pray.com and Angel Studios to produce global Christian content.

They've all lost significantly But they've gained so much more One last time.

Do you know?

This hard word that God is asking you to obey is there You because he loves you and he wants the best life for you.

Now let me finish with this.

Who obeyed the hardest word?

Who obeyed the most unreasonable word?

Who was told to leave his home when there could be no better home than heaven?

Who was told to go down there and take on flesh and live a sinless life, be tempted in all things like they are, and live a sinless life?

Who was told, don't yield to the temptation to use your power to gain the world?

Who was told, suffer injustice, be betrayed by your closest friends, be denied by your closest friend, die on a cross to save others, suffer separation from your Father.

Jesus did the hard thing, and now He sits at the right hand of the Father, because He said, not my will.

but yours will be done.

And he trusted the father and now reigns with him forevermore.

And what I'm saying to you is that until you live your life by the resolution, that God will often ask you to do what seems to be unreasonable.

And you acknowledge that he knows far much more than you do about everything that's happening around you.

And because you've learned to trust and obey him, if you will obey this hard word, you, my friend, are about to live.

live an adventurous, extraordinary life.

Father, I thank you and praise you for your goodness and for your patience with us.

We know we're saved by grace through faith, we're so thankful for that, but we don't wanna be stuck.

We don't wanna be living in such a way because we think we know better than you do and forfeit this great adventure.

We know nowhere in scripture that talks about a mediocre life for Christ followers.

Rather we're called to live a life that's extraordinary.

Therefore whatever hard word you've given us, no matter how unreasonable it may seem, give us the courage to obey.

that we might live the abundant life, and in doing so, help those far from God come near.

In Christ's name, amen.

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