Steady | Part 3 | Wendy Sims | Special Guest | Gateway Christian Centre

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Gateways Weekly Service. We are so glad that you are here. We pray that this message inspires you, it encourages you, and that God speaks to you in new ways. Now, on with the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

You know, you can't pick up that shield of faith unless you build your shield of faith. And one of the best ways that we can build that shield of faith is to exalt him. To take him out of exalt you that we build him, we're holding that faith. That's the faith shield of faith here. We think I'm taking every circumstance. This situation. Every circumstance We know that he is the one who's the one who is, he's willing to do all through him. He shrimp us through him, we can do all things through him who gives us faith. Fix our eyes on him and let him be that f that shield of faith and increase that this morning. We're just going into we're just finishing the season on steady. So today we're gonna be looking at what it looks like to live an unshakable life. I definitely don't stand here and saying I'm living an unshakable life. That's not where we're going this morning. But there's things we can do when we keep our eyes fixed on him. So yeah, we're gonna dig in this morning. Thank you very much, worship team. Just get set up here. I'm gonna sit down because I'm gonna be pastoral this morning. Small people don't do well on big chairs, but I'm here and I'm good. I'm good. So yeah, this morning we're gonna be looking at how to build an unshakable life. So, yeah, this message is about the importance of building our foundations now, not tomorrow, not yesterday. It is looking at those foundations. Yeah, to take up that shield of faith, you need to build that faith first. So, one of the greatest misconceptions that we have in our Christian life is that following Jesus exempts us from difficulty. How many people know that is not true? No, Jesus never promised that. In fact, he promised the opposite. So we see in John 16, 33, it says that these things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. Know that I have overcome the world. So it doesn't matter what the world's got to offer today, in him we will overcome. In him, we will carry that peace that will get us through any tribulation that we face. Now we see in Hebrews, we see that is that God's given us a gift of a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Hebrews 12, 28 to 29, it says, Therefore, since we know that we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. So what the shaking of our world is exposing foundations. There are things that once appeared stable that actually they're no longer stable. They're proving that they are shakable. It's been those things that we can set our eyes on, and that that is starting to shake. You know, we only have to look around the world today. We see those political foundations. How many know that they are pretty unshakable right now? I don't think the left know what the right's doing and kind of anything in between, but we're seeing an unshakable political climate and those foundations. Our economic foundations, you know, you turn on the news and it's all doom and gloom. That, you know, my my God's full of glorious riches, and it doesn't matter what the economy says, um, that they can carry on shaking because that's not where we fix our eyes. Those moral foundations, you know, we only have to look around to see moral failures here, there, and everywhere. Again, it's it's building kind of our eyes on God, it's building that truth, it's building integrity, it's building us values that are based on Him and His kingdom and not what you're reading in the media, not kind of what other people are telling you. Um and then those spiritual foundations. I think we're in that climate where there is so much out there where you can kind of go for spiritual connections, and you know, you can look here, you can look there, but those foundations are cracking. You know, we we know that kind of God's already started some of those revivals across the world, and he will um, you know, he will be the one that every knee will bow, every person will call his name because that's the spiritual foundation that we're building. It it doesn't matter what you're seeing out there in the world. Kind of we we stand on that rock. But you know what? I know that God's not intimidated by that shaking, he doesn't shake things because he's insecure, he shakes what's temporary to reveal what's eternal. You know, the temporary will shake, let them shake, let them crumble, but God's word will remain, it's stable. So therefore, let us receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, as Hebrew says. So I guess the question is not will there be storms, the question is, what am I building my life up on so I can withstand that storm? And that's what we're gonna look at a little bit today, is how we can set our foundation to have that life that is unshakable. It's easy to worship when the sun shines, it's easy to worship when your prayers are quickly answered. A little bit harder, isn't it, when those answers don't come, when that healing's delayed or we don't see it. That when the mountains don't move at the sound of your voice. Um but it's in those moments, those furnished moments, that faith gets fed into something that's unshakable. Okay, we're gonna look at Matthew 7 24 to 29. And as we go through this, I challenge you not to sing the song that you sang in Sunday school on kind of building your house upon the rock and the wind came and the wind came. Um we sang that yesterday in the car, didn't we? So yeah, we had a good sing song there. But Matthew 7 says, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain descended, the flood came, and the wind blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on that rock. Let me get the cough gone and it will be good then. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man. He built his house on the sand, the rain descended, the floods came, the wind blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and it was a great fall. You know what Jesus speaks about that after he just finishes the sermon on the mount, and it's a story about two builders. One of them built their house on a rock and that foundation stands, the other built their house on the sand, and that foundation fell. Both builders heard the same words of Jesus. Both builders built houses, both builders experienced the storm. So the difference wasn't the storm, the difference was the foundation that it was built on. The storm simply exposed the foundations that had been there all along. So what the storm doesn't build your foundation, the storm reveals your foundation. And I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the storms that we've gone through in our life and what that foundation looks like and how we'd build that. But just to go back a little bit, um, that that verse started with whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them. So what's what's Jesus talking about? What sayings? Um, so this is kind of you you'll hear this in in regard to the beatitudes it's talking about, and when Jesus is up on that sermon to the mouth and the mount, but he's telling us be salt and be light. Look at your heart, if you've got murder, if you've got anger, if you've got adultery, just keep your heart pure, keep all of those things set on God's on God's site, make your marriage sacred, love your enemies, give, pray, and fast. Don't worry. You know, I I know kind of more than anything, if we have a foundation that's built on worry, it's gonna come tumbling down pretty quickly. Judge rightly, ask, seek, and knock. Take the narrow way, and then be be aware of true and false prophets. So when we do those sayings, when we do what Jesus is telling us to do, that is like us building our house on a rock. When we don't do these things, we're building those houses on sand. And we see that in Isaiah 28, 16. Isaiah prophesies that God would lay a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Therefore, thus says the Lord, behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Whoever believes in it will not act hastily. Everything in life rises and falls on the foundation. The call's not to be stronger, the call is to build a deeper foundation. And our confidence is not in the strength of the house. I'm so glad about that. Um, but it's in the rock that's beneath it. So my first point for those taking notes today is that steady people build deep foundations. Do you know what those deep foundations bring hidden depth and lasting strength? When we go a little bit further and look at Luke's account of this, um, you can see that Luke adds an important detail that you don't see in Matthew. And it says that the wise man dug deep. You know, foundations matter because storms are inevitable. But when you're laying that deeper foundation, it's going to be costly before it's visible. You know, digging deep means delay, it means sweat. It means nobody applauds you because nothing impressive is above the ground yet. The house that that foolish builder built, it would have looked impressive at first. It would have looked like they've got something that I've not because I'm still laying my foundation. But they've got a house, they've got windows, they've got doors, and it's starting to look amazing. I I've not even kind of built my first brick above that ground yet, but it really does make a difference. So if we just read that in Luke 6, 48, it said that he is like a man building a house. You dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the rud and when the flood arose and the stream beat vehemently against that house, it could not shake it, for it was founded on a rock. And you know, if you if you're trying to build into a rock and set that foundation, you have to dig deep. You need your tools to really kind of go into that rock. Whereas with sands, you're just gonna need a shovel and you can, you know, dig out one little hole um twice as quick as you're gonna dig that into the rock. But those foundations um definitely rest upon what you're seeing. So we live in a culture that's obsessed with what's visible, they want to see that house built really, really quickly. You want to see something tangible. Um, and God's deeply concerned with what's hidden. You know, when we look through the Bible, you can see that David, Moses, Joseph, they all had hidden years. They had years um where you don't see kind of that. Even Jesus, before um he spent in his ministry, he spent 30 years when you don't see him. It's not till kind of he comes out and starts to build that ministry, but you don't see a lot of those early years. Um, but something I want to want to add in here that hidden does not always mean healthy. There's a holy hiddenness, so that's prayer, worship, surrender, obedience, waiting on God. That that secret place, but there's also a destructive hiddenness, and that's those kind of foundations that are built on shame, lies, secrecy, unforgiveness, fear, deceit, the pain that we've never allowed Jesus to touch, all of that can stay within those foundations. And one thing I know through working in pastoral care uh for all these years, and then working with survivors of violence and abuse for over 30 years, of seeing how the foundations of our past can really kind of impact now on our future and our present. So, what happens to us can build things in us. You know, that pain that we carry can build beliefs, and they're not always good beliefs. It can be those beliefs that you know what, I'm not worthy of this, I'm not worthy. Trauma that can build different protections, but it's not those healthy protections, it's those things that um encourage us to retreat and hold back and not give ourselves fully. Rejection can build insecurity, betrayal can build control, and um and I know through the layers of my own past, I know kind of where that intersects with all of that trauma, with all of that hurt. But I have learned how to give that to Jesus, how I can turn that from sand to that solid rock and help um deal with the foundations. And one thing I know that an unshakable life is not the life that pretends the past didn't happen. You know, we've gone through those experiences, the past has happened to us, it's happened in us, it's happened through us. But the difference is it's a life where the past no longer has permission to be the foundation. Do you know what? And we all have that ability. It doesn't matter what we've gone through in life, it doesn't matter what we've faced. We can even make that decision today that I'm gonna build my life on that rock. I'm gonna exalt him, the one that can deliver me, the one that can protect me, the one that can fight for me. And this is why Jesus doesn't want us to just bless the visible parts of our life. He wants to access the foundations, he wants to heal what's underneath, he wants to expose those lies, not to shame us, but to free us from those. And uh, yeah, if I can bring anything across today, it's don't build your foundation in the dark, don't build that foundation in secrecy, because I know that's where the lion will come and roar and um and really impact what you're doing there. But no, when you kind of mix that with the truth, with the word of God, with the love of the Father, amazing things can happen. Don't build it on what people said about you, it's a lie. Don't build it on what happened to you, and don't build it in unforgiveness. They're foundations that are gonna come crashing down bigger than anything else. But build it in truth, build it in the word of God, in the love of the Father, and build it in the light of Christ, because it's that that is gonna make your house stand on that rock, and your foundations will not come crumbling when it's built on Christ. So I had a dream last night, I dream I dreamed quite a lot. Um, and I know that kind of this dream was a word for somebody this morning. Um, and in in this dream, it was um a man, a man had a lion, and he raised this lion as a pet. He lived in his house, you know, they loved it as their household pet. But then one day, this lion turned round and attacked one of their family members. Um, so I guess I'd come in at this point in my I guess it did my community safety role because I was going to help get this lion back in the cage. Um, so we got this lion in the cage. Um, and then for some reason it was in the back of my car, and Michael let it out. He said it's a really friendly lion. Um, and this lion came running into my house, run on the sete, and just wanted to play with me like it was my pet puppy. And um, I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't matter how friendly that lion is. You know, lions belong in a cage. Um, you know, I felt the message for today was stop trying to tame the lion. Do you know what? There's two lions. We got one lion who he roars around like a lion. Let me let me just get that right in the in the first place. Roars around like a lion, goes around like a lion, and he's waiting to devour you. Stop taming that lion. Get your eyes fixed on the lion of Judah. There's a very different here. You know, the lion of Judah will fight for you. This lion will fight you, your family, and everything around you. So stop trying to tame that lion, put it back in that cage. You know what? Some things are not to be managed. We try to manage ourselves out of situations. Some things are not to be befriended, and some things are not to be tolerated. They need to be recognized for what they were. So you get that lion and get in that cage and just be aware and be mindful that he's gonna continue to prowl around. But when we do set our eyes on that, that the Lion of Judah, it does help to produce those deep roots and they produce stability. So a couple of um scriptures here that are gonna form those deep roots. So we see that in prayer in Matthew 6, 6. So when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen. We see that meditation of scripture in John Joshua 8. It tells us to keep the book of the law on our lips, meditate on it day and night so that you'll be careful to do everything that is written in it. We see it in worship, Psalms 27:4. It says that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all of my days, and then building obedience, obedience will really help set down those roots. And we see that in John 14, 21. Keep my commandments. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And then um, we see that in waiting on God, that when you're waiting on God, it will build those deep foundations. So Isaiah 40, 31. Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. It's not that public strength comes from that private depth, it comes from being in that secret place and praying. Okay, point two, are you still with me? Okay, so steady people build their lives upon the obedience of God's word. Matthew 7, 24, again, just to revisit it. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man and built it who built his house on that rock. So what the difference between the wise and the foolish builders was not information, it was application. We'll probably live in one of those times where it's the most information-rich generation in the whole of church history. You know, there's sermons out there, there's podcasts, there's books, there's conferences, there's teaching absolutely everywhere. You know what? You can read all of that, you can watch all of that, but if you're not taking that and you're not applying that, it's the obedience that of the doing that produces stability. And we see that in James. So James 1, 22 to 25, it says, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he who observes himself goes away and immediately fet immediately forgets what kind of man he is. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, the one who will be blessed in what he does. So the blessings not in the hearing, the blessings in the doing. Um, you know, I I know that kind of I can go back to kind of my early Christian life, and I I know that I was that person that came to church on a Sunday that listened to that message and then went to went home, and then kind of you know, Monday to Saturday, I would forget, I wouldn't pick up my Bible, I wouldn't read that word, and I know the difference of my life of doing that now, of what that's uh of what that's bought. And Jesus repeatedly connects love and obedience to what that sand represents everything that's unstable. Emotions, popular opinion, culture, human wisdom, personal preferences, the spirit of the age, like all of those things. Um, you will just sink in that sand, your house will come crumbling down. I was thinking. Earlier, um, time Michael and I went on holiday, he's gonna remember this quite well. And we took our bikes with us, and we're going for a nice ride across the beach, which is a nice romantic thing to uh to do on that holiday. And um, we're just going, and then the one thing I learned is don't stop when you're on that sand, and didn't realize that it was actually sinking sand that we were riding across. Um, so as I stopped and my bike began to sink, and I got my foot on the sand, and then my foot began to sink and I lost my train. Michael is just in hysterics, laughing at me, uh, not coming to my aid whatsoever. But you know, I think that that that that is that word that you got to keep on going. You know, if we just stand still in our circumstances, if we stand still in that storm, we will sink and we will sink pretty quickly. But when we keep our eyes fixed on him, is the person that will pull us out of that sand. It's the word of the God, the word of God is that rock. Isaiah 40, verse 8 says that the uh the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of God stands forever. It is making sure that we're standing on that rock. And then in Matthew 24, 35, Jesus said that heaven and earth would pass away, but his words would never pass away. The person who steadily obeys God's word is slowly building an unshakable life, one act of obedience at a time, one area surrendered at a time, and one decision at a time. But it is just that making sure that we're standing on that rock, that we're recognizing those times that we sink. Can I talk a little bit about a storm that uh Michael and I had gone through? And actually, it was only when I was reflecting on this uh and writing all of this down that I realized how big that storm was. I I don't think we um kind of just anticipated how big it was when we were going through it. So I know you've all heard Michael's healing testimony, but the one thing we've not shared is kind of what some of that circumstance looked like. What was that storm that we were facing at the time? Um so Michael was ill for five years. Um that was a kind of a big kind of period of his time. Um, but when he first got um he got ill, um kind of in that storm, we've got children who was in high school who still needed um kind of care and attention, they still needed um us to meet their physical needs within that. Um but I guess when you're not when you're sick, the first thing that was impacted uh was the job. So we had our income cut in half overnight. Um, and just because where my income was, I was too high for the threshold to kind of uh meet the benefit threshold or anything. So my income became the income of our household. Uh, that we still needed to do family, we still needed to do life, and let all of that continue. We then lost our car. Um, so the car was attached to Michael's work, so he had a brand new Prius. It was an amazing car, it's one of the first hybrid cars that have come out. I'm talking 14 years ago here as well, so it's kind of quite back there. Um, but yeah, love that Prius. That's a good car, wasn't it? But it's okay because I still had my little Yarris. So our little tried and trusted Yarris, um, until it went into its MOT and the mechanic said, uh-uh, you need to buy a new car. So Michael's lost his health, we've lost our car, car, both cars have gone. And then we had an eviction letter. Um, so we are now being evicted from our house. Um, the estate that we lived on, we rented and they were selling the whole of the estate. So it's like we're selling it, you need to move out. So, you know, no health impacted, no car, no job, and no house. Our children was good though. That that was all good, so it wasn't kind of um all there. But I guess that the one thing I know is that the storm didn't have that final say. Um, and I'm so glad that we'd kind of done that. That even before the storm tested our faith, God had already been training us in it, it already helped to build that solid foundation. So by the time we're in that storm, actually, we didn't even notice that it was much of a storm, if that makes sense. Um, but if I just give you a few things of the foundations before that storm, um, that we trusted God for financial provision and we'd seen uh where God had really delivered on that. I think I'd shared before when um when I was a brand new Christian, probably about three weeks into uh being a Christian, my brother invited me to go to Nigeria with him. So this was a crusade that was going to be three and a half thousand pounds. And I just remember saying to him, okay, you keep saying that God's a provider and that He can He can provide. I'll give you £100 and if He's as good as you say he is, then He can pay for the trip for me. Do you know what? I had every single penny, three and a half thousand pounds, that was just there. So I went to I went to Nigeria and through that God just transformed my life. Michael wasn't even a Christian the day I went. Do you know what? The day I came back, he was on fire for God. Um, but God does those things, you know, when you give that little of a bit of obedience. And I remember one time we were really low on money, we just literally had enough money to buy milk the next morning. And um, as we go into the shop to get that milk, uh both Michael and I both had um just a real separate feeling that we should buy our chocolate, our pasta, some chocolate. Um, so do we have milk for the children or do we buy chocolates for our pasta? It didn't even make sense, but because God had asked, we did it. Do you know what? Within an hour, we had a milkman who knocked our door and said, We're gonna give you free free free milk for the rest of this week, if you sign up for us. So, you know, God's already there in those little bits of provision. Um, I I kind of also felt that God had said to me that I need to give up a day of my work um to go and work for the church and lead the children's ministry. Again, this would have been a significant pay-up for me. And I'm like, God, are you sure I can't afford to do this? And you know, I got that reassurance, I'm with you, just do it. So when I did that, um, and actually all that did was bring me underneath the next tax threshold. So I ended up being seven pounds um worse off every month instead of 250 pounds a month. So, you know, God had already built the financial stability, so we didn't have any problems with that. We'd done a number of different mission trips to South Africa, Zambia, Hong Kong, and really started to build our faith in what we were seeing. But those fruitful seasons, they provided a strong foundation for that storm that was gonna come. And if it wasn't for um my um, well, uh this is at Jimmy's request because he did ask that um I talk about my bird kind of within this as well. So if it wasn't for my bird beauty, who called me a naughty girl every single day, life was pretty good. But God was already building those foundations in the ordinary. So let's just backtrack a little bit and look after after the storm. So, Michael, you've been healed for eight years now? Eight years. So, yeah, this is now kind of eight years after that storm. And around that time, when just as Michael was really kind of pushing in for that healing, we made that fresh commitment. You know, we knew that we wasn't doing life as a Christian, should have done. We knew the corners that we were cut in, we knew the sin that was in our life. So, you know, we decided we're gonna set our feet on that rock, we're gonna kind of make that decision, make that fresh commitment to do our devotion time and spend that real devotion time of really digging into God's word, of really understanding it, developing that union with God, so really knowing God for who he is, not just what he does. So, really building that relationship and not just information, not just taking that information in, but having that obedience. You know, we was able to buy a car um for all that time. We was able to um to buy a house, never thought that would happen. God just miraculously gave us the money to buy the house that we were in so we didn't need to uh to move. And our income, uh well, my income that would have been to what within the first three weeks uh of Michael losing his job, I had a promotion and then another promotion and another promotion and another promotion. So by the end of that first year, my income had doubled to kind of bring in more than what our joint income was in the first place. So God was so faithful uh within that. I think Michael's yeah, does deserve um and then Michael's first job after he was healed, he earned more money in one month than his whole annual income put together. So God had restored all of that. I think we were able to go to Canada for an amazing trip, go to Iceland um just within that first year of really getting back into just being being part of God's kingdom, taking his word to other places. Um, but the storm shaped us, but God brought us through stronger than we'd ever been before. So I have to I have to tell you this, um, because this just blew my mind, and I I know it's gonna be a word for somebody today. So as I was writing all of um all of this sermon out, I I normally just have a Zoom call with myself and just video myself just reading it back to you. Um so I was just watching to see where I need to kind of improve what I'm saying. And if I didn't watch it, I would have missed this moment. Um, but I'm I'm at the point where I'm talking about this Prius. And I know I said earlier I love that Prius. Um so this car had to go back, and um the the car that we were able to buy at the time was um it was a little runaround, it was a Peuge um 208, and uh it was a good car because that all I'd always wanted a Peugeot 208 and I needed a car. So, you know, I was still so happy and excited to get this car. Um, but it was a thousand pounds, it was falling to bits, um, but it got me from A to B. And um, you know, it definitely wasn't this brand new Prius that we'd had. Um, and I was I was thankful for it, but just as I was preparing this and reading it back, I just really kind of felt the Holy Spirit say, Do you know what? When you were sitting in that thousand pound runaround, I already knew the car that you'd be sitting in today. Um, do you know? I don't know whether any of you I love my car and I love how I've been blessed with it. Um, but I've got a pretty amazing car. It's one of the first steer-by-wire designs. So God knows I love my technology. But even when I was sitting in a thousand pound, God already knew the answer. He already had that with his uh glorious riches. He was present in that storm and he could see farther than I could see. He planned that provision that I couldn't even imagine. Uh, you know, when you're sitting in a thousand-pound car, you don't imagine you're gonna be kind of one day sitting in a 75,000-pound car, and that is the transformation that God has done with that. So, in that storm, I saw the runaround, but God saw that riches. You know, Ephesians 1:3, it talks about his glorious riches, and that's a word for somebody today that you may be sitting there in your storm. God already knows the answer, and that answer is even more than you can ask or imagine. He's already working on that provision that you need. You know what? God builds us through ways that we didn't expect. We look at David, God didn't just crown him, he gave him Goliath to fight first. Joseph, he wasn't given a shortcut, he was given a prison. And Esther, God didn't comfort her, he gave her a crisis. Moses didn't get a stage, he got the wilderness. What feels like he's breaking you might actually be what is building you. So it is every sermon and every Bible reading, it should lead us to ask, what is God saying to me? What do I need to obey? What steps do I need to take? And my last point before we kind of work to a closure is that steady people invest in what cannot be shaken. Hebrews 12, 27, it says, now this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of those things that are made, the things which cannot be shaken remain. Therefore, since we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have the grace by which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. Everything on this earth is temporary, money can disappear just like that. Health can change, governments can change, careers can change, but you know what? The responding to that shaking, it's worship. Hebrews is not trying to make people obsessed with the storm, it doesn't end with panic, it ends with worship because we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Our response should be grace, it should be gratitude, it should be acceptable service, reverence, and godly fear. You know how many of us in the middle of that storm will kind of do all of those things, and the Bible doesn't say, since everything is shaking, be afraid, it says worship. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 3:5, he reminds us that we've got an inheritance that is incorruptible, it's reserved in heaven, it's promised to all of us. And Paul in Corinthians 4, he calls our attention to the things that are unseen and eternal. And then in um he also says that he was hard-pressed, he was perplexed, persecuted, and struck down, not crushed, not in despair, not forsaken and not destroyed. And I think that is a mature definition of being unshakable. It is being pressed but not crushed. You know, we can all go through that wine press and be pressed, um, oppressed, um, perplex, not in despair. Do you know what? The devil might bring confusion, but we can still work through that. It is finding that Bible verse that we can stand on, persecuted and not forsaken. You know, God says, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you, and struck down but not destroyed. And I'm so glad for those times that kind of Satan's thought. Do you know what? I'm gonna strike you down, and I got up, I got up, I got up, and I will get up again. So what what what does remain then? So we know that Jesus remains. We see that in Hebrew 13:8, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His word remains. We see that in 1 Peter 23. It's incorruptible through the word of God which lives and abides, and the kingdom remains. See that in Hebrews, we've looked at that, that since we're receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace. The church remains, so we know that that church is built on a rock and it's gonna live forever, and then souls remain, that those who are wise shall shine, and those who turn many to righteousness will be like stars forever. Life will shake, the word will shift, the world will shift, and circumstances will change. I guess the question is what will remain? God is raising a steady people, a people who will not be bought by the world, a people who will not be intimidated by circumstance and who cannot be moved by fear. We are rooted in his word and filled with his spirit, and the person who stands firm because they're built upon that rock. So if you take home points for you, then so storms don't reveal the foundations, they create them. Deep lives are built in hidden places. The more that we go into that secret place. So I I was um I was taking some time to really dwell on that secret place a few weeks ago. And um, yeah, I saw that God goes into the secret place to pray about you as well. And you know, I I remember having that conversation with God. Well, you know, when you go into the secret place, what do you pray about? It's like, well, I pray about you. It's like, well, what kind of things do you say about me? John, it's just delightful when you engage in that kind of conversation that you know you're knowing that your father in heaven goes into a secret place and he has you on his heart, he has you on his mind, he prays words for you. You know, Zephaniah 3, it says that he sings songs of worship over you. Information doesn't produce stability, obedience does. So the more that we get in tune to being obedient to God's word, it really does make a difference. And the word of God is the only completely secure foundation. Everything else will eventually shake. But when you build your life on what's eternal, it really makes a difference. God is raising a people who cannot be moved. So I know I want to set my feet on that rock and I want to be unshakable, I want to be immovable for the kingdom of God. So the invitation this morning is not simply prepare for the storm. The invitation's much deeper than that. It says build your life around what cannot be shaken. Build your life around Jesus, around his word, around the love of the Father, and around his kingdom. And then when life changes, you may feel the movement, but you won't lose your center. When you keep Jesus at the center, you'll stay at the center of that. You may feel the pressure, but you won't be destroyed. You may be pressed, but you won't be crushed. You may be perplexed, but you won't have despair. You may be moved emotionally, and that's okay, but you won't be moved from Christ. It's just keeping him at the center of that foundation. Look at that. 11 o'clock. I didn't think I'd finish on time because we started early. But do you know what? It's not, it's not um, it's not a series if we don't, it can't end this series if we don't make some devo um declarations. It can't just stay in our heart, it can't just stay in our mind and you walk out the door. You know what? I I know that to build that shield of faith, to be on that rock, it has to come out of your mouth. So if you're with me today and you're ready to make some declarations to close this one down, let's uh let's stand to our feet. Okay, are we ready? Okay, I will not be moved by fear. Oh, it sounds like a few of you moved by fear there. I will not be moved by fear, I will not be shaped by the spirit of this age. I will not build my life on temporary things, I will build it on the rock, I will stand on the word of God, and I will remain full of the Holy Spirit, and by the grace of God, I will remain steady. Give God a shout of praise.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Thank you so much for joining us for this week's message at Gateway. We were so glad to be able to share it with you. If you would like to find out more about what is going on at Gateway or when our weekly services are, you can visit our website at www.igateway.org.uk. Thank you so much for joining us.