I'm Doing It Right Now

0:00 Well, if you have a Bible today, we're going to be in Romans chapter 12. Title of my message, I'm doing it right now. I'm doing it right now. That's a little help from my daughter, Lenya, for this sermon title. Lenya was our second-born daughter. She's with Jesus in heaven. And if she was here, she'd be 19. But when she was a little girl, she absolutely loved swinging. But she had the craziest unorthodox style. Her favorite thing was to swing on the swing set with her eyes closed. I have a photo of Lenya here. She just thought it was the most fun thing ever, just swinging with the wind through her hair with her eyes closed. And we had this little fun joke. It was like a family joke. Now it's just part of our family culture where we would say to Lenya, Jenny or I, we would go, don't go to sleep, Lenya.

0:52 We were with concern. Like, oh no, your eyes are closed. You're going to fall asleep. and you'd be swinging and sleeping. We would say, don't go to sleep, Lenya. And she would go, I'm doing it right now. I'm doing it right now. She would just swing with her eyes closed, like you can't tell me not to sleep. I'm already sleeping. I'm sleeping right now. And so it just became a thing that we would say, don't go to sleep, Lenya. I'm doing it right now.

1:21 Pro tip, I happen to believe it's little things like that that are the true measures of wealth in this world. It's those little inside jokes that you collect. I mean, you could make more money, but that memory to me, the joy of getting to push my daughter on the swings, it's really those sorts of things that you collect that make, I think, a family culture unique. Our family, so we have all these strange little things. If you listen to us talk to each other, we have these little inside jokes in our text thread and our little, it's all madness. and that's the beauty of life. But I'm doing it right now as a title. Why? Because I think that when it comes to God's will, there are some things that we can do. And if we're willing to do those things, we can know without a doubt, there's no shadow of a doubt that we can declare over our lives concerning God's will, I'm doing it right now.

2:17 I'm not looking for God's will someday when I'm doing God's will, and I'm doing it right. I'm doing it right now. Like you can have the confidence to swing with your eyes closed. You're in the will of God. You can live literally knowing you're in the center of God's will, even when there's confusion, even when it feels like everything that's not nailed down has been taken by the tornado, and even some things you thought were nailed down were taken by the tornado too. There can be a way you can live, and it's not that hard. I'm going to teach it to you from Scripture, where you can know that you know that you know that you are doing the will of the Father, okay? Paul writes in Romans chapter 12, and I want you, if you have a physical copy of the scriptures or the YouVersion app, to see it. Don't just look at it on the screen because I want you to keep coming back to, phrase by phrase, what Paul says about living God's will out, doing it right now.

3:16 He says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable, someone say reasonable, service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And we know, Lord, that you want to bless your word, but we ask you to do it. We ask that you would open the eyes of our understanding that we may see your good plan for us and live it out with your help.

4:13 We pray, God, for those listening today who don't know you, that you would draw them to you, that the lost would be found, and the found would find more of you. And we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. The sermon in a sentence today is that God's will is more present than it is future, but it's often invisible until it's in the past. Let me say that again. God's will, It's more present than it is some exotic thing in the future. But it often remains invisible until you get to look at it in the rearview mirror. His fingerprints on your life, they're there now. But oftentimes, we won't notice them until there's some distance from it. So what that means then, because we will often go, oh, my gosh. Have you ever had that light bulb moment? Like when you're in something, you're like, why is this happening?

5:06 But then eventually, something happens. You go, oh, now I understand. Listen, you have to trust in real time that's happening. So even when you can't see it, even when it's fuzzy, even when it's confusing, even when you're afraid you're going to miss out on God's plan for you, you can declare in faith as you follow him. I'm doing it right now. I'm not going to let it just be about good intentions. I'm going to do it in the present. I'm going to do God's will here and now. I'm going to do God's will today. And that's why Paul said, present yourself to God. Present, he said, your bodies to God. You know, when Jesus rose, he didn't just rise as a spirit. He said over and over again, I'm not a ghost. I'm not a zombie. I have a body. He said, give me some food, I'll eat it. He was trying to show he rose with his body. Why? Because he would then press upon us how important it is for us what we do with our bodies.

6:02 Your body, not just your heart, not just your song, not just your time, not just your time. Your body, it matters how you worship God, embodied with your body. So what you should do is offer, or he says, present your body to God. And guess what? The only time you can do that is now. You can't offer your body to God in the future. The devil wants you focused on your future. That's why he tries to get you to fear, worry, and be anxious. That's all concerning your future. And guess what else he wants you to do? to get stuck in your past, living a life of guilt and shame, paralyzed by your pain. But guess what? The Lord can't bless your past, and he can't bless your future. He can only bless you in your present. And so what you and I have to do is live God's will out in real time right now by presenting ourselves to God.

6:58 What does it sound like? It sounds like, here I am. It sounds like, God, take me. It sounds like I yield to you. It sounds like all of me, God. So in the present, in your body, right here where you are, being present in the moment, saying, God, what do you want to do? What can I do with you? What should we do together? What should we do in this moment? Getting out of the car walking. Let's do something together. Hey, I'm about to have a conversation. Let's do something together. I'm presenting. I'm about to write an email. What should we do in this email? How do we honor you? Like, what are we going to do next? This guy cut me off. What should we do about that, Lord? You know what I mean? Like not being conformed to this world, what does the world do? The world does what it feels. The world does what it wants to do. The world's pushing that on you, instant gratification. What does Levi want? What should Levi get? Why isn't Levi being recognized? What's the world's way?

7:50 The world's way is to do what you want. It's the lust of the flesh. It's the lust of the eyes. It's I'm important. Are my needs getting met, right? That's not the Jesus way. Jesus said, deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me, right? That's a whole different thing. Paul is saying, guys, present yourself. Give yourself to him as a living sacrifice, right? And you think about what he anchors that in. He anchors that in, it's your reasonable service. It's your reasonable service. Have you ever heard the phrase, it's the least I could do? That's what he means by that. Give your entire life, every second, every moment. Surrender it all on the altars. View yourself as completely his all the time. It's the least you could do. It's your reasonable service.

8:43 Now, have you ever seen a price tag and you get a little sticker shot? Because you go, that's not a reasonable price. That's bonkers. What I'm really asking is, have you ever been in an airport? It's like $19 for a muffin and a bottle of water. That's not reasonable, right? But they control the market. They can charge whatever they want. It's kind of wild that God is saying, hey, you want to follow me? Just give every ounce of yourself to me. Give control of your life to me. Sign it on the dotted line. Yield. Surrender. Present yourself, your body to God as a living sacrifice. Notice what he anchors it in. Do you see it? He says, in light of the mercies of God. Oh, now we have something completely different going on. He says, in light of the mercies of God, present yourself to him. It totally makes sense. Now the price is justified.

9:35 Now it makes sense. Now it's reasonable. Now it's the right thing to do. Because what are the mercies of God? Well, it's the cost that God had to pay for us to be saved. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. We're talking about the cross. We're talking about Jesus' arms spread out on that cross. We're talking about nails going through his hands and feet. You do know it wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross. It was his love for you and for me. He said so. He said, I could come down. I could call 12 legions of angels to come and fight all these soldiers off. He could have had lightning come out of his eyes and destroy his enemies. But he knew if he did that, I would go to hell. You would be lost forever. So he was willing to show mercy to us that we did not deserve. We deserve justice. He gave us grace. We deserve justice. He gave us his mercy. And when you consider a whip going across Jesus's back, when you consider nails being hammered into his hands, when you consider the Lord of glory humbling himself and being spat upon, spat in the face, the least I could do is give my entire control of my life over to him.

10:43 The literal least I could do is to get up on that altar and say, take all of me. Every moment, every breath, every heartbeat, God, take my life, not my will, yours be done. That's what Paul is saying. And it's going to happen as an outproduct of that, a byproduct of that. The will of God is not what you're going to strive to get to. It's what he's going to unroll and unleash, good, acceptable, and perfect, as you day by day, moment by moment, put yourself on the altar, conforming yourself not to what the world around you is saying, but what your mind gets renewed by, being renewed in the spirit of your mind, of your inner man, learning to think like God thinks, moment by moment, day by day, hour by hour. When you say to God, I am not my own, I've been bought with a price.

11:40 You then, every single moment, don't choose to react based on what you want, but you check the owner, right? Like if I borrowed your truck and someone else said, well, can I borrow it too? I would be like, hey, that's a great idea. I need to check with the owner, right? So any time you want to do something, if you remember, I am not my own. I was bought with a price, the price of the blood of Jesus. It's like, I got to check with the owner. I got to see if this is what God wants me to do. And so that's what Jesus did. Every time he was pushed to do something by temptations in the desert, he said, hey, not my will, but the Father's be done. It is written. It is written. I got to check with the owner. I'm checking with the one who I am going to consult with. So this is how we live out the will of God in real time. This is how we do it right now. We just keep getting on that altar as a living sacrifice. And in the rearview mirror of our lives, we're going to look back and see what he did with his possession, which is you and me, was good.

12:33 It was acceptable and perfect. And then you're going to go, man, when did that happen? When did the will of God happen? And he's going to go, oh, it was while you were busy worshiping. Oh, I just whipped something up. How did you? What? When did? What? And he's going to go, oh, yeah, that's just what I did while you were busy bearing fruit. That's just what I did when, oh, you like that? oh, that little thing I kicked up while you were just busy getting lost in the power of my presence. The will of God, that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. It's just what happens when you keep surrendering a life to Jesus Christ every single day. Five things. Here's what I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say it's more a journey than a destination. It's less about where you get to and more about who you're becoming along the way. God's plan, it never is like the goal, right? Because if he wanted to just accomplish it that way, he could just part the skies and peek out and not use any of us. He could just do it himself.

13:31 Like, do you really think God needed Jonah to reach Nineveh? Jonah was the worst. He had a terrible attitude. God wanted to not only involve Jonah in the revival at Nineveh, but also to do some things in Jonah. The journey of following God was God working in Jonah's life. So whatever the destination is, it's less about that technical thing, because that's what we get hyper fixated on. What's that thing? What am I going to do? Who's going to be with? Where am I going to go? It's less about that and more about who you're becoming along the way, following Christ, and what you still need to learn, and how your character still needs to be shaped.

14:12 And God is trying most of all to build your face up, okay? Romans 1.17 puts it this way, The just shall live by faith. This is one of the most important verses in the Bible, because it tells us that we don't just get saved by faith. We also need to walk by faith. That's what we said last week. Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so also walk in him. You didn't work hard to get saved. You just trusted God. So that's the same thing you need to do to walk with him, is just continue to trust him. And listen, if you could figure out exactly what the formula was for your life, for the exact sequence of events it was going to go, if someone could give you a map and it was written out, you're going to do this for this long and this is how it's going to go. And then you're going to go over here and then you're going to wander for a while and it's going to feel stupid, but then you're going to go over here. If you got that, guess what you wouldn't need?

15:06 Jesus, you would just trust your little map. So what am I trying to say? I'm trying to say if there were a formula, there would be no need for faith. God's not going to allow you to have that five-step plan, the instructions for baking cookies, because then he would never hear from you again. You would just be out doing his will instead of walking with him, watching him work it out together. And the very fact that God's trying to get us to be a faith people, listen to me, is why there needs to be problems. It's why there needs to be setbacks. It's why these variables get introduced. It's why he allows all these different plot twists. I think about Paul who wrote Romans 12. In the book of Acts, he would be like, I want to go reach people in Asia. So he tries.

15:58 And the Bible says the devil wouldn't let him. Ooh, that's scary. So he's like, okay, well, now I'm gonna try to get to Asia again. Tries to get to Asia again. And then it says the Holy Spirit wouldn't let him. Well, that's weird. is preaching the gospel in Asia, good or bad. He wasn't doing meth. He wanted to preach the gospel to people. Why is the spirit getting in the way of Paul trying to get to Asia? That doesn't make sense. You know what he does? What he can. He goes to Europe. There's an open door. Closed door, closed door, closed door. Now there's an open door. God's trying to build up Paul's faith. And Paul puts his faith in God. So the open door, and he goes, oh, I guess not what I wanted, but I guess I'll just go over to Europe. first person he leads to Christ is a woman from Asia. God couldn't let him get to Asia. He needed to get Paul to get to the Asian. And God knew he was in Europe. Lydia from Thyatira had a summer house in Europe. And so God sent Paul.

16:54 He redirected Paul to Europe to get to Asia. You've got to trust the process. It's the journey, not just the destination. If we could get the formula, we wouldn't need faith. God wants active trust and participation with him every day. And when there's setbacks, it's because he's trying to build up your faith. He understands and he sees what you don't know. He understands what you can't fathom or comprehend. And he knows that it's a relationship, not a scavenger hunt. So it's not like you're collecting dots or checking off things on a list. It's just this vital relationship with Jesus. I like how the Proverbs put it, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. If you haven't memorized this verse, you should immediately. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall make your path straight.

17:50 He shall direct your paths. OK, check this out. He has the ultimate job of handling all life's navigation. OK, what's your job? Go back to the first part. It says trust. Your job's to trust. Your job is to not lean on what you understand. Your job is to give him glory in all your ways or acknowledge him in all your ways. Give him the glory, give him the glory, give him the glory. Right? And then what's his job? His job? Everything else. That's why the Bible calls you a sheep, which if you've ever hung out with sheep, that's not a compliment. I used to think that was cute until I met a sheep. I'm like, not cuddly, filthy, stupid animals.

18:30 Yeah, that's why he picked it. What's the sheep's job? Do they have lists? Need to find good grass. Need to get water. Probably got to get shots. Need to beware of the enemies. No, they're just like, we're good. We're the shepherd. It's like the sheep has one job. Just trust the shepherd. The shepherd's job, everything else. That's you. It's a relationship. God's not relying on you to know exactly what and when and where and who and why. He just wants you to walk with him. So God's will is what's going to happen when you're busy walking with Jesus. Or to put it another way, God's will is what you're going to miss out on while you're obsessing about the will of God instead of just walking with Jesus. But when you trust him, when you honor him, when you walk by faith and not by sight, when you seek to bring him glory, your paths are being directed for you.

19:25 It reminds me of riding a bicycle. Thank you very much. When you ride a bicycle, here's the interesting thing about it. It's really hard and unwieldy to control a bike that is not moving. You know what I mean? Like the steering is weird. Like trying to steer a bike, that's just like, some of us, that's like us with the will of God. Like, Lord, I'm out of control. Where am I going? How am I going to know when I get there? And then we're like, where are you, God? Where are you, God? Trying to summon God. Like, where are you? And you know what's crazy? If you'll just start pedaling, a bike becomes a really easy thing to steer. I mean, even in a tight little space with just the tiniest bit of momentum, with just a tiny bit of movement, all of a sudden the steering is better. And I think God just wants you and I to pedal. And if we will just pedal and do what he's told us to do, he will take care of the movement. He will take care of the steering. He'll take care of where we go if we will just follow him.

20:20 And you know what else? Movement makes it harder for the enemy to get us because it's a lot harder for him to hit a moving target. So when we think about how do we figure out God's will, and he says, hey, just walk with me, just follow me, just you keep pedaling, I'll do all the steering. You keep trusting, I'll keep directing. We get to move out in faith, and we just watch as God adds all these other things unto us. It reminds me of Genesis 24. Genesis 24 is the story of Abraham trying to find a wife for his son Isaac. And there's a lot of us who have had, in various seasons, like stress or consternation about who we're going to marry, who our kids are going to marry, people in our lives. And this can just bring up so much ambiguity. And I love the story because Abraham says, hey, you need to go and find a wife from this area, not from this area. I don't want you to find a wife from her over here.

21:16 And so he's in his head thinking of all the criteria of where she's going to. He's like, how is this going to happen? And you know what it says? It says, looking back on how it worked, because spoiler alert, and you should read Genesis 24 this week, he was successful. He found the perfect candidate, a woman with a servant's heart, who was a hard worker. I mean, literally, it's just like a match made in heaven who he found for Isaac to marry. But in Genesis 24, looking back, the servant says this, Blessed be the God, the Lord of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his mercy in light of the mercies of God, his truth towards my master. And then he says this, as for me, being on the way, the Lord led me. He didn't sit back on the couch going, well, you better bring a wife for my husband, my master's son. No, he got out and went to the area where she needed to be from.

22:09 He says, I was on the way. He set out not knowing where he was going. He set out. This is a big region. Where is she? How am I going to find? He set out. He says, and being on the way, moving in the right direction, the Lord was able to steer me. That's why we talked last week about the five Gs, right? About how God has given us a revealed will. And when we walk in that, the concealed will becomes a lot easier. All of the variables and intangibles about God's will, we have to keep coming back to the fundamentals, right? Before we're able to even do a layup, It's like, what is the dribbling? Like, have I laced up my shoes? You know what I'm saying? So when it comes to God's will, and where, and how, and who, and when, and well, I know when I see it, we always come back to these five Gs, which is what? God's revealed will for every single Christian. Times in the Bible, we are told, this is God's will for you, that we're growing in grace, growing in a grove, that we're giving, living a life of generosity.

23:03 We're living a life that's godly, and we're living a life that's grateful. So when you get stumped on, what is God's will in this area that I don't know about? We go, well, am I addicted to porn? OK, am I living a life of generosity or not? Am I planted in the house? Am I serving on a team? And why would God give you this sophisticated, complicated, nuanced area if you're not doing the basic thing over here that he told you to do? So if you'll just start peddling, he will begin to do the job of steering. And he will lead you and guide you into all truth when you are doing what he has told you already is his will. And so it just changes how we're thinking about things. That's why your mind has to be renewed according to his word, not according to the culture. Proverbs 16.3 puts it this way. Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established.

24:00 So as you're honoring God and what you're doing that's in front of you, you can literally say, I'm doing it right now. I even believe the way I think about things is going to be led by the Lord. What I'm trying to get you to see is that God's will is not punishment. God's will is not punishment. This is important because I think sometimes deep down, some of us are afraid of God's will. I met someone last week. He told me his son had just recently got saved. And I was asking him the story of how his son gave his life to Jesus. And he said, it's actually bizarre. He said, my son came to us and told us that he got saved and and that he had been wanting to do so for a while, but didn't trust that God wasn't going to pull away from him what he was most passionate about. He actually put it this way. He said, I was afraid if I gave my life to God, the Lord would take away from me all these things that I really wanted to be in my life.

24:56 But here's what I need you to understand. God's will is freeing. It's not constricting. God, who do you think put dreams in your heart? You don't have to worry about that. You can trust God. It's like the person who came to me at one point, and they said, hey, I want to follow God, but I'm terrified if I give him total control of my life. He's going to send me to the mission field. You know what I said to him? I said, God loves the people in the mission field too much to send you with your bad attitude to them, OK? He's going to find someone who's got a good spirit, right? He's going to send someone who is frothing over with joy and enthusiasm for the nations to be glad, right? We don't have to worry that God's up there going, yeah, this is really going to screw them up. I'm really going to show you, right? No, no, God wants your, he's got a better plan for your life than you have for your own life. And if that dream is really a good dream and really a God dream, it was from God. He's going to make it happen in his timing better than you ever could in a million years, right?

25:50 So his will is not punishment. It's freedom. It's not a straitjacket. It's a permission slip. His will is not a prison sentence. It's a rocket ship towards a life that you could never come up with on your own. Let me tell you what I know about God's will. It is going to be more difficult, more confusing, more perplexing than you could ever have imagined. But God is going to do more through you as you live for his glory than you could ever dream, than I could ever see, than ear could ever hear, than it even could enter into the heart of a man, the things that God has prepared for him. But don't wait one day when? After high school, when I'm retired, after I've had my fun, after college. No, God's will starts today. God's will starts here. God's will starts for the person who says, I'm doing it right now. I think about when I was a teenager, and I began to really have a strong sense at a very young age, even, this is wild, before I remember even giving my life to Christ, that there was a unique plan on my life to preach the gospel, to preach to people, to preach God's word to people.

26:56 And I remember as a little boy standing up in the pulpit of an empty sanctuary. My dad was an assistant pastor. He would go shut the lights off and lock all the doors. and I would just wait for him and help sometimes. And I would stand and see this empty room. And I would, even as a little kid, be like, this is part of what I'm on this earth for. And I would just stand there thinking about, man, this is, how is this all gonna happen? And I didn't know. And so you know what I did? I just sat there and I waited for eventually some big churches to start inviting me to come preach to him. I did not do that. I took any opportunity to give God's word out to anybody I could. Anytime it was offered, I'll do it. You want me to do this devotion for the internship for like 11 kids? I'll do it. You want me to teach for the little teaching for our Bible college student body devotional? I'll do it. You want me to teach when the youth pastor's out of town? I'll do it.

27:47 You want me to do a little encouragement to the team before we go to do the service? It was just from God's word. I'll do it. I got an invitation one time. A church in town wants someone to come teach them about parenting. I wasn't married. I didn't have children. And it was a Chinese church. And you know what I said? I'll do it. And so I went. I had to take my shoes off at the door of the church. And I had spent all week just looking at what this Bible says about parenting. And I gave my best absolute fight and effort to teach them. I don't know how it went. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know how that went. There might be a generation of very screwed up Chinese Christians who were raised based on my parenting advice, OK? but it was precisely being willing to pedal and watching God steer and not having any idea or way to control the outcome.

28:44 But don't be afraid to trust an unknown future to a God who is known. His name is Jesus. He died for you on the cross. And besides, if your holdout is, I would give my life fully to God, but I just don't know if what he's going to do I would like. Newsflash, you don't have a Lord. You have a personal assistant named Jesus. and as long as he does what you agree with, you'll follow him. That's not a Lord. A Lord is someone who you say, hey, take the wheel. You're in charge. Surrendered on the altar to you, a living sacrifice, and then you get to watch as he does more than you could ever possibly dream, because who do you think put that dream in your heart? And if you make it happen on your terms, oh, number one, then you are on your own when you get there, because you don't have that anointing in favor of God upon your life because he opened the door. And number two, you're not good at being God. So quit it.

29:37 OK, that's the second one. All right, so I need to move on. But we'll talk more. We're going to come back more to that. How does passion and process, how does that factor into the equation of following God? Because Philippians 2.13 says he works in you both to will and to do. OK? So he works in us both with doing it, but also the willing of it. So if it's a dream that's truly God-given, it's gonna come to pass in God's timing. You're not gonna need to make it happen on your own. You just need to be faithful where you are. I kind of think about it like this. Joshua 1, verse 3, God told Joshua, wherever you put the sole of your foot, I will prosper you. It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Joshua 1, 3, I will give you every place where you set your foot. As I promised Moses, so I promised you. Go put your foot on some places. But he then laid out boundaries, okay? Look what he says next. your territory that you can put your foot on is within the desert from Lebanon on one side, the Great River Euphrates on the other, the Hittite country on the other, and then the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Do you see this? So you could picture it in your mind. Okay, so if you cross the Euphrates River, are you blessed there? No, you're not. If you cross over the desert and you go outside the desert, can you put your feet on places and believe God's with you there? No.

30:53 I'm with you. I've blessed you within these parameters. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm blessing you within these parameters. I think about the 5G living being kind of parameters and anchors. And within that, freedom. Within that, permission. Within that, go nuts. Within that, enjoy. Do what God's called you to do. Put your feet on some places in Jesus' name. Just know that this kind of helps you triangulate whether or not you're in the place where God has your life being blessable. What that means is we need to have a greater sense of pleasure, God's pleasure, and less of a sense of pressure. That's our final takeaway truth. Following God's will, it's less pressure and more just pleasure. Delighting yourself in God, delighting yourself in the plans that he has for you, and then being where you are. Go put your foot on some places. I roughly know I'm not supposed to get into that desert, not supposed to cross that river, I'm not supposed to do this.

31:48 But within here, I'm just going to try. I'm just going to trust. And if I end up in Europe, there's probably a reason for it. I love Asians, but I'm in Europe. I don't know. But God's going to figure it all out. And trust him. I feel like I'm supposed to preach to people. I'm invited only to a Chinese Christian church. I'm going to preach on parenting. You see what I'm saying? I'm just going to trust and put my feet on some places and watch God work. Are you blessed by the word of God today? Are you encouraged in the will of God today? My dad encouraged me to see the Lord's will this way. My dad, he called me one day. And it's so funny because I was in New Mexico. My wife, Jenny, and I were just married. And we had been given a pretty good opportunity. We were youth pastors in New Mexico. And the ask was, would you move to California? and would you run the whole youth ministries, not just the high school students, but the whole youth ministry?

32:45 And would you teach when the senior pastor's out of town? So like once a month or so, and then more in the summer when he would be away, I would preach to adults, which I'm scared to death today. I don't want to preach really to teenagers and Chinese parents, you know? And it's funny, I brought my youth group sermons and people were blessed. I'm still preaching youth group sermons to you today, by the way, just FYI. It's just the Bible, you know? So I was trying to figure out whether I should move to California and take that opportunity, which seemed on paper like a good thing, or whether I should stay where I was at. And I was so, oh, pressure, pressure, pressure. Jenny and I, we took a walk and we ended up at a park. And the park, can you believe this, had a map on the ground of the United States of America. And I was literally standing with my wife looking at it going like, Lord, which should we, these are two good things.

33:44 And it's so funny because we got little rocks and we're trying to make a rock land on the States to see which, like, if we throw a rock with our eyes closed, we'll land in New Mexico or California. You know, so dumb, the things we do, you know. God, what's your will? And then I said, I kid you not, I said, Lord, would you just make a bird land on one of the two? That would make this so much easier. Nothing happened. No rocks landed. No birds came. We left. My dad called. What are you doing? I said, no bird landed on the map, Dad. He said to me, how worried should I be? I was like, probably pretty worried. I explained the situation to him. And he said, Levi, he worked it through with me. He's like, doesn't the Bible say God's will that you'd be grateful? Are you living a life of gratitude? Yes, I'm grateful. He said, are you, you know, kind of went through the 5G's with me. Are you within the territory of the map? You're preaching, you're serving, you're loving your spouse, you're not living in sin in your life.

34:37 He goes, you're good. He goes, just try, trust. What do you want to do? Step out in faith. And you know, the funny thing is, and the answer, of course, is we did decide that God was calling us to move to California, where we were only there for 18 months before we ended up feeling eventually we were called to come to Montana and start this church where we've been, in January, we'll have been 20 years preaching here. Here's the interesting thing. Here's the interesting thing. I don't think we ever would have gotten to Montana had we not gone to California. I think the reason God called us to leave New Mexico was to get us ready for what he was preparing for us over here. That day at the park, as I looked at the map and was asking about California and New Mexico, I think God was laughing because I never even noticed the fourth largest state on the top of the map up there by Canada. I never even asked the question, is that where you eventually want me to go? But we can trust God right where we are and believe he has a plan, even in the setbacks, even in the difficulty.

35:33 I close with this admonition, trust the nudge. Trust the nudge. Trust the nudge. My family and I were getting ready to stay at a hotel and I talked on the phone to the hotel asking for, you know, you'll call us for connecting rooms or late checkout or whatever. I'd done that and this lady on the phone was so nice. And she said to me at the end of the call, hey, when you're staying at the hotel, you ought to swing by the front desk and say hello so we can meet in person. I don't know if he ends every call that way. Maybe I've had people at hotels tell me that before, but I was like, yeah, totally I'm going to do that. Like I was trying to imagine, hi, could so-and-so come out? I would like to meet them in person. You know what I mean? It was just like, I said, oh, that'd be great, but it stuck with me that maybe I'm supposed to go to the front desk and ask this person to say hi to them. So my family and I, we were kind of heading out, going, and I said, hey, guys, do you mind if we stop real quick? I would love to say hello to this person at the front desk. And they were like, sure, dad, that sounds delightful. So they're kind of like over here, and I was like, just give me a second. So I walk up, I go, hey, is so-and-so here? And they're like, oh, yeah, she's here today. She's working today. But she works in the back. She didn't even work at the front desk. She works in the back of house answering the phone. And I was like, oh, okay, well, I tried, Lord. And I was like, the nudge was still there. So I went back and said, hey, could you maybe get her and say that? I talked to her on the phone a couple days ago. I wanted to say hello. And they were like, oh, okay. So they go. A lot of people come in and go. They come back. Hey, she's on the phone. And I'm like, God, I tried. I did my absolute best. We got to go. But I, could you tell her when her phone call's over? Now it's like weird. I'm like standing there like I have a complaint for the manager, like the bed wasn't soft enough or something. Eventually she comes out. I'm like, hey, you said to say hi. Here we are. Kids, come. Hi. You know, like meeting like a third uncle you never met before, you know? They're all like, hi. And she's like, so we, you know, we just, and I'm like, and I didn't know how to end it. So finally I was just like, hey,

37:40 listen, I would love it if you, here, take my email address, send me your home address. Let me, send you in the mail a book I just wrote. You know, I pastor a church and we would just love to send you a book to thank you for your sweet moment we just had and that side hug. It was wonderful.

38:03 Bye. And we left. I didn't know what God was doing, but on we went. This week, I got an email from, she did email me and give me her address and we did send her books. And this week I get another email from that same email address, only it's not her, it's her daughter. And her daughter says hello to the person who met my mom at the front desk of the hotel. My mom was in a terrible car crash this week, and she broke bones in her face, broke bones in her body. And when she came out of surgery, the first thing she said to me is, I met the nicest family in the hotel lobby at work this week. And she said, would you please let him know what happened? So if they'd be willing to, they could pray for me. But just it encouraged me. And I was struck sitting there thinking, how good you are, God. Knowing this woman was about to go into this horrible ordeal, she just needed just a little bit of love. He wanted to send her into that crisis with just a little bit of his grace. And I was chosen out of anybody God could have picked. Listen, And I'm not so crazy as to think that had I not respected the nudge, God wouldn't have nudged the next guy. I think God would have nudged somebody else. God would have nudged the next woman going by. But I'm just so thankful God allowed me to get the nudge so I could just be the tiny little act of kindness going into a horrific crisis just to know I see you, I love you, I care about you.

39:33 So all I'm saying is every day we're walking around hopefully aware with our antenna up of the ways that God wants to work. And I also think how fire heaven is going to be when the 10,000, hopefully, moments that you don't get the closure loop on because you never got the email back from the daughter, but you were just a part of some little beautiful, tiny little interaction. And then later in heaven, God's like, oh, here's what I did with this. Here's what I did with that. Here's what I did. And you're like, in that season, I thought nothing was working. God's like, oh, I was working through it all. I was working through it all. You were doing it right then. You didn't even know. So less pressure, more pleasure. Let's worry less about God's frown. I think sometimes we're like worried about God frowning. And let's just delight more in his smile.

40:20 The view from 40, looking back to moms and dads who got little kids right now, the view from 40, I wish I had pushed my kids 10 times more in the swings when they were little. If I could go back, I mean, there's so many times where I showed up, we did the swings a lot, but man, it's so easy to get in the crush of life and end up like Martha running around with your head cut off and forgetting like Mary to just sit in those little moments. Let's pay attention to the smile on our father's face and let's be present in the moment and not miss out on the beauty of life. Listen, you can make more money, you can do more things. You can't get back those kind of little moments to be used by God in the tiniest little ways. God, we thank you. And we are amazed by you. You do all things well.

41:11 So we trust you. We love you. I pray your people would rely on you to bring your will to pass in your good time. If you need to surrender anything to the Lord today, just raise up a hand. Raise up your hands. Maybe you just need to unburden yourself, casting all your cares upon him. Maybe a specific situation or trial. Just surrender it to him.

41:37 Don't live in your future with anxious worry. Don't live in your past with guilt and shame. Be in your presence where God is, blessing you, working through you, there with you. The king is in the room. Spirit of God is in your heart, in his church today. We love you, Jesus. You can put your hands down. I want to now invite anybody who's not trusted in Christ to make the most important decision of your life, to give your heart to Jesus. Christ died on the cross, not so you could call yourself a Christian, not so you could do good things or have a Bible, but so that Jesus could live in your heart as your Lord and Savior. And so that when you die, you would go to heaven and live embodied forever, eventually back on this earth when it gets recreated. If you're here and you've not trusted Christ, you need to open the door of your heart to him to receive salvation in Jesus' name.

42:32 I want to give you space to make that choice. You say, what does that mean? Well, the Bible says it means believing, and it means confessing with your mouth, believing Christ died and rose, turning your heart to him in what's called repentance, turning from sin, turning to him, letting his word shape your mind. not to have GPT, not social media, not the news, not your friends. Jesus, the Bible, the Holy Spirit. That adventure could begin today for you. I'm going to pray a prayer. If you're ready to trust Christ for salvation, I want you to pray with me. I'm going to ask the church family to pray with you because we are in this together. Say this to God, meaning in your heart. Dear God, I'm sorry for my sins. I ask you to forgive me. Be my Lord and my Savior. I give my life to you.