TRUST HIM FULLY | Preacher Bowl

0:00 Hey, welcome to another week here at Zoe Church. We are so excited for this weekend's message. We have five different preachers communicating today talking about the subject of watch God work. Before we get into the message, I just want to thank everybody who is listening weekly and to everybody who generously gives to our church. We just want to say thank you. Thank you for joining us for another week. Here we go. Come on, Zoe, I know we can make a little bit of noise for the Lord. The Bible says to make a joyful noise here this morning. We got any joyful people in the house. But amen, praise the Lord. I'm excited to be here with you guys this morning. You guys may be seated.

0:48 Let me get this iPad open. Amen, praise the Lord. How's everybody doing this morning? I have the privilege and opportunity to share here this morning. And I'm just, I'm blessed and I'm privileged to share God's word. Amen. And before we get started, I just want to honor our pastors here this morning. Come on, let's honor our pastors, Pastor Chad and Pastor Julia.

1:16 We got some amazing pastors that lead by example. And they're constantly leaning in every week. And how many of us know that God blessed us with the best? Amen. But also, too, I just want to give a quick shout-out. Shout-out Pastor Chad and Ryan. He's a real deal. He's serious about serving God. Come on.

1:37 Play no games over here. But, hey, man, I have the privilege to share and to kick off this morning's service. So help me this morning, 1030. So this morning we're talking about watch God work. Amen. And we're going off the scripture, Ephesians 3.20. And how many of us know that we're believing God to work within our life in 2026? From the book of Judges, chapter 6, verse 11 through 14, the Bible says, Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree, which was in Aphra, which belonged to Joash, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. Gideon said to him, O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Then the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? So just a quick breakdown, you see Israel here was facing oppression from the Midianites for seven years. You see the children of Israel were doing evil things in the sight of the Lord and God delivered them into the hands of their enemies.

3:02 So seven years of hardships Israel was enduring and the Bible here highlights a man named Gideon. The children of Israel cried out for deliverance and now the angel of the Lord came to a man and his name was Gideon. You see Gideon, he didn't want no problems with the Midianites. You see Gideon was a man that was hiding from them. In other words, he didn't want to smoke. You see, Gideon was a man that was holding on to fear, and Gideon was a man that was hiding in a wine press. You see, the Bible says here that Gideon was threshing wheat, and you don't thresh wheat in a wine press. In a wine press, you're pressing grapes. You see, he had no business being there at the wine press, but due to living a life of fear and due to hiding, Gideon was not in his purpose for his life. You see, and some of us here this morning, God has been pressing things within our heart. Some of us, God has been putting that calling over our life.

3:58 Some of us, God has been speaking to us to chase that career. Some of us, God has put a burden in our heart to start that business or to pursue ministry. But due to life and the attacks from the devil, we could find ourselves hiding in a wine press. You see, some of us may be facing fear here this morning, but I'm here to remind you that God has called you, you mighty man and woman of valor here this morning. for some of us 2025 was a year we're in the winepress but how many of us know that God is preparing us and developing us for 2026 but we are in the harvest you see here in Zoe we are believing with you that 2026 God is going to move in your circumstance God is going to move in your situation but before God works around you how many of us know that God must work within us. You see, God spoke to Gideon's identity before he worked in Gideon's circumstance. You see, the Bible says here that the angel of the Lord said, God is with you, you mighty man of valor. You see, Gideon was in the cut, not trying to be seen. You see, Gideon was hiding and he was full of fear, but I'm here to tell you here this morning that we are God's children, and he's calling you, you mighty man and woman of valor.

5:15 You see, you are not your pastor this morning, and you are not what the world may say about you, and you are not what the lies of the devil may say, but I'm here to tell you that you are the sons of God, you are the daughters of God here, and he's calling you into a life of faith, and stepping you to step away from fear, but to step into faith this morning. See, God sees you. How many of us know that God is good that he sees you here this morning? And you may be hiding here by being busy, or you may be hiding by taking on a bunch of responsibilities, but God sees you here this morning and he's calling you by your name. You see, we need to pray in 2026 that we see ourselves the way God sees us. You see, and some of us, it's hard for us to see ourselves the way God sees us. You see, God has pressing things in our heart this morning, but fear sometimes paralyzes us to move forward. You see, Gideon was having a hard time processing it.

6:11 But God reminds him again, go in this might of yours. See, I want to encourage some people here that stepping out doesn't wait for confidence, but when you step out, it develops your confidence. You see, going back and forth here is normal. We see Gideon talking to God like, I don't know what you're talking about. You got the wrong one. How many of us know sometimes when God speaks to us, we're like, oh, he's got the wrong one. I don't know. But it's beautiful that we see here that God doesn't get upset with him, that God doesn't rebuke him, but God redirects him. And God is saying, go in the smite of yours here this morning. You see, 2026 is a year where God is redirecting us, a year that God restores us. And we see God work in what we're believing for because we're not operating by faith and not fear no more. Ephesians 3.20, now to him who is able to do far and far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to his power that works within us.

7:04 I know what it is to be held down by fear or sometimes your own trauma, but allow God to deal with your inner person here this morning. You see, God is that good that he wants to do a work within us before he does a work within our circumstance. You see, the complaining and the fear is going to stay back in 2025. And in 2026, we're believing God and we're going to watch him work. But most importantly, God is going to work within us. Because where God is going to take us, he wants to make sure our character can handle it. Come on now. You are seen by God here this morning, church. Let him work in your life this morning and run towards God. Because when you run towards God, he will put you with the right people. When you run towards God, he will put you in the right place. And when you run towards God, he will open up the right doors here this morning. Come on, let's give the Lord a big hand of praise here this morning. I love you guys so much. Help me welcome Hannah here this morning Can we applaud Refikio?

8:02 That was amazing. That was amazing. How is everybody feeling this morning? Good, good. My name is Hannah, if I haven't met you. I am so honored to be up here. I am honored that Pastors Chad and Julia would trust me even to get on the stage and share with you guys. They are amazing. Can we give it up for our pastors? They're the best. I have been at Zoe for a minute. I've been here for a little bit, and I have to say, I was just telling my husband the other day, I don't know, I've been in Los Angeles for 10 years now, and I honestly don't know if I would still be in Los Angeles if it weren't for this house. So I love Zoe as much as you probably do. So we have the best church, do we not? It's amazing. It's amazing. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and jump in, and then we can get started. I'm going to read today from Romans 8. If you grew up in church, you probably know the Romans road. We're going to jump in.

9:00 I'm only going to do one. We're not going to do all of them, but we're going to jump into Romans 8, 27 through 28. And it says, and he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So we're talking about watch God work, right? To be honest, when I got invited to speak today and they told me it was watch God work, I kind of had a moment of like, oh man, like I really wanted to have like a big exciting during 21 days of prayer and fasting. I was believing and it happened and it was awesome, but I don't have that story today. So I was a little bit like, I don't know what I'm going to say because to be honest, I've kind of felt like we've been working kind of slow, right? I have things just like you I'm believing for. I have things I was praying for that haven't happened yet, right? And so then I decided, okay, maybe we should look at what does the word watch mean? What is the definition of the word watch? So I asked my best friend, Chad GBT, and she said, she's always right. She said to watch means to look at or observe something attentively, usually over a period of time, right? I'm going to say it again.

10:23 So to look at or observe something attentively, get this, usually over a period of time. I am not an over a period of time kind of girl. I am 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. delivery. Why am I waiting? I want to wake up. I want it on my front porch. I don't like to wait, right? And a lot of us feel that way. watching means we're waiting over a period of time it does not mean see so see alternatively I looked that one up that means happens immediately happens suddenly I see you versus if I watch you in a friendly manner it's over a period of time right right so we're talking about we're going to watch God work so that means over a period of time we are going to watch we're not just going to see it happen, like tomorrow, right? We're going to watch. And so then it had me thinking kind of, okay, so I'm going to watch God work. I'm going to have to take some time. I'm going to have to be patient, which if I'm honest is not a strong suit of mine. How about you? I don't like to be patient. But then I thought, okay, what are some practical ways? Maybe you're sitting here today like me and you're thinking, okay, I fasted for 21 days. I didn't cheat. I didn't eat the bread.

11:37 I didn't eat the sugar. I really did it. And so I really thought, you know, midway through, I was like, okay, we've got, you know, with 21 divided by two, whatever that is, we've got that amount of time left. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. And then you get to the end. And to be honest, what I was believing for, what I was hoping for, praying for, didn't happen, right? It hasn't happened. And so now I'm thinking, okay, I know I'm not alone. I know all of us here in this room have things that we're believing for, for our families, for our home. So what are we going to do in the meantime? What are we going to do over that extended period of time, right? So I have just three things that I think are helpful for us, practical things that we can do. So the first one is we're going to have a grateful heart, right? We're going to shift our perspective, and we're going to talk through what we're grateful for, right? I might not love my job, but I'm grateful that it pays my bills.

12:33 right? I might not love what season of life I'm in. I might not love where I live. I might not love XYZ, but we're grateful for it, right? I'm grateful that I have a roof over my head. I'm grateful that I can pay my bills. I'm grateful that I have my community, all the things. So I'm going to shift my perspective and I'm going to look into what am I grateful for. It can be small. It can be big. And honestly, I would encourage you, write it down. Write it in your phone so you can remind yourself, write it in your journal. We really need to retrain. I need to retrain my brain to look at what am I grateful for? Not what am I longing for? What am I needing? What am I waiting on? Why isn't it here? No, I'm going to be grateful. I'm going to be grateful for what I have. The next thing that I was thinking through, and this kind of goes along with being grateful, but I'm going to remember his faithfulness.

13:27 I'm going to remember, I'm going to look back and I'm going to watch. It's much easier to watch out of the rear view mirror, right? I'm going to look back and I'm going to remind myself of all the ways that he's been faithful to me and my family. I'm going to remember how he introduced me to that person which led to that job, or he introduced me to Zoe, which now I have a community, a family. I met my husband here. My children are growing up in this house. I'm going to look at all the ways that he's been faithful to me in the past, and I'm going to remember he's going to be faithful in the future, right? He is faithful today, tomorrow, forever. And then lastly, this might be my favorite one, but I'm going to take my eyes off myself. How many of us were always looking in the mirror? Hello, I did it this morning. What am I wearing? How do I look? Looking at myself. No, I'm going to take my eyes off myself and I'm going to give you permission. We're going to look to our left and to our right.

14:21 And we're going to watch God work in our community. We're going to watch God work through our friends, our family. I'm going to watch God work through miracle babies. I'm going to watch some of my best friends have miracle babies this year. I'm going to watch God heal my friends from cancer. I'm going to watch God do miracles that are beyond anything I can imagine. Right? Amen. So I really encourage you, if you're like me, anybody that loves that Amazon Prime, two-day Amazon is not good enough for us anymore. We need 4 a.m., 8 a.m. We are going to sit back. We're not only going to see God work, because you will. You will see God work. But we're going to watch God work, right? We're going to, over an extended period of time, we're going to remember he's faithful. We're going to be grateful for all the things that he has blessed us with.

15:17 And we're going to look to our left and our right, around our community, around our connect group. If you're not in a connect, can I just tell you, connect groups are it. It's it. I don't know what the kids are saying, but it's it. You need to be in a connect group. It will change your life. So I'm going to look to my left. I'm going to look to my right. And I'm going to watch God work in my community. Amen. Amen. Okay. Up next, we have none other than Shane Lance. So good.

15:52 You can be seated. Good morning, Zoe. I'm honored and hyped to be here with you. My name is Shane Lance. You might recognize me from the sway move that I do up here. I grew up Pentecostal. You get a tick. You get a spiritual tick when you're Pentecostal, and so that's mine. And they liked it so much, they said, we're going to pull that guy up to the big leagues. He gets to speak today. So I'm your substitute teacher. And you know, that's how it feels. You walked, this is great. We're wonderful, but you're like, that's not Mr. Veach. So if I want to be a cool sub, I would put a movie on and just let you watch, remember the Titans. And I don't know what chapter he's in. I don't know what you're talking about Magellan or long division. I have no idea. So you can catch up on other class work and watch Denzel. If I don't say something spiritual soon, I'm going to get pulled off the stage. So I do, I don't have time for a long Corinthian Paulian greeting, but I want to honor our pastors. We love pastors Chad and Julia so much. Yeah. I love many things about them, but my favorite thing about them is that they're so faithful to Jesus and to the church. And if you know them, you already know that. If you don't know them, then I have the honor of telling you that. They love Jesus in the church so much, and they make me want to love Jesus in the church even more. I have this ticket to get my kids after, and it's distracting me in my pocket here.

17:20 So I also want to briefly honor my wife who spoke in the first service. I'm really grateful. I'm really grateful that they put her in the first service and not in this service, because if you saw her speak, you'd be like, not only did they not give us Mr. Veach, they couldn't even give us the hot teacher. We had to have this guy in the sweater. So Mrs. Lance, you know what I mean? Mrs. Lance looks good. Watch God work. Watch God work. I've been so empowered by this word, this mandate for our year. I will be so honest with you, so for real with you. My initial interpretation of what that means, or maybe more honestly said, what I want, what I want for that to mean is watch God's work. You hear the distinction? I want the work because I got some work I need done. And that remains true even as I'm here in all my feigned spiritual humility and depth. I stand here before you needing the Lord to do some things before the end of the day.

18:19 You know what I mean? Like I need some work. And he reminded me and convicted me. And because he's so good. He comforted me, and so I'm here to bring all of those things to you. I want to tell you this. He said, our eyes, our energy, our attention are not to be on the work. That's his business. We are to turn our faces to him. We are to watch God. That's our part of the deal. He will handle the work. He's going to handle the work. I was told by my wife, I missed this night, But the first night of the conference, Pastor Chad shared on something very similar. And I think the quote, if I'm, I hope I recall it correctly, but is we are not pursuing the hands of God. We're pursuing his face. But when we pursue his face, we get his hands. I love that so much. I don't know that I could say it any better than Mr. Veach. I know he's your favorite teacher, but I am here to bring that message again. And I just have to believe because the Lord put it on my heart organically that the Lord must just want you.

19:19 And certainly he wants me to get this deep in my spirit. You know what I mean? Like deep in my DNA. He really wants to say this. So we're going to look at the same principle through a different lens, through the lens of a different scripture. And that is 2 Corinthians 3.16. Now 17 is infinitely more popular. 17 says, and the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all know that. I don't know about you. I could use some spirit, and I could use some freedom. That's the work. I need it bad. But what precedes that, and I'd like to draw your attention to that briefly because therein lies really the crux of this little mini message. What precedes that, what comes before that is 16, not only mathematically. As a substitute teacher, I have to know a lot about a lot of different subjects. If you need help with your math after, come and find me. But what precedes that spiritually and in practice is 16, and it says, Whenever anyone turns their face to the Lord, the veil will be lifted, or the veil is taken away.

20:15 They probably have a specific passage behind me. Yeah, that's it right there. What does that mean? What does it mean for the veil to be taken away? It refers to Moses in Exodus 34, I believe. Goes up on the mountain, he sees God, encounters him, comes down, and his face is shining so bright with the glory that it's too much for the Israelites to handle it. He cannot handle it. It weirds him out, and so he has to cover his face with the veil. So the lifting of the veil, theologically, and in many sermons, often represents encountering his glory, being allowed to encounter his glory. It might represent understanding where there had been confusion before. It might represent the softening of a hearted heart. All of those things are good and applicable today. I'd simply like to add to that the work. I believe the work in spirit, in the spirit, the work follows the turning of our heads toward the Lord. And that's counterintuitive for me.

21:08 You wouldn't know it because of the goofy sweater. I'm locked in the life and in the body of an artist, but I'm a sports bro at heart. I have many things I could brag about. The one I have time for, I probably don't even have time, but is in elementary school as a fastest kid in school. Fastest kid. Fourth grade, I beat Tommy Sioka and Tommy was a sixth grader. And yes, that's his real name. Fastest kid. All the girls wanted to walk the track with me, but I only walked the track with one girl. And that's Mrs. Lance from English. That's Mrs. Lance. Okay, so it's counterintuitive for me. I want to do the work now. I don't mind doing the work in fact I'd prefer the work to be on me. I would legitimately like I'd rather hustle it out. That is my biggest sin and most constant sin before the Lord is just trying to make it happen myself. I kid you not I'm praying that right now. God forbid this be funny and eloquent and not filled with the Holy Spirit. I have to give it to him constantly but he's telling us explicitly turn your face to me.

22:09 That comes first. and then I'll take care of the work. So if I'm pleading with you to turn your face to him, what does it mean to turn your face to him? If you glean one thing from this, I have a minute, 60 seconds, glean this, it means a life of worship, a life of adoration, adoring the Father, the creator of the heavens and the earth. John Mark McMillan writes it as the cosmic supreme. No one and no thing above him. We're adoring him. We're bringing him our thanksgiving and praise. We are beholding the Son, Jesus, who was sent to be a man to die, to be raised again, to snatch you from the jaws of judgment and death. We get to behold him and what he did on the cross, and we get to live every day in and from the presence of the Holy Spirit. That's what it is. So in practice, it's look away from your phone for two seconds. Don't check your email for the next deal. Check IG for the next bit of affirmation for two seconds. Just spend some time at his feet. It's Noah obediently building an ark when he's never heard rain. It is David being willing to dance and make a fool of himself before the Lord. And it's Mary being willing to slow down and sit at his feet. I'm going to close with this. I am not suggesting we're here to teach you passivity or laziness or what Pastor Chad would certainly call being docile, which is why I usually lead at Thursday prayer because I'm a little docile, if you know what I mean. I know that's what he, honestly, I like a little docile, but that's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying that sitting at his feet is the only thing, but I will clearly and confidently and without shame tell you what Jesus said. He told Mary, Mary, you've chosen the best thing.

23:47 It's the best thing. And today I'd simply like to say, make it the first thing. It's the first thing we do. It doesn't negate the work. It doesn't mean your hand doesn't have to stay on the plow. It doesn't mean you don't have to steward well the gifts and the talents and the dreams that the Lord has given you, it just means a reprioritization. Today we choose, Lord, to look at you first. We look at you so that we can know you, so that we can see you, and so that we might watch God work. I love you very much. Welcome, my friends, Mia to the stage. He can't pick up his kids anymore. We have the ticket. Just kidding. Good morning, Zoe. I usually am downstairs during this service leading our Zoe kids. Shout out, Zoe kids. Shout out the next generation. If you've had it on your heart, I have to do a shameless plug, obviously.

24:41 If you've had it on your heart to serve in kids, to serve in youth, be obedient to the Holy Spirit. The next generation is the greatest investment. I love those kids. I love this team. And I also want to honor our pastors, Pastor Chad and Julia. I am so thankful to be under their leadership. They are creative. They are faithful. And they teach me just by living their lives. I'm learning so much how to be a better leader, how to be a better follower of Christ. So can we honor Pastor Chad and Julia? Man, I'm so, I love this year's theme, Watch God Work. And how many of you guys know, in order to watch God work, it starts with trust. If you have your Bible, turn to Proverbs 3. I'm going to be reading from the message version. It says, trust God from the bottom of your heart. Don't try to figure out everything on your own.

25:35 Listen to God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go. He's the one that will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God. Run from evil. Your body will glow with health. Your very bones will vibrate with life. Honor God with everything you own. Give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst. Your wine vats will brim over. But don't, dear friend. Resent God's discipline. don't sulk under his loving correction. It's the child he loves that he corrects. A father's delight is behind all of this. Everyone say, I trust you, God. Our human nature tells us to trust in ourselves, to trust in our timelines, to trust in our plans and how much money we have in our bank account.

26:32 The reality is, if we're not fully submitted to God, we start to crave control over the details of our life, and our flesh naturally wants to accomplish things in our own strength. But thank God, his word offers a better way of thinking, a better way of living, a better way of understanding. Because our understanding is so finite. We only see what's right in front of us. We don't see what the Lord sees. Isaiah 55 verse 9 says, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways, God's ways higher than your ways and God's thoughts than your thoughts. So maybe you're sitting there and you're wondering, okay, how do I watch God work? But how do I trust God in 2026? The first thing the scripture tells us to do is to listen to God's voice. There's so much noise, social media, podcasts, entertainment. There's so many voices that our ears are being exposed to, and it takes a level of great intention and great discipline. Two words that honestly I hate, if I'm being honest. It takes intention and discipline to tune out those voices that aren't from the Lord and to align your ears and your heart with God's voice. You want to trust God more in 2026, read your Bible. Listen to his voice. Amen. John 10, 27 says, my sheep hear my voice.

28:13 I know them and they follow me. Too many followers are convinced that you don't hear God's voice. I imagine if you went through the 21 days of prayer and fasting and you didn't hear from God, You probably felt that way at one point, but his scripture tells us we are his sheep and we do hear from him. Amen. And it all starts in his word. So how do you trust God more? You listen to his voice. The second thing that you do is you honor God with everything you own. If we're not careful, we start to think that I made this. I got this job. This is my money. But Psalm 24 verse 1 says, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. You want to grow the muscle of trusting God? Start by saying, God, all of this is yours. I am simply a steward.

29:07 None of this belongs to me. My body doesn't belong to me. My mind and my heart are yours. My money is yours. My time is yours. The message version, it puts it like this. Give him your first. Everyone say first. Everyone say best. Isn't that a picture of what God did by sending his son Jesus on the cross? His one and only son. He gave his first and he gave his best. And God is so faithful that as you give him everything you own, he's gonna outgive you. I remember being in ZLC, being called to our ministry program here at Zoe, wondering how I was gonna afford life because I went from full-time teaching to part-time. But then I watched God. And as I still obeyed him in my tithing, he would put it on people's hearts to send me money.

30:02 I would have meals delivered to my door and watch as you give to him, he will out give you, amen? So you wanna trust God. You listen to his voice, right? You give him everything you own, and then you don't resent his discipline. Remember, I don't like the word discipline, okay? I'm like, let me do what I want, whatever. But as I journey through life, I learn that discipline is a form of God's love. Proverbs 3, verse 11 through 12 says, My child, don't reject the Lord's discipline. Don't be upset when he corrects you. For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. Now, I know I'm speaking to all of the perfectionist type A, people who are people-pleasing maybe.

31:03 I get it. We get it mixed up, and we start to think that when we receive criticism, that it's linked to our identity, and we start to believe that we're a failure. When we get disciplined from the Lord, we want to hide. But in reality, God's discipline is a sign that you are his beloved. You're his child. This is where your identity is truly found. And I just want to encourage you, God is trustworthy. He is the alpha and omega. He is sovereign yesterday, today, and forever. He invites you today to trust him. I wonder what it would look like if that part of your heart that you're reluctant to just give over to him. I wonder what it would look like if you fully gave God your complete trust this year and watched him work in that way. What could he do? How could he move? Amen? Amen.

31:57 All right, would you help me in welcoming Brennan? Can we keep it going for Mia, please? Unbelievable. I am so happy she is downstairs watching over our kids, but man, we need you up here more often. You're unbelievable. Thank you for all that. And hello, everybody. My name is Brendan Cassidy. I'm so happy to be here. It's honestly an honor and a privilege to be here. I want to take a moment just like everybody else did, but I wouldn't be here without Pastor Chad and Pastor Julia. Their kind-hearted generosity is truly amazing. And I do want to take a moment to thank all of these incredible substitute teachers over here. An amazing word to come up. And Refugio, unbelievable. So happy to have you here, Hannah. I just can't say enough about you and your husband.

32:51 Unbelievable. And Shane, no notes to come up here and preach the word. Thank you so much for that, truly. And I also want to thank one more person before I jump into it. It's my beautiful wife, Ashley. She's at home right now. And I just love her so much. And if I could hug you from the camera, I would. So I'm going to jump into it right away. Time is running. So here we go. I'm going to look at Psalm 67, verse 1. It says, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us. If you know me, I've got the honor to work with Zoe Cares. And all the ZST and everybody here, familiar faces, we have been serving this city. I've been serving this city for the past year. Zoe has been serving this city for the past 10 years. But a common theme in all of our rallies is we always say, may your light shine through us and so that your love may be encountered by everybody that we come across.

33:52 We want to have his light shine through us. So those little small acts of kindness is God's doing. That's God coming down with his face on us to say, hey, we're here for you. I'm going to be here for you. I'm going to share that little act of kindness. And my first point is kindness towards your crowd. The crowd, the people that you don't know, the people that you come across, the way that you live in his commandments and you honor his commandments is by treating others how you want to be treated. The hardest thing I was sitting here, and I'm going to jump into my message. Actually, I went to my first point before I got to my message. title is after you. And I was going around yesterday and the hardest thing to do is saying to somebody, if you're waiting in line, if you're in a hurry, you're saying after you, go ahead. I was at the market yesterday waiting for a coffee in line like we all do and somebody comes right in front, orders the coffee right in front of me. How furiating that is when you're in a hurry and you have to be somewhere. No, go ahead. You have no idea, but go ahead. That's fine. I have no idea what that person's going through. That small act of kindness of me stepping back, biting my tongue, maybe I want to say something to that person, is just sitting back and saying, I'm going to let my light shine on you and go ahead and do that. Hardest thing in LA as well is when we're driving and when people are merging inside, infuriating to say, no, I'm going to put my foot on the pedal to the metal and you can't come in. Get behind me. The littlest thing, and my wife says it all the time, is that God's act of humor is saying, hold on, we're going to be here to protect them. We don't know if you're in a hurry. We have no idea what you're going through, but what I'm going to do is this little act of kindness, I'm going to bite my tongue and I'm going to let back and say, after you, go ahead. And you know how hard it is. It's not easy to do. It's not easy to say after you and just say, hold on. Now I want to go. I want to be first. But those little acts of kindness go a long way to spread God's love. If we look at 1 John chapter 1 verse 7, he says, but if we were to walk in the light as he is the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son purifies us from all sin. We have the power to embody somebody else to say, this is God, this is who we are, and continue to do those small acts of kindness.

36:02 One last thing, when you're working too, and you're going for, excuse me, when you're out, and you're at a meal, the waiter comes over, and they give you the wrong thing. I've seen plenty of people go and say, lose it, and say, no, that's crazy, I want this, please take it back. It's undercooked. It's whatever. But if you're nice and those little acts of kindness goes the right way, it may not be even that person that's noticing it that you're talking to. It may be somebody else that's sitting right next to you that notices that. So those lights not only shine to the people that you're talking to, but you are getting noticed. You are being watched, not only by God, but by your peers, by your crowd. And so if those little acts of kindness can go a long way, remember generosity is our privilege. We have the right to be generous. It's very hard to do at times, but I'm just going to encourage you to continue to have that light of God to say after you. Second point is I want to celebrate your circle, the people around you, your friends and family. You know, when you're going through your contacts and you want to say, all right, I'm going to reach out.

37:02 When you're thinking about celebrating your circle, easiest thing to do is look in your calendar, celebrate a birthday. Pastor Chad is amazing at this. he's the one that taught me. Give that 60 second amazing shout down person of like happy birthday. You're amazing. You're beautiful. You're incredible. But go through your contacts. There's times where it's like, who do I need to reach out to? Don't wait then. I mean, some of you don't get me wrong when you're going through your contacts. Let's delete some of those people. Jesus said we don't need to love everybody. That's okay. We can delete them and move on. But when you're going through and somebody that may have your cousin that you haven't talked to in a long time, reach out and say, how are you doing? The simplest of words is how are you doing? You're sharing that God's love. You're sharing his plan and that light that will reach out to you. In Luke 15, this is amazing. He talks about the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, his lost son. But my favorite part about that whole thing is that he rejoices. When everyone comes back, he rejoices. He celebrates. And you have to celebrate everybody that's around you. You don't know what people are going through.

38:03 You could send a message and somebody's going to be, they're going to be going through something that you have no idea, but that message may get through them, get through to them to save that life. And so we reach out. It's not just we're not checking in. We're celebrating what Jesus is doing and celebrating others. I'm going to jump right to my third point today. And let's bring your faith to your core. So after you share your kindness to your crowd, and after you celebrate your circle, you gotta practice what you preach and reap what you sow. When you say after you, you're helping yourself. You're not only helping them, you're helping yourself. When you bite your tongue, you're saying, hold on, wait a second, I wanna be kind to that person because I want people to be kind to me. That's not always guaranteed in life. But what I can do is I can practice what I preach and I reap what I sow and I hope I can do that. in Galatians chapter six, verse seven, he says, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. But a lot of us like to watch our own movies. You ever seen that Peter Parker, that meme? And it's just like the glasses, you're looking at something. One of the most recent ones I saw is Sam Darnold as a jet. And you're looking in and all of a sudden it's Tom Brady. Like, how is he playing that? Good. Shout out sports Superbowl. But when you're going in a mirror and you're looking in a mirror this morning, or you're going in tomorrow and you're looking through and you're like, oh, that's good. I look good. It's going to be great. You put those glasses on and you see God. We are a child of God called by name to love, serve, and be graced by God. We say it all the time and we have to remind us that that is who we are. One last quick story before I get out of here. I'm going a little bit over time, but we have, my wife and I are go people. Go, go, go, go, go. We just got put in a crazy situation last week and we got put in a room, excuse me, but we felt the love of our village, and we are gold people.

39:59 God said, hold on, the craziest thing can happen, but I'm going to have you right here, and I'm going to have you rest. I'm going to have you rest and say, I'm going to have you. Your village has you. After you strive to be the best, after you are trying to go, after you're trying to create that job, after you're trying to do all this, God says, hold on, hold on. After you, then me. That's how we get to watch God work. When that happens, God is saying in this time, I'll get one more verse before I go, is Isaiah 40, verse 31. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. God is saying after you stop striving, after you stop performing, after you stop worrying, after you, then watch me work. Put your time in rest. Put your time in faith. and if you do that, put your time in his word. God says, after you, then watch me work.

40:59 All right? Everyone stand to your feet real quick, please. We're going to pray over this message.