What's going on? Mission Grove Church? Good. Hold on, hold on, hold on, let me do a litmus test to see how we're feeling. And this is, this is gonna let me know if y'all got good coffee or not based on how you respond. Did anybody come excited about Jesus this morning? Let's go. Y'all got good coffee, John. I love it. Hey, y'all, my name is Brett. I'm so grateful. So thankful to be here. Let me just say to that. I, I number one, I'm super elated, super excited to be here, but let me tell you why. And I was sharing this with my wife a couple of weeks ago. Um as a communicator, you'll get invited to speak at churches. Um And one of the saddest parts sometimes y'all is you'll get invited to speak at a church and they really just wanna kinda use the gift that God has given you, but they haven't established the friendship. And one of the things that I love is that I've had a chance over the last three years to establish a friendship with John. So I'm grateful to be here as an extended member of mission grove church. Um But also I'm excited to be here because as John has already mentioned, I remember year number one when they first launched and we were in the comedy club y'all. I got a chance to preach and vodka and tequila was on the wall. Like never seen anything like that before, right? Uh And then came to the school and now I see where you guys are at today and John's giving me a tour and here's what I would say. Look at what the Lord has done right now. Let me also calibrate some of you. I also believe that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard the things that God has in store for Mission Grove church. So just because this is where you are today, I need you to have a heart, heart of expectation that God's about to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask think or even imagine. Amen. All right. So with that being said, I understand that you guys are in a series that Jesus is greater. Amen of that. I agree on that one with that being said, if you have your Bibles, uh most of it has come out of the book of Hebrews. So I want you to put a bookmark or a pen in Hebrews chapter 11. Uh But before we read Hebrews chapter 11, we're actually going to begin in Genesis chapter five before I share with you a big idea title anything of that nature. Listen, I am in love with God's Holy Spirit and I refused to ever preach a message before I asked the Holy Spirit to be my advocate and my helper. So would you join me in a word of prayer? Holy Spirit. I thank you so much for this opportunity to stand and to proclaim your word in this moment, I decrease and ask that you would increase. Would you have me behind the cross? And let me say only what it is that you want me to say? And nothing more than that Holy Spirit. I pray that you would just pull up a seat in this room and that she would go up and down each and every aisle and begin to do open heart surgery on all of us, beginning with the man on the platform, remove anything out of us that you don't want and begin to implant in us, the things that you have a desire for. And this is my prayer that we won't just be hearers of the word but doers. So when we leave this place, Lord, we will live it out. We thank you. We bless you. Listen, Jesus name, we pray and give thanks. And everybody said a man. I wanna start off by asking you all a very simple question by show of hands. How many people in this room would love to do? Uh what I would call a great work for God. Someday do something really great for God. Anybody want to do that. That is so amazing. I just need you to know. I just set you up for a tr Amen. Um Here's the thing. What if in fact that God has a desire instead of you necessarily doing a great thing for Him? What if God's desire is that you would actually just simply spend more time with him earlier this year. I was reading uh Genesis chapter five. It was actually December 2022. Uh And the reason why I remember is December 2022 because this particular passages that were getting ready to read was actually a passage that marked me. So I was in Genesis chapter one chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, chapter five. And then all of a sudden there were four verses of scripture that jumped off the page in Genesis chapter number five. Now, here's what I need you to know. Genesis chapter number five is actually a really boring chapter in the Bible. And some of you already know what it feels like to be reading a very boring chapter in the Bible because some of the most boring chapters in the Bible are what consist of genealogies for those who may be new to Jesus. Here's a genealogy. All it is is telling you about someone's family line. This person begat this person and then they died, this person begat that person and they died and I promise you, I believe that there are two places where people stop reading the Bible who are new to Jesus genealogies and Leviticus. Ah, can't deal with it done for the year. Right. So, here it is. I'm reading Genesis chapter five and I'm thinking it's gonna be super mundane until I get down to verse number 21. This is a really cool and fun exercise. Here's what I like to do. I'd actually like to read Genesis chapter five verses one through 26. Now, some of you are saying, dang, that's a whole lot of scripture. It's OK. You ain't read the Bible all week. So I'm gonna help you get caught up on your youversion Bible plan. You ready? Genesis chapter five. Beginning at verse number one. Here's what it says. It says this is the written account of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself. He created them male and female and he blessed them and called them human. When Adam was 100 and 30 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him in his very image. He named his son Seth after the birth of Seth. Adam lived another 800 years and he had other sons and daughters. Adam lived 930 years and then he, somebody said it all at the same time. He and every time we come to this word God, I want us to all say it together. Here we go. Verse number six, when Seth was 100 and five years old, he became the father of Enosh. After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived another 807 years and he had other sons and daughters. Seth lived 912 years. And then he, oh, that's so depressing. When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Keenan after the birth of Keenan, Eash lived another 815 years and he had other sons and daughters. Eo lived 905 years. And then he, when Keenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mili. After the birth of Mili, Keenan lived another 840 years and he had other sons and daughters. Keenan lived 910. Yeah, man. These folk is old 910 years. And then he, when Mahli El was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared after the birth of Jared Mahli lived another 830 years and he had other sons and daughters. Mahli lived 895 years. And then he you guessed it 18. When Jared was 100 and 62 years old, he became the father of Enoch after the birth of Enoch. Jared lived another 800 years and he had other sons and daughters. Jared lived 962 years. And then he, when Enoch was 65 years old. He became the father of Methuselah out of the birth of Methuselah. Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years and he had other sons and daughters. Enoch lived 365 years walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared because God took him y'all. I was sitting there in December of 2022 reading this passage and my mind was blown. But here's the thing, it wasn't blown because Enoch simply disappeared. Here's the truth of the matter. There's only two people in all of scripture that we know about who never died. Enoch was one. Elijah was the other Bible tells us that Elijah was taken up on a chariot and secretly between you and I, I've been asking the Lord, could you take me out that way? Like that's gangster, bro. Like I wanna go out on that chariot like that's the way to go, right? But Enoch just like Elijah, he doesn't die. He disappears. But that wasn't the thing that blew my mind. Here was the thing that blew my mind y'all. What blew my mind is that out of seven generations, Enoch is the only one in this entire genealogy who gets the description of being a man who walked in close fellowship with God. I need you to like, get your brain to wrap around how like insane this is, it begins with Adam and don't you know that Adam actually lived in the garden with God himself, like actually like face to face with God. And Adam himself as close as he physically was to God still doesn't get the title of being a man, a uh sorry, being a man who walked in close fellowship with God. So as I'm reading this passage, I'm, I'm in Orlando, my mind is just kinda blown because I, I for whatever reason, this is like sticking out to me like God, why do you, why do you have this man here in the Bible? Because I read all the Old Testament and I don't, I don't see him mentioned anywhere else. You've literally given this man four verses. But I know you don't put anything in scripture just for the sake of putting it in there. There's a reason this man is mentioned. So I'm, I'm sitting there and I'm praying to Lord. Why, what is so special about Enoch the next day? For some reason, maybe it was the Holy Spirit. I was drawn to go and read Hebrews chapter 11. And to my surprise Enoch is mentioned. Now before I read Hebrews chapter 11, here's what I need you to know. I need you to know that Hebrews chapter 11. For those of you who may be new to Jesus is considered to be the hall of faith. If we're in modern day terms. Let's see, we got some Seahawk fans in the room. God bless you. Um That would be the equivalent of making it into the Hall of Fame of the NFL. But here's the deal. You don't make it into Hebrews chapter 11 without doing some kind of great work for God by faith to give you some examples of great work, for example. Um even though they're not mention in Hebrews chapter 11, I, I would say, um that what Daniel did, man, that's a great work for you to be able to sit in the lion's end and the lions not eat you up and then you go on to become like that's, that's a great work, right? Um Noah, who's in Hebrews chapter 11, this man builds an ark with his bare hands. Y'all, I can't even change a socket. Noah builds this great ark. That's a great work. But all we know about Enoch is he just simply walked in close fellowship with God. So let's go over to Hebrews chapter 11. I want you to see what it says over in Hebrews chapter 11. Beginning at verse number one, we're gonna walk our way through it and then I'm gonna talk, uh pull a couple of nuggets out beginning at verse one. It says this faith is the confidence that we hold for what actually happened. It gives us assurance about things we cannot see through their faith. The people in days of old earned a good reputation by faith. We understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. It was by faith that Abel brought more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel's offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith. But watch this verse five, it was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying. He disappeared because God took him for before he was taken up. He was known as a person who pleased God. I'd like to submit to you that I honestly believe. And this is my big idea that your time with God is more important than your works for God. Here's the truth of the matter. I'm so grateful that every single one of us put our hands up for the most part and said, we want to do a great work with God. But can I ask you a question? What's your fellowship with God? God look like? Because here's the deal, you'll never be able to do a great work with God until you first learn how to spend significant time with God. Here's the truth of the matter. I am watching my friend John do a great work for God in this season of his life. But if I were a betting man, I would say that before John ever got to this season. He put in significant time with God in anonymity. Truth of the matter is, is you don't do a great work for God overnight. You do a great work for God over time. And one of the reasons why I love enoch so much and why he's become one of my favorite persons in all of scripture. Even though we've only got seven verses on Him. It's because to be honest with you, y'all, I actually feel like I might be able to kind of replicate what Enoch did. Here's the truth of the matter. Lord have mercy, guard me when I make this statement, Lord y'all, I love Mary. I absolutely love Mary, but I'll never be able to do what Mary did because I'm not wired to do that. I'm not hardwired to do that. I will never have a virgin birth. Ok? Um Here's the truth like I said, with Noah, I will never be able to build a boat. I don't even change sockets, but I feel like I actually can walk in close fellowship with Jesus. And here's what you need to know. Walking in, close fellowship with Jesus, walking in close fellowship with the Holy Spirit is actually an act of faith. It would not be in Hebrews chapter 11, the Hall of Faith if it wasn't considered walking by faith. So now the question becomes, what is faith? The writer tells us in verse number 11, he says, faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us assurance about things we cannot see. So faith is having confidence in God that things of what I'm hoping for will actually happen. But then the next question that I have is, is where does this actual assurance come from? Where does this Godly confidence come from? Can I tell you the quickest way to get a Godly confidence, the quickest way for you to get a Godly confidence and to start walking by faith is to make sure that the things that you are hoping for are the same things that God is hoping for. Let me calibrate your mind just a little bit. He tells us that what faith is, the confidence of the things that we hope for, the evidence of things not seen. One of the things that the Lord has shown me in this season of my life is the quickest and best way for me to walk by faith is start walking is to start walking in accordance to what God wants for me and not just what I want for me. Here's what will faith is real. Faith is God, not my will, but your will be done. Real faith is God, not my way, but your way. So the question becomes, how do I get to this place to where my desires begin to line up with his desires? I'm so glad you asked. Let me tell you real quick. Psalms 37 is one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. Psalms 37 4 to be specific, here's what it says, it says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Now, let me help you understand something. When I was a baby Christian, I used to think, oh, Lord, I desire this new car. Would you send it my way? That's not what the songwriter is saying. Here's what the songwriter is saying. When you delight yourself in God, what God then does is he literally implants in you. The very thing that He wants you to desire because it lines up with what he already desires. The reason why Noah was able to build a boat that we see in Hebrews chapter 11. The very next verse, the reason why Noah was able to do it is because God implanted a desire in Noah to actually do it. And it was the thing that God had desired to be done. So here's a question, how many of us are pressing in our, in our relationship with Jesus so close to the point to where we begin to lay down our own desires. But say, you know what God, I know in my flesh, I kinda want this. But God, what do you want the best way for you? And I to learn how to start walking in close fellowship with God is walking in agreement to what He wants one of the things that I've learned in this season and it's kind of some language that I've, I've adopted recently. Um It's simply this in my life. I want God to get whatever He wants, period God in my life. I want you to get whatever you want. But you don't get to that place until you actually start walking in close fellowship with God. So what does it look like then for me to delight myself in the Lord, what it looks like for me to delight myself in the Lord is, is I spend time intentionally with him. I told this is the earlier service. So I'll say it to you. Um I have a desire without question to do great works for God. But I also understand that I will never be able to do the great work for God. If I don't first start to spend time with God. Not too long ago, I was sitting down and I was having um dinner with uh what I would consider a pretty influential pastor. He's been in ministry now for more than 40 years. Um And to give you context, uh he was the executive pastor at a church when he joined this church. The church was the size and it's, I'm only giving you numbers to just kind of give you a picture. Church was the size of about 4000 every weekend. He stayed there for 25 years. By the time he retired the church grew to over 100,000. Um The assets of this particular church was $1 billion between cash and buildings. Here's what I need you to know about this pastor who I sat with, he built what I like to call a tent of meeting. Some of you were saying, well, what's a tent of meeting? Let me tell you what a tent of meeting is. When I used to uh work at cornerstone, I used to have this prayer and he was the prayer Lord. The same way that you were with Moses and the same way that you were with Joshua. Lord, would you be with me? And now I gotta be honest with you, that was a great prayer to pray before I preach, before I talk before I did anything. But as I went back through the scripture, here's what I noticed. I noticed that God wasn't just with Moses and wasn't just with Joshua a lot. I actually noticed that God spoke to Moses and spoke to Joshua a lot. And where did God speak to Moses? And where did God speak to Joshua? He spoke to Moses and Joshua and what they built, which was called the tent of meeting. It was the place where they spent time with God daily to receive instructions from the Lord free nugget real quick. If you walk in close fellowship with God, this means that whenever you make decisions in life, you never make a decision in life without first consulting God. And one of the issues about too many of us make is we make decisions in life without first consulting the Lord. So here it is my friend. He built this tent of meeting. I said, uh to this person, I said, where, where did you, where did you meet with the Lord every single day for the past 30 years? And here's what he said. I met with the Lord every single day for the past 30 years at 6 a.m. at mcdonald's. No joke. Y'all this man ordered a sausage mcmuffin and a coffee every morning at 6 a.m. for the last 30 years. And when COVID happened, all he did was go to the driver and take it home. He never broke his rhythm. He made it consistent. But as a result because of the time he spent with God, the Lord used him and others in a very significant way to make a major kingdom impact. And here's what I feel like the Lord's response. Every time this person sat at mcdonald's at 6 a.m. he looked down from heaven and he said, ba ba, ba, ba ba, I'm loving it. I promise you be. But here, here's the reason why I throw that out though. I sincerely feel all jokes aside that the Holy Spirit wants to start spending significant time with every single one of you. He loves your church attendance, but he desires private intimacy and I can tell you right now, when you make a transition to start having private intimate moments with the Lord, it will completely and totally change the trajectory of your life. Here's what I see in Hebrews chapter 11, I see a whole bunch of great works, which is amazing and I'm not saying anything negative about anyone written in Hebrews chapter 11. If you actually go home and read Hebrews chapter 11 in entirety, there are people who are martyrs in Hebrews chapter 11 who died for what they believe. I honor those men and I honor those women. But for us in this room who desire to do a great work for God. Can I let you in on a little secret? I don't think the work that you do for God is really the reward. Let's just say, for example, 20 years from now and we're just gonna throw out random numbers. I'm pastor in a church or John's pastor in a church and this church grows to be a church of 20,000. That's great. But can I be honest with you? The 20,000 isn't the reward? You know what the reward is? It's Him. Can I prove it to you? Here's what verse number six says in Hebrews chapter 11. And it is impossible to please God without faith, anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek him. Let me ask you a question. Does the text say that he'll reward those who do a great work for him? Ok. This sounds really quiet. Let me try it over here. It wasn't rhetorical. Does the text say that he'll reward those who do a great work for him? Y'all smart. Does the text say he'll reward those who build the biggest church for him unless you redeem yourselves. But does the text say that he'll reward those who sincerely seek him? Thank you. The reward is not the accomplishment. The reward is Him. Let me be honest with you, the reward is not the promotion that you're looking for. The reward is Him your faith to believe that God can heal you. If God decides to heal you, that's amazing and I'm happy for it, but the healing itself isn't the reward. The reward has always been and always will be Him. Let me ask you another question. I didn't say this in the earlier service. If God doesn't do anything else in your life, will his presence be enough for you? Because for people who walk in close fellowship with God, his presence absolutely becomes enough. But let me tell you why being in His presence is so important. Being in God's presence is so important because as you walk in close fellowship with Him, you establish a relationship with Him to the point where now I can actually trust you to do the great work. Give you scripture to prove it. You know, the first time we ever hear about David, the first time we ever hear about David is not when David is in the palace. The first time we ever hear about David is not when David slays the giant Goliath. Here's the truth of the matter. We actually know the posture of David's heart before we actually know his name over in first Samuel fall messes up, he walks in disobedience to God and Samuel walks up to Saul and says, I've chosen another and it's a man after my own heart. Here's why this is so important. David didn't start walking in close fellowship with God when he got into the palace, David started walking in close fellowship with God when he was back in his father's backyard, tending to the sheep for those of us who desire to do a great work for God. And I'm getting ready to land the plane. What you do now, in your private time with the Lord will determine what he trusts you to do in the future. I have learned that the greatest thing that I can do as a human being is not be the best speaker. It's not be the best pastor. Let's not be the best preacher. I've learned that the greatest thing that I can do as a human being is to be one of the ones who's the most trusted on planet earth by him. But I only get that trust when I walk in close fellowship with him. So now let me land the plane. We're talking about this idea that he's the reward. I'm at lunch. No, I'm at dinner. Pardon me? Uh With my current pastor. Now it's me, him, both of our wives. We're sitting at Chipotle. We were supposed to go eat at a fancy place and they took too long. So we took the cheap route. Um So we're going to Chipotle and this is early on in our relationship. And um I let me be transparent. One of my struggles is that I wanna do such a great work with God. That oftentimes I fall into the trap of comparison. I look at my peers, I see where they are. I see what they're doing and I start comparing myself. So I'm sitting here at Chipotle and I'm telling him, um I said Preston, man, I just, I feel bad, man. I'm, I just need to know, man. I'm like, I'm 36. I feel like I'm getting old and I feel like I missed it now. For all of you who are 50 you probably wanna laugh in my face right now. And, and here's what Preston does right in front of my wife. He looks at me and he says, Brent, you're an idiot. Literally. I said, what do you mean? He says you're an idiot. You're sitting here and you're comparing yourself to other people thinking that you're late and here's what I need you to know in God's timing. You're never late. So here it is. I go home, I'm a little frustrated. I'm a little upset. I'm also a little sad. I can't go to sleep. I'm thinking about this conversation that we had at dinner. It's one o'clock in the morning. I go downstairs cause I can't sleep. And I say, Lord, I struggle with comparison. Will you help me? It's one of the shortest prayers. Any Pentecostal person has ever prayed in their life. It was five seconds long. I pray this prayer. I go upstairs, I fall asleep but I feel like the Lord gives me this dream. And here's what happens in the dream. I'm back home in Michigan. I'm trying to get home to Arizona to see my family. I go to my mom. I say, hey ma uh can you give me a ride to the airport? And she says, son, I can give you a ride to the airport but your flight doesn't leave for another six hours. I said cool, don't worry about it. I have dad take me time passes by, I get in this car, in the back seat and in the front, this father figure gets into the car. So this father figure starts to take me to the airport and as he's taking me to the airport, y'all, he's driving so slow and I'm sitting in the backseat and I'm starting to get aggravated. So I say to this father figure, I say, hey man, um, is there any way you could just drive a little bit faster? I really don't want to miss my flight. And the father figure turns halfway around and he says, just chill. It'd be all right. And in my head, I say all right. But I bet I miss this flight. So here it is. He's driving, he's driving, he's driving, I'm playing on my phone in the back seat of the car. And then all of a sudden I get this notification on my phone that I missed my flight. And in this dream, I literally could physically feel a rage coming over me. So I start yelling at this father figure. I said, man, I told you to drive faster. I missed my flight. Y da da da da da da da da da da da da da. And the father figure again says just chill. It'll be all right. And I go I said no, it's not gonna be all right. Do you know how much it costs to replace these tickets? I don't got time to be waiting like da da da da, da da da. And then the most random thing happens y'all out of the blue. My son just pops into the dream and he's like riding a bicycle just having a good old jolly. Good time, right? And then this father figure is like, yeah, lb go for it lb. Have a great time. Lb and I'm sitting in the back seat even further upset because how are y'all sitting here riding bikes in the sunset when I've missed an entire flight? So I yell at the father for you one more time. Same stuff. I yell at him. I like, how are you having fun? Like I miss my father, da, da, da da. And then he turns around one final time and he says, just chill. It'll be all right. And I'll wake up from the drink. Here's what was wild. My wife woke up from the dream. Well, she woke up the same time I woke up and she could tell something's off with me. So she's like, stop over thinking like what happened last night, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, it's not. Last night. I just had this wild dream and I'm trying to figure out what it means. And she says, well, tell me the dream and I tell her the dream, y'all. My wife starts laughing at me. I said, why are you laughing at me? She says, because Brent God's laughing at you. What do you mean? And she says, honey, for the last two years, I've been telling you when you've hit these different points in life and things didn't go the way that you wanted them to go. I kept saying to you just chill. It'll be all right. But every time I told you just chill, it'll be all right. You get mad, you get upset all this stuff. He says, I think the Lord is trying to tell you to stop worrying about the destination. I think he's trying to tell you you'll get to where you're supposed to be at when he wants you there. Not when you want to be there and watch this. As I reflect on that dream, I now recognize that I was so focused on the flight that I missed the reward in the front seat. The reward was never catching the flight. The reward was actually being in the presence of the father and watching the presence of the father take delight in my presence and my son's presence. And here's what I came to tell you, Mission Grove for those of you who wanna do a great work. That's amazing. But I know that there are some of you here who you feel behind, you feel like you've missed it. You feel like you're late and here's what I wanna tell you from experience, you're not late, you haven't missed it. Just chill. It'll be all right. Instead of focusing on the destination, instead of focusing on the, on the thing that you wanna do. I want you to put your attention on him because in my opinion, time with him is more important than the work that you do for him. So here's what's getting ready to happen. The band's gonna come out, they're gonna sing one more song as they get ready to sing the song, I wanna encourage you to stand as they sing, I wanna encourage you to lift your hands as they sing. And as they sing the song, this is my prayer that you all would press it in such a way that you would ask the Holy Spirit to draw you closer to him, that you would ask the Holy Spirit to lead you down a path of having a more intimate relationship with Him because he desires to have close fellowship with you. Let us pray Holy Spirit. Thank you so much for the opportunity to stand and proclaim your word. And Lord, as we get ready to sing one more song, this is my prayer as we lift you up, would you draw us closer to you? I pray that you would encourage the person who was listening to this message today who felt late or felt behind. Thank you for reminding them that they are not late, that they are not behind, but they're on your timetable that they have not missed you. And this is my prayer that she would be the God of all comfort for that person. Now, God, as we lift you up, we wanna go down in history as men and women who walk in close fellowship with you. We thank you, we bless you. And it's in Jesus name. We pray and give thanks. And everyone said amen.