The Most Important Things

Brother, what are the most important things in this life to you? When you think about all the things that you own, everything you've worked for, everything you've poured your blood, sweat, and tears into to build up in this physical life, what's the most important thing to you? When you think about your education as a youth, you think about your job, your career, perhaps you've walked through. You think about relationships that we've maintained over the years. What is it at the end of the day when it's all said and done?

What is it that really matters? Again, what are the most important things to you? Our family was recently confronted by that question. As you know, about a week and a half ago, we had a massive mud slide that came down and barely missed our house but created quite a bit of damage to our property and to our home.

Basically, it left us in a situation through those events that we had to stop and ask ourselves the question, what's most important to us? Because as the fire department responded and surveyed the scene, they realized it was still a very dangerous place to be because the hillside was cracking and moving and still settling in that way.

At some point, a little later in the day, we were allowed very brief access back to our house. They essentially said, you have five minutes to go in there, grab what you need, what's important to you, and get out. I'd never been in that situation before. I've watched the news. I've seen other people in that situation. I've seen the news stories of people saying, the fire was coming over the hill faster than a person could run. I ran into the house, grabbed whatever it was, got to my vehicle, and barely got out in time.

I thought, well, that's fascinating. What is it that I would grab? But I never considered that. I was in a circumstance that I had to worry about that too terribly much. About a week and a half ago, we were put in that situation. What would you grab? What would you grab? Probably all of us would grab something maybe different than someone else, but basically it would be something that is probably sentimental to you. Wedding album, something along those lines, maybe at something of great financial value that you could just pick up and run out the door with. As the landslide was actually occurring and Darla was running out the front door, she, without breaking stride, reached over and scooped up her flute as she was heading out the door.

If this whole place is going down, at least she could play some music and she'd have her flute. But again, just a few minutes to go in, grab the important things and get out. We received that order just a couple of short weeks ago, or not even quite two weeks ago. Again, the instruction and the circumstance was eye-opening to me. Go in there, grab what you need and get out. As I walked into my house, I only had two things on my mind.

This was a Thursday. I had a sermon on Pentecost Sunday. Number one was my laptop because I wrote my sermon on Wednesday. Actually, it was the first thing in my mind. Alright, I can't lose that sermon because life's going to be crazy from this point forward.

So I went for my laptop and it was gone. Darla had grabbed it. The second thing that came to mind was our passports because now I'm heading to Nigeria in August for summer camp. To try to process a new passport and visas and everything in that time frame would be nearly impossible.

I went to look for those. Darla had grabbed those as well. So, honestly, I walked around my house looking for what to pick up next, looking what was value.

Again, what would you grab? My mind was sort of muddled and I was a little stunned. And you know what I found to grab? Nothing. I walked around out of my house, back into my house, out of my house twice without picking anything up. And finally, I said, well, I suppose the Mickelson's were staying with them. They probably liked me to have a change of clothes. So, I went back in, grabbed a couple of changes of clothes, and then my mind settled down enough.

I grabbed two portable hard drives that we had because we downloaded family pictures over years off of various computers under that hard drive. But besides that, really, nothing. It wasn't like there was nothing of value in our house. I was walking back and forth past things worth hundreds of dollars, but at that moment, in that perspective, they really didn't seem to have a whole lot of value to me.

Brethren, what is it that you would grab? What is it that has value to you in this life? What are the things that are truly most important? And through the circumstances we face in recent times, I would say two things come to my mind as most important. I would assume we would probably all agree on these, but this is my list. Number one is following God and putting Him first. And you know, that's something that is with you. It's not something you have to pick up off the floor on your way out the door.

Number one to me is following God and putting Him first. And number two is my family. And honestly, when I say family, you're all part of my family as well, talking about my immediate family as well as the relationships that we maintain. And to be honest with you, nothing much else has any real value to me. I mean, I like things, sure, but if you're talking real value, what it is that you absolutely do not want to lose, those are two things that come to my mind.

I kind of want to run through with you just a little few moments here, a little bit of the storyline, timeline of what took place on this slide and give you an idea why my mental perception was this way. When I was gone at the GCE, Darla called and said, our hot water heater went out, which was down in the root cellar of our house. I didn't solve that heater when we moved in 20 years ago, and my thought was, alright, you know, it's time for a new hot water heater. But when I came home and I went down there to examine the problem, there was a couple feet of water down in our root cellar.

And we'd never had that before, but what we do have is a year-round spring that runs kind of down a gully off to the side of our house. It's been there forever, since the flood probably. But this spring actually was there when the original part of our house was built in 1910, and they put in a water system and a cistern that fed off of that spring. So this year, this spring, was the first year there had ever been water under the house. Obviously, we had a big water event this year with the snow and the rain, but I installed pumps under there.

And for the last three weeks, I've been pumping water out from under our house to the tune of about six gallons a minute, but was able to hold it down at the floor level. So that morning, Thursday of the slide, I went outside and went under the house to check the pumps like usual, and there was about two and a half feet of water under the house. The pumps were being overrun, and yet they were still functioning. I thought, well, this is kind of odd. And when I walked around the house, I noticed standing water and water that was just trickling out of the hillside behind.

And I could just kind of take my heel and make a dent in the ground, and water would just start to run out of it. So this hill was just absolutely saturated, in addition to the normal runoff that was booming on top of the ground. So I didn't know what was different that day. I thought I'd go up and see maybe if a tree had fallen and changed the water course here of the spring. And as I went up the hill, I saw a small slide had taken place, probably about 100 feet up behind our house at the base of the switchback of our neighbor's driveway, and a small slide had come down and disrupted the water some.

And a little bit of concern, but that hill had been there forever, essentially, and I really wasn't sure that there would be any problem beyond that. But I did know I got to get the water out of my house, filling up towards the floor choice. So I told Darla, I said, I'm running loads, I gotta get some more pumps, and loads on solvents about seven minutes away. And on my return, I called her, and I said, I think, just thinking about this, we need some help here. You know, this water's getting beyond me, and it's kind of a serious situation.

And she agreed. And between the time when I hung up the phone and when I got home, the massive slide had occurred. And it was quite a shock to me because I'm coming up my driveway, and I crest this little hump that's on my driveway, and I see these massive willow trees that used to be on the hill, down across the driveway, and down in the field below, this massive mud and dirt flow that had come down. And yet I couldn't see the house.

I was in a position because I couldn't see around the bend the house, and I literally didn't know if the house was still standing. My whole family was in there. Michelle Mickelson was in there. Mark was out playing on the slide or something. But I literally didn't know if my family was alive for about five seconds, and my heart just leaped into my throat. And Darla said, you should have seen your face when you came racing around the corner. Again, it was my family, dead or alive.

I really didn't know. I never really experienced kind of that feeling before in my life. They were outside. They were standing in the front yard. This slide had come down, and so I picked up the phone and called 911. I thought, we'll start at the top. I really know who else to call.

And they sent the fire department out. And as we're waiting for them, this whole thing starts to move again. So if you've watched the news and you see the clip they've played over and over of the trees moving along, that's not the big slide. The big slide just came down with a boom, but that literally just after it was sitting there, some of that mud and ooze just started to move once again.

The fire department came out. We walked the hill. They surveyed the damage and saw the movement that was going on. And basically they just said, you got to leave. And they roped off a place down below our driveway down where Darlene used to live and moved us out there to a safe distance.

Essentially what this hill did was all the rain, all the water this year, all this water pressure built up in the mountain. And I kind of describe it as like a champagne bottle that just blew its cork. And the cork was the mountain hillside. And now all this water is gushing out, running down the hill, running under our house, and going everywhere. And the scene really wasn't safe.

But it wasn't until we regathered actually down at the base of the driveway, we were able to talk. I really got a full sense of what had gone on. Basically my whole family, including Michelle, was in the house. They heard this loud boom. And I'd taken Darla up earlier to see the slide. And when she heard the boom, she just said, Get out! You know, the hill's coming down. And my mother-in-law, Darlene, was back in the back corner bedroom, closest to the slide. She heard the boom. And she looked out her sliding glass door and basically saw trees in the hillside going by, right on the other side of the glass. In fact, we had what used to be an old house sitting 10-12 feet away from the side of our house. And it just took that and turned it in the splinters on its way by. So she runs out of her room. And then, of course, I turn around, dart back in, and grab her little dog off the bed.

Some people will die for a little dog. Others will die for horses, I suppose. We had to kind of lasso Darla. But in fact, as everybody went running out of the house, fortunately the house was spared and the slide came. It started directly above the house, but it slid at an angle, barely missing the house by just a matter of a few feet. If you watched one of the news stories, the reporter was out there and he touched the side of our house and he touched the side of the slide debris within his arm span reach. So that was pretty sobering to me. Really got me thinking about, again, what's really important to me. And that was sort of the backdrop as they led us back into our house for a very brief time and said, grab what's important, grab what's essential. Again, I wandered around and thought, you know, really none of this stuff means much of anything to me. My family was safe, the Mickelson's were safe, that's what mattered, and everything else I would just categorize as stuff.

It's just stuff. But what's important was there. So I want to come back to the question I started with, rather than for us, or what are the most important things? Again, how would you answer?

In my mind, it's putting God first in that relationship with him, and it's obviously my family, my friends, the relationships that we have. Frankly, everything else we accumulate in this life is stuff. And sure, we need stuff, and I like stuff. I like nice stuff, okay? But again, it's not the important thing. It's not really what matters.

In a book of Genesis, we find the example of a man who responded to a call to get out.

And that's how it's worded. Just get out. Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, this is the story of a Brahm. Genesis 12, verse 1, it says, now the Lord said to a Brahm, get out.

Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. So he said, you know, a Brahm wants you to drop what you're doing, wants you to just take your wife and your possessions and head out. Whatever you thought the program was, it's about to change. You're going to follow me. Verse 2, God said, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So tied to Abraham's response would be the promise of the blessing, which would come from God.

And that would come as a result of Abraham following God's lead in his life.

Ultimately, that blessing would be through Jesus Christ, the Savior through which salvation then would be offered to all of mankind. Verse 4 says, so Abraham departed. You know, notice his response.

He departed. If you think about, and I've not done a whole lot of research, but I've heard some things regarding what a Brahm's lifestyle would have been and his status and his stature and what he had built up and in his wife as well and the possible ties to royalty and lineage. And, you know, the fact is it wasn't like Abraham was sitting around with nothing better to do. And God said, get out. And he says, well, sounds good to me. You know, we've got nothing going on here. The fact is he was established. He was wealthy. He's probably dwelling on property that I've been handing down from generations. He has business dealings going on, ties to the community. And God said, get out.

And he went. Verse 4, Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him. Lot went with him, and Abram was 75 years old when he departed Haran. Verse 5, then Abram took Sarai, his wife, Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered. And the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan, so they came to the land of Canaan. Again, it wasn't like Abraham had nothing going on, nothing better to do but to follow God. He actually had to detach himself from a whole lot of things in order to follow God's lead, in order to put God first. He just walked away. Brethren, this needs to be our approach in this life. As people that God has called out of this world, God has told us, get out. Get out of this world to the place that I will show you. And the place he is showing us is the kingdom of God. That's our vision. That's what guides and directs our steps on each and every day. And you know what? It just might mean we need to detangle ourselves from certain attachments or certain things that we have going on in this world so we can follow God fully and completely. In light of our calling, we need to keep all the other stuff in this life, in this proper perspective. We need to be willing to forsake all those things for the purpose of following God, following our elder brother Jesus Christ and his example. That's the priority. And as with Abraham's example, that is a matter of faith. Walk by faith, not by sight. Let's go to Hebrews 11 and kind of just look at the overview of Abraham's story. Hebrews 11, beginning verse 8.

Hebrews 11, 8, it says by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. I mean, can you imagine? It's just like, get out, you'll see it when we get there. He went not knowing where he was going. Verse 9, by faith, he dwelled in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. You know, Abraham and his immediate descendants were sojourners. It was a pilgrimage life. You know, they didn't put down deep roots in any particular place. They journeyed, placed the place, dwelling in tents, following God's lead, wherever that would lead them. In many ways, the Christian life we live is much the same. We're just physically passing through. These physical bodies are temporary. The things that we're doing here along the way, in many ways, are temporary, but what God has planned for us is eternal. Again, we're just passing through. We look to the kingdom of God. That's the greatest motivating factor in our life. Abraham looked through the things that God showed him, which was, you know what? Through your descendants, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God showed him the kingdom, not in terms of literally seeing it, but in terms of his perspective and vision. God showed him the Savior that would come. God showed him what would be accomplished through his life. And Abraham was a man who actually lived for tomorrow, today. You know, the future generations, the things that God would accomplish was more important than whatever it was he could accumulate in the immediate sense. Abraham put God first. And his family was important to him as well, because as the Scripture describes, they were the heirs of promise. And so through his descendants, that promise would be passed, and it would be perpetuated down through the generations.

Verse 13, till Hebrews 11 verse 13, it says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, they were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland, and truly if they had called the mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. You know, Abraham could have said, you know, that was a pretty nice place where I lived. Had a nice house, a lot of friends, status, good community. He had called that to mind as the important thing. He would have had opportunity to return. But verse 16 says, Now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

So what God is doing, brethren, in our life is what is important. Responding to his call and following his lead is what matters. Having three flat screen TVs and three Blu-ray players isn't really what matters. You know, it might be kind of fun. It might make for a relaxing evening, lazing around the house. But really, what really matters is what God is doing, what he's working out in our lives, the salvation, the plan of salvation that he's instituted, if we yield to him. Those are the things that matter. So again, brethren, what is important to you?

Luke chapter 14. Now we'll look at Jesus Christ as he expressed this concept.

Luke 14. Wherever Jesus went, performing miracles and teaching the things he did, he attracted crowds of people that followed him and some that actually thought they wanted to be his disciple.

But the point came where the rubber met the road and he said, look, if you're going to be my disciple, this is going to be requiring something of you. Luke chapter 14 and verse 25. He says, Now great multitudes went with him, Jesus Christ, and he turned and he said to them, that if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and yet his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

You know, that might seem like kind of a cold statement, something harsh to say. You know, this guy is supposed to be loving and our compassionate Savior. What does he mean, hate your family? Well, as we've described, and I think we understand, hate is a comparative word. It means to love less by comparison. What Jesus Christ is saying is that there can be nothing that you put above being my disciple, above having a relationship with God. Nothing in this life, not even family, can come before that. Relationship with God is number one. He says, if you can't do that, you can't be my disciple. I encourage the young people, often, but I encourage all of us to build the framework of your life around putting God first. That means the education you're going to get, the career you're going to pursue, who you're going to marry, where you're going to live, how you're going to raise your children, do all of it through the perspective of putting God first. It'll be a blessing. But God has to be first. If a woman who puts God first, marries a man who puts God first, who's going to be first in their marriage? It's going to be God.

That's going to be a blessing. To be a blessing in their marriage, it's going to be a blessing in their family, into their children, and to their children's children as well. Again, this is what's important. Nothing can come before this relationship, not alone, God first, family second. Everything else is just stuff. Verse 27 says, and whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So there are challenges, there are burdens in this life, things that we will struggle through, and yet we still put one foot in front of the other towards the kingdom of God.

That's one way we've explained this scripture. I think bearing our cross also requires a little consideration because the cross was the symbol of the crucifixion. All right? Crucifixion was a Roman device by which they put people to death, and they got that from somebody else, but it symbolizes death. So if you're going to follow Jesus Christ, you need to take up your cross to the crucifixion. You need to put to death the old man, the carnal man, in that mind that is enmity against God, and you need to come up, you do that through baptism. Also through baptism, you need to come up in the resurrection spiritually to newness of life in this way. That is what it is symbolic of, just as Christ died, it was in the grave and was resurrected. In baptism, you go under the water into the grave, you come back up again to walk in newness of life. So Christ says, you know, if you're truly going to follow me, I have to be first. You have to bear your cross and come after me. Sometimes I think it's a problem if we say, you know, someday I'll be ready to do that, and yet we know what God has called us to. God needs to be first today. Luke chapter 9, in some more words of Jesus Christ. Luke 9 verse 57. It says, now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. You know, you're first. I'm all in.

And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Again, it's the concept of a pilgrimage life. Jesus Christ says, I'm not putting down roots here. I'm just passing through. This is a pilgrimage life, and if you follow me, this is going to be your life as well. Verse 59, then he said to another, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God. Again, that can seem cold. That can seem almost a little harsh. You know, when Christ just let this guy go back and bury his dead father. That's not quite exactly what it's saying. This is a matter of time and convenience. You see, this man is saying, and my father's elderly, there's these things going on in my life. I'm in the season of life, but once this season passes and my father has died and buried, then I will follow you.

And he's saying, someday I'll follow you and the time will be right.

And the danger is, brethren, sometimes we can say someday. You know, someday when I finish college, then I can take the Feast of Tabernacles off school, but right now my grades are really important, so I can't blow that off for the Feast. You get a new job and we say, well, the boss requires I work on Friday night, but you know, someday, once I've been here six months or a year, maybe I'll have some seniority and I can set my schedule, then I can follow God completely. And we can, if we're not careful, fall into this trap of saying, someday. That's what this person said. Someday, when I've tied up all the loose ends, then I'll follow you. The problem is, if we say, someday, someday, someday we'll never come, and then someday it will be too late. And the lesson is, if you know what this calling is, you have an understanding, you commit now. This is what God is doing. Make him first in your life. Verse 61, and another said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who were at my house. Again, just some loose ends to tie up, and then I can be there. But Jesus said to him, no one having put his hands to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. And so the question becomes, how committed are we to seeing our calling through to the end? When we have knowledge, when we have understanding, we know what God requires of us.

How is it important to us that we're willing to forsake everything and follow God? Are we willing to do that, brethren? In this life, both hands must be on the plow.

And I kind of imagine that as watching Little House on the Prairie. Because when I was a kid, we watched Little House on the Prairie, and Pa had both hands on the plow, right? The one bottom plow hooked behind a horse. A lot of times he had the reins around his neck, and you're driving that plow, and you got to keep it pushed down in the furrow, and you're driving it in a straight line. This is pre-GPS, okay? So how are you going to drive it in a line? Are you going to pick a fence post? You're going to pick a tree on the horizon, and you're going to make a straight line with your eye set on that point? For us, that point is the kingdom of God. We have to have both hands on the plow at all times. Jesus Christ said, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit to enter the kingdom of God. And sometimes we can consider that to be, well, you just walked away from the plow, you've forsaken your calling. But I don't think that's always the case.

You can have one hand on the plow, still not forsake the plow. You can take one hand off and kind of just turn and look back and see what's going on back there. But what happens? Well, the plow kind of will jump out of the furrow. It'll take a crooked path. But taking one hand off the plow and turning back isn't forsaking the plow altogether, but it is a divided focus.

It's not putting God first and foremost. And Jesus Christ is saying, you know, if your focus is divided, you're not fit to be in the kingdom of God because you're all the way, either all the way in or you're all the way out. That's the lesson for us. Do you remember Lot's wife?

Jesus Christ posed that question in his teachings and he said, remember Lot's wife.

So what was the story? Lot's wife, we won't look at it, but God sent the warning to Lot in Sodom you know Sodom and Gomorrah are going to be destroyed because the wickedness of that region.

And he was told to get out, you know, and he was given a little time, a little bit of warning. He went and told his sons-in-laws and to them he seemed to be joking. You got to be kidding.

That hillside's not coming off the hill. You've got to be joking. So what happened? It wasn't like Lot had time necessarily to plan to leave in an orderly fashion. You know, the next day, as the destruction is coming, the angels actually grabbed them by the hand and pulled them out. Lot and his wife and the two daughters. It wasn't like they could call up Allied Moving and say, can you come pack our belongings for us, please? It wasn't like they could pick up the phone like I did this week and call Century Link and say, can you move our internet access up to that cave outside of Zoar? You know, they had to get out. What was the problem? Well, Lot's wife turned back.

Again, the forward focus changed. She was looking back. The biblical record doesn't actually show Lot was married when he went down to Sodom. Now, maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, but perhaps he acquired a wife in that region, and so her family's from there. The sons-in-laws didn't come out, so maybe there were other married daughters in that region. Maybe there were grandchildren. There was a whole lot of stuff. Lot was wealthy when they went to Sodom. I suppose he remained wealthy and perhaps even increased in that wealth. When the time came, she looked back because she longed after that which was being destroyed rather than looking first and foremost to where it was God was leading. Jesus Christ just said, you know, no one putting their hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Lot's wife couldn't separate what was truly important from that which was not. So again, brethren, what's truly important in our lives? What is it that we put first? What is it that really doesn't matter? 1 John 2, verse 15. 1 John 2, verse 15. John says, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, he says, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And so, you know, the world, if we look around, has a lot of glitzy and flashy things to offer us, a lot of things that catch our eye, and not all of it's bad. You know, I kind of like a big screen TV, especially now that I have to wear glasses. High definition is pretty good, although at some point the definition goes beyond what my visual range can handle, even with glasses. But again, these aren't important things. These are simply the things of the world. They're just stuff. Don't set your affections there. Verse 17 says, and the world is passing away in the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever. So that's the category you and I want to be in. We want to be people who do the will of God.

The world's passing away. We want to abide forever. The things of the physical world, brethren, are temporary. The things of God are eternal. Let's focus on those. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter 3, the setting is the day of the Lord. Verse 8 says, But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. It says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God's desire is that all mankind would come to repentance. That's his will. That's his desire. That is the opportunity he is offering.

We see in the scripture that not all will. There will be fuel for the lake of fire at the end of the age. Not all will respond, but all will be given the opportunity. That is what God has willed.

Verse 10, it says, But the day of the Lord will come as the thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. And at that point, how much will that 60-inch 4K television really be worth? Again, it's just stuff. Brethren, if we're looking at the things in life that we make a priority, such as, I'll pick on the 60-inch 4K television, you know, if you're throwing two, three weeks of your life into overtime, work at work just so you can accumulate that thing, and you don't have time for prayer before God or studying his word, then our priorities are a skew. These things are passing away.

Again, the things of God are eternal. Verse 11, Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming and the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness dwells. It says, Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless.

And so, you see, this is what this life is really all about. It's about developing the relationship with God, growing in holy righteous character, doing those things that will make it possible by God's grace that we will be there, and all the other considerations in life, frankly, are just stuff. They're temporary. They're gonna go away.

Brethren, God watches over his people. He knows what's going on in our lives. Nothing escapes his attention. Sometimes we might think it's kind of lonely down here, God, because we have all these things going on. But God knows, even before we ask, what we have need of, says he's numbered the hairs on our head. He cares for us. One lesson I've seen over and over is that when God's people put him first, even when we don't know what the answer is, God provides the way. That opens the door. Again, we walk by faith, not by sight. And I think sometimes we think that we walk by faith when we know the answer. You know, all right, I'm gonna grab hold of this. I'm gonna work this out, and yet I'm walking by faith. Well, it may be in part if you're, you know, putting God first. It says, we walk by faith, though, not by sight, which means when we don't know the answer, we continue to put God first. We continue to remain faithful and live our life, submitting ourselves to him. Let him open the door and provide the solution. In our case, Spokane County is deemed our home to be unsafe to live in. We can haul all our things out, and we have been. You know, at some point it's just things, but I'm not gonna let them rot in a hole if we have opportunity to move them out. We're moving them out. We've been given the blessing of having a double-wide mobile home, literally a fifth of a mile down the same driveway that we live on, renting that at a reduced rate thanks to a kind neighbor, and we're there for as long as we need to be. So we can haul our things out, but, you know, we can't stay at our house until the remaining portion of the hillside is declared stable or stabilized or whatever needs to occur until the structural damage and the collapse foundation walls of the house are put back in place. I was in there yesterday, and the mold is growing. There's been water under there now for weeks, and when we were evacuated, the flood came all the way up to the floor joist, you know, over my head under the house. So I really don't know what the answer is, because this was an earth-moving event, and a water event, our insurance company basically said, your problem, not ours. So now we're just trying to figure out what the next step forward is, and honestly, I don't know the answer, what it will be in the long run. You know, we may return to our home in a few months, or we may simply own a very nice storage shed, kind of with new countertops two weeks old, hanging right on the edge of a precarious hillside. I just don't know. What I do know is that God is on His throne. I do know that God is aware of our plight and your plight. We're all going through things. We're all having various struggles in our life. Nothing escapes God's attention. So even when we don't know the answer to the struggle, we can rest assured that if we put God first, He'll provide the right answers, and He'll present them in a way, honestly, has been my experience, that I've seen in a way that I couldn't even anticipate. I've seen so many times in our life the answer from God has come out of left field, and it was in no way something that I could engineer, manufacture, or was even on the radar. And I've seen it happen in other people's lives as well, time and time again. God's on His throne. He is in control. I want to wrap up with just a couple of passages that to me are encouraging in time of trial. Psalm 34. Psalm 34 verse 15.

Psalm 34.15. It says, The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.

That moment when I came down the driveway, and I kind of crested that little hill, and I could see that slide that came in, and I didn't know if my family was dead or alive, I cried out to God.

I said, Oh God, please, you know, preserve my family. And there's probably only twice in my life I've cried out to God in that way. But it just says, again, the eyes, verse 15, of the Lord are on the righteous, His ears are open to their cry. It's not ignorant to His people and the plight that they're in and what's going on in their life. He knows, He cares, because they're His children.

Verse 16 says, The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and save such as have a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.

He guards all His bones, not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned. So even the face of test and trial and struggle, our confidence must remain in God. Do we just say, Oh yeah, okay, I trust God. I hope this is going to work out somehow.

Or do we actually have confidence in God? That even if it doesn't work according to what we thought the past forward was, God will work it out for good. To those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose and His will. God cares. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, final passage. 2 Corinthians 4, getting in verse 5. Here Paul is talking about their apostleship and the gospel message that they're preaching, which is light in a dark world. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5.

Paul says, For we do not preach ourselves, it's not about us, that's not what the message is, but we preach Jesus, Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your bondservants, for Jesus' sake. 3 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, as in the beginning, let there be light. God created light in a dark physical world. God sent Jesus Christ who brought light to a dark spiritual world. And brethren, you and I are to walk as agents of light today as well. 4 For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He says, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, and that's all we are. Just kind of dirt. Earthen vessels, you and I, but we hold the treasure of gospel message and God's plan of salvation. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Verse 8, We are hard pressed on every side. Have you ever felt hard pressed? Like trial coming from every direction? I know a number of you have. We've talked. It was just a couple of weeks ago in our life, our son in and out of the ER, various health issues that we can't seem to pin down at the moment. Our daughter broke her ankle, various other things going on. We were feeling kind of hard pressed on every side before the mudslide. So I just say you take joy in the small things. Austin came home from Daphne's, the espresso stand just a couple blocks from us, and they had on their front side out front. The big special was the mudslide mocha. So right around the corner.

But again, it says, we are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. Because, see, God sustains His people. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. Whatever situation, brethren, we find ourselves in, whatever condition of life, it's always a prime opportunity to be an example for Jesus Christ in the light of the truth. Whether life is going great and you just bought a shiny new pickup truck and you can say, hey, life's good, still be that example, don't be proud.

When life's down and mudslide about takes out your house or whatever situation you're going in, it's still an opportunity to be the example of Christ in you, because that's truly where your hope is. It's in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God that has been laid before us.

Brother and I stand before you today and I honestly say I feel blessed.

We have a place to live, but again, that's just a thing. We have a neighbor's generosity that's provided in that way. But I feel blessed primarily because God preserved the integrity of the two most important things in my life, my relationships, relationship with God, relationship with my family and friends. Those things are intact. God preserved those. Everything else is just stuff.

It can be replaced. I like stuff, but you know, as much as the next person, but it can be replaced.

Do I have the answers to our situation going forward? I would say no. A number of you are in situations where you're back against the wall. There's nothing left to do but to look to God. Do you know the answers? Oftentimes, no. But again, we trust in God. We know He provides, and you know what? It's okay because when God's people put Him first, even when they don't know the answer, trust Him. Look to Him in faith. God opens the door. God provides. They are not crushed. They're not in despair. They are not forsaken. They are not destroyed. They are God's people. So, brethren, I would encourage you and myself in this process to focus our energies on what God has designed to be the most important things in life. Let's acknowledge them. Let's put them first.

Make them the priority. Everything else is just stuff. Let's keep the stuff in its place. Let's keep God in His. And, brethren, let's never minimize the most important things.