Relinquishing Control to a Loving and Sovereign God

We're in this collection called Reset. And last week we talked about resetting our lives to our original factory setting. And what is that? It is that we're created by God and created for God. That one statement from God's word answers the two big existential questions of humanity. which are, who am I? And why am I here? Well, who am I is answered by, you are a valuable person created by God. And why are you here? Why am I here? I'm here for God. And you are here for God. That's your primary purpose in life is to live your life for God. And today we're looking at another reset. or another reboot, if you will, or a refresh.

And we're asking a different question today. Not why am I here and who am I? Today we're asking the question, who is my God? In other words, it's you coming to terms today with, who are you putting your confidence in? And can you trust this God. Who is your God? And can you trust this God? And even if you were coming today to say, well, I'm not really sure I believe in God, well, that's great. Then your God is, I don't believe in God. And so how confident are you? And I don't believe in God. Do you trust fully in I don't believe in God? Who is your God? and do you trust him? I think we take a lot of this for granted, and we think, oh, you know, I believe in God.

And that's about as far as it goes with us. But we're asking today, who is this God? And do you trust him? And this question is imperative for us today because of what is running in the background of our lives. Do you understand what I mean when I say that? All of the macro and the micro that's running in the background of our lives today. It's like your phone. Some of your phones are not working optimally because you have about 65 apps open right now. And the ones of you who do don't even know it, because you don't even know exactly what that means or how to figure out how many you have open. Some of you have 275 unanswered text messages on your phone right now.

You got apps open. The apps, by the way, are refreshing in the background on their own, soaking up your battery life and slowing down your optimization of your phone. They're also working overtime to send you notifications that they think you want. that you may not even really be thinking about. I got one this morning from the hut and they were telling me that they're running specials today at Pizza Hut and they want to be to know that enough that it appeared on my home screen while I was coming to church. You're like, well, why did Pizza Hut send you a notification? Because I have to have it on so that I know when my pizza's ready, when I'm going to pick it up.

And then I have to go in and turn off the notifications because I got the pizza and I got to turn them back on the next time. So I just leave them on. So they just tell me at random times of the day what specials they're running down at Pizza Hut.

Door-dash recommending today, this morning to me, new restaurant. You should try this Mediterranean spot. They'll bring it right to the house. My trail cams came on. Today, notification, coyotes are back.

Do you know how to find what apps are running on your phone? I mean, people in my age are like, I have a phone. That's what I know. And that's about what I know. If I pull up my apps right now, I got messages because I just gave online a little shout out. I just lost the price in heaven. That's not great. But hey, then this one I'll tell you about at the end of the talk. Then I got my ring cameras. I don't know why I got that on. See if anybody's at the door. I got my browser on and showing me things that I'm working on right now because I was looking for that and I'm looking for that and trying to figure out that.

I got my Delta app open right now on the phone. It's telling me my upcoming trips which I have one of not too far from now. And now we've lost all of our apps. Let's see what else we got. I got Instagram open. But I need that open because I need to see if anybody's like my 2016 recap. I have my inbox on my emails right here. I got my eye-cow go on. I got the weather because I need to know it's snowing out at Lake O'Coney right now. If you didn't know that, hello. I got my trail cams right there. I got my news and wow, there's two headlines that we've seen a lot.

I got my sports app open because I need to know what time the game starts today and shout out to Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos. We love you. We're praying for you. Hope surgery goes amazing and you're going to come back stronger than ever. What a season. What a young man.

Back in the blood release through our artist channel, got my maps open because I need to know where I'm going and where I came from. I got my alarm clock open. I've got my call log open. I've got my financial stock thing open. I've got my steps app to see if I got all my steps in yesterday. If you see me preaching around extra today, that'll be why. I got Spotify open because I was listening to the blood. I was looking at Tennis yesterday because Australia open started. So I got my ATP app open. I got my Bible app open. I got my other financial stocks app open. I got the iTunes Music Chart open to see how Crowder and Phil Wickham did on their big release on Friday.

I got my notes open because I'm working on a big project right now. And I'm always taking notes all times a day and night when God hits me with stuff. That's a lot running on the background. And that's just stuff most of it. We've got running in the background of our lives right now, all kinds of things. Some huge, some global, and some that are micro in the sense that

This stuff we know about, it's just stuff I'm dealing with. But it's running in the background, and running in the background, all this information is imperative that I ask the question, who is my God?

To the news app. And you see this headline, Middle East military invasion takes aim at Israel, imminent siege of Jerusalem threatens total collapse of ancient city. You're like, man, that sounds like yesterday, a week ago. That headline feels fresh and it feels like what's happening. But what if I told you that that headline, Middle East military invasion, takes aim at Israel, imminent siege of Jerusalem threatens total collapse of ancient city. What if I told you that headline was 2,726

Years old? that that headline was written, and it's a real headline, it was written in 701 BC. And what was running in the background? A king of a Syria that was powerful empire on earth at the time. was barreling down on the northern and southern kingdom. In Sanaka rib, who was the king of Assyria, and the most powerful person on earth at this time, was coming out of what is now present-day Iraq, coming up and around down through what would now be Turkey into northern Israel, taking land, knocking over kings, knocking over kingdoms, sacking cities, and sacking towns, but his destination was Jerusalem.

He said, I'm coming. Now, if you were living in Atlanta, Georgia, and you read that headline, you might be concerned somewhat. But what if you were living inside the city walls of Jerusalem, and you saw that headline, and you'd heard the reports, and you knew the

Wipe you out. Beautiful, resets imaginable to humanity. And that's the reset that comes in Psalm 46, because Psalm 46 is our reset today. And here's what I want you to see about this Psalm, which is one of the best love Psalms in all of the Bible. And it contains a verse, which is one of the best love verses in all the Bible. and Psalm 46, when it comes, is a song written by the sons of Korah. Now who are they? Who are they? They were the worship team. They were the songwriters of the day. And they wrote a song of worship for the director of music, for the people in Jerusalem who had just read a headline that said, And in that background, they wrote this song.

God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, even with Sennacherib running in the background, we will not fear. Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging we will not fear." And he ends these first three verses with this Hebrew called Selah. Now you may have this in your translation, you may not, but what Selah means in its closest interpretation is stop. think about it, breathe it in, onboard it, let that sink down into the heart of your being. What? Let what sink down into the heart of my being? That God is our refuge and strength and ever present help and trouble, and though the whole world quaken roar, we're not going to fear.

In other words, don't buzz on. Don't highlight real quick and put a little note in the margin of your Bible and then charge on down the page. Stop right here. Think about this. Meditate on this. Breathe this in. Take this in. Let it seep in to every bit of who you are. And then the song goes on. The song goes on. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. That's Jerusalem. The holy place where the most high dwells. God is within her. She will not fall. God will help her at break of day. Nations are in an uproar. Kingdoms fall, and they are. They're getting knocked over week after week. But listen to this, our God lifts His voice and the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Salah. Pause again. Stop again. Take it all in again, breathe all of that in again, let all that seep in. Why? Because there's so much stuff running in the background. And the only way you and I are gonna reset to confidence and not capitulate to fear is if we stop and on board and breathe in the fact that the Lord Almighty is with us. I don't know who's with you, but the Lord Almighty is with us. I don't know who's on your team, but the Lord Almighty is with us. I don't know who your people are, but the Lord Almighty is with us.

Breathe that in, come and see the works of the Lord. The desolation he is made on the earth. He makes war cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the shields with fire. And here it comes. This is a

Heart of it all. This is the reset. This is the refresh. Be still and know that I am. God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. And then the psalmist echoes again, the Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. And then again, say la, stop and think about that. Don't put it down too quick. Don't turn the page too quick. Don't go to start right notes real quick. Just stop, breathe that in, soak that in. Think about what God is saying. Think about the reality of what God is speaking over your life right now. And when you do, No matter what is coming against you, you can reset in that moment to be

Still and know that I am God. You know, it's crazy. We open the Bible and we're like, I'm going to read an encouraging Psalm today. Oh, I think I'll read this one because I loved that verse. Be still and know that I am God, especially with this wonderful latte that I'm drinking. I love that verse. I'm going to put it on my gram right now. Let me get everything organized first. I need these over here. Yeah, no, I'll put that over there. No, I'll put that over there. I want people to think I'm on my phone. I'm with God. I don't even need a phone. Let's get rid of that. Just me in the real pages.

Okay, that's it. He's saying, no, while you've got this open, the most powerful army on earth is barreling down to bury these people.

This isn't just devotion today. This isn't just, okay, that's nice. I love your little devotional thought. Be still and know that I am God. No, this is history. This is history. And in history right now, when every other person would freak out, the sons of Korah decide they're gonna write a worship song of confidence in God.

In the congregation, while the chariots are coming, is singing praise to the Almighty. That's the kind of reset that you can have today. That's the kind of reset you can have in the middle of the day tomorrow. That's the kind of reset you can have no matter what news you get about. It's coming your way. That is a reset for life. And I just asked the question today, how could they make such a reset knowing what was running in the background. And the answer is, it's because the word of God had come to them. God had spoken to them. They had a word from God. The word from God, we see in our history books, a lot of our history of this time is in Kings and Chronicles and Samuel.

And in Second Kings 19, this whole story is going down, of Sinacic rib coming down on Jerusalem. It says, when King Hezekiah will look at him in just a second, he was King and Judah at this time. When his officials came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, tell your master, this is what the Lord says. Can we say that together? Say it with me, all locations, anybody in church online, everyone at Lake O'Coney, let's just say this together. This is, let's try it again. This is what the Lord says. And so we're starting towards our reset with what God said, not with what my best friend told me, not with what my confidant over coffee told me, not with what I read that somebody else had said about it, not what the people in my story had said about

It, not even what I had said about it, we're starting with this is what the Lord said and what did the Lord say, the Lord said, do not be afraid of what you have heard. those words which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed it mean. Now this is God talking, listen, when he, now talking about the king of Assyria, here's a certain report, I will make him want to return to his own country where he came from, returned to Nineveh, the city in Assyria where he hangs out, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.

Who? Can I just say parenthetically? I don't know if you know or not, but God is love. First John, God is love. He is a God of mercy. He is a God of patience. He is long suffering. He is kind, but don't push him.

Don't ever think that you are unequal footing with him, and by all means don't threaten him. the most powerful person on the planet is blaspheming Yahweh and saying, I'm gonna wipe out all your cities and all your people. And the Lord speaks and says, when he hears a certain report, I'll make him wanna return to his own country. And there I will have him cut down with the sword.

Not only am I not gonna freak out because he's coming, I already can see his end. And that's God right now in every news story and every headline in your life. I'm not gonna freak out with the headline and I can already see the end of all of it.

When the field commander heard that the king of Assyria had left Lakeish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Lebanon. And then he goes on to talk about Sonakirah being on the way. So he sent his messengers coming over here to the end of verse 9 to Hezekiah with this word, say to Hezekiah, King of Judah, do not let the God you depend on deceive you. So Sinacarib is sending a message and messengers to Hezekiah on his way still, even though the Lord has spoken, saying, do not let the God you depend on, deceive you when he says Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. Have you ever been in this place in life where God said one thing, but people said something else and you're stuck in the middle?

Where God said, this is what I'm going to do. But the people said, oh, don't count on God. You can't trust him. God's not going to come through for you. And you're like, wait a minute, I have a word from God. But now I also got some people saying, yeah, don't be deceived by this idea that God's going to save you and God's going to help you. So his eye is kind of stuck in the middle. And here's his response. Just skip over a few verses to verse 14. We're doing a little work right now. Can you tell your neighbor we're doing a little work right now? But I'm here for it. Can you tell your neighbor?

If you're not, that's okay too, but if you're here for it, can you tell your neighbor, we're doing a little work right now, but that's okay, I'm here for it. No, okay, that's fine, that's fine, that's all right. I'm good. Hezekiah received a letter from the messenger's what letter? The one that said, don't be deceived, your God's not gonna save you. And he read it.

And when he read it, here is the fork in the road. When he read the letter, here's what he did. he went up to the temple of the Lord and he spread it out before the Lord.

He takes the letter from the messengers, don't be deceived by thinking that your God's gonna come and help you because he's not gonna save you and Jerusalem.

You're surely inaccurate. He takes it up to the temple and he puts it on the altar before God.

And then he prays. Sadly, we pray at the end. He prayed at the beginning. Oftentimes we pray when there's nothing else to do. He prayed before he did anything. He prayed to the Lord, Lord, the God of Israel. Now we're gonna come down at just a moment because I think

We're working out all the work here. We're gonna rate this prayer from a one being terrible to attend being heaven is leaning on the edge of their seat right now, and stuff's about to happen. I'm gonna let you score it with me. We're not judging you as a guy, which is this a thing, which is trying to keep people leaned in here because we're doing the work.

Lord, the God of Israel enthroned between the cherubum. You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth You have made heaven and earth, give your Lord and hear. Open your eyes, Lord, and see. Listen to the words Sannakarab has sent me to ridicule not me, but to ridicule you, the living God.

Is it true, Lord? It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations in their lands, so that there is stuff happening, that's real, we're acknowledging it. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone. They were throwing the idols of all the northern kingdom cities and towns into the fire. Gods of wood and stone fashioned by human hands. Now Lord our God, deliver us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, alone Lord, are God. Do it, Lord, for your glory. Do it, Lord, for your fame. Do it, Lord, so that every eye will see that you truly are the Lord.

God, Almighty. Amen. How do you think he did? 11 plus. What a prayer. What a prayer. And that prayer was the crossroad. I got a word. I got a threat. And I have God. And the God I'm worshiping sits between the cherubim. He's not stone. He's not straw. He's not wood. He's not made with human hands. He's sitting between the cherubim. And I'm going to call on him and God answers. So how did the sons of Korah write a song of praise when the back drop was Sennacherib coming to wipe out their city. We're answering that question right now because they had a word from God. And I'm asking you today, do you have a word from God?

I know you got threats. I know you got all kinds of stuff running through your mind. I'm asking you today, can you reset to the word that God has spoken for your life? So just fast forward, we're still in 2 Kings 19. And this is, we're just chopping up to the very end here. Read all of it today. It's wonderful. Once more, a remnant of the Kingdom of Judah will take root below. In other words, there's going to be a future here and bear fruit above. You're going to take root below and bear fruit above. Let that be a word for 2026. Let that be a many message inside the message today. Let that be a sentence-long sermon that you can carry all year long.

If you return to God, if you put your hope in Him, if you get a word from God for your life, you can take root below and bear fruit above. And it starts with roots below and then you get fruit above. So don't go into the year going. I got no roots, but I'd love some fruit. No, you need to go work on some roots. But if you got roots below, you're going to get fruit above. And that could be the theme of your year this year. Roots below, fruit above. Yes, there was a wipe out. Yes, the locus came. Yes, the land looks barren, but God gives back what the locus have eaten. There can be roots below and fruit above in 2026.

For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant and out of Mount Zion, a band of survivors, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. This is not going to be by might or by power. This is going to be by my spirit says the Lord. This is not going to be by what you can do. This is going to be what I can do. And I'm on it.

I gotcha. I'm on it. He, Sennacherib, most powerful man on earth right now, terrorizing everybody in his path will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with a shield or build a siege ramp that's an important phrase or word to see against it. In these days, you wouldn't typically come in and drop a artillery You would come in with hundreds of thousands of people and surround a walled city, and then you would just sit there for a month or six months as long as it took, and you'd just starve them out. You build a ramp up that might take you four or five months to build a rubble ramp up to the top of the wall, and then you just march on up to the top of it.

Siege the city, coming around it from every side. By the way that he came, Sannacherib, he will return. He will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it for my sake. That's what motivates God. And for the sake of David, my servant, it'll be for your good, but ultimately it'll also be for my glory is what God's saying. That night, the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 in

The Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies. So Sinacoreb, King of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned and in of a, and stayed there. And God, knowing the beginning from the end, already knew this is 701 BC, that in 680 BC, 21 years later, you can look it up in the history books, not in the Bible.

While he was worshiping in the temple of his God, lowercase God, Nistraq, I encourage you, just to say again, you can look this up in history books, not just in the Bible, although it is in the Bible, also. His sons, Adremelec and Cheriza killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat, and Earshad and his sons exceeded him as king.

That's the word of the Lord. And that's what allowed Hezekiah and the sons of Korah to say, we will not fear. Why? Because we're strong? No. Because we took a pump yourself up course? No. Because we stuck our heads in the sand or we tried to numb ourselves by all the calamity. No. We cannot fear because we have a word from God. Be still is the word. and know that I am God. Some translations say cease striving and know that I am God. Another translation coming out of the Hebrew could be let go and know that I am God. And know that I am God is translated more accurately, acknowledge as you ascertain by seeing that I am God.

In other words, let God give you sight to who he is and what he's done, to the ways he's acted and what he's promised you, to his faithfulness in the past that you can have confidence in the future. If I can just say again, this verse, does anybody ever claim this verse be still and know that I'm God? Does anybody ever held onto this, underlined it, sent it to a friend, memorized it? Ten people, surely some more people than that have been around this verse. Can I just show a hands everywhere? Can I encourage you because they wouldn't have entered our thinking that people for 2,726 years have held onto that verse?

Not since the printing of the Bible. For 2,726 years, believers in God have said, be still, see striving, let go, and acknowledge by your ability to ascertain by sight, see the faithfulness of God, the character of God, the trustworthiness of God through time and through history. No. that he is God. Reset to that in the midst of whatever you're facing in life. Let go and acknowledge as you ascertain by seeing that I am God. There are three movements in this psalm. We've already seen them. God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear. Sayla, the first thing that we're seeing in the first movement of this Psalm is that God is our refuge.

Can you say that today and really understand? My plans, not my policy that I've organized, not my bank account, God is my refuge. A rich man's walls are an imagination or are fortified in his imagination is what the scriptures say. That a lot of people think, my fortress is all the stuff I've got stuck around. But all that stuff can be gone in a heartbeat. Our fortress, our refuge is God. And here's what he wants to ask today, when you're taking that sailor, that deep breath that drawing it old in, I want to ask you this question today, how many of you believe you're saved? How many of you believe that you are saved? You know, I'm saved.

How many of you believe that God has raised you from the grave, raised you from sin, death, darkness, hell, and all of his power? How many of you believe that? How many of you know that God is gonna take you from earth to heaven? You're not sure how you're gonna make that journey, but when you take your last breath on earth, you're gonna take your next breath in the presence of God, in glory, in the promised land, with God Almighty, you know it. Breathe last year, breathe next year, raise from the dead into eternal life, saved out of my Santa into the beauty of his grace. If you believe that, why can't you believe that God's got you now?

Why can't I believe that God is gonna lead me and cover me? No matter what siege comes against me. See, we're confident. These are going to take us to heaven. But why don't we have the same confidence that he's going to take us to tomorrow?

We're confident that he raised us up out of death, but why can't we be just as confident that he's going to raise us up on Monday? He is our refuge, this God, and our strength and ever-present help and trouble. The second movement says there's a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

The holy place for the most high dwellers. God is within her, she will not fall. What is this second section saying? It's simply saying what we've been singing. I know the Lord will provide.

And if we dug all the way underneath this today, it's so powerful. This imagery is so beautiful because the way God saved ultimately the people from Sinacarib was by the angel that went out into the camp. And that's the straw that broke the camel's back. But before that, they survived the siege. And you know how they diverted water from the Gishon spring, the largest spring in the area that actually allowed Jerusalem to be what it was. A source of water that is named Gishon meant to gush. I mean, huge water source outside the city wall that supplied all of Jerusalem with its sustenance. And when Hezekiah, who was 25 years old when he became king, think about that.

25-year-olds here today. That's how old he was when he became King and Judah. His dad was wicked before him, but he followed the ways of God and honored him. And he thought to himself, some acrobs on the way, he's going to try to siege and service. But we got Gishon. We got a source of water. You know what? Gishon's named after? Gishon is named after one of the four rivers in Eden.

When God created paradise, there were four rivers there. And one of them was the river Gishon. And from that original source that God had made, they named this source when they found it.

And Hezekiah said, I got a plan. He set people to dig down into the ground at the source, at Gishon at the spring. And inside the city walls, 1750 feet apart.

Six football fields apart, and they started digging by hand, 701 BC, and they met in the middle. Digging a tunnel, this is wide as a human shoulder, in about six to eight feet high. You can go walk through it if you'd like to. It's open and available, you can buy a ticket and walk through if you don't mind small, tight, damp spaces because you're walking through ankle to knee deep water the whole time. For a while, in a few places you have stern sideways, in a few places you have scoot down. So if you're one of those people, then like elevators, Do you watch videos of it on your computer when you get home today?

I've been down in it the little tight space, but walking through there with a headlamp on and just imagining.

God's gonna provide. And he's already given us a word. But that doesn't mean we're gonna take a nap and sit back in the easy chair and go, we're just gonna let go and let God. No, he has a guy that said, I got an idea.

They diverted the waters from the spring through the tunnel underground into the walls of the city. And then he built a pool called the Pool of Psyelome. And the pool was big enough to become a reservoir that captured the water so that they had a source that month after month after month when all of Sennacherib's hundreds of thousands were seeding them. They were inside going, thank you Lord, that there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place for the most high dwells. God is within her. She will not fail.

You can read about that in the Kings and Chronicles, the little summary statements about Sennacherib. Second Chronicles 32, 30, and Second Kings 20 and 21. You can see the two little snapshots. He dug the tunnel, he made the pool, he diverged the spring. This great wise king, Hezekiah. 701, BC, do you know when they found Hezekiah's tunnel?

I have the exact date, somewhere around the 1830s, 200 years ago. So for all those centuries, it's just fact according to the Word of God. 200 years ago, hello, would you all like to go down and walk through as a guise tonal? We found it. don't count God out in your story. They might not have found your tunnel yet, but don't count God out. It doesn't matter how many circumstances are seeding around you. God still can bring a stream to you in the midst of it. He can still get sustenance to you in the midst of it. I know the Lord will provide. And so I'm gonna sing a song of praise right in the middle of the situation because my God said, I will.

I will. When God doubles down, you need to lean in. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. I'm going to ultimately reign. So you can know I'm your fortress. You can know the Lord will provide. And you can know that I will be exalted at the end of the day. What does that mean? It means just sit back and watch. Dig a tunnel while you're doing it. But just take a deep breath. Understand that you don't have to run the universe and just watch God because God is going to be exalted among every people, every nation, every tribe, and every tongue. He is going to be preached on every continent.

He is going to be praised in every corner of this world and at the end of the day. He is going to be standing alone as God of all. And if you lean your life towards him and make that the aim of your life, I will exalt you among the nations. And I will exalt you in the earth. You're just aligning your life with what God has already promised you that he is going to do. If you want to succeed, align your life with what God has already told you he is going to do.

And he's going to be exalted. You're like, well, I'm not going to exalt him. Well, that'll be sad for you. when you realize that even you who denied him every day of your life will say to him at the end of your life, you in fact are Lord of lords.

Every knee will bow, every knee, every single knee, and every tongue will confess in heaven and on earth and under the earth that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father, sonacareb will, and everybody else will, because God will be exalted. So if he's inviting you today to let go and let God, and I know you're thinking, man, that sounds like a bumper sticker, and not like some real truth.

Well, that simply means it's a phrase that means to surrender your worries, your self-will, and your need for control to God, trusting in his power and plan instead of your own limited ability, finding peace by relinquishing outcomes and trusting divine provision. Let go and let God. So I wonder, what do we need to let go of today to get the reset?

A couple of things, maybe fear. Does anybody need to let go of fear? It's cousins freak out, panic. Or maybe you've just taken the other route that I'm gonna numb myself with whatever I've chosen to do that with. So I don't have to feel any of the heat that's coming

And he's saying, just let go of fear. And let me give you face. Let me give you a word and put your trust in that word. Maybe you need to let go of control. Control is what happens when we fear. If you fear something, you're looking for a way to control.

And the enemy will play right into that and say, man, you better take the wheel right here.

But I heard Carrie Underwood speaking to me the other day and she said, did I should let Jesus take the wheel? And I'm telling you, it's more than a song people. You wouldn't believe the reset that comes when you realize the enemy's convincing me to take the wheel right now, but that's probably the worst thing that could happen right now. It's for me to have the wheel.

Jesus, I'm gonna relinquish control and surrender to you, and I wanna believe that you're gonna take the wheel right now. And when you do that, when you relinquish control to God, then he gives you peace. Someone needs to relinquish bitterness and unforgiveness. You need to let go. Your reset in 2026, hello, is to let go of the bitterness.

I always say that with a measure, because stuff hurts. It's real. But for you, the reset to be still and know that I am God, is to let go of the unforgiveness.

And to extend grace to mirror your father and to extend grace. Not excuse, not excuse.

God never excused my sin, but he did extend grace to me. John Bevere said that forgiveness is an excusing wrong behavior. It's refusing to let it control you.

Somebody needs to release overthinking. They say that's becoming problematic with the younger generations, so much information, so many options, so many potential outcomes. I don't know what to do. I don't want to get it wrong, paralyzed by overthinking. And God's saying, just let go of all that. The Lord Almighty is with you.

The God of Jacob is your fortress. Just take a step in confidence today with what God put in your hands and build with Him with what He put in your hands today.

Somebody needs to release frustration. You think your life should look like right now. I need to relinquish that to God and say, you know what? If it were up to me, it wouldn't look like this. I also recognize that there is a river whose dreams make glad the city of God and I'm going to choose joy and where you have me right now while I trust and where you're going to lead me in the future. Happiness is a slippery slope, but joy is a deep reserve that comes from Gishaan, from the gushing stream and spring of God that is within us that says, you know what, I wouldn't have picked this hand to play, but God Almighty is in my story right now, and

His eyes are on me. And I'm gonna trust Him every day in my life. I'll close. I've got to wrap up. But I just want to say again, I've shared this at Passion City Church a lot of times. But the first time I really understood, be still and know that I am God, it was through what God had made in nature. And a lot of the world we live in serves that purpose. We don't let it a lot of times. But the reason why there's a cosmos that's bigger than the wisest astronomers understanding Can I say that again, that we live in a cosmos that's bigger than the wisest astronomers understanding of how big it is?

There's a reason for that. And it's so that people who feel like the world is closing in on them can look up into the dark night sky and realize that the one who spoke all those stars, if he's in their story, they're not gonna fall.

Shelling our big fans of the Northern Lights. One of the things running in the background on my phone, no joke. This is crazy, given that I live in Atlanta, Georgia. Come on. One of the things running in the background is this app right here, Norway Lights. Yeah, it's great. You can check it before you go. You want to go to Lofoten? Okay, great. Don't go today. It says try today. Go tomorrow. Green, go. Go the next day, go. So if you've got some sky miles just laying around and you're off work for the holiday, just you might want to go to Lofoten and see the Northern Lights. It's try. Lingen, go. Yeah, go. Go there, Tramso, go.

Hegelund, go, I got this open. Why? Because we do stuff like that. We went on a weekend. We did. We used sky-mails on a weekend. Left on a thirst. Went to Oslo, flew to Tromso, above the Arctic Circle, went out in the night on a fishing troller with a guy into the Arctic Ocean at night looking for the Northern Lights. We're into it.

Brad and I've been out there. We've seen him. Brittany went to Iceland to see him. Anybody seen the Northern Lights, by the way? Okay, great. Four people. It's beautiful, amazing, powerful.

It all started when I was speaking at a youth revival in Anchorage, about 1990. Shelley and I were living in Waco, Texas. I was a young communicator guy. spoke that night, beautiful night. We went to me and a couple of other of the guys that were running the event to this pizza place at our mall. So we pull into the mall parking lot, we go in the mall entrance, we go out to escalator and the pizza place on the second floor, windows out the parking lot, we're having pizza, I'm sitting with them back to the window, guy that's running the things, talking, we're all just talking about Jesus, what happened at night, amazing, the guy, I'm not kidding, looks out the window, drops his pizza on the pan, grabs us while it opens it up, just grabs water 20s and throws them on the table and says, let's go right now.

And I mean, he gets up in bolts and the other two people get up in bolt. And I have no clue what's going on. I've never bolted out of a pizza restaurant before, so I don't really know what the etiquette is here. And I'm just trying to catch up with them. They're going down the escalator. I'm trying to catch up. They're running to the car. And I'm like, it's not like we didn't pay the bill. I saw you put the money down. So why are we running to the car? And he goes, it's the lights. And I'm like, oh, OK, we get in the car a little yesterday and four of us, and we start driving, and we're driving out of town.

And he's just barreling it down the town. I said, where are we going? He goes to the airport. I go, why are we going to the airport? It's the darkest place in Anchorage. They got it because they just want you to be able to see the little red lights and the green lights on the runway without any other competing lights around. So we turn, and now we're going down, where there's a fence on one side. I think the runways are over there. It's pitch dark. There are trees all along here. And we're just flying down the road till we get to where he thinks this is the darkest place we can get to on the road.

Bring the car to a stop. We all get out. And we all look up. And when we look up, this is going on in the sky above us.

I was just like, whoa. You don't normally see the northern lights out of window in a shopping mall with big bright lights in the parking lot. That's not how you go look for the lights. But he knew and he could see him out the pizza restaurant window. It's gonna be a banger.

And for two hours. Oh, no, you're just not looking at that like your screensaver. These things would go, you like that? Watch this. He's that was cool? Watch this one.

How about this one? And for hours, we're just like, And I'm running. I'm just running down the road. I'm running this way. I'm running this way. I'm running this way. I'm like, what is going on? I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. We have a light show at Stone Mountain. I'm just running. I'm losing my mind. I'm going crazy. I'm like, what is happening?

They're even losing their minds. We get in the car. They take me to my motel. True story. 1990. I'm just sitting on the bed. It's 130 in Anchorage, Alaska. And I'm like, I got to tell Shirley. I got to tell her right now. I get my time stamp. I get my long distance calling card out

Into phone. Anybody? And I dial the 800 number. My long distance calling card. Get the dial tone, dial our home phone number, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, come on babe, come on, come on, come on, come on. It's a babe, it's me. Me, it's me.

What time is it? I think it's like 3.30 there. I'm sorry. What's wrong? Nothing's wrong, babe. Nothing's wrong, babe. I just saw the Northern Lights. I just saw the Northern Lights. We drove out by the airport and we saw the Northern Lights, babe. I'm telling you, I've never seen anything like it in my life before. At this point in my life, I slept at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and woken up to see the stars that you thought you could pluck out of the sky from a mile down in the earth. I'd seen the Alps before, but I'd never seen anything that moved me like this. I said, baby, it's incredible. It was so awesome.

It's incredible. She's like, ah, that's good. Sorry to wake you up. I love you. And I just laid there on the bed. My heart was just beating out of my chest. I got to the check-in counter the next morning because the event had ended and I was flying home. The delty lady, nice lady said, how are you doing today? And I said, I didn't sleep all night. She said, you saw the lights. I said, I did. She said, oh my gosh, they were amazing last night.

I said, I'll never get over it. And what it did is it just absolutely blanketed me in something that I didn't know how to articulate. That is, God is so great. He is so beyond our comprehension. He puts on light shows that absolutely will shut down the process of your brain. He is so creative, so wonderful, so powerful, so supernatural. And it just blanketed me with a piece in the sense that I am a peon in this world.

But I'm loved by God, and the God of the ages is within me. And the God of Jacob is my fortress. Be still. Say la. And no. A knowledge.

By ascertaining by sight that I am God and watch the recent that happens even if you're under siege.