What’s the problem in outer space?  The problem in outer space is weightlessness.  You are just floating.  There is something good about the pressure of gravity.  Likewise, there is something good about the pressure of trials.  It keeps us tethered to God, not just floating here, there and yonder.

I don’t want you to miss the faith formula.  Watch it again.  Evaluation, if I am considering it a true deposit in my account, as I see it through the eyes of faith, that’s a good thing.  If I multiply that with information, if I am knowing God is working and tie dying for something beautiful, it’s a wonderful thing.

On top of that, if you factor in cooperation and conversation, then what?  I am going to be spiritually mature.  So when people check you out, what do they see?  Do they see somebody with baggy shorts, blue sunglasses and a visor on who kind of looks the part of an extreme athletic Christian?

But in reality, maybe you are like me, a forty year old who cannot even skate?  Do they see that, or do they say, “There goes someone whose look and lifestyle match.  There goes someone who is applying the formula of faith.”

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What kind of trial are you going through right now?  What?  Right now, you know, your mind is locking on the trials.  Let me tell you another great thing about a trial.  When we go through trials and we handle them with this formula, it will afford us the opportunity to help others through similar trials.

About four to six years ago, I had someone very close to me really mess me around.  It hurt me deeply.  I cannot describe to you what it did.  I think I handled that situation with this formula.  I think I handled it by the grace of God in the right way.  But I still think I have some scars in my life after going through that experience.  I oftentimes wonder, “God, why in the world are you taking me through this tie-dying process with this person.

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What was going on?  What was happening?  This mountain in the dessert became sort of a symbol in my life that pointed me to worship.  It was as if God was saying, “Ed, you have 110 hours every week.  Think about this mountain.  Think about your progress.  Reflect me and mirror me in all that you do and that you say.”

And that is precisely the direction in which we are going over then next few minutes.  I want to help you through the Bible, God’s revealed word to us.  I want to assist you in becoming keenly aware of the things in your life, the significant symbols that God has placed in your path to point you to worship.

I’ll begin by asking you this question.  How many of you love to snow ski?  Raise your hands.  I have skied one time in my life, fifteen years ago.  It was a lot of fun and hopefully I will do it again one day.

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Let me explain a little bit.  Over the last ten days I led a group of 114 people from the Fellowship Church to Israel.  We had a wonderful time of touring and walking where Jesus walked.  I got up early one morning.

We were staying in a beautiful hotel situated on the Dead Sea, which happens to be the lowest point on earth.  I needed a workout and decided to climb a nearby mountain.  I put on my shorts and my hiking boots and hit the mountain.  The first portion was an easy climb.  No problem.  Just a walk in the park.  Someone had painted little markers on the boulders along the way to indicate where to go.

It did get to be difficult however.  I found myself on all fours.  There were rockslides.  I even wondered what I had done deciding to climb that mountain.  Wouldn’t that be classic.

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But if I begin to say yes to my needs, that’s where I mess up because I’m the leader.  God has given me as the husband the responsibility, the authority in our relationship.  I’m not talking about superiority. I’m talking about authority.  Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.  Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord.  Get your “as” in gear.

Now, let me talk to singles.  If you’re single, lift your hand.  Say yes, singles, to spouse selection God’s way.  If you’re a believer, only hook up with believers, only date believers.  You can fall in love with the wrong person.  Can you imagine being hooked up with an unbeliever in marriage, just for a second?

Let’s say you’re a believer, you fall in love with this nonbeliever, and you say to yourself, “I can change this person; they need me; I can tweak them.  Yeah, they say they’re a Christian.  He only has a little anger problem.  I can change him.”

Okay, let’s say you say yes to one another before God and the witnesses.  You’re a believer, the other person is not.  Try raising kids.  Try building a house with two sets of plans.  Try reconciliation.  Try communication.  Try sex.  You’re going to fall down the staircase of life.  Your marriage will never hit on all cylinders; it’s not going to happen.

Don’t you see the genius of God?  God said, “Only hook up with believers.”  God was not talking about spiritual apartheid; he was not being capricious or cruel; he was not being discriminatory. He was being loving.  So a lot of you men and women, single men and women, you’ve got to say yes to doing it God’s way.  Say, “Yes, I’m going to wait for sex until marriage.

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Isn’t it hilarious seeing these people locked in the 80’s? They still wear the short shorts.  I’m like, “Brother, shorts are long now!” Lisa has a picture on her screen saver of me in college.  I had these ridiculously short shorts on. And my kids say, “Dad, you look like an idiot.” Some people still wear short shorts though, I can’t believe it.

Anyway, we have these long shorts we’ll give you. Give you! And these cool tee shirts with “Fellowship Church” on them. We’ll give them to you.  We have robes. We won’t give you the robes, though. You’ll have to give them back. We have changing rooms for the men and the women. A lot of you are hesitating; you’re doing the Heisman pose when it comes to baptism. You need to enter the waters of the New Testament baptism. We’re going to have a spontaneous baptismal service after this service. You’ve heard of spontaneous combustion? This is spontaneous baptism, Owen.

So, our pastors will be in our baptismal pool. Isn’t that a beautiful place to be baptized, out there by the lake?  It’s unbelievable, isn’t it!

Owen: It is.  I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.

Ed: I haven’t either.  I haven’t either.  And Owen, we’ve baptized a lot of people. And we’ve not lost, you know, a person yet, have we?

Owen: No.

Ed: No, we haven’t. It’s a great record! 15 years of baptism, haven’t lost one person.

Owen: That’s great!

Ed: So in a couple of moments, many I believe will be baptized. And this a very, very special time; a defining moment. And some of the pastors will be in the baptismal pool.  It’s warm.  The water’s clean. We can check it all the time.  Everything’s healthy and all that.  No water moccasins in there.  Okay?

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But Nehemiah said, “When I saw their fear, I rose and spoke to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people: ‘Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses.’”

That’s why I encourage you to journal your prayers, so you can go back and remember. Whenever God wants to build and construct stuff in your life, it’s always about what? It’s always about worship. What is worship? Is it what we do here on Saturday and Sundays and First Wednesdays? Yeah, but it’s much more. Worship is a 24/7 commodity. Everything we do, say, touch, and feel should be an act of worship.

So when God constructs stuff, he’s always constructing stuff about worship in your life and mine. So the way I treat my wife, my kids; the way I steward my finances; the way I live, breathe, talk, and walk—it’s all an act of worship.

So we’ve got the wrong they, and the wrong they is always wants based. The right they are always needs based.

Well, Nehemiah, being a great leader, takes the people where they need to go, not where they want to go. Great leaders take people not where they want to go, but where they need to go.

Fifteen years ago I didn’t want to come to Dallas/Fort Worth. I didn’t want to come up here and help start Fellowship Church. Not in the belt buckle of the Bible belt. Not me. I wanted to go to southern California or south Florida where the fish are big and wild. Dallas/Fort Worth? I mean I like the city and all that, but I wanted to go to California. I wanted to go to Florida, not Dallas Fort Worth.

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Well, if you know anything about the Hebrew language, the word, the phrase “ha” symbolizes the breath of God. Thus, after Abram had this covenant going on with God, he had the “ha,” breath of God on his life. Be careful how you pronounce that, because you might spit on your neighbor’s back. But Abraham had the touch of God was on his life. He was in covenant with God. A covenant means a blood bond of life and death. It means “to cut.”

Now, fast forward if you would over to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel Chapter 18 3-4. We’re going to talk about another covenant. “And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.”

Well that’s interesting. Back in this day, covenants occurred often. David and Jonathan exchanged robes. That illustrated the fact that they were becoming one. They exchanged belts. That illustrated the fact that they were helping one another with their weaknesses. They exchanged weapons. That paralleled the fact that they were going to fight each other’s enemies.

Then they took an animal, you guessed it, cut the animal down the middle, arranged the parts of the animal opposite one another, got back to back and they walked through the bloody halves of the animal in a figure eight—illustrating the eternal nature of the covenant. They were also saying to God, “God, if we break this covenant you do to us what we did to these animals.” It was called the “walk of death”. Put that in your frontal lobe. The walk of death.

Then, after they did the walk of death, they took one another’s names. And then on top of that, they made a public pronouncement, “Hey, we’re in covenant together; a blood bond of life and death.” Then they shared a covenant meal.

A covenant, don’t miss it, is a blood bond of life and death.

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That’s eternal slothfulness.  And, because of that, Felix never stepped over the line of faith.

So, I want to ask you just point-blank: as the Holy Spirit goes subsurface in your life, what has he pointed out?  What stump or stumps have you impaled?

At this point, some of you are going, “Okay…I know that.  I believe that.”  But this series is about what?  A-C-T-I-O-N.  It’s about action!

It’s great to know the promises of God; it’s great to know that we’re delivered.  It’s great to believe it. But how do we activate that?  Here’s the good news!  I’ve been delivered; so have you!  How do we walk in deliverance?  Remember, we don’t fight for deliverance.  We fight from deliverance.  We don’t fight for victory.  We fight from victory.  Because our victory and deliverance was secured on the cross 2000 years ago.  But, how do we activate that?  Because a lot of us are paddling, rocking our boats back and forth, cranking the motor up. But it’s not going anywhere.  What do we do?

You remember Jesus in John chapter 5?  He was walking in Jerusalem and he walked by a pool.  This was not like a swimming pool.  This was a pool that was unique to his day.  You had a bunch of crippled people around the pool, and everybody knew they were on like the brink of a miracle when you were with Jesus, the miracle-worker. They were wondering, “What’s he going to do next?”

He walks up to a guy who’s been crippled for 38 years, and he asks this man a weird question.  Check this question out in John 5:6:  “Do you want to get well?”

I mean, come on! At the first reading, that is a strange question.  Jesus is asking someone who’s been crippled for 38 years, “Hey, uh, do you want to get well?”

I’m thinking, “What do you think?!”

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