Wondering how to make God the priority in times of trouble and uncertainty? Listen as Tim Hooper explores practical methods for seeking God's guidance, the power of proclamation, and the transformative effects of prayer and praise in the face of challenges.

Find the rest of the conference videos in the church app.

Scriptures Referenced

2 Chronicles 20:1-12; Job 42:3-5; Psalm 25:15; Matthew 6:33; Ephesians 1:18

About Springhouse

If you’re looking for a church in Smyrna, TN that is focused on Loving Big, Living Truth, and Healthy Family, we’d love to connect with you. We are home to a vibrant children’s ministry, powerful middle school and youth ministries, and incredible ministries for men and women of all ages. Our local and global outreaches include partnerships with missionaries in the US and abroad, Isaiah 117 House, local retirement communities, and more. 

Additionally, we are home to Springhouse Theatre, an award-winning theatre in the Nashville area. Through the theatre, we serve both the greater Nashville theatre community, and thousands of patrons each year, and we are expanding our vision to impact the culture through the arts into additional mediums and through an expanding network of relationships.

We would love it if you would consider joining us in person for one of our Sunday gatherings.

Additional Resources

• Follow the podcast to listen on the go
• Tithes & Offerings
• Join our livestream
• Church website
• Download the church app

Gathering Times

• Sundays, 9:00 AM
• Sundays, 10:30 AM

Contact Info

Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167

615-459-3421

CCLI License 2070006

Speaker: 00:00:06

Kevin O'Dea: Come on. Come on. Come on. Give him praise. Hallelujah. Yeah.

Speaker: 00:00:13

Kevin O'Dea: And you have access to that God. You have

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Kevin O'Dea: access to that God. Man, God has been so good. If you have, if

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Kevin O'Dea: you've been in attendance to the conference in any shape, any of the days,

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Kevin O'Dea: would you just lift your hand? You've you've been a participant. Has it been a

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Kevin O'Dea: good week? Has it been a good week? Good. Good. I'm so

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Kevin O'Dea: glad, and I'm so thankful to, everyone who has,

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Kevin O'Dea: come and all of the work that has gone behind the scenes.

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Kevin O'Dea: The worship team has done a phenomenal job leading us. All of you

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Kevin O'Dea: people up in the loft that have been working behind the scenes in the tech

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Kevin O'Dea: areas, we so appreciate you. All of the volunteers

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Kevin O'Dea: who have worked with our kids and our teens all week

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Kevin O'Dea: long have done a phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal

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Kevin O'Dea: job. All of the people manning the tables, the ministries,

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Kevin O'Dea: we are so just so grateful. It takes an army to be able to

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Kevin O'Dea: do, what we did this week, and I'm so grateful. I do want

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Kevin O'Dea: to recognize a few key individuals,

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Kevin O'Dea: that I believe really just, there would be no conference

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Kevin O'Dea: without without these with the without these people. So if you are

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Kevin O'Dea: Joshua McLeod, would you come? If you are Dustin Theater

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Kevin O'Dea: individuals, have been here, you know, of course

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Kevin O'Dea: the paid staff is here through the week working on things, but these these

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Kevin O'Dea: guys have just been laboring behind the scenes,

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Kevin O'Dea: tirelessly, very joyfully, tirelessly,

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Kevin O'Dea: tying balloons, blowing balloons, cooking dinners, getting things organized,

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Kevin O'Dea: saying God this way, that way, and stay here, and don't do that, and do

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Kevin O'Dea: this, and all of those things. And, what I

Speaker: 00:02:10

Kevin O'Dea: love so much about this group is that if we

Speaker: 00:02:14

Kevin O'Dea: didn't do this moment, your treasure would've been in heaven and

Speaker: 00:02:17

Kevin O'Dea: you're totally fine. But I believe that the word says, render honor

Speaker: 00:02:21

Kevin O'Dea: where honor is due. And you guys, we just honor you. I thank you for

Speaker: 00:02:25

Kevin O'Dea: making helping make the vision of All Access Conference come to

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Kevin O'Dea: fruition, for putting up with my shenanigans, and all of the all of

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Kevin O'Dea: the staff and working with us. You guys are the

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Kevin O'Dea: best. Would you guys show your appreciation and love for this team?

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Kevin O'Dea: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker: 00:02:56

Kevin O'Dea: God is good and God saves the very best right now and I don't wanna

Speaker: 00:03:00

Kevin O'Dea: take any more time from our guest speaker. Would you please welcome Tim

Speaker: 00:03:03

Kevin O'Dea: Hooper?

Tim Hooper: 00:03:10

Love you.

Tim Hooper: 00:03:15

God is good, amen? Come

Tim Hooper: 00:03:18

thou fountain of every blessing, prone to

Tim Hooper: 00:03:22

wander, Lord, I feel it. It's so good to be in this place, but you

Tim Hooper: 00:03:25

know, we are in a broken world.

Tim Hooper: 00:03:29

We're in a broken world. It's so good to be reminded of who God

Tim Hooper: 00:03:33

is. Amen? Did they do a good job or what? Wow.

Tim Hooper: 00:03:37

Every book of the Bible, God is something to us. In

Tim Hooper: 00:03:41

our relationship with him, the spirit relating and speaking to

Tim Hooper: 00:03:44

us speaks into the moment who God is for us

Tim Hooper: 00:03:48

in that moment. And there's no way

Tim Hooper: 00:03:52

I can take any of what I've written scribbled and chicken scratch and crossed

Tim Hooper: 00:03:56

out and added to and said, God, maybe this direction or maybe that direction. There's

Tim Hooper: 00:04:00

no way that I can take that and apply it to this group

Tim Hooper: 00:04:04

today. So I pray, pour it out and

Tim Hooper: 00:04:08

God would you just fill this pray, would you come meet with us today?

Tim Hooper: 00:04:12

That's our prayer in Jesus' name. So praise God

Tim Hooper: 00:04:15

for everything that's already happened in the conference. Barby was

Tim Hooper: 00:04:19

preaching last night and said, the 3rd day wonderful things

Tim Hooper: 00:04:23

happen. And it was funny because as I was reading back through theatre

Tim Hooper: 00:04:26

text for today, there was a 3rd day in there. And I was

Tim Hooper: 00:04:30

like, Wow. And then it said in on the 4th pray. And so we're God

Tim Hooper: 00:04:33

get to that. So you are here on the 4th day. Can I get an

Tim Hooper: 00:04:36

amen? You're here on the 4th pray. It's been amazing. And

Tim Hooper: 00:04:40

I don't take for granted being put at the tail end of anything.

Tim Hooper: 00:04:44

I come from a big family and we pray that,

Tim Hooper: 00:04:49

that you exercise faith being at the tail end of the family because the

Tim Hooper: 00:04:52

Hebrews says, you know, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the

Tim Hooper: 00:04:56

evidence of things not seen. And, if you were at the tail end of the

Tim Hooper: 00:05:00

family, that was the platter of meat. It was the substance of things hoped

Tim Hooper: 00:05:03

for on that end of the table. And when it got down to you, it's

Tim Hooper: 00:05:06

was the evidence of things not seen. So, you know, being at the tail

Tim Hooper: 00:05:10

end, I don't take for granted, but if you were not able to hear some

Tim Hooper: 00:05:14

of the messages. I got to sit in Kevin's house yesterday

Tim Hooper: 00:05:17

afternoon and he just poured his heart out about the Spirit

Tim Hooper: 00:05:21

of don't pray in the hallway, God's door is wide open

Tim Hooper: 00:05:25

and oftentimes we've built the hallway all access to Him.

Tim Hooper: 00:05:29

And then he Holy me about, he said, if you get the chance to go

Tim Hooper: 00:05:32

watch Justin's message about putting our entire yes on the table,

Tim Hooper: 00:05:36

just everything, all in. And I will tell you

Tim Hooper: 00:05:40

that that is probably the battleground in all of our hearts,

Tim Hooper: 00:05:43

because right here in this moment, I'm all in. Are we all in this

Tim Hooper: 00:05:47

morning? Yes. We're all in. But the battle

Tim Hooper: 00:05:51

is real. We walk out that door, the battle is real. There is

Tim Hooper: 00:05:55

warfare, spiritual warfare, and somebody in the

Tim Hooper: 00:05:59

enemy's kingdom is saying, oh, pray. What's going on at

Tim Hooper: 00:06:02

Springhouse Church this morning? And they're God be on the lookout, they're gonna be

Tim Hooper: 00:06:06

looking for every opportunity to distract us. And then Barbee came on

Tim Hooper: 00:06:10

the 3rd day and talked about the veil being torn from the

Tim Hooper: 00:06:13

bottom down. It's funny. We're getting on a plane. My son Jeremy is here with

Tim Hooper: 00:06:16

me this morning. We're getting on a plane, first time on a commercial airline.

Tim Hooper: 00:06:20

And we were Ghost looking out the window waiting for our pray, there were several

Tim Hooper: 00:06:23

delays, and we were looking at the fin on the top. And I said, How

Tim Hooper: 00:06:26

thick do you think that thing is? Because we were looking at the wheels, and

Tim Hooper: 00:06:29

you know, we all think an airplane wheel is about this big, but then I

Tim Hooper: 00:06:32

was looking at the ground coordinator with the thing and it's up to here on

Tim Hooper: 00:06:36

him. So, I stood up in the terminal and I'm like, dude, that's like a

Tim Hooper: 00:06:38

tractor tire. Like, these wheels are massive. I said, how thick do you

Tim Hooper: 00:06:42

think that that that fin is? And then Barbie got up here and talked

Tim Hooper: 00:06:45

about horses couldn't even tear. If you tied 2 horses on either side of

Tim Hooper: 00:06:49

that veil, it could not have been torn. But God tore it from

Tim Hooper: 00:06:53

the top down. Only God can tear

Tim Hooper: 00:06:57

the veil of our heart open of the Holy of Holies and give us

Tim Hooper: 00:07:01

all access because of Christ and his finished work on the 3rd

Tim Hooper: 00:07:04

day. And then Kevin got out this morning and literally cut

Tim Hooper: 00:07:08

to the heart of our disappointments.

Tim Hooper: 00:07:12

Our disappointments. And I want to pick up right there where

Tim Hooper: 00:07:16

God and if you didn't get a chance to attend because of work or life

Tim Hooper: 00:07:19

or schedule, please go back. They're right on the line. Watch

Tim Hooper: 00:07:23

from start to finish. Go binge All Access because I

Tim Hooper: 00:07:27

think God does not want us to forget that we have

Tim Hooper: 00:07:30

access. There's only one power in this earthly kingdom

Tim Hooper: 00:07:34

that wants us to forget that we have all access to the throne,

Tim Hooper: 00:07:38

and that is the enemy, and he's a defeated enemy. His days are

Tim Hooper: 00:07:42

numbered, ours are eternal, and if he can just get us to be

Tim Hooper: 00:07:46

distracted from the all access posture we

Tim Hooper: 00:07:49

have, then he can win

Tim Hooper: 00:07:54

some of the battles, because he's already lost the war. So,

Tim Hooper: 00:07:57

go back and binge it. But he talked about the disappointments.

Tim Hooper: 00:08:01

And it was so funny because as I prayed about what to preach, I was

Tim Hooper: 00:08:05

considering John 11 and near to the heart of God, which

Tim Hooper: 00:08:09

you just completely did church a fantastic job with this morning.

Tim Hooper: 00:08:12

It's amazing. But what God gave me was,

Tim Hooper: 00:08:16

Tim, I want you to share the message on where am I

Tim Hooper: 00:08:20

looking? All of us can ask ourselves that question this morning,

Tim Hooper: 00:08:24

where am I looking? And we'll go to the word of God.

Tim Hooper: 00:08:27

In Psalm chapter number 25 verse 15, I'll read this out

Tim Hooper: 00:08:31

of the, NIV version, it's on the screen. If we could all stand, we'll read

Tim Hooper: 00:08:35

this together, and then we'll pray and then get into the message. But

Tim Hooper: 00:08:38

in Psalm chapter number 25, verse 15, David

Tim Hooper: 00:08:42

writes, and we'll read it together, My eyes are

Tim Hooper: 00:08:46

ever on the Lord, for only he

Tim Hooper: 00:08:49

will release my feet from the snare. Let's read it one more time.

Tim Hooper: 00:08:53

My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only

Tim Hooper: 00:08:57

he will release my feet from the snare. You may be seated.

Tim Hooper: 00:09:01

Let's pray. Father, our eyes,

Tim Hooper: 00:09:07

Our eyes, God. Will you just show

Tim Hooper: 00:09:11

us, Lord, like Joshua just got up here and said, Lord,

Tim Hooper: 00:09:16

the complainers and the those

Tim Hooper: 00:09:19

me, the complainer, me, the one who forgets to

Tim Hooper: 00:09:23

worship in the suffering, God, my eyes

Tim Hooper: 00:09:26

quickly are shifted off of you to

Tim Hooper: 00:09:30

the waves around me. Lord, would

Tim Hooper: 00:09:34

your spirit just lovingly and mercifully point out in our hearts

Tim Hooper: 00:09:37

where our eyes are, God. And

Tim Hooper: 00:09:41

will you just help us to shatter all of the

Tim Hooper: 00:09:45

lives of the enemy. All of the

Tim Hooper: 00:09:48

fear that he has spoken

Tim Hooper: 00:09:53

into our lives through maybe the lives of others,

Tim Hooper: 00:09:57

maybe through past hurt, maybe through the disappointments,

Tim Hooper: 00:10:01

but he has caused us to be fearful

Tim Hooper: 00:10:05

of looking up into your loving,

Tim Hooper: 00:10:10

matchless, wonderful face. Would

Tim Hooper: 00:10:13

you shadow those lies? Would you show us where our eyes are this morning?

Tim Hooper: 00:10:17

In your name, your precious name of

Tim Hooper: 00:10:21

Jesus. Amen. So in Psalm, David writes

Tim Hooper: 00:10:24

this, and I thought about our eyes. Scientists tell us that our vision, the sense

Tim Hooper: 00:10:28

of our vision, takes 50% of our brain.

Tim Hooper: 00:10:32

It's it's the it's the Ghost engaged sense is our

Tim Hooper: 00:10:36

eyes, our vision. And you know, our eyes do

Tim Hooper: 00:10:39

not see. Some people say, and I'm going to ask all of us, where are

Tim Hooper: 00:10:42

we looking? Some people say about faith, about God, about belief in God,

Tim Hooper: 00:10:46

they say, well, I'll see it when I believe it. Anybody ever hear that? I'll

Tim Hooper: 00:10:50

see it when I believe it. Well, that's actually a myth, and I'll tell you

Tim Hooper: 00:10:53

why. We bought this old house in Virginia, and

Tim Hooper: 00:10:57

we bought this old house, and it's from 19 thirties. And so, you know, big

Tim Hooper: 00:11:00

massive oak trees, the leaves have fallen, the soil, they've turned to soil, and

Tim Hooper: 00:11:04

the ground, you know, over time, the ground builds up. So the ground has raised

Tim Hooper: 00:11:08

a good foot over the last 80 years. And so the garage

Tim Hooper: 00:11:12

we we we dug it out a little bit and we put pavement in the

Tim Hooper: 00:11:14

garage but the garage, the eaves of the garage hang down just

Tim Hooper: 00:11:18

enough Ghost enough to where a 5 foot, you

Tim Hooper: 00:11:22

know, 10 guy or gal would clear just fine.

Tim Hooper: 00:11:26

But this 5 foot 11 guy doesn't clear just fine. The

Tim Hooper: 00:11:30

problem is my eyes are about 5 foot 7, somewhere in

Tim Hooper: 00:11:33

here. And that 5 foot 11, that little point of my head

Tim Hooper: 00:11:37

is right here. So I come out of the garage and I'm looking down.

Tim Hooper: 00:11:42

Pray I say I was looking? Oh, yeah. Down. So I'm looking down, I come

Tim Hooper: 00:11:45

out of the garage, trying to answer a few texts before I'm in the house.

Tim Hooper: 00:11:48

I walk out of the garage and Ghost BAM! Right into this little

Tim Hooper: 00:11:52

point of the eave. It's just BAM! I'm like you know? I

Tim Hooper: 00:11:56

didn't see that coming. But see, that's the myth. I'll see it.

Tim Hooper: 00:12:00

I'll believe it when I see it. No. I believe it and I didn't see

Tim Hooper: 00:12:02

it. Like, I believe it hit me right there. But here's the thing. Right? Where

Tim Hooper: 00:12:06

were my eyes? My eyes were down. I was looking down. You

Tim Hooper: 00:12:09

know, in life, we look down a lot. You know, it's it's

Tim Hooper: 00:12:13

part of it's just just here like, gravity.

Tim Hooper: 00:12:17

We have gravity that is called the little g. You know, gravity. You know, I'm

Tim Hooper: 00:12:20

a runner and people always say, oh, that little Jesus God catch up to you.

Tim Hooper: 00:12:23

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know. It will. Right? Generosity. Gravity. What does it

Tim Hooper: 00:12:27

do? It pulls us down. The weight of this life

Tim Hooper: 00:12:30

pulls us down. The things that maybe just entered into

Tim Hooper: 00:12:34

our life by surprise, the diagnosis, the news, the

Tim Hooper: 00:12:38

relational issue, they pull us down, they weigh us

Tim Hooper: 00:12:41

down. It's not any of our fault, but it is

Tim Hooper: 00:12:45

a problem that each of us live with. It's the reality. This

Tim Hooper: 00:12:49

thing body have a phone on in their pocket somewhere on them? Yes. How do

Tim Hooper: 00:12:53

we live without this thing anymore? Somebody said when phones had cords,

Tim Hooper: 00:12:56

people were free. They came unplugged and now we're tied

Tim Hooper: 00:13:00

up. But, so we're always looking down. Right? And

Tim Hooper: 00:13:04

it's just this posture. And I think whether

Tim Hooper: 00:13:07

it's by choice or just by default,

Tim Hooper: 00:13:11

our gaze has shifted downward.

Tim Hooper: 00:13:16

But see, our eyes don't they're not really what sees, it's our brain. In

Tim Hooper: 00:13:20

Ephesians, Paul calls them the eyes of our heart. And in our

Tim Hooper: 00:13:24

life a lot of times I know our physical eyes may be looking down

Tim Hooper: 00:13:27

but the eyes of our heart have shifted downward.

Tim Hooper: 00:13:32

Discouragement. Disappointment. They've

Tim Hooper: 00:13:35

shifted our eyes downward. I was driving home from,

Tim Hooper: 00:13:39

from, not Nashville. That's past life. I was driving

Tim Hooper: 00:13:43

home from D. C. Back to Central Virginia,

Tim Hooper: 00:13:47

considering some of the diagnoses and things my wife had been through on her 2nd

Tim Hooper: 00:13:50

round of cancer, and I was just

Tim Hooper: 00:13:53

downcast. And I was driving and, you know, kind

Tim Hooper: 00:13:57

of weaving in and out of the lanes, trying to make it home as best

Tim Hooper: 00:14:00

I can, just in the hubbub of life,

Tim Hooper: 00:14:04

just driving back. And it was a long day, a great day, nothing was

Tim Hooper: 00:14:08

incredibly wrong. There were some diagnosis things we had to deal with, nothing major at

Tim Hooper: 00:14:11

this moment in time. She was working through Ghost towards the end of

Tim Hooper: 00:14:15

her treatments, but I was just discouraged. It's been a long 3

Tim Hooper: 00:14:19

years, second round of cancer. I'm just

Tim Hooper: 00:14:22

discouraged. And I'll never forget, I

Tim Hooper: 00:14:25

was just looking and you know how a truck will pass you as you're Holy

Tim Hooper: 00:14:29

in traffic? It passes you this way, then it passes you that pray, and you

Tim Hooper: 00:14:32

feel like you're going backwards, because it's going faster than you are. I had

Tim Hooper: 00:14:36

one of those moments of, like, woah, a little equilibrium loss. And so I looked

Tim Hooper: 00:14:40

over, I'll never forget, it was one of Lauren Daigle's buses. And it

Tim Hooper: 00:14:43

just said, Look up, child. All plastered across

Tim Hooper: 00:14:47

the side. And I'll never forget in that moment the Holy Spirit whispered and

Tim Hooper: 00:14:51

said, don't forget to look

Tim Hooper: 00:14:55

up. It's just a simple reminder. My my mom, I I God to

Tim Hooper: 00:14:59

go speak at her church in Cedar Rapids. They had just lost

Tim Hooper: 00:15:03

her pastor, 56 year old, healthy, runner,

Tim Hooper: 00:15:06

fit, diagnosed with brain cancer, and within a year, gone.

Tim Hooper: 00:15:11

And I was going to fill the pulpit and I said, God, what do I

Tim Hooper: 00:15:14

say to a church who just lost their dearest

Tim Hooper: 00:15:17

friend?

Tim Hooper: 00:15:21

And he said, just what I told you on the interstate.

Tim Hooper: 00:15:25

Just look up. And if we could

Tim Hooper: 00:15:28

end this conference just remembering

Tim Hooper: 00:15:32

to look up to the throne room, where we

Tim Hooper: 00:15:36

are seated with Christ, heirs to Christ. If we can

Tim Hooper: 00:15:40

remember, we're not there yet,

Tim Hooper: 00:15:43

but we will be and we are spiritually seated with Christ, if I can

Tim Hooper: 00:15:47

just remember to look up. Not because I got it

Tim Hooper: 00:15:51

all right first, not because I got all of it together

Tim Hooper: 00:15:55

Ghost. Now, I'm ready. Daddy's God to be pleased. No, he's

Tim Hooper: 00:15:58

already pleased. I can just remember to look up.

Tim Hooper: 00:16:02

Kevin was talking about letting him have the final say.

Tim Hooper: 00:16:06

And I thought about some of the reasons I don't look up. I'm

Tim Hooper: 00:16:10

afraid. I'm afraid it's God be no again because I told

Tim Hooper: 00:16:14

him it was a no when really it's a no now cause there's a greater

Tim Hooper: 00:16:17

yes coming. I love the line of the song that says, if it's not

Tim Hooper: 00:16:21

good, then He's not done with it yet. I love that,

Tim Hooper: 00:16:25

because I can come looking up in confidence, in steadfast

Tim Hooper: 00:16:29

hope that He gets the final say. I can look up, I

Tim Hooper: 00:16:32

can overcome my fear that I'm not good enough, and daddy's not

Tim Hooper: 00:16:36

pleased, or father king, father God almighty. And I love what Barbie

Tim Hooper: 00:16:40

said. We need to raise our vision, our view, our the eyes of

Tim Hooper: 00:16:43

our heart and how mighty God is. The demon is in front of us,

Tim Hooper: 00:16:47

but the mighty army of angels, go back and listen to this morning's message.

Tim Hooper: 00:16:51

The mighty army of angels. Joshua, thank you for the vision. The

Tim Hooper: 00:16:55

mighty army of angels standing behind us. He looks ferocious

Tim Hooper: 00:16:59

because he's scared, and we're scared of him till we turn around and realize God

Tim Hooper: 00:17:02

is fighting for us. We need to look up. We need to see mighty

Tim Hooper: 00:17:06

King God on our side, and we have all

Tim Hooper: 00:17:10

access to Him because of Jesus and His blood.

Tim Hooper: 00:17:14

Look up, child.

Tim Hooper: 00:17:18

So the garage taught me that I gotta look up. Something else

Tim Hooper: 00:17:22

taught me to look up. I was driving to Roanoke to speak Roanoke, Virginia to

Tim Hooper: 00:17:25

speak. And, I'm driving over there and I'm talking to our senior vice president.

Tim Hooper: 00:17:29

I'm like, yeah. I'm headed over to Roanoke to speak. And and he said, oh,

Tim Hooper: 00:17:32

I bet you, you're gonna go see the star. I'm like,

Tim Hooper: 00:17:35

the star? The star do we have the picture of the star? Is

Tim Hooper: 00:17:39

it in the slides? There we go. He said, I bet you we're going to

Tim Hooper: 00:17:42

go see the God star. I was like, what's the star? Now, I had just

Tim Hooper: 00:17:45

moved from Nashville to Virginia. I wasn't totally accustomed to all the natural

Tim Hooper: 00:17:49

wonders and man made wonders, but this is the largest man made star in the

Tim Hooper: 00:17:53

world. I was like, wow. So he said, the star.

Tim Hooper: 00:17:57

He said, you don't know what the star is? I was like, no, I've never

Tim Hooper: 00:17:59

heard of the star. He said, you need to go see the star. So he

Tim Hooper: 00:18:01

gave me a little rundown. Well, I got up to speak. I was speaking to

Tim Hooper: 00:18:04

all these people from Roanoke about how to market their business and sales and

Tim Hooper: 00:18:07

whatnot and all this. And and I and I brought it up. It was it

Tim Hooper: 00:18:10

fit into the story. So I, like, brought it up. So I was driving out

Tim Hooper: 00:18:13

here this morning, and this guy told me, I need to go see the star.

Tim Hooper: 00:18:17

He asked me if I knew where the star Holy. I said, no. And the

Tim Hooper: 00:18:20

whole room gasped. Whatever. So I went

Tim Hooper: 00:18:24

so afterwards, I got done speaking. My buddy came up, Scott. He said,

Tim Hooper: 00:18:28

he said, Tim, do you have some time? Do you have to rush out anywhere?

Tim Hooper: 00:18:31

I'm like, no. I don't. He said, could I drive you up to see the

Tim Hooper: 00:18:34

star? So he drove me. We got in his truck. We drove up

Tim Hooper: 00:18:38

this little winding road, bikers coming up and down. The ones that were

Tim Hooper: 00:18:42

going up, I was like snickering. I was like, how on the, you know, these

Tim Hooper: 00:18:45

guys with the cabs, like, you know, let's pick us up. And I was like,

Tim Hooper: 00:18:48

dude, I mean, they're going to see the star. I mean, it's this windy, steep

Tim Hooper: 00:18:52

pray, and we're getting up there to the top. And I was asking him on

Tim Hooper: 00:18:55

the way. I was like, so, like, how big is it? He's like, oh, it's

Tim Hooper: 00:18:58

massive. Well, I've never seen it. Can you see it from Interstate

Tim Hooper: 00:19:02

81? He's like, yeah. Can you see it from this? And I've been on those

Tim Hooper: 00:19:06

highways. We came down pray 81 every trip

Tim Hooper: 00:19:09

over to Virginia from Nashville. I'm like, how did I not see

Tim Hooper: 00:19:13

the star? And the answer is pretty

Tim Hooper: 00:19:16

obvious. I wasn't looking up. I was looking

Tim Hooper: 00:19:20

at my GPS. I was looking in the back at the 4 kids. Maybe I

Tim Hooper: 00:19:24

was looking down, hopefully not texting and driving. Maybe I was looking at the

Tim Hooper: 00:19:28

speedometer. Maybe there was a police car behind me and I was checking that just

Tim Hooper: 00:19:30

right, you know how you just keep your eyes around, speedometer. I don't know

Tim Hooper: 00:19:34

what it was, but there was something, all those trips, that I didn't look

Tim Hooper: 00:19:38

up to see the

Tim Hooper: 00:19:43

star. I want to go to scripture and read a passage

Tim Hooper: 00:19:47

and then just make some correlations. Hopefully, practically, leave us

Tim Hooper: 00:19:50

with a few things we can leave here. And

Tim Hooper: 00:19:54

in our life, when it's chaos or

Tim Hooper: 00:19:58

confusion or our spirit we can't hear because the noise of the storm

Tim Hooper: 00:20:01

is so loud, we can go back and say, but here's

Tim Hooper: 00:20:05

where I stand. Here's what I do. Here's what I

Tim Hooper: 00:20:09

remember to look up. So in 2nd Chronicles, chapter 20 if you

Tim Hooper: 00:20:12

have your Bibles, it's a longer passage, it won't be on the screen, but I'll

Tim Hooper: 00:20:15

read through. It says, 2nd Chronicles, chapter number

Tim Hooper: 00:20:18

20. Jehoshaphat, he's faced with a

Tim Hooper: 00:20:22

situation. And I'll just read through and we'll make some practical application, then

Tim Hooper: 00:20:26

we'll wrap up. After this, the Moabites and Ammonites,

Tim Hooper: 00:20:30

and with them some of the Mennuites, came against Jehoshaphat for battle.

Tim Hooper: 00:20:34

Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, a great multitude is coming against you from Edom

Tim Hooper: 00:20:38

and beyond the sea, and behold they are in right at the gate, basically.

Tim Hooper: 00:20:42

And then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set

Tim Hooper: 00:20:45

his face to seek the Lord. Then

Tim Hooper: 00:20:49

Josh was afraid. I want to stop right there. Have you ever

Tim Hooper: 00:20:53

had news come to you? He was not expecting these men to come to him

Tim Hooper: 00:20:56

and say, there's a prayer. The enemy's at the gates. Would you, by show of

Tim Hooper: 00:21:00

hands, tell me, have you had a problem? Have you had something come into your

Tim Hooper: 00:21:03

life recently? A bill, a diagnosis, some sort of

Tim Hooper: 00:21:06

news that just took you by surprise? By a show of hands,

Tim Hooper: 00:21:10

yes. We're human. It happens. We're in a broken

Tim Hooper: 00:21:13

world. And here we are. A battle has been waged against

Tim Hooper: 00:21:17

Jehoshaphat. Secretly, they're all ganged up on him. They're

Tim Hooper: 00:21:21

at the back door and he is

Tim Hooper: 00:21:24

afraid. He's afraid.

Tim Hooper: 00:21:28

So we see Spirit away, there's a problem. It's unexpected.

Tim Hooper: 00:21:32

It's a surprise. He's that, this word, pray,

Tim Hooper: 00:21:36

means alarmed. He's alarmed by it.

Tim Hooper: 00:21:39

He's fearful. Now

Tim Hooper: 00:21:43

in chapter number 19, Jehoshaphat was

Tim Hooper: 00:21:47

busy. In 19, he's busy. He's fortifying

Tim Hooper: 00:21:50

the army. He's building walls. He's building cities.

Tim Hooper: 00:21:54

He is restoring God's house. In 19,

Tim Hooper: 00:21:58

he's busy fortifying the kingdom. He's

Tim Hooper: 00:22:02

been doing all the right things. And sometimes, some of us have

Tim Hooper: 00:22:06

this in our heart to say, God, why

Tim Hooper: 00:22:09

me? I've been doing all the right things.

Tim Hooper: 00:22:14

I'm sure in that fear, he had that alarm,

Tim Hooper: 00:22:17

that question, why me?

Tim Hooper: 00:22:22

But it says, just down here, it says, then Josh, if I was afraid and

Tim Hooper: 00:22:25

set his face to seek the Lord. I love this. He

Tim Hooper: 00:22:29

was afraid and he set his face to seek the

Tim Hooper: 00:22:32

Lord. We see right there, we see a prayer, but then we see a priority.

Tim Hooper: 00:22:37

And I think this is where Tim misses the boat

Tim Hooper: 00:22:40

so many times. I start going to my own wisdom. I

Tim Hooper: 00:22:44

start figuring out a solution or I go to chat g p t No. I'm

Tim Hooper: 00:22:47

just You're going we're going to find an answer

Tim Hooper: 00:22:53

elsewhere. But Jehoshaphat's pray. He sets

Tim Hooper: 00:22:57

his face toward the Lord. He makes it a priority

Tim Hooper: 00:23:00

that the word set means a resolve, a firm resolve

Tim Hooper: 00:23:04

to seek the Lord. Matthew 633

Tim Hooper: 00:23:08

says, seek first the kingdom. How many times is that

Tim Hooper: 00:23:11

5th or 7th or 21st for me? Because Ghost, I was

Tim Hooper: 00:23:15

seeking my own counsel, online counsel,

Tim Hooper: 00:23:18

complaining to my friend's counsel, complaining more to my friend's

Tim Hooper: 00:23:22

counsel, arguing with my friend's counsel. Right?

Tim Hooper: 00:23:26

And then finally, in surrender, I come to God. But he said, he was

Tim Hooper: 00:23:29

afraid and then number 2 Spirit. You say, Tim, I'm failing.

Tim Hooper: 00:23:33

Like you, Tim, I'm failing in the priority.

Tim Hooper: 00:23:38

Well, let's rewind to chapter 18, because

Tim Hooper: 00:23:42

Jehoshaphat in chapter 18 also was failing in the priority.

Tim Hooper: 00:23:45

Pray? He learned from failure. Failure is the greatest

Tim Hooper: 00:23:49

teacher. And besides, you have

Tim Hooper: 00:23:52

nothing to fear. I was told at breakfast this morning, you have nothing to feel

Tim Hooper: 00:23:55

theatre fear, because we're all going to fail. Just let let that be know,

Tim Hooper: 00:23:59

we're all going to fail. But, we have an advantage being sons and daughters

Tim Hooper: 00:24:03

of God, because when we fail, he redeems our failure.

Tim Hooper: 00:24:07

Can I get, wow? When we fail he redeems our failure. We have

Tim Hooper: 00:24:10

nothing to fear. But in 18, Jehosh

Tim Hooper: 00:24:14

phat fails. Why? Because Ahab comes to him and says, hey, body.

Tim Hooper: 00:24:18

How would you like to reunite the kingdom, buddy? I'm going to war

Tim Hooper: 00:24:22

against these guys, and I would love for you to be along. Just tag along

Tim Hooper: 00:24:25

and, help me out. We'll reunite the kingdoms. He

Tim Hooper: 00:24:29

paints this grand vision. Ahab is a great politician. And he Oh, did I

Tim Hooper: 00:24:33

just say that? I'm sorry. But, anyway, we're God to do this. And

Tim Hooper: 00:24:37

Jehoshaphat, he's been the king to

Tim Hooper: 00:24:40

pursue the Lord, but he thinks this sounds really good. He kind of

Tim Hooper: 00:24:44

gets his pursuit of discipleship and following Christ mixed

Tim Hooper: 00:24:48

with politics here. He really does. And he

Tim Hooper: 00:24:52

says, sure, Ahab. Well, then that ego of

Tim Hooper: 00:24:55

reuniting the kingdom blinds him so much to the fact

Tim Hooper: 00:24:59

and I read this in EMT. I'm like, how in the world did

Tim Hooper: 00:25:03

Ahab convince him to do this? Ahab says, I'll tell

Tim Hooper: 00:25:07

you what you do. You dress up like me,

Tim Hooper: 00:25:11

so everyone won't think you're the king. How did you like,

Tim Hooper: 00:25:15

how? So then, sure enough, he gets into the

Tim Hooper: 00:25:19

war. He gets singled out.

Tim Hooper: 00:25:23

God commander of the enemy army says, don't go for anybody else but the king.

Tim Hooper: 00:25:26

They see the king's clothes and they're after Jehoshaphat, and he's running

Tim Hooper: 00:25:30

for his life. Ahab gets killed in the

Tim Hooper: 00:25:34

battle, as prophesied by the Lord, by a pure accident.

Tim Hooper: 00:25:37

Jehoshaphat barely makes it out, dressed as the king.

Tim Hooper: 00:25:41

And so here he is, rebuilding the

Tim Hooper: 00:25:44

army, doing all the right things, problem comes and he

Tim Hooper: 00:25:48

sets a priority. He says, I learned from my mistake. I learned

Tim Hooper: 00:25:52

from my failure. I set a priority. I'm God look

Tim Hooper: 00:25:55

up. I am gonna first look up. Not second, 3rd, First

Tim Hooper: 00:25:59

look up is God be my priority. If you're failing in that today,

Tim Hooper: 00:26:03

contrast it. Just contrast it to what you've done before and say,

Tim Hooper: 00:26:07

God, help me to remember to look up. He will

Tim Hooper: 00:26:10

redeem.' Here's here's just a

Tim Hooper: 00:26:14

practical solution too. So I wear

Tim Hooper: 00:26:18

contacts in Nashville. And I don't live here anymore. But when I was

Tim Hooper: 00:26:22

in Nashville, I wore glasses more because in the spring, right about now, the

Tim Hooper: 00:26:25

pollen count goes from 0 to 96. Right?

Tim Hooper: 00:26:29

And, the sneezing starts happening. It was always

Tim Hooper: 00:26:33

horrible being at work and then the contact's in the back of my eyeball. And

Tim Hooper: 00:26:36

the rest of the pray, I'm like fighting, trying to get that contact out of

Tim Hooper: 00:26:39

the back of my eyeball. So, I just wear glasses a lot. Well, so anyway,

Tim Hooper: 00:26:42

I would wake up in the morning and the first thing I would reach for

Tim Hooper: 00:26:45

was my glasses. Without my glasses

Tim Hooper: 00:26:49

on my face, I was stumbling around, because I'm blind as a bat. So I'd

Tim Hooper: 00:26:52

be stumbling around the bedroom. And sometimes they'd fall between the thing, or the kid

Tim Hooper: 00:26:56

crawled in bed and cracked them in half or whatever, so you're trying to make

Tim Hooper: 00:26:59

them work. Right? That's happening. So you're going around without your glasses,

Tim Hooper: 00:27:02

you're stumbling. You're tripping. You're stubbing your toe. So practical application is

Tim Hooper: 00:27:06

I'm God to ask this. What is the first thing you pick up in the

Tim Hooper: 00:27:09

morning? What is the first thing you look at? I

Tim Hooper: 00:27:13

talk to executive teams all the time. You know how high percentage look at

Tim Hooper: 00:27:17

their inbox, their email very first in the morning? Some of

Tim Hooper: 00:27:21

us, social media, first thing in the morning. TikTok, first thing in the

Tim Hooper: 00:27:24

morning. Where are we looking? Where are you looking?

Tim Hooper: 00:27:28

Ghost priority. What am I going to determine when

Tim Hooper: 00:27:32

I lay my head down is going to be on my phone first thing.

Tim Hooper: 00:27:35

Maybe I'm God to text myself some lyrics to a song. Maybe I'm

Tim Hooper: 00:27:39

gonna text myself a Bible verse, the verse of the day. What am

Tim Hooper: 00:27:43

I looking at first? Is the priority there? Well, then

Tim Hooper: 00:27:47

we see the priorities there. He says, he set his face towards the

Tim Hooper: 00:27:50

Lord, and then he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

Tim Hooper: 00:27:54

And I love this because there's a problem. He makes a priority, but

Tim Hooper: 00:27:58

then he's, he has a proclamation. He has a

Tim Hooper: 00:28:02

proclamation. He proclaims a fast throughout all of

Tim Hooper: 00:28:05

Judah and he assembled to seek help from the Lord. All

Tim Hooper: 00:28:09

the cities of Judah, and they came to seek the Lord. And

Tim Hooper: 00:28:12

Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord,

Tim Hooper: 00:28:16

before the new court and said, and he lifts up his voice to pray.

Tim Hooper: 00:28:20

So before the prayer, there's a proclamation. We are going to fast.

Tim Hooper: 00:28:23

I love all the leaders across this stage today and yesterday, I'm sure

Tim Hooper: 00:28:27

in the Ghost few days of this conference that proclaimed,

Tim Hooper: 00:28:31

come up here. This is all access. There's no special pass here.

Tim Hooper: 00:28:35

Come claim what God has for you.

Tim Hooper: 00:28:39

You say, Tim, I'm not the king. I can't proclaim

Tim Hooper: 00:28:43

a fast for all of Smyrna, all of Murfreesboro, all

Tim Hooper: 00:28:47

of Rutherford County, all of Nashville, all of Richmond,

Tim Hooper: 00:28:50

Virginia, wherever you're at in the world. I can't proclaim a fast, but let me

Tim Hooper: 00:28:54

tell you in here, you're a mom. You've got 2 kids.

Tim Hooper: 00:28:58

You're a teacher. You have a classroom. You're a worker

Tim Hooper: 00:29:02

with you have a team. You're a father who

Tim Hooper: 00:29:06

has a family. When's the last time I've proclaimed

Tim Hooper: 00:29:09

something to my family? I've proclaimed a word of the

Tim Hooper: 00:29:13

Lord to my family. I've pulled the Bible out, dusted it

Tim Hooper: 00:29:17

off, and read and said, we are going to I'm sorry, family. I'm

Tim Hooper: 00:29:20

sorry. I take the responsibility for having not

Tim Hooper: 00:29:24

led in this department, but I am not perfect. I am bought

Tim Hooper: 00:29:28

with the blood. I have access to the throne. I'm going to

Tim Hooper: 00:29:31

proclaim for my family that we're God to follow

Tim Hooper: 00:29:35

Christ. I'm going to make a proclamation. I'm going to make a

Tim Hooper: 00:29:38

proclamation, we're going to pray together. I'm going to make a proclamation that we're going

Tim Hooper: 00:29:42

to love differently. That I'm going to treat your mother differently. I'm

Tim Hooper: 00:29:45

going to make a proclamation for my team that it's going to be the

Tim Hooper: 00:29:49

golden rule, treat others like we'd want to be treated. I'm going to make proclamations

Tim Hooper: 00:29:53

that are kingdom minded proclamations. This is what Jehoshaphat was doing.

Tim Hooper: 00:29:58

You don't have to be a king to make a proclamation. But what I'll tell

Tim Hooper: 00:30:01

you about the proclamation is, there is freedom

Tim Hooper: 00:30:05

from fear in the proclamation. He was

Tim Hooper: 00:30:09

afraid. He made the priorities seek help from the Lord. And then

Tim Hooper: 00:30:13

he said, I'm God to proclaim a fast.' There is freedom. When the

Tim Hooper: 00:30:16

proclamation's out, it is out body. There's no taking it

Tim Hooper: 00:30:20

back. Somebody now knows. The enemy wants us in isolation.

Tim Hooper: 00:30:24

The enemy does not want anybody to know.

Tim Hooper: 00:30:28

Proclaim the promises of God. Make a

Tim Hooper: 00:30:31

proclamation. And even if you don't know the word to proclaim, proclaim a

Tim Hooper: 00:30:35

Ghost, proclaim prayer, proclaim repentance,

Tim Hooper: 00:30:39

proclaim humility, a humbleness of heart. The sign of this

Tim Hooper: 00:30:43

was brokenness in the Holy Testament, was rendering of the clothes like Barbie

Tim Hooper: 00:30:47

talked about with Esther, and putting ashes on the head. You didn't have to

Tim Hooper: 00:30:50

know what to do in that moment. You just had to say, I'm

Tim Hooper: 00:30:54

here. I'm proclaiming I'm here till I hear it. It's like Jacob.

Tim Hooper: 00:30:58

I will not let you go until you bless me. He didn't even realize what

Tim Hooper: 00:31:01

that meant. It meant a limp and it meant a lot of things that

Tim Hooper: 00:31:05

he never planned on, but he made a proclamation, I will not

Tim Hooper: 00:31:09

let you go. Who needs to make a proclamation

Tim Hooper: 00:31:12

today to God and to your family, to your team, to

Tim Hooper: 00:31:16

your siblings, to somewhere in your life that

Tim Hooper: 00:31:20

there's something here I don't know, I'm afraid of, but I'm making

Tim Hooper: 00:31:23

a proclamation over this area. You don't have to

Tim Hooper: 00:31:27

be a king to make a proclamation.

Tim Hooper: 00:31:31

I love the song that says, I will speak to my

Tim Hooper: 00:31:34

fear and I will preach to my doubt that you were

Tim Hooper: 00:31:38

faithful then and you'll be faithful now. And I don't even know what that looks

Tim Hooper: 00:31:41

like, but I will speak to my fear and I will preach to my

Tim Hooper: 00:31:45

doubt. Make the proclamation. And then we see the prayer.

Tim Hooper: 00:31:49

And the prayer says this, O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God

Tim Hooper: 00:31:52

in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.

Tim Hooper: 00:31:56

In your hand are power and might. Amen? Amen?

Tim Hooper: 00:32:02

He is our Father God because of Christ. But you

Tim Hooper: 00:32:06

have an enemy out there who wants to destroy you.

Tim Hooper: 00:32:10

He is our warrior king. Amen. And we don't

Tim Hooper: 00:32:14

have to fear that warrior king anymore because of Christ, but all of

Tim Hooper: 00:32:17

our enemies must fear that royal king. And we have

Tim Hooper: 00:32:21

access, all access to his power and

Tim Hooper: 00:32:25

his might, so that none is able to withstand you. And then

Tim Hooper: 00:32:28

he puts heaven on notice. He says, did you not our

Tim Hooper: 00:32:32

God drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people,

Tim Hooper: 00:32:36

Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your

Tim Hooper: 00:32:40

friend? I love the question here. He's putting heaven

Tim Hooper: 00:32:43

on notice. Did you not?

Tim Hooper: 00:32:49

And they have lived in it and have built for you in a sanctuary for

Tim Hooper: 00:32:53

your name, saying, if disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment,

Tim Hooper: 00:32:56

pestilence, famine we will stand before this house and before you, for your

Tim Hooper: 00:33:00

name is in this house and cry out to you on our affliction. And

Tim Hooper: 00:33:04

you will hear and save. And

Tim Hooper: 00:33:07

now behold, this great multitude has come against us to invade us,

Tim Hooper: 00:33:11

to destroy us. And

Tim Hooper: 00:33:15

then he ends his prayer. He says, oh, our God,

Tim Hooper: 00:33:19

will you not execute judgment on them for we

Tim Hooper: 00:33:22

are powerless.

Tim Hooper: 00:33:26

For we are powerless. I want

Tim Hooper: 00:33:30

to stop right there. We are powerless.

Tim Hooper: 00:33:35

In chapter 19, Jehoshaphat has built an

Tim Hooper: 00:33:38

army of 1 point 2,000,000

Tim Hooper: 00:33:43

fighting men. He

Tim Hooper: 00:33:46

is not a wimp. He knows what war looks like.

Tim Hooper: 00:33:50

He's been willing to fight before. He has a

Tim Hooper: 00:33:54

massive army and yet the humility

Tim Hooper: 00:33:58

here to say, we

Tim Hooper: 00:34:02

are powerless. I want to say

Tim Hooper: 00:34:06

this, he he he prays. There's the prayer,

Tim Hooper: 00:34:10

he has a priority to seek God first. He makes a proclamation and

Tim Hooper: 00:34:14

then he prays. And in his prayer, I realize a few things. He

Tim Hooper: 00:34:17

has reflection. He goes to the journal. He goes to the stone

Tim Hooper: 00:34:21

of Ebenezer. And he says, did you not? Did you not?

Tim Hooper: 00:34:26

But then there's humility. He says, we have

Tim Hooper: 00:34:29

no might. It reminds me of the verse that says, not by

Tim Hooper: 00:34:33

might nor by power, but by my

Tim Hooper: 00:34:37

Spirit, says the Lord.

Tim Hooper: 00:34:41

By my spirit. I

Tim Hooper: 00:34:44

believe that humility. We are powerless.

Tim Hooper: 00:34:49

I am refusing. I am absolutely saying

Tim Hooper: 00:34:52

no to my own counsel, God. I'm saying

Tim Hooper: 00:34:56

no to my own resource, God. He had a

Tim Hooper: 00:34:59

1,200,000 fighting men.

Tim Hooper: 00:35:03

But, Tim likes to look at my bank account and say, can we or

Tim Hooper: 00:35:07

can we not?

Tim Hooper: 00:35:12

I like to look at my time and say, do I have the

Tim Hooper: 00:35:15

time or do I not?

Tim Hooper: 00:35:19

Jesus said, you can't serve God and man and money. And and Jesus

Tim Hooper: 00:35:23

said that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. He created time.

Tim Hooper: 00:35:27

He is a star breather, like Kevin reminded us. He is timeless.

Tim Hooper: 00:35:31

We are time bound. But see, that's our counsel.

Tim Hooper: 00:35:35

He says, we are powerless, oh Lord. He says,

Tim Hooper: 00:35:39

I refuse to rest in my own

Tim Hooper: 00:35:43

sustenance. I want you to be our sustainer.

Tim Hooper: 00:35:47

There's a humility in that. There was also a public prayer here. I believe

Tim Hooper: 00:35:51

there is time for pray, in the closet

Tim Hooper: 00:35:54

prayer. But I believe that our church, like Jesus said in the New

Tim Hooper: 00:35:58

Testament, he said, we've made his house a house of commerce

Tim Hooper: 00:36:02

and we've turned it away from being a house of prayer. And I

Tim Hooper: 00:36:06

will tell you, this is where I sin the most. This is

Tim Hooper: 00:36:10

the sin that so easily clings to me and besets me in my pray,

Tim Hooper: 00:36:14

is a prayerless life. God is

Tim Hooper: 00:36:17

calling his people in this age of apostasy.

Tim Hooper: 00:36:21

He's calling his people to pray. He is asking he is

Tim Hooper: 00:36:25

just looking for a community of believers to gather in public

Tim Hooper: 00:36:28

prayer to say, Holy spirit, blow on the embers. Holy

Tim Hooper: 00:36:32

spirit, do something. Do a new work through us.

Tim Hooper: 00:36:36

So many of us grapple with how do we be Christ in this generation.

Tim Hooper: 00:36:40

We don't know how to be Christ in this generosity, and the church

Tim Hooper: 00:36:43

has lost its salt in this generation. We need a breath from heaven

Tim Hooper: 00:36:47

to say, Holy spirit, show us how to be the church.

Tim Hooper: 00:36:51

We have to gather in prayer again. Jehoshaphat

Tim Hooper: 00:36:56

proclaimed, then he prayed in a public pray. And he

Tim Hooper: 00:36:59

ends his prayer with this. He says, we do

Tim Hooper: 00:37:03

not know what to do. Have you ever

Tim Hooper: 00:37:07

stopped praying because you didn't know how to pray? Or you didn't know what words

Tim Hooper: 00:37:10

to say? Come on. Right? Come on. Somebody else

Tim Hooper: 00:37:13

prayed so eloquently and you said, I have nothing to say. I want you to,

Tim Hooper: 00:37:17

next time that thought comes into your mind, proclaim, God, I

Tim Hooper: 00:37:20

don't know what to say. That is one of the most powerful prayers you can

Tim Hooper: 00:37:24

ever pray. And it will shatter fear. It shuts the enemy up because

Tim Hooper: 00:37:28

he's God to push that button all day long. Yeah, you don't know what to

Tim Hooper: 00:37:30

pray. Or you're going to look stupid when you try to say

Tim Hooper: 00:37:34

something. They're God to laugh and he's going to tangle you in fear

Tim Hooper: 00:37:37

not to open your mouth and proclaim in prayer the goodness of God.

Tim Hooper: 00:37:42

So, Jehoshaphat, the king who's supposed to have all the answers,

Tim Hooper: 00:37:46

we do not know what to do, but our eyes are

Tim Hooper: 00:37:50

on you.

Tim Hooper: 00:37:54

Here we stand. Our eyes are on you.

Tim Hooper: 00:37:58

There's the star. Now, every time I drive through Roanoke,

Tim Hooper: 00:38:02

there's the star. I just need somebody to tell me, remind me, there it is,

Tim Hooper: 00:38:06

and by the way, look up. And every time I drive through Roanoke, I'm like,

Tim Hooper: 00:38:10

I'm God see the star because I'm looking for it. I'm looking

Tim Hooper: 00:38:13

up. And Jehoshaphat Ghost reminded the entire congregation, I I'm the

Tim Hooper: 00:38:17

king. I don't know what to do. God, I don't know what to do. We

Tim Hooper: 00:38:20

don't know what to do. But our eyes are on you. And when we pray

Tim Hooper: 00:38:25

that in humility, guess what happens? Go to the next church. Because once

Tim Hooper: 00:38:29

he drove me up there oh, man. I was like, oh, there's

Tim Hooper: 00:38:32

the airport over there. I took my son to that Roanoke airport. And, oh, what's

Tim Hooper: 00:38:36

that big building? That's the hospital. Did you know Roanoke's known for its hospitals? I

Tim Hooper: 00:38:39

said, I didn't know that. I was like, man. Look at those Blue Ridge Mountains.

Tim Hooper: 00:38:42

Aren't those beautiful? And I just stood up there. I took a panorama. I took

Tim Hooper: 00:38:46

a selfie. I did everything. It was so beautiful. The view

Tim Hooper: 00:38:50

was totally different. And you know what happens when we turn

Tim Hooper: 00:38:53

our eyes to pray to God and when we start seeing

Tim Hooper: 00:38:57

him and oh my goodness his face is lovely. He's

Tim Hooper: 00:39:01

not looking at me in anger. He's looking at me in acceptance and love. And

Tim Hooper: 00:39:04

oh my goodness he says that the verse before in Psalms

Tim Hooper: 00:39:08

that God read that whole Psalm 25. But the verse before says

Tim Hooper: 00:39:12

that those who are committed to God set their face towards God.

Tim Hooper: 00:39:15

He is a friend. He's he's used the word fellowship. And that word friendship means

Tim Hooper: 00:39:19

he gives the secret counsel to. He gives the secret counsel

Tim Hooper: 00:39:23

to. See, when we change the way we look at things, the things we look

Tim Hooper: 00:39:27

at change. Wayne Dyer said that quote, but you know what? So powerful about that

Tim Hooper: 00:39:30

quote from a spiritual perspective, God changes the way we look at things. We

Tim Hooper: 00:39:34

don't have to change the way in our own power. God does the work, brings

Tim Hooper: 00:39:38

us to his vantage point, and lets us see his secret counsel.

Tim Hooper: 00:39:42

He knows the beginning from the end. He may not show us the end, but

Tim Hooper: 00:39:45

he's God to give us the hope and the belief that this is not the

Tim Hooper: 00:39:48

end. I have the final say and it's going to be beautiful.

Tim Hooper: 00:39:52

If it's not good, it's not done. And then

Tim Hooper: 00:39:56

Ghost right after this, I'm going to summarize this, but Jahaziel stands up. Jahaziel

Tim Hooper: 00:39:59

is the Levite. Jahaziel stands up, full of the Spirit,

Tim Hooper: 00:40:03

says the spirit move into Jahaziel. And Jahaziel

Tim Hooper: 00:40:07

says, stands up, and he says this, he says, King, I have a word from

Tim Hooper: 00:40:10

the Lord. And he says, I have a word and here's the pray.

Tim Hooper: 00:40:14

You are going to be delivered. Who says, that's a good promise right

Tim Hooper: 00:40:18

there? I'm going to be delivered. I have access to the king. I am going

Tim Hooper: 00:40:21

to be delivered. I have a promise. And he said, and

Tim Hooper: 00:40:25

here is the plan. And Jahaziel gives him the plan. Now, let me ask you

Tim Hooper: 00:40:28

this. Jahaziel was around 2 chapters earlier. Jahaziel

Tim Hooper: 00:40:32

saw Micaiah, who stood up as a prophet, told

Tim Hooper: 00:40:35

Jehoshaphat, do not go with Ahab, and they had him thrown in jail.

Tim Hooper: 00:40:40

I want to ask, who are the Jehazials in the room who are fearful right

Tim Hooper: 00:40:43

now? Because Jehaziel had to be a little scared to get up and give the

Tim Hooper: 00:40:47

word of the Lord to the king.

Tim Hooper: 00:40:51

Who is a friend in this room right now, who the Spirit of God

Tim Hooper: 00:40:55

is moving, giving you a word and you are to give that word to

Tim Hooper: 00:40:58

body? You are to prophecy over somebody's life. You are to speak in

Tim Hooper: 00:41:02

and edify somebody's life, or come alongside and encourage somebody's

Tim Hooper: 00:41:06

life. Jahaziel, not by his own might, he said the Spirit of

Tim Hooper: 00:41:09

the Lord moved because of the humility of the king, because of the prayer

Tim Hooper: 00:41:13

in public. The Spirit of the Lord moved, and Jahaziel stood up and gave

Tim Hooper: 00:41:17

the plan and the promise to the king.

Tim Hooper: 00:41:21

And the worship team can come out, because we're wrapping this thing up. Because guess

Tim Hooper: 00:41:25

what happens. The plan is get all your mighty chariots

Tim Hooper: 00:41:28

together. Get all your horsemen. Get all the 1,200,000 that you've

Tim Hooper: 00:41:32

amassed. And we're God to engage in this valley. We're going to set traps.

Tim Hooper: 00:41:35

We're going to Ghost crush the enemy. Yes? No.

Tim Hooper: 00:41:40

This was not the plan at all. The

Tim Hooper: 00:41:43

plan was can you just step forward with me?

Tim Hooper: 00:41:47

The plan was can you just walk like forward? I'm going to walk behind you.

Tim Hooper: 00:41:50

The plan was that the soldiers were going to walk behind the Levites.

Tim Hooper: 00:41:55

And these people were going to walk into battle. These

Tim Hooper: 00:41:58

people who are hopeless against the spear, helpless

Tim Hooper: 00:42:02

against the sword, were God to lead the army into

Tim Hooper: 00:42:06

battle. You can back up Ghost for now, so you have to stand right at

Tim Hooper: 00:42:08

the edge. They're God to lead. This is bizarre.

Tim Hooper: 00:42:13

This is unconventional. This is what we call the upside down

Tim Hooper: 00:42:17

economy. This is God math, not ours.

Tim Hooper: 00:42:20

God miracles, not our plan. God,

Tim Hooper: 00:42:24

star breather, master of all the universe, who sees the beginning from the end,

Tim Hooper: 00:42:28

says, guess what theatre God to do? Now, they weren't just walking. Guess what they're

Tim Hooper: 00:42:31

gonna do? They're gonna praise. We are gonna

Tim Hooper: 00:42:35

praise Yahweh. Yeah. Capital l, capital o, capital

Tim Hooper: 00:42:39

r, capital d, Yahweh. We're gonna sing praises to Yahweh. Do you know

Tim Hooper: 00:42:43

they never lifted a sword? Do you know that Moab Moab turned about and

Tim Hooper: 00:42:46

said, they killed each other. When they came up over the hill into the

Tim Hooper: 00:42:50

valley, everything was a dead body. Gone.

Tim Hooper: 00:42:54

Because the Bible says God inhabits the praise of

Tim Hooper: 00:42:58

His people. And so, in the devastating

Tim Hooper: 00:43:02

moment, in the problem, in the fear, in the alarm,

Tim Hooper: 00:43:05

in the time where you do not know what to do, to pray,

Tim Hooper: 00:43:09

God, my eyes are on you, and I am God choose to

Tim Hooper: 00:43:13

pray? He said, it was a loud praise. They went

Tim Hooper: 00:43:17

out loudly praising. I love the song that says, you have a

Tim Hooper: 00:43:20

lion in side of your lungs, so get

Tim Hooper: 00:43:24

up and praise the Lord. You might not know what to

Tim Hooper: 00:43:27

say, just praise the Lord. Let

Tim Hooper: 00:43:31

your vocal speak. When you're a baby, you don't know how to put a

Tim Hooper: 00:43:35

word together and all you say is, oh, and mama and

Tim Hooper: 00:43:39

daddy come running, just praise the Lord. Just

Tim Hooper: 00:43:42

make noise to the Lord. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all

Tim Hooper: 00:43:46

ye lands. You talked about Paul and Silas. This is written right

Tim Hooper: 00:43:50

here. So Paul and Silas, they're in their tomb. They pray, the earth shattered.

Tim Hooper: 00:43:54

Peter saw the waves, but Jesus was reaching down his hand. And then

Tim Hooper: 00:43:57

Paul in Hebrews saw a great cloud of witnesses. He pray. He saw

Tim Hooper: 00:44:01

when the praise happened, the provision came. Elijah saw what no one

Tim Hooper: 00:44:05

else could. He saw the the the the armies

Tim Hooper: 00:44:09

of God surrounding him. In the praise, what are you gonna

Tim Hooper: 00:44:12

see? How are you gonna praise? It happens when our eyes look to

Tim Hooper: 00:44:16

the king, when our eyes look to all access and say,

Tim Hooper: 00:44:21

God, I need you. I'm God praise you. I'm

Tim Hooper: 00:44:24

gonna praise you anyway. I'm gonna end with

Tim Hooper: 00:44:28

this, Job and when Job was plagued with all of these,

Tim Hooper: 00:44:33

his kids were lost to the plagues and his animals, his herds, everything

Tim Hooper: 00:44:37

gone. And then the boils, he's church with boils. He's sitting

Tim Hooper: 00:44:41

there and he says, when I'm tried and

Tim Hooper: 00:44:44

purified, I'll come forth as gold.

Tim Hooper: 00:44:48

And I always thought that was such a beautiful verse. And then when Jen was

Tim Hooper: 00:44:52

going through her 2nd round of cancer, I became very, very

Tim Hooper: 00:44:55

bitter. I became disillusioned.

Tim Hooper: 00:45:00

The Ghost time made sense second time, like, why God? Why are you doing this?

Tim Hooper: 00:45:04

And why to her? And God, the Holy Spirit and I wasn't, I wasn't bitter

Tim Hooper: 00:45:07

towards him. I was bitter at the circumstance. And the Holy Spirit said, I want

Tim Hooper: 00:45:11

you to read Job. And I got to the end of Job. I'm going to

Tim Hooper: 00:45:13

read this first because it's so powerful. But the end of Job, in Job chapter

Tim Hooper: 00:45:17

42, this is after God has spoken to Job. After

Tim Hooper: 00:45:21

Job put God on trial, then God came and spoke to Job and showed His

Tim Hooper: 00:45:24

power and might. And Job said this. He

Tim Hooper: 00:45:28

said, therefore I have uttered what I did not

Tim Hooper: 00:45:31

understand, Things too wonderful for me church I

Tim Hooper: 00:45:35

did not know. He said this. He said, I had

Tim Hooper: 00:45:39

heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

Tim Hooper: 00:45:44

but now my eyes see you.

Tim Hooper: 00:45:48

And, I'll tell you that sometimes I want gold.

Tim Hooper: 00:45:52

I want to believe that there's gold on the other side of this trial.

Tim Hooper: 00:45:56

When I'm tried and purified, I'll come forth as gold. And I believe that's pray

Tim Hooper: 00:46:00

promise. But sometimes my gold is tomorrow or next

Tim Hooper: 00:46:03

year, and it's not maybe on my timetable.

Tim Hooper: 00:46:07

But Joe gets to the end and as he praises, as he sees who God

Tim Hooper: 00:46:11

is, as he lifts his eyes, he says, I had heard of you before.

Tim Hooper: 00:46:15

I had heard of you with my ears. I heard of the goodness, he said,

Tim Hooper: 00:46:18

but now I see you.

Tim Hooper: 00:46:22

And it changed everything for him. His circumstance changed,

Tim Hooper: 00:46:26

yes, but sometimes we just have to set our eyes on God. Just look up

Tim Hooper: 00:46:30

child and say, now I see you.

Tim Hooper: 00:46:34

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His

Tim Hooper: 00:46:38

wonderful face. And the things of earth,

Tim Hooper: 00:46:42

they grow strangely dim in the light of his glory

Tim Hooper: 00:46:46

and grace. Church, I just wanna encourage you, let's

Tim Hooper: 00:46:49

assemble, let's encourage, let's

Tim Hooper: 00:46:53

remind each other that we have all access, when

Tim Hooper: 00:46:57

we simply just look up and say,

Tim Hooper: 00:47:01

almighty God, here I am.

Tim Hooper: 00:47:10

Kevin O'Dea: Stand with me this morning. As we close this

Tim Hooper: 00:47:14

Kevin O'Dea: out, we're God to proclaim a song that we've been singing for many,

Tim Hooper: 00:47:17

Kevin O'Dea: many weeks here. We trust in God and let's testify

Tim Hooper: 00:47:21

Kevin O'Dea: this morning of the goodness of our Lord. Let's, let's worship.