0:00 Okay. Uh I just wanted to share a short message before we close as we look forward to the new year. This has a bit on my heart. Uh we've been meditating on the biatitudes and the sort of foundation of that is 0:19 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is is the kingdom of heaven. And that's sort of the foundation. Humility, humility, humility. We say the poor in spirit and uh complete dependence on the lord. So I want to share today 0:33 uh if we can bring up the PDF that we have I'm going to share a little bit about the purpose the lord has in building the church starting with actually before we bring it up maybe I'll I'll just illustrate it in this way. I believe that the lord wants to 0:47 build this church. I'm going to use an illustration of sticks today. So I got in my hand a small tiny stick. [clears throat] This is you know the verse in John 15 which says I am the vine you are the branches. Branches are 1:03 little sticks. And Jesus says in Matthew 12 20 even a battered reed he will not break off. This is what a battered reed sort of looks like. It's just a skinny little branch. It's got one leaf. All his leaves are falling on 1:22 one leaf. It's barely showing any fruit at all. Battered reed. Some of you may feel like that today that you're a battered reed. I have not 2025 has not gone as I've expected. It was a failure. I failed the Lord in many ways. I'm a 1:38 battered read. The Lord is saying, "Dear son, dear daughter, dear child, if you're a battered read, if you feel like a failure, if you feel like a battered read, I am not going to break you off. I'm not going to break you off. I'm 1:52 going to restore you. I'm going to restore you and make you fruitful. I'm going to make you as you depend on me, as you completely depend on me as the vine and you as the branch, that battered greed will grow stronger and 2:06 more and more fruitful. And I want to use the illustration today of different kind of sticks. And I'm using Bible stories where we see the illustration of sticks or branches that the Lord used. So if we can bring up that PDF. 2:21 The first one is a story from numbers which you may or may not know. You don't have to turn there. But the story of Aaron's staff, Aaron's stick. So the story here from Numbers chapter 17. This is right after you you all know the story of 2:40 Kora's rebellion, how the earth came and swallowed them up. And there was a spirit of complaining among the people in the desert. They were going through a difficult time as many of us are. Many trials in the wilderness, 2:55 forgotten memory of the Lord's deliverance from Egypt. That was a long time ago. I don't even remember it anymore. My current trial is overwhelming. And what were they doing? Most of them were complaining. And so Moses, 3:10 the Lord told Moses, "Gather all the tribes and have the head of the tribes each give you a stick. And so each of them brought a stick from the leader of the tribes. And the Levites were represented by Aaron. And he brought a stick too. And they brought 3:25 it into the tent of the Lord. And they had it overnight to see what the Lord would do to prove who the Lord was with. And the next day they brought out all these 12 sticks. And one of these sticks had budded. It had flowers and almonds 3:44 and the others were just plainly there. And that was a powerful message that the Lord was trying to teach them. It was a simple message and it's a simple message for us today. This is the first type of stick that we can be. It's a very simple even children 4:00 you can pay attention to this. The one who has a complaining heart about their circumstance today. The one who has a complaint about why the Lord is allowing something in their heart. The one who has a complaint children. If you have a 4:14 complaint about the food today that you're eating at home or why things are a certain way at home or complaint about your situation, the Lord is not going to bud that stick. You will forever be that dry stick. But it's a simple message of saying, 4:32 "Lord, I am going to repent of a complaining spirit. Today, regardless of what I'm going through today, whatever my trial might be today, I am not going to complain. I'm going to trust in the Lord like the Levites did. 4:48 And I believe that this dry stick, if I just resist the complaining attitude of the power of the Holy Spirit, is going to bud like Aaron's rod budded. Now the interesting thing about Aaron's rod, this stick, [clears throat] 5:04 God counted it so precious that when they were building the ark of the covenant, when they had the ark of the covenant which went around in the tabernacle and eventually went into the holy of holies in the temple that Solomon built, the ark of the covenant 5:19 was the holiest place, holiest thing in the holy of holies where God's presence would literally come down. And they had just a few things there. One of the things they had in there was the ten commandments. So you can see how holy 5:30 this is, the actual tablets of stone that God gave Moses. But there was one other thing in that ark of the covenant and that was this stick, Aaron's budding stick, which was a picture of the Lord saying this person, this tribe that 5:47 decided that they were not going to complain. That's where I'm going to take up residence. That's where the Holy of Holies is going to be. And that's a simple message. We can think of the Holy of Holies as like, "Oh, it's not for me. 5:57 It's too too [clears throat] great. It starts with just something as simple as saying, "Children, young people, brothers and sisters in church, I am not going to have a complaining heart in 2026." The Lord will start taking up his 6:10 residence. He will put you in the Holy of Holies. He will bud your stick. If you say, "I'm not going to have a complaining art." What are the purposes are there for sticks? If we're willing to be sticks, sticks are not they're not very uh 6:26 they're not something that we can say that look amazing or draw attention to themselves. They're really things that if you see a stick in your yard, you probably pick pick it up and throw it away. It's not regarded very highly. But 6:38 yet, the Lord is going to build his church with these sticks that don't have any don't have any attention seeking to themselves. [snorts] Second purpose of the stick. We go to the next next slide. I want to read this story in 2 Kings chapter 6. If you have 6:56 your Bibles or your phones, you can go there with me. And this is a story of an axe. This is a story from Elisha. 2 Kings chapter 6 verse 1-7 says, "Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, 2 Kings 6, behold now the place where the place 7:12 before you where we are living is too limited for us." There's a picture of the sons of the prophets which were essentially you can say they were trying to build a church. They were trying to build a church for themselves. And in a 7:22 way this is a picture of us building the church. Please let us go verse two. Please let us go to the Jordan. Each of us take from there a beam and let us make a place there for ourselves where we may live. And so he said go. And then 7:35 once said please be willing to go with your servants. And he answered I shall go. Great picture of the servant saying we want the man of God. We want this prophet of God to come with us as well. we don't want to go on our by ourselves. 7:46 And so he went with them and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. This is what they were doing. They're taking these axes and cutting down trees. And as one of them was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water. 7:57 There's a saying in English which says flying off the handle. Some of us may have a habit of flying off the handle in our home, so to speak, or in the church or in our interactions at work. And here's a picture of this axe. the 8:13 sharp blade just flying off of its handle and going into the water. Can you use that axe to look at this picture of this axe and think, can you use that axe blade by itself? Is that very useful to cut down a tree? >> No. 8:28 >> You can't, right? It's really hard to use that axe. And when you think about when you think about an axe, what is the thing that you look at? What's the thing that draws attention to itself? It's the sharp edge. That's the gifted 8:40 piece of the axe. And many of us might look at this and say the most important part is the axe head. [clears throat] And we may look at a church and say this gifted one in the church that's preaching or that's visible or that's leading the music, 8:56 that's a picture of the axe head for the father in the home. That's the axe head. I'm here to tell you brothers and sisters, the Lord needs more sticks which are handles to the axe. If you are a wife here today, 9:13 don't look at your calling as inferior or a mother as inferior to your husband or to the father's role. In a way the the Lord is going to say the one who's weaker his power will be perfect 9:33 in the one that is weaker. >> See yourself as this handle this stick that's not drawing any attention to itself but without which the axe cannot cut. The Lord needs handles in this church. The Lord needs ones who are going to 9:51 uplift the axe, the ax blades. You can think of, you know, we're hearing brother Zach preach every Sunday on the sermon on the mount. How many of us are serving as a handle to brother Zach's axe blade? What does that mean? 10:06 Are we praying for him? Are we encouraging? Are we praying for elders? Encouraging them. Praying for our children. Your children may be ax blades. They may be gifted ones. Our responsibility is to be handles that are supporting those gifted ones whatever 10:25 they they might be doing. That's where the Lord will use ordinary sticks. They don't have any anything to boast in themselves but say you will be the handle. The axe cannot operate without you. 10:42 Let's read the rest of the story. It says in verse 5, as one of as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water and he cried on and said, "Alas, my master, it was borrowed." And verse 6, "Then the man of God said, 10:55 where did it fall?" And he showed him the place. Look at what Elisha does. He cut off a stick. Here you go. A stick again, meaningless stick. And threw it into the water. And what did the stick do? 11:12 >> 2 Kings 6 verse 6. 6. It sunk. It did the opposite of sink. Sinking. 2 Kings 6:6. It made the iron float. And he said, "Take it up for yourself." And he put it in his hand and took it. And this is the this is the amazing 11:30 ministry of a meaningless stick. I'd like to think of that stick as potentially being the same stick from which the axe head fell off. Imagine you might have your husband or your spouse, your wife suffering, or child of yours 11:45 suffering, flown off into the handle, sinking, gifted, really gifted one, but sinking, heavy, struggling with the sin. And the Lord is saying, I am going to use you as the intercessor, you meaningless stick 12:04 in God's hand. I'm going to use you. I'm going to throw you out and it's going to cause this it's going to defy the laws of gravity and it's going to cause this heavy one whom everybody has given up on and said I've given up. It's going to sink. It's 12:20 bound to sink. Look at it. It's iron. It's bound to sink. Look at the way he's headed. Look at the path he's headed. It's bound to end in destruction. Everyone's given up. But the Lord is saying, "Throw out your stick. Keep praying for that person. Keep keep 12:37 encouraging. Keep praying for that child. Keep praying for your spouse. What might be impossible, the Lord is going to defy the laws of gravity in 2026 with that stick and cause the axe head in your life to float. That unconverted relative, whoever it might 12:54 be. That's what I want to claim in faith. I really believe the Lord will use. He will not use proud ones. Axe heads cannot hold other axe heads. Only sticks can hold up axe heads. Only sticks, other iron pieces of iron can't cause 13:08 the axe to float. Only a stick that's thrown into the water will cause the axe to float. Let's go to the next picture of what a stick is. And this is a picture for us as parents, elders in the church. Our 13:26 responsibility is for us to be shepherds. Psalms 23. These are two sticks that you see in Psalms 23 which talk about the rod of the Lord, the staff of the Lord. The thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thy rod and thy staff. 13:46 The rod is this is this instrument of discipline. The staff is meant to rescue just like the stick thrown into the water. That's what our role is as parents. And I love that verse in Psalms 23. I' never seen it before as I meditated this week which 14:05 says, "Thy rod and thy staff," it doesn't say, "Thy rod disciplines me and thy staff comforts me." Or, "Thy staff comfort me." It says, "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." And it says in that same verse, in that same uh chapter, it says, 14:22 "You anoint my head with oil." Elsewhere in the Psalms, I think it's Psalms 141, it says, "Let the righteous smite me. it will be like oil upon my head. You put those two verses together, you see that the discipline of the Lord 14:35 is a picture of being anointed with oil. So when when the psalmist says when David says you anoint my head with oil, he's talking about the discipline of the Lord, receiving the discipline of the Lord like it's anointing. Children, 14:49 when your parents discipline you, claim this promise. Brothers and sisters, when you're disciplined of the Lord or disciplined by an elder, claim this promise. Thy rod and thy staff, they don't discipline me. They comfort 15:04 me. Discipline is just a means. It's just it's not the destination. Discipline is remember this children. Discipline is not the destination. It's the means. It's a vehicle to the Lord's comfort. That's what you know Ava was sharing her 15:22 favorite verse which is from Hebrews 12. Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Later on in that chapter in verse 11, it says all who are trained discipline may not feel good in the moment. Yeah, it's temporary. It doesn't 15:34 feel good in the moment. But if you're trained by it, it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness. That's the destination. The destination is not just righteousness. the peaceful fruit of righteousness. And I love that 15:48 picture, which is the rod of the Lord and the staff of the Lord, they're both going to eventually result in my peace, my comfort, and my righteousness. So, I pay no attention to the pain or my hurt ego in that moment because I'm looking to the destination 16:07 of the comfort of the Lord. And the psalmist David who did not even have the full power of the Holy Spirit could say, "Even though I feel that rod on me, I know it's leading to comfort eventually. I know it's protecting me from 16:19 something." Parents, let's take our responsibility seriously. We're not called to be to lose our temper at our children. As you're disciplining your children, never lose sight of the goal of why you're displaying your children, which is the 16:33 peaceful fruit of righteousness, the comfort that they can experience with you. That's a purpose for the rod and the staff. Finally, before we go to the next slide, what happens when you bring some of these sticks, these battered reads that 16:49 grow into sticks? When you bring them together, what do you do? What can you do when you put sticks together? Can you think of something you can do, kids? When you put sticks together, you can make a stack. What can you do 17:02 with it that is practically useful? When you put two or three sticks together, logs together, let's say, you can make a house. That's good. I like that. That's a good picture of building the church. What's under your mantle in your home? Many of your homes. 17:18 >> Fire. >> Firewood. Yeah, you can put a couple pieces of wood together and you can build a fire. That's the next slide. Go to the next slide. I titled this slide shakina. Many of you may not know this word. It's a word that means 17:37 uh I don't know if it's it's referred to in the Old Testament, but you can see it in a couple places in the Old Testament. It means dwelling or presence. It means the visible divine visible presence of the Lord showing up. 17:53 And the examples of it are the pillar of cloud that led the Israelites out or when Elijah called down fire from heaven, Shikina. When Solomon built the temple, it says when Solomon built the temple and he offered this sacrifice on the 18:12 altar, it says the shikina glory of the Lord came down. The fire of the Lord came down and the Lord's presence was evident. And this is a picture I want to leave with you for 2026. You may have been a battered greed in 2025, given up 18:25 hope, and the Lord is saying, I'm going to make you fruitful in 2026. Not only that, if you will stay united with your brothers and sisters, if you'll stay united as husband and wife, as families, I'm going to bring you together and I'm 18:41 going to I'm going to have Shikina show up in your family. Shakina show up in NCCF, which is the divine presence of the Lord. That's what John 17 says. Jesus says in John 17, when two Lord, he prays this out to his heavenly father. 18:57 He says that you and me may be one that they may be one in me and they may be one with each other so that the world will know that God sent Jesus. What is the ultimate? What is the best form of evangelism? Jesus said it himself in John 17. The 19:15 best form of evangelism is not going out and giving tracks. Those are good forms of evangelism. Jesus himself. The way the world will know that God sent Jesus is when he sees uni unity. When he sees these two or three sticks come together, 19:28 two sticks, husband and wife, not one seeking to be to lord it over the other or seeking glory for themselves. Brothers and sisters coming to the church united and the fire of the Lord coming down. The fire of the Lord picture of the Holy 19:43 Spirit. But fire is a dangerous thing because fire will burn up things which are not of the Lord. And we must be willing to have ourselves purified through that fire for that shakina glory of the Lord to show up. And I love this word shikina 20:00 because it means that when people see us, they will see the presence of the Lord. They will see the manifestation of the Lord. the manifestation of God, the fragrance, the scent of God. When a visitor visits this church, they should 20:17 see Shikina. They should see it. They should see it through the unity of brothers and sisters in the church here. They should see it when they visit our homes. They should see Shakina and the husbands and wives relationship in the peace in 20:32 the home. When they when somebody those of you in college when they see you, they should see the power of the Lord in you. That's what we want. [clears throat] Pay no attention if you're a battered read in 2025. The Lord 20:50 does not regard that. The Lord has a promise for you. He has a shina promise for you for his power to come down. It may be painful. It may be purifying. It may burn up some things that you may not be ready to be burnt up. Be prepared for 21:03 the Lord to burn up things. Be willing to surrender things. Let go. And let the power of the Lord in the unity of broken sticks. Build his church. Build NCCF families today so that that 21:22 living presence of the Lord that is visible will be evidence. The fragrance of the Lord will be visible to all to see. That's what the Lord has put on my heart. That's what I pray will be a promise that we can claim in 2026 for 21:36 ourselves, but especially for our family units and especially for our church that the unity of the that of the brothers and sisters here with the power of God residing in us would be what the world can see. It's not just for us to 21:54 be self-contained and boast in ourselves, but what other families and other people who are gripped who want to be gripped with becoming disciples following Jesus in the workplace in the city of San Jose neighbors something different the shikina in that 22:11 home. May that be true in 2026. Amen. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the work you've done in our church and our families in 2025. Thank you for restored marriages. Thank you for 22:31 restored unity among the saints. Thank you for children who are growing up, being baptized in the fear of the Lord. Thank you for children who have been able to memorize their memory verses and live it out in their homes. Thank you, 22:43 Lord, that even if we we've been battered, we feel like failures in 2025, Lord, your promise for us is to be fruitful, to be without complaint 2026, to be ones that can raise our children in the fear of the Lord, ones that can 22:59 be handles that lift up another in our home and ones that can be united so that the fire of the Lord can come down upon us. Lord, we want this to be our testimony as families and as a church in 26, 2026. May the street be true in our lives, 23:18 Lord. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
