Latest / Shoreline City / Move Toward The Fire | Eric Sewing

Transcript

Move Toward The Fire | Eric Sewing · Shoreline City

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all ready to open up the word of God today?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be jumping into Exodus, Exodus chapter three.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say we also have some of the best pastors on the planet.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I love how Pastor Earl was talking about summer strong and what we're gonna be walking into for these next three months.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I love how intentional our pastors are to make sure that we don't take a step back on our spiritual walk, but instead we continue to push forward and be everything that the Lord has called us to be.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: But we're about to open up God's word.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know that whenever we read God's word, he has this habit of speaking to us that the word of God is actually alive and it's active.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like a regular book and it's not just some ancient text, it is the very words of God to both you and me on how to live our lives and the way we walk and the way we talk and the way that we live.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: We get to see example after example after example of lives lived towards God.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we get to learn from their successes, and we also get to learn from their failures.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: So here we go in Exodus chapter three.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read a bunch of verses, so just a heads up on that, and we're gonna read the call of Moses.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter three, starting in verse one.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why the bush does not burn up?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to Moses from within the bush.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Moses.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Moses.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Moses said, Here I am.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do not come any closer, God said.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: At this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of the land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivatites and the Jebusites.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So now go.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here we see the call of Moses.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like the Moses, like the Moses that we've heard about that, like wrote the Ten Commandments.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, Moses, who led literally the an entire nation out of Egypt.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, like they make movies about Moses.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, like split the Red Sea.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Moses.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about Moses.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, though, in this moment of Moses' life, he's 80 years old.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just now receiving the call of God.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us are like 23 and we're like, God, are you ever gonna speak?
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's 80 years old.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know that?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Moses, if you read the first two chapters, Moses actually um grew up in the house of Pharaoh.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So he was actually educated by Pharaoh.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: He was not educated as a Jew, he was actually educated in the house of Egypt and in the house of Pharaoh.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: It says that there's this moment, it's like basically it says that the Bible's kind of throwing shade at Moses at this point, I feel like.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's like Moses finally grew up and realized how the Egyptians were treating the Israelites.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like he finally grew up.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know how old Moses was at that moment at that point?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: 40.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Moses finally grew up at 40.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're 40 years old right now and you feel like you're just growing up, you're in some great company, okay?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because Moses is right there with you.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: We see here that Moses receives the call of God and he is 80 years old.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many like fascinating things about this text that like I kind of just want to like dig into, but we don't have for the sake of time, okay.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot go into all the things, but do you realize that this is actually the first time God calls a place holy?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Moses, you're standing on holy ground.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's only one other time that the word holy is actually used before in the Bible, and this is in the beginning of Genesis at the end of creation.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: God, the first thing that the Lord declares as holy, do you know this?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is time?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Sabbath.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: When he creates the Sabbath, he says, This day is holy.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's something special about a time, something special about a place, holy and set apart.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we see here the call of God on Moses.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: There are some other factors in this story that we don't really know.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: You hear about this burning bush, okay?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we don't know how long the bush was burning.
• 5:33
  unknown: Have you ever thought about that?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I always like in my head, I guess growing up or from movies, it just started burning, and Moses was like, oh, burning bush, and it would just like all kind of happened at once.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't know how long that bush was burning.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know how long it took Moses to get to the bush whenever he saw it was burning because it was up on top of a mountain.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody climbed up a mountain?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you know, it takes a long time.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you hike up a mountain, it's not like a 15-minute walk, or like you know, you can't Uber to a you know a mountaintop, you know.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here we see Moses climbs up to the mountain.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have all of these details, but what we do have is that God calls his name, Moses.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Moses, Moses, and I feel like the same is actually for you and I.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like the Lord has actually called your name, Jessica or Vanessa, or David or John or Marco or Tiffany, that God has actually been calling out your name.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, God has done this in the Bible not just once, but actually a multitude of times.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Here we see with Moses, the call of Moses was that Moses, whenever he was a little kid, he was actually brought out of the water.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Moses was called to lead a nation through the water and through the Red Sea into their freedom.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: But we see the same thing actually happen with we now call him Paul, but his name was Saul.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's on this road persecuting the church, and Jesus stops him and he's like, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And this was a moment in Saul's life that changed everything in his life.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: We see this also with Martha.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard the story about Martha?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Mary and Martha, it's these two sisters, and there's like this dinner party going on.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Martha's frustrated because she's like, Mary's just chilling, hanging out with you, Jesus.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: But there's logistics to this party.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's food, okay?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's silverware, there's plates, and she's like, Let me go complain to the El Jefe.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let me talk to the boss, Jesus.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, Martha, it Martha is uh distracted by all of these things, and Mary, she's not pulling her weight, and Jesus is like, Martha, Martha, there's a lot of other things that you're doing, and these are all good things, but you're missing the most important thing.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: We see this with Samuel.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Pastor Earl talked about it a few weeks ago.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: A little boy, Samuel, Samuel crying out, and God had a call on his life to be a prophet to the nation.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: We see time and time again that God is calling out to his people.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was preparing for today, I felt this stirring on the inside of me to just wake up and rem to help wake you up and remind you that God has a calling on your life.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: God has a calling on your life, there's a purpose and a destiny.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus literally died and rose from the grave to give you a purpose and a calling.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are not here by accident, you are not here by happenstance.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that this moment is actually ordained by God.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Dare I say even holy, set apart to remind you there is a calling on your life, and that the Spirit of the Lord is calling out your name, and he brought you up out of addiction, and he brought you up out of depression, and he boxed you up out of poverty, and he boxed you up out of purposelessness and feeling lost and being drilled in your death.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: He brought you out of all of these things because he has a purpose.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we hear the call of God, but so many times with time and life, we get distracted.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we begin to let other things start to define us.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we get caught in this trap where no longer the voice of our father and the call of God in our life defines us, but instead we begin to let our job define us and our career define us.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: We begin to let our TikTok followers and our Instagram handle and our likes and our follows begin to define us.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: We begin to let our aura define us.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: We begin to let all our health define us.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: We let our age define us.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: We look at all of these things, but I just want to remind you that there is nothing that defines you except for the very presence and power and purpose of God on your life.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Do not fall for the trap that these things define you.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Your value and your worth has actually been declared because the price that Jesus Christ paid.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: It has nothing else that dictates it, only the very presence and power of God.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: There's a call on your life.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's a call on your life, there's a purpose, there's a destiny, and there's a reason that Jesus Christ has you here today and in this moment.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think it's just for yourself.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think it's just for your career.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's to be the very hands and feet of Jesus Christ.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Moses in this moment is actually going through a season of wandering.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: You see here in the text that he's actually watching over someone else's sheep.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he's in his like, he's in his day job, but he's lost.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a supernatural experience that happens with Moses that changes everything.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: But it didn't happen in a church setting.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see that the Spirit of the Lord encountered Moses at his nine to five?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: At his job?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he's now kind of wandering and he's kind of lost.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now we've all had seasons when you're following the Lord and you're doing the best that you can where you feel kind of lost.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Have y'all had one of those seasons?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you're like, nah, man, I've never had one of those seasons.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just wait.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just give it some time.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord does it on purpose.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because whenever God's shouting, Moses, Moses, it's really easy to hear.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever God's like, you have to do what?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: You have to get close.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: God does it on purpose.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: There are seasons, though, where we can feel lost, we can feel a bit forgotten, and I've been there.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Some handles for me whenever I feel lost.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some handles for me whenever I feel like I don't have purpose.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I serve.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I serve.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I live generously.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And generosity is not just about finances and giving up finances.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Generosity is actually a spirit.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I serve and I live generously.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I see a need and I feel it.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's something that begins to happen on the inside of you whenever whenever you are feeling lost and you're feeling like you don't have purpose, and maybe you're feeling confused.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: There begins to be this momentum that happens on the inside of you whenever you take your eyes off of your situation.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now you begin to put your eyes on Jesus and on others, and you begin to serve.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe I'm not in a season right now where financially I can pay for an entire well-being dug in Kenya.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, but you know what I can do?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I can give to part of it and I can play a piece of it.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe right now I cannot give to restore what those in Oak Cliff right now have lost.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what I can do?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: I can play a part in it and I can give somewhat towards it.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I can't solve everybody's problems, but you know what I can be?
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Kind and I can be generous and I can be full of joy and I can be full of life.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I can be all of these things.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's something empowering about making someone else's day.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's something powerful and empowering about being an answer to someone else's prayer.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I love about our church.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is what I love about our church.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: This church has given me purpose.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Purpose to know that I'm that what I'm a part of is actually bigger than just the part that I'm playing.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: It gives me purpose because it helps me realize that maybe I can't solve everybody's problems, but I can show up on a Sunday, and as people are trying to find out what do I do in my life and where am I going, I can be a beacon of hope in the parking lot or on the host team or in the kids' check-in.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I can be a beacon of hope in the cafe and I can serve and make way for someone else to see that Jesus loves them and it's for them and is there for them, and that actually hope and redemption is on its way.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: I can play a part in that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: It gives my life purpose to be a part of something bigger.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: It gives my job purpose to realize that my working is not in vain, but instead it's actually also for the Lord.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: It gives my finances purpose because I can't solve everybody's problems, but I can help solve someone's.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: It gives my relationships purpose because I realize that if I live my relationships in a way that it that glorifies Christ, that I can now be a light in the world around me.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: When I don't always know what to do, I know who to be.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know who to be, Shoreline City.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because we preach the gospel and we love people and we see with eyes of hope.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, we're the church in the world and we lead like champions.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: We speak to mountains and we fight for surrender and we serve the hurting.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: When you don't know exactly what to do, I'm telling you, Shoreline City, we know who to be.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: The very hands and feet of Jesus Christ, the Lord is calling you today.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: So get ready for what he wants to do.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: As we're walking into this summer season and we're walking into summer strong, I don't want us to like lean back, but instead, I want us to push forward in everything that God has for us.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're anything like me, there are times when I feel the Lord is calling me, and I'm like, I don't have the space.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: God, I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't have the time.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what Dallas traffic is like, God?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I wake up early and I drive to work and I drive home and I'm stuck in traffic the whole time while I'm driving home, and people are cutting me off, and I'm supposed to be like Jesus while people are cutting me off.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you get home, and I feel like in our effort to like find a space for it, we've kind of been like lulled to sleep.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe, maybe even better said, actually, we've been overstimulated and distracted.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, probably what's happening.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: I um I know this very well, okay.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: This happened on Tuesday.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was Tuesday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, days.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, days are hard for me, dates are hard for me, years are hard for me.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you can you could show up you could talk to me on a Tuesday and be like, happy Thursday, and I'm like, Yeah.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just bad, okay.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I think this is on Tuesday, okay.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I got home and uh I have three kids, okay?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: A five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a one-year-old.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Life is chaos, okay.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: But beautiful chaos, beautiful chaos, okay?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's time to put them to bed.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now all the parents know I heard the sight, it was like, ooh.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Bedtime, you know, it takes forever.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you get it done in an hour, okay, I'm like, that's a good night.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good night, okay?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're putting our kids to sleep, and uh the room was dark, so I'm like half asleep, waiting for them to fall asleep.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I walk out of the bedroom, and it's like 8 30, you know, and I'm like, should I go to bed?
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: But it's 8 30.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Who goes to bed at 8 30?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Except for Alan and Summer Graham.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're like the only ones that go to bed that early.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, you know what?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm gonna stay up.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: My wife, you know, she's putting, you know, putting the other kids to sleep.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna wait for her.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I go.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I sit down on my comfy little couch, you know.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like chilling.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just there we go, that feels right.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just cozy.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh then I get on my phone, you know.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, let me, I'm just waiting for her.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just waiting for my wife.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I scroll a little bit, then not enough.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I get my TV remote out.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I go to YouTube.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: I love YouTube, okay?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I love YouTube.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Go to YouTube.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm on YouTube scrolling and my phone scrolling.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Does anybody else do this?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I didn't, how did I get here?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I did not mean to get here, I just was waiting for my wife.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have this blanket at the house, too.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, my stepmom made this blanket, and this is kind of embarrassing to admit.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I sleep with this blanket every night, okay?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's so comfortable.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of lied to her, um, and I told her that the kids are fighting over the blanket, so she needs to make some more, but really, it's me stealing it from the kids.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like cuddled up in my blanket.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Three hours go by.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm like, my wife was sitting next to me, and I didn't even know.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: I finally get up, and you know what I feel?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Exhausted.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that was such hard work.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the space?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Over stimulated, feeling like I needed to like I deserve some rest.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: I got some of that like deserve itis, you know, where it's like, I deserve some rest.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And give me some of my time and quiet time.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go sit and scroll two different ways, you know.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just scrolling and I'm just overstimulated and now I feel exhausted.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm saying towards God, I don't have space.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I get up and now I feel empty.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because scrolling doesn't fill me.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Scroll on watching videos and Netflix, it can be fun, but it doesn't fill my soul.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, what I needed to do was some walking.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: I probably should have like got up and like took a walk, you know, like zone two walking is what I'm hearing all about.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I should have like been doing some walking.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Movement, though, is life.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you see here, Moses actually didn't hear God speaking to him until he turned and he walked towards the burning bush.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Bible says that God saw that Moses was walking towards the bush and then he spoke.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's something very special about movement because movement is what helps to fill us, but it's not movement alone, it's also responding to God.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not only hearing God's voice, but responding to his voice that changes everything.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: God's voice was never meant to be admired from a distance, it was meant to be acted upon.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Moses has a call to be a deliverer, and God speaks to him as he moves.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And as we're going into summer strong, I just don't want us to lose the momentum that the God that the Lord has put inside of our lives and inside of our hearts right now because summer is happening, y'all, and I'm excited about it, okay?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I want for this summer?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of memories.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Catch me on the lake.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want to get on a boat, I wanna get a sunburn, okay?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like that, that's what I want, okay?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I cannot forget the Lord's calling on my life.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot do that.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: The World Cup is happening this year, y'all.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all excited for the World Cup.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for the World Cup, I'm rooting for USA, but really I'm rooting for Brazil.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm hoping that Brazil wins the World Cup, okay?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Exa, this is our year, okay?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be awesome.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be distracted by the World Cup, but I cannot forget the Lord's calling on my life.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: There are some of us in the room that you just graduated high school or you just graduated college, and I'm telling you, it's not a moment to step back, but instead step into what God has for you.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do not forget the call that the Lord has on your life, or maybe you're gonna have a child, or you just got engaged, or maybe you're newly married.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not a season to step back, but it says instead a season to step forward.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do not forget that the Lord has a calling on your life.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure that every promotion or new job or engagement or newly married or new season does not cause us to step back, but instead to step forward.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're Going through a season of difficulty.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this season is heartbreak, disappointment.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't step back, step forward.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do not let do not let pain trick you into thinking you don't have a call.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do not let pain think make you think that you are not here for a purpose.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do not let things like being alone or being isolated stop you from what God has for you.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's in these moments that He actually wants you to lean in.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has a calling on your life.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 3, starting in verse 7 once again.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is God's response now to Moses.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I am concerned about their suffering.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up out of the land into a land that is good and spacious, a land flowing with milk and honey.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: We see in this scripture and in this passage that God is actually poised to save his people, but he's choosing to use divine power through frailty to accomplish it.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit in earthen vessels.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Jars of clay are exactly what you and I are.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: But whenever the Spirit of the Lord empowers us, he actually empowers us to do something that we could have never done on our own, something very miraculous.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: The story of God's deliverance is often the story of divine strength flowing through human weakness.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: God is never limited by our frailty.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he often uses it as a stage for his power.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: The miracle is not that God uses the strong, it's that he saves through the weak.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: I hear the cry of my people.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know that this is actually the first time in the Bible that God refers to Israel as my people?
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: First time.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: First time he calls Israel my people.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he did not do this with a focus other than to save them and to restore them and to bring them out.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: But can I just pause for a second?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we can feel like we are not God's children.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we can feel like we've been abandoned.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to pause.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want to remind you.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is the first time you've ever heard this.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is a reminder for you.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: But God loves you.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: God loves you.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: He loves imperfect you.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: He loves the best of you.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: He loves the worst of you.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: God loves you.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: He loves you at your mountaintop and he also loves you in your valley.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: God loves you.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he sees you.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what the Lord does is he actually hears every single one of your prayers and every single one of your cries and every single moment where you felt like you were alone and isolated.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: God sees every single one of it.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is actually obsessed with you.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: God loves you and He hears every prayer.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we see here that God is saying, I see my people, I see their suffering, I hear their cries.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to remind us today that God is still the same.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: He hears the cries of his people.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I have proof.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: 1 John chapter 5, verse 14.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is the confidence that we have in approaching God.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears this.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm chapter 34, verse 15.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 145, verse 18, the Lord is near to all who call on his name, to all who call on him in truth.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 65, verse 24.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah chapter 33, verse 3, call to me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and unsearchable things that you do not know.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 4, verse 6.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: He hears your crammers and your prayers and your requests.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: In Exodus chapter 3, verse 8, it says, So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have a question for you.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Was God sending Moses to make their lives worse?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Was God moving towards his people to put them in bondage?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: God's saying here, I've heard their cries and I'm moving towards them because I want to save them.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to redeem them, because I want to restore them.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now has God changed?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: What's changed?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: God is still the same.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then why is it that many times we feel like surrendering our life or be ob being obedient to God is something that's gonna end life or end our freedom.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do y'all ever have this?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: I like I wrestle, I wrestle with this sometimes.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like surrendering my life, it's purely fear.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid that if I surrender this area to God, that it's like it's not gonna be good.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to call this out because I actually think this is an illusion of the world.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is actually an illusion of self.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a perceived reality that's actually not a reality.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now y'all know what illusions are.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we got we got this illusion of a dress.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all know this one.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: This dress right here.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's put let's put this photo of a dress uh right out here.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: We got a what is it?
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is it gold?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: White, blue, black?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I we got another illusion.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: We got another illusion, okay?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: We got of a cat.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is the illusion of a cat.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to all the cat moms out there, cat dads out there, everybody.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was all I almost made a joke.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Is that cat walking upstairs or downstairs?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Looks like a complicated order to me.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think it's upstairs, sometimes I think it's downstairs, and then I'm tricking myself because I'm like, if I'm smart enough, I can make it walk upstairs, and then I can make it walk downstairs.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: I saw the blue and the black dress, and I saw the gold and the white dress, okay?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is the illusion of surrender.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're right to feel like surrender is the end of something.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're right to feel like that.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it's actually the opposite of what you feel.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Everything in us says that surrender means less.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yet God says surrender leads to more.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Was God moving towards the people of Israel and acting that asking them to take steps of obedience and asking them to go on this journey of freedom and to leave the comfort of Egypt?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Was God asking Moses to lead his family and to make sacrifices and to move towards the call that he has on his life for more or for less?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: For freedom or for bondage?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Then why is it that you and I so many times fight and resist against God and surrendering every single area of our lives?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: We see it in the text.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's for our good and for our purpose and for actually for our blessing.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason surrender feels so difficult and that it feels like an ending is because it actually is.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: But with God, it's a beginning.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that surrender feels like an end is because we're actually losing control.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: But what we're gaining is God's direction.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Surrender isn't the end of your life, it's the end of your striving.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: The thing you fear surrender will take from you is often the very thing that God wants to free you from.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Surrender feels backwards because that's how the kingdom of God works.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Surrender isn't bondage.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: God was moving towards the Israelites, not for bondage.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Surrender isn't bondage, it's freedom from the burden of being your own God.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: In our finances, surrender, generosity is not another bill.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the reality that you have a provider.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Giving isn't losing money, it's gaining trust in the one who supplies every need.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Generosity isn't about what leaves your hand, it's about who holds your future.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: In your dating life, surrender is not about trying to take away the fun, but instead, it's actually about building something that's worth keeping.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: God isn't trying to limit your love life, He's trying to help you build one that will last.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever it comes to surrendering every single area of our life, you and I fight again against it.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, God knows the beginning from the end, and He's the one who actually began your story, and He's the one who's been calling out your name, and He actually actually knows every single thing that you need.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so whenever we're fighting against our surrender, we're actually fighting against our own good.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: And if we know how to give good gifts, how much more does our Heavenly Father know how to give good gifts?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: If we in our finite perspective and limited view and only seeing moment after moment after moment, we still know how to give good gifts.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: How much more does the infinite God, who sees the beginning and the end and can tie it all up in a bow, how much more will he give good gifts?
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit of the Lord is moving towards you because he has freedom, love, joy, and purpose for you as we move into summer.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit of the Lord is moving towards you.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how will you respond?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: And how will you hear his voice?
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Will you draw in or will you take a step back?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: I encourage you, family.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Draw near to God.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's a promised land ahead, and it's better than we could ever hope, dream, or imagine.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask everybody in the room if you could bow your heads and close your eyes.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're here today, maybe there is like something that was highlighted to you.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, Jesus is first in your life.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: But there was an area of your life that was highlighted to you as we read the scriptures.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, man, I need this area of my life surrender to me.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it feels scary.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: It feels scary.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Letting go of control can be scary.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Can I remind you it's worth it?
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, Father, I pray over every single person that you highlighted something to.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, would you empower them to say yes?
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, would you draw them in?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Would you remind them that you're calling their name?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're asking them to surrender.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're asking them to take steps forward.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you have less for them.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: But because you actually have more for them.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here today and you've never given your heart in your life to Jesus Christ.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or there was a time where Jesus was first, but mess has happened.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you accidentally found yourself running from him.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you did it intentionally.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you feel right now the Holy Spirit's like drawing you in.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: You feel it in your chest.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you know if it's you, the Holy Spirit's working on you.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know exactly what I'm talking about.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: And today's a day for you to surrender your life to Christ.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've done it before, or for the very first time.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask you to respond to what you feel like the Holy Spirit is doing on the inside of you.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask you to do something very simple, bold.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask you on the counter three to just shoot up your hand saying, Yep, that's me.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: One, two, three.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Just shoot up your hand saying, yep, that's me.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: I want Jesus to be first.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like he's asking me to surrender my life.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: I see hands all over this room.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: I see it in the balcony, I see it in the back, I see it up front.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Church family, can we do this together?
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: Can everybody put your hand over your heart?
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I want us to repeat this prayer out loud, say, Dear Jesus, thank you for forgiving me all of my sins.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: I admit I've made mistakes, but today, I give you my heart, I give you my life, give me the power to live for you in Jesus' name.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody said, Amen, Claude, you can lift your hands, let's clap our hands.