Trust and Obey - Summer Series pt. 7

Too often we walk through life being so consumed by what's going on in our life and what we want and what we're pursuing. We have become too familiar with who we think God is, and we've totally missed who He really is. He is the God of the universe. He is the creator of all things. Of all things. He is holy.

He is not somebody you just come visit on Sunday.

He is holy. He deserves the reverence of a holy God.

Your entire life is to be used in worship of His Holiness and His Majesty. Your whole life. That's what Romans 12 one says. You're to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto him, which is your reasonable service. Reasonable. I mean, and that's. That's the minimum. That's the baseline. That is the baseline. So I want you in this moment to examine your heart, examine your life.

Do you behave as though you serve a holy God when you wake up in the morning? Do you ask more? How can I serve? Who do you want me to speak to today? What do you want me to turn away from today?

Who am I supposed to pray for today? Lord, what do I need to repent of today? Where did I miss it? Your holy Jesus paid a giant price for us. The least we can do is honor that act of obedience with our own. God may not ask you to lay your life down and die for somebody else in the flesh.

But he does ask you to die to your flesh daily. And we do not do that for you. Move me out of the way to deliver what you would have today. God, this assignment I did not take lightly. I ask that you prepare the hearts of people to hear the word and not just hear it God, but do it.

Time is short and we owe you every thing because it is for you. Or forgive us right now in this moment for being so focused on ourselves and what we need and what we want and what our desires are, and how we can get to where we're going, or that we've completely bypassed the purpose for which you created us.

So show us today where we've missed it. Teach us how to get back on track and fulfill your purpose in our life and not the purpose that we we desire for our life. So, Lord, use me today. I thank you for being here. Thank you for your time. Thank you for meeting people where they are. And thank you for releasing them from the things they've been captive.

Like. I thank you for your word in Jesus name and pray and may so I thank you. Worship team. That was awesome. That was awesome. They didn't know I was preaching today. So all those songs actually sort of align with the message, even though nobody knew I was going to be up here. So the Lord knew what I wanted to do.

You guys know, or some of you may know that we just got back from going to Alabama and I wanted to talk a little bit about that experience because that's actually what led to some of this message. So about a month ago, beginning of June, I knew I was going to be preaching during Ryan's sabbatical, and the Lord had given me a download of something like within moments I woke up one morning and had the whole outline, and so I sent it to Ryan.

So two days before we got off to Alabama, I get a message and he says, Well, would you mind holding off on that? I think the Lord's going to give you a message while you're in Alabama. I was like, Well, okay. So all week I have been looking for the message, looking for what he's trying to say, and it has been a remarkable week.

I will say, for those of you who don't know, we was a team of more than nine, nine of us that went down to McIntosh, Alabama, which is a place where Hunter has spent several years selling into prior to coming to one church. And I spent some time down there as well. And I won't tell about whole testimony about that, but the seed that he sowed way back then, there was a harvest this week and it is it was just phenomenal.

Yeah, it was it was amazing to watch. And I will say that when we went down in January, I think there were a little bit of there were some whispers, some people don't understand, why are you going to go to Alabama? Why are you going to go down there to that community when we have the same issues down the street?

And my rebuttal to that is, is because God said so, you know, and that's pretty much it. You know, I think we can get really caught up in what we think the right thing to do is, and we just go and start doing stuff. But if God didn't ask you specifically to do that, you are out of order.

So our assignment was to go to Alabama. Someone else in this room. Your assignment is to the people down the street right now, so you have to know where the Lord is sending you What he's asking you to do. And the only way you can do that is if you ask him and you listen and you wait and you follow how he leads, you always talk about how the Lord gives you bread crumbs.

You know, He'll kind of sprinkle it here and there. You just follow one piece at a time, and then the whole picture will become very, very clear. So there was a lot of challenges in coming into this week and the Lord covered all of that. And so I want to take a couple of minutes because I think it was really it's important for you all to hear something that the Lord did.

And so who I or whoever feels like they have something Lord wanted them to share, I would love for you to come up and just kind of tell a little bit about something that happened this week that you saw. If you could come up real quick. Thank you. And the joy hasn't yet come out, come all the way up on the stage.

I was thinking because I was handed the mike down there, I wouldn't have to come up here. Yeah, right. I'm I'm trying to think there is so much that happened. I'm trying to think of what piece to share. I think it was cool to see some of the people on our staff were campers ten years ago and the challenges that they walk through in their lives and still walk through is probably more than most of us could imagine.

And so it was really cool to see how how God is faithful to finish what he starts, even if it takes ten, 15 years. Um, he does, and God acts on faith. You have to be faithful. And what little he's asking you to do before he's going to do his part. And we definitely saw a lot of that this week for sure, in an undeniable way.

There's way too much to to dive into all that. But yeah, he, he really just he really showed off this week and I'm excited to see where it's going to go. But yeah, just a little tidbit for you you don't need I doubt there's any. But does anybody else want to come up? All right well I will share one thing was pretty interesting.

There was a a lot of warfare on the way to get there. Literally, anything I could have tried to stop us did try to stop us. Um, coming to the rental car. We had a rental car issue. We were going to be towing our the C4 trailer that we have and um, Hunter gets to the rental car place and I'm like, Well, you can't tow the vehicles they have for us.

Didn't have a tow hitch, And then they found one that did have a tow image, but then told us we couldn't tow. Even though he asked weeks ago, could we tell because this is the purpose. We were planning to go down there to do some construction work on that property that Hunter may spend a lot of time at and because we were helping the neighbor across the street, the original place that we were going to work, um, decided that they no longer needed our services.

So we're like, Oh, okay. All right. Um, it is the weather report for the week was torrential downpour at the exact same time that every day, every single day during the hours of the camp, which was outside with no shelter. Um, the temperature the week before we got there, I think was about 116 or something like that. Um, so lots of inconveniences, lots of things that are like, what do we do in even the first day of camp, which was Monday, we get there and it is pouring sheets of water.

Um, and in that part of the country they get a lot of lightning. So any time there's any thunder, you better be looking for cover. So we were battling that and so trying to decide, do we still have camp, what do we do? And it was a lot of, you know, kind of chaos. But we got together and prayed and the Lord moved the rain.

So the camp was supposed to start at Monday at nine. We pushed it back to ten by like 955, the rain was starting to dissipate and within 30 minutes it looked like it had never rained and it was clear the rest of the day. But every day there was a threat of rain coming. So we had to get together and pray.

We were had the kids praying the rain away. And so just even that that's a that's a really big thing because that could have totally washed out everything we were planning. But the Lord showed up, which was really miraculous. Um, we did learn, uh, by one of the partners that came is really interesting. We didn't have very many volunteers.

I think there was two or three ladies from the community that really were amazing helping with, with lunch. So that gave me a break. But we didn't have any other volunteers. We had a small group of kids. I think at the most we had maybe 2530 on one day and we just the Lord just gave us the grace to make it work.

We didn't lose anybody's kid. Praise the Lord. That's, you know, there was there were no accidents. There was nothing. There was one little girl the first day. She was so grateful for lunch that was provided. And it was like turkey and cheese sandwiches and chips. And she's like, This is the best lunch ever. Thank you. She was just so appreciative.

So we came into a community that's dealing with a lot of challenges and but there was one song, um, I will you put that picture up of Starla and Chance. So this is the two people that were campers way back in the day. This is Starla and Sala's. Four year old son was at camp this year, and that's a chance.

I think that was the day. Was he, David in that picture? So every day we had a lesson. We had David and Moses and Noah, and then Jesus was the major superhero, which was Thursday. So we tried to relate, um, a biblical superhero to teaching the kids how to be superheroes in their, in their own lives. And during the times of prayer.

Um, during all of our lessons, we learned some about that community. One little girl said that they didn't have money for food. Um, during the prayer time, there was another situation where a young girl shared with Josh that, um, you know, her parents were on drugs and, you know, so she's got to take care of the littles that she's got and they're just all these things that we walked into.

And to be able to, to be able to love these kids in that one of the little girls who had a really tough exterior the second day she brought me a friendship bracelet. So I have it on my ankle and on my wrist. I think Lindsey got one from her little sister. And, um, so just little things like that.

There was some significant breakthrough. There were a couple of kids that were a little challenging, so we had to take them to the side. But it's it's stuff that they're dealing with. These kids, just like in any community, are dealing with stuff that, um, that is heavy, like real, real heavy stuff. So it was such a blessing to be there.

And then the combination of all of it on Thursday, um, four children gave their life to Christ. So, you know, four kids out of maybe 30. I mean that those are pretty high. That's a pretty high percentage of students who experience the love of God. And so if we if it was for nothing else but just that and what the Lord can do, even with a little child opening their life to Jesus, what that will do and their family, what that will do in their community and those four children could be the next Darla and Chance.

And one of the days I was there, uh, Hunter had some different playlist playing, and one of the songs that came on was, um, Ty Tribute, if he did it before. Now, that song, for those of you who haven't heard it, is kind of a kind of a bebop, uh, higher tempo kind of song. Um, not one that necessarily would, would bring you to an emotional response.

It's kind of a party song. But as I was thinking about these two and I was looking at all the kids just playing around, I just got overwhelmed with emotion because he did it for them. He will do it for those kids. And we were a part of that because we'd said yes to the Lord, Yeah, we could have said no.

There were 500 reasons why we shouldn't go or why why. It would just it's too much trouble to get there. Um, but the Lord has other plans, and we were submitted to those plans. So, um, the topic that I want to talk about to you today is it's time. And the reason that that comes to mind, there were a couple of times over the course of the week, like I kept hearing alarm clocks going off.

What? Well, somebody turned their alarm back up, like Lindsey and I shared a room and hers kept going off, and she's like, I'm so sorry. I'm like, It's fine. Um, but then later in the day, we were kind of hanging out in the fellowship hall area where we were staying, and I heard another alarm go off like six or seven other times.

I'm like, Whose phone is that? And then that evening we had a little powwow as a group, and in the room that Lindsey and I were staying in. And for the first time, we stayed in the same place for about seven days. And for the first time I happened to see a clock. Never notice the clock in the room.

The whole week that we were there. The next morning I wake up and all of a sudden I hear the clock ticking. Tick tock. Now, I didn't even know the clock was in the room, let alone heard it. And it was so loud, was so loud. And I'm like, okay, Lord, what are you saying? What are you saying?

Like, I've heard alarm clocks. I've seen this seeing the clock and now have heard the clock even. I've been in the room with it every night this week. What are you saying? So I will get to that in a minute. Um, I want to talk a little bit about obedience today and these songs this morning. Um, the worship that went, went forth.

Um, there was some breakthrough for people in the room. Our obedience is necessary and there's such a legacy of that. And we see that in what has happened. Even with starlight and chants. They were a little kids and now they're the leaders and the next crop of kids is going to come up and they're going to they're going to learn, they're going to accept the law, they're going to change their community.

They were going to come back and serve or the Lord's going to send them out to another community. But the only reason that any of that took place is because of individuals who said yes to the Lord. One of the Bible lessons this week was about Noah, and one of the things I had to do on the lessons for for the kids one day.

And what really struck me about Noah and everybody knows the story of Noah, it rained for two days and 40 nights and you know, everybody everybody survived. But if you really think about that story, none of us in this room would be here if Noah had not been obedient. Not a single person, not a not a not a tree.

I mean, trees may have been there, but the animals, the Lord was taken out. Everything that had breath, every animal, every bird, every person would not be here today if. No, I hadn't said yes. And think about it. No, I had to build something he'd never seen before. It had never rained before. But prior to that time there was a miss that would come up from the ground that would water the vegetation.

So there was no rain. So when God says rain has come and build this boat, what do you think now? His response was what would have gone through your mind if the Lord says, I want you to do this thing because something is coming? What would you have done? Would you have questioned him to death? But I don't understand.

Well, what do you mean? Some this kind of. Well, I've never seen that before, so maybe I. Maybe I misheard that. Or I don't even know what a boat is. I don't know what an ark is. Never seen one before. How am I supposed to build that? But he said yes to the Lord. He got the plans from the Lord because he walked with God.

There's actually in in Genesis six through nine is the story of Noah. And it said that Noah found favor with the Lord. He was righteous, was without blemish, and he walked with God. Enoch walked with God as well. So there's something to being able to walk with God that gives you access to information and insight and wisdom so that you can do what God is asking you to do.

And Noah did according to all the Lord commanded him. That was multiple times in that section of Scripture that He followed the direction. And so not only did he hear what God said, he said yes, and then he did what he said and his whole family was saved. And we are now here because of that same thing with now with with Moses.

Moses was going about his life on the backside of the desert and the Lord showed up in a burning bush and said, I need you to do this. He had some excuses why I can't do, why I can't talk and who am I? And all of these things. But eventually he said yes. And because he said yes, he got the blueprint from the Lord, He got the the staff.

And, you know, he got kind of the tricks that the Lord wanted to use. And he was able to help those people get delivered from bondage to freedom. If Moses had said no or not today, or I'll get to that in a couple of years, what would have happened? Jesus is also an example of strict obedience in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is in that is in Matthew 2636 to 46.

Jesus is like, Lord, if this cup can pass for me, please, but not my will, but thy will be done. So it's okay to not want to do what God's asking you to do because a lot of times it sucks. It's very inconvenient. It's really inconvenient. It is, you know, it's outside of what you really want to do.

It's normally outside of what's comfortable. It normally takes you extra effort to do this. Normally, you know, you've got a lot of opposition against you. Normally you have people that are talking about you, you know, well, you're stupid or like you. When I decided to, the Lord had me move into foster care and, well, I couldn't do that.

I just my heart's my heart's to my heart's to for that I can't do even a good thing. It doesn't even have anything to do with you. But it's wrong for me to do it. Well, how can you take somebody else's get all this stuff? And it's very inconvenient to change your life for somebody else? Yeah. To be willing to lay aside what you want or what's comfortable or putting your resources into another area that you would really rather do this with this man.

But there's purpose in it. Yeah. Somebody. Somebody is attached to your. Yes, there's a person or persons or generations attached to your. Yes. Yeah. If you don't do it, someone else is lacking, someone else is hurting, someone else is pleading for an answer. And you're telling him, No, not right now. I'll do that later. Well, you know, when I get my house and when I get my two cars and I get my you know, I get my couple of kids, then I'll do the work for the Lord.

Yeah. What if someone said, Not yet, and you were on the other side of it? Yeah. Deuteronomy 28 one through 14 is a passage of scripture that lots of people like to quote all the time. It's all the good stuff that happens when you obey the Lord. And I don't say obey the law because you're going to get all this stuff, but there, there, there is benefit to obeying the Lord.

Now, it came to pass. If you diligently obey the voice of the Lord, your God, to observe carefully all of His commandments, which I commanded you today, that the Lord, your God will set you high above all nations of the Earth. All of these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord, Your God Blessed shall you be in this city and blessed shall you be in the country.

Blessed shall be the fruit of the body to produce of your ground the increase of your herds, the increase of the cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed be your basket and your kneading ball. Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall be when you go out, the Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face.

They shall come out against you one way and flee before you. Seven The Lord will command the blessing on you and your storehouses and all which you set your hand and he will bless you in the land which the Lord is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people. There's that Holy Word again, Holy people to himself, just as he has sworn to you.

If you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways, then all the people of the Earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will gladly grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body and the increase of your livestock and the produce of your ground.

And in the land which the Lord swore to the swore to your fathers to give you, the Lord will open you up. Open up to you. Excuse me, open to you, His good treasure, the heavens to give you reign to your land and its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. And you shall be above only and not beneath. If you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today and are careful to observe them, you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day to the right or to the left to go after gods and serve them.

That's a lot of good stuff. And we had an example of that. Our budget was a little bit tight. Do you know that there is a church on Sunday that that did a love offering that gave us money to be able to pay for food that had already been purchased, by the way, the very next day, the first day of camp, somebody else from that same church came and brought another check.

Somebody went to go buy food and was just sharing all about the camp and what we were doing. So she was about to pay for the hot dogs and the buns for the next day, and the woman behind her said, No, no, no, I'll take care of that. And she paid for it. When you do what God is asking you to do, he already has the provision.

He already has the people, he already has the circumstances already lined up. One of the really cool things about this week is that as we were hanging out in the park, there were a few people that came by, people from different churches, and we didn't get a lot of support from a lot of the churches that we thought we would have gotten.

But there were a few like, Oh, if you do this next year, then we can provide this. And then there was a woman who was in the library with all the little kids, and she has a she's got a ministry that she runs. She has a community garden. She does a lot of things with the kids. She's wanting to kind of come alongside when we do it again next year.

So the Lord already has those dots that he's connecting. But if you never step step on the first dot, you can't see the picture, you can't see it. It's like and to that connect, that may take that a little further. So you guys remember when you were a kid and you had the connected that pictures and it just looks like a splatter and you have to go one to you had to figure out you got to go in order.

But once you are done, you can actually see the picture that was there the whole time. It was there the whole time. But you have to do your part. You have to connect the dots. You have to step out and say, yes, ma'am, and say yes. Today I'm going to say yes tomorrow. And I say yes the next day.

And I say yes, the next day. I'm I say yes. Six months from now, I'm going to say yes. Five years from now. And you will see this canvas at the war has painted with your life. But it it's that you have to act also. And Psalm 128 one through four. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways.

When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine and in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table. Behold, there shall be the blessed Behold there shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.

And that fear is reverence. Its knowing that God is holy and all of your choices should line up with what He wants, not what you want. What you want. Doesn't matter. We live in a society that talks about, Oh, I'm living my best life and you know, do you boo? And it's all about self and what's best for me.

Let me also tell you that in the satanic church, one of their one of their mottos is do what thou wilt. What does that sound like? Do you go live your best life? That's exactly what that is. John 530 This is Jesus talking. I can of myself do nothing as I hear a judge and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the father who sent me.

If Jesus is supposed to be the example of how we should live, that needs to be our mantra. I do not seek my own will, but the will of the father he sent me. We are all sent once every person in this room and every person will listen to this later we are sent of God to do something and everybody.

Something is different. But it cannot be about what you want. It's all about the will of the father. John 1423 through 24. Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me, does not keep my words.

And the words which you hear is not mine, but the fathers who sent me. So if you say you love the Lord, are you following his word? If you don't follow his word, that means you don't love him. That's out of Jesus's. Now, if you don't follow what he's telling you, you do not love him. You don't. You love yourself, you love your convenience, you love your preference.

There are really strong consequences for disobedience. Adam and Eve is our very first example of that. Not only were they in Genesis three, you can you can read this for yourself. They lost their ability to be in the garden and they were coerced. And they not only got curse, we all got curse because of that. So just like there's generational blessing for us doing the right thing.

There's generational cursing for disobedience. Saul was told by Samuel to kill all the implicates and first Samuel, 15, was given a very specific message Kill all the people, kill all the animals, period. It was very clear when they actually pull that out real quick. Okay, I might start reverse one. Samuel also said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you King over his people, over Israel.

Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord, and thus says the Lord of Hosts, I will punish our Al-malik for what He did to Israel. How he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Al-malik and utterly destroy all that they have and do not spare them. Kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox, sheep, camel and donkey.

I think that's pretty clear. Is there any confusion in that directive? Okay, so if you go down to, uh, verse eight, this is talking about Saul. He also took a gag king there, Malachi It's alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared. Agag And the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fat lings, the lambs and all that was good and were unwilling, unwilling to utterly destroy them.

But everything despised and worthless that they utterly destroyed. So in their natural human thinking, instead of listening to what God is saying, they've negotiated with themselves. Okay, God can't possibly mean and get rid of all the good stuff. We're going to use it to sacrifice to the Lord. That's what we'll do. So when you get down to verse 22, Sir Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord.

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed and to heed than the fat of rams for rebels in is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. There's a couple of things to notice there. One, God wants your obedience before he's looking for a sacrifice.

And when you do not obey, it is just like practicing witchcraft. It's witchcraft to be disobedient. What? Anybody in this room want to be called a witch or a warlock? Now, I don't sit in my house with a cauldron and make spells. Yes, you are. Every time you tell God no. Every time you're disobedient, you are practicing witchcraft and idolatry because you are worshiping yourself over God.

What I want is more than what God wants. I am above God. It's witchcraft and lots wife. She also. They were also given a very specific instruction in Genesis 1915 through 26. God was done with Sodom and Gomorrah. He was done with them. So he sends angels to wipe them out and they plead and the angels say, Go, don't look back and get as far away as you can.

What does she do? She seems like, Oh, poof. Now she became a pillar. So I believe that Pillar of Salt is probably still there. As a reminder, when you are given an instruction, there are consequences for not following it. And now some. Some of those consequences might not be as dire as turning into a pillar of salt or like an analysis of fire.

Who lied, who did not give what they were supposed to give, and then lied about it. They both dropped it instantly. Sometimes it's not a physical dropping dead, but the Lord will take his presence from you, which is death. How can you live without the Lord? Deuteronomy, That same chapter we read earlier about all the all the blessings.

If you read from 15 to 68, those are all of the curses that come from disobedience. I can't do math that fast, but that's at least 40 something more than the blessing, and I encourage you to read it, meditate on that, because those are the things that you're bringing into your life when you tell the Lord, no. Luke 646 349 But why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do the things which I say whoever comes to me and here's my sayings and does them, I will show.

I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house who dug deep, laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against the house, but could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built his house on earth without a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently and independently.

It fell, and the ruin of that house was great disobedience. So building on the rock and building on sand. Right. Which is that scripture, the same storm comes, the same waves come, the same wind comes. But the one who was operate in obedience can withstand. So it doesn't mean that you're not going to have hard things that come.

You will. I can promise you that it's going to come from every side of you guys have seen the the mean that's out there. Choose your hard like you. Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Losing weight is hard. Dealing with sickness is hard. Choose your hard. Obedience is hard, but disobedience is hard. The consequences are not the same.

You get to choose.

James I'll go back. Um. John 541 Just get that one. James 122 to 25 Let me go back to that. You have it up, okay, But be doers of the word and not here is only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer. He is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind man he was.

But he, who looks in the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work. This will, this one will be blessed. And what he does. Are you a hearer or are you a doer? I think we can get caught up in there. A couple of weeks ago, I think Ryan had all types of people who didn't necessarily know what the law was calling them to do.

I think we can get really caught up in what the big picture is and this whole huge thing that we're supposed to do with our entire life that we miss just the very next step. And you never get started because you're so overwhelmed by this really big thing that's very abstract and you don't know what to do that you miss.

Just the very next step. It's the first dot on your connect the dots. You'll get to the big picture later. Just take the next right step and the next right step and the next direction. And pretty soon you'll be you'll be to that big thing that the Lord is calling you to. You have to know your assignment. Um, personally, I just accepted a new position, and I'll start in a couple of weeks.

But when I started working at the last company I was at, I asked the Lord before I went there because he told me it was time to transition from the company before. And I said, okay, where do you want me to go? And I got a phone call and talked to the people and I asked the Lord through every interview, okay, do I need to take the next step?

Do I need to take the next step? Um, and I told my I said, Lord, why are you sending me there? And he said, You're on assignment and this is what you're going to do, that. And so when I got there, I told my manager, I said, Look, I'm a believer. I was like, That's why I'm here. The Lord sent me here.

I'm on assignment, is what you told me to do. And when my assignment is over, I'm out. I'm serious. I'm not making that up. I really said that. And so a couple of months ago, maybe like two or three months ago, I got somebody message me on LinkedIn about an opportunity. And I said, okay, Lord, is my assignment up because of my assignment is up.

There's no reason for me to even entertain that conversation. He's like, No, see what they're talking about? Okay, So I go through the process, get my resume done, and, uh, and then that door shut. I was like, Okay, I guess I was just trying to get my resumé done. So there's something coming. I just need to know what it is.

So fast forward a couple of weeks, I get another message. Okay, Lord, am I supposed to answer that? They said yes. Get on the phone, have a 45 minute conversation. And I felt I got off the phone. I was like, Lord, he's like, This is the next assignment. I was like, okay. So I knew they were going to make me an offer.

I knew I was going to accept it because the Lord already told me. He already told me. Yeah. And so two weeks ago I told my boss I was like, Hey, I respect you enough where we are. We're pretty close. I told you that my assignment is over. I'm out. My assignment is coming to an end. I don't have an offer at this point.

I'm just telling her. I'm like, Look, this is probably happening. She's like, I'm so excited for you. She's like, I'm sad for us. But. But because I had that relationship and I already told her that when I came, the seed was already because for the last two years I was there. Every few months you're like, Is your assignment done yet?

As your assignment? I'm like, No, girl. I promise. I promise. I will tell you. And so they made me an offer. The offer is less than what I'm making now. I signed the offer letter and because of the Lord said, This is your next assignment. I don't need to worry about the money. I'm okay. If he's asking you to do something, he will take care of it.

All of it. And I don't know, have. I don't have to know how he's doing it. All right? We have to be people of faith. We have to trust. We have to trust. That's our problem. We don't trust him because we're looking at what people have done and not what he's doing. Well. So we're building things. We're pursuing careers or pursuing our passions, whatever those might be.

But is that what God has asked you to do? Psalm 127 one through two. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain, who build it? Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he gives his beloved sleep.

If you are building something that God is not involved in, you are wasting your precious time and you are wasting your time on foolishness. It is foolishness to do some God is not asking you to do because not only is it wasting your time, you're in somebody else's way. They're supposed to be doing that thing. Not that. And so how do you move forward?

The first thing you have to do is repent and we all need to do it. Repentance is something you need to do every day because it's always something we just we're human every day. Lord And if you don't know what you did, ask the Lord, He'll tell you. I promise he will, because you'll see it in other people, like, Oh, I do need to.

Oh, so you've got to you've got to remember you're telling him No, not yet. Maybe later or. Absolutely not. Then we need to ask you every day is not what do you want to do with my whole life? What do you want me to do? Because it's the little foxes that spoil the mind. So if you don't master your every day, you will never master your every day.

What do you want me to do today? What do you want me to serve today? Who do I need to talk to you today? What do I need to not talk to you today? Am I where you want me to be? If I'm not, help make it out and give me to where you want. I do not want to waste What?

I don't want to waste your time. God, this is God's God by you not being where you're supposed to be, doing what you're supposed to be doing. People are waiting for you. You have a solution, you have an answer. You have that word, you have that thing that somebody else desperately needs. People are waiting for you. And when you ask him what he's what he wants, then need to notice what you notice.

So I gave you guys an example one, the alarms and the clock. I was talking to him about a Shiva notice something about some clock that took us down another route. Like notice the things that the Lord is highlighting. You know, He speaks things that people think he's going to speak in an audible voice. And he can sometimes he speaks from somebody on a stage giving a message.

He speaks from you, talking to your neighbor or song on the radio or a clock on the wall that you didn't hear for seven days, and all of a sudden you hear it. So loud. It is high. Yet in your position, it's time to obey it. It's time to say yes. And then don't focus on the big thing.

Focus on that daily activity. What is it? And then do the more you do those little things and you see how that is, the more apt you'll be to take those bigger. If you can't go to the homeless shelter, for example, and to donate, you know, to give a meal, give more time to people, they're going to send you to Australia to live in the bush is not going to do it.

You can't even go to the street. It's going to be hard. This is what I can promise. You can be hard. Either way you go, you will have people, our friends will turn on you. You have to keep your fear. That raises its ugly head. You'll have opposition. You're going to have your plans for me where I can do.

But if you keep pushing through and I, you will see why. And you will see, as we saw it this week, all the warfare was reversed for children to come back right. And not only that, there were countless others that maybe the Lord shifted their thinking because they all know the Bible down there. I mean that straight Bible belt.

They all have a respect for God, but sometimes being cloaked in religion, you miss the relationship and were able to show that relationship. So who knows what it is going to be there very well because at that camp, one of those children is going to travel the world and it came from Noah's Ark. So who are you impacting that's going to shift their life to where God wants them to go?

There is victory on the other side. There are dire consequences. You don't charge to you to get back on track. The time and there may be things he's been asking of he's been nagging you about. You just have a mental Maybe it's something that an item that you have in your house, even holding on to somebody that could be a relationship worth asking you to reestablish that person.

It could be that he's been killing you since you were little. You were going to be an orphan one day, but you haven't recognized a single word right? It could be something as simple as you go meet my neighbor and bring them your name. Do it today. It doesn't have to be this big, grandiose gesture. Every act. So as they are preparing, just take this quiet and you have a notebook yourself and they take notes and a year and a half.

What do you want me to do? And write it down Now and then. A reasonable solution is to give our entire lives to them when they created us. Think you this for? I think you more they you that you love us enough to correct as you love us back in the right direction. Or I think you that your mercies are new every day.

And even though we all have this, every one of us here, we have an opportunity to get back to convince you that we will see. Yes, we will. Only we will do it because we love you. And when you do, we are so Father, I ask right now this woman that you reveal to each person something that they you do.

You want to be with us throughout the week. The weeks to end. This is Ecclesiastes three two. There is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plan, a time for a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to break down, A time to build up.

A time to meet. A time to land, A time to mourn, a time to dance. A time to cast away stones A time to gather stones at times embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to gain and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to sew.

A time to keep silence and to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace. Lord, I ask that you revealed to us what the time is for us now, and it'll all be different. But Lord, reveal it to us so that we can be on your timetable, doing what you're asking us to do.

We ask these things and you, in Jesus name.