Speaker 1: Hey, what up?
Speaker 1: It's Mark Carter on, the Pastor of Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Speaker 1: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: So, y'all, i have a confession to make to you today.
Speaker 2: Are you ready for this?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is my set the scope in a box.
Speaker 2: It has been sitting on my counter for almost a month now and I have not opened it because I'm afraid, and I'm going into nursing school in the fall.
Speaker 2: August 28th, i started masters in nursing at Marquette University and I'm terrified, terrified, and I feel like this box talks to me.
Speaker 2: The set the scope inside it talks to me and it tells me you're too old, you're 45.
Speaker 2: And it tells me you're not smart enough.
Speaker 2: And it tells me you're not capable enough.
Speaker 2: You can't do that.
Speaker 2: And it tells me you don't have what it takes.
Speaker 2: And it tells me you're gonna fail.
Speaker 2: Who do you think you are?
Speaker 2: And I walk by and I'm like, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 2: And I fight this over and over and over again, these insecurities that are so deep within me about this next step that I'm about to take, and it just keeps going.
Speaker 2: Maybe you have something like that too.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's not a set the scope on your counter, but maybe there's something in your life that speaks insecurity over your life.
Speaker 2: Do you have something like that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, i have to tell you.
Speaker 2: It is deep within side of me And it tells me what I can and I can't do.
Speaker 2: Today we are gonna continue our series on the road out, and this has been such a powerful series And we are gonna be talking today about how all of our spiritual problems go back to a view of God that he is too small, that we're looking at him And we're looking at him and thinking that he is too small.
Speaker 2: The first week we started off with two truths when we feel forgotten.
Speaker 2: The first one was that God remembers us even when no one else does.
Speaker 2: And the second truth was that God rewards even simple obedience and that is a blessing.
Speaker 2: And the second week we talked about how God has to do it in us before he can do it through us, and that was all about God building that character in us And we have to go through those trials And if we go through those trials and God is building in us, what he can do so that he can do with us what he wants to right.
Speaker 2: That was awesome.
Speaker 2: Today we're talking all about insecurity in Exodus three And the feeling that we are not enough to face life's challenges, and it comes from a view that God is too small.
Speaker 2: Insecurity is that voice inside of us that whispers I am not blank enough.
Speaker 2: What is that for you?
Speaker 2: What do you put in that blank?
Speaker 2: What bubbles up to the surface when you think about that?
Speaker 2: I am not blank enough, i'm not good looking enough, i'm not athletic enough, i'm not young enough, i'm not smart or funny or spiritual or capable enough.
Speaker 2: When I feel insecure, i feel like life in front of me is like a delicious bowl of soup and I'm a fork And I'm like I can't even get into that soup, like I don't even belong here, and that's what it feels like.
Speaker 2: What's what insecurity feels like to me?
Speaker 2: Maybe it feels something like that to you too.
Speaker 2: Maybe you just got hired for a job and you really don't feel like you belong there, and you feel like, as you walk through the office, like everybody else doesn't feel like you belong there, and when they laugh, you're like they're surely laughing about me.
Speaker 2: Ugh, i hate that feeling.
Speaker 2: Or maybe it's a new season, you just became a new parent, or maybe your kids are flying out of the nest like mine.
Speaker 2: Or maybe you're starting a new career And it's you're wondering can I do this?
Speaker 2: Do I have what it takes to do this next step?
Speaker 2: Or maybe you just started dating someone And you're wondering if you're measuring up to their family's expectations?
Speaker 2: I remember when Mark would sit around our family table and he would feel like everyone was auditioning him And he would like leave the table and people would vote on him.
Speaker 2: I think that's how he felt, right, they love him, They like, adore him.
Speaker 2: But that's how he felt.
Speaker 2: Maybe you're married right now and you feel like you're still not meeting those expectations.
Speaker 2: Well, exodus three starts off with Moses as a pretty insecure man.
Speaker 2: Moses had started off his life as a very confident guy.
Speaker 2: You know, he had a wonderful job, he was high paid, he lived in the palace as Pharaoh's adopted son And he was great.
Speaker 2: And then he felt like God called him to do something.
Speaker 2: He felt like God called him to deliver the people of Israel from slavery.
Speaker 2: But when he did that, when he took that step of faith, they met him with rejection And they mocked him And Pharaoh just owned him And he killed a man And he buried him in the sand, like we learned about last week.
Speaker 2: He fleeced to the desert, which we learned that was like 700 miles away, and he spends the next 40 years there.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine that 40 years?
Speaker 2: And that's where we're going to pick it up today in verse and chapter three, verse one.
Speaker 2: I'm going to take a drink of water, thank you.
Speaker 2: One day, moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, jethro the priest of Midian.
Speaker 2: He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God.
Speaker 2: Now y'all, he was Pharaoh's adopted son.
Speaker 2: Now he is on the backside of the mountain And he is tending sheep for his father-in-law.
Speaker 2: I don't think this is what he had in mind.
Speaker 2: I don't think this was his plan.
Speaker 2: All right There.
Speaker 2: An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of the bush.
Speaker 2: Moses stared in amazement.
Speaker 2: Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it did not burn up.
Speaker 2: This is amazing.
Speaker 2: Moses said to himself.
Speaker 2: Why isn't the bush burning up?
Speaker 2: I must go see it.
Speaker 2: When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, god called him from the middle of the bush.
Speaker 2: Moses, moses, here I am.
Speaker 2: Moses replied.
Speaker 2: We need to stop there Because I feel like we get so busy in our lives, don't we?
Speaker 2: We get so distracted by our phones, by our goals, by our careers by everything that we're doing all around us, and sometimes God is trying to show us a burning bush in our life and we are not able to see it because we are so busy And that is detrimental.
Speaker 2: God wants to speak to us And I just think it's so incredible that, because Moses turned to see the burning bush, that is when God spoke to him.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 2: And so God is going to want to speak to you.
Speaker 2: So we need to look up and around.
Speaker 2: We can't be down all the time.
Speaker 2: We have to look up and around because God wants to speak to us.
Speaker 2: Word.
Speaker 2: Yes, all right, let's keep going.
Speaker 2: Do not come any closer.
Speaker 2: The Lord warned Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.
Speaker 2: Something special is about to happen.
Speaker 2: I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Speaker 2: When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
Speaker 2: This was the God of his people And he was talking to him.
Speaker 2: Then the Lord told him I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.
Speaker 2: I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers.
Speaker 2: Yes, i am aware of their suffering.
Speaker 2: He sees and hears and is aware of your suffering as well.
Speaker 2: So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and Spacious land.
Speaker 2: It is a land flowing with milk and honey, the land where the Canaanites, hittites, amorites, parasites, hittites and Jebusites all the ice, they all live there.
Speaker 2: Look, the cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I've seen how harshly the Egyptians abused them, which reminds me to keep praying right, because that prayer reached God.
Speaker 2: Let's keep praying for what we need to pray for.
Speaker 2: And this is so funny.
Speaker 2: This is what God tells him of all the direction He can say.
Speaker 2: This is all he gives Moses now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh.
Speaker 2: You must lead my people, israel, out of Egypt.
Speaker 2: That's it, okay.
Speaker 2: But Moses protested to God.
Speaker 2: Who am I to appear before Pharaoh?
Speaker 2: who am I to lead these people out of Egypt?
Speaker 2: Hold up, okay.
Speaker 2: When did we start talking about Moses here?
Speaker 2: up until this point, everything in this scripture has been about God and who God is and what God wants to do, and all of a sudden, moses makes himself The point of the conversation.
Speaker 2: Did you see that, and he is the writer of this book.
Speaker 2: He makes himself the point of the conversation and scholars say that this reveals his deep in Securities that Moses has been carrying around from past failures.
Speaker 2: It's just like a bag of failures He's carrying.
Speaker 2: In fact, they point out that the question who am I is an echo to the very question Then he tried, when he tried to rescue his people, israel in chapter 2, when he announced how he was going to deliver them and they said who are you and why would we follow you that Security?
Speaker 2: the repetition of that question, who are you?
Speaker 2: Continues to go through his mind and shows us that their doubts have seeped deep into his soul.
Speaker 2: Has any doubts seeped deep within your soul?
Speaker 2: Maybe that's happened to you.
Speaker 2: Someone has criticized you for so long that you started to believe Those things about yourself.
Speaker 2: Maybe it was a friend, maybe it was an ex-spouse, maybe it was a dad or an abusive boss.
Speaker 2: Somebody has been speaking things over you and it keeps going over and over and over in your mind like a broken record, so that when there's an opportunity in front of you, when God calls you to do something, when something is in front of you, all that plays in your head is your insecurities, over and over and over again, and that's how you answer God.
Speaker 2: And that's how Moses answered God in that moment out of his insecurity instead of out of faith.
Speaker 2: Wow, but this is how God responds to him in chapter.
Speaker 2: In verse 12, god answered the most powerful five words ever.
Speaker 2: I Will be, with you.
Speaker 2: I Will be with you and this is your sign that the one that I am the one who has sent you.
Speaker 2: When you have brought the people of Egypt, you out of Egypt, you will worship God.
Speaker 2: At this very moment, i will be with you.
Speaker 2: That's what he says to you.
Speaker 2: This is important.
Speaker 2: I want you to notice what God didn't do.
Speaker 2: God didn't give him a pep talk, right.
Speaker 2: He didn't say you got this, moses, you got everything it takes.
Speaker 2: I know you do you go?
Speaker 2: He didn't say that, right, and he didn't like play a song.
Speaker 2: Like on my way to work, when I'm going to the hospital, i usually put on like roar by Katy Perry, and I'm like seeing a lot.
Speaker 2: I am the, i am the tiger Fire dancing through the fire, because I am a champion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're gonna hear me, roar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, i do that on the way to work really loud, and those things are great, right, they're really fun, they're really kind.
Speaker 2: When people give us compliments, it builds us up, but it builds us up only for a moment.
Speaker 2: It can't give us the strength to carry us through what God is calling us to do.
Speaker 2: It isn't gonna give us the strength to carry us through the hard times that we're about to walk into, we need God.
Speaker 2: And God says to us I will be with you.
Speaker 2: The real confidence comes not from a better assessment of our own potential, but a clear view of how big and Powerful God is.
Speaker 2: So I've been like walking around my house as I've been preparing this message And I've been thinking about I will be with you.
Speaker 2: And I've been thinking about just the different times, like I have to do Something and I need strength, right, and so God is with me, and so I'm like I will be with you.
Speaker 2: High five, god, you're right there, right.
Speaker 2: And so I walk through and like I need to go.
Speaker 2: I don't know, god calls me to talk to somebody.
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, i will be with you.
Speaker 2: Okay, high five, let's go because God is going to be with us.
Speaker 2: Right, so we can give a high five to God, amen.
Speaker 2: But Moses still doesn't get it, just like we don't get it a lot of the time, and he keeps talking about his deficiencies, as we do, and in verse 13 It says Moses protested.
Speaker 2: If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, they will ask what is his name.
Speaker 2: And then, what should I tell them?
Speaker 2: Can you just imagine Moses?
Speaker 2: He is in a complete tizzy right now and he's like what do you want me to do?
Speaker 2: What if they ask him me this?
Speaker 2: what am I supposed to say?
Speaker 2: What am I supposed to do when this happens?
Speaker 2: He wants to know the whole story, like we do most of the time, before we even are willing to take a step.
Speaker 2: But in verse 14, god redirects us Moses's focus once again on his own person and his own purpose.
Speaker 2: 14, god replied to Moses I am who I am.
Speaker 2: Say this to the people of Israel I am Has sent me to you.
Speaker 2: He says, moses, this is not about you having what it takes.
Speaker 2: This is about me accomplishing my purposes in your life, it's.
Speaker 2: I don't need to have everything memorized.
Speaker 2: I don't need to know the whole manual.
Speaker 2: I don't need to know the answer to every question that someone's gonna ask me.
Speaker 2: I don't need to float along on a cloud of grace and like get everything together, because I flail like all the time.
Speaker 2: I don't need any of that.
Speaker 2: All I need to know is that God is going with me.
Speaker 2: He's saying to Moses and he's saying to you today, i don't need you to be the victor.
Speaker 2: I need you to be a vessel, a vessel that I can fill and I can use.
Speaker 2: Confidence comes from seeing how big and powerful God is and discovering his purposes for your life and getting swept up in them Amen.
Speaker 2: So last summer, my family went to Walt Disney World.
Speaker 2: I know everybody has different opinions of Walt Disney World.
Speaker 2: I love Disney World.
Speaker 2: Okay, i cry when I walk through the gate.
Speaker 2: I'm like a little girl and I'm in my favorite place, and what I wanted to do is I wanted to take my kids to Walt Disney World altogether before they all fly away, and so that's what we did.
Speaker 2: Last year, we spent one day in the park and it was one of the best days I don't know if y'all agree of our lives.
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 2: Okay, you need to know something, though, before you get into the story.
Speaker 2: So back way when, 24 years ago, mark and I went on our honeymoon to Walt Disney World.
Speaker 2: It was awesome, but I was filled with such fear I don't even know why Such fear and such.
Speaker 2: I was just so insecure and I was afraid of every ride.
Speaker 2: You guys, i did not ride a ride, not one ride Cause I let fear and insecurity feel me so much that I paralyzed myself and I could not get on a ride.
Speaker 2: My poor husband, i like, could not do it.
Speaker 2: And there was one point where we did this virtual computer thing where we had to design our own roller coaster.
Speaker 2: And he designed this huge roller coaster with loops and loops and all this stuff and I was terrified.
Speaker 2: I was like Mark, i can't ride that.
Speaker 2: It's not even a real roller coaster, you guys, it's a virtual computer program, okay.
Speaker 2: But I was like I cannot get on a ride.
Speaker 2: But I did.
Speaker 2: And then I designed mine And if you've been around from any length of time, you know what it was called.
Speaker 2: It was called the Jolly Trolley And my roller coaster literally went ch-ch-ch-ch, whee.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, i can handle this.
Speaker 2: Not this time.
Speaker 2: This time I was like I'm gonna be brave, i'm gonna go on every single ride with my kids and I'm gonna love it and it's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 2: And so here I am, ready to get on Splash Mountain.
Speaker 2: I'm going through the line, okay, i'm looking at my watch.
Speaker 2: I'm.
Speaker 2: Oh, my heart rate is really high right now.
Speaker 2: My heart rate was really high as I was standing in line in the hundreds and I'm in that gate part.
Speaker 2: You know where.
Speaker 2: You're like, no way, there's no return, right?
Speaker 2: You're like there, there's a gate behind you, you're the next person to get on it.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, oh, and so I'm like Mark, i cannot do this.
Speaker 2: And he's like trust the Lord.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, okay, i'm gonna trust the Lord.
Speaker 2: And so I like had to put away my bravery and I had to look to God.
Speaker 2: I had to remember God will be with me, he is going with me.
Speaker 2: I could do all things through Christ.
Speaker 2: I went on that ride, you guys, and I had the time of my life.
Speaker 2: I screamed as we went down everything.
Speaker 2: I was like what the heck?
Speaker 2: Like I had to count down everything.
Speaker 2: I was a mess, but it was so fun.
Speaker 2: So this is me, and here is a live video Check this out of what it was like.
Speaker 2: Are you really doing it, harry?
Speaker 2: No, that was terrifying.
Speaker 2: Yay, we did it.
Speaker 2: We did it, i did it And it was awesome.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't because of my bravery, it was because I had to do it with God, because God was going with me.
Speaker 2: That's why I could do it, because my God is so big and so powerful, and my confidence needs to be in Him alone.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 2: The road out of insecurity it's not about us guys And it's not about being enough.
Speaker 2: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 2: It's about God and His person and His purpose and His power.
Speaker 2: Many people assume that the Bible is about them, about looking through the Bible for all these spiritual insights that will help me live a victorious Christian life And there is stuff in there on that.
Speaker 2: But the Bible is primarily about God.
Speaker 2: The Bible is, page after page, revealing who He is, and only when we come to an awareness of who He is can we discover who we really are.
Speaker 2: Only by becoming confident in His purposes for our life can we ever become confident to do what He's calling us to do.
Speaker 2: So many of us have tried to find God's will, and we're like God what is your will for my life?
Speaker 2: And it's always like my right.
Speaker 2: And we're like looking like for my life.
Speaker 2: We're looking all around trying to find what does God want me to do?
Speaker 2: What does God want me to say?
Speaker 2: What does God want me to go in my life?
Speaker 2: How do I achieve God, my life purposes?
Speaker 2: He doesn't want you to hold a magnifying to yourself.
Speaker 2: It's not about you.
Speaker 2: It's not about you, it's about God.
Speaker 2: It's about coming before Him.
Speaker 2: When we are so focused on ourselves, we're just so inward focused.
Speaker 2: It is so stifling and paralyzing And we can't breathe because all we see is ourselves.
Speaker 2: There's no power in that.
Speaker 2: What we really need to do is what Moses did in front of the burning bush and take off our shoes and realize that we are standing on a holy ground in front of God Almighty And we need just to render to Him.
Speaker 2: God, i am your vessel.
Speaker 2: What do you want me to do?
Speaker 2: I'm yours, and look up, instead of down in ourselves and magnifying ourselves.
Speaker 2: We look up and out.
Speaker 2: God, this is your world.
Speaker 2: What do you want to do here?
Speaker 2: I'm your vessel.
Speaker 2: Amen, that is where the power is.
Speaker 2: So this is what God tries patiently, and he shows us patiently how to do this, and he drives the point home with the introduction of His name I am who I am.
Speaker 2: Say this to the people Israel I am has sent me to you.
Speaker 2: And that sounds strange.
Speaker 2: Right, i am.
Speaker 2: What do you mean?
Speaker 2: I am, but God is saying Moses, i am not like anything you've ever experienced before.
Speaker 2: I don't have needs, i don't require any help.
Speaker 2: I don't get tired, i don't have limits, i did not have a beginning and I will not have an ending.
Speaker 2: I am unchanging, unbounded, always and forever the same.
Speaker 2: So I am not intimidated by Pharaoh and he is not intimidated by your mountain.
Speaker 2: He is not intimidated by that circumstance, he's not intimidated by your marriage and what's going on in it.
Speaker 2: He's not intimidated by it And he is not limited by Moses' abilities and he was not limited by your abilities.
Speaker 2: So, whatever you said last week that you regret, he's not limited by that And he's not limited because that failure happened in the past.
Speaker 2: He's not limited by that.
Speaker 2: He's God Almighty and he wants to move in your life.
Speaker 2: The burning bush is supposed to give us a glimpse of God's eternal, self-sustaining nature.
Speaker 2: The fire burned continually in that bush without burning up the bush, and we know for a fire.
Speaker 2: If we were to make a campfire right here, we would put wood on it, start it.
Speaker 2: But if we didn't continually stoke it and put more wood on it, it would go out.
Speaker 2: But that's not the fire that Moses saw in that bush.
Speaker 2: It was self-sustaining, it didn't require anything And in the same way, god, the eternal I am needs no external fuel.
Speaker 2: Nothing precedes him, nothing sustains him, nothing contains him.
Speaker 2: He is God Almighty.
Speaker 2: So we put our confidence in him and not in our prepared selves.
Speaker 2: We know that God has been preparing Moses Like we've seen all that In our human person.
Speaker 2: We would tell him Moses, don't you worry all that stuff with failure and feral, that was just preparation.
Speaker 2: Now you're ready.
Speaker 2: But that's not how God responded to Moses.
Speaker 2: That's not what he said to him.
Speaker 2: He didn't say now you have what it takes because you've gone through all this.
Speaker 2: Instead, he simply says Moses, i am with you, walk forward in confidence, knowing that what I have called you to I will supply you for.
Speaker 2: And Moses did that Once he started to take a step.
Speaker 2: He started to see how God indeed had been ever present in every part of his life, preparing him for this great work that he had called into.
Speaker 2: God doesn't even want our confidence in the preparation, but in him right now.
Speaker 2: He is a very present God right now.
Speaker 2: So what if we looked at our life through the eyes of faith, believing that in everything the good and the bad, the exciting and the disappointing, the tragedies and the triumphs a sovereign, loving God was behind it all, preparing you for his purposes.
Speaker 2: And that same God is now calling you forward, trusting that the one who faithfully prepared you will faithfully see you through, amen.
Speaker 2: So this last May was our 24th anniversary, mark and I and we went away for a couple of nights and I was sitting out having my quiet time and I was journaling.
Speaker 2: And I wrote this to the Lord again, because I'm always not always, but I'm asking God for confirmation.
Speaker 2: And I wrote to him.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I feel lost and scared In your mercy.
Speaker 2: I pray for one more.
Speaker 2: And then I put a dash another smiley face, confirmation that this is the right direction for me to go.
Speaker 2: And I sat there for a while and I heard the Lord say, not in like an audible voice, but in my head.
Speaker 2: I heard him say these things to me I will make it clear as you step out on the water.
Speaker 2: It's okay that you don't know how.
Speaker 2: Just trust me, i've got you.
Speaker 2: I won't let you go.
Speaker 2: Remember that I am doing a new thing.
Speaker 2: And lastly, he said to me be still and know that I am God.
Speaker 2: You'll notice that all of those things are not about me.
Speaker 2: They're all about God doing what God does.
Speaker 2: God leading me, god pursuing me, god telling me what next step to take and that it's all going to be Him from beginning to end.
Speaker 2: And that is where our confidence comes from in Him.
Speaker 2: God doesn't deal with Moses' insecurities by teaching him anything new about himself, even though Moses has a lot to learn In this moment.
Speaker 2: God deals with Moses' insecurities by calling him to focus on who God is.
Speaker 2: Confidence doesn't come from a clearer self-assessment, but a clearer view of God.
Speaker 2: So when Moses says but God, i am not eloquent enough, i'm not smart enough, i'm not successful enough, god responds I didn't choose you because you were any of those things.
Speaker 2: I didn't choose you because of that.
Speaker 2: I am enough of all those things for both of us.
Speaker 2: You are not, but God is enough.
Speaker 2: In fact, throughout scripture we learned that God doesn't often choose the person.
Speaker 2: That's like all right, i know why God chose me.
Speaker 2: It's because I'm so talented and he just wanted me on his team.
Speaker 2: He doesn't really do that ever.
Speaker 2: He usually humbles that person, but I praise the Lord for it is that he prefers instruments who are broken and feel insufficient to know that they need to lean on Jesus.
Speaker 2: That's why Paul says in First Corinthians he chooses the weak and the despised so that the glory will go all to him.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 2: I would actually you guys go so far as to say feeling inadequate is a prerequisite to being used by God.
Speaker 2: Most of us says but God, i'm not good enough.
Speaker 2: And God says I know I am God.
Speaker 2: I'm not skilled enough.
Speaker 2: I am God, i'm not confident enough, i am.
Speaker 2: Put your confidence in me.
Speaker 2: In the New Testament, jesus takes this I am to himself and applies it very intimately to every area of our life.
Speaker 2: The greatest areas of brokenness and need is the need for God.
Speaker 2: The greatest areas of brokenness and need, he says to the hungry, he says I am the bread of life.
Speaker 2: To the thirsty, i am the living water.
Speaker 2: To those in darkness, jesus declares I am the light.
Speaker 2: To those in need of a fresh start.
Speaker 2: He says I am the door To those who feel abandoned.
Speaker 2: He says I am the good shepherd.
Speaker 2: To those who feel lost, he says I am the way.
Speaker 2: To those who are afraid of death, he says I am the life.
Speaker 2: To those confused.
Speaker 2: I am the truth.
Speaker 2: To the unrighteous, he says I will be Your righteous covering.
Speaker 2: To the empty, he says I am your fullness.
Speaker 2: To the dead, he says I am your resurrection.
Speaker 2: To the defeated he says I am your hope.
Speaker 2: And to those who got overlooked, cut from the team Passover promotion.
Speaker 2: God says to you today I have a plan for you to use you in a significant way for my kingdom, to give you a future and a hope and a blessing.
Speaker 2: Make you a blessing to all those around you.
Speaker 2: He has not forgot about you.
Speaker 2: The Bible's message is not about self-actualization.
Speaker 2: The Bible is about God and what God wants for you and how he wants to accomplish in your life.
Speaker 2: The gospel is not that God would help us become righteous enough for him because we could never, never be righteous enough for Jesus.
Speaker 2: It's that Jesus was righteous in our place and he died the death that we should have died so that we could be given his righteousness as a gift in his place.
Speaker 2: For all that we need, my friends, and all that we lack, all that we can never be in and of ourselves.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the great I am.
Speaker 2: I am not enough.
Speaker 2: Y'all You're not enough, moses wasn't enough, but God is God enough for both you and me and Moses and everybody else.
Speaker 2: Some of you might be saying, kenzie, this isn't like a round round message like usual.
Speaker 2: This isn't like yay, i'm kind of feeling a little small here And I tell you that is a good thing.
Speaker 2: It is a good thing.
Speaker 2: You see, this world is kind of on fire I don't know if you recognize that yet And everything and everyone, whether it's social media or the news or anywhere, anywhere you go, it's all about what do you need?
Speaker 2: What do you need, do you right?
Speaker 2: Like, whatever you need, that's what you should do.
Speaker 2: Whatever you want, that's what you should get.
Speaker 2: It's all about you.
Speaker 2: But that's not what God says.
Speaker 2: And I don't want to step on any toes, but I'm kind of gonna right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, this might offend some people.
Speaker 2: The scripture says you don't really know the half of it.
Speaker 2: You're so weak you can't even guarantee you'll be around tomorrow.
Speaker 2: We're so small that we shouldn't promise that we'll be here tomorrow, like we don't know what God's gonna do.
Speaker 2: We are a wisp of smoke, a blade of grass, the slightest shift in wind and direction, the slightest change in temperature and we're gone In the scope of the universe.
Speaker 2: We're as small as a grain of sand on the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 2: Very loved, very seen grain of sand, but we are a grain of sand.
Speaker 2: We're so powerless that Jesus said that apart from me, you can't do anything.
Speaker 2: Dude, so evil that the book of Romans declares that literally nothing good dwells in our flesh, that anything good that happens to us is God working to do it in us for His glory.
Speaker 2: It's all Him.
Speaker 2: I know that's jarring, i know that's not.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't put that in a cheer like yay, weakness, go Like no.
Speaker 2: But it's good for our soul to know that God is God and we are not.
Speaker 2: The reality is is that we are not the point and even though everyone and everything is trying to get us to believe that we are the point, that is the bait of Satan And he is trying to ambush us and take us out.
Speaker 2: Because only when you see that you are not are you ready to lean in to the great I am and discover what full and abundant life is really like in him.
Speaker 2: When you realize that God has declared the great I am named to you, in the midst of your insecurities, when everything is dark around you, you can say God, i don't feel like I can be a parent, i don't even know how to parent this child.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to do here.
Speaker 2: And God says I know I do.
Speaker 2: You say I can't make it anymore, i can't do this.
Speaker 2: And he says I can.
Speaker 2: You say I'm so doubtful, god, i don't even know what to believe anymore.
Speaker 2: He says to you but I'm so faithful.
Speaker 2: You say I feel so dysfunctional.
Speaker 2: He says I am so complete.
Speaker 2: You say I'm so deficient, god, yet I am so sufficient.
Speaker 2: You say I'm so sinful.
Speaker 2: And he says to you I'm so gracious.
Speaker 2: You say I'm at the end of my rope, god.
Speaker 2: And God says to you I've got a rope that goes on for eternity.
Speaker 2: Grab, hold my child.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're back.
Speaker 2: So when the pharaoh in our lives, when pharaohs in our lives say to us who do you think you are, we respond I don't think I'm anything, but I know the great I am.
Speaker 2: And when the haters that whisper in our hearts say to us you are not, we just shake that right off and we shout back you are right, but he is, and now I am in him.
Speaker 2: And so my challenge for you today, my friends, my challenge for you, is to write it out.
Speaker 2: Write out what is your insecurity It might be many, but there are some that just keep bubbling up.
Speaker 2: Write it out, say I am not blank enough, and then right out after that.
Speaker 2: Yet in Christ I am and write about his sufficiency, his righteousness.
Speaker 2: He is more than a conqueror, he is fully equipped.
Speaker 2: However, he answers your question And I'm going to go first.
Speaker 2: I'm going to open this box.
Speaker 2: Listen, listen now.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 2: You set the scope.
Speaker 2: You don't get to tell me what I am and what I'm not anymore.
Speaker 2: I know I'm not smart enough.
Speaker 2: I know that I'm not capable enough to do this.
Speaker 2: I know that I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I know that God is going with me And through him I can take this hill.
Speaker 2: And so I put this on for nursing school.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, i haven't even done this yet.
Speaker 2: I put this on for nursing school because I can go with God.
Speaker 2: I will be with you.
Speaker 2: He says to me, and he says it to you too.
Speaker 2: He will be with you, whatever he's calling you to do.
Speaker 2: Feeling inadequate is a prerequisite to being used by God.
Speaker 2: When God called the apostle Paul and Gideon and Peter, they were defeated, destroyed, hot messes like us.
Speaker 2: They had no idea what was going on And, honestly, y'all that seems to par for the course.
Speaker 2: Let's pray, jesus.
Speaker 2: We thank you, god, that we can do all things for you And that you are the point and that you reign and rule and that you are above us, lord Jesus, god, we just raise our hands today and know that you are going with us and therefore we can go.
Speaker 2: God, we just praise you today, god, and I pray, jesus, that you would go before each of these people, in whatever insecurities they have, that they would write them out that they are not, but you are God.
Speaker 2: I pray that you would fill them and bless them.
Speaker 2: And, god, we just praise you and thank you In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit Fears Church for more information.
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Speaker 1: Whatever challenges you're facing, i know you can make it.
Speaker 1: Don't give up.
Speaker 1: Hang on to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He won't let go of you.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves you so much and we love you.
Speaker 1: I hope someday we get to meet in person.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.