SPEAKER_00 0:04

What's up, guys? Thanks for tuning into North Rock Church's Young Adult Service, the Gathering. Whether you're at home, at work, or on the road, we hope you find this message encouraging and helpful. If you're a young adult between the ages of 18 and 30 in the greater San Antonio area, we'd love for you to come check out the gathering. We meet on the first and third Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. Be sure to follow us on our Instagram at North Rock YA for more details and to stay up to date on all things young adults. Now let's take out our pens and our Bibles and let's get into the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Hey man, it feels good to be in the house for young adults back again. I I feel like I was just here, but I guess it was sometime in the fall that I was here. But I'm thrilled to be back with you guys and sharing what I get to talk about today. I absolutely love, honestly, let me just stop and say what I feel in the room, what I see in the room, what I uh the experience that you just can't help, but it kind of gets on you when you walk in the room. I love watching young adults worshiping and loving God and surrendering wholly to the Lord. What a special, a special era we are living in where there's a revival that is nationwide. It's actually worldwide that's being driven by young adults, 18, 19, 20, 25-year-olds. And you should be glad to just be part of that. And so I celebrate you tonight. Come on, let's celebrate each other tonight. The fact that you're here on a Tuesday night in kind of, it's they don't call this the dog days of summer. That happens a little bit later in the summer, but we we offend the summer and folk run in the roads, they traveling, they all over the place. Uh but I'm glad you took some time out and came to church for young adults tonight. And I'm excited about what I get to share with you. As Zeke said, you have been in a series about holy habits and uh talking about prayer and reading the Word of God, and there are more to come. You're gonna talk about serving and worship and discipleship. And today, today we're going to talk about obedience. Everybody say obedience. Look at your neighbor and tell them we're gonna talk about obedience. Just say it just like that. Now look at your other neighbor on the other side and tell them we're gonna talk about obedience. We're gonna talk about obedience. I'm gonna put these right where I want them so I don't have to run too far away. We're gonna talk about obedience. Obedience is it is a holy habit. You might not think of it as such, but obedience is a holy habit. It's it's it's it's it's the habit that causes all the other holy habits to actually take root. It makes all of the other habits like become transformational. Because you you can pray every day and still not obey. You can read your Bible every day and still not obey what it says. I mean, James, the brother of Jesus, talks about that. That there are people who hear the word and yet they don't do it. He says it's like you getting up in the morning and looking in the mirror with your bed head and your you know your nasty breath, and you see what needs to happen, and yet you turn away from the mirror and you don't do anything. You can pray, you can you can read your Bible, but if you if you don't obey, then God's word doesn't transform you. You you can you can be you can be a worshiper and still disobey. You know the goal of of spiritual disciplines, these holy habits, are not you to to gather more information, but for you to obey what you're hearing and what you're learning. Jesus said in John 14 and 15, if you love me, he said, obey. Yeah, you're gonna pray if you love him. Yeah, you're gonna read the word of God. And when you pray and we read the word of God, it's gonna cause you to love him even more. But the goal of all that is so that you obey his commandments. He didn't say, if you love me, take notes in church. Now you should take notes in church, it's easier to go to heaven that way. He didn't say, if you love me, sing more worship songs. Of course we're gonna sing worship songs. But he said, obey. It's like my friend and uh amazing pastor and author that was here, honestly, about six weeks ago, Pastor Jonathan Brozazog said, I think he may have said it in his sermon, that um, you know, he told his, if he tells your child, if you told his kids to clean their room, and he left and then came home, and they had not cleaned their room, and they said, We didn't clean our room, but but we wrote a song about cleaning your room. And and we'd like to play it for you now. And what what Pastor Brozadog said is that I'm afraid this is how God sees a lot of us. We sing lots of songs about obedience, we sing lots of songs about things that we should do, and and God is saying, I love that you're singing this. Now I'd really like for you to just go do it. To just go, just go do it. Um, I want you to be honest for a moment. I know I'm talking to a younger demographic, but I'm I'm gonna assume that you at least have a little bit um of stubbornness um of maybe an Enne gram eights in the room. You have a little bit of this in you where you kind of think you know better and you kind of want to control things. How many of you have ever argued with your your GPS? Like you're driving and you're it tells you to go one way, but you say, nope, I don't I don't believe it. I don't agree with it. I'm gonna I'm gonna go the other way. It tells you to turn and you just know that's that's wrong. There's no way that's the best way to get there. And so you keep going, and five minutes later, uh, when you hit the traffic or when you run into a dead end, now you're rerouting through a neighborhood that you didn't even know existed. Um here's the thing about GPS it can see the whole map, it can see the whole thing, right? It can see the traffic ahead, it can see the closed exit. Like we have this idea, and if you've driven around 1604 very much over the last since y'all have been driving, um should say, they they open exits, close exits, open exits, close exits. And I've I've made the mistake of no, no, no, there's an exit down here, it just doesn't know it, only to realize, oh, oh, oh, they closed, they closed that, they closed that exit. But the GPS can generally see that it knows the faster route. You can only see what's in front of your windshield, but it can see the whole picture. So when it tells you to turn and it doesn't make sense, when it tells you to keep going, but it doesn't make sense to you, the question isn't whether or not you understand the instruction, it's whether or not you trust the one giving you the instruction. So obedience is not always about agreement, it's certainly not about understanding, it's about trusting. I want I'm gonna share with you a few different passages uh in the little bit of time that we have together today. I hope to I hope to share something with you. I I'm sharing some things that I'm learning about obedience. I'm I'm still learning a lot about obedience. This is not a one-time decision. It certainly gets easier when you learn that you can trust God even though you can't track him, when you learn that you can trust him, even though you don't understand him, it's easier the second and third and fourth time, but it still continues to be a struggle. But I want to I want to share something with you from Acts chapter 16, and we're gonna read a few verses here, and then we'll we'll talk about a few things and until the clock runs out, and then we'll then we'll stop. But Acts chapter 16, verse 6, Paul is is is is traveling and and and this is one of his missionary journeys, and he has this desire that he's going to pass through all of Asia, uh, and he's going to go into these regions, and his mind, this is where he's going to preach the gospel for the first time. And in verse number six of Acts 16, it says, Paul and his companions traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. Now, if you just read that, you think that's a little bit weird. Why in the world would the Holy Spirit ever say, now, don't preach the gospel here? Then they came to the border of Mesia and they tried to enter Bithynia, and but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. They were trying to go share the gospel, and God said, No. So they passed into by Messiah and went down to Troas. During the night, Paul had a vision of a man in Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us. Not my sermon, but you work around, walk around, live around, play around people every day who are crying out, come over to my world and help me. This is this is this beautiful what we what has come to be known as the Macedonian call, when Paul was called by God through a vision to go over into Europe for the first time and preach the gospel for the very first time. This this call is something that every one of us could apply to our lives, and I just pray that God would help you see that that you would be sensitive, that you would you would have the vision like Paul had to see the people around you that are crying out to you, help me, help me, come over to Macedonia and help us. After Paul had seen the vision, what did he do? We got ready at once. Luke is writing, so um Paul was here with with Silas and Timothy, and likely Luke was who wrote the book of Acts, um, was on this journey with him. Luke kind of went back and forth, acting like he was first person, third person, but in this case he says, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So doors were closing all over Asia, doors closing in Bithynia, before God says, All right, this is the door that I want you to walk through. Paul didn't have a GPS, um, but but he had closed doors. I think I should go this way. No, this is how you should go. I think I should go this way. No, this is not, this is not, you need to go this direction. I want to give you just a few things to consider about obedience. Number one, if you take a note, so you can write this down. Obedience means trusting God with closed doors. Trusting God when he closes doors. God closes doors. Just like God opens doors, he closes doors. And we we sometimes falsely assume that if God closes a door, then something must be wrong. And that's not necessarily true. Sometimes closed doors are just God's spiritual GPS guiding us in the direction that we need to go in our life. Paul was not outside of God's will. He was right in the middle of God's plan. God was intending to taking take him over to Troas, which is in modern day Western Turkey, so that he could just, it was just a short skip right across the Aegean Sea and he could get right up to where he was going in in Philippi. That was God's plan for his life. He was right in the middle of God's plan. God was just redirecting Paul. There have been so many times in my life, in my life, I told the staff and our interns just the other day about a time when I was a senior in high school and and I had my plans laid out for my life. You know what I'm saying? I wasn't trying to go off into some you know sinful career. I was gonna go into finance. That's not sinful. Somebody's gotta do that, right? And so that was my that was my plan. I I had I had plans. And in somewhere about March of my senior year of high school, God shut the door. Like he slammed the door and said, This is not where you're going to go. And I'm like, Well, God, what am I going to do with my life? And he pointed me towards Bible college, which is where, and then I went to college. I told this the last time I was here thinking I was just gonna do music. And God, about two months into Bible college, in a chapel service, God said, No, no, no, no, no. There's nothing wrong with doing music. I I continued to do music, but God said, I've got I've got more for your life than just that. And it's at college where God called me to plant a church. It's in college where I met my wife that of we've been married almost 33 years, come July. It's it's and and God was just redirecting me. I had an idea, and and and God said, No, no, I'm gonna close that door so that you can go the direction that I want you to go. We we tried to buy a building um uh now 14 years ago, and God slammed the door. I was a bit upset about it, but even in a moment I knew this is God closing the door. He will close doors in your life. So I want you to hear me today. God's God's no doesn't mean no forever. It might mean no, it might just mean not yet, it might mean not here. So if if that job didn't happen, if that relationship didn't work, if that school didn't accept you, if that opportunity disappeared, it doesn't mean that God is punishing you. It means that God is positioning you. He's positioning you. Like if you just glance at the story, I've I've actually always thought this. God, why wouldn't you let him go preach there? Those people need you too. Like it looks like that God was like, nope, we're not gonna evangelize those people, but that that didn't make that didn't make sense to me. And that was not God's intention. God wasn't saying no, he was saying not yet. Because on Paul's next missionary journey, that was his second one, on his third journey, that shows up in the book of Acts, chapter 18 and 19, Paul eventually arrives in Ephesus, which is, as I've talked about just a couple of weeks ago, which is just right on the coast in modern-day Turkey, but at that time it was it was considered Asia, Asia, Asia Minor. And Paul stayed in Ephesus for about three years. And it was during this time where Paul was establishing the church, a great church in Ephesus, that Luke writes this in Acts chapter 19. This went on for two years, so that all of the Jews and the Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. How did Asia hear? Because Ephesus became like this missionary hub, whereas as I talked about, the person who started the church in Colasse, Epaphras, or we assume he did, and also likely started churches everywhere all over all over that region. He he came and sat under Paul's uh Paul's ministry, and as did others, and they traveled, and the gospel spread all throughout Asia. So so I want you to I want you to watch. Paul wanted Asia in Acts chapter 16, and God said no. But a few years later, God gave him Asia anyway. I just I just want some some young adults in the room to hear that. Paul wanted it here, and God said no. But he didn't say never. God said, not not now. And a few years later, after Paul obeyed and just kept doing what he was gonna do, Paul said, all right, now, or God said, All right, Paul, now I'm gonna give you Asia anyway. Because God's timing is different. Paul's desire was not wrong, it's just that it's it was different than God's timing. If we're if we're gonna trust his will in our life, if we're gonna trust God's perfect will in our life, young adults, we have to trust God's timing. Can you imagine if Paul had ignored the the leading of the spirit and said, No, I'm going to preach there anyway. I don't know why God said, Not yet. But God, God had a plan. He had it already all laid out. Oh, we're gonna reach Asia. Don't worry about that. Right now, you need to go to Macedonia. And it was in Macedonia when Paul heard this call, and the man said, Come and help us, that Paul went to Philippi, which is where we we have the letter to the to the Philippians. But it was in Philippi where Paul and Silas were in prison, and at midnight they were singing songs of praise, and there was an earthquake, and all the prison doors were open, and the jailer feared for his life, and Paul said, No, no, no, no, no, don't worry. And the jailer said, What must I do? And he said, Just believe. And the jailer and his entire household was saved in Philippi. It was in Philippi, which before that incident happened, that Paul uh went out on the Sabbath outside of the city to a river where he heard that there was a gathering of believers, and he started preaching about Jesus. And a woman named Lydia was saved. She believed and she was baptized. She and her entire household. I got to see this amazing place about two weeks ago. I sat there where Lydia would have been baptized, and it was the first European convert. Here's what I know what one act of obedience redirected the course of Christian history. This is when Paul went to, Paul went from there to from Philippi to Thessalonica to Berea down to Athens, and we have the amazing sermon in Acts chapter 17 that Paul preached on standing on Mars Hill. This is when he went to Corinth for the first time and established a church there and met uh met Aquila and Priscilla and they accompanied him. It's amazing all of the things that happened that kind of helped shape the course of Christian history. That who knows whether or how it would have happened if Paul had said, no, I'm gonna do what I want to do. That's not how it works. We listen to the word of God. So, so so I know that you applied for the job, but you didn't get it. And you you might be thinking, What's wrong with me? I I missed God's will. Maybe God is just saying, not yet, not now, not here. Paul wasn't out of God's will when the door closed. Maybe, maybe you've been wrestling with with calling and your future and the pressure. I'm I'm amazed at the pressure that that is on so many lives for people to know exactly the direction their their life is going to take and have it all planned out. But Acts 16 teaches us something completely different. Paul wasn't trying, you know, to figure out God's 10-year plan. Um, he was just trying to know what I do what I need to do next. And again, God rarely shows you the whole map. And it's a good thing he doesn't. It's a good thing he doesn't. That's his grace that doesn't allow you to see everything. He just shows you the next step. And the beautiful ending to the story is the very region that Paul was prevented from entering in Acts 16 eventually became one of the most evangelized regions in the entire Roman world. So, so what door are you calling a disappointment? That God might be calling a redirection. Second thing I want you to know about obedience is that obedience usually doesn't make sense. I would love to say that sometimes, I'm just I'm gonna say usually. I mean, every now and then, okay, that makes sense, God. But most of the time it's like, I don't I I don't understand that. I want to talk about Abraham for just a moment. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8 says, by faith, Abraham, when he was called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, he obeyed and he went. He obeyed and he went. And the next sentence is the next phrase is the one that's so like disheartening. Even though he did not know where he was going. How do you go when you don't know? God calls us to do that all the time. Again, he doesn't show you the whole map. I wish he did. But really, now that I'm far enough along in my life, I'm glad he didn't. Because had he showed me everything. There would have been things that have been like, I don't think I want to deal with that. I don't think I'm gonna have the strength to process it. And at the moment, I wouldn't have had the strength. But over the course of time, as you take one step and then another step and another step, God's given you strength and preparing you for what He's gonna, what you're gonna encounter over here. And then once you encounter this, and and now there's time, you get stronger and you get stronger, and He just shows you one more step to take, one more step to take, one more step to take. Now when you encounter this next thing, now you're ready for that because you've gotten stronger. And had He showed you the entire map from the beginning, you'd have looked at it and said, I'm not gonna be able to do that. Well, no, not where you are right now. But if you'll fall follow God, if you'll walk with Him, if you'll obey Him step by step by step, when you encounter those things, He will have given you the strength and the courage to get through it. Abraham obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Imagine his conversation with Sarah. Sarah, God has called us to pack up and leave. Awesome! Where are we going? Oh, I don't, I don't know. I have no idea. You you don't you don't know. Well, we're just gonna pack up and start walking. Uh-huh. Again. He called, he told us to leave here. So where are we? I I don't which direction? I, you know, we're just gonna start, we're just gonna start, we're just gonna start walking. The truth is, when it comes to obedience, when it comes to faith, there is absolutely an I don't know component attached to it. You gotta get used to that. Now there's an I know component attached to it as well. Like I know that I know that God is speaking, I know that God will guide me, that God will direct me. There is an I know component attached to it, but as much as there's an I know, there's also an I don't know. And they live in tension with each other. There's this constant tension. What what what do we need to do? We need to we need to walk. Where do which way do we need to walk? I don't know. I don't know. What what what what what's God calling you to do? Well he's calling me, he's calling me to to serve. Where's he calling you to serve? I'm not sure. But what then what are you gonna do? I'm just gonna start serving. I'm gonna start doing what I can. Where's God calling you to land? I'm not certain, but I'm going to start. I'm gonna start walking. I'm just gonna start start taking steps. And the tragic reality is that most people never truly walk in faith-filled obedience because they just don't know. And the I don't know is so uncomfortable. So what we have to ask ourselves, young adults, is which do I allow to lead me? The I know in my spirit, or the I don't know in my head? Which one are you responding to the most? The I don't know in your head, or the I know in my spirit? Joseph led this great, amazing nation where his brothers ultimately, or he was second in command, where his brothers ultimately came and bowed down to him. But but years before that, Joseph had had this dream about his brothers bowing down, and he told them about it, which you shouldn't do. You don't have to tell everybody your dream. Some people don't know how to handle your dreams, and they didn't like it, and so lots of really bad things happened to Joseph between when he had the dream and the dream coming to fruition. Between the promissory note and the payoff, between the anointing and the appointing. We could just come up with a lot of these, right? But but between the moment he received the dream and the dream coming to fruition, he was uh beaten, sold, sold into slavery. His death was faked, sold into slavery, uh, lied on, thrown into prison, interpreted a dream, told the person getting out of prison to remember him, the person got out of prison, forgot him, and and finally he got out of out of prison many years and years and years and years after the original dream. Now, when God gave him the dream, he didn't show him the whole picture. Or Joseph would have probably been like, I'm just gonna stay right here, I'm not gonna tell nobody about this dream. Because God can't show us everything. Obedience usually, usually doesn't make sense. There was a a famous, some of you might have heard me talk about this, I don't think I've ever talked about it in big church, but in a couple of environments. A famous tightrope walker from the 19th century named Charles Blondon, and he was from France. And he he was brought to the United States by a promoter to walk on a tightrope across Niagara Falls. Two-story. Um first time he did it was June 30th, 1859. And there was a big crowd that was gathered, gathered round to watch this tightrope walker from France, and and they stretched the rope across Niagara Falls. I guess this had never been done before. And uh he he gets up there ready, ready to walk across the tightrope, and he he yells to the crowd, Who believes that I can walk across and then come back? And the crowd roared. They roared, we do, we do, we do. And so he walks across the tightrope. I'm sure he was carrying one of the little, one of the things that they come, but he walked across the tightrope and walked all the way. The crowd was just roaring with it. And so he gets a wheelbarrow. Now, this is all we had at the church today, um, but this is this was not the type you would walk across a tightrope with. You would need one with one one wheel, right? And so imagine there's not two wheels, imagine there's one. And and so he says, Who believes I can walk across with a wheelbarrow? And the crowd roar. What are we doing? So we did. He walked across with a wheelbarrow, then he walked back. And then he stopped and said, and the crowd was roaring. He said, All right, who believes I can walk across with someone in the wheelbarrow? And they were just going crazy. And he said, All right, who wants to get into the wheelbarrow? Crickets. Right? Crickets. And so he looks he he he looks down at the promoter, the guy who brought him over and said, You come on, get in. You believed enough in me to bring me. And the promoter's like, I don't, I don't think so. And so the truth is he actually put his his child, uh, his daughter, I believe it was a daughter. Yes, it was a daughter, uh, into the wheelbarrow. She was single digits, and and walked across and came back. Now, um, as I researched it a bit, um after that they stopped him from doing that. You can walk across, but you cannot walk across with your child. Um, so from then on, he would, as he traveled around, they wouldn't let him do that anymore. But but he did it. And this is this is this is what Abraham did when God, when God called him and he didn't know where he was going. Abraham essentially got into this wheelbarrow. So much of living for God, serving God, working for God, building the kingdom of God feels like you are getting in a wheelbarrow. And you're just trusting that God is not gonna drop you. But I gotta, I gotta tell somebody, you you you can trust him. I've been following him now for a lot of years. When we moved here to plant this church, everything else I had done in ministry up until 17 years ago was pretty safe. Pretty safe. I mean, right when we got married, um I Alicia and I were kind of sitting in a comfortable, easy chair in my hometown. Um, and we got we had we were working in secular uh marketplace, both of us, and and God made me uncomfortable. We were about 21 years old, and God said, This is not what I called you to do. I didn't call you to work for all state. I called you to, I called you to do something else. And so I I I I worked a little bit, and it was one of those state things where God called me, but I didn't know where I was going. I think I shared some of this with you guys the last time I was here, but but I went from the easy chair into the wheelbarrow when we were when we were 20 years old. And and you know what? God didn't God didn't drop us. God didn't drop us. And and then after after that, we stopped a couple of other places in ministry and wound up in Austin, Austin, Texas. And man, after nine years in Austin, actually, I started being uncomfortable about seven years into my stay there. But we were it was comfortable, guys. I was not the lead pastor. So all the real problems, that's not my problem. I ain't gotta deal with budgets, you figure that out. Money problem, that's not my problem. Ain't nowhere, no space, not my problem. Uh, I didn't, I didn't, I mean, I was kind of living in the lap of luxury. I got to enjoy all the good stuff without any of the stress. And and and and God said, All right, son, I'm ready, I'm ready to I'm ready to take you somewhere. And I I pushed back because I this was this felt good. I I like this. I'm not saying there aren't seasons of our life where you you you reside here, where you sit here. But but I learned because whenever I picked up my family and left a church that I could still be at, um when I left Austin, Texas to move to San Antonio, Texas, taking an eight-year-old boy and a five-year-old boy, from a salary to no salary to nothing. Um we were able to get a house, but other than that, we didn't have nothing. Alicia uh worked and and I traveled and we did what we could do, but but we went from here, I mean immediately, and I felt like I'm on a tightrope with God. And there were times where I felt like it was windy, and I'm like, God, don't you, don't you, don't you, chair did. And now here we are 17 years later. And look what God has done. Because so, what I learned is actually the safest place to be with God is right here. Not here. There may be times when you're here where you're needing to heal or God's, you know, God's preparing you for something, but this is where you want to live. This is where Abraham lived. And look at what happened. This is what Paul did. I don't even, I don't know what I'm gonna encounter when I get to the Roman colony of Philippi, but what look at what God, look at what God did when He just when He just obeyed. So I want to encourage you, even when you don't understand, take that leap of faith. Remember Abraham, who left, and Sarah said, Where are we going? I don't, I don't know where we're going, but we're going to we're going to walk. The truth is, comfort is so overrated. You've heard me talk about this. No one has ever changed their world from this. This is not how you change the world. This is where you change the world. You're not the one holding, I'm not saying you're the one doing this. No, you just get in and let God guide you. This is how you change your world. This is how you step into the purpose and the plan that God has for your life. God has for your life. Your goal cannot be comfort. It has to be trust, just blind faith and obedience, trusting God's obedience, absolutely. Most of the time doesn't make sense. And then the third and final thing we'll cover here is that obedience it requires movement. Abraham obeyed and he went. Right? The scary part is is the going, not the believing. Because there's a lot of people that say, I believe. You can't say, Well, I believe in God. You know, even the demons believe in God. They know he's really. It's not about just believing, it's not about seeing what you need to do, as I said at the beginning. The scary part is actually moving, it's trusting God. I love in Acts 16 the scripture that we read at the beginning when Paul received the Macedonian call. And Luke says, and immediately, like, immediately, like as soon as Paul woke up or went in and told everybody, at once we prepared to go because they knew this is what God was telling them to do. The book of Acts, I'm assuming you know this. The book of Acts is really the actions of the apostles. It's action. Christianity got it start because of action. Not just, wow, that's good preaching. I like that. Not just standing around singing worship song, action. Doing what God is calling you to do. Obedience requires movement, and movement is what brings miracles into our life and into the lives of others. I mean, I know you've heard this the analogy of the motion-activated doors that you walk up to and the door opens because of movement. We have them, we have them in in our office. The door unlocks because of movement. That may be all you need to hear today. There's some doors that you would love to walk through. And as long as you're here, nothing is gonna happen. Nothing's gonna happen. But the moment that you get here, now that movement unlocks some things in your life that you are looking for. Over and over and over. When Jesus was gonna work a miracle, he would tell a person to go, to move, to walk, go wash in the pool of Siloem. Get up, pick up your bed, and walk. The first miracle in Cana, he told the servants. I just read it, John chapter 2. I just read it yesterday. Go, take this water to the master of the banquet. But why? It's filled with water, but somewhere between Jesus telling them to go, and the servants carrying those big jugs to the master of the banquet. It turned from water into wine, movement. Luke 17, verse 12, as he was going into the village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, master, have pity on us. When he saw them, he said, What'd he say? And let's just say it out loud on the count of three. One, two, three. He said, Go. Show yourself to the priest. When you know it, as they went, they were healed. Movement unlocks healing in their life. This happened again and again and again and again. Woman with the issue of blood, Noah building the ark. Didn't make sense. Joshua marching around the walls. This is the dumbest thing. God, why are you telling us to do? Just do it. For seven days, and on the seventh, you're gonna march seven times. Why are we doing this? And now we're just gonna, we're just gonna make some noise and yell. Yeah, that's what you're gonna do. And when they obeyed, walls came down. Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on water. Again and again and again. And I could tell you stories of North Rock and how God opened doors for us because of movement, because we took steps of faith, because we literally God called us and I said, Where are we going? And God said, I'll tell you that later. That's literally how we got into this building. We were in Reagan High School and we launched a giving initiative that was based on air. There was no building, there was no hope of a building. But but we prayed and believed and we gave. We committed to give for years and we gave. And the week that we gave our first fruits offering, the very week, that very week that we took that step of faith, we got a phone call about this building that we are in right now. We took a step, and that movement unlocked a door that has blessed a lot of lives. It's blessing you guys tonight. It's blessed me so many times in my life. Movement, movement leads to miracles in our in our life. So, what movement is God calling you to? As we shut down today, what movement is God calling you to? In June of 2026, maybe God is calling you to just fully commit your life to Jesus. Some of you may have never given your life to Jesus, others you've given a few things. But if we're being honest, there's plenty of things that you're hanging on to. And maybe God is calling you to make a move, to obey, and to move by fully surrendering. I dare you to go all in. I dare you, I dare you to surrender everything to Jesus and just see what happens. Maybe, maybe God is calling you to get connected and start serving. You know, we have this thing in Earth Rock called Discover Now. It's how you get connected. Maybe some of you have not done that or you've done it, but you're still not serving. And God is saying, I promise you, if you will start serving others and investing in others, it's gonna unlock some things in your life. When you bless somebody else, when you refresh somebody else, the scripture says you will be yourself refreshed. So I dare you to try it. I I'm weak, I've been needing, I've been needing help, I've been needing strength. Why don't you go help someone else and just watch God pour strength and healing and life into your heart? Maybe, maybe God's calling you to join a small group, maybe God's calling you to lead a small group, and you know he's calling you to lead a small group, but you can't do that from here, and you just kind of want to hang here. I just kind of like Netflix, you know. I like, I like my shows. I like to I like to play video guys, whatever, whatever. But you just you're you're comfortable here in God's saying, would you lead a group? And you're like, but I'm I'm afraid to lead a group. And but but but what am I what I'm not I'm not gonna know what to say. Leave that to me. I I don't I don't know what I'm gonna do. Leave that to me. Just get just get in and and let me guide you. Nobody has ever changed their world from there. Maybe God is calling you to start giving, start tithing. Maybe you're finally working. Of course, it doesn't matter if you're cutting grass or are working full time. God's God's calling you to give, God's calling you to tithe. And we have this anxiety about that because we're comfortable, but I promise you, it's much you're much better off living here than living there as it relates to your finances, fully surrendering them to God. Again, as a tither, I have guaranteed results according to the scripture. And there have been times where my harvest came slow, and times of my harvest came fast, but but anytime I'm surrendering my finances to God, there's always a harvest in process. What's God calling you to do? What movement is God calling you to? Maybe God is calling you to start coming to Tuesday morning prayer. You say, well, that's kind of simple. Then why aren't you coming? That's not that big of a deal. Then come on. Guys, this morning, this room was full. I'm amazed at what God's doing in our Tuesday morning prayer for real. It's just, honestly, the last two weeks, it's just been just been beautiful. So I want to I want to challenge you. Challenge you to take that step and move. How about getting to the house every time the doors are open? How about how about this? We'll stop here. Hey, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6. Paul writes to Timothy in his second letter and says, For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you. God has put a gift that is in you. And you can obey by helping, you can move, if you will, by beginning to develop the gift that God has put put in you. God deposits, we develop. God deposits the talent, the gift, the purpose inside of you. But it's up to every one of us to fan that gift into Flames so that it becomes something powerful and and affects my life and my family's life and the people that I hang out with. So, what what gift has God put in you that you've just kind of been sitting on? Maybe God's called you to write a book. Open the computer and just start writing. I don't know what am I gonna write about. Just get in the wheelbarrow and let God direct you. Maybe God has called you to lead uh to lead a group. I don't know what I'm going to, I don't know what I'll say. Just just get in the wheel, just just take a step. Maybe God's called you to start a business. Maybe God's called you to be an entrepreneur. Take a step. Apply for a loan. Buy a book. God'll close the door if it's not the right thing. We've already talked about that today. Buy a book about starting your own business. Start looking at property. Maybe God's called you to some other sort of ministry. Take singing lessons. Take music lessons. Ask her out. Should we revisit what we talked about a few weeks ago? Guys ask girls out on dates. Girls say yes. But not to losers. Take a step. Apply to the college. Apply to the program. Apply for the job. Act. Move. Miracles follow movement. Follow movement. Let's stand. Let's stand today. Let's stand today. Obedience is going to require movement from. Here's how I want to close this today. I want everybody in the room to consider where God might be calling you from here. To here. Think about it for you. What is God speaking to you? What obedience. Like you've seen it, you know. You've just you're pushing back. Maybe because you don't understand, because you're afraid. What is it for you? And if if you can think of anything, any area of your life where either you've just been unsure, so you keep pressing pause, delayed obedience is disobedience, by the way. I'll say that again. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Partial obedience is disobedience. So if there's any area in your life where you've either pressed pause or you're not sure, you've got questions, you're you're you're thinking, you're trying to figure out how, why, when, so you've not made a move, I just want to invite you to step out from where you are, and I want to invite you to come stand. Just make a move by moving forward and come standing right down here. Any any area in your life where you feel God calling you from here to here and you've not been willing to take that step. I just want you to come stand down here. I'm just gonna pray over, pray over you, then we're gonna sing, and we'll let y'all do whatever it is y'all gonna do tonight. Come on down, come on down. Any area of your life, any area, any area that you have not fully surrendered, any area where you felt God place calling on your life and you've said, no, God, that's not my plan, which is what I dealt with as a as a senior in high school. Any area where you felt God leading you or directing you, and fear has caused you to not take that step. Come on, come on, stand down here. I'm just gonna simply pray courage and boldness over you, and I'd invite everybody else that's in the room just to kind of extend a hand this direction. Would you just kind of hold your hands up, everybody, everybody down here? Oh, hold them up high as a sign of surrender. We're we're surrendering everything to you, Lord. God, you see every young man, every young woman, and you know, God, what you have deposited in them, Lord Jesus. They know what you have deposited in them, Lord. We don't want to be like what James wrote about, where we see what we need to do, and yet we don't take that step of faith. We don't take the step. We wanna be like Abraham, Lord Jesus, where even though we're not sure how it's all gonna turn out, we're gonna take the step. We're gonna start walking, Lord Jesus. We're gonna be like the Apostle Paul, God, that even when you close doors, we we don't take it personal. We we see it as you redirecting us, we see it as you posturing us, positioning us, Lord. We wanna have the perspective that even though I can't have Asia now, Lord Jesus, I'm believing that eventually you're gonna come through and I'm gonna have Europe. I'm gonna have all of Greece and then you're still gonna come through and you're gonna give me Asia, Lord Jesus. I'm I'm believing that, Lord. So I just pray courage, I pray, strength, I pray, boldness, I pray bold faith in Jesus' name, God, that these young adults, that these 22-year-olds, that these 25-year-olds, Lord, would be willing to take the step that they sent you, calling them to take, God, out of the chair of comfort, into that wheelbarrow of faith, Lord, because we know your hands are on the handles, Lord, and you are guiding us. You are ordering our steps, Lord. And when we encounter difficult times, you're gonna get us through those difficult times, and you're gonna see our purpose come to pass in Jesus' name, Lord. We surrender everything to you. I surrender everything to you. I surrender my career, I surrender my relationships, Lord. I surrender my future to you in Jesus' name. I surrender all. I surrender all. I surrender all in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.