Step Aside - Pastor Sandra Roach

In this powerful and timely message, Pastor Sandra Roach delivers a prophetic and Spirit-led word at Summit Church, calling believers back to a place of surrender, alignment, and spiritual awakening.

This episode challenges the modern Church to examine where it stands, moving beyond routine religion into an authentic relationship with God. With bold clarity and biblical conviction, Sandra Roach addresses the urgency of the hour, calling for repentance, renewed hunger, and a deeper pursuit of God’s presence.

If you’ve felt complacency creeping in…

If you’ve sensed a stirring for more…

This message will confront, awaken, and ignite your faith.

🔥 In This Episode:

•  A call to spiritual awakening and repentance 
•  The danger of passive Christianity 
•  Realignment with God’s purpose and presence 
•  Rekindling hunger for truth and righteousness 
•  A prophetic challenge to the Body of Christ 

This isn’t just another message; it’s a wake-up call. In a time where culture is reshaping Christianity, this word brings clarity, conviction, and direction for those who truly want to walk in truth and power.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Summit Church Podcast. Thank you for joining us as we share weekly sermons and teachings from Summit Church in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Our prayer is that today's message encourages your faith and helps you grow in your relationship with Jesus. Check out our website at summitchurchtn.com. Thanks for listening, and we pray this message encourages you today. Are you here today?

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Are you here in the spirit today? Because you see, what I'm gonna bring you, I want you to receive in the spirit, not in the natural. I didn't come to you by my own word. You see, I stepped aside and received what the Lord had. Let me tell you, the Lord started speaking in my spirit, and I shared just a little bit Monday night at the School of Revival. And then Wednesday came along, and one of the prayers reminded me, and we got more. And then all week long I got more because God wants to speak to you today. Are you in a place where you can hear Him? Because it's as simple as this. If you're sitting there at which you are right now, if you're sitting there and you realize that your thoughts are getting in the way from receiving the Lord, I want you just to make some kind of movement and say, I'm getting over back over in the spirit, because you see, God created us to be spirit people, not flesh people. He told us when we were born again, that old man died. And then the spirit man came alive in Christ Jesus. And so if you can't receive from him, it's because you're living more in this planet than you are in heavenly places. He said, He said, You were born, and when you were born again, you were seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus far above. Come on, let me tell you, where you're seated is it it's not where devils can be. What? What? But you don't know how the devil's been beating me up. Well, you need to get out of the seat you're sitting in and get in a new seat. You need to realize you need to be more heavenly minded than you are earthly good. Oh, I've had people tell me that before. Now, Pastor Sandra, you have to be careful. Anytime anybody tells me I have to be careful, I know I'm on the right track. And they'll say you have to be careful. Sometimes you can get in trouble if you're too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. Here's what I want to say to you today: the only earthly good you're gonna be is to be heavenly minded. Because when I'm hearing from God, all kinds of things start happening. I can be in a store, and someone needs a word from God. They don't need a word from me. Oh, how you doing? I love that dress. That's not what they need. They need, I just heard the Lord say, come on. That's who we are, that's who we were created to be. That's when we got born again. We got born again with incorruptible sin. Hallelujah. Okay, y'all have to bear with me today or not. But I am in the spirit. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Let me pause a minute. Oh yeah. I saw it in the spirit, and I called Zach, Pastor Zach, and said, This is what I want. The Lord is calling us to step aside today. You see, today we're gonna talk about hearing from God right now. Would you join me today? You can. I would love for you to. This is an invitation. Would you join me today to step aside in the spirit to hear from God? Oh, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. God is calling us to push the pause button. Pause right now. And he is wanting us to be aware of the instruction he's gonna give us for the rest of our lives. For your glorious future. And here's the beauty of it. We'll all hear what he wants us to hear. Hallelujah. Maybe you've been headed down a road and feel like this is the path for your destination. And God is saying, would you step aside? Just for a minute. Would you step aside? I have a message for you. You might think you're glowing and blowing and growing, and you're you're just doing all kinds of things. And God is saying, just give me it, just give me a few minutes, just step aside. I have something to show you. So I'd like for us to look at Exodus chapter 3. Oh Lord. As I was coming here and I get right up there on Sugar Hollow, I get right up there and I'm ready to turn into the Lord always always. He always puts something in me. He said, preach it like I cave it. Hallelujah. Exodus 3. We'll start in verse 1. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight. Why the bush is not burned? Then the Lord said to turn aside to see. Excuse me. Then the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see. Hallelujah. God called him out of the bush. Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am. Then he turned, then he said, Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Have you noticed as you're reading the Bible, God speaks to people when they're in a wilderness? It's just all through the word. When they're in Jesus went to a solitary place to hear from the Father. My question to you is if Jesus went to a solitary place, shouldn't we? Hallelujah. A place where no one knows what you're going through but God. Come on. The beauty of the wilderness, it's a place always to encounter God. Pastor, surely not. Not in a wilderness. You don't know how bad it is. I feel like I'm alone. I'm so lonely. I feel so dried out. I'm in this wilderness place. Surely God doesn't come there to encounter. Yeah, he does. That's exactly where he has you to encounter him. And I was reading this. How long had that bush been burning before Moses noticed such a sight? We were driving down the road yesterday, it was a full day of family stuff. We were driving down the road, and Shelley said, Oh, they're about they're about finished building that building. And I looked aside and I said, Well, I didn't even know there was a building going up there. Do you know how we can just have our mindset where we're going? Come on. And never turn aside to see what's happening around us. You see, God longing for Moses to catch a glimpse of him and finally to step aside and see. Hallelujah. Some of you here today may be in a wilderness time. He's doing something new in every one of us. And we must yield to him. You know, you think, yeah, I've been praying for so-and-so. Yeah, God's doing something different in them. It's really been hard. And I've just really been praying for them. Thank God, because someone else has been praying for you. Yeah, we're all going through, there is a shift. There are things that are changing. Have you all noticed? If they're changing in the world, then God says they got to change in us too. Listen, I got to be more like him in this changing world. When the enemy says I'm going to make it really dark in your life, God says, I'll make it bright. Because daughter and son, you live in Goshen. You don't live. You live in the promised land. You don't live in that dark place. You're going to have brightness where you are. What if the greatest time in your life is just ahead of you? What if it's just ahead of you? But God needs your full attention. Or what he's done in your life and what he is doing in your life and what he's speaking to you, you're just going to proceed on to do it like you've always done it. Church where he has us, we've never been before. We've never been here before. The world is wide open for the gospel. Listen, I went to a funeral yesterday, and as I was standing there in the graveyard, my heart started grieving for people that I know don't know him. Because you see, I know him not by his not just by his presence, but by his word. And as I know him by his word, he's coming soon. And we, while it's still day, come on, beloved, while it's still day, we have an opportunity. Oh, come on. Well, Pastor, I'm not much of a soul winner. I'm not much. I want to tell you something. Time is running out. He doesn't need a soul winner. He needs an alive Christian who will live it out before people and they will be hungry for what you carry. Come on, hallelujah. We think we've we think we've got well, if they had some evangelism classes and if we could sort of role play, if we could do that, and if we could like just go play, if I could have someone I could hang out with who really is a good soul winner, if I could just, you know, hook up with them and watch them. God is tired of us being observers. He is wanting us to be participants in his kingdom. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Oh, hallelujah. Please hear today what the Lord is saying. You see, I want us to take just a minute to look at this important passage because God has something really important. The whole chapter is glorious. And the longer I would read, I'd go, no, I can't do that because I've got to do this. So just bear with me. Moses was tending the flock of sheep that belonged to Jethro, his father-in-law. Not his sheep, but the sheep that belonged to his father-in-law. You know what this reminds me of? It reminds me of David tending his father's sheep on the backside of the desert. During that time, David got alone with God and became a worshiper. Oh, come on. He became a worshiper. Hallelujah. In my life, I've found that you can either become a worshiper in a wilderness or bitter. In a wilderness. You get to choose. But you see, the Bible is full of people who decided to worship instead of whine. Worship instead of complain. Worship instead of going the way of the world instead of looking up to God. Come on, somebody. God was all David had, and he would find out God was all he would need. Hallelujah. While his brothers were doing things that David only dreamed of. He only dreamed of God was preparing a shepherd boy to be one of the greatest warriors we've ever read about in the Bible. And to be the greatest king Israel ever had. But Israel's getting ready to get a new king. And his name is King Jesus. He's been their king. But I believe with all my heart how I'm praying is that God is going to open the eyes of the people of Israel to see King Jesus. Hallelujah. What has God been building in you during this wilderness time in your life? Moses was not planning for his great future. He had escaped death in Egypt. He was hiding out in the wilderness. He wasn't thinking, you know, from here, God could really use me. You know, I think I wish a prophet would come by my path and give me a word. No, he he was trying to keep from being killed by Pharaoh. And he was hiding out tending someone else's sheep. Beloved, I want to say this to you. There'll be a time when you'll tend someone else's sheep to prepare you to tend your sheep. Hallelujah. Maybe you feel like you're in a desert place working at something you never imagined you would end up doing. Anybody know what I'm talking about? In that obscure lonely place where no one saw any greatness in him, God was calling Moses out of his fire in a lonely place. Hallelujah. So God wanted to set the course in that wilderness place, out of his fire for the rest of his life, and for Israel to go in to the promised land. Hallelujah. Think about this in Egypt. This is so good. This is wonderful. In Egypt, Moses had everything he wanted. He had a good, comfortable life. Everything he ever thought he wanted, Moses had. Oh, he was seeing persecution, death, and slavery to his own people. And he began to cry out to God. And when Moses couldn't take it any longer, he took things in his own hands. You ever done that? You think, God, you're taking this way too, you're taking too much time, way too much time, Lord. I'm gonna have to do this on my own. Yeah, I'm gonna have to. And he killed an Egyptian and ended up running for his life into the wilderness. We have this tendency. Listen, I get with some people. I I this is what I think God is gonna have me do to get from point A to point B in my life. I really feel like this is God and everybody, listen, people rally around you. You got it, girl. Come on. That's so good. That it must be God. How many times do we do that? That must be God. Because everyone wants to move on. Amen. Everyone wants to get out of the wilderness. Let's go into the land of milk and honey right now. You see, for many of us, the wilderness is the only place God can get our attention. Does anyone in here know what I'm talking about? You know, those times where we've said, God, what are you gonna do? And God will say, get out of the way, and I'll show you. Wait on me and I'll show you. Those times where you've been, you've tried everything you know, and nothing seems to work anymore. You ever been there before? You've tried everything you know. You know, you you even have friends that had great breakthrough. We got a word today. We got a word today. See, we got a word at the same time he gives the word. That's a double blessing. I don't know if you all recognize that, okay? Hallelujah. It's those times where you've tried everything you know to do. You keep on, you keep on, so you'll try them again. Well, maybe if I stood this way, or maybe if I went outside and prophesied to the four winds, or maybe if I told the angels that I this is what I need you to do right now. Maybe those kind of things. Maybe you've not tried everything. But you see, when the things that once brought satisfaction and joy now deliver nothing but emptiness. Does anyone in here know what I'm talking about? What brought satisfaction and joy, and you thought, man, I am on this thing. And now it's just emptiness, and you're thinking, Lord, I don't want to live this way any longer. Anybody ever felt that way? I don't want to live this way any longer. Right before you, beloved, right before you is the fire of God. Hallelujah. Moses didn't just step aside, he caught sight. He didn't just, okay. I'll turn aside. He made a decision in his heart. I'm gonna turn aside and see what that fire is. That's crazy. A fire in a bush that's not burning up. Come on. That's crazy. And in the fire, God called Moses by name. Isn't that glorious? Do you hear that? In the fire, God will call your name. Hallelujah. God will let you know. He's heard your cries, he's been working on you. Did you just hear that? He's not working on the situation, he's already got the situation in hand. He's working on you. And I said, Surely not, Lord. I pray about this all the time. Surely you've not been trying to get a hold of me. And I heard this word. Yes. So I thought, well, Lord, maybe you need to give this sermon to someone else, and I need to be down there shouting. But I want to tell you something. I shouted before the sermon. We shouted before the sermon. Oh, come on. You see, why does God reveal Himself by fire? Because He wants to consume every part of you. Every part of you. Fire represents God's presence, his holiness, and his power. Hallelujah. Isaiah had his tongue purified with the burning coal from the altar. I'm going to read that passage. I'm going to start reading in Isaiah 6 and start in verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Stop right there. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. Something in you has to die so you can see the Lord. Your eyes were on that thing you refused to let die. God said, I'm done. I'm done with this. But you kept holding, oh God. You kept holding on to it. I get to the parking lot today. I drive up, I put my car in park, and he said, You know that thing you've been praying about? Well, I didn't have to say which one. I knew. I said, Yes, sir. He said, if you'll give it to me right now, come on. If you'll give it to me right now, I'll do it. Just give it to me. I'm sitting there. I'm having a Holy Ghost party in my car. Well, yeah, Lord, I'll give it to you. I'll give it to you. I'll give he said, Will you give it to me tomorrow? Now he must have known that between that time and tomorrow, will you give it to me? I said, Yeah, Lord, I'll give it to you. Because, see, the thing that I've been praying about for a long time. Only God can do this. You ever carried something in your heart? You ever carried someone in your heart, and you know that the only way it will be accomplished if God does it? Come on. I have I have a I have a thing that I'm carrying in my heart I have for months, and I I've cried out to God, and I've even told him how to fix it. Well, he wasn't moving. And so I had several plans that I could put into action. And you know, he was silent in every one of them. But it wasn't until I said, God, I I can't I can't fix this.

unknown 25:11

Right. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

The enemy has too big a grip on this. I can't fix this. I'm gonna give it to you. I'm gonna give it to you. You ever had something you knew you couldn't fix, and you you had you had to just say, God, I'm gonna give that to you. I'm gonna give it to you. And I gave it to him, and I gave it to him the next day. And I gave it to him the next day, and I gave it to him. I'd start to get in that place, I'd go to prayer. Bam, bam, bam, bam. When I'd get close, I could feel all the things that I normally say. And I said, Lord, I've given that one to you. Because I know who you are. You're all I need. Come on. It isn't until you realize he's all you need that he will move you into the place that he destined for you to walk in. Hallelujah. Okay, let's get back to this. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Can you picture that? Can you imagine that? These angels that had six wings, and they and they were flying around and they were worshiping. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. And another one would say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. It was like worship. Swirling around the name of God. And the temple was filled. And he said, the temple, you know here always that and the temple, that Sunday, the temple was filled with glory. No, no. He said the whole earth. Are y'all hearing this? The whole earth is full of his glory. Oh, what a wonderful promise. What a glorious word. And the foundation of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Isaiah said, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. What a picture. For my eyes have seen the king. The Lord of hosts. You know what that is? That's not just the Lord by Himself. That's the Lord attended by heaven's armies. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Then I said, Come on, hear a boy. Send me. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Isaiah had the first, had to first see the Lord. And he saw how unclean his talk was. Whoa. Hallelujah. He said, Father said, Who will go for us? But when his mouth was touched with the fire, he said, Here am I. Send me. Hallelujah. But Pastor, you don't know, I'm not one of those people. If the blood was good enough, and it is. You're one of those people. Oh, come on. Hallelujah. Deuteronomy 4.24 says, For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. He wants all of you, not just a portion of you. He wants all of you. Not a new ministry. He wants you. He may lead you into a ministry, but today he just wants you. Hallelujah. Hebrews 12, 28 and 29 says, Therefore, let us be grateful receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Oh, hallelujah. What God is doing in his sons and daughters in this day is preparing us for what we cannot do in our own strength. You can't go to a school for what God's preparing you for. What he's preparing the church for. You're not going to get that in the school. You're going to get that before him. Well, hallelujah. Glory to God. And then he said, This is holy ground. Beloved, where God is leading you is holy ground. And today I want to say this to you. Take off your shoes. Now see, I can hear some people are taking their shoes off, glory to God. Others are going, it's a metaphor. It's just a little, it's just a little thing. You know, I I realized I had an idea, and the Lord said, no, that's your idea, not mine. Can I have them bring their shoes up and lay them on the altar? And I and I thought, yeah, yeah, God can do that. Yeah, He can do that. Some of you may want to run up here and take your shoes off and lay them on the altar. I'm not saying you have to. All I'm saying is that I thought it was a great idea, but he never did give me confirmation on that. Hallelujah. Take off. Those are cute little red shoes. I love them. Found them on Amazon. Steve, come and take this other shoe. It's stuck. Get up here, take it off. He's my beautiful assistant. Okay, he's playing with you now. He's playing with you, and I'm okay with that, okay? Took me 10 minutes to get that one on. No, it didn't. I felt like Dorothy in the kingdom of God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. So take off your shoes. Listen, I'm not vain. If God says take them off, I'm taking them off. Hallelujah. Glory to God. In this moment, I want to talk to the spiritual leaders in this room right now. We have worked at church a long time, haven't we? Are the people God has called you to burning for Jesus? I mean burning for Jesus. Or have they learned to talk like you? Got my shoes off now. We're gonna get real. When I go home, these shoes go off. This is where I'm real. Okay? Come on. Are we teaching the church to talk like us without real transformation? Let me tell you what real transformation looks like. It don't look like the world out there. It don't talk like the world. And it doesn't have the world's heartbeat. It has the heartbeat of Jesus. It sees the world and we come on. It sees the world and we for the condition of the world. I'm coming soon. I'm coming soon. The same Christian ease that you use and go through the motions. Come on. I want to be real today. If you can't stand it, I'm okay. Because let me tell you about this woman of God. You didn't call me, he did. And and I don't have the luxury, some people do. I have to tell you what he says. That's all I got. If you read your Bible, the people of God lived differently. They were burning for Jesus. And for that very reason, they were persecuted. Do you hear me? They were persecuted. They were persecuted because of the holy life they lived. When was the last time you were persecuted for your faith in Jesus? Come on. We want popular Christianity. Come on, church, let's look at it, okay? We want popular Christianity, the right music, you know, the songs that are played and that end up at the Dove Awards. We sing that song, oh my goodness. We sing what's winning awards by the Dove Awards. Oh my goodness, it must be God. With people flocking to the church and having social connections and photo ops. Right under those pictures that are put on Facebook and Instagram. No one ever writes, We're the persecuted church. Photo ops. Do you realize that all of that social media, much of it, God can use it, and I thank God for it, but I want to say that much of what we see is the enemy drawing people to himself. Come on, we we've got to look at it like it's like it really is real. The bush kept burning and burning, but was not consumed. What was that? Have you ever wondered how long did that bush burn before Moses saw it? Come on. Notice God did not shout, hey, hey Moses, see the burning bush. Come here, I want to tell you something. No, God waited on Moses to see the fire he was in. And to wonder, what how is that bush burning and not consumed? It was only when God saw that Moses had stepped aside to see God called Moses by name. And that moment was holy. So holy that God said, Moses, take off your shoes, for you're standing on holy ground. Come on. The veil between heaven and earth was lifted. He came down with his fire. Come on, to change everything in Moses' life. Come on. I'm talking to somebody here today. The veil today, right now in this room, the veil between heaven and earth has lifted. And God is coming down to speak to you today. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Moses would never walk the same again. His life would be defined by this encounter with God. Notice how God moved. Moses, this place where my fire came down from heaven is to set you apart from my purpose. Now, what I want you to do, Moses, is just to spend your whole life tending this fire. Just don't move from here. Have your family, build you a little tent. You're going to build a monument right here where you had an encounter. That's all I want from you is just to tend this fire. How do you do that? Just stand here. And people will bring bless loads of people in to see the fire. And they will say, I thought I saw tears running down in the fire. You know, we've heard for hundreds of years we've heard garbage like that, okay? God doesn't open heaven and come down to build a monument. He builds a man or a woman ready to do his will. Hallelujah. Glory to God. The fire of God came to call, to purify, and to consume the old Moses. To God, today, God may be telling you, take your shoes off. Why? He's saying, I'm about to do something new in you. Come on. And the dirt of yesterday, oh come on, cannot go with you where I'm calling you. The dirt that's on your shoes from yesterday cannot go into that new place. I am calling you. This is holy. God is waiting for your answer. And he's wanting to hear, Here am I, Lord. Hallelujah. Moses was responding, I'm here, Lord. I'm saying yes. In Isaiah's encounter with God, he could have said, Wow! This is a story I'm really going to enjoy telling people. There were angels that, you know, they had, they had all these wings and and they flew and they and they spoke and they, it was just wonderful. And people will, and I'll build a ministry off that. They'll call me the great prophet Isaiah. But you see, I'm not here today to give you a wow service. It's not a shouting service, it's not a running service, it's not filled with a lot of hype. It isn't. It's an invitation. It's just an invitation. This is a time of being set apart for God, being marked for his purpose. So what is it to be marked for his purpose? Listen to this. Walking in holiness and obedience. Oh, come on. Being bold in your faith and calling, trusting in God's protection and provision. There's a big, there's come on. Trusting God for his protection and his provision. Allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and transform your life. Being marked by God means to live in the fullness of his calling, protection, and identity. It's a sign that you belong to him. Come on. Anybody in here belong to him? Come on. And you have a divine purpose. Today, God's fire has come. Some of you can sit here and not realize the fire. I can feel the fire up here. I want to say, do we have the air conditioner on? I can feel the fire. I could feel the fire when Brother Ryan was up here speaking. Come on. God is calling us today to something so beautiful and so full of Him.