Faith Requires Movement

What if the silence you feel is not absence but alignment? We wrestle with trust by walking alongside Joseph in Matthew 2:19–23, where God calls him out of Egypt, warns him about Archelaus, and redirects him to Nazareth. It is a masterclass in guided obedience: move when God says move, wait when God says wait, and pivot when God closes a road. The heart-check is blunt and necessary—do we trust the Father, or do we just like the idea of trust?

We unpack why you cannot hurry an eternal God and how impatience can sabotage calling, drawing on the cautionary tale of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. Then we turn to the kind of waiting Isaiah 40:31 describes—active, strengthening, eagle-wing waiting that prepares us for what’s next. Fear is exposed as the quiet tyrant of modern life, disguising itself as practicality while shrinking our lives to what feels safe. Faith, by contrast, is a verb. It reads, invites, serves, risks, and keeps going through the valley of the shadow of death with eyes on the Shepherd.

Place becomes part of the story too. Nazareth had a small reputation, but God chose it intentionally. We believe God does the same with us. Acts 17 says our times and addresses are appointed so people might seek him, which reframes our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces as assignments. We share practical ways to live on mission without adding to an already full calendar: aim what you already do—meals, hobbies, community events—toward presence, conversation, and invitation. The numbers are striking: most guests come because someone asked, yet most unchurched people were not invited once last year. That’s a trust problem we can fix with one faithful step.

If God could not fail, what would you try this week? Start there. Subscribe to the show, share this episode with a friend who needs courage for the wait, and leave a review with your one bold step so we can cheer you on.

Transcript

Do You Trust The Father

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Alright, so we're gonna jump into this week's big idea, and that is this. Do you trust your father? Now, is your first thought right there like, no, I don't trust my own earthly dad? Because that's obviously not the father I'm talking about, right? Do you trust your heavenly father? And I know everybody in here, your immediate church answer was, yes, I trust God wholeheartedly. And again, I would make the argument that if that was true, we would be living some scary lives. We would be living lives that we don't feel in control of, and we would be living lives that would be pushing us to do things throughout our life. We're gonna see it very clearly as we work through in Matthew 2 when we finish up the chapter. So think through it and remember things like our weekly five-day devotion and our challenges because they are here to get us to look more like Jesus. To make us efficient at seeking and saving what is lost, at transforming our lives. But tools are useless if we don't use them. So I'm gonna pray and then I'm gonna jump in. Father, thank you so much. And I hope you heard my prayer as we were praising and singing earlier, God, and I just pray that today just be a day where you let your people hear your words. That, Father, our our hearts are transformed, our minds are transformed, and that Father, we spend time with you. That I am just an instrument you use to work in your people's lives. Father, I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, kicking off in verse 19, it says this. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel. For those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother, and he went to the land of Israel. But when he had heard that Archileus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. Alright, so as we jump into this, we gotta we're just gonna do a huge recap, right? Jesus is born, we call that Christmas, right? And after he is born, the Magi show up to Herod and they're like, hey, where's this new king? We saw a star rise, we want to go worship this new king. Herod hates that because he's sitting here going, How dare someone try to attack my kingship? And he goes, Hey, he was born in Bethlehem. Now go search for him, and when you find him, come tell me so that I too may go worship. But he had no desire to worship. He wanted to just go kill this new would-be king. And so the magi show up just in time with Joseph and Mary. They bring gifts, and then the Lord tells Joseph by dream, take the child and his mother and go to Egypt. Now, God has provided all of this for him. God obviously had the foresight. We talked about why obedience matters, and that kind of level of obedience is what we should strive for. That when God says, rise and go, that we rise and we go, Joseph didn't sit there and call the travel agent, right? And here we see another truth in all of this. Remember, we talked about it was scary, right? Because God said, just stay there until I tell you. He didn't go, hey, you're gonna go take a vacation in Egypt. He went, you go to Egypt, make a life over there, and then when I tell you, you'll come back. And we talked about how sometimes that would scare us. But what we're gonna see today is this is that the father is faithful to his word. He told Joseph, you stay there until I tell you to come back, knowing very well that at some point he was going to bring Joseph back. The father told Joseph to stay until he told him to return, and now he is doing that. In most church history, what we we come to realize, because we don't know how long this trip actually was. Most church historians and most church fathers believe that this was about three to four years that they spent in Egypt. We know that Jesus left when he was around three or four, and we know he had to have been back before he was twelve. But we don't know exactly how long that was. And for some of us in this room, we we should be able to sit here and go, that was a long time to just sit and wait. See, Joseph, like the entire time he's in Egypt, I'm sure like he thought it was just gonna be a quick trip. Like, I'm sure he didn't think it was gonna be a three to four year journey. And any of you, is that your case? Where you're sitting here and you're like, man, for years I've been praying for. For years I've been hoping for, for years I've been longing for, and apparently God just isn't hearing what I have to say. Like you're just waiting for that one thing you've been praying, you've been seeking, and yet you're sitting here going, the Father is just silent. Like, I don't know about you, I'm not gonna speak for anyone in this room, but I can tell you, definitely for me, definitely for me, there have been times where like I'm like, I've told Debbie, like, babe, I feel like there's no point in even praying anymore. Like my prayers are just like hitting the ceiling and backing back down because God obviously isn't listening or doesn't care. Like it has to be one of those two because I'm not getting anything. See, and sometimes we have to understand that sometimes you're just sitting in Egypt. You're just sitting there because it's not time yet for that to happen. And I get it. While you're suffering and while you're going through it, and while you're wrestling with it, and while you're doing all of these things, you're sitting here going, God, but I know that if you would just step into it right now, it would be done and it would be over with. But let me ask you something real quick. I know none of us in here are trees or vines, like literally. Like no one's in here going, I am groot, right? But let me ask you, do you think it would hurt a vine or a tree to prune it? Like, stop and think about what and and we're gonna add human attributes to plant life, right? Obviously, they don't have the same attributes we do. But like, think about it. If Joe were just to bring up his barco and you were just to stand in the parking lot and let him just slowly come up and mulch you, do you think that would hurt? Yeah, right? See, and what we have to understand is some of us in this room right now, the father is working. He's just not working the way you want. Because sometimes we're gonna have to sit through things while he prunes, while he waits for things in our heart to be cut out. Because right now, you're not ready either spiritually or emotionally or even physically to move on to what he's called you into. See, had Jesus come back early, what would have happened? Not a trick question, who was still alive? He would have been killed. And God was sitting here going, it's not time for that yet. In fact, throughout Jesus' ministry, as we work through the book of Matthew, you're gonna hear him say a lot. In fact, his first miracle, right? The wedding at Canaan, he turns water into wine. So what winds up happening, and we'll get to it eventually, so this is just gonna be a big thing, right? What winds up happening is they run out of wine at this wedding. And Mary finds out about it. And Mary's first thought is, I'm gonna go to Jesus. Does anybody know what Jesus' response is to her when he comes, when she comes and goes, hey, they're out of wine? It is not yet my time. His actual response is this woman, what does that have to do with me? Which I'm pretty sure that could be a whole sermon right there. But he follows that up very quickly with, it is not yet my time. You hear this constantly. The hour is coming. Like Jesus constantly is sitting here going, it's not yet my time. And sometimes you're gonna be just sitting in Egypt. And it's gonna suck. But listen, here's two things you're never gonna do. Number one, you're never gonna hurry God. Understand you are dealing with an infinite, eternal being. Time is nothing to them. One day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. Time to us is everything. Right? Every one of us last night was already sitting here going, uh-oh, I need to go to sleep because I have to wake up tomorrow morning. Tonight you'll be thinking the same thing, right? You'll be sitting there going, hey, I gotta go to bed because I have work tomorrow. And if I don't go to bed, if I don't get, some of y'all are like, if I don't get my solid 12 hours of sleep. However, everything you do is is governed by time. What time I have to leave the house, what time I get to work, what time am I first break? What time is my lunch? What time do I come home? What time will I get to the house? What time will I do this? What time will I do that? And what time will I do this? You're never gonna rush God because time doesn't matter to them. It matters to everything with us. And the second thing is this is when the time comes, are you gonna be prepared to step into it anyway? See, when I first read this, the first thing that pops into my mind is this is one, yes, God is faithful, even though Joseph, I'm sure, doesn't understand everything that is happening. Number two is think about it. Think about Abraham and Sarah, real quick. God comes to Abraham and promises him descendants as numerous as the stars. And that night, Abraham and Sarah lay with each other in a biblical way and she gets pregnant, right? Not at all what happened. Abraham is a hundred by the time Sarah gets pregnant. In fact, here's what Abraham and Sarah did. Them, sitting here going, I'm gonna rush God, came up with their own plan. They decided, hey, since God isn't moving fast enough for me, what I'm gonna do is Sarah in Genesis 16 offers up her servant Hagar and she goes, Why don't you go lay with her? Make a baby with her, because my time for having babies is already done, so why don't you just go make a baby with her? Does anybody know that baby's name? Ishmael. Does anybody know who descends from Ishmael? The Muslims. See, Abraham in his hastiness, his decision to not wait on God causes a lifelong enemy to spring up to Israel. Think about this. How many of us are not waiting on God anymore? How many of us are sitting here going, God, you're taking too long? I'm gonna step in and I'm going to handle this. And you know what will always wind up happening? You're gonna screw something up. You know why? Because you are not eternal. Think about it. God has this view, this 50,000-foot view of the past, the present, and the future all at the same time. That's why we can sit here and go, God is working all things together for good. Why? Because he's in control of all things and can work them together. We can't get through a day. Like we want to just force our will because ultimately, you know why? We don't trust that God's doing it. I go, JT has been rebuilding this engine. And you know what? I have to give him some slack because it's not a priority of mine. I have a working car. I don't need to fix another engine. And he gets impatient from time to time. But he's smart enough to go, but I'm not gonna go over by myself and work on it either. Because although, yes, he could watch some YouTube videos, and yes, he could gain information when you're doing something you've never done, you can also screw it up really bad. And then great, you get this whole engine put back together. You've spent a couple of thousand dollars rebuilding it, and then you go to turn the key, and all you see is a giant fireball come out of the engine because you set your camshaft 180 degrees too far. And now you've just blown up everything you've worked so hard to build. See, some of us we need to realize that, hey, we're in Egypt right now. But the father is still going to be faithful to his word. The father is still going to be faithful to what he is doing. It may not feel like it right now, but if you look back through your life, all those other times that you thought that God had forgotten about you, did he? But see, we only see it when we look backwards. We don't see it when we're in the here and now. Because in the here and now, the only thing we can focus on is the here and now. Which is why sometimes you just need to take a step back, look back through your life and go, He's been faithful at every other time. Why is he gonna fail me now? So the question then should become well, how do you wait then? Like, okay, I'm cool, God. I have accepted that I am in Egypt and that you got me in this little waiting power uh pattern while you're working everything else out behind the scenes. So, how do we wait? Well, Isaiah 40, 31 shows us very, very clearly. But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. I remember like when we first were planting, we met bi-weekly at our house in my living room. And yes, we would come together and we would walk through different books of the Bible, and then we would just sit in my living room and we'd kind of just talk about hey, these are the things that like down the road we want to see. And I remember one day sitting there and telling everyone in the living room, like, what I don't want is when we get there to forget this. Like, I don't want when we are finally planted and we're finally doing all of these things that we forget the times that we just sat in my living room and talked. We used to do a city group every other week at the house, and there would be nights where it would be like one, two, three o'clock in the morning, and people would still just be sitting in the living room and we would be talking, or we'd be praying, or we'd be doing whatever the case may be. And then what wound up happening is if you fast forward six years to this moment, I haven't had a home-cooked meal in three weeks because we've just been so busy. We haven't even seen the inside of a grocery store in the past three weeks. And I sit here and I go, like, I get it. See, we've done the same thing since we've been kids. Every single one of us remember what it was like to be 13 and sit here and go, I can't wait until I'm 18. Because when I'm 18, no one can tell me what time to go to bed anymore. No one can tell me what TV shows I am and am not allowed to watch anymore. No one can tell me, hey, here's where I have to be and when I have to be there. And then you hit 18, and what'd you find out? Everyone tells you when and where to go. Now it's not even just your parents that tell you, right? Now it's, yeah, you got this boss who is a real pain in the tuokass. See, how do we wait? One, we learn that the waiting is a good thing. See, I get it. It's gut-wrenching when you're sitting there waiting. It's gut-wrenching when you're sitting there going, I'm like pouring everything I am into each prayer. I remember when I was working construction one night. I was so sick and tired of working overnight. As we were adding a turn lane in off of 46 into a brand new development of houses that I knew I'd never be able to afford anyway. And I remember like sitting there in a ditch on my knees at like two o'clock in the morning, just going, God, please move me from here. I feel like I'm wasting my life here, God. I hate where I am, God. Just move me from where I am. And the next day I got a phone call for a new job. That's not what happened. Like 10 years later, I wound up at the sheriff's office and I went, uh oh. I thought construction was bad. Man, talk about out of the fryer into the frying pan here. Like, this is terrible. Then I went, if I could just be a teacher, they get summers off. Like, that's amazing. And then I went, oh, you have to deal with teenagers. This sucks. Then I went, if I could just be a pastor. And I'm gonna tell you, adults are not much easier to deal with than teenagers are. See, this is what we do, right? Because we can't enjoy the waiting. We can't sit here and go, yeah, it sucks right now. But you know what I can do right now? Is I can just be. Like I sit here and I think about what it was like to just wake up and go to work and come home, and that was it. I sit here and can still remember as a public school teacher, like at three o'clock, going, hey, this is when my contract ends, I'm out. Now it's like, man, I'm up here seven days a week. Because on the weekends I get to come in and fix things that broke throughout the week. And I go, I didn't enjoy the waiting though. I didn't sit here and go, hey, this is nice. Like I can rest in the waiting. Because I was so concentrated on sitting here showing how bad the waiting is. Sometimes it stinks and sometimes it's the hardest thing to do. But the father hasn't failed you before, he's not gonna start now, and that is because even though we may not see it, even right now, the father is guiding. See, in verse 22, we saw this. But when he heard that Achilleus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. See, even as Joseph finally gets the word, right? You're going home. He's walking, and then he finds out, like somehow on this journey back, hey, if you thought Herod was bad, let me just throw this out to you. The day after Passover, Archilius, our this guy here, this new king, killed 3,000 Jews because he didn't like them. So if you're a Jew walking back to this city, what's going through your mind? And if I thought it was bad before, this would be like, honestly, right after World War II, this would be like a Jewish person going, hey, you know what? Germany's got some new cheap real estate going on. So you wouldn't do that. And so Joseph is now returning. He's sitting here going, Finally, it's gonna happen, but then this trepidation comes, and he's sitting here going, uh-oh. Now what am I gonna do? And this is what happens, right? So what he did is he sets up camp somewhere in between Egypt and Israel, and he's just like, hey, I'm gonna spend the next like six months to a year out here, just kind of mulling through my options. Right? What happens though? That's huh. The father of Appears again and goes, Hey, it's all good. You're not gonna go there. You're going to go to Galilee. You're not going back to Bethlehem. You're not going back to the life you used to live. See, in some of us, we need to understand that. Jesus later on is going to say like this: don't be like a dog and go back into its own vomit. I don't know about you. Okay, I know I heard feral cats earlier, so apparently we got cat people in here, which, just so everyone knows, on a side note, cats are from the devil. And you need to understand that. That's why you can't breathe around them, right? However, Jesus says, don't be like a dog and go back into its own vomit. The most disgusting things in the world I've ever seen have come from my dogs. Like, things will come out of my dogs, whether it's in the front or the back, and my dog will turn around and like sniff it and then go, and it's like, what is wrong with you? Like, like, could you imagine if you were potty training your child and they went to the bathroom and then like got up, turned around, and dug into the toilet? Like, what would your reaction be? And yet, this is what we do. Why? Because we like comfort. We like knowing we're safe and comfortable. So we will go back to what we used to do instead of going to the new place that God is calling us to. See, Joseph is headed back to his hometown. He's going, I'm going back to the place I left from. And God shows up and goes, No, you're not. You're going to Galilee, to a city called Nazareth. And for some of us in this room, when God's calling us somewhere else, what do we do? We get afraid. I talked about this, I don't remember if it was last week or the week before. But too many of us, fear is your driving emotion. Everything in life scares you. And you don't admit it because, especially you guys in here, because you're like, well, I'm a man and I'm not afraid of anything. Liar. You're afraid to tell the truth. Let's start there. And I sit here and go, we have to understand this. Fear will always keep us from. Like I remember, and it was funny, me and Amanda were talking right before service about this river we used to go whitewater rafting down. And I remember the first time I got to uh cave jump. Not cave jump, cliff jump. Like you're standing there and you're about 60 feet above the water. And here's what's going through your head. Ready? This is gonna be fun. Now, out of a group of like 40 of us, do you think all 40 of us climbed up there to begin with? Nope. And do you think that everybody that climbed up on top of this cave is looking down, going, this is gonna be fun and jumping? No. Now, as I was falling through the air, the only thing that was going through my mind was, okay, the guy in the boat said, keep your legs together, because if you have separation, understanding surface cohesion of water is pretty hard. It's going to smack up some places you don't want it to. So like I was like clinched, but it was so much fun. And after I came back up out of the water, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go up there, I'm gonna do a gainer this time. So I climb up, and if you don't know what a gainer is, is where you jump forward, but then do a backflip as you're moving forward, right? So I'm like, that's it. I get up to the top and I'm like, here it goes, and I go to run, and I'm like, nope, keep your legs together. But think about this. This is where Psalm 23 comes from. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Where is God leading David in that psalm? Through the valley of shadow and death. Like if you had to go to a place called the Valley of the Shadow of Death, how many of you are like, okay, we're here, like, let's get out and walk. Most of you guys, like, honestly, you go through a bad part of Del Tone and you're like, roll the windows up, lock the doors, look straight forward, guys. That is not Sanford, and I'm gonna get to Sanford in just a second. I sit here and go, but this is how most of us live life because we're we're sitting here going, the father's leading me to places I'm not comfortable with. I don't want a new job, I'm comfortable in the job I have. I don't want to move to a different city. I'm comfortable in the city I'm in. And yet, God's sitting here going, but you didn't hear me right, I'm calling you. And yeah, you're gonna walk through the valley of the shadow of death to get there. And yeah, it's gonna be a little scary to get there. But here's what I need you to do: put one foot in front of the other. That is our theme this year, into the deep. I'm gonna tell you guys right now, as a pastor, as someone who gets up here and like preaches to other people. When I started the service and I went through, hey, you guys, here's the deal. We gotta start doing things. Every week can't be, no, I didn't do anything over the past week. I had a little bit of trepidation in saying stuff like that. Why? Does anybody know why? People may not like hearing that. People don't like confrontation. I'll tell you right now, there are people in here, okay, who love confrontation a little too much. Now, me, I'm not a huge fan of it. I'll never back down from a fight, but I don't want to be the guy that's going around starting fights either. But I knew in my spirit, hey, this needs to be said. Because we have to challenge ourselves. Because again, if we want different, we have to do different. If we're sitting here going, I want to go deeper into the word, I want to go deeper into scripture. Like I am so sick and tired of people going, hey, what does the Bible say about? Because my initial reaction is this open it and find out. You can read, right? Because if that's what we need to work on, cool, but that's a different like trap. You don't have to ask me what the Bible says. And I sit here and I go, we have to start trusting that the Spirit is going to lead us to places where our feet can't touch. If we really believe that the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, he is going to put us into places that we feel uncomfortable. He's going to put some things in front of us that are going to require, you guys listening? Faith to actually do. Because faith is not sitting here going, I believe this is true. Faith is sitting here going, because I believe this is true, I will do. That is why anytime we see faith mentioned in Scripture, it is with an action. Like when the guy comes to have his son healed and he goes to Jesus and goes, if you're able to, can you heal my son? Jesus gives him a little slight rebuke. What do you mean if I'm able to? With God, all things are possible. He's reminding him. But then he follows it up with this your faith has healed your son. What was his faith? He obviously didn't really fully believe Jesus could, but yet he still went and did. Because he went, if it's possible, I want this to happen. What are you doing in your life that actually scares you? What are you doing in your life that requires faith? Most of us live the safest possible life we can. How on earth are you gonna sit here and go, I have faith? How much faith does it take to do the things you do in your life? You know what takes faith to do things that you're scared to do? You know what takes faith, you guys in here, to stand up and go, hey, I'm gonna actually be a man and leave my house. I'm actually going to go, hey, you know what? No, starting today, we are just reading one chapter of the Bible every day. That takes faith. Because guess what? If you read enough, hopefully other people in your house are listening and they're gonna have questions. Because there's some things in here that doesn't make sense. There's some things in here that you're like, wait, hold up. What? There's things in the Bible that you're gonna sit here and go, I never knew that was big. So, what is it in your life that you actually have to have faith for? Or are you just living the safest possible life you can? See, understand if you're following after Jesus, the Father is going to put you in places that may scare you. He may actually listen, he may actually call you to actually tell someone about Jesus. And I know that sounds crazy, but it might happen, especially since the Bible tells us we are a royal priesthood. You know what that means? You're called to do the same thing that I'm doing right now. You're called to sit here and preach the word. You're called to tell people in your life who Jesus is. You heard it in the announcements, and I don't even know like what I was researching to find that because nothing I'm gonna preach about today has anything to do with that. But according to Barna, 73% of non-church attending people did not get invited to one church service over the past calendar year. Do you guys realize how big of a number 73% is? Do you realize that 70% will get you a college degree? Like that's how big of a number we're talking about here. That means your neighbors that don't attend church, you didn't invite them. That means your coworkers who don't attend church, you didn't invite them. And to follow it up on that stat, 88% of all people who come to a church service are personally invited. So if we put those two things together, you guys see how that's almost a hundred percent, right? I mean, we're talking about 73 and 88 percent. Both of those are super high. So let me ask you, what are you doing in your life that takes faith? Joseph had to leave his town, go to Egypt, and then leave Egypt and come back. Joseph had to embrace fear because fear is the opposite of faith. Doubt is not. I tell your high schoolers all the time, it's okay to doubt Jesus. It really is. JT has heard this his entire life. I would rather you doubt. Because you know what that proves to me? You're at least listening. Because sometimes, even as a pastor, I've had doubts. Sometimes I've been like, maybe I didn't hear this one right. Maybe I shouldn't have done this. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. It's okay to doubt. What's not okay is to be paralyzed in fear. Because fear is what keeps us from doing. We need to be more bold in our witness. We need to shine brighter than we have ever shined in our lives. Because right now, the world is darker than it's ever been in my life. Think about it, you you millennials or zeleniaals in here. If you're younger than that, you don't even know. Remember how good the world used to be? Like pre-internet? Like you guys remember you used to have to like pick up the phone and actually call your friends? Remember when you used to talk to adults, you would look them in the face when you talked to them? Like weird things like that? You anybody in here remember how to shake a hand? Like you guys remember when you used to do that? Hey, do you remember when you used to have to call your neighbors Mr. and Mrs.? Like there was no just like first name basis with a child because we're not equals. So you guys remember what it was like? And I get it, every generation that has ever existed since the dawn of man went that generation was the best, this generation is the worst. But I am telling you right now, all you gotta do is watch the news for a couple of minutes and go, the news even sounds way different than when I was younger. I mean, it seems like every day there's a new country that's being invaded, there's a new genocide that's happening, there's a new person who like is fallen, like as far as like religious people go. Think about it, every YouTube video, and it might just be my algorithm, okay? So it may not be the same on yours, but everyone I see is we're living in the end times. And then they followed it up with all of these different things. Now, I'm not that guy, I'm not gonna sit here and go, that's it, Jesus is coming back any day now. I am gonna sit here though and remind us that Jesus is coming back and the world is darker now than it's ever been in my memory. So, how do you get your light to shine brighter? See, most of us we're looking at like greener pastures because we're sitting here going, oh, I just want to rest. I know not everybody in here has the office memorized the way I do. But at the company picnic, okay, Charles, uh, Jim spikes on Charles and he looks at him and he goes, Oh, no, no, no, let me back up. I don't know why I started there. Jim and Pam are walking up to the company picnic. Charles walks up to him and goes, must be nice to get a rest from all your rest. If you don't laugh right now, that's because you need to watch more of The Office. But some of us we need to understand that when you stand in front of Jesus, he's gonna tell you the same thing. That it must be nice to get a rest from all your rest. Because again, if you look through your life, what were you doing to push into darkness? I go sitting and went in the office, it probably isn't pushing into darkness. But look at how many illustrations it's given me in being able to preach. Do you know how many Jesus conversations I've gotten into with people about the office? Like, there's a whole Facebook community that is built around nothing but theology and the office put together. So, yeah, it's allowed me to push into the darkness. I've been saying this for years. I'm not trying to ask anyone in this room to do extra at all. I get it. You got a busy life, you got a busy schedule, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not asking you to add things to your schedule that you don't want to do. Here's what I am asking everybody in here to do, though. Do what you're already doing, but do it intentionally for the glory of God. Like, like you guys remember last week there was a barbecue, right? Now, we had roughly, I think we came up with like 60 people that showed up for it, most of which do not come to church here. Which was perfect, which is what we were trying to do because we exist not just for the people in this room. Like, if you guys want barbecue, that's different, right? You can call me at any time and go, hey, we were thinking about doing a barbecue. Do you and Joe mind cooking? And I'll tell you, Joe doesn't mind cooking at all. And I will stand there and keep Joe company. Now, that being said, though, stuff like that exists for the outside world. So as everybody was leaving and it was starting to get a little darker, guess what me and Joe get to do? Oh, everyone knew and you guys didn't help clean? Like that's messed up. I didn't know you guys knew what we were doing. Okay, but that wasn't even my point. So we get all done cleaning up, and then we're just standing in the parking lot, and we're just talking about how did it go? What went well, what do we need to do better next time? And you know what we wound up doing? Going, all right, so in April, we'll go ahead and do this again. And here's how we're gonna do it. See, we we hadn't even finished that barbecue, and we're already sitting here going, how can we do this again? How can we take what we're doing and do it intentionally for the glory of God? One of them was here's the deal. Next time it's gonna be free, right? For anyone you bring with you. But if you show up by yourself and you did not invite anyone and they came with you, not, oh, I told a bunch of people. Like if you do not bring someone, you don't get to eat. You can watch everybody else eat, they can tell you how good it is, but the whole point is to bring people. Does that make sense? So I'm gonna skip a little further because I see that I'm running out of time, but last thing we need to understand is this Nazareth is a nothing town. Nothing town. Nazareth, if you go back and you look through history, Nazareth wasn't one of these towns where like people were just like known for being religious zealots in Nazareth. Okay, Nazareth wasn't this amazing port town. However, in fact, what we see is as Jesus is calling his disciples, here's what one disciple had to say about his hometown. In John 1.46, it says this. Philip and Nathaniel are talking. And Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said, Come and see. See what Philip's doing is he's inviting people to come follow Jesus. And Nathaniel goes, You want me to follow some dude from Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Remember earlier I said I was gonna be talking about Sanford, right? I remember when we first started talking about planting. We were part of another church here in Deltona like years and years and years ago, and we went to the elders and the pastor, and we were like, hey, this is what we know God is calling us to. We're being called to plant a church, and and that pastor was like, cool, we're going to equip you and resource you and build you up, and then you guys are gonna be able to plant. Nice, right? You guys think that's what happened? No, not at all. The pastor went, hey, um, so in the meantime, before you plant, where are you gonna give? Like, we're open to your tides, even though you're not gonna be here. And then followed it up with this: oh, and by the way, do not plant in Deltona. Like, that was my introduction into ministry and churches here in Deltona. And he followed that up by saying, Del Tona's just not a good place to plant for you. Soil's too hard. You're gonna grind and nothing's gonna happen. We've been going for 40 years and we're just now at a point where we're getting stable. And I went, oh. And then he followed that up with, we don't need more churches here in Deltona. And I went, as a deputy here in Deltona, I will tell you, you desperately need the gospel here in Deltona. And you probably need a hundred more churches. Because the gospel is the only answer to all of the problems that we see. See, but I'm gonna tell you right now, this isn't where my first place would have chosen to be. Just to be honest. I didn't grow up in Deltona. I don't have roots in Deltona. I was a deputy here and I saw all of the nasty and darkness of Deltona. And if you've talked to me longer than five minutes, can anyone guess what city I would have loved for God to call me to? I can hit you. And for those listening on the recording, that was my son I was talking to. Not a congregant. Yeah, Sanford. All day. To this day. We just went and celebrated the girls' birthday at Cattle Ranch and then Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen was my mom's first job. She started there making 15 cents an hour. I hear about it all the time. Every single one of my good memories in life. Come from Sanford. Love Sanford. I spent the majority of my life. Nope, that's a lie because I've been here longer than I lived in Sanford now. Sucks getting old. But you know what? God didn't call me to Sanford. How do I know that? Because I live in Deltona. God didn't call me to Isla Murata. I would have loved for God to have been like, hey, you know what? The Florida Keys need more churches. Isla Murata, the sport fishing capital of the world, needs another church. I mean, when we go down for vacation every single time, I'm like, Dev, do you feel that? Like, do you feel God calling us here? And she's like, no, I don't. New Samyrna Beach needs more churches. I mean, six months out of the year, they're really packed. But God didn't call me to any of those places. How do I know that? Because we planted a church in Deltona. That's how I knew that. It's like when people go, hey, do you believe in the one? Do you believe Debbie was the one? And I went, yeah. You know how I know that? Because when I went, will you marry me? She said yes. There's nothing magical, there's nothing any of that. She simply agreed. To which I went, yay. And then we got married. And for those of you that know, that sounds like it was the conversation, right? And I'm sitting here going, I've told everyone in here before, and I'm going to remind you again, you're not in this room by accident. Some of you came from the other side of the country and found your way to some small podunk town in Florida that should have never been on your top ten places to live. Especially when you're talking about Florida. Like you totally could have just gone an extra 15 minutes down I-4 and wound up in a beautiful, small, little quaint city that has a vibrant nightlight. It didn't when I was growing up, but it does now. But yet you wound up here. Some of you could have taken any job in the world, but we wound up working at the same place. Think about the odds of that. Some of you could have put your kids at a number of schools. In fact, most of you had kids at other schools to begin with. But yet, you know where they wound up? So please look at me and go, hey, it's by accident that I'm sitting in this room. I'll tell you right now, and it was funny. Joe and Mandy and Debbie and I were talking months ago. And it was just like funny to hear because like we were at the same restaurants before Bailey and Gracie made their way to the school. They were like, yeah, you guys were sitting at like the table, like two tables down from us. And we were so please tell me how it was accidental because I'll tell you right now, I don't care for pizza that much. I'm not a big carb person to begin with. But to be at the same pizzeria, how is that accidental? And Acts 17, 46, Paul, or 26, I'm sorry, Paul writes this. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling places. Keep telling yourself, you are here by accident. Keep telling yourself you live in the neighborhood you live by accident. Keep telling, I mean, seriously, guys, just look throughout the room. We brought one Holly in here. And next thing you know, they all were here.

unknown 48:06

We need more chairs.

Shine Brighter In A Darker World

Do What You Already Do, Intentionally

Nazareth’s Reputation And God’s Choice

SPEAKER_00 48:08

Yes, you guys did take the commandment to go forth and multiply, literally. But think about it. Do you trust your father? Because he puts you right where you are on purpose. And I promise you, when you look through your life, you can see every decision that led you to right here. You can see every decision that God went. You guys want to know where Emily came from? Because I can do this with almost everybody in this room. We were giving away a bike. You guys remember those of you that have been here from the get-go, right? We used to do what we called free sales. Because for whatever reason, people always like from this was way before we even planted, people would just give us their stuff. They're like, here, we don't want this anymore. Can you guys find a home for it? And it was like our garage would get to the point where you couldn't even walk through it, and then we would do a free sale. We would advertise it like a garage sale, but hey, you can just come take whatever you need from my front yard. And it was funny because when we're giving away everything, and I know this is a side note, but it's hilarious. We're giving it away. There are no price tags on anything in my front yard. And yet, as we're standing in my driveway and we're all just kind of talking and we're, you know, talking to people that come, this lady walks up and is like stealing stuff, right? Like she's like checking to make sure no one's looking and like shoving stuff in her bag. And I was like, we finally got to the point where we walked over and we're like, ma'am, you can take whatever you want. You don't have to steal. You want the couch? You can like we'll deliver it to you. It was absolutely hilarious. But we wound up with an extra bike. And so Debbie put it on Facebook. And that's how Emily came to be with us. Because they showed up to pick up a bike. And they went, Why are you guys giving this stuff away? And that started this conversation, which led to that conversation, which led to Emily this morning up here playing piano. See the question isn't, is God guiding? The question is, are you following? The question isn't, should you trust the father? The question is, is why don't you trust the father? See, again, we are where we are for a reason. God put you in Del Tono because He went, I need light in Del Tono. God didn't put you in Del Tono because Sanford was dim. God didn't put you in Deltono because the land is dim. Are both places needing light? Absolutely. But God put you here because these are the people you do life with. God put you here because these are the people you actually know. God put you here because he went, you're gonna push into the darkness here in Deltona. The question is, what are you doing in your life that takes faith to do that? I've told you guys years and years and years now. I get it. Not everybody in here is looking at March 21st and has it circled on their calendar and is going, I'm gonna go blow a turkey's head off on that day. I get it. That may not be your thing. You may not be sitting here going, hey, I wonder, like, when's that next boat trip coming up? Like, I want to go out and fish. Like, when's that next camping trip happening? How many times have I told you though? Come to me and go, hey, look, I'm not into all this outdoor crap that you're into. But could we put together, I don't know, a knitting club? I don't know what you guys do. Weirdos that don't go outside. You guys got weird things that you do. You teenagers in here. Go, hey. We're gonna play, and I hate to say this, and I'll probably delete this out of my recording later because I don't want anyone else to know I said it. We're gonna play Dungeons and Dragons. Can we just get a whole bunch of our friends to come up here and play Dungeons and Dragons? Yep. Kids today are different than I was. That's all I'm saying. Hey, a hand cannot tell a foot I am better than you. But the question is, do we trust? See, none of us are here by accident, and the father is faithful to keep his word. We are all called to be a light right here where we live. The question is, is do we trust the father to do that? Like I said in the beginning, if our answer to that is yes, then we need to be on mission right here. We need to overcome fear, we need to turn our lights up to a million looms, and we need to be doing the things that the father is putting in front of us to do, and that is our challenge this week. Find one thing, one thing, guys. I'm not asking too much of you. Find one thing this week that God put in front of you and go, I'm gonna do it. It scares me, I'm uncomfortable with it, I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm gonna do it. Find that one thing. That one thing for you may be going, hey, you know what? He does all this work, he puts together this five-day devotional. As a family, we're gonna sit down and do this every night. You don't have to do it first thing in the morning. If you know anything about me, I'm not doing crap first thing in the morning. Like, I love when like the other teachers get here in the morning, because like Debbie and them, they are all very chipper, and none of them look at me and go, hey, Mr. Lively. Like it is literally like a nod, like, because I'm gonna sit at that desk until 8:30 just trying to do everything in my power to wake up. I'm gonna eat some little bites and I'm gonna drink a Celsius, and and and sometimes that's not enough, but at that point you gotta do what you gotta do. So maybe it's nighttime. Maybe you're sitting here going, hey, you know what? After showers and and before bed, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna walk through this as a family. Maybe it's sitting here going, hey, there's a new job. I've been trying to tell one person in here they need to quit mulching so we can open up a barbecue restaurant. I also told them to buy a 42-foot yacht and a dirt car, and none of those things are happening. So I guess my words are falling on deaf ears there. But it may be, and and that was just an example, guys. I don't I agree. And God's time is now. So, I mean, think about it. Name a barbecue restaurant in Deltona. Okay. Maybe it's taking a new job, maybe it's taking a plunge and being baptized, and maybe, and the list can go on and on and on and on. But find one thing this week that God has put in front of you and do it. Because if you trust the Father, then you know He can't fail. And I sit here and go, so if you knew what you were gonna do couldn't fail, what is it that you would do? And go do it. That's the easy part, right? So, Father, I ask and I pray that as we move from this moment, that God, you stir in our hearts. That you sit here and go, hey, you know what? I'm gonna go ahead and I am going to put this on you so heavy that you're not gonna have any choice but to do. Father, those of us in here who are sitting here struggling, going, well, I don't know what to do. Father, I ask and I pray that you give direction. If they need help, I ask and I pray that you put on their heart, hey, here's what you're gonna do this week. You're gonna call that one person and you're gonna talk to them about this. Father, I ask and I pray that by the power of your spirit, you ignite fire within us and you sit here and go, I'm gonna put you guys on mission. Father, I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.