Identity Issues

Well, hello, Salt Church. How are you doing this morning? Glad you're here with us today on this really cold Sunday morning, right? But it's really hot in here, guys. I mean, not physically.

Well, maybe physically, but spiritually, too. So glad that you're with us today. If you're with us online, we're so appreciative that you've tuned in and you're with us. I saw some faces online just a second ago of some of our regulars that are at home watching us and some new people as well that are watching us and just want to let you know we miss you. Some of you I haven't seen since Christmas or before Christmas and just can't wait to see you again in person, but I'm so glad that you're connected with us.

If you would just let us know you're here in the feed, do a watch party, do share your share this feed or whatever you can do to get the word out about Jesus. We want everybody to be a part of this as many people as possible to know the good news. This is what we're about. And so I love you all. I thank you so much.

And if you're online right now and you want to connect with us and even here in the service itself, you can connect with us at saltchurch.org slash card, fill out that information. And we'd love to send you some information about our church and other ways to get involved. We always have a guest lunch the first of every month that happened in February, the first week in February. And we'd love for you to be a part of that where you can connect more with the church.

And if you're here today, you can do that as well. You can always register at our website. Right. But but thank you so much for being here. I am excited about I met with our leadership this past week.

We have put together some awesome things for this year. And I'm going to. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm going to share some of that with you in a few weeks once we get our data in for our giving for last year.

And some of the things that I want to share with you, I'm going to share a little vision with you here in a few weeks. So I would love for you to be here and be a part of that. But today I'm just stirred for more of God. This is a season where we've got to lean in and stir up our spirits with God's spirit. And God has really just been dealing with me a lot about this in our church and in ministry.

And this is a critical time for us as a church, as a church family and as a church as a whole to really be seeking God, seeking his wisdom, seeking his voice, hearing from him. And a lot of us may have not had that encounter, that experience. And it might be a little weird for you. Maybe it's what you've been grown up in or maybe the knowledge of what you know about God. And maybe that's been enough for you.

But the best way to get close to God is to look at those in the Bible that had direct encounters with God. And to learn from those people, to learn from these ordinary people who did extraordinary things, and it was based on an encounter with the living God. My hope for you is that you have an encounter with the living God. Because here, you can have all the understanding about God you want to. You can understand his character.

You can understand his omnipotence, omniscient, omnipresence. You can understand all those theological terms about God. You can even argue people into heaven maybe, whatever it might be that you are gifted with. You can have all the intellect. And those things are great.

I'm a Bible guy. I believe people should be digging in the Word of God. And the Word of God is our foundation. And anything that we go to God for, anything that we experience about God or with others, we should always take it back. We should always take it back.

To the foundation of God's Word. But God cannot fully be understood. You can study for months, for years, you can get master's degrees, you can get doctorate degrees, you can do everything in your will to be able to understand God, but you cannot fully understand Him until you have an encounter with Him. You cannot really know God until you absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt, have a face-to-face moment with God. And God wants that for you.

I want that for you. And that's what this message series is about. We're looking at people in the Old Testament that had these face-to-face encounters with God. And just to start it off here, in Exodus 33 11, this moment that Moses had, it says, The Lord would speak to Moses face-to-face as a man speaks to his friend. Wow!

That's amazing! That we can actually have a face-to-face moment. An intimacy so great that we can call God our friend. That he would actually talk to us, that we can actually dialogue with God. And it's funny how we treat God in our prayers.

We're in a season of prayer, and a lot of us like to come to God with formulas. We like to formulize and formalize our prayers. And it's so funny because we like to always use Old English, and these and thou's, and thou God almighty, bro. You know, and that's good and everything, I guess. But really, God just desires for you to have a common conversation with him.

A conversation in which you can speak to him like a friend, and he can share with you like a friend. That you are sitting around, I see it like this, around the fire, having a nice conversation with God about what I'm going through, about what he wants me to do, hearing from him, him encouraging me, sharing wisdom with me. And that's my heart for you in this season, that you grow deeper in God. That this January season, as we're locked down, and we're not going out a whole lot, and we have a pandemic around us, we can't go out and do a lot anyway, right? I mean, it's cold, guys.

What else are we going to do? Well, let's get down and gritty with God. Let's dig deeper with God. Why is this so important? Because if we're not careful, your whole Christian life will just be based on beliefs.

And what I want for you is to really know God, attach a real, live, living God to your belief system. The Apostle Paul was an intellect. The Apostle Paul was trained by the greatest of the great. He knew everything. He could argue you into heaven.

He had that capability. He was an intellect. But he said this in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 3 through 5, I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words. But it was the demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith, that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on the power of God.

And that's my hope for you, that your wisdom rests on God's ultimate power, that the majesty of who he is, the greatness of who he is. That's where your wisdom lies. And that encounter can happen to you. And last week we talked about Jacob. And we struggle.

We struggle. He wrestled. He wrestled with God all night long until he received his blessing. And today I want people in this room to just be people who wrestle for that blessing. I want your blessing, God.

And I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I'm willing to put aside my time. I'm willing to put aside all of the things that... I find that are great in this current situation or I'm going to slide them to the side, I'm going to put away all those things that I'm drawn towards so that I can draw towards you, God. I'm going to step to the side during this time.

I'm going to get alone with you and I'm going to demand my blessing, Lord. This week I want to talk about someone really familiar. It's Moses. Moses. And most of us, when we think of Moses, we think of the now animated classic, Prince of Egypt.

It's real popular. And for me, I go back further to Charlton Heston. And whenever I'm thinking about Moses, I think of Charlton Heston and the rugged, handsome, peppered beard guy on the mountain. That's Moses to me. That's my idea of Moses.

Did you know? And I think I've said this before in one of my messages because I'm so excited about this. If you haven't had a chance to get the Charlton Heston Bible where you actually hear him talk, you know, that dramatic voice that he has, you know. You should get that. It's really cool.

But that's who I think about. And everybody is familiar with the story of Moses. The story begins with Moses being put into a basket and put into a river because of his, of this decree that went out by Pharaoh to kill the Hebrew sons of the family. And many, many children were slayed in that time. But Moses was protected, sent out into the river.

And it just so happens he came across the daughter of Pharaoh who found him and then raised him as an Egyptian prince. And Moses eventually found out that he was Hebrew and then he dealt with all that conflict. And he ended up killing an Egyptian slave. And then he was, then he escaped. He ran away to a farm place.

And then the story picks up from here. The story picks up from here. And at this time, Moses is 80 years old. 80 years old. Talking about waiting.

Waiting on the Lord. And I don't know if Moses was waiting. He more than likely had given up on God. He had given up on what God possibly had for him. But God does have an encounter with him.

And so if you will turn with me to Exodus 3, starting with verse 1. And it says this, how now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. That's not Jethro from the hillbillies. That's Jethro from the Bible. Some of you are like, what is he talking about?

I'm dating myself here. The prince of Midian. And he led the flock to a far side of the desert. Far side of the desert. See, that might be where many of you are.

You're on the far side of the desert. You're far from God right now. You're kind of distant from him. And it might just be the things of life have gotten in the way. Or maybe you've distanced yourself from God.

Maybe you've gone to the far side of the desert. And most people believe that God exists. But few people know that they can actually be close to God. That they can actually experience God. That they can feel close to God.

They know about God. But they're dry. And it's far for them to even think that they can have a divine encounter with God. So, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And there the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame or flames of fire from within the bush.

And Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So, God shows up in a very strange and unique way. And let me say this. God often shows up in strange ways. In strange ways.

That we've got to be prepared for God to show up in strange ways. He doesn't do things in formulas, okay? If He did things in formulas, we would probably build our theology, we'd build our belief system around that idea of that formula, right? If God shows up in a burning bush every time, what are we going to do? We're going to create churches, we're going to build churches that say the church of the burning bush, you know, and we're going to worship the burning bush.

But God doesn't do that. He always does it in strange ways, interesting ways He appears to us. And it might be a little weird, it might be a little different, but He never does it the same way. It's always different. When you look through the Bible, you see Him appear in many different forms, in many different ways to speak to people at many different times.

So, Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight. Why the bush does not burn up. And I think that's interesting how it goes from, he looks to the burning bush, he sees there's something strange there, something interesting. I'm not quite sure about this. But then he begins to take steps towards it.

He starts walking towards it. And you know, God likes that. When we begin to explore it a little bit. There might be some things that are different about even our church worship here. The way we do things here.

You may have come from a different background in your theology. Maybe you're more liturgical. Maybe you come from a Catholic background. Maybe you come from a Methodist background. Maybe Episcopalian background.

Whatever it might be, you're used to a certain way of doing things. And for some of us over here on the other side, we're used to doing things a certain way. But here's the deal. Maybe it's time to explore a little more of what God has for us. Maybe it's time to step into a little bit.

Thank you for that hand clap. It's quite quiet in here this morning. And these are really low ceilings. And it's really hard to preach to a low ceiling. Okay?

I like my high ceilings. That was the first thing I said about this place. Ceilings aren't high enough. Ceilings aren't high enough. And then Christina slapped me around a little bit and says, You got something here.

Just accept it. But anyway. Christina, you hear me at home. I know you're at home today watching this. So, you know, people might raise their hands a little bit.

You know, maybe you're not used to that. You know, the Bible talks about raising, clapping, stomping, dancing, things like that. You see that and you're like, I don't know about that. But I remember a friend of mine who grew up in more of a liturgical church background. And he experienced a church service a lot like ours, you know, where there was more charismatic worship and people were kind of experiencing God in new ways that he had never seen before.

And he made a decision that next time he went to church, he was going to tap his foot a little bit. You know, he's going to do the tap. That was his first step. And he said, you know, and then I made a decision next week I was going to raise my hand a little bit, you know, in church. And then I was going to do.

So he kind of explored that a little more. And I'm telling you, he's probably one of the most lively worship people I've ever met in my life. And, you know, things might be different in your experience with God, but I tell you, if God is leading you and you feel, to feel his presence, we're going to have to think a little bit differently. And maybe it's a little kooky for you, but God likes it when you explore and you look and you discern and you walk into it a little more. And it says, when the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him within the bush.

So he responded. When he went over, he responded. Maybe take some steps of faith into some more things of God and perhaps God will begin to speak to you. And then he says this. Moses, Moses.

And Moses said, I am here. Do not come any closer, God. God said, see, this is God. This is face to face with God. Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

The place where you are standing. See, God visited him in a holy and sacred moment. And God desires to visit you in a holy, sacred place. And you know, I can't bring that holy and sacred moment to you. Only God can do that and he can do it at any time.

But I can prepare an environment. I can help. You can help. We all can help prepare an environment in which God can speak to us. We can worship.

That's why we do worship the way we do. That's why we do these messages the way we do. That's why we have this experience the way we put it and program it so that you can get closer to God. We can cultivate and create an environment in which God can speak to us and God can visit us. And my hope is that you have this holy moment.

But here's another thing I want to mention. This kind of spoke to me just last night, late as I was listening to this message. He also told him he needs to take off his sandals. Some of you got some mucky sandals. Some of you got some stuff in your life that you got to get out.

And Moses had to take those sandals off. God saw that and said, Moses, take off your sandals because this is a holy place. And I want you to be a holy person because I'm getting ready to do something in your life. But I can't do anything in your life if you're wearing those sandals. So you need to take those sandals off and you need to come down and get face to face with me and pour into this moment of surrendering yourself to me and making it 100%, making your life 100% with me so that I can show you and give you and make you who you are and who you originally meant and intended to be.

So sometimes we got to take off those sandals. In fact, in every case, we've got to assess ourselves, the sandals that I have, where have they been, the roads that I've worn, and the places I've been. And then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And at this, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. I find it interesting that in verse 3, he's afraid to look at God.

He hid his face and he's afraid to look at God. But by verse 33, he's speaking to God face to face. He was afraid of God. He didn't know how to react. It was confusing.

He didn't understand God. But then in verse 33, he is talking to God as a man talks to a friend. You can have that relationship with God. You can have that encounter with God where you can talk to him as a friend. And I want a church full of people who actually talk to God, who listen to God, who hear from God, who sit down with God, who have a supper table with God, often where they come together with God.

And they know exactly where God's carrying them and sharing with them and helping them and encouraging them. And I want that for all of you. But there's a few things that we have to get through. There's a few hurdles we have to jump over in order to have this divine encounter with God. And Moses had these problems.

There were four obstacles. And they were all identity issues, really, when it came down to us, to it. Moses had some identity issues. But he asked four questions. The first thing he asked was, who am I?

Who am I? See, Moses didn't know whether he was an Egyptian or he was a Hebrew or he was a shepherd. He didn't know what he was. He grew up in royalty. Then he lost royalty.

He found out he was a Hebrew. He was off in a foreign place, being a shepherd, far, far, far from Egypt in a foreign land. He had this identity issue going on. In fact, not knowing who he was is what caused him to do some of the things that he did. Now, anytime our identity is compromised, when we don't know who we are, we don't know who we are.

In Christ, we make bad decisions. We make awful decisions. We do things. And what did Moses do? He murdered an Egyptian slave master as a result because he dealt with that conflict.

Who am I? Who am I? When you don't understand, you don't know where you come from. You're not able to... And that's what he was saying to God.

You don't understand where I've come from. You don't understand who I am. You don't know where I've been. You've got the wrong person, God. You've got the wrong person.

Perhaps God's calling you to something. You're like struggling with that, man. You don't know my past, God. You don't know my past. I can't do that.

That stuff will come up in your thoughts anytime God's trying to lead you to do something. If God's leading you to take the next step in your journey, and all of us are on spiritual journeys, but you're going to have these hurdles to jump over. Here's what Exodus 3 verse 11 says in verse 12. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And you know what God said?

He responded. He immediately directed it back, not to Moses, but to God. He says, you're taking your eyes off of me. And he said this, I will be with you, and this will be a sign to you that it is I who have sent you. And when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain, the mountain of Horeb.

You will worship God. See, God directed Moses' insecurities directly back to him. He said, when you take your eyes off of me, see, I have the power to do what I need to do in your life. I don't care who you are. He uses the weakest people to accomplish great tasks.

He used a shepherd boy, a monkey shepherd boy in a field, and he used him to be a king. And he was a descendant to the one who became the Messiah. He uses people who are nothing. He uses people who have a past. And when you are in church and you are in worship and you're seeking God, when you're taking a step further, you know what's going to happen?

The enemy is going to start whispering things in your head. This is what he does. I have it right before I walk up on stage all the time. As I'm coming up, I hear, well, you're just not good enough. You know what you did.

You know your past. Some of you are here, you're trying to seek God. You're trying to hear from God. You're trying to encounter God. You want to open up more to who God is.

But the enemy is reminding you, you know what you did last night? You know what you said to that person? You know how you acted? You know where you went? You know that?

And he's trying to everything to keep you from having that encounter with God. And that's what the enemy wishes on us. Condemnation. Condemnation. He wants to put condemnation.

That's his middle name. I condemn you. He wants to condemn you. But what we need to do, the application to this, is we need to overcome condemnation. We need to get away from condemnation.

Here's the difference between condemnation, because here's what Jesus said, or what John said, rather. He says, he not only said, for God so loved the world that he gave his son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He also got to the next part of that where he says, God did not condemn the world, but that the world through him might live. He didn't come to condemn you. He'd come to convict you.

There's a difference between condemnation and conviction, okay? Condemnation says there's no way out. I'm really bad, and there's just no way out of this. But conviction says, oh, it's bad. It's bad, but there is a way out, because that's what God came for.

He'd come to take you away from the condemnation. He came to make you whole. He made you a child of his. We sing up here, I'm no longer a slave to fear. I'm no longer a slave to my past.

I'm no longer a slave to I'm no longer a slave to sin. I am a free man. I'm a free woman. I can live in the fullness of who he is. I'm no longer a slave to the enemy.

I'm a slave to Jesus Christ. And he's given it all for you. We've got to overcome condemnation. Look what Titus said. But when the kindness and love of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, okay?

See, why do I say that every week? Why do you keep talking about this not because of righteous stuff, not because of the right or wrong, it's because you guys try to do it right or wrong. You try to make it about right and wrong. Trust me, I have a lot of conversations, and it always goes back to that very thing. I'm not good enough.

I've got to do better. Yes, you've got to do better. Absolutely. There are choices that you have to make in your life when you're walking with the Lord. But you need to first realize that you are not condemned, and you are not earning favor with God by the good things that you've done.

You place your trust in Jesus. You always go back to the cross. You always go back to that place. And I would even invite you to go back to that moment where you surrendered your life to Christ. And I always go back to that place where you say, I give you my life.

I give you my heart. I give you my all. I make you Lord of my life. I'm no longer a slave to my old self. I'm transformed in the image of God, and he is renewing us and transforming us.

And that's what it says, but because of his mercy, he saved us through the washing of rebirth. That's rebirth. I go back to the scripture just off the top of my head where Nicodemus is asking, how can a man be born again? How can he be born once and then again? He says, it's not by flesh, but it's by the spirit that we are born again.

We are born fresh and new. And it also says we're renewed. We're renewed. We're made fully new in Christ. We are made new.

We are new creations. You are no longer how bad or good you were. And I say good too. You are no longer good or bad based on that. You are based, you are transformed to the image of Christ based on nothing more than his mercy and his grace.

And the second thing, the second question, who are you? Who are you? He asked God who he was. See, people, when people struggle with insecurity, they also struggle with insecurity with God. And they ask those questions.

Who are you, God? Who are you? And I imagine at this point, Moses was very, he didn't see God as big. He had lost everything. Egyptian prince that was no longer anything.

His people had been enslaved for years. He couldn't understand why God had not moved. How many of you have been there? Why haven't you moved, God? Why haven't you spoken to me, God?

Why can't I hear from you, God? I've been sitting. I've been waiting. I've been doing. I've been doing all those things and I'm waiting for you.

But I just don't think you're listening. And I don't think you're big enough. He lost it all. Exodus 3 says it like this. Moses said, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your father has sent me to you.

And they ask me, what is his name? What shall I tell them? See, Moses didn't understand who God was. But here's God's response. And I love his response because he says, I am who I am.

And that's not a no answer, okay? I am who I am. This is what you will say to the Israelites. I am has sent you. I am who I am.

And that's a big statement there because God is so much bigger to be described as anything but God, but the very I am, the one who exists. He is bigger than our problems. See, we like to look at the Bible and we believe that God split the seas. Jesus, we- We believe that God formed pillars of fire in times where He saved the Israelites. We've seen Jesus' miracles, we believe those things, but the problem is do we believe them today?

Many people believe in a God that did, but they don't believe in a God that does. Because we limit God. There's this term in Christian faith called cessationism in theology, and in fact entire systems have been built on the idea that God no longer does. That He's done and we have the fullness of Scripture and this fullness of what we need for this time. But can I encourage you today that God still does?

And He does all the time. Let me just share a quick story with you. Christina, she's not with us today. Her family had to quarantine because of some exposures that they had this past week. But she called me and she put a prayer request out for her mother.

Her mother who had been diagnosed with cancer and we prayed or the possibility of cancer and we prayed for that. And here's when she went in for a checkup, she was doing a routine checkup. The doctor had done and performed the same task over and over and over again. He knew how to do this inside and out. But somehow that day, he slipped up.

And when he was looking and doing his thing, it slipped down and he caught something. He caught a tumor. And he could not believe it. He says, I've never messed up in my life, but I did that time and he caught this tumor. And not only did he catch this tumor, he got it out in such a good timing that everything was clear.

And we began to pray for that even further because she had to go through chemo and stuff like that. So they went in, they did another test, and we were praying that through, did another test, and she's completely cancer-free. She needs no chemo. And here's what the doctor says. He says, I just can't believe it.

I can't believe it. I can't believe that that happened. First of all, that I caught it when I did because I would have never caught it. And by the time I caught it, it would have been too late. I can't believe that happened.

It never happens. It never happens. And secondly, to be cancer-free, that's just impossible. He says, you are a walking miracle. And she says, I know because I have a Lord that is a miracle worker.

And he did this miracle. I believe that God still does miracles today. And I've seen healings. I've seen healings of cancer. I've seen hearts that have been reshaped through prayer, guys.

Backwards hearts that have been, I mean, just crazy stuff. And God does strange things, but I believe he can do it. I had somebody that was kind of arguing me about the validity of Scripture one time. He says, I just can't believe that. It's just hard for me to believe that Jonah can be swallowed by a whale, you know.

It's hard for me to believe that God could do this or do that. It's hard for me to believe that Jesus could raise somebody from the dead. It's just hard for me. That's hard. I can't get past that.

And I said, you know what? Me too. It's hard for me to believe. But I've got a God that's bigger than that. I've got a God that's a miracle worker.

It wouldn't be a miracle if it happened all the time, amen? God does strange things. God does things. And we can believe in a God who is way bigger than us. And any time we try to put God in a place where he's not big, he shows us what he's capable of doing.

And we've got to believe that as a church, right? God's got big things for us. Do we believe that he can do it? Do we go to him? Do we pray?

Do we ask? Do we seek him? Do we ask for his? Do we invite him? So we've got to overcome doubt.

That's the application. Peace. He's overcome doubt, tech team. There's nothing that is impossible for God. And through God, you can do all things.

All these things. All these things that you're facing in your life. All these things that God has asked you to do. All these things God can do through you. But it's by way of Him, I am that I am.

The third thing is, what if they? What if they? What if they? And this is a big one. This is a big one.

I know I'm running out of time here, but I really want to dig into this. What if they say? What if they do? What if they act like this? What if you're calling me to do makes me lose everything?

What if they? Here's what Moses said. What if they do not believe or listen to me and say the Lord did not appear? Because think about it. Moses showing up to the Israelites and they're like, who are you in the first place?

And what's this? Yeah. Well, guys, I saw God in a bush. You know, I mean, they're probably like, what? And we're supposed to believe you?

That's crazy. That's interesting. I mean, why would we and why would I want to have anything to do with you? And if we aren't careful, we will allow people to keep us from experiencing God. You'll allow people, you'll keep from moving all the way in, the growing closer to him because you're afraid of what somebody else thinks, or what somebody else may say, or what somebody may do to you.

Proverbs 29, 25 says, the fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. That's not in your notes, but it's so true. You know, it's a snare. It's a trap. It even happened in Jesus's day.

In the book of John, it says, yet there were many Jewish leaders who believed in Jesus, but because they feared the Pharisees, they kept it secret so they wouldn't be ostracized by the assembly of the Jews. For they loved the glory of man or what man could give them rather than the glory that came from God. They preferred what men thought. They preferred men's, you know, praise. They looked for the applause of men.

They wanted the applause of men. And the assembly of the Jews, it meant more than just a church service, guys. This was ostracized from family gatherings, from people in the community, working business with people. This was what they were talking about. They did not want to lose the favor with their community.

But sometimes when God asks you to do something, as he asked Moses to do, it's going to cost you friends. It's going to cost you jobs. It's going to cost you relationships. It's going to cost you financial resources. There's things that we're going to have to get past.

It's going to cost you a lot. For many of you, you're at an intersection where you're encountering God and you can't move forward because you're afraid. You're afraid. You're afraid. And you'll never fulfill.

You'll never fulfill what God has for you until you break past overcoming fear. You've got to overcome the fear of what others. You will never be fulfilled trying to satisfy yourself with the applause of others and the applause of a great financial situation or the applause of a great business idea or applause of whatever it might be, being a great surfer or a great sports hero. You'll never be fulfilled until you're fulfilled in Christ Jesus and what he thinks about you. It doesn't matter if you're down here or up there.

It all really matters what God thinks about you. We've got to overcome fear. And if you really... Take that step, and start little. For some of you, it's just, I don't like to pray in a restaurant because people might see me, or I don't want to, you know, I don't want to say that to that person, they're living this way, and I feel God's telling me, and I just, you know, I don't want to lose that friendship, or I don't want to lose that community I'm a part of.

I don't want to be looked at like that. I mean, just little things that we need to step, and there's little, take baby steps into those things of being more open and more bold, because Romans 1 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. First the Jews, then for the Gentiles. That's really, it's powerful. It's life changing.

It's culture changing. It's everything, guys. And I can tell you from personal experience. He changed my life. I was not the same person that you see up here right now.

I was not the person I was. And it leads me to the next point. And the last question that Moses asked in this set of scriptures, he says, I have never. I've never. I've never.

Moses said to the Lord, oh Lord, I have never been eloquent. Never in my past nor since have I spoken to your servant. I am slow to speech and tongue. What we know about Moses is he was a stutterer. He was not a communicator.

And God was calling him to do something that he had never done before. And notice how God picked a stutterer. Of all the people he could have picked, he picked Moses the stutterer. He picks stutterers. He picks people that aren't qualified.

That's the cool thing about God. He makes the unqualified qualified. And you are qualified, people. You are qualified to do amazing things for God. And unless you become uncomfortable with being, or comfortable being uncomfortable, comfortably uncomfortable, you cannot be used by God.

You cannot experience God. You cannot walk into his presence. You have to overcome reluctance. Reluctance. I know what God says.

I know what I'm supposed to do, but I won't do it. I know what God's telling me to do, but I'm just not going to. Because of what other people think. Maybe it's because we're just uncomfortable with the situation. There's so many different things that may cause reluctance.

But I love how Hebrews says it. Hebrews 11, 6. And without faith, it is impossible to please God. So guess what? You're going to have to take some leaps of faith to please God.

Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who what? Earnestly seek him? Are we earnestly seeking God? Are we taking leaps of faith? Are we testing the waters?

Are we putting our toes in the waters to feel and walking in? Are we moving in that? Are we reluctant? We're going to have to take a leap of faith. And God likes it.

God loves it when you start taking steps towards him. To know him. To experience him. And when you say, I don't understand it. It's uncomfortable.

I'm taking the step. That's when God starts pursuing you more. And the more you walk towards God, the more he walks towards you. The harder you run after God, the harder he runs after you. I remember an example many years ago.

I remember an example many years ago. When I was reading a book by Tommy Tenney, it was about a God encounter. He shares the story of a child that's running around the house and hiding from his dad, you know, and the son's like, actually, it's the other way around. The son's chasing the dad around the house and the dad, you know, hides around the corner and then you jump out and they, you know, and they giggle and they have fun together, you know, and, you know, and that's what God's doing right now. You know, he's chasing you.

You're running. You're running, but he's chasing you. You're growing tired, but he's chasing you. But guess what? When he catches you, he grabs hold of you.

See, when we, but here's, here's the deal. When we run after God, when we, when we're trying to look for God, God might be hiding over here. He's not really hiding, but it seems that way to us. And when we catch him, what does he do? He grabs us up in his arms.

And just like a young boy, you know, tag your it and you run. And then God comes in and starts chasing after you. That's why the scripture says, you know, run hard after him and he'll run hard after you because it's face to face. It's, it's, it's not just a monologue. It's a dialogue that's taking place.

It's a, it's a dance. He dances over you. He dances with you. I desire for you to have that encounter because you can never be fully satisfied until you experience it. So today I just ask you to take the next step.

Your next step on your spiritual journey might just be growing a little closer to God. Maybe it's lifting your hands in worship. Maybe it's being a little more open with God about your feelings and your thoughts. Maybe that's just little things that you're heading towards in here. Maybe for you, it's, it's taking the next step to serve, to, to be a part of a church, to grow with this family, to, to be a part of a team, to be in a salt group.

Maybe for you, it's like, I need to lead one. I've, I've been called to lead, but I've been reluctant. I've been holding back God. Cause you know, I'm just not ready. I don't want to, we've made excuses.

Maybe that's where you are in your spiritual life. But for some of you, you've never even taken the first step to really know a relationship with him. And while heads bowed and eyes closed in this sacred and holy moment, wherever you are, but specifically those who are ready to make a decision for Jesus Christ. He's been chasing you for a long time and, and you're tired and weary. You're tired in your soul.

You're tired in your heart. Come to Jesus and he will give you rest. Come to Jesus and he will give you hope. If that's you today, just pray along with me. Confess it with your mouth, believe it in your heart, and you will be saved.

He will rescue you. Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. I've been running from you for a long time. Lord, I've been far in the desert and it's been very dry. But today, I make a decision to receive you as Lord and Savior.

Come into my heart, come into my life. I make you king of my heart. I make you king of my life. For others of you, just pray. God, I just pray that I would take the next step towards you.

That I would pursue you more. That I would stop being reluctant, I would stop condemning myself, I would stop making you small, and I would stop, you know, worrying about what others think, what this world thinks and what's going on, Lord. That I would just take steps towards you. Just ask that over at this church, because we need your power. We sang that song, waiting on you, Lord, waiting for the courage to move forward.

Lord, well, the courage is here, God. And we will continue to wait for our blessing, we will continue to pray for our blessing, Lord, but we just, we desire, we desire, we desire more of you. And we're stirred in our hearts for more of you, God. So we give you the praise, and we give you the glory, and we give this church, and this life, and this family to you, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Everyone say that with me, amen, so be it. And it's not an a woman, okay? It's amen, it's confirmed, it's believed, it is what it is. We're putting it into the great I am, right? The one who exists.

Stand with me. And those of you that gave your life to Christ today, I just ask you to fill out that online card and let us know, because we really want to help you on your journey. Don't keep it a secret. When the disciples were called to follow Him, what did they do? They went up immediately and left where they were and began to follow Jesus.

Jesus, that's your goal, to follow Jesus, okay? And let us help you on that journey. I'm going to pray real quick, and then Miranda's going to end with our giving and our generosity. So God, thank you so much. Thank you so much that your presence is, in fact, here with us today.

I pray that we would leave this place and we would go be change agents, transformational people in this world, that nothing will ever be the same by virtue of who you are and what you've done in our lives. We ask this in your name. Amen.