With God | Pastor Ernie Jaurique
Knowing God's story is good, joining His story is way better, not getting ahead of God's story is essential.
ACTS 7:17-29
17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
[AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION]
Praise the Lord. Amen. That's history right there, right? That's our history, right? Guess what? All history is his story. Amen. Every bit of history is his story. Story. All history is history. Where's Hebrew at? Boom. All right, check this out. You guys remember I was there two weeks ago, were talking about this. All right? But I'm going to tell these guys what's up, all right? Yeah. Think about it like this. All history is his story, all right? But think about it like this, okay? Does anybody here know what verse zero is? See? Hebrew? You know what I'm talking about? Does anybody here know what verse zero is? We know what verse one is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Remember that? Well, what's verse zero? All right, that's before there was a beginning, all right, that's before there was a beginning. Before there was a human story, there was God. Amen. He is and he was, and he always will be. That's who he was. Check this out. We got something for you. God did not begin when the beginning began. He began the beginning. Amen. Where you had on that? Not even kidding, man. Come on, you gotta know this God did not begin when the beginning began. He began the beginning. Amen. All right. Because he is God and all history is his story, and because of him, you and I, we exist. Because of Jesus Christ, we exist. Amen. Check this out. The Bible tells us like this in Colossians chapter one. And this is crazy. 115 through 17, it says, of Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Amen. For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities, all were created through him and for him. Your hair flying back yet? Check this out. And he is before all things, and in him, all things hold together. Amen. It's his story. He's awesome enough to invite us in his story. Invite us to it and in it. Amen. We should just say thank you. Our problem is, you know what? Sometimes when it comes to the story of God and the story on our part, in his story, we don't like waiting. You ever feel like that? We don't like waiting. We want him to hurry up and get on with the story. All right, let's get this thing rolling. And sometimes we think we need to help him move it along. You ever feel like you need to help God move his story along? Like he's just not moving quick enough. It's nice having you here and letting me be involved in the story, but can I just help you get this thing going? Because we can really get this thing rocking if I can move it along some. All right, check this out, man. God blessed me with an amazing wife. He blessed me with. With the woman of my dreams, man. A partner for life, my best friend. A leader, actually, even a leader in my life. Last week, were watching the sermon online, and they. And they pray and they had the words come up. It says, please stand. She told me to get up. We were in our house, and it was on. She says, get up. Stand. What? We have to stand. They're reading God's word. I was gonna do it. You know what I mean? Right on. Let's do this. All right. When I first saw her, I was 18 years old. She was 17 years old, and I thought she was the greatest girl to ever walk the planet of the earth, all right? I just thought she was, man. I even told my friends, this girl right here, she's a gift from God. I didn't even know Jesus yet. And I would tell my friends, she's a gift from goddesse. And she didn't want anything to do with me. She just didn't know what God was up to yet. She didn't know his plan, all right? But God made me wait, and I didn't want to wait. I didn't want to wait. I wanted to hurry up his story, right? And I kept messing it up. And it took me eight years, all right? Took me. Took me eight years to convince her that I was the man of her dreams, that she just wasn't dreaming the right dreams yet, right? It took me eight years for that. And then when we finally got together, I didn't realize right away, all right, that I really wasn't the right man for her, at least right then. Why? Because I was running my own story. And because I was running my own story, I was starting to ruin her story. And so God took me away from her, rightly so, for another four years, until I finally gave my story to Christ and joined his story. And then within the year, Debbie and I both made our story. His story became one story, all right? His story, and the rest is history, all right? Praise the Lord. Amen. Oh, my gosh. This thing is yanking down my back. And so what I came to understand, man, by watching God move over the course of quite a few years, was this. And I think it would do well to recognize this. God's story is best when it's with God and not ahead of God. Do you understand that? God's story is best. Best in our life, best around our life, best through our life, all right? When it's with God and not ahead of goddess. Last week, pastor Chad, he asked you this. He says, who's writing your story? You guys remember that? Who's writing your story? And he said this. The only way that our story will make an eternal difference is if we find our story in his story. When we realize that all history is his story and that he died and rose again for our story. When we realize that all history is his story and that he died and rose again for our story, the whole world changed. When we realize that Jesus, what he did for our lives so that we could join the story of God, when we recognize that, receive that, submit to that, confess that he is Lord of all, king of kings, all right? The best. And then all the rest, the whole world changes. But what's really crazy, and this is crazy when this happens, right, is that when we know God's story, when we receive God's story, is our story, and then we try to write his story for him. You know what I mean? That's where it gets crazy. We know, God's story. All right, we give him our story and then we try to write the rest of the story for him. So I got a question for you. Are you going to let God write your story or are you going to write your own story for God? Oh, we really wanted you to think about that. Right. Are you going to let God write your story? Are you going to. Thanks. Finally landed. That plane was just hovering around. Are you going to let God write your story? Are you going to write your own story for God? What's it going to be? Because God's story is best when it's with God and it's not ahead of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father. Lord God, we praise you, Lord God, we worship you. You are the almighty Lord God. We submit to you, Lord God. We're trying to get underneath your word, Lord God, and not hover over it. Like we're going to just analyze it and dissect it. Lord Goddess, help us, Lord, to get underneath your word, Lord God, and understand how you're speaking into our life. Your word came down, Lord God, and help us to understand and then pray it right back to you all for your glory. Lord God, we love you and we thank you in Jesus name, amen. So we're in acts, chapter seven. We've been going through the book of acts and who knows how long we'll be here. We're having a blast. We broke into chapter seven and kind of give you a little quick history on this. Let me set the table a little bit. Was growing, right? Jesus had given his life on the cross for us, resurrected, ascended into heaven, sent us his holy spirit. The grand opening of the church took place. Men and women were leading and changing the world already, just right there in Jerusalem. And the church started growing and the needs of the church were increasing and the people in the community, the needs were increasing. And the apostles basically called the church to themselves and challenged them to own their part and get to work. And they chose seven dudes to lead this work. All right? Seven dudes, all right. That they said had to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And one of these dudes was this little big guy named Stephen. He became a very key player to the spreading of the church outside of Jerusalem. And it's pretty awesome because dude was just a volunteer. He wasn't just a volunteer. He was totally a volunteer. Anybody here totally a volunteer? I'm getting tired of saying the word just. I feel like just does God a little bit of injustice and I'm getting on a rabbit trail right here. But you ever pray and you say just like 50 million times, Lord, we just want you to say thank you and just want to. And we just want to praise. No, change that word for totally, Lord, we totally want to say thank you and totally want to praise your name. Woo. It revolutionizes the whole prayer. Little freebie right there. Take that home. All right. But the dude was totally a volunteer. And signs and wonders and miracles that were all pointing to Jesus were being done through this guy, this volunteer, this little big guy named Stephen. And the religious elite, they tried to twist him up because they were trying to shut this whole Jesus movement down, right? They thought they shut Jesus down. Didn't expect them to get up, you know what I mean? They tried twisting Stephen up. They thought, oh, this guy's a volunteer, we'll twist them up. But they couldn't contend with the spirit of God that was speaking through them. So they spread a bunch of lies about Stephen. And now they're calling him out in acts chapter seven. And Stephen, he doesn't really answer the lies, but he just starts sharing. He totally starts sharing the truth of God. He starts sharing the story of God. He's challenging them with a history lesson. And it's kind of odd because he's challenging the history keepers, the ones who have the word, the scribes and the Pharisees and the sadducees and the whole thing. The high priest, the people who know the word of God, who know this history. He's challenging them with a history. Why is he telling them about history? Here's what I know. He's speaking to them, but he's speaking for us. I think the history lesson, he's telling them, but it's for us to check out and to dig in, as the word of God is for us. And so we've been watching this. As he began in acts chapter seven, verse one, he starts telling the story of Abraham, how God gave him a promise and says, you're going to multiply, have a lot of kids. Abram's like, dude, I'm an old dude. My wife's kinda old too, all right? And so, you know, and God says, no, but you're gonna have kids. And you're also gonna. He took him to a land. You guys, you guys are gonna populate this land. The whole world's gonna be blessed by you. And that started to happen as he had his son. You know, he had a son Isaac, who had a son Esau, and Jacob. And Jacob had twelve sons, all right? And they became the twelve tribes of Israel. The second to the youngest son named Joseph. The brothers were jealous of because a lot of different reasons. Read the story. It's in Genesis. You'll love it. Read your bibles. It's awesome. All right. And anyways, through a series of unfortunate events, Joseph ends up in Egypt. And second command over all of Egypt under Pharaoh and his brothers and family, Israel. And God placed him there to preserve the nation that he's beginning through Abraham's kids and to fulfill this promise. And then they started to flourish there. And then Joseph died, and that Pharaoh died, and a new pharaoh came. And they didn't like how these Hebrews were growing and growing, so they were going to put a stop to that by making them slaves. And for 400 years, this is what happened. And so Stephen is sharing this story, this history lesson to these guys are like, yeah, we know this, but he's doing it for us and he's pointing them to Jesus. And so we catch up with him in the middle of this story, and we're going to be talking about this in parts. We've been talking about this, and now we get to the part of Moses. And Moses is shared, actually, in three parts, and we're going to share that over the next three weeks. It's gonna be amazing. So stay with us. If you missed anything before this, go back and check it out. But if you're here, make sure you're here next week and the week after, because you need to check into this again. God, we praise you. Father, we thank you for your word. Guide us, Lord God, in Jesus name. In acts chapter 17, we catch up with the story, as Stephen says, to these religious elite. But the time of the promise, as the time of the promise drew near that God had granted Abraham again. The people are increasing and multiplying in Egypt. And, you know, the promise to get this land is coming, too. It's just not happening yet. Until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He dealt truly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that they would not be kept alive. Basically what he did is, I don't know if you know the story, but the pharaoh didn't like the Hebrews to keep multiplying. He was afraid they were going to take over. So let's start killing their firstborn boys or their boys. And so what they would do is if you had a baby, you had to expose it to the elements. You had to put the kid out into a river and just let it just, whatever happens not a lot has changed when you think about it. I mean, the enemy is. He's still after our kids. You know that, right? Yeah, he is. Is exposing them to so much junk. And our position with our children is to prepare them for the path ahead. We cannot really prepare the path for them, all right? We have to prepare them for the path that is ahead. And what does that look like for our kids? Number one, invest time. Invest your time. It takes investment of time with Jesus and then investment with time with them, all right? Helping them discover the truth, rather than always tell them the truth. Yes, you have to tell them the truth, but help them discover how. Ask questions. It works. Take the time, man. Instead of just saying, you have to do it like this. You have to know this. Ask them, why do you think you need to do it like this? Why do you think you need to know Christ like this? Invest that time. Because the enemy ain't giving up, man. I mean, we may not be throwing them in a river, but we're throwing them out to the world. And it's worse. It can be a lot worse than the river. Make them a part of the process. Trust them with leadership. Trust them with leadership so you can develop leadership within them. That's how you develop leaders, is you trust them with leadership. Any of our youth in here, I've been talking to you guys for a couple of months right now, and what do I call you guys? You guys? Anybody here remember? Where you at? Leaders, where you at? Are there any kids in here? Wait, there you go. AJ in the back. Where are you guys? What? I can't hear you. Say it louder. Leader, did you hear that? Praise the Lord. Amen. You gotta let them know that they're leaders, and then you gotta give them something to lead. Look at AJ back there. He's leading back there. Praise the Lord. Amen. Celebrate their wins. You know what? Look at them eye to eye. Find a reason to look at your kid. And I don't know where your kid is doing and where they're going off the rails or how they're doing really great, but look at them in the eye and look where they were. Look at them right in the eye and say, you know what? I'm proud of you. I'm very proud of you. Hey, you know what? Maybe they just picked up their socks. I am so proud of you for picking up them socks because I was about to strangle you with them. Good job. You know what I mean? Praise the Lord. Amen. All right, because. Because you know what I'm telling you, man. We have to honor them. Look at this. Honor them in the world that they live in while sharing how you experience Jesus in yours. Prepare your kids. This is not an old story because all history is his story. And we need to pay attention to how God is moving in his story. How honor your children in the world that they live in. Not honor the world that they're living in because it's a mess. But honor them in the world that they live in while sharing how you experience Jesus in yours. That's a Gordon McDonald jam right there. Prepare your kids for his story because God is already working in theirs. Prepare your kids for his story because God is already working in their story. Your job. Your job is to ask God to help you discover them. Discover where and how he's working in their story. That's our job. So we're not throwing our kids in the river and exposing them to the elements, all right? Our job is to ask God where you're working in their story. Lord God. Discover where God is working, how he's working, and share that with them, because God's story has worked best. It's best when it's with God and not ahead of God. Amen. Stephen goes on as he's sharing this history lesson for us that we can learn. For at this time, he says, Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house. And when he was exposed, God had arranged something. Pharaoh's daughter accepted him, adopted him, and brought him up as her own. And Moses was instructed. Check this out. Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in words and deeds. He was brought up in the pharaoh's house. He was brought up in the king's palace. He learned all of the cutting edge learning that was going on, which is a great thing, and we should all be about that. He spoke the language of the Egyptians, all right? He learned all this stuff, and it says that he was mighty in his words and deeds. This is awesome. But it can also be dangerous. It's so easy to think that God chose you for all your great talents. You ever feel that way? Good job on this one, right? I just want to let you know. Nailed it. All right. No, it is. That is dangerous. That can get you in a lot of trouble. Trust me. I know. I want to share some one years ago. I wish it was a lot more years ago, all right? But years ago, when were meeting in an auditorium over there, I was putting together a message. And I studied for, like, a month for this message, man. I had quotes from Martin Luther. I had quotes from, you know, all these different just theologians along the way. I had, you know, this is before I was using an iPad. I had papers across here with all these quotes. And we even took a picture. I think it was Ron. He took a picture of that. He took a picture of it for the morning. Excuse me, it's my time turn. Thank you. Shh. All right, all right. He took a picture of this, right of it right here, right? And he says, look it, man. He put it on facebook. Get ready to preach the word. Getting ready to nail it, right? And I saw that, I was like, whoosh. This is gonna be awesome. I came out, man, after the worship set, I came out, I set my podium right here. I looked, and I just started going, man, it started just blasting, you know. Yeah, this quote and this quote, and I started preaching and tearing it up, and I was like, yeah, this is blowing their hair back. Boom, boom. And then I was done, and only eight minutes had gone by. I finished the whole sermon in eight minutes, and I don't know if anybody knew what I was talking about except for me. I don't know if anybody knew how awesome it was except for me. She. All right. I. All right, baby. All right. Listen with ease, all right? Thank you. Not this. Thank you very much. God told me pretty quickly. He told me pretty quickly, this is not how I operate, man. This is not how I operate. You coming out here with all this and just firing away. It's not how I operate. This is not how I operate, man. I don't give you glory or influence so that you can receive more glory and influence. Jesus put it like this. When Jesus was. When he was about to go to the cross, the night before the cross, amazing time of preaching, amazing time of healing, bringing people out from the dead. It was crazy. And people were like, and Jesus said, the night before the cross, he spoke in these words. He lifted up his eyes to heaven. In John, chapter 17, verse one, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you. Did you see that? Jesus said that. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. You see, Moses could have came out of there, man, out of the greatest schools and egyptian schools and all this stuff, knowing all this is mighty in word, indeed, and just ready to just rock it. And a lot of times we follow suit with that man, God, it's a good thing you chose me. It's a good thing you put me in this position and caused me to get involved right here. But we need to recognize that any influence God has given you, given me, is for his glory and his glory alone. Amen. Every platform, every opportunity he gives me, because my life is his. Right. And your life is his. And so from him, everything that we do is from him. Everything we do is for him. And everything we do is for his glory. Amen. If we appoint to Jesus. Not here. Not here. Not here. But to Christ. Amen. That's our job. Our job description says this. Know Jesus. Make Jesus known. Give him all the glory. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And so God took 40 years to grow Moses story. 40 years to grow this story. And check this out. We're going to see right now. Moses runs it into the ground in one day. You already heard it, and we're probably real good at that, right? He didn't realize that God's story is best when it's with God and not ahead of God. Amen. Check it out. In verse 23, it says, when he was 40 years old, all right, it came into his heart. Check this out. Stay with me. Are you with me? Check this out. Over here. Hey. Over here. Hey, wait. I'm waiting till I see some heads. Excuse me. Over here. All right, you ready? All right. Praise the Lord. All right. Praise God. So, it took Moses, what, how many years to get it right? And then one day to do what? I use not so colorful language, but yes. Yeah. Running in the ground. All right. Look what it says here. When he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. Check this out. It came into his heart. God called him to this work. He recognized that God. When we get these messages from God, when God turns our heart to Jesus, we have to recognize that it was God that turned our heart to Jesus. Look what Jesus himself said, all right. He said, john, chapter six, verse 44. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. All right. And I will raise him up on the last day. Did you catch that? Jesus said this. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. Draws him. And I will raise him up in the last day. So I got to remind you, and I got to remind ourselves that no one. All right, not one of you are here, all right, looking at Jesus because you thought it would be kind of cool. There ain't nobody here looking at Jesus. Because you thought it would be kind of cool. Did you know that? Right? Or because you. Maybe you thought it was time to grow up. So you're looking at Jesus. That's not why you're looking at Jesus. And some of you think that. You know what? The reason I'm looking at Jesus is because I hit rock bottom and there's nowhere to look but up. You've heard that before, right? I know a lot of people who, right now are at rock bottom, and they refuse to look up. No, you're looking at Jesus right now because the father has turned your head towards Jesus. And to that, we, again, should be saying thank you. It says, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart. God put it in his heart. All right? At an appointed time, God, you know, God. At God appointed time, Moses stepped out of his royal privileges, out of. Out of the egyptian palace, for care and concern for his people. Kind of like Jesus would do with the world, right? For the world. Step out of heaven, empty himself of all his privileges, and step into the world. The difference here is that Moses killed a dude to make a point, and Jesus died and rose again to make a difference. It's a big deal. Amen. Look at verse 24. If you're with me, say amen. If you're with me, say amen. All right? Praise the Lord. I'm with you. All right? And then he goes on with the story. So let me repeat that last line, all right? It says, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. Now, this was not God's plan. That's not the plan that God had. God had a much bigger plan, all right? But Moses got a little ahead of the plan, didn't he? Right? Moses got here. I know this because in Exodus, I have this down here for later, but I'm going to share it right now. Exodus, chapter two, verse twelve, talking about what was going on. It says that when he saw this going on between these two egyptian, he says that he looked this way and then he looked that way, all right? And seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand, all right? So you know that this. When it's God's plan, you don't have to see if anybody's not looking, all right? You don't have to see if anybody's not looking when it's God's plan. Amen. All right? And so this was not God's plan. God had a much bigger plan, but Moses got a little ahead of the plan. Here's what I know. If we aren't sitting with God and meditating on God's word, then the only filter that we have for life is human experience and human opinion and the way that we think things ought to get done. See, Moses defending his brother was a good thing, all right? And in his own mind, it was a good thing. But the way he did it wasn't a God thing. Too often, we think we know better than goddess, even in godly circumstances and opportunities, like, we need to force God's hand, right? I want to tell you another story where I messed it all up, okay? Here. When we first started the church, right? We were, were. When we first started the church, man, were, you know, looking at where we gonna. Where we're gonna get into some land. We need to buy some property. I thought when were. We were just coming out, man, and we needed to get into the church, all right? It's gonna get better, kiddo. Kid's like, I've had enough. I've had enough. That's it. All right. Trying real hard, man. All right? So praise the Lord. Amen. Thank you guys so much, man. Praise the Lord. We're helping preach. So when we first started the church, I think were talking about in 2019, we set out in our 2009, and we set out in 2010, and were coming here, and I thought, I was telling the leadership, man, we're not staying in this school. All right? We're going to be here three months. That's it. Let's get on it. And we started looking for property. We found a piece of land right up the road here, and we started making moves to get that land. All right? 2010, we're a three month old church, right? I'm like six months old church at that time. All right? And we're going to get out there and we're going to get this land, and we're going to get it started. And then it all just fell to pot. We got the land. We were out there. I was praying. I was actually in that field, and I was grabbing dirt, saying, God, this is your dirt. You know what I mean? This is all yours and stuff like that, right? We went out, brother Steve went out there and he started just kind of flattening it all out. We didn't own it yet. Didn't. Didn't own it. We're already grate in the field getting it ready putting stakes up. We're gonna put it right here. Right? And we lost everything. And God just shut it down hardcore. And we realized that were dealing with the wrong person. We're definitely in the wrong place. We're totally at the wrong time. We weren't grown up enough and I was trying to rush the Lord and get ahead of them. And today, man, we're almost 15 years later. It'll be 15 years next July. All right. And the right people. We got the right people. This is amazing. Check this out. Yeah, this. Check this out. This is amazing. We got the right people today. And we're gonna go look today with some of the right people at maybe a couple of. Well, hopefully God. We're trying to see if God has for the right place. And we're gonna. Because I believe it's totally the right time that God is calling us out of. Out of the. Out of where we've been blessed to be for 15 years almost and to get busy. And it's crazy because the right people are here, right? Yeah. And it's definitely the right time. And here's what we know, that God's story is best when it's with God and not ahead of God. Amen. I was listening to a girl. Her name is Jackie Hill Perry. I don't know if you guys ever listened to her, but she was saying this and it was pretty amazing. She says, if and when we determine the nature of God according to what we go through, we're going to end up worshiping a God created in our own image, all right? When everything is good, then our God is good. And when everything is bad, then our God isn't that good, is he? That's what happens when we start worshiping a God in our own image. And we say this because we're the ones who change. All right? We change with the wind. All right? One person could walk in the room and it could change our attitude. One person could say something and everything could change. But that's not Goddesse. See, we change things to look the way we want them to and say that it's God's will. God told me to kill an egyptian, all right? And bury him in the sand. No, brother, you did that one on your own. I mean, again, when you say when you have to look both ways to see who's watching, you're probably not serving God. In verse 25, Stephen goes on with his story. He says he supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they didn't understand. See, young Moses, his hope, as Stephen is telling it here, was that the Israelites might recognize that they had a homie in the palace, all right, in a powerful position, a brother that God's going to save them, used to save them. But Moses got ahead of God. See, God did have a plan for bringing his kids, his family, Israel, all right, to salvation. He did. And it was actually going to lead to the salvation of the whole planet for us here. Bigger story. We'll tell it another time, all right? But Moses got ahead of God. How could he have known God's plan? See, when God calls us to a work like this, our first action must be to worship. When God calls us to his work, when God calls us to, you know, and shows us what he's doing, our first action isn't just to run and do it. Our first action is to worship him even more when we mess up the story and get ahead of him. Check this out. I want to read these next four verses altogether, and we're going to wrap this up. But check this out. Stephen goes on. He says, and on the following day, he appeared to them as his people, Israelites, after he killed the Egyptian, hit him in the sand. All right, he goes on. He says, on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling, and he tried to reconcile them. And he says, men, you're brothers. You're Israelites, you're Hebrews. All right, you're my people. Well, why do you wrong each other with the man who was wrong in his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed that egyptian yesterday? See, your sin is never secret. Your sin is never as silent as you want it to be. It always it comes out. And then when at this retort, Moses fled and became an exile. And he lived in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. We're going to check that story out again more deeply next week. But here's what he's saying. In other words, Moses took off. He went to a place, and he stayed there for a minute because he had kids and a family. And everything was happening. What happened was, Moses runs away to be emptied of everything, which is exactly where God does his best work in us. What about you? Where have you been getting ahead of God? Where have you been getting ahead of God? Where or with who have you been trying to force God's hand? That's a big question right there, huh? Where or with who have you been trying to force God's hand. What are you going to do about that? Because God's story is best when it's with God and not ahead of God, right? We know this. What are you gonna do about that if you're already getting ahead of them? It's not hard to get ahead of God, and it's not hard to get back in step with God. Three things I wanna challenge you to really quickly. When you find yourself getting ahead of God, stop and back up to Jesus. Anybody here ever pull too far out in an intersection? What do you do? You stop, first of all, and look behind you. Make sure there's room to back up. If you can back up. If not, stay right there in the intersection and wait for the traffic to catch up. Wait for the whole scene to catch up. All right, you got ahead of the scene. Stop, wait for it. All right, don't punch it, but get out of there and go with the flow of traffic. Back up, back up to Jesus number two. Worship Jesus, you say? I do. No, no, no. This is a whole heart worship. If you study the word heart, when in the Old Testament, where God is talking and where, you know, David is talking, Solomon is talking and dedicating the temple, you see this walking before God with your whole heart, and that is not just like, a worship song, I feel good. That is with every intention, with every inclination, with every determination, with every disposition, with everything about you, all right? The whole you everything man is with God. You're worshiping him with your whole heart. And it is 2024 seven. Worship God 24/7 make your neighbors think that you're out of your mind by the way you walk around your house saying, man, thank you for this house. Man, thank you for that. Woman, thank you so much, because I don't. I. It's a fiasco right here. I don't think if I could have ever made any of this happen. Worship Jesus, back up to Jesus. Worship Jesus and then look for Jesus story and join it. Look for Jesus story and join his story. Henry Black, if he said, God is working all around you and he didn't make that up, it's just the truth. Jesus is working all around you, man. Just look for that work and join him. You'll be glad you did. We got the easy part done, man. Is your turn, right? Amen. Come on, y'all, knock it out. Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Amen. That's history right there, right? That's our history, right? Guess what? All history is his story. Amen. Every bit of history is his story. Story. All history is history. Where's Hebrew at? Boom. All right, check this out. You guys remember I was there two weeks ago, were talking about this. All right? But I'm going to tell these guys what's up, all right? Yeah. Think about it like this. All history is his story, all right? But think about it like this, okay? Does anybody here know what verse zero is? See? Hebrew? You know what I'm talking about? Does anybody here know what verse zero is? We know what verse one is. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Remember that? Well, what's verse zero? All right, that's before there was a beginning, all right, that's before there was a beginning. Before there was a human story, there was God. Amen. He is and he was, and he always will be. That's who he was. Check this out. We got something for you. God did not begin when the beginning began. He began the beginning. Amen. Where you had on that? Not even kidding, man. Come on, you gotta know this God did not begin when the beginning began. He began the beginning. Amen. All right. Because he is God and all history is his story, and because of him, you and I, we exist. Because of Jesus Christ, we exist. Amen. Check this out. The Bible tells us like this in Colossians chapter one. And this is crazy. 115 through 17, it says, of Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Amen. For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities, all were created through him and for him. Your hair flying back yet? Check this out. And he is before all things, and in him, all things hold together. Amen. It's his story. He's awesome enough to invite us in his story. Invite us to it and in it. Amen. We should just say thank you. Our problem is, you know what? Sometimes when it comes to the story of God and the story on our part, in his story, we don't like waiting. You ever feel like that? We don't like waiting. We want him to hurry up and get on with the story. All right, let's get this thing rolling. And sometimes we think we need to help him move it along. You ever feel like you need to help God move his story along? Like he's just not moving quick enough. It's nice having you here and letting me be involved in the story, but can I just help you get this thing going? Because we can really get this thing rocking if I can move it along some. All right, check this out, man. God blessed me with an amazing wife. He blessed me with. With the woman of my dreams, man. A partner for life, my best friend. A leader, actually, even a leader in my life. Last week, were watching the sermon online, and they. And they pray and they had the words come up. It says, please stand. She told me to get up. We were in our house, and it was on. She says, get up. Stand. What? We have to stand. They're reading God's word. I was gonna do it. You know what I mean? Right on. Let's do this. All right. When I first saw her, I was 18 years old. She was 17 years old, and I thought she was the greatest girl to ever walk the planet of the earth, all right? I just thought she was, man. I even told my friends, this girl right here, she's a gift from God. I didn't even know Jesus yet. And I would tell my friends, she's a gift from goddesse. And she didn't want anything to do with me. She just didn't know what God was up to yet. She didn't know his plan, all right? But God made me wait, and I didn't want to wait. I didn't want to wait. I wanted to hurry up his story, right? And I kept messing it up. And it took me eight years, all right? Took me. Took me eight years to convince her that I was the man of her dreams, that she just wasn't dreaming the right dreams yet, right? It took me eight years for that. And then when we finally got together, I didn't realize right away, all right, that I really wasn't the right man for her, at least right then. Why? Because I was running my own story. And because I was running my own story, I was starting to ruin her story. And so God took me away from her, rightly so, for another four years, until I finally gave my story to Christ and joined his story. And then within the year, Debbie and I both made our story. His story became one story, all right? His story, and the rest is history, all right? Praise the Lord. Amen. Oh, my gosh. This thing is yanking down my back. And so what I came to understand, man, by watching God move over the course of quite a few years, was this. And I think it would do well to recognize this. God's story is best when it's with God and not ahead of God. Do you understand that? God's story is best. Best in our life, best around our life, best through our life, all right? When it's with God and not ahead of goddess. Last week, pastor Chad, he asked you this. He says, who's writing your story? You guys remember that? Who's writing your story? And he said this. The only way that our story will make an eternal difference is if we find our story in his story. When we realize that all history is his story and that he died and rose again for our story. When we realize that all history is his story and that he died and rose again for our story, the whole world changed. When we realize that Jesus, what he did for our lives so that we could join the story of God, when we recognize that, receive that, submit to that, confess that he is Lord of all, king of kings, all right? The best. And then all the rest, the whole world changes. But what's really crazy, and this is crazy when this happens, right, is that when we know God's story, when we receive God's story, is our story, and then we try to write his story for him. You know what I mean? That's where it gets crazy. We know, God's story. All right, we give him our story and then we try to write the rest of the story for him. So I got a question for you. Are you going to let God write your story or are you going to write your own story for God? Oh, we really wanted you to think about that. Right. Are you going to let God write your story? Are you going to. Thanks. Finally landed. That plane was just hovering around. Are you going to let God write your story? Are you going to write your own story for God? What's it going to be? Because God's story is best when it's with God and it's not ahead of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father. Lord God, we praise you, Lord God, we worship you. You are the almighty Lord God. We submit to you, Lord God. We're trying to get underneath your word, Lord God, and not hover over it. Like we're going to just analyze it and dissect it. Lord Goddess, help us, Lord, to get underneath your word, Lord God, and understand how you're speaking into our life. Your word came down, Lord God, and help us to understand and then pray it right back to you all for your glory. Lord God, we love you and we thank you in Jesus name, amen. So we're in acts, chapter seven. We've been going through the book of acts and who knows how long we'll be here. We're having a blast. We broke into chapter seven and kind of give you a little quick history on this. Let me set the table a little bit. Was growing, right? Jesus had given his life on the cross for us, resurrected, ascended into heaven, sent us his holy spirit. The grand opening of the church took place. Men and women were leading and changing the world already, just right there in Jerusalem. And the church started growing and the needs of the church were increasing and the people in the community, the needs were increasing. And the apostles basically called the church to themselves and challenged them to own their part and get to work. And they chose seven dudes to lead this work. All right? Seven dudes, all right. That they said had to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And one of these dudes was this little big guy named Stephen. He became a very key player to the spreading of the church outside of Jerusalem. And it's pretty awesome because dude was just a volunteer. He wasn't just a volunteer. He was totally a volunteer. Anybody here totally a volunteer? I'm getting tired of saying the word just. I feel like just does God a little bit of injustice and I'm getting on a rabbit trail right here. But you ever pray and you say just like 50 million times, Lord, we just want you to say thank you and just want to. And we just want to praise. No, change that word for totally, Lord, we totally want to say thank you and totally want to praise your name. Woo. It revolutionizes the whole prayer. Little freebie right there. Take that home. All right. But the dude was totally a volunteer. And signs and wonders and miracles that were all pointing to Jesus were being done through this guy, this volunteer, this little big guy named Stephen. And the religious elite, they tried to twist him up because they were trying to shut this whole Jesus movement down, right? They thought they shut Jesus down. Didn't expect them to get up, you know what I mean? They tried twisting Stephen up. They thought, oh, this guy's a volunteer, we'll twist them up. But they couldn't contend with the spirit of God that was speaking through them. So they spread a bunch of lies about Stephen. And now they're calling him out in acts chapter seven. And Stephen, he doesn't really answer the lies, but he just starts sharing. He totally starts sharing the truth of God. He starts sharing the story of God. He's challenging them with a history lesson. And it's kind of odd because he's challenging the history keepers, the ones who have the word, the scribes and the Pharisees and the sadducees and the whole thing. The high priest, the people who know the word of God, who know this history. He's challenging them with a history. Why is he telling them about history? Here's what I know. He's speaking to them, but he's speaking for us. I think the history lesson, he's telling them, but it's for us to check out and to dig in, as the word of God is for us. And so we've been watching this. As he began in acts chapter seven, verse one, he starts telling the story of Abraham, how God gave him a promise and says, you're going to multiply, have a lot of kids. Abram's like, dude, I'm an old dude. My wife's kinda old too, all right? And so, you know, and God says, no, but you're gonna have kids. And you're also gonna. He took him to a land. You guys, you guys are gonna populate this land. The whole world's gonna be blessed by you. And that started to happen as he had his son. You know, he had a son Isaac, who had a son Esau, and Jacob. And Jacob had twelve sons, all right? And they became the twelve tribes of Israel. The second to the youngest son named Joseph. The brothers were jealous of because a lot of different reasons. Read the story. It's in Genesis. You'll love it. Read your bibles. It's awesome. All right. And anyways, through a series of unfortunate events, Joseph ends up in Egypt. And second command over all of Egypt under Pharaoh and his brothers and family, Israel. And God placed him there to preserve the nation that he's beginning through Abraham's kids and to fulfill this promise. And then they started to flourish there. And then Joseph died, and that Pharaoh died, and a new pharaoh came. And they didn't like how these Hebrews were growing and growing, so they were going to put a stop to that by making them slaves. And for 400 years, this is what happened. And so Stephen is sharing this story, this history lesson to these guys are like, yeah, we know this, but he's doing it for us and he's pointing them to Jesus. And so we catch up with him in the middle of this story, and we're going to be talking about this in parts. We've been talking about this, and now we get to the part of Moses. And Moses is shared, actually, in three parts, and we're going to share that over the next three weeks. It's gonna be amazing. So stay with us. If you missed anything before this, go back and check it out. But if you're here, make sure you're here next week and the week after, because you need to check into this again. God, we praise you. Father, we thank you for your word. Guide us, Lord God, in Jesus name. In acts chapter 17, we catch up with the story, as Stephen says, to these religious elite. But the time of the promise, as the time of the promise drew near that God had granted Abraham again. The people are increasing and multiplying in Egypt. And, you know, the promise to get this land is coming, too. It's just not happening yet. Until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He dealt truly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that they would not be kept alive. Basically what he did is, I don't know if you know the story, but the pharaoh didn't like the Hebrews to keep multiplying. He was afraid they were going to take over. So let's start killing their firstborn boys or their boys. And so what they would do is if you had a baby, you had to expose it to the elements. You had to put the kid out into a river and just let it just, whatever happens not a lot has changed when you think about it. I mean, the enemy is. He's still after our kids. You know that, right? Yeah, he is. Is exposing them to so much junk. And our position with our children is to prepare them for the path ahead. We cannot really prepare the path for them, all right? We have to prepare them for the path that is ahead. And what does that look like for our kids? Number one, invest time. Invest your time. It takes investment of time with Jesus and then investment with time with them, all right? Helping them discover the truth, rather than always tell them the truth. Yes, you have to tell them the truth, but help them discover how. Ask questions. It works. Take the time, man. Instead of just saying, you have to do it like this. You have to know this. Ask them, why do you think you need to do it like this? Why do you think you need to know Christ like this? Invest that time. Because the enemy ain't giving up, man. I mean, we may not be throwing them in a river, but we're throwing them out to the world. And it's worse. It can be a lot worse than the river. Make them a part of the process. Trust them with leadership. Trust them with leadership so you can develop leadership within them. That's how you develop leaders, is you trust them with leadership. Any of our youth in here, I've been talking to you guys for a couple of months right now, and what do I call you guys? You guys? Anybody here remember? Where you at? Leaders, where you at? Are there any kids in here? Wait, there you go. AJ in the back. Where are you guys? What? I can't hear you. Say it louder. Leader, did you hear that? Praise the Lord. Amen. You gotta let them know that they're leaders, and then you gotta give them something to lead. Look at AJ back there. He's leading back there. Praise the Lord. Amen. Celebrate their wins. You know what? Look at them eye to eye. Find a reason to look at your kid. And I don't know where your kid is doing and where they're going off the rails or how they're doing really great, but look at them in the eye and look where they were. Look at them right in the eye and say, you know what? I'm proud of you. I'm very proud of you. Hey, you know what? Maybe they just picked up their socks. I am so proud of you for picking up them socks because I was about to strangle you with them. Good job. You know what I mean? Praise the Lord. Amen. All right, because. Because you know what I'm telling you, man. We have to honor them. Look at this. Honor them in the world that they live in while sharing how you experience Jesus in yours. Prepare your kids. This is not an old story because all history is his story. And we need to pay attention to how God is moving in his story. How honor your children in the world that they live in. Not honor the world that they're living in because it's a mess. But honor them in the world that they live in while sharing how you experience Jesus in yours. That's a Gordon McDonald jam right there. Prepare your kids for his story because God is already working in theirs. Prepare your kids for his story because God is already working in their story. Your job. Your job is to ask God to help you discover them. Discover where and how he's working in their story. That's our job. So we're not throwing our kids in the river and exposing them to the elements, all right? Our job is to ask God where you're working in their story. Lord God. Discover where God is working, how he's working, and share that with them, because God's story has worked best. It's best when it's with God and not ahead of God. Amen. Stephen goes on as he's sharing this history lesson for us that we can learn. For at this time, he says, Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house. And when he was exposed, God had arranged something. Pharaoh's daughter accepted him, adopted him, and brought him up as her own. And Moses was instructed. Check this out. Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in words and deeds. He was brought up in the pharaoh's house. He was brought up in the king's palace. He learned all of the cutting edge learning that was going on, which is a great thing, and we should all be about that. He spoke the language of the Egyptians, all right? He learned all this stuff, and it says that he was mighty in his words and deeds. This is awesome. But it can also be dangerous. It's so easy to think that God chose you for all your great talents. You ever feel that way? Good job on this one, right? I just want to let you know. Nailed it. All right. No, it is. That is dangerous. That can get you in a lot of trouble. Trust me. I know. I want to share some one years ago. I wish it was a lot more years ago, all right? But years ago, when were meeting in an auditorium over there, I was putting together a message. And I studied for, like, a month for this message, man. I had quotes from Martin Luther. I had quotes from, you know, all these different just theologians along the way. I had, you know, this is before I was using an iPad. I had papers across here with all these quotes. And we even took a picture. I think it was Ron. He took a picture of that. He took a picture of it for the morning. Excuse me, it's my time turn. Thank you. Shh. All right, all right. He took a picture of this, right of it right here, right? And he says, look it, man. He put it on facebook. Get ready to preach the word. Getting ready to nail it, right? And I saw that, I was like, whoosh. This is gonna be awesome. I came out, man, after the worship set, I came out, I set my podium right here. I looked, and I just started going, man, it started just blasting, you know. Yeah, this quote and this quote, and I started preaching and tearing it up, and I was like, yeah, this is blowing their hair back. Boom, boom. And then I was done, and only eight minutes had gone by. I finished the whole sermon in eight minutes, and I don't know if anybody knew what I was talking about except for me. I don't know if anybody knew how awesome it was except for me. She. All right. I. All right, baby. All right. Listen with ease, all right? Thank you. Not this. Thank you very much. God told me pretty quickly. He told me pretty quickly, this is not how I operate, man. This is not how I operate. You coming out here with all this and just firing away. It's not how I operate. This is not how I operate, man. I don't give you glory or influence so that you can receive more glory and influence. Jesus put it like this. When Jesus was. When he was about to go to the cross, the night before the cross, amazing time of preaching, amazing time of healing, bringing people out from the dead. It was crazy. And people were like, and Jesus said, the night before the cross, he spoke in these words. He lifted up his eyes to heaven. In John, chapter 17, verse one, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you. Did you see that? Jesus said that. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. You see, Moses could have came out of there, man, out of the greatest schools and egyptian schools and all this stuff, knowing all this is mighty in word, indeed, and just ready to just rock it. And a lot of times we follow suit with that man, God, it's a good thing you chose me. It's a good thing you put me in this position and caused me to get involved right here. But we need to recognize that any influence God has given you, given me, is for his glory and his glory alone. Amen. Every platform, every opportunity he gives me, because my life is his. Right. And your life is his. And so from him, everything that we do is from him. Everything we do is for him. And everything we do is for his glory. Amen. If we appoint to Jesus. Not here. Not here. Not here. But to Christ. Amen. That's our job. Our job description says this. Know Jesus. Make Jesus known. Give him all the glory. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And so God took 40 years to grow Moses story. 40 years to grow this story. And check this out. We're going to see right now. Moses runs it into the ground in one day. You already heard it, and we're probably real good at that, right? He didn't realize that God's story is best when it's with God and not ahead of God. Amen. Check it out. In verse 23, it says, when he was 40 years old, all right, it came into his heart. Check this out. Stay with me. Are you with me? Check this out. Over here. Hey. Over here. Hey, wait. I'm waiting till I see some heads. Excuse me. Over here. All right, you ready? All right. Praise the Lord. All right. Praise God. So, it took Moses, what, how many years to get it right? And then one day to do what? I use not so colorful language, but yes. Yeah. Running in the ground. All right. Look what it says here. When he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. Check this out. It came into his heart. God called him to this work. He recognized that God. When we get these messages from God, when God turns our heart to Jesus, we have to recognize that it was God that turned our heart to Jesus. Look what Jesus himself said, all right. He said, john, chapter six, verse 44. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. All right. And I will raise him up on the last day. Did you catch that? Jesus said this. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. Draws him. And I will raise him up in the last day. So I got to remind you, and I got to remind ourselves that no one. All right, not one of you are here, all right, looking at Jesus because you thought it would be kind of cool. There ain't nobody here looking at Jesus. Because you thought it would be kind of cool. Did you know that? Right? Or because you. Maybe you thought it was time to grow up. So you're looking at Jesus. That's not why you're looking at Jesus. And some of you think that. You know what? The reason I'm looking at Jesus is because I hit rock bottom and there's nowhere to look but up. You've heard that before, right? I know a lot of people who, right now are at rock bottom, and they refuse to look up. No, you're looking at Jesus right now because the father has turned your head towards Jesus. And to that, we, again, should be saying thank you. It says, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart. God put it in his heart. All right? At an appointed time, God, you know, God. At God appointed time, Moses stepped out of his royal privileges, out of. Out of the egyptian palace, for care and concern for his people. Kind of like Jesus would do with the world, right? For the world. Step out of heaven, empty himself of all his privileges, and step into the world. The difference here is that Moses killed a dude to make a point, and Jesus died and rose again to make a difference. It's a big deal. Amen. Look at verse 24. If you're with me, say amen. If you're with me, say amen. All right? Praise the Lord. I'm with you. All right? And then he goes on with the story. So let me repeat that last line, all right? It says, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. Now, this was not God's plan. That's not the plan that God had. God had a much bigger plan, all right? But Moses got a little ahead of the plan, didn't he? Right? Moses got here. I know this because in Exodus, I have this down here for later, but I'm going to share it right now. Exodus, chapter two, verse twelve, talking about what was going on. It says that when he saw this going on between these two egyptian, he says that he looked this way and then he looked that way, all right? And seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand, all right? So you know that this. When it's God's plan, you don't have to see if anybody's not looking, all right? You don't have to see if anybody's not looking when it's God's plan. Amen. All right? And so this was not God's plan. God had a much bigger plan, but Moses got a little ahead of the plan. Here's what I know. If we aren't sitting with God and meditating on God's word, then the only filter that we have for life is human experience and human opinion and the way that we think things ought to get done. See, Moses defending his brother was a good thing, all right? And in his own mind, it was a good thing. But the way he did it wasn't a God thing. Too often, we think we know better than goddess, even in godly circumstances and opportunities, like, we need to force God's hand, right? I want to tell you another story where I messed it all up, okay? Here. When we first started the church, right? We were, were. When we first started the church, man, were, you know, looking at where we gonna. Where we're gonna get into some land. We need to buy some property. I thought when were. We were just coming out, man, and we needed to get into the church, all right? It's gonna get better, kiddo. Kid's like, I've had enough. I've had enough. That's it. All right. Trying real hard, man. All right? So praise the Lord. Amen. Thank you guys so much, man. Praise the Lord. We're helping preach. So when we first started the church, I think were talking about in 2019, we set out in our 2009, and we set out in 2010, and were coming here, and I thought, I was telling the leadership, man, we're not staying in this school. All right? We're going to be here three months. That's it. Let's get on it. And we started looking for property. We found a piece of land right up the road here, and we started making moves to get that land. All right? 2010, we're a three month old church, right? I'm like six months old church at that time. All right? And we're going to get out there and we're going to get this land, and we're going to get it started. And then it all just fell to pot. We got the land. We were out there. I was praying. I was actually in that field, and I was grabbing dirt, saying, God, this is your dirt. You know what I mean? This is all yours and stuff like that, right? We went out, brother Steve went out there and he started just kind of flattening it all out. We didn't own it yet. Didn't. Didn't own it. We're already grate in the field getting it ready putting stakes up. We're gonna put it right here. Right? And we lost everything. And God just shut it down hardcore. And we realized that were dealing with the wrong person. We're definitely in the wrong place. We're totally at the wrong time. We weren't grown up enough and I was trying to rush the Lord and get ahead of them. And today, man, we're almost 15 years later. It'll be 15 years next July. All right. And the right people. We got the right people. This is amazing. Check this out. Yeah, this. Check this out. This is amazing. We got the right people today. And we're gonna go look today with some of the right people at maybe a couple of. Well, hopefully God. We're trying to see if God has for the right place. And we're gonna. Because I believe it's totally the right time that God is calling us out of. Out of the. Out of where we've been blessed to be for 15 years almost and to get busy. And it's crazy because the right people are here, right? Yeah. And it's definitely the right time. And here's what we know, that God's story is best when it's with God and not ahead of God. Amen. I was listening to a girl. Her name is Jackie Hill Perry. I don't know if you guys ever listened to her, but she was saying this and it was pretty amazing. She says, if and when we determine the nature of God according to what we go through, we're going to end up worshiping a God created in our own image, all right? When everything is good, then our God is good. And when everything is bad, then our God isn't that good, is he? That's what happens when we start worshiping a God in our own image. And we say this because we're the ones who change. All right? We change with the wind. All right? One person could walk in the room and it could change our attitude. One person could say something and everything could change. But that's not Goddesse. See, we change things to look the way we want them to and say that it's God's will. God told me to kill an egyptian, all right? And bury him in the sand. No, brother, you did that one on your own. I mean, again, when you say when you have to look both ways to see who's watching, you're probably not serving God. In verse 25, Stephen goes on with his story. He says he supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they didn't understand. See, young Moses, his hope, as Stephen is telling it here, was that the Israelites might recognize that they had a homie in the palace, all right, in a powerful position, a brother that God's going to save them, used to save them. But Moses got ahead of God. See, God did have a plan for bringing his kids, his family, Israel, all right, to salvation. He did. And it was actually going to lead to the salvation of the whole planet for us here. Bigger story. We'll tell it another time, all right? But Moses got ahead of God. How could he have known God's plan? See, when God calls us to a work like this, our first action must be to worship. When God calls us to his work, when God calls us to, you know, and shows us what he's doing, our first action isn't just to run and do it. Our first action is to worship him even more when we mess up the story and get ahead of him. Check this out. I want to read these next four verses altogether, and we're going to wrap this up. But check this out. Stephen goes on. He says, and on the following day, he appeared to them as his people, Israelites, after he killed the Egyptian, hit him in the sand. All right, he goes on. He says, on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling, and he tried to reconcile them. And he says, men, you're brothers. You're Israelites, you're Hebrews. All right, you're my people. Well, why do you wrong each other with the man who was wrong in his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed that egyptian yesterday? See, your sin is never secret. Your sin is never as silent as you want it to be. It always it comes out. And then when at this retort, Moses fled and became an exile. And he lived in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. We're going to check that story out again more deeply next week. But here's what he's saying. In other words, Moses took off. He went to a place, and he stayed there for a minute because he had kids and a family. And everything was happening. What happened was, Moses runs away to be emptied of everything, which is exactly where God does his best work in us. What about you? Where have you been getting ahead of God? Where have you been getting ahead of God? Where or with who have you been trying to force God's hand? That's a big question right there, huh? Where or with who have you been trying to force God's hand. What are you going to do about that? Because God's story is best when it's with God and not ahead of God, right? We know this. What are you gonna do about that if you're already getting ahead of them? It's not hard to get ahead of God, and it's not hard to get back in step with God. Three things I wanna challenge you to really quickly. When you find yourself getting ahead of God, stop and back up to Jesus. Anybody here ever pull too far out in an intersection? What do you do? You stop, first of all, and look behind you. Make sure there's room to back up. If you can back up. If not, stay right there in the intersection and wait for the traffic to catch up. Wait for the whole scene to catch up. All right, you got ahead of the scene. Stop, wait for it. All right, don't punch it, but get out of there and go with the flow of traffic. Back up, back up to Jesus number two. Worship Jesus, you say? I do. No, no, no. This is a whole heart worship. If you study the word heart, when in the Old Testament, where God is talking and where, you know, David is talking, Solomon is talking and dedicating the temple, you see this walking before God with your whole heart, and that is not just like, a worship song, I feel good. That is with every intention, with every inclination, with every determination, with every disposition, with everything about you, all right? The whole you everything man is with God. You're worshiping him with your whole heart. And it is 2024 seven. Worship God 24/7 make your neighbors think that you're out of your mind by the way you walk around your house saying, man, thank you for this house. Man, thank you for that. Woman, thank you so much, because I don't. I. It's a fiasco right here. I don't think if I could have ever made any of this happen. Worship Jesus, back up to Jesus. Worship Jesus and then look for Jesus story and join it. Look for Jesus story and join his story. Henry Black, if he said, God is working all around you and he didn't make that up, it's just the truth. Jesus is working all around you, man. Just look for that work and join him. You'll be glad you did. We got the easy part done, man. Is your turn, right? Amen. Come on, y'all, knock it out. Praise the Lord.
No Comments