God’s story begins with God creating the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void. The chaotic waters cover the face of the earth. Darkness reigned.

From the chaos God created order and beauty.

Light, Land, vegetation, and creatures. God tames the chaotic waters and sets a boundary for them. He creates a magnificent sanctuary garden set upon the top of the highest mountain – EDEN.

His presence dwells in Eden – the place where heaven and earth collide. This is where God rules and reigns among his creation.

In this place God creates and establishes his son and king – Adam. Adam is created in the image and likeness of God. He is God’s son – a perfect image bearer. He is also God’s king – having the likeness of God in authority and power. Adam and His wife are to multiply God’s image and likeness, and to rule over the earth from the City of Eden on God’s behalf.

Enter the Serpent.

More deceptive and dishonorable than any living thing that the LORD God had created, it successfully tempted Adam and Eve to turn against God. Instead of banishing the serpent from the garden, casting it into the outer darkness and saving his bride, Adam bound himself to the serpent's rule and reign, recreating himself in the serpent's own image and likeness.

God banishes Adam and Eve from the garden sanctuary with a promise: One day, a Son will be born who will do what you could not do. The serpent will bite and try to devour him, but he will crush the serpent once and for all.

Upon being cast out of God’s presence, humanity spirals out of order and into chaos. A failure to love God and others leads to rebellion against God. Rebellion leads to corruption and perversity. By the time we get to Genesis chapter 6, every intention of the thoughts of mankind's heart is only evil continually.

In an effort to make things right again and to establish order in the midst of this now-chaotic world, God de-creates all he had made by flooding the earth and returning it back to its original state – without form and void.

But out of the chaotic waters, God calls a new son and a new king: Noah.

Noah, his family, and a pair of every animal on earth are saved by God through the Ark built by Noah. The Ark lands upon the top of a high mountain and from there God gives Noah a similar charge to the one he gave to Adam: To multiply God’s image and likeness throughout the earth.

Unfortunately, Noah is not the anticipated Son we were waiting for, and like Adam, Noah fails.  In the midst of a different garden, drinking from the fruit of a different tree, Noah rebels against God and humanity once again spirals out of order and into chaos.

Enter Babel.

Failure to love God and love others leads humanity to create a wicked city opposed to God’s City of Eden. We claimed, “Come! Let us build ourselves a city and a sanctuary with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be multiplied upon the face of the whole earth” – the ultimate perversion of God’s created purpose for humanity.

But out of the chaos of Babel, God calls a new son and a new king: Abraham.

God tells Abraham, “Come! Let me make you a great city and give you a great name, and I will make you the father of a multitude of ethnicities. Nationalities and Kings will come from you, I will establish your sons and daughters upon the earth, and they will be a blessing to every nation on earth. They will be multiplied like the stars in the sky, but first they will be slaves in a different kingdom for 400 years.”

Enter Egypt.

Abraham’s offspring eventually became the nation of Israel. Israel lived under the captivity of Egypt for 400 years before God saved them out of that kingdom of darkness. Egypt, like Babel before it, was a picture of what happens when humanity builds cities and sanctuaries for our own glory – a true failure to love God and love others.

But out of the chaos of Egypt, God calls a new son and a new king: Israel.

God says to Pharaoh King of Egypt, “Israel is my firstborn son, let my son go so that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.”

Pharaoh refuses to listen to God, so God judges Pharaoh and Egypt with plagues, ultimately resulting in the death of Pharaoh’s firstborn son.

Israel flees Egypt, covered by the blood of the lamb, through the chaotic waters of the red sea and into the wilderness where God teaches His Son how to live in the image and likeness of God.

However, Israel is not the long anticipated Son humanity had been waiting for, and like Adam and Noah before him, Israel fails to live as God’s Son and King. Failure to love God and love others causes Israel to spiral into sin, rebellion, corruption, and perversion.

But out of the chaos of Israel’s failure, God calls a new son and a new King: David.

God tells David in 2 Samuel 7, “Come! I will give you a great name; I will cut off your enemies, and I will establish a place for my people Israel. I will raise up your offspring after you, and I will establish His Kingdom. He shall build a household and a dynasty for My name, and I will establish the throne of His Kingdom forever. When He becomes corrupt and rebellious, I will discipline Him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but My steadfast love will not depart from Him.”

Enter Babylon.

King David and his son Solomon ruled in peace and order but nearly every king afterward became corrupt and rebellious, eventually casting Israel into slavery to Assyria and Babylon, then to Greece, and finally to Rome. These kingdoms, like Babel and Egypt before them, were pictures of what happens when humanity builds kingdoms for our own glory – a true failure to love God and love others.

The Old Testament ends with a cliffhanger – Where is the promised Son who will crush the serpent once and for all; the King from the line of David who will establish God’s saving rule and reign, bringing worldwide restoration to God’s creation?

But out of the chaos of defeat, slavery and exile, God calls a new Son and a new King: Jesus.

Jesus is an Israelite, the son of Abraham. He’s a King from the tribe of Judah, the son of David. He’s a man, flesh and blood, descended from Adam. And yet, he’s the living and eternal God.

Jesus is the God who promised Adam that a Son would be born who would crush the serpent. Jesus is the God who brought Noah through the flood. Jesus is the God who promised to make Abraham a great name and a great nation. He’s the God who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt and He’s the God who promised David that his Son would be given an eternal throne.

Little did we know that God himself would be both the promise giver and the promise fulfilled.

Jesus is the Son of Adam who crushes that ancient serpent once and for all, casting the devil from his presence and saving his Bride – the church. The name of Jesus is the great name promised to Abraham, His church the multi-ethic nation promised to Abraham. Jesus is the representative head of Israel, and therefore he is God’s firstborn Son. Jesus is the Son of David, the great King who establishes God’s eternal Kingdom and cuts off every enemy who would stand opposed. He is the King who suffered the cross by rod of men and was disciplined for our rebellion and corruption — though he did not sin. And He is the God who rose from the grave conquering every power that would hold us captive.

Jesus is the Son and King who will banish chaos and establish order on the earth once and for all — a new heaven and a new earth. He is the perfect image and likeness of God who shows us how to truly love God and love others. He is the temple of the living God, a walking sanctuary — A walking Garden of Eden. God himself has come to live among us once again as the man Jesus, your Savior.

God’s presence dwells in Jesus – He is the place where heaven and earth collide. In Jesus, God rules and reigns among his creation.

He is the same God, yesterday, today, and forever.

As the summer draws to a close we want to take an opportunity to wish all of our seasonal family and friends a safe and blessed winter. We love all of you and we miss you when you’re not with us. We pray that each of you engages with a church in your wintertime community, that you are encouraged by that church and that you are as much of a blessing to them as you are to us. We hope that you will keep up with theCHURCH both online and with the occasional in-person visit.

At theCHURCH we believe that if we faithfully lift up the name of Jesus in everything we do, God will continue to bless His church and His people, and grow His kingdom for His glory! With that in mind we faithfully preach the Good News of Jesus Christ each and every weekend and God provides the growth. So far this year we have had an average weekly attendance of 874 (792 in Lakeside and 82 in Heber) which is 24.7% higher than last year. Because God is reaching more people, staff is working diligently in each ministry area to prepare for an 8am service starting on Easter of 2025. We are so thankful to all of our volunteers who make Sunday morning possible! It takes nearly 60 volunteers per service to welcome everyone in and make it easier for people to know Jesus. Please prayerfully consider how you can help us launch this additional service.

This last summer was so exciting! We held the annual church picnic in “the backyard” in Lakeside. We participated in the Heber-Overgaard Independence Day parade. We hosted Vacation Bible School with approximately 135 students. We also had a youth camp with 68 students, 19 of whom gave their lives to Christ and were baptized at Scotts Reservoir. In addition, we had a week of continuous prayer where over 200 volunteers came together to pray for 168 straight hours. We piloted two Christian education courses and launched our first ever Introduction to Bible Basics class. We look forward to providing additional Christian education courses to equip all of us to be disciples who make more and better disciples of Jesus Christ. We also moved our website to a platform that integrates more readily with our other systems and redesigned the entire site. Please check it out at www.tcaz.us.

Finally, God is leading us to pursue land for a future church campus in the White Mountains. Through much prayer, the leadership team has completed a demographic study of the White Mountains to determine the ideal location and we are currently researching available parcels to establish a Jesus reference point in the White Mountains where God’s sovereignty is unmistakable. These are the first steps in a multi-year process of building a church. Please pray for how God is leading you to partner with theCHURCH and our leadership, and for God’s will to be done as it relates to building a new campus for His glory!

[AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION]

We are in the book of acts, and we're in chapter seven. And a lot of crazy stuff is going on in this chapter because Stephen is recounting this history. But I want to challenge you again to a thought that we've been challenging for the past few weeks. And that is that all history is his story. Amen. All of history is his story. It's Jesus's story. But my question to you is, can you see him in the story? And then can you see yourself with Jesus? Can you see him in the story and can you see yourself with him? That is a very important question for you. And that's that you can go home now. That's what I want you to take home. All right? Can you see him in the story and can you see yourself with him? Amen. So a young man, all right, in our text that were looking at today, a young man, Stephen, he was a volunteer in the grand opening of the church 2000 years ago. When the church first started, Stephen was a volunteer in the church helping to serve tables and whatnot. And then he comes into this position where he is challenging the leaders, the religious elite of his time with their history, their 2000 year history. Before that, you know, before. Before the grand opening of the church. So for us it would be 4000 years ago. And he was basically summing up the time of their nation's history from the time of its inception through a man of faith named Abraham, to this time, to Jesus, whom they crucified. Now, the guys that he was talking to, they loved being experts in the law, they loved being experts in this history and knowing the story, but they were not experts in submitting to the God of the story. You see, as Stephen was telling this old Testament history, Stephen was also telling the story of Jesus Christ. But they didn't see him in the story. And it was crazy because so many times, icc, you ever have people that they try to separate the Old Testament and the New Testament, they will tell you that the Old Testament is what really matters, all right? Is what matters. And then other people say, no, no, the New Testament is what matters now. It's what matters now is all you need is the New Testament. Well, here's why I'm here to tell you, and I would tell every one of them. Jesus is throughout the whole story, all right? The whole story is his story. It just is, right? And too many times people make you think that you gotta grind a bunch of gears just to bring Jesus from the Old Testament into the new. And I don't think you do, because the entire Bible, Old Testament and New Testament is totally Christ centered and Stephen is pointing that out. And again, the question is for you today is can you see him in the story as you read through the stories? Can you see Jesus in the story and then can you see yourself with Jesus? Stephen is pointing out that everything matters, the whole story matters because it's all Jesus's story. All history, past, present and future is his story. Even your story is his story. Did you know that your story was initiated by Jesus? Did you guys even know that? The scriptures even tell us that through him all things began and in him, Jesus, all things consist. Let me challenge you to a thought. When you were born, who breathed your first breath into your lungs? Come on, man, you gotta be. Who breathed that first breath? It wasn't anybody you can name on the terrain here, all right? Somebody went and you start screaming, right? You remember that? Or maybe you don't, right? That's what happened, you know, God breathes in or God breathes out and we breathe in. Amen. God began your story and God will finish it here on the planet here this story. God began your story and he'll finish it. How he finishes it depends on who you're letting write your story. Amen. We shared with you a couple of weeks ago and we're going to keep sharing this with you. Your story has been Jesus story all along. The question is, will you let it be your story? Your story has been Jesus story all along. Well, the question is, will you let it be your story? You know, he began all of our stories and so it is his story, but we take it away from them. So a good question, if you want to. A good way to answer this question is with another question. Is the story, is your story a story? Is the story of your life? Is it a story of redemption or is it a story of rebellion? It's a good question for you to challenge a self reflection. You see, because it's one or the other, right? This is one or the other. There's no other way. There's no in between. There isn't any in between, man. Either it's Jesus's story or it's not. And if it's not, it's the enemy story. It's not your story. You know, there is no other choice. People get this freaked out. There was a story, and I shared this with you years ago. There was a guy and he was just. He was just kind of leaning into to being with Jesus. But he didn't want to give up his old life and the devil saw him and started laughing at him and he said to the devil, I don't know what you're laughing at, dude. I'm on the fence on this, man. I'm thinking about Jesus and I'm not quite sure, you know, about you. And devil said, take your time, homie. I own the fence. There's no other story. It's just Jesus's story. Let me ask you another question. You ever find out the truth about something that you've been doing wrong and you decided to do it wrong anyways? You ever do that? You ever start just kind of threading in a bolt and realize immediately that you're cross threading it? So you just started to just, and you're like, oh, my goodness. And you start wrenching it anyways and you just mess everything up. All right? Or you're doing a math problem, right? And you're doing this math problem, man. And you're like, you know, I know I got it wrong, right? But I'm just going to keep on going. You ever find out the truth about something that you've been doing wrong and decided to do it wrong anyways? And you're like, no, that's just stupid. Right? Right. That's just stupid. You find out it's wrong, you're going to do it wrong anyways. That's just stupid. And we all agree on that. Just remind yourself about that when you're walking out of here later on today and you're trying to forget everything that God told you. Remind yourself, I have to remind myself all the time. So check it out, man. We're going to look into the story that we just heard that we just read together, all right? And it's going to be real easy to get caught up, and it always is when you're reading the scriptures to get caught up in the scenes of the story. And it's fun sometimes to get caught up in the scenes. We're movie watchers. We're storytellers. It's really easy to get caught up in the scenes. But I want to challenge you here. Don't just pay attention to the scenes, pay attention to the one whom the scenes surround. Can you see Jesus in the story? Yes. And then now can you see yourself with him? That's the question. And that's what I want to challenge us. So when you read the scriptures, first look for Jesus and then connect your story to his story. Amen. Let's go ahead and pray. And Father, we praise you, Lord God. And God, this is your word. It's your glory. I'm just the one with the biggest mouth, Lord God, so help me not get in the way, Father, of what you're trying to say, and we just trust you, and we're gonna praise you. And I pray that your holy spirit, Lord God, totally infiltrates and just permeates. Like, we just sang this whole room in our hearts and that we could be filled, Lord God, with your holy spirit. In Jesus name, amen. So in acts chapter seven, if you haven't been here with us for a little bit of in acts chapter seven, this weird, really tripped out account is taking place. We're in the book of acts. And so Christ had already been crucified. He's been resurrected and ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit into his church. The people who are followers of Jesus Christ, he spent his holy spirit empowering them to preach the gospel and all the things that God wants us to do, help the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and lead the world to Jesus. And it's happening right there in Jerusalem. And the church started to grow, and it started to get really big. And the needs of the people were too much for the apostles. The Jews were just walking real tight homies to Jesus. They were walking real close. They were getting too much. And so they picked out some guys and they said, man, let's get some guys to take care of this work so we could focus on preaching the word and praying. And they picked some guys, and one of them was a young dude named Stephen. And he said, they said the criteria was they had to be full of faith, full of wisdom, full of faith, you know, good reputation. And Stephen was one of these guys. And they started getting to work. No problem. I'll serve tables, right? I'll volunteer. Heck yeah, man. That's how the church. That's why we're still here. Praise the Lord for the volunteers. Amen. And Stephen, he started sounding more and more like Jesus. And it started getting the people who had Jesus killed angry, right? It was getting people angry. And so they tried to twist them all up, and they couldn't do it, man, because his holy is filled with the Holy Spirit. Every time they asked him a question, God would answer it, and how are you going to contend with that, right? And so that's what was happening. And so they started spreading some lies about the dude, how he was talking smack about the temple and craziness and all that. And so you have in acts chapter seven, verse one, the high priest and the council are all around. I don't know why I lifted my leg like that. That was kind of weird. And the council was all around, all right, the high priest. And they said, and the high priest came to him and said, are these things so? See, what's the matter with you guys, man? Bad influences, all of you, man. See what I'm talking about? All right. I'm just kidding, man. You guys are probably the best influences around, all right? So the high priest said, are these things? So. And Stephen said to the high priest and to the council that jammed up Jesus, now jamming up him, he says, brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. And he started telling them the history of their nation from all the way, so far, we're in the middle now, so far, in the acts, chapter seven, up to this point, through Moses, he started telling them how Abraham was the father of their faith, and Joseph basically was like a pattern of Jesus, because he lived a life of suffering and still brought redemption for the nation of Israel. And how they moved to Egypt just because there was a famine, and how they were doing really great there, but they started to multiply. And a new king of Egypt said, man, we can't have these guys just kind of running around like they own the place. Let's make them all slaves. And for 400 years, they were slaves. And then came, he started telling the story about Moses, who was another pattern of Jesus Christ, basically a pattern of Christ. And you see patterns, promises, and you see where Christ is present in the Old Testament. It's pretty wild. It's all Jesus story. Of course you would. And Moses thinking that, okay, God's using him to save the Israelites, goes out and he's going to try to kill these Egyptians one by one. So he kills one, buries him in the sand, and realizes that's not what God wanted him to do. He got ahead of God, and then he took off. And now, Stephen, in this, in our text today, he's pointing directly to Jesus through Moses. It's amazing. And again, man, I want you to look for Jesus in the story, and then look for your story and see. Are you with Jesus? Can you see Jesus in the story? And can you see yourself with Jesus? That's our question. So we're all the way up in acts chapter seven, verse 30. And now it says, now when 40 years had passed, angel appeared to him. Another 40 years, see, 1st 40, Moses came out and he did that thing to the Egyptian. Then he bolted, scared, and he's just been out in the boonie somewhere for another 40 years. Started a family, had a couple of kids. And it said, now, when 40 more years, basically, he could say had passed, angel appeared. Pay attention. That word appeared. Hold on to that. An angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame and a fire. A fire in a bush. You've heard about the burning bushes, maybe you haven't, where Moses was just tending the flock, and he saw this bush, and it wasn't burning up. It was on fire, but it wasn't burning down on the ground. And he went to go check it out. It says that Moses was amazed at the sight as he drew near to look. And there came the voice of the Lord. Okay, I'm gonna freak you out a little bit, dude. This is Jesus, all right? This is the Christ. This is the son of God. This is the appearance of God. This is the angel of the Lord. Appeared. Christ is present. And you're like, no way. Check this out. In Exodus, chapter 33, verse 20, he says, but he said, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. And though Moses is going to turn his face here in a minute, he saw him and he saw him, and he. And he started talking with him, and it got crazy. And Jesus himself said, no one has ever seen God. Look at the way he says this. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the father's side has made him known. What do you think he's talking about? Himself. No one has ever seen God, but the only God who is at God's side. All right, again, we're talking about the Trinity. Some people are trying to, you know, act like that ain't something, and they just need to go read their bibles and pray some more, maybe, you know? Yeah. See, what we know about this is God turns your head towards Jesus. John 644. No one can come. Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the father draws him to me. God will turn your head towards Jesus. And now here we see that Jesus makes God known to you. And that's what Jesus was doing right here with Moses on that mountain. The question is, what Jesus are you trying to see? What Jesus are you trying to see? I was talking to my homegirl this last week, and she was telling me about a time where she was back in the day. She was like. She was redeemed. She belonged to Jesus. But she started living all crazy again. And one of her coworkers came up and said to her, asked her, are you a christian. And she's like, jesus is my homeboy. And then she kind of thought, you know, no, he's not. He can't be my homeboy. See, Jesus doesn't want to be your homeboy, right? He's your savior. He bought back your story. That's what redemption means. He gave your story to live. You gave your story to the enemy, all right? Because, again, there's only two possible owners of your story. Jesus bought back the story by paying the price that you owed for that portrait, all right? It's called sin, all right? And the question is, will you rob redemption or rebellion? What's it gonna be? There's only two things, man. Life is pretty darn simple, ain't it? We freak out and get it all complicated. What's wrong with us? I don't know. Anyways, you know, what do you want? We want redemption. What's it gonna be? Or rebellion. And you say redemption, which we all say, cool, man. But can people tell by looking at your story that you're living a story of redemption? Do those around you, all right, know that though you live around them that you breathe the same air, that you laugh and cry and have a life, that you're living a different story. You see, Stephen's audience, we're not connecting the dots here. When they're. They knew this history. Stephen is telling them and repeating this to them. They knew the history, but they didn't connect the dots. And that was just crazy. But here's what I know about you. You're kind of crazy, but you're not that kind of crazy. And we're not here to connect the dots. Amen. We're here to connect our story. Amen. To Jesus. Stephen goes on with their history of Moses when he confronts the bush. And the voice of God says, I am the God of your fathers. Verse 32. Check this out. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob and Moses trembled, and he didn't dare look. And we know this is Jesus because Jesus himself said to the same group of guys that Stephen is talking to, the same group of guys Stephen's talking to, who just earlier, a few months earlier, crucified. And just a few months earlier, one of the reasons they crucified him is Jesus was talking to them, all right? And they were trying to get him. And he says, you know, Jesus told them, your father, Abraham, he rejoiced that he would see my day, John 856 through 58. And he says, and so the Jews said to him, wait a second. You're not even 50 years old Hebrew, where you at? We were talking about this a couple of weeks ago. You guys already know. Don't tell him nothing. I'm gonna talk about this right now, all right? And so Jews said to him, you're not only even 50 years old, and yet you've seen Abraham like 2000 years ago, like 50 years is gonna make a difference. And Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. You see that bush? He just said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham. Later on in that same conversation, Abraham's gonna say, who do I say? Sent me. When I go over there and do what you want me to do, he says, tell him I am sent you. This was a big statement. Jesus is saying, I am. I am forever. I have been and I will always be. I am eternally and consistently God. And before history, past and beyond history, future, I am and am, all right? No matter when or where, Jesus is always there. Amen. See, the fact that Jesus rose, now, this is huge. You say, those are some big statements. Those are some big statements for a guy to make, right? Those are some big statements to say that, you know, that he's claiming to be God. And that's. A lot of people have problem with that. I don't. All right? Because the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, that authenticates everything he said and everything he did. The fact, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, it authenticates everything he said and everything he did. Sometimes people will say, well, what about all these other religions? What about all these other faith leaders? What about them? I'll put it to you like this, man. If I'm walking down a road, right, and that road splits into two different roads, and there's a dude laying at each of those roads right at the beginning, all right, one's alive, one's dead. I'm going to ask the one who's alive for directions. Amen. Not the dead guy. And then the Lord said to Moses, acts 733, take off your sandals. Oh. Here's where it gets crazy. All right? Can you see Jesus in the story? And can you see yourself with Jesus? All right, can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? Because we all got some crazy stories. The Lord said to him, take off your sandals. Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you're standing is holy ground. It was holy ground because God was on it. Amen. Not because it was a special mountain or a special place. Or it has some really cool sand. But God is holy, and he's the one who makes and declares places or people holy. He is, and we have. If you have given your life to Jesus Christ, we have his holy spirit. So shouldn't we be treating everywhere we step as holy ground? Because if we have the spirit of the living God in us, then. Then isn't everywhere we are at? Aren't we bringing holy ground to, can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? If Jesus was right here, you'd be like, yeah, man, holy ground. If his Holy Spirit just appeared to you and said, here I am, holy ground. But if we are men and women who have given our life to Jesus Christ and are like, we just sang filled with the Holy Spirit, shouldn't we be bringing that holiness into every person, every conversation, every situation, and every place we go? Amen, man. I saw. Yeah, praise the Lord. I saw christians walking around the car show yesterday, and I thought, holy ground, bro, right here. Here it comes. Here comes. Pay attention. Here comes the holy ground coming. You guys need to be paying attention. Amen. Praise the Lord. It's holy ground everywhere. Or if we diminish the holiness of his presence because we're back and forth between redemption and rebellion, then he goes on in verse 34, I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I've come down to deliver them. Come, and I will send you to Egypt. And this Moses, now Stephen is telling the story of what God said to Moses. And now he's stepping and telling them that this Moses, whom they rejected, who made you a ruler and a judge, is what they said about him. This man God sent as both ruler and redeemer. Oh, here we go. Here's Jesus again by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. By the hand of Jesus. Now, some of you are going like, dude, don't you think you're stretching this a little bit? It says angel, right? Didn't say Jesus. Well, his name wasn't Jesus. He told Mary, name him Jesus. All right, before that, we know him as the son of God, the second person of God's, of the Trinity. But it says angel. And if you need further proof, Jude chapter. Well, Jude verse has only got one chapter. Verse five says, now, I want to remind you, although once you fully knew that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, Jude called him Jesus. And that's in the Bible. So, I mean, that's one of the scriptures. That's, you know, and that's, the Holy Spirit says that. So afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Okay, it's Jesus's story. Can you see Jesus in the story? Can you see yourself with Jesus? Or are we constantly trying to say, no, that's just angel? I ain't got to pay as much attention to angels than I do Jesus, you know, are we seeing Jesus as he's kind of speaking into your life, as he's moving into your family, as he's at your workplace? Are you seeing Jesus on your way here and on your way home? It's his story. He used Moses. He led Moses, but it was his might, it was his power, and it was his glory. And then Stephen telling them about Moses again, giving a history lesson to the guys who are supposed to be experts in it, he says, this man led them out performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for 40 years. And then we see different signs of Christ. We see a pattern of Jesus, and a pattern is just, again, it's something that makes up. It helps you see Jesus in a different way. Before Jesus was incarnate in the New Testament, as we're looking in the Old Testament, we've seen the Passover. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't. But Israel was slaves for 400 years. Moses came and tried to get it started. He messed it up for 40 years. That's after being 40. And then he had to go in the wilderness for another 40 years. God sent him back through signs and wonders before pharaoh and Egypt, and it kept hardening the heart of pharaoh. And he did all these amazing signs, hail and fire, frogs everywhere, which is kind of crazy, and then flies and kind of craziness and all kinds of stuff and boils and a bunch of weird stuff happening. And then finally it was the firstborn son. He said, but if you would take a lamb, sacrifice a lambda, and paint the blood of the lamb on the side of the door, the top of the door on the other side, he says, that angel of death will pass over that house. And as the angel of death creeped through Egypt that night, it would pass a lamb's blood painted door. And Jesus is called what? The lamb of God. And if the blood of the lamb is present on your life, then the enemy, he has to pass over you. There's a pattern of Jesus. Can you see Jesus in the story? And then can you see yourself with him? Man, dude, won't you love if jesus stand right? Won't you love? I'm with him. Dude, where are we going? Jesus. You know I'm with him. Won't you just love that? And then he tells his audience again, Stephen tells him this. Moses, who, this is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God raised up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. Okay, this is. Now we see a promise of Jesus. We've seen patterns of Jesus, we've seen the presence of Jesus, and now we see a pattern about a promise of Jesus. And the question is, are we with him or nothing? And God. And we see this promise of Jesus. God's going to raise himself up. And we see in Luke, chapter two, verse 40, that God said that the child grew and became strong and was filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. God raised up this child, Jesus. And then he raised them up from the dead. Amen. He said, God will raise up a prophet like me from your brothers. Moses was a leader. He was a deliverer. And Moses even acted even more than a leader and deliverer, because when he brought Egypt, I mean, Israel out of Egypt, he acted as a king, taking them to their land that God has set for them. And Jesus would become the prophet of all prophets. He would be the leader of all leaders. He was the deliverer and redeemer of all of mankind. And he is the king of all kings. Amen. He says, this is the. Stephen is trying to say, you can't see Jesus here. Of course you can't see Jesus because you don't want to see yourself with Jesus. This is basically the message. He said this and he goes further. Look at verse 38. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel, again, Jesus, who spoke to him. Not all angels in the Old Testament are Jesus. I want to clarify that. You have to take a look and just read your bibles. It is awesome. It is so fun, and it is so amazing to hear God speak. All right, but the angel Jesus, who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, we clarified that already. And with our fathers, he received living oracles to give us. Basically, he brought them out to this place. He brought them from Egypt. He brought them to this place of worship before they were going to go to the promised land. All right, that's a whole nother story. Brought them out to this place of worship. He went up on the mountain where they were kicking it down here to go get instructions, further instructions from God. And then he was going to bring them back. You can read about this again. You want to read your bibles. Exodus, chapter 19 through 32. Check it out. You'll see the story where he brings them to that mountain. He goes up, and he gets all these killer instructions from God. And then he goes back down and he gets crazy. All right. While he was there, God said to him that as they moved forward, one of the things that God told him, he said, pay attention. In Exodus, chapter 23, verses 20 through 22, he said, behold, I'm going to send angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him. Check this out. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him. What do you think he's talking about? Well, let me check. Let's go a little further. But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, it's another one of those things. Like Jesus says, no one has seen God, but the only God who is beside God. He said, but if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. And then Stephen goes on back in acts, chapter seven, verse 39, but our fathers, they refused to obey him, and he thrust them aside, and they turned their hearts towards Egypt. They refused to give up their story to the author and originator of their story, desiring to return to be slaves in Egypt. I can't tell how many people. I can't tell you how many people that I've seen come to Jesus and not long roll after, just roll out. I mean, we've all seen that somebody. Yeah. You know what I mean? And they're like, all about Christ. Next thing you know, they're like, where you at, huh? Like ghost. I'll challenge you. This right here, man. It's not how high you jump when you. When you connect your story to Jesus story, but how intentional. You keep your story connected. You're like, wait a second. I don't know. Look, it. It's not how high you jump, because we get excited. Yeah. And we can all jump real high, but how intentional. Are you gonna walk alongside Christ, or are you going to be in and then out? In and out? What is it? Paul? He speaks to this in one corinthians, chapter 15, one and two. He says, now, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel of Jesus Christ that I preached to you, which you received. Did you receive it? Three people? You said, yes. What you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved. All right. If, if, big if you hold fast, if you walk intentionally, or if you hold fast to the word I preached you, unless you believed in vain. There's two verses you might want to spend a little time with. Basically, Paul's saying, you need to get close and you need to. Yeah. If you don't, things are going to get real lame. They're just going to get lame. Look at how lame it gets with these guys. Stephen's telling the story again, excuse me. And saying about God and Moses, and then saying to Aaron, the people where they thrust Moses out, they didn't want to do what they were doing. And now they're telling Aaron, make for us gods who will go before us. As for the Moses who led us out from the land to this place, we don't even know where he's at. We don't know what happened to him. And so they made a little cow, all right? And they made a calf in those days, and then they offered sacrifice to something they made. That sounds real stupid, doesn't it? Oh, but I've done that. I've built motorcycles before and thought, oh, my gosh, this thing is so awesome. Oh, you know what I mean? Come on, man. I'm just trying to be honest. What the heck, bro? And they offered sacrifices to the idol and rejoicing in the works of their hands. Pastor Justin shared, I think it was him. He shared a quote by this cat. You know when a guy has two initials? 1st, 1st name. You got a lesson. All right. This is GK Beal. He said, we become the thing we worshIp, either for ruin or for restoration. Now, you gotta be careful. We become the thing we worship either for ruin or for restoration. Restoration. And they became like this CALf, stiff necked. And we're going to see, stephen's going to call him a bunch of stiff neck knuckleheads. But God turned away and he gave them over to the host of heaven, as is written in the book of prophets. Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrificed during the 40 years in the wilderness, o house of IsRAEL? Now, you took up the tent of moloch, the star of RAPHAan, and the images that you made to worship. And I'm going to send you into exile beyond Babylon. God's not going to force you to worship him. But, man, you got to be careful what story you're choosing. It doesn't just happen. We have to be intentional about our story. What would we do about that? Last week I was hanging out with the youth group back here on Tuesday night, and they had a question because they were here the Sunday before and they said, how do we connect our story to God's story? That's a good question. And then some of you say the same thing. How do we connect our story to God's story? How do we make it a story of redemption and not rebellion? Well, let me ask you a question that might help with that question. Why are you a Christian? You need to answer that. I was driving my grandson to school this last week, and were just pulling up right here, and I just asked him, I said, hey, man, why are you a Christian, dude? And without missing a beat, man, he said, well, because Jesus people have the best snacks. I'm just kidding. No, he didn't say that. Just seeing if you guys are listening. All right, apparently you are. I asked him, seriously, I'm pulling up right here in front of the truck in the church. Yeah. Thank you. And I said, why are you a Christian, man? He said, well, because Jesus died for my sins and he rose from the grave and he's alive, dude, right there in the middle of the road, I stopped the truck and got out and said, yeah, people are honking at me. I'm like, nah, man, you need to hear that. No, I'm just kidding. I was just, I felt like that. I was just like, yes. So what do you do with that? How do you connect to that story? Hebrews chapter twelve, verse one. Let's end with this verse. I want you to take this with you. Hebrews chapter twelve. All this is great. Hebrews chapter twelve, verse one and two. He says this, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, all this history, that is his story. All these Moses stories, Joseph's stories, you know, Abraham's stories and all these other stories. Since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight of sin. Every weight and sin. Every weight and sin. Things that are keeping you back and distracting you and things that are just plain sin. He says, let's just lay aside every weight which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, man, let's. He said, bam. The writer of Hebrews, he's writing to christianse. He's not saying, hey, you guys need to be christians and stop sinning. Oh, you know, you need to start. You need to be christians and stop sitting. He's not saying that. He's telling christians, man. Lay aside these sins. Lay aside these weights connect your story and run it out with endurance, looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy was that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand, the throne of God. Amen. Come on, man, connect your story. Look for Jesus in the story and connect your story. See if you can see yourself with Jesus. Amen. Where's he? Brad, you're hearing me say amen. Oh, we heard that, didn't we? Yeah. Praise the Lord. Amen. So check this out. We're gonna. Right now, if you need prayer, we're going to be right here to pray. Heber, they're going to be right in the back to pray. Over here. We're going to be in the front with you to pray. And if, and if you need to connect, all right? And you want to just write your prayer down and write it and put it in the fence over here. Heber, your fence is going to where you guys go. There you are. Your fence is going to be to the right. You know what I'm talking about? Write the prayer. We're praying about your prayers. And we're praying about all your prayers during the week. They don't go unprayed for several people actually are praying for you guys. And I love seeing the answers to these prayers. But if you need prayer, come on up or head on back. Let me pray for us. Father, we give you the praise. We give you the honor, and we give you all the glory. Thank you for your word, Lord God, in Jesus mighty name, we praise you. Amen. Praise the Lord.

[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.

How can we, as adults, set a higher example and show kindness in our everyday interactions? What small changes can we make in our daily lives to ensure that the kids around us feel valued and important?

A couple of months ago, the solid ground team spent a month sharing with you what it means to be the Church. We all chose a few topics within the big topic of the Church, and we each wrote a lesson. We talked about what it means to be the Church, what the purpose of the Church is, and so on. The team shared amazing messages that cut to our hearts, but I want to ask you….have you ever thought of the future of our Church? What is to happen after we leaders retire or take our last breaths? How does the Church continue?

Consider this as you read Matthew 28:16-20.

A lot of us have heard these verses plenty of times, but today, I want to emphasize what Jesus said here. Did Jesus say, go and pick specific believers who are in their mid-40s and baptize them in my name?

No! He said all. ALL!

Church, Jesus has called us as leaders to lead ALL. He didn’t specify an age or race. When Jesus commands All, He means ALL—even young men and women. Our youth are the future of the Church. We are to disciple them in the true gospel to keep our Church continuously moving into the future long after we, as adults, are gone.

I just got back from an awesome weekend of youth camp. On our last night of camp, Ernie closed out his lesson by asking the youth to come forward for prayer. As I was standing in front of the stage with my fellow youth leaders, I thought that maybe a handful of kids would come forward, but as I looked up from where I was standing, almost every camper came up seeking prayer and proclaiming that they were giving their lives to Jesus.

As the worship team started to gather, I walked up to my place on the stage and grabbed my mic, preparing to sing our last song together at camp, and I looked out over all of the kids. I saw my 2 sons hugging one another with tears in their eyes. I watched my oldest son on crutches hobble over to his best friend, who was crying, and place a hand on his shoulder. If anyone knows my oldest, he can be very reserved, but seeing his best friend tear up because of the Holy Spirit, he put his hand on his shoulder, supporting him, and then he allowed our junior youth leaders to hug him and pray over him.

I looked back to my 2nd oldest son, and he had gathered with his group of friends in one giant hug, supporting each other. I watched as he pulled away and gave his best friend who had just given his life to Jesus the biggest hug of love and support. And then, as we played and sang our closing song, every camper stood united, arms around each other, singing their hearts out. Halfway through our song, I looked to my right and saw our sweet group of Jr high girls, tears streaming and lifting their little arms in worship, singing louder than us, proclaiming with passion the lyrics of our camp theme song:

So many lives were changed that night, even my own, and that is what Jesus meant when He said in Matthew ALL.

How are we not all passionate about the youth in our lives? We come into the Church and walk right past the younger generation. When was the last time you saw maybe an awkward-looking young man standing in the corner dressed all in baggy black clothes and dared to walk up to him and say Hi! So glad you are here. Or instead of looking at the girl with judgment because of her heavy black eyeliner and multi-primary colored hair, walking up to her and telling her you love her makeup and hair and you are so happy that she is here today?

Why do we adults hesitate to show them the love and encouragement they desperately need? In a previous solid ground lesson, I shared that we cannot look down on the lesser and still call ourselves Christians. So, we cannot look down on our youth and think oh man, they are a lost generation. My good friend Christina told me just the other day that…The youth are not lost. They have hearts to change the world. To make an impact. It is our job to show them how.

After all, we were all 16 at one point. Don’t you wish that you had someone in your life when you were their age who selflessly came alongside you because they understood? Because they saw the leader in you and saw the impact you could make if only you had someone to point you in the right direction?

Not everyone is called to youth ministry, and that’s perfectly okay. This isn’t about pushing you into a specific role but rather challenging each of us on how we can make a positive impact on the next generation. How can we, as adults, set a higher example and show kindness in our everyday interactions? What small changes can we make in our daily lives to ensure that the kids around us feel valued and important? Again Jesus didnt say only go to the group of people who will make it easy on you as leaders and make disciples of them. Not at all, HE SAID ALL, and this includes our youth.

In closing I would like to share a quote from a devotional I read recently, It says,

So it’s time to rise up, Church! The youth are not only the future of the Church—they are its very heartbeat.

I love you guys.