WEBVTT - I’m Coming With (Larry Brey) 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.080 There is nothing quite like Elevation Nights. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:04.280 Oh, I love them so much. 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:07.440 Elevation Knights twenty twenty four is about to happen. We 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:10.160 are coming your way and we want to see you there. 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:12.840 It's not only a time of worship, but I'm gonna 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.400 be preaching. I might get ally to preach a little 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:18.200 bit too, and we're gonna be believing God for amazing 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:19.880 things in the following cities. 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:25.400 Okay, so Hershey, Pennsylvania, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Columbus, Ohio, 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:27.040 Hoffman States, Illinois. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:32.880 That's Chicago, Belmont Park, New York. That's Long Island, Boston, Massachusetts, 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:34.520 and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.239 She diod good at that Elevation Nights dot com. Get 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:39.920 your tickets right now. We're gonna be getting ready for you. 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:41.239 It's gonna be amazing. 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:44.839 Many of you you expected Pastor Stephen to walk up. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:46.639 And there was a collective side for some of the room, 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:51.400 like it's okay, my name is Larry Bribe, but everybody 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:58.960 calls me LB and my wife and I had the 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:01.400 distinct privilege of being one of the original eight families 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:03.560 that got a chance to sell our homes. He quit 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.160 her jobs eighteen years ago to start Elevation Church and 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:16.160 man like, I want to see what God has done 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:18.400 eighteen years of servant. 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.840 Baby, look what look around, Look what God has done? 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:22.600 And thank you. 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:25.400 Before we started this ministry, we got on our knees. 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.200 There were no people, We had nothing, no money. We 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:30.040 had a blank page, but not a blank check it 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.360 was and we got on the knees and we just prayed, 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.200 Lord like, bring to people. Yeah we didn't know you, 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.160 we didn't, but God saw you. God saw you in Gaston, 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.080 God saw you in Rono. God saw you, and He's 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.760 set this moment on your calendar to be here today 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:48.720 to hear a word, and I'm excited to deliver it. 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:51.160 Here here's the verse I want to give you to 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.920 set up what we're doing today. But before we get 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.240 into that, I do need to say thank you Pastor Stephen. 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.960 Thank you Pastor Stephen for faithfully leading this ministry, being 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.960 my pastor for twenty years. Thank you for faithfully standing 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:05.920 in the pulprit every week preaching the word of God. 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.600 I remember Gosh byab A Budt seventeen years ago. He came, 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:12.480 he said, LB, I need you to do this and 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:14.840 I looked at him and said, I don't think I 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.960 can do that. He said, well, I guess if you 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.600 don't believe it, you'll have to have faith that I've 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:23.000 got enough belief for both of us. 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:24.560 I think you can do it, So go do it. 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.120 Thank you for being that kind of leader who push 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:28.800 us us out. 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.920 Thank you, honor you love you, Pastor Stephen. 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:39.200 First Amuel fourteen, chapter one, Just one verse to te 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:40.800 off where we want to go with this. This is 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.959 one day Jonathan, son of Saul, said to his young 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.160 arm bear, come, let's go over to the Philistine outpost 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:52.560 on the other side. But he did not tell his father. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.680 Here's the title for today's message. You can pick out 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.799 your favorite person around you only get one, say I'm 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.720 coming with. You can look to your second favor. Don't 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.320 make him feel left out and rejected. Look at him, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.200 say I'm coming with. After you've given out at least 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:11.840 six hugs, you can have a seat. 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:22.079 Think you worship team. In this passage of scripture, you've 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:22.639 got this. 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.680 Young man named Jonathan. He is the son of Saul, 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.480 who is the king of nation Israel. The king had 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.880 made some bad choices that had some devastating consequences because 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:34.920 of his disobedience. 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.040 He was rejected as king. It would no longer be king. 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:39.600 In this picture that we see in First. 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:44.000 Samuel, he had woken the dog the Philistines, and he 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.440 had abandoned the authority that God had given him as 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.120 king over Israel. And he took six hundred the nation's 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.840 best fighting men to hide underneath the pomegranate tree. Sir, 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.400 here you got the king, the leader of Nation Israel, 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.920 who has been rejected and has also abandoned his post. 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:02.400 Those of us that want to lead, we need to 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.960 understand that when we abdicate our authority, it's the people 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:10.360 that are punished. And the consequences of this decision rippled 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.360 into Jonathan's life because Jonathan was the prince, he. 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.960 Was supposed to be the next king of Nation Israel. 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.679 So he's looking at his father's rejection that also forced 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.559 him to reject the rightful thing that he should have had. 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.440 And some of you are looking at a situation that 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.960 you had nothing to do with, and everything you thought 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:32.839 would happen is forfeited because of somebody else's disobedience. So 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.200 when we read this passage, we need to understand that 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:39.080 Jonathan did not tell his father. He looks to his 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:40.880 armbhar I said, let's go do something about it. He 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:44.200 says to him, I'm coming with But he did not 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.960 tell his father. There's something about the voice that a 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.479 father carries in the life of a son or daughter 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.760 that can make you go one direction or another. As 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.760 a kid, my dad was my hero. I remember when 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:00.320 I was a little boy. All I wanted to do. 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.960 Is to be with my dad. If he's going somewhere, 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.520 I'd be like, I'm coming with, grab my little hat, jumping. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:08.600 The pickup truck, and like, let's go wherever you're gonna go. 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.080 I didn't care where we were gonna. I just wanted 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.600 to be with my father. I'm coming with dad. I 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:16.880 wouldn't I wouldn't notice all the times that we'd be 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:18.760 coming home, he'd be swerving, and we thought it'd be 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:19.360 kind of funny. 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:21.840 And then finally one night. 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.200 I grew up in Minnesota, where it's like really cold. 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.800 It was like ten degrees outside. My dad was inside 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.120 this place for a couple hours and I'm out the 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.560 pickup truck and it is freezing. Finally, I sat there, 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:36.040 I said, I wonder what he's doing in there. I 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.640 remember sneaking out of the pickup truck walking to the side. 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:39.800 Of the building. It was called the Delroy. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.239 It was a bar, so I sneak in the side 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.599 door and I walk in and I see my dad 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:54.120 sitting at the end of the bar, drunk, talking to 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.080 a woman that is not my mother. And it's in 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.279 that moment that I saw my dad's humanity and he 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.440 was no longer my hero, and I felt rejected in 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:05.840 that moment. I felt like I was abandoned in them 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:07.719 when I felt like, that's the moment. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:08.919 That I lost my father. 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:11.880 But if I look back, that was a defining moment 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:13.599 for me where I felt like I became an orphan 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.920 because if I'm honest in my honest moments, I felt 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.240 like I wouldn't have been able to explain it as 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.599 an eight year old, but a as a kid growing up. 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:24.159 I felt like, if I could have just done it better, 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.839 maybe he wouldn't have chose that, because it wasn't just 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.840 that decision, it was all the ripple effects that just 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.760 tore our family apart. And I want to talk about 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:38.000 the orphan spirit today. Anybody who's ever lived with rejection 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:43.240 or abandonment or maybe carried this orphan spirit. God has 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.800 sent me on assignment to speak to you today. And 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:49.280 if you think about the picture of an orphan, here's 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:50.839 the classic picture of an orphan. 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:52.200 You're at an orphanage. 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:56.440 All right, kids, somebody is coming today, so put on 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.720 your best clothes and be on your best behavior, and 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:01.000 maybe you'll get picked. 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:02.400 And you put on your. 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:04.920 Best clothes, you're on your best behavior, and you don't 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.640 get picked because you don't feel like. 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:08.320 You're good enough. 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:10.280 If I could have just been a little bit taller, 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:11.880 if I had have won more trophies, if I would 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:13.800 have been more pretty, maybe somebody would have loved me. 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.640 Maybe somebody would have seen me, maybe they wouldn't have 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.920 abandoned me. Because the orphan always feels like it's their fault. 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.040 And I want to talk about the orphan spirit today 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.520 because some if you are a grown man or a woman, 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:31.680 yet you so identify as a child and as an orphan. 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.160 Why Because I have walked with this orphan spirit all 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:35.680 of my life. 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:41.840 Did you know the first orphan is Satan. He wanted 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:42.520 to be like God. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.800 He was jealous of his worship, so he tries to 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.640 overthrow to steal some of God's glory, and God will 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:50.640 not be He will not let his glory go to 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.080 somebody else. And because of that, Satan was rejected and 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:55.040 he was sent down. 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.880 He was thrown down. It says this in Revelation chapter twelve, 0:07:58.960 --> 0:07:59.240 verse ten. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.960 It says, for the accuser Satan, for the accused of 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.880 our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:11.080 day and night has been hurled down. So the very 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.960 rejection that Satan experience is what he uses to attack you. 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:19.480 I believe one of the primary assignments of the enemy 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.640 is to use the bomb of rejection to make you 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:27.160 feel it. Here's the story that's painted in Revelation chapter twelve, verseent. 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.720 He is accusing you day and night before God. So 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.920 with picture Satan staying before God, like. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.439 Did you see JJ? Did you see what he did? 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:40.280 Did you see it? 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:43.800 Did you hear him? Did you see the way he's looking? 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.600 And he is hurling insults day and night. 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.560 It is relentless in the attack of how he's accusing you. 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:52.760 He's saying they're not worth loving. Did you see how 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:54.840 they acted, They're not worth believing? 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:56.679 Did you see what they did? Did you see what 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:57.240 they go back? 0:08:57.280 --> 0:08:59.440 To they said they're a follower of Jesus, and then 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:00.600 they did that last night. 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.960 Come on, Jesus, come on, look it down. They're now 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:04.559 worth it. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.400 That's what the accuser is doing day and night with you. 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:14.160 And what does our God do with that accusation. He 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.480 does to you what he did to his son. He 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.199 said of Jesus, before he did any public ministry, this 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.080 is my son in whom I am well pleased. Before 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.360 he ever did anything, he affirmed the relationship. 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:27.760 We have a God who looks at you and said, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.480 that's my son, that's my daughter. Shut your pie hole. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:34.000 That's the accuser. 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.160 Relentlessly attacking your character, and he's got good evidence to 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.640 win a case in court. Sometimes that does not matter, 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:43.640 because when you are the Lord's son or daughter, no 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:45.120 one can take you from his aunt. 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.560 That's the message of the gospel. I remember when my son. 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:51.960 Corbin, a couple of years ago, he had a bully 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.800 at school on the bus. He was smacking people in 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.800 the back of the head and throwing water bounds at him, 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.000 starting fights on the bus. And Corbin told me about 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:05.319 and I said, listen, never start a fight, but if 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:09.080 you start to finish it, I said, don't go looking 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:12.280 for a fight, but you don't let evil back you. 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:12.920 Into a corner. 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.720 And you always defend people who cannot defend themselves. And 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:18.880 maybe not James Dobson approved, but it's what I got. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.120 And so my wife and I were at breakfast one 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.480 morning we get a phone call from the principal. I 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.720 knew exactly what it was, and the prince were like, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.720 your son, he's been in a fight. Get down to school. 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.199 I'm like, oh, yes, I will. So I come into 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:37.920 the school. I see my son through the glass and 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:39.600 the principal's office and he's kind of. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.640 Like reading Dad, like how is Dad going to respond? 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:43.200 You know that look? 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.400 Some of you have that way where you look at 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.319 God and I need to challenge your perception of how 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.040 you see your heavenly father today. And some of you 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.280 have gotten in such a mess and you're wondering, how 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:54.040 does he see me? 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:55.040 What does he think of me? 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.000 I walked in, I looked at my son again, my 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:03.200 thumbs up in a big smile, and I walked into 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:05.599 the principal's office and the Pro's. 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.480 Like, he's a fighter and he should never do this, 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:08.080 and he's like I was. 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:13.400 Like, sh that's my son. I don't care what he did. 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:15.839 That's my son. And I said, if that punk ever 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.560 does it again, I'll be back here celebrating him. I 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.560 know that you are gonna have to suspend him. But 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:22.280 after we walk out of the school, we're going to 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:23.800 a movie and I'm buying him a pizza because that 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:29.480 is my son, and I'm freaking proud of him, because 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:34.840 the father always validates the relationship. I need you to 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.360 understand that. But when you're an orphan, you feel abandoned. 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.600 There's an absence of that voice. And what have you 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:42.600 put in that blank space? All of your doubt, all 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:45.240 of your insecurity, all of your decisions, all of your shame. 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:47.760 And the devil doesn't have to be accusing you. He 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.679 just gets that loop playing over and over and over 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.800 and over again, because the enemy isn't just accusing before God, 0:11:54.880 --> 0:12:00.160 day and night, he's at your shoulders saying Jay Jane Anthony, yes, 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.080 come on, man, I can't believe you did that, and. 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:06.680 The devil will play you can first eighty. It's not 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:07.440 that big of a deal. 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:13.160 Nobody even notices, nobody even really cares. And then you 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.960 do it and like, oh you dirty dog, you God 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.239 hates you. What do we do with the accusation? 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:19.160 We agree with it. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.320 We make it into a blanket, we wrap up, and 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:25.280 we just take a nap in it. We are so 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.840 familiar with living in the accusation. It becomes our identity. 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:31.800 I wonder how many orphans are in this house and 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:33.960 the devil has been speaking lies and you are just 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:34.920 giving agreement to it. 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:35.880 You're inviting them. 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:40.440 In watching Netflix and making them a sandwich. Because we 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.080 become so numb to the sound of the accusation. 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:47.480 That's no longer his voice. It becomes our voice. 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:50.720 That's why I want to talk about the orphaned spirit today. 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.520 And when I think about the orphan spirit, there's a language, 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.760 there's a vocabulary that comes with orphans. There's a way 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.240 that you start to speak. And I want to look 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:02.280 at the life of Moses. I think he's a poster 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:04.760 child for the orphan spirit. And I want to zoom 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.520 into one moment in his life, because when you see Moses, 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:09.560 what do you see some of us see like Charlton Heston, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.480 parting the risk, see coming down with the ten commandments. 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:16.840 I want to zoom into a different place. This is 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.720 out of Exodus chapter three, he's eighty year old in 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.400 this scene. But to rewind the story of Moses, he 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:23.239 was an orphan. 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:25.600 At a young age. 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.760 His mother and father threw him into the river. Why 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.360 it was a righteous thing. It was the only way 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:33.760 to keep him alive. But to the kid who's been abandoned, 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:38.960 the intention makes no difference. And some of you have 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.040 been rejected. If we were to rewind the tape to 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:42.320 see your mother and father, it's. 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:42.920 The best they had. 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:46.439 But the attention did not or matter to the consequences 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:51.560 that were devastating. And he was an orphan, born a Jew, 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.240 but then picked up by Egyptians, and he was raised 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:56.959 in an Egyptian home. And he was so confused his 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:58.760 whole life. Who am I? 0:13:58.760 --> 0:13:59.560 I don't know who I am. 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.839 And then at age forty, sees two people fighting, or 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.160 sees a man treating another man badly, and he jumps 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.480 in and he kills the guy and buries him. Then 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:10.320 the next day his scheme gets found out. Then he 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:15.600 runs into the desert because at a young. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.599 Age he was abandoned. 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:21.640 This immense pain that he went through as a child, 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.120 Now at age forty, he wasn't the one that was abandoned. 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.920 He abandoned what God had called him to, and he runs. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.960 And some of you have been abandoned, and some of 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.440 you have been You have abandoned what God has. 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:35.920 Called you to. 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.360 I think it's the orphan spirit that's been driving Moses 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:39.760 all along. 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:41.320 And it's really hard to. 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.560 Get to the right destination when I've got the voice 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:44.560 of the orphan giving me. 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:45.600 Turn by turned directions. 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:48.840 I wonder why you're getting in a traffic gym because 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.240 you're listening to the wrong voice. But I need you 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:54.880 to be aware of the voice of the orphan who 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:58.320 is echoing, chattering in your ear. And you've become so 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.720 familiar with it, it's become white. It's just happening. And 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.000 the devil doesn't have to stand on your shoulder accusing 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:09.080 you anymore. You just hear repeat, He's left you, He's 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:12.000 on to somebody else. You just keep repeating. Moses had 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.320 been repeating this track, this soundtrack for forty years. 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:17.000 He's eighty. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.000 Now God shows up in Exodus three. God's going to 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:21.360 come to him and he says, I need you to 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.880 do something and watch the cadence of the conversation between 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:29.200 God and Moses. Now as you hear the voice of 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:31.320 the orphan spirit speaking through Moses. I pray that you 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.920 hear your voice, because you and I bring the same 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.280 response to a holy God who's called us to something. 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:39.600 And Moses is responding from a place. 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.160 I think it's this orphan spirit. 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.360 And in Exodus chapter three, verse nine, it starts with this, 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:48.280 God's gonna come to him. And you'll see this back 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.720 and forth five times. It's fascinating to watch this thing happening. 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.720 In verse nine, he says, and now the crime the Israeli, says, 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.040 reached me, and I've seen the way the Egyptians are 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.720 oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you to 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:04.280 Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt. 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:06.520 You figure, God said it, go do it? Amen? 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:12.800 No, not the orphan spirit. How does Moses respond? He 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.840 says this, He says, but Moses said to God, who 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:17.720 am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.680 the Israelites out of Egypt. Here's what I think he's saying. 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.880 When I hear that, here's the first sound. The response 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:26.720 of the orphan spirit is I can't do that. 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:29.440 I can't do that. 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.600 And some of you have become really good at this response, 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.800 and you blame God for your disobedience, Well. 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:37.960 I feel is why I should pray about that. 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:43.560 No, you were just interjecting some Christians to justify your disobedience. 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.160 Insecurity is driving your. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.640 Decision and you're not even creating a space for God 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:49.160 to speak. 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.560 You have predetermined the answer. Now, what's the question. The 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.120 answer is, I can't do it. What's your question? I 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.360 can't do that. What's the question? Some it's the orphan 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:58.160 spirit in you. 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:04.000 When you're lived life driven by insecurity and doubt, you 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.600 don't see any situation that would be favorable. 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:13.440 To you winning. I can't do that. I can't do that. God. 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:17.840 I have been praying that the words of the Orthan 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:19.720 that we're going to talk about would become bitter in 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:23.200 your mouth, so that as they become spoken, they would 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.160 prompt you to say, Nope, you don't have to live 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.440 that way. You do not have to live that way. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:31.760 That's part of the vocabulary of the orphan. I can't 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.480 do that. And God is so gracious. I don't know 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.560 how you picture God. And sometimes we'll paint a picture 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:40.200 like the God of the Old Testament is the God 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:40.639 of wrath. 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:41.800 I don't see wrath. 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.159 In this conversation with Moses, I see a loving God. 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.280 I don't know what has shaped your picture of God, 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.600 because the reality is the Father often gives a The 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:55.800 earthly Father shapes how we see our heavenly Father. 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:58.600 Some of you have a skewed picture of. 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.119 Your heavenly Father because the earthly Father isn't what you 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.000 would have wanted, or your own decisions brought you a 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:04.120 place that you rejected it. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:07.120 But that God is. 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.040 Gracious and he leans in, and God's gonna come back. Okay, 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.359 Round two, that didn't work. Okay, here we go Moses, 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.600 and God said, I will be with you, and this 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:17.560 will be a sign to you that it is I 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.480 who sent you. When you have brought the people out 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.120 of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Here 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.200 is Moses's second response, This is part. 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.040 Of the vocabulary. I hope you're writing this down. 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:30.119 I hope you're capturing in this in a way that 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.679 you would start to examine yourself and let it be 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:34.960 a filter that you start to let everything flow through. 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.639 Am I responding with an orphan spirit or the spirit 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:37.880 of a. 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:38.440 Son or daughter. 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:42.280 That's what we're gonna break down today. We're gonna get surgical. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.840 But they need you to understand the subtle sounds of 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.000 the orphan that is causing you. 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:48.879 To forfeit your destiny. 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.120 You will forfeit more more territory than the devil will 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:57.119 ever steal. And it's in these subtle places of the shadows, 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.840 in the margins, where you don't believe God. So the 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.640 second response, God says this, and this says Then Moses said. 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:05.240 To God's second round. 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.480 Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.280 the God of your fathers has sent me to you, 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:11.320 and they ask me what is his name? 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:13.360 Then what should I tell them? 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.199 Here's what I think his response is saying, is the 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.000 second response of the orphan's fears. 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:18.680 How will I look? 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.280 He wasn't concerned how they saw God. He was looking 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:26.320 out for himself. What if they don't believe me? 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.040 What if they don't like me? He's so looking out 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:30.520 for himself. Here's what orphans do. 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:33.479 Orphans are always looking out for themselves because they can 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:38.840 never be sure if anyone else is. Orphans are obsessed 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:45.520 with how they look. What we do is projection. We 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:47.040 project We. 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:50.080 Think everybody sees us the way we see ourselves. 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.720 We project I've got the worst name it's possible of 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:58.240 how I see myself, and I think that's your starting point. 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.160 How many of you are project Oh I am such 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:04.119 a projector. My biggest fear in life is this, my 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:06.159 wife would think about me what I feel about myself. 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:09.800 Because if one thing, if I think it, is another 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:14.200 thing that she felt it, if she thought it or failure, 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:17.879 it'd be over. Why would I tell her something that 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:19.800 I struggle with. That's the enemy, that's the voice of 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.960 the orphan, because love covers, but orphans always cover it up. 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.239 Here's what I want to teach you, the gift of 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:34.560 self awareness. But I need you to teach you from 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:39.240 the seat of the sun, not the orphan self aware, 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.320 from the son or the daughter God. How do you 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:47.280 see me? That's self aware? It is recognizing that I've 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:49.760 got a father who sees me correct the way I 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:50.959 see myself. 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:53.200 I am self aware. How do you see me? Oh? 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:53.720 That was wrong. 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:58.159 I shouldn't have said that. But the orphan, Oh you're wrong, 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.160 You're just an idiot. One is an identity. 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:02.000 One is a behavior. 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:06.119 You need to understand that God always validates the identity. 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:10.399 Self aware, self conscious, here's how I think everybody else 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:13.159 sees me, and here's how I see myself. Most of 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.439 you are self conscious, and you're calling it self aware. 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:21.480 But the orphan spirit will always make you feel self conscious. 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.080 But the spirit of a son or a daughter, No, no, no, 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:26.119 it'll make you self aware. 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:29.080 You're right. I shouldn't have said that. God, I'm sorry, 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:33.960 Please forgive me versus. Oh, you're a horrible person. God 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:34.520 is gracious. 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:37.159 He's continuing this conversation because he wants to bring Moses 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.240 along with this journey. He's not just giving him a 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:40.800 one and done. Some of you feel like God's one 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:42.480 and done with me. He gave you that chance. 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:43.160 I'm on to the next. 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.400 That's not our God, that's not what I just see 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:47.679 displayed in the scriptures. I see a God who's in 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.800 the conversation, who's with you, who's walking alongside of you. Yes, 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:54.000 you bring him ninety nine excuses. He's gonna keep coming 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:57.360 to you one hundred times, and so the conversation continues. 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:01.199 In verse eighteen, he says this, Yes, he says, the 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:03.639 elders of Israel will listen to you. God says to Moses, 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:05.800 he says, then you and the elders are to go 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:07.720 to the King of Egypt and say to him, the Lord, 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:08.159 the God of. 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:09.800 The Keepers, has met us. 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:12.520 Let us take a three day journey into the willingness 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:16.159 to offer sacrifices to the Lord, our God. But I 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:17.879 know that the King of Egypt will not let you 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.520 go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:24.000 stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:27.040 the wonders that I perform among them, and then he 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:27.800 will let you go. 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:29.000 Moses, do you see. 0:22:28.800 --> 0:22:30.400 That I'm going to provide for you? Do you see 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:31.800 that I'm going to make every way for you? Do 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:33.320 you see that I'm the one running this thing? 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:33.760 Anyway? 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:38.400 All you have to do is show up. Here's Moses's response, 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:40.679 first one of chapter four, and Moses answer, what if 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.640 they don't believe me? You're listen to me and they 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:46.760 say the Lord did not appear to you. The third 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:49.399 sound of the orphan spirit is they won't accept me. 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:53.080 I think that's what Moses is saying here. There's a 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:59.800 profound sense of rejection. Rejection. Here's the reality when you're 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:02.240 comes into your life. Because we all start out. I 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:06.119 think showing up with high expectations. I'm expecting, and then 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:09.160 you get punched in the mouth and you get rejection. 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:11.360 What happens to your expectations. 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:15.159 You lower them to the level of your expirit so 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:19.200 you no longer experience disappointment anymore. Some of you started 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:21.440 out with an expectation that would make you rise up. 0:23:21.520 --> 0:23:23.760 Now it's fall into the place where you're tripping over it. 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:27.520 Not because you don't love God. You fear rejection. We 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:32.080 talked about projection. I want to talk about projection because 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:35.600 those of us that are familiar with rejection, we project 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:39.040 I am going to reject you before you reject me, 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:41.120 because I don't want to go through that anymore. That's 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:43.360 why you're on your third marriage. That's why you can't 0:23:43.400 --> 0:23:45.760 keep friends. That's why you keep popping from church to 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:49.679 church to church, because you are protecting yourself. You're prejecting. 0:23:50.240 --> 0:23:52.919 I don't want experience that again. So rather than go 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:55.400 through it, I will keep you at a distance, and 0:23:55.440 --> 0:23:57.639 I with it gets too close, I will reject you. 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:01.439 Because I don't I don't know if that will be 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:03.000 accept it. 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:06.040 How many of us are orphans living in a place 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:08.639 of such fear of rejection. It does not let us 0:24:08.640 --> 0:24:11.480 receive the love of the people that are around us. 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:13.239 Thank you. 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:18.720 One person clapped. I appreciate that, And God continues in 0:24:18.800 --> 0:24:20.760 verse eight. Is this helping anybody? 0:24:21.880 --> 0:24:22.280 Thank you? 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:27.560 Verse eight of chapter four. Then the Lord said, look 0:24:27.600 --> 0:24:29.560 how gracious God is. He's putting up with all of 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:30.360 his excuses. 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:32.720 Blah blah blah blah. I'd be like on with them 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:36.360 enough already. But God is so gracious. 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:38.479 And he says, if they don't believe you and pay 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:41.399 attention to the first sign, they will maybe believe the second. 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:43.960 But if they don't believe these two signs, or listen, 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:45.520 do you take some water from the nile, pour down 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:47.280 on the dry ground. The water you take from the 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:50.120 river will become blood in the ground. Now, Moses says, 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:53.880 verse ten, pardon your servant, Lord, I've never been eloquent, 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:56.600 neither in the past nor since I've spoken. 0:24:56.240 --> 0:24:56.800 To your servant. 0:24:56.880 --> 0:25:01.000 I am slow and speech and tongue. Here's the sound 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:05.320 of the orphan there. It's like, I'm not enough. Here's 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:08.240 what scarcity does in our lives and rejection does. It 0:25:08.280 --> 0:25:10.840 starts with I don't have enough, it moves on to 0:25:11.000 --> 0:25:13.639 I'm not good enough. Then eventually it stands in the 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:17.399 place of I'll never be enough. We grew up really poor, 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:21.760 like free government cheese, poor as a kid, and so 0:25:21.880 --> 0:25:24.679 that mindset of an orphan who had no money. 0:25:24.760 --> 0:25:26.320 I might be able to buy new clothes right now, 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:28.080 but I still feel like a third grader eating a 0:25:28.160 --> 0:25:31.280 cheese sandwich. I remember we were so poor. 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:32.639 When I would go to the gas station, I will 0:25:32.680 --> 0:25:34.359 only put two dollars worth of gas in that a time, 0:25:34.359 --> 0:25:37.280 because that's all I could afford. I remember in college 0:25:37.320 --> 0:25:40.000 I got a credit card. Don't do that, don't give 0:25:40.040 --> 0:25:43.480 your kid a credit card. And I remember using my 0:25:43.560 --> 0:25:45.679 credit card for the very first time. I go to 0:25:45.720 --> 0:25:48.040 the gas station. I'm like, I'm putting ten dollars worth 0:25:48.080 --> 0:25:52.080 of gas in this car. I have lived in large 0:25:52.119 --> 0:25:54.800 today ten bucks in the car, baby, and I run 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:59.199 the card and I'm staring at the thing. I've been 0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:04.040 waiting my whole life to say, not approved in every 0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:08.520 area of my life because the reality is, it wasn't 0:26:08.600 --> 0:26:12.080 my fear that my dad didn't love me. The deepest 0:26:12.080 --> 0:26:15.840 fear is I wasn't worth loving. And when that orphan 0:26:15.920 --> 0:26:18.400 spirit drowns you into the ground and beats you up, 0:26:18.760 --> 0:26:23.280 it makes you feel like you're not even worth loving 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:30.800 because I'm not good enough. And then God still doesn't 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:32.840 give up on him. 0:26:32.840 --> 0:26:36.000 Most as you're my boy, most as I got you. 0:26:36.040 --> 0:26:38.440 I picked you not because you're eloquent, not because you're good, 0:26:38.480 --> 0:26:39.440 because you're mind. 0:26:40.000 --> 0:26:42.240 I picked you because I'm sovereign and your mind. 0:26:43.400 --> 0:26:45.280 If I were looking for eloquence, I would have passed 0:26:45.280 --> 0:26:49.159 by you long ago. But the way God picks is 0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:52.280 not what you and I use. And so God comes 0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:55.400 to him another time, and he said, if God says 0:26:55.400 --> 0:26:57.360 this in verse eleven, he says, the Lord said to him, 0:26:57.720 --> 0:26:59.840 who gave human beings their mouths? God is like stepping 0:26:59.880 --> 0:27:02.880 the the game. Who gave them their mouths? Who made 0:27:02.880 --> 0:27:04.880 them deaf or mute? Who gives them sir or makes 0:27:04.920 --> 0:27:05.439 them blind? 0:27:06.119 --> 0:27:08.800 Is it not I? The Lord? Now go, I will 0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:11.080 help you speak and teach you what to say. God's 0:27:11.119 --> 0:27:15.080 like I got all your excuses covered. Verse thirteen. Moses 0:27:15.119 --> 0:27:19.280 has pardoned your servant, Lord, Please send someone else. 0:27:20.840 --> 0:27:22.840 I think the fifth sound of the orphan spirit, the 0:27:22.920 --> 0:27:27.800 orphan heart is I'm going to fail, and some of 0:27:27.840 --> 0:27:30.000 you will always play it safe because you never want 0:27:30.040 --> 0:27:33.840 to fail, because the reality is when you live life 0:27:33.880 --> 0:27:37.600 is an orphan It's one thing between failing and the 0:27:37.640 --> 0:27:39.840 whole other thing to be a fail year. 0:27:41.000 --> 0:27:42.320 That's what the orphan spirit does. 0:27:42.920 --> 0:27:45.520 And outside of Christ, we would close the book and 0:27:45.560 --> 0:27:47.080 we'd be done with a sermon, because that's all this 0:27:47.240 --> 0:27:50.479 available as orphan spirits. But the story does not end there, 0:27:50.520 --> 0:27:52.800 because we serve a great God, and there's a whole 0:27:52.840 --> 0:27:54.960 other side of the sermon. And I'm about to preach. 0:27:55.200 --> 0:27:57.080 I'm about to show you the God that we serve. 0:27:57.280 --> 0:28:01.119 I'm about to bring the God who loves you. 0:28:00.160 --> 0:28:01.200 For your life. 0:28:02.359 --> 0:28:05.200 Some of you so identify, and I get the moments 0:28:05.200 --> 0:28:08.040 of silence because I'm getting really close. Because the orphan 0:28:08.119 --> 0:28:10.120 spirit is an equal opportunity employer. 0:28:11.560 --> 0:28:14.800 The matter race age is going to try to enslave 0:28:14.960 --> 0:28:16.360 every single one of you. 0:28:18.359 --> 0:28:20.239 But here's the scripture I want to speak over you 0:28:20.520 --> 0:28:23.679 is in Romans chapter eight, verses fourteen to seventeen. This 0:28:23.800 --> 0:28:26.880 is the good News of the Gospel. Here it says, 0:28:26.920 --> 0:28:29.199 for those who are led by the Spirit of God 0:28:29.240 --> 0:28:31.000 are the children of God. 0:28:31.400 --> 0:28:34.280 Oh this makes me happy just reading this. The spirit 0:28:34.400 --> 0:28:36.960 you received does not make you slave, so that you 0:28:37.119 --> 0:28:38.560 live in fear again. 0:28:39.000 --> 0:28:41.640 You see what he's speaking there because the orphan spirit 0:28:41.720 --> 0:28:44.920 is what happens outside of Jesus. It can still be 0:28:45.000 --> 0:28:48.080 what you go to in Jesus because it makes you 0:28:48.120 --> 0:28:51.560 a slave, and it's driven by fear. That's the orphan spirit. 0:28:51.760 --> 0:28:54.280 That's the old spirit. That's the one that died. But 0:28:54.320 --> 0:28:58.000 he keeps popping his head back up. That's how you were. 0:28:58.120 --> 0:29:00.520 But this is not who you have to be. And 0:29:00.560 --> 0:29:03.040 he says, so that you live in fear. But the spirit, rather, 0:29:03.080 --> 0:29:04.960 the spirit you received, brought about your. 0:29:04.840 --> 0:29:09.960 Adoption to sonship. And by him we cry abba Father. 0:29:10.400 --> 0:29:13.400 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit though we are 0:29:14.040 --> 0:29:17.320 God's children. Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, 0:29:17.520 --> 0:29:20.440 heirs of God and co heirs of Christ. 0:29:20.760 --> 0:29:23.440 That is good news. That means that all who have 0:29:23.560 --> 0:29:26.880 received the Holy Spirit have been adopted and we have 0:29:27.000 --> 0:29:29.680 the right to become children of God. 0:29:29.720 --> 0:29:32.320 Not because of your performance, because the orphan spirit is 0:29:32.360 --> 0:29:34.880 always trying to prove itself through the performance. If I 0:29:34.880 --> 0:29:36.520 could just do it a little bit better, if I 0:29:36.520 --> 0:29:38.680 could say it a little bit more articulate, maybe just 0:29:38.720 --> 0:29:40.920 maybe I'd get picked. That's not what it means to 0:29:40.960 --> 0:29:42.560 be adopted as son or daughter of the Most I 0:29:42.680 --> 0:29:48.480 got this, You're adopted into sonship. We do a lot 0:29:48.520 --> 0:30:00.440 of ship in church, fellowship, discipleship, leadership, but it all 0:30:00.480 --> 0:30:05.840 starts with sonship. That's the foundation for everything you'll build on. 0:30:06.040 --> 0:30:07.320 Is that. 0:30:09.680 --> 0:30:12.840 And I love the scripture that you've been adopted as 0:30:12.920 --> 0:30:15.880 sons and daughters of the Most High God, and it 0:30:15.920 --> 0:30:18.600 means that you are co heirs. Here's what that scripture 0:30:18.600 --> 0:30:21.360 really means. It means you got access and you got inheritance. 0:30:22.480 --> 0:30:25.600 You mean I am a co heir with Jesus. It 0:30:25.680 --> 0:30:28.040 means I got all the access Jesus. 0:30:27.640 --> 0:30:32.080 Have I have. You mean all the rights and benefits 0:30:32.080 --> 0:30:33.200 that Jesus got I got. 0:30:33.320 --> 0:30:35.440 Yes, that's the good news, son or daughter of the 0:30:35.440 --> 0:30:36.000 Most that God. 0:30:36.320 --> 0:30:39.640 You have that access and you have that inheritance. 0:30:39.720 --> 0:30:42.160 That's for all of us who have received Jesus as 0:30:42.200 --> 0:30:44.360 our lord and saver, being forgiven of our sins. We 0:30:44.440 --> 0:30:48.520 have been adopted as sons and daughters of the Most God. 0:30:49.440 --> 0:30:52.440 But here's what I realize is when I as a 0:30:52.480 --> 0:30:55.120 pastor in anybody who wants to leave, when I'm driven 0:30:55.520 --> 0:30:57.840 by the orphan spirit, I will build an orphanage and 0:30:57.840 --> 0:31:04.360 not a church. Here's the reality I wish I could 0:31:04.400 --> 0:31:06.800 say I have perfected this a week ago. 0:31:07.280 --> 0:31:09.640 I get on my son so hard and. 0:31:09.600 --> 0:31:12.200 It's completely me speaking from an orphan spirit, and I 0:31:12.280 --> 0:31:13.959 so hurt him. I had to go to him after 0:31:14.040 --> 0:31:16.960 and say, man, I'm so sorry, buddy, forgive me for that. 0:31:17.120 --> 0:31:18.160 I'm still in process. 0:31:18.360 --> 0:31:21.280 I'm still in motion that little orphan and pops her 0:31:21.280 --> 0:31:23.920 head up really often in my life. But what I 0:31:23.960 --> 0:31:26.400 have through the person of Jesus is the ability to 0:31:26.440 --> 0:31:28.600 take that thought captive, make it obedient to him and 0:31:28.720 --> 0:31:30.120 how do I want to operate? So I had to 0:31:30.840 --> 0:31:33.280 ask my son for forgiveness. I'm still working on it. 0:31:35.440 --> 0:31:38.320 But for those of us who call Elevation Church home, 0:31:38.320 --> 0:31:40.480 here's why you love this church so much. Because Pastor 0:31:40.480 --> 0:31:42.320 Steven has been my pastor for twenty years. 0:31:43.080 --> 0:31:45.360 But he's more than my pastor. He's my spiritual father. 0:31:46.920 --> 0:31:49.640 He's the one that made me feel seen and known, 0:31:50.280 --> 0:31:51.840 and he made me feel like I was home. 0:31:52.880 --> 0:31:55.400 He made me feel like I belonged. And for all 0:31:55.400 --> 0:31:58.240 of you that call Elevation Church home, aren't you glad 0:31:58.720 --> 0:32:01.880 that we've got a pastor who's a father, who's creating 0:32:01.880 --> 0:32:04.240 a house where you're gonna have to prove yourself in 0:32:04.280 --> 0:32:10.120 this place. Oh my goodness. Oh, but I want to 0:32:10.120 --> 0:32:12.240 take a second to say, how do you see God? 0:32:13.960 --> 0:32:14.800 How do you see him? 0:32:15.240 --> 0:32:17.880 Do you picture to him with a furrowed brow, arms crossed, 0:32:17.880 --> 0:32:21.320 waiting in disappointment, judging every one of your decisions based 0:32:21.400 --> 0:32:28.640 upon what's the image you see? Is it a face 0:32:28.680 --> 0:32:32.920 filled with kindness? Or is it a distant God who 0:32:32.960 --> 0:32:36.160 isn't personal to you? Because you'll never feel like you're 0:32:36.160 --> 0:32:39.160 a son when your father is distant. So when we 0:32:39.280 --> 0:32:41.640 use the term abba father, it's only used three times 0:32:41.680 --> 0:32:44.280 in the New Testament. It's the most tender term of God. 0:32:44.720 --> 0:32:47.840 It means father, it means dad, it means intimacy, It 0:32:47.880 --> 0:32:49.920 means he's close, and it means he loves you, and 0:32:49.960 --> 0:32:51.200 he means he's in this thing with you. 0:32:51.520 --> 0:32:55.520 How do you picture God? Because I cannot see myself 0:32:55.560 --> 0:32:57.360 as a son if I have a bad picture of 0:32:57.400 --> 0:33:01.240 my father. Oh, I got to start with how do 0:33:01.360 --> 0:33:01.960 I see God? 0:33:02.040 --> 0:33:03.840 And I want to go to a familiar passage, but 0:33:03.880 --> 0:33:05.720 I want to frame it through a way of helping 0:33:05.760 --> 0:33:08.120 you learn how to see God differently. It's gonna be 0:33:08.160 --> 0:33:10.200 the story of the prodigal son. Some of you you've 0:33:10.200 --> 0:33:12.280 heard it so many times. Cool, that's fine. I want 0:33:12.320 --> 0:33:13.400 to go through it in this way, and I want 0:33:13.400 --> 0:33:13.680 you to. 0:33:13.600 --> 0:33:16.200 See God a little bit different. Here's the review of 0:33:16.240 --> 0:33:16.800 the story. 0:33:17.080 --> 0:33:19.400 He's got two sons in this story of the prodigal Son. 0:33:19.440 --> 0:33:21.280 It's out of Luke chapter fifteen. 0:33:21.640 --> 0:33:24.240 The younger son is like, Dad, I wish you were dead, 0:33:25.280 --> 0:33:27.760 because if you were dead then I could have your inheritance. 0:33:28.160 --> 0:33:29.720 I don't want to wait until you're dead. So how 0:33:29.760 --> 0:33:31.560 about you give it to me now so I can 0:33:31.600 --> 0:33:34.280 go enjoy it. And here's the reality. God is good. 0:33:34.360 --> 0:33:36.840 And sometimes you'll be asking God for what you want, 0:33:37.720 --> 0:33:40.560 but it's not what you need. Oh, some of the 0:33:40.560 --> 0:33:42.280 worst things that happened in your life is you got 0:33:42.280 --> 0:33:44.400 what you wanted. Ah. 0:33:44.400 --> 0:33:46.080 And he got what he wanted, and he went to 0:33:46.160 --> 0:33:48.400 Vegas and he got naked and crazy. 0:33:49.520 --> 0:33:49.680 Is that? 0:33:49.760 --> 0:33:52.720 In the passage he goes off and he squanders this 0:33:53.200 --> 0:33:56.640 living in wild living, squanders it and he wakes up 0:33:56.640 --> 0:34:00.000 in a pig pen one day. Now, remember this is 0:34:00.120 --> 0:34:05.000 the son who rejected his father. This is a good dad. 0:34:05.680 --> 0:34:07.480 But he woke up in a pigpen and he starts 0:34:07.520 --> 0:34:14.759 rehearsing his orphan speech. I'm no longer worthy to be 0:34:14.880 --> 0:34:19.920 called your son. Treat me like one of your hired slaves. 0:34:21.120 --> 0:34:24.880 Give me that, Give me that. Romans eighth fifteen passage again. 0:34:26.880 --> 0:34:32.719 Says he said, the spirit you're received does not make 0:34:32.760 --> 0:34:38.000 you slaves, so that you live in fear. Again, here's 0:34:38.000 --> 0:34:40.279 a son who was loved by his father. Because of 0:34:40.360 --> 0:34:46.560 his decisions, he woke up in a pig pen. I said, 0:34:46.560 --> 0:34:49.720 I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat 0:34:49.760 --> 0:34:54.280 me like one of your hired slaves. And he starts 0:34:54.280 --> 0:34:56.200 out in this journey to come back to his father. 0:34:56.800 --> 0:34:58.520 Here's what I would want to speak over some of 0:34:58.520 --> 0:35:00.520 you today. You did not come to church coming home 0:35:00.520 --> 0:35:05.120 to the father. You are creating in the in image 0:35:05.160 --> 0:35:07.600 of God. There's an indelible mark that's been left on you. 0:35:08.000 --> 0:35:09.880 And though you are in a pig pen, there's something 0:35:09.880 --> 0:35:11.360 that says I'm created for more than this. 0:35:11.680 --> 0:35:15.120 That's the Holy Spirit prompting you, calling you back to 0:35:15.200 --> 0:35:17.200 your father. That's the God that we serve. 0:35:17.680 --> 0:35:19.800 Even in his lowest moment, he knew that if I 0:35:19.840 --> 0:35:22.640 could just get back to my dad, I'm not worthy 0:35:22.680 --> 0:35:24.160 to be called your son. But just if I can 0:35:24.200 --> 0:35:26.800 get there, and he sets out in this journey, walking 0:35:26.840 --> 0:35:31.160 this walk of shame, hands in his pocket, shuffling his feet, 0:35:31.640 --> 0:35:36.480 head down, shoulders slumped, the posture of an orphan who 0:35:36.480 --> 0:35:40.040 doesn't feel good enough to be picked. And in the passage, 0:35:40.719 --> 0:35:45.120 the father he always knew his son would come back home. 0:35:46.520 --> 0:35:48.720 And he says when he saw him at a distance, 0:35:49.239 --> 0:35:56.399 his heart was filled with compassion, not contempt, not condemnation, 0:35:57.239 --> 0:36:01.120 not criticism. You need to know that Abba, his heart 0:36:01.400 --> 0:36:02.680 is compassionate towards you. 0:36:02.920 --> 0:36:06.520 He sees you. And what did that compassion do? It 0:36:06.560 --> 0:36:07.840 made him run to his son. 0:36:08.200 --> 0:36:10.640 The son just move towards the dad, and the dad 0:36:10.719 --> 0:36:12.000 came running to him. 0:36:12.160 --> 0:36:13.080 That's Abba, father. 0:36:14.160 --> 0:36:16.600 If you just turn to him, you just look towards 0:36:16.640 --> 0:36:19.840 him and moved, he will come running towards you. That's Abba, father. 0:36:20.040 --> 0:36:25.040 What's the look on the dad's face? Tears because he 0:36:25.120 --> 0:36:26.920 was broken that his son had to walk through that. 0:36:27.960 --> 0:36:31.280 And the son starts giving his orphan speech, Dad, I'm. 0:36:31.080 --> 0:36:33.239 No longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me. 0:36:35.239 --> 0:36:39.480 He just said, Let's give him a name. Let's call 0:36:39.520 --> 0:36:39.919 him paul. 0:36:41.960 --> 0:36:43.840 Little Paulie would walk around the house when he was 0:36:43.880 --> 0:36:46.680 a little boy. He'd play with all of his daddy's 0:36:46.680 --> 0:36:49.239 things because he knew he was his dad's son. Paul 0:36:50.360 --> 0:36:53.960 and Paul went to the pig pin. Paul woke up 0:36:54.000 --> 0:36:55.200 one day and said, I need to go back to 0:36:55.239 --> 0:36:55.640 my father. 0:36:57.160 --> 0:36:57.319 Now. 0:36:57.360 --> 0:37:02.279 The father, at a distance, sees his Paul. You see, 0:37:02.280 --> 0:37:03.800 sometimes we don't make God personal. 0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:13.239 He's so personal. He knows your name, Paul, that's my 0:37:13.400 --> 0:37:14.520 baby boy. 0:37:14.880 --> 0:37:17.640 And his heart was broken that his son had to 0:37:17.680 --> 0:37:21.000 experience that rejection. And he runs to him and he 0:37:21.080 --> 0:37:23.160 meets him and the son starts giving him a speech. 0:37:23.239 --> 0:37:28.760 He's like, it's like, my son who is dead is alive? 0:37:28.840 --> 0:37:29.240 I can. 0:37:31.040 --> 0:37:34.800 And then he puts a See, here's the thing, because 0:37:34.840 --> 0:37:38.440 co air means you've got access and you've got inheritance. 0:37:39.520 --> 0:37:43.040 In that culture, when the son disrespected his father like that, 0:37:43.360 --> 0:37:45.600 he would have never been allowed to come back into 0:37:45.600 --> 0:37:46.440 his father's presence. 0:37:46.480 --> 0:37:47.759 That's what religion always does. 0:37:48.719 --> 0:37:50.880 It says, based upon your behavior and your performance, you 0:37:50.920 --> 0:37:54.040 know no longer worthy, so go get right and then 0:37:54.080 --> 0:37:55.520 you can come back into his presence. 0:37:55.719 --> 0:37:58.640 That's religion. That's not a god. That's not the god 0:37:58.680 --> 0:37:59.239 that we serve. 0:38:02.280 --> 0:38:06.239 Because the town's elders would never have allowed that son 0:38:06.320 --> 0:38:09.879 to come back into his father's presence again. They would 0:38:09.880 --> 0:38:12.839 have met that boy on the road, taken him behind 0:38:12.840 --> 0:38:16.240 the woodshed and beaten him, because that's what his performance deserved. 0:38:16.840 --> 0:38:18.680 Why is the father running to get to the sun 0:38:18.760 --> 0:38:21.000 one because his heart is filled with compassion, and too. 0:38:20.920 --> 0:38:22.239 Is he needed to get there before the mob? 0:38:24.120 --> 0:38:28.560 Because no, no, you've got unlimited access to me because 0:38:28.600 --> 0:38:31.319 you're my son, not because of what you did, not 0:38:31.440 --> 0:38:35.080 because of who you know, but you are my son. 0:38:35.239 --> 0:38:37.920 This son of mine who was dead is alive again. 0:38:40.000 --> 0:38:42.279 And then he says, put a robe on him, it's 0:38:42.320 --> 0:38:46.800 his inheritance, because that's your kingship, his inheritance. Put a 0:38:46.840 --> 0:38:49.680 ring on his finger, it's the authority. You never lost 0:38:49.719 --> 0:38:54.160 the authority. It's always been yours all along. And then 0:38:54.239 --> 0:38:59.200 what's amazing is he put sandals on his feet. You 0:38:59.200 --> 0:39:01.160 know what the difference between a slave and his son was. 0:39:02.440 --> 0:39:06.960 Slaves didn't wear shoes, sons did. He's re establishing his 0:39:07.040 --> 0:39:09.520 sonship that he never lost. 0:39:10.120 --> 0:39:13.560 A'b a father. His heart is filled with compassion, and 0:39:13.560 --> 0:39:15.440 he came running to him. 0:39:15.719 --> 0:39:19.560 But as I was studying for this, I became fascinated 0:39:19.560 --> 0:39:23.680 because there's this other son. He was out working on 0:39:23.719 --> 0:39:24.799 the back forty He shows up. 0:39:24.760 --> 0:39:25.840 Because they're gonna have a party. 0:39:26.239 --> 0:39:28.200 The dad's like, hey, kill the fatted calf, throw the 0:39:28.200 --> 0:39:32.440 brisket on the trigger, let's eat, let's go. And so 0:39:32.480 --> 0:39:34.760 the son shows up and he starts smelling the aroma 0:39:34.800 --> 0:39:37.880 of meat, and he hears the party, and he's like, 0:39:37.920 --> 0:39:38.520 what's going on? 0:39:38.800 --> 0:39:41.440 They told me your son or your brother? He's back. 0:39:42.280 --> 0:39:45.200 Look how the sun responded the other son. So you 0:39:45.239 --> 0:39:50.560 got Paul the prodigal. This is Patrick. I'm gonna call 0:39:50.640 --> 0:39:55.480 him Patrick the prideful Luke fifteen, verse twenty says the 0:39:55.480 --> 0:39:57.480 older brother became angry and he refused to go win. 0:39:58.640 --> 0:40:00.359 The father went out and pleated with him. 0:40:00.400 --> 0:40:02.520 Look at the position of the posture of the father. 0:40:03.080 --> 0:40:06.480 He goes to him. He goes to both sons. One 0:40:06.600 --> 0:40:09.960 was a prodigal who smelled like last night, and the 0:40:10.000 --> 0:40:12.560 other one who's been working for a reward that was 0:40:12.600 --> 0:40:13.920 not his father's relationship. 0:40:15.160 --> 0:40:18.480 I wonder how many of us think that God owes 0:40:18.560 --> 0:40:18.960 us something. 0:40:21.840 --> 0:40:23.680 He was angry, refused to go and so he father 0:40:23.680 --> 0:40:27.720 went out and he pleaded with him. But he answered 0:40:27.719 --> 0:40:32.440 his father, look all these years i've been slaving. You 0:40:32.480 --> 0:40:34.200 mean the son who was in the house of himself 0:40:34.239 --> 0:40:37.840 as an orphan too, because he was working for the reward, 0:40:37.920 --> 0:40:43.879 not the relationship. He got two orphans in this home. 0:40:45.640 --> 0:40:49.440 And I've never disobeyed you. You never gave me even 0:40:49.440 --> 0:40:51.240 a young coach. So I can celebrate with my friends. 0:40:51.840 --> 0:40:54.320 But when this son of yours, he's not even claiming 0:40:54.400 --> 0:40:58.960 him as his brother, this son of yours, when this 0:40:59.040 --> 0:41:02.200 son of your squander your property with prostitutes, comes home, 0:41:02.239 --> 0:41:04.880 you kill a fatic cap for him. My son, the 0:41:04.880 --> 0:41:10.000 father said, you will always be with me. Access and 0:41:10.080 --> 0:41:13.560 everything I have is yours inheritance. But we had to 0:41:13.600 --> 0:41:16.160 celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours is dead, 0:41:16.719 --> 0:41:20.759 is alive again. He was lost and is found. So 0:41:20.800 --> 0:41:23.040 in my Bible I changed the label of that passage. 0:41:23.080 --> 0:41:26.960 It's the prodigal son, the prideful son. 0:41:27.280 --> 0:41:31.240 And abba Father. How do you see God? 0:41:32.239 --> 0:41:34.799 A God who's filled with compassion and kindness, or God 0:41:34.800 --> 0:41:37.759 who's got a scorecard just marking down the mistakes you make? 0:41:39.000 --> 0:41:42.440 How do you see God? And this whole thing is 0:41:42.480 --> 0:41:44.520 created because we have access to God. 0:41:44.320 --> 0:41:47.680 Through Jesus Christ. And what you need to understand is 0:41:47.719 --> 0:41:53.640 when Jesus went on the cross. God had to abandon 0:41:53.680 --> 0:41:57.080 his son in that moment because the wrath that was 0:41:57.080 --> 0:41:59.000 intended for you and me needed to be laid on 0:41:59.120 --> 0:42:02.280 his son Jesus. So in that moment, his son felt 0:42:02.320 --> 0:42:06.160 rejected and he was abandoned. Jesus was orphaned on the cross, 0:42:08.920 --> 0:42:09.799 and Jesus. 0:42:09.440 --> 0:42:12.719 Cries, up, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 0:42:12.760 --> 0:42:14.440 The greatest pain in the cross was not the nails. 0:42:14.440 --> 0:42:16.480 It was the separation from the Father, and. 0:42:16.480 --> 0:42:17.440 It felt like rejection. 0:42:18.200 --> 0:42:19.840 And what we need to understand is we've got a 0:42:19.960 --> 0:42:22.640 savior who has been tempted in every way with you 0:42:22.719 --> 0:42:25.520 are as I am. He is one who has been orphaned, 0:42:25.560 --> 0:42:27.839 and he knows what it feels like to be separated. 0:42:28.080 --> 0:42:32.440 But three days later, Father looks back towards the sun 0:42:32.760 --> 0:42:35.640 and he feels his pleasure and he rises in victory. 0:42:36.320 --> 0:42:39.799 That's the God that we serve. We have access because 0:42:39.800 --> 0:42:47.400 of the finished work of Jesus. But Jesus was preparing 0:42:47.440 --> 0:42:48.880 his disciples for the cross. 0:42:48.920 --> 0:42:51.960 He knew his assignment. They didn't take his life, he 0:42:52.000 --> 0:42:56.400 gave it up. He knew the assignment he was preparing 0:42:56.400 --> 0:42:57.799 them for when he would go to the cross. It 0:42:57.800 --> 0:43:01.399 says this in John Chapter fourteen, Verse six team He says, 0:43:01.440 --> 0:43:04.399 and I will ask the Father and he will give 0:43:04.440 --> 0:43:07.160 you another advocate to help you, because he's preparing for 0:43:07.200 --> 0:43:08.520 them when they're going to feel like they're going to 0:43:08.560 --> 0:43:11.040 be rejected and they're going to be orphaned because the 0:43:11.040 --> 0:43:12.840 one that they had put all of their allegiance to 0:43:12.920 --> 0:43:14.759 for three years is now going to leave. And they 0:43:14.760 --> 0:43:17.160 didn't get it. But Jesus says, I've already prepared for 0:43:17.160 --> 0:43:20.239 that moment where you're going to feel orphaned. I've asked 0:43:20.280 --> 0:43:22.200 the Father, and he's going to send an advocate, the 0:43:22.200 --> 0:43:26.000 Holy Spirit, and to help you and be with you forever. 0:43:27.160 --> 0:43:31.680 Verse seventeen. The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept 0:43:31.719 --> 0:43:35.000 him because another sees him or nor knows him, but 0:43:35.160 --> 0:43:38.520 you know him, for he lives in you and will 0:43:38.560 --> 0:43:44.520 be in you. Verse eighteen. He says, I will not 0:43:44.680 --> 0:43:51.000 leave you as orphans. Jesus knew that you and I 0:43:51.040 --> 0:43:54.919 will go through seasons where we will feel orphaned, where 0:43:54.960 --> 0:43:59.200 we will feel separated. But he sent the Holy Spirit, 0:43:59.680 --> 0:44:02.440 the Hell, the Guide, the pyrocle, the one to come 0:44:02.480 --> 0:44:03.120 and live. 0:44:03.000 --> 0:44:03.719 Inside of you. 0:44:04.080 --> 0:44:06.480 And because of that spirit, it gives us the right 0:44:06.520 --> 0:44:10.839 to cry out Abbah Father, because we've been adopted as 0:44:10.920 --> 0:44:14.520 sons and daughters of the Most High God. 0:44:15.680 --> 0:44:16.879 That's the God that we serve. 0:44:17.920 --> 0:44:23.160 And I was preparing for this sermon, I kept going 0:44:23.160 --> 0:44:27.480 back to that place of I just wanted to be 0:44:27.520 --> 0:44:32.279 with my Dad, the deepest cries in my heart, where 0:44:32.320 --> 0:44:35.080 I just want to be with you. I'm coming with 0:44:36.440 --> 0:44:39.799 But then I read the words of David who penned 0:44:39.800 --> 0:44:42.520 this as a boy, and I saw on one thirty 0:44:42.560 --> 0:44:45.360 nine verse sibiesis, but where can I go from your spirit? 0:44:46.239 --> 0:44:52.600 Where can I flee from your presence? Verse eight? If 0:44:52.640 --> 0:44:54.000 I go up to the heavens, you are there. If 0:44:54.040 --> 0:44:57.239 I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 0:44:58.280 --> 0:45:00.480 The deepest cry of my heart was to just be 0:45:00.600 --> 0:45:04.160 with my father. I'm coming with But in my heavenly Father, 0:45:05.239 --> 0:45:08.759 I found a God who says, I'm coming with you. 0:45:09.920 --> 0:45:12.719 If you go to the mountaintops, I'm coming with you. 0:45:13.080 --> 0:45:16.360 If you make your bed into depths, I'm coming with you. 0:45:16.680 --> 0:45:20.040 I'm not intimidated by your shame, I'm not put up 0:45:20.040 --> 0:45:22.880 by your mistakes. I'm a God who's coming. 0:45:23.280 --> 0:45:26.040 I'm coming with you. 0:45:27.600 --> 0:45:29.640 Stand your feet at all of our locations. 0:45:32.800 --> 0:45:35.520 The way to be adopted as a son or daughter 0:45:35.560 --> 0:45:38.600 of the Most High God, is they're confessing that you're 0:45:38.640 --> 0:45:42.240 a sinner, believing in your mouth that Jesus is your lord, 0:45:42.680 --> 0:45:45.600 and confessing that he died and rose again. And if 0:45:45.640 --> 0:45:48.879 you have never placed your faith in Jesus, if you've 0:45:48.920 --> 0:45:50.520 never been made a new creation. 0:45:51.239 --> 0:45:53.120 This is why God brought you here. He wants to 0:45:53.120 --> 0:45:57.239 forgive you of all of your sins. He wants to 0:45:57.320 --> 0:45:59.840 redeem you, and it wants to make you a s 0:46:01.360 --> 0:46:01.960 and a daughter. 0:46:03.400 --> 0:46:05.480 And what I want to speak over some of you men, 0:46:06.840 --> 0:46:09.920 I'm not your father, but I'm a father, and I 0:46:09.960 --> 0:46:12.480 would want you to hear from your heavenly father's voices, 0:46:12.920 --> 0:46:16.239 proud of you. You've been waiting your whole life to 0:46:16.280 --> 0:46:20.279 hear those words. He's proud of you, not what you did. 0:46:20.440 --> 0:46:24.360 He's proud of who you are. That's the God that 0:46:24.400 --> 0:46:31.919 we serve. And some of you have been keeping God 0:46:31.960 --> 0:46:34.719 at a distance because you feel like religion. I need 0:46:34.760 --> 0:46:38.359 to clean myself up before I come to him. That's 0:46:38.400 --> 0:46:41.880 the reason he died is because you couldn't do it. Maybe, 0:46:41.920 --> 0:46:43.800 just maybe this is the moment that God is breaking 0:46:43.800 --> 0:46:46.080 through all of that shame, all of that guilt, that 0:46:46.160 --> 0:46:48.120 has made you stand at a distance, and you keep 0:46:48.120 --> 0:46:50.719 defining yourself by your lowest moments. But God sees you 0:46:50.760 --> 0:46:54.080 according to your highest potential, and he loves you, and 0:46:54.080 --> 0:46:56.520 he brought this opportunity for you to be forgiven. And 0:46:56.560 --> 0:46:59.919 would you bow your heads, close your eyes, nobody moving. 0:47:00.040 --> 0:47:01.200 This is a holy moment. 0:47:02.840 --> 0:47:07.520 This is where sons and daughters are coming back to God. 0:47:08.360 --> 0:47:10.080 And if you have never placed your faith in Him, 0:47:10.080 --> 0:47:12.319 if you've never been forgiven of your sins, we are 0:47:12.320 --> 0:47:15.000 going to say a prayer together out loud for the 0:47:15.040 --> 0:47:18.240 benefit of somebody who's making this decision for the first 0:47:18.239 --> 0:47:20.680 time or coming back to him. 0:47:21.800 --> 0:47:24.480 Pray with me out loud, Church family. I believe that 0:47:24.560 --> 0:47:25.560 Jesus Christ. 0:47:27.040 --> 0:47:29.920 Is the son of God who died in the cross 0:47:30.920 --> 0:47:34.279 and rose from the grave to forgive me of my sin. 0:47:36.000 --> 0:47:38.919 I give you my life, I give you my sin, 0:47:40.040 --> 0:47:44.160 I give you my shame. Forgive me, and I'll spend 0:47:44.200 --> 0:47:48.440 my life following you with your headst about in your 0:47:48.440 --> 0:47:51.279 eyes that closed. I'm going to count the three and 0:47:51.320 --> 0:47:53.799 when I get there, without hesitation, I need you to 0:47:53.840 --> 0:47:56.200 boldly shoot your hand in the air, declaring you are 0:47:56.280 --> 0:47:59.080 trusting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. On the count 0:47:59.080 --> 0:48:03.120 of three, one, two, three, should you hand up well, 0:48:03.120 --> 0:48:06.320 all across this auditorium, all across there auditorium. 0:48:06.880 --> 0:48:10.480 I'm all a's celebrate that sarch family. Let's celebrate that 0:48:10.640 --> 0:48:11.360 search family. 0:48:14.200 --> 0:48:15.480 Thanks for joining us today. 0:48:15.600 --> 0:48:17.160 We pray that God has spoken to you in a 0:48:17.239 --> 0:48:19.440 unique and powerful way through the message. 0:48:19.680 --> 0:48:19.839 Well. 0:48:19.840 --> 0:48:21.960 We are in our year in Offering season as a 0:48:22.040 --> 0:48:24.799 church where we get the opportunity to reflect back on 0:48:24.920 --> 0:48:26.680 all the ways that God has been faithful to our 0:48:26.719 --> 0:48:29.719 ministry this year, but also to look ahead at what 0:48:29.719 --> 0:48:32.520 we're believing God for in the upcoming year. And each 0:48:32.600 --> 0:48:34.239 year as a church, we get to come around a 0:48:34.320 --> 0:48:37.920 special offering and offering that contributes to both outreach efforts 0:48:37.920 --> 0:48:40.520 in local and global cities and as well as the 0:48:40.560 --> 0:48:43.600 expansion of our ministry continuing to reach people all over 0:48:43.840 --> 0:48:46.120 with the hope of the Gospel. And we'd invite you 0:48:46.200 --> 0:48:48.560 to take part and participate in our year end offering. 0:48:48.800 --> 0:48:50.960 To do so, you can go to Elevationchurch dot org. 0:48:51.080 --> 0:48:53.000 Just click the banner there at the top and then 0:48:53.000 --> 0:48:55.040 you'll be able to see everything that you need to 0:48:55.080 --> 0:48:56.440 be a part of our year end offering. 0:48:56.600 --> 0:48:59.520 You'll see two options. The first is to begin tithing. 0:49:00.000 --> 0:49:02.480 Maybe you've been wanting to prioritize God in your finances, 0:49:02.520 --> 0:49:05.040 but you haven't taken that step to make a commitment 0:49:05.080 --> 0:49:05.560 to doing so. 0:49:05.880 --> 0:49:07.160 This is a great place to begin. 0:49:07.640 --> 0:49:10.640 Or perhaps you've been giving consistently in this season, God 0:49:10.680 --> 0:49:13.120 may be challenging you to stretch above and beyond the 0:49:13.200 --> 0:49:16.400 tithe to give a sacrificial gift to our year end offering. 0:49:16.640 --> 0:49:18.600 If you're part of one of our physical locations, you 0:49:18.600 --> 0:49:20.719 can choose your campus there, or if you're part of 0:49:20.719 --> 0:49:23.920 our online ministry, of course you'll choose Epham or online 0:49:24.000 --> 0:49:25.959 and then enter the amount that you'd like to give. 0:49:26.400 --> 0:49:28.120 We are believing for all the ways that God is 0:49:28.160 --> 0:49:30.319 going to stretch our faith in this season through our 0:49:30.400 --> 0:49:32.360 year end offering, and we can't wait to see what 0:49:32.400 --> 0:49:33.200 God does through you. 0:49:33.560 --> 0:49:35.040 God bless and we'll see you soon.