Thinking Like a Saint

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All right.

It's good to be with my family.

Can we have a family morning?

Okay.

I felt very strongly.

Sometimes you go to church and it's a lot of conversation about trying to love Jesus in the hard, hard world, right?

And and and you just sometimes it feels like a losing battle.

And this morning, I have a very strong sense in my spirit that we give the world to Jesus.

We take a moment and it's time for a family meeting.

Is that cool?

Okay.

You guys are saints.

If you believe in Jesus Christ, I want you to say, I'm a saint.

I think like a saint.

I am made new.

Christ is in me.

He is the hope of glory.

All right.

All right, so we're gonna think like saints this morning.

Um as a saint, it is pivotal for you to live on mission.

It is pivotal that you understand the nature of your Heavenly Father.

It's so important that you understand the nature of the King.

Because when you understand that nature, when that nature is imparted to you, you actually understand everything that was going on here.

Like I could just do away with the message most of the time because I just love the presence of the Lord because I understand the nature of my father, and I've seen the goodness in my life.

I've seen God bring dead spaces back to life.

And so, as I I believe, as a believer, so many people come into the faith and then they stop being curious about anymore.

Like, okay, I'm going to heaven.

And I want to give you an example.

Let's bring it down to earth, okay?

I'm a mother of three children, they're in the front row.

Um, and they are all the same age.

Yes, they're triplets.

It's amazing what God can do with little things.

And um, and so I don't have the hierarchy of you're the older child, you have to treat the other one well.

And and in our family, I when I correct my children, I want them to understand the fierceness that comes up in me when I see them inflicting pain, dysfunction, and toxicity in our home.

Uh, who's a mother in here?

You could be a spiritual mama too.

Isn't that just the most overwhelming thing when you're doing the dishes and you're like, oh my gosh, trauma just happened?

Like, my oh no, they hurt one another.

Okay.

And so, and in my home, when that happens, an overwhelming fierceness, anger comes over me.

And I rush into the room, and it's like, everybody stop, and and I try and figure it out.

And then I I try, and the Holy Spirit showed me early on with them to get low when I'm trying to help them receive, and I try and get so low with them, and and I say, Do you understand that you're cutting your sister?

That God has made her for more.

And and I explain to them how it works.

And sometimes I wonder if they're getting it, or if I'm causing more trauma because they see my passion.

But this week I did an experiment on social media.

Good things can come from social media sometimes.

Um, I was listening to this guy, and he said, Um, ask your children four questions.

Name three famous people, three bands, three scripture Bible verses, and name um the values of your family.

Now, it's not like I'm not one of those super organized moms.

I don't have the values of our family written on the wall anywhere.

Um, so I was like, all right, I'm gonna try it, you know.

So I go into the den, they kind of got through famous people, they got through bands, we like music in our home.

And then they started talking about the word of God.

And it was beautiful, like it went on long enough that I was like, all right, you got it.

And then I got really nervous and I asked them, what is what are our like three family values, would you guys say?

And all three of them right away jumped in, love God! I know mom wants me to say love God.

And the other one was take care of each other.

One of them chimed in, well, have each other's back.

I was like, Yeah, that's right.

And then the and then the last one, they all agreed that our home is a safe place.

And man, I that was a mom win.

I was like, uh job done for 2023.

I feel real good, you know.

But this morning we're speaking out of Micah.

And this is who's read Micah?

Who's read the don't raise your hand because half of you won't, and you'll feel ashamed, and then you'll be locked in your shame box the rest of the service, so don't do that.

Um, so we're speaking out out of Micah.

There is a firm rebuke happening here to God's people.

He's not speaking to the unbelievers, he's actually speaking to the believers, okay?

He is calling out religious leaders, he's calling out the mamas, he's calling out the children.

Throughout the book, he's actually saying, don't trust your husband, don't trust your brother, don't trust your sister, like everything, you guys have lost your way.

And just like me as a mother with my children, when I feel, I see that my children have lost their way, our home, my marriage has lost their way.

There's this righteous, it's like the Spirit of God rises up in me, and it's like, hold on, like we've lost our way.

And I believe that this is a timely word for the body of Christ right now, that we need to stop living in fear about what's happening in the world politically, what's happening in our neighborhoods.

We need to stop feeling bad for ourselves, that we're marginalized, and being a Christian is really hard in Boulder County.

I mean, I grew up with that whole thing.

And it's like we need to stop.

Because when you live from fear, it will produce toxicity and dysfunction.

We are saints, we are to put on the mind of Christ, and we are to turn our gaze back to Jesus.

Uh, before I even knew I was gonna share this morning, it's so funny, guys.

I was um on a trip making some big decisions, big priorities in my life for the next year, and um I often I feel like, God, I have to choose between this or this.

I can't do both.

And the Lord was like, and that was a fear I've been living with for the last four years.

And the Lord was like, No, you're gonna do both.

And I'm and it's gonna be a simultaneous thing I want to work out in your life.

And I was like, oh no.

Um, but I said yes, I said yes to the Lord, and after that, I was um, I was just going about my day.

Uh, if you want to learn how to get close to Jesus, just start talking to him, invite him into your conversations.

So I was just going about my day, talking to the Lord, and he said this.

He said, Hey, Amy, it's a thought that's not my own.

Amy, you know, you can be a person of faith and not a person of surrender.

And it something about, oh I can believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, but that doesn't mean I've given him everything.

And and what that looks like, and if you know me, Carly knows she's heard it like 10,000 times.

Um if you know me, and when I'm processing, I just constantly the last few years have been like, I'm just holding it really loosely.

My I my identity cannot be in my vocation, my identity cannot be in my motherhood, my identity cannot be in being a perfect wife, my identity, my identity is in being God's saint, because he first loved me.

And and I think without that transaction, if your heart is not a heart postured of surrender and quick obedience, I I feel like that's a prophetic word.

Some of you, you you eventually get there, but the Lord's saying, knock it off.

It is time for a season of quick obedience.

Okay, and so um what ends up happening is is like Egypt here, like sorry, Egypt, the Israelites.

So I mentioned that there's firm rebuke, and they lost their way because they it just they weren't waiting for the promises of the Lord.

The funny thing is, they lost their way because they wanted a tangible king.

The crazy thing is God had already promised them a tangible king through Jesus.

He promised David way back when that there will come a Messiah from your family line, and he will be the Prince of Peace.

But it wasn't in their timetable, it wasn't quick enough, and it led to a very, very toxic church.

They turned their gaze from the God who had set them free from Egypt.

He had parted the Red Sea, He had provided for them all along the way, He had promised them the promised land and what was cutting them off from walking in the fullness of the Lord.

And I think some of you can relate to this.

Like you've encountered the Lord, He's made a way for you, He's set you free, and then we so easily lose our gaze.

To gaze upon the Lord means to not miss a thing.

And and so what I um the picture I have is you know that scripture, if you're faithful and little, you know, you'll be entrusted with much or faithful with much.

And I've had seasons in my life, actually, I mentioned my children, uh, it took me four years to conceive them.

And it was a very hard.

I I was I just I felt barren.

I felt like, God, I've done everything right.

Where are you?

You told us to start trying.

I prayed and prayed for you to give me a mother's heart before I even had my kids.

And and it was it was so painful.

And and the Lord kept giving, actually, Isaiah 54 was spoken over me, DD, by like you and my father during that season.

And and here I want to read, I want to get into the word right now.

Go to Micah 5, 2 through 4.

But you, O Bethlehem, are only a small village among all the people of Judea, yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in distant past, will come from you on my behalf.

The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth.

Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land, and he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord's strength in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, then his people will live there undisturbed, and he will be highly honored around the world, and he will be a source of peace.

So we're about two-thirds through the book of Micah, and it has been, you guys have lost your way, you are toxic, judgment is coming.

God disciplines those he loves, and in in the middle, he brings this message of hope.

But a pr but the Prince of Peace is coming, and he's a good shepherd.

And it is as if he's trying to get them to turn their gaze back to the Lord.

And this morning, I I want I want to kind of encourage you to ask yourself, where are you disappointed with the Lord?

Maybe what are places in your life that you have not surrendered to God because you don't trust him?

See, I I don't, I'm not trying to add to the word of God.

I'm just being curious here.

If you look at the Israelites' history, they were a people in captivity.

Their history was slavery.

Authority was not to be trusted.

And then God comes in and sets them free, leads them out of slavery.

And much like us here today, maybe you've had an encounter with God, you've experienced a miracle, God has met you, and you're like, I believe in Jesus Christ now.

He has He has made a way for me.

I he I I kind of think I'm a saint, but 75% of my life is a mess.

My home is not a place of peace.

And and I wonder if it's because we step into faith, but we go back to our old ways of bondage.

Does that make sense?

And so this morning, we're gonna enter into a time of ministry in a couple minutes.

I believe that the Lord actually wants to renew the culture within your mind and heart.

He wants, here's the deal.

I've been through trauma, but a moment in the presence of the Lord can reset that trauma.

And so part of the reason, guys, I'm obsessed with Jesus.

Like my husband knows, like uh, yeah, she's never like I'm obsessed with Jesus, is because it is the only thing that has snapped me out from toxicity.

No self-help book, nothing.

And so this morning, some of you are saying, I am I'm stuck and I'm never gonna change.

That is a lie from the enemy.

If God met you and draw him to yourself, it is time to step into a place of surrender.

If you say, well, Amy, surrender sounds nice, but I don't know where to start and I don't know what that looks like, it looks like this.

I want you to start with forgiving everybody in your life who has hurt you.

That's exactly what Jesus did.

He bore our sins on the cross.

And you say, Well, Amy, forgiveness sounds really good.

That's like a fairy tale world, but I'm hurt.

Here's how you start to build those spiritual muscles.

Father, Father, I've been wronged.

I'm hurt.

They've judged me, they don't see me, they misunderstood me.

God, I can't forgive in my own strength, but I'm yours.

I forgive them.

Father, I bless them.

Help me, Lord, help me forgive.

And and what that looks like is sometimes you have to go to the Lord over and over and over again, especially when you're new at it, and then it's all of a sudden like the there will be a moment where you're like, Oh, I'm free.

And it's like the revelation of the Lord, and it's like that muscle just got built up.

Does that make sense?

If you want to be trustworthy to be step into the fullness of what you were made for and your calling, you better deal with your heart with others and before the Lord.

Because He is a God of order and He blesses a surrendered heart.

I mean, there's that Jason Upton song, and it says, Father, I give you my past, I give you my present, I give you my future because your love is better.

It's called This Is No Sacrifice.

Go soak in that.

And it is so beautiful, and a heart that says, I'll do it your way.

You know, after the Lord gave gave me the three kids, and they um I just want to speak to my kids real quick.

You know this.

But when I look at you guys, I see the faithfulness and the promises of the Lord, and you were worth every single moment of waiting.

And after my children came, my husband and I went through eight excruciating years for various reasons.

We had multiple deaths, we had loss of community, our work was horrible, our physical health was just completely out of whack.

But because the Lord, in that season of barrenness, God doesn't waste any season.

If you feel like, oh, I'm in a season of loss, he's not gonna waste this season if you allow him access.

Okay?

And so because of that season of barrenness, and our marriage was struggling, like we had spiritual muscles that were on autopilot.

It was like, I don't feel like going to church this morning.

I'm gonna go to church this morning.

God, I feel like you've forgotten me, but Lord, you freed me from barrenness with children, you're gonna free me from barrenness here.

And it's like, and honestly, guys, that was the season where the enemy kept saying, You're benched, you're benched, you've been judged, you're benched.

And what was actually happening, because I was on like autopilot with the Lord, and my muscles were like, You know what to do, you know what to do.

Actually, it was this intimate, intimate eight years.

The Lord said, You will not lead.

If anybody feels called to leadership, I want to make this point real quick.

If you, if you do not steward your heart before the Lord, you will be like the Israelites.

This is only seven chapters, go read it.

You will lose your way if your heart is not tenderly towards the Lord.

And the Lord told me during that season, you are not to lead anything.

He said, I could do the nursery.

But I, he's like, don't lead like the babies.

Like, he's like, do not lead anything.

Because dysfunction breathes more dysfunction.

You know, you put a plot of mold in there, you're gonna, it's gonna fester.

And so it was this very hidden where the enemy was lying to me, and he's like, You're benched.

The Lord's like, no, I'm hiding you, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit is gonna meet you in your car.

I had divine appointments.

I did get to lay hands on people.

I I mean, I would, I was with my sister at 10 o'clock at night, and the Lord was like, that woman's dealing with a spirit of suicide in her car.

I'm like, Well, I'm not gonna talk to her.

She has a black SUV, and I'm in the middle of Atlanta, and you don't knock on the door after dark.

You're like, that's just not a thing.

And the Lord was like, do it.

And I followed her into the store, and it was this most beautiful thing.

And God set her free.

She's loving Jesus today.

We've kept in touch.

Like the Lord, it was this hidden season where nobody else saw it.

My pastor didn't know it, but the Lord was making me ready, and he doesn't forget you.

And so, my heart for my family, because I love it when my family wins, my heart for my family is that you guys would say, Lord, start with me.

Like I surrender everything.

And the only difference, some might ask, well, how come Micah is blessed to get to give the rebuke?

Everybody likes to be the person like in charge of the fight, right?

The only difference between Micah and the Israelites was his gaze and submission was to Jesus.

I want to read that scripture.

It's Micah 7:7.

Micah 7:7

He says, As for me, I look to the Lord for help.

I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me.

Do not gloat over me, my enemies.

For though I fall, I will rise again.

I want everybody to say, though I've fallen, I will rise again, because I'm a saint.

Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

I will be patient.

Not trying to fill it with another king.

Micah's saying, I don't need a man for a king because I'm waiting on that promise of the Lord.

I will be patient, for I've sinned against him.

But after he will take up my case and give me justice for all, I've suffered from my enemies.

The Lord will bring me into the light, and I will see his righteousness.

The only difference between Micah and the Israelites, God's people, is his gaze was on Jesus.

He wasn't perfect.

But as I the when I'm correcting my children, and they're not getting why I don't want them to live that way.

Or wound that way.

Even if they're justified in it, sometimes they are.

I ask them this question, I get real low again, and I say, What kind of home do you want this to be?

Do you want this to be a home that's safe for everyone?

Do you want this to be a home where we put each other down and we cut and you have to be on defense all the time?

Do you want this to be a home that when we forgive, you're restored?

I mentioned the nature of God.

If you read your Bible, pay attention to the threads that's happening here.

God corrects to restore.

As a body of Christ, we like to correct one another, especially if we get to do the correcting.

But sometimes we forget the ultimate purpose in the correction is to restore that person.

And often God restores better than.

Well, no, I want my home to be a safe place.

So then I say, I need you are a part of this family, a valuable part.

And if you do not participate in that in that culture of honor, our home won't feel safe.

And I and I confess my failures to them.

And I I often say, mommy needs to time out.

Mommy needs to go be with Jesus because I want to be a safe place for you.

And so as a family, guys, God is moving in this place as a family.

I'm asking you as your sister, I'm trying to equip you.

We do not want to create more toxicity.

We want to create a safe place where we're protected.

Guys, the world is hurting.

We are hurting.

I believe that God is gonna restore you this morning because He wants to release you to go love the world around you.

Um if you've never accepted the gospel, I want to invite you to do that this morning.

We're gonna have the worship team come now.

And if you if you're sitting here and there's this sense of conviction, like God, I I want I want to move from faith to surrender.

Because when we step into faith, there's a transaction of trust that has to happen with the Father where you can actually walk surrender out.

But you don't trust God if you don't discover his nature.

So my first encouragement is find out the nature of Christ.

And I want to, the scripture uh that Micah ends with is um 17 or 7, 18.

Where is another God like you who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people?

You will not stay angry with your people, for you delight in showing unfailing love.

Once again, you will have compassion on us.

He's so good when you understand his nature.

So we come into faith, we discover his nature, which creates a bond of trust, and then the Lord's asking you to step into surrender, and it's in surrender that transformation actually comes and you start to reflect the image of Christ.

So as the ministry team comes, if you want prayer, if there's just parts where you're like, God, I'm I'm not on fire for you.

I'm apathetic, I need more of you, I need greater revelation.

I want to invite you to come up and get ministry.

I also had a leading this morning that the Lord wants to bring some healing and restoration specifically to businesses and vocation.

Um, I've asked my uh dad and bonus mom Britt to come up um during the ministry time.

So if you would like prayer uh for ministry, vocation, um uh they have a crazy testimony of restoration over the last five years.

So, Lord, I thank you to impart what my words cannot.

God, I thank you that you are a promise keeper.

I thank you that you have been good to me.

And Lord, I I just as a family, I just ask for your forgiveness for where we've missed it, where we haven't loved well.

And God, I pray in this next season as we step into trust and we move from trust to surrender, God, and we move from surrender to transformation, God, I thank you that the glory of God would be released in this place.

God, I thank you that when gazing upon the Father becomes our culture, God, I thank you that is the moment where the woman that feels barren, that is the moment where she has felt forgotten that the Prince of Peace will come in, God.

God, I bless the body of Christ to rise up in their sainthood, God.

God, I I I pray over the families, I pray over the households in this place, God.

I thank you that the cultures would shift, that the old, the old families of origins, the old uh sticking points where they can't get out.

It's like they go around the same mountain over and over and over again.

Like the Israelites, the Lord says, enough! Put your gaze on me.

Micah actually says in the book of Micah, it says, it's simple.

Do what is right, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.

So, God, we we look to you.

Help us do what's right.

We can't do it in our own strength, Lord.

God, and I ask, I ask for real transformation, God.

God, you are not done with your church, you are not done with the church at large.

You are a promise keeper.

You look for the remnant, you search to and fro, you look for the ones worshiping in spirit and truth.

God, you're a God, you don't miss a layer, Lord.

So, Father, we say send your glory, God.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you.

Jesus' name, amen.