Into the Unknown

Marshall Meade: Thank you guys.

Thank you, Greg, for that introduction.

Um, it is great to be here with you guys.

Uh, as Greg said, we moved here in 2004.

Uh, I worked 10 years in structural engineering here, and uh, and then we

got into the ministry and helped with our singles ministry for about five

years, uh, before moving to Orlando.

So, uh, greetings from Orlando, Florida.

Alright,

home of Universal Studios and Disneyland and Legoland and, you know,

um, yeah, places I still never go.

Um,

uh, the lesson title actually is from a Disney song.

You can put the first slide there, but.

In my defense, I didn't know it was from Frozen two 'cause

it's a movie I've never seen.

Of course.

Um, but uh, yeah, so we want to talk today about just what God does when he takes

us into seasons of our life, uh, that are unknown and, uh, and how to navigate that.

Um, so just a quick update on us.

Uh, my oldest daughter, Katie, uh, is married, uh, to, uh, a great

guy, uh, Tyler's son and, uh, SUN.

So, you know, growing up in Orange County, uh, all our best friends and all

of Katie's best friends were Asians, so we, she married someone half Taiwanese

and uh, and that's like the only one in Florida though, you know, so.

They just didn't make it all the, there's a few, but, um, we miss all

our best friends and, um, so they are in Broward Church, uh, which

is a great church down in Miami.

And, uh, they are in the ministry.

They lead the campus ministry there and Katie continues to do music and

all of her creative, uh, things.

She's our music director for our teen camp each year, and so she's

able to use her gifts there.

Our son, Kyle.

Is a junior as, uh, in University of Florida as an aerospace engineering major.

And so he's got one more year left there.

And then our son Justin, is about to graduate from high

school, uh, in one month.

And then, uh, we will be empty nesters.

And so Sean and I need to get reacquainted and, uh, start going on

dates again and get to know each other.

And we're looking forward to that season of our life.

And, uh, he's also going to University of Florida.

And I won't tell you that all of them, uh, qualified for free college in state

of Florida and that we don't pay taxes.

I'm not gonna say any of those things 'cause it will only, uh, further

anger some of you that are already triggered by things like that.

So anyway, into the unknown.

Um, you know, our father in the faith, uh, Abraham, and, and when

you read the Bible, Genesis one through 11 is just an introduction.

And man, don't we wish there were more, we wanna know more about

what happened from, you know, the beginning of time to Abraham.

But God is really just doing an introduction there and the

scriptures are really pointing us.

To our first example of a a, you know, someone who followed God

in, in covenant relationship.

Uh, and that covenant would be temporarily fulfilled with the law of Moses,

but permanently fulfilled in Christ.

And so our, our forefather, our ancestor, uh, our father in the faith,

Abraham, this is when God comes to him and, and calls him initially

and it says, the Lord said tobra.

Uh, go from your country, from your people, your father's

household to the land.

I will show you, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you.

And, uh, you know, back then, uh, leaving your family was, was very, very dangerous.

Now we can't wait, right?

Uh, but back then it was very dangerous because families grew

and there was strength in numbers and you had to defend yourself.

And it was a tribal society.

And so.

Uh, for he and his family just to travel and, and to not

know where they were going.

Uh, this is what I love about God.

Uh, I'm not telling you where, I'm not telling you the route, the distance, the

people, the language, what you're gonna do for food and water, how long you're gonna

be there, if or when you'll ever return.

You don't know.

Uh, and that is really, uh, God's call sometimes for each and every one of us.

God doesn't, uh, map out the route and answer all of our questions.

And so I think a lot of times in transition, uh, we get a little nervous,

uh, because we don't know, uh, what's coming and, and what the future will hold.

You know, for some of you who are teens, uh, getting out of the house, going to

college is gonna be your first transition.

Uh, major transition perhaps.

What was known to Abraham.

God.

Now I put a question mark there because sometimes we just take for granted.

Oh yeah, Abraham and God were tight.

Were they?

This was God's introduction to Abraham.

Go and I will show you and I will make you into a great nation.

Did he know God at that time?

Did he really understand who God was?

Was there any precedent?

Was there any scripture?

Was there anything written down at that time for him to know and

understand who God was and God's faithfulness in that calling?

Uh, well, I think that's what happens during transitions, especially for teens.

When you go off to college, you're gonna have to figure out as the

God of your parents, your God.

College students, when you go and you get your career, or maybe you are hired or

maybe you move or whatever, is, is the god of the campus ministry that exciting

God, the same God that's going to be there when you are there in the morning

at seven 30, uh, you know, drinking Folgers at a construction office and,

and your boss is like, where are you?

I'm like, I'm right around the corner, you know?

And that was.

Seven o'clock for me for 10 years, you know, it's like, relax.

Is God going to be your God during those transition times,

you know, uh, the next time, you know, God fulfilled his promise to

Abraham, and, and every time Abraham got a sort of a new directive from

God, it was still very unknown.

That's the thing about God.

Abraham, through these seasons of unknown, God just kept pulling the

curtain back little by little to describe himself more to Abraham.

As Abraham followed and he didn't do everything right, there's

times when he didn't trust.

There's times when he lied and connived and didn't believe in God, and as soon as

they got to the promised land, he actually went to Egypt because he didn't feel

like there was a, there was a drought, so there were times of uncertainty.

But God kept revealing his nature.

So God fulfilled his promise and, and made the Israelites into a great nation.

And they, they settled in, uh, Egypt under good terms, right?

They all went in a season of unknown.

In a season of drought, they followed, uh, Joseph into Egypt where they were

going to be herdsmen for the Egyptians.

Yet, over time, they became enslaved.

In that time, they became a great nation.

And then of course God called them out of Egypt.

And when he called them out of Egypt, it says at the Lord's command, the Israelites

set out at his command, they encamped.

As long as the clouds stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in the camp.

Now, how do you think this was like this as well is another great season

of unknown for the Israelites.

God called them out and he's like, all right.

Pillar of fire, pillar of cloud.

When I'm here, you're here.

When I move, we move.

And it says sometimes if you read that passage in numbers, sometimes it would

be a day, sometimes two days, a week, two weeks, two months, two years, et cetera.

So, you know, I don't know about you like the, the older I get, the less

I like travel, the less I like the suitcases and the airports and the.

You know, there was a time when that was really exciting.

You're looking out the window, is that our plane now?

It's just like, it's just, it's awful.

I have to drive up to LAX today, you know, um, to return the rental car, take the

shuttle, go through, et cetera, et cetera.

So, uh, but this was their travel and did they know God?

Did they understand who God was?

You know what's interesting is, you know, they saw these great miracles happen.

You know, they saw all the plagues, they passed through the Red Sea,

they get out into the desert, and within a month what did they do?

They returned back to their known God, the God of the Egyptians.

Uh, and they.

Said, you know, we don't know Moses.

We really don't know Moses, and we don't know where we're going.

And now it's been almost a month in this season of transition.

And they went back to the known God that they knew in Egypt.

And sometimes you look at the Israelites and go, how could

they, how could they do that?

When they saw all that God did, when they saw the miracles of God, how could

they revert back to their known God?

And I think to myself, don't we do the same thing during seasons of unknown,

we revert right back to our known gods.

What do you think some of our gods are that we rely on

during times of transition?

Money, our career relationships?

Maybe it's, maybe it's control, right?

Our routine.

Uh, I don't know if you guys remember COVID.

Vaguely.

If you think about what happened in our world

from a 10,000 foot Artemis two perspective,

God took the whole world at the same time into a season of unknown.

We didn't have control.

We didn't have our routine.

We didn't have sports.

It was bad.

Some of us didn't have our careers.

Some of us were removed from our relationships.

Some of us didn't have the freedom from our kids for eight hours a day.

My, I don't think my kids wore pants for like three months.

It's like, aren't you at school?

You're in your boxers.

And it's like, that's probably too much information.

It was only two months.

Florida COVID was different than California COVID.

But again, I don't wanna trigger some of you.

How did we all act during that time?

Did we trust God?

Did we surrender?

Did we say, you know, I don't know what's gonna happen, but God will work it out.

No, we all became jerks.

We were really ugly to one another.

We were, we hated every second of it.

We don't like seasons of unknown.

And I think, you know, if you look at Adam and Eve, their

original sin was, we wanna know.

We wanna know.

And Satan was like, God said, there are things that you should not know.

Your life will be worse if you know this.

And they had to know.

We have to know, don't we?

Even in COVID, I'm gonna look this up on my phone.

And if all the world leaders would've consulted me, we could have

flattened the curve in two weeks.

We were awful to each other as a world.

There was a time that God could have revealed himself and been

our God, but we didn't want that.

We're not interested in his solutions or knowing what he might be doing

because we desire knowledge.

Don't you remember that?

Oh yeah.

That was not fun.

Um, but see, that is the point.

The point is when things are unknown, you have an opportunity

for God to reveal himself to you.

That's when you get to know God.

When I can't control the outcome, when I can't, you know.

Manipulate things when, when the finances, when, when there's instability, when

there, that is when we rely, feel that God is gotta be God for us in that moment.

And I don't know what seasons you're going through, uh, unknown seasons.

I would just say that.

Open yourself to this idea that God may be choosing this season

in your life to reveal himself.

You know, Moses didn't know God.

Moses was 80 years old when God called him, and this is during the

two chapter argument that Moses is having with God about not wanting to

do what God was wanting him to do.

And Moses trying to talk God finally into just choosing someone else.

Here's one of Moses's questions.

Moses said to God, suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the

God of your fathers sent me to you?

And they asked me and they asked, what if?

They asked me, what is his name?

What should I tell them?

Do you know what Moses is actually saying here?

I don't even know your name.

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you're just like,

it is so good to see you, you know?

Yeah.

So what's go, you know, and you're like, I just, what is, what is, and

then you're hoping someone else will come, you know, rescue you and you're

like, Hey, do you know this guy?

You know?

Yeah.

Brian.

Yeah.

This is Brian.

Um, I was at a.

A retirement party for, um, Ron Conkling.

He was the, uh, our regional family chair, uh, in Florida, uh, for our

family of churches there, which Sean and I are doing that now.

Um, and I sat down at a table and it was in Tampa, so it wasn't in Orlando,

and it was like, Hey, Marshall.

And I was like, Hey, good to see you, you know?

Man, me and this guy just had all this long conversation.

It was about fishing and, you know, Montana and fly and what, what are we

doing here in Florida and what lures?

And, and it was just like, like I felt like he really knew me,

and I promise I have never seen him before in my entire life.

But at our table was one of our elders as well.

And I mean, I swore he knew Mike as well.

So I get in the food line with Mike and I'm like, who is that?

And Mike's like, I have no idea.

Doesn't really pertain to the sermon.

But the idea here is that I think Moses was afraid to just say,

God, I don't know who you are.

I don't even know your name.

If I am representing you, I don't even know you.

I don't know what to call you.

I have no history with you.

I had 40 years of history with the Egyptian gods, and then I

have 40 years of history with my father-in-law's Gods who was a priest

of Midian, who is not a priest or a minister of Jehovah, the true God.

And so 80 years of his life, he doesn't know the name of God.

Here's what's amazing.

Less than one year later, after Moses goes and takes the Israelites

out into the desert, it says, the Lord would speak to Moses face to

face as one speaks with a friend.

When you go through a season of unknown, you have to get close to God.

You have no other option.

You can harden your heart or you can just say, I need to rely on God.

I need to go deeper in my prayer life.

I need to go deeper in the scriptures.

I need to figure out who this God is.

Amen.

It's amazing how close you can get to God when you decide to and when you decide

to rely on him during those seasons.

A w tos, your great quote is, every man is as close to God as he wants to be.

I think during these seasons of unknown is, is when I feel the most drawn to God.

Uh, and the journey is also where God is gonna reveal you to you as well.

You know, sometimes we think God is testing us, so God can

figure out what's in there.

Guess what He already knows.

You don't know.

So you have blind spots.

So God is actually saying, you know, I led you through the wilderness.

For these 40 years to humble you and test you and know what was in your heart,

whether or not you would keep my commands.

So that was just a great test to teach them about God, but also so

they could learn about themselves.

Amen.

In what ways right now, are you dependent on God?

Uh, does this shed light on how close or distant you feel to God?

What about following Jesus?

You would think that would be easier, right?

It's not just a voice.

It's not just this ominous call to go out into the wilderness by yourself.

Uh, I don't know if it was easier or not.

The minute they started a great ministry up in Galilee and Capernaum,

uh, Jesus went out and just spent time with God and prayed, and,

and Simon, and, and the companions saw him and they looked for him.

And when they found him, they said, Hey, everyone's looking for you.

And Jesus said, well, then let's go somewhere else so I can preach there also.

That is why I have come, you know, the seasons of following Jesus.

We're much the same as Abraham or the Israelites.

It's like, where are we gonna go?

Who?

How are we gonna food?

How are we gonna pay our taxes?

Right?

We go to the fish and get out.

I get it out of its mouth and pay the temple tax.

I mean there every day with Jesus.

What is he gonna say next?

Who's gonna gonna make mad next?

Right?

What's the next miracle?

The next conversion?

But that was sort of the allure.

Also, I think in some ways that is the allure of following God.

Is behi, he is unknown, and he is a mystery, and that when he reveals

himself to you, that is the exciting part about our Christianity is going

on these journeys, knowing I get to learn more and more about God.

So I think learning about Jesus in real time was very exciting

for them, but I don't think they ever fully knew who he was.

At the last supper, they're like, if you just showed us the father,

that'll be, that's enough for us.

Just, you know, needless to say, the Bible says no one has

seen God and remained alive.

You know what I mean?

Like, you'll die instantly.

So they didn't know what they were asking, but at the same

time, what was Jesus' response?

Don't you know me?

So, you know, at the end of Jesus' ministry in Luke 24, he actually

just says he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.

I think that was just a time crunch, honestly.

It's like, I've been here for three years and I am like leaving to like later

today, and so I'm going to miraculously open your brains because you still

don't get it, and I'm giving you the miraculous gifts of knowledge of me.

Like right now.

And I, I wonder what that was like.

Like they all sort of looked around at each other and they're like, oh, wow.

We we're like all simultaneously getting it, you know, it

was like a matrix download.

All right.

Uh, if that weren't hard enough, how about the church age following the Holy Spirit?

Well, that's clear, right?

We know exactly what God's doing in the church age.

Um, one of my favorite passages of scripture is when they get, when they

have to tackle the issue of circumcision.

And, and, and, but more than that, the, the covenant of Moses and, and how they

were gonna deal with the Jews and the Gentiles and some of the regulations of

the law and some of the traditions of the Jews, and, and, and just what that was.

It was like COVID all over again.

You know what I mean?

Like how these sort of dicey cultural issues that seep into the church and it

just feels like, wait, we should just be out helping people become Christians.

But there are times to time out and to figure out some of those issues.

So they got all the most spiritual people on the planet.

People who had seen Jesus, Paul on the road to Damascus, people who had

had tongues of fire rest on them.

In Acts chapter two, Jesus, his physical brother, uh, James.

So they get all the most spiritual people on Earth in one room to talk it out.

And the best they could come up with is this is what seems

good to the Holy Spirit and us.

Isn't that frustrating about the church age is, I feel like

it should be easier than this.

Like I feel like if we get spiritual people talking, we

should be able to come up with a good plan on how to move forward.

But the plan is, the best plan is like.

Uh, it seems good.

Like this is what we think, this is what we suppose we should do.

Right.

Uh, we bought a building about two years ago, uh, closed escrow.

Uh, and it was, you know, there's some people for it, some people against it.

Uh, and you know, it's like we got the board, we got the elders,

we got everybody together.

We did a tour of the facility and.

It seemed good to me and the Holy Spirit that we should

move forward with it, you know?

Um, but it, it, God has done great things with it.

It has been such a game changer for our youth ministry, our campus ministry.

Uh, the, the coolest thing that I, that it has, that this building doesn't have,

although this is a lot cooler than our building, but when that screen goes up.

There's a baptistry right there.

And at the end of almost every service lately, we've seen

people get baptized Today.

A guy Jeff Spence got baptized.

Uh, his son is in the campus ministry.

Uh, after two years his mom got baptized, and then today

Jeff, uh, declared Jesus' Lord.

And then we had a, uh, baptism in our Spanish ministry.

And that to have them on stage and declare Jesus's Lord and for people

to see that is, is pretty cool.

If there's, I don't know if there's room, but you can work on that.

Amen.

I know there's one way over there, but, um, and then Paul and his companions

to go deliver the news, they try to get into several places, but the Holy

Spirit keeps 'em from preaching the word there, and then they try to get to bi

and the spirit of Jesus doesn't let them.

And then Paul has a dream that they should go to Macedonia, and so they

conclude, let's go to Macedonia.

That's the church age.

It's, it's so, it's it's work to bring all of our thoughts together and to try

to yield that to the Holy Spirit, to have elders, board members, deacons,

evangelists, and all of us kind of come up with a plan, ask for God's blessing

and pray and just trust that this is where the holy and there's a lot of retroactive.

You know, the Book of Acts wasn't written like today.

We did this.

No, it was years later.

And so I think Luke, as he's writing acts, is like, you know what?

This was the Holy Spirit, but I wish the Holy Spirit would

let us know more in real time.

And I, some of some people are way too confident in what?

Well, the Spirit and the Spirit and the Holy Spirit tell really the Holy Spirit.

Telling you to divide the church and run off over here and take a house, church.

And really, that's, that's the Holy Spirit is telling you that.

Oh, got it.

You know, uh, I don't know.

I think we should be a lot more patient and collaborative with

what the Holy Spirit is leading us.

Um, and be willing to pivot when we see the spirit blocking us at times.

Amen.

It's a challenge.

The church age, I think is one of the most challenging ages, but

it's the same as probably Abraham The Israelites is, is there's this

sense of where is God leading us?

What is the next church?

Appreciate remembering all of the churches as, as Steve read that list.

That's okay that it took a minute to hear all about what

God did with all of our mission.

Offerings through the years and to know that now there's churches

that still need strengthening.

Uh, that's exciting.

That was the work of the Holy Spirit.

Um, but yeah, the, in the early church, it, it was, uh, it was a challenge

to know where God was taking us.

And here's the thing, it's not bad to, uh, to make some of these things known.

You know what I mean?

Like your career, your finances, to do retirement planning, to get long-term

help, uh, insurance to, to, to buy insurance, to buy car insurance.

I love, I, I don't know if you ever watch Fridays with Frank.

He's an officer in Pinal County.

Anybody?

Yes.

I love watching him pull people over and do traffic stops and there's these

sovereign citizens that he pulls over.

You know, I'm a sovereign citizen and I'm traveling.

It's like, no, you're in Pinal County and you're driving a car without a

license insurance and, and you're about to get arrested in 20 minutes.

You know?

So anyway.

Um,

what did that have to do with the last Oh, okay.

So known.

It's actually, you don't have to just live as a sovereign citizen of the earth.

You can actually have a plan and actually put away in, in retirement

and finance and, and budget.

And you guys know when we were here, Sean and I were very much

fans of, of, of a Financial Peace University and Dave Ramsey.

And, and it's because.

Without a plan.

We bought, built a second story on our house and, and then in the unknown

season of 2007, the housing market plummeted and we only had $163,000

in credit card debt at that time.

That was really a fun unknown season that we traveled through and it was scary.

Uh, and it took years.

It took eight years.

Because a lot of people were just sort of piecing out on all

that debt and we're like, no, the wicked borrow and do not repay.

So I'm, I'm stupid, but I don't wanna be wicked.

So we paid it all back in eight years and, uh, so I'm a fan of known.

You could even just say that is great stewardship to have

some of these things known.

Um, however, God is still going to.

Want to reveal himself to you.

And so there might be unknown seasons that still crop up in your life, even if you're

doing a better job in your stewardship.

And I'm not gonna read this passage, but you can write it down.

It's the church and layout see it, and it really is a comparison of out

of the seven churches, that's the one I would want to be a member of.

Because the other six, it's like, well, Satan has his throne there and

these people are being killed and these people are being persecuted and

these people are, you know what I mean?

Like there's, there is so much going on.

These people are dealing with progressivism and gnosticism and all

these crazy theologies and battling it.

And, and God is, Christ is encouraging all six of those congregations

to, to man just stay firm.

I know this is a difficult season.

Then he gets to lay sea and it's like, we're doing pretty good here.

Most of the things that, uh, those other people are facing, we kind of

have a, our schedule, our routine, our finances, our food and lodging,

our health, our wellness, our friends really like, it's actually going okay

here, but what did Jesus say to them?

It's, it's our relationship that now is, is missing because yes.

It's going okay, but I'm not communing with you.

Like, you don't need me.

You're not relying on me.

I'm on the outside.

I'm knocking.

I want, I want in, I want to be your God, and I wanna reveal

myself to you in, in new ways.

Um, you know, the, uh, Katie for Easter in their service,

um, they were doing sort of a.

Collage of, of some of their baptism videos.

And uh, she's like, do you have the video of my baptism?

And of course it was right there and we were sitting right there

and, you know, so I was excited to give that to her and find it.

But, but, uh, you know, I took a video and, and the first video

that I brought up, we did some of different people sharing.

As it panned across the, the, the crowd there was Maro Nano and Jeff Sunderland

and Kevin Mains, and Brittany Fujiyama and Brian Craig all sitting right here.

And I just think those families were about to travel on a totally unknown journey.

Totally unknown to them.

To their extended relatives, to their spouse, to their kids.

Uh, and yet it's like God knew and it, it really did cause me to think, you

know, God is, he has to be our God.

We have to have communion with him.

We have to have Jesus not on the outside trying to get in, but we're busy and we're

in control and we're serving lesser Gods.

Really.

He has to be our God.

That is the only thing that matters, uh, in the end is God being our God.

So where is God leading you today?

Maybe as a church, as a congregation?

What are the unknown journeys that this congregation has passed through

recent years, but God is leading you?

What is God trying to reveal to you along the way?

Like sometimes I think I just wanna know the lesson so that the

season can fast forward itself.

Um, because God loves you and, and will lead you in these seasons.

It's not a lack of love.

Even as, uh, Eric talked about those silent Saturdays.

You know, those are the digging ears.

Those are when God is speaking to you, even though it may feel like silence.

No, God is pulling the curtain back.

All the time during those seasons.

Um, and also during those seasons, let's repent and, and get rid of, you

know, the gods of our households, the lesser gods that we serve, that that

lengthen those seasons, the control that we regain because God wants to

be in that center position of life.

But it's funny, during unknown seasons, we can go one of two ways.

Either we can just totally.

Surrender and say, God, I really need you during this time, or

for me, I tend to double down.

Let me fix this and then get back to God during, you know, happier seasons

so I can really have my golden calf moments and serve my lesser gods when

there is chaos and unknown times in my life and I really have to repent

and tr trust in God at those times.

God will work it out.

Uh, God is leading you and God will provide, uh, more knowledge about himself.

Uh, so don't be in a hurry to gain knowledge.

Don't, you don't have to look everything up on your phone.

You can actually pray and you can read your Bible.

Like those are two options.

That should supersede Google during difficult times in your life.

Amen.

Uh, let's close in a prayer and then, uh, we will continue.

Father, uh, we do, uh, we hate to say thank you, but God thank you

for the unknown seasons of our life, uh, God, because they are the

times when you reveal yourself to.

God.

Uh, we thank you so much for just what you're doing, uh, in this church.

Uh, father, we, we thank you so much for, uh, your heart, uh, for people.

God give us, uh, that communion that we desperately need with Christ.

Uh, please help us to repent of our lesser gods.

Uh, we love you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.