Arise: The Faith of Taking the First Step

God is so faithful, and we are still in the Arise

series. And as I began to pray about where the Lord would

actually take me, Pastor Ronnie covered for

me a couple of weeks ago because I was dealing

with some family illness. And the

message that I was supposed to bring was called the first step. So

I suppose this is now the third step, and we're going

do it anyway, because I'm excited. You know,

I have been blessed to be able

to share and teach in this

house for about 23 years now.

And it has been an honor, and it has been the scariest

thing I have ever done in my life, because handling the

word of God, I do not take it lightly. It

still makes me nauseous when I have to come and teach, but that's

just part of the way of trying to be accountable before the Lord for

the calling that's in your life and also walking in

obedience to people who God has put in your life, who has

spoken the words teacher over you. Thank you, Pastor Ronnie.

And so it's an honor. But during those years, there

have been seasons where that have

been the most amazing seasons you could possibly imagine.

And then there have been seasons that have been extremely difficult

and that have been hard. And God has

met me in both. God has met me in both. And one of the things

that has been consistent in the Lord

in his dealing with me. See, our church is

founded or has moved since we've become Springhouse. Our scriptural

base is out of Psalm 84. And it says, when you pass

through the valley of the shadow of tears, you can fear no

evil. But it says, when those who pass through the valley of the shadow of

tears, we make it a place of spring. And that if you do not know

that's where the name Springhouse came from, we have a

tendency, a blessing, a calling that

allows people who have been wounded or hurt who just need to find

healing the valley of tears. They'll either

be healed in this house and go on to serve in leadership somewhere

else, or they'll stay here and be healed and be used in

this household. And I'm quite convinced that that valley of tears

makes a direct path through an office right down there

on that end of building that belongs to me. And so I find

myself in that place a lot of times. And the thing that the Lord does

with me is there's this consistent voice that says,

you gonna get up? You gonna get up?

Because a lot of times I can, in my flesh, I can find myself on

the floor for a good reason or a bad reason. You know, it's like I

can be like, God, you're so good, you are so faithful. God, why have you

forsaken me? Why have you left me? And in both situations,

the call of the Lord in my life has been a consistent.

Will you get up? Will you get up? And so in this

series, Arise, I found myself hearing that voice.

And I feel like the calling that the Lord has for us

today is the invitation to arise. The

invitation or the challenge? Will you get up

from where you are? From what has held you back? From everything

that has kept you immobile or paralyzed in your walk with him.

Will you get up? So, so. Will you get up? We're gonna read the scripture.

Will you get up? Okay. Are you ready?

I'll give you a moment to shake it off. That was a slow song. Sorry

about that. Here we go. And they came to

Bethsaiah, and some people brought to him a blind man

and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind

man by the hand and led him out of the village. And

when he had stopped, spit on his eyes and laid his hands on

him. He asked him, do you see anything?

And he looked up and said, I see men, but

they look like trees walking. Then Jesus

laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his

eyes and his sight was restored.

And one more verse, being confident of this,

that he who began a good work in you will carry

it on to completion until the day of Christ

Jesus. Father, God, I thank you so much for your word. I thank you, Lord,

for the way it compels us. It draws

us, Lord and Father, if we will just dive

in to your truth. Our lives change, Lord, and

not just our lives, but the lives of those that we're in contact with.

Father, I thank you that you are a world changer and you do it through

common human beings. And so I thank you for another opportunity to

arise and let my stuff fall, Father, and yours stand in

Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So this is the

call this morning. Will you get up? Will you get up

now? See, there's two voices in that. There's two voices in that.

There's the shame induced, the blame induced,

one that we've all experienced. When it's time for God to do something in

our lives, and the enemy loves to tell you, well, why don't

you just get up? You know, you have known this,

you've been told a thousand times, and yet here you are

in this situation again. Well, just get up then.

Just get up. And there's so much attached to that Name, there's

accusation, you know, even though the voice is going, well, then

just get up. What is

being inferred is there's no way you deserve to get up.

There's no way for you to step back into that calling after

what you've done. There is no way that you could ever miss minister

to anybody based on where you are right now. And that's the

voice of the enemy, right? But then there's that other voice. And this

I have experienced both on multiple occasions,

as have most of you. The other voice is,

will you get up? You going to get up?

Because if you will get up and go with me,

oh, I got some stuff for you. Will you get up?

None of that matters. All of that, that's ancillary. That's just

stuff. Will you get up? And there's promise and there's

hope, and there's something solid in that

invitation. You gonna get up? You gonna lay down that job,

Kurt, you gonna lay it down? I know you can't see

beyond this, but you're gonna do that because there's something on the other side of

that, and I need you guys to just step into that. Trust in Tina.

Trust in Tina. It's gonna be okay. Will you get up? Will you get

up and will you go do what I've called you to do? One voice shames

and is accusatory. And the other voice is

filled with authority, with hope, with

invitation. And that's the voice that we're gonna listen to this

morning. Amen. We got some teachers, we got some prophets, we got

some ministers in this room, We've got some encouragers in this

room. We've got people who have been just sitting back just a little

bit, waiting on your now, waiting on your moment. And

the word this morning that I have in my spirit for you is

arise. Will you arise?

Will you arise? Now, I want you to look at that before you even answer

that. Will you arise? I want you to look at what that commitment is.

Arise in Hebrew is kum kumi,

a divine call to action, spiritual

awakening or restoration. It implies moving from

inaction to purpose. I love that. Such as

standing up after defeat. Anybody need to stand up

after being knocked down a couple of times? Anybody just

need the strength to get up one more time from

that beating that you just took. Receiving strength or being

resurrected from dead places.

Been spending any time in some places that were bringing you no life

whatsoever, Sucking the life right out of you.

Time to get up. Time to get up. It is used as a

command to shake off Apathy and

fulfill divine purpose. Now let me ask you, will

you arise? Will you arise? Will

you allow God to do these things in your life? Because that is the

calling. Will you get up? And one thing

that I love is the purposeful use of words in

Scripture. God makes no mistakes, and the things that he

uses are intentional. This says in Scripture,

arise is not casual. It is divine

in nature. Now we do

abide, arise, advance, and

that's great. That's great. It rhymes. They all start with a.

We can remember them. We like things we can remember.

But abide is a divine invitation.

Arise is a divine command,

and advance is a divine invitation.

And if we will grab hold of them as such, as, oh,

human beings did not decide this. Human beings did

not decide this. There was inspiration in it,

right? And I believe that the things that we teach and the things that are

laid on Pastor Kevin's heart, divine inspiration.

Otherwise, why would we do it? Why would we even

attempt to bring something that we didn't believe the Holy

Spirit was in the center of? So if that's the case, then

where we are right now in this room at this time is we

are facing the call to arise, arise, to move out

of places of complacency and apathy. In scripture. It's not

casual. It's not casual. And I'm just gonna give you a few examples.

I could give you a hundred more, but there is a time constraint for

mind understanding. Arise. This is to

Abraham. Arise. Walk in the land through its

length and width, for I will give it to you.

What has God promised you? What

has God said, I'm gonna do this in your life. And you're standing

here looking at the land, but you're not walking it. You're not

becoming a part of it. God said, you are a teacher. I'm gonna

use you to teach. And you're waiting for somebody to give you a place to

teach before you become the te. Start studying now.

Start putting together your lesson plans. Start

walking the land. Arise. Get up out

of that place of complacency and begin to do what God has called you

to do before you have a place to do it. How cool would that

be? So that when that door opens, all you have to do is walk

through it. His Holy Spirit has already prepared you.

Arise. Walk the land. Moses, my servant is dead

now, therefore, arise. This is to Joshua. Go over this

Jordan, Jordan, you and all this people to the land which

I'm giving them.

Joshua woke up without an assignment, and by the end of the

day, he had a Big one. By the end of the day, not only

was Joshua responsible for himself, he was responsible for the

people and he was responsible for a journey. He was responsible

and accountable to the God. And notice that it

doesn't say any here. Moses, my servant is dead. Hey,

Joshua, if you got time,

if you're not doing anything, if it's convenient to you,

do you feel like you might be able to deal with these people for a

little while and take them across to the Jordan? No, he didn't.

We're waiting for God to say it nicer

sometimes than he says. And we would really prefer that he

lay out the whole plan for us before we say yes. But it doesn't work

that way. Joshua didn't know when he went to

bed the night before what was gonna be asked of him the next day.

You don't know what's going to be asked of you today,

and you don't know what is going to be asked of you tomorrow.

The word of God, Joshua, I think it's three, five, says, consecrate

yourselves today, for tomorrow I will do

amazing things among you. Is this a day of

consecration for you? Has the Lord called you into a place

where of preparation? Because he's got plans for you

tomorrow? Do you really want to walk into tomorrow

without that consecration? Do you really want to walk into that

place without being prepared? And

the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said,

arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. This

is Elijah. This is Elijah. Fire had just

come down from heaven. All of the prophets of BAAL had been

defeated. And then this great victory.

And then Jezebel says, we're gonna kill him. And so he takes

off. Have you ever just been so exhausted? Have you

ever just been so defeated that even though you know the

right thing, even though you know the truth, and even though

God has done the most amazing things in your life, you

hit a wall and all you wanna do is go hide. All you wanna

do is just go somewhere and rest away from the people. You

just need to go. You just need a nap.

That's what you need. But the wonderful thing about this,

he says the angel of the Lord came back. What? The second

time? Because the first time he fed him and

gave him something to drink. And Elijah went back to

sleep. He still needed to rest. Sometimes we need to

rest. Sometimes that's okay. Sometimes it's good

to enter into a season of rest knowing that God isn't gonna give up

on your calling. He isn't gonna Give up. He hasn't changed his mind about

the journey and the trajectory. What he has done is

acknowledge the fact that right now, in this moment,

this journey feels too great for you. So go rest

a little bit more, and I'm gonna send an angel back a second

time, and this time, he'll wake you up. And I want you to eat more

this time, get something in your system and get

ready, because I'm not gonna back off of the calling. You're still gonna

go do what I've asked you to do. I'm just gonna sustain you in a

little greater way in this season. And that's exactly what he did. Listen,

guys, if Elijah needed a second touch, what makes you think that

you won't? I'm, like. I'm, like, into, like, you know,

the quadruple digits now. I mean, I can't even. I can't even.

I don't know, numbers that big. Anyway, the

next one. Arise. Take up your bed and go home. This was to the

paralytic in Matthew 8. Have you ever just been

stuck? And you ever just been hopeless? And it

feels like everybody's just walking past you, getting on with their life, and here you

are. Here you are, and everybody just walking past you.

And you've been in this condition a long time, and Jesus

shows up and he says, arise. Take up your bed and

go home. Take it up. You know what? I love

that he didn't just let him walk away from his bed. He said, clean up

your mess.

Take this with you, lest somebody else come lay in your mess.

Take it with you. Get it out of here and go home.

He didn't say, go start a ministry. He said, I'm

healing you. Get up. Walk. Clean up your mess and go

home. I love that we've got that kind of God. I love

that. You know, it's like, how desperate can you be when the world is

walking past you? They don't even. And you feel like you're

dying, and then he sees you

and you hear that voice.

Talk about wanting to hear a voice. Tabitha

Kumi. Little girl,

arise. She was dead. She

wasn't just pretend dead. She wasn't just in a place

where she was defeated or down. Her life was gone.

And some of you feel like your life is gone.

There have been instances in my office when I've just been spending time with the

Lord where I have been, like, downcast or I've been

whatever. And I can hear this whisper in my spirit.

Tabitha. Tabitha. Little

girl, get up. Little girl, get up.

Put your name There. Put your name there.

Elizabeth. Get up, Bo.

Get up. Hear that whisper.

I love that I wrote. Obviously, it's to Tabitha.

Obviously to Tabitha. Fill in the blank.

He knows your name, and he's able to speak to

that place in your life that needs to get

up. Now, this is just a small portion of the

opportunities to arise, but just in these few things,

we've got this. Arise to claim the promise.

Arise to go after that promise. Arise to

fulfill your calling. Arise from your moments of

exhaustion, depression, and defeat.

Arise from that thing that has held you captive, that's

paralyzed you, that's made it impossible for you to

move. Arise from death,

from that thing that you've been spending time in that is just killing

you. You go to bed at night and go, God, I'm not going to do

that again. God, I'm not gonna do that again. Change your

vocabulary. God, please help me not to do that again.

Help me, Lord, to arise when I arise.

When I wake up tomorrow morning, Father, meet me there and

let my life be different. God, you give me the strength. Strength

to arise. Rise from death to life.

Here's the thing, guys. Arise is not just a movement.

I could sit down here in the floor, and one of y' all could help

me get up. I could sit down here. It's not just a movement.

It is a spiritual response to God's

invitation. It is a response to

God's invitation. And what we are wait. Well, I believe

what he's waiting on is for our first step, or our third

step, based on the week, to respond to the call to

Kumai, Kumai, will you come? Will you come?

Now, the first one that I think about this, of course, and I believe you

guys probably do, too, is last week, Pastor Kevin had

talked about a storm on the sea and the disciples

being in there. And the most tender part of that teaching to me is I

love the part of the passage of scripture where it says Jesus was asleep on

a cushion under the deck. And I just. I

can see that, and I just think how tired he must have been.

And to be asleep, something about that gets my heart,

because we have a tendency to see the Godness

of Jesus, and sometimes the humanity just slides right past us. And

he didn't even have a place to call his home

or lay his head. And there's something about that moment of

him resting this pillow that gets me,

well, now we're at another boat. Now we're at another boat.

And it's the boat that we are most familiar with. Peter

and he's standing and the waves are coming, and they look and they

see Jesus walking on the water. And Peter says this.

Peter responded and said to him, lord, if it's you,

command me to come to you on the water. And he

said, come, kumi.

But it's an extension of that. The word that's used there is actually this,

er, komai. See the komi in the center.

Arise, arise, stand

up, step forward. Find your place of

influence and be established. See, to me,

this was his Peter's second calling. He had already received

Christ. But I believe at this calling, this was when Peter

started to be a savior established in the Lord. Anyway, so

he says, arise, stand up and come forward. And you know what?

That makes me think this. At some point, Peter had to make the decision

to get up and walk to the side of the boat. At

some point, he had to be able to step and

look and see Jesus walking on the water.

A decision was made somewhere, a decision

to just get up.

Before the step, there was a stand.

Before the movement, there was a decision.

And before the miracle, there was obedience.

That's what Jeremy was talking about this morning.

Obedience, obedient to the call of God.

And at some point, you can just kind of picture it, Peter sitting there in

the boat and he feels that unction and something stirring out

there. You know, you can feel when somebody's looking at you, even when

you don't know why. You can just sense that. I just think

he knew that calling and he stood up and I think he went to the

side of the boat. He could not have climbed over the side of the boat

if he didn't get up and walk over there in the first place.

Some want the miracle of walking on water when we have yet made the

decision to get up, to get up, go

see what he's got, get up and go. You know, instead of

just assuming, oh, nothing's happening. God is done with me. This is not gonna

happen. Get up. Change your vantage point. Begin to look at

things a little differently. You know, God can do the

most amazing thing. And this is what I know, this is my

response so often, and I would venture a guess, since we are all

human, this might be your response. Well, I've been trying,

but it hasn't worked. Hasn't worked.

I have been here so many times, and it hasn't worked. And

my advice is ask again, ask

again, Ask again. When Aaron and Caitlin

and Matthew, when they were little, and now the grandkids, and there's a lot

of them, you can. I

would pick them up, or their dad would pick them up and you'd spin

in circles. Whoa, wait. Wait a minute. Too old for that. Anyway,

someone would spin in circles, and they would just

fly out there, and you'd see their faces and they're so excited.

And then you would put them down and they would do this, you know, and

you would do that. And then they'd go, again, again,

again. One more time, one more time, one more time. And

you would do it again because of the look on their face. And you

knew what it was bringing. Guys, we get a one more time with

him. We get those moments where we can go, okay, God.

Okay, just one more time. Just one more time. And he

knows we don't mean it. He knows there's going to be more. But we're like,

one more time, God. And in his love for us,

he gives us that spin. He gives us that

opportunity to do this again. Listen,

even Elijah needed the angel to come back and touch him a second time.

Even the angel. So what makes us think that we're going to get it right

the first time? That we're going to nail this, knock it out of the park?

If that was the case, why would we need such a gracious and merciful

God? I mean, seriously, if y' all could do it on

your own, why are you here? I know what

my life looked like without him. It wasn't pretty,

and it wasn't legal all the time, but anyway,

I am not going to answer that one. Anyway,

even Elijah needed a second touch. Guys, it's okay.

God, one more time. And I believe the Lord must have

put this next passage of Scripture in there just for me. It's only in Mark.

It's not in any of the other Gospels. And I like to inject

my name in there because I'm pretty sure he put it in there for now.

But I'll let you all borrow it. It's what we just read. And he took

the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when

he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him,

do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see men,

but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on

his eyes again. And he opened his eyes, his sight was

restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Now, look at this part right here. And he took the blind man

by the hand, led him out of the village.

The first touch of Jesus was not to restore his sight.

It was to take his hand, separate him from his crowd, and lead him Out.

The first touch is almost always in the drawing. I love

that this was not about his friends,

even though there's the one who took him there. This wasn't about them. This was

not about a performance by Jesus that would show everybod

that this man is okay. This was a taking of the hand

leading him out of the town and getting him

away from all of it so that he could minister to him.

I love that God did that. Because one of the things the

enemy uses in our life is he says, no, no, no, no, you

can't confess that. Because what if somebody sees that?

What if somebody knows that you've been doing this? What if

somebody knows all of this and the enemy shuts us up When God is trying

to get us to be trans transparent and open about what we're walking through.

And I love that he takes him away to the crowd, away

from the crowd. And guys, when God is drawing

you to a quiet place, go,

go respond to that drawing.

The next thing I see is this. Do you see anything? And he looked up

and he said, I see men, but they look like trees walking.

Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes and

his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly.

This is a checkpoint for me, guys, because

I can tell when I'm not doing okay spiritually,

because I start to see mankind differently.

I start to see the man instead of the God who created him.

I start to see the failures and the mistakes and the

shortfallings. And I begin to

categorize humanity in a way and see

them differently than I believe God would have me see

them. It's a distorted view. And when that starts

to happen in my life, when I start to

look at people and see

less than God's creation, then I have an issue.

I have an issue. They don't have an issue. They might have an issue, but

God's not dealing with me for their issue. He's dealing with me for my issue.

So we'll just leave it. I'm not gonna say that again. E. Anyway,

God deals with us personally, you know? So when I start

to see this in my own life, I know that it's time for me to

do a heart check. It's time for me to ask the

Lord to give me a love for his children the way that I'm

supposed to. So that's a guidepost for me.

Because here's the thing.

Jesus didn't just heal his sight. He touched his

vision. What does that even mean? His

sight was restored and he saw

Everything clearly. And he could have just said his

sight was restored, right? But it says, and he saw everything

clearly. Look why he did that. Sight is physical and it's

biological. Vision is cognitive and neurological. Sight

allows you to see, while vision allows you to understand,

interpret and respond to what you see.

And we know that his vision was restored because he

speaks to what the men were doing. He saw the men walking. He was able

to respond and understand. Sometimes

in my walk with the Lord, I have to ask him to

restore my vision, restore my vision,

God, because I know what I see. I know what I

see, but I'm not able to interpret it the way that you would

interpret it. I'm not able to respond the way that you would respond

in it. So when I look at this, I just see

that God does things differently than we do. And he gives me a

signpost, you know, Another one he gave me was back several months ago.

I was in this situation, and a friend asked

me about it. I said, you know, I don't know if I have

peace or if I've just gone numb.

And as soon as the words left my mouth, the conviction of

the Holy Spirit said, you know the difference?

You know the difference. Because, see, peace will carry you through

when nothing changes. Peace is something that even when

the storm's raging, you can have peace. But when you go numb, you

don't care. And that is never God's nature.

That is never his nature to start to lose your

capacity for compassion and caring. And so that's another

checkpoint for me. You know, it's okay for Pink Floyd to go comfortably

numb. It's not okay for me anyway.

Alrighty, then. Sometimes we just

need to be bold enough and vulnerable enough to tell the truth

and act for one more touch.

One more touch. And to ask him to give us the strength to

arise, to put strength in these legs that

have atrophied from sitting too long and to allow us

to stand into that place where transformation can take place,

to move from complacency to the action that he has called us

to. And I got so excited because I got to thinking about the way,

if we have a praise team back there, will you arise?

I love them. They're so good. But here's the thing, guys. There are all

these invitations in the word to arise, to be

changed, to move forward. And I got to thinking, Lord, what about the

rest of the story? What about the rest of the story? And you know what

else is in there? You know what else is in there?

Joshua arose. Deborah

arose. Gideon arose.

Samson Arose Ruth

arose. Samuel. Arose David. Arose

Jonathan, Abigail, Nehemiah, the elders, the

Levites, Ezra, Job,

Mary, Peter, Jesus.

At the call, they arose and they did what they were

called to do. And they were victorious in the things that they were

called to do. And see, you can look at that and go, yeah, but that's

Joshua and Gideon and Samson and

Ruth. But what if it's Justin?

What if it's Jessica? What if it's April?

What if it's Mary Sue? What if God is calling Rich

to arise? And then one day down the road, they're going,

and he arose, and she arose, and

she did this, and he did this, and dawn

arose, and all of those. Because, see, the

calling of God is not limited to these pages. The miracles

of God are not all written yet. All of the things that he has

ordained for you in this life. See, he is the author and the

finisher. He's still writing your story.

He will finish it. And you don't know what's on those

pages yet. And you might not know

unless you arise, unless you hear

that call. Allow him to draw you

and turn your Arise into a rose.

Amen. So will you rise, and let's worship for a

second. God is so good and he

is so faithful. And here's. Here's what I believe is in my

spirit this morning. If you know that God has

been calling you, if you know that you have been sitting back

and you have been waiting on that. That's it. That's

it now. Now I'll go. You have the

opportunity this morning to respond. Because arise is

a response. Remember to respond and

to allow God to move you forward on this journey

and the calling. So if I could have some prayer warriors, I would appreciate that.

But here's the thing. You might be one of those who just

needs the Holy Spirit, just needs Jesus to take your hand for a

few minutes and draw you to the side, and that's okay, too.

But take a moment and allow the Lord to do in your

life what he's called you to do. To step

to the side of the boat to hear the invitation

and make the decision of obedience. Father God, I thank you

for your word and your truth. And I thank you for the opportunity

that you are offering us today to move

from death to life. To move from complacency, Father,

into action. In your word, Father, thank you that your gift

and call are irrevocable. You have not changed your mind, Father. I

pray you help us to align with that this morning. In Jesus name.

Jesus name. Come if you need prayer.