Fear Not: Week 1

If we haven't met. My name is James, and I've been away for

a few weeks, but it is so good to be back. And I

mean to tell you guys, I really really missed you. And uh,

I was away for five weeks. I just got to be a little boy

in the woods. I was up in Wisconsin, I was all over Indiana

and just had a great, great time. And I tell you what it

was. The last week, it was kind of I've never experienced this on

a vacation before the last week, I couldn't wait to get back. Have

you ever been on vacation where you couldn't wait to get back to work?

Like I felt like like something's wrong with me, and and and I realized

that I just miss you. And then today as I was walking into uh,

you know, in the parking lot, I looked over and I saw

several of you, and I just had this thought, Oh, what a

great person, Oh what a great person. And then it hit me like

I get to pastor them, and it's just a reminder that I just want

you to know today I love you, I really love you, and I

just hope you know that you are loved. And also I'm still gonna take

a month off every year because that is awesome. And I'm not a good

pastor in November, but it is good for my soul. Today we're starting

a new series. It's called Fear Not, and we're gonna be looking at

some of the events leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ. Okay,

and so today we're gonna be looking at Mary's experience with the Angel. So

luckily for us, the Chosen series encapsulates this in a wonderful, dramatic,

creative way. So let's check out this clip to open up the message.

Today, the Jews long for freedom in their own land. From the capital

Jerusalem to the provincial backwater of Galilee. The people take comfort in their faith

and lista done a sure a sheira lech boda doora a sure a shera lethbod

doora me batsy caraza. Mary might be tracked. You have the most beautiful

eyes I've ever seen and the sweetest smile. You drive more, share a

bed no more, share a bed ba. When the name of parent and

rogue taxes are what is this? We will take this man. Does you

see you're interrupting the scriptures and you no, this must be a mistake.

But wor's have been got here. You've got your problem. Get back to

your photo's house. Becut, marry, marry. The Lord is with you.

Don't be afraid. You will soon give birth to a son. He

will be the son of the most High. The experience won't move in you.

Don't be afraid. I am the Lord's servant. The holy one to

be born will be called the Son of God. Now could you imagine meeting

an angel? Young girl meeting angel? Do you think she was excited,

like, oh my gosh, that was awesome. I just met Gabriel,

you know, the head angel of God's armies. No, it was a

tex Sa. Tex says that she was freaking out. Okay, It says

in verse twenty nine of Luke chapter one, she was confused and disturbed.

Have you ever met somebody that has disturbed. I've met many people that are

disturbed. But also just like when you're disturbed, what's happening? When you're

disturbed, you can't get your mind around the situation. You're freaking out a

little bit. You're kind of just blown away. It's like I can't put

this together. I can't calculate this. This is not coming together. I

don't understand. So this is where she's at. She's like, I just

made an angel, But what is going on? Says Mary? Try to

think what the angel could mean? What's going on? Now? Let me

give you a little backstory. Okay, you gotta understand. We gotta put

herselves in Mary's place. She's fourteen, fifteen or sixteen, and according to

historians, in their culture, and this went on for thousands of years,

girls from a young age, they would be prepared, they would be taught

how to do household duties. They would be being prepared. Hey, when

you turn fourteen, fifteen or sixteen, we're gonna find you a husband.

You're gonna get married. And so Mary's not only engaged, but she's betrothed.

She's in the season where she has found her husband. So does a

what does a young girl do whenever she has found her husband? What about

these ladies who are engaged? What is it like to be engaged? You're

looking forward, you're daydreaming, you're thinking like, oh my gosh, what

of my family's going to be like, what our home's gonna be like?

And you're so excited? What about today? What a modern bride you know,

they're on Pinterest thinking about how awesome their wedding is going to be,

or at least how it has to be better than their friend's weddings. You

know what I'm talking about. Are they're practicing writing your husband. Who's done

this? Practice writing your husband's last name, so that as soon as you're

married, you can write checks. You know, you know what I'm talking

about. You're coming up with names, you know, like, oh,

I want to name the child Rebeca. I want to name a child.

This it's an exciting time. But here this angel interrupts her plans, and

it's incredibly inconvenient. This is not how Mary pictured her life. So that

leads us to a very important principle for every single one of us in this

room where we can relate to this story here, it is what we call

interruptions. God often calls these invitations. What we call interruptions, God calls

invitations, and for some of us, it just feels like God's interrupted me,

He's interrupted my life, when actually he's inviting me to something better,

something bigger, something holy, or something more spiritual, something that has a

greater meaning for your life and for the life of those around you. I

had this guy, really good guy that I've known for years, and he

kept last year early fall. He kept texting me and calling me and leaving

me messages, and he kept saying, I have an oportunity for you.

I have an opportunity for you. I have an opportunity for you. And

I don't know about you, but sometimes when you're completely overwhelmed in life,

and this was one of those ministry seasons where it was like, man,

I can't put one more thing on my plate, and so these opportunities just

felt like huge interruptions. I'm like, man, I don't have time for

this, and also I just don't have time to tell somebody no, and

I because he's such a good guy. But finally I'm like, all right,

I got to the point of rudeness and I'm like, all right,

I got to call this guy back. So I called him back and he

says, Hey, I know somebody right down the street from you who wants

to give your church a property if all these things work out. Well,

we hadn't thought about that, we hadn't desired that, and so we met

with these people and they're like, yeah, we would love for you guys

to have this property and you could start a ministry center out of it,

and well, we hadn't thought about that, and so all of a sudden,

I pulled the leadership together, our staff, our elders, and all

those people, and we daydream for two whole less like what could it be?

Like how could we be faithful with the building. And so we start

thinking about we're gonna have this ministry and this ministry and this ministry, and

we start thinking about like, hey, what are the needs in our community

and how we're gonna fulfill every need in this community. We're gonna be the

hands and feet of Christ. And so I went on my vacation last year.

Then I got word that it sounded like somebody came in with a one

point five million dollar offer, but no suns. We didn't even know the

building was for sale, and somebody on that board decided, let's take this

one point five million dollars. And so we saw that like this, Okay,

this dream is over. And I remember, I'm sitting up in the

stand and I'm talking to God, and I'm like, God, we just

wasted two months, a ton of resources. We even invested on some drawings

and all that sort of stuff. And then I'm feeling horrible and feeling guilty

how I led leadership through this prayer thing. I even asked you all last

year to pray through something. And so as a leader, I'm just feeling

this guilt as a leader of I felt like, man, I just wasted

everybody's time. And then, man, I know where I felt like God

just spoke to me and he just said, listen, I just needed you

to dream I how to kickstart that. You guys are going to do all

those ministries you dreamed about, but you're not going to have that building.

You're gonna do it all. And then all of a sudden we came back

and we just said, hey, what about I just go ahead and do

the vision. Anyways, maybe God gave us this vision, but he didn't

give us a building. And then all of a sudden, you just start

seeing this church kind of just get remodeled all over the place, and you

see these ministries starting, and we had last year, we had these.

Just a few months ago, we had these young ladies who decided to keep

their baby stuff un of abortion, and you all came together and threw them

an awesome, awesome baby shower after a twelve week Bible study our neighborhood market.

Just in the last month, we've ticked up and we're serving a ton

more families and we're be in the hands of feet of Christ. And here's

what we found out during our research. During our research, we found out

that most of the people who really needed help around our church would actually drive

past our church. They would draft past our building and go sixty some streets

up to get help. And when our leadership found out about that, you

talk about righteous anger, We're like, heck, no, no, listen,

not on our watch, not anymore. If there's a problem in this

community, we're gonna meet it, we're gonna solve it. We're gonna be

the hands of feet of Christ. And it all started from an interruption,

interruption and a promise that fell through. And God's like, man, I

just had to get you guys there. And we're doing it. Legal aid

ministries are sorting families are coming to Christ. A lot of the people that

we've worked with they're now members of our Hispanic congregation. I mean, it's

crazy. See, I don't know if you know this, but uh,

God knows more than us. I don't know if you heard that somewhere I

thought I saw a lot sticker. And I don't know if you've heard this

too, that we're kind of stubborn and we kind of get in our own

path, think her own ways. But God sometimes got to do some things

to shake it. Sometimes the things we see is an interruption, there are

an invitation. Think about through scripture, Moses is just having a good old

time with those goats out in the middle of the desert. Then all of

a sudden there's a Bernie Bush and God's like, hey, Moses, why

don't you go take on Pharaoh and lead my three million people out of slavery.

That's quite an interruption. Think about Paul. Paul's having a good time

killing Christians and God interrupts him with a light, knocks him down and says,

hey, have you thought about writing half of the New Testament? Have

you thought about I don't know, becoming an apostle to the world for anybody

who will listen to you about the grace of Jesus Christ. See, God

interrupts us, but it's almost always an invitation. I want you to listen

to this big time today. Okay, this is for you. Well,

I'm I ready to say this is for you. I believe that many of

us, well is self included, we often shake off God's invitations, calling

them interruptions when God wants to do something new and different in our life.

I'm going to say that again. I believe that a lot of us shake

off God's calling and we see them as interruptions when God wants to do something

new and something special in your life. And now, I don't know how

this is going to play out in your life, where God's going to take

you, what God is going to do, but a lot of you you've

been interrupted before. Somebody a long time ago interrupted your life and said won't

you come to church with me? And you're like, man, I don't

like to sing, well, then there's going to be a sermon. I

don't like to hear people talk either, you know. And you're like,

uh, well, there's donuts, all right, that sounds cool. And

so you've been interrupted and you come at church but grudgingly. But then you

hear a song, or you hear a scripture. Are you here a test

money? Or you have an invitation? Also it's like, oh my gosh,

God has grabbed a hold of my heart. And the next thing you

know you're praising the Lord. You're like, whoa. This was a huge

interruption in my life, but it was an invitation to something so so so

much better. For those of you who are thirty and younger, raise your

hand, thirty and younger, raid your hand, get bigger. Okay,

we got kind of quite a few in here, some of you look older.

But there is a thing. Back in the day, it was called

a beeper. Okay, and let me tell you about this beeper. It

was a thing that you put on your waist, so everybody knew you had

a beeper. And it's originally designed for doctors, like hey, you need

to sew an arm back on, okay, But somehow we decided it would

be good for all of us to have a beeper, and so it would

beep, and basically it was an emergency, like somebody really needed to hold

of you. And so those of us who got a beep, what will

we do? We would go and find the closest payphone. Why because we

did I have a mobile phone, and so we would pull over and answer,

and we would call the person and be like, what's going on,

what's going on? Is everything okay? And they'd be like they would tell

what's going on. I mean, I wholeheartedly believe that the beeper was invented,

and then one year later anxiety medicine was created. And let me tell

you, people use beepers for different things. You know, doctors like,

hey, let's sell an arm back on my wife, she saw a beeper

as a different instrument. I remember one time she beat me and then she

put nine to one one and if I remember the nine one one. But

people will put in like, hey, stop what you're doing. You gotta

call right now. And I still remember coming down Roosevelt onto Brill Boulevard in

Middletown and there is a BP gas station and I pulled over and I jump

on the phone like, hey, he's everything okay. She's like, oh,

I'm so glad I caught you. We're out of bread. Y'all know

you all got some of these, you know what I'm talking about. So

anyways, so we use these forencies. I thought they were the greatest interrupters

to life. And as pastors, we took turn. Each pastor got the

beeper for a week for any situation that somebody from the church might need.

And let me tell you something. They always felt like interruptions because it was

after work, and it was when you sit down for dinner and beep,

are you ready to go to bed? And you're a pajamas big and you

had to answer them. You had to answer them. And I know,

just as a human being, my first thing was like, ah, and

then I would call and let me tell you. Here's what I When I

look back over those years, it's kind of interesting, this twenty twenty hindsight.

Some of my most precious memories of ministry started out as an interruption.

You know, you're going to the hospital, the person's about ready to pass

away, and you get to sit there and talk to this person. They're

so close to the light of Jesus that they're able. This saint is able

to tell you things about Jesus Christ to own. Only people who are so

close to the light did Jesus know about Jesus? Are You go there and

you're talking to somebody, and the families like, please go talk to him

about Jesus. He's about ready to die and you go in there, and

multiple times, multiple times I got to pray with somebody as they were led

to Christ, only to slip away to the next world. In the next

few hours. Are those times where you're sitting here holding hands with a family

and there's just been this big tragedy. But now, because you're there in

that moment, that interruption, now your brothers and sisters melted together for the

rest of your life. I look back on a lot of the interruptions of

my life, and I see these as some of the greatest ministry moments in

my life. You know, a lot of us we understand, you know.

We get this prompt in our heart and it's like, hey, you

need to go to the hospital visit your friend. You're like, hey,

my schedule's insane. I got three kids, we got fifty five thousand things

going on this week. But you keep getting this prompt in your heart,

and this prompt in your heart prompty. You're like, Okay, I'll go

to the hospital, visit my friend. You go to the hospital, You

visit your friend. While you're talking to your friend, all of a sudden,

as you're talking, you start ministering, and words that you've never put

together in your mind start coming out. And while you're saying these things,

you're like, oh my gosh, the Holy Spirit is speaking through me.

And you're like, oh my gosh, God is speaking through me, and

you walk away. You're walking down the hallway, you're like, oh my

gosh, that was a supernatural moment. God, how did you do that?

God? You spoke for me. And you're blown away by the supernatural

moment that started out as an interruption. Then you go to church next week

and you hear about how the children's ministry needs more fourth grade leaders and you're

like, oh, I hate fourth graders, And all of a sudden you're

like, but God, he's prompting your heart and said I'm gonna sign up,

and you sign up, and here's the next thing you know about a

few months later, that one hour on Sunday morning is what you look forward

to all week because you're like, I get to share my spiritual life with

these fourth graders. See often our interruptions, our invitations from God. See

the Angel appears. This young lady in her life is all planned out,

but he's like, hey, I got something different for you. Let's look

at verse thirty. Now, in the King James version, it starts out

by saying fear not, but when we look at the New Living translation,

it says, don't be afraid. Mary, for you have found favor with

God. How many of you would like to have favor with God? That

sounds like something. Also, if an angel came to me, it's like,

James, you have favor with God, and be like, man,

the hand of God is upon me. I have God's favor, I have

God's blessing. That would be so exciting to me. I would feel very,

very special. If an angel says God has found favor with you,

and I'd be like, what about Andrew, No you, I'm sorry that

wasn't in my notes. And I would be so excited. But they're like,

hey, I found favor with you. But it's not what you think.

It's not what you think, it's something different. And I think that's

why we're so afraid of following God, because sometimes God just man, we

don't know. We don't like the unknown. Let's talk about this. This

leads to a natural question today. Why are we often afraid of God's plans?

Great question? Number one. His interruptions are often inconvenient, they're not

on our timetable, they're not our plans. And let me tell you something

about humans. We love our plans. We love being the masters of our

destiny. Number Two. God's purposes are often different from our plans. Okay,

One, they're inconvenient, they're not on our timetable. It's not when

we would have done it. And secondly, they're different from what we want

to do. But see, look at the inconvenient but grand purpose that God

had for this young lady. Let's look at this first together, one of

the greatest passages of scripture in the whole Bible. Let's look at this.

Angel said to Mary, you will conceive and give birth to a son,

and you're gonna call him Jesus, and he will be very great and will

be called the son of the Most High, the Lord God. Will give

him the throne of his ancestor David, and he will reign over Israel forever.

His kingdom will never end. You're going to give birth to the Son

of God and his name will be Jesus, and he will be savior of

the world. Now, could you imagine her emotions like, first of all,

boom, you are gonna be the most awesome woman in history. God

has chosen you to bring forth the son of God. Could you imagine how

excited and her emotions should have been all over place, like whoa this is

awesome. God has chosen me. Then all of a sudden she's like,

ooh, pregnant out of wedlock. Well, in my culture they kind of

stone you for that. That's not good. And then all of a sudden

it's like, whohoh, this is such an honor, this is from God,

this is amazing. Oh no, I gotta tell Joseph, and I

gotta tell Joseph, I got pregnant by the Holy Spirit. This is gonna

be a very weird conversation. Oh, Joseph is prepared for this. Joseph,

I'm pregnant. It's God's baby. Now. I don't know about you,

but I mean, that's just not gonna pass right. So let's remember

that man, God's purposes and the way he does things man are just so

different than the way we do things. One of my favorite scriptures of all

time, I love this passage was to say here in Isaiah fifty five,

and those of you who have lived a long life, you should own this

passage because you know this. My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says

the Lord, and my ways are far beyond anything you can imagine. For

justice, the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher

than your way, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. I was prompted

while I was on vacation after having some conversations with God to order a shadow

box. And I ordered a shadow box, and the shadow box was to

put my ray Band sunglasses in that I've had for sixteen years, and to

memorialize the ray Band sunglasses that I've wore pretty much every day since then.

Like a lot of times, you guys might see them on my you know,

right here as I'm preaching. That's because I can't lose them. They're

very, very very special to me, Okay, And you have to understand

because God, I felt like God was calling me to memorialize this event in

my life as a reminder of God's faithfulness and how I can trust them even

when things just make no sense to me. You see, when Gene and

I went to go plant a church, we were so poor. Let me

tell you how poor we were. I needed a winter coat and so I

had to go put it on lay away. You all remember lay away,

And I paid on it every week and it got to the point where I

was about ready to pay off. Then we got invited to plant a church

in Phoenix. Well, who needs a heavy winter coat in Phoenix? So

when got my money and I bought these ray band sunglasses, which glasses I

never could have afforded at that time. And man, I'm like, this

is awesome. I'm going to Phoenix and I got ray banded sunglasses. A

couple months later, the church planting company canceled our church plant due to the

lack of funding on their end. In a snow storm. Wearing ray banded

sunglasses, I moved to Pittsburgh. These did nothing but mock me. For

two years. Every time I put them on, I was freezing, and

it would be a reminder of like, what a fool you thought this?

You thought this, but God had this. But then all of a sudden

something started to happen. After a few years, I started to thank God,

like, man, God, you know more than me. This is

so good. God, you were good. You were so good. I'm

so thankful for this. And then now I jump out about sixteen years later,

and all of a sudden, I had this thought while I was on

vacation and I was just thinking and praying about God, like God, I

can know only can I trust you? With the little segments and little moments

in my life. But I can trust you with my whole life that you're

good. You love me. My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways

are not your ways, but you love me because I'm your child and I

can trust you. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna

put this up in my office so that every day I can look at it,

and anytime God is doing something in my life or in the church that

I don't understand, I'm going to look at it and just be reminded He

is faithful. He is faithful, and God is always going to take care

of us at the end, juxtaposed against my often what on earth is happening

in this moment. It's a daily reminder that I will see the goodness of

the Lord. You know, I wonder how many of you are at that

point life or you can trust God because you've seen his faithfulness. And I

don't know how this is gonna play out in your life, but we see

this again and again. Some of you, you dream of a perfect family,

and you think you're gonna have a perfect life, perfect kids, and

then all of a sudden you find out your kid's gonna have special needs and

you're like, man, why us? Why not them? This is gonna

be so tough, But you have no idea that the huge blessing is gonna

be in your life, that you're gonna have more love in your family than

you could have ever dreamed of or imagined. Why. Because His purposes are

different than our plans. You lose your job one day and you're thinking,

man, how am I gonna pay my bills? What am I gonna do?

You're stressed out, and then all of a sudden, this starting a

business has been in the back of your mind for years. God says,

hey, now's the time to do it, and you start this business.

And then years later you're like, oh, man, God, what seemed

like a disaster was a blessing. Why Because often God's plans and purposes are

different than our plans and purposes. I don't know how many times I've talked

to somebody who are crushed because they didn't get married to the person they thought

they were gonna marry because this person was perfect for them, But then during

that time, God was creating someone who is inconceivably better for them. Why.

Because God's plans are different than our plans. Don't forget that God has

plans to bless you, to prosper you, not to harm you, to

give you a hope, and to give you a future, and often he

interrupts you to get you to his blessings. The Angel Lord says this young

girl, and she responds back, I love this. This is a great,

great passage. She says, a question of clarification, how can this

happen? I'm supposed to give birth and I'm a virgin. Phenomenal question.

Phenomenal question. And so in other words, it's totally impossible, it's beyond

impossible. It is that, sir, it's physically impossible for this happen.

That would be like the Angel Lord coming to me and saying, James,

next year you're gonna win the Boston Marathon and record time. It's in conceit.

And here's what Mary's doing. She's saying, like, hey, I'm

a virgin, verses don't give birth. Eh. You know, it's one

of those moments where we gotta trust God's promises. We look back and we

don't see how things are possible, but sometimes God calls us to do things

that we believe are impossible. You know, you're like I don't see how

God could ask me to forgive this person after all that they've done to me,

is impossible to forgive them. I don't know how I'm gonna trust this

person again. All right, God, I don't know how I'm gonna trust

you to be generous. I don't see the money, but you say you're

gonna take care of me. This doesn't look possible, are God. I

believe that you would heal my marriage, but after all that's happened, I

don't know how you're gonna make this marriage work again. Our God, how

can I ever reconcile this relationship with my children after what they said? After

what I said? Our God? The doctor already said, plan for the

worst and get ready for death. It's totally, incompletely, completely impossible.

Mary said, it's impossible. There's no way, And then check this out.

The angel answered and said that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and

the Highest and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. In other words,

he's like, Mary, I need you to understand something. I just

told you that you're gonna have a baby, and you're a virgin, But

you need to understand this. This is not a human job. This is

not a human endeavor. This is not up to you. This is a

God thing. This is a godside saying, this is an order from God.

This is something only God could do. And often when God interrupts you,

often when God calls you to do things. Often when God says,

all right, here's the direction I want you to go. You can't see

how it's possible. And that's because it's not possible. Important to you and

me, It's only possible for God. Okay, you gotta understand that some

things on this earth are just God sized some things. And look at what

the angel said. He says, Therefore, also the Holy One who is

born will be called the Son of God. For with God nothing will be

impossible. Why because our God is all knowing, ever present, all powerful,

and with just one word, our God can change everything. How many

of you believe that nothing is impossible for God? Do you believe that today?

Now? God may ask you as we close up today to do something

that you think is impossible. Are utterruly ridiculous. But here's what I want

to remind you. Outcome is God's responsibility. Obedience is yours. Outcome is

God's responsibility. Your job is obedience. He may want you to start in

a small group. You don't see how it's gonna work out. Your job

obedience, godshop outcome. Okay, God is calling you to tide. You're

like, I don't know how we're gonna do it. Your job obedience,

God's shop outcome. God's calling you to give a big year and gift.

You're like, I don't know how I'm gonna do that. Your job obedience,

God's job outcome. You got three children, but God saying, hey,

foss another child. You're like, I don't know obedience, your job

outcome, God's job. The young brilliant lady from our church that happens to

be a lawyer. God prompted on her heart too, and she's super busy.

But God prompted on her heart to start free legal aid for those in

our community. We didn't know if it was gonna fall fight on the face.

We didn't even know if there was gonna be anybody wod be interested.

We just didn't know if it was just gonna be in one of those ministries

you start. You're like, ah, that wasn't good. And it worked,

you know, we tried it for two three months in US no more.

We were really nervous about it, and then Indy pro Bono got involved

and said, hey, we're gonna help out. Then we got really nervous

because now we're exposed a little bit more, you know, And it's like,

oh wow, if you feel the pressure. And the first week we're

like, I wonder if anybod's gonna show up. And then a sudden,

a bunch of people showed up. And the next time more people showed up.

And let me tell you something about this ministry. This ministry isn't just

given free legal aid. This ministry is absolutely changing the trajectory of many people's

lives. Those people who were trapped are now freed. People who did not

know how to move forward to thrive here in America are thriving all of a

sudden. Those people who could not move forward in their careers because something on

the record that should have been expunged is now expunged. These are life changing

moments. We are changing generations and we are changing fans. Why because someone

was sitting here and just had a prompt I could do this, But this

sounds impossible. What should do? They might think I'm crazy. We don't

do that. Does church do this? I mean all these questions and we're

like, hey, why not, let's help people. Let's just help people,

and God that's blessed it. So how do we get to the point

where God's interruption and his invitation can move into a big, life changing God

thing. Well we do what Mary did, what this young girl did two

thousand years ago. Let's look at how she responded. How does she respond

Verse thirty eight. I am the Lord's servant. In other words, she

says, he is the king of kings, he is the lord of lawyers.

He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the creator, He is

a sustainer of life. He knew me when I was in my mother's womb.

He has plans for my life. He knows my destiny. He has

been with me. He has fed me, he has protected me, he

has loved me, he has nourished me. My God has been with me

every single day of my life. So therefore I am the Lord's servant.

Whatever he wants me to do, I'm gonna do because why he is God,

He is my father. I am his child. When God calls you,

when God interrupts you, when God says, hey, I got a

plan for your life, what is your response is your response, let me

check my schedule. I don't know if I could do that. That sounds

a little big, that sounds a little hard, that sounds like it's not

fit for my life. Or will your response be I am the Lord's servant?

Two different types of Christians in the world today. There are those who

serve themselves, and then there are those who say I am the Lord's servant

and the ones who say I'm the Lord's servants. Of the difference makers.

So how will you respond when the Lord interrupts your life? What does she

go on to say? She says, may everything you said about me come

true? In other words, I have no fear. I trust you.

Why because his ways are higher than my ways. His his purposes are higher

than my plans, his thoughts are greater than I can ever imagine. And

when I remember at the end of the day, who I am, I

am the servant of the Lord. Let's pray God. We come to you

right now and we want to humble ourselves before your mighty hand. And we

want to thank you first of all that you do love us, that you

are involved in our lives. But for you right now, here's how I

want you to respond. Is there anything Has there been a prompt in your

life? Has there been an invitation in your life? Has God been calling

you or or asking you to change something and stop something, do something?

How has God been speaking to you? And I just want to give you

a moment to recall that, or to even ask that. Take this holy

moment between you and the Lord right now and now. Will you respond by

saying I am the Lord's servant,