At The Movies: Lessons from Elijah and Spider-Man's Miles Morales | July 9th | Pastor Josh Miller

All right, good morning TKL.

How are you?

Man, I am excited to be with y'all this morning.

Man, I feel like man, I'm feeling big shoes With Pastor Paul.

Pastor Larry killed it last week.

If you didn't miss that, you need to go back and watch it.

And so then it was like, hey, josh, you're up.

And I was like, oh man, don't crumble under the pressure.

But no, I'm excited to be with y'all.

Like Swig said, we are a church plant that y'all sponsor.

I've been connected to Pastor Paul for about 20 years now, and so we feel like we are a part of TKL, even though we only get to come and hang out with you about once a year.

So I got the opportunity to pick a movie and my kids kind of helped me.

They said, hey, what about Spider-Man?

And I was going I don't know much about Spider-Man, okay, I know like old school Toby McGuire, you know nerdy little photographer guy.

And he was like, no, no, no, this is the new Spider-Man, this is Miles Morales.

And so I said, here's the deal If I'm going to teach about this movie, we got to go see it.

And so we took a picture while we were doing recon.

I think we got it up there.

There it is.

As you can see, my daughter was not so excited.

She was like, dad, I thought we were going to see Barbie and now you're taking me to see Spider-Man.

This was not part of the deal, but when we got there we just kind of dove into this idea of Miles Morales.

I was used to Peter Parker.

I did learn the difference between a cartoon and a graphic novel.

I did learn that difference.

It's a real thing.

But as we were watching I was like you know, I think I like Miles a little bit better, like he's just got a little more swagger, he's just a little cooler.

And Pastor Larry was like, oh, you probably just relate to him more.

I was like, no, I'm definitely the nerdy white dude, I'm definitely more like Peter Parker.

I think I aspire to be like Miles Morales.

But what was cool is, as we were watching this film and I'm going to try not to ruin it for you I hate when people spoil movies, but you kind of jump into like episode two, and so he's already gotten bit by a spider.

He's got like the weird spidey sense tingle thing going on.

But as the story kind of progresses we see that he kind of gets pitted, and if you're not a Marvel fan, this is really going to make no sense In the multiverse.

Look it up if you have to, I did.

He gets in this multiverse and there's all these other Spider-Man that somehow he ends up kind of going against, which sounds very weird.

But in that process what we find out is that Miles was never supposed to be Spider-Man, and I know I just ruined it for you, I'm sorry I had to do it, but in that moment we see him kind of wrestling with, hey, what is my purpose?

You know, here I am, I'm a mistake, I'm not supposed to be here, but I'm here and now I gotta figure out what is my role as a hero going to look like?

And so he doubts his purpose, his ability, his mission in life.

Is this hitting home with anybody else?

Because, as I'm reading this, I'm going Miles, I feel you, bro, I am like you, at least in this regard.

And so, as I was kind of reading through scripture and just praying about, hey, what text kind of aligns with this idea of Spider-Man, I ended up in First Kings, chapter 19, which is where we're going to be this morning, and looking at this guy, elijah, that ends up in a similar kind of situation.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

Now I'm one of those guys.

I don't want to just jump into the middle of a story.

You ever you're watching a TV show but it started like 30 minutes earlier and your TV won't let you rewind.

That's like the worst thing ever, right, first world problems.

And so you jump into the middle of a story and you're going what's going on?

Who is that guy?

Why is he mad at him?

Who is she dating?

You know you're trying to put the pieces together, so I want to kind of give you an update First Kings 17 and 18, just kind of a sprint through those so you're up to speed when we jump into our text this morning.

So in First Kings 17, we have a guy named Ahab who becomes the king of Israel and as soon as he does, he turns everybody away from God and starts going after Baal and Asherah and all these other idols.

And if you don't know Ahab, I promise you you've heard of his wife, jezebel, bad, bad news.

And so, as all of this is going on, god goes if you're going to turn away from me, I'm going to bring a famine on the land.

So, Elijah, go and tell them a famine's coming, can I just tell you, being a prophet of God in the Old Testament, it was not a fun job, cause usually you were like, hey, man, you know what it's about to get awful, like, I hope you're not comfortable, cause it's really about to get bad for the next little bit.

And so that's the news that he brings.

He says, hey, a famine is coming, so we're talking about no rain, no, do nothing, and we don't even know how long it's going to go, just indefinitely.

And so, as that happens, god finally tells him three years later hey, go back and tell them that the famine is coming to a close and they need to turn from their idol worship and turn back towards me.

People usually don't like to see the guy who brought bad news, and so when he shows back up, ahab even calls him the troubler of Israel.

Like, oh, there's that dude that always has bad news, right, I don't know if you have people like that in your life.

I just avoid them at all costs.

You know it's like, oh, here they come, let's, let's.

Oh, somebody called my name.

I gotta go over there, I gotta get away from this guy.

That's kind of how they treated Elijah.

And so in that moment he tells King Ahab hey, how about this?

We'll figure out who the real God is.

We'll go up on Mount Carmel, you bring your prophets of Baal and the Sharia and we'll meet up there and we'll just kind of have like who's God is the real God?

And so we'll cut up a bull, we'll put it on an altar and whoever brings fire down from heaven, that is the true God.

And Elijah, being a baller that he is, said, and I'll tell you what, you could even go first, right, he kind of throws that out there.

And so for hours, these prophets are screaming and wailing.

They even start cutting themselves, trying to get their God to bring it on.

And Elijah, who is like me, he's a little bit competitive.

He was like, hey, you know what?

You should probably scream louder.

I bet he walked away from the phone.

His phone's on silent.

Maybe he's in the restroom.

He's throwing those kind of ideas out there.

So after hours and hours of nothing, he goes.

Okay, guys, that's enough.

Now it's my turn.

And I love the prayer that he prays in chapter 18, verses 36 and 37.

He says Lord, the God of Abraham, isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God and Israel, and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

Answer me, lord.

Answer me, so these people will know that you are Lord, that you, lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back again.

He prays this prayer and he goes hey, you know what?

I'm gonna take it up a step too.

I'm gonna add jars of water, so it's not enough that, like this is dry, we haven't had rain.

I'm gonna put 12 jars of water on top of this man.

Fire comes down, it consumes the bull, it consumes the wood, the stone, the soil is burned.

Even all of the water is completely gone.

And we get to verse 39 that says when all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried the Lord, he is God.

The Lord, he is God.

As soon as this happens, elijah gathers these prophets and just slaughters all of them, 450 of them.

He goes I mean, you are gone, we are taking care of you today.

And he tells King Ahab hey, why don't you go back to your castle and go ahead and celebrate, because the famine is over, the rain is coming.

Now, when we get ready to kind of lean into First Kings 19, we see, hey, this is like the mic drop of all mic drop moments, right?

Hey, everything has gone incredible.

Honestly, as I was reading this, everything to me is a movie.

I think it's because I'm a millennial and so that's just how my brain works.

But I just feel like there had to be like a post-dual interview with Elijah, right?

And they go hey, elijah, you just defeated all of the prophets of Baal, and now God has been restored and the famine is over.

What are you gonna do next?

He was like I'm going to Disney World, right.

Like it's that kind of moment.

Hey, I have arrived.

It doesn't get any better than this.

But then we get to First Kings 19 and it kind of takes a weird turn.

Look at verse one and two.

It says now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow, I do not make your life like one of them.

I don't know that.

That's part of the Disney Parade, right?

Like he's thinking hey, I'm on top of the world.

Hey, this is as good as it gets.

This is the pinnacle of being a prophet of God.

And then the next verse is like and the queen says she's gonna kill me.

That was not what he had in mind.

He thought, man, I've gone through three years of being the troubler of Israel and now I'm finally getting over that hump where everything is gonna be good, we're gonna see God's blessing.

And now she's gonna try and kill me.

Now the irony is I don't know that she necessarily was gonna kill in there.

She wanted to make him run.

And what's crazy is Elijah had failed where he was the strongest.

He who had been the most courageous man of all is now fleeing for his life from a woman.

And it's so crazy how the story can turn.

And so we get to verse three and it says Elijah was afraid and ran for his life when he came to Beersheba in Judah.

He left his servant there while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.

He came to a broom.

Bush sat down under it and prayed that he may die.

I've had enough, lord.

And he said take my life, I am no better than my ancestors.

And then he laid down under the bush and fell asleep.

Now a commercial and kind of a marketing scheme came out a few years ago, and as I read this, it was just so crazy to see how you can go from being on top of the world to defeat in just a matter of minutes.

And I don't know about you, but I've had that experience in my own life where I feel like everything is falling in place.

God has blessed in everything that I do and just like that I'm going.

Man, everything fell apart.

Like what is the deal?

God, I'm taking the steps you asked me to take and things are getting hard and they're getting difficult.

And he had forgotten the fact that people reject God.

Excuse me, he had forgotten that people reject God despite the evidence, not because of the evidence.

And so here you have these people that are like, hey, the Lord is God, hey, it's him, yahweh is God.

And then two seconds later it's like where are all these people that were backing me up on Mount Carmel when things were going good?

Hey, they're nowhere to be found.

And so he goes to God.

And he goes, man, will you just kill me?

Like I'm just tired of this, I'm exhausted.

I've tried to do the right thing the entire time and it's getting me nowhere.

Now if that hadn't hit home for anybody else, I promise you that wore me out Cause I'm going.

I don't know that I've prayed to die, but I've been like hey, God, can I go do something else?

Like this is not fun.

This is challenging every single day.

And then we get to this next verse Says all at once, an angel touched him and said get up and eat.

He looked around and, there by his head, with some bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water, he ate and drank and then laid down.

Now there was a marketing scheme that came out a few years ago and they said hey, when you're hungry, you're not yourself, right?

And so they said hey, why don't you take a break and why don't you eat a Snickers?

I feel like that's what God is doing for Elijah.

Okay, he's going.

Hey, you showed up and you were like hey, that's it, I'm done, I quit, kill me, take me out.

And then God goes hey, bro, why don't you just take a break, take a breath, eat a Snickers?

You're not yourself when you're hungry.

We have a term we use in my house hangry.

Does anybody else use that?

Hey, when I get hungry, I get angry.

They go together, hand in hand, and I'm not myself when I'm hungry.

And my wife has learned that when I get hungry and I get short, she didn't necessarily slide me a Snickers, but she's like hey, you wanna get some food?

I'm going.

Yes, 10 minutes ago I wanted some food.

Yeah, let's do it right now.

And so that's what God does here for him.

And I want you to see something in this Never underestimate the healing power of a nap and a meal.

Right, and what I love about that idea and that sounds like I'm making fun, but I'm being so serious Because when we get tired and we get weary and we're trying to do everything on our own, we have to take time to go.

Hey, pause, man, I need to rest in the Lord.

I love that.

When God created everything, what's the first thing we got to do as people?

Taking a nap.

My kids are like dad, we don't wanna take a nap.

Man, this feels like punishment.

And I'm going hey, one day you will be an adult and you will praise God for every nap that you get, even if it's five minutes.

And so, as I read that, I'm going hey, a nap is me going.

Hey, god, I know that my body needs to be refreshed and I know that I can sleep knowing that you're in control.

And so when I say, don't underestimate the healing power of a nap and a meal, hey, the nap is real, the meal.

I love this.

Look at verse seven.

It says the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said get up and eat.

The journey is too much for you.

So he got up, ate and drank.

Strengthened by that food, he traveled 40 days and 49ths until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

Man.

Can I just tell you in verse eight, I love that one little word right in the middle, strengthened by the food.

We have to understand that when God tells us to go somewhere, or he sends us to go do something, he is strengthening us for the journey that he is sending us on.

We are so quick to quote Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ, who gives me.

Oh, we're seeing a pattern here right Now.

That's not talking about kryptonite, where I can do anything.

I'm Superman.

Oh, I forgot I had this special power.

It's going.

Hey, I can endure all things because Jesus is the one strengthening me for the journey that's ahead.

I love knowing that when I get sent into something and I feel overwhelmed by it.

Did you catch what the angel said?

Hey, the journey is too much for you, and so I've gotta come in and I've gotta provide something for you that's gonna help you see it through and go and do what God is calling you to do.

Man, love it, love it.

And so this Mount Horeb is actually Mount Sinai.

Now, 40 days.

Now here's what's crazy the distance that he traveled should have only taken about seven or eight.

But what I've learned about myself is sometimes I just need some time and space to vent, right?

So my son plays baseball and we kind of have this understanding where, if we play a game and we don't win and we're just feeling bad about it, we get in the car and we have what we call car talk and I go look, here's the deal, when we're in the car, say anything that you want If you're frustrated this dude missed that ground ball and he made the wrong call and this and that I said man, you, just you empty it, and then when we get out of the car, it stays in the car.

It's done.

I just need a window of time that I can vent, and so I think that God gave Elijah 40 days.

It should have only taken seven.

He's like hey, why don't you just take like a 40 day walk and you just get it all out?

Man, you know, I think we need that as people.

If we just hold it all in, you know, it's like this is not gonna end well for me.

It's eating me up on the inside.

I harbor bad feelings toward other people.

He's like bro, take a 40 day walk, get it all out, and then we'll be ready to talk and be productive.

So we get to verse nine.

It says there he went into a cave and spent the night and the word of the Lord came to him.

What are you doing here, elijah?

He replied I've been very zealous for the Lord, god Almighty, that Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword.

I am the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too.

Now, what's ironic about this is, I know for myself, when I feel like everything is coming against me, what's the enemy try to do to me?

First, he tries to make me feel like I'm on isolation.

Hey, I'm in there by myself and there's nobody that has my back and I'm the only person to ever go through this right.

Those are the feelings that start overwhelming me, which is exactly what Elijah is telling God hey, everybody else is dead, nobody loves you, I'm the only prophet left and they're trying to kill me.

So can we just end this thing already?

But I like to think that God was kind of looking at him, going hey, didn't I just give you a meal that literally lasted you for 40 days?

Like, why do you think that I'm not in control of this situation?

Why do you think that I can't take this and turn it into something good?

Or that this wasn't part of my plan for the whole time?

And so I think for people of God, when we follow him, we have to understand that God's got this and God's got you.

We forget that we're right in his hand and we're protected by him, and he's planning out every single step that we're gonna take, because we feel isolated.

We feel like man, there's nobody here that feels what I'm feeling, the pain that I've gone through, and now I gotta figure this out on my own.

And God's going hey, man, you don't have to do that.

Look at verse 11.

The Lord said go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart, shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him what are you doing here, elijah man?

I love that, because God was not in the wind, he was not in the earthquake, he was not in the fire.

And I don't know about you.

But when I pray for God to give me some kind of sign, give me a call, give me an affirmation, like I need something, you know I'm like looking in the clouds like he's gonna spell out shut up and do it.

You know, like that doesn't happen, god is not gonna give us these big signs that we're looking for with flashing lights, but instead what he's gonna do is he's going.

Hey, I want you to listen for that still small voice.

See, every believer has what I like to call Spidey Sense.

You see what I did there, where it's kinda hey, there's something inside of me that I feel nudging me to do something that I don't wanna do.

That's the irony of following Jesus.

You wanna follow Jesus?

You wanna talk about how hard it is Every time you go?

Man, I really don't wanna do this.

God goes cool, that's exactly what I want you to do.

How did you know?

And so we're constantly being stretched.

But I'll tell you, man, the more that I dove into this idea of this quiet, this gentle whisper.

One commentator even said that God speaks through a voice of gentle silence, as if silence has become audible.

You know, I've learned as a parent with two small kids man, silence can be deafening.

Right?

We always laugh and say you know, god makes our kids look so peaceful when they're sleeping, so we don't kill them, right?

I mean, that's why that's like their defense mechanism, they fall asleep.

We're like man, they're so cute, I guess we'll keep them, you know.

But in those moments we just go.

Oh, it's so quiet, I just love it.

Now I'm a lot like Paul, where I think I'm allergic to silence.

And so when my kids finally get quiet and now I can have a conversation with my wife, I'm like, babe, let me tell you everything that happened today.

And she goes no, no, no, don't ruin this moment, I just need nothing.

But what's beautiful is in those moments, man.

That's where God speaks to us and he's going.

I don't want you looking and trying to make something out of a wind or a fire or an earthquake, man, I want you so tuned into my voice that, just like Elijah, when you hear it, all you can think is man, I gotta cover my face, man, I have to be in reverence to God because he is getting ready to speak to me in this moment, in the silence.

He's gonna direct my steps.

So beautiful, love it.

So then we get to verse 15, and I love that we kind of get this repeat of everything that's happened in verses nine through 10, because he's like, hey, what are you doing here?

But this time God gives Elijah something to do, he gives him a task.

Look at verse 15,.

The Lord said to him go back the way you came and go to the desert of Damascus.

When you get there, anoint Hazel, king over Aram.

Also, anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, king over Israel and anoint Elijah, son of Shefat from Abel Mahola, to secede you as prophet.

Jehu will put to death any who escaped the sword of Hazel, and Elijah will put to death any who escaped the sword of Jehu.

Hey, elijah's task was hey, go and assemble the team, because what you started in Mount Carmel you're gonna need some other people to help you carry out.

And I love that, because we went from I feel isolated, I feel like I'm by myself and God's going hey, now I'm gonna build a team around you to carry out your purpose and what I called you to do.

And then we get to this last verse, verse 18.

And man, I'll just tell you, it just really hit me hard when I read it, because he said yet I reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.

These 7,000, they were not the ones that showed up when the fire fell and they said hey, the Lord is God.

Now, these were the ones that, during the three years of famine, god was using Elijah's ministry to build them up and say I think it's so easy for us to get in those moments and be like man I'm all by myself and God goes hey, remember how I speak to you in silence, man, I'm working out things that aren't even on your radar, and I'm using you in the silent moments to gather my people together and to strengthen their faith, because we're gonna grow the kingdom with a big K, not the little K.

And so, as all of this is going on, you know Elijah's just complaints and his concern of verses 10 and 14.

And hey, I'm the only one left.

God uses this opportunity to let him know hey, I never left you, Elijah, and there are other people that I'm gonna surround you with that are gonna stand with you when we reclaim my nation and my people turn from their wicked ways and turn back to me.

Hey, so what I need you to hear this morning when you get ready to fulfill your purpose, you are not alone, no matter what the enemy tells you.

There are other people who are around you that are going hey, we wanna stand with God too.

Hey, we need someone to lead the way.

You know, I love what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, 1.

He says follow my example, as I follow the example of Jesus Christ.

You know what that tells me?

Hey, I need somebody who's gonna bridge that gap?

You know, I talk to young parents all the time and they're like dude, how do I point my kids toward Jesus?

And I'm going one step at a time.

Hey, you follow Jesus and they are constantly watching you.

If you don't believe me, slip up and say a bad word.

Watch how many times that bad word comes back out of their mouth.

So I've heard, supposedly, but it is.

We need someone to bridge that gap, to show us practically what it looks like to follow Jesus.

But I wanna throw one more kind of wrinkle in this, and I'll be honest with you.

This was not a Josh original.

This was a guy that I listened to, a guy named Levi Lasko.

He brought this up a couple of weeks ago.

When I look at Elijah, I think the thing that I see dominate his life and dominate this passage we just read through, was just doubt.

Going man, god, did you really call me to do this?

Am I really gonna get to see your nation restored to you?

You know, we had this amazing mountaintop experience on Mount Carmel, and then, five minutes later, I'm running for my life because people are trying to kill me, and so just doubt is just pouring in all over him.

But what's so cool is to see that doubt is not the enemy of faith.

Certainty is, and I love that because I think so often we're like, hey, if I'm gonna act in faith, I can't have doubt.

Doughts are natural, they're human, I mean, it's just natural part of things.

But the difference is we can't let doubt be a verb.

We need to view our doubts as nouns and not verbs, because a verb is something that I'm acting in, I'm right in the middle of it, I'm actively doing it, but a noun is something I just acknowledge.

That is there.

Hey, doubt is just the occasion where our faith can shine.

Hey, I don't know what's gonna happen, I don't have certainty.

But, man, I know that God is good, and so I think sometimes what we try to do to be big, strong Christians and believers is we don't acknowledge our doubts when God's going hey, man, cast all your cares on me.

Hey, bring it to me and let me show you that I've got this.

So the noun version, like I said hey, natural, normal, human, it just doesn't make sense, right?

Has God ever told you to do something?

That just made no sense at all?

You know, I laughed when I talked to Paul about three years ago.

I said, man, I think God's calling me to plan a church.

And he was like, okay, cool, you coming to Dallas.

I was like, no dude, texarkana.

He was like, ooh, man, good luck with that.

I said, well, here's the other wrinkle man, god's calling me to plan a multicultural church.

And he was like in Texarkana.

And I was like I know, man, it makes no sense at all.

I mean Texarkana.

I mean it's like stepping back in time.

Everything is so segregated.

And I was going man, but I feel like, if the church is supposed to represent the kingdom and it's also supposed to represent the community, that it, how could it be anything but multicultural?

And so we jumped into it and I was like, dude, this is gonna be crazy, man.

And so I laughed because our launch team was all white.

And so here we are going hey, we're gonna plan a multi-ethnic church.

And it's like, oh cool, how many different cultures do you have One?

Yeah, I was like this doesn't make any sense, god.

But we knew this is what God had pressed us to do.

And so he said, hey, this doesn't make sense, but we're gonna take that step.

And what's crazy is now we have people from different cultures, from different backgrounds that are doing life together, and it's the most beautiful thing that I've ever seen.

But three years ago, when we were just a bunch of white folks, it was like, how is this even gonna be possible?

It did not make sense.

But we knew, hey, this is what God has called us to do.

We're just gonna keep walking in it, and I even had white pastors in town going how in the world are you gonna plan a multi-ethnic church?

I went try.

You know I was going.

I don't have the answers, I don't know exactly how this is gonna work out, but I learned that doubt as a verb is asking the question hey, what do I believe more?

What I can see and what is my reality, or what God has called me to do?

That's the big difference between those two.

Doubt is only a sin when you choose to believe it instead of believing God, and so we can either walk in faith or we can walk in doubt.

You don't get to do both, and so what I love is knowing that God has a call on every believer's life and a specific purpose that he wants each of us to carry out, and there's gonna be times that we get down because we don't see what God's hand is doing.

You know, I laugh with my kids because we'll go.

And I remember we went to Disney World a couple years ago and we like got back in town and they were like hey Dad, can we go to the beach?

Like bro, do you know how much money I just spent going to Disney World so you could meet Mickey and Pluto and all that Like, do you remember?

Oh yeah, I forgot about that and we laugh at that when I'm going.

As believers, we do the same thing.

God does something amazing for us and then five minutes later we're like God, why don't you love me?

And he's like have you not seen everything that I've done?

You know, even Elijah here.

He's like God, will you just kill me?

Man, I'm just done.

He's like bro, don't you remember I fed you that meal that lasted for 40 days.

Man, I got you, I got this, I am in control.

He is the one who strengthens us to carry out the mission at hand and I love Ephesians, which we read before service this morning.

But we are his workmanship and I'll tell you that word workmanship.

And Ephesians, chapter two, it's one of my favorites because the Greek word there is poema, which means like a poem or a masterpiece, and it's like hey, what I have done with you, man, that is my crowning jewel, that is the greatest thing that I have accomplished as God.

And he says we are created, in Christ Jesus, to do good works, that he is prepared in advance for us to do.

What's that?

Tell me, hey, every single believer, god has a plan and a purpose for your life and he's already put things in place because he wants to use you.

God did not save you to sideline you.

He saved you because he wants you to be a part of what he's already doing.

And the beautiful thing is, it's too much for you.

Like he told him hey, this journey is gonna be too much for you, so let me come behind and strengthen you.

Hey, do it with the power and the sustenance that I am going to provide.

And when we walk in obedience, just like the prayer that Elijah prayed, man, god gets all the glory, because people are gonna look at you and they're gonna go.

Hey, why are you different than you were before?

Hey, why do you look different than other people I know that claim to follow Jesus, and the answer is man, because I'm letting him strengthen me every step.

Hey, following Jesus is not a 12 step process.

It's not a guide to a better life.

It's not trying to self improve, it's going.

Hey, god, every day when I wake up I want my life to be about you and not about me.

Every day I wanna wake up and go hey, my purpose is to give you glory, not to try and steal it for myself, because when we try to make it all about us, it's like that kid that builds a sand castle way too close to the shore and the first wave that comes in, it's gone.

Hey, god did not call us to build a temporary kingdom, but when we follow him, we're putting bricks in place of an eternal kingdom.

And you know, I was in student ministry for about 15 years and there's so many churchy words that we use like glory and we're like man.

What does it mean to give God glory through this situation?

How does that work?

And I remember one day I was reading and it just hit me hey, to give God glory is to go in everything that I do.

God, I wanna make you famous.

In everything, I wanna put you center stage when people look at me and go.

Hey, how are you able to do this?

And my only answer is it's Jesus, and Jesus, provided.

Jesus took control.

How you're walking through a difficult time, you're stressing over how you're gonna make decisions, how you're gonna provide, how this is gonna work out, is that business deal gonna go through?

In the midst of that, as believers, we just take a deep breath.

I'm gonna get a meal, I'm gonna go take a nap.

How can you?

This is stressful time, maybe because I know God's in control and God's got this and God's got me.

So, man, let me encourage you.

If you have not made that decision to give your life to Jesus, man, you're sideline.

You're watching God's story happen in front of you and you're not a part of it.

And God wants to invite you in to be a part of his story, a part of his journey.

And the great thing is, when we do that, all we're doing is like a child holding their parents' hand.

We're going.

Hey, god, will you just lead me?

Can I just hold your hand, god, I just wanna go where you go.

You know, I feel like having kids has given me this beautiful picture of what it's like for me to relate to God, because I tell my kids I'm going to the gas station, the gas station, and they're like, hey, can we go?

I'm like you wanna pump the gas.

No, dad, we wanna icy.

You know, like they know what they want.

But that's the beautiful thing is, when we decide to follow God, it's like, hey, god, I just man, wherever you go, I wanna go.

God, can I hold your hand, and I know it, it's not always gonna be easy, but I know there's gonna be icies.

I know you're gonna provide.

And, god, I know that through all of that, even when I feel isolated, then I'm a part of something bigger than myself.

I said wherever you are this morning, on your journey, on your purpose, answering God's call, I know that you are connected to a body of believers bigger than just T Cal, bigger than just the American church, but we are all a part of God's kingdom and our sole purpose is to make Him famous.

Every single day, let's pray, god, we thank you for this morning and God, I thank you that.

God, that we have to listen closely for your voice, god, that while you have the ability to speak through fire and wind and earthquake, god, you don't want us getting confused about what it may be, but instead you want us to focus in and to hear you and God, that you're constantly nudging us through those silent moments to take steps of faith.

They go against certainty and go against the things we know to be true, because we've seen them and they're tangible, we can touch them and feel them, we can hear them, we can taste them.

And you're going hey, I need you to take a step.

That's not going to make a whole lot of sense.

And so, god, just like with the blind man that Jesus encountered in the New Testament, we ask God, would you help our unbelief?

It's there, we acknowledge it.

But God, would you help us where we struggle?

And so, god, as we conclude this portion of hearing from your word, god, it's my prayer that we would respond to your voice, god, that we would cover our face, because we've heard your voice, we know that it's you, and now would we respond accordingly.

It's in Jesus' name that I pray, amen.