Replay | Stay in Your Lane with Rhet Troxell and Karl Hartman

Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.

To get connected or to give online, go to hcv.church or give.htv.church.

If at any point during this message you feel called to make a change in your life, text

change me to 970-00.

Thank you and enjoy the message.

Well good morning Hub City Vineyard.

How you guys feeling this morning?

Well as you can see it looks a little bit different up here on stage today and before

Carl and I jump into the message, the first thing I want to do is honor our senior pastor

Chris Slaughterbeck and just say thanks to him.

I don't know if he's watching right now.

I know he's on vacation but Carl and I just wanted to say from the bottom of our hearts,

thank you to him and Jess for entrusting us with this opportunity this morning.

But like I said, we're going to jump right in this morning.

As you can see it's going to be a little different.

I want to introduce this man to my right, your left.

He is my best friend in the business, Mr. Carl Hartman.

Typically you see him back here slaying on electric guitar.

When Chris came to me and said, hey Rhett, I'd like for you to give the message in August,

it wasn't but about two or three seconds and Carl's name, Carl's face popped up in my mind.

I believe that that was a prompting from God.

I believe that he really wanted us to do this together.

I came to Carl and I said, hey man, so what do you think about bringing the message with me?

So what we're going to do today, he and I are going to simply have a conversation

because I want to give you a little bit of insight on this man.

He is an analogy master, a metaphor master.

He is a master of words.

He has a way of speaking into my life like nobody else can and I believe that he is really

going to bless you just with his wisdom, knowledge and guidance this morning.

So one of my favorite things to do is simply sit down with this guy and have a conversation.

So that's what we're going to do today and you guys just get to be the beneficiary of it.

Absolutely.

What an honor it is to be here with you this morning and be able to share with you what God has laid on our heart.

Those of you who don't know me as Rhett mentioned, my name is Carl Hartman.

My beautiful wife Cassie and my two beautiful kids, Gay and Kira,

and I have been coming to this house to be with you for about nine years.

And it is such a privilege to be a part of everything that God has done for this community.

And I'm so excited to share this message with you this morning.

The title of our message is Stay in Your Lane.

Stay in Your Lane.

Yep.

And the phrase stay in your lane in our culture holds a negative connotation similar to mind your own business.

Yep.

But we thought we'd flip it around and give a spiritual meaning to it.

And before we do that, I wanted to just look at the individual words.

So the word lane means a path of travel with a specific direction and a specific destination.

Buckle up. Here he goes.

He's getting ready.

The word your means ownership of that lane implies ownership of that lane.

And the word stay implies that maybe our default mode is to wander out of our lane and into somebody else's or off the roadway altogether.

So to stay in your lane spiritually means to stay spiritually aligned with God's will for your life to achieve his purposes.

And if alignment is the decision that we make to stay in that lane, I want to point out that God's grace is the entrance ramp that gets us onto the highway to begin with.

It's God's grace, not by our efforts that we're able to receive salvation and that we're able to have a right relationship with him.

Well, that doesn't mean it doesn't mean that our decisions are unimportant.

And this morning, as we discussed the concept of spiritual alignment and staying in our lane,

we're going to talk about some of the decisions that we can make to better align ourselves with God's will for our life.

And one of the the scriptures that we wanted to use as a launchpad for that is just simply the story of Jacob from the Old Testament.

Jacob's story is found in Genesis twenty five through thirty three.

For those of you who haven't read it, I highly encourage you to take a look at it this week.

But Jacob was the son of Isaac, he was the grandson of Abraham.

And through Abraham's obedience and through God's grace, Abraham was given a covenant blessing that he passed on to Isaac and then to Jacob.

And this was kind of unusual in the case of Jacob, because Jacob wasn't the firstborn son.

You're second.

Yep. So Jacob had an older brother just by moments, twin brother.

His name was Esau.

And in the culture of that time, normally Esau would have received was called the birthright.

But before the boys were even born, God spoke to Rebecca, the mother, and told her that the older would serve the younger.

And this naturally caused some conflict within the family.

And again, as we discuss spiritual alignment, we're going to talk about some of the decisions that Jacob made that caused conflict in his family.

We're also going to talk about some of the decisions that he made to align himself with God's will.

So why don't you give us a prayer?

I'll pray a sin. Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity this morning to speak into the hearts of our people.

Lord, I just pray that, God, this morning it wouldn't be Carl's words.

It wouldn't be my words, Lord, but it would be your words spoken through us.

Lord, use us as a vessel. God, we're grateful for this opportunity.

We pray that you would just shift the atmosphere into a position of faith, into a position of receipt.

And God, pour out all that you have for us here this morning.

Carl, I think, you know, when you think about staying in your lane, you know, obviously our message is on alignment.

And I don't think you can be aligned if you don't protect your identity.

Absolutely.

So thought one today is that alignment requires us to protect our identity.

But there's two aspects of the Genesis story that I want to look at today in regards to Jacob and Esau.

And the first one is that Esau gave away what he didn't want.

He essentially rejected his identity by giving away his birthright.

So, as Carl mentioned, we're going to be studying this story today.

So as we go through the message, we're going to give you like little bits and pieces of the story.

And in Genesis 25, we learned that Esau was out hunting, which he loved to do.

And he was out for so long and he became so famished that he came back and he ran into Jacob and he actually wanted to trade.

He asked to trade his birthright, his inheritance, for a bowl of soup.

He literally traded chicken noodle soup for his inheritance, for his blessing.

And you guys have to remember, it's kind of hard for us maybe to understand about inheritance and blessing because it's really not that much of a thing anymore.

But back then, it was everything.

I mean, if you had the family generational inheritance that you got, the land, the animal, it was basically your livelihood.

So for Esau to want to trade away all of that for something that was going to fill him up for a minute shows that he did not protect his identity.

And ultimately, it landed him in a very, in a very bad spot.

And, you know, I think that's something that plagues us today, Carl, is that oftentimes we get in the heat of the moment and we trade short term pleasure for long term pain.

Don't get hungry. Don't get hungry. Don't get hungry.

How many times have we been going through a season and maybe we are at a crossroads and we do what feels good for a minute.

But in reality, we know that that decision is going to cost us long term, but we don't think about the long term consequences.

We're only consumed by what we need in the moment.

So what Carl said, don't get hungry. Say that out loud.

Don't get hungry. Don't trade your birthright for a measly bowl of soup.

And the second part of this is that not only did Esau give away what he didn't want, but but Jacob took what wasn't his.

So, again, in the story, we learn that Rebecca, who was Jacob and Esau's mother,

Rebecca and Jacob came up with this devious plan that they were going to trick Isaac.

So Isaac was blind. Jacob's father was essentially blind.

So Jacob assumed the identity of Esau. He put on all of his clothes.

He made himself. I think the Bible says he made himself smell like Esau.

And he approached Isaac, tricking him, making him think that he making Isaac think that he was Esau and asked for the blessing, asked for the inheritance.

And what did Isaac do? He did it because he thought that Jacob was really Esau.

So Esau gave away what he didn't want. And Jacob stole. He took what wasn't his.

Both of these things are a breach of identity. Right.

They gave in to to identity theft or identity fraud.

And what I want to challenge you with this morning, my friend, and all these people as well, is that we need to know our purpose.

We need to know our identity, because let me tell you something, if you're shooting for someone else's finish line, you're never going to run the race that's meant for you.

Amen. And I believe that so many times in life we see on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok and Twitter and Snapchat and let me go on with all of the social media platforms.

We see the people who look to have the picture perfect life.

They got the perfect spouse and the wonderful kids and they make a lot of money and they keep getting promoted and they're always on vacation every time you see.

And it's easy for that jealousy and envy to creep into our life.

And if we try to start running their race, if we try to start aligning to what they need to be aligned with, we will never end up in the place that God wants for us.

And I think that's big in this day and age. We've got to stay in our lane. We have to stay in our lane.

So let's look at Hebrews 12.1. It says this.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangled and let us run with perseverance.

The race marked out for us, we can play pretend or we can pursue our purpose, but we can't do both.

No, we cannot. We cannot. So alignment requires us to protect our identity.

Number two, alignment is a process. Alignment is a process that oftentimes includes discomfort.

Amen.

So one of the most vivid memories that I have as a teenager growing up is going to the orthodontist and getting braces.

And for those of you who have had braces, you know how uncomfortable it can be.

For those of you who haven't had braces, let me give you my version of the memories.

Can I tell you some real quick?

Yeah.

My mother-in-law is either coming to this service or the next, and she worked for an orthodontist.

So be nice.

OK.

She's here. She's here.

So we might have to change the sermon just a little bit.

It was an absolutely fantastic experience.

And I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Good job.

OK, point three.

What I remember as a teenager, and I'm sure the process has evolved quite dramatically since I was a teen,

but it's far more comfortable now.

It is.

I'm sure.

I remember going to the orthodontist and sitting down in the chair, and they pulled the cement truck up to the window,

and they pump your mouth full of this mold.

And you have to stay perfectly still for 20 minutes.

And then they pull the mold out and they take this huge hunk of plastic and they put it around 37 different places and take all these pictures of your teeth.

It's like dripping down your throat.

Yeah, I remember that.

Yeah. And then they move you to the orthodontist chair and they glue all these metal brackets onto your teeth and they install this wire.

And the purpose of the wire is to create tension on your teeth so that they can slowly shift into alignment.

And this whole process, obviously, it's uncomfortable.

I'm trumping it up, but it's not that bad.

It's still uncomfortable.

When you leave the orthodontist's office, you have to learn how to eat again.

You have to learn how to brush your teeth again.

You have to learn what foods you can eat, what food you can't eat.

Over time, eventually, you kind of get used to the feeling of having braces in your mouth.

But then something interesting happens.

You have a checkup.

You go back.

And you go back.

And the orthodontist goes in and he tightens that wire a little bit tighter and your teeth shift a little bit closer into alignment.

And the point is that alignment is a process.

It's a process.

Romans 12, 2 puts it this way.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.

And the two words I really want to hone in on are the word transformation and the word renewal.

Those are both processes.

They're not something that happens overnight.

They're something that happens slowly over time.

And I've seen the same transformation process play out in my own spiritual life.

As Rhett mentioned, I'm a member of Hub City Worship and one of the more visible roles that I play.

I'm electric guitar player and also one of our musical directors.

But one of the less visible roles is along with Rhett, we create the lyrical musical content for our original songs.

And one of the most recent songs that we introduced is a song called Runs Wild.

And this song has a very personal meaning, a very close place to my heart.

It was written right as I was coming out of this season of transformation, this season of renewal.

So the song really mirrors Psalm 139 and it talks where David talks about how there's nowhere that he can go to get outside of God's presence.

There's nowhere that he can hide that God won't see him and that God's love is so encompassing that it pursues him throughout everything.

Every season.

Yep.

And as I was coming out of this season of transformation, God was really convicting me about some of my thought processes and how I was thinking specifically about our communication,

the communication between God and I.

I come to this place where every time that I was hearing God's voice or every time that I was sensing God speaking to me,

I was feeling like he was angry or he was displeased or he was frustrated with me, frustrated at my lack of progress.

And God really convicted my heart that his voice is so much kinder and gentler than what I imagined in my mind.

Amen.

And that by imagining him upset at me or angry at me, I was driving this wedge in between us.

Carl, I'm going to jump in real quick.

I think that's one of the greatest tools of the enemy is that he attacks all people,

but he attacks people that have a huge purpose on their life.

And he attacks people who have never experienced the goodness of God.

And his purpose for the latter is that he wants to make God appear out to be exactly what you said, this mean, ugly, forceful God,

and so that people never want to have that relationship with him.

So I think what you said is huge, and I want to drive home today is that God is not this guy on his throne

with, you know, wearing this shield, this coat of armor, like looking down and like punishing us.

Like, he is our father.

He is our friend.

He wants what's best for us.

And he is good.

The bridge of the song runs wild, just repeats over and over again that God pursues us.

He pursues us through every season.

He pursues us even when we're weak, when we can't see it.

And I believe that Jacob experienced this in his life.

So right after he had tricked Isaac into giving him the blessing, obviously, Esau found out and was very upset with him.

Very upset.

And was actually, the Bible says he was breathing murderous threats.

He was trying to...

He wanted to kill him.

Yeah, he wanted to kill him.

So Jacob ran.

He ran from Beersheba, which was his home, and he was headed for a destination called Padden Aram, which is where his uncle was.

But in between Beersheba and Padden Aram, he came to a place for the night called Luz, where God revealed himself to Jacob in a dream.

And in this dream, he revealed that there were so many more promises and so much more purpose to Jacob's life than what Jacob had realized.

But what struck me about this specific incident is where God chose to meet Jacob.

Yep.

God didn't wait until Jacob got to his destination.

He met him in the middle, and so many times I buy into the lie that once I reach a certain spiritual destination or certain spiritual checkpoint, God is going to pour out his blessings and his promises on my life.

But again, God met Jacob.

He stepped down into the middle of his mess and gave him what he needed to move forward.

And I just want to speak to anybody here today who's in the middle of something.

If you're in the middle of a situation or a circumstance that you can't control, it's outside of your understanding.

God will meet you in the middle right where you are, not when you get to the destination.

He will meet you right where you are and give you what you need to move forward.

The key is we have to align ourselves with God's will for our life and partner with him.

Yep. And be ready for the process.

Yep.

Be ready for the ride.

Yep.

Our third point today is that alignment is a partnership.

And there's two different entities of this partnership that I want to look at.

The first one is obviously between us and God, right, in order to be aligned with what God has for you,

what God has for me, what God has for us.

We have to be aligned with what he's speaking into us.

John 15, 4 through 5 says this, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.

Neither can you unless you abide in me.

Basically, what God is saying here is that unless you're connected to me,

you're not going to produce the fruit that you are supposed to produce.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing.

Apart from God, you can do nothing.

Now, you can do something apart from God, but it's not going to be what God wants for you.

And how many know that God knows what is best for you?

Absolutely.

So in order for us to follow and stay in our lane and be aligned with the promises that God speaks into us,

we have to be aligned with God.

So let's reference God and Jacob.

You see, when Jacob chose to step out of his lane and assume the identity of Esau, what happened?

He became a disaster.

It was a mess.

He made a dirty deal with his brother.

He he lied and tricked his father to receive something that wasn't supposed to be his.

And then what do we find him doing, just like you said, he was in trouble.

He had to run.

He had to flee.

His brother wanted to kill him.

His his dad was obviously disappointed in him.

But when he reached to lose, he finally had the God moment.

And just like you said, the Bible tells us that God came to him in a dream.

And in this dream, he saw a stairway descending from heaven.

I want to take a minute right here.

Notice that I said descending from heaven.

How good is our God that he comes down to us when we're in the time of trouble, right?

He doesn't create this staircase.

And he doesn't say, hey, you did this and you did that.

You need to come to me.

He creates the staircase and he comes down to us, just like he did to Jacob.

And when Jacob awoke from his dream, the Bible said that he said, surely the Lord is in this place

and I have not been aware of it.

And I believe that that statement, surely the Lord is in this place and I have not been

aware of it wasn't just that place that he was in, but it revealed to Jacob that the

Lord has been with him everywhere he went.

So I want to speak to a young person in here today who's getting ready to go back to school.

The Lord is going to be with you when you take that classroom on the first day.

Speaking to someone that's having maybe some issues at work, the Lord is with you on Monday

morning when you hit the time clock.

And I am sure that he is with you and you that we, I go through it too, that we have

just not been aware of it.

Until the past year, actually probably two years now, goodness, I've shifted my prayers

for our worship team not from being God reveal your presence to us, but awaken our senses

of your presence because you are surely here.

The Bible says that when two or three gather in his name, his presence is here.

How many times do we say, God, please meet me here.

God, please come.

God, please reveal yourself.

I think we should shift our prayer and our thinking not from God, show me something,

but God, awaken my senses to being able to receive and realize that you've been with

me in the pit, you've been with me in the fire, you've been with me in the hard times.

Awaken myself so that I know that you have been with me.

And the other part, so in order to be aligned, we have to be aligned with the partnership

between us and God, but also between us and other Christ followers.

Ecclesiastes 4 through 9 says this, two are better than one because they have a good reward

for their toil, for their work.

On Jacob's story, we see strong themes of families and generational blessings.

When we align ourselves with God, we become what Romans 11 calls part of ingrafted branches.

And we have access to the same root system that Jacob did.

If you think about it, we all come from the same lineage.

So how cool is it that just as God revealed himself to these people that seem like heroes

to us, we are part of the same root system, which I think is incredible.

And I want to encourage somebody in here today that maybe knows this, maybe doesn't, but

I can tell you from experience, one of the greatest blessings that you will have in this

life is a friend or a family member who will walk with you in your journey.

And that is exactly why I asked this guy to come up here and join me on this stage, because

I have a lot of friends, but this guy is someone who constantly speaks encouragement just into

me, just anytime I'm going through a rough time and we bounce ideas back off each other,

I can always count on him to be in my corner.

So I want to challenge you this morning, find somebody to be in your corner, but not just

anybody.

It has to be someone who understands what God wants for you.

It has to be someone who will speak that life and existence into you.

So in order to be aligned, we have to be partnered with God and we have to be partnered with

other Christ followers.

Absolutely.

Number four, alignment is a decision that connects our purpose with our priorities.

Alignment is a decision that connects our purpose with our priorities.

So what we choose to focus on or our priorities determines our ability to achieve God's purposes

for our life.

And I want to make clear, our priorities are our responsibility.

Our purpose is God's responsibility.

I believe when we were looking at the story of Jacob and Esau, I believe that Esau had

a priority issue.

The writer of Hebrews puts it this way in Hebrews 12-16, watch out for the Esau syndrome,

eating away God's lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short term appetite.

You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God's blessing, but

by then it was too late, tears or no tears.

And as again, as we were studying this story, we just kept looking at the details.

I realized that there was this common theme in Esau's life.

So Esau is almost immediately upon introduction in the Bible identified as a skillful hunter,

a man of the open field.

And I have to believe that he found purpose in hunting, providing for his family and for

going out and conquering the wild.

But hunting is also present in both of the places where he lost the birthright and the

blessing.

So he was coming back from hunting, he was famished when Jacob ultimately tricked him

into giving him the birthright.

And he also, Isaac sent him out to hunt right before he was going to give him the blessing.

So it created that moment of opportunity for Jacob and Rebecca to take the blessing.

And what I found out is that we can spend so much time hunting for purpose on the wrong

level that we ultimately end up making decisions that cost us that purpose.

And again, as we talk about alignment, I came across this article, show of hands, how many

of you have ever fired a gun using open sights?

Okay.

The article says this, with typical post style iron sights, and this is talking about alignment,

with typical post style iron sights, the shooter centers the front post in the notch of the

rear sight with the tops of both sites being level.

Since the human eye is only capable of focusing on one plane and the rear sight, front sight

and target are all in separate planes, only one of those three planes can be in focus.

I love that word focus.

Look at your neighbor right now and tell them, don't bug me, I'm focused.

Don't bug me, I'm focused.

So listen, in this analogy, our purpose is our target.

Our priorities are what we choose to put right in front of us and God is our reference point.

The article goes on to say, even a tiny error in the angle of sight alignment results in

a trajectory that diverges from the target, causing the bullet to miss its mark.

The amount of divergence is directly proportional to the distance from the target.

So think about this, if my goal is just to survive, just to get through the work day,

just to survive marriage, just to survive being a parent, I haven't set the target very

far out and so my alignment isn't as critical.

But if my goal is to thrive, if my goal is to achieve God's purposes for my life, if

my goal is to thrive in my marriage, thrive in my family, walk out God's calling, I've

set the target much further out and so my alignment becomes critical.

I want to make clear right off the bat that God had chosen Jacob.

Romans 9, 11 says, yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad in order

that God's purpose and election might stand, God chose Jacob to be the recipient of the

blessing.

But it wasn't until Luz that he laid out these far greater plans.

He set the target much further out.

So Jacob started to understand that his alignment was critical at that point.

And I really want to drive home this point.

God determines our destination, but our decisions determine how hard we have to work to get

there.

Say it again.

Let me say that again.

God determines our destination, our decisions determine how hard we have to work to get

there.

And as we were preparing this, I kept coming back to this phrase, it only takes a little.

So let's go back to the article.

Even a tiny error in the angle of sight alignment results in a trajectory that diverges from

the target.

It only takes a little.

It only takes a little error in judgment.

It only takes a little bad decision.

It only takes a little step off the path to get misaligned with God's will for our life.

But it works both ways.

Amen.

Come on.

If it only took a little for me to get off the path, it's only going to take a little

for me to get back on.

It only takes a little good decision.

It only takes a little time with God every day to set the tone of my day.

It only takes a little faith to believe that God is working in the situation that I'm in

right now.

And I want to know, is there anybody here today who's got a little faith?

Come on.

Is there anybody here today who's got a little faith to believe that God is working in your

situation?

Aligning our priorities, our decisions and our choices with God's purpose for our life

requires that we have the correct heart posture.

So our first action point, number one, we've got to position your heart towards God.

We've got to position our heart towards God.

We can't hit what we're not aiming for.

So if my target's over there, but I'm aiming in this direction, I'm not going to have a

chance in the world of hitting that target.

We have to position our heart towards God.

And that requires that we evaluate our priorities and our focus.

As you had said, Jacob spent the first part of his life running from who he thought he

was until God redirected his focus and showed him who he actually was.

And if we take that into the concept of staying in your lane, you can make great time headed

for the wrong destination.

This happens to me all the time.

So a couple of times a year we go down to Baltimore for some doctor's appointments and

I have no problem for whatever reason, I have no problem getting to Baltimore.

It's coming home that's the issue.

So I'm coming home and for again, for whatever reason, I don't know what it is.

I get hung up, there's 95 and 195 and 295 and 695 and 895 and 1195 and all these.

And I have no idea.

You know, somehow I get off the beaten path.

I had, you know, Sirius telling me I've got two hours and 15 minutes and all of a sudden

it's going to take me seven hours to get home.

I got to drive up to Harrisburg and catch a flight down to Eastern Regional Airport

and you know.

Can I say something?

I think after God made the world in seven days, I think he threw a bone to the devil

and said, hey, you get to create one thing.

And the devil picked the beltway, the Baltimore Beltway.

I'm pretty sure that's what he said.

Let's create that.

Amen.

Yes.

But you can, just like that, you can make great time.

I can be going 85 miles an hour, which is probably over the speed limit.

I can be going fast, but going in the wrong direction and I'm never going to get to where

I'm going.

We got to position our heart towards God.

That's good.

We need to write a song and I need to give credit to my dad.

When I was like, when I was little and I was getting into music, he told me, he said,

you need to write a song called Making Good Time, but with no destination.

Yeah.

He spoke that.

He spoke that into my life.

I don't even know if you remember that, dad, but he spoke that at the time.

I was like, that's crazy.

What are you talking about, man?

But now it's like, there's something in there.

And it's so true that you can go through all the right motions and it can feel like, you

know, so whether you're going 70 miles in the right direction or the wrong direction,

you're still going 70 miles an hour.

Absolutely.

And if you're not sure, thank God, now today we have Waze and GPS and Google Maps to tell

us that we're going the wrong way.

But if you don't realize that you're going in the wrong direction, you can be driving.

Everything feels right.

You're on a road.

You're not wrecking, but you're never going to get where you're supposed to be.

Absolutely.

And how good a metaphor is that, you know, sometimes we can get up, clock into our nine

to five, go home, make dinner, get in bed.

And if we don't understand where we are supposed to be, it can feel like we're doing all the

right stuff.

It can feel like we're making good time.

But I do not want to be the one that gets the end of my life and realize that my destination

has been wrong the whole time.

It's not only staying in your lane, but it's heading in the right direction.

Absolutely.

Because you can be in your lane.

You can be involved in ministry, but you're starting to pull back when God wants you to

push forward.

Yeah.

And that's ultimately what that means to position our hearts towards God.

We've got to stay in our lane and be headed where God's calling us.

Yeah.

And one more thing I want to circle back to.

You said a word that is big, is focus.

Yes.

And I think that I got this thought.

What you focus on will be magnified.

Absolutely.

In your life.

And I think about a magnifying glass.

I know they're really not a thing of the day because we can go like this and make everything

bigger as to what we're looking at, right?

But back in the day, right back in the good old days, we had this thing called a magnifying

glass.

If you're under the age of 10, I'll explain what it is.

But anyway, think about it.

That is what you focused on.

And what was behind that is what was magnified.

And so we can go through life with our magnifying glass.

And wherever that magnifying glass lands, that's what's going to be magnified.

That's where our focus is.

So we have to make sure that we are focusing on all the right things.

All right, good.

So first action step again was position your heart towards God.

The second one is this.

Pursue your purpose.

So we're kind of drawing a line in the sand here, right?

So we understand that God has spoken some things over our life.

We understand maybe where we need to go.

But in order for us to get there, it seems a little bit self-evident, but we have to

pursue it, right?

We have to take that step.

Once you take aim, once you lock in on your purpose, you have to act.

Proverbs 4, 25 to 26 says this.

Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you.

Ponder the path of your feet.

When you walk, then all of your ways will be sure.

When you walk, there's an action here.

God is telling us we need to pursue the promise and the purpose that He has put in our life.

Once we get our sight alignment down, that's not good enough, right?

You can be the best marksman, but once you get to this point, if you don't pull that

trigger, you're never going to achieve your goal.

So imagine this.

So let me speak to some married people in the room.

Imagine that your lovely spouse or, yeah, let's say your spouse is getting ready to

turn a special birthday and you want to plan the biggest and the best party for her.

Imagine going through all of the planning.

You create the Facebook event and you make sure that you click private and that guests

can't invite other guests so that there's no chance that she'll see it because you want

it to be a surprise.

You call her favorite venue and you reserve it.

You get all the catering lined up.

You have your best friend go there the day before and decorate, and you get everything

squared away.

And then imagine not actually having the party.

It sounds foolish, right?

But I believe that so many of us this day and age, that's what we do.

We ask God, God, reveal your purpose to me.

Reveal your plan to me in my life.

I want to do this.

I want to do that.

And He gives us what we're asking for, but then we falter.

Then we either get scared because we think the vision is too big or maybe we just don't

have the faith that it takes to take that first step.

And I want to tell you this morning, you're never going to achieve the promise and the

purpose that God has for you if you don't step out in faith.

We sing a song all the time called Oceans.

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders.

We need to step out of the boat and get on our way.

The Olympics just ended.

Another example, imagine being an Olympic athlete and you train your body for four years.

You track every carb, every calorie that you're putting in, but then the day of the Olympics

comes and you decide not to go run the race.

It's the same thing, right?

You prepare.

You can go through all of the right motions, but if you don't execute, it's a wasted effort.

So we need to execute.

We need to pursue the purpose that God has for us.

I'm going to ask our worship team to come back up.

And I just want to take a minute real quick.

Can you guys give it up for the worship team that led this morning?

My goodness.

My goodness.

It is such an honor and a blessing for Carl and I to be able to have the week completely

off and just be blessed in worship.

So thank you, worship team.

All right, I'm going to give you a spoiler.

This is my favorite point of the entire message, and it's this.

Pick your perspective.

Carl, the word perspective in my life is like a blessing and a curse.

I love it, and I challenge people all the time to shift their perspective and to consider

your perspective.

But man, how easy it is to fall into the trap of not preaching to yourself.

Yes.

I believe that perspective sounds cliche, but it changes everything.

Your perspective can quite literally change everything in your life.

Second Corinthians says, for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us in

eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.

Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Right there.

Fix our eyes.

Focus.

Focus.

Exactly.

So the enemy loves to try to knock us off course by getting us to question God's promises.

So you've heard Carl allude to the place called Luz, where God met Jacob in the dream.

Luz roughly translates to separation or departure.

And how awesome is our God that he chose to meet Jacob in a place that literally meant

separation or departure?

Because I have to believe that Jacob was feeling those two things in that moment.

I mean, he couldn't have been feeling any more separated from his family that he just

betrayed, that he just lied to.

And he had to feel departed because he just chose to run in the midst of his troubles.

But here's the best part.

You see, through the dream, God reveals both his plans and his promises to Jacob.

He's in trouble.

He's on the run.

He's in the middle, but God shows up.

However, this is where it gets good.

Jacob still woke up with his head on the same rock that he went to sleep in, with the same

set of problems and the same issues and circumstances that he had before he went to sleep.

Receiving God's promise, receiving the promise did not remove the problems.

Just because God reveals his promise to you doesn't mean that he's also going to pull

back all of life's problems because he wants to test your strength.

He wants to test your faithfulness.

He wants to see if you have what it takes to endure the problems that you will need

to face.

In the dream, God never tells Jacob that he won't face oppositions or have problems.

He simply promises that he will be with him.

Not for a minute was I forsaken.

The Lord is in this place.

And here's the bold truth.

God may not change your position because he wants to change your perspective.

Come on, I want to say it again.

God may not change the position that you are in because he wants you to wake up and realize

your perspective.

And I believe so many times in life we have the greatest blessings that life has to offer,

but we view them as problems instead of blessings.

And I'm speaking to myself because right now my wife, my lovely wife Katie and I are going

through being parents of a four and a six-year-old.

And we love those kids to death, but man, there are a lot of long days.

And so many times I just think, my goodness, God, can you help these kids just act right?

And my perspective admittedly shifts into a place where it shouldn't be.

And I believe that God's trying to tell me, God, Rhett, I have entrusted you with these

two beautiful souls because there are no two better people on this planet that can align

Jackson, that can align Kinley to the promises that they have over their life.

And I'm here to tell you, parenting in this example, you can take this example and extrapolate

it out however you want for your life.

But parenting is hard.

And this, and if my wife was here, she would say the same thing.

It has been the longest and hardest six years of our life just raising and shepherding these

two strong-willed souls.

But I believe day after day, God is trying to tell me, I'm not changing your position

because I want you to change your perspective.

You see, Jacob woke up and changed his perspective on where he had come to.

He anointed the place previously named Luz and changed the name to Bethel.

Carl, what does Luz mean?

Luz means separation.

Separated or departure.

Does anyone know what Bethel means?

Tell them.

House of the Lord.

House of the Lord.

The House of the Lord.

So he felt God's presence and received his promise and decided to change the name of

the place that he was in.

Luz meaning separation and gave it a new name, meaning the House of the Lord.

See, the presence of God in that place didn't change Jacob's destination.

It changed the definition.

It did not change Jacob's destination of where he was, but it changed the definition of the

place that he was in.

He changed it from separated and departed and renamed that place the House of the Lord.

And I believe that when we step out in place, God won't change our destination every time.

We may be broken, we may be hurting, we may be feeling separated, but when we reach the

destination of brokenness, we have the authority to partner with God and rename it restored.

When we reach the destination of pain and hurting and grief, God calls us to rename

it healed and whole.

When we reach the destination of emptiness and separation, God wants to fill us with

his promise of unshakable peace.

I'm going to say it one more time.

God won't always change your destination because he wants to change the definition of what

you're going through.

Amen.

Can I preach for a second?

I think we should stand up.

I think we should stand up.

You guys stand up with us.

We're going to close this thing out.

This has been a crazy week for me.

It's been a crazy week as we've been preparing this message of intense revelation, but it's

also been a week of intense resistance.

I've been hearing a lot of things through this message, but one of the voices that I've

been hearing I know is not from God, it's from the enemy.

When your sports team is so far ahead and the game is just absolutely there, as the

announcers say, it's your game to lose.

It's their game to lose.

I kept hearing that this week that was chipping away at my confidence.

It's your message to mess up.

That is the word of the enemy.

That's not the word of the Lord.

God stepped in and He said something completely different.

I want to speak this over somebody here today because I believe this is life change.

It's yours for the taking.

Purpose is yours for the taking.

Peace is yours for the taking.

Joy is yours for the taking.

Confidence is yours for the taking.

It's all about having the right perspective in the moment.

Number four, I believe that as we step into our purpose, as we align ourselves with God's

will for our life, we are going to face opposition, but we have to persist in the face of that

opposition.

We have to persist.

The opposition that we come to is an opportunity for God to show His faithfulness in our life.

And as we were preparing, I just, I believe that there's some people here this morning

who have already made the choice to step out in faith and align themselves with God's will

for their life.

And when you were on top of the mountain top, it was exhilarating.

It was magnificent.

But then God led you through a valley.

And when He led you through the valley, you became discouraged and stuck.

And I want to speak to you this morning.

Psalms 23, we're going to look at the New King James Version.

We're bringing out the good stuff.

The Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness.

Look, I got to stay in my lane.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you

are with me.

And two words, two words about that last verse that God, God really spoke to me.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

So a couple of weeks ago, my son Jake and I, we were watching the live stream.

John Butler led worship.

And the first song that he sang was a song that we sang this morning.

It's a song called Graves in the Gardens.

And there's a line in that song that says you turn seas into highways.

That's a reference to the Exodus where Moses led the nation of Israel out of captivity

in Egypt towards the promised land.

They were leaving their problems and they were headed for their promise.

But what happened?

Right after they left Egypt, they came up against the Red Sea.

They came up against opposition.

And God in His grace split that sea so that the nation of Israel could pass right through.

And as we were worshiping, Jake and I, my son Jake and I were worshiping with this song,

he got a little bit confused because he thought the line was you turn seas into driveways,

not you turn seas into highways.

And I thought this was hysterical until God challenged me on it.

How many times in my own life do I come up against spiritual opposition and I park myself

right in the middle of it?

I get discouraged.

I just get, you know, my confidence is wrecked and I park myself right there.

And this verse says, ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Ye though I walk through it.

I want to tell you, somebody here this morning is going through a situation or a circumstance

and you are going to get through it.

I promise you, you're going to get through it.

It's not a driveway.

It's a highway.

It's not a driveway.

It's a highway.

And number two, the valley of the shadow of death.

Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

And I got to admit, for almost my entire adult life, I have been misreading this verse because

all this time I thought that God was giving me the face to get through the valley of death

where death was attacking me.

But that's not what the verse says.

The verse says, ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

And I came here to tell you this morning that when you walk in your purpose, the only thing

the enemy can do is cast a shadow on you.

He cannot touch you.

We may face opposition, but one of the greatest, greatest tools of the enemy is to get us to

engage in too many of us spend too much of our energy shadow boxing.

We're fighting fear and anxiety and insecurity.

And I just want to tell you this morning, God doesn't say that we won't have to face

the enemy, but he says that we won't have to face him alone.

I believe that victory in our lives is achieved not by raising our fists, but it's achieved

by lifting our hands.

Come on.

I ask you this morning, how will you fight your battle?