This Ain't My Story // FEAR-LESS (Part 5) // Charles Metcalf

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life. Do today's message, well, welcome

to church.

We got some work to do, so let's find you. See,

let's get to it. I hope you're doing well. If

we haven't got the chance to meet. My name is Charles,

and I get to serve here a part of our team,

and I am beyond excited that you're here today. And

today we will be culminating a series that we've been

in called Fearless. Somebody say fearless. Look at your neighbor.

Look at your neighbors. Say neighbor, Oh, come on, you

gotta come on. I know they restink. Let's just say it.

Come on, say neighbor. I don't know about you, but

I didn't come to play today. Get you another neighbor,

Get you another neighbor. Find somebody else, somebody else, say neighbor.

My last neighbor was playing around.

But I need you to know I did not show

up here.

On Sunday, whatever the date is today to play games

with the devil.

Oh yes, sir, he should have killed me when he

had the chains.

The last couple of series I've done, they've made these

awesome podiums, and I was supposed to draw on it

the first week, and I just kept putting it off.

And this is last week.

I was like, I gotta do it, but this is

my I drew on every side of it, but this

is my favorite side. So I drew this cross and

it says Jesus saves. But that's not even my favorite part.

You gotta drop the camera down a little bit because

this is, Oh yeah, let me get out the way.

This is this is my message to the devil today.

It says, oh, you can't really see it. Let me

scoot it up. The devil is an actual bum.

So just in case you see me, I see you.

You're a bum.

Some of y'all don't know how to talk trash. You

stopped talking trash a long time ago.

I did.

I had to stop playing some sports because my talking

trash got out of hand and I was playing with

some of y'all and I said stuff I shouldn't have said,

and I had to apologize to you.

But I still talk trash.

I just redirected it to the devil, who thought he

won when they put Jesus in the tomb, and he

had about a good three days where he thought he

was somebody. But then Jesus stepped out of the tune

and it was the first born from the dead that

got up and said, you thought you had. So I'd

just like to remind the devil that he's an actual bum.

So we're going to read the Bible, and then I'm

gonna preach, and then we're gonna go home. Let's see here,

we're just gonna read the Bible. I know I have

to make an announcement, but let me just read the Bible. Okay,

we're gonna read a.

Nice little chunk of scripture here. We're gonna start in

second Timothy.

Give me a second. This jacket is way too hot.

I can't do the jacket, Thank you very much.

Okay, you all ready, you already know what time it is. Okay,

first Timothy or second Timothy. We're gonna start in verse three.

This is what Paul says. Actually, we're gonna start in

verse one.

Why not.

This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of

God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have

been sent out to tell others about the life he

promised us.

I am writing to Timothy.

My dear son.

May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give

you grace, mercy and peace.

Timothy, I thank.

God for you, the God I serve with a clear conscience,

just as my ancestors did night and day. I constantly

remember you in my prayers. I long to see you again,

for I remember your tears as we parted, and I

will be filled with joy when we are together again.

I remember your genuine faith, for you share of the.

Faith that first filled your grand Lois and your mother Eunice,

and I know that same faith continues strong in you.

This is why I remind you to fan into flames

the spirit of the spiritual gift God gave you when

I laid my hands on you. For God has not

given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power,

of love and self discipline. So never be ashamed to

tell others about the Lord, and do not be ashamed

about me either, even though I'm in prison for him.

With the strength God gives you, you will be ready

to suffer with me.

For the sake of the good News. For God saved

us and he called us to live a holy life.

For He did this not because we deserved it, but

because that was His plan from before the beginning of time,

to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And now

He has made all this plan to us by appearing

in Christ Jesus, our savior.

For he broke the power of.

Death and illuminated the way of life and immortality through

the good News.

And God chose me to be a preacher.

And an apostle and a teacher of this good news.

That is why I am suffering here. I am not

ashamed of it, for I know who I trust, and

I am sure he is able to guard what I

have entrusted to him until the day of his return.

Title of my sermon is this ain't my story.

If I could live your story for you, I would

This ain't my story.

If I could show you how I see you and

give you that confidence to know what God put on

the inside of you and to see yourself the way

the creator of the universe knit you together in your

mother's room before you were formed, I would do that

for you. But I'm sorry I can't do that because

this ain't my story. This is your story, and can't

nobody else live it for you, can't nobody else make

you do nothing.

This is your story. It ain't.

Mine, This ain't this ain't my story.

Some of you gonna be able to look at the

situation that's kept you bound and you're gonna remember the

God that lives on the inside of you, and you're

gonna have a flip and say, hold on a second,

this is not This ain't the way my story's going down.

I didn't go through all that. I didn't go through

that pain. I didn't go through that disappointment. I did

not go through hell for this to be my story.

This is not my story.

This ain't my story. Would you pray with me? Dear Jesus,

we love you. You're everything to us. Show yourself to

us this morning that we might be different is our prayer.

Say the beautiful name of Jesus. We pray, and everybody

said amen.

I don't know about you, but.

I love a good story. I love.

A good story, and they don't make stories like they

used to make stories.

Me and my wife we go on date night every week,

and the last two date nights.

We have straight up walked out of a movie, not

because it was bad, but it was.

A bad story.

They don't make movies like they used to. Hey, I

get an amen. I'm talking about movies like John Q. Y'all

don't know knowhing about John Q.

I'm talking about movies like Nodding Hill. What you know

about Nodding Hill? You know no about Preacher's Wife.

I mean, we could get down real stories the first matrix.

Number one. Oh ye are these lame stories?

But story is intricate to the human experience.

For it is in story that we find hope that

we fight to see in our real life.

It is in story that we find pictures of our self,

of who we dream we could be.

It is in story that our life and the desires

and the meaning and the burning fire that we feel.

It is in story that we seem to think we

could be something more than we ever thought we could be.

It is in story that we find meaning. It is

in story that we find purpose, And so we love

a good story because a story will give you hope

that maybe things could be different, maybe the pain you're

facing will work out one day.

There's a story that is thousands of years old.

It's called the Odyssey. There's a movie that'll be coming

out soon, and the story is the journey of a

man trying to find his way home. And it's interesting

because we don't actually know who the actual writer of

the story is. It's Homer's Iliot, but we don't know

if Homer was a real person. We don't know if

it was a group of people. But what we do

know is we know a good story, and this story

is about a man trying to find his way through life.

And in my interest in stories, I was listening to

the director talk about the sty watching interviews about how

they navigated the story, and there was something so profound

that one of the interview he said, in the middle

of the interview, he said, you.

Know, it's easier than you think to find yourself in

the wrong story. This actor was.

Talking about all these movies that they've done, and there

was this one moment where they were acting out a

scene in a previous movie and they had this monologue

they were supposed to deliver, and it was a man

giving an apology to a massive group of people. And

he started the scene and they called action and he

started giving his lines and he said, I felt it

deep in my bones, and I started crying, and.

The emotion was there, and the room was dead silent.

I delivered this monologue one of the greatest, greatest pieces

of acting I've ever done. Said The director called cut.

He's in tears. He wipes his face and the director goes.

Nope, that ain't.

He's like, what do you mean to say that? That? Would

you see that tears? Emotion? I had the room, he said.

The director walked to him and said, you're in the

wrong movie.

You're in the wrong movie.

The gentleman giving this apology is not giving an apology.

He said, I want you to give this next time

like you're an accepting an award. And the actor said

he immediately realized I was in the right lines, but somehow,

deep down I was living the wrong story. Here's what

you need to know about every story. Every story has

key parts that make it a great story. It has

a plot, it has a setting, it has characters, it

has conflict. But there are two things I want to

talk about today in every great story, and that is,

every story has an author, and most stories have a narrator.

And here's what I want to say to you today.

We all have the same author, in case you didn't know,

Hebrews twelve two.

For we look to Jesus the author and finisher.

We all have the same author. But here's what you

need to know. You gotta choose your narrator because the

author determines the plot and the purpose, but the narrator

controls the perspective. And you can be in a great

movie with a bad narrator, and the narrator can tell

you that's what happening to them is the end, and

what's happening to.

Them they didn't see coming.

And what's happening to them is only about who they're

not and who they're not gonna be, and how they're

not gonna grow, and that they're not gonna make it.

And a narrator can ruin a good.

Movie because the narrator controls not what you look at

the how you look at it.

And today I have a very simple message for you today,

and that is, if you're not careful, it's very easy

for fear to narrate your life. God is the author

of your story. Do not get it twisted. It wasn't

your grandmother, it's not your dad, it's not your coworker,

it's not your boss.

It's not culture, it's not the man.

God is the author of your story. He has numbered

every day of your life. He knows exactly how it's

gonna go. And the Bible tells us that He has

good plans for you, that he orchestrates everything, that all

things work together for the good of those who love

God and are calling to according to His purpose. And

we can look all throughout the Bible and see great

stories by the greatest author. The only problem is if

you're not careful, fear will sneak in and start narrating

God's story back to you.

He forgot about you.

Nobody's see and you could be in your story being

protected by God. And that's the reason your friendships are clicking.

But the narrator of fear will tell you it's because

there's something wrong with you. It's because you're not important.

It's the same reason your family doesn't talk to you anymore.

It's the same reason you've always felt left out. It's

the same reason that you're not you're still single. It's

the same reason that they left you. It's because something's

wrong on the inside of you. And today I want

to remind you you get to choose your narrator.

It's your choice.

If I could choose it for you, I would, But

this ain't my story, it's yours. You've got to choose

how you see your life. You've got to choose how

you look back on your history. You've got to decide

if trauma will always be everything you ever know.

You've got to decide if it stops with you.

You've got to decide if you want to change your bloodline.

Nobody else is the Pastor's not gonna magically do it

for you. It's you, the spirit of God on the

inside of you, and you've got a decision to make.

What's gonna be your story. Your mama can't write your story.

Your daddy can't write your story. The money in the

bank can't write your story. Your good deeds can't write

your story. Going to church can't write your story. Begetting

a new degree can't write your story. Being the boss

can't write your story. You're gonna have to look yourself

in the.

Mirror and decide.

As for me and my house, I'm taking my story back.

And some of you have been so lazy with your story.

You've given your story to the first bad person you

met You gave your story to that first person you dated.

You gave your story to a doctor's report. You gave

your story to abandon me, you gave your story to loneliness,

you gave your story to depression.

I'm here to remind you you.

Better get some power back up in yourself and remind yourself,

this is my story.

Ain't nobody else living it for me?

Sure as heck, ain't gonna let fear live my story.

It stops today.

I'm done.

I'm done.

I'm done.

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I'm

sick and tired of blaming everybody else. I'm sick and

tired of waiting on somebody to give me a handout.

I'm sick and tired of trying to control God with

my prayers and trying to make him.

Fix everything that's broken.

But thank God that the power that raised Christ from

the dead lives up on the inside of me, and

He's empowered me right here, right now, on this day,

to take.

My story back.

Someho I just need to say that, say I'm taking

my story back.

Yeah, some of y'all Your shoulders just got lighter because

it's the first time you realize you had that choice.

Taking my story back, we find Paul talking to a

young man named Timothy, and Paul knows what Timothy doesn't know,

and that's he's fighting for his story. At this time

in church history, Paul finds himself in prison. He is

going to die in what the Alogians believe to be months,

and all the first generation disciples and apostles.

Are dying, and Timothy's next.

Timothy is a young man pastoring a church in Ephesus,

and it is growing out of his control, and there

is cultural pressure, and he lives in a city that

one of the temples of Ardemais, which was the one

of the seven Wonders of the world at his time.

And all that means is there's a lot of confusion,

there's a lot of cultural pressure, there's a lot of

leadership pressure, and there is this early movement that is

budding and taking over the world. And Paul starts to

realize he doesn't know he's next. He doesn't know this

is a about to be his story. So he writes

him a letter and he says, hey, Timothy, first I

want to say I miss you, I love you, and

I want you to know I've seen the faith that

started in your great grandmother. Some of you only hear

because your great grandmother. You're only here because somebody who

ain't here. What's praying for you? He says, I saw

the faith in your great grandmother Lois and in your

mother Eunice. But they're gone now, they ain't here. This

is your story, and he's telling him you may not

realize it, but fear is standing at the door trying

to see if it can take your story. So he

says to him, God has not given you a spirit

of fear. In the original language, this word is not

like fear, like oh gosh, I'm scared because something jumped

around the corner. Is the word would be a military

term that would refer to a coward in battle. What

it's saying is, it's like a soldier standing on the

front lines with all his friends and his platoon and

all his group of people, and they went through training together,

and they went over the plan together, and they decided

that we're gonna stand on this.

Front line, and all of a sudden, one of the gentlemen.

Sees sees what's ahead in it, and it's a coward.

It's one who runs away from the fight, and Paul

comes to Timothy, and I'm coming to you to say

that God did not make you a coward. Fear tried

to tell you you were a coward. That's why you've

avoided difficult things in your life. That's why you've avoided commitment.

That's why you've avoid stepping out and you're living your dream.

That's why you've avoided talking to certain people because fear

tries to narrate to you that you're a coward and

it could never work, and nobody's gonna listen to you,

and they'll never hear you, and you'll never be anybody again.

And your time is up and your time is over.

So just step back and let the other people do it.

Just step back and let the qualified people do it.

Just step back and let the perfect people do it.

But no, God has not made you a coward.

You've got to decide to live your story.

And I want to walk you through today. We're gonna

do it clearly, but quickly. Four different types of fear

that try to narrate your story. Four different types of

fear that try to narrate your story. Now, my idea

and theory with this is that no matter who you are,

no matter your background, no matter how you are raised,

that every human on planet Earth shares four core fear. Yes,

that every fear you have stems from these four fears.

Now I need to warn you.

In just a couple of seconds, they're gonna throw a

graph on the screen.

And the graph is absolutely ridiculous, Just gonna prepare you.

It's got so.

Many words and so many different things, and I love it,

and I've already decided that before telling you about it.

But I'm gonna slow you, walk you through some of

these so you can hopefully identify how these fears are

impacting you. Okay, throw the ridiculously worded chart on the screen. Okay,

they're gonna they're gonna put it up on here on

the side as we walk through these, so you can know.

But these are four core fears that we all have. Okay,

throw the first one up where we starting out here.

Here's when I have a cheat code under here.

All right, here we go.

The first fear that you all want to deal with

is the fear of man. We all have this fear,

and the core question is what if people think about

me at some point in your life? You are struggling

with what do people think about me? And your life

is determined by what they think. So if they think

you're special, you're special. If they don't think you're special,

you're not. And here's how that shows up in your life.

The emotions that shows up as insecurity, it shows up

as shame, It shows up as jealousy and loneliness and

self doubt.

Why because your value is.

Determined by what they think about you.

So here's what happens your behaviors. You start hiding, You

start performing for people. You start comparing yourself, isolating yourself,

avoiding decisions. Why because you are so concerned with other

people's life And the truth is they're controlling your story.

You're not.

So you don't say stuff because you're worried about what

they'll think. You don't step out because of what your

family might say.

You don't do what you know you're supposed to do.

Because your core fear.

Is that my value comes from your acceptance of me.

And I'm only important if you think I'm important. So

I gotta earn this money and prove to my dad,

and I gotta earn this thing and show them that

they were wrong. Why Because if you don't think I'm enough.

I don't know if I am enough, so I gotta

prove it to you. And it's all motivated, narrated by

directed by.

Fear, the fear of what they think, the fear of man.

The next thing we've got to go to is the

fear of failure, the fear of failure, the fear of failure,

the fear of failure. Now the question with this one

is is what if I can't do it? So this

is different because fear of man will have you thinking

what do they think about me? But the other one,

there's something on the inside of you that thinks, what

if I step out there and.

It don't work. What if I try this and I'm embarrassed?

What if I try to do this in it and

it can't happen.

So it shows up as stress and frustration.

And you're discouraged and there's pressure and anxiety because you

are overwhelmed with the idea that it will fail. The

business might fail, the marriage might fail, the relationship might fail,

the idea might fail, that your kids might fail.

So what do you do?

You try to control everything. You quit early so you

have an excuse. Oh, I know this one because if

you quit before you really had to try, we don't

know if you weren't good enough or if you just

didn't try. So it's easy to downplay your own giftings,

so you have an excuse.

To require less of yourself.

Oh, I didn't even really want to go to college.

I didn't even really want to start the business. I

didn't even really want to be married.

No, that's not true.

You wanted it more than anything you've ever wanted in

your life. You were just so afraid that you might

fail that you thought the only way to deal with

this is not to deal with the fear of failure,

but to run away as fast as you can, because

what if you fail? And there's another one that couples itself.

With the fear of failure that not everybody knows, but

some of you do.

And it's kind of up under the fear of failure,

but it's the fear of success. Some of you know

it's gonna work, and you're terrified of what that means.

Fear of man, the fear of failure. The next one

is the fear of inadequacy. This fear tries to narrate

your story, and here's the story.

It tells you you're broken.

The fear of man is about what they think. The

fear of failure is about your skill and the talent

you have, or the idea you have. But the fear

of inadequacy tells you it doesn't matter where you go,

it doesn't matter how much you learn, matter what you

think about yourself. Something's broken with you. You don't have

all the pieces, and you'll never be enough. And that

last failure is your whole life. And there's something broken

and intrinsically wrong with you. You're the reason your family

isn't together. You're the reason the marriage didn't work out.

You're the reason your kids are messed up. You're the

reason nobody's chosen you, and you're the reason you'll never

get promoted.

And you're in these lives they try to narrate your story.

There's the fear of man, the fear of failure, the

fear of inadequacy, and the fourth and final one is

the fear of loss. Some of you are so gripped

by the idea, what if.

I lose what I love? What if I lose what's

kept me safe? So you don't realize it. But as

a kid you had to figure out how to keep

yourself safe. So you devised a plan.

Of action that worked for you when you were five.

But now you're thirty five.

And your life is built on these things you have

kept and accumulated, and if you lose a dollar. This

is what is so funny about how we engage with finances,

because some of you think if you had enough money

in the bank, you wouldn't be afraid, and it ain't true,

because there's no amount of money that can have your

soul at peace. Ten billion dollars in the bank account, you'll.

Still be worried.

But what if the economy goes down? And what if

something bad happens? And what if I can't pay for this?

And what if they take it all? And what if

I miss something? And I why because I'm afraid that

if I lose this, I don't know who I am.

If I lose this tie, I don't know who I am.

If I lose this job, I don't know who I am.

If I lose these friends, I don't know who I am.

If I lose this spouse, I don't I don't know.

I don't know who I am. Now the question is

what do we do. I'm gonna give you three simple

things to do, and we're gonna go home. The first

thing you're gonna do, if you're gonna rewrite your story,

you gotta first thing you gotta do is you gotta

recognize which one of these jokers is trying to write

your story?

Which one is it?

Do you find yourself thinking about what people think about

you all day?

Which one is it? Who's writing your story right now?

Are you writing your story or that opinion of that

person you've never met writing your story?

Are you writing your story or is it a dead

loved one that never looked.

At you and never saw you and never acknowledged you.

And now you're a grown person.

Talking to someone at your job like they're that person? Why?

Because you're not writing your story? They are? Who's living

your story? Who's writing your story? And I don't.

Honestly, we can go through these and it's important that

you recognize it. You've got to acknowledge. For my life,

this has been the thing that has written my story.

I know these all too well because the truth is,

all of.

Them, at different points, have written my story.

I always thought some of you know this.

I told this story a billion times, but usually it's

in your early adolescence years where you start to pick

up this narrator. And in sixth grade, I picked up

a narrator and I was at a.

Free throw line.

It was the game winning free throws and I missed

both of them.

And we lost the game. Dang, Dad, but the my god, that's.

Crazy, that's crazy, I said, I missed both.

He said, my god, come on, Dad, what was that? Man,

Let's go free throw right now for.

Me and you.

No, he said, my god, that's the thing about having

a church that talked back to you that it doesn't stop.

So and then I felt so small you right, felt

like nothing, absolutely nothing at all.

It's like, wait, don't I'm so insecure. You got reason

to be sonned. No, wait, Dad, I didn't.

Okay, she's got hit in the head.

Terrible free throws.

Okay, this is why I'm so broken right there.

That's what happened in my head when I missed it.

My god, so I shoot the free throws, I miss them.

And this was the line that ran with no stoppage

in my head until about three or four years ago,

when I sat down with my friend, it was you're

good enough to be the captain.

You're good enough to be the leader. You're good enough

for the Koch.

It trusts you while time runs out. You're good enough

to draw the foul. You're good enough to be the

leader at the free throw line. But when it comes

down to it, you don't have what it tains. And

it controlled my whole life. Terrified first years of my

marriage because I thought, I'm good enough to find the

right girl. I'm good enough to get married, but I

don't know if I'm good enough to stay married. I'm

good enough to become a pastor, but I don't good

to know if I'm good enough to.

Stay a pastor. And you've got to recognize who's writing

your story.

And after you recognize it, you gotta do the every

single day of your life work to replace it.

Now, this is important thing. I gotta I gotta tell

you we're gonna, we're gonna get out of here.

But I can't emphasize this enough.

You don't go to the altar one time and your

story all of a sudden be replaced. Well, I went

to the altar at the prayer conference, so I know what.

That's not. That's beautiful. There's a supernatural encounter. But the

Bible says.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but

be transformed by the renewing.

Of your mind.

Not that you can be transformed by your mind being renewed,

the renewing.

Every single day. You gotta wake up, you gotta remind yourself.

Wait a second, My value is not determined by my performance.

So if I get up here and miss both of

them again, I am still important, I am still called,

i am still chosen, i am still valued. I'm still

the man for Abby, I'm still the father for those kids.

I'm still the past that this generation needs.

Regardless of my performance, you gotta replace it with the truth.

So each one of these they have a truth.

One of the ideas is the fear of man will

tell you your value is only important because of what

they say about you. The truth is, your value is

what God says about you. And he says, you're loved,

You're chosen, And here's the greatest one your mind, You're his.

So any earthly parent knows. Oh my gosh, I have

to tell this story. I have to tell the story yesterday.

My beautiful daughter, Jade October. She is beautiful, she's the sweetest,

she comes marching down the steps ball and crying. She

starts crying, and this proceeded to be like an hour

and a half thing where she said, Daddy, I'm trying

to be fashion like you and Aunt Laurie, and I

can't do it.

This is real, I mean bawling. We had to FaceTime

Aunt Laurie.

She sat the phone up and went through every piece

of clothing she owns, holding it up to the camera.

See, I can't wear this. These don't fit me.

And I can know like just and this is just

a four year o little girl. And I had to

sit her little chubby cheeks down. I squished her little face.

I said, girl, Daddy loves you no matter what you wear,

cares about these clothes I love. I get it. I'm

not sure what I'm wearing.

Tomorrow, but you need to know I love you no

matter what. And some of you you need to know God,

Oh he will kneel down.

The Bible says it. Then the word became flesh and

dwelt among us. That's the eternal infinite God kneeling down.

They say, hey, your value is not what they said

about you, because before you were in your mother's womb.

I knew you. I love your mama, I love you Daddy,

but I knew you before they did. And you've got

to go through and you've got to replace each one

of these. The fear of man will tell you your value

is what they think about you. If you're a failure,

will tell you your value is your performance.

But the gospel is your performance is not what saves you.

This is why you gotta be careful with religion, because

some of you think you're saved because you're a good person,

which the sentence is flawed in and of itself, because

the goal is not a good person, and there aren't

good and bad people. The scripture says, for all have

sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So

to say you're a good person is to only in

of itself compare yourself to someone you think is a

bad person, and that puts you in the judgment seats.

And let me tell your friend, I love you, I'm

glad you're a church to say, but me and you

should not be in the judgment seats. I don't determine

good and bad. I don't say who's good in What

I recognize is that the grace of God had to

come find all of us.

No matter what we did, no matter how good we

thought you were. You could do all that work, and

the Great still had to reach down and find you.

The fear of inadequacy tells you that something's broken. By

God says, you're my masterpiece.

And the fear of loss only makes sense when you realize,

think of the thing you be most terrified to lose

over anything else, your own life.

Now, modern church we straight away from conversations like this,

but the early Church was built on conversations like this

because they knew, even.

If I lose my.

Life, I'm going to open my eyes and look Him

in the face. So crucify me upside down if you

want to Stephen being stoned to death, says God.

Forgive them. I'm not scared right now because I know

I'm about to see you.

I'm not terrified right now because I know where I

go when I die, and I got some friends up there.

That's waiting on. Man.

I'm excited to see Abraham, and I'm.

Excited to see David. I'm excited to see Moses. I

know what's gonna happen to me. So even if I

lose everything.

I'll be all right. You've got to replace it. The

last thing you've got to do is it.

Your life will only make sense when you release it.

And here's the most powerful thing you could recognize. On

one hand, this is your story. But on the other hand,

this ain't your story.

You didn't do this. You think your life is about you.

You think you on this earth for you.

You think those kids were about you.

You think God gave you that idea for you.

You think we up in this church for us.

The most beautiful thing that will.

Bring peace to your life is you realize this is

not your story and you are.

Not the main character. This is why your life doesn't make.

Sense because humans make horrible main characters.

We do all right at.

Supporting actors and extras, but we make terrible main characters.

There is only one man who can handle the weight

and the glory and the expectation and the intricacies and

the understandings of what it takes to stand in human

history and say, I am the main character and it's

not you, friend, and your life will never make sense

as long as you think it's about you. Before we

find this in our example, Jesus as I close, for

he is on the cross, pinned there by the people

he made, and the scripture says he is on the

cross and says, into your hands, do I release.

My spirits? Because even Jesus knew in that guard this

ain't my story. God, if there's any other way, because they're.

Gonna beat me, and the weight of the sin of

human history is about.

To be on my shoulders. Think about this.

Think of your worst moment, the darkest you felt, the

heaviest you felt, when you were.

Gonna take your life. I don't know what moment, but

think of.

That moment, and then multiply it past every person who's

ever lived, every person who is alive, and every person.

Who will ever be born. And Jesus is on the

cross with all of that.

On him, not metaphorically, not idealistically, in reality, and he's

in the garden thinking about this reality, and he knows

what it's gonna take, and he knows how it's gonna feel.

He starts to think to himself, God, if there is

any there's any other way, But.

This isn't my.

Story, So not my will, but yours be done. And

I want to tell you, friend, if you want to

get your story back, it's kind of confusing because you

gotta let it go.

For he wants to gain his life.

What's loves it.

I want to pray for you today that the Spirit

of God would empower you to recognize who's been writing

your that he would empower you to replace that lie

with His truth. And the easiest way to do that

is to read what God says about you in this book.

When you read that book, it changes your life. And

then that we all might find the courage to ultimately

release our story back to God.

Would you buy your heads and close your eyes, Lord Jesus,

thank you, Thank you for including us in your story.

Thank you for giving us a role even though we

were unqualified. Thank you for looking past our bad auditions

of holiness and the times we misrepresented you to include

us in your story. And right now I pray supernaturally

that the spirit of God will begin to illuminate where

people are living a story that is not the one

You've called them to live.

And I pay fear would be released.

From their body, from their mind, from their thoughts, from

the control center of their life.

And may the peace of God, which.

Transcends understanding, May the security of God, may deep trust

in God rule and reign in their life and in

their mind. God, I pray that starting today, everyone under

the sound of my voice is going to live a

new story.

Every head bow and every eye close.

If you're in this room, you've never said to Jesus

as your Lord and savior. And really, this is the

ultimate moment of releasing your story. I said it before,

but as good as you are, you're not a great

main character. But it is in putting the right character

in the right position that you start to see all

the other characters will make sense. And to make it

plain to you, your life won't make sense until Jesus

runs your life. And I'm not talking about a partial commitment.

I'm not talking about giving him your couple of little things.

I'm talking about laying your life down at the altar

and saying I'm done. I can't do it, I don't

want it. Jesus take control, and I promise you, when

you make that choice, it'll change your life forever. It's

what you've been looking for, it's what your soul has

been searching for. It's why you feel overwhelmed, it's why

you feel like you can't handle it. It's because as

great as you are. You were not made to be

in that role. But when you release to Jesus, he

gives you the clarity, the power of the understanding to

live this life with him. If you want to accept

Jesus today, I'm gonna count to three, and you're gonna

raise your hand boldly.

One. He loves you. Two. Today is the day of salvation.

Don't wait another day.

Three, right now in this room, lift your hand if

you want to accept Jesus to be your Lord and savior.

I'm so proud of you, buddy, so proud of you.

I got you up there, so proud of you, so

proud of you. I see you right here, dog, I

got you, So proud of you, I got you right here.

Say it.

So proud of you, so proud of you online. If

you made that choice, We're so proud. Here's what we're

gonna do altogether, as a family. We're gonna pray out

loud together for the benefit of those who are praying

for the first time. Everybody out loud, repeat this after me.

Everybody say Dear God, thank you for loving me.

Dear Jesus.

I admit I've made mistakes, and I've tried to make

myself the main character. But today I release my life

to you, change me, restore me, make me new in

Jesus name my prayer.

Amen.

Hey, can we celebrate people.

Who just made that choice?

Go ahead and stand up to your feet. If you

just made that choice, it's the best choice you could

ever make. We would love to know about it. There's

some information on the screen. You can text us to

let us know. If you're in the room, give somebody

a hug and tell them you made that choice.

It's the best choice.

Hey, listen, our worship team's gonna worship in just a moment.

Some of you just need to sit in the presence

of God and you can do that. Next week, you

don't want to miss it. We start a brand new

series with pastor Tim Ross.

He released the.

Book Oh Yeah, pastrim Ross is gonna be here new

series called The Missing Peace, and it's gonna be a beautiful,

beautiful continuation of releasing fear and finding real peace in

your life. So make sure you're here next week. That

you're here, I want to pray for you and we're

gonna go out of here. If you need prayer for anything.

Our team is gonna be up here at the front

and in the back.

But I love you, Lord God. I thank you for

everybody in this room.

I thank you that your peace, your power, and the

purpose of God follows them all this week and they

live confidently knowing that you chose them, that You're with them,

and that they will live a beautiful and bright and

big story. It's in the beautiful name of Jesus, we pray,

and everybody said, Amen, Amen, Amen, let's worship together.

Thank you for joining us today. If you said that

prayer and accept it Jesus into your heart, it's the

best decision you could ever make. We want to celebrate

with you, and we have some tools to help you

on your journey. Tech saved to A two eight two

eight two, and to find out more about TC text

connect to A two eight two eight two. Be sure

to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks

for listening. Now go out and live a transform life.

Nine