Get A Bigger Picture// Triggered (Part 10) // 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.

All right, I'm gonna read you a portion of scripture.

It is out of Songs Songs, Chapter eight. This is

written by David King David. You know, everybody, maybe you've

heard of David, David and Goliath. Maybe you heard of

David and you know that tough moment he had with

that lady that was named after a bathtub bath Sheba,

and uh, he actually killed her husband, which is super intense.

But yet we're all like, I want to be like David.

It's just funny. Anyways, move me right along. Okay. The

Bible says in Psalms, this is written by David, and

let's see here. I think in classic this. I'm sorry.

I do this in the text team. Every single week

I give him scriptures that I get up here. I'm like,

I think I'm gonna add more to it. I don't

know if I gave you all the whole chapter, but

I'm about to read the whole chapter, so don't worry.

It's only eight verses. You're like, oh, gosh, a whole chapter. Well,

we are in church, so calm down. Something were like, whoa, okay,

a whole chapter. What are we doing here? Here's what

the Bible says. I'm reading out of the message translation.

This was a guy named Eugene Peterson. He was a

famous theologian, but he was teaching college students the Bible

and they were staring at him with all of these

thousand those, and he was like, I'm gonna write a

version of this Bible where they can understand. It's written

in their language. So this is a paraphrase, not an

exact translation. If you gotta be with that, go chat

gbt it. I don't know. This is what it says.

Psalms eight, starting a verse one, God, brilliant Lord, Yours

is a household name, nursing infants, gurgle choruses about you,

Toddler's shout songs that drowned out the inner me talk,

and they silence the atheist babble. I look up at

your macro skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky, jewelry,

moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look

at my micro self, and I wonder, why do you

bother with us? Why take a second look our way?

I want to pray for you as we get started,

Lord Jesus. My prayer is is that in these next

few moments, would you show yourself to us in a

grand and enormous way. God, we thank you that in

the context of how grand you are, that our life

finds a meaning and purpose. So today, Lord Jesus, for

the one asking questions, for the one with answers, for

the one wondering about you, I pray we would see

who you are. It's the name of Jesus, we pray.

And everybody said, amen. This morning, I want to talk

to you about space. I don't know if you've spent

any time studying space. Looking up into the stars last night,

if you would have walked out of your house, depending

on where you live and maybe the contents of the

city that you live in and how clear the skies are,

you would look up into the night sky and see

something like this picture behind me stars. Now, due to

the smog and the atmosphere and a lot of different factors,

with the naked eye, you can see about twenty five

hundred stars and for a significant amount of human history.

This is what every person saw when they looked up

into the scar until one evening where everything changed. In

the year sixteen eight, there is a Dutch inventor who

has invented this device that allows for magnification. And in

Tuscany there is a forty five year old inventor himself

who is becoming known in his city as a genius,

and simply off of hearing about this invention that uses lenses,

he creates something. The year sixteen o nine, a man

named Galileo calls what we would now come to know

as the telescope, and he peers up on this night

in sixteen o nine, up into the stars, and this

is what Galileo sees with his telescope. He starts to

make out that there's more than just stars up there,

there's more than what other people know, and he starts

to see other planets forming, and on this night in

sixteen nine, our understanding of the universe completely changes. Fast

forward three hundred and sixty nine years later, there's a

gentleman named Michael. Michael is a part of a mission

that is one of the most brave human feats of

all time. It is Apollo eight, and they have put

funding and practice and everything behind men to take them

to what Galileo only looked at from the ground. And

in three hundred and sixty nine years later, Michael is

standing on the surface of the Moon and he turns

a camera back at Earth and he takes this photo.

This photo would come to be known as Earth Rise.

December twenty fourth, nineteen sixty seven. For the first time ever,

humans are starting to see themselves in a bigger picture.

Earth and this is our home. This is where we

are right now. And although it looks calm and we

are all walking and living our lives, there's a lot

happening here. Earth on its axis rotating at one thousand

miles per hour, circling the Sun at sixty seven thousand

miles an hour. But it is not just Earth that

we are a part of. There is a bigger picture,

and it is our Solar System. You see, we are

one little ball on this rock called Earth, but it's

amongst other massive stars and planets in our Solar system.

And within this solar system, there are different places in

different planets, in different stars. And if you were able

to zoom out and look at our solar system. This

is what you would see Saturn's rings. The scale of

the Sun you can't even begin to imagine. And this

little solar system is not just a solar system. It

is a part of a greater story. You see this

solar system our home Earth finds its ultimate home in

the Milky Way Galaxy, and our solar system is in

the bottom corner of the Milky Way Galaxy, circling the

center of the Milky Way Galaxy at four hundred and

seventy nine thousand miles per hour. The Milky Way Galaxy,

it's flying through space at one point two million miles

per hour. You see on that night when Galileo looked

up into the stars, he didn't know it, but he

was slowly but surely starting to place humans in the cosmos. Now,

if you fast forward to December twenty fifth, twenty twenty one,

there is an extreme development in Galileo's simple telescope. It

is called the James Webb Space telescope. And this telescope

is like nothing else because it's giving us live imaging

of the deepest photos ever of space. If you were

to go four hundred light years away with the James

web telescope, This is the picture that the James Web

telescope took four hundred light years away. This is what

it looks like when a solar system is being born.

This is not a drawing, This is not ai This

is an actual photo four hundred light years away. Now,

unless you watch Toy Story last night, you haven't heard

light year in a while. Let me explain to you

what a light year is. A light year is the

distance it takes light to travel in a year. For context,

light travels at one hundred and eighty six thousand, not

miles per hour, not miles per minute, but miles per second.

One light year is five point eight eight trillion miles.

That photos four hundred light years away. Now, humans, we

have a hard ability and hard way understanding and perceiving

time and distance in space. And so even when I

say five point eight eight trillion miles per second, you're like, okay,

that's just super fast. But let me give you some context.

If I were to tell you how long a million

seconds were, A million seconds is eleven days, a billion

seconds is thirty one years, a trillion seconds thirty one

thousand years. So when we talk about light years, this

is a significant span of an ever expanding universe. If

you were to go two thousand more miles away, you

would run into this phot that the James Webb Space

Telescope took and it is called Ring Nebula. This is

of a star the size of our sun dying. If

you were to go a little bit past and zoom

a little bit further, you would run into this image

from the Space telescope. It is of Sagittarius Sea. This

is at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. And

as expansive and massive as this image is, this is

of a section of space no bigger than the size

of a grain of sand. The deepest photo we have

of space was taken by this same telescope, and if

you were to look at the deepest point four point

eight billion light years away, you would see this image. Now,

this image of deep space, the deepest photo we have

is not stars. You could look at this photo and thing, man,

that's a lot of stars. It's a lot of planets. Friends.

Those little dots are not stars, and they are not planets.

Each one of those dots is a galaxy. And in

every galaxy there are four hundred billion stars. And I'm

not talking Twinkle twinkle little star. I'm talking stars bigger

than our sun, and every single one of those galaxies

is also eight hundred billion planets in the deepest photo

we have of space tells us something that Galileo knew

in sixteen oh nine. It tells us something that, hilariously,

the Church threw him in jail for. He died on

house arrest from the church for what he discovered that

night and what this photo tells us, and that is

the only way to make sense of the universe is

to realize you are not at the center of it.

The only way you will ever find peace, clarity, purpose, conviction,

and a life worth living is to come to the

understanding that humans had not realized until sixteen oh nine,

when Galileo looked up into the stars and he realized

there is no way Earth is at the center of

the universe. And this reality was so jarring for people

because immaturity assumes I'm at the middle, may assumes everything

else revolves around me. Immaturity assumes that everything that's happening

in my life is the most important thing, and from

this is how everything else moves. But Galileo knew nothing

could be further from the truth. Galileo wasn't the first

person to suggest this, He was just the only person

who had the tools to observe it, because at this point,

everyone else thought the Earth has to be the sinner.

But he knew that the only way to figure out

where we really are in this place called Earth and

in this universe is to look up into the stars

and to figure out that there's a there's a bigger picture.

I want to submit to you today that one of

the most practical and profound things you can do in

relationship to your triggers is to do the same thing

David did in chapter eight of Songs He got a

Bigger Picture. He said, I look into the stars, and

I see this infinite place, and I wonder another translation

would say, who am I that you would even know me? Today,

I want to preach to you a sermon called get

a bigger Picture, because I am convinced that the reason

we are so triggered is not because you're triggered. What

I've learned in my own life is that the smaller

your picture, the bigger your trigger. Your issue may not

be your trigger, your issue my be How small your

picture is, it might be how small our perspective is

on life. How small our perspective is on our family,

how small our perspective is on holidays, How small our

perspective is on people we don't understand. I want to

submit to you today that if you're looking to move

past your triggers, maybe for a moment you could step

back and get a bigger picture. And this bigger picture

starts with one key understanding, and that is to acknowledge

you're not at the center of the universe. Now, some

of you are in here, like Charles, I'm not. I

know that I'm not at the center of the universe.

I'm not the center of any conversation. I would never

do that. You know, people who are prideful think they're

the center of the universe, and you're right, absolutely a

prideful person if they're talking, there's a lot of means,

there's a lot of eyes. You know what also has

a lot of means and insecurity. So don't stand there

judging people they so prideful. In the same way you

say I'll never be I can't, I won't. What do

they think of me? It's the same voice, It's the

same universe, the one where you and what you're going

through is at the center, and I'm not mad at

you for it. I get it one hundred percent. I

get it. All I'm submitting to you is that the

best parts of your life will be lived when you're

not at the center of your own universe. You see,

Jesus comes onto the scene in the scriptures. The reason

the Pharisees don't like him is because he's constantly trying

to give them a bigger picture, and they don't like it.

They have a picture. Their picture was if you want

to get right with God, you sacrifice animals, and then

there's this bigger picture called grace. We still don't like

this bigger picture because we like the picture where you

get what you deserve. You do bad things, you get

bad things. But the Gospel is a bigger picture. It

is you believe in me. I cover all the bad

things you've done, and as long as you believe in me,

you repent and put your faith in me. That is

all you need. But we like the smaller picture of religion.

I mean, it's hilarious to me. You may not know this.

Up until sixteen oh nine, church and science were never enemies.

The church funded all the scientists all the art, all

the discovery, because they had a perspective that if God

created all of this, we should be learning about it.

But the church, you see, was at a pivotal point

because there was this young man named Martin Luther who

had just nailed ninety nine thesis to the front of

the door. And so people are questioning the church. And

then this man Galileo was saying that the Earth isn't

the center of the universe. So in a grasp for power,

they put him in jail. And this was when church

and science split, and that apparently, if you believe too

much science, then that can't be faith. And what are

we gonna do? And how are we gonna reconcile those?

And some of y'all in here me having pictures on

the stars and on the screen, you like, okay, what

is this astrology? What be horoscopes? And I don't do

no that you raise. You raised that science and stars

and galaxies are spooky, weird Greek mythology. They have nothing

to do with you. Because you read your Bible and

God made the earth in seven days and that's what

it says, so I believe it. There's no way anything

else could be possible. Science isn't threatening to me because

I know God created everything. Oh, let me phrase it

a different way. I have a bigger picture. There's no

here's my belief I offer it to you. You can take

it or leave it laying right here on the third row.

I don't care. But one of my beliefs is if

you are seeking truth, you can't seek truth and not

run smack dab into God because He is all truth.

So every time a scientist is like, well we discovered

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, I'm like,

I bet you did discover it. There's a point in

which my wife was a little nervous. I'm not gonna

say the whole crazy take because my wife said, you

can't say that on stage because people will hate you

for it. If you want to know, come ask me.

I still won't tell you, but all I'll say is,

there's a point in space where literally time ends, not

not like in theory, like scientifically, there's a point in

space where time ends. You want to know my take,

I know exactly what's on the other side of that ending.

Tells me that he stands outside of time. I ain't

scared of no black hole. I ain't scared of no

space scientists telling me, oh, well, you know there. I

know exactly what's on the other side of that. My

Bible tells me what happens. And all I'm saying to

you is, maybe there's a bigger picture that you've been

afraid to get into, and it actually has the piece

that you need. Here's what the Bible says. I'll go

to Romans chapter eleven. I did not give you the scripture, Heather,

I'm so sorry. Romans chapter eleven says, for all things

were created by Him, through Him, and in him. You

know what that tells me? Even though we are currently

in an ever expanding, never ending universe, all of that,

the Scripture says, was by Him, through him, and currently

still residing in Him. Oh my goodness. Okay, ah, let

me just read you the scripture. Colossians chapter number one

says this. He is supreme in the beginning, leading the resurrection,

and supreme in the end. From the beginning, he is there,

towering far above everything. And everyone listen to.

This, so spacious, so expansive, that everything of God finds

its proper place in Him without crowding. Not only that,

but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe, people, things, animals,

and atoms get properly fixed and fit together vibrant harmonies,

all because of his.

Death, his blood poured out on the cross. If you

don't understand how big God is, it's very easy to

find yourself screaming in traffic because someone cut you off.

I'm connecting the galaxies and your triggers. This is what's

happening right now in case you don't know. If you

forget how big God is, you're gonna sit at Thanksgiving

dinner with maybe some amazing food and maybe some not

so amazing food. I don't know your family nor your

cultural background. I hope it's all amazing, but you will

sit there so triggered because you've forgotten how big, how grand,

how enormous and eternal that God. We're in here singing

to Is and David presents and I am presenting this

morning that one way you could live less triggered is

to just step back for a second and remember, I

am on a rock flying through the universe at one

point three billion miles per hour, and I don't feel it.

And that kind of messes with my brain. And he

just showed me a real picture of hundreds of billions

of stars. And I don't know if I believe him,

but if that's possibly true, and the god that I'm

singing to that the scripture says is intimately involved in

the details of my life, he also created that. Well,

if he's big enough to create that, he's probably he

can probably help me not be so triggered by what's happened. Now.

I gotta be honest with you. This sermon is born,

and I need to turn my clock back on because

I'll go till tomorrow. I have so much quantum physics

in my brain right now, y'all would be so bored.

But this sermon is really born out of me trying

to figure out how to deal with my own triggers.

I was telling my wife this the other day. I

don't know what is happening to me, And if you

know what is happening to me, please help just shout

it out from the crowd. I would love to know.

But the older I am getting and I'm not old,

but I am getting older, and I find myself being

way more rigid and like easily bothered by things, not

going my way. I don't know what. Maybe you pray

a lot and so this doesn't happen to you, but

like it does not take a lot too. I've just

I haven't lived lot of life, but there are things

that I feel like I've gotten some information. I've learned

some things I've learned myself. So when things don't go

with I just feel like I'm like, like I walk

around trying to and my whole parenting journey is like

don't okay, don't sit out, uh gentle parenting, Okay, sweetheart,

I'll be quiet. Okay, I'm gonna just letting no lie.

Last night my wife is like, are you okay? And

I was gonna, yeah, I'm just some of your like

how did this guy get a microphone? I just I

can't do it. And it's it's just it's everything, like

everything is like, Okay, I've been I'll give you a

real life example. I've been in church my whole life.

So I've been to thousands of church services, and no doubt,

this happens all the time, and it's happened. I wish

I could tell you it's not happening more, but it's

happening more. I go I get to the church service,

I'm like, all right, this is how it's gonna go.

And then it starts not to go to the place

because some of y'all you don't let me connect the

dots to you. This is my calling, but it's also

my job. So you know how you have a job

and you like plan for your day and it's like,

so it's a weird thing because I'm like, hey, God,

I love you. Also, what is happening with the lights? Like,

so I'm like trying to like Jesus, what is that? Okay? Yep, God,

You're worthy? Worthy? Are we? What time is it? Okay? Ah? Okay, yep, okay.

So this happened to me undisclosed number of weeks ago,

four point billion light years away in the far far galaxy,

and I'm sitting there completely triggered by things that should

not be triggering me, but I just have too many

control issues. So I'm just and I'm sitting there in

service and I'm just trying to like calm down, literally

like doing breathing techniques, and You're like, how are you

a pastor? I'm trying to calm down, and literally I

feel sitting there and we're in worship. I feel like

the Holy Holy Speer says, you're really gonna make this

whole service about you? None of these songs are about you.

Them lights are not for you. And nobody here today

showed up to hear you say anything. Are you really

going to make this moment about you? And what I

realized in that moment is the only way to not

be triggered but stay triggered. You can be trig I'm

fine with you being trigger but the only way to

stay triggered is to keep everything revolving around you. It's

the only way it works and the only way to

keep your small picture. Ultimately, you want to know where

ultimately our small pictures lead us, and buy small picture.

Let me define small pictures for a while, because there's

two forms of small pictures. They're sanctified small pictures and

then they're secular small pictures. So nobody's getting out of

here for free. So sanctified people, we love God. We

have some of the smallest pictures in the world. Certain

people are going to Heaven, certain people aren't. That's a

small picture of believers whole. I don't believe that, yes

you do, because I can name a couple groups of

people and be like, oh yeah, but they definitely are

clearly not going to heaven. We have pictures of who

we think God loves and doesn't love based on who

they are, what they do, how they dress, how we

perceive them, what they say that changes God's love for him.

Some of the smallest pictures in the world somehow ended

up serving the biggest God. And it's confused using to me.

Sometimes the smallest picture of redemption. Well, God will redeem

you once you stop doing that and you change and

you rebuke that, and you renounce this, and did you

have a list of stuff you renounced when he came

and found you? Or did he just come and find you,

scoop you up, empower you to believe and now you're

here different. Please do not come over here. What's that

small picture? Such a small picture of people, such a

small picture of God. Here's the small picture. You don't

realize everybody you don't like and are judging are just

as much as children as you are. It doesn't make

any sense. It's a very small picture. There's a secular

small picture, small picture of how you gain meaning and value,

money and success. That's how you become important. You do

these certain things. And here's what both pictures will lead

you to do. The only way to maintain your small

picture is at some point you have to stop rejecting truth.

This is what the Church did. In sixteen oh nine,

they had a picture that the Earth is the center

of the universe. Galileo is like, hey, definitely not, and

they're like, we don't like what that may mean for business,

So that's not true, do you know? Hilarious fact? Three

hundred and fifty years later, like in the nineties, the

Catholic Church issued a statement that said, turns out Galileo

was right, and we just want to acknowledge because you

have to deny truth for so long when you keep

yourself at the center of the universe. Here's ways we

do that. We assume everyone's motive is out to get you.

That's not true. You don't know their motives. It's impossible

to know a motive, literally impossible. Yeah, but I know, no,

you don't. You don't know their heart, you don't know

what their brain is thinking. No matter how long y'all

have been together, you do not know their motive. And

there's no reason the target cashier was intending to make

you feel dumb. You just felt dumb because you didn't

have your coupons on you. And now you're like, oh,

you want to talk to me. No that it's impossible

to know people's motives. You can't. But it's you start

denying truth. Everyone's out to get me. I have no friends.

You start using very definitive you always, that's not true.

Nobody always does anything but breathe until they don't. And

so it's that doesn't even really work. There's no always,

there's no never. It's not true. But what do you

do to keep the picture around you? You gotta start

making absolutes and denying truth. This is what has happened

with our culture the only way. Oh gosh, I got

too much stuff to say, and I'm trying to be

on time. Okay, let me talk about identity for a second.

This is gonna be a little rant, but it's gonna

be great, trust me. There is a theologian who wrote

on traditional and modern identity, how we gain these and

grow in these? Traditional identity was from outside in, So

you go outside of yourself. You go to your family,

you go to your job, you go to religion, and

you try to find truth outside of you, and then

you find whatever you deem its truthful, whatever religion you

deem is truthful, and then you adjust your internal feelings

to that truth because you realize I need something greater

than me, bigger than me, so I go outside of

me to find it and I adjust to it. Here's

modern identity. The universe is inside of me. Whatever is

true in me is the most true thing, and then

I tell everything outside to adjust to me, regardless of

if it's true or not. So this is how culturally now.

People's feelings are the god they serve most. So if

you feel like something, if you act like something, you

don't go outside of you for truth. You determine your

truth on the inside, and you tell the whole world

you now have to live to my truth. The only

problem with that is we all got different internal feelings.

So where does ultimate truth come from? Where does good

and bad come from? If you get to say you

feel like something and you are something, I'm not mad

at you, but you have no right to tell somebody

who felt like hitting you in the face that they

were wrong because they felt it, and you gotta adjust

to how they feel. And that's the truth. So I

can hit you in the face and you can't say nothing.

It doesn't make any sense. You have to have a

greater truth that is outside of everyone that we all

agree on and decide this is good, this is bad.

But we can't do that if we all get to decide,

the universe revolves around how I feel. Now, I know

some of y'all think I'm talking about certain people, but

I'm also talking about you, gol. That's a great illustration

post of that, and let TMZ pick it up. No, no, no,

I'm talking about you. When you decide who should and

shouldn't get grace, when you decide who God can and

can't save, when you decide who God's really anointing is

really on and who it's not on. When you decide

that it's okay for you to do this sin, but

this one isn't that big of a deal, And you

now have become the moral compass for sin and not sin.

Because we love to judge people. We can see their sin.

Yet you sitting there judging their sin, say sin, and

then taking it to your prayer group is gossip. So

where are we getting? Let me calm down, y'all, see

it's happening. You see I'm like, all I'm saying is

the Bible presents a way for you to live a

life where everything is in the right proportions, and everything

is balanced, and everything is understood in its proper weight

and scale. I have a two year old daughter named

Blue Sunday, and Blue Sunday's life revolves right now around

how much chapstick she can steal, take, acquire, and use

in one day. If you give her chapstick, it'll be

gone in two minutes. Did she eat it, did she

lose it? We don't know. This is true. I have

a kid who's currently eating chapstick, and so we're buying

the best kind we can just to she can't. Everybody

knows you can't stop a two year old. Come on,

But right now her life revolves and the good or

bad nature of her day is determined by this very small,

insignificant thing. But she doesn't possess the maturity to delineate

how important that is. But thank goodness, she has a

father whose whole job is to come up to her

and say, hey, I know that you really tore up

about that. And I'm not saying it's not important, because

if it's important to you, it's important to me. But

as your father, let me help you get some perspective.

I can get you more chaps think, let me translate it.

I can help you find somebody who's gonna love you.

I can I can help you find another job. I

know you're tore up about it. I'm not saying it's

not important, because if it's important to you, it's important

to me. But let me talk to you. Let me

give you some perspective. Let me help you. This isn't everything.

I promise there is a world that is bigger than this.

And I know you feel disappointed now, and I know

you feel overwhelmed now, but let me tell you something.

You're gonna live about seventy eighty ninety, maybe one hundred

years on this earth. But guess what, I've been here forever.

And when you're off these eighty years, you.

Gonna be with me for billions of billions of billions

of billions of billions of years, and you're gonna be

walking on streets of gold, and you're gonna be singing,

and the best choir ever singing, Holy, Holy, Holy is

the Lord God Almighty.

And I wipe every tear from your face. And this

is not an idea, and it's not a dream, and

it's not an imaginary place. Friend, the reason we worship,

the reason we sing, is because we have a bigger picture.

And all I'm suggesting is I know I'm the most

triggered when my picture is the smallest. It's hard for

me to focus on what's important because I've missed the

bigger picture. Today, I want to give you three ways,

three things that can help you get a bigger picture.

Number One, people, if you're trying to get a bigger picture,

you need people to help you get a bigger picture,

somebody outside of you. This is how you get a picture,

a bigger picture. Ask people, Hey, is there is anything

you would want to say to me but you'd be

afraid of how I respond if you said it to me.

Ask that question to your friend. Some of you are like,

absolutely not, There's no way. Is there something about how

I behave in our relationship that doesn't always make you

feel safe? Ooh see, we don't like these pictures, Like, yeah,

I think I like my small picture. I think I'm

not mad at you. I'm just saying, what what is

on the outside of your frame right now? Who could

you be who could you become? The other night, I

was talking to my wife and it was active. There

was a whole story with it, but I'll jump to

the end of it pretty much. I walked into the closet.

My wife was there and I told her. I was like, hey,

I didn't when I tell you, I did not want

to ask this question so bad, Like my insides were like,

don't do it, don't betray us. And I had to

like fight to get the words out. I was like,

do you maybe ever just a little bit kind of

think that maybe I'm a little intense with don't you

cover your mouth? Come on, John, I see you that.

He's like, what, you don't think you're intense? Said, do

you think I'm ever a little intense with the kids? Maybe?

She was like, well, it's not that. I mean you

you obviously love them. I say, you know it's bad.

It's like it's like I just think you're your passion

can sometimes And I was sitting there like Okay, I

get it, I get it, I get it. But it

was a real moment where I was like, okay, I

this picture and the one I had in this picture,

I just I don't like how I move and talk

in this picture. I don't always like how I feel

in this picture, and so I got to go to

somebody else to help. And then that night we were

having some friends. So I go up to my other

friend Carl, and I'm like, so today, Abby said that

maybe you know, sometimes i'm you know, a little and

my friend, who is also would be more intense than

I am. I'm He was like, yeah, definitely, you definitely are.

He was like, but he said, I didn't find that

out until years later in my journey. And now they're

all seventeen eighteen nineteen and I'm trying to adjust. So

how great is it to find that out with your

three year old and in that little moment the people

in my life help me do something. My second point,

get some perspective. You need people to help you get

some perspective. Just it's the same thing. It's just how

you see it. If I was to ask you, gentlemen,

right here, in this amazing green mint suit three piece, man,

you look amazing. What color is this? It's not trick,

just guess. Just clothe the Bible there black? Okay, I

think it's white. He said, Well, here's the point from

his perspective, he's right, and from my perspective, i'm right.

But sometimes because you're only on your side of the story,

you're only on your side of the situation, you're only

on your side of what you're experiencing. It takes some

people to say, hey, I know you feel that way,

and if you would come over on this side for

just a second, you would see why they act like that.

So yeah, absolutely, well I'm mad and you are right

to be mad, and there's a different perspective. It's a

greater story, and hopefully if you can get some people

thank you give you some perspective. Ultimately, it starts to

change your position, changes how you carry yourself. It changes

how you relate to people. It changes how you walk,

It changes how you talk, It changes your understanding of

where you are in all of this. And what I'm

saying today again, I do not at all, in no

way am trying to minimize what you've gone through, what

you're going through right now, what you will go through.

All I'm saying is sometimes it's helpful to just back

up a little bit. I'm gonna close, team. Could y'all

put that picture back up on the screen of the

massive galaxies for me, okay, So this picture is technically

a picture of Earth. Technically Earth's in there. And the

photo that I took my beautiful kiddo, Jade October, sitting

on the front road today and she has all leather

on because she said, gee, she has her pink Barbie

Jordan's on, and she has massive fluffy Christmas socks, and

I snapped and I took a picture of those fluffy

Christmas socks because her feet aren't gonna be that small forepper.

And this photo and that photo are both pictures of Earth.

It's just one. It's from a different perspective. This photo,

that photo, and there's another photo if you could go

to that photo team. These are all three different pictures

of Earth. And all I'm saying to you this morning

is all three of those photos, the ones you have

on your phone, this one and the ones zoomed out.

You need all of them. And there are days when

some of them will serve you better, and some of

them aren't gonna serve you well. Some of our pictures

are so zoomed in it's not serving you well right now.

To focus on that. I'm not saying that it's not true.

I'm not saying it didn't hurt. What I'm saying is

if you focus on who left you your whole life.

I'm not saying it didn't hurt. I'm not saying they

shouldn't have done it. I'm not saying they don't deserve

something that you can't even do. What I am saying

is right now, that is not helping you become the

person you say you are wanting to become. Because every

person that walks up to you, you're judging their motives

and you're assuming if they're gonna hurt you, and you're

afraid of relationships and you know you need it, but

you won't admit it. All I'm saying is there are

sometimes you gotta get a different picture. There are sometimes

it's gonna be important that you zoom up and you

realize today is the only day we got. You don't

know what would happen tomorrow, when the Bible says we

are not promised anything, and that would serve you well

some days to realize you don't have forever to say

I'm sorry. The Bible actually says, some of you are

so proudful you talk like this today, we will do this. Tomorrow,

we will do that. It says you should. If God

wills it, you'll do that. But it's prideful for you

to assume you got tomorrow to do what He told

you to do today. So sometimes you need that picture

that today is all I got, And sometimes you need

the picture that I'm gonna be with God forever. And

that person that's gone, they're gone, but not forever. The

Bible says, I'm gonna reade two scriptures. One is in Isaiah,

says this Isaiah chapter forty. So who is like me?

Who holds a candle to me? Says the Holy Look

at the night skies. Who do you think made all this?

Who marches out this army of stars each night and

counts them off, calls each by name, so magnificent, so powerful,

and never overlooks.

A single one. Bible also says in Colossians chapter two,

watch out for people who try to dazzle you with

big words. They're trying to drag you into endless arguments

that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through

empty human tradition. But that's not the way of Christ.

Listen to this, It says. Everything of God, it's expressed

in him, so you can see and hear him clearly.

Listen to this. You don't need a telescope, a microscope,

or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ and

the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come

to Him, the fullness comes together for you too, for

His power extends over everything. Here's a beautiful thing about God.

That telescope we made can zoom out for a hundred

billion years and it would never find the end of

what He made. And at the same time, the Bible says,

you ain't got to look far to find me. If

you're in here and you feel like whether it's your

triggers or people, or it makes your world smaller, and

sometimes in that small world, you can feel like God

isn't close. You can feel like you're lonely, you can

feel like you don't have any hope. You can feel

like it's never gonna work out, you can feel like

you don't know where you're going. If you're in here

and you're like me and you're tired of sometimes getting

stuck in your small picture, I want to pray for you.

I'm gonna ask everybody to bow their heads and close

their eyes. If you're in this room and there's some

area of your life where you feel stuck in a

small picture. Maybe it's a fringe that's gone. Maybe it's

an expectation you had that didn't get met, a relationship

that didn't work out, something that seems you can't get

out of. You can't get over it, you can't get

past it. If you're in here today and you need

a bigger picture, I'm gonna ask you just to raise

your hand, every head bow, and every eye close somewhere

you need a bigger picture. Lord, Our hands are raised

because you're the only person who can give us a

bigger picture. Holy Spirit. We are asking you to do

something super natural, and that is to change how we

see it. To change how we see the pain, to

change how we see people, To change how we see

the problems we face. To change how we see the

things we're going through. Not to overlook it, Lord God,

but to look at it with the right perspective, Holy Spirit,

which you change the way.

We think, change the way I think.

We want to be different. If we're honest, this picture

hasn't served us. It's been safe. It's what we know,

but it's it's not who we want to be. So

give us a new picture today. Every head still bowed,

every eye is still closed. If you're in this room

or watching online and you've never accepted Jesus as your

lord and savior, the Bible tells us that we saw

God in human form when Jesus showed up. If you

are trying to find Jesus' scripture just said, you don't

need a telescope, you don't need a microscope, and you

don't need a horoscope. You can walk right up the

truth itself and it is standing ready, willing and waiting

to help you with whatever you need. The same God

who spoke the stars into existence is the same God

who can speak to the pain you're in right now.

And if you're in this room and you do not

have a personal relationship with Jesus, I'm not talking about religion.

I'm not talking about you have to talk to somebody

else to pray for you. I'm not talking about you

got to go through a lot of steps and do

all these time. I'm talking about you know Jesus Christ

of Nazareth for yourself, who is a real person, and

he's closer to you than your very own breath. If

you want that relationship today, if you want to lay

it all down for him. I'm not talking about this

idea where you do good things from here on out.

I'm talking about your life is not your own. You

don't make your choices. You will do what he says do.

You will go where he says go, and you will

be who he says be. If you are in this

room today and you're looking for a greater identity, you're

looking for a greater reality, You're looking for a greater story.

If you're in this room or online, I'm gonna count

the three. And if you want to accept Jesus as

your Lord and savior, you're gonna raise your hand strong,

not apologizing, and not worried about it, because you are

gonna find your place in this universe, and it starts today. One.

He loves you too. Today is the day of salvation.

Don't wait another day. Three, lift your hand right now,

all over this room, if you want to accept Jesus.

I got you over here, my man. I see you

over here in the back, A whole row of people,

a whole family right there, both of you together, I

see you, my man, so many people. I got you, sister,

so proud of you. I see you people online, all together,

in this room and around the world. I want everybody

to bow your heads, close your eyes, repeat this prayer

after me. Say, Dear God, thank you for loving me.

Dear Jesus, thank you for dying for me, thank you

for living for me. I admit I'm a sinner. I've

made mistakes and I can't fix it by myself. I

need you save me, change me, transform me, and Jesus

name I pray. Amen. Come on, If you love Jesus

and you're grateful for everybody who just made the choice

to follow Jesus, why don't you give him a shot

of praise. Hey, listen, if you just made that choice,

it's the best choice you can make in your whole life.

Everybody can go ahead and stand up. We're gonna get

out of here. But if you text the word save

to the number that's on your screen, we would love

to partner with you to help you, and our worship

team is going to continue to sing. If you need

prayer for anything, We're gonna have some team up here

at the front and standing by those back bleachers. If

you need anything at all, any prayer, we would love

to pray with you. We're so grateful for you, Thank

you for being a church. Join us next Sunday. I

pray you have an amazing Thanksgiving. I pray you eat

some good food, and I'm gonna pray for you, Lord,

thank you for your people, your children. I pray Lord

God that this week we would live with a bigger picture.

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

everybody said, Amen, Amen, Amen, 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 A

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text connect to a two A two A two. Be

sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends.

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