Focused And Fearless //. Death To Distraction: Week 6 // 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 we.

Are is dangerous.

I just got my Bible and I got two pages

of notes, So it's about to get serious out here,

all right, some of y'all I talk to people sometimes

I'm gonna give away one of my secrets. People think

I'd be memorizing my whole sermon, which I do for

the most part, but I actually have a cheat code.

My notes are just taped on the inside of my Bible.

So some of y'all are like, y'all just are like wow.

But we have been in a series called Death to Distraction.

Everybody say Death to Distraction. Pastor Michael has been leading

us through this and we've been studying the story of Samson,

one of the strongest men to ever live, that got

played by Delilah. She played that man like a fiddle.

This very disappointing, very tragic. He gave away his secrets,

cut his hair, lost all his strength. But we've been

examining this story as a picture of what happens when

we lose focus. Our word of the year this year

is focused. Somebody say focus. We've been talking about how

do we keep the faith to stay focused on what

God has asked us to do? And this year I'm

very excited because we have a scripture of the year.

It is Hebrews twelve, Hebrews Chapter twelve. And then now

let me pause for a second because I got some

beef of y'all in this room. I'm gonna step over. See,

this is when I get serious. I'm about to step over.

When I preach a series, you know, the Word of God.

I had a.

Scripture every week and I was like, we're gonna read

it aloud together, and y'all played me so hard we

could not make it one week through that Pastor Michael, He's.

Like, we're gonna do a scripture the year. He's like,

what you think, man, I think we're gonna have everybody

read it together.

And I literally said, mane, it's gonna be tough because

when I tried to do it, they didn't do it,

and then y'all gonna get up here and nail it

every single week.

I felt personally disrespected.

Anyways, So I'm very insecure to read the scripture together

because I'm worried y'all gonna leave me up here by myself.

But we're gonna try it. We're gonna read this scripture together.

Can y'all throw it up there for me? Hebrews twelve.

We're gonna read this together. As a matter of fact,

could you stand for the reading of God's word? Come on,

we're gonna stand for the reading of God. Well, I

got forty three minutes and fifty two seconds of it,

so we're gonna be all right.

All right, here we go.

We're gonna start, and I'm gonna be host with you.

I'm gonna go whether you go with me or not.

So because i'm a little insecure up here, here we go.

One, two three.

Therefore, since we are surrounding by such a huge crowd

of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip

off every weight you're doing so great that slows us down,

especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and

let us run with endurance the race.

God has set before us. Take any breath, We're almost there.

We do this by keeping our eyes Parenthescus on Jesus,

the champion who initiates and perfects our faith because of

the joy awaiting him. He endured the cross disregarding its shame.

Now he is seated in the place of honor beside

God's throne. Give yourself a round of applause. You did

so well. You can sit down. You can sit down.

I just realized I don't like it. You guys did great.

It was more reflection to me than it was you.

But this has been our anchor scripture.

If we are gonna stay focused, we do that by

fixing our eyes on Jesus, focusing on him. I'm excited

today we're gonna go a little bit down that trail

of how we can stay focused on Jesus. So, if

you got your Bibles, I need you to turn to

Matthew chapter twenty eight. Matthew chapter twenty eight. If you

got a real Bible, shout out. You get more points

in Heaven for that. It's in Leviticus. Now y'all read Leviticus.

But it's in there. I promise you're like, I don't

know because I've never read it. I know that's why

it works. Okay, Matthew chapter twenty eight. We're gonna read

six verses is what the Bible says. Now, after the Sabbath,

as it began to dawn, toward the first day of

the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to

the tomb, and behold, there was a severe earthquake, for

the Angel of the Lord had descended from heaven. It

came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothes as

white as snow. The guard shook from fear and became

like a dead man. And the Angel said to the woman,

do not be afraid, for I know you are looking

for Jesus, who was crucified.

Now, this next.

Part is some of the most powerful four words in

the whole Bible. If you was churchy, churchy, you would

take off sprinting right at.

These four words. I don't even know. Zach ain't even

back there. But this is the part where the organ

would be going crazy.

I never get an organ, man. I think it's because

I'm half white. Anyways, that's a joke too far. Calm down,

I'm okay, Jesus, but seriously, never had the organ. Anyways,

He's not here, for he has risen, just as he

said the titles. You see you felt that if that

had the organ it would have been crazy.

It's all right, though, don't come running now. Nope, No,

I'm just kidding.

My title in my sermon today, if you're taking notes,

write this down, focused and fearless, Focused and fearless. I'm

focused and I'm fearless. Let's pray, Lord God, we love you,

thank you so much for who you are, and speak

this morning and Jesus.

Then we pray. And everybody said amen. Okay.

I don't know about you, but my experience with the

word focus, I have a certain connotation and feeling that

happens when I hear the word focus. Now I'm gonna

use this as an illustration. I didn't know if I

was gonna use it, but I'm gonna use it.

I said this. I have four kiddos.

Rlow Phoenix is about to turn six, Luna Rows is four,

about to turn five, Jade October and Blue Sunday.

Now, all of our kids are different.

As parents know, you can't copy and paste your parenting,

as much as that would make it way more easier.

You have to become four different people to these four

different humans, and it's extremely difficult.

But I am.

Naturally competitive and just sometimes a lot. I just scream

a lot of my house. Somebody are like, man, you

wild up there. I'm just this wild all the time.

And my son Arlo Phoenix started playing soccer this last year.

Now I have I had to like lay all my

expectations at the altar when I had children, because I

knew I don't know if my kids are gonna be

into sports. Abby God bless her, does not have a

competitive bone in her body. She's like, it's just, you know,

it's just for fun. I'm like, it's not fun when

you're losing. You know, people say just for fun? Are

people who lose.

All the time.

That's why you gotta revert to that, because you lose,

you don't have another option.

So like, I'm just gonna have fun.

It's like, okay, herein lies my issue right there. Y'all

can see winners don't say just for fun.

Okay, I'm done anyways.

Okay, So I'm trying to talk to Arlow. Arlow is

a sweet, gentle spirit, and so I'm trying to temper

my like intensity with like all right, buddy, we're gonna

go out there.

You know, we're gonna have fun.

We're gonna do our best, We're gonna win, We're gonna,

We're gonna And so I I think my wife was

taking this video. I'm about to show you a video

that I'm not necessarily proud of. Okay, I'm not embarrassed

by it, but you know it's just gonna work great

for this arm.

So I want you to show you. This is Arlow

playing soccer.

I think this is his first game in true Metcalf fashion,

called up eighty six of our friends, and so the

sideline was packed for a four year old soccer game.

And I want you to observe, just hopefully a non

traumatic memory for my son. Can y'all play the video

of Arlow playing soccer real quick?

Oh Jesus, I just got stressed watching that. He ran

the complete wrong way. He just sprinted. I don't know.

He literally the balls right here and he just.

Turns around and it's like I'm going the other way.

You can't hear in the video, but at the end

of the video, I didn't realize that.

Literally last night, I'm up, I'm looking through.

My phone for another picture, and at the end of

that video, I'm screaming.

Focus Bay, attention, I'm screaming because he doesn't know which

way he's going. And I realized.

Many of our context and connotation of focus is a

screaming correction because you messed it up.

You don't register it this way initially.

But if I say, hey, you need to focus, the

immediate thing you feel is, oh, shoot, okay. Let me

not veer off the road, let me not mess this

moment up. Let me not screw up my marriage, let

me not blow all the money, let me not step

out of place. I don't want to miss God, Oh gosh,

I need to focus. And I'm afraid some of us,

if we are not careful, you will not realize that

the motivation for you becoming so focused.

May not be rooted in the right thing.

For many of us, when you hear the word focus,

there's a there's a fear that comes up, There's an

intensity that comes up. There's a voice you hear. Maybe

it's a parent, maybe it's a coach, maybe it's someone

that spoke to you, that went before you.

But there's something that happens.

And I have a question for us this morning, and

it is this, what is your focus being fueled by?

What is fueling your focus, many of us, if we're honest,

because of your first experience, because.

Of your connotation.

The truth is it is fear that is fueling your focus,

Fear that you don't mess up the marriage.

So you got to pay attention. You need to focus because.

If you don't focus, you're not gonna get the right grades.

And if you don't get the right grades, then you're

not going to get into the school.

And if you don't get into the school, then.

You'll be just like everybody else in your family, and

you're the only hope they got. So you better focus.

You better focus. Yeah, you're free now from the addiction,

but just in one moment, you could mess it all

up and ruin all those years of soberness and fall

back into the pattern that your whole family has falling.

So you better focus, You better pay attention.

And if we're not careful, we will do the right

thing with the wrong motive, which ends up being the

wrong thing. And there are many of us that I

want you to explore for a moment. How do you

feel when there's a command given to focus? What is

the intensity behind this focus? Why does it seem like

there's so much pressure and so much weight, and I

don't want to mess it up.

And here's the truth.

Many of us, our focus is being fueled by the

fear of failing. I don't want to end up like them.

I don't want to mess it up. I don't want

to make a mistake. I don't want to miss my

moment with God. And I think it's important that we

evaluate this because the truth is, many of us we

have the wrong root of our focus.

It's just because we.

Don't want to disappoint God. We don't want God to

be mad at us. So we're just gonna focus. And

I gotta make sure I read my Bible, and I

gotta make sure that I go to church, and I

gotta make sure. And I'm just questioning, is focus supposed.

To feel like that?

Did Jesus die on the cross? Be death, hell and

the grave, so that when you come into his house

and he says, hey, I want you to focus, you

feel condemned, small and shrunk, and you feel so afraid,

and your world slowly, slowly becomes smaller. You see, you

may not realize this, but focus that is fueled by

fear always makes your world smaller. This is what fear does.

Fear will always make your world smaller. It goes from man,

look how beautiful this day is, to oh gosh, I'm

behind on that billing. Oh gosh, what if I don't

pay the bill? And oh gosh, what if we get

thrown out? And then what I feel if I make

a mistake? And to where are my kids gonna go?

And then where's our family gonna go? And where are

we gonna live? And slowly, but surely, fear always brings

your world to be smaller. You woke up excited for

the day, and then you saw you realize, man, I

still haven't heard from that friend that said they would

be there for me. And it goes from a beautiful

day to I have lots of friends, to because one

friend didn't text you back. Now you're questioning, does anybody

like me? Is anybody there for me?

Am? I gonna be a forever? Fear will always make

your focus smaller.

And I want to submit to you today that it's

important that you understand that your focus.

Should be fueled by faith. Your focus.

Jesus came into this earth so that your focus could

be fueled by faith. If you're taking notes, I want

you to write this point down because this is a

key point in my message, and it is this, Faith

always grows in the direction of your focus. Faith always

grows in the direction of your focus.

This works both ways.

So some of you you realize that your faith in

things going wrong is going to grow because you always

focus on everything going wrong, everything beautiful in your life.

But there's one situation that hasn't worked out how you

wanted to. And slowly but surely, you walk yourself into

believing no one's ever gonna be there for me, and

I'll never have friends, and I'll never have people who

care and see me because you have focused on it

so much, and now your faith has grown in that direction.

You know.

The story in the Bible is the story of Jesus Resurrection,

and usually we say this part of the Bible for

April around Easter, you know, But it's crazy.

The Bible works all times of the years.

I don't know if you know that, but you can

read the Christmas story in July and it's still got power.

Hello, somebody, But.

I love this story because there's an example that happens

where they run up to look for the thing where

they thought Jesus would be laying. They go looking and

focusing on where they thought the dead thing would be.

And one of the clear instructured instructions that the Angel

gives is, do not be afraid. I know you're looking

here for Jesus. I know you're focusing on where he

thought it would be. I know you're looking for the

place where you thought it would be.

But here is what I have realized.

Fear will always have you focusing on what is dead

instead of what is alive. Fear will always have you

focusing on what is dead so that you will miss

what is actually alive. These people come running to the

grave and they're expecting to see a dead Jesus.

They're expecting to see it gone.

And what the Angel has to tell them is, hey,

do not walk in fear.

Do not be afraid. I know you were looking where.

You thought it was gonna be, but there's a focus

that comes because there's an expectation you should have. Now.

I just want to submit today that if.

You have been listening to the series, and the more

you hear focus, the heavier you become. I would submit

that Jesus invites us into a different way to focus.

Jesus says in the scriptures are you tired? Are you

worn out?

One translation is tired of religion? Come with me, get

away with me. Watch how I do it. And the

promise at the end of the scripture is, I will

give you rest for your soul.

Not rest like you go to sleep.

Not rest like you you took some melotonin gummies and

you went to sleep.

No, no, no, not that kind of rest.

Rest in your soul, the place that the anxiety lives,

the place that you're worried about, the place where those.

Children keep you up and night.

He says, I will give you rest for your soul.

Now read scripture is like this, and I have a

specific bucket for things like this, and it's this. There

are things that are ultimately true but sometimes don't feel

functionally true.

Let me explain it to you.

There is an amazing worship song that is a really,

really good song I love and please hear me. I'm

not talking against this worship song. I'm just inviting you

to what happens when I'm lifting my hands singing to Jesus.

There's a song we sing that says, He's never gonna

let He's never gonna let me down.

You know, I know the vocals are right there. But

y'all know the song.

Come on now, I'm not gonna sing no more of it,

so you're either gonna be lost or y'all know the

song I'm talking about. If you don't know it, google it.

Amazing song. And sometimes I'll be singing it like he

You're never gonna let me down except for that one

time I didn't get that job I want it, Yo,

never gonna let You're never gonna let me down, except

for all the sickness and stuff that I be going through, YO.

Never gonna let.

I mean if I the only wedd Sometimes feel like yes,

ultimately when I die and I'm looking at you eye

to eye and I don't have to suffer anymore, and

you'll wipe every tear from my eye like it says

or other Oh.

Yes, you never let me down.

But there's sometimes God, it's not all the time great song,

And sometimes I.

Be feeling let down.

I hear Jesus saying, hey, listen, are you tired? My

burden is easy and my yoke is like and I

been hearing.

Jesus talking like, Okay, I hear what you're saying, But

it don't always feel like that.

Jesus it doesn't always feel like what you're saying is true.

It doesn't always.

Feel like trying to raise these kids to know you

and follow you and not give them trying man not

scream at them because that's the easiest thing to get

they attention. I'm really trying, But sometime it doesn't feel

that way.

I know you said your burden is.

Easy, but I'm out here and I've been trying to

apply for jobs and nobody's hiring me, and they keep

saying overqualified and God, don't even go to school.

I know they lying that just mean they don't want

to hire me. And I always feel like that.

And here's a question I've been asking myself, is that

really possible?

Why would you put that in there? Jesus? Is it

really puzzling? Your burden is easy and your yoke is light.

It's also confusing to me too, And this is what

happens to me why I be reading the Bible, because

there's another part of the scripture where He's like, narrow

is the path and hard is the way. Like Okay,

now you're confusing me because you over here.

Here's why I.

Want to submit to you today. And I'm not gonna

belabor the sermon. We're gonna jump right into application and

how we can do this. What I have realized is

the way Jesus invites us to focus.

Many times we complicate.

Because it feels better when you get the credit for

carrying your life. This is why religion sells so easy

to you. This is why it's so easy to create religions,

because it's just you do enough good things. You put

all the weight on your back, and that way, when

you get where you get to, you have nobody else

to give credit except for yourself.

And we do this with Jesus.

He says, Hey, my burden is easy and my yoke

is life. And in the original language, what he's saying,

he's specifically talking about the way I teach you to follow,

the way I teach you to do it's easy and

it's light. But the truth is many of us complicated

ourselves because we don't do it right.

I don't know if you've ever had these experience.

I have friends who they're like exuberant fitness people. Pastor

Will he'dne lost three people and he looked it's amazing,

and now he's getting into like mister Olympia Fays Pastor

Michael be working out all the time, and you know

they'd be trying to peer pressure me into working out,

and I don't do it.

You know what I'm saying.

I'm saying, hey, listen, if y'all want to come psychle

with me, then we can talk, but don't be trying

to pressure me.

I will not do it. But we be in there.

Sometimes they be getting me and I'll be in there.

It's been months, don't worry.

I'll be in there and sometimes I'll be looking at

them lifting weights and I'll be thinking that.

I see what you're doing. But there's no way it's

supposed to beat this hard. I'll never forget.

A couple of years ago, I was working out with

mister Scott and Scott Timoy. They've been here since the

beginning of our church. Amazing, amazing family. And I used

to work out with Scott in this garage back here,

and now Scott is amazing.

He works with Pastor Michael.

He makes sure we all safe and if you're crazy,

he will just end you, So don't do anything crazy.

But but I remember I was working on missus Scott,

and I'm convinced he'd just be making these workouts up.

He's like, all right, here's what we're gonna do. We're

gonna take this chair. Okay, we're gonna take it. We're

gonna do six of these and you just throw a

chair six two And I'm like, listen, Scott, I feel

like you're making this no, no, no, you want to be strong,

don't you like I think?

I think I want to be So I'm out here

throwing the chair a three actual workouts he does. Here's

what I've realized.

There are things in your life that you are completely

capable to carry, but if you do not understand how

to carry them, it makes something light very heavy. This

chair is not that heavy, and if I put it

on my shoulder like this, I'm fine. It's not heavy,

genuine I can do what I'm supposed to do. I

can walk around with it. But if I was trying

to carry this chair with the back of my leg,

you see what I'm saying.

This is what we look like following Jesus.

Oh yeah, I'll be reading so much Bible and I'll

be going to church.

You should come to my church. It's a great.

It's only awkward because it was never meant to be

carried that way. If you are in here today and

focusing feels heavy, and focusing feels like condemnation, and focus

feels like you better not mess it up, and focus

feels like, hey, you better get it together, and you

better make sure. That is not what Jesus is submitting

to you today. The focus he is inviting us into

is not a command of condemning. It is a command

that he's trying to produce an expectation in you because

he knows what He has prepared for you. I just

want to submit to you an alternate ver. If you

like feeling heavy and burden when you focus, have at it.

But if you want another version, if you want to

find a focus that is full of joy, if you

want to find a focus that's full of excitement, if

you want to find a focus that has the expectation

attached to it, if you want to wake up excited for.

What God wants to do.

I am submitting to you that Jesus provides a way

for your focus to produce freedom and still feel free.

We don't talk about this as much in church. I

know it's very easy in church to demonize your emotions,

and your emotions are the devil that's not true because

Jesus had emotions. We see it all throughout scripture. I

can explain it to you later, but here is the truth.

God designed this thing. He said, I came into this

world that you would have life, and life more abundantly,

life to the fool. And I am submitting today that

there is a focus where you wake up feeling freer.

There's a focus where you wake up.

Feeling like, man, what does God want to do today?

There's a focus you can have where it's not out

of what are you gonna mess up? But it's because

you don't want to miss it. It's because there's so

much God wants to do that you want to make

sure you're ready. So you start to focus on yourself

and getting healthy. Not because you're terrified no one's ever

gonna love you. You focus on it because you know

God's preparing the person for you. So you say, you

know what, I'm gonna take this single season.

I'm gonna enjoy it so much.

I'm gonna get so healthy, I'm gonna get in counseling,

I'm gonna get in the gym.

I'm gonna get my mind right.

I'm gonna give it because you have an expectation for something,

not because you're trying to prove something to somebody. And

here's what you begin to realize, your focus starts to

become the proof of your faith.

Don't tell me you got faith if you haven't started

focusing on it. Okay, let me explain.

There are areas of my life where I've had to

realize the only way I'm gonna be able to prove

and show that I actually believe God can do something

is I'm gonna start focusing on this area. I'm gonna

start doing something on this. I'm gonna start focusing in

on this. But today I'm gonna give you three points

on how we can The title I think I put

over this is how to flip your focus.

If you've got to focus that is stuck.

In fear and you want to move into a focus

that is fueled by faith, I'm gonna give you three things.

The first one, if you're taking notes, first thing you're

gonna need if you're gonna flip your focus is a flash.

Somebody say flash. Now here's the truth.

I couldn't think of another word that started with the F,

so I put flash, and I'm gonna explain it to you.

So preachers, do we just make stuff up the scripture

when they run to the tune it says the Angel

was shining like lightning and there was a thunderstorm. And really,

what I mean by flash you can put in parentheses

in your notes, is an encounter. This is something that

you cannot always control, but you can set the atmosphere for.

And I want to spend a moment speaking to this

for a second, because there are some of us that

only believe that we can only get our faith inspired

when we're in this room, when it's Sunday morning, when

the room is perfectly set, and the whole goal of

the room is just to have an encounter with God.

I am telling you you can have an encounter with

Jesus no matter where you are, and in one moment,

God can remind you that He has a plan and

a purpose for you.

In one moment, God can inspire your faith. Do you

know what? Say no, what, I don't have to live

in fear.

There's a better option for me to in one moment

with Jesus. The goal of Sunday is not for you

to leave Sunday thinking, man, I can't wait till the

next Sunday.

The goal of Sunday is used to.

Saying I cannot wake up to wake up tomorrow and

see what God does for me. I cannot wait to

go out into my workplace, into my school. If you're

gonna have a new focus, you got to create times

where you can have an encounter with Jesus.

You got to create these spaces.

It would be doing you a disservice if we made

you think that this is the only time God speaks.

It's just not true. What is that moment? What does

it look like to creator?

It looks like being still for a moment. Some of

us are so busy so fast. Let me as I say,

someone's I be so busy run around. Yesterday we have

Blues birthday party, and there was a moment in the

birthday parties. I do this every single time where I

disappear because it's just a lot of people, you know

what I'm saying.

And then my wife texts me. She says, where are

you at? And I was like, oh, I was just

going through our mail.

That's literally the text I said to my wife. I

was I was in our bedroom going through mail. That's

how much I was so overwhelmed by the people, but.

Busy day running around and I'm thinking I got to

preach tomorrow.

And literally last night I said, hey, bab I'm just

gonna take a moment.

I went into her room.

I was in my closet just going through random stuff,

but I had worship music on and I was just

sitting there saying God to thank you that you're gonna

speak tomorrow, thank You that whatever you want to do.

And it's just a random moment in the regularness of

your day where you can have an encounter. Number two,

if you're gonna flip your focus, this is.

Really the lynchpin of the whole thing. You gotta have friends.

You gotta have friends.

I cannot tell you how important it is for you

to have a friend and friends in your life that

can help you get out of a fear based focus.

If you don't take none of these, take this one

and say I need a matter of fact, you can

say this, I will be a friend that will help

somebody get out of a fear based focus. Some of

you are so isolated, you're so in your mind that

nobody can tell you nothing. But if you have some

people around you that could remind you, Hey, this is

not it. God's got a plan for you. Hey, it's

not all gonna be like this. Remember when he lets

you out last time. You gotta get some people in

your life that can help you get out of that spot.

And I'm tired of seeing the church.

Picked off in isolation, standing by ourselves, asking questions by ourselves.

Let me say this, everybody's got questions about the Bible.

Let me acknowledge this because some of us. There are

so many people in a generation who have deconstructed their

faith because they have a question and because they don't

understand how it works.

Let me tell you, I'll be preaching it, and.

There's stuff I don't understand how it works. But let

me tell you this. You also cannot explain to me,

unless you're a mechanic, exactly how your engine turns on.

But you don't sit up in your car being like, Okay,

let me see, let me see what's happening. Okay, is

gonna fire, then the pistons are gonna go, Then littleit

of fuel is gonna come in.

You don't ask no questions. What do you do?

You trust the person who made it that they know

more than you, and you get in that thing and

you start it up so you do not have to

understand and be able to explain every detail and be

able to arguing with somebody in order to use that thing.

And the same is true with your faith. There's some

wild stories in the Bible. I get it.

I'll be reading like, hey oo, God, hey listen, that's

hey yo. The concubines, just a lot go what's up

with the multiple wives?

Clearly we don't even be doing that.

No more like there's a lot of stuff in there.

But here's the thing. I'm not asking you to ignore it.

I'm asking you, do you need it?

To wake up tomorrow and do what Jesus has asked

you to do.

Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul

and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. We be

in arguments about theology that once you get the answer.

You still ain't gonna do nothing different than you're doing

right now. Oh great, post trip, that's so great. All right,

I'm gonna.

Still go out here and be unkind to all the

people at Target.

What you're gonna do when you get the answer. Well,

if I just knew exactly when he was coming back

in the locusts are helicopters, or what's up with all

the planes falling up the sky? God?

If you could speak to me through the Book of Rubber,

it don't matter. You need to wake up tomorrow. You

need the same grace. You need the same mercy to

raise those kids to be faithful at the job.

But that's very hard to do if you ain't got

no friends who can tell you you're becoming a weird Christian.

You're starting to do it again.

You're getting on those weird Facebook pages and they're starting

to get you.

Stop it. Some of you are laughing because, like I

run that Facebook page. It's not I'm not mad at you.

I'm just saying, if your focus is feeling smaller and heavy,

you need a friend that'll come up to you and say, hey,

it's not always going to be like this. Hey gee,

remember that last time when we thought we were never

going to get through it. See how this is why

Pastor Roosevelt was leading us so amazingly and worship.

This is why worship is so powerful.

Worship is reminding yourself, Oh yeah, God's bigger than that.

That's what worship is.

Worship is, oh yeah, God is bigger than my anxiety.

God is bigger than this current situation. God is bigger

than how I feel. God is bigger than what I'm

going through. God is bigger. If you're gonna flip your focus,

you gotta have an encounter with God. If you're gonna

flip your focus, you need friends. And last one, if

you're gonna flip your focus, you're going to need to

focus on forever. Focus on forever. There's a scripture. I

actually read it at the beginning. It's Second Corinthians, and

it's such a powerful scripture. I want to read it

again because I think it holds a secret in how

we can get out of our place of fear can

be so easy.

I'm Gonnavite Keys and the team to come back up

says this. Therefore, we do not lose heart.

Though our outward person is decaying, our inner person is

being renewed day by day, says for our momentary and

light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of

glory far beyond comparison. Now you got to register who

is writing this.

This is Paul.

Paul who has been beaten and got thirty nine lashes

over and over again. Paul who's been shipwrecked time and

time again. There's a description about where Paul lists everything

he's been through and then he uses this language our

light and momentary afflictions. Paul had access to something different.

He had a prospective, He had a focus that was different.

How do you continue to preach the gospel knowing they're

gonna throw you in jail the second they see you.

How do you continue to speak up and say I

know what I saw, even when you know you're gonna

have scars on.

Your back for the rest of your life.

For your testimony, it's because you had a focus that

was not on the things we see. You had a

focus that was not fueled by fear.

You had a focus I was thinking about forever.

And here is the cheap code to our light and

momentary sufferings. It's remembering, well, there's one day where I

will see Jesus face to face. There's one day where

the Bible says he will wipe every tear from our eye.

I want to remind you, friend, we are not in

here worshiping about a fairy tale. We are not in

here singing songs to a god who has a tombstune.

We are not in here talking just about an idea

or goosebumps or a feeling. We are in here because

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is Lord and he is alive.

And the reason I can stay focused, the reason I'm

gonna raise my kids to serve Jesus, the reason I'm

gonna stand in my posts and I'm not gonna back up,

the reason I'm gonna do it God's way, the reason

I will stay here is because Jesus is my king

and one day I'm gonna see him. So when I'm

going through my current situation and when i start to

feel heavy, when I start to feel like I don't

know what I'm gonna do, and when I start to

have questions, I can back up for a second and say,

you know what, this is light and momentary compared to eternity.

This is light and momentary compared to forever. I have

a very very simple message today, and to God be

the glory. You're gonna go to brunch and think about it. Hello, somebody,

it is how does your focus feel? And if it

feels heavy, if it feels like a burden, it feels

like you're carrying it by yourself. I want to submit

that today God can exchange your focus.

That's really what it is today.

I just I wanted to submit that God would invite

you into a fresh focus. Focus that feels exciting, A

focus that feels like you have some expectation, A focus

that feels like God.

Wants to do something new.

I will take a moment and I'm gonna ask everybody in.

The room to buy your head and close your eyes.

And we got a little bit of extra time here.

And what I'm gonna ask you to do is I'm

gonna ask Roosevelt to play and lead us in just

a moment, and it won't be long. But while he's singing,

I want you to truly ask yourself, how have I

been feeling about my folk?

Is there any heaviness in your focus?

Is there any fear in your focus? What is it

that you're afraid of missing? What is it that you're

afraid of messing up? What is it that keeps you

your hands clinched so tight, and your spirit so heavy,

and your eyes so closed in?

What is it? What is that thing? I said, Hey,

I'm believing.

That Jesus himself will begin to exchange that focus. So

what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna say a prayer.

Say a prayer for two groups of people. First group

of people. Maybe you're in here today and your focus

has felt really heavy. Maybe you felt worried about your

current situation. You're worried about the future. Maybe there's real

circumstances situation.

That you have reason to worry. I'm not here to

diminish your worry. I'm just saying there's a God who

loves you that you can give it to.

If you're in this room and you've walked in feeling heavy,

you walked in feeling the weight of life. You walked

in feeling the burden of the situation you're going through.

Maybe you're carrying a loved one.

Maybe you're carrying your kids. Maybe it's the weight of

your job.

Maybe it's the weight of just trying to become something different.

Some of y'all in.

Here you're fighting with everything you've got to become a

different version of yourself. You've beat the addiction, but you're

still fighting it. You're starting a new family, and you

don't have all the answers. If you walked in feeling

heavy today, really this message is exchanging heaviness for the

light burden that Jesus provides.

If you're in here and that's you, you.

Say you know what I relate to that I felt

a little heavy. Maybe you're watching online and you said

you felt that burden. I'm gonna count three. I'm gonna

ask you to lift your hand. Everybody's eyes are gonna

stay closed. But it's just an acknowledgment. It's being honest, humble,

open and transparent saying you know what I've met. Yeah,

I've been feeling heavy. If that's you in this room,

and you'll pray for you, just lift your hand. One, two, three,

all over this room, all online. If you're watching online,

you can put in the chat. I've been feeling heavy,

that's me.

That's me. Now I'm gonna do something a little different.

Keep your hand raised. I want you to open your

eyes and look around. Here's why I did that. You

are not alone and how you feel. The biggest lie of.

The enemy is for you to sit there in your

chair and you think I'm the only one with my

hand raised.

Nobody else feels it like this. Everybody else has. It's

not true. We all have questions and we all have

things we're going through. So now together as a family,

would you buy your heads.

I want to pray for you, Lord Jesus, you'll see

if with our hands raised, saying, there are times where

it feels heavy, it feels too heavy to bear, it

feels too heavy to.

Lift on our own.

And so right now, Jesus, we are exchanging the heavy burden.

We're bringing it to you because you're the one who

has the answers. You're the ones who has the clarity.

You're the one who knows what to do. So God,

we exchange this heavy burden for yours. I pray right now,

Lord Jesus, that you would do something that only you

can do.

Every head bowed, every eye still close. There's some of

you in this room.

And the reason you feel like you're carrying a heavy

burden is because you are carrying it by yourself. You've

been trying to carry the weight of this world. You've

been trying to make sure you're being a good person,

trying to make sure you have all the answers for everybody.

And the truth is you're tired. Maybe it's hard to admit.

Maybe your body's not tired, maybe your mind is tired.

Jesus provides another way Bible says, he's a friend that

sticks closer than a brother. He's an ever present help

in time of need.

He's strength in your weakness.

If you're in here today or you're watching online and

you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior,

I'm gonna count to three.

I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand.

I believe when you raise your hand on the outset,

it's a confirmation and a visualization visuals. Oh wat, y'all

that word took me out. It's a picture of what's happening.

Come on, I had to change the word.

Geez, that was tough. Anyways, we can laugh and stay spiritual.

Roads all right, you're.

Gonna raise your hand to tell yourself what you're doing

one of the most beautiful moments of your life.

Change everything. If you want to accept Jesus as your

Lord and savior, I'm gonna count the three. I want

you to raise your hand. One he loves you.

Two, he's proud of you. Three lift your hand in

this room and online. If you want to accept Jesus

as your Lord and savior, I see you right here, man,

I'm so proud of it. I see you on the

back so happy for you and so proud of you.

So many hands, so many people online. I got your brother.

Hey listen, as.

A family, end this room and online, we're gonna pray together.

But everybody repeat after me, say, Dear God, thank you

for loving me. Dear Jesus, I have met I'm a sinner.

I need a savior, save me, change me, make me new,

and Jesus name I prayer. Everybody said, Transformation Church. Can

we celebrate people who just gave their.

Life to Jesus.

Hey, listen, we are so happy for your greatest decision

you could ever make.

Hey, listen, If you just made that choice.

You can text saved to eight two eight two eight

two and man, our team would just love to congratulate

you on this decision.

If you made that decision, Or maybe you were sitting

next to someone.

And you you had your eyes open during the prayer

because you're a little rebellious, but you saw them raise

their hand. Why don't you give them a hug? Just

tell them welcome to the family and listen. I'm really

believing today. My hope, my prayer was that God this

week would show us how to carry the burden I

want to carry being a parent. It's not that it's

not there, it's just God, would you show me how

to carry this in a way that brings more joy,

more peace. Listen, this Wednesday night, we have the dig

deeper in God and we have a prayer service, a

Bible study.

Our youth ministry is launching.

If you do have questions of the Bible every single Wednesday,

we'd be talking about all the crazy stuff in the Bible,

and we don't necessarily have answers, but at least there's

a space you can talk about it.

How to invite you to join us? And man, I

love you so much, I want to take a moment.

I'm gonna pray for us.

What we're gonna do is if you want to stay

in worship, our team's gonna lead us in a song

as we leave today. We have altar workers and a

prayer team that in the back as you're leaving. If

you need prayer for anything, sometimes it's just you're going

through a lot, you need somebody to pray for you.

Our team would love to pray with you. You can

stay and worship, you can come to the altar, you

can head out, but we're so grateful it would you

stand up all over this room.

Lord Jesus, we love you so much.

Loie, thank you that Lord, you give us a focus

that is freeing.

You give us focus that is full of joy. God.

I pray over this week that this week would be

full of our head being lifted up, of our eyes

being wide Lord God, looking with expectation for what you

want to do. Thank you for freeing us from a

life of heaviness. Thank you for being bigger than anxiety

and the depression.

That tries to weigh us down.

Gott, I thank you that this week we would focus

with a joy and an expectation on the inside of us.

God, we love you, we trust you.

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

everybody said, Amen, we love you so much. Family, go

out and live a transformed life.

We'll see you.

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 two

A two and to find out more about TC 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.