310 ~ AT THE MOVIES - Part 4

We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

This summer we are going deeper into heartwarming movies to find

gospel gems and Kingdom truths for our everyday life.

As you listen in, we hope that through these familiar

characters and sweet stories, you have a fresh revelation of

the victorious life we have in Christ.

The sermon title for today is called Learning Mode Activated.

How many of you feel like you're placed in a place like that and

you're completely clueless? All those who are working, how

many of you feel suddenly the workplace you went to look

familiar and now with AI and everything, it feels uncharted

territory. Some of us probably feels a

Homer like that. We need to learn.

How many feel like your marriages need learning more

activated by the laughs of it? I'm guessing all of us are there

that same place. So one of the things that we see

in this is he's sent into that environment.

He's unable to communicate, He's unable to do what he's required

to. He seems useless.

And there's a mode that he goes into activate himself.

And now as I was preparing the summon, I just felt like, God,

we're always in learning mode when it comes to your word.

What what more is there, God, for us to learn?

But I felt that we have resistant many a times to

learning. Like every Sunday we seem to be

hearing God's word, yet we feel like we lack faith.

How many of you feel that we hear keep hearing God's word?

We also struggle to get away from that sin pattern.

How many of you we are hearing God's word, but yet we fail to

become doers of God's Word. How many of you feel that?

And so today, as we look into this, I just want us to come to

a place of a renewed understanding that we're going

to learn no matter what age group.

Is that a settling thought? Some of you might be thinking,

man, only if I can get over college, I'm done.

I don't have to study. But you'll be surprised how much

you're to study after getting into work because if you want to

climb up the ladder, you need to write that certification course.

You have to do this, you have to do that.

There's always learning. So I pray and ask that as we

move into a different spheres, the more older you get, the more

you have to learn. Just imagine your grandparents.

They lived at a time where, you know, it's always baffles me

where the phone was something very distant.

It was never in their house. You have to go place a call

trunk call. You have to go there.

There are you used to talk exactly to the minute, because

the minute it crosses over that you have to pay for the next,

next bracket, the pay bracket, you have to pay.

They've shifted all through that.

And today suddenly they're doing, if they're doing UPI,

just imagine they don't have to go and take that passbook.

That's the bane of that, that era.

They have to get the passbook updated.

How many of you had grandparents who said that?

And I have to go to the bank today.

I have to get my passbook updated.

So learning mode is there throughout our life.

As long as we're living in this world, as long as we're not

building a Tower of Babel, learning mode is there.

The minute we build a Tower of Babel, we can be assured we're

not learning anything. We are so full of puzzles.

So one of the verses I wanted to like, just keep as our keywords

was from Proverbs 19 eight. The one who gets wisdom loves

life. The one who cherishes

understanding will soon prosper. In fact, in the passion, it says

this, do yourself a favour and love wisdom.

Learn all you can then watch your life flourish and prosper.

You know, a lot of times, especially in the Christian

world. On Thursday, I was part of

pastors group and as we were, it was a luncheon meeting and as we

were there, one of the pastors was was concluding a meeting.

He ended up praying Lord, we thank you.

We believe you're seated on the throne.

We believe you will establish the right government.

We thank you for the new government.

And he told that and he finished it and came then all the other

pastors are like, I thought we are praying for the existing

government to continue. What is this new government?

And he just realized how that one syllable can and change the

entire narrative, you know? And so today I want us to be in

a place, whoever God seats, whatever happens in my career,

whatever happens even in life, you know, for those of you who

are seated here, we've been through COVID, so now we can go

through anything. LPG shortage, yes, it's getting

worse. We think the war is going to get

over. It's not getting over.

There's confusion in the world. Through all of that, God will

enable us to continuously keep learning and applying what He's

asking us to learn. And so today, as we look into

our own lives, if learning mode is activated in our life, we

can't have too much of God. We can't have too much of His

promises. We can't have too much of

something of Him that sustains us.

So I pray that we'll come to a place of realizing.

God help me change my perspective.

How many of your first culture generation you've been brought

up in the city, you've stayed in the city, you got married in the

city, you're doing your life in the city.

How many of you are there like that?

OK, a few of you are there like that.

How many of you are second culture where you're from

another city that you moved within the state and you've come

here, That's second culture. How many of you are third

culture kid? Your father and mother from

different states. You were born brought up in a

different state and we have here, we have a couple of you

here. The learning mode that we have

to walk through is one of third culture.

And when I was just reading through that phrase, third

culture, it it it talked about those who've spent a significant

part of their formative years outside their parents passport

cultures in an identity formed by blending elements of the

birth culture, adopted culture and a unique shared third

culture. And so as I was reading through,

I was just looking through what are some of the culture elements

that we as Christians have to follow?

And I know which culture you're still stuck at.

If it's a first culture, all of us are born into this world.

How many of you agree? Irrespective of whatever, let's

say religion background or whatever faith background you're

coming from, you're all born into this world.

Can we agree to that? Yes.

And so that is our first. The second culture is where we

actually in the world, we start realizing that is right and

wrong. How many of you if we've not

come to that place of understanding between right and

wrong, everything is warped. Like for example, today morning

we the question was asked and I used should we pay taxes to the

government? Yes or no?

It's not laughing. A lot of you are laughing.

Yeah. The the whole there will be

holes in the roads. Do we still pay taxes?

Yes. So there is there is certain

definite things like is abuse right or wrong?

So can you see the there's a definite understanding of the

second culture. We are making decisions

irrespective of our faith. How many of you know that those

who don't, there are so many who don't follow Christ yet are

living lives of integrity. There are so many who don't even

follow Jesus and yet are doing the right things.

During COVID, one of the first responders to give food and aid.

They, when you look into the thing in our country was, was

the Jain community and the Sikh community, people have already

been doing good for them. Doing good was just an extension

with respect of what was currently happening.

And so in the second culture, the third culture is where we

realize that we are aware of sin, but salvation is at work.

And suddenly you're put into all these three different cultures

to go and live out your faith. Once you realize what Jesus has

done for your life, he's not saying, hey, go live in a silo,

live in a world. No, he's putting you out there.

He's saying go back into the world.

You came now put this into practice.

And that's what I wanted to draw our attention to because a lot

of us are struggling in between these four walls on a Sunday and

struggling to be our being what crisis called as in our third

culture between a Monday to a Saturday.

How many of you say it's a hard struggle?

Lot of us if you have a bad boss, it's worse if you're

having a person who's making you compromise certain positions.

It's hard if you're if you're if you're not put in an environment

where you can, but God will test your faith.

He will put you in situations where you will have to trust him

alone for this. And so today, whether it's

inherited first generation or growing in learning mode, we'll

need to understand that these three perspectives that we are

in the world, we are aware of sin and because of salvation,

God's continuously renewing us. So he goes back in to all these

different formats and the suddenly you'll see one thing

we've been talking is God will take you into society back to

change one aspect of society. The problem is we've so in tuned

in our education system to do that one thing that will bring

success. How many of you took CSE in your

engineering because CSE was the hot thing or did or took ECE?

When I was in engineering, ECE was the hot kick like you should

take ECE. Why?

Because we suddenly see, hey, if this is the road that everyone

is going, this is where success is, But God will soon his

learning mode in your life and it gets activated will be for a

specific thing in the society that God's wanting you to

change. That is your plan and purpose.

One of the things we had in our BBS thing on Thursday, they had

something called this dream station.

Circle of Dreams and dreams. OK, makes sense.

Yeah. Circle of dreams and, and one of

the things they, they were teaching them, in fact, when we

thought about that session, they were saying earlier on we had

done it differently. But as they were planning, they

realized kids aren't dreaming anymore.

And today with with all that's happening with with such well

informed machine language and all that all that is good, but

God wants the God depose a dream that he's put on your heart for

you to follow as you grow older, because that's where he'll be

able to see his glory come through far bigger than what

you've imagined. And so today three things I

wanted to post before I will give before you when my learning

mode is activated, because that's a struggle.

All of us are learning. If I have to tell you if home,

if you've actually taken learning as a challenge because

of your ego is hurt. All of how many of you because

that person said that I will learn that and go and show.

No, we've we've all had that. The how many of you've taken

cooking like that as a challenge?

Lot, lot, lot of, lot of us are there in that space.

But as I'm, as we are in this learning mode activation, I

believe a lot of us are unable to put what we are called, what

we are learning into practice. And so that's what I wanted to

draw attention to the environments that God has placed

us in. So the first one is we need to

be poised in our reality during learning mode, poised in our

reality. How many of you are fluttering

in our in your reality today? How many are feeling jittery in

your reality? If the Prince of Peace is with

us, he will give us a place of calmness and realise what a

reality is, whatever that situation is.

And if that situation lacks something such as courage,

strength, patience, endurance, he'll give that.

He'll give that. When I was just going through

the meaning of poise, it says calm, confidence in a person's

way of behaving, ready to move or prepared and waiting for

something to happen. So as you keep learning, God

does the inner work in you. He changes your spirit alignment

entirely. You suddenly aren't shaky.

You suddenly are on firm foundation, firm footing.

And so today when we see in this entire situation when Raw's the

robot, you know, it's funny to say I'm taking an example of a

robot. But when that robot has learnt

the external circumstances, it's comfortable in the reality that

it's placed in. And I want to ask you today, are

you comfortable in the reality that God's placed you in?

You might be thinking, Yeshua, mine is a outcome of certain bad

choices, but God saying, no, I'm still, I'm the one who's writing

your story. I'm not done with you yet.

I'm still working in you to take the story to a better place.

Would you be calm in this reality?

And I want us to draw our attention to the life of Samuel

from one Samuel chapter 1 was a 17 to 28.

And this is Samuel's mother. In fact, we'll spend the time

reflecting on Anna's life because Hannah seems when you

look at the story, El Kana is the name.

Yeah, El Kana had two wives. And now that's not a teaching

that we're doing in church where you go for your second spouse.

No, but in this biblical character, he happened to have

two wives. Hannah was the 1st and then a

second, and then the second had children.

And so she's barren in this time and she's going to at the yearly

visit as they go to the temple. She's she's poised in a reality

in the sense she doesn't have what she has, but she knows

where she can take it to. And so that's where I want us to

draw our attention to one Samuel 1 was a 17 to 28.

This is where she's prayed. And then Eli the priest answers

and says, Eli answered, go in peace.

And may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of Him,

she said, May your servant find favour in your eyes.

Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no

longer downcast. Early the next morning they

arose and worshipped before the Lord and then went back to their

home at Rama al Khanna made love to his wife Hannah, and the Lord

remembered her. If you can underline that word

line, if you have all this, mark that the Lord remembered her.

So in the course of time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth

to a son. She named him Samuel Singh

because I asked the Lord for him.

When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the

annual sacrifice of the Lord and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did

not go. She said to her husband after

the boys weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord

and He will live there always. Do what seems best to you.

Her husband Elkanah told her, stay here until you have weaned

him only may the Lord make good his word.

So the women stayed at home and nursed her son until she had

weaned him. After he was weaned, she took

the boy with her, young as he was, along with the three-year

old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him

to the House of the Lord at Shiloh.

When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy

to Eli and said to him, Pardon me, my Lord, as surely as you

live, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the

Lord. I prayed for his child, for this

child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.

So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be

given over to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord

there. And every mother is like, why

would she do something like this, giving up the child

entirely to the Lord? And so there are two things

which I wanted to ask is when we are poised in our reality, we

will realize what we are asking of God and we'll be obedient to

what He's calling us to do when we are poised, when we are

poised. And so that's it's interesting

that when she made that prayer, the only affirmation she got at

that time was from the priest who was there who was saying go

and made be granted. And if you look at her, she knew

that what she what she bought, what burden she carried, she

left it at the feet of the Lord and she walked out of that, not

with the burden of that what she's left.

She walked out and was normal with what God had called her to

do her purpose. It says that clearly early next

she went, she ate and her face would no longer downcast.

There was a certain amount of peace that resonated that God

had hurt her. Early the next morning they rose

up before the Lord went back to home and she continued on the

life and God remembered her and blessed her.

And so today I would ask you because am I pulling back of

things because God has not come through or am I continuing to do

sing God. You will do it in your perfect

time, whatever that looks like, whatever that looks like,

because many a times the miracle something like this.

What she had asked was to leave the boy in the House of the Lord

and imagine there's no you don't read of any conflict going on

here. Alkana knew this was God-given

and she knew if the mothers decided I'll go with that.

There's a lot of wisdom that will come when we seek, when our

learning mode is activated from God's Word.

If you've been struggling, if as a couple, if you're struggling

with the decision, let God allow God to come in.

I love God to have him because he's the one who's brought you

together. He's the third one who's united

you like a court that cannot be broken.

Consult him. Consult him and you will see

things taking shape the very fear that a that a parent might

have the other person will have faith for what that God will

take care. And so in a situation like this,

what what do we see? We see that God when you look at

the grand scheme in the in the bigger story, God had started

raised up Samuel to actually lead Israel and this is the back

story of him. So we don't know how the story

is going to turn out today. May we realize that in our

position that God's placed as when we are continuously putting

what we're learning to practice, He will keep us in a place of

calmness to realize this is what I am calling you to do.

I am calling. It's interesting when you read

the next chapter. She sings a song of praise and

it goes on to say, my heart rejoices in the Lord, in the

Lord. My horn is lifted high.

My mouth boasts over my enemies for a delight in your

deliverance. There is no one holy like the

Lord. There is no one besides you.

There is no rock like our God. Her exclamation is the one who

provided her her Son. And imagine this, that as this

is happening, she is giving praise to who has come through.

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash

heap. He seats them with Princess and

has them inherit a throne of honor.

She didn't even know that the one who she had borne will be

actually anointing. Kings will be actually in

courtrooms because till then there were only judges.

So I pray and ask that when God is calling you to learn and walk

in that you will be in a posture of utter calmness today.

The world will tell you that you don't have to be, that things

aren't going as per your time. How many think there's a world

you're, you're following either God's timeline or the world's

timeline? The the world's timeline is

really wonky. It gives you a false sense.

I don't know how many of you have, I think I've talked about

this earlier. They talk about this this much.

If you have, you can retire at 40.

How many of you have seen those YouTube videos or probably are

following some finance with someone?

Or this if you, you might think, oh, if I can just retire that

much. We don't know.

Our storehouses can't be, can't determine what God has in store

for us. If there's one thing I've learnt

about storehouses is the fact that every season God wants to

empty our storehouses so he can fill it so that that's what is

in the storehouse is fresh. How many of you buy actually

have the habit of turning and buying, looking at the expiry

date before buying? Few of you, some of you we

don't. Some of us in our house, we we

the other day we were using the tomato ketchup.

We didn't realize and then someone said it's tasting of we

saw it was like past six months, you know, and so, so then we

realized we have to buy a new ketchup.

So many a times we are we are the timeline that we are in are

in. There's a running joke in our

family, especially my brother and my brother-in-law when we

early on married, they said hey, just be careful in their house.

You don't know what all is expired because you know

whatever you're taking from the kitchen.

It was that bad. The more the more we actually

look at what when God comes through, we realize we're on a

heavenly timeline. There's a heavenly timeline.

So for those of you who are still single, pray and ask God

that right person will come in. Don't lose hope.

Don't look at your neighbor and think, oh, how did she get

married or how did he get married?

Ask God. God, let me have faith, give me

discernment. Today we can be having every

information possible in front of us.

For those of us especially who are who are married, ask God

early on, God, what is the plan for our marriage?

As much as, yes, you want to get a house, you want to get a car,

you want to do an international holiday, you want to do all

that, don't subscribe to the timeline of the world.

Subscribe to God's timeline because you don't know how it'll

end. It'll be fruitful.

Fruitful doesn't tell you the quantity of how much that tree

will bear. It'll keep bearing.

And so when you see here, when you see Hannah giving praise,

what will happen? It says in verse 9, he will

guard the feet of his faithful servant, but the wicked will be

silenced in the place of darkness.

It's not by strength that one prevails.

Those who oppose the Lord will be broken.

The Most High will Thunder from heaven.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

He will give strength to his King and exalt the horn of his

anointed. And so when we see here what we

sing, praise to God is very important.

Even as Tabita LED worship today, I was just thinking, God,

what a privilege for us to come here and exalt you in our own

words, in our own language, in our own circumstances.

Each and everyone of our circumstance is so unique.

Lot of us don't have everything going.

But Lord, in the midst of this, I can still choose to lift you

up. One of the deepest

encouragements for as I was serving this VBS was to see

across the age group serving the old to the young were serving

and I'm grateful that each one has found the their place to

serve in God's Kingdom. As I mentioned, when we are when

we are poised, when we when we have that calmness in the in

that learning mode and are following what God's asking us,

we will be able to experience God's blessing.

And then it goes on to say in one Samuel 2 verses 18 to 21.

But Samuel was ministering before the Lord a boy wearing a

linen E4 each year his mother made him a little robe and took

it to him when he when she went up with her husband to offer the

annual sacrifice. Eli would bless El Khanna and

his wife saying may the Lord give you the children by this

woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave the

Lord then would to the Lord. Then they would go home and the

Lord was gracious to Hannah. She gave birth to three sons and

two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew

up in the presence of the Lord. He didn't grow up with daddy

issues or mommy issues. Just imagine know he grew up in

the in the wholeness from the House of God.

He grew up in a place where there was definitely a lot of

wrong happening. Yet at an early age, God turned

his ears at an early age, he made the leader teach Samuel

what to say. When you read on to the next

passage, it's interesting. He didn't suppress Samuel.

He didn't he didn't push him down.

He he realized God had chosen him to do something through him

that he was literally coaching him was disciple him through

those seasons. And so today I want to ask you

today, is my faith just a mouth utterance or is it really living

out through my existence today? Is faith just a mouth utterance

or is it really today, am I just telling my wife I love her or am

I really behaving like I love her?

Those are two different questions, two different thought

processes today. Do I am, I do I tell my kids I

will look after you and care for you, or I just say that, but I'm

not doing it. And so today in our learning

mode, maybe be really clear that what we believe in should also

be seen in how we conduct ourselves.

Hannah did a couple of things. She participated in what she had

according to a circumstance. She did not sit herself out.

She had every opportunity to tell El Khanna, God has not

blessed me. You go, you go.

She knew if there's only one person who can bless her is God,

so she chose to be there. So I pray and ask that in your

learning mode, don't sit yourself out.

Please keep coming back to God's house.

It's in this you will see what God wants you to really take on

for your life. Participating is showing up.

Don't hide behind what has happened in the past.

Don't hide behind. But you know what this is?

This is my family history. No, you're not called to live

history out. You're called to live out this

new creation. That's who are who you are in

Christ Jesus. Second thing we learned from

Anna's life is when learning modus, you need to be careful of

where you're pouring your grievances.

How many of you have that one friend who you can tell

everything? I hope it's your spouse, but I

would say that it's not if you don't have a spouse, if you're a

single person, I understand. But many times today we're

living in a world which is telling us go give, talk your

grievances. The only person if you're in

Christ, who'll understand your grievances is Christ.

That's where you can pour your heart out.

Tell him everything that I was listening to a podcast this week

as I was driving for that meeting, which I mentioned and

the speaker was talking and saying post COVID lot of pastors

will come and say this week I sat with my counselor and this

is what happened and everything. And she said, you know what?

We've come to a place of glorifying someone in the

physical that we forget that we have the spiritual director with

us. We forget we don't.

Revelation is good, but revelation doesn't dictate where

I'm heading. The spiritual guy director

dictates where be informed of what you're feeling, but let not

that be 1 which dictates you. And so as she was saying that, I

realized many a times if we don't give room for the Holy

Spirit, because the Holy Spirit will tell us to take that step

where there is where there there may not even be a step and that

is faith. He'll say, do this right now for

my glory. And we, he'll say, Geshom, don't

quit your job. Just stay, don't he'll tell

he'll he'll tell. He'll say sometimes be quiet in

this place. I'll fight your battle.

Are we willing to listen to the counsellor who is the Holy

Spirit? And the third thing we see in

her life is with her learning more.

She stuck to a promise. What she told God she did, what

she told God she did. And so today I want to challenge

you church, other things that you've told God that you'll do,

that you refrain from because sometimes the blessing of God

over our lives is at a standstill because we've not

done our part. He's done his part.

And so whatever that looks like to you today, you know, I think

next week is Mother's Day, isn't it?

Yeah. Just imagine Hannah dropping her

child in a temple and coming back just the next time for

sacrifice again, not knowing, trusting God.

But I believe that's where sometimes we have to come to a

place of realizing that God, I will trust you no matter what,

trust you no matter what. When we read from Samuel's life,

it's evident that we need to take God at His word.

Poised is when I can take God at His word.

Voice is where Isaiah 55 when we read it says a lot of us know

this worse For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are

my your ways. My ways declares a lot.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher

than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not

return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and

flourish, so that it will yield seed for the sower and bread for

the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I

desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out and join me LED forth in peace.

The mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and

all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn Bush will grow the juniper, and instead of

the briars, the mortal will grow.

This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign

that will endure forever. I want to ask you, Church,

today, if you want to give thanks for the big things that

God has to come through, start with what He's already done.

Start with all what he's already done, Hannah to come to a place

of actually starting from her, her Baroness, her, her struggle,

her dryness. That's where she came and she

gave thanks and said, Lord, this is what I'll do.

And I'm sure her praise after that looked different every year

when she went to the temple of the Lord.

So I pray that we will, as you take this verse from Isaiah 55,

go back and think through every plan that you've drawn out for

your life. My thoughts, my ways.

Last week, as Tina was talking, we had this huge thing between,

you know, both of us about our son's college, where he has to

admit as you're talking about it, suddenly the, you know, the

as a couple, you'll know, the equation will suddenly turn

different. The the parenthesis will

suddenly become very enclosed. She suddenly thought, as a

engineering student, I was taking a dig at a art student

and I said, bro, that's not the fight, you know?

But you see, suddenly in our course, we suddenly put brackets

and we suddenly stick ourselves into that and we start.

But then to come to a place in God, we are learning also.

You know, one of the things when I was preparing the sermon, I

was saying God, irrespective of which government comes tomorrow

or which forms, irrespective of whether the FCFCRAS are coming

in or not, Lord help us to be always be in learning more.

God will destabilize everything that we want stabilized here on

this earth. He's coming for us.

He's not coming for the earth. A lot of us are thinking, oh,

he's coming for the building, He's coming for.

No, he's coming for us. We are the ones.

So which means we will always be in that mode of learning,

undoing, leaving, going. There are so many things when

you look in this Christian world, we are building

securities. God saying I am everything for

you. The second thing when we see

when my learning mode is activated is we pivot in the

direction where God is present. The first one, we are poised.

The second, we learn to pivot in the direction where God is

present. How many of you realize you've

pivoted out of Josh and realized God was not there?

Have we? There are circumstances, there

are decisions, split decisions we've made thinking, you know

what? I think this is a God thing.

And we went there and then suddenly we realized God was

absent, but He wanted us to go through that.

But He's asking us, will you also still be learning?

You know, I think I've mentioned the story to you many a * 4

years back before we got this place, we were in meeting in the

party hall and then you want to find a place.

And I still remember we saw the place and it didn't work out.

But quickly I had to realize God, you who's called us is

faithful. I had to pivot in my mind before

I could pivot because a week later I was still starting to

look for places. Tina was like you've gone mad.

We've just lost money here. We've done this isn't worked

out. Why are we looking?

It's it just felt I had to really activate my faith when I

when even when that came God, you told this is a time for us

to move God and you won't believe we moved from there.

We came here a month into it. The service Rd. got extended

because they're building the metro and there wouldn't have

been any parking for us to meet in the Dalita party hall.

God is so good. He wants us to be pivot, which

means he wants us to carry things light.

How many of you pack light? How many of you pack light?

If you pack heavy, you can't pivot.

Your baggage has to come with you.

God saying when you're pivoting your baggage, leave the baggage

there now trust me and come. I'm asking you, Christian life

is hand carry luggage only. You're not sending cargos here.

God's like leave the cargo, move in faith.

I'm your provision, I'm your sustenance, I am your

everything. The second character I wanted to

reflect as I was looking at this is a life of rehab.

What is pivot? Pivot is a central point.

I have are science scientists here.

It's very difficult to give any scientific terms right now, but

pivot is a central point or a pin or a shaft with which a

mechanism turns literally just turns.

It makes a hard turn. So today, what is God asking you

to pivot from? As we read from the life of

rehab, it's interesting Joshua to it starts off the king of

Jericho was told, look, some of the Israelites have come here

tonight to spy out the land. So the king of Jericho sent this

message to rehab bring out the men who came to you and entered

your house because they have come to spy out the whole land.

When you read these first 2 verses, if you're thinking Rehab

was quite an influential person, isn't it for for her name to go

into the courtroom of the king and for king to send word?

But it's interesting here, even though she because of the nature

of her work and the nature that she was doing, she knew what was

happening outside the walls of Jericho.

She was aware because travellers were coming and she knew that

the Jericho won't last longer. It might seem like she was

selfish, but she pivoted towards the God of Israel.

In fact, when you read that, when she's talking to the spice,

before the spice laid on for the night, she went up to the roof

and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you this land

and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who

live in this country are melting in fear because of you.

We have heard now the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for

you when you came out of Egypt and what you did on Xion and all

the 2 kings of the Amorite east of the Jordan, whom you

completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts

melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you.

For the Lord your God in. For the Lord your God is God in

heaven above and on earth below. Now then, please swear to me by

the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I

have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you

will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers

and sisters and all who belong to them, and that you will save

us from death our lives. For your lives.

The men assured, if you don't tell what we are doing, we will

treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us this

land. Rehab had a very short, you

know, a window of opportunity to respond to her occupation

enabled her, enabled her to hear what God was doing and the

stories of victory God gave her. Nature would have been

transactional. That's her inert nature.

Because of what she was doing, everything was transactional.

But here she realized she wasn't about building a Kingdom, it was

about saving her life. It wasn't about making her own

storehouse. It was literally saving her own

future. You see her when she's asking,

she's not asking for just her and her family.

She's asking father, mother, brother, sisters and all who are

with them. Yet in this inadequacy, what was

she actually looking for? She was looking for freedom.

She was looking for freedom because whence imagine she goes

out, She's no longer bound by the laws of these walls.

And so today the pivot that you and I have called to make is 1.

Whether you let go of a baggage there, Jericho walls have to

come down. Your baggage walls have to come

down so you can pivot. What is holding you back today?

What is holding you back today? Church Because if you and I have

to walk into the promises of God is to face every Jericho wall

that's there head on and say it's in crisis.

Come to give me freedom and I'm pivoting towards freedom.

I'm not pivoting towards captivity.

I'm not pivoting towards stronghold.

I'm pivoting to a place of seeing his Kingdom come.

Are we holding back today and making the pivot after we've

heard God, we've heard his word, testimony, everything.

It might seem hard, like when you look at through Joseph's

lens, he had these dreams and the pivot that he had to take

was completely different. But when he came through to the

end, he says, God had prepared me for a time such as this so I

can save an entire nation. And so today you and I can we

realize what is God calling us. It's very comfortable, very

comfortable right when you want to make the pivot, the job offer

will come for you to stay right when we had decided in 2014,

when we had decided God, the next step is for us to go back

to India. We came here, we got trained and

it was hard because the company, the part time job that I was

working for, they said, we, we love you as a video editor.

We would like to sign you up as a full time.

And the thought was, wow, it'll be nice.

We can just settle off here as a family with three kids.

You know that that that conflict is going on.

The wrestle is going on, but God's saying no, I've called

you. And so to do the full cycle, we

came, stayed in service apartment and to end up giving

up the house and then to a week in the service apartment as

you're leaving, we came as four, we're going out as five.

I just realized, God, I will still do this again because what

I was called for was ministry and nothing else.

And so God keeps reminding me time and again, even when when

the business side of it was going through a slump last

couple of months back, God, he told Geshom, I've called you for

ministry and not for making money.

Don't get confused, I'll provide.

Will you trust me for that? And I had to pivot.

There are certain things I don't have to take up as project

because he said I'll provide. Don't calculate.

You don't calculate, trust me. And it's been hard because the

seasons were hard. Dryness is hard.

Looking at the soil, which is not, and not even that small

growth happening is hard. But God saying, will you still

pivot? Will you still show up?

Pivot is all about obedience because it's all about God.

In Philippians it says in 214 to 16, do everything readily and

cheerfully. No bickering, no second

guessing. This part I'm really working on

no bickering and second guessing, guessing.

Tina's laughing because she's the one who gets to hear it.

Go out into the world uncorrupted, A breath of fresh

air in this squalid and polluted society.

Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living

God. Carry the light giving message

into the night. So I'll have a good cause to be

proud of you on the day that Christ returns.

You'll be living proof that I didn't go to all this work for

nothing. And the interesting thing about

rehab, she's mentioned in the hall of Faith in Hebrews Chapter

Hebrews 11:31

11, verse 31, it says by Faith the prostitute Rehab, because

she welcomed the spice, was not killed with those who are

disobedient. As I was thinking of Rehab's

plight, what she wanted, the freedom after that, it doesn't

talk about her, what she did in terms of her work or anything,

but what the family would have experienced was ultimate freedom

from every captivity. And you and I today, as we

pivot, God is saying you will experience freedom.

And the third thing he's saying is when my learning mode is

activated, will you be persistent toward what God has

called us for a lifetime? Would you be persistent to what

God has called us for a lifetime?

You know, today we have. When you look at these titles

that all these CEOSCFOS and the C-Suite give, it's interesting.

Each C-Suite person thinks they want to come up with something

interesting. They feel like they're solving a

person's world, you know, a world problem.

They call themselves something I know someone will say, I think

one person says he's a gardener. One person says he's something

like the EE, All the chief people, officer, chief, they'll

all come up with different things.

But again, there's a timeline for that.

God's not asking us for that time.

Within that, he's saying, hey, would you be my son and daughter

throughout? Would you be persistent to what

I'm calling you to do? And so today as you and I are

joining in this life, I want to ask you, would we be persistent?

Because when we are persistent, one of the things is it's

difficult to get rid of. Who will actually attack us

most? Satan, he'll be the one who'll

call us out, who'll want to take us out.

If I can only dissuade them with discouragement, their

persistence will change. They'll grumble and then they'll

sit over there. They won't move today.

He's like asking, would you be persistent in everything?

And I want to look in the life of Paul as I talk about this,

because Paul knew why God had actually set him apart, why he

was saved. He was not saved to bring the

gospel as much as he was a Jew. His focus was the Gentile.

And it's interesting as he's doing his entire ministry, his

end objective is to go to Rome. You know, when you read through

the entire book of Acts and all that, it's interesting that his

focus is to go to Rome. And his mission was that to go

there and to take the gospel all the way there.

He knew that was a seat of culture.

And so everywhere he was learning.

Just imagine he they did church planted it, moved on to the next

told God, God takes them. If you read in Acts chapter 13

Acts 13:46

verse 46, it says then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and

declared it was necessary that we first preach the word of God

to you Jews. But since you have rejected it

and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, We will offer

it to the Gentiles for the Lord gave us a commandment.

He said I've made you a light to the Gentiles to bring salvation

to the farthest corners of the earth.

When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thank

the Lord for this message and all who are chosen for eternal

life became believers. So the Lord's message spread

throughout the region that throughout that region.

And when you read you read in Acts chapter 19 was a 17 to 22.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

We read about Paul being in Ephesus.

He says that that when this became known to the Jews and

Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear.

In the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.

Many of those who believe now came and openly confessed what

they had done. A number of them who had

practice sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them

publicly. When they calculated the value

of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000 drachmas.

In the In this way, the word of the Lord spread wildly and grew

in power. After all this had happened was

21, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through

Macedonia and IKEA. After I have been there, he said

I must visit Rome. Also, he sent two of his

helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia while he stayed in the

province of Asia a little longer.

It's interesting when Paul is standing in the midst of

Augustus and Felix, he says I appeal to Caesar.

He didn't want to play The Dirty politics that they were playing.

He says, I want to appeal to Caesar.

He was clear with the mission that he had to go.

So today as I, as we as we come to a close, I know where you

find yourself in all these three different things because each of

our life stages can be thing. But I, I know many of us are

struggling to be persistent in what God's called us.

Can we realize what he's called us is unique?

What each and everyone of you is unique.

What he set you up is unique don't discount yourself.

Don't set yourself. Don't don't The age has no bar

Be persistent. Realize what you're called to

do. You know, the, the the person

who is listening to a podcast, she's a she's a very like, what

do you say, a preacher of God's word.

She's really held different positions and she's doing great

things. And she said in that podcast,

she's talking if I had to take a step back and every time

question was this, as a woman, was I able to do this?

I would have not been able to do anything that God had called me

to do. I had to push through.

She was the country's National Youth director and she said she

was the only woman till date who has held that post.

After that, no one else has held it.

But I had to go through everything.

Yes, where the insults, where the scoffing, where people

looking down was, was there mansplaining, all that?

Yes there was. But what God had called me was

far bigger. This, The earth will never have

the right environment for you to complete God's Commission.

It's meant to prevail through everything that you're going to.

So if you're going through work, struggle, push through it,

persist through it. Some of us get these words mixed

up, mixed up. You're serving God, you're

working out there. Work well, serve God well.

Serving God is a lifetime. Everything that we learn here is

for a lifetime. You're working on it.

When you read the New Testament, it says your earthly masters

obey them. They tell.

They tell you to come at 9, show up at 9.

Don't go there at 10. When they say deliver you as a

Christ image bearer, deliver. Ask God.

God, I really am struggling. Give me the skill.

He'll give it to you. He'll give you situations to

practice it. Well, start it.

It might look but age like when you look at Paul, I'm amazed and

by the way in which he goes. He gets shipwrecked in that also

he's ministering salvation. Malta, they're doing great

things, goes into Rome. He's in captive and in

captivity. He writes some of the best

letters that have gone out to the churches.

He writes Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and

Philemon, pivotal chapters. My favorite verses in Ephesians

320 and I realized what circumstance to write in.

He was persistent throughout till death.

So today you and I, what stage are we in and we are saying God,

I just I just want to enjoy retirement and she's in that

podcast. She was telling she's turned 60

and she just feels 60 is a new 30.

That's what she's saying. There's much more to be done if

the, if the enemy is out there, which means I have to be out

there. That's the spirit that we need.

The position may not be there in respect of the position.

If I have to serve the next generation, I'll serve that.

If I have to do something else for the people who are in the

front and I have to be in the background, I'll do that.

And that's what we see Paul modelled.

You know, we read the we read the story of the talents which

Jesus talks about and somehow we take comfort in the fact that

I'll just bury it and keep because it doesn't make sense.

But God sing to whom much is given much is required.

So I pray that we'll be faithful this week.

As we were reading, we were doing a Bible plan with couple

of the youth guys and it says that be faithful where your feet

are. Lot of us want to be.

Oh Geshum was faithful. No, but be faithful where your

feet are. If it's in Torepakam Omar, 2nd

floor upper room, be faithful here.

When I'm in Karapakkam at home, be faithful there.

Just imagine if every Christian lived that out.

Faithful where my feet are. And so I pray and ask that as we

meditate through this, God will work in and through us.

In Psalms 145 four, it says that each generation tell its

children of your mighty acts. Let them proclaim your power.

When we read through judges, when we read through Joshua,

it's interesting. After Joshua's time, that grew a

generation who didn't know the Lord.

And they say Joshua could be considered a failure because

they were so fighting battles, battles that they didn't get the

next generation ready. Today, you and I, what are we

overcoming that we're telling the next generation you can

overcome. The problem is a lot of us in

our 40s have not overcome bullying ourselves.

We've not overcome the our own identity.

We still have identity with the colour of our skin, with the way

we look. What will we pass down to the

next generation? What will we pass down to the

next generation? Should go back and say God, I'm

learning right now from you if you made me in your image.

It's interesting. We we say we've been woven, he's

woven us in in our mother's womb, all that yet we fail to

understand wow God, what uniqueness is We think unique is

just this one aspect. No imagine if you and I are

already created in the image of God.

What does uniqueness look to Christ?

What its uniqueness look to God, it looks entirely different.

What our minds can't comprehend, what we can't understand.

So today this persistence that I'm asking you is we have to

wholly give up, give ourselves up for the mission so that the

mission is accomplished. I was watching this show, I

think a couple of weeks back about these Delta forces of how

they go in to these places to do whatever they are supposed to

do. But one of the critical things

you see is they don't just give up in the mission halfway.

They give up only they they finish the task and then they

get out. And that's what we all have to

be as Christians. He's saying, would you be ready

to take up the task, finish the task?

And the problem is a lot of us today are fighting the battle

internally, as I conclude, which I feel is very important as

you're always trying to measure up.

Christian life is not about measuring up.

Else it has been the easiest for us.

It's all about God up. You're measuring up is you're

measuring up to someone else's standard in the world.

You're measuring up to someone else's.

You're probably like looking at your the C-Suite person in your

office thinking I need to measure up to them.

But gossaic. No, I have far bigger things for

you. Ask me those hidden treasures,

I'll tell it to you. You're trying to measure up in

your role as a father. You're trying to measure up in

the role of your as a husband. Ask God, God, these are roles

which you have given take put me into.

Let me measure up to you, not do anything else.

So today too, if you're a struggling father, if you're a

doubtful mother, if as a husband, if you're struggling

today as a wife, if you're struggling to be happy as a son

and daughter, I would say don't measure up, would you God up so

that God can lead you into that role and fulfill the role that

he's given you so that nothing else can shake you from that

place. James one concludes this.

It says blessed is the one who perceives under trial because

having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of

life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

So I pray and ask Lord, even as we're here today, as we receive

your word that we would be in a place, Lord Jesus of saying,

God, we are completely in this learning mode activated.

Lord, I pray especially Lord, for those who are like, Lord,

I'll, I'll just get tidbits of your learning here and that no,

God is asking, would you be committed to my learning?

Because when you when you're committed, would you be willing

to change? When you're really willing to

change, Will you be able to live out what I've called you to live

out? So I pray and ask, Lord, for all

of us who are struggling in this learning mode, constantly

activating it and deactivate, I pray right now we make a

commitment to be fully activated for you, Lord Jesus, whatever

stage we are in, whatever role we are in right now, we ask Lord

that we will activate it so that we'll be the best person.

You have marked us out, Lord Jesus, that we won't just

measure up. Lord, we will look to you for

everything. Lord Jesus, we will look to you.

We will ask you, Lord, to make us the version that you intended

us, Lord, when you created us. I pray and ask even right now,

Lord, as we receive the communion in our hands, that

we'll also realize that if we've been troubled and if your words

have not been sitting in US, Lord Jesus, we've been unable to

be poised because of our circumstances.

We take your life giving word and speak your Shalom into our

hearts, Shalom into our minds, Shalom into our spirits that

we'll find comfort in You. Lord, I pray especially, Lord,

for those of us who are struggling to pivot in the

direction you're calling us. Lord, I pray right now faith

will be injected in Lord Jesus. I pray we'll be able to see the

fruits that you want us to bear through eyes of faith.

I pray and ask, Lord, you will show us, Lord, if we can let go

of our Jericho right now, we can take that step of faith and

pivot to what you're calling us. Lord, we'll be able to do that.

Lord, we'll be able to do that. I pray, Lord, for those of us,

Lord, who were on this journey, but we tapped out some time back

because it was getting hard, I pray, Lord, that we'll be

persistent through it. Lord, we'll be persistent to the

call that you've given us. Lord Jesus, we'll be persistent

to what you want us to do. We thank you, Lord, Thank you,

Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

We hope you enjoyed today's message and we're blessed.

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