Following the Cloud of Glory

Hello and welcome to the Arise Church Podcast.

We are so glad you're here and want to thank you for joining us

today for the audio version of our Sunday morning message.

We want to invite you to join us in person at our Sunday morning

celebration every Sunday at 10 AM.

We are located on Old Jenks Rd. in Apex, NC.

Well, if you have a Bible, would you grab it with me?

And if you would go to Exodus chapter 40, Exodus chapter 40,

Exodus 40 · chapter mention Exodus 40 · chapter mention

Exodus is the second book of the Bible and chapter 40 is the last

chapter of that book. So that'll help you find it.

Exodus chapter 40. And as you do, I have an

Exodus 40 · chapter mention

exciting announcement for that's kind of personal, but I feel

like it's going to be a big blessing to you and to many

people out there. But I told you a few weeks ago,

in fact a few months ago now that I was going to be releasing

a book in the fall. Well, it's available for

pre-order on everywhere books are sold.

So in fact, if you want to pull out your phone and just this is

AQR code that'll take you to the website for the book so you can

read all about it. So go ahead and take your phone

out. That way you can at least look

at it later and just read about it later.

But I'm really thrilled about, I've had several people read it

and a lot of friends and people that I respect and different

people who have given their recommendation on it.

I feel like this is very timely message for the body of Christ.

And you know, I'm practicing what I preach.

This is all by faith. Nobody's called me up and said,

you know, you ought to write a book and we're going to pay you

a big ol advance to do it. And you know what you're going

to be guaranteed to sell so many copies.

And we think nothing is just by faith.

So it's a vulnerable thing to throw it out there.

But I'm like, I'm doing it. I'm I'm charging full steam

ahead believing that God's going to use it and he'll take it to

wherever he wants to take it. Amen.

So it'll be released officially on September, the first our

church that Sunday before on August 30th in the morning,

you'll be the first to get it. And so I'll have physical copies

here, but you can pre-order it online so that it's available to

you even on Kindle or whatever kind of app you may use for your

own books. It'll be available there.

So it's on Amazon, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, all

the things, it's there. Praise the Lord.

Isn't that cool? First, I've learned a lot

through this process. All right, Exodus chapter 40,

Exodus 40 · chapter mention

let's read together starting at verse 34, Verse 34, I'm going to

read. Then the cloud covered the

Tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the

Tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter

the Tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above

it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.

Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the Tabernacle, the

children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys.

But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey

till the day that it was taken up.

For the cloud of the Lord was above the Tabernacle by day, and

fire was over it by night, and in the sight of all the House of

Israel throughout all their journeys.

Now I want you to go over to Numbers Chapter 9, Numbers

Numbers 9 · chapter mention Numbers 9 · chapter mention

Chapter 9, because it's just a a couple books over Numbers

Numbers 9 · chapter mention

Chapter 9 and I really want to see this just a little bit more

detail and then we're going to talk about it.

So Numbers Chapter 9, I'm going to start at verse 15.

Numbers 9 · chapter mention

Now on the day that the Tabernacle was raised up, the

cloud covered the Tabernacle, the tent of the testimony.

From evening until morning it was above the Tabernacle like

the appearance of fire. So it was always the cloud

covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night.

Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the Tabernacle, after

the children of Israel would journey, and in the place where

the clouds settled, there the children of Israel would pitch

their tents. At the command of the Lord, the

children of Israel would journey, and at the command of

the Lord they would camp. As long as the clouds stayed

above the Tabernacle, they remained and camped.

Even when the cloud continued long many days above the

Tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the

Lord and did not journey. So it was when the cloud was

above the Tabernacle a few days, according to the command of the

Lord, they would remain encamped, and according to the

command of the Lord they would journey.

So it was when the cloud remained only from evening until

morning. When the cloud was taken up in

the morning, then they would journey.

Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up,

they would journey. Notice the pattern, the rhythm

of even the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit inspired it.

Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud

remained above the Tabernacle, the children of Israel would

remain encamped and not journey. And when it was taken up, they

would journey at the command of the Lord.

They they remained encamped and at the command of the Lord, they

journeyed and they kept the charge of the Lord at the

command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

It's a lot of Scripture, but I just want to notice some of the

details that are here. You know, Exodus 40 gave us the

picture of it, but Numbers Chapter 9 gives us a lot more

Numbers 9 · chapter mention

detail of what that meant for them.

And today I really just felt in my heart like, oh, God's got

something to say to us about following the cloud of glory.

Following the cloud of glory. If you're taking notes, you can

just title this message that. And this is going to be one of

those messages where you're going to want to hear what I'm

saying that you're going to more so hear what is God saying to

you? Because the process that the

children of Israel went through here is not unlike what he is

asking of you. And I follow him and what I'm

feeling from the Lord today and what I've just been sensing, and

I think it could pair out through so many scriptures.

But I, I resisted the urge to just bring you example after

example after example of scripture where this pairs out.

But what what it shows is that so many times, so many times, so

many times, God is trying to get us to follow him, follow him.

And we live in a culture. We live where there is an

enormous amount of pressure to get you to stop following the

cloud. We have a church culture, not

just here at a Rise Church, but we've got a church culture that

some of us grew up in that we were surrounded by that just

said, you know, just stay faithful.

Just keep showing up. Just keep doing it.

And all of that has truth to it. Absolutely.

But if the cloud has left, stop doing the same thing you've been

doing. Find the Lord, find the cloud,

find the fire again. And that's what I just kept

sensing as we would as I was preparing for today.

And I was just thinking about the glory of the Lord and our,

our, our really praying that we would experience just that

manifest presence of God, that glory of God.

As I noticed and I was studying it, I'm like, man, it doesn't

just happen. You have to follow it.

It's not just going to stay here today and then be here tomorrow

or three months from now. We have to be obedient.

We have to follow. Come on.

Am I preaching to the right crowd this morning?

Y'all here? Yeah.

Oh, this is important. And there are many times where

in our own life, in our own experience, we can settle.

And God moved on years ago, but you just happy as a lark over

there, enjoying the wilderness without God.

And then you're wondering, why are we still in the wilderness?

Because the cloud left. The cloud left, You know, we're

in a denomination that is more than 100 years old now.

And I'm in a lot of meetings where people will say, oh, we

just need to get back to those glory days.

And I'm like, no, we need to find the glory again.

And the glory isn't where it used to be.

He's moved. He moved on.

That was wonderful for them. Hello, Some of y'all.

You're like, I love the good old days.

Good, have nostalgia, enjoy the memories, but what we're not

going to be able to do is go back to the good old days and

experience fresh, anointing the fresh glory of God.

Today you have to find him today.

You have to find him today. You have to search for him

today. Where is the cloud?

Where is the fire? Where is it?

And I'm telling you, most people are not going to be able to tell

you where it is. It's not going to be where

there's human logic or human wisdom points you to go.

You know, we're starting a school of ministry in the fall

and by the grace of God, we already have how many 8 signed

up full time students. We're shooting for 12 and the

School of Ministry is a training school.

And it's not just it's ministry and leadership and it's not just

for people who are in vocation going to be in vocational

ministry. It's for young adults to give

nine months of their life to be completely transformed to set

them up for the rest of their life.

That was my story. That was Lilia's story, that was

Frankie's story, that was Tim's story, J JS story.

And I could go down the list, the list, the list, the list,

the list. This was our story.

So what are we doing? We're passing on part of our

story. We were transformed by this.

But you know, if you go to a lot of families and if I probably

peek myself into certain family conversations, a lot of people

would tell these young adults, why would you do that?

This is this is in this season. You need to do this, this and

this and this and this. And there's, they're probably

all good stuff. Probably not bad.

But oh, we should be encouraging our young adults follow the

cloud cause the career won't save you, the job won't save

you, the degree won't save you. In fact, many of the young

adults that I have encountered who walked away from the Lord

did so while they were at a liberal arts college.

Can I just be honest? And I'm not talking about one or

two. I'm talking about dozens upon

dozens of pastors, kids, preachers, kids, ministers, kids

and they go to a liberal arts college and they lose themselves

because the parents and the child didn't know that there's a

billion dollar industry that is completely designed to undermine

everything you taught them and we taught them and they're good

at it. So we have a school that's

launching and the wisdom of man would say, don't do that.

You need to get started. You need to get started on your

career. You're going to need to get

started in school. You need to do all this stuff.

The wisdom of man will say that, but what if the cloud is in the

school for them? Some of y'all older folks are

like, man, I, I want to join the school right now.

Sign me up. We got plans for you.

Don't worry, we have things in mind, but this is for young,

young people. Wherever, whenever the cloud was

taken up from above the Tabernacle, after that the

children of Israel would journey.

That word journey really struck out to me in this passage.

Did it stick out to you? As as I was reading it over and

over, it would talk about it, verse 21, where it would just

say and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they

would journey. Whether by day or night,

whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey.

Whether it was two days a month, a year, when it was taken up,

they would journey. At the end of the command of the

Lord, they remained encamped and at the command of the Lord they

journeyed. They journeyed.

Where were they heading? They were heading to the

promise, they were heading to the Promised Land and they were

following the cloud. Why 'cause they didn't know how

to get there and they could have detoured at any point and said

forget this, we're going out on our own to find it.

And I have seen so many believers peace out on God to go

find their own way. In fact, it's a pretty popular

saying out there that is even encouraged to people.

You have to find your own way. I've heard parents say this

about their children. You know, they need to find

their own way. That is baloney.

Come on. I need a stronger Amen.

That is baloney. And if you said it, repent fast

that you let baloney come out of your mouth.

By the way, have you ever eaten baloney?

No one knows what it's made of. That's why that is baloney

'cause you don't even know where that came from.

It's not scriptural. Find your own way, follow your

heart. This is not Disney.

Disney is full of witchcraft. And you telling your kids to

follow the way of Disney, which is witchcraft.

No, you have to follow the Lord. You have to follow the cloud.

You have to follow his voice. Where is he leading you?

Where he leads, I will follow. Come on, where he leads, I will

follow. Where he leads.

I will journey. I will journey.

I will go on that journey. And you know what?

Sometimes it's inconvenient. It's inconvenient because this

passage says even if it was for one day, they would have to pack

up and move on. I don't have the time to go in

to tell you to what that even means.

They built the Tabernacle of the Lord, which means all of the,

the, the, the, the material that it took to put up the walls of

the Tabernacle and then to clean everything from the journey and

then to put it all in its right place.

And then to, to get the altar of sacrifice going again and to get

the, the, the Candelabra or the, the Candlestick going inside of,

inside of the, the, the holy place and to get the incense

going again. I'm you're talking about an

unbelievable amount of work, and for one day, for one day.

And yet when the glory leaves, it's worthless.

So you spent a whole day doing an unbelievable amount of work,

and for that day that the glory was there, it was worth

everything you had. And the moment the glory leaves,

it's worthless. You know, they have something in

finance called sunk cost analysis.

So in other words, there's a lot of times where people won't

abandoned a project or abandoned a business because of how much

money they put into it. And so they will literally go

down with the Titanic of their company because, well, I put all

this money into it, not realizing it would be better for

you to cut bait and run. Thank you, mom.

That was the appropriate time to do it.

Thank you so much. I can count them on mom for the

southernisms. She knows them.

No, but you just cut bait and run.

Cut bait and rub bait being, you know, fish and bait.

OK, you just cut. You cut it and get going.

Go on to the next spot. Well, I've been fishing this

whole all day, and I'm going to. Well, if it's not producing,

move on. So that's some cost analysis.

Well, when you're following the Lord, you may think, well, we

put so much into that. I put so much into this program.

I put so much into this ministry.

I got a degree in it. But if God's not in it anymore,

move on. Move on.

Turn to your neighbor and just tell him.

Move on. If you're married to that

person, tell him. But not for me.

The glory's still on this marriage.

All right. No, There, there, there, there

is there. This is a daily thing.

This is a daily thing. And what's what's, what's hard,

and I acknowledge this even for myself and my own personality,

the way that I like things is this is not set up for people

who like rhythms. Nobody said Amen to that, but

it's true. You're like, I like my rhythm.

I like my routine. How many of you like your

morning routine? I love a good morning routine.

Cup of coffee, the Bible, catch up on the news, get ready, go to

work. Some of you, you have your own

routine. Don't judge mine, all right, but

that's mine. I love a good routine, you know?

But you know what? Your routine can get in the way

of the cloud if you're not careful.

And you'll wonder, why do I feel so dry?

Why do I feel so like out of place?

Because the cloud moved four days ago and you sip in your cup

of coffee and it tastes so good. I hope that it's comfortable in

that chair. It's comfortable in that place.

But if the cloud moved, why are you still there?

And the wonderful thing for us is Spirit filled people, those

of us who have asked the Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit so

we could be led by the Spirit, so we can have the power of the

Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing is, is He

will lead us and guide us on the journey.

We're not left without a helper. He will help you get to where

you're supposed to go. He will tell you in the morning,

go over here, go over there, have this conversation, call so

and so. He'll show up for you when you

follow Him. One of the things though, that I

think is so important is if the Lord tells you to stay put

because the glory is still on that thing, then you better stay

put. Keep your can in the seat,

right? Not all of this is about church,

though I would include church in it, but this is about your job,

your career, your family. That the enemy is attacking

families like crazy and he's no respecter of how long they've

been married. I know people this year who

walked away completely from their family after 30 years of

marriage, got deceived. I said they got deceived.

You say, well, you don't know their circumstances.

I know enough to know that scripturally they had no basis

to leave that marriage, but they got deceived.

They got deceived. They thought, oh, it's better if

I move on. Well no, God didn't move on from

your marriage, for better or worse, till death do us part.

You remember that vowel married people?

Yes, some of you. When you're single, you better

not go sleeping around because there's no glory on that.

It's too real today, huh? But it's true, right?

You have to know, Oh no, the Lord is on, on, on this.

And I need to stay and I need to be faithful and I need to be

faithful with it and I need to protect it and I need to make

sure that I tend to it. So they would remain in camps.

They would remain in camps. How long until the cloud left?

And this, this passage shows us, it gives us the indication that

there were times where he would stay put.

The Lord would stay put for a while.

Fact, there's one place where it says it was a couple years they

stayed in the wilderness. In other words, they had not yet

gone to the promised land. They were not enjoying the milk

and honey that God said they would enjoy.

They they were stuck in one place for two years with no

benefits except God was there. Hello, this speaks to people who

would rather follow the benefits than God.

They would rather follow the benefits than God.

I've seen this multiple times. I've seen it where people, they

are consistent at church when they have no job because they

come to church calling on God, help Lord, help Lord, I have no

job. We're about to go broke.

We have nothing. They get the job and I don't see

them for months, if ever again. Oh man, it's it's tight in here

today. I can feel it.

It just went woop. But don't worry, y'all are here

today. You're in the good seats.

This is for everybody. You know who ain't here.

Maybe they'll hear it later, but they get the job and then you

don't see them, I guess, when you start to see him again, when

that job dissolves. Why?

Because they're following the benefit, not the clout.

They want the benefits. Lord, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme,

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.

And as soon as they get what they want, even if it's not even

from the Lord, they just get what they wanted.

They get theirs, and then they're gone.

And they might be at another church.

But I don't think so. I've been around a long time and

I've seen human behavior, human nature, and by the way, all of

us would go that same, except by the grace of God, we have our

own proclivities in us. So this isn't to condemn, but it

is to call it out and say, yes, that is human nature.

That's why the Lord put it in the Bible, so that we would know

they struggled with it too. Like Lord, I've been waiting in

the same spot in the wilderness for two years and I can tell

you're here. So what's that mean?

I'm in the will of God with nothing to show for it except to

say I'm in the will of God. You ever been in that place

before and all your cousins and everybody's wondering what's

wrong with you? What'd you do wrong?

Where'd you sin 'cause you ain't got.

I don't see any of the promises coming to pass in your life or I

don't see any of what you proclaim as your faith.

And yet you know I'm in the will of God.

I can't move, I can't leave. I just got to say right put.

I'm, I'm into the Southern today.

I got to stay right put. I got to say right put right in

the middle, right where I'm supposed to be.

Don't move. Don't move.

If God's not left that thing, if he is not giving you permission

to move on, you don't move. You stay put.

And the pressure of what you need, the pressure of what's on

your heart will push you to freak out.

You know, it's like watching one of those movies and you know,

sometimes it's war movies, but sometimes it's it's just those

movies where, you know, there's some sort of enemy, some sort of

threat, and the first one to die is the one that freaks out and

runs out on their own. Have you ever seen that?

You know the one, what the movie I'm thinking of is Jurassic

Park. Have you ever seen Jurassic

Park? And there's the guy he's in,

he's in the the SUV and the kids are there and the other guy's

there and T Rex is coming and it's roaring and the guy like,

and he runs to the bathroom on the toilet and he's the first

dead one he's gone. Why?

Because he freaked out and ran away just because he got scared.

Don't get caught on the toilet, all right?

Praise the Lord that could preach.

I don't even know. Some of y'all spend too much

time on the toilet scrolling, but that's maybe that's a whole

other. I didn't mean to say it, but

you, you encamped there and the Lord's not there.

OK, let's just say that, OK? They would journey, they would

journey, they would journey at the command of the Lord.

They remained in camped and at the command of the Lord.

They journeyed the command of the Lord.

They remained in camp and that command of the Lord.

They journeyed the command of the Lord.

They remained in camp and at the command of the Lord.

They journeyed the command of the Lord and at the command of

the Lord. At the command of the Lord.

Are you getting it at the command of the Lord?

At the command of the Lord, The command of the Lord?

Are you hearing God? That's how we're LED today.

How do you follow this cloud? How do you follow the glory

cloud? You're obedient.

You hear his voice. Jesus said.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.

You want to live this type of life that was clearly laid out

with the children of Israel. You follow the shepherd, You

hear His voice and you follow the shepherd.

You're obedient. You're obedient.

Obedience will always lead you to the glory.

Let me say it again. Obedience will always lead you

to the glory. One of the things that I said a

couple weeks ago when we're talking about the glory of God

and bringing back the glory of God even in our own church, in

our own, in our own community, was that with the pattern of the

Tabernacle, which is this tent and this building that would

have to erect every time they would set up camp, they had to

do all of this work. All of the work was for the

glory. So the altar of sacrifice, the,

the, the, the, the wash basin where they would get themselves

clean. Then they go into the holy

place. And there's the, the, the

showbread, which represents the word of God and the word of

life. And then there's the, the

Candlestick, which represents the Holy Spirit and the presence

of the Holy Spirit and the power of God and the light of God.

And then there's the the the incense and the burning of the

incense represents the prayers of the Saints.

So it's this constant prayer being lifted and lifted and

lifted. And then you get beyond the veil

and in there is the mercy seat. And that's where the glory of

God was. Everything was about that place.

Without that, the sacrifice made no sense.

Without that, the Candlestick unnecessary because it was light

the path so you could get to the other side, so you could get

beyond the veil. Without that, the incense is

useless. The incense is just smoke.

But the incense made sense because it was the glory of God

received it. So what is it for us?

Obedience is all about that place.

So all that he calls you to do for them, it was set up, this

sacrifice, this altar of sacrifice, set up, this, set up

this, set up this. What has God asked you to do?

Because it's to that place. He's trying to get you to a

place. And many of us, we stopped our

our obedience 20 years ago. And we wonder why we don't

experience the glory and the full benefits of God.

Because continued obedience is the only thing that will get you

there. Are y'all hearing what I'm

saying today? I'm going a little deep, I

understand. But obedience isn't just so you

can be a goody goody to shoot and just squeak through to the

sweet. By and by, obedience will bring

you to the glory of God. Today in the here and now are

y'all hearing me? Obedience produced for the

children of Israel such a weight of glory that the elders and the

priests and those who served in this Tabernacle couldn't move.

They just fell on their face. There were sometimes where it

was so thick on the whole Tabernacle, no one could even

enter, not even Moses. There was a time where it was so

thick that only Moses could be in the room.

Well, what what got them there? Obedience.

If they had shortcut, the steps, if Moses had said that's a

little much Lord, you're a little extra today, he would not

have come. God would not have showed up.

There was an obedience required. It's true for us too.

Some will, some may refute me and say, no, we're under grace.

We're under grace now. We don't have to do all of those

things now. We can just live like aliens and

expect God to bless it. And you are wrong.

And not only are you wrong, you're deceived.

And that's scarier. Listen to me.

There is a doctrine of demons that uses the word grace, but it

misapplies is it? And it misuses it.

And it has excused an entire generation of Christians to

continue in the way they were living before Jesus and yet call

themselves Christian so they can fit into whatever narrative they

want in this life, not knowing that it's really eternity they

should be concerned about. I hope you caught that.

If you didn't, you're going to have to rewind it and watch it

on YouTube 'cause I probably couldn't say it again even if I

tried. But the point remains, there are

many people and I hear it. I hear it from even friends of

mine who will talk about the grace of God.

Which really means I can show up on Sunday however I want, do

whatever I want, say whatever I want, and just call on God like

he is a bum, a gumball machine. Just throw 1/4 in and God's

glory will pop out. And that is false.

It is false and it's deceptive. And you get hordes of churches

that meet and meet and meet and the cloud is nowhere on the

church. There's no glory, there's no

manifest presence, there's no miracles, there's no

deliverances. There's none of the things that

Jesus said would follow those who believe.

And yet we gather and we clap and we're like, wow, that was a

great message. But a message with no power

means there's no glory. Is it OK that I'm just leaning

all the way in today? I'm like, well, I'm already

halfway there. I might as well just dive into

the deep end. So it's something that I

confront myself with. I'm like, Lord, I am not OK with

the church that has no glory, that has no power, that has no

healings, that has no deliverance, that has no

salvations. I I, I will, I will leave this,

this, this, this, this, this wilderness place and find you

whatever that means. And we all we all ought to have

that posture where it's like Lord, I refuse to just live in

the wilderness. Just live in camped in a place

that you moved on from a long time ago.

But what gives me that conviction?

Because I know my obedience matters.

When our prayer time this morning, I quoted the Scripture

that says, but be doers of the word, not hearers only deceiving

yourselves. Let me say it again, but be

doers of the word, not hearers, only deceiving yourself.

So when you get in the pattern or the routine of this, this

false grace theology that says it doesn't matter what I do, you

are now deceived and you deceived yourself.

Satan didn't even help you. You deceived yourself.

Why 'cause you convinced yourself that I don't have to do

anything. I can just hear, hear, hear,

hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear, hear.

And God doesn't care about my doing.

And it's it's deceived. Are y'all hearing what I'm

saying this morning? Oh, this is good teaching.

You know why? Because when you receive this

kind of teaching, you say, Oh Lord, I received that

correction. You will find the glory.

You start obeying, you start doing what Jesus asked of you in

your business, in your home life.

You start doing what He asked of you 3 years ago that you still

ain't done. You will find what He has put in

front of you. You will find His glory.

You'll find His presence. You'll find fulfillment.

You'll find all the things that your soul was looking for

elsewhere and you'll find it. You'll find it.

This journey that we're all on together, it's to the glory of

God. Are you hearing me This journey

that our church is on, I'm like, I refuse to settle and you can

ask some of our team. I get intense about it because I

know how easy it is to settle where God left.

I know it is. I know it's it's easy.

You know why? Because when when you're the one

has to go and tell the camp time to pack up.

God left and you got to rouse up everybody out of sleep,

spiritual sleep. You know how unpopular that is.

You're like, why can't we just chill out for a minute?

I'm like, I know I think the same thing, but we know he he

left. So it's time to go.

Are you hearing what I'm saying? The the there there are things

today that I do not feel that the Lord will allow of our

church that three years ago he allowed listen to me when we

were coming out of a hard season.

Most of you weren't here, but this church was coming out of a

hard season and there were things that we we lovingly and I

felt like the Lord lovingly let gave us patience for.

He was kind. He was like, I'm going to help

you. But there's a, there's a time

and a place where that's like, OK, time to grow up and that's

not OK anymore. I feel that for our church, like

there is a pace that just swept up under me the last few months.

I I feel Tim and JJ came and I, I felt bad because I was like,

Oh yeah, you know, you can have the first couple weeks just to

get settled and all that. I think day one I was like, hey,

can y'all meet today? And it was and then and we've

and just a lot of the team has been, you know, keeping up with

the pace. Why?

Because the cloud moved and it's like, oh, we got to go.

Like we got to pack this sucker up and move towards where he's

asking of us. By the way, there's nothing

hidden. Like we're I'm pretty

transparent about all the things that the word is doing here.

So you're in the loop. So unless you think what's he

talking about, you're in the loop.

If you have ears to hear, you're in the loop.

But what's important for us as a church to know is we are

changing on the way because the clouds moved.

So there's things that even that I may not even point, pinpoint

or say about you may you're going to hear from the Lord

where he's going to say, hey, three years ago that was OK for

you. It's not OK today and you're

going to have to self have the self-discipline and, and, and

the fruit of the spirit of self-control to get that in line

and cut that out or start up that thing he's asking you to

do. And you don't waste any time

sitting around and be like, well, three years ago it was OK

or why did they change that or why are we doing that or why is

God asking me of that? It's like, 'cause the cloud

moved, bro. I don't know what else to say.

It moved and we are moving and you know what, once you get this

rhythm in your life, I'm telling you, you won't go another season

without the glory of God on your house.

I look over at Dennis and Valerie Dilly and they were a

part of a wonderful church and where was it?

Van Nuys, Thank you. Van Nuys, CA called church on

the church on the way pastor by Jack Hayford.

So Jack Hayford's gone on to be with the Lord.

Many of you may not who he is know who he is, but one of the

best Foursquare churches in the history of our denomination was

in Van Nuys, CA and they were on staff there, pastoral team

there. And at that time, back in the

70s, he wrote a book called Glory on Your House.

And with our team, just what was it y'all?

A year and a half ago or so, our Lee team, we read the book Glory

on Your House because I felt like the Lord was doing

something among us. And one of the things that as I

read that book is it talked about just the move of God that

swept them up. And it was like just as a small

church when he first started pastoring there, how many

people? They start with 50 people.

Pastor Jack started with, by the time he was done pastoring

there, it was over 10,000 people, 10 to 15,000 people in

Van Nuys, CA. And the numbers don't always

tell the story, but there was glory on that house, a

significant glory. If you've ever heard the song

Majesty Worship His Majesty, He wrote that song and he wrote it

in that environment and then that church.

So we come from a heritage lineage and others have

experienced what I'm talking about and, and you could

probably talk to him about what does that mean?

What does it look like in your own life when God comes up under

a house, under a church and starts to move on?

It starts to breathe on it and you have to start making

adjustments because he says, Hey, what worked for you back

then isn't going to work now. You have to adjust.

You have to change. I'm not going to use the word

pivot because COVID killed that for me, but you have to pivot.

You know, you have to move to a different position so that you

can follow him. So that's the invitation.

I feel like of our church. Are y'all hearing me this

morning? I feel like he's inviting you

and this is something that I'm praying he'll personalize for

you. Why?

So you don't miss out. I'm praying this for all of our

team. I'm praying this for all of our

ministry leaders, for all of our pastors.

I don't want anyone to to to miss out, but we are moving.

We're not physically moving because we have a paid for

property. Praise the Lord and he paid for

it and he this, but spiritually maturity, we're moving and the

Lord wants every single one of us a part of this.

Would you close your eyes? Glory to God as you close your

eyes. I just encourage you to not

allow any distraction. Just allow your heart to 0 in on

the Holy Spirit and His guidance, His word to you, His,

his whatever instructions He may be whispering to you right now,

confirming to you that this is for you, that He's calling you

to experience Him in a whole new way.

For some it's repent. Repent that you went too long

outside the will of God, too long where you weren't

experiencing that full presence of the Lord and just right where

you're at as you hear him respond to him.

You might just say, I hear you, Lord, I hear you, Lord, I hear

you, Lord, forgive me. Lord, come on.

If he's correcting you, he whom he loves, he corrects, Oh, he

loves you, He loves you, He loves you.

You just respond and say forgive me Lord, forgive me Lord,

forgive me Lord for allowing convenience to keep me away from

your glory. Might just ask the Lord to help

you help me Lord, to not chase the benefit and leave you.

Help me Lord, to not chase the promises and miss the promise of

your presence. Help me Lord, to obey you daily.

Come on, this is a good place right across the room to just

out of your own heart and mouth ask the Lord to help you.

Come on, just let that prayer prayer arise out of our

sanctuary right now like that incense.

Help us Lord, help us, Lord, Come on, come on, come on.

Pray. Pray for help because this is

part of the obedience. We call on the name of the Lord.

We call on him for our help. You are our helper, Lord.

You're the one who will, who will, who will lead us on this

journey. So I ask you for help.

Come on, come on, leaders and pastors, we ought to be praying,

praying, praying that He would lead us in this journey.

Lord, if you don't go with us, we're not going.

And Lord, if you're going, we're not staying.

So Lord, we just commit our whole selves to you, as Jesus

said, to love you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and

strength. So I just say that out loud to

you today, Lord, I love you. Lord, I love you with all of my

heart, with all of my mind, with all of my strength, and I will

follow you all the days of my life.

Come on, say that out loud out of your own mouth.

Lord, I will follow you all the days of my life, all the days of

my life until my very last breath.

I'll be following the clouds. I'll be following your glory.

I'll be obedient to your word. I will not settle in the

wilderness. I will.

I will meet you, Lord, in the sky, and I will.

I will have my place in eternity with you because I will follow

you. Lord, glory to God.

Glory to God, come on, this is a commitment.

This Is Us saying till the last breath I take, I will follow

this cloud. I will not look forward to a day

where I have to stop being obedient.

Oh, I look forward to obedience, Lord.

I look forward to you calling, Lord.

I look forward to the next command that you will give me.

Oh, you're so worth it, Lord. You're so worth it, Lord.

You're so worth it, Lord. Let's all stand to our feet.

We want to thank you again for joining us for the Arise Church

podcast. We hope you were encouraged by

what you heard today. You can find

[email protected] and on Instagram at Arise Church NC.

If you need prayer or support or are interested in learning more

about Arise Church, we encourage you to connect with us online or

in person at our Sunday morning service.

Thank you and God bless.