Origin Story | Chad Herold

Well, good morning.

It's good to see you.

How's everybody doing?

Y'all sound good today.

I love it.

I love it.

Hey, let's start by saying hello to all of our friends at our different campuses across the city.

First, let's say hi to all the people at the Missouri City campus.

Let's give them a hand.

Guys, we're so glad you're with us today.

If you're visiting, please go introduce yourself to T.

He will help you feel right at home, answer questions you got.

We're so excited that you're there.

Let's also welcome all of our folks at our West End campus.

So glad you guys are here with us.

Come on, don't fade on us now.

Come on, there you go.

All right, we love you, West End.

Hey, if you're visiting there, be sure you meet Jamie.

He'd love to help you get connected and just walk you around, give you free coffee, all that good stuff.

And finally, can we give a warm welcome to all of the men at the Ramsey Unit?

We uh we love you guys.

We love you guys so much.

And uh, and if you're visiting there, if you came to service for the first time today, we are pumped to have you.

So be sure you introduce yourself to the team.

Uh, you are now part of this church family, and we're so, so glad uh to have you.

Hey, the last three nights, uh I'm I'm excited to be here, but I'm kind of running on fumes because the last three nights I have had the great privilege of speaking to our middle school students at our middle school camp, and uh it was awesome.

Please clap for that.

These guys are incredible.

Here's some photos.

Um, I'm just gonna be straight honest with you.

Um, your energy today, weak.

I mean, weak.

Well, that's powerful.

That's not a good example.

I mean, powerful, guys, what happened.

The energy was in, I mean, so much the camera shook.

I think that's an effect, but uh just really, really incredible.

Uh, they had a lot of fun.

Um, so I had the privilege of doing our middle school camp and then night one of our high school campus.

So it was really a treat uh for me.

And I gotta say, uh it's given me some much-needed hope for the next generation.

Um, I I I I can't say, I don't want to say that I didn't have hope, but being there and seeing them, particularly last night at our decision service and seeing middle school students walk up with tears in their eyes, ready to surrender to Christ.

It was like, okay, there is hope for the next generation.

Like, we're gonna be good.

And and here's the other thing like, our time is come and gone, old people.

Like, it's time for the next generation.

That's what I was thinking.

Like, I'm done.

This is it.

I'm 40 years old, standing in front of these kids.

I'm out.

Like, my time is done.

That's not accurate, but that's what I was feeling.

I was struggling.

I want to show you one more video.

This is the uh last night after the decision service, and people had given their life to Christ.

Those are all of the leaders that took the stage.

And uh, that is, yes, Chad Brugman's son right there on the right.

Um, I think he has found his new calling as a worship dance leader, and uh, we're pumping for him.

But it was just so much fun, so much energy, so much excitement.

Now, I'm telling you that because I thought a lot about what to do this weekend, and um uh because the camps were over the course of a few weeks, I had to I got to spend a lot of time in different texts, and what I had discovered was that the the message that I was presenting to these students uh was a message that we also need to hear as adults.

Um and so what I want to do today is not necessarily regurgitate a message that I gave over the camp, but I want to give you kind of a a flyby snapshot of some of the things that we talked about.

Um, because here's the deal you entrusted, I know not all of you sent your kids there, I understand that, but for those of you that did, you entrusted us with your student, with your kid.

And we have kids camps going on, all these things.

And and I just want you to know, one, we're so grateful, but two, we do not take that lightly.

That we bring our very best in every aspect uh to pour into your kids.

And so just as a way to show you, give you a taste, I want to share a couple thoughts that we shared over this last couple days.

Um, and I want to look at a text that I think has radical implications on our lives.

Now, here's the first thing I want to say.

The first kind of phrase that I gave them, which was kind of the overarching theme of the uh multiple nights, was this.

Your calling is not your decision, it's your discovery.

Your calling, it's not what's a calling.

Calling is God's invitation to each of us to be a part of his story in specific, unique ways.

Your calling isn't your decision, it's your discovery.

Now, why is that important?

Because what happens for us as parents is, and it's in good intention, we get our kids fired up, right?

Babe, you can do anything.

You can change the world, honey.

I you want to do that, you go and take it by the horns like you've got this.

And listen, I appreciate high expectation, I appreciate encouragement, love.

Our kids should feel like they could do anything they want.

But let's just be honest.

We do not want our kids to go do whatever they want, all right?

Because some of these fools will never make it out of their game room, all right?

But more importantly, if you send a young person, and by the way, that phrase is true for us too.

If you send someone out and go, go figure out what you want to do with your life, it's like sending a kid in front of a buffet and saying, pick the best thing, the one that's right for you.

The kids go into the dessert every time, right?

We're going to the easy thing every time.

We're going to the thing that we desire or that we want.

And if we do that, if we're not careful, it gets in the way of what God wants for our life.

And so this is why we say our calling isn't our decision, it's our discovery that as we walk with God, He begins to unveil what He has in store for us.

Now, what's amazing is that oftentimes what God has for us will line up with what we desire to do.

It typically just starts with him and then the desire comes next.

Listen, I'm gonna be real with you.

I did not have dreams of being a pastor as a kid.

But as I walked the journey and found what God had for me, it was amazing how my passion and my desire came alongside of that.

And so we started really this overarching theme of wanting our kids to begin to just process hey, this is a little different, but this is really important.

Now, what we did over the rest of the nights was we used the story of Moses, the beginning parts of his story, to begin to unpack that thought and that phrase.

And so what I want to do with us today is I want to focus on the beginning of that story.

What I described or would call the origin story of Moses.

Because what we're gonna find in the origin story of Moses is that each of us too have an origin story.

Each of us have things that have happened to us in our life, good and bad, that have radical implications on who we are today.

And I want to unpack it and I'm gonna warn you, there might be some moments where you find yourself digging around some places you have not dug before in your life.

And we're gonna trust that God's gonna walk with us and he's gonna guide us and he's gonna help us.

But I don't want us to be afraid of it because I do believe what God can reveal to us today could change some stuff for each of us, but particularly for some of us.

And so, with that, let's begin.

We're gonna look at the birth of Moses, which may not sound exciting, but it is actually one of the more fascinating stories in Scripture.

So if you want to turn there, Exodus chapter 2, that's where we're gonna be.

Exodus 2 · chapter mention

Now, what you have to understand is there is a backstory that's our backdrop, if you will, going on right before Moses is born.

And here's what it is the Hebrew people, the people of Israel, uh, they had found favor in Egypt through a man named Joseph.

You might be familiar with Joseph.

It was Joseph's favor that took care of them, brought them to the land of Egypt, got them out of starvation.

Uh, all was good.

They were working well, Pharaoh and all of them got along.

Pharaoh was kind of the king of the land, everybody's getting along.

Well, you fast forward a few generations, and what happens is a new Pharaoh comes into play.

And whether he chose to or had truly forgotten, the remembrance of the good relationship that the people of Israel and Egypt had has faded away.

And now, by the way, we'll say the people of Israel and the Hebrew people interchangeably throughout the day.

But now he looks at the Hebrew people and he goes, Man, there's a lot of them.

And as a leader, he starts to feel fear.

And his fear leads to action.

And the action he makes is he says, This isn't good.

There's too many of them.

One day they might rise up and come against us.

We got to do something about it.

And so what does he do?

He throws all of Israel, all of the Hebrew people, into slavery.

He does that for a season, and he notices that while they are slaves now, they're still producing kids, they're still multiplying, they're still growing.

He's like, well, this isn't working.

And so he takes it a step further, and there's a few moments in there, but the end result is he says, I want every Hebrew baby boy born thrown into the Nile, the Nile River.

And this is the backdrop that Moses is born into.

So let's look at the story unfold.

Chapter 2, verse 1, the book of Exodus says this.

About this time, a man and woman from the tribe of Levi got married.

The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and she saw that he was a special, beautiful, or favored child, baby, and kept him hidden for three months.

Moses woke up to hatred and murder.

His mom, Jochebed, is her name, sees him and she sees something special in him.

She sees something beautiful, some translations say favored, some translations just say special.

Whatever it was, she saw something in him.

And what's worth noting is this is before she knows what Moses is going to do.

She does not realize that Moses is going to be the baby that leads her people out of slavery.

That Moses is going to lead them not only out of slavery, but through that's the parting of the Red Sea.

He's going to lead them right through it.

He's going to be the one God uses to bring the Ten Commandments down.

He's going to be the one that God uses to bring water from a rock and all of these things.

But before she knew any of that, she looked at him for who he was, her baby, and she saw something special.

If you have kids, can you remember this?

I remember my first when she was born.

This is my daughter Kyla.

Anytime you get to show a picture of your kid, it's fun.

That's me.

Okay, there's Kyla.

She's so cute.

I didn't show you like a true baby picture because I think that's weird.

Anyways, um, so there's her in a little cute stage.

But do you remember if if you have kids, your first child, and you remember, like, one, you kind of freak out because you're going, uh, what do I do?

There's no instruction manual, and I am responsible for this.

This is not good.

But then the second thing, likely, that you more quickly thought of is I would protect this kid with my life.

Like, there, I am the strongest man on the planet if anyone messes with her.

Like, she's protected.

And I think that's in essence what's happening here, mixed with God really stirring something up.

And so it says that they kept her for three months.

Now, after three months, what do we know?

Kids, they start to grow.

They become more alert, they become more vocal, they become more mobile.

And so after three months, this became impossible.

I mean, imagine the terror, right?

Every time he cried, there was fear that someone would hear.

And if they were to hear, not only would he die, so would they.

They would likely be killed for trying to keep their child.

And so they were in constant terror, and finally, after three months, it came to a head, if you will.

And then verse 3 when she could no longer hide him, she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch.

She put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile River.

Okay, so what'd she do?

She did exactly what Pharaoh told her to do.

Put the baby in the Nile.

Now he said throw, and she got a little creative, right?

She made a basket, a waterproof basket, very creative.

You might be thinking, that's what I do.

This is how I look at scripture, like, well, where did she come up with that idea?

Well, I think this is actually really interesting.

Now we don't know 100% sure if this is what happened, but I do believe there's a legitimate chance this is it.

See, she would have known her history.

And do you know what happened in the history of the people of Israel?

Our history as Christians?

Is that there was a man named Noah.

And there was once a great flood.

And God told Noah, I want you to build a boat.

I actually want you to build a box, and I want you to put your family in there, and I want you to put some animals in there, and I'm going to spare you from the judgment that's coming.

Well, here's what's interesting: the word that's used for ark in Hebrew is the same word used here for basket.

Now we don't know for sure if that's what she was thinking, but I got to believe because let's be honest, they did much better job back then than we do today talking about our stories.

They knew their history.

We've got our history accessible 24-7 any way we want, digital paper and everything in between.

And I we don't know our story as well as they did.

They talked about it all the time.

I just gotta believe.

Maybe she wasn't thinking, I'm gonna build an ark like Noah, but I just gotta believe that she was thinking, I don't know, but I know God's done something before.

I know God's been able to spare before, and I I'm gonna take a chance and I'm gonna do this.

And so though we're not sure, I just gotta believe it's her history.

And can I tell you something that I thought about while I was standing in front of our students this week, the last couple weeks?

I was worried for just a moment.

Because, man, if you and I, you and I don't tell the stories of what God's been doing, not only in history, but in our own lives, we run the risk of our generation losing sight of God, forgetting who he is, how great, how powerful, how in control of all things, even when it seems crazy that he is.

If we don't tell those stories, Netflix will.

I wasn't planning that, and I don't know why I said that.

You get what I'm saying though?

And maybe, let me just run with it because we want a whim here.

Maybe Netflix will put out a Bible story or two, and there's definitely a lot of those going around right now, and that's awesome.

But they'll also feed them all the other junk.

And they'll feed you the other junk and me the other junk.

So we've got to be careful that we tell our stories, that our history is made known to our children so that they know not who we are, but who God is and what he's done in and through our lives.

So I just gotta believe, I just gotta believe that there's some version of that happening here.

Because this to me is the biggest let go and let God moment of her life.

This is my baby boy.

Could any of you do this?

I mean, just think about that.

How hard would it be to put your baby in a basket with no clue what's gonna happen and just let it go?

And she's having to truly let go and trust God to do something.

Now we know this.

If you're a parent, we're gonna all do this with our kids at some point.

Usually not this early, though I know there are some few exceptions, but at some point, we're gonna have to let go, aren't we?

Some of you are like, nope, nope.

I got a room, closet, I'll lock it if I need to.

They ain't going anywhere.

Listen, the only way for them to grow up is for you to let go.

And so we are all gonna have to do this at some point.

And and is it gonna be scary?

Absolutely.

Are they gonna screw it up?

Yours probably will, mine won't, but yeah, of course, right?

Of course.

Our kids at every campus are gonna screw it up at some point, but this is how they grow.

This is how they learn.

And so, while we're we're stretching a little bit, but this really is to me, this is her just, God, you have got to take it because if I hold this any longer, it's just gonna become too heavy.

I have to let go.

So, what does she do?

She puts the baby down into the water and it begins to float.

Then look at verse 4.

The baby's sister, Miriam, that's her sister, his sister's name, then stood at a distance, watching to see what would happen.

I kind of envisioned she's behind some bushes, just kind of tracking as it's going down.

Soon, Pharaoh's daughter, this would have been the princess, came down to bathe in the river.

That was normal for someone of royalty, and her attendants walked along the riverbank.

And when the princess saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it for her.

And when the princess opened it, she saw the baby.

The little boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him.

This must be one of the Hebrew children, she said.

Now, let's pause for a minute.

Could you just imagine?

You put your baby in the water and you let the baby float, and you're trying, you're you're doing the thing.

You're like, you got the phrase, let go, let God, let go, let God.

I'm gonna do it.

And then you watch the baby float.

Some of you are dealing with this with your older kids right now, and the baby floats right in front of the palace.

Like, God, I let go so that you could drive.

I mean, I carry underwood in this thing, and you you didn't get that.

That's okay, and you you let it fly right in front of the palace?

That's where the decree came from.

Like, this is the worst scenario that could possibly have happened.

And yet, what happens?

The princess comes down, sees the baby, and has sympathy for the baby.

Now you might be wondering why.

Now we don't have all the answers, but here's what we do know.

In Egypt, they worshiped a lot of gods.

And one of the gods was the god of the Nile, the God they called happy, H A P I.

And the God happy was seen as the God that provides.

Because the Nile was what brought the resources and the sustenance for them to be able to live.

The Nile is what brought all the things for everything to be able to grow.

And so when something came out of the Nile, it was seen as a gift.

Now that's not godly.

I just want to be clear.

And yet, look how God's gonna use the ungodly for his purposes.

She sees this baby coming and she has sympathy for it.

Why?

Because she thinks it's a gift from a God, not realizing it's actually a gift from the God.

And here's what's ironic He could have stayed at home where he wouldn't have been safe.

They could have tried to move him out of the land where he still wouldn't have been safe.

The safest place for Moses to be was on the doorstep of the palace that made the deadliest decree.

That is nuts.

So if anyone's going like, ah, my life doesn't make any sense and it's all falling apart and all that, I'm not giving you a hard time.

I'm just saying, just remember that God, God doesn't work in our world.

He does not work the way we do, he doesn't work in our lines.

That's the better way to put it.

Our lines don't exist to him.

To him, he's got it all figured out.

It just doesn't always make sense to us in the moment.

So, what happened next?

All right, so the baby sisters tracking along.

The princess comes down, she sees the baby, pulls the baby out.

Of course, she didn't do it, her servants did it, it must be nice.

And so the baby comes up and they start looking around and they're talking, they go, Well, well, this is a baby.

We gotta feed a baby, and I'm sure they didn't have formula and all the things like we do today.

So, like, how are we gonna do this?

They look around, none of the servants can feed it, the princess can't feed it.

What are we gonna do?

Well, here comes the sister hanging out behind the bushes.

Again, I don't know if that actually happened, but it just makes sense in my head.

She pops out, I have an idea.

Now, look, this is risky, okay?

See, she's she's I I told the kids she's a beast, man.

Like she she just jumps out without fear.

Hey, uh princess, I have an idea.

Um, just a thought.

What if we go grab one of the Hebrew women and bring them here and they could take care of the baby?

Well, this is this is a great idea.

Let me read it so I don't paraphrase it for you.

Should I go and find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for you?

She asked.

Here's what the princess said.

Yes, do.

So the girl went and called the baby's mother.

Take this baby and nurse him for me, the princess told the baby's mother.

I will pay you for your help.

So the woman took the baby home and nursed her.

I read it quickly.

Did you get it?

Okay, hold on, back up.

Read it.

Hold on, someone didn't get it, someone didn't get it.

Hold on.

Okay, watch what happens.

Miriam, see, I like paraphrasing and it gets me in trouble.

Miriam hops out.

I got an idea.

Hey, I'm gonna go.

That's a good idea.

Go grab one of the women, bring her.

Miriam, what does she do though?

She doesn't go grab a random woman.

She kicks down the front door of her house and goes, Mom, guess what?

You're never gonna believe this.

Mom's crying, like, and we're not judging mom, like obviously she lost her kid.

Mom's crying on the couch.

I don't know if they had couches in.

And she goes, Mom, get up, get up, get up.

I have good news.

She's like, I promise you don't.

No, trust me, I do.

You gotta come with me.

We're gonna go meet the princess.

The princess, the one that's dad, made the decree for my baby to die.

Absolute look, mom, come.

She's dragging mom.

Have you ever been there?

You ever had to drag a friend out of their darkness so they could get to the light?

She's pulling mom.

I didn't mean to preach that, but that made sense.

She's pulling mom.

So they show up, and what does the princess say?

Okay.

Would you feed this baby?

For us.

And I'll pay you for it.

Bro, I'm still waiting for that check.

I got two kids.

Lord.

My manager has the won't say.

Like, come on, what?

This is nuts.

This is nuts.

This is, guys, the providence and the sovereignty of God.

What is the sovereignty?

The sovereignty is that God has all power, all control over all things.

Providence is in taking that sovereignty and putting it into motion in the world.

Only God could come up with this.

Because all of us would have given up.

We would have-that's it.

My son's gone.

Oh, in front of the pout, my son's definitely gone.

Oh, the princess has him now.

Gone.

Over.

Done.

Finished.

Nope, here comes Miriam.

God said something different.

Come with me.

Now, we gotta read the last verse.

We gotta make sense of it.

Verse 10.

Later, when the boy was older, this is Moses, his mother brought him back to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her own son.

The princess named him Moses, for she explained, I lifted him out of the water.

Okay, now it's very quick, but you gotta kind of put some details together.

What happens?

Moses is gonna get the gift of a lifetime, and so are his parents, that he's gonna be raised in his Hebrew home.

Now, we don't know how old.

It could have been five, could have been twelve.

I think that's a stretch, but historians kind of debate on where it was.

But the reality is he's gonna get to raise in his home with whom?

His parents and his siblings.

And guess what he's gonna do in that home?

He's gonna hear the stories of God.

He's gonna learn about God.

He's gonna hear the story of his own birth.

Baby boy, you will never believe what God did with you.

I can only imagine what he's about to do through you.

And then what happens?

This is where it gets kind of sad.

And then he's ripped out of his home.

Let's let's say he's six, seven.

That was not on purpose, I promise.

Let's say he's five.

Alright, let's just say he's five.

And they rip him from his home at a vulnerable age, right?

Whatever it is, five to twelve, doesn't matter.

Now he goes to live with a whole new family.

Well, that's not good.

But he gets in with that family, and what happens?

You know what happens?

He learns education from Egypt that he would have never got from his own people.

He learned about war.

In fact, there's some historic history that tells us he led a war against the Ethiopians.

He learned about privilege, royalty, he experienced resources that he would have never had as a Hebrew boy.

What God did was he took these two cultures and he put them in Moses' life to be part of the preparation for what God was going to do with his life later.

And this is what we're trying to say that what's happened in our lives, God is working out.

Not all of it's good.

I get that.

We'll get there in a second.

But God works these things out and he uses them.

Moses would then go on, and I wish I could tell you after this moment, Moses gets out there and leads his people home.

No, there's some dark stuff.

Moses, I'll paraphrase really quickly.

Moses gets out there, he uh he starts to kind of turn on Egypt a little bit.

He grows up, we don't know how old he is, but he grows up and he's he's an adult now and he's looking around and he's like, Man, I uh I don't I don't want Egypt anymore.

I want my people, I want Hebrew, I want family.

And he goes out one day and he sees some Egyptians beating up on a Hebrew and he just loses it.

He gets in a fight and he murders someone and then buries him in the sand and tries to cover it up.

He ends up going on the run because everybody turns on him.

The Hebrews turned on him, the Egyptians turned on him, and Pharaoh himself was coming after him.

So he goes on the run, he becomes a fugitive.

Guess for how long?

Five years, ten years, no, forty years.

Out in the wilderness alone as a shepherd.

He did get married, so that's a good thing.

But he's a shepherd.

Out alone walking with his sheep.

Talk about humility.

I think God was doing something though.

I think God was breaking all the things from Egypt he wanted out of him, bringing him to his lowest place so that he could rise him up again as a shepherd.

You know what a shepherd is?

A shepherd is a pastor.

Because he's gonna need to pastor a whole bunch of problematic people that are gonna give him a headache.

And if he does that as a royal leader, he's gonna kill them all.

But if he does it as a pastor, well, a good one, he's gonna love them well.

God was preparing Moses with every aspect of it.

And when God does finally call him to go and lead the people out of slavery, to go stand toe-to-toe with Pharaoh, to part the Red Sea, or God did, and walk through the Red Sea, the Ten Commandments, the water from the rock, all the things he's gonna do.

Do you know how old he was when all that started?

He was 80.

So if anyone's in here complaining, whatever age you are, about God's not gonna use me wrong, he used Moses to do a lot.

But I want you to see something.

All the pieces of the puzzle that Moses experienced, God turned it around and used it for his glory to prepare him, to get him ready for what he was calling him to do.

And what I want to say to us today is that listen, your origin story does shape you, but it does not define you.

Because some of our origin stories have been rough.

I mean, you're listening to Moses and you go, that's about right.

That's about what I've experienced, the home I grew up in, all these things.

And I need you to hear this.

This is what we told your students.

It does shape you.

Like there are things you're not getting rid of.

Like that's gonna have an effect, but it does not have to define you.

Some of us, we we grew up in homes where maybe our parents loved us well, but they also hurt us deeply, and we're still dealing with that years and years later.

Some of us, maybe we grew up in just broken or chaotic or God forbid, maybe even abusive families.

And and what I'm saying to you is that is tough.

We're not pretending that doesn't hurt.

That is pain.

But here's the good news God can take pain and still use it for purpose.

But before He can do that, watch this.

You've got to process it.

The first thing some of us need to hear, and this may be freeing for you.

I hope, I pray that it is.

If somebody has hurt you, your parents or or whomever it was that raised you, or someone else in your life along the way of your origin story has hurt you.

I need you to understand something.

That is not your fault.

And it is not the end.

Whoever hurt you, whatever it was, we're not belittling it.

It's real, it's there.

But it's not your fault.

So if you're struggling with that, you gotta ask God today to take that from you.

And then if you feel like that's the end, that's I can't, that it that's the end.

I'm telling you, it's not.

God doesn't work that way.

God loves us too much, and he is too much of a healer and too much in control to let those things weigh us down.

But for some of us, it's not it's more than that.

For some of us, it's the trauma or the loss that we've experienced.

Some of us, we've just gone through some difficult times, maybe in college, maybe with career, maybe with cancer or sickness, maybe your marriage right now.

I talked to a few people after this first service.

Like whatever it may be, listen, God wants to take that pain and turn it into purpose, but it has to be dealt with first.

And here's the second thing on this.

Listen, guys, we have to be so careful, right?

Because what I'm not saying is that the bad things that happen to you are good.

That's not what I'm saying.

That's that's toxic positivity.

What I'm saying to you is just like Moses, God didn't cause Moses' pain.

He just made sure to use it.

And that's what we're saying to you today.

That God did not cause.

That is sin in the world that has brought that pain, whatever it looks like or whatever it was for you.

But God is saying, first, if you'll let me come alongside and walk with you, heal you through that, we'll get to the other side, and then we'll look back and we'll go.

Now we're gonna take that pain, we're gonna flip it around, and we're gonna use it for my glory.

We're gonna use it to be a part of your calling, your opportunity to be a part of God's story.

Now, my life, I'm gonna be honest, my life was not terrible.

I did not have this crazy wild story, but I did have a few things that helped shape my origin story.

One of those were I grew up in a single-parent home.

I love both of my parents.

Both of my parents are great, but they did not make it work together.

I grew up in a single-parent home.

I was the oldest of three.

Do you know what I was learning?

Being the oldest sibling of three, the oldest boy particularly.

Uh my mom would argue this, but I was learning responsibility, maybe just a little bit at the time.

But I was learning responsibility.

And then, growing up in a single-parent home, what I had no clue would happen years later, as I stepped into ministry, God would call me for a season to be a single parent pastor, my previous church.

Where I wasn't coming in as another single parent.

I was coming in as the child of a single parent family, coming into these adults, going through this challenge, going, hey, here's the perspective from your kids.

Let's not forget them.

Like I got to fight for the kids because of the experience that I had and the position that God put me in.

And then I think about uh my my dreams of sports, right?

Like I was on track to play in the NBA, the NFL, and the MLB, and I didn't even play baseball.

And like it was amazing.

Like what God was doing through me was incredible.

Um, and and then that's a joke, by the way.

Uh, and then he literally allowed my knee, he didn't do it, my knee to just rip in half.

And I couldn't walk, wheelchair sticks, all that mess.

But here's the thing that was that painful?

You bet I can still remember the day.

But here's the thing that pain was necessary because he was changing the trajectory of my life.

And so this is just an example.

Oh, also, by the way, one of the things I was really good at back in my days, we're just you're just letting it all out there, you know, get to know each other.

Uh, I was really good at gathering people to party.

Man, I was the bomb.

I could gather anyone everywhere, and we'd have a good time.

And you know what God does now?

He takes that same gift, it's a little bit of a stretch.

And now I use it to bring people to him.

Like what I man, what what I want you to see is that all of these things in our life, and and some of them are bad and terrible and painful, God's not abandoned you.

He wants to heal you through that, he wants you to deal with it so that he could turn it around and go, man, now let's take this and let's go help some other people.

This is who our God is.

Okay, so that's your origin story.

Be careful.

It shapes you, but it doesn't have to define you.

God will use your pain for purpose if you will allow him.

He doesn't waste it, but you can, so be careful.

Now, here's the second thing, and the last thing.

You are shaping origin stories right now.

And some of you are like, check out, I'm not a parent.

No, no, no.

Every single one of us in this room and everyone at West End and Most City and the Ramsey Unit, you are shaping origin.

Yes, Ramsey Unit, you two, you are shaping each other's origin stories right now.

Parent, pastor, teacher, coach, volunteer in the lobby, teaching the kids' ministry, aunt, uncle.

If you are around anyone else, you are helping to shape origin stories, but particularly to those younger folks.

And God is using you.

And and and I get it, you you might question that because you're like, well, my life's a mess, my marriage is on the rocks, like, I don't have all the finances that I want to.

Like, there's all these reasons why I can't.

I'm I'm just telling you, those are all great excuses, but they're just that.

They're excuses.

The fact that you're still breathing means you still have something to share.

And God wants to use you.

And here's the thing God needs to use you.

Now, now He doesn't need us, He'll do whatever, but He invites us in to be a part of meeting the need He has.

What's the need?

He wants to pour into those people around you.

He wants to pour into the middle schoolers, the high schoolers, and the kids on the college students around you, all of them.

And he said, I have put you here.

Like, you're here, you're ready, you're in.

Like, let's go do something.

But here's the thing because I was at camp, I thought a lot about the parents.

I'm gonna tell you.

I heard some stories.

A lot of good stories, but also some tough stories.

And I get it.

Man, parenting's hard.

We don't have all the money, we don't have all the knowledge or the experience.

Our marriage may be falling apart and our kids are paying the price.

Maybe our spouse passed away.

Maybe cancer is like all of these things.

They're real.

And so it's easy to look at a few of those big things and go, man, there's nothing I can do with that.

I don't, I'm, I'm not someone that can help.

I'm gonna read you a couple things.

There's a couple ways, parents, you can shape origin stories, but I'm gonna say that it applies for all of us.

Number one, being honest about your own struggles gives your kid permission to bring theirs to you instead of hiding them.

When your kid sees you apologize and make it right, they learn that admitting failure is stronger than pretending you never had one.

Affirming your kid's value, independent of performance or popularity, protects them from building their identity on the approval of others.

Letting your kids see you struggle and see you trust God through it teaches them that the weakness isn't disqualifying, it's where faith actually happens.

See, we could have all the excuses about money and marriage and family and all that, but all of us could do this.

Because you know what makes these so powerful is that they're found in pain.

When our kids sees us struggle and sees us trust in God, not run from Him to all the other things, they learn something.

It shapes them.

Now our kids will still have to make decisions for their own.

We know that.

But isn't it nice when we can pour in and be a part of that?

The students you see walking around your campuses, stop looking them at us.

I don't know what you think, but annoyance, little pest or whatever.

Look at them and go, man, God, you could is there something you want me to do here?

Could I encourage them?

Could I could I hang out with them?

Could I go serve in one of these?

God, what do you want to do with me?

You are shaping origin stories right now.

And the biggest way, the biggest way, the most impactful way all of us can be a part of that is with presence.

There's a powerful story that's been floating around, I want to share it with you.

It's about a dad and a son.

The son's five years old, he's hanging out at the front door, and dad's making his way home from work and he's exhausted, it's late.

He comes in the door and he sees his five-year-old, five years old, that's one of the cutest ages, right?

He's like, Dad, dad, dad, I'm so glad you're home.

Hey, dad, um, I gotta ask you a question.

Dad's like, okay, I'm tired, but you know when kids ask questions and there's good times, there's bad times, and it's usually very rarely good times.

It's one of those moments.

But he says, Okay, okay, okay.

What's your question?

And he goes, Dad, how much do you make an hour?

And dad's like, are you kidding me?

What is this?

He goes, Dad, dad, how how much do you make an hour?

And so he's pestering him for a little while and he's just he's getting fed up.

He goes, Okay, fine, fine, fine.

If you have to know, I make a hundred dollars an hour.

And the son kind of puts his head down and he looks up and he goes, hmm, that's a lot of money, dad.

He goes, hey dad, could I have$50?

And dad's like, are you kidding?

Bro, I did not come home to give you money.

And he starts, he kind of starts going at him a little bit, right?

You've been there, you're upset, you're tired, you're exhausted.

It's like, I didn't raise you to be selfish.

All you did was ask me how much I made, so that you could ask me for a money.

What kind of thing I didn't raise you like, get your butt upstairs, go to bed.

Sends him upstairs.

Dad sits down on the couch or wherever his thing is, and he's kind of thinking it.

We've all done this, right?

Kind of thinking about it, like, was I hard?

God, did you say oh, I didn't hear him say anything.

I think I'm good.

No, I was a little hard on him.

Okay.

So dad goes, all right, fine.

So he stirs up a little courage, whatever, and goes, humble pie.

And he goes upstairs to his son's room, knocks on the door.

Hey, buddy, can I talk to you?

He says, Hey man, listen, I uh I was a little harsh with you.

I'm sorry, I'm just tired.

He said, I here's the 50 bucks.

By the way, I don't think I would do that, but whatever, good for him.

He's like, here's the 50 bucks.

The son just smiles and just like thank you, Dad.

Takes the money.

And then he reaches under his pillow and he pulls out another wad of cash and he puts it together and he starts counting.

And dad's like, all right, third time I'm out.

Like, this is ridiculous.

You asked me for$50 and you had all of this money.

Are you kidding me?

What are you doing?

Why did you need this money?

Now he's he's starting to raise his voice, and and the son looks at him and he goes, Dad, dad, dad, dad, I I needed the money because I didn't have enough.

See, I had 50, but I needed a hundred.

Because what I was hoping to do was to buy an hour of your time.

I was hoping that maybe tomorrow night you could come home early and we could have dinner together.

Now listen, I tell you that because it does stir us a little bit, but I want you to be careful with it.

This isn't about shame.

A lot of us have to work really hard.

A lot of us have some weird schedules we have to do.

I mean, I've gone for the last three days and came straight here this morning, like I get that.

But what I want us to see is that our presence matters.

And the fact that we're still breathing means we have presence to share.

And if you're a parent or a grandparent, listen, if you want to be in your kids' memory tomorrow, you have to be present with them today.

And so my hope is that we'll leave here first processing our own stories, asking God to heal where we need to heal, and then asking him to show us what he wants to do with some of the things we've experienced.

But then I'm also asking that we walk out of here looking around, going, Man, God, show me.

Show me whose story I'm shaping.

I want to be a part of that, I want to be present in that.

One last thing I'd like to say before I pray.

Um, and I said this to all of your students that were at camp.

And it's this it's a simple phrase, but so important.

I, me, have never locked eyes with anyone that did not matter to God.

And neither have you.

And that statement is first for you that you need to know there is a God that loves you.

That loves you so much.

Wants to walk with you through the pain you might be feeling right now, wants to help you see how he can use you right now.

You're calling what he has for you in his story.

Not a single person breathing, not a single person I can lock eyes with or you can't.

Doesn't matter to God.

So it's for you first.

But then it's for them second.

It's to you and then it's through you.

Every time we're present, every time we pour into somebody else, our kid or not, we are showing them who God is.

God uses us to reveal who He is to others.

And I just want to be faithful with that, don't you?

I just want to be present.

I know I'm not gonna be perfect, and neither will you, but gosh, I want to be ready.

So remember, your origin story, it shapes you, but it doesn't have to define you.

And then remember that you and I, we are shaping origin stories right now.

So let's handle that with care.

Father, we just pause right now.

And we just ask God that whatever you've needed to say to us today, that it would have come so clearly to our minds and our hearts.

God, I know there's people here today hurting.

And they need you.

They need you to help heal some of the pain in their past.

Some of us we've spent so much time being angry at you.

We have missed out on the chance to heal through it and then allow you to show us how we can use it.

God, help us in that.

God, others of us, if we're honest, that presence thing with our kids or our grandkids or those people that are next to us, near us, close to us, Lord, we haven't done the greatest job.

Lord, we don't want to walk out of here in shame.

But Lord, would you show us a path forward in that?

And God, thank you.

Thank you that you have love for every single person on the planet.

That brings us so much hope.

Even when we feel like we are at the end.

So, God, fill us with your power, your presence.

God, remind us how much we matter to you.

We love you, Lord.

We thank you.

Amen.

Hey, before you go, at all of our campuses, the prayer team will be down front.

We'd love to pray with you today.

Have a great day.

We'll see you back next week.