God Uses the Anxious || Pastor Adam Mesa

Well, we're starting our series called At the Movies. You know,

are At the Movie series is a series that we

step into really as it's back to school time and

everybody's getting into new rhythms and new things that we

want to go into this series because it allows people

who've never been church before or far off from church

for us to be able to invite them because of

kind of all the things we're doing in the courtyard.

It's a good first step, but also it allows us

to share about who God is in a way and

a context they understand. I'll tell you for instance, last year,

I met someone who had never been to church before,

been a very long time since they even thought about

stepping into church, but really had never even been in

one before. And we were in At the Movie series.

His wife started attending church around that time. She kept

inviting her husband to come, Hey, come to church, when

we come to church, when we come to church me.

Every time he'd say, no, I'm not interested. I'm not interested. Well,

on the last weekend of At the Movies we did,

we were talking about Marvel's in Game, and so she

told her husband, who loves the Marvel series, Hey, my

church is talking about in Game this week and you

want to come, He said, Oh, that's my favorite movie.

I'll go to that, And so sure enough, we played

like a one minute clip of Endgame and thirty five

minutes of talking about God, and he happened to give

his life to Jesus during that time. And so that's

why really we're doing at the movies is to connect

something people understand who maybe have never been in the

church before a long time, and then be like, Okay,

that's who God is and the Bible is richer than

any movie you'll ever see, and we want to connect

those themes to what God is doing. So as this

week and in the weeks to come, we're gonna be

approaching We're gonna allow film as a whole to impact

us through the kind of movie inside out if you've

ever seen that before.

The new one has a.

Various host of emotions, and each week we're gonna look

at a key emotion and we're gonna look at films

that highlight those emotions. And then on top of that,

we're gonna look at people in the Bible who exhibited

those emotions. But God still used in the process. So

let's go ahead and start week one a at the

movie PA's Rights.

Of the fort for Come on, come on, We're gonna

miss the previews. I should have left earlier. This is ridiculous.

I know these people are gonna talk through the whole movie.

I hate that.

I should have gone to the earlier showing. I'm gonna

miss the previews.

I just know it.

Why I bring a child to an adult movie?

This is horrible?

Who does that? Oh my gosh, did I leave my

chapstick at home? I can't have my popcorn without my chapstick.

The butter irritates my lips.

It makes them look called crusty, like I've been eating

powdered doughnuts or something. I think I'm allergic to butter.

That can't be normal.

H oh great, Now.

My allergies are acting up. What if I catch hives again?

The last time I was a disaster. I so don't

feel like going to urgent care. Did I pay my

Kaiser balance?

Oh no?

What if it's gone to collections? I can't believe it.

I missed the previews.

Oh my gosh. I am just such a huge fan

of yours, and now here I am meeting you? Okay,

how can I help?

I can take notes, good cocks, manage your calendar, walk

your dog, carry your things, what you sleep?

Wow, you have a lot of energy. Maybe you could

just stay in one place. Anything. Just call on him

and I'm here for you. Okay, love that? And what

was your name again? Oh? I'm sorry, I can get

ahead of myself. I'm anxiety.

I'm one of Riley's new emotions and we are just

super jazzed to be here.

Where can I put my stuff? What do you mean?

We m, let's all go to the lobby. Let's all

go to the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby again,

ourselves a treat.

Okay, both cram are you okay, mister da take it.

Easy to MH.

Sorry, germ super check the heart, check the check the

is the brain? No sign of cardiaconomally or unusual brain activity? Okay,

so I was poisoned.

My diagnosis is that you've experienced a severe anxiety attack.

MH.

Anxiety, You know, Anxietiety can sometimes look similar to fear,

but often fear is an attribute of kind of what's

in the unknown, what you haven't seen, or what you

haven't experienced before. Anxiety can be a little bit different

because Anxiety comes from kind of an unmet expectation or

something that's happened before that you continually find and relive.

You're always looking for something to be a shortcoming, something

to fail you, something to come to a place that

comes to a wall where you can't move forward.

And anxiety is that.

Voice that if left unchecked, it just grows and grows

and grows. It's like if you've ever been to the

dentist before and they share with you about a cavity

and they say, hey, if you don't take care of

this cavity, this cavity.

Can grow and we might have to do a root canal.

In other words, if you don't deal with this right

now and overcome this anxiety, it can become a deeper

and deeper well. You think of so many great movies,

especially one that's out right now inside out to where

really the the main character of the movie is anxiety.

And as a young girl is raising up in her

teenage years, anxiety begins to creep in and start to control.

All of the emotions.

Anxiety can start to do that because as your emotions

start to be left unchecked, and anxiety can be undealt with,

and what can happen? Is is anything that can find

a foothold will pull those emotions.

Out of you.

So when you have anxiety, some days you're happy, some

days you're sad, some days you're angry. Some days you're

scared because you don't know how to keep your emotions

in check. There's other movies like Finding Nemo where phrases

help people in their anxiety. For Little Nemo, he's encouraged

to just keep swimming every day that he goes, everywhere

that he goes. As he tries to find his father

and tries to find his family, he's told, just keep swimming,

just keep swimming.

You've got a Bruno in your head, A Bruno, Yeah,

I get one too. Sometimes Alberto, you can Alberto, You're

gonna die, Alberto.

Don't put that in your mouth. Luca. It's simple. Don't

listen to stupid Bruno. Why is his name Bruno? I

don't care, it doesn't matter. Come whatever you want, shut

him up. Say she lets you, Bruno lends you, br

She lends your Bruso. Can you still hear him? Just you?

Or maybe you think of another movie called Luca, where

a young boys just has a lot of anxiety a

lot of fears about moving forward, and one of his

best friends teaches him a phrase that says, Cilenio Bruno.

Silence that voice, that Bruno that's making you anxious. Wherever

you're at in anxiety, you could see through film, And

as we watch films, as people begin to face their anxiety,

they see that it no longer has control over them.

But on the other side is true health and true

control of our emotions. So let's talk a little bit

about what that emotion in the Bible looks like when

we talk about anxiety. Yeah, we've got a great team

who writes all that stuff themselves. But let's talk about anxiety.

And if you've seen the new movie Inside Out too,

if you've seen the first one, the first one's all

about a young girl and her basic emotions that start

to come and develop as she becomes a.

Toddler or a little older.

So you have joy, sadness, anger, basic things that basically

help someone develop very healthy emotions to process. And then

she goes through puberty, becomes a teenager, and then all

these complex emotions start to come Inside Out too. The

main complex emotion that we're kind of shared with and

showed within the movie is the one Anxiety, the orange

one in the middle.

And Anxiety is kind of the ringleader.

Kicks out more of the basic emotions that help healthy

ones that are good, and anxiety brings in some friends

that are kind of like inhibitors from progress. So she

brings in embarrassments, brings in envy. Who's looking at people's

hair and eye color and stature and why don't I

have that?

Or why don't I look at that? Or why don't

I look like that?

And then this other one called n wei, which is

kind of like a lethargic nature like this, like I

don't care attitude. If you've ever met a teenager, you've

met this person before, right, yeah?

Whatever? You know?

Oh yeah, okay, And these characters come and anxiety as

the ring leader.

The reason why they.

Kick out the basic emotions is because they're able to

operate in all emotions but in unhealthy ways, and so

they can exhibit happiness, but happiness for the wrong reasons,

joy but joy for the wrong reasons, and then sadness,

sadness for the wrong reasons. And so these emotions come

in and they kind of take control.

Of a person's attitude, and when you think about the Bible.

Believe it or not, there are individuals in the Bible

who struggled with many of these things, anxiety in particular,

and guess what, God still used them. Even in the

stories of these people's lives. God didn't tell them, Hey,

go figure out your issues first and then come to

me when you got things figured out or when you're

one hundred percent.

No.

God used them even in their struggles. One person in

particular that we'll look at today is the man named Moses.

You know, Moses is seen predominantly.

By our culture as a very strong, prominent leader. Whether

you know the stories of Moses or not, most of

us would know the one famous story of Moses, which

is him standing at the front of a sea, needing

to cross the sea with the children of Israel, and

he takes his staff, he puts it in the scene,

and by the power of God, in that staff he

splits the sea. Well, when most of us thinking of

individual who would do something like that, you would think

that guy's gotta be confident, that guy's got to be

a strong leader. I bet you that guy don't have

no insecurities. I bet you that guy doesn't have any anxiety.

At all a guy who can take us staff, put

it in the ocean on God's behalf and split the sea.

And that's like I would love to get to that

point that I could be that confident of a leader.

But believe it or not, you study the life and

ministry of Moses. He struggled with confidence. He even struggled

with doubt. He struggled with his own personal inabilities.

We'll look at that today.

If you have your Bible or you want to follow

along on screen, I don't want you to stand today

because we're gonna mark it up a little bit.

Exodus chapter four. We'll sit here for a second.

But if you've been joining us for our Bible sprint,

feel free to kind of annultate mark up in your Bible.

But here's a situation for Moses where Moses has met

God by a burning bush and God is speaking to Moses.

Through this bush, Moses can audibly hear God's voice.

God tells Moses.

Moses, I'm gonna send you back to Egypt as a

Hebrew man, and you're gonna tell Pharaoh to let my

people go, and through a course of events that I'm

gonna use you for, Pharaoh will release your people, and

then you will lead them into the promised land.

Okay.

God says this to Moses, and then Moses goes, who

do I say sent me? He gives Moses a new

identified name that we had never known up until this point,

which is Yahweh I am, which is I am in

all things. I am all things, and I am the

very breath in your lungs. That's the name he gives Moses. Like,

oh wow, God's coming onto the map to Moses, very

hot and very heavy. Here's Moses's response after a great

compassionate sending from God.

It says this, but Moses.

Said to the Lord, after all that that I just shared,

Moses said to the Lord, I am not eloquent. So

immediately he shared about the things that he is incapable

to do. So he says, I am not eloquent either

in my past or since you have spoken.

God shares all this stuff.

He wants to do with Moses' life, and Moses's response is, God,

I don't know how to talk. God, I never choose

the right words. My words always get me in trouble.

Have you ever been that way before? It's just like

you trying. You're trying to communicate, You're trying to go

to where you're like, I'm just gonna do my job,

or I'm gonna come home and I'm gonna finally say

the right thing to my spouse.

And then three minutes later, it's World War three.

And you're going, how did I get myself here? I

think my words in my past and if my present

keep getting me in trouble. And then he says this,

and on top of that, not only do my words

get me in.

Trouble, he says this, I'm slow of speech. I don't

even know what to say. I'm not even smart in

that way.

God, I'm not like these other people who always use

the right words, have all the big words to say,

who are eloquent, who have all these letters after their name,

the PhD, the ed.

D, this to this, and he said, Mo's like, that's

not me.

And he immediately tells, God, I'm not good with my

speech and I'm not good with my tongue. It's not good,

and anxiety will immediately start to bubble up. First, anxiety

will start to bubble up and remind you of your past,

just like Moses, and it'll also.

Remind you of your present.

And then once you're reminded of your past, and then

you're reminded of your present, guess what it has control

of your future.

And that's what's about to happen for Moses.

He's gonna he wants to walk away from his future

that God wants to use him for because he is

living in his past and is present. In Moses's past,

he was in a palace and then he murders someone

got him into trouble. He's reminded of all his failed

attempts of trying to communicate, trying to leave, trying to

do good, and he just goes, I can't do it.

But then what happens is God responds, and then.

This is what God says. God says to Moses.

Then the Lord said to him, who has made man's mouth,

who makes him mute or death or sing or blind?

Is that I not the Lord? He goes. Now, therefore

Moses is encouraged.

Therefore go, okay, He's a go Moses, go ready, set go,

And then he says, and I will be with you

in your mouth, and I'm gonna.

Teach you what you shall speak.

So God's like Moses, I get your past. I get

your presence. But don't worry. I man, I all your inabilities.

I've been a part of that process. I can give

you the words to speak. I can give you the

mouth to speak. I can give you the wisdom of

what to know when to say. Now, imagine, imagine God

comes to you one day and you're a checkout clerk somewhere,

and God says, hey, listen, this time next year, I'm

gonna make you the president of the United States. Now, granted,

at first you say, oh, but lord, I didn't even

finish community college. But Lord, I didn't I'm working here

right now at this checkout. Maybe one day, maybe if

I accomplished some things, Maybe if I and you would

rationalize to God at first your inabilities, probably we all

would do that. But then what happens is what then

if God responded to you and said, Hey, don't worry,

you're gonna be a figure piece for me because I'm gonna.

Give you all the words to say.

I'm gonna give you all the favor during your campaign.

I'm gonna give you all the privilege that you need

to be able to walk in the rooms. Would you

not then go, hey, I think most of us, even

in a little bit of fear.

We'd be like, Okay, God.

I'm talking to a bush right now. So if the

bush is reassuring me that I'm gonna be okay, then

I'm gonna be okay. But Moses doesn't do that. Moses

didn't response to God. And Moses says this, but he said,

Lord says someone else. I get it. You're gonna give

me the words. You're gonna give me the speech, You're

gonna give me the things to say, You're gonna give.

Me the favor in the room. You're gonna give me

all that. Can you pick someone else?

Not because Moses didn't want to. It's because he didn't think,

because of his anxiety.

That it was possible.

Even when God told him and reassured him, he didn't

believe it. So he tells God, God, give this opportunity

to someone else.

Now how does God respond? Will says, then the anger

of the Lord was ken. Now God's bad because now

God's saying you don't have to do anything.

I'm gonna do it for you, and you're still passing

on the opportunity, and because.

You don't want to deal with what might.

Or can go wrong, And so he wants to pass.

So then God says this, and it says, and his

anger was kindled against.

Moses, and he said, is there not Erin?

So now God's trying to help problem solve for Moses's

own insecurity. So he says, isn't your brother good, your

brother Aaron, the Levi, I know he can speak good,

he can speak well.

So God says, he.

Is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you,

he will be glad in his heart.

And then God tells Moses, you.

Shall speak to him, to his brother Aaron, and you

will put the words in his mouth.

And I will be your mouth, and with his mouth,

I will teach you both what to say.

He shall speak for you to the people, and he

shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God

to him. Reason why God says as God to him.

God says, in the same way that God is gonna

speak to Moses, and Moses is to only reiterate everything

God said.

He's saying, then Erin is only to ever reiterate what

you tell him.

So he's talking about the chain of progression of communication,

the chain of command. And he says, and take in

your hand this staff with which you will do the signs.

So God, even in Moses's ignacious This is one of

the things.

I love about God is because God can simply go, Okay, Moses,

you don't want it. You're too weak for the job,

You're too anxious for the job. I will go find

someone else, it says. He says, Moses, I'm gonna help you.

You have told me where you are anxious. You have

told me where you're unskilled. Even when I tell you

that I got you, you're still afraid.

So then he says, so, then guess what.

I'm gonna give you a community that's gonna help you

out in the process. And so in this whole process

of conversation, if you're taking notes, we see some key

things of what anxiety will do and what trust in

God will do.

Here's the first thing.

Anxiety will magnify your insecurities.

That's what happened with Moses.

The moment God began to speak to Moses about what

he could do in Moses's life and the impact Moses

could make in the people of Israel, Moses immediately magnified

his past and his presence. How can I become president

of Israel if I don't even know how to talk

immediately magnifies his insecurity. The second thing is is it

attempts to silence opportunity. Anxiety will immediately say, gives to

someone else. Let someone else do this, let someone else

have this, lets someone else walk in this. I know

I've messed so many things up before in the past,

I know what the future. I know how I'm gonna

mess this up. It'll immediately silence opportunity. But what will

happen is, and we'll see this in the life of

Moses just a few minutes, is what will happen if

you trust God that he's equipping you, If you trust

God that He's with you every step of the way,

through the hard times and through the good times, what

will happen is your doubt will be strengthen.

God will strengthen your doubt.

As you grow your relationship with God, that doubt, that

little Bruno voice that Luca talks about, it'll start to

be silenced because you have seen.

God faithful over the years.

And so when you see God victorious over the years,

you will see that your trust.

In God will be strengthened.

The next thing is you will see that God will

come to your defense. You don't have to defend yourself

if you allow God to be your spokesperson. And what

will happen is you don't have to speak for yourself,

your character, your trust in God, your time with God,

We'll speak for itself. And we'll see with Moses's life.

God does that very thing in Moses's life. Here, here's

the first thing. If you want to take some notes

about it is we'll see anxiety will magnify your insecurity.

And what will happen, just like Moses is normally your

past will develop a reason on why you should be

anxious and the fact of what you're trying to do

in the present, if it's in working the way that

you have wanted to work or thought it should work,

it will become a stakeholder for you on why it

can't happen, and then you'll just start to magnify the mistakes.

You know, there's a famous author by the name of

Maya Angelou, and many of you may have grown up

and read her in school and things like that great poet,

great writer, great.

Person of our century. And she grew up not only

in massive.

Childhood trauma, she also grew up with a lot of

racist around her. And a lot of what she wrote

about was those two things, whether it be the inequality

and the racism around her, or it was also about

her childhood trauma. Well in the sixties, she famously wrote

a book called I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings,

and it's all about how she was able to take

her anxiety in her trauma and use it as an

advantage to find her voice.

And so in her books she makes a quote where

she says.

This, I had no voice when I was on stage

for the first time.

I was to play a mute.

I figured out I would have to speak, but I

was suddenly overcome with fear, and it felt like my

tongue had been removed. I was in a world that

did not understand me, a child trap inside a woman's body.

Held captive by my own silence.

You know what happened to Moses when he was younger,

Now as an adult, it was affecting his ability to

move forward. And as my shares in that and she

begins to lave Quinley's share also, how then she began

to find her voice that act, that moment where anxiety

meets you. It often feels like you're a grown person,

but you're feeling like a child. There's been times in

my life that I have to remind myself, Adam, you're

a husband, you're a father, But all I want to

do is go on a swing set and swing because

the anxiety is so much that I'm like, I'd rather

just go to an ice cream man, have an ice

cream and go sit on a playground.

And so you get so hit by anxiety that you

feel like a child again.

And I've met people who have had insecurities even in

their own trauma of their family, where I've counseled men

who are in their sixties but with their seventy late

seventy eighty year old father. They said, I just feel

like a little boy in front of my dad because

I'm still trying to prove something.

That's what anxiety does.

It immediately belittles and puts you in your past.

And so that's exactly what Moses does.

He immediately allows it to amplify his own insecurities, amplify

his own pain. But God reassures him, what, I'm with you, Moses,

I'm with you in the problem. I'm gonna strengthen you,

I'm gonna enable you. And what happens is Eventually Moses

accepts and sees God. But first the second point is

first Moses proposes, though that he silence opportunity. God, just

choose someone else. God, just give this opportunity to someone else.

And so in that anxiety moment, we say, hey, give

it to someone else. God reassures Moses. And one of

the greatest things that God gives Moses, even though it

becomes a hurdle sometimes, is one of the greatest things

Moses receives is God tells Moses, Moses, here he is.

He's talking to God, and God says, Moses, I'm gonna

give you Erin. I'm gonna give you a circle. I'm

gonna give you a community where you're not gonna.

Do this by yourself.

And a few chapters later, who comes into the picture

also is Moses' sister, Miriam, and God says, you got

your sister.

And your brother Aaron, and Mariam Erin.

Is gonna be your mouthpiece. Miriam is gonna be your validator.

She's gonna go out there and do some heavy ministry.

She's gonna speak to Israel too, on your behalf, and

so he goes, I'm gonna give you a community so

that you're not doing it on your own.

You know, As I was studying for this message, I came.

Across an article, and basically the premise of the article

was talking about anxiety amongst high capacity leaders like national leaders,

the Abraham Lincolns and all that kind of stuff like that,

the JFK's, and how they have seen war torn areas

Winston Churchhill and they've had to make really big decisions

for their country. And basically what this article shared was

most of these world leaders were capable of making such

big judgment calls because they had an incredible circle that

they could trust.

And this article.

Traced all these big decisions these world leaders made, and

it then named the circle that they talked to the

day that they went and made those public announcements, the

day that whether they Abraham Lincoln shared about the Emancipate

Patient Proclamation or when Winston Churchill called war on Germany,

it said, these are the names of the people that

they met with prior that gave them the unction, gave

them the encouragement that you can do this. And so

what happens is in Moses's weakness and security, he says,

I'm gonna give you Aaron and Miriam. They're gonna give

you the back gone to So I encourage you. If

you're dealing with anxiety, start to pray to God.

That he gives you a circle.

Because what happens is if you don't have a circle

that's there to encourage you, then you are left with

your own thoughts. And Moses has already proven his thoughts

are left alone on a playground. They don't lead well

for him. So God says, I'm gonna give you Aaron

and Mariam. But what we'll see in a few moments

is Aaron and Miriam they fail Moses at one point.

So then God also gives us a perspective in the

book of numbers. We're gonna see right now is God

gives Moses a second circle, and this circle is God himself,

and so he shares to Aaron and merriamses, you're in

Moses's circle, But Moses has.

An inner circle, and his inner circle is God. And

we know by the power of the Holy Spirit. According

to the New Testament, is that when you and.

I exercise our faith, our trust, our hope, our belief

in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we are given

the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's the comforter, the Holy

Spirit's the friend, The Holy spirits the activator in your

life where you don't do this alone anymore. You may

say I've had a circle before. They failed me, so

did Moses. But you want to know what God shows

Moses in the process. Even with his circle is God

never fails. God will never fail Moses. And God may

have given Moses an opportunity for relationships, but even in

their humanity, God is with Moses every step of the way.

If you are trusting God in your life, you can

trust to know that He's with you every step.

Of the way.

And if you trust in God, you'll see that, as

we've seen in Moses' life, God will strengthen your doubt.

Moses kept giving God every reason why he didn't need

to be used, and God kept strengthening that doubt, strengthening

that doubt, strengthening dout to the point that Moses didn't

need a doubt anymore. When he put that staff in

the ground, it did something. When Aaron spoke, it did something.

When Moses spoke to Pharaoh, it did something. Why because

Moses began to know that God was with him. You know,

James Chapter one, verse six to seven speaks a little

bit about doubt, speaks mostly about doubt in the area

of trial, not the area of just prayer. It says this,

but let him ask in faith when you're in a trial,

when you're in a tough season, when your anxiety is

at the highest, he says, ask God in faith with

no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a

wave of a sea that is driven tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive

anything from the Lord. You know, this passage isn't about

prayer and just hey, close your eyes today, don't have

any doubt and ask God for a number one from

in and out, and then when you open your eyes

it'll be there. No, this faith without doubt is this idea.

That you're gonna face trials in your life.

And what's gonna happen is when you face trials, when

you face anxiety, one of the first questions that will

bubble up in your head, that is where's God in this?

And you'll think he's absent, he doesn't care, he's not near.

James tells us, don't ever doubt that God isn't here.

Don't ever doubt that God isn't here, don't ever doubt

that he's not in the process with you. And what

happens is he reassures Moses, whatever you think, whatever you're

trying to disqualify yourself, whatever you're trying to give up,

God says, I'm gonna equip you every step of the way.

You don't have a voice, I'm gonna give you the

words you want someone else to do it, I'm gonna give.

You errand but you're still gonna get the credit, Moses.

He just kept validating Moses time after time.

And then the last point.

What happens is you'll find that God will defend your trust.

If you trust God, God will come to your defense.

If you acknowledge that you have not got.

Into where you're at not because of your own doing,

but because of God's goodness, then what will happen is

God will defend you.

Here's what we see about Moses.

What happens is, according to No Chapter twelve, Aaron and

Miriam start getting cocky and they start taking credit for

the things that God is speaking to Moses.

So what happens is God will.

Visit Moses he'll tell Moses to tell Israel something because

Moses didn't feel like he was good with his words.

Moses then would gather Aaron and Miriam and say, hey,

you guys are gonna go on stage tonight. This is

what you're gonna share with the Hebrew people. Aaron and

Miriam would go up there, Israel would celebrate, God would move,

Moses would be behind the scenes, and they'd be like okay,

and things would progress. So at some point, Aaron and

Miriam don't like whom Moses married.

They don't like his wife.

And then they start saying, we're the ones on stage

actually presenting this stuff.

We're just as good as.

Moses, We're just as anointed as this thing that Moses

was anointed for. So then they have a conversation right here,

and they have a conversation Numbers chapter twelve, and it

says this Mirn and Arab spoke against Moses because of

the Kushite woman who had married, for he had married

a Cushite woman, And they said, has the Lord indeed

spoken only through Moses?

Has he not also spoken through us.

Man the pride, the arrogance, it says, and the Lord

heard it. Moses wasn't in the room, but God was

in the room. Moses didn't know what was being said,

but God knows what was being said.

Moses doesn't know.

What was being plotted, but God knows what was being plotted.

So then what happens is God shows up and he says, he.

Says this to Miriam and Aaron. He says, when there

is a prophet among you, I the Lord reveal myself

to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.

But this is not true of my servant Moses. Ful

in my house with him.

I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not

with riddles. He sees the form of the Lord. Why then,

were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses.

God shows up to Aaron and Miriam and says, hey,

I heard what you said about Moses. But listen, Moses

is in my inner circle. Moses is doing my work,

and you guys are instruments of what I'm asking Moses

to do.

And the only reason why you're in the room is

because Moses asked for you guys to be in the room.

If Moses was willing to do it on his own,

I would have done it through him. But because Moses

anxiety allowed an opportunity for you.

Guys. Now you're sitting there and you're taking credit for.

Something that I've trusted to Moses. And that's what will

pride will happen, pride of seeing God move in certain areas.

You will start to say, look at what I did.

My words are so good. Look at what I said

that got me that raise. Look at what I did

that got me that girl. Look at what I did

that got.

Me the thing.

And you just start to say, I could do this

without I could do this without my family, I could

do this without this person.

I could Oh, I could do this without God.

But we recognize without God, we don't have any of

these things.

So we cannot be like Aaron and Miriam.

Where we allow God's move in our life for us

start to build pride, start to take credit. We start

to look at other things. Man, I've gotten further than that.

And that's what they did with Moses. Moses they admire,

but they go, but he married he married that woman.

She's not Jewish, and so moses family was peer, but

they're not peer no more. So maybe someone like us

can take this down further than Moses.

If God's using Moses with all of moses.

Insecurities and all of moses anxiety, and that's what they did.

They used Moses's anxiety against him. Moses knows that they

know he's not good with his words. And they come

and they say, Moses, we're taking over from here.

You suck it talking. It's gonna be all us now.

Moses will be like, oh, my is one insecurity, the

one thing.

And there they are. They're they're magnifying that they're lifting that.

And so what happens you see.

Is their pride gets bigger than the room.

And then we see moments later what happens is Miriam

immediately contracts a skin disease and Aaron runs to Moses

and says, Moses, please forgive us.

We was talking behind your back. He said, hey, that

I don't that. I don't. I don't.

I don't want to be that guy. I don't want

that to be me. He immediately goes and he fights

to repent. God will defend you. You don't have to

defend yourself. The Lord will come to your baby.

Trust God.

God will defend you, even against your own insecurities, even

the ones people may point out.

Your insecurities in your life. It's not.

You don't have to prove anyone different. You don't have

to prove anything wrong. God is with us every step

of the way, and we need not let our pride

get in the way of what God is doing. I'll

close with this. It was many years ago, probably about

eleven years ago. I was a youth pastor for many

years here at our church. And when I was a

youth pastor at our church, we used to hold these

youth conferences, and always part of the youth conferences we

would always have like some Christian hip hop artists come

in their music they talk about Jesus and have you know,

great lyrics and stuff like that. And then and then

the conferences went so well. We started every fall around

October we would hold this thing, this Christian thing call

that we call Pumpkins and hip hop, and.

So we would hold it on.

Normally Halloween nights so that people so young people didn't

go out and kind of cause a muck, and so

they could come to a Christian setting and we'd have

Christian artists and then and then it was a hip

hop concert all night. So we invited a very famous

Christian hip hop artists to this particular night. So I

was a youth pastor and I had my team and

they were working with the manager and hip hop artists

and stuff like that. And what's mostly associated it's not

really associated with pastors who preach or anything like that.

But even in the music world, even in Christian.

Whether it's a worship leader or a rapper, most of

the time before they come, they send you this thing

called a writer.

And what the writer is.

It lists everything they ask that kind of be available

to them so that their prep time is comfortable. So

it'll tell you like the type of water that they like.

It'll tell you like what soda they drink. It'll tell you, you know,

like what kind of food or candy they like. And

so you ahead of time, you go and you get everything.

And what normally happens is the is the more well

known a person is, the more.

Strict their writer is.

If you ever want to have fun with it, just

go online and google and type in celebrities who have

the craziest writers, and you have a pretty entertaining afternoon

to see what some of these people like Madonna and

other people ask for.

So my team did their best.

They went and got the color skittles that he was requesting,

and they got the you know, flavored.

Waters that he wanted.

They did they did everything they could to try to

make him feel comfortable. Well, part of the writer was

he needed a black sweat towel so that when he's rapping,

he's gonna sweat. He wants to wipe his sweat off. Okay, sweaty,

that's good. I want you to be able to, you know,

wipe your sweat off. So all of a sudden, our

team gets everything and all that kind of stuff like that.

And we're about ten minutes from the start of this

concert and someone on my team walks up to me

and they said, hey, he said he's not gonna come

out tonight.

I say, why is he not coming out tonight? He said, well,

he he will, but we don't know.

How it's gonna be possible. He requested a black sweat towel,

and we went to seven different stores, to Walmart, Target,

blah blah blah blah, and we could only find dark

tan sweat towse and so he said he won't go

out until we get him a black sweat toowel.

I said, oh, really, where's he at right now. And

they said, oh, he's he's in the green room we

established I said, okay, great, so I boom.

I walk in that door.

The manager stands up because they always talk through their manager,

and the manager's like, hey, I'm sure you're up.

I said, I'm not talking to you. Please sit down

right now.

I said, I said, I said, we talking to Hancho

to Hancho, okay, So I'm gonna need to talk to

him right now.

And so so I walk up to him.

I said, hey, man, it's my understanding that you're not

gonna go out unless we get you some black sweat

hows and he goes, yeah, that's well, my writer said,

I said, I said, so my team spent all afternoon

trying to get you some sweat towels. This is the

best that we could do. It's a sweat towel, you know.

And he goes, it is what it is.

Man.

I can't go out until I said okay, because he

thought we was just gonna leave and scour I said,

so here's what's gonna happen.

We start in ten minutes.

I'm gonna go on that stage with six hundred youth

and I'm gonna hold up this tan sweat towel, and

I'm gonna say, Blank refuses to come out because he doesn't.

Have the right color sweat towel.

So we're canceling tonight because he didn't get the right

color towel.

I said, you good with that, and he goes, no,

I'll go out.

I said, I said, that's the best decision you could

have made today, and so I give him his little

pack of towels and then I walk out. Now, when

I walked out that room, I didn't have any animosity

towards him. He asked for black. We got him ten.

You know, we tried our best. We you know, I

didn't feel any type of way. What I did walk

away is I said, Lord, never let me get to

a place where you have elevated me so far, and

all I care about is the color of my sweat towel.

I just said for.

Myself, God, I don't know what you're gonna do in

my life one day.

But I hope I never care what water I have.

I hope I never.

Cared what sweat Because he was about to go up

there and rap about Jesus, but was concerned about the

color of his towel. He pulled an air in a Miriam,

and it was about to get real embarrassing for him

as air and Miriam if I went on.

That stage, but I had refused for myself. Whether he

learned from it or I don't know.

He could have went to the next church and asked

for to say that dealt with the same sweat.

But I know for me, God taught me to say.

Adam, don't ever let what I'm doing in your life

get in the way of expectations of people who are

trying their best to follow Jesus. And you're just putting

road bell put in a road block after a roadblock

after because your own ego has been built up because

of what God has done in your life. God's done

a miracle in your marriage. And you're talking to someone

and you're making it sound like God can never do

a miracle in their marriage.

God did a miracle in your children, and you're.

Talking to someone that they need to affirming that God

can do a but you're making it sound like.

This is just God. Just let me so much. Oh God,

God can do it for someone else.

And so as God has moved and will move in

your life, just know he'll come to your defense. But

also don't let that pride of God's goodness think that

you had something to do with it. God was moving

in you, and God surely did a miracle.

And I want to invite you today.

If you've never made Jesus Christ as your personal lord

and save you're, let right now be the first miracle.

If you've never seen a miracle of God, the first

miracle you can ever see of God is the fact

that Jesus can save you no matter where you are,

no matter how far you are from God, no matter

how broken you no matter how disheartened you are, no

matter how much people may have failed you, no matter

how far your sin may be or your addiction may be,

none of those things are too deep, too.

Far for God not to save.

So you may be in this place today, in the courtyard,

or in this room, or in a cafe, and you

may be thinking yourself, I need Jesus. But if God

saw how broken I was, well guess what Moses showed

God how broken he was?

And what did God do?

He loved him all the more, He built him even

in his weaknesses. So the best thing you and I

can do in our brokenness and our weakness and in

our failures.

Is say, God, I give it all to you. So,

if you're here in.

This place and you've never rested your hope on the

fact that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and not

only did he die for your sins, three days later

he rose from the grave, and God the Father showed

us that that was the perfect sacrifice for you and I.

You need not any savior other than Jesus. So if

you're in.

This place today, you're saying, I want that savior, I

want that relationship with God.

Then choose first to follow Jesus.

Choose first to give Jesus all of your brokenness, all

of your sin, all of your failures, because he can

truly do a miracle in your heart and in your life. So,

if you're here, would you all bow your head and

close your eyes as we leave this place together, would

you repeat this prayer after me as some people are

gonna mean this with their whole heart, Some are gonna

be rededicating their life, some are gonna be saying this

prayer for the first time. And by no means the

prayer is not the thing that saves us. The Holy

Spirit is already at work.

In your life.

All we're doing is affirming God's mercy right now, would

you join me in saying this prayer today, Dear Lord Jesus,

in this moment, I confess you as Lord and Savior.

I believe in my heart that you died on the

cross and you rose three days later, And from this

day forward I commit to following you for the rest

of my days.

In Jesus' name, Amen,