Herb's Story

Last Sunday we started a new series called Stories.

And it's a really simple series.

We are sharing some of the stories of people here at His Hands and hearing about how God has made Himself known to them.

So last week I kind of got it started and I shared a series of stories from my life, very scattered, very random.

It was eight stories.

It was supposed to be ten, but my wife wisely was like, You don't have time to do ten.

I know you, you talk so much, and so I cut it to eight.

And in retrospect, it probably should have been six, but I did eight.

And the whole point of it was simply this understanding that all of us have stories to tell.

I am not someone who would say, Oh, you got to hear my story.

My life story in many ways is really like it's just not exciting enough.

If it wouldn't be good for like a movie, and I have been someone in the past who's kind of discounted myself from being someone who has a story to share.

But in preparing for the message last week, I realized, like, no, I I may not have some epic story, but I've had all these moments in my life where God has made himself known.

And there's nothing more powerful that you will ever experience.

Even if you're here for the first time, even if you're not sure about the whole God thing, you're not sure where you stand with Jesus, that's fine.

I will tell you, you maybe trust me on this or not.

There is nothing more powerful than when you get a deeper understanding of God, when he becomes known to you.

When you have moments in life where God goes from being distant to close, being an idea to a relationship, there's nothing like it.

There's nothing that compares.

And he loves all of us.

He loves you.

And he desires for you to know him and to know him deeply.

And these stories are just stories about how God has made himself known to different people here in our church, and he will make himself known to you.

Revelation chapter 12 says that our enemy is defeated by two things: the power of the blood of Jesus and the power of our stories, of our testimonies.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Jesus changes people's lives.

And he changes them for the better.

And he does it all the time.

And there are so many of us in this room who would say, look, I am not the person I used to be because of Jesus.

Yeah.

Because of him.

And so I'm so excited to be able to share some of these stories with you.

And today we have a real treat.

We get to start with actually the gentleman who just led us in Lord's Supper, which is Herb.

Now, a little bit of setup for this.

I've known Herb for many years.

And some of you maybe are new, and Herb's a kind of a mystery to you.

He's just he's a guy you've seen on stage a few times.

Um he's one of the volunteers on our worship team, our whole worship team, they're all volunteers, they're amazing people.

And and Herb's been on the worship team, I want to say, for like six plus years now, somewhere in that range, six, seven years.

Yeah, Herb's awesome.

And and Herb is one of these people who I've I actually met, I met you before that.

The first time I met Herb, he was doing worship for an FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting at a at a local high school.

And, you know, I've been to many of those.

I used to be a youth pastor, and that's just something that you do, and it's like 7 a.m.

in a high school, and there's like 20 high school kids who are just tired.

And, you know, if you've ever worked with like teenagers, and and many of you in the room are teenagers, you teenagers have a superpower.

And that superpower is the ability to make everyone around you feel judged and self-conscious and not cool.

Right?

Like, you might feel really good about yourself, like you're you're great, you're doing great, all of a sudden you get around a group of teenagers and you're like, I'm not cool, am I?

I I'm so like what's wrong with me?

Because teenagers just they make you like my oldest is becoming a teenager, and I feel less like I feel, what's I feel like I'm in middle school again.

You're like, what's wrong with me?

Okay?

And so when you're working with students, it's really easy to become self-conscious and kind of shrink in terms of your maybe your joy for God, your because you don't want to look like a fool.

So I go to this FCA meeting, and Herb's the guy leading worship, never met him, never seen him before.

And he brought as much energy and passion at 7 a.m.

at a high school that I'd ever seen in my life.

And it was like, oh my gosh, this guy is he's incredible.

Herb, he he embodies a few things about our church that I love so much.

They're so important.

Number one, the love of Jesus.

Any if you've ever spent time with Herb, you walk away feeling loved.

He loves Jesus, he loves God, he loves people.

And love is one of the most important aspects of our church, if not the, it is the most important aspect.

If we do all the stuff we do, but people don't experience the love of God, then we might as well close the doors and lock them.

And the second thing about herb is just authenticity.

Like herb is herb.

And you don't ever get a different, I've I've known you, I've had a lot of interactions with you over the years.

You never get like, which herb am I gonna get?

You know, some people have that.

In fact, there's a scripture, this reminds me of herb every time I read it.

John chapter 1, verse 47.

John 1:47

Jesus meets one of his uh first disciples.

His name's Nathaniel, and it says, when Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said of him, Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.

And that actual word in the original language, deceit, it means like duplicity.

Like he's not someone, there's not two of him.

It's not like which herb woke up this morning.

And and I can be like that.

Like I think a lot of us can.

I don't I don't know if that could be said of me sometimes.

A herb is herb, and and authenticity is one of the most important things for us as a church.

In fact, this is a little tiny aside, but over the last 20 years, one of the interesting developments that's happened in church culture in America is church has gotten like depending on hear me out, like better as an experience, and here's what I mean.

When I was a kid and my parents took me to church, I never expected it to be good.

Like the music, that was not an expectation.

It was never good.

You know, it was like we're singing from this book, and there's a lady behind me that's hitting a note that a human being shouldn't be able to hit.

Someone should have talked to her 30 years ago and said, bring it down, because it's awful, but no one would.

Right?

And that's just that's a church.

And and that was expected.

And you know, as far as messages go, it was like it was what does good mean?

It was not engaging, the kids' experience was sit still.

That was children stuff.

Sit still, draw on the bulletin, just don't make any noise, behave.

That was and so over the last 20 years, churches have kind of done this thing where it's like, let's make it better.

Let's make things great, let's make kids' ministry awesome, and let's make let's let's put stuff into the music, let's make it better, let's make it more engaging, and and all that's fine, but this is what I'm saying.

In some ways, it's been great, in other ways it's been a disaster.

Because we're lying to ourselves if we believe that what the world needs is a more polished or a shinier version of our faith.

The Bible is many things, polished is not one of them.

Like, you know, they don't take the stories of the men and women in scripture and like let's make sure we smooth out the rough edges.

You get all the rough spots.

People don't need something shiny, they need something real.

And so part of our culture at his hands, and if you're new, it's just important you know this up front, is we don't really worry too much about uh making it shiny.

We want it to be good, we want it to be excellent, that's fine.

But I'm more than willing to sacrifice some excellence if it's genuine and real.

And Herb is one of those people who just embodies that.

He is real, he is genuine, and as you hear in his story, it gets real at moments.

And so, enough about me talking about Herb.

We'll let Herb do the talking himself.

Um I want to real quick shout out to Madison, who's our youth pastor.

Madison is the one who has really like done all the legwork on compiling these stories and interviewing everyone, and so you're gonna see a lot of Madison in the next few weeks, and he's done an amazing job with this.

But here's what we're gonna do we're gonna watch Herb tell his story.

I'm gonna come back out and just share a few thoughts.

And my my prayer is that all of us, as we listen to this story, would have this heart for saying, God, what it what are you showing me about who you are through Herb?

What do you have for me?

What do I need to be reminded of?

Because Herb's story is not just for him, it's for you.

Alright?

Cool.

So with that said, let's hear what Herb has to say.

It's the thing, it's something about suffering that that changes us.

Something about suffering that makes us understand God better sometimes.

So I'm I'm just gonna be my own, I'm gonna be myself.

I was gonna say what like literally what we were just doing.

Hey everybody, uh, if we haven't met, my name's Madison, and you probably recognize Herb.

Herb Moon.

That's it.

I just found out that your name was supposed to be what was your name supposed to be?

Richard.

Richard.

But what happened?

Well, my dad couldn't get there through a snowstorm, so by the time he got there, my mother had named me Herb J Moon.

There you go.

So that's where Herb Moon comes from.

That's awesome.

Well, um, I just wanted to sit down with you because I know if you if you know Herb, uh, you know that he can talk your ear off.

And you definitely do talk off.

I'm I'm like Justin, man.

I'm trying to learn to pull back.

Yeah, yeah.

But you tell really good stories, and each time, each iteration of the story, I'm like, where does that fit into the Herb storyline?

Like, I'm creating like a cinematic universe of all the different stories and trying to keep it.

It's the multiverse, man.

It's the multiverse.

But I also know that God is like the main character of your story, too.

Like, we're you're the main character of your story, but God has so much to do with it.

And so I guess I just wanted to start off and ask about you and how you met Jesus and um basically what let's start with what was life like before you met Jesus?

And kind of tell me that, tell me that story.

Okay, like all right, before Jesus, I was in a band.

Okay.

We were we were a traveling band, and I uh was in the streets doing uh things with women.

Um we had women that were working hotels in Atlanta when businessmen would come in.

Um say it, say it as plain as well.

Okay, when businessmen would come in leaving their wives, yeah, coming to town on a business event.

Gotcha.

They would come down the streets where the prostitutes were.

And so they would come down the streets or they there would be prostitutes in the hotels who hooked up with them and then they'd go back home to their wives.

Gotcha.

So I was involved in that.

Involved in it being like you were organizing it, you were benefiting from it.

I was benefiting from it.

Like financially, so you're a pimp, is the is the word for it.

Okay.

And so I've never known you to be someone of that character.

You know what I mean?

I can't be it's it's hard for me to even think that I was part of something like that.

And so so what happened?

Like what what got you from that to where you are now?

Well, what was happening was I uh I was in that involved in uh I also was a gigolo.

Okay, which which means I was getting paid to have sex.

Okay.

One night I went to a club that was way in the southwest area of Atlanta.

And I walked in for some reason that night I didn't want to stay.

I looked around, there was an old man sitting at the bar, and I looked at him, and it was like a voice said, if you don't leave, you're gonna be that guy.

And he was trying to talk to a young girl.

He's an old guy sitting over like this, trying to talk, and I was like, uh.

And so I leave, I stop in a store.

When I get to the store, the lady in the store doesn't want me to leave.

She starts talking about how good I look and in my outfit, and why don't you stay with me, baby, and all this kind of stuff.

And I'm like, oh man, I gotta go.

And I was weird.

So I was on my way, uh leaving Southwest on 20, and I got to where uh 285 and 20 meet, and something was something said get off the expressway here.

And I went, I'm not getting off the expressway here.

So first you hear the voice about the old man.

Yeah.

Next it's get off the expressway.

Expressway right here.

Cool.

And I'm going, oh man, I said it.

And then all of a sudden it starts raining.

Just a light drizzle and I just keep going.

About that time, a wolf jumps over the wall.

And when it touches down in front of me, uh, I slam the brakes, no one's else on the expressway, my car hits the wall, my face goes through the windshield.

Next thing you know, I'm standing outside my car holding a vest.

I had an English cut suit, uh, and I had the vest holding it on my face, and my face was uh bleeding.

I see this wolf, tongue really red, eyes really red.

It runs over to the to the there's a medium where it's a lot of trees, and it stands up and looks at me like this.

And then it goes down and disappears.

Well, through that incident, I'm there.

The people I'm staying with, I'm staying with one of the girls that actually does the hotels.

I'm uh standing, she just says, Stay here, you don't have to go back.

Because I was living in the Southwest.

She said, You don't have to go back.

Just stay here and uh I'll just help take care of you.

Well, my face looked like a monster.

And uh I'd go to the mirror, it's almost about to make me cry, but I'd go to the mirror and told God, I said, if you just let me look normal again, I'll never live this life again.

And so about the third time I went, I saw something fall.

It was like two or three days, like I saw something fall, and I looked up and my face was starting to heal.

And I was still in the group, so I started wearing like hats.

I'd wear hats down because I had scars and stuff, I'd wear hats.

And um I was I was I I started getting better, and we were we started back singing a few places, and then I started going back to hang out again in the street, kind of in the streets a little bit, and ran to a girl at the mall in Southwest Atlanta, Greenbrier Mall.

Actually, she's working, there used to be a gold shop in there, she's working in the gold shop.

And I went in and thought, you know, I'm in like buying gold and stuff and just kind of messing around, getting to trying to get a chance to talk to her.

And uh she goes, Why don't you go to Bible study with me?

And I go, Whoa, that's a red flag.

I'm out of here.

So I get out, I leave, I go back again later on and try to talk to her again.

She goes, Why don't you go to Bible study with me?

And I go, Bible study?

I said, I can't go.

And I start making excuses about going.

She said, I said, Who's teaching?

And she mentioned the guy's name, and it was a friend of mine, a guy who had witnessed to me years before I even met her.

Well, he used to come pick me up and take me to eat and said, I know you're doing clubs and I know you're doing music in clubs, but uh you need to consider giving your life to Christ.

And so I finally went to that Bible study, and he was the guy, I was backslid, then I had accepted the Lord through him years ago.

But it didn't really stick in, it was kind of just a thing.

Yeah, it was just a thing.

And so now I go to this big Bible study, and they go, You have his number?

He's famous.

And so I walk in, it's packed out.

It's it's um it's uh metro by I think it became Metro Bible study in Atlanta.

And I walk in and I'm looking, and I go, and they take me backstage.

And I go, hey man.

He goes, How you doing?

I said, I'm coming back.

He says, Okay.

And then he doesn't he doesn't say anything else.

He just, but his eye, he had those eyes look like he's looking through you.

I was like, oh man, he don't even believe me.

So I keep going to the Bible study.

He dies in a plane crash.

But anyway, I start changing, trying to get myself together.

Then I run into another guy who's North Georgia, Mountains, and uh he had engineer boots on, long hair, we were all scruffy looking, and he comes to me, let's go to Thursday Night Bible study.

And I go, Thursday night Bible study, what's that?

He goes, Thursday night Bible study.

You gotta come to Thursday Night Bible Study.

I go, okay, when are you going?

He said, next Thursday night.

So he comes and gets me.

Because now I'm really trying to make some changes.

I'm um I'm trying to let go of all the stuff that made me that other person.

So I'm letting go of stuff.

I get it, I get, I end up accepting the Lord again during that period of time.

I end up going to a Thursday night Bible study with Him.

And so we're at Thursday night Bible study, and I'm looking around, and it's like 300 college and career students, and they're worshiping God like God's real.

You know, I'm believing, but like it hadn't really hit me like that.

And I'm looking, I'm going, man, God's real.

I don't want to miss out.

And so I looked and I sat there in the thing one night and I just said, God, if you're real, man, I want to, I want to really know you.

And then my life started changing.

I was changing more.

And the guy over the Bible study was a really great teacher.

He made me think of Justin, actually.

He was a he was a really neat guy, but I had other experiences at home.

Like, I had a cloud come in my room.

Okay.

Like, they started telling me, you need the Holy Spirit, you know, Holy Spirit.

And I was like, they gave somebody gave me this book and I started reading through it, and at the end it said, just ask.

And I go, I read this whole book just to ask.

And so I'm sitting there.

Could you explain that on page one next to you?

Yeah.

Yeah, so I'm sitting there and I'm watching.

Uh give me to watch TV.

I give it a plug-in.

I only had a small TV in the room, like one sitting on a little table, and I see something out of the corner of my eye.

And it moves in, it moves out.

It's in between, like the where the window top is and the ceiling.

There's that space in between.

And I saw a cloud come in, and I was like, oh man, I started and I go, and it and when it moved, it'd leave a blur.

And it had things spinning in it.

And then when it gets over here, this blur would fade away and it would be over here.

And it kept moving in and it moved in over me.

And I went, and it got over me, and I went, oh God, if this is you, don't kill me.

And then I just sat there and I opened my eyes and it was raining on me.

Not water, but these crystal clear things.

And I was like, I'm looking at it and I'm going, I'm not high.

I hadn't been high.

I don't smoke.

I'm not having a relapse.

Nothing's going on.

And I'm watching this.

And then I just sit there.

And then the room gets really quiet.

Totally quiet.

And I call up my one friend that I, and I go, hey man, I got this.

A cloud came in my room.

He said, You ever heard about the cloud that led the children of Israel through the desert?

I said, No, I ain't got to that part yet.

He goes, Oh man, you gotta go read it.

And so I read it and I was like, okay, God's supernatural.

So I started accepting him as being supernatural.

So next time rolls around, I'm getting ready to go to church.

And I don't want to miss church, right?

And so I'm sitting there and I'm going, okay, God, I'm gonna take a shower now.

Don't let me miss church because they're coming to pick me up this Sunday morning.

So I get in the shower, I start soaping, I'm all soaked up.

My face, I can't, you know, I can't see, and lips touch my ear.

Like somebody's like, somebody would kiss your ear like that.

Yeah.

Lips touch my ear, and then out loud I hear, someone's at the door, just like that.

That's just that plane.

Someone's at the door.

And I go, and then I go, whoa, I asked him.

He's supernatural.

That's what he does, you know, and that's why I accepted God like that.

Right.

And so I wrench off enough and throw a tile on.

So you're not just immediately throwing that stuff out.

You're going, I've I've experienced this.

Yeah, I so I'm I know there's a supernatural world.

Yeah.

And so I'm like, but now I'm on a different side.

And I'm like, this, oh God, oh I don't know.

So I run to the window, and I'm in a townhouse.

So when you look at the window, like if somebody's up by the door, you can't see them.

I roll up, I raise up the window, I go, hey, and the girl steps back.

She said, Hey, I just came by, I didn't want you to miss church.

We'll be down about 10 minutes.

And I just thank God.

I said, Thank you.

And from there, I just continued to grow.

It just, it was like, it was a journey of him continuing to talk to me.

But the thing that hit me as time went on, it's like he made me trust him, you know, rather than tell me everything, where he used to talk all the time to me, then he started pulling back and was like, and I thought, oh man, what am I doing?

Something wrong?

So you aren't having those like discreet, like, I hear his voice clearly get off the exit or go to the room.

Wait, no, not out loud stuff.

Where I was used to hearing out loud, and I was like, oh man, I'm at, did I mess up?

Is something wrong?

And then someone told me that God, you know, might walk with you like that in the beginning, but he's pulling away from you so that you can learn to trust even when he's not speaking out loud.

And so I just from that moment on I realized, okay, God, you're real.

And then one day, this is funny, I'm I'm I I was gonna go to church, but the people weren't going.

For some reason, we didn't hook up.

So there was a church around the corner.

So I walk out of my place with my body.

But I carried it everywhere.

I carried it everywhere with me.

And I walked to this other church and I started telling them as we're walking, I'm telling them the stories I just told you.

And they go, All right.

The stuff that happened to you that you talk about or hearing from God and stuff like that, that went away with the apostles.

And I go, You're crazy.

They go, no.

That went away.

I said, Who do you think I'm gonna believe?

You or my own ears and my own eyes?

I'm out of here.

I started leaving, walking out, they start chasing me down the street.

Come back, come back.

We need to talk to you.

I got out of y'all look crazy.

Get out of here, you stupid.

And I go home and I was like, what kind of idiots are?

Man, they don't even know about God.

And so it was really, it was a really crazy time.

But but anyway, I kept continuing to grow in the Lord, and I just learned to trust him at his word.

But when I first like after I start really start trying to go to church and really get more into it, I believed God at his word.

And so I believed that everybody was real Christians.

And so when I this was one of the things that kind of shook me up, I get to, I get to church and people wouldn't, you know, I'd hear stuff people were saying, or the way they were acting, I'd hear somebody cuss or do something, and I'd go, they're not real Christians.

I had the place where I started to judge people, they're not real Christians.

How can you be a Christian and act like then I realized learn I learned later on from the guy who's over the Bible study that people bring their baggage?

Yeah, it's a hospital.

Well, yeah, and you're you're seeing like anytime you're part of a church, you're seeing people at different points on that journey that you've been on.

Yeah.

And they might be still in that spot where they need God to whisper in their ear or to send a wolf.

Yeah, so I was like, man, and then he'd be explaining, he said, people have baggage.

He said, Don't you still have stuff?

And I go, Yeah, yeah.

He said, That's what that is.

Everybody has different stuff.

Some stuff is like really blatant, you go, whoa! And then there's stuff that other people just kind of hidden that you don't know they have.

But we're all on this journey walking toward God.

And I was like, oh, I get it now.

And so I started just trying to trust God and walk it out.

Even though I was trying to live it out, I didn't realize some of the things that I had until after I got married.

Okay.

When me and Darna got together.

After I got married, I I realized I was really angry.

And I didn't realize how angry I was.

I got, I was pretty crazy.

If you ever talk to her, she'll tell you how crazy.

I shared it at a marriage thing.

But I was really, really crazy.

And I found out what was what it was, why I was so angry.

I had lived my whole life doing that and doing music.

And I had been on five major record labels as a kid.

I was in I was just before I became a Christian, we were getting ready to sign a deal.

And I and I just basically kind of left that whole thing.

And um and I became a Christian.

I was like, I have no career.

I have nothing.

I've done music my entire life.

Now, God, what do I do now?

And then I went in up all these crazy jobs and things that I was doing.

I'm like, yeah, I know you're taking care of me, but I'm hating this, you know.

And just like kind of like David, I'm just complaining all the time.

And so, but because I was so angry, a lot of times I took it out on my family when they were on Darna and the kids when they were younger, you know.

And I was just really, just really upset.

And then I realized the reason I was angry was because of that.

I I felt like God had taken the thing that was my dream.

And and the reason I wasn't singing to be famous, I wasn't doing any of that to be famous.

I was doing it because my family was so poor and struggling.

About to cry.

That I wanted to go back and change their lives and really be able to give them something.

But eventually, after I became a Christian, when we me and Darren first got engaged, I went to Ohio to see my dad.

And when I walked in the door, he started crying.

I led my dad to the Lord three months before he died.

Wow.

And then somebody told me, said, Hey, the house and everything you wanted to give him.

You gave him a mansion.

He's in heaven.

You gave him far more.

If you were able to talk to that young version of yourself who is in the streets, what would you say?

I tell him, Jesus is the only way, there's no other way.

What you're looking for is not out there.

It will not fulfill you, it will not help your life.

All you have is Jesus.

Stuff doesn't matter, everything else will let you down.

But he's a guy you can come with.

And he will take care of you, he will stand with you through your craziness and through your hard times.

And that's what he's done for me.

It hasn't been easy.

A lot of different attitudes I had to deal with where the Lord just told me to just suck it up because I put you here for a reason.

I've been screamed at by people in churches, but I never fell away from the church because of it.

Because I just figured that one person had something wrong.

It's just like blaming one group of people and saying, whoa, that person's messed up everybody's bed.

Right.

I just figured that guy was still dealing with his stuff too.

I think maybe that's why Jesus says, How hard is it for the rich man to enter heaven?

Yeah.

I think it is because it's like, well, there's no there's no story there, there's no need, there's no like desperation, like desperate need for God.

Yeah.

And because of that, we can just get comfortable in ourselves and with those things that you're saying won't satisfy you, but it can numb that that need for a long time.

And and it's not really until we let some of some of that stuff go.

It's the thing, it's something about suffering that that changes us.

Something about suffering that makes us understand God better sometimes.

Yeah.

Herb, thank you for sharing your story, man.

You you definitely got real.

I appreciate that a lot.

Actually, it takes real courage to do that.

Love you a lot, man.

Grateful that you're part of our church.

Um, I love Herb a lot.

I'll tell you if you ever want to see a really cool experience with Herb, is see what happens when like a little kid at our church comes up to him, because Herb leads all of our kids' worship, and he's written all these original songs, and the kids see like music videos that we've made with Herb.

And so, like, my my four-year-old, Herb might as well be like the number one rock star in the world.

If Herb Herb walks up to our car, he just like, he's real, it's really amazing.

You're like a celebrity, my son.

You know, there's a few quick things.

Um, honestly, Herb, again, thank you for that.

Really appreciate your story and your perspective.

You know, Herb, he's he's an interesting guy in a lot of ways.

And one of my one of my favorite things about him, one of the most interesting things about Herb and his story, is how comfortable Herb is talking about like miraculous, strange things in just the most matter-of-fact way.

You know, like so as you're watching the story, he's like, and there's a cloud in my room, you know?

And and maybe you're someone who's like, really?

Like, because I'll be honest, Herb, I've had you tell me stories sometimes and I'm nodding my head, but in my mind, I'm like, is this really?

Like, because most people would would, if they had an experience like that, they would be aware of the fact that the other person might be skeptical, so they would sort of set it up like, hey, you may not believe this, and this may be really hard to wrap your head around, but but Herb doesn't do that.

Herb is it's like it's just like, oh yeah, one day and there's a cloud in my room.

That was God.

And you're like, whoa, excuse me?

And and as I was watching Herb's story this week and just thinking about it late last night, early this morning, I was just so struck by how comfortable Herb is with God doing God things.

And so I wanted to take just a minute and focus on that.

I think that's something for all of us today.

It is it is good to desire more of God.

It's very important for all of us to be people who are desiring more of God.

Whatever you've experienced of God in your life, I promise you there's more.

You know, and so for some of us, that more might just be the first step of faith.

Maybe you've never put your faith in Jesus at all.

For some of us, that more is maybe for the first time ever experiencing the truth of God, and it's opening up scripture and it's reading God's word, and it's it's going, oh my goodness, this is this is real.

This is my life can be built on the truth of what God says, and it it works, it does fulfill.

For some of us, that more is experiencing the Holy Spirit, God's actual presence active in our lives, and that might for you mean hearing God speak to you.

And he speaks in a variety of ways.

It doesn't, it's not always in the shower, right?

With a lip on your ear, but but it but maybe you you've had, maybe some of you have had that experience.

You're like, God, God spoke to me.

But I will say this a lot of the times, there's a discomfort that people, even people who've grown up in church, begin to experience when someone talks very matter-of-factly, with no hedging, with no, and and maybe I made it up in my head, or maybe not, but just when someone matter-of-factly starts talking about God, doing God things, sometimes this discomfort builds up inside of us.

And so I thought about it a lot and about how Herb's story for me is a reminder that I need to make sure in my life that I have a healthy relationship with a supernatural God who can do supernatural things.

And what I found is that means I have to live somewhere between being a skeptic and being a miracle chaser.

Because I'll say in my life and in my role here at the church, I've seen a lot of people, when it comes to a lot of the things that Herb described, like these crazy moments where God does things that are just like when you have that sort of really, I've seen people really trip up on the whole supernatural aspect of God and sort of land in a variety of places that can really be unhealthy.

One of those places, one extreme, is to be a skeptic.

You know, it reminds me of my my oldest had an experience several years ago, my oldest son.

And uh and and it was like I was in the room when it happened, I was talking to him about something, and he kind of zoned out, which is not unusual for one of my children while I'm talking to them.

Um but I was I was talking about something pretty intense, and he just kind of like came to and said, Hey, I'm I'm good.

Yes, sir, I'm good.

And I was like, Okay, let's like quit while you're ahead.

He said, Yeah, you know what I mean, one of those moments as a parent.

But it was it was weird.

I was like, something happened.

I was talking to my son, and he just it was different.

It was, you know, because this was like a coaching conversation.

And it was different.

And I asked him, like a couple days later, I said, Hey son, I'm not trying to bring up a few days ago.

I know we were having a little bit of conflict, but that just seemed like a different sort of what what happened?

He's like, Well, it's weird.

He said, but all of a sudden it's like you were talking, but he said, I saw in my mind like the burning bush from the story of of Moses, if you're familiar.

And then I saw Jesus standing next to the burning bush, and and he told me, I want you to do this for me.

And it was what I was trying to challenge him to do.

And that's where he just turned and said, Yes, I'll do that.

And so he had this experience where he, and it for him it was as real as anything you could imagine.

And I'm just glad Jesus backs me up as a dad, so I'm like, Yeah, let's go.

Okay?

So fast forward a few years, my son's in this environment where, and it was a a Christian in environment, it wasn't here at our church, it was at a different a different thing.

And the person who was leading this just sort of asked this question, like, oh, has anyone here ever had this like some type of experience, whatever?

And my son had the courage to share that.

And the person who he shared that with immediately shut him down and said, Hey, I know you think you saw Jesus, but you didn't.

Because Jesus ascended to heaven, and so and and and he was being like very like literal about certain things, and I was so mad.

It was one of the first times I've ever had a phone call with someone.

And I did.

Because I'm a dad, I have that right now.

I can be the, you know, and I it wasn't like an angry phone call, but here was my challenge with it.

You know, what my son was describing was definitely out of the norm, but it wasn't unprecedented.

So Jesus died and he rose again, and then he he eventually, several days later, ascended to heaven and his disciples saw that.

But but after he ascended to heaven, there's multiple times in scripture where he appeared to his people.

Uh one of which was the Apostle Paul.

When he wasn't the Apostle Paul, he was persecuting the church.

His name was Saul, and he was on his way to a place called Damascus, and Jesus appears to him and blinds him and says, like, hey, you're gonna listen to what I say?

If you want to see again, things are gonna change.

And and Jesus appears to uh to his disciple John when John writes the letter or the book Revelation at the end of the Bible.

And and so I'm thinking, I'm and I'm talking to this man about this.

I said, Hey, look, here's the thing.

What my son described may seem strange to you, but this is a man who like believes in scripture.

I said, but nothing he described is unbiblical.

Nothing he described is unprecedented.

And this was where I got to, and it was it was like from a depth in my heart.

How in the world can we be people who experience God doing something unprecedented?

If we can't be people who are open to God doing something he's already done before.

Like I would imagine many of us would say, I want to be someone who experiences really cool things.

Like, I would love it if God did something in my life that he's never done before.

Like, how many of you honestly would be so thrilled to know that God wanted to do something unprecedented, something he's never done before in your life, because Scripture's filled with those stories.

In fact, it's one of the things that made Jesus so unique is the people would say, We've never seen anything like this before.

How amazing would it be to be a person who experiences something new, something unprecedented.

But if we can't have enough faith to even believe in God doing something that isn't unprecedented at all, something he's already done, we'll never experience that.

We'll miss it.

You know, the things that Herb described in this story, like they're not, they're they're weird.

Just saying, they are.

But they're not unprecedented.

You know, the whole cloud thing, that's not unprecedented.

There's there's times that God's Spirit shows up in Scripture multiple times, and it's in that sort of an experience.

There's Moses on the mountaintop, there's the people of Israel in the wilderness, right?

Like, that's not unprecedented.

And so if I'm gonna be someone who experiences that more of God, I have to be someone with enough faith to accept God doing something that He's done.

That's skepticism, and I'm not talking about a healthy questioning, it's good to question.

Question away.

But there's a difference between a question that comes out of a place of curiosity and a hard-hearted skepticism.

You know, Jesus himself dealt with the skeptics in Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

We see an example where he says, What sorrow awaits you, Khorazan and Bethsaida, these were cities that he had visited.

He said, For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked tyre in Sidon, which were these ancient cities of old that that were far from God, he said, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap, throwing ashes on their head to show their remorse.

He's like, You're so skeptical, you're so unwilling to accept what you've seen that you've completely missed it.

You've missed me.

I don't ever want to be someone who misses all that God has.

And so, Herb, your story reminds me of that.

That, hey, if I if I want to be someone who experiences more, I've got to have room in my heart for God to do God things.

I don't want to be a skeptic.

I also don't want to be like a miracle chaser, and I will say really quickly, that can be an unhealthy thing as well, where you're someone who and this is this happens a lot with people who get really excited about supernatural things, but it becomes to this almost unhealthy point where you're more worshiping the experience of God, you're more desiring a miracle with God than you are actually desiring a close relationship with God Himself.

Herb loves God, Herb loves Jesus.

He's not chasing just another encounter with God.

It'd be kind of like this, like if every, if you're married, for example, if every morning I woke up and asked my wife to repeat her vows to me.

It's like, hey, would you just say that again?

You know, I know you said it the one time, and I believe you meant it, but I just need you to do it again, just for my own peace of mind.

Like that'd be very odd.

Like I'm not a marriage counselor, but I imagine if one of you is, you would say, Yeah, don't do that.

That's that's not because that would be that would be me displaying a tremendous amount of insecurity in her commitment to me.

If I if I had to have her continuously do things to prove what she had already done.

And I think it's important too as we start to maybe desire to experience God doing God things, that we keep in mind that it can be really unhealthy if we get to a place where we need him to do something crazy for us to follow him, for us to be excited about him.

You know, so Herb has experienced God's stuff, but he's not a miracle chaser.

I know that.

He's not someone whose excitement for God is only as strong as his most recent experience.

And so I want to be one of those people who's not a skeptic, but also not chasing miracles.

And what I think that looks like really simply as we wrap up is this just be open and unashamed.

When I think of Herb and what his story reminds me of, it's to be open to God and unashamed of all that God has done in my life.

To have a heart that is truly open that says, God, like we sang today, Lord, have your way.

Lord, have your way in me, I'll make room for you.

To have that sort of a heart, a mentality, and even if you're brand new to the idea of Jesus, if you have an open heart, he will fill it.

I promise you that.

If your heart is open to God, he will fill your heart.

And he will fill it to capacity and then some.

The more room you make in your life for God, the more he will fill you.

Just be open to him and be unashamed.

When God does something, talk about it.

And don't worry if people don't believe it.

Don't worry if people don't know exactly what I mean.

Don't be weird.

Let's let's say that.

Like, there is a certain, like, you know, have social skills.

But but when you share what God has done in your life, this is what I love about Herb, be unashamed.

And and some will receive it, some will.

But be unashamed of the things that God has done in your life.

So, Herb, I want to thank you.

Uh happy Father's Day to you, and thank you for being an open and unashamed follower of Jesus.

You are awesome, man.

Let's hear it for Herb one more time.

A couple quick things as we wrap up.

Number one, you've seen this on the screen.

Some we we want to hear your story during this series.

And so you can at any time scan that QR code on your camera or you go to our website on our homepage, and I'm excited to see all the stories that come in.

So please share your story with us because uh hearing each other's stories is something we want not to just be this contained thing that happens in this series.

This is something we want to do on a continual basis, and all of you guys have awesome stories, and so share your stories with us.

Next week, we get to hear the story of a couple, and it's a story um uh these are people that I've known for so long.

And rather than me talk about it, let me just give you guys a really quick short preview of a story we're gonna look at next week.

So take a look at this.

I'm probably not alone in this, but I spent a lot of time, or I did previously spend much more time focused on all of the all of the prayers that went unanswered, all the things that I may have asked for, may have wanted that didn't go the way that I wanted.

Um without recognizing all the blessings that were there, all the things that you either prayed for in passing, or maybe didn't even know that you were praying for that came to you, that were given to you, that you were blessed by so Steve and Carrie Crane have a really cool story, and our church has been a really big part of it.

Um they've been here for like something like 15 years and served in all kinds of areas of our church.

You've probably seen them, and so next week we get to hear from them, and it's uh it's a really, really cool story.

And even from an invitation standpoint, I'll say this, um, not to spoil it, but like you're gonna be here next week, should be here anyway, be here unless you're out of town, and even then watch online.

But um one of the things I have seen as a pastor that can be a real crisis of faith for people is when someone that they love experiences tremendous tragedy.

You know, when when you have that person you love and they have a diagnosis and you pray really hard and it just doesn't go the way you pray.

And that can be a really hard thing to reconcile with a loving God who has all the power in the universe, and if why didn't you do it for me, that kind of thing.

I've seen that's a common story.

And and Stephen specifically and Carrie as well, but his story is very much a story of how to reconcile unanswered prayers with a God who loves you and can do anything.

And so maybe that applies to you, or maybe someone's coming to your mind that you know they have they have that difficulty in trusting God because of a situation like that.

Next Sunday would be an unbelievable Sunday to bring them because it's an incredibly inspiring story, and I'm so excited for us to hear it.

Okay?

So here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna wrap up.

We've got uh one baptism, though, that I'm super excited about, so don't leave because we've got to finish with a baptism.

Um let's pray and let's just remember, inspired by Herb's story all week long, be open and unashamed and watch what God does.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you so much for Herb and for giving uh our church the gift of he and Darnay and his children, Lord.

They are just such an incredible joy and a gift to our church.

So thank you for letting him share his story, Lord.

Help us just be inspired by it.

Help us remember all week long that you are what we need.

Just like Herb said, the other things in this world, they don't fulfill us.

Only you truly fulfill us.

And Father, I just pray that you would uh you would bless Herb this week, encourage him.

I know sometimes when your story gets broadcast to a lot of people, it can it can be kind of an interesting experience, the few days, weeks after that, Lord.

So just give him a lot of joy and help all of us, Lord, learn from his example.

Help us be open to you and unashamed of all you do.

We love you.

Amen.