Famine in the Land | Kyle Idleman

In five, four, three, two. Hey, welcome, Pando family. My name is Ronnie. I get the pleasure of serving at our Prospect Southeast Campus as the campus pastor and love to welcome you to our Pando this morning. While you're watching, I wanna encourage you. We'd love to hear from you. So write in to the address in this description. We just heard from one of you recently and the quote was, I made the choice to go to the Lord when I was tired of being tired and have not looked back. He has saved my life in prison. Praise God for that. While you're watching, wanna go ahead and hit subscribe to our channel so that you can keep up with everything Pando. And really excited that today we get to hear, we're continuing this series, Meant for Good. And our senior pastor, Kyle, is gonna be talking about famine in the land, prayer of desperation. I don't know about you, but I've been there many, many times in 53 years of life. And the good thing and the great thing actually is that God promises he hears and cares about every detail of your life and mine. There's nothing too great, too hard, too dirty, too messy that he can't heal.

He is the ultimate healer. So we encourage you to throw up those desperate prayers in expectancy of who God, our all powerful heavenly father can do for us. At this time, we're gonna turn it back over to you guys as you continue in worship. Come on, yeah. ♪ Let it build a throne for you, let it build a throne. ♪ Come on, you say. ♪ Everything that I've prepared, sing a new song to the Lord. ♪ ♪ Oh, let our praises roar, praise, praise. ♪ ♪ We pray for the Lord, yes we do, darlin'. ♪ ♪ He comes to pour out oil, just to wash our sins clean. ♪ ♪ Just to save His feet, every drop from every bottle. ♪ ♪ Can't compare to your glory, we refuse to bring it all free. ♪ ♪ That doesn't cost us anything, no. ♪ ♪ Cause you're worth everything. ♪ ♪ Let everything that I've prepared, praise, praise. ♪ ♪ Praise, let everything that I've prepared, praise, praise. ♪ ♪ Let everything that I've prepared, sing a new song to the Lord. ♪ ♪ Oh, let our praises roar, praise, praise. ♪ ♪ We praise the Lord. ♪ ♪ Oh, we praise the Lord. ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, it's a warning, come on. ♪ ♪ If it's weaving in letters, or it's dancing with joy. ♪ ♪ They'll sing songs never ending. ♪ ♪ Cause we love to bring you praise. ♪ ♪ If it's face down before you, or a victory shout. ♪ ♪ With our hands raised to heaven, we love to bring you. ♪ ♪ You're the God of salvation, you're the great I Am. ♪

♪ You're the Alpha and Omega, we love to bring you. ♪ Come on, sing. ♪ Great and mighty, great and mighty, great and mighty ♪ ♪ Christ in love, great and mighty, great and mighty ♪ ♪ Praise, praise.то Let everything get high praise. Praise, praise Let everything get higher praise. Praise, praise, let everything get higher praise. Come on sing a new song. Sing a new song Till the Lord All that our faith is for Praise, praise We praise the Lord, yes we do, God Oh we worship you We praise the Lord in every season In every way, all the time We praise the Lord Come on church, give a shout of praise to the Lord today. Amen. Amen. ♪ And everything around me is shaking ♪ ♪ Oh, I've never been more glad, You say I put my faith in You ♪ ♪ Oh, He never let me down ♪ ♪ Faithful through generations ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now, He won't let me down ♪ ♪ Oh, He won't let me down ♪ Still got joy. ♪ I still got joy in Canaan ♪ ♪ I've got peace that makes no sense ♪ ♪ So I won't be going out there ♪

♪ I'm not held by my own strength ♪ ♪ Cause I've built my life on Jesus ♪ ♪ And He's never let me down ♪ ♪ Faithful in every season ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now, He won't let me down ♪ ♪ He won't let me down ♪ ♪ He won't fail, He won't fail, He won't fail, He won't fail ♪ Come on, you declare it, you sing. ♪ Christ is my firm foundation ♪ ♪ He's the rock on which I stand ♪ ♪ When everything around me's shaking ♪ ♪ Lord, I've never been more glad ♪ ♪ I've put my faith in Jesus ♪ ♪ For He's never let me down ♪ ♪ Faithful through generations ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now, He won't let me down ♪ ♪ He won't let me down ♪ ♪ He won't fail, He won't fail, He won't fail, He won't fail ♪ You're so faithful. Even when I'm not faithful, You're faithful. You're still faithful, You're still faithful. Let's sing a testifier to this. The rain came when the, my house was built on You. And I'll sit with You, I'm gonna make You do. The rain came when the, my house was built on You. And I'll sit with You. Oh, let's sing it again, right here.

Oh, thank You, Lord. Oh, thank You, Lord. Oh, thank You, Lord. How could my faith in Jesus Oh, He's never let me down Faithful through generations So why would He fail now He won't He won't He won't fail He won't fail He won't fail He won't Amen, church. God is so good. We're gonna continue in worship and we're gonna sing a song. It's called Goodness of God. And this song is very special to my family, very special to I'm sure a lot of families in here too. And as we were singing these songs this morning and some of the lyrics we've been singing are just about the Lord's faithfulness in any season, worshiping Him through anything, His faithfulness in every season, in every way. And as we were singing these songs and just, I don't know, praying over the day, I just kept thinking about just specific times when you may not feel that, you may not feel His faithfulness

and you may be asking yourself the question, does He have good plans for me? Does He want the best for me? Is He even there? I think we would all be lying if we said we didn't have a season in our lives that felt a little bit like that or maybe you're walking through that right now. And so as we sing this next song, we're gonna sing of His goodness and for the times that He was there for us. My prayer for everyone in this room, specifically our students, would be when you find yourselves in those seasons that feel so low or you feel like the Lord is not close to you, just show up anyway. There's something to be said about showing up anyway because God can use your laments and He can use your moments of praise and it is all worship to Him. It's all worship. And so that's my prayer for us today. So Lord, we come before You and some of us might be entering in here and we're in a high place, God. We're celebrating Your faithfulness tangibly in our lives. And some of us may be walking in today and we don't know what Your love feels like. Maybe we've never even known that, God.

Or we feel like You're far from us, Lord. But whatever we're walking in here with today, God, we came because we're seeking You and we're seeking a revival maybe in our hearts, God, in our families, Lord, with whatever that looks like. We are seeking You, Your presence, a peace that can surpass all understanding, God, a comfort that can only come from You, God, a strength that we don't have inside of ourselves, God, that only comes from You, Lord. And we worship You with everything that we have today. Amen. Let's sing this together, church. Amen. I love You, Lord All Your mercy never fails me All my days I've been held in Your hands From the moment that I wake up Until I lay down at Your feet ♪ I'll sing all my life again ♪ ♪ And all my life you have been strong, strong ♪ ♪ And all my life you have been strong, strong ♪ ♪ And all my life you have been strong, strong ♪ ♪ Oh I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ I love your voice ♪ ♪ You have led me through the fire ♪ ♪ In my darkest night you are close like no other ♪ ♪ I've known you as a friend, I've known you as a friend ♪ ♪ And I have lived in the goodness of God ♪

Sing all my life again. ♪ Cause all my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life you have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath in I am able ♪ ♪ Oh I will sing of the goodness of God, yeah ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after me, it's running after me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after me, it's running after me ♪ ♪ With my life laid down I surrender now ♪ ♪ I give you everything ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ Sing your goodness. ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ ♪ With my life laid down, I surrender now ♪ ♪ I give you everything ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ Hallelujah. ♪ Cause all my life you have been faithful ♪ Please sing as one voice today. ♪ With every breath that I breathe on you ♪ ♪ Oh I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ The goodness of God ♪ ♪ Cause all my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ And all my life you have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Yes we will sing of the goodness of God ♪ Hallelujah. Amen God, you're worthy. You're so worthy God.

And we'll sing of your goodness Lord in any season God. We believe that you're faithful God. We believe that you're moving a mountain in our lives, even if we can't see it in the moment God. We will sing of your faithfulness Lord. We love you, we'll forever worship you, amen. Church let's go ahead and take a seat together. I know for some of you, this weekend is complicated. Like you love this country, but you're also worried about it. Like you see what's happening in the headlines and in culture, conversations around your dinner table, and you feel something that can be hard to name. It's not quite fear or anger. It's just a feeling that you can't describe. And it's a feeling that you can't explain. something maybe closer to grief, like watching someone you love make choices that you can't stop them from making, but you're sure of where it's leading. So look, I'm not gonna stand up here and pretend that away. I'm not gonna give you a pep talk about how everything is fine in our country because I don't think you'd believe me. I don't think I'd believe it myself, but here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take you back 250 years in American history, and then several thousand years into ancient Egypt, because I think the story of a man named Joseph in the book of Genesis actually has a lot to say about this moment in America.

So stay with me. We're gonna celebrate, we're gonna look at scripture, and I hope by the time we're done, we're gonna leave here with something much more useful than a political platform or the latest hot take. 250 years ago, something happened that changed the world. A group of men, imperfect and complicated men, but courageous men, signed their names to a document that declared something the world had never heard a nation declare before, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. Among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And there's something telling about some of the language that's tucked in to the end of the Declaration of Independence. It's easy to overlook because it's not political language, it's actually theological. It says, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, a reliance on divine providence, it's a dependence on God. And so it's not an accident that this document opens with God as creator, and it closes with God as protector. Like these men, whatever their faults, believed that God was a spectator to what they were doing. So they knew what they were risking. Benjamin Franklin, in the room that day, said, we must all hang together, or most assuredly, we will all hang separately. A lot's happened in the last 250 years.

Washington crosses the Delaware. An army of farmers and tradesmen defeat the most powerful military empire on earth. Abraham Lincoln stood on the steps of the Capitol in the final months of the Civil War, and he called the nation to humility. He said, both sides, quote, read the same Bible and pray to the same God. It was the most divided moment in our country's history, and he reached for scripture to find a way through. One night, on December 31st, in 1862, enslaved and free black Americans gathered in churches and in private homes all across the country, waiting for the news of the Emancipation Proclamation to take effect. At the stroke of midnight, the news broke. It was received that this had been passed, and there were prayers of gratitude, songs of joy as people fell to their knees, and they thanked God. In 1869, there was a transcontinental railroad. The nation had stitched itself together from coast to coast through mountains and plains and possible terrain on sheer will and perseverance. In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle mechanics from Ohio, took a 12-second flight across 120 feet of North Carolina Beach, and 66 years later, we were on the moon. 1969, Neil Armstrong stood on the surface on the moon, as far as you know, and he planted an American flag.

A little-known fact is that Buzz Aldrin did something before taking a single step. He took out a small communion kit that his pastor had given him, and he took communion on the surface of the moon. Men stormed beaches to liberate people they'd never met. Immigrants crossed oceans with nothing but a suitcase and a dream, and they built something from scratch. A generation marched peacefully and changed the conscience of a country. Ordinary heroes ran towards buildings in New York. Like, 250 years. There's plenty we could criticize and critique, but today's a day we celebrate. Like, we have gratitude. And when we look back over 250 years and we think about the history of our country, we tend to look through, like, a political lens. Like, we focus on the wars and the presidents, the amendments and the elections. But it is the spiritual history that I really want us to appreciate today. It's a history of a God who has refused, like, repeatedly and stubbornly, let this country go dark. To help us have a frame for what? what's happened to this country spiritually, I wanna take you to ancient Egypt. We have been studying the book of Genesis since the beginning of the year,

and we're currently going through the life of Joseph. And in Genesis 41, a man named Joseph has had the worst decade imaginable, sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by his boss's wife, thrown into prison, forgotten by the one person who promised to help him get him out. And by the time we reach chapter 41, like Joseph has every reason to be bitter, to be hopeless, but then Pharaoh has a dream. Seven fat cows, like seven fat, healthy cows, in his dream come up out of the Nile, and then seven starving, ugly, like barely hanging on cows come up behind them and devour the fat ones. He wakes up sweating. He has another dream, kind of a very similar dream, and he is disturbed. He calls every wise man in Egypt to interpret the dream, but nobody knows what they mean. But somebody remembers a Hebrew in prison named Joseph, who was said to be able to interpret dreams. And so Joseph is pulled out of his prison cell, he's cleaned up, and he is brought before the most powerful man in the world. And he just says it plainly. Genesis 41, verses 29 through 30. Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, and then seven years of famine will follow them. Seven years of plenty, seven years of famine.

The famine will be so severe, it will consume everything that the abundance produced, and it will spread across the entire known world. And then Joseph does something bold, like pretty risky. Pharaoh asks for an interpretation, but Joseph doesn't stop there. He also gives him a strategy. In other words, he doesn't just tell him what it means, he tells Pharaoh, here's what you should do about it. Joseph says, find a wise man and appoint him over the land and collect one fifth of every harvest during the good years, store it in every city so that the nation will be ready when the famine comes. And Pharaoh looks around the room, and he looks back at Joseph, who just gave this advice, and he's like, well, who's gonna be better than you? And he puts his signet ring on Joseph's hand, gold chain around Joseph's neck, and he gives him authority over all of Egypt. Suddenly, Joseph is second only to Pharaoh himself. The second most powerful man in the world now is Joseph, and he gets to work. Genesis 41 says, he gathered up all the food and he stored it in the cities. And for seven years, while all of Egypt is eating well and living comfortably and enjoying abundance, Joseph is filling storehouses, every city, every region. The Bible says that the grain became like sand on the seashore, they stopped counting it because there was too much to measure.

So there's not really a dramatic moment, no big scene, just Joseph faithfully working, storing, believing that what God said was gonna happen was really gonna happen. And for seven years, he does something about it before a single person feels hungry. So what saved a generation, really what saved the known world was a man who took the revelation from God seriously enough to do something about it, even though most of the people at the time thought it wasn't necessary. Genesis 41 says, all the earth then came to Egypt and to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe over all the earth. Like, not just Egypt, not just the immediate neighbors, the people came from every direction, every nation, every background, all of them hungry. And so Joseph's story is not just ancient history, it's a template of how God reveals and how God provides and how God raises up people at just the right time. It's an example of someone being faithful during a time when nobody else seemed that concerned, like everybody else was pretty comfortable, but Joseph, like he had different eyes for what was happening and for what one day would happen. And so God, I believe, has been doing that kind of work on American soil for 250 years. Every time this nation has gone spiritually dark, every time there's been a spiritual famine of some kind,

God has appointed someone willing to fill storehouses. I'm gonna tell you about some of those moments in American history. And I wanna introduce you to some of those people. Looking back over the past 250 years of America, we see that about every 50 years, almost like clockwork, there's a spiritual famine followed by spiritual awakening. Like God opens up. up a storehouse and people who are spiritually starving come from all over. So let's start in 1734 in Northampton, Massachusetts. The American colonies were in spiritual famine. The churches were formal and cold. A generation had grown up treating God as a intellectual exercise at best. Like nobody was really being saved. Nobody was really changing, just tradition. But then a pastor named Jonathan Edwards preached a famous sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And the language in that sermon, it's pretty terrifying. He pictures spiders dangling over flames, a pit of hell opening beneath your feet and God's wrath burning like fire. And so like Joseph, he is speaking truth even when it's hard to hear. But it woke the church up. When you read that sermon, you picture a man preaching it who's thundering from a pulpit, pounding the lectern. But that wasn't Jonathan Edwards.

He didn't have a commanding voice or dramatic gestures. His eyesight was so bad, he had to hold his manuscript a few inches from his face to read it. But he spoke truth and he preached about grace like he believed it and people came flooding to Jesus. George Whitefield followed, crosses the Atlantic and he starts preaching to like 30,000 people at a time in open fields because no building could hold the crowds. When he assessed the American churches, he was honest with his conclusion. He said, the reason congregations are so dead is because dead men preach to them. And he preached like a man on fire. And so the first great awakening spread across colonies, across denominations, across class lines, 50 years later. We find ourselves now in Kentucky, a field in Kentucky about 90 miles from where I'm preaching this. In August of 1801, in a Presbyterian meeting house in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in a place called Cane Ridge, 20,000 people descend on this field and they come in wagons, dirt roads, hunters, gamblers, people who had never set foot in church came. They came from every direction because something was happening and word had spread. Seven preachers would stand throughout the field on stumps and wagons and logs and they would preach simultaneously to these crowds. An eyewitness said that the crowd was so loud,

it was like the roar of Niagara Falls. Like people would fall to the ground under conviction and they would repent for hours. That's just 90 minutes from here in a field. Like most people would drive past that now without even knowing it exists. And it doesn't look like much, old log meeting house, some trees, a historical marker that most people have never stopped to read. But what happened in that field 224 years ago, it changed the world. Changed the world in ways that are still rippling today. 50 years later, 1857, a former businessman named Jeremiah Landfire had this burden so he rented a room above a church in Fulton Street. It's in lower Manhattan and he made a simple flyer. He passed it out around the neighborhood. Just said, prayer meeting, 12 o'clock to one o'clock for merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers and businessmen. He sat alone in that room for 30 minutes and finally a single person arrived. Six people would eventually show up. He didn't cancel it because of poor attendance. Came back the next week, there were 20. The week after, 40. And then the stock market crashed and banks collapsed and 30,000 men lost their jobs in New York City alone. And suddenly the whole city was hungry, desperate enough to pray. And that meeting started to happen daily,

spread to other buildings, other cities, other states, lawyers, physicians, merchants, clerks. They tie their horses up outside. They come in just for even five minutes on their lunch break just to get on their knees and pray. Within 18 months, an estimated 1 million people had come to Jesus. That's like more than 3% of the nation's population being swept into the kingdom by a prayer of one ordinary man who waited alone in an empty room. Hungry and desperate people came by the hundreds of thousands. No famous preacher, no platform, no marketing strategy. Just a man who believed that prayer was the work. 50 years later, 1906, Azusa Street, Los Angeles. God does what apparently God loves to do. He finds the one person that nobody would have chosen. And William Seymour, he is the one-eyed son of a formerly enslaved family from rural Louisiana. This is back in Jim Crow America. He wanted to learn the Bible more than anything else. And so he found this Bible school in Houston, Texas, run by a man named Charles Palmer. And Palmer let him attend, but not inside the classroom. So Seymour had to sit in the hallway outside the classroom and listen through the wall. But that's what he did every single day. And then someone in Los Angeles heard about this man and invited him to come preach at their small church. He came and he preached on Sunday,

but he wasn't invited back the next Sunday. But William Seymour, as you might guess, is not a man who could be easily set aside. So he found a house and he started praying. He called a 10-day fast. Three days into that fast, eight men were on their knees together. The neighbors came to see what was happening and the crowds began to swell. The front porch eventually collapsed under the weight of the people. And soon it was three prayer meetings a day, seven days a week for three straight years. And then in 1906, when churches were as segregated as everything else, like there was hard lines that had been drawn between black and whites, but there at Azusa Street, the color line dissolved. Like black worshipers, white worshipers, Latino, Asian, illiterate, poor, wealthy, people who had nowhere else to go, all of them come together on that same dirt floor. A white Southern preacher named Frank Bartleman came to investigate and here's what he wrote. He saw this diversity and he said, the color line has been washed away by the bloodline. Secular newspapers came to mock it. Critics said it was undignified, it was embarrassing. It wasn't real Christianity, but the people kept coming, they were hungry.

The crowd was well-dressed. Sometimes skeptical preachers came to expose it as fraud and then they would end up on the dirt floor in repentance. But William Seymour, the man who had learned scripture sitting in that hallway because he wasn't allowed in the classroom, he preached every service with his face hidden behind a wooden shoe box because he didn't want anybody looking at him, he wanted them looking at God. And revival spread from that building across the country and around the world. 50 years later, 1970, a dying church of about 25 people in Costa Mesa, California, cracked open its doors to barefoot hippies that nobody else wanted. Pastor Chuck Smith admitted that he had written them off, but it was his wife, Kay, who said no. And she had this burden and she insisted to her husband that he do something about this. There was an elder who wasn't happy about all these young hippies coming to church, so he put a sign on the front door, said no bare feet allowed. But Pastor Chuck Smith tore that down and he said he would rip up the carpet before he turned away anyone. In 1970 alone, thousands of people came to be baptized

in the Pacific Ocean there. Historians say that the Jesus movement reached more lost people than the great awakenings before them. Two to three million young people got swept into the kingdom through this church that almost kept their doors closed. And so I just need you to look at this here. 1734, 50 years, Cain Ridge. 50 years after that, Holden Street. 50 years after that, Azusa. 50 years after that, the Jesus movement. And the Jesus movement was the last major revival in American history. Anyone wanna guess how many years ago that was? It's right about 50 years. And God has been moving. In fact, in the last 12 months as a church, we've baptized over 5,000 people in our church alone. And so it's just clear that something is happening. What's also clear is that there is a famine in the land. Like in our city tonight, there is a teenager sitting alone in a room scrolling through their phone at 1 a.m. And they are so lonely, they can barely breathe. And they don't know it yet, but what they're actually experiencing is famine. They're hungry, they are starving for Jesus. There's a young couple who built their life on what they were told would make them happy.

Like they got the house and the job and the new kids and they lie awake at night though with this quiet feeling that something is still missing. They can't name it, but it's that hunger. A man in his 40s, he's done everything right on paper, but he lost all of it. And nobody in the world can address the hunger that he finds himself struggling with. There's a college student, a college student on a campus. I'm supposed to be part of the most connected generation in human history, but the student is desperately alone, experimenting with everything available, trying to fill something that only one can fill, Jesus, who is the bread of life. And even this weekend, 4th of July weekend, there are millions of Americans lighting fireworks and flying flags, and they are genuinely hoping, like genuinely believing that the right election and the right party and the right person and the right office is going to finally fix what is broken in this country. And they're not wrong to love their nation, but they are wrong because what they are looking for is not going to be found in Washington, D.C. It will only be found in the church because it's only found in Jesus. The famine is here and people are hungry, but they need a storehouse. So here's the question I want us to land on as we turn 250 years old. How does the church celebrate this birthday? Fireworks and cookouts are awesome. Enjoy time with your family. But there is a spiritual famine in the land, and I want to give you just four ways the church should celebrate America's 250th birthday. Number one, we pray like we're desperate. Every single revival on that timeline was preceded, like not accompanied, but preceded by extraordinary and sustained corporate prayer. Not a 30-second prayer before a meeting, but people on their knees, sometimes for hours,

on dirty floors. And I just want to challenge you to spend more time talking to God and praying for this country than you do listening to political pundits talk about this country. I can only imagine the desperate prayers that Joseph prayed from prison and, again, the prayers he prayed during those seven years where he's ruling over Egypt. When Pharaoh asked Joseph to interpret the dream, Joseph said something. He said, well, it's not going to be me. It's going to be God. He understood where his power came from. The best thing we can do for America in its 250th year is to be a house of prayer. Number two, we reach the people nobody else is reaching. Like every revival in American history, it was fueled by reaching people the church had written off, college students, barefoot hippies, a one-eyed son of a slave, gamblers and prostitutes in a Kentucky field. And again and again, what we see in these revivals is that there was an emphasis on lost people, but also the next generation. And there is a generation right outside the doors of this church that we are doubling down on reaching. We've talked about this a lot as part of our move journey, that we're going all in to reach the next generations, but we recognize there is a spiritual hunger in these generations and we are going to open up the storehouses. But what I've noticed is sometimes the people with the greatest access to the storehouse are the least burdened by the hunger outside of it. When you've eaten well for a long time, it's easy to forget what it's like to be starving. It's easy to get comfortable with the abundance. But there are people who are so hungry and maybe you've been in our church and you've walked with God for decades and you've raised your kids in church and you've served and you've been faithful and I'm so thankful for that, but don't forget that the greatest gift that you can give this country on its 250th birthday is not a vote or a political opinion. It's not a post.

It's opening up the storehouse for a young person to know Jesus. It might mean seven years of sacrifice. It might mean giving up some preferences. It might mean sacrificing some comfort with the way things have always been done. It might mean funding a ministry that you'll never personally benefit from. It might mean showing up for students who don't look like you. Maybe people who don't protect the carpet the way you think they should and show up in bare feet. But Joseph filled a storehouse for seven years so that people he had never met could eat. Like he never met most of the people that his faithfulness saved. May that be said of you and me that we prepared and we worked for a generation that is not our own. Number three, we tell the truth about hunger. Like Joseph didn't walk into Pharaoh's throne room and soften the message. The wise men of Egypt said nothing. Partly because they didn't want to deliver bad news. Joseph told the truth. Seven years of famine are coming and it's going to be severe and we need to act now. And I would just say the church has to be willing to say what's true even when the culture doesn't want to hear it. There is a spiritual hunger in this country. There are millions of people who feel it but they haven't named it. But the famine is going to arrive in their lives. Like a relationship is going to fall apart or diagnosis is going to come. Something they've built their life on is gonna fail. Addiction is gonna take over. War might break out or a pandemic might break out. And their hunger is gonna be undeniable. And the church's job is not to pretend that everything's fine.

The church's job is to be honest about the hunger and then to point to the only one who can satisfy it. Number four, we do the invisible work. There is nothing glamorous about filling storehouses like Joseph spent seven years doing work that nobody filmed, nobody celebrated. There's no dramatic scene, no big moment, just grain city by city, storehouse by storehouse, day after day, because he believed that what God said he would do, he would do. And revival, I believe that is coming, will not be built on like some single electric Sunday. It'll be built on ordinary, faithful, unglamorous work of people who filled storehouses and got on their knees when everybody else was comfortable. Maybe it's a small group leader who shows up when there's only four people. Maybe it's a camp volunteer who goes sleepless nights so kids can meet Jesus. Maybe it's the person who keeps praying for their family member and refuses to give up. Maybe it's the student ministry leader who keeps showing up for teenagers who seem completely uninterested. And look, this is how we celebrate 250 years as a nation. So let me take you back. Back up the road to Cane Ridge, just 90 miles from where I'm standing, the pastor who hosted that revival was a Presbyterian minister named Barton Stone.

What he experienced in that field wrecked him like in the best possible way. He walked away convinced that the church had buried Jesus under layers of tradition and denominationalism, and God wanted something different. He wanted something simple and biblical, New Testament Christianity, no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible. And he walked away from his denomination to start a movement that we call the Restoration Movement. That's our movement. That's where we come from. So when I tell you that the Coles from Cane Ridge lit every major revival throughout the world, I'm not just giving you a history lesson, I'm telling you where we came from. This church has Cane Ridge in its bones. Revival is not something we observe from a distance, it's in our spiritual DNA. So America turns 250 this weekend, and most of the celebrations will be about what the nation has built, the constitution, the military, monuments, and all those things matter. But the most remarkable thing about the last 250 years, it's not what America has built, it's what God has been doing. Like every 50 years, like clockwork in the face of our worst failures and our deepest famine, like the Coles just continue to burn.

And what I want you to know on this 4th of July weekend is that those Coles will not get cold in our church. Like my prayer is, God would do it again, and we would be right in the middle of it. I wanna close by giving you one number. The number is 2,000. We are seven years away from celebrating 2,000 years since the death and resurrection of Jesus and the beginning of the church. It's coming in 2033. And I just believe that these seven years are gonna be some of the most spiritually significant years in the history of the world. We're getting closer and closer to the return of Jesus. Joseph had seven years, seven years of plenty to prepare for what was coming. And he used every single one of them, not because he was disciplined, or not because he was ambitious, but because he believed, like he believed that God was gonna do what he said he was gonna do. And he acted on it. He acted on it before anybody else felt the hunger. And in 2033, 2,000 years will have passed since Jesus looked at his disciples who had no building and no budget and no platform and no strategy. And he said something that should have been laughable. He said in Matthew,

I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He didn't say he might build his church. He didn't say he would try. He didn't say, let me see what I can do. He said he would, he promised. It's the only thing he promised that he would build. He never promised to build a nation. He never promised to build a government. He never promised to build a political party. He never promised a political platform. He promised to build a church. 2,000 years through persecutions and plagues and darkness and through revivals, he has kept his promise century after century, generation after generation. And so on this 250th year, let it be said of us as a church. that when the hungry come, the storehouse is open. There's a famine in the land, but Jesus. And the world is full of despair and darkness, but Jesus. And people fail and policy fails and politics fail, but Jesus. I see there's one thing that's been so consistent always, and it's Jesus. And some of you may have shown up here today with a hunger that you cannot satisfy. And you don't know what it is, but you're just always searching, always looking, always wind up in the wrong spot, taking the wrong path, making the wrong decision.

I believe that's because God is leading you back to Him, to Jesus. You see in the gospels, Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life, the only thing that can satisfy more than any worldly desire, want, or need. The bread of life provides everything that we need. So we're gonna take a moment today to remember the sacrifice of Jesus, the bread of life. You see, when he gathered with his disciples before he was ultimately put to death, Jesus broke bread with them, and he said, this is my body broken for you. And then with a cup of wine, he said, this is my blood poured out. And that's why we take communion together each week. So if you grab that on your way in, feel free to get that out now. But if you're a follower of Christ, you've put your hope and your faith in him. And we're gonna take a moment just to remember the sacrifice of Christ. And that doesn't always mean that we won't experience the depravity of this world. But this is a moment to remember what really fulfills our hunger. So we invite you to do that over this next little bit. If you're here today and you have not made that step to put your trust in Jesus, can I just say first and foremost,

we're just so glad you're here. I believe God has you here for a reason today. And if you're here and you at all resonated with what Kyle talked about, if you resonate with being in just the darkest season of your life you can ever remember, a season of famine, I believe that God wants to meet with you today. And that the bread of life wants to satisfy that hunger for you. You can do that today. We would love to pray for you, to talk to you, to meet with you. You can do that to my right, to your left over here in our next step room. But can I challenge you with this? If you showed up here today and you have no idea why, but the whole time you were listening, you just felt this little nudge in your spirit or you felt a little uncomfortable, would you just be obedient to that? Because I really think it's the Holy Spirit in your life inviting you to take a step in faith towards Jesus today. Again, you can do that right over here. As we continue to worship today, as we take communion, as we respond, we also have the opportunity, we're gonna celebrate 21 baptisms from high school camp. And I think in total we have like almost 30 this morning, but 21 of those are students

who this week came to a camp experience and said, I know I'm spiritually dead. I know that I'm hungry and I know that the only thing that will fulfill that is Jesus and I'm going all in. So as we worship together today, church, can we just celebrate and welcome them into the family? What an honor and a privilege it is to firsthand see the life change of God's spirit here in our church. But as we do all those things, as we take communion, as we respond, as we worship, as we celebrate in baptism together, let's take a moment to remember Jesus, His sacrifice as the bread of life and then we'll worship together. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [♪ Jazzy piano music ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪ [♪ Piano music continues ♪

♪ In suffering, I need You Lord ♪ ♪ With my heart forever singing, I need Jesus ♪ ♪ I need You Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh every minute, every hour ♪ ♪ You are God and You're on Your throne ♪ ♪ I will never be forsaken ♪ ♪ You are here and I'm not alone ♪ ♪ I can stand it, and I'll be shaken ♪ ♪ I find Your kindness in the fire ♪ ♪ You are God and You're always good ♪ ♪ You are God and You're always good ♪ ♪ You are God and You're always good ♪ ♪ You are God and You're always good ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I am an instrument of exaltation ♪ ♪ I was born to lift You above all others ♪ ♪ You hear the melody of all creation ♪ ♪ But there's a song of praise that only I can bring ♪ ♪ Who else is worth it? Who else is worth it? ♪ ♪ There's no one worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worth it? Who else is worth it? ♪ ♪ There's no one worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ You are the infinite God of the ages ♪ ♪ The angels who make my heart to dwell in place ♪ ♪ You heal my brokenness, show me Your glory ♪ ♪ So I have songs of thanks, not even angels can sing ♪ ♪ Who else is worth it? Who else is worth it? ♪ ♪ No one like our God ♪ ♪ There's no one worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worth it? Who else is worth it? ♪

♪ There's no one worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? You alone ♪ ♪ There is no one worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ There is no one worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ The Lamb of God, anointed One ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ Seated on the throne above ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, righteous One ♪ ♪ Who shed His blood, who proved to us the Father's love ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ be lifted up ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, Lamb of God, anointed One ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ Seated on the throne above ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, righteous One ♪ ♪ Who shed His blood, who proved to us the Father's love ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ be lifted up ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, Lamb of God, anointed One ♪ ♪ Who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ Seated on the throne above ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, righteous One ♪ ♪ Who shed His blood, who proved to us the Father's love ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ be lifted up ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy? ♪ ♪ Worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is none worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else would know what You've done ♪ ♪ How You lifted us, there is none worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else would know what You've done ♪ ♪ There is no one worthy of Jesus ♪

♪ There is no one worthy of Jesus ♪ ♪ I'm clean, sin was stained on me ♪ ♪ I'm clean, sin was stained on me ♪ ♪ Shame was running deep, but love was spilled on Calvary ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I'm clean, God how can it be ♪ ♪ I'm ransomed and redeemed, standing in Your victory ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I was washed in the water, washed in the blood, I'm as good as new ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, all because of You ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I'm clean, it's not what I have done, but what You've done for me ♪ ♪ You painted it all upon that tree, oh hallelujah, I'm clean ♪ ♪ Your love has overcome, Your mercy is supreme, I'm dancing in Your victory ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, I'm as good as new ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, all because of You ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, I'm as good as new ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, all because of You ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, cause You took away my shame, and You made it to the cross, You got me running at the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come, cause You took away my shame, and You made it to the cross, You got me running at the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come, cause You took away my shame, and You made it to the cross, You got me running at the grave ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, cause You took away my shame, and You made it to the cross, You got me running at the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come, oh-ohhallelujah, here I come, hallelujah, here I come, hallelujah, here I come, hallelujah, here I come ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, thank You Lord, thank You Lord ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, oh ♪ I've been washed in the water, I'm as good as new, oh, hallelujah ♪ I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, oh, hallelujah ♪♪ Song titles Hey, we're gonna take off, but we couldn't go without showing you all what this crew down here is about. So, yeah, come on, my people. So we're just gonna run that one back from the bridge a little bit.

But you gotta send it, okay? All right, here we go, come on. All right, here we go. You got me running out the grave. Sing hallelujah. Because you took away my shame. And you nailed it to the cross. Got me running out the grave. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, here I come. Sing hallelujah, here I come. Sing hallelujah, here I come. Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah. Sing hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Come on, one last time. Sing, I've been washed in the water. Washed in the water. Yes, he has. Oh, hallelujah. Washed in the water. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah. Come on, with a shout of praise. Hallelujah. Amen. Hey, Pando family.

I love that you guys are not on some island by yourself. You are part of our Southeast family. We're one church, one family in multiple locations. And so thank you for being part of what God's up to in and through Southeast. I don't know if you can relate to anything that Kyle shared in his sermon about famine in the land. And maybe you also feel like God is silent and is not hearing you in your desperation. But here is a promise from God. It comes from Romans 8 31. It says, God is for you, not against you. So just know that even when he seems silent, he is still at work and working for you. Reminder that Eden to Eternity Bible study drops on Wednesdays. We'd love for you to engage with us on that. And then every Thursday, a Pando exclusive podcast drops. And so we would love for you to engage in that at all as well. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for being a great Redeemer. Even when life doesn't look the way I planned it, you are good. I trust your promises. I feel your provision. I love your word. Please protect me from temptation. Please restore what I've lost. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit.

I am not in control. I'm waiting on you. In chaos, I need your peace. In loss, I need your comfort. In confusion, I need your truth. I trust you with everything. I love you. In your name, amen. you