Foundations of Leadership; Who Am I? Finding Your Identity in God

All right, all right, come on, good morning, good afternoon, good day, whenever you're watching. Does anybody in the house love Jesus today? I believe you, I believe you, so glad to be here. Thank you for joining us. Do me a favor, everybody that's joining us online at our campuses, those in the jails right here at Laker Ranch, would you put your hands together, let's welcome each other, let's welcome everybody, thank you for joining us. Today we're kicking off a new series called the Foundations of Leadership, we're gonna be talking about Moses, so we're gonna go to Moses University, all right, we're gonna go to Moses University. And so today, if you don't know, if you've not heard me speak before, my name is Bernard, I have the privilege of serving as the campus pastor here at Laker Ranch and I'm thankful for my pastor, Randy Bissette, his wife Amy, for their leadership, their friendship, for their guidance and to be able to do this alongside them, it's truly an honor and a privilege. And I do wanna say this, that if you haven't experienced me preaching before, I just wanna give you permission to talk back to this preacher today, all right? You can say amen, preach, uh-huh, I heard that, what? Did you hear what he said, whatever, and if you're not used to talking back to the preacher, there's some note cards in the seat back in front of you, just grab one, just hold it up and just wave it, just like that, yeah. But you gotta make the face with it, you gotta be like, mm, all right, just make the face with it, because we're gonna talk to you a little bit today, is that all right? So I want to, as we begin to get talking about the foundations of leadership, there's some things about Moses' story that are gonna be applicable for us today. Now whether you believe it or understand it or know it or not, every single one of us have been called to leadership. You say, mm, not me, everybody here. There's a scripture in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, and it says that we are Christ's ambassadors. So I don't know if you understand what an ambassador is, but there is a kingdom of heaven,

and God told us to pray, Jesus taught us to pray, he said, hey, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, where? On earth as it is in heaven, and God designed this so that in order for earth to look like heaven, he would use his ambassadors. So we plead the Lord's case on his behalf on earth so that earth can look like heaven. So rather than sitting back and complaining about what other people aren't doing, we ought to take the leadership of our own life and begin to operate in the fullness of what God's called us to do so that earth can begin to look like heaven. We can't make excuses and blame it on somebody else when really we're not even leading ourselves. So we have to take the responsibility to lead ourself, to lead in where God's called us and not make excuses for it so that earth can look like heaven. Is that all right if I preach today? All right. We just coming strong right out the gate, all right? So we're going to learn something, I'm going to learn me something today too. So as I get into this, I'm going to ask that you would stand with me as I read God's Word. And the reason why I do this is I always want to sustain, I believe that you make room for what you honor. And that simply means we honor God's Word, we make room for it to work in our life. Exodus chapter 3, beginning in verse 9, look, the cry of the people of Israel has reached me and I've seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I'm sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt. But Moses protested to God, who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? God answered, I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain. But Moses protested, if I go to the people of Israel and tell them the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, they will ask me, what is his name?

Then what should I tell them? God replied to Moses, I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations. Father in Jesus' name, I pray that you would open our hearts to hear and to receive, transform us as we encounter your truth, and I pray that you would remove every hindrance and every distraction. Holy Spirit, you are welcome. Go, and I pray that as we lift you up, that you would draw them into yourself, be glorified in us, forming us into who you've made us and redeemed us to be. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. You may be seated. So, we read this text. Moses has this burning bush experience. He's in the wilderness, he comes up, this burning bush is burning. It's on fire, but it's not burning up. It draws his attention. God tells him to take off his shoes. As he's holy ground, he begins to speak to him. Here's the big idea for today's message. You don't discover your identity in comfort. You discover it in calling. I'm gonna say it again. You do not discover your identity in comfort. You discover it in calling.

Now, often, our excuses are the doorway to God revealing himself. See, when God calls you, you may have an excuse of why you can't, shouldn't, won't. But, God reveals himself in those moments. Have you ever been in a moment where you completely felt out of place? Like, you walked into a room and thought, I don't belong here. I mean, that's how I felt when I came to Lakewood Ranch. Especially when I moved to Myakka. Come on, I was like. Do I fit? Of course I fit. Do I fit wherever God calls me? Maybe you feel like I'm too much for one group. Or you're not enough for another group. Well, this was Moses. Moses was raised in a palace, but he wasn't an Egyptian. He was born a Hebrew, but didn't grow up like one. He was called by God, but he ran from his purpose. Moses, he didn't just have a calling problem, he had an identity crisis. And what was happening is, there was this tension. And this is the tension. When you don't know who you are, you will resist what God is asking you to do. When you don't know who you are, you will resist what God is asking you to do. In Exodus three, this chapter, this burning bush,

it's not about a burning bush. It's more about a burning question. And that question is, who am I? Who am I? So here's the first thing that I want us to understand in this foundations of leadership. We're all called to leadership. But here's the first thing I want us to understand. Identity is often forged in the wilderness. Identity is often forged in the wilderness. Now Moses, when you read the story of Moses, he spent 40 years in Egypt. This was his identity given by culture. Now, for those of you that don't know, Moses was born during a time where they were killing babies. And so his mom put him in a basket, sent him down the river. He gets picked up by some Egyptian women and is raised in the palace. He doesn't know, he doesn't even know who his identity is. And he lives 40 years in Egypt, in this palace, as with Egyptians, but he wasn't Egyptian. He was a Hebrew, but he wasn't raised like one. And then he spent 40 years in Midian. This is where his identity stripped in obscurity. All of a sudden, what he thought he knew, being raised in a palace, all of a sudden now he's 40 years in Midian. He's running for his life because he killed an Egyptian that was beating an Israeli slave.

So he's running for his life. And now he's in Midian for 40 years. And I want to help us to understand something. The wilderness wasn't punishment for Moses. It was actually preparation. Now I've been through many wildernesses in my journey with God. There's been many seasons where I'm like, man, whew, this is a wilderness. Not all of them were terrible. They were good things and they were bad things that happened in those wilderness experiences. But I realized that every wilderness experience that I walked through has prepared me for what I'm doing right now. Egypt taught him status. It taught him power. But the wilderness taught him surrender. And so instead of rejecting your wilderness, just surrender so that it can produce the leader that God sees in you. Listen, you don't find identity in what you've achieved. So many think that their identity comes from what I achieved. No, you find it when everything external is stripped away. When you got nothing left, then you really find out who you are. It was like, I remember when my parents dropped me off at college, Bible college in Oklahoma. And when we got there, I didn't know anybody in Oklahoma.

Nobody there knew me. They didn't know my family. They didn't know my upbringing. They didn't know anything about me. And when my parents were driving off, I remember. sitting there in this townhouse by myself, bawling my eyes out, because I'm in an unfamiliar territory. I'm trying to respond to this call on my life, but everything familiar that I knew was driving away. My identity as, at that time, Bernie Jr. was driving away. And now I'm here by myself in a new place. And I sat there bawling my eyes out. And I remember having this dialogue with myself. What am I gonna do? Stay in this townhouse and just cry all day? Am I gonna cry the whole time through school? Or am I gonna step out there and really fulfill what God's asking me to do? I didn't know anything about broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Dear God, doesn't even sound like I belong there. But here's the observation. God didn't speak to Moses in the palace. He spoke to him in obscurity while he was in the wilderness. And some of us are frustrated with our wilderness season, but if, but what if,

it's where your false identity is actually dying? What if that wilderness is where your false identity is actually dying? The thing that you thought you were and who you think you are, you're going through it, and now you find yourself in this wilderness, and really God is redefining who you are because you've depended on what you've accomplished and all of these things to give you identity. And God says, no, I just used those things to prepare you for what I really did. So I want you to get your identity from me, but sometimes you have to move externally everything that you thought was your identity. Your true identity is being formed in the wilderness. So here's the second thing. Your excuses reveal your identity struggle. Your excuses reveal your identity struggle. I.e., I'm too short, I'm too tall, I'm too scared, I'm too fat, I'm too shy, I don't have money, I don't have education, I'm black, I'm white, I'm Hispanic. Whatever the excuse is, it's just an excuse. God sees it, but he just doesn't care about that. Because when he calls you, he equips you no matter what your excuse is. Moses ends up giving God five excuses, five, five excuses. But they weren't necessarily just excuses. They are windows into his identity crisis. Here's excuse number one.

Who am I? What was he saying here? This was insecurity. Exodus three, verse 11. But Moses protested to God, who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? This is what Moses was saying. He was saying, I'm not enough. I'm not enough. He had all this insecurity, he had all this comparison that was happening, he had self-doubt that was happening, and then I love this because God's response was not, hey, Moses, I'll remind you how great you are. That wasn't his response. God's response was, I will be with you. I will be with you. So here's the truth. God never answers insecurity with self-esteem. He answers it with his presence. Amen. Come on, somebody. He never answers with self-esteem. Oh, you're so great. You're awesome, buddy. You can do this, man. No, he doesn't do that. He says, I will be with you. And you're in the middle of your insecurity,

in the middle of your self-doubt. Hey, I'm calling you, and guess what? I'm gonna be with you. So then here's the second excuse. Who are you? In Exodus 3.13, but Moses protested. If I go to the people of Israel and tell them the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, they will ask me, what is his name? Then what should I tell them? And this is really what Moses was saying is, if I don't know you, I can't represent you. This was an intimacy problem that Moses had. And he was trying to use his excuse of not knowing, which like some of us do. Well, I'm not spiritual enough. I don't know how to pray. I can't, I don't know if I really, God can trust me to represent him. And whatever that excuse is, we tend to make that because I don't know you, I can't represent you. Or, you know, I come to church so I look like a Christian, but I'm really not one. Whatever. Whatever we listen to these lies, and God's response is, I am who I am. Now what I love about that statement, the Hebrew word, is actually Yahweh. This was this identity shift that was taking place

because God is not defined by Moses, but Moses is defined by God in this moment. So here's the truth, you don't build God into your identity, God builds your identity into himself. When God said, I am who I am, Yahweh, that means not your way, but Yahweh. Yahweh. But here's what's really cool about that word. I don't have time to really break it down like I should, but when he was saying that, he was basically, there's action, the Hebrew language is so deep, but there was action behind the word. So what he was saying is that, like, look, I existed before, there's no beginning or end to me, there's no creator, I am. But then he says, I am who I am, which means this, I am present and I am active in your life right now. So I'm calling you because I am, but I'm also gonna be with you, that means I'm gonna take action, I'm not just calling you to do something and gonna leave you out there. I am gonna be present in your life. So here's excuse number three. What if they don't believe you? You know what that is? Fear of people, fear of man. There's a fear of rejection, Exodus 4.1, it says, but Moses protested again. What if they won't believe me or listen to me?

What if they say the Lord never appeared to you? Now, this is what he had, is he had a fear of rejection. What if I step out and I fail? What if I'm not accepted? What if I don't measure up? What if they don't like me? What if they don't listen to me? God gives him these signs. He asks him, what's in your hand, Moses? All he had was a rod, staff. What's in your hands? So God tells him, throw your rod on the ground. He threw it on the ground and it turns into a snake. At that moment, I'm out, peace. That's the only thing that turned into a snake, see ya, I'm out, thank you God. Because God then had the nerve to tell him, hey, reach down and pick up the snake by the tail. Uh-uh, you pick it up, you made it a snake, you pick it up. That's what I would have said, you know what I'm saying? It reminds me of recently, I was going out to turn the fuel line on my lawnmower because I turn it off every time. And when I reach down to turn it on, there's a black tube, and all of a sudden, there's the tube moves. What you talking about, Willis? I went, ah, ah. I looked, I was like, did that, no, I did just what the movies did.

I got close to see, did that really move like I thought it moved? Look at this picture of this thing. I mean, it was a snake, and all up in the lawnmower. Now, does that look just like the tube that's there? I said, get behind me, devil, you use a lighter. Get out of here, devil. I wish I had that kind of courage. I'm glad my camera, you will never see this footage. The camera's on my property. But I jumped back screaming, ah, ah. I think I even went to the bathroom a little bit. But anyways, that thing started slithering. I'm just sitting here going, I can't believe it. I'm so glad I saw it before. Can you imagine, brother, on that lawnmower, and all of a sudden, that thing's like, yeah. Your pastor would be in heaven right now. Y'all just need to know. Your pastor would not be here. Gots to go. Here's the truth. Your identity cannot be built on people's approval. If it is, you'll never fully obey God. And if you can't fully obey God, you can never fully lead. So here's the solution to fear of rejection. Because all of us deal with a fear of rejection. Remember, we've been called to be an ambassador, a leader in this world. And there's a solution to the fear of rejection.

First, we must understand two basic principles. The first is that Christ, on the cross, bore our sin. our rejections, which means all of the agony that he went through, all the heartache, he's familiar with rejection. And in Isaiah 53, verse 3, it says this, he was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried. It was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins. But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins, beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. So we first understand that Christ experienced rejection. And the rejection he experienced was for us. It was for every rejection we might feel here, that what the enemy meant was that our sin would keep us separated from God. But what God did, instead of rejecting us, he sent his son to lay down his life to be rejected so that we can now be accepted. So there's a beautiful exchange. Here's the second thing that we understand. There's an exchange now.

An exchange has taken place. We are now accepted because of his rejection. Ephesians 1, verse 6 says this, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. Now, once you understand this, you can forgive those who have rejected you. You can release bitterness, resentment, hatred, and rebellion. These are the four reactions to rejection. Bitterness, resentment, hatred, rebellion. These four enemies is what a lot of the world is operating in, and that's what the chaos that we end up seeing. It's this rejection, this fear of rejection. Fear has just plagued our society. That's the real pandemic. Once you understand these things, you can accept God's unconditional love for you and his acceptance of you. Before you ever messed up, before you were ever born, God already made a decision to send his son to the cross to die for you. He already accepted you knowing that you would be a mess. And then, once you understand these things, you can even accept yourself. You can accept yourself. The fact that you're not perfect, awesome. God didn't ask you to be perfect. He didn't ask you to be flawless. He didn't ask you to have it all together. Romans 9.20 says this because this is what's interesting.

He says, but who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, why did you make me like this? I propose to you this, in a culture where everybody is trying to identify as something, you know, believing a lie that there is some type of identity outside of what God has made them. Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed or what is created say to the one who formed it or created it, why did you make me like this? Why would you fight against the identity in which God has formed you? This is the greatest attack of the enemy in our culture today. If he can get your identity, he can steal your purpose. So, what do we do? Shift our focus from man's approval to God's approval. This is all we do. So, let me ask this. Have you surrendered your life to receive salvation? Have you surrendered your life because God's already accepted you and Jesus paid the price to reconnect you to God so that you don't have to live in a rejected state? That means you don't have to live apart from God, believing that you can't. Jesus made a way so that you can be accepted and that is just surrendering your life to him and allowing him to be your Lord and your Savior. And if you've never made that decision, now is your moment. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?

I'm not finished, but I feel led to just... Go ahead and take this moment right now. If you have not made that decision and you're ready to say yes to Jesus, allow Him to be your Lord and your Savior. On the count of three, lift your hand. One, two, three, lift your hand. That's you right now. Just lift your hand. You're wanting to surrender your life to Jesus. Thank you. All over this room, thank you. All right, you can put your hands down. I see you up there in the balcony, thank you. Put your hands down. We're all gonna say this prayer together as a family. Repeat after me. Father God, I surrender. I repent of my sin. I believe that Jesus died for me. Be my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for loving me. In Jesus' name, amen. Now I wanna take a moment to deal with this fear of rejection. Because there are many people in this room that are dealing with it. In fact, there's many that I feel that the Lord just revealed to me this morning. That there's many people that you're so tormented by fear

that you're not sleeping. You're literally tormented. It's a spirit. That spirit already knows that his time is up because you're gonna be free today. My heart is, even now, it's racing because this fear of rejection, God says his perfect love removes all fear. It evicts it. And so if you've been dealing with this fear of rejection, just fear, anxiety, the Lord's gonna restore your sleep today. Some of y'all are gonna get sleep that you never have had in years, maybe weeks, months, I don't know. But you're gonna sleep again. And I speak to this tormenting spirit over your life right now in the mighty name of Jesus. It's not by might nor by power, but it is by your spirit. And so Lord, would you break the hold of this tormenting spirit over your sons' and daughters' lives? Would you silence his voice and free them now? And I want every person here that has been dealing with this spirit, I want you to repeat this prayer after me. I want you to say this, Father. Amen. Yeah, thank you for that.

Let me say this before we say this prayer. If I look right up here. So there's a gateway into our soul. That gateway is our eyes, our ears. And before you go to bed, you may need to close the gate that you open for the enemy to come through. That means you set your eyes on something you should not have. Or you listen to something that you, and the enemy used that to come in and wreak havoc up here in your brain, in your mind. Strongholds have been established. Strongholds have been erected. And in the name of Jesus, those strongholds have got to be broken. They got to be broken. So say this with me. Say, Father, I closed the door. I closed the gateway that gave the enemy access. I no longer attach myself to the lies of the enemy. I attach myself to the truth of who I am in Christ. Forgive me, help me to be who you've made me to be. In Jesus name, amen. Now, anytime that you open that gateway, shut it, because it becomes a portal for the enemy to torment you. And then you start feeling bad about yourself. And then you start rejecting yourself. And that rejection causes you to not receive what God wants to give you,

because you don't feel that you're worthy to receive. And God says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to break the enemy's stronghold because you are worthy. He died on the cross before you ever messed up. He accepted you. Here's excuse number four, I can't, I can't. Exodus 4.10, but Moses pleaded with the Lord, Oh, Lord, I'm not very good with words. I never have been, but I'm not now, even though you have spoken to me, I get tongue tied and my words get tangled. You know what he had? Moses had a limitation mindset. He was, what he was saying is I'm not gifted enough. I have a speech issue. I'm going to limit what I can do because of my past, because of my upbringing, because of the things that I have experienced. I don't know that I can do that. I can't do that. Here's what God's response to Moses. He said, Moses, who made your mouth? He didn't say, come on, Moses, you got this. You can do it, buddy. He said, Moses, who made your mouth? If I created it, I can use it. I don't care what you said before. I don't care what you did before. If I made it, I can use it. Just surrender it. What's in your hands. What do you have that I can use? I never call anything that I can't equip. Here's the truth. Your limitations don't disqualify. They reveal where God wants to show his power. I will say it again. Your limitations don't disqualify you. They reveal where God wants to reveal his power. So, excuse number five, use someone else. You know what this was? This was avoidance. This was avoidance. Exodus 4.13, but Moses again pleaded, Lord, please send anyone else. And you might have that excuse. Somebody else could do that better than me. Somebody else

got that. You know, when you surrender, God will take you places that people thought there's no way. And when you're surrendered, God can take you places where people go, but only God. But only God. And here's the real deal right here. This wasn't insecurity. This wasn't fear. This was Moses' reluctance to embrace his identity. This is where God got angry. Why? Because Moses wasn't just rejecting a task. He was rejecting who God is calling him to become. He's calling him to leave. Moses is making excuses. And it's not about the task. It's about becoming who God, when he speaks something, remember, God specializes in speaking into chaos. Before the universe, when it was the earth was in chaos, total chaos, void, it was dark. God spoke into the chaos and earth lined up with what he spoke. So I don't care how chaotic your life is. When God speaks into it, he creates a new identity. So your identity is rooted in God's presence, not your performance. Oh man, this is good. I know I'm preaching good when everybody's looking at me quiet. It's hot this morning, y'all. That word is sizzling, but y'all being transformed by it. I love it. Your identity is rooted in God's presence, not your performance. I want you to notice something. God never fixes Moses first. He calls him while he's still in process. He calls him when he's still unsure of himself. Identity doesn't come because of obedience. It's formed through obedience. When God called me and I stepped out at 18 year old kid, pretty much responding to this call in a city, I didn't know people. No one knew me. I remember talking about identity crisis. I decided, you know, do some street evangelism in Tuskogee, Oklahoma. No, Muskogee. It was Muskogee, Oklahoma. And yeah, you're like, where's that? I don't know. I just know there's a country song about it. There's

this one drag. There's this one strip. The street's probably about the width of our parking lot, not much on it, but everything, that was the only thing in this town. And for fun, these kids would, on the weekend, they would drive up one side and then drive down the other side. That was all this, that was like the big action of Muscogee, Oklahoma. And every once in a while, they'll stop in the parking lot, and when they get in the parking lot, they would just drink and party. Well, here's what threw me off, walking down the street, this drag in Muscogee. Everybody had big trucks, big buckles, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats, but they were listening to rap music. I was so confused, but I fit right in, right? I was the only brother walking down Muscogee, Oklahoma, cowboy hats, boots, and I'm trying to tell people about Jesus, and what's interesting about identity is this. Your identity doesn't come because of obedience. It's formed through obedience, which means this. It's like a passport. You don't prove your citizenship by how you act. You act differently because of your citizenship. So if I'm a citizen of heaven, I don't prove it by how I act. I act differently because I am a citizen of heaven, and the Spirit of God helps me to do so.

So Moses had to learn that I don't act like a deliverer to become one, I act like one because I am one, because God says I am. God says I am. And here's the last point, and then I'll let you go. You can't walk in purpose until you settle identity. You can't walk in purpose until you settle identity. Moses' hesitation delayed his obedience, and here's the danger. If you don't settle identity, you will constantly negotiate your calling. If you don't settle the identity, you will constantly negotiate your calling, what you should, what you shouldn't. God says go, you say what if? God says speak, you say I can't. God says lead, you say use someone else. Here's the truth, when identity is unclear, obedience becomes optional. This is what I want you to know, when identity is unclear, your obedience becomes optional. So don't let the enemy confuse you about identity. Which excuse sounds like you? Insecurity, who am I? Lack of intimacy, who are you? Fear of people, what if? Limitation mindset, I can't. Avoidance, use someone else. Your excuses aren't random. It's revealing where your identity is actually fractured.

And today, your identity doesn't come from how much you make, what you do as your job, and all of these kind of things. That's not your identity. Your identity comes from the one who made you. And God already knows that you're jacked up. He already knows you're jacked up past. He already knows your inadequacies. He already knows your crazy upbringing. He knows all of that, and he's okay with it. He does not care about all of that. He cares about you, but he just wants you to know that you're jacked up past, you're inadequacies, you're jacked up upbringing, all of that, he's using that wilderness experience in your life to prepare you for the calling on your life, to be his ambassadors right here on earth so that earth can begin to look like heaven through you. He's choosing you. You're broken you. He's choosing you. You're broken you. He's choosing you, all of you, to lead. Moses came to this bush as a fugitive, a failure, a confused man, but he left as a call delivered. But nothing externally changed yet. The only thing that changed was who he believed God was and who he believed he was because of that belief. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You may be sitting here today, and you might be in your wilderness moment. You may be at your burning bush moment. You may be questioning, wondering, who am I, that God would ask me. Today, my prayer is that you would no longer allow yourself to be imprisoned by limitation mindset, that you would respond through surrender so that you could be all that God's called and created you to be. Would you bow your heads with me? Father, I thank you for every person here. And right there where you are, would you just ask God to just speak to you, God, and say this, Lord, what are you saying to me through this message? What are you saying to me? For some, he's saying, stop striving. You're working so hard to prove that you are something. Because you want others to see that you are something. And the father says, no, you're something because I made you something. Not because of the money you make, not because of your accomplishments. Because before you were in your mother's womb,

I thought of you. And I hear him saying, just trust me. Surrender. Surrender. And all you're getting, I hear him saying, get understanding of who you are in Christ. And I speak peace to your soul. I speak alignment into your being. That your being would align with his calling and purpose. That the enemy has been served notice. He has to release his hope. And I thank you that today the truth sets us free to be who you've made us to be, in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen, and amen, and amen, and amen. Come on, somebody just give God praise right quick for a moment. Y'all feel that? Holy ghost right there. Holy spirit. Would you stand with me? I just wanna pray a blessing over you. For those of you that made a decision to trust Jesus, we wanna help you take your next step. That next step might be water baptism. We wanna help you do that. Let our prayer team know. Maybe it's joining our first steps class to learn how to read the Bible, how to study the Bible. We wanna help you with that. So let our prayer team know,

they're gonna be right here at the front to pray with anybody. Some of you need more prayer. You really need to be set free. I know that some people that have been tormented, I know the enemy's loose his hold, but I want you to come and receive prayer and say, you know what? I've been dealing with a tormenting spirit. It's time for it to end today. So come and receive prayer. They're here to pray with you. I want you to turn your palms towards heaven. I wanna pray a blessing over you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he turn his face towards you and be gracious to you. May he smile upon you and bring you peace, favor, rest, strength, courage, hope, and love. I pray that in your life, nothing would be missing, nothing broken, that you would have everything that you need that pertains to life, to godliness. That you and your family would be protected physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. No weapon formed against you would be able to prosper. And that this week, may the spirit of God continue to reveal to you who you are in him, in who he is through you. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. Hey, God bless you guys. We love you so much.

Have a great week, and we'll see you next Sunday.