God Can Use Anybody | En Fuego | Pastor Josh Howerton

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive, where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free now. Enjoy this Bible teaching. Hey Lake Point family, good to see y'all again. Good to see you guys. Hey, let me just start right here. If you've got your Bibles, head over to Exodus chapter 3. Let me just get this out of the way, and I'm excited about it. Happy 250th birthday, United States of America. Come on, somebody. All right. Hey, I just want to do this, you know, I want to do this real quick. What that book says right there, what the Word of God tells us is that when we gather, what we're doing as a church is this is literally, it's like an outpost of an eternal kingdom. It's like an outpost of an eternal kingdom. It's like an outpost of an eternal kingdom. It's like an outpost of an eternal kingdom. It's like an outpost of an eternal kingdom. it's like an outpost of an eternal kingdom. Hey, I just want to do this you know, I want to do this real quick. What that book says right there, what the Word of God tells us is that when we gather,

what we're doing as a church is this is literally, it's like an outpost of an eternal kingdom. And so the whole reason we gather, we all know this, man, the whole reason we gather is there is a name that is above every name, there is a king that is a king of all kings, and our greatest allegiance is to an eternal kingdom more than any earthly little cake kingdom, all right. I love my country, and you should too. And listen, man, this, it is an incredible privilege to, I'm thankful to God for our country. I believe it's the greatest country on earth. And I'm allowed to think that because I live here, I'm all in. And what I want to say is, man, in the words of George Washington, we have a responsibility in our nation as citizens, and the Bible calls us to be good citizens of whatever nation he puts us in. And so I'm going to quote George Washington, this is probably a quote you didn't hear from your junior college professor. George Washington said, it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and to humbly implore His protection and His favor. That's George Washington. And so what we would say, what I'll say today is, may God pour out reformation and revival for a resurgence of His purposes in our nation and in our day through us, okay? There we go. Happy birthday, United States. Now, let's get to something even more important. If you got your Bibles, head over to Exodus chapter three. Pastor Mike Rowe, by the way, thank you, Pastor Mike Rowe, for being an awesome Bible teacher, loving the people at Lake Point, we love you. And what he has done is, man, we've been doing this series, preaching through the fire passages of the Bible, and he left me the one, the one I'm most excited about. I am fired up for it.

Okay, there we go. We are in Exodus chapter three today. Now I'm going to jump right into it. Heads up, I got a nasty upper respiratory thing, and so, and I'm out of preaching game shape, so you got to kind of roll with me. Here's what we're doing. Let me get a run and start into it. Exodus chapter three. Listen, all the Bible is equally true, but not all the Bible is equally important. If the Bible were a mountain range, Exodus chapter three would be Everest. If the Bible were the Rocky movies, it'd be Rocky four. It's a high, it's a peak, okay? I'm the only one who thought that was funny in any service. In any service, I'm not, okay. Here's what you, let me set it up. Here's what you got right here. From the end of Genesis to the beginning of Exodus is 400 years. For 400 years, the people of God have been under, the people of God, by the purposes of God, have been under the slavery and oppression of people who hated God in Egypt. Now when you drop in in Exodus chapter three, what you got is God in his sovereign providence, he moved his people into Egypt in his sovereign and good providence to incubate his people so that they could grow, grow, grow, so that he could prepare them to go take the land in Canaan and bring them in to all the blessings that he promised them back in Genesis 13 and Genesis 15. I'll get to that in a second. Now what you have right here is for 400 years, they've been under the oppression of these people. Now check this out. Egypt at this time, let's hit, we're going to do some history nerd stuff for a second. Egypt at this time, it is the global superpower of the world and Egypt will rule the world

as the dominant global superpower for 1300 years. To put that in perspective for you history nerds, Egypt was the global superpower longer than the Greek empire and the Roman empire combined. So you have two, at this point, there's between two and three million Israelites that are enslaved in Egypt and they've been crying out to God for delivery from the slavery to these people for 400 years. Side note, how many of you guys who have been on team Jesus for more than like 60 seconds have figured out that your timing and God's timing are different? Can I get an amen? Because what you're gonna notice is, listen, here's what happens. They've been crying out for 400 years, and what they might have thought was that the silence of God was the absence of God. But as you're gonna see in a second, God saw, he heard, he cared, he knew, he remembered. His silence was not his absence, but his timing was different than their timing. Here's why I say that. What some people do, man, is just like you'll start fervently praying on Monday, and if God hadn't miraculously worked by Friday, you're like, where are you, God? Well, his timing is greater than your timing. His thoughts are higher than your thoughts. His ways are higher than your ways. And this is what I've learned walking with Jesus for 30 years now, is listen to me, man. God is never late, but he is rarely early, rarely early.

And what he does right here is that at the exact moment when he needed to work, he comes and he brings a calling to this guy named Moses. You probably heard of Moses. You saw the movie, Prince of Egypt. He brings a calling to this guy named Moses. Now, when this, watch, when the call of God comes to Moses in Exodus two and three, like you're gonna see right here, watch, Moses is 80 years old. Here's why I say that. If you're like senior saint, back half of life, if your age starts with a five, six, seven, eight, nine, maybe even a one and a zero, listen, the most important call on Moses' life doesn't even come to him until he's 80. Till he's 80. Listen, don't you ever, the Bible says that God has numbered your days before you were born. He numbered your days. Your birth date is fixed, and you know what that date was. There is another day that is just as fixed as your birthday is your death day. God has chosen that from before the foundations of the world. And until you reach that day that God has chosen, listen, if you're still breathing, he's still got a purpose. In the kingdom of God, it's like Advil and turkey have expiration dates in my fridge.

But in the kingdom of God, people don't. If you're still breathing, if you still got a pulse, he's still got a purpose on your life. Don't you dare give up. So God's call comes to Moses when he's 80 years old right here. All right, now, watch what happens. Check this out. The Israelites groaned in their slavery, and they cried out. And their cry for help because of their, man, I'm out of game shape. Their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning. He remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so God looked at the Israelites and he was concerned about them. Now, pause, let me just point this out. Here's how the triangle works in Exodus 2 and 3. The people pray, their prayers move heaven, heaven moves Moses, Moses frees the people. Watch, you responding to the call of God on your life, you are the answer to somebody else's prayer. And listen, if you look at what God speaks to you today, you're gonna see it in a second. Whatever God puts on your heart today, he might do something very specific. Your unwillingness to respond to the call of God on your life is somebody else's unanswered prayer. You are God's answer to somebody else's prayer.

This is how it happens in this passage. Now, watch what happens next. Now, Moses, now we're in chapter three, was tending the flocks of Jethro. Now, for you Bible nerds, in Exodus 1 and 2, there was a guy named, I think it is pronounced Reul, that's my best shot, it's the same guy. So Reul and Jethro, same guy, one dude, two names, it's like Kanye and Yeezy, it's the same thing. So his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There, now this is, watch, watch, the angel of the Lord. Now, for some of you Bible nerds, you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, the angel of the Lord, but in a couple of verses, it's gonna say that God spoke to Moses out of the bush. So Josh, which is it? Is it the angel of the Lord or is it God? Now, this is one of the most mind-blowing Bible nerd things in the whole Bible, I don't got time to go into it, we deep dive it on the podcast, I don't have time here. What you have right here, almost every Bible scholar agrees, is something Bible scholars call a Christophany, a Christophany. There is a difference in the Old Testament when you see the phrase, an angel of the Lord, and then sometimes the Old Testament will say, the angel of the Lord.

Whenever the Old Testament says, the angel of the Lord, here's what you got right here, this is gonna blow your mind, here's what you got right here. Moses is coming face to face with a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There are seven reasons that we know that's true, I go into it in the podcast, I don't have time right here, but this whole passage, when Moses is talking to the bush, he's talking to Jesus. Awesome, okay? Now, he appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it didn't burn up. So Moses thought, I love this, Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange. Hey, why the bush does not burn up? Now, do you know why Moses went over and looked at the fire? Because he was a man and that's what men like to do. They like to see things burn. If you, listen, if you put a fire anywhere within eyesight of a guy and he's just gonna walk over to it and be like, I wonder what's burning over here. You stick a bunch of, listen, you stick a bunch of guys around a campfire, they won't say a word, they'll just stare at a fire. That's what men do.

So Moses walks over and he sees this bush. And now, one of the things I did in the last few weeks is I visited our kids' camps and our student camps. So real quick, if you were one of the kids or one of the students at any of our camps, if you were a leader at any of those camps, or if you had a kid at one of the camps, will you raise your hand, where you at? All right, now check this out. If you were one of the kids or students at one of the camps, what I'm doing right now, let me be a youth pastor again for about 30 seconds and talk to you. I wanna talk to you if you were one of the kids at one of our camps, we had like 3000 kids at camps. I'm talking to you right now. Here's my question to you. Why is it that God appears as a fire throughout the Bible? He always does this, it's like his signature move. Burning bush, Exodus 3, when God appears to Abraham in Genesis 13 and Genesis 15 to establish his covenant, he shows up as quote, a flaming fire pot. When God descends to give the law at Mount Sinai, he descends as quote, a consuming fire, the Bible says. When Solomon dedicates his temple, what he does is it says the glory of the Lord descended, it was like a fire and the smoke of the fire of God fills the temple so the priest can't even stand in his presence. Fast forward to Revelation chapter two,

resurrected Jesus shows up to his fishing buddy, John. John's looking at his fishing buddy, resurrected Jesus, and he looks in his eyes, he's like, man, it was crazy. His eyes were like flames of fire is what it says. Acts two, I'm gonna do one more, I could do this all day, I'm just gonna do one more. Acts two, the Holy Spirit falls and what it says is the spirit fell and he was as flames, tongues of fire, divided tongues of fire that came down on him. So if you're one of the kids or students, you went to camp, you got this big old camp high, here's my question, why does God fall like fire? Well, here's why, check this out. The sign of an encounter with the presence of God is not emotion. The younger you are, the more you need to get this. The sign of an encounter with the presence of God is not emotion. Now, when you have an encounter with God, you will experience emotion, but not all emotion is a sign of an encounter with God. Here's how I know this, before I was a pastor, what I did is I traveled and I just preached a bunch of youth camps all over the place, that's what I did. Now, here's the deal, I'm gonna give you a dirty little secret about preaching at camps. On the fourth night of camp, you're all sleep deprived,

you had your little camp crush for the last four days, you're emotionally dysregulated, you've had all, you burned all your secular CDs, that's what I did when I was a camper as a kid, you did all that stuff, you're all coked up on sugar, all the stuff you got going on. And I'm, listen, fourth night of camp, I'm using my best illustrations, my most emotional stories, dirty little secret, can I tell you something? On the fourth night of camp, I could get you to rededicate your life to the Easter bunny. Bro, man, listen, I can get you to do whatever I want. Now, here's why, because a lot of people, they mistake emotion with an encounter with God. That's not the sign of an encounter with God. What is it, okay? Well, why does God appear as fire? Watch this, remember chemistry class? Whenever something burns, it literally undergoes a chemical reconstruction. It was this thing, and then it caught on fire, and when the fire's done, it's a whole new thing. Watch, what is the sign that you've had an encounter with God? It's not emotion. The sign of an encounter with God is rearranged priorities. Watch, before I met God, I was this, and then I had an encounter with a consuming fire, and now I'm this.

Before I was God, I loved to do these things, and then I had an encounter with God, and now I love to do these things. Before I had an, listen, if you're a kid or a student, I need you locked in right now. Before I had an encounter with God, watch, watch, I loved the world, and the things of the world, and the applause of the world, and fitting in with the world, and then I had an encounter with God, and now you know what I love? I love his word, and obedience to his word, and knowing him and his word. Watch, why? Because you were this, and then you came in contact with a consuming fire, and now you're something new, and now you don't gotta do the things you used to do because in Christ, you're not the person you used to be. See, that's what this is, man. This is why God reveals himself as a consuming fire. Now watch this. When the Lord saw, oh, man. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God, what's the word? You say it, God called. We're gonna talk about calling. To him from within the bush, Moses, Moses. And he said,

And here I am, the Lord said, here I am. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. I am concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, y'all. God is a good dad that loves to give good gifts to his kids. The land was the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, the Termites, Kryptonites, and Cellulites, lots of bites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Now, here we go, point number one, check this out. Watch, this is important. You gotta get this. If you're new to Team Jesus, you gotta get this. The Bible is not an old book. The Bible is an eternal book. And because the Bible's eternal, it means it's timeless. And because it's timeless, it's always timely. So what that means is the Bible

doesn't just tell us what happened. The Bible tells us what always happens. So this is about a calling that comes to Moses, but point number one, you gotta understand this. God has a calling for you. There's a calling God has on your life. There is something that God destined before you were born, things he destined you to accomplish, and then his destiny resulted in your design. He designed you to fulfill those things, and that's the purpose of your life. It's why you're on this planet. Check this out. This is how the Bible says it in Ephesians 2. For we are God's workmanship. Watch, you may have been, your deadbeat dad may have called you a mistake, okay? You're your heavenly father's masterpiece of workmanship. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand. Before you were born, he prepped them that we should walk in them. All right, now, here's what this means. Let's go a layer deeper. So why did he do this, okay? Listen, God doesn't need you. God don't need you, like at all. He doesn't need you at all. But because he's a good dad, God delights to involve his children

in the accomplishment of his will and the building of his kingdom. He doesn't need you, but because he's a good dad, he wants to do something with you so he can do it with you, okay? Here's my best example of this. Let me move on, okay? Years ago, one Christmas when Hudson was really young, my parents bought Hudson for Christmas a big, like this Lego kingdom. I think it's because they hated me and wanted to ruin my Christmas. I think that's why they did it. They bought Hudson this big Lego kingdom. So as soon as he unboxes it, Hudson's like, hey, you know, dad, can we build it? And I'm like, sure, we can build it. Yep, let's do it, buddy. We are gonna build it, ha, ha, ha. So we go over to the little kitchen table and we built it for the next few hours. And I specifically remember like thinking, like saying to Hudson, like, hey, buddy, are you building or are you breaking? What are you doing right now? You know, like his help was very helpful, right? So it takes us like 11 times longer than it should have taken. And by the time we're done, we get done, and then Jana walks in the kitchen.

She's like, hey, what are you guys doing? And Hudson holds it up or like points to it. And, you know, and he goes, he says, I built this. And I'm like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I built this. What I was thinking is, wait, buddy, what actually happened is you distracted and frustrated me. Well, I built that, that's what actually happened. And it actually, I could have built that 11 times faster if I didn't involve you at all. Watch, the reason that I involved him is because I'm a dad and I like doing stuff with my son. It's the same thing with God. God doesn't need you, he doesn't need you. But because he's a good father, he delights to involve you in the building of his kingdom. So number one, you gotta understand, you were put on this planet to fulfill a calling and you'll never be happy, you'll never be fulfilled till you know what it is and you're doing it. That leaves me a second thing, check this out. Number two, you've got to discover what your calling is. What did God design you for? You've got to discover it. All right, now, the problem is most people never discover it so they definitely never fulfill it. Now, here's what I'm gonna do. In the next like five minutes, I usually am not like, you know, you can take notes, but I'm not like a huge, like you gotta take notes guy.

Honestly, for me, I just need a sermon to land on me and start changing me on the inside, that's how I am. In the next five minutes, if you were ever gonna take notes on something, I would. What I'm getting ready to walk you through is like when I'm discipling guys, this is what I walk them through. So if I was gonna do it, like what I'm gonna show you is how to know what God's call on your life is. If you're ever gonna take notes, this is your spot. Now, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you a Venn diagram. I'm all about diagrams. I've, you know, accepted Microsoft Excel into my heart. I love charts and graphs and I love all that stuff. This is a Venn diagram, okay? Now, this is straight out of Exodus 3, how you can discover what God's call on your life is. I'm gonna tell you what it is and then I'm gonna go there. Your calling is at the intersection of three things in your life. Affinity, ability, and opportunity. Affinity, ability, opportunity. So, here we're gonna go. Number one, you gotta ask, what's your affinity? Here's how this happens in Moses' life. Let me explain what I mean by this. The first time we meet adult Moses in Exodus 2, here's what happens. One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were

and he watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people, looking this way and that and seeing no one. He killed the Egyptian and he hit him in the sand. Now, don't start killing people. That's not what I'm driving at. I don't want you to learn from Moses' iniquity. I want you to learn from his affinity. Here's my point. There was something that when Moses saw it, he couldn't stand it, couldn't stand it, okay? Here's a question to figure out what your affinity is. What can't you stand? What is it for the purposes of God that when you see it happen or you see that it doesn't happen, it's just like, it almost, there's a righteous anger. It's like, I can't stand it. Let's ask it positively. What is it that gets you going? When you see it, it does happen the right way for the glory of God and the good of people. You're like, yeah, man, let's go. Team Jesus gets you fired up. That's your affinity, okay? Now, what you gotta understand is it's different for different people. Let me untie a knot. Some of you struggle with, churches have a lot of fights over this thing

I'm about to say right here. Let me untie a knot. What you gotta understand is people have different callings, which means they have different affinities, which means they get angry at different things. If you don't understand that, you'll spend your whole Christian life being mad at people for not being mad at the same things you are. So what you got right here is people have different callings so they got different affinities, very different, okay? Me and Jana, I'm gonna give you an example, super different. Jana is like super tenderhearted. She's a weep with those who weep person. Jana's best, her favorite weekend is she stands out in that lobby and she prays with hurting people for three hours, walks back in at home and she's like, I got to pray with people for three hours today. She likes writing widows in the church, notes of encouragement. That's just how Jana's wife. She sees somebody hurting and that's like where her heart automatically, she can see like an animal rescue commercial and she's like, oh, her heartbreak. Oh, I love animals, I love animals. I see an animal rescue commercial, I'm like, I love animals too, medium rare. I love them, I love animals.

We're just very different, very, very different. So that's Jana's affinity. Here's my thing. For me, if I see bad Bible teaching, it just like something just sort of snaps in me. I can't stand it, I can't stand it. If I see somebody twisting the Bible to hurt people, families, societies, churches, it just something, it snaps in me. We have different affinities. You need to ask the question, what is it that breaks your heart? Are you the type of person who you want, you see kids and students going the wrong way with their life and something like stirs up in you and you can't stand the thought of a generation arising that knew not the purposes of God and the people of God. You can't stand it. Well, you probably need to be in kids and student ministry. So start with what's your affinity. Now, number two, you gotta ask the question, what's your ability? What's your ability? Now, Moses, let me do a little bio. Moses spent the first 40 years of his life being raised by Pharaoh's daughter. If you've ever wondered why Pharaoh didn't kill Moses during the 10 plagues event, a lot of Bible scholars think it's because Moses was like Pharaoh's adopted grandson.

So what's going on right here, Moses is raised by Pharaoh's daughter. He's raised in Pharaoh's court. Let me ask you a question. Do you think it's a coincidence that the guy God raised up to lead the nation of Israel spent the first 40 years of his life seeing the inside of executive level leadership of the largest empire in the world? Do you think that's a coincidence? If you think that's a coincidence, bless your heart. So what God did is he deposited abilities into Moses and then Moses would later use them for the purposes of God and the advance of his kingdom. So here's the question you need to ask. Ask this question. What are you good at? Here's a safer question. Here's a safer question. Ask the question, how do other people affirm that you're good at? The reason I say that is because, listen, I love you, I just wanna warn you about something. Your whole life is the first three episodes of a season of American Idol. That's your whole life. whole life, where it's like there are people who you're watching the episode and you're like, did nobody tell them they're terrible at singing? Did nobody tell them?

They thought they were awesome, and nobody told them, nobody told them. Now heads up, I'm like that, you're like that, we're all like that, why? Because there's one thing that you can't do. You can't not be you. So you can't step outside of you and watch you, and you're not awesome at evaluating you. The heart is deceitful above all things. So you need to ask the question, what do other people affirm that you're good at? Now, the reason that matters is watch. If you wanna know your destiny, look at your design. What's God made you good at? I'll give an example of this, and I'll move to the third one. So I got a pastor buddy that's up in New York City, and he had this guy in his church that was like a converted drug dealer. Get saved, you're a converted drug dealer, like running the streets and had a whole little organization going. And he gets saved, and then he's on Team Jesus, gets discipled for a little bit, following Jesus, cleans his life up. Well, then he gets into the churches, like they're equivalent of their Next Steps class. And the people in the class don't know anything about him, and they're like, hey, so, they're trying to help him find his calling. Like, hey, so what are you good at?

He's like, I don't know. Like, what skills do you have? I don't know. So then they ask, well, what did you do before? You know, and he didn't know, he was like, ah, he was like, well, I was into like, like pharmaceutical distribution. He's like, well, that's what he said, right? And they eventually did, and they figure out, like, okay, this guy's got testimony, that's the deal. And they, now, remember, this guy's been walking with Jesus for a few years, cleaned his life up a little bit, and they eventually, they're like, hey, they figure out what he did. And they figured out, man, this guy's actually got some street smarts, knows how to organize some things, got a little administrative skills. Now, again, after he's cleaned his life up, been doing all the things, they put him over some administration in the church, and the church grew. Now, you see what happened, watch. In the same way God used skills from Moses' past life, and then aimed them at advancing the kingdom of God, this is what God will often do in your life. If you're new here, and you're wondering, like, how does a 30,000 person church, how does this, how do they do this thing?

It's thousands of people doing this. Let me give you some examples. Thousands of people doing this. So there's a guy you probably never heard of, super important in our church, he's a guy named Ken Farr, his Lake Point CFO, chief financial officer. Before Ken Farr became the CFO of Lake Point, he was a CFO of one of the fastest growing IT companies in Dallas, he was voted one of the top 20 C-level executives in the entire city of Dallas. Then the calling of God came to Ken Farr, Ken took that calling, and a big pay cut, and he came to Lake Point, and now he uses those skills to oversee our resources, because it matters that we squeeze every ounce of God's glory and advance of his kingdom out of every penny of resources we're entrusted with. Ken helps manage that stuff. That's part of the reason, shout out Roy's City Campus, that we were able to do stuff like, guys, we built the Roy's City Campus all cash and no debt at all. Because of, watch, because of guys like Ken Farr managing the resources of Lake Point super wisely, I'll give a couple others. Jordan Hill, kind of swole dude, it was on Lake Point News today, LP News, Jordan Hill. Jordan Hill, before, what he does is he coaches

life group leaders on our staff. Before he was coaching life group leaders, he was a D1 baseball coach, discipling guys on a D1 baseball team at DBU. So watch, he was coaching guys for that team, now he coaches guys on Team Jesus. He took those skills, translated them. I'll give a shout out over at Firewheel Campus. There's a guy at the Firewheel Campus, his name is Sean Ditch. He owns a big old pest company, okay? So what he does is he removes unwanted critters all day, every day. So when we get annoying church members, that's a joke, that's a joke, that's a joke, that's a joke, that's a joke. No, actually, he takes the leadership skills that he got out there and he volunteer, as a volunteer, he oversees the production team at the Firewheel Campus. I'll do one more. There's a guy you probably haven't seen, he's like a ninja around here. His name's Scott McNeil, oversees all the security teams at Lake Point. Yeah, Scott's a good dude, okay? Scott's a good dude, shout out Scott. Blowing his cover right now. Scott, before he oversaw the security teams at Lake Point, what Scott was doing before he got here, I wanna make sure I get it right,

he was a lieutenant in the LAPD over the Fugitive Warrant Division. Yeah, yeah, he was. Okay, I like it, I see you over there, okay? Now, listen, what that mean, now he oversees security teams at Lake Point. What that means is you're real safe. Here's what it means. Listen, what it means is if anybody ever tries to harm the people of Lake Point, here's the thing, Jesus loves you and will send you to meet him. That's what that means, that's what that means, okay? Mess with the flock, you get the Glock, that's how it works, that's how that works. That's a joke. It depends, kind of, just kind of, okay? So you need to ask, what's your. Now, number three, now you gotta ask, what's your opportunity? Ask about opportunity. Check this out. Moses, because he was raised in Pharaoh's court, one, he's bilingual, that's interesting. Two, he was probably out of three, two to three million Israelites, the only one for whom the door into Pharaoh's court was open. Ask this question on opportunity. Ask this question, what doors are open to you? Or ask it like this,

when you walk around the church and the kingdom of God, ask the question, what's the greatest need? Now, here's why this one's important. The first two, no, go back, I wanna show them. The first two, affinity and ability, they were about you. What are you like, what are you good at? This one's real important because, hey guys, it's not all about you. This one, it's not about you, it's about God and his glory and his kingdom. Now, here's the thing, as a disciple, you gotta get this in your heart. Guys, your life is not just about you being fulfilled, it's about people being helped and it's about God being glorified. We gotta get that down in us. Listen, Jesus died for you, it's just not all about you. What life is all about, listen, what life is all about, life is all about a bunch of forgiven nobodies trying to tell everybody about a somebody who can save anybody. That's what life is about, that's what life is about. So then you just gotta ask, man, where's the greatest need? What doors are open for me? Now, okay, here's how all this works, okay? When you figure out affinity, ability, opportunity, you're gonna find at least one thing that's at the intersection of those things, that's your calling, that's your calling. Now, some of you, you're never gonna be happy

until you're doing whatever that is, never gonna be fulfilled. Some of you, for the first time in your whole life, you need to step into a calling to serve the purposes of God. What you need to do before you leave is you just need to text the word serve to the number 20411. We will help you get onto a team that is at that intersection, affinity, ability, opportunity, right there, calling, that's it. Some of you, that's what you need to do today, that's the thing. Now, here's the thing, let me land it. Once it starts to dawn on you what that thing is, newsflash, you're not gonna wanna do it. You're not gonna wanna do it. Watch what happens with Moses. Moses doesn't wanna do it, but Moses said to God, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? He gets all in his feelings and he's like, man, God, I don't got what it takes. Now, real quick, I just wanna say this real quick. It's not about who you are, it's about who he is. The first thing God does after Moses says this, I'm gonna read to you in a second. Moses says, who am I? God reveals his name to Moses and he goes, here's my name, I am. Moses, it's not about who you are, it's about who I am. So hey guys, because God is with you, God can use anybody.

I'm gonna riff these off, okay? Moses was a murderer, Noah was a drunk, Jacob was a thief, Joseph was a convict, Samson was a bully, Gideon was a coward, David was an adulterer, Eli was a failed parent, Solomon was a womanizer, Elijah had anger issues, Jonah was a racist, Jeremiah was depressed, Mary was a pregnant teenager, Peter was a hypocrite, Matthew was an extortionist, Thomas was a doubter, Paul was a terrorist, Tim Tebow was a Florida gator. God can use anybody. He can use anybody, okay? Anybody. That's a Joby Martin joke, that's a hilarious joke. God bless Tim Tebow. Now, God can use anybody. Watch what God does. And God said, I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. And Moses said to God, yeah, but suppose I go to the Israelites and I say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, watch, what if they ask me, what's his name? What am I gonna tell them? Now watch what God does. God said to Moses, now, this is interesting.

In your Bibles, these words are in all caps and you probably read it and didn't even notice or you noticed and you didn't know why. I'm gonna explain it. God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you. This is my name forever from generation to generation. Now, let's go a layer deeper. What God does here is he reveals his personal name to Moses. And it's these four Hebrew letters. Hebrew runs from right to left instead of left to right. So it goes from here to here. And it's these four Hebrew letters and they're called the Tetragrammaton is what Bible scholars call them. That just means four letters. Those letters were considered so holy by Jews throughout the centuries that they would frequently not even speak them. In fact, When you hear somebody say the word Jehovah, all they're doing is they're taking these same four letters and they're putting in different vowels with those same four Hebrew letters because they consider God's name Yahweh to be so holy, they won't even speak his name. That's what Jehovah is, is that with different letters out of reverence. Tetragrammaton.

In English, that's transliterated Y-H-W-H, Yahweh. Now, what Jewish rabbis have talked about for centuries, check this out, is, remember, God calls himself the breath of life. What's interesting about these letters in God's name is that some rabbis have pointed out it's literally like breathing. Watch, watch, like this, Yahweh, Yahweh. Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh. And so the first time anyone is born, the very first thing they say, the name of God on their lips, Yahweh. And the last thing you will do before you close your eyes and meet your maker is one last time you will breathe his name, Yahweh. One. And God tells Moses, that's my name. And what it means, watch, what it means is, I am. So Moses is telling God, well, think about this. God, I don't got what it takes. I'm not good enough. And God goes, here's my name. I am, I am, and I'm gonna be with you. Now, throughout the Old Testament, what God does is he takes his name, I am, and then whenever Israel was in like a time of need, or they didn't have what it took to accomplish something he wanted them to, God would attach his name to whatever was the thing

that Israel lacked, and he planned to supply. So like when you hear people talk about the names of God, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Jireh, I'm gonna do this here in a second. What God's doing is he's taken that name, and then he's inserting the thing where they got a gap, and he's going, I'm gonna be that for you. So you're gonna be good. Now, I've heard these from another Bible teacher, but throughout the Old Testament, it goes like this. In Exodus, when the people of Israel were wounded and sick because of their sin, God reveals himself as Jehovah Rapha. You're sick, that means I'm your healer. In Leviticus, when Moses laid out the law, how we could walk uprightly with God and honor him, and all the people looked at it, and they were like, well, we can't do that, nobody can do that. God reveals himself as Jehovah Mekadneshem. It means I am your sanctifier. I am the one who will enable you to walk with me. When Jeremiah was discouraged because he was looking out at Israel's inability to walk faithfully before God, and he's like, how can we survive? We're so sinful. God reveals himself as Jehovah Sidkenu. I am your righteousness. What you can't be, I'm gonna be for you. In Ezekiel's day, when the people of Israel were scared and alone, and they were surrounded by enemies,

God goes, here's my name right now. I'm Jehovah Shema. I am the God who is ever present. When David felt lost and confused, and he didn't have any friends in the entire world, he felt alone, he called God Jehovah Ra'ah, which means I am the Lord, your shepherd. When Abraham faced an impossible circumstance, no way out at all, God said, I am Jehovah Jireh. I am the Lord, your provider. And to Isaiah, when he wasn't sure how he was gonna survive even another day, God revealed himself as, watch this, Jehovah Sabaoth. I am the Lord, your defender, the God that fights for you. And then, and then in the New Testament, Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God and the exact representation of his nature. Jesus Christ comes, and he ain't in a bush anymore. Now he's enfleshed. And throughout the New Testament, Jesus takes the I am name of God, and he applies it to himself. And he essentially goes, I'm him. And he takes every area of our greatest brokenness, and then he inserted what he was to supply our lack all throughout the New Testament. So it goes like this. To anybody that hungers, Jesus said, I am the bread of life. To anybody that thirsts, Jesus said, I am living water.

To anybody that's walking in darkness, Jesus declares, I am the light. To anybody that's like messed it all up, they need a fresh start, new place to go, Jesus is like, that's all right, I'm the door. To anybody that feels abandoned, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. If you feel lost, Jesus says, I am the way. To anybody that feels confused. Jesus says, I am the truth. To anybody that's afraid of death, Jesus says, it's gonna be all right because I am the resurrection and I am the life. And so what you can do in every season of your life is you can just look at whatever you feel like you don't have, a skill, your past is to check or whatever your thing is, why you can't do that thing God's calling you to do. And you can just go, whatever I'm not, he is. So if you're going, man, God, I can't be a good parent. He's like, I can. You're like, I can't make it. He's like, I'm gonna be with you. Hey, you're going, man, I'm so doubtful. He's going, I'm so faithful. Whatever you're not, he is. And he's promised to be with you so you can walk forward with confidence and faith that the Lord, your God is with you wherever you go. You step forward in confidence.

That's how you do it. I'll be honest, man. Yeah, that's just my whole life. Really, it's just a story of my whole life. 30 years just walking with Jesus. It's just 30 years of me going, there's no way I can do that. But I'm gonna say yes because you said to and I'm gonna jump and you're gonna figure out how I land. That's my whole life. And I'm gonna pray that some of you today, you're gonna take a step you've never taken before to step into whatever God put you on this planet to accomplish. So right now at all of our campuses, would you guys do this? Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? I wanna pray for you. Father, would you please like right now, would you preach the sermon that I cannot preach inside the chest of men and women? I pray that literally right now, that like specific things would be dropping into people's hearts. Things that some of them need to leave. Places that some of them need to go. Callings they need to step into. Names, like specific names of people that are close to them, but far from you. And it's like, they need to be that person

that's going, I'm gonna bring one more. But Father, would you please lead them in paths of righteousness for your namesake? I pray that for them, they'd be so full of the spirit of God that this week it would be like your word says, it would feel like there is a voice behind them saying, this is the way, walk in it. And they would turn neither to the right nor to the left, but they would fix their eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of their faith. So Father, move us as disciples towards your purposes. I pray that in the crucified risen name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said, amen. Amen, amen, amen.