Have I Missed God? || Victory Church [Cafe Convos #1]

Soft sticks, hair, makeup, I'm ready. Yo, so I'm so happy to be here with you, Pastor Steven. Hey. And you, Bishop Liz. No, I'm just kidding. Apostle. Apostle Liz. Apostle Ler. The online community at Victory Church knows you guys. Shout out. That's right. Because you pastor them and lead them every week. We try. I mean, how many people y'all see on a weekend? It can fluctuate, maybe 10 to 15,000. Dang, so you have the biggest campus. Yeah, that's what they say. I say no doubt, but I'm biased. Just like in hanging out with my friends, I've been trying to just get to really appreciate some of the things that my friends appreciate. So with this conversation, I had them to bring your favorite coffee. And I'm not a coffee drinker, but. Then why would you do this? Because I want. It's torture. No, because I want to love what you love. If you throw up on camera, it's not our fault, right? If I throw up on camera, it is not your fault.

What do you guys, what do you like to drink? Like what is this I'm about to try? Yeah, I know there's lots of different kinds of coffee. It's just coffee with some cream and some sweetener. So this is just straight. Is there like a name that this is normally called? Coffee. I don't know. I'm not the coffee expertise guy. You just like the way it tastes or? Yeah, yeah. I mean, if it's got enough sugar and cream in it. Oh, so you like hot chocolate. Yeah, there you go. That's exactly what you're drinking. So I'm gonna try this. So cheers to you. It's not gonna bite my tongue, is it? It might. I'm scared. We'll see. Don't be scared. I'll have you go first. You're gonna be the first pink one off the iceberg. If you survive, then I'll have some. All right, here we go. Gosh, that's hot. Oh my Lord. He got some on his shirt. That's great.

Is it bad? No, it's good. Just going up. Okay, oh yeah, that's just straight coffee. I'm trying to learn. That's good. That's bravery. I'm proud of you. Good job. Yeah, like I think it's cool. I'm not gonna do that. You guys can keep your stuff. I'm happy. Can you even taste our drink? I'm gonna swish it to the back so I can actually taste it as well. You're gonna like that one. This is the most warm. This is pretty. A vanilla latte with cinnamon powder. I don't know why I did the Salt Bae guy for the cinnamon. It looks like it. That's why. Cheers. All right, here we go. Oh, I could rock with this. Yo. See? That's crazy.

I could rock with this. This tastes like hot dirt, but I like this. But I mean, to your point, like Steven was saying, you think it's brave. I'm not afraid to try new things. I'm afraid of some things, like making the wrong choice on like big life decisions. I just bought a new car. And thank you. Maybe, let's hear about it first. Well, yeah, let's hear about it. So I just bought a new car. We kind of needed a car. I've been looking for months. I'm a very detailed research guy. I'm gonna spare you the whole story. But in essence, while shopping for this car, I had these ideas. Like I'm only gonna buy this car, this Tesla, either from the Tesla dealership, I'm gonna buy it used, either from a Tesla dealership or from Carvana. But here's where I messed up, y'all. And I'm gonna be totally transparent.

I've only shared this with like close friends and y'all. And the world. And yeah, whoever watches this. So going through it, find the car I like, drive it, it's cool. Next day, getting ready to go, like with the check from the bank and everything. And I asked God, I was like, hey, if this is not supposed to, if this is not the spot, don't make it go smooth. Like just, you know, give me a sign, give me a flag or something like that. Bro, something happened. The price that they gave me the day before, like was like, like let's say $500 less than what was really supposed to go. A guy actually, he made a clerical mistake. I saw him make the mistake. But I thought it was like the discount or whatever. So boom. So his manager comes, is like, oh, he made a mistake.

Da, da, da, da, da. So at that point in time, I'm like, Lord, is this the bump? Or is this just like human error? You know what I'm saying? All right. And so we buy the car. And when I say the, and this is crazy. The amount of things that have happened over the last month that may or may not have anything to do with the car has just constantly been a constant reminder of did I miss it? Did I miss the flag? Did I miss what I asked for? You know, for sake of excitement or whatever. Like, did I ask you for wisdom and ignore it? Or just miss it? Like, oh, that's just human error. But I specifically asked him like, don't let it go smooth. And that was a bump. And so now anytime anything has like happened since, like I got sick.

When I was first driving the car, I couldn't drive the car for the first two weeks cause I was experiencing nausea and dizziness. I'm working through TMJ right now. And so I had just had. Some work done over here. I tried acupuncture over here. It caused inflammation in the muscle which pressed against my ear, which started to mess with my equilibrium. Got the car. Car, for new EV drivers, they can experience motion sickness because of the lack of the motor sound and engine vibration and the regenerative brake. So it was like the perfect storm of situations happening to make. So not smooth, basically. Not smooth, right? So I'm like, Lord, I'm like, are you punishing me? Like, did I miss it that much? And it took some wise counsel, some good friends to be like, man, Lord, don't punish us like that. So like after I got done with, I went to several doctors, got some steroids, got some muscle relaxers. Inflammation went down. Balance worked out.

Some lavender oil. Did you put some essential oils on it? No, no, no. Not lavender oil. That's a strike one. Lavender oil. Lavender oil. Yeah. But yeah, no, it really had me like, when I ask God something, I really need to pay attention. Really need to pay attention. And again, not to say that everything that was happening was because of that, or like, I even asked, I said, Lord, if I missed it, forgive me. Like, I repented. Like, if I did miss something, please forgive me. But what it really made me do is like, I'm scared of missing them. Like, I wanna be wise. I can be smart. I can do all the research possible, but at the end of the day, I'm not smarter than Him. I don't know the end all, be all. If this was not the specific car that maybe He had for me, that don't mean that this car's gonna like, blow up to the-

It might. It might. You read all the stories in the Bible. Let's hold hands. It might blow up, but it won't. It won't. I like the grace that He provides. You know what I'm saying? And the good insurance. And I know, and the great insurance. But like, have y'all had like, any of those moments where it's like, okay, I'm trying to make a wise decision about something, but also trying to balance out like, is this the Lord's wisdom, or is this like, Steven's wisdom, or Liz's wisdom? Or anxiety driven. Or anxiety driven. Because I was talking to somebody this week. I was like, one of the hardest things sometimes, trying to discern the voice of the Lord. Because you have your thoughts, you got other people's thoughts, and then you're trying to find His voice. For sure. You know, in all of that. And so just, yeah. How do you, have you had those moments where it was like, Lord, I want to make this decision,

but I don't want to make this decision that seems smart, but may not be what you want? Do you ever grow out of that? I'm not sure that, I think I'm going to be 70 and 80. Yeah. In Jesus name, or 90. Amen. And still having to like, go before the Lord and be like, all right, this is what I think. Here's what the council said. Here's what I found in prayer. But like, all that mess, Lord. You can jump right in the middle of it all. You can cancel the whole thing if you want. But I've tried to do the best I can. Let's see how this, let's see how this plays out. So I do feel like there's a little bit of weight with this. Someone told me this once, and I feel like there's some truth to it. This could also be horrible theology. All right, so don't judge me. Someone told me this, and I think there's some truth to it, that imagine that you're shooting an arrow, right? And you're aiming as best you can, and you shoot the arrow, and it hits the wall, but the wall's blank, and that God has an ability to wherever the arrow lands, He draws a target around it. You know what I mean? Yeah. But that can also be abused, where you're like,

okay, well, I'll have to pray then, yeah, no. But when you, like with what? Yeah, just to shoot it anywhere. I mean, we're in Proverbs, right? You look at Proverbs 3, 4, 5, and 6, where it talks about trust in the Lord with all you got, don't lean into your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge Him. And I feel like that means when you're, in everything that you do, bring it before the Lord, and then, and He will direct your path. So I think you brought it to the Lord and all that. And even though there's been hiccups along the way, it's not like you went. Yeah, it's not like I was just like, deliberately was like, I know what you said, but I'm gonna go do this. That's right. You know? That's right. And I feel like God's merciful in that. And you put a lot of like research in it. Did you just get a new car? I did. I did. I got a new husband too. You got a new husband, a new car, I'm getting a new husband. I got a new husband. And there's no lemon law for a new husband.

No. I will say though, your wisdom in like, trying to research everything as well. Like you were a good steward in that. Trying. And so, I think the Lord will bless that as well. You bought a Ford. Eric. Thanks for being a part of Victory Church on the Pando app. We hope this content was a blessing to you, but we want you to know that you're not done yet because we want to hear from you. So send us a letter and tell us things like what God is doing in your life, how we can pray for you, or even content that you would like to see us create in the future. We just want you to know that we see you, you're important to us, and we'd love to continue to create some things in the future that will bless you. So send us a letter and we hope to hear from you soon.