Look Up — Rich Wilkerson Jr.

If you're joining us online, let us know right now in the chat, where are you tuning in from? I want to see where people are watching from, people from all over the world being blessed by this ministry. And I think today there is a message for you. Genesis chapter 15. I've got just two verses, just two little verses, but I believe the Lord's going to speak right to your situation. Don't know what you're carrying today, but I believe the word of the Lord for you is going to bring you hope in the midst of whatever it is that you're facing. Let's look at Genesis chapter 15. This is God speaking to father Abraham. The scripture says he took him outside and said, look up at the sky and count the stars. If indeed you can count them, then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. Here's what I want you to notice. Abram believed the Lord and he credited to him as righteousness. Abram believed the Lord and he credited to him as righteousness. Today I want to preach a very simple message, but one that the Lord gave me, whispered it into my heart a couple of weeks ago, and now today I'm going to do whatever it takes. I'm going to shout it into your spirit if I have to. I want to preach from the subject, look up. Someone say, look up. Now say it with your chest, look up. Yeah, yeah. I like that. I like that. I like that. Put that in the chat right now. Look up. God, we thank you so much for your word. God, we thank you that today it's alive. God, I thank you, Lord, that your word is more relevant today than it was yesterday. For you are the living God. You are the speaking God. You are the God who is ever working. So we stop and we pause on this first day of the week, and we invite you into our situation, into our circumstance, and we ask now, Holy Spirit, that you would minister to us. You came here one way, but we want to leave different. Speak to us, Lord. We thank you in advance for what your word is going to do in our life. And if you agree with that prayer, all of God's people said? All of God's people said? Amen. And if you love Jesus, make a little bit of noise. This is not going to work. I can't minister with a Jets fan on the front row. We kick him out of the church, you know? What are you doing, man? All the faith just left me right there. I came out of that prayer going, I feel so confident. Then I saw the Jets. It is hard to believe that it is the start of a brand new month. Just like that, we are already one month down, and here we are into February. How many of you have completed all of your New Year's resolutions? I like you. You're really ambitious. How many have already quit your New Year's resolutions? No, no, no. You still got your gym membership? You still on the diet?

No more fast. It is breakfast all day long. Time is moving quick, but it is funny because as the month ends, it gives me a moment just to reflect and to pause. And just to be honest with you, I have had a month already. Last Sunday, I was not here ministering because I ran the half marathon. It is not a big deal. It is not a big deal. Ran it in 205. Not a big deal. Not a big deal. Personal record. Not a big deal at all. Beat all the guys on staff. Not a big deal. Just not a big deal. But I have had a month to say the least. I start every January taking some time to do a prayer retreat. And I do that in Georgia. Really, at the very beginning of the month, I fly to Georgia with a few friends. And we just seek God out in the woods. And every day, we hike. Now, as soon as you hear that word hike, if you know anything about me, you're like, yeah, that's probably a mistake for Pastor Rich. I am born and raised in the city, okay? You know, born and raised in the county of Dade, okay? If you know, you know. I love city life, but once a year, quite frankly, I go out into the wilderness and I seek God. And day one of our prayer journey, this is early in January. I'm on this hike, and I'm not on a high spot. It's kind of like this. It's a ridge up on some rocks, and there's a river down beneath. And I'm climbing up, and there's this branch that's sticking out. And to me, this looked like, you know, this is my salvation. This has been placed here by God for my help. And so, as I'm reaching up, I take both my hands and I grasp on the branch. And with All of my weight, I pull on the branch to pull myself up, only for the branch to break. And when it breaks, I slam down on the rocks. My head is in the river. I'm like, take me, Lord. But I crushed, like I crushed my thigh. And I didn't think like too much of it. You ever like, well, I'll say this. The older I get, someone's like, you hurt? I'm like, I'm real hurt, you know? Because I just, I want to like lower my expectation. The fact that I got up, I'm like, it's a miracle. But I didn't think too much of it.

And in fact, we kept hiking. And for two days, we kind of kept hiking. Up until two days later, I looked at my leg. I was like, oh, maybe we got a problem here. Because my thigh looked like modern art. There was more color in my leg than I knew was humanly possible. Black and purple and gray. My whole thigh, I'm like, what on earth is this? And once again, I was like, this is probably not good, but you know, I'm gonna keep life going. I'm gonna keep moving. Two weeks after that, the bruise had, and the color had gone away, but all of this had swelled up into what looked like like a water balloon in my leg. I didn't know what it was, but it was like this pouch full of like soft skin. I was like, this is strange. And it turns out that it's what we call a hematoma. That is a type of demon that we see. I didn't know what, it took me 41 years to encounter a hematoma. What is your name? Hematoma. And all that really means is, is that there's something that's trying to release and get out of the body, but it's stuck. And so I had to go to the doctor, and the doctor's like, bro, this is not good.

We're gonna have to send you in to get an ultrasound. To which I was like, do you think something's living in there? Like what? The only time I've ever heard of an ultrasound is for a pregnancy. I'm like, is it a boy? They're like, no, we have to check to see if it's just liquid. If it's not, if it's solidified, we're gonna have to do a surgery. I'm like, Lord, I'm just out here trying to seek you in the woods. Go get an ultrasound, finish the ultrasound. They read the ultrasound, they say, all right, it's just liquid. I go back to the first doctor. He says, all right, what we're gonna do is we're gonna drain it. And that sounds as fun as that sounds. I say all that because it's like, I'm just reflecting on the month. This week I have another doctor's appointment for this thing that began the second day of January. And I say it because what's interesting is that for the last month, I come up here on the stage and I preach and I smile and I lead and we go through the motions, but all the while you don't know that there's something that's being covered by my genes.

It's a hurt, it's a pain, it's a bruise. I'm carrying something that you can't ever see. And it's one thing for physical injuries, but that's not what I'm preaching about today and that's not what I wanna lean into today. Physical injuries are one thing, but how much more when your soul is bruised? I wonder how many people are even here today at one of our locations or watching online and you're going through the motions. You're smiling, you're in service, you're worshiping, you're serving, you're in a crew, you're going through life, but all the while you're carrying something that nobody knows that you're going through something. There's a bruise, there's something uncomfortable, there's something hurt, there's something swollen that you're just walking through. Maybe you're here today and you're going, is this where I'm supposed to be? Not, I'm not talking about church, I'm talking about life, the season. Like, how has it all shown up right here to this moment? Am I doing the right things? How come I'm doing the right things but I still feel lousy, I still feel discouraged, I still feel disappointed? How come I believe God said this but I still haven't seen it yet? How come I started back there

but I'm still not where I believe he's called me to be? I would say one of the greatest pains that we all have to go through in life is the gap pain, the pain of a gap. The pain of what God started and in between what he starts is this thing that he wants to finish but in between it is a painful season. It's this pain of, hey, I've got a calling for your life but you haven't seen it fulfilled. There's a promise for your life but you're not yet walking in the reality of it. God said it but I'm now in this waiting season. Although he said it, I still haven't seen it. Today, I wanna speak to that space, I wanna speak to that hidden thing that you might be carrying. It looks different for all of us but I believe the passage that we're reading, I believe there is great hope even in the midst of the wait. This is the story of Abraham, the father of our faith. And in Genesis chapter 15, in just two verses, God is gonna say something to Abraham. But you gotta understand that in Genesis chapter 15, as God shows up to Abraham, a whole lot of time has already passed since the first time God spoke to Abraham. Because in Genesis chapter 15, I think Abraham has a soul hematoma.

He is disappointed, he is discouraged, he is feeling, in many ways, defeated. You see, this is not the first time that God has spoken to Abraham, but rather, in Genesis chapter 12, God came and made a massive promise to him. You're gonna be the father of a nation. Your offspring, it's gonna be countless. It's gonna be large, it's gonna be big. This is an incredible promise. I'mma bless those who bless you. I'mma curse those who curse you. But it's funny, because we read our Bible, and it takes us, you know, three minutes to get from Genesis 12 to Genesis chapter 15. But if you know God's word in the context, you would know from Genesis 12 to Genesis 15, it's been 10 years. It hasn't been a tough day. It's been a tough decade. He's carrying the swollenness of a bruise and of a hurt of waiting. Did I hear wrong? Did I miss it? God, are you really going to show up for me? God, I'm right here in the midst of this thing. Nobody else can see it, but I am discouraged. I am disappointed. I am in the gap of this pain, and I need you. I wanted to just, this is a very, very basic outline today.

In fact, sometimes when I study God's word, especially when I'm studying God's word for you, I'm just looking at literally individual words. How many of y'all know, all you need is a word from God. You don't need much. You just get one word. When God opens up his mouth, when he says, Lazarus, come forth, how many of y'all know, dead things have to resurrect in his presence. When he looks at a storm, all he has to say is, be still, and that storm has to obey our God. He can look out into the void of nothing, and he can speak into it, and he can create something out of nothing. How many of y'all came into God's house today? All you need is a word, is a word. So in this place, God shows up to Abraham. God has spoken to Abraham before in Genesis 12, but Abraham is in need of God again, and so it is with many of us. And the Bible in Genesis chapter 15 comes, and I wanna stop right at the beginning. The scripture says, he took him. He took him. He comes to Abraham, and he takes him. Now, right there, you have to stop, because we live in a tension, and the tension is, I'm often trying to take God places. More often than not, I'm trying to take God into my plans.

God, come over here. I wanna take you into my dream over here. God, have you seen my vision for a city? Ooh, God, could you imagine what you and I could do together, man? I'm trying to take him into my tent. Oh, but friends, when you are in a waiting season, when you are dealing with a bruise of the soul, when you are hurting, be very, very careful. The goal is not to take God to where you want. The goal is to let him take you to where you need to be. Does anybody want God to take them? God says, no, no, it's not gonna work that way. I'm taking you somewhere. He takes him, meaning Abraham has to get up. He has to get his legs working. He has to move from one position to the next. Listen to me. Faith is often much more of an action than it is a confession. Now, this isn't popular preaching, and I believe in the power of confession, and I believe in the power of belief and faith, but you go from the New Testament to the Old Testament, and you study any person who's actually operating in faith, their faith actually has works and action marked by it. It's a movement. When Jesus finds fishermen on the shoreline, he says, come, follow me. He doesn't say, go to seminary.

He doesn't say, do a whole book study. He doesn't say, go to the growth track. He says, drop your nets and start walking, because faith is an action. Faith requires movement. I wonder, is there anybody in 2026 who actually wants to put legs on their faith, who says, I wanna move when God tells me to move? And the whole point of what we're trying to get to here is that whenever you're in a space. where you're dealing with the pain of where you're at. For all of us, the key, the starting point is always one word, it is obedience. It's not explanations. It's not a whole bunch of discussion. It is obedience. Let him take you. It's like your GPS system. And I was thinking this week, how funny would it be? And maybe we should create this. How funny would it be if every time you made a bad turn, instead of your GPS just saying rerouting, what if it shamed you? Maybe this would help some of y'all. Are you serious? You're gonna take that turn? Hold up. Oh, you thought that was the exit? Could you imagine if that British voice, I got the British voice, right?

You call yourself smart. What is your life? Now they're quoting the Bible at you, you know? Recalculating your life. No, we would hate that. I'm so grateful that when I make a bad turn, the GPS just says rerouting. So it is with God. So it is with our Lord. Too many of us today, we've already started the year, and we're just telling God our whole story. Oh God, there's traffic. God, I took that turn because of this. God, I'm stuck because of that. And God's like, listen, I do not need your entire explanation. I don't need your whole story. I want to reroute you. I want to encourage some people right now that there is a God in heaven who wants to direct you. He says rerouting. I'm telling you, you don't need a long explanation. All you need is one short step. You gotta let him take you. You obey. Because there is something about God that God is after your willingness. He doesn't want a bunch of robots that he's forcing around on this earth. No, God requires cooperation so he can offer,

listen to me, collaboration. God is in the business of working with us. He wants to work with you. Not because he needs Rich Wilkerson Jr., because he loves and wants Rich Wilkerson Jr. God doesn't need you. I'm not God's gift to the earth. I'm an instrument. I'm a tool in his hand. But the only way that we can begin to build is when I offer willingness and obedience. Psychologists have come up with this term. It's called the Ikea effect. How many of y'all have ever been to that store called Ikea? Where are you at? Where are you at? Who loves Ikea? The meatballs? I love the meatballs, yeah. If you don't know what Ikea is, there's one here in South Florida, but it's a furniture store. And I go into this store and man, I'm like, whoa. That is the best coffee table I've ever seen in my entire life. Oh my gosh. They're great at giving you, oh my, look at that coffee table. I need that coffee table. It's beautiful. It's set up.

It's modeled out. The problem is, you buy that coffee table, and it comes in a box with four million pieces. I'm like, oh, I didn't buy a coffee table. I bought a puzzle full of anxiety. I now need a prayer team and an assembly line. Turns out that Ikea does all of that on purpose. Turns out that what Ikea has learned, which is now known in psychology as the Ikea effect, is that your participation creates ownership. That when you begin to participate in the building of that table, you love that table. You own that table. And some of you are like, oh yeah, that does make sense. That does make sense. That's why I love that table, man. Because I fought for that table. I bled for that table. We almost got divorced over that table. Come on, somebody. It's the building and the cooperating that creates ownership. And God says, I wanna take you somewhere. I'm gonna take you somewhere before I show it to you, because I want you to have partnership and ownership in this. I know you're hurting, Abraham. I know you're discouraged.

I know that the time is going past, and I know that you're feeling like you're carrying a bruise underneath those jeans that nobody else is seeing. I know you're going through the motions. I know you're being obedient. I know you're being faithful, but I see you. But once again, let me take you. And where does he take him? The scripture says he takes him outside. Someone say outside. Outside, which tells me as I read the word of God that he must be inside. You can't get this kind of Bible preaching everywhere. He's inside, he's inside. What you'll learn about God more often than not is God's trying to get something in you. But before he gets something in you, he usually has to take you out of something. Inside's familiar. I don't know what kind of structure he's in. Let's call it a tent, maybe it's canvas, maybe it's mud, clay, wood, sticks. What I do know is that quickly as he's inside, this is the place of familiarity. This is a place that you begin to look around and you can't see much. All you can see is the limitations around you. And so God says this. God says, I'm not gonna give you a new promise. What I'm gonna give is I'm gonna give you a new perspective.

And I can't give you a new perspective unless I give you a new position. So often in life, it's change of pace plus change of place, which changes our perspective. This is why we have to follow Jesus. Because this time next year, you might still be in the same church, in the same marriage, in the same job, but you have progressed, you have grown, you have sanctified, you're on an adventure, you are moving in faith. And so God says, let me change your position because I wanna change your perspective. And your perspective has been inside for too long. And inside has got limits. You've got the limits of your disappointment, the limits of your performance, the limits of your pedigree, the limits of your qualifications, of your skills, go on and on and on. God is saying, I want to rip the limits off. That lid is becoming far too familiar for you. And that's the thing with lids, is that when you're under a lid, you get used to it. You call it routine, you call it pattern, you don't think it's bad, you don't think it's dysfunctional, you get, watch this, used to it. But God is calling the thing that you're used to, he's saying that's small.

And I wanna take you outside, I want to rip the lid off. In 1952, in London, England, there is what we call the Great Smog. It sounds like something from a J.R. Tolkien novel, but it was a real thing. In 1952, there was coal pollution that began to settle over London. And with it, thousands of people were poisoned. Watch this, thousands of people even died. But it wasn't until people got outside of the city, as researchers discussed the incident, that they said, we didn't know that the air was that bad. Many people in London, during the Great Smog, simply said, oh, it's just winter. This is just how it is, the days are always this dark, the air is always like this. They got used to the smog. And so it is with many of us, that we get used to the cynicism, we get used to the gossip, we get used to the anxiety, we get used to the depression, we get used to the spirit of defeat. And here comes God. God says, I got something more for you, I got something bigger for you, I gotta take you out so I can put something inside of you. Somebody clap your hands, give God some praise in this place. I gotta take you out.

And so he takes him out, and I love this, this is so good, we're just walking through it. He takes him outside, and then he says, look up. And I read that a couple of weeks ago in our soap journal, and I just underlined it. Because I knew it was a word for many of you. Look up. Not deep theology, not some profound revelation, rather some practical instruction. Two words, look up. Everyone say look. Look. Everyone say up. Up. I'm gonna say it one time. Everyone say look. Look. Everyone say up. Up. All right, now help your neighbor out, look at your neighbor, say look up. Look up. Look at your other neighbor, say neighbor. Look up. Don't miss this. It's really practical. Look up. I don't know if there's a more relevant word. I don't know if this sermon, if there's ever a time in history, of human history,

that this is more helpful, more relevant, and more practical than right here, right now. Look up. Because if you look at anyone these days, are you taking notes? Thank God, can I have this? I was in the airport the other day. No one's looking up. Everyone's looking down. People running into stuff. Saw a dude walk into a water fountain, bro. Oh, there's that, yeah. Look up, bro. This is the picture of people today. We're not looking up, but we're looking down. Holding our phone up. Going through life. How many of y'all know, when you're looking down, it's hard to see what God has for you. Where you look determines what you see. What you see determines how you live. So I read the passage and it says, look up. But I felt convicted. Because a lot of my life is down here. And then we wonder, why am I so anxious? Why am I so discouraged? Why do I feel downcast? Why do I feel defeated? I think there's something about your body posture. I think there's something about your physicality

that you are looking down so often. And here comes God and God says, I don't just wanna take you out and I just wanna get you outside. I want you to actually change your physicality. I want you to lift up your head. I want you to open up your eyes. I want you to look up. There's something about the position of your neck that begins to affect the condition of your heart. Look up, that is where your help comes from. I'm not gonna look down in disappointment. I'm not gonna look back in regret. I'm not gonna look around and compare myself. I'm not even gonna look ahead with fear and anxiety of tomorrow. Rather, I'm gonna do one thing. I'm gonna look up and I'm gonna discover that is where my source is. That is where my God is. That is where my power comes from. Somebody clap your hands and look up. This is the power of prayer. Prayer before I say anything, before I do anything, it is a posture that I know where my help comes from. God, I need you right now. I'm looking up because I want to reorient my body, my heart, my spirit, my soul, that I need faith in the midst of this. I need you, God.

It's amazing because if you go outside tonight and you look up, it's gonna be hard to see a lot of stars. You'll see maybe hundreds of stars, maybe. But if we go out into the wilderness, if we go out into the desert, you'll see thousands of stars. It's all of the artificial light around you that's clouding out the sky. It's the same sky, but a different view. And some of us, we got too much artificial light, notifications, noises, voices, people, fear, algorithm, politics, news, worries of the day. You gotta change your position, you gotta look up. Michelangelo, the great artist who painted the Sistine Chapel, he sculpted David, the wonderful statue, both masterpieces. For four years, he laid on his back as he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In fact, if you read some of Michelangelo's personal notes, he actually wrote poetry where he complained that the pain in his neck from looking up so long. What's fascinating is that if you would've walked in to his construction process, all you would've seen is rubble, ladders, scaffolding, paint, dust everywhere. You wouldn't have seen a masterpiece, you would've seen a mess. But Michelangelo, laying on his back, he was scripting a bigger and better story.

Often, I think it's those that look up the longest that actually get to see the masterpiece that's in front of them. You gotta look up, look up. It's the word of the Lord for you right now. If you're hurting, if you're in pain, if you're discouraged, if you're carrying something that we can't see it, God sees it and God says, look up. I'm taking you outside to look up. And then get ready, here comes God. He doesn't just say look up, he gives them an instruction. Count the stars. If indeed, you can count them. I like that. Count the stars, Abraham. Count them. If indeed, you can count them. So I don't know, but Abraham, all right. One. Two. Three, somewhere, if he was counting them, he would have had to have stopped. Because it's impossible to count the stars. That's not just poetry, it's reality. Researchers would tell us that when it comes to our human brain, that once we're visually looking at something through number and counting, our brain can only look and visualize about seven to ten items, meaning at some point you start grouping things. You say, Rich, why are you telling me that? I'm telling you that because God instructs him to do something that he knows is impossible to do. Why?

It's because many times God wants us to exercise all of our limitations that we might discover that he is a God who is limitless. He asks us to do something impossible so we stop believing in the possible. Count the stars, if indeed you can count them. God's trying to say, you can't count them. It's going to require faith. And it's impossible to please me without faith. Sometimes I'll take my little boys to the ocean and they'll get out there in the waves. Maybe your kids do this too. They get there in the waves and they start jumping waves. And every once in a while I'll see them start to count waves, one, two, three, but at some point they stop counting waves because it's impossible to count all the waves. Scientists believe that close to a billion waves every day hit the seashore. Waves can't be measured. They're not meant to be measured. They're meant to be stood in. They're meant to be experienced. And so it is with the promises of God. You can't measure his promises. You have to stand in his promises. You have to receive his promises. If indeed you can count them, so shall your offspring be. I want you to catch this. He's saying, count the stars, Abraham. I know you're discouraged. I know you've been waiting. I know you're hurting, but come outside from that tent, look up and you count the stars. If indeed you can count them, but I already know you can't count them. That's what your offspring going to be like. I want to catch this.

I want you to see this. The word of the Lord for you and the promise of God over your life, over your family, over your story, over your situation, over your business, over your dreams, over your kids, over your kids' kids is one word. It is the word impossible. It's impossible. If it doesn't sound impossible, it's probably not a promise from God. Your marriage being restored, sounds impossible, rich, might be God. Your husband coming to faith, that's impossible. You don't know my husband. He'll never walk into this church. He'll never step into this place. Sounds like it might be God. Your kids coming back to faith, you don't know what my kids have done. I raised them right, pastor, but they've been running down a path. There's no way they're coming back. Oh, I don't know about you. Impossible is where God does his favorite work. Impossible is the starting point of God. What feels impossible to you, that's natural territory for my God. He loves doing the impossible. This is who our God is. We don't serve the God of the possible. I didn't ask you to come into God's house today to give you a formula or a mere principle or some practical old piece of advice. I came into this place to remind you on the first day of the week, look up and see where your help comes from. We serve a God who can take things that are impossible and make them possible. The Bible says that Abraham, he believed. He believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.

He believed. He didn't build. He didn't strive. He didn't create. He believed. He believed. Yeah, he believed. See, belief is the action. Engineers, when they're building a bridge or they're building walls, they'll talk about load bearing. Load bearing. It's a load bearing wall. And the reality of it is, is that belief is load bearing trust. That's what belief is. You don't believe the chair can hold you until you sit in the chair. It's not from looking at the chair, it's from sitting in the chair. I don't believe the bridge can hold me up by staring at the bridge, no. I showcase load-bearing trust by walking over that bridge. This is how it is with our God. He says, believe me, believe me while you're hurting. Believe me while you're crying. Believe me while you're bleeding. Believe me while you're hemorrhaging. Believe me even when you're bruised, and it will be credited to you. You've got to get that word, because this is not about earning. It's like Abraham's righteousness is zero, and it's not by might. It's not by power, but it's by the Spirit of God, by grace, through faith. He believes in God, and God says, let me transfer into your account, not your righteousness, my righteousness. Is this not what the apostle Paul says to us in Romans chapter 4?

Is this not the gospel? Is this not the good news? Is this not why we came here today, to be reminded to believe? Romans chapter 4, against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believed. Someone say believe. Believe, and so became the father of many nations. Just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God. And fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. That is why it was credited to him as righteousness. The words, it was credited to him, were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness. For us, who believe in him, who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. What is the work you do while you're waiting? You believe. This is what Paul's saying, Paul's saying it's beautiful. Abraham's body was old. Sarah's womb was old. But against all hope, in hope they believed. And the great miracle, you've got to see this, is not that Isaac was born. No, the great miracle was that Abraham believed even while he was waiting. The great miracle was not a child that came to pass, it wasn't even a promise fulfilled. The great miracle was that God gave him a faith. What kind of a faith? A faith to remove the bruise? A faith to remove the pain? No, a faith that would help him carry the pain, and carry the bruise, and continue hoping

in God despite the pain. Someone say, look up. It's fascinating, because if you study that time period, scholars will let us know that people living in Abraham's day, they believed that the stars controlled their fate. And they would study the stars, looking for answers, and believing that the stars were in control. So when God comes down, it's not poetic, it's corrective. He said, Abraham, I want you to look up, because that which you think might be in control, I want to remind you that I'm the one who breathed those stars into existence. I'm the one who placed those stars. Those stars are not in control of your future, but rather I am the one that if you'll listen to me and obey me, I will lead you, I will guide you, and I will fulfill my promise in your life. You just got to believe. Someone say believe. I think I've told you that both of my older boys, Wyatt and Wild, they love football. My oldest son, Wyatt in particular, he wants to be a quarterback. He's a great quarterback. Last year, I was the coach of our football team, and we didn't win a single game. And yesterday was the start of a brand new season. Unfortunately, I was out of town on a preaching assignment, and so I was missing the game. But my father-in-law, who was a professional football player, who coaches high school football today on a national level, he's had national championship teams under his leadership. who's an amazing husband great father certainly a better man than me he happened to be in town and yesterday our team got our first victory no it was glorious I mean we we beat the brakes off these guys man we crushed him and it was um bittersweet for me sweet that my my son's got a victory bitter in the fact that my father-in-law accomplished in a morning what took me all season to never do but Wyatt who's really loving the sport and really

loving all things quarterbacks there's a documentary that came out on on John Elway if you don't know John Elway was he was a quarterback of the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl he's a Hall of Fame player and I let him watch the documentary although he's young just to to watch this man's life and they really just were very vulnerable in the story and showed his highs showed his lows and now today John Elway I think is living a happy life he's highly respected but John Elway said something in the documentary he said I'm good today but when I look back on my journey with all the success that I had it cost me my family lost his marriage for a while there was not in good relationship with his children and the documentary finished in my eight-year-old little boy said dad I want to be just like John Elway but I don't want to lose my family as that's wisdom son I said you got it son because when he said it it made me think of Genesis chapter 15 sometimes it can be hard to distinguish between God's stars and man's spotlight spotlights are shiny and bright and impressive they gain attention but stars are there for direction they're God-given they require patience they require waiting they require prayer they require leading God has not called you merely to be famous in life he's looking for you to be faithful in life spotlights always think about short-term stars always think about long-term the goal is not to be John Elway the goal is to be like Jesus Christ and often when we're waiting and often when we're dealing with pain we can settle for good dreams when God is saying I want you to look up and find the God dream that you were created for more there's a bigger story that I'm telling don't quit now don't give up now I'm leading and I'm guiding you stay faithful it's not about following your heart or following your desire it's letting God take you into the unknown sometimes it's into the dark night but it's there in the unknown that we serve a faithful God he will make himself known he will guide you with stars to where it is that you're meant to be today the truth the matter is this is not a message about healing your bruise removing your bruise getting rid of your pain rather this is a message that even right now in a spot that

you're carrying something that nobody else can see can you still believe although you're bruised can you still trust even though you're in the midst of a trial can you still worship even though you're waiting in a valley can you allow God to credit you with righteousness not because of your effort not because of your performance but because of the one who promised it he is faithful and what he starts come on church he will finish you