On the Run

And I'm really excited about this series. We're in our stories of faith series. And I really like, I mean, Pastor Phil brought the word last week with right on time. If you didn't hear that message, you missed it. You need to go on YouTube and watch it today. Or if you did hear it, you need to go back and watch it again because there was more stuff in there that you missed. It's really good. We looked at the story of Abraham. And we learned that no matter how late it feels or how far gone we might feel, we're never too far gone or too late for God's time. And he can always show up even when it looks like we are too late. He always shows up right on time. And so this whole series, those stories of faith series, we're looking at multiple biblical characters and their different accounts. And we're learning how we're just like them because they were people that faced real doubt and real failure, real disappointments. And in those moments, those trying seasons, they had two options, doubt or faith. And so we're gonna look at their stories, their accounts, and look at how we can learn to make that same choice to trust and obey and put our faith in God. Last week we learned about Abraham today, we're gonna be talking about this guy named Moses. And if you're thinking, are you talking about the guy who split the Red Sea, that's the one.

He's the one I'm talking about. And so you may have heard the story before or part of his story, but I'm not gonna be talking about the Red Sea moment, as fun as that is. I'm not gonna be talking about the Ten Commandments and Mount Sinai and God's showing up and fire and smoke. All that stuff's amazing, it's important, but we're actually gonna take a look at Moses' story before all that happened, before he took his staff and split the Red Sea with the power of God. We're gonna look at the B.C. Moses, the before Christ version of Moses. And I'm interested to hear how much the story resonates with you. If you got your Bible, I want you to turn with me to Exodus chapter two. And while you're turning there, let me tell you about what's going on in Moses' life, right up to where we're about to read. So Moses was born to Hebrew woman in Egypt. And in Egypt at that time, the fair had given a decree that all Hebrew boys were to be murdered the moment they were born. The moment they were born. And he said, the girls, they can live. But I do not want the Hebrew people to become bigger and stronger. So we gotta cut them off. So kill every boy.

Moses was born into that geopolitical atmosphere. That's crazy. And you thought your family life was rough. So his mom gives birth to him and she has this crazy idea to put him in a basket and float him down a river and see what happens. That to me, where I'm from Kentucky, that sounds like a Redneck idea where your buddy says, hold my beer and watch this. Now, have we been in any other season of life besides this one, had this just been like a crazy mongo? Hey, I'm gonna see if my baby can float. We'd all call CPS and rightfully so. But desperate times call for desperate measures. And this precious woman had no other options. So she did the best she could. She didn't give up her baby. And the way that would have been easier for her, she did the best she could to save that child. She put him in this basket and he floated on the river and wouldn't you know it, that he floated down this river right into the hands of a precious woman who believed in the sanctity of life. But it wasn't just any woman. It was the Pharaoh's own daughter. If that's not poetic justice, I don't know what it is. You know God was just if they're like, hey guys, can we watch this? Moses is about to show up, come here, watch this.

Oh, she got him, she got him, yep. She got him. Like, you know they were having a good time in heaven, laughing at Pharaoh going, you think you could thwart my plans, are you crazy? So, Pharaoh's daughter, the princess, picks Moses up out of the water and names him an Egyptian name, Moses, which means drawn out, she drew him out of the water. And so Moses grows up a grandson of Pharaoh with wealth and privilege and title. And everything is going great. He's living in the palace, living his best life, treating himself, to look with me at Exodus chapter 2 starting in verses 11 through 15. It says, "One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and washed them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating Hebrew, one of his own people, looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting and he asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?" The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known." When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian where he sat down by a well. A lot just happened in five verses. Moses went from being a prince to being a murderer to being a convict to being a runaway in five verses. That's a lot. Moses did the only thing he knew to do. See, his mom had done the only thing she knew to do and that was to send him away. And now, nearly 40 years later, he's running away. He didn't know what else to do. I love though that Moses didn't run because he had done something wrong. Moses ran because he'd been found out. There's a big difference, big difference. There have been times, they are

feuding far between though, that my wife and I have gone into a heated moment of fellowship. And I'll say, there have been times not recently because I've grown up, but in the past, I would say, "I'm sorry." And she goes, "Are you really sorry or do you just want the conversation to be over?" And I'm like, "Yeah, so what if I do want the conversation to be over?" I'm not really sorry though, that's the problem. Moses wasn't actually sorry. He just got caught. He showed up to work the next day like nothing ever happened. Hey, what are you all doing fine? He's like, "Oh, you mean like you just murdered that guy over there? Is that what you want to talk to me about me fighting this guy?" He showed up like nothing happened. And then he went, "Oh, I got found out. Maybe I should do something about it." He didn't feel sorry yet. In fact, before he committed the murder, what's the Bible say he did? He says he looked this way in that way. Why? To make sure nobody was looking. Now, I know you've never done that before. And I haven't either. Of course we have. We all have gone, "Is anybody going to see me do this?" Nope. All right. Like we've, everybody has done that. From the kid at the convenience store who's looking going, "I really want that snickers." They tell me in the commercials all the time, "Hungry, why wait? I don't want to wait anymore. It's right there. I'm going to take it." And they look. Boom. They gone. They can go from simple as simple as that to, "Well, nobody sees me on my phone right now. They're not going to see what I'm looking at. I'm just going to open a private tab. And I can just delete it and nobody will ever know. It's not hurting anybody. Nobody sees it." Moses murdered a man. He'd hit his body and thought, "I'm good to go." This is what happens. This is what can't happen when we take matters in our own hands. Things get real messy real quick. See, Moses killed a man that's one extreme, but then he did another extreme. He ran. The first thing I want you to see for Moses' account is this, Moses ran from someone. Moses ran from someone. And I want to talk to my first group of people today. I'm talking to three groups today. I'm going to talk to my first one. You affiliate with Moses because you're running. Moses thought his past couldn't and wouldn't catch up to him. Like the sheer arrogance and audacity to show up the next day as if he didn't just end some guy's life. That's crazy. The hubris you have to possess to act like everything's okay. [BLANK_AUDIO]

That's great. And that's who God wanted to use. Yeah. That means he'll use you too. Oh, and by the way, you got a little psycho in you too. We all do. It's okay. And if you don't think you do, you're the most psycho of us all. All right. So, just being real with you. He shows up, takes matters in his own hands, makes him mess. Pharaoh finds out he runs. That's all he knew to do. Instead of being a man and confronting what he had done, he ran from it. And before I go judging Moses, I got to look at my own life and go, "Wait a minute. What am I running from?" So let me ask you, Journey, who or what are you running from right now? That's the first group I want to speak to you right now. Who or what are you running from? Is it the divorce? It's still painful even eight years later? Is it the abuse from your childhood? Is it the abortion that nobody else knows about except for you and gone, that doctor? And you're still carrying the weight and the guilt of that? And you haven't told anybody? Because he felt like you can't. Because he'd be so ashamed of you. Maybe you haven't even gone to God with it because you feel like God's so ashamed of you. He can't possibly forgive you. Is it that time when you got fired? And for right reason, it wasn't because you had done something right and man who didn't like it, so they kicked you out because you're doing the right thing. You actually got fired for a good reason. And the embarrassment of it has been defining you for the last six months. What or who are you running from right now? We all do it. We all run. And we think our past can't catch up to us. But it does every single time. It catches up. Either somebody finds out or your body gives out or your mind gives out because you can't, and we can't, as humans, we can't carry all this weight and guilt and shame. We're not able. We weren't built to carry those things. Moses wasn't built to murder someone, let alone carry all the weight of that. But he did the only thing in you to do, and that was to run from that person, run from that past, run from that bad decision. Maybe you are here today under the sound of my voice, and you've been running, not to God, but from your past. It may have been as recent as last night, and you showed today in God's house running away from your decision. Last, I can't tell you my friend, you're in the right place at the right time. God loves you so much. See, when you run from someone or something, you're running to someone or something else. Can I get real for a moment? You're running from that divorce, and you're going to the next

relationship, and the next relationship, and the next one. And I'm not saying you shouldn't necessarily date at some point, but you, Sister Sue, you got to make sure that you're whole first. Okay? Brother Bob, you got to make sure that you are whole first. You can't show up in a marriage with 50% of you okay, and the other 50% of you falling apart. I'm not saying you have to be perfect, but you got to be healed up. Your future wife, man of God, your future husband, woman of God, cannot and should not do God's job for him. They can't fix you. He can. So instead of running to that next relationship, stop running to other people, start running to Jesus, run to him. I feel like I'm speaking to a man right now, and you've been running from the insecurities you've had since you were a kid, because you were told either you weren't good enough, or smart enough, or strong enough, or fast enough, or whatever, enough you weren't that. And so you've been showing up to your job 80, 90 hours, 100 hours a week, trying to prove to yourself and to everyone else around you that you are someone, and you can be someone, and you can have stuff, and you can build stuff. And you've been trying to fill that hole, that gaping hole, that you're not enough. So you've been running from those things. You've been running from all those people who told you you couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't, all of those people. And you're running to your job instead of being present with your family. Can I tell you, man of God, that job will never fill that void. Stop running from your pain. (audience applauding) Moses ran from someone. And it would be a terrible story if that's where it ended. Oh, but I'm so thankful that where we put a period, God puts a comma. I want you to look with me now at Exodus chapter two. Let's go to verses 16 and 17. So now Moses has run a Midian. And it says, "A priest of Midian had seven daughters, "and they came to draw water and fill the troughs "to water their father's flock. "They were thirsty." Now not that kind of thirsty, calm down, okay?

Like the sheep were thirsty, not the women. The women, if y'all don't know what I'm talking about, ask somebody next to you who's laughing 'cause they get it, all right? The sheep were thirsty. I don't know, I guess one of the women was thirsty 'cause Moses got his wife out of this. I don't know, maybe she was, I don't know. Some shepherds came along and drove them, the women away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and water their flock. That's a man of God right there, ladies. He got up. We got some men in the world today who are just sitting down, not being men of God. It's not pastor Phil, it's not even forged right now. We're already preaching on that. I'm so sorry, I don't wanna take the bare men's thunder. I'm not going to, but we got some men right now sitting down when God is calling you like Moses to get up and be a man, a real man. What does that look like? Looks like when Moses just did, he defended people who were weaker than him and he helped them with what they needed. He defended people, see real men use their strength to help people, not hurt people. And if you've been around a man who has hurt you, I apologize, that was not a real man. I'm so sorry, I apologize that you had to experience that.

That was not God's best for you. That man who hurt you didn't have a real man show him how to be a real man. Or he just didn't listen, one of those two things. And you got the fall out and I'm so sorry. I genuinely apologize to you for that. See real men, they protect and they help. They protect, they provide. That doesn't mean that you have to drive a Bentley and have a yacht, no. You put food on the table and close on people's backs. And when you can give a helping hand, you do that. In whatever way that looks like. If you're good at building stuff and you know of a widow or a single mom, you go help her build some new cabinets, great. You go fix her, hold it for free, awesome. You change her oil for her, she doesn't have to and get told of her transmission broken by the mechanic shot down the street when it's doing just fine 'cause you're not gonna take advantage of her. That's what being a real man looks like. And it makes me angry when I see men, not defending people weaker than them instead of taking advantage of them. There's nothing that makes me angrier. Drives me up a dad gum wall. And it's my job, I got two daughters, y'all. It's my job to show them what a real man looks like.

That doesn't mean I'm perfect. It means when I make a mistake, I own it and go, this was my fault and I'm going to fix it. I apologize, I'm sorry. And I show them what it looks like to provide and protect. Because they're gonna mirror a man of God one day who will be good looking, not as good looking as me, close, close, but he'll also protect them. 'Cause that's my job right now. One day though, that job's gonna end and I'm gonna hand it to another gentleman. And I'm gonna trust him with the greatest gifts that God has given me outside of Jesus and my wife and that's them. So I teach them now, one time we were at Cedar Point. And yo, while stuff happens at Cedar Point, I don't know if you knew that or not, there's some crazy freaking people at CP, okay? We need Jesus at CP. So, after I do a new campus, journey Cedar Point, I like that. That's awesome, I love it. Only open from March to November, sweet, okay. Totally kidding. So one of my daughters said, oh dad, I gotta go get my swimming suit so we can go to the water park. I said, okay, I'll walk with you. 'Cause my daughters are not walking back to the park a lot by themselves. I don't care what time of day it is.

So I walk with them, we go to the truck. We're almost to the truck. We're so close, so close, and then this idiot. And then this idiot! I'm a neck stood up and I just turned and I see this dude tiny little dude It's always the smallest skittiest guys who are the loudest Always If you have to tell people how strong you are all the time, you're not strong You got to tell people how much money you have you're not strong You got to tell people how awesome your vacations are and all the ones you went on and how smart you weren't how Connected you are you're not strong. Nobody cares, brother. I love you nobody cares A real man is strong and doesn't have to tell anybody everybody just sees it and they get to receive the benefits of him Being in his strength his God given strength. That's a real man, okay? This guy was on a real man He was on a real man. He's yelling at this woman and He it didn't like it didn't look like he was gonna hit her, but it sounded like it and So I went hey ma'am. I don't know you dude But can you just bring your voice down and just have a normal conversation? Thank you She doesn't even hear you yell at her like that Thank you by the appreciate appreciate you. That's all I said It's all I said And I started walking away and this dude goes well, you don't know what she said and what she did I said you're right I don't but I know that's a woman and you're stronger than her and you don't need to scream at her like that Where I come from we don't talk to women like that And it wasn't like he raised his voice a little bit this dude was flat-out screaming at this woman And he starts cussing at me. I said buddy. I'm built different I'm from the south we're cornbread fit. You don't want to go with their son. I Said buddy. I got my daughter with me and you're cussing at me and now it's in front of her Well now we got a problem. I'm gonna tell you to stop cussing go back have a private conversation quietly

And I'm gonna take my daughter. We're gonna go. Okay. You have a good day. We start walking away again It's always a smallest skiniest dudes. You got to run their mouths He starts following me my daughter goes dad. I said I know it's okay. I Got I got you We start walking the truck. I turn around so buddy. I'm gonna tell you one more time Tell you one more time go back to your to your wife your girlfriend your fiance Have a quiet conversation stop running your mouth You go on I'm getting my truck. We're leaving. Okay It must have been the spirit of God Had to be him Because my daughter said daddy what what would you have done had he not gone away? I said that's for me and Jesus to worry about okay. I Had it planned I had it all planned and so like every man dreams of being well You know Liam Neeson and taking like every man dreams of being that guy. So I Said don't worry about it. He walked away quietly stop running his mouth and left That was gee. I'm so thankful the Lord did that and my daughter said daddy. Why did you stop though? That was so embarrassing. Why did you do that? You got us involved in that I says we are there could be a day And I pray that never happens, but there could be a day When daddy is not close to you and you're in a position where a man tries to harm you And there'd better be another man like me to defend you and I wanted to do that for that woman because that's what she deserved Moses was a real man He defended these precious women Defended these precious women that by the way When a man defends a woman that doesn't mean that a woman is less within him or weaker than him I'm tired of hearing that that's not biblical at all men are stronger We're supposed to use our strength to serve women to lift them up to build them up Not because they're desperate and needy and can't do anything in and of themselves But because we reflect the glory of God in a different different way women We need you to be beautiful and motherly and amazing and awesome and creative and intelligent because you reveal the glory of God

We're not less than each other. We're equal in different ways and we help each other out. That's that's the biblical model and Moses Moses stepped in his position And he drove these shepherds away. Now. Did you notice how he grew? Maybe maybe you missed this. Did you catch it? Nobody got murdered That's growth that's progress because like three verses earlier. He murdered a dude Maybe it was because it was you know a few to one and he was like I can't kill all of you But I'll drive you away. I don't know his reason but either way. He didn't kill anybody. He drove them away and He didn't just protect the women. He wanted their flock Now remember we're talking about the same Moses who was one day going to [BLANK_AUDIO] We're not there yet, we're right before that. You see, the second thing I want you to see for Moses is this, Moses stood up for someone. Moses ran from someone, but now, in this moment, Moses stood up for someone, not himself, for someone else. See, there was that justice thing in him that drove him to kill that first man. It was the right heart, but not the right thing. He went a little too extreme. Now, it's still in his strength. He hasn't killed anyone, so he's made progress, but there's still that justice thing like man, I can't say it if it's a man or a woman being picked on. I'm not gonna let it happen under my watch. Moses had this justice thing in his heart where he could not just let injustice happen right before his eyes. He had to step in and do something.

What's incredible about this is that these precious women, they were drawing water out of the well. They were trying to draw water out of the well to feed their sheep, to water their sheep. Moses drove these shepherds away because they weren't being shepherds. The Bible calls shepherds who abuse their authority wolves. These men in this story, they were being wolves to these women, so Moses drove out the wolves and then he watered their flocks and rescued those women. Do you know what Moses was being in this moment? Shepherd. He had no idea what would Moses do for the next 40 years? Shepherd, that's before he even came back to Egypt. He was gonna shepherd for the next 40 years. God was using this moment to stir up this gift, this desire, this need for justice, for God given justice in this moment to reveal his true calling to be a shepherd. But there's a little bit more than that too because you see, Moses was, after he rescued these women, remember he drew water out of the well. What does Moses mean? Drawn out. In this moment, God is prophetically declaring to Moses before he even realizes what's happening. Moses, you don't know right now, buddy, but in just 40 short years, I'm going to use you to draw hundreds of thousands of Mayan slave people through the waters of the Red Sea.

And you're gonna deliver them and you're gonna water them with my word. Yes, real waters, well, some cold miracles there, but you're gonna water them with my word and you're going to set them free. So, Journey Church, let me ask you this. I'm speaking to my second group of people. Who are you standing up for? Who is God called you to stand up for? What's that thing that keeps you up at night? What's that thing whenever you hear about it or see it or read about it in the news on Instagram when you're walking down your neighborhood and it just drives you up a wall. And I'm not talking about preference here. I'm not talking about things not being done exactly the way you want it. I'm talking about real stuff, real problems that need a kingdom solution and you see this problem and you go, oh, I wish somebody would do something about it and what if God is going, I'm looking at you to do something about it. See, God used, he didn't cause it, but he used, Moses's murder allowed it to get him out of Egypt to rescue these women at many and that Moses had no idea he was going to reach and he used that moment to stir up that gift again and to get him prepared. It wasn't time for him to lead Israel just yet, but it was time for him to step into training. I'm speaking to some people right now.

You know God's called you to more, but you're not sure what it is just yet. You're step into a season of training and you're going, John, Michael, what do I do? You do exactly what Moses did. You do the next best right thing. For Moses, it was standing up and defending these women. For you, it might be walking across the street to share your faith with a neighbor who might not give their life to Christ today. It could be in six years, but you're going to sow the seed today. It could be for that business woman or that businessman, you know God's put a desire to start a business, but you don't know how it's going to happen. Okay, don't hire a hundred employees tomorrow, but maybe write the business plan and go Lord, is this the plan you want me to have? Because Proverbs says submit your plans to the Lord and he will make you prosper. Maybe for you, woman of God, you want to start a family one day. You're like, John, Michael, but I'm single right now. That's okay. Start getting you ready to be the wife and the mother. You know God's calls you to be. Go find a woman who is married has a beautiful family that you would love to have one like that one day and ask her, can I take you to coffee? want to be like you when I grow up what's your next right move right now not 30

steps from now not 60 steps from now this moment what is God calling you to do right now I want you to look one more time at the Bible with me next to the chapter 3 we wrap up our time together Exodus chapter 3 verses 1 through 5 it says now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law the priest of many and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to horrib the mountain of God Moses has now been a shepherd for almost four decades there there where the place Moses had been to before probably a trail he had used multiple times to leave his flock to water and grace doing the same thing he'd been doing for 40 years shepherding his flock it was in that place in that mundane activity there the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush Moses saw that though the bush was on fire did not burn up so Moses thought I will go over and see this strange sight why the bush does not burn up when the Lord saw that he had gone over to look God called to him from within the bush Moses Moses and Moses said here I am do not come any closer God said take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground the last thing I want you to see journey church Moses ran from someone Moses stood up for someone finally Moses listened to someone I want you to take a look at this last point did you notice anything different between this one and the first two if you didn't let me tell you really quickly and this was very intentional the word someone here is capitalized because we're talking about God the first two someone's were lowercase s's because Moses was running from someone who was smaller than God and Moses stood up for someone who was smaller than God but in this moment Moses listened to the voice of God himself and now I'm talking to my third group of people when asking this question who are you listening to I'm talking to the person who you've been doing the right thing and maybe you've been doing it for a long time most they've been shepherding for 40 years that's a long time maybe you've been following God for a long time you worship you study the word you're engaged but if you're to be honest life just feels kind of mundane you're doing the same thing over and over and over and you're wondering Lord I've been faithful I've

been obedient is what you've called me to ever going to happen is it ever going to happen and I love that in this moment in this place that most said probably visited multiple times for some reason on this day God said now he's ready why I don't know that's not my decision that's God's that's why he's a Lord and I'm not and what's also amazing is is that God consumed a bush he said a bush on fire just a normal bush it wasn't like a special bush that he made appear out of the ground he could have done that it wasn't a huge one it was a small one normal size normal size bush and he set it on fire that's not normal and also the fire wasn't burned I mean the bush wasn't burned up it was just set on fire and it was still green that should not happen and Moses said I've never seen it before I got to see what's going on there you know it's a difference in Moses here when our story started Moses looked there and there so that no one would catch him and then he ran away so that no one would be found but here when it says Moses looked he didn't run from God he ran to God and he didn't realize it in this moment though he wasn't going to be caught he was going to be found and this is the place God called Moses to shepherd and to draw out his people the nation of Israel permutations Egyptian slavery in this moment but Moses had to run from someone first And then in this last thing, he had to do, he had to turn and listen to someone. And I feel like I'm talking to someone today. You've been doing your best to listen to God, but to be, if you were gonna be honest, like you would say, John Michael, I've been distracted. We all have. You have, maybe you've been turning this way in that way, or maybe you've gotten discouraged and disappointed, and you're going, Lord, if I keep turning to you, am I gonna keep getting the same responses? When is this gonna happen?

You've been stirring my heart to do this thing, but I don't see any progress yet. What you don't see is that Moses spent 40 years training for this very thing, this very moment he didn't give up. They kept doing the same things. I wanna encourage you today. If you've been listening to God, you've been faithful, don't stop listening now. Keep digging in your word. Keep getting into worship. Keep spending time with the Lord. You know, Lord, I don't know when, and I don't know how. But more important than the thing you wanna do for me and through me, I just wanna be close to you. God asked Moses, he didn't ask. He said, he commanded him. Take your shoes off, buddy. Do you know what Jesus did on the night he was betrayed in John 13? He took all his boys' shoes off, all their shoes off, and he washed their feet. That was a servant's job. Why did you do that? Because he loved them. When God told Moses to take his sandals off, it was an invitation to friendship. Moses had been running for so long, and God said, buddy, stop running. Let me catch you.

Let me catch you. I got more for you, and it's not even just about you. It's about all these people over there. Never, you tried to help them before? You went a little overboard the first time. That's all right. You went a little extreme. My grace can cover that. But I've been training you for 40 years, and now, buddy, now it's the right time. So I wanna encourage you today. Keep listening to the voice of God. Give it his word, spend time on his presence. Turn off the TV, put your smartphone down. Turn off the media. It's a God, what do you wanna say to me today? More even than what you wanna do for me. I've so thanked before it, and more than what you wanna do through me, which I'm humbled that you would choose me to help somebody else, I just wanna be close to you. (gentle music) I wanna pray here in just a moment before I do. I just really thought there's somebody listening today, you're watching today, and the Lord put you in my heart. It was actually last night as I was praying, the Lord put you in my heart. I believe there is at least a woman, maybe more than one, and you have had an abortion. And you've been carrying so much weight and shame,

and you've been running and you've been trying to fix yourself. I'm here to tell you today, sweetheart, God loves you. He loves you so much. He's ready to forgive you and to help you move forward. He's ready to heal your heart and help you move forward. And to turn your life around and redeem your past. In fact, I believe there are multiple people here today you've been running. You've been running from the divorce, you've been running from the abuse, you've been running from your own mistakes, maybe some big ones, and even trying to fix them on your own, but you can't. And now your past is starting to catch up with you. Can I tell you my friend? Stop running from someone and start running to someone. Run to Jesus, run to the Lord. And there are people here today God's stirring your heart for something special, and you're supposed to stand up, but you're not ready to fully step into everything that's got for you. You're in the in between. I'm gonna tell you to take the next right step. I'm going to pray God gives you strength in the third person again. Listen to the Lord, even when it feels like it's mundane, just getting His presence anyway, okay? Let me pray for you right now. Lord, I love you and thank you for your people. Lord, I pray that you bring healing and restoration

for those who are running, help them to not run from people in places anymore and past mistakes and past hurts that may not have been in their own, but help them to confront them and run to you because you know how to handle it. You can carry the weight, we can't, but you can. Lord, would you help us to trust you with that? And then would you also help us to stand up for other people? In different moments, like Moses said, he didn't even know that that was gonna happen. It just happened, he was ready in that moment. waiting for the ultimate fulfillment of our destiny, our calling, our purpose, would you help us just to keep standing in the meantime and to trust you? Moses didn't step into delivering Israel in that moment. It took 40 more years, so would you help us just to continue to be faithful and to trust your timing? And then I got to pray for those people who are maybe having trouble listening to you. Maybe they've been distracted, maybe they are wondering, "God, is all this worth it? Am I going to receive that promise you gave me? Am I going to step into that calling you gave me? Is it now?" And they're feeling discouraged, and they're asking, "Is it worth it? Lord, help them, help us to be like Moses and to turn to you and to hear you speaking to us." We hear your voice today, and Lord, we answer by simply saying, "Yes, whatever it is." would you say yes and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.