The Roundabout | Pastor Jelani Lewis

Together, we're gonna worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords in this place. Lord, as you're waiting. Go on, every voice, we sing this testimony. ♪ I have felt things that bear their scars ♪ ♪ Reach down and rescue me ♪ ♪ And I have known the love of the Father's heart ♪ ♪ A prodigal now redeemed ♪ ♪ From where I was to where I'm now ♪ ♪ It's overwhelming, thank you, Lord ♪ ♪ The more and more I see Him moving all around ♪ Come on, every voice. ♪ Oh, I can't help but praise You, praise You, Lord ♪ ♪ And I can't help but lift up shouts of joy ♪ ♪ Shouts of joy, thank You, Lord ♪ ♪ When I think of how good You've been ♪ ♪ From day from now until the end ♪ ♪ And I can't help but praise You, praise You, Lord ♪ ♪ For the blood You spilled to save my life ♪ ♪ A debt I could not repay ♪ ♪ For the cross You bore with open arms ♪ ♪ Salvation that called my name ♪ ♪ From where I was to where I'm now ♪ ♪ It's overwhelming, thank you, Lord ♪ ♪ The more and more I see Him moving all around ♪ Come on, this is our response. ♪ I can't help but praise You, praise You, Lord ♪ ♪ And I can't help but lift up shouts of joy ♪ ♪ When I think of how good You've been ♪ ♪ From day from now until the end ♪

♪ And I can't help but praise You, praise You, Lord ♪ ♪ And I can't help but dance because I'm free ♪ ♪ Dance because I'm free, got no chains on me ♪ ♪ I'm healed and redeemed and I can't help but call on the name ♪ ♪ That buried my shame, who opened my grave ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but dance because I'm free ♪ ♪ Got no chains on me, I'm healed and redeemed ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but call on the name ♪ ♪ That buried my shame, who opened my grave ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but praise You, praise You, Lord ♪ ♪ And I can't help but lift up shouts of joy ♪ ♪ And when I think of how good You've been ♪ ♪ From day from now until the end ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but praise You, praise You, Lord ♪ ♪ And I can't help but praise, oh, You're worthy ♪ ♪ You're worthy, Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, I can't help but praise You, praise You, Lord ♪ Give Him praise, give Him praise. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Lord, we just thank You, Jesus. We are so thankful this morning. Because we honor You and we worship You. ♪ Faithful forever, You are faithful ♪ ♪ Generations in Your presence, You never fail ♪ ♪ You never fail ♪ ♪ Evil forever, You are able ♪ ♪ All creation will proclaim, You never fail ♪ ♪ I will not fear, because You're still the great I am ♪ ♪ And I'm still within Your hands ♪

♪ I stand on Your promises, yes, and amen, yes, and amen ♪ ♪ Oh, You're faithful, Lord ♪ ♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪ ♪ El es todopoderoso, Tu nombre hoy llamamos Dios ♪ ♪ No fallarás, no te leerás, no te olvidarás de Él ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ seasons of our lives it doesn't matter what we may see in the natural we know that you are our anchor that you are our peace you are our strength you are our life you're our hope you're everything that we need and we know that today Jesus so we look to you we bring our offering of worship our love expressed to you as a response of gratitude today won't you sing this with me here i am to worship here i am to bow down here i am to say that you're my god yeah you're altogether lovely altogether worthy altogether wonderful to me sing that again here i am to worship here i am to bow down here i am to say that you're my god you're altogether love altogether worthy altogether wonderful to me and i'll never know and i'll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross and i'll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon come on sing it out to him i'll never know i'll never know to see my sin oh to see my how much it costs to see my never know how much it costs to see my sins upon thy cross here i am to worship here i am lift your voice here all together wonderful to me me yes you are jesus it's a wonderful jesus everything changed it's getting harder to recognize the person i was before i encountered christ i don't walk like i used to i don't talk like i used to i've been washed from the inside i've been watched from the inside i know it was ♪ Come on, we've been blessed, yeah ♪

♪ Thank you for your blood, Jesus ♪ ♪ I cannot explain, but nothing's more real than this ♪ ♪ In the presence of God, oh, what my heart experienced ♪ ♪ When my shame hit the wayside, and my sin at the most high ♪ ♪ I was washed on the inside, I was washed on the inside out ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it was the blood ♪ ♪ Could have only been the blood, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it was the blood ♪ ♪ Could have only been the blood, thank you for your blood ♪ ♪ Oh, it washes me clean, it sets me free, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, we sing, it's never been about performance, perfection ♪ ♪ Or striving for acceptance, let me tell you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood, it's never been about deserving or earning ♪ ♪ It's a gift that's freely given, let me tell you ♪ ♪ It's only by the blood, does anybody wanna be holy or righteous, purified or spotless? Let me tell you, it's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Does anybody wanna be worthy, forgiven, justified, relieved? Let me tell you, it's only by the blood ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it was the blood, it could have only been the blood ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it was the blood, it could have only been the blood ♪ ♪ Yeah, thank you, Jesus, thank you for your blood, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it was the blood, it could have only been the blood ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it was the blood, it could have only been the blood ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, I know it was the blood, it could have only been the blood ♪ How many of you thankful for the blood of Jesus this morning? So grateful. We're going to have a time of communion together. Would you get the elements out that you were handed when you came in? And if you don't have the elements, would you just lift your hand wherever you are, and an usher will bring that to you. And I'm going to ask you, go ahead and take the bottom off, and let's get that wafer out. And go ahead and take off the top. Let's get completely ready.

While you're doing that, let me just say that here at Gateway, we practice open communion. What that means is, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you've given your life to the Lord, you can participate and partake of communion. Some churches don't do that, but we do that here. We want you to know there's a place for you at the table, all right? You know, this week as I was praying over this time together, I was reminded of Isaiah 53. It's the passage there that says that he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities. He goes on down later and says, and by his stripes we are healed. You know, Jesus paid an incredible price. full price to purchase our salvation, to purchase our freedom, to purchase our healing. And as I was thinking through that passage of how his body was beaten and how his body was bruised, I was reminded of the way that you actually get wine or you get juice. Winemakers all know that the grape has to be crushed and that's what happened to Jesus. He was crushed. And even when you serve bread, you tear it. And that's what happened to the body of Jesus. The Bible says that they plucked the beard or they tore the beard from his face. He too was crushed. He too was torn. And he did it that we might be forgiven, that we might be cleansed, that we might be freed, that we might be healed. And so today, as we partake of the bread and the cup, we're not just saying, thank you Lord, but we're saying, I receive, don't you love that? I mean, he knows we're but human and sometimes we need to do something in our humanity to receive his divinity. So father, we thank you for the blood of Christ. We thank you Lord for your broken body. And today, as we receive this cup and this bread, we receive all that you intended for us in Jesus name. Let's receive the bread together.

And now the cup. Can you say thank you Lord? If you'll put those cups in the seat back pocket there in front of you, if you're here at the front, just put it down on the floor by your chair, ushers will be by after the service to pick it up. We're going to go back into worship and I want us to go back into worship with this reality. Lord, I've received everything that you've promised me. And now I'm going to worship you with all of my heart. Let's return to worship. Come on, let's worship him together. It's a gift that's free to give. Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody want to be holy and righteous? Purified and spotless? Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody want to be worthy? Forgiven? Justified? Relieved? Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The blood was the blood. Could have only been the blood. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know it was the blood. Could have only been the blood. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. I know it was the blood. Could have only been the blood. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I know it was the blood. Does anybody want to be holy and righteous? Purified and spotless? Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Does anybody want to be worthy? Forgiven? Justified? Relieved? Let me tell you, it's only by the blood. Thank you, Lord. Come on, let's give Him some praise in this place. Lord, we thank you. We thank you, Lord, for the blood. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I'm so grateful for all that the Lord's done for us through the power of His blood. But you know, He's not finished pouring out His goodness in your life. He's just begun. And I'm so grateful for that. Well, we have some special men in this room today we want to recognize. I want to say to all of you dads, Happy Father's Day. We're so glad you're here. You know, it tells you a whole lot about a man if he comes to you. on Father's Day to church. He's got his priorities right and we celebrate you today. You know the scripture says in Proverbs chapter 20 verse 7 something

very significant. Here's what it says it says the righteous man walks in his integrity and his children are blessed after him. You've made an incredible impact on your children and I know we're not all perfect I get that we've made some negative impacts but I'm going to tell you when you even over those things when you repent and you get things right with God that sets a standard in their life and they're blessed because of that. You know the greatest inheritance is not what we leave to our kids it's what we leave in their heart. That's what lasts from generation to generation. So we celebrate you today guys we really do. If you're a father would you just lift your hand we're gonna extend I'm gonna ask everybody else extend your hands toward these dads let's pray for them let's bless them right now. Father we thank you for these men Lord we thank you for the life that they've lived we thank you father for the impact that they've made and God we're asking from this day forward that you would use their lives in a special way. God we're asking for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit in their life. God we're asking for provision we're asking for direction we're asking for wisdom for them Lord and we pray that you would use their life to not only impact their families but God use their life to impact everyone their life touches. In the name of Jesus we pray and everyone said let's thank the Lord one more time for these dads. God bless you happy Father's Day. Pastor Jelani's got an incredible word for us today on Father's Day so I'm looking forward to that but right now why don't you turn and greet two or three people around you. God bless you and welcome to Gateway Church. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Proceed to root. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Hey church. Hey want to take a moment and welcome all the campuses those of you that are joining us online those of you that are part of our Gateway gatherings

and our prison campuses and those of you that are here at Gateway Church for the first time or maybe for the first time in a very long time. Church can we put our hands together right now and just welcome at every campus those of you that are new so excited you chose to be here with us this weekend for Father's Day weekend and speaking of Father's Day I know that the oversight pastors have already prayed over all of the fathers there but I just want to say again happy Father's Day to all of you I want to let you know that you matter you make a difference and my prayer for you today is that you would feel both the peace of God and the pleasure of God we're grateful for our fathers one more time can we just put our hands together honor all the fathers if I haven't had the the privilege of meeting you my name is Jelani Lewis and I get to serve as the campus pastor here at the Southlake campus but also I get to oversee all of our other campuses and honestly about two weeks ago maybe two and a half weeks ago on June 1st I celebrated my 20th year on the team here at Gateway Church and so so first of all that just means I'm old but secondly I am so excited about the future of Gateway Church come on aren't you excited today about all that God is doing at each of our campuses here so excited about that and today I'm going to continue the series that we started a couple weeks ago with Pastor Daniel it's a series called road trip and we're talking about really how our journeys with God our spiritual journeys are like a road trip that there are mile markers and stops that we want to make along the way and the first weekend we talked about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit wants to be our guide and then last weekend we talked about a step of obedience we talked about water baptism and it was such an incredible message from Pastor Daniel wasn't that a great message by the way can we just take a moment and thank God for Pastor Daniel Pastor Tammy so excited for the gift that they are that God sent this but church we had 133 people get water baptized last weekend. Come on, you can do better than that. Praise Jesus, people took the next step.

Identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Literally, we had people that were watching online and as they watched, they just decided, we're jumping in the car and we're gonna go get baptized today. We had people that drove over an hour and a half to be here just so they could get water baptized. And so really proud of how our church responded to the message this past weekend. And I'm gonna continue and I wanna talk to you today when the title of this particular message is called The Roundabout. The Roundabout. Why don't you turn to your neighbor right now at every single campus and just look them in the eye and say, are you in a roundabout? Are you in a roundabout? Why don't you turn to your other neighbor and say, okay, that explains why you're late. You were in a roundabout. You were stuck in the roundabout. Let's pray and then we'll continue. Father, thank you so much for your word. I pray that you would speak to our hearts today. Change us in Jesus' name, amen. Towards the end of last year, we decided to take a road trip as a family. And I am originally from Shreveport, Louisiana. At the time we were living just north of Dallas and we decided we're gonna take a road trip

with all the family and go back to Shreveport, Louisiana, which is about three, three and a half hours away. And we jumped in the car and our minivan with all four kids. And I knew church, it was going to be a rough trip when we hadn't even left Dallas yet. And one of the kids yells out from the back, how much longer do we have? How much longer do we have? Now, before we judge this impatient, but beloved soul, I have to say that occasionally I ask the same question. Sometimes it is in reference to a road trip, but more often than not, it is in reference to the vicissitudes of life. I don't know if you can relate, but maybe you've asked questions like this. How much longer do I have before the new position? How much longer do I have before the business takes off? How much longer do I have before I finally make the team? How much longer do I have before I find a relationship that will last? How much longer do I have before I have kids? How much longer before the kids leave the house? I mean, how much longer? And you can fill in the blank. We often at some point in our lives, we'll ask the question, how much longer? Now, if I'm really honest, I've even asked that question in reference to my journey of faith.

I don't know about you, but I remember sometimes I grapple with the timing of God. In fact, I love this quote by A.W. Tozer, who once said, God never hurries. God never hurries. And so the question becomes today, what do you do when you feel like God is not in a hurry? What do you do when it feels like there's a pause on your promise? What do you do when the movement of life isn't happening as fast as you would like for it to? Today, we're gonna look at a group of people that went on a road trip of sorts, and they found themselves in that exact situation. And we're gonna learn from their journey. In fact, their story is found in the book of Exodus, chapter 13. We're gonna read verse 17. This is about the children of Israel as they are leaving Egypt. And here's what the scripture says in verse 17. It says, when Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the promised land. God said, if the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So God led them in a roundabout way. Everybody say roundabout. Roundabout.

God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. Thus, the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle. In the book of Exodus, we are introduced to the God of exits, because it's a book all about exiting. And here's what's so great. Because we're introduced to God as the God of exits, that's comforting for us because that means we can never be stuck. If God is the God of exits. exits, then we cannot be stuck in a particular position. We can't be stuck in a predicament. We can't be stuck in an unchanging process. If God is the God of exits, then there is always a way out with God. If God is the God of exits, then that means that he can make a way where there seems to be no way. If God is the God of exits, that means he can open a door that no man can shut. If God is the God of exits, he can send an earthquake to shake off the shackles of Paul and Silas so they can walk out of the prison free because he is the God of exits. And that means you and I can never be stuck. Come on, that's a great place to say thank you, God, because you are the God of exits.

And so the God of exits is now leading the children of Israel out of Egypt. And as he leads them out of Egypt, they have two options. One, they can go the shortest route, which would take them through Philistine territory, or they can go the long way, which would take them through the wilderness. And this leads us to what we're going to talk about today. If you're taking notes, I wanna give you three things that you need to remember when you're in a roundabout. Three things to remember when you're in a roundabout, when it seems like you're going the long way, when you're in between where you want to be and where you were, you're experiencing transition. Three things to remember. Here's number one. God, God's love will lead you the long way. God's love will lead you the long way. I proposed to my wife at the Bass Hall in downtown Fort Worth. And the reason why I proposed to my wife at the Bass Hall in downtown Fort Worth, which is a performing arts center, I did that because I found out that she said when she was younger, I am going to marry the first man that takes me to the Bass Hall. So I figured I had a really good shot

if I just proposed at the Bass Hall. But I decided, here's how I wanted to do it, okay? I said, all right, I'm gonna take her to the Bass Hall. And at the Bass Hall, if you've ever been there, there's a balcony and it has two angels on the balcony. They're holding trumpets. And I thought, I'm going to propose to her on the balcony of the Bass Hall. And so I called the Bass Hall and the manager answered and I told her what I want to do. I said, listen, here's what I want to propose. And she was great. She said, okay, here's how we'll do it. You can tell her that you have set up a private tour at the Bass Hall and I will take you throughout the building. And we can talk about the acoustics and the aesthetics and we can talk about the architecture. And then once we get to the place next to the balcony, I will pretend that I'm receiving a phone call. When I pretend I'm receiving a phone call, say I need to walk away, that will give you guys a private moment and now you can pop the question. I said, I like it, I like it. So we set this up, right? And I did it right, you guys. I mean, like I found out from some other ladies, they were like, hey, listen, Jelani, it's a great idea to pop the question at the Bass Hall,

but here's the thing you gotta remember. You need to make sure you get her nails done because you guys are gonna take a picture and I can tell you if those nails aren't right and she looks like the nutty professor, it is not gonna go well. So you better make sure you get the nails done. So I made sure I had a friend get the nails done, okay? So we got the nails done and then I had people hiding in bushes ready to take pictures like I had that. And I had invited her parents and my parents, they're all hiding out in the Bass Hall, it was great. And so I take her and we pull up and we start going through this tour and we go up and down and right and left. And sure enough, we get to the balcony and the lady pretends there's a phone call and we step outside and I hop on a knee and I ask her to marry me and she says, yes, yes. So good, it's like, it was like the best day ever until three days later. Because then after a couple of days, she started looking through the pictures and as she starts looking through the pictures, she's like, hold on, hold on, something's not right. I said, excuse me? She's like, come here, come here, look at this picture. The ring is beautiful and it's a picture of her hand, the ring's beautiful.

My nails look great. I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah. She said, but do you see my watch? Jelani, this watch is awful. It looks terrible. And I'm thinking, excuse me, a watch? Like I didn't know to think about the wrist too, I was just taking care of the fingers. And here's what I'm thinking, I'm like, wait a minute. I just took you on a tour to tell you how much I love you. I just drove you to Fort Worth to walk you up and down so that I could display how much I care about you. Now, here's why I tell you that. I wanna submit to you today that the reason why God will take us on a roundabout is because it's an opportunity for God to tell us how much he loves us. He will take us on a tour or better yet a detour because he wants to communicate how much he cares. Now, why do you say that Jelani? Well, because God in Exodus 13 says this in verse 17, the latter part of verse 17, because he begins to tell us why he took them the long way. It says, God said, if the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So God led them in a roundabout way. Now think about this. He said, all right, I'm gonna take them a longer way. And here's why. If they go through the Philistine territory,

they may have to fight and they're not ready to fight. The reality is, is that the Philistines were an ancient Phoenician people. They were a war-like people. They were strong and powerful and they were ready to fight. And the Israelites just coming out of Egypt, they weren't ready to fight. And so God says, listen, I am going to take you the long way not for punishment, but for protection. I'm gonna take you the long way because I love you. And here's what's perplexing about this passage. Because right after it says, they weren't ready to fight, the next verse says, and they left like an army ready for battle. I'm confused, Jesus. You're saying they're not ready, but they look like they're ready. Now, have you ever been there? Where somebody says, oh, you're ready for it, but it doesn't happen. Or maybe you feel like you're ready. God, I know I'm ready for the relationship. I know I'm ready for the promotion. God, I know I'm ready for the opportunity. And for whatever reason, it doesn't seem like it happens. I wanna encourage you today that maybe the delay is not denial. Maybe it's God giving you a chance to develop. That he does his best development sometimes in the detours of life.

And he cares so much about you that he is less concerned at which the speed at which you move and more concerned about your spiritual maturity to handle the next step. And so in his love, he will lead us the long way. Now, I have to just say this because sometimes we do find ourselves in a roundabout or maybe even a detour because of disobedience. Like when you think about the story of Jonah, God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah goes completely the opposite way. And of course that means there's a delay. So there are times in our lives where we have to pause for a moment and go, God, is this roundabout because of sin? And if that's the case, you just repent. But I will say to you that I believe often the roundabouts are not a result of disobedience. It is simply a result of God wanting to prepare and protect us because he so loves us. In fact, Hosea says it very explicitly here in Hosea chapter 11, verse one. He says, when Israel was a child, now he's not just talking about Jacob or Israel, a person, because we'll see this in a moment. He's talking about the people. He says, when Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. So what's he saying? He said, I loved him.

This is my heart. As I'm bringing them out of Egypt, I love them. But then he goes on in verse four and he says this, I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them, I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek and I bent down to feed them. God says, you want to know how I led the children of Israel out of Egypt? I led them with love because his love will lead us the long way. We even see this in the New Testament. We see it with Jesus. Jesus has a friend named Lazarus. And the Bible says that Jesus has given information that Lazarus is sick. And then it says something very peculiar about how Jesus responds to Lazarus's sickness. This is John chapter 11, verse five. It says, now Jesus loved Martha. Now let's pause for a moment. How does Jesus feel about Martha? He loves, it's not rhetorical. Every campus, how does Jesus feel about Martha? He loved, he loved Martha. Not only did he love Martha, it says he loved her sister who was Mary and he loved Lazarus. So it's very clear Jesus loves them. So listen to this.

So when he heard that he was sick, he left immediately. No. That's not what it says? That's what it should say. Like, if you love somebody, you leave right then, correct? That's not what it says. It says, so he stayed two more days in the place where he was. How could it be, Jesus, that you loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus, and when you heard about him being sick, instead of coming immediately, you stayed two more days? That doesn't sound like love. However, upon further review, if we were to consider this, if Jesus had left as soon as he found out about Lazarus being sick, there's a chance he could have gotten there and he would have healed Lazarus, and that would have been a great, great testimony. The people would have celebrated. God would have gotten glory. However, because he stayed two more days, when he got there, Lazarus had been dead for four days, which means he could no longer heal Lazarus. He could only resurrect Lazarus, which was a greater miracle, and so therefore, when he got there, he displayed his love by resurrecting Lazarus, and he did something greater.

Here's why I tell you that today. Maybe your delay is not denial, but maybe what it is is God is actually setting the circumstance to actually do a greater miracle than you ever imagined, because he can do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you could ask. He has taken you through a roundabout not to ruin you, but to reveal his love for you and bring himself great glory. Here's the second thing you have to remember when you're in a roundabout. God's faithfulness in the past fuels trust for the future. God's faithfulness in the past fuels trust for the future. As we continue the story, we move to verse 19 now, and it says that Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear to do this. He said, God will certainly come to help you. When he does, you must take my bones with you from this place. Okay, so now imagine the children of Israel are leaving Egypt, and Moses says, all right, we've got to get Joseph's bones. Now, we're gonna step into my holy imagination for a moment because here's how I imagine this going. Moses is grabbing things, everybody's grabbing stuff. Okay, we're headed out. And then Moses says, stop, wait a second. We need to get Joseph's bones.

And I think he looks around at the people and he's like, I need somebody young. Let me get a millennial. I need a Gen Z-er. Like, okay, and he points out two boys. He says, all right, guys, here's what I need you to do. I need you to go get Joseph's bones. And these two young guys are like, okay, we'll go get Joseph's bones. But on their way to get the bones, they start thinking, man, wait a minute, these bones are over 400 years old. Like, why would we need to bring some bones that were over 400 years old? And so one of them says, okay, you know, we're gonna go back and we're gonna ask Moses. We just need to know Moses why. And so they walk over to Moses and they go, Moses, Mr. Moses, Pastor Moses, Bishop Moses, we're gonna bring the bones, but we just had a question, question, question. Why are we bringing bones that are over 400 years old? And Moses goes, all right, that's a great question. Let me tell you. So first of all, years ago, our ancestors told Joseph that we would get his bones. And therefore, what we're going to do is we're going to keep our word, because we keep our word. However, that's not the only reason, sir. The other reason is because God spoke to Joseph

and told him one day, I'm going to take the children of Israel out of here. And when I do, I'm going to help them. And so the bones of Joseph weren't just so that the Israelites would keep their word, but it was actually a reminder that God keeps his word, that the bones of the forefathers were actually a reminder of the faithfulness of God. And this was crucial. You have to think about this because they were going to wander around Israel or wander around the wilderness for 40 years. So every time they got up to move, two months, somebody get Joseph's bones. Two years, somebody get Joseph's bones. 20 years, somebody gets Joseph's bones. 25 years, somebody get Joseph's bones. And here's the thing. Every time they moved, there had to be a moment where it's like, I'm discouraged, God, I just don't know. And then all of a sudden, here comes those two millennials walking with Joseph's bones. Guys, I don't know when we're going to get there, but these bones, they were. Remind me, God has a plan, God is faithful, God's gonna help me and we're gonna get there. They become fuel to trust God. This is how Charles Spurgeon talks about the faithfulness of God.

I love this quote. He was a great English preacher in the 1800s. He says, God writes with a pen that never blots. He speaks with a tongue that never slips. He acts with a hand that never fails. In other words, God is faithful and remembering his faithful fuels our trust. In fact, the psalmist says it this way in Psalm 37 verse three, trust in the Lord and do good. When we're in a roundabout, it's about trust. He says, trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. His faithfulness is actually fuel for us. You see, this is why the enemy fights you so hard to even read your word. You know why? Because what happens is when you open the word of God, all of a sudden you start reading the stories of the faithfulness of God and the next thing you know, your faith begins to build and you trust God for the future. This is why the enemy fights you so hard not to get in community here. He doesn't want you on a serve team, he doesn't want you in a small group and here's why, because you start getting around other believers and all of a sudden you start hearing testimonies and those testimonies encourage your faith. Here's why the enemy doesn't even want you to come to church, because all of a sudden when you come to church and you start worshiping

and you sense the presence of God and we sing of God's faithfulness and his greatness and his awesomeness and then you hear a word, all of a sudden you remember God's faithfulness in the past and it fuels trust for the future. This is why some of us, we need to open up that old journal and we need to go back and read what we wrote five weeks ago, five years ago, so that we can be reminded of how far God has brought us. This is why some of us need to take an object, a picture, a quote, and it's time to put it up in your bedroom or put it up in your office so that every time when you look at it, it's a reminder, you know what, God's faithful, he's faithful. My wife did it this way, in our home we have what we call the thankfulness jar. And the reason why she created a thankfulness jar, and we're gonna show a picture of that, well, first of all, because she said, you guys aren't thankful enough, y'all need to be thankful, so we're gonna create a jar. But then secondly, here's what happens. With that thankfulness jar, you see all the slits of paper in there? That's from our family taking a moment and writing notes to say, thank you, God, for all that you've done for us. And every now and again, we'll dig into that jar and we'll pull out some of those notes and we'll start reading, God did this and God did that and God did this, and you know what that does

for our family, guess what, we trust our God because he's been faithful, he's been so good, he's come through time after time after time. St. Jeremiah understood this. Jeremiah is also known as the weeping prophet, and that's for good reason. Most theologians think he wrote the book of Lamentations, which is a book about lamenting, it's about weeping, it's about grieving. And yet, it's a book of only five chapters, but one theologian talks about these five chapters and he says, specifically in chapter three, he says that in a sea of despair, there is an island of hope and it's found in chapter three, verse 20, and these are verses that you've probably heard before, but here's what it says. This is Jeremiah talking, he says, I will never forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss yet I still dare to hope when I remember this, the faithful love of the Lord never ends, his mercies never cease, and great is his faithfulness. Now, let me tell you what's so profound about this, is that tradition tells us that Jeremiah penned these words when he was in a cave just out the city of Jerusalem, and he was watching Jerusalem be destroyed because of their sin. And so in the middle of watching the city be destroyed, he starts to write and he gets to a point where he says, you know what, I still have hope though, because God is faithful.

Now here's what Jeremiah didn't know, that if you actually go to Israel now, there's a cave there that's just outside the city, they believe Jeremiah wrote those notes there and it's called Jeremiah's Grotto, Jeremiah's Grotto, and it's located on a hill. What's fascinating is on that same hill is a place that we know as Golgotha. It's where Jesus was crucified. So on the very same hill where Jeremiah penned that God is faithful. 600 years later, Jesus shows up and is crucified on the cross to display God's real faithfulness. Like God is so good that he would take the very same place that was destruction and brokenness and weeping and says, listen, I'm gonna show you how faithful I am. And when we, when we remember God's faithfulness God's faithfulness in the past, it fuels trust for the future. Here's number three. Third thing we have to remember when we're in a roundabout is God is present and actively working in your life. God is present and actively working in your life. The first day of school for me in elementary school was usually pretty difficult. And the reason why it was pretty difficult is because the first day of school, my teachers would call roll and most of them had never seen the name Jelani before so they would butcher it.

So unless there is the phonetic spelling right next to my name, they would just like butcher my name. And so here's how it would typically work. They would get to my name and the reason why I knew they were close is because it would go alphabetical order and they would go, they would talk about the J's and the K's and then when they get to the L which my last name is Lewis, I would hear them pause. And the pause let me know, oh, it's coming, it's coming. They don't know how to say it. You know, I'm starting to pray right to Jesus, help him. Jesus, help me, Jesus, help me. And then they would say, they'd give it their best shot but they would go, Jelani or they would go, Jelani. And if they were mean, they would go, Gelato. That's not true, they never said that. They just said, Jelani, Jelani. And then here's what they would do to make matters worse. They would go, where is she? Straight disrespect, right? So as an elementary kid, my response was to make my voice really deep. And I would raise my hand up and I would wave it in the air and I'd go, my name is Jelani. And then I would say, and I'm here. Or if I felt fancy, I would say, I'm present. Or if I felt feisty, I would go, I'm president. Anybody else do the president? Oh, just me, pray for me, I'm from Louisiana. So, but my whole point was, first of all,

I need you to know I'm a boy. But then secondly, I wanted you to know I'm here. I'm in this room. Now, here's why I tell you that. Because when you're in a roundabout, the temptation is actually to live in the past or fantasize about the future. And unfortunately, that means we miss God in the present. And so it's as if God is in the proverbial classroom of our lives with his hand up, waving it, saying, hey, hey, over here, I'm here, I'm active, I'm present. I am actually working now. You see this in the passage. We go back to the story, Exodus 13, verse 20. It says, the Israelites left Sukkoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. Then it says, the Lord went ahead of them. So God is active, he's doing something. Then it says, he guided them. He's active, he's present during the day with the pillar of cloud. And he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire from its place in front of the people. So what do you have happening here? God is leading them. God is providing for them. God is guiding them. What's so powerful is that up until that point, church,

what you hear primarily is God speaking to Moses and giving Moses direction. But when this particular passage happens, there's a shift, and it seems like God begins to lead them directly. He's active, he's moving, he's engaged. What I love is that God is even present and active in our trouble. The Psalmist said it this way. God is our refuge and strength. In Psalm 46, verse one, a very present help in trouble. One commentary said this about this particular verse. God never withdraws himself from his afflicted. He is more present than a friend or a relative can be, even more nearly present than the trouble itself. He says, God is even closer than the trouble we're in. He's present. We see this in the story about Jacob, when Jacob. Jacob has a dream in Genesis 28. The Bible says that Jacob has this dream. I won't give all the details for it, but I wanna read you the last couple of verses of this particular dream. This is Genesis 28. I'm actually gonna read out of the message paraphrase. It says, this is God talking to Jacob while he's dreaming. He says, yes, I'll stay with you. I'll protect you wherever you go. I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything

I promised you. And then it says this, Jacob woke up from his sleep and said, God is in this place truly, and I didn't even know it. Jacob says, I was sleeping. I wasn't even aware that God was here, but now I'm aware. And it's a picture, unfortunately, of my life sometimes, and a picture of your life sometimes, that we are sleepwalking through life, and God's going, hey, I'm here. I'm active. I'm working right now. In fact, I love how one of my favorite authors puts it. She says that following Jesus is less about the scenery and more about the company. Following Jesus is less about the scenery and more about the company. It's not about where we're going solely. It's actually about who we're going with. Now, I'm one for planning. I believe in it. I think it's a good thing. I'm one for strategizing. I believe in it, and it's a good thing. I'm one for focusing on the destination. I believe it's a good thing, but if we get so focused on the destination, we end up distracted by the scenery, and we miss the company.

We miss Jesus in the moment. Recently, I was challenged on this, just about a year and a half ago. I was challenged by the Lord and convicted by the Holy Spirit because I felt like I'd been living my life essentially like it was Tex-Mex. I don't know. How many of you guys like Tex-Mex out there? Anybody? Okay, okay. Okay, somebody shouted. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord on my soul. But I love Tex-Mex, and here's one of the things. My family, we actually love to go to Chewy's after church, and the reason why we love going there is because they have the creamy jalapeno ranch that I just, yeah, no, praise the Lord for that. Praise the Lord. That changed my life, y'all. I wanted to be a better person after I... But here's what we do. We go to Chewy's, and we get the creamy jalapeno ranch sauce, and we eat a bunch of chips, and here's what we know. We know that's just an appetizer. We know, in fact, that the chef never touched that appetizer. The only thing that the chef put his or her hands on

was when they brought out the entree. It was just an appetizer. Now, contrast that experience that I had with when I went to Shanghai. I go to Shanghai, and they eat differently there. In fact, there were about eight of us, and we sit down at this big round table that rotated, and they bring out about 10 entrees, and they sit them down in front of you, and you just rotate through, and you scoop, and you rotate through, and you scoop, and here was the difference. In Shanghai, I knew that the chef had his or her hands on every single meal. One was an appetizer and filler. The other was the chef's hands on the entree. Now, here's what I found in my life. When I go through seasons of transition, it feels like there's a shifting. I'm not where I used to be, but I'm not where I wanna be. I can view that season as an appetizer to God. I can view it as a filler. Hey, this is just the thing to get to the next thing, but the problem is when you look at the biblical text, and when you look at how God moves with people, there seems to be no appetizers with God, because God's hand is on every season of your life. There is no Tex-Mex to God, because God's hand is on every season of your life. There is no filler to God,

because God's hand is on every season of your life. He is actively working in every moment. So hear me, my middle school friends, my high school friends, my young adults, college students, you can look at the season that you're in as a filler, and God says, it's not a filler, it's actually a season where I want to fill you with my power and presence, and I wanna develop your character. Dads, moms, you're raising kids right now, and you can look at this season and go, man, it's a tough season. It's a great responsibility, an awesome opportunity, but it can be heavy sometimes, and you can look at this season as an appetizer, and God goes, no, no, no, it's not an appetizer. You have an assignment. Maybe for some of my older saints, you look at your life and you go, I've got more years behind me than in front of me. And the temptation is just to coast. And God says, no, I don't need you coasting. I need greater commitment from you right now because I am active and moving and I am doing things in your life. And I am not done with you yet. You're gonna serve the purposes of God in your generation, just like David did. And he's calling us to recognize that this life is not Tex-Mex.

This life is filled with seasons that God has his hand on every single one of them. And so I wanna encourage you today. Some of us are in a roundabout and you just need to remember, God's not mad at you. He's motivated by love. His love will actually lead you the long way. Some of us today, we need to look back and we need to remember the faithfulness of God because it's gonna fuel our trust for him in the future. And some of us today, we need to recognize that God is active and moving. And maybe you need to pray a very simple prayer for the next several days. God, make me aware of your presence today. I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. And we're gonna pray. But before I do, I wanna give some people an opportunity today because earlier I mentioned about the faithfulness of God and what Jesus did for us, how he died for our sins. And what's so great about that is the Bible says that we were all sinners. And because of our sin, we were separated from God, but God refused to leave it that way. And so he sent Jesus Christ to die for us, to pay for our sins. And he raised them on the third day. And he did that so that we could be forgiven,

so that we could have a relationship with him and so that we could spend forever with him in eternity. And he made it very simple. He said, the Bible actually calls it receiving salvation or being born again, that when we place our trust in what Jesus did, we can receive salvation. We can get a fresh start. We can be made new. And there are some of us here today. And the truth is you've never received salvation. You've never been born again. You've never admitted that you're a sinner and chosen to surrender your life to Jesus. Today is your day. I want to lead you in a prayer here in a moment, or maybe you're here and you've been here for a long time, but you've never made a decision, or maybe you made that decision a long time ago, but today's your day to give your life to Jesus. I want to give you a chance to do that. I'm not asking today if you go to church, I'm not asking, are you a good person? I'm asking you today, have you been born again? Have you received salvation? Have you placed your trust in Jesus? In a moment, I'm going to pray. And I just want to include you in this prayer if you haven't ever made that decision or you need to make that decision again.

And so if you'd say, Jelani, that's me. Today, include me in that prayer. I want to be born again. Would you just raise your hand right now? I want to start new. I want a fresh start. It's time to surrender. I just want you to raise it high right now. Every campus, you don't need to be embarrassed. I see you even online. Don't be embarrassed. This is what church is about. Today, you want to make a decision. I'm giving my life to Jesus today. I'm recommitting my life to Christ. It's awesome. I see hands that are up all over the place. I want everyone to pray this prayer out loud for the benefit of those that raised their hand. But those of you that raised their hand specifically for you, this is just a prayer of surrender. Would you pray it with me? Just say, God, thank you for sending Jesus to die for my sin. I admit I'm a sinner, but I believe in what you did. Forgive me. Be my Lord. Change me. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, amen.

Church, can we put our hands together? We have people all over that gave their lives to Christ. I just want to tell you, first of all, if you raised your hand, we are so proud of you. You just made the best decision you'll ever make. And listen, that's not the end. That's actually just the beginning. And we want to walk with you. We want to help you take some next steps. And there's a couple of ways to do that. First of all, you can just text the word Jesus to 71010, and we can follow up with you there. Or better yet, in a moment, I'm going to have everyone stand up. And when we stand up, we're going to have leaders here at the front, leaders there in the balcony area. And we want to invite you to come forward for prayer. If you gave your life to Jesus, you can start making your way down, and we'll pray with you, and we want to walk with you. And when we stand up, if you're here today and you just need prayer for something, you're going through a difficult time, you're in a roundabout, you need healing, whatever it is, you don't need to be embarrassed. This is what church is about. We just want to pray with you. And so in a moment, I'm going to have us all stand up. We're going to go into a worship song,

but if you need to respond to this message, you can come forward. Would you stand right now? And I want to invite our prayer team to come forward. And if you gave your life to Jesus, or you need prayer for anything as we worship, I just invite you to come forward. Let's worship. Let's worship together. ♪ Seated on the throne, Jesus be glorified ♪ ♪ Forever lifted high, every voice all the glory ♪ ♪ All the glory is yours, all the glory is yours ♪ ♪ Now and forevermore, all the glory is yours, oh ♪ ♪ All the glory is yours, all the glory is yours, oh ♪ ♪ Now and forevermore, all the glory is yours, oh ♪ ♪ Every voice we sing, all the glory is yours, oh ♪ ♪ You're worthy Lord, all the glory is yours, oh ♪ ♪ Now and forevermore, all the glory is yours, oh ♪ As Pastor Jelani was closing out the service just a moment ago, I just had this burden come over me. We didn't do this in the first service, but I just had this burden come over my heart. Here we are celebrating Father's Day, and that's a wonderful thing for most of us in the room. But some of you in this room, you carry something we call a father wound. Maybe it's because you had an absentee father, or maybe you had a dad that didn't love Jesus, and he left a mark on your life that you still struggle with today.

And I just feel so overwhelmed right now that I just wanna pray for those of you that that's you. You carry this burden, you carry this wound in your heart. And we call it a father wound. And I'm not gonna ask you to lift your hand. I'm just gonna ask you to bow your head for just a moment. Let me pray a prayer. If this applies to you, Father, in the name of Jesus right now, I ask, Lord, that you heal father wounds in this place. Lord, I thank you that you're a good father, and we don't have to hold back from loving you or receiving love from you because of something that happened because of our earthly father. But God, today we ask in Jesus' name, would you heal our wounds? Would you heal our hearts? Lord, would you be that dad in our life? Would you draw us near you, Lord? And would you heal the wounds caused by some of our fathers? And Father, we thank you that you have the power to do that and that you will do that in Jesus' name. This altar is gonna remain open, and if you need prayer in that area, we wanna pray for you. A couple of quick announcements before I dismiss you. This week is our Kids' Summer Bash. Starts on Tuesday at 10 a.m. right here at the Southlake Campus,

and you can still register for that. That's age six through sixth grade, and again, that's this Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Also, this year, during the month of July, we're going to be gathering backpacks. We're talking about new backpacks that'll be given to kids from families that just need a little help, maybe single parents, that kind of a situation. So all the month of July, when you're out shopping, would you write down in your reminders to buy a backpack, maybe two, maybe three, whatever you can do. Bring them on Sunday, drop them off, we'll take them here, and then when we do our back-to-school time in August, we'll have those backpacks. We'll be using our backpacks for the Grapevine Colleyville ISD, so make note of that and be part of that. And then lastly, if you're new here to Gateway and you don't know how to get connected, we want to help you do that. You can text the word connect to 71010, or you can drop by Connect Central. That's a room right behind that back wall. Drop by after the service today, and we'll answer any question that you might have about Gateway. And hey, if you've got your dad with you today, we've got photo ops out in the lobby, and you can take a photo with your dad.

We actually have photographers, or you can use your own phone. And create a memory today, because once dad's gone, memory's all we got. So glad you came today. Happy Father's Day. God bless you. You're dismissed.