The Church of Eleven22 - Saturated 2018 - Thursday: Pastor Albert Tate

Episode Date: September 13, 2018

Saturate, can we make some noise for Jesus up in here? Oh, come on, anybody expecting God to move tonight? If you're expecting him to move in your house and your family, put those hands together and let's give God a shout of praise in here. Let's let him know you're welcome in this house. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

You all sit down. I tell you, I am P. proud and hyena happy to be here, boy, I'll tell you. I'm not going to lie, that's the whitest thing I've ever seen in my life. And I've seen some white things because I've been to Pastor Jobi's office back there. But that was the whitest thing. Y'all know what y'all did. When I go back to my church and I show my white church members that,

I'm going to be a better pastor to them now. They're going to be like, let's tell you've always loved you, but now we're in love with you. Oh my goodness. That was great. That was great. I'm excited to be here, and I just got to tell you, I love what God's doing here in your church. God's been so busy here, and I've been watching. I planted our church about seven years ago. You guys are about six years old, and I just, our church grew really fast, multi-ethnic gospel centered, intergenerational church there in the Los Angeles area right outside of Pasadena, California.

And, you know, we were, you know, we were doing great. I was getting invitations to people to talk about what we were doing and work and stuff. Then I met Pastor Jobi, and he just said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he's probably five years old then. And at that point, y'all only seeing, you know, 40,000 people or something, you know what I mean? Some crazy number. He's like fastest growing church in earth. You know what I mean?

It's just unreal. So I sat down and he was like talking about what God had done here and how much. big the church was, I went back to my church and I didn't even like my church no more. I was like, I don't even want to be here with your people. I fired two people just because they weren't from 1122. I was like, you're not even from there. I mean, seriously, I looked at it. I mean, just the name 1122. How cool is that? I went back. My name sucked. Our church name is fellowship. You know what I mean? Like, what is that? 1122, therefore, what does that mean? Ain't nobody ever asked me what our church named me.

You know what I mean? So I'm kind of, you know, I'm glad to be here, but, you know, I'm low-keyed depressed. Pray for my staff when I get back on next week. I'm like, you know what? 1122 had a Kelly. We ain't got no Kelly. Teresa, you fired.

Let's go find a Kelly. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do, but let's get through the night and then I'll work out my depression later. Seriously, what God has done in this place. and who your pastor has been, not just when he's on this platform, but in intimate personal settings.

What I love about pastors, because everybody don't have a good pastor. Y'all should thank God for that. You should thank God for who you have, because I'll tell you, everybody ain't got that. I'll tell you. Who he is on the platform and his convictions, he has those same convictions in intimate small spaces. And I appreciate the time that he's taking with me,

that he didn't have to pour into me and to speak into my life. So can we just take a moment and thank Pastor Joby. Thank you, Dan. I appreciate who you are. It's your pastor. Can't nobody thank him like you.

Don't let me out thank your pastor. Don't let me out thank you. Don't let me out thank you. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. So thankful for him and his amazing family. So just a couple of things.

things get out the way before I get started in the word of God. I just kind of, you know, want to make everybody safe, make everybody comfortable. I'm black. I know, I know. I was shocked when I heard it the first time too. It was like, what? And, you know, I grew up in Pearl, Mississippi. Like, y'all heard my name, the name of my church was Sweet Home. Like, I grew up in a black church, you know what I mean? And guys, it's just a little different. You know what I mean? Like, it's not one better than the other, but the, Black church is a little different from what we got going on tonight. It's a little different.

So, and I've learned how to navigate the differences. I've learned how to navigate the difference. People say, y'all get a bad reputation. People say, the black church, it's a response. We talk to each other. The sermon is a time to talk. I know your mama told you don't talk in church, but it's okay tonight. We talk back, and white people get a bad rap because people be like,

white people don't respond in church. That's just not true. It's not true. I've seen it. Just respond differently. You know what I mean? At our church, I had an aunt Vicki. She talked back to you throughout the whole service.

If it got good to you, if the message got good and you started saying it, she literally shouted you. She'll say, come on with some more. But you got to watch on Vicki, though. You start going too long. She'll say, all right, bring it all home now. You make up your mind, Vicki, what you? But I've learned, though, as I speak in white.

churches, white people, they have a response. This is how white people are. When the message really get good to them, when they really excited, this is what they do. They do this. It get weird when I do it a long time, don't it? Imagine how I feel preaching for 50 minutes up here. And when y'all really want to shout, when you really want to get just excited, really, when you just really turning up, turning up, when you show exuberant praise and adoration for the glory of God. When you really get excited, you do this. Watch this. You do this. Huh. So what I want you to know is you can talk back to me tonight. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And there's always one white person that goes way too far with it in the middle of the ceremony. Get array! It's like, no, brother. You just don't know how to do it. Don't even worry about it, dog. Don't even worry about it.

Exodus chapter three is where you'll find me tonight. Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter three. Now, Jobb, you got me nervous. If I put the Bible here, is it now invisible? So I need to, is it okay? Is it okay? You got me all nervous. You got these cameras and these rugs, y'all. I just don't know what to do. Because if you go off the rug, then you're blind to everybody else on the cameras. So I'm nervous. So for the campuses, first of all, the campuses that are watching.

Can we give it up for the campuses? Oh my goodness. What's up, y'all? Let me tell you something. How blessed are you to have all of this chocolatey goodness in HD? Like, that's a blessing. You ought to turn to your neighbor right there and say, we bless tonight, we bless. But if the Holy Ghost take me off this rug, just know it wouldn't a rapture.

I just went off the camera. That's all. It wasn't a rapture. It's like, Jesus, the rapture, and why is we all still here? Don't worry, I'll be back. If the Holy Ghost take me running off, I'll come back. I'll come back. Exodus chapter 3.

We're going to look at verses 1 through 7, 1 through 7. Exodus chapter 3, verses 1 through 7. Hear these words of our Father. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horab, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that through the bush, that though the bush was on fire, it 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 shoes. For the place where you are standing is holy ground. Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. At this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of God.

of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you, Father, for this great church. We thank you for this great gathering, this time to be saturated by your presence and your power and your glory. Father, it's our prayer now that in these next few moments that you would speak to us, like only you can.

Father, your children have gathered to listen. So speak, O Lord. Tune our ear to your voice so that we might hear you ever so clearly. Turn our hearts toward you so that we might experience the fullness of all that you have for us. God is to that end that I ask that you stand in my body, think through my mind, speak through my vocal cords, those things you would have us say no and do. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart. be acceptable in thy sight.

Oh, Lord, you are my strength. You are my redeemer. Get glory in this place. In Jesus' name. Everybody said, amen? Yes. Now, this story is familiar if you grew up in church. But if you didn't grow up a church person

and you ain't ever been church, don't worry about it. If you saw the movie Prince of Egypt, you are right where I need you to be. You are right, this is right before Mariah seeing that big hit. coming out this song. This is a story of Moses, and we find him in a very interesting space.

Before we get to chapter three, we see him in chapter one, and in chapter two, he's growing up in Egypt in Pharaoh's house, but he's realizing that his complexion, his identity, he don't look like the other folk in the house. He doesn't look like them, and he's recognizing that, in fact, I look more like the slaves that are on the field.

Moses is a Hebrew, living in Pharaoh's house, so he wrestles through his identity, and he has a compassion for people that look like him. He goes out and he sees their mistreatment. He sees how they are just abused. One day, he couldn't take it anymore. He goes out and he sees a Hebrew slings. being abused by an Egyptian, and he intercedes. He goes in, and he pushes the Egyptian, and they get into a tussle, and Moses before he knew it, killed him, murdered him.

After the murder, he goes, runs, and hides. Comes back, he sees the next day two Hebrews fighting one another, and he goes and he interacts with them, and he says, why y'all fight each other? How can you be fight one another? Because he's thinking, I'm fighting for y'all, and now y'all out here fighting each other. And they look at him and say, well, what are you going to do, Moses? You're going to kill us like you did that Egyptian yesterday?

And he was like, y'all had seen that, y'all. Y'all was watching how y'all had seen that. He was out at. Everybody knew he did it. So what he did was he went and he ran and hid. He ran and hid. And our text finds him on the other side of hiding. I don't know what you do when you get in trouble.

I don't know what you do when you mess up. I don't know what you do when you sin, but he ran and he hid. And what we see in chapter two and what begins we see the fruit of in chapter three is the result of what happens when you are God's child. You run, you hide, you fail miserably. But the grace of God's hand reaches in your running, reaches in your running, reaches in your rebellion and grabs you and pulls you up and gives you a new chance, a new beginning to start over again.

Can I just take some time to encourage somebody who might be watching, who might be sitting in here tonight and you've messed up? You find yourself in church, but you're hiding, you're running because of guilt and shame and because you sin, you feel like you're disqualified from God's grace. You feel like you don't deserve to be here. If you came here discouraged, beat down, broke, busted, and disgusted. If you came here wondering if God would ever use you, if you came here wondering if you could ever overcome the addiction,

if you came here wondering if you would ever see the sun shine again, I'm telling you the grace of God's hand is reaching down in your situation, in your season, and pulling you in the purpose. Oh, I wish I had a witness to say, God, I thank you. So if you're sitting in here today, I'm telling you, you've got a God who says you get to begin, you get a new beginning, you get to start over. The failures of your past don't have to dictate the promise of your future. If you still got breath in your body, that's still purpose in your chest, God's not through with you. He's going to use you for his glory.

He's going to use you for his glory. I've come to talk to folk tonight. that were on the verge of throwing in the towel. I want to talk and speak to marriages that thought that we can't go back to the glory days. Our best days are behind us and you're considering quitting. I want to talk to that person who hadn't accepted Jesus Christ as a personal savior because you think a loving God wouldn't have anything to do with a failure like you. I want to talk to that person that was on the straight and narrow but fell miserably

and you're wondering if God can still use you. Moses is an example. Homeboy is a murderer, but we see God using him. See, God will use the negative in your life to open you up to a whole new vision. Ah, some of you in a rough season, don't you underestimate the power of the rough season. God will use this season. He'll use it for his glory. All things will work together.

back in the 80s when I grew up in the 90s. Anybody remember when you would take a picture and then you'd have to take the film out of the camera and go to a store and then they process it

about three, four days. You forget you put it in there. Go back by three weeks. And you see the picture for the first time Anybody remember that? Remember when you had to wait a week to see a picture? I know some of you millennials, you ain't even heard of a film. You know what I mean?

You think, but you have to go and you give it to them, and they develop it. And then you could actually see the picture and see that, yeah, everybody's eyes was closed. Okay. All right. We wasted all that time. We can't use none of these pictures. That's great. Praise the Lord.

All right. That was a waste of money, you know? Anybody remember those days? You remember those faces? I remember being a little boy and I, we got a picture back, and it was a good one. It was a good one. And you know, the tendency as a child,

the first thing you want to do with a picture is bend it. You know what I mean? It's just something about that paper that says, bend me, you know what I mean? And then it was something about my mama that says, I'll beat you. And it's like, okay, okay, I won't do that. I'll never forget, we got a perfect family picture from Easter.

And we were playing around and somehow we ruined a picture. We ruined a picture. And we was all scared thinking that this was going to be the end of our life because we grew up in Mississippi and you could lose your life over something like that. My cousin Kimmy lost a leg in third grade because she broke a window. So, you know, it was rough. We didn't play down there. No, my mama came and she was upset, but she says, don't worry about it. We can get it redeveloped.

I said, well, how can we get a picture redevelop? What are you talking about? She was like, well, in the packet right there, the negatives are right there. So you pull up, y'all remember negatives? They send you all in it, and it's the pictures, but they're just on a little thing, and the actual picture that you look. I said, Mom, that don't make no sense. She said, what actual picture came from that negative.

So if we still got the negative, I can just take the negative back, and I can show the picture, and we can get the picture, because the picture actually came from the negative. You get it early, I won't have to preach as long. God is saying, don't be intimidated and threatened out of the negative. He's going to give you a picture of your future and of your glory that he's going to encompass your life. Don't be intimidated. Don't be worried.

God's putting a new picture of display, but it's going to come from the negative. I'm telling you, I'm standing here today, some of the greatest pictures of my life has come from the worst negatives of my life. I can celebrate and stand in confidence knowing that a great godly kingdom picture comes out of the negative. So if you're sitting in here today and you're sitting in the negative, girl, you got a picture on the way. You're sitting in here on the negative, brother, you got a picture on the way. Romans 828 says, and we know that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. Some of you sitting in here today and you're saying, brothers, Pastor Tate, I appreciate you, but you don't know all the things. working with. You don't know all things. I'm telling you he'll take some of the worst things

and he'll put it together and it'll be for his glory. Anybody ever anybody anybody know how to make a cake? Who the cake maker's in here? I need to see who I need to see after service. I'm talking about pound cake. I'm talking about you know how to make it. Did you know how to make it? Some of the greenest of a cake. You got that butter, that flour, that raw egg. Watch this. Vanilla extract. Huh? Come on now. Somebody all to be impressed with that in Jesus name. Come on now. Let me tell you something.

I used to sit at the house or my grandmama used to sit and she had a blend of show. Oh, she could make a cake. She could make a cake. She'd be whipping it. And the best part about watching her make a cake is when she got it in the oven, you had the batter.

Oh, Lord, how mercy. If you were blessed to lick that spoon from the batter, oh, come on, I thought I was in the South. Do I have a witness up in here? You lick that stuff. It's like sweet nectar from heaven. I mean, Lord, how mercy. But it was confusing as a child because I watched her put things that were independent of themselves disgusting.

Like, when's the last time you had a stick of butter and was like, girl, give me a bite of that. Nobody does that. Somebody takes a raw egg in the morning unless you rocky and weird. You know what I mean? Because I know it's some of y'all in here. You're like, I do raw eggs every morning. Yeah, you're weird, bro. Take it down a thousand, bro.

Like, no one does it. No one says, yeah, hey, hey, give me a shot of that vanilla extract. Give me a shot. Like, they can get started now, Jack. You know, like, nobody does that. These are all disgusting. No one's like, give me a handful of powder. Oh, it's great.

A little dry, but it's great. Like, nobody does that. They're all disgusting. But all, when you take that blender and you begin to work that thing together, you work that together, it makes something amazing. And God is saying, I'll take the disgusting, bitter things in your life. Things that you can't even imagine that are terrible in your life. Oh, but when I put my hand of grace in it and I started working it together,

exceedingly and abundantly above all that you could ask or think, it will work together for your good. It says I'm working it together for your good. Moses is suffering from failure. but God's hands of grace finds him. Jethro, priest of Midian, his daughter finds him. He comes out of there, and we find Moses. He got himself together, now, y'all.

It's chapter three, the grace of God has worked in his life. He got a wife. He got kids. He got a boo and a shardee. I'm sorry, boo and shorthy. Significant other and offspring. He, like God has blessed him. He got a family.

Not only that, but y'all, he got a job. He at work in chapter three. He at work. Tending to the flock. He at work. Got himself together. God's restored him. God's been faithful.

God's worked it all together for his good. No longer known as a murderer, but now a son, a husband, a father, an employee. He's got a new story. Your failure ain't got to dictate your future. God says, I've given you a new picture, and it came from the negative. We see him in the text. He's got it together, and that's when God speaks. That's when a burning bush speaks.

Moses, Moses, we know the end of this story. He's got a new assignment. God wants him to do something new. I don't know about you, but if I'm anything like Moses, I'm thinking, God don't want nothing new. I'm good. I got a job. I got a wife. I got kids.

I'm good. I don't need no new assignment. I don't need no new blessing. As a matter of fact, you want to use somebody. You should use Jake up the street. He pretty jacked up. He could use something new in his life. I'm good.

I don't need nothing new in my life. You see, because we all love it when God disrupt us from a season of sin and failure and guilt and shame. We're cool when he disrupts us from crisis. We ain't so cool when he disrupts us from comfort. Ah, that was good. I'm going to walk to this side of the rug and say that again. See, we're cool when he delivers us from crisis. Oh, Lord, come in, Jesus, bring me out.

Lord, Jesus. But when you're in comfort, when family's going well, money's right, child's going well. And then Jesus comes talking about I need to do, No, no, no, no, no, no, don't mess nothing up. I got everything situated just the way I wanted. I finally got it all out. That's when God declares to you, my daughter, my brother, my sister, my son,

I didn't call you to comfort. I called you the kingdom, and I've got a work that I need you to do, and it goes beyond your comforts. It's not about what you're comfortable with. It's about what my kingdom is calling you to. And Moses, I've got an assignment for you. you. It's amazing how when we get comfortable, we tell our sin testimony, but is that the last testimony you had from when he saved you? No, no, no, no. God says, I want to do a new thing in you.

Your 40s, you got the kids settle, you got to there, got your little household rhythm, got your little calendar. No, I want to disrupt your comfort because there's a kingdom calling on your life. I want to call you to something greater. I want to saturate you with a greater purpose in this next season. He says to Moses, come on. I want to use you. I want to do something great. And the first thing I need you to do is take your shoes off. That's the first thing I need you to do. I need you to take your shoes off because you are standing on the holy ground. I need you to take your shoes off. One of the most dangerous jobs in the world is my job. It's one of the most dangerous jobs in my world because I work at the place where the Bush speaks every week. I work at church.

Bush speaks there all the time. I work at the burning bush. And when I first started preaching y'all 20 years ago, I used before I preach, I'd be crying before God. God, please use me. I'll take my shoes off. I'd be down before God said, God, please use it. Please move by your spirit.

God, please move, please move. Now I've been doing 20 years, the biggest threat to me. Instead of trusting the one who's been faithful, I'll become too familiar with him. And I just walk in his presence, not with my shoes off, but now I just walk in with my shoes on. what's up, God, and Sunday, we read it? I've assumed a sense of familiarity, and I've lost my sense of awe.

I've lost my sense of wonder. And he says, Moses, the first thing that I want to do is I want you to take your shoes off so you can be reminded that you're standing on holy ground. I need you to fill the dirt in your toes so you can know that this is sovereign ground. This is God-provided ground. Take your shoes off. Remove the thing that gets in the way between you filling my presence. in your toes. Take your shoes off. He's inviting him from work to worship. Take your shoes off.

Over there in your shoes, that's what you do. That's your work. That's your assignment. You take them shoes off. You stand on this holy ground. It's my work. It's what I do. It's my assignment. Take your shoes off and feel the presence of God again. What happens is over time, things get in the way between you and feeling God. Your devotionals used to move you to tears. You used to have conviction. Now it's the most stale 15 minutes of your day. Because it doesn't have passion.

It doesn't have a sense of awe or wonder. You're just going through the motions. You hadn't taken your shoes off in a long time. You don't feel the presence of God anymore. Addiction will come and cover and get in between you and your ability to feel God's presence. The pornography has got your heart so cold and calloused. You used to feel conviction about it, but you've lost your tears. The addiction has just become a part of who you are.

Hello. He says, take your shoes off. Because you're so consumed with being a mom and you're so consumed with your spreadsheet and getting everything down, why don't you spread before my presence and be reminded that I am a father to your children, much greater than you will ever be a mother to your children? The presence and the presence in the same. The source has to be found in me.

Take your shoes off so you can stop comparing yourself with other moms on Instagram. Oh, come on in here. You was having a good day until you see Sister Sarah on Instagram. And it's her little picture with little Leroy and they're just smiling. And the caption says, just doing life. Well, Sarah, show us the other picture of Cross-Eyed Leroy when he was running around the room and show us all the pictures that it took for you to get this one picture. You put this one picture up, but you took it 20 times.

Show us cross-eyed, Leroy, Sarah. Come on now. She's just doing life, and you look at her, and you see your running around crazy kids. He said, look at Sarah. Her life is so good. God is just so blessed her. Why can't you bless me? He will bless you like he did her if you take the picture 20 times.

But see, you're so consumed with what other people think. God is saying, take your shoes off and be reminded about what I think of you in your glory, of His glory. Let's take your shoes off. You've become so familiar. You've lost the passion. You've lost the desperation. You've lost the sense of wonder in awe of God.

Take your shoes off. You know the reason why you need to take your shoes off? Because he doesn't want the dung of your past to be treaded in the destiny of your future. Did y'all just get that? Come on, y'all live in Florida. Y'all know what Dung is. Y'all know what it is to track stuff in the house. In California, do y'all have, y'all probably got this.

Do you got folks that don't let you wear shoes in the house? Take off your shoes? And they're so giddy about it, too. In our house, we have a rule. Shut up. Like, they're so giddy. Y'all, these people, some of you are that giddy person. We have a rule.

We don't wear shoes in our house. It's so fun. It's just want you to be comfortable in their home. And you just be thinking, lady, I didn't come I'm prepared to have my toes out in front of strangers. You should have put that in the email. My feet is all ashy and stuff. I don't know.

My kids, I don't know what, I ain't know telling them what kind of socks they got on. Now we at Sarah's house and she wants us to take our shoes off. You know, because you're just, it's not prepared for it, right? But you know why that's important? Because they probably watch some episode of 60 Minutes where they trace feet. and all the nasty places where they walk. And they don't want the nasty places where they've been to be sitting in their living room where they lay down on the floor.

God is saying, take your shoes off because the places where you've been, I don't want it to mess up this holy place that I'm about to bring you into. The guilt and shame of your past, I want to take that off. The sin, the failure, I want to take that off. The bitterness and the ugliness. We're not going to track that into this new season.

We're not going to track old stuff into the new thing that God is doing in your life. Some of you, that's good news because you've got some old stuff that you don't want to see no more. You've got some old relationships you don't need to see anymore. You got some old habits. You don't want to see it no more. You need to take your shoes off. God is saying, behold, I'm doing a new thing.

Take your shoes off. You are standing on Holy Grah. The other reason why you need to take your shoes off so that you can be reminded. He knew Moses, listen, in a few days, you're going to be standing in front of you. Pharaoh. And when you're standing in front of Pharaoh, your feet may be tempted to run, but that's when I need your feet to remember the holy ground that it stood on and the power and the sovereignty of God so that when you sit there and you look at Pharaoh, you're not intimidated by Pharaoh because you can feel in your toes that your God is bigger than Pharaoh, and he can keep you and guide you.

So let's take your shoes off so you can be reminded of how big I am. How good I am. How good I I am. How mighty and how great I am. Ray Johnson tells a story of a young Diane Disney, Walt Disney's daughter. And in her book, she talks about how normal it was growing up in Walt Disney's house. Y'all, it was just normal. She said it wasn't special. She was like, I would just grow up in a normal childhood. As a matter of fact, it was so normal when she went to elementary school for the first time. She goes to class. She stands up to introduce herself. Hi, my name's Diane Disney. And the class goes crazy. They're clapping. They're high-fiving. They're laughing. And Diane starts crying. She starts crying. And the teacher says, what's wrong, Diane?

She says, they're laughing at me. They're making fun of me. She's like, no, no. They're just happy for you. She said, why they're happy for me? I said, it was my name, Diane Disney. And they started going crazy and just high-fiving. It's like, ah!

And I don't know what they thought. Maybe they thought they were going to get tickets out of the deal or something. I don't know. But they were just like, oh, I had Disney. She was like, see, look, they're crying. They're laughing at me. And she says, no, they're happy for you because of your, because of your name.

She says, what? She says, what's your dad's name? She says, Walter. And she says, right, Walt Disney, as in Walt Disney Company, as in Mickey Mouse is your cousin, like Donald is your uncle, like Disney. She says, I had no idea. She had no idea. As a matter of fact, she goes home angry at her dad.

He's sitting there reading a newspaper. She walks up to him and says, You didn't tell me you are Walt Disney! She says, I walked around my house for months in all of who my father was. Saturated, I've come to tell you, your father ain't the owner of Disneyland. He owns all the lands. He's the alpha and the omega.

He's the beginning and the end. He's the first and the last. Oh, I wish I had a witness up in here. It ought to blow your mind when you think about how good your God is, how big your God is. Oh, church, come on and let's celebrate a God that's big, that's good, that's great. He is the alpha and omega. He is a good, good father.

You need to be remembered. of how big your father is, how good your father is. It says, take your shoes off so you can remember how big I have. Some of you came here tonight and you're carrying some big stuff. Some of you came here tonight and you got some heavy burdens and I'm telling you, I'm not here to minimize your problems. You say, how but you don't know how big it is. No, no, no, no.

I'm not here to minimize your problem. I'm here to help you maximize your God. I don't care how big your problem is. Your God is bigger. It's bigger. Let's take your shoes off. You're standing on holy ground. The thing that I noticed in verse four was interesting.

The bush. Bush catches on fire. Which, parenthetically, when I was in Sunday school, I thought that was the miracle until I moved to California and realized Bush is catch on fire all the time. That ain't a miracle, child. That's Tuesday.

The miracle was that the Bush spoke, but I noticed that the bush didn't speak until Moses moved. Therein lies a word for you, church. Some of you came here, and some of you were praying just this week. You said it just this week, God, I'm just waiting on you to move. I'm just waiting on you to move. I'm just waiting on you to move. I'm just waiting on you to move. And could it be that God is looking at you saying, I'm just waiting on you to move, I'm just waiting on you to move, I'm just waiting on you to move. I'm just waiting on you to move. I'm just waiting on you to move. Move in obedience, move in faithfulness, move in trust. A lot of times we wait on God to move,

and he said, I'm waiting on you to move. I'm embarrassed to say I was in the airport bathroom a couple of weeks ago, and y'all, it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to wash my hands. You remember the good old days when they used to have knobs on the faucet? Like, what happened to our people? What's going on? Like, they don't even have knobs. on the thing. So I walk up. I don't even know what to do it. And I would just, you know,

normally, I just watch what somebody else does and just do that. You know, at least that's how I made through high school. But I look and ain't nobody in there. So I'm in there, y'all. And I'm like, after a while, it looked like I was in there dancing. And I watch me whip, watch me nay nay, watch me watch me do it. You know what I'm like, I'm trying to figure this thing out, y'all. And then, then watch this, watch, you know, then somebody walking the bathroom. Somebody walking, so I'm thinking, whew, all right, okay. I'm just going to watch him and see what he do.

This nasty joker going to walk out. Didn't even watch his hands. I said, that's the last time I traveled with Jobie. Like, this is ridiculous. Let's just, he didn't watch your hands. So finally, finally I did this. Finally, finally, I just simply, I just did this. And the water came out.

I did this. And the water come out. You'll get it in a second. I did this. What I'm saying is if some of you would just do this, the living water of God will flow in your life. If you just do this with the family, if you just do this with your marriages,

if you just do this with your kids, the water of God will flow in your life. Where are the areas in your life? Will you just need to do this? Will you need to surrender? What does it mean for you to walk in obedience? What does it mean for you to walk in obedience? What does it mean for you to walk in faith?

What does it mean for you to trust God again? He says, I want you to begin again. I want you to do a new thing. In order for you to do it, you got to take your shoes off and be reminded of how big your God is. You've got to be willing to extend your hands and make the first move, knowing that a move of faith will move God in heaven. Finally, Moses gets the fullness of the call, and that's when it comes. the insecurity. He says, you want me to go to Pharaoh and tell him, let my people go?

You want me to go to him and speak? Says you know that I have slowness of speech. You want to take the one thing that I'm not good at and use it in this season? See, a lot of us, God says I want to use it. You'd be like, okay, cool, let me show you all my strengths. Let me get all my gifts. Let me get all my. He says, no, no, no, I don't need none of that.

Huh? He says, I want your weakness. My weakness? He says, no, no, no, I want, he says, I don't want to use any of that. You're administrative. That's sweet. I love all that. I don't want to use any of that.

I want to use your compassion. Jesus, you know I'm not the most compassionate person? That's why I want to use it. He says, I want to use your generosity. God, you know, I'm as stingy as Jesus, I'll get out. I'm the stingy as one in my family, Jesus. Says, that's why I want to use it. Because God says, if I use your strength, when I bring it to pass, you will say, we did it.

But if I use your weakness, you'll say, if it had not been for the Lord, who was on my side, I don't know where I'd be today. Has he ever used your weakness before? Has he ever used the area in your life where you didn't have strength? He says, Moses, I want to use the weakest thing you got. Paul would later tell us it's in your weakness. My strength is made perfect. So come on, Moses. I want to use your weakness.

And here's the thing. Moses has some slow speech. I'm not good at that. He was telling the truth. It was a fact. It's a fact. He wasn't good at it. A lot of times we think that in religious circles or in church, we got to put the facts to the side and just hope that God's going to do something beyond the – no, no, no, no, no.

Don't take the facts and put them to the side. Put the facts right there in the center of the table. No, I'm not good at it. Yes, I struggle with this. Take the facts of your situation. Some of you say, Pastor, take you don't understand all the facts. There's a lot of nuance. It's complicated.

Take all the complexities of it. I'm not here to wave some spiritual magical dust over you. No, let's take the conversation, let's take the complications, let's take the situation, and line by line, let's look at how hard it is. Because everywhere you put a fact, God says, yeah, you put a fact, but I'm going to put a truth where that fact is. Bishop Kenneth Omer will tell me you've got to learn the difference between the facts and the truth. The fact is, yes, you're overwhelmed, you feel like throwing in the towel, you feel like you're going to give up. But the truth is they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up on wings as eagles. They shall run and not get weary. They shall walk and not faint. You got to know the difference between the facts and the truth. The fact is I feel like the enemy got a target on my back and it keeps coming after me. Yeah, that may be the fact. But the truth is no weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper. The fact is I feel like I got haters and people coming after me.

I got one person criticized me, this person critic, and I got the world coming to get. That may be the fact, but the truth is, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. You got to know the difference between the fact and the truth. The fact is, I cried myself to sleep last night, but the truth is, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. You got to know the difference between the facts and the truth. fact is I'm tired. I don't know if I can praise God. I don't know if I can lift my hands. I don't know if I can give him glory. But the truth is, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praises shall continually be in my mouth. Saturated, the truth is God is well able to do what

he said he would do. He's not through with you yet. He's not done with you yet. If you're in this room, And you say, Albert, you don't know me, but it's been hard. And my facts kept me discouraged. Some of you came with a marriage that needs to be saturated. Some of you, your kids, need to be saturated. Some of you, you're single, you're out there trying to live for God, but you're desperate and empty. You need to be saturated.

I want to talk to those who came. carrying something heavy, so heavy, and you feel God beckoning you. It's like, God, I got something so heavy. I'm carrying something so heavy. I'm so discouraged. I barely came to church tonight. All I hear the lies of the enemy. All I hear is my stutter.

All I hear is my weakness. If you're here tonight, and that's you. I want to pray with you. I want to pray for you. All around the room, would you just close your eyes and buy your heads? If that's you, you say, Albert, I came with something heavy. If that's you, would you just stand right where you are? Just stand right where you are.

Let's stand up right where you are. It may be different. Just stand right where you are. I'm carrying something heavy. I'm carrying something heavy. I'm carrying something heavy. If you're here today and you say, Albert, I got my shoes on. And what I mean by that is I hadn't felt God in a long time.

The passion has been gone a long time. I've allowed something to get in the way of God in my toes. I don't feel him like I used to. I'm not walking with the same passion that I used to walk with. I'm not walking with the same desperation. If you need to take your shoes off tonight, because you need to be reminded of how the ground, you stand on is holy.

If you've forgotten that God is sovereign and you're not, if you need to be reminded of the bigness of God because you've been so consumed with the bigness of your problem. If the addiction is consumed you, consumed you. If that's you and you're in this room

and say, Albert, I need to take my shoes off. If that's you, just stand up right where you are. Just stand up right where you are. I need to take my shoes off. Renew the passion, God. Renew the passion. renew the passion to take my shoes off. If you're in this room and you say, God, Albert, to be honest, I've been waiting on God to move.

I've been sitting on the sideline and I've been waiting and I've been waiting. And tonight, I need to take a step of faith. I need to move. I need to walk in obedience. I need to walk in his word. I need to walk in faith. I need to trust him again. I've been saying I've been waiting on God,

but if I'm honest, it's been an excuse for me not to trust. trust. It's been an excuse for me to sit in comfort and not walk in kingdom. If that's you, if you've been sitting on the sideline, but God is saying, get in the game. Believe again, trust again. Take a step of faith in my word. If that's you, you've been waiting on God to move, but tonight you hear him saying so clearly, move. You make the first move. After Moses moved, God spoke, your one move away from here and from God. If that's you, jump on your feet. Stand on your feet right where you are.

God, I'm going to move tonight. I'm going to take a step of faith. I'm going to trust you, God. I'm going to trust you all over the room. Those that are standing, would you just lift your hands? Just lift your hands towards heaven. It's just an external sign of what is an internal reality. God, I give up.

God, I surrender. It's a universal sign all across the world. world, it means I surrender. It means I ain't hiding nothing. I ain't holding nothing back. Look at my hands. They're wide open. That means I'm letting go what I'm holding and I'm ready to receive what you're giving. With hands lifted up, let's pray. Father in the name of Jesus, God, would you remind us tonight that we're standing on holy ground? You remind us we're not standing on our financial resources. We're not standing on our intelligence.

We're not standing on our ability to fix things. We're not standing on anything else but the sovereignty and the power of an almighty God. So we take our shoes off. We stand in your presence and we say, God, we make the first move. We trust you again. Taking our shoes off requires a vote. vulnerability. It requires the ability for us to say yes again.

So we say yes again. We trust you again. Getting off the sideline of bitterness and taking this step. And Father, would you move? Would you speak through your word? Would you speak through our worship? Would you speak through community? Would you speak, oh Lord?

And Father, in this moment, the enemy might try to remind us of all the reasons why it ain't going to work, of all the reasons why we should stay discouraged, of all the reasons why we shouldn't take a step off the sideline. But, Father, in the midst of the facts, we believe the truth. Our God is with us. Our God is for us.

Our God is good. So we trust you, God. We trust you, God. And we will walk. Not in the facts, but we will walk in the faith of the truth of your word for his glory. Everybody said, amen? If you believe that, would you just put those hands together and bless God like he's, oh, come on, bless him. Let's thank him like it's already done.

Come on, saturated. Let's thank him like it's already done. Let's thank him like he's already speaking. He's already moving. He's already healing. He's already saturated. us with His glory in Jesus' name.