Help I’m Hidden // Why Are You Hiding? // Help, I’m Hurting // Charles Metcalf

transformation church hello hello hello good morning good morning good morning welcome to church today welcome to church today man we are so glad that you're here we're so honored that you're here and today is gonna be a good day is anybody happy that god woke you up this morning that you got breath in your lungs that he's still good hey listen we're so grateful that you're here today and uh i am honored to be bringing the word of god with you and to you and it's such a blessing anytime we get to worship god together and you need to know no matter where you are no matter what you're going through no matter your your positioning toward god there's something special that you need to know and uh you know over this past weekend i was having some conversations and i was talking to someone and they were talking like you know you know i don't know how much i believe in god like i don't know you know it seems like a lot to believe it seems kind of far-fetched the stories are kind of wild the church seems kind of messed up there's just there's just a lot of hurdles um for me to believe in god and and really in that moment i i had to stop myself because me trying to address your hurdles really isn't going to change anything but what i said is the amazing thing about our god is that you don't have to believe in him for him to believe in you you see he he has always existed he's always been he stands outside of time he stands outside of your situation and the beauty is is because he's not in it he has a different perspective and today no matter where you are no matter if you've been following god your whole life maybe you did something last night and you're feeling the shame and the weight of that what you need to know is there is a god who is madly in love with you like the story of this bible the story of christianity it is not about a list of good things to do it's not about about being a good person it's not about singing songs it's not about buildings this book right here is a story of a god who was madly in love with hurting and broken people the story of this book cover to cover is that there are people who are not perfect there are people who made mistakes there were people who didn't really care about god but just in case they would ever look in his direction he made the ultimate sacrifice and uh today as we move forward in this series i'm believing that no matter where you're from no matter what you're experiencing that you would experience god's love like never before and uh again we're so grateful that you're here um we're in the week two of this series and uh yo last week week one with pastor bree wasn't last week incredible yo it was so good it was so powerful and you know this series um this series is for people who want to be anchored our word this year everybody say it on the count of three one two three that's right we are getting anchored this year and i just want to remind somebody who maybe feels like in some areas of your life that you're drifting that maybe feels the undercurrent of culture the undercurrent of what people are saying i want to remind you that god is our anchor that we don't have to get off vision we don't have to get off mission but this year we are anchored in him and this series as we're going into this the important thing you need to know is this series is for people who bout that life i got i got to say it just like that i got the braids you know so i'm just gonna be talking all types of crazy today um you this is not for people who just want to sit on the sideline and stay comfortable this is not for people who want to protect your perception and just make everybody think you're okay but people who want real healing this series is for people who are done playing games who are done acting like you got it all together who are done acting like your instagram is perfect this is for people who want god to meet them right where they are this series is for people who want healing and uh i just want to to say today that i believe you will really lean in you will really give yourself to this if you will really be open about this you can experience healing power that not only will change your life but will change the lives of generations to come so can i get one big amen if you're ready for this thing all right all right listen um i'm gonna hit you with a point right off the top like no intro just a straight point here we go you can't be healed without being hot you can't be healed without being hot humble open and transparent if you want to experience the healing power of god if you want to see your life transformed you cannot cover up the areas that you are afraid to expose to other people you cannot pretend like your life is perfect and i know that being in church this message with some of y'all because you were raised to think that if you weren't hurting you were more holy than other people you were raised to think that if i acted like everything was okay if i acted like i was healed and delivered all the time and my marriage was perfect and my kids always obeyed and i had tons of money if i acted that way then i was more holy but when you look at scripture how does jesus set an example he experiences pain he experiences loss he literally is about to raise lazarus from the dead but pauses and the shortest scripture in the bible john 11 35 says jesus wept so if not experiencing pain was a sign of your holiness jesus blows that myth up all together he says you can be human and experience hurt and you can still be okay last week pastor bree set a beautiful beautiful foundation and one of the things she said at the very top was everybody's hurting and that's okay everyone's hurting and that's o-k it's okay to not be okay i know your life has told you and your friends have told you and your family has told you maybe you've had a pastor who told you you need to be okay and just hurry up and get through this and just tough it out and just you know just keep going but no sometimes you need to slow down and say hey i'm i'm i am hurting here i i have some things that that are that are not sitting well with me i have some tensions that are from my childhood i have some things that i need to address you know something i've realized um is this journey of experiencing true healing this journey of really um experiencing god's freedom it always starts with self-awareness it always starts with a moment of realizing that i have to be aware of me that i have to you know and many times we lean on our friends and people around us they're like well why my mentor didn't call me and they should have called me they should have known i was hurting if you didn't know you was hurting how was they supposed to know you was hurting your sp oh we we put all the onus on these other people but really it starts with ourself for our self or well self awareness and the thing that i i want to say today and something that i've realized in my own life is this this is my next point write this down self awareness feels weaker but is the stronger reality so you're it feels weaker but here's the thing ignorance feels stronger but it's the weaker reality here's the thing we have a lot of people in culture today that want to feel strong on the outside they want to be perceived as put together and perfect and and the thing is that feels better to your flesh to be ignorant of your weakness it feels better to say i don't have anywhere i'm bleeding i don't have anywhere that i'm vulnerable i don't have anything that could take me out i don't have any sins that i struggle with that feels better because you feel confident in yourself but the truth is if you want to experience true healing there are some areas of you that you're going to have to expose and realize i'm not okay here and here's the thing about your self-awareness it'll feel weaker for a moment it'll feel like man i i don't if i tell this person that in that environment i can't be trusted then i'm not as strong as i thought i was then i'm not the person that i built myself up to be if i admit to my kids that dad's got a drinking problem then who will i be if i admit to my friend's circle that i'm actually insecure and that's why i buy all this stuff if i admit to them how will that feel and many of us would rather stay comfortable than experience the true healing of god you would rather protect your perception you'd rather protect how how how you are perceived by other people you would rather protect that feeling that i have it all together and my life is good but today i i i i would beg you and just ask to just be honest just you can you can you can you can wave the flag you can say hey i'm i'm i'm not doing good and here's the beautiful thing everybody regardless of if they admit it or not feel the exact same way let me let you in on a secret of church of pastors of anybody that you think their life is perfect spoiler alert it's not right and i know culture paints this picture that everything's good and it's perfect but today we're going to get real healing today we want to see god do something real in our life and i want to go to a portion of scripture um and we're going to be in exodus chapter 2 exodus chapter 2. we're going to look at the story of moses and um moses is entering interesting and we're going to kind of follow through and if you have your bibles you can turn there if not it's okay but i want to read this portion of scripture to you and we're going to jump in this is what the amazing word of god says starting um in verse 2 it says about this time a man and a woman from a tribe of levi got married the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son she saw that he was a special baby she kept him hidden for three months but when she can hide him no longer she got a basket made of papyrus reeds and waterproofed it with tar and pitch she put the baby in the basket and laid it among the reeds along the nile river the baby sister then stood at a distance watching to see what would happen soon pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river and the attendants walked along the riverbank and when the princess saw the basket among the reeds she said to her maids go get she asked her to go get it for her when she saw the princess opened it she said this the little boy was crying she felt sorry for it she said this must be one of the hebrew children the baby sister approached the princess and she she said should i go find a hebrew woman to take care of this for you and long story short what happens is the princess finds moses and his sister was watching is like hey if you need somebody to take care i happen to know somebody i got a plug with a babysitter and she takes moses back to his mother and his mother has the opportunity to raise him and then she brings him back to pharaoh's daughter this is what it says in verse 11. it says many years later when moses had grown up he went out to visit his own people the hebrews and he saw how hard they were being forced to work after looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching moses killed an egyptian watch out moses out here killing the saints the next day when moses went out to visit his people he saw two hebrew men fighting why are you beating up your friend moses he's like yo listen i just like we're supposed to be on the same team why are you doing this the man replied who appointed you to be our prince and judge you're going to kill us like you did that egyptian and he's like oh shoot he said then moses was afraid thinking everyone knows what i did and sure enough pharaoh heard what happened he tried to kill moses but moses fled from pharaoh and went to live in the land of midian i want to take a moment and pray as we get into uh this sermon today wherever you are would you pray with me holy spirit pray that you would have your way pray that you would speak to your children but i pray that you would use your word to illuminate the hearts of people or god that are really hurting but i pray that you would um bring life energy and fresh wind to this message just the beautiful name of jesus we pray and everybody say it amen amen um so i've been married to my amazing wife abby for five years now we have woo five uh but um we've been married for five years and it's awesome i love being married to abby the the thing um it's like literally to where she's pregnant right now with her third baby which is amazing and every pregnancy she's like leveled up i promise you like when your wife gets pregnant it's just a different type of like oh lord jesus my god like you're just like i'm telling you like it's just it's amazing and um the beautiful thing about abby and this is not even a part of anything but i'm just saying this because it's a random tip for somebody you see sometimes when i was like in middle school there were girls that i thought were pretty and they were pretty in middle school but what i realized when i got older is i saw them and if you're watching it's okay i love you but um they peaked in like sixth grade like i said like it's like you were the baddest you've ever been around like sixth grade and now it's not like abby is like a fine wine she just keep getting better every pres it's just like whoa mama um anyways a little distracting moment there for me but um being married to abby i've had to learn um different things about her and you know it was a transition from being single to being married because when you're single if you want to do something you just do it like you just like you don't really have to consult with nobody if you want to go somewhere you just kind of like all right bet everybody ready oh shoot it's just me let's go i'm just going to go and i get to go for as long as i want to go i don't have to check in with nobody don't tell nobody nothing i'm just because nobody's asking honestly it could be a little lonely but anyways um some of y'all checked in with nobody for years uh oof i'm sorry i'm sorry listen i could literally say anything today i need everyone to know that um so one day um i go out and i'm riding my bike and um i'm gone for hours just hours like abby knew where i was going she's i was like hey i'm gonna go ride she's like yeah cool whatever and so i'm gone and i don't have my phone i laid my phone down and so i'm gone i'm like having the time of my life this is like amazing blah blah blah and so i get back to the house and abby is mad she's like silent mad now husbands you know this mad where it's like hey babe what's up she like hey and she just i was like oh hey what's this we're good she was like where were you i was like well i was riding my butt you knew where i told you where i was she was like why didn't you answer the phone i was like well because i was riding my bike how can i ask my phone ride my bike if you think about that that doesn't make any sense i would be that would be dangerous for me to be in so i'm going into that she was like look what i i thought something had happened to you i looked at your gps and it said you was in the river and then it said you was over here and i didn't know what had happened i thought something happened to you you have to let me know what's going on and i'm looking at how i'm like why what did you i was just riding a bike homie like chill like but she said she said i thought you were hurt she said i thought something had happened to you and the worst part about it about it was nobody was around where you were and i realized the intensity behind her conversation was not only that i could have gotten hurt but that i would have been hurt by myself i fear it wasn't just that i would have fallen and gotten hurt it was that i would have been in a place where nobody would have seen me i would have been a place where where there wasn't anyone there and i've realized in my life the greatest pain we may experience is not just being hurt but being hurt and there's no one around to see it there's no one there to acknowledge the hurt there's no one there to to talk to about it there's the greatest pain for some of you is not even the pain it's the fact that there's no one to talk to about the pain today the title of my message if you're taking notes is help i'm hidden help i'm hidden yeah i wanna i wanna talk to some hidden people today like do you feel like no nobody can see me i know they i know they see me but they don't see me like they don't see that behind all this makeup is someone who's really broken behind all of this money behind this this this this character behind behind everything there is someone back here that is hurting and the greatest pain is not only experiencing pain but the pain of having no one to acknowledge the fact that you're hurting there are a lot of people in our culture and society that not only are hurting but you're hurting and you're hidden you're hurting and it feels like nobody even knows they don't even really know me like they say they're praying for me but they don't even know what to pray about they say yeah you're so funny or they you're so this and they give all these compliments but they don't see the real me if they knew what was really going on if they knew the thoughts i really had if they knew the tension that was really going on behind closed doors many people are saying help because i feel hidden i feel like nobody sees me i feel like i feel like i'm in a dark place i feel like i don't have control i feel like this thing happened to me this hurt happened as a child and and ever since then i've been hidden i've nobody's seen so many of you you have you have gifts and ideas and talents and you feel like nobody sees what i really do there are mothers who feel like my my own spouse doesn't even see what i'm really doing there are people at jobs that you feel like i've got great ideas and i've tried to give the ideas and nobody will see my idea there are people that you've got an anointing on your life you've got opportunity to have influence on your life and you say like i've been through this cycle over and over and nobody realizes and my own parents don't understand my own spouse doesn't understand nobody at my job gets it i am hidden and i want to talk about being hidden today and you know moses found himself at multiple points in his life where he was hidden but his life actually started out with hiding you see context for the scripture today is um you know we we talked about it a while back but joseph actually was in egypt and there was a time where where the israelites being in egypt was actually an amazing thing they were they were taken care of and it was incredible and then it reaches a point in scripture where it says the new king knew not of joseph and so he sees that there's this group of people who are growing so fast and he's thinking if we don't get them under control they're going to overthrow us so what he did is he put them in slavery and so the israelites are growing and they're still flourishing even though they're in slavery and he says you know what we got to do something i need everyone if you if there's a hebrew boy born i need you to kill it the girls can grow but but but we cannot allow them to keep growing moses mother realizes this and she takes a moment where she says i have to do something i have to i have to do something and so we see in scripture in exodus 2 that she forms a basket and she she puts tar on the inside of it and she places her child moses in there and and she floats him down the nile river now if you're like me um you grew up in church and so in your head exodus 2 is the prince of egypt you know i'm saying like it's it's it's you see the scene and it's all cool and it's like oh yeah he's about to go down the river a little bit and then but the pharaoh's daughter gets him out but i want to step into the story for just a moment let's talk about pain for just a second let's talk about the hurt that moses's mother has to be feeling i mean we read past scriptures like this all the time but what point do you have to be at and and what are you experiencing as a mother where you think the only viable option is for me to put my three-month-old baby in a basket and float them down this river any mother knows that at that time of your pregnancy you're feeling all types of emotions you're feeling all types of hormones and you're starting to think what could happen let's go down the road with moses his mother she reaches a point where she thinks someone is trying to kill my baby and the only thing i can do is put him in this basket and pray nothing happens what imagine the anxiety she is filled what if the basket flips over what if he floats and i thought it was waterproof but it's not what if what and her only hope not knowing what would happen to her child is to release the most precious thing to her and to pray that his life is protected let's step into the pain of his sister his sister is sitting there watching it says she hides among the reeds to see what will happen this is my little brother i hope that he's okay i hope this is this is real hurts and pain people are experiencing but for a second i want to talk about the person who was hidden we don't talk about moses because he's a baby at this point but the principle of being hidden is still true he's not in control he can't see anything and the worst part is he doesn't even know why he has been hidden moses didn't know why he was hiding he wasn't the self he wasn't the person who put himself in hiding he has no idea he's three months old and he is put in a dark space and floated in a place where he has no control and the worst part is he has no idea even why he's been put in that situation sounds like a lot of us in our hiding spots not even knowing god why did why am i even in this place why don't people see who i really am why am i even in this marriage why it feels like everything's out of control it feels like i can't see where i'm going it feels like i don't know what i'm going to do and matter of fact god why would you put me here why would i be in this space and the thing i realized is it took someone who was outside of the situation who had an understanding of what was really going on and said this will be uncomfortable for you and it might be a little uncomfortable for me but the best thing and the safest place for you to be right now is for you to be hidden you see there are things going on moses that you don't understand like this is the conversation if the mom could have one last conversation with her son she's like baby i know you're crying and i know this is weird because you love me so much and i think mom why would you do this to me mom why would you just let me go why would you just let my dreams go away but she's saying baby there's some things you don't understand and there's some people coming and there's some things that are outside of your control right now and i promise you if you would just trust me this is the safest place for you to be right now and moses is going with no control not knowing why he has been hidden and there are many of you that are watching this and you're thinking charles i have no idea why i've been hidden i just wish god would tell me i just wish at least if he would tell me why i was being hidden if lisa would show me that no there's this great story and it's all gonna work out but the thing about being hidden is it's dark for a long time sometimes sometimes you don't get to know sometimes god doesn't tell you why you're hidden sometimes god doesn't tell you why they're not accepting your ideas sometimes god doesn't tell you why i don't see who you really are but here is the beautiful thing i love about scripture look at what it says in exodus 2. the woman became pregnant gave birth to her son she saw that he was a special baby she saw that he was a special baby and here's the thing that i realized moses was hidden because of his favor you see the concept of hiding things makes so much sense when you exclude it from people and individuals when we experience hiding we start questioning god we start asking god where are you but the thing is you only hide things of high value if you go to a hotel you don't put your busted shoes in the safe you don't put anything that's not of value in the safe you only hide things that have value you only hide things that think this is so important that i have to put it in a space to where it cannot be touched you see you only hide things because there's something special about them and many of us what happens is in your hiding season you think you were hidden because you didn't have value you think nobody can see you because you don't have value because you're not important and if you are important everybody would see you if you were special everybody would know about you if you had good ideas everybody would know your ideas but matter of fact that is not true because when we hide anything it's only because it is so valuable that if anyone got to it too early it could it can make a mistake but that doesn't take away the fact that for moses it says when pharaoh's daughter opened up the basket he was crying here's one of my points being hidden hurts we can't we can't skip past this it hurts sometimes like it's just it's not comfortable if it was comfortable then everybody would be okay with it if it was comfortable we'd all be good with nobody knowing what's really on the inside of us but the reality is being hidden hurts sometimes because you feel like i'm out of control i don't know what to do but i want to encourage you you were not hidden because you didn't have value you were not hidden because you're not important you were hidden in fact because you are so valuable to god you were hidden because you were so special it says before you were in your mother's womb he formed you that you were hidden because of your favor we progress in moses's life and there's another factor that comes into play here and it's something as i read through the story that i realized about being hidden i realized that no matter who you are being hidden has hurdles there are things in being hidden that um it kind of starts to mess with you you see moses is in a place where he's kind of stuck in the middle you see moses he was born a hebrew which means in fact in his space he was born as a slave but he was raised as a prince he was born as a person with no privilege but he lived a life full of privilege he was born from something that other people would have looked down on but he lived a life that other people would have looked up to you see he was stuck right in between and i want to come to validate some people who feel like i'm hidden right now and i feel like i'm stuck in between two things i feel like i'm stuck between what my family has always done and what god is calling me to do but i don't know if i have what it takes to do both i don't know if i have what it takes to break the generational curses i don't know who i am right now and when i'm in a dark space you're only left with your own thoughts with your own questions and in the dark and when you're in hiding sometimes you start to ask who who am i i mean i've been hitting for so long that i don't even know who i am anymore i've been in the dark so long that i don't even remember what what worshipping god sounds like i don't even remember what a healthy marriage would sound like i'm dealing and moses is in a space where it says when he got older he was in the tension of his identity you see he was in pharaoh's house but he saw his people and he walks out one day and i believe because he's in the tension he's in one of the hurdles of being hidden he's still trying to figure out the the duality of who he is and how he's been raised and he and he knows something's not right and there's something inside of him that says you got to do something about this but he doesn't know what to do and so he looks around and he says it looks around to make sure no one's looking and the only thing he could figure out to do is i just got to kill this egyptian and sometimes when you're hidden and you've been hidden for a long time you you start to do things out of character you start to think i've just i've been closed off for so long i've been trying to figure out that i got to do something i can't not do anything i can't i can't not do i i have to do something and there are many of you that are in a season where you've been hidden and you feel like at this point i just i got to do something and you're about to make a decision that's against your character you're about to do something that you think you know i just i know there's something and i don't have clarity on what it is yet but i've i've sat still for too long i've been people haven't known who i am for too long and so i'm about to show them who i am i'm about to show them not to mess with me i'm about to show them that i do have an anointing on my life i'm about to show them that god did call me i'm about to show them that i'll be a better parent than they ever were i'm about to show them that you can leave me and i'll still flourish i'm about to show them who i am what happens is is because that pain has been covered up for so long you're starting to do things and some of them here's the craziest thing some of them aren't bad things some of them are good things but the root of them the root of them is out of a place of hurt the desire to stop his people do you know this is the thing he was actually created to do he was created to liberate his people he he's what he was always supposed to do was to but there was something on the inside of him that wasn't mature enough yet that needed some more time in a dark space that needed some more time to because he didn't know how to handle the mandate he had what i want to come to encourage you with is there are some times that if you try to come out of hiding too early you'll do things that you regret when you try to when you try to think i can't do this anymore i gotta get out of here i gotta i gotta move to that city i gotta do something different i i just i gotta get out because i'm tired of being hidden i'm tired of people not knowing who i am i am tired of doing this and i would just ask please to wait a moment and when you start to feel that pressure of let me look around and make sure no one's looking i've been hitting for so long but let me not talk to my friends about that a fact i'm about to move let me i don't want to talk to them because if i start talking to him they might tell me that well maybe you shouldn't he says he looked he put himself in an isolated place he was hidden for so long and then he wants to come out and he wants to start doing something he says i want to make sure no one's around me because i've i'm so hurt and i'm so confused and i'm so broken that i want to make sure that i'm isolated and i'm going to make a decision and i would just say please when you're hurting and you're hidden do not isolate yourself don't make decisions by yourself don't put yourself in a place where you're just going to do something because you're tired of being hidden and here's the crazy thing i saw in the scriptures it says moses he he makes this decision and it says like this it says the next day when he went out he said why are you beating up your friends so moses he does this and then he goes out to his egyptians and says the man says who appointed you to be prince and judge are you going to kill us like you did the egyptian and look what the scripture says it says then moses was afraid it says moses was afraid and he he took off he runs to a place called midian and i realized that um earlier in moses's life he was hidden because of his favor but at this point in his life he goes into hiding out of fear and i want to come today to delineate two things being hidden is not the same thing as being in hiding being hidden by god is not the same thing as being afraid and going into hiding you see some of us are sitting in seasons and we're sitting at places in our life and we're trying to blame god because we feel hidden but the truth is if you were hidden it would be out of favor but the truth is you have done some things you have experienced some things that have made you afraid and now you're in hiding moses earlier it was the favor that made him hidden but at this point in his life it was the fear that forced him to hide it was the fear that some they they know what i'm doing they know they've seen something and so this fear pushes me to hide it pushes me to go to a place this is the human condition when we feel fear when we feel afraid we think i have to cover myself this is back to the garden they made a mistake and they think i gotta hide i i'm naked i'm exposed i can't let people see what's going on and so out of fear we go into hiding some of us you're not hidden you're hiding you're not you're not hidden you're hiding you're hiding from certain friendships you're hiding in that marriage you're hiding behind the money you're hiding behind because there's something in you that is afraid that if they saw what you did if they saw who you were what would they do what would they say and this is the crazy part about scripture he runs to a place called midian midian means covering midian means covering he's so messed up he's so frustrated he makes this decision he kills somebody and he's so ashamed it says he was afraid and he runs for cover he right he just and here's what happens many of us when we're hurting when we've done something when we feel like we've been hidden many times all we're doing is looking for covering moses was just looking for covering he was just he was just he's and this is the space that many of you are you're not hidden you're hiding and it's because you were afraid and so you thought i just gotta find something to cover me up i gotta find something to cover up the shame of the people i've slept with i've got to find something to cover up the pain of not saying goodbye to that loved one i've got to find something just to cover just to cover me up and so i'm not hidden by god but i'm hiding myself i'm hiding myself behind these kids i'm hiding myself behind this amount of money i'm hiding myself behind these titles and and really it's just because i want to be covered you know this um we're in an interesting season you know over the last year there were a lot of crazy things that happened and uh these i never really saw one of these or messed with these before 2020 um you know depending on where you live you know things are kind of opening back up and not opening back up and there's kind of mandates going out and it's so interesting um there were so many people that got so frustrated with the mask mandate like it was like hey you have to wear the mask and i'm not about to go preaching on masks but i just thought it was funny um that we got frustrated with the mask mandate because there's always been a masked mandate no no no we haven't had to wear these our whole life but your family taught you how to wear a mask oh your school taught you how to wear a mask like there's there's always been a mask mandate you just couldn't see it and so it was so interesting that we were like well i gotta wear this mask acting like that every day when you wake up you don't wake up and go okay let's get ready for the day today uh i'll just uh okay oh shoot oh what oh my spouse is here okay hold on hey sweetie yeah everything's good no i'm not i wasn't looking at porn no i'm good no it's okay no i'm no okay good okay whoo thank goodness all right oh wait oops it's christmas oh hey how you doing on susie yeah we're good no uncle didn't do anything to me no i can go over his house we don't have to act like no it's okay we're good okay gosh i just i'm so glad and you get back in the car you take your mask off and you're thinking man that was really uncomfortable i haven't talked to them since um oh wait somebody's calling me hey yeah no yeah hey how's it going no yeah christmas is doing great how are me and the wife oh we're good yeah we're going on vacation together um we're going on vacation because we're just you know celebrating 10 years of marriage it's really good it's really exciting oh gosh man i hope they don't know that uh we're actually going on two different trips and she's going with her friends and i'm going with mine but we don't let anybody know that we're actually getting separated and so um we'll just oh wait oh hold on hold on hold on oh sorry okay okay yeah no no yeah no we're good no i'm good no instagram yeah the influence is great i love i love being known by everybody and uh it's really it's really great it's everything i'm living the dream i'm really living the dream it's everything that man um i hate my life there's always been a mask man dave we've always had to had to act like things were okay we've always had to pretend we get frustrated that uh we're hidden but the truth is your world has taught you how to hide some of you are hiding right now next to your best friend some of you are in marriages that have been hidden for years your spouse doesn't know who you are your your friends don't know who you are you've you've been hiding yourself for years and the truth is it's because of one of two things these two things drove adam and eve to hide it forced moses to hide it forced david to hide it forced thousands it forced gideon to hide it for us there were two words fear and shame fear and shame it's it's really one of the two reasons you're hiding either because you're afraid or you're ashamed you're afraid that if people um if you told them how big your dreams were that they would say there's no way you'll do that they would say oh you know the family you come from what are you acting you're never going to be anybody you're afraid of what people would think or you're ashamed of what you've done so you're either afraid or ashamed and this place forces you every single day when you wake up to put on your mask to put on your mask behind your instagram some of you in your friendships there is a mask mandate that we don't talk about real stuff and we don't acknowledge that we're all living below the standard that we set so we're just going to go out and party and the mask mandate is don't talk no check on nobody don't ask anybody if they read their bible today that's just the masked man day for our family some of your mask man day is is for your family you go say hey we don't talk about real stuff but we're all just super funny so we just laugh and we make jokes and we keep everything on the surface and we're all good and i love you so much because the mask mandate is don't talk about the real stuff that happened and if we go there we we don't we just act like those things are some of the masked men day is hey listen we just got a lot of money and so we take trips together and our friends travel and our relationship is good and some of your mass mandate is your instagram it's just perfect and we just put the mask on of the filter and it's good and we're traveling and we're going to grease and it's amazing and life is perfect but it's all just a mask you're hiding you are trying to cover up but here's the crazy thing i found the problem is not the desire to be covered the problem is not the desire to hide the problem is the destination of where you go to hide i wanna i wanna i wanna help some people today because you felt exposed in your life you felt like you were taken advantage of you felt like maybe you are dealing with some fear and some shame and there's something in you that says i just need to be covered right now i just need somebody needs to protect me the only problem is the desire is not wrong but where you're going that is the thing i want to address the desire to hide is not an issue some of you like charles what are you talking about we're supposed to be getting freedom let me go to the bible look at this psalm 32 7 you are my hiding place you preserve me from trouble you surround me with song psalms 119 you are my hiding place and my shield psalm 17 keep me as the apple of your eye hide me in the shadow of your wing there's there's nothing wrong with feeling like sometimes you need to be covered some of you experienced real pain you've experienced stuff that that needs to be covered my only question is and my only charge and what i would ask you is where are you going for covering where are you going to get covered up where are you going to to to hide and numb the pain where are you going to feel like you see this is what happened in the garden it's so interesting because adam and eve walked every day with god they spent time with him they walked with him they were comfortable with him sin enters the world they immediately feel exposed they immediately realize that they're naked they've been naked this whole time but they immediately felt ashamed about being naked and so literally the scripture says this it says god is walking in the cool of the garden and he's asking adam and eve where are you i mean this is the first game of marco polo this is god like hey where are y'all at he's just chilling walking adam eve where are y'all at hello anybody there where where now the funny thing is is uh god knew where they were at he just wanted to see if they knew where they were at this goes back to self-awareness but it was interesting that shame and fear caused them to hide from the only other person they could talk to the only other person that could actually do anything the only other person they could have a real conversation with at this point it's adam eve and god there's no other people to talk to but there's only one person and shame and fear said don't even talk to them go into hiding i want to validate you your desire to hide and be covered is not the issue you need to be covered there are times where you need you need to hide as scripture says in the shadow of his wing but my questioning and many of us we are experiencing even more hurt because we're going to places that can't actually help they can't really cover us they only numb the pain many of us what happens is it creates this cycle in us where we go to sex because we feel like this makes me feel better this covers up the shame of what happened to me and so i run into this hiding place i hide in his bed i hide in her bed and i feel better for a little bit but right when i stand up again and right when i get a couple days in i start to feel it and it's oh man i got the pain is back and i gotta go back to it and this is the cycle of we're going back and forth to making more money we're going back and forth to marriage to marriage we're going back and forth to alcohol and pills we're going back and forth to to pretend here's one we go back and forth to religion we go back and forth from checking off to do list and acting like if i tell everybody i read my bible i'm healed and i'm set free and i'm delivered there are people who hide behind religion you hide behind the badge of christian and you act like your life is perfect and you act like everything's okay but god is saying if you would take the mask off if you would just say i'm not okay if you would just say that really did hurt my feelings if you would just say i really did regret that i did that if you would just say i am insecure if you would just say i really do have dad issues if you will say even though everyone else is applauding the reason i did this is because it's because i was just trying to cover something up no matter what group you're in whether you feel hidden or you're hiding what you need to know is there is a god who not only knows that you need to be covered but his greatest desire his entire being the the urge and the the depth of his soul longs to cover you that's all he wants to do that's all he wants to do and moses he he goes into hiding and he's admitting midian he's in the place of covering and one day he's going about his life he's built a life he's hopefully tried to do enough things to forget about what happened in egypt and he walks into a place where he's hiding but all of a sudden this is what i love about god all of the sudden hiding becomes holy in a dark place in a space where nobody really knows who he is in his space where nobody knows his past he walks up on this bush and he sees the bush and it's burning but it's not consumed and he's like what is going on here and immediately god says take off your shoes because you are on holy ground the beautiful thing is regardless of you feel hidden or you're in hiding god will always meet you there to make it holy if he puts you there it's holy if you put yourself there he'll show up and make it holy this is the beauty of our god if he puts you there you know it's holy if you ran away because of fear he'll make it holy and i am telling you some of you you are in a place where you're hiding and you feel like god can't see me here god no god wouldn't come to this pain god wouldn't come to this bed with me god wouldn't go to that dark place with me god isn't there when i'm looking at those things no even if you put yourself in hiding god shows up and what he says is even though everyone else sees the mask i know the real you and god comes to moses in hiding and here's what i love about the scripture and here's what got me so deeply when i was thinking about this message when i started thinking about help i'm hidden i started thinking about the times i felt hidden felt like people didn't know or people didn't understand her i was misunderstood i felt like i i didn't fit in really this was all throughout my childhood sometimes i was the black kid at the school some kids i was the white kid at the school just depend on what side of town we were on sometimes the i fit in perfectly and sometimes it and it felt like man the people don't see and then as i got older i felt like man i do feel like there's something i could do i do feel like there's there's something on my life i felt like maybe god would use me but i didn't know i felt like people can't see my gift or they don't see what i'm supposed to do or they don't understand me they don't see me and i felt like i was in a space of saying help i i feel hidden because they don't they don't know me but the thing i found in the story of moses is in this moment the reason he went into hiding and the reason many of us were saying help i'm hidden the issue is not they don't know you the real issue is you don't know you the real thing saying help i'm hidden is not your talent it's the real you somewhere deep down on the inside of you there's a version of yourself that is crying out saying help the real you is hidden somewhere on the inside of you there is a pure there is a there is a virgin there is a a little kid full of joy there is a young confident woman there is a man who knows who he is that wasn't hurt there is someone who doesn't have to prove to people who they are there is someone deep on the inside of you that is saying help i'm hidden i'm hidden behind the hurt i'm hidden behind everything that's happening and i know many of you you're in a space where you feel like they don't see you but the truth is you don't see you moses went to midian trying to cover up trying to to hide but what happens is in this holy moment what's truly happening is god is telling moses who he is he went into hiding originally because he didn't know who he was he didn't know he said i felt this thing as an egyptian and i felt like i was a israelite but i didn't know and i go and he goes into hiding in this whole conversation is unraveling all of moses's hurt the place of hiding was because god wanted to heal moses before he sent him back to do what he was always supposed to do the place of hiding was because in the moment he's there and god says you go you go do what you've always felt like you were supposed to do and i'm gonna be with you and he says but who am i and and all this is unraveling the hurt that he has experienced as a young man and through his life and what i'm telling you is god will meet you in a place whether you're hidden or you feel like you're in hiding and he shows up to make it holy and he says really the goal of being hidden or not being hidden is not for them to know you but for you to know you the goal of coming out of hiding is not so that when i come out of hiding people are gonna know who i am when god lifts the cover or when i get through what i've gone through and i come out people are gonna know who i am no god says you'll be in hiding sometimes because i have to show you who you really are i have to show you the real you some of you the reason you're hidden isn't because you don't have value it's not because god doesn't have a plan it's not because there's there's nothing he has on your life it's because it's so special it's so valuable that it just needs to be protected for some time now i realize this and this will be my last point god will use what you find in hiding to heal others god will use what you find in hiding to heal others you see hiding can feel dark it can feel like no one's there it can feel like people don't understand it can feel like a season of ambiguity it can feel like a place where it's you can't see what's going on but what happens is this moment as god is unraveling and peeling off the layers of moses's hurt and and his lack of confidence and in his stutter that he didn't want to go back for and and the reasons he couldn't go back and all the shame that was brought back up because he killed somebody and how he felt like he wasn't enough for them and the last time he tried to step up and do something people said something as all of this is being unraveled he comes to a point he's like well i just don't know what to do god says what is that in your hand what did you get when no one else was around i know you're focused on the fact that you're by yourself right now and i know being hidden has felt dark and you felt like you haven't had friends and you felt like people couldn't see your gift and you felt like there was greatness but you didn't know if you could ever reach it and you felt like there was something you're supposed to do and it's been so dark and it's been so hard but god says even while you've been hidden [Music] you've had something in your hand the whole time i want to talk to some people today that you feel like you're hidden you've been hidden for so long that you forgot what was in your hand [Music] you forgot that even though you haven't had anyone else there's been something in your hand that god wanted to use even though you don't have anything else even though you don't have the money even though you're not where you think you want to be there has been something in your hand the whole time and god is saying if you will just if you would just take off the mass if you would just admit that you're not okay that's the thing moses is saying god i can't go back to them i have a stutter i have issues some of you just need to say god i can't do what you've called me to do i'm ashamed i'm embarrassed of what i've done i feel like i'm not qualified nobody in my family's ever went to college no man my family's ever done that before i'll never get out of poverty i'll never be able to to live here and live a whole life i'll never if you will just tell god in that moment he says you know what there's actually something that you aren't paying attention to there's actually something that seemed irrelevant to you there's actually some something that was so common in this hiding season but it's the very thing that i've just been waiting for you to acknowledge and some of you you're in a place where you feel like you've been hidden you've been covered up your gifts haven't been seen your acts of service towards your spouse haven't been seen you feel like nobody knows or some of you you've been so afraid you've been so ashamed of what you've done that you felt like i don't have anything it's so dark here i can't see anything i'm so hurt and god says to you today in my presence when you when you get around me when you come to me and say god i'm not okay god i i'm insecure god i am worried the beautiful thing is he says perfect because now that you've admitted that you're not enough now that you've admitted you're weak i can be strong we say that scripture all the time his strength has been perfect in my weakness that means you gotta admit you're weak that means you have to be weak this is the the the duality and the tension of walking with god is in order to be strong i have to be weak and many people we think and we feel like that following jesus is a call to be strong how has that happened in church following jesus and being a christian means you're strong that's not true the gospel is your weak the gospel is that without him you're not enough the truth is it says in my weakness his strength is made perfect it's when you say i'm hurting i'm not okay i feel hidden i feel unseen i feel like nobody knows who i am i feel like i don't know what to do in that place god will not only heal you but he'll reveal to you that hey there's something in your hand that if you'll just actually lay it down and give it to me i'll use the very thing that you have ignored i used the very thing that felt common to you to heal so many others there are some people today that um maybe you feel hidden you feel like you're in a dark place you feel like nobody sees you some of you you are hiding from family members you are hiding from purpose some of you like adam and eve you're hiding from god which is just comical because he created everything so there's no way to hide from him but some of you are hiding from you [Music] and uh come here real quick i just i feel this so strongly i just have to say something very specific um that's not you i know it feels like it's you i know you feel like the life i've built this is who i am but that's not you and i just there's somebody watching there's someone that will watch this that you you've been hiding behind mask for so long you've been hiding you're hurt for so long so you're at a point where you feel like you've just given up and you just say this is just me this is just who i am this is just the life i live this is just how this will go but i want to say god is saying to you today that's not even you that's not you you're hiding right now i know you feel like you've even shown parts of you but that still isn't you i know you god is saying i i know you i formed you before you in your mother's room i saw you i i know you and that's not you listen you can you can trust god with the real you again i know maybe you haven't been able to trust your friends i know you've been having been able to trust your family i know some of you are in marriages where you don't feel safe where you don't feel covered but you can trust god with the real you you could take off the mask you can stop acting like your life is perfect and some of you just today you could just say god here's the real me the real me with pain the real me with scars the real me that's insecure some of you your life is perceived as so perfect and you have everyone fooled but god says that's not you today if you want healing for the real you if you want to come before god exposed a little vulnerable a little worried uncertain are you anxious are you worried about the future are you a little insecure about your calling are you a little uh on shaky ground right now the beautiful thing is god can handle it if you just come to him and say god i feel like i'm in a dark place i feel like i've been in hiding i feel like you've covered me and i've gotten frustrated that i've been covered i've gotten frustrated that people don't see me if you'll just come to god and say god i need you in the dark place god can make the very place of hiding something holy wherever you are right now would you take a moment to bow your heads and close your eyes i want to pray for you there are some of you today that you're frustrated because you felt hidden for too long you felt like you were supposed to do more by now you felt like more people were supposed to know who you were you felt like you were supposed to be further along maybe you're like me in different seasons of your life and you felt like you're not supposed to struggle with that anymore wherever you are you you just you feel hidden and there's another group of people maybe um you feel like god didn't hide you but maybe you hid you you put yourself in a place where people couldn't see who you really are you put yourself in a place and maybe it was at a rightful reason maybe you were hurt maybe you tried to show who you were and someone took advantage of that but wherever you are today what i need you to know is god is with you and you're hiding i want to take a moment and pray over you lord god i thank you lord jesus that you see us all lord you have a perfect plan for our lives our god you have a beautiful plan for our lives or god you have something so special and lord jesus there are people that feel hidden and i pray right now lord god for anyone who feels like they've been covered lord god that they can't they aren't seen by other people or jesus right now i speak against the lies that would question their value lord god things that would cause people to think that nobody sees me because i don't have value restore to them lord jesus the confidence to understand that they are beautifully and wonderfully made lord god that they are a masterpiece lord god that you have knit them together in such a unique and intricate way lord god and they have infinite value to you look up they have so much value that you said the thing that was most valuable to you to die so you could be in relationship with them lord god restore their value that i pray right now for people who feel afraid and ashamed people who are trying to cover up areas of their life look uh people who are trying to cover up insecurities and hurt and pain lord god and and and trying to present this perfect facade lord jesus i pray that you would strip all of that away right now lord jesus i pray that right now lord your restoration and your loving arms would surround them lord god right now i just thank you lord god in the spirit there are people who are literally peeling back the layers lord jesus there are people who are going to have conversations this week that are gonna take off the mask lord god there are people this week lord god that are gonna lay it down and decide i'm never putting that mask back on again look up i think that people would stop hiding behind wealth lord god they would stop hiding behind influencer god they would stop hiding behind their picture perfect life lord jesus and i thank you that as we admit that we're weak so we admit that we don't have it all together as we admit that we need you that you would show up lord jesus [Music] every head's still about every eye is still closed there's a group of you in here today and uh you're in a place that feels dark you're in a place that feels lonely you're a place that maybe you find yourself and you feel like maybe you're like jonah and you feel like you've been running from god you've been doing everything you could just to hide just to get out of the way just to like i don't want to be around i don't i don't want to i don't want to answer the call i don't want to do anything he wants me to do here's the thing you can hide for as long as you want you can run as much as you want but the moment you turn around the moment you acknowledge the moment you stop for one second god's loving arms are there ready to receive you you don't have to clean up before you come out of hiding you don't have to cause i know some of you you feel the pressure to stop doing all the stuff before you you come to god no if you just if you just come to god he'll help you with all that i promise in this moment some of you you need to surrender your life to jesus what i'm going to do is i'm going to pray a prayer bible says you believe in your heart confess with your mouth that jesus is lord you shall be saved you don't have to be a perfect person but i believe when you pray this prayer god will empower you to make progress in your life wherever you are around the world in the room and online would you say this prayer and repeat it after me say dear god thank you for loving me dear jesus thank you for laying down your life to save mine i admit i've made mistakes save me change me transform me i'm yours in jesus name i pray amen amen amen transformation church can we celebrate oh come on can we make some noise for people who just gave their life to jesus and listen if you just made that choice that is the best decision you could ever make and we're so proud of you god is so proud of you he's so happy for you we're so happy for you and we'd love to know about it if you text the number that's on the screen you can send the word saved to that short code what we're going to do we're just going to give you some resources we want to empower you we want to help you on this journey of following jesus listen the pressure is not to be perfect the pressure is not to clean your life up by yourself the pressure is to surrender that's the tension just to say god i give it to you god i can't do it by myself and i promise you as you progress in this life as you continue to surrender it to him he will transform your life forever listen transformation church uh we are so blessed and so grateful to have you apart our church is not built on one person it's not built on one ideal or god but it is genuinely built on a mass group of people who are saying yes to god every day who are representing right where they are so we're so grateful for you i want to encourage you on this time to continue to lift our pastors up in prayer as their own sabbatical our amazing pastors pastors michael and natalie todd and their beautiful baby and as they're resting and getting vision for this next year continue to pray for them but listen we love you so much we're so grateful for you go out and live a transformed life we'll see you guys

Channel: Transformation Church

Views: 106,057

Rating: 4.9336472 out of 5

Keywords: Transformation Church, Represent, Michael Todd, Mike Todd, Transformation Church live, Transformation Church Worship, Charles Metcalf, Sunday Service, Holy Spirit, Faith, God, Jesus Christ, transformchurchtv, representtv

Id: DxOCmFUkKcc

Length: 66min 37sec (3997 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021