Michael B. Kelly - Greatness Awaits

I just want to say something very quickly ministry is hard but Adventist ministry is harder because there's a box they try and put you in that they honestly sometimes we tried to put Jesus in and I want to thank you all for for not putting him in a box and letting him do what the word says and that's just lead people into the Word of God cuz y'all there there's there's there's a tremendous vision in this man and I've had just a few times I've had a chance to talk with him and one of the reasons I was just honored to be invited to come here to share with you all as this is a very unique and special place and and having two churches ain't no two can you imagine having two wives that's kind of what it's like with two churches you know then one doesn't think so so y'all just continue to lift him up and not just in prayer but with your hands prayer is cool but action is even better come on say Amen but no but I'm just excited again to be here because I think God has been doing and is gonna continue to do some incredible things through this congregation and and I just want to pour into you a little bit from that so if we're challenged from the Word of God today I hope that's gonna be alright but if you are armed and dangerous how many of you guys are armed and dangerous today whether you have it on your your Bible in this way whether it's on your smart device or you have the whole thing memorized but if you do have it can you just wave it back and forth however you have it and I can tell the difference between a Bible and a hymnal alright turn with me to Exodus chapter 3 and I want to read 9 verses from there if that's alright I believe today we're gonna be hooking up again at about 4 o'clock I think that this one is and we'll be able to pour a little bit more into you as well but here's what the Bible says in Exodus chapter 3 I want to read 9 verses in your hearing starting at verse 1 now Moses was pastoring the flock of Jethro his father-in-law the priests of Midian and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb the mountain of God and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush and he and the whole the bush was burning with fire yet the bush was not consumed so Moses said I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight why the bush is not burned up and when the Lord saw that he had turned to look God called to him from the midst of the bush and said Moses Moses and he said Here I am then he said do not come near here remove your sandals from your feet for the place on which you are standing is what kind of ground everybody holy ground and he said also I am the God of your father the God of Abraham the god of Isaac and the God of Jacob then Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God the Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters for I am aware of their sufferings so I've come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land to a land flowing with milk and honey to the place of the Canaanite and the hid I and the amorite and the Perez I and the hivite and the jebusite now behold the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me furthermore and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressed oppressing them but I just want to read two more verses therefore come now and I will send you said who everybody you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt with your prayers and God's help I want to preach under the subject greatness awaits greatness awaits let's pray father not another second or an hour nor another day but at this moment with my arms outstretched Lord I need you to make a way as you have done so many times before and God you've done it through a window or an open door so father Here I am I stretch my hands to thee and I pray that you would come rescue me because I need you right away now spirit of the Living God fall afresh on us is our prayer of Jesus name to all of God's children say amen and amen I have two teenage daughters y'all just pray for me right with that sentence 15 and 13 but one of the things that I used to do when they were coming up is I I'm one of those dads that enjoy scaring his children so when my children were little I find out all the different kinds of things that would scare them and and I would do it and so my youngest Genesis some people say why is your youngest Genesis I said because she's the beginning of the end two is enough three was enough for me but but as my youngest Genesis I found that she was not too found found of the vacuum cleaner and so she would be sitting down watching her little program at three years old and I would sneak up behind her and turn the vacuum cleaner on and chase her around with it and she would run one time so fast and she fell right out of her diaper I know it was cruel but it was hilarious they would come home from school and I would hide underneath the bed or inside of a closet just jump out and just scare them and set up cameras around so I could get the reactions and and do those things I just love to scare my children that thing backfired a little bit on me though because we I remember one of the first times I wanted them to go to Disneyland that time where they were of the right height where they could go on all of the rides and there was this one particular ride in California adventure and this was the biggest roller coaster that they had Disneyland doesn't have a lot of coasters but this one was their biggest one it had a loop and so I said girls were gonna go on this and they said daddy no we're not I said why they said we scared so I created these monsters now they're just scared of arrogance the girls no no please I want y'all going it's gonna be fun it's gonna be amazing it's gonna be awesome let's go on this ride let's say Daddy we're not gonna go do you see this ride it does all kinds of stuff and we are afraid I said girls can we please go on and so you know when they're not listening to you the thing you gotta do is you gotta your kids and so I said I said I'll buy you whatever you want and said whatever we want so yeah anything you want to get in the park now they didn't recognize I was a seventh-day Adventist pastor so that was limited when with with the amount that I had in my account but but they didn't know that at the time and so they get on on the ride we wait in line and and we get on the ride and we get to this point in the ride it hasn't gone just yet but your to that point where you cannot get off like even if they wanted to there's nothing that we could really do to get off and I start to look I'm sitting in the back my two daughters are sitting in front so they could be together so one of them could arrive by themselves and I'm seeing the look of terror on their face at that moment I felt like the worst father on the planet because I had now placed them in a position where they were going to experience more fear than they ever had in their life the ride does a countdown five four three two one and we take off and there was a cry like the Bible describes of weeping and gnashing of teeth they were screaming as if they had missed out on the second coming of Jesus Christ I almost my whole God please you don't help them to forgive me by the time I mean we're going down in there and they're screaming but then by the time we get to about midway in the ride their scream started to change from streams of fear to screams of enjoyment now the terror attorneys into a smile and they're laughing and by the time we get off on this ride they run up to me and they say daddy can we go again and so my mind is blown I'm like man I thought y'all were we're afraid but but but they ended up getting on this ride and something I need y'all to follow me because we're going somewhere with this something that they thought was was going to cause them all kinds of fear actually gave them a tremendous amount of joy and Will Smith actually said it last year and I wish I had learned it before then so I could have told my children this but here's what he says he says God places his greatest blessings on the other side of fear I'm he's gonna follow me forever for a moment all the other side of fear God places his greatest blessings before the fact of this sermon today we're not necessarily talking about fear we're talking about greatness and here's I want to add to tell you that on the other side of something greatness awaits let me put it in here for a moment here on the other side of your laziness greatness awaits on the other side of your mediocrity greatness awaits on the other side of your busyness greatness awaits on the other side of your lack of spirituality greatness awaits on the other side of something greatness awaits and we all have a something that gets in the way of our greatness no way and here's the thing that we have to understand that God has destined all of us and I'm talking about his individually and as a church he is destined all of us for greatness now when you hear that you'll always second God that word great kind of makes me nervous but here's someone that you know that God has destined us for greatness because you're made in His image and God is not mediocre okay see I need y'all to follow me for a moment because some of us meander and mediocrity so long that we're okay and comfortable in our situation but the God that you serve great and holy is his name does not have average in store for you and this is not a name it and claim it blabbing and grab it kind of thing it's one of the things that we need to understand that God has destined his children for greatness that's why Jesus says this he says I came that you may have life and life more abundantly now when you hear that you think he's only talking about eternal life but they're two greek words there which have a dual meaning the greek word for life eternal life is a way so here's what he says i came that you may have life eternal life yes zoiy but I also came that you may have life here more abundantly God wants you to have greatness while you're here and he understands that if there's greatness in his context it won't be so great that you're willing to miss out on glory are y'all following me see one of the things I think we have been accustomed to and I'm gonna talk a little bit just about what I think our denominations sometimes is put like they don't like you to necessarily be great they want you to be good enough but not too great that you get enough attention and we've kind of bought into that kind of mentality because we are satisfied with full churches we're satisfied with people coming into a building but we're not satisfied with community transformation but greatness awaits oh that makes sense for you say Amen now when I hear that when you hear that word greatness sometimes we get nervous because sometimes we have the wrong picture and understanding of what greatness really is for if I were to tell you that you want to be that God is destined you to be a great author you would consider yourself a great author if you were in New York Times bestselling author that's what we look at greatness if I were to tell you you're gonna be a great singer you would measure your greatness up against Grammys if I said you were gonna be a great whatever you might measure your greatness against the amount of Instagram followers that you might have maybe the amount of money that you get your bank account maybe the the kind of status that you have at your job and so some of us are afraid of the word greatness because we attach greatness to the results of greatness is that making sense but I want to redefine greatness for the tune of this sermon and for where I want you to look at greatness differently in the kingdom of God greatness is not simply about results I won't tell you what greatness is greatness is knowing God's will and purpose for your life and living in that with reckless abandon like that that's greatness see greatness is not the results of something greatness is when you can unapologetically wake up in the morning and say how I am living is in God's will I'm fulfilling my purpose that's great and when you're doing that you leave the results of his will and purpose up to him because the Bible says this that one plant that's their will and their purpose another one waters that's their will and their purpose but it is God who gives the increase see my job in this life is to say God what your will what's your purpose I'm gonna live in that with reckless abandon and unapologetically and I'll let the results of that be left up to you are you also with me so far so that's this idea of greatness knowing God's will and purpose for your life living in that thing with reckless abandon but here's our problem when we are walking and some of you might not even know God's will and purpose for your life I get that sorry that's not what this earth is about but there are some of us who do know what his will and purpose is but here's what's happening you're not experiencing all of the greatness that God has in store for you because there's something blocking you from operating fully in his will and I want to suggest you today that the same thing that happens to Moses God brings to him the will and purpose for his life and Moses takes two chapters to explain to him why he can't do it and so what I want to do is I want to talk a little bit through that I don't carry and I think we're gonna extrapolate a few points on how we can remove those things from the middle of our lives and actually begin to operate in the true will and purpose that God has for so if you want to track with me because I believe it's important to follow context of the Bible the Bible has a very interesting context by the time that we get to the book of Exodus Genesis ends with these very specific words Joseph tells his brothers right before he dies he says hey I need y'all to do me favor and he tells the people there in Egypt here's what I need y'all to do I need you when I died to bury my bones not here in Egypt I want you to bury them in Canaan and here's why he's telling that he says because I believe that the promise that God made to us while we're not seeing it now one day is going to be fulfilled and so I don't want you to bury me here because that's not where our home really is supposed to be and so the Bible says that this is how Joseph dies with this understanding that his bones are not gonna be buried in Egypt but by the time you get to Exodus chapter one the Bible makes it very clear that there have been about three or four generations of Joseph's family that have come lived and died and there's still been no deliverance are you also striking with me so far so here's this promise my bones are not gonna be in Egypt before of his generations have passed by so much soul to the point that people have actually forgotten someone who Joseph is and the Bible lets us know that because it says when the new administration rises up it says that there was a pharaoh that does not know who Joseph is as a matter of fact and this is very disturbing to the Hebrew people because you see at one time they had somebody in the White House that looked like them what one time you know he understood where they came from man and he knew what it was like to get an edge of every week he knew what it was like to you at one time that the first lady went to bear with a head wrap on come on survive it but but now there's somebody who's coming up with new policies that are not they're thinking about the people that need the policies of most I hope somebody's following me today and so there's this feral that doesn't know Joseph but but but here's what the Pharaoh starts to look and understand he looks out and sees that the children of Israel are numerous and so he says man we got it we have a problem because if they actually knew what they could do when they got together somebody's still missing this thing today it could get together and put their stuff together and work together then we'd have a hard time with them so what he does is he puts a law in place that says every single time there's a there's a young man who's born into this world that is of Hebrew ancestry we want to make sure that they're dead but there was a problem with their kill but there was a problem that the Hebrew women were like beast man and so what the Bible says is they would sit there and they would get ready to deliver they would have an Egyptian handmaid sitting right there to check right away to see if it was a boy or not but though Hebrew women by the time they ham they would step off for a moment would give birth to them babies so fast the ayah says Bible no epiderm no nothing just push some babies out that they were able to hide their children so Pharaoh comes up with this other idea and so finally in the story as you know if you've watched the Prince of Egypt before Moses is born stays with him for a little bit puts him in the river sends him down the river one of Pharaohs folks looks in that river and sees this baby calls for the little girl who happens to be Moses sister says yo we need a handmaid in to get his mother so Moses now comes back in his raise in an Egyptian household I need y'all to follow me he's raised in an Egyptian household but here Moses never forgets that he's a Hebrew he's raised in the Egyptian household but he never forgets that he's a Hebrew so the Bible says one day he steps outside and he looks and he sees the hardship of his brethren he sees a hardship dosage is a sages hardship he sees the hardship his brethren and here's the thing as Moses looks at this he is dissatisfied with the situation that he sees his people in and so because he's dissatisfied he can't just sit there Moses actually has to get up and do something but y'all not feeling that so let me help you out just a little bit one of my favorite shows that I used to watch it blowing up was Popeye the sailorman y'all remember Popeye Popeye that that was my dude I mean you remember Popeye had the big arms you know he never did leg day cuz his legs were like we're like super skinny but he had one girlfriend olive oil and olive oil was awesome and it was crazy because all the dudes on the show won an olive oil and it was ridiculous it's like why would you want olive oil she had one hair style put her hair in a bun she was a stick figure couldn't wear no apple bottom jeans nothing like that but but olive oil understood I think if all you are is the body you really ain't nobody somebody catch that next week but there's one episode of Bluto kidnaps olive oil and you know he ties her up and so Popeyes like yellow I can't you know it's one thing if you verbally disrespect my girl but you put hands on my girl like I'll go do something about that so he rolls up to Bluto and and he begins to fight Bluto but this fight doesn't go the way Popeye wants it to go because he starts to get beat down in front of his girl and it's one thing to get beat up but when you get beat up in front of your girl like that's it that's a problem brothers ever happen to you before you like trying to protect your girl and you get beat up in front of her y'all not raise your hand but I'm looking at your girl next to you like tell him it was Q you came running in so Popeyes get beat up Bluto knocks him to the floor and to add insult to injury he begins to jump on ah he was making the biggest mistake of his life because inside Popie sure was some spinach and the more he began to jump on Popeye the more he began to push the spinach out of Popeye shirt and I don't know if there's anybody in the church today have you ever been beat up by the devil before I mean have you ever been beat down to the point where your kids started acting a fool but then to add insult to injury he started to jump on you and sort of have you have problems at work and then problems at school I won't let you know he's making the biggest mistake of his life because the Bible says greater is He that is within us then he that is within the world and every now and then in order to get the Jesus out sometimes something's gotta push on you to pull the Jesus out of you and so we sit in there jumping on Popeye the spinach flies out of Popeyes mouth he always flies out Popeye shirt he opens his mouth swallows the spinach and he does that laughs that kick kick it kick it kick it and then he looks and he stands up and he says my favorite words in the entire show he looks at Bluto and he says I've had all I can stand and I can't stands no more and he begins to beat down Bluto in front of his girl and children of God I want to let you know that God is waiting for us to get to the place where we can look at society and declare I've had all I can stands and I can't stands no more no more racism no more sexism no more lackadaisical spirituality no more black boys then a shot by police officers no more communities that are dilapidated no more elections that put people in office that do not reflect the needs of the community that we are no more churches that are now disrespecting women and using it as theological cloak with this cover of misogyny we've got to look and say I've had all I can stand and I can't stands no more but the problem with too many of us is is that we are comfortable living in Egyptian palaces that we forget about the Hebrews that still need our help because what Moses immediately does is Moses now leaves the palace goes and sees one of his brethren getting beaten I need y'all to follow me carefully he kills the Egyptian and he puts his Egyptian living on the line because he's sick and tired of seeing how his people live and one of the things that kills me about our churches and those I didn't say yours I said our churches as we live in communities that falling apart and we come into church every single Sabbath and we are not moved by what's happening [Applause] and we got our Egyptian suits and we got our Egyptian cars and we're no longer in the hood and the problem is that while we have made our way up we've forgotten about the people behind us you see I don't ask people to not forget where you came from I'm asking you not to forget the people you left behind because Moses is like now this is not cool and he was willing to put himself on the line and give up his Egyptian amenities to help his brother you see the problem is we're not we're not dissatisfied yet and the only thing reason with what time will become dissatisfied unfortunately is when some of these issues start to touch us well so here's what's unique about Moses and I need you all to follow us and this is what should be unique about the Christians he did not experience their hardships to have to identify with their hardships so you don't need to wait until something comes your door for you to be dissatisfied you should just look and say god something right and your dissatisfaction I'll to move you to action and it's the same principle I think for our lives individually you see you're never going to change and never want your marriage to be better you're never gonna want your life to be better your education whatever that is that your work your job your school whatever place it is if you can look at yourself in the mirror say yeah I'm good I'm okay but if you can be dissatisfied with where you are notice I didn't say not content but dissatisfied and only dissatisfied because you know that there is something more that God has for you you'll stay the same and we make all kinds of excuses say there that makes sense maybe you say Amen so Moses puts his Egyptian status on the line because what he does he said you know what I'm gonna make sure that my brethren are okay and my challenge for you and one of the things that one of my dear dear friends Devon Franklin would I appreciate so much about him is Devon is that young black Hollywood executive Christian seventh-day adventists who was unapologetically handling his business he knows his purpose his will that God has placed in his life and he operates in it but let me tell you something about Devon every time he walks through a door he doesn't let that door close behind him but what he does is he takes a little wedge and he places it in the door just in case people like me are coming behind him the door isn't closed there's still away from me to walk through and that's what I'm challenging every single one of us to do that as we move forward in life place a wedge in the door as you keep on climbing if that makes sense we here say Amen so Moses now has to flee for his life he's got to leave the palace and imagine this he goes from a palace to now heard a flock for this to Jethro remember he's all had had lined up to be Pharaoh he was lined up to be that dude but he put that all at risk and all on the line because he knew his rights he his brother so he's out there and he's chillin and he sees this site I'm almost where I need to get to today he sees this site where this Bush is being burned but it's not being consumed this is like you know what's up with that what's up with that so he goes up to it God begins to speak to him and I think it's so ironic that that Moses when he first speaks to God hides his face yet he's the only prophet that speaks to God's face-to-face but the Bible says that as Moses steps close God says yo come on we about to talk but we need to have a conversation there's a dress code here and the dress code is if you step on this ground you got to take off your shoes man cuz this is holy ground now just gotta throw this in here man you know if there was a real dress code that you get from the Bible will you step a holy ground he talkin about what you wearing on top here's what's on your feet so we should all come in here barefoot but but we shouldn't do that come on Chris amens I know I should come on but Moses comes in takes off shoe and God begins to break down to him something interesting I need y'all to follow this that he could have easily said hey Moses I'm the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob I got you here's all one for your life but here's what he begins to do he says Moses I want to let you know something very specifically because for over 400 years y'all ain't heard from me I've been dead silent but I want you to know that I have seen not only your oppression but I've also seen the oppressors and just because you haven't heard from me doesn't mean I'm not watching I need that to sink in for somebody just because you haven't heard from me doesn't mean that you're that I'm not watching because sometimes I have to be silent because if I were to speak man you want to be ready to hear me so I have to wait sometimes for you to go through some stuff so that by the time I show up you're ready for my solution since I want you know Moses I haven't forgotten so I will let you know this is that same God that made that promise who is coming to you and so he approaches Moses and he says Moses it is just to me there's a profound like God why can't why can't you just do this for all of our lives he literally out Moses's will and purpose most they got a pray he got a fast he says Moses use your will in purpose you will deliver my children now I wish God would just do that with us but you got pray you gotta ask pastors questions you gotta figure all this kind of stuff so I'm mad at Moses because God says that tool and now Moses want to argue with him about his will and his purpose in his life and one of the things that you find out about Moses is Moses actually doesn't believe he's prepared for the moment that's what Moses first mom he's like yo I'm just not really prepared for this moment but here is something that I learned about Moses his life and I want you to understand it for your life that whatever doesn't kill you prepares you okay I want to say that again whatever doesn't kill you prepares you now you think that might just be some cool preacher talk but let me help you understand that just a little bit in the book of John Jesus describes the devil a certain way now when we think about the devil we think about this individual I know you don't think about horns and all that stuff but we think about an individual who is trying to get us to sin right that's what you want you to do you want you to have sex before you get married you want you to lie you want you to cheat you want you go out to eat on the Sabbath you want to do all that kind of stuff so that you can quote-unquote sin and what we understand simple I will let you know Jesus doesn't describe the devil like that here's what he says he says the thief who we know is referring to the devil comes to kill steal and destroy okay y'all missed that I need to say that again the feed doesn't just come to get you the sin he's literally trying to kill you every day of your life there is a hitman who has a contract out on your life and get behind the wheel of your car he's trying to figure out a lane that you can go off the side of the road but your sleep he's trying to find a way that your heart will stop in every single day that you're alive is the day that Jesus said no to the devil trying to take your life this dude ain't just out there trying to get you to do wrong he's trying to take your life understand it's every attempt taking my life that fails it's preparing me for the will and practice and purpose of God and so the devil unapologetically and accidentally it's creating a monster for Jesus because what doesn't kill you prepares you in everything that you are alive on this planet it's you getting further preparation for the will and purpose of God so don't you tell me you not ready if you alive you're ready God's preparing you every day let me tell you something about preparation preparation isn't just the bad stuff that happens in your life preparation is you just living life and what God is looking at Moses he's like yeah you ready because you've just been living bro so you ready for this cuz I'm not gonna bring it to you if you're not that makes sense maybe you say Amen so the here's what Moses does this is crazy here's what Moses does in Exodus 3 in verse 10 I just got two more points for your exits three and percent here's what he says therefore come now I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt first eleven but Moses said to God Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt now when you read that at first you're probably thinking oh how humble Moses is Lord Who am I that you would call me for such a time as this that's not what Moses is saying Moses is actually saying God they will not receive me but they will take me it wasn't a Who am I in the humble way say no God you gotta find somebody else because me they won't receive now the question you should be asking yourselves a good Bible student is why does Moses know automatically that they're not gonna receive him is he just already in his head well actually no it's not true because if you go back to Exodus 2 something interesting happens after he goes and kills the Egyptian hides his body under the sand the Bible gives us his context at the next two verses he sees his brethren and he tries to rally them together as he sees two of them fighting in that moment in Chapter two Moses tries to become the leader of the Hebrew individuals and Hebrew people in that moment but they look at him and they say who do you think you are are you coming here to kill us too and so then he says oh they found out about it I need to go ahead and bounce and so the most reason that Moses says Who am I is because he says god I already tried and they rejected me and so Moses says I can't lead because I've already been rejected and one of the problems with us moving forward into greatness is a lot of us have a fear of being rejected that's what we're afraid of you're afraid of going to your boss with a new idea because you're afraid is gonna be shot down you're afraid of maybe bringing something to the board because you're afraid the individual is going to shoot it down or go into the conference maybe with a new idea because it's gonna be shot down you're afraid of stepping out and putting that song that you've been working on out there on social media because you're afraid of what the Comets are gonna say and how many people like it or don't like it you're afraid to stand up and do what it is that God's called you to do because you're too worried about what other people think and see that's our problem we value other people's opinion on us more than we do God's opinion on us and one of the things that why we should not be afraid of rejection because if there's anybody who understands rejection more than anybody it's God because all of us in this room unfortunately reject him on a weekly basis we say no to him he calls us in our lives we say no to him Jesus Christ when he walked up and down the face of the earth was rejected over and over by Adventist standards Jesus's ministry was a failure while here on earth he was rejected back and forward upwards and downwards his message but the thing that I love about Jesus is he knew what his purpose was and he did not allow other people's acceptance or rejection of him to stop him living and what it was that God called him to do and we got to get over this thing called rejection y'all because if you want to experience greatness you will be rejected not only along the way but while you're living in greatness you'll be rejected by your family you'll be rejected by your closest friends and in some cases you'll even be rejected by your own church see this is why you've got to know what God's will and purpose is for your life because you see then I can look at your rejection not as a closed door but it's just an obstacle I just need to get through is that making sense is he wondering one of the people I admire the most i knows is sometimes a hot subject is those female pastors because they're constantly being rejected but it doesn't stop them you want to know why because they know who God called them to be and so they said this is my will this is my purpose I'm gonna walk in that and every time they go to a church where they step inside the church and pastor my password pastor Rebecca Davis who went to her first district by herself before she came to Rubidoux and when she got there over 80% of the congregation left simply because she was a woman that's rejection but she didn't stop she didn't give up cuz she knew her her calling was and she kept on doing and the membership in replace every last person who left because God was with her but too many of us would have stopped in and allowed people's reaction in their opinion to determine God's purpose and calling on our lives y'all y'all listen to me don't let rejection get in the way of your greatness because sometimes your rejection is a sign that you're on the right track so Moses I just got one more point there's a whole lot of conversation it comes to you I just got one more you can get ready to play softly for me please actually if you wouldn't mind I can get the musicians to start to play so then Moses makes all different kinds of excuses and what I love about God is every excuse Moses makes God's like well I got this what I'm gonna do I'm gonna take care of it cuz Moses if I called you I'm gonna equip you I called you I would equip you but there's an interesting one that takes place that that I think sometimes we miss exodus chapter 4 and verse 1 Moses still continuing then Moses said what if they will not believe me or listen to what I say for they may say the Lord has not appeared to you then the Lord asked him this question he says well Moses what do you have in your hand so what do you have in your hand and I love Moses's response notice he doesn't spend time trying to find anything or look around or anything he just looks his hand he says I got a staff now the Hebrew word therefore staff simply means a broken stick there is absolutely nothing special about the staff that Moses has now of course we've heard that preached all the time well you know what do you have your hand and just give God what you have your hand and we say that but here's what we really mean when God asked us hey Michael what do you have or whatever your name may be what do you have we stop and we try to look for our best sometimes don't we well God what do I have you know I've got this awesome personality god what do I have I've got this education God what I have I've got this this tremendous family God would I have I got that and that's what we're always looking for in our hands but here's the thing that I think this text lets us know Moses doesn't give God his best he actually just gives him literally what he truly is holding on to and here's what my challenge is for a lot of us that sometimes when God comes to us and says what do you have we need to be able to look at God and say brokenness look at God and say what do I have depression what do I have suicidal thoughts what do I have a lack of faith what do I have I have doubt I don't have commitment god this is what I have in my hand now what you gonna do with that because here's the awesome thing about God God doesn't need your best but God can take your depression you can take your brokenness you can take your mess your suicidal thoughts and flip that thing upside down and they use it to help you live your purpose and experience greatness so stop looking for the good stuff that you have and just give God which are honestly holding on in your head and if it's a mess he can make your mess a masterpiece regardless but give it school give him whatever you got because he didn't call you into his purpose because of what he thought you were he called you to your purpose because of what he knew you could become I want to challenge you Church living greatness stop making excuses whatever your Excuse may be all where will our worship this or we don't have enough money here we don't have our own building you have everything that you need to experience greatness individually stop making excuses because you serve a God who makes the impossible seem normal to us and so here's my challenge to you stop being mediocre stop being mediocre in your life stop being mediocre in your church and experience great it's gonna tell you this is cool like this is really cool awesome music awesome sermon also fellowship but I know that there is so much more that God has for you don't be satisfied with just being the best Adventist Church don't be satisfied with having more people than the church down the street don't be satisfied cuz you a at least we got left a lot of young people don't let that happen there is greatness on the other side you

Channel: Breath of Life Fellowship

Views: 1,049

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: inspiration, bolf, breath of life, michael kelly

Id: qX31q1Ol2Kw

Length: 40min 49sec (2449 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019