Amen, amen, amen. Let's give the Lord a big hand. [Applause] What is up church? Happy Sunday. [Applause] Happy Sunday y'all, excited to
be in church today? Say hello to the military
watching, God bless y'all and we have all the people in all of
our campuses, San Marcos, East County, San Ysidro, and City
Heights and juvenile hall and Donovan State Prison, God bless
y'all. So excited, I have a long
sermon. Two announcements, yesterday we
had our first prayer meeting and it was amazing. If you weren't here, I want to
encourage you every Saturday morning for the entire year, 9
o'clock in all campuses and 10:30 in City Heights, and thank
you for coming. And the bad news is the
Chargers. Chargers. I don't want to dwell on it too
long, probably going to cry. The Tribune here, our newspaper
in San Diego asked me to write a 220 word op-in on Chargers. And to give my opinion, everyone
is bashing the Chargers and burning their jerseys. If you are new, I played for the
Chargers and I was writing this. 250 words is not a lot. Two or three paragraphs. And I read it to my wife,
because I have to read it out loud and I started crying. Literally. The reason I'm in San Diego is
the Chargers to play here. The funeral that I officiated
in. And we went to the game in the
rain and garbage bags as rain coats. Incredible memories. And the fact that we lost a
family when he died. It was like something that died
in our family. I encourage you if you have
charger stuff don't throw it away, it will be worth money
some day. But to throw away LT jersey,
they didn't do anything to you. And those are very real memories
we had. And so yeah, you can bash some,
if you want to do that, whatever. But the experience we had was
special and the guys and the team and the staff that I have
known for 35 years are great people. One of the guys who over-sees PR
for the team I led to the Lord and he was there when I was a
rookie, there for 35 years, great people and we want to pray
for them. They are broken hearted. And thank God we had them for
the time we did, amen. Let's get on our knees and pray. I am still mad though --
Dang it. Lord, thank you so much for your
faithfulness. Lord, I pray that you would
speak to people right where they need to be spoken to. You would challenge them. And tell them stop giving you so
many excuses, you are tired of their excuses. So I pray that you challenge
them to just say yes to you. Yes, God. I love you, in Jesus' name,
amen. Look to the person and say, stop
giving God so many excuses. Amen. Get your Bibles out, get your
Bibles out. If you are knew, we lift our
Bibles and say word. On the count of three, say word. One, two, three. Say word. One more time, say word. Turn to Exodus 3, the second
book of the Bible, Exodus chapter 3. We want to give a special
shout-out to the guys at Donovan state prison, God loves you guys
and we know you are watching. And the Holy Spirit is there
with you. Wants to encourage you. Exodus 3. I am going to tell you a story
from John 5 but turn to Exodus 3. Second book of the Bible, third
chapter. There is a story in John chapter
5. Where there is a man who is
paralyzed 38 years. And he's laying there for 38
years and laying at the top of the steps there is water and if
the water moves they believe there is an angel and to be
healed. And Jesus walked by and do you
want to be well. And you would think that the guy
says, I have been here 38 years. But the guy says, I haven't
anyone to help me into the water. And I wasn't there, and Jesus
said, I didn't ask you that. I don't know why you haven't
been healed, or what your excuses are. I do want to know, do you want
healed. And God is saying that to you,
do you want your relationship to be healed and finances and
clarity about purpose in life. When God asks us those
questions, often we respond with why it never happened. It's not the question. It's either yes or no. My kids were born here in
California and in California, and I think they say in New
York, but didn't when I grew up. When you ask a question, a lot
of people say, sure. Just drives me up the wall. Do you want dessert. Sure. Either yes or no, because I'm
going to eat it if you don't want it. Don't say sure, either you want
it or don't. God said I have something for
everyone of you. Not that you go to church and
then you are on your own. He created you to have
relationship with him and that he would establish the kingdom
of God through you. So he has a role for you in his
kingdom and he's going to call you into that, and many are you
giving him excuses. Here's why I can't do it. And he's like, yes or no. And today I challenge you to say
yes. In this story Moses is called
and Moses will give God five excuses why not to go. And my prayer is that God would
jam you up about your excuses. Context. Moses 80 years old and was
adopted in Pharaoh's home for 40 years and then as a fugitive for
40 years and shepherd and running from Egypt. Now at 80 years old God is going
on call him into ministry. It took God 80 years to prepare
Moses. Anyone here 80 years old? Anyone under 80, raise your
hand. You ain't ready, God is still
working on you. The kids today 20 years old you
don't nuthin'. Not nothing, nuthin'. He's 80 years old and God is
going to have a conversation and I won't go through the whole
story, but the context, he's walking and sees the bush on
fire but the bush is not consumed but a fire in the bush. It's like Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego in the bush, like in Daniel, they are in the fire and
not being burned. If God is with you, sticks and
stones may not hurt you, you can be around fire and not hurt. Moses is seeing this bush burn
and yet not burning. And goes towards it and the bush
starts to speak to him. And he has faith enough to speak
back to this bush. They have a conversation. This is what is happening,
Exodus 3:7 it says... Everyone say seen, heard, say
no. God is very aware of pain. One of the reasons I like to
watch the show "lockup" and "cops" is because of pain. I want to be in touch with pain
-- other people's pain. Forgive me father, I didn't mean
it that way. You never want to be out of
touch with reality. So God is hearing little kids
cry to him because they are being abused and molested. He is hearing women's cries
because they are abused and neglected. And guys crying out because they
are alcoholics and can't feed their family. He hears that all day long and
man, if I can get people to help my pain. His people and not all, but some
of his people, God, I want to be sure that I am good, that's my
plight in life. And he says, not my plight. And look at verse 8... Moses said five excuses, number
one... Number one in your notes, Moses
expressed insecurity. Moses expressed insecurity. So God encouraged him with his
presence. God said, verse 12, I will be
with you. Whenever God calls you to do
something, it's always bigger than you and a little voice will
say, who do you think you are. That's the devil. And here's what you need to tell
the devil, I am nobody. Don't even try, I am nobody. You are an idiot, I know. How many people sometimes and
heard of the church, this has heard several times, they meet
me and you are the pastor of the rock, you? I go, yes, me. Isn't that awesome. God choosed the foolish to
confound the wise. Be the fool, I am nobody and
it's all God. Moses it ain't about you but
whose you are. You need to trust in who you
belong to. You need to trust in the
presence of God. If God is with you, people may
see you but they will sense his presence. And if it's you and God, an army
cannot defeat you. My father was a police officer
and arrested and took me on surveillance with him. And no man would suspect a man
with Puerto Rican kid. And take me and said go down the
street, I remember this significant incident, I had to
go down the street and they were called brown homes or row homes,
it was number 23, I remember because it was dramatic, and he
said to look at number 23 and walking down the street and
doing surveillance for the NYPD. And I got no money for that. And I am walking down and scared
to death, this dude knows that I am with the NYPD. And 10 or eight years old. I knew that my father that is an
expert sharps man could shoot. I knew he was with me. When God is with you, no one is
against you. And God called you to do,God has
called all of. Ain't no thinking about it, you
represent him, as ambassador. And yet when we calls, I'm
nobody. Yes, get past that. It's all about him, ain't about
you. Look at what it says next. Moses says in verse 13. Well, when I come to the
children of Israel and say the God of your fathers has sent me,
and they say, all right, what is his name? We don't know his name. What shall I say to them? This is the coolest answer to
that question in the history of time. Ladies, imagine you are in a
store, imagine you are single. For all of you who aren't
single. And you are in the store and
someone asks and you see guy and he says, hi, what is your name
and you tell him your name. And then whatever less comes
with saying your name. And you say to him, what is your
name? And he says this, I am that I
am. You are like -- what does that
mean? Jehovah, it means I always was. I never had a beginning. I am now. And I always will be. Never have an end. It means that I wasn't created
and I can't be destroyed. I had no beginning, I had no
end. No one can pull me down or lift
me up. I am what I am, all the time,
yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jehovah, I am that I am. It's not my name Moses that you
need to be concerned, it's who I am. A lot of people say who is God. Use science to explain that. Imagine that the universe is a
big basketball. Imagine. Everything that we know to be
real, the universe that is expanded at the speed of light,
and the Bible says that God is stretching the heavens. He's stretching them really
fast. Everything in the universe is
governed by laws of nature, if we will. And those laws are defined by
science. Science tells you how it works. Science didn't put it there, it
tells you how it works. Gravity pulls things to the
ground. Science explains how it works
and didn't put it there. And Chemistry and Astrophysics
and all disciplines explain what we observed how it is. Trying to figure out how it
started. But one thing that science tells
us that everything has a beginning. And tells us that energy is
dying down and order is decreases and why chaotic. That's why you get old and start
out very smooth and tight skin and end up with loose, wrinkled
sin and it's scientific randomness of order. Science says that everything has
a beginning. When we study the laws of the
beginning, everything has a beginning and therefore
something had to begin God. And the problem with that logic
is that God exists outside of the basketball. The laws that he created to
govern inside the basketball don't apply to him. Created them for us. And he can exist on the inside,
because he says, where I exist you don't understand but by
faith you can reach into the spiritual world. When he says, I am that I am. You wouldn't understand my name. You can barely understand my
love. Because you always question it. Jehovah Nissi; the Lord is
conquerer, he always will be conquerer. And Jehovah Shalom, he will be
there with peace. And Lord will always be there. Jehovah Jireh, he's the only one
that provided for you. And Jehovah Elyon, the Lord most
high. And he is always will and be
now. He says, Moses when you ask my
name, you need to know who I am. And if you know who God is and
always was with you and will be with you. And your healer. And your provider and strength
and conquerer and your source of love and joy. If you know that, can never be
taken away. None unlike the believe about
who he is cannot be impacted by man. When he calls you to do
something, you say, Lord I don't need to know your name. I know your character. I know your nature. What you want to do. But when you don't know, you go,
I don't know God. I know I am here talking to fire
and fire is logically -- it's not even a word, let me make up
a word logicallyly meaning. Fire is sharing wisdom. Fire is challenging me. I am having a conversation and
yet I still don't believe. Look at chapter 4, verse 1... How many times have people said,
what makes your God so special and what makes you think you
know God better than me. We all have heard that. Well, let me say, if you tried
to witness for the Lord, you heard that. But if undercover person never
heard that. And one person said, the devil
never fights with me, and I said because you are walking with
him. You are doing everything he
says, like his flunky. He's not going to mess with
that, it works. Yeah, go to church once a month
and when you see Pastor Miles at the mall, tell him you go to The
Rock, and make you feel good and go about your business. You have no impact on the
kingdom, the devil has you in a comfortable spot of
noneffectiveness. But God is saying, I want you to
step out of that. And what about this, what about
this? Look at chapter 4. If people doubt that I know God. The Lord said what do you have
in your hand, he said a rod, a stick, a dry branch. And God says, throw it to the
ground mon-- if you are new, all of my grandparents are from
Kingston. You don't understand what I
know. So he cast it to the ground... Look at number 3 in your notes. Moses feared being viewed
credible or lack of credibility. So God empowered him. He feared lack of credibility. You must trust God's power. Everyone say power. Whenever you talk about God, or
represent God, you can talk all you want, but if you have no
power, great words and wisdom. There was a man, Nicodemus and
saw Jesus's power, and how do you do the miracles, you heal
the blind and raise the dead and Jesus responds and I add to his
words, Nicodemus, you ask me that because you can't do any of
that. You have information. You have degrees but you have no
power. That's why my life tripped you
out, you can't walk on water like me. You can't cast out demons like
me. He said, Nicodemus, it's not the
information, it's the relationship with God the power
through where that power comes from. And that comes from the Bible,
John 3:3, you must be born again of the father. Power. The most obvious evidence of
God's power in your life is your changed life. Not your church attendance. Now part of your changed life
can be church attendance. As long as your church
attendance and your serving and going to Life Class and giving
and doing all the things we are talking about. Because God is prompting you,
and he's transforming your life, where you used to curse, now you
don't curse. Someone said that cursing makes
you go to hell. No, it's evidence that God is
doing something in your life. Where is the power. So you can come and quote
scripture and have no power and no relationship because the
spirit of God is not working through you. And Moses, you can go there and
doesn't matter, but when I show you my power. No denying. And the story is amazing and
goes to pharaoh, and Pharaoh's magicians, what can you do, and
threw do you the stick and it became a snake. And the magicians threw it down
and Moses, oh, snap -- this is a true story. I wasn't there but guessing that
Moses, Lord what do I do now. They did what you do, and watch
this. Moses' snake ate their snake. No, your trick is inferior to my
trick. And then Moses grabbed the
thing. And they were like oh, snap! Power. Where do you get the power? On your knees. The spirit of God in your life. Can God do miracles to your
life? You receiving Christ as your
Savior and him changing your life is a miracle. How can someone go from cursing
to not cursing and from beating his wife to loving his wife. Beating his wife to serving his
wife. You want to have a happy
marriage, serve your wife. There may be a very, very small
chance you have a psycho wife. I say very small because 99% of
the problems in our experience is that it's the guy. Most of the time. Ladies, can I get amen. See what I am saying? But ladies you know that every
now and then there is a psycho woman out there, can I get amen. Just covering my bases. Because there is like 10 dudes
in here going, you don't know my wife, man. I am talking about you, right
now, talking about you. But how does that guy become
that guy? Power. Look at verse 10... By the way, Moses is still not
convinced. He's having a conversation with
fire. Fire told him to throw his stick
on the ground, and the stick became a snake. And fire told him to pick it up
and it became a rod, and then fire told him to put in his hand
and it was leper and then changed. And still doesn't believe. How many of you have had God do
100 incredible, no way it's anyone but God, raise your hand. Thank you, and still you don't
believe. You are still not trusting him
with your time, your money, your heart, your relationships. Your attitude. Your addiction. He's like, what do I have to do? Sometimes only -- I was talking
to someone yesterday, going through a very tough situation. I said maybe this is what it
takes for God to get your attention. Because you are really crying
out to him right now, aren't you. Don't go there. Say God, I'm all in. My parents, my mom sitting over
here, my parents told me when I was a kid and got in trouble, I
would punish myself. In other words, my father would
say miles, I'm going to my room. Five days I won't come out, you
don't have to feed me, lock the door. I'm good, stand in the corner on
my head, I'm good. I don't want you to punish me. My father was old school. We got beat. There was no CPS in our
neighborhood, just saying. Verse 10... Some people believed that Moses
stuttered. I don't know if he did or not,
but what people believed, historians believed. What happens when people, when
you talk to someone that is stuttering, what do you do? You listen. It's because of my stuttering
you can't use me. God said, no, no, if that is
what it was. That's how I am going to use
you. A lot of times we focus on our
inability. Look at number 4, we focus on
our inability. So God enlightened him to his
design. Don't focus on what you can't
do, focus on what God can do. As a matter of fact, when you
are weak, is when you are strong. What does that mean? When you are dependent on God
more than on yourself. Look at what God says, verse 11,
he said, who made the man's mouth, the mute and the deaf and
the seeing and the blind, have not I? I be with your mouth. When you are weak. My grandson and I put together a
-- a toy. Like a tower where the cars roll
down. It was 44 steps. I don't have patience for three. I'm a three-step patient guy. Fellas, can I get amen. I know some of you are like the
fix-it man, repair handy man. That's not me. Okay. And I was like --
I told my son, hey I will put it together. My son is like, great. And but it was fun, it took us
an hour and a half, it was a lot of fun. Because I had to get into fix-it
mode. And my grandson and I were going
to do it together, we're a team. And part of it we had to screw
these little tiny screws into these tiny holes. And he's like, I do it, I do it. I was like, we're going to be
here for a week. So he -- I do it, you are not
even on the screw. You are putting a hole in the
couch -- okay, and I am over here, good, good, you want
grandpa's help. Yeah, and I put in the screw and
then it's in. A lot of times we are doing
this, God, I got it. God is like, go ahead. And 10 years later and five
houses later, and five cars later, three years of rehab, we
finally say to God, God, I can't do it by myself. Don't focus on what you can't
do. The best thing you can say to
yourself when God asks you to do something is that you can't do
it by yourself. I want God to do it through me. Because whatever God has done
through you, it wasn't you. And I have had people say, you
got that big church because you played for the Chargers. I am like so -- all that God has
done is because I played for the Chargers? So someone wants to be a pastor,
they just have to play for the Chargers. God had nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with the
Chargers. It has to do with the Holy
Spirit. When God does something in your
life, has nothing to do with you. Ain't about you. Number 5. Sorry -- verse 13. In other words, I don't want to
go. Hold on -- so you are 80 years
old and got nothing going on in your life and you are a murderer
and fugitive. And have all of these miracles I
did in front of you. You are talking to fire. And you are going on tell me no? I wonder how many times God has
asked all of y'all to follow him and trust him in some area of
your life. And he's done all of these
miracles in your life. He's blessed you beyond. And you can't telling him no. At some point, I had a friend
who I did cocaine with when I played first two years with the
Chargers. And I got saved and stopped in
one day. He 31 years later is still doing
cocaine. And he used to tell me when I
invited him to church. I don't want to go, he would say
no. I told him if you keep telling
God no, when you die he will give you what you are asking
for. In other words, when you tell
God no, when you die, he says, okay, you have nothing to do
with me? You got it. You will never hear about me
ever again. I will give you what you ask,
that place is called hell. People say I don't want you to
impose God on me, I am not imposing God on you, but
presenting an argument and you have to accept it. However, God is not going to
impose on you before you die and give you what ask for. Death is a little taste of hell. It's like the lobby. You don't want to go in the
show. You don't want to go in there. So in a minute we're going to
pray. And what we are going to do. My challenge is for you to stop
saying no to God. Like Moses. Moses ended up going. But my point is say God, I have
way more than enough evidence to say yes. I will pray in all campuses and
I ask you to declare your yes. It could be salvation or serve
or obedient or give or pray or go to prayer meeting or fast or
go to Life Class. What you are calling me to do, I
am going to do it. I will stop telling you no and
stop making excuses why I can't obey. And I ask all campuses and
juvenile hall and Donovan State Prison, bow your heads and think
about your life and burning-bush conversation that God is having
with you about your life. About what He wants out of you. And to you, all wise excuses
that you give Him, because you know better than God. The Bible says that the just
shall walk by faith. You cannot follow God and obey
God except by faith. So bow your heads and close your
eyes and pray this prayer. Dear God, I pray for all the
people listening in all campuses and that supernaturally you
reveal your love to them and what you call them to be. And I pray that you challenge
them now for all the excuses they have been giving you, and
it's time to say yes. Just trust you, it's a matter of
trust. If you would like to declare
yes, whether it will be salvation, whether it be
obedient in whatever area of your life, you're serving,
you're giving, your fast. Pray this prayer in the privacy
of your heart. Pray, dear God, I say yes to
You. I trust You. You have been good to me. You have been faithful to me. You died and rose from the dead
for me. I trust You. So I say yes. I surrender my life to You. If God spoke to you during that sermon, and you feel like you want to ask Christ to be savior, It's as simple as A-B-C. Admit and accept that you are a sinner. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for your sin and rose from the dead. Then confess yourself a sinner and say, "Jesus, please forgive me of my sin." If you would like to ask Jesus Christ to be your savior, just look at me right now, and pray this prayer with me in the privacy of your heart, knowing that God knows you and loves you very much. Say, "Dear God, I believe that I am sinner. I know the penalty of my sin is death. I don't want to die and go to Hell. I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died and rose from the dead for my sin. I confess myself a sinner and ask Him to forgive me of my sin. Jesus, please forgive me of my sin and fill me with the spirit of God. In Jesus' name, amen." If you prayed that prayer, if you just asked Christ to be your savior, we want to know. We want to email you some resources. If you just prayed that prayer with me, to accept Jesus as your savior, Click on the link that just appeared. We want to send you some free resources. God bless you and we will see you in Heaven.
