The Long Awaited Comeback

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected], we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Thank. Thank you for coming. Thank you for being here. We're in the middle of our series called Comeback, and we're looking at the great comebacks in the Bible. Last week, Pastor Bill talked about mafibasheth, and that was an incredible comeback and a really great story. This week I'm going to talk about Moses. And really, of all of the comebacks in scriptures, Moses is actually one of my favorite ones. And I spent the last couple of weeks with Moses. I was texting one of my friends saying, I love Moses. I just love Moses. He really inspires me. And I got to tell you, I'm a Texas girl. I grew up here and I think Moses was a Texas guy. Do you guys, he says what he thinks, oh, we get ourselves in trouble, don't we? He's super kind. I think he opened doors for people. I think he said hi to people he didn't even know, just like we do. And he had a little bit of anger problem. We'll talk about a little bit today. But Moses was a straight shooter, and we're going to get to learn some things about God from Moses that we've not seen anywhere else in scripture. So I'm super excited to share that with you today. It's one of the most amazing stories in comeback history as we look at some of the things he encountered and what he did. Moses comeback story is told in the book of Exodus. It's the second book of the Old Testament, and it's about the Exodus or the exit of the Israelites from Egypt. And when we first find him, he's floating down the Nile. And as a little bitty baby, and Moses lived to be 120. So I'll tell you that right now, we could read the whole book of Exodus, which is really long, and I'm not going to do that today, so I'm going to give you a cursory to kind of bring you up where we are. And there was a rapid increase of the population of the Israelites in Egypt. So the king started getting worried, hey, they're going to overpower us. There's more of them than us. So we got to stop their population. So the king's big idea was he talks to one of the maids and says, hey, when they have their babies, if there's a boy, I need you to slaughter all of the baby boys. That's going to stop their reproduction cycle. And she said, yes. And, of course, she never did. And she said, they just have these babies so quick, and I couldn't do it. So Moses mother knows about this. Her name is Jacob, and she loved that baby. So as all mothers who sacrifice for their children, she put him in the Nile. She was smart. She didn't just go throw him in the Nile anywhere. She put him where Pharaoh's daughter was out there, and Miriam, his sister, is watching from the side of the bank, and she floats him out in a little basket. And pharaoh's daughter sees him, and he's crying. And who can't love a baby, right? This new little bitty baby. And she sees him, and she has pity on him, and she loves him so much, and she takes him out, and I don't know. She looked in his eyes, I don't know what happened, but she loved him from the second she saw him. And she said, he's mine. He's mine. So she took him into the palace with her. But first of all, Miriam is standing there, just so happens, and she says, hey, do you want me to find a maid servant, somebody that could help you nurse this baby so he can grow up to be healthy? And she said, yes, that would be great. And she says, I know a Hebrew who could do this. She calls her mother over, hey, would you be willing to nurse this baby? And she says, yes. So the miracle is she got to spend, they say about three years. They were nursing their babies then, and so she got to spend three, maybe even a little bit longer, with him. So she got to nurse him and tell him all the things about her life, all the things about her God. And it was really quite a miracle. Miracles are things that don't happen often, right? That was something that happened. So the most important part of this is, Moses grows up, he lives in the palace for 40 years. So he's 120, and I'm going to break his life down into three. So he lives in the palace for 40 years. This is the first part. So, 40 years. A lot of you guys in here are 40 or over. So a good part of his life, he lived there, and he had a great life, you guys. He lived in the palace. He had servants. He had everything he could ever want. He had great food, he had all the great things that he could want. But one day, Moses is out traveling, and he sees one of the Egyptians being really mean and beating one of the Hebrew slaves. This was his mother's people, right? He got really mad. He got really mad and he killed him. And then it sinks into him, what he's done. So he flees. He runs. He flees to the wilderness. He goes out to the desert and he meets some people out there. He actually marries, has some kids, and he stays there for 40 years. The second part of his life is he's out in the wilderness and learning from Jethro. His father in law is teaching him all the things about how to be a good leader. He didn't know he was, but God was preparing him for the great things to come, which happens in our lives, right? 2020, we look back and we say, oh, I see. God was preparing me for something there. God was preparing him for what was to come. And so when he's 80 years old, he's on the backside of a mountain in the middle of nowhere, and he sees a burning bush, and he's so enamored by it because it's burning, but it's not burning up, and he can't quite figure out what's going on. And he goes over to this burning bush to see. And this is where we're going to get to see in Exodus three, if you have your bibles, turn there, we're going to read the conversation between he and God. Or you can look up on the screens. And when the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God said to him from within the bush, Moses. Moses. He knew his name. And Moses said, here I am. I don't think he knew who he was saying, here I am, too. But he said, here I am. This bush is talking to me. What in the world is going on? And God said, do not come any closer. God said, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. And then he said, I'm the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He had heard about all of them from his mother. And at this time, Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. The Moses said, the Lord said to Moses, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. And I am concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. The home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, parasites, Havites, Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me. And I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Oh, wow. Now, you would think, first of all, after murdering someone and kind of being exiled to the wilderness, God could pick anybody he wanted to pick to do this. Surely there was some more people in the lineup that he could have picked that would have been better than Moses. But no, God picked Moses. He had been preparing him for this. He could have kept Moses on the sideline, but he didn't. He thought, this is the time for Moses come back. I'm going to put him back in the game. It was a big assignment. Moses was very well aware of this. He knew what this would mean to the Egyptians. They had grown that whole place on the backside of slaves who were working for them, serving them, preparing food for them, helping build their country into what it was. And he knew they weren't going to give up the slaves and start doing this work themselves. Theologians say it was about 3 million people. Can you imagine? It's big enough to say, hey, can you go to the airport and pick up so and so? We're like, oh, my gosh. Getting the traffic, all the things. And this was like, no, I want you to go get 3 million people by foot and you're going to take them out of Egypt and into the place. I'm not telling you yet. I'm going to tell you when you get going. I'm going to tell you how to get there. I would have had a lot of questions. How about you guys? Before I go, I'm going to need to know a couple of things. Moses didn't. Moses obeyed and headed out to Egypt on foot. The promised land is modern day Israel. If you're kind of wondering, where is all this taking place, it's including Gaza and the west bank, Jordan, parts of Egypt, Syria and Iraq. And Moses knew this was not going to be an easy task. Remember, he had lived there for 40 years. He knew everything about it. His family was still there. He still had friends there. But he knew if anybody was going to be able to do this, it was him. He had the influence. He had the love of his mom still there. He knew God was preparing him for this. He also knew the hebrew people dreamed of this land. They had been hearing about it their whole lives. When God had spoken it to Abraham, it had been passed down through generations. This land that we're going to, we're going to be free. It's our very own land. We're not land where somebody else is. It's our land. It's the land of God. It's the land of his people, and he's going to give it to us. He had spent a lot of time with those hebrew people. His mom had talked about them, told them what? People of great character, kind people, loving people. He didn't want to let them down. So Moses obeyed God. He set out. He goes to pharaoh. You know the song, pharaoh, pharaoh, let my people go. And he said it over and over and over. And you guys remember what Pharaoh said? Anybody know? No. So God turned up the heat, as God often does when we don't obey him. So God starts turning up the heat, and there's signs and plagues, and life's getting really bad for them. But each time, he dismissed Moses and said, no, moses, I will not bow to your God. I'm not going to do it. So the 10th plague was the worst, and it killed the egyptian firstborn sons, of which pharaoh had one. And it broke his heart. And he said, okay, moses, go. I can't take anymore from your God. Go and take your people. So at 80 years old, Moses begins the journey to the promised land with these 3 million people behind him. Of course, once they start getting out of Egypt, people realize what's going on, and the egyptian armies start following them to go get them and kill them or bring them back or whatever they have to do. And God shows up again. God opens the Red Sea. You guys remember the story. And they get to get in the Red Sea, and they keep following them, and God closes it up right behind them. And many, many of the egyptian armies die because they aren't obeying God, coming after his people. But what happens often happens in our lives. The egyptian people saw it. They saw the miracles. They saw what God had done for them. They're so happy for a little while, but they're tired, they're walking right, they're hungry, they're thirsty. They don't like the water. They said the water was bitter. They were starving. So God brought them mana. Remember, it just fell out of the sky. And they start saying, we don't want Manna tonight. Oh, I don't want chicken. Can I have something else? Do we do the same thing right. They became very unhappy over time. They were complaining and complaining and complaining. So Moses got really frustrated. So he starts complaining to God about the people, his own brother and sister, Miriam and Ariam, Miriam and Aaron, start complaining about his leadership to him. He's about done with these people. And God keeps telling him, Moses, I've raised you up for this. Moses, this is your comeback. You're going to get to do something great with these people. And finally, after 40 years of frustration and trials, they reach the edge of the promised land. And Moses is 120. Isn't that amazing? It took about 40 years, and I think about patience. How about you guys? If God asked me to wait a week or a month or a year or two for something I've really been praying for or something that I really want, or a healing or a financial breakthrough, a wife or a husband, whatever it is that you might be praying for. Moses waited 40 years, 40 years on God and continued to seek God. He continued to obey God, and he continued to trust God even when it wasn't easy. And I'm telling the story in fast, fast time, because we don't have a lot of time here today. Go back and read all of Exodus. You'll be heartbroken at the things that they had to endure and what they went through. But Moses showed up, and he's an example for all of us today. We all have a part to play in God's great story. And sometimes we, you know, Moses was saying, I don't speak so great. Can you get someone else? Or we think, hey, God, I really don't have time, or I don't have the internal energy to do these things that you called me to do. But we all have a part to play in God's story, because it's going to take each and every one of us to reach our nation of people about a God who loves them and cares about them, has great things ahead for them. He's chosen us humans to spread love to people. He's chosen us as humans to tell the world around us that God loves them. He's never going to give up on them, never going to betray them. Doesn't matter what we do. Moses did some really kind of, oh, y'all, crazy things. But God shows us he doesn't give up. He forgives, and he props us up for the next thing and says, I have something else ahead for you, but we have to show up. And if you will show up, I promise you, if you show up, God will not abandon you. He'll show up there with you. He will be there with you. There's no dream that you've dreamed that God's forgotten. He's waiting for the right time. I hope it's not 40 years for all of us, but if it is 40 years, God's going to give us the grace and the strength that we need to get through it because he wants to do something amazing in our future. But I also know that God wants to do something amazing in your life right now. Right now. But we have to step up to the plate. We got to play the game. We got to get in, we got to serve him. We got to do the things he's called us to do. Now, I'm going to say really quick, because I know that's easier said than done. And I know some of you in this room, I talked to you guys a lot. I know some of you are going through some really, really hard things, and I don't want to say, oh, this is all easy. Just come. And life's going to be easy because I know that it's not. But I know with God on your side, and I know that holy spirit within you is going to be speaking the encouragement and doing the things that you need to do to get to the place that God wants you to go. You might also be asking, okay, so why do I have to go through suffering? One of my really best friends, we've been best friends since we were 15 in high school, and she dated a guy from high school, so I knew Jay as well, and he died of a brain tumor recently. Man, you know how it always seems like, I'm so sorry when it's someone far away, but this one hit really close to home because I've grown up with them my whole life, and this was not the plan. This was not the plan that she was going to be our age and be alone now. And we've talked a lot about God's discomfort for her and the sweetness that God has been to her. But then there's the real fact of, okay, now there's just loneliness. I'm by myself. I'm having to make all these decisions and do all these things that I thought we were going to be doing together, and how do we make this into a good story? She was texting me, our birthdays are coming up. Our birthdays are both in April, and we've had a party most of our lives in April. When we were 16, we had a cake that had a car on it because we all got our driver's license, and we were so excited. So I was texting her saying, okay, hey, what are we going to do for our birthdays? This year, and we're going to meet. Our friend lives in college station halfway. Her birthday was in April, too, and she said, please plan something. I don't want people having a surprise party for the widow because they feel sorry for her. It's just the little things. I'm saying this because I know you have this in your life. I know you've lost somebody or something bad has happened, and there's certain times that you remember it more than others, and you're thinking, why does it have to be this way? And why does there have to be suffering in my life? God, what have I done to deserve this? But I will tell you, here's what I've learned over my life so far. Pastor Bill calls it God's megaphone. Pain is God's megaphone. It's the way that God gets our attention. Because if you're like me, when things are going great, I got a lot to do and I'm busy. And yes, God, God, I'm praying and I'm thinking about it, but it's not the same when something's tearing my heart out, when every thought of mine is around. Oh, this is devastating. How am I going to get past this? I'm in a different sphere with my relationship with the Lord. How about you? Talking all the time, I'm depending all the time, I'm trusting all the time. So sometimes the suffering, even though God didn't want it in a perfect world before sin came in, God's going to use it to build your bond and your relationship stronger and stronger and stronger. And that's what he did with Moses over these 40 years that he's traveling in the wilderness with these Israelites. He had nowhere else to turn but to God. So they talked a lot. They spent a lot of time together. He told his hopes and dreams, and they became this strong, strong relationship. Even job had a moment like this. I was thinking about other biblical characters, and you guys remember the story of job. Everything in the world could have happened. He lost his family. He lost everything he ever had. And his wife being the concerned wife she was, we would never say this, girls, curse God and die. Let's just move on. And this is what job said. He said, even though he would kill me, yet I will trust him. He knew the faithfulness of God. And even Jesus had a moment like this when he was praying to God before he went out to the cross. You guys remember? And he says, father, if you're willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me yet. I want your will to be done, not mine. I pray that a lot. God, here's what I want. I'm going to give you my two cent, right? Here's what I want. But, God, I know I don't know everything. I know you know everything, and you know what's going to be best. So I'm going to trust you, and I want your will to be done because I don't want to be in the middle of my will. That's a crazy place to be. Can you relate to job and to Jesus and to Moses? Yet somehow in the ocean of God's grace and mercy, he provides a way for a comeback. Your comeback might be a week or a month or a year, a few years maybe you've been setting aside for a little while. But here's what I know. When we predecide some things, we actually get them done a little better. And studies actually show when we predecide to do some things, we actually do them. If you set some things up the night before I set my vitamins out, I'll probably forget whatever it is for us. So what we're going to talk about today is how do we actually set ourselves up, predecide some things that we're ready for. Our comeback with. God. When I'm starving, it's not the best time. As we walk into Chewy's, this is what to eat. Because if you're like me, I'm going to have lots of chips and queso and I'm going to have a Dr. Pepper, right? If I think about it before I go, I might be thinking, okay, here's some healthy things I could have. Or, hey, I don't know if I'm going to get up and I'll decide in the morning when the alarm goes off if I'm going to work out or not. Not a good decision, right? Oh, no. We're going to hit the snooze and decide not to do it. This goes for all areas of our life, our character, financial discipline, who we should date, who we should marry, where we should go, all of the things. If we predecide a lot of those things, we kind of write it out and ask God, God, what in this is going to show you the most glory? We're going to make a decision that's going to honor God. So I thought of three life changing habits, you guys, that we could do that are actually going to help us grow closer to God. We're going to hear his voice better. We're going to know when it's time for the comeback. We're going to know when he has things ahead for us. And the first one is predecide to seek God. If you're taking notes, that's on your little, your bulletin there. We're going to predecide to seek God no matter what, no matter how tired we are, no matter how cranky we are, no matter what demands are on us every single day, we're going to open our bible. We're going to read two or three verses, whatever is best for you. But we're going to have to spend some time in God's word to know what he wants for us. That's what was the catalyst for Moses, is he was getting to talk to God every single day and hear what he had for him. So if we're not spending time with God, we're going off of our own memory. Maybe things we've heard Pastor Bill talk about. We're going off of the things we heard on the radio or the podcasts that we've listened to. How about what God says when you look in the Bible and you get to see what God actually says? If you're like me, a lot of times I'll go, oh, I've never read that before. I didn't know that was coming, so God illuminated it. The holy Spirit within us does that at the right time that I needed an answer. So I'm not going to say, okay, every morning, you need to get up 2 hours early, have a quiet time with God. That would be fabulous if you could do it. And a lot of people do it, but at the very least, man, now you got Alexa. Y'all know I love Alexa. I love Suri. Hey, Suri, as I'm getting ready, what's the verse for today, if nothing else, and I'm running really late, I can at least hear it. Ponder that in my mind. Okay, I'm going to ponder that on my drive to work. I'm going to think about that. God, teach me something about that today. We've got so many tools in today's world nobody else has had, so we really don't have an excuse to not do it. Now, as Easter is approaching, I'm so excited about Easter. And I want to tell you, we've created something just for you, and it's called the journey to the cross. You've heard us talking about it. If you haven't signed up, you can sign up. It's on your church app. You can get your phone out right now in church. I will not even be offended. And you can go sign up for. It's totally free. And it's going to be 16 days of devotions that you're going to get. So as we finished our 21 days in January and we asked a survey at the end and I heard back from you guys and everybody said, I'm so sad this is over. I loved getting a text every morning. It was the first thing that I saw or reading the email. The emails come out at five, the text comes out at eight. So we're not going to wake you up or anything, but you've got some options to spend. Just a few minutes. It's going to be a few verses. There's a prayer. Pastor Bill has done a video, short video. None of it's going to take a whole lot of time, but it's all about Jesus's journey to the cross, all the interactions he had. We're going to start in the upper room when he tells his disciples what's going on, all through his betrayal of his people, his death, his burial, his resurrection, all of it over 16 days. So when Easter comes, it's not just one day. When we hear about the crucifixion, which is great, but we prepared our hearts for this. I think Easter is going to mean more to us than it has ever met before as we go through these stations of the cross. A couple of weeks ago, I was putting all this together and I was proofing it one more time. Dawn was getting it all up on the website and pressure was on because I had a lot to get to her. And she makes it all happen, you guys and I sat in my office and I closed the door for about 2 hours and I read it all the way through. Okay, does this all make sense? This is prayer. Go with this passage, all of it. I start crying. 2 hours, I'm reading. Jesus is telling them in the upper room, somebody's going to betray me. And then we see what Judas does, one of his best friends. And then we see how hard it was. We see the pain he went through. We see his mom watching him die on the cross. And it broke my heart. And I'm thinking, if somebody comes in, they're going to think somebody's died, but they didn't come in. So I just want to encourage you. Sign up for it. Let's see what God does as we start on March 13. Spending time in God's word every day as we start looking forward to the cross. The greatest comeback that has ever happened is when Jesus came back to life. I think it's going to change all of our lives. All right, number two. Number one was seek God. Remember? Number two, predecide to obey God. That's a tough one. Even when you don't like what he's saying, like Moses. Even if you're know God, choose someone else or God. This is too tough. I think. You think I can handle this? My friend was telling me she kind of got a scary diagnosis of her own, and she's like, surely God doesn't think I can handle this, too. And it all turned out to be okay. Sometimes we think that, don't we? Think God? I think you got the wrong person here. I don't know if I can handle all that you have ahead for me. But we got to trust God and we have to obey what he's called us to do. If you're not sure what that is, good news is you got the Bible study coming up and we're going to start reading some things that he wants us to do. All right? Seek God, obey God. The third one is predecide to trust God. Some of you, like me, have trust issues. I have some trust issues from betrayal in my life, and it's not easy for me. My first inclination is usually, no, that's not true. I absolutely drive my husband crazy. He will tell you. He will tell me something. And I'm like, I got to see it. I forgot what the last one was like yesterday. He's like, I know you're going to have to go look at it. You don't believe me. This isn't hurting my pride as a man anymore. You guys know how that feels. But I have to see it to know that it's true. And sometimes we don't get to see it. Sometimes we have to trust God when we don't know if it's true or not. But God has told us to trust him and to rely on him. So God is on our side. He's on our team. He has a great comeback ahead. One thing I wanted to share with you as we close today is as we're looking ahead at Moses's life, one of my favorite passages is actually at the end of Exodus. When I was in seminary, I did whole study months. I studied on this and wrote a big paper on what happened with Moses in Exodus 33. If you have your Bibles and you want to turn there, we're just going to read verses twelve through 23. Moses had spent all this time with God and it totally enamores me, but they had become such close friends that Moses gets pretty gutsy and he starts asking God, he had this one big question that he's going to ask God, and let's look at it together. So Moses said to the Lord, you've been telling me, lead these people, but you've not let me know whom you will send with me. That's a big question. Sometimes when God asks us to do something hard, okay, I can do it. But who are you going to send to come alongside me to walk this journey that I don't think I can do by myself? That's what he was asking. And you have said, I know you by name, and that you have found favor with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. It's a good prayer for us every day. Remember that this nation is your people. At the end of the day, he's really done with them. Do you guys say this to our husband? I remember. I would say, okay, this is your son. Our daughter was an angel. She's going to probably be listening. My son's not listening. So I can say that is, I would usually say, this is your son. He's just like you have you guys said that? And that's what he's saying. These are your people. But the Lord replied, my presence will go with you. That's who's going. I'm not calling somebody else in the physical form to walk along you, but my presence is going with you, and I will give you rest. Then Moses said to him, if your presence doesn't go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you, and I know you by name. Moses had one more big question. He said, okay, great. Basically. Then Moses said, now show me your glory. And the Lord said, I will cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face, for no 1 may see me and live. Then the Lord said, there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. And when my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft in the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. And then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face may not be seen. Wow. Can you even imagine? Can you imagine being this close to God that you say, okay, God, now I need to see you. I said that a little bit before. Hey, God, I need you to show up. I really need to see something today. That's a sign from you to know I'm walking in the right way. Or do you need me to shift and to do something else? Because I will do what you ask me to do. But God showed up, and God's saying the same thing to me and you today. Hey, there's a place right here next to me. Come on up. The view is good. Come on up. Stand next to me. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to cover you. I am going to be the one next to you. And if you have Jesus inside of you, you have my very presence inside you to speak to you, to tell you the things that I want you to do, to walk alongside you. You are never alone. Moses died right before they entered the promised land. He didn't get to step foot in it. Scripture says, because of the sin he and some of the other people have done, they actually got to the very edge of it and they didn't get to step over. But it was okay with Moses, I think. I think he had accomplished his comeback. He had done what God had called him to do, and he was standing on the edge, ready to send his people in to God's place. I think that's what God's saying to me and you today. I know you by name. Remember, he kept saying that, I know you by name, and I'm pleased with you. I've found favor with you. He's saying that to me and you today. So if you're just feeling, I don't know, my life's a little hard right now, or I'm not sure I can take all of this in. God has a message for you, and he sent me here today as I was praying about what I'm supposed to be telling you, that he's the God of the comeback. And he is the comeback for you, for every person in this room, for every person online. He's not a scarcity God. There's not one or two. He's got more than we could ever imagine available for us as we trust in him. And like Moses, you may feel that you're on the backside of nowhere, that you've done too much wrong, made some bad decisions or maybe you made good decisions and the bottom just fell out and you don't have it within you. But Moses'story shows us that God sees us and he's going to find us there and meet us there and take us to the place that he wants us to go. So my challenge for you today is let's join Moses. Let's join God. Let's do whatever he wants us to do. I think our church will be so blessed by the things that God's called you to do. Whether it's here or in your job or in your family, wherever it is is you as a part of our church body and our church family. That's what we are. We're a family. And when each individual person is better and stronger and doing what God wants them to do, our church as a whole is better and stronger. And we want to be a place that's a beacon on a hill. We want to be a church that people come in and say, oh my gosh, there's something different here. I met with a girl last week and she was telling me about her life and she's in her late sixty s and she said she had gotten divorced and kind of just gotten out of church for different reasons. And she got in a call, that megaphone was speaking and it wasn't what she wanted to hear. And she said, God, I surrender. I just surrender. And she felt God tell her, okay, get back in church. So she came here and she said, the second I walked through the front doors, not the auditorium doors, the front doors, I felt God. And I knew this is the place I'm supposed to be. And she said, I'm an introvert. I'm just telling you all these things you're asking me to do, to serve and be in a group and get to know people. And she said, it's not within my comfort zone, but I'm doing it. I've never been happier in my life. She said, you know how she become a Christian? When she was twelve, she asked Jesus into her life and she said, you know that feeling that you get when you're just a new believer and you're so excited? She said, I have it back. I've got it back. And I'm kind of driving my family all crazy because I'm telling them, you can have it back. Come to church with me. So maybe God's calling you to be that to somebody in your world because we talk about that. We're the Bible that people read and maybe they'll walk in same thing and say, oh, my God, this place is amazing. People are so friendly. She's like, people didn't even know me, were saying hi to me. I kind of didn't know how to take it at first. Music was great. Pastor Bill's amazing. In fact, she said, I'm bringing my family when I get baptized. I want to be sure Pastor Bill's speaking on that day. I said, yes, we all get it. We all know. We all know. We all love Pastor Bill. Yes. To have a day off here and there. You get that too, right? But God is changing lives. I get to see it because people tell me their stories and what God's doing in their lives, and I'm so blessed and humbled by it. You guys, God has called us to be passionate and on fire for him. So other people want what we have. I pray that for us today, as we close and we pray, you ask God what your thing is. What's your comeback? What's he got for your life? What are you going to do? That might be your little step, but it might change the steps for many, many people. Let's pray. Father God, just as Moses said, if you are pleased with us, teach us your ways. Help us to continue to find favor with you. Help us to stay focused on remembering the gift of Jesus. And as Easter is approaching, Lord, this season, these few weeks that we have ahead before March 31, help us to stay focused on you, inviting people to come to church to know you. We all have people in our life who aren't in church or maybe been hurt in church, maybe just been out of church for a while, that this would be their time to come see what you have ahead in their life. Romans, your word just says that if we declare with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and we believe in our hearts that you raised him from the dead, we'll be saved. So I just want to be sure everybody listening today has done that. And if they have not asked you to be the Lord of their life, would they do it today? Just say a quick prayer. Jesus, I need you. Please come into my heart. Be the Lord of my life. It's a simple prayer, God, but that's all that you require for us, is to come in simple faith, God, make a way for us. It's a song we were singing. When there's no way, do it again. Make a way just as you did for Moses and his people. Make a way. For every person that's got a big challenge ahead, would you make a way for them? Thank you for providing for us each and every day. For loving us, protect us, lead us, and keep us in your will. In Jesus name, amen. [00:38:16] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting Metchurch.com so that can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.