Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
How to be Bold | Week 4 | 8th Year Birthday!
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Relate's 8th Birthday Party and the How to be Bold Panel!
Join our Leadership team in a discussion about practical ways to Bold this Year!
- We have to be bold for God in a wise way.
- Obedience is our job, the outcome is God's job
- You've got to die to yourself and be obedient, because obedience begets blessing every single time.
- Even the timid boldness is the yes that God needs.
- You don't grow when you stay in the same pot you've been in.
- Obedience is God's invitation to you.
- Life is letting others in and letting the walls down.
- Obedience to God can mean saying no to yourself.
- God is instructing you, and he wants you to follow his direction.
- We can be accountable to God and still keep our secret things hidden.
- If we're not accountable to somebody then we're accountable to nobody
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Dream Team And Building Progress
SPEAKER_02Alright, alright, everybody. It's so good to see you in the house. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Can we just do something for me? Would you guys stand up on your feet? And let's just give it up one time for Jesus. He's the reason. We're here because of him. Y'all can do better than that. Come on. He deserves glory. He deserves honor. How about just 10 seconds? Let's go. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five. Let's give it up. Come on. Three, two, one. Here we go. Okay, alright, alright. He's a good guy. He deserves the honor. He deserves the glory. This is not about us or what we've done, but what he's doing in us. Amen. Before you sit down, come on, y'all. Stand up, stand up, stand up. I just want to see something with my own eyes. I'd love seeing everybody in the same room. I love being able to see you back in the theater. I couldn't see anybody. This is a far cry from being in my living room where I think we were uh just a few of us for a few minutes, but then there was a bunch of us. If you've been around, I if you've been around for five minutes or five days or five months, I love that you're here. We couldn't do it without you, but let me just ask if you've been here going back, maybe let's just start way back. Uh 2020, pre-like before COVID. If you guys, in fact, stay standing if you've been here since pre-COVID. If not, y'all can go ahead and have a seat. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We've got a few who have been around for a good long time. Alright. And if you've been around since we were having meetings just in my living room, you can stay standing. Because there's a few of those in the room too. Yes. Amen. We had a few, a few in the first service, also. You guys can sit down. You guys are so awesome. We have a lot of faithful people in the building, and I love that the vision that God's given us is so big that we need more. We need to continue to can continue to impact the community in a way that reproduces the faith that God has put in us. God is faithful, and we can only try to live up to that faithfulness and let his work shine through us and see other people's lives transformed. So many people in the buildings' lives have been transformed because of the work that you're doing. Uh that it's not just one person, it's not just me or even the people on the stage, which by the way, y'all are so talented, incredible people on stage. But here's what I know over the last eight years or so. Now I think the dream team is maybe about 120 people. We couldn't do it without the dream team, so let's give it up for one for the dream team one time. Of course, a lot of them are not in the in the room, they're serving all over the building every week. But uh, thank you guys for being awesome. Thank you guys for uh just doing an amazing job over the last uh seeing this building transformed, this property transformed so that we could have a uh a home base to do. I can't I remember I say this all the time that when we started, I thought we could be, we could do everything God wants us to do without a building. We'll just meet in the theater and my house and rooms all over the city, but it turns out a building really helps. It turns out a bit a building is very useful, and so uh it's it's gotten better and better and better. Some of you guys have seen even uh last night or Friday night, they painted more stripes on the parking lot over here. So you were able to thank you, Pastor Susan. She's excited about the next week. They're doing this side and continuing to do more work. You don't see every week we're putting more dirt and rock over there so that less people get stuck. So I don't think we've had pulled someone out of the mud in a long time. So that's yes. All right, that that is um, as you can see on stage, we have a lot of things happening today. Uh we're finished with 21 days, 21 days of prayer and fasting, yes. And today is the not not only is it the finish of that, we're we're we're continuing in our series how to be bold. But today, uh, if you didn't notice, not only are we celebrating our eighth birthday, but also we are kicking off our small group season for the spring of 2026. So if you haven't signed up for small group, get in one. We need you in one. I'm gonna invite some panel members to join me on the stage as quick as possible. Thank you, band, and we're gonna dive right into a discussion, a conversation. Get us a little bit tighter over here. Yes, I'm gonna sit by you. We're gonna get everybody up on stage. I wish I had time to really introduce everybody very, very well. Let's see, we're missing, we got microphones. Coming. All right, we got it, we got it coming.
SPEAKER_00Nice.
SPEAKER_02All right, I'll pass that one that way and keep this microphone. Um, just really quickly, I will let uh each of these guys, I would say 15 seconds, introduce yourself. Otherwise, we'll just spend the day introducing ourselves. So you guys know I'm Pastor Sean and my lovely wife.
SPEAKER_00Pastor Angie, that's my name. I've been here since day one, day two, day two. Day two.
SPEAKER_02Week two.
SPEAKER_07Week two, week two. Good. Marlene, I've only been here about maybe 16 months or so. Marlene Allen, good and I Gonzalez.
SPEAKER_05Make sure you all join Sacred Strides. Small group. She's pushing up with whole.
SPEAKER_02Pushing your small group, yes.
SPEAKER_04That's a good way to work in that plug, yeah. I am Pastor Susie. I have been here about three months shy of launch. I just missed the living room. Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_03I'm here right on time. And I've been here a year shy of the launch. So there we go. January seven years. I've been here seven years. A year shy of the launch. They're making y'all do the math.
21 Days, Birthday, And Small Groups Launch
Panel Introductions
SPEAKER_02That's okay. This is edited him. I was following Susan. I'm sorry. That's good. Very good. So today um we'll have a couch conversation with the series, uh, how to be bold. My my plan from the beginning, my hope would be that uh throughout this series that you're challenged to be bold. That has been the uh how to be bold is is practical. How do we actually live it out? There are plenty of examples and inspiration in the Bible, and I think I've brought you a bunch of those from the book of Daniel. Today we're gonna kind of look at the book of Daniel. But this the the story, the idea that we're gonna kind of um unpack and and discuss around today is really not Daniel specifically, but three of his friends. And this is a moment, really, that the the differential between the messages in the series before today and today is that I think sometimes boldness you have a you have a season a ramp into a season of boldness where you're especially 21 days of prayer, you uh you have a thought process going on, like, you know what, I really should do this, or I need to do this in my life, or I feel like God's leading me towards this decision. Sometimes that's like, you know what, I need to get back in church. I need to start reading my Bible more. I need to press it. I need to, I need to go further. Take a God deals with us on a step that requ that's we kind of know it's coming. Sometimes you don't know it's coming. This is this is I think this is that moment where uh I want to talk about boldness when you don't get to plan for it. You're pressed into boldness, or how do we deal with that kind of boldness? That's a different, that's a different really decision-making process altogether. And I I thought, what better way for us to discuss it and to share personal how we've dealt with it? And uh, I just want to kind of set the tone and then I'll pitch it and let you guys discuss, and we'll we'll kind of dive into it. But uh, the verse where we pick up Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, this is um really three Hebrew boys that are pre-teenagers, probably, um, young teenagers, probably 12, 13, 14 years old. And in Daniel chapter 3, verse 4, it says this the herald shouts, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, large harp, pipes, and other musical instruments, bow to the ground and worship King Nebuchadnezzar's gold. You guys win. Y'all have passed the test. I don't know the whole series. That was your assignment and you stuck with it. Nebuchadnezzar is a bad guy. Thank you. Thank you. Good, good, good. Terrible king. I'd rather you boo for him than me. Anyone who refuses to obey, and here's the here's the uh the call to boldness, anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into the a blazing furnace. So the whole nation is given this charge, and three out of the whole nation, three that we hear about choose to not bow down when the when the call comes, when the trumpets blow, the instruments play, these three. In fact, I would say that for any of us that'd be a tough time, but when you're 12 and 13 and 14, maybe it's even harder. I love that it's not uh 80-year-old Daniel this week. This is uh that means boldness is not an age thing. This is not I've lived long enough to finally be bold. Do we have any 12-year-olds in the room? Raise your hand up high if you're 12. There's more than three, but if you're 12 years old, would you stand up? Oh, this takes some boldness.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_02What can we have them do? I'm just kidding. Sit down. Y'all can sit down. No, but it takes boldness just to stand up in front of a crowd, and yet these three Hebrew boys, they remain standing when everyone else bowed down. There's gonna be a point in all of our lives where we have to make a decision. Am I gonna stand out for God? And I'm pressed into it, not just where I just decide, well, will I put myself into it? No. If you choose to follow God, there's gonna be a moment where you're gonna have to decide, am I gonna either stick with it or just blend in? Congratulations. It takes a bit boldness for a 12-year-old to stand up in front of the church. That's awesome. But for every person in the room, so I thought, let's um I think there also comes a uh a challenge in in the series, boldness. There comes a challenge where we are kind of on on the line when boldness turns into stupidity. Right? There so nobody here's ever done anything stupid, right?
SPEAKER_03So y'all ever done anything stupid? So wait a minute. So I I will talk to I got booed. So I it, you know, that it there's memories, right, that go back. And so I I have a uh something that I did. I was really, it was I was really young. Um I wasn't 12, I was a little bit older than 12, but this is one of those things that I'm looking at you young people, don't do as I say or as I do in this moment. Um, but I remember I was I was a teenager and we used to, we had a four-foot swimming pool in my backyard, and we used to jump off my dad's shed into the pool. No big deal, right? Everybody did it and it was fun, but I wanted to take it to the next level. So I thought, where where can I jump from? And we had a two-story house, um, and the the pool was actually below the peak of the two-story house. So it's it's technically almost three stories that I decided I was gonna jump from. And um I did, and I jumped, and and it hurt, but it was uh but I did make it to the water, and I did lay, and it was foolish and dumb, but you know, uh, I was the first one to do it. So I think I was a little bold in that instance.
SPEAKER_02So a big key in this the whole idea of how to be bold is not being stupid and not being foolhardy, but deciding when is boldness appropriate for God? When is it is it is this a call for all of us to go buy a bullhorn and stand on top of our car at Walmart? I don't think that is boldness for God in a wise way because it doesn't produce what God wants to produce in us. That's right. It what's the fruit of the boldness? And today this in this story, the fruit of the boldness is is uh we'll see at the end is is incredible. But this is also like when we're forced into a permanent decision, like this if you ever made a decision and it just like became like this knot in your stomach trying to decide I don't know which way to go. I'm sure it wasn't easy for those boys to like maybe we should bow down. But have you ever been in when faced with this permanent, this is gonna affect the rest of my life? I see you nodding your head, Marlene.
Series Pivot: Boldness Under Pressure
SPEAKER_07All right, you want to hear about it? I didn't jump off a roof, how about that? So, no, what while serving in um in Asia as a missionary, I was um our family was introduced to this little boy who was stateless. His mother was from one country, she gave birth to him here, so that makes him stateless in the eyes of the world. So, anyway, so I was my I was just determined I need this boy to have citizenship, and we were trying all the different routes. And then one of the pastors came to me. I understand a pastor came to me and said, Hey, the village headman down the road is um his son died. He did not report it. He wants to sell this birth certificate for$2,000. You know, missionary, that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. But you know what? Did I ask the Lord that I seek the Lord? So I boldly, I boldly, foolishly went after that. And I paid it on a Friday. And then by all weekend long, that pit in your stomach, that knot in everywhere you hold is just I just knew no, this isn't what God had for him. He was his name was Moses, and I was like, I'm about to buy him an identity, and he's gonna have to live in this identity for the rest of his life, looking behind his back of when is this gonna catch up for me uh to me. And so uh by the Monday, I called the pastor, I said, I'm I'm out. And he said, Would you not get my money back? I said, I don't care, here's this birth certificate. I've I need to be free. I knew that what God was doing in this family, the blessings of the Lord makes one rich. That wasn't gonna make us rich at all, but rather us watching behind our backs. So, as boldly as I made the decision to do it, then I did, I was just as bold to say, no, sorry, this is not for us. And we're we're uh we turned it around. So now he is 20, he'll be 26 next month. He's getting married in May, and he does not have to look behind his back for anything. So, yeah. So, yay, yay, yay.
SPEAKER_05Amen. That's so good. So I'm gonna say that uh my bold move was um never had plans to come out to Texas or live. Five days was my top.
SPEAKER_02Don't say anything bad about Texas.
SPEAKER_05But it but there came a day where that decision had to be made, and uh, I have to say it was the best decision ever, but it came off of a nudge, right? Like a godly nudge, going, hey, uh, you got stuff to do, right? And and the results of that is an amazing community out here that that I've surrounded myself with. Uh best decision ever.
Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego Set The Stage
SPEAKER_00I think there is multiple times, you know, I am 150 years old. So over the course of the last 50 decades, uh, there has been moments where I can recognize big decisions that were made. And it it being relates to birthday, and you probably all know this story, but Pastor, we were in the middle of prayer and fasting. He came to me and he said, I want to start a church. I feel like the Lord, it's time. And I we laugh about it. Y'all think I'm playing. I literally looked at this dude and I said, Good luck. Sounds fun. You do you, boo. I was not in at all. Y'all think I'm kidding. I literally was like, No, no, that's hard. I don't like that. That sounds like work. And so the Lord started working on my heart as he does, because I'm thick-headed German human. And so uh He's working my heart. And I I remember so clearly, almost nine years ago, driving Luetta to Alding Westfield going the other way, not to this precious little church, but another one down the road, because God's timing is perfect. And I remember opening my mouth and saying the words, and I knew at that moment I couldn't take them back. And it was, you know, I've been thinking. It's a it's a start, right? And I felt him, you know, you've been married a long time. You feel when they're really listening. And he didn't he didn't really move, but he leaned in. You know what I mean? He didn't move. He didn't what have you? And I said, I might could consider. We could start in our living room. You can play the guitar, I can make waffles. We have 10, 12 people. I I think I could do that. That's all the man needed. Clearly, we are not in our living room. I have yet to make waffles.
SPEAKER_02It was ten people for like five minutes after that.
SPEAKER_00Listen, it was four people when you told the kids, five when you told the dog. We just start at I mean after that. But I just remember in that moment making that, even though a timid bold declaration of I think I could, even being afraid, recognizing I know ministry is hard, I've done that before. I've been hit with that before. Knowing the the even the timid boldness is still the yes that God needs.
SPEAKER_02Right. And that forced decision is like a test that we have to take. We all have to take it. It comes in a bunch of different ways. We're confronted with a decision, and the decision's a test. We think it may it may be a decision where you think it doesn't matter or it feels extra heavy, and I just gotta get through this. But it it is it supremely matters because what you do is a test. The three Hebrew boys could could have easily said, we just need to survive this day so we can work for God, when they could have missed the thing that the working, the living, the existing to follow God is to stand up in the face of that challenge. What's your challenge? I it could be different for every person in this room, but it's likely there are lots of them that are the same. Um and so I want to kind of go through just I have a few questions that we'll that we'll kind of answer together. But the first one um I think is very obvious because it wasn't the Hebrew boy that had to stand in front of everybody, it was three of them, and so I think our our group matters, and so I'll start with the this first question. First question is why does it matter if I'm in a small group? Why does it matter if I'm in a small group? It matters.
SPEAKER_03I'll take it. Yeah, so uh you know, it's you gotta be accountable to somebody, right? And it's easy to say, hey, I'm accountable to God, and and but we can be accountable to God and and still keep our secret things hidden. But when you're in a small group and you get to know different people and you get to know and get close to different people in your group, there is a time when things that weigh on you that you want to open up and you want to you want to get things off your chest. There are things that God works on you that you know you can't hold on to forever. And so accountability is huge. And so guys can see when you're struggling, and I say guys, because I'm a guy and and and I'm gonna plug a couple of little guys small groups. They have the Bro code, they have the uh the the the I I can't even think of the name of it, but Alvin's in the back, he leads one that's uh that's just uh the brotherhood group. Like there's several guy small groups out there, but accountability is key because if we're not accountable to somebody, well then we're accountable to nobody, and if we're accountable to nobody, anything goes, and so that's that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's so good. I I love that you said that actually. If if Shadrach was standing there and Meshach and Abendigo had just stayed home that day, or some for some reason they weren't there to stand with him, would Shadrach have been able to stand up by himself?
SPEAKER_07Much harder, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh um, what I want to add to this is this for small groups, guys, that it's understanding how God actually created us. He's created us to connect, to connect with one another. And what what happens is that when I go to attend a small group, um, I'll just give you my brief history of a small group that I led in Denver area. Um the one the lady who now leads it, she's 80 years old, and she says, Yep, I remember the first day I met you. She said, She said to herself, that's one closed cookie. And I can say this. Really, really. But I knew I knew how to do ministry. 40 years of ministry, but I knew how to hide.
unknownYeah.
Boldness vs Foolishness
SPEAKER_07So that you don't get the real me. You won't know this hard. But I within the last eight years of just practicing relational skills has brought me to life. And that's what small groups do for you. We get in with people who allow you to be your best self. You'll live together, you'll you'll bury some people, you'll marry some off, you'll welcome some babies, but we do life together. The statement that's in when I read about the small groups, it says, life does not happen in rows. So showing up here, this isn't the fullness of what God has for us. It happens in circles. And that's what we want is to be vulnerable. Just, you know, if we want the abundant life that He's promised us, I've come that you might have life and life abundantly. The life is letting other people in. And but that means letting the walls down. It means the healing and the wholeness that has to happen, the intentional work. I can go on forever. But small groups, go for it. Join one today.
SPEAKER_02So you saying that, closed cookie. And then uh Pastor Angela said there's a bunch of them in the room. I'll tell you that for me, I went several years in this church. Um, well, as a pastor, many years, 20 years, without uh I was involved in small groups, I've led small groups, engaged, and talked and did all the stuff, but I was I was still, you said hiding. I don't I didn't feel like I was hiding, but I felt like there was this uh barrier for like, okay, I'll have to keep myself to myself because I'm the pastor, and you know, I there's some things I can't share. You know, I have to protect the other people in my group from me, right? Until I realized it was a just a huge mind eye-opener. Like one year, my I felt like the Lord just really dealt with me. Like, you're asking everyone to take the mask off and be real and share and be accountable and walk through life in circles and do all the things because that's what healthy is. That's the more God has for us. And and then, but I'm not doing that. I'm participating, I'm active. But that's whenever I decided I got into a group. So now my small group is uh there's probably 12 of us in a pastor's small group. I meet with them every month and we share. I have the one guy in our group says, Man, we just get in here and rip our chests open and tell show everything. I'm like, well, that feels like a lot, but it's what happens, right? We just, if you don't have a place where they know you, if you don't have a place where you can reveal it, you don't have to share your problems, your issues, your secrets with everybody, but you need somebody that you can share it with. Otherwise, we're making ourselves weaker. Yeah, like this is a world like y'all know we live in a world that it's very easy to be disconnected.
Personal Stories Of Risk And Restraint
SPEAKER_00Well, and that's really what I was gonna say is that and in a world that really um celebrates isolation right now. We really, you know, uh I'm you don't call me, I'm not gonna call you. We'll see how long the rel. You know, like what? What is that? That's gross. Like, don't do that. Call somebody. People are busy. It's a lot. This has nothing to do with you. Plot twist.
SPEAKER_06They're busy.
SPEAKER_00I'm busy. That's really what I want to say. I'm busy. Call me. So that what I want to what I'm saying is though, I think it's very easy to take a semester off. Isolate. I'm just gonna do my family, my my three. That's all I'm gonna have. Because that's comfortable and because it's safe, sort of. But the thing is is that you don't grow when you just stay in the same little pot that you've always been in. Yeah, you can you you will kill a plant like that. If you in fact, we were looking at we have some aloe in our backyard that have completely they're like dinosaur aloe. I'll I'll put it on, I'll put it in the I'll show you. I'll put it on the phone.
SPEAKER_02If you'll need aloe, we're the we have a lot of you want some aloe, come get it.
SPEAKER_00It's ridiculous. But because it it looks like that, because it has stayed in its same pot since we moved in the house. It has never been allowed to grow. It has never, and now it is ridiculous. And it it probably will not live much longer if we allow it to stay the way it is. We're gonna kill it. And you're the same way. You cannot stay in your same little pot for the rest of your life. You must branch out, you must have a new idea, you must have a new perception of something else through someone else's eyes. Because guess what? The world does not look just the way you think it does. And you can get really, really, really uh broken if you only think your truth is the truth. And I think for me, the best thing about small groups, and I've been in a bunch and relate, but my favorite one last semester was Anna's Sacred Strides number two. It's out there. Get on it, girls. All we did was go for a walk. But in the cons in the concept of walking, I heard the conversations. Because you know, women, we walk and we talk. That's what we do. And so, but I heard what I heard was I would hear a woman say something and her sister would call her on it. Not not uh not ugly, just easy. Like, hold on, that's not even what the Bible says. Well, hold on, that's not true. Well, hold on, the world is not that dark. That's just her algorithm. Hold on, you don't need to buy those shoes. You have five pairs of white tennis shoes. The thing is, is when you don't talk to anybody, your truth becomes God's truth, becomes the world's truth. And none of that is true because it's just your feelings. And feelings lie. That's right. And you gotta have someone that you can process out with. Do I need five pairs of the same white tennis shoe? Because Instagram tells me I do. No, you do not.
SPEAKER_02No. Ecclesiastes 4 12 says, This by yourself, you're unprotected. With a friend, you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped. So good. So I think it matters who you're with. And some of you guys sitting in the room are a single-stranded cord right now. And you may have broke and put yourself back together and survived and re recovered and healed, and then, but you're still back in a position where you're just a single-stranded cord. So get together, connect with someone. We got lots of small groups out there. This is not meant to all be about small groups, so we're gonna move on to the second, second discussion question, and that is what is obedience to God really look like? Because I I think it ultimately is a question, it's a test of obedience. Watch what happens in verse 16. With Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king whenever they would not bow down and he threatens them again. Um they replied to him, King Nebuchadnezzar. We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. We do not need to defend our ultimately, we don't answer to you, King. There's some things in your life that you need to tell. There may be some people in your life that you need to tell, I don't answer to you. I'm not here for you, I'm here for him. The one I answer to is above. And so that puts us to a place where um following God often means I'm not following something else. Anybody have an experience where you've had to tell someone else, uh I'm not gonna do that.
Why Small Groups Matter
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna I'm gonna share at least one of my experiences. And interestingly, the person that I said no to was probably the most interesting one, right? So I work in an environment that I thrive in. I hustle, I bustle. It's an operational type of job that requires my mind to be 100% all the time. And so, in following and being obedient, and the path that that was there for me, I had to give that up. And it was hard because for 26 plus years, that's what I knew to do. That was my go-to, that was my 16-hour safe haven, whatever. Um, so having to quit that job to make space for this that I do now, which I enjoy very much, was saying no to myself. It was me saying, Yeah, you're comfortable, yeah, you're trying to take control of this. Yes, you like it, so you're gonna stay in that space. But it was me saying no to me. Forget about you know, everybody else external. I was very difficult. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Probably you're the only control freak in the room. I know a bunch of you guys.
SPEAKER_00Well, I d I definitely know that. So when we uh began to tell our circle, our mentors, our direct, you know, the people that we looked up to that we were gonna start a church, they weren't all pleased with us. A lot of them had hoped that we would come and work for them at their churches. We I mean, you had opportunities to go to Florida, California. There were there were endless opportunities for us to move to serve at other churches. In fact, um some of them were just downright upset. And so that was hard for us. All of those, all of those options would have been, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but easier than to start something new.
SPEAKER_02Sometimes other people aren't gonna understand. Sometimes you're gonna have to let someone down to the point where I'm not gonna be able to talk them into understanding. Y'all knew y'all have had that experience. Anybody here? Susan? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04I've been saving my words for this. Are y'all ready? Okay, so you know, talking about even the voices, just as the example, can y'all imagine these three boys standing, right? When everyone around them is like, dude, get down, sit down, right? They had to go against all these crowds telling them that what they're doing was wrong. But we know that the Lord only does good things, right? He only leads us down the right paths. And I'll tell you, years ago, many of you may know, I've shared this before, but um, I was a district manager and I oversaw 28 stores across Houston. And we had just come out of 21 days of prayer at the church I was in, and I was praying for this promotion that I was up for. I was like, Lord, okay, this is the one, this is the one. And you know what? I got that promotion, and I was up. No applause. Y'all know not to applaud yet because the applause is coming. I was in Kansas City, Missouri, and I here I am with this big promotion. And alone in a hotel room, the Lord spoke to me and he said, I'm sorry, sister. I know that this is what you were praying for, and this is what you wanted an answer for, and this is what you think I have blessed you with. But, daughter, if you take this job right now, Anna knows, you will put it before me every single day for the rest of your life. That hurt my feelings. God, are you telling me to what? What are you trying to tell me to do? And you know what? It was a hard pill to swallow because I flew home the next day and I gave my two-week notice. Period. I left that company. And I I'll tell you, it was hard because the voices, my husband says, Wait, what? That's six figures, honey. Are you sure? And then you know what? My boss, who I had an amazing working relationship with, had worked for him for 11 years, said, Who told God told you that? But I had to say, This is, he said, not right now. And you know, every job that I have had since I left that one, I have made less and less and less money. But I have been more and more and more fulfilled. Like that is not everything. And I just want to say that not only translates to your job, that's the most easy for us all to relate to, but that translates to your relationships. How many times have y'all sat in one of his sermons and he said, Hey, maybe God's telling you to text that person right now? It can translate to being right there in the moment, doing something that somebody else, maybe your friends, are gonna say no to, or you're crazy or whatever, but God is instructing you and he wants you to follow his direction.
unknownYes, yes.
SPEAKER_01That's excellent.
SPEAKER_07And I I want to speak into that same thing with disobedience. Obedience is God's invitation to you. Here's where you can be. Yeah, here's where I want you. Will you trust me? Will you step into that? So that way you get to bring your full stuff to the table. Yeah, yeah. When I choose obedience, I'm choosing to I'm saying yes to what I know that He has for me. And being my best self is who you've been designed to be. A lot of us don't even operate there. We're operating out of fear, which is amygdala saying, Oh, scary, scary, scary, scary, scary. And it's like, and God's saying, no, best self is operating from the prefrontal cortex, and we'll talk about some brain signs one day. But uh that's that's when you you you remember what it's like you and your people to do, and it's like me to do this, to obey God and to do. Remember the old time verses, what would Jesus do? Yeah, same thing.
SPEAKER_06That's it.
unknownYeah, yeah, whatever.
From Hiding To Healthy Vulnerability
SPEAKER_00I think what really stuck out to me when we were studying about this this week, and a mentor said it to me is that in the middle of the word obedient is the word die. And so when you're obedient, you have to die to something. You have to die to what you want, die to your flesh, and the scripture says to crucify your flesh. And so in those moments where you know to do right, you know that you need to do this, but you really want to do this, or this would be easier, or do nothing would be easier. You gotta die to yourself and be obedient because obedience begets blessing every single time. Every single time.
SPEAKER_02How often is it that when the test comes of obedience, it feels like the sacrifice, it feels like the cost is going, it's good, it's gonna put you behind financially. Like it looks like on paper that the decision you're making is gonna put you behind or go backwards, or you none of us want to go backwards. We value the hustle, we value uh making more money, we we value the American dream, getting ahead, planning for our future, stability, financial overflow, right? We we know those with that's what we want, but sometimes following God means that I have to die to myself, to my flesh, to the what the world says, to culture, to other people's opinions. That's that's very, very good. That leads us to question three. How can I trust something I can't see? How can I see what's at the end of the story? None of us know it. The three Hebrew boys didn't know how the story ended when they were standing there saying, Nope, we're gonna stand.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I think it's important just just so we know the timeline of the book of Daniel. Daniel had not been in the lion's den yet. No, they did they didn't know that God had done would do that miracle. This was them just standing. Like and it and it says it, you're about to read it in the scripture. It says it. What even if you Yeah, here we go.
SPEAKER_02Verse 17. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty. Right there. They they just they just like he, the one we serve, the one we can't see, is bigger and more powerful than your power, your majesty. So will we be obedient to the seen or the unseen? Are we willing to trust the unseen? Have you had to depend on the unseen?
Isolation, Growth, And Gentle Accountability
SPEAKER_03So for me, it's about faith, right? And so uh the answer to that is yes. Um so I remember, and this is before we moved here, uh, we're uh uh Stephanie and I and and our kids, we were from Louisiana. And Woo! There we go. That's what I'm talking about. First service, no cheers. Only Miss Marlene. Go tigers. But anyway, um I'm sorry, got it off track. But anyway, in in 2010, so Kirsten was five, Maddie was three, and and and Brian, or Maddie was about to be three, and Brian was was barely a year old. And uh I I lost my job. And and when I say I was laid off, so so a lot of people have been laid off, and you get a severance package. I'm talking, I got to work and the doors were locked, and the company was out of business, and I was like, okay, I don't know what we're doing here. Um, and so we had no idea what we were gonna do. We we prayed and we believed that that you know God was gonna take care of us. Uh, but uh a little bit before that, a couple months before that, me and Stephanie finally understood and learned the true concept of tithing. And this isn't a tithing message, but I I just want to talk about it for a second because we understood the true uh concept of tithing. Her dad taught us, uh, we we went with the word. But what we realized in that moment is we had a decision to make because now we are out of work and we have no income. Uh we were filing for unemployment, all that good stuff, but we had no income, and then the income that we were gonna get was not equal to what we were doing. And we had three little kids at home that we were taking care of. Uh hey, Kirsten. And um, and so be because of all that, we you know, there there was a fear there. So we had a choice to make. Do we take care of ourselves, do we take care of our family, or do we give God what's God's? And so we made a choice then and there that we give God what's God's. So everything that we got in, no matter what it was, if it was a gift, if it was um um unemployment check, anything like that, we gave God the first 10%. The Bible says if you're faithful in the small things, he'll be faithful in the big things. And I'm telling y'all, for those seven months when I was out of work, and then the next six months when I actually took a job and my income was way less than before, which is crazy. Uh he took care of us throughout the entire thing. There was nothing that we needed for. I'm not saying we didn't want things because they wanted stare, but there was nothing we needed for. God took care of us the whole way. We understood the concept, we uh faithfully tithed every time, even to the point to where it made Stephanie cry a few times. Uh, not because she didn't want to do it, but because the Lord, the presence of the Lord was so strong on her to do the these things. And so uh fast forward, um basically a year later, I got a new job that brought us here. It paid me more money than we ever made, but because once again, when you're faithful in the small things, God is faithful in the big things, and he took care of us through that whole time, and he's still taking care of us to this day as we continue to move forward in everything that he has for us. So yeah, so faith.
SPEAKER_02So, so tithing is it's a test. It's not a test of money, it's a test of our heart and whether or not we'll be obedient. We can say, uh God, I I honor you with my whole life, uh, I worship you, I'll follow you, I'll be obedient wherever you want, but but not that. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_07One of the threads that you hear in a lot of the stories is this thing of fear. And we know the scriptures he hasn't, you know, given us a spirit of fear. We have so many fear scriptures, and and but the I just real briefly, the way our brains are designed, you're either operating in fear or you're operating in joy and peace. Your brain is designed for joy and peace. It's not designed for fear. Your best self again is when I'm when I'm in this place, a state of rest and peace and joy in Him. And so just that's just a little clue for you. When something's going on that's bringing fear, it's time to stop and say, Oh, what's the root of this? What's happening here? God, what are you what are you inviting me into? And so I just bless you with that, my friends.
SPEAKER_01Good.
SPEAKER_02Yes, very good. Our time is coming to an end, but we'll close with one last question, and that is um ultimately, I think, for all of us, facing the choice of obedience and facing the unknown, the seen and the unseen. But here's the biggest question. We're facing question number four, what if the outcome is not what I wanted? Like, I'll be obedient, but what if, what if in the end I'm way worse off? What if it like those three Hebrew boys? What if in the end we do all this, we're obedient, but then we die, and God doesn't save us from the fire, or God doesn't, you know, rescue us, like like they said. What if the outcome? And so I think um this verse, the last verse that we'll read in verse 18, it says that the three Hebrew boys tell the king, but even if God doesn't rescue us, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up. That I think that's the decision that all of us have to make. Am I doing it for the reward? Because faithfulness is rewarded. Tithe comes along with a blessing. When I'm obedient to God and my relationships and my decisions, if I follow him, then the the reward is promised. But what if am I doing it for the reward? No, I'm doing it because God deserves the glory and he deserves to for me to give him my life. He created me, he loves me, he's taken me somewhere, he's worthy of it. There's no one more worthy. And even if he doesn't rescue me through this, am I going to trust him with the outcome?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think that's where your relationship comes in. When we can't understand the work of his hands, we have to remember what his heart is. Because in his heart, he works all things together for the good of those who love the Lord. And a scripture says something, and are called unto his purpose. And so the thing is, is that it's that last part. We get all caught up on that front part. Oh, it all works together. Hold on, but called unto your purpose. You got you gotta do that last part. But that's the thing. We even if it doesn't turn out, even if he's still God, he's still gonna work it out. He's still because I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm holding up my end of the bargain and I know his heart.
Obedience Defined
SPEAKER_02Ultimately, obedience is our job, and the outcome is God's job. So can I trust him to do his job enough to do mine, which is obedience? Today I don't know where you may be standing. I know that all of us have shared uh different moments and times and challenges, and uh we could go on and on for hours. Probably everybody in the room is facing some decision of obedience, decision where maybe the Holy Spirit's dealt with you through 21 days of prayer or the beginning of the year with some steps you need to take. Might be moving towards something or away from something, more of this, less of this, start something, stop something, whatever it is that God's leading you to, whatever um you're being pressed to bow down to. Just like the the three boys, I I think the decision to be obedient was not made in the moment of okay, we have a choice to make everybody. Let's get let's get huddled up and make decide what our game plan's gonna be. We have to, when the when the trumpet blows, okay, all right, guys, what are we gonna do? No, this is not a play on the field that has to be called in the moment. This is it becomes so much easier if you've already pre-decided I'm gonna be obedient to God. When the choice comes, if it takes me out of obedience with God, if it takes me out of peace with what God wants me to do, if it takes me uh out of my group, or if if any of those things make it give me the boldness, okay, we're gonna stand together. This is what we're pre-deciding, we're gonna be obedient, we're gonna stand together. When the world says do this, we're gonna we're gonna stand for God. So wherever you are today, I hope that this is encouraging to you. I hope that in this moment you can forge yourself, you can just decide that okay, this is this is like uh Joshua said, as for me in my house, we're gonna serve the Lord. He says, Choose you. You have a choice to make today who you're gonna serve, who you're gonna how you're gonna stand and be bold. And so we're gonna close in prayer, but I I know that the Holy Spirit's probably dealing with some people in the room. You have to just make your decision. You have to decide. The band's coming. We're gonna close in worship. But I want you to just make a decision, whatever the Holy Spirit's nudging you towards. Whatever it may cost you, I promise you that the reward for being faithful and obedient is much more than it will cost you. So let's just pray for a moment. Lord, we love you, we honor you, we praise you, and we trust you with our lives enough to be obedient. Our hearts belong to you, our minds belong to you. This year belongs to you, our families, every decision that stands before us. We trust God that you lead us to life and life abundantly. You have so much more for us. Let us not get caught up and let us not get distracted by the statues that culture presents, the statues that our friends and family are living for and championing around us, and that the influencers around us would tell us that this is what life's all about. Lord, we trust that you will lead us in the paths of righteousness for your name's sake. Give us strength to stand bold. Help us to find the right voices of faith around us so that we don't falter. Lord, we recommit ourselves to obedience, to become better disciples of your word, to spend more time in your presence, to not trade what you have for us for a false hope.
SPEAKER_01Lord, we love you in Jesus' name.
Saying No To Others And Self
SPEAKER_02Before we go, I want to give every person in the room an opportunity. If you've never made a decision to follow Jesus, maybe you've never taken the time and decided to be a Jesus follower, this can be that moment. Why not? Why not today? Why not 2026, February 1st? Why not let this be the day where you maybe you have a knot in your stomach right now and you're feeling like, I don't know, I don't know if I can do this, I don't know if I can live up to it, I don't know if I'm worthy. Good thing is you don't have to be worthy. Good thing is none of us are worthy. We've all sinned, we're all sinners, we're all born into a world that's broken and dark. We don't deserve faith, we don't deserve God's love, but he gives his grace anyway. He sent his son to die and pay a price that none of us have earned, could ever earn. But we can accept a free gift of life simply by confessing out of our mouths that we believe and receiving that life together. So I would invite you to say this prayer with me. Let's say it together and start a journey of faith that you'll never look back and regret. If you're watching online, maybe this is you too. Today is a day that can be a turning point for the rest of your life that your family tree changes, that your family changes, your children's children will inherit the blessing and the reward for the decision that you'll make today. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? I won't embarrass you, but would you just repeat these words and say this with me as a confession of faith? Would you say this out loud? Heavenly Father, today I choose to follow you. I give you my life in exchange for yours. Forgive me of my sin. Forgive me for living for me. Today I live for you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's put our hands together. Thank you, panel. Thank you for joining us. You guys can be uh make your way down. The band's gonna come up. Would you guys stand up on your feet? I know we're a little bit behind time, but it is our birthday. So we're we've taken an extra seven minutes. So I love you guys, and we will see you next week. Don't forget to sign up for a small group on your way out. God bless you. Have an awesome week.