The Call To Give

It was so so so interesting all the different names for God. Especially in the Old Testament. He's Jehovah. He's Jehovah Shalom. He's God my provider. I don't I don't speak Hebrew, so we're going to have to ask somebody else. But like he's God. He's the prince of peace. He's the king of kings. He's the alpha. He's the omega. He's the beginning and the end. But when it comes down to it, he's our savior. All power in heaven and earth is is given unto that name. Because can I can I just say it doesn't really matter

if we're blessed or not. It doesn't really matter if we're provided for or not. Doesn't really matter if our king physically is on the throne. But what matters is that he saves us at the at the brass tax of it. Gets down to it. That's all that matters at the end of the day. That's all that matters. Jesus saves. That's as simple as it gets. I'm dismissed. It's prayer time right now. That's my message today. I'm just kidding. Would you Would you, if it's appropriate, hug someone's neck that you may have not talked to today?

That you may have not talked to today. As you're being seated, I want to thank the singers and musicians and tech guys and teachers and ushers and security for their time today. Doesn't happen by accident. Yesterday we had such a wonderful leadership meeting. I it was there was such a positivity in the air. You never know, right? When you get a group of people together, especially especially these guys, you don't know. You They all be mad or something. I don't know. I'm just picking out. There's such a positivity in the air. Uh Sister Stacy was

out sick. I don't know if there was something to do with that or not. I don't know. I'm just kidding. Sister Stacy, we missed you. If you're watching online, we missed you and we love you. We're praying that you get better. Uh there was there was such a uh such an optimism around what the possibilities because man are we thankful. We come in here, we walk into you like I I was I was saying this I think George and I were talking. You like walk through the hallways and the hallways are this or this and

you walk into this sanctuary. It's like you walk into this giant cavern in a in an underground cave. You're like thankful. I'm so thankful for that. Uh God's God's been good to us in the church. Amen. How many How many remember being a young adult? How many remember? All right. Some of y'all old enough y'all don't forgot. Now, I did I did stop by the hyphen class today and I said, "Guys, I'm gonna pick on y'all today. It's going to feel personal, but it's not." All right. I did warn them. It's I'm I'm talking about

the age range. How many remember what it was like being like 18 to about 25? H, listen. I know you started I start I know you started having like kids like whenever. I'm just kidding. Now, now we're gonna We all all Everybody's mad now. All right. Uh 18 to 25, you know, like we Some of us have different memories of that. Some of us have different recollections of that. Um if you ask an 18 to 25 year old what they're doing, I don't know. Or they'll make up something and it sounds really dumb and you're

like, "Yeah, you ain't doing that." That's my favorite ones, too. like, "Yeah, I'm going to uh I'm going to be a rocket scientist." It's like, "All right, are you in rocket science school? How are you at math?" And they're like, "I'm just going to use chat GPT. I'm gonna let you be a scientist for India in college." So, I had the privilege to go to college and I went to I went to just a little state college in North Alabama. Uh I lived close enough to it that I just I drove back and forth. Uh

didn't live on co on the campus or anything. Um but in college I was I was I you walk around. All right. You just it just right. That's just what college kids do. There's from class to class and you have a very surface level interaction with everyone. Uh met you know there's there's 7,000 people in that school. There's, you know, I met a few hundred of them at some point in time. But in that, you would stop, you'd be walking with a friend or something. You stop, hey, what's your what you doing? And invariably, you're

like, what's your major? Oh, my major's liberal arts degree. It's like, all right, this is the way I like my coffee. All right. All right. Now, this is I'm to I'm telling y'all, I'm just gonna pick on everybody. All right. My All right. My favorite one's like, "Oh, I'm in gender studies." It's like, "All right, I don't even know if Starbucks will hire you now." So, all right. Now, if y'all have those degrees, don't tell me. Save yourself some because I'll still tell the joke. Don't not personally, but uh you you go around somebody, I'm

a finance major. It's like, all right, tell us, you know, I was a finance major, so tell us that you didn't know what to pick, right? Uh I Everybody's just like, and and you're like, what are you going to do? Well, you know, I think I'm going to go do this or I'm going to go do this. And invariably, what happened was, you know, they say you really can't do any of this. You just need to go ahead and get your masters. I I promise you, I think I heard that like a hundred times. And

they're like, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's the thing to do. Go ahead and get your masters." It's this weird ecosystem of like this constant positive feedback loop because, right, the school system makes money from people staying in school. So they're like, "Change your major all you want or go ahead and get your M." Nothing wrong with the masters, okay? Nothing wrong with school. It's just they the reasoning wasn't always sound. It was just like the reality was is they were scared. They did not know what they were going to do after graduation. Uh I now you

you guys y'all don't know that yet. Y'all don't even know what graduation is except for kindergarten graduation probably. Like we did that at home for homeschoolers. That was a little sad. I ain't going to lie. Now I feel bad picking on the homeschoolers, huh? Uh the but but that was that was the ecosystem there. Oh, what's your major? You know, and you I probably had that conversation like a hundred times at least. And they would go through and and what I found was that it wasn't just people in college and and if you go and

ask these kids, these kids, these guys that are 18 to 25, they be like, "What you going?" Well, I'm just I'm just waiting on the Lord. Like, what what does that mean? I don't know. Bible college students are the worst. I'm not looking at anyone. Uh wow. Just calling it. No, no, it's funny though. Uh, not not this Bible, not not our Bible college, our current Bible college students. Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking to y'all over there. Talking to y'all. They uh they're the worst at Oh, I'm just, you know, just waiting on God's calling. What

What is Okay. Where'd you go to school for? I don't know. Like you there's just no end to that. Like you just you're look you look at them about the way you're looking at me right now. Like what's the point of this conversation? The the the the fact of the matter is is that in that age range we had just right we just grew up we just got out of the house hopefully at some point it maybe maybe not but we we became independent in in some form or fashion and whether we got married or

we didn't there was there was a slight change in our life but not a huge change. So the slight change would be, okay, you're 18 now. If you if you break the law, you're going to jail. I'm not. So good luck, right, Sister Jen? That's I mean, you breathe the sigh of relief. All right. All right. You're out. Done with you now. No, it it it's and I'm I'm speaking not from raising a kid. I'm speaking from being the kid, right? And so like from the point of all right, now I've got to figure this

out. and you're you're just trying to muddle along and and 18 to 25 you're just like and if you find a vein of safety like college or a job with your buddies, you don't want to change it because that's the status quo. If you get married, you're like, "Oh, that's a big deal. Let's pray we don't have or let's have a kid or let's not have a kid." I don't know. Either way, it's your you're your life, you're building something, but you're you're enjoying the uh how how to put this in perspective. If if a

22 year old goes on a world on a trip across the world, everyone's like, "Oh, good for them." If a 32y old goes on a trip across the world, everyone's like, if a 42y old goes on a trip across the world, everyone's like, they having a midlife. It's a crisis then. So there is a difference somewhere in there. There is a difference. But to get to that 32 or that 42, there there has to be a there there has to be a a a an ability a recogni a recognition that the status quo has to

change. That's a fancy word. Does anyone speak Latin? All right, good. That's the existing state of affairs. That's how things are right now. Leaving the house this morning. All right. Lauren was still asleep, which is which is a rarity, y'all. I don't know how you are in your marriage, but I'm the late riser. She's the early riser. So, the one day that I'm up before her, right? Somehow, AG had made it into our bed. He doesn't he doesn't walk. I don't know how he made it there. Um he just appeared there at some point in

time during the night. Um Yeah. Yeah. And and so I'm leaving and walking out and it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Just But guess what? That's going to change because at some point he going to crawl into bed. I'm going to kick him out. And it would be really weird if I didn't. That's going to change if I tried to preserve that. If I tried to preserve the status quo, things get a little out of whack. I it it we we look at this and and I'm going to I'm going to say

this observationally, not emotionally, but funerals are super weird. The person has done passed on and we're like, let's preserve them the way they were. Now, some of y'all may like, I'm I'm I'm I'm walking on the edge of this offending somebody emotionally. Please understand. It's just observationally, Brother Rob's Brother Rob's with me. I got one person with me. It's kind of odd, right? You know, like you're just like, they look this Listen, I worked at a funeral home, so this is this is how Oh, they look great. They don't look great. They're dead. I'm sorry.

This is what it is. All right. But we can't preserve that. And we inbalm them to preserve it. I mean, mummies preserve it's it's in our nature. You see, it's it's and it's it's a part it's a part of emotional um processing. How can I preserve the state that gave me the most utility, the most happiness? Right? If I could preserve little man the way he is right now, that would be great. But as you parents know, he's just going to hit terrible twos at some point in time and everybody's going to want to beat

him. You know, not just mom and dad like, "Hey, somebody get that kid." We cannot preserve. As much as we would love to pause where we are in the things maybe we're working towards something and once we get there we realize it's only for a moment but we want to preserve it. Uh this was this was an interesting thing in Numbers chapter 13 we find that see he's he's teetering on the on the on the precipice of those terrible ones I guess. I don't know. He's a pretty good kid y'all. I can't give him too

much trouble. Numbers 13 27 says, "And they told him, we came to the land to which you sent us." This is this is where Moses had sent out the spies. Moses had sent 12 spies into the land to spy out the land. And he says, "It flows with milk." They said, "It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit." And they brought back like these big bushels of fruit. I mean, milk and honey, that that's just what you want right there. You can't Listen, honey is amazing. Milk's amazing. You got a land that's

flowing with it. That's just where you want to be. Verse 28. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw descendants of Anoch there. Does anyone know Anoch? I don't know Anoch, but he was a tall guy. 29 The Amalachites dwell in the land of Neij. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea along the Jordan. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "Let us go up once and occupy it,

for we are well able to overcome it." Then the men who had gone up with him and said, "We are not able to stand up against the people, for they are stronger than we." So they brought the people to the Israel of of Israel a bad report of the land, and they spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone to spout is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people we saw are of great height. They were of the Nephilim or the sons of Anch. They were giants who were from Nephilim.

And we have seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers. And so we seem to them. God has if if if as we've been studying through the tabernacle, God has brought them in a very short amount of time from Egypt to the edge of the promised land. Now I in that I tried and I I did not confirm with those guys, but if you guys have that that picture, that map that I sent you, if you can put it up, okay? And if you don't if it doesn't appear back here. Uh there we go. Very very shortly. Now

this is a map that you would find in the back of your Bibles, but because we use screens, we don't have the back of our Bibles. They they left they left this place. It sucketh. They wandered around and they made it over here to Mdall and Pi, whatever that is. That's where they crossed the sea at according to the scripture. All right. Wandered around, wandered around, went through Mount Si, went up and then they went up to Kadesh Barnea here. If you'll find that as they went up to, that's where Moses sent the spies from

in that general area there. That was at the edge of the promised land. This was the easy way in. This was the easy way that God had prepared. It was a very short amount of time. In fact, they they they were there. It's a very it's a very short trip. Like I think you could walk it in a very very short amount of time, but you know, they had to wander around. They had to get the Ten Commandments. They had to establish the temple. And so they got all this God's with them. The clouds moving

with them. And they God's carrying them to the promised land very shortly. And they're there. And they said, "We can't go in." The status quo, if I may, that they were were facing was so comfortable. God was feeding them mana. God had a rock that followed them around in the wilderness and just flowed water. I mean, I don't know if you know anything about geography, you know that there's not much out there. That wilderness of Egypt is now not suddenly a great place to build invest in real estate. It's still just a wilderness. All right?

They just ain't much there. This was thousands of years ago and it's still the same. It's just you don't want to buy beachfront property in Sinai. Okay? You're just going to get sand. They're wandering around this. But God was preserving them. It wasn't a great surrounding. There were issues, but God was looking out for them. But when they got to the promise, they said, "We're just grasshoppers." Now, we did a whole we did a whole study at some point in time uh more than grasshoppers. All right? And and I would encourage you ask pastor about

where to get that information if it's something you're interested in. Very cool study. But this this made me think. I remember back uh when I was 15, 16 years old, I was in a service where God called me to preach. And I I remember that as I was there, it was it was a very I I remember where I was at. I remember standing. It was it was I was at Camp Lake Benson. I remember where I was standing at. I remember the the moment of realization, the the weight, the emotion that goes with it.

the and and I remember the almost palpable concentration of the spirit of God that I felt not not it was almost it was the concentration not just the God only in this place but he was it felt like he was just very intently there and it was a service that I am sure that many others felt the call there was there was a I we do a great job of this we do a wonderful job of of building an an a sphere here that our children can grow up in in knowing God and following after

God. I mean, we have children's camps that start at like eight years old. Is that right? Eight. Who in their right mind wants to spend a camp with an eight-year-old? All right. All right. I said right mind. But do you know by the time they get to youth camp at 12, most every one of those kids have had the Holy Ghost? They've been filled with the Holy Ghost. Then we spend Was that you? Is that you, Aussie man? Mr. Oz man, we're going to have to get you some glasses. Oz. All right. Right. Didn't he

wear those rosecolored glasses? I'm not a very good pop pop pump person. Whatever that is. uh the the the feeling that I know these kids go through and then we get to their their we get to youth camp and I'm going just tell you I've been to youth camps. Amazing. We don't have that many kids get the Holy Ghost because we don't have that many kids that need the Holy Ghost at youth camp. It's incredible. But I I know the the the consecration, the power of God that falls there. And it's it's like it's just

like it's just like God just dumps out a bucket. But the reality is it's the the focus, the concentration that we bring that God responds to. And in that, I know that many of you felt just like I did the call of God because you've been to camps as well. You've been in services where God's changed your life and you felt the absolute almost the suffocating presence of God. Palpable almost. You could teach, you could breathe it, you could taste it, you could smell it, and you felt God move on you and change you. And

you and and you couldn't picture what it was, but you just knew that God was there, and you wanted to respond to him. But what does that look like? Because here's here's the thing. God called me, but I'll just tell you, it took a long time for me to understand the calling. some of us I and and and for the for the for the sake of of presentation a lot I I don't want to fault preachers because they're the ones when preachers tell the story of their calling it's it's because God called them and so

they're relaying their experience but the reality is is that not everyone's called to be a preacher. It feels that way because that's all the preachers talk about because well they're just talking about their experience. But God gave us the five-fold ministry, right? He gave us the prophets, the apostles, uh the teachers, the preach, the pastors, and the evangelists. Now, there's there's like a really cool little thing to remember those, but I I don't know that. It's like the apostle is like a thumb. It just digs in. We think pastor's an apostle. So, just digs in.

Y'all ever if y'all ever done a project with him, you'll understand. All right. All right. There we go. We got one. We got one. Right. We think he's an apostle. I mean, when it gets tough, the tough get going. And let me just tell you, he don't stop. That's just that just is what it is. So, we look at it and and here's here's what I want to I want to mention. We remember those we feel that calling. We feel that God's pressing on us and we think, "Well, this is what God's calling me to

because that's what we see." But I I want to I want to tell you something. That's not the fullness of the call of God. The fullness of the call of God is to be like God. But the but that's what we see. So here's the here's the thing though. I want to differentiate this. Those are offices. When Paul says, I esteem not myself. I esteem my office. He said this is a role. This is how I serve the body. This is how I uh this is how I edify. These were set up to the the

those roles are offices that God has given to the church for the edification of the body. They're not the fullness of the call of God. The peak of the call of God is not the call to preach. Preachers, don't shoot me. The the the prophet is not the peak of the call of God. The evangelist as great as they are is not the peak of the call of God. You see there was there were different types of calling and many of us we we feel the call of God and remember we can we can almost

picture like Samuel was going through in 1 Samuel God called to him audibly in the middle of the night. He heard and he responded to the voice of God. We were like God just speak to me. Hello. But it sounded like Eli. That was interesting, wasn't it? But then we we see Isaiah. God called Isaiah. He gave him a vision in Isaiah chapter 6. He said, and and the vision was of the greatness and the magnitude and the holiness of God. And Isaiah's response to the to the presence of God was to say, "Here I

am. Send me." God didn't say, "Here you go, Isaiah." He just exposed the need. And Isaiah responded to it. Jeremiah was fighting the call of God because he was he was fighting a a lot of things that were uh it would have been very it his call was he was the crying prophet. It was a very it was very much a call of mourning for the people of Israel. Nobody was no one was fighting Jeremiah for his calling. No one was like let me let me just do that for you. No. No. Poor guy. He

was like, "Oh, that my eyes were wells so that I could cry for the broken of Israel." No one was fighting for that calling. Ezekiel very similarly, he had visions and scrolls and he and and and and he internalized the word through the visions and understood that God was was given something to him and thus he had to respond to it. John the Baptist was was chosen before his birth, but he was driven mad by the call almost. He was like a wild man. I don't know anybody that wants to eat wild honey and locust

except for maybe brother Rob again. It's good. I'll take your word for it. Bas is anyone know? He's a pro he's a he's a popular guy in the Bible and I know Lohab. They're popular guys. No, you God God told Moses, he said, "I filled them with the spirit of God to work in gold, silver, and brass." They're called, they were called to the artistic crafts. You believe that? Noah, Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but he wasn't called to be a preacher of righteousness. He was just called to build a boat. Nehemiah, he was

a administrator for an empire. He was the cup bearer for an empire, a very trusted or dangerous position. And he built a wall. Sorry, I'm not going to make any political jokes there. Anna the prophetess in Luke all her lifelong call was to pray and wait on redemption. That was her call. Joseph, he had dreams. He God spoke to him and worked to him. His call was not his call was not to ministry. His call was to preserve a nation and a people. He was the prime minister of Egypt. Gideon, he was he he didn't

want to do it. He just wanted to raise he just wanted to be a farmer on the back side of nowhere. But he was called to deliver his people with nothing. Esther. We look at Esther and all the ladies. We study Esther and and her call was just for a time of this. You're just in the right time at the right place, Esther. This is what you've got to do. It's fallen your lot. God didn't come down in a big booming voice and say, "Oh, Esther. Esther." No, he didn't. Ruth. In the book of Ruth,

what is it? My God shall be thy God. God didn't even appear to her. God didn't pull at her. She just realized what God was. You know, in Acts chapter 6, the the deacons or the young ministers that were called to practical ministry, they were chosen for character and spirit, not status. They were he said, "Goodly young men." Goodly young men. Job, he was Job, we don't nobody wants Job's calling. Hosea was called to marry Goomemer. Goomer was a prostitute. But ain't nobody fighting Hosea. Stephen. He was called to be a martyr. We can go

on and on and on. We all want to be Enoch. He was his his only job was just to walk with God and then God took him. You see the first the first thing is the call. The second is the preparation. But the call of God is more than just to do. The call of God is to be. Doing is incredibly important. But the being is who I am. the call to being. Can I can I phrase it like this? Those the preacher, the teacher, the the the evangelist, the prophet, those those are roles. Those

are doing roles. But the call of God, he may give us those roles. He may have us work in those roles, but that's not the call. I've I've heard preachers say the greatest and I I understand where they were coming from. Why would why would uh if if I'm called to preach, why would I stoop to be a king? But guess what? The call was not to preach. The call can be to be a king. The call can be to solve the problem that's right in front of you. The call is what we become. I

there's a whole bunch of different different pieces of those. And I had them create this because I didn't want you to tune me out completely because the call that I can figure out is summarized up in the call to giving. We have all been called. If you were to go, if I was to walk back in with you in your mind and and we were to go back to the time that you felt the most uncction of God upon your life, a lot of times I I preached about it the first the first uh sermon

of this series. I and I was trying to get to this message here today. I I was preaching about the the the thorns that grow up, the the parable of the thorns that grow up in the worries of this life. But a lot of us, I know, have experienced a call and a concentration of God on our life, but we did not know how to define it. We thought that, oh, well, I feel this. I must be supposed to preach. And you might, but that was as far as we went with it because we were

scared to then develop it because I can't preach or I can't teach or I can't prophesy. Guess what? There's more than the call to preach. I know preachers I we might have to pull this live stream down so I don't get like red black balled everywhere else. All right. It's more than the call to preach. The call is to giving. All right. Ushers, where you at? All right. Musicians, I'm just kidding. I'm not talking about your your money. The call to giving goes deeper than our bank accounts, deeper than our credit cards, deeper than our

wallets. The call to giving is the the calling to be like God. My I I listen listen I am not trying to read repetitive but I am telling you God gave me this over a month ago and I've been trying to get to this. My being is not me. I am not called to be me. I am called to be like him. I I I know that it goes it goes to the core of who we are. It goes to the core of defining what we are. You see, when God calls us, he is calling

us out of ourselves into something that he will mold and he will shape. You may not be what it is he's calling you into. And if you were, he wouldn't be calling you. But he is calling you out of yourself into him. He is calling you from where you are to cross over. You may not can see it for yourself. You may feel like a grasshopper in everyone else's eyes, including your own, but let me just tell you, just trust God with it. God, I am trusting that if you are calling me, I'm just going

to take one step. One step. Where's it gonna land? I don't know. Is there going to be solid ground beneath it? I don't know. But God is calling you to be. I am preaching to a host of people today that God put a calling on you that you don't know what to do with. You may have allowed it to lie dormant. Right? That's the easiest thing. Don't say no. just kind of like it doesn't exist. If you don't look at it, it doesn't it's not there, right? Oh, Jesus, I love you. What about this? Oh,

what about what? Jesus, I'll serve you. Okay. Well, I mean, I can't do that now. Oh, Lord, help me. Now I'm Now I'm just being Now I'm just just drilling in there. Huh? You see, many of us remember the call of God, but we are afraid of what we pictured because what we pictured was what man put before us. But what we didn't ask was what God would put before us. We're we we're we're avoiding God because he's not calling us to do. He's calling us to be. And to do is easy, but to be

is hard. Shakespeare said to be or not to be. Right? I it's like okay Shakespeare are you preaching or what dude no but do you know if you conjugate to be it comes to I am. If the great I am is calling us then the calling is more than to do. It's to be and it's to change into I am whatever he says. My call to giving. My call to giving is to give all of me. My call to giving is to give every part of me. Can I say if you're called to preach, you're

also called to We don't have shoveling snow here, but to sweep. Stephen. Stephen knows about shoveling snow. If you're called to sing, you're also called to serve. If you're called to You see, it's it's we we do a real good job. We're all right. What's my job description? God, I'll do it. Hang on. I'm going to get comfortable here. What's my job description? What's God? What are you really wanting from me? Well, God, if you'll just If you'll just tell me what it is, I'll go. I'll do it. No, y'all pardon me for this. What

What did he say about Jesus? He said, "Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God." He thought it not robbery to be equal with the great I am. the man Christ Jesus thought it not robbery to be equal with the great I am because he became what God was calling him to be. Can I tell you when you are searching your hearts and you are oh God I I I I I don't I don't know what it is but you're calling me. He's calling you to be he's

calling you to be the He said to Moses I am that I am. I I I don't know how to I don't know how to stretch this, but when God calls us to be the I am, it's the I it's his representation in every situation in life. It's his representation in every part of our being. I am a husband. I am a father. I am a preacher. I am a worker. I am a man. But all those don't matter if the I am is not there. I have to be what God is calling me to

be. I have to be okay stepping in to whatever he's calling me into. I know it's super abstract and I wished I could get way more pointed and I promise you I would. If God was like, "You know what? Just go tell this person." I would. I wouldn't really I don't really want to do that though. I just be honest. But what I what I see, what I feel is that we are God, what's this? What's this box pastor was referring to in our roll call today? What's this box I'm putting you in, God? Or

this box I'm putting me in. And the I am that I am broke every box there was. The I am that I am broke through every barrier that there was. Matthew 26. Then Jesus went with him to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, "My soul is very sorrow, even to death. Remain here. Watch with me." And going a little further, he

fell on his face and he prayed, "My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. It's not easy. In fact, it's quite hard." We find recorded that he He had blood coming out of it. The intensity was there, but the fight was here. When we step into there, there there's there's more to understanding the I am statements. I can't I can't go into all those today. But when we step into our I am moment it doesn't become a place here. In fact, we want

to crawl under the rug with it. What are you? I am what God has me to be. What are you? I am what I need to be when I need to be. Oh, isn't that what God is? Uh-huh. Sounds real presumptuous to say, doesn't it? That's why it feels so heavy. But the reality is we are to be in the embodiment of Christ on earth. We are to be more than just doers. We're to be I am. Our very thought, our very walk, our very essence is to be I am. Would you stand with me?

God had mercy on those people. Okay. They they chose they they weren't understanding why they couldn't go into it. Why? They tried to they tried to after that instance where we read in in Numbers, they tried to go in and conquer, but they'd already rejected God. And God said, "You know what? I'm going to forgive you, but there's going to be consequences for it." That's okay. I'm not I'm not talking about the consequences today. But Peter Peter put it like this in 1 Peter 2 nine. But you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy

nation, people of his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Verse 10 says, "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people." God, when when the children of Israel were right there, God saw what they could not see for themselves. And can I say God sees for you what you cannot see for you. He thinks higher of you than you think of yourself. It's not the inverse. He thinks more of he called you. You're not worthy. But that's okay.

Today I feel like God has called us to giving and that is giving of oursel. That looks like I don't even have a wallet. That looks like God. There's my wallet. Apple Pay. God, there's my wallet. Do with it what you will. God, that looks like Hang on. God, there's my dignity. Do with it what you will. God, that that looks like God hears my will. take it. And whatever calling you've been, whatever calling you've been going back and forth on, whatever calling, all that ain't for me. I don't know if it is or not.

I'm not calling anybody to preach. But what I am calling you to is to giving. Just giving. Just give. Could we all find a place to pray for just a moment? God, I'm giving my time, my talent, my treasure, my will, my desires, my plans. I'm giving them to you, God. Can Can we all across the house? Can we find a place? Because I I I just feel like somebody somebody's been been struggling just a little bit. God, I I I want to do this, but but what about this? God, I want to answer it,

but but I've got to take care of this. Can I just say, answer the call, please, so I can preach about something else. Answer the call and God will make a way. He'll prepare. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, help us, God. Help us to come to the full revelation of who you are, of more than just doing more than just but being your God, being like you, being your body, being your feet, being your hands, being your heart, God. God, I pray, God, that you wouldn't move on us, God. those those callings that we've

ignored, those callings that we have we've swept under the rug, that we've just kind of just let to the side because we're not sure of the cost. But God, I pray today that you would give us the courage to pick them up, to answer the call that you have upon us, God, the call to giving of ourselves to you, the call of giving of everything to you, God. God, the most high calling of God, the most high calling of God is upon this place today. And God, it's it's the fight between between our will and

your will. But today I pray Lord that your will be done. I pray Lord that your will be done. I pray God that your will be done. Would you everyone in the place would you find a place God not my will but your will? Would you help this preacher just for a moment? Not my way but your way. Oh God. Jesus. Not me but God. Empty me of me. God help me God to be like you. I want to know what the I am is. I want to know what it is that my whole identity

is found in you. That my being, it's not what I am doing, but it is what you've called me into. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Just want you. All we ever wanted, Lord, is you. Bowing down to honor only you, Jesus. We just want you. We would trade it all to just have you. Nothing ever Jesus. We just want you. All we ever bowing down to honor only you, Jesus. We just want you, Jesus. Jesus. We would trade it all to just have you. Nothing in this world would ever do. Jesus, we just want you. All

we've ever wanted, Lord, is you. bowing down to honor only you, Jesus. We just want you. We would trade it all to just have you. Nothing in this world would ever do, Jesus. Your attiter We just want you. All we've ever wanted, Lord, is you. Bowing down to honor only you, Jesus. We just want you. We would trade it all to just have you. Nothing in this world will ever do Jesus. Come on. If you've been tired of of feeling the things the way they have been. If you're tired of just the the same old

same old. If you're tired of just it's not someone else. The answer is not in someone else. It's in Christ. God, what can I do to give myself fully to you? Oh, preacher, I don't know the door. I don't know the thing. I don't either. But I'm just telling you, if you'll present your bodies a living sacrifice, truthfully, God will find it. God will direct it. Take us deeper. I expect God to put some of us in the most uncomfortable for us situations that we can imagine. I expect for God to turn our being upside

down because it's not us anymore. I expect God to turn our worlds over. Not because we're great, but because we've become the embodiment of the I am. Would you lift your voices? Would you put your hands on a neighbor? Jesus, we love you. God, we need you. Take us, God. We love you, God. We need you, God. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to stir up the gifts that we're in that are within us. You would help us to stir up the callings that we've long ignored, God. That you would help us to

stir up and have the courage to overcome the things that we can't see past. Help us, God, to have that courage. God, I pray, Lord, that a holy a holy courage would come over this this this congregation. God, I pray that a holy boldness would become a part of who we are. Not because it's who we are, but it's because of that we are who you are. God, I I can't fully understand it. I can't fully I don't. But God, I pray God today that you would allow me, God, you would help me, God, to

fully step into the call of giving that you're calling me into. And you would allow each and every one of us to also hear the call and to answer it. Jesus. Thank you church so much. If you ask if you were to ask me how can you make it more concrete, how can you make it I I don't know yet. I promise you. If I had a good if I had a good uh visual to go with it, I would. You would already. You'all know that by now. If I had a good object lesson to

go with this today, I would. But pastor encouraged me before I got up today that it's the flesh and the spirit. And we all have that battle in within us. I can't fight that for you. You can only fight that for you. Could we put up our prayer? Let's let's let's do this in the name of Jesus. That's why we pray it. Caught them off guard. Do y'all know it by now? Kind of. Oh, I'm not. No, I'm not starting it. I always mess up every single time. Oh, there. The Lord make his face shine

upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them. Be blessed in the name of the Lord.