New Day Dawning - Shaken and Awakened

Those of you who've been here in years past know that uh, okay, Ron's gonna do a series. Actually, Ron and Doug and Brad are gonna do a series this year, which is very exciting. But uh there's gonna be a series of messages um and Ron's gonna say I've been in this book of the Bible for months and And and and I bring to you what God has given to me. And that's been going on ever since we started doing the president's retreat. I think we did Deuteronomy the first year, a long time ago. And we got all kinds of books of the Bible that we've done that with. Not this year. In fact, I was shaken and awakened, and God did so I I've always I have my Jesus journal with me here Right here, this this this in a uh because you're gonna hear some autobiographical roots of of this tonight And I want to share a couple things out of this with you. This is where I record our time together every morning. I got like a trunk. Trunks full of those. But this year, God wouldn't do that for me. He didn't lead me to, I prayed. I said, Lord, now what book? And he always leads me to a book that's for that time. He said, nope, Braun. Nope. Nope. Gonna get you out of the rut. That's a good rut, actually And so my experience with Jesus over the last 20-some years has been like a camping trip. He will take me to a book and I will camp there. For a long time. Some of you remember me saying a few years ago that I was reading in Exodus and I was trapped in Exodus and couldn't get out of Exodus. What? Which sounds weird. And I couldn't Well this time he's taken me on a road trip this year instead of a camping trip. And so I'd be a little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit here. And I know why. It's all part of a big pattern You see the subtitle, how God is using our storms to reveal his bold new things in us. Fasten your seatbelt. Because we have been definitely shaken, but it's for a purpose, and that's to be awakened Let's talk about the last couple of years like I need to. Who could have dreamed that there would be a pandemic, that there would be a virus? that would touch virtually every person on this planet, every nation. I've never known of that happening anytime, anywhere in my lifetime. Not even a war would do every nation. Virtually every nation. Who could have guessed a virus could do that? Our politics have turned into a hatescape. We are hearing I'm hearing the word nuclear in the news. I think more than I've I suppose maybe it was that way in the 50s, but I wasn't watching the news then. I was not even Hardly born. But nuclear we are hearing nuclear and the no now instead of a big nation and some nation state having it, we're talking about some of the most irrational Entities on Earth. And I'm uh we're we are back to a nuclear danger that is almost unprecedented. Massive financial stress. What do I have to tell you about? Ed Stetzer has called this the age of outrage. Toxic relationships. And so much of this has happened recently. People didn't go to church for a while, and many of them are not going back There's a uh uh at somewhere in the neighbor neighborhood of about a third of the people who stopped going to church during the pandemic who haven't made it back yet. Will they ever? People didn't go back to work Can't find workers. When you can get a $500 signing bonus to work at McDonald's? What? Yeah. So And the levels of despair and loneliness, talk to the mental health people, are at record highs. Oh, we've been shaken. And it's all converged. This has been all in a short period of time. With no real signs. Who knows what variant is lurking now? But that was only one of the issues. Our world is was turned upside down There was global upheaval, and it attracted me to a verse in the book of Haggai. By the way, let's just take a moment and I'll quote our favorite memory verse. From the book of Haggai. We'll just start up here and go around the roof. This won't take long, I guarantee. But uh let me share you these versions. This is what the Lord Almighty says. In a little while I will once more, I will shake the heavens and the earth. I will shake the sea and the dry land. I will shake, I saw this happen, so did you. I will shake all nations. And what is desired by nations will come. At Christmas time, there's a line in a scale that you sing that says, come, desire of nations, come. That's a reference to the Messiah. This is creating a hunger for a Messiah. And I will shake all nations. What is desired by all nations will come and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty. Upside down world, and God says, I am going to shake all nations. There's been a lot of losses during the last couple of years. I don't know what you lost. But I know something everybody lost. Some people lost loved ones. Some people lost schooling. Some people lost uh income, lost jobs. But I'll tell you what every person in this room has lost. We lost something called certainty. The word plan is no longer written in ink. It's written in pencil Because we are dealing with a world of terminal, it seems like, uncertainty. The Secretary General of the United Nations said in a quote that I don't have with me, he said That uh the nuclear danger in the world today is a terror for everyone, something like that. And he is calling uh the nuclear danger out of control. Now you say Ron, I'm really glad I came. This is really depressing. Are you giving out Prozac? Um nope. We do have a pharmacist here, but no, no, no, we're not doing Prozac. I say all that to tell you what's been really going on. For we are at a Hadash moment. Say a Hebrew word with me. Hadash. Watch here, neighbor. There we go. Hadash. Let me tell you what it means. It's Hebrew for a new thing. And Isaiah 43, verses 18 and 19, say this. Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing, read the next three words with me, a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland God says, stop dwelling on the past and the way it has been, I am doing a new thing. Now, let me tell you what God's MO is throughout Scripture and has been in my life and I suspect yours, whether or not you see the pattern or not. God's MO is to shake us to awaken us. And I can show you all through Scripture That when there is a shaking, it is not without meaning, it is not random, it is not medical, it is not political, it is not nuclear, it is providential And it is to shake us, to awaken us, to pave the way for the bold new thing he is planning to do. And I'm going to suggest Simply because of God's leading in these messages, that there is a new thing he wants to do in every heart in this room. In your family? Maybe that's where it is. Maybe it's in your work. Maybe it's in your calling. Maybe it's in you. Maybe it's in an area that Jesus has never yet really gotten leadership of. Maybe it's financial, but he is has a new thing, but we don't we're not ready for his new thing until he shakes up the old thing. And boy has he done that You see listed here, and in fact, let me read to you just from my journal. I wrote this on the 6th of January 21. I said, our country seems to be racing away from God, believing. erasing things we never could have imagined. That city set on a hill is on fire. And I know it's politically incorrect, and I've this is really just for me, and I'm surprised I'm reading it. and increasingly illegal to call it a fire or to try to extinguish it. At the same time, you're pouring out your blessing on this ministry. It's a profound moment for the gospel And you are working in ways and quantities I've never seen. It may be late, but it's not over. Night may be coming, but there's still enough daylight to bring in the harvest. So, think about Joseph. God shakes up Joseph's world. Absolutely, the privileged kid, the honored son slave, prison, falsely accused, totally shakes up his life, to position him to save the world, including his own family. Think about um I and I'm not going to Go over all these, you know the stories. The Israelites had just had that major victory at Jericho, walls coming down. They blew the trumpets, the walls came down They go to a little place called Ai. They're like, well, that was Jericho's the big kahuna. This is gonna this is a piece of cake, a little village over here called Ai, and they are routed there Shakes their world. They're like, maybe maybe we shouldn't be here. They're ready to go back to Egypt. Why was that? To expose sin in the camp. And make them qualified to move on into the promised land or more closer to the promised land. You look at uh Saul of Tarsus. Yeah, knocked off his horse, struck blind. Shake his world. Why? To make him the greatest ambassador of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the history of the church. This is God's recurring way to shake to awaken. He did it with his disciples. One day he said, guys, I know you left everything to follow me. I'm leaving you now. Yeah, I won't be here much go much longer. I'm going back to heaven. The world is like falling apart. They gave everything for this Careers, business. Jesus said I'm leaving. Why? Because he was going to do a new thing called the Holy Spirit. For Jesus could be with you. If he was present, but he could be one place. Now, as Jordan goes to South Africa, He'll be meeting believers there in whom Christ lives through the Holy Spirit as we do here in this room. Because he was going to do a new thing. But first, he shook everything up. Think about the uh the believers in the book of Acts. Oh my goodness. They're in a prayer meeting, a cozy prayer meeting, 120 believers. in an upper room. Isn't that nice? And they are on the day of Pentecost thrust out into the mean streets of Jerusalem. Surrounded by people who called for the death of Jesus only weeks before to preach Jesus to them. And the explosion of the gospel begins. But boy, they are they are shaken and then they become part of a new thing. How about um How about the uh that when when Peter's asked to go to the Gentiles? Peter is a very, very proud Jew. And he says, uh, you know they call Gentiles dogs back then, right? It's like we go to the doctor, they go to the vet. And and they and they and the and they they were they were like, how in the world would God ask me to go to this Cornelius guy and these Gentiles? He had boundaries in his life, he had kept his whole life until God shakes his world. And he steps beyond those boundaries and becomes a bridge. Who would have guessed? Simon Peter A zealous Jew would become the bridge between Jew and Gentile. So on and on it goes as God shakes up a world. Oh, and uh and then you remember um when Paul had these plans to go to Asia Minor? He had his plans all set. And like most of our plans this last couple of years, that plan was broken. It just says the Holy Spirit stopped them. He's like, I've been planning this trip to go plant churches in Bithynia, and God says, nope, you're not going Shook his world? Why? So the gospel would go to Europe. I'm glad it did. The gospel will go to Europe, but it's done by Paul, by God shaking it up. And how about here's the ultimate. The Christians in Jerusalem are seeing people coming to Christ daily. They have got this incredible community together But suddenly, after the death of Stephen, the bloodshed begins and the persecution begins And they are driven out of the city of Jerusalem. Home gone, maybe family gone, job gone. Why? Because Jesus had said You are my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. And they were in Jerusalem, and it didn't look like they were going anywhere till they were shaken And pushed out, and the gospel began to move across the world. And the Great Commission of Jesus began to be fulfilled. But their lives were turned upside down. Over and over again, God shakes us to awaken us. See, before we can discover God's new thing He has to shake us loose from the old thing. I remember when um we had a terrible time getting Lisa to get rid of her binky. Lisa, would you like to give your whole story about the no. Um Well, she she was and and she was 18 and we thought, you know, she really no, I'm not, I'm just kidding. Um But we're like, we she's got she's she's just she's gotta get rid of the binky. And so we finally found a way to do that. Um we said, well, because one thing she really wanted was a Barbie doll. We said how about this? How about a Barbie for a Binky? How's that for a trade? Days of meditation. Counseling. Exaggeration. And sure enough, she gave up the binky, but she couldn't get the Barbie. So she gave up the Binky. Some of us There's a binky we gotta get rid of for the new thing God wants to do. Doug Doug took it to a new level with our our granddaughter Noelle. They had the same problem with her Couldn't get the binky away from her. So they had a bye-bye binky party. Yeah, they said you wanna have and they had like a birthday party. They had cake and they had gifts and everything and she gave up the binky for the party. Maybe you need to have a bye-bye binky party. But God says, unless I shake up the old thing, you will never move to the new thing. Just in the past week, I saw examples of this over and over again in my reading. Bible translators, because of a coup, a violent coup in Nigeria years ago And the and the uh professional mission organization translators not being able to stay. It began the democratization of translation, where they began to trust local people to become the translators and it has revolutionized translation around the world. But it had to shake up the whole theal. Shake it is like this is over. What's happening to our translation? It's about to be multiplied. I saw uh Christian Christian organizations who were lamenting the failure of their missions, food organizations, in a massive Ethiopian famine years ago. And they just couldn't come up with enough food. The famine was unprecedented. You know what that did? That caused them to totally revamp Missionary Food Organization and their their systems to where now today They're much more holistic and they are able to meet the crises of major and unprecedented famines. I'm reading this all in one week. Shaken to awaken I read about a Christian college that had to go online during during the pandemic. And they were losing a lot of students. It was less and less students applying. They were forced to go online. They have tripled the impact, uh no, quadrupled the impact of that college. Because they were shaken and moved to a new thing. It's just happening everywhere. The vineyard churches They've had aging leadership, pretty autocratic leadership style. And they all started to retire all at once. And what that has done is changed the entire vineyard movement with younger leadership coming up and creating a much more collegial form of leadership, and it is renewing an entire group of churches. I just, I tell you those stories only to say, God, this is his pattern right now. He wants to do it for you. He is doing it with us. Let me tell you, he's doing it with me. The setting for God, did you notice in the in Isaiah, for God revealing his new thing? He said, I'm going to do it in the wilderness And I'm going to do it in the desert. And I'm going to make a way there. So write this in your notes. Disruption is the catalyst for deepening. And discovery. When God disrupts our normal medically, financially, spiritually, relationally When he disrupts our world, it is to take us deeper than we've been and to discover some things just when we think we got it all, to discover a whole new level with him. On August 6th, 2021, messages from you keep echoing in my heart. This summer, this past 18 months, your classroom, by the way, every plan basically we had made, we could not do That's what did it. That's what got my attention. Your clo has been your classroom to bring me to a new realization Of my desire, of my misplaced dependencies. It is not by might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of angel armies If I'm going to enjoy the sweet peace of a fully surrendered spiritual veteran, you must increase and I must decrease. I wrote muscle memory. You all know what muscle memory is? It's procedural memory. You do it you do it. Uh it it uh it's a specific motor task, it consolidates a specific motor task into memory through repetition. A movement repeated over time creates a long-term muscle memory for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed with little to no conscious effort. Becomes automatic. Examples, bike riding. Driving, sports, typing, playing music, martial arts, and I wrote and ministry. But you use the pandemic to render our ministry muscle memory inadequate, if not useless. to remind us, me in particular, that I cannot supplant moment by moment dependency on you with reliance on previous methods, experience, etc. , driven to a desperate dependency on you Suddenly I have been moved from veteran to rookie, from senior to freshman And I love it. God shakes our world to introduce us to something bold and new. I heard Chuck Swindah this week. He said, how many of you sit at the same place in church all the time? You do, I know you do. You'll do the same thing here. You'll find your seat, it'll get to the contour of your hmm, and you'll you'll you'll you'll go you'll stay comfortable there Yeah, he said when he was a little boy, he distinctly remembers goes with his mom and dad in a church one day. Church of about 800 people, and uh and he said um mom turned to dad and said, Henry, someone's in our seat. What are we going to do? And the little boy, Chuck Swindah, is listening to this. He said, well, I know what we'll do. We'll go home. And they did. That's how he told the story. See, there's a sign in Northern Canada that says, choose your rut carefully, you'll be in it for the next 50 miles Some of us have thought that we were in our track for the rest of our life. God says, I have a new thing for you. I want you to want the new thing. I want you to risk to have that new thing. So I'm shaking the old thing. So what are some of the former things? What are some of the past things that we need to graduate from? Because God said don't dwell on the past. Old victories. You might be stuck in the scrapbook going back and saying, remember when we, oh, there was a great time, and I remember our church and I Listen, you can celebrate history or you can make history. God says, you know, in the words of Amy Carmichael, we will have all eternity to celebrate our victories, only a few short hours to win them. We are in those few short hours, my friends. And so we got we he's trying to shake us loose from just kind of resting on the old victories or the old failures They keep coming back to you. And like tentacles on a squid or an octopus Keep going back to the old failures pulls you down. The old fears that have kept you from following Jesus past this point because past here is scary. Shaking us loose from the old MOs, the old modus operandi, the old formulas, like I must be studying a whole book of the Bible. And God says, no, I'm going to move you around this time, Ron. That's a simple one. Stuck in the old formulas, stuck in the old way of doing it, stuck in the old method. Jesus said to Mark 2. 22, he said, you cannot put new wine in old wineskins. Those they're cracked. They're rigid. They will crack. I have new wine for you, but you can't put it in the old thing. The old MO's, he's trying to break us out of those maybe. The old idols. No, not the statue in the closet. John Calvin said the human heart is a perpetual idol making factory. Jonah said, now why would Jonah be talking about idols in the belly of the fish? Because his idol. had been his Assyrian prejudice, that he would not go to those people. It was a prejudice that was his idol. He said those who embrace Worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. Ministry can be an idol. Your intelligence can be an idol. Your gift can be an idol. Your kids can be an idol. Forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. I'm doing a new thing. The old go-to's. Boy, everything we usually would go to during that pandemic, we couldn't go to. Our go-to's were gone. muscle memory, broken plans, systems failure. I remember when uh uh Sam, who's our youngest grandchild, Doug's son. He was just, I don't know, he's just about two years old. And how old would Taylor have been there? He'd have been what? Five? Six? Something like that? Eight? Yeah. And they had been, they were on vacation, and mom had to come in for a comfort stop. Taylor and and uh Sam were in the kitchen and uh there was the the only vulnerable thing was a lemon meringue pie up on a up on a counter and so Anna said, listen, I'll be right back. Taylor, you're in charge. He continued to play his game. Anna wasn't there long, and Doug came in right after that. and wondered why the lemon meringue pie was now all over the kitchen floor. I mean that was not where it had been when he left. We're not quite sure how Sam got to it. There was just a mess all over the floor. And as dad came in, Taylor made an announcement. He said, I'm in charge, Dad. I've thought, how many times? Has God walked into my mess and I've said, I'm in charge, Dad. He's like, it looks like you're in charge, Ron. No It's time for a new level of desperate dependency on him. Here's what's been going on. Now I have never had labor pains. I've been very close. You know, I've I've tried to identify with my wife during those times, and I couldn't. I know I've eaten for two just to give her company. I know I did I did do that Look at John 16, verse 20. This is just before Jesus has announced he's leaving. Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come. But when her baby is born, She forgets the anguish because of a joy that a child is born into the world. So with you. Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy. And that day you will no longer ask me anything. There's great days coming, guys, but you've got to go through the labor pains. Very truly I tell you, my father will give you whatever you ask in my name Until now you've not asked anything in my name, ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. It's interesting that after we had our first Karen never said to me, you know, Ron, I enjoyed that so much. Could we go back and I'd like to do that again. Those labor pains were really special. And then we went back again. And there are some of you who have had multiple children. More than that. And you keep going back. What, do you like labor? No. Not at all. But you like the result. Because the pain lasts a short time. The life that comes from it lasts a lifetime. And that's what Jesus was liking likening it to. We have been going through the pain we have been going through, the pain you've been going through in your life, maybe for years. Maybe long before anything related to a pandemic, has been God preparing the way to birth something. The greater purposes of God are often served by the disruption of our comfort And our status quo. Proverbs 16, 9 talks about our plans. In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. I love Proverbs 19. 21. Many are the plans, this was my pandemic verse, many are the plans in a person's heart, sure. But it is the Lord's purpose that prevails, not my plans. In the words of the great theologian Winnie the Pooh, I always get to where I'm going. By walking away from where I've been. You never thought you'd hear me quote that. But anyway Let me give you two examples here of shaken to awaken because it's a mirror for us. One is in 2 Chronicles 7. 14. You know this verse. You've heard somebody preach on revival from this verse. If my people, some of you know up by heart, are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I'll hear from heaven, I'll forgive their sin and heal their land. Nobody reads the verse before! They don't just up and do this. No, look where when I shut up the heavens. So there's no rain. When I command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people who are called by, that's when they wake up. When their world is falling apart, that's when they're ready for something new. I was on a flight from Newark to Pittsburgh one morning. It was a commuter flight, mostly business people. Pay no attention to the announcements because they know them by heart. And uh as we uh as we landed, it well everybody woke up. Yeah. It was one of those two for the price of one landings, you know, and uh so it was very exciting I thought this is going to be a great way to flight attendant. This is a tough situation to manage. Everybody's a little, hmm, what was that? I loved it. Flight attendant with a sense of humor said, ladies and gentlemen, now that I have your attention I'd like to make a few announcements. You know, when you've been having bumpy landings in your life, listen to God. Now that I have your attention, I'm ready to make some announcements. You ready to listen now? And so, and we won't spend a lot of time going through the verse, but you see in 2 Chronicles that he says, look, there's been no rain. There's been locusts. You know what locals locusts are? A crippled economy. Hmm. Pestilence? A widespread health crisis. Hmm Then my people will go through five life-giving steps. They'll remember who they are. Remember who you are. You are my people called by my name. They will humble themselves, or in other words, get over yourself. And pray, stop depending on you. And seek my face. Did you ever see a baby trying to figure out what to do with their hands? It's it's really neat. They're trying to look at their fingers and go, ah, you know, and they'll talk to their fingers and like, I think these do something. You know, and um and but you know what they have a goal. That's why they're trying to get them going and get them working together. Because they want to touch your face. They want to know you. And then many say the most intimate form of touching is to touch the face. They're seeking your face. I love that one God says. Finally, you will seek my face. Not to get something from me, not to learn things about me, just to be close to me and love me. Seek my face, he says. That's what I've been trying to get you to do, but it took it took a ruined economy and a and a and a uh health crisis to do it and turn from the pursue God's heart and take out the trash. And would we do any of this If it weren't for the pain, shaken, to awaken. When Lisa was about to have her first, who was just up here, who was smaller then, I remember she was in the living room and her mom was giving her mom-to-daughter advice about this new experience she was about to go through. And Lisa was really having a hard time. It was very close to the delivery. I still remember this, she said, Lisa, let me tell you how it's going to be. She said, you're going to get to the point Will you say I cannot take it anymore? And she said, that's when the baby comes. The breaking point comes right before the breakthrough. That's how it is when God's birthing a new thing in you The breaking point often comes just before the breakthrough. So God's new thing in those days, prayers were answered. He said, I'll answer your prayers. The blessing blockers that have blocked my blessing will be gone. And your brokenness will be healed. Quickly visit with me. This is too good to miss. The book of Haggai again. This is so, golly, is this a picture of our time? This is the book I've been in lately. I did God there a little while The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai. Now let me tell you the deal. The God people who have got a have gone back to the land are supposed to be building the new temple. For 15 years they've taken time out. They haven't done it They've been busy doing their own thing. Is it time for you to be living in your paneled houses? Can you imagine God asking American Christians this? Is it time for you to be living in your panel houses why my house, God's house, remains a ruin? Or you got time for your agenda? You have time for mine. This is what the Lord Almighty says. Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. Look at this. This is an economic description. You expected much, but it turned out to be little. What you brought home I blew away. Why, declares the Lord Almighty? Because of my house which remains a ruin. Your priorities are messed up. While each of yours, oh, you're busy with your house, your kingdom. Therefore, because of you the heavens, because of you the heavens have withheld their due And the earth its crops, shaking them. I called for a drought. I called for a drought. Let's go on to the next verse. Then Zerubbabel, Joshua, Zerubbabel is the project manager, Joshua is the priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God. And the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him and the people feared the Lord. Finally, he's got their attention The Lord stirred up the spirit of all the people it says here. They began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty their God And it says then on the day that they began to do that, God says, from this day on, I will bless you. God's waiting to have that day for somebody in this room. He's withholding blessing. Because of a delayed obedience on your part. The day you start to obey him, the first day they laid stones down on that temple. God says, now my blessing will come. And it did. But he has to shake us from the old thing. For the great new thing to happen. They were sleeping, then they were struggling, then they were stirring, and then they were serving. So as it's said in the chosen Get used to different. Listen to this challenge from Deuteronomy. The Lord our God said to us at Mount Sinai, you have stayed long enough. where you are. That mountain was where they they saw the fire and the and the glory of God was on top of that mountain and they they got messages from from heaven from that mountain. But God says, you've been here, you've been at this spot long enough. Can we stay here? No, you cannot stay here. See, I have given you this land. I have a new thing And he said, so the Lord your God has given you the land. Go take possession of it. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. And so he says, move out from where you have been so you can have the thing that I want to give you, a promised land. God is Jesus is a disruptor folks. He is a disruptor. When he came, he bypassed the temple mafia, the guys who ran religion. When he came, he was royalty born in a stable. When he came, he recruited from the bottom of society. He's a disruptor. He defied Sabbath orthodoxy. He's a disruptor. He ate with sinners. He's a disruptor. He elevated Samaritans, the hated Samaritans. He's a disruptor. He died a criminal's death. Unfit for a Messiah. He's a disruptor. So following him demands a spirit that is flexible and nimble. Rigid will not work. So in our next times together You're going to be discovering five spiritual superpowers that we have lived the last couple of years. They're produced by our storms. And they equip us for God's bold new thing. By the way, you think of those people back in Jesus' day, you're like, well, they had all those boxes they put God in. So do we. We have our boxes. We've practiced our worship. It's always going to be like this. Practiced church. It's always got to be like this. Practiced the way we study the Bible. It's always going to be like this. Practice the way we pay for ministry. It's always going to be like this. And so on and so on. He is calling you to something beyond the box. And I'll tell you the question. It comes from the lips of Joshua by the walls of Jericho facing the commander of the army of the Lord with drawn sword. He falls face down on the ground, which I've been told by martial arts experts is the only powerless position they can get in. And the mighty general Joshua is face down and he asks this question, what message does my Lord have for his servant? facing your Jerichos. He has something he wants to tell you, and it is unorthodox. And it is new. And it will take you a place you haven't been. But it is a bold new thing. And he says, don't stay where you've been. Let me ask you this. In this season of your life, the one you're in now, or the one you're entering into, a changing season maybe. You have two choices. You can keep adding pages to the old volume, to the book that has been your story. Kind of the same story with just new pages in it. Or could it be that God wants to start a new volume? And this is page one. Behold, I'm doing a new thing. It is springing up in front of you. Do you not perceive it? God has shaken what we've always known. To take us to a place we've never been. That's not cause for fear That's not cause for anxiety. That's not cause for holding back. That's cause for openness? Expectation? in anticipation. On January 4th, 2021, as I was trying to figure out ministry leadership in a time when everything was paralyzed. I wrote six words, and I would suggest to you that I'm going to leave you with them tonight. They might be what God's wanting to hear from you. I don't even have to look them up. But here they are. I said. As we enter this new year, the COVID cloud and calculations still hang over us I see the demands growing in my life, the humanly overwhelming to-do list, the discipleship center accelerating. Working through so many leadership issues. Your message to me in 2020, Lord. Here it is. Let me do this. Hands off I'm trying to keep them off. I've loved what I've seen him do. Shaken, awakened. Let me do this, God says. Hands off A little scary, a lot exciting. Now, Lord, for my brothers and sisters, I pray You know I've done my best to represent what I believe to be your heart. For we all know about the shaking. We lived it. We continue to live it. But it's been for something. It's to birth your new thing. We open our hearts and our eyes to see it and grasp it. And we feel that it has a lot to do. with the full surrender of our control, which we cherish so much, for a full surrender To a promised land that you want to give us Lord, I pray for exciting discoveries the next couple of days. In the mighty and beloved name of Jesus. Amen