February 25, 2025 • 33 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The year was 1982, and as a young lad, 12 years old
, spending the summer up innorthern Michigan, I've told you
a few times, if you've heard metell stories, about our time in
Michigan my parents, my dad andmy grandfather, his father.
(00:21):
They purchased land up innorthern Michigan.
It was a part of the wholefamily and we would go up there
during the summer and cut wood,cut down some trees, dead trees,
chop the wood.
It was hard work and then wewould bring that wood back to
our house in Grand Rapids and wewould burn that wood for heat.
In our home we had a furnace.
(00:42):
But you know, dad was like no,we're going to save money.
And he's like you're going tocarry wood.
And so in the summer we wouldchop wood, stack wood, move wood
from up north down into GrandRapids, and in the winter I'd
carry wood up and down thestairs into our house to burn
for heat over the winter time.
And this one summer of 1982, wewere there working and I was.
(01:04):
You got to imagine me.
I'm like 60-pound, 12-year-old,okay, I mean, I was not the
biggest kid in the room and mydad would like stack me up with
as much wood as I could carry.
And then he would teach me howto use the axe and to split wood
.
And you know, you got toimagine I think the axe weighed
more than me, but I would withknow.
You've got to imagine I thinkthe ax weighed more than me, but
(01:25):
I would, with all everything inme, I would get and slam that
into the wood.
And he would always tell me hitthe same spot twice, hit the
same spot twice.
And then I guess he decided mydad always trusted me, he always
gave me responsibility at avery young age.
And so he says all right, nowI'm going to teach you how to
use the power saw, the chainsaw,and I was like, come on,
(01:53):
somebody, come on, I havearrived, I'm not just carrying
with, this summer I get toactually cut down the tree.
This is going to be fun.
And so he said all right, theonly way you can use it is if
you start it.
He says so, go, start it.
I was like, yeah, yes, sir.
And so I got over to thatchainsaw and I pulled that chain
.
Nothing happened.
I pulled the.
He said pull again.
I pulled again, nothinghappened.
He said, pull again.
I pulled again, nothinghappened.
(02:15):
He says all right now.
Let me tell you something, whatyou didn't do.
I said okay.
He said see that little buttonon the very edge of that motor.
It looks like there's a littlebubble in there, right.
And I said yes, sir.
And he said push that three orfour times.
I said okay, so I pushed itthree or four times.
He says now, what you just didis you just primed the engine.
(02:35):
You put a little gas into theengine, so when you pull that
handle, it will spark and thenit will start.
So he said, prime it three orfour times.
I prime it three or four times,push, I pull it and, man, that
thing went.
And then it was no TexasChainsaw Massacre, but you gotta
(02:56):
imagine a 12-year-old wieldingthis chainsaw all over trying to
figure out which tree I'm gonnacut down.
But it is the year that Ilearned if you don't prime it,
it ain't gonna start.
Lean over to your neighbor andsay you better prime the promise
.
And why don't you just leanback to the one you've been
(03:18):
ignoring and just say I am soready for this, I am so ready
for this.
Today we're going to start alittle series that may be a
two-week series, that may be afive-week series that may go all
the way to Easter.
It literally is called Primethe Promise.
Now, arshana did not know whatthe title of this message was
(03:47):
when she got up here and beganto talk about the promises of
God being yes and amen throughJesus Christ, and I leaned over
to Pastor Ben, I was like shedoesn't even have a clue what
I'm preaching about today.
In fact, I had a title all weeklong.
I was going to preach adifferent title to this message
and this morning I woke up and Iswitched it.
(04:09):
I was like I felt led by theHoly Spirit and then that was
confirmed through Ursh's flowtime.
So we're going to talk aboutthis idea of priming the promise
Because guess what church?
Hey, we are continuing ourjourney on our best year ever,
(04:30):
and can I just give you about 30seconds worth of faith building
that, even if it doesn't looklike your best year yet, keep
going, don't give up, don'tthrow in the towel yet, don't
decide it's not working yet.
Come on, keep on pressing, keepon believing, keep on declaring
, keep on holding on, becauseGod is about to do in your life
what he has promised.
(04:51):
So we're in this seriesdeclaration and really begin to
take these deliberate steps intothis momentum that God has
established around our lives.
How many can feel the momentum?
(05:12):
It's like when you used to rideyour bike when you were kids
and you would have to ride upthe hill and it would really
suck.
Sorry, stink, that's all right,that's the wrong word.
I'm sorry, mom, I'm sorry itwould really.
Riding uphill was terrible, butwhen you got to the top of the
hill and began to ride down thehill and you would pedal as fast
(05:36):
as you could, starting at thetop of the hill, going down, and
then soon enough you couldn'tpedal fast enough for as fast as
your bike was going, come onsomebody.
That's why I feel like it'shappening in the Holy Spirit, in
our lives right now, thatthere's a momentum taking over
that's propelling us intosomething that God has in store
for us better than you couldever ask for or imagine.
So we're in this idea and whatI can tell you is that if you
(06:00):
keep operating in the additionside of things meaning what you
can do because we're good atadding, it's step-by-step
addition If you'll keep doingthe addition side of things, god
will get involved in themultiplication of things.
You do your part, god certainlywill do his part.
(06:22):
So, with this idea of primingthe promise, it has to start
with faith right, what we do asa follower of Jesus is a journey
, a lifetime journey of faith.
And faith is not just aone-time event.
It's not like I one time hearthe word, believe the word, and
(06:45):
then I don't have to worry aboutthat any longer, because I did,
I took care of that one time.
This is, this is a continualprocess and and it's a continual
step-by-step moment it is adaily process of hearing God's
word.
We know that faith comes byhearing God's word.
If you want to build your faith, you've got to be in God's word
.
We know that faith comes byhearing God's word.
(07:06):
If you want to build your faith, you've got to be in God's word
.
If you're like, oh, my faith isstruggling, I can tell you why
because you're not in God's word.
And get into the faith chaptersof the book of the Bible.
Get around Hebrews and startreading through the book of
Hebrews when it talks about, byfaith, all of those champions of
(07:26):
our faith and what they did byfaith.
Were they perfect?
No, but they kept walking byfaith.
And so faith is this dailyprocess of hearing God's word,
of believing God's word.
Like every time you say amenwhen somebody's preaching when
I'm preaching with Pastor Ben orPastor Matthew, pastor Ursch,
whoever might be preaching,pastor Robbie when we're
(07:48):
preaching and you say amen, whatyou're saying is so be it.
I affirm the word of God thatI'm hearing in my heart and I
believe it in my heart.
So when I believe it in myheart, it can take seed, it can
process and it can produce aresult.
And the promise is this theword of God never returns void
(08:09):
Never.
So I can plant a seed in thebackyard and hope that I get
flowers, but if I don't takecare of it properly, it's not
really going to produce anything.
But God's word will producewhat he promises.
So when you say amen, you'resaying yeah, so be it.
And so you can say it as anamen, you can say it as that's
(08:32):
right, you can say it as preachit.
You can say it as.
Say it again.
You can say it as that's good,you can say it as so good, you
can say strong word.
However you agree with it.
Say it so that it produces theseed in your heart to fulfill
the promise you got, because yougot to what Prime the promise?
What are you doing over there?
(08:53):
Oh, I'm just, I'm priming thepromise.
You haven't seen the promiseyet, no, but I know it's coming.
So faith is the process ofhearing God's word, of believing
God's word and then livingGod's word.
You might say it's hearing thetruth, believing the truth and
(09:13):
living the truth.
That is the faith process inour life.
And faith is paramount becausewe know that we walk by faith
and not by sight.
Let's go ahead and skip ahead acouple of verses.
I'll come back to that Exodus 3story in just a minute.
We walk by faith and not bysight, and we know that without
(09:37):
faith it is impossible to pleaseGod.
So faith is paramount In thisjourney.
We also know that we are savedby faith Through grace.
So faith, then, is the gatewayTo access the grace, To do the
(10:03):
work, to see the work and toreceive the work.
To see the work and to receivethe promise.
Faith is what primes the promiseand there's this tension In
faith between what has beenpromised and how it will be
delivered.
In what has been promised andhow it has been delivered, you
(10:30):
know, there's this idea thatwhen there's a promise, we kind
of get the idea of what well weknow exactly how God's going to
fulfill that promise.
God promises Abraham that hewill be the father to
generations.
Abraham, look at the stars inthe sky, and as many as stars in
the sky will be the number ofsons that you'll have.
(10:52):
Oh, go by the sand, by the sea,and count all of those sand
little crystals and that's thelineage that will come from you.
Abraham Great, how many sons doyou have, abraham Zero, how old
are you?
Abraham, 99.
Because there's the tension offaith between what has been
(11:14):
promised and how it is received.
Abraham I'm guessing at about32 would have been like let's go
, let's start lining them up.
But no, god had a differentopportunity, a different
timeline than what Abraham did.
And I'm going to tell youyou're looking at this best year
(11:34):
ever in your life, and it'sonly going to be the best year
if you'll keep priming thepromise, because if you've not
received it today, it doesn'tmean you won won't receive it,
it just means it's not heretoday, it might be tomorrow.
You keep living in that tensionbetween what's promised and
when or how it will be delivered.
And so, from here to there,from where you are to where God
(12:00):
wants you.
Is this level of faith that isyour responsibility, to be in
God's word, to believe God'sword and to live God's word.
And you just keep acting likeit's already happened for you.
I felt like that was going to bea better amen because we know
(12:25):
the promises.
I felt like that was going tobe a better amen Because we know
the promise is yes and amenthrough Jesus Christ.
We know the promise, accordingthrough scripture, will not
delay, as some count slacknessor delay, like we think the
promise is being delayed, andit's actually not delayed at all
.
It's just God's timing, notours.
(12:47):
And because we live in amicrowave world no, no, that was
.
We used to live in a microwaveworld, now we live in an air
fryer world.
Come on, young people.
Can I get a better amen for airfryers?
Change your life.
(13:14):
Best homemade chicken nuggets.
Go ahead and put a littlecinnamon roll up in that thing.
You don't even like Brusselssprouts unless you have an air
fryer.
(13:34):
The brussel sprouts I grew upon are not the brussel sprouts
these boys are growing up on.
So when you live in an air fryerworld, it's hard to have the
kind of faith it takes to waitfor God's promise to be
delivered.
But we know it's not slack it'saccording to some calling it
slackness we know it's justGod's timing and if you're not
ready for it, you don't need it.
(13:55):
If you're not ready for it, youwould spoil it, you would
misuse it, you would think itwas all you, you would think it
was your gifting, and yourgifting will make way that your
character can't keep you.
(14:16):
So you better work on yourcharacter before the promise
gets here.
And I've always said this thata thought, you better work on
your character before thepromise gets here.
And I've always said this thata thought becomes a word which
(14:38):
becomes an act, which becomes ahabit, which becomes a character
, which becomes a destiny.
But we really would like to skipfrom the thought to the destiny
.
It's my destiny, I know, butyou didn't get prepared.
Well, god doesn't just call theprepared, he equips the, he
prepares the called.
Yeah, that's true, but there'sa timeline to get from where you
(15:00):
are to your destiny.
And I'm gonna tell you, if youdo it outside of the timing of
God, it's not gonna go well, man.
So that's why, as followers ofJesus, we need to keep our focus
(15:22):
on the promise and not theproblem.
Be focused on the promise,don't focus on the problems
around you, because we know ifthe promises are yes and amen
through Jesus Christ, we knowthat he is not only is he the
promise maker, he is the promisekeeper.
(15:43):
So I'm going to just keep myeyes on the promise and the
problems.
We'll get through those as theycome, because we're working our
way to the destiny.
Alright, I don't have time forthis message, that's it.
We're going.
(16:07):
This message, this message, allright, so listen, are you ready?
Let's prime the promise, let'slean in, let's go.
All right, I have in my notes11 o'clock.
It literally is 11 o'clockright now.
So we can all agree.
Church, can we agree?
Agree with me on this.
We can all agree that Moses wasa child of destiny.
(16:31):
Why do you say that, pc?
Well, if you read in the bookof Exodus, start in Exodus,
chapter one, read verse chapterone, read that chapter.
Then read chapter two.
Not there yet?
Let's not get ahead Likechapter 2, read through chapter
2.
And we find out Moses is achild of destiny because Moses
was protected from the evil planof Pharaoh.
(16:54):
Trust me in this.
You can read it later this week.
Trust me in this.
You can read it later this week.
Pharaoh had a plan After Joseph.
Remember, joseph is the son,the dreamer of Jacob, one of 12.
Joseph gets sold by hisbrothers into slavery and winds
(17:17):
up in Potiphar's house, who isthe second in command to Pharaoh
, and Joseph is given divinewisdom.
And the Bible says that Josephprospered in everything.
He prospered when he was soldand thrown in a pit, he
prospered when he was in thepalace and he prospered when he
was in prison.
And so he prospered.
(17:38):
And because Joseph prospered,the people of God prospered.
And when Joseph dies and youpick this up in Exodus, chapter
2, when Joseph dies, itliterally says that the people
of God, the Israelites, theyprospered and they multiplied in
great number.
They were reproducing at recordspeeds.
(18:01):
Number, they were reproducingat record speeds.
And as they're growing inpopulation and they're living in
the area of Egypt, pharaoh sayslisten, there are so many of
them and if they keepmultiplying, god's math, if they
keep multiplying, they're gonnatake over all of us.
(18:23):
And so the evil plan thatPharaoh came up with and it's
been the device of the enemy ofour life ever since is he said
listen, we're gonna kill everyboy that is born.
When he's born, we'll have amidwife there and if it's a girl
, she lives.
But if it's a boy, we take himout and kill him, we throw him
in the river.
We're gonna kill every boythat's born.
(18:46):
Every Israelite boy that's bornwill be killed, because if you
have no boys, you'll have no men, and if you have no men, you'll
have no army.
And if you don't have an army,you don't have any way to
advance or protect.
And if you don't have an army,you don't have any way to
advance or protect.
And if you don't have any way,any men.
You also have no seed, and itwill just take a very short
(19:11):
amount of time to take a nationand wipe it out and multiply it
for another purpose.
Does that not sound like what'shappening in our culture?
But Moses was a child of destinyBecause he was protected from
(19:33):
that curse.
In fact, the Bible says whenMoses was born, the mother, she
birthed Moses in secret.
The mother, she birthed Mosesin secret and instead of
allowing him to be thrown intothe river like all of the other
boys, she actually made an arkor a little boat, a basket.
She weaved a basket, filled theinside with tar, pitched it
(19:57):
with tar.
The Bible says, put Moses inthere and set him in the calmest
spot of the river, whereactually Pharaoh's daughter came
not too long after that tobathe and when she saw the
basket she looked inside andsaid, wow, this is a boy.
Somebody's put this boy hereand she picked him up.
(20:17):
And Moses's mother was smartenough to have his bigger sister
be there and see the moment andsay I know somebody who could
raise this child.
So Moses' mother not only savedhim, but she got to raise him
and teach him all about God'sword, all the commands.
The word wasn't written yet,but she knew the articles of
(20:38):
God's word, she knew theblessings of God's word, she
knew what God had promised andshe would share that with Moses
while he was growing, before hebecame of age and actually went
to live with Pharaoh's daughter.
A lot of story, a lot of story.
But we can agree that Moses wasa man of destiny because he was
protected from that evil plot.
(20:59):
Can I just say in this room ifyou're a man in this room,
you're a man of destiny.
If you're in this room, you'rea man of destiny.
What the enemy has tried totake you out on it hasn't worked
and it's not going to work.
There's no assignment that willwork.
The weapon may be formed but itwon't prosper.
(21:19):
And if you're sitting in thisroom you are a testimony to
God's grace and God's designthat there is a destiny, that
God has made you for somethinggreater a time as this man.
I thank God for the men of thischurch Men that are praying men,
men that'll come work on thisbuilding and put their time and
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labor and sweat equity into thisbuilding.
Men who will lead theirfamilies and give generously and
faithfully.
Men that are involved in God'shouse.
Men that are involved in smallgroups, men that are coming to
freeway, men that are involvedin what God's doing in this
house.
I thank God for the men.
What about you, church?
Thank God for them, but wecan't forget the women.
(22:06):
Moses' mom Come on somebody.
If it weren't for our prayingmom, I don't know if any of us
would be here For the prayinggrandmother, for the mom that
wouldn't just let us go do whatwe wanted to do, just actually
stood a standard in front of usand was like you're going to
(22:28):
have to go through me if you'regoing to go there again.
You know the miracles thatJesus performed, that he
performed for men in the NewTestament.
Half of those were done becausea woman brought it to Jesus.
Come on, we love the ladies ofthe house, we love the moms of
(22:49):
the house.
What I'm telling you is, ifyou're in this room, you are a
person of destiny, but you can'tget your eyes so far ahead on
the destiny that you forgetabout what it's gonna take to
get there.
You might be thrown in a basketand put on the river.
You might be raised in anenvironment that you didn't
(23:15):
expect.
You might have to spend a lotof time with the people around
you while God's preparing youfor the people he's assigned you
to.
Don't get out in front.
(23:38):
Come on, sean, you can comehelp me close.
You see, there's a group ofpeople you're assigned to, but
you can't get there until youfigure out how to manage with
the people that are around you.
(24:01):
So Moses is protected and weknow that Moses is a person of
destiny and we know thataccording to God's word, if you
read back through the story ofJoseph, god promises that,
although the people of Israelwill be enslaved, now there's
something God knew what wasgoing to happen to his people.
(24:22):
God promises that, although thepeople of Israel will be
enslaved, now there's somethingGod knew what was going to
happen to his people, but didn'tfreak them out.
God knows where you're at inyour life right now.
And even though he knew theywere in this spot, that was not
the promised land.
In fact, to this point, outsideof Abraham being a man of
(24:44):
promise and his seed living asmen of promise Until this point,
we haven't arrived in thepromised land yet.
But guess what?
We're going to keep priming thepromise, because God's not
going to fail, never failed,never did, never will.
So we know the promise is thatthey won't be enslaved.
In fact, if you read it, hesaid for 400 years.
(25:07):
400 years, you're going to beslaves in Egypt and then I'll
take you out of there.
And then I'll take you out ofthere.
Well, right about 398,.
Moses, who's beginning tounderstand the destiny part of
his life, knows he's anIsraelite, being raised in
(25:36):
Pharaoh's home, knows he wasborn and raised on the wrong
side of the river, being raisednow and educated in the very
finest of math and science andpolitics.
The Egyptian government andkingdom it was the establishment
(25:57):
for that day and he's beingeducated in all of that and he
knows it.
I'm an Israelite being raisedin Egyptian culture.
And one day he sees an Egyptianattacking an Israelite and he
(26:23):
thinks not on my watch, this iswhat I came, this is it.
This is what I came to do, thisis my destiny, this is my
moment.
And he steps over there and hebreaks the fight up and he kills
the Egyptian.
It.
And he steps over there and hebreaks the fight up and he kills
the Egyptian.
A couple of days later he seestwo Israelites fighting and he's
(26:47):
moved with compassion.
Brother fighting brother, he'slike man.
I had to stop the Egyptian frombeating the Israelite, but I
don't want my brothers to beatone another up.
And so he goes to break them upand one of them says what are
(27:07):
you over us?
That you're going to kill ustoo?
And he knew what he had donewould be talked about and was
known.
And from that moment he runs tothe wilderness.
How many of us can relate withhaving the right intention but
operating in the wrong timeline?
God, I know where my destiny is.
(27:29):
I know where I'm headed.
If I could just go ahead andtake it, let me just get there.
You're not ready yet.
If I could just go ahead andtake it, let me just get there.
You're not ready yet.
That 400 year promise became480 years because Moses had to
spend.
He was at that point 40 yearsold.
(27:49):
Another 40 years Moses had togo into the wilderness, and
that's where we pick up thescripture Now.
Moses was tending the flock ofJethro, his father-in-law, the
priest of Midian.
Time out Midian.
Where's Midian?
At?
Well, abraham had a wife,keturah, and Abraham and Keturah
(28:10):
.
They had a son named Midian,and Midian became the priest.
Midian and Midian became thepriest, or.
Midian built this city andJethro became the priest of the
city.
What's incredible to me, tojust kind of lean into here, is
(28:30):
that the promise God has foryour life is always going to be
linked to the generations beforeyou.
You see, midian was in thelineage of Abraham, the father
of promise.
We say he's the God of Abraham,isaac and Jacob.
Well, guess what?
(28:51):
He's the God of Midian.
Midian builds this city andthis city is linked to the
promises of God.
And Moses gets to Midian tendingthe flock of Jethro, his
father-in-law, and he led theflock to the far side of the
wilderness and came to Horeb,the mountain of God.
(29:13):
And there the angel of the Lordappeared to him in flames of
fire from within a bush.
But guess what?
We're getting ready to startlinking our destiny with our
promise.
And Moses saw that, though thebush was on fire, it did not
(29:35):
burn up.
Though the bush was on fire, itdid not burn up.
And what he thought was thisI'll go over and see this
strange sight, why the bush doesnot burn up.
I'm going to stop here today.
Listen, listen what God istrying to get us to do on this
(29:57):
journey.
I know we feel the momentum, wefeel the breath and the wind of
God behind us.
We know we're headed to ourbest year.
Yet God said listen, don't getso far ahead.
Prime the promise, becausewithout the promise, the destiny
(30:20):
is not gonna be attainable.
And this is what I wanna getyou involved in church.
Right here is this moment.
Moses sees the bush on fire,but not burning, and he stops
and he looks at it and he says Ineed to go check this out.
And so many of us we get sointent on getting to the destiny
(30:43):
, we overlook what God is tryingto get our attention, what God
is using to get our attention.
If you missed the word of thepromise.
Good luck getting to thedestiny.
If you could see a chain witheach individual link from where
you are to where God's promiseis.
(31:05):
You see it.
You see that destiny Workingthe promise, priming the
promises, one of those links ata time.
Just take one link at a time.
You don't have to race forward.
Just take one link at a timeand when God moves in a
miraculous way, you stop and saywhat am I listening to, what am
(31:27):
I seeing?
When we have moments, like wejust had in worship service,
where the presence of God movesin a powerful way and there's
this notable pause.
There's this notable pausewhere we know well, there might
be another song, or maybe PastorPriscilla or Pastor Ursch or
Pastor Ben, they have somethingthey're going to lead us in.
It's a song we're going torecognize.
(31:48):
There's a notable pause.
Listen, don't get so fast toget through the service.
Stop and say well, what's thisbush burning over here?
Let me just, what are youtrying to?
What are you trying to show?
Because it's in that momentGod's gonna speak the promise to
you.
Now, listen, read down chapterfour.
I think right about verse 19.
This is what God says at theburning bush.
(32:12):
Now the Lord said to Moses inMidian, linked to the promises
he's spoken to generationsbefore Go, return to Egypt, for
all the men who sought your lifeare dead.
Now it's time to go, moses, nowit's time to get there.
(32:33):
Now you're gonna walk into yourdestiny of saying Pharaoh, let
my people go and guess what?
There's a promise coming down adusty road for you.
There's a promise being readyto deliver to you a word that's
going to take you from where youare to where God wants you, and
(32:54):
all I can say is are you readyto prime that promise until it
comes?
Like hey, I'm just going tolean into God's word.
I'm.
I can say is are you ready toprime that promise until it
comes?
Like hey, I'm just going tolean into God's word.
I'm going to lean into worship.
I'm going to lean into Sundayservice.
I'm going to lean into smallgroup.
I'm going to lean into serving.
I'm going to lean intogenerosity, because I know what
God is about to do.
In my life, I've seen him move.
He's moved the mountains.
I've seen him move.
(33:15):
He'll do it again.
I've found a way.
He's made a way where thereseemed to be no way.
Come on church.
Can you believe that in yourheart?
Can you lean in for a minute?
Let's all stand together.
The year was 1982, and as a young lad, 12 years old
, spending the summer up innorthern Michigan, I've told you
a few times, if you've heard metell stories, about our time in
Michigan my parents, my dad andmy grandfather, his father.
(00:21):
They purchased land up innorthern Michigan.
It was a part of the wholefamily and we would go up there
during the summer and cut wood,cut down some trees, dead trees,
chop the wood.
It was hard work and then wewould bring that wood back to
our house in Grand Rapids and wewould burn that wood for heat.
In our home we had a furnace.
(00:42):
But you know, dad was like no,we're going to save money.
And he's like you're going tocarry wood.
And so in the summer we wouldchop wood, stack wood, move wood
from up north down into GrandRapids, and in the winter I'd
carry wood up and down thestairs into our house to burn
for heat over the winter time.
And this one summer of 1982, wewere there working and I was.
(01:04):
You got to imagine me.
I'm like 60-pound, 12-year-old,okay, I mean, I was not the
biggest kid in the room and mydad would like stack me up with
as much wood as I could carry.
And then he would teach me howto use the axe and to split wood
.
And you know, you got toimagine I think the axe weighed
more than me, but I would withknow.
You've got to imagine I thinkthe ax weighed more than me, but
(01:25):
I would, with all everything inme, I would get and slam that
into the wood.
And he would always tell me hitthe same spot twice, hit the
same spot twice.
And then I guess he decided mydad always trusted me, he always
gave me responsibility at avery young age.
And so he says all right, nowI'm going to teach you how to
use the power saw, the chainsaw,and I was like, come on,
(01:53):
somebody, come on, I havearrived, I'm not just carrying
with, this summer I get toactually cut down the tree.
This is going to be fun.
And so he said all right, theonly way you can use it is if
you start it.
He says so, go, start it.
I was like, yeah, yes, sir.
And so I got over to thatchainsaw and I pulled that chain
.
Nothing happened.
I pulled the.
He said pull again.
I pulled again, nothinghappened.
He said, pull again.
I pulled again, nothinghappened.
(02:15):
He says all right now.
Let me tell you something, whatyou didn't do.
I said okay.
He said see that little buttonon the very edge of that motor.
It looks like there's a littlebubble in there, right.
And I said yes, sir.
And he said push that three orfour times.
I said okay, so I pushed itthree or four times.
He says now, what you just didis you just primed the engine.
(02:35):
You put a little gas into theengine, so when you pull that
handle, it will spark and thenit will start.
So he said, prime it three orfour times.
I prime it three or four times,push, I pull it and, man, that
thing went.
And then it was no TexasChainsaw Massacre, but you gotta
(02:56):
imagine a 12-year-old wieldingthis chainsaw all over trying to
figure out which tree I'm gonnacut down.
But it is the year that Ilearned if you don't prime it,
it ain't gonna start.
Lean over to your neighbor andsay you better prime the promise
.
And why don't you just leanback to the one you've been
(03:18):
ignoring and just say I am soready for this, I am so ready
for this.
Today we're going to start alittle series that may be a
two-week series, that may be afive-week series that may go all
the way to Easter.
It literally is called Primethe Promise.
Now, arshana did not know whatthe title of this message was
(03:47):
when she got up here and beganto talk about the promises of
God being yes and amen throughJesus Christ, and I leaned over
to Pastor Ben, I was like shedoesn't even have a clue what
I'm preaching about today.
In fact, I had a title all weeklong.
I was going to preach adifferent title to this message
and this morning I woke up and Iswitched it.
(04:09):
I was like I felt led by theHoly Spirit and then that was
confirmed through Ursh's flowtime.
So we're going to talk aboutthis idea of priming the promise
Because guess what church?
Hey, we are continuing ourjourney on our best year ever,
(04:30):
and can I just give you about 30seconds worth of faith building
that, even if it doesn't looklike your best year yet, keep
going, don't give up, don'tthrow in the towel yet, don't
decide it's not working yet.
Come on, keep on pressing, keepon believing, keep on declaring
, keep on holding on, becauseGod is about to do in your life
what he has promised.
(04:51):
So we're in this seriesdeclaration and really begin to
take these deliberate steps intothis momentum that God has
established around our lives.
How many can feel the momentum?
(05:12):
It's like when you used to rideyour bike when you were kids
and you would have to ride upthe hill and it would really
suck.
Sorry, stink, that's all right,that's the wrong word.
I'm sorry, mom, I'm sorry itwould really.
Riding uphill was terrible, butwhen you got to the top of the
hill and began to ride down thehill and you would pedal as fast
(05:36):
as you could, starting at thetop of the hill, going down, and
then soon enough you couldn'tpedal fast enough for as fast as
your bike was going, come onsomebody.
That's why I feel like it'shappening in the Holy Spirit, in
our lives right now, thatthere's a momentum taking over
that's propelling us intosomething that God has in store
for us better than you couldever ask for or imagine.
So we're in this idea and whatI can tell you is that if you
(06:00):
keep operating in the additionside of things meaning what you
can do because we're good atadding, it's step-by-step
addition If you'll keep doingthe addition side of things, god
will get involved in themultiplication of things.
You do your part, god certainlywill do his part.
(06:22):
So, with this idea of primingthe promise, it has to start
with faith right, what we do asa follower of Jesus is a journey
, a lifetime journey of faith.
And faith is not just aone-time event.
It's not like I one time hearthe word, believe the word, and
(06:45):
then I don't have to worry aboutthat any longer, because I did,
I took care of that one time.
This is, this is a continualprocess and and it's a continual
step-by-step moment it is adaily process of hearing God's
word.
We know that faith comes byhearing God's word.
If you want to build your faith, you've got to be in God's word
.
We know that faith comes byhearing God's word.
(07:06):
If you want to build your faith, you've got to be in God's word
.
If you're like, oh, my faith isstruggling, I can tell you why
because you're not in God's word.
And get into the faith chaptersof the book of the Bible.
Get around Hebrews and startreading through the book of
Hebrews when it talks about, byfaith, all of those champions of
(07:26):
our faith and what they did byfaith.
Were they perfect?
No, but they kept walking byfaith.
And so faith is this dailyprocess of hearing God's word,
of believing God's word.
Like every time you say amenwhen somebody's preaching when
I'm preaching with Pastor Ben orPastor Matthew, pastor Ursch,
whoever might be preaching,pastor Robbie when we're
(07:48):
preaching and you say amen, whatyou're saying is so be it.
I affirm the word of God thatI'm hearing in my heart and I
believe it in my heart.
So when I believe it in myheart, it can take seed, it can
process and it can produce aresult.
And the promise is this theword of God never returns void
(08:09):
Never.
So I can plant a seed in thebackyard and hope that I get
flowers, but if I don't takecare of it properly, it's not
really going to produce anything.
But God's word will producewhat he promises.
So when you say amen, you'resaying yeah, so be it.
And so you can say it as anamen, you can say it as that's
(08:32):
right, you can say it as preachit.
You can say it as.
Say it again.
You can say it as that's good,you can say it as so good, you
can say strong word.
However you agree with it.
Say it so that it produces theseed in your heart to fulfill
the promise you got, because yougot to what Prime the promise?
What are you doing over there?
(08:53):
Oh, I'm just, I'm priming thepromise.
You haven't seen the promiseyet, no, but I know it's coming.
So faith is the process ofhearing God's word, of believing
God's word and then livingGod's word.
You might say it's hearing thetruth, believing the truth and
(09:13):
living the truth.
That is the faith process inour life.
And faith is paramount becausewe know that we walk by faith
and not by sight.
Let's go ahead and skip ahead acouple of verses.
I'll come back to that Exodus 3story in just a minute.
We walk by faith and not bysight, and we know that without
(09:37):
faith it is impossible to pleaseGod.
So faith is paramount In thisjourney.
We also know that we are savedby faith Through grace.
So faith, then, is the gatewayTo access the grace, To do the
(10:03):
work, to see the work and toreceive the work.
To see the work and to receivethe promise.
Faith is what primes the promiseand there's this tension In
faith between what has beenpromised and how it will be
delivered.
In what has been promised andhow it has been delivered, you
(10:30):
know, there's this idea thatwhen there's a promise, we kind
of get the idea of what well weknow exactly how God's going to
fulfill that promise.
God promises Abraham that hewill be the father to
generations.
Abraham, look at the stars inthe sky, and as many as stars in
the sky will be the number ofsons that you'll have.
(10:52):
Oh, go by the sand, by the sea,and count all of those sand
little crystals and that's thelineage that will come from you.
Abraham Great, how many sons doyou have, abraham Zero, how old
are you?
Abraham, 99.
Because there's the tension offaith between what has been
(11:14):
promised and how it is received.
Abraham I'm guessing at about32 would have been like let's go
, let's start lining them up.
But no, god had a differentopportunity, a different
timeline than what Abraham did.
And I'm going to tell youyou're looking at this best year
(11:34):
ever in your life, and it'sonly going to be the best year
if you'll keep priming thepromise, because if you've not
received it today, it doesn'tmean you won won't receive it,
it just means it's not heretoday, it might be tomorrow.
You keep living in that tensionbetween what's promised and
when or how it will be delivered.
And so, from here to there,from where you are to where God
(12:00):
wants you.
Is this level of faith that isyour responsibility, to be in
God's word, to believe God'sword and to live God's word.
And you just keep acting likeit's already happened for you.
I felt like that was going to bea better amen because we know
(12:25):
the promises.
I felt like that was going tobe a better amen Because we know
the promise is yes and amenthrough Jesus Christ.
We know the promise, accordingthrough scripture, will not
delay, as some count slacknessor delay, like we think the
promise is being delayed, andit's actually not delayed at all
.
It's just God's timing, notours.
(12:47):
And because we live in amicrowave world no, no, that was
.
We used to live in a microwaveworld, now we live in an air
fryer world.
Come on, young people.
Can I get a better amen for airfryers?
Change your life.
(13:14):
Best homemade chicken nuggets.
Go ahead and put a littlecinnamon roll up in that thing.
You don't even like Brusselssprouts unless you have an air
fryer.
(13:34):
The brussel sprouts I grew upon are not the brussel sprouts
these boys are growing up on.
So when you live in an air fryerworld, it's hard to have the
kind of faith it takes to waitfor God's promise to be
delivered.
But we know it's not slack it'saccording to some calling it
slackness we know it's justGod's timing and if you're not
ready for it, you don't need it.
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If you're not ready for it, youwould spoil it, you would
misuse it, you would think itwas all you, you would think it
was your gifting, and yourgifting will make way that your
character can't keep you.
(14:16):
So you better work on yourcharacter before the promise
gets here.
And I've always said this thata thought, you better work on
your character before thepromise gets here.
And I've always said this thata thought becomes a word which
(14:38):
becomes an act, which becomes ahabit, which becomes a character
, which becomes a destiny.
But we really would like to skipfrom the thought to the destiny
.
It's my destiny, I know, butyou didn't get prepared.
Well, god doesn't just call theprepared, he equips the, he
prepares the called.
Yeah, that's true, but there'sa timeline to get from where you
(15:00):
are to your destiny.
And I'm gonna tell you, if youdo it outside of the timing of
God, it's not gonna go well, man.
So that's why, as followers ofJesus, we need to keep our focus
(15:22):
on the promise and not theproblem.
Be focused on the promise,don't focus on the problems
around you, because we know ifthe promises are yes and amen
through Jesus Christ, we knowthat he is not only is he the
promise maker, he is the promisekeeper.
(15:43):
So I'm going to just keep myeyes on the promise and the
problems.
We'll get through those as theycome, because we're working our
way to the destiny.
Alright, I don't have time forthis message, that's it.
We're going.
(16:07):
This message, this message, allright, so listen, are you ready?
Let's prime the promise, let'slean in, let's go.
All right, I have in my notes11 o'clock.
It literally is 11 o'clockright now.
So we can all agree.
Church, can we agree?
Agree with me on this.
We can all agree that Moses wasa child of destiny.
(16:31):
Why do you say that, pc?
Well, if you read in the bookof Exodus, start in Exodus,
chapter one, read verse chapterone, read that chapter.
Then read chapter two.
Not there yet?
Let's not get ahead Likechapter 2, read through chapter
2.
And we find out Moses is achild of destiny because Moses
was protected from the evil planof Pharaoh.
(16:54):
Trust me in this.
You can read it later this week.
Trust me in this.
You can read it later this week.
Pharaoh had a plan After Joseph.
Remember, joseph is the son,the dreamer of Jacob, one of 12.
Joseph gets sold by hisbrothers into slavery and winds
(17:17):
up in Potiphar's house, who isthe second in command to Pharaoh
, and Joseph is given divinewisdom.
And the Bible says that Josephprospered in everything.
He prospered when he was soldand thrown in a pit, he
prospered when he was in thepalace and he prospered when he
was in prison.
And so he prospered.
(17:38):
And because Joseph prospered,the people of God prospered.
And when Joseph dies and youpick this up in Exodus, chapter
2, when Joseph dies, itliterally says that the people
of God, the Israelites, theyprospered and they multiplied in
great number.
They were reproducing at recordspeeds.
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Number, they were reproducingat record speeds.
And as they're growing inpopulation and they're living in
the area of Egypt, pharaoh sayslisten, there are so many of
them and if they keepmultiplying, god's math, if they
keep multiplying, they're gonnatake over all of us.
(18:23):
And so the evil plan thatPharaoh came up with and it's
been the device of the enemy ofour life ever since is he said
listen, we're gonna kill everyboy that is born.
When he's born, we'll have amidwife there and if it's a girl
, she lives.
But if it's a boy, we take himout and kill him, we throw him
in the river.
We're gonna kill every boythat's born.
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Every Israelite boy that's bornwill be killed, because if you
have no boys, you'll have no men, and if you have no men, you'll
have no army.
And if you don't have an army,you don't have any way to
advance or protect.
And if you don't have an army,you don't have any way to
advance or protect.
And if you don't have any way,any men.
You also have no seed, and itwill just take a very short
(19:11):
amount of time to take a nationand wipe it out and multiply it
for another purpose.
Does that not sound like what'shappening in our culture?
But Moses was a child of destinyBecause he was protected from
(19:33):
that curse.
In fact, the Bible says whenMoses was born, the mother, she
birthed Moses in secret.
The mother, she birthed Mosesin secret and instead of
allowing him to be thrown intothe river like all of the other
boys, she actually made an arkor a little boat, a basket.
She weaved a basket, filled theinside with tar, pitched it
(19:57):
with tar.
The Bible says, put Moses inthere and set him in the calmest
spot of the river, whereactually Pharaoh's daughter came
not too long after that tobathe and when she saw the
basket she looked inside andsaid, wow, this is a boy.
Somebody's put this boy hereand she picked him up.
(20:17):
And Moses's mother was smartenough to have his bigger sister
be there and see the moment andsay I know somebody who could
raise this child.
So Moses' mother not only savedhim, but she got to raise him
and teach him all about God'sword, all the commands.
The word wasn't written yet,but she knew the articles of
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God's word, she knew theblessings of God's word, she
knew what God had promised andshe would share that with Moses
while he was growing, before hebecame of age and actually went
to live with Pharaoh's daughter.
A lot of story, a lot of story.
But we can agree that Moses wasa man of destiny because he was
protected from that evil plot.
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Can I just say in this room ifyou're a man in this room,
you're a man of destiny.
If you're in this room, you'rea man of destiny.
What the enemy has tried totake you out on it hasn't worked
and it's not going to work.
There's no assignment that willwork.
The weapon may be formed but itwon't prosper.
(21:19):
And if you're sitting in thisroom you are a testimony to
God's grace and God's designthat there is a destiny, that
God has made you for somethinggreater a time as this man.
I thank God for the men of thischurch Men that are praying men,
men that'll come work on thisbuilding and put their time and
(21:43):
labor and sweat equity into thisbuilding.
Men who will lead theirfamilies and give generously and
faithfully.
Men that are involved in God'shouse.
Men that are involved in smallgroups, men that are coming to
freeway, men that are involvedin what God's doing in this
house.
I thank God for the men.
What about you, church?
Thank God for them, but wecan't forget the women.
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Moses' mom Come on somebody.
If it weren't for our prayingmom, I don't know if any of us
would be here For the prayinggrandmother, for the mom that
wouldn't just let us go do whatwe wanted to do, just actually
stood a standard in front of usand was like you're going to
(22:28):
have to go through me if you'regoing to go there again.
You know the miracles thatJesus performed, that he
performed for men in the NewTestament.
Half of those were done becausea woman brought it to Jesus.
Come on, we love the ladies ofthe house, we love the moms of
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the house.
What I'm telling you is, ifyou're in this room, you are a
person of destiny, but you can'tget your eyes so far ahead on
the destiny that you forgetabout what it's gonna take to
get there.
You might be thrown in a basketand put on the river.
You might be raised in anenvironment that you didn't
(23:15):
expect.
You might have to spend a lotof time with the people around
you while God's preparing youfor the people he's assigned you
to.
Don't get out in front.
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Come on, sean, you can comehelp me close.
You see, there's a group ofpeople you're assigned to, but
you can't get there until youfigure out how to manage with
the people that are around you.
(24:01):
So Moses is protected and weknow that Moses is a person of
destiny and we know thataccording to God's word, if you
read back through the story ofJoseph, god promises that,
although the people of Israelwill be enslaved, now there's
something God knew what wasgoing to happen to his people.
(24:22):
God promises that, although thepeople of Israel will be
enslaved, now there's somethingGod knew what was going to
happen to his people, but didn'tfreak them out.
God knows where you're at inyour life right now.
And even though he knew theywere in this spot, that was not
the promised land.
In fact, to this point, outsideof Abraham being a man of
(24:44):
promise and his seed living asmen of promise Until this point,
we haven't arrived in thepromised land yet.
But guess what?
We're going to keep priming thepromise, because God's not
going to fail, never failed,never did, never will.
So we know the promise is thatthey won't be enslaved.
In fact, if you read it, hesaid for 400 years.
(25:07):
400 years, you're going to beslaves in Egypt and then I'll
take you out of there.
And then I'll take you out ofthere.
Well, right about 398,.
Moses, who's beginning tounderstand the destiny part of
his life, knows he's anIsraelite, being raised in
(25:36):
Pharaoh's home, knows he wasborn and raised on the wrong
side of the river, being raisednow and educated in the very
finest of math and science andpolitics.
The Egyptian government andkingdom it was the establishment
(25:57):
for that day and he's beingeducated in all of that and he
knows it.
I'm an Israelite being raisedin Egyptian culture.
And one day he sees an Egyptianattacking an Israelite and he
(26:23):
thinks not on my watch, this iswhat I came, this is it.
This is what I came to do, thisis my destiny, this is my
moment.
And he steps over there and hebreaks the fight up and he kills
the Egyptian.
It.
And he steps over there and hebreaks the fight up and he kills
the Egyptian.
A couple of days later he seestwo Israelites fighting and he's
(26:47):
moved with compassion.
Brother fighting brother, he'slike man.
I had to stop the Egyptian frombeating the Israelite, but I
don't want my brothers to beatone another up.
And so he goes to break them upand one of them says what are
(27:07):
you over us?
That you're going to kill ustoo?
And he knew what he had donewould be talked about and was
known.
And from that moment he runs tothe wilderness.
How many of us can relate withhaving the right intention but
operating in the wrong timeline?
God, I know where my destiny is.
(27:29):
I know where I'm headed.
If I could just go ahead andtake it, let me just get there.
You're not ready yet.
If I could just go ahead andtake it, let me just get there.
You're not ready yet.
That 400 year promise became480 years because Moses had to
spend.
He was at that point 40 yearsold.
(27:49):
Another 40 years Moses had togo into the wilderness, and
that's where we pick up thescripture Now.
Moses was tending the flock ofJethro, his father-in-law, the
priest of Midian.
Time out Midian.
Where's Midian?
At?
Well, abraham had a wife,keturah, and Abraham and Keturah
(28:10):
.
They had a son named Midian,and Midian became the priest.
Midian and Midian became thepriest, or.
Midian built this city andJethro became the priest of the
city.
What's incredible to me, tojust kind of lean into here, is
(28:30):
that the promise God has foryour life is always going to be
linked to the generations beforeyou.
You see, midian was in thelineage of Abraham, the father
of promise.
We say he's the God of Abraham,isaac and Jacob.
Well, guess what?
(28:51):
He's the God of Midian.
Midian builds this city andthis city is linked to the
promises of God.
And Moses gets to Midian tendingthe flock of Jethro, his
father-in-law, and he led theflock to the far side of the
wilderness and came to Horeb,the mountain of God.
(29:13):
And there the angel of the Lordappeared to him in flames of
fire from within a bush.
But guess what?
We're getting ready to startlinking our destiny with our
promise.
And Moses saw that, though thebush was on fire, it did not
(29:35):
burn up.
Though the bush was on fire, itdid not burn up.
And what he thought was thisI'll go over and see this
strange sight, why the bush doesnot burn up.
I'm going to stop here today.
Listen, listen what God istrying to get us to do on this
(29:57):
journey.
I know we feel the momentum, wefeel the breath and the wind of
God behind us.
We know we're headed to ourbest year.
Yet God said listen, don't getso far ahead.
Prime the promise, becausewithout the promise, the destiny
(30:20):
is not gonna be attainable.
And this is what I wanna getyou involved in church.
Right here is this moment.
Moses sees the bush on fire,but not burning, and he stops
and he looks at it and he says Ineed to go check this out.
And so many of us we get sointent on getting to the destiny
(30:43):
, we overlook what God is tryingto get our attention, what God
is using to get our attention.
If you missed the word of thepromise.
Good luck getting to thedestiny.
If you could see a chain witheach individual link from where
you are to where God's promiseis.
(31:05):
You see it.
You see that destiny Workingthe promise, priming the
promises, one of those links ata time.
Just take one link at a time.
You don't have to race forward.
Just take one link at a timeand when God moves in a
miraculous way, you stop and saywhat am I listening to, what am
(31:27):
I seeing?
When we have moments, like wejust had in worship service,
where the presence of God movesin a powerful way and there's
this notable pause.
There's this notable pausewhere we know well, there might
be another song, or maybe PastorPriscilla or Pastor Ursch or
Pastor Ben, they have somethingthey're going to lead us in.
It's a song we're going torecognize.
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There's a notable pause.
Listen, don't get so fast toget through the service.
Stop and say well, what's thisbush burning over here?
Let me just, what are youtrying to?
What are you trying to show?
Because it's in that momentGod's gonna speak the promise to
you.
Now, listen, read down chapterfour.
I think right about verse 19.
This is what God says at theburning bush.
(32:12):
Now the Lord said to Moses inMidian, linked to the promises
he's spoken to generationsbefore Go, return to Egypt, for
all the men who sought your lifeare dead.
Now it's time to go, moses, nowit's time to get there.
(32:33):
Now you're gonna walk into yourdestiny of saying Pharaoh, let
my people go and guess what?
There's a promise coming down adusty road for you.
There's a promise being readyto deliver to you a word that's
going to take you from where youare to where God wants you, and
(32:54):
all I can say is are you readyto prime that promise until it
comes?
Like hey, I'm just going tolean into God's word.
I'm.
I can say is are you ready toprime that promise until it
comes?
Like hey, I'm just going tolean into God's word.
I'm going to lean into worship.
I'm going to lean into Sundayservice.
I'm going to lean into smallgroup.
I'm going to lean into serving.
I'm going to lean intogenerosity, because I know what
God is about to do.
In my life, I've seen him move.
He's moved the mountains.
I've seen him move.
(33:15):
He'll do it again.
I've found a way.
He's made a way where thereseemed to be no way.
Come on church.
Can you believe that in yourheart?
Can you lean in for a minute?
Let's all stand together.
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