Are You Too Comfortable?
How Can We Break The Strongholds Of Familiarity In Our Lives?
Jeff Taylor
Mar 13, 2022 42m
How comfortable have you gotten in your life? God has so much more for us if we can step out in faith and break the strongholds of familiarity in our lives. When we can get comfortable with being uncomfortable, we can embrace the amazing future God has planned for us. Video recorded at Upland, California.
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strongholds of familiarity life in jesus faith trust intimate relationship with god step out faith trust in god's planTranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Intro: [00:00:00] Hey, there. Thanks so much for checking out one of our messages here at Life Bible Fellowship Church. And we know there are two great ways you can connect with us. You can visit our website at LBF.church to learn more about all of our ministries and what we believe. And also, you can subscribe to us on YouTube to make sure that you don't miss one of our future videos.
Jeff Taylor: [00:00:19] Hey, I realize that today, this morning is kind of this off morning. You mess with somebody's sleep schedule, oh, that is no joke. So we're going to interact a little bit, for just a minute, are you ready? So we're going to play name that TV tune. Okay. Now, I have interviewed everyone from junior high and high school age to Tim Longo's age, and so we've got TV shows that will span the gamut of your TV experience, all right? If you recognize the TV tune, raise your hand, jump up on your chair, yell, yee haw, whatever you need to do, get my attention and we'll go from there. Okay. Are you ready? You're not awake enough for this yet, I know, but that's okay, we're going to get there.
Jeff Taylor: [00:01:09] Are you ready? Here we go. First one. Right here. Right here, right here. Is it The Andy Griffith Show, Tim? It is the Andy Griffith Show. All right, next one. Right back there. Is it The Office? It is The Office, nice job. Okay, next one. Is it The Price is Right? Of course, it's The Price is Right. All right, are you with us? Have you woken up yet? All right. All right. Next one, "No one told me life was going to be this way...". Is it Friends? It is Friends, of course, it's Friends. All right, next one. What is it? Is it CHiPs? Do you guys remember CHiPs? Do you remember CHiPs? Ponch and John, oh, come on. All right, next one. Yeah? It's not The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Home Improvement, do remember this one? Home improvement, I think we got that graphic from 1991, too. All right, next one. Is it Seinfeld? Yes, it's Seinfeld. All right, I think, "Now this is a story all about how my life got...". How many of you could rap that right now? That's right, okay. Okay, last one. "Whatever happened to predictability? The milkman, the paperboy...". Full house, you're right, good job, okay.
Jeff Taylor: [00:03:06] Now, how many of you are just basking in remembrance and nostalgia? And you just remember, I mean, the memories of me as a kid at Grammy and Pop's house standing in front of their big TVs that took like 6 minutes to warm up. Junior higher’s and high schooler’s, I love you, but you have no idea. Right? And so, yeah, watching Knight Rider, and The Greatest American Hero, and CHiPs, and all that. So now, we tend to love what we're familiar with, right? We see something, or we hear something, and we experience something, where we can just settle in. We're not worried about, oh, am I going to have to get used to something new? Am I going to encounter something that I'm not able to handle? When we experience something that we're comfortable with, we sort of just settle in and we are perfectly fine just being right there. Are you with me? Anybody here, you love being comfortable, right? We all do, in some way or another.
Jeff Taylor: [00:04:15] A few years ago, I was watching American Ninja Warrior, and one of the competitors was wearing this t-shirt that was really profound, and even is absolutely true Biblically. Here's what his t-shirt said, Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Now he was talking about exercising and putting yourself through physical, strenuous activity, and things like this, but it's absolutely true Biblically as well. So let's all say this together, ready? Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Jeff Taylor: [00:04:47] Some of you already are like, all right, when does the music start? Let's just give...Because the reality is we don't want to be uncomfortable. We will strive, we will work really hard at just staying comfortable. And the reality of it is, that comfort will beg us to stay in familiarity. We've all experienced this, right? Comfort will beg us, we see something that's not familiar and comfort goes, wait, no, stay right where you're at, you already know what you're doing here, you know what's going to happen here, just stay. You can manage this, it's all good, there's nothing wrong with what's happening here, so comfort will beg us to stay in familiarity.
Jeff Taylor: [00:05:37] But we're going to look at something, as Allie read that passage in Hebrews 11, we're going to experience the reality that faith many times requires us to sacrifice familiarity. Yeah, man, I'd much rather have a faith that just goes, you do you, you manage your life, you handle things the way that you think you can manage them and handle them, and everything is going to be okay, but faith sacrifices familiarity.
Jeff Taylor: [00:06:14] Is anybody here, that you've moved here from far away? Anyone? Where'd you move from? Washington State, Ok, that's a drive, I've driven to Washington State, like in one shot, and you travel through all kinds of mountains and things we don't see around here anyway. So there are all kinds of things that that happen when you move from a faraway place. And many times it's like, all right, you got to get used to it. It's sort of like, all right, things are going to be different, traffic, where things are at, but for the most part, you know why you're going. I mean, you knew why you were coming here, and you have a plan, you have a goal, and you get into this mindset of going, we're just going to adjust to what needs to happen, and you get into that mindset because you know that it needs to happen.
Jeff Taylor: [00:07:04] But this guy, Abraham, which by the way, earlier in the Bible, he's called Abram, Abraham and Abram, same dude. All right, so Abraham, this is not the way that it went at all. So if you had already turned to Hebrews, now you've got to swipe right in your iBIBLE, or turn this direction in your Bible, back to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12 gives us the origin story of Abraham. Back then he was called what? Abram. All right, good. See? You're awake, I knew I could count on the first service, I'm not sure about the second, the second service I think so many are going to be like we're so tired. Anyway, you're with me, Good.
Jeff Taylor: [00:07:52] Genesis chapter 12, starting in verse 1, "The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran." Now, there are a couple of words in this passage that would be tough for any of us to live out.
Jeff Taylor: [00:08:36] Let's read it again, are you ready? "The Lord had said to Abram, Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land..." What? I will. "I will make you into a great nation and bless you. Make your name great and be a blessing. Bless those who bless you and whoever curses you curse." And that was weird, Ok. "And all peoples on Earth will be blessed through you. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he set out from Harran.". I will, not, I already have, and you can see it. You will, not, you already are and you're comfortable there.
Jeff Taylor: [00:09:34] Okay, remember last week when Dan started this series, he went through Hebrews 11 verse 1, which explains what faith is. So all of this, this morning, is in the context of this definition of faith, of what faith is. Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.". Now we've got all these, I wills, and you will, and suddenly this idea of faith becomes something that we might have to dial into this, we might have to tap into what's going on here.
Jeff Taylor: [00:10:10] Back to Hebrews 11, verse 8, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance.". 'Later', is right alongside the difficulty of those words 'I will'. Later is the reason microwaves were invented, because we want later when? Now. Later is the reason that we have $807 billion in credit card debt, because we want later when. Now, but we want to pay it later, so we're fine with that, okay. "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Here's something that we probably intuitively know, but we've got to understand this, that doing something by faith indicates trust in a relationship. Would you agree? Doing something by faith indicates that there's a trust in the relationship. This is not a game of truth or dare where somebody just has to have the courage to do something, and the person doing the daring may not have the purest of motives. That's not what's going on here, there is a trust in a relationship when you step out and do something by faith.
Jeff Taylor: [00:11:39] Something practically, if your best friend walked up to you and said, All right, close your eyes and open your mouth. Some of you are like, I don't have friends that close. But, with your friend, you hopefully, if there's trust in the relationship, would be like, all right, and they wouldn't break that trust, pranksters. As opposed to some stranger who walks up to you on the street goes, Yo! Close your eyes and open your mouth. I'm not doing that. When we do something by faith, it indicates trust in the relationship.
Jeff Taylor: [00:12:23] Abram, Abraham, had such intimacy with God that all it took was for God to say, go, and Abraham goes, alright. What does that do to you when you consider your relationship with God? When you read his word, when somebody stands up here and tells you what the Bible says about things, what happens inside you about your personal relationship with God?
Jeff Taylor: [00:12:57] Let's make this personal, get out of Bible mode where it's just like, Jeff, just teach me, you're the one on the stage, you must know. No, no, no, this is for all of us. If your only experience with God is on Sunday morning, sitting there listening to whoever is up here on the stage tell you stuff about God, you're going to understandably struggle with, go. Right? If you don't have the intimacy with God, where you know him, where you trust him, where you understand who he is and what that relationship is like, you're going to struggle, if he were to ever say, go. If you believe in who God is, and what God does, and what God may call you to do, only comes from stuff you've heard about what God has done, but there has been no personal pursuit and making yourself available so God could do that work inside you, I mean, I'm with you, understandably, go, would be tough. And there would be all kinds of reasons that we would go, oh, no, no, no, no, no, but I'm familiar with this over here. Go over there? I don't know what's over there, I'm going to stay with what's comfortable, I'm going to stay with what I know, I'm going to stay with what I've experienced before, because I know it's manageable. And even if it was maybe not even a good experience, at least I know it, at least I understand it, and it's familiar to me.
Jeff Taylor: [00:14:38] But if you are passionately pursuing life in Jesus, I mean, that's our slogan, that's our purpose statement around here, that we want to passionately pursue what? Life in Jesus. See, we can passionately pursue all kinds of things we're saying we want to passionately pursue life in Jesus, and effective, that will be that we end up leading our neighbors to do the same. But sometimes, I mean, we've got to first manage that first part. Man, I've got to passionately pursue life in Jesus. Guess what? You don't need to passionately pursue coming to a church service, that can just happen under your own power, you were able to get here, great, and you should. But if we stop there, and that's all we do, I'm going to passionately pursue listening to somebody talk to me, I'm going to passionately pursue doing Christian karaoke, I'm going to passionately pursue going to my Bible study because they've got great food, and whatever, all right, rather than making ourselves available to the supernatural almighty work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which God promises is available to those who put their faith in Jesus. Is anybody with me?
Jeff Taylor: [00:15:54] So we have this thing pulling at us, going, no, no, no, no, familiar and comfortable, familiar and comfortable. And God's going, but I've got so much more, I have life for you, I have peace and hope and joy and contentment and grace that the world is never going to be able to offer you. And every one of us in this room at some point in our life, in some situation in our life, we've stopped short of that, and we've gone, oh, no, no, I don't know. Experiencing the power of God in my life sounds...I don't understand all of that. I'll stay comfortable, I'll stay familiar, I'll stay with what I know. When God's going, well, you can do that, but there's life here, and it's life like you're not going to experience under your own power or doing it your own way.
Jeff Taylor: [00:16:55] But if you will make yourself available to God through his word, where you are like...Have you ever read the Bible? I grew up in church. I mean, I asked Jesus into my heart when I was four years old with my mom sitting in a rocking chair. I grew up in church, I could probably count the number of Sundays I've missed coming to church. I've done the Bible reading plans, and I'll tell you, it was a long time before I actually read the Bible. Well, I read the Bible, but read the Bible, as in the word of God, that's able to discern, that's able to speak life, that's able to reveal who God is and what God does, and which makes, go, a whole new opportunity. Man, it was like, I know who God is. Well, then, when I seek him, and I expect him to move, see, the Word of God promises us and reveals things to us that we should expect from God, his love, his grace, his compassion, how he calls us to step out and lead the people around us, the supernatural things that he wants to do prophetically in our life, the supernatural gift things that he wants to do, that go beyond our natural abilities to be nice and to be responsible and to be kind. But the supernatural work of God, once we start knowing that, all of a sudden, go, becomes something that we're like, I'm just waiting for God to say, go. I'm going to be listening for God to say, all right, here's what I have for you. And because we know God, because we have an intimacy with God, we're like, all right.
Jeff Taylor: [00:18:47] Now, let me clarify, it's not always just that simple. It's like, all right, there are these two choices, kick puppies or go tell people about Jesus. Oh, well, I'll go do it. It's not always just this one or the other kind of thing, but that's why the intimacy with God is so important, so that we can know as we take a step of faith and it doesn't look quite like we thought it was going to, that we will continue to trust, that we will continue to press into the Spirit of God that lives inside of us and go, okay, God, I'm going to keep stepping out in this. It doesn't seem to be working at the moment, but I'm going to keep stepping out. We'll talk more about that in just a second.
Jeff Taylor: [00:19:25] Verse 9, "By faith he..." Remember we're talking about Abraham, "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.". They lived in tents; life was intense. Moving on, "They lived as temporary residents.". Get this, they moved in, but they didn't settle in. Do we see the difference? Do we understand the difference? They moved into the land, so they went where God told them to go, but they didn't settle in. They didn't settle into the culture. They didn't settle into the habits. They didn't settle into all the things that the people and the activities around there said, hey, this will give you a life, they moved in, but they didn't settle in. They lived as foreigners, knowing that though they were occupying the space, God wasn't done with them yet, that this wasn't a finished situation.
Jeff Taylor: [00:20:41] So let me poke at you a little bit because I was poked and so now, I'm going to pass it on to you. Ready? How settled in, how comfortable, how familiar, are you in your life right now? As you look around, you've got your routines, some of them are great routines. Some of them, I mean, we're not talking about demonic worship here, we're just saying, hey, we've got our routines, we've got the things we're comfortable with, we've got the stuff that that seems like it's important. How settled in, how familiar, how comfortable have you gotten in your life?
Jeff Taylor: [00:21:29] I've got to consider that because at first, I could quickly rattle off all the ways...Oh, no, no, no, I'm serving God. No, no, no, no, I'm open to what God wants to do. No, no, no, no, no, I'm listening for God's voice. But then I start to really sit in this and I go, what are the ways that I just move through my life because I can, because I'm able to, because I'm used to it, because it's comfortable, because it's what I want to do? And, because I'm a good guy, I mean, of course, God is okay with it. And guess what? We have that option. But here what we see in this example in Abraham's life, which is absolutely the call into the life of a believer, into the life of a person who says, my faith is in Jesus is, well, how comfortable are you in your life? Are you so comfortable that the idea of allowing something that would disrupt that, or even inviting something that would disrupt that, there's a point where we go, oh, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to ask God to do that? Why would I do that? It would sabotage my plan, where I'm going to go to college, what job I'm going to take, who my friends are, I'm not going to...How settled in are you? Where are you drawing the line and going, okay, I'm open to God, here, here, and here, and uh, no? God, be reasonable. Think about it.
Jeff Taylor: [00:23:10] I get pretty uncomfortable with that because there are a whole lot of things that I'm comfortable with. I'm really comfortable with my routine, with my kids being like, you know what, I'm going to go to my daughter's water polo games, I'm going to take my son rock climbing. And I just, I mean, nothing satanic about rock climbing, I mean, nothing demonic about playing water polo, and so I'm good, right? Man, I'm so comfortable, in June it'll be 19 years that I've been at LBF, I'm good. And the idea of going, Holy Spirit, I'm going to invite you to do whatever you want, within reason. And we're all there, right, we've all got those things. What are those things? Because until we start naming those things, until we start honestly going, you know what, my kids are the deal-breakers, my job is the dealbreaker, my scholastic achievements, and my plan moving forward, that's the deal-breaker. God can have all this, that I really don't care about it anyway, but this stuff, well, God wants me to be happy. Oh, by the way, bookmark that idea in your mind because Gary is going to talk about it next week.
Jeff Taylor: [00:24:46] Verse 10, "He was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is..." Who? Come on, you were so much more awake before, "Whose architect and builder is...". Who? God. Like, okay, now we're talking, all right, he's looking forward not to things that he could do, not to success, not to the idea that he's like, I'm going to run for mayor, I'm going to be a successful businessperson, I'm going to be a student with the highest GPA. I'm going to be the best athlete there is. I'm going to be a popular musician. He's going, look, I'm looking forward to what God is going to build in and through my life. But he was looking forward, see, he had the promise without the reality. That's tough for us, right? He had the promise without the reality.
Jeff Taylor: [00:25:46] An author I read put it this way, "He looked to the promised future, rather than the unsatisfactory present." He looked to the promised future, rather than the unsatisfactory present. This is the other side of that, where we get hung up on where we're at, and we go, oh, this isn't good, God must not care, God must not be watching, God must not have a plan for me, God must not love me. Because we're looking at the unsatisfactory present and going, I don't approve of this, so, therefore, that's going to impact what I'm looking forward to. And some of y'all need to just confess that, you need to acknowledge that and go, God, I am, I'm letting my current situation determine what I believe about your destiny for me, what I believe about what you can do in my future, my broken family, my messed up kids, the fact that I don't have any friends, my failure in school, my inabilities in this area or that area, whatever it is, we are letting our current, unsatisfactory present, dictate what we believe about the promised future. Is that real for you?
Jeff Taylor: [00:27:08] As I've been praying through this week, and praying through this message, and man, that's been so heavy on my heart that I believe that there's a bunch of us who need to go, that's what I'm doing, and I need to surrender that. I need to surrender the unsatisfactory present, so I can believe in the promised future of what God has for me. And you need to have intimacy with God to know what God actually promises you. Because that's a whole other issue, we can start believing that God promises stuff that he didn't actually promise. But what do you believe about God's destiny for your life?
Jeff Taylor: [00:27:54] Verse 11, "By faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise." She considered him who made the promise, not her current, unsatisfactory present, but she considered him who made the promise to be faithful. And this wasn't just, I mean, this is one of the things, we've got to get out of Bible mode, this wasn't one of those things where God said, Sarah, or back then her name was Sarai, Sarai, you're going to have a kid. Oh, yes, Lord, thank you. Yes, I believe that that's easy. Genesis says that she laughed at God. Did you hear me? She laughed at God. She looked at her unsatisfactory present. God said, no, no, no, no, I'm going to promise you a future. And she went, ha, that's ridiculous, that's not my experience, that's not what I'm encountering right now, you're ridiculous God, no disrespect. It's not always easy, there are going to be things that God is going to lead us into where we're just like. Oh, okay.
Jeff Taylor: [00:29:08] But imagine if we lived in that kind of faith, when we stepped out in faith in a way where we go, all right, God, if you don't show up, I'm stuck. I'll be honest with you, most of the time I avoid that at all cost. Step out where I'm going to end up stuck if God doesn't show up, it's way easier for me just to be a good dad, have a job, preach, lead worship all in the name of Jesus, but not in the power of Jesus.
Jeff Taylor: [00:29:45] Verse 12, "And so from this one man, and he as good as dead." Okay, can we just acknowledge that the Hebrew writer was a little brutal? He couldn't have just said, and even though Abraham was aged, whatever, anyway, "And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore." The promised future. If you're 18 or younger in here today, will you stand up right where you're at? If you are 18 or under, stand up. Everybody sitting down, I'm not saying you're as good as dead. Here's what I am saying, and here's what God was doing through Abraham, those of you sitting down, they're watching. And, yeah, it's good to show them how to be responsible. It's good to show them how to manage money. It's good to teach them how to start a campfire. It's good to teach them how to drive, how to apply for a job. They're watching how you're intimate with God, they're looking to see what following Jesus looks like, and they will copy you, they will imitate you, then they will look at you and be like, am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? What are we showing them? Am I showing my kids any more than, show up to church on Sunday morning it's important, when the weather's lousy at the beach? Make sure you get involved in a Bible study, yeah, it's a hassle, yes, it's a pain and you don't really want to go, but you should go anyway. When your finances are a wreck, and you're wondering how you're going to make the next payment, who are they seeing you trust? Who do they see you reach for when you're struggling to have hope or joy or peace or patience? Because they're watching, they want to know, they want to see what a passionate pursuit of life in Jesus looks like. They don't need to see a passionate pursuit of church. They don't need to see a passionate pursuit of being a good person. They don't need to see a passionate pursuit of a soccer scholarship. They need to see a passionate pursuit of life in Jesus, and they're watching us, they'll copy us.
Jeff Taylor: [00:32:53] You guys standing up, I love you guys, I really do. And when I say you're the future, it's not like the whole Michael Jackson, you are the world. I'm saying, you have a future of life in Jesus, and it's right now, he's not waiting for you to grow up, he's not waiting for you to get it together, right now he loves you, right now he has a purpose, and he has a plan for your life. And as we all gather together, and I'm like, all right, you've got to pursue God, you've got to. I’m not talking to the practically dead people, it starts with you guys, and God will be faithful to see through what He begins in you. So you are loved, you are important, not just for the population of this church, but for all that God has for you.
Jeff Taylor: [00:34:07] God, I pray right now for each person standing up, I pray for the promised future that you have for them. And God, right now, especially in the life and the eyes and the experience of a teenager, it can be a really unsatisfactory present. And so I lift them up to you right now, God, I pray that you would supernaturally make yourself known to them. That they would step out in faith, that when you say, go, whether it's at lunchtime to a group of friends or people that they don't know, or whether it's to their sports team, or whatever it is, God, that you would make yourself known to them and that you would move through them miraculously in power. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, quit hogging all the attention and sit down.
Jeff Taylor: [00:35:05] Why do we hesitate leaving familiarity? A couple of things, and there are a thousand things, I picked two.
Jeff Taylor: [00:35:11] One, we may look foolish. In Joshua chapter 3, there's this encounter, or this experience, where all the leaders of the tribe of Israel, God says, go stand in the Jordan River, which is flooding, and it's huge, and there would be raging water. And God says, go stand in the river so that you can cross. They remember the Red Sea thing, and so their anticipation was probably, all right, we're going to step out into here and everything's going to go, whoa, you know, Charlton Heston is going to walk through, it's going to be great. So they get the Ark of the Covenant, they step out into the water, and guess what happens? Nothing. Why did nothing happen? See, here's the lie, hear it, nothing didn't happen, something happened, but it wasn't in their experience. The thing that happened, happened two or three miles upriver. But what were they experiencing? These guys are standing ankle-deep in the water and they're like, this is great. The million people behind him are like, oh my gosh nothing happened. Oh, they must be doing it wrong. Sometimes we will hesitate sacrificing familiarity because we don't want to look foolish, but the reality is if we will step out in faith, yeah, there may be a point in time where we've got to trust and we may have to risk looking foolish, but guess what? God is at work. And as those guys stood in the water, eventually it came around the bend, and all of a sudden, the miraculous happened. Don't avoid the directive of God, the word of God in your life, because you're afraid of looking foolish.
Jeff Taylor: [00:36:55] The second thing, the reason we hesitate in sacrificing familiarity, it's easier just to keep things routine, right, predictable, just do it the same way back and forth. In the Bible, in the Old Testament, you'll find a book called Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet, he was also a high priest, and the Book of Ezekiel is a prophetic book, meaning it spoke of what God had done, what God was doing, and what God would do in the future. And so in Chapter 46, we're into the part of the future of God's people, and here's what it says in Ezekiel Chapter 46, starting in verse 9, "When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed festivals, whoever enters by the north gate to worship is to go out the south gate; and whoever enters by the south gate is to go out the north gate. No one is to return through the gate by which they entered, but each is to go out the opposite gate." Now, there could certainly be some, you know, it could be metaphorical, but for some, I believe it needs to be literal. For this morning, I believe for some it needs to be literal. It's this idea of coming and going out of the same door because it's what? Yeah, it's comfortable, it's familiar, it's routine. I'm going to go in this door, I'm going to go back out the same door, do you know why? Because that's where my car is parked, it would be silly to go in one entrance at Ontario Mills and go out the other, it's a big donut. You'd have to walk all the way. Also, you don't know what's out of that exit, you know what's out of this exit. so the temptation is going to be to come and go out of the same door. But here's what God is saying, no, no, no, no, no, don't come and go out of the same door. because when you encounter Jesus, it will change you, it will change your life. And there's the promise that when we encounter Jesus, he will go with us when we go out that other door. You may not know what's out there. who does, God does, God knows what He's calling you to, and He's inviting you out that other door.
Jeff Taylor: [00:39:06] For some, familiarity is location. For some, it's a lifestyle. For some, it's a job. For some, it's an addiction. For some, a familiarity is sin. For some, the familiarity is how you worship. And you're comfortable with what you do, but what about anything else? And I believe that this morning, and as I've been praying through this morning for the last few weeks, this has really been on my heart, I believe that this morning God wants to break some strongholds of familiarity in people's lives. I don't know what that is for you, but I want to give you a moment to go before the Almighty God, who listens, who hears you, who will respond, and ask him to reveal what's the familiarity that I've been holding on to that has kept me from intimacy with you?
Jeff Taylor: [00:40:07] So right now, in your own words, you don't need somebody to lead you through this, talk to God, what's the familiarity that has kept me from intimacy with you?
Jeff Taylor: [00:40:40] I believe something that's important is to put actions to our intentions, because we can sit there all day and be like, all right, I'm going to do better, I'm going to change this in my life. And one of the lies of the enemy is to convince you that it's all up to you, you better do better, you better try harder, rather than inviting people to stand with us, giving God the opportunity to speak prophetically through other people into our lives. So I'm going to ask the prayer team, any pastors or elders that are in the room, Exit 83, Detour Group Leaders, to come on up to the front.
Jeff Taylor: [00:41:24] And I want to encourage us, don't do it for me, this has nothing to do with impressing anybody or doing the right thing, do what the Spirit of God leads you to do. What is the familiarity, or what are the familiarities that the Holy Spirit is putting on your heart right now that you need to surrender? Andy's going to sing a song, it's going to be a song that we want to sing over you. You don't need to try and sing along, but the words will be up there, and to consider that for your life. And as the Holy Spirit leads you, I want to invite you possibly into the unfamiliar, and come up and let somebody up here in the front pray for you. You can come all the way across the front, they'll come to you. And you don't need to even talk to them, you don't need to tell them what's going on, they want to join in on the action that God has already started in you. So they're just going to pray the Spirit of God over you and invite God to do more. So as you receive this song, and the truth of this song, as the Holy Spirit moves you, I want to encourage you to come up and let someone stand with you and pray over you. If you're in the middle of an aisle, don't let that stop you, people will gladly move out of your way. Let's respond to how the Holy Spirit leads us.
Recorded in Upland, California.
Jeff Taylor: [00:00:19] Hey, I realize that today, this morning is kind of this off morning. You mess with somebody's sleep schedule, oh, that is no joke. So we're going to interact a little bit, for just a minute, are you ready? So we're going to play name that TV tune. Okay. Now, I have interviewed everyone from junior high and high school age to Tim Longo's age, and so we've got TV shows that will span the gamut of your TV experience, all right? If you recognize the TV tune, raise your hand, jump up on your chair, yell, yee haw, whatever you need to do, get my attention and we'll go from there. Okay. Are you ready? You're not awake enough for this yet, I know, but that's okay, we're going to get there.
Jeff Taylor: [00:01:09] Are you ready? Here we go. First one. Right here. Right here, right here. Is it The Andy Griffith Show, Tim? It is the Andy Griffith Show. All right, next one. Right back there. Is it The Office? It is The Office, nice job. Okay, next one. Is it The Price is Right? Of course, it's The Price is Right. All right, are you with us? Have you woken up yet? All right. All right. Next one, "No one told me life was going to be this way...". Is it Friends? It is Friends, of course, it's Friends. All right, next one. What is it? Is it CHiPs? Do you guys remember CHiPs? Do you remember CHiPs? Ponch and John, oh, come on. All right, next one. Yeah? It's not The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Home Improvement, do remember this one? Home improvement, I think we got that graphic from 1991, too. All right, next one. Is it Seinfeld? Yes, it's Seinfeld. All right, I think, "Now this is a story all about how my life got...". How many of you could rap that right now? That's right, okay. Okay, last one. "Whatever happened to predictability? The milkman, the paperboy...". Full house, you're right, good job, okay.
Jeff Taylor: [00:03:06] Now, how many of you are just basking in remembrance and nostalgia? And you just remember, I mean, the memories of me as a kid at Grammy and Pop's house standing in front of their big TVs that took like 6 minutes to warm up. Junior higher’s and high schooler’s, I love you, but you have no idea. Right? And so, yeah, watching Knight Rider, and The Greatest American Hero, and CHiPs, and all that. So now, we tend to love what we're familiar with, right? We see something, or we hear something, and we experience something, where we can just settle in. We're not worried about, oh, am I going to have to get used to something new? Am I going to encounter something that I'm not able to handle? When we experience something that we're comfortable with, we sort of just settle in and we are perfectly fine just being right there. Are you with me? Anybody here, you love being comfortable, right? We all do, in some way or another.
Jeff Taylor: [00:04:15] A few years ago, I was watching American Ninja Warrior, and one of the competitors was wearing this t-shirt that was really profound, and even is absolutely true Biblically. Here's what his t-shirt said, Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Now he was talking about exercising and putting yourself through physical, strenuous activity, and things like this, but it's absolutely true Biblically as well. So let's all say this together, ready? Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Jeff Taylor: [00:04:47] Some of you already are like, all right, when does the music start? Let's just give...Because the reality is we don't want to be uncomfortable. We will strive, we will work really hard at just staying comfortable. And the reality of it is, that comfort will beg us to stay in familiarity. We've all experienced this, right? Comfort will beg us, we see something that's not familiar and comfort goes, wait, no, stay right where you're at, you already know what you're doing here, you know what's going to happen here, just stay. You can manage this, it's all good, there's nothing wrong with what's happening here, so comfort will beg us to stay in familiarity.
Jeff Taylor: [00:05:37] But we're going to look at something, as Allie read that passage in Hebrews 11, we're going to experience the reality that faith many times requires us to sacrifice familiarity. Yeah, man, I'd much rather have a faith that just goes, you do you, you manage your life, you handle things the way that you think you can manage them and handle them, and everything is going to be okay, but faith sacrifices familiarity.
Jeff Taylor: [00:06:14] Is anybody here, that you've moved here from far away? Anyone? Where'd you move from? Washington State, Ok, that's a drive, I've driven to Washington State, like in one shot, and you travel through all kinds of mountains and things we don't see around here anyway. So there are all kinds of things that that happen when you move from a faraway place. And many times it's like, all right, you got to get used to it. It's sort of like, all right, things are going to be different, traffic, where things are at, but for the most part, you know why you're going. I mean, you knew why you were coming here, and you have a plan, you have a goal, and you get into this mindset of going, we're just going to adjust to what needs to happen, and you get into that mindset because you know that it needs to happen.
Jeff Taylor: [00:07:04] But this guy, Abraham, which by the way, earlier in the Bible, he's called Abram, Abraham and Abram, same dude. All right, so Abraham, this is not the way that it went at all. So if you had already turned to Hebrews, now you've got to swipe right in your iBIBLE, or turn this direction in your Bible, back to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12 gives us the origin story of Abraham. Back then he was called what? Abram. All right, good. See? You're awake, I knew I could count on the first service, I'm not sure about the second, the second service I think so many are going to be like we're so tired. Anyway, you're with me, Good.
Jeff Taylor: [00:07:52] Genesis chapter 12, starting in verse 1, "The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 4So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran." Now, there are a couple of words in this passage that would be tough for any of us to live out.
Jeff Taylor: [00:08:36] Let's read it again, are you ready? "The Lord had said to Abram, Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land..." What? I will. "I will make you into a great nation and bless you. Make your name great and be a blessing. Bless those who bless you and whoever curses you curse." And that was weird, Ok. "And all peoples on Earth will be blessed through you. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he set out from Harran.". I will, not, I already have, and you can see it. You will, not, you already are and you're comfortable there.
Jeff Taylor: [00:09:34] Okay, remember last week when Dan started this series, he went through Hebrews 11 verse 1, which explains what faith is. So all of this, this morning, is in the context of this definition of faith, of what faith is. Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.". Now we've got all these, I wills, and you will, and suddenly this idea of faith becomes something that we might have to dial into this, we might have to tap into what's going on here.
Jeff Taylor: [00:10:10] Back to Hebrews 11, verse 8, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance.". 'Later', is right alongside the difficulty of those words 'I will'. Later is the reason microwaves were invented, because we want later when? Now. Later is the reason that we have $807 billion in credit card debt, because we want later when. Now, but we want to pay it later, so we're fine with that, okay. "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Here's something that we probably intuitively know, but we've got to understand this, that doing something by faith indicates trust in a relationship. Would you agree? Doing something by faith indicates that there's a trust in the relationship. This is not a game of truth or dare where somebody just has to have the courage to do something, and the person doing the daring may not have the purest of motives. That's not what's going on here, there is a trust in a relationship when you step out and do something by faith.
Jeff Taylor: [00:11:39] Something practically, if your best friend walked up to you and said, All right, close your eyes and open your mouth. Some of you are like, I don't have friends that close. But, with your friend, you hopefully, if there's trust in the relationship, would be like, all right, and they wouldn't break that trust, pranksters. As opposed to some stranger who walks up to you on the street goes, Yo! Close your eyes and open your mouth. I'm not doing that. When we do something by faith, it indicates trust in the relationship.
Jeff Taylor: [00:12:23] Abram, Abraham, had such intimacy with God that all it took was for God to say, go, and Abraham goes, alright. What does that do to you when you consider your relationship with God? When you read his word, when somebody stands up here and tells you what the Bible says about things, what happens inside you about your personal relationship with God?
Jeff Taylor: [00:12:57] Let's make this personal, get out of Bible mode where it's just like, Jeff, just teach me, you're the one on the stage, you must know. No, no, no, this is for all of us. If your only experience with God is on Sunday morning, sitting there listening to whoever is up here on the stage tell you stuff about God, you're going to understandably struggle with, go. Right? If you don't have the intimacy with God, where you know him, where you trust him, where you understand who he is and what that relationship is like, you're going to struggle, if he were to ever say, go. If you believe in who God is, and what God does, and what God may call you to do, only comes from stuff you've heard about what God has done, but there has been no personal pursuit and making yourself available so God could do that work inside you, I mean, I'm with you, understandably, go, would be tough. And there would be all kinds of reasons that we would go, oh, no, no, no, no, no, but I'm familiar with this over here. Go over there? I don't know what's over there, I'm going to stay with what's comfortable, I'm going to stay with what I know, I'm going to stay with what I've experienced before, because I know it's manageable. And even if it was maybe not even a good experience, at least I know it, at least I understand it, and it's familiar to me.
Jeff Taylor: [00:14:38] But if you are passionately pursuing life in Jesus, I mean, that's our slogan, that's our purpose statement around here, that we want to passionately pursue what? Life in Jesus. See, we can passionately pursue all kinds of things we're saying we want to passionately pursue life in Jesus, and effective, that will be that we end up leading our neighbors to do the same. But sometimes, I mean, we've got to first manage that first part. Man, I've got to passionately pursue life in Jesus. Guess what? You don't need to passionately pursue coming to a church service, that can just happen under your own power, you were able to get here, great, and you should. But if we stop there, and that's all we do, I'm going to passionately pursue listening to somebody talk to me, I'm going to passionately pursue doing Christian karaoke, I'm going to passionately pursue going to my Bible study because they've got great food, and whatever, all right, rather than making ourselves available to the supernatural almighty work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which God promises is available to those who put their faith in Jesus. Is anybody with me?
Jeff Taylor: [00:15:54] So we have this thing pulling at us, going, no, no, no, no, familiar and comfortable, familiar and comfortable. And God's going, but I've got so much more, I have life for you, I have peace and hope and joy and contentment and grace that the world is never going to be able to offer you. And every one of us in this room at some point in our life, in some situation in our life, we've stopped short of that, and we've gone, oh, no, no, I don't know. Experiencing the power of God in my life sounds...I don't understand all of that. I'll stay comfortable, I'll stay familiar, I'll stay with what I know. When God's going, well, you can do that, but there's life here, and it's life like you're not going to experience under your own power or doing it your own way.
Jeff Taylor: [00:16:55] But if you will make yourself available to God through his word, where you are like...Have you ever read the Bible? I grew up in church. I mean, I asked Jesus into my heart when I was four years old with my mom sitting in a rocking chair. I grew up in church, I could probably count the number of Sundays I've missed coming to church. I've done the Bible reading plans, and I'll tell you, it was a long time before I actually read the Bible. Well, I read the Bible, but read the Bible, as in the word of God, that's able to discern, that's able to speak life, that's able to reveal who God is and what God does, and which makes, go, a whole new opportunity. Man, it was like, I know who God is. Well, then, when I seek him, and I expect him to move, see, the Word of God promises us and reveals things to us that we should expect from God, his love, his grace, his compassion, how he calls us to step out and lead the people around us, the supernatural things that he wants to do prophetically in our life, the supernatural gift things that he wants to do, that go beyond our natural abilities to be nice and to be responsible and to be kind. But the supernatural work of God, once we start knowing that, all of a sudden, go, becomes something that we're like, I'm just waiting for God to say, go. I'm going to be listening for God to say, all right, here's what I have for you. And because we know God, because we have an intimacy with God, we're like, all right.
Jeff Taylor: [00:18:47] Now, let me clarify, it's not always just that simple. It's like, all right, there are these two choices, kick puppies or go tell people about Jesus. Oh, well, I'll go do it. It's not always just this one or the other kind of thing, but that's why the intimacy with God is so important, so that we can know as we take a step of faith and it doesn't look quite like we thought it was going to, that we will continue to trust, that we will continue to press into the Spirit of God that lives inside of us and go, okay, God, I'm going to keep stepping out in this. It doesn't seem to be working at the moment, but I'm going to keep stepping out. We'll talk more about that in just a second.
Jeff Taylor: [00:19:25] Verse 9, "By faith he..." Remember we're talking about Abraham, "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.". They lived in tents; life was intense. Moving on, "They lived as temporary residents.". Get this, they moved in, but they didn't settle in. Do we see the difference? Do we understand the difference? They moved into the land, so they went where God told them to go, but they didn't settle in. They didn't settle into the culture. They didn't settle into the habits. They didn't settle into all the things that the people and the activities around there said, hey, this will give you a life, they moved in, but they didn't settle in. They lived as foreigners, knowing that though they were occupying the space, God wasn't done with them yet, that this wasn't a finished situation.
Jeff Taylor: [00:20:41] So let me poke at you a little bit because I was poked and so now, I'm going to pass it on to you. Ready? How settled in, how comfortable, how familiar, are you in your life right now? As you look around, you've got your routines, some of them are great routines. Some of them, I mean, we're not talking about demonic worship here, we're just saying, hey, we've got our routines, we've got the things we're comfortable with, we've got the stuff that that seems like it's important. How settled in, how familiar, how comfortable have you gotten in your life?
Jeff Taylor: [00:21:29] I've got to consider that because at first, I could quickly rattle off all the ways...Oh, no, no, no, I'm serving God. No, no, no, no, I'm open to what God wants to do. No, no, no, no, no, I'm listening for God's voice. But then I start to really sit in this and I go, what are the ways that I just move through my life because I can, because I'm able to, because I'm used to it, because it's comfortable, because it's what I want to do? And, because I'm a good guy, I mean, of course, God is okay with it. And guess what? We have that option. But here what we see in this example in Abraham's life, which is absolutely the call into the life of a believer, into the life of a person who says, my faith is in Jesus is, well, how comfortable are you in your life? Are you so comfortable that the idea of allowing something that would disrupt that, or even inviting something that would disrupt that, there's a point where we go, oh, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to ask God to do that? Why would I do that? It would sabotage my plan, where I'm going to go to college, what job I'm going to take, who my friends are, I'm not going to...How settled in are you? Where are you drawing the line and going, okay, I'm open to God, here, here, and here, and uh, no? God, be reasonable. Think about it.
Jeff Taylor: [00:23:10] I get pretty uncomfortable with that because there are a whole lot of things that I'm comfortable with. I'm really comfortable with my routine, with my kids being like, you know what, I'm going to go to my daughter's water polo games, I'm going to take my son rock climbing. And I just, I mean, nothing satanic about rock climbing, I mean, nothing demonic about playing water polo, and so I'm good, right? Man, I'm so comfortable, in June it'll be 19 years that I've been at LBF, I'm good. And the idea of going, Holy Spirit, I'm going to invite you to do whatever you want, within reason. And we're all there, right, we've all got those things. What are those things? Because until we start naming those things, until we start honestly going, you know what, my kids are the deal-breakers, my job is the dealbreaker, my scholastic achievements, and my plan moving forward, that's the deal-breaker. God can have all this, that I really don't care about it anyway, but this stuff, well, God wants me to be happy. Oh, by the way, bookmark that idea in your mind because Gary is going to talk about it next week.
Jeff Taylor: [00:24:46] Verse 10, "He was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is..." Who? Come on, you were so much more awake before, "Whose architect and builder is...". Who? God. Like, okay, now we're talking, all right, he's looking forward not to things that he could do, not to success, not to the idea that he's like, I'm going to run for mayor, I'm going to be a successful businessperson, I'm going to be a student with the highest GPA. I'm going to be the best athlete there is. I'm going to be a popular musician. He's going, look, I'm looking forward to what God is going to build in and through my life. But he was looking forward, see, he had the promise without the reality. That's tough for us, right? He had the promise without the reality.
Jeff Taylor: [00:25:46] An author I read put it this way, "He looked to the promised future, rather than the unsatisfactory present." He looked to the promised future, rather than the unsatisfactory present. This is the other side of that, where we get hung up on where we're at, and we go, oh, this isn't good, God must not care, God must not be watching, God must not have a plan for me, God must not love me. Because we're looking at the unsatisfactory present and going, I don't approve of this, so, therefore, that's going to impact what I'm looking forward to. And some of y'all need to just confess that, you need to acknowledge that and go, God, I am, I'm letting my current situation determine what I believe about your destiny for me, what I believe about what you can do in my future, my broken family, my messed up kids, the fact that I don't have any friends, my failure in school, my inabilities in this area or that area, whatever it is, we are letting our current, unsatisfactory present, dictate what we believe about the promised future. Is that real for you?
Jeff Taylor: [00:27:08] As I've been praying through this week, and praying through this message, and man, that's been so heavy on my heart that I believe that there's a bunch of us who need to go, that's what I'm doing, and I need to surrender that. I need to surrender the unsatisfactory present, so I can believe in the promised future of what God has for me. And you need to have intimacy with God to know what God actually promises you. Because that's a whole other issue, we can start believing that God promises stuff that he didn't actually promise. But what do you believe about God's destiny for your life?
Jeff Taylor: [00:27:54] Verse 11, "By faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise." She considered him who made the promise, not her current, unsatisfactory present, but she considered him who made the promise to be faithful. And this wasn't just, I mean, this is one of the things, we've got to get out of Bible mode, this wasn't one of those things where God said, Sarah, or back then her name was Sarai, Sarai, you're going to have a kid. Oh, yes, Lord, thank you. Yes, I believe that that's easy. Genesis says that she laughed at God. Did you hear me? She laughed at God. She looked at her unsatisfactory present. God said, no, no, no, no, I'm going to promise you a future. And she went, ha, that's ridiculous, that's not my experience, that's not what I'm encountering right now, you're ridiculous God, no disrespect. It's not always easy, there are going to be things that God is going to lead us into where we're just like. Oh, okay.
Jeff Taylor: [00:29:08] But imagine if we lived in that kind of faith, when we stepped out in faith in a way where we go, all right, God, if you don't show up, I'm stuck. I'll be honest with you, most of the time I avoid that at all cost. Step out where I'm going to end up stuck if God doesn't show up, it's way easier for me just to be a good dad, have a job, preach, lead worship all in the name of Jesus, but not in the power of Jesus.
Jeff Taylor: [00:29:45] Verse 12, "And so from this one man, and he as good as dead." Okay, can we just acknowledge that the Hebrew writer was a little brutal? He couldn't have just said, and even though Abraham was aged, whatever, anyway, "And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore." The promised future. If you're 18 or younger in here today, will you stand up right where you're at? If you are 18 or under, stand up. Everybody sitting down, I'm not saying you're as good as dead. Here's what I am saying, and here's what God was doing through Abraham, those of you sitting down, they're watching. And, yeah, it's good to show them how to be responsible. It's good to show them how to manage money. It's good to teach them how to start a campfire. It's good to teach them how to drive, how to apply for a job. They're watching how you're intimate with God, they're looking to see what following Jesus looks like, and they will copy you, they will imitate you, then they will look at you and be like, am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? What are we showing them? Am I showing my kids any more than, show up to church on Sunday morning it's important, when the weather's lousy at the beach? Make sure you get involved in a Bible study, yeah, it's a hassle, yes, it's a pain and you don't really want to go, but you should go anyway. When your finances are a wreck, and you're wondering how you're going to make the next payment, who are they seeing you trust? Who do they see you reach for when you're struggling to have hope or joy or peace or patience? Because they're watching, they want to know, they want to see what a passionate pursuit of life in Jesus looks like. They don't need to see a passionate pursuit of church. They don't need to see a passionate pursuit of being a good person. They don't need to see a passionate pursuit of a soccer scholarship. They need to see a passionate pursuit of life in Jesus, and they're watching us, they'll copy us.
Jeff Taylor: [00:32:53] You guys standing up, I love you guys, I really do. And when I say you're the future, it's not like the whole Michael Jackson, you are the world. I'm saying, you have a future of life in Jesus, and it's right now, he's not waiting for you to grow up, he's not waiting for you to get it together, right now he loves you, right now he has a purpose, and he has a plan for your life. And as we all gather together, and I'm like, all right, you've got to pursue God, you've got to. I’m not talking to the practically dead people, it starts with you guys, and God will be faithful to see through what He begins in you. So you are loved, you are important, not just for the population of this church, but for all that God has for you.
Jeff Taylor: [00:34:07] God, I pray right now for each person standing up, I pray for the promised future that you have for them. And God, right now, especially in the life and the eyes and the experience of a teenager, it can be a really unsatisfactory present. And so I lift them up to you right now, God, I pray that you would supernaturally make yourself known to them. That they would step out in faith, that when you say, go, whether it's at lunchtime to a group of friends or people that they don't know, or whether it's to their sports team, or whatever it is, God, that you would make yourself known to them and that you would move through them miraculously in power. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, quit hogging all the attention and sit down.
Jeff Taylor: [00:35:05] Why do we hesitate leaving familiarity? A couple of things, and there are a thousand things, I picked two.
Jeff Taylor: [00:35:11] One, we may look foolish. In Joshua chapter 3, there's this encounter, or this experience, where all the leaders of the tribe of Israel, God says, go stand in the Jordan River, which is flooding, and it's huge, and there would be raging water. And God says, go stand in the river so that you can cross. They remember the Red Sea thing, and so their anticipation was probably, all right, we're going to step out into here and everything's going to go, whoa, you know, Charlton Heston is going to walk through, it's going to be great. So they get the Ark of the Covenant, they step out into the water, and guess what happens? Nothing. Why did nothing happen? See, here's the lie, hear it, nothing didn't happen, something happened, but it wasn't in their experience. The thing that happened, happened two or three miles upriver. But what were they experiencing? These guys are standing ankle-deep in the water and they're like, this is great. The million people behind him are like, oh my gosh nothing happened. Oh, they must be doing it wrong. Sometimes we will hesitate sacrificing familiarity because we don't want to look foolish, but the reality is if we will step out in faith, yeah, there may be a point in time where we've got to trust and we may have to risk looking foolish, but guess what? God is at work. And as those guys stood in the water, eventually it came around the bend, and all of a sudden, the miraculous happened. Don't avoid the directive of God, the word of God in your life, because you're afraid of looking foolish.
Jeff Taylor: [00:36:55] The second thing, the reason we hesitate in sacrificing familiarity, it's easier just to keep things routine, right, predictable, just do it the same way back and forth. In the Bible, in the Old Testament, you'll find a book called Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet, he was also a high priest, and the Book of Ezekiel is a prophetic book, meaning it spoke of what God had done, what God was doing, and what God would do in the future. And so in Chapter 46, we're into the part of the future of God's people, and here's what it says in Ezekiel Chapter 46, starting in verse 9, "When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed festivals, whoever enters by the north gate to worship is to go out the south gate; and whoever enters by the south gate is to go out the north gate. No one is to return through the gate by which they entered, but each is to go out the opposite gate." Now, there could certainly be some, you know, it could be metaphorical, but for some, I believe it needs to be literal. For this morning, I believe for some it needs to be literal. It's this idea of coming and going out of the same door because it's what? Yeah, it's comfortable, it's familiar, it's routine. I'm going to go in this door, I'm going to go back out the same door, do you know why? Because that's where my car is parked, it would be silly to go in one entrance at Ontario Mills and go out the other, it's a big donut. You'd have to walk all the way. Also, you don't know what's out of that exit, you know what's out of this exit. so the temptation is going to be to come and go out of the same door. But here's what God is saying, no, no, no, no, no, don't come and go out of the same door. because when you encounter Jesus, it will change you, it will change your life. And there's the promise that when we encounter Jesus, he will go with us when we go out that other door. You may not know what's out there. who does, God does, God knows what He's calling you to, and He's inviting you out that other door.
Jeff Taylor: [00:39:06] For some, familiarity is location. For some, it's a lifestyle. For some, it's a job. For some, it's an addiction. For some, a familiarity is sin. For some, the familiarity is how you worship. And you're comfortable with what you do, but what about anything else? And I believe that this morning, and as I've been praying through this morning for the last few weeks, this has really been on my heart, I believe that this morning God wants to break some strongholds of familiarity in people's lives. I don't know what that is for you, but I want to give you a moment to go before the Almighty God, who listens, who hears you, who will respond, and ask him to reveal what's the familiarity that I've been holding on to that has kept me from intimacy with you?
Jeff Taylor: [00:40:07] So right now, in your own words, you don't need somebody to lead you through this, talk to God, what's the familiarity that has kept me from intimacy with you?
Jeff Taylor: [00:40:40] I believe something that's important is to put actions to our intentions, because we can sit there all day and be like, all right, I'm going to do better, I'm going to change this in my life. And one of the lies of the enemy is to convince you that it's all up to you, you better do better, you better try harder, rather than inviting people to stand with us, giving God the opportunity to speak prophetically through other people into our lives. So I'm going to ask the prayer team, any pastors or elders that are in the room, Exit 83, Detour Group Leaders, to come on up to the front.
Jeff Taylor: [00:41:24] And I want to encourage us, don't do it for me, this has nothing to do with impressing anybody or doing the right thing, do what the Spirit of God leads you to do. What is the familiarity, or what are the familiarities that the Holy Spirit is putting on your heart right now that you need to surrender? Andy's going to sing a song, it's going to be a song that we want to sing over you. You don't need to try and sing along, but the words will be up there, and to consider that for your life. And as the Holy Spirit leads you, I want to invite you possibly into the unfamiliar, and come up and let somebody up here in the front pray for you. You can come all the way across the front, they'll come to you. And you don't need to even talk to them, you don't need to tell them what's going on, they want to join in on the action that God has already started in you. So they're just going to pray the Spirit of God over you and invite God to do more. So as you receive this song, and the truth of this song, as the Holy Spirit moves you, I want to encourage you to come up and let someone stand with you and pray over you. If you're in the middle of an aisle, don't let that stop you, people will gladly move out of your way. Let's respond to how the Holy Spirit leads us.
Recorded in Upland, California.
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