Amen! We just thank God that He is in this place, that He is moving among us - that we do not serve a dead god, but we serve a God who is alive and active and here with us, amen! Praise God!

So I wanted to start today by, you know, one of my favorite things to do, me and my wife is to like sit down and watch a good movie, right? When we first got married, you know we were like hiking and kayaking and now we’re just like, ‘Long day, let’s just sit on the couch, and kinda like watch some TV,’ and a good movie to me is like the best thing. And there's two types of movies I like, right? I just watched a good one, it was like one of those asteroid ends the whole world type of movies, and I really liked it. There are two things that I like: Either, number one, there are, like explosions from the opening credits to the end, right? It can have no plot - I don't care it doesn’t have to have any character development - as long as there's explosions, right? Or, if it’s not gonna be that, then you have to have three things. Number one it has to have a really good back story, right, it has to really have good development like what’s leading up to the main event. There has to be number two, really some type of struggle that the characters go through that they have to embrace the call and take up something, and power through and triumph. And number three there has to be a happy ending. I don't do sad endings. I don't do the whole, like “Notebook” - we realize the stories about one another we go to sleep and we die in our sleep - I don't do that, like that's not me. I need a happy ending at the end of the story.

You know, and as I was reading my Bible this week, I came across the story of Moses and I tell you the story of Moses - it's like it might as well be a movie. It’s so good! And I know, you know, the Prince of Egypt, right, was ‘98 I know it was made into a movie. You know what’s funny to me like that might as well for some the kids here that might as well be on like Turner Classic Movies, right, because to them like movies don’t get any older than that movie. But you know I just love the story of Moses, because it's so powerful - it has a great back story, right? It has Moses, his life leading up to what he went through; and then him at the burning bush, and he kinda takes up the call and takes up the call of God and then there's that overcoming that he has to go through, and that triumphal ending where he leads the people out of Egypt through the Red Sea. To me, I just think it's just so amazing and as I was reading it I just got so into it reading the story.

"The Christian is meant to be embracing the call that God has for us over our lives."

And I thought like you know, when I die when I'm looking back on my life, am I gonna think the same thing? Am I gonna say, ‘God, what an amazing story that You did’? You know, I had a good backstory, but am I gonna look back and say, ‘Lord, You know, You did it, God. I took up that call, and You called me to something greater and I embraced it. And God You did a work in my life and I saw You do miracles and I saw You overcoming,’ and then that triumphal end of being just able to walk into Heaven with my God. You know that's the kind of story that I want in my life.

What I'm preaching about today is embracing God's call. Embracing the call of God in your life. Because God does have a call in our lives. There's nothing worse than somebody who has no call - who has nothing inside of them where they just kinda float through life and just kinda take whatever comes out of ‘em and try to make the best out of what they can. God is calling us for something deeper - the Christian isn’t meant to be doing that. The Christian is meant to be embracing the call that God has for us over our lives.

So today, I want us to open up our Bibles in Exodus 3. That's where I’m gonna be reading from. And I want to examine the story of Moses and our lives and really ask the question: Have we embraced the call of God in our lives?

So I want to open my sermon today by saying: You have a call of God in your life! If you are here today, if you are in the Church of God - the Bible says that no man comes to the Father unless God calls him. So if you are here today, if you feel something in your heart, if you feel the presence of God so strongly, as I did in that last worship song, I'm telling you: God has a call over your life! What is that call? I pray today that if you get anything else today - if you have a pen in your hand, I pray you write this down - I pray this revelation would hit your heart. If you hear nothing else I say today, hear this: You have been called to be a demonstration of God's power. You have been called to be a demonstration of God's power.

Why do I say that? Why is that such a big deal to me? Because it flies in the face of the gospels that are so prevalently preached today. This gospel that is going out especially in the US, that says you don't have to do it, you can just be dead, it doesn’t have to change who you are, it doesn’t have to change how you speak, it doesn't have to change how you think, it doesn't have to change how you treat your spouse. It really has nothing, it changes nothing, and as long as you believe there's a God you're saved and you can take up that title of a Christian. But salvation is meant to be something so much more. God has a calling today, and His calling over you is that you would be a demonstration of God's power.

The salvation that you have received, let me tell you today it is not powerless! You are called to deny the flesh, and live in the Spirit - that takes the power of God. You have been called to love your family above yourself and above what we find in this world - that takes the power of God. You are called to love God, and have no gods before Him in a world where idolatry is so prevalent, God is called to be your number one - that takes power. You’re called to worship, not a lazy type of worship, but worshiping God in Spirit, and in truth, and in power. You are called to be a display of God's love and power to this world, amen!

You see embracing that call people of God - embracing that call, it will cause you to live differently. My sermon today is embrace the calling of God over your life. Embrace the fact that you have been called to more. You have been called to be a demonstration of God's power, and it's time we took a hold of that calling and allow it to start to shape our lives. If we are not embracing the call of God, I tell you we are just floating through this life. We need to take it! God has it! It’s up there it’s in Heaven! God is calling us to grab onto it, and take it and make it a part of our identities, amen! Make it part of who we are, make it part of what we live by, make it part of your creed, make it part of your family unit, make it part of what it means to be you, make it part of who you are to say, “I have been called to more, I have been called to be a son of God, I have been called to be a demonstration of God's power!” Amen!

So the first thing I'll talk about today is that there's a lead up, right? Just like a good movie, there's that lead up to the call. We can see that everything in our lives is leading up to the moment where we embrace the call of God in our lives. Let’s read about Moses in chapter 3 together. “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

Now I'm taking a very small passage today to share with you guys. I pray that as you guys go home and with your families, or at night that you guys would open up the Word and really, you know, read these chapters that talk about Moses. But I want to remember today everything that happened in Moses’ life up to this point. Moses was the second generation of slaves that were born into Egypt under slavery. Pharaoh comes and makes a decree that all the male children must be put to death, so Moses’ mother and his sister put him in the basket among the reeds in the river. Amazingly Pharaoh's daughter pulls him out of the water. Moses grows up in the Egyptian court, until one day he goes out and sees the slaves being beaten, right - the slaves working. And he sees one of the slave masters beating a Hebrew, and he ends up killing the slave master. He gets scared and he runs off. I want us to understand that that's a third of his life right there - that was 40 years. That little thing I just talked to you guys was 40 whole years - that's a long time!

So he's 40 years old, he runs away from Egypt. He leaves scared, he leaves hurt, he leaves on the run. He goes into the wilderness and he’s picked up by a priest of Midian - who the Midianites were historically enemies of Israel. He ends up being employed by a man named Jethro, and marrying his daughter. Now he's 80 years old. That was another 40 years right there! So this guy is 80 years old at this point when he's tending to the flocks of Jethro, when he goes to the Mount Horeb, and he ends up seeing the burning bush.

So now God in this moment, at 80 years old, calls this man. He calls this Hebrew among Egyptians. He calls the one that had been hurt, the one who was on the run, the one who was scared - to go back and not only confront Pharaoh, but to stand and demand something from him. But God did not just send him with words - and I want us to know this today - He didn’t just say, ‘Hey, go back and send a message.’ He wasn't just a messenger; no, God sent him with acts of power. Remember he put his hand inside of his shirt and it came out and it was leprous, and then he put back in and it came out clean. Remember he took the staff and threw it to the ground, and it turned into a snake. Remember all the plagues of Egypt that came about. You see, God does not send us out to just be a messenger. God sends us out, not with words, but with power. He sends us out to be demonstrations of His power.

And this can be right out of a script of a movie. Moses’ life up to this point was setting him up for this moment. Everything that had happened to him was about to be turned around and used for the purpose of God. God had a calling for his life, and everything that the enemy meant for bad, God was about to use to bring glory to His name.

Now look, I know some of our stories in here, and there's a lot I don't, but I know that a lot of us have been through rough times. I know that some of us have had things that happened to us that we wish didn't happen. I know there’s been hardships, and obstacles, and things in our life that have held us back - but let me tell you with the Word of God says. In Genesis 50 he says, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring about this day.” In Esther 19, God talks about turning the tables on His enemies. In Psalms 35, he says, “Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Amen!

Your entire past can be turned around in a moment with God. He will use every heartache and every pain, and raise you up to bring Him glory. There is redemption found in the Lord Jesus Christ! He is the only one that can take our ashes and turn them into joy. He can make us a demonstration of God's power by the transformation in our lives - that transformation only comes from God. That transformation only can come from God. And He will do it to make a demonstration of power in our lives. He will use the ones that were jailed to reach the unreachable. He will use the ones that were on drugs to reach the ones that were in pain. He will use the abused to pay special attention to that kid like me that needed that attention in that moment - that needed to feel God's love. God is calling us not to go out with just Word, but to go out in power, amen? To be an example of God's love unto this world and it is time that we embraced this call. God is ready to take your whole past - everything up to this moment - and turn it around for God.

You know, I ended up having to Narcan somebody this week, and I was interested so I went and looked at how Narcan works. And it's really interesting. Like our brains have these little receptacles, and they're kinda like little “V’s”, and they’re kinda just open. You know what they reminded me of? They reminded me of like open wounds. They were like that “V” thing like almost like you got cut on your arm. And they’re kinda just open and when somebody takes a drug and the toxins and the pollutants end up going through the bloodstream, they end up falling into these receptacles, and that's how it ends up getting to the brain. And I looked at how Narcan works, and it’s kind of just like a plug. It like plugs up those receptacles, so all those pollutants, and all those toxins, they just go over the top and they can’t enter in.

You know, I looked at that picture and it reminded me so much of myself, because I walked around with those open wounds for so long. You see, any arrow of the enemy, any hurt, any toxin, any pain, any pollutant, it was just open for anything to come in, and I walked around like that. But let me tell you what the Spirit of God does: The Spirit of God is meant to come in and bind up the brokenhearted. It's meant to come in and plug up all those wounds, amen. It’s meant to be that salve that goes in and fills in all those cracks. It’s not about you, it's not about how hard you try it’s not about being a tough guy - no it's about the Spirit of God coming in and filling all those wounds, so that when the arrows of the enemy come, when the hurt, when the pain, when the words come, they have nowhere to land, and they float over the top, and they have nowhere to enter into the body. You see people of God, you are meant to be a transformed man or woman of God that is not walking around with open wounds, but that is standing strong because God has turned your life around. God is calling for that today. For someone that had such low self-esteem like me - for someone who walked around with open wounds all the time - God fills them in, the Holy Spirit comes and binds up the brokenhearted, that you might stand.

God utilizes everything. Moses’ relationship to the Pharaoh was used to deliver Egypt. His familiarity with the courts was used to deliver Egypt. The fact that he had been rescued from the river gave Moses the certainty that God could rescue the people of Egypt. The fact that he had been drawn out of the water gave Moses the certainty that God could draw the people of Israel out of the water as well, and that the enemies of God could be crushed. Everything was used to bring glory to God. Everything in our lives can be turned around - the tables can be flipped, and God can use it to bring glory to His name.

So God comes in power in that burning bush to Moses. He comes in power! That fire was burning bright, but it would not consume that bush - there was not enough fuel. You see our salvation God is power, it is fire, it is meant to come inside of us and burn brightly. That burning bush is not meant to stay on the outside. That fire is not meant to stay on the outside - it's meant to come inside and ignite our hearts and never have enough fuel, but just continually burn inside of us. Never stop burning, never enough fuel, never consuming. You are meant to be a display of God's fire, carrying it inside of you. And I tell you for those who are saying, ‘It's too little too late, I’ve lived my life,’ - let me tell you Moses was 80 years old. He is the God of the impossible - allow God, embrace His calling today and watch Him work.

And I thought it was so interesting that here he is 80 years old, tending to the flock of another tending to Jethro's flock. You think at 80 he kinda woulda had his own thing going. He would’ve been doin’ his own thing, maybe had his own sheep at this point. He was living his life when he was still working the field of another, tending to the sheep of another, playing a part to support another. You see, Moses was misled about his calling. And I tell you the same today. It's not about a car, it's not about a happy life it’s not about a job, it's not about education - it's about God demonstrating His power through you. All those things are nice - education is great - but our purpose in life is not to just obtain something of the world, to be working the fields of another. I know we all have jobs I’m not telling you to quit your job, but what I'm saying is that let's stop tending to the fields of this world. In our hearts stop looking to just play our part in the world, and instead take up the call of God in our lives that God might display Himself through you - that God might reap a harvest in your life. Come into the church of God. Tend to the church tend to the Kingdom, and know that everything in your life has brought you to this moment to the church of God, to the burning bush, amen!

So we can see that, a lot of us can look back at our lives and say, ‘Okay God. I can see everything, just like that movie, it was a set up, God I see everything that You have done, and You're willing to turn it around to bring glory to Your name.’

Secondly, it is time for us to embrace the call. So let's continue reading in the verse, in verse 3. “So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see the strange sight, why this bush does not burn up.’ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am!’ ‘Do not come any closer,’ God said, ‘take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ Then He said, ‘I am the God of your father - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.’”

Really interesting, when I started researching this: Mount Horeb, which is the place he's at right now, is just another name for Mount Sinai, right? For you guys that kind of know a little biblical history, Mount Sinai is a major mountain when we talk about Jewish history. This is the mountain that Moses will return to with all the Israelites to worship God as stated later in the verse. This is the mountain that he will go up on, and God said He’s gonna pass over top of him. This is the mountain where the finger of God came down and wrote the Ten Commandments on the tablet. This is the mountain that Moses said to the Israelites, ‘Don't even touch the base of the mountain, because if you do you will surely die.’ It's the mountain where God's presence was so strong; it’s even the mountain that later Elijah has to run away from Jezebel, and he's hiding in a cave on this mountain.

I want us to imagine the spiritual significance of what it took to get Moses to this point - to this life - so that God can make a call in his life. You see God has you in this moment people of God. He has called you to this moment in your life. It doesn't matter what life has thrown at you, it doesn't matter what you think you know about God from the past - whether this is your first day here or you're up here preaching this morning - we must embrace the calling that God has for us today. Embrace the fact that you were meant to be a living display of God's power. You were meant to be a jewel in the crown of God for the glory of Him, and not for ourselves. We need to stop accepting a dead religion. Stop accepting just us going through the motions and doin’ our own thing - God is calling for something more. He doesn’t want passively involved Christians - He wants Christians that have called up, that have taken up the calling in their lives.

I tell you today, if you're not doing it - if it’s not a conscious thing, then you're not there. God is calling for you to embrace that call - He has that calling ready for you - He has that calling over your life, and He’s saying take it down from Heaven, grab onto it. It needs to become part of our identity. It needs to become part of who we are, that every day we wake up and say, ‘No, today God has called me to be a demonstration of His power!’

For Moses that calling started with going back to the land he said he would never go again. To go to a place and confront his family - his past family - and to say that, ‘I have changed.’ To allow God to work through him and display miracles. What is God calling you to today? This salvation that you have received, it is powerful. The same power of creation - the same power where God spoke a word and creation came into being - that’s the same power it takes to rescue a man from out of the grave and to get him to bow a knee to the King of Kings, and for life to be brought inside of him. You know as I was praying before we got started today, God was speaking a word to my heart. And I was saying it over and over again. I said, ‘God, would You let the power of creation come today. Would You speak life into a place where there was no life. Would You create Your Spirit, would You bring life into a heart that has been desolate today.”

You are meant to be the power of God. Whether it be in your schools, not falling over yourself to be like everyone else. To just fall into the same things that everyone's doing - but to stand apart as a strong man or woman of God who stands for what they believe in. You’re called to be a display of God's power at your jobs. Some of you guys maybe work at the hospital: You are called to be a display of God's power, caring for the hurt, praying for healing, instead of just putting all of our faith into some chemical, or into some doctor that's been working 30 hours, or to putting our faith into a protocol; instead, getting on our knees and beginning to pray and putting our faith in God. Some of you are in college; you are meant to be a display of God's power. Instead turning away from all the godless doctrine that is shoved down so many people's throats, and instead standing for the truth and speaking in power with authority about God's truth, amen!

"We are called to embrace that calling; it's not just gonna happen, it's not just gonna fall into our laps."

Even at your homes and among our neighbors we need to stop thinking that salvation is just about us. The salvation of God: You are meant to be a demonstration of God's power to a godless world. God is calling you to stand as such. How you raise your kids, how you love your spouse - so we need to stop thinking it’s just about us - God is looking to demonstrate His power through you.

We are called to embrace that calling; it's not just gonna happen, it's not just gonna fall into our laps. God is saying, ‘I have it up there in Heaven; embrace it, take hold of it, pull it down and put it inside of your soul and wake up every morning with it.’

God is calling us out by name, ‘Moses, Moses!’ ‘Chris, Chris!’ ‘John, John!’ ‘I am the God of your father; God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. I am the fire in the bush. I am the fire that's meant to enter inside of you. You are meant to bear My Name, and bear My power, and go out into the world and be a display of My glory!’ Amen!

1 Corinthians 4:20 says, “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” If we embrace that calling, that one true calling today, you would see change in your lives. Because it becomes stored up inside of your heart. It's not something that we just wake up one day and we’re like you know, ‘Hey I’m just gonna do my own thing,’ right? It's a call, it's a level, there's a bar that is set inside of your lives when it happens. Do you guys think like I have a choice to wake up Godly everyday in my house - like it’s not there, right? And that's what we shouldn't have. Our spouses we should be holding each other accountable, our kids we should be holding them accountable. There should be a bar of Godliness in our lives that says we will not allow anything less.

God is calling us to be demonstrations of God's power. For it not just to be on the outside - it’s not a coat that we can take off one day and put on the next - but it becomes a part of our identity, part of our souls. Otherwise we're just passively involved. Let me tell you we have a country filled with passively involved Christians. You know, ‘I believe there's a God so I’m a Christian.’ You know, ‘I go to church so I’m a Christian.’ God is calling for something more. That can't be it people of God - that can't be the full story. God is calling for more. God is calling for an embracement of who He is. How do we embrace it? We seek out His will continuously, we live by the truth of His Word, we pray for vision and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit this day.

You know, in this story, when I look at it there was that burning bush. It kinda made me laugh when I read it, because it was like this burning bush and God said, “Moses,” like it caught his attention. And he went over to look at it. And when you read the story, God's like, ‘Oh, he actually came!’ Like, you know, ‘Oh, when I saw he came over, that's when I began to speak.’

I know for so many of us, there has been things that have drawn us into the church of God. Maybe it’s that tangible Spirit of God, maybe it was the music, maybe it was the website. Maybe it was seeing the families standing together, truly worshiping God. But something has drawn you into the house of God, and I'll tell you why today: It’s because there is an open door. There is an open door today. God is calling you to come in - the door is open. God is calling you out by name, ‘Moses, Moses! Chris, Chris! Come into My house, come into My Kingdom, come and sit at My table.’

But I tell you, I know we serve in a country where there’s this message that, ‘Hey it's always open. God's waitin’ at the door, like “Whenever you want to come in like I'll be here.” And He’s holding the door open for you.’ But you know what? When I read the Bible that’s not what I see. When I read the Bible I see that a door is never open all the time. Doors open and close. If a door was open all the time it would be called a hole. It’s not a hole, it’s a door, right? He opens and He closes it.

So we need to know today that the door is open! The door is open for you today. God is calling you out by name - but it might not always be open. God is calling your name today. That door opens and closes. God opens it and calls you out by name. I pray today that you would take up the call of God in your lives, that you would take up the call while it’s there and say, ‘God, I hear Your voice. Here I am, God. Here I am. What do You have to say to me today?’

For some, that might mean accepting the mantle of being a son of God. For others it might be those first steps of salvation of being forgiven for our sins and making Him the Lord over our lives and spending the rest of our lives embracing what it means to be a Christian. But we need to embrace it this day.

"Enough with the excuses, let's put ‘em away. God's power is supernatural - God's power is greater than anything in this world."

Moses went to God and he began to speak a lot of excuses at first. You know at first he was saying, ‘Well God, you know, You got the wrong guy. I don't know what to say. What if they don't believe me. I can't do it, send someone else,’ until finally he said, ‘Okay God.’ And I know so often we do the same thing. ‘I always have tomorrow’; ‘I'm doing enough’; ‘What else can anyone expect for me?’ ‘I have priorities’ or, ‘It’s just my personality.’ But God is saying the door is open.

You know, God gave Moses like a little bit of slack there, right, to say ‘Alright, let's go, enough is enough.’ Like, ‘Get in the house,’ you know, and he was like, ‘Alright’ you know, ‘Okay Father,’ like, ‘I'll get in.’ And he embraced it. God is calling us to embrace it. Enough with the excuses, let's put ‘em away. God's power is supernatural - God's power is greater than anything in this world. If you don't have the personality to serve God, I pray today that you would be transformed and that God would do a work inside of you.

Even as I heard Pastor Jeff preach last week I heard the story about Naman, you know, he almost missed it. Because of his pride, he walked away. Thank God his servants grabbed him, because he almost missed it and he would've died in his leprosy. But yet God has the door open for us today - embrace your identity in Christ. Embrace your salvation. Embrace the fact that you are not the same as the rest of the world. Embrace that God wants to shine through you, and embrace the authority of God in your lives, and allow it to overcome the darkness. Amen.

So, once we have embraced that call, God is calling us to finally live in that call. Let’s finish up with verse 10. “‘So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ And God said, ‘Certainly I will be with you, and this will be the sign to you that it is I who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.’”

Again I want us to remember: Moses. 80 years old. Has spent a long time being raised in the faith of the Egyptians. Goes out and marries into a family who worships the Midianite gods. And then in this moment, he encounters God. In this burning bush moment, he encounters God and his whole life is changed, and he is transformed, and the tables are turned into him walking in obedience to God the Father. He chose in that moment to embrace God - to embrace Him over his past, over his family both old and new - and all the other gods that everyone around him worshiped.

This is what God calls you to: To embrace Him. To embrace Him over your history and where you came from, over what your family has always done. Over the sports, and the money, and the jobs, and everything else that is so prevalent today - and instead, embrace the calling of being a display of God's power. That's what makes us overcome! That's what brings about that triumphal ending!

"We need to teach our children that being a Christian is not a fickle thing."

You know the problem today is we don't teach our kids to stand for anything! Their opinions are shaped by their neighbors and their friends. We live in a country where even corporations bow down to the Internet mob and stand for whatever popular belief is at that moment. I just read an article from this New York Times journalist. She was an editor, and she left, because she couldn’t take it anymore. And she said (a really interesting article) she said, ‘Look, the editors of this company, live in fear to the mob. They are so scared of saying one thing that's off, then they’re gonna end up getting canceled, and everybody’s gonna turn against them. So look, real journalism is dead.’ Real journalism is dead - because everyone lives in fear of just saying one wrong thing, of just liking that one wrong Facebook post, and everything being turned around.

We need to teach our children that being a Christian is not a fickle thing. It is not something that you choose to do while still remaining to be like everyone else in the world. We need to teach them that being a Christian means embracing a change of lifestyle every day. It means living counter culturally and standing for your beliefs. It means displaying His power through a transformed and set apart life. Micah 3:8 says, “I am filled with power with the Spirit of the Lord and with justice and courage.” This is how we triumph over adversity, people of God.

Christianity is not for the weak-willed. It’s not for those who don't want to embrace something outside of themselves. God is calling us to embrace the call, embrace our identity, be unwilling to compromise for what you stand for. This teaches character, and it teaches perseverance.

I thought about Moses: He had to go back ten times to Pharaoh! Ten times! Imagine that! This guy, who in a moment could order his execution. In a moment could say, ‘Guards, take him away, put him in jail, beat him,’ and then end up killing him - in a moment, one word from Pharaoh and that could have happened, and God made him come back ten times. Can you imagine how uncomfortable that must've been? He probably didn't want to stand out in that moment. Why couldn't God just have sent the tenth plague first, right? That makes a lot of sense - that makes logical sense - send the tenth plague first, we skip all the drama, and everybody's good, and, you know the people are free! But God was teaching Moses in that moment. He made him persevere - He made him stand for what God was calling him to. He made him bring demonstrations of power to this man of Pharaoh.

And that was with the pressure of all the Israelites the people that God was supposed to save. They were mad at them because now the quota of the bricks had been increased, and they weren’t able to use straw anymore - I mean he was in a tight spot. Yet embracing the call makes you persevere. It makes you overcome, and it makes you encounter the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life.

When you stand for something you’re able to overcome adversity. You’re able to be firmly planted and refuse to give in. You know when I was a kid I was thinking about this this week - I remember first coming into the church. And I was a dumb kid, right, like I knew nothing. And I come in and I just remember God saying to me, ‘You can't be like everyone else anymore.’ And I’m not saying I was perfect, but what I am saying to you is that there was a time where I said, ‘I can't be like everyone else.’

But I'll be honest with you I had a really hard time letting go of some of the connections that I had to the world, right? Some people that had, you know, been with me some friends that I had that I spent a lot of time with and I had a hard time letting that go. But God continued to speak to me, ‘You cannot be like everyone else.’ And it was the craziest thing because as I stood and as I’d go out but I couldn't be like everyone else, and I would go somewhere and I would have to be separate - you know, that just slowly eroded my connections to the world. The verse that came alive that said, “What commonality can light have with darkness?” I tell you, people of God, teach your children to stand for truth. Teach them to embrace their identity in Christ. Teach them to stand and not compromise. And as messed up as I was, and as many mistakes as I made and as hard at the time as I was, I knew I could not waver; I could not be like everyone else in front of the world.

God is calling us to be different. God is calling us to be set apart. God is calling us to embrace our identity to embrace the calling. And there's a promise in this verse. It says, “Certainly, I will be with you...”

Certainly, He will go before you and not behind. Certainly He will be upholding you with His right hand. When your family goes through hard times, certainly He will hear your prayers and answer. Think about what He is saying; think about it, because the verse goes on and you guys can read it at home. Moses said, “Who should I say sent me?” And He says, “Tell him the I AM sent you. Tell him the I AM sent you.” This is the God who set the foundations of the earth. This is the God who spoke a word and the stars were put into place. This is the God that will go with you. “Certainly, I will be with you. Certainly, I will go before you.” This is the promise.

He went with Moses, and look what happened: Rivers were turned into blood. Boils and gnats and frogs came over the land. Hail and fire fell from the skies. Locusts came and consumed everything. The angel of death swept over the people. A pillar of fire led the Israelites, and the Red Sea was opened up and consumed the enemies of God.

What will God certainly being with you look like? If you embrace the call today, what miracles will you see in your midst? How will God magnify Himself in your presence? Will you speak with authority, and maybe overtake the influences of this world that so powerfully attract our kids? Will your family be in unity standing together serving God? Will healings take place when you bow a knee and begin to pray to God? Will the course of your schools and communities be changed and start to become godly?

I remember a time when we were in high school, you know, where God was moving - like He really was! I remember preaching the Word of God every single week in a classroom in a time where the news was talking nothing besides separation of church and state and how the Bible shouldn’t be in the schools. I remember a time where it was the cool thing to be in youth group. I remember praying around the flagpole in a year where suicides were out of control and seeing them cease - because depression had taken over, yet God is the God of the impossible, and He did a miracle.

"This is the sign that God leaves us with today... you will return here to the church of God. You will be in God's house, worshiping Him, giving Him thanks, giving Him honor, giving Him praise for what He has done in your life."

If you embrace your calling today - stop going with the flow, commit yourself to godliness - you will see Him come in power in your life. What can God do in your midst this morning? For the fathers, He is calling you to embrace the calling of being an example of godliness and strength in your homes. For the mothers, He is calling you to embrace the calling - be a pillar of wisdom and strength to your children. Teach them the Word of God that they might grow in it. For the men, He is calling you to be a display to the world of what it means for a man of God to separate themselves from the world and stand for what they believe. For the women He is calling you to be a pillar of fire - to be a pillar of truth - to be a demonstration of His power - what it means to be holy, pure set apart, godly. For the children, He is calling you to be separate. To love God above all other things, and to show the world how God prospers ones who put Him first.

And I’ll close and I'll leave you with this today: the last verse here says, “And this will be the sign to you that I have been the one to send you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” This is the sign that I leave you with today: That when you've gone through everything when you've embraced the call, when hard times come, when you have called on heaven and said, ‘God, I am going to be a demonstration of Your power. God I will not compromise, I will not turn away.’ This is the sign that God leaves us with today: When you have been brought out of Egypt, when you have come through the fire, you will return here to the church of God. You will be in God's house, worshiping Him, giving Him thanks, giving Him honor, giving Him praise for what He has done in your life. This is what God leaves us with. Amen.