We would be so glad to pray for you and rejoice over what God has done in your life! [email protected]

hey family i’m pastor torre

i’m pastor sarah and listen you’re

getting ready to hear an incredible word

for the lord i believe it’s going to

bless you

i believe it’s going to be timely do me

a favor

share the message if it moves you share

the message and then also you have an

opportunity to be a part of

not only helping to spread this message

but to be a part of our outreaches

we’re doing a lot of practical things to

be a blessing to someone so feel free if

god so moves you

to use the information here in the video

to support what we’re doing we’re being

a blessing not just people spiritually

we’re being a blessed people practically

we love you get into this message

and change your life

hallelujah hallelujah well god bless you

we greet you in the name of jesus

whose name is above all names and i just

thank god for that name for me

the name of jesus means peace it means

victory it means hope it means

purpose it means strategy

god says for i know the plans that i

have for you that’s a strategy

plans to prosper you and not to harm you

to give your future and

hope and so so that name comforts me

that name calms me that name gives me

peace and that name lets me know

that god is behind the scenes in every

season

working things together for our good god

bless you i pray

that that’s your testimony as well well

today as some of you know we’re going to

do things a little differently

i’m here with the incredible and amazing

love of my life and

first lady of our movement pastor sarah

is uh is joining us here today and

joining me here today and we haven’t

done this

in in quite a while you know we used to

do in fact our first time ministering

together

yeah was in a context similar like this

similar to this it was

and it was right here on this very state

can you believe that but so much has

changed

oh my god a lot has changed and

you know we just had this idea we

we we love each other for real and and

not only is she

she my bride but she’s my best friend

and we’re always

talking about things um there’s nothing

that transpires in life and and even in

one another’s life in our family

that we don’t talk about and so

obviously

2020 has given us much to talk about

and what i love about our conversations

is you know we’re one because we’re

husband and wife but we are different

uh we have uh unique perspectives and

um i always say like if i miss it

she’s gonna get it and vice versa for

sure that’s totally our testimony that’s

why the kids are always watched no

matter what’s happening because we’re

both looking from different perspectives

but i think it’s also what helps us in

every part of our life our business our

ministries that we’re able to just look

at things from different perspectives

for sure and we’ve been talking about a

lot of serious things lately

uh obviously we’re in a very serious

moment in our country serious moment in

our world

uh there is a lot of distrust

unrest a division

anger just a ton of things going on

confusion

it is so crowded and cloudy right now

there’s such

a fray in our world and uh

and we you know we we wrestle through

things

wrestle through issues and and we

thought you know instead of you know

doing a series on all the topics and all

the things that are going on

that we would essentially bring you into

our pillow talk

and bring you into our conversation

bring you into the things that we’re

praying about

the things that we observe in our own

wrestling what should we be doing

you know in the season about what’s

going on and we’re going to move

through as much as we can topics or

conversation about the church

about culture about you know politics of

course is a very

uh political time and then also new

normals as

as 2020 has brought us and so this is

going to be really informal

uh we didn’t come here to preach to you

we will have a time of prayer at the end

and of course you know we cannot close

out our service without amazing worship

to steal everything that takes place but

but we just want to bring you into our

conversation and honey i just want to

kind of kind of start with you you know

what what have been

some of your reflections of late when

you consider what’s happening in our

world

from your perspective you know babe i

think one of the things that i’ve had to

do

in 2020 that has been challenging for my

personality type

is to really adjust to a new rhythm

being set

every day i think that when we like

start off a new year we think to

ourselves okay this is going to be my

rhythm for the year

but the way 2020 has worked is that

you’re setting a new rhythm literally

every morning it’s like i don’t know if

this is a slow dance i don’t know if

this is fashions is this a salsa

and i think that that has been really

challenging for me because so much of

our world has shifted

that it has made a demand on who are you

going to be today

and recognizing that who you were

yesterday may not be effective for

today’s situation

and so i’ve had to be more sensitive

than i’ve ever had

and fight to not feel paralyzed

because when you’re receiving so much

information so many things that can take

away from your hope

to get to a place where you feel like i

still have a place in this world and i

can affect

change has been one of the things that

i’m constantly boiling

things down to when i get finished

processing all of my feelings and

emotions

yeah i i can completely agree you know i

was talking to

um one of the pastors here at the church

and to your point about

uh and first of all if you don’t know my

wife

pastor sarah she likes everything like

structure like do not deviate from the

plan

i’m spontaneous no spontaneity like

none of that she’s just like you know

which is great because

um you know she’s effective at what she

does

and this year has probably challenged

her but i was talking to one of the

staff pastors recently

and it’s challenging me too because i’m

like that but i have a degree of

spontaneity i consider a degree

but so so my thing is

i have that i’m just willing to shift it

so when i have a sp spontaneous moment

and i put that out there

i’m a stickler to that spontaneous

moment but i don’t have a problem being

spontaneous but you know i was thinking

and here is one of the things that i

believe that god is doing

sometimes our commitment to structure

gets in the way of what god wants to do

because

god is a god he is god is fluid

you know he he is lucid and sometimes he

has to wait for us because we’re stuck

in our rhythm so i think that

in the season one of the things that god

is doing is he is breaking us

out of our need to have it all figured

out

and to be in control and to really

be sensitive to god in the moment by

moment

to be so submitted i mean think about

jesus

the spirit for a perfect perfect example

is a spirit there’s a path of scripture

in john 3 that talks about is when jesus

was

working with nicodemus and he talked

about how

how you cannot see where the spirit

comes from or where the wind comes from

or where it goes

you know and so is the spirit you know

so the spirit

i’m not saying the spirit is

disorganized or the spirit is chaotic

but i think that one of the things that

we’ve been forced into is

this posture of waiting

and and being flexible enough to move at

any moment in any instant

in a changing world i think i think

god’s getting us ready for something i

totally agree

and when you said that because i mean

he’s talking about me i

i struggled with you know moving things

along

once it became evident that everything

was changing because like he said i do

like to stay within the comfort of my

structure

but when you were speaking it made me

realize that god breaking me out of my

rhythm and structure no matter how

traumatic it felt in that moment

revealed to me a deeper level of

capacity that i would have never

realized i had

unless he broke me out of it and so i

think as much as it is

god’s will to make sure that his plan is

fulfilled

regardless of our desire to be

comfortable it is also an opportunity

for him to introduce us to a deeper

level

of our identity and capacity it’s almost

like

he’s been saying all 20 20 like come

here i want to tell you something i want

to show you something and you can only

do that if you’re willing to break out

of what has become comfortable for you

to completely agree sameness is a

destiny killer

like like sameness is why one of the

reasons why jesus was rejected when he

came

he came preaching what’s interesting is

he was

preaching a similar message to what the

religious people at the time were

preaching

but he was preaching with authority and

he was healing and the people

at the end of the day didn’t like change

and so

so i am very suspect of of sameness and

we all are creatures of habit

same is safe but at the end of the day

um man if you become a lover of sameness

you will miss the myriad of things that

god has for you

i won’t say that i’m a lover of sameness

because i don’t want to we’re not

talking about you no more no yeah no no

no no

no no but i’m just saying you know i

don’t want to say i’m a lover of

sameness

you know but i will say my social media

lately has made me wish

that everyone would just be the same and

by the same i mean agree with what i say

so that they don’t get blocked i feel

like we have more time to have opinions

we have more time to express those

opinions we have more time to break the

rules of minding your business

ministries

and it is showing up on social media to

the point where it is stressful how do

you balance this idea of

diversity yeah uh when it comes to

thoughts and opinions that are being

expressed especially in this season well

i think

for me i don’t mind

a different opinion than mine i have no

problem listen

no one has a corner on everything

you know everyone is entitled to their

opinion

uh including me my issue comes in

when you attack my opinion

or no no not even when you attack my

opinion when you attack me

because of my opinion uh you know i

posted one of my friends posted

something on social media

um just the other day and and i

commented and literally

and it was a it was a photograph of

brianna taylor and there were words

basically about

justice it was a very nice encouraging

empathetic article and i just posted i

i put i liked the the picture and i put

prayer hands on there

and two uh two comments came in from my

prayer hands i didn’t say anything but

prayer hands and they had clown face and

uh the little little poop symbol and you

know

all this kind of stuff and i’m like what

and then then the funniest thing is you

go to their profile and it says child of

god

it’s not like what god you know but um

so but but for me i mean i’m glad you

asked this question because

i am coming to a place this this crazy

uh uh divisive season of much

vitriol hate anger has made me a better

lover

because it has forced me to either

submit to being like god or allow the

poison that’s being spewed on me to

contaminate me and cause me to be less

effective

and so um for the first time i’ll be

honest with you because

normally you know i got that little clap

back spirit amen

and uh and i was getting ready to clap

back and then i said no

no no no don’t even fight you know first

of all

these people are unreasonable

let me tell you something here is a

quotable never fight a battle

where there is no spoil never fight a

battle where there’s no spoiler if

you’re not

what i mean by spoil it’s a biblical

term people would go to war they would

overcome whoever they were overcoming

and they would get the reward they would

get the trappings of that

right so what spoil what am i going to

receive

by arguing with someone who is

unreasonable there is nothing so i would

rather

have them on that page very high profile

page on that

page looking stupid for attacking me for

nothing

then to engage but to to your question

in particular

my love tolerances i’ve been exercising

on my rowing machine

all that kind of stuff but i’ve also

been exercising my love

because we’re going to need a lot of it

in this season i totally agree i think

one of the things that’s helpful as well

because i found myself like

stretching myself to realize like

everyone doesn’t think the way that you

do they are just as passionate about

what they believe

as you are about what you believe so i’m

challenging myself to make space for

other people’s opinions and perspectives

but i’m also learning when i can’t be

exposed to everyone’s thoughts and

opinions

and i think that’s really important too

as we navigate social media

especially when we’re navigating

delicate issues

it’s coming to a place where we realize

until i come to a place where i feel

healed enough to allow for this exposure

then maybe i need to distance

my exposure to other people’s thoughts

and opinions

you know i took some time away from

social media last week just to kind of

like

collect myself and figure out how i was

feeling on the inside

and the moment i opened up social media

again i breathed in everyone’s pain

and trauma from you know the decision

that was made in the brianna taylor case

and i felt the weight of the world

but i can carry the weight of the world

when i’ve had an opportunity to be

strengthened within

my own meditation prayer and walk with

god so i think really be intentional

about soul care in this season because

this season is after your soul

it’s not just after your hope it’s not

just after you feeling good it’s after

your soul because from your soul as your

soul is prospering

you’re able to produce the types of

things that establish god’s kingdom and

allow us to go into dark places and

and to shed our light but it’s difficult

to do that when you’re constantly

exposing your soul and you brought up an

incredible point and this uh if there

were one take away we’re gonna get to

some questions in a little while

but if if you got nothing else out of

our conversation today

other than to take heat to your soul

in this season to take heat to your

spirit your mind

and your body in this season that will

be worth you know the half an hour we’re

going to spend here together because

it is so important there’s so many

assaults against the soul

you know one of the things that i’m

concerned about quite frankly is the

church

and uh and i am you know i was talking

to my staff here

uh last week and uh when we were

recording

and and i almost broke down uh in tears

i had to push it back because you know

you know crying and stuff like that but

but

um the disunity that’s happening in the

church

right now um over

political leanings and uh and and

cultural

um situations um

hurts um to see

leaders who once had sweet fellowship

around the gospel and sweet fellowship

around their mutual love for jesus

to see them now uh packing up their toys

and going to their own corners

watch this over an election uh

is disheartening um and

you know i’ve got a message to the

church you know there’s a passage of

scripture it talks about marriage or

whatever

it says what god has joined together let

not man put asunder

well i had a thought also what god has

joined together the church that god has

joined together

let not politics on election

divide and i think that if we

allow as the church if we allow our

differences

in opinion concerning candidates

concerning policy concerning anything

divide us as the the church that

that jesus set up the church that jesus

prayed that we would be one

if we allow that to happen we will have

completely missed god

and handed a victory over to satan

because a house divided against itself

can’t stand and let me say something i

talked about this last week if you

missed the message last week it was

called

a time to lean in i said this i said the

ecclesia the called out ones

i said not everyone in the ecclesia

votes the same way

because that is caesar’s business i i

am adamantly opposed to someone

telling someone that this is the only

way

to vote for god that is a lot i rebuke

it and i have friends who believe that

way and i love them

but i rebuke that notion because i can

tell you right now

i can see god in a lot of things

don’t make me i’m going to go there okay

there’s a passage of scripture

there’s a past of scripture uh in

matthew

23 where jesus is berating the pharisees

and the scribes those are the religious

people

and he says something powerful and he

basically talks about how

they have you know they got all the

religious stuff worked out but they

haven’t but they have neglected the

weightier matters of the law

and then he talks about what the

weightier matters of the law is and he

says the weighted matters of law

are first of all a justice

b mercy and that greek word literally

means compassion

and faith so so the weightier matters of

the law are

justice compassion

and faith this was out of jesus mouth as

he is

basically reprimanding the church so

whichever way you swing maybe you know

however you swing at the end of the day

no one has a corner on god’s way to vote

i rebuke that and i’ll tell anybody to

their face even the people that i love

dearly

and we’ll go have lunch after this but i

think that that is divisive

i think that it it it makes jesus

a democrat or a republican it makes god

a democrat or republican and let me tell

you something god is operating in a

frequency that is so much

higher than politics it literally is

insulting to the kingdom

to bring it down to such i love that you

went there

because this is an area where i find

myself

really challenged to grow because i i

heard what you said earlier about

sameness

and there not being division and the

church is really important

how do you think we can come to a place

where we can

not see someone’s difference of opinion

as an

assault against our identity or our

you know ability to grow or our

community’s ability to become better how

do we see that just as a difference of

opinion

you got to understand in the church even

in the bible and i’m going to go broader

in a minute but in the bible the

disciples weren’t in agreement about

everything

they were you know peter and them and

you know who should be

you know should the gentiles be

circumcised should they not be

circumcised can the gentiles be a part

of this thing or can not be a part of

these things the the the uh the

inconsistency the inconsistency of

agreement

in theology is as old as theology

there’s a passage of scripture where

jesus’s disciples went out

and they found some disciples out in the

field and and and jesus disciples the

ones that have been directly with jesus

were like hey y’all come with us

and they’re like no we’re good doing it

the way we’re doing it and then they go

back and they tell jesus

jesus you know there was some some

people and they didn’t come with us

should we command

fire to come down on them jesus says you

don’t know what type of spirit you are

so i think that first of all to

understand

that as the as the apostle paul said we

all are seeing in part no one is seeing

in completion we all are seeing in part

and we need as paul also talked about

all of the other parts

and all their perspectives so first of

all from the church’s perspective

if we understand that and we embrace

that that that

that my brother and my this is what

unites us what unites us

is we believe in jesus christ and him

crucified at the end of the day

that’s what is our bond not theology not

certainly not politics that is not what

binds us together

and so and then for me

i understand that you you may know what

a person did

but you don’t know why they did it you

may

know why a person may lean toward a

candidate that you don’t agree with

but you don’t know the reasons for us

and you’re not gonna get in any

candidate watch this

salvation and i was talking to my good

friend the other day

and one of the things that he said was

for anyone to say

that a political party or political

candidate

can save the nation is willfully

participating in idolatry

because the only one who can save a

nation is god

i love what you said there because it is

such a reminder to me

to assume a posture of humility

that i think sometimes i feel like

because i believe differently that i

believe

better than the other person does and so

because i’m better than you when it

comes to this issue i’m better than you

when it comes to that issue and i think

that it does puff me up with pride

and so to be able to have my belief

without feeling like my belief makes me

better than someone

is really important it’s really hard to

to have humility

you know when it comes to these

differences of opinions especially when

they’re so pivotal to what’s taking

place in the world but

i i get it i love that you’re right we

have to approach

everything humbly uh i’ve already picked

my candidate and i have my reasons for

it

but i don’t use my my my platform i

don’t use this

platform this this gospel

kingdom building platform to promote my

opinion i haven’t

i have i have my opinions and i have my

beliefs and i have my

my ideas about what this country needs

right um separate i’m talking about

politically

separate from what i know this country

in this world needs

and um i just uh you know i don’t want

to keep going back to it but i just i

just

i’m concerned about

christianity being hijacked and and i’m

concerned about that

and and i just just the hate and the

vitriol you know somebody the other day

um sent me a dm and uh

and essentially was mad because i talked

about

um i put a post the rams one

last weekend glory to god and uh

and i put a post up congratulating them

and it was also the same day

that two sheriff deputies in los angeles

were ambushed and got shot and so i also

put kind of a sub note in there and hey

you know praying for these deputies you

know and basically called it wrong or

whatever

and i don’t keep there’s certain posts

that i don’t keep up for a long time for

a number of reasons one if they don’t

get a lot of traction

there’s there’s no this if there’s a

real message in there that i want to get

out i need to get out another way so

i’ll delete the post

and so this individual and she with good

intentions and and she was polite and

everything

said you know you’re taking sides you

know why are you only one sided you post

about

you know ahmad arberry brian brianna

taylor and all these people and you’re

taking sides

what she didn’t know was that i actually

picked that issue back up

on sunday where there will be tens of

thousands of people watching and

experiencing it via youtube where i can

make a bigger impact

but people are so quick to to

judge you and to to label you and i

think to your point

uh humility has to say

and some people make it difficult for

you to say this i will admit

but humility has to say that

there is good in there somewhere and and

maybe i’m so consumed by

my disagreement or or my opinion about

that individual not

their action but their poli or their

policy but the individual

that i’m missing the good that could be

there the bible says esteem

others more highly than yourself it’s

hard to do let me tell you something all

the stuff i preach all the things i tell

you

i never ever once preached that it was

going to be easy

it’s hard but if we’re going to save

um the the if we’re going to be the

united states

then we’re going to have to definitely

demonstrate humility and think the

highest thought when it comes to others

i knew you were going to say that think

the highest thought thing that is

one of the greatest struggles but

necessary

uh components to really surviving these

this new normal i feel like in general

between the pandemic the racial unrest

politics

that idea of thinking the highest

thought when it feels like literally all

hell is breaking loose around us has

taken a toll on so many people’s

mental health it’s taken a toll on their

ability to show up

and really think that there’s still good

that can come out of this

and so i know one of the things that

i’ve been practicing once again

is like coming back within myself not

exposing myself to everyone’s thoughts

and opinions but also being really

really intentional about what is the

highest version of myself

i may not be able to control what’s

happening around me but if i can think

the highest thoughts when it comes to

myself then perhaps that can echo

throughout the world we’re in this new

normal we’re hoping to have an

echo of good things and positivity what

does thinking the highest thought look

like for you when all of this chaos has

taken place

you know i just think a negative thought

in a negative way doesn’t serve me

you know i got to tell you man this

country

over the past four years have

be has become

a negative nasty

divisive hateful country and people say

that you know what was always there is

come to the service you know i’ll give

you that that’s your opinion

but i think it’s worse i think i think

that

that some of the rhetoric that we’ve

seen in politics

and and some of the just the hate

that we’ve seen um in high places

at times

is not an unearthing entirely

i think it’s put something there because

i see people

who i’ve known that i’ve pastored

become the most negative nasty people

and look

i pastored you you should be doing all

right

but but have become the the most

negative

and the most hypocritical and the most

unreasonable people ever

and i’m concerned about that what

happened we’re not the united states we

we were we were

you know we had our issues we had our

divisions

but we were still the united states and

somehow some way

over the last four or five years we’ve

become the divided states of america and

i’m i’m i’m concerned about it

yeah i’m concerned too i think to your

point it was probably

you know i know a lot of people will say

it was always there

and so it has possibly been unearthed

but i also think that there’s an

element of validation that comes when

that that

which has been unearthed has been

validated from different places of

authority and position i think that that

can be challenging

and to constantly see it in the news and

play it out

over time it can be daunting to like i

said our mental health and stuff you

know what while you were speaking though

i was thinking about like all of these

headlines

all of these things that are so

discouraging and i was thinking to

myself i’m going to employ a new

practice and i want to invite you to

join me in employing this new practice

too

i’m going to create my own headlines i

think that there’s something to

looking at what god is doing in your

life because sometimes we look at the

world and we say you know what

there’s too much going on where is god

in the middle of this but if we took a

minute and looked at our own life to see

how

god is still providing to see how god is

allowing us to create and connect in

ways that maybe we would

not have done otherwise then we can see

god is still

in it and when we know god is in it then

we can trust that he’s going to see us

all the way through

but it might require we create our own

headlines to take our

attention back from what’s happening in

the news and what’s happening on social

media i’m not saying ignore it and don’t

pay attention to it

but i’m saying as loud as those things

are we should start making loud what god

has been doing

that has sustained us that has helped us

create and to really employ a new normal

because otherwise we are going to

continue to see and watch

other people’s narrative of what’s

happening in the world while ignoring

the transformation that could be taking

place in our life i completely agree

um i i couldn’t

agree more because if you’re not careful

you can be consumed with the moment

that’s going to come and go

yeah which is what what you’re saying

about politics at the end of the day

you know this is four years four years

is a long time we’re electing someone

for another four years which feels like

another long time but at the end of the

day to your point they’re not going to

be

in position forever which is why it’s

got to be what caesar’s versus what god

is doing in the earth

so to be consumed

is idolatry yeah to if all we’re doing

to your point if all we’re doing is

meditating on the pain and

meditating on the negative and

meditating on

the news how can we worship

so all of this all of this has affected

our ability to worship

and if we don’t worship we’re worshiping

something when we do that but if we

don’t worship god how can we get clarity

and if we don’t get clarity how can we

see

and and if we can’t see how will we know

what to do

and if we don’t know what to do then how

can we keep ourselves from being

controlled by others

and if we can’t keep ourselves from

being controlled by others

how can we keep ourselves from looking

up one day and be completely enslaved

i love what you said about worship it

just triggered for me how worship has

changed during 2020 and our ability to

have an encounter with god

and i think to your point you know we do

have to worship where we’re going to end

up worshiping what’s happening around us

and what’s taking place in this earth

but what i think it that 2020 has given

me as a gift

is a deeper connection with my own

ability to

tap in outside of the normal environment

that i’m used to

church has drastically changed you know

it is in our living room it is in our

kitchen and perhaps we talk about this

all the time

maybe that’s the way it should have

always been to begin with it wasn’t

necessarily about the big rooms and the

big buildings

but i think being intentional about our

worship life and

recognizing that whatever we’re paying

attention to is what we’re worshiping

so to shift our focus how has this new

normal with pastoring been for you

um you know it was i think it’s been

challenging just like

you know everyone else but i’ve been

more focused than i’ve ever been

my creativity for the kingdom and the

church

has gone to new heights um you know

the pandemic threw us lemons you know

the holy spirit said make lemonade

and we’ve made some pretty sweet

lemonade we’ve been able to reach more

people we’ve been able

to to feed more people um

you know because some of our expenses

went down

that were related to our facilities

we’ve been able to do

more financially and outreach and so i

think when

when the the numbers are all tallied in

and we look at

how we were able to do more in the midst

of the pandemic to help people more in a

time

when because of the pandemic they need

help all the more

um you know it’s making me rethink this

whole thing this whole model and so

you know for me you know to your point

i’ve had to exercise muscles that

sameness

uh would not allow me to exercise and so

you know i think i’ve become you know a

better leader i think i’ve become a lot

more focused see that that’s what i mean

like when you’re in a rhythm you don’t

have to focus all you got to focus on is

what you’ve always done but

but when god shakes your thing up and

you have to watch this focus

to see you know what i mean it’s like

like putting on binoculars or whatever

you use to focus and you got to just

keep

adjusting you know binoculars you got to

keep adjusting them to see

even as you move around i like that

because what that means is

because of this this this you know

traumatic and tragic year

my senses are better my focus is better

uh i think ultimately it’s made me a

better pastor

and there’s nothing like seeing people

who are coming to get the groceries who

are

showing up and able to serve and help

the community i think it has

empowered us to literally become the

church not just to have church but to

become the church

and i love the opportunity to think of

you say this all the time innovative

altruism

is that what you yeah that that term i

think has echoed so loudly

this year more than it has in any other

year because that

need has been highlighted and i think

you don’t know if you’re the church

until a need is highlighted and you’re

able to feel it

until then we are just having our

services and going out into our

respective worlds and doing what we feel

god has called us to do but when the

need is highlighted when god says hey

here are my people and they need help

and we have an opportunity to respond i

think that that has been

powerful to be a part of and so i thank

you i’m glad that you pivot quickly

because you were able to pivot quickly

we were able to help so many people

quickly as well

yeah i’m really uh it’s caused me to

rethink church

it really has uh because

there’s nothing that brings me more joy

than helping people

and and i got that from my mom my mom is

just like

she has a need to help people and and i

think i get that

uh from her and and then of course the

pandemic has brought these

new opportunities to help people i’m

saddened by the circumstances

that have created the need

for to receive help i’m saddened by that

but

but i’m also channeling that sadness

to stimulate my innovative you know

altruistic

uh personality and so um

and then how can you go back to that so

now you know

uh things go back to normal which is a

fallacy by the way

what is normal what will normal be uh

there is no such thing

as going back to normal it is about

embracing

new normals and future new normals uh i

think

that the god essentially

and we’re gonna get to questions in a

moment but god essentially

pause on how we were doing church

and and then pushed us

into this new way of doing church

anything that god

presses pause on

without our permission is something

that without him doing it we would have

continued in

even though it wasn’t effect

as effective as it could have been i

need to say that better

god essentially pushed pause on

something that we were weighing in too

high

on you track it with me because if it

was the most profitable thing the

all-knowing god would not have pressed

pause

so he pressed it so god press pause

press pause he points out that you think

it’s about buildings and crowds

and and and buildings are wonderful

we’ve done great things with our

buildings that’s that’s wonderful

but that’s not really what it is all

about i remember

you know i mean you know taking over

denver and getting this sprawling

you know 35 acre campus i mean it was a

you know a young pastor’s dream

you know uh to have you know buildings

but you know what

from the very beginning god told me that

it was never about big buildings it was

always about

building big people don’t big build a

big building big build a big people

now what if i had spent my entire life

building big buildings and put all of my

sense of value in the building

i drive right past my building today you

know and so

so i think that god disrupted

not that it was wrong but

he’s showing us i believe what’s most

important yeah

yeah i want to take some questions uh

and we got a few questions that came in

and i just want to want to take a few

uh before we pray close out and worship

um here’s one honey it says

how do you keep your head

during these times that’s a phenomenal

question

i think it goes back to what you just

said even about church i think that this

has

given us an opportunity to determine

what really matters

and i think that keeping my head for me

is coming down to what really matters

when it comes to church i’m a church

girl i’m used to being in church

all day on sunday and monday tuesday

wednesday thursday friday and saturday

for all of the other things

but keeping my head as it relates to

even this transition and my faith is to

your point it was never about that it

was about your relationship with god

so when it comes to my family when it

comes to my health the world has

drastically changed i’m not able to

connect with

my family in texas the way that i’m used

to but keeping my head says

what really matters is that you connect

in some way not necessarily the way that

you’re used to

and i have found that when i zoom out of

the picture and look at

what really matters that i’m able to say

you know what at the end of the day the

fact that you still have a parent to

call

in a pandemic where so many people have

lost their parents

means that you’re still doing okay the

fact that you still feel passionate

about what god has called you to do

means you’re still doing okay so it’s

almost like checking off these boxes

of what god is still doing in my life of

how i am developing

and growing and taking on new challenges

and overcoming that’s helping me see

that i’m making progress

even when the world is on pause because

the world is on pause

but just because the world is on pause

doesn’t mean that your growth and your

development

has to be on pause there’s still an

opportunity for us to grow and become

better and so assessing

instead of waiting for the world to pick

back up and go back to normal but to see

how can i progress

in this current condition has helped me

to keep my head

and carbs and carbs uh

yeah i i agree entirely i

totally agree i think for me keep in my

head you know what makes me lose my head

is fear

uh what makes me lose my head is uh

anxiety

and what makes me lose my head is

purposeless

right and so um so

in order to keep my head and i have to

rebuke fear

i have to rebuke the notion

that things are out of control right for

me

what would make me afraid is if i felt

like

something negative was out of control in

my life and there was nothing that i can

do about it well i don’t believe that i

believe that even in this

i talked about it last week jesus said

all these crazy things are going to

happen

he says but but don’t be troubled

the end is not yet it says and those who

endure to the end

shall be saved that means that there’s

an end right this is not my demise

and then it also says that and this

gospel the kingdom shall be preached to

all nations so in essence god is saying

i completely know what’s going on

a b i’m completely in control

see you can handle it and

d if you are in purpose which for me is

the kingdom

then while all those things are

happening you’re gonna see

glorious transformation take place so

so for me keeping my head is is is me

staying true to purpose right for me

purpose is like this

i don’t care i’m a navy seal when it

comes to purpose i don’t care

about the bombs going off over there

purpose is why i was born purpose is why

i was created purpose is why god put me

in my mother’s womb before he put me in

my mother’s womb it was purpose that put

me there

and and as long as i’m breathing there

will be purpose and as long as there is

purpose i will be fine

and so i think that it is being real

about moments of anxiety

and moments of fear and moments of

feeling loss

and recognizing that none of those

things are true

i am not lost god knows exactly where i

am i

the lord is my light and my salvation

whom shall i fear

right and and why be anxious he said be

anxious for nothing and so

i combat the the encroaching

uh debilitating army

of of pressure with the truth of god’s

word

and i’m self-aware enough to know when

enough is too much and i will retreat to

your point earlier and go get myself

some soul care

because the moment that i feel like i’m

losing my head means that somehow

i lost the truth and i’ll pull back i’ll

go

and pray i’ll go take a motorcycle ride

i’ll do something

to uh to remind myself to get back

to my foundation yeah that’s great

next question we’re almost out of time

here we can take

one or two more that’s a good one honey

what to do

when you feel stagnant or stuck

due to what’s going on that’s great i

have struggled with feeling that way i

think definitely because of my

personality type

where i like things to kind of stay the

same but one of the things that i’ve

been doing is realizing that i’m not

saying the smallest things brought me

joy when the pandemic first happened

i would get up and i would brush my

teeth and i’d be like the pandemic

hasn’t changed that i’m making dinner

the pandemic hasn’t changed

that to realize that even in the middle

of all of the things that are

changing and that can be traumatic to

look at look at and face every day

that there are some things that haven’t

changed and then to ask myself well what

are some areas where i still have

control that i would like to see change

within my person

within my spirit within my relationship

with god and realizing that you can be

an active participant in the

transformation that you want to see in

the world

sometimes we feel stuck because we feel

out of control

but if we serve a god who is in control

and understands the plans that he has

for our lives then we get to go to god

in prayer

and say god what can i do today that

helps me get one step closer to

fulfilling that plan what do i need to

deny myself today

to get me one step closer to fulfilling

the plan and i have found the more that

i activate that

the more hope and joy that i feel in the

middle of my world in spite of what’s

happening in the greater

scheme of things i love it and

everything she said i mean that she said

it all i would just uh put in two words

i think um

um discipline and consistency

uh and what i mean by that is that find

something stagnation

is the the opposite of movement and

and so if you start practicing movement

consistently then you get into the

rhythm you get into the rhythm of

progress

and so kind of to your point you know um

what little

thing can i do uh today

or every day that will create movement

right

it could be reading a book it could be

walking taking a short walk in the

neighborhood

it could be praying but something one of

the one of the ways that we get stagnant

oftentimes is because um this sort of

depression sets in

because we’ve been taken away from our

norm

and we don’t have any rhythm right and

so

start creating rhythms right what what

rhythm

can i create i just need to you know i

just need to get moving they talk about

how

you know people ought to just move

sometimes you don’t have to exercise

just move

you know walk up the steps and do it

consistently and i think that that

uh can help break the stagnation i want

to take one more question

oh they say the best question for last

let me let you read that because you

you’re closer to jesus than me

i’m i’m gonna read the question so you

can answer okay the question says

how would jesus respond if he was here

in this time wow

um would he flip over tables absolutely

absolutely i think that i’m going to

give

i think two things based on my

interpretation of scripture

and my relationship with jesus first and

foremost he would be

greatly grieved right because remember

he looked i believe it’s in matthew

chapter nine he looks out

into the crowd right let’s just call it

a crowd of protesters

let’s just call the crowd of protesters

and and

the ones protesting the protesters right

that’s everybody right that’s not

partisan okay he looked out there

and he saw a bunch of confusion all of

them

everybody was confused a little bit and

it says

he looked out there he said because they

were sheep

without a shepherd we need leadership in

this country

and the bible says he looked out at that

crowd

and he was moved with compassion

upon the whole crowd democrats wear that

crowd

republicans were in that crowd blacks

were in that crowd

whites were in that crowd heterosexuals

in that crowd

gay and transgender were in that crowd

everybody was in that crowd

and jesus’s response to all of that

confusion

and all of that that dysfunction

and all of that need

was not some of the things that we see

today

the bible says he was moved with

compassion

because they were scattered

like sheep without a shepherd

and he looks out and he keeps doing his

thing he’s only one person

he looks out and he says the harvest is

plenteous

but the laborers are few it was all

about the people

it’s all about the people it wasn’t

about policy it wasn’t about religion

it was about the people so one he would

be moved with compassion

and then two i think he would be

disappointed

with the disunity in the church

particularly

disunity around something

that will not save a nation i am all for

voting

absolutely i will be there ringing bells

and i will encourage everybody to vote

but one thing i know is that although

the right laws can

help in many ways i agree with that

but laws don’t change hearts and laws

don’t necessarily change minds

and laws do not advance the kingdom i

know that

and so i think that he would be

discouraged

at how we have allowed

and when i say we i’m talking about the

church we have allowed politics

to divide us

i think this is a good place to pray

i didn’t realize that hurt was in there

yeah

what i do know is that our country

needs a shepherd now the chief shepherd

we have and he is jesus

and we as pastors as pastors

have to shepherd people to the true

shepherd

i’m praying for this election

i’m praying for these times but more so

i’m praying for the church

i’m praying that we would rise above

petty politics

and petty division and set our eyes on

the kingdom

everything that can be shaken will be

shaken that’s

bible so that that which cannot be

shaken

can remain and he tells us what that is

that’s in hebrews

he says it’s the kingdom the kingdom is

the only thing that can’t be shaken

i pray that god would make some great

changes in our country

that we would have leadership that

reflect the heart of god

that reflect the weightier matters of

the law which is what jesus talked about

justice compassion

and faith but above all

i pray the same thing jesus prayed

that at the end of the day we would be

one and you know why jesus said it’s

important that we’re one

he says until we are one the world won’t

know

that he’s real and we have an

opportunity

despite of our differences and our

political leanings we have an

opportunity

to show a miracle to show a united

church

that differs in beliefs

as it pertains to politics and even some

religious things

and if we show it and if we show it well

i believe we’ll show the face of jesus

in difficult times this is my hope

honey can you pray for

anything that’s on your heart but our

country man for the people that are in

the streets i’m hurt

as as a black man as an african-american

man

i’m hurt over brianna taylor i’m hurt

over

a lot of things i’ve been my heart’s

been broken so much i can’t even believe

i still have

there have been so many pieces it’s just

the love of god holding it together

but pray for me pray for pastors pray

for the church

pray for the families of those who lost

loved ones pray for young people that

don’t know what to do with their hate

excuse me with their anger and some with

that anger turn hate

pray baby pray

[Music]

god your word says that you are near to

the brokenhearted

and without a doubt we are more

brokenhearted than we’ve ever been

father as we’re watching this message as

some are watching from home as they even

saw my husband

be vulnerable towards you father i feel

like that’s what you’re calling us to

to come to a place where we can be

honest and vulnerable about how we feel

so that you can be near

and so father i’m asking that you would

bring us all to the feet of jesus

that we would bring all of our opinions

and thoughts and hurts and emotions to

the feet of jesus

so that he could look at us with

compassion father and then transform us

into those who don’t mind being laborers

father i’m praying for your church

that you would give us unity like never

before that we would get back to the

heart of the matter god

that we would see that we were here to

bring souls back to you father that we

are the answer that when we stand up and

who we are called to be that we bring

hope to our criminal justice

justice system we bring hope to our

nation we bring hope to families we

bring hope

to those who are hurting and strung out

and homeless father we are the ones who

have the answers and so father

i’m asking that if you’re handing out

keys that you would bring them to those

who understand that this is the moment

for us to rise up

not shrink down father i’m praying for

those of us who are so

angry and so hurt because of everything

that we’ve seen displayed

father i ask that you would reach past

our hurt and our pain and that you would

remind us

that you have made us passionate so that

we can produce

change father we need our humility

we need to humble ourselves and pray so

that we can connect with you in a new

way

father we know that this moment did not

take you by surprise

you knew that we would all be in our

corners ready to

walk away and yet you have empowered us

to be alive in this moment give us

vision

that we may see the role that we are to

play

grant us humility father that we would

not puff up ourselves with what we think

is right but that we would rather make

room for all of us to be on a journey

growing and becoming better

and father i pray for our leadership not

just

political but for our church leaders for

my husband for my father for all of the

pastors

all around the world father who are

struggling who are struggling to know

what to say who are struggling to know

how to lead who are struggling

to lead us in the right direction father

i ask that you would light a fire a new

fire in them father

for the kingdom that the kingdom would

come and that it would never be

eradicated or

hijacked again father we ask all of

these things

in your son’s name because we know that

when we say it in the name of jesus that

where we lack he fills in the gap

father we ask that you would bless us

that you would heal us that you would

touch

us and that we would be like a city upon

a hill

father do it in jesus name amen

amen

you