Focused And Fearless // Death To Distraction: Week 6 // Charles Metcalf

hey friend hope you're doing good my name is Charles and uh wherever you are joining or seeing this video from I want to First say I hope you're doing well and uh I believe you are on this video on purpose uh you're about to see a message that I actually just got done preaching and uh it's called this it is focused and fearless I've realized for me personally that many times when I hear the word focused there's a feeling of fear that comes up because I don't want to mess it up I don't want to fail or make a mistake but I believe God wants to give you a focus that is freeing a focus that brings joy and that brings an expectation so in this sermon I'm going to give you three simple ways to flip your focus we're so grateful for you no matter where you're watching from and uh make sure you like subscribe and share that way you can stay in the family and in the know of everything that's going on we love you so much and I hope you enjoy this message we are um it's dangerous I just got my Bible and I got uh two pages of notes so it's about to get uh serious out here all right um some of y'all I I I talk to people sometimes I'm going to give away one of my secrets people think I'd be memorizing my whole sermon which I do for the most part but I actually have a cheat code my notes are just taped on the inside of my Bible so some of y'all are like yall just feel like wow um but we have been in a series called Death to distraction everybody say death to distraction death to dist Pastor Michael has been leading us through this and we've been studying uh the story of Samson uh one of the strongest men to ever live that God played by by Delilah she I played that man like a fiddle this very disappointing very tragic um he gave away his Secrets cut his hair lost all his strength uh but we've been examining this story as a picture of what happens when we lose focus our word of the Year this year is focus somebody say focus focus we've been talking about how do we keep the faith to stay focused on what God has asked us to do and uh this year I'm very excited because we have a scripture of the year it is Hebrews 12 Hebrews chapter 12 and then now let me pause for a second because I got some beef with y'all in this room I'm GNA step over see this is when I get serious I'm about to step over when I preach a series you know uh the word of God I had a scripture every week and I was like we're going to read it aloud together and y'all played me so hard we could not make it one week through that Pastor Michael he's like we're going to do a scripture year he's like what you think man I think we're gonna have everybody read it together and I literally said man it's going to be tough cuz when I tried to do it they didn't do it and then y'all going to get up here and nail it every single week I felt personally disrespected anyways so I'm very insecure to read the scripture together because I'm worried y'all going to leave me up here by myself but we're going to try it we're going to read this scripture together can y'all throw it up there for me Hebrews 12 we're going to read this together as a matter of fact could you stand for the reading of God's word come on we going to stand for the reading of God word I got 43 minutes and 52 seconds of it so we going to be all right all right here we go we going to start and I'm going to be honest with you I'm going to go whether you go with me or not so cuz I'm a little insecure up here here we go 1 2 3 therefore since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of Faith let us strip off every weight you're doing so great that slows us down especially the sin that so easily trips us up and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us take a deep breath we almost there we do this by keeping our eyes parenthesis focus on Jesus the champion who initiates and perfects our faith because of the joy awaiting him he endured the cross disregarding its shame now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's Throne give yourself a round of applause you did so well you can sit down you can sit down I just realized I don't like it you guys did great it was more reflection of me than it was you um but this has been our anchor scripture if we are going to stay focused we do that by fixing our eyes on Jesus focusing on him and I'm excited today we're going to go a little bit down that trail of how we can stay focused on Jesus so if you got your Bibles I need you to turn to Matthew chapter 28 Matthew chapter 28 um if you got a real Bible shout out you get more points in heaven for that um it's in Leviticus none of y'all read Leviticus but it's in there I promise you're like I don't know cuz I've never read it I know that's why it works okay Matthew chapter 28 we're going to read six verses this is what the Bible says now after the Sabbath as it began to Dawn toward the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb and behold there was a severe earthquake for the Angel of the Lord had descended from Heaven it came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it and his appearance was like lightning and its clothes as white as snow the guard shook from fear and became like a dead man and the angel said to the woman do not be afraid for I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified now this next part is some of the most powerful four words in the whole Bible if you was churchy churchy you would take off sprinting right at these four words I don't even Zach ain't even back there but this is the part where the organ would be going crazy I never get an organ man I think it's cuz I'm half white anyways that's a joke too far calm down I'm okay Jesus but seriously never have the organ anyways he he's not here for he has risen just as he said the title you see you felt that if they had the organ it would have been crazy it's all right though don't come running now nope no I'm just kidding my title of my sermon today take if you're taking notes write this down focused and fearless focused and fearless I'm focused and I'm fearless let's pray Lord God we love you thank thank you so much for who you are and uh speak this morning in Jesus name we pray and everybody said amen um okay I don't know about you but my experience with the word Focus um I have a certain connotation and feeling that happens when I hear the word Focus uh now I'm going to use this as an illustration um I didn't know if I was going to use it but I'm going to use it uh I said this I have four kiddos Arlo Phoenix is about to turn six Luna Rose is uh four about to turn five Jade October and blue Sunday now all of our kids are different as parents know you can't copy and paste your parenting as much as that would make it way more easier you have to become four different people to these four different humans and it's extremely difficult but um I Am Naturally competitive and just uh sometimes a lot I just scream a lot at my house some of you like man you wild up there I'm just this wild all the time and uh my son Arlo Phoenix started playing soccer this last year now I uh have I had to like lay All my expectations at the altar when I had children cuz I knew I don't know if my kids are going to be into sports Abby God bless her does not have a competitive bone in her body she's like it's just you know it's just for fun I'm like it's not fun when you're losing you know people say just for fun are people who lose all the time that's why you got to revert to that cuz you lose you don't have another option so you're like I'm just going to have fun it's like okay here in Li is my issue right y'all can see winners don't say hey just for fun okay I'm done anyways okay um so I'm trying to talk to Arlo Arlo is a sweet gentle spirit and so I'm trying to temper my like intensity with like all right buddy we're going to go out there you know we're going to have fun we're going to do our best we're going to win we're going to we're going to and so I I think my wife was taking this video I'm about to show you a video that I'm not necessarily proud of okay I'm not embarrassed by it but you know it's it's going to work great for this Ser so I want you to show me this is um Arlo playing soccer I think this is his first game um in true meta fashion we called up 86 of our friends and so the sideline was packed for a four-year-old soccer game and I want you to observe uh just hopefully a non-traumatic memory for my son can y'all play the video of Arlo uh playing soccer real 
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 quick Arlo the ball the the what is happening CHR yes other way you got it buddy oh Jesus I just got stressed watching that he ran the complete wrong way he just sprinted I don't know if you he literally the ball's right here and he just turns around it's like I'm going the other way you can't hear in the video but at the end the video I didn't realize I literally last night I'm up I'm looking through my phone for another picture and at the end of that video I'm screaming Focus pay attention I'm screaming at him because he doesn't know which way he's going and I realized many of our context and connotation of focus is a screaming correction because you messed it 
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 up you don't register it this way initially but if I say hey you need to focus the immediate thing you feel is oh shoot okay let me not uh Veer off the road let me not mess this moment up let me not screw up my marriage let me not blow all the money let me not step out of place I don't want to miss God oh gosh I need to focus and I'm afraid some of us if we are not careful you will not realize that the motivation for you becoming so focused may not be rooted in the right thing for many of us when you hear the word Focus there's a there's a fear that comes up there's an intensity that comes up there's a voice you hear here maybe it's a parent maybe it's a coach maybe it's someone that that spoke to you that went before you but there's something that happens and I have a question for us this morning and it is this what is your focus being fueled by what is fueling your focus many of us If we're honest because of your first experience because of your connotation the truth is it is fear that is fueling your focus fear that you don't mess up the marriage so you got to pay attention you need to focus because if you don't Focus you're not going to get the right grades and if you don't get the right grades then you're not going to get into the school and if you don't get into the school then you'll be just like everybody else in your family and you're the only hope they got so you better focus you better focus yeah you're free now from the addiction but just in one moment you could mess it all up and ruin all those years of soberness and fall back into the pattern that your whole family has fallen so you better focus you better pay attention and if we're not careful we will do the right thing with the wrong motive which ends up still being the wrong thing and there are many of us that I I I want you to explore for a moment how do you feel when there's a command given to focus what is the intensity behind this Focus why does it seem like there's so much pressure and so much weight and I I don't want to mess it up and here's the truth many of us our focus is being filled by the fear of failing I don't want to end up like them I don't want to mess it up I don't want to make a mistake I don't want to to miss my moment with God and I think it's important that we evaluate this because the truth is many of us we have the wrong root of our Focus it's just because we don't want to disappoint God we don't want God to be mad at us so we're just going to focus and I got to make sure I read my Bible and I got to make sure that I go to church and I got to make sure and I'm just questioning is it is focus supposed to feel like that it I did Jesus die on the cross beat Death hell and the grave so that when you come into his house and he says Hey I want you to focus you feel condemned small and shrunk and you feel so afraid and your world slowly slowly become smaller you see you may not realize this but Focus that is fueled by fear always makes your world smaller this is what fear does Fear will always make your world small it goes from man look how beautiful this day is to oh gosh I I'm behind on that bill and oh gosh what if I don't pay the bill and oh gosh what if we get thrown out and then what if if I make a mistake and then where are my kids going to go and then where's our family going to go and where are we going to live and slowly but surely fear always brings your world to be smaller you woke up excited for the day and then you saw you realize man I still haven't heard from that friend that said they would be there for me and it goes from a beautiful day to I have lots of friends to because one friend didn't text you back now you're questioning does anybody like me is anybody there for me am I going to be alone forever fear will always make your focus smaller and I want to submit to you today that um it's important that you understand that your focus should be fueled by faith your focus Jesus came into this Earth so that your focus could be fueled by faith if you're taking notes I want I want you to write this point down because this is a key point in my message and it is this Faith always grows in the direction of your focus Faith always grows in the direction of your focus this works both ways so some of you you realize that your faith in things going wrong is going to grow because you always focus on everything going wrong everything beautiful in your life but there's one situation that hasn't worked out how you wanted to and slowly but surely you walk yourself into believing no one's ever going to be there for me and I'll never have friends and I'll never have people who care and see me because you have focused on it so much that now your faith is grown in that direction you know the story in the Bible is the story of Jesus's resurrection and usually we save this part of the Bible for April around Easter you know but it's crazy the Bible works all times of the years I don't know if you know that but you can read the Christmas story in July and it still got power hello somebody but I love this story because there's an example that happens where they run up to look for the thing where they thought Jesus would be laying they go looking and focusing on where they thought the dead thing would be and one of the clear instruction instructions that the angel gives is do not be afraid I know you're looking here for Jesus I know you're focusing on where he thought it would be I know you're looking for the place where you thought it would be but here is what I have realized fear will always have you focusing on what is dead instead of what is alive fear will always have you focusing on what is dead so that you will miss what is actually alive these people come running to the grave and they're expecting to see a dead Jesus they're expecting to see it gone and what the angel has to tell them is hey do not walk in fear do not be afraid I know you were looking where you thought it was going to be but there's a focus that comes because there's an expectation you should have and I just want to submit today that um if you have been listening to this series and the more you hear Focus the heavier you become I would submit that Jesus invites us into a different way to focus Jesus says in the scriptures are you tired are you worn out one translation is tired of religion come with me get away with me watch How I do it and the promise at the end of the scripture R is I will give you rest for your soul not rest like you go to sleep not rest like you you took some melatonin gummies and you went to sleep no no no not that kind of rest rest in your soul the place that the anxiety lives the place that you're worried about the place where those children keep you up at night he says I will give you rest for your soul now I read scriptures like this and I have a specific bucket for things like this and it's this there are things that are ultimately true but sometimes don't feel functionally true let me explain it to you um there is an amazing worship song that is a really really good song I love and please hear me I'm not talking against this worship song I'm just inviting you to what happens when I'm lifting My Hands singing to Jesus there's a song we sing that says he's never going to let he's never going to let me down you know I know the vocals are right there but y'all know the song come on now I'm not going to sing no more of it so you either going to be lost or y'all know the song I'm talking about if you don't know it Google it amazing song and sometimes I'll be singing it like he never going to let never going to let me down except for that one time I didn't get that job I wanted yo never going to let you're never going to let me down except for all the sickness and stuff that I'd be going through yo never going to lie I mean am I the only way sometimes feel like yes ultimately when I die and I'm looking you eye to eye and I don't have to suffer anymore and you'll wipe every tear from my eye like I says oh yes you never let me down but there's sometimes God not all the time great song and sometimes I be feeling let down I hear Jesus saying Hey listen are you tired my burden is easy and my yoke is light and I be hearing Jesus talking like okay I hear what you're saying but it don't always feel like that Jesus it doesn't always feel like what you're saying is true it doesn't always feel like trying to raise these kids to know you and follow you and not give them trauma and not scream at them because that's the easiest thing to get their attention I'm really trying really but sometime it doesn't feel that way I know you said your burden is easy but I'm out here and I've been trying to apply for jobs and nobody's hiring me and they keep saying overqualified and God I didn't even go to school I know they lying that just mean they don't want to hire me it doesn't always feel like that and here's a question I'm I've been asking myself is is that really possible why why would you put that in there Jesus is it is it really POS your burden is easy and your yoke is light it's also confusing to me too and this is what happens to me when I be reading the Bible because there's other part of scripture where he's like narrow is the path and hard is the way like okay now you confusing me cuz you're over here here's what I want to submit to you today and I'm I'm not going to believe lab the sermon we're going to jump right into application and how we can do this what I have realized is the way Jesus invites us to focus many times we complicate because it feels better when you get the credit for carrying your 
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 life this is why religion sells so easy to you this is why it's so easy to create religions because it's just you do enough good things you put all the weight on your back and that way when you get where you get to you have nobody else to give credit except for yourself and we do this with Jesus he says hey my my burden is easy and my yoke is light and in the original language what he's saying he's specifically talking about the way I teach you to follow the way I teach you to do it's easy and it's light but the truth is many of us complicated ourselves because we don't do it right I don't know if you've ever had this experience uh I I have friends who they're like uh exuberant uh uh Fitness people Pastor will he done lost three people and he looks amazing and now he's getting into like Mr Olympia phase Pastor Mike will be working out all the time and you know they be trying to peer pressure me into working out and I don't do it you know what I'm saying I'm saying Hey listen if y'all want to come cycle with me then we can talk but don't be trying to pressure me I will not do it but we be in there sometimes they be getting me and I'll be in there it's been months don't worry uh I'll be in there and sometimes I be I'll be looking at them lifting weights and I'll be thinking I see what you doing but there's no way it's supposed to be this hard I'll never forget a couple years ago I I was working out with P Mr Scott uh and uh Scott tell me they've been here since the beginning of our church amazing amazing family and I used to work out with Scott in this garage back here and now Scott is amazing he works with Pastor Michael he makes sure we all safe and if you're crazy he will just end you so don't do anything crazy but um but I remember I was working up guy and I'm convinced he just be making these workouts up he's like all right here's what we going to do we're going to take this chair okay we're going to take it and we're going to do six of these you just throw it chair six two and I'm like Mr Scott I feel like you're making this no no no you want to be strong don't you like I think I think I want to be so I'm out here throwing the chair two three actual workouts he does here's what I've realized there are things in your life that you are completely capable to carry but if you do not understand how to carry them it makes something light very heavy this chair is not that heavy and if I put it on my shoulder like this I'm fine it's not heavy genuinely I can do what I'm supposed to do I can walk around with it but if I was trying to carry this chair with the back of my leg you see what I'm saying this this is what we look like following Jesus no yeah I'll be reading so much Bible and I'll be going to church and you should come to my church it's a great it's only awkward because it was never meant to be carried that way if you are in here today and focusing feels heavy and focusing feels like condemnation and focus feels like you better not mess it up and focus feels like hey you better get it together and you better make sure that is not what Jesus is submitting to you today am the focus he is inviting us into is not a command of condemnation it is a command that he's trying to produce an expectation in you because he knows what he has prepared for you I just want to submit to you an alternate ver if you like feeling heavy and burdened when you focus have at it but if you want another version if you want to find a focus that is full of joy if you want to find a focus that's full of excitement if you want to find a focus that has the expectation attached to it if you want to wake up excited for what God wants to do I am submitting to you that Jesus provides a way for your focus to produce freedom and still feel free we don't talk about this as much in church I know it's very easy in church to demonize your emotions and your emotions are the devil that's not true because Jesus had emotions we see it all throughout scripture I can explain it to you later but here is the truth God designed this thing he said I came into this world that you would have life and life more abundantly life to the full I am submitting today that there is a focus where you wake up feeling Freer there's a focus where you wake up feeling like man what does God want to do today there's a focus you can have where it's not out of what are you going to mess up but it's because you don't want to miss it it's because there's so much God wants to do that you want to make sure you're ready so you start to focus on yourself and getting healthy not because you're terrified no one's ever going to love you you focus on it because you know God's preparing the person for you so you say you know what I'm gonna take this single season I'm GNA enjoy it so much I'm gonna get so healthy I'm gonna get in counseling I'm gonna get in the gym I'm gonna get my mind right I'm gonna give because you have an expectation for something not because you're trying to prove something to somebody and here's what you begin to realize your focus starts to become the proof of your faith don't tell me you got faith if you haven't started focusing on it okay let me explain there there are areas of my life where I've had to realize the only way I'm going to be able to prove and show that I actually believe God can do something is I'm GNA start focusing on this area I'm going to start doing something on this I'm going to start focusing in on this but today uh I'm gonna give you three points on how we can uh the title I think I put over this is how to flip your focus if you've got a focus that is stuck in fear and you want to move into a focus that is fueled by faith I'm going to give you three things the first one if you're taking notes first thing you going to need if you're going to flip your focus is a flash somebody say flash flash now here's the truth I couldn't think of another word that started with a f so I put Flash and I'm G to explain it to you that's what preachers do we just make stuff up this scripture when they run to the tomb it says there the angel was shining like lightning and there was a thunderstorm and really what I mean by flash you can put in parentheses in your notes is an encounter this is something that you um cannot always control but you can set the atmosphere for and I want to spend a moment uh speaking to this for a second because there are some of us that only believe that we can only get our faith inspired when we're in this room when it's Sunday morning when when the room is perfectly set and the whole goal of the room is just to have an encounter with God I am telling you you can have an encounter with Jesus no matter where you are and in one moment God can remind you that he has a plan and a purpose for you in one moment God can Inspire your faith you know say you know what I don't have to live in fear there's a better option for me to in one moment with Jesus the goal of Sunday is not for you to leave Sunday thinking man I can't wait till the next Sunday the goal of Sunday is you saying I cannot wake up to wake up tomorrow and see what God does for me I cannot wait to go out into my workplace into my school if you're going to have a new Focus you got to create times where you can have an encounter with Jesus you got to create these spaces and we'd be doing you a disservice if we made you think that this is the only time God speaks it's just not true what is that moment what does it look like to create an En it looks like being still for a moment some of us are so busy so fast let me I say some of I be so busy running around yesterday we had blu's birthday party and there was a moment in the birthday parties I do this every single time where I disappear because it's just a lot of people you know what I'm saying and then my wife text me she says where are you at I was like oh I was just going through our mail that's literally the text I sent to my wife I was I was in our bedroom going through mail that's how much I was so overwhelmed by the people but busy day running around and I'm thinking I got to preach tomorrow and literally last night I said hey babe I was going to take a moment in our Wier room I was in my closet just going through random stuff but I had worship music on and I was just sitting there saying God I thank you that you're going to speak tomorrow I thank you that whatever you want to do and it's just a random moment in the regular of your day where you can have an encounter number two if you're going to flip your focus this is really the the Lynch pin of the whole thing you got to have friends you got to have friends I cannot tell you how important it is for you to have a friend and friends in your life that can help you get out of a fear-based focus if if you don't take none of these take this one and say I need matter of fact you can say this I will be a friend that will help somebody get out of a fear based Focus some of you are so isolated you're so in your mind that nobody can tell you nothing but if you had some people around you that could remind you hey this is not it God's got a plan for you hey it's not always going to be like this remember when he let you out last time you got to get some people in your life that can help you get out of that spot and I'm tired of seeing the church picked off in isolation standing by ourselves asking questions by ourselves let me say this everybody's got questions about the bible let me acknowledge this cuz some of us we there are so many people in a generation who have deconstructed their faith because they have a question and because they don't understand how it works let me tell you I be preaching it and there's stuff I don't understand how it works but let me tell you this you also cannot explain to me unless you're a mechanic exactly how your engine turns on but you don't sit up in your car being like okay let me see let me see what's happening okay it's going to fire then the Pistons are going to go then a little bit of fuel is going to come in you don't ask no questions what do you do you trust the person who made it that they know more than you and you get in that thing and you start it up so you do not have to understand and be able to explain every detail and be able to argue with somebody in order to use that thing and the same is true with your faith there's some wild stories in the Bible I get it I'll be reading it like hey yo God Hey listen that's hey yo the concubine just a lot go what's up with the multiple wives clearly we don't want to be doing that no more like there's a lot of stuff in there but here's the thing I'm not asking you to ignore it I'm asking you do you need it to wake up tomorrow and do what Jesus has asked you to do love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself we be in arguments about theology that once you get the answer you still ain't going to do nothing different than you're doing right now oh great post trip that's so great all right I'm going to still go out here and be unkind to all the people at Target what you going to do when you get the answer well if I just knew exactly when he was coming back in the Locust or helicopters or what's up with all the planes fall out the sky God if you can speak to me through the book of re it don't matter you need to wake up tomorrow you need the same Grace you need the same Mercy to raise those kids to be faithful at the job but that's very hard to do if you ain't got no friends who can tell you you're becoming a weird Christian you're do you're starting to do it again you're getting on those weird Facebook pages and they're starting to get you stop it some of you AR laughing because like I run that Facebook page it's not I'm not mad at you I'm just saying if your focus is feeling smaller and heavy you need a friend that will come up to you and say hey it's not always going to be like this hey G remember that last time when we thought we were never going to get through it see how go this is why Pastor Roosevelt was leading us so amazingly in worship this is why worship is so powerful worship is reminding yourself oh yeah God's bigger than that that's what worship is worship is oh yeah God is bigger than my anxiety God Is Bigger Than This current situation God Is Bigger than how I feel God Is Bigger than what I'm going through God Is Bigger if you're going to flip your focus you got to have an encounter with God if you're going to flick flip your focus you need friends and the last one if you're going to flip your focus you're going to need to focus on forever focus on forever amen there's a scripture um I actually read it at the beginning it's 2 Corinthians and it's such a powerful scripture I want to read it again because I think um it holds a secret in how we can get out of our place of fear can be so easy I'm going to invite keys and the team to come back up says this therefore we do not lose heart though our outward person is decaying our inner person is being renewed day by day says for our momentary and light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of Glory far beyond comparison now you got to register who is writing this this is Paul Paul who has been beaten and got 39 lashes over and over again Paul who's been Shipwrecked time and time again there's a scripture in the Bible where Paul lists everything he's been through and then he uses this language are light and momentary afflictions Paul had access to something different he had a perspect he had a focus that was different how do you continue to preach the gospel knowing they going to throw you in jail the second they see you how do you continue to speak up and say I know what I saw even when you know you're going to have scars on your back for the rest of your life for your testimony it's because you had a focus that was not on the things we see you had a focus that was not f by fear you had a focus I was thinking about forever and here is the cheat code to our light and momentary sufferings it's remembering there's one day where I will see Jesus face to face there's one day where the Bible says he will wipe every tear from our eye I want to remind you friend we are not in here worshiping about a fairy tale we are not in here singing songs to a God who has a tombstone we are not in here talking just about an idea or Goosebumps or a feeling we are in here because Jesus Christ of Nazareth is Lord and He is Alive and the reason I can stay focused the reason I'm going to raise my kids to serve Jesus the reason I'm going to stand in my post and I'm not going to back up the reason I'm going to do it God's way the reason I will stay here is because Jesus is is my king and one day I'm going to see him so when I'm going through my current situation and when I start to feel heavy when I start to feel like I don't know what I'm going to do and when I start to have questions I can back up for a second and say you know what this is light and momentary compared to Eternity this is light and momentary compared to forever I have a very very simple message today and to God be the glory you going to go to brunch and think about it hello somebody it is how does your focus feel and if it feels heavy if it feels like a burden it feels like you're carrying it by yourself I want to submit that today God can exchange your focus that's really what it is today I just I wanted to submit that God would invite you into a fresh Focus a focus that feels exciting a focus that feels like you have some expectation a focus that feels like God wants to do something new I'm going take a moment and uh I'm going ask everybody in the room to Bow your heads and close your eyes and uh we got a little bit of extra time here and what I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to ask Rosevelt to um play and lead us in just a moment and it won't be long but while he's singing I want you to truly ask yourself how how have I been feeling about my focus is there any heaviness in your focus is there any fear in your focus what what is it that you're afraid of missing what is it that you're afraid of messing up what is it that keeps you your hands clench so tight and and your spirit so heavy and your eyes so closed in what what is it what is that thing 
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 today I'm believing that Jesus himself would begin to exchange that Focus so I'm going to do is I'm going to say a prayer say a prayer for two groups of people first group of people maybe you're in here today and your focus has felt really heavy maybe you felt worried about your current situation you're worried about the future maybe there's real circumstance and situation that you have reason to worry I'm not here to diminish your worry I'm just saying there's a God who loves you that you can give it to if you're in this room and you walked in feeling heavy you walked in feeling the weight of life you walked in feeling the burden of the situation you're going through maybe you're carrying a loved one maybe you're carrying your kids maybe it's the weight of your job maybe it's the weight of just trying to become something different some of y'all in here you're you're fighting with everything you got to become a different version of yourself you you've beat the addiction but you're still fighting it you you're you're starting a new family and you don't have all the answers if you walked in feeling heavy today really this message is exchanging heaviness for the light burden that Jesus provides if you're in here and that's you you say you know what I relate to that I felt a little heavy maybe you're watching online and you f you felt that burden I'm going to count three I'm going to ask you to lift your hand everybody's eyes are going to stay closed but it's just an acknowledgement it's being honest humble open and transparent saying you know what I been yeah I've been feeling heavy if that's you in this room and you want me to pray for you just lift your hand one two three all over this room all online if you're watching online you can put in the chat I've been feeling heavy that's me that's me now I'm going to do something a little different keep your hand raised I want you to open your eyes and look around here's why I did that you are not alone in how you feel the biggest lie of the enemy is for you to sit there in your chair and you think I'm the only one with my hand raised nobody else feels it like this everybody else has it's not true we all have questions and we all have things we're going through so now together as a family would you bow your heads I want to pray for you Lord Jesus you see it with with our hands raised saying there are times where it feels heavy it feels too heavy to Bear it feels too heavy to to lift on our own and so right now Jesus we are exchanging the heavy burden we're bringing it to you because you're the one who has the answer answers you're the ones who has the clarity you're the one who who knows what to do so God we exchange this heavy burden for yours I pray right now Lord Jesus that you would do something that only you can do every head bowed every ey still closed there some of you in this room and the reason you feel like you're carrying a heavy burden is because you are carrying it by yourself you've been trying to carry the weight of this world you've been trying to make sure you're being a good person trying to make sure you have all the answers for everybody and the truth is you're tired maybe it's hard to admit maybe your body's not tired maybe your mind is 
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 tired Jesus provides another way Bible says he's a friend that sticks closer than a brother he's an everpresent help in time of need he's strength in your weakness if you're in here today or you're watching online and you want to accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior I'm going to count to three I'm going to ask you to raise your hand I believe when you raise your hand on the outside it's a confirmation and a visualization Vis visualiz oh watch out that word took me out it's a picture of what's Happening come on I had to change the word gee that was tough anyways we can laugh and stay spiritual Road it's all right you going to raise your hand to tell yourself what you doing one of the most beautiful moments of your life change everything if you want to accept Jesus as your lord and savior I'm going to count the three I want you to raise your hand one he loves you two he's proud of you three lift your hand in this room and online if you want to accept Jesus as your lord and savior I see you right here man I'm so proud of you I see you in the back so happy for you so proud of you so many hands so many people online I got you Brother Hey listen as a family in this room and online we're going to pray together but everybody repeat after me say dear God dear God thank you for loving me for me dear jesuses I admit I ad I'm a sinner I'm a I need a savior I need a save me change me make me new in Jesus name I pray everybody said Transformation Church can we celebrate people who just gave their life to Jesus Hey listen we are so happy for you greatest decision you could ever make Hey listen if you just made that choice you can text saved to 8282 82 and uh man our team would just love to congratulate you on this decision if you made that decision or maybe you were sitting next to someone and you you had your eyes open during the prayer cuz you a little rebellious but you saw them raised their hand why don't you give them a hug just tell them welcome to the family and uh listen I'm really believeing today my hope my prayer was that God this week would show us how to carry the burden how to carry being a parent it's not that it's not there it's just God would you show me how to carry this in a way that brings more joy more peace listen um this Wednesday night we have the dig deeper in God we have a prayer service a Bible study our youth ministry is launching uh if you do have questions of the Bible every single Wednesday we be talking about all the crazy stuff in the Bible and we don't necessarily have answers but at least there's a space you can talk about it I to invite you to join us and uh man I love you so much I'm going to take a moment I'm going to pray for us what we're going to do um is if you want to stay in worship our team's going to lead us in a song as we leave today we have altar workers and a prayer team that in the back as you're leaving if you need prayer for anything sometimes it's just you're going through a lot you need somebody to pray for you our team would love love to pray with you you can stay in worship you can come to the altar you can head out but we're so grateful for would you stand up all over this room Lord Jesus we love you so much Lord we thank you that Lord you give us a focus that is freeing you give us Focus that is full of joy God I pray over this week that this week would be full of our head being lifted up of our eyes being wide Lord God looking with expectation for what you want to do thank you for freeing us from a life of heaviness thank you for being bigger than anxiety and the the depression that tries to weigh us down God I thank you that this week we would focus with a joy and an expectation on the inside of us God we love you we trust you it's in the beautiful name of Jesus we pray and everybody said amen we love you so much family go out and live a transform Life we'll see you I will well hello again and man how about that guy in that sermon uh bad joke Hey listen I hope you enjoy that message and uh genuinely Beyond it just being a moment I hope it produced something in your heart uh that moves into movement that becomes a way you change how you live how you follow Jesus and really a hope that you would feel free and light today that's really the whole goal of this sermon is to lift the heavy burden that you might be carrying listen we love you so much and we're so grateful and you know what I just want to say thank you because we have so many people it might include you it may not but it can include you that have decided to partner with us in general oity and uh when people give around the world it allows messages just like this to go around the world into spaces and places that otherwise it may not be able to and so I want to invite you to do that if you'd like to partner with us through giving um there are so many different ways you can go to our website we have text to give um but it matters and it makes a difference again if you haven't done it like subscribe and share we love you so much and until next time go out and live a transformed life 
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