The Storm that Strenghtens - Caitlin Self

[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message. [00:00:09] Good morning, church. Happy Mother's Day. Isn't it a good day to be in the house of the Lord? Turn to the person next to you. Say, I'm glad you're here this morning. Say, the Lord has some things to say to you this morning. So good. This is very special for me because I'm officially calling this my first Mother's day. I am 26 weeks pregnant with a beautiful baby girl, a perfect baby girl. It's been lots of fun the last couple weeks because she's moving a lot. Last night, she attempted a Houdini escape. My whole stomach lurched up to the ceiling as I was lying down. I was like, what is going on? So it's crazy, it's beautiful. It's such a blessing. And she recognises Alex's voice now, which is lots of fun. I just want to honour all the mums of the house, like, as Pastor Tina has already done, but also I want to honour our spiritual mother of the house, the shepherd of this house, Pastor Tina. If we can just give some honor. She deserves all of the honor. I'm blessed that I get a little bit of a peek behind the curtain of what she has sacrificed, what she has given, how much she prays for you, for this church. Like you wouldn't believe it, you wouldn't even be able to comprehend it, because truly I can't. And I get to see it on a regular basis. So I just want to honor you and thank you for being obedient to what God has asked you to do, the life that you laid down and what you've picked up in Australia to bring His Word. So, yeah, I'm excited to jump into the Word this morning. I'm excited, nervous, I don't know what it's like to preach pregnant. I have a. I have a condition that there's a very thin veil between my thoughts and my facial expressions. And that veil has become increasingly thinner the longer I've been pregnant. So it'll be interesting to see what happens this morning. I've been preparing this message for a few weeks, but it has been brewing in my spirit for about the last 12 months, which have been interesting, to say the least. Looking back, I would positively label the last 12 months as a refining season. But if I was to label it honestly, I would say that all hell broke loose. In fact, that's almost what I titled my message. And the Lord rebuked me and told me that I was being dramatic. So that's not my message this morning, but that is what this last 12 months has felt like. At the same time as I was walking through this, I started to see a shift in culture and just things I was seeing on social media, but then also some of my dear friends around me, people in my life who also were walking through, like, heavy, you know, traumatic, hard things. And there's this phrase that has been coined over the last couple years of deconstructing my faith is something that people will say if they walk, kind of walk through this situation. And a typical experience for someone who goes through this deconstructing is they'll go through something that's life shaking. It's faith shaking. It shakes the ground that you stand on. And then, as in the process of asking questions, those questions and concerns and worries lead them further and further and further away from Jesus, from church, whether it's because of the result of church hurt or trauma or whatever. And the end result is that they leave their faith. And this grieved my heart because even though, you know, I was asking the same question, the same questions as these people, like, is God really good if these things can happen in my life, like, is God really faithful if XYZ happens, or if the thing that I prayed for, it doesn't result in that prayer being answered that, like, is God hearing me? Like, what's going on? So I was asking all the same questions as these people, but on the other side of a long journey, it led me back into the arms of the Father instead of away. A scripture the Lord gave me to hold onto during this time was Matthew 7:24. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. See, it's not about if the storm will come, but it's about when the storm will come. I'm sorry to say this morning, but when you accepted Jesus into your life, it didn't mean that you were going to walk a path of daisies. I wish it was. But there's a reason that salvation is not the end of our Christian journey, right? You don't get saved and beamed up to heaven. Because there's a work that God does in our hearts, in our lives, a refining that he does. And also he uses that for. For your life, as a testimony to impact others. So when the storm comes, when it comes, what is my foundation? I thought I knew the answer to that question. So before I jump into the good stuff, I want to lay two foundational truths. Are you happy if we kill some sacred cows this morning? We're gonna. Firstly, God is not the one to send the storm. And also, it's not always the enemy or spiritual attack or warfare. Some things are the result of living in a fallen world or sometimes the consequences of our own actions. For example, Alex got a speeding ticket the other day. And to say the timing was inconvenient would be an under exaggeration because we have a child coming and we want to buy a house which is a little bit expensive, so we need all the cash money that we can get. And it was on a public holiday now, to be fair, we were going up to Mount Tambourine to get me pastries. So definitely the most expensive pastry that I've ever eaten in my life. Was it worth it? Yes, it was. It was worth it. But so natural consequence of us driving too fast. So sometimes the storm, yeah, there's natural consequence, or sometimes it is. It's spiritual attack. And you need to discern and take authority over that. The authority that God has given you to say, no, this needs to bow its knee to the name of Jesus. But if you let him, whenever the storm comes, he will use the storm to refine you. It can be the place that builds your faith. See, faith is not a leap. It is a walk. It is built one step, one moment, one prayer, one day, one second at a time. The second thing that I want to just lay as a foundation before I jump into the juicy stuff. There's lots of Christian phrases that get floated around, especially with social media. It's like, you see that and you repost it and you're like, oh, that feels so good. I love that. But they're not always biblical and they're not always edifying one being. There's different variations of this, but God won't let you walk through things that you can't handle. And I understand the sentiment because it's supposed to make us feel powerful. It's like, well, if it's happening to me, then I can handle it. And I'm strong. Girl power. Like, I've got this yee haw. But More times than not. In fact, most times I am in situations that I cannot handle. And it is in that not handling of it that I can give it to God and let him handle it. For example, when Alex and I first got married, six months into our marriage, we realized that we have to pay $20,000 for his visa. And in the middle of COVID restrictions, you have to leave the country, which was almost impossible because everywhere was like, no, you can't come in. Everything was closed, flights were expensive. And so we were like, what on earth are we going to do? And by it's a long story about a series of miracles. We go onto the other side of that. Three months living in the US we were blessed abundantly, supernaturally, and the $20,000 manifested. Still not exactly sure how God's good, but because I walked through that, my faith expanded in a way that I never would have had faith for. Because God was so good in a situation that was so overwhelming and so much bigger than in my natural abilities that we could do anything about it. Amen. My scripture that I want to just point to for those two kind of foundations is James 1, verse 2. Can all join my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let's. And let instead fastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And then I want to jump to James 1:12. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Excuse me. When tempted. Oh, hang on, is that it? Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. So something else that was bigger than I could handle was what we went through these last 12 months. So last year around this time, I preached a message about Rahab and the Israelites conquering the promised land, taking ground. And then also the knock on effect of what happened in her life when she gave her life to Jesus. The generational effect that we see, that she's a part of the lineage of Jesus, about what happens in the life of that family. And at the end of that message, I did an altar call and I said, we're going to stand in the gap as a church, as family, for our unsaved family members. And the whole like the altar was full. Everyone was like, everyone, I mean, has family that you're praying for so we stood together as a church in faith. And about three days later, I got the call that my brother, because of the life that he was living, had been arrested. And I was like, lord, that's really not the answer to that prayer. I don't think you heard me quite correctly on that one. I think we're gonna have to go back to the drawing board. Is there any other way that you could answer this prayer? And, yeah. So to this day, my brother is in remand. He's waiting for his court date. We're hoping that that comes soon. And it truly rocked our family. But we knew that God was all over it. And now looking back, I can see that it was actually the answer to prayer that he needed. And God is using this terrible situation, this frustrating circumstance, to actually bring change to his life, transform him from the inside out, make him a new man, a new creation. The Daniel that he's supposed to be, his name's Daniel. And we're gonna talk about Daniel. Anyway. Getting ahead of myself. And I remember having a dream when Daniel was arrested that I went to visit him in prison and I told him that I was pregnant. And a couple days later, I took a pregnancy test, and it was positive that we were gonna have a baby. And about two weeks after that, we're visiting him. And if you've ever visited someone in a correctional facility or in prison, it's not a nice experience. They don't make it fluffy for you when you're visiting them. It's like you get treated like you're a criminal. You go through all the X ray machines. You're pad down. I had to take my socks, my shoes, my jacket off, flip my hair upside down. You look in your mouth. It's a little bit invasive. And then you sit there. You have to sit. Sit there on these very cold steel chairs. And it's not like you can get up and go to the toilet or anything or have water. So anyway, it's just not a fun experience. And as we're sitting there and I've just told him I'm pregnant, I start. I'm experiencing this excruciating pain like nothing I've ever felt before. And I just start crying because I don't know what's going on. And I can't leave to go to the bathroom or go talk to a doctor or anything and try and figure out what's going wrong. So as we leave and the next couple days go by, we had two visits to the hospital. We were able to see that our Little baby was in there, but they were smaller, two weeks smaller than they were supposed to be. And there was no heartbeat. And so we went home, and I think it was a Sunday night. We were praying. We were declaring that our baby was going to be okay. And. I remember even Alex, he prayed and he went for a drive by himself. He's like, lord, like, what is happening? Why is this happening? And he was like, is my baby going to be okay? And the Lord didn't give him an answer, but he just gave him peace. Can I have some tissues? And it was that Sunday night our baby went to be with Jesus. And I remember it's not something, as a woman especially, you ever go through your life thinking, oh, this is something that I'm going to have to, like, walk through. But it was so shattering. And I remember lying down in bed after we'd realized that kind of, you know, there wasn't coming. There was no coming back from this situation. And I just started praying. And it wasn't because I felt like it, and it wasn't because I wanted to or because I had the words or because it was the right thing to do. It was the cry of my soul, because even though God hadn't showed up in the way that maybe we thought he might, that God was still good. And in that moment, I wasn't going to let the enemy have my grief or my anger or my frustration, or let it be a place where the enemy could lie to me. This is so much more than I wrote down in my notes. Anyway. That's not to say that the next few months of working through the grief and the frustration and all the questions was easy, or that I wasn't mad or angry or all of the emotions as you can imagine. But when the storm comes, you find out really quickly what your life is founded on. My question for you this morning is, what is your life anchored to when the storm comes? This morning, I have three anchors from the Word of God. Like Jesus says, if you put these things into practice, if you put these things into practice and build your life on the rock, things that firstly, outside of stuff happening, will prosper your life. But then also on the flip side of that is that when the storm does hit, it can be the place that strengthens you instead of destroying you. So to do this, we're going to look at one of my favorite books in the Bible, Daniel. We're going to focus in on three moments in the lives of Daniel and his three friends. So their names are Hananiah, Mishael, And Azariah, or as you probably know them, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Is it echo? It's on 25. Is there a way we can get that down a couple degrees? It's a little toasty roasty in here. That's okay. So Daniel's story and ministry is really amazing. I would encourage you to go read just the book of Daniel. There's so many parallels, I think, to what's happening in our culture today. And it's really encouraging, especially for me as a young person. I've always loved this story, but I kind of look at it as an anchor of like I refuse to compromise in a world that is telling me to walk a certain way. Anyway, that's a sidebar. So Daniel's story and ministry span the entire 70 year period of Babylonian captivity. This is when the Israelites are taken into captivity and he's one of the men who were captured. He was a man of prayer, faith, courage and integrity. So we're going to pick up his story at the very beginning, around the time Daniel was 16. So Daniel and his friends, their home was destroyed and they were taken as captives into Babylon. They were taken into the king's service to be trained up as servants. They're given the best education and their fed likings. So this is not a generous move on Babylon's part. This is actually a psychological tactic. What they would do is they would take these captives and then they would make them loyal to the Babylonian culture and religion and then they would send these people back to Israel, to Jerusalem, to indoctrinate that culture. So Daniel one verse. Do I want to take it from there? Yeah. Daniel 1 verse 3. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and nobility. Young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. They were to be trained for three years and after that they were to enter the king's service. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names. To Daniel, the name Belshazzar. We're going to say that that's correct. To Hananiah, Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach and to Azariah, Abednego. My first anchor is this, anchored in the word. So the first thing that the enemy does is he starts indoctrinating them with the word of their culture or of their religion. And he changes their names, he changes what they're called, which is an anchor to their identity in Yahweh, the one true God. So in Hebrew, Daniel means God is my judge. Belteshazzar means BAAL will protect. BAAL was their God. Hananiah. Yahweh is gracious and God has favored. Shadrach means commander of aku, which is another Babylonian God of the sun. Oh, sorry. Of the moon. Mishael means who is like God. Meshach means who is what AKU is, which is a terrible meaning for a name. It doesn't even English. But anyway, again, it's the Babylonian God of the moon. And Azariah means helped by God. Abednego means servant of Nebo, which is about the Babylonian God of wisdom. So what we see happen is not too different to what happened in the Garden of Eden. When the enemy comes to temptation, Eve, it's. Has God really said. Has God really called you that? Is that really your identity? Now it's easy to answer, yes, God really did say this. When life is sunshine and rainbows. But when my reality doesn't line up with what I wanted or what I hoped for, it's easy to believe the lie. Did God really say. Did God really say that I'm the healed and the whole of the Lord when healing hasn't manifested in my body? Did he really say that he will supply all of my needs according to his riches and glories? When the bills need to be paid and there's not enough money in the account. When Jesus was in the wilderness and the enemy came to tempt him, what did he come to him with? He twisted the scripture. And every time Jesus combated him with scripture. Sorry, that's actually the wrong way around. Let me correct myself. When the enemy comes to tempt Jesus, Jesus first response is scripture. And then the enemy says, well, the Bible also says that if you throw yourself, that the angels will catch you. And God says, well, no. It also says that you will not test the Lord your God. So why is it important to have the Word written on our hearts for it to be the anchor of our life? Well, for one, the enemy knows the word of God. In fact, like we see in scripture, he will pervert the truth just enough, just a little bit. Just twist it enough so that it looks like the truth it sounds like the truth, but to the trained eye, the trained eye looks at that and says, no, that's not the truth. Your life needs to be anchored in what God says about you, what he says over you, what he says for you. And the only way that you will know this is if you get into the Word of God. Ephesians 6. When it talks about the armor of God, it talks about the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God out of all the pieces of the armor, it's our only defense. Offense, defense. One of the things, it's the only thing you can hit the enemy with. Everything else is protective. Right? One of those things that's like when people are talking about rugby and they're like, yeah, the offense or defense. I'm like, what are you doing? Talking about there's nothing going on in my head when you say those words. Psalms 19, 119, 105. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light to my path. 2nd Timothy 3:16, verse 17. All Scripture. All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. So the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped with. For every good work. Can I just come against a lie of the enemy that's like floating in culture right now? Is this. There is an attack on the Word of God. Jeremy talked about this in the team lab last week or the week before. There's an attack on. Oh, well, this part isn't canon and you know, this part was rewritten by this person and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all of the things. But God is good. He is sovereign over his Word and He watches over His Word. And I think we can trust that it's in good enough hands that he's got it right, that we can trust that every word that is written in scripture of what we have today is good. Yeah. Amen. A story that I don't like telling, but is very relevant to this. And the only really good analogy I have from my short 25 years of life is something that happened two years ago when I started my first big girl corporate job. I was full time and it was like my third day or something. And I got this email from my director, who wasn't there. I had met him once in an interview, and then he was in Europe on holiday. Lucky ducky. And I was at work, working. And he sent me an email. He was like, hey, Caitlin, I have a favor to ask. I want to do some staff incentives. Can you help me with this? And like a Good girl. I was like, yes, I can help you. What would you like me to do? And so he asked me to go and get some staff gifts in the form of Apple gift cards. And so I did. He wanted me to get $2,000 worth and give each of our 10 staff one $200 Apple gift card. And he was like, I'm in Europe right now. I'm not able to transfer the funds. Do you mind paying for it? And I was like, you know what I mean? I literally just started this job, so I had no money. And I was like, well, I only have $800. Is that okay? He was like, yeah, that's fine. Just do that. And So I did. $800. Took out, literally our savings account. Like, that was all the savings we had drained. My savings account went Apple gift cards. Hey, can you send me photos just so I can confirm them? And I sent the photos like a silly potato. Anyway, and I got this drop in my stomach, and I was like, this doesn't feel right. There's something about this. I'm very confused. I went to my operations manager. I'm like, hey, is this something that Matt would usually ask for you to do? And she's like, what? I'm like, yeah. And she's like, no, that's really weird. Like, I'm the one that organizes all of that. Matt has never once bought anyone a gift. I was like, oh, okay. So she checks my emails, and she's like, you have been scammed. And there was no way that I was getting my $800 back from those gift cards. They went into the never, never of some person in who knows where, Russia, Pakistan, India, US whatever. And they had a happy day with my $800 in my savings account. And now I look back on that story, knowing Matt, bless his soul, knowing that he would never think that to give anyone a gift in the staff that he leaves that up to Candace, knowing that. Now I'm like, of course I would never do that. But because I hadn't worked with him, I didn't know his voice, I didn't know his character. I fell to the scheme of this scammer very successfully. And why? Why do we need to know the voice of God? Why do we need to know the word of God? It's so that the enemy has no place to lie and to say anything that doesn't line up with the truth of the word of God. Amen. Amen. My second anchor anchored in community. So throughout the book of Daniel, he and his friends experience many obstacles and tests One thing we see as a through line in the story is like, they move as this unit. There's these four men. They've resolved in their hearts. They're going to go against the courts and the kings and the officials and say, no. This is how we're going to live our life. We're going to live our life in obedience to God. They pray together. When they're tested, they have this community. One of the greatest lies, talking about lies of the enemy, is that you can do life alone successfully now. You can do life alone. But God has given us the body of Christ, the structure of the church, and pastors and prophets and apostles, and to edify us, to lift your life up, to keep you accountable, to lift up your hands when you can't lift your hands up. He's given us that. And there is such an attacking culture on the body of Christ because the enemy knows that when we're surrounded by. By godly relationships, by godly influences, by mentors, by good pastors, good shepherds, he knows that we are strengthened. Ecclesiastes 4. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. All the married people said, amen. But how can one keep warm alone? Sorry, single people, it's all right. Your time is coming. Though one may be prophesy, Hallelujah. Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Now, I'm not talking about nice, sweet friendships where you catch up for coffee and you say, oh, how's this going in your life? You know, blah, blah, blah. Although it is important that we have people like that. I'm talking about people who will get in the mud with you when life gets tough. People who will tell you the truth of the word even when they know it may hurt your feelings, but they fear God more than they fear you. Amen. I am so grateful for the people that I had in my life who loved me enough to tell me the truth, who loved me enough to tell me when. You know what, Caitlin? I think we need to pull yourself together. And it doesn't. It's not fun in the moment. I'm not saying this. It's like, yay, please correct me and tell me when I'm stuffed up. Like, for example, we are living with my parents at the moment, in transition to buying our house. Hallelujah. And that's interesting. Yeah, it's fun. It is, it is. But there's moments, like, every family, even if you don't live with them, and then you live with them and you're like, wow, this is like close proximity. And the house is structured where it's like the rooms are upstairs and then the living's downstairs. So if you blink downstairs, you can hear it upstairs for some reason. So Alex is just chilling in bed one night and I'm talking downstairs with my mum, and I can't remember the conversation that we had. Obviously wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but apparently I was rude and I went upstairs and, Alex, I walk into the bedroom and you expect your husband to always be on your side, right? That's what I assumed when we said our marriage vows. But anyway, I walk into the room and I'm like, you know, ready to go to bed. He's like, caitlin, he said, that was really dishonoring, the way you just spoke to your mum. I said, excuse me, I beg your pardon? I said, well, I didn't mean to be rude. That wasn't my intention. He was like, I know, but you. You were. And I think you should go apologize to her now. Yeah, go, Alex. Yeah. Speaking of Mother's Day. Honor your mothers. Anyway, so that's what I did. I went and I apologized to my mum, and looking back, I'm very grateful. My husband really doesn't have a problem with telling me what's what, and I'm very grateful for that. He's one of a few people in my life who I'm like, yeah, if you say. If you tell me that I was rude, then I really need to listen to you. There's a. Proverbs is one of my favorite books of the Bible. I read a proverb a day, or I try to, and it's so good, because the Lord always reveals something new. Proverbs 28, 23. Whoever rebukes a person will in the end gain favor rather than one who has a flattering tongue. Not a nice fluffy scripture, but very important for our lives. Sometimes it's the rebuke you need as much as the love and the compassion and the grace. But it's the person that will tell you. It's the person that will tell you, you know what? You're not living up to the new creation that you are. You know what? This is the old Caitlin. As Alex and I were talking in the car this morning, it's like, that's the Dead Caitlin. Like, why is the dead Caitlin talking? It's like, we need the new creation Caitlin to emerge right now. I wonder what the conversations would have been like when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were confronted with the threat of being thrown into the fiery furnace. Maybe Shadrach turns to Meshach and is like, well, you know what will fall down, but we're not actually going to worship the idol. I'll put myself in an environment that's ungodly, but I'm not going to do anything. And they go, yeah. And then, you know, Abednego's like, well, we won't become idol worshipers. We'll just worship this one time, and then God will ask God for forgiveness. Maybe. You know what? The king has absolute power. Like, we can't do anything. We'll just obey him. Or, you know what? Our ancestors set up idols in God's temple. This isn't half as bad, right? Or we're not hurting anybody else. So you want people who will help you stand your ground when the storm is hitting, people who won't let you compromise on who God has called you to be. My last anchor is anchored in hope. So probably one of the most famous stories that we see in the life of Daniel is when Shadrach, Meshach, And Abednego, the three amigos, they're thrown into the fiery furnace. So Daniel 3:15, King Nebuchadnezzar says, but if you do not worship it, it being the idol that he had made of himself, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, king Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he doesn't, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. See, above all else, above my hope being in an outcome or things happening in a way that I want. My hope is in God and who he is. He is just as much the God of the process as he is the promise. He is the God of the journey and the destination. And you know what? On the other side of you not understanding why things do or don't work out in a certain way, God gives you a peace that surpasses your need for understanding. And that's what God gave Alex in that moment when he was praying in the car, when he was asking God, is my baby going to be all right? He didn't get an answer, but he got peace that surpassed his need to understand what was happening. Now, because my hope is in him, I know that he works all things together for good concerning me and concerning you. I know that he works all things together for good that concern you. It may not be in your time, it may not be in my time. It may not be in the way that we want it or the way that we think God should work it out. Like I said with my brother, that was not the answer to the prayer that I prayed that I wanted. But in his goodness and in his grace, only in the way that he could, has he turned this situation around. Amen. Isaiah 40, 31. But those who hope in the Lord, hope in the Lord. It's not in what the Lord can do. It's just in Him. It's in who he is. Will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. So I want to be honest with you this morning. The reason that I get to preach about this from the place that I can now in a place of victory is. And talk about these three points. Anchoring your life in the word of God. Anchoring. Anchoring your life in community and in hope is because these were the three places that I was attacked the most. I remember I was so broken and hurt that I couldn't even open up the Bible for weeks, if not months. I just couldn't. And so what I would do is I would sit there on my bed and I would just hold it. And getting back to church, for some reason, was really hard, probably because my whole life, I've always had it together, and I was always the one on the worship team and the serving and the blah, blah, blah. But when things hit the fan, it was like I couldn't show up as the person that I thought needed to show up. And you know what's so good? Is that in that process, like, he has killed any lingering desire of, like, pleasing people or caring what people think. It's like I have this boldness of, like, I just want to share the truth of the Word of God. I love you, but I don't care if it offends your flesh, because there's more important things. And then it took me a long time to arrest my need to understand. I'm a Very health conscious person. And so after this happened, I was like, oh my gosh, there's something wrong with me. I went to all the doctors, I did all the tests, I took all the supplements, I did all of the things I read all the studies, I listened to all the podcasts. I want to encourage you this morning that God is big enough for you not having it all together. He's big enough for your grief, he's big enough for your anger, he's big enough for your questions. And I would just implore you this morning, take those things to him. Don't let it be the thing that takes you away from his heart. Let it be the thing that helps you race into his arms. But he is so good and he is so gracious and loving and kind. He will never let you stay there. So here's the Mother's Day part of my message. Proverbs 22, verse 6. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. So I shared earlier about how my first response was prayer. And this honestly, truly wasn't a conscious decision of my brain. It literally just happened. I think even Alex was shocked when I started praying. He was like, what are we doing? I was like, but this wasn't an accident. This was a result of 25 now. Oh no, I'm not 25. What am I talking about? I'm 24. I've aged myself. 24 years of seeing my parents, particularly my mum, bow her knee in prayer when things got tough. It was the result of seeing my mother in law take authority over the visa situation when all hope seemed lost, every door was closed. And then, thank you Jesus, he opened a window. But, but seeing them take authority in those places see more than just the things that we say. The next generation see, sees the things that we do and sees how you act, how you respond when you're pressed against the wall and there's no way out. They see that. So I want to encourage the mums this morning, keep being faithful in the unseen moments, in the quiet moments, in the moments where only those little eyes are the ones that see how you truly handle things. And even if and when you don't handle it perfectly, I can promise you that if you lean on the Lord and let him be the place that your head rests when all hope is lost. Trust me, as a child of a mom who did that, that it will reap a reward. That the fruit that comes on the other side of that will be great. Amen. Thank you Jesus. Well, let's just quickly stand. This morning I have some things that the Lord's put on my heart to pray for. And I just asked to pray. Yeah, just with every head bowed and every eye closed. Every eye closed. This morning I just, I just want to ask if you maybe through circumstances of, you know, what's going on in your life or maybe because of this message this morning, you've realized, you know what? I haven't built my life on the rock. My life is on sinking stand. And this morning I want to place my life on the rock. I want to put my life on the rock that is Jesus Christ. I just want to ask this morning if you have faith and courage, I just want you to put your hand up as an act of faith and surrender, saying, you know what, Jesus, I give it all to you. I lay it all down. I'm going to put my life on the rock right now. Thank you. Thank you for that hand. Thank you. Well, church, we're going to pray together. We're going to pray together for this salvation. So if you could all just repeat after me. Dear Heavenly Father, I surrender to you this morning. I lay my life down and I choose to build my life on the rock. Jesus, you are my Lord and my Savior and I ask you to enter my heart today in Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Can we just praise the Lord this morning? Thank you, Jesus. It says that the angels rejoice in heaven when there's one, one who is saved. How good. Yeah. And then can I have all of our mums put their hands up again or. Well, you stood up before, but hands, hands. If you're next to a mum or. Yeah, if you're next to a mum, I just want you to put your hand on their shoulder. I just want to pray a blessing over you this morning. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for these beautiful, mighty, mighty women of God. Father, we just thank you on this Mother's Day, we pray over them, we bless them, we anoint them. Father, we know that it is. Gosh, it is one of the biggest jobs, it's the biggest blessings that you give us as humans and as women, Father. So I just pray that you fill them up this morning, that you fill their cup. Father, thank you for all the unseen, quiet, crazy moments of raising kids, Father. And I just thank you that you would strengthen them and lift their arms up in every moment. We give you glory and honor and the church says amen. Amen. Amen. Amen and amen. [00:48:20] Thank you for tuning in to today's. Message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers.life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team, and may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again, again.