God Chose Me (Charles Metcalf)
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Feeling boho? Comfy sandals nail the whole free-spirited thing. Find on-trend shoes from the brands you love, like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas, and more at DSW. Hey, this is Stephen Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. If you're grateful for Jesus...

on Pentecost Sunday. Why don't you take about five seconds and give Jesus, not me, not the worship leader. I'm talking about Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Jehovah Jireh, the provider. Come on, the one that saw you when nobody else saw you, the one that pulled you up when nobody else can. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Well, good morning. Hello. Nice to meet you. My name is Charles, and I'm just grateful this morning. I'm trying to be honest with you. I'm trying not to act a fool up here. Don't let the jacket fool you. I grew up in Bowling Green, Kentucky. My dad was the pastor of 10 people, and somebody started playing. See, Zeke, when I grew up, they would start singing about the blood of Jesus. Amen.

Now, I don't know where you at, but when I grew up, they started talking about the blood of Jesus. Zeke, now, this might just be for me, but there was a song that my dad used to play on the way to church every single morning.

that would talk that the blood of Jesus would never lose its power. Does Zeke, you know this? Now this is the part right here. Come on, somebody. Come on, sing it, church. Come on. That gives me strength from day to day.

♪ It will never lose its power ♪ - All right, one last time. Come on, give Jesus a shout of praise. You can grab your seat this morning, grab a seat.

I want to take a moment to welcome everybody watching online, all the campuses around the world. EFAM, we love you so much. I am grateful to be here this morning. I said it earlier, but my name is Charles Henry Metcalf III, just so my mama would be grateful that I share that with you.

And I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma, part of an amazing church out there called Transformation Church with one of the best lead pastors in the world, my friend, Pastor Michael Todd. And I am grateful to be here. Oh, yeah, you can give it up. He's amazing.

I'm grateful to be here this morning. Before we jump into the word, I have to take a moment just to say how grateful and honored I am to be here. How grateful I am for your pastors, Pastor Stephen and Pastor Holly. Can we take a moment and honor them? Thank you so much for this moment. I'm very grateful.

I don't take it lightly and I am excited to share this moment. I said that earlier, but I am a church kid. I grew up in church my whole life. Every Sunday, every day the doors were open, we was up in there shouting, yelling, and screaming. And by we, I mean my dad and the other eight people who are related to us and the two first time guests we had every single week. But, uh,

But I just, I love the church. I don't think there's anywhere else you should be on a Sunday morning. Anything else worth giving your life to, anything else worth raising your family in is near and dear to my heart. Speaking of family, I do have one of those greatest thing in my life. I got to start off with the most amazing woman in the world. Oh, there go my babies. Yes. Yes.

So I'll introduce you to my mixed family here. So I have Arlo Phoenix, my son, sitting on the ground there. And then the white girl picking her nose. That is Luna Rose. And then we go back light-skinned again. So you don't see it went back and forth. We got tan, white, tan, white. But some of y'all are trying to figure out if I'm Puerto Rican. I'm half black, half white. I can't speak Spanish. Okay. Okay.

Let's get that out of the way. But Jade October and then blonde hair, blue eyes in my wife's arm is Blue Sunday. We call her Sunny. And then the amazing queen in the middle is the queen of our home, Abby Rose. That's the love of my life the last 10 years. So that's my amazing family. I love you kiddos if you're watching.

Listen to Lala. Okay. I got to hand out instructions. Okay. We're going to jump into the word today. I am grateful for this moment. If you got your Bibles, go ahead and grab them. Pull them out. We're going to be in the book of Galatians. In the book of Galatians is where we're going to be. Favorite book of the Bible, I can't even lie to you, is Galatians. If you're looking to jump into reading scripture, a good place to start. I think this is amazing.

And, yeah, this is just a beautiful moment. I'm going to read five verses, and then we're going to share for just a moment. If you got it, say, I got it. If you don't say, hold up. Okay, a few of y'all a little slow. Sorry. Who got a real Bible? Put your real Bibles in the air. Wave them like you just don't care. That's what I'm talking about. Come on. If you had to charge your Bible, I'm not mad at you. I'm saying I just hope it don't die when you need it most. Okay. Okay.

Here we go. Galatians chapter number one, starting in verse 10, says this. Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant. I can stop right there, but I got to keep going. Okay, okay. Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning.

I received my message from no human source and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation of Jesus Christ. You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion, how violently I persecuted God's church. I did my best to destroy it. I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the tradition of my ancestors. Verse number 15 says,

the most dangerous piece of literature you will hear today. But even before I was born, God chose me and he called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his son to me so I would proclaim the good news about Jesus to the Gentiles.

If you're taking notes, write down the title of my sermon at the top. You definitely should take notes. It's like a fast pass when you get to heaven. You show them your notes. They put you in the short line. You can wave at everybody as you go by. Top of your notes, title of my sermon, three words, God chose me. God chose me. Let's pray together. Dear Lord, we thank you for choosing us. You didn't have to.

As a matter of fact, you had reasons to look over us. But in your grace, in your kindness, and in your mercy, Lord, you chose us. And so I pray this morning that we will be reminded of that truth. It's in the beautiful name of Jesus we pray. And everybody said, Amen. You got to see the picture. I have four beautiful children.

And, you know, there's a lot of things people don't warn you about when you have kids. You know, they just they just they see you doing it. And it's just they just let you do it. You know, some of y'all you be seeing young people. They're like, we're going to have some kids. You're like, oh, that's so sweet. Go ahead. Do it. You don't give them any prep. No warning.

There's a lot of stuff you got to just figure out as you go. And all our kids are close together. We have a six-year-old, a four-year-old, a three-year-old, and a two-year-old. So we don't waste no time. But a beautiful thing about raising children is one of the responsibilities I felt is as their dad, there were some things about them that I wanted them to know that are true about the Metcalfe family.

Before they went out into the world trying to discover some things about who they were or who they should be or who they should be trying to please or impress, I, as their father, wanted to decide some things for them so they wouldn't have to wait to discover them.

So what we did as a family is we created our Metcalfe confessions. We say these every single morning. And my son, Arlo, who loves to tell his sisters what to do, particularly likes to take charge in the morning. But the Metcalfe's every single day we wake up and say this. Metcalfe's carry peace and purpose.

kindness and compassion, boldness and bravery, and love and light. We added at the end of it, my kids would all scream, because God chose me at the end. So, but we'll get to that later. But what I did with these confessions is I realized that there was something they need to hear every single day to not be informed by their situation, but so they could inform their situation who they were.

I didn't want to raise kids who were going out into the world looking for the world to tell them who they were, looking for their friends to tell them who they were, looking for the situation. I wanted them to show up into a chaotic situation and say, I carry peace. So in the name of Jesus, I don't know what's going on here, but Metcalfe's carry peace.

It's who we are. It's what we do. I am not subject to the atmosphere. The atmosphere is subject to the God on the inside of me. So when we walk up in the room, purpose is in the room because Jesus is in the room. I decided it for them. Now, it's easy to acknowledge the importance of a confession to a six, five, four and two year old and the importance of those things.

But I want to submit to you this morning that whether you recognize it or not, there are some confessions that you believe and you confess every single day. And here's the tension with a confession. Whether or not it is true, right, or the most powerful thing, you will always reap the effects of your confession. This is, you ever seen those documentaries on Netflix where the police be pressuring people and they didn't even do nothing? And they just lock them in a room for 10 days and they're like, you know, Sammy's over there talking.

And they're like, Sammy, what did he say? I don't know, man. You got anything you need to tell me? And they will confess to something they know they didn't do. Just because the pressure of the situation, the confession seems like it'll get them out of the moment. And what happens? They reap the effects of that confession, whether or not it is true. The same is true in your life. There are confessions that we say, that we believe, that we say, maybe not out loud to everybody, but really the most powerful confessions happen up here.

Psychologists will tell you that the voice in your head, you know that voice. I know you don't. Some of y'all may talk to yourself. You look crazy. It's all right. We glad you're here. Have an altar call at the end for everybody who talks to themselves. But psychologists will tell us that the voice in your head, no matter positive or negative, it originates either from your father, your mother or the lack thereof. So there's confessions that start in your mind, that voice that tells you you're not good enough.

You heard that somewhere. You saw that somewhere. You had an experience somewhere that told you that that was true. And so at first you didn't know what to do with it. But then life situation started to inform that belief. And you started to believe it so much that now every time you go to try something new, there's only one confession that comes up. You're not good enough. Nobody cares about you.

A life experience happened when you were a child where you felt overlooked or undervalued. And so now anytime you go to risk the take the risk of relationship, every time you go to step out, there's a belief in your heart and there's a confession that comes up that nobody cares about you. Nobody sees you. You have to work to be seen. You're only as valuable as what you can do. All things you may not articulate out loud, but we know it's true by the way we live.

Now, the power of confession is not something I'm making up today. In fact, the Bible would tell you in Romans chapter 10, verse 9, that the most insane miracle, the most powerful transformative moment in the life of a believer happens because of a belief and a confession. The Bible says in Romans 10, 9, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, you shall be saved. So if a belief and confession is sealing your eternity,

What are you thinking it's doing to you every single day? What do you think those thoughts that live in your mind unchecked are doing to your confidence? What do you think those thoughts that just ravage you've tried before and now time and time again, you failed so much that you believe it's better to not try than to try and fail. And you slowly start to believe stuff about yourself. And maybe it didn't

or originate with a family member. Maybe it wasn't a parent or a coach. You see, there's a moment in all of our lives where we can't remember who the voice is, but now it sounds like our own. And it's all you know. It's all you think. It's all you see. It's how you operate. And no matter how old you are, we all have some beliefs about ourselves that keep us from being who God wanted us to be. What do you believe about yourself? A better question, how do you talk to you?

If I was to put your daily dialogue up on this screen and the thoughts that you say, would it be something you would want somebody saying to your kids?

Would it be something that you wanted replicate? For many of us, the truth is, it's not the case because we're hard on ourselves and we don't give ourselves grace. And we feel like, dang it, you should be further by now or you should know better by now or you should have more money by now or see you're not like them and see you're never going to be that. And slowly but surely, we talk ourselves out of the same power that raised Christ from the dead that lives on the inside of us.

And we slowly shrink back and we slowly settle and we settle for a version of ourself that is accepted by other people, but they don't know what God put on the inside of you. So you can pretend like everything is fine. You can settle for a level that everybody else applauds for. But you are the only one who knows what you had to give up to be that version of yourself.

And there's things that God wants you to do. There's things that you know you're supposed to do. There's differences you're supposed to make in your family. There's things that you know he's put on the inside of you, but somewhere deep down you don't believe. You don't know if you can do it.

I relate. There's a moment in scripture that I love. There's this father and he comes to Jesus and he's asking Jesus to heal his daughter. And he says the most powerfully honest thing. He says, you know, God, can you please help me? And Jesus says, anything is possible if you believe. And he responds in tears and agony. He says, I do believe, but help me with my unbelief.

Many of you, there's a part of you that believes God could use you. There's a part of you that believes that you're important. There's a part of you that believes that God chose you. There's a part of you that believes you're the parent for those kids. But at the exact same time, there's another part of you that doesn't know if you have what it takes to be the father you didn't have. There's a part of you that doesn't know if you can continue with the pressure of raising those kids. There's a part of you that doesn't know if you deserve the promotion. There's a part of you that doesn't know because you know you.

I was standing back there on the side as they sang that song. I came to Zeke. I was like, yo, the tag at the end, you got to sing that last little tag. I've come a long way because that's the whole song, man. If you don't say that part. And so I was going back and forth. He was like, yes, let's do it. So I'm standing there. I was about to walk out and I went to take one step and it said, I've come a long way and I broke down into tears because I know me. You may not know me, but I know me. And the worst thing we could do as believers is get spiritual amnesia on where he brought you from.

I know we sitting up in here on Pentecost Sunday and you got your good makeup on and you got some nice clothes on, but do not get twisted where he had to go to find you. I don't need everybody, but my friend Shay know where he had to come to find me. He came and found me when I was broken and depressed. And if I forget that, I'll stop believing some stuff about myself. Some of y'all, you don't struggle with belief in this way. Some of y'all think, man, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps.

I got me here. It was hard work and commitment and dedication. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You good, but you ain't that good. I hate to break it to you. I know your mama told you you could do anything. And God has done something for you. I want to give you today a belief and a confession that I know for a fact has the power to radically transform your everyday life.

It comes from the scripture Galatians 115. I love the scripture because Paul, he's talking very disrespectfully in the scripture, to be honest with you. He starts off in verse 10. He's like, obviously, I don't care what you think. It kind of starts off as like a diss track. You know, like he's getting on the beef with Kendrick and Drake. He's like, hey, I want some of this. Hey. Hey.

Now the context why he comes in so strong is because Paul is kind of random. He's kind of off the scene. Like they already had their crew, the agreed upon people who was there. We saw Jesus were doing this thing. Then this guy who used to kill Christians comes in. It's like, Hey, I got something to say. And they're like, Hey brother, uh, real quick, somebody pat him down. Hey, uh, Bartholomew, where you at? Go just check. Come on. You got to sacrifice Bartholomew. If it's all going to do something, you're like Bartholomew, get in there, man. You got it. He's like, well, I don't even know. Paul's like, yeah, go ahead. Um,

But the truth is they're suspect about the origins of his message. They're suspect if he's qualified enough. And at the time, the way you acknowledge someone's authority and power is you asked who taught them what they know. So if you were connected to a disciple who walked with Jesus, then you were affirmed. Then you were approved. Then you were allowed to do and be a part of the way. But Paul comes in on some different energy and he's like, hey, just so you know, ain't nobody give me this.

Didn't no human come and teach me. Didn't nobody walk me through their classes and their masterclass. Didn't nobody come check on me. God found me in the middle of the road. And I'm not worried about what you think about me. And I'm not trying to impress you. He says this message isn't of human origin. I got it directly from Jesus himself. I can just imagine them reading it like, okay, okay. I ain't mad at you, Paul.

Those powerful words he says at the end is he says, before I was born, God chose me. Now, this confession is dangerous. I have to warn you. If you want your life to stay the same and you want to just stay, live a very comfortable, safe life, do not mess with these three words. But if you want to find yourself connected to the origins of this movement, the movement that they tried to stop when the boy was two years old, but they couldn't stop. The movement they tried to stop when they tried to kill him at 33, but they couldn't stop.

The movement they tried to stop when they tried to kill all his friends and they couldn't stop. The movement they tried to stop when they hung all his friends upside down and they couldn't stop. The movement they tried to stop when they started feeding Christians to lions and they couldn't stop. If you want to be part of the origin of your faith that says, even if you throw us in the fire, we will not bow down. If you want to find yourself walking like the early origins of the Christian faith, you can start to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, God chose me.

Didn't nobody else put me in this moment? Didn't nobody else get me here? It was the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. God put me in this moment. Didn't nobody else give me these kids? Wasn't nobody else going to be able to let me get that job? God put me here for a reason. Some of you need to find a source of confidence that is not rooted in what you can do, how much money you have, what you can't achieve.

I'm not mad at you at being confident in those things. As a matter of fact, you need some of those things. As a kid, you get some of your confidence from your family. You get it from your parents. All I'm saying is at some point they run out. At some point, somebody got more money than you. At some point, there's a human that lets you down. But if you can find your confidence in the fact that God chose you, that God puts you there, that he used everybody, but ultimately he's getting the glory.

There's something that happens in your spirit. There's a confidence that starts to rise up. There's a boldness that starts to rise up. There is an answer to every single question you find yourself in. How am I going to make it? I don't know, but God chose me. How am I going to raise these kids? I don't know, but God chose me. How am I going to start this business? I don't know. God chose me. How am I going to be who he called me to be, even though I didn't have an example? I don't know, but he placed me here. So he might have put something on the inside of me. Everybody say, God chose me.

Look at your neighbor. Say, neighbor, I don't know about you, but God chose me. Look at your other neighbor. Find your second choice, that other neighbor that you didn't choose for some reason. We don't got to talk about it. But say, neighbor, I'm sorry I didn't pick you first. I was just reminded God chose me. Hey, friend, listen, some of y'all are starting to feel that thing because you have lived your life questioning who you were.

wondering if you had the permission to be who God called you to be, waiting on someone in your family to let you be who you know you're supposed to be. It's time to stop waiting on everybody else. No one else is coming. You are here right now, and God put something on the inside of you that the world needs. Everybody say, God chose me. I'm telling you, friend, people are waiting on you to remember this. They're waiting on you to believe this. They're waiting on you to show up how you would show up if you truly believed.

Every single thing in your life, he placed you there for a reason. Your family's not an accident. God chose you to be in that family. You didn't just happen to end up in Charlotte. Some of you are like, no, I did actually happen to, I don't even live here. All I'm submitting this morning is what if you adjusted how you look at all the stuff you're praying to get out of. All the stuff you spent time singing and you were thinking of, yeah, he's not done because he's going to get me out like that.

Maybe. I hope he does that for you. He don't be doing that for me and my wife on a regular, but what he often does... Here's what I've discovered. If you don't allow him to be with you and keep you in it, you never find out what's truly on the inside of you. Some of you don't know how brave you are yet because every time you are faced with a situation that did not go your way and you feel overwhelmed by it, you start praying to get out or you just leave or move around or quit on the relationship. What?

But there's something you could find out on the inside of you. If you decided to stay and believe, I know this is hard. I know this is difficult. This is not at all how I would have planned it to go. But God chose me to be here. So I believe he's going to make me in it. He's going to strengthen me. He's going to show me something I didn't know about myself. You have no idea. Some of you have no idea how faithful you can be. You've made mistakes. You've fallen. You've cheated. And you think that one moment sums up the entirety of who God made you to be.

But what if the fact that you've made a mistake does not disqualify the fact that he did choose you? The enemy will work so hard for you to, this is all he's after. You know this, right? For you to feel like you were overlooked. I mean, what's the most awkward moment in a sixth grader's life? Let's talk about it. Where your true trauma started. All right, everybody, we're playing kickball. Billy and Sam, y'all are captains. And what do you start? You say, dear God, if you do anything in my life, do not let me get picked last.

Lord, I will kick this kid. I will serve on a team. I'll go in a two-year-old room, God. I'll do whatever you need me to do. Why? Because the idea that you weren't chosen, the idea of being overlooked in front of everybody, it's just too much. And this is why you may relate to me. This is why you start creating different versions of yourself. Oh, come on. Let's talk about it. You got the work you.

How y'all doing? Hey, yeah. How you doing, Bill? You got a weird laugh and everything. It's like, what was that, bro? That was crazy. You got the work you. You got when you're out with your friends. You got the person that you are when you're with your spouse. Now, some of y'all be like, oh, no, I'm all myself with this. Are you really, though? Because there's still some thoughts you're worried. If you told them what you were really thinking, if you told them how you really felt, you

Here's your question. Would anyone choose all of me? It's not you don't believe someone would choose some of you. You got friends that know parts of you. You got business partners that chose part of you, but you're worried. If I show you all of me, if I admit I don't really know what I'm doing and I've been in this field for 20 years, if I admit I'm not really confident, if you admit to your teenager, you don't really know what you're doing. Some of y'all got whole testimonies. Your kids don't know.

Now you up in church singing like, I know who I am. But for about 40 years, you're just lucky we didn't have Instagram or TikTok back then. Some of y'all are like, the world's so bad. No, we just see what they doing. We couldn't see you out there on them streets, but do not get it twisted. You was out there, okay? The music was a little different, but you was still, you know what I'm saying? So anyways, but we're gonna have to talk about it. I wanna give you three quick things that happen if you would dare to believe that

That God chose you. I say dare to believe because in order to believe this, you're going to have to wage war and some other beliefs. You're going to have to actively fight against the version of you that shrinks back. The people pleasing. Oh, come on. Some of us, the people pleasing is hereditary. You were raised. Well, don't do that. We don't want to make them feel weird. We don't want them to feel like, and I understand the sentiment and how you feel about what God gave me is not my issue.

I'm not even going to go there yet. Some of y'all don't even know what to do with that. Okay. Three things. If you believe God chose you, the first thing, if you believe God chose you is a, it keeps you ready. It keeps you ready. When you find yourself in a space where you know, God chose me, I am ready for anything at any time. A funny story. Me and my wife in our first year of marriage, uh, I, I

I've been obsessed with clothes since I was a little kid. And I mean in a way that I would pick my outfits out every single day the night before, starting at like seven or eight years old. And I've been doing this my whole life. It's wild to see Jade, the third little girl, the little light-skinned girl, she do that to this day. She is four years old and she wake up. She's like, all right, let me see. Well, she only wears her brother's baggy pants and her younger sister's crop top. I'm like, crop top at four? Come on, man. Just give me some time.

There was a moment with my wife where one time we were getting ready and I already had my fit picked out. So it was like, boom, we got to go. I got ready. I'm sitting on the couch. Then my wife going to take an extra hour, you know, just doing her thing. Then she going to come out and say this. Ready when you are. Hey, yo, I don't know who you are talking to. Ready when I, I, ooh, okay. Some of y'all ain't never been that mad where you just start like, ah, ooh. Okay, let me, let me, let me, real quick before you

I have been ready. You're not ready. Now I'm ready when you are because I have been. Okay, we can go now. The truth is many of us in our life, we pray prayers that if God came right now and said, all right, let's go. God, if you could just use me, if you could make a difference. All right, pack up your stuff, quit that job. Let's go. We're going to move across the country. I've been planning something there. Your whole life has led to this moment and you're going to start that nonprofit. Come on, but you got to go. You got five months to get ready. So I need you to work it all out. Let's go.

You'd be like, well, the way my bank account is set up, I need three days. Are you ready for the prayer you're praying right now?

Are you ready for him to actually, there's prayers, there's habits you have, there's things you've been doing that you've been begging God. God, if you could please do this in me, if you could help me break that addiction, if you could mend this relationship, if you could help me forgive, then God comes to you and you're at the family event and God's like, go forgive him right now. And you're like, hey, yo, that's not exactly the timing. But when you know God chose you,

When you know the grace he's extended to you, when he knows he's empowered you for every single moment, you can stand in any situations, things you saw and you didn't see coming. And you can say, you know what? I didn't see this coming, but God chose me, so I'm ready. I'm ready for where he wants to take me. I'm ready for where he wants me to go because God chose me for this moment. Life isn't just happening at me. This isn't some random thing that I just have to suffer and survive through. What if God wants you to thrive through that moment?

What if you're ready? I know you don't feel ready, but what if you are? What if it builds something on the inside of you haven't seen yet? What if you're stronger than you think you are? What if, as Joseph says, he says, you know, my brothers, they had a plan and they meant it for evil, but God, he meant it for my good. Amen.

He's working something in me. Friend, I want to tell you, I know you didn't have your family there, but God chose you. I know you feel like you're trying to do something you've never seen before, but God chose you. I know you feel like this is your home and you don't know where you're going to go, but I promise you. Come on, that made me feel at home. I don't know who that was. She said, hallelujah. Thank you for that. I don't know who that was. I about hit her. My leg went up. Okay. Give me the organ. No, I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. Okay. Keeps you ready.

A ready spirit, ready to step into what God has. Because here's the thing, because what keeps us honestly from being ready to go where God wants to take us is thinking that we've worked too hard to get here. You've put in too much effort. You've done so much. But when you start to realize, God put me here. I worked hard. I did my thing. I was faithful. But the truth is, he put me here.

And my trust is not in how hard I can work. It's not in my good plan. It's not, my trust is in the king who can move mountains. My trust is in the one who can make a way through the sea. So if he's telling me it's time to go, I don't know everything else, but I know I cannot stay here. I'm ready. The next thing that happens when you believe God chose you is it keeps you ridiculous. Now, let me just, before you, before you go, I know some of us are a little more inclined to being ridiculous. I would fall in that category.

I mean, she said, me too. You can always tell us. We just have more trauma to people. So we'd be showing up a little bit louder. Just like y'all didn't see me as a kid, but you're going to see me now. It's like, OK, that's why we're loud. Don't worry about it. But it keeps you ridiculous. Here's what I want to submit to you. The origins of our faith, the faith that we follow has somehow made this transition from its original message. And here's what I mean by that. The origins of why we are in this room.

The person we follow, the king that we serve is a man who was murdered at 33 years old for the words he said. He was not just a good teacher. He was not just a kind man. He was murdered as a radical. He was murdered as someone came attacking the current belief system and structure. And then his friends believed him so much that they said, I will not deny who he is in my life. I saw him go in that grave and I saw him come out.

There was a boldness. There was a courage. There was a faith that I am afraid somehow along the way in between COVID and being canceled. We have somehow gotten afraid of the message that God put on the inside of us. But friend, I need to tell you something. This message only works if you commit all the way.

Now, a lot of believers who are just worried about, you know, I just need to just God just to help me make it through. And if I can just survive and if the kids just kind of meet someone nice and if they just and I don't know about you, but I'm not here to settle with my savior. I'm not here to barter with the world if I can make it through. If God raised Christ from the dead and that power lives on the inside of me, how come you don't show up like it at work?

How, what is it in you that keeps you from stepping out? Well, I don't want to look weird. Let me tell you, baby, you already look weird. So we pass that point. You ain't gotta, we pass that. I mean, we're talking about somebody you ain't never seen before. You sit here lifting your hands. So just, we just in a room singing up into the sky. We pass weird. I mean, if you want to go down that argument, I'll go with you. But we pass that point. There reaches a point in your life where you've got to decide either Jesus was real or he wasn't.

Either he came up out that grave or he didn't. And I don't know about you, but I'm up in this room today because I believe Jesus of Nazareth is a real man. He was not just a man. He is God. And one day, friend, he's coming back for me and you. So I'm going to live like God chose me. I'm raising kids that aren't here to settle with culture. I'm raising kids that are going to be a terror on the enemy. I'm raising kids that's going to know who they are.

I'm not playing games. I'm not backing up from nothing. Why? Because God brought me here. Some of us have settled so much, and then we blame the church. Commit halfway. Walk in a gym, look at the weights, and then talk about it. That's why I don't do gyms, because they just don't. I had one trainer, and they really, I feel you. Okay. But this belief overthrew the entire Roman government without one class or course. It was a group of people who really believed. Amen.

Jesus was a real man. I saw him with my own eyes and I can't start denying what he did in my life. One of my favorite scriptures of all time, it's in Acts chapter five. The believers are being persecuted and there's this committee of people and they're like, what are we going to do with them? Because we're trying to kill them, but we know the people are kind of with their message and what are we going to do? And there's this man who stands up, respected by all in the room. And he says, hey, listen guys, if the message they carry is of human origin,

It'll fizzle out like every single one. We've seen this happen before. But then he says these words. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. In fact, you might find yourself fighting against God himself. Let me tell you something. You don't have to be afraid of the world. You don't have to be afraid of the situation. There's something in you that's greater than that.

You have a source of strength everybody else don't have. You have a source of peace everybody else don't have. God chose you. He brought you here. You didn't get yourself here. Come on, who are we kidding? Let's be honest. We didn't do this. You didn't work this out. You couldn't have found, you couldn't have wrote it any better. God did this. And if it's true, let's live like it's true. If it's real, let's take it outside of this room. If it's going to do something, let's actually share it with our friends. I mean, what are we doing?

When you believe God chose you, it keeps you ready. It keeps you ridiculous. The last one is it keeps you reverent. I was talking to my dad on the way here and he told me something two or three months ago that I didn't know. And it was that five generations back, the Metcalfe men have been preachers. I was standing up here and I was about to walk out and I was thinking of a man named Jack Alonzo.

You don't know Jack Alonzo because Jack Alonzo was born in like 1840, but he was a preacher. And then I was thinking of a man named Luther Alonzo. You don't know Luther, but Luther was a preacher. And I was thinking that, you know, it's not just me standing up here. There were some Metcalfes, and I got to just say it to be honest with you, that were out in a field somewhere as life did not look good and did not look hopeful. And they stood there saying, hey, I know it looks hard right now.

I know it doesn't look like things can turn around, but I promise you, we have a greater hope than what we see in front of us, friends. And you know, this message of God chose me, there's part of it that is super just confident and bold, and you know God chose you, so you show up in the room, and you're ready to kick the door down, and you're ready to just be like, let's go. And at the same time, there's a part of me that stands right here, and it's just reverent, because I know he didn't have to put me up here.

And I'm not talking about up here. I'm just talking about when I woke up this morning and I went, he didn't have to do that. Early on in me and my wife's marriage, we would, I say this joke. I said, for our marriage, we've only had one argument. And what I mean by that is we've had the same argument a thousand times, of course. But at some point early on in our marriage, we've worked through this now, but at some point early on in our marriage, we would meet each point and I would just be like, okay, sorry. And she'd be like, well, I don't believe you. I'm like, okay, sorry.

And at some point she would say, Charles, it's not what you're saying. It's how you're saying it. And there's a part of you that sometimes you need to wake up and scream God chose you. But there's other times where you're just like, I know everything I've been through. I know a lot of people have been praying for this moment.

I know he's, I didn't always have the answers. I remember, but God chose me. And so God, I thank you for this moment. I thank you that you're going to help me raise these kids. I thank you that you're going to guide me to where I need to go. God, I thank you that you're going to be with me. And friend, I don't, I don't want to sell you on some idea that you just start walking around your house yelling God chose you that everything's going to change. But I can promise you, you start to

Find yourself relating to... There's a scripture where it lists all the heroes of our faith, and it says they looked onward to a heavenly homeland. You believe God chose you. It produces something inside of you that is not so connected to this moment, but you find yourself finding a courage and a bravery to live a life that's ready. That's a little ridiculous, ridiculous, and one that's reverent. I want to ask everybody in the room to bow your heads and close your eyes. I want to pray for you. If you're in this room...

And maybe there are some beliefs, some thoughts, some questions, some insecurities that you've been fighting for a long time. Maybe you don't say them out loud. Maybe you know them. Maybe you're not. Maybe there's just something in you. You know, you haven't stepped in fully yet. I want to take a moment and I want to pray for you. I'm not just going to pray for you, though. I'm going to ask something of you. I'm going to ask you to be bold enough to not let those thoughts run up in your house unchecked.

If someone walked up to your house right now and just walked in without asking you, you would have a problem with it. The same is true for your mind. Do not let anything run up in there. It is too valuable. It is too important. You stand guard at the Bible says guard your heart above all else.

I'm going to ask you to fight. You're going to need some, some coffee. You don't need some friends to help you do this. You're going to need some, but if you want to step into a life today, believing that God chose you for this day, chose you for this hour, chose you for them. Kids chose you for that business, chose you to be a husband, chose you to be a wife, chose you to be single in this season, chose you to move to this, whatever it is. If you need the courage, the strength and the bravery to believe that today, I'm going to pray for you. Dear God, right now, every single person,

We are all here asking you to do something deep in our soul that is greater than just a moment, Lord Jesus. But we need you to transform some things. There's some beliefs and insecurities that we believed about ourselves. There's some ideas that were passed down to us that we are divorcing today. Lord, I speak against insecurity, Lord God, and comparison and doubt and

and fear right now in the name of Jesus. I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit, that same spirit that met them on the day of Pentecost. I'm believing right now is happening in this room and in every room that is under the sound of my voice. God, I pray right now that your spirit would intervene and there would be a holy confidence that rises up on the inside of every believer that knows that God has placed something inside of them, regardless of what they've been through, regardless

of what they look like, regardless of where they come from. But God, there is a boldness you are stirring up on the inside of your church, Lord Jesus. And we decide we are here to rage war against every lie of the enemy, against every doubt that's held us back, against every fear that has kept us down. And today we decide we will believe that you have chosen us. Every head bow, every eye close. There are some of you in the room today

That you need to surrender to this choice. The beautiful thing about the grace of our God is he has chosen you, but you still have a moment where you surrender to that.

He loves you so much that he says, I choose you, but you just got to let me. You got to let me guide your life. You got to let me surrender. And if you were honest with yourself this morning, everyone watching, you've tried doing it your own way. You tried going your own path. And the truth is you're standing in the fruit of that moment. And if you don't like that, if you can't stand the anxiety, if you can't stand the peace, if you can't stand not having purpose, I want to invite you into a life. It's not a safe life. It's not a life where everything goes away, but it's a life that you

could only live, surrender to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. If you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to count to three and on the count of three, you're going to raise your hand boldly. You're not ashamed. This isn't between anybody else, but this is the moment where you give up

control of your life. It's exhausted you. Let's be honest. Don't play nobody. It's exhausted you. It's taken your peace. It's taken your heart. It's changed parts of you that you don't like anymore. But in this moment, you're going to surrender your life to Jesus and it's going to be a brand new experience.

Start and when your hand goes up in the air this whole room and around the world We're gonna start cheering for you because this is the greatest choice you could ever make one He loves you - today is that day three raise your hand right now all over this room and online every single room raise that hand Oh, come on church a whole row right here a couple right here. I see you. So keep your hand high I see you brother so proud of you. Oh, come on church. Can we celebrate people giving their life to Jesus?

Real quick, everybody standing all over this room, I want to pray this prayer together. Everybody repeat out loud after me. Everybody say, Dear God, thank you for loving me. Dear Jesus, I give you everything. Change me. Transform me. I'm yours. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Can we celebrate that decision? Oh, come on, church!

Thanks again for listening. God bless you.

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