Get Ready, Week 3

Tim Ross | November 20, 2022

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Tim Ross: I am so grateful to be here this morning. First, give an honor to God, who was the head of my life, to our lead pastor, pastor Tim Rivers, to his lovely wife, Janese. I am so grateful to be here and excuse me, but I got to go straight into the Word. Is that all right? All right. If you have your Bibles, throw them up in the air. Let's make some declarations real quick, real high. If you got a heavy Bible, it's your fault. If you just got a phone, put the phone up. If you don't have a Bible or a phone, just put your hand up and somebody's going to bless you later with something.

Repeat after me, "Today, The Holy Spirit is going to speak to me about ambiguity." Some of you all are like, "No, I'm good." Keep it up. "After today, I will know I will and fully understand that if I do not embrace ambiguity, I will never get clarity, and I will never receive the promises of God. I need to calm down because the answers are coming, just not when I want them. All right, let's go. I wanted to calibrate y'all today as to where we're going.

We are in a serious called, Get Ready. Tim Rivers has been casting vision about the future of where Embassy City is going. He started off with a sermon called, Can You See It? Was that the first sermon in the series? Can you see it or was it the second? Something's never changed with the first, but can you see it with second? Can you see it? If you weren't here that weekend, if you didn't have faith infused into you on that day, if you didn't run out of here looking for clouds, my faith was so stirred up, I was so ready for whatever God had next for me, had next for us but you cannot see anything until you are willing to embrace ambiguity.

The vision has been cast, but when the vision is cast, you don't get clarity when it's cast. You get confirmation when it's cast, you get information when it's cast but you don't actually see it at the moment that he's asking, "Can you see it?" You're like, "Yes, where is it?" Stay with us. It's coming but you have to embrace some ambiguity. I want to take you to the Word, Genesis 12:1-3. Then I want to read Hebrews 11:8 as well. Then we'll pray. I'll give you the title to the message, and we'll go. Is that all right? All right.

Genesis 12:1, here's what it says, "The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your native country, your relatives and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on Earth will be blessed through you." Hebrews 11:8 says this, "It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance." This last sentence, "He went without knowing where he was going." [laughs]

If you're taking notes on this message, please write this down, "The amazing ambiguity of Abraham." That's what I want to talk to you about today, the amazing ambiguity of Abraham. Bow your heads, let's pray over the Word. Shall we? Holy Spirit, help us to embrace ambiguity. Amen.

[singing]

Congregation: Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had father Abraham,

I am one of them, and so are you, so let's just praise the Lord.

Right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot, turn around, sit down.

[laughter]

That man has a song written just for him. We talk about Abraham being the father of our faith. The fact that him trusting and believing God, stepping out on into nothing is the reason why we are all walking in a promise that was fulfilled through Abram, a Gentile man who is turned into a Jewish man all because he believed God but a lot of times when we have the benefit of hindsight, we tend to dehumanize the people that actually had to operate in this faith. We treat them as if they are superheroes in the faith, leaving us with this feeling inside of inadequacy that I don't know if I can operate in faith like that.

I want to humanize Abram, and I want to bring you back to his context so that you understand, he is really basic. This is a regular degular dude. There is nothing supernatural about Abram. There is something supernatural about the God he put his faith in. Abram is chilling. Abram had been following his father. They had stopped in Harran, his brother dies. In the middle of this journey, God speaks to Abram and says, "I want you to get out of your country, your father's house, away from all your relatives to a place that I will show you."

Abram, who is 75 years old, not 17, not 27, not 30, at that point in life, where it's like, I need to put some of my toys away and I need to start paying some real bills. This dude is 75 years old when God broaches a conversation with him. Abram is not 17 at the front of a youth revival, both hands raised, eyelids clicked shut, "Here I am, God, use me to shake a generation." Abram is 75 years old. Now, can I just pause and take a poll real quick? Is there anybody at the age you currently are who would say, there's some things about me that just ain't going to change? No. Real talk. Some hands up in the air. There's some things about me that ain't about to change.

I'm 47, I can say that. Some of y'all raising you all hands, you all look too young to even be raising your hand. Some of y'all 19 like, I am set. 23, I am set. How much more complicated would it be for a man who's 75 years old, who has lived three-quarters of a century, to hear a voice he's never heard before and be asked to do something he has never done before? Abram hears this voice that he does not recognize, but he's intrigued by. I believe the reason why he's intrigued by this voice is because he has been worshiping false gods since he was born. The sun, the moon, the stars, some images carved out of wood placed in his little tent that he bowed down to. Little images like this. He worshiped it.

Please do something for me, and the image is like, "You made me. What you expect me to do for you?" If we really break this down, Abraham had already been living in ambiguity. At 75 years, he was disconnected from the God of his creation. He's meandering through life with a measure of ambiguity because he's disconnected from God already. When he hears this voice and this voice says, "Leave your kin, your country and your culture." Not one of the three, not two of the three, three of three. Say it with me, kin, country, culture. In unison, kin, country, culture. One more again, kin, country-

Congregation: Kin, country, culture.

Tim: I want you to imagine you being born in America, live 75 years, and God says, "Get thee up out of your country. I want you away from your family. I want you on a plane to Madagascar by 2:00 PM," except you don't even know it's Madagascar. I want you to get thee up away from your family, everything you've known. I know you love baked chicken, I know you love your family of origin, I know you love celebrating the traditional holidays in America, I want you to get up and follow me to a place that I'm not going to even talk to you about, but I want you to leave everything you know in order to obtain something you don't know.

Leave your kid, leave your family, leave everybody you love, leave your country. I want you to leave the geographical location, but here's the hardest one. Leave the culture, the language, the idioms, the food, the habits, the customs. I want a complete detox from everything you've ever known for 75 years and I want you to put your faith in me and step into something that I won't give you details on until you do the thing I'm telling you to do now.

Please, write this down. "God will never talk to you about what's next until you do what He tells you to do now." I'm going to say it again, God will never talk to you about what's next until you do what He tells you to do right now. How many people can genuinely say you felt like you've got a word from God before? You received this word from God. If it's a true word from God, it's enough to get you started. You don't know exactly how He's going to do what you think you heard He said He's going to do.

Abram leaves his kin, his country and his culture based on a promise. The promise is, "I'm going to bless you, I'm going to make you famous and you will be a blessing to others." He goes on to say that, "I will bless those that bless you and I will curse those that hold you in contempt."

Now, I love how NLT renders this, the New Living Translation renders this. I love it better than KJV. KJV says, "I'll bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you." I love the fact that He says, "I will bless those that bless you and I will curse those that hold you in contempt." It's a better contextual way of saying, Abram, anybody that holds you in contempt for this decision, I'm going to curse them. Anybody that disagrees with your decision, I'm going to deal with them harshly. If anybody gets in the way of your faith and obedience to me, you don't have to address them. I will. That's heavy.

Abram packs all of his stuff off of a word, "Get away from your kin, country and culture to a place that I will show you, but I'm not talking to you about that right now until you do what you're supposed to do right now." "How will I know when I'm going to get a update?" "You won't know that. Go." Abram packs all his stuff and he kisses his wife and Lot and his man servants and his maid servants and all his sheep and goats and herds of cattle, and he just starts walking.

"Where are we going?" "I don't know." "When will we be there?" "I don't know." "Are we there yet?" "I have no idea." "Have you heard from the voice since we packed up and started leaving?" "No." "Did you even hear Him?" Anybody heard a word from the Lord, you got off on it and you were waiting for some updates and you didn't get it, and now you start doubting if you even heard Him? Is this even you? Anybody beside me? This is my message this morning. I'm in this space right now. God told me to transition from what He told me to build.

For seven years, He's been talking to me about Embassy City. Every download I get has been about Embassy City. All the direction I've prayed for has been about Embassy City. Last year around this time He said, "Get thee up from your kin, your Embassy City country and the culture to a place that I will show you." "What? Sir, [foreign language]? What happened? Did I do something wrong?" "No. There's something else that I want to show you." "Can you tell me now?" "No. Go."

Now, this may have messed me up if this was not the fourth major transition of my life. This is my fourth major transition. It is not my first. God has been doing this to me for a while. I gave my life to Jesus January 14th, 1996. In June of 1997, two days before I was supposed to visit Dallas, Texas, to go to the Ross family reunion, because all of our family emanates from East Texas, I was supposed to come out here and meet my family that I had never met before, and I was going to a singles conference that Bishop Jakes was putting on downtown Dallas somewhere. Then I was supposed to stay for a month and go back home.

I am Cali, born and bred, West Side for life, lived in Inglewood off Crenshaw and [unintelligible 00:17:50], the hood. Crips was on one corner. Bloods was on the other. I was in the hood. Two days before I left, I'm praying the Holy Spirit says, "Buy a one-way ticket to Dallas." I had never heard the audible voice of the Lord before in my life, and I heard that as clear that, "Buy a one-way ticket to Dallas." I burst into tears.

Some words you get from the Lord don't make you happy. Everybody be like, "I need a word from the Lord. Give it to me, Lord. I need to hear it from you. Open the windows of Heaven. Speak, Lord. We need a word. Speak, Lord. We need a word. Speak, Lord." He's like, "Quit the job." You're like, "No, Lord. That's not a word. No, Lord. That's not my word." "Buy a one-way ticket to Dallas? I don't know nobody in Dallas." "You got family out there, Tim." "I don't know them. I'm used to this gangster side of my family. I don't know nothing about that country side of my family."

I move to Texas and I don't even like Texas. I get to Texas, I'm looking around, I'm like, "Oh, that Southern hospitality translates into some naiveté. Y'all could get jacked quick. Y'all would never make it in Texas. Y'all never make it in California." I'm looking around, I'm like, "Oh, what is this?" He's like, "I'm not telling you yet." I get here and as soon as I arrive, God made it, He made it clear. I'm out here just foreign. I'm going to church with my family. They looking at me like, "You're not even saved." I had two diamond studs earrings, a big old silver herring bone. I was Calied out socks and sandals. I was real Cali. I was real —-.

Over time, God started giving me some answers. It was four years before I settled into the fact after being here four years. "Oh, God, I guess this is where you want me." I came from a small church of 50 people. That's the church I got saved in. He sends me to the Potter's house, a whole bunch of people. I had had never been in a church that Black in my life. This church is Blacker than Black, Black.

Now, the expression of the church fit me. I am a emotional creature. I am up into it. I will cry. I will roll around. I will run. I'm that. I was okay, "Yes." I came from out of the streets and I came from clubbing and performing. I was not going to give God anything less than I gave the world. When I'm in church, my whole body is here. All of my emotions are here.

I'm not sitting there like, "Mm, this is really nice." It's not my—-.

Big church culture, big church, Black culture, I didn't know what that was. This was foreign to me. I'm okay, Okay, this is what we doing. We wearing big suits. We dressing like it's the prom every weekend. Are Y'all going to give us a band too or are we just going to stop at the three piece? If we could hit that band, we going to be suited and booted now. I was there for 13 and a half years, had favor there, community there, connectivity there, relationship there. Nothing is wrong. Everything is right.

November of 2008, the Holy Spirit says, "Get thee up." "No, You can't. No, because now I like it. I didn't like it but now I like it." "Get thee up." "Where are we going to go?" "I'm not talking to you about that yet." I pray all of 2009. In 2010, the Holy Spirit said, "This is your last year at the church", and I had to talk to my lead pastor about that. He was heartbroken by that. Why? Everything was going great.

If all of your transitions are because something is going bad, stop assigning God to that. That's not Him, that's you. If you've had 11 jobs in the last 18 months, stop saying, "You know what? The Lord's just doing something. He just has me moving around a lot." No, you have no character and integrity. You have no discipline, no sticktoitiveness. Stop putting Jesus glitter on your poor disciplinary habits. You can't get to work on time. That ain't got nothing to do with Jesus. "The Lord just has me just in a season where--" Jesus glitter. Don't, do that. I transitioned from the Potter's house. I'm like, "What now?"

I didn't have a church home for five months. That's the longest ever in my life that I've been without a church home. The Holy Spirit said, "I want you to go to Gateway." I'm like, "Mm, mm, mm, mm. No. There's no way you're talking to me." I go from the Blackediest Black Church to the Whitiest White Church. That praise and worship was so different, I thought I was reading somebody's journal. I was like, "There's a lot of words to this song." It's just na na. Then the Lord did it. Then he turned it around. I'm like, "This is not a song, this is a journal. Where's the hook? Where's the bridge? Where's the —-, where's anything?

Nobody was wearing suits. Everybody was dressed like they was closing the deal for oil and gas. Jokers had on blazers. I said, "What is this blazer you speak of? Where do you get blazers? I'm used to suits. What are this denim that you're wearing and this blazer you have on? What makes it a blazer?" It was so White. The Holy Spirit said, "This is where I want you." I fit there more than I ever fit at Potter's House. I was walking into something that I didn't know anything about, but because I embraced the ambiguity, God met me, then He gave me clarity.

Then after three and a half years of a delightful experience, He says, "Hey, Tim, Get thee up." "Oh, my God. What now?" "Go to Irving." "And do what?" "Plant a church." "What's the name?" "Embassy." "I don't even know if I like that name, Lord." I literally said that to Him. He said, "Tim, Embassy's not the name of your church, it's the name of mine." I said, "Oh, it's the greatest name I've ever heard in my life. It's great. I like your church." We planted this church in a zip code that is to this day, top 10 most racially diverse zip codes in the United States of America, New York, LA, Miami, Chicago. One of the most diverse zip codes in the United States of America. Holy Spirit said, "Plant a church there."

Now, if you want to know why you went from the Blackediest Black Church to the Whitiest White church and you've traveled the world to Latin America, Singapore, England, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, this is why. I could not have you lead ethnicities and nations if you had not been exposed to ethnicities and nations. We got into Las Colinas, part of Irving, and we were relentless that this was going to be a diverse church. It had to look like what I had been through or I was going to be mad.

I said, "Get everybody in the same room and tell them to hug each other." That's why you don't shake hands. Tell them to hug each other. Why? When you open up, you are telling somebody else, "I may not know you and understand you, but I'm safe. I may not know you or understand you, but I'm going to sit next to you till I figure you out." We got nappy heads next to straight hair, we got male pattern baldness next to some braids, we got ultra deep chocolate in here, we got Swedish White in here. We got Southeast Indians and Asians.

We got everybody in here. Why? This is what He wanted this to be, but if I didn't step into ambiguity, I was never going to get clarity as to where God wanted us to be and what He wanted it to look like. After seven years of being here, the Holy Spirit says, "Get thee up." "No, I love it here. After being everywhere, this finally looks like Cali again. Southern Cali, this is what it look like. When I was at all Black, I was like, "Where is anybody else?" When I was at South Lake-- Now the other campuses at Gateway, they're very diverse, but South Lake is 97% White. If that's your pond, that's the fish you going to get. You cannot put a fishing hook into a Bass lake and get a dolphin out. It's just not going to happen.

It wasn't okay it was some crazy intentional thing, it's just demographic and Potter's House as well, it's on the chocolate side of town. Segregation messed Texas up. Learn y'alls

history. When I got in here, I'm like, "It looks like Cali. Yeah. I'm going to be here for a long time." Lord says, "Sike, seven years. Get thee up." "Go where?" "I'm not going to tell you." "Wait, man, you want me to leave this job that I love, that I lead. I don't work for nobody except you. I'm at the front of the line." He was like, "Yes, but I'm in front of you."

"Where are we going?" "I'm not telling you yet." "What am I going to do?" "I'm not going to tell you that yet, but here I do want to hand you something." "What is this?" "A podcast." "No, Sir, I'm not interested in a podcast. That sounds like the antithesis of what I like. I would rather not." "I'm not asking you. Get thee up and I want you to step down from leading on this platform, I want you to sit down in a chair and I want you to talk." "About what?" "Anything." "With who?" "Everybody." "Can I pay my mortgage off that?" "Not going to tell you. Walk."

I need you to understand something about leaving and going. They're not the same thing. I hear people say, "I'm going to the store." You have to leave your house first. Leaving and going is not the same thing. When you're walking with God, you don't know how long you're leaving before you start going, but you do have to leave some things. If you don't leave everything that He tells you to leave, you'll never be going anywhere.

I know some people that think they've been on a mission with God going somewhere, and truthfully, they've been leaving for 11 years. The reason why they've been leaving and haven't been going is because they still haven't dropped some things off that are not meant to go into their next season. If you don't get the difference between leaving and going, you will think you are making progress when you are still actually just leaving, you haven't even started going anywhere. [laughs]

See, all my answers for this next season of my life is in '23 and beyond. He ain't even talking to me about what's next. He's like, "Didn't you say your last day is December 31st or 2022?" I was like, "Yes." He was like, "I'll holler at you in '23. January 1st when I wake up, I know better now, answer is no. Genesis 13, "Abram and Lot have a good relationship, but their servants do not. Their servants are fighting each other over the cattle and the possessions that they have. All of Lot's wealth was made while he was with his uncle, Abram." I don't know how he didn't notice. I don't know how he didn't have enough discernment to understand this, but all his blessing came because of his connection to his uncle.

They wind up having a conversation and Abram essentially says, "Hey, why don't you choose where you want to go? After you choose where you want to go, whichever direction you go, I'll go in a different direction. " Genesis 13, starting at the 11th verse, here's what it says. "Lot chose for himself." I could preach a whole message on that right there. "Lot chose for himself to hold Jordan Valley to the East of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle, Abram. Abram settled in the land of Canaan and Lot moved his tents to the place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plane, but the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord."

That's the place Lot was attracted to. I could do a whole sermon on that. That ain't my assignment. First four words, would you read those with me? After Lot had gone, again louder after Lot had gone one more time, real loud. After--

Congregation: Lot had gone.

Tim: The Lord said to Abram, "Look as far as you can see in every direction, North and South, East and West, I am giving all this land as far as you can see to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. I will give you so many descendants, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted. Go, and walk through the land in every direction for I am giving it to you."

Abraham wasn't going anywhere until he was leaving everything. The last thing I want to submit to you before I close, ladies and gentlemen, is that you may have a Lot to deal with before you really get the revelation of where God wants you to go. Abram was leaving until Lot was left. Only after Lot was left did he get clarity on where he was going. Now, ladies and gentlemen, before you start thinking about who your Lot is, before you open up your phone and rush through your contacts and start an alphabetical order, trying to find out who Lot is, may I submit to you that it might be you and more specifically something in you that God is like, "This can't go with you to the place I've planned for you."

It might be an attitude, it might be a habit, it might be a personality trait, it might be a way that you've been doing things, it may be your control nature, it may be your insecurity, whatever it is, I'm telling you, all of us, including myself, has a lot to deal with. I want you to consider not externally what your Lot might be, but internally, what that Lot might be, because until you identify it and separate from it, God's not going to give you an update. [chuckles]

This dude had traveled through Egypt, lied about Sarah, Sarai, and moved around and found a nice little place to settle down. He still wasn't getting no updates. He's like, man, we been out here for a minute. I ain't heard that voice that told me to leave my kin, my culture and my country. I Wonder what's going on. Then Lot's servants start bickering with Abrams servants. Notice, Abrams and Lot were not bickering with each other.

Got to be a little more introspective than that. It wasn't a beef between Lot and Abram, it was a beef between their servants. That was enough for Abram to say, you know what? I don't want there to be drama anywhere. It's not even between us, it's between stuff that's attached to us, but that's too much. Why don't you choose where you want to go and I'll choose after you. He gravitates to what is that we know of as Sodom and Gomorrah. That's where you go?

You separate from your business partner and say, "Hey man, take your business, and just go wherever you want to go." They're like, "You know what? I have been looking at Pleasant Grove." If somebody came from Pleasant Grove, I am so sorry. You're like, "Can't stand you." Lot picked the most crime-riddled area. The next chapter, I'll say this very quickly, the next chapter, chapter 14, Lots entire city got jacked. The whole city got kidnapped. Hear me, y'all, go read it for yourself. Not some people in the city got kidnapped. The whole city. I can't even say it without laughing. Can you imagine being in such a crime-riddled neighborhood that some people came and got the neighborhood?

[laughter]

That book is amazing. It wasn't until he separated from Lot, that he got clarity on where he was supposed to go. Why is this message important? Well, first of all, it's important to me, selfishly, but it's important to us as well because we are stepping into the new year with vision and ambiguity. Where do I even fit in there? There's ambiguity there. What's going to be my role under new leadership? There's ambiguity there. God, what are you telling me to do in this season? There's ambiguity there, but if you don't embrace that ambiguity, you will never get clarity, and until you get clarity, you cannot obtain the promises of God.

The remaining minutes that we have, I just want you to bow your heads and close your eyes, and although God may not be speaking to you about what's next, I believe He will speak to you about your Lot and this Lot is a major contributor to just understanding the difference between leaving and going. Perhaps we can take this time, just ask the Holy Spirit, "Can you point to the thing in me that would be hindering me from moving into clarity? Is it my attitude? Is it a habit? Is it a weight? Is it a sin? Holy Spirit, I know you love me too much to leave me like you left me and you want me to partner with you to do amazing things for the Kingdom, and I may have a blind spot today."

Holy Spirit, I pray for my brothers and my sisters right now, God, your sons and daughters, and I ask, God, that as we step into this ambiguity willingly, that you would illuminate anything on the inside of us that would hinder us from moving into the stage of clarity so that we can receive the promises that you want for us. God, I thank you that the enemy cannot have us, cannot hold us. I thank you that there is no weight, there is no sin, there is no vice, there is no habit, there is no scar, there is no trauma that you cannot heal.

God, I thank you that ambiguity may be uncertain but it doesn't have to be confusing. We say yes to your will, yes to your way, and yes to the way that you want to take us. For your glory, Lord, thank you for what ambiguity can produce on the inside of us in Jesus' name. Amen.