Prepare for More Pt. II
Tim Ross | September 20, 2020
“I can do a new, miraculous thing in your mind, your body, your soul, if you would just prepare for more.”
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Transcription
Hey, Embassy City Church. I am so excited that I have this opportunity to share God's word with you. Today I am hyped. As you know, we just celebrated our fifth anniversary last Sunday. It was a spectacular visual experience for us to have. I just want to give a shout out to our creative team, to our worship team, to every person that serves here on staff at Embassy City Church, we would not be here without you.
To all of you all who have been with us either from the beginning in our inception at a Singley Academy or if you just decided to join us last weekend, we are so grateful that you've chosen to be a part of our community. I'm hyped about God's word today. Is anybody else hyped to hear what God has to say today? Listen, I'm so excited that God gave us a prophetic word to steer us through the rest of this year. It was three words, "prepare for more".
Last week, I shared with you out of Isaiah 54:2, and 3. The command that God was giving us to enlarge our house, to spread out because soon we will be bursting at the seams. I don't claim to know what God means by that yet. All I know is I want to be obedient to what he's telling us to do. This is part two, because last week they only gave me 10 minutes, so now I'm going to preach an hour and 10 minutes to make up for that. No, I'm just playing.
I want to get into God's word and I want to show you some things that He has showed me about what it means to prepare for more and specifically how to prepare for more. If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to Genesis 12:1. Genesis 12:1, here's what it says. "The Lord had said to Abraham, leave your native country, your relatives and your father's family and go to the land I will show you."
I'm going to read it again. It's only one verse. "The Lord had said to Abraham, leave your native country, your relatives and your father's family and go to the land that I will show you." If you're taking notes on this message, very, very simple, three words, same three words as last weekend, "prepare for more". This is prepare for more part two. If you're taking notes, put down, prepare for more part two. I want to show you what it looks like and what it feels like to prepare for more.
Bow your heads, let's pray over the word. Shall we? Holy spirit prepare us. Amen. That's the end of it. I want you to be prepared for what God wants to do in your life. I gravitate often I was talking with Juliet about this, about the fact that God has continued to send me back to Genesis 12 to feed this congregation, to the point that I even started to say, "Lord, you have me going back here a lot".
Here's what the Lord said to me in my study time as I was preparing for this message. He said, "Tim, I'm never going to be done talking to you about what I have to say in my word, even passages that seem extremely familiar to you. I have more to say to you about them". Here's what I want to do. I want to break down just this one verse.
I have an anointing on me to just take this one verse and just break it down line by line so you can understand what it looks like, what it feels like, what it sounds like to prepare. Are you all ready for that? Are you all ready to get down with that right there? I have five points to this message. Write these down because I really want to take my time and just open these up.
Point number one, please write this down. When you're preparing for more, please understand it always starts with God. It always starts with God. Here is the first line of verse number one in chapter number 12 of the book of Genesis. "The Lord has said to Abraham." "The Lord had said to Abraham." It always starts with God. It cannot start with you. If God is going to be the one to prepare you for more, it has to be God initiating you for more.
It can't be you coming up within and hoping God co-signs on it. It has to start with God because if it starts with God, it will be sustained by God, but if it starts with you, it has to be sustained by you. Any move I've ever made, I always make sure that it starts with God. With the people that I'm in a relationship with when they're telling me about things that they want to do, I'm listening carefully to see if I hear God in it or if I only hear them in it.
Anybody besides me can admit that you've started some things without God, that there are some things that you got into in your life where you say, "You know what, Lord, I actually don't need your help right here, I can do this one by myself. This one's familiar to me, this one feels good to me, I can do this one all by my self." Anybody besides me ever been in that spot before where you're like, "I got this one," and then what you thought you got, got you?
You've ever been in a situation where what you thought you had actually had you? Listen, it always starts with God. God said to Abraham, I want you to do something for me. Abraham wasn't thinking about God. God was thinking about Abraham. This brings to mind Ephesians 2:10, where it says that God considers us His masterpiece. We are created anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things that He planned for us to do long ago.
God had you on His mind long before you had Him on your mind. When it starts with God, it is sustained by God and if you're preparing for more, make sure you start with God. "Thank you, Holy Spirit, I'm going to take my time right here," and I'm talking about starting with God in a relationship. I'm not talking about starting with God for something that you want. I'm not talking about starting with God because you need a blessing. I'm not talking about starting with God because you messed up and now you're trying to get back. I'm talking about keeping God at the forefront of every single step you make, it has to start with Him. You can't get halfway in and then hope He blesses it.
If it starts with Him, it's sustained by Him but if it starts with you, it has to be sustained by you and you don't have the energy, you don't have the resources, you don't have the knowledge to try to sustain something that is started by you. Let God be the one who starts it because He who has begun a good work will be faithful to see it through to the end. That's good.
Point number two, please write this down. If you're preparing for more, write this down. Point number two, you have to leave what you know. I'm going to take my time right here. If you're going to be preparing for more in this season, point number two, you have to leave what you know. Here's the next line, it says, "Leave your native country". It just doesn't get any simpler than that. "Leave your native country," leave what you know.
I know that you've gained a lot of success in life and I know that you've studied and I know you got your master's degree and I know you got your bachelor's and I know you're studying for your doctorate, but you have to leave what you know if you're preparing to go where God is calling you to go. He said I want you to leave your native country. You know the place that you were born and raised? I need you to leave that. I need you to leave everything you've learned up into this point for what I want to teach you from this point on.
I don't know who this part is for, but I feel like I'm speaking to somebody that needs to understand and know that there is something that God wants to give you and you have nothing to compare it to right now. You have nothing that you've ever experienced in your life to compare what God wants to do at this season of your life. If you're scared to take a step because you believe that you need to know everything before God or before you decide to be obedient to what God's telling you to do, then you might miss the blessing that God has in front of you because you won't leave what you know.
Abraham was 75-years-old when he got this word. He wasn't 20, he wasn't 15, this wasn't a young person. The Bible was not following Barna's empirical data and study on when people get saved, and you should get saved by 20 because after that it's exponentially harder for a person to come to Jesus if they don't get saved in their youth. No. God blew the whole thing open. The Father of our faith is a 75-year-old man who decided to leave everything he knew and how long he had known it to follow the voice of God.
If you're preparing for more, if we are preparing for more as believers in Jesus Christ and I'm exhorting you, right now, you need to know that you need to leave what you know. Point number three, please write this down. You have to leave who you know. [laughs] I'm just trying to help. It's one verse, right? It's one verse, it's just one verse, but there's a lot in that verse. I was just trying to-- You have to leave who you know.
It's really funny when God gives this command to prepare Abraham for more that He's very systematic. He doesn't just say "leave" because leave would have been generic that he probably would have took a bunch of stuff with him that God knew didn't need to go with him. He doesn't just say "leave", He says, "Here's how I'm going to tell you to leave. I need you to leave your native country, check. Next thing your relatives."
What? Not my kinfolk though. Don't tell me to leave my kinfolk. Not the people I grew up, not my cousins now. Not my best friend from elementary school, I've known her since elementary school. We just reconnected on Facebook, I had lost touch, and then she sent me an SMS. Oh, I just got back with her. We've just been talking about the good old days but the good old days didn't include God.
All the good old days that you're reminiscing about, you weren't even saved then. Why take people with you to a place God is trying to take you if He's only calling you? I know this is going to sound really, really firm. It's going to sound firm and it might even sound stern. Let me just say as a disclaimer, that I have heard a lot of preachers, I'm a preacher myself, so I can talk about us, okay? Don't you try to talk about us, but I can talk about us, because I'm also a preacher.
Check this out. I've heard a lot of preachers talk about moving to a different season in a very rude way. I've heard a lot of preachers talk about having to move on from certain relationships in a very mean way and you might have heard it too, it's this very-- "Well, God's doing something in me, baby, and if you can't go then you just can't go. God's calling me to Ohio and I guess you just can't go with me." That's just you're rude. You're a rude person.
Even if it was true that God was calling you to a different season of your life. Is that the way you treat the people that you have for that season? That you just become dismissive and flipping of them because God's calling you to a different season? Now listen, God said, "I need you to leave your relatives. I need you to leave who you know, and the reason why I need you to leave who you know is not because there's something wrong with them. You already know them, who you don't know is me." I had to let that marinate real quick. See, you didn't see that coming, did you?
The reason why God is saying I need you to leave them alone for this season is because I need you to understand me more. You already know them, you already know your cousin's name, you already know your mama name, you already know your best friend and all of them, but who you don't know is me. The reason why I'm telling you to leave your relatives is not so much because there's something wrong with them, it could be because there's something wrong with you. What's wrong with you is that you don't know God the way you need to know God.
God is saying I need to bring you into a place where you pare down your circle and you will eliminate all the voices that used to influence you, because I want to be the voice that influences you. Listen, this doesn't mean that we have to look someone that we've had a great season with in the face and say rude things to them or mean things to them. It just simply means this season was great, I savored what I could get from it, but now God's calling me to a different place, and it's not you, it's me. For real, it's me, it has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with me, God's trying to get something more out of me. In order to get it out of me, He's saying I have to move to a different space and place to obtain that grace first.
That's point number three. Point number four, please write this down. If you're preparing for more, this is one thing you have to know, and you might be going, "How is this different from point number three?" I'm going to break it down for you. Point number four, please write this down. You have to leave why you know. Point number three, you have to leave who you know, but point number four, you have to leave why you know.
Listen, who you know and why you know are two different things. I'm going to say it again, who you know and why you know are two different things. Here's what it says very, very simply, three words, because remember God is breaking this down. I want you to leave, but there's a certain way I want you to leave native country, point number one, get out of there. Then, I want you to leave your relatives, get out of there. This one, your father's family.
Who you know and why you know are two different things. I'm going to take my time right here. I'm going to introduce a word to you that psychologists use all the time and it's "FOO", F-O-O. FOO is an acronym for a family of origin. It's where you're born and raised, it's what you got on the inside of you before you knew you were getting something on the inside of you.
There's not one adult human being, living on the planet right now, struggling with anything negative that they did not get in their family of origin. Whether you grew up with your two parents, a mom, and a dad, whether you grew up in a single-parent home with just a mom, whether you grew up in a grand single-parent home with your grandparents, I'm telling you, everything that is on the inside of you that you might be wrestling with or battling with, can find its roots in your family of origin.
Point number four God is saying, I want you to go and I do want you to leave who you know, but I need you to leave your father's family specifically, I need to cut you off from your family of origin. From why you know what you know the way you know it. Abraham is 75 years old, he has been living his life worshiping false gods all of his life. Where did he learn that? He saw his daddy do it. Where did you get that? I got it from my mamma. Where did you get that? I got it from my daddy.
Your family of origin has many of us carrying generational curses, many of us carrying scars, wounds, rejection, fear, low self-esteem, and here's what God is saying, I need to introduce you to a new family. I need you to leave your father's family because I'm going to be the father of your entire family.
Abraham, before you're going to be the father of many nations, I'm telling you right now, I am going to be your father and I'm going to give you a new origin story. I don't know who this is for, there is somebody watching me right now, you are in your 60s. I don't know who you are, you're in your 60s right now and what God is saying is he can reset you at 60. He can reset some things that you thought you were going to be struggling with your entire life, things that you thought were going to be memory staying in your brain for your entire life, I hear the Lord saying, "I can reset you right now."
You don't have to carry that for the rest of your life, you don't have to die with this in your mind, I can do a new thing creatively, a miraculous thing in your mind, your body, and your soul, if you would just prepare for more, if you would be brave enough to step away from the things that you know to the things that might seem unfamiliar, I can do something new in your life.
I got to take my time on this one because this is-- I feel this so strongly for somebody. I want you to imagine growing up in your home, taking the good and bad from your family, becoming an adult and starting to become aware, self-aware of some things that you don't like in yourself and then at the last family reunion or at the last holiday dinner, you're sitting down trying to eat some turkey or some ham and your mamma said something or your daddy did something and you squinted and went, "Is that right? You're the one who did this to me. I know where I got that from."
You don't recognize it as a child, but as you get older, you start going, "Is that where I picked that up from? Is that why I'm petty? I just thought I was petty, but my mamma--"
I'm not talking about you, maMma. I'm just saying somebody's mamma, because my mom is watching.
I thought I was struggling with lust, but I realized that this is in the family. Leave your father's family. This was a command to Abraham. I'm preparing you for more. Leave your father's family. Leave why you know what you know so that I can do something in you so that you can grow. I want to pull you out of something so I can bring you in to something. Thank you, Holy Spirit. That's good, because I can't bless you right here.
Many of us are asking God for a blessing, but we won't leave the place to receive the blessing. We won't leave the place that's familiar. We won't leave the place that we know. We won't leave the place that we become accustomed to. We won't leave the place that we become familiar with. We're going, "Just do it right here." God's going, "No, no. I want you 20 miles down the street." You're like, "No, it's too far. How come we can't do it right here?"
God's going, "No, no. I want to do it, but I won't do it here. I want to bring you somewhere--" Thank you, Holy Spirit. "I want to bring you somewhere else because I don't want you to give your family the glory for this. I don't want you to give your dad the glory for this. I don't want you to give your education the glory for this. I will get all glory, I will share it with no other man, so I'm moving you out of where you are to a place that you need to be, so I can show you what it is I want to give you." Lord is so good. So good, okay.
Point number five and we're out. Point number five and we're out. You're preparing for more, right? Point number five, and I love this one. You have to leave when you know. Let's recap real quick. Point number one, it always starts with God because it always does. Point number two, you have to leave what you know. Point number three, you have to leave who you know. Point number four, you have to leave why you know. Point number five, you have to leave when you know.
You have to leave when you know it's good. Here's the last thing that He says, "Go to the land that I will show you. Go to the land that I will show you." When you leave, you won't know, but as you go, you will know. I'm going to say that again. When you leave, you won't know, but as you go, you will know.
Leaving and going are two different things. You can be leaving something and not going nowhere. Perpetually leaving. I'm just leaving every relationship I get and I leave it, but where are you going? You're not going nowhere. You're just constantly leaving. He says, "I need you to leave where you are, and when you leave, you're not going to know where you're going, but as you're going, you're going to start finding out what it is that I want to do through you."
Listen, the reason why this resonates with me so deeply is because it's the story of my life. I was a West Coast guy. Southern California, LA. I am a West Coast dude till I die. I thought I was going to live in California for the rest of my life. Then two days before I was supposed to come to Texas to visit for only 30 days, two days before I left as I was on my knees, the Holy Spirit said, "Buy a one-way ticket to Dallas. Buy a one-way ticket to Dallas."
I heard it so clear, I heard it so, so clear, so, so clear that while I was still on my knees, I started sobbing. I just started weeping right there because I knew I'm out, I have to leave. I went to my parents and I said-- Because my parents were pastoring God's Way of Holiness Fellowship at the time. I was of age, I was 21. I didn't go to them asking permission because as a young man, I was able to make my own decisions at that time and they weren't going to stand in the way of that, but because I was a member of their church, I came to them with the word that God gave me and I submitted it to them.
I said, "I feel like God told me to buy a one-way ticket to Dallas." My parents looked at me and then they looked at each other, it seemed like for a really long time. It was probably about 20 to 30 seconds, but if I stopped and just stared at you for 30 seconds in silence-- [Tim stares at the camera]
That's about seven seconds right there. Just imagine 30 seconds. You're just sitting there like, "What is happening right now?" They're looking at each other and then they look back at me and my mom says, "Baby, we were just babysitting you. You don't belong to us, you belong to God and if this is what God is telling you to do, then you need to obey it." I didn't know that God had all of this in store for my life. I didn't know I was going to be Tim Ross, whoever you all think Tim Ross is.
I had no clue that I was going to meet Juliet here. I had no clue that I was going to bond with so many people over decades here. I had no clue that God wanted me to plant a church here. I had no clue God wanted to take me around the world from here because when He tells you to leave, you don't know. It's only when you're going do you start to get the revelation of, "Oh, my-- What? Lord."
Then, anybody beside me, you ever obey God in a season where you did not know if you should do it or not, and as you were doing it, you were like, "You are the smartest person I have ever met?" I'm so glad I took this job because I know for a fact if I didn't take this job, I wouldn't have this peace right now, wouldn't have this grace right now. Listen, you have to leave when you know.
I was talking to somebody just a couple of days ago and they said to me, "God has spoke to me to do something and three years later, I did it." I wonder how much you lose trying to make God's timing match your convenience.
I wonder how many moments we lose second-guessing what God is trying to do when He tells us to do something. "I want you to move to Texas." Well, what you mean by that? Texas is big. It's just like the third biggest state in the Union, and we're apart. Houston's nice. Do you want me to be down there but then there's hurricanes? North Dallas is good, but they got tornadoes around there. Amarillo, that's in the Panhandle. I don't know if you want to-- Shut up.
Obey what He's telling you to do. As you go, you find out. Again, He doesn't say anything when you leave, but as you're going, you start to get glimpses of what it is that He wants to do in and through you. Listen, I'm trying to prepare somebody for more. I don't know who this is for, but this is a prophetic message from me to you, from our house to yours, prepare for more, but there's something that we have to do in that preparation. He leaves it on us and I want to dig into this a little bit more with Abram.
When I come back next week, I want to unpack some more as it relates to what happens in Abram's life. Before he's even Abraham, there's something God does in and through him that I feel we can learn from. Listen, there is something more in store for you. Prepare for it, enlarge your house, spare no expense because what God wants to do in this season is going to be exceedingly and abundantly above what you can ask or think.
Let me break that down. That means if you can think it, or you can ask it, that's not what He's about to do. When He says this will be exceedingly and abundantly above what you are able to ask for or think about, He literally means if you can ask it or think it, that's not how He's going to do it. That means whatever He is going to do, will blow our minds.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? Listen, I'm so excited about the opportunities that we get in His presence right now to take everything that is being said, everything that is being taught, and bring it down and just nest it up against our heart and see if we can't pick up and trace the heartbeat of God, and what He wants to do in our lives.
I don't know what prepare for more means to you. I don't even know what it means for me. All I know is I want to do what is in my power to do to position myself to receive the more that He wants to give. Holy Spirit, I'm thankful for every one of my brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters that are listening to this message, that I pray for somebody that has never made a commitment to follow you. I pray that even right now they would open up their hearts to receive Jesus as Lord, and that they would make that declaration with their mouth and the belief in their heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and God raised Him from the dead.
God, I'm praying for those that have already made this confession to come even closer to you. Bring those that are far near and bring those that are near, closer. In the matchless name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
