 Matthew 28, 16, it says, then the 11 disciples, not 12, the 11 disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some of them doubted. Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I've given you and be sure of this. I am with you always, even of the end of age. You know, this is a powerful where they say the great commission where he has given us the authority to accomplish a mission. I wanna tell you right now is that one thing as I was praying and just trying to understand what Holy Spirit wanted to speak today, that he said that there are people missing in this mission and he wants to take us out, that devil, the enemy, Satan, whatever you wanna call him, has a strategy against the people of God. He is out to get us to take us out of the game so that we don't hit a home run. He wants to take you out. And I was thinking about this in the discipleship and I was thinking about the vision and how many people are missing in this puzzle? How many pieces are missing in this puzzle? And I was thinking a little bit deeper and I'm thinking, why is it that not everybody is doing this mission? He tells it very clear what to do. We don't have to pray. We don't have to be like, Lord, what have you called me to do? I mean, I'm not talking about becoming a doctor or a CEO or an entrepreneur or IT or a nurse. I'm not talking about a job. I'm talking about a mission, a purpose. And you don't have to figure it out. He said, I got it. I have it figured out for you. But what is it? What is stopping us from fulfilling the mission? Why is it that we are taking a step back or a step back and allowing only the few where the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few? Where is everybody? Where are they? And this is not to condemn. I wanna talk to the hearts that are wounded today that there is three strategies specifically that the enemy is after you. And you are maybe one of them. One of the things that the enemy has done to you that is holding you back from fulfilling the vision from you to commit to this mission. He wants you to miss out. That's the enemy's goal, it's for you to miss out. I have men countless and countless of people that I've talked to over the years through counseling women and just in hearing testimonies. And it's incredible how the enemy works for you to miss the mark, to miss the point where the father is in the home, but he is not there. He's working on a job. And then when he is at his death bed, he said, I missed it. Where the mom decides to be perfect over present, she missed it. Where the person that is, where the parents said, don't do this and the child does it anyway, he missed it. Where the person that got so busy, so occupied, they missed the morning prayers, the evening prayers, the services, they missed it. They missed the moment where Jesus wanted to talk to them, speak to them, heal them, but the enemy constantly pulls them back. And the three ways is this is what I wanted to tell you. There's three things that the enemy does to try to take us out, to take us away from fulfilling the mission. The number one is escaping the mission. And I want to talk about our lovely friend Jonah. All right, first, the number one, out of the three strategies the enemy uses to keep us out of the mission is escape. I have three E's for you today, so that you guys can remember them. I'm inspired by Pastor Vlad with all of the E's and G's and W's and all of that. And I'm gonna use this where I kind of felt like a deposit of one of the E's is escape. Jonah himself, I'm gonna just read quickly, just a little piece so that we all have a little bit of background to this story and those that wanna join us, Jonah chapter one, verse one through three. The Lord gave this message to Jonah, son of Amitai, I'm not really good at pronouncing names. Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are. But Jonah got up and went the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Jopah when he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board and then went on to the boat. And so it literally says, I am running away from the Lord. If you read Jonah says, I am running away from the Lord. So the number one thing that keeps us away from the mission is fear. We want to escape, especially today in society that the enemy wants to create us to be fear of the fact that we believe Jesus. In society for us to hold back whatever it is that we have this fear and to run away from actually committing. Whatever your fear is today, you know, Jonah had a fear of the outcome of what was going to happen that he said that my God will be merciful. I knew it. I feared the outcome. And for some people we fear the outcome. We fear what God will ask of us to do. We will fear the fact that, you know, I just don't want to do this or I don't want to be like this person. I'm fear of man. I fear what man will say. I fear all these things. But, you know, we can't be servants of Christ if we fear and are enslaved by man. And that's what it says in Galatians where if we can't be servants of Christ if we are enslaved by man. And my point here is that he was not just escaping the Lord. He was escaping his destiny. He was escaping your potential. You're escaping what God wants to pull out of you. He want your, when you run away from the mission, when you run away and you have fear that grips your soul, you are literally missing out on what God wants to pull out from you. It's that for you to see what he has in you and for you to see what he can do. So you're not just running away cause, ooh, I just don't want to commit. I don't want to go to life group. I don't want to be part of this movement. I don't want to be here. I'm just going to sit here and be a bench warmer. I'm just good right here. And that fear grips you. But we know that when Jesus comes that that fear got to be casted out. And do we have to be that people that will act in faith? I don't know the outcome. I don't know what's going to come out of this. But I do know one thing that is, if Jesus is with me, everything is going to be okay. Amen. And what's interesting about the story of Jonah that I can't help but explain here is that he told them, just cast me into the sea. He's in the ship and there was a huge storm. I mean, if you thought about it, he looked fearless. He's like, just throw me into the fish. He's in the fish's belly for three days. And I'm like, this guy is fearless. You think and like, just throw me into the sea. You know, it's the Lord that put in the storm and you're thinking like, man, you just can't escape trouble. You know, the fact that even if you go running the opposite direction, you still have to face certain things. You will still have to face that ship, that storm, that fish, whatever you're going to face in life. We are all running, but I would rather run to the mission, run to the Lord, run into his hands. Amen. So we can't outrun circumstances. We can't outrun things that will happen. But what it says about the mission, he says, I will always be with you. Amen. So even though he gives us a mission, he has a mission. He says, I will commit to you, that I will always be with you, even when you're afraid, even when you're in doubt. He said, I will be with you, Jonah. So he's not disappointed in your fear today. God's not mad at you that you're afraid. He's not upset and turned his back on you. He's actually with you in your fear. And he wants you to deal with it. And just to say, just abide in me. So don't allow the fear to be like, he's mad at me. He's disappointed in me. He's not disappointed. He is with you. That is his mission, that no matter what you face today, even if it's fear itself, he's with you through that. Amen. So number one is escape. He ran, but God always does the opposite to. He pursued. He ran, but God pursued him. He couldn't escape God, even though he tried to escape. God knows how to minister in our issue. So even though you're trying to run away from him, I believe that some of you guys know what I'm talking about. You keep on running back into him. You're like, I can't escape him. Why is, because he knows how he's like, you gonna escape me? You can't escape me. You trying to run? I'll run after you. Amen. The second one is excuses. Our friend Moses. Now the enemy did a great work on Moses. Five times, God himself could not convince Moses that he was a powerful man. God himself could not convince him. Think about that. What a work devil has done on his identity. What a work he has done. Five times he says, I fear that, I fear man, who am I? And I will just for background for you guys to understand the story, God calls Moses to set the people free that are enslaved in Egypt by Pharaoh and says, you are going to deliver my people. And this is what he says, Exodus 311, for those that need reference. But Moses protested to God, who am I? I appear before Pharaoh. Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt? God answered his mission, I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you. And it goes on. I'm gonna skip just for time. Verse 10, but Moses pleaded with the Lord, oh Lord, I'm not very good with words. I never have been and I'm not now, even though you have spoken to me, I get tongue tied. And my words get tangled. The Lord asked Moses, who makes a person's mouth? Who decided whether people speak or do not speak here or do not hear, see or do not see? It is not I, the Lord, now go. I will be with you as you speak and I will instruct you in what to say. So many people I will talk to and say, I don't know the Bible the way you do or the way this person does. I don't have the experience. I don't have the years. Inadequacy jumps right at you, say I don't know how to pray out loud. I don't know how to do this. All those things of I am not good enough, but who am I? But Jesus says I will be with you in all things. And you can bring up every excuse of the book. And it says Moses protested against God. He protested. He felt really strongly about how much he hated himself, how he looked at himself. But God protested against his inadequacy. So I want you to see a theme that Jonah tried to escape God, but God would not escape him. Moses protested against God, but God protested against him. Do you see a theme here that any time you try to come against the feeling or an inadequacy, God is gonna come back with you and saying you can protest all you want. But I see you bigger. I see you higher. That even though you don't have the words I will fill your mouth, I am the Lord that gives you the mouth to speak. So even if you feel ashamed, even if you will mess up, I messed up multiple times. Embarrassing moments in front of people, but there is a thing that we have to do. It's called a broken will and say not my will, Lord, but your will. And I'm gonna get there in just a second, but because of time, I wanna go now to the third one. Our friend and our prophet Elijah, the prophet who was exhausted, 30, exhausted, tired. And I feel like this ministers to a lot of people. You're just tired, carrying the weight and the burdens of life where you become stretched thin and the demands of you become greater and greater as you start to get older. And you're like, I just can't keep up. I'd say too many yeses that when it comes to God, you say no, not one more thing, Lord. So yes, yes, yes to everything else and then that no to Lord. But the thing is, is that I feel Elijah a lot. I get tired myself, but here's the thing about God. He knows how to minister. And first Kings 19, four, then he went on alone in the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a sultry broom tree and prayed that he might die. I have enough, Lord. I have had enough. Take my life for I'm no better than my ancestors who have already died. And I know a lot of people focus on the fact that he was suicidal, but I just think he was just done, right? He was tired, he was exhausted. You know, I always think about how people say that like God, you know, spoke to him and said, I have this many thousands, 7,000 I believe, I might be mistaken on the number that are in hiding in the caves. And I'm like, why are they hiding? I'm that person. I'm like, why are you hiding? You know, I mean, I know that Jezebel was, you know, obviously kind of freaky and all that kind of stuff and, you know, threatening him and he's out. But I'm like, that man, when he was on the mountain and he said, the God that will answer by fire, he accomplished such a powerful thing. I mean, whatever he says goes. I mean, that's a powerful thing and a huge responsibility. But he said that I'm the only prophet. He said that the chapter before this and he was convinced he's the only prophet. He's the only man that will serve God because no one ever showed up. He always had to take the slack of everybody else. He was carrying the burdens because those that are a few, the labor are laboring for you too because those people didn't show up and only those few did. And he was tired. He was tired of not just caring what God had for him for everybody else that didn't show up. So he's making up for their work because the enemy kept taking them out because of fear. He kept taking them out because they were inadequate. He keeps taking people out and then there's those few that said, yes, Lord, I am willing. And then what the enemy does to take those out is cause exhaustion. Say, I've had enough. I am tired. I'm tired of things changing. I'm tired of doing these things. But I wanna tell you that the God wasn't mad. That God wasn't disappointed at Elijah. He fell asleep. The Lord let him rest. And I wanna bring this up because I had a moment. I wanna use this as a personal testimony because God is always faithful. And with all this quarantine and all the things that were happening, I was tired because I didn't get less time or excuse me, more time. I got less time. I literally had almost like three jobs carrying the load but I kept doing. I was like a Martha, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. And you know, I missed the point, right? The feet of Jesus, but I was that Martha, go, go, go. And constantly at anyone's beck and call, I love to minister, I love to help people. I love to be there, be present. But I came a time where I was tired and I was exhausted and God is so good because I woke up on Saturday and I was so tired. Like I didn't even wanna wake up. Like and I don't get to that point, I don't. But I did and he whispered in my ear and said, Heidi Baker, now I know that's, it's odd. She's a great woman of God, she's a great minister but I haven't watched her for a couple of years now. And I was like, okay. So even though I was tired, I still created a strategy my friends that no matter how tired I am, I'm still gonna show up in my prayer. I'm still gonna show up and read that no matter what, I created a strategy so that anytime the enemy's after me or anytime I'm discouraged or dysfunctional that I will still show up even if I feel like the God isn't showing up. Does that make sense? And so that Saturday morning I woke up early. I was tired, I was exhausted. But I was like, okay. So I looked up Heidi Baker and I researched and there was this powerful testimony that she did. And she said one thing that the Lord used to speak to me and she was saying how I was so tired that I could not even feed myself. I was so tired that my hunger, I was so exhausted to even eat. And that hit me like a pile of bricks that I was so tired that I couldn't even feed myself spiritually. My passion was being squished, like being squeezed out of me if I could put it that way. And the Holy Spirit was whispering to me and saying don't allow those yeses in your life to threaten us. And I just broke and started crying and saying I need you Lord, you're my first before I say yes to anything else. And he just totally twisted it for me. But, and what's crazy is the fact that when Elijah was here, he was saying to the Lord came, God go out and stand before on the mountain. And God shows up, the angel shows up and feeds him and ministers to him. So he's tired, he's exhausted. And he said I've had enough Lord then he laid down, angel touched him and said get up and eat. See when you cannot eat, when you don't have the physical strength by yourself to help yourself, he will send people to give you what you need. He will send you mentors, he will send you people to feed you. But you gotta show up. So you gotta just show up in order to have that happen. And then the angel of the Lord again, touched him and said get up and eat some more or the journey ahead will be too much for you. And then it goes where he goes onto the mountain and I wanna say this part and we'll close. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a sound of a gentle whisper. There he was. His spirit was fragile. He was in a broken place and God didn't come at him thrusting fire, thrusting wind or earthquakes. He's like I'm not there. He came with a gentle whisper that if today your spirit is fragile, it's broken, you're hurting, you're tired. I want to let you know is that God wants to minister at your state and be gentle with you. He wants you to rest. He wants to restore you. He wants to edify you and build you up. And then it says at the end, he says, and I am with you. So all of this to say that as we're moving forward, what can I do that even though I am had this inadequacy, fear, I want to escape this. Inadequacy, I have all these excuses. Three, I'm exhausted. Lord, how do I do this? How do I overcome all of these barriers, these strategies that are against me? Is the prayer of Gethsemane, where Jesus shows us how. Jesus, the enemy tried to make him miss it. Miss the cross. He said it himself. If you can take this cup from me, if you can, he wanted to miss it. His flesh wanted him to miss the cross because he knew what was coming. But what did he do two things? Lord, not my will, but your will. Brokenness, a broken will. Lord, I don't know how you're going to do this, but I don't want to miss it. I don't want to miss what you have for me. I don't want to go into heaven and know that you missed it. I had all of this for you, all these promises, all of this abundance, but you allowed the enemy to take it. As John 1010 says, the enemy has come to steal, kill and destroy, but I have given you the life of abundance, amen? More than enough, the overflow, but you missed it. Second thing is dependency. Jesus knew where his strength came. Dependency is not a bad thing, even though society tells us we got to be independent, but dependency is knowing where your trust comes. Holy Spirit is our helper, our advocate, as it says in John 14, and he says that in those moments where you need help, be dependent on Holy Spirit to the point where you know that your help comes from him, that is how we overcome. So in the moments where you don't understand the mission, you don't understand what God is calling you to do, I want to encourage you, yes, those feelings are strong. Yes, you will feel those things, all those things, but I want to tell you one last testimony, and I want to tell you the power of missing something. I had a call one morning and I missed it. I was getting ready to go to work and there was this girl that called me and I'm like, why is she calling me this early? I missed the call. Holy Spirit says, call her back. And I'm like, okay, so I call her back. I listened, and she said, I made the appointment, I'm going to abort my baby. And I said, no, you're not. And I said, I'm going to meet you here at Applebee's when we could actually go to restaurants. And this was years ago. And I said, no, you're not. And so I met with her that very day and I did everything in my mind with Jesus. And I said, you're not going to abort that baby. And I said, that baby's going to be a blessing. And guess what? She's now a mother. She did not abort that baby. And I tell myself, my last conclusion is that I tell myself the fact that I'm like, oh my gosh, I almost missed it. That God wanted to use me. And he only calls on those he trusts. He will keep calling you and you'll be able to be able to respond because every time you respond, that impression gets stronger. When the person comes into your mind and you call them and text them and say, how are you doing? You check on that person. You respond quickly. That means that God's like, okay, I'm going to call on you a little bit more because I can entrust you with my voice. Because when I ask you to act, you act. And so he calls on those he trusts. And that is the biggest compliment you can receive from the Lord, the biggest. And so he wants to call upon you. And that enemy is going to use all those tactics to have you not pick up, for you not to show up. But he wants to entrust you with this mission. Don't miss the mission. And so don't allow the enemy to overtake you. It lives here that abundant life. And so I want to encourage each and every one of you that no matter what you're facing, if your spirit is broken, if your heart is wounded, if you are exhausted and you're fighting fear, God wants you to act in faith today and take a step and say, Lord, I don't know what it's going to look like, but I want to give it to you. I want you to be with me every single step of the way. Cause you said, I will, I will be with you in your fear. I will be with you in your inadequacy. I will protest against it. And I will be with you when you are tired. Amen. Come on. Amen. So I want us just to stand up right now. And I want us just to pray between us and Jesus. You don't have to understand everything today. You don't have to understand how it all works, but you just want to work with him. You just want to get into a place where it's just you and Holy spirit. And so I encourage you just to take this moment right now. Thank you. And I just want to call everybody just to bow their heads. And those that are here and that are new today, those that are here on live stream, the Lord is pressing on you and has been pressing on you, but you've been escaping it. What will my friends think? What will this person think? What will I have to give up your baggage? You'll have to give up those things that are weighing you down. And he says, come to me and I will give you peace and I will give you rest. And so I want to call those moment right now that if you want to give your life to Christ, I want to tell you that no matter what you face in this life, it will not be alone. He wants to be with you every step of the way. And so Lord, we pray right now and I want you just to bow your head and say, Lord, I receive you today, Jesus, that you will be the ruler of my heart, that you will forgive all my sins. And I just pray, Lord, that you will be able just to minister to wherever they're at, those that are watching on live stream. And Lord, we give our hearts to you. Have your way with us today, Jesus. In Jesus' mighty name.