Marked Before Moved - Tim Timberlake

In this powerful message from Acts 7, we are reminded that God always marks us before He moves us. Drawing from Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin and God’s covenant with Abraham, this sermon challenges our modern obsession with comfort, possession, and affirmation—calling us instead to obedience, surrender, and transformation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, I'm Tim Timberlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church Podcast. I hope this message encouraged you, strengthened your faith, and gave you something you can carry into your week. If you'd like to stay connected, I encourage you to join us live every Sunday at 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. on YouTube. We would love to have you there. And if you're ever in the Jacksonville, Florida area, come see us in person. We have a seat saved for you. Thanks again for being with us. We're so grateful for you and see you next time. Grab your word. Go to Acts chapter 7 with me. Good to see all of you. Happy Sunday. Second Sunday of the year. How many of you were here last Sunday? Way back. 100% attendance. Come on, somebody. Two weeks in a row. Keep it up. Consistency is the vision for your life for 2026. Amen? Acts chapter 7, beginning at verse number 5, and the scripture says, but he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground. And yet, even when he had no child, he promised that he would give it to him as possession, and to his descendants after him. But God spoke to this effect that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years. Whatever nation to which they will be enslaved, I myself will judge, saith God. And after that, they will come out and serve me in this place. And they gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob. And Jacob of the 12 patriarchs. For a moment, I want to utilize this text for our subject matter today. Mark, if we're moved. Let's pray. Place your word down and grab your neighbor by the hand. Heavenly Father, we come with great expectation today. We believe that you are here. So we're asking that you would speak to us, change us, transform us, renew us, and allow us to become more like you. We declare you alone unworthy. And so right now we stand in all of your grace and amazed by your mercy. It is in your name we pray the name that is above every other name, the name that is undefeated, the name that has lost no battles. So right now, God, we stand in your presence and we proclaim that there is no higher name than the name of Jesus Christ. We give you all the glory, honor, and praise. In Jesus' name. And everybody that's glad is still alive and well, shot amen when time. Take your seat. All of our family that are in the overflow, watching online. What an honor and a privilege it is to be with you in the presence of our Father. As we continue to march through the book of Acts, we find ourselves at a particularly intriguing juncture in Scripture that gives us language that we don't commonly use today in public, that we're going to highlight, uplift, and use often in today's message. And so I want us to begin with verse number five. But he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet even when he had no child, he had promised that he would give to him as a possession and to his descendants after him. But God spoke to this effect that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years, and whatever nation to which they would be enslaved, I myself would judge, said God. And after that they will come out and serve me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. This is Stephan talking to the Sanhedrin Council, and as we learned last week, he's speaking with great courage because he knows that his life is on the line. The Sanhedrin Council is accusing him of the same thing they accused Jesus of, which is blaspheming God, blaspheming the temple, and blaspheming Moses. And Stephan's reaction and response to that was not his opinion, it was not his emotions, it was not his way, it was the word of God. He begins to teach to them what God told Abraham in Genesis. And he begins to unpack to them what the word of God says. And whenever the enemy presents to you proof and evidence that you are guilty, you have to respond with the word of God that reminds him that Jesus took the sacrifice for you.

unknown 5:24

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

And there is no guilt to those that are found in Jesus. And so as the enemy tries to defend and prove to God that you are guilty, Jesus fights that battle for you. Stephen is sitting in front of the Sanhedrin Council, allowing the word of God to fight the battle for him. See, some of us we get caught off guard because we don't know the word of God, and when we don't know the word of God, we give people a piece of our mind. And when we can't give people a peace of our mind, we start screaming and hollering because we have no substance. But when you know what God's word says, you're not intimidated by the threats of the enemy. Come on, somebody. And so, although Stefan's life is on the line, he's not intimidated by the Sanhedrin Council because he knows the word and he knows Jesus. And so he begins to teach them about what God spoke to Abraham. He begins to show them what God did for Abraham, and he reminds them that what you are waiting for, you are not currently standing in. Who you're waiting for can be found if you search in the right places. And he begins to unpack what we have just read in Acts chapter 7, beginning at verse number 5 to 8. It allows them to know that what God told Abraham and what God showed Abraham was different than how they perceived. See, in the ancient Near East, land meant identity. Children and lineage meant security. And let me just say this while we're here. In the westernized region, society, and culture, our perspective on children is different than the Near East, particularly at this particular junction in time. What I mean by that is oftentimes we have children so that we can protect them. Me and Jen, we have a son named Max. He's nine years old. He's a fireball of energy. And it is our responsibility to protect him. Not once when he was born that I think he's got to grow up so he can protect me. But in the near ancient East, the mentality and the context of having children was for the children to protect the legacy of the parents. That's why God the Father sent God the Son. Did you catch that? Because our mind is like, okay, why wouldn't God defend his son? Because the context is he bred. The son defends the legacy of the father. So the fathers never went out to battle first, the sons went out to battle first. And as children of God, it is our mandate and priority to defend the faith, to contend for the faith, and to defend the legacy of the kingdom of God. That's why you are here. And so Stephan is teaching the Sanhedrin Council a valuable lesson. What you think is priority is actually not priority. The presence of Jesus is priority. And if you prioritize his presence, you don't have to worry about the plot of land that you're fighting over. He utilizes Abraham as an example. And in this passage, he utilizes language that, as I mentioned before, we don't utilize often, like circumcision. Is that a word people say in church and people start shouting? As a matter of fact, if I was to say to all the brothers immediately following service, we're going to get a corporate circumcision. Y'all think people leave early when it's offering time? We're gonna go to the doctor, we're gonna line up in all of us in our old age, in our grown age. We're gonna show God how faithful we are through the gift of circumcision. And men understand that that's a level of pain as an adult we don't want to experience. But what we fail to realize and understand is that whenever God wants to circumcise something in your life, it means he wants to cut away at something that you have utilized as a cover that he has never called to cover you. And some of you have been trying to cover yourself with your own flesh instead of cover yourself with the presence and the power of God. And God said, in this season, I will cut away at everything that you have covered your own self with, so that you can know that what you have covered yourself with is not all powerful, it's not all knowing, it's not omniscient, it's not omnipresent, it won't give you victory, it can't heal your body, it won't redeem you, it won't resolve, it won't set you free, it won't resurrect you. Only I can do that, and so I will cut away at every single thing you have put in place that you think can do what I can do. And quite frankly, some of you need to be cut today. Cutting never is comfortable. But what cutting always does is it exposes what blood you got on the inside. God was saying, before you inherit anything from me, I need complete and total ownership of you. Stephan's accusation to the St. Heather Council is this you love Abraham's promise, but you don't honor Abraham's posture. And some of you claim to be the seed of Abraham without making the sacrifices Abraham made so that you can stand in faith like he did. And Stefan stands before this council and he's breaking open the word of God and he's teaching them in a roundabout way that what you have prioritized has become an idol in your life over the very presence you say you believe in. Here's the modern tension for us in 2026. We live in a moment in a society and a culture that's obsessed with belonging before we obey. Identity without surrender, home without holiness, promise without process. We want God to affirm us before God forms us. And God will never form you and not affirm you. But God will not affirm you before he forms you. And some of you are uncomfortable on the cutting table because you don't know what happens next. And God doesn't need you to know what happens next for you to be completely and fully obedient to the plan and the purpose he has for you. He just needs you to agree with his plan and not push back the knife. If you can stay on the cutting table long enough, God will reveal himself in you so that you can see him and not you. Some of y'all need plastic surgery to look like your father. Because when you look in the mirror, you still look like yourself, you still sound like yourself, you still walk like yourself. One thing that you will learn about circumcision on a man is it changes the way he walks. And some of you still walk the same. You're still apologizing to people because God is changing you and transforming you. Stop apologizing because God is actually growing you up and maturing you. One of the greatest compliments you can ever receive in this life is you don't look the same. When someone tells you that, thank them. God did not send his son Jesus to be whipped, pierced in his side, crucified, crown of thorns placed on his head, hanging on the cross, taken off the cross after he gives up the ghost, placed in a tomb, resurrect from the dead, so you can sit here and make excuses as to why you're not changing.

unknown 13:32

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

No, he came and made the ultimate sacrifice so that you could actually become more like him. So when someone tells you you look different and you're not acting the same as how we used to act, and you're not doing the same things that we used to do, you thank them. Say, thank you for seeing my growth. Thank you for seeing my maturity. You think you're better than me. No, I don't think I'm better than you. I just think I'm changed from the person you used to know. We want God to affirm us before God forms us, and God will form you so that he can affirm you, but God will never give you anything that brings further separation between you and him. So Stefan, in this text, he exposes a people who defend sacred symbols while resisting spiritual submission. Simply put, they wanted covenant benefits without covenant blood. And in order for you to see what God desires to see in your life, there's going to take some cutting away at who you used to be so that who he's making you can be revealed. And that only happens through blood. He shed his blood for you. So why are you covering it? If I were you, I'd be splashing that blood all over the place. I plead the blood over my house. I plead the blood over my children. I plead the blood over my marriage. I plead the blood over my mind. I plead the blood over my job. I plead the blood over my friendships. I plead the blood over my relationships. I plead the blood on everything that God has asked me to steward. I'd be shedding that blood everywhere I can because there's still power in the blood, and there is no covenant with God without first blood shed. That's why Jesus came and shed his blood for you to make the ultimate covenant with you. This passage of scripture gives us some truths, and I want you to write this down, point number one, as we move to the text. You don't arrive at home by comfort, you enter by covenant. What is biblical covenant? Biblical covenant is a sacred binding relationship initiated by God, established by promise and oath, and sealed by sacrifice, sustained by faithful obedience, through which God commits himself to a people and calls them to live in loyal trust and submission to him. At its core, covenant is relational and not contractual. And oftentimes we don't know what covenant is because we think in terms of contract. God, I'll do this for you if you do this for me. God, I'll come to church if you bless me. God, I'll be consistent if you open up this door for me. And God don't work off of your contract, God works off of your intentionality and your intimacy with Him through the median of relationship. And so when your mentality is, God, I want to know you and not just what's in your hand. And so before God establishes you, guess what God does? He exposes you. Before He settles you, He cuts you. Here's why. God will never move you into what He hasn't first cut out of you. And some of you you think you're growing, but the reality is it's just a growth. There's a difference between a growth and growing. Let me explain. A growth in your body pulls nutrition from your body. When you grow, it adds value and nutrition to it. A growth needs to be cut out because it's consuming energy, it's consuming effort, it's consuming nutrients that should not be consuming it. When you grow, guess what? You give your spiritual man the things that it should be growing in. A growth is hazardous. Growth is intentional. And some of you think a growth is from God, a growth is from the enemy. And just because something is expanding in your life does not mean it's been intentionally designed to grow you by God. Some of you got relationships that are a growth, some of you got boyfriends and girlfriends that are a growth. Some of you are in relationships that God never intended for you to be in. It's a growth. And God is going to circumcise those things so that they don't steal from what it is that He's providing for your spirit, man, in this new year of 2026. And it's uncomfortable to get cut. Because you promised yourself the person that you're with. But God never did. And you're finding happiness, but guess what happiness is feeling. So what I'm going to do over the next few minutes is break down the next few verses. The first phrase that we're going to break down is but he gave him no inheritance. In the ancient world, inheritance meant security, it meant permanence, it meant identity, it meant proof of favor. Yet Abraham, the father of faith, dies without owning the land God promised. So did God lie to Abraham? No, because God does not lie. So if Abraham did not see what God had promised, it must meant that God sees more than Abraham could. Let me tell you how arrogant we are, how prideful we are. We think that God thinks on our level. And when God speaks prophecies and promises to us, we think that the prophecy and the promise ends with us because we all dead in a bag of chips. God does not speak merely to you, He speaks to everything that will come through you. Because God speaks through lineage, He speaks through inheritance, He speaks through bloodlines. That's why God says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's why in some books of the Bible, He gives you the breakdown of lineage, and they begot this person, and they begot that person, and they begot that person, because when God sees you, He sees more than you, He sees everything that you will produce. And so when God speaks a promise or a prophecy to you that you don't see in your lifetime, you better believe that it's going to come through you and it's going to hit the generation coming behind you. But Pastor, I don't got kids. Yes, you do. Your children in any generation that you pour the word of God into. Your children in any generation that you encourage and you infuse with hope. Your children in any generation that you give faith to. The word of God says in Proverbs that this word will be passed down from one generation to another. So when God sees you, he sees more than you. And the reason some of us miss it is because we're so focused on what we're carrying. What's in us and what God has spoken to us. And you will miss every promise, every declaration, every decree, every prophecy if you think that God's word is limited to your lifetime. So God does not lie. He spoke what he spoke to Abraham, and Abraham did not see it with his own eyes. But scripture says that we are the heirs of Abraham, and the very land that God promised Abraham now is being occupied by the children of God. Not because God intended for Abraham to see it, but because his intention was always that whatever he produced would benefit from the blessing that he carried. So here's my question to you today in 2026 What are you carrying that you've looked past? Because you're so concentrated on what God spoke to you about a generation that you cannot yet see. Don't be selfish with the prophecy, don't be selfish with the promise. Don't always Think it got to happen for you and for your lifetime and for your eyes and for your ears. No, sometimes what God speaks to you is not for you, it's for who is coming through you. I'm living witness, I'm standing in the prayers and in the prophecies and in the promises that God made to my father. My father died at 52 the day after my 18th birthday. He never saw it, but he prayed those things, and God said, I'll make sure that I deliver them to you. When he said you, he was not talking to him, he was talking about everything that came through his bloodline. And you need to understand that there's more power in your bloodline than what you understand. So Stephen is dismantling a false theology to the Sanhedrin Council. This false theology is a theology that we still believe today. Is that faith equates to immediate possession? God does not operate off time, but God honors him. And when he asks you to stand in faith, it does not mean immediate possession of what you believe God for. Some of us believe more in the things than we believe in God. And when things don't happen the way we plan for them to happen, we lose faith in God because we never had faith in God. We had faith in what God could provide for us. And so what God will do is intentionally withhold ownership to shape your dependence on Him. If Abraham had possessed the land, the promise could have ended in territory and not in the presence of God. So by withholding possession, God anchored Abraham's faith in relationship, not in possession. For Hebrews chapter 11, verse 9 says, by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise. What does that word alien mean? Alien means here, but you don't belong here. You are an alien. You are in this world, but you are not of this world. Don't spend your life obsessing over the things of this world. Don't spend your life enamored with the things that this life can give to you. Because it would be a shame to be rich here on earth and be poor in your next life. I would rather God cut me here and reveal his glory in me there. Than for me to have glory given to me by men and women here. And I still operate in flesh here. And never possess the crown of righteousness there. And so he says there has to be a cutting away at your flesh, there has to be a cutting away at your heart, there has to be a cutting away at your will, there has to be a cutting away at your way, there has to be a cutting away at your emotions, there has to be a cutting away at who you made yourself to be so that I can reveal myself in you. And this is where Stephen is instructing the Sanhedrin Council to do. You made much of your own name, but you made so little of the name of Jesus. You made much over the possessions, but you made very little over the promise. And then he moves on to the next phrase. Not even a foot of ground. Stephan is specific on purpose. This phrase implies no legal claim, no measurable ownership, no permanent stake. What God was teaching Abraham is this your faith cannot be rooted in territory, only in me. The modern tension of this text is we equate blessing to acquisition. God equates blessing to obedience. You equate blessing to what you get, what God seemingly gives you, how much money you have, what car you drive, the house you walk up into. You equate blessing for how you feel. And if I feel a certain way, ooh, I'm blessed. God says your blessing, you're ingoing, and your blessing, you're outgoing. Not because of what you have, but because of who you're obedient to. He says, You are the head and not the tail. You are above and not beneath. Not because of what you have, but because of who you belong to. He says you will lend and not borrow, not because of your possessions, but because of who has all things under their power in their hand. See, when you know who you are, you remind yourself of what the word of God says. The word of God says, my father has everything under the power of his hand. A thousand hills, all cattle, all territory, all land, all possessions belong to my father. If it belongs to him, guess what? I am a joint heir with Jesus. It means it belongs to me. Next phrase says, and yet, even when he had no child. See, land promises meant nothing without heirs. A land with no son is an empty future. So what Stephan is telling the Sanhedrin Council about this text at this particular point, Abraham has no land, he has no child, he has no proof, only a voice and a promise. This faith is stripped of all evidence. And all he has to hold on to is the word of God. Stephan is standing before this council, knowing that whatever he says could dictate if he lives or if he dies, and he's telling them through the life of Abraham, I have no evidence, only the word of God. My question for you right now is if you only got the word, would that be enough? If you only got the word of God, would it be enough? How come Jesus isn't enough for you? Why is it that you need more than Jesus? How do I know? Because you mix and mingle other things with your relationship. You hop out of bed with Jesus and you get in the bed with your horoscopes. You hop out of bed with your horoscopes, you hop on Instagram and TikTok and Facebook and you talk about everything except for Jesus. Because you don't want to be offensive. You hop out of bed with social media and you get in bed with your coworker. Maybe not physical, but mental. And scripture says if a man or woman thinketh, so is he or she. And you hop out of that bed and you stay in your own bed on Sundays because you don't want to get cut. And when you do come, you complain the whole time because we don't want to change. We want God to enhance our life with Jesus. We don't want to exchange our lives with His. What we fail to realize is it's not until we get cut that we begin to look like Him. God often removes invisible security so that your faith was attached to his character. It's because God wants you to depend greater on His word, on His presence, on His power, on His person, and you do what you're producing. The next phrase says He promised that He would give it to Him as a possession. This promise is a future intent. So God is not lying, He is warning. Possession is delayed so that obedience can mature. And what God is teaching Abraham in this passage and what Stefan is teaching the St. Heathen Council is a powerful truth. The promise precedes possession. And some of you want possession without promise. And God will not give you promise without you being possessed by him. Because if God does not possess you and he gives you the promise, God will never see you again. So God keeps you dependent upon him by possessing you, by cutting you, by stripping you, by extracting everything that's not like him out of your life so that you can better reflect his glory, his grace, his mercy, his presence, and his power. And he proves to you that without him, you want proof without obedience. With him, God wants obedience without proof. Some of you are like, God, show me and I'll obey. God is like, obey and I'll show you. God, if you do this for me, I'll follow you all the days of my life. And God is like, if you follow me all the days of your life, I'll show you some things you never thought were possible. God, if you give me a raise, I'll start sowing. God is like, start sowing, and maybe I'll give you a raise. See, you're not waiting on God. God is waiting on you. And it's not until you are fully, completely, and totally yielded and allow him to strip away everything that is making you look more like yourself instead of like him, then you will begin to see him do the things in your life that only he can do. The next phrase, and to his descendants after him. This is generational wait. This promise extends beyond Abraham's lifetime. This means that faith outlives fulfillment. I'll say it again. I want you to write this down. Highlight this in your notes. Write it down in your Bible so that you don't get disappointed in what you don't see and what you don't get and what you don't receive and what you don't and what you don't hold in your own hands. Faith outlives fulfillment. And obedience, it doesn't just impact you, it impacts generations you'll never meet. Abraham had to obey for a future he would never fully see. What I've learned about God is that God builds legacy through people who are willing to die trusting him without ever seeing anything. And so a faith that only believes for itself, hear me, will never carry God's future in it. If your prayers are only for you, if what you hope for, what you long for, what you want to possess only impact your life and don't change the world around you, there's a great possibility you won't see those prayers answered. Because God doesn't just want to answer your prayers, He wants to answer the prayers of what you produce. And so God makes Abraham a promise, and the promise was you will see your children inherit what you have envisioned you will inherit. Stephan is telling the Sanhedrin Council, you idolize the land Abraham never owned while rejecting the faith that made him worthy of it. You worship possession but resist pilgrimage. You defend territory while rejecting true and biblical trust. What God will do in your life, what he will do in the people's lives that are around you, is God will withhold the ground beneath your feet so you learn to stand on his word and his word alone. He will strip you of everything that you've gotten comfortable in, he will strip you of everything that you've gotten complacent in, he will strip you of everything that you find convenience in, and he will infuse you with a godly conviction that will allow you to settle, that won't allow you to cover yourself in your own flesh, but it will strip you of the things that you desire to cover yourself in, and you will only see his hand at work in your life. Point number two is this God marked the place of reproduction because what you produce reveals who you belong to. This wasn't cosmetic, this was alignment. And Stefan is confronting leaders who prioritize preserved the rituals over preserving intimacy with Jesus. They aborted righteousness, they defended traditions, they resisted transformation, they protected the form of godliness, but rejected the fruit of obedience. And if you're not careful, this will become new. You'll know scripture, but you won't know his presence. You'll know church language, but you won't know the power of the Holy Spirit. You'll celebrate legacy, but you'll cancel discipline. You'll love revival language, but you will reject the lifestyle of repentance. This is what we have to understand. God does not mark you for aesthetics, he marks you for alignment. And God marked Abraham not so that he could show differently, but so he could be transformed differently. What Stefan is teaching the Sanhedrin Council is this I don't care how you look, if you're not marked, you're not gonna move. And some of you are trying to move without God marking you, and God will absolutely keep you stuck in the season that you're in until you stay seated long enough for him to mark you so that he can move you from one season to the next. Stop trying to move before God marks you. And right now, in this moment, God is marking some of you, and it's uncomfortable, and you think I'm talking directly to you. And the truth is, I am talking directly to you. The Holy Spirit is talking through me to you for your present circumstance, situation, trials, tribulations, and tests. You have to be marked so you can move. Aren't you tired of being stuck? Aren't you tired of spinning your wheels in the same season over and over and over again? And the reality is, is every test that God gives you is only meant for you to take once. But if you fail it, you'll sit in front of that test for the rest of your life. And some of you, your test today is obedience, some of you, your test is consistency. For some of you, your test is sacrifice, but for some of you, your test is to reflect the love of Jesus Christ. For others, you your test is grace, extending the same grace that you've been given to other people who desperately need it in your life. But you will take that test over and over again if you continue to fail it. What we have to understand is God cuts away every illusion of self-ownership. See, physical circumcision declared very loudly, you are not your own. Spiritual circumcision on your heart, on your soul, on your spirit, it declares that you do not belong to yourself, you belong to God. I want you to hear me when I tell you this. God marked the part of his body most associated with autonomy, with pleasure, and with legacy. Did you hear what I said? And some of you are being tested in that very area today. Your autonomy, your pleasure, and your legacy. You're using language with your family. I'm doing this for you. I'm not home because I'm trying to provide a better future for you, and God never asked you to do that. Some of you are so caught on your passions and how you feel, and how does it make you feel and your way and your emotion that you've made your passions your God? And so God will absolutely cut away at your passions, He'll cut away at what you've been producing, He'll cut away at what your hands have been on, He'll cut away at the job you've made an idol, He'll cut away at that relationship you've made a God, He'll cut away at the finances that you've been stewarding that you think are your God, and you make decisions based upon money instead of allowing God to steward through you what it is that He's allowed you and entrusted to you in the first place. Stop making things, God, above God in your life, and watch how God utilizes those things for his glory. This is what God desires. He desires to own your future, he desires to own your fruit, and he desires to give you fulfillment. But you can never have those things if you desire autonomy, if you desire your pleasure separate from him, and you desire a legacy absent from his presence. At a deeper level, circumcision is God severing the lie that you get to decide where and who you belong to. You don't accidentally get circumcised. There's no oops, pal, surprise. It's intentional. There's an intentional decision to allow God to cut away at everything that has tried to cover you, absent from his presence. Can I give you one more? Point number three as we close is this. The greatest threat to faith isn't rebellion. The greatest threat to your faith is comfort. You don't settle into God's promises, you follow Him into them. Stefan's charge to the Sanhedrin Council is not forgetfulness, it's immobility. They got stuck in a place God never called them to get stuck in. They made a house where God told them to make a tent. They dwelled in a land that did not belong to them. And what God is encouraging you today is do not make a house where He has not intended for you to stay. They froze God into a place God was no longer intended to stay. They tried to box God in. The Jesus you see is the Jesus you get. And when you take the restrictions, when you take the box, when you take the chains off of the Jesus you see, you get a savior that's unlimited. You get a savior that's not restricted. You get a savior that's not tied down to you and your circumstance and your situation and your reality. You get a savior that operates above that and controls what it is you see and how you see it. When you apply the word of God, it stretches your vision. When you apply the word of God, it stretches your ability to hear. But if you're not in your word, you don't know who's speaking to you, and you'll follow any voice that speaks. What we have to understand is God is always moving, so why do we get stuck? God is always speaking, so why don't we always hear? Because we get in the way of what God is doing with our expectations and our limited perspective. So as we come home today, we have to understand this homecoming is not nostalgia, it's not tradition, it is obedience in motion. God didn't promise stability, he promised himself. God didn't promise comfort, he promised that your character would change when you depend on him. God didn't promise that things would be easy. God promised that when you walk out this life, he'll be with you every step of the way in good seasons and in bad seasons, in mountaintops and in valleys. He said, I'll never leave you, nor will I forsake you, I'll be with you until the very end of all time. God never said that you'll get everything you want. He said, I'll provide everything that you need. So you will absolutely stay stuck in the season that you're in until God marks you and He cuts away every part of you that is not a reflection of Him. He will circumcise your heart, He will circumcise your mind, He will circumcise your will, He will circumcise your way, He'll circumcise the things that you have prioritized over His presence, He will circumcise the things that you have prioritized over His power, He will absolutely cut away at everything that you want so that you can actually see what you have need of. Some of you can't see because you still got your eyes open. One of the greatest threats to your faith is not doubt, it's what you see. Because what you see often becomes a distraction from what God said. I said it last week, I'll say it again this week. Some of you need to close your eyes so that you can see what God is showing you. Don't get distracted by what's around you. Be hyper-aware, be hyper-focused of what God is doing on the inside of you. God cuts, and when God cuts, it's not discipline first, it's deliverance first. God isn't correcting you because you failed, he's cutting you because he sees what's enslaving you. And anytime God cuts you, it's because he sees what's actually holding you back. Anytime God cuts you, it's because he sees what you're trying to use as a cover that can only be covered by him. Anytime God cuts you, it's because you've idolized and prioritized and made little gods over things that God never intended for you to prioritize over him and his presence. So he will cut you until you look like he does. So today God is marking you before he moves you, he's calling you high. He's stripping you of the identity you gave yourself and he's reminding you that you are a son, you are a daughter of the most high God. God never cuts you to hurt you, he cuts you to unhook you. And although it's painful, the pain of circumcision pales in comparison to the pain of remaining stuck. Today, if God is cutting you, it's because he refuses to compete with anything in your life. God will not share your heart with fear, he will not share your heart with control, he will not share your heart with self-protection. And what feels like loss is often God removing rivals in your life. What you have to understand is anything that competes with trust will eventually be confronted by love. I'll say it again. Anything that competes with trust will eventually be removed and confronted by love. One of the greatest signs of God's love is that he circumcises you so that you can look more like him. Close your eyes by your hands. If you're here right now and you know you feel the Holy Spirit cutting you, you feel the Holy Spirit circumcising your heart, you feel the Holy Spirit cutting away at you, you know you need to reflect him in a greater manner. You know you need to become a son and adoring. You know you need to repent, get your life right with him. Stand to your feet right now as you stand, lift your hands. All over this room. If that's you online, put it in the chats. That's me, Pastor. I need to return home. I need the Holy Spirit to circumcise me. Circumcise my heart, circumcise my will, circumcise my ways, circumcise my wants, circumcise my selfishness, circumcise my pride. I need that. I need that. Stand to your feet. Don't wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow is not promise. Make the decision today. I see you all the way up top. I see you all the way down low. I see you. Wait. You know who you are. Stand. Don't allow embarrassment or shame to make eternal decisions for you. As you stand, lift your hands. Everyone repeat this prayer after me. Lord Jesus, come into my heart, cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I repent from my sins. And I thank you for your grace and your mercy. It covers me, it keeps me, it lifts me, and it grows me. Today my desire is that you would cut away at everything that has caused me to look like myself and not like you. I declare that by your stripes I am healed of all sickness, infirmary, and disease, even the disease of sin in my life. You wash that white as snow. And so I confess that you are my Lord, and I believe in my heart that you are my master. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen.