full
ABIDE Through Transition
In times of overwhelming change, you can find true security and acceptance in God's presence. Pastor Barbie shares personal stories of fear and change, offers practical tips for finding peace, and reflects on the continuous practice of abiding, rather than seeking quick fixes. You don’t need to have it together to be welcomed and safe under God’s covering. Discover how abiding can give you rest, hope, and a home in the midst of chaos, no matter your background or current struggles.
Scriptures Referenced
Psalm 91:1-13; Mark 3:13-14, 9:30; Luke 12:25-31; John 16:33
Key Insights
- Honest presence with God offers relief from anxiety and fear in seasons of chaos and loss.
- Abiding is a daily, practical choice to remain with God through worship, prayer, and simply slowing down.
- You don’t need to take on the weight of the entire world.
- Real community and purpose are found in staying present with others, whether in the crowd or your closest friends, just as Jesus modeled.
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/abide-through-transition
Subscribe & Follow the Podcast
Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Thursdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcript
Amen. Amen. Well, the Holy Spirit has certainly been weaving
Speaker:things, threading things together all through from last night
Speaker:to this morning sessions through the workshops. I have seen
Speaker:just the steady hand of the Lord, and I believe that tonight is going to
Speaker:be no different. I believe that we're in for a treat, not because
Speaker:Barbie's special, though you are. But the Holy Spirit of
Speaker:God is in this place, and He wants to minister through just
Speaker:one of the most phenomenal people on the planet. Do you guys agree? Would you
Speaker:guys please welcome Pastor Barbie Laughlin as she brings the Word.
Speaker:You know what would have been really awkward? When you said the most phenomenal person
Speaker:and I stand up, and it would be Pastor
Speaker:Justin. And then I would have had to go back and sit down.
Speaker:That's okay. The Lord's working humility in all of us, isn't He?
Speaker:I am so excited! Guys, I'm so glad you came back!
Speaker:I'm so glad in so many levels, you know, it's like, you
Speaker:came back, your leaders came back. You never
Speaker:really know when they take off, but I'm so glad you're back. I
Speaker:want you to know you add so much
Speaker:to this environment with your worship, with your praise, and the way that you
Speaker:all come in and just abandon yourself in worship.
Speaker:We We miss you when you're gone. We so miss you. So thank you
Speaker:for coming back, and I pray that the Lord has done something amazing in your
Speaker:life. Guys, has it not been rich today? I'm telling you
Speaker:the truth. The Ondas this morning both just—
Speaker:the Ondas knocked it out of the
Speaker:park. You cannot even find the park. I'm just telling you this.
Speaker:If you were not here this morning, you need to go back and just look
Speaker:up Ondas— no, don't. Look up this morning's
Speaker:sessions. You need to hear them. I'm telling you,
Speaker:these two women,
Speaker:powerhouses in the Spirit. I had to go home and
Speaker:study after listening to them. I had to look up words and all
Speaker:kinds of things. So,
Speaker:there's the challenge in that, but I'm In all seriousness,
Speaker:Pastor Kevin and I were talking this morning after the first session,
Speaker:we were like, "We could just go on home now, 'cause you know, you just
Speaker:gotta go home and ponder." But you don't get to go home yet. We're gonna
Speaker:wake up, we're gonna have a dance session in just a minute, and—
Speaker:You're not even listening! Don't
Speaker:make me start calling out volunteers!
Speaker:Jim Caldwell, you're first. The
Speaker:man behind the camera. God has something for us tonight, and I'm
Speaker:so excited about how He truly has been
Speaker:weaving this together. And tonight, I'm gonna take
Speaker:it in a direction of abiding when your world is in
Speaker:transition. When everything is changing,
Speaker:everything is changing. And guys, it's nothing new.
Speaker:It's always been changing. We just seem to be a little bit more aware
Speaker:of it right now. And I was so moved, I'm telling
Speaker:you, this the truth. From Pastor Jonathan last night when he began to paint
Speaker:the picture, or work on this tapestry of
Speaker:worship and abiding in worship, and I love the way
Speaker:he does that. And I'm so tickled to know his proposal
Speaker:story and everything else. He's just so
Speaker:rich in this area. And then to listen to
Speaker:Vonda, oh my goodness!
Speaker:That woman, I'm telling you what, the way that she paints this
Speaker:picture of the vine and abiding and
Speaker:all of the distractions and the ground clutter and just
Speaker:beautiful as an educator. And then Rhonda, oh
Speaker:my goodness, I want to know where she gets all of her
Speaker:resources. I need a list and I'm going to have
Speaker:to take a speed speech thing so that I
Speaker:can just, I That, I'm— when I
Speaker:listen to an anointed teacher, I just find myself going,
Speaker:"How did they get that? And God, why didn't you give it to me
Speaker:first?" But that's
Speaker:okay. I forgive— never mind. So,
Speaker:we've painted this, we've began to weave this tapestry of
Speaker:the vine and abiding, and each of us have continued
Speaker:with the same passages of scripture. And
Speaker:so, I would just like to share with you my contribution to the
Speaker:tapestry.
Speaker:I am that squirrel, okay? We
Speaker:are going to talk about a Bible— is he not cute?
Speaker:There was another photo and he was laying on his back and his stomach
Speaker:was really full, and I thought that's a pretty good one too, and probably pretty
Speaker:accurate after the day we've had. But I thought this one was good
Speaker:because we're because what I feel like the Lord is going to have me do
Speaker:tonight, that I feel like He wants me to share with you, is
Speaker:a different slant on
Speaker:abiding. Abiding when the world is
Speaker:crazy, and your home life is crazy, and your
Speaker:school is chaotic, and your church, they're changing things there
Speaker:without asking your permission, and all of a sudden you start
Speaker:to feel this unrest. And you're
Speaker:not really sure how to get back to center with
Speaker:Him, right? So I thought I would help you guys get back to
Speaker:center with Him as we take a journey. And
Speaker:I might have missed the memo. Were we supposed to all use
Speaker:the same scripture?
Speaker:Yay! All right then, I'm not in trouble because not only am I
Speaker:going to share a different scripture with you, it's King James!
Speaker:So, is that a no?
Speaker:The reason I want to share it with you in the King James is because
Speaker:this is a passage of scripture that my mom used to use with me
Speaker:all the time when my world was changing,
Speaker:when things were chaotic, and I didn't really know how
Speaker:to find my place in him
Speaker:long enough to learn to abide. I
Speaker:was grasping at ankles. I was trying to
Speaker:find Jesus. I was trying to find hope. I was trying
Speaker:to find answers. And I didn't know how
Speaker:to get in and just find my place with Him long enough to
Speaker:abide. And my mom—
Speaker:short story— 2 times as a child,
Speaker:our home burned down. And so, even as I— the
Speaker:first time I was very small, but I still remember the home.
Speaker:The second time, I was probably about 7 years old, and we lived in a
Speaker:mobile home. And we had been gone for the night, and we got a phone
Speaker:call that our home was on fire. And we came home, and here's the
Speaker:thing about that. When you are 7 years old, and most of your possessions
Speaker:are stuffed animals, and you're watching them die in a
Speaker:fiery death, as you stand in the road,
Speaker:it does something to you, I'm just saying. And so, what it did was
Speaker:it developed in me a fear when I would go to bed at night,
Speaker:because this happened at nighttime. And so, I would be afraid at
Speaker:night, and because I was afraid something was gonna catch on
Speaker:fire and all that. And so, my mom would come, and
Speaker:she would sit on the bed next to me, and she would begin
Speaker:to share this with me. "He that
Speaker:dwelleth," Barbie, "in the secret place
Speaker:of the Most High shall abide under the
Speaker:shadow of the Almighty." She said, "You can say of
Speaker:the Lord that He's your refuge, and He's your fortress, and
Speaker:He's your God, and Barbie, you can trust Him.
Speaker:Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler,
Speaker:and from the noisome pestilence," which I thought was my younger sister,
Speaker:and He shall cover
Speaker:thee with His feathers, and under His
Speaker:wings shalt thou trust. His truth
Speaker:shall be thy shield and thy buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid of
Speaker:the terror by night. Barbie, baby, you don't have to
Speaker:be afraid of the terror by night,
Speaker:because I was. Nor of the arrow that flyeth by day,
Speaker:nor for the pestilence that— oops, what's that say?
Speaker:Oh wait, y'all can read it too?
Speaker:Read the last parts with me. "Nor of the pestilence that
Speaker:walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that
Speaker:wasteth at noonday." And louder. "A thousand
Speaker:shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at
Speaker:thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh
Speaker:thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
Speaker:behold, and see the reward of the wicked."
Speaker:because thou hast made the Lord, which is
Speaker:my refuge, even the Most High,
Speaker:thy habitation. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker:We have made the Lord Most High what? Our
Speaker:habitation. There shall no evil befall thee,
Speaker:neither any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for he shall
Speaker:give his angels charge over thee to keep
Speaker:thee in all of thy ways. I'm going to skip this next one.
Speaker:Guys, when we— no, I'm not. Yeah.
Speaker:"They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy
Speaker:foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the serpents,"
Speaker:oops, "upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon."
Speaker:There be dragons! "Shalt
Speaker:thou trample underfoot." This
Speaker:was my abiding scripture. This was my
Speaker:abiding scripture because I was afraid of
Speaker:the terror in the night. I I was afraid when I would
Speaker:see anything. I was just a frightened child.
Speaker:I walked in a lot of fear. And Mama would go,
Speaker:"Baby, you just gotta abide. You just gotta
Speaker:picture yourself," she'd say, "I want you to just tuck in there.
Speaker:I want you to just tuck in there." And today, you know,
Speaker:you hear people who's like, "You're tucked in snugger than a
Speaker:bug in a rug."
Speaker:No. When I was tucked in, I was under the
Speaker:shadow of the wing of the
Speaker:Almighty God, and I could see it in
Speaker:my spirit. I could see it. And when she would say, "Tuck
Speaker:in," I knew that she meant, "Get in there and don't come out.
Speaker:Just tuck in there. You let Him cover you." And you let all
Speaker:of those things earlier when we talked about all of the fruit of
Speaker:abiding, Do you understand that being protected
Speaker:and being covered and having all of these things
Speaker:are things that happen when you begin to learn
Speaker:to abide under the shadow
Speaker:of the Almighty? Did you even know
Speaker:that there is such a thing?
Speaker:Oh, go back. "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Speaker:shall abide under the shadow
Speaker:of the Almighty." Shall abide.
Speaker:Shall stay under the shadow
Speaker:of the Almighty. It says here if
Speaker:we dwell, we dwell, we dwell. That word is yasaab.
Speaker:It literally means to sit down.
Speaker:Sit down in the middle of that place with Him and abide
Speaker:and stay. Sit down in it. Sit down
Speaker:in that moment with Him. Sit down in that place with
Speaker:Him and continue. Just be still. Inhabit.
Speaker:To make it one's home.
Speaker:You can abide. You can make your
Speaker:home in under the shadow
Speaker:of the Almighty God. The Almighty God.
Speaker:Not only that, it's a secret place. It's a
Speaker:secret place in Him. It is a place, you know
Speaker:what? When I go into His presence, that place that He
Speaker:has for me, when the world is crazy and
Speaker:I don't know what is going on, there's this place that each of
Speaker:us place can go in Him. I want you to
Speaker:know that when you pursue Him, and when you decide that
Speaker:you really want to follow Him, and you want to find a place in Him,
Speaker:that place that He has for you isn't going to look exactly like the place
Speaker:that He has for me. It's going to be different because it's special,
Speaker:and it's secret, and it's a covering, and He covers what you
Speaker:need covered. And when I'm in that secret place, He what I
Speaker:need covered, and He protects me from the
Speaker:things that I need protection from. So guys, when you
Speaker:go into this place with Him, and you sit
Speaker:down in His presence, and, and literally
Speaker:visualize the shadow of His wing coming around
Speaker:you, the intimacy of that moment, and you make a decision
Speaker:to stay there, you can expect
Speaker:I don't even have to put a dot, dot, dot. You can
Speaker:expect. It says here, "Most
Speaker:High." What? Most High? El
Speaker:Elyon. The elevated one. The supreme of all rulers,
Speaker:monarchs, or angel princes. It highlights God's absolute
Speaker:supremacy, sovereignty, and role as the Creator and
Speaker:Possessor of heaven and and earth. It is
Speaker:used to indicate God's superiority over all other gods,
Speaker:all earthly powers and spiritual realms. That's
Speaker:where you're going. That's where you're going when you make
Speaker:a decision to come in and tuck in close
Speaker:to Him and learn to abide in His presence.
Speaker:That's who He is. El Elyon. The
Speaker:Supreme One. The Creator and
Speaker:Possessor of heaven and earth, and abide. You know
Speaker:what? There's something I like about this. You loon! Anyway,
Speaker:you know what's precious about this? I didn't know this, and I know,
Speaker:I know that my mom didn't know this, but you know,
Speaker:today the Amdas were talking about abiding
Speaker:during the day, and God and Rhonda was talking
Speaker:about day after day after day after
Speaker:day in abiding in that vine and and what God is
Speaker:doing. And I kept thinking, "I used to
Speaker:pass the night with Him." So not only is
Speaker:He covering me in the day, and I'm
Speaker:abiding in this vine by day, at night,
Speaker:to pass the night, to lodge, to stop and
Speaker:dwell, to stay and continue to tarry, to remain through the
Speaker:night. That's what He gave me as a child, and that's something
Speaker:I still have today. I still tuck in. And when I
Speaker:talk I tuck Rowan and Nora in bed at night and I'm tucking those
Speaker:covers in behind them, all I can see
Speaker:is the shadow of the wing of
Speaker:the Almighty God just tucking them in
Speaker:tight and covering them up.
Speaker:And that would be my prayer when you're tucking your babies
Speaker:in at night, that you would see that it's not
Speaker:just about tightening those covers. It's about
Speaker:tightening the COVID It is about
Speaker:allowing God to be God and sovereign in the middle of the
Speaker:night. What does this have to do with transition?
Speaker:Everything! Everything!
Speaker:Because when everything's changing, if I like it,
Speaker:it's okay. But what if things are changing and you don't
Speaker:like the way things are going? We have choices
Speaker:in those moments of where we're going to stand, whether we're going to— one of
Speaker:my favorite one of my favorite, favorite songs Pastor Wayne ever
Speaker:did. And he's got like a million and a half songs that
Speaker:he's written. Such an amazing artist,
Speaker:psalmist. But he stood up here and he sang a
Speaker:song called, "I Will Not Run."
Speaker:I will not run. And I can't tell you
Speaker:how that impacted me as a child of
Speaker:people who ran. It impacted me to
Speaker:go, "There are people who do not run." And guys, we are not supposed
Speaker:to be a people who run. We are supposed to be
Speaker:a people that tuck in and abide
Speaker:in the presence and the shadow of the Almighty God.
Speaker:Shadow. I liked this part just
Speaker:because it made me think about the branches outspread
Speaker:a permanent place to shelter. Through what?
Speaker:The transitoriness of life. When everything's
Speaker:changing, everything's changing, and you just want
Speaker:to tuck in and hide somewhere, that's His
Speaker:shadow. Now what about this? Under the shadow of who?
Speaker:Of who? The Almighty. This is
Speaker:Shaddai. This is Shaddai. This is the
Speaker:all-sufficient one. And guys, it's
Speaker:so important, and we gloss over this, El Shaddai is the God
Speaker:of the mountain. The God of the mountain, and I want
Speaker:to share with you what that means. But
Speaker:before I go there, I was so impacted
Speaker:when Rhonda— I'm sorry, when Vonda was sharing this morning, and she was talking
Speaker:about— well, actually Rhonda shared part of it as well.
Speaker:They were talking about what it looks like
Speaker:to abide, and their definitions, just every
Speaker:single one of them, I'm like, "God, I want that!
Speaker:I want to know that!" But
Speaker:I have a place that I abide
Speaker:when I'm trying to get back to center, and when I'm trying to find
Speaker:my place back under His wing, And if I
Speaker:can, I'm gonna take you there with me and kind of show you what that
Speaker:looks like in my world, in my life.
Speaker:Because what I do when I'm trying
Speaker:to find that place
Speaker:in the night watches, in the day,
Speaker:I'll sit down at my piano
Speaker:and I just shut everything else out
Speaker:and I just kind of see myself in that
Speaker:place with Him, just Him covering me
Speaker:and lifting my voice and just talking to him.
Speaker:And when we began to talk about abiding,
Speaker:I just sat at the piano.
Speaker:That's how I took it. That's how I
Speaker:lean in. And I
Speaker:know, I know that you have
Speaker:a song that is just yours and just his
Speaker:and a place where you can lean in under the
Speaker:shadow of the Almighty. That's the invitation.
Speaker:Whoops, I gotta finish.
Speaker:You can't just leave it hanging out there like that. You know, people, all the
Speaker:musicians in the room are going,
Speaker:"Oh wait, I should have left it that way, shouldn't I? That would have been
Speaker:fun." Anyway, wanted to wake people up, that would have been the way to do
Speaker:it. So, why am I telling you this?
Speaker:Sometimes you need a tool. Sometimes we can talk
Speaker:all day about what it's like to abide in the vine, but I want you
Speaker:to see what it's like to crawl up into the vine. That little
Speaker:squirrel up there, that feels like me a lot of times. Like, "Lord, I know
Speaker:I'm attached here somewhere, but Lord, I'm going to walk this
Speaker:vine just a little bit until I find the place where I can sit down
Speaker:and rest because God, I need
Speaker:you. God, I need you."
Speaker:As the world around us changes and transitions, the temporary
Speaker:winding toward the permanent. We have the
Speaker:invitation to tuck in and to be covered by His
Speaker:wings. To abide. When my
Speaker:mom was telling me that I could abide and that He would
Speaker:cover me under His feathers, she had no idea
Speaker:that it was literally talking about nighttime.
Speaker:We sit down, we still ourselves, we inhabit His
Speaker:secret covering, sheltered by El Elyon, passing through
Speaker:night watches in the The permanent shadow of
Speaker:the all-sufficient One. The permanent
Speaker:shadow. See, He doesn't change. He does
Speaker:not change. That invitation, guys, when
Speaker:Pastor Kevin came to us last year and he said, "I really feel like the
Speaker:Lord is leading us toward abiding," the first thing
Speaker:I saw was those wings. The first
Speaker:thing I saw. It's like, Lord, I don't know everything about
Speaker:abiding, but I don't know all of it, but God, I know how to hide
Speaker:there. God, I know when I need to be restored, when
Speaker:I need to be covered, when my family is shaking, when
Speaker:my work is shaking, when I turn on the news, Lord
Speaker:forbid, and you see everything else that's happening. Guys, that's just chess
Speaker:pieces. That's just chess pieces.
Speaker:That is the
Speaker:temporary moving toward the eternal. That's
Speaker:all it is. Don't get caught there. Don't get
Speaker:caught up there. We sit down, we still ourselves, and inhabit.
Speaker:"He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His
Speaker:wings shalt thou trust." I so wanted feathers.
Speaker:Not attached, but
Speaker:I really wanted like a bunch of feathers, but then I could just see
Speaker:Pastor Jonathan picking them out of his guitar strings, and I thought that probably wouldn't
Speaker:be a good thing. He shall cover you. Our lives
Speaker:are hidden. Listen, our lives are hidden in
Speaker:wings and prayers. Bon Jovi
Speaker:didn't write that.
Speaker:Well, maybe they wrote their version of it. Guys,
Speaker:I knew my mom's prayers, the 91st
Speaker:Psalm, and the way that He covered me.
Speaker:There's an abiding place for
Speaker:you. Which of you by worrying
Speaker:can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot
Speaker:do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Speaker:Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not
Speaker:labor or spin, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all
Speaker:of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If
Speaker:that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which
Speaker:is here today and tomorrow is if one of them is thrown into the fire,
Speaker:how much more will He clothe you,
Speaker:you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what
Speaker:you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it, for the pagan
Speaker:would run after such things, and your Father knows
Speaker:that you need them. But seek His kingdom, and
Speaker:these things will be given to you.
Speaker:Put Him first. Put Him first! Go after
Speaker:Him first! Guys, I was listening to
Speaker:a doctor/theologian/minister/psychologist.
Speaker:Okay, let's just say he had a lot of certificates.
Speaker:He was an older gentleman, and I was listening to him,
Speaker:and he said, "You know what I see all the time? There's so much
Speaker:anxiety. There's panic attacks in
Speaker:epidemic. There is fear, and there is restlessness. I'm
Speaker:seeing this in my office, And he said, "The thing about it is—"
Speaker:And he gave the science behind everything that's released,
Speaker:the flight and fight mentality, all of that. But then he
Speaker:slid right into pastor mode. He said, "Guys,
Speaker:God did not design you to worry about poverty in
Speaker:Bangladesh. He did not design you to
Speaker:be concerned and fearful over everything that you're seeing,
Speaker:things that you can't touch and change." I'm not talking about missionaries that
Speaker:God sends. I'm talking about the day-to-day, you you and me who turn
Speaker:on the news and look at things and, and feel overwhelmed. He said, "Your
Speaker:physical systems were not designed for that, and your
Speaker:spiritual systems are not built up enough that they know
Speaker:how to combat it." So what we're doing is we're medicating it, and
Speaker:thank God for medicines that will help people in those
Speaker:situations. But what he said was, you were
Speaker:designed by our Creator
Speaker:for small community. I can grieve with Kevin.
Speaker:I can rejoice with you. I can
Speaker:handle grief within a small area as we
Speaker:minister to one another, but what the enemy has done is try to make us
Speaker:all feel responsible for everything that is happening in the world, but as
Speaker:they said this morning, and as Pastor Kevin said last night, we
Speaker:can't fix it! We can't add one inch to
Speaker:our height. We can't.
Speaker:Let me tell you how Jesus did this, because I'm looking at how
Speaker:He abided, because He abided. It wasn't just
Speaker:us abiding. He stayed. Jesus
Speaker:stayed with the 5,000. When you look at the world, when you
Speaker:see the masses, and you're going, "How do I do this?" You
Speaker:abide in compassion. You abide in compassion.
Speaker:It said, "And seeing the multitudes," He went up on a
Speaker:mountain and He did what? He sat down.
Speaker:You know what that word means? He abided.
Speaker:He went in, kathizo, continue in one place,
Speaker:abide, and settle in. When you don't know what to
Speaker:do with everything you're seeing and everything you're hearing, move in
Speaker:compassion, pray, sit down,
Speaker:settle in for a minute, and go, "God, I see it and I know that
Speaker:I can't change it, but God, I can't, you can. And you are
Speaker:a God who stays. He went from the 5,000
Speaker:and then with the 12. With the 12, you know how He abided?
Speaker:God will put people in your life that you can abide with, that you can
Speaker:walk with. Jesus abided in discipleship
Speaker:with the 12, and they abided with Him,
Speaker:and they learned, and they gleaned, and they went with
Speaker:Him. I love this right here. I hope they put this scripture up.
Speaker:"Again Jesus went up on a mountainside and called
Speaker:to Him those He wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed 12
Speaker:that," what? "They might be with Him."
Speaker:What? "That they might abide with Him.
Speaker:Sitting down," kathizo, sitting in the middle and waiting,
Speaker:"Jesus called the 12 and said, 'Anyone who wants to be first,
Speaker:must be the very last and the servant of all,
Speaker:abiding the opportunity to come and be in.
Speaker:Then there were the three. See, you can have compassion for the
Speaker:masses, and you can abide in compassion for the
Speaker:masses, and then you abide in discipleship with those that God
Speaker:puts into your life and brings into your realm of influence, and
Speaker:you pour into them and you sow as the best that you can. And then
Speaker:there are the three. Then there are those intimate companions. There are
Speaker:those that share your life with you on a daily basis.
Speaker:With the three, Peter, James, and John, Jesus stayed.
Speaker:He abided. How did He abide? In revelation
Speaker:and relationship. You can sow into those close
Speaker:relationships and you can reveal your heart in
Speaker:those relationships as you abide and you stay
Speaker:in those places. With Him,
Speaker:all of those things change. The 5,000 changes.
Speaker:The 12 will change. At this point in my life, I can tell you my
Speaker:12 has changed over the years, but the
Speaker:calling to those in that area has not stopped and has
Speaker:not changed. With the 3, I have been so blessed to have the
Speaker:most amazing friends in my life, and God has sent to me what I needed
Speaker:me in those seasons exactly what I needed.
Speaker:I'm going to skip. In scripture, I
Speaker:want you to pay attention, guys. All three of those things I just told
Speaker:you, whether it was God in the thousands, He went up on
Speaker:a mountainside and He sat down and abided with
Speaker:the twelve. He went up on a mountainside and He began
Speaker:to call the twelve. And then with the three, He took the two
Speaker:and And they went up on a mountainside and the revelation
Speaker:of God came to them. What did I just call El
Speaker:Elyon? What did I just call El Shaddai? The
Speaker:God of the mountain. The God of the mountain
Speaker:that meets us there. Mountains
Speaker:are places of revelation. Not a lot grows there,
Speaker:but revelation does come. My granny used to have
Speaker:me sit down and sing In the valley he
Speaker:restores my soul. And there's a line in it that says, nothing grows
Speaker:high on a mountain, so
Speaker:he picked out a valley for me. I
Speaker:have told you these things so that in me you may
Speaker:have peace. In this world, this has already been shared today, you
Speaker:will have trouble, but Do what? Take
Speaker:heart! Take heart! I have overcome
Speaker:the world. You can abide there. You
Speaker:can stay there. You can grab hold of that and
Speaker:rest. Now let me tell you something, abiding does not just
Speaker:happen. It does not just happen. It's something, it
Speaker:is a decision. You decide,
Speaker:God, I want to Abide.
Speaker:I want to abide in the vine. I want to
Speaker:be attached to everything you're doing. I'm so grateful for
Speaker:the roots. When Rhonda was talking this morning about the roots, and that's
Speaker:where our water comes from. I am so grateful that, but
Speaker:in order, it's a decision to stay, and a
Speaker:decision, it's a practice. We don't learn it overnight.
Speaker:We don't wake up, just like the plants don't grow overnight, and
Speaker:as Pastor Shari shared today talking about the tree appearing
Speaker:in her front yard just overnight, and it doesn't happen
Speaker:that way. But if we will practice, if we
Speaker:will practice, and we will allow the Lord to show us what
Speaker:abiding looks like in our life. It is a
Speaker:posture. It is a place in
Speaker:Him. Worship guys— oh, I'm sorry, you
Speaker:prefer worship dudes. I'm sorry. Worship
Speaker:team. Oh no, actually the correct
Speaker:term is Levites. You
Speaker:do understand, and you do understand that
Speaker:you are a priesthood, Levitical priesthood.
Speaker:There's a lot that, that is behind their
Speaker:abiding. So what we're going to do is we're going to
Speaker:give you just one more opportunity before
Speaker:you go home and dread that hour that you're losing. Before
Speaker:you go home, we're going to make a conscious decision and we're going to
Speaker:do this. He who dwells in the secret place
Speaker:of the Most High will abide under
Speaker:the shadowy wings of the Almighty. Guys,
Speaker:if you have capacity And if you are able, young people,
Speaker:lead us. Lead us. Those
Speaker:of you who were up here kneeling, take just
Speaker:a moment if you would. And I want you this time,
Speaker:when you settle into worship— grown-ups too,
Speaker:I don't mean to negate you, but
Speaker:I also know what your knees are like. And If
Speaker:you have it in your heart, this time when they lead us in this
Speaker:song, I want you to just close your eyes for a minute. If you're kneeling
Speaker:or if you're standing, and I want you to take just a moment
Speaker:and press into that place, and
Speaker:I want you to see it in your spirit, the invitation to
Speaker:just tuck in and abide under
Speaker:the shadow of the Almighty. Go
Speaker:ahead, guys.
