Famine in the Land | Kyle Idleman | Full Service

Hello, Southeast family. So glad to get the  opportunity to take a moment from high school   camp to be able to say hello to you. My name is  Kenishha Fischer. This is my good friend Lauren   Johnson. So glad to have her here. How you doing  today? I'm doing so good. Listen, just trying to   stay cool, right? Yes. It's a little hot out  here, but we're we're surviving. We're doing   great. We're doing the best we can. Now, Lauren  has recently graduated from our residency program.   got hired on down at Franklin as guest services.  Makes sense with the stellar smile. I'm a fan. So,   we are so glad to have her in our family and  working down in Franklin, Tennessee. We are   here at high school camp, Ephesians 2:10,  Kingdom Workers. There's a lot going on.   A lot of the messages are reaching our students.  How's that been affecting your group? Yeah, it's   been awesome. And we've seen a lot of students  just kind of like finally grasping what it looks   like to have a relationship with Jesus and maybe  asking some really cool questions that keep them   I can just tell their minds are just going like  their gears are shifting um to finally understand   what it looks like to be in relationship with  Jesus and not just know a lot about him but   truly accept him and have that tangible love for  him and by him. So yeah, so refreshing to see. I   happen to be with the uh senior girls are going to  be in their senior year. What about you? Yeah, I'm   with seniors and juniors, so some upper classes.  So encouraging. Also, as a mom of five boys, being   around all these girls all week has definitely  been an eye openener for me. It's been fun. But   what I've noticed the most is how passionate  they are about really having more of Jesus,   like you said. Yes, 100%. That is so refreshing  to see from our younger generation. There's been  

a lot of discussions about worth, about value,  about who they are in Christ and finding that   identity and knowing that they are kingdom  workers and valued by God. So for you,   what is something that you've been affected  by in listening to your students? Yeah,   so our students are some amazing leaders. They're  so bold for their faith and I've learned so much   from them. So many girls just just having this  example of like we're going to be on our knees,   right? We're going to be taking this bold step  of leadership. We have some girls leading small   groups like we're just kind of wanting to  embolden our students to to walk into what   the Lord is calling them to do. And it's just  been encouraging to me cuz I'm like, man, I wish   I had this boldness and this faith at the age  of like 17, 18 years old. It's insane. The Lord   is he's been working in a lot of really awesome  ways. Yeah. And that is so encouraging to see,   right? Because, you know, I remember being that  it wasn't that long ago that I was that young.   Keep that in mind. But I do remember sitting in  one of my small groups and listening to these   young ladies with these big powerful thoughts and  thinking, gosh, that's got to be so heavy or or   why is that happening? But the world is absolutely  trying to craft them into its image. And here   is God working as much as he can and winning  hearts. And I think for me it is a reflection of   remembering that that time between 14 and 18 is  a struggle. And we know that the enemy is busy.   But here we see at high school camp changes being  made. So we're excited about that. We're excited   for you all. Thank you so much for your prayers  and for your encouragement all through this week.   We're looking forward to seeing how these  kingdom workers keep going forward when we  

get home from camp. Thanks for praying. Thanks  guys. Well, hello Southeast family. Thanks for   joining us today. My name is Christina Green and  I'm here with my friend Jessica Der. Hey guys. And   we're live from the Prospect campus here in Oldm  County, Kentucky. Christina, this is your campus,   right? This is where you go. Yes. This is home  for us every week. So, it's so sweet to be here.   uh today and joining you. We are just so excited  you're here. We have so much to celebrate. Oh,   yes, we do. So much big day. As you just heard  from Kenisha and you heard from Lauren from   high school camp, we just got back. Um and  I am a little bit I'm going to be honest,   my my throat is scratchy. I'm a little bit tired  and it was all worth it because we experienced   and witnessed life change this past week at high  school camp. We are celebrating 200 baptisms. Wow.   across campuses. Those are firsttime decisions  to follow Jesus. And then we're also celebrating   135 students who raised their hand and said, "I'm  interested. I feel the stir to be a kingdom worker   within the local church." That's just incredible.  Which is incredible. And so they're making their   first steps of committing to vocational ministry.  And so we have so much to celebrate this morning,   baptisms, and it's just an incredible morning.  And of course, we would be remiss if we did not   say that we are also celebrating the Fourth  of July weekend. So everybody, happy 4th of   July. Celebrating 250 years of America. Um, but  here of course at Southeast Christian Church, as  

Christina just said, we are celebrating the fact  that we have freedom through Christ, which we've   just seen through so many young students, boys  and girls giving their lives to Christ this past   weekend at camp. We're so thankful and thrilled  about that. Um guys, if you're traveling today,   if maybe this is the first time that you've tuned  in online, or if maybe this is your this is your   service, you're here every week with us. We are so  glad and we would love to connect with you. Text   us this morning. Get in touch with us because  we've got some really fun things happening just   around the corner, Christina, don't we? We do. We  do. My favorite series that we do over the summer   at the movies is coming up July 26th. That is  a four-week series and oh my goodness, it's   one of my favorites. So much fun. So much fun.  Kyle takes Hollywood films uh that you may know   of and then takes them and puts biblical truths  around them to apply them to our personal lives   and and it's incredible. So, if you've never been  to At the Movies before, we want you to join and   we want you to pray right now. Start praying. Who  can you invite to the At the Movie series? Maybe   it's a friend, a co-orker, a family. It is a great  opportunity to bring someone into the church and   we get to watch a movie and hear biblical truth  around it and it's just so much fun. I love it so   much. I know I'll be there at everyone and I can't  wait to see what movies that we get to see this   year. It's it's just a blast. Um and guys, just  remember that this is an inerson event and um it   will be in person only to see the movie. But don't  worry, we still have you all covered online as  

the online family. We will have a special sermon  series just for you. So, make sure that you still   tune in. And guys, we are back this week, week  three in our series, Meant for God. We have Kyle   bringing a message today on Genesis 41 and 42.  We are still following Joseph in his journey from   from beloved brother and son to uh imprisonment  to slavery to a trusted adviser of the Pharaoh.   And today's Kyle's going to be reminding us that  we need to pray with desperation through every   situation. and that when it feels like God  is silent, he's actually faithfully working   behind the scenes and in the shadows to bring  glory to his name and to the good of everyone   and everything. So, we'll see that again today in  the story of Joseph and I can't wait to see what   Kyle says. It's always such a sweet, sweet sermon.  Yeah, I can't wait either. So, if you are joining   us and you're traveling maybe this Fourth of July  weekend and you're joining us that way or you're   part of our SE online family, whatever it is, we  would love right now for you just to set aside   distractions. We're going to head back to Blake  Baker and we're going to prepare to worship um our   great great God. We have so much to celebrate.  So, we'll see you here soon. See you guys.

We lift our hands to the heavens and  we are here for you. We reach for the   heaven of your garment. Yeah, we know  what it can do. We know what it can do. We refuse to go through the motions. When  the king is in the room, hear the sound of   our emotions. Let it build the song for  you. Let it build the throne for you.   Everything that I praise, praise every praise, praise everything to praise you, Lord. Praise.

We pray. Yes, we do. We call the pion every glory. We refuse to bring it all.   That's how it comes to save me.  You're worth everything. Everything praise everything. Praise. We praise you.

or it's dancing with joy. We'll sing songs never  ending. We love to bring you grace if it's face   down before you or a victory shout with our  hands to heaven. Hey, we love to dream you.   You're the God of salvation. You're the great I  am. You're the foundation. We love to bring you. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Praise. Praise. We praise the Lord. Yes, we do.  We worship you. We praise the Lord in every sing.

We praise the Lord. Come on, church. Give  a shout of praise to the Lord today. Amen. Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand, and  Everything around me shen. Oh,   I've never been more glad. You see I put my Oh, he never let me down.  Faithful through generations.

So why would he now he still got you still got your I've got peace that makes no sense. So I won't be my life for Jesus and he's never faithful in every season. No heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat.

You're so faithful, God. Even when  I'm not faithful, you're faithful. You say you testify to me. The rain  came when my house was built on. I'll stay with you. I'm going to make you build on you. Heat. Heat.

Oh, heat, heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Yeah. Heat. Amen, church. God is so good. Um, we're going  to continue in worship and uh we're going to   sing a song. Uh, it's called Goodness of God.  And this song is very special to my family,   very special to I'm sure a lot of families in  here too. And uh as we were singing these songs   this morning and some of the lyrics we've been  singing are just about the Lord's faithfulness   in any season, worshiping him through anything,  his faithfulness in every season, in every way.   And as we were singing these songs and just I  don't know, praying over the day, I just kept   thinking about just specific times when um you may  not feel that you may not feel his faithfulness.   And you may be asking yourself the question, does  he have good plans for me? Does he want the best   for me? Is he even there? I think we would all be  lying if we said we didn't have a season in our   lives that felt a little bit like that. Or maybe  you're walking through that right now. And so,   as we sing this next song, we're going to sing  of his goodness and for the times that he was  

there for us. My prayer for everyone in this room,  specifically our students, would be when you find   yourselves in those in those seasons that feel so  low or you feel like the Lord is not close to you,   just show up anyway. There is something to  be said about showing up anyway because God   can use your laments and he can use your moments  of praise and it is all worship to him. It's all   worship. And so that's my prayer for us today. So  Lord, we come before you. And some of us might be   entering in here and we're in a high place,  God. We're celebrating um your faithfulness   tangibly in our lives. And some of us may be  walking in today, and we don't know what your   love feels like. We maybe we've never even known  that, God. Or we feel like you're far from us,   Lord. But what with whatever we're walking in here  with today, God, we came because we're seeking you   and we're seeking a revival maybe in our hearts,  God. in our families, Lord. With whatever that   looks like, we are seeking you. Your presence,  a peace that can surpass all understanding, God,   a comfort that can only come from you, God. A  strength that we don't have inside of ourselves,   God, that only comes from you, Lord. And we  worship you with everything that we have today.

Amen. Let's sing this together, church. I love you, Lord. Oh, your mercy never fails me.   All my days I'll be held in your hands. From the  moment that I wake up until I live, won't you see all my Heat. Heat.

Every sing of the goodness. I love your voice. You have led me through the fire in  my darkest night. You are close by. I know you as you sing with me today. I know you all my life. All my life you have been faithful. In all my life you have been so so every of the goodness of God.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. is running out today for me to know I give you everything is It all cuz all my life you have faith.  We sing as one voice today.

is every breath that I Oh, I will see the heat. It's only going to see the goodness of God. Yes, we  will see the goodness of God. Hallelujah. Amen. God, you're worthy. You're so worthy, God.  And we'll sing of your goodness, Lord, in any   season, God. We believe that you're faithful, God.  We believe that you're moving a mountain in our   lives, even if we can't see it in the moment,  God. We will sing of your faithfulness, Lord.   We love you. We'll forever worship you. Amen.  Church, let's go ahead and take a seat together.

I know for some of you this weekend is  complicated. Like you love this country,   but you're also worried about it. Like you see  what's happening in the headlines and in culture,   conversations around your dinner table, and  you feel something that could be hard to name.   It's not quite fear or anger. Something maybe  closer to grief, like watching someone you love   make choices that you can't stop them from making,  but you're sure of where it's leading. So, look,   I'm not going to stand up here and pretend that  away. I'm not going to give you a pep talk about   how everything is fine in our country, cuz I  don't think you'd believe me and I don't think   I'd believe it myself. But here's what I'm going  to do. I'm going to take you back 250 years in   American history and then several thousand years  into ancient Egypt because I think the story of a   man named Joseph in the book of Genesis actually  has a lot to say about this moment in America.   So stay with me. We're going to celebrate.  We're going to look at scripture and I hope   by the time we're done, we're going to leave here  with something much more useful than a political   platform or the latest hot take. 250 years ago,  something happened that changed the world. A group   of men, like imperfect and complicated men,  but courageous men, signed their names to a   document that declared something the world had  never heard a nation declare before. that all  

people are created equal, that they are endowed  by their creator with certain unalienable rights.   Among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit  of happiness. And there's something telling about   some of the language that's tucked in to the end  of the Declaration of Independence. It's easy to   overlook because it's not political language.  It's actually theological. It says with a firm   reliance on the protection of divine providence,  a reliance on divine providence, it's a dependence   on God. And so it's not an accident that this  document opens with God as creator and it closes   with God as protector. Like these men, whatever  their faults, believed that God was not a spec   was a spectator to what they were doing. So they  knew what they were risking. Benjamin Franklin in   the room that day said, "We must all hang together  or most assuredly we will all hang separately." A   lot's happened in the last 250 years. Washington  crosses the Delaware. An army of farmers and   tradesmen defeat the most powerful military  empire on earth. Abraham Lincoln stood on the   steps of the capital in the final months of the  Civil War and he called the nation to humility.   He said, "Both sides, quote, read the same Bible  and pray to the same God." It was the most divided   moment in our country's history. And he reached  for scripture to find a way through. One night on  

December 31st in 1862, enslaved and free black  Americans gathered in churches and in private   homes all across the country waiting for the news  of the Emancipation Proclamation to take effect.   At the stroke of midnight, the news broke. It was  received that this had been passed and there were   prayers of gratitude, songs of joy as people fell  to their knees and they thanked God. In 1869,   there was the transcontinental railroad. A nation  had stitched itself together from coast to coast   through mountains and plains, impossible terrain  on sheer will and perseverance. In 1903, um,   Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle mechanics from  Ohio, took a 12se secondond flight across 120 ft   of North Carolina beach and 66 years later, we  were on the moon. 1969, Neil Armstrong stood on   the surface on the moon, as far as you know, and  he planted an American flag. A little known fact   is that Buzz Aldrin did something before taking  a single step. He took out a small communion kit   that his pastor had given him. And he took  communion on the surface of the moon. Men   stormed beaches to liberate people they had never  met. Immigrants crossed oceans with nothing but   a suitcase and a dream. And they built something  from scratch. A generation marched peacefully and   changed the conscience of a country. Ordinary  heroes ran towards buildings in New York. like  

250 years. There's plenty we could criticize  and critique, but today's a day we celebrate,   like we have gratitude. And when we look back  over 250 years and we think about the history   of our country, we tend to look through like a  political lens, like we focus on the wars and   the presidents, the amendments and the elections.  But it is the spiritual history that I really want   us to appreciate today. It's a history of a God  who has refused like repeatedly and stubbornly   let this country go dark. To help us have a frame  for what's happened to this country spiritually,   I want to take you to ancient Egypt. We have been  studying the book of Genesis since the beginning   of the year. And we're currently going through  the life of Joseph. And in Genesis 41, a man named   Joseph has had uh the worst decade imaginable.  Sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely   accused by his boss's wife, thrown into prison,  forgotten by the one person who promised to help   him get him out. And by the time we reach chapter  41, like Joseph has every reason to be bitter,   to be hopeless. But then Pharaoh has a dream.  Seven fat cows, like seven fat, healthy cows in   his dream, come up out of the Nile. And then seven  starving, ugly, like barely hanging on cows come   up behind him and devour the fat ones. He wakes  up sweating. He has another dream, kind of a  

very similar dream, and he is disturbed. He calls  every wise man in Egypt to interpret the dream,   but nobody knows what they mean. But somebody  remembers a Hebrew in prison named Joseph who was   said to be able to interpret dreams. And so Joseph  is pulled out of his prison cell. He's cleaned   up and he is brought before the most powerful  man in the world. And he just says it plainly.   Genesis 41 29-30. 7 years of great abundance are  coming throughout the land of Egypt and then 7   years of famine will follow them. Seven years of  plenty, seven years of famine. The famine will   be so severe it will consume everything that the  abundance produced and it will spread across the   entire known world. And then Joseph does something  bold like pretty risky. Like Pharaoh asks for an   interpretation, but Joseph doesn't stop there.  He also gives him a strategy. In other words,   he doesn't just tell him what it means. He tells  Pharaoh, "Here's what you should do about it."   Joseph says, "Find a wise man and appoint him over  the land and collect 1/5th of every harvest during   the good years. Store it in every city so that the  nation will be ready when the famine comes." And   Pharaoh looks around the room and he looks back  at Joseph who just gave this advice and he's like,   "Well, who's going to be better than you?"  and he puts his signate ring on Joseph's hand,   gold chain around Joseph's neck, and he gives him  authority over all of Egypt. Suddenly, Joseph is  

second only to Pharaoh himself. The second most  powerful man in the world now is Joseph. And he   gets to work. Genesis 41 says, "He gathered up all  the food and he stored it in the cities. And for   seven years, while all of Egypt is eating well  and living comfortably and enjoying abundance,   like Joseph is filling storehouses, every city,  every region, the Bible says that the grain   became like sand on the seashore. They stopped  counting it because there was too much to measure.   So there's not really a dramatic moment, no big  scene, just Joseph faithfully working, storing,   believing that what God said was going to happen  was really going to happen. And for seven years   he does something about it before a single person  feels hungry. So what saved a generation really   what saved the known world was a man who took  the revelation from God seriously enough to do   something about it even though most of the people  at the time thought it wasn't necessary. Genesis   41 says all the earth then came to Egypt and to  Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe   over all the earth. like not just Egypt, not just  the immediate neighbors, like people came from   every direction, every nation, every background,  all of them hungry. And so, Joseph's story is not   just ancient history. It's a template of how  God reveals and how God provides and how God  

raises up people at just the right time. It's  an example of someone being faithful during a   time when nobody else seemed that concerned. Like  everybody else was pretty comfortable. But Joseph,   like he had different eyes for what was happening  and for what one day would happen. And so God,   I believe, has been doing that kind of work  on American soil for 250 years. Every time   this nation has gone spiritually dark. Every time  there's been a spiritual famine of some kind, God   has appointed someone willing to fill storehouses.  I'm going to tell you about some of those moments   in American history. I want to introduce you to  some of those people. Looking back over the past   250 years of America, we see that about every  about every 50 years, almost like clockwork,   there's a spiritual famine followed by spiritual  awakening. Like God opens up a storehouse and   people who are spiritually starving come from  all over. So let's start in 1734 in Northampton,   Massachusetts. The American colonies were in  spiritual famine. The churches were formal   and cold. A generation, a generation had grown up  treating God as a intellectual exercise at best,   like nobody was really being saved. Nobody  was really changing. It's tradition. But   then a pastor named Jonathan Edwards preached a  famous sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an  

Angry God. And the language in that sermon, it's  pretty terrifying. He pictures spiders dangling   over flames, a pit of hell opening be beneath your  feet, and God's wrath burning like fire. And so,   like Joseph, he is speaking truth even when it's  hard to hear. But it woke the church up. When you   read that sermon, you picture a man preaching  it who's thundering from a pulpit, you know,   pounding the lectern. But that wasn't Jonathan  Edwards. Like, he didn't have a commanding voice   or dramatic gestures. His eyesight was so bad  he had to hold his manuscript a few inches   from his face to read it. But he spoke truth  and he preached about grace like he believed   it. And people came flooding to Jesus. George  Whitfield followed crosses the Atlantic and he   starts preaching to like 30,000 people at a time  in open fields because no building could hold the   crowds. When he assessed the American churches,  he was honest with his conclusion. He said, "The   reason congregations are so dead is because dead  men preach to them." And he preached like a man on   fire. And so the first great awakening spread  across colonies, across denominations, across   class lines. 50 years later, we find ourselves now  in Kentucky, a field in Kentucky about 90 miles   from where I'm preaching this. In August of 1801,  in a Presbyterian meeting house in Bourbon County,   Kentucky, in a place called Cane Ridge, 20,000  people descend on this field and they'd come in  

wagons, dirt roads, hunters, gamblers, people who  had never set foot in church came. They came from   every direction because something was happening  and word had spread. Seven preachers would stand   throughout the field on stumps and wagons and  logs and they would preach simultaneously to these   crowds. An eyewitness said that the crowd was so  loud it was like the roar of Niagara Falls. Like   people would fall to the ground under conviction  and they would repent for hours. That's just 90 90   minutes from here in a field. Like most people  would drive past that now without even knowing   it exists. I mean it doesn't look like much. old  log meeting house, some trees, a historical marker   that most people have never stopped to read. But  what happened in that field 224 years ago, it   changed the world. Changed the world in ways that  are still rippling today, 50 years later. 1857,   a former businessman named Jeremiah Landfire had  this burden. So he rented a room above a church   in Fulton Street. It's in lower Manhattan. And he  made a simple flyer. He passed it out around the   neighborhood. Just said, "Prayer meeting 12:00 to  1:00 for merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers,   and businessmen." He sat alone in that room for 30  minutes. And finally, a single person arrived. Six  

people would eventually show up. He didn't cancel  it because of poor attendance. Came back the next   week, there were 20. The week after 40 and then  the stock market crashed and banks collapsed and   30,000 men lost their jobs in New York City alone.  And suddenly the whole city was hungry, desperate   enough to pray. And that meeting started to happen  daily. Spread to other buildings, other cities,   other states, lawyers, physicians, merchants,  clerks. They tie their horses up outside.   They'd come in just for even five minutes on their  lunch break just to get on their knees and pray.   Within 18 months, an estimated 1 million people  had come to Jesus. That's like more than 3% of the   nation's population being swept into the kingdom  by prayer of one ordinary man who waited alone in   an empty room. Hungry and desperate people came  by the hundreds of thousands. No famous preacher,   no platform, no marketing strategy, just a man who  believed that prayer was the work. 50 years later,   1906, Isuza Street, Los Angeles, God does what  apparently God loves to do. He finds the one   person that nobody would have chosen, William  Seymour. He is the oneeyed son of a formerly   enslaved family from rural Louisiana. This is  back in Jim Crow, America. He wanted to learn   the Bible more than anything else. And so he  found this Bible school in Houston, Texas,  

run by a man named Charles Palmer. And Palmer  led him attend but not inside the classroom.   So Seymour had to sit in the hallway outside  the classroom and listen through the wall. But   that's what he did every single day. And then  someone in Los Angeles heard about this man and   invited him to come preach at their small  church. He came and he preached on Sunday,   but he wasn't invited back the next Sunday.  But William Seymour, as you might guess,   is not a man who could be easily set aside. So he  found a house and he started praying. He called a   10-day fast. Three days into that fast, eight men  were on their knees together. The neighbors came   to see what was happening and the crowds began to  swell. The front porch eventually collapsed under   the weight of the people. And soon it was three  prayer meetings a day, seven days a week for three   straight years. And then in 1906 when churches  were as segregated as everything else like there   was hard lines that had been drawn between black  and white like but there at Isuza Streak the color   line dissolved like black worshippers, white  worshippers, Latino, Asian, illiterate, poor,   wealthy people who had nowhere else to go. All  of them come together on that same dirt floor.   A white southern preacher named Frank Bartleman  came to investigate and here's what he wrote. He   saw this diversity and he said, "The colorline  has been washed away by the bloodline." Secular  

newspapers came to mock it. Critics said it was  undignified. It was embarrassing. It wasn't real   Christianity. But the people kept coming. They  were hungry. The crowd was well-dressed. Sometimes   skeptical preachers came to expose it as fraud.  and then they would end up on the dirt floor in   repentance. But William Seymour, the man who had  learned scripture sitting in that hallway cuz he   wasn't allowed in the classroom. He preached  every service with his face hidden behind a   wooden shoe box cuz he didn't want anybody looking  at him. He wanted them looking at God. And revival   spread from that building across the country  and around the world. 50 years later, 1970,   a dying church of about 25 people in Costa Mesa,  California, cracked open its doors to barefoot   hippies that nobody else wanted. Pastor Chuck  Smith admitted that he had written them off,   but it was his wife Kay who said no. And she had  this burden, and she insisted to her husband that   he do something about this. And there was an  elder who wasn't happy about all these young   hippies coming to church. So he put a sign on the  front door said no bare feet allowed. But Pastor   Chuck Smith tore that down and he said he would  rip up the carpet before he turned away anyone.   And 1970 alone. Thousands of people came to be  baptized in the Pacific Ocean there. Historians   say that the Jesus movement reached more lost  people than either of the great awakenings  

before them. Two to three million young people  got swept into the kingdom through this church   that almost kept their doors closed. And so I just  need you to look at this here. 1734 50 years Can Holden Street 50 years after that Isuza 50 years  after that the Jesus movement. And the Jesus   movement was the last major revival in American  history. Anyone want to guess how many years ago   that was? That's right about 50 years. And God  has been moving. In fact, in the last 12 months   as a church, we've baptized over 5,000 people in  our church alone. And so, it's just clear that   something is happening. What's also clear is that  there is a famine in the land. Like in our city   tonight, there is a teenager sitting alone in a  room scrolling through their phone at 1:00 a.m.   and they are so lonely they can barely breathe  and they don't know it yet, but what they're   actually experiencing is famine. Like they are  hungry. They are starving for Jesus. There's a   young couple who built their life on what they  were told would make them happy. Like they got   the house and the job and the new kids and they  lie awake at night though with this quiet feeling   that something is still missing. They can't name  it, but it's that hunger. A man in his 40s who's   done everything right on paper, but he lost all  of it. And nobody in the world can address the   hunger that he finds himself struggling with.  There's a college student, college student on a  

campus supposed to be part of the most connected  generation in human history. But the student is   desperately alone experimenting with everything  available trying to fill something that only   one can fill. Jesus who is the bread of life.  And even this weekend, Fourth of July weekend,   there are millions of Americans lighting fireworks  and flying flags. And they are genuinely hoping,   like genuinely believing that the right election  and the right party and the right person and   the right office is going to finally fix what is  broken in this country. And they're not wrong to   love their nation. But they are wrong because what  they are looking for is not going to be found in   Washington DC. It will only be found in the church  because it's only found in Jesus. The famine is   here and people are hungry, but they need a  storehouse. So, here's the question I want us   to land on as we turn 250 years old. How does the  church celebrate this birthday? I mean, fireworks   and cookouts are awesome. Enjoy time with your  family. But there is a spiritual famine in the   land. And I want to give you just four ways the  church should celebrate America's 250th birthday.   Number one, we pray like we're desperate. Every  single revival on that timeline was preceded like   not accompanied, but preceded by extraordinary and  sustained corporate prayer. Not a 30-se secondond   prayer before a meeting, but people on their knees  sometimes for hours on dirty floors. And I just  

want to challenge you to spend more time talking  to God and praying for this country than you do   listening to political pundits talk about this  country. I can only imagine the desperate prayers   that Joseph prayed from prison. And again, the  prayers he prayed during those seven years where   he's ruling over Egypt. When Pharaoh asked Joseph  to interpret the dream, Joseph said something. He   said, "Well, it's not going to be me. It's going  to be God." He understood where his power came   from. The best thing we can do for America in its  250th year is to be a house of prayer. Number two,   we reach the people nobody else is reaching. Like  every revival in American history was fueled by   reaching people the church had written  off. College students, barefoot hippies,   uh a oneeyed son of a slave, gamblers, and  prostitutes in a Kentucky field. And again   and again, what we see in these revivals is that  there was an emphasis on lost people, but also   the next generation. And there is a generation  right outside the doors of this church that we   are doubling down on reaching. Like we've talked  about this a lot as part of our move journey that   we're going all in to reach the next generations.  But we recognize there is a spiritual hunger in   these generations and we are going to open up the  storehouses. But what I've noticed is sometimes   the people with the greatest access to the  storehouse are the least burdened by the hunger   outside of it. Like when you've eaten wealth for  a long time, it's easy to forget what it's like  

to be starving. It's easy to get comfortable  with the abundance. But there are people who   are so hungry. And maybe you've been in our church  and you've walked with God for decades and you've   raised your kids in church and you've served and  you've been faithful and I'm so thankful for that.   But don't forget that the greatest gift that you  can give this country on its 250th ver birthday   is not a vote or a political opinion. It's not a  post. It's opening up the storehouse for a young   person to know Jesus. That might mean seven  years of sacrifice. It might mean giving up   some preferences. It might mean sacrificing some  comfort with the way things have always been done.   It might mean funding a ministry that you'll never  personally benefit from. It might mean showing up   for students who don't look like you. Maybe people  who don't protect the carpet the way you think   they should and show up in bare feet. But Joseph  filled a storehouse for seven years so that people   he had never met could eat. Like he never met  most of the people that his faithfulness saved.   May that be said of you and me that we prepared  and we worked for a generation that is not our   own. Number three, we tell the truth about hunger.  Like Joseph didn't walk into Pharaoh's throne room   and soften the message. The wise men of Egypt  said nothing. Partly because they didn't want   to deliver bad news. Joseph told the truth. Seven  years of famine are coming and it's going to be  

severe and we need to act now. And I would just  say the church has to be willing to say what's   true even when the culture doesn't want to hear  it. There is a spiritual hunger in this country.   There are millions of people who feel it but  they haven't named it. But the famine is going   to arrive in their lives. Like a relationship's  going to fall apart or diagnosis is going to come.   Something they've built their life on is going to  fail. Addiction is going to take over. War might   break out or a pandemic might break out. And their  hunger is going to be undeniable. And the church's   job is not to pretend that everything's fine. The  church's job is to be honest about the hunker and   then to point to the only one who can satisfy it.  Number four, we do the invisible work. There is   nothing glamorous about filling storehouses like  Joseph spent seven years doing work that nobody   filmed, nobody celebrated. There's no dramatic  scene, no big moment. just grain city by city,   storehouse by storehouse, day after day because  he believed that what God said he would do,   he would do. And revival, I believe that is coming  will not be built on like some single electric   Sunday. It'll be built on ordinary, faithful,  unglamorous work of people who filled storehouses   and got on their knees when everybody else was  comfortable. Maybe it's a small group leader who   shows up when there's only four people. Maybe  it's a camp volunteer who goes sleepless nights   so kids can meet Jesus. Maybe it's the person who  keeps praying for their family member and refuses  

to give up. Maybe it's the student ministry  leader who keeps showing up for teenagers who   seem completely uninterested. And look, this  is how we celebrate 250 years as a nation. So,   let me take you back back up the road to Cane  Ridge, just 90 miles from where I'm standing.   The pastor who hosted that revival was a  Presbyterian minister named Barton Stone.   What he experienced in that field wrecked him  like in the best possible way. He walked away   convinced that the church had buried Jesus under  layers of tradition and denominationalism. And God   wanted something different. He wanted something  simple and biblical. New Testament Christianity.   No creed but Christ, no book but the Bible. and  he walked away from his denomination to start a   movement that we call the restoration movement.  That's our movement. That's where we come from.   So when I tell you that the Kohl's from Cane Ridge  lit every major revival throughout the world, I'm   not just giving you a history lesson. I'm telling  you where we came from. This church has Can Ridge   in its bones. Revival is not something we observe  from a distance. It's in our spiritual DNA.   So America turns 250 this weekend and most of the  celebrations will be about what the nation has   built. The Constitution, the military, monuments,  and all those things matter. But the most   remarkable thing about the last 250 years. It's  not what America has built. It's what God has been  

doing. like every 50 years, like clockwork, in the  face of our worst failures and our deepest famine,   like the coals just continue to burn. And what I  want you to know on this Fourth of July weekend   is that those coals will not get cold in our  church like my prayer is God would do it again   and we would be right in the middle of it. I want  to close by giving you one. The number is 2,000.   We are 7 years away from celebrating 2,000 years  since the death and resurrection of Jesus and the   beginning of the church. It's coming in 2033. And  I just believe that these seven years are going to   be some of the most spiritually significant years  in the history of the world. We're getting closer   and closer to the return of Jesus. Joseph had  seven years. Seven years of plenty to prepare   for what was coming. And he used every single one  of them. Not because he was disciplined especially   or not because he was ambitious but because he  believed like he believed that God was going to   do what he said he was going to do and he acted  on it. He acted on it before anybody else felt   the hunger. And in 2033 2,000 years will have  passed since Jesus looked at his disciples who   had no building and no budget and no platform and  no strategy and he said something that should have   been laughable. He said in Matthew, "I will build  my church and the gates of hell will not prevail   against it." He didn't say he might build his  church. He didn't say he would try. He didn't say,  

"Let me see what I can do." He said he would. He  promised. It's the only thing he promised that he   would build. He never promised to build a nation.  He never promised to build a government. He never   promised to build a political party. He never  promised a political platform. He promised to   build a church. 2,000 years through persecutions  and plagues and darkness and and through revivals,   he has kept his promise century after century,  generation after generation. And so on this 250th   year, let it be said of us as a church that  when the hungry come, the storehouse is open. There's a famine in the land, but Jesus. And  the world is full of despair and darkness,   but Jesus. And people fail and policy fails and  politics fail, but Jesus. I see there's one thing   that's been so consistent always, and it's Jesus.  And some of you may have shown up here today with   a hunger that you cannot satisfy. And you don't  know what it is, but you're just always searching,   always looking, always wind up in the wrong spot,  taking the wrong path, making the wrong decision.  

Well, I believe that's because God is leading you  back to him, to Jesus. You see in the gospels uh   Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life. The  only thing that can satisfy more than any worldly   desire, want or need, the bread of life provides  everything that we need. So we're going to take a   moment today to remember the sacrifice of Jesus,  the bread of life. You see, when he gathered with   his disciples uh before he was ultimately put to  death, Jesus broke bread with them and he said,   "This is my body broken for you." And then with  a cup of wine, he said, "This is my blood poured   out." And that's why we take communion together  each week. So, if you grab that on your way in,   feel free to get that out now. But if you're a  follower of Christ, you've put your hope and your   faith in him. We're going to take a moment just  to remember the sacrifice of Christ. And that   doesn't always mean that we won't experience the  depravity of this world. But this is a moment to   remember what really fulfills our hunger. So we  invite you to do that over this next little bit.   If you're here today uh and you have not made that  step uh to put your trust in Jesus, all right,  

can I just say first and foremost, we're just  so glad you're here. I believe God has you here   for a reason today. And if you're here and you  at all resonated with what Kyle talked about,   if you resonate with being in just the darkest  season of your life you can ever remember,   a season of famine, I believe that God wants  to meet with you today and that the bread of   life wants to satisfy that hunger for you. Uh you  can do that today. We would love to pray for you,   to talk to you, to meet with you. Uh, you can  do that to my right, to your left, over here in   our next step room. But can I challenge you with  this? If you showed up here today and you have no   idea why, but the whole time you were listening,  you just felt this little nudge in your spirit   or you felt a little uncomfortable, would you  just be obedient to that? Cuz I really think   it's the Holy Spirit in your life inviting you to  take a step in faith towards Jesus today. Again,   you can do that right over here. As we continue  to worship today, as we take communion, as we   respond, we also have the opportunity, we're going  to celebrate uh 21 baptisms from high school camp.

And I think in total, we have like almost 30 this  morning, but 21 of those are students who this   week came to a camp experience and said, "I know  I'm spiritually dead. I know that I'm hungry. And   I know that the only thing that will fulfill that  is Jesus. And I'm going allin. So as we worship   together today, church, can we just celebrate and  welcome them into the family? What an honor and   a privilege it is to firsthand see the life  change of God's spirit here in our church.   But as we do all those things, as we take  communion, as we respond, as we worship,   uh as we uh celebrate in baptism together,  let's take a moment to remember Jesus,   his sacrifice, as the bread of life,  and then we'll worship together.

You understand what weeks. You felt  my every pain. Tested and tried,   yet perfect in your ways. You  walk through temptation. You   know the weight of shame. Tested and  tried. Still perfect. Perfect anyway. You're perfect in your way. We  surrender. We sing. I need you more than any other thing. I need you more. My joy and   suffering. I need you more. My heart  forever. I need Jesus. Heat. Heat.

You in my face tested and try perfect me in your  race. face to face. I'm hiding in my sh. I need you. Oh, I need you.

You are only every minute, every hour. You are God and you're  only I will never be forsaken. You are here and   I'm not alone. I can stand, not be shaken. Find  your kindness in the fire. You are God and you're   always good. You are God and you're always  every hour. You are God and you're on your you are here. I can say nothing.

Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. You are always I am an instrument of exaltation. I was born to live to God.

You hear the mey of all creation. Well, there's a song of praise that only I can  bring. Who else is worth? Who else is worth Jesus? You are the angels, God of the  Aes, the angels make my heart. You heal my brokenness. Show me your glory.

So I have to be Holy Jesus worthy Jesus worthy. Heat. Heat.

God was to come see it all the holy righteous one who prove to us the  father Jesus Christ Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. I'm clean. Sin was stained on me. Shame was  running deep, but love was spilled on Calvary. Oh,   hallelujah. I'm God. How can it be? I'm  ransomed and redeemed. Singing in your  

victory. Oh hallelujah. I'm washed in the  water. Washed in the blood as good as you.   Oh hallelujah. Washed in the water. Washed  in the blood because of you. Oh hallelujah what I have done for what you've done for  me it all upon my dream what hallelujah   love has overcome your mercy is supreme I'm  singing your victory oh hallelujah Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. You made it to the You got me running up here. Hallelujah. Here I go. Cuz you took away my shing to the cross. You got me running. Hallelujah. Yeah. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. I'm good as Oh, hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah.

Heat. Amen. Well, hey, we're we're going to take off, but  we couldn't go without showing y'all what this   crew down here is about. So, yeah. Come on,  my people. So, we're just going to run that   one back from the bridge a little bit, but you got  to send it. Okay. All right. Here we go. Come on.

Cuz you took away my shame. Come on  to the cross. You got me running at   the hallelujah. Here I come.  Come on. Cuz you took away my hallelujah. Cuz you took away your hanging  to the cold. You got me running. Hallelujah. Yeah. Heat.

Sing hallelujah. Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah.  Come on, give a shout of praise. Well, what a gift. We just were able  to witness so many baptisms from high   school camp this past week. And I got  to tell you, I don't know about you,   but I get emotional just witnessing so  much life change that has happened at camp.   And we know it doesn't happen just at camp. Um it  happens every single day. But we're just excited   that we get to reflect and look back this morning  and witness so many young students who are giving   their lives to Jesus. And so so much to celebrate  this morning. And hey, if you are joining us   from our SE online family and you're ready to  get connected and make your next first step,   um we would love for you to do that. We'd love to  connect with you. Our Essie online team is waiting   and ready to pray with you to have a conversation  about your next step of faith. So would you text  

connect to 733733? We would love to take time to  meet with you and get to know you and connect.   Well, as we were talking about this morning, so  many one at a time stories that happened this   past week at camp. And I had the privilege and  honor of just serving uh with our junior girls   from this prospect campus this past week. And I  get to share with you just one of many one at a   time stories. We had a young lady. It was her  very first time attending camp. And day three,   she confessed in small group that it was the  very first time she had ever raised her hands   in worship. And we witnessed her encounter  Jesus in a real way. And two days later,   she did make a decision to follow Jesus and make  him the Lord and Savior of her life. And so,   she's going to be getting baptized here soon.  And on top of that, um her her dad, who has   been really facing significant health struggles  and recovering from surgery, he's going to be   the one to baptize her here in a couple weeks. she  has to wait for him to recover from surgery first,   but she has decided that she's ready um to take  her next step of faith and we are celebrating   this morning so many one at a time stories just  like that from high school camp where life change   is happening. And so we are just excited and as we  talked about before, we are about to head into our   at the movies series on July 26 this summer. And  Essie on family, Essie Online family, you know,  

um we have copyright laws that prevent us from  airing that at the movie series um with you. And   here's the good news, we haven't forgotten about  you. We actually have a special series. It's four   weeks long and it is titled The Unexpected Leader.  and it is the story and life of Moses. And our   Franklin campus pastor Bryson Cook and our blanket  baker campus pastor Lucas Dere have a special   series. They have worked really hard putting this  together and they're going to be teaching again   through the life of Moses. And so do not miss  out starting July 26th for that four-week series,   The Unexpected Leader. We're so excited.  Well, thank you for joining us this morning.   We are all celebrating life change and we cannot  wait uh to see what he's going to continue doing   in and through the lives of this next generation  and all across our church. Thanks for joining us.