FROM PASTOR BEN:
The Weekly
I'm so glad you're here and look forward to connecting with you and sharing what God is teaching me each week. 

17

Epic Family,

 

Doesn’t it feel like we will be stuck here forever? This week seems like last week. Today will probably be pretty much like yesterday. We feel stuck. While that seems like our reality, I want to offer a different perspective. Rather than thinking we’re stuck, what if instead we began to believe that we’re simply between where we used to be and where God wants to take us next? 

 

One of the most significant moments in all of history involves God freeing the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. After being enslaved for 430 years, God brought them out with “a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” What an incredible moment! God parted the Red Sea and continued to deliver them from Pharaoh. 

 

God’s plan was to take them from Egypt and bring them into Canaan, also known as the “Promised Land.” Moses sends 12 spies to explore this land and they bring him back a report of all that they have seen. They acknowledge that the land is fruitful, but what gets the bulk of their attention are the powerful people who live there. They believed that the obstacles were too much for God to overcome. 

 

Numbers 14:4 And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and GO BACK TO EGYPT.”

 

Read that again. Why in the world would they want to return to their slavery in Egypt? They had no freedom there. They were merely objects to Pharaoh. They couldn’t even be human beings there; they were simply human doings. They wanted to go back because it was more familiar than the uncertainty they were currently living with. They wanted to go back because they had somehow forgotten what God had done for them. They wanted to go back because they couldn’t trust God for a future they weren’t able to see - yet!

 

What is your Egypt? What are the places you’re tempted to go back to? You aren’t longing to go back there because it is best, but at least it is familiar. Is there a habit or an addiction? Is there a dating relationship you’re running back to, even though you know it’ll be toxic? Is there any geographical place you’re longing to return to and live your life? You know it isn’t what God has for you, but the uncertainty in San Francisco is paralyzing you.

 

Trust God that you’re on the way to a better future. I know you feel stuck. I know so many of us are afraid. But I also wonder about what we’re going to miss out on if we let fear win the day in our hearts. I don’t want you and me to forfeit the glorious future God has for us, simply because we find ourselves in a difficult season.

 

Keep taking your next step. I won’t pretend to know where God is taking you or when you will arrive there. But I do believe He is working all things for our good. Don’t get obsessed with having to know the final destination...just take the steps He has for you today. And then wake up tomorrow and take some more steps. Eventually, we’ll make it to the place He already sees so clearly in His mind.

 

Don’t miss out. The Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness, when it should have only taken them 11 days to make it into the Promised Land. I promise you that our future selves are begging us to keep walking towards whatever God has for us.

 

Here’s a verse to memorize and meditate on this week:

Hebrews 10:39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

 

Will we as individuals and as the Epic Church community belong to those who shrink back or to those who have faith? Our future will in large part be determined by which of these we choose. Let’s move towards the future God has for us together.

 

Much Love,

Pastor Ben

P.S. - This Thursday provides two opportunities for you to be encouraged. From 1-3 pm, some of our staff team will be hanging out at Yerba Buena Gardens (outside the Metreon). And at 7pm that evening, we have a Night of Prayer & Worship at live.epicsf.com. Join us at one or both of these!

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