Clarity Comes With Simple Obedience

In one paragraph

Week three of the clarity series landed on a simple idea: when life gets genuinely complex, the path to clarity is not more information or a louder word from God. It is plain obedience to what he has already said. Brian walked the congregation through the story of Moses and the Exodus to show what that actually looks like when things are hard and confusing. Brian opened by acknowledging that the...

Read together

1. Exodus 3:1-10 read aloud by a congregation member, the burning bush and God's call to Moses
2. Exodus 5:6-15 Brian read to show the complexity of Moses's situation after confronting Pharaoh
3. Exodus 5:22 Moses protests to the Lord asking why he was sent
4. Exodus 6:1-8 Brian read God's repeated I will promises to Moses about freeing Israel
5. Exodus 6:9 the people refused to listen because of anguish of spirit, used to illustrate a crisis of faith
6. Exodus 6:13 God commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the people out of Egypt, cited as the simple obedience at the heart of the message

What was said

• Write down one thing you already know God is asking you to do, and take one small step toward it this week without waiting for more clarity.
• When complexity starts to overwhelm you, stop and ask yourself what the simplest, most obedient next move is rather than trying to solve the whole situation at once.
• Show up at 8:45 on Sunday morning to pray over the space with Lanisha and the prayer team before the service starts.
• If you are carrying something heavy right now, go to the prayer booths after the next service and let someone stand with you in it.
• The next time a thought rises up to go check on someone or say something encouraging, treat it as a prompt from the Lord and act on it instead of talking yourself out of it.

Talk about it

1. Brian used a rack of climbing gear to make a point about how Bible stories get taught. When you think about your own life right now, does it feel more like one clean carabiner or a full rack? What makes it feel that way?
2. Brian pointed out that things got harder for the Israelites right after Moses showed up with God's promise. Has there been a time in your life when doing the right thing seemed to make things worse before they got better? What did you do with that?
3. Moses went back to God and said, 'Why have you brought all this trouble on your own people? Why did you send me?' Brian treated that as a normal and honest response, not a failure of faith. How comfortable are you bringing that kind of frustration directly to God?
4. Brian said that some of us already know exactly what God is asking us to do, but what we lack is not clarity or even love for God, it is the fear of the Lord. Do you think that is true for you right now? What is the difference, in practice, between fearing God and loving God?
5. Brian described standing up on that dusty road in Mongolia, sore and out of water, and just taking one step. He said he never had a 'Chariots of Fire moment' but the grace showed up anyway. What does a small, concrete step of obedience look like for you this week?