00:00Hi, I'm Sarah Jakes Roberts and I have the honor and privilege of sharing a blessing
00:10with you before we get into our Sunday homecoming celebration.
00:15You know homecoming is so incredible and so fun because it's an opportunity for us to
00:21get back to a place where we experience growth and challenges and transformation and where
00:28we were ultimately introduced to a new version of ourselves.
00:32You know what's crazy though is that like when you're in the middle of the transformation
00:37it doesn't necessarily feel like you're growing and evolving.
00:42As a matter of fact sometimes the challenges are so tough that once you finally walk across
00:47that stage you're glad to be leaving that place.
00:50But with time we look back and we begin to recognize that wow I really became, I grew,
00:57I evolved.
00:58One of the things that I wish we were better at though is having these types of moments
01:03of reflection not just for the span of when we were in school but even as we merge into
01:09adulthood and family lives and moving throughout the world.
01:14If you're honest how often can you say you've taken the time to really sit back and reflect
01:19about how much you've grown.
01:21how challenges have changed you and transformed you into a more resilient person and yet we
01:28have this one time of the year where we go back and we get to thank God for all that we
01:33have grown all that we have experienced and all that we have been exposed to.
01:38This year has been tough, challenges, trials, triumphs, things worthy of celebration but
01:47it's been real, probably harder than anything we've ever faced before.
01:51But there have been moments in where I can say that I feel like God met me in the middle of
01:57the chaos.
01:58If you ever read the Old Testament you'll see that there are all of these different prophets
02:03and people who God was in relationship with and whenever God met them whether it was Jacob
02:09or Abraham, Noah or David they built an altar to mark the spot where God met them and it sounds
02:17like maybe cliche just because it's in the Bible and it sounds like maybe it's something easy to do
02:24but the reality is that building an altar back then took a lot of work and meant that they had to pause
02:29from the rhythm of what they were doing, pause from the progression that they were making and take
02:34a moment to acknowledge that God met them, God showed up, God performed a miracle for them
02:40that only he could have done and I feel like as we celebrate homecoming that it's all about marking
02:46the spot as well, marking the spot where we've grown, where we've changed, where we've transformed
02:51and I want to challenge you to bring the spirit of homecoming into 2020 into all of the years that are
02:58to follow after this. I want to challenge you to not just take a mental note of when God has met you,
03:05but to be intentional about really marking the spot, about taking time, removing yourself from the
03:11expectations of what people think you should be doing and how people think you should be flowing
03:16and allowing yourself a moment to build an altar that says, God, you showed me who I am in this moment.
03:23God, I didn't think I was going to make it and yet here I am. God, you preserved my family. God,
03:28you helped me to recover. God, you helped me to make ends meet. I want to build an altar that costs me
03:34something. Maybe it's having a journal where we write down all of the things that have gone well
03:39for us this year. Maybe it's a social media post that could inspire someone else, but whatever it
03:45is, I want you to make sure that you are intentional about bringing the spirit of homecoming into your
03:52everyday life. Because after all, homecoming is about a particular location when it comes to school,
03:59but in our soul and our spirit, I think homecoming is when we come back into alignment with the truth
04:05that we are not alone. We haven't been forsaken and that we're still growing even in the middle of chaos.
04:12I want to invite you back home to you. And in order to do that, we have to look at the breadcrumbs of
04:19where we haven't been left behind, the breadcrumbs of where we've grown and how we've transformed.
04:25There are breadcrumbs. They're often hard to see in the middle of the storms and the trials,
04:31but they're there. I want you to know if I could speak on behalf of God, because I've been in prayer
04:38for you. If you would allow me to just share a few moments of what I feel is his heart for you,
04:44that he sees you, that he knows it's been rough. He knows that you're up against some things that
04:51often feel bigger than you. And yet he has this invitation that says greater is he that is in you
04:57than he that is in the world. That means that if you come into a place where you are in alignment
05:02with God, then there is nothing outside of you that is bigger than the God that is working inside of you.
05:08I hear God saying, I'm proud of you. I hear God saying that I didn't leave you here so that you
05:13could drown. I didn't leave you here so that you could be sad. I didn't leave you here to struggle.
05:18I placed you in this earth because I believe that you can change it. Take that same energy,
05:24that same passion that allowed you to make it through school and ask yourself, how is that
05:30passion showing up in my life now? Because it's going to be that kind of passion, that type of power
05:37that is going to allow you to stand up to whatever this year, this decade, this next century child
05:43holds for you and the generations connected to you. I celebrate you today and every day because you found
05:51your way home. And my prayer is that you never lose sight of where you are planted, where you
05:58experience the most fruit, the most clarity, the most creativity, the most vision. We all get off course
06:04sometimes and we go through seasons where it feels like we're not having much harvest. But make sure you
06:09stay planted in the truth of who you are, the truth of who God has called you to be, and allow that truth
06:15to guide you until you bear much more fruit. I can't wait to celebrate with you all day long.
06:22We've got a special day planned for you and we are just getting started.
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