What’s up Valley Creek Students you are at Student Circles and last week we started a new series of timeless truths called Follow The Cloud. It’s how we live our lives, lead our church, it’s how we get from where we are to where we are going. It’s really the core of who we are as Gen Hope.

So what is FTC? Well, after 400 years of Egyptian slavery God hears the cries of Israel & sees their suffering and sends a deliverer named Moses to confront the most powerful man on earth, Pharaoh. And thru a series of 10 of the most amazing miracles ever seen in human history He leads them out of slavery, into freedom and into the promised land. And the way he chose to do it was by following God in a cloud.

And the way He led them thru the red sea, the wilderness, defeating kings and kingdoms.. was thru following the cloud one next step at a time..

Look at Exodus 23:30 – Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.

God led them little by little, Not leap by leap, it one small step at a time. And every small step God invited them to take was an invitation to live free.

And if you actually stop to think about how you got here, like right here today, you’ll discover it was God leading you little by little. In fact, God has always been doing that in your life.

Look at this promise we find in Psalm 32:8 - I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

He is always instructing you, teaching you, counseling you and watching over you which means you are NEVER STUCK in Jesus. There’s always a way forward. Literally the fact you are here right now is evidence of this truth in your life.

And I think one of the biggest challenges we have is that we have our own ideas and plans for our lives, but check out what Proverbs says about this..

Proverbs 16:9, 25 In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

No matter what our plans are, God’s steps are always better. Let’s listen in…

God is inviting all of us to take next steps, these discoveries to be made along the way, and it looks a lot like playing the game, connect the dots. At first it just looks like numbers and dots all over the paper that seemingly have no meaning. But once you start connecting the dots one at a time in order, it comes to life and a picture starts to emerge that was there the whole time.

The same thing happens in our life.. If we will just connect the little dots God puts in front of us all the time, each next step we take, we find more life and the best possible picture of our life emerges.. And it’s not about a destination or something we have to do, it’s about who we are becoming as Beloved sons and daughters walking in who we were created to be.

So I want to ask you a question… What was the last small step God asked you to take, and did you do it? Maybe for some of you it was saying yes to your friend when they invited you here. For some of you it was inviting that friend. For some of you it’s apologizing to someone in your family, or forgiving someone.. Maybe it was having the faith to be generous, whatever it is, each small step you take leads to more freedom and discovering way more about who you are, who God is and what He created you to do with your life..

Think about it like this, today’s obedience is setting up tomorrow’s breakthrough… So if you can play connect the dots, you can Follow The Cloud. And every time you do, it leads to more life, more freedom, more joy, more hope, and more purpose. Valley creek students, Let’s follow the cloud together, one small step at a time. So lean into this conversation, and find those discoveries to be made as we talk about it together.