Don’t Miss Your Moment
Why You Keep Missing What God Is Doing
Most of us aren't missing God because he's absent. We're missing him because our hearts are pointed somewhere else — at what we want him to fix, at how the moment feels, at whether the experience matches what we expected. Surrendering to God isn't about trying harder or showing up more often. It's about finally letting go of the version of Jesus you've built in your mind and opening your eyes to the one who is actually standing in front of you.
That's the uncomfortable truth buried inside one of the most well-known stories in the Bible — Palm Sunday. And it's the heart of what Pastor Travis Hearn preached this week in "The Road to the Cross" series at Impact Church. The crowd that greeted Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem wasn't full of bad people. They were full of people who were close, loud, and sincere — and still completely missed the moment.
Are You Praising God for the Right Reasons?
When Luke 19:37 describes the crowd shouting as Jesus entered Jerusalem, it's easy to read it as a triumph. People were ecstatic. They were waving branches, throwing cloaks on the road, lifting their voices. But look at what they were actually saying: they praised him for all the miracles they had seen. Not for who he was. For what he had done.
That's a subtle but devastating distinction. Pastor Travis put it plainly: you can be praising the right person for the completely wrong reasons. And when your relationship with God is built on what he can do for you — the miracle you're waiting on, the problem you need solved, the relief you're after — you will eventually miss who he actually is. Because the real Jesus doesn't just come to fix your circumstances. He comes to transform your heart. And transformation is almost never what we actually wanted when we walked through the door.
Think about the person in your life who only calls when they need something. You already know what the text says before you open it. That can be some of our relationships with God — transactional, one-directional, built entirely on need. Jesus said it directly in Luke 19:42: "If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace." He wasn't withholding peace. He was peace. They just couldn't see it because they were looking for a different kind of king — one who would deal with Rome, not with the condition of their own hearts.
The actionable step today is this: the next time you sit down to pray, try starting without a request. Just stay with God for a few minutes and let who he is be enough. It sounds small. It's harder than it sounds.
Why Going to Church Every Week Isn't Enough
Here's the part that stings a little. You can attend faithfully, sing loudly, and feel something real in the room — and still walk out completely unchanged. Pastor Travis has a name for it: emotion without devotion. It's when your praise has no roots.
The crowd on Palm Sunday had real feelings. No one is questioning that. But by Friday they were shouting something different. Matthew 13 describes it with stark clarity — seed that falls on rocky ground grows fast and looks alive. But when the heat comes, it withers. Not because there was no life in it. Because there were no roots. That's the tumbleweeds-in-Arizona picture of a lot of people's faith: blown in whatever direction the wind is going that week, on fire one Sunday and checked out the next, all in because it feels good and all gone when it costs something.
The marriage analogy lands hard here. The beginning of a relationship runs on feelings — the infatuation stage practically carries itself. But real love isn't built on that. First Corinthians 13 isn't describing butterflies; it's describing commitment that holds when the butterflies are long gone. Real love perseveres. Real faith does too. Any crowd can shout in the moment. Only disciples stay when it gets costly.
If you're honest with yourself and your relationship with Jesus keeps resetting — you're in, then you're out, convicted one week and comfortable the next — that's a roots problem, not a willpower problem. The roots have to grow from somewhere. They grow from actually spending time in the word, from letting God speak to you outside of Sunday morning, from choosing to follow when it isn't convenient. That's the work no one can do for you.
The step here is to pick one day this week — not Sunday — and open your Bible. Not because you have to. Because you want depth more than you want feelings.
What If the Hard Season Is Actually God Moving?
This is where the message shifts from uncomfortable to genuinely hopeful — but you have to let it land before you grab onto the hope too fast.
Luke 19:44 is the verse most people skip over on Palm Sunday. Jesus is weeping over Jerusalem and he says, "Because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." Not — you didn't believe in God. Not — you weren't in the room. You were in the room. You just didn't recognize him. Because what God was actually doing didn't match what you were expecting him to do.
That's the third and most searching question Pastor Travis raised: what if you're in a hard season right now, and you're calling it a spiritual attack — but it's actually God refining you? What if the door that closed wasn't the enemy blocking you but God redirecting your steps? What if the discomfort and the conviction and the pressure aren't punishment, but an invitation? Not everything that feels like hell is hell. Sometimes heaven disrupts your comfort on purpose.
This is not a soft thought. If you've been rebuking things God is trying to use to shape you, if you've been praying against what God is producing, you may have been fighting the very thing that was meant to move you forward. Recognizing God when he's moving requires a surrendered heart — not a comfortable one. The crowd in Jerusalem was looking for a king who would fix what was around them. Jesus came to transform what was in them. They missed him because he wasn't what they expected.
The step here is honest and specific: take one thing in your life that feels like a closed door or a hard season, and instead of immediately praying against it, sit with this question — what if God is in this? What if this is the moment, not the obstacle?
Three Signs You Might Be Missing Your Spiritual Moment
1. You praise God for what he does, not who he is.
What it looks like: Your prayers are mostly requests. You feel close to God when things are going well and distant when they aren't. Church is something you attend for yourself — for the feeling, the refreshing, the boost — not as an act of worship toward someone else.
What it costs you: You'll keep encountering Jesus and walking away unchanged because you're looking for a service, not a savior.
2. Your faith resets whenever the feelings fade.
What it looks like: You cycle between fired up and checked out. You feel conviction but don't act on it. You go to church regularly but your character — your words, your habits, your relationships — hasn't moved in years.
What it costs you: When pressure hits — and it always does — there's nothing holding you. Emotion without devotion doesn't survive.
3. You can't tell the difference between spiritual warfare and divine refining.
What it looks like: Every difficult season gets labeled as an attack. Every closed door becomes evidence that something is wrong. You resist discomfort instead of leaning into what it might be trying to produce.
What it costs you: You fight the very thing God is using to form you. You miss your moment because you couldn't recognize it.
If You're Ready to Stop Going Through the Motions
There's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from doing all the right things and still feeling like nothing is actually changing — still stuck, still hollow, still going through the motions week after week. That feeling doesn't care where you live or what your life looks like from the outside. But if you're somewhere in the greater Phoenix Valley and you've been quietly carrying that question, Impact Church has two campuses — North Scottsdale and South Scottsdale — serving people across Maricopa County, from Tempe and Chandler to Gilbert, Paradise Valley, and beyond. Three services every Sunday, no insider knowledge required, and no expectation that you arrive with anything figured out.
Don't Miss What He's Doing Right in Front of You
Surrendering to God isn't a one-time moment. It's the daily decision to follow Jesus instead of your feelings, to let him change what's inside rather than just rearranging what's outside. The crowd on Palm Sunday had access to the Messiah, wept over by the Son of God himself, and still walked away missing the whole thing. The question isn't whether God is present or moving. The question is whether your heart is ready to recognize him.
If something in this post stirred something in you — a question, a hard season you haven't been able to name, a prayer you haven't been able to pray — you can submit a prayer request right now and someone will pray with you. And if you've been curious about Impact Church but haven't made it through the door yet, we'd love to have you — you can plan your visit and take a look before you ever show up.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Surrendering to God means releasing control of your own life — your plans, your preferences, and your expectations of who Jesus should be — and choosing to follow him on his terms, not yours. It's not a passive act. It's the daily decision to stop negotiating for comfort and start saying yes to transformation, even when it's uncomfortable.
-
God speaks through Scripture, through the prompting of your conscience, through circumstances, and through the community of people around you. The harder question is whether your heart is quiet and surrendered enough to hear him. Distraction, comfort, and unmet expectations are the most common reasons people miss God's voice — not God's silence.
-
Regular attendance is a starting point, not the destination. Faith without roots — without personal time in Scripture, without genuine surrender, without willingness to be changed — stays at the surface level. Luke 19 shows an entire crowd of people who were physically present for one of history's most important moments and still missed it entirely. Proximity isn't the same as surrender.
-
Shallow faith is driven by feelings — it thrives when life is good and collapses under pressure. Deep faith is built on commitment to follow Jesus regardless of how you feel, because the relationship is rooted in something more durable than emotion. Jesus described this contrast in Matthew 13 with the parable of seeds on rocky ground versus deep soil. The difference isn't desire — it's depth.
-
It begins with honesty — admitting that your relationship with God has been more about what he can do for you than who he is to you. From there, the practice is simple but not easy: get into Scripture outside of Sunday, pray when you don't need anything, follow Jesus when it costs you something, and stay planted in a community of people who will hold you to that. Roots don't grow fast. But they hold when everything else is shaking.
Leave us a comment to share your favorite takeaway from the sermon and be sure to share the message with someone you care about.
To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world, please visit our Giving page.
