Tim Timberlake - I'm Overwhelmed (01/02/2026)
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Summary:
In this passionate message from Exodus 33:7, the preacher declares that believers are entering a season of being overwhelmed by God’s presence and love, not by worry or stress, but in a way that submerges every overwhelming circumstance in His grace. The core idea is that true encounters with God’s presence through worship change us permanently—we remember His past faithfulness, return to our first love, and reconnect to His power and purpose. Ultimately, he calls the congregation to make their lives a home for Jesus, pursuing His presence relentlessly so that heaven’s reality merges with earth in their daily lives.
Opening Declaration
What I want to talk to you about today is from the topic of meta-narrative. I’m overwhelmed, I’m overwhelmed, I’m overwhelmed—not overwhelmed with worry, not overwhelmed with stress, not overwhelmed with anxiety, but I’m overwhelmed with the love and the presence of Jesus. I’m overwhelmed. I believe that Jesus is about to overwhelm everything that’s been overwhelming you. I believe that His presence is about to overwhelm everything that has tried to overwhelm you.
It’s tried to take your mind, it’s tried to steal your joy, it’s tried to steal your happiness, but you’re stepping into a season of knowing the presence of God where it overwhelms what has been trying to overwhelm you. Is there anybody in here that says, «I thank you, Lord, in advance that you are submerging my situation in your grace and in your mercy and in your love,» and everything that the enemy tried to present you now overwhelms in the name of Jesus?
Scripture Reading: Exodus 33:7
I want to turn your attention to Exodus chapter 33, verse 7, in the ESV version. They’re going to throw it on the screen. It says, «Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his own tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again to the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.»
This is what I believe: I believe you’re entering into a season where you will experience the presence of God like you’ve never experienced before, and it would seem like a cloud of glory is following you everywhere you go. I believe you’re entering into a season where the presence of God is going to overwhelm you so much that everything that does not align itself with who He is and who He’s called you to be will fall by the wayside. I believe God is purifying; I believe He’s raising to the surface everything that He has already predestined you to become. So today, I want to prophesy over you and tell you, you’re becoming who you were always meant to be. Did you? Go bump your neighbor, tell your neighbor, «You’re becoming.» Come on, find somebody else here to agree with you a little bit better, tell them, «You’re becoming.» I tell them, «Don’t judge me by how I look right now; I’m becoming. Don’t look at me in my current circumstance; I’m becoming. God has more for me than what I see. I am becoming.» He’s about to overwhelm you. Let’s pray.
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You that in this short moment we receive a divine word from You. We believe that Your word stands true and stands the test of time. It has before, and it shall continue to stand the test of time in our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Somebody shout, «I’m overwhelmed!»
Encounters That Change Us
Have you ever entered into the presence of someone that you were impressed with before? You had this affection and love for someone, and you finally got a chance to encounter them. For some of you, this was your spouse, and you had your eyes fixed on her or him. You walked and saw them and said to yourself, «One day, if I have the opportunity, I’m going to talk to that person.» You know, back in the day, there was a simple method we used to find out if someone was interested in us. We would write a little letter, and on this letter, there were three boxes, with a little statement at the top that said, «I like you; if you like me, fill out one of the three options.»
Now, if you’ve been around for any amount of time, you know the three options go a little like this: yes, no, and maybe. Come on, somebody! Yes, no, or maybe. You know if you got that «yes,» it was good to go; we took it to the next level. You had your friend deliver the message back and say, «Can we meet after lunch?» Even if you got that «maybe» box checked, you left room for «yes.» Come on, somebody! Y’all know I’m telling you the truth. You know your heart wasn’t completely crushed if you got that «maybe» box checked. So you mean there’s a chance? Alright, you mean I have an opportunity? Okay, I don’t feel so bad.
But there was something looming and doom-laden about that note. You understood you just might have sent the letter to somebody else, and now you had to move on to your second option and start preparing for who it was that you desired to meet. Have you ever met somebody that you thought was important, and you prepped yourself for the meeting? You started telling yourself how you would act when you got in their presence. You’d start pumping yourself up, looking in the mirror, thinking, «Alright, this is how we’re going to walk in there.» If you were going into a business meeting, you wanted to carry yourself well; you didn’t want to come off like you didn’t qualify for the job. You know what I’m talking about.
You may have all the degrees in the world, but you don’t fit for the position, but you need that position because it’s good money in that position. Come on! So you go in there, you carry yourself well, you start to say all the things that you’ve practiced, and then you mess up. You start backtracking, thinking, «Okay, how can I get out of this?» So what about when you meet a celebrity, somebody you see on TV, and you’re like, «If I ever met that person, that’s what I’m going to say.»
Personal Story: Meeting Michael Jordan
I remember being around 11 to 12 years old, just impressed with Michael Jordan—he was the greatest, the GOAT, the greatest of all time. It’s not even a debate who’s better between Michael Jordan and LeBron; that will be LeBron James if it weren’t for the GOAT in MJ. I used to watch MJ on TV, and I practiced in my room on my Nerf goal, every single move he used to do. I used to jab step, cut to the basket, jump, still on the ground, stick my tongue out, and dunk on the air person that was in my room. Talk trash to nobody with my imaginary friend. I studied his moves; I used to study everything about Jordan. I told myself if I ever got the chance to meet him, because when you meet somebody important, it’s no longer you; it’s we. We got to get this thing together, we got to get this thing right.
You become multiple people when you are going to meet someone important. If we ever got the chance to meet him, this is what I would say: «I’m blown away by your game; you’re my role model, man; you’re the greatest of all time! I want to be just like you! I want to have a bald head; I’m gonna stand in the sun and get a little darker.» I want to be like Mike—they even made a song about it: «Like Mike! I want to be like Mike.» Because I was not the only little kid that was so impressed with MJ that they wanted to be like him.
What about the other MJ? You know what I’m saying? Look, here’s a little light-skinned boy—I did everything I could to not only play like Michael Jordan but to dance like Michael Jackson. I even tortured myself. Some of you of fairer skin won’t know what this torture is, but I used to put a perm in my hair so that it would be straight so that I could resemble Michael Jackson. My Caucasian brothers and sisters were like, «What? What is that he’s talking about?» It was this white pasty stuff that black people had to put in their hair to make it straight. After about three minutes of this white paste in your hair, it begins to burn the skin off of you, and if you are not saved before you put a process in your hair, you will be saved shortly after that.
You start to say stuff like, «Lord Jesus! Oh my God, Jesus, help me! I’m on fire!» It was the practice to moonwalk. I used to practice all the little dance moves: put your foot out, grab your crotch; you know all that. So I was practicing the leg kicks. I had the metallic glove; I got on the shiny shoes today. I came prepared just in case. But as a kid, I wanted to play like Michael Jordan and dance like Michael Jackson. I told myself, if I ever met MJ, this is what I would say.
At 12 years old, I got the opportunity to meet Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan sticks out his big old hand and says, «Hey, young fella, how you doing?» I got my speech all down pat, y’all; I’m like this is what I’m saying. I poked my chest out and said, «MJ, I’m your biggest fan.» He asked me, «What’s your name?» The only thing I could get out was «Yeah.» You ever hear yourself say something and think, «What are you saying right now? What is going on? What are you talking about?» All I could say was «Yeah.» I was just frozen in the moment, and my voice started to crack.
I began to talk higher and higher, and I was like, «MJ is probably thinking this little boy is crazy,» and he walked away. I got in my car with my parents; I was like, «Ah! I completely blew that moment! I completely did not take advantage of the opportunity; I messed that up! We won’t have this opportunity again! Tim, good job! You just completely ruined that moment!»
Changing in God’s Presence
Sometimes you get in the presence of somebody and you change. No matter how well you planned for that moment, have you ever been in the presence of somebody and you change? You start getting a little closer to the person who checked «yes» on your box, and you start changing. You start doing stuff that you normally wouldn’t do; you start saying stuff that you wouldn’t normally say; you start making sacrifices that you normally wouldn’t sacrifice. You start buying lunch for somebody other than yourself.
We don’t have the money for this, but we will find a way. You get in the presence of someone, and you change. The significance of entering into the presence of God is that you always change. You can’t enter into the presence of God and stay the same. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just have church as normal. I don’t just want to come and look the part and play the part and sing a few songs and hear a message that tickles my fancy and leave the same way. I don’t want us to come into this place and see our friends and point at each other across the arena and say, «You look good today, buddy; you got a nice polo shirt on,» and «Girl, those shoes are fancy! Where did you get those shoes from?»
I don’t want to come into a place and do things just as normal people do. We can go to the golf club and do that. We can go to the movie theater and do that, see a good show and give a good applause. But I want to have an encounter with the presence of God that leaves me changed, that changes me from the inside out, that directs me of me, and exposes me to who God has called me to be. We don’t need more church services; we need more encounters.
We don’t need another program; we need experiences with the presence of God because if we don’t encounter the presence of God, we will stay the same. Moses is encountering the presence of God face to face, and this is a very intimate passage of Scripture because throughout the scripture in the Old Testament, we see the Ark of the Covenant transition from person to person. If you’re writing notes, I want you to take this down—the team doesn’t have this because I just got this in the middle of the first service.
Praise vs. Worship
When David had the Ark of the Covenant, and he would place the Ark of the Covenant in the tent, they would praise from afar; they were grateful to have regained the presence of God. It says that David danced out of his clothes. It says that the people rejoiced; it says that all that got close to it were grateful that the presence of God had been restored to the people of God. But when we see Moses with the presence of God in his tent, it says that Moses goes into the tent and talks to God face to face.
So we see two examples of the presence of God in Scripture: we see when David has the presence of God, praise is implemented; we see when Moses has the presence of God, worship is implemented. See, Moses understood there has to be something beyond the veil. I want to experience the presence of God face to face. It says that he would go into the tent and talk to God face to face.
Whenever we look at the word «presence,» a lot of times in Scripture it literally is defined as the face of God. The same word that means the face of God can also be defined as the favor of God. So when you encounter the presence of God, you get God’s favor. I don’t know about you, but I’m entering into a season of my life where I would rather have the favor of God than the approval of man. I’m entering into a season where I really don’t care what people think about me as long as God gives me His divine favor.
And I’m not just talking about any favor; I’m talking about favor with flavor—come on somebody! I’m talking about the supernatural, divine manifestation of the Most High God where when I leave His presence, I leave changed from the inside out. Moses enters into the tent, and he says, «I’ve encountered God face to face.» When we enter into the house of God, when we enter into the presence of God, God just doesn’t want to stop and go, «Hi,» He wants to worship with you face to face.
He wants to have an encounter with you where He gets to breathe on you, where He gets to instill new life in you, where He gets to allow His presence to make changes from the inside out to rearrange the blueprints of what you’ve created in your whole life and reconstruct some things you’ve resurrected and deconstruct some things that need to be torn down. So when we enter into the presence of God and worship God, it does three things.
What Worship Does: Remember, Return, Reconnect
Number one, when we worship, it causes us to remember. We remember when we worship. How many of you can remember a time in your life that Jesus brought you out of something? See, a lot of us can’t remember everything, but we can remember something. We may not remember 10 years ago, but we can remember yesterday. We know the week we’ve had, and we know it took a miracle just to get to this day we are standing in right now.
I know the person sitting beside you may look like they’ve got all their stuff together, but the reality is they’ve been through some real stuff. I know the person sitting next to you and in front of you may lift their hands and act like they’re all holy, but the reality is they are just as messed up as you are. I know the person sitting around you may look like they’ve got it all together, but the truth is they’ve been through some real stuff, and because Jesus’ grace saved them, they have the ability and the authority, even in the midst of the storm.
I believe because of worship, we remember. How does it cause us to remember? It causes us to recall something that God has done. A song that we used to sing says, «When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all that He’s done for me, my soul cries out, 'Hallelujah! '» That moves beyond your flesh, are you listening? It moves beyond your feelings, it moves beyond your wants, and it moves beyond your desires. When you have a soul cry that taps into something that you’ve been through, that taps into something that you’ve overcome. When you have a soul cry that taps into your testimony, the person you’re sitting beside is a living, moving, walking testimony.
The Word of God says we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. Is there anybody in here that’s been through something and you made it out of it? Is there anybody that’s overcome something? Is there anybody that has become victorious over something? If that’s you, why don’t you take about 20 seconds to thank God in this place? If that’s you, why don’t you take about 20 seconds to open up your mouth, lift up your hands, and give God some glory? You made it! I said, you’ve made it! What you were stuck in did not consume you—you made it out! What you thought was going to kill you did not kill you—you made it out! And guess what? You didn’t make it out in your own might; you didn’t make it out in your own power; you did not make it out in your own ability.
The only reason you made it out is because of the grace of Jesus Christ. You didn’t make it out in your own strength. You made it out from the strength of Jesus Christ. He says, «I will make you strong when you acknowledge your weakness.» When we worship, we remember.
Number two, when we worship, we return. We return back to our first love. When we worship, I believe it allows us to return to Eden—back to the original intent and purpose of creation. It allows us to go back to what God created us to do. Did you know the reason you are here is because God created you to worship? You’re created for that. Everybody worships something because it’s what you’re created to do. But very few worship Jesus. Everybody in here worships something, but only a few worship Jesus.
But I believe we’re recommitting our lives to giving God our worship, and our praise, and our lives as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. When we worship, we return.
Number three, when we worship, we reconnect. We reconnect with the purpose; we reconnect with the power; we reconnect with the presence of God. When we worship, we reconnect. I believe that outside of the presence of God, you’re disconnected. This is what I believe: I believe the absence of the presence of God is a prophecy of what it is and where it is that won’t last in your future.
So if you’re in a relationship, hear me, and it’s absent of the presence of God, it won’t be in your future. If you’ve got a business plan, and it’s absent of the presence of God, that business plan won’t be in your future. If you’ve got an idea and it’s absent of the presence of God, it won’t be in your future. The absence of the presence of God in anything is a prophecy that it will not be in your future.
And so when we worship, we reconnect. It’s just like these lights—these lights have no power without being connected to the power source. You wouldn’t be able to hear me over this microphone if somewhere there wasn’t an amplifier plugged into the power source. And when we worship God, it allows us to reconnect. When we worship God, it allows us to plug into our source. When we worship God, it allows us to be connected to the power that is at work on the inside of us. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20 says, «Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think, according to the power that works in us.»
There’s power at work on the inside of you, but it will lay dormant until you connect to the presence of God. Bump your neighbor and tell them to reconnect! And so when we worship, those three things happen.
Benefits of Worship
This is the benefit of worship: when we worship, your focus is corrected in the presence of God.
See, a lot of us are worried about a lot of different things. Have you ever noticed when you desire to get into the presence of God, when you desire to get in church, you start thinking about everything else? Right? Some of you came into church today like, «Have I forgotten John at the house?» As you’re pursuing God, guess what? Problems pursue you because they desire to disconnect you from purpose. Whenever you try to push in closer to God, everything will try to distract you.
You’d be reading the Bible on your phone, and everybody and their mama wants to text you! It happens all the time. You’d be in prayer, and you start thinking about everything except prayer. You ever be like, «Oh God, I just love you, I love you,» and then think, «Wait a minute, I’ve got that paper due tomorrow. Lord, I’ll talk to you later.» But when we worship, our focus is corrected. When we worship, guess what? It refocuses us.
It takes those problems that we have elevated and shifts His presence over the problems. When we worship, it refocuses us. Amen?
Number two, the presence of God is the only place your weakness will die. The presence of God is the only place that your weakness will die. Some of you have been struggling with the same struggles all your life, and you’ve been wondering when it will be your season to come out of it. And I came to tell you today, when you go into the presence of God, that’s it because that’s the only place where your weakness will die. Are you tracking with me?
Number three, what you do daily determines what you become permanently. So if you don’t have a worship lifestyle, guess what? You won’t become a worshiper. It has to be in your daily routine; it has to ooze out of you. Guess what? If I want something good to drink and I want lemonade, I’ve got to squeeze the lemon. I’ve got to roll those lemons; I’ve got to press the lemons.
So then, when I cut the lemon and squeeze it, lemonade comes out of it. I don’t squeeze lemons expecting orange juice to come out of them. When I’m in a bind and pressure is pressuring me and I’m under the squeeze, if there’s not worship on the inside of me, I can’t expect worship to come out of me. But I’m telling you, it’s something supernatural that happens. It flows out of me when I consume myself in the presence of God. When I’m placed under pressure, worship flows out.
What you do daily determines what you become permanently.
And number four, worship is the seed of contentment. You may not be where you want to be, you may not have what you want, but you can endure. Are you listening to me?
Contentment means, «I’m satisfied where I am until God moves me to my next.» That’s contentment! «I’m satisfied right where God has me until He positions me where He wants me next.» So you know what the opposite of contentment is? Complaining! Do you know what complaining is? Complaining is worshiping the plan of the enemy.
When you complain, you’re publicly acknowledging that you’ve surrendered to your own thoughts. When you’re around a complainer, you’re listening to someone tell you, «I’ve surrendered to my own thoughts.» We don’t need your thoughts; we don’t need your opinions. We need the presence of God flowing out of you.
And so even though you may feel like complaining, even though things may be going haywire in your life, you say, «I will bless the Lord at all times, and His praise shall continually be in my mouth.» I may not feel like it; I may not want to; I may have to struggle to raise my hands; I may not even have to struggle to stand. But as long as I can get a «Thank you, Lord» out of my mouth, I believe that where I’m going is better than where I am.
I may not know what it may look like, but I believe where I’m going is better than where I am. But, Lord, I’m gonna bless You where I am until I get into my next season. One of the things that I’ve been saying for about five years now is, «God, until you open the door for me, I’m gonna praise You in the hallway.»
Some of you have been stuck in the hallway waiting on God to open the door, and before God opens the door, He’s going to see will you thank Him before any doors swing open for you? Before you enter into the new season, will you praise Him and worship Him while you’re stuck in what it is you’re stuck in? Because it’s not about how you feel; it’s about your faith.
He told people, «It’s not your feelings that make you whole; it’s your faith that makes you whole. It’s not how you look that makes you whole; it’s your faith that makes you whole. It’s not about what you want to do that makes you whole; it’s your faith that makes you whole.» And when you praise and worship God through faith, it shows God, «I’m ready to step out of this season and into the next.»
Worship is the seed of contentment. Worship teams, you can come on back up here.
The Lord’s Prayer and Making Room for God
What about worship? There’s a prayer that stuck out to me as it concerns being overwhelmed by God and being in a relationship and fellowship and face-to-face communion with the presence of God. It’s found in Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 10. It says, «Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.»
A lot of times we see this and say the prayer, but we really don’t know the magnitude of what this scripture really means. We think that the kingdom of heaven is this far-off place. No! God designed the Kingdom of Heaven to be your reality. It’s not just a place that we will go to after we leave this life; it’s a reality that He wants you to live in while you’re here. He wants you to be heaven-minded. He wants you to have the idea and the mindset that you can have heaven on earth.
The kingdom of God desires to come and merge with your reality. Jesus, when He prays this prayer, this apostolic prayer—the word apostle means «sent one,» which is a military term that they used to use when regions were conquered or the regions that let’s just say Rome conquered. A particular region, they would send out the «sent ones,» and they would send military soldiers and they would send out architects and they would send out culture professionals and teachers of the language of the particular region they were coming from to go in and change the culture of that region so that when the emperor came, he felt at home.
What Jesus is saying here in this particular passage of Scripture is, «Pray like this—pray that when you turn your life over to me, I will come and make your life my home.» When I enter into your presence, I’m gonna feel at home. And I don’t know about you, but my prayer for my life and my prayer for your life is that Jesus would just feel at home.
I don’t want a visitation; I don’t want a drive-by visit. I don’t want Him to make this place His home; I don’t want Him to stop by and then leave. I desperately need God to stay and dwell with me! In the Old Testament, the angel tells the man of God, «Listen, take your sandals off,» which means, «I want you to stay a while.»
And I don’t know about you, but when I get into the presence of God, I’m not trying to rush out. I’m not trying to get busy with something else; I want to stay a while because I understand and I’ve come to realize that when I enter into His presence, there’s fullness of joy and everything that I need. His presence is at His right hand forevermore. God desires for you to enter into His presence today, but not only that—He wants your life to become His home.
When Jesus says to pray that prayer, He wants us to create an environment of worship for Him to live in.
Closing Call to Worship
I’m reminded when I come home, and my wife, Jen, and I didn’t bring Max to the strip. When I’m on the road and I come back home, and he hears me put the keys in the door, I hear him searching the house. Sometimes I’ll come in and I’ll hide, and you’ll say to him, «Where’s daddy?» or «Is daddy here?»
She says, «He’s here somewhere; go find him!» And he hears those little feet searching for the presence of his father. He understands that his father has now entered into the same environment.
And I’m telling you today your father is in the same environment that you have entered today. Is there anybody in here that will stop at nothing to search for your father? Is there anybody here that will stop at nothing pursuing your father? Is there anybody in here that will stop at nothing running after your father? If you need your father to do something miraculous in your life, I encourage you—it’s time for you to come, leave your seat, and worship Him at the altar because His presence is here, and His presence desires to fill your life and change you from the inside out.
Come on, grab somebody and bring somebody with you, and let’s worship as the worship team takes us back into a time of worship.