Campus Community | Levi Lusko

well if you would go ahead and find your seat real quickly i know you guys are doing the exact thing the sign says not to do which is the congregate it's all good we love you did you not love and just enjoy just pastor levi lusko today at convo can we just give him a hand what a great great night we had a morning we had already come just expecting god to do a great thing let me pray for us why don't we all stand together as soon as you guys are finding your spots let's go ahead and stand together whether you're joining us online uh as a community group already or here in the stadium we're glad god has you here tonight um do this if you would just if you would put your hand in front of you both your hands just in front of you with a posture of receiving and just about your heads if you would and um let's just center before the lord and just with your heads bowed just think about the goodness and the mercy and the consistency of god all day today maybe your life hasn't been the most consistent maybe um there's just been some sin in your life some distractions but think about how god has just been constant in the midst of all that faithful and loving and patient in the midst of all that and so just right now as you think about god's consistency just bring gratitude to your heart towards him and know that that same god that's been faithful at 6 a.m today and faithful at 9 30 and faithful at lunch and faithful this afternoon and that same god has just been waiting to come in this moment now and to speak to you and so we're going to get to bless him by singing together 5 000 of us in this um football stadium are going to sing the same words at the same time just a love letter to god rendering back to him words that he first gave us from scripture and after we sing to him we're going to sit down and more than we're going to hear from levi we're going to hear from him his word that's a lamp under our feet and so just right now with your with your hands just say lord i'm ready to receive from you make yourself available to him right now just say i'm i'm moldable tonight god i'm i'm movable by your spirit i'm i don't want to be old hard clay i want to be soft in your hand tell god tonight that you trust him that maybe there are things he wants to say to you tonight that will be hard to hear scary to hear but that you trust that he wants best for you just make yourself available to him and i can't imagine what your day's going through all our guys from the football team i don't know what all you've been going through today if you're a freshman in here if you're a graduating senior a nursing student someone from school of aviation i don't know what it's been like for you today but just we're coming together now in this moment saying the same words to him right now so just make yourself available and now before we ask him for anything else let's just ascribe to him our love for him are united dedication him amen so let's just go before him ready father we thank you for this night we ask for now your presence to be made manifest god just begin to soften the heart of your people our answer to you god is yes no matter what the question is tonight that you put before us we're hungry for you tonight anybody here hungry for god tonight just tell them i'm hungry god i'm coming with the posture of a beggar my hand out who do i have but you lord there's no one that can satisfy what i have right now than you god so i just need you so now lord we're just going to go after you hard and worship we pray this in your name amen come on let's put our hands together for the worship collective everybody amen amen y'all ready to do it let's sing together [Music] see how i search the world will i search the world but it couldn't fill me [Music] man's empty praise and treasures have faded whenever [Music] and you put me back together [Music] every design is now satisfied here in your love you know it sing along there's nothing oh there's nothing singing better than you oh there's nothing better than [Music] my failures and lost [Music] [Music] oh he's [Music] today oh there's nothing better than you ladies [Music] is [Music] dancing you give beauty foreign [Music] you're is only one who cares [Music] [Music] oh there's nothing [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he's [Music] you're the only [Music] he's [Music] [Music] [Music] of the savior holiness with human hands [Music] for the treasure for the traitors [Music] the image of the father [Music] i'll rescue [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] forever [Music] my yes [Music] we thank you jesus [Music] my [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] me [Applause] [Music] my dreams [Music] see [Music] my jesus so we put our trusty every day in your hands you were there before time began [Music] [Music] is [Music] you stay the same you are good in your ways [Music] jesus you love me [Music] but you're never too far you're never too far [Music] you've already [Music] jesus [Music] oh [Music] jesus [Music] truth and we believe it tonight i'm gonna sing he's powerful you ready [Music] [Music] here [Music] here we go [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] me [Music] i believe yeah [Music] yes [Music] i can't go back to the beginning [Music] i can't control what tomorrow [Music] is [Music] cause all my [Music] as i'm walking [Music] shaping the shadows in my weakness unless you come here again [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] is will be [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] cuz [Music] [Music] will you is us here again [Music] i love you lord oh your mercy never fails me [Music] until i lay my of the goodness [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] i love your voice [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we were made for one thing to sing with the goodness of god and we're here together today to declare it to lift it higher [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] in all my life [Music] oh i [Music] [Music] [Applause] a praise for the name that's above every name the name of god's son jesus come on lift up your voice come on let's shout give me your best praise [Music] i was thinking about as we were singing about this breath that we were given to give god worship how that breath is on loan how every breath that we have in our lungs is a gift because in the garden of eden god stooped and after forming us from the dust of the earth he filled us with his breath and so when we praise him we're giving the breath that he gave to us back to him we're letting our breath go home so come on give it one more try give god praise let's thank him for his breath to thank him for life [Music] we have in our neighborhood this lot that was empty and every time we were the second house to build on our street and so every time a new construction project begins we kind of groan a little bit because we know it's going to be trucks rattling by and all the craziness and all the mess and all the shaking when the foundation's all getting laid and the jackhammering and all that stuff and and i would always be like oh they started another project oh they started another project but then one day driving home from work i couldn't help but notice there was a minivan parked in front of this mound of dirt and she got out of the minivan wearing heels and she kind of delicately made her way over the dirt and as she got to the big pile like what is this girl looking i noticed that she had a phone in her hand and she grabbed her phone and she was just taking picture after picture after picture and checking to make sure it was okay then taking one more and i'm like what in the heck and then it dawned on me she saw something i didn't see because she was the homeowner where i just saw inconvenience and just saw mess she saw a place where her kids were gonna play where her and her husband would sit on the porch or one day the grandkids would be wrestling in the front yard i think sometimes we look at our own lives and we look at each other we look at what's happening even in the body of christ sometimes and we're like i just see the mess i just see the inconvenience i just see the difficulty but god doesn't see that when he sees you when he looks at you even the parts of you that you don't like he sees a home a home for his breath a home for his spirit something he wants to invade something he wants to live in he wants to in your life continue to build and to grow and to expand so there's more room for his glory if you believe it come on say amen as you grab your seats on a wednesday night in virginia where there is straight-up revival going down look at you look at this come on thank the band with me these guys are amazing you guys are fantastic thank you very much it's crazy how much you realize you miss a gathering like this and worship with all the kind of people around you i haven't experienced anything quite like this really ever but the way it's all distance and so creative and so beautiful but in these last seven months to to think about being in a football stadium full of a generation a generation rising up to give god glory it's so beautiful and so humbling i could hardly scrape myself out of my chair to get up here and preach because i just was wanted to continue to watch you guys worship not a creepy way like in a good way jenny and i and my wife jenny's right over here holding lennox have been so grateful all day to be here um our daughters are wearing liberty gear from head to toe i think they've pretty much decided that they're a part of the flame nation is that what you guys call your flamination just the flames just a collective flame aw flame they said that the flame is a bunch of eagles together that's pretty cool because your mask got to eagle but you're called the flames that was confusing for a hot minute but then is that really true a bunch of eagles together form a flame because it's like a murder of crows a gaggle of geese a flame of eagles eagles would have the coolest way to hang out together that's pretty good also we just want to say how grateful we are pastor david for you and your wife jennifer and your incredible team the hospitality your friendship this vision the way you fight for these students we've now this is our third time being a part of a convocation just to watch even just that continued growth and and uh it's absolutely astounding so we're just honored uh to be a part of this and believe god has such a unique thing he's doing here in this student body and in the days to come it'll be even more evident what he's up to i want to greet every one of you who is not here in the stadium watching on the internet come on let's say hello to everybody watching who didn't get in tonight it was cool today being with you at convo in a room with like 20 people this is this is something else this is so great and i have a message from god's word if you have a bible james chapter 5 is where we're going to be i want to talk to you about the subject of patience i want to talk about how to worship god through patience there's lots of ways we love to worship god i don't think any of us have high on or list you know i want to worship god through patience but i want to show you how beautiful it is how much glory it gives to him when his people are patient james5 i'm reading out of the message translation it says meanwhile friends wait patiently for the master's arrival you see farmers do this all the time waiting for their valuable crops to mature patiently letting the rain do it slow but sure work be patient like that stay steady and strong the master could arrive at any time friends don't complain about each other a far greater complaint could be lodged against you you know the judge is standing just around the corner take the old prophets as your mentors they put up with anything went through everything and never once quit all the time honoring god what a gift life is to those who stay the course you've heard of course of job's staying power and you know how god brought it all together for him at the end that's because god cares cares right down to the last detail is anybody thankful for god's word just how great it is even just to read it how much power there isn't it come on thank god if you're grateful for his word i think it's important that we fight for that kind of a cultivated spirit of gratitude because there were people who literally with their lives fought to get us the scriptures in our own language and were translating it out of latin to make sure that common people could just hear god's word in their own tongue and we roll up to the joint like we own the place we got 50 versions on our iphone we can have you know the app read us the bible in our bubble bath and it can be easy to kind of get a little bit entitled so come on one more time let's thank god for his precious word it's life to those who receive it and father we pray that through our time considering this you would build something precious and powerful on the inside we ask god as we sit in the stillness and the beauty of this warm wednesday evening with this gentle wind blowing through we're just grateful to be alive we're grateful to be yours to be loved by the creator and the king of all eternity and i pray that every single one of us would sense your nearness to us here now where it's so obvious and evident this beautiful bigness of what you're up to and i pray you would tuck the power and sensation of a moment like this for when we're depressed under the tree like elijah thinking we're the only one who loves you thinking we're the only one who cares god help us to see that you really are raising up a generation to live for your glory to live for your fame to live for the name that is power the only name that can save the name of jesus it's a it's an incredible honor god that right now we are a part of your bride on the earth this is our time with the baton in our hands and i pray we would indeed stay the course and run this race with patience looking unto jesus the author and the finisher of our faith in jesus name we pray amen amen nothing like blowing your nose in front of an entire crowd of people um patience patience is one of those attributes that everyone wants to have but none of us want to need none of us want to be in a situation where we would need patients and i'm probably the least patient person i know from the moment i have an idea i want it to be done from the moment i've bought a package i want the package on my doorstep anybody with me on that how many of y'all are compulsive trackers of packages is there anybody willing to admit it it's like amazon prime takes too long and amazon prime during the pandemic was like get thee behind me devil you know what i'm saying that's just that's just what's not working out with the amount of patience i have but that's something that god wants all of us to have why because god wants us to be like him and one of the the lord's key characteristics is that he is patient he is long-suffering and thank heavens he is because if he wasn't he wouldn't put up with any of us he's patient he's not willing that any should perish and so i want to preach to you a message from this text that i'm calling five minutes longer five minutes long could you say that back to me five minutes longer say like you said it to your mom when she was trying to wake you up in high school nah i'm on fire just five more minutes five minutes longer the good news for all of us who lack in the patients department is that patients can be developed it's not like a personality trait it's not like an enneagram type it's not like the amount of patients you were assigned is the amount of patients that you're going to keep forever your patients can be developed patient people are built they are not born you can cultivate patients that's the good news what's the good news patience can be developed what's the bad news the only way to develop your patients is to be in a situation where you are at the end of yours it's the only way to develop the upper end of your patient's quotient is to be in a situation where you realize i don't have any more patience to give and there your only option is to listen to me ask for it in faith and then go out believing you've been given it and pretend like you have it that's the best holy spiritual way i can put it you see the bible unlike our culture puts very little emphasis on how you feel my generation your generation we are all about authenticity we're all about like i can't do that because it wouldn't be real it's not how i feel i don't want to be fake so everything has to be exactly how i feel in the moment i just need to be free to express myself and there's good things about that of course and then there's ultimately some disastrous consequences like love if you only love when you feel like it you'll never love marriages are destroyed all the time because people only do what they feel and in the dating phase you feel so much and in the initial days the honeymoon phase you feel so much but love has to be a verb you have to choose to love the bible never says feel love it says choose to love the lord your god choose to love your neighbor as yourself worship we're never told in the bible to feel like worshiping god we're told that he is glorious so worship him someone once told me that worship is not a feeling expressed through actions it's an act of obedience that oftentimes develops feelings on the back end we don't worship god because we feel like it we worship god because he is glorious we love because it's the right thing to do the bible never says feel strong and courageous it says be strong and courageous and when you choose to pretend like you have that attribute that often is the very best way and oftentimes the only way to develop that virtue and so it is with patience we're never told to feel patient in fact it wouldn't be an act of faith if we felt like we had it we have to choose to believe that god's put that inside of us now don't misunderstand me i'm not i'm not saying to act like someone you're not i'm saying behave like who god says you are god says he has put that inside of you has given you his spirit has given you these things to develop and make no mistake about it every one of us have a desperate need for patients and james outlies multiple arenas in which we need it we need patience for just life on this planet we need patience with each other we need patience with god of course understanding what he's up to and we need patience when it comes to just ourselves we need to be patient and this is very hard for me to i'm sure sometimes very hard for you to do as well to be patient with yourself i can be the hardest on me because i expect more of me i can kind of at times berate myself because i expect that i would be further along than i am in a given moment and i think one of the things that we have to do is we have to mind the gaps like they say in london to mind the gap the gap between where i am and where i will ultimately be the gap between where i am today and where if i just keep trusting god i'm going to become it but it can be so difficult to be patient because i want to be good at things that i'm not good at yet i want to i want to be a better husband i want to be a better leader i want to be it's hard for me to be patient with me and james is saying we need to be patient with ourselves patient with each other patient with god patient with life and james knew what he was talking about you probably know that james who wrote the new testament book he was the half-brother of jesus and if you can imagine heartache you can imagine james's life because we know from the gospel account that he spent jesus entire ministry not believing in him mocking him hey jesus if you're really a big shot you should go into the big city and show everybody what you're made of and didn't believe in him tried to come in at one point and stop it because he thought jesus was out of his mind and it took the resurrection for him to believe in jesus no you have to give him some grace of course because what would it take for you to believe your brother was god it's like a resurrection from the dead at the very least and that's exactly what it took for him and the bible says that when jesus rose he went and saw james personally and sought him out and showed him who he was and didn't harbor a grudge and that's when james began to believe and not only began to believe but actually took a key place of prominence was nicknamed the pillar of the new testament church and the fact that james was the leader of the church in jerusalem in the first 30 years of church history is pretty impressive when you're in a church that includes saint peter st paul saint john and you're picked as the quarterback that's saying a lot about something inside of you and yet i guarantee you for his entire life he berated himself and would have low moments no doubt for having missed the opportunity to follow jesus and walk with jesus while jesus was still here on the earth i'm sure it was difficult for him to get over that disappointment we get disappointed with ourselves and james was writing to people who were facing more than their fair share of disappointments writing to people going through persecutions and difficulty and that was only going to get worse it seems like the unique circumstances that many of the people in the church were in involve bad bosses people who were in authority over them who had no right to be who are being corrupt who are being cruel and that is a hard thing to deal with i remember one of my first ministry assignments was to serve under a boss who just i just chafed under his leadership it was just that everything he did annoyed me everything he's like he would call me into his office put his his cross his legs up on the desk you know like all bosses do like lean back in the chair like way too much legs up and he would say things to me like levi you remind me a lot of me when i was your age and then he would go on to berate himself as a 19 year old berate himself as a 25 year old and i was like i see what you're doing here by mocking you and saying you remind me of you you're mocking me and this this is not a made-up story one night it was friday night i was an assistant to the youth pastor not the assistant youth pastor i was like the dwight street of the youth ministry and he said to me what are you doing tonight i was like oh it's friday i'm going to make it a blockbuster night go down a blockbuster run a movie he goes no you're not you're going to polish all the communion trays like polish the communion trees is that even a thing i had never heard of communion trays being polished before and he said to me and i want to see my face shine in them on sunday now i went and i got all the communion trays and i polished them up and i just had this sensation in the moment because i was so mad i was so irritated i was so thinking i punt he had me punch out first so i'm not being paid this is illegal this guy's unethical he's a criminal and then i realized in that moment god was doing something deep inside of me and i think about that and smile sometimes when i think about the fact that now as a lead pastor of a church my wife and i have some autonomy i mean we have of course a board of directors over us and we everyone answers to someone but but at the end of the day we're kind of at the top of the the the totem pole so to speak even though it's upside down of course the greatest or the least but the point is i have a lot of freedom when it comes to schedule i have a lot of freedom when it comes to the decisions that i make i can set a direction for our our church and that's where we're going to go people are going to do those things i can let people go i can hire people can make decisions with the approval of the budget and i think now as god's entrusted to me millions of dollars and enough autonomy to make a mess of the name of jesus and to make a mess of the of our marriage and make a mess of our lives i have that freedom but i'm so thankful that i was under that authority as god was in me developing that character in me developing that patience when i didn't like how things were going patience is crucial patience is needed for every area of life to have kids you have to be patient to be successfully married and serve your it takes patience ministry takes patience people don't come out of the oven like cookies they frustrate you a staff that you're going to lead any company that you're going to star anything you're going to do is going to require for there to be in you patience so what is it this word he uses if you define it in bible dictionaries it comes up as a spirit of serenity in the face of vexing circumstances how dope is that definition serenity or calm tranquility in the midst of vexing circumstances it pretty much means reacting the exact opposite of how you feel like in a given situation i think about how many times you as students must deal with that things are vexing you it's you want to freak out you want to be irritable you want to be full of self-pity no one knows the trouble i've seen no one's got it as bad as i have it to have patience is to endure a trial without panicking it's to want to quit but not quit it's not passive don't make the mistake of thinking well it's just this passive like obladi it's going to happen be an ostrich put your head in the sand it can't be passive because in a few verses later in the in the in the passage he uses a word that comes up again and again and again in the book of james and that word is hypo hupo meno and hupo meno meno means to stand and hupo means hyper hyper stan huppo mano it means to take a stand and when he talks about endurance or perseverance or or enduring trials and not quitting enduring trials but doing so tranquilly and with calm and with confidence it takes a stand it takes some quad muscles it takes some strength to not quit when you feel like quitting to not scream when you feel like screaming to not bounce on a relationship or or bounce on someone who you're frustrated with but to stay and be patient and to not give up hope it requires strength but it comes across as a settled confidence a relaxed confidence i think about how much 2020 has required patience all the craziness all the difficulty being quarantined at the end of the day what has 2020 been if not us realizing we're not in control we never were in control but for many of us we worshiped the false idol of the illusion of our control and so now when so much of that has been stripped away from us we're left here floundering and what we need to face up to that and what's to come because even when this pandemic's over even when the election's over even in the midst there's going to be something new some new difficulty it's easy to think well this could just be all over everything would be great but there's going to be new trials in tribulation jesus said until the end comes and so we have to develop patience what will give us hope here's what i think and this is kind of my sermon in a sentence the process is the product if we could know and let it sink in in our lives the process is the product that will help us to have the perspective of patients at all times what does that mean well i remember the first time i saw those words i was opening my email and what is it about buying something from any company now that guarantees you a non-stop flow of emails every hour on the hour for like the rest of your life it's even weird now like when a company emails you and goes hey you left these these things in your cart and you're like i don't even have an account with you how do you know that right just incredible so i had bought something from a store called all saints i don't know if they have all saints here in virginia anybody ever been a it's like a british company and i bought something from all saints and so ended up on their email list and it was in 2013 and i was sitting at my desk in this hundred-year-old movie theater that we bought to do church in and i opened up my email and the caption the subject said the process is the product and i clicked it and i just sat there like what does that even mean and it was a little video and in the video it was a behind the scenes on how they make blue jeans on how they make a pair of jeans like these here and i've never really in my entire life given much thought to what goes into making denim now i should because my name is levi sort of like the family thing but i never really got given much thought to it and it was like a five minute long video of all the steps involved in it and of course these are cotton so it comes ultimately from a field they didn't go back that far they could have gone all the way back to a farmer and all the rest but instead they were showing what is involved in actually the stonewash pattern that it takes they took this denim and they loaded it up in this enormous drum that was like a massive super-sized washing machine and then this guy was just shoveling in scoop after scoop of rocks they had water in and then they ran this drum and it was basically allowing the stones to just beat on the denim and beat on the denim it was buried under these rocks it was it was unbelievable hundreds of these jeans and and probably a thousand pounds of rocks just going and going and going and they as long as six hours will just allow the the stones to beat the the genes and after this whole sequence and it was all dramatized the words just came on the screen the process is the product what you're buying is what the genes have been through what you're paying for is the pain that was inflicted upon them and i think sometimes in our lives it's easy to forget that that what we're facing in a moment we wish we could get out of it so we could get on to the dream that we have of our lives and what we want our lives to be like but oftentimes the very things we're praying for the very things we long for and the fact that we need patience in a moment these are these are connected and that the process of our patients in difficult trying circumstances and our trust in god anyway when we don't feel like it is in fact the product of what god's doing as i said today during convocation many of us at the end of the day will look back and realize that we owe the grandeur of our lives to the hardships and to the difficulties that we have faced and james wants us to understand like the north face put on a shirt once if we sweat now we'll be able to sum it later and it's the hardship of climbing the mountain that leads to the realization the breathtaking vistas of what's on the mound sweat now summit later i took my small group up a mountain to do our book discussion this last week i just had the idea what if we climbed in the dark and what if we made our way to the top of this mountain just as the sun was coming up spilling over the jewel basin i picked a mountain that from the top of it you can see lakes in just about every direction flathead lake and whitefish lake glacier park off in the distance to bob marshall wilderness and and one of the guys in my small group was a little out of shape had never done a hike like that before so all of us resolved to to hike at whatever pace we needed to to get him up the mountain and i swear i've never heard someone breathing so hard he was just but he was like i was like you want to turn back no we're going he was committed he was in on it we had to do all this with hand signals though because as part of like similar to what you're doing with your disciplines that you're in in the series you're in we're learning a little bit about how powerful silence is for you and how important it is to be still and know that he is god and in the midst of netflix and spotify and youtube and the other hundred things we have to listen to at all times how we cannot have a quiet soul without quiet time and for us to have tranquility in the midst of difficulty there needs to be a quietness inside your soul especially for those of you who really sense god's hand heavy upon your life you want to do great things for god if you attempt to do great things for god and that's not fueled by you spending time alone in the quiet with god you will begin to act like your god and as illustration i offer you martha who ended up lecturing jesus jesus tell my sister what it started bossing interrupted his sermon to boss jesus around why because unlike mary she forgot to sit at his feet so i'm trying to teach our group we're trying to learn about silence and so the six mile hike was quiet then to talk and break it at the top so we had arranged some hand signals for slow down speed up i need a banana whatever it is and we were 10 feet from the summit we had gone miles we had climbed we got cramps in our calves and 10 feet from the summit this guy he was so we were all so proud of him he was there we were all at the top he was just right there 10 feet away he raised up his hand went to the side of the trail and vomited more than i've ever seen a human being vomit in my life i have been too old faithful this was worse right i mean it was unbelievable and just when we thought it was done he began the dry heaving and just again and again and again and when he finally emerged at the top and the sunrise was showing up on the top of this mountain we could see it in the reflection of his pale clammy skin but i've never seen someone so appreciate a summit in my life why because of the sweat equity the vomit equity the difficulty that he had been willing to endure on the way up and i'm speaking that over every one of you to think about in the midst of the pain you face sweat now sum it later the process is the product so be patient and james offers us four different ways to be patient four different ways to think about it ways to frame it first of all we could in this passage see that where to be patient like a farmer to wait like a farmer a farmer waits proactively i wrote that down proactively meaning a farmer's waiting but a farmer's not like you know waiting and just like well if anything happens it'll happen i mean a farmer has things to do in the meantime he puts all that seed under the dirt puts all those seeds down there which he has to spend money on by the way all that seed costs money and so it's down there and then a farmer what is he doing he's proactively believing and waiting it's going to come out by fertilizing and by arranging the things that need to be arranged when the crop does show up securing a buyer and who's how's this going to get to market do we have enough vehicles to get it there all the things that have to be done and a farmer has to proactively wait believing that the seed is out of sight but not out of mind any in james's passage that we just read in other translation talks about farmers think about early rain and latter rain early rain came in october latter rain came in in march april so he's thinking through the seasons of the year and so you must learn to think in terms of seasons and rhythms and rest i would encourage you even while you're young get serious about sabbath day get serious about refilling your tank it can be so easy go go go especially when you think i've got a hustle this is culture and and you end up mistakenly burning the candle at both ends and ending up burnt out on the inside and not refilling and not resting and not rejoicing in the work that you've done and rejoicing in what god's done you think about the fact that man's first job technically on the earth was to rest on the sixth day god created man adam wakes up on the seventh day and he's like what are we gonna do god's like it's a day off he's like what do you mean i just got here right i'm ready to work i'm fresh full of energy and god says i know i want you to rest in the work that i've done and that's the cross friends the cross is god's way of saying you rest in what i've done and jesus is our sabbath rest so in us choosing to take a day out of the week and let our souls be replenished and let our souls be fed and to not produce and to not consume but instead just to enjoy instead just to sleep instead just to be lethargic you're doing something good for yourself so think about seasons wait like a farmer wait proactively in times of waiting in times where you're developing your patients where something you have in your heart isn't happening i think about your single years i would say dig ditches in those days be proactive like a farmer preparing things that are going to make it better when the day does come it can be so easy to think i want a boyfriend or i want a husband or i want i want a job i want this thing that you're forgetting to develop yourself so that when and if that thing does come around there's a better version of you ready for it the question always has to be what can i do now that would develop me so that i'm ready for when that day does come i this man in my mind i want to marry you women would say well i would say this develop yourself now so that when that godly man does come around he's looking for a godly girl make sure you're that godly girl make sure that you're that godly man that the kind of girl you have in your head that you're gonna marry one day that you're the kind of person she's looking for as andy stanley always says be the person that you're looking for is looking for i think back about i think back on my bible college days and how lacking that experience was because all i was thinking about is bible studies and what sermons i was going to preach i never gave any thought to the business end of the church never gave really much thought to what i could be doing that would prepare me more for the role that you're thrust into oftentimes with very little or no preparation that ultimately amounts to somewhat of a ceo and thinking about the hr and thinking about those sorts of things so what now while you're waiting for what you wish would one day happen could you be doing to proactively proactively prepare yourself so that you're ready to meet the dream when it comes like i said this morning all i was so worried about what if my dream didn't come true that i forgot to think about what if it did and how could i be now preparing so then i would be grateful and appreciative second kings 3 16 says make this valley full of ditches the prophet elisha prophesied that rain's coming and he told the people to dig deep ditches so that when the rain did come they would have something to collect the ditches in this is a time for you to be digging deep ditches go through dave ramsey get a good financial plan get your health in order get these rhythms in place now so that down the road is not an issue teach yourself to tithe now when you're a broke college student put those things in place generosity is not something you do one day when you have a bunch of money you'll be exactly as generous with ten dollars as you are with a million dollars so put these ditches into place today secondly james didn't didn't just say be patient like a farmer he says be patient like a family like a family talks about not grumbling not complaining being kind to one another k chesterton once said by far the most powerful argument against the truth of christianity is christians and we've heard it every one of us have no one doesn't like jesus i mean when you actually look at him it's like yeah of course it's oftentimes the imperfect way his followers follow him that turns people off to the church and sadly that's often most visible in the way we treat each other in the lack of kindness a lack of love and the fact that we so often are not patient with each other but jesus said the world will know you by the love you have for one another so be patient like a family give the grace that you want other people to give you and then thirdly he says be patient like you know the future as though you knew the future be patient in the hard things you're facing expectantly like a family we love lovingly like a farmer proactively as though we know the future we can wait expectantly what are we expecting james says expect to stand before jesus at any moment expect to stand before jesus at any moment in your trials that are hard face up to them as though at any moment you could be standing before jesus for the master will soon arrive now whether he's talking about the return of jesus or he's also referring to the imminence of the reality of our mortality and death it doesn't really matter because one way or another you and i are going to be standing before him as a as though we're going to give an account which is what we're going gonna do the judge is coming and that judgment is a judgment of rewards for christians the judgment of celebration and if we keep that vision in mind it'll cut the grumbling down why i think almost all of our grumbling stems from jealousy all of our grumbling stems from an impatience stems from us wishing we had what each other had that we were given the opportunity someone else was given so we're impatient with where we are because we have a friend whose dad has a private jet who flies to new york for shopping trips and so we're not content we're jealous we're frustrated with where we are because we know someone who's got worse grades who tries less hard and everything just comes naturally and opens up for them but how does someone who knows they're going to stand before the judge act patiently with whatever they're facing why because they know the judgment is never about what someone else has been given it's always about what you did with what you were given you know that parable where one got one talent one got two one got five and the guy with one hit it in the ground and did nothing with it why do you think he did that he probably was really happy with the one talent scholars tell us it was a sum of money about by the way about half a million dollars so you think one talent ah what imagine getting handed half a million dollars you get one he was probably so excited until he saw the guy next to him get a million dollars and he was decidedly unhappy when the guy next to him got five talent talents and was handed two and a half million dollars now all of a sudden his half million dollars was basically garbage he had tons of ideas in that moment of what he could do with two and a half million dollars you might say that he had five talent taste but a one talent budget chip and dan heath in their book the power of moments say this what can you do with three chairs in a blanket i don't know sit down warm yourself it's furniture and warmth what do you mean three chairs in a blanket oh no they say to a child three chairs and a blanket is a fort it's a rocket it's a home it's a truck it's an ice cream shop oh no it's a rain forest there never can be multiplication without imagination but we don't stop long enough to utilize our imagination so long as we're looking at what someone else has been given because we assume if we had what they were given we would be able to do all sorts of things so we don't lovingly lovingly invest the faith in what we have long enough to actually say what could i do with what i would be what i've been given we drastically overestimate what we would do if we had what we didn't have and we tend to underestimate what we could do with what we currently have but god this is something you need to know about him god always gives us what we need to do whatever we're called to do but you'll never see that so long as you're staring at someone else's gifting someone else's opportunity you won't be able to notice that your cup runs over with your eyes fastened on your neighbor's cup so if we remember the judge is coming and he's coming to ask us what did you do with what you were given including the hardship you faced we will get after it expectantly and then he says lastly we're almost done wait like your forefathers and if you're waiting like your forefathers what are you going to do you're going to wait here we go tenaciously so now we're proactively lovingly expectantly and tenaciously waiting and what he's saying in that is he's saying wait patiently like all those who have gone before you because you've seen how their story's gone down name one person in the bible whose story you love who didn't suffer esther death of mom and dad almost genocide david yeah giant tried to kill him father-in-law tried to kill him everybody tried to kill him joseph right you get the drift there's not one celebrated story that doesn't involve agony what would brave heart be without the death of his wife just a dude in a dress it was the suffering that made him it it was the suffering that made his story worth telling and we intuitively know that when it comes to other people but then when we face difficulty we forget that no one would watch the movie of our lives if there wasn't some element of conflict and difficulty and agony that was sent by god allowed by god to develop us into who we're meant to be if we don't give up if we don't lose heart and out of all the examples he could have picked he chooses to focus in on job you know the pro the patience of job you know job right and you know job he lost his home lost his health lost his job and sadly of all most heartbreakingly of all his seven sons and three daughters all in the same day now of course you and i know that the reason this happened is because god had been bragging about job to the devil like have you seen joe that guy's amazing it's flat out amazing but job didn't know that all he saw was ten graves boils on his body and what was his response to assume there's no god to assume there's no justice no he the bible says said naked i came from my mother's womb and naked i shall return and then he gave as a precious gift words that my wife and i quoted the night our daughter died so blessed be the name of the lord and he refused to curse god's name when his wife said you must have sinned curse god and die he said shall we accept good from god and not just not trouble to and so in all this job would not send in what he said he in fact said though god slays me i will trust him now did you know what was happening had no clue and in fact when you read the rest of the book he's as confused confused as anybody angry as anybody frustrated as anybody he had no idea what was happening what did he know he knew who was in control of his story he said i know my redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth and when my skin is destroyed this i know in my flesh i shall see god that's what you and i can believe not what's happening and how that's all going to work out in the master scheme we have no freaking clue why god allows some of the things he does but we can know who is in control and his name is jesus and he has a plan and he's up to something and he's good and he's working his glory in all the earth god and the devil both have an agenda when you suffer the devil wants you to cash in your chips and quit and bounce and say peace out i thought god was good forget about this and be like that seed that shrivels when the sun came out god has a plan too he wants to develop your faith wants to make you more into who you're meant to be he wants to see jesus in you conform to the image of the son so he allows us to suffer allows us to go through things to save many lives and to give us what we all along want but we would have no way to articulate it charles spurgeon said if god refuses to give you the silver you asked for it's because he wants to give you the gold you don't you didn't know you needed if he says no to the gold you prayed for it's because he intends to pay you in diamonds if god ever withholds something you request it's because he knows you want you need something you don't even have the language to articulate c.s lewis in the book screwtape letters writes as though he were a demon advising another demon and the person suffering and the demons talking about it and the demon says this do not be deceived wormwood our cause is never more in jeopardy than when a human no longer desiring but still intending to do our enemies well looks round upon a universe in which every trace of him seems to have vanished and asks why have i been forsaken and still obeys that's the power your most important praise prayers you will ever pray are when you don't feel like there's a god your most important songs you will ever sing is when you don't feel like singing the most important time to ever share your faith is when you feel like you don't even have any faith the most important offering you will ever give is when you're giving beyond the point of need it's when we don't feel it but can still do it then we've developed patience and we've become like god in montana on the hike that i told you about i saw thousands of lodgepole pines lodgepole pines grow as tall as 150 feet they develop as many as 9 000 pine cones per year it's unbelievable these are gorgeous trees very slender very tall but what's amazing about these lodgepole pines is that they are almost always the very first tree you will see emerge after a fire sweeps through that was what i noticed about the sheer cliff so many lodgepole pines that were growing up out of where a fire had been 20 years ago or 10 years ago or five years ago my friend whose father works for the forest cervix explained to me that lodgepole pines have these incredible pine cones but can't do anything with them because they're too covered in a hard resin pitch to ever turn into new trees and so yeah 9 000 of them but they will sometimes keep them on their branches or shed them onto the ground where they will stay for 15 years 20 years even longer the only thing that can open up a lodgepole pines pine cone is a fire sweeping through the incredible heat can melt the pitch and that can cause the seed to germinate that's why they're the first thing to emerge they just have to wait they just have to be patient and then they get to see the end intended and that's what job saw verse 11 says we know the end intended by god in his graciousness and his compassion what was the end intended by god for job well we know he got twice as much financial resource as he had before the hardship but interestingly he was only given seven more sons and three more daughters twice as much of all the money twice as much livestock but only one set of sons and daughters for the set that he had taken from him not twice as many do you want to know why many theologians have speculated that it's because the seven sons and three daughters that died were very much still his in heaven god god didn't replace the ones that were still alive just in his presence and that's what you have to have in your mind not just that you're going to see the end intended of god's goodness that finally when you're 40 or 50 or 60 some epic thing's going to happen to you and that was god's end we have to look past that all into eternity into glory into when we've been there 10 000 years moses didn't get to go to the promised land until he was dead but there with jesus and peter and james and john and elijah he very much did get to set foot in the promised land heaven we will find it's been said works backwards and even desires of our heart we had here on this earth will be fulfilled if not now forever so we must not lose heart to end where we began one of my favorite emerson quotes is that a hero is no braver than an ordinary man but he is brave five minutes longer i wonder in your life what it's going to look like for you to exhibit that patience and feel like giving up but just to hold on sometimes that's all it's going to take just five minutes longer and father we sense the atmosphere pregnant with your spirit moving in our hearts helping us to see the hard things that we have faced is all a part of your plan the process is the product the process is the product we are the clay and you are the potter we are on earth you are god in heaven so we will let our words be few we want to see you work in our lives we give you permission and space to work in our hearts if you feel a response to this message could you just raise up a hand to let god know you want to be patient you want to let him be god you want to trust that he does all things well on the most difficult day of your life he was up to something he's stitching all these things together the fire is going to open up the seeds there's going to be a harvest don't give up the rain is coming the righteousness the harvest what you long for what you don't know to pray for it's happening it's what he's doing it right now thank you jesus fill us with your spirit give us strength pour out your love upon us to help us to have that long perspective in jesus name we pray come on sing it out not for a minute have i been forsaken [Music] the lord is in this [Music] this place and come holy [Music] spirit's awakened the lord is in this this place [Music] this place [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Music] cause all i want [Music] is [Music] it's all cuz [Music] one with god [Music] you are christ what a beautiful name it [Music] is [Music] what a beautiful name it is jesus yes it is [Music] so i could step of jesus christ [Music] what a wonderful name it is what a powerful name it is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] come on is [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so your name jesus is the name above every name just wherever you are right now whether you're um just in the stadium on the field or in the stands or you're watching live just think about one name that he has revealed to you today maybe he's been provider maybe the name that would come to your mind as he's been patient tonight even as pastor levi was speaking you were just reminded of god's great patience towards you maybe the name has been just loving maybe he's been honest and that's that's felt hard but he's been loving enough to tell you the truth and so just think about one name that jesus has been to you right now just um i know it sounds weird and in this big room with all of us spread out in the open sky no one probably will hear you except the few people around you everybody's socially distant but just even with the masks on them just think about one name that he's been just close your eyes just think about that what is one attribute of god one truth about him that rises up against every other truth maybe it's something that you need to say out loud because it's the last thing you felt recently that he's been you just want to say he's here because the last thing he felt today is his presence so you need to say that preach that to yourself despite your emotions so what is one thing that he's been and will you just um just in this moment we'll sing that again in just a second but will you just say to him where you are shout it out loud what is something god's meant come on shout it out [Music] jesus you're the way you're the truth you're the life you're the prophet you're the priest you're the king you're the good shepherd you're the open door your blanket to a cold cold night you're patient you're loving you're there you're powerful you're gentle you're understanding you're wise you're playful thank you jesus for all that you are and all that you're gonna be amen come on let's just sing that to him come on there's no one like you there's no rival that can come up against you come on let's just sing this to him one more time come on [Music] oh [Music] is [Applause] [Music] forever [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Applause] forever [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] what a powerful day jesus [Music] can we just do something just before we dismiss all day today i just sensed that god in his timing has predestined this moment maybe for homecoming for someone and um almost every wednesday night we get to hear of just the heroes in the trenches our community group leaders and our rss and how they've just been in the mix and these community times um having discussions about the gospel and the life of our students and almost every wednesday we hear of someone who came to know the lord it's amazing but um this semester we've yet to give a public profession moment we've yet to give an invitation and i i don't know i don't sense that maybe like there's absolutely someone here but just in case maybe um there's someone here tonight and during this day or maybe even tonight god has just been affirming in you he's patiently been waiting for you to come home you've never truly given your life over to him maybe you thought when you were at a camp or at some event that you gave him your heart but he don't he doesn't just want your heart he doesn't want just the front door he wants your life he wants every single bit of you he's jealous for your soul for your mind he doesn't just one compartment you know he wants all and and maybe tonight you're in this football stadium and i know it sounds weird but you just you know that before the foundation of the earth god has set this moment as your homecoming and i want to give you an invitation to just maybe come and find someone tonight that can talk to you about giving your life over to christ maybe there's several of you maybe it's just one person but all eyes open no heads bowed no pad just for a second just in the silence of this moment anybody here man just say man i think god's been wooing me home for some time i've been i don't need to rededicate again something that's never truly been dedicated in the first place this might be for one person maybe you're in the upper seats maybe you're here um anybody here tonight just if that's you you just wave at me just really big god's been calling me home i need to give my life to jesus and that's not been it's not that i've been living a lie it's just that god's calling me to to come to truth and his name is jesus jesus says i'm the way the truth and the life anybody here that's you if that's you i want you to i want you to just wave at me so we can walk you down the aisle and celebrate what god's doing in this moment in your life anybody here you see somebody welcome home that's amazing will you come on down come on down man walk the aisle if you would praise the lord brother anybody else that's amazing by the way you don't have to come down the air down here is not any godlier than the arab where you are and god will meet you where you're at i think there's just something about publicly professing what god's beginning in you privately sometimes you have your whole life to do that but maybe there's someone else are you waving at somebody i can't see i'm wearing my glasses and that's awesome come on down would you it's so awesome all day i've just been sensing maybe god's doing something anybody else shout at me i can maybe hear you all right bro come on that's awesome that's awesome buddy if you would come to this way come come on down this way side stage can i get some of our shepherds to come and meet some of our folks that are walking anybody else anybody else that's awesome praise the lord some of you don't know that people have been praying for you for a long time this is awesome anybody else anybody else that is so awesome you all are clapping oh there's oh my gosh that's so awesome come on home it's so good that is so awesome come come this way if you don't mind i just want to connect you with someone that's going to pray for you this is exciting anybody else come on that is so good come on down anybody else some of you are like sitting and i know it feels like no one's sitting by anybody that's so good you're sitting by somebody you've been praying for for a long time you've known in a while now this has been in guzman that is so cool welcome home so exciting anybody else come on that is so good my wife was 18 years old she was on the pastor search committee of her church she was a leader in the youth group she was bible drill champion for the state of alabama two years in a row and as a leader who had never been led from within a very good girl who'd done bible studies and fast and all of those things she became a christian at 18. and it wasn't that she'd been living a lie it's just that she'd always been about behavior modification and not about life surrender and god had patiently been waiting for her to come home and i just believe there's a lot of good kids here who are not saved a lot of really really really outstanding people here who do all the right things maybe are even in the middle of this 40-day fast and the thick of it all you do the bible study you do prayer you do everything but you just know like it's always been about working and not about trusting and tonight god might be just calling you home last last chance anybody else just for tonight praise the lord man that is so awesome praise the lord so good praise god it's so good exciting are you coming home praise the lord that's so good so awesome what is your name what's your name hey alex alexis alexis is getting saved tonight y'all that's awesome this is so good all right one more last time i mean again we'll be patient as long as the lord's moving but is that is that a whole are they leaving or are you all coming down i can't tell anymore are y'all bailing are y'all walking down that's awesome all right someone's getting safe on that group that's so good all right this is so good let me just be clear you don't have to walk an aisle to give your life to jesus all right and let me just be clear like you don't have to pray i know this is going to sound very controversial for some of you you don't have to like pray some sinner's prayer you can come and bring your life to him not even know the prayer and as long as you know you're a sinner in need of a savior you know you give your life to him god will begin his good work in you and and but what salvation is is you know understanding that you can't save yourself you're a sinner and that jesus christ is the son of god and that he can and what he did on the cross is more than enough and you'll never be enough on your own and um i just sense that today all day this has been so confirmed now all day of sensing that like we just need to ask that question let me let me just kind of finish our time here by saying this to you i really believe what we just saw here for the 10 people eight nine people that came down is nothing but just a beginning of what god wants to do in our community groups tonight and so i want to challenge all of our community group leaders all of you who are coming into communities tonight to begin with a gospel conversation get out of these circles get out of these rows get into the circle and ask someone all right bro so when you go tonight to community group what's your name sir front row center jordan well when you sit there tonight i i eyeball the eyeball look at the guys that are in your hall the guys that are going to be in community with you buddy and just say man do you know for sure that you you know the lord you know for sure that you're safe because i think a lot of times people can hide under this great great thing that god has given us this gift called liberty university and you can go to a christian school you can take dr wheeler's class you can go do evangelism you can do all of these things but yet not know him yourself and god wants to make sure that you have that relationship with him amen man what a great night god is can we just thank pastor levi just for his faithfulness to god's word i love what he gave i needed that word tonight i i gotta tell you i just i really needed that word tonight god's been really been working on me and just being patient in this season of my life and so i really needed that let me pray for us all right father we thank you for tonight thank you for the work of salvation everybody put your hand towards that side of stage if you would everybody just reach that way we pray right now for the counselors to know what to say what not to say where to go in scripture we pray that god you would relieve confusion and you'd bring clarity now you would speak god through the counselors prophetically into the life of those who are making the salvation decision i pray that tonight at this very moment that god you would confirm in them the work of your son jesus upon their life thank you god that tonight we get to see the beginning of their faith journey and now we the rest of us want to be a stepping stone and not a stumbling block to them we want to walk into their life and help them grow in christ's likeness thank you lord for the work of salvation i pray right now god over all of our community groups i pray that tonight that god there would be a courage god a boldness and a sensitivity for us to really begin with the most important question in mind are we sure that we know and i pray for honesty and transparency as we walk into this moment we pray this in your name amen amen hey may the lord bless you and may he keep you and may shine his face on you go go to community groups it's going to be amazing tonight go do gospel work in the life of one another we love you you're out of here

Channel: Liberty University

Views: 7,257

Keywords: Liberty University, LibertyU, Liberty

Id: eV-p8dIZ3zs

Length: 104min 17sec (6257 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020