>> NASSER: Good morning! I trust you had a great Easter holiday. What a great time for us to come together
right after that and then just to really celebrate the risen Savior. Our speaker today was originally supposed
to be with us when Christine Caine and her friends came into town with the Propel movement. Actually, Carl was stuck in Europe when we
were having snow and they were having snow and New York was having snow and was not able
to be with us on the Wednesday when Propel was happening. And so, in his graciousness he agreed - he
knew how excited we were to have him - he agreed to come on back this semester and Carl
Lentz probably doesn't need much introduction for most of you. He is the pastor of one of the largest churches
on the planet, Hillsong New York. He's the father of three - yeah - and honestly
the pastor to a lot of influential people in the world, and I think when you hear him
today and you sit under his teaching today you're going to understand why the Lord has
given this man such favor. One of the reasons that Esquire Magazine calls
him one of the 37 most influential people under thirty-five - I mean, this is a list
where Beyoncé’s on the list, all right, Lebron James is in the list - one of the reasons
that Esquire Magazine puts him into that mix is honestly because of his humility. A lot of those people have what they have
- the influence that they have - but they have it at the cost of really reading a lot
of the mail about themselves and thinking high of themselves, but Carl has been blessed
with the ability to be among those people but really be an arrow that points to someone
much greater, who is Jesus. And, man we are so excited and honored to
have him here. Can we just put our hands together for the
great Carl Lentz, everybody. >> CARL LENTZ: How's everybody doing? Can you stand up to your feet again? Just because it's early, and we're going to
pray and you can't pray sitting down. I'm just kidding. I'm keeping Colby up here with me the whole
time. I never thought I'd like a Colby. You doing good? Are you awake? Yeah? Quickly, look at the person next to you right
now and say, "I prayed all week that I'd be standing next to you right now." And quickly look at the person you just chose
second for whatever reason, look at them and say, "God has big plans for your life." Okay, back this way. We're going to pray. You like who you're standing next to? Really? I would say thank you for being here, but
you have to be here. Nevertheless, I am truly honored to be here. The last time I was in this exact place, I
had been saved for two months, I was 19 years old, and my sister was graduating from Liberty
University. And - yeah. So to come back here right now and be able
to preach God's Word to you, I just remember where I was, I remember how I felt sitting
right up there. I had my Bible because when you first get
saved you carry your Bible everywhere, and I had no idea what God had in store. And so standing here today with you, it's
just an absolute honor. I love David. I love what God's doing here. Obviously, I love Christine Caine. I got stuck on - I guess the biggest snowstorm
in the East Coast in a long time - stopped me from being at the first Propel moment,
but I will say keep praying for that. It's pretty phenomenal what God's doing. Christine Caine is one of the greatest preachers
and teachers, not just female, but just in general. And I know I am a recipient of her leadership
and I'm glad that it kicked off her. But I'm going to pray that God does something
special this morning. I didn't come to preach a message; I didn't
come to kind of share something, I really came hoping that we would encounter the Holy
Spirit and God would do something in your heart where you cannot leave the same. So if you came for that, anybody up for meeting
with God this early? Does God move before noon? I hope so! Will you pray with me right now? Father, we give you praise already for what
you've already done. If you never did another thing, Jesus, you
already did so much. Dying on that cross, breaking through that
grave so we could stand here right now and ask you to do even more. And God, I pray you would bring hope to those
who might be discouraged right now, that You would bring healing to those that may be sick,
that God, You would open up eyes that have not seen You for who You really are. Lord, we pray for a supernatural breakthrough
right now. I thank you for every life in here right now. Nobody is in here by accident. Everybody has an opportunity to do something
unbelievable in Your Name. So God, we thank you for what you're going
to do. Breathe on this. In Jesus' Name. If you believe it, somebody shout "amen." Amen, amen. Give away two hugs, two handshakes, two high-fives. Get used to a raspy voice. All right we got 30 minutes and I'm going
to use all of them. How's school going? Who loves being in school? I almost went to Liberty; I was like this
close. I ended up going to a school not as awesome
in North Carolina. All right! Who's from North Carolina in here? All right, that's great. Well, who's from God's promise country, Virginia? Colby, you can't stop playing, you got to
play the whole time. The anointing leaves. Did they teach you all that at Liberty homiletics? You can't preach without a keyboard behind
you. I'm going to read you a Scripture. Did you bring your Bible? Do you guys bring your Bible to this? No? Most of you have it memorized? Matthew, chapter 5. Really prayed about what to preach today and
we have many services at Hillsong New York City - thank you for your prayer and your
love and I really felt like God was stirring me after talking to David last night. What an unbelievable, incredible leader! So inspiring and just telling me about what
God's doing at this campus and I'm going to throw it back, way back, and we're going to
preach and believe that God's going to move, we're going to do old-school Pentecostalism
at the end of this, we're going to bring people up, we're going to pray for you, we're going
to yell in tongues, we're going to push people over, we're going to throw modesty clothes
over you, we're going to dance, we're going to bring out snakes, we're going to stir it
up. Matthew, chapter 5, roughly, verse 13. I want you to listen, create a little bit
of space this morning ‘cause I'm believing that something's going to grab ahold of your
heart ‘cause we have a mandate. We are in a dying world, and we have an opportunity
to do something about it and Jesus said something pretty incredible just to make sure we did
not miss the moment, and miss the whole point of what this is all about. So if you're a Christian, pay attention. If you're not a Christian, honored to have
you listen. If you're faking it, maybe today you'll realize
this is more than a religious set of rules; it's more than a church attendance deal; this
is the living God we serve. Amen? Feel free to shout me down, by the way. I know this is a cool, sophisticated college
crowd, but at any time you can say "amen," you can say "preach it," you can say "I need
that," you can say, "That's for my neighbor." I grew up in Virginia, so when people shout
you down they say stuff that just sounds incredible. It makes no sense, but it sounds good. I heard a lady stand up in church one day
and say, "Tell the truth and shame the devil!" No one knows what it meant but it sounds provocative
and it gets the people going. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth,
but if the salt loses it saltiness how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to
be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world; a town built
on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bushel. Instead they put it on a stand and it gives
light to everybody in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before
others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Pretty powerful: “You are the light of the
world.” Look at your neighbor one more time and say,
"You are the light of the world." Called this message this morning - it’s
an amalgamation of about five years. Write this down: Occupy all streets. Occupy all streets. We believe in New York, and I know David believes
it here, I know Liberty University has to believe this, that we serve a God that can
touch any life, any person, any street, any job, any club, any hospital, any prison. We believe the light of the gospel should
not be kept out of any sector of society, that we should be occupying all streets. There should not be one person, there should
not be one soul, there should not be one profession, there should not be one corner of Virginia,
there should not be one place on this earth that the light of the gospel is not being
shown. And there have been eras of Christianity where
- what was that? What was that? Was that the Holy Spirit? - But eras of Christianity where I feel like
there have been areas where people have not been occupying their street. I think the goal of serving Jesus is that
wherever you are, God wants to use you to bring light to people. My fear is that in generations now we can
get caught up in church and miss the whole point of what church is about. We can get caught singing songs that sound
good but we can miss the relationship with the person the song is about. We can get caught up acting Christian but
not actually realizing what being a Christian is all about. Have you ever been around somebody who constantly
misses the point of everything? Like they do the - someone's like "Yes! My neighbor!" - where, you know, somebody
apologizes to you but after they apologize they're like, "I'm sorry, but you really deserved
it." You know, like you kind of missed the point
or you go through a whole bunch of stuff and you get to the end of the thing and it's like
you didn't really get the gist of it, like you missed the only thing that really matters. I have three children; I love them all dearly. My wife and I not too long ago wanted to take
my daughter, Charlie, to go see her grandma in Scotland, and we had been building this
up. It was her first trip overseas and she was
about seven years old at the time, and, you know, we had packed her bag, we had pumped
this trip to high heaven, it was a huge moment and we got to the airport - me, Laura, my
daughter, Charlie - got up to the place to get her passport all checked out, and the
lady behind the counter looks at me and she's like, "Oh, I'm so sorry sir, could you come
here?" And I said, "Yeah, what's the problem?" And she said, "Your daughter's passport is
expired." I was like, "What do you mean?" immediately freaking out. She's like, "Yeah, it's expired, meaning she
can't go," and I'm like, "Well, you got to change something. You got to make sure this isn't really going
down like this." Like, "Can you change it?" As if the TSA lady can actually manufacture
a new passport. And I'm like, "You got to make this work." She's like, "Sir, there's nothing we can do
about it." I mean, we had everything but this one line
on the passport, ended up being the only thing we needed. I look at Laura and immediately when you're
married, when you fight with your wife or your spouse in public, you just smile but
you are angry. I'm yelling at her, she's yelling at me, and
she's like, "Who's going to tell Charlie that this isn't going to work out?" I'm like, "I'll take it on the chin." I go look at my little baby girl, and I'm
like, "Girl, I'm sorry, I got bad news for you. Your passport is expired and we can no longer
go on this trip," and she's like, "But dad, I thought we had it all worked out. My bag's ready, and the plane's right there,
and grandma's waiting for me," and I'm like, "I know, babe, but I just missed it and your
passport's expired." She's like, "Dad, it's going to be OK." And I was like, "Give me a second, babe. I'm going to go outside and light myself on
fire and come back in and finish the rest of this," and came in and she's just dying
because we couldn't go. We ended up having to leave and go back home
and I just left thinking, "Wow, we had it all except for the only part that mattered." My fear as we build churches and we go to
Christian universities and we read our Bible is that we would know all about all the stuff
but the one line, which Jesus said is the thing that really matters the most. To be the light of the world is what we miss
out on the most. My prayer today is that God might be able
to shake you up just a little bit and remind you: You are not here to do nice Christian
things. We are not here to be a part of a nice little
Christian Kumbaya club where we have a little bit of behavior modification and we do some
nice things for the world and we kind of just get by living. You are here to bring hope to the hopeless,
to bring freedom to those that have been bound. You are on this planet to bring light to all
the world, and God's going to call you to occupy your street. Here's what I like to call, “the Occupy
Revelation." Can you write this down and we're going to
roll through this and pray. At the end hopefully someone's going to get
a revelation. Do you know what a revelation is, by the way? Information is what a teacher gives you. Revelation is what heaven gives you. And I call it, "The Occupy Revelation." Goes like this: you are not defined by what
you do, but you are defined by who Jesus is to you. That's awesome and no one said anything. You are not defined by what you do - whoo! If you have a bad job, if you are struggling
with your degree, if you don't have all this stuff going your way right now, great news:
if you are a Christian, you are not defined by what you do, but you are defined by who
Jesus is to you. We live in a culture that puts a lot of validation
on labels. So if you have this much money and you have
this education and you have this type of family you get a label that says you can do a lot. Jesus came along and completely deconstructed
that type of society and said, "No matter what you have, no matter where you've been,
no matter how great your background is, no matter what side of the tracks you were born
on, if you have me, I validate you and now you are not dependent on what the world says
you need to have an influence. If I walk with you, and you walk with me,
you are no longer under the constraints of society; you have the right to be an influencer. If Jesus is everything to you, you sit in
a position of influence right now. I'm going to show you maybe one of my favorite
scriptures. Go with me quickly to Luke, chapter 19. Look at somebody and say, "You are the light
of the world." Jesus goes to this moment in a know-nothing
town - I just really feel in my heart to remind some of you: you're not just a college student;
you're not just an anything. When you leave and get the revelation that
“God has called me right now,” everything changes. I've talked to people, like "I'm just in college,"
or "I'm just a something." I always tell people, "You're not just in
college; you are a revival moving. You're not just a Starbucks barrister or whatever,
coffee maker, you are a bean revivalist. You are not just somebody waiting for God
to use you, you are somebody that, at any given moment, the Holy Spirit can breathe
on a moment and change the world. You're not dependent on your label; you are
not dependent on this world's validation. Come on, somebody. Somebody in here's been waiting to get permission. This morning is for you. It says, "Jesus entered Jericho and He was
passing through. A man there by the name of Zacchaeus, was
a chief tax collector and he was quite wealthy, wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he
was short, he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and he climbed a sycamore
fig tree trying to see Him since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up
and He said to him, 'Zacchaeus! Come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.' So he came down at once and he welcomed Him
gladly." I love this! This is the biblical first example of somebody
inviting themself over for dinner. "All the people saw this and they began to
mutter, 'He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.'" I believe right here we have another pattern
of how you should live. You should always live the kind of life where
it makes people mutter, grumble, and kind of stutter about what you're doing. If everybody can figure out what you're doing,
you're doing something wrong. If you're serving God, there should be somebody
tweeting about you, blogging about you, writing about you, gossiping about you, because this
is a gospel that's hard for people to understand. "But Zacchaeus stood up and he said, 'Look
here, Lord. Here and now, I give half my possessions to
the poor and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the
amount.' And Jesus said, 'Today salvation has come
to this house because this man is a son of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the
lost.'" Let me just re-wake up some of the ADD people
among us or somebody who was up too late. You all see how insane this verse is? Does this passage strike anybody else as the
most convicting thing you've ever seen? You have Jesus, who is on his way to surely
do something important, but he has the wherewithal to stop, look up into a tree, invite himself
over for dinner, and somebody who was untouchable in that society comes down. Jesus had no - He had no keyboard. He had no Colby. He had no shoes. He had no Twitter profile. He had no followers. He had no likes on Facebook. He was a carpenter with some sandals, but
he had the presence of God on His life to a point where he looks up to an untouchable
realm of society and says, "Hey! I got something that nobody else has. Come on down." And the end result was somebody getting saved. Today I pray somebody in here realizes that
God wants to use you now. It's not going to be something down the road. It's not going to be when you have it all
together. God is looking for people who are available. Is there anybody in here who is available,
I wonder? I grew up in church where we put the emphasis
on the stage. Only problem is we serve a God who flipped
that script and put the emphasis on the street. We used to teach people that this was real
ministry: the preachers and the teachers and the men of God. The real anointing, everybody else has a different
anointing. I believe it's heresy, I believe it's deadly,
I believe the beauty of the Cross is that my calling is special, yeah, but it's just
as special as your calling and if you occupy your street and God calls you to go on to
Hollywood, do it with pride and do it with passion because that's just as holy as somebody
preaching a message. If God calls you to be an artist, go be an
artist with passion because it's just as valid, and if you do your job and I do my job, maybe
we can start reaching people who have never been reached before. But it begins with a revelation of, "Wait
a minute! I don't need a title to be somebody who is
anointed." If that's the case, Jesus only had one title
and it was “carpenter,” but He was always the Son of God. Some of you need to hear it. Maybe no one's ever validated your dream. Maybe somebody told you you couldn't do it
like that. My prayer is today the Holy Spirit will do
something so deep inside you you'll walk out of here going, "I want to occupy my street
because God's called me to do it." I got an email - is this helping anybody in
here? You all are awful quiet. I like - church is more fun when it's loud. Some of you all grew up in the church of the
chosen frozen where it's more spiritual to look - . I got an email from a police officer
in Seattle, Washington, and he - any Seattleites? Really, 15 minutes? Pastor David, is that a suggestion or is that
a timer? He gave me an email. He said, "Carl, I just want you to know something. I used to think that because I was a police
officer I was called to support the ministry. And then I heard a message, you know, through
one of you all's churches that reminded me, no, as I police officer I am the ministry." And he said, "I was going to be a chaplain
some day and then maybe go to Bible college and all that stuff's great but I found out
that God wanted to use me right where I am. So I started to do something different. When I used to arrest people, you know, I
used to pray for them silently and I just couldn't wait to get them around a minister
someday. But then I got this revelation that God wanted
to use me right now as a cop, and so what I started doing was arresting people and I'd
put them in the back seat and on the way to the police station I would just start holding
up sermons on my phone all the way to the station because where are they going to go? And I would just play music videos, I would
play sermons and sometimes people would get saved, sometimes people would start to cry,
sometimes people would end up going to jail, come back out, and track me down and say,
'Are you that police officer that was playing that sermon. Who is this God that you're talking about?'“? And I started thinking, "Wow, what a revelation
for somebody to get." That God is not waiting to use you someday. He told a bunch of regular folks "You are
the light of the world" right now. What are you doing with your calling? What are you doing with this faith that you
have? Oh, I pray that the experience of Jesus has
totally changed your expression of love to the world. Let me read you one more Scripture then I've
got to finish this quickly. But it says in 1 John - and I kind of went
over this with our church at Easter, just this one part. Go with me to 1 John real quick. And write that down, that might help you. “Your experience should totally dictate
your expression.” There's a lot of people in here that would
say you've experienced the love of God, but I would question that as we look at the expression
of love that you give. A lot of Christians, they'll say they love
God but they don't love the street, they don't love the people on the street. In 1 John it says something that's pretty
powerful, and all my pages are stuck together. It says this: "Dear friends,” Liberty University
- I added that - "let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everybody who loves has been born of God and
knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God Who
sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also
ought to love one another." All the mean, crabby Christians in the world,
this is a problem. We ought to love one another. “Nobody has ever seen God, but if we love
one another God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.” Come on somebody, that deserves a clap and
a shout and a "I'm going to preach this to them." I still have my Easter raspy voice. We had 11 services. They were all awesome. If you have experienced this love, the expression
of love coming out of you should be as passionate as the love that saves you. I grew up in church with people who say, "Oh,
God's love on me," but God's love through them on the street, it wasn't happening. I would beg to differ that once you've experienced
the love of Jesus, you're going to have to go into the street once in a while. You might have to go love somebody who nobody
else has loved and you might have to get up when nobody else is getting up and pray for
people others have forgotten, because once you've experienced it, it changes everything. The equivalent to me is being a parent. You can never know the love your parents have
for you until you're actually a parent. I've got three children and I never understood
why my parents were so weird until I became a dad. Ever! I never understood why I'd just catch my mom
just looking at me, and I'd be like, "Mom, what are you looking at?" And she'd be like, "I just love you. You're my sweet boy and I love you." "Mom, I'm a grown man." "Yeah, but you're my sweet boy and I love
you." Couldn't understand. I couldn't understand why my dad would just
call me and I'd be like, "Hey dad, what's going on?" "Nothing, son. Just calling to say I love you." "Anything on your mind?" "Nope, just wanted to hear your voice." It'd be like, "Dad, that's so weird. You have a life. I have a life." "Just wanted to hear your voice, son. Proud of you. Love you. Nobody like you, son." "Dad, you've told me that a million times. What's the deal?" And then I had my own children. The moment I had my own kids I'm like, "Oh
my gosh." I spent the next ten years of my life apologizing
to my parents from years fifteen to about thirty when I just didn't get it. "Mom, I'm sorry for not returning your calls. Dad, I'm sorry for not getting it" ‘cause
I experienced it with my own life, seeing my own kids. My little son, Roman, has these giant glasses
cause one of his eyes jets in - it's very cute - and he came home from school one day
and his glasses were like broken and crooked. And I'm like, "Son, what happened to your
glasses?" He's like, "Dad, somebody pushed me on the
playground and they were making fun of my glasses." I was like, "Really? Who?" Like, "Where are they? Where do they live?" Like I couldn't wait till the next day at
school where I was like pacing around the playground, like I can't beat up whatever
kid did this but I can find his dad. Please believe I will find him. "Dad!" Charlie came home with a math test and she
was just weeping over it. She's like "Dad, I don't understand math." I found myself getting mad at the concept
of math, like the institution, like "Who can we email about math?" Who hates math? Math is wrong. Why? Because I've experienced it! If you can put your hand up today and say
the love of God has freed you from the life of sin you deserve, if you can put your hand
up today and say that about the Lamb of God but you can't show that same love on these
streets and you can't show that same love in the darkest corners of our world, I would
question whether you have really experienced the love of God which can break every chain,
which can open up every eye. If you leave here today with one thing, I
pray it would be a revelation, that God so loved me, so for the rest of my life I'm going
to love this world. Doesn't mean we conform to it. It doesn't mean we don't have high standards. It means everything we do, it comes out of
love. Two ways to occupy your street, and then the
worship team's going to come up here, and then we're going to worship if that's okay. I don't know what this is. But if you will take my “occupy all streets”
challenge, anybody up for that? Give me a wave. Never done this before, I never made it a
challenge, but here we are. Nobody in this section moved. Right here. I'm going to preach around you all. Anybody awake right here? Number one, I want you to occupy “wide awake.” There might be more joy to this journey than
you realize. Occupy wide awake. What I love about Jesus walking on the street
is He had this supernatural ability to open up His eyes and see some guy up in a tree
that obviously other people had walked by. What if I told you today, Liberty University,
you unbelievable people, that there is more happening in the spiritual realm of your life
than you realize. But there are a lot of Christians walking
around awake but absolutely asleep. Where they don't see what God is doing, they
don't see what's happening in the world, they don't see what God is doing all around them
in the spiritual, so they walk around awake but their eyes are shut. My prayer is that somehow, even this morning,
God would open up your eyes. As you leave here in a couple of weeks and
go back to wherever you're going to occupy your street in the summer, and you don't go
back to that old club, and you delete those old numbers that made last summer so miserable,
you go back with your eyes wide awake where you realize, "God has called me. God has mandated me to go do something awesome." All I know is this - can you write this down? - I don't want to live rushed because I wasn't
ready. Think about that concept. Have you ever missed an alarm? Have you ever went late to class, anybody
in here? Nobody? I got a degree in that. You know when you miss your alarm, the rest
of the day you're rushed. Nothing fits right, you have two different
shoes on, you have the wrong book, everything's off because now you have to go rushed because
you aren't ready. To think a lot of Christians live lives like
this, where they're not ready for God to move. They don't wake up saying, "Somebody is going
to end up in my world today. Somebody is going to cross my path and when
they do I will not miss it. There will be a supernatural moment and I'm
not waiting to get my degree, I'm not waiting for there to be an organ. Somebody who needs hope is going to cross
my path." Instead Christians walk around and so when
it does happen we're always scrambling because we're not ready, and we miss the moment. We're there, but we're not there. We went to college but we missed our whole
four years because we were looking ahead or went out that night but I didn't see anybody
who needed Jesus ‘cause I was focused on myself. Don't miss the moment because your eyes are
fixed on some mystical future. My wife and I had a school play we had to
go to. One of my daughters had like a play, and they
do weird things when you have children, by the way. Like they schedule school dance recitals at
8 A.M. It's the devil. I remember telling my wife, I'm like, "I don't
want to go to this, I can't take it, like it's too early," and she's like, "We have
to go. Charlie's going to know if you're not there." And keep in mind, when you do go to your kid's
dance things someday, they don't really mean they're going to dance for an hour. They mean your kid is going to dance for three
minutes and these kids you do not care about, will never see again but you have to watch
them will go for an hour. I remember waking up, going to this thing
to watch my daughter. I don't remember being there; I remember eating
my breakfast in the room, my wife and I just stroll in late. All these other parents have like khakis,
shirts, glasses, flowers for their kids, and me and my wife walk in like we had been out
all night. "We're the pastors. Good to be here." Sit down. Went home and went to bed, woke up at twelve,
I remember asking Laura, "Did we do something this morning?" She's like, "Yeah, we were at Charlie's thing." I'm like, "Did you get a photo of it? Did we record it ‘cause I don't even remember
being there." I say that to you this morning because I don't
want you to look back on this era on your life and remember some classes and remember
some degrees and remember some head knowledge. What if you asked God to open up your eyes
so you don't look back some day and think, "Lord, I wish I would have known how many
people needed You. I wish I would have known how awesome the
opportunity was. I wish I wouldn't have missed the moment." What if we had thousands of young people walking
across America who were not waiting for their promotion but they were actually living in
the grace of God that He has put all over your life right now? Don't live rushed because you're not ready. I got this memo early, and we're almost done. Can I tell you a couple more things? I remember going to church for one of the
biggest dangers of American Christianity is that church becomes a box that you never get
out of. Especially for those of you who want to work
in the church, the best thing you can do is make sure you never live in that thing. I remember going to church one day and I went
to 7/11 ‘cause that's always God's will - coffee and a donut - and I felt like God
was stirring me to talk to the guy behind the counter. And I'm like, you know, "Hey man, you should
come to church with me sometime." And the guy's like, "No, man. Guys like me don't come to church." And I'm like, "Trust me, I work at a church,
it's going to be fine. You need to come check it out." And he's like, "Nah. You know, I don't go to church. Won't come. I'm a bad person." I'm like, "Trust me, I work there, the building’s
still standing. Just come." And he says, "No, I'm not going to do it." So I leave, I felt like I did my good Christian
duty, I'm headed to church. Things are good. I'm driving - a mile away from church and
I felt like the Holy Spirit stirred me to go back. And I'm like, "God, I'm headed to church,
I don't have time for people." I just ended up going back and I asked this
guy, I said, "Look, man, I don't know what tomorrow holds but I do know that you're awesome
and that I crossed your path and I'm about to go preach a message but this message might
be way better, more important and if you'd come I'd be really honored." And he's like, "Fine, I'll come if it's just
to get you off my back. Whatever." I remember preaching that night; the last
guy to come in was my guy, Ross, from 7/11. I remember he sat on the corner seat; he had
his 7/11 gear on, his hat and his nametag. The very first person that gave his life to
Jesus at the - don't clap, it gets way better - was that guy Ross. Very first person. He calls me the next week, he's like, "Carl,
God has been doing a lot in my life and I really want to bring my wife to church. Is that okay?" And I'm like, "No, you have to tithe, get
baptized, and give before you bring anybody." I'm like, "Of course you can bring your friend!" You know, "Bring your wife! Bring her!" And he brings her. She gets saved. Their two kids get saved. He calls me the next week, he's like, "Carl,
God's been doing a lot in my life this week. I was wondering if I could bring my ex-wife
‘cause we reached out ‘cause God's been showing us so much love." And I said, "Ross! To the end of time you can invite whoever
you want to invite! If they're breathing, we invite them. Bring them! You don't have to get permission." So he brought his ex-wife and their stepchildren
and within about a month's time this guy, who was previously working at a 7/11, just
as an employee, in about a month's time filled an entire section of church filled with people
from his world. Let me tell you something, there was no Colby;
there was no degree; there was no evangelism gift. There was a moment where God shook me up to
make sure I wasn't walking around waiting to have church when the whole point is to
be the church wherever we go, to occupy these streets with passion that pushes us further. Number one: occupy wide awake. And number two, as we close, occupy with urgency. That's the last thing I want to tell you all. Will you dedicate your life to allowing God
to use you with an urgent passion that makes no sense to the people who don't know Jesus? Close your Bibles, your books, your stuff. I wonder if you will write these two words
down for me and then cross them out forever. You ready? This is what we preach at our church, so I'm
not giving you some message that I hope helps you ‘cause you're the leaders of tomorrow. I believe that's the most annoying, patronizing
thing to say. You're not the leaders of tomorrow. You're the leaders of right now. Speaking to the greatest crew of leaders of
- no. Remove these two words from your vocabulary
forever: "someday" and "almost." "Someday" and "almost" to me are two of the
most offensive words a Christian could ever live with. Think about Jesus. If Jesus would have lived like most New York
Christians, He would have seen Zacchaeus, he would have been like, "I'm coming back
later, I got to go work some stuff out. I got to go check out my theology to see if
I'm allowed to reach you or if you're going to reach God or if we're the same denomination. I'm going to go pray it up real quick. Hey guys, there's a guy up in the tree. I want to have a prayer meeting. I walked by a guy-” That's what would have
happened in modern-day society. Or the selfish Christians who would walk by
and been like, "It's not my time. I'm having some me time with God. I'm in a season of hiding." You ever heard Christians say that? "I'm not being used right now. I'm in a season of hiding." As if you get to dictate your season! "I'm in a season of hiding," or, "I'm a Scorpio,
it's not my month to reach out." Jesus, sandals, no where to go, no pedigree,
"We're going to dinner right now." "Someday" and "almost" is killing people. Sometimes I want to take Christians to the
funerals that I've been to, into the hospital beds that I've sat around, and I promise you,
you wouldn't spend one day of your life going, "Someday I'm going to do something great for
God." "Someday I'm going to be somebody who is reaching
people," or the worst, which is, "I almost lived my dreams," "I almost did what God called
me to do." You ever had someone say, "Hey, I almost prayed
for you." "Thanks, thanks, man." "Almost," "someday," "almost," "someday,"
I know this for a fact, that the Wednesday after Easter that Jesus did not almost go
to the cross. He did not almost set us free. He did not almost make a way. He went all the way. So if there is anybody in our world that should
be living like today is all we got, it better be us, because we have people that have to
get this gospel sooner. I've sat through too many funerals and I've
been around too many people that have lost it all to give you anything less than an urgent
mandate today as you close out this year. There is no "someday" for the people God has
called you to reach. There is no "almost" moment; it's just you
against this world that is pulling people away day by day. And as we close and I hand this back over
to David I want to pray for you, ‘cause my wife and I sat down at the bed of a 22-year-old
girl - long time ago, changed my life forever - and she got diagnosed with a stomach cancer. She got married. She was a faithful volunteer. She was an epic leader. She went to the doctor one day, they said,
"You have a cancer the size of a football behind your stomach and there's nothing we
can do about it. You maybe have a year, max, to live." Didn't even make it three months. My wife and I went to be with her as she passed
away - at the request of her family - and I'll never forget when she asked to talk to
me and Laura, before she went on into eternity. You know what she asked me and my wife? As she went on to be with Jesus, she looked
at me and she didn't ask me about her public profile, she didn't ask me about how many
people were following her on social media, she didn't ask me about clothes, she didn't
ask me about culture, she looked at my wife and I and she said, "Have I done enough? Do you think I've done enough? ‘Cause I've given it all I had but do you
think I've done enough? Twenty-two years old, that was what was on
her mind. I looked at her and said, "Girl, you did everything
you could do. You occupied your street every day of your
life. You can go be with Jesus in peace. Go." And I left there saying when we are facing
eternity; it's not going to be the stuff of this world that is going to carry weight. It's not going to be the stuff that your generation
is consumed with. The only thing that can matter today is that
the love of our God has freed us from a life of sin that we deserve and we got one mission
together, and if you do your job and I do my job, together we can occupy all these streets
and bring the gospel to those that need it. I'm going to occupy mine. My prayer is that you would occupy yours. Can somebody say, "Amen" if you believe this? Can you stand to your feet? I'm going to pray for you. If you could just remain quiet for a moment,
just close your eyes and breathe. Is there anybody in here that needs to be
mindful? Have you been asleep to what God's doing in
your life? Have you been dispassionate about the calling
that is on your life? My prayer today is that eyes will be opened
‘cause God's called you. My prayer is that your heart would be opened
because God's moving in you. And I want to pray for you right now, for
those who say, "Lord, there's not an urgency in my spirit that I need. Will you help me? Don't let me get caught up in the culture,
don't let me get caught up in the book stuff. Don't let me get caught up in everything our
world is consumed with, but Jesus, take control. Let me keep you in primary focus." If that's you, I want you to just stretch
your hands high right now in a sign of surrender. Just want to pray for you. Takes a little bit of guts to raise your hands
in church, but I got bad news: if you don't have the guts to raise your hands in a church
meeting, Christian university, good luck trying to stand for the gospel outside where it matters. So just as a sign of surrender, "Lord, I want
to occupy my street. Open up my eyes." Father, I thank you for every hand that's
lifted. Thank you for every heart that is open. And God I pray that this morning somehow,
someway, you would stir the hearts of many, that we would never forget that as we meet
today there are people in this world that are dying for the name of Jesus. There are people imprisoned for the name of
Jesus and there are others that are dying because they don’t know the name of Jesus. Let us be a part of a generation, Lord, that
occupies our street every day with the hope of the world that is the gospel. We love you. We give you praise ahead of time for all you're
going to do. In Jesus' name, if you believe it, can somebody
give God a mighty shout of praise up in here? Come on! Come on, give God a shout of praise if you
believe it! Come on!
