Chapel with Nathan Lorick - September 7, 2021

we are for the church and for the kingdom this vision drives everything we do there are many noble causes and institutions in this world and we care about the future of seminaries academies governments social causes and pair church ministries but they are not fundamentally why we exist we exist for the future of the church and the advancement of god's kingdom with god's help our students today will be the pastors ministers and missionaries of the global church tomorrow we teach the bible in the classroom so that generations of churches will be sturdy outposts of christ's kingdom this is how we serve the church and this is how we bless every other good and noble endeavor until god's glory covers the earth like the waters cover the sea [Music] will you join us what an incredible privilege to be with you i just want to encourage you i'm in a lot of different contexts but i'm rarely in a context where the worship is like that man you're blessed blessed to be able to join together each week and worship the lord together i want to say to you as i invite you to turn to first corinthians chapter 2. i want to say this morning how humbled and honored and grateful i am to be here dr alan thank you not only for your kind words but thank you for the invitation to be here this morning as i was in my hotel room asking god's blessing and anointing and favor i was reminded that 15 years ago i was in a rural church in deep east texas so rural that we had to have a phone cord from the fellowship hall all the way down the hall through the worship center the sanctuary to my office in order to have dial up internet i was 12 about 25 years old 24 25 years of age and i sat in my office one day and wondered i wonder if i will ever get to go to a southern baptist convention i wonder if i'll ever get to go see one of our seminaries and if i ever would have the opportunity to meet perhaps a southern maps convention president never in a million years when i dreamed that god would allow me to be here in front of you the next generation of pastors and missionaries and worship leaders and life group teachers and whatever area an arena god's called you to and i just want you to know i really am humbled to be here today and i have not forgotten what it felt like 15 years ago to sit in that church office with up internet and just know how god has allowed me much greater things to be a part of than i could have ever dreamed or imagined i want to invite you to second corinthians chapter one through five i want to speak to you this morning on what i've termed the prioritized ministry the prioritized minister you are without a doubt at the most exciting time of your life man you're here you are preparing for god to unleash you into ministry in whatever context he would call you to for some of you you're not married so man this is your singular focus for some of you you're married you're trying to do life together maybe you have kids and you're trying to figure out what it is that god has for you and i just want you to recognize today that this is without a doubt one of the most incredible times of your life and i hope that you will seize every single moment for the glory of god and in this season in this moment however you must be careful and diligent to walk closely with god to make sure your priorities are in place because here's the deal this is what i wish someone would have told me when i was beginning life gets messy life gets difficult and as life gets messy it is easy for the demands of the day to begin to throw chaos into the priorities of your life and as the demands of the days throw priorities off of what they should be while it begins to bring chaos into your life then what you begin to see is that you are so busy doing good things that sometimes you fail to do the god things that there in your life are so many demands and the chaos of the moment and the in the the things that come into life that oftentimes if you're not careful and diligent your life becomes unprioritized and when that begins to happen your effectiveness in life in relationships and ministry begin to show weakness and begin to show ineffectiveness you see it's as if in your life right now you you you are at a place where you can prioritize your life so that when you're going forward god can use you in ways that you can't even imagine but i want you to understand this that if you're not careful again you will find yourself time and a time again settling to get the good done when god has something great for you to do and i want us to see in the life of paul today he is writing this letter to the church at corinth we know the cultural mess that corinth is facing we know the the the sin that the church is is battling internally we know all of the conflict there's two letters to the church in the new testament we know all of these things and in the midst of this paul at the beginning of one of the first letters he is going to talk about the supremacy of preaching christ in all things and that your life ought to have the right priorities and at the top of that priority list is that the message of the gospel of jesus christ out to always be at the forefront of your life and your ministry and the truth is i believe with all my heart that for some of you god's going to speak to you in whatever way he needs to today he's going to meet you where you are but you're kind of like my wife my wife and i march will be celebrating 20 years and that's a big big accomplishment if you if you know me she's put up with a lot well we were dating in college we went to east texas baptist university we were dating in college and i saved up money to buy her a ring i wanted to ask her to be my wife and so i worked four jobs i was an r.a at the dorm i was a part-time youth minister i sold cars and at night i picked up dead bodies for the funeral home man i love this woman let me tell you and so i finally saved up enough money and i went and i bought a ring and i began to practice what i was going to say and and and wrote it down and and man out it was going to be a an incredible moment she's from san antonio in downtown san antonio there's a restaurant that goes high and it spins slowly and i was going to take her to that restaurant on her birthday i was going to get on a knee and with her city in the background embarrass her i was going to ask her to marry me in front of the whole restaurant and it was going to be epic and it was going to be awesome and so spring break comes we begin to head to her home it's about a six hour drive we get on a a highway there going through east texas and i said baby i can't wait until thursday night it is your birthday and i'm telling you i've got the greatest gift you could ever receive now i know you ladies are thinking about a ring i was actually talking about me but um and i said we're going to go out i've planned to date for your birthday it's going to be phenomenal she looks at me and she goes we can't go out thursday you ever seen uh different strokes what you talking about will it's like what in the world are you talking she said we can't go out i committed to be back wednesday night to babysit for a family on thursday i said no you don't understand we have to go out thursday night and she said nathan i'm a lady of my word i gave them my word and i will not go back now i don't know if there's any single ladies in the house i'm going to give you some lifelong advice here men don't have a plan b just so you know all right it doesn't exist it's just not there and so i didn't know what to do i mean i mean we're at this point i'm in crisis mode and i'm like we have to go out sweetheart and she says nathan we are not we are coming back on wednesday and so i did what all i knew to do i said fine i'm not giving your gift now she later told me she thought i was going to buy her a lamp like what lame boyfriend gives his girlfriend in college a lamp and so and so i said so we argue for the next 10 minutes i'm like i i just i can't believe that she goes look just give it to me now and i'm like i am not giving this to you now she said no you've got to give this to me now it's just a birthday present it's not a big deal and i'm going do you know how many times i practice in front of the mirror for the no i'm not giving it to you now and she kept on and kept on and kept on finally she said just give it to me now ladies here's a second piece of advice there is a line in a man's mind and heart once you push him over the line it is the point of no return can i get an amen guys i got tired of it and finally i said fine so i did all i knew to do i found the next church i could find i pulled into the parking lot it was a shelled parking lot and i get out of uh her mustang and i go and i open the trunk i get that that that lamp i mean that ring out of my suitcase my heart is pounding can i be honest with you everything i had written and rehearsed i forgot in the moment i walked to the side of her car i get down on my knees i open the door i look at her i open the ring and before i can say anything she goes oh no don't do this here now i do need to tell you i'm still as married as some of you are and you did some elaborate proposals but that's how we got engaged let me ask you say nathan why do you tell that story because here's what i want we're going to walk through this very quickly today but here's what i want you to know for some of you you're on the you're on the verge of allowing your life to become so chaotic and unprioritized that you're going to find yourself so far from what you want to be in christ so far from where you want to be in ministry and today god's going to say hey i'm meeting with you here and i've got something powerful for you man there's an enemy that's going to say today hey don't do this here i know you're preparing i know i know god's equipping you i know you're being equipped at midwestern i know all those things but you don't need to worry about what this guy says because uh i can bring great things in chaos the enemy would tell you but remember he comes to steal kill and destroy remember he is a lie the father of lies there is no truth in him remember that he is like a lying seeking whom he can devour and here's the deal if he can't destroy you he will distract you if he can't cause you to take your eyes off of the prize he will cause you to be so busy that your life becomes unprioritized and your life becomes chaotic and before long you look up and say how did i get to this place paul is writing to the church in corinth and he's writing about preaching it is a dysfunctional church it is a dysfunctional era it is a a difficult situation and in in this passage paul as he is writing about proclaiming christ and and keeping christ on the forefront i want to kind of mesh today for the sake of time some observations and applications together and give us some lessons that we learn out of the life of paul beginning in verse one it says and i when i came to you brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of god with lofty speech or wisdom for i decided to know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified and i was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom listen to this this is so key but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of god three simple things about a prioritized ministry a prioritized life that we draw out of what paul is saying to the church in corinth and and how we can apply that to our life the first principle that ought to really challenge us today is this simple your giftedness should never be more celebrated than your mission you see paul is the apostle paul is a church planter paul is a discipler paul is a teacher paul is a preacher paul is an evangelist paul is a fill in the blank all of the titles that you and i would seek after all of the the the the position that you and i would would hunger after all of those things that in our culture we would say are significant paul says none of those are significant he says when i come to you and i open the word of god i am not coming trying to impress you with my ability try to impress you with how i structured a message i come to you not with lofty speech or wisdom he says he says but i came to you deciding to know nothing but jesus christ you see here is the truth of the matter today as i look around there are so many of you i don't know you but i promise you you are gifted by god to do something great for the kingdom of god whether you're a teacher or whether you're you're going to be a pastor or a missionary or worship leader or whatever it is the calling god has given you you are incredibly gifted and you will be so incredibly equipped when you leave this place but brothers and sisters in christ you can never allow your gifting to be more celebrated than your mission paul of all people could have celebrated his giftedness in preaching he knew the bible he knew the the the law he he was eloquent and he could have been eloquent in speech think about how educated he was how respected he was before his damascus road experience this was not some guy that came off the street corner speaking in east texas slaying this is a guy who was absolutely educated and can articulate with the best of them yet in that moment he says to this church who is hurting and struggling i want you to know i'm not here to impress you i'm not trying to come with plausible words or uh incredible wisdom i simply want you to know that the power doesn't lie in my giftedness and my ability to communicate the power lies in jesus christ and him crucified and if you're not careful you will preach you will teach and you will serve for pat's on the back instead of what we just saying about all glory be to christ this is what paul says he says listen when i came to you i didn't proclaim a lofty speech or wisdom and i decided to know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified here's what paul says to us practically i came to you for impact not to impress you i came to you with simplicity not superficial i came to you and and and wanted the power of god to come and visit us i didn't come pre-packaging something try to manipulate it paul says listen i simply came to you not trying to be more than i am not trying to woo you or win you i simply came to tell you that jesus christ came and he died for you and he loves you my message is christ life would scream to us that we cannot let our giftedness be more celebrated than our mission students i don't know what year you're in here but here's what i can tell you when you leave this place often the times the the things that people celebrate about you will somehow become your identity and you have to prioritize your life to where it's christ and christ alone christ and christ only you say friends you're gifted but you cannot let your gift outpace or outlive your godliness paul says man i didn't come to impress he could have i simply came to preach jesus i simply came to tell you that he brings life so i have four kids my oldest son is 17 he's a junior we move back to texas he's a football player and and he's a i don't know if there's any football players in here but he's a kicker now i have to be honest with you because i have to repent from the before the lord from time to time i was a middle linebacker we made fun of kickers i'm not going to lie to you i knew nothing about kicking and so when he's when we realized he could kick two years ago it was like okay god what am i supposed to do with this and god began to deal with me for my pride and say nathan he's uh he's got something special so we begin to get him coaching we begin to find out he's like really really special like he's in the top 10 in the nation in his grade and so we we we we do all that we can because he's got this really good gift two weeks ago friday night we moved to this school guys that have a 35 million dollars worth of facilities man they have the longest texas uh winning streak in high school history in texas and and so there's thousands and thousands of people that show up to the games it's it's crazy man it's really crazy and it's and so he shows up at celina texas and we go and we're we're facing one of their rivals and it is his first game and he has been working for two years to start varsity and he's getting a lot of attention uh for a kicker and all of these kind of things so he was ready he's been working for two years and he lines up for the first kickoff as a dad man i didn't eat all day my stomach is in my heart is in my stomach i am nervous as i can be and and and we we win the toss we deferred which means we kick off so the first play of the season for celina bobcats is my son kicking off and man the crowd is going crazy and we're holding our thumbs up yelling go go and i'm videoing and my video kind of looks like this because i'm just nervous as i can be and i'm like this is the moment he has been waiting for and there he goes the whistle he takes off and he runs towards the ball and he gets right up to the ball and as he plants his foot to kick the ball his foot slips right out from underneath him he kicks it 10 yards and falls flat on his face now i got to be honest with you the next day it was really funny it was really funny i've got pictures that i'm going to frame and give him for christmas but here's what i want you to understand this kid is gifted this kid is touted this kid will probably be playing on saturdays in a d1 school like this kid has everything he needs to succeed but in that moment he did not walk out on the field before and test it he did not run through kickoffs therefore he didn't pay attention to the the surface in which his foot would plant on so though he is extremely gifted he was not aware it was what was going on in the culture in the atmosphere and therefore when it was game time as much as he was gifted as much as he was prepared he slipped see students here's the deal you're so gifted but if you're not aware of the atmosphere in which you're serving and the enemy how he's trying to attack you if jesus is not first as paul says if you're trying to go in and say i'm going to impress i'm going to to try to win them over with my personality listen to me you're you're on your way to slipping when it counts listen to what paul says i came brothers not proclaiming to you proclaim your testimony of god but lost his speech or wisdom yet i decided to know nothing among you except jesus and him crucified the second principle we see is this and i was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so really the first principle we see out of paul's life here is his your giftiness should never be more celebrated than your mission but secondly your ministry should never be motivated by men but instead dependent on the holy spirit so paul lays out look i'm not trying to impress you i'm not coming with plausible words you're not going to walk away and say man that was an incredible speaker that was a great sermon outline that was that was youtube worthy paul says no man i i that's not who i am i want you to know jesus because he is the priority of my life and he's got to be the priority of your life but he goes on to say but not only do i just want you to know christ and i'm not here to impress you i want you to know that i was with you in weakness and trembling i was fearful among you i think what paul is saying is i walked humbly before you i have not forgotten my damascus road experience i have not forgotten where i came from i've not forgotten that but but by the grace of god there go i i think paul is saying i could have brought in all kind of things that made your head spin and pray and impressed you and you could have walked away saying that was a great message that was a great speaker paul paul says no i want you to focus on jesus listen what he says my weakness and my fear and trembling my speech were not implausible words of wisdom i love this but in demonstration of the spirit and of power you see the second principle that i believe we can take out of paul's life is simply this that your ministry should not be motivated by men it needs to be dependent on the holy spirit can i just be honest with you this morning this is coming to you out of the overflow of my heart i'm i'm asking god for some things i was with a group of people last week in nashville as we gathered and talked about how do we create a national prayer movement i'm telling you if we don't begin being a praying people we're not going to experience the fullness of what god wants to do and as we heard stories of what god was doing pockets of movements of god always proceeded by prayer god began to just well open me that nathan it's not about confidence and and arrogance and and giftedness it's about walking in front of me humbly and expecting and anticipating and chasing after the what he says the demonstration of the spirit and of power see friends we have plenty of students we have plenty of young men and women who are equipped educated those things are great talented resourced and creative but what we need is a generation that is filled with the holy spirit of god you know it'd be a tragedy you come to a place like this which is phenomenal i mean i'm just so blown away what god's doing here but it would be a tragedy if you came here and you left here knowing greek and hebrew but you don't know how to passionately pray it would be a tragedy if you came in here and and studied and you left knowing all about hermeneutics but you don't regularly discipline yourself to hear from god from his word it would be a tragedy if you knew how to do expository uh and exegetical preaching but you do not actively share the gospel it would certainly be a tragedy if you came here and got all the incredible information and education but you left here without really having transformation from the spirit of god working in your life this is what paul says look the way i came to you was about the mission of jesus being known he said the way i came to you humbly fearfully trembling not thinking highly of myself because i wanted the spirit of god to demonstrate his power and therefore he's going to say in the last verse so that when the spirit shows up and and his power is known you can't look at me and say man it was because of him you have to look at the power of god through the holy spirit and as i study guys the southern maps convention which is our ecosystem and i live in the the the constant life cycle of it i have to pay attention all of it as i study it let me just challenge you with this i do not believe the greatest tragedy that faces us is declining baptisms on acp i don't believe it's declining worship attendance i don't believe it's that they say that the sbc is declining or or what i i don't believe it's that more churches are closing than than than are starting or planting here's what i believe i believe the greatest tragedy is that there could be a generation of southern baptists who spend their entire ministry and never experience a move of god so i was with this group of men we began talking about all the points that god moved among southern baptists in incredible ways and incredible ways and all obviously uh there were times in which god just poured out his spirit on us as a network of churches and family of churches and and we would talk about these pockets but something happened we we kind of hit the year 2000 and no one could recollect a move of god among southern baptists that was large and felt and expansive after the year 2000. i'm not a historian so i don't know this is just a group of men who are seeking the face of god together saying oh god would you please move among southern baptists would you please put desperate prayer in our lives and as we begin to talk about all these movements of god all these times which in which people looked at southern baptism said god is moving in yet at the year 2000 and beyond there's not one that we could come up with was not one verifiable movement of god that we could say that god was pouring out his spirit on southern baptist and it dawned on me friends it dawned on me i'm 40 years old i'm halfway through my ministry and it dawned on me that i graduated in 99 from high school i entered into ministry in the year 2000 and it dawned on me that i've served half if that is true i've served half of my ministry without collectively as a denomination and as a family of churches experiencing a fresh new movement of the holy spirit of god the greatest tragedy is that we could possibly as a generation live our entire life without seeing a movement of the holy spirit that is is is absolutely 100 only attributed to the power of god see we have great preachers great pastors great ministers but what i'm begging god for if i can just be honest is that your generation and my generation would experience what paul's desire was that there would be a demonstration of the spirit and of power i beg of you to join me in begging god to pour out his spirit once again upon southern baptist churches in our communities in our cities your giftedness should never become more celebrated than your mission your ministry should never be more motivated by men instead depending on the holy spirit paul says i it's not me i'm trembling i'm fearful but the demonstration of the spirit of power i love this last verse so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of god here's what paul's saying i didn't impress you i just gave you the truth i gave you the truth in such a way that i am weak i am humble i am fearful so that if god were to use this that i were to give you it must be attributed to his power his glory him not me it is so easy friends i'm just telling you it is so easy to to to to to seek after performance in ministry instead of power in ministry it's it's so easy to to to say man thank you you know to love those those pats on the back and those titles and those accomplishments and all of those things but at the end of the day friends at the end of the day we are wretched sinners saved by the grace of god that is as good as we'll ever be but that is as good as we ever need to be because the grace of god has changed us and we get to worship him and we get to say how great thou art and we get to point others to him it is not about you it is not about me paul says it's not about him it's about the spirit of god pouring himself out so that when he does the only person that can receive the glory is him your faith should never be placed in men but rather the power of god i've got to be honest with you the more that i've learned about how to do ministry the less i've leaned into the spirit of god heed that warning friends if we're going to see a movement of god together we must get on our face and beg god we must as paul says we must make it about jesus we must be passionate prayers we must come and be humble before god and say god we are weak and we are feeble but if you'll just simply take my life and use it for your glory if you'll take my life and use it for the spirit of god and and demonstrate your power in and through me than god i want others when they see it i don't want them to point to me and high-five me i want them to say what's in you and i can say it is god who works in me it is christ who can meet you where you are it is the spirit who wants to empower you to do great things for the kingdom you see here's the deal when man empties himself becomes weak and trembling and the spirit of god steps in god does things that are unimaginable i'll close with this when i was pastoring my first church out in the country church i was telling you about my my wife and i we had one son we uh wanted to have more kids and so we had two miscarriages then we got pregnant again a church had 33 people when they when they voted on me and i honestly i thought i was billy graham and it was the taj mahal man i didn't need it i was a mega church we got pregnant again and the day came in which we were able to go find out what this child was so we go to the doctor's office for the ultrasound and and and and and we get there and the the nurse begins to do the ultrasound on my wife and she's looking around and all of a sudden she stops and she says would you excuse me for a moment tears began to come out of my wife's eyes i grabbed her hand i said honey i don't know what's going on but man we're going to trust god in this a few minutes later the doctor walked back in he continued to ultrasound and he looked at us and said the words we'd never wanted to hear he said i'm so sorry to tell you this but somewhere in the last couple of days your baby boy's heart has stopped beating he looks at my wife and he says you're gonna have to come in tomorrow and you're gonna have to deliver a stillborn little boy man we were devastated we were 24 25 young scared we go to the car we call our parents we're crying we don't know what to do they rush over the next morning i'm gonna take my wife to the hospital to deliver a baby boy she'd never bring out in her arms my wife that day courageously gave birth to a little boy that we named connor my job when the delivery was over was to go out to the family and tell them it was done so they could come in and begin loving on and ministering to my wife and myself but yet when i walked out of the door of the hospital i was to walk straight and there was a little hallway off to the right that dead end and i i walked down that hallway and and in the middle of that hallway i just dropped to my knees and i i raised my hands up i was fearful i was angry i was frustrated i was confused and i raised my hands up in the middle of that hallway of east texas medical center and i said god what are you doing god i'm serving you i'm in ministry i'm a pastor god why would you do this to us i'll never forget i tell people this i'm not one that says god speaks to me all the time he does through his word but not in this kind of way but there on my knees in that hospital room the holy spirit comforted my heart and god put something in my heart that day and he said this nathan i'm not doing it to you i'm doing it through you for someone else down the road now i've got to be honest with you i thought to myself god you are the creator of vocabulary and that's all you got i don't like that answer but i told my wife we would trust him so i got off my knees i went and got my family we went home the next day begin the process of healing there was a funeral home about 15 minutes away from us that called me and said hey pastor you we hear you've had a stillborn son we want to do the funeral for you for free if you don't mind and by the way pastor it's up to you but we have a cemetery a brand new cemetery about 30 minutes away in east texas that we're happy to give you a plot if you want to bury your son there won't cost you anything we were so grateful so we buried our son at that cemetery a few months went by on a sunday afternoon i got a knock on the door as my student pastor i lived next door to church and in a parsonage and he said hey nathan you need to come over here there's a couple that wants to meet with you and i said man it's sunday afternoon that's only good for football and naps man i mean can't we meet monday he said you need to come now so i walked next door i sat down and i was a little frustrated i sat down with the this young man and this young lady and here's what they said we just moved here now you didn't just happen to move to martin's mill texas the first day i went out there to interview with the committee i drove around the s curve and there was a kid walking a goat on a leash while his dog ran loose and i thought lord what are you calling me to you don't just move there and they said we just moved here we were driving by today and something told us that we just need to stop and talk to the guy who leads this place i want to be very clear i'm not mystical i'm not any of that i do believe god works in ways we don't understand and i said well tell me what's going on and tears became down this young lady's eyes and here's what she said a week or two ago we had a stillborn little girl my mind began to flood back to that hallway i ran i got my wife we came over we began talking to them as they weeped uh they wept and wept and and we were all weeping together and and man the incredible thing is right there in our office through the pain of our son and the pain of their daughter that young man and that young lady surrendered their life to christ in my office that's a really cool story if it ends there as we begin talking we began realizing that our little boy and their little girl were buried in the same cemetery some 30 minutes away man pretty cool story if it ends there as we begin drilling down and talking we're we're at and when you pull in you go here you go there you go here you go there to the best of our ability we begin to realize that our little baby boy and their little baby girl were not only born in the same cemetery but were born and buried in plots next to each other you tell me how a god doesn't orchestrate that you tell me how god in our weakness and our fear and our trembling just saying god we don't understand it but god we're going to trust you when we begin to remove ourselves from the equation you tell me that god doesn't step in he demonstrates his power and his spirit in even in the midst of our crisis and he orchestrates this unbelievable chain of events where people through my son's death now have eternal life and yet here we are 30 minutes away from the cemetery our kids are buried next to each other the best we can tell in this cemetery and listen if that's a cool if that's his story into there that'd be a cool story i moved to denver colorado four years ago about two years ago a church in naples florida was without a pastor they asked me to come speak i got on a plane from denver i flew to naples florida i i spoke and i shared this story about how christ can use your your pain he doesn't waste your pain but he's always working in ways we can't see it and there was a guy in the choir loft that texted a friend of his who worked he worked with and said hey man i know what you're walking through you need to watch this message today god's going to use it in your life the next week i get a phone a text from my wife said there's this guy on facebook saying he's got to talk to you i gave him your number he's calling you in five minutes this guy calls me he says nathan you don't know me but you've i've got to talk to you he said listen my wife and i just had a stillborn little child and i had a friend that was in naples florida at church where you spoke about how god used your crisis for his glory and and he told us we had to watch it and my wife and i we sat in bed in the midst of our pain and we just wept before the lord saying oh god if you can use them use us use our pain he said nathan and then the crazy thing is is i i began to google and found out that you live in denver now where in denver do you live i said i live in westminster he said you're not you're not joking i said i'm not he said i live in north glen that's five miles away he said can we meet for lunch we met the next week we start talking and he goes hey man tell me about your other kids i tell them about our kids he tells me how he he said hey where do your kids go to school i said well my wife teaches at a private christian school 20 minutes away in arvada colorado he goes no way is it faith i said yes he said you're not going to believe this my kids go to faith he said what what grade are your kids in so i started telling me i tell you my son at the time was in eighth grade and he goes did you just speak at eighth grade graduation three weeks ago i said yeah why he said my daughter is in the same grade as your son hey maybe that doesn't amaze you but let's retrace that i'm in the middle of nowhere america god takes us empties us of ourself he brings a couple to come to know him he is working in our pain in our midst as we empty ourselves as we prioritize his will over ours he's working in supernatural ways god moves me to denver god sends me to florida to speak a message that connects with a guy back in denver we sit down in denver and figure out that his daughter and my son are not only in the same private christian school they are in the same grade at the same private christian school maybe i should put it this way to you seven billion people on earth and god in his kindness and his providence and his sovereignty he is working through these things as we empty ourselves he's demonstrating his spirit and his power so that when when we begin to realize that his daughter and my son are in the same grade and god orchestrated us ministering to them through our pain because god showed up listen to me friends i want you to understand this when you look at this you can't say to anyone man that was a great plan you planned no you have to look and say we serve a god that blows our mind for his glory we serve a god that when our life is prioritized when it is about jesus when when we walk in humility when it is about seeing the spirit of god show up and pour out himself upon us and the power of god working in us in all circumstances when we back away prioritize jesus first and we desperately seek a move of god and god moves then we get to say friends that's a god story and i just happen to believe he's not through with it yet so let me ask you this how prioritizes your life don't leave this place to make a name for yourself you will slip when it counts you leave this place hungry for a move of god don't let the metrics of your ministry be title or position or size or etc let the metrics of your ministry be how has god moved in my life and in the ministry he's entrusted to me and watch what god does because here's the crazy thing you're in kansas city somehow god's using your life somewhere else in ways you can't imagine so that at the end of the day he gets glory father i pray by the power of your holy spirit that you would move in these students hearts god i pray with everything within me that you would remind them that they must bow before you prioritize their walk with you god let them understand today that it is not about how gifted we are how impressive we can be it is how broken and humble you found us in and you saved us by your grace for your glory in jesus name amen

Channel: Midwestern Seminary

Views: 25

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: ynXDx0uBnA4

Length: 41min 58sec (2518 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021