Erwin McManus | Find Your Edge

thank you guys so much you don't know this but in a previous life I was a lumberjack actually I was is a very short career but I used to cut down trees in the mountains of Virginia and it was not very good at it but last year my kids gave me an axe as a gift it's an unusual gift did you want to know when do you use that in fact they'd never asked me dad how come you never use that axe we gave you but today I am because today we're going to talk about finding your edge so it's the perfect day to do that let's take a moment let's pray together thank God for this day happy 2018 you ready to begin a great year okay father thank you so much for how you move in our lives and such unexpected and beautiful ways God even as we launch into this new year I pray that that you would take the best of our past and use it as the material for the most unexpected and spectacular future and God take the worst of our past and defy odds by taking that material and making us better and stronger father I pray for each person here that you had build into them such a deep sense of intention and purpose and meaning you'd grow them such dreams and ambitions and longings and then guy would you grow in them the structures and disciplines to achieve those dreams and create that future we thank you Father we pray in Jesus name Amen you may have a seat one of my favorite verses in the scriptures well one of the my favorite books in the scriptures is Ecclesiastes I love the insights of Solomon even though sometimes I find them to be incredibly depressing and self-absorbed but what do you expect but there's one particular statement that he makes I think is really important for us today because he were at the beginning of 2018 it's gonna be a new year it couldn't be the greatest year of your life if you don't know that yet I want to tell you first at the end of the year you can say he knew he knew it was going to be the greatest year of my life I want you listen what it says in Ecclesiastes 1010 and if people talk about having 20/20 vision but I think we're not expecting enough from ourselves series I have 10:10 vision is this if the axe is dull and it's edged unsharpened more strength is needed but skill will bring success so I talked to you about this one verse at the beginning on the first Sunday of 2018 and I'm going over from a basic assumption for your life that God wants you to have the most successful year you've ever lived now I know sometimes language like success and prosperity and blasting all that can can have a lot of baggage attached to it but but I want you to realize that even in the worst case scenarios in the scriptures the stories are always about women and men who stepped into the life God created them to live in the worst and most adverse of circumstances and if you only hear the names of people you may forget the environments and you hear names like Moses and Daniel and Joseph and Esther and Ruth you might assume that these are the stories of the epic men and women who had everything working in their favor not like you and me we need to remember that these stories are the stories of men and women whose lives faced the greatest difficulties and challenges that anyone could ever imagine Joseph was a prisoner and a slave Daniel was a captive and a slave Moses was an exile and a murderer Ruth was a refugee and a widow Astor was a sex slave taken by a foreign King to be made one of his wives or concubines when you look through the Scriptures you need to realize the stories of the greatest lives ever lived all begin with the most difficult and unwanted circumstances ever desired so here you are I don't know what you're facing I don't know how difficult your life is but I'm gonna guess you're about at least a step above Babylonian captivity I'm gonna guess you have a better opportunity to begin that the best year of your life then Joseph did spending years and years in prison or Moses that running for his life after he killed in egyptian or astra did after she was taken by a king who worshipped before in God who she did not love or Ruth after her husband was dad she had no future to hope for and so if God can take these people in these circumstances facing this kind of moment and give them a story of blessing and prosperity and success how much more should you or I expect the good things are going to happen this year I think sometimes we want guys just to drop success on our lap rather than give us the opportunity to take on an opportunity to do something meaningful successful in extraordinary that's why I love these words from Solomon because they they deal with the reality of hard to work let me tell you of all the different jobs I've had being a lumberjack was a hard one it was hard work cutting down trees and if you work as a lumberjack you realize that you don't get to cut down the small trees you have to leave the small trees alone you have to go after the big trees and you might spend hours if not the entire day working at one tree here's the bigger the tree the greater the challenge is if the axe is dull and it's edged unsharpened more strength is needed but skill will bring success so just for a few moments I want to talk to you from the assumption that God wants to bring success into your life I was actually starting to I listen to this one particular pastor who I asked I said how is it that you have so many people of affluence in your church because when we start when they have any than we had one and then when we had one I thought we have one we do have more than one and God said that's not gonna work that way for you he actually told me the story said God gave us one and then he said now you need to raise up the rest of them because from this one he's going to teach you principles of how he achieved success see I'm convinced that that the future that God wants to usher and through us together is going to happen as all of us elevate our game and decide that we're going to become the best of the best at whatever we do so I don't know what your particular passion is your focus is what your arena is what your discipline is what your vocation is what your skillset is what your education is but I don't need to know any of that what I need to know from you what I want to know from you is are you willing to do the work of being the very best in the world of what you do and then you know you have no control someone could be better than you born in Iceland today so don't even factor that in don't even factor why I'm gonna be the best in the world do you have the ambition the determination the resolve to be the best that you can be in the world right now because it's a strength thing when you focus not on what other people do or who they are or what they accomplish or how much talent they have but when you focus on taking responsibility for what God has entrusted with you it's amazing how much God can do in a person's life if the axis also made opening thoughts to you in today's what is your acts what what is the thing that God has placed in your hands that God is entrusting you to do something significant with what is your acts what what is the God has called you to step into this year as you're going into 2018 are you going in just sort of going well I hope something good happens or you going in I'm gonna make something good happen because I find that God has an amazing way of infusing strength in to a person who has intention but it's very difficult for God for someone who doesn't know what they're doing and why they're doing it what are you trying to cut down weight trying to be great at a lot of people ask me how do you get good at this no I'm sorry I got the question wrong they never asked me that they always ask me how do I become successful at this like how do I get my books published rather than how do I become a good writer I almost never have anyone asked me how do I become a good writer I always have people asking me how do I get published I have people ask me how can I get on how can I become a communicator not how can I become a greater communicator all right can you become an average one how can I become at least better than I am see what I find this interesting is we want the outcome of a great skill but we don't want the journey toward that great skill so the questions what's your axe what is it God has put in your hand see I don't know what your talent is I don't know what your gifting is I don't know what it is that's on your heart that's actually on your life but I do know this even if you were born if you're created whether you believe in God just give you the talent or you are a genetic anomaly your you should be thanking your parents or combinations of both whatever resulted in putting the potential of Extraordinary inside of you it will not happen if you don't take the ax and start striking if you don't do the work to become great what is your axe what is the thing that you have been taking on and I think it's it could be in so many different arenas of life yeah I think sometimes our our our axes I need to become a better husband I just need to become a better man sometimes you're actors I just need to be a better wife and need to be a better human being so some of your act needs me I need to be a better parent I just a lousy parent talk to so many people who talked to me about how bad their parents were now maybe they have a skewed perspectives but one of things I try to remind them is your parents are humans though the only difference is that that they were just bad parents here they were just they were just probably bad humans better relationships because you know we're not always that good at doing what we're supposed to be good at we're not that good at being human the problem with children is that they don't get a choice whether they're going to be your friend or not they have a relationship with you whether they like it or not so instead of putting around the kids maybe we should just try to be better humans like be better parents learn how to have better relationships out to listen more how to care more happy more empathetic more compassionate forget how you're going to impact the world what about your acts as a human as it has been a wife a father a friend what's the act that you have been entrusted with what has God given you that you're supposed to become the best at right now wouldn't be amazing if we just say 2018 is the year where whatever's in my hands I'm not gonna take it for granted whatever is in my hands I'm gonna do the hard work of being the very best in the world that I can be at whatever is in my heads where it's been entrusted to me some of you have influenced what are you doing that influenced you have a company what are you doing with the company and this drives me crazy but I hear people who graduate from UCLA or USC or some or Berkeley some of the best schools in the world and I go what do you want to do with your life do you mean to pay the bills now if you're just gonna pay the bills why did you waste all that tuition you're just trying to avoid employment the only reason to get so educated is so that you could do more than just pay the bills but do something to make the world better to help other people pay their bills it's but if the axe is dull you're gonna have some problems and so that isn't ok when you're cutting something you're gonna need to check the axe so what's your axe but you need to look how BIG's your tree what are you going at this year what's your ambition I I wanted to start something out maybe just maybe you should actually establish a strategy for becoming successful like not just hope that somebody will happen but actually decide all right I'm gonna do things Monday through Friday they will make an a dramatic difference in the future I love like stop accepting things as they are I mean I'm just gonna be real practical today some of you you need to actually go ah I want to be better at my job I want that promotion and so I don't want to just feel like I'm not being seen I want to be the best employee so that I have to be seen some of you you start your own businesses even you start your own company you take a huge risk and go I'm gonna create something that will make the world better I'm gonna create something will generate more wealth I'm gonna create something will create more jobs for more people we need to stop asking the government to solve all the problems for us we need to solve some of the problems for ourselves and I don't know if you can see but we're if we're dependent on Washington we're gonna be in trouble for a while I wonder what your tree is because there's some of you you have a tree God's trying to get you to chop down you ever felt like God's not letting you move on like you trying to get to the next big thing but you haven't actually that was this big thing see if God has given you a big task a big mission if God is giving you a big tree you realize that God's not gonna give you the next train to deal with this one so I started thinking the idea of continuous repetition that there's some things in your life that you should not be surprised you're going to have to do like for me I shouldn't be surprised I have to speak today me last night I wasn't going oh no I have to speak I didn't know I didn't know I wasn't expecting it see if I'm not good at what I do it's on me because I knew I knew last week I was going to be doing this this week or for most likely next week maybe even like the week after that do you know how hard it is to keep writing creating new talks for you I don't even know if you appreciate the kind of shuffling I do around here but when people want to be great at something they don't want to do the stuff behind the scenes that gets you good at what you do and I spent so many years of my life just pouring into the Scriptures I don't even know how many hours I have just spent reflecting and reflecting on what is written in this book how many endless hours of my life I spent on the floor and listening to the voice of God trying to hear God speak to me so that would have something to say to you how much of my life I've studied psychology anthropology sociology archeology all the different allergies that are out there trying to weave together something meaningful so that it doesn't sound like it's disconnected from reality and to help you see the Scriptures in a way that makes entry like you know that doesn't come easy it's not let you know that this is not what my talks about but you got to ask yourself a tray you're trying to cut down I'm trying to cut down a tree that a person Reza believe in God can actually see that the scriptures are relevant for their lives I'm trying to cut down a big tree where people who think they're too smart to believe would realize that the most brilliant thing to do is to trust Jesus with your life where there's a big tree and we're trying to cut down and I have a sharing a little my frustration because it's like it's easy to spew out words it's hard to unwrap things that make sense for people and the house and there's continuous repetition ask yourself what are the things in your life that you seem to be destined to face over and over again because it's a part of the way you created see I know I'm always gonna be writing so I need to get better and better as a writer I shouldn't be surprised by that I know that one day I'm gonna be an Olympic table tennis champion and so I know one day the Warriors are gonna pick me up because we're gonna need another three-point shooter so I gotta keep working on that what's my tree oh there yeah there's some things you just do for fun but there's some things you need to do as if your life depended on it or the lives of other people so what's your axe what's your tree and how sharp is your edge if the axe is dull and it's edge unsharpened more strength is needed yeah you ever thought yourself working really hard and getting making little progress so this is what salman's really talking about when you develop a skill when you develop an expertise when you make the commitment to live a life at the highest capacity when you decide to become the best you can be the things that you're talented to do actually become easier not harder but if you don't take time to develop the skills to refine your talents to grow in the person you can become it will get harder and harder and harder there's some of you you're wasting so much energy doing the same thing the wrong way if the axe is dull and it's edge unsharpened more strength is needed so I started wondering what what does it look like the sharpen an edge because you know one of the kind of encounters to do things is that the way you sharpen an edge it looks like you could actually be like damaging the edge because you it requires massive amounts of friction on something pretty powerful to sharpen the edge of an axe just like the edge of a knife they I wonder how many times we are actually so cautious to fail that we don't even realize we're not refining our edge see the only way you can stay sharp is by doing the hard work of failing I'm convinced of this if you're not failing your edge is dull there's something I never fail that I'm really like I got this down brushing my teeth never fail I don't go oh you ever do like damage oh man I missed no all right I got I have that one down I'm really great at showering I mean I've had a few accidents but that's not we don't even talk about that and but there's some things that you just you don't don't fail at pretty much right but there's some things your life are just easy now you're just good at it some of you are cooks there's some things you just know you just used to know how to make those things but but if you expand outside of what you know now you have the risk of messing up I was asked recently in an interview what is like one of the greater like millennial challenges and when you look at like the Millennial culture the way sociologists are talking about this this generation that is emerging right now one of the great struggles is perfectionism and what is one of the great dangers of perfectionism is that it leads to a fear of failure and so it leads to a paralysis where you never take a risk because you want to know where what will prove you're not perfect anything oh yeah you thought was a really profound answer you're not perfect so if you do anything it will prove you not perfect so the only way to be able to sustain the illusion of perfectionism is to do nothing and so you end up with the culture of paralysis see some of you just need to get comfortable with being bad at something and this is the advice I always give people's writers the only way you can ever be a good writer is to be willing to be a bad writer you cannot write a good sentence if you don't wait up bad sentence in fact you have to write like a hundred bad cents to find the good sense I start writing a book and it takes a while before the book actually loves me forget me loving yet it takes a long time they've processing is struggle through I think that's when people talk about writer's block you know writer's block is I hate what I'm thinking I hate what I would write I don't even want to read this that's writers blocked writer's block is a fear to put down something that's inside of you that reflects you poorly because I can write see spot run boom car see now it's a suspense novel and our horror film it's not hard to write you have to be willing to do something and there's something you hear you're just trapped in perfectionism you're so afraid to fail and and you know what I want I want a culture here in our community where we destroy perfectionism where we don't have to do everything the way everyone says we need to do it where every shoe doesn't have to match where everything doesn't have to be exactly the same I walked in today and Kim goes you're wearing two different shoes you're wearing two different shoes she's saying this to me as if I didn't know I said I know it's oh no no I have another pair almost like them at home it's a huge part of our problem is we worry too much about what other people will say and what other people think and so because of that we do not achieve our greatness or discover our greatness do not move into our success because we have too many people speaking to us hate into our lives while we're failing let me tell you we're good let me tell you one of the most destructive things of social media is that people who are trapped in the perfectionism spend their time criticizing other people for their failures and yeah I don't know if we should applaud that'd be good but see because it's it's I did a Q&A I do I do Q&A is on Twitter every once in a while and so I was sick I wasn't allowed to go outside my wife would let me go play with the other boys and so I was trapped at home but she did make me do housework I now know you can do housework when you're sick but you can't play basketball and not that I'm bitter but I just learned that this week so I did a little Q&A on Twitter since I was trapped in the house I thought I had engaged the outside world and immediately someone asks me I'm just gonna say Point Blank you know what do you think of Rob Bell I don't know if you know Rob belly's the theologian philosopher thinker artist I've known Rob since he was young and and I said I love Rob Bell he's my friend and and then they started like well yeah but what do you think about this this is and I'm like you know I think you should always read people that you disagree with so that you can actually grow as a human being and then I get another response back going yeah but will you tell us where you disagree with him I go no and then it finally somebody goes this is why I love Irwin McManus and they really like we're all if we're not careful we're all gonna come bottom-dwellers spending our entire lives criticizing each other rather than actually encouraging each other let me tell you who's going to criticize you for hitting the ax against the tree wrong the person sitting there watching you doing nothing with their life and so I want to be a place where people are pure singing and and and they're still learning how to get the notes right I wanted to be a place where people are up here you know communicating they're still learning how to get there their sea legs for communication I wanted to be a place where you know everyone can risk you can just learn how to be human this is this is what people desperately need not just in the building but in the community they need to have friends in their life they can say I just messed up in you that's okay because we're all messing up together we're just gonna keep moving forward together do not be afraid of failure do not be afraid of being imperfect maybe we should just celebrate every time someone blows it because they gave it their best effort and they're learning from it yeah I think sometimes you forget that when you're 59 you're supposed to be good at something because if you're not good at something you've just wasted your life you need to be good at something but give yourself time to get good at something I said goals like five years ago to be great at certain things when I'm in my 70s so in my early 50s I set goals from my seventies because I want to give myself the chance to be bad at certain things so I could keep getting better so I said in 25 years I'm gonna be really awesome at this c59 isn't too soon to start learning something new I just know that I'm not going to be great at it I'm gonna be bad at it but I'm gonna be willing to take the abuse of being bad and the pain to my psyche of not being the best so that I can have future success what are you building toward that will be your future success because if you don't have any failures you don't have any future success coming all my future success is fueled by my past failures so where are you losing your strength I think this is interesting more strength is needed and you know that phrase work smarter not harder and I think that's kind of true and not always true because I find I have to work hard you go no I'm working smart how about you like working smarter and not harder almost was like I could just sit down and just like be a brain I'm moving the universe actually you're not you know you're not moving anything not even a muscle you know see everything that I do that looks smarter I also worked harder so I'm going let's just change it just a little bit let's let work smarter harder like figure out what it is that you need to know to be good at what you do to be successful to accomplish your goals yeah today is really practical I want you to take on some goals and I want you to run after them I want you to choose some outcomes and I want you to work toward them I want you to assume that God wants your success look if you find out that you've got great failures coming ahead that's okay because that means that you're gonna be learning more than you ever thought but it was has more strength as needed where are you wasting your strength so what is sucking the life out of you right now maybe you need to go back and do a little life assessment what is sucking the life out of you that you should not be giving your life to what is taking more strength right now than it did in the past you know why because early on when we give ourselves to something our passion our adrenalin just drives us but then you do it a week then another week than a month another month in a year and a little year that that that that adrenaline begins to disappear now it's all about resolve and commitment and you don't have that same amount of energy that goes at it from the same place and you have to decide is this stealing my energy because I'm doing the wrong thing or is it stealing my energy because I'm doing it the wrong way because when the axe is dull more strength is needed I've been um our son Aaron moved to Venice Beach a couple of about a month ago and so I got his I got the guest house it's now my office and Kim started talking about all we should put a bed in there in case we have like company they go no and so I went fast and hard you know and so I want I want that I want my space I want this space is gonna be so awesome so then she starts like gifting me in getting me stuff and making in the room so awesome which is what Kim does and and it's it's epic but I didn't tell her this like I'm not really good at like um I don't know what they call it like what the specific skill set is but like nailing things to walls you know and and and and and so our walls it Kim we're having said honey I'm gonna need like a construction guy to fill some holes and do some paintings Jose that room doesn't have any holes and does it need to be painted this is was this on the way here today and it was or yesterday was the last night I have no sense of chronology so it was last night and I don't want to say to her well it may not have had holes but it has holes okay it may not have needed painting but it needs painting because because I I couldn't figure out like this nail in the hole in the wall thing and they just start kept opening up and you know and then I was like gonna stranger things episode and there's like another world and I'm like okay so I'm literally funny things and hanging them over where I damaged things and Kim's like I don't know if that goes there I go it goes there you just take my word for it it belongs right there otherwise it would be a window after posture so I've been trying to like take care of these things and and I realized I'm not I'm not very good at this this is taking a lot of strength for me because it's not my skill set there's some things you need to let go of I love how last week at Venice or a couple weeks ago Mariah did the offering she doesn't usually do an offering talk but she took a moment so she could chastise me and and she got up there and said you know I'm not the first McManus used to lead worship my dad used to lead worship here and he you know wrote there were low early music and had an album out and and it was terrible and and and then she said but my dad one day discovered that communication was his gift and not singing and and you know I like music anybody here wish they were a musician now I want I want to be Chris Martin so bad like you know I want a Bono you know just for a day I just want to be Bono and you know I want to be you know I know Bonnie you know Bobo nevere and I wanna I just want to be someone you know and and Kanye may not just let me be someone for a day you know and but God never gave me that but I wanted it and but I remember I used to leave I say this I don't mean this the way it sounds I used to lead worship and but I really didn't I tried and I would get up there and that would be drenched I'd be soaking wet from absolute fear and I realized wow this takes so much work to be bad like you don't like you don't know how hard I worked on those walls to destroy them see there's some things that are gonna require too much strength for you because you're not supposed to be doing them and as you grow up you need to be so self aware you know what is just fun for you and what you're actually crafted to do and you need to have enough people in your life we can look at you and go you're not good at that but you're great at this and but there's a harder one see it's easier almost I hear you're not good at this and you're good at this you know it's really harder you could be great at this if you just pay the price but if you're not willing to pay the price you're always going to just be average because I think that's where the axe hits the bark where this is what you're supposed to be doing but it's gonna require really hard work for you to be great more strength is needed I'm really practical in this you should do what accomplishes the most good that requires the least amount of wasted energy your strength should be harnessed to always accomplish the most good with your life and then it says but skill will bring success it's so simple right but skill will bring success be good at it and you'll have good results I think we've kind of missed this in a culture of Fame let's be honest some of the most famous people in America are not good at anything they're just good at being famous and it's amazing they in fact sometimes they do the worst things the worst behavior made them famous like is that really what you want to do do you want Fame or do you want success you want you want people to look up to you or do you want to actually keep moving up in your accomplishments and your dreams and your vision see I want to be successful I'm gonna be honest I don't want to do anything that's unsuccessful I want everything in my life measured by the best in the world iiiiii I don't want anyone ever say well that's okay because that's good for you I want people to say no this is what the standard is for the best and we're going to keep aspiring toward that we should be the best in the world at everything we do so just the last thoughts like because to me a lot of this is really practical you need to ask yourself what does success look like if you got there because I know this you will not be successful if you don't know what it looks like what you want your life to look like what do you want your future to look like what do you want this year to look like what will make this year a success for you because it says because skills will bring success but but when other translation says but wisdom will bring success because that's what Solomon talks about another to what he's actually saying is there are things you need to learn if you're going to lead there are things you need to learn if you're going to succeed and one of them I think the great difficulties in life is that we live in this really fast-paced culture you just always happen to move you feel like you're always behind someone else is getting ahead of you because someone woke up earlier than you sowhat's thing up later than you someone is working harder than you someone's thinking faster than you can you feel it there's someone that wants what you want a little bit more than you and the question is why why should they want it more than you why don't you want it more than them if it's your life you should want it more than anyone on the planet but here's the challenge moving frantically fast forward is not the way to take the most ground with your life you know why we let the axe get dull what can't you do when you're sharpening your ax you can't swing it at the tree see there are times in your life you got to realize the work I need to do is sharpening Who I am rather than just trying to do more where I'm at if God wants to do more with your life he has to make more of you God needs to sharpen you he needs to make you the woman that he wants you to be the man he wants you to be you know one of the most difficult things in the world to say I need to step back and get the skills I need to step into humility and accept that I don't have all the tools necessary to accomplish the dreams and God has put on my life in my heart in learning process maybe the most important place for you to step into in your life what are the things you need to learn right now that are necessary to go or you long to go what are the things you need to learn right now that will help you become the man and woman you longed to be if you want to be great at something do the hard work of learning the skills of greatness I'm really grateful the early on in my life I accidentally began reading and being shaped by some of the greatest thinkers in the world I'm really grateful that somewhere in my journey people like Michelangelo and da Vinci and Picasso and others began to inspire me because I look back now I realize that being inspired by the best in the world set an internal standard in my heart said I want to be inspired by these people III want to be a part of that tribe see I think it's important to be inspired by the Branson's in the world it would be so easy to go yeah but Steve Jobs you know he was yeah all these things wrong but it's so important to inspire but the jobs of the world it's so important to be inspired by the mandalas and Desmond Tutu's it's so important be inspired by the men and women who achieve greatness in their field and then to begin to learn what are the skills that those individuals took on their lives to make them the best in the world I'll never forget this and I'll close with this thought it was when Buster Douglas was fighting with Mike Tyson and he knocked Tyson out and it was an anomaly and was shocked Tyson was the greatest fighter in the world and he looked invincible terrifying and it's unknown Buster Douglas knocks him out but then when Douglas came back to defend his title he was overweight out-of-shape undisciplined unprepared and he was defeated soundly and it was embarrassing and I heard the sports commentators later describing what happened and one of them said why do you think Buster Douglas didn't even try why do you think he didn't make the effort to defend his title and the other analysts said Buster Douglas is a great human being they said in fact he's a man of deep religious beliefs he's a Christian and then they said this but some people are simply structured for failure I don't remember what he said after that I just started asking myself the question what are the structures in my life that are structuring me for failure what are the structures in my life that'll structure me for success I want you to know something he's right sometimes we're structured for failure but that is not your destiny that may be your condition but you can change that there's some of you here you need to step out of the fear of failure and begin to take on skills for success there's some of you here you're already successful you just need to up your game and stay sharp and ask God to do more in your life and through your life I don't want anyone to ever say again that person is a Christian but they're structured for failure I want those two phrases to be mutually exclusive when you have the mind of Christ you should always be structured for success because you know that God is with you that God has a calling on your life and that there's something you must do to make a contribution to the world would you bow your head to me just for a moment I know this may seem like a strange talk for a Sunday morning you come and you expect to hear about heaven or that's something that isn't connected to practical everyday life but I want you to know Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead not just so that you could make it through this life and get to the next one but so that you could thrive in this life so that you could know what it means to live in this life Jesus gave His life so that you could live fully and I am so convinced the God wants to teach us how to live a life that moves towards success not so that we could have more but so that we could give more if you're here today and when you know that what you need is Jesus in your life you look inside of your soul and you feel like you're structured for failure there's something broken inside something empty something missing and today somehow maybe you know that Jesus is that missing piece I want to invite you right now to cross the line of faith and invite Jesus into your life people change those structures he'll change your heart he would change your mind you will change your life but you have to give him your life for him to do that so I want to lead you in a simple prayer right now or you can ask Jesus to change your life or you can give your life to Him here's the prayer Jesus I give you my life that's it just one sentence it'll change everything Jesus I give you my life there's a future God has for you you only step into that future with God in your life right now I just wished for that prayer Jesus I give you my life Jesus I give you my life if that's your prayer I want to pray for you if you're here you're ready to step into 2018 by trusting Jesus with your life you're done doing this alone you're ready to let God be your strength if you've prayed this prayer Jesus I give you my life I want you to hold your hand up right now I don't pray for you if that's you right now just hold your hand up high beautiful beautiful anyone else right now wonderful anyone else wonderful anyone else so good anyone else right now just hold it up I want to see you I pray for you beautiful father I thank you for those who in this moment across the Atlanta faith trusting you with their life pray God that you would let them know that you have heard their prayer that they belong to you and even as they've given you their life you have given them your life god I thank you that you care about their life that you care about every aspect of their life you have a future and a hope for them and I gotta just pray that you'd fill them with faith and courage and hope and joy God that they may live fully alive and God I pray for everyone in this room everyone listening to the sound of my voice everyone in South Pasadena in Whittier everyone got in Venice and then Mexico City and across the world the God that you would give us the courage and faith to lean in to great things that we would know that you have a future and a hope for us and that we would believe it and receive it and embrace it and unlock it and unleash it we think your father we pray in Jesus name Amen hey may go just thank God for those the God is fine so 2018 stay sharp make sure your axe is taken care of on the cutting edge get the skills you need for success assume the God wants to do great things in your life stop settling for less not acting as if God doesn't care about your life this is the moment lean in wherever you are step up and you're going man I've had of the most successful year of my life great use that as the baseline whatever God has done in the past use that as a foundation for the future let's let this be the greatest year that we've ever experienced together man cause remember when the axe is dull then the work is harder but wisdom brings success [Applause] [Music] take care of the heavens there is not that kid by so long sphere and I believe and for these you name the most fear beautiful the kids their two kids my king flip it up together and make her of the heavens there it's not like you by solo fear is your name the most feared beautiful no kids there by [Applause] [Music] big [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] but [Music] begins [Music] Oh [Music] all you [Music] I see you all years [Music] [Applause] can we give it up for our pastor what an incredible message what an incredible word to start the new year failing I love that hey man I've had so many failures in my life I should not be standing here thank God we have a God that believes in us even when we fail I love what pastor Erwin said without failure you have no future let's be a community that embraces each other even when we let each other down and if you raise your hand today you accepted Christ for the first time you want to celebrate you personally so we want to get to know you do we have a gift which means we have a Bible and we have a hug free hugs they're gonna be at the after party so the doors in the middle here at LaBrea Lobby are gonna open that is the time for you also if you want to get to know us better maybe you're new here at mosaic you have questions come to the after party we got some snacks we got some popcorn and some candy my son mater ate a couple of those candy but they're there for you we love you guys see you next week god bless you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Mosaic

Views: 25,688

Rating: 4.8652849 out of 5

Keywords: Worship, ErwinMcManus, MosaicMSC, Church, LosAngeles, Faith, Mosaic, Mosaic Church, hillsong, elevationchurch, hillsongunited, lakewoodchurch, citychurch, judahsmith, bethelchurch

Id: 3D6M_pYfd6A

Length: 52min 23sec (3143 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2018