JCLA 2013: 'Deeper Intimacy With The Lord' with Kim Walker Smith

well listen we are we are excited to have one of our family members Kim's been with us a long long time and we you know I've been able to see God just really really launched Kim and such such a cool way to impact the globe but but I was able to really see the roots and the foundation of her life and you know when we were youth pastoring she was part of our leadership team and our social activities coordinator was her title when she was with us when she turned 18 and was part of just our our leadership team at the youth group and and then you know to be with her is we do a Friday night prayer meeting every Friday night from 9:00 to 11:00 we would just gather our youth and just pray and there might be 20 30 40 people in the room so we don't really have a band at all sometimes it would just be her and like a drummer show up that was about it and but we'd go for two hours every Friday night and just see her serving just behind closed doors and secret in that capacity and just just really really just so encouraged by by not not just the worship that is Kim but really her heart and and really the revelation the Lord's given her an anointing that's on her life so I asked her when we came to LA I said hey would you come and do a morning session and just share your heart she is pregnant and we are excited for that I'm sure you know she's pregnant she's not just eating more but like we mentioned last night but she's pregnant we're excited to to welcome a new little Smith into the world pretty soon and this is the last Jesus culture event that she'll be doing this year and then as she's gonna be taking a pregnancy break and then a birth break so anyways we're excited to have her and we just absolutely love Kim she is one of our dearest family members for Jesus culture she's been with us since the beginning would you stand up and welcome Kim as she comes this morning good good morning we were just playing on the break Annika is heard but they're playing a little bit of mine and Skylar's new album home if you haven't heard it yet you should it's really exciting it was a year and a half in the making I felt like that was my first baby that I was trying to birth out and I'm really proud of Skylar it was really fun getting to do something with my husband it was fun doing a project together and it's if you haven't heard it yet I I will not give away too much but I will tell you it's really different than than everything else I've done before and different than all the Jesus culture stuff and it's the first studio album that I've ever done um not do I you know all of our projects are always live and this was the first time I was in the studio singing which was really fun because I got to do some different vocal things and stuff like that is really cool but yes as banning said I am pregnant the last time I see her in Los Angeles who came to out for this still believe tour yeah hey give you that was really fun so um I had found out I was pregnant just about two months before that tour and we announced it publicly while on tour and um it was funny because I would come out at the end of the tour I would let people know but I wouldn't I would be making jokes like oh I've put on a little bit of weight and I'd show my baby bump and and then people didn't get what I was saying and we heard people out in the lobby going Kim did look bigger she did look like she's put on some weight and they didn't quite put it together and so then I thought I should actually make myself clear and not just joke around about oh I'm gaining weight um it is baby weight it's real um so I'll answer the two questions right now we'll just get this out of the way before I get into this message this you questions like you asked the most every single day multiple times a day okay first one is how far along are you okay I'm just over seven and a half months so I am in the homestretch now and um I do not know if it is a boy or girl I have not had a single ultrasound so we have no clue we're doing an old-school we're just gonna be surprised have a fun way yep so I know that there was some of you that were just itching to ask those questions so I'll just answer those for you now so this morning um I just want to share something that has really been burning in my heart and something that I feel like is just another little glimpse of my own life message in my own walk with the Lord and something that still at times feels very raw to me and considering that I am pregnant and my hormones are all over the place if I just burst into tears while I'm trying to share this message just you know cry with me or something but um when Bannion asked me to speak i the very first thing that i I felt in my heart that I wanted to share and I wanted to kind of just talk about and just kind of get your mind thinking about this and and that's the condition of our hearts and I want to talk about this because it's so important because it's one thing to to come and you know we get really excited about everything that we get to do we get excited about worship we get excited about going out and and praying for people and all these things that we are told to do that we're excited to do but all of these things we can't do them apart from him we can't do these things apart from God apart from his presence and apart from intimacy with him and the condition of our heart is so much a big deal to the father that he's not just interested in just going out and doing all these things but he's he's interested in our heart in the condition of our heart and in what is that motivation behind what we're doing I really believe that we we are the ones you know we're carrying the answer for this generation we're carrying Jesus we're carrying his presence we're carrying heaven every time we go out and when we look at all the different issues and things out there in the the scary world the things going on God has placed inside of you the ability to have the kind of relationship with him that brings a solution to every one of those issues for example if I were to say how many of you are your you come from a home where your parents are divorced probably a large majority of people in here in this generation have gone through that and we have the ability to set ourselves up to make a stand that when we get married it's going to be once and for all that there's not going to be an option for divorce do you see I'm saying like we have the ability to walk in a relationship with God to allow him to to mold us into the people he designed us to be to allow him to bring that person into our lives to set us up to be successful in that my making sense here is tracking with me same thing with with children and and same thing with any kind of financial issues any any kind of anything you know I can look at my own life and I can look at the different things that I walked through the the hard things the difficult things whatever is and I know that because of my relationship with God because of what I have fought for because of the intimacy that I walk through I know that I am creating a generation behind me that will never have to walk through the things that I walked through the generation this generation that's real right here this generation will never have to go through the things that I went through they may have their own set of difficult circumstances but when we're talking about divorce when we're talking about any kind of abuse when we're talking about maybe you came from a family where they weren't Christians maybe you're the first Christian in your family you have now you now have the opportunity to set a precedence of what its gonna look like moving forward for generations to come have you thought about this before I mean this is kind of exciting to me yes thank you it is that kind of excitement Jesus and this is where I'll try not get emotional Jesus he he is in the garden and he's praying the Bible says he was literally sweating blood and he knows what's about to happen he knows that he is about to go and endure the cross something so painful something so horrific and God is pouring out all his wrath the sin of the whole world upon Jesus upon one person and in that moment he's saying God if there's any other way if there's any other way that this cup could pass from me but not my will but yours be done in that moment Jesus he understood it's like he's he's getting on and he's going good morning ladies and gentlemen this is your captain Jesus Christ I need everyone to take a seat and buckle up it's gonna be a bumpy ride but I promise you that I will never leave you nor will I forsake you I'm gonna be with you through every step of the way that's that's what Jesus knew he knew that this that the life in front of us the things that we would face the choices that we would have in front of us he knew that it would be difficult he knew it wouldn't always be easy that it wouldn't always just pan out may be exactly how we thought or exactly how we dreamed that there going to be times we have to make the tough decisions in order to move forward and in order to connect with him in order to stay in intimacy with him but he knew going into it that that is why he had to go to the cross and he had to make away he had to make a way for us to walk in that kind of intimacy with him it's not enough to just show up to church on a Sunday morning to go through the motions to go through the routine it's not enough just to receive Jesus and to not allow him to transform your heart and to really take hold of everything that he's given you that God the Father he was saying I I not only want to give you a way to freedom and and forgiveness for your sins a way to eternal life but I am sending my son to walk through the most difficult circumstance and to conquer death so that you can walk side-by-side with me in intimacy with me that we can walk through this life together so that no matter what storm comes your way no matter what comes up I am there with you every step along the way amen and he's saying if you hold on to me if you walk with me if you lean into me if you will make those tough choices and you will trust me and you will open up your heart to me if you will soften your heart yield your heart to me then I'll be able to come in and to transform your heart and we'll be able to go from glory to glory right so what the Bible says there's three three keys I want to go over with this the first one is embracing the season that you're in God has a plan for your life we know this K Jeremiah 29:11 I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future Psalm 138 says the Lord it plain and simple okay the Lord will fulfill his promise and his purpose for me but God he doesn't just have a plan for you he doesn't create this plan for your life in this destiny these dreams just to dangle in front of you and go I hope you can make it hope you can get here he actually wants you to be successful when he says to you I want you to go out and to heal the sick and to raise the dead to take care of the orphans in the widow's when he says these things he's not saying it going and I hope you can figure that out good luck he's saying I want to walk this out with you I want to carry you through this I want to be right there next to you and I want you to succeed at this I want you to do it well I don't want you to crumble under the pressure I don't want you to give in to fear I don't want you to to give in to any outside circumstance that may try to bring you down oh my go to Isaiah 55 verse 10 as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater so is my word that goes out from my mouth it will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it the father saying right there the words that I have spoken the promises that I have made to you I want to see those through to completion and I want to see you not just achieve it but to flourish to succeed to do it well this is the heart of the father and in order be able to do that we have got to be able to embrace every season we're in no matter what that looks like I can remember one time I was in this season it's probably the first time in my life that I really felt that I was distinctly in a desert season and I was moping around completely miserable God you have abandoned me where have you gone I can't hear you I can't see you I'm lost in the desert has anyone ever felt that way tell the truth I mean come on and three times so the first person comes up to me and they're like Kim I was praying for you and I feel like I had this word and the Lord gave me this first it's Hosea 2:14 and Hosea 2:14 well actually let me just go there because it's really good hard turning with one hand here therefore I am now going to lure her I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there I will give her back her vineyards and we'll make the valley of Achor which means trouble in the valley of trouble I will make a door of hope and there she will sing is in the days of her youth this whole thing is talking about the desert being an invitation to come into a place of intimacy to go deeper in intimacy with the Lord and they give me this first and I read it and I'm kind of like yeah thanks I'm in the desert I know that thank you and then a few days later another person comes up to me Kim I was praying for you the Lord gave me a verse Hosea - and I said stop right there - 14 yep that's the verse and like yeah thanks all right walk away then the third person comes up to me Kim I got a verse for you let me guess Hosea 2:14 yes but also I found this little article that I want you to read it's a this little article was all about Hosea 2:14 and it was talking about the desert being a place of intimacy that it's really an invitation that the Lord is extended to you to say all right guess what I have just given you an invitation to come in deeper to press in to come into a new place of intimacy a time of learning to see and to hear in a whole new way it's him saying baby guess what I'm taking you to a whole new level that's what's happening in that moment I'm suddenly when it hit me I was like I got this okay I see what's going on here and I embraced that season I was in I there was a time um is probably the third year that American Idol was running I had these crazy friends who thought it would just be so fun to enter my name into this competition in Northern California where the winner gets a guaranteed audition for the producers of the show and my friends put me in the car they're like hey we're going to Chico for the day it's gonna be fun okay I'm thinking shopping and we show up at the TV studio and I'm like what are we doing here they're like well Kim we we put your name in this thing and we signed you up to audition for this and I'm like what and I was so embarrassed and I felt really shy and I didn't want to go and do it and they just kind of like you know the peer pressure thing you know I gave in so I go and I audition for this and there were so many people and I'm thinking there's so many people here so many singers this is not gonna happen and I totally won and so now I'm like now I've got this audition where I'm going to go and and sing for the the producers of the show and I don't even know if I if I want to do this this just happened and everyone is coming up to me people are coming out of the Woodworks and they're giving me prophetic words of you're gonna go and you're gonna win American Idol everyone is gonna have revival on TV and I mean there was a lot of pressure on me a lot of pressure it was basically Kim you're gonna go win American Idol and save the universe that's how it felt it was a lot of pressure and this is a long time ago mind you okay and I was really nervous we're flying to Atlanta Atlanta was where I was having the audition and the whole way over there I'm praying and I'm like God I don't know if I'm if I'm actually ready for something like this I feel really nervous and afraid and I I don't know if this is right and I know this is gonna sound crazy and that this is only the second time I've shared this publicly because I know it sounds crazy but you know I don't care whatever you can think whatever but I really felt like the Lord said to me if you want this I'll give this to you what would you like and I felt like is this a trick question this is a test am I being tested what's the right answer here and we get into the audition I brought a girlfriend with me and the way that they'd set it up were there other people like me who had won this guaranteed audition for the producers of the show and they set us up where it was one two three three people in a row where we're labeled number one number two number three and there was maybe like I don't know 20 of us back like this all in a row and I'm towards the back and it is happening so fast you get up in front of the producers and they go one sing thank you to sing thank you three sing thank you no no yes I mean it is that quick so quick and I'm standing the back and I still don't know what to do I don't even know what song I'm gonna sing that's how crazy this is in this one I'm so panicked and I felt like the Lord said Kim if you sing this song you're gonna go through and if you sing this song you won't go through which what would you like and I am feeling the pressure I don't know what to choose and I get up there and I I was in the middle and when they get to me in the last second the moment they said my number I chose a song that I knew wouldn't put me through and I sing the song and they went one no three yes - and they just stopped and stared at me and then the producer it was a woman in the middle she looks at me she goes I don't know why but I just can't take you and I could tell by the look on her face this I felt in that moment it was it was a god moment you know i sat there I felt a sigh of relief I felt like I knew this was God I knew this was the right thing and just the look on her face and just her kind of confusion the fact that she was speaking to me in that moment they hadn't done that with anybody else I knew this was a god moment and I walked away and I felt this relief like I knew this wasn't the right time I knew it wasn't the right thing and when I when I got home it was a little awkward in that I actually called Bannon on my way back home to California and I was telling him that I was afraid to come home I was afraid to face all the people and I felt like I'd let everybody down because everyone had these huge high expectations of me and I had made a choice I felt like nobody would understand and he's like you don't have to explain your choice to anybody don't have to explain what happened and he he just was like you know being a father he's like we love you you're fine you're okay come on back I get home and there'd be this awkward most people running up to me so I'd be like no they're like oh okay awkward moments but I lived through it and what I'm trying to say is I look back at my life between now and in that time and the journey that the Lord has brought me on I don't know that if I had gone through and if I had made it I don't think I would have survived I don't even know if I would still be a Christian I think I would have crumbled under that pressure I don't think that I would have been able to handle that world am i making sense right now I look back at what the Lord has brought me through and I can see all these moments in my life these these seasons that he brought me in that were so necessary to where I am now in my life that God he's saying I want you to be successful I don't want you to crumble under the pressure I can say even now that though what I do now and the blessing I have of getting to to travel around the world and to lead worship and and I can feel in those moments when I walk up on the stage and you have a choice you're faced with a decision I'm gonna get really real right now okay that decision became really real when we're in Chicago it was our first huge event 15,000 people is the biggest Jesus culture event and it felt really special because it's our event you know and the moment I'm about to walk up on the stage and everyone's going nuts and I know in that moment that I could just give in to the pressure that I feel and I could just sing the songs that everybody loves I could sing rooftops and how he loves and you know go just go through songs and no one would think anything because it's so exciting and everyone loves those songs or I can choose not to give in to that pressure and I can choose to press in to the Lord and ask him what are you saying what are you doing tonight what do you want to accomplish tonight and how can I help you how can i partner with you but that that pressure those the different things that you face the obstacles that you come up against God wants to set you up so that when you get to those things that you make the right choice you make the right decision and it's not always the easy decision and it may not always be the decision that everybody understand but it's the decision that he will be there with you and back you up he'll get your back and he'll walk it out with you embrace every season you know it if this whole walk with him really is about intimacy which I believe it is then the purpose of every single season hard easy good whatever is just to further that intimacy just to draw us closer to him the second one the second key that I want to bring up is to fix your eyes on Jesus I love the story of Peter he's out in the boat with the disciples there's a storm happening and they see Jesus walking out on the water and they call out like Jesus if that's you lettuce Noakes we're really freaked out right now and Jesus is like hey my brothers it's me and Peter is like it's you Jesus I want to come out to you and Peter climbs over the boat and he is walking on the water out to Jesus now to me when I read this story I see it as like Peter was like a lovesick fool crazy man like only a person in love I talked about this before when you're in love you do crazy things when I first fell in love with my husband let me tell you I was nuts I couldn't eat I couldn't sleep he's all I wanted to talk about okay that when you when you are in love you are just out of your mind you can just you know you could walk out in the street and get hit by a car and your arms falling off and you're like ha ha I'm in love it just doesn't even matter Peter was lovesick he saw the one that he loves and he heard his voice and he knew his voice and he so wanted to be where he was I mean have you ever thought about what would possess him I mean couldn't he have just waited for Jesus to get across the water and to get in the boat but that's like not enough for him it's not enough he actually wanted to run out on the water to meet Jesus to be with him crazy man he's there's no other explanation for that except that he is out of his mind in love with Jesus and when he gets out there for just a moment he takes his eyes off of Jesus and he looks around and suddenly reality smacks him in the face and he realizes I just walked out on the water in a storm and there are waves around me and he immediately became afraid and began to sink and of course we know the story Jesus came and got him up and was like you have little faith come on Peter keep your eyes on me remember come on and this is what happens in our walk with the Lord the when we can keep our eyes fixed on him when we keep our ears attentive to his voice it doesn't matter what kind of circumstances or what kind of storm comes up we can walk through every single storm because we keep our eyes on him our greatest enemy in this is distraction its distraction it's the thing that comes and tries to pull our eyes away and to say but look what about this what about this well how are you gonna pay for that missions trip the Lord's called you to do well how are you gonna do this well what about this I mean there's all these distractions these things that will come to try to take your eyes off of him and to look at the circumstances and to take your eyes off of the one that you love and that's when we start to sink but what do you do when the waters rise what do you do when the storm comes do you fix your eyes on him do you listen for his voice schuyler always talks about this really great thing of wanting to keep what keep ourselves in a place where there's like this doorway and on one side of the doorway is is the father it's his presence it's his voice and we're standing right here in the doorway where just the slightest whisper the slightest move of his spirit we're right there we can just step right in and just connect with what he's doing and walk it out with him but when we take our eyes off of him and we start giving into these distractions or the fears or whatever is it's coming up against us we start putting these things in between us and him and by the time we finally hear him speaking we've got to push through all these things that we've allowed in the way just to get back to that place where we're walking connected hand-in-hand with him do you understand it's so important that we don't take our eyes off of him it's so important that when any kind of circumstance even the really amazing things even when something so exciting and so big happens even that even though really awesome things can be that distraction to take our eyes off I'm not saying don't enjoy good things I'm just saying fix your eyes on him and listen for his voice and keep yourself in that place we're just the slightest whisper is all it takes to attract your full attention and to be ready to to walk with Him this is so important in keeping our hearts soft and and in yielding our hearts to him and allowing him to transform our hearts when I'm talking about the condition of our I'm talking about keeping our hearts in a place where we're not so guarded you know Katie sang it in that song today the oceans song guys love that song so pretty spirit lead me where my trust is Without Borders do you know we're saying there okay first of all that is a bold statement it's huge all of you who just sang that this morning let me bring the reality of what you just sang you just said to the Lord you know what my trust in you is without limit so you go ahead and you lead me wherever you want lead me through any situation through any storm through any circumstance and my trust will be constantly in you it will be without borders without any limitations just take a moment let that sink in that's huge so often and I I have done this I have had those moments where I get fearful I get afraid I turn into a control freak and I'm like I don't know I don't know God can I trust you can I trust you I don't know and to really let go and to say God I will put no borders around my trust in you and no matter what you want to lead me through no matter what I'm walking out I'm walking with you I'm trusting you I will trust you every step along the way and to allow him to really move in our hearts transforming our hearts bringing healing to our hearts so many of us we get saved and we stop at that we don't we don't realize that there's a whole journey the Lord wants to bring us on in transforming us to become more like him amen mmm the third one the last one is to live in constant surrender and I'm going to tell you right now this is this is my what I feel like is my little secret this is what I I do and I hold so so close in my own life of living in a place of constant surrender um I read something real quick John 15 verse 9 as the father has loved me so have I loved you now remain in my love if you obey my commands you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love this is Jesus speaking I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete my command is this love each other as I have loved you greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do what I command I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business instead I have called you friends for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit fruit that will last then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name when I read this I always used to hear the part where he says greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends and I immediately went to just thinking that you know he's referring to our friendships these people in our lives the people God brings in our lives you know that we we love them we love them that we'd lay down our life for them and then I realized that yeah well that's part of it the very next thing that he says is you're my friend I call you friend and he's he's referring to himself in this moment he's saying what you don't know is I'm about to go and lay down my life for you but I'm asking you to do the same for me your friend I'm asking you to lay down your life to surrender your life completely to me to live your life in a place of constant surrender to him I love that he says you did not choose me but I chose you the Bible says that we love him because he first loved us and I could probably talk all day about God's love because it's my favorite thing to talk about and if you've ever heard me talk before you hear me talk about it all the time because I love to talk about it because one tastes one encounter with God's love and it changes everything that's all it takes is one encounter with God's love it's contagious absolutely contagious and I love that the word says that we love him because he first loved us he formed us he created us he chose us he called us He loves us and he wants to walk in intimacy with us he wants to walk hand-in-hand with us he wants us to be constantly in a place where we are yielding our hearts to him and allowing him to change us and to transform us to make us the best version of ourselves that we could be I recently went through a situation in my life where I was it was just a difficult situation and I was feeling a lot of pain and a lot of frustration I was feeling some anguish I was feeling just a lot of emotions and something felt really familiar and I I went and I prayed and I was just asking God what is this I'm feeling right now something is familiar about this about these feelings and am I am I going around a mountain here did I miss something I was supposed to get somewhere back along the way and I suddenly realized what was happening God reminded me of this time when I was walking through a lot of inner healing I had you know surrendered my life to God I'm going through the school of ministry I'm I'm constantly putting myself in this place where I'm allowing God to do a lot of work in me and for those of you who who don't know my story or my testimony I'm sure it's floating around on YouTube I won't get into it I said I'll just say that I had a lot of circumstances and things in my childhood that were really difficult for me and I had a lot of wounds inside of me that I was caring and I had a lot of rejection I had a lot of fears and I had a lot of offense at God and I was feeling a lot of these emotions and I was trying to walk out this this um journey of healing and I remember this one day I was meeting with a counselor who is helping me walk through a lot of this this healing and I could see Jesus standing in front of me and he was asking me to surrender everything to him to surrender my life surrender my heart to surrender everything to him and I felt little confused at first like I kind of thought I already did that but when I looked I realized that it wasn't enough just to give my life and say okay Jesus come into my heart I'm a Christian now yay it wasn't enough for that it what he was asking me was all these other things that I was holding on to the the pain the offense the wounds the unforgiveness all these other things that were in my heart that I was kind of trying to hide from him and act like he didn't know about them hello yeah I I could feel him asking me to surrender those and in that moment okay I'm gonna be super honest in that moment I felt angry like god I feel like I surrendered my entire childhood I feel like I have given everything I feel like I have been poured and just emptied out there is nothing left I am just a shadow of a person standing here I don't have anything else to give but yet you're standing here in front of me asking for more how could you do that how could you ask for more I don't have anything else to give and I just kept hearing him say Kim surrender everything to me and it was so hard and it was so painful but in that moment I finally threw up my hands I waved my white flag and I surrendered everything I surrendered the pain I surrendered the offense I surrendered the the things I didn't understand I surrendered all of that to him in that moment and I was then allowed and and able because once all that stuff was out of the way I was able to experience the greatest love of my life I was able to experience the greatest peace I had ever had I was able to experience the healing that I had been longing for and looking for and trying to get to but that's what was needed in that moment and from that moment on it just set the course of my life of this is how I want to live in a place of constant surrender even when I get to the end and I feel like I don't have anything else to give I'm just gonna keep giving I'm just gonna keep laying down my life for my friend the one who found me the one who chose me the one who loves me my friend the one who promised that he'd never leave and he never forsake me that he would walk through every single storm and circumstance and in that moment when I realized that and I remembered that I was like I know this place and I knew what I had to do and this time it wasn't as painful because I could do it with joy I could do it with joy I could say God I know how to do this I've done this before I can surrender my life I can surrender everything and I can lay down and I can just give it all to you and I know and I trust I have seen I have seen your work in my life I have seen the fruit of a life that is completely laid down in surrender to you I have seen the fruit of a heart that lives in a place of embracing every season that I'm in I have seen the fruit of a heart that says Jesus come and do whatever you want to do in my life change me I don't want to ever assume that I've reached it or I've attained it or I've arrived I don't ever want to be so arrogant as to think that I'm there I've done it and I'm just walking it out perfectly now no way God is so huge there's so much of him to grasp and to understand and there's so much that he wants to pour into us there's so much that he wants to do in us and he wants to see every dream come true no matter what it is whether your dream is to to be a wife and a mother and to be at home raising your ten kids and doing home school and everything else or whether you want to go and be a scientist and make the next crazy invention I don't know whatever it is he is excited about those things and he says you are called and you are created to be a revivalist to carry heaven with you into every realm out there but the only way that you're gonna succeed at that is with the father is walking out with him and yielding your heart to him in embracing every single season that you're in and in keeping your eyes on him and listening for his voice constant surrender the condition of your heart is directly connected to your ability to leave a mark on this generation and to do all that you've been created to do the condition of what is happening inside of here what what is what is God doing on the inside how is he changing your heart how is he transforming your heart listen it's anyone can stand and raise your hands and sing a song but what's happening in here what's happening in your heart because everything is going to flow out of that place you know that verse out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks at one point or another what's happening in here is going to come out of here what kinds of things are coming out of here when those situations and those storms come up are you speaking fear are you speaking intimidation are you are you speaking hopelessness or you speaking life are you reaching out to Jesus are you holding on to his promises are you yielding your heart to him are you embracing the season you're in the condition of our heart is directly connected to our ability to love people to stand in the the face of a storm no matter what it is good and bad the condition of our hearts is directly linked to all of that and I want to just encourage and challenge you guys I know a lot of you have have been with us many times before and been at many of the conferences and um something that that's always exciting to me to see is when I can see the growth and I can see the fruit um I'll try to explain it this way when we first started Jesus Culture conferences we wanted we what we saw was we saw all these young people coming and they're encountering Jesus they're having this amazing moment in the summer it this life-changing encounter with him but then they go back home and somewhere along the way they were losing that connection somewhere along the way they were they were backtracking they were not holding on to that they weren't fighting for that connection fighting for that relationship with the Lord and some of them you know there's there's peer pressure there's all the different things going on at school some of them may not have even come from a Christian home and and maybe didn't even have a church that they were plugged into and going to and we decided one time you know what we should do we should record worship we should just record what's happening in them in those times and get a CD out just so everyone has something to take home to turn it on and to get back in that place to stay connected to the Father to stay connected to his presence to fight for that relationship and and then hopefully the goal was that next year when everyone showed up they'd be in a whole new place they would be they're connected ready to go and we don't have to go back here and reconnect and pick things back up again and work our way like this but we can just start right here and we get to go further and we get to go deeper this is making sense and that's exactly what happened we make this CD and put it out there and we watched as the next year came and everyone everyone showed up and it was a whole new level of passion it was a whole new level of intimacy with the Lord and it just kept building and it kept growing and this is my prayer for all of you that are here that it's not about it's not about hype and it's not about just a fun experience in the summertime here just all coming together while it is a lot of fun but the point is that we would grasp something deeper and that we would be building and building that we're constantly growing and moving forward together that we're we're one family and each of us is so important to what God wants to do in this earth we all have a role to play and my prayer is that all of you would be in that place of being so aware of the condition of your heart and that there would just be a fight that would rise up inside of you that that fighter in you would come out and go and fight for your relationship with the Lord that you would not let go of that that you wouldn't give in to things but that you would stand and be strong and that she would contend for more of his presence to go deeper because guess what that's what Jesus did that's what he paid for that's what the cross is all about that he just made this way and said come and get it you can have as much of me as you want it's that easy while you stand up and I'm we pray father I thank you so much that you did you sent your son to endure the cross and to conquer death to give us the keys so we could live a life that is so abundant that we could live in a place of intimacy with you that you made a way for us to come and to walk with you hand in hand to partner with you Jesus we don't take that for granted we don't take that lightly but we are so thankful and so overwhelmed by your kindness by the kindness of Jesus that you would give so much that you would call us your friend in Jesus we want to do the same we want to be able to lay down our lives for you God to live in a place of constant surrender we want to live in a place where we are constantly yielding our hearts to you and God our hearts are just one big resounding yes to you God that we want you to come and to change our hearts and transform our hearts that God we don't want to just settle for where we are or where we've been I ask right now that for every person in this room Lord that you would come and just renew their strength father that there would be a boldness and a courage that would rise up inside of them Lord that that fighter would come out that the two contend for more to not to not give in to not settle but God to contend for more of your presence to fight for more of your presence Jesus God I ask that you would be there to remind us every step along the way that the moment it gets hard the moment those tough decisions come up that we would hear your voice louder than any other voice god lord I ask right now that you would just break off distraction in this room father I ask that you would come and you would just clear out the air that you would break off every distraction and Lord I just speak to every single person in this place and I just say ears be opened up in Jesus name to hear his voice god I thank you that every person in this room that we know your voice that we are created to respond to your voice and God I ask that you would give us the courage to fix our eyes on you Lord in every situation in every circumstance father the Lord that we would not lose faith but that our eyes would remain just fixed on you God and lord I ask that you would help us to embrace every season that we're in God Lord that just like we we sang in this song today our trust is Without Borders God there is no limit to our trust in you and we do we trust you Father we trust your love for us we trust and we know that you are a good father that you have a plan and a purpose and that you're gonna see it through to the end but you're not done with us you're not leaving us to fend for ourselves but you are walking out with us every step along the way God and I asked Father that we would just be in that that place of just um our hearts are just soft just soft to you God Lord that you would come and you would bring healing to those wounds healing to those places of offense God for those that are here in this room that the may not place that struggle of I don't know if I can if I have anything left to give god I ask that you would come and you would just carry us through that moment and that we would be able to just lay down our lives again and again and again for you God that your love is so worth that your love is so worth it Jesus God I ask that you would just remove any offence remove the things that stand in the way of us getting to walk hand-in-hand with you God we just say yes to you Jesus yes to you Jesus our hearts just say yes to you Jesus we love you and we thank you Jesus in your name amen

Channel: Jesus Culture

Views: 386,465

Rating: 4.8812628 out of 5

Keywords: JCLA 2013

Id: fPmVi-Nc1Lo

Length: 56min 24sec (3384 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2015