Learning to Let Go With Pastor Kevin Nguyen

Wow good morning howdy Saddleback hey guys say howdy right howdy I want to say hello to all the campuses as well good morning and especially to the home campus Irvine how you doing Irvine this morning I'm so excited to be here on this Sunday morning with you all it is something that I've been looking forward to and enjoying but this Sunday is also the start of a very special week Pastor Rick and Kay are having their anniversary this week so we want to wish them a happy 39 years together yes I'm catching up because this week is also my 10th anniversary for my wife and I Hannah yeah I got a lot of catching up to do but here is a picture of Hannah and I not too long ago it's a recent picture and I want to be able to share with you something but before I share about my personal stories Pastor Rick had asked me to reach he reached out with an invitation and that invitation was to to share with you some encouraging stories of my last 10 years my life message what God has been teaching to me these last 10 years and I want to say that these last 10 years have been so dramatically uncomfortable at times it has been faith stretching but also it has been so fulfilling and so purposeful as well but first I need to take you back 11 years ago where it first started and it first started when I Hannah and I were first introduced all right we got introduced and I'm gonna share with you the first-ever email that I wrote Hannah all right this was pre eHarmony preface this is this is this is gonna make me look lame okay all right so I want to be able to show you but I need to give you some context before I read this email let me give you the context let me set you up how this works was a I grew up in a first-generation Asian American home so mom I'm like most first-generation masion American mom's felt like they needed to help me find a suitable mate all right we track all right so she felt like she had to play matchmaker and so this is like matchmaker calm like for real and so she had met Hanna for the very first time before me and she thought it would be wise to solicit Hanna for an email address as she can give to her son who is very lonely and needs a friend I'm not saying I need help but that's what mom moms they do a good job of that so can I go ahead and read this to you is that okay all right all right all right subject ladies would you open this email a westcoast greeting to an East Coast girl she lived in Atlanta Tubb yeah that'd get you to open the email right she doesn't know what she does not know who I am all right so hello who are you starting off well I bet that should be the first question in your mind no this is not spam mail nor is it junk mail however after you read my silly attempts to entertain you you might think this is junk mail but first let me try to catch your attention you must have been a very special person for my mom to constantly talk about you ever since my parents returned home from Atlanta they have continued to rant and rave about this particular individual over there in Georgia not a minute goes by when my mother calls me and reminds me of a splendid time she had with you to me that means a lot my parents do not often bring up single people single people up to me but this is an instance your name has been mentioned quite often on a good note thus my curiosity is aroused I think I'm gonna just stop there if you are single I want to give you an advice never use mom curiosity and aroused in any combination in your first email okay please don't do that but the grace of God Hannah did reply and we're married now this life story represents one of many many blind faith moments in my life and so for the next 10 years it has been definitely a rollercoaster ride but also a ride that I want to be able to share with you and it reminds me of a passage in the Bible if you want to open up your book your Bible to Genesis chapter 12 it is a section in the Bible regarding a man named Abraham and this is the first ever recorded conversation between God and Abraham and is about his faith journey and so hopefully I can highlight some of these brief exchanges between God and Abraham and and then loop in some of these personal stories of inflection points in my life and my hope today my hope is that I can encourage many of you to consider some changes in your life that may be able to bring joyful blessings to you but also blessings to others look up at the screen or on your outlines and go it let me read Genesis 12:1 through 2 now the Lord said to Abram go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing the question that I hope to answer today with you is the question I want to ask is in order to receive God's immeasurable blessings what am I willing to let go of in areas in my life or better yet let me rephrase that question and do you trust him enough to surrender the known securities of your life for the unrevealed mysteries of God's blessings let me repeat that in do you trust him enough to surrender the known securities of your life for the unrevealed mysteries of God's blessings and hence I couldn't resist but to title this message let it go go ahead hum it in your mind get it out to let that go someone's already singing right here I love it if I've done nothing else seriously if I haven't done nothing else but to implant that maddening tune in your head I've done nothing valuable today alright just want to make sure that this is the thing that I want you to remember whenever God says go we must let go so that we can receive blessings from God and that's the key today whenever God says go you must let go to receive God's blessings and so much later in the New Testament we're gonna find out that Abraham formerly known as Abram he changed his name God changed his name much later but the book of Hebrew reads this go ahead look up on the screen by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going Circle that underline that do whatever you want but the most important part in that sense is is not knowing where he was going this passage in Genesis can be broken up into two parts and so the outline is broken up into two sections the first section is areas of our life that we need to let go of and the second section is blessings from God that we can receive and I want to highlight that when God talks to Abraham and when he speaks to him he's gonna ask Abraham to let go of three areas of his life three areas that you and I can relate to but God is so good because what God is going to do when you go these areas God will bless Abraham with three types of blessings that you and I can also receive as well and so hopefully that conversation we can have as we continue God will continue to bless us as long as we have a posture of open hands and let me go ahead and help you understand what I mean by letting go letting go is the surrendering to God or to hold loosely people or things that are so important so valuable to us in relation or in comparison to God's will for you or others letting go can also mean surrendering and letting go of past regrets or past resentments all I know is this is by clasping your hands so tightly so tightly you will never be able to have a posture of open hands to receive what God has in store for you and those are wonderful blessings your first fill-in-the-blank God wants us to let go of our comfort zones comfort zones God first prompts Abraham to go from your country and for Abraham he would understand this to be his geographical and psychological domain of safety it's his home it would be safety and security at this point in his life Abraham had already been living in the one of the most luscious regions in the Mesopotamia area he was his family and his extended family had been there for over 70 years trade and business was great there's an abundance of livestock agriculture was was fertile and great and and so he was safe he was secure he was satisfied and then in essence God comes along and says for his first conversation hey Abraham I want you to go and leave your stable and safe life for our faith a perience in the West in the dry and the desert nomadic region of the West what a great selling point right God comes to you hey I want you to trade la for Death Valley it's not to say Vegas but I think we have some Vegas people here when I say comfort zone I left some space in your outlines this is how I would describe comfort zones comfort zones are securities in our profession our homes our educational aspirations our financial stability that's what I think of comfort zone it is anything to do with our securities and professions homes education financial stability back in 2003 I relocated to LA through a succession of promotions at my former job I was entrusted to oversee the st. Gabriel Valley for all the wireless retail stores in that area I was working for a major wireless company at that time and for the next three years I would continue to gain more responsibility in the company by the way in 2003 that was the year that was writing romantic letters to my wife Hannah finally said yes that year and we we got married we purchased our new home life was good life was good for me and Hannah it was safe it was stable then not too long ago during that time something was stirring in my heart something was I had a feeling of discontentment I don't know whatever it was but I did know that there were many nights many conversations between myself and my wife where she would ask me what's going on I was getting grumpier in it and it really had to do with my my vocation I was getting grumpy I was getting dissatisfied with my vocation it climaxed one evening I was driving home from work and as I was driving home from work I got a phone call it was an urgent phone call I don't remember what it was but it was something like hey Kevin we need you to fix something now as I was driving home from work I was actually driving to a small group of young men that I was mentoring men that I loved men that I cared for that I look forward to being there that I wanted to be there but this phone call required me to do something else and took me away robbed me of my joy of what I wanted to do that evening with those young men I felt I was being misused I felt like my time on my talents that God had given me we're not used properly and there for the reason or the root of my discontentment finally through prayerful consideration I formally resigned for my company in 2009 five years later uh I am here but I want you know at 2009 it was one of the worst times to ever resign if you remember 2009 we had a a worldwide economic recession California unemployment rate was skyrocketing to over 10 percent friends and families of ours were thinking we were crazy what is going on you are taking the most risky decision in life ever but all I did know is this that this was the passage that I shared with you in Genesis 12 that I entered me it angered me to say that wait God has something greater for me I wanted to trade off some of my securities for something God had not yet revealed to me but I do know this though that five years later I am eventually here that God has brought me here and he has introduced me to a new family you are my new family Saddleback Church and I feel welcomed here so the Bible says this what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul is anything worth more than your soul jesus was saying this when he had asked his disciples to consider the cost of following him they continued they could continue in their comfortable professions some as fishermen some as tax collectors but Jesus clearly asked them to make a decision if you're gonna follow me and you need to let go of those fishing nets and that is a question I asked for you are you willing to let go assuming you're comfortable spots your comfort zones your second fill in the blank God wants us to let go of our culture and traditions culture and traditions back in Genesis 12 God directs Abraham to let go of your kindred your kindred in some Bible translations you might think that as as your it could say your people your clan whatever it is this is the point of your kindred back in that time the family or the the people that you lived if you were organized into three different type of spheres or three circles of social influence the first one we talked about your homeland your country and that was the the bigger context where it really didn't have anything to do with your identity but it was more of a this is our area this is our country America the second group is this is your kindred more like your neighborhood your new city your the people that have given you social identity the people that you relate to and that you can have shared commonalities and the third group of people was the the smaller unit was the family the immediate family all your clothes and friendship and relationships that God or that you have that you interact with and that you exchange commonalities with this is the point what God was trying to say God was trying to turn up that commitment levels to say hey Abraham I need you to let go of all of that I need you to let go every single bit of that if you're gonna follow me and I want to give you some examples alright just to help you out with some examples so usually when I come to when I go to an airport or when I'm at a birthday party where I'm at some kind of social gathering if I say yeah they ask the question hey where you from I say I'm from Texas the room is usually well if I'm in LA it's dead like this they hate Texans right or they might like yeah I'm from Texas too how about them Cowboys and then we have a an interaction ok I got a text one Texas out in one Texan over here good Oh to who they finally come out good hey I'll tell you this at the four o'clock at six o'clock service man no one no one showed up but then when I went off the outside they all showed up so Texans uh thank you but you have this circle of countrymen that shared similar interests then you have the other groups of people that if you had Facebook you can kind of do the same to we we generally kind of organize our friendships in different groups if you had Facebook you can literally say I have family members that I only want to share certain things with and I have my favorite friends that I want to share with and then I have all else that I'll whatever you could you can say hello or not hello so we kind of do that anyways in our cultural or are our interest groups or friend groups and so when I when I got asked that he asked him to to do this so this is how I would best describe kindred in the space there I provided for you when I say kindred I'm thinking of societal values I'm thinking of practices I mean a cultural identification and I'm thinking of religious and family traditions so let me repeat that societal values cultural identification religious and family traditions and we tend to group ourselves in those group of friendships so for me I grew up in a Vietnamese immigrant home I grew up in a Vietnamese immigrant home and I was the son of a pastor my father was a pastor of a Vietnamese church and so let me help you I don't want to teach you some Vietnamese this morning if that's ok can I do that we could do Vietnamese all right let me teach you some words it's gonna be hard to translate this but it's ok I'm gonna say the word first so that you can just prepare for it then I want you to murmur it back to me all right the word is depth chai it's a compound word damp chai go ahead Deb oh very good very good okay now I want you to say Kevin damp chai can we do that Kevin dab dry very good that tribe means handsome you just affirm that I am handsome thank you I need that it's the Asian of me that needs affirmation thank you so feel free to say Kevin deaf giant all you want now if you want to add in the Texas drawl you say damp dry okay now that's just jacking up the Vietnamese language please don't do that many Vietnamese will be offended you guys are good sports so then therefore I was growing up as a Vietnamese of a Texan I had to navigate between two worlds Two Worlds the the gun-sling in American Way and of course the family traditional way and that was tough because growing up in a pastor's kid in a home like that I had to I had multiple layers of traditions just interwoven in me I had the American tradition I had the Texas tradition because Texas is a country in itself I had the Vietnamese tradition I had the Christian tradition I had all of that just interwove and I was I was literally schizophrenic and I think many of you can probably understand that as well because you have different traditions that you grew up with and I it also played had tension in my life because of that growing up in a Vietnamese Christian home I felt like there was this perceived expectation that I was going that I had to be the next great pastor for the Vietnamese American church to save the church hence I resisted I hated any mentioning that Kevin you're gonna be just like your father you're gonna be a great pastor and so I ran and I struggled quite a bit because part of me is in my Asian upbringing I wanted to please people I I didn't want to lose face for my family I wanted to protect the family reputation and so this is an enormous value and we tend to think wait wait the American Way is be who you are well that's not how it is and in my family it wasn't about be who you are it's it's be and help the family as best as you can and so for the next so many years there was this constant tension with my traditional values of letting go and letting go of unhealthy ones let me give you some examples of two particular areas that I struggle with and maybe you struggle with too first people-pleasing I tend to struggle with people-pleasing or never wanting to confront again we tend to think that's a negative thing but that's not true you see for me people-pleasing was a way to build harmony it was a way to help negotiate ideas it was a way to help build camaraderie so that we can work together that's just in my head that's how I was raised up but I struggle with that the second area that I had tension with was being motivated by shame being motivated by she's by shame I wanted to succeed I wanted to 60 so bad not because I wanted to win it's because I didn't want to be second I don't want to be last and so the shame of that or that I know I had the fear of losing face or losing reputation and so I struggled with that quite a bit and I still struggle with that but God was good God was grooming me God was behind the scenes because he was working in me because one of these things that I struggle with I can also help bless many and many other people who struggle with this I get to be able to share this with the next generation who constantly struggle with shame and people-pleasing this is a universal issue and so I needed to let go of these unhealthy traditions and values hopefully that is something that you may consider as well finally God wants us to let go of our relationships relationships your third fill-in-the-blank relationships and I want to be so sensitive as I be unpack this and I don't want to have any misunderstandings but the Bible didn't say that Abraham had abusive or destructive relationships it didn't it didn't say anything that he had marital or domestic issues but what is clear is that God prompted Abraham that when God says he did say this get up and move and at this time it would require Abraham to cut loose some of his closest relationships his closest friendships his closest intimate family relatives and close friendships so when I think of your father's house when God says I need you to leave your father's house fill this in your description I think of families I think of relatives and I think of close friendships Church sometimes to follow God's calling it will require us to surrender good things in life for better things with Kingdom impact sometime God will ask you to give up good for better and that is always a struggle that we will always have but know that God is good and God will always act accordingly to his purpose so how should we react when we are faced with this dilemma how should we respond or what resolve should we have when we sense God's Spirit prompting us in choosing loyalties and responsibly for God's will or approval of family and friends I'm gonna give you some examples that maybe can help you and understand what I'm talking about some examples here is for some of you you might be thinking of planning a family peace trip this summer as opposed to going to the family reunion with your family when is it ever a good time to do a peace trip but the decision is that you can have so much more eternal impact if you did or a second example could be like my own family we are considering adoption and we want to do it Hannah and I've been praying about it we were going through the process but like many of you maybe your family your relatives have mixed emotions they're not ready for it they don't understand why they're not blood whatever reasons they have mixed emotions about it or maybe a third area is for others you've asked it to be to take over or to consider taking over the family business knowing that it will drain your time and your energy away from the ministry that God has asked you to do in the next season of life all sorts of examples we can talk about what I say cut loose your relationships but I do want to share you a story a story of Samantha and Samantha is on the back of your programs if you want to take your programs out the program on the back is a picture of me baptizing Samantha two weeks ago and she has a wonderful story then and we heard it in the church news video but I wanted to unpack the story Samantha was accepted to the University of California in Irvine as an international exchange student from Hong Kong she and her friend packed their bags and they moved over in the the beginning of the school year this prior this previous school year not knowing that this move will change her life forever you see Samantha was an atheist did not know God did not care for God and not think of God but her friend was a Christian friend that was involved in one of the local campus ministries so together they they got here and then early this year she was invited Samantha was invited to a woman's retreat and she had no expectation of his women's retreat because to her it sounded like sweet treats sweet treats god I'm going wouldn't go alright so she had shared that it was sweet treats and so she went and she showed up and and she did not realize that the sweet treat was this that she heard a message that God had for her that she was beautiful this was the first time in her life that she realized that she was beautiful and that she was free of shame from the world's perception and judging a beauty at that retreat she accepted her she accepted Christ as her Lord Savior and she real for the first time God was the creator of beauty and he loves me you see at the same time Saddleback Irvine we were just launching our extension over the UCI area and so she showed up at the first Sunday on Easter Sunday and on that Easter Sunday over over the next few weeks she began to feel loved by the Saddleback Church and then so she went to class 101 and and she said I want to get baptized two weeks ago we got to have chance to do that and so two weeks ago I put her up on stage and I asked her to questions first question I asked her I said so Samantha when you're moving back this summer have you decided on a church home and she says pastor Kevin I've taken class 101 I have a new family and that's Saddleback Church and when I get back I'm going to Saddleback Hongkong and she she looked at I want to give you a side note here this is this is the crazy side note this applies to everybody did you know your membership here is like international passport it's accepted in all 12 cities that's great yeah you can go to Eddie's whole cities if you're a member of Saddleback Church we just won't pay for you to go so I need a plug class 101 you know class 101 is coming up in July I recommend you to get your international passport it'll take you to all 12 cities but she the the best question I asked was at the end was I said hey Samantha how can we pray for you how can we pray for you she took the mic for me this is this is amazing do you know that glow that a new believer has that glow that that boldness that energy I mean literally like a halo around them and she just glisten and she said I want you to pray for my family at home I want you to pray because they don't know Jesus I want you to pray that they know Jesus and then she continued on I also want you to pray for my boyfriend he doesn't know Jesus I want him to be saved now here's the kicker her boyfriend was sitting right here front row and she was staring at him I want him to know Jesus grace that's awesome so bold her faith but I want you to know this church what Samantha just did from her family's point of view she did something so radical she had chosen to become part of a new family in essence she just cut loose about her biological family family values family traditions she made a decisive decision to go and let go it's the same way that Jesus responded to three people three followers who came up to him three followers in the Bible came up to Jesus said Jesus will go wherever you want to go the first one said hey Jesus I'll go wherever you go and you know what use respond to Jesus responded this way he says I can't guarantee you a place to rest your head I can't guarantee you any comfort zones whatsoever and the second follower comes up to to Jesus say hey Jesus I got it I want to follow you but I want to go bury my father first or in essence trying to say I need to go take care of the family business let's wait till my father comes to a good season in life and then I'll follow you and Jesus responds sharply let the dead bury the dead and then there's a third follower it comes up to Jesus the third follower runs up to Jesus I say okay I get it I know I don't need to bury anybody I just need to to just say goodbye I just need to call him say goodbye and Jesus looks at him and says you know what I'm going forward and I'm not looking back whoever follow me goes forward and never looks back are you willing to let go of relationships let me go ahead and read this Bible verse to you it says this in Matthew if you love your father or mother more than you love me you are not worthy of being mine or if you loved your son or daughter more than me you are not worthy of being mine if you cling to your life you will lose it but if you give up your life for me you will find it translation if you let go of areas your life I will bless you summary of part one we clear out space so that we can receive His blessings we clear out space so that we can receive His blessings now I want to take a few moments here to go on the second part the second part is about what Abraham received the blessing that Abraham received but I also want to tie in the parts that we can do takeaways with there are some takeaways that I want you to consider takeaways that when we hear Abraham's blessings we can also take away as well the first part is this when we let go God will bless us with a new destination a new destination after God says let go go from your land I mean go from your country from your kindred in your father's house I will go to the land that I will show you there is a destination point that God wants to show Abraham now he didn't give Abraham this road map where as a GPS setting with a turn by turn signal it didn't say anything like that the Bible just says I will show you it was very unclear but Abraham made a decision to go he wasn't thinking of Canaan the land of milk and honey the Promised Land we had the Bible so we know that's what God was talking about he wasn't thinking of Isaac or Ishmael in fact he won't even have kids for for many years later and that these kids will be like fathers of other nations what he was was he was an ordinary guy chosen by God for no other reason except that he was willing to surrender and to obey without conditions no questions asked there was a trust that God would guide his every move and this is a key principle in our lives it is a key principle that when God says go the plans will rarely have clearer details it will never be vivid it will never be clear and it's very much like this a password one share with me it's like a poll loyd picture now let me explain polaroid pictures for our younger faces Polaroid cameras it's kind of like an all-in-one purpose camera printer yeah it's like your iPhone that can print pictures something like that so a Polaroid picture but if you take that picture and enough a time and enough blowing and enough waving what happens to the picture it becomes more clear it becomes more vivid the faces are detailed everything becomes clear and I think that's how God's will for our lives resembles that over time his will becomes more and more clear I want you know that it may feel at times that God is silent it may feel at times that God is clueless or he's taking a break or maybe you might feel that he doesn't even care about your future not true the Bible says this but forget all that it is nothing compared to what I am going to do for I am about to do something new see I have already begun do you not see it for the next 20 years of Abraham's life for the next 10 chapters of Genesis Abraham will continue going through a series of tests in fact 12 different tests and these are tests of faith and along the way God continues to real reveal more and more of his character as long as we continue to trust and obey and follow through these faith tests now I also want to be able to mention that the promised land of Canaan wasn't all way it wasn't all that Abraham was thinking he was also thinking he wasn't thinking just that the new destination but also the final destination and this is what it says in the Bible Abraham and Sarah and in the new testament says this they admitted that they were foreigners and strangers on earth people who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own if they had been thinking of the country they had left they would have had an opportunity to return instead they were longing for a better country a heavenly one application in your space provided I want to ask some questions and maybe you want to take the time later in the week to respond and you can answer it on your own but here are the questions where are you in your journey have you started your journey yet have you been neglecting ignoring that tug that whisper that calling that prompting from the Almighty God what are you still holding on to what is it that you are unwilling to let go of not only a new destination but also God will bless us with a new family a new family God says to Abraham I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation and at this point Abraham had no offsprings in fact Abraham thought it was a joke that God would give him any offspring whatsoever and he wouldn't for for many many years later but God held true to his promise an entire nation of Israel was born out of Abraham's faithfulness from the beginning and yet he did not even realize that now that's the good news the good news is this those who put their trust in Jesus Christ you have been adopted into gods family and it manifests itself as the local church as Saddleback Church as a home a family just like the story of Samantha understand this Samantha story looks like this if she goes home and it's very likely that her family will reject her her boyfriend will reject her her friends will reject her they will deny everything that she has put her faith and trust in because they don't know that where will she land where will she go back to not him over here the University of California University of California in Irvine but she will have a church family Saddleback Church you are her family Hong Kong Church you are going to take her in you're going to embrace her she now has a place to belong a place to be loved a place to be valued and a place that she can call home Amen Church the Bible says this God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ this is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure application our new family is found in the church our new family is found in the church it is so important that we find community in our small groups it is so important that when Pastor Rick or any of us has served we are asking you to serve because you get to serve alongside your family members because your little acts of faith will be able to help people that need Jesus so so much that needs to be adopted into his family when you are blessed well when you serve when you are part of the family you are more blessed you will receive joyful blessings that God had intended for you you are living on purpose and finally when we can let go of our securities when we can let go of our traditions and when we can let go of our relationships we can begin to build a new legacy a new legacy and that is the third blessing that Abraham receives is the blessing that is that God says you will become famous and be a blessing to others you will become famous known you will have influence so that you can bless others many times the little acts of faith that we we take God will use to bless so many other people and you don't even know about it for Abraham has continued trust in God's direction and his willingness to let go of his comfort zones his cultural traditions that his close relationship produced a legacy that thousands of years later all of us are indebted to first the entire nation of Israel calls Abraham their father his name Abraham actually means father of many secondly Jesus Christ was the special descendant of Abraham who would change the entire world change your life in my life together God chose Abraham's family to carry the promise of hope for everyone let me read this next verse to you for all of you who were baptized in Christ have clothed yourself with Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus and if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham's descendants heirs according to the promise the promise that he will bless you when you let go there is no more American way there is no more Asian traditions there is no more ethnic segregation folks Saddleback Church is an all nation congregation that is why we love this church that is why I came to this church because I believe in those values the values that Pastor Rick set out because the Bible has said so we beloved have a new legacy identified in Jesus Christ we also carry the news of hope that everyone needs to hear application our new legacy is identified as Christians we have a purpose so what is that purpose look up on the screen however you are however you are chosen people a royal priesthood a holy nation people who belong to God you were chosen you were chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God who called you out of darkness into marvellous light you were chosen to share of God's awesome qualities to be a blessing to many many others so let me close out the story that I started with resigning from my company in 2009 in my wildest imagination I would have never thought I'd be right here right now as the pastor at Saddleback Church in the Irvine campus I had intended to finish my doctorates I had wanted to continue to serve in that church plant that I was faithfully at attending and maybe even teach at a local Christian University I was just an ordinary Vietnamese Texan mod in my own business but God was watching God was grooming me exposing me to alive with certain experiences certain values certain relationships not knowing that this would lead me to you my new family what I would have to hold loosely and let go of and surrender to him he would eventually use to bless me and others and so I want to cite you this quote from Paul Tripp a famous author and and pastor and let me read this quote to you because this hopefully will just drive everything home embedded in the larger story of redemption is a principle we must not miss God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things in the lives of others I was not Platt I wasn't planning to be pastoring at Saddleback Church I didn't even envision that I would even stand here today to share you my life message unfathomable nor was I even thinking that I would even play a small part in the faith journey of this young woman who was going to move all the way across the world where she may be the only voice light a voice of light and a voice of hope to an entire family and to all her friends if God can use a five foot six ish Vietnamese Texan he surely has chosen you and you and you and all of us to bless you and make your life a blessing to others and as I reflect these past 10 years of my faith journey I am absolutely fulfilled I am so grateful that God has continued to use me in his purpose and I want you to be able to do the same thing that when you look back that you can say I made a difference I won't leave you with two closing thoughts look up on the screen this is the last verse for this morning so Abram when as the Lord had told him in lot his nephew went with him Abram was 75 years old when he set out from Haran this was the immediate verse following the verses I just shared with you there was no conversation but a decisive decision to go he wasn't clear of what blessings that Abraham would would receive he just knew that he trusted and that he was in line with what God wanted to do he let go cleared out space and he followed and he went the second closing thought I want you to think about for some of you you might think this message is for a young adult who has career confusions for some of you you might even think this is a message for those who are new in the faith how old was Abraham 75 years old that is a lifetime of old habits and relationships that you definitely can let go I want you to know this that God is always calling us young or old to action he is always calling us to make a difference and where can I start by letting go one of the best ways I think that we can start is through the act of baptism through the act of baptism I know that many people in here are still struggling because we tend to think that we want we have hesitations and this is the hesitation I've observed in the past every time i baptize it's usually these two types of hesitation the first hesitation is what would my friends and family think and the second hesitation that I often hear is what about my old church friends what would they think I want you know that baptism is a public profession of your faith to Jesus Christ it does not matter where or when you you received Jesus Christ it is the time that you are letting go of your past life and being awaken to a new purpose I hope you take that challenge today to go and let go I want to pray for you and I want to ask that you bow your head and I want to pray for a prayer blessing I want to ask God to bless all of us here today beyond we can imagine father-god at this moment may your voice be heard in the hearts of the people who are listening if it was a story a statement or a Bible verse that resonates in their thoughts please let it continue to ring louder so they have no choice but to respond to your prompting I know you want to get hold of our attention and I know you have a special plan for everyone here we might not see it completely completely but we pray that you will begin unrevealed revealing all that you want us to see all the blessings that we want to receive through our faith journey father you're so amazing we beg for blessing in your son's precious name Amen

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 21,648

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

Keywords: Saddleback Church, Saddleback Lake Forest, Let it Go, Learning to Let Go, Letting Go, Comfort Zone, Surrendering to God, Kevin Nguyen, Pastor Kevin Nguyen, Saddleback Irvine, Saddleback IR

Id: TvmknW4MuUo

Length: 49min 13sec (2953 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 23 2014