Rally Your People | April 25, 2021 | Drew Moore | Full Experience

hey canyon ridge online so glad that you've joined us we are in week three of rally your people and i'm so excited for this service i really believe that it is a powerful time of worship we're kicking off our time together singing a song called promises it's all about god's faithfulness i know that he's faithful in my life and i know that he is faithful in yours so go ahead and check it out hey canyon ridge i want to invite you to stand with us as we sing of god's faithfulness this morning faithful through the ages [Music] [Applause] [Music] god of abraham you're the god of covenant of faithful promises time and time again you have proven you do just what you say though the storms may come and [Music] it will come [Music] is your faithfulness [Music] i will [Music] your praise [Music] though the earth may pass away your word remains the same your history can prove you know there's nothing you can't do faith [Music] [Applause] [Music] it will come to pass [Music] [Music] is [Music] your name [Music] [Applause] [Music] runs out no it never runs out [Music] put my faith in jesus [Music] he'll never let me down he'll never [Music] foundation whole [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] from the rising sun to the setting say my praise from the rising sun [Music] rising sun to the settings [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] forever faithful forever good you're with us from the morning to the evening lord forever faithful god for your faithfulness [Music] so [Music] all my words for sure [Music] i got nothing new how could i express [Music] all my gratitude i could sing these songs as i often do but every song and you never do so i throw up my hands i praise you again and again [Music] lord i know it's not much but i'm nothing else but for kings [Music] yes [Music] i've got just [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] except [Music] you are hallelujah of our praise god come on let's lift up our songs of our [Music] souls [Music] [Music] oh [Music] praise the lord [Music] get up and praise the lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh you're a good guy [Music] praise you again and again cause all that i have is [Music] you know this song has become an anthem for me and my family lately isn't he good come on let's give to him is any good god you're so worthy in every single season our god is good in the morning and in the evening he is worthy of our worship and listen i don't know how you walked in today if if your heart is just bursting with joy and things have been going great and gratitude is like within arm's length for you if if your heart is just exploding with joy then god is good but if you walked in today and your heart is heavy and you've been walking through a difficult season and maybe gratitude is some far-off thing for you let me tell you something that i've been learning gratitude isn't necessarily something that only springs forth from joy see gratitude can coexist right along sorrow in the same way that joy can coexist right along sorrow see because even in our hard seasons god is still good even in the seasons where we don't know if he loves us we can hang on to the truth that jesus went to the cross for us and that doesn't change no matter the circumstance or the situation and so what i've learned is we can find whatever small thing in every season to be grateful for and maybe this morning all you have is a hallelujah maybe it's hard for you to find words in any season but if all you have this morning is a hallelujah then give god that hallelujah and he accepts it fully and if this morning you don't even have that if if this is one of those hard seasons then you can do what romans 8 says we can partner with the holy spirit who intercedes on our behalf we can go to the spirit of the living god who will utter wordless groans so if you don't have words this morning then you can sing [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] get up [Music] praise the lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow [Music] worthy of ours [Music] praise you again and again [Music] but i'm nothing else before a king except for a heart singing [Music] thank you god thank you god let's pray together god i'm so grateful that you are a god of every season a god of age to age that you don't require anything from us but for us to bring our whole hearts to you and if that heart is hurting you want it and if that heart is bursting with joy you want it and if that heart is close to you and knows who you are and loves you wholeheartedly you want it and if that heart doesn't even know you you want it so god i'm just so grateful that no matter where every single person in this room are watching online is you're just ready to meet us right where we're at and love us fully and holy and completely and i pray that our gratitude for that in whatever way we can muster up god that it would be known by you god that we would have the courage to express it in whatever way you call us to we love you god and we're grateful for jesus it's in his name we pray amen and amen you can have a seat well even in the midst of lots of challenging things there's also so many things uh to be grateful for to anticipate around here we just know and believe that god has good ahead for us that the best is yet to come and he's always inviting us in that direction and so i just want to help everyone locate right where we are as a church kind of moving forward if you're here for the first time you are in the right place all right you are in the best place possible to walk in the direction of jesus with some really great people for uh so for the rest of us who've been around let me just remind us where we're at we believe that god is inviting all of us into a season of enjoying him and life more than ever filling us with his kind of joy a deep-seated sense that things are good and are going to be good right out of a season of kind of being challenged and deflated like striving and surviving god is inviting us into a different kind of season and we just want to follow him every step of the way in that direction and the way we're starting out is just kind of receiving from him this truth that that is only going to happen in the midst of really great people and that we actually have a contribution to make to the people in our lives as we rally and gather great people around us and as we okay above average people okay just regular people our family our neighbors the people that we live life with as we rally those people around us we together actually get to set out in a great direction and become really great people right so here you've heard this many many times probably before if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together you need great people for those moments when things get challenging and you want to quit when you start to rationalize or compromise on the dreams that you and god have come to agree on when you had this picture and this this this vision of what life could and should and would look like there are moments that will just knock the stuff in out of you and you got to have somebody that picks you up and says no we don't get to stop here we don't settle here god has more in mind we're going to go from here so that in those same moments when you've conquered it when you've walked through it when you've survived and when you've come out on the other side stronger there's someone cheering you on at the same time like look man i told you we got this god's got us this is good we can do this we need great people right and we are the kind of people around here that knows that god has us in process we just have not arrived right i've never uh i don't know what your friends are like but i don't have any friends who i talk to them and this is what they say listen uh i know i'm in my mid 40s and early 50s late 30s whatever whoever age they might be like i'm pretty sure that right now i've peaked and i hope everything is downhill from here i hope it's as good as it's ever gonna get and it's all it's just gonna get worse from now on no one's like that i don't know anybody like that right i don't think i don't there's not a single person who's like that we all hope and dream for more and so we need we want to strive and go far and so what this this wisdom says rally some people you cannot do that alone in fact there are things and great people around us that will make us better the bible has a way of saying this as well in ecclesiastes 4 verse 12 it says this a person standing alone can be attacked and defeated mentally emotionally financially relationally all the things right we can be attacked and defeated but two can stand back to back and conquer they are even better for triple or three are even better for a triple braided cord is not easily broken we need someone to have our six we need someone who can look and see and have perspective for us we need people to pick us up cheer us on like products along right to care for us when we're struggling to step in and lean in we need great people we all need great people and so here's what we're just doing we just want to accept god's invitation to show up in the lives of people around us as great people the kind of people that when we show up in their lives around us they get stronger so we're going to talk through this we're going to do this from several places in the scripture now normally we'll open one part of the bible and we'll talk from that part of the bible like what is god inviting us into how do we follow jesus way in this place but i'm actually gonna do a lot of bouncing around the scripture today so i want to help you participate well uh so grab your phone really quickly i'm gonna ask you three things with your phone obviously you can say no anytime along the way but here's the first one instead of trying to stay with me in every single scripture unless you're like super good with your bible app you'll probably struggle keeping up instead just take a picture of this come back to these scriptures later this week have some conversation i think there is six and so listen between now and a week from now you could just look into one of those each day and invite god to say something fresh and new to you and your people okay i'm gonna reference a lot of these we'll teach through a few of them but spend some time let god speak into you and your people whether you're a follower of jesus or not you will find help for you and your people in each of those scriptures all right so take a picture of those second uh some of you are forgetful like me like you see something you experience i'm like oh it's so great and five minutes later like squirrel and then you're like i don't even remember where i was two days ago and so uh what we've been doing is trying to spur one another along so we've been doing this text thing that we really liked a couple series ago and we're doing it again this series if it would help you to have just a quick reminder of some of those scriptures just a couple or three times this week we'll shoot you a text the way you sign up for it and you can opt out at any time is just shoot a simple text rally to 94090 so this is the second thing with your phone send a text try it out for a week see if it's not helpful to have a bible verse or a simple question show up or a simple reminder to show up to lean in and rally your people really well together and see what god has in mind so shoot a text rally nine four zero nine zero worst thing that can happen is later this week you opt out okay thing number three i would encourage you wherever you take notes or keep notes you could do this on paper or your phone just open a note or your text and send yourself a text because as i talk today we're going to talk about rallying your people and how your people get better and better as we show up better and better and better and so what i'd love for you to do is just keep a list of people that come to mind who does god stir up in your memory and your imagination who you could show up with some encouragement or a challenge or invite them to get together this week just have that at the ready don't lose sight god's gonna call people to mind as we talk don't lose that list have it somewhere all right here's kind of the thesis statement of where we're headed for the next 20-25 minutes whatever it is it's this great people make one another better great people make one another better now none of us are perfect none of us have arrived none of us are like peaked hopefully at this point right but the better we show up for our people around us the better they become in fact it doesn't take me long to think about people who have made me better over the course of my life i think guys like barton shaw and matt reagan i think of of guys like mike younger and uh several guys along the way in more recent years who are just like oh man these these people have helped me so much i think of men and women who have just modeled and shown and been friends in ways that have just filled me up are there some people that come to mind anything think about that who has helped you become a better version of you shot their names down great people make one another better and we believe that jesus invites us and shapes us and molds us and remakes us to show up for those around us better and better all the time which is great news because the better i show up for the people around me the better they get the better dad i show up as at home in the evening or in the morning as my kids come down the step the better my family gets the better the friend that i am the better my community gets the better co-worker i am the better the teams i'm on are right it's like what the bible says as iron sharpens iron so a friend sharpens a friend now this isn't the only thing that we do for where for our friends we talked a couple weeks ago about leaning in with love last week jody hickerson came and just dropped it on us about unity and how we lean in and stay together so strong if you missed it catch up on youtube so so good and next week we'll talk about how we care for one another in the midst of hurt and heartache how we really surround one another and support one another well but this week we're going to talk about sharpening one another challenging one another showing up in ways that make one another better now every group has some kind of direction that they are headed whether it's a vocational direction a relational direction just having fun exploring experience all kinds of things around here we definitely have a direction that we want to live in because what we have found is that the more we point our lives in the direction of jesus the more our lives fill up and get better the best kind of version of life that we've found anywhere and so we want to point each other toward jesus it's kind of what we see in ephesians chapter four it says this we will no longer be if infants will no longer be immature like children but instead we'll speak the truth in love growing in every way more and more like christ who is the head of his body the church there's several things i want to show you here but almost everything we're going to talk about today has to do with saying challenging things to our people for some of us that comes a little too naturally doesn't it and for others it's like whoa i don't want any part of that but over and over and over as we look across the whole course of the the bible in what we call the new testament everything from jesus on is kind of instructions on how to live in response to jesus it's a way to do that and over and over we see these one another's in scripture like this speaking the truth in love that call us to say challenging things so i'm going to put these in three buckets but before i do that i just want to issue us two reminders that if we lose either one of these we're going to go sideways the first one is this that the moment we lose sight of how we speak will go sideways there's a lot of reasons to say challenging things to other people we want one reason to be the primary reason it doesn't just say speak the truth it says speak the truth how in love right not out of anger not to be right or make a point not to be honest right how many have you ever heard this people be like listen i'm just being honest i'm like no you're just being a jerk right not the same okay just because it's true doesn't give us the right to drop it on people right it's not we doesn't say speak the truth to get your way it doesn't say speak the truth to defend yourself and make sure you're understood it doesn't say any of that it says no no speak the truth in love and so listen as we talk today about challenging and pressing and prodding and moving our people forward so that our people really become great we want this to come from love and love is always love is always sacrificially pursuing the good of another sacrificially pursuing the good of another which means if we're about to say hard things to other people we got to ask what it is that we really want in that moment do we want good for them or satisfaction for ourselves there's a grand canyon difference between those two things do we want good for them listen when we talk about rallying our people we're talking about the people we live life with we're not talking about like facebook friends okay i'm talking about like real friends like the friends that you show up for the people who when they call it 2 a.m you answer the people who when they want to ride to the airport at 4 30 in the morning you call them an uber right because you love them and you want your friendship to last and so no you're your people right so i'm not talking about truth bombs from a distance on faith i'm not talking about memes that put people in their place on facebook and i'm talking about we're talking about real people that we want to live life with we want to make them better and let them make us better we want to speak the truth to these kind of people we want to do this in love right so that's caveat number one caveat number two is what direction are we speaking in with what intent why are we speaking and around here here's what we're going to do in everything that we do and in our people we want to speak in a way that helps people look more and more and more like jesus the way we say this around here is we want to be shaped by god we want him to be the one that shapes us not not just culture not just the things that we hear and see on the news not just the particular movements and things that we might agree with or identify with not some just political party no no the first thing always the most important thing the defining thing about those of us who are pointing our lives toward jesus we want to be shaped by him and so we want people around us who are speaking in a way that point us in his direction in fact all of our conversations not only should be in love but they should bring greater courage greater clarity and real support for our people to find and follow jesus this is the end to which we speak but if we're really going to get better if we're really going to our people are really going to become great you don't just step into that you cultivate that that you become that you contribute to that and a lot of it has to do with what we say now being able to do this for our friends i told you we're going to put this in three buckets pretty quickly the first one is this if we're really going to speak the truth in love in the direction of jesus we got to look out for our friends turn to somebody around you say look out listen this phrase speaking the truth the word for truth actually has everything to do with things that were once hidden becoming visible right it's it's things that you are unaware of that you become aware of and so we want to speak in a way that helps our friends see what they may not have seen every single person just like every single car every ever made has blind spots and if you're not careful around those blind spots you are going to make a mess it's gonna be a problem every single one of us has blind spots if you don't think you have blind spots just ask your friend they already have a list ready for you okay they know them they see them they don't know why you don't see them and then you just turn around and say let me give you your list right i don't know we all have blind spots every single one of us right and then there's other things that we lose sight of we forget along the way important things about ourselves about our values about our direction we get tunnel vision or we get squirrel and we're like i don't know which way we're going listen we all have this issue and we need people to help us see better like this one time i was i was doing this kind of thing in front of i don't know 300 students or whatever and what i didn't know is that zippers go down without you being aware of them right and so literally i'm like there's in the fourth row right over here there's three kids like they keep holding up this paper i'm like you are super distracting stop doing that i'm trying to talk about jesus well this is important stuff that we're trying to talk about and he comes up to me after he shows the picture and it says check your zipper preach the whole time with my fly wide open i didn't even realize it until the following week when i came in and i said none of you loved me because i got off stage and no one told me my zipper was down and the kid comes up and goes dude this is the sign i was showing you the whole time we all have blind spots we all need people's help seeing what we don't see right every single time in fact i thought about a picture for this we got to look out for one another to see things from one another it's what we saw in ecclesiastes that if we're back to back we can see in different directions we have perspective for one another how often have you looked at someone else's life and seen so clearly what their next step and you're like i don't know why they don't see it but they don't just like we don't we need people if we're gonna get better if we're gonna be if our people are gonna be great we gotta look out for one another i was thinking about a picture of this and the next phrase and here's a picture to give you just kind of a little image of this this is like 15 years ago it's my first year being a head coach of a freshman football team and this is my guy jake callahan his first time being a quarterback and i just love this picture because he looks crazy confused right and the confidence on my face is a total lie right we're both making everything up at this point but here's the thing jake's in the middle of a game leading an offense in an undefeated season in the last game of the year we're trailing but we're making some headway with a real chance to win this thing and so we do something that we got to do as friends we just call a time out because there were things in this moment he was beginning to doubt himself you could see the nerves start to settle in you can see the pressure from the clock start to take a toll you can see people around him starting to lose their cool a little bit and looking to him to bring it back and so we just call a time out and we just call him over and say listen man let me look out for you i need to remind you of some things which has to do with this the same picture of speaking the truth encouraging one another right in fact it says it this way in first corinthians 5 11 it says encourage each other and build each other up just as you are already doing which i love that paul this guy who's writing to his friends says listen i'm going to do what i'm telling you to do you're already doing this keep going in fact go back to the picture right this is what i was doing with jake i'm like listen man you got this i'm going to speak the truth not just confrontational hard to receive truth i'm gonna speak courage i'm gonna fill you up you've lost sight of how good you are at this you've started to let all that's going around you start to make you doubt yourself and jake you got this we've done this a million times in practice you know these plays inside and out you've led this team you've brought calm for a whole season you got this today just like you had it yesterday remember last week when we celebrated tomorrow we're going to be celebrating you've got this to come alongside him and look out for him but i also had to do another kind of speaking that has to do with encourage which was a warning i had to say hey dude you're doing great but what you got to know is that you're not keying off the lefty end and he is closing on you way quicker than you think he is and if you just shift this one little thing everything's going to open up for you and sure enough he goes back out on the field with some great confidence he steps in and sees some things that only i from the sidelines could see for him because we were in this together shoulder to shoulder one looking out for the other we were able together to come into a really great season end listen good friends look out for each other look out for each other so listen turn to somebody around you say look out we encourage each other we warn each other we bring perspective they don't have but we don't just look out and we don't just look from a distance we look close turn to somebody next you say look close you got to ask yourself if you want great people you don't become great people at a distance it's got to be close shoulder to shoulder like me and my guy jake in fact one of the ways that it says this same phrase of encourage one another and building one another up comes in hebrews chapter 3 verse 12 and 13. it says this watch your step watch your step friends you see it just coming right you can see him like make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course diverting you from the living god this has everything to do with warning watch out look out but look from a close distance for as long as god's still calling it today it says keep each other on your toes don't let anybody become lazy don't don't let anybody just settle in be comfortable together being uncomfortable like find a way to stay up on your toes agile ready to move to respond to what's going on around us so that sin doesn't slow us down it doesn't slow down our reflexes listen sin is not a complex thing it's everything that robs you of life and dishonors god it's everything he never imagined for you and always it's right there available to us to make decisions that lead not to great but to lousy to lazy to settled to stagnant but instead he says no no no you guys together get to look out from looking close to one another looking close together to stay up on our toes that all along the way we have kind of this head on a swivel awareness for what god is doing next now part of this has to do with warning one another just like i did with my guy jake hey listen man you're missing this thing coming off the left side and if you'll just pay attention to that differently things are gonna open up things are gonna get better right and we need to do that for one another a lot of these one and others that have to do with challenging one another are about warning and saying hard things to one another not just speaking the truth of encouragement but speaking the truth of man you're missing it you're doing this thing that's robbing you of strength in fact let me give you a strong question that someone recently gave me when you're going to share hard things when you can show up in love for a friend who's struggling who keeps banging their head on the same wall you see it they don't see it you've been looking out for them and you see it you got to settle up close to them and find a way for them to be able to receive this hard feedback about where they're headed so this question is super helpful you all ready i would write this down if i were you i have written it down several places can i share something with you that might be hard to hear this is like the opposite of the person who shows up and when they're done talking you're like who are you to say that to me have you had that moment someone steps into your world they're like let me just tell you everything that you're doing wrong with an attitude no we don't need that noise listen how different it is to to look closely to step up next to somebody like arm around the shoulder like me and jake to say listen can i share something with you that might be hard to hear because we desperately in love want them to receive it and we want for our friends the very very best we don't want to see him continue to struggle to get stuck it's not helpful right in that moment in this in this way of showing up for our friends that way we get to find out that they're actually by our side that they have our best interests at heart and that they're flexible they're not they don't have some agenda that they need to get off their chest they're not looking for satisfaction for them they're looking for good for me and so if we can like posture our heart and show up with our words of saying listen i want to have a little bit of a hard conversation is this a good time for that can i share with you something that that's hard to hear and if they say yes now you have permission to take a risk and it's only on the other side of risk that our people actually get better it's only on the other side of comfort when you've looked out and when you've been close enough to see the stuck points in life that we can step in in fact somebody did this some people did this for me recently gave me some feedback that was hard to hear i don't know about you but i have this nasty habit of thinking that i'm right all the time anyone no throwing elbows i see you uh and so some people gave me some feedback say hey drew listen we know that you want to receive feedback you say this all the time we know that you want to get better we know that you want to have great impact in the people around you we know that you want to we know all these things about who you are right we've stood with you long enough we've looked out for you we've looked close with you but we just got to say something sometimes when you receive hard feedback the only response we get is defensiveness you have a reason for everything well we did this because of that or we did this because of that or i had to do this because of that or this happened over here it's like listen that defensiveness through just so you know that defensiveness is probably the main thing standing between you and who you want to become they took a risk they risked my defensiveness to tell me about my defensiveness and i'm so grateful to just receive some feedback that's stuff's still going on in my head don't get me wrong but listen if i'm going to become who i want to become if they're going to really stand next to me if they're going to look out for me if they're going to look close with me you got to look at the hard stuff you got to be able to share it but you got to be able to do it in a way that people can receive right in fact romans 15 14 says it this way i love this this is the posture with which we can show up and look closely at our lives the stuck points the hard points paul says this he says i'm fully convinced my dear brothers and sisters do you hear it that's like in words this is putting your arm around jake callahan on the sideline of a football field listen brothers and sisters i know i know i know i know that you're full of goodness i believe in you i got you i see you i've looked close enough to know for sure how to fill you with courage but you know these things well so that you can teach one another this is that word you can warn one another you can instruct one another you can you can show each other the thing that they're not seeing you can speak the truth in love because of the way we walk and look closely together we can share hard things i don't know about you but it's not my favorite thing when people show up in my life and say hey drew there's this thing you don't know or that you're missing right no one wants to hear that they talk for 30 minutes in front of people with their fly down and didn't know it right no one wants that but when we show up well when we look closely when we stand close to one another we have the opportunity to do this really really well and helpfully right and so paul says this he says even so i've been bold enough paul says i took a risk i've been correcting you but you know it's out of love brothers and sisters i've been bold enough to write about some of these points knowing knowing knowing knowing that all you need is a reminder you just forgot you lost sight we all do let's go let's do this let's not settle let's go right i love this paul models this belonging this affirmation but the reality that all of us need to hear some hard and challenging things we need to hear about our blind spots we need to remember the things that we forgot and when we do that for one another our people get better but this can only like i said this can only happen up close you don't get to do this from a distance right we've got to have that kind of trust that kind of proximity to see these things along the way paul says in another place in hebrews chapter 10 verse 24 says this let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works now there may be some only children here but many of us are siblings right do you all have that sibling who knows just exactly which button to push to make you ticked off in a second you know they can do this like from across the hall like you know and it's like come on right or maybe it's your spouse your best friend maybe it's your neighbor along the way but there's that they know they know exactly where your buttons are and at just the right time for their own satisfaction they'll push them right that is actually the picture of this word to motivate one another it really means to spur one another on to not let us settle to provoke actually is this word listen great people don't let their great people settle for mediocrity great people don't allow the people that they love deeply to settle for less and so we poke and prod and spur and challenge and stretch and encourage and hold up all the things along the way so our people get better and better and better and better this is how our people get great but he says it this way let us think of ways this word actually the word behind this is actually consider which literally means to look close turn the person next to you and say look close listen not only can you not do this from a distance you can't do this in a hurry great people don't become great people on accident you don't drop in and just suddenly find great people great people emerge and are cultivated rallying a great group of people and becoming it requires time in proximity and investment this takes margin and so let me just issue a quick warning as the world starts to open up again after covet 19 don't fill your life to the margins and beyond if you want to have great people you got to have margin it's in the in between times the liminal space that friendships and deep relationships are actually forged and made you can't just calendar it you got to make space listen for us to become great we need great people around us spurring us and chowing us on and for them the same thing and so we want to be pace setters in this this is actually what we're setting out to do we want to be the ralliers let's get together let's go somewhere good together and let's not allow each other to settle we need great people to do this to spur and challenge and poke and prod and we get to be the pacesetters i believe this is what god is inviting us to do in every group of people that we show up in our family and our neighborhoods and our life group and our co-workers and all the places we get to show up in love in jesus name and look out and look close and make people great and we have god's help we have a spirit alive in us to be able to do this but there's one more thing we got to say quickly before this is really going to take root is that if we're going to be pacesetters in looking out for one another and looking close at one another to make people great not only will you be pacesetters in the way that we speak challenging things we need to be pacesetters in the way that we listen and receive from them challenging things so we got to look out we got to look close but we also have to be willing to be seen turn to the person next to you and say be seen this is where it gets if the calendar challenge was hard this is like double hard because this requires a vulnerability that many people are not comfortable with we don't always get to show up as the expert and the help sometimes we need to receive and i don't know about you but i'm less comfortable with that it demands something different of me it demands a humility an admission that i actually don't have it all together i'm not all that i am not the man and i have problems and i need support for people to lean in in fact this happened uh this happened in like a a pretty major way a couple weeks ago i don't know you know some of you may not be super connected to church but easter is kind of a big thing in christian churches right we celebrate the pivotal defining event of our faith in a powerful and strong way and so especially in my role my job on that weekend and my desire my calling is to show up and invite people in god's direction and help people who follow jesus celebrate him so well it's such a big deal to be together on easter and let me just tell you easter weekend around here started on a friday we had a service friday night and i came in on friday afternoon and let me just tell you i had nothing i had nothing i had no energy i had no desire like the last place i probably shouldn't say this i probably get fired but i had no desire to do any of what i was supposed to do that day the last thing listen if there's any day somebody in my role should be stoked and energetic and prepared and rested and all the things for all my trying to be all of those things i had nothing and so when i walked in i had a choice especially when my friend sitting next to me as we're kind of getting ready to do all the things that we had to do that day he just said listen what kind of energy do you have for this right now you see this he was looking out for me wasn't he and he was close enough to see and so in that moment i had a choice i could either do the thing that we are all inclined to do and and just like put on airs and posture up and do all the things that i'm supposed to do in that moment and for whatever reason probably a moment of weakness because it was not on purpose and i didn't particularly like what followed i just said dude i don't want to do any of this i'm exhausted i'm tired i just i know i'm supposed to i know that i'm supposed to be the pacesetter i'm supposed to be the leader if anybody's supposed to be afraid it's supposed to be me but i have nothing and i expected shame i expected judgment i expected surprise but he had already seen it because he was looking out for me and he looked close i think this is part of what james the half brother jesus had in mind in james 5 when he said this confess your sins to one another i think we make that we're partially right when we say yeah we should admit the things that are wrong in our lives that we're intentionally doing but there's also just this admission of brokenness in us confession means to say the same to agree with to acknowledge what's already true mitch had already seen what was true in me he just asked me the question created some space and i had a choice in that moment i could say the same or not and here's the beautiful thing is that what i chose to do was to acknowledge that i was empty but i had nothing and it created space for what should happen next he said not only should we admit our brokenness and our challenge to one another but we should pray for each other and that's what happened next after about a half an hour 45 minutes of really trying to do all the things i was supposed to do sitting down here in this little room where we get ready and uh all of a sudden he walks in and then behind him another person walks in another friend of mine and then another and then another and another like this is like a conga line i'm like you know that moment where people show up in your life and like is this an intervention like that's what it felt like uh and it was they said hey you need to remember what's true about you you may not feel like you have a lot to say today but the spirit speaks in you friend you've been doing this you can do this you got this you may not feel it but we'll feel it for you do you hear they came right alongside and said we got this you got this god's got this he's got us and for the next like 15 20 minutes one by one by one declaring the things that are true about god reminding things that were true about me committing to stand with and inviting god to strengthen us it was one of the sweetest moments in my last year only because i was willing to be seen and let me just tell you it was humiliating it was so uncomfortable i was like can you please stop and then but in the same breath i'm like please don't it was a beautiful weekend it was awesome it was great and this pinnacle moment of my friends making me better listen we need to be those kind of people we've got to be those kind of people who look out who look close and who set the pace in the way that we do that but we also set the pace by allowing people to show up for us because this is true the earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results god has good in mind for us and our people when we look out we look close and we're willing to be seen and listen for all of us this is true for all of us whether you're a follower jesus or not but this is especially true for followers of jesus because jesus made a promise remember this where two or more of you are gathered in my name what did he say i'll be with you listen we rally our people because this is where we meet jesus this is where we stand together this is where the spirit does the best work in us when we create enough margin and offer enough energy to show up in love and in jesus name to look out to look close and be seen listen there's something so sweet and good that god has in mind for really great people when we show up in the way he invites us to you and we encounter his spirit and so i want to encourage you to take just a moment finish your list of people who are the people that need to be in your phone right now that today you can send a thank you for being my people text thank you for that moment when you showed up thank you for the arm around the shoulder thank you for the reminder of truth thank you for the hard thing that you said that didn't let me settle and who are the people that you need to put on the list to say i will show up for you what is the truth that you need to speak in love in jesus direction this week make a list invite god to remind you call it to mind and then say yes as we rally our people [Applause] [Music] [Music] i wanna invite you to stand with us let's pray this together spirits are rushing [Music] as we repent [Music] a is the fragrance of heaven pour your spirit out pour your spirit out [Music] strength [Music] king and kingdom [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the power of your presence pour your spirit [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] upon [Music] we can hear the wind [Music] we can hear the way [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] eyes [Music] [Applause] boy [Music] boy [Music] eyes [Music] [Music] eyes [Music] the power of your prayer [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] my feet could ever wander and my faith will be made stronger in the praise and said my command is singing with me spirit spirit [Music] wherever you were [Music] our things will grow [Music] [Applause] [Music] will keep me [Music] let me walk upon the water [Music] [Music] is [Music] spirit leaders i just want to ask you to close your eyes with me right now [Music] and just pray this to god where are you leading me where are you calling me where have i been too scared to go who are the people you're calling me to who do you want me to get close to [Music] god i just confess that we're often fearful people afraid to let go afraid to get close and this morning lord i thank you for the reminder that we need to do this together not only do we need to draw close to you but we need to draw close to each other and live this life together and so god i pray that you make it clear right now the direction you want us to go to each person listening today just make it so clear and god we thank you for your holy spirit that gives us courage to take steps when we wouldn't on our own remind each one of us today the power of the holy spirit that lives in each of us that we don't have to live in fear fear does not come from you god so give us courage to say spirit lead me and then give us the obedience to follow where you say to go god i pray that these words won't be empty it's not just a song it's a declaration of the way that we will live our lives so let's sing this again inviting him once more to lead us come and lead a spirit a spirit lead me where my trust is [Music] my [Music] let's just rest in this presence [Music] together god we thank you for who you are we thank you for the promises that we have in you that are faithful and true we thank you for the promise of your holy spirit which you have given to each of us who follow you we thank you from the courage that comes from your spirit from the power god help us to walk boldly where you say to go to never live in fear but to boldly take steps in your direction and to bring others along with us we thank you for your sweet presence it's just filling this space today we love you jesus we pray all these things in her name amen so this week as we rally people as we call them to our side let's let's look close at one another let's look out for one another and let's be willing to be seen by one another as we put into practice the things that jesus is calling us to do he'll turn each of us and all of us in to great people if there's any way we can support you along the way don't hesitate to reach out some folks from our church will respond if you'll just send a simple text of what's next to 94090 we'll see you soon

Channel: Canyon Ridge Christian Church

Views: 356

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity (religion), God, Jesus, Grace, Praise, Gospel, Ministry, Christian, Church, Canyon Ridge, God First, Lord, Holy, Ministries, Fellowship, Ridge Live, Church Online, Drew Moore, Kristi Templeton, Canyon Ridge Christian Church, Las Vegas Church, Las Vegas

Id: NYyRks-ekkw

Length: 69min 9sec (4149 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021