The Warrior Seeks to Become Invisible | The Way of the Warrior | Mosaic - Erwin McManus

welcome to mosaic I think we've pretty much filled every square inch of the space and we're gonna imma let just down just a minute but just remain standing if you are gas tonight we're so glad you're here we don't know what got you here or who got you here but we're glad you're here and I always love hearing the stories of someone saying I was just walking by and I decided to walk in other people saying I had friends who kept inviting me and I kept saying no finally I gave up so I came other people later later admit it was the only way I thought I'd ever get a date with her so I came and and it didn't work out anyway but I found God and so it works out that way sometimes right and so I don't know what brought you here but I I hope that just for a few moments you might open yourself up to the possibilities that seem impossible that the creator of the universe sees you and knows you and longs for you to know him and that there's greatness inside of you they will only be awakened that by the God who created you oh and by the way before we pray you remember that really tall good-looking guy named Jamar brown King where is he oh there he is right here yeah even I can tell you're really good-looking okay so you know here's what he didn't tell you they're having an interstate this Thursday night at 8 p.m. but you might say interest in what because you might be here and be thinking I'm interested in him it's not that kind of interest night this is not a version of The Bachelor where you everybody has to bring a rose or something like that what he did not tell you is that Jamar is the new campus pastor for our next campus in downtown LA so God yeah that's a guy so don't go for the chicken and waffles but if you want to be a part of starting something new that creates a space for people that today have no idea how good their futures gonna be then either on Thursday night and time and that's gonna be exciting ramen I'm gonna pray we're gonna ask God to do some beautiful things tonight thank you so much father for this beautiful night a guy we just we just sense the electricity in this room and God some of it is it we're here with so much anticipation and some of us are here with so much desperation but we know that that God the reason this room is so full of energy is because you're here and you're present you've been waiting for us that your invitation is actually the invitation that brought us to this moment whether we realize it or not and so I ask you Lord God to do it but no one can do and ask you to have a conversation with each one of us that cannot be explained except by the reality of you and father whether a person is here and they're hurting and broken our person is just filled with joy and enthusiasm for life whether they believe in you or do not believe in you or angry with you I pray God that you would meet them where they are and call them to a life so astonishing so beautiful so compelling they just can't stay where they are in Jesus we want to thank you the two thousand years ago you stepped out of the invisible into the visible you who are spirit took on flesh and blood so that we might get a glimpse of God and know that you see us thank you for your sacrifice on the cross that through your death we might have life we want to step into that reality tonight and so we pray in your name amen we thank God one more time for tonight and then you can have a seat so last week we began diving in to the way of the warrior and the book is divided by codes so each time we come together we're going to dive into a different color last week we began with the foundational code as we journey together in an ancient path to inner peace we saw that the warrior fights only for peace this may be our lives most important battle because as we remember the world is raging with war because there's a war that rages within us and we'll never know world peace until we find inner peace but it's a journey it's a it's a struggle it's a battle and a part of what we want to do as we journey together is deal with the practicalities of the struggles and the battles that we war with in our very souls and a huge part of what what drives us is in this second code which it first will seem almost counterintuitive the warrior seeks to be invisible because I have a feeling there's some of you here that already feel invisible in all the wrong ways in fact I think one of our greatest fears is that we will live and die and be invisible there's some of you here that feel as if your life is so insignificant that no one even knows you're here you're wondering if you cease to exist today would anyone notice tomorrow in fact so many of the devastating destructive unexplainable choices we make in our lives as this desperate need to be seen have you ever thought to yourself why did I do that or it had a friend and you thought to yourself why did they do that it's odd but but the more invisible you feel the more you will choose destructive behavior just to be visible to someone and so this this code will seem counterintuitive to your life because your greatest fear may be to be invisible and yet your greatest need may be to seek invisibility because when we you are driven to be visible you will be driven by all the wrong factors that will destroy your very life visibility is about what happens out there what other people see and the great paradox in that is that we want to be seen but we really don't want anyone to really see us we want them to see the us we project we want them to see the us that we create but we're terrified that we if we become visible that we will truly be transparent and someone will actually see us most fully it's a lot of work to be visible and invisible at the same time isn't it I think I learned this particular code when I was really young for my grandfather and some of you know I'm from El Salvador and my grandfather was very unique he was a very small man he was about 5 foot 5 I was a giant but my grandfather's were those small of stature but big of charisma kind of people he had massive gravitas so when he walked into a room he felt huge and he saw himself as much taller than he was and my grandfather he's the one who taught me when I was just a small boy about continental drift and how the Asians migrated across the Bering Strait and came across this continent he taught me how when I went to the United States they would call me an Indian because Christopher Columbus landed on the wrong continent do not be defined by someone else's mistake he taught me how to play chess when I was three years old and and I think it was when I was five that I was able to move five or six moves and when I was six I could move seven or eight moves and and I would cry because I was six and say papi let me move and he would say when you earn a move you can have another move it was an interesting person I remember once I took Aaron to El Salvador when maybe Aaron was 9 or 10 years old and I have this photograph of Aaron playing grandfather and playing chess with my grandfather for generations sitting across a chess board it's epic and I thought Aaron had a plate when he was really young and he was holding his own and my my grandfather was never a person who would let you have a move and I sold it ere he had an opportunity to take an advantage and so I intervened and I said hey buddy the knight and my grandfather went what so no you're not allowed to cheat this is wrong this is cheating me yes it papi he's just a little boy cause you need to have more respect for him than to give him a move I would never disrespect the person to let them think they're better than they are that's my grandfather but he also loved to move stealth he would walk so quietly he was also a professional boxer and an economist and a philosopher maybe when you walked through the room you couldn't not hear his feet and so we would come to visit us in the States I would know that he was up because every morning I would hear my wife Kim scream make a blood-curdling scream because my grandfather would love to walk to the house and find him wherever she was I just come and stand right next to her and she would have no idea he was there and he would just stand there and wait and you and then almost completely emotionless he would smile just a little just to let you know it gave him great pleasure to know that you didn't know he was there he would say that I was leaning against a wall one time and he said do not lean against the wall I said why and he said because it's a sign of weakness he said standing near a wall and stand straight and never touch the wall it will drive people insane but what I learned from my grandfather was that there are different kinds of strengths see so many people think that they're actually powerful but they're really exhibiting signs of powerlessness and so then there was this man named Solomon who found the life of another man to be so astonishing to him that he needed to write about it in fact we're gonna look at a moment when Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes that he saw wisdom under the Sun that astonished him that impressed him now remember if you know the story Solomon is described as the wisest man who ever lived now that's his unique contribution to human history that Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived so when Solomon says he saw a wisdom that the scientists thing we should pay attention is after all if I came in here and I said I just met a guy he knows physics like you wouldn't understand you'd go we'll urlan I don't even know if you understand physics so maybe maybe so maybe not but if Einstein came in here it's an old I just met someone who knows math who understands physics at a level that no one could actually describe you go who is that if I came in here and said I mean I was just playing some basketball and there's a guy he could even take me he was so good you'd go like hey like everyone can take you whatever here hello everybody we don't know if he's any good or not but if Michael Jordan came in here or Kobe came in here and said I was just playing ball on the streets to this guy and this guy could hoop you go who is he the Lakers need him right now and who is he is he available [Applause] if I said to you I just saw wisdom that astonish me think maybe so may not but Solomon he's the Einstein of wisdom he's the Colby of wisdom since I said wisdom that astonished me it greatly impressed me he was on to saying here's here's the moment there was a small city with only a few people in it and a powerful King King came against it surrounded it and built a huge siege work against him now there lived in that city a man poor but wise and he saved the city by his wisdom but nobody remembered that poor man so I said wisdom is better than strength but the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are no longer heeded the quiet words of the wise are more to be heated than the shouts of a ruler of fools wisdom is better than the weapons of war but one sinner destroys much God see if we can understand and strip back this code that the warrior seeks to be invisible we come to realize that the greatest strength in this battle for peace is wisdom because wisdom makes peace have you been around people wherever they are there's a conflict wherever they are there's a battle wherever they are there's tension it may be you like I don't know what's going on the world is just always like that wherever you are and there's other people when they walk into a room they enter a space somehow there's peace to be found they are even able to bring peace in the most tumultuous circumstances and here's a person who brings peace in the most unexpected moment because of his entire city had been seized and conquered by an enemy king his description is interesting there was once a small city with only a few people on it have you ever felt like the reason you're not breaking through is because you're in a big city with a lot of people in it some of you have you ever gone to audition for a part but there's 150 other people I mean I did that one time somebody called me up and said we have a perfect role for you it's it's it's actually a role of a pastor I didn't know so I went I didn't know I was auditioning they should me I went in there's all these people room dress up like priests I was the only one dressed like I wasn't a priest I did not get the part I think this is so interesting I can't even get a part that I actually live out every day that's how intense the city is I have people who can pretend who can pretend to be me better than I can actually be me are you supposed to compete here but this is not a city like LA not a scene like New York party get a job in New York you're gonna hustle this is not London this is not Paris this was just a small city with only a few people and a city like the ones I love to mock it's like Des Moines or Tulsa or every other city in the Midwest it's one of those cities over there one of the cities you fly over to get to a real city and I know that's where you came from but you're not there maybe it was destroy to see that that had a hey they're sitting it once was a world-class city that has lost its best days a city that's just a shell and the buildings are a reminder almost like it's a cemetery of a distant past this is a small city with only a few people in it and you think well if it's a small city with only a few people in it well then I could rise to the top but he's in a small city with just a few people and he's a poor guy he's just the poor man in one of the most insignificant cities with very few people even there he could never rise to the top and it was the city's worst moment it says that a powerful King came against it doesn't tell us why and surrounded it and built a huge siege work around it against it now a siege work basically is a barricade that keeps anyone who's inside from getting out anyone who's outside from getting in so these people had been conquered and now they were held captive and this king it doesn't tell us why he decided this incident the city was significant to him but it was probably a city on her way to a city it was probably one of those cities that you need to take so you can leverage to take the next city and the story it just sort of blows through the details of this but in this moment when the story of this man emerges you need to know that the city's best warriors those young men who had trained all their lives to maintain the peace and freedom of their people were now dead the cries of widows and orphans filled the streets the earth was drowning in the blood of those who fought and failed and this is when the story introduces this man now there lived in that city a man poor but wise and he saved the city by his wisdom because wisdom brings peace but then he's in turmoil the story doesn't make sense to him it doesn't play out the way it should play out he says but nobody remembered that poor man so I said wisdom is better than strength I can see this but the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are no longer he hate it so this is the the paradox here's someone who said his city free but no one respected him we're honored and were remembered and when it was over I'll come back to that and the concludes the quiet words of the wise are more to be heated than the shouts of a ruler of fools and by the way if you're a person who's prone towards shouting like a foolish ruler it's not because you're more powerful than other people see the reason we moved toward anger and rage and aggression and violence it's not because we're more powerful it's because we feel powerless the people that are most powerful the ones who have mastery over their emotions and cannot be controlled by their circumstances he goes on to say wisdom is better than the weapons of war I need to repeat that wisdom is better than the weapons of war but one sinner destroys much God what can we learn from this moment about the power of invisibility well I want to see with me that that when you understand the power of your invisibility you realize you come to this beautiful realisation that you are not limited by who you are not see the story doesn't tell us anything about who this guy was except that he had wisdom now why would this man's wisdom astonish Solomon so much because after all Solomon had wisdom and so now he sees wisdom in this city it's hard to meet someone who's actually impressed with you have you ever noticed that Hagar had this new idea and you share it with someone they go yeah I really thought that really we live in a tower no one wants to admit that's something new I've never thought of that way and they're seen that because everyone wants to act as if they're better than you you may be acting like that toward everyone else but here Solomon he has enough humility to say here's wisdom that's impressive that's astonishing that needs to be noted and paid attention to see Solomon knew what it was to have wisdom with every advantage in life see Solomon knew the power of wisdom plus power he knew what it was like to have wisdom plus wealth he understood what it was like to have wisdom and position Solomon had every advantage a human being could ever hope for and he had wisdom so even as he actualized that wisdom into real life that wisdom was always filtered through all the advantages he had from birth he was the son of King David he never had to fight for his kingdom he was handed a kingdom he was a trust-fund a child everything he had was given to him and there's nothing wrong been given great things it means that you have the stewardship of great things Solomon had never had the opportunity know what wisdom could do without all those advantages now there's some of you here you've been born with great advantages you may not even fully realize it you you have disproportionate benefits and advantages in this world by the way just being in this room means you have the manages for most of the world just be able to live in this nation means your advantages that most of the world does not have there's some of us here in this room we just need to own the fact that we've had advantages that no one else has around the world and we may actually not realize how much we have access to and if you're here and you have great wealth or great power or you have great position if you're here and you were born into a family that gives you that gave you a great advantage don't lament it don't run from it step into it and add wisdom to it and do all the good you can in the world but but don't think that it's the deal breaker or deal maker because I think there might be more of people in this room and go wait a minute I'm not one of those I wish I was one of those I hope I'm gonna be one of those but I'm not one of those right now I'm one of the people that doesn't have any wealth any power any position anything but I don't really have any wisdom either so I'm really in trouble I don't we had a Vani of those and you might think I need to get those so I can compensate for my lack of wisdom rather than realizing that what you need is you can step into wisdom so you can compensate your lack of other resources here's the man who's only known as a man who's poor in a small city with a few people want to talk about a sense of insignificance since some of you here you feel so insignificant you don't know if anything significant can ever come out of your life but I don't know where you are but I know you're not just a poor person in a small town with just a few people in it I know you have a little bit better benefit than this guy but you know in the measure for all things he was completely insignificant and yet in the end of the story he sets an entire city free what could I do with you you're not limited by who you are not but other people will try to convince you you are you ever tried to do something outrageous something impossible have you ever tried to do something that other people tried to do but they failed to do it it's amazing how many people will say to you who do you think you are you really think you can accomplish this when other people have failed you really think you have what it takes or other people had more and they failed see if you're not careful you'll spend your entire life listening to people who will tell you who you are not and by the way if your future is the future God wants for you everyone's gonna be able to see that you do not match your future is he I know I don't match my future and people will look at your pass and say you want that kind of future look who you've been and they're gonna tell you who you are and you're gonna tell you who you're not but I want you the future God has for you your past you doesn't qualify for your future you and you may not realize this but the you you are right now is not how God's designing your future plans don't look here you go okay this is who they are can't do a whole lot with that somebody have to like grow them into more see God is not designing your future based on your present you God is designing the future based on your future you so when people you know what's frustrating it's really people tell you things that are true is it that's more frustrating than people are telling you things are not true because if people tell me things that are not true I go they just don't know me hey if you say you're not Latino cuz my name's Mac baddest cuz they've never heard of aliases before yeah be you you don't know what it's like to be an outsider no it's like to be the immigrants right yeah just because I refuse to keep myself with an immigrant mentality doesn't mean I'm not an immigrant so you need to realize that a lot of people will try to tell you who you are you don't have the jobs I've had the past where they didn't know I was Latin and they gave me the job that they meant to give to a person who was Caucasian then afterwards they said well you know maybe we need to shift you cuz we didn't know what you were not here's here's the beautiful thing about it you don't have to spend your life being defined by other people who told you what you're not because God does it and it's it's hard when people tell you the truth when they tell you no you're not tall enough you're not you're not you're not smart enough you're not talented enough you're not gifted enough and you know yeah I think they're right I mean here's the thing they're telling you the truth about who you are today doesn't it's not the truth about who you gonna be tomorrow so you just when someone says you can't do this this is this is too big for you you're that up to this used to saying you probably right but I'm not gonna waste my life trying to create a life that matches me now cuz that life is gonna be way too small for me cuz I'm getting better so stop being limited by who you're not and start living a life based on who you longed to become who God is creating you to be and get people in your life who see you better than you see yourself get people in your life who when you give up on yourself refuse to give up on you get people in your life and you start listening to those voices that tell you everything that's wrong with you everything that's missing in your life everything that that's deficient about your character and your personhood and your all your failures get people in your life who silence all the voices that want to hold you in the past and who keep calling you into the future I was just in a room and I didn't share this earlier Battlement go ahead and say this I was in a room in New York and a publishing house and they start talking about how one day they believed I was gonna win a Pulitzer I let them keep talking I didn't I don't want to stop anybody I didn't change the subject I wanted to go are you out of your mind have you read my work I mean I wanted to do that no you don't know where Who am I - are you cuz that's not who I am but I'm not gonna limit that from being who I can become so if you're just some poor woman or some poor man from a small town with a few people and you've been invisible all your life don't assume that God does not see here because the solution to a sense of insignificance is understanding the power of one person with God but when you find the power of your invisibility you also realize that you're no longer limited but what by what you do not have Solomon says this three times it's actually a really short story to repeat yourself verse 15 he says there was a man poor but wise and the end of that very same verse he says but nobody remembered that poor man and the very next verse he says so I said wisdom is better than strength but the poor man's wisdom is despised it seems that Solomon was fixated on this one attribute he was poor he was poor he was poor he didn't have anything to his name and yet he said an entire city frame have you ever found yourself whining about what you don't have and because you're focused on what you don't have you never step into what you could have thirty years ago Kim and I were living in Dallas and there's one of those transitional periods in our life we have a daughter that we raised for 12 years named patty that was an illegal immigrant undocumented immigrant from from Mexico and we brought her into our house and we helped her get documentation then and then we helped her get of these southern we helped her get a green card then she became an American citizen before I became an American citizen so and so we were raising paddy and Aaron was two and a half years old and Kim was pregnant with Mariah and my boss called me and he said you're far more gifted than this job requires he fired me all right that's how I heard it that's how I heard it and just because you're fired doesn't mean you're not better than the job maybe the job is beneath God's intention for your life but you don't have enough courage to do what you need to do and I was out in the desert and I went to a payphone somebody go what's a payphone I went to a payphone I called my wife and I told her I lost my job and it was a really bad day and we had just bought a house and things were just rising rising rising it was amazing it was like just a jet straight up and then everything just exploded and we sold her house and sold everything we had and moved into a borrowed house in the hood when they Kim saw these guys robbing I think the Radio Shack and running through our backyard with the equipment but it wasn't our backyard it was just borrowed roaches everywhere and I didn't have a job anymore and they have a prospective job and I was able to get this old computer do you know those old computers are in museums now but they're kind of that ugly vanilla color massive backs and when you turn them on it takes like 25 minutes for the little length to come on it looks like pac-man is inside of there and they're clicking every single letter and and I sat down and we didn't have enough room in that tiny old place for an office so in the middle of the living room next to the nursery was my office I remember typing in my my first statement for my new company and I named it McManus enterprises for a global impact the only thing that was true about that was McManus and it was an alias so even that wasn't true anta and Kim whose pragmatic and practical and sometimes brutal came by and said what's that it's the name of our new company McManus enterprises for global impact she said global impact we're in a borrowed house in the ghetto you have a borrowed computer that barely works global impact and I said sounds better than local influence which I did not have by the way that would have been an upgrade so then I I put together my first meeting for my Grannis enterprises for global impact I mean I've had a hundred businesspeople and leaders in the room and I started telling them how we're gonna impact the world how we understood the shift into cities and how cities would shape the cultures of the future now Los Angeles was the capital of the future now we're going to affect Tokyo and Berlin and Beijing and Shanghai and Buenos Aires and Los Angeles and I started talking about how we're gonna impact the future of humanity and finally this guy's just couldn't take any more you stood up and he said how much money do you have and I said I have no money so I have unlimited resources you know what I've discovered in my life what you have is actually your limiting factor because you assume what you have is what God has one of the great dangers in life is to have just a little bit more than nothing and I think that's what you need see if I had $10,000 I would have had a $10,000 dream if I had a hundred thousand dollars I would have $100,000 vision if I had a million or ten million dollars I would have had a much bigger dream and a house and a car and a wife who would be more happy with me but I would have had a limited understanding of what impact our lives could have see I think sometimes the best thing I can do for you is to make you that poor person from a small town with very few people in it or you realize I don't have anything to my name so I can dream as big as I'm able so stop being limited by what you don't have because you're not being limited by what you do not have you're actually being limited by what you do have some of you right now you have jobs you hate and they're paying you minimum wage but you're so afraid to leave that job that allows you to survive because you don't have the courage to pursue the life it would allow you to thrive you're not limited by what you do not have you're limited by what you do have so don't let anyone define you by what you don't have how much money do you have there's some of you here right now you're boxing yourself in you know this is the best it's gonna get and what ends up happening inside of us so oftentimes it's because that we end up hoarding what we have and I realizing that actually limits what God can do with us here adds I thought oh if I could ever be like Warren Buffett then I would be really generous if I could just be like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Elon Musk then I would really make a difference in the world because you think you're limited by what you don't have but you're not see if you're not generous now you will not be generous then you will take whoever you are now to your great success and I'm convinced too some of us for you there's some of you here that will become incredibly successful in the measure of the world you'll have great wealth you will have great success you will have great power you'll have great influence you'll be able to buy anything you want in the world and if you wait until then to become who you must be you will have all the resource in the world and you will live a life of emptiness you have to decide now who you're going to be them and not be limited by what you don't have and create what you longed for I was in an interview today and someone asked me what would you say to someone who perhaps loses everything or has lost everything I said I don't have to be hypothetical I have lost everything I know exactly what that feels like and I've sat down with people who have lost billions of dollars i sat in rooms with individuals who looked so successful and so powerful and that there at the end of themselves and and I have to trace it back and say okay before you had two billion or before you had two million or before you had two thousand what did you have this there will nothing no you did not have nothing because you can't create something out of nothing you had what was inside of you all you had what was inside of you who you were and who you are is what created everything you're afraid you can't rebuild but now you're back to who you are plus all the experience you gained in the process so don't worry about losing everything worried about losing yourself and then when you find the power of invisibility you realize that you're no longer limited by who you're not and you're not limited by what you don't have and you're not limited by what other people don't know I think this is critical because see this is Solomon's concern he said nobody remembered him he saved his entire city but no one remembered that poor man that bothered Solomon - Solomon had a sense of legacy Solomon did so much to be remembered and we remember him to this day Solomon's name is known across the world and here Solomon sees a man who had wisdom and sent an entire city free now by the way never not once in his life that Solomon ever sent a city free he didn't know how to do that he had never done that he never had to stand in that moment where he realized that his life is not about himself but it was about others and Solomon was a little torn by this because he realized that wisdom does not guarantee you Fame and the great dilemma I think for so many of us as we keep confusing Fame and greatness but Fame is what you do for yourself and greatness is what you do for others theme is self-preservation but greatness is self-sacrifice and you have to decide in your life whether you gonna spend your life making sure that you're known or spend your life making sure you're worth being knowing because if you spend your life afraid you will not be remembered you may not be worth remembering I know you couldn't applaud like yay I will not be remembered I'll be forgotten by everyone and I may not even be worth remembering that's why we're having this conversation because you matter because you were created with intention because we want to remember you even if we don't know your name see no one knew his name but no one ever forgot him we're talking about him right now and we don't even know who he is he didn't seem to live his life to have his name up in lights were just a few feet from where Fame is defined by having your name written in the stars but the stars that are planted on the ground are different than the stars that hang in the heavens and maybe your name will not be remembered in this life but I'm telling you if you live your life for others it will be remembered in eternity the older I get the more I forget myself I remember so little of my life and I've realized that that we all only remember the highlights and the lowlights of our life everything in between sort of drifts away into that other Tuesday that you will not remember either you'll remember the moments in your life or you rose above yourself and you lived your life for others you will remember those moments where you decided to love rather than hate where you decided to forgive rather than hold bitterness and resentment you will remember those moments where you could have chosen despair but you chose hope those moments were you could have chose to cut people out of your life but instead chose to choose compassion and acceptance you are writing the story of your life and do you really think this guy looked back on his life and thought wow I really missed it I think at the end of his life the people who mattered knew the story of his life and here's the great dilemma oh I have so many journalists who asked me the same question every journalist think they're the first one that asked me the question I guess it's now my stage in life but they always ask me what would you say to your 25 year old self and I want to say to all of them well I do all of you asked me the same question and at first I would even answer the question I wouldn't say anything because I wouldn't listen to me you know but the truth is this is kind of what I would say when I would say to my 25 year old self is stop living your life for the acceptance of others live your life with your full intention stop living a life of obligation start living a life of meaning see we live in an environment where how many people know you becomes the measure of your value but who really cares what the person who does not know you says about you thinks about you writes about you blogs about you tweets about you if your identity is based on the people you don't even know you're already shattered and broken at the core what actually needs to matter is what the people closest to you say about you it matters to me what my wife Kim says about me it matters to me what my daughter Mariah says about me it matters to me when my son Erin says about me it matters what the people who have walked man lived with man who have laughed and wept with me it matters what they think of me because the measure of your life cannot be Fame it must be respect because when you live a life for others you've chosen your greatness and by the way here's the outcome of the power of wisdom what happens when you choose to be invisible and know it's your power your life is measured not by your freedom by about how your life has set other people free [Music] now be careful it says that the wise man's wisdom was despised you know what happens you ever help someone get their life back together when their life is a wreck and moment you help them get it back together they hate you because they go back to their old life and you invested so much time energy to get them out of that life you're like wait a minute why are you going back be careful to not set someone free who wants to live like a slave because they will despise you for the responsibility now placed on their lives but be careful to live your life only for your freedom because you are given freedom to set others free I want that to be the measure of my life do the power of invisibility you know what God does when you choose to not live your life for fame but for greatness you'll be surprised how God will take you out of the invisible and move you to the visible because you cannot trust the light to the people who need the limelight you cannot trust power to people who want power you cannot trust influence to people who want control what God is looking for our women and men who live their lives for others when you choose to live your life for others God will use you to light the way for the world I knew someone like that actually I know them his name is Jesus he came to walk among us think about the paradox that God himself would take on flesh and blood instead of wowing us with the spectacular and overwhelming us with the miraculous he allows himself to be a sacrifice so if it was death we might live I don't think they saw him on that cross for who he was I think what God was doing was invisible to them and on that third day what he rose from the dead the invisible God was made visible to humanity and I want you to know there's a God who loves you who sees you who knows you who created you for his love and created you for a relationship with him and if you feel invisible right now God sees you so stop trying to be visible for all the wrong reasons in all the wrong ways to all the wrong people let the guy who sees you know you and come and bring you the peace that only his wisdom ranks would you just bow your head to me just for a moment and just close your eyes I know there's some of you here right now but suddenly it all makes sense the pieces are coming together you finally understand why God did it this way why God stepped into human history the invisible God becoming visible so we can see love in flesh and blood why he died on a cross so that through his sacrifice through his death we might live there's some of you who right now it finally makes sense and you need his peace you need his forgiveness you need his love you need his freedom maybe your soul is the city that needs to be set free right now maybe there's a huge sea jerk around it your heart around your soul you feel like you're trapped and you're held captive but Jesus has come to set you free so I want to lead you in a simple prayer where you can give your life to Jesus and receive his life in you it's just one son so it's not everything you and God need to talk about it's the beginning of a conversation that will last forever but right now where you are I want you to pray this prayer with me and give your life to Jesus here it is Jesus I'd give you my life that's it Jesus I give you my life it's that simple it's an exchange your life feel life only he can give you right now just tell me Jesus I give you my life Jesus I give you my life right now now I'm gonna ask you to do something if you just cross the line of faith if you just whispered that prayer to God if you just spoke this prayer of Jesus I give you my life I want you to step out of invisibility and become visible for just a moment find the courage and the strength to do this because I want to pray for you but I want you to act on that prayer and right now I just want you to hold your hand up high and say yes I just prayed and gave my life to Jesus I just crossed the line in faith I just prayed Jesus I give you my life right now that you just hold your hand up high I want to see you right now I want to pray for you beautiful all around the room right now don't wait don't hesitate don't be embarrassed this is why we're here this moment is for you beautiful anyone else so good all around the room anyone else this is your moment this is for you this is for you anyone else father I thank you for the women and men who in this moment across the line of faith and open up their lives to you and God I pray that right now they would know that you heard their prayer but you've come to dwell in them that they belong to you that you will never leave them or bad to them I pray that you would wrap them up in your love and I thank you Jesus that you promised to come to be our peace to never leave us or forsake us and I pray that the same power that you spoke to the wind and the waves and said peace be still would calm the weariness and the chaos in their soul right now and God I pray for each person within the sound of my voice that they would know the power of invisibility for the water seeks to be invisible may they never be trapped by the illusion of Fame may they live their lives for the nobility of serving others may this be our greatness every bring freedom to those whose lives we touch we pray in Jesus name Amen can we just thank God for all those that respond to him right now so good so good I want to give you one practical takeaway when you leave this place if you came here and you found a piece a hope of joy that your soul has been searching for never allow yourself to be the end of the story the freedom that Jesus gives you set you free to help others be free if he gives you love it so that you can give love if he fills you with hope it so that you can take hope with you so whatever God has placed in you whatever you have received do not hoard it to yourself maybe you might be the person that one day they will write about your life and say they didn't look like much and no resume we never thought they'd be the one there was an entire city frowning in despair and depression an entire city overwhelmed with anxiety and fear there was an entire city that was trapped and suffocating in somehow that one person found freedom and they brought freedom and one by one by one by one the entire city of done the freedom they longed for may you look back at the end of your life with your last breath and go this is a story I want to remember for eternity that's Danica

Channel: Mosaic

Views: 21,804

Rating: 4.8386168 out of 5

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

Id: 8LYohd53ZnE

Length: 56min 51sec (3411 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2019