Hello and welcome
to this teaching from Calvary Albuquerque. We're excited to hear from
our special guest speaker, Levi Lusko, senior pastor of
Fresh Life Church in Montana and the author of Through
the Eyes of a Lion. We pray that God
uses this message to draw your heart
closer to him. If he does, we'd love
to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at CalvaryABQ.org/giving. Now we invite you
to mark your bibles at 2 Corinthians, chapter four,
as Levi begins the message through the eyes of a lion. Come on, who's excited to be
in God's house this weekend? My family and I were
having pizza a while back and it was too hot because
they brought it out. But we were all hungry so, we
wanted to eat it real quickly. And the girls were
hungry and I was hangry and it was going bad quick. So my wife thought quickly. And while we're on the subject--
dang, girl, you look good. You just make
everything look good. You make everything better. You are the wonderful
gift of God on my life. Thank you so much. So my wife says-- she says
quickly, she starts tugging at all the pizza slices. She says pull them apart
because they'll get cold faster. I sat back in my chair and said,
woman, you're like the devil. That's marriage advice--
but don't worry, I'm a veteran of 10 years
of marriage, going on 12, so that's 11, actually. So we're-- I'm just figuring
this out right in front of you. Did you know how much
the devil does not like it when you get to church? If he can keep you all on
your own, in your house, with your own thoughts,
he can keep you cold. But he should never have let
you get here this weekend because here you are now,
worshipping together. There's power in the assembly. There's something special that
happens when we come together, and we lift our voices,
and we raise up our hands, and we open up his word, and
we like truth hit our hearts. And we get to be filled
with the spirit again. He gets to give us power
for this week, a brand new anointing for every trial,
grace for every situation. Come on, celebrate
if you believe that you are receiving
strength today for trouble coming your way tomorrow. God's trying to give
you something you're going to need a month from now. Come on, let's one
more time sing it out. Spirit of the living
God, have your way. Come on. From the front to the back. (SINGING) Spirit of the
living God, have your way. Have your way in us. Spirit of the risen
king, fall afresh. Fall afresh on us, God. Spirit of the living
God, have your way. Have your way in us. Spirit of the risen
king, fall afresh. Fall afresh on us, God. If there ever was a prayer that
God was in a hurry to answer, it's that one. He's not reluctant to
revive and he is not stingy with his Holy Spirit. So often, the power we
don't have in our lives is simply because
we never asked. But here we are
together, begging God for a downpour
of his Holy Spirit. I'll tell you what, revival
is happening right now. This is it. And I'm so thankful I get to be
here in this moment with you. Calvary Albuquerque, you all
are a sight for sore eyes. I love you to pieces. It is great to be back
with you once again. If you're new, welcome. Welcome to this church. First time guests, it's
amazing to you here as well. I would just simply beg
you, please do come back. The normal guy is much better
and he's a whole lot taller too. But I'm glad I get the chance
to be here with you again. As my wife said, we love
Pastors Skip and Lenya. They're my godparents
and we named one of our daughters Lenya
after your pastor's wife, Lenya. Our daughter, Lenya Lion,
because Lenya means lion. We called her Lenya Lion. And we love this church, we
love you, we love green chili, we love hot air balloons. Everything's better when you're
in the land of enchantment. Don't you guys think? It's pretty good, huh, Kev? By the way, it's been
great singing with you. Thank you for being here with
the us Fresh Live Worship. These guys are great, huh? You could take a seat, Calvary. I want to talk to you this
weekend about how to-- how to see life through
the eyes of a lion. And that's a metaphor
that stands for looking through the telescope of faith. That's what I want
to talk to you about. Lions have spectacular vision. Did you know that? They're what you
call long-sighted. Long-sighted, because they
can see a long ways away. Make sense? And the reason they're
so good at seeing is because their eyes are
approximately six times better than ours at processing light. And light is just--
sight is just light. The reason we see is because
light comes into our eyes and we have photo receptors
in the back of our eyes called rods and cones that
process the light, transmit the information
through the optic nerve up to your brain for processing. Everyone knows that. You have millions of
these rods and cones. Rods see shapes,
cones see color. You take the light, you
filter it, you process it, and that's what vision is. So lions can see
better in the dark and see a long ways
away because they're better at processing light. Now telescopes help our eyes see
because they collect and gather light and bring it to
our eyes, making what's far away and hard to
see magnified and bigger for us to process that light. There's a number of reasons
that makes the eyes of a lion so good at processing light. For one thing, their pupils
are bigger than ours. The pupil's the entrance
where light comes in. So if you have a bigger
entrance, how much more light can come in? Significantly. Then, on command, they
can stretch their pupil three times wider than we can. And so even more
light can come in. Additionally, the rear
wall of lion's eye is covered in a
reflective surface. So light coming in
bounces back out and they get to use the light
that came in a second time. We just get to use it once,
they get to use it twice. Lines recycle light. Amazing. That's why, by the way, if you
ever take a picture of a cat, their eyes will always glow. What are you seeing? You're seeing the light that
came in bouncing back out. Amazing. The more you know. Then they have a higher
percentage of rods and cones, so that makes them better
with shape, worse with color. So don't ever take a
lion shopping with you. Does this look good? It won't be able to
help you with color. But if you ever need to see
something in a dark place, call the lion. Lastly, if you ever see
a picture of a lion, I don't know, like that
one, you will always notice there's a white stripe
under the eye of each-- under each eye. And that's not only
beautiful, but it serves a functional purpose. Here's why. If you ever watch
a football game, you'll notice that oftentimes,
the athletes will smear eye black under each other. That's to minimize glare. So they can see the ball and
not be squinting in the sun. God put the white under
the eye of a lion. He smeared eye white
all up under each eye. Why? To maximize glare. So that the most light
possible will find its way into the lion's eye. While we're on the subject,
how amazing is God? Like this is all fantastic. I just-- makes me
want to worship. let's just sing again because
the lion's eye is awesome. And you're fearfully and
wonderfully made, too. I will say this. The lions don't have
more light than we do. They don't have
access to more light. They get the same amount of
light as any other animal does. They just are better at
using the light that's there. That's why we need to have the
pupils of our souls dilated. Ephesians calls it having
God's spirit breath on you to where you are enlightened. That's not that
you'll get more light. It's just your soul
will be opened up to take in the light that's
already there hidden, as it were, in plain sight. That's why we need faith,
like a telescope that's going to attract and
gather light and bring near what seems far. It will allow you to
face problems and pain, but see God's plan, his
purposes, his promises, and his presence. It will be for you what it was
for us, the only thing that kept us afloat when
life didn't go like we thought it was going to go. In 2012, my wife and
I and our daughters, we faced the most
difficult thing we could ever have written
for the script of our lives. And that was our
young daughter, Lenya, who was only age five
at the time, Lenya Lion, without notice, without
advanced warning, without any time to
prepare ourselves was taken from this world only five
days before Christmas, after an asthma attack
caused her to stop breathing and her heart to stop beating. And then we were one moment
shopping for Christmas presents and wrapping, and
the next moment, we were picking out a casket
and having to choose a cemetery. We didn't ever have the
chance to say goodbye. It was shocking. It was sudden. It was horrendous. Yet, in the midst of those
suffocatingly painful days, God gave us hope,
he gave us strength, and he gave us peace,
the past, understanding. We were afraid, but
we were not alone. Our anchor held within the vale. I came to testify that we
passed through deep waters, but did not drown. We walked through fire,
but we're not burned. He carried us on eagle's wings
and brought us to himself and helped us to see that though
our daughter left this world, she got to go home. And I'll tell you something. I'll tell you something. We got to see that our daughter
had gone home for Christmas. And my mandate from heaven,
both in writing this book and in communicating with you
today n this wonderful church, is-- has been and is
to share our field notes from this uncertain,
rugged, savage terrain that is suffering. So that prayerfully, they could
be of some benefit to you, no matter what kind of loss
you experience in this world. Whether it's the
loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of a
dream, the death of a business, or any other kind
of loss you face, because pain is real and
hurting with hope still hurts. And I pray that this would
be of some benefit to you. And I would also say
that perhaps you're here and you're not going through
any kind of difficult and you're having trouble
tracking with me, I mean, don't get me wrong. You're thankful that a guy
like me would come in everyone in a while and preach to those
hurting people out there, but you just can't
relate because it's all blue skies for you right now
and Skittles and gummy bears. And all I would say is please
give me your attention, too. Perhaps the less you
feel your need for this, the more you actually need it. Because you-- with
all due respect, have your five year
plan, and your money, and your savings
account, and how you think it's all
going right now, but I just got news for you. You actually have no idea
what's coming your way and neither do I. And
the best thing you can do would be to train for a
trial you're not yet in. For storms reveal
foundations, they're not tremendously good times
to begin working on them. See that tornado coming? Let's build a basement. Say hi to Dorothy
for us, please. You want to be ready for the
difficult day in advance. Amen? Amen. I want to give your
four ways to utilize your telescope of faith. That's what we're going
to do in a moment. And these will not only
help you to process light in the midst of darkness
you face out there, when it's another horrendous
reports from the news. And by the way, our country has
been hurting with Albuquerque in these difficult days
you've been going through. Our hearts are with you,
our souls are with you, and we grieve with you as you
go through what you have lately. But you don't just need
the telescope for the stuff happens out there in this
world, this hard world, this cruel world, this
often dark planet. We also need it,
I believe, for God to help us to see you correctly
when we look in here, when we face ourselves in the mirror. You need to look at yourself
through the eyes of a lion, to see yourself not as you
are, but as God sees you. And what will you find
if you look at yourself with a telescope of faith? You will see-- listen
to me-- that you are destined for impact. You might feel ordinary,
you might feel normal, with all you've done,
with where you've been. You might not have a lot
are following on Twitter, but let me tell you something. You are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are-- you are a holy nation,
God's own special people. He brought you out of darkness
and into his marvelous light that you might
proclaim his praises. He is for you, not against you. He chose you. He loves you. He called you. He equipped you. He is faithful. He's appointed and anointed
you to take your place and to change the world. Come on, give God the glory
if you believe that you're destined for impact. He's got a plan for your life. There's a calling on your life. He wants-- by the time
your life on this world is done, for you have been
able to take place in a bigger story than just your own. You were saved by
the blood of Jesus. You were sealed with
the Holy Spirit. You are seated in
heavenly places. He didn't just save you so
you wouldn't go to hell. He saved you so you would
shake the very gates of hell. To quote Loki,
brother of Thor, "You are burdened with
glorious purpose." Four ways to use the
telescope of faith-- if you take notes in
church, jot them down. If you don't take notes
in church, jot them down. Because you should
take notes in church. Why? So you can remember
this crap for later. Am I allowed to say that? I don't know, I just did. We'll find out later, if
I ever get invited back. If you never see me
again, it was fun. Therefore-- plus,
the way I see it, we're also ADD- squirrel--
that taking notes is kind of like Ritalin for church. You know what I'm saying? It just keeps you tracking. And then when you want
to tweet me and quote me, you can have-- just can copy
and paste because you took notes on your iPhone. I'm just given you-- just
cheater lessons here. I met a substitute teacher after
the last worship experience. He was a substitute
at Hope Christian School, where I graduated from. And I'm an alumnus for
right here among us. And I just-- I needed
to apologize to her. Because I was like every time I
saw you, I didn't do any work. It was-- The first is this. You've got to look beyond. Look beyond. Look what Paul says--
so jot that down. Look beyond. Than jot this down. 2 Corinthians 4,
because here's what Paul said about using
the telescope of faith. He said, "That is
why we never give up. Though our bodies are
dying, our spirits are being renewed every day." Pause right there,
your attention, please. There's two things
happening simultaneously. There's what you can see. There's what you can't see. There's what's right there. There's what's actually there. There's what's happening. And There's what you don't know
is happening, at all times. We're living constantly
in a war, a battle, and it's called
the war of lenses. What lens are we going
to look at stuff through? Are we only going to
see the physical or we going to believe God for the
supernatural and the eternal? Paul says, if I look
at my body, I'll get stressed out
because my body's dying. Hey, did you know
you're getting older? Hey, did you know your
body's breaking down? Hey, did you know you began
dying the moment you were born? Hey, did you know that every day
you live longer in this body, the worse it gets? But did you-- hey,
God bless you. Have a great week, all. No, I'm joking, just joking. But did you know Paul
says, if I look at that, I'll get stressed out. If I look at that,
I'll fill with anxiety. But I have to also
look beyond that to what I can't see with the
human eye, that is my spirit is getting renewed every day. Come on, on the inside, we
age like Benjamin Button, and we're getting more and more
mature, more and more Jesus. If we yield ourselves to him, we
can get more peace, more glory, more grace, more strength. We can be kinder, we
can be more loving. Come on. Thank God that you don't
have to stay as you are, that on the inside,
he can make you the person you were born to be. And so Paul says you can't
look at what you can see, we've got to believe God
for what you can't see. But then he continues
in verse 17, he says, "For our present
troubles are small." No, they're not, Paul. Didn't you get beaten with rods? Didn't you get shipwrecked? Didn't you get stoned,
with rocks, not weed? Didn't you get-- yeah,
that's huge, bro. Yeah, but he says,
no, no, they're small, only if I look at
what I can't see. What is that? That they won't last
very long, yet they produce for us a glory that
vastly outweighs them and will last forever. I can't get bogged down
with what I see here because I know there are
invisible things happening, hiding in plain sight, stuff
my rods and cones can't even handle. Verse 18, "So we don't look at
the troubles we can see now, we fix our gaze." That's a key phrase. We fix our gaze. We fix our gaze on what?
"Things that cannot be seen, for the things we see
now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot
see will last forever." You've got to learn to
look at what you can see, but then believe
what you can't see. You've got almost
look at your life with your eyes closed
and your ears open. Because the scripture says
we don't walk by faith. That's not right. That's completely wrong. I'm preaching heresy. We don't walk by sight,
we walk by faith. So we don't look at
just what's there, we believe God for what
he says will be there. That's how we live. So you've got to
master the double take so that you look beyond. You look at what's happening. You're not in denial, you're
not pretending it's not there. You're not in
blissful ignorance. Oh, everything's OK. You're like great. Monty Python and the Holy
Grail, your leg's been cut off, you're bleeding everywhere,
but it's only a flesh wound. I'll bite your kneecaps off. No, no, don't do that. We're not that guy. We are aware that there's
hard stuff happening and we understand that. We're not putting a nice
face on an ugly thing. We just look at it, then look
away, believe God's promises, and look at it again with faith. We look at it again
seeing the unseen. We look at death but believe
he's the resurrection. We look at loss, but
know he's our shield, our exceeding great reward. We look at loneliness
and believe that he is with us always,
even to the end of the age. So for us, what does this
look like in the real world? This morning, when we woke
up, we were day 1,039 days into this thing called grief. What do you call it? I don't know. When you lose your parents,
you're called an orphan. When you lose your husband,
you're called a widow. What would you describe
someone who's lost their child? I guess there's not a
name for that thing. And perhaps that's fitting
because words really can't describe what it feels. 1,039 times we've woken up on
this earth and our daughter hasn't been on it. And I'll tell you, if
I'm honest with you, sometimes that's
overwhelming because I often have to listen to a video to
remember what her voice sounds like now. And she feels like
she's slipping away because that's a long time. And soon, she'll have been gone
for longer than she was with us and that will be hard. And if I just look
at what I can see, I'll feel such anxiety,
crippling anxiety. But if I remember
with the lens of faith to look at it accurately,
I'll remember that she's not in the grave, she's in heaven. So I'm not getting further from
her, I'm getting closer to her. It not that she's 1,039
days away from me, it's that 1,039 days I've woken
up has brought me closer to her and she's more a part of my
future than she is my past. And I'm heading in
the right direction. But it's all how you look at it. It's all what lens you
choose to look at it through. That's what you need to do. You need to learn
to look beyond. That's the first. The second is live with the
spirit of earnest expectation. Jot that down,
earnest expectation. Did you know that lions
never walk flat footed? They never-- they're he--
watch a video of a lion if you don't believe me. Get your National Geo on. If you look at a
video of a lion, whether they're
walking or running, their heels never
strike the ground. They will always be on the
toes, always be on that the pads of their feet. That was a long hair I
just pulled off my leg. That was weird. Don't know whose that was. My hair is short. I blame my wife. She always sheds on me. The things I say out loud
that I should have just left in my head-- lions are
always on their toes though. And this serves
a useful function because it's harder
to knock something over that on it's tiptoes. If I stand here on my heels,
you could just shove me and I'd fall over. But if I get my-- if I get
my float like a butterfly, sting like a be on, if I stand
like Ali, let me tell you something. I'll have traction and I'm
going to be able to be like Neo and get the bullets
whizzing over me. And I'm going to be fine. So it is inside your soul. Listen to what JB Phillips
said in Romans * 19. "The whole creation
is on--" say it out loud if you believe
it-- tiptoe-- "tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of
the coming of the sons of God into their own." All right, check it out. When you get up on
your tiptoe, you're posturing yourself
with anticipation. And when you fuel your life
with the anticipation of what God is going to
do instead of just dwelling on the difficult
things that you've been through, God gives you traction. He gives you strength. He gives you firm
foundation and then it fuels you with
forward progress as you face now, the future. So there's something to it. Get up on your tiptoes. When you face loss,
get up on your tiptoes. When something difficult
happens that makes you want to drink half a bottle
of wine, and pop a Xanax, and pull the comforter
over your head, and then go back to sleep,
instead get up on your tiptoes and believe that
God's up to something. He's doing something. He's working. He's present. He hasn't forgotten about you. He hasn't lost control
of the universe. Believe. I dare you to believe
that suffering is not an obstacle to
being used by God. It's an opportunity to be
used like never before. And that where God allows
there to be impossible pain, he's setting you up
for incredible power, incredible power. Little theology to back
that up, would that be OK? God does not cause evil,
but he is in control of it. Anything bad you've
ever gone through, it wasn't God who
made it happen, yet he had to allow it to
happen and it couldn't have happened without his approval. The devil has to ask God to
do stuff is what I'm saying. The devil asked God's
permission to afflict Job. The devil asked the
Lord Jesus permission to sift Peter's wheat. True or false? The devil-- go with me--
had to ask God's permission to crucify Jesus. He's the one who raced up the
evil men with their intent to do what they did. So whenever God allows
something like that, it's not that he caused
it, but he had to allow it. Now if we could time out there
and go TiVo for a second? I wonder if maybe, like
me, you wonder sometimes why God says yes to stuff. Like my theology
causes me to have to know like God allowed
it, didn't cause it, but allowed it. And I sometimes-- like why
didn't you just say no, God? Like why didn't he
say no in Oregon? Why didn't you say no
to those shootings? And why didn't he say no here? Seems like the devil has
too much leeway sometimes. And so why does he say yes
or now and-- you know what? That's above our pay grade. That's above our pay grade. And a God who is small
enough for our mind, would be too small
for our problems. If I could understand
him, I wouldn't need him. I wouldn't worship him. So I just go hey, hey, your
ways are above my ways. Your thoughts are
past finding out. I believe you have
more intel than I have. Who am I to stand
in judgment of you with all my 33 years of
experience on this earth? I'm going to give
you a tongue wagging? You've been alive since before
the foundation of the world and I just am going to give
you the space to be God. However, know this. When he does allow
evil to happen, he always, always, always
has a plan to sabotage it. He always looks-- sort of gives
the permission to the devil. But on the way out, he
inserts the Trojan Horse virus that will be the undoing
of what the devil caused. So that at the end of
the day, all things would work together for those
who love God and are called according to do his purposes. And so that what
was meant for evil would accomplish
his good pleasure. How did the Book of Job end? I can't remember. Oh, that's right. Job was twice as blessed
as he was at the beginning and had twice as many
children, both those who got replaced to
ones he lost with and the ones who he lost who
were waiting for him in heaven. They were all his. Joke was on the devil. How did the book the
story of Peter's fall end when he was
sifted like wheat? Oh, that's right. He was restored and he
strengthened his brethren. And the broken bone
of his humility became a source of
great strength for him. And God used him more powerfully
after his darkest days than he ever had
before that happened. How did the cross
of Jesus Christ end? Oh, that's right. The ruthless hands that
took a hold of them and took the life of
the Prince of Glory, God raised him from the
dead on the third day. And today, he offers
life and immortality to anybody who believe. I got this picture in
my head of the devil being like some punk who's
never stayed in a hotel room and opens up the mini
bar to see all this loot and thinks, oh, my god, I'm
taking this all and starts loading his suitcase up with all
the alcohol and all the candy bars. He just thinks it's--
he's taking the linens, he's taking the towels,
he's taking the robe, not knowing the front desk has
his credit card number on file and that God's going to make the
devil pay for everything he was dumb enough to do in
your life and in mine. Come on, praise him if
you believe it's true. Crushing always
releases anointing. I told you a second ago you
were a royal priesthood-- royal priesthood, kings and
priests to our God. Do you know what
kings and priests had in common in the Old Testament? They both had to be
anointed before they could begin their ministry. And so it is with you and I. The crushing-- I
dare you to believe it's the pressing
that is causing the olive oil to run down. That is going to be
God's holy spirit's anointing upon your life for
your next level of usefulness in his hand. And that your greatest
praise is going to come out after your darkest days. I just wonder if
this isn't true. And just tuck this
into your heart. It maybe seem like an
insult almost to say this, but it is an incredible honor
to be trusted with pain. God always gives his most
difficult assignments to his most trusted soldiers,
so suffer well and don't waste a drop of it. Earnest expectation will
help you to see that. The third is this. You need to understand
the new normal, how to deal with the new normal. Now that's a phrase that's
yanked from every grief manual. It's going to be hard to
deal with the new normal. What is the new
normal, you might wonder, if you're not
grieving in some way. The new normal is the shock
over what's been taken from you and now confronting
what you never thought would be your
experience anymore. This is the person who
is now single at 50 and they meant their marriage
vows and divorce was always something to happen
to other people. But now, you're
almost disoriented. Which way's up? The new normal is
the pain of, for us, walking into a restaurant
and hearing the hostess say how many in your party. And I think there should be six,
should be Jenny and I, our four daughters. But instead, I take a
deep breath and say five. It's the new normal. The new normal is
hard to get used to. But I want to turn
that phrase upside down and I want to talk about how to
see whatever is normal for you in a brand new way, especially
if your normal is like really, really normal, to the extent
that when earlier, I was all like you're a chosen generation
and your appointed and anointed to change the world, you were
thinking, yeah, that's great, pal, but I did 11 loads
of laundry this week. Please tell me more about
my glorious purpose. You're thinking to yourself,
dude, I sell discount tires. Tell me about how I'm
destined for impact. How do we live out an
extraordinary calling while doing ordinary things? Maybe, just maybe it's not new
things we need to do though, just looking at old
things in a new way. If we don't get this, if we
don't figure this stuff out, then we're going to have a
disconnect between what we believe God's called us to do,
do great things for his name, and what actually
we need to do, what fills up the minutes and
the hours of our days. And this'll cause you--
if you don't reckon this, if you don't reconcile this,
it'll cause you the confusion. And you'll almost feel like
you're not doing your calling. You'll feel guilty
for doing what you're supposed to do because
of what you should be doing. And you'll unnecessarily live
with calling envy, looking at other people who are
called to do certain things and feel like I
should do that, like I should be in India washing
the feet of lepers. And now, to be fair,
if God does call you to leave everything
and move to India and wash the feet of
lepers, what should you do? Do it, because he's God. Like totally listen
to him, he's huge. But maybe, just maybe,
that's not the only way to live out a God sized calling. And perhaps there's opportunity
all around you in the ordinary, in the normal, in the mundane. Perhaps God would open
the eyes of your soul up that you would see it
though the eyes of a lion and understand that
tucked within your natural is something super
that God wants to do. It's not in spite of your life
that he's going to use you, it's in the midst of it. Don't miss a ministry that's
right under your nose. This is the classic mom
having her quite time, getting her praise on. Lord, zips up her
Lululemon, Lord, just use me to
touch a life today. I just got my Beth
Moore Bible Study done and it said I'm supposed to
pray for a life to-- shut up, Billy, mom's having
her quiet time. I have to-- Lord, just-- sorry. Lord, just give me a li--
get off, Billy-- Billy. Baby girl, your
prayer has been heard. His name is Billy and he's
just as important as the leper in India. And what you do for him,
you're doing for God. Every diaper you change,
every lunch you pack, every tire you rotate,
every pizza you make, every house you frame,
every plan you engineer, let me tell you
something, God wants to use your normal ordinary
to do extraordinary things to his glory. You have permission to approach
your life with passion now. You have permission to
believe that God doesn't just send people to the
other end of the world. He sometimes sends people to the
other side of the cubicle wall. I want to step out. I want to step out. Hey, God just maybe
calling you to stay put. But I want to do
something faith filled. There's very few
things more faith filled than being faithful. I think sometimes we
celebrate the people who are just the spiritual step outers. And really, they're just
flaky, not faithful. Man, they're just always
are doing together. Yeah, they've done
very little at the 12 churches they've attended. Wow, is that too real? Should we just not talk
about it like that? Or can we actually
call it how it is? I just think that that right
there in the midst of what you're doing, if you'll just
put your roots down and realize that are reaching the nations
on the ends of the earth is important, but
also we should step up to the end of our street, too. That God wants to use
us right where we're at. But you got to look at
your normal in a new way. Amen? I got a fourth. You want to hear it? Should we just end it right now? Fourth? All in favor? There was 11 of you that
were excited about that. The rest of you were like
we're kind of hungry, so maybe-- the fourth is this. You're going to need
some scare tactics. If you're going to
live out your calling, you're going to need
some scare tactics. Wait, you mean like the
way the media scares us into doing certain things
or going to-- no, no, no, I'm talking about your
own personal tactics for when you're scared. If you are going to do all
that God's called you to do, you will be frightened. You will be afraid of times. And so you need to
determine, in advance, what you're going to do,
lest you make the biggest mistake you could
do in this world, and that is live your
life by your feelings. Live your life by your feelings. How you feel will
often be wrong. But my heart says yes. Your heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked. You need to have a higher
authority than how you feel. Some of you, for too
long, how you feel determines what you do. But we do not live by feelings. We live by obedience, in
obedience to the word of God. And so we have to
preload our obedience. And here's what
I want you to do. I want you to
determine in advance that when you feel
afraid, you're going to face your fears. You're going to run
toward the roar. That's what we're going
to do, in Jesus' name. Now let me back this up about
with a little story about how lions hunt. Lions do life together. They live in prides. And when they hunt,
they send a few lions to hide behind whatever
they're going to try and kill. And then one comes from the
front and let's loose one of those great big roars
that causes the wildebeest to be frightened and
to make the biggest mistake, the last
mistake of its life, running away from what it's
scared of towards the ambush it never knew anything about. So it's counter intuitive, but
the safest thing it could do would be to run towards what
it's hearing, towards the roar. Run toward it's fear. Because it's actually
faster than the thing that's chasing it. The only reason it gets killed
by the one hiding behind it is because it has the
element of surprise upon it. And so it is in life. So often, things that God
calls us to do scare us, and intentionally so. Because if there were
no risk, if there was no element of fear,
we wouldn't need faith. And the faith is a
chance to trust God. It's that-- it's that
option, trust him, even when all around us is it's so scary. It's David knowing
Goliath is bigger than me and has been fighting
longer than me, but instead of running
away from Goliath, the Bible says he
ran toward the giant. He ran toward the roar. And so it is for you. When you feel frightened,
in the midst of something, God's told you to do a calling
he's put up on your life, and you feel like
bolting, you've got to-- you've got to double
down and tell your gut, sorry, bro, we're
running toward the roar. I'm going to keep on writing. I'm going to keep on painting. I'm going to launch
this business. I'm going to stay in school. I'm going to fight
for this marriage. I'm going to stay
in this church. I'm going to keep on serving. I'm going to keep on going. I'm going to keep on believing. I'm going to keep on dreaming. In Jesus' name, to
the glory of God, till heavens full, or hell
is empty, or I'm dead trying. Amen? Amen. And I'm a little bit
excited about it. You've got to look beyond. You've got to live with
earnest expectation. You've got to see the
newness in the normal. And you've got to have
some scare tactics. Or to put it another way,
you've got to see life through the right lens. Come on, that's good. See how it came
full circle there? And like approximately three of
you were thrilled about that. Thanks for-- all the hard
work, it was worth it. I'm so glad to know. A telescope's only
as good is its lens. And that's what you'll
need, the right lens. I told you earlier
about how lions' eyes were built so they could see. Let me show you my Lenya Lion. This is her here. God built her eyes to
help other people see. The night she went to
heaven, the hospital called us after we got home. And they said something
that was so hard to hear. They said, Mr. and
Mrs. Lusko, there's no easy way to say
this, but how do you feel about organ donation? And my heart sank. We fell to the floors
of our home, crying. And we wept, and then
we said, you know, I think Lenya and God would
have us to make this decision. And what they were specifically
asking about was her eyes. They said would you allow us to
take her corneas to give them someone else. And we said yes. And we found out months
later, that not one, but two blind people
received sight because of Lenya's corneas. It's so beautiful
because right now, there are two people on this
earth who literally see life through the eyes of a lion. And they're not the only ones. You see, on the night
my daughter died, I was given a job no
dad should ever have. And I had to reach out and
close the eyes of my child. But what I never
knew was that God was going to use her to open mine. And I believe with all
my heart that Jesus wants to do the
same thing for you, for many of you, this weekend. You see, the Gospel tells us
that God so loved the world that he gave consent for his
son to be an organ donor, and he gave his whole life,
he gave his whole body on that tree, so that his
righteousness could be transplanted into your heart. And so that when you
die and stand before God to be judged, that you are
clothed in Jesus' righteousness and not your own sin. And that's what we need. Listen to me. Forgiveness is our
greatest need because sin is our biggest problem. All of sin in falling
short of the glory of God. And if you're here this
weekend and you've never trusted in Jesus for
salvation, and perhaps, it's for a lot of reasons. Maybe-- maybe it's
because you're religious and you feel like you're
good enough on your own. Or perhaps it's because
you are objecting to a God who can save
you because of all that you've been through. I would just say this. Don't let your hardship
keep you from him when it's in the midst
of that very hardship that he comes to
you, that he loves to you, that he rushes to you. So even though you don't
understand why everything's happened that has
happened, don't let that keep you from him. Listen to me. Run to him, not from him in
your pain, for he cares for you and his compassion is real. And his grace is real. And he'll put his
arms around you. And one day, you'll know
even as you're known, but until then, at
least you'll be saved. At least you'll be forgiven. At least you'll have his
spirit inside your heart. So we close with this question. Would you like to give
your life to Jesus Christ? Would you like to know
that when you die, you're going to go to
heaven and not hell? And would you like
to walk the streets of this world with
Jesus in your heart and with his plan
unfolding all around you? If that's you, I hope you'll
respond to this invitation we're going to give. Would you bow your heads
and close your eyes with me? All of us, praying. Father, we thank you
for your great love. And we thank you
that even now, you're moving in hearts and lives. You're drawing us to yourself. Thank you for the Gospel,
thank you for Jesus, who came, because we could never
earn our way to heaven. Thank you that he died for
us and rose from the dead so we can live. If we would look to you with
faith and call upon your name. And even now, with heads
bowed and eyes closed, how many of you in
this moment would say I want to give my
heart to Jesus, Levi. I want to be forgiven. I want him to come in the
madness that is my life and begin to make a
message out of it. I want you to take my sin
and turn it into my song. I want you to turn
my trash into triumph and I want to believe that my
best days are in front of me, not behind me. If that's you I'm describing,
would you just raise your hand up in the air right now? Just put it up in the air. You're saying I want to
give my heart to Jesus. Praise God for you in
the front, to my right, right here, in the front. In the family room,
I see your hands. On my left, in the back, in
the very back, in the very, very back. How about in the balcony? Anyone receiving forgiveness
in Jesus' name this weekend and you're saying I want
to give my heart to Christ. God bless you. I'm talking to old people. I'm talking to young people. I'm talking to middle
aged people, people who have done a lot
wrong, people who've only done a few things wrong. I'm talking about people who
have grown up in the church, but now you're realizing
you're far from God. Praise God for
every single hand. More of you, I wonder. Who needs to receive this? Come on. Come on. Don't miss this moment. Don't miss this moment. You can't just come to
God whenever you want. You can only come as
the spirit draws you. Respond to him now as he knocks
on the door of your heart. You could put your hands down. Come on, church, help
me praise God for all that he's doing in so
many hearts this weekend. [APPLAUSE] And even now, I want to
give you an opportunity. For those of you who
raised your hands, I want to give you a chance to
sort of put your money where your mouth is and to take
a stand, a courageous stand of faith, to run
toward the roar, I guess you could say, by,
in just a moment, getting up out of your seat and
walking down these aisles and standing facing me at
the front of the stage. And when you get
here, we're going to pray a simple prayer as
you sign your life over, as you sign the pink
slip of your soul over to the one who made
you and who loves you. Why would I do this? I'll tell you why. Because Jesus died
publicly for you. He wasn't afraid to die with the
whole world watching for you. And he wants you
to live for him. And he said if you
confess me before people, I'll confess you before
my father and the angels in heaven. So here's a way for you
to come to Jesus openly and publicly, to cross that
line, to take a stand for him. So right now, with everyone
watching, with every open, I want those of you who raised
your hands up to stand up. Come on, stand up all
over this sanctuary. Stand up all over this room. Come on, praise God for you,
for the courage it's taken. And get up on your
feet and come up here. Leave your seat, leave your row. Come on up here. Come walk to-- come
walk this walk. Do it with your head held high. Do it knowing how much God loves
you, how he's forgiven you, how he's chosen
you, how, before he laid the foundation of
the world, he picked you. And you're saying I want
to receive this love. I want to walk in this love. I want the whole
world to see me. Come on, we're
sing a chorus and I want you to leave you
seat in the balcony, to get up out of the family
room, to leave the overflows, to get out of your
seat, to leave your sin, to leave your same, to leave
your old life behind and come to Jesus. Come as we sing this song. Come now. (SINGING) Come alive in him,
let your heart be filled always, forever. Step out from the grave and be
raised to life always, forever. Come alive in him, let your
heart be filled always, forever. Step out from the grave and be
raised to life always, forever. Come on, church, we
got to celebrate. This is too good to be true. We're seeing prayers answered
in front of our very eyes. And I wonder if there's
not some more of you who need this, who you're going to
walk away from here regretting it if you don't get out of your
seat and join these up here. Let us have the honor
of praying with you as you give your
heart to Christ. Come on, celebrate for
this couple right here. Fantastic Anybody else? Just get out of your seat,
leave your old life behind. Give in. What do you have to lose? You have everything to gain. We're going to sing it again. Get up out of your
seat and come down. (SINGING) You let your heart
be filled always, forever. Step out from the grave and be
raised to life always, forever. Oh. Love is waiting. Heaven calls out. Give your life and all to him. Forgiveness is
yours, freely given. Jesus will make all things new. I don't about you,
but I just am filled with a sense of joy
and awe seeing people give their lives to Jesus. Because the Bible
says that there is joy in the presence of the
angels over one person turning over the life to
Jesus, and we're getting to see so many today. And this causes heaven to
rejoice and we are thrilled. Church, let me just ask-- beg
you, to never let this get old, to never let yourself not be
moved by seeing a person come from darkness to light. It's the best thing
happening on this earth. I'm going to lead you
in a simple prayer for you just give
your life to Jesus. I want you to say
this prayer out loud after me and I want
the whole church to say it out loud with us. Just their way of
saying we stand with you in this decision. Amen? Say this prayer. Say dear God. Dear God. I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm a sinner. I've done wrong things. I've done wrong things. I can't fix myself. I can't fix myself. But I believe Jesus died for me. But I believe Jesus died for me. He hung on that cross. He hung on that cross. In my place. In my place. I believe he raised
from the dead. I believe he raised
from the dead. And he's here with us now. And he's here with us now. Come into my life. Come into my life. Make me yours. Make me yours. I give you me. I give you me. In Jesus' name, I pray. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Come on, church, go crazy. We've hoped you'd enjoy this
special service from Calvary Albuquerque, featuring our
guest speaker Pastor Levi Lusko. How will you live out what
you learned from this message? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at CalvaryABQ.org/giving. Thank you for listening to this
special message from Calvary Albuquerque.
