What Is The "White-Hot" Why Of Your Life? (Isaiah 61:1-4) - Pastor Mark Clark

alright alright good morning how y'all doing good hey we're clapping I would even done anything yet this is a nice church feel very welcome Pastor Daniel was chatting with me earlier and he said he wanted me to send his love to you and so he misses you guys I come all the way from Vancouver Canada the lesser of the two Vancouver's holla all right so um we all know that's not true so my name is mark and if you got a Bible open it up to Isaiah Isaiah chapter 61 is what we're gonna do we're gonna look at a few verses in it and man there's lots of texts that could define somebody's life this is one of the better ones if you're you know a guy named s simon Sinek wrote a book called start with why and I'm kind of stealing that idea for our life because the reality is is everything we do in life needs to begin with the question of why oftentimes we drift in life because we don't know the answer to the question why am i doing what I'm doing so every belief you have as you sit here right now every behavior every action you do everything you do in life is driven by the why question every bullet you believe things about God you believe things about the Bible you believe things about heaven and hell and some of you are Christians and you're here awesome some of you are not Christians and you're just exploring Christianity and spirituality whatever awesome glad that you're here our hope and desire is that you see that Jesus is the ultimate answer to the question of why because why the white-hot why of your life needs to kind of drive everything you do and here's what I mean if you think about the person that you married think about your wedding day and these are standing there you're marrying this person and you're asking why questions and you're trying to answer them why did you marry think about your spouse right now why did you marry them you remember like they're right beside you you're like man that guy was hot all right so that's why I married him now time goes on and wise change because now it might be he's got a good personality whatever it could be that they were hot and now they whatever whatever the why is why you marry them that's what drives it you were sitting there getting married like why am i marrying this girl because she makes me happy and we connect well and then everything comes back to the white question I was sitting in a cross from a billionaire so we don't have a lot of billionaires in Canada but we have a few and I was sitting across somehow I ended up in this meeting with him which is a whole other story and he's a Christian guy and I was sitting across the table from him and he said hey listen when you need to build a building because we don't have a building right now we're six year old church we meet in three different locations that we set up and tear down every week and they're all rentals and so he said when you need to build a building don't worry you know I'm gonna be there I'm gonna help you whatever financially or whatever needs to happen and and I was sitting there going why does a guy like this a billionaire sit across the table from me I mean there's no reason that he should be even engaging the conversation here I'm a 35 year old kid all right I can barely you know I barely need to shave I have no facial hair I'm not like pastor Daniel no way on I have no assets I don't own anything I don't own my own house I'm a comply rent man because Vancouver Canada you can't it's impossible to own someone my age it's impossible I have no money no I said some 30 I'm a 35 year old kid who teaches the Bible for a living why are you saying you're in why are you saying you're behind me what's the point and I realize is because in that meeting I'm pitching the vision that's what he's getting on to he's saying man I understand the why and the why is the thing I'm getting excited about because I don't go in there and pitch committee meetings and hey don't worry we're gonna I get it in pitch man I want to build a building so I can go out and reach young men who are ready to shipwreck their lives with porn and make them church planters I want to change my city I want to change my country I want to plant gospel center churches in Vancouver in Toronto and Montreal the three most influential cities in my country to change the landscape of my country I'm not gonna you really want to change a country if you want to change how it thinks and how it acts you don't necessarily if you want to change us laws for instance you don't necessarily just go and protest in front of the courts you reach the DA two lawyers you reach the judges with the gospel of Jesus and then they get their heart change and they change the laws that's how you change your country and when I'm sitting with guys like that I'm pitching that vision and they go okay I'm in because what has been answered the why why do I need you it's not to have committee meetings and potluck dinners it's because I want to reach people with the 15 minutes I've been given on this planet I want to reach people for Jesus so now some of you are sitting here you don't know what you're why you wake up you're aimless you're a man sitting in here and you are completely aimless and so what you do is you adopt a lot of hobbies and you find out ways to be out of the house as much as you can be out of the house because when you're at home you know at work you the man at home not the man just the dummy right that's how it feels I remember when so we had to rent this big auditorium for our Easter Sunday service and so I was preaching Easter Sunday and I got home that so all my kids they don't usually come into the church service right because they're down in the kids kids wing and so all my daughters were there so I got three daughters nine seven and five my nine-year-old looks at me when we get home that night and I'm putting her to bed and she says you know dad you were up on that stage and and you really kind of when you were preaching Jesus like man it was like everybody in that room 5,000 people at one time looking at you it was like this guy's a man like this guy knows he knows where he's going he knows what's happened he's telling it man and then she's like um why aren't you like that at home I'm like what do you mean she's like I don't notice that home you're like mom's like hey what about this you're like hey where's the vacuum and so so I understand that tension that's how we roll right and so what we do for us man as we drift man wanna go home because home means we're getting told what to do and homies we don't know where the vacuum is but a word man we feel like we're needed me and so this kind of thing you wake up in women it's the same kind of thing you got different stuff but you haven't answered the why question you don't know why you exist you don't know why you make money you don't know why you woke up this morning ultimately I'm talking purpose why and here's Isaiah and he lays down a beautiful why he says this so Isaiah 61 verse 1 to 4 he goes the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me I'm gonna come back to that because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news listen to his why why is the Lord appointed and anointed him to preach good news to the poor he sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim Liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound here's your why alright to reach the brokenhearted and the captives and those who are bound with the gun make sure that they meet Jesus and introduce them to the God of the universe that's your why period and some of you know if that's your why then you have to start to filter everything in your life through that why that means my time my money my family my house my everything about me comes around this question of how do I do that my why is to reach the brokenhearted to reach the difficult people to make sure that they actually meet the God of the universe the captives now this is what happened me when I was 17 I didn't grow up in a Christian home at all I think I shared with you last time I was here but for those of you who weren't I grew up in a home where my father was completely atheistic so much antagonism toward Christianity so my name is Mark and they named my brother Matthew he's four years no no we're not done he's four years older than me all right they named him Matthew and my dad said we have to spell his name with one team because we don't want to be biblical four years later made me Mark Chuck dis if we in another Katie would named Luke okay hey there's John he didn't have a clue this is the home I grew up in completely antagonistic I didn't become a Christian Thomas 17 years old I was in high school a guy introduced me to Jesus I never walked into a church until I was 19 years old and the only reason I stayed is because it was a really good-looking girl at the front I went oh I like church so here's the deal people like me captive bound even though I don't know it some of you are sitting here right now Isaiah says you are captive you are bound but you don't feel like it if you would have walked up to me at 17 and gone man you're bound I would I got I'm free but I wasn't free I was living for myself for everything a 17 year old kid lives for I was living for those things versus the things of Jesus and Isaiah says those kind of people those captive people the brokenhearted people those are the people that you were born to reach but sometimes we start to drift toward the the clean people the the people who aren't they don't they're not the broken hearted they're not the raw right though they put together the good Christianity starts to take on this kind of good people role and I say is going man it's the captives it's the people who are bound those are the people so I remember when I planted our church it was it was 50 people and in a gym and we started to grow and I remember I would look around and I would see a lot of kind of clean Christian people start to come through the doors and that's not what I planted a church for I planned a church because I wanted to reach students like me who were completely philosophically opposed to Christianity who are living their lives for everything but God and so I saw these kind of neat Christians like you know people who who you go okay that's definitely a Christian like a hundred percent and so and so I kind of started to see a bunch of them around I was like oh man I'm getting I don't know you know and uh anyway I just remember the encouragement cuz I started go I started looking at past like this hey man you're supposed to be reaching those who are bound and the captives and the brokenhearted and the poor and what's going on and there's all these clean people and then we got a phone call one day so our church started to kind of grow and it was it was engine because it was in this little cul-de-sac where everybody had bought these homes so everything is quiet and then the church started to grow and everyone started to park all over the place all right I disturbed their quiet Sunday right they bought this two and a half million dollar home and this cul-de-sac so it was quiet on the weekends and then we planted our church we had 50 people they started grow so I went to two services and then three sir and people were parking all over the place all right people would because there was no parking so people would walk like ten minutes all right it was it was scares people be looking out their you know their blinds like what's going on honey and three people walking down the street moms like the walking dead and everyone got afraid and they're like what and what began to happen is people started to meet Jesus people son and I begin to go okay and I remember the phone call I got one Monday morning was a guy who owned one of these beautiful it'll call the sock things he goes I'm ticked at your church I said why he goes because a guy parked his pickup truck and his wheels were up on my lawn right on my property and I got out and I came out and I said get your car off my front lawn and the guy got here he was holding hands with this little family and they were all walking into church and he looked at me and he gave me the finger and he said f you I'm going to church all right and I was like yes yes finally a real dude a real dude meeting Jesus these are the this is how your community group your small group your girls this is how they they should be filled with these people the broken the captives the people who don't know they need it yet and that's some of the people in this room right now you don't even know it but you haven't been changed by him yet the spirit hasn't got to hold you yet and so he says your role in life is to reach these people the rugged the ragged the Christianity is dangerous it is not nice I can't tell you how many times I look at my church I said stop telling me I preached a nice sermon if I hear one more person nice sermon pastor I'm quitting nice Christian is any but nice it shouldn't be nice it should be it should be wrong and if we come in here really hey everybody there should be whips and flares as you walk in here should be like Hebrews 11 everyone's getting their heads cut off pulled apart this is perfect this is the kind of people we've become nicer and nice I don't want to be nice I want to blow your life up I wanted to destroy you I want you to be confronted I'd only want you to be comforted I want you to be rebuked it's now a Paul says the Bible's for to rebuke us Jesus says this is the most dangerous thing you will ever do it's a raw the captives the bound these are the people that should be in a process and what we need to do is we need to instead of lean away from them lean into them because your co-workers your family members they're looking at you and there's asking one question not just is Christianity real but does it work that's what they wake up thinking about in the morning they do not think about is this just real so we should establish a good apologetic to convince them it's real they're asking the question doesn't work does it transform a life does it Kate take a captive heart and actually set it free and they're looking at your life to figure that out and we either gonna lean away from that or toward it for me when I enter the church I was a raw kid because I didn't know I didn't grow up in it I didn't know how you were supposed to talk and pray I didn't know anything I had the you know the chain on my pants connected in my wallet because I didn't want anyone to steal my five bucks I was a chain smoker I was a chain smoker I swore like a sailor and I came in to the church and I tried to and here's what happened the pastor got up and preached the sermon my wife and I started dating the hot girl that was that the thing I was like oh my goodness he's great honest a her so we started dating and I was in another relationship so I had to anyway since long sorry I forgot so we started dating and the pastor walked up and he preached a sermon on being unequally yoked and somebody walked up to her and said you were unequally yoked with mark and she's like what are you talking about and he's like well I saw him smoking outside the the church the other day he's not a Christian and she was like what was he smoking he's like cigarettes she's like well praise God it's better than what he used to smoke see here's the problem we look at people and instead of figuring out where they started we just take a snapshot of them where they are figure out where people started and where they started should be the brokenness the captivity of even a spirit of mind whatever and then our jobs to set them free that's what he just said now how do we do that how do we actually set people free this is now the work so we figured out the why what is the actual how because the why is that you're gonna set these kind of raw real people free and and and and the kind of raw Christianity that Jesus sets out is something that is very difficult for us to understand it's the kind of Christianity where in the present modern church context where everything is safe we have trouble understanding when we read I'm preaching through the book of Matthew right now and two weeks ago I had to kind of download this this message on my church that Jesus stands in front of the disciples and he says you are gonna be sheep among wolves and I'm gonna send you out of sheep among wolves and you were to be as shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves and I said how crazy and upside down this is because no Shepherd who knows what he's doing is gonna take sheep and put them among wolves that's the opposite to the game the game is I got some sheep and wolves are gonna try to kill my sheep and I'm gonna have a stick and I'm gonna hit away the the wolves from the Sheep Jesus goes oh you're my sheep here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna send you out just boom and they will eat you alive man and that's what so if you're here and you're like what's Christianity about that it's about that what's he gonna do is he gonna make my life easier is he gonna fill up my bank account is he gonna heal my sickness is he gonna fix my marriage no here's what he's gonna do boom and the Wolves are gonna come out you and your world is gonna turn on you and everybody that works not gonna believe what you believe and they're gonna hit on the Bible and hit about what you believe about marriage they're gonna hate you they're gonna turn on you they're gonna believe the opposite to what you believe because you are a sheep among wolves that are looking to devour you that's the call of Christianity now here's why we repel and we run the opposite way because we're born in a culture that wants to just coddle us and make everything easy and Jesus refuses see you guys are in an election cycle we notice even though we're in Canada we know what's happening all right so here's what politicians do they get up and they say both sides elect me cuz I'll make you have more money elect me I'll make you safer this is what they do I'll make your life better if you follow me Jesus does the opposite if you follow me you'll have less money why because I'm gonna ask you to give it away and your family's gonna be less safe why because I'm like I might call you in a service like this like has happened in our church many times to move your family to the jungles of Cambodia I might call you and your kids I know you got little kids but what about the safety I might call you in an instant like a sheep among wolves that are looking to devour you because that's my call this is the most dangerous thing you'll ever do if you're here you're wondering where's me to follow Jesus what does it mean to follow Christianity is the most dangerous thing you'll ever do you'll ever do it's choose to follow him but we were in a culture that wants to protect we're in a culture where see this is what I try to teach my kids now because I'm trying to set them up for the kind of tough discipleship that they're gonna deal with see we grew up in a culture where we're right now the way we parent our kids as our kids are out in the soccer field and they fall down they have a little booboo and we're like oh come here come here Sara come here oh my goodness I'm sorry that little kid bullied you let's go to Dairy Queen I'll get you a sweet little vanilla ice cream this is what we do my kids man they're out in the field and they start running oh I got a boo-boo but daddy why cuz life is tough man the wolves are gonna eat what do you think the girls at high school in the locker room are gonna sound like they're gonna eat you alive princess got toughen up so these are the kinds of people he calls us to reach an Isaiah 60:1 now what about the how how how how is that gonna happen a few things I've been reading this particular leadership book and it's really good it's called the h3 leadership and I want to share it as kind of a how about how we do this alright here's the how three things eight three H's where the guy talks about the first one is cuz how are you gonna reach your coworker how are you gonna reach your your spouse who doesn't know Jesus how are you gonna reach those who are in captivity check this and and they don't know it yet they don't know the co-worker the family member the friend the kid that you've got who you really want them to to know the God of the universe for the sake of his glory which is all what this is about if you read if you read verse three at the end of it it says the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified that that's the point of life to glorify God not us that that that the weight of God would be felt around you in your world so this is the point as the why how are you gonna do it first thing this Brad Lohmann ik talks about an h3 leadership he says be humble the first thing you've got to understand now here's here's where it is in Isaiah 61 right and verse 1 the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me here's the reality nothing is gonna happen you're not gonna reach anybody you're not gonna impact Mission Lee anybody unless the Spirit decides to take you and just blow and do the work it's the spirit who's gonna do it and so we can try to do it in all our own energy but the reality is it's that's actually going to do it now here's how I know because a fusion three talks about the idea that God can do immeasurably more than you ever think or imagine so I'm in Canada alright Canada is at least the generation ahead of you in regard to secularization right like you guys had a thing a couple years ago where you know there was a redefinition of marriage listen that happened 15 years ago in Canada and no one asked us it wasn't a vote it just happened we just woke up one day I was like boom all right we look at Canada we're like dude that place is lost how can the spirit move in Canada how can he do anything that place is so post-christian that's what I thought so when I plant in my church I was 29 years old I had 50 people in a high school gym and here's what the goal was in two years that we're not dead that's the win that's that's the only goal we had that we're not dead in two years awesome there's a vision there's a white-hot way all right team don't be dead so then when this crazy thing started to happen if people started meet Jesus and none of it made any sense because nothing the Holy Spirit when he's in it is gonna do he's gonna go ahead of you and you're not gonna be able to catch up to him whether it's your own sanctification or whether you plant the church and it gets ahead of you like it got so fast ahead of us that we started to services and then three services and our ratio didn't make like we were a few years ago we were 1200 people and I was still the only pastor that's not a plan that's not good structure I was working we didn't have an office I worked in a Starbucks by myself trying to pass her 1200 people that's not good but that's what happens in the spirit blows he goes oh you want to survive huh that's not a goal man and he starts saving people moving on people change people people so to get baptized people start bringing their whole family and friends and this crazy moves to happen not listen to me not because of me but in spite of me not because of me listen I'm a disaster and my church knows it it was in those early years that I sat with a guy and said I have a great plan there's a whole bunch of judge as a whole Chinese community where we planted our church and I said I want you to start a small group you're gonna do awesome I want you to start a Mandarin speaking small group you're gonna reach all these people it's gonna be awesome he goes yeah that's great mark it's a really good idea except I'm Korean I'm like I know dumb know how that's how does like I make mistakes man it's all in spite of me it's not because of me when the spirit decides to move on people you can't stop it you just got to catch up and you're sitting here right now and you didn't even you don't even necessarily know as you walked in here the spear was gonna catch you you've been ducking and weaving you've been trying to avoid and now the spears like whoa you got no you got no vision for your life you are dying but let me give you one it's not about you it's about the glory of God and the people around you and reaching them through your own humility it ain't it ain't about you there's nothing about and I'll just keep using my churches as an image as a picture of the kind of reason that you need to be humble there's nothing about this church that should have worked I was 29 years old it was a group of 50 ragtag people in a gym I preached through every Church growth strategy on the planet we do the opposite it's just hey make sure you don't just preach through long books of the Bible year after year after year so I'm like okay perfect that's what we'll do keep it small so all I do cuz I'm not very creative I just preach through books survival verse by verse by verse by verse by verse literally most of my sermons are we've been two years in the Gospel of Matthew we're in chapter 10 at the beginning two years every series I listened most of my sermons are Matthew chapter 10 verse 16 a and then it's like it takes years and years ago so that's gonna kill the church right there so that'll keep it small then I'm 29 I don't know anything yet so you know that'll keep it small and I have tourettes I don't know if you know this probably not cuz we've already known each other for 20 minutes so I grew up with Tourette syndrome which if you're keeping track is not the way to be the coolest guy in school all right it's I do these random habits and I swear to myself of Prayer like I would be sitting in school doing a test and exam in a room full of people an entire room and to be dead silent and I would just go and I'd swear like ah all right and it would echo out and everyone is listening now this is not the way you're gonna preach this is not gonna be good if randomly you do that it's never gonna work if you've ever been to South Surrey alright which mostly probably haven't it's a perfect place I mean these people are perfect but nothing wrong with them they drive perfect cars they have perfect marriages they're all rich their houses are perfect and I'm gonna go in there and plant the church and I'm twitching around with my face now you can see I do this in my face that's like residue left over this ain't gonna work man and I remember listening sitting with my mentor and he says listen because the spirits in it here's the deal it will work and I'll tell you why you'll give these perfect people permission to be broken to be lost to be a mess and when you do they will admit it to God there'll be a poverty of spirit and then they'll actually meet Jesus versus what they think they know now and that's what started to happen these perfect people began to come in and listen to me switching around and we're doing any sets the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed that's not you that's him you try to do it in your own power try to reach your kid that's strayed from God in your own power but if I just do this enough and I tweak this enough and I buy them this book and I make sure that this is all you have it's just him Holy Spirit move move move move change my kid reach my spouse whatever whatever it is it ain't gonna work no strategy is gonna work we just did an Easter service none of it should have worked I got up preach for couple minutes people we had 11 people signed up for baptism on Easter Sunday between the two services and what started to happen is people start to come down and by the time the time was over there was 56 people who've been baptized on the spot we're talking about in their Easter clothes in their Easter clothes like just walking up with their dresses there's a - 64 65 year old couple how's that happen just walk it up in their Sunday best all right they were just gonna go out for lunch afterwards I got as good a friend all right they're soaking wet going home and their Easter best-ranked it's like there was a there was a couple that came in there was literally a couple that came in and they they had they knew nobody they walked into the service were singing listening sir Bubba and then looked over the people next to them and said can you watch our children we're gonna go up and get baptized now on the spot that is not safe or good practice for any of you going oh it sounds like a great idea that's dumb you're a stranger you look nice take my children sure we're sitting in our we have a debrief every Tuesday morning a couple weeks ago literally here's here's the spirit God at work I stood up and preached this I don't even know what I was talking about for 10 minutes there's just a little thought little little devotional thought on a Sunday because we were doing what we do worship Sunday and and then I went and sat down we went to our debrief on Tuesday morning and our min person said we need to we need to train the ushers to get people to receive Christ and I was like why and they're like cuz I said I didn't even invite anyone to receive Jesus on Sunday and they go I know but people did they just walked up to the ushers and said hey can I receive Jesus can you lead me to Jesus and the ushers aren't trained they're like bucket right they're like I don't know how to do what are you talking about I just hand the bag around right but here's the thing the Spirit drops and then you're faithful enough to respond to it this is life change on the spot I'm talking about right here he's working to anoint you to do something with your life beyond living for for the weekend getting a raise trying to get ahead of your buddy even a nicer car more vacation time get a beer house raise your kids better than her bigger than this all that stuff is so temporal and shallow he goes here's what I want you to live for other people my glory and other people the people around you not you so we're humble because it's not about us it's about him secondly Romanick talks about the idea of just staying hungry we got to stay hungry for this this will wane over time you will you will leave here and by the parking lot your mind will start to drift from this mission how do you stay hungry how do you care about this Wednesday afternoon how do you care about this this this call to bring good news to the poor and bind up the broken heart and proclaim Liberty to the captives and open up the brow do you gonna care about how do you gonna care because our hearts overtime drift from stuff I was reading him in in Matthew where Jesus looks at his disciples any any Indies give a picture of God the Father and he says he knows every hair on your head he keeps counted you know that passage right he knows every hair on your head think about that for a second how many of you you have kids this is how much God cares okay you have kids how many of you have ever sat down raise your hand and counted the hairs on your kid's head how many counted them I mean if you have keep your hand down because I'm gonna think it crazy anyway but here's the deal none of you have none of you have why because you don't care you don't care he does he loves your kids more than you do see every single one of us tonight can go home I got my smallest she's five years old her name is Bella I can go home and count every era Bella's head the average size Ivers of 140,000 hairs I look that up for you and so I could go home tonight and spend I don't know how long would take 12 hours to sift through every single hair I could do it you could do it but you don't because you don't care like he cares by the time you know this as the kids my first kid writes and she's traveling with me her book her little here little baby book it's this big it's got everything in it it's got her first eyelashes we got that sealed down we got her footprints in Princeton we got everything from this girl all right her first words her first little throw up we froze it and we've got it everything's like oh it's a sanctuary on the first kid man the first kid then I had a second one I got a third one listen my third one her book I'm not kidding you this is a true story it's empty there is nothing in it zero and she weekly I'm not kidding you two to three times will pull this little stool up beside where we keep these books in the cupboard and she'll go and she'll open up the and she'll bring it to us and go can we start this now all right cuz I don't care you don't care anymore it's your third Cape you're trying to survive man trying to breathe just get out of my face he cares more about your kids and you do he cares more about you than you do this is where the gospel becomes beautiful see what do we see in Jesus you got a cross up here that's not that's not a stetic that's it that's everything cuz what does it say is that you couldn't do it you could not earn this nothing you could do could earn your way to him so what did he have to do humble himself be hungry enough to come and die for you and he brutally died for you because you could never he counted every hair in your head and he said I care so much about these people I'm gonna send my son he's gonna die in their place because they could never do it and not only did he die he took on the sin he took on the wrath of God for you so that you don't have to experience this this is what I started to clue into when I was 17 oh my gosh I could not earn this Jesus did it for me I need to come under I need to believe in him I need to trust him I need to give my life to Him and some of you you're here and never even you don't you don't see you see the cross is aesthetic you know what that cost is doing it's preaching at you every time you see it it's saying you could not earn this so I had to come and do it for you and now the Spirit of the Lord because he died and he rose again from death to give us life can give you life can empower you to be transformed to have power to change your marriage yes to work harder yes to defeat the porn addiction yes to stop sleeping with your girlfriend yes power that's what we need and that's what he's offering because that's true and only because that's true and so we have to stay hungry because we got to start to care like he cares that's the point when you leave here and your heart starts to drift go oh my gosh he counted the hairs on my head what if I cared about my neighbor my spouse my kid my co-worker like he cares about me what if I cared like he cared in the last thing Lohmann ik talks about is yes you got to stay hungry and hungry and hungry you guys stay hungry for God you got to stay hungry for the Bible right too hungry for the scriptures I love how like people had their Bibles out I just love that just like are you hungry for this cuz you know the only thing you're gonna be able to talk to your co-worker about is what you you read here you proclaim the only thing you're gonna know what does Jesus say in the Gospel of Matthew says what you hear in the dark that's where you're to proclaim in the light what I whispered to you but there's an assumption that you can actually hear him can you do you even hear him anymore can you hear him talk to you can you hear him whisper to you because if you can you got to be obedient to it I I was asked to come and speak at a conference in Toronto in October and I went and I remember sitting there and I listened to the first speaker and I listened to the second speaker and I looked to the guys who were next to me because I was third up and I said I can't preach this message and they said why and they said because I said because I just listened to them preach and I'm about to get up and say some way different stuff than that and they're like what do you mean I'm like well I just like I feel like God's basically saying hey look a bunch of you in this room who are pastors probably shouldn't be in ministry anymore and the best thing for your church is that if you just fire yourself and there's other people in this room that you think you're not fit for ministry but God's actually calling you to have a very unique role and you're about to leave and not care about it anymore but God has you here for a reason and they said well then you got to preach that and like I don't know if that's gonna go over well like I don't know if after I preach it they're not gonna like it anymore and you're gonna go on the website and you'll be able to click on every other sermon except mine it will be blacked out true story I don't know if that's gonna happen and they said well you got to do it what did God tell you to do I said well he whispered to me in the dark so snoozing so I got it but I did that and afterwards what started to happen people started to walk forward and one guy walks up to me and he was weeping and he gave me a big hug and he looked at me because you don't understand he goes I was walking by this building I was gonna leave ministry tomorrow I have written my resignation I felt unworthy and I was walking by this building I didn't even know this thing was going on and I walked in and he goes I just took a nametag off the wall this ain't even my name clearly Sara it's not any cause and I walked in here and I was gonna leave ministry but but now some happen in the room and I have a purpose this is what happens we stay hungry for the scriptures what he whispered to me in the dark you gotta be faithful with that and lastly Romanick talks about the idea of always hustling as you leave here you're going to be tempted to not work hard not hustle I think there's a better ethic of war I mean look at verse look at verse 4 of Isaiah 60:1 they build up the ancient ruins they shall raise up the former desert devastations they show repair the ruined cities there is work to be done in this room you are the missionaries you are the ones who have to work if you don't do it no one will do it if you don't do it no one will do it there's work to be done and what we're gonna start to do is drift and not hustle so you have we got to be humble yeah we got to stay hungry but we gotta always hustle and work harder than everybody else listen you know what your competition is you know your competition is not the church down the street your competition is the world that surrounds you vying at every moment for the minds of the people in your life and your life you are getting preached at at every moment here's what sexuality is here's what money's form here's what family is every time you turn on the radio or go by a billboard it's preaching a reality to you and the kingdom of God goes no no you either belong to that world or you belong to this world and once this world has changed you then you need to rebuild you need to work hard we have um we have a bunch of Millennials that work for us which is an interesting challenge because millenials are very entitled Bunch all right they only do jobs that fit the wolf of their soul and oftentimes I sit with these Millennials and I'm like man if I sent you to a normal like I'm not talking ministry I'm talking a normal place of work like the places you guys work all right you would last to lunch with your backpack on and your toque what does it mean to work tirelessly not to earn it but because it's been earned for you we work to rebuild for what he ends in verse 4 but on the devastation of many generations you can reverse a legacy you can change your city how you have a generation of kids who love and serve Jesus who come up that you love that you disciple that you show the way to this is your hot white hot why and some of you are not living it all you're living for is the cabin that you want to get redo in your kitchen get in the better car upgrading your whatever and you're gonna start to drift as you walk to the parking lot he's gone I'm calling you so why don't we stand together I want to put before you the challenge of Isaiah 61 some of us in this room are not living this out some of you in this room you've never the spirit has never got ahold of you you've never responded to the work of the Spirit as much as he's whispered and called and tried to do a work in your life you have resisted and said I'm not I'm not one of those I'm not a Christian I I'm here because my spouse brought me here because my kids are here whatever but maybe today like I did when I was 17 you just feels just like something's something's different with connecting this is the day you turn it all around that you gettin power for something great beyond yourself and then others of you are here and you're like oh man I've been a Christian most of my life will just never deliver this stuff out never been on mission like this to reach my neighbor and my coworker the brokenhearted the captive but today can be a day where that turns around so we're gonna have a prayer team come up as Pastor Daniel invites you every week to engage with this prayer team and if you fit either of those camps you're someone who goes kay today's the day I want to come to know Jesus man look at this work he did for me I can't I can't deny it anymore I can't then we invite you to come forward they will pray for you they will guide you love on you lead you and then if you're a Christian and you're here and you're like I need to I need to get on mission maybe for the first time of my life I got to wake up man i am i want to just reset then they'll pray for you too and so as we worship call you to come forward to get prayer for those two things pray with me father

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

Views: 16,231

Rating: 4.6842103 out of 5

Keywords: Crossroads

Id: qkSeYtcSenk

Length: 47min 39sec (2859 seconds)

Published: Sun May 01 2016