Arise in Calling and Grace

Well, good morning again.

God is always so good and we're going to jump right into this

today. I believe God has something for us before we do. Real quick,

next Saturday, there is a motorcycle and car show that's going to,

that's going to help our food ministry. And so we'd invite you to be a

part of that $20. There's going to be food trucks and events and

different, different things. You can take part, be a part of this.

And again, it's gonna go. The proceeds are gonna go to help our food ministry.

It'll be over here on May 2nd over here in our parking lot. If

you're interested in like antique cars and motorcycles, it's gonna be a good day, so

come and be a part of that. Okay, if you'll stand with me, we're gonna

go to Ephesians chapter 4. As we continue to nudge along in

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

the next part of our series. Here arise. So let's read with some

gusto today. Here we go. As a prisoner for the

Lord, then I urge you to live a life

worthy of the call. Be

completely humble and gentle. Be patient

bearing with one another in love. Make every

effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the

bond of peace. There is one body and

one Spirit. Just as you were called to one

hope when you were called one Lord, one

faith, one baptism, one, one God and

Father of all, who is over all and through

all and in all. But to each one of us

grace has been given. As Christ appointed,

so Christ himself gave the apostles, the

prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and the

teachers to equip his people for works of

service so that the body of Christ may be built

up until we reach unity in the faith

and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become

mature, attaining to the whole measure of the

fullness of Christ. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it

brings life. I pray, Lord that it would transform us from the inside out

today. God, we love you and we thank you for the gift of your Holy

Spirit in Jesus name. And everybody said amen. Amen. Well,

we are continuing along and real quick, Nick, I just wanna say I'm so glad

you're here today, brother. God is so good. He is so good.

Our protect.

We are continuing along in this three part series of the year

under the banner of Abide. Our first section of the series is Abide.

And we are in week two of this second section which is

Arise. And so in the Abide section, one of the things that

we majored on and identified was that Jesus is

our source. He is the source of everything we do.

He's the source of our life. And the Word tells us that he is the

vine and we are the branches where the branches.

And in that dynamic, there's some budding that begins to happen on

those branches. And this section of arise is addressing

that little budding that starts to happen on the branches as we truly

submit our lives to the Source who is Jesus

Christ. You know, I often tell the students at the

school that I really don't prefer them to take tests

using just Cliff notes because one day they're gonna

be raised up to be heart surgeons. And does anybody wanna go under heart

surgery with somebo who just read the cliff Notes to get there? No.

There's a journey. We want them to know the whole thing. And so if you're

anything like me, I have a propensity to go from the abide

section of this source drawing from the Lord. And I wanna

jump right over a rise into advance and I wanna start doing something

I always wanna get out there and start doing. But there's this section in

the middle. Before we get to the privilege of going out and doing things that

we must address and we must lock into. And so

that's kind of where we are. So

the Source he is. And faith is revealed by how much you

depend. And so we are drawing from this idea that

dependency readily recognizes. I am not

ready in my own strength. I am not

ready in my own strength. The Lord never

puts you in a position and says, now I want you to draw on what

you brought to the table. You alone, your strength. And I want you to

go and accomplish X, Y and Z. No, we draw

from the Source and he is the one who gives us.

And I believe that this is the first

response with regard to maturity for

believers. This is the first response that we have if we're maturing

in the Lord, we understand. I cannot do this on

my own. Now the world around us teaches us a very different

story. It says, build upon your life, grow in

stature and might learn all the lessons and go out and be independent

and do yourself. Some of you got teenagers, 17, 18, 19 year old, and they

cannot wait to get out of your house. They cannot wait to run out the

door. But if you've been around for a while, you'll

notice that around maybe 21, 22, 23, they start

realizing, man, I had some things in that teenage

stage that I don't have anymore. You know, when that telephone bill starts coming,

that house bill starts Coming. When those things, those grocery bills start coming, all of

a sudden, they start knocking at the door. Then let them start having kids.

And the apology start happening. Mom, I am so sorry that

I treated you the way I did. Daddy, I'm so sorry for the things that

I put you through. We want to sit with God and then

immediately go do something for God. But there's this middle space

that we cannot skip. Does anybody have one of these in their house?

This is called a messy drawer. This is called

a dump drawer. A messy drawer.

This is the place where we put those random items that we find,

but we can't quite get rid of them and get them to the trash. Cause

they're not quite trash. But I don't know exactly what. Where to put it. So

it goes into the messy drawer. We have one of these and six

more. And the kitchen

can be completely clean. The counters can be wiped down, the dishes put

away. Everything looks right. And then you open

that drawer and it's chaos. It's batteries, rubber

bands, it's nails, it's cords,

it's old receipts, it's things you forgot you even had. And

even in a completely clean kitchen, you have this messy

drawer. Because the mess is hidden and it's not dealt

with. It's just contained. And a lot of us will live our

lives in the exact same way. The external portions of

our life look clean because we've worked hard to make sure

that anybody comes into that environment, they see a clean

life. But really what's happening on the inside

is there's a mess. Listen, when you come to Christ

and you get to the part of surrender where you say, you're my source, it

doesn't mean that you have holy amnesia. In all of the mess of your life

just disappears. The mess is there. And the mess

needs to be addressed. The mess needs to be

addressed. And so we've become really

good at managing appearances while avoiding

transformative work. We've been really good about

managing our appearances while avoiding the transformative

work of the Lord. God can call you, he can

anoint you, he can even use you. But if there are areas

of your life that remain undealt with,

eventually that drawer is going to fly open.

From the pressures of leadership, responsibilities

and pressure arise is a space where

God deals with you. He

deals with me. Not just what people see, but. But what

actually is happening underneath the surface and in the

drawer. I believe that if you have professed your

faith in Jesus Christ, that the God who breathes stars has a

calling on your life. Every Person here has an

assignment. And my call is not the same as Deanne's call. My call

is not the same as Barbie's call. My call is not the same

as Hannah's call or Sam's call. We all have

different calls in our lives, different things,

different assignments that the Lord has given us. And pertaining to our

call, Romans 11 says this. God's gift and his call

are irrevocable. So the great thing about this is that the call

on your life, despite your actions and your attitude and what

you do, what God has designed you to do, is locked in. It's

irrevocable. You know, we used to sing a song that said, I fall down and

I get up. I fall down and I get up. The saints are just sinners

who fall down and get up. Anybody fell down and got up this past

week? Anybody willing to admit that? Anybody fall down and

get up this morning? Anybody fall down

and get up within this worship service? Okay, yeah. I mean, we fall down

and we get up. But here's the thing. His call on your life is

irrevocable. That means what he's determined to do in the call

on your life. It's not changing. That's good news. The bad

news is this. While calling is guaranteed, maturity

is not. While calling is guaranteed,

maturity is not. And calling doesn't cover up your mess. It

exposes. Exposes it. This is why Paul says

this. He says, walk worthy of the

calling you've received. This is an action

point. We are supposed to proactively walk

worthy of the calling that we've received

on our lives. It's not just about what's visible and what others can

about what's happening on the inside of our lives. And here's what I want us

to really zone in on today. Your character

carries your calling. Your character

carries your calling. So let's look at a definition of

character. Character is the inward maturing of

Christlikeness that is evident in our outward

obedience to God. So it's the inward maturing

of Christ likeness. And this entire portion of this series

that's gonna carry us through the summ with the messages that the

people are going to bring from this platform are going to be catering

to this maturing in Christ, this maturing

of what's happening on the inside, which is what is this arise

section. So character is who you are when nobody is

watching you. Character holds you when the pressure

hits. Character is what determines whether you can sustain

what God gives you. Now we'll celebrate calling all day long.

But God is Developing our character on

the inside. And here's what I want us to really understand. A

big calling paired with immature character is a dangerous

combination. A big calling paired with

immature character is a dangerous combination.

I mentioned this last week. I believe that there is a

boldness rising up in the church. Large C. Okay,

possibly small C. There's a boldness. And that boldness that's rising up

right now is not a bad thing. It's actually a really. A really good thing.

But if that boldness is not rooted in spiritual

maturity, it becomes dangerous. I

believe by and large what we are lacking in

the church is maturity. We can see

what the outcome should be, but we have little idea of how

to really actually get there. So rather than wait and respond

from a place of spiritual maturity, we knee jerk

respond and lack the spiritual discipline of restraint

and end up doing a lot more harm than good.

Here's the thing. Some of us are not able to come up to the same

standard that we project on other people.

So let me give you an example of this.

The question that we're dealing with in our culture

I put up last week is, will I be formed,

world I live in, or will I be formed by the

kingdom to which I belong? So

here's a microphone that I speak into. But if I do this.

Okay, you want me to do it again? No. Okay,

here's the thing. When we

amplify voices that are not spiritually

mature, then all we do is create

resounding noise that makes nonsense.

When we elevate and give a platform to people

who have not walked through the process of sanctification

and walk through, are not actively walking through the process of

sanctification, they begin to

handle truth and begin to try to lead people in a

direction that they themselves don't have a handle on.

In other words, listen. Is the

clarity of the lies that the world

is giving? Is the clarity better than the

confusion and the distorted truth that we try to give as believers in

the church? All because the

packaging and how it's delivered is

not done with a degree of spiritual maturity.

I don't want us to be a people who go out and

use our platform. And when I say platform, I don't mean church

on Sunday stage. That certainly is a platform.

But I'm talking about your job. I'm talking about that thing the

Lord's called you to, the place you're going, the people you rub elbows with,

your family, these platforms that God gives you. If

we are not allowing the God of the universe to do a work

within our lives to transform us into levels

of spiritual maturity, then we will not be ready to

render the truth in the right way. If we're not

careful, we will cause damage and destruction to believers all around us.

Then there's confusion and chaos. God is not a God of confusion

and chaos. He does not birth it, but his people. Certainly

with meddling things, they can cause chaos. We can cause chaos.

So this is. Is. It's crucial. Now, it's true that God

is not looking for ability. We say he's looking for

availability. But availability is not just saying,

here I am. Availability is saying, lord, change

me form me. Help me.

Who needs the help from the Lord Jesus Christ, who needs help from a

gracious God. Look around the room. We all need help. Everybody say, help me.

God did not just call you to do something. He's committing

to growing you in him so that you look more like Him.

We must recognize that the only reason that we have been

given a platform to do anything in the kingdom is

because of his grace. This is what Paul says about his

position in first Corinthians. He says, but by the grace

of God, I am. So

all of those things you read about Paul, how he was able to stand

up boldly and to proclaim and write those letters, it all

was. It was all a derivative. It was derived from this

grace that God gave him. But here's what we we like to read the letters

and we take things from the letters, but we forget the position

that Paul was in when he was writing these letters. Paul was

under great levels of persecution. He was in

chains, in prison when he was writing a lot of these letters.

Guys, you want to say, here I am. Send me. Are you ready for the

dispensation of grace in your life to handle the persecution and

suffering that's going to come your way? Or are you just

wanting to be cushy and comfortable as a believer

and just pout off little one nugget truths that you just think

these things make sense to me and have illuminated my life and I poo poo

the rest of the Word away while he's not doing anything in my life.

Y' all are quiet today. Grace is not what just

saves you, it's what sustains you. In other words, listen to this. Look here.

You are not saved by grace and then sustained by effort.

You're not saved by grace and then sustained by how good you do,

how well you perform. We're saved by

grace so that then we can pull from and

draw from that same grace in order to do the things

that God's called us to do. And in that big picture of grace, he's

doing spiritual surgery on the inside of

our lives. Let me give you a picture of this in the Scripture. If

you are on our reading plan this week, you read this. But this is Isaiah,

chapter six. It says this. In the year that

King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne,

high and exalted, with the train of his royal robe

filling the templ above him seraphim stood. Each

one had six wings. With two wings he covered his face. With two

wings, he covered his feet. With two wings he flew.

And one called out to another, saying, holy, holy,

holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is

filled with his glory. And the foundations of

the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out. And the temple was

filling with smoke. Then I said, woe is me,

for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean

lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. For my

eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then

one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in

his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He

touched my mouth with it and said, listen

carefully. This has touched your lips. Your

wickedness is taken away and your sin is atoned

for and forgiven. Then I heard a voice

of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for

us? Then I said, here I am. Send

me. Okay, let's look at this. Okay. Isaiah is

here, and he is witnessing the glory of God right before

him. And he acknowledges the sovereignty

of God. This is why he says, woe is me. He's acknowledging,

this is powerful. This is glorious. This is

illuminating. And in the illumination, he

recognizes, you are God. I am not God. I

am standing before you with unclean lips.

In other words, I am not worthy to do

anything for you. And the angel of the Lord takes

a hot coal and touches Isaiah's lips.

Have you ever had a hot coal touch your face?

Okay. What would be the natural response if a

hot coal touched your face? What is it?

Ouch. That hurts. So

this tells me that in this section of Arise,

one of the reasons why we jump from abide to advance is

that we're not willing for the hot cold to touch us in places

that we need to grow in and that we need to mature in

and that we need to get frank. And so

Isaiah is saying, I'm a man of unclean lips.

And the seraphim comes and touches him with the coal and says, your sin

has been atoned for. You have been forgiven.

So that when the Lord says, who will we send? Isaiah is

in a place now to say, here I am.

Send me. Are you with me? We have to

recognize that he is God and he is glorious

and that we need transformation in our own lives before

we try to go out and change other people.

God is good.

Before Isaiah said, send me, God dealt with his lips.

Calling came and then the cleansing.

Here's what I want us to understand. God wants you

to be healed and he wants you to be whole.

Arise is not about doing more, it's about becoming

whole. This is where God begins to illuminate the places in

our lives that do not look like him. Do you have any places in your

life that don't look like Jesus? The areas

where we're insecure, the areas where we're wounded or

driven by pride or we're trying to prove something. Guys. We so

often want to go out and conquer things and there's so many

deficiencies and inside us, but dependency readily

recognize. I can't do it on my own strength.

And so we're broken. Does God use broken people?

Yeah, he uses broken people. But it was never about

the broken vessel becoming the victor. It was always about

Jesus being the champion. Jesus is the

champion. He is the one that is exalted. He is the one

that is glorified for whatever take takes place in our lives.

And here's the grace in the process of the

Lord using broken vessels, he

simultaneously heals them as well. He's restoring

them and making them whole. This is what 2 Corinthians says.

My grace says the Lord is sufficient for you.

For my power is made perfect in weakness.

His power is not made perfect in your strength.

So if you have been trying so hard to do things in your strength.

His power is not made perfect in that realm. His power is

made perfect when you acknowledge I've got weak areas that need some

help. And guys, I have to tell you, you're rubbing elbow's right next to

somebody who has some weak areas that need help

and he's willing to do it. He says my grace is

sufficient for you. How? Okay, you ready for this? How

arrogant of us. How

arrogant of us to believe anything else rather

than his grace is sufficient for us.

How arrogant of us to believe that he's not

big enough, insufficient enough to come in

and do a mighty work in our lives to

transform us and to heal us and make us whole in the world.

I'm talking about those Things that are buried in the back of that messy drawer.

I'm talking about those things that you don't want anybody to see or know about.

How dare us be so arrogant to think that the God of

the universe is not sufficient enough to come into

our lives and to heal us and make us whole in those

ways.

I knew at an early age that I had a calling on my life for

ministry. When I was 18 or 19, Pastor Wayne took

us to a conference in Atlanta. And I was there, and I

knew I had a calling on my life. I was working with kids ministry here,

and I was fresh out of high school, and I just knew I had a

calling on my life. And I started dancing at this conference.

And I can't really dance, but I tried to hang with them,

and I danced. And this one pastor saw me dancing, and he

came to me, said, you're a great dancer. Why don't you come be a youth

pastor at my church? Now, don't ask me how the

connection happened between, you're a great dancer and become a youth pastor. But I

heard, why don't you come be a youth pastor? Well, this makes a lot of

sense to me. I'm called into ministry, Barbie. Somebody's coming to

me. Thus saith the Lord. Here I am.

I went and got in my car, drove to South Carolina. They gave me a

platform to speak from on a Sunday. And I'll tell you, I was the only

white guy in the church. And I'll tell you this much,

there is a videotape evidence of this message. I can't find it. It's probably

buried in one of my messy drawers. But if you watch

this tape, I've watched it. There ain't nothing coming out of my

mouth that makes any sense whatsoever. But every

time I said something, the congregation went hallelujah.

Praise the Lord. Amen. Do you know that you can

have a crowd shout amen and you not be speaking truth

propelled by the crowd in the congregation? Man, I thought I was the cat's

pajamas to that stage, I'll tell you that much. I thought I was bringing real

solid truth. So I drove back, just so excited. And I went to

Pastor Meek's house, Ronnie Meek's house that night. And I went right up

to him, and Ronnie's like a dad to me. And I was like, hey, listen,

I'm moving to South Carolina to be a youth pastor at this church. And you

know what he did? He laughed in my face.

He laughed in my face and said, no, you're not.

Sometimes you need People to love you enough to look at you and

laugh in your face and say, no, you're not. Now, that

hurt. Wait a minute. You're supposed to champion me. Aren't

you supposed to be saying all the positive things? You know, Ronnie's known for

loving people. Really? Well, I don't understand why the. I don't understand the words that

are coming out of your mouth. Okay? I'm like, what is going on here?

But do you know that I needed in that moment, basically,

somebody to look at me and say, you don't go from abide

to advance. There's some things that you need, some equipping that you

need. I had no idea what my. What the. What the trajectory

the Lord had for me in terms of positions. I knew I had a call

in my life, and the Lord said, I want to mature you. And I'm so

grateful that I have people in my life who love me enough to say, slow

down. Let the Lord do his work.

Listen, Grace will close doors just as frequently as it

opens them. Grace will close doors

just as frequently as he opens them. I will

counsel people sometimes that will come into my office and they'll say, listen,

I'm waiting for God to open a door, and I don't know what to do.

And you know what I say? I say, the steps of the righteous man are

ordered. And so here's what I

advise you to do. Take the next step. Because I believe in

a God who opens doors, but I also believe in a God who slams them

in your face. And let me tell you, as somebody who's had many doors slammed

in my face, that begins to refine your path real fast. Real

fast. So you step out in faith and say, lord, I just trust you that

you're gonna slam this door in my face and be ready for him to do

it if he's gonna do it. Or we wait and see if he'll keep the

door open. But Grace knows how to close doors. It knows how to close

doors. And sometimes the most spiritual thing in is not the opportunity to

step into, but it's the one that God keeps you from.

God's not looking for strength. He's looking for surrender. And

the development of your character is a major part

of your equipping. The development of your character

is a major, major part of your equipping.

What God builds in you determines what he can trust you

to do and what he can do through you. God's not just preparing you

to go something. He's preparing you for who you're going

to be. Now, I selected David and Saul to talk just a little bit about

today because I believe that they're famous enough and most people know these stories. But

there are a slew of characters in the scripture that you could

go to, and you'll find this exact same prescription. It sounds like God

kind of knows what he's doing when he's teaching us in his Word. So

David and Saul both had the exact same call. It was to

be king of Israel. Now, Saul, he

was chosen, he was anointed. But here was the problem. He

was elevated quickly. He was elevated quickly.

And because he was elevated quickly, he was insecure,

he was impatient, and he was driven by the opinions of people.

In contrast to Saul, David was also chosen. He

was also anointed. But he had time to develop and

mature. And let me tell you, that development and that maturity, what did it look

like? It looked like. It looked like his adversary coming after him. It

looked like waiting in caves. It looked like having to be extremely

patient and waiting on the Lord. It looked like running

for his life. How many have been told, God

says, this is what. Here's a promise. This is what you're going to be doing.

But, man, in that season from A to B, there's a lot of stuff

that takes place. And in all of this time in David's life, what's

happening is he is becoming a surrendered person, he's becoming a

faithful person, and he is becoming secure in his identity

in the Lord. David embraced the grace process

of maturity before he ever touched his platform.

David had to hide in the caves. He had to wait. He had pressure. He

had all of these things. Here's what Romans chapter five says

to us as believers. Therefore, since we have

been justified through faith, we have a peace with God through our Lord

Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith

into this grace in which we now stand.

And we boast in the hope of glory of God, of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also listen to this glory

in our sufferings because we know that

suffering produces perseverance,

perseverance, character,

character, hope. And hope does not put us to

shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the

Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. And so the starting

place is suffering. The starting place is this suffering

and the suffering. In other words, I want to fulfill God's

call of my life, Keith. And so, guess what? I've got

a mess inside my drawers. I've got. I need. I need. Boy, that sounded kind

of funny.

The next thing I was going to say is, I want you to see my

mess in my drawers, but that didn't sound too good either. So

anyway,

hey, some of you are walking around smelling like you got some mess in your

drawers. I mean, that's just. This is the fact of the matter. But here's

the thing, brother. I need somebody who loves me enough

that can rumble around in that drawer of all of those things that I

just. I've held onto. What things? I'm talking about the people who've walked out

of my life. I'm talking about the rejection that I've struggled through.

I'm talking about the coping things, mechanisms that I tend

to gravitate to. I'm talking about the people who've

walked out of my life. I'm talking about the opportunity that I was passed up

on. I'm talking about that platform that was promised me, but I never got to

do it. I'm talking about all of these things that I have cataloged in my

brain and I've kept in this drawer. I need somebody who

loves me enough, who will walk alongside me to say, God

has truth to render for all these lies that you're believing

that are coming out of this drawer. And so part of the

idea here is that we have got to be willing. We've got to be

willing to be exposed, to walk through that suffering. And it

doesn't feel good, guys. Does it feel good to revisit old pain and

hurt? It doesn't feel good. But that's where perseverance

kicks in. And so I need somebody alongside me that will help me,

Doug, to persevere and say, no, keep taking the step. Because guess what?

He has a high call for you. And guess what? As you

persevere, what they say it's shallow in their

opinions compared to the source that you chose to draw from. Are you with

me? Are you seeing the pattern here? You start with the source so that he

obliterates every lie. You expose the things that are going inside because

he wants you to be healed. He wants you to be. And

then when perseverance takes on its work, guess what happens? Your character

starts to develop. Your character starts to develop. And as you're

walking forward in this character, you begin to see hope arise in you,

that he is who he says he is. He is the God. And you from

that position, when you do get an assignment and you do get to advance all

of this stuff, this foundational work has been done in your life

so that you have something to actually stand on when you're

delivering the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ, he

wants to do a work in your life.

And so the arise season of our lives is where

God slows you down. He exposes things, he heals things, and he

removes things to prepare you for what's ahead.

Ephesians 4 says that he's given leaders to the church. To do

what? To equip the saints until we all

reach maturity. To equip the saints until we

all reach maturity. Another word used in that scripture is

unity. We reach unity. So

the job of leaders. Now, I want you to first know that leaders are not

exempt from this. The leaders that you

are following should be practicing believers who are

also walking through the rise section. The other thing I want to say is it's

not like arise is a start and then finish. I have done the arise

section, and I am done. And I am just out here in advance. It is

a cycle. You go back to the source, and guess what? Another peel

of that onion layer comes to fruition. And then you walk back

through this sanctification process. And then you go into the advanced section,

and guess what? You go back to the abide, and you're in the source again,

and you're drawing from the source. And then guess what? Then you have this arise

section where he's identified another layer. Are you with me? It's a

continual cycle. And part of the job of leaders is to

equip you until we reach a sense of maturity. That

means you need somebody in your life who's going to say, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, not yet. You need somebody in your life that says, you know,

what a good idea would be here. And it's not just my idea. It's actually

biblical, is that you actually rest. Slow down.

You're doing too much. You're saying the wrong thing. You know, I

understand that you want so much to speak and have a platform, but maybe God

needs to do some internal work first, some internal surgery. We need people

in our life that will help us to tell you this

portion of maturity. God's goal was never just to call

you. His goal is to grow you up, to move you from

immaturity to maturity. Guys, at the first start of this, you're drinking

milk. He wants you to eat meat. The goal is to get to a place

where you're eating meat. From instability to stability, from

independence to complete dependence on him.

God is not building a crowd. He's not into fanfare.

He's building a mature body of believers. Maturity is what

allows Calling to function, function in the way that it was designed.

And so when it comes to this messy drawer that we all have,

there's a reason why we hold on to these things.

And the honest answer is, most of it is actually not trash.

It's useful. We just don't know where to put it and how to

apply it. And when you look back on your life, you

will see a thread. The Lord has me in a season of watching his

steady hand thread a tapestry, a story together. Can I

tell you, it's not just the glory good stuff. There's bad

and ugly in that thread that help make a beautiful picture. He

is a God who knows how to take ashy situations and make them

beautiful. Anybody testify to that?

So when you look back on your life, you watch this

thread, moments that didn't make sense, seasons that

felt like they were on delay, people who hurt you

and you don't understand why. The closed doors, the hard

conversations. And we don't know where to put all that stuff. But

God was using all of that to heal you,

form you, and mature you into who he wants you to

be. Now, I don't believe inerrantly

that we have a truth problem as believers. I don't.

I do not believe. Listen to me. I do not believe that we have a

truth problem because truth stands on its own.

This truth is going to prevail, whether my voice is attached to it or

not. Jesus is the way the truth,

whether I say or do anything, has nothing, is not.

My involvement is not a prerequisite to this truth being true.

I don't believe we have a truth problem. I believe truth is going to stand

without our voice. I don't believe we have a truth problem. I believe we have

a maturity problem. People are

speaking the truth without being matured by it. And when truth is carried by

immature people, it lacks compassion, it lacks

wisdom, it lacks endurance, it can even lack love. We love

to go to those places in the Scripture where Jesus is turning tables and he's

saying sharp truth. All of that is true. All of that is right. But do

you pay attention to the embodiment of the same

truth, the actions of the same truth, the character of

Jesus Christ, not isolated in that moment.

But do we pay attention to the character of Christ in his entire

ministry that we know of? I see a Jesus who is

clothed in compassion. I see him clothed in love. He doesn't

shy away from standing for the truth or speaking the truth. But what we like

to do is parcel out that section of his attribute and Apply it into

places instead of using the whole thing.

I believe that when we package the truth

as immature believers and we deliver it, the non

believers decide to create their own truth and their own

reality, because those who are rendering the

truth to them do not look like, act like, or

actually live like the truth that they are saying out loud.

John the Baptist said, he must increase.

I must decrease. Paul said,

I die daily. And what we're going to learn when we

get to the advanced section is that if you guys

remember Kevin Oday's face more than

you remember the word that was proclaimed, then there is an

issue. There is a problem. The personality

should not usurp the truth. The

program, the lights, the sound, the beauty, all of this,

all of this is just a stage and a foundation to

leverage the truth so that it can be presented in an excellent way. But

if it gets lost in all of this, if it gets lost in

the personality and in the person, then we are doing something

devastatingly wrong to the commission that we have. It's not about

me. I must decrease. He

must increase. These guys, John the Baptist and

Paul, they were not driven by a platform. They were surrendered to the

point of death. And I would suggest if you are not willing

to die for the message you carry, you're not in a position to

carry it. How do I get to a position of wanting to

die for the message? I've got to walk through this season where he's doing

surgical, spiritual surgical, ser. I've got to

get to a place where I'm willing to say, woe is me.

My lips touch my lips. Lord, I am

unworthy to be in your presence. I'm unworthy to carry

the truth to this dying world. So that when

he then says, who will go

send me, Lord, because you've healed me, because you've

touched me, because you've refined me.

Revelation 3:20 says this. It says, here I am. I stand

Revelation 3:20

at the door and I knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.

And here's the picture. Worship team, you can come on back out. Here's the picture,

guys. I'm standing at this door. Jesus is here, and

he's knocking. And so many of our lives look like this.

A closed door. I've got this figured out. I don't need. I don't need

a savior. I don't need Jesus. But when

he's knocking at this door, the heart position should be

this one that invites him in. But

notice what this scripture Says it's not just

about salvation. It's about inviting him in

to sit down and eat. Listen, if you come over

my house and we sit down and eat, we're going to share

stories. We're going to share intimate connection together.

In other words, Jesus says, let me in. I've saved you.

Now let me get into the details and the depths of your

life so that I can heal you and make you whole.

He's knocking. Will you let

him in? About 12 years ago or so,

the Lord gave me a dream, and I've shared this dream before, so hold on

if you're hearing it again. I don't get

dreams very often, but this one stuck with me because it was a part of

my equipping. I was in the backyard, there

was a shed. And I remember walking into this shed. And when I walked into

this shed, there were some windows at the top of the shed, and there were

light beams coming down. And you know how you can see the light beams coming

through a window where there's dust laden. There was dust all in the air because

there was a woodworker in this shed and he was fat

at work. So I went into this shed, and I was curious to see

what was going on. And when I walked into the shed, there was a table

and there were these little figurines about this tall. And I was curious

to know, what is this little figurine? What is this little statue here that I'm

looking at? So I go there, and I look at this statue, and I see

all the intricate details of the statue, and I go, whoa,

Whoever created this, man, they're pretty good.

I mean, they're awesome. I mean, that's great. And I looked over at the next

statue and I noticed something. The next statue was

completely different than the first statue that I saw.

And the next statue, completely different. Same

intricacy, same attention to fine detail.

And I was mesmerized. And

as I would go forward in looking at these statues, and I would go down

the path, these statues, these figurines would get larger and

larger and larger. And the larger they got, the more

fine detail was a part. And I thought, this is

fabulous. I would stay moment by moment

staring at them. Well, after about

six, seven figurines or statues, I started to

realize, based on some of the detail, that these

statues represented some predominant people in my

life. I mean, I'm sure Pastor Barbie was in there.

I'm sure that Hal was in there. I'm sure that Ronnie

was in there. I mean, I'm talking about like pillars of my life are, like,

there. And in this most awesome

intricacy of all this detail. And I go, wow, this is amazing.

And all I wanted to do was stay and watch. But in the. In my

ear, I heard this woodworker, he's at work. And I

turn. And my amazement and enthrallment of all

these statues turned into a great curiosity, because I

thought to myself, if there's this much detail on all of these

statues, there must be a statue of me here somewhere.

And so I go over to the table and I say, hey,

excuse me. Where. Where's my statue? Where am I?

And graciously, the man working at the table looked up as

he continued to work, and he nodded his head toward a corner that was around

the way. So I turn around, and I'm excited because I'm about to

see my statue. And I turn around, and every other statue

I looked at had disappeared. And larger, more

massive statues appeared. And I was just

absolutely undone and in awe of what I

was seeing in the. And the detail, scope of every

statue and every person in my life. And I was

applauding, and I was so excited for what I saw in every person.

But as I went further and further toward the direction that the man was

pointing at, my curiosity, as it turned into

excitement and joy, then turned into frustration,

turned into anger, because I could not find myself.

Has anybody ever been looking for yourself and you can't find it?

And so I rush back to the table, and I'm

upset. And what I noticed about turning around and going back to the table is

all of a sudden, when I'm trying to find myself, I paid no attention to

any of the statues around me. I was locked in and trying to find

myself. And I was frustrated and angry, and I went back to the table, and

I pounded the table, and I said, where am I?

And the woodworker put down his tools, and he took his

hand and he pointed in the same direction with which he nodded. This time

I followed his arm. I followed his finger, and I made a

beeline straight to the corner to which he pointed. I walked over to the

corner, and I got to the corner, and when I got to the corner, I

stopped, and I looked down, and in that corner

was a small, little wooden trash can.

So I knelt down and I picked up this wooden trash can

about this big. And I turned around,

and with big alligator tears in my eyes, I went and set

this on the table because I had remembered all of the

intricate details, all of the things that everybody else had in their

statues. And here I am. And I went and I placed, placed that

trash can on the table and I looked at that woodsman and I said,

of all the things in this place, I'm a

trash can. And without

hesitation, this woodworker put

down his tools and he took this wooden

trash can and he held it over by the side and he took his

arm and he piled up all the scrap, scraps and

all the settling and all the dust and all the residue from all the

other statues and he scooped them into the trash can

and he set the trash can back on the table. And he looked

at me and he said, you see trash can?

I see refuge for broken people.

And I just dropped because in that

moment I needed the voice of the Creator to

change my perspective on the thing that I saw, the

way that he saw it. The reason I tell you this story

is because there's some of you that go from abide to advance.

And the reason that you can't be in the advanced section is because you're in

the advanced section thinking that you're a trash can. But

the part of the rise matures things in you, pulls

things out of you so that you can actually know who you are and

whose you are. God has an amazing plan for your

life. He's not forgotten about you. But let me tell you that the

reason that you exist is he wants you to look like him and you don't.

He wants to heal you in those places that you don't even know that you

need healing. He wants you to slow down enough and draw from the

source that he can say, I see you. And guys, some of you need

to be seen in a way that you never thought possible.

He has some incredible things to say about you. But

it's going to start with the acknowledgment of God. I

need you. I recognize your sovereignty. I need to draw

from your great glorious source. Would you guys stand with me this morning?

For those who are going to minister, come forward.

I believe that there are some people in here who have become

calloused and who have become numb to the move of God in their

life. You've been around the

platitudes and the Christianese loud long enough

that it's just become numb. And you need

a God, a real God, the

God who breathes stars to come and speak

radical truth in your life. Have you been in a place lately

where you go, God, I don't see. I don't even know where you are. Have

you been in a place where you've been executing the assignments. You've been giving

on your own strength. Are there

places in your heart that need to be healed?

Are there places back in the the deep past that you need to

seek forgiveness? Or you need to forgive someone for that? You just thought, I'm just

going to bury this under the rug and keep moving forward? No. God

wants to heal you and make you whole on this journey.

And he is available today to do just that.

You got needs. He's a star breather. He owns the cattle on the hill. You

can come as well. Let's worship as we come before our Father

in heaven.