Dream Big for the Glory of God - December 28, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6.19, Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me, so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

First thing I want to say, thank you all for your kindness. You know,

I haven't had an opportunity to express our gratitude, just the love that we've

experienced from the church.

It's been awesome. We first showed up. You guys have been so loving,

so kind. So we really appreciate you.

You know, the way this service is set up, there's certain things you get to say, you know.

And I was like, oh, there's no opportunity for me to say thank you.

And so thank you so much. Thank you guys for your love and support.

Thank you for all your prayers.

Usually, whenever I do anything, the first few months are usually very difficult for me.

I have been guilty of overstudying. The Bible says much study makes you worrisome, you know.

And teaching the six times a week that I get to teach, and I praise God for that.

I've just been putting way too much work in. You know, we haven't done anything

on a Saturday. I study every Saturday, wake up in the morning, study.

Wednesdays, I wake up in the morning, study, and get here. It's like a 12-hour

Wednesday every Wednesday.

And I was feeling just so depressed, super, super depressed,

down, because I was putting too much work in.

And then, you know, Christmas Eve, I'm here and I'm reading.

I can barely read. My mind's not working.

And I felt like God was just trying to get me to tap out. I was like,

Jevin, you're trying too hard, you know?

And that's been a problem of mine throughout the years. I can try too hard.

That's one of my things, you know? And so I told God, I'm done.

I'm done caring as much as I do. I'm done putting as much work in.

Then I felt this great peace fall upon me. And God's like, yeah,

that's what I'm trying to get you to do.

And so thank you guys for your prayers. We know that prayer works.

This is a great privilege to be able to serve God here and at The Rock too.

And I know I can't do it without his prayer. I can't do it without his prayer.

So thank you guys for your prayer. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your support.

As you get to know me, I do think big. I dream big. That's just the way I am.

I just, I'm all about doing great things.

I want to see God move in mighty ways. And I think that's how we should all think.

I think we should all be that way, right? It says it brings him much glory that

we bear much fruit. We should all have the attitude of hey surrender, right?

Whatever you want to use me for god I mean pray god if you want me to die a

martyr If you want me to die the second most horrible death the world has ever

seen just be with me in that time, right?

If you want to make it public and put it on tv, whatever you want to do That's

fine sign me up, you know, just make me strong prepare me for whatever you want

to use me for whatever it is But I do see in the scriptures that the prophets

those who are used for great things. They don't have easy lives years.

You know, the life is not super, super easy.

They go through many trials, but they stick with it.

And they become more and more like Jesus. And so I've got some thoughts here.

I remember thinking early on as a Christian, not trying to talk too much about

myself, you know, but this is so you get to know me.

You know, I remember listening to Christian music once I got saved.

I thought, oh, it's not as good as secular music.

So I prayed and I said, God, please make Christian music better.

Make it great. You know, for the first 10 years of my walk, I prayed for that.

And I said, you can even use me. And I said, I don't know how you do that.

I don't know. I don't have the talent. I don't have any ability.

It's interesting, though. He's been giving me songs throughout the years.

I'd also pray that God would make great movies to Christians. I got saved in 2001.

The movies in that time period were pretty bad. The Kendrick Brothers had not arrived yet, right?

And the movies were just bad. I found that a lot of the Christian movies that

were done in the 70s, 80s were a lot better than the 2000 movies.

Way better. And so I remember praying to God too Like God you can even use my

life You can even use me to make movies Again I didn't think he would do that

And then I prayed for another thing The Bible says eagerly desire the greater gifts

And the Bible says the prophecy is the greatest gift It's something I prayed

for a lot for too I said give me that gift God give me the gifts And I think you know.

There are so many amazing things that we can do for it. And some ideas are big.

Some are grand. You think of guys like George Mueller. If you don't know who

George Mueller is, read his biographies. He is an awesome guy.

These are the kind of guys you want to learn from. George Mueller's Amy Carmichael's Gladys L.

Words, the Hudson Taylors of the world, John Wesley. I don't think there's anybody

greater than John Wesley in the last 1800 years.

He's phenomenal. You know, you think of them, but then you also think of people

like Susanna Wesley, who was the mother to John and Charles, right?

Charles Wesley is the greatest hymn writer ever.

And if you don't know, I mean, everything we do in the modern church today is because of John Wesley.

Christianity in the 15th, 16th, 17th, 1800s was very poor, very horrible.

The way they treated people was just bad. I don't think we see Christianity

ever flourish up until recently, up until the time of the Methodist,

John Wesley, outside of persecution.

I mean, the Antibaptists, the Waldensians, all these other groups,

they flourished. They were great.

But free Christians, Christians who got to live freely up until about the 1700s,

they didn't flourish. The Christianity was not awesome. They didn't have soup kitchens.

We have that today because of John Wesley.

They didn't have job training. We have that today because of him.

He did so many awesome things. I just love the guy. And I think as believers,

you know, we don't always have to have a big idea In the sense to where it has

to be like going overseas, whatever it may be Some of you may be called to be

a John West, I mean a Susanna Wesley, right?

It's where you're training up your children Regardless of whatever it is,

we should be thinking about how we can bear much fruit for God and his kingdom

That's how we should think We only get one shot here, we get one life,

We get one life and I'm already jumping to some stuff that's at the end of the

teaching It's probably good though, because this is a 12-pager and I usually

have six pages for the youth group and that has been going an hour recently.

And so, but you know, the Bible says in Revelations 19.

That our clothing, you know, those white garments, they're the righteous deeds

of the saints. The righteous deeds of the saints.

Somewhere in Revelations chapter 19.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

Righteous deeds. It is. See, Betty is verified. It's in Revelations 19.

I'm not trying to be a quick read. You know what I'm saying?

I told my wife that the other day. I didn't know she'd pick up on that.

I just find it that's just an awesome thing about our God. You know,

I've worked many jobs. I've been the go-to guy in a lot of different places.

And I felt like a lot of times I didn't get a lot of credit, you know.

It was, you know, working with some people who were just not doing anything,

taking four hour breaks, five hour breaks.

And it was like, wow, we're breaking records this year. Thank you,

team. And I was like, yeah, it's not because of these guys.

You know what I'm saying? I'm over here not getting any breaks, you know?

And we don't get the credit in this life, but our deeds, our righteous deeds will be on our garments.

I just find that to be so awesome. And to know the story of God,

you have to meet everybody in heaven, right?

Because everything that we do is through him and through his power.

And to realize that we have a historian as I meet brothers and sisters in heaven

and see their deeds on their clothing, I just find that to be so awesome.

So we're living for something far greater than what this world wants us to believe.

And I encourage you guys to really think big, pray big.

What big thoughts has God put on your mind? What big thoughts has He put in your heart?

You know, it's so key. It's so key for us to focus on what's to come.

The Bible talks about what's to come often. Paul talks about that.

Talks about Jesus' death on the cross and wants to come as a motivator for us

to continue to live this life.

And so for us to get these ideas, for us to get these thoughts,

first, we must align with Jesus.

We gotta be walking with him. If we're not walking with him,

you can't expect God to put his thoughts into your mind, into your heart, right?

So number one, we've gotta walk with him. We've gotta seek him.

We've gotta pray for these things because if we're not, he's not gonna just give it to us, right?

He says his eyes search to and fro throughout the world to strengthen those

who are fully committed. Right?

For the one who didn't use their talent, God said, let me take that talent from

you and give it to somebody who's going to use it. Let me give it to somebody who's faithful.

So one, make sure that you're faithful. Make sure you're seeking him.

Make sure that your day is set up around him and what he wants you to do,

how he wants you to live, how he wants you to be.

It's always got to be about him, right? Not about what we want,

not about our foolish desires, the things that I want to accomplish or whatever.

I can go and play a lot of sports. I can still hit a softball pretty far. I still can do that.

Can't, I don't know, I'm 42, I'm going to be 43. My time is passing.

I could go out there and show guys, oh, look at me. I'm not that big,

but watch this ball go like 450.

At times I can hit it that far. If I start practicing again,

I can start jacking them out.

I could go and be about me and play sports because sports was the funnest thing for me growing up.

That's the thing I enjoyed more than anything else. I love, love, love sports.

The last 10, 15 years, I played in one basketball game, I don't really go out

and enjoy sports anymore because God has stuff for me to do.

So my desires get put aside.

But I'll say this, I got kids and I get to play with them a lot.

It's not quite like a competition like I could get from other adults,

but it's fun and I enjoy it and there's no nerves, right?

God gives us ways to live out our good pleasures, good desires, right?

But it's so key that we put aside the things that don't matter and live for

Him and honor him. All right.

It's so important to realize too that God will back you.

God backs those who love him. George Mueller decided that he was going to start

an orphanage in England.

There were no orphanages for the poor kids. There were orphanages for rich kids,

but there weren't any in his area for poor kids.

Because that's the type of Christianity there was in England during that time period.

It was not loving. Their attitude was very much, if you're poor, you're meant to be poor.

And if you're rich and in the pews you're meant to be rich because God chose

you to be rich but if you're poor

forget those kids it doesn't matter that they're dying at the age of 13,

because they're working in chimneys and they're getting cancer it doesn't matter

that they're being put into workhouses and they'll spend the rest of their life

working it doesn't matter you know,

there wasn't a whole lot of care there wasn't a whole lot of compassion and actually it's not,

Before George Mueller's time, a lot of ministers were trying to kill John Wesley.

John Wesley, he was an amazing man. Hey, a thousand people come here to kill

you. I'll go preach to him.

Go on and talk with him. He had houses pulled down, bricks thrown at him.

One time they brought some bowls in or a bowl in while he was speaking,

let it loose. That's kind of crazy, ain't it?

Nobody's made a good movie of John Wesley. His life is so exciting.

They always focus on how he overworked early in his faith.

But so George Mueller, he started this orphanage and his idea was,

I'm not even going to, I'm not even going to ask for money.

I'm just going to pray. I'm just going to pray. And there was years,

I don't know if it was decades, years that didn't have anything,

didn't have food, but God always showed up.

God always brought food. There was one time where one of the,

one of the workers says, John, we've got nothing.

He says, set out the table. I mean, set out the plates.

We got nothing. He said, come, come pray with me. I want you to see a miracle. They prayed.

Guy with their guy with his milk truck broke down

right in front of the building all this

milk's gonna get wasted can you have the milk now the guy knocks on the door within a few

minutes god don't be a big big bread all night right

so he break bread all night and it provided for the

kids god shows up for those who are faithful it

said about john wesley after he died two newspapers wrote miracles do happen

why because of the life of john wesley we know that miracles happen But Hudson

Taylor was a friend of George Mueller because of the life of George Mueller.

I don't know if I said that right. I can't replay it in my mind.

And so same with Hudson Taylor. He was a friend of George Mueller's.

His second missionary trip, he went to China.

White people were hated. And there's a good reason for them to be hated because

the businessmen, you know, when people say Christians go around spreading all

the diseases in the 1700s, 1800s. No, it wasn't the Christians.

The Christians, most of the time, they became doctors before they even went

and they died of the diseases. It was the businessmen who were spreading the opiates and alcohol.

They're trying to take advantage of the people. And so, yeah,

a lot of the Chinese folk didn't like the whites because of the businessmen.

The businessmen were all about taking advantage of the Chinese, all about that.

But you go there, no money. He had nothing.

He had nothing and he went. He took a bunch of people with him too. That's brave, right?

Come on, a bunch of missionaries. Whoever want to come, let's come.

God's going to provide, right? And then we've got a quote from him.

Oh, that's way, where's this quote at?

I think you guys are lucky that I'm going out of order because this would have been long.

It would have been real. I can't find the quote.

But regardless, he basically, he says that, you know, when you're doing God's work, God will supply.

God will supply your needs. You do God's work, God's way, God supplies.

And so know that church, know that as you walk with him, God will provide for

you. God will show up and he'll bless you.

Man, I used to hate speaking. I'm very much a perfectionist.

If I make mistakes, I get really angry. And I remember crying out to God,

like, why do you make me preach?

Like, why? I'm so horrible.

I'm, oh, I can't remember what I'm saying. I speak way too fast.

I just, it's horrible. Like, oh, oh, why? And then I think, well,

but when I do speak, kids start reading their Bible, people get saved, God moves.

So I know I was like, well, even though I'm horrible, God moves and I got to just do it, right?

We're not perfect. When we walk with God, he changes us. He's shaping us.

He's molding us into his likeness.

And a lot of the trials that I get to go through is just from my mistakes,

from my foolishness, for being lazy, from not studying hard enough,

from not being wise enough, for not listening to God knocking on my head,

say, do it this way. Quit doing it your way. Do it my way, right?

We get to experience a lot of troubles in life, but we've got to continue to follow him.

So I just want you to know, some of you are like, oh man, yeah,

I want to give God more of my time.

Yeah, I want to do this or I want to do that. You're going to go through things

You're going to go through trials in life I've been working on a documentary The last four years.

I prayed for that. I prayed God make great movies and even use my life also.

I went through a 40-day trial, 40 days.

I got to battle Satan. I had a dream about it beforehand, about eight, nine months before.

It was horrible. Almost died five to 10 times within a two-week period.

I mean, horrible, horrible, horrible. I went through all kinds of stuff.

You guys remember when all the fires were in California, 2018,

all the houses, the Malibu, the Thousand Oaks fire, all those different fires.

I was down there for that.

I had, I got acute lymphobacterial leukemia, cancer that kids get, kids beat it.

The doctor was telling me by the time you're at the age of 40,

you can't beat it. And I'm like 35 and I got prayed for. God healed me. It's an amazing story.

We've been working on this documentary for four years, but let me tell you,

there are times where I want to grab that computer and just throw it in the trash.

Why? Because when I opened the computer, kids start fighting every time,

you know, no, I'm serious.

And then people start making up lies about me.

I experienced more trials in my life when I'm working on that documentary.

I started working on it again this last month. A lot of trials,

a lot of things have come my way. That's just what happens.

While I was feeling crazy depressed this last month, I think,

man, life is so much easier when I'm working a nine to five.

So much easier. Life is so much easier. Everybody likes me.

When I'm not doing much for God, everybody likes me. Everything's easy.

But when you start serving God, you start wanting God's best for everybody else's

life, things come your way.

That's just what happens. But we got to make sure that we continue to press on.

We got to make sure that we keep serving him, keep loving him,

that we're devoted to him and his call more than anything else.

My dad is a very macho man, very tough guy.

There are all these stories of him beating up five, six people by himself.

Tons and tons of stories, right? And because I'm his boy, I'm supposed to be Superman Jr.

We're all strong. We're all athletic, you know, but I'm not him.

I've never benched 405. At the age of seven, he benched 350 five times easy.

Two, five times and then puts it up. I'm not him. But let me tell you who I

am. I am a child of the most high God.

You know, the almighty God, the one who has all power. I'm way stronger internally

than my father. There's no comparison between me and him. He's very weak on the inside.

He's not powerful on the inside. You know, he's powerful on the outside,

but not on the inside. But through God, I've been made powerful.

He changes me. He transforms me. It's just so important that we walk the path that God has for us.

We must walk His path. I'm going to read some verses here about bearing fruit.

First one, John 15, 8, it says, My Father is glorified by this,

that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. It brings Him much glory.

So I've got to be strong. I have to be strong. You have to be strong. We can't cave in.

We can't cave in when god calls us to do things if god's telling you to go out

and start sharing the gospel people on the street Then go do it right don't

cave in Do what god has for you to do be strong in the faith for him For our

father who's strong So how do we bear fruit?

Let's talk about bearing fruit It says here in john chapter 15 4 through 7.

John 15 · chapter mention

It says abide in me. That's the key I praise god for my lackability.

I praise him. You know, I tell people i'm not that talented I told a lot of

people want to come here.

I'm not that talented Like making that movie, I don't have a lot of talent.

It's, you know, I put a lot of research in. I can work hard and I can make all

kinds of mistakes, you know, but God just shows up. As I walk with him,

he gives me the talent. He gives me the ability.

He gives me what I need to do his work. So one, abide in him.

He says, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit.

Of itself, unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. You can't do anything apart from him.

No talent, no ability ever accomplishes the will of God, ever.

Not apart from him. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch

and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

Ask whatever you wish. I'm not asking to be a doctor. It's not on my heart.

I'd be messing up. What are we supposed do again what i'm

like you know pastors tell me

you could do invocation and probably now because i wasn't sure exactly everything

i was doing i'm forgetful i just am and to be

honest i didn't sleep last night very little i had a headache all night all

night and i was like oh that's typical but let me tell you i felt you guys prayers

i feel a lot of peace even though my head was hurting and i think what timing

to get sick but as this is usual you know this is typical i was telling some

others before we're coming in here there's one pastor who wanted me to be his assistant pastor,

but I didn't, I didn't, I'm not, I'm not four square.

I don't hold a four square doctrine. Church of Nazarene fits a lot closer with what I believe.

Every time I spoke, the dogs left stuff all over our apartment.

Yeah. I mean like crazy. Like how can he have that much in his stomach?

Like how from the door to the sliding door to the couch, the car,

I mean like for reals everywhere. I was like, Whoa, that's crazy.

You know? And it would happen all the time. Right. All the time.

So the enemy is going to attack He is going to attack But the key is He is just

abiding in many ways We walk through it anyways We go through it anyways We

clean up the mess We continue to press on for him Because we love him.

And ask whatever you wish. And so, sorry, I kind of left that.

Asking whatever you wish. God gives us his desires. He gives us his passions.

You know, it was on my heart for 10 years to ask for the prophetic gifting.

And like 12, 13 years ago, I don't want you guys to think I'm weird,

but it started happening. I was getting dreams all the time,

visions all the time. It's very common.

Like nothing major happens in my life if I don't, before I get a dream about it before it happens.

If someone's going to die in my family, I get a dream about it.

Before my mom and grandma died, I dreamed that they both died around the same time.

I get dreams about where I'm going to be, what I'm going to do.

I had a vision. You guys seen the old chapel, the old church?

I was serving Anglic neighborhood church and I saw that chapel in the service.

I saw that about a year ago or so.

And so when I applied to this position, which I applied on my birthday,

I'd got on the webpage and there was the chapel.

I was like, all right, well, that's where we're going. That's going to be it

because God speaks faithfully.

One thing I will say though, is just because you get the dream or the vision

doesn't mean you have the interpretation.

Interpreting is a different thing. It takes time to learn how to interpret.

There are certain symbols that I get. Like, for instance, if I get a dream of

myself dunking, that's preaching.

That always represents preaching. Like someone passes me the ball and then I dunk the ball.

But God shows me things. I had a dream about a month ago.

And in this dream, I'm trying really, really hard to get up and dunk and I can't do it.

And then I don't put hardly any effort and I dunk really good.

And I knew God was saying, I knew he was telling me what I...

The conclusion I can't do again on Christmas Eve, you're trying too hard.

You're trying too hard. Don't try so hard. Let it be more effortless,

and you will dunk the ball better. You'll preach better. You'll speak better.

And so it's just so key, and it's just so important to realize that He walks

with us. He does the work.

I was never good enough as a kid, so I always worked too hard.

I always did too much to please my Father.

He walks with us. Now, again, you're going to go through trials,

but He'll be with you, And he's going to change you transform you he's going

to put his desires in your heart

So that you pray the things that he wants you to pray I would have never thought

to pray for movies, but now we're doing that I had a dream that we're making

a move making the movie with kurt cameron Now does that mean it's actually kurt

cameron? We're that we're going to make the motion picture.

I think this would be a good movie Like i've read a lot of biographies.

This story is a it's an amazing story If it is I don't know or if it's somebody like him. I don't know.

I'm praying next that let's make the movie after this, Lord.

If when you want to do it, let's make the movie. I think it would make a fantastic movie.

Oh, it was a lot of people who hear the testimony like, whoa, it's like Job's story.

It's whoa, so like Job's story. Not as intense as Job. His whole family died, except for his wife.

I mean, that didn't happen to me, but it was very, very, very intense.

And so, so there's some attitudes to have to serve God. We've got to sacrifice, man.

It's the way it is, you know, like I'm tired all the time.

I have trials coming my way all the time. I need to suck it up.

You know, I need to love God and love my neighbor. That's the foundation of scripture.

When you read the Bible, let me give you guys a little secret.

If you're not reading the Bible, looking through that lens, you're reading it wrong.

You got to read it through the lens of the love of God and love neighbor.

If you're reading it through, if you're looking through the lenses of grace

or power or Holy Spirit, anything like that, you got it wrong.

You want to read the Bible through the lens of love and then you understand

the scripture so much better because everything in the Bible stands on that

foundation, according to Jesus, right?

He doesn't get anything wrong. So, we must love people.

We must love them.

Parable of the sower. So, we see in the parable of the sower that Jesus says

that the person, the last person, the last group that's being represented,

they bear a hundred times what was sown into them.

So, let's read what Jesus has to say about this people group.

It said, this parable is repeated two other times in two different gospels,

but I like what it says in Luke here the best.

It says, the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard.

And as they go on their way, they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures

of this life and bring no fruit to maturity.

Worries come my way all the time.

Why am I talking to myself? Because I know it. And I know you're a human being

too. And if you're serving the Lord, worries come your way also.

I know that's the truth of our heroes of the faith in the Bible.

I know that's the truth of the heroes of the faith the last few hundred years.

Worries will come our way often.

But do we let the worries choke the fruit or do we continue to press on?

Do we back off or do we keep going forward?

And it says here, verse 15, But the seed in the good soil,

these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold

fast to it and bear fruit with perseverance.

The person with a good heart holds on to the word. They're honest about the

word. They're true about it. And they keep persevering.

And they bear a hundred times what's shown to them. We have hospitals today because of Christians.

We have education today because of Christians, soup kitchens.

Every single good thing that there is on the planet you'll learn that christians

did it all science came from christians right everything comes from christians

you know the people who go out and evangelize the people who are going to eat

them it's because they want to change their lives christians nobody else does

that right what other religion goes yeah let's go you know.

What was it john williams went to the pollination islands yeah those pollinesians

man they've been eating each other for a long time and they're on an island

they're on island so you know what happens,

The little ones get eaten. Yeah. Yeah. The big ones survive.

They're, oh, they're such good athletes.

And to think he's going from island to island, island to island,

telling these people who are eating each other all the time about the ways of

Jesus. And he ended up getting eaten.

He was eaten. He was killed and eaten. He did it for the Lord.

Who does that? But the Christian, because we're called to pick up our cross and follow him, right?

So one attitude, obviously, love, we spoke on that.

I tell John John this. I got in a hunch. I think John John's going to be special.

I do. I think he's going to be a special boy.

He gets, our lives are so similar. We go through a lot of the same trials. He's a slow starter.

I feel like I'm a slow starter, but he's going to get there and he's going to

be a special man. I tell John John over and over, everybody's more important than you, John John.

You're the last one. You're last. He needs to get that in his head.

And I've always, man, I get the opportunity to be last all the time.

All the time I get to be last. And I praise God for that because Jesus was last.

That's the best place to be.

It's the best place to be. You don't need to be considered all the time.

You know, sometimes, you know, I'd ask people, I was like, do people think I'm

strong or something? Because like some of my other jobs, like they give me all the hard work.

Like, do they think I'm Superman? You know, like I don't get tired.

You know, it's like, man, right? I realize this opportunity to be last. Last is the best place.

Jesus' last day, he washed the disciples' feet. He's going to die.

He's going to suffer more pain than anybody ever experienced.

He washed their feet. He took the place of last. And so make sure that others,

as the Bible says, are more important than us.

Ephesians 2.3 says Do nothing from selfish or empty conceit But with humility

of mind Regard one another as more important than yourself Everybody else is

more important That's the attitude of a leader Everybody else is more important

We're going to love We're going to sacrifice Lay down our lives,

We've talked about hardship. Paul is telling Timothy here.

I love the relationship between Paul and Timothy. I love how Paul brags about

Timothy. He says, I ain't got nobody else like Timothy. I love that.

Timothy's my guy. He's a young evangelist. He's my guy. He's special.

And he tells Timothy, he says, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

And then he tells them in the next verse, I wasn't planning on sharing this,

but it says, no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of

everyday life, so he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

Sounds like, get rid of everything. You're special, Timothy.

You're the only one who's like me, so he says about him.

Paul says, I don't worry about life, the things of life. I'm just all about

serving my father and be that same way.

Hardships will come. But again, we're children of the most high God.

He came here and he suffered hardships for us.

So it's an honor. It's an honor to be stabbed in the back. It's an honor to

be lied about. It's an honor to be mistreated.

But it's also an honor to be loved.

You know, have people love you. Back in SeaTac, I'd come home from work and

we'd go to our condo. And all the kids, daddy, daddy, daddy.

And a lot of the kids are Ethiopian. So Ethiopian, some Mexican, Filipino.

But daddy, daddy, will you play with us? Will you play with us? Will you play with us?

My kids would do like Bible teachings and evangelism with the kids around.

And we would talk about God and so on.

But it's nice. It's really nice to be loved and appreciated.

And I can't imagine what it's like to be a George Mueller or John Wesley in

the next life, you know, to think, you know, all those slaves.

You guys know why slavery ended?

Because a guy named John Wesley, the most influential, the most powerful person

on the planet, he discipled William Wilberforce and John Newton,

who ended slavery in Europe.

His church made it against the rules. You can't have slaves and be part of the

Methodist church in America, right?

If it wasn't for the Methodist influence, slavery doesn't end.

Can you imagine all the people who thank him?

All the kids that came through George Mueller's orphanages get to thank him

for all eternity? I just think, man, how cool is that?

Very cool. Very, very cool. I've been praying that we can start an orphanage.

I've been praying real. I'll share with you one thing I've been praying for.

And it's kind of huge. I've been asking

God, I said, God, make me the most influential Christian in the world.

And give me lots of finances, please. And give me a great network of believers to work with.

Because I want to go throughout the world. I want to start orphanages everywhere. I would love to do that.

I know we could. I've done a lot of bringing kids to church, you know.

And that's a big prayer. I'm not praying that prayer because I want to be famous.

My friend, Joe Schimel, he's pretty famous. He's a guy who prayed for me.

And I asked him, how many people, like how many death threats you get?

Like a lot, like every day.

You know, I have no desire to be famous. If it was up to me,

I would love to go live in the mountains.

My selfish desires and just have an easy life. But no, that's not what God has

for me, right? And I do love serving him. I want to honor him.

But I think, man, like if I could do that, if I could do what George Miller does,

did, if I could help all those poor kids, If I could give them a place to live,

if I can give them food to eat, if I could give them job training,

like how cool would that be, right? How amazing would that be?

And the relationships that you build, you know, when you love on kids, they don't forget.

We had one girl, we were evangelizing tonight in different apartment complexes.

She says, I was going to commit suicide before you guys started coming to our apartment complex.

It was your work, it was your youth ministry that saved my life. I was going to die.

And then every once in a while, I think the mom would send a message thanking

black dad. So I guess I was a black dad because she's black.

And then her brother actually made it to the NFL this last year.

His name's Eric Gregory. He prayed for, I think, Arkansas.

But they appreciate it. There's nothing we appreciate in life more than love,

but to perceive that love, we gotta be loving ourselves, right?

We've gotta be very sacrificial, very sacrificial.

I've already talked about hard times coming, but let me attack this at a different angle.

All Christians are gonna go through things. We're all gonna go through things.

You know, when I was at the Salvation Army, I was miserable there because your job was easy.

My job was the house people who are homeless. I get to share the gospel,

but a lot of my work just felt like pointless.

I'm housing people who shouldn't be housed. A lot of the money goes in,

they just want to clean up the streets and the answer is not to house people.

Just let them be out there.

Seriously, like let them be

out there. The chances of dying go way up once you stick them in a room.

You know, people are using opiates and they're by themselves and there's nobody

there to bring them back to life when they overdose. It's not a good thing.

The death rate's high in those houses and so it felt very incomplete.

I'd much rather be in the grind. I'd much rather be serving God and in the grind,

you know, than being mediocre in my faith.

And so here we see in Acts 14, 21 and 22,

Paul's telling the church, he says, After they preached the gospel to that city

and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch,

strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying,

Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.

We're already going to go through many tribulations, right? We're already going

to go through a lot of things.

Life was hard before I became a Christian, and then I became a Christian. I found peace.

It's a big difference, though. Before I became a Christian, there was no hope.

I was always searching for something, always searching for something.

I never found any joy, no peace, had no friends.

Even though we were cool guys, I didn't have any friends. Nobody liked me.

I was a liar. I was a compulsive liar, lying about everything.

And I always had to be better than everybody. You know, if you had a story,

well, let me tell you my story.

Yeah, you could bench how much, how much can I bench at my weight?

You know, I didn't even realize I was doing that, but I was doing that all the time.

Now I look back, I'm like, no wonder why nobody liked me, you know?

You know so get this point we're gonna go through things regardless at the salvation

army i hated my job i was like this is so boring this is so meaningless and

i began to think man where am i most successful what does god call me to well

when i'm in ministry god blesses me god moves,

you know there's been a lot of times where i'll go into a church there's two

kids going to youth group and then there's 20 and kids are getting saved and

people are getting baptized and things are happening you know i'd be praying

that god moves here greatly i really hope so but regardless us,

we're going to go through things and we feel guilt when we're not serving as we should.

So don't back away from God's call because of the trials to come.

You're going to go through trials anyways, through many trials.

It's a promise. We're going to go through many trials anyways.

So we might as well just lay our lives down.

We might as well have the attitude to where whatever you want,

whatever you want, let's do it.

Just prepare me. Just be with me. Let's do that.

So recap, and then we're going to talk about our great Savior.

We have to love, all right? We have to love others.

We have to love others, love God. We have to be sacrificial. We have to be enduring.

I talked about prayer. That wasn't in the message. We have to pray,

pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.

I'm not trying to diss on anybody, but I remember early on in my faith,

I would listen to some of the Pentecostal preachers, and they say,

believe, just believe hard.

And so I got stuck on that, and I tried to believe hard for years. It doesn't work.

No, because it's a relationship, and we're supposed to keep praying and keep

asking, you know, I'm supposed to stay in relationship.

It's not believing hard one time, you know, and it messed me up.

But now that I know, tell everybody, pray, pray, pray, pray, keep praying.

So I want you to think about Jesus, you know, he left heaven.

Must've been inconvenient, right? He left his throne. He left his father.

I mean, who, who, my kids, we love each other. They love me.

They're not going to be like, hey, dad, like it's going good here.

But, you know, I thought like I should go live with some other guy.

I'm going to live with some other dude And I don't know if he's going to be

a good dad or not I'm just going to go live with him Nobody does that This is

God's plan for us We're watching this video on how God tells his coming through

the stars It's very very convincing,

At the beginning when he said everything in motion He was prophetic That's why

the wise men were able to look at the stars And see the prophecy in the stars

About the coming king and so on I can't break down all the details Very very

fascinating If you want to check it out you can ask me or Nina but super fascinating,

but they knew he was coming because God, God set things into motion in the very beginning.

He knew in the very, very beginning that he was going to die on the cross.

He knew it. He knew it because he loves us so, so, so, so, so much.

That is such a crazy plan.

Nobody comes up with a plan like that. Nobody thinks like that.

You got, you know, could you imagine if a shooter came in and I took 30 bullets for everybody?

Right. I just jumping in front of every bull and I took them all and I died. I would I would be a hero.

Right. You know, I'd be on the newspaper that people would be talking about

me and this. Oh, there's a great youth pastor.

You know, it would bless you. God knew how much his death on the cross would bless our hearts.

He knew it. And so he set up the plan. Very wise. I don't know.

I don't know if I think I'd want to take a bullet for everybody.

I don't know. I mean, if I already took a few, then I might as well just keep taking them. Right.

If I'm going out, might as well go out epic But I just think,

wow He left heaven, he came here He lived here for 30 years 30 years,

nobody believed in him His brothers didn't believe in him Even after he did

all the miracles in his ministry They didn't believe in him.

And then he starts a ministry where he's homeless For three and a half years,

So he wanted to follow him and says Hey, the Son of Man has no place to lay

his head He had nowhere to put his head Could you imagine that?

Can you imagine being out in the wilderness and it's just dumping they don't

have the trees like they got in seattle where you can get underneath those big

maple trees and you know block the rain

from what i see in israel they even got a whole lot of trees period when it's

dumping what do he do he must have a lot of practice remember when he's on the

boat and the storm was coming he's sleeping nobody else is sleeping but he's

like i'm ag you know he's just out it's dumping rain he's being tossed around

and he's sleeping he must have had a lot of practice must have had a lot of practice, you know?

And after three and a half years of ministry, the vast majority of people who

were following him all left him.

They all left. He had to put up with Judas, knowing that he'd have to put up

with Judas. He knew that Judas was a crook the whole time.

Could you imagine being around somebody like Judas? He's going to betray you?

Like, if I had to do that, I might want to hit him.

You know, I might want to, you know, trip him up here and there,

set him up for failure. I'd probably have those thoughts in my head,

right? Because like, man, this guy's going to betray me.

You know, after three and a half years with this guy, he's going not betray

me. And he did. And he was betrayed.

And then that night, he suffered hematidosis. Hematidosis is when the small

blood veins in your skin burst.

And because of this, because of this, his nervous system would have been heightened.

So when he was being beat up, punched in the face, whipped, it would have been

more painful than if he wouldn't have suffered hematidosis.

And they also say that when you suffer hematidosis, your skin becomes weak.

So it would have ripped open a lot easier.

But it was prophesied, right? That he wouldn't even look like a man.

More marred than any human being ever. More marred than anybody else.

Probably wouldn't have happened if he didn't suffer hematidosis.

It's a very rare, very, very rare thing. You have to be stressed out to suffer that. stressed out.

But he did that for us. He wanted to be the ultimate example for us.

And then he died on the cross, right? For God so loved the world,

the whole world, the whole world, all right, that he gave his only son.

He suffered that, that death, embarrassing death. He was probably, probably naked.

And then he died up there. He died up on that cross for us. He rose again.

He's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He's the Almighty God,

you can't keep him down. There's another one, the shroud video.

Very interesting. Very, very, very interesting video.

Am I already over on time?

Yeah. Yeah. And so it's so key that we want to walk, live, act,

and be like our father, be like our savior, Jesus, right?

He did those things for us. He did it for us.

So what is God calling you to do? What big ideas has he put in your heart and mind?

Whatever he's given you to do, walk it out, live your life for him.

And if you've never prayed like that, go home and pray like that.

Go spend time with God and say, God, what do you want me to do?

What do you want with this life? Where do you want me to be?

Some of you might be called to be missionaries.

If you're called to be a missionary, then you've got to go, right? You've got to go.

You've got to go. Some of you are called to serve here in this church.

I think I've got a lot of ministry experience. I've been a believer for 20-something years.

I'm not bragging, but that's how I feel. I feel like I've done a lot of different

things. It was all in the church.

Everything I learned was in the church. opportunities

given to me in the church we know

how to do street evangelism especially department ministries

with kids we know how to bring people in we know how to do a lot of different

things i got my start in the church you

should be serving your church no church is perfect church

system's not perfect church hasn't been perfect it's never gonna be perfect

right but we serve we served i was hurt by one church i went to one it was man

we got that we drove all night it was in the san francisco area we get there

we're unloading it was snowing and the passes was a dangerous drive

we slept like an hour and fast like come in hey come to the meeting come to the meeting,

i'm the only man here like i'm carrying couches by myself and stuff like nina

was helping me but i'm i'm unloading everything by myself nobody was there to

help i was supposed to be at a meeting i was put in charge of the entire church

i was supposed to record the sermons but when the teacher for children's ministry

show up i'm supposed to do children's ministry so i'm doing when children's, what time is it?

Oh, we gotta go in there, hit the buttons, come back. And I was, it was crazy.

He didn't hardly do anything. He started working a full-time job so he could make a lot of money.

It was a bad experience. I had a few other bad experiences. After that,

I was done for. I was like, man, I'm done with churches.

I'm done. This is horrible. Are you kidding me? You know, they wanted me to

work a full-time job too because they lied about pay.

They got us in a place that was too expensive. It was just horrible.

It was like, man, this guy's a compulsive liar. And I heard he had been doing this for years.

We had a meeting and I'm in trouble. I'm like, he's the liar,

you know? What am I in trouble for?

Man, I was the one lied to. Well, you know, you didn't get it in writing. And he's the pastor.

Like he's supposed to tell the truth, right? I mean, and they're like,

well, we didn't know he was telling you this.

But those people in the meetings had told me that he'd been doing this for years.

And I told him, you told me he's been doing this for years.

And they're like, no, whatever. So we were scarred. And I was like,

man. But then I began to realize that no church is perfect.

No church is perfect. And we've got to continue to just lay our life down like Paul.

Like Paul did. Paul did over and over for the Corinthian churches.

Oh, man, they've treated him horribly. He was going through it.

He had to work because they didn't want to provide for him.

But as he told the church, everything I do is for your sake.

It's for the sake of the church.

That's our heart's attitude, right? As we follow him, everything that he did

was for the sake of the church and for the world. So let that be our attitude today.

That God, whatever you want, wherever you want me to be, however you want me

to live, give me your heart, give me your passion. Give me your wisdom though too.

Don't just think it's everything in the world. Make me smart,

make me wise. Give me talent, give me ability, increase my giftings so that I may serve you.

Love you, honor you, and lay it down for you. And I hope when we see each other

in heaven, we all got a lot to read on the clothing, right?

Amen. What do we live for?

Only for him. That's the only place we have life. And so I'll pray and then

we'll have our worship band come up, right?

Or last worship band. Is that a worship band? Are you guys a worship band?

Worship team. They're a team. Sorry. Oh, Lord, we love you. We thank you for

being so good and so kind.

Father, Help us to lay our lives down.

Help us to be people who are passionate about your kingdom.

May your kingdom come. May your will be done in our hearts and our lives.

Give us your thoughts. Give us your passions.

God, give us your understanding. Teach us your word. Help us to walk in line

with it, O Lord, that we may be pleasing to you for you're worthy and you deserve it.

You deserve a life laid down because there is nobody who compares to you, God.

We love you, bless you, praise you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.