Sermon

Honor Your Calling

Gateway Church's Podcast

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  1. You know, I it's a real honor for me to be with you today.

  2. And I was praying about what God would have me to share.

  3. And sometimes, you know, it it's an easy temptation because I I preach a lot, travel around the world, speaking a lot, to take a message that God's blessed and kind of just take that and share it again and ask him to bless it again, you know, kind of thing.

  4. But you know, I the Lord wouldn't let me do that this time.

  5. And I was praying, and the Lord gave me a scripture that he laid on my heart for this weekend with you at Gateway.

  6. And it's found in the 65th book of the Bible.

  7. You know, there are 66 books in the Bible, 39 the old, 27 the new, and it's the book of Jude, has one chapter, and it's the first verse.

  8. I want you to look at this verse with me.

  9. Jude writes, he he calls himself, he said, Jude, a servant of Christ, of Jesus Christ, and a brother James to those who have been called.

  10. If you have your Bible, underline that word called.

  11. Who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.

  12. Now, we think about Pastor Robert, we know he's called.

  13. Debbie's called, we know that.

  14. We know Pastor Todd's call, we know Pastor Steve's call, we know all of our campus pastors, they're called.

  15. But do you think of yourself as being called?

  16. Because you know what?

  17. We are called by God.

  18. The Apostle Paul is so dynamic in this, when he's talking to the church at Carrinth, he writes this, and I think I have this for the screens.

  19. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he says, Therefore, if anyone, now make sure that, anyone, that includes us, if anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come.

    2 Corinthians 5 chapter mention

  20. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ.

  21. Now here we are, and gave us, we who are in Christ, he gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

  22. We are to touch people at their point of need and help them know there's a God who loves them and will reconcile them to the life he had ordained from them from the beginning, but sin had robbed them from.

  23. That's our ministry.

  24. And look what he goes on to say.

  25. He said that God was reconciling the world to himself and Christ, now counting men's sins against him, and he has committed to us, we are in Christ, to us, the message of reconciliation.

  26. Wow.

  27. A message of life and hope.

  28. And we are therefore Christ's ambassador of God.

  29. We're making his appeal through us.

  30. So write this down somewhere.

  31. Find something to write this down.

  32. Why don't you write these three words simply down?

  33. Here it is.

  34. God has given us and called us to a ministry, a message, and a mission.

  35. A ministry, a message, and a mission.

  36. He's called everyone in Christ Jesus.

  37. No matter what your profession is, no matter what where you are right now, what your gifts and talents are, you're called.

  38. And by the way, a calling is a lifelong thing.

  39. You never retire from your calling.

  40. You can retire from a career, but you never retire from your calling.

  41. I tell our people, as long as you got breath in your body, you need to live out your calling every day that God's ordained for you.

  42. And sometimes we look at others and say, Well, I don't have those gifts, or I don't have the gift of Pastor Robert to preach or teach, and I don't really see my.

  43. No, no, no.

  44. You don't understand.

  45. Every one of us has been placed in the body as is pleasing unto the Lord, and we don't function well unless we function together using our gifts and callings for the kingdom.

  46. Amen?

  47. Because that's where the impact comes in our lives.

  48. I don't know about you, but I want to honor God.

  49. I want my life to bring honor to the Lord.

  50. And there's a verse that really struck me one day when I discovered it many, many years ago, found in 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 30.

    1 Samuel 2:30

  51. And here's what God says through an unnamed prophet to the to the priest Eli, whose sons were very evil.

  52. You remember Hoffney and Phineas, they were very evil guys.

  53. And the old prophet comes as a warning, and he says this to the priest.

  54. The words of God, those who honor me, I will honor, the Lord says.

  55. Those who dishonor me, it goes on to say in that passage, I will disdain.

  56. Now I don't know about you, but I don't want the disdain of God on my life.

  57. Do you?

  58. I want the honor of God on my life.

  59. Now, here's the key.

  60. When we honor our calling, we position ourselves for the honor of God to rest upon our lives.

  61. I was recently in Louisiana and I met a couple Cajun guys, phenomenal guys.

  62. I gotta admit, I love Duck Dynasty.

  63. Hello.

  64. You know, I love swamp people.

  65. I I love, I mean, I'm I'm sorry.

  66. I mean, I'm I'm not very sophisticated.

  67. You know, remember I'm a football coach, okay?

  68. But I met these Cajuns and I fell in love with them.

  69. They're great people, and and we were, and they were talking about all the blessings in their life, the blessings in their ministry, and and and everything they're doing.

  70. And he looked at me, he said, Man, I'm living in the fog.

  71. I said, You're living in the fog.

  72. He said, Oh yeah, man, I'm in the fog.

  73. He said, My children are in the fog, my business is in the fog.

  74. Everything I touch is in the fog.

  75. I said, What's the fog?

  76. He said, The favor of God.

  77. He said, I'm living in the favor of God, the blessing of God.

  78. God is honoring us and said, Wherever I go, it's in the fog.

  79. He said, Man, you hang out with me very long.

  80. You're gonna be in the fog.

  81. And I got up along next to him and I grabbed him and hugged him.

  82. I said, Come on, bring the fog on me.

  83. I want the fog.

  84. I want the favor of God on my life.

  85. I'm gonna tell you, when I drove up to Gateway today, I could sense in my spirit the fog of God hovering over Gateway.

  86. You have the fog of God on you.

  87. You know that, don't you?

  88. Yeah, you have the fog.

  89. Matter of fact, turn to somebody and say, You're setting in the fog right now.

  90. You're setting in the fog.

  91. You're in the fog.

  92. Now, here's a statement I want you to get a hold of.

  93. When we honor the calling that God's put upon our lives, we position ourselves to live in the fog.

  94. Have the honor of God in our lives and blessing our lives.

  95. So, how do we fulfill that calling?

  96. How do we live a life that brings true honor to God?

  97. And we fulfill that higher calling for our lives.

  98. Well, I want us to look at a passage of scripture in Luke chapter 5, because the Lord took me there, and I want us to turn there quickly.

    Luke 5 chapter mention

  99. This is Jesus calling his first disciples.

  100. He comes, he's teaching along the Sea of Galilee, and he comes upon Peter, who's brought his boat up on shore.

  101. He's been finished fishing, he's washing his nets out, and he says, Peter, I need to borrow your boat, push it out from shore, and he taught from the boat.

  102. And then we pick up in verse 4 of chapter 5.

  103. When he finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch.

  104. Simon answered, Well, Master, we've worked hard all night and we haven't caught anything, but because you say so, I will let down the nets.

  105. So after they had done so, they caught such a great large number of fish that their nets began to break.

  106. So they signaled to their partners in the other boats to come and help them, and they came and they filled both boats to so full that they began to sink.

  107. Now, when Simon Peter saw this, he fell on his knees, Jesus' knees, and he said, Go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man.

  108. For he and his companions were astonished.

  109. They were in awe at the catch of fish that they had taken.

  110. And they were they were James and John, the sons of Zebedee and Simon's partners, and Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid.

  111. Now on you will catch men.

  112. So they pulled up their boats on the shore, left everything, and they followed Jesus.

  113. Now I'm a coach, I believe in game plans, I believe preparation is the key to victory.

  114. And so I want to give you what I see in here, five coaching tips that will help us walk in a way that honors the calling of God upon our life.

  115. Okay?

  116. You ready to receive it?

  117. And by the way, the great thing about this is you're gonna notice this mist rolling in over your life.

  118. It's called the fog, the favor of God.

  119. And Christ, I'll tell you what, Christ wants us to be his ambassadors wherever we go, bringing that fog with us, enriching the lives around us.

  120. What did Jesus say?

  121. Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth.

  122. I love salt.

  123. I was pouring salt on something the other day I was eating, and my wife said, Honey, you're using too much salt.

  124. I said, No, it's biblical.

  125. You gotta be salty.

  126. The Bible says you're the salt of the earth.

  127. It's biblical.

  128. She said, No, use more pepper.

  129. I said, No, the Bible doesn't say thou art the pepper of the earth.

  130. It says you're the salt of the earth.

  131. So she got me Himalayan rock salt now.

  132. She said, This is better for you.

  133. You can use more of it if you want to.

  134. Salt makes everything better, right?

  135. And then he says, You are the light of the world.

  136. Light makes everything brighter.

  137. Have you ever thought about this?

  138. Everywhere you go as an ambassador of Christ, our mission is to make things better and brighter.

  139. We're to make people better and brighter.

  140. Everything we touch should be a little better and a little brighter.

  141. Amen?

  142. I was in the uh uh Atlanta airport flying through there, and I went into the men's room, and I'm I'm kind of a clean freak.

  143. And I go and praise God for everything being automated now.

  144. You don't have to touch anything because before I'm in there like touch my elbows and trying to get my knees and do everything, you know.

  145. I didn't want to touch anything, because you know, especially with men, hello.

  146. And so I'm in there and I so I'm washing my hands and the automated deal, and I'm so glad I'm waving my hand and getting the towels, I'm so happy and all that.

  147. And I realized men are sloppy and it was messy, and my sink was all messy and everything.

  148. So I said, well, hey, I got a second, zip, zip, zip, and I got some more towels, and I cleaned up my sink, and then I looked, oh well, the you know, the faucet's all stained, and so I went zip, and I cleaned the faucet off.

  149. I polish it up, I look next to me, and that's a mess, so I clean that one up.

  150. And uh a guy walks up to wash his hands, and so I just went, zip, zip, and I hand the towels.

  151. He gave me a dollar.

  152. Now when I got time on my hands, I know what I'm gonna do.

  153. But it gets back to that principle that was driven into me early, leave everything a little better than you found it.

  154. And I thought, as followers of Christ, wherever we go, it should be a little better because we were there.

  155. People should be a little better.

  156. There should be a little more encouraged, a little more light because we are the salt and light, because we are on mission.

  157. We are called of God.

  158. And listen, it's a game changer when you get hold of that because it changes how you see yourself, it changes how you see others, it changes your commitment to your families.

  159. You take it to a whole new level of honor and commitment.

  160. Man, my wife and I have been married 48 years.

  161. We got married.

  162. I loved her since I was 16 years old.

  163. I made a mistake and told her at 16 she's gonna be my wife.

  164. It took me three years to convince her that was true.

  165. Finally, at 20, we got married.

  166. Get married on Saturday night.

  167. We drive down to northern Cincinnati, stay in a holiday inn.

  168. That's all we could afford.

  169. Sunday morning, she's up getting dressed.

  170. I said, baby, where are you where are you doing?

  171. She said, We're going to church.

  172. I said, Church?

  173. I said, This is Sunday.

  174. I said, This is my first day with you.

  175. I've been waiting on this for four years, and you're going to church?

  176. Hello.

  177. We're not going to church.

  178. She said, No, we're going to church.

  179. And guess what?

  180. We went to church.

  181. We've been in church ever since together, serving together, and that's been the greatest thing in the world for our marriage.

  182. And it takes your, when you realize that you, and we realize together we are called of God, and a part of our marriage covenant is fulfilling that calling.

  183. As we honor each other, we're honoring God.

  184. When we honor those we work with, we're honoring God.

  185. I I look at my life completely different.

  186. And I was a coach, and I realized as a coach, and I'm out there to win, and I was blessed to win, but I realized there was always this higher calling I had a certain awareness of.

  187. My dad was a truck driver, he drove an 18-wheeler.

  188. He always said, if you want to be a good driver, son, don't drive just here.

  189. You drive with your eyes on the horizon.

  190. So you can anticipate any problem well down the road.

  191. And I thought about life.

  192. Isn't that a great way to live life?

  193. We need to live our lives with a sense of calling, and our eyes are always kind of on the horizon because we look beyond the physical realm of our life to the spiritual and eternal realm of God's life and calling upon us, and that changes who we are.

  194. You are called.

  195. I want you to know this.

  196. You are called.

  197. That's the simple message God gave me to bring to you, to simply remind you, you are called.

  198. Okay, here we go.

  199. Ready?

  200. Five coaching tips.

  201. I gotta get into quick.

  202. I gotta go real quick.

  203. Here we go.

  204. Coaching tip number one: obey the word of God.

  205. Right?

  206. Peter's first step was he obeyed, even though he had to go against his own understanding and everything didn't make any sense.

  207. He was tired, he was fatigued, but God said, Go put your nets down, and so Peter obeyed the word of God.

  208. When we learn to get a daily discipline of seeking the will of God and simply aligning our lives with the word of God, we position ourselves to be led right into the fog of God.

  209. And here's what I love about this.

  210. Peter had no idea when this happened that he was going to discover his true identity by obeying God.

  211. When you obey the word of God, you will discover truly your true identity in the Lord.

  212. I had a young man about a year ago come down forward after service, and he came up to me and he confessed his lifestyle secretly in my ear.

  213. And my first response to him was very simple.

  214. I pulled him in and said, Son, let me hug you.

  215. And I pulled him in.

  216. And I whispered in his ear, I said, Don't you ever let the world define you, and don't you even define yourself.

  217. You find your identity in Christ and in Christ alone.

  218. Because the world will lie to you, the world will deceive you, the deception is all around you, darkness will try to envelop you, and it will bring destruction to you.

  219. But if you discover who you are in Christ, it will transform your life.

  220. It's transformational.

  221. See, that's the key about obedience.

  222. God gave us his word not to restrict our lives, but to set us free in our lives, to protect us, to guide us, and to lead us into a pathway of discovery of our lives, our purpose, our identity that's found only in Christ.

  223. In Christ alone.

  224. I love this quote by Unknown.

  225. I love unknown.

  226. He's a great guy.

  227. I use his quotes occasionally, and then I get tired of using unknown, and I strike him out and I put coach in there.

  228. That's what I'm called at home.

  229. Everybody calls me coach, so I just put coach.

  230. So you can strike unknown out and just put coach after this quote, but I love this quote by Unknown.

  231. He says, Those who walk with God always reach their destiny.

  232. Those who walk with God.

  233. You have a destiny.

  234. I want you to know you are called by God, and you have a destiny awaiting you in the Lord.

  235. Peter Wither never found that until he took that first step of obedience that day to row his boat out into the deep and let his net down.

  236. Here's the second key I love.

  237. Second coaching tip I have for you.

  238. So you can honor the calling that God has upon your life.

  239. Team up with other believers to have great impact.

  240. Nothing of true significance will ever be accomplished in our lives alone.

  241. God built us to be a part of his team, the church, the body of Christ.

  242. And so when we function together as a body, we have great impact together.

  243. It's simple truth.

  244. We're stronger together.

  245. One can put a thousand to flight, two can put ten thousand to flight, the word of God says.

  246. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.

  247. Ecclesiastic says.

  248. Turn to somebody close to you there and say, it's very simple, we're better together.

  249. Will you tell them that right now?

  250. Come on, I'm looking at you.

  251. Come on, tell them.

  252. Tell them.

  253. We're better together.

  254. We're better together.

  255. Now turn back to that person and say, you you don't even know how much you need me.

  256. Tell them.

  257. You don't even know how much you need me.

  258. Come on, I'm looking, I'm looking at you.

  259. Come on, Frisco.

  260. Stay with me, Frisco.

  261. Come on.

  262. Come on, Grand Prairie.

  263. Let's go.

  264. When I uh when I when I played high school ball, I was a pretty good athlete.

  265. I was all-star running back and I made Umbral Mention All-American and I set all the rushing records in in Southern Ohio.

  266. And I had one game where I rushed for 276 yards and 11 carries and five touchdowns in the first half.

  267. Of course, we were playing Rosarian School of the Blind, but it was a good game.

  268. I had a good game.

  269. Hey, I'm a running back, baby.

  270. Come on.

  271. Yeah, we're 5A and they're 1A, but what difference does that make?

  272. But I thought I was something.

  273. I got a college scholarship, I'm gonna go off to college, and I'm in, I'm in, I think I'm in great shape, and I get there, and boy, there's a big difference hitting 250-pound boys in high school and hitting 285-pound men who just got back from Vietnam.

  274. I'm back, I played back in the 60s, and these guys got back in Vietnam, they got Agent Orange, they got strange looks on their faces, they've been living in the jungles, you know, and I'm and I mean, I mean, and it's like they they had they had an open season.

  275. Kill every freshman you can.

  276. Freshmen are sneaking out in the middle of the night, they're running home, and then our crazy coaches, they wouldn't give us water, never give us water.

  277. And when they would, they'd put it in a bucket with the towel in it for the whole team to drink.

  278. What?

  279. And you they grab the towel and they bring it up and sup it.

  280. Throw it back in there.

  281. Can you imagine after all these linemen, these dirty, nasty linemen have touched that thing?

  282. And then by and the freshmen, we are the last guys to get to the bucket.

  283. Listen, by the time I got to the bucket, the flies would not even land on the bucket.

  284. I remember one practice I was so dehydrated, I I'd lost like 10 or 12 pounds in that one practice in a two-hour time period.

  285. No water, nothing.

  286. I'm dehydrated completely.

  287. I'm kind of delirious, I'm a little under my head's swooning.

  288. I'd I'd thrown up everything I'd eaten for two days.

  289. I was as sick as could be.

  290. And the coach says, line up for sprints, running these 40-yard wind sprints.

  291. You guys play football, you know what I'm talking about.

  292. Running 40-yard wind sprints in a practice, and I, for the first time in my life, a thought flashed across my mind, you may not make this.

  293. You may have to quit.

  294. And I'm sitting there gasping for air, and this all-American senior fullback walks up beside me and he says, Hey, rookie.

  295. I was impressed he knew my name, Rookie.

  296. And he said, He said, Hey, rookie, run with me.

  297. I don't know what happened, but I got a renewed strength.

  298. I got down, we ran, and I drafted off of Charlie.

  299. His name was Charlie Pell.

  300. I drafted off of him, and I stayed right with him.

  301. Man, wherever he was, I was.

  302. Guess where I lined up every practice for every drill.

  303. Man, I everything I did, I lined up beside Charlie.

  304. I learned from Charlie.

  305. I I Charlie helped me to pace myself through practice right.

  306. He gave me an extra energy, and he would give me little coaching tips every once in a while on how to execute this play and how to do that, and boom, boom, boom.

  307. Charlie got me through.

  308. And I made the team.

  309. And not only made the team, I started.

  310. I was the only freshman that made the team and started on that varsity team as a freshman, and I would have never made it except for Charlie Pell, who said, Hey, rookie, run with me.

  311. Here's what I'm gonna tell you.

  312. Choose who you run with.

  313. Because if you want to live a champion's life, you find champions of the faith and you run with them.

  314. Listen, one of the greatest ways you can do that, sign up to be a volunteer and serve at one of our campuses and jump in and begin to serve with other people who are serving and who are champions of the faith, and you will grow.

  315. Listen, I've heard it said that you will you will never rise higher than the sum average of the five closest people in your life.

  316. Think about that.

  317. You want to choose people who are champions of the faith who will bring you to a whole new level.

  318. Why do you think I like to hang out with Pastor Robert?

  319. He's a champion of the faith.

  320. Why do you think I like to hang out with these guys down here?

  321. Pastor Steve, Pastor Todd here on our South Lake, because they're champions of the faith.

  322. And I love Todd because he's got a dad named Tom, and I'm Tom, and I got a son named Todd.

  323. Hello.

  324. God's blessed me to have champions in my life.

  325. I love this quote by Mother Teresa.

  326. She says, You can do things I cannot do, and I can do things you cannot do, but together we can do great things.

  327. Amen?

  328. For we are better together.

  329. Here's the third thing I love about Peter.

  330. It gives us a good coaching tip.

  331. Peter was honest and transparent about his life when he said, Lord, get away from me, I'm a sinful man.

  332. He revealed an honest heart.

  333. Here's a key live a transparent life.

  334. No more of these double lives or hidden lives or compartmentalized lives.

  335. We live in a world today that likes to compartmentalize.

  336. And we have our quote private life and then we have our quote public life.

  337. No, no, no.

  338. As followers of Christ, we have one life, whether it's public or private.

  339. I was in Oklahoma preaching for a church in Oklahoma, and I was backstage talking with the pastors and things, and our mics were on.

  340. And lo and behold, the sound guys did not have them turned off at the thing.

  341. So everyone in the service is hearing our conversation in the office.

  342. By the way, if they did that to me at our place, I would probably, my sound guys, you would see them running laps carrying weights.

  343. Okay, but, anyways, they had the sound on, and so we were back, and when we walked out to the platform, they stood and started cheering.

  344. And we're going, what are they doing?

  345. What are they saying and cheering?

  346. I mean, I couldn't, I figured out.

  347. And then someone whispered and said, We've been listening to you for the last 15 minutes back in the office.

  348. Praise God, we were talking about.

  349. The things of God.

  350. And we were, and he and I'm in this impassioned conversation about the kingdom of God and what God's called us to.

  351. And man, we were just fired up and we were feeding off each other about the kingdom of God.

  352. And by the time we got out, the people were on their feet, they were fired up.

  353. I didn't need to preach.

  354. We just took an offering and gave an altar call.

  355. Hello, come on.

  356. The Bible says all hidden things will be revealed, anyways, right?

  357. So let's just live one life.

  358. Let's be real, let's be genuine.

  359. When you're real and genuine, transparent, even about your weaknesses and your challenges and your faults in your life, I'm gonna tell you what God will use that, God will honor that, and He He will attract people to you because people are attracted to genuine character and integrity.

  360. I love this verse in the Bible in Proverbs 10:9.

    Proverbs 10:9

  361. It says, A man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes a crooked path will be found out.

  362. Amen.

  363. I also love this quote by Oswald Chambers.

  364. When a Christian jealously guards his secret life with God, his public life will take care of itself.

  365. Here's your fourth coaching tip.

  366. Here we go.

  367. Fourth coaching tip.

  368. Never lose your awe of God.

  369. Your awe.

  370. Your astonishment.

  371. Your reverence for the things of God.

  372. Never let them become commonplace.

  373. And I want to warn you, Gateway.

  374. What's happening in the gateway is not common.

  375. Never lose your awe of what God's doing.

  376. Never lose your awe of the presence of God.

  377. Never lose your awe of the favor of God.

  378. Never lose your awe of your salvation, of God's grace, of God's mercy, of God's love.

  379. Never lose your awe.

  380. I was 16 years old when my grandfather said, Son, it's time for you to preach your first sermon.

  381. I'm going, and grandpa was six foot four and man's man, and he just, you know, strong and loved the Lord, loved people.

  382. He says, time for you to preach.

  383. So I studied all week, not one sermon.

  384. Couldn't find so I came to I came to him on Saturday.

  385. I said, Grandpa, there's not nothing, there's not one sermon in the Bible.

  386. Not one.

  387. By the way, I still feel that way some weeks.

  388. You know what I mean?

  389. He said, Lord, I can't find a thing here.

  390. He said, son, no problem.

  391. He gave me a little scripture, gave me a little outline, and he got ready.

  392. So I'm sitting up here Sunday morning with him on the platform, and we had those like big throne chairs, you know, in those days back there on our little our little platform, and I'm sitting back there beside him, and I'm getting sick.

  393. I'm getting so nervous, I'm sick.

  394. I'm about to throw up.

  395. And and throw up is not a proper sophisticated word, is it?

  396. I don't even know what the sophisticated word for that regurgitation is.

  397. But anyways, I'm sitting there sick and ready to throw up, and and I looked at grandpa, I said, Grandpa, grandpa, grandpa, I can't do this, I can't do this, I'm sick, I've got to go, I've got to go.

  398. And he put that big old hand of his over on me and he said, Son, don't ever lose that feeling.

  399. It's a sacred trust to share the word of God.

  400. God will help you.

  401. I got up and preached for five minutes.

  402. Sit down.

  403. God help me.

  404. And the people were really encouraged because I only preached for five minutes.

  405. You know, I still have that sense in me.

  406. Every time I have an opportunity to share the word of God, I stand in awe of God.

  407. I never want to lose our sense of awe of God.

  408. And finally, here's the other point I want to make.

  409. They left their boats, they left their nets, they left their way of life to step into the unknown when Jesus said, Come and follow me.

  410. It took courage, it took courage for them to literally abandon their past in order to embrace their destiny.

  411. And it takes courage to abandon our past and embrace our destinies.

  412. Some in our church found a guy living under a bridge on one of our major interstates, interstate I-95, that runs up the east coast of Florida and all the way, I think, all the way up to New York.

  413. He's living under this bridge, and they started taking him some food, and they started taking him some clothes, and they were taking blankets and everything.

  414. And one day they found it convinced him after they had been ministering to him for many weeks to come to church with him.

  415. And I remember he walked in and I actually saw this, I saw him walk in because you could tell, I mean, the way he was dressed and everything else, that this guy had been in a very desperate place.

  416. After the service was over, I just felt compelled the Lord to go back and seek this guy out.

  417. And I went back and I sought him out, and he was very kind of hesitant and pulled away from me.

  418. And I asked his name, and some guys introduced him to me, and I looked at him and I said, Son, we're here to love you.

  419. And I said, By the way, I said, Can I give you a hug?

  420. And he but he his body language he pulled way back.

  421. And I said, No, no, come here, come here.

  422. I want to give you a hug.

  423. You know one thing I found?

  424. I I have found, I grew up, my dad's family, no affection at all.

  425. Men didn't say I love you, they didn't hug you.

  426. They was not, you know, just suck it up and get tough.

  427. That's you know, that's the way we grew up.

  428. My my dad's, my mother's side of the family, very affectionate.

  429. You think they're a bunch of Italians, although they were Dutch.

  430. I don't know what the deal was there, but they you know, hugging, kissing every time they saw you, you know, boom, boom, boom.

  431. So I grew up with that kind of affectionate thing.

  432. So I grabbed that man and I hugged him, and he he started weeping and fell his head on my shoulder.

  433. He just graduated from college this past weekend.

  434. And what what I want to tell you, what made the difference in his life was he had a breakthrough about six weeks after he gave his heart to Christ.

  435. He had a breakthrough when he said, I was finally able to forgive myself and those who had abandoned me.

  436. And I was able to release all of my past and my pain into the hands of God.

  437. When he did that, he had a breakthrough.

  438. I want to tell you something.

  439. The things you hold on to in your life, they will often be the things that will really distract you from embracing all that God has for your life.

  440. See, when you hold this way, it's so hard to receive what God has for you.

  441. But when you get your hands open and release it into the hands of God, even all the injustices, all the pain, all the abandonment, all the betrayal has to be released into the hands of God.

  442. Let me leave you with this one statement.

  443. Significance in life and eternity are discovered when we honor the call of God upon our lives.

  444. You are called.

  445. Okay, here we go.

  446. Everybody, get your hands clean, clear, nothing in your hands, get on your feet, let's go.

  447. All of our cancers, come on, jump up, jump up, come on, let's go, get up, get up, come on, North Fork.

  448. Come on, let's go.

  449. Come on, Grand Prix, get up here.

  450. Come on.

  451. Come on, Fort Worth.

  452. Come on, get up.

  453. Let's go.

  454. Everybody get up.

  455. Here we go.

  456. Ready?

  457. Now, in coaching terms, the fundamental positions, feet spread about the width of your shoulders.

  458. And when I holler, break down, we're gonna get in a fundamental position, which is a slight bend in your and your knees, flex, back straight.

  459. Here, okay, ready?

  460. Just break down.

  461. Get in this position one time.

  462. This is the fundamental position for all sports, right here, okay?

  463. Boom.

  464. So now a minute I'm gonna holler, break down.

  465. When I holler, break down, we're gonna get in that fundamental position.

  466. Okay?

  467. And then when we get in that fundamental position, we're gonna do our breakout clap, which is one, two, three, one.

  468. It's one, two, three, one.

  469. Okay?

  470. And so I holler, break down, we're gonna break down one, two, three, one.

  471. Got it?

  472. Okay, and then we're gonna shout out I am called.

  473. I want you to affirm your calling today before heaven and before hell, and before this company of believers, I am called.

  474. Okay?

  475. Now, because you're called, you're gonna live different.

  476. And you're gonna impact lives like never before.

  477. Because remember, you are the salt and the light of the world because you're called.

  478. Okay, ready?

  479. You campus is ready?

  480. Get the campus pastor up on the platform, Shop.

  481. Pastor Toma, come up here with me.

  482. Come on, baby, let's go.

  483. I'm on the campus pastor, get up on the platform, show your people how to break down.

  484. Get up, come on, come on, hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle.

  485. Get over here, come on.

  486. Let's go.

  487. Get that microphone down.

  488. Get the microphone down.

  489. Here we go.

  490. We ready?

  491. Get up that microphone.

  492. You got to.

  493. I'm in love with you.

  494. God bless you.