Entrusted 4 | Tag, You're It

Thank you for listening to the Kelowna Christian Center Podcast.

Our desire is that today's message will be fresh and encouraging to you.

For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at KCC.net.

Well, good morning.

How are you guys doing this morning?

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Malachi.

I'm one of the pastors here on staff with Pastor Brian and Pastor Brody.

This month we've been, if you've been with us uh for any last couple of weeks, we've been following this uh this sermon series called Entrusted.

Uh Pastor Brody and Pastor Dave kind of let it off, and uh and they talked about how we are entrusted by God.

We are entrusted by God in every area of our life.

And a lot of the the message we've been talking about finances and purpose and uh and where God has blessed us.

Uh where where God has blessed us, he wants us to bless others, right?

He wants us to be a blessing.

We are blessed to be.

All right, some of you came last week, so that was good.

Uh that was that was a test.

Some of you passed, a lot of you failed.

Let's try that again.

You are blessed to be, eh?

Awesome.

I'm not preaching about that this morning.

I just wanted to see if you guys remember, but uh, I have the honor uh of sharing with you.

I know Pastor Brody isn't here, uh, but I'm just he I think maybe he's watching online.

So hey, Pastor Brody, uh, comfy in his home, but I just wanted to just honor him really quick.

Let's just give it up for our lead pastor, even though he's not here, but um I wouldn't be here if if uh he didn't allow me.

So I'm just so grateful for him and and Pastor Brian and our team.

And so uh, but I believe that God has put something on my heart for you this morning, and uh actually preached this a few weeks ago uh to our youth group, and I just felt like God was just saying to to use it again and and and re-preach this.

And so we're gonna jump in and we're gonna start to read in Jonah chapter one, and we're gonna have it on the screen for you.

If you have your Bibles, that's awesome.

If you don't, well, sorry about that.

We'll we'll have to pray for you after.

But in Jonah chapter one, and we're actually gonna read an entire chapter of the Bible this morning.

So uh if you didn't want to do that, we're gonna do that.

So I'm so sorry, but buckle in your seat belts, we're gonna go for it.

It says this in verse one, it says the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amati.

I don't even know how to pronounce some of these names in the Bible, but that's okay.

Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because of its wickedness has come up before me.

Verse three, but Jonah ran away.

I don't recommend this, uh, from the Lord, and headed to Tarshish.

He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for the port.

After paying affair, he went aboard and sailed in the opposite direction that the Lord was calling him.

Verse 4 says, Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose to threaten the ship to break up.

It's not you, it's me.

Bad joke.

Sorry.

All the sailors, some of you got that, some of you are gonna get it later.

All the sailors were afraid, and they cried out to each his own God, and they threw cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

But Jonah had gone below deck where he lay and fell into a deep sleep.

The captain went to him and ran up to him and started screaming, like, How can you sleep?

Get up and call on your God.

Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.

Then the sailors came and they came together and they they started talking to others.

Hey, let's let's cast lots, let's uh find out who's responsible for this calamity.

And they they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

So they asked him, Tell us who's responsible for making this trouble for us?

What kind of work do you do?

Where do you come from?

How tall are you?

What do you weigh?

What's your name?

What's your middle, what's country?

They started asking all these questions, right?

They're just they're frantic, they're trying to figure out what is happening.

And he says to them, I am a Hebrew and I and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who he made the sea and the dry land.

And this answer terrified them, and they asked him, What have you done?

For they knew that he was running away from God because he had already told them so.

And the sea was continuing to get rougher and rougher and more terrifying.

And so they asked him, What do we need to do to make the sea calm?

And Jonah comes up with this bread idea, says, Pick me up and throw me into the sea.

Like, option like four, maybe out of five, but like he comes up with that being our his first option.

And so he replied to them, and it will become calm.

I know this is my fault, that the great storm has come upon you.

And instead, the men were like, We're not doing that.

So they just tried to they tried to row back to the port, and they tried to row back to land, but in but they could not because the sea grew worse and worse and wilder and wilder, and they cried out to the Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life.

Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.

And they threw Jonah and they or they took Jonah and they threw him overboard into the raging sea, and at that moment it grew calm.

And at this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord, made their vows to him.

And verse 17, it says, Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah.

And Jonah was in the belly of the whale, or the fish.

I mean, it would have been it would have had been a big fish.

I don't know how big Jonah was, but it was probably a whale.

So for three days and three nights.

And uh the title of this message, uh, if you're taking notes today, is Tag You're It.

Tap your neighbor, tap your neighbor and say, Tag, you're it.

Tag you're in.

Let's pray.

Father God, we just thank you so much for this morning.

I thank you so much for the team leading us in worship this morning.

I thank you for your word.

Uh, and I thank you for this church and this community, God.

I just pray that we would just grow deeper uh in community with each other, but ultimately, God, that this morning we would grow closer to you.

In Jesus' name, if you agree with that, somebody say amen.

Amen.

Hey, how many of you remember uh maybe when you were in elementary school, for some of you that's like decades and decades and decades ago, or maybe middle school, how many of you remember playing the game of tag?

Some of you.

Well, we're gonna have to pray for some of you after, but uh, because I think that you know, most of us, I would say most of us that had a normal childhood, uh, played the game of tag as a kid.

Maybe this was a different game, but tag for me, tag for me when I was in elementary school and and and middle school, this was like the lifeblood of recess.

Right?

We're we're going back to the days when I was like a little dude.

Uh it was such a simple game, right?

Everyone knew how to play it.

Uh it was it was also like that game that you played uh when you when you liked a girl, right?

You're like, ha ha, tag your it, and they're like chasing you, like, don't tag me, right?

Or like the guy, right?

Like that was like the flirting game in elementary school, was the game of tag, right?

Maybe for some of you, like never, never me, but um then the game eventually evolved, right?

It evolved and morphed into the game of Capture the Flag.

Anyone play Capture the Flag?

Yes.

Uh I loved Capture the Flag, uh, but this is also the game that everyone liked to cheat at, right?

It was really frustrating to play it.

But we I remember when I was in grade five, we were playing the game of Capture the Flag.

We played it a lot at lunchtime, and uh and so we were playing this game, and uh and I remember I remember that the the feeling of of playing these these like kind of uh games at lunchtime, it was really intense when you were younger.

Like everything was super intense.

It was kind of like that uh that that old church song where you were standing on the line getting ready to like run into the other s other side and and into the enemy's like camp, right?

Do you remember that song?

Like, I went to the enemy's camp and uh took back what he stole from me.

Come on, do you guys know it?

Took back what he stole from me.

Took back what he stole.

Do you remember that that song?

But that's kind of like what it felt like.

We were going into the enemy's camp and we were gonna steal all their flags, right?

So it was like this super intense moment.

Uh, anyway, so we're in the middle of this game of capture the flag, and it was uh springtime, and so there was like snow on the ground still.

Uh I lived up in in the great white north, so we had snow for like six months of the year, but it was about it was kind of the end of spring, and so there's ice on the ground, and I'm like sprinting across the line.

I'm I'm deaking and dodging kids, and I and I feel like I was pretty good at this game.

I was pretty quick as a student.

And uh I remember I made my way to the hula hoop on the ground.

That was the other team's like camp where they had the flags, and so I grabbed the flag, and I remember just like, okay, now I'm gonna I'm gonna run back, as is the the the name of the game, the the way you play it, you have to get the flags to the other side without getting caught.

If you get tagged, you have to either get like you have to either stop where you are, drop the flag, or run back to the other side.

So I'm running and I'm and I'm deaking kids, and then all of a sudden, like my one friend who's like a little bit faster than me sees me and he starts sprinting after me.

And I'm like, I'm in trouble because I'm like so far away from the the safety zone.

So I'm I'm running, and then all of a sudden I decide I'm just gonna like turn really sharp.

So I like turn really sharp, and then what I didn't see because I was looking like this, there was like this patch of ice.

Okay, so there's this patch of ice right here, and and as I like immediately as I stepped, and it wasn't like I I slipped out and I kind of like tumbled to the ground, it was like my feet just went like immediately out from under me.

And I remember when I remember the feeling I had when I when I hit the ground, and it was like the snap.

It was like like that's what it sounded like, and my and it and it felt like my collarbone literally just snapped in half.

And I remember just like rolling, I was rolling down the hill, like screaming, crying, bawling because it hurts so bad, and like my shoulder was on fire.

And uh, and Mrs.

Mrs.

Taylor, she was uh she was our grade five teacher, Mrs.

Taylor.

Um, and she she was on like uh the what do you call it, like the supervision during lunchtime.

She had the Visi vest.

She was walking around.

If you're a teacher, you know uh the struggle of this when there's like little kids running around, everyone's getting hurt.

But she was walking around, she sees me kind of rolling down the hill, screaming, nah, like in pain, right?

So she runs over, and she was also the first aid attendant uh for our school.

And so she comes over, she checks me, checks my shoulder, and she's like looking around, and and she says to me in this kind of like your pathetic voice, like, oh, it's not that bad, you don't have to cry about it, nothing's broken.

And I remember that phrase has stuck with me today, and I'll and I'll and I'll tell you why.

Because uh, so she picks me up and she takes me to the first aid room, she sits me down, I'm still crying, I'm trying not to cry because I feel bad now for crying because she told me, like, don't cry, there's nothing wrong with you.

And I'm like, it hurts so bad.

And I were just like bawling, and then she called my parents.

Uh, my parents came and picked me up and they took me to the hospital.

The first thing the doctor says to me is like, oh, looks like you broke your collarbone.

And I remember just like, I remember just like the betrayal I felt.

This grade five teacher had the audacity to tell me not to cry when it was clearly broken.

And so I I remember like the struggle of this, I think it was like six or seven weeks of this stupid cast.

I don't know if you've ever like broken your collarbone before where you have to you have to get like cinched up in this weird like body thing that like goes around you in your arms in a sling and you can't do anything.

You can't even wear a normal t-shirt, you have to wear like button-up shirts, and all I had was those like weird like button-up shirts with like the Asian dude on it fighting a tiger.

Like the worst fashion statement.

I don't know if I hope to god those don't come back in fashion, but like I remember I was I was uh I I got the the okay to go back to school, and some of you were like, Where is this going?

But I got the I got the okay to go back to school, and I remember like sitting down, I was kind of late for class.

I remember sitting down in the first thing in Miss Taylor's class, and I was kind of like the last one to come in.

And I remember walking in with my sling, and I just kind of like glared at her.

I was like, You know, you know why.

And I remember sitting down and uh she kind of like makes eye contact with me, and she knew, like she knew that I was ticked, and and I felt betrayed, and I would probably never trust her again.

But I remember she she she kind of pipes up and the class is silent, and she's like, Well, she's like, uh, I see your sling there.

What did the what did the doctor say?

Kind of reluctantly, because she knew I was ticked, right?

And uh, and so like there was like the silence in the room, kind of like right now.

Amen.

And uh, and I remember this like I remember just like taking all the precious time I needed to to answer, and I just kind of looked at her, I was like, doctor said it's broken.

And then that was the end of the conversation, right?

She just like she looked away, and and I remember just like I remember sitting there because I remember how I feel right now.

It was like that I told you so moment that I'm gonna relish in for the rest of my life.

And and even now, like I I tell that, I tell that story because it's you know it's a great memory of mine, and maybe some of you are like, really, where is this going?

But as I was preparing, as I was preparing this, uh, I was reminded of this, like the game of tag.

I was reminded of this game, these games of evasion that I used to play as a kid, or like capture the flag where you're trying to run away from people.

Maybe you didn't play these games, this is a judgment-free zone, but um as I was as I was preparing for this, I was reminded that this this this game of tag is often a picture of what we do.

This game is a picture of often, I'm not saying every single time, but often what we do, or it's often our first reaction to what God, to when God calls us to do something, is we avoid it, we run away from it, we evade it, like we're sprinting away from God, like like in this story Jonah, the first thing he said he does is he's he just says, but Jonah ran away.

Like God calls him and he runs away.

And I think oftentimes, more often than not, our first reaction to God's calling in our life is we run away.

Or, or we we do this thing and we try to convince ourselves, and we maybe we hear God or we feel like we're heard, we heard God, but it's way too big, it's way too scary, it's way too out of our our influence, it's way too out of our circle of I can do that, and we just kind of convince ourselves that maybe that was just me, maybe that was just me being crazy, maybe it was the the beef I had last night, and I'm kind of like tripping, right?

Like something's something's wrong with me, that's that's that's not God.

Or we we we have this feeling of insecurity that maybe hits you.

I don't know if you've ever been in that situation where you feel like God's calling you, and like immediately insecurity just kind of like holds on to you.

And and and it's like, man, God, this you you have the wrong person for the job.

Or or maybe anxiety hits you.

I can never do that.

I'm not I'm not prepared.

What what would I even say, God?

Or what would I even do?

What would they think of me?

And I'm not saying again, I'm not saying this happens all the time, but I'm I want to say this that I think it happens to mostly everybody at some point in their life.

I know that's for a fact in my life because it happened to me, it happens to me, and it happened to me countless times.

And uh, you know, it's with it's where fear and and doubt and and worry just like bombard you.

When you feel a call from God, but all of a sudden right away fear tries to like slip in there, doubt tries to slip in there, anxiety tries to slip in there immediately.

And when when or if, and if and when is actually if and when these these these times happen or when you let your emotions or let these thoughts kind of like take the steering wheel of your life, and and God's calling you to something, and and and which he is, he's he's called every single person in this room to something, and when he calls us, when those emotions grip the steering wheel, we either completely run in the opposite direction, right?

Like we talked about, or even worse, we we tend to sit in this like apathetic state where we where we almost ignore God.

It's like it's like when your kids don't want to listen to you, it's like, no, no, no, I can't hear you, right?

Like, we just don't want to hear what God has to say.

Or we we we just like kind of like we hear God and we just want to stay comfortable because we understand that when he's calling us to something, we have to get kind of out of our comfort zone.

We're like, ah, I just want to just want to sit down.

God, I'm really tired.

I've had a really busy week.

Uh I just I'm gonna I'm gonna take the L on this one.

I'm just gonna I'm just gonna relax for a minute.

Or even worse, I think this is I think this is even worse, is where we where we we were sitting and we're waiting, and we almost we're waiting for God to call us to something that suits us best.

Right?

Or we wait and we're just like, nah, God, that's that's I don't think that's me.

I don't really want to do that.

And then then the the kind of like the flashy call is like, I want that one.

Like I wanna, I wanna I want to speak on stage, or I wanna, I wanna do this, I want to do that.

God, can you call me to that?

But no, he's I've called you to this right here, it's right in front of you.

I want to give you something more, but but you have to take this, and we're like, no, but I I want that over there, God.

And we we sit in that state where we argue with God or we ignore him or we run from him, or even worse, we we just wait for something that suits us best.

And if we look back at this story of Jonah, it says in verse one, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, go to the great city of Nineveh, preach against it, because of its wickedness has come up before me.

Verse 3.

Jonah ran away from the Lord, headed to Tarshus the opposite way, he went to Joppa, found a ship, boarded the ship, paid the fare, went aboard, sailed for Tarshish to flee.

And uh I I was looking at this story and I I I I usually like to put myself in the person's shoes of the story.

And so I I I look at the story and I don't blame Jonah.

I don't blame him for running for running away.

Like at first glance, we're like, Jonah, you idiot.

Like, what are you doing?

But like I don't blame Jonah because I feel like I feel like I would almost do the same thing.

Because what God was was calling Jonah to, like, God was calling Jonah to tell an entire city, hey, all of Nineveh, like stand up on a platform like this, but all of the cities looking at you and saying, hey, what you're doing is wrong.

And you're going to die if you don't stop.

There's going to be a judgment that comes to you if you don't stop what you're doing.

Like, how many of you would like to preach that message?

I don't think anybody in this room.

I would, I would probably just like shrink out of my seat and walk out the back door if that was what I was called to.

Hopefully not.

That please God don't.

Uh, but but right, like it wasn't like this inspiring, like, nice, kind of fluffy, packaged message that God was calling Jonah to preach.

It wasn't about like, hey, God loves you so much, and you need to just just tilt your, you know, we'll work with you, but we just gotta like kind of take small steps this way.

It was like, hey, if you don't turn around completely 180 right now, today, judgment is coming.

It was like that that when you walk down the street and there's kind of like that crazy guy on the street is like, you're all going to hell, message, right?

Like it's not a fun message.

And on top of that, on top of that, like, this was dangerous.

So you look at this in the in the context of this entire city decides to turn completely away from God, right?

So they they knew God before, but now they're in this complete, utter state of like rebellion, 180 flip.

So they're over here, now they're over here.

And you look at this, uh, and and I see like probably they were a little bit wild.

They were probably partying, they were probably like there was lawlessness happening in Nineveh.

It was probably dangerous to go into Nineveh.

Like it wasn't a nice place.

You would probably get like shanked and your wallet gets stolen as soon as you walked into Nineveh.

Like it was, it was probably like that kind of place.

Otherwise, God wouldn't have said, Hey, Jonah, I want you to go and tell these people to turn around.

Like it was a bit wild, right?

And so Jonah going to this place, even just without having to preach this message, was dangerous.

Right?

What if the people of Nineveh were like, hey, uh, hey Jonah, and this is like the nicest way possible I could think about it, like, hey Jonah, we actually don't like what you have to say.

And and they decide to actually turn against Jonah because they've already turned from God.

How easy would it be for them to just like throw Jonah in jail, or worse, just like kill him?

And so I don't blame Jonah for running from this thought because he knew the implications.

He knew what he had to do was dangerous, he knew what he had to do was completely like I have to fully rely on God for this, otherwise it's not gonna happen.

It wasn't easy and it wasn't comfortable.

But here's the thing about God here's the thing uh about God is that he will never call you to something comfortable.

God will never call you to comfort.

I'm gonna say it again.

God will never call you into something that's comfortable.

Maybe it's maybe it's it's it's it's comfortable for him, but for us, it's not it's not gonna be comfortable.

God will never call you into something easy.

God will never call you into something that you can just kind of like walk into and and like put your name on and be like, that was easy.

Like, next, God, like let's get some more here, right?

Like, he'll always call us into growth.

God will not call you into comfort, but he will call you into something that's going to like stretch you.

He's gonna call you into something that's going to almost aggravate you, maybe frustrate you, maybe irritate you, maybe bring you down a level.

Maybe it might be hard at first, but God is always gonna call you into something that's going to challenge you because he wants you to grow.

And God's not gonna God's not gonna call you into that and and then like kind of like kick you out of the nest, right?

Like birds do with their babies, they're like, all right, learn to fly.

Like Like, he's gonna be there with you, right?

He's not just gonna like kick you out of the nest, he's gonna be there with you, right?

And he he calls you to something like that because he he wants to equip you within that struggle, and he also wants you to know that he wants you to be in a space where you can't do it on your own strength.

Because whenever we do something, whenever we do something in our own strength, and I and I've done this so many times, where I where I do it, and I'm almost like I'm become absent-minded of God, and I and I think, man, I am awesome.

Like, I am so look at that.

Look at I just built and then I start like my chest kind of puffs up and my head starts to expand, and I'm like, I'm walking around like I'm the best.

Like, like that's what happens when we start to do things and we start to accomplish things, and we think that God's like called us into that, and we do it in our own strength, we start to give ourselves the glory.

Because when we're in a space where we're like, I can't do this.

Perfect.

I can't do this without you, God.

That's that's the best place to be.

It's the exact spot that he actually wants you.

God will never call you to comfort, he's gonna call you to growth.

And going back to this story, we learned that we learned another thing that running and hiding from God is is absolutely impossible.

Right?

Like Jonah tries to run and he and he sails the opposite way, thinking God's gonna give up on him, and uh and God sends a storm, and and it and it basically is a storm so bad, and we've there's a few storms like this in the Bible.

Uh, this is actually a parallel of one of the stories in in uh in the Gospels of when Jesus was in the boat with the disciples, he's sleeping, and there's that crazy storm.

Remember, we talked about that?

And that crazy storm is kind of like this picture of what's happening here, and God sends a storm, it threatens to break the ship in half, like it's a big ship, so it's a crazy storm, and these sailors are are scared, right?

So it's it's it's a big enough storm to scare professionals, right?

And so meanwhile, Jonah's asleep, I don't know how, but the men urge him to at least pray.

And then they cast lots because sailors are are are typically superstitious.

So casting a lot was kind of like rolling the dice to kind of like basically to see who is responsible for it, right?

So they're kind of doing that, and it conveniently lands on Jonah.

Jonah accepts his fate, he finally gives in to what what God was saying, and I think that Jonah actually, I don't think he he thought that God was gonna continue to pursue him at this point.

I think he thought that God was like, okay, it's time to die, Jonah, right?

Like he didn't really fully, I don't think he fully knew the love of God, but he I I think he's at this point where it's kind of like, well, like it's either me or I drag all these people down with me, so it might as well just be me.

So he's kind of at the he's at the end of himself in this moment.

He he he's kind of at this spot where there's like there's no hope.

Right?

He's in this space where where where there's nothing to turn to but to jump into the raging sea.

And so Jonah accepts his fate and he says, Well, boys, I guess throw me into the sea and the storm's gonna stop.

And and this is kind of uh I I find this humorous.

I don't know why, but I I was I was thinking about this and I kind of pictured this uh this this scene in the Bible where I don't know if you were on the boat, just picture yourself on the boat and you like had to throw this guy into the sea, and then everything stops.

It was like, and immediately like everything that was going crazy, all the the storm was like raging, it was like threatening to kill everybody, all of a sudden just like calm, and you threw this guy into the sea, and everything was calm.

Like that would be kind of interesting, and then you're left to like everyone's on the boat, and Jonah's like floating in the water, and he's like, and you're kind of like staring at him, you're like, Well, guys, should we should we bring him back in?

Or like, do we just leave him?

Like, I guess like we could try to get him back in and like row as fast as we could, but it was like this awkward moment where Jonah's kind of like floating in the sea, right?

Like, and you're just kind of staring at him like, well, sorry, dude, like we can't bring you back in, otherwise we'll die, right?

And they just kind of row away slowly, like, see Jonah.

Like it's this really kind of funny, awkward scene, right?

And I and I look at this story too, and I I look at this story.

That was kind of my little rabbit trail.

I'm so sorry.

Uh I couldn't help it, but it just it's just I find it funny.

And so I look at this story of Jonah, and it's so easy for us to think like, man, God could have just easily given up on Jonah, God could have easily just uh picked someone else, God could have easily just I know said, actually, goodbye, Jonah.

Like, I'm gonna just leave you here in the sea, and I'm gonna pick someone who actually wants to go and do this.

But as we see, God sends a fish, like of all things, a fish.

Like, he couldn't have sent anything else.

But anyways, God does what he wants to do, and he he's probably laughing about it.

Uh, but he sends a fish and he's and it swallows Jonah, and it's like you'd think that that would be the worst thing ever, but it's it saves his life, and eventually he goes on, right?

He goes on from that place, that low point, to finally accepting God's call.

Right, and he preaches the message and and it and it all goes well.

And I I don't really want to get into that, but um and I'm gonna ask uh actually Michael to come up.

I'm almost done here, but I I know this this story of the story of Jonah really kind of hits me.

And uh and uh this is this is really you know, I look at this story and this is me.

Like I I see me in this story.

I'm Jonah.

Um and I and I think you guys have probably heard my my story a few times and I don't really want to go into it, but I I ran from the call of God, and I tried to run for as long as I possibly could, but it didn't work.

And uh and instead of instead of going into my story, there's there's been a lot of buzz in the Christian community.

I don't know if you've uh been following anything, or even even in the secular world, there's this dude named Kanye West.

And uh and uh if you haven't you know been thinking or like you know seen a lot of the posts lately, but Kanye West, uh I want to give you a little bit of context.

I have a clip I want to play in a minute, but uh Kanye West is an extremely well-known uh musician, like music artist, hip-hop artist.

Uh at one point he said he was uh this was before he was saved, uh he said he was the best or the greatest artist to ever have walked the earth.

So he was he was well known and he was very like confident about it, okay?

Um and so like he was responsible, like he's an extremely uh successful businessman with his shoes.

Uh he he made a deal with uh Adidas and like just making billions of dollars.

Uh he was responsible for a lot of like cultural mute move movements and music and and and that kind of scene.

And Kanye's Kanye's music from the beginning, from the beginning has is kind of had like hints of his faith.

And so there was he actually there's a there's a lot of interviews with him right now uh because people are curious.

But if you watch a few of them, there's there's these moments where he talks about where like way back when he was first like starting, he he felt like God was calling him to do something.

And he he he had faith, he had something in him, but he decided to turn away, and he decided he calls it being distracted by the devil in this in this interview, and uh, and and there's always been like hints of of faith, but obviously like the music that he's put out is very explicit, um, and it's and it's definitely not Christian until you know recently over this last year, he was working on a new album and uh and he came out uh publicly and professed his faith.

He's professed that you know God has saved me.

I I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and and he's and his life is completely just flipped.

And he's put out this new album.

I don't know if you've heard of it.

I I recommend listening to it, even if you don't like hip-hop music, it has some good gospel in it, but it's like a full-blown gospel album.

And this kind of like rocked everything in the music industry, even in the secular world, and even in the Christian side.

This is such an amazing picture of you know how God can use anyone.

Uh, it doesn't matter, you know, uh how far they are from God.

I don't know.

I like I would see Kanye West, and I'd I sometimes doubt it even today.

And I think it's easy for us to judge at first glance, and so I think especially as Christians, you know, we we can easily just look at that and be like, well, how's long, how long is that gonna last?

Right?

We're just kind of like holding our breath.

I think it's easy to be in that space where we we look at Kanye and we hold our breath and we're like, when's he gonna screw up?

And uh I guarantee you he's going to.

So don't hold your breath.

I think that, you know, I look at my life and every day it's a struggle.

Every single day, and you look at a guy like Kanye when most of the world's eyes are on you, like he's going to screw up.

But that's not the point.

That's not the point, is that God, God can literally use anyone, and right now He's He's using him to change something.

It's amazing.

And uh, so this story, as I wrap up, this story of Jonah, the story of Kanye, and even when I look at my own life, uh, it kind of brought me to a simple conclusion.

Very simple conclusion.

Is that we can't like we can't stop the call of God.

We can't.

We you know, no amount of failure, no amount of distance, no no no amount of trying to avoid God.

We can't stop it.

We have the ability to delay it.

We have the ability to avoid God, we have the ability to to almost hold off God, but his call remains the same.

His calling on your life remains the same.

It doesn't matter where you're at, it doesn't matter maybe maybe you're you're sitting here and you've been a Christian your whole life and you feel stagnant, God still has a call in your life.

It doesn't matter if you're you're here for the maybe the first time and you're like, man, how did I even get to church?

I don't even feel like I I belong here.

God has a call on your life.

And and there's nothing that you can do to put a stop to it while you're breathing on this earth, on this planet, you cannot do anything to stop it.

You can avoid it, you can slow it down, you can delay it, but eventually it's gonna come.

And I say that because what God has entrusted to you, we can't stop.

What God has entrusted to you, and maybe for most of us, maybe for some of you in this room, I know for me sometimes it's hard to even say this that God trusts you.

God trusts you, he trusts you with his call.

Each and every single person in this room, each and every single person outside this room, he trusts you.

And he said this to his disciples in Matthew 28, 16.

This was uh this was right after, this is kind of like the the end of his time on earth that he died and was resurrected, and he was kind of walking around finishing up some business, and this is the last thing that happened while Jesus was on the planet.

And then the eleven followers of Galilee, they went to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

When they saw Jesus, they worshiped him, but some did not believe, some still had a hard time catching it.

And Jesus said to them, All power has been given to me in heaven and on our and on earth.

Go and make followers, or in some other version it says, disciples of all nations, baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Teach them to do all these things I have told you.

And this is a really important part.

It says, I am always with you, even to the end of the world.

And this is the last conversation Jesus has is with his disciples, and he essentially says, I kind of take this in my own words.

He says, Tag, you're it.

Tag, you're it.

Stop waiting around.

Tag, you're it.

It's time to move.

Tag, you're it.

I'm not coming back yet.

Tag, you're it.

He essentially says, Hey, you're next, guys.

You're it.

You're the ones who are gonna change everything.

Go and do what I did.

I'm not gonna send you without me.

I'm gonna I'm gonna be with you always.

That's why he sent this Holy Spirit to be with us.

But he says, show them me.

When you accept Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior, you become an ambassador of Jesus Christ.

Basically, you represent Him.

And it's your turn.

It's not just me, it's your turn.

The call of God is on your life too.

It's not just the guy up on stage, it's not just the guy on the piano, it's not the people running the show.

You have a call of God on your life because God trusts you.

Let's just pray together.

Father God, I just thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for even what you're doing in a in a guy like Kanye's life.

I thank you for what you've done in my life.

I thank you for what you've done in so many others' lives, God.

But this morning, I just want to just pray over this group of people, God, that you would just encourage them this morning and even in this moment that you would just speak to their hearts.

That little whisper, like, I trust you.

I trust you.

I trust you.

And maybe you're here this morning and we just we just want to give an opportunity.

Maybe you're here this morning and you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've never prayed that prayer, you've never made a decision to follow Jesus, however, you want to word it.

And maybe you're here this morning, we just want to give an opportunity for you.

And I want to ask the church uh, you know, if you're in this room, we want to we want to pray together as a community with you so that you're not alone.

But what this means is your life's never gonna be the same.

This is a prayer that'll change your life from here until forever.

Because as soon as you pray that prayer, you're in.

God says, hey, tag, you're it.

So it comes with a responsibility, it comes at a cost.

We give our lives to Jesus and the call of his work, and God just wants to, I just want to have that opportunity right now, if that's you.

We're gonna, I'm not gonna ask you to put up your hand, I'm not gonna ask you to stand up, I'm not gonna embarrass you, but I just want to pray this prayer together, if we could, as a congregation.

Lord Jesus, welcome to my life.

I acknowledge that I need you.

I know that I haven't done things the way you wanted.

But this morning I want that to change.

I ask for forgiveness of my sin.

I ask you to come into my heart.

Ask you to take over my life, make me new this morning, make me whole.

And I want to walk this walk with you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening.

For more information on KCC and how to connect, visit us at kcc.net.