Enduring the Cross

You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

And one of the biggest killers in ministry is shaped

the way forward.

The way to be able to succeed, overcome and be

breaking through over and over again is to endure across.

Don't let them the enemy rob us of our joy,

because joy is strength. Can I remind you, though, that

the Bible says it is the joy of the Lord,

So I remind you. I know you know it already.

It is not your joy. Our joy can go up

and down. Our joy can go up and down. But

the joy of the Lord is consistent. The joy of

the Lord is forever. So you and I need to

come into that joy. That means that it doesn't matter

whether you are happy, It meta whether He is happy.

That is the essence of worship.

Too many people want to give God our songs, but

how many of us we want to sing the songs

He wants to hear?

And for that Sunday it could be a hymn.

I'm telling you right now, And many worship leaders need

to hear this because they keep going with the latest.

And everybody, you know why, you know what they turn

off the lights. They tell me.

They turn off lights so that other people can worship better.

So it's again about other people. Man has worshiped become

about other people. It's about the Lord. Is his joy

that gives us strength, everybody, Okay, remain in his joy.

Lord.

I might not be happy, but I know I know

you are, and I want to make you happy. And

in making him happy, that's how you become happy ultimately. Okay,

who for the joy that was set before him? Let

me finish this set before him, set before him. What

I catch? What I catch from that is vision. Maybe

today you're not at a very good place. You hope

to be out of it soon. And the only way

you can smile at the storm is that you can

see a vision after it. So Jesus saw a vision

after this pain. You know why a lot of you

will come feeling down and come then then come to

a conference and then suddenly all fill up because you've

heard things and seen things that has caused you to

be excited. Some of you, he said that last night,

I saw something and I'm excited to go back and

implement it. That's why I heard last night, because joy

and excitement.

I'm married.

I'm talking about excitement, and excitement that comes because of vision,

and vision is not for today's vision is later you

see though you see it, You see it, you set

before him, You see it at a conference. Nothing has

happened at home, yet you're still here, and at home

you're still getting text that is not so good maybe, but.

You're not looking at the text anymore. You're looking at

the vision that set before you.

That's why you stand up and say, I know where

I'm still at, but I know where I'm going. And

because of that, you will stand up after this retreat

and go like I'm about the future, and nobody else

sees it, but you are the leader, and the Lord

will allow you to see anybody.

Okay, very very important.

I pray that all of you will have the joy

of the Lord, and the enemy will not be able

to rob you of your strength. And I pray that

there will be a new vision, if not a renewed vision.

Second is endure, enduring the cross, and thirdly is despising

the shame.

All right, very quickly, now, very quickly, now these three things.

It's written in the Bible of how we can endure,

how we can con do you run. So the joy

is important, and with that joy he endures the cross.

What is the cross?

For me?

In summary? The cross is suffering that comes with obedience.

The cross is something that goes like this, suffering that

comes with the obedience. Do you know that almost all

our obedience comes to suffering comes with pain and sacrifice. Everybody, okay?

And the Bible tells us to endure that. Listen very carefully,

carefully to me now, because I'm just gonna I'm about

to show you something that I pray will bless you.

As I prepared for this, I was blessed myself. Leaders

need to discern when to endure and when to despise.

Sometimes we endure the shame and despise the cross. What

do you keep enduring? You endure sufferings that come from obedience,

is because you're obeying God's voice. The suffering will come,

and that's what you need to endure. Don't reject it.

It means, don't despise it. Don't say take it away

from me, Lord. You say, Lord, I understand that there

will be pain that comes from my obedience. I will

go through this the way forward, the way to be

able to succeed overcome and be breaking through over and

over again is to endure the cross. And then leaders

must know when to hate or despise or reject the shame.

Now, can I tell you one more thing.

When you obey, it's not only going to bring suffering,

is also going to be bring shame.

So that's what happened.

He endured the suffering, but he despised the shame because

when he was going to be hung on the cross,

he was going to be hung naked. Now, as I close,

I want to say to you right now, shame is

a very powerful thing. In fact, for me, it was

the most powerful thing that happened in the garden. Because listener,

don't take the fruit lest you die. Their eyes got

off God went on to the fruit. So that's what

Pasa Sam is trying to say. Don't keep your eyes

on the fruit. So leave's eyes and Adam's eyes went

on the fruit. So stop looking at the fruit of

your ministry. Look at the Lord who gave you the command. Now,

they took the fruit, and the first thing they saw

when they were promised that their eyes were opened was

their nakedness.

You know what.

Brings real leaders down, even when we obey is the

fear of shame. And there are some of us in

this room if we don't understand it, and then we

don't understand what's happening.

How if I do this?

You know that you're obeying God, but you also know

the shame it might bring you if you don't do

as well. The shame of losing your job, the shame

of what I don't know, there's so many, the shame

of losing your status, the shame of losing your reputation. Oh,

you used to be very funny. You're like a comedian.

You'd make everyboy lave. And suddenly you're being the Lord,

and now you have to preach strong and people are going, like,

what's happening to this guy? You know, he used to

be making this all love. He used to love. He's preaching,

and now he's too strong for us. He's too loud

for us, he's too serious for us, you know. And

so your reputation, Oh, you know, I lose my reputation

and there's shame that comes with it. And yet the

Bible says those who trust in the Lord shall never

be put to shame. Do you believe that those who

trust in the Lord will never be put to shame.

But they're a shame. Oh I'm not cool enough, you know.

I'm just. I'm just.

I'm just a small ex church in Osaka. And then

there's so many other churches around. I'm there's a small

church in g There's so many other bigger churches around.

I'm a shamed to call myself the worship leader. I'd

rather be a worship leader in this other bigger church

because I think I am that good. I am that

good and I should be actually worship leader for Bethel.

Why am I doing an acts? You know last night.

Before I went to sleep, But you know what the

lot told me, Lord told me this. I was very strong.

It was very strong, strong statement. Kenneth Chain, Is this

your final job?

Right?

I thought itself what it was a lot saying? He says, no,

I'm asking you if there was another job offer that

came your way, would you take it? Is there is

there anyone in this room who is very secure with

your colleague where you should be and what you should do?

Or are you waiting for the next call? I was

there there, I was should be saying, oh my word,

how if you know this big mega church did offer

me a job. Would I say that, Oh, thank you

Lord X change with a stepping stone.

No, no, be be thinking about this. Be thinking about this.

JPCC comes and offer passed by you. You're good looking,

your smart master's degree. He comes to pasta guagein and says,

passa kajean. A dream job has come my way. I've

always wanted to know because you see some of us

and you know.

You will never do that about you. I believe you

never did it.

But by while you would never do it, do it,

it doesn't mean that the offer won't come. Are you

rare you're really supposed to be? Are you happy? Are

you secure? Are you grounded? Is this or are you

going to be comparing? And because there's this a little

bit of shame that comes around it, and Jesus says

the suffering, I will take the shame. I would despise

because the shame of being naked on the cross is

also a lot too much for some people. But I

would despise that. I will heye what shame does to me,

because the shame rob Adam and Eve.

Of their destiny.

The first thing they see their nakedness. The first thing

they feel is shame, and one of the biggest killers

in ministry is shame.

I'm a shame to be part of this small little group.

You know.

I pray that if you are struggling, you ask the

Lord Lord, the devil when he came to Jesus, is

if you are the son of God, throw yourself down.

I want to be so secure. I want to be

so secure. This is God's call, This is the best job,

This is the best highest calling.

This is this is the best. Think about it for

a moment.

Think about for a moment, because it might not be

It might not be your answer. Your answer could be

our pastor. I am honestly still waiting for an the call.

I had to ask myself one time, many years, many

many years. I thought I would be a politician. I

thought I could be the Prime Minister. I wouldn't say

his country because I'm spoing by birth, so maybe in

I can. But you know, I was waiting, you know,

I said, Wow, the higher calling, the higher calling. And

if I get a call from the Prime Minister's office

and said, Kenneth, would you And I said, oh, wow, dream,

my dream has come true. He says, all you need

to do is for sake, except and I had to

deal with that, deal with my own heart.

Okay.

Finally, Jesus sat at the right hand. Amen, let's close.

What does this mean? He sat in the place of

a auloraity, he said, in a place of influence. You know,

I don't believe we will ever lose our identity in Christ.

I don't believe that. But as fas as Sam said,

we can lose our influence. After all was said in

three verses, actually the first two only you find Jesus

for the joy that was set before him and the

cross despised the shame, and then said, and I really

really believe, and I'm closing my eyes now to start

to pray for you. I really really believe that while

your identity in Christ could be intact, you and I

are responsible to make sure that our influence.

That it's not just intact, but increases. The reward at

the end of the day.

Is influence, at the end of the day is authority.

Being in the right hand of God is not just

an identity. He's already the son of God. But he said,

on the right hand, the right hand is power, the

right hand is authority, the right hand is royalty, the

right hand is ability, The right hand is influence and

what happened was our own Savior went through the same

things that he expects us to go through.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as church org. We

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this week is going to be a good week.

Ahead for you.

God bless