Like Ben said, my wife and I, we've served with YWAM for the last nine years. I went there as an 18-year-old, super insecure, super prideful. I don't know how those things work together, but they do. Just thinking that I knew the world, but I was too scared of the world.
I mean, it just was all this stuff. And I found myself in this small community called Fire and Fragrance in Kona, Hawaii, where I felt like I got born again all over again. And I found a group of people that believed in the empowerment of every believer, not just some, not just the educated, not just the ones from this class over here, but they believed in the empowerment of every single believer. And that was nine years ago.
I laid on the floor of this dusty little tent, and I met my calling. And I met Jesus in a fresh way, and I'm so grateful to be a YWamer. I'm so grateful to have served under Lauren. We've gotten to get close, and even my wife was just with Darlene right before, and just they are just, they sewed up into his last breath, was sewing vision into the next generation.
And I'm just so grateful to be a part of YWAM. But first I do want to, before I get into the message, I want to honor your pastors. Another not here. And then, even years, six years ago, we were doing a gathering here in Minneapolis, and all of our YWAM alumni were like, you've got to come to this church.
It's just like, why am I? I'm like, OK. And so we walked in those doors, and worship had already started, and I remember just finding myself face to the floor. God was in the room.
And I came up like, I got to find out who's leading this thing. I got to get around him. And I went to go meet Josh and Katie, and it was like instant friendship. And for the last six years, they have been an older brother and older sister to us.
A little bit of our story about two years ago, God began to speak to Rakesl and I about a transition coming to our lives. Really scared me. Didn't know what that meant. Didn't mean leaving YWAM.
YWAM is all I've known. I'm like, I don't want to know. We were talking to Josh and Katie, and processing through this whole thing. They were a huge part of our discernment process in the midst of this.
And some time goes by. Rakesl and I have a series of encounters where God really speaks to us to double down on YWAM. And again, we didn't know what that means. We'll stay in Kona forever if that's what it means.
But God begins to stir us for America. It begins to stir us around a few statistics. One of it being really around. There's 3.2 billion people that don't know Jesus.
Can I just give you guys some statistics to kind of be kind of fun? There's about 400,000 missionaries working in the mission field. That's a rough number. Less than 1% are working amongst those 3.2 billion people.
So what's that mean? A little math equation. I'm not getting asked. I did this before because I couldn't do it in my head.
That means 12,000 missionaries trying to reach 3.2 billion people. That sounds like an impossible job. Currently, there's one Christian missionary in the Muslim world per 405 Muslims. Can you imagine?
You get your assignments from Jesus. I go reach 405,000 people by yourself. How? That's scary.
But there's great hope in what I believe Gen Z being the most missionable generation in history. There's a few statistics. I'm a big, I love stats. I love what they speak to.
I believe they speak to where God wants to speak in a generation. It calls out the gold and also shows us where we can believe for Reformation. One of the statistics by a guy named George Otis Jr. He researched a ton of young people.
He found out that 70% of Gen Z feels morally obligated to change the world. Barned their research study where they looked at 52% of young Christians saw themselves as potential missionaries. 61% were African American. 58% were Hispanic.
If it's going to be an American missions movement, it has to be a multi-ethnic, multicultural missions movement. We're looking at Gen Z and we're looking at what Lauren paved the way for us. He did us. He went into the door for missions.
We look at our DTS. There's a lot of ladies. Do missions. A lot.
Fellas. We're looking for a wife. YWAM is a great place. Ben can testify.
I can testify. It's a great place to meet your wife. They say YWAM is young women after men. Just saying.
It's an opportunity. I totally lost my train of thought there. It's finding the difference. Lauren widened the door so many ladies in our mission now, but if you look back 60 years to be a woman in missions was impossible.
If you wanted to be a woman in missions, you need to be married to a man in missions. And if you wanted to be a young person in missions, well guess what? Make sure you go through. You get your degree.
You get your master's degree. You go through our program. You got to follow A, B, and C. You can have this many kids, but you can't have that many kids.
And there are all of these hoops that you have to jump through if you wanted to be a missionary, but Lauren decided to kick down those doors and say that the need is so great. We can't limit people from getting into the missions world because there's a great name. 3.2 billion people that don't know Jesus. And I believe what God is doing right now is he's widening the door again.
And so my wife and I were in the midst of this transition. We're moving to Nashville, Tennessee to start a new YWAM base. We've moved off of Conan. We shipped our car, packed our life up into nine bags and a couple of baby items for our two kids.
Because we believe that God is doing something not only in America, but he's doing something in the next generation. And they're 16, 17 year olds that are waiting for someone to give them permission. Because it's the greatest, most advocacy-driven generation history. The most justice-driven generation history.
The problem is that Gen Z, only 4% of them, have a biblical worldview. So they want to change the world, but they don't know how. They want to do justice, but they don't know the one who is justice himself, who's justice and mercy. The greatest advocate to have ever lived.
They don't even know him, and they're trying to do it in their own understanding. And so what if we could give a generation a vision to live for? And begin to wrap this biblical worldview around their passion to change the world. So we're moving to Nashville because we believe that God wants to widen the door.
We're starting this YWAM base. We do youth camps. We just do anything and everything we can to get in front of as many young people as possible and call them into this adventure of following Jesus radically. And that if they think they're on the sideline, guess again.
You're in the game. You're needed on the court. And I believe that's what God's doing in this hour. I believe it's what he's doing in this generation.
And I believe there's a passing of the baton from a previous generation saying would you go and possess the promise that we've believed for? And I just know with Lauren, he's another witness in the cloud cheering us on, saying, run this race. Amen. Well, I'm excited to get into the word tonight.
You guys excited? Isn't it so much fun that we get to look at Jesus? It's like he is better than my best days. He's the best part of my day, my hour, my minute.
He is the best thing about my life. And I'm excited. I really believe that I have a message for you tonight. I want us to open up, if you would, to Luke chapter six.
We're going to get into lots of Bible tonight. Is that okay? Do we like the Bible? Not so.
Luke chapter six verse one. Yeah, we'll read the ESV. Sorry, I haven't. I'm biblical Bible.
The NIV. How dare I? Any NIV folks in the room? They're like a fashion.
The real scholars use the ESV, word by word translation. Francis Chantel me. Verse one. On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching.
And a man whose right hand was withered, and the strides in the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, come and stand here. And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to destroy it?
I wouldn't answer that Pharisees. And after looking around at them, all he said to him, stretch out your hand. And he did so. And his hand was restored.
Do I have any type A personality people in the room? Like you love a good calendar app? Okay. Where are you at?
I need to know who I'm talking to tonight. Okay. Like you got the color coded calendar. Okay.
To do is to get the to-do list going. Yeah, I follow this guy on YouTube. And he talks about all these productivity. Anybody built their second brain?
Anybody know what I'm talking about? The second brain? Okay. Type A people.
Look it up on YouTube. It's going to change your life. Just type in building a second brain. There's a book, but there's some YouTube videos that sum it all up.
It's really beautiful. I am like, I am like as type A as it gets. Like, I live by this philosophy. If it is not in my calendar, it doesn't exist.
Like, if it's not in there, if it's not on my to-do list, it doesn't get done. Okay. And I make sure as soon as I plug something in my calendar, it's like, all right. I'm going to color code it.
Okay. It's a work meeting. It's red. Okay.
It's quiet time. It's yellow because it's the morning. Okay. Sunrise.
Yeah. Yeah. I put my kids down. Yeah.
It's in my calendar. Yeah. Yeah. Story time.
You betcha. We're reading the frozen story for like the fifth time in a row. But the thing is my wife? Not that way.
She is like, miss spontaneous. Like, she will just, she's just like, let's do a road trip today. And I'm like, no, that's not how it works. That's not how it works.
I run our marriage like a business. You got to let give me two weeks in advance. Okay. I need to know you're taking a day off, two weeks in advance.
I'll tell you a funny story. So we got offered, this is honestly, we're talking about marriage thing. I should probably go to it after that. What about to tell you guys?
We, oh man. My wife comes, we're at my parents house in Washington and Zach Ralban was in town. And, you know, I know the second music, you'll listen to that. But I'm moving to the south and I'm trying to contextualize.
Okay. And so my stepdad walks into the room and he's like works at the fair where the band was going to be. And he's like, do you guys want tickets? And the concert starts in 20 minutes.
And I start to short circuit. I am, and you got to understand, it was like floor seats, three rows back. Like it was like, I probably could have kissed Zach from Zach Ralban. Like it was, it was that, there was a lot of connection.
And Rachel's like, Jeff, wouldn't that be so much fun? And I'm sitting on the couch like short circuiting. Like, no, this is it. It's not in my calendar.
You didn't tell me two weeks ago. Like, and I totally missed a moment of connection because I could not get out of my type A personality. And I said no to the concert tickets. I'm a horrible husband.
Okay. I get it. You don't need to tell me. I could have kissed Zach's hand.
I don't know. That is my personality though. I am so driven in this way. How many people love like spiritual disciplines?
Like spiritual formation? You're reading the Dallas Willards. You're reading any Dallas Willard fans? Okay.
I was, I've been doing a lot of driving. I drove our car. We shipped it from Hawaii. I drove it up from California to Washington.
Don't ask. The ports were closed in Washington. Talk to them, not me. So I had to drive it all the way from Southern California up to Washington.
And on this drive, I'm listening to a podcast. It's a guy named Carrie Newhoff. He's got a leadership podcast. It's insane.
And he put Richard Foster on there. And I was stoked. Anybody know Richard Foster's celebration of discipline? He's an insane spiritual formation guy.
He talks about silent, Sabbath and solitude, all this great amazing stuff. And I'm just stoked because I'm like finally on my leadership podcast, we're going to talk about spiritual formation. And they are going to give me the code. They're going to tell me the apps I need to download.
They're going to tell me how it fits into my schedule. They're going to give me everything that I need. Like I can all Richard Foster. I can't wait.
I've read his book. And on the podcast, he starts talking. And these spiritual formation people are weird. They're not what I thought they were.
Okay. He starts talking. And he's telling me how he wakes up in the morning. I'm like, yeah?
Then what? And he starts talking about how he's like, I just get out on my deck. And I stare at the trees. What?
You don't have to open up your iPad and you've got Logos Bible software. And you're doing this word study. And you got the Greek. And you got it all.
And he's just like, I just go outside. And I just go on a walk with Jesus. And I don't have any music playing. I'm like, you don't have the new upper room on?
How do you even love God without that? It's not possible. He's just talking. I just walk with the Lord.
Stare at the trees. And there's an eagle. I love the eagle. I'm like, what?
This is not helpful for me. And I'm driving up. And I'm so frustrated as I'm listening to this podcast. And I hear the Lord just whisper to me.
And he says delight. And I'm like, what? How do you? What does that mean?
Give me the code for that. And I think it's so funny sometimes how we can get so distracted by our discipline. We can get so distracted by our religious infrastructure. That we forget the purpose of all of that in the first place.
Which is him. We see this story with the Pharisees. And they're so distracted by keeping and protecting this religious law. That they're missing the fulfillment of their law sitting right in front of them.
Offering them away out. And I'm sitting in my car. And I just begin to cry. And it brought me back to this another moment.
Cause here's the thing, like my wife. She's amazing. She's way more spiritually. Way more anointed than me.
Way more prophetic than me. Way more everything than me. Patient, kind, loving, you name it. And I, for me, when I structured things, I got so bad at one point, I was structuring my quiet time.
Where it was like 20 minutes I do this. 20 minutes I do this. 10 minutes I do this. 10 minutes I do this.
I'm only 5 minutes on the back burner for the Holy Spirit to blow. But only 5. Cause I gotta go. I gotta get to the next meeting.
And I'll do my quiet time. I'll get through it all. And then I'll come downstairs and Rachel's sitting in a little blue chair that she has. And she'll just have it to her.
Down her eyes. She's just journaling. And I'm like, how much Bible did you read today? She's like I got through like a verse.
I'm like a verse. I'm up there trying to read the Bible in 3 months. Got to do 10 chapters a day. Okay.
I'm trying to grind. And you're out here at a tier. Like you read a verse? I'm like, God, you're gonna bless me for my 10 chapters today?
And so we end up going on this retreat about a year ago. We get a cabin actually here in Minneapolis. We're up in Northern Minnesota and we got a cabin in the woods. We only got like maybe 19 hours away cause our daughter was just born and she was not sleeping very well and Grandma just wasn't suitable.
She didn't have the goods. You know what I mean? And so, but we get up there and I'm listening to another podcast by a guy that I really respect. I named John Tyson and he starts talking about how he structures his days.
I'm like praise God. And I'm gonna push a button. Okay. I'm gonna push a button here, but this I'm just exposing myself.
So I just want to preface what I'm about to say. And he started talking about how he uses a devotional. And I, it's like all respect. Just I lost it for him.
Cause for me like growing up, like if you did a devotional, it was like you just didn't know how to lead yourself in God. A devotional. Jesus calling. Let me show you my steady Bible.
And, and John Tyson, he starts to break it down of why he does this. He says cause my goal of my quiet time is not to get through my religious statutes. It's to connect with Jesus. And it began to break my paradigm.
And I'll say for nine months, I did a devotional. Because I realized that I was overreaching and I was missing him. I was going right past Jesus and going straight into discipline. And discipline had become my God rather than God becoming my God.
Why do I wake up in the morning? It's to connect with the man Jesus. I want my eyes to walk with his and that is how I get through my day. And that is how I bear fruit in my day.
Not getting through the Bible in a year, though it's important. Those disciplines are important. What those are meant to push us to is not more discipline. It pushes towards his eyes.
He wants your eyes. Not your ministry production. Not what you can produce for him. He wants your gaze.
I remember when I had my firstborn son, Reese, and we had brought him home from the hospital. And he woke up at like 4am in the morning. And I remember sitting on our couch with him. And he was just staring at me.
And it felt like everything was good. I was with my son. And my son was with me. And there was something about that moment that has forever marked my life.
I just love it when my son looks at me and I get to look at my son. He's now a toddler. It's a lot harder to have those moments. But every once in a while, yesterday I saw I just have a moment with Rachel.
And he just laid on her. He lasted 10 seconds. But he just laid on her. And I was like, oh my God.
And I just pointed it out to Rachel. I was like, look, he's just resting. Like this never happens. But it's like the greatest gift.
And it's the longing of a father to have his kids just sit. Any parents relate with me? Like when your kid just sits there and you get to just stare at him for a minute. Let's keep going.
I want us to go to John 15. Actually, sorry, Luke 10. Luke 10. Verse 38.
You guys know the story. I'm sure quite well. As Jesus says, and his disciples were on their way. He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? She guys hear that tone.
Because it sounds really holy in the moment. And sometimes we can use maybe even our volunteerism to distract us from our disconnection. You're coming into church. You know you got a volunteer on parking crew.
You're on greeters. You're on whatever other team you have. You're so distracted by your volunteerism. You come into service and you see that young gun.
Just at the front. Just worshiping their guts out. Just totally undone by the presence of God. And you begin to think in your head.
They just don't know the coffee. It needs to be taken care of. The coffee needs refilling. Chairs need stacking.
Someone needs to be greeted at the front. And really what you're trying to do is distract yourself from your own disconnection. When really your heart is longing for what that young gun down in the front has no worry in the world about what needs to be done in the house. Just wants to sit at the feet of Jesus.
And I would present to you that our volunteerism is just another way where we get so distracted by this that we've really lost our first love. And I'm not saying don't volunteer. Right? I'm not saying just all we need to do is just be the ones in the front.
No, our work needs to be motivated by our love for him. And we have Mary. Jesus is response to Martha. Martha.
Martha. You are worried and upset about many things. But few things are needed. Or indeed only one.
Mary has chosen what is better. And it will not be taken from her. I think that Jesus is alluding to a moment with David. Psalm 27 verse 4.
He says this one thing that I ask. It's one thing that I seek is to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. All the days of my life. See, Mary chose the better thing.
The better portion. She wasn't distracted about all the things that need to be done. All the things that I need to make sure I put together and I got to perform for God. I've got to show him that I'm worth his presence.
If I just do this, this, this, then maybe I'll get an encounter from God. Guess what? God wants to encounter you more than you want to be encountered by him. This is the good news.
It's a free gift. You did earn this thing. You didn't earn this relationship. He wants to give himself to you freely.
He wants you more than you want him. Quit being so distracted and fix your gaze because he's in the room and he wants to meet with you. Jump 15. You don't have to go there.
I'm just going to read this. It's verse 4 if you want to go there. You don't have to. Remain in me as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine.
You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers.
Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourself to be my disciples. You see, lovers out work workers every day of the week.
And we think this is such an upside down kingdom. You are telling me to abide into all bear fruit. And you have to understand I get work ethic. Any business leaders in the room?
You have a business? There is something about leading a business or being a pastor or leading an organization. We are starting this thing in Nashville from scratch. There is no nonprofit.
We have a lot of white board meetings. There is a lot of work that has to be done. I get work. I love work.
Productivity. Second brain. I love the stuff. It's like crack to me.
I can't get enough of it. It's so good. Not crack. We are team.
We are on white boards. Zoom calls. We are strategizing. We are thinking.
We are ideating. We are coming up with plans. You don't go into a business without having a business plan. The thing we can succumb to is that we allow our vision meetings to take more priority over our prayer meetings.
You cannot be more successful in your work with less prayer. I have a leader in my life. He always says we are too busy not to pray. We are doing stadiums and arenas.
We are launching new ministries. We are looking at 3.2 billion people that don't know cheeses. We have big vision in front of us. There is a massive need.
We are too busy. We are too busy. We need it too great for us not to go to the place where we get our sustenance, where we get our vision, where we get clarity in the first place. He is way better leader than you.
He is a way better visionary than you. He is a way better father than you. He is a way better everything than you. Who are we to think we can do it on our own?
There are a few things as I was praying for tonight that I really sensed. There were some of these blockers. One of them being disappointment and another being in control. Or we can sometimes allow our disappointment to begin to callus our heart and distract us to not actually go full in in faith.
To not actually dive in all the way into his presence because I did it once and he didn't show up the way I thought he would. I tried to faith thing once. I tried to step out of obedience once and it didn't happen how I thought it would. And we think that in his life of obedience as we continue to say yes that everything is going to match up and be perfect.
Guess what it's not? Because we believe in faith, we believe in Jesus that calls us to suffering. It's not wealth, health and everything else. It's not everything that's going to be perfect.
You are going to go through the valley of Baca, but guess what? You get to make it a spring. You are going to go through a storm, but you have an anchor in the midst of the storm. So your life of obedience, your life of following Jesus, though you might have gone through disappointment, God is saying I want to turn your disappointment into faith.
I want to turn it into a testimony. I want to turn it because my word says I'll never leave you or forsake you. His word says he's a good shepherd, he's a good leader and he leads us along quiet waters, but it also says that we go through the valley of shadow of death. And guess what?
I'll fear no evil thing because my God prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies. And so what if we looked at disappointment and said God I believe you want to make a table in this moment? And I get to feast on your blood and I get to feast on your body in the midst of disappointment. Because I know your blood speaks a better word than my circumstance.
I know your nail pierced hands speak a better word than what I haven't seen. And then there's this other thing of control. And if you're type A you like control. You like to be able to form something, put it together, because you know exactly what's going to happen.
It's like just one giant math equation for you. I can say this to you because I'm this way. And we can sometimes, Rachel's going to laugh at me because we had this conversation this morning. We can use this idea of implicational thinking as a way to step out of faith and call it wisdom.
Is that resonate with anyone? No, I'm just thinking, I'm just thinking implicationally here. I'm just using the brain God gave me. I literally had this conversation this morning.
I was the one who was like, let's think implicationally here. My wife is like, what about faith? I'm like, I'd eventually submit it. Yeah, yeah, I was just, Bible says mutual submission.
Hello. Right, the true fruit bearing ministry is us abiding in Jesus. More prayer, more presence, more Bible, more gazing, more connection, more sitting at his feet, not being distracted, not trying to fulfill all your ministerial duties, but going to him and getting vision from the inner room, getting vision from the secret place. This was the secret sauce that Jesus' ministry.
He would go and get alone, not trying to fulfill specific duties in the busyness of life, in the upkeep of ministry, in the day in, day out with the kids. We have to find moments where we can make our space a monastery, a place of his presence. He's no longer in a location. He's in your kid's room.
He's in the kitchen making stew. He's on a car ride going wherever you're going. He's at the store with you. He has tabernacled himself inside of you.
You don't need to go somewhere and make this big ordeal to get with him. You can get with him wherever you are. It's just going to take you laying down your ego, laying down your pride, laying down what you think it should look like, and just connecting with the man Jesus. Because he's calling you and saying, come away with me.
Come away with me. I want to encounter you more than you want to encounter me. It's not about how you do things A, B and C to encounter God. No, it's just creating space.
And I promise you, when you create space, he'll come. That's what he says he'll do. Matthew 7 says this, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name, dry that demons? And in your name, perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly.
I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers. Wait a minute. This is saying that these guys cast demons out, and they're being called evil doers.
How does that work? They prophesy evil doers. You can do all the things. You can have the ministry.
You can be used powerfully under the anointing. Because the gifts of God are irrevocable without repentance. You don't need to be in love with God to be used by God. So the more and more that I'm in ministry, the less and less that I am in awe of people that have good gifting.
Less and less. Because I see anointed people all the time. They pray. People fall out all over the place.
Next thing we know, they were insane the whole time. Your gifting does not matter. That should be so freeing for all of us. Because you start looking at all other fools around the church like, they're way more anointed.
They're way more gifted. They open their mouth. It's always powerful. I don't care.
Do they have love? Because I don't want to just be a clay symbol. Do they have peace? Do they have joy?
They have life? You can do all the things and still be so far from God. I want to be there on that day where he says, come in. Well done.
Good and faithful servant. Not to apart from me. I never knew you. I want to know him.
The Westminster Confession says, the chief aim of man. The chief aim of man. So the whole life is summed up in this. Glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Wait a minute. I have been going to all the prophetic meetings, been waiting for my word. Am I supposed to be a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor? Am I supposed to do this?
That and the other thing? No. All you need to do in life to be successful is to glorify him in whatever you do and enjoy him. The Christian walk is one of pleasure.
It's one of joy. It's one of peace. It's one of presence. It's one of intimacy.
He's not trying to create a bunch of worker bees. He created sons and daughters. I'm not a slave anymore. I'm a son.
And a son gets access to the father. A slave doesn't. A son gets access to the fridge. My son can have whatever he wants in the fridge.
We just keep the Oreos up high. Bring him down every once in a while. Many on that day will say, Lord, Lord, did that should pierce our hearts so deeply. He is more desiring after your eyes than your hands.
And when you lock eyes with him, you'll have no other response than to use your hands. It's Isaiah, right? I'm a missionary. So my whole life is dedicated to people praying.
Isaiah 6-8. I just try to get them praying that thing. I can get them just to Isaiah 6-8. Here am I.
Send me. Did you know how that starts? Isaiah 6-1. It was in the year that King Isaiah died that I saw the Lord high and lifted up.
And the train of his robe filled the temple. And I thought, what was me? I'm a man of unclean lips. And it was a beholding that led to ascending.
And we think we can have the sending without the beholding. And it doesn't work that way. If we are going to see our city reached, if we're going to see 3.2 billion people reach, it is going to take a mass beholding of the Lamb of God. Or as a church, as a body, we would look up, see Jesus high and lift it up.
And he'll draw all men unto himself. Not because of your good programs. Not because you know how to reach the city. Guess what?
There's a bunch of NGOs out there that are going to reach the city. And a church without the presence is just another NGO that smells the same as the rest of the world. But what would it be said if every day found themselves in this city saturated in the fragrance of Christ? That when every day walks into a feeding program, they'll smell a little different.
When every day walks into a high school campus, a university campus, they see a little twitch. Something's different about these guys. And when someone encounters someone who goes to every day, man. They've been with Jesus.
They actually believe what they teach. And so I go back and close out with this. I want to go back to disappointment and control. And we're just going to look at Jesus.
But I just feel for some of you in the room, you've allowed disappointment to define your relationship with Jesus. You've allowed the fear of disappointment to keep you from faith. To keep you from walking out on the water. It's the fear of drowning.
Right Peter? Jesus calls him out. And he takes that step. And you hear preachers preach all the time.
He lost his gaze. I don't know. But I read that story. I see Peter's the only one who went in the arms of Jesus.
He's the only one who walked on water. And I'd rather be wet in the arms of Jesus than dry on the boat of comfortability. Amen? But we can sometimes allow fear of disappointment.
And I mean, I get it. Things happen. I remember Rakesle and I, we had a miscarriage. And it was one of the hardest things that we'd ever gone through to lose a baby.
And I was so scared to like get pregnant again. And I remember sitting down with a mentor of ours and he just told us you need to try again immediately as fast as you can. And I was almost offended by his faith. Like you didn't go through what I just went through.
Oh, but I know a God who's more powerful than your circumstance. And if we as a church, we as a bride really believe this is the word of God. Then we can't let disappointment define our faith. And I want to speak to control.
I get it. It's really easy to want to control. It's really easy because when you're in control means you're in the driver's seat and I don't have to trust anybody else. But that's not faith.
And God becomes more of a counselor, more of a someone you bring in on occasion to speak to a certain situation rather than Lord. He's either Lord of all or He's not Lord at all. And control, all that is meaning you have not made Him King yet. And I'm guilty of there are areas in my life that I'm sure that I have not made Him King yet.
And I believe tonight can we make Him Lord again. Saying, Jesus, I give up my control. I give up the driver's seat. And I'm making you King.
This is your Kingdom. I'm submitted to your rulership. I'm submitted to your leadership. And I believe on the other side of that is a city that gets radically transformed.
Is nations that get touched by a people that are beholding the Lamb of God. So I'm going to give a call. And maybe, is it too late if we get the whole band up? When do we end?
When do I run our time? When do we get the whole band up? We're going to close out and worship. Is this making sense?
Is this connecting? Okay. So two things I want to call out here. One, disappointment.
If you feel like recently you've allowed disappointment to call us your heart towards connection, I want you to stand right now. You've allowed disappointment from situations. I even felt around believing for healing and sickness. And you've prayed for people and you haven't seen breakthrough.
You even saw like a loved one that had a disease. You prayed. You cried out. It was kind of the first time you really cried out to God.
Like you really were like, go on. You felt the faith. You felt the stirring. And it didn't happen.
I feel the Lord wants to meet with you. And then my second here is if you feel that control thing. And you just haven't, and I would be standing. I'm already standing.
So I'm the first to respond to this altar call. If you feel that area of control. And you know there's another area you've got to make him king. I want you to stand with me.
And we're going to pray. And then I'm just going to let the band minister to us. Just felt like we were touching something in the first service. And I'm going to close reading this.
In Revelation chapter 2 we have the Church of Ephesus. And a wonderful thing about Ephesus is they did it all right. They were crushing the game. And Jesus even tells them like, y'all were crushing the game.