Good morning and welcome to the New Light Church. If you don't know my name is Pastor Cory and I'm one of the many pastors at New Light Church that gets the honor and privilege to serve you. In just a few moments our lead pastor Pastor Dale is gonna bring you a great word. I'm telling you it is a very strong impactful word that says how you are made for more and our church is positioned for more.
And we're just getting started on what God is gonna do through us and I'm excited about that. I'm looking forward to that. It's a great day. I also wanna say this.
I miss you guys. I miss being in the house of the Lord together. I miss the New Light family. I miss the corporate worship and I can't wait until we're back together.
I hope and I pray that that's next Sunday and next Sunday we can come together. Cause I believe, I believe next Sunday's gonna be awesome because I believe that we're gonna be so excited to be together that the worship is gonna be better. I believe you're gonna out sing the praise team. I believe it's gonna be a great Sunday and you don't wanna miss next Sunday cause I believe God's gonna live.
I think he's gonna move today through this message. But I think next Sunday that we're together. Something special is gonna happen. You don't wanna miss it.
I promise you that. A couple of things I need to talk about. One is, hey, maybe you got kids, right? You're watching this today.
Maybe you're watching it with your family. Maybe you're watching it with your phone. But maybe you're watching it with some kids and you're like, okay, we're gonna watch this one today. I would also encourage you to go into the ParentCue app.
I'll put the link down below. If you don't have it already and your kids go to our kids point, this app goes right along with our curriculum that we use each and every week. And every week you can pull it up. You can watch the videos that they watch as well as it comes with some questions that are designed for parents to ask the kids.
And what's really cool about it is each, it usually has about four questions that each one of them designed for a specific time. Like some of them are asked, these are the questions you ask during drive time. These are the questions you ask around dinner and just sparks conversations with your kids about their faith and their journey that they're on with Christ. I would encourage you to go do that.
A couple of things I need to announce, one is that Church 101, obviously, was canceled today. Church was canceled, we're all virtual. So Church 101 will start next week. And after you hear today's sermon and Pastor Deltege, how you're made for more and you wanna say, hey, I'm ready to do more, Pastor Del, I'm ready to get involved.
Church 101 is a great place to start. So because we had that extra week, you still have time to sign up. Also this week, celebrate recovery, starting. If you want more information about that, that's the ministry that we've just started this year, Pastor Delce, we'll talk a little bit about it today.
I am trusting that God is gonna break some strong holster that ministry. So if you want some more information about that, reach out to us ASAP and we'll get you in touch with the right people. Also Pastor Delce, marriage class starts on Wednesday night, I think. We have a slot for a few more people.
If you're interested in that, like I said, it takes place on Wednesday night at a connect center, but we designed it around kids' point and parents' night out. So you can drop your kids off at 630, come to class, go pick your kids open classes over a minute. It is a tremendous ministry. And I believe that God is gonna do some great things to be as well.
Also, we have our impact and our ignite. That's our high school and our young adult ministries are gonna be doing a Super Bowl parties. And if you want more information about those, you can go to each one of those, has their own Facebook page. You'll be posting locations, times, all that kind of stuff on there.
But both of those ministries will be doing Super Bowl parties next Sunday night. I would highly encourage you to be a part of that if you were in that age bracket. So if you hadn't learned anything today, I want you to know that you have been highly encouraged to get involved, to do more because you are made for more. Couple of other things, we got new light outdoors coming up on February 15th.
Great men's ministry. We're gonna have food, we're gonna have a great time of fellowship and a great lesson as always. And so I wanna encourage you to come to that, no cost to you, as well as we have brotherhood getting ready to start. Now that has a little cost, it's a little more intensive, but I would encourage you to sign up.
I was gonna mention a little bit about that today. And I just wanna say this, if you are interested, I would encourage you to sign up really quick because we only take the first 20 people. And so we need, as soon as we get 20, we kind of cut it off and then you'll have to wait till next year. So I'd love for you to be a part of it, but don't wait, go ahead and get signed up.
We couldn't do any of this. If it weren't for your faithfulness to give, we can. And we can. And I know you all hear me say that if you come to church regular, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for giving.
But I mean it. Honestly, when I look at what God has done through New Light Church over the years, and especially the last few years how he has just poured out his blessings, he has done it through you, through the people who keep showing up, the people who are inviting other people and the people who are giving and supporting this ministry so that we can go out beyond the four walls. Just like today, we're beyond those four walls. We're not tied to those four walls.
We're in living rooms, we're in workplaces, we're in cars, we're everywhere doing ministry because of your faithfulness to give week in and week out. You know, first Gronical says this, everything we have comes from you, O Lord. And we give you only what you first gave us. Think about that.
We don't give because Jesus needs anything, because God needs anything. Nah, if he wanted something, he just speak it into existence. We give out of gratitude. We give because he first gave us the reason we're alive, the reason we're breathing, the reason they're still breath in our lungs, the reason we have a job, the reason we get bonuses and tax returns is because God's blessed us.
And because he's good to us, we get to give. And so we don't give, grudgingly, no, we give humbly. We give cheerfully. And that's one thing I didn't say about our church, man.
It's that you all are givers. And God is blessing us because you continue to give not just your ties, but you give beyond and above it because you know that it all comes from God. It's all his anyway, and it's better and his hands than it is, our hands, that's just the truth. And so again, thank you, thank you for giving.
If you haven't started giving, I would encourage you to do that. And there's all the ways that you can give down below me right now. And it's just a tremendous blessing to be a part of a church that has the big vision in mind and knows that we can do more together than we can as individuals. I got a special treat for you today.
We're gonna do a little worship. In fact, we're gonna sing a song made for more. It's gonna lead right up to Pastor Dale Sermon. And I'm excited about it.
I'm excited about what God is gonna do through this message and through this worship. But I can't wait to we're back together again. So I hope you enjoyed today's message. I hope that God moves in a mighty way, but I can't wait to see you next week.
I know why, cause I know you, the cross of salvation was only a star. Now I am chosen. I'm three and I'm forgiven. I have a future and it's worth living.
I wasn't making pizza in a grave. I was called by, born and raised back to life. I was taken, a baby in my chain when I found an obvious. He's running my way, I knew why.
Cause I know who, the cross of salvation was only a star. Now I am chosen. Three hands were given. I have a future and it's worth living.
Ain't you be ten in a grave. I won't be frightened in life again. I was made for. So I will now make, I'm headed in my chain when I found an obvious!
He's running my way, I know who, and I was made for. Oh, shout it out! I sing out her! You're bearing my path and I'm not going to peak.
Tinting a grave I was called by Nick. Born and raised back to life again. And I was made for more, so much more. I've been in my shame when I found some of it.
It's running my way. I know I was made. Well, good morning, everybody. I trust everybody is safe and warm wherever you are.
And thank you for joining us online this morning. And I pray that you have everything you need and things will go well for you. Before I get into the sermon, thank you again for watching. I want you to share the video and like the video.
Let everybody know we're here. And before I jump into the sermon, I want to talk about deeper dive on Tuesday night. I can't cover everything in this sermon. I don't have time to get all the days that we passed the coordinates and myself.
We go back on Tuesday night, 7 o'clock on the Dale Hester Facebook page and we'll dive deeper into this sermon today. Also, we have Pastor Bobby. He'll be at the Connect Center on Wednesday night with a Bible study about the book of Hebrews. He's a great Bible teacher.
If you want some good Bible teaching Bible study, make sure you're down there at the Connect Center downtown on Wednesday night. And the other thing we aren't going to Wednesday night at the Connect Center is well, I have a marriage class that will begin. And I'll be teaching you about godly principles and marriage, the foundational principles that can help your marriage be better. So make sure if you haven't signed up, you do sign up before Wednesday and make sure you're out there Wednesday for that.
It'd be a great thing. I want to do this. Thank you so much for watching on the internet and listening on the radio. Thank you for being there.
I love the internet ministry and I thank God for it, particularly in times like this. So we're going to jump in. We're starting a new series today. That series looks like this.
It's living on purpose, boy. This is a serious series and the last one was great. I learned a lot of things about it. I think this will be just as great as well.
And so let's jump right into it and let me give you the foundational principles about living on purpose. Living on purpose is all about aligning our lives with God's original design and specific calling. It is rooted in the understanding that we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Isn't that real good?
Not here just because of maybe not here by mistake and not here with nothing to do. God created us for a purpose and he created us to do good work. So today I want to talk about something that looks like this. I want to talk about made for more.
Every one of us are made for more. Now, when you think about this, I want you to think about why in the world is this important for me. Why is this important for the church? Why is this word today so important?
Why is this series so important? Well, I'll give you a scripture. We'll talk about it for a moment. Second Corinthians five and 10 for we must all stand before Christ.
Remember that all right there before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. I want to explain the context of this scripture. So you understand what's being said here because this makes all the difference in the world.
When we think about being made for more and what we're doing with our life. It's coming today where all of us every individual that's ever been born is going to stand before Jesus Christ. Some are going to stand at the great white throne judgment. Those will be unbelievers, those who have rejected Jesus Christ, those who have accepted Jesus Christ will stand before what we call the judgment seat of Christ.
There's a distinction in both of those first believers and unbelievers. Secondly at the great white throne judgment, they'll be judged for not accepting Jesus Christ for rejecting what he did on the cross of Calvary for them. And at the same time they'll be judged with what they did with what they had while they were on this earth. On the other hand, the judgment seat of Christ, those who have been saved to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they'll stand before Jesus as well.
We won't be judged for the sins that we've committed. They were judged on the cross of Calvary on our behalf and we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. However, we will all be judged for what we did with what we had while we were here on this earth. That is a big deal right there.
So while we can enjoy this life and God can bless us in this life, there comes a day where we have to take responsibility for what we've done with what God has given us. And that means our time, our talents, our resources, everything that God gave us, how he blessed us, we'll give an account to God for that saved and unsafe. So when you consider that and you think about the magnitude of what was just said, I have a couple of questions I want to ask you today. And I want you to think about those questions.
You're there at home and I hope you're warm and doing well. These are serious questions. You can write them down, meditate on them and ask God about them as well. So the first one looks like this.
Are you satisfied with what you accomplished for the Lord last year? We're in a new year now. So the question is, are you satisfied with all that you did for the Lord last year? When you think about your giving, when you think about your serving, when you think about your relationship with the Lord and your commitment to him and maybe Bible reading and prayer and spending time with him?
Are you satisfied with your family even with what you did for the Lord last year? Do you need improvement? I would say that all of us need improvement. I need improvement.
I need to spend more time with them. And in fact, over the fast this year, one of my prayers to the Lord, I had two or three specific prayers, but one of them was Lord, I want a stronger relationship with you. I want to hear your voice more. I want you to lead and guide me more.
I want a stronger, healthier relationship with you. That's been one of my prayers and I continue to pray that prayer. I want improvements what I'm simply saying. I'm not satisfied with what happened last year.
I want a better deal this year next, except for this. Are we satisfied with what New Light Church accomplished last year for the Lord? Are we satisfied with that? Well, some of you would say, well, preacher, I don't know exactly what I'll accomplish.
I know we had some great services. I know we had some good praise and worship, great praise and worship. I know there was some great sermons preached and I know the Lord spoke and I saw a lot of things happen. But outside of that, I may not know exactly what all we accomplished.
Well, I want to talk about that for a few moments. I want to talk about the church, but I want you to understand this that once I talk about the church, we're going to move in to how this sermon applies to you. But I want to show you what God has done in you, like churches, your things that we ought to brag about. So here's what it looks like.
We know we had in 2025, we had a record of 10 to some 600 and 70 people. Now, look, we shout about that and that's good. I'm so happy about that. That would not be our regular attendance.
That would be a one-time deal where we had this many people and we all know that it felt good in the sanctuary. When it's full, it feels better. And I'm thankful for that day right there. But here's what I want you to know as the pastor of your church, your pastor, I want you to understand that I desire to have a thousand people coming to this church.
That's what I prayed for. That's what I've asked for. That's what I'm believing God for. I want a thousand.
And here's why. It's not because I want more numbers, but it's the simple fact that numbers represent souls. I want people to be saved. I want people to be going to heaven.
I want lives changed and numbers represent that. So I'm asking God for that. I'm glad and I'm so thankful that God showed us what 670 looked like, but I'm looking for a thousand. We had a hundred salvation.
I want thousands of salvation. It's not a hundred salvation. Now, when I say that, I want you to understand and know we have no idea how many people are saved because of the radio ministry. We have no idea how many people are saved because of the media ministry.
We have no idea how many people are saved with all the ministers we partner with. We don't know that we can assume that there's a lot, but we know here in this building, there was over a hundred people saved this past year. We know forty three people were baptized. I'd like for that number to double this year.
Here's a good thing right here. When you think about what you're doing, see a lot of times we get in the habit of coming to church, we get in a week out and we do our thing and go home, but we don't really realize what's happening around us. And we sometimes don't realize the magnitude of what God is doing in our life. That's why I'm taking a moment to share this with you.
We have fifty five different missions and ministries that we support financial. Now, some of those are one time a year and some of them are every month, but there are fifty five of those ministries out there. Here's what that means when you and I are at home sleeping and we're resting and doing all that. We're involved in ministry somewhere throughout this world.
Lives are being touched. Lives are being changed. Fifty five of them. Now, another thing I'm proud about is of all the monies that we take in at U lot church, twenty percent we give to missions and ministry twenty percent.
We believe in tithing. I want to talk to you about that for a moment. Do you believe in tithing? I'll ask you in a different way.
How is your heart towards the Lord? Do you think your heart is helping when it comes to the Lord and the things of the Lord? A lot of people say yes to that. Well, there's one way to prove it as one verse of scripture in the Bible.
The Bible simply says this where your heart is, there your treasure will be also. So I think God put that in there for this reason right here. If I can kind of think that I'm spiritual and everything's real good in my life and I'm where I need to be with the Lord and I'm leading my family the right way and I'm doing good and I think everything's okay. The Lord so I'll check that.
How do you check that Lord? Where your heart is there your treasure will be also so you can look in your checkbook and tell how healthy your heart is when it comes to things of the Lord. But in this church we believe in giving we give 20% of what we take in to missions and ministry and look we're increasing that every month. If I find a ministry that I think is worthy and they're winning souls and doing well then I want to start supporting that ministry and that's what we do and I hope that grows this year as well.
We had four kids born out reaches this year events. Now when you think about that these are events we have every quarter where we invite all the kids in the neighborhood trying to grow that children's church down there because we believe if we can get the word of the Lord into their life when they're small, we believe that God can do some great things there. So we're pumping the word of the Lord into their little hearts all the time and we want more kids to do that with it. Obviously we expanded the nursery ministry.
You saw that or the nursery itself. You saw that we built a new nursery out there. The carpet hadn't been completed. It's about to be completed and it'll be nice and look at school already.
You folks are multiplying in here and I guess that's one way the church can grow. May God continue to bless you and you keep doing that. That was a good thing to help the church. The brotherhood ministry is a ministry that we started last year in Pastor Cory is heading that up here in Jeff Gosson.
We had men who will commit to six months or so and they'll go through Bible study and do things together. What I've seen, the evidence, the fruit you will that comes out of that is they are changing them in when they come through it. You ought to kind of look into that as the next one comes up and sign up and be a part of that. Another thing that really touched my heart is I asked this past year or so for $100,000 for a 100 year anniversary for missions.
Well you didn't just stop there. You gave $170,000 that we're using for missions and some of you already know that we planted the church with some of that money in Africa. We're working with a Bible college and a Bible school in the same areas. And so we're working there in missions and all this money has been used for missions both locally and for our missions.
So it's a good thing. So I think we have a lot to give God credit for a lot that New Light Church has accomplished and a lot of stuff we did in town that was so good. But here's my deal as a pastor. I'm getting to the sermon here at the moment.
I'm just giving you some information right here. As a pastor I have to ask the question all the time. What can I do to grow the attendance at New Light Church? What can I do?
What can we do as a believer? We can invite more unsaved people. We can invite more unchurched people. It becomes a part of our mission and I don't come alone anymore.
I just make a decision I'm bringing somebody with. We can all do that. We can expand ministry. We can expand all those things.
But one thing that I've learned about our church as we've analyzed everything last year and this year and we looked at where we were and where we want to be three or four years from now we learned something and we've been doing this now for several months looking at this. But we did come up with something and that is simply this. When you look at the church there's a rule about church. If 80% of the seats are taken then you're losing people.
There's a rule called 80%. If 80% of your seating is taken people are not coming. You're losing people. You have to deal with that.
We've trusted this rule and we've gone by this rule and we're in the smaller church down there and moved here. We're not quite an 80. We're about 75% of the seating that's taken. However, when you look in the parking lot the same rule applies there.
If 80% of your parking is taken then you're losing people it works like this. If you go to a restaurant and you come up in the parking lot it's filled the first thing that happens in your mind you say, hey, I'm not going in there. There's too many people in there. It's packed out in there.
Just because they didn't have enough parking. They very well could have more seats in this church when it's kind of on our average attendance. We have about 100 seats that are still available. And not only that we have overflow out there that we can put another 100 seats.
So we're okay there for a while. But when it comes to parking we're not so okay there. When you come in on Sunday morning it's hard to find a place to park. So what we're going to do this year is we're going to expand the park and at this church.
We have a place right over here to my right and it's between here and the house. A lot of the volunteers park over there now but the way we park we take up too much room. But we have a plan so here's what that plan looks like. If you look at this now over here on this side over here this is the front of the building.
This is where most everybody park and in the back. But what we're going to do we're going to mirror that parking over here on this side and we're going to create 95 new parking spaces. We're going to deal with the 80% rule. We're not going to let that hold us back anymore.
We believe God has called us to do more. We want more people here. I desire to have a thousand people coming to this church but I got to make parking watch this. I can pray and ask God.
I can believe God. You can join me in praying and believe and we can have faith and do all that. But if we don't create a place from the park they're not coming. If we don't have the seats they're not coming.
So we're going to expand the parking at 95 spots there. Now I'm not sure exactly what this is going to cost but I can guess. I can tell you it's going to need $100,000 up. When you go price paving and rocks and equipment and all that it's going to be up there.
I know exactly what it costs us to do this parking lot over here. So I can just about tell you what it's going to cost over there. There'll be some people that help us with that I'm sure. And the number I'll get the number before long but here's what I'm asking you to do.
Last year we focused on foreign missions and we focused on local missions. This year we're going to focus on getting this church ready to grow. And that means expanding that parking lot. Donna and myself are going to give the first $2,000.
I'm going to give a thousand. She's going to give a thousand. We believe in this church. We trust what God's doing here.
I believe in y'all and you've been so faithful. So here's your mission this year. Let's get this parking lot where it needs to be. Let's get this church positioned where it can grow.
Let's open some parking up so people can park and come in and hear the word of the Lord and we can win. The neighborhoods around us will talk about that a little bit more in a moment. So parking lot is the number one thing I'm asking you to consider giving. You don't have to give a thousand.
You can give a hundred. You can give fifty. You can give twenty-five a month or you can give the whole thousand at one time. And some of you by the way are blessed so much by God.
You can give ten thousand or twenty thousand. You and the Lord worked that out. But over the next little while I want you to join Donna and myself. We planted the first two thousand and I want you to give and let's go ahead and pay for that parking lot and get that behind us.
The other thing I want you to simply see is this. When you think about that kids point is another area. Now we love our kids church. They do a great job there and we love them.
But we got to expand that kids church right around the room. They are crammed in every nook and cranny you can get down there. And they need more room. So we're trying to figure out what to do.
We have some plans in mind. The board met on Thursday night and we talked about what we can do. So you're going to see an expansion of the children's church coming. So that's going to be a good deal.
Not only do we need to expand the space. We need people to teach and help us to teach these kids. And so I'm going to ask you to pray about that and consider that and sign up at the Connect desk and help us develop a number one first class. A team of people who have a heart for children and want to minister to them.
We're going to expand that space. So we're going to take care of that so it can grow and the church can grow. And also I mentioned this celebrate recovery as a minister. We've just started.
I have some high hopes for that and they'll start meeting I think next week and their first two classes and one of the classes is overflowing. I'm telling you and one could use if you more of the men need to step up to the plate. And out of those classes will begin to develop what we call a celebrate recovery program at this church and my desire. And I believe the vision for it is simply for it to grow and become a source in this community that will help a number of people.
I think the ministry will grow that way. Now with that said I want to deal with you now and I'll weave these together as we go. Three things that I want you to know about being made for more. If you're going to accomplish everything that God called you to accomplish, if this church is going to do everything that God called it to do, then we've got to understand some things about being made for more because it just doesn't happen.
You've got to know who you are and you've got to know what God did in your life. So the first thing I want you to see is this right here. We were crafted for more. You and I were crafted for more.
More than we're doing right now, more than we did last year. God crafted us, put us together in such a way that we can accomplish a lot more than we ever dreamed or imagined. Now if you look at the scripture for that Psalms 139, 13 and 14, you made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together. In my mother's womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it. Now some translations say that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
No question about that. This scripture is not about self-improvement at all. This scripture is about divine intention. What God had in mind when he knit you together in your mother's womb, he handcrafted you for purpose.
I want you to get that. You are handcrafted for purpose by Almighty God. He designed you in such a way that you can do so much more. Now remember I said some translations say fearfully and wonderfully made.
I want to deal with that for a moment. I want you to see exactly what that means. When you think about fearfully, fearfully made means your design is so marvelous. It should inspire in sense a sense of holy respect.
Here's what that means. When I look at my life and you look at your life and when I look at what God went into to design that and how God put it together and what God's thoughts were about that, I ought to have a holy reverence, a holy respect for the creation that I am. You ought to have a holy reverence and a holy respect for the creation that you are. It just wasn't an afterthought.
You weren't just a bright spot in your mom and dad's eye. You were created by God uniquely. The Bible says fearfully and wonderfully made when you think about that. You ought to have a holy respect.
Here's what that means. I want to look at my life and say, God, you've done a great job with what you did with me because when I look at the way I'm created and I look at what I'm capable of doing and what you can do through me, this is a great thing. I respect you for that. It is a holy work of you that's done that and I have respect for you for doing that.
That's how you look at that. Watch this right here. When you look at this word right here, wonderfully made means to be set apart or distinguished. It suggests that God purposely separated you from the rest of creation with unique gifts and a specific assignment.
That's so important right there. Think about your self-esteem. Think about how you view yourself for a moment. If you understand that you were fearfully and wonderfully made and you understand that you ought to have a holy respect, the holy reverence for what God has created here.
And then you understand that God separated you for a great purpose and a great cause before you ever came in this world. If you'll begin to look at yourself like that and you'll begin to give God praise and you'll begin to give yourself to God. He can do some great things in your life. The whole point is simply this.
You and I are made for more. We can't settle where we are. We can't get complacent with where we are. We have to understand that as long as we have breath in our body that God desires to use us and God has a mighty work for us to do.
Well, let me say this about that. New light church was made for more. We can never be satisfied with what God did last year. I can't be satisfied with the salvation.
I can't be satisfied with the baptisms. I can't be satisfied with the numbers. I got to do everything I can to set this thing up so God can grow the church. The Bible is clear that he grows the church but he uses you and I to get things prepared and ready so he can grow this thing.
We want to grow that children's church. We got to prepare. We got to make room. God cannot send children into this church if we're not prepared to handle them.
If we don't have the teachers in the space, God can't send them. It really would cause more confusion if he would send them without us being prepared. He can't send people over here to fill these seats in the overflow and all that unless we have parking. It would be chaos.
So God said we were made for more. You were made for more. I was made for more and this church was made for more. In fact, Ephesians says it this way.
Ephesians do intend. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things that he planned for us to do long ago. God had a plan when you came in this world.
He didn't just start here. He had this plan. He created you. Your creation is not just to be here.
He pre-planned some assignments in your life. He pre-planned assignments in my life. God created me with destiny. God created me with things he wanted me to do.
He gave me gifts and talents to use for him. Jeremiah would say it this way. Jeremiah 1 and 5. I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb.
Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations. I want you to notice this word was for Jeremiah. He was a prophet. Before he was born, when he was being knit together in his mother's womb, God said I have a plan for you as a prophet to the nations.
If you did that for Jeremiah, he'll do it for you. If you did it for you and Jeremiah, he'll do it for me. God had a plan and purpose for my life. Here's what that means.
He had a specific appointment, a specific assignment for me. My life's journey is to find out what that assignment was. Look, I enjoyed the retail furniture business. God blessed me.
I wouldn't trade those years for anything in the world. But as I've gotten older, here's where I am. I thank God if I were to give it my life to you years ago. What if I were to give it my life to you when I was eight years older, when I was ten years old, when I was twelve years old.
Where in the world would I beef? What can I have accomplished for the Lord? How many souls could have been saved? God, how many eternal things would have been done for you?
He blessed my work in the furniture business. And I enjoyed it. And everybody's not called to be a preacher, but now I realize I was called to be a preacher for the Lord. I was called to teach the Word of the Lord.
How much more can I have done? Because see the things in this world are passing and they're going to be gone. They're not going to matter. But what we do for eternal purposes will last forever and ever.
So here's what I want you to know. You were created for more. You were separated. You had an appointment by God.
And this church has an appointment by God. This church was placed here for a reason. I don't know if you know this, but you see the signs when you come out that say four to three. And you see the one behind me that says four to three.
And I don't know if you realize this or not, but we are strategically located in the center of three counties around us. When you look, we're evenly put there. And that is our mission field. It's our beginning mission field anyway.
The entire world is our mission field, but we can't ever forget locally what God has placed us here to do. So when you think about that, we were crafted for more by God. You and I were. God crafted us.
He designed us. He designed. And a lot of people say, well, look, now preacher, there are a lot of churches around you. You're not the only church.
You're right about that. We understand that. But here's what I want you to know. New light church is a little bit unique.
If you haven't been here, you need to try it. It's much different than a traditional church. Now, that doesn't mean that a traditional church is bad or indifferent. There are things I love about traditional churches.
But here's what we did. Some of us had to die to self-including myself because I was raised in a very traditional church. But we had to say this. There were plenty of traditional churches around.
Nothing wrong with that. Love the people they love God. They're doing a work that they can do. But I said, and the staff said, when we started this thing, what can we do to reach those who are not being reached for the Lord?
So we designed and come up with a contemporary look and a contemporary approach to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. to work, never going to do that. But we said, are there people out there that we can reach that a traditional church can't reach? And the answer to that is yes.
Are there people that a traditional church can reach that a contemporary church can't? Absolutely. They're both needed. But here they're not meeting around like us.
There's a few, but not many. So we think our mission is to three counties around us. And we believe God is going to bless that work as he already has. But we're not settling for what he's already done.
We're looking for what God is going to do. And we're going to position ourself to do that. Next thing I want you to see is this. Not only were we crafted by God.
We were called by God. This is a big thing right here. You're just not here by accident. If you have a call on your life, I'm called your call.
We're all called. In fact, Psalm says it this way, 139, 15, and 16. You watch me as I was being formed in utter seclusion. As I was woven together in the dark of the womb, you saw me before I was born.
Now that's an important deal right there. We all have a call of God on our life. Let me give you this thought right here. I'll pretend you is it hidden from God just because it's currently hidden from us and others.
God doesn't just see who we are today. He sees the finished product while we are still unformed to get that right there. We're never complete. We're unformed.
He sees the more while we see the not yet. A lot of times we get in this deal and we're saying, not yet, not yet. When is it going to happen? How is it going to happen?
When is God going to use me? How is God going to use me? Well, let me tell you right now, God already knows the more in your life. He knows exactly how he's going to use you.
He knit you together in your mother's womb. He had a design on your life. He crafted you. And now he's called you.
And there's a great story in the Old Testament about Queen Esther that I want to talk about. When you look at Queen Esther, she was positioned in the palace. She didn't have access to the king, but she was there. She was in close proximity to him.
The nation of Israel was about to be wiped out. The enemy was about to destroy them. They didn't have a whole lot of hope. Esther was positioned in the palace.
She had to make a decision. She said, hey, if I go in there to see the king without an invitation, I could lose my life. That's what this story is all about. She said, I can lose my life.
However, if I go in there and I get favored with him, I could save the nation of Israel. She had a great calling on her life. I don't know if she understood the tremendous depth of the calling on her life. Because here's the deal.
The nation of Israel was put together by God, developed by God, if you will, created by God to bring the Messiah into the world and not only that, to spread the word of God to a lost and dying world. They had a big mandate on their life. What Esther was about to make or break that moment right here. But would she decide to serve a cause greater than herself?
Or would she back away in fear and doubt and then certainly all that? Would she back away or would she do what God had called her to do? Let me give you the description. Watch how it plays out right here in scripture.
When you look at that Esther 4 and 14, if you keep quiet at a time like this, let me just say this. If we as a church keep quiet at a time like we're living in today, we're living in the last of the last days. Jesus is about to come. If we keep quiet right now, we're going to have trouble.
But watch what he says to her. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place. I don't know about you, but I don't want God using somebody to do what God called me to do. And I don't think any of you want God to use someone else for what God has called you to do because there are serious consequences about this.
Look how important this scripture shows us that the will of God in our life really is read the rest of it. But you and your relatives will die. In other words, if you don't do what I've called you to do, if you don't find that purpose and get it done, I'll find somebody else to do it. But the results for you is you'll die.
I don't want to die. You know what I think about that as long as I'm preaching the word and doing what God's called me to do and fulfilling my call that he's giving me in my life and doing it the best I can and I'm sincere about it. If I shrink back and I decide that I'm not going to put everything in there and I'm not going to do what God's called me to do and I'm not going to search his will out and do his will then the possibility of me leaving before I won't do his ear because God doesn't have any use for me anymore. Once he calls you to do what he's called you to do, he expects you to do it.
But if you're going to refuse to do that, then he said to Esther he said, look, your relatives and you will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this? I'm telling you right now, she was made for that time. She took the mantle.
She walked in there to the king and the results were simply this. She had favor with him because what we got to understand when God calls us to do something and he positions us to do something, he'll already give us favor. If you just open the door and walk through, he'll give you favor for whatever he's calling you to do. He gave queen Esther favor here and when he gave her favor, the king said yes, the nation was saved and everybody was happy.
Only because queen Esther didn't allow fear and doubt and uncertainty to come in and stop her from what God had called her to do. Listen carefully. She didn't allow self and laziness and complacency to get in the way of what God was calling her to do. She wasn't going to let anybody steal that moment from her and you and I can't allow anything to steal our Esther moments in our life because here's the deal.
When we do what God's called us to do, we can affect a town around us. We can affect people around us. Lives can be changed. Destinies from hell to heaven can be changed.
If you and I won't shrink back, but we'll give ourselves to what God has called us to do. When you think about that, I want you to see this right here. As a church, we are positioned purposely by God. We are located in the center of three counties for such a time as this.
If we settle, we will miss our Esther moment. I don't want this church to miss this Esther moment. I don't want that to happen. I don't want you to miss that Esther moment in your life.
Let God use you walk in faith and not fear. Give your heart to the Lord and do what God has called you to do. When you think about that, Acts says it this way and it's a great scripture, Acts 17, 26, and 27. From one man, he created all the nations throughout the world or the earth.
He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall and he determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to seek out their God. That's your purpose right there. That's the will of God for your life.
Seek out their God and the things of God. And perhaps, and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him, though he is not far from anyone of us. That's a great scripture right there. When you think about that God placed you right where you are in the family or in, in the career you're in, in the community you're in, and in the church you're in.
He placed you there because there's a call on your life. I know some of you came here because of the music, some came because of the preaching, some came because of the children. But let me tell you, God will use everything in your life that gets you right where you are to fulfill his plan and purpose in your life. And the, and the really the thing about that is simply this.
He gave every one of you gifts and talents and resources to do exactly what he's called you to do. So what we've learned so far is you're crafted to do more than you're doing right now. You're called for more right now. God has crafted you and God has called you.
And the bottom line on all that is this, is this church has been strategically planted right where it is doing exactly what it's doing because God placed it here and God had a purpose and a call. We didn't know several years ago that we would be doing things like we were doing, but God knew exactly what we were going to be doing. And the truth is you were placed here in NLC and you liked church to do exactly to be a part of what God has called us to do to use your talents, gifts and resources to do what God has called us to do. And you were called to do you like church.
Crafted, called, God is doing it working your life. But what's the last thing right here? We were commissioned for more. So now we're crafted, we're called, but now we're commissioned and that commission is simply going to do what I've asked you to do, be who I've asked you to be.
Accomplish what I want you to accomplish. Psalms would say it this way, 139, 16b, every day of my life was recorded. Don't miss that right there. Every day was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Now this is a great scripture when you really break it down and look at what it's saying. It's simply saying that God pre-authored our future. He recorded our days in his book, their detailed, our existence is detailed in God's book.
He knows exactly what he wants us to do. He places us where we are. A lot of times we jump and we run and we get out and we let offenses take us out and we let traditions take us out and we let our own thoughts take us out and self takes us out. But when God brings you to a place, understand he has a great purpose for your life.
Our life and your life, my life, your life, our lives are deliberate stories. God has a specific plan and purpose. And a lot of people think their life is just a series of luck and being lucky and being unlucky and accidents and all these things happen. But no, that's not what God said in his word that we've been reading in Psalms right here.
We are here on an assignment. I have an assignment. You have an assignment. God desires to use us.
I want to show you a few thoughts that I had the other night when I was writing this sermon that will help you right here because I want to put this in perspective for you. Christians are weapons in God's hand to advance his kingdom and defeat spiritual darkness. So you thought you got saved just because you didn't want to go to hell when you go to heaven. That's a great byproduct of your salvation.
You thought you were saved just so you could live a better life and glorify God and you were. But there's a different reason you were saved too. And that is because God has an assignment for you and God has called you and called me to do a couple of things. He's called us to advance his kingdom, your own earth.
In fact, he would say, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else to be given to you. That's why he said, so that's our purpose. We're here to defeat spiritual darkness. There are people who are going to die and go to hell if you and I don't take up the mantle and do what God's called us to do.
Think about that right there. That's an individual Christian, but watch this right here. Christian families are strategic weapons in God's hands. See, God uses it all.
The whole family right here. So Christian marriages are strategic weapons in God's hand up holding divine truth, fighting spiritual battles and reflecting Christ's love to the world. How in the world is the world supposed to know what love looks like? Because when you think about this, when you think about the Christian walk, we're called the bride of Christ.
How is that demonstrated best through a godly marriage? How would the world see how your relationship with God is supposed to be through a godly marriage? It's supposed to mirror that. So God helps us to uphold divine truth and then he helps us to fight spiritual battles, reflecting Christ's love to the world.
That's how the world is supposed to see it watch this one right here. Christian children are a weapon in God's hands. They carry the family's testimony and the gospel into future generations and place their parent and go places their parents may never reach. I want you to think about this right here.
If you were raised in a Christian home in a Christian environment, you have a testimony. It's really sad when I talk to people that were not raised in a Christian home in a Christian environment. They don't have a testimony. But for those who were, you do have a testimony.
Now, if you weren't, let me tell you something about our God. He'll take what the enemy meant for bad, he'll turn it to good. And he'll take what you think was wasted time and he'll multiply that. God is a great God.
He doesn't hold that against you. But here's the deal. If you're raised in a Christian home, you do have a testimony. No question about that.
And then our job and their job is to take the gospel to future generations and even take it places our parents can never go. That's what children are all about there. So God has called us. He's crafted us.
He's called us. He's commissioned us. Not just individually, but the whole family. And then the bigger part is this right here.
The church is God's weapon, a united body designed to invade the kingdom of darkness, spreading the gospel to a lost and dying world. Here's the deal. I'm not one of those preachers and I'm not one of those Christians who think that the church is irrelevant. I'm certainly not one of those that think I could sit at home and serve the Lord.
And I don't need to be a part of the body of Christ. No, I'm one of those Christians that believe this that God called us to be together. I believe His word says not to forsake this, sending of yourself together. Even as you see the day approaching, I believe He said that we were just like the physical body, that there were hands and feet and there were eyes and there was a mouth and there were ears that all of us make up the body of Christ.
I believe we could do more together. I believe God has called us to do more. I also believe that you can't use your spiritual gifts outside of the body of Christ like God intended for you to use them. I believe that God brings us together to be encouragers to other people.
And I believe God has a work that we all can do that not one of us can do on our own. That's what I believe. I believe the church is relevant. In fact, Jeremiah would say, look, it's a weapon in God's hand.
Jeremiah would say this 50, 20, you are my battle acts and sword. You ever wonder where the word battle acts comes from? You see some husbands call their wives a battle act. You ever heard that?
Well, it started in the Bible. They take it out of context where they call their wife a battle acts. But that's where it came from. So you see it right here?