SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to talk to you today about not missing your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Not missing your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, let me just thank you.
SPEAKER_00: If you are new with us, thank you so much for being here.
SPEAKER_00: We're pumped that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new with us online, thank you again for being with us.
SPEAKER_00: We're pumped that you are here as well.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it can be scary to come to church.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm I'm a preacher, and when I go into a new church, I'm like, geez, what are they gonna do here?
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh I get it.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having the courage.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you also to you who are just faithful and you show up all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You show up every weekend.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this, but that's a tremendous encouragement to the everybody else that attends.
SPEAKER_00: So uh keep it up.
SPEAKER_00: That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I we're gonna talk a little bit about responsibility today.
SPEAKER_00: And I know when we talk about this, I might we've got some folks in here that that might need a nudge about being more responsible for some of the things that are in your life.
SPEAKER_00: We've got probably a lot of folks who you're you're so responsible, you take other people's responsibilities without even thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm hopeful that this message isn't gonna make you worse.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but even so, we we need to hear a little bit about this responsibility thing.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are things that Jesus genuinely asks us to be responsible for that we sometimes ignore, we don't pay attention to, and sometimes they're even just little things.
SPEAKER_00: There's places he wants us to step in.
SPEAKER_00: So it might be a place where you're seeing somebody at the job site and they're kind of being brutally ridiculed by the people around them.
SPEAKER_00: And you could step in and say something, and you're thinking about it on the way home, and you didn't say anything, and and you you felt like at the time you might be ridiculed if you did, but now you're regretting that you did.
SPEAKER_00: So you have this shame for not stepping in.
SPEAKER_00: And really, you you could have, and and maybe you should have.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe there's somebody who's going through you've got a friend that's going through a hard time.
SPEAKER_00: They're struggling financially, and it comes to your mind like two or three times.
SPEAKER_00: You should help them out.
SPEAKER_00: You should help them out, you should, you should help them out.
SPEAKER_00: And then you don't, and then somebody else does, and you're happy for them because, oh, you know, they got some help.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also this little feeling of like, yeah, but I should have done that.
SPEAKER_00: Like I should have stepped in, I saw it, and I could have and I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: John Maxwell says, and I'm paraphrasing here, uh, the difference between a fact of life and a problem is a fact of life you can't do anything about.
SPEAKER_00: A problem you can try to solve.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a fact of life that we live in a world filled with chaotic people that are doing chaotic things right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a fact of life that there are something inside every man and woman that has gone a little bit berserk and is filled with not only peace and niceness, but also chaos and ill intention sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And we think, we get it in our head because it's what the world says, that the way to solve that is to pass more laws or to have better arguments or to convince other people that this way is right, no, this way is right, no, this way is right.
SPEAKER_00: And that can be very helpful, no question.
SPEAKER_00: On planet Earth, that has that has done a lot of good over time.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a deception for us to think that's the actual solution because the that really the chaos that we see out in the world is the fruit, but it's not the root.
SPEAKER_00: The root is inside of all of us, there is a burst dam of chaos that is going on.
SPEAKER_00: And God's solution to it is to renovate the heart through friendship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that for some, they're like, that can't be the real problem.
SPEAKER_00: No, that really is the real problem.
SPEAKER_00: That's why no matter what we do, no matter how far we go, no matter how much we progress, even so, everyone is still born with this sin nature on the inside of them.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way that that can be helped is through a transforming friendship with God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's really what the church is about.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're trying to do is help everybody find their way back to friendship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, and through the centuries, the church has got it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It's been more about religion or exteriors or even like an exterior discipline.
SPEAKER_00: My military friends know about this.
SPEAKER_00: There's an exterior discipline that can work, of like, hey, we're we're expecting you to do this, and you gotta we're gonna hold you accountable if you don't.
SPEAKER_00: That is a good form of discipline, but there's an even deeper one.
SPEAKER_00: It's an internal discipline that comes when we give our hearts to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That means I'll do right even if nobody sees it, because I don't want to hurt him.
SPEAKER_00: There's a set there's a greater sense of accountability, there's a greater sense he's with me and he's given everything for me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't necessarily even need the laws because I have the law of God written on my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And that really is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus Christ comes and he offers his friendship to each and every person.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I like you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I need to talk about your sin for a second.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to confess it, admit that it's real, so that I can forgive it, so we can walk through the rest of your life hand in hand.
SPEAKER_00: And the gospel is Jesus will just freely pardon you.
SPEAKER_00: Like you don't need a bunch of exteriors, you don't need a bunch of religiosity.
SPEAKER_00: There, obviously, we go to church here, so we think church helps a lot.
SPEAKER_00: It teaches the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: But it's really the Jesus part that solves the sin problem and makes us right with God and restores the friendship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the gospel is about.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the gospel should turn into then it's not just, hey, come and I'll forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: It's you'll you'll be so smitten with Jesus after you're forgiven that you'll want to reduce the chaos in your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: You'll want to, Lord, I want to conform my ways to your ways.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's great if more laws get passed, but I want to see my own heart change and others change.
SPEAKER_00: So God sends the church into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're trying to do through this church right now.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to connect with people that are far from God.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to help them.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if if we can have a boobash like we're having in a few weeks, that really is just so you know what that's about.
SPEAKER_00: That's not just because we like to party.
SPEAKER_00: We do like to party, but that's not what that's about.
SPEAKER_00: What it's really about is so all of us with friends and family that are a little bit creeped out by going to a church, maybe they'll come to a kid's event with candy and food.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they'll see, oh, it's okay here.
SPEAKER_00: These guys aren't psychopaths.
SPEAKER_00: And that means they're more willing to come to church.
SPEAKER_00: This is the whole strategy, man.
SPEAKER_00: That's a big day.
SPEAKER_00: They're more willing to come to church, and then they can hear the voice of the Spirit through God's word preached, and through that they meet the Jesus who loves them.
SPEAKER_00: They give their heart to him, he renovates their heart, transforms them, turns them into a new creature.
SPEAKER_00: That's the whole game, baby.
SPEAKER_00: That's the whole thing what we're trying to do here.
SPEAKER_00: What can go wrong sometimes is when we stall out.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the ways churches stall out is people begin to let go of responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: They begin to forget that they might have a responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just remind you, you all do you know that if you're going to serve the king, he says, I want your best brain power, I want your strength, I want any wisdom you've got, and I want to use it to extend the kingdom of God and help other people.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants to do, no matter who we are.
SPEAKER_00: In a way, sometimes we talk about, hey, you know, you might want to serve at church.
SPEAKER_00: You should think about that.
SPEAKER_00: And and that's that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good way to say it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say it a lot stronger than that.
SPEAKER_00: Every single person that names the name of Jesus Christ is called to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: It like it's not a suggestion, it's not something he's like, I hope you do.
SPEAKER_00: Like he does hope you do, but also he's commanding us to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so he asks it.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to give you some some good news, bad news.
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the good news is in the past year, our church has grown by 11.2%.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's a healthy clip for a church.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So, hey, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: That's like all the different categories of you know, meetings we have and and people, uh, 11.2% in here right in here in the auditorium.
SPEAKER_00: In the past year, we've grown by 9%.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes it feels a little bit full in here.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, because we keep growing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, our online growth.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thank you, online people.
SPEAKER_00: We've grown by 20% in the past year.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Keep it up, man.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's a tremendous victory.
SPEAKER_00: And and and that's good because that's kind of what we said was our 15-year vision was hey, we're gonna be, we're gonna invest a lot in digital missions.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're starting that, and that is going pretty well.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this past week, we relaunched something called the Bible Leadership Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: This helps not only people in our church, but actually churches far, far away.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they learn leadership principles that we feel like God has been showing us and we try to share them with people.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know about that, feel free just to go on your YouTube or Spotify or wherever you get podcasts and just look up Bible Leadership Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: It might not be for you, but it's it tends to be a little bit deeper stuff than what we talk about in here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so check that out.
SPEAKER_00: You might also know, you online people might definitely know, that we're trying to slowly, iteratively add more live components to our online service.
SPEAKER_00: So, so in other words, it's not just watching in here, and we've got more plans to expand this, but we've recently introduced like an intro session.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so let's watch a little video of Brandon and Abby in their pre-church time.
unknown: Something you can do is fast and pray.
SPEAKER_01: Not only when you're trying to decide what to do in a situation, but sometimes we already know the right thing to do, so we just need it to fast and pray for that courage to actually go about and do it.
SPEAKER_01: And when we bring alongside us a community to join us in that fasting and praying, it speeds up that process and it gives us even more courage to go do that thing.
SPEAKER_00: Abby doesn't always start preaching like that, but sometimes she does.
SPEAKER_00: So, so online people, that's happening right before.
SPEAKER_00: So if you all show up five minutes early, you'll see uh myself, Abby, some other ones in there just kind of hanging out, it's hangout time for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna keep adding components like that to the online experience because we feel like God is calling us in that direction to invest in the digital natives that are all over the world online all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be not only here, we want to be them there in their lives as well.
SPEAKER_00: So that's good news.
SPEAKER_00: We've been we've been healthily growing, like it's all it's going good.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some not so good news.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we've had a slight dip in our kids' ministry.
SPEAKER_00: In Fierce Kids, we've decreased by 8% in the last year.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the data tells us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's how I hear that.
SPEAKER_00: Um clearly, we have a lot of people that love Jesus and it they love him in an attractive way.
SPEAKER_00: However, our focus and intentionality with kids is slipping because, as we hear from our leaders every month, we don't have enough volunteers and fierce kids.
SPEAKER_00: And what that translates to is our volunteers that we do have don't have margin.
SPEAKER_00: They they're they're getting burnt out.
SPEAKER_00: There's people that take off because, dude, they're just exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: That means we can't have the excellence level that we'd like to because people are underprepared because they're the only ones doing this.
SPEAKER_00: They're I don't want to say they're underprepared, but they could have they could have a more excellent time, but they're just so burnt out.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's all they could they can they can give.
SPEAKER_00: I think church, we should take a little bit, like in a good godly life, we should take a little bit of shame in that.
SPEAKER_00: Because, dude, what that means is hey, we value Jesus, we value the word, but we don't value our kids enough to actually be in there unless you're a volunteer that's already in there.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, V likes this.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I think I need to own.
SPEAKER_00: That's I'm the leader, so that's probably on some level my fault.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't messaged enough, hey guys, kids are important, kids are are where it's at, God cares about kids, kids are the next generation.
SPEAKER_00: I should have been, so I want to publicly repent before you right now.
SPEAKER_00: But what it what it creates is a capacity choke point.
SPEAKER_00: So people are wearing out.
SPEAKER_00: So even though we're growing for a minute in here and online, that can only go so long because that thing's gonna snap in kids.
SPEAKER_00: And parents are they're gonna show up and they're like, ah, maybe not, maybe not this weekend.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, maybe not this church, even at all.
SPEAKER_00: And our kids deserve just way better than that.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a threat.
SPEAKER_00: Well, back to Esther.
SPEAKER_00: Esther is experiencing a threat.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna zero on on this one moment.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to talk about the whole thing, but Esther is in the situation where she's the girl that can save the day, essentially.
SPEAKER_00: If anybody can, it's gonna be her.
SPEAKER_00: The wicked Haman, he's the bad guy of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Go back on YouTube and watch all the messages if you haven't yet.
SPEAKER_00: But Haman has gotten this decree sent out that all the Jews are gonna be killed.
SPEAKER_00: The only one, Queen Esther, she's the only one that can go to the king and make anything happen about it.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Esther, dude, she's got a good life.
SPEAKER_00: Like, even though she's been through a traumatic past, she's got like, if there's any gal that's it's doing she's doing all right here.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably Esther.
SPEAKER_00: She can have anything that she wants.
SPEAKER_00: So 414, if you keep quiet at this time, this is her cousin Mordecai speaking to her.
SPEAKER_00: If you keep quiet at this time, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this?
SPEAKER_00: Then Esther sent the reply to Mordecai, Go and gather all the Jews of Seus and fast for me.
SPEAKER_00: Don't eat or drink for three days, night or day.
SPEAKER_00: My maids and I will do the same.
SPEAKER_00: And then, though it is against the law, meaning if you go to the king and he didn't ask for you, you could be killed.
SPEAKER_00: I will go see the king.
SPEAKER_00: If I must die, I must die.
SPEAKER_00: Esther probably had a lot of reasons why she shouldn't do this.
SPEAKER_00: Like that came up in her mind.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I'm not the girl, I'm not really even good with speaking, like he hasn't called me in over a month.
SPEAKER_00: Why should I have to be the one?
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Mordecai is reminding her, no, no, no, Esther, there's a call, though.
SPEAKER_00: And a call is different than a favor.
SPEAKER_00: Like we you might hear us at church saying, Hey, would you consider serving?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, do us a favor.
SPEAKER_00: That's the wrong message.
SPEAKER_00: A call is, excuse me, a call is more like, I have an obligation.
SPEAKER_00: I owe this in some sense to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a short-term favor.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a like, I'll do you solid here real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Callings, I really believe can be confusing because often when we think about callings, we think of it, it's like a Moses thing we're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's gonna be, I'm just out somewhere and there's a burning bush, and I hear a voice from heaven, you are called.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't experience that necessarily.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're like, I guess I'm not just, I'm just like a normal person.
SPEAKER_00: And that is that does happen for people.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, like, you go, some people go on like a youth retreat and they really get something from God, and it's like, oh my gosh, there's a call in my life, and that does affect where they go.
SPEAKER_00: But for most of us, I believe it's actually a lot more like Joseph in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph was faithful slowly in areas he was competent, and he got more competent and ended up being the prime minister of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: So he was faithful in his father's house just to run the show.
SPEAKER_00: His administrative gifts begin to come out when he's Potiphar's slave and he's put in charge of the entire house.
SPEAKER_00: Then he's thrown in the dungeon, but he's so gifted that they're like, and you're really competent.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you just run the whole dungeon?
SPEAKER_00: Just run the jail for us.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, as many of you know, he's put in charge of the entirety of Egypt because of his skill level.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way it goes for most of us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering what your call is, hey, what does God already just made you good at that could help?
SPEAKER_00: Because that was the question for Esther.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to ask you today to ask some questions.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not serving already, if you're not already embracing a version of the call, here's the wrong question.
SPEAKER_00: What makes my dreams come true?
SPEAKER_00: I I care that your dreams come true, but that's the wrong question.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, what is Jesus asking of me now?
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus asking of me now?
SPEAKER_00: And if you ask that question and he you get a even a sense, a little inkling, I want to encourage you to just say yes.
SPEAKER_00: Just say yes.
SPEAKER_00: Because he can reroute us when we say yes.
SPEAKER_00: If we're if we're wrong, he can reroute us.
SPEAKER_00: But if we do nothing, we just stand still.
SPEAKER_00: And it might be scary.
SPEAKER_00: But here's number one saying no is irresponsible.
SPEAKER_00: Saying no to Jesus asking us to take some responsibility is irresponsible.
SPEAKER_00: We say, no, God, I don't think I'm the one.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Esther might have said.
SPEAKER_00: And Mordecai reminds her, you, Esther, have the proximity.
SPEAKER_00: You are the one who, if anyone can do it, you might not feel gifted, Esther, but you have the proximity, you have the ability to influence positive change.
SPEAKER_00: It's fallen to you, Esther.
SPEAKER_00: You must sense, Esther, all the Jews are going to be killed.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have no loyalty to your spiritual family?
SPEAKER_00: And guys, many of you would feel this way.
SPEAKER_00: If you went to another country, you would still feel some sense of loyalty to the U.S.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't want bad things to happen to it.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you could promote anything that was like pro-America, I love the USA, you would probably feel like, yeah, I would want to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's your homeland.
SPEAKER_00: There's just something, your blood's in the soil, man.
SPEAKER_00: I want my country to prosper.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that if you name the name of Christ, your homeland is heaven?
SPEAKER_00: And you should want for heaven to be blessed by what you do in this foreign country of earth.
SPEAKER_00: We're strangers here, and we should say, I want the I don't want to get wrapped up in what's going on in this foreign country any more than you want to be in a in a literal foreign country wrapped up in what they're doing and forget your homeland.
SPEAKER_00: No, we want to say, God, I care that you care what I do while I'm far away to represent your land.
SPEAKER_00: You have an agenda to put people's hand back in the hand of Jesus, and I care about that.
SPEAKER_00: I have a responsibility because I too am a citizen of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It suggests, and I'm not I'm not projecting this on you, but I just want to suggest, it suggests a lack of the fear of God if we're just like, eh, eh, eh.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lack of the fear of God.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of God is a great thing.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that we're trembling, just like, oh my gosh, I'm afraid some lightning might hit me today.
SPEAKER_00: It is, I'm afraid that God might withdraw his hand of blessing and give me the consequences of my sin and my foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, God's super gracious.
SPEAKER_00: And there's so many times that he overrides our sin and our foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, ah, we're just gonna get him out of that.
SPEAKER_00: That was really dumb.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just get him out of it.
SPEAKER_00: If you pay attention to how dumb you are sometimes, if you pay attention to just how much you're like, I don't care about God's ways, and he doesn't do anything to oppose it, and he's just welcome to now come on back, he's so gracious.
SPEAKER_00: But we're the fear of God is to say, I'm afraid though, if he ever did take his hand off me for one second, I do not want the consequences of that thing.
SPEAKER_00: It might be guys, if we just ignore our responsibility, we might get just what Jesus clarifies in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: If you try to keep your life, you will lose it.
SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't mean literally God's gonna kill you.
SPEAKER_00: It just means you're gonna keep searching for life out here and you're not gonna find it.
SPEAKER_00: Because our only life is partnering with what God's plan is.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are doing really good so far.
SPEAKER_00: One of the ways you can serve your church is by saying, Carter, bring it, man.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We need this right in the belly.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna drink it up.
SPEAKER_00: You can say that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's not your gift, but maybe you just do it anyway, even if it's not your gift.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I can remember um a time when some leaders of the campus that I was on came to me, campus ministry, and there's like, hey man, we think you should lead this thing.
SPEAKER_00: And then there was another thing, we think you should lead this thing.
SPEAKER_00: And I just wasn't even on my on my radar.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, ah, I'm not I'm not gonna be that kind of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I like to just kind of be normal and and I want to be able to come in under people's radar so they don't think I'm churchy or anything.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, ah, nevertheless, keep praying about it.
SPEAKER_00: And so they come back and they poke me and they poke me.
SPEAKER_00: And I was very resistant because I just didn't categorize myself that way.
SPEAKER_00: Until finally, I just said, God, is what is this?
SPEAKER_00: Are you doing something here?
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't say anything to me, but I felt like there was a transition of responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: He just like, this is on you now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even know what that meant.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't know what that would entail, but the Lord was asking me to just do it.
SPEAKER_00: Is it possible?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to give you more than you need right now.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to give you more than you can bear.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I definitely don't want to give you more than he's giving you, but is it possible if you were to ask him, he might say, I want you to take this and I want you to just say yes.
SPEAKER_00: Saying yes also, this is part of why it's scary, it pulls us out of the shadows.
SPEAKER_00: Saying yes pulls us out of the shadows, just like it pulled Esther out.
SPEAKER_00: Mordecai said, if you keep quiet at this time, if you keep quiet, it would have been, dude, being hidden is so comforting to many of us sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm a super introvert.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know this.
SPEAKER_00: I love people all day long until the minute that I don't, and then I want to get away.
SPEAKER_00: Dude, I just want to be alone with some books and some pizza, like and and my lady.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want to get away and recharge.
SPEAKER_00: And so I get like, dude, I don't want to like have to answer to people.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to have to like say stuff.
SPEAKER_00: What am I have to do?
SPEAKER_00: What am I have to say?
SPEAKER_00: Like, people are gonna bother me?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what's gonna happen if I do this?
SPEAKER_00: Uh probably a little bit, but this is where we lay down our perfect desire to sometimes we just want to be hidden too much.
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of your personality, great, but it's also working against the kingdom of God in certain ways until you say yes.
SPEAKER_00: But um, there are introvert roles here at Fierce that you can do that are still very helpful to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean no one will ever talk to you, but it just means primarily you're not having to entertain anybody with your wisdom or with your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: So there's technological roles that are things like audio engineers.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't even have to be brilliant, you just have to be open.
SPEAKER_00: There's things like cameramen, the the the video that you just watched with Brandon and Abby, we need people that are able to learn how to do that well.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how to do it well.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, if you're like Carter, I'm just unskilled, hey, welcome to the most unskilled church you've ever been to.
SPEAKER_00: That's all good.
SPEAKER_00: None of us are skilled, dude.
SPEAKER_00: So come on in.
SPEAKER_00: Um if you want, if you can learn, if if you're if you think of yourself as like, I'm I'm pretty okay on a computer, then you can probably learn to video edit.
SPEAKER_00: And so we we'd love to bring you in and teach you how to do that so you can help get sermons and other videos out to people that is going to help them connect with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you want a real low commitment version, you can be just a big day helper, boobash coming up.
SPEAKER_00: That's a big day.
SPEAKER_00: And that just means, hey, we need to set all this up.
SPEAKER_00: Can you help?
SPEAKER_00: Can you just run and get that?
SPEAKER_00: Can you bring that over here?
SPEAKER_00: Can you put this thing up over here?
SPEAKER_00: We just need big day helpers, and that's a real low commitment version.
SPEAKER_00: And when I say it's it's it's for introverts, it means, yeah, you're around people, but you don't have to do anything to keep people up or going or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: We need um some physical help, even for introverts, set up crews.
SPEAKER_00: I'll I'm I'm now calling them table ninjas because all what they really do is they come in and they set up tables.
SPEAKER_00: You you come into an event and there's tables set up and somebody moves something, it's just people do it, it takes 20 minutes, it's occasional, and yet it's something that God uses profoundly.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to leave our coziness sometimes, but can you just hear Jesus say, Would you just do it for me?
SPEAKER_00: Just do it for me.
SPEAKER_00: If if there's if you haven't done anything brand new for Jesus in a while, would you consider doing it for him?
SPEAKER_00: Here's one more I'm gonna mention before we shut her down.
SPEAKER_00: Saying yes will feel like it's costing you life.
SPEAKER_00: Not like it's gonna kill you, but it's like, oh, this is taking away from my life.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, now now I gotta go in early.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now I gotta go to this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, now I have to like go to this meeting that they want to have of volunteers.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: It will take that in a sense, but listen to what Esther said.
SPEAKER_00: She said, if I must die, I must die.
SPEAKER_00: She had a zeal, she had a heart for her people and her God to say, you know what, this might be what it cost me.
SPEAKER_00: It might actually kill me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is worthy of the life that it costs, but you can't give to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't outgive him.
SPEAKER_00: You give him some of that life, and he'll give you real life.
SPEAKER_00: He'll give you greater uh tightness with him, greater tightness with his people.
SPEAKER_00: But he does ask us to count the cost.
SPEAKER_00: He does say, I do want to ask for your best thinking.
SPEAKER_00: I do want to ask for your strengths, I do want to ask for your energy, I do want to ask for your time.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the gospel should lead to.
SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time I walked into a church, there were people that were, it wasn't not in an awkward way, but they were they were right up in my face, ready to greet me.
SPEAKER_00: They were making me feel so at home.
SPEAKER_00: I'd never seen this in a church before.
SPEAKER_00: Like they ran out, they shake my hand, they're like, you know, uh, not not bothering me, but just like we we love it that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: And the entire experience, it flipped my understanding of even what church was.
SPEAKER_00: Because honestly, my my picture of church, even though I had become a Christian and like I wanted to seek Jesus, most of the churches I'd ever been to, they were kind of like either dark or kind of stodgy, or like there was a lot of tradition, but not a lot of necessarily visible relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so I thought of church as old.
SPEAKER_00: It's just old.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Church is old.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to go somewhere that's kind of pretty in an old way, go to church.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I thought.
SPEAKER_00: But God used people, humans, that made themselves available, that said, I'm on the line here, I'm in God's army, he's asked me to do it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to change somebody's concept of church, and they did it.
SPEAKER_00: Is it possible that God would use you if you're maybe a little less of an introvert and you're willing to give away just a little bit of your life?
SPEAKER_00: He'd use you to greet folks.
SPEAKER_00: He'd use you to be part of the decoration team, he'd use you to be someone in the cafe handing somebody a donut.
SPEAKER_00: Dude, a donut smile is one of the best smiles in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And you could be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: He might use you in fierce kids.
SPEAKER_00: He might give you a heart that you don't even yet have for kids.
SPEAKER_00: He might use you as a female small group leader at level ground.
SPEAKER_00: He might use you in all kinds of ways, and we don't even know what they will be.
SPEAKER_00: All we need to do is say yes.
SPEAKER_00: We can trust God to steer that thing.
SPEAKER_00: See, when someone starts serving here, we're do everything we can to make that uh fun for them and enjoyable.
SPEAKER_00: But there's always gonna be a sense of like, yeah, this is hard, but it's good.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's good to feel like what I did, I'm already doing hard things.
SPEAKER_00: This thing really mattered for somebody.
SPEAKER_00: We and you can say no.
SPEAKER_00: You can you can keep saying no.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to I just want to give a friendly pastorly warning.
SPEAKER_00: There's a road that Jesus calls us on, and it is the road of serving him.
SPEAKER_00: And if we keep saying no, if we just keep jumping on the road and jumping off the road, um, I'm gonna try this for a minute and then I'm gonna jump off and I'm gonna go off and do my own thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like anything else, dude.
SPEAKER_00: That's a long road to nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: If you pick any habit and you're on the road and off the road, if you're trying to go on a diet, you're on the road or off the road.
SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to get good at a sport, you're on the road and off the road, you're not gonna go anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Saying no might cost you your very purpose itself.
SPEAKER_00: Because what did he say?
SPEAKER_00: What did Mordecai say to Esther?
SPEAKER_00: Who knows that you were brought here?
SPEAKER_00: Esther, you didn't understand what all this was about.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't understand why you had to go through all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But is it possible?
SPEAKER_00: This moment, right now, is the whole meaning of your existence.
SPEAKER_00: You need to step up and say yes to God and go into that king that you're afraid of.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to make your stakes of being on the greeting team the same stakes as Esther of saving the Jewish nation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of opportunities in our lives where it's another chance to step into our purpose.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you, in the Bible, there's people that just say no.
SPEAKER_00: And often they didn't really say no to that question.
SPEAKER_00: They just said, I've got stuff to do.
SPEAKER_00: This Esau is a perfect example of this.
SPEAKER_00: In the natural, Esau was set up, dude, he could have like carried the promise into the next generation.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, ah, I want to hunt.
SPEAKER_00: I want to hunt.
SPEAKER_00: Leave me out of this.
SPEAKER_00: Here, you want, give me your bowl of soup, I'll sell you the whole birthright.
SPEAKER_00: That can happen with us, yo.
SPEAKER_00: We can keep postponing God's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And we put we postpone and maybe forsake the growth and the blessing that is a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: So at the very least, today, I want to ask you to contemplate.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything I've picked up that God has not asked me to pick up?
SPEAKER_00: And is there anything he's asking, he's pointing out, he's like, hello, this thing.
SPEAKER_00: See this?
SPEAKER_00: Do this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't I'm not gonna explain it to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna give you an understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Just do what I ask.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you to contemplate that, open yourself up, and if you sense that he is, just say yes.
SPEAKER_00: Um, in a few minutes, V's gonna come back.
SPEAKER_00: Veronica is gonna come back up, and she's gonna walk us through uh a video and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: But when we're all done, there's tables out there.
SPEAKER_00: So for those who are physically here and you're not serving already, just stroll through there, man.
SPEAKER_00: See if there's one of those places that God might be knocking, saying, I know you don't love it, but just try it.
SPEAKER_00: Just jump in and see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: If you're brand new with us, just know there's dude, there's no pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Like that we didn't bring you brand new to try to get you to do something today.
SPEAKER_00: But it's still a good exercise just to contemplate is there something that God might be laying, He brought me here to lay on my heart, to be responsible for even today.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever he says, just say yes.
SPEAKER_00: Let's bow our heads and pray.
SPEAKER_00: We've all got a lot to do, and we don't want to waste time doing stuff that doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pray that you would clarify just our own personal life and our own personal walk with you what are the things that we need to elevate the priority for, and things that maybe we need to lower the priority or even let go altogether.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for the Holy Spirit of Jesus, who comes not just as our Savior, but as our mighty counselor.
SPEAKER_00: Would you come and counsel each one of us?
SPEAKER_00: Of us today and this week.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for tuning in today.
SPEAKER_00: If God has used the ministry of Fierce in your life, please consider paying it forward with a financial gift at fierce.church slash give.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more resources like this, check out all of our channels at YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
SPEAKER_00: Check out our podcasts, and check out our blog at fierce.church slash blog.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't already, please consider sharing this to help people you know take their next step.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time.