SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Manna Church Stafford Podcast, where we're all about equipping God's people to change their world.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful you're here, and we're praying that this message encourages you to love God, love others, and love the world more fervently than before.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let's get to it.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna transition now into our time of the word, and it's gonna be a little different this week.
SPEAKER_03: I'm actually really, really excited about it though.
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be super cool.
SPEAKER_03: Um I love the word of God.
SPEAKER_03: I love being able to teach the word of God, and I just wanna I want to pull out one one verse here, real quick.
SPEAKER_03: One verse as we as we get started.
SPEAKER_03: It's from Ephesians chapter four.
SPEAKER_03: You can turn there, it's gonna be on the the Sky Bible if you need it.
SPEAKER_03: Go ahead and put that up for me.
SPEAKER_03: Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_03: Up on the Sky Bible.
SPEAKER_03: We there?
SPEAKER_03: Asher's got me.
SPEAKER_03: You got me in the back, buddy?
SPEAKER_03: It says in verse 15, excuse me, says, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it's equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_03: So in that verse, what you have is a picture of how the body of Christ works.
SPEAKER_03: And I love that the the word of God teaches that us as a family, we're a body.
SPEAKER_03: And how many of you know that if you don't work out certain parts of your body, they're gonna be weak?
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: If you skip leg day, it shows.
SPEAKER_03: All right?
SPEAKER_03: But if you're going in, you're working those legs, man, you're gonna be stronger, you're gonna be healthier, you're gonna be able to do more things.
SPEAKER_03: And and when you work out a certain part of your body, it blesses that part of the body because that part of the body grows, right?
SPEAKER_03: You get more muscles, you get stronger, it can do more things, but it also blesses the rest of the body, right?
SPEAKER_03: Because when each part is working properly, it works together in the right way so that the whole body builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_03: You know, like my elbow has been hurting so bad because I got some some tennis elbow or something going on, so I can't play pickleball.
SPEAKER_03: It's really frustrating.
SPEAKER_03: But man, when it works properly, I get a lot of joy.
SPEAKER_03: The rest of my body gets a lot of joy too.
SPEAKER_03: And what's what's crazy is there are people that are in our body who God has specifically gifted us with.
SPEAKER_03: They have certain talents, they have certain abilities, and God gave them to us, not just to bless them, he gave them to us for the rest of us to be blessed as well.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: And if you're here in our body, if you're here as a part of Manna Church, I want you to know God has something for you, and God has something for us from you.
SPEAKER_03: He gave you those gifts to bless the rest of the church.
SPEAKER_03: And I've had the privilege since November of last year of leading a pastoral residency here at Manna Church.
SPEAKER_03: And we've got about 10 residents who they come in, we we meet every couple weeks.
SPEAKER_03: They're doing all kinds of amazing things all over our church, shepherding people, blessing people, encouraging people.
SPEAKER_03: And so one of the things I really want to do is I want to equip them to be able to serve and lead and shepherd and bless even better.
SPEAKER_03: So we are an equipping church.
SPEAKER_03: If you're here and and you've got a gift or a talent, we want to see that worked out because we know that there's blessing for you and there's blessing for us in it.
SPEAKER_03: And so today, I've asked three of our residents to come and share a word with you guys.
SPEAKER_03: And I told them, listen, just share whatever God put on your heart.
SPEAKER_03: Just bring it, just bless our body.
SPEAKER_03: And so so I know that there is something for every single person here in at least one of these messages.
SPEAKER_03: There's gonna be something good, there's gonna be something that blesses you, that encourages you.
SPEAKER_03: And so I I just want to ask you, as they come up here, can you encourage them as well?
SPEAKER_03: Can you bless them?
SPEAKER_03: Can you just amen, just amen a little bit louder if you're not an amen person?
SPEAKER_03: Do that for me.
SPEAKER_03: You know, the word of God says that we want to honor those who lead among us, and those who teach, we give them double honor.
SPEAKER_03: And so uh the first resident we're gonna invite up today is Ben Honegger.
SPEAKER_03: Can you do me a favor and just give him some double honor as he comes up to bring the word?
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, good morning, man of church.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, can you all do me a favor uh as Jake's walking off?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to honor him for um what he is doing here.
SPEAKER_01: And would you guys just join your hands with me?
SPEAKER_01: Bless him, Jake.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing such a good job.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, all right, and I would like to pray, if you guys don't mind, just really quick as I get into this word.
SPEAKER_01: There it is.
SPEAKER_01: I've got the microphone in the right spot now.
SPEAKER_01: Um so if you guys would bow your heads with me, Lord, I thank you for this day.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you that you love us, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I just ask that uh that you would move.
SPEAKER_01: Man, that was such a good worship set.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I just ask that uh you'd open up our hearts and our minds to what you're doing and your family in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so I had um a whole transition to do, and then that worship set, so that was good.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so what we were singing from that worship set really is going along with what I I want to talk about today.
SPEAKER_01: So we we talked about Lord, you come in power, Lord, you do all this work, all the things that Jesus is doing, and and it went back to something that somebody asked me uh probably a few years ago, and they said, Hey, when was the last time that you shared the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Well, share the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what I'm going to kind of frame this this teaching, preaching on is when was the last time we shared the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: When was that we shared the good news?
SPEAKER_01: And some of you might be thinking, What is what is the good news?
SPEAKER_01: What are we talking about with that?
SPEAKER_01: And so this is what I'm going to frame the good news or the gospel from.
SPEAKER_01: The good news is that it is the bedrock of our faith and what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: It is the powerful truth of who Jesus Christ is to us and what he has done for us.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, as we are, as we are looking at that, we want to be transformed by that.
SPEAKER_01: We want to share that with other people.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we share that with other people, life change happens.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got uh, I think a ton of excuses sometimes of why we don't share it.
SPEAKER_01: Some it may be fear, it may be um, maybe we just don't have the relationship we think.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I've heard people say, Well, I'm I didn't share it because it wasn't the right moment.
SPEAKER_01: And and I'm here to tell you, you're not gonna find that right moment.
SPEAKER_01: There's just gonna be moments, and then we're gonna just take that opportunity to do that.
SPEAKER_01: So we believe in the work that Jesus does at salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we truly believe that powerful work, we should share the good news.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to take one of those excuses away from you today.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never been trained how to do that, I just thought uh when I got asked that question a few years ago, uh, I was like, I need a way to go through this, or I like outlines or guides.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to jump into a way.
SPEAKER_01: This is a route.
SPEAKER_01: Um, this route, there's different routes that you guys can use in the Bible to be able to get there.
SPEAKER_01: The route that I've chosen is Romans, and it all speaks to the one truth that we believe.
SPEAKER_01: So if you guys would open your Bibles to Romans, I'm gonna take you on a road trip to this book of the Bible, and I'm gonna show you the Romans road.
SPEAKER_01: All right, the first thing we have to understand on this journey is that God is perfect and holy, and he loves us, and he wants relationship with us.
SPEAKER_01: Do we believe that?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so uh when we were growing up, uh, one of the most, you know, you go to Bible school or you go somewhere and somebody's like, you got to memorize the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys remember John 3.16?
SPEAKER_01: Is that I don't know if that's still big, it was big when we were growing up.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so we should be able to just be able to pull that up and be able to speak it.
SPEAKER_01: John 3.16, for God so love the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So we're starting there.
SPEAKER_01: We jump into Romans.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna just give these mile markers, they're gonna come up behind me.
SPEAKER_01: You guys can read along.
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to, take some notes with this, because again, we're just trying to look at a way to be able to talk to people.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so mile marker one is gonna be Romans 3.23, and it says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: All of us start our lives in sin.
SPEAKER_01: We were born into sin because we we we started in perfectness and there was a fall.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to know more about that story, read Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_01: It talks about that.
SPEAKER_01: So we start as sinners, we stay in sin, and we never become sinless outside of God.
SPEAKER_01: We can't do this work on our own.
SPEAKER_01: So from mile marker one, we're going into mile marker two, which is Romans 3, 10 through 12.
SPEAKER_01: This is talking about our sin here.
SPEAKER_01: None is righteous, no not one.
SPEAKER_01: No one understands, no one seeks God, all have turned aside.
SPEAKER_01: Together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one.
SPEAKER_01: So this is firmly establishing that we are not righteous, we are not good, and we have fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: So as we move on to mile marker three, which is going to be Romans 5.8, I want you to see something.
SPEAKER_01: So it says, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_01: He died for us because why?
SPEAKER_01: He loved us.
SPEAKER_01: So as we pull into mile marker 4, which is at Romans 6.23, we see that we're sinful, we've got a loving God, and we read in 6.23, for the wages of our sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: Let's grab this here real quick.
SPEAKER_01: What we've covered so far is we are sinners.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing sinful stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a broken world, we're partakers in that brokenness outside of God.
SPEAKER_01: And we try real, real hard to be good, but it never works because we can't do it in our own power.
SPEAKER_01: And we need saved.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that we need.
SPEAKER_01: We need saved.
SPEAKER_01: The price that must be paid for our sin is eternal death and separation from a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: To get out of this eternal death spiral, we need saved.
SPEAKER_01: To have eternal life, we need payment for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: The Savior is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The payment for our blood, or the payment for our sin is the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He shed his innocent blood for us on the cross to play to pay the complete cost for our sins and give us a free gift.
SPEAKER_01: And that gift is right before us all.
SPEAKER_01: All we have to do to receive it is have faith.
SPEAKER_01: So we jump into mile marker five.
SPEAKER_01: It's Romans 10, 9 through 10.
SPEAKER_01: Love this verse.
SPEAKER_01: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
SPEAKER_01: And we see that statement is confirmed, and it is truthful at Maul Markers 6, which is Romans 10, 13.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, For everyone, that's all of us, who calls on the name of the Lord, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_01: We receive this gift in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Our faith or belief is this God is who he says he is.
SPEAKER_01: God will do what he says he's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: God sent his perfect and only Son out of love for us to save us from eternal death, and we can't get it any other way.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus Christ is our Savior, our payment, and our only way to salvation, as we just sang in some of those worship songs.
SPEAKER_01: As it states in Acts 4.12, now I get it, it's not Romans.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just call it a rest stop.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 4.12, there is salvation and no one else.
SPEAKER_01: For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
SPEAKER_01: There has never been a time in this world that we may have more factual evidence that the Bible, the written, recorded word of God, is true and authentic, and that Jesus Christ lived, died, rose again, all with us in mind.
SPEAKER_01: And the way to this free gift of salvation is confess with your mouth, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus paid the full price for you, and God, through his work, has made you his child.
SPEAKER_01: What does salvation look like?
SPEAKER_01: Salvation means relationship.
SPEAKER_01: This is whose relationship it's with a perfect, holy, righteous, all-powerful, loving, awesome, merciful God of heaven and earth because of the full payment on our behalf by Jesus Christ at the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And when you step into this relationship, it's for eternity with God, the Father, Jesus Christ, and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit when you believe it.
SPEAKER_01: That's in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible records God speaking to Ezekiel about his people in Ezekiel 36, 26.
SPEAKER_01: I love this verse.
SPEAKER_01: It's what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.
SPEAKER_01: And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
SPEAKER_01: So God has taken this hardened heart that we have, sinful heart, doing a heart transplant, and He is putting in us a heart that can love from there, that can forgive from there.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's the good news.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: And that is just a way to share it.
SPEAKER_01: There's different routes.
SPEAKER_01: Again, we know that.
SPEAKER_01: But we shouldn't have any more excuses for why not to share that.
SPEAKER_01: You can go about this different ways, but we need to get this out to people and share it.
SPEAKER_01: We all have that burden, but we all have that command from our Father.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 29, or I'm sorry, in 28, 19, it's a command.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to hear about it, and it's not a suggestion.
SPEAKER_01: So, six mile markers and a couple of rest areas, and we can share what God has done in you, for you, and through you, because all we need is, because we all need a Savior.
SPEAKER_01: The other statement that I would like to make, or a statement I would like to make, is if you're here online today and you have never heard the gospel or profess with your mouth and believed in your heart that truth that we just read and talked about, please don't miss that opportunity today.
SPEAKER_01: To believe and profess.
SPEAKER_01: Our Father promises us a new heart and his spirit to dwell in us and starts a redeeming process in our lives when we believe.
SPEAKER_01: It happens right there.
SPEAKER_01: There's a heart transplant that happens.
SPEAKER_01: This new heart isn't stuck in the old life of sin anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It's softened.
SPEAKER_01: It's made of flesh, it's not of stone.
SPEAKER_01: His Holy Spirit dwells in us.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he says, I'm going to put a spirit in you.
SPEAKER_01: And it helps us remember that we are his children.
SPEAKER_01: So we shouldn't keep living like we used to live because our heart is new and tender to the miraculous work of his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And we, as his children, should tell everyone about the freedom and salvation they can have.
SPEAKER_01: That relationship awaits them through Jesus with the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just bow our heads real quick.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, we are so thankful for you for the gift that you have given us.
SPEAKER_01: We love you through our obedience to you and your word.
SPEAKER_01: Let your words fall on us, strengthen us, continually transform us to be more like you.
SPEAKER_01: In your powerful name I pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm gonna welcome up Brett.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a big heart.
SPEAKER_04: Thank you, buddy.
SPEAKER_04: All right, for those of you that don't know, Ben Honiker's my brother.
SPEAKER_04: We've got a different mama and daddy, but we're brothers in Christ.
SPEAKER_04: So uh hey, so good morning.
SPEAKER_04: My name is Brett Wallace.
SPEAKER_04: I am one of the many surf team members here at Manna Church, and uh today we're gonna go on a little bit of an adventure.
SPEAKER_04: Um, and as we do that, I just want to take a quick poll.
SPEAKER_04: Uh as we're going into vacation season here, who are my beach people?
SPEAKER_04: Like every year, like beach is your thing.
SPEAKER_04: Oh man, there's a lot of y'all.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, go ahead, put your hands down.
SPEAKER_04: I am not a beach person, I'm a mountains person.
SPEAKER_04: You can convince me to go to the mountains before you convince Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: Um, but I'm married to a beach person, so I understand it just a little bit.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, one of the things that I understand is that when going to the beach, the idea is to get somewhere, uh, to stay somewhere that's as close as possible to the ocean.
SPEAKER_04: So if I can walk out my back door and those toes hit the sand, we made it.
SPEAKER_04: Now, wouldn't you know that I could have an Airbnb, a hotel, or whatever it is that allows me to do that and still never go to the beach.
SPEAKER_04: I can look out the window or the back door and I can see waves crashing on the sand.
SPEAKER_04: I can I can smell the ocean salt in the air, I can hear people playing on the shore and still never experience it myself.
SPEAKER_04: And one of the things that we do as Christians is sometimes we treat church like that.
SPEAKER_04: We come to church, we see ministry happening afar, we watch people serving, and we say, not me.
SPEAKER_04: We let fear, anxiety, self-doubt, whatever it may be, maybe it's just not even knowing what your place is in the body.
SPEAKER_04: And you let that get between you and what God is calling you to.
SPEAKER_04: And so, what I want to do today is I want to share a little bit about my story on how that affected me and where it's kind of brought me through, and hopefully it encourages somebody here today.
SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna take you back to the years uh 2019, like seven, eight years ago.
SPEAKER_04: So 2019, I took a teaching job in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
SPEAKER_04: When I got there, my my family and I were trying to find a church, and we landed in Madina Church, Fayetteville.
SPEAKER_04: Now, at the time I was a baby Christian, I was brand new to the faith.
SPEAKER_04: I had no idea what theology was, I didn't know any of the big terms.
SPEAKER_04: And what I heard on almost every Sunday morning was everybody was made on purpose for a purpose.
SPEAKER_04: And and I was like, okay, that sounds I I get that, I get that.
SPEAKER_04: And then I'd also hear things like, you, everybody is blessed with spiritual giftings and callings.
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, well, that makes sense too.
SPEAKER_04: But I don't know what mine are.
SPEAKER_04: And I was trying to figure out how do I figure out what my spiritual gifts and callings are.
SPEAKER_04: And and through a series of decisions, my wife and I, we said yes to joining what's known as the growth track.
SPEAKER_04: And it's offered here at our managed church as well.
SPEAKER_04: And when we said yes to the growth track, we accepted that we would go through three steps of first step, next step, and leader step.
SPEAKER_04: And along this journey, I would figure a couple things out.
SPEAKER_04: So in first step, uh, we finished it up, it's about four weeks long, and at the end of it, the leader of first step came up and she goes, Hey, I would like you to teach first step.
SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Thought about it?
SPEAKER_04: I was like, No way, man, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_04: I'm a brand new Christian.
SPEAKER_04: How am I supposed to teach first step?
SPEAKER_04: I know nothing.
SPEAKER_04: These people were asking you questions, I have no idea what those answers are.
SPEAKER_04: And so I let fear get between me and what God was calling me to.
SPEAKER_04: Well, we continued on with the grow track, we kept rocking and rolling, we get through leadership, and there was a man by the name of Marty, and at the time he was the children's ministry director, and he came up, he's like, Hey, I would like you to teach in children's ministry.
SPEAKER_04: Now, if you're smarter than me, and most of you probably are, is that you kind of see a theme with this teaching thing going on?
SPEAKER_04: I didn't see it at the time.
SPEAKER_04: And so I said, You know what?
SPEAKER_04: I'll do it because this was my thought process.
SPEAKER_04: I said, Well, children are way easier to teach than adults.
SPEAKER_04: And that's not if you've ever talked Kids, you know that's not the case.
SPEAKER_04: And so I got my Sunday lesson planned.
SPEAKER_04: I'm going to church and I'm super excited because I'm teaching six-year-olds.
SPEAKER_04: And so I'm expecting questions like, um, Mr.
SPEAKER_04: Brett, who was the guy at the burning bush?
SPEAKER_04: Or Mr.
SPEAKER_04: Brett, who was what was Jesus' first miracle?
SPEAKER_04: And I was ready for that.
SPEAKER_04: What I was not ready for was, Mr.
SPEAKER_04: Brett, in the grand scheme of time, where do you suppose dinosaurs land with Jesus?
SPEAKER_04: Anybody else got that one?
SPEAKER_04: And so, time and time again, I had to say, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04: And throughout the week, I would not only study my lesson plan, but I'd have to go study what a six-year-old would ask me so I could come back to them with answers.
SPEAKER_04: But it was such a spiritually deep part of my life because I had to sit, I sat there and I and I studied and I grew so much.
SPEAKER_04: And spiritual growth is our responsibility.
SPEAKER_04: It's not our pastors, it's ours.
SPEAKER_04: Like we need to take that responsibility.
SPEAKER_04: And I grew so much.
SPEAKER_04: But one really important aspect of this that I didn't tell you is that when I said yes to Marty, I also brought my oldest daughter with me.
SPEAKER_04: Um her name is Hayden.
SPEAKER_04: And uh she she got to be a part of this whole journey.
SPEAKER_04: She saw me prepare, she saw me present, and she got to see me fail.
SPEAKER_04: And time and time again, she got to be a part of this experience.
SPEAKER_04: And and I can see how my little yeses affected her.
SPEAKER_04: And so, for perspective, my oldest daughter, she's 16 right now, she was about nine at the time.
SPEAKER_04: She's 16 now, she's with her best friend in the mountains of North Carolina.
SPEAKER_04: She's serving a ministry down there, and what she's doing is she's discipling people her age and younger to know Jesus or to grow their relationship with him.
SPEAKER_04: And I and I tell you what, that's that is the power of our God.
SPEAKER_04: That is what he does.
SPEAKER_04: Through me, he touched her, and now she's touching others because that is what he does.
SPEAKER_04: Everybody is made on purpose for a purpose.
SPEAKER_04: So let me show you what this looks like biblically in Matthew, as my good brother Ben had mentioned, it's the great commission, not the great suggestion.
SPEAKER_04: He says, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_04: Whether all nations means that you're Marine and you go to a foreign embassy and you take the gospel and you evangelize there, or you are just a loving neighbor and you show the love of Jesus Christ by being hospitable to your neighbor, or you're a parent and you're sitting across a table from your child and sharing Jesus that way, building generations of faith-following believers.
SPEAKER_04: The commandment is to go, but not everybody's go is the same, so don't compare to one another.
SPEAKER_04: And you may be asking, but I don't understand what it looks like to go.
SPEAKER_04: And so Paul gives us an example of this in Romans.
SPEAKER_04: We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us.
SPEAKER_04: If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance to your faith.
SPEAKER_04: If it is serving, then serve.
SPEAKER_04: If it is teaching, then teach.
SPEAKER_04: If it is to encourage, then give encouragement.
SPEAKER_04: If it is giving, then give generously.
SPEAKER_04: If it is to lead, do it diligently.
SPEAKER_04: If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
SPEAKER_04: When I said yes to Marty, I said yes to serve.
SPEAKER_04: I I stepped into something.
SPEAKER_04: In my step of obedience, God showed me my calling.
SPEAKER_04: I didn't know it at that time.
SPEAKER_04: Many a times you're gonna have to step into your calling before God will show you what your gifts are.
SPEAKER_04: Alright.
SPEAKER_04: And and I want you to keep in mind on something, your gifts just aren't for you.
SPEAKER_04: So here in 1 Peter, it shares each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.
SPEAKER_04: No gift is too small.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_04: As Pastor Jake had mentioned, we are all members of the body.
SPEAKER_04: I'm just a toenail, but we are all members of the body.
SPEAKER_04: So, with that being said, if you have a gift of worship, come up here and worship and share that experience with us.
SPEAKER_04: If you have a gift of hospitality, be a part of our hospitality team and make our Sunday morning experience that much better.
SPEAKER_04: If you're like me and you had no idea where you're even remotely how to get plugged in, join our grow track.
SPEAKER_04: Let our leadership team guide you through what it looks like to walk with Jesus and to live a life for him.
SPEAKER_04: And uh as we close here on my part, I want to leave you with this.
SPEAKER_04: Imagine if all of us stepped into our calling, using our gifts to serve one another, what world change we could do.
SPEAKER_04: There's so many people in here.
SPEAKER_04: There's at least 120 people sitting in this room, 120 faithful followers of Jesus Christ doing what God has placed on their heart and on their life and walking faithfully in that.
SPEAKER_04: The fact of the matter is, church, we weren't called to sit and look at the ocean from a window.
SPEAKER_04: We were called to get in the water.
SPEAKER_04: So join me in the water.
SPEAKER_04: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you, and uh, I like to have welcome Heather Martin.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus help.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: That was unexpected, thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Hello, my name is Heather Martin, um, and I'm here this morning because I said yes.
SPEAKER_02: Well, it really began back in November.
SPEAKER_02: I said yes to being a participant in the residency program.
SPEAKER_02: Um, Jake referred to it a little while ago.
SPEAKER_02: It's a two-year development program that is offered through Mana and led by Jake.
SPEAKER_02: So as I learned the details about the program, I quickly realized it was going to stretch me.
SPEAKER_02: It would challenge me and ask me to do things that were difficult.
SPEAKER_02: But even before I signed the agreement, I made a decision in my heart.
SPEAKER_02: No matter what was asked of me, I was going to say yes.
SPEAKER_02: And it's only been seven months.
SPEAKER_02: My intent this morning is to share the work that God has been doing in my story.
SPEAKER_02: And I hope that it will be an encouragement to you and an edification to you as you walk out your story.
SPEAKER_02: So let's take a walk.
SPEAKER_02: When Jimmy and I moved to Virginia three years ago, my body was exhausted.
SPEAKER_02: I had battled chronic sinuitis that triggered migraines.
SPEAKER_02: Many of you understand that.
SPEAKER_02: Um I had long COVID with pneumonia complications, and so I was not in a good place physically.
SPEAKER_02: Jimmy and I decided to move me six months ahead of him so that I could set up house and kind of rest and be here while he finished life back home and wrap that all up.
SPEAKER_02: Well, immediately, days after he left, I ended up coming down with mono.
SPEAKER_02: So after seven years of one illness after another, my body was worn out.
SPEAKER_02: But I was sick with so much more than what was affecting my body.
SPEAKER_02: My heart and my mind were so unhealthy and anxious.
SPEAKER_02: So for years I lived in the fear of rejection, the fear of looking foolish, the fear of being misunderstood, and the fear of being judged.
SPEAKER_02: It left me wrestling with a really deep darkness.
SPEAKER_02: I am guessing some of you might know what that's like.
SPEAKER_02: However, over the past few years, God began asking me to stop saying no and begin saying yes.
SPEAKER_02: Well, during the six months uh that I was here without Jimmy, I saw a video online.
SPEAKER_02: It was of a little girl trying to convince her mommy to get Mexican food.
SPEAKER_02: Mama, you want Mexican?
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not hungry.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you is.
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you is.
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_02: You want nothing?
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't want nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Just say yes.
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't want nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Just say yes.
SPEAKER_02: No, I don't want nothing.
SPEAKER_02: Just say yes.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, yes.
SPEAKER_02: Good.
SPEAKER_02: Where are we going?
SPEAKER_02: To get Mechan.
SPEAKER_02: This is adorable.
SPEAKER_02: And it's a fun little interaction between a little girl and her mom.
SPEAKER_02: But it it stuck with me and it kept coming up on my feet.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I started to realize I was the mom and the Lord was the little girl.
SPEAKER_02: God was asking me questions, and I kept saying, No.
SPEAKER_02: Heather, do you like the state of the reality that you're in?
SPEAKER_02: No, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Heather, are you willing to change the direction that you're going?
SPEAKER_02: No, Lord, I'm too tired.
SPEAKER_02: Heather, will you trust me and dig deeper into your heart?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: I'm afraid.
SPEAKER_02: For too long, those were my answers.
SPEAKER_02: I would say no to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: It left me lonely and very isolated and without joy for what he had for me.
SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't a young Christian at this point.
SPEAKER_02: I knew him for a while.
SPEAKER_02: And yet God kept inviting me, just say yes.
SPEAKER_02: So, 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24 from the NASB version.
SPEAKER_02: You know if you know.
SPEAKER_02: Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass.
SPEAKER_02: So let's walk through these verses in reverse order.
SPEAKER_02: I think it might reveal something powerful.
SPEAKER_02: So the fourth one, the last one, faithful is he who calls you, and he will also bring it to pass.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to do anything.
SPEAKER_02: God did not, or God does the calling, and then he does the bringing it to pass.
SPEAKER_02: The effort and the work is entirely up to him.
SPEAKER_02: The only requirement of me is to just say yes.
SPEAKER_02: Then place my trust in God's care, because he has already told me that he will do the work on my behalf.
SPEAKER_02: So the third sentence, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: For being weak.
SPEAKER_02: He is not waiting for the moment to expose me or blame me.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus does not condemn me.
SPEAKER_02: But he's forgiven me and offers me a future.
SPEAKER_02: Romans 8:1, therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: The accusing voice that speaks so loud to me, he is a liar.
SPEAKER_02: Although I hear him, I can tune him out with the truth that the Lord does not hold me in contempt.
SPEAKER_02: The accusing voice is not God's voice.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete.
SPEAKER_02: I looked up the word preserved, and do you know what I learned?
SPEAKER_02: It means prevented from decaying or spoiling and prepared for future use.
SPEAKER_02: That implies that I still have a future and the Lord can use me in any state that I'm in.
SPEAKER_02: God has been teaching me to live with confidence that He will use my life and make it a testimony for Him.
SPEAKER_02: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.
SPEAKER_02: He did it again.
SPEAKER_02: God is gonna do all the work.
SPEAKER_02: The last sentence is verse 24, and now the first sentence of 23 tells us that He will bring what is needed entirely.
SPEAKER_02: And He's not waiting for me to feel good.
SPEAKER_02: He just wants me to trust that in my shortcomings and my weaknesses, trust that He is strong.
SPEAKER_02: My contribution to this is to say yes.
SPEAKER_02: God never stopped communicating with me.
SPEAKER_02: He did not stop asking me to go deeper with him.
SPEAKER_02: As I began saying yes and trusting him, the questions changed.
SPEAKER_02: Heather, do you want to be used by me?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, Lord, I do.
SPEAKER_02: Heather, are you willing to trust me even if it doesn't make sense?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, Lord, I will.
SPEAKER_02: So last week I got the opportunity to say yes to God.
SPEAKER_02: In the begin, let's see, um in the beginning it felt silly and it didn't make any sense to me.
SPEAKER_02: But um a group of us went to the Mana Multiply conference in uh North Carolina.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And uh we all stayed together in a hotel as a group for the week.
SPEAKER_02: Well, the first morning, the woman or the Lord had showed me a woman that was setting out breakfast for guests.
SPEAKER_02: She worked in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_02: God immediately asked me to go up, offer her a tip, and offer to pray with her.
SPEAKER_02: So I said yes.
SPEAKER_02: She and I went into the kitchen and I prayed, asking the Lord to remember that deep request of her heart and to express his love to her.
SPEAKER_02: I told her that while I was praying, I saw in my mind's eye her sitting on the top step of a porch surrounded by women.
SPEAKER_02: Well, the next day she was there again, and she came up to me, and she was so excited she wanted to share that God had answered my prayer for her already.
SPEAKER_02: She had been trying to decide whether or not to retire.
SPEAKER_02: Well, when she got home after we prayed together, her husband met her right away and said, I think it's time for you to put in notice at work.
SPEAKER_02: You see, Marjorie, she was so excited to tell me because for a long time she had been feeling that the Lord was calling her to mentor younger women in her community, and she has a porch.
SPEAKER_02: As I continue to say yes, the Lord not only gives me super cool stories to tell, but my mind, soul, and body are aligning with him and are aligning with joy.
SPEAKER_02: As I say yes to him, I receive gladness and a light heart.
SPEAKER_02: As I say yes to him, there is joy and good reports.
SPEAKER_02: As I say yes to him, I hear how others are seeing God answer their prayers.
SPEAKER_02: Proverbs 12, 25.
SPEAKER_02: Anxiety in a man or woman's heart weighs it down.
SPEAKER_02: But a good word makes it glad.
SPEAKER_02: Testifying of the Lord's goodness makes us glad.
SPEAKER_02: Today, I want to testify to you that the Lord answered my yes with good, now you can heal.
SPEAKER_02: I want to ask you, friends, very gently but sincerely, what is God inviting you to say yes to?
SPEAKER_02: What is God inviting you to say yes to?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you've been saying no out of exhaustion or uncertainty.
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps you also are afraid.
SPEAKER_02: But what if you said yes?
SPEAKER_02: I believe that if you said yes, you and I, we would have some really great stories to share with one another.
SPEAKER_02: And my prayer for us church, for our group, is that we would be a people that would say yes to God and then joyfully testify all that He has done.
SPEAKER_03: Y'all.
SPEAKER_03: That was good, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so let me just let me just, in case you didn't figure it out, the good God that we serve, I didn't have to coordinate that.
SPEAKER_03: I didn't have to to to tell them, like, this is the theme I want you to share on.
SPEAKER_03: I didn't do that.
SPEAKER_03: The Holy Spirit does, I love it when we're accidentally awesome.
SPEAKER_03: Because it just shows how the Holy Spirit, like, he had a word for you today.
SPEAKER_03: He had a word for Man of Church, and I believe that word was to say yes and be obedient.
SPEAKER_03: And whether that yes means you're gonna share the gospel with somebody for the first time, whether it means you're gonna put your toes in the sand and actually enjoy the church experience and getting together with the body and actually serving and plugging in here, or maybe it means stepping out a little bit more and giving a stranger a prophetic word.
SPEAKER_03: Come on.
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
SPEAKER_03: What does your yes look like?
SPEAKER_03: Ben Goodman, uh, you guys, some of you know him, he's one of our overseers here.
SPEAKER_03: And um he lives in Fayetteville, and uh he he came and shared one time.
SPEAKER_03: I was talking about love languages.
SPEAKER_03: You guys, if you've been through premarital counseling, you've probably heard about all the love languages, right?
SPEAKER_03: And and one of the things he says is God has a love language.
SPEAKER_03: His love language is obedience.
SPEAKER_03: That's how we we show him we love him.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, in John, when Jesus is speaking right before he goes to the cross, John 14, 15, he says, If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_03: And so there are some very clear, explicit commandments that he gives us.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, the great commandment, the great commission, not you know, not not the great suggestion, it tells us to go and preach the good news and teach them to obey everything that he's commanded us.
SPEAKER_03: And so today I'm just gonna double down on what it is that Heather said.
SPEAKER_03: Think about for a second, if you could, let's just, for a minute, let's just let the Holy Spirit kind of do some work in our souls.
SPEAKER_03: Can we do that?
SPEAKER_03: Just bow our heads.
SPEAKER_03: And I just want to ask you, invite the Holy Spirit to highlight or point out an area where maybe you have been disobedient.
SPEAKER_03: And listen, on the one hand, this could be a sin that you've been dealing with, it could be something that you know, man, like I need I need to let this go, to walk in the fullness of what God has for me.
SPEAKER_03: I've got to get beyond this.
SPEAKER_03: And I can't do it of my own strength.
SPEAKER_03: I can only do it empowered by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: What is that?
SPEAKER_03: Or maybe, maybe God's just calling you to step in to saying yes in a way of just serving, just being more available to him.
SPEAKER_03: Is there something that he's called you to do here in the body, out in the community?
SPEAKER_03: Is there an outreach that he's put on your heart that you're like, man, I know.
SPEAKER_03: I know that there is life in this that God has for me.
SPEAKER_03: It would be great to do, but you're just reluctant to say yes.
SPEAKER_03: Ah, it's gonna cost more money, it's gonna cost more time.
SPEAKER_03: I don't have the energy to do it.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe, maybe there's some great endeavor that He's put in front of you.
SPEAKER_03: A business you're supposed to start, something you're supposed to launch.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
SPEAKER_03: You got a dream in your heart that you know God's called you to pursue, but you just haven't said yes to it.
SPEAKER_03: Whatever that is, I would just ask you today, respond to the Holy Spirit, respond to Jesus in a way that shows you you love him.
SPEAKER_03: Keep his commandment.
SPEAKER_03: He's given you a word.
SPEAKER_03: Let's be obedient.
SPEAKER_03: So I'm just gonna pray.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna pray for that right now.
SPEAKER_03: Heavenly Father, God, we thank you, Lord, that you, God, you do all this, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: You you have a word for us today.
SPEAKER_03: And that word is to say yes to you.
SPEAKER_03: That word is to be obedient to you, God.
SPEAKER_03: And Lord, we believe, and if you don't believe this right now, church, just just get your heart in that place.
SPEAKER_03: Say this in your soul, like, Lord, I believe that obedience to you is the place where my heart is most satisfied.
SPEAKER_03: I believe there are good things on the other side of my obedience to you, not bad things.
SPEAKER_03: I believe you have good plans and good purposes for me, not bad ones.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, I know it might stretch me, but I'm willing to say yes to it.
SPEAKER_03: I'm willing to say yes, God.
SPEAKER_03: So, Lord, would you give me the courage to do that?
SPEAKER_03: Would you give me the faith to step in to what it is you're calling me to do today?
SPEAKER_03: Because I want to be obedient.
SPEAKER_03: I want to be someone who loves you fully and faithfully, God.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus, make us a church that loves you fully and faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to connect with us, you can find us on the web at manastafford.church or download the Mana Church app to listen to our new episodes as they become available.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure to subscribe to our podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We would also love to meet you in person.
SPEAKER_00: If you are local, our services take place each Sunday at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: We pray you have an amazing week and we'll see you next time.