SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Global Harvest Calgaries Podcast, where faith becomes real and purpose comes alive. We pray that today's message helps you recognize the hand of God in your everyday life and discover the unique purpose he has placed inside you. Our heart is that you don't just hear a sermon, but truly experience his presence, his guidance, and his love in a personal way. Whether you're in a season of searching, rebuilding, or stepping into something new, you're not here by accident. God is closer than you think, and your purpose is greater than you imagine. Enjoy the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Let me pray for us this morning, then we'll jump in. Heavenly Father, I thank you for being the sovereign king. Thank you that uh you be things that we would never see. You align paths and hearts in ways that we would never have imagined. So thank you for the friendship, the family ship, the partnership with Global Harvest and Pastor Femi, Pastor Tolu, and this community. Father, I just leave my blessing in this space, that this would be a light in the community, that uh global harvest would be known in Calgary and in Canada and around the world as people who love Jesus, love the world, and are seeing your kingdom come. And so, Father, I just pray for an extra anointing, an extra pouring out of your spirit, uh, that signs, miracles, wonders would be happening from this place, in this place, and around this place. Holy Spirit, anoint my lips this morning, that my words would be yours and prepare our hearts to receive what it is that you have for each of us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I want to start um start by asking you a question that I'll come back to throughout our time together this morning. So just consider it. Let it mull it around, wrestle with it. And the question is: is the life that you're living worth Christ dying? Is the life that you're living worth Christ dying? In your most honest moments, your most vulnerable moments, how would you answer that question? Is the life that you're living truly honored to the sacrifice that Jesus made? Does it align so close with God's desire for you that when Jesus looks down, he says, Yes, that was worth my sacrifice. Well done. That's the exact reason that I gave my life on the cross, so that he or she could do that thing, could live in that way. Does your commitment to his kingdom bring a smile to his faith? In order for us to be able to fully understand that question, we have to be able to know why Christ died in the first place. Because we don't know if we're honoring his death if we don't fully know and understand why he died and what our response should be. So, 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15. Either way, Christ's love controls us or compels us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we all have died to our old life. He died for everyone so that, that's important, he died so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. That verse 15, he died so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ who died and was raised them. That's it. Christ died so that we would live for him, not for ourselves, not for our wealth, not for our career, not for our personal happiness, not for worldly success. He died so we would live for him alone. End stop, full stop. But unfortunately, many in the Christian faith, our faith has become self-centered. It's become about us. I mean, honestly, how many people can you count on your hands that are living for Jesus and only Jesus? We're human. We have needs, we have wants, we have desires. This is just humanity. But Christ died so that we would live for him. But self-centeredness has not just become a thing that we wrestle with as fallen humans, which again is normal and natural, but it has become an accepted norm in the Christian church. We have accepted it. We have just said it's okay, it's the way that it is. Our churches are filled with messages about how we can be blessed. Our evangelism is about how God will meet every need of that new believer. Bookshelves are filled with titles about how God Christ will bless my finances and my marriage and my career and my leadership, all to help me fulfill my goals. Now, in and of themselves, these are not bad things. Don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not denouncing these things. These are good things. They're realities, they're spiritual truths. They're great things. The problem is we forget Matthew 6.33. Seek first my kingdom. And all of these things, your wealth, your happiness, your marriage, your success, all of these things will be given unto you if you seek first my kingdom. We have flipped it around. We have seeked our own kingdom and hoped that we would receive God's kingdom as a result. These things are good things, but we have misprioritized how we pursue and what we pursue in the world around us. We're seeking our kingdom. We have it backward. So we act as if Christ belongs to us instead of us belonging to him. We act as if we're the center of the universe and everything revolves around us, and even God Himself must bend his knee to our need and our wants and our desires. God does not want to be involved in your plans for your life. God wants you to be involved in his plans for your life. Let me say that again. He's not interested in being involved in your plans for your life. He wants you to be involved in his plans for your life. There's a drastic difference between the two. Again, 2 Corinthians 5.15. He died so that those who receive his life will no longer live for themselves. They will live for Christ who died and was raised for him. Let me come back to that first question. Is the life that you're living for God worth worthy of Christ dying?

SPEAKER_02 6:31

This is a hard teaching, by the way. But I do it in love. John 12, 24.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Jesus told his disciples, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Let's say the grain had a had a will, had its self-will, free will. And the grain says, I don't want to die. I'm not interested. You can plant me in the ground, but I'm not going to grow. I'm not going to die. I'm just going to stay in my shell and I'm okay. It didn't want to be broken open. It didn't want to bear fruit. It never became the tree or the plant that it was supposed to be. Then it would never become what God designed it to be. God never designed the seed to remain as a seed. He designed the seed to become a forest, to become a tree, to become something that bears fruit for others. So if the grain never died, it would be go without fulfilling its God-given design. The tragedy of not fulfilling its purpose or our purpose is a fate that's it's too common these days in the Christian circles. Because we want what we want, when we want it, how we want it. We don't want death to self. That's not very high on our agenda today. We want exaltation of self. Even more clearly, Jesus says in the next verse, John 12, 25, the man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Too many of us, myself included, by the way, I'm as fallen and broken as all of us are. But too many of us are lovers of self and we're losing our lives. We're forfeiting our purpose without even realizing it. We're wasting our lives instead of using them for God's kingdom. We're focusing on me, myself, and I, as opposed to looking to the one true God and asking him how he wants us. And self-sacrifice, death to self, it's not just that verse of the grain dying. It's not a small portion of scripture. We see it throughout the New Testament. It's a theme that comes again and again. Matthew 16, 24 and 26. Deny yourself, take up your cross. Philippians 3, 7, and 9, consider everything a loss because of the great worth of knowing Jesus. And examples after examples after examples of the apostles' teaching. I must become less, but he becomes me. The reality is if you look through scripture, if you if you flip through Old Testament, New Testament, whenever something amazing happened in Scripture, it always came as a result of great risk to someone. Always. When the miracles happened, when the amazing things happened, it came at great risk, someone, or great sacrifice, someone. One begets the other. Our great sacrifice, our great risk. When we exert our faith, God responds in amazing ways we never could have imagined. But without the exertion of risk or faith in any way, then God just sits back and he's waiting for us. Not that he can't, but he won't, because he wants to work with us. And when we show that we are willing, when we show that we are obedient, when we show that we are faithful, he just pours it on in ways we couldn't have asked for or imagined. It's been said that no great advances have been made for God's kingdom by men and willing men and women who are unwilling to give their lives. No great advances for the kingdom have happened with men and willing men and women who are unwilling to give their lives. Said another way, nothing great can happen in the kingdom without men and women giving themselves fully to the cause. We're supposed to give ourselves fully to this cause and give everything up, yet we struggle to give up a TV show or a music we know that it doesn't honor God. We struggle to give up sleep in the morning to read and to pray. We struggle to give up just 10% of our income to bless the church and steward God's resource. Or a dating relationship with someone we know isn't following Jesus. We struggle to give up our free time to go and visit someone who's sick or unwell or just needs a friend and support. So we struggle to give up these things, and yet God is asking for all things, everything, all that we have. How can we give up our lives if we struggle with the smaller thing? Outside of Jesus, there's no greater story of self-sacrifice and commitment to the cause than Paul. Paul saw Jesus on Damascus Road, had the vision, was blind, and immediately then his name was changed. He said, I'm a new person. I'm leaving this name behind, I'm taking this name. And God gave him the name of Paul. Fresh start, newness. And it changed his mission from persecuting Christians to evangelizing. It changed his focus, his agenda, his reputation, his friends, his career, his dreams, his plans, his income, his resource allocation, his safety, his security, where his home was, what he could and couldn't do. It changed everything for Paul. He was never the same. That's why most of the New Testament was written by this man. We are still here today, worshiping like this because of Paul's sacrifice. Because he was the one that reached out to the non-Jewish community. But we are here because 2,000 years ago, Paul said, I'm going to give it all and I'm going to go into the nation. We have him to thank because of his great sacrifice and risk. And then even after he became a Christian, he was arrested, shipwrecked, redirected, beaten, mistreated, and yet he still claimed Christ as Lord and Savior. He was compelled by the love of Christ, that he should no longer live for his plans, his comforts, his security, his career, his finances, his dreams, his outcomes, his pleasures. He said it all gets pushed aside. Because of the love of Jesus, he knew that he lived for Christ, Christ alive.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

The life that you're living worth and worthy of Christ's death.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Many of you, I'm sure, you've experienced on this side or at least seen it. I know it's it's challenging to move to different cultures, and I've moved and lived in a couple different nations, but you can easily see in the Western context specifically, but globally, even in Nairobi and Lagos and other places, the two greatest threats to fully living for Jesus are safety and comfort. The two greatest threats are safety and comfort. Because our greatest desire in this century, our greatest desire in this dispensation of history is to live safely. Have our needs met, have enough to be able to do the things that we feel like are going to make us comfortable and safe. And so we don't want to risk anything. We want to live safely. We want our time, our comforts, our wealth, our health. It's interesting because too many of us are trying to go through life to get to death safely. Yeah, let that sink in for a second. We're all going to die. That is a foregone conclusion. There is no safe ending to this life. Yet here we are tiptoeing through life, trying to live safely just to get to the same result, which is gonna be death. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news this morning. Why are we trying to live safely just to get to a place that is ultimately the same end? It's entirely possible to evade a multitude of sorrows by cultivating an insignificant life. We can evade a multitude of sorrows by cultivating an insignificant, safe, and comfortable life. Many of us have resigned to live insignificantly for Jesus just so we can avoid difficulty. Because it's hard, Jesus. So we refuse to risk our earthly treasures for the things that move God's heart. So it gets to this point in all of our walks with Jesus, we have to ask this question: do I want to live brave or do I want to live safe? Because that's an either-or proposition. Because you can't do both. You can't risk greatly for the kingdom, and we can't live safely for ourselves. We one or the other. It's either risk greatly for the kingdom or live safely for yourself.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

You can't bravely live safe, and you can't safely live brave.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

So God the Father says, I'm gonna send you a blast. I'm gonna send you out with this big party. Everybody's gonna be here, we're gonna have a great time, and then I'll send you to earth. So that's what's happened. Everybody's around, Abraham, Isaac, cherubim, seraphim, angels. And just before the party ends, where Jesus is gonna leave to redeem all mankind, he says, Father, I think I'm ready to go. But I have one question Is it safe? And I imagine God the Father just smiling, going over and putting his hand on his shoulder and looking in the eye and say, son, it's not safe. As soon as you're born, there will be men that will be hunting. Many innocent babies, thousands will be killed. You're gonna have to be a refugee to Africa. Upon your return, there's an entire institution that is going to be trying to kill you. And they will stone you. They will try to stone you, throw you off a cliff, they'll shame you, mock you, ridicule you, and eventually they will catch you. They will whip you, spit on you, you will be crucified. You will die a very harsh death. You'll have nails in your hands and your feet. My son, no, it's not safe. But will you go anyway? Imagine if Jesus said, nah, I'm good, I'll stay right here. That's just one example. The greatest sacrifice ever caused the greatest results for the kingdom. God himself came to earth, died, gave up everything, and we are the beneficiary.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

But what if Jesus had decided to stay safe and because doing God's will in a fallen world is inherently dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

If it doesn't feel dangerous to follow Jesus, we have to ask, are we really following Jesus? My bishop in Kenya says if you haven't met the devil recently, you're probably walking in the same direction.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Because if you're not doing anything for God's kingdom, he doesn't care. Keep doing what you're doing, bro. But if you are a threat to him, he will be a threat to you.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

If you are taking ground for the kingdom, it means you are taking ground from the enemy, which means the enemy is going to fight back. Bound to happen. That's how war works. And we're at war. We are at war spiritually. Do not be mistaken. So if your greatest desire is to live safe, you'll never do great things for God. The disciples, they certainly didn't live safely. They were persecuted, flogged, imprisoned, exiled, killed in many terrible ways. Despite all of that, we never once see them asking to be removed. We see them asking for greater boldness. It wasn't God, give me an easier assignment. Take me somewhere that's safer. It was give me greater boldness. Galatians 2.22, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We love to quote this verse. Basically, we're saying, I have died. You don't see Matt anymore, you see Christ. Which is beautiful and wonderful. But let me tell you something about dead women or dead men. If I went to a morgue or mortuary, I don't know which term you prefer. Um, but when someone passes away, the holding place before they're buried. And you know, in the movies, there's always silver trays. I don't know why they're always silver doors and everything, but so you go to one of those doors, you pull a body out, and and again, forgive me for the death conversation this morning. I know in Africa we don't talk about death, but we're in Canada, so it's okay. And and the body comes out, right? So they're covered in the white cloth, and for some reason I'm mad at this person. Maybe they maybe they wronged me and they were still alive, or I'm upset with them. And so do I take a metal rod and I just start beating them over and over and over again with the metal rod. What would the response be? Are there doctors in the house? Do we have a doctor here? No, it's okay. What would the dead person's response be? Nothing. Good. So now I'm really upset because I'm not getting the response that I want as I beat this person. Do I take out a gun and say, you know, I'll shoot you right now. I will shoot you right now. What do you think the response will be? Nothing. No threats, nothing. Do you know why? Because dead people have no fear. Too many Christians haven't died in Christ. We've simply fainted.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

So the minute danger and inconvenience comes to us, we wake up and we run.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Because we have self-centered goals that are about us and we're scared that we're gonna lose them. It's not about Christ. We haven't really died, we've simply fainted. We have another major problem with comfort and safety, another major problem in the world. Um, it's especially true in Africa, but I've seen it everywhere in the world. And the problem is we have too many Christians. You're thinking, why is that a problem? A good thing. We should have more Christians. I agree. But we have people who call themselves Christians because their parents were Christians, so of course I'm a Christian. I prayed a prayer of belief, so I'm a Christian. I attend church every Sunday. I'm a good Nigerian, I'm always in church on Sunday. Pastor never asked me why I'm not in church. I'm a Christian. Well, the culture around me is Christian. I'm not Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim, so I must be Christian. The problem is we have too many Christians and not enough disciples. And there's a drastic difference also between the two of those. Here's another illustration. In China, the Christian church is persecuted. It's very hard, often in many places in China, to worship. You can't have a Bible, you can't have open assemblies, you can't pray, you can't do many of the things that we take for granted. And so there was a pastor and his wife and their daughter, and they had been gathering together for about five years, and they're about 25 30 of them. We'll say 30. And when they, you know, when they meet together, they can't clap, they can't use instruments. Sermon, there's no microphone, it's a hushed sermon. Prayers are very vibrant, but it's not our Nigerian, you know, praying in tongues and going back and forth. There's none of that happening. And so one day they were meeting together, just as they normally do in the quiet place, and often they would change locations so that there was no uh rhythm or rhyme to where and when they met. But this day, the doors were kicked open, and Chinese soldiers rushed in and circled them and yelled, anybody willing to die for Jesus can stay, otherwise, you're free to go. And it was chaos. People climbing over each other, pushing kids out of the way, whatever they needed to do just to get out of that room. And when everything quieted down, when those who wanted to leave left, of the 30, there were six left. The pastor, his wife, their daughter, another couple, and a young female woman, single woman. The Chinese general took off his helmet and he took a knee and he said, All right, Pastor, we can worship Jesus now. All the Christians have left. The difference between a Christian and a disciple. The disciple says, Death is martyrdom, death is my portion. If that's what God calls me to, I'm willing to do it. If not, most of us would never be killed for our faith. And often I re I ask myself, if I were put in that position, would I actually be willing to do it? I don't know. I hope so. The spirit will have to come upon me powerfully. But I love life. So I hope that I would be willing. But this is a question we have to wrestle with. Am I a Christian or am I a disciple? Have I given everything and be willing to give everything? Or do I just like the comforts and the community of faith that I have with the people that I worship with on Sundays? A disciple is someone whose character is shaped after the person of Christ. Their desire is fully aligned with the purpose of Christ, and their actions are in line with the will of Christ. So their character is that like Jesus. Their desire is that the purpose of God, and their actions are in line with the will of Jesus. It's someone who has submitted everything, even their lives, to Christ. It's not just an ideology, it's not just behavior modification, it is a transformation of the spirit, of the heart, of the mind, and Christ is becoming more and more in you as you become less and less. It is the character, it is the passion, it is the actions of Jesus. So as we answer the question, is my is my life worth the death of Christ? We have to ask, am I increasing in these areas? Am I am I seeing progress in becoming more like Jesus, having the passion and the heart of Jesus and acting in a way that is alignment with the passion and the action or then the character? Is there progress? We'll never get to perfection, and that's okay. But in our journey, we should be seeing growth. You know, many people who are um in recovery for different addictions. One of the things as they talk and they hang out, they may, you may hear them say, you know how I know my recovery is working? Because I used to choose this and now I've been choosing this consistent. Or I just had this situation. Normally this would have happened, and I chose this. I know my recovery is working. Now, next week they may come back and say, I chose this again, but at least they have an example of something they've done differently that they never did before, because change and transformation takes time. And you know, if you can do it once, you can do it again. They said, I've never done this before. I did it for the first time. I know my recovery's work. So for us, we can say the same thing. You know how I know I'm becoming more like Christ? I made this decision today. I have joy, despite the hardness and the difficulty, I have joy, and that's just not normal for me. Normally I'm sitting in depression and negativity. I have there's something is happening, and it's spiritual. I'm becoming more like Jesus. There are things we can pinpoint to say that I am seeing growth, even if it's qualitative, which can be hard to measure. Because you may say, Oh, I got 10 people saved last week. That doesn't necessarily mean you're becoming more like Christ. Because your heart can still be far from him. So living for Jesus, living bravely, is obedience no matter the cost. It's taking steps of faith outside of our comfort zone, trusting God even and especially in the unknown, sacrificing that which we think is ours and loving others more than we love ourselves. So it's obedience, steps of faith, trust, sacrifice, love. So with those things in mind, is the life that you're living worth Christ dying. So the greatest problem in the church today is that we have too many Christians and not enough disciples willing and able to give their lives for Jesus. But do you know that why that's a problem? So that's not a problem of it's it's a collective problem because I've seen it globally. And the problem is how we got here is that the church forgot why it exists. It's a systemic church problem, Christian problem. It's not a uh a contextual issue. The church forgot why it exists, the church forgot the end goal of its existence. I have a business background. I did an MBA in university after I did my undergraduate, and so I often think in terms of business and manufacturing and things like that. So the church forgot the product that it's supposed to manufacture. Think about it like this. Every business offers a product or service. There are inputs and outputs. If someone who never knew Jesus, uh the I remember the first time I met someone who had never heard the name Jesus. It was Easter Sunday. Uh, it was a Chinese, um, young Chinese man who was in in Chicago with us, had no idea what we were worshiping, had no idea what Easter was, had never heard the person of Jesus. I was like, this is awesome. I've never had a conversation where someone didn't have some background in the church that needed to be overcompensated or talked about. This is great. So imagine that young man decides they're interested in Christianity and they start visiting other churches. They'd be a bit confused. Because they'd go to the first church and they said, church is about great entertainment, great shows, great, great things, you know, smoke and technology and mirrors and all the things. Church is about entertainment. So they think they have it figured out. Then the next Sunday they go to a different church. And they're like, oh no, church is about great programs. It's programs for men and for women and for kids and for singles and for marriage. You have to have a program. The church is about programs. So now they're a little bit confused. They go to another church and now they're like, oh, the next week, leaving that service, church is about charismatic experiences. It's about the move of the spirit, it's about signs and wonders and miracles. But now they're more confused because now they're not really sure what the church exists for. So they do one more church the next Sunday, like, oh, church is about self-improvement program. How to six keys to church is about bettering my life and self-improvement. And then they just give up because they're so confused, they don't know why the church exists anymore. There's too many mixed messages for the purpose of church. So going back to business and a manufacturing process, what would the raw material be for the church?

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Right. It's people.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

It's broken people, it's people who are abused, people who are traumatized, broken lives, broken marriages, um, lost souls, drug addicts, sex addicts. The raw material of the church is broken people. That's what comes in. Hurting, lost, sinful, broken people. That is what comes in. Now they come into the church and now they're supposed to be formed and shaped. The parts that aren't necessary, they get cut off. The parts that needed to be added are added. They get put together so that what comes out is a finished product, a disciple of Jesus Christ. This shirt was once probably on a sheep somewhere. It was cotton, it was wool taken from the sheep, put into a manufacturing unit, moved, shaped, added to, sent out as the church exists not for great shows, not for self-improvement, not for worship experiences, not for charismatic experiences. All those things are a part and portion of what the church offers, but the end result, the reason the church exists is nothing more than to make disciples. We are the only business in the world that has confusion about why we exist. I could show you icons and brands of different businesses in the world and immediately, if I put up the Starbucks logo, you'd say, oh, coffee. If I put up Toyoto, it's oh cars. Any business in the world I could put up here and almost immediately you would know why they exist. I put a church up here and uh tell me. We'd be confused. We shouldn't be, but we are. So the reason we have too many Christians is because the church has forgotten why it exists. And then there's the worldly pressure, the cultural pressure to grow the numbers, be the biggest, to attract the most, to speak about all the social issues, to have all the programs, to meet all the needs, to be the most prophetic, the most charismatic, the most anointed. And so we have given ourselves to the cultural pressures, and we have stopped making disciples as a result. Most churches around the world are trying to attract Christians instead of make disciples. Attract and maintain and keep those Christians. We don't have enough disciples because the church stopped making. But the church exists for no other reason than to make and multiply disciples. Disciples exist to go into the world and bring about change, to bring heaven down to earth. There's nothing more powerful in the kingdom than disciples who are multiplying disciples. Disciples by nature are producers, not consumers. Disciples by nature are producers, not consumers. But the church has allowed our disciples just to be consumers. We have made Christianity too easy. It should not be easy to follow Jesus. We should make discipleship very hard and church planting very easy. Because discipleship is giving everything to Jesus. Starting a new community of faith should be super simple. A disciple is never for themselves, a disciple is always for the nation. Christians spend their times in comfortable spaces with other Christians. Disciples go into the world and make more disciples. Christians are happy just being together. Let me give you one more analogy example as I come to a close. It's World Cup season, right? We're all enjoying the World Cup and watching football. Let me give a World Cup analogy. Football teams have fans. The people that just love to shout and holler and yell at their TV like they can hear me from halfway around the world because I'm yelling loud enough at the TV, you can hear my voice. But if we're if we're honest, fans don't do anything to help the team win. Fans, they cheer, which is good. If you're in person, they can hear your voice, you're encouraging, you're supporting. So that's good. If you're in person at the at the game, at the pitch, they're hearing you, and that's a good thing. And if the team wins, great. If they lose, yeah, I might be depressed for three weeks, but really it doesn't it doesn't impact my life. Doesn't change my income, doesn't change my family status, doesn't impact me in the least. I'm a fan. But football teams also have sponsors. You see all the teams with, you know, all the different names and companies and businesses that give money for the nice kits and the nice uh all the things that they get to have. Now they invest to help the team succeed, but they still don't play the game. And they have the option, if the team does badly, to remove their support and give it to another team. So if the team wins, good for my revenue. The team loses, I'll move on. But the football team also has players. And they're out there on the pitch trying to win the game day in and day out. Everything that they're thinking about, fully invested. They wake up, they go to sleep, they're thinking about one thing, and it's winning the game. Success of the team. If they win, everything is okay. If they lose, everything in their life literally depends on whether they win or lose because they could lose their job, they could lose many things, everything goes badly. It impacts all of their life. So bring this home to the church. Christianity, we have fans. We have many people who are content just coming to church, sitting on certain service on Sunday, singing the songs, hearing the message, watching the church do the things, but not engaging whatsoever. Not involved. If the church is doing well, great. If the church doesn't do well, great. I'm gonna come for two hours and the rest of the week I won't think about it again. The church also has sponsors. Sponsors want to do more than just sit, they want to give of the resources, they want to, they want to be a part of the success of that church. They realize that, hey, I could, I can tithe, I can give offering, I can, I can host a minister who's coming into the city, I can offer land for a new church plant. There's many things that I can give that I have. And sponsors have made a decision to give of their resources to help the church move forward. But they're not doing the actual work. And at any point in time, the church starts making decisions they don't like, they can move their support to another church. Because they haven't really invested their lives, they've invested their things. And then lastly, some of us, there are players, there are disciples, there are missional people who are willing to give everything and wake up every day. How do I bless people in my community? How do I bring Jesus to these people? How do I bring heaven down to earth? Constantly thinking about reaching the lost, restoring God's dream for the world, and reproducing the mission in other disciples. There are players who wake up and that's all they ever think about. How do I bring Jesus into this world? Players are committed to the cause no matter what happened, fully believing in the process of restoring the brokenness in the world. If you look through scripture very well, Jesus didn't call any of us to be fans. He didn't call any of us to be on the sidelines or to be in the stands just watching what he did. You know, James says that unless we have good deeds with our faith, we have no faith at all. If there is no action as an outflow of our faith, we have to ask, is it really us, is it really Jesus we're following, and are we really part of his kingdom? If good deeds don't flow from our faith, good deeds don't get us saved, but good deeds should be an outflow of natural submission to Christ and His Lordship. And we are all called to be sponsors because we should steward everything we have. So we should give to the church, give to God, give to his kingdom, and freely release what we think is ours to help support the work. But we can't stop at being sponsors only because God has called all of us to be players in his game. We're all to be disciples, doing what he did, sacrificing, living out every minute of every day for him and for him alone. Going out into the world to influence society. That doesn't mean we're all pastors, it doesn't mean we're all missionaries, but wherever it is, God has called us to bring about change where we have influence, with the people, with the businesses, with the spaces where we are. You're here in this city, in this space, to bring Jesus to parts of Calgary where you live, where you work, and where you breathe. You are here as missionary in business, in sports, in medicine, in education. You are here to shine the light in the darkness of the people and the places and the spaces around you.

SPEAKER_02 38:12

That's what it means to be a disciple under the Lordship of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

So for the last time, is the life that you're living worthy of Christ dying? I'm gonna take a pause here just for uh 30 seconds to a minute.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

I'll just ask all of us to stand up.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

I want to say one thing before I give you a second just to reflect on this. This isn't a message of guilt and shame that you're not doing enough. This is an opportunity for us to assess and evaluate the lives that we're living. All of us have places where we can grow, all of us have places where we need to improve, all of us have places where we need Jesus to come and bring healing and wholeness to us. So it's not about shining a light on our brokenness, it's about where your heart posture and position is. I'm less concerned about your actions and more concerned about your direction and your velocity towards Jesus, because if we have that direction and that velocity and that desire to submit to him, everything else will come out naturally over the course of time. So this is a space for us just to open our hearts and our minds. And I'll ask that you just put your hands in front of you with your palms up and in a posture of submission, in a posture of receiving, in a posture of humility. I'm just gonna give us a minute for you to ask God, Jesus, highlight the places in my life that I'm still holding on to. Highlight the places in my life where I have not yet let you into this room or into this space or into this part of who I am and who you made me to be. Allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you, to show you, to reveal to you the areas where your hands are still closed, where you're scared to let go, where there is fear to move further in following him. Allow him to bring one or two things to you to the surface of your mind to bubble up in your spirit. Allow him also to show you the places where he's saying, Well done. Allow him also to encourage you. Allow him also to show you the ways in which you have been obedient. One does not cancel out the other, we have to hold the tension together. Just pray, just talk to him, allow him to talk to you, reveal to you what he wants to tell you this morning. Holy Spirit, speak, speak to our hearts, speak to our minds, speak to our spirits, reveal your deeper truths, reveal, communicate the things that you want us to know and to see. Remind us of our first love. Remind us of our commitment to you. Remind us of your truth. Encourage our spirits. Give us greater boldness. Give us greater boldness, oh God. Give us greater boldness to step out into the world as your representative, as your ambassador. Father in heaven, we thank you for your grace and for your mercy. Thank you for your patience with us as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Thank you for your patience with us as we have ebbs and flows of our commitment to you. And as life gets hard, sometimes we forget that you're around. When life is good, sometimes we don't realize we need you. And yet you are with us. You are patient. You never leave us nor forsake us. You never give up on us. We say thank you for who you are. Thank you for being so kind and loving and generous. Thank you for being so gracious. At the same time, we ask that you would not allow us to stay where we are, that you would not allow us to stay how we are, that you would challenge us, that you would convict us, that you would prompt us to live out our faith, to share our faith with our neighbors, with our family, with our coworkers and colleagues, that you would enable us to release and steward the things that you have given us because you have blessed us to be a blessing to the world. So thank you for allowing us to be who we are and how we are, and thank you for not allowing us to stay where we are. You are good and you are faithful, and your love endures forever. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 43:17

Thank you for joining us today. We pray this message didn't just speak to your mind, but truly ministered to your heart. May the word take root in your life, producing faith, clarity, and boldness as you walk out the purpose God has for you. If this message encouraged you, be sure to share it with someone who might need it. And we'd love to connect with you, join us in person, and become part of what God is doing here at Global Harvest Calgary. Until next time, keep experiencing God and walking confidently in your purpose.