SPEAKER_00: Intimacy with God equals strength of vision.
SPEAKER_00: Intimacy with God, in other words, as I become intimate with him, he reveals who I am and what the vision is for my life.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm not willing to be intimate with God, let me just say to you this morning, you will never discover who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You will never have your true identity.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be talking to your false self your whole life.
SPEAKER_00: Intimacy with God is the key.
SPEAKER_01: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you are encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is a kind of an interesting uh message for me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the last couple of weeks, Pastor Steve has been dealing with us in the area of giving and growing.
SPEAKER_00: The idea that we always need to be giving and always need to be growing in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And he's been kind of focusing on the giving part being toward the financial release of finances, tithing, all of that sort of stuff, although he has expanded it a little bit to giving with uh in other ways.
SPEAKER_00: But he's been dealing with primarily the financial piece, and this morning I want to deal with the giving of who we are back to the Lord in terms of in terms of service.
SPEAKER_00: But before I get into that, I want to share something with you that is gonna kind of take me off my notes for a minute, but I just felt prompted this morning and in our time of prayer before the service with the some of the ladies, uh some of the people in the in the prayer room gathered around me and and we had a couple of words come, and I think this is going to be an interesting time.
SPEAKER_00: In November of 2008, I was praying, in fact, I think it was at the World Prayer Center, and it was one of those rare occasions when I know that I know that I know that I heard God give me a word.
SPEAKER_00: He whispered something to me.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what he said.
SPEAKER_00: And these word, this word has been profound in my life ever since then, 2008.
SPEAKER_00: The word was five words.
SPEAKER_00: My people, meaning you and I, those who call ourselves followers of Christ, my people are not prepared.
SPEAKER_00: That was the word.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember when I got that word, I thought, you know, I wonder what he really is trying to say.
SPEAKER_00: Well, those of you remember in 2008, going into 2009, is when we had the big recession and the big financial crunch.
SPEAKER_00: And we had a steady flow of people coming into counselor's office to get help because they weren't able to navigate the struggle.
SPEAKER_00: It's been said that trials in life don't make a person, they reveal them.
SPEAKER_00: And what was happening is all the trial did was reveal the lack of substance that was in either the relationship or the life to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: It just revealed it.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea that we are truly, are we truly prepared for what God is going to bring upon us?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, we've been we've been pretty cush in this country.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in pretty good shape.
SPEAKER_00: There haven't been a lot of things coming against us, but what we're not good at is being watchmen.
SPEAKER_00: And that was one of the words that came this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And in some way, this message is a message coming maybe from a little bit of a watchman perspective, kind of trying to decide what's going on around us and watch the trajectory of what's happening in our culture to try to determine whether or not, Lord, am I ready for this?
SPEAKER_00: Am I prepared?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I don't know how many of you feel after looking at news, which by the way I don't do anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't done in about a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00: I have no clue what the news is saying, and I really don't give a rip.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not about the news.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're sucked into the 24-hour news cycle, I'll pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's not where God wants us to be looking.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to be look us to be looking heavenward toward Him and be prepared for what's about to come.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: 2020 is going to be an ugly year.
SPEAKER_00: Please hear what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to get better.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you, that's nothing to get anxious about.
SPEAKER_00: For me, I'm excited because I know that God is still on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm not excited about is whether all of us, myself included, are truly prepared to be an instrument in God's hands for the battle yet to come.
SPEAKER_00: Another word I got not long after that, which is kind of a prophetic word, went like this.
SPEAKER_00: The weapons of warfare, how many of you know this is a spiritual battle?
SPEAKER_00: The weapons of warfare and the armor of protection that's going to be required of you and I in the battle yet to come, it's just heating up.
SPEAKER_00: Those weapons and that armor are so totally unconventional that you can't conceive of it with today's mind.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't want to be a casualty in that battle, if you want to be a mighty victorious warrior as a man or a woman or a young person for God, what he was saying to me was stay close to me.
SPEAKER_00: Your plans and your methods, your opinions don't matter.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is that we stay so close to him that we allowed him to be our armor and our protection and allow him to help us use the gifts we had to really make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what God's saying wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Plow your fallow ground.
SPEAKER_00: There's another verse.
SPEAKER_00: Steve last week ended the service with three things.
SPEAKER_00: He said, remember these things?
SPEAKER_00: He said, everything comes from seed.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_00: The second thing was we harvest the same seeds that we plant.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what we give out, we get back.
SPEAKER_00: And the third one was, God knows the perfect season for harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I'll tell you what, this is the as you're looking at our culture, are you pulling weeds or are you planting seeds?
SPEAKER_00: Quit pulling weeds.
SPEAKER_00: God can take care of the weeds.
SPEAKER_00: Just plant seeds.
SPEAKER_00: Plant the things God's equipped you to plant, and He'll take care of all the rest.
SPEAKER_00: But it begs the question, okay?
SPEAKER_00: What is the seed God wants you to plant?
SPEAKER_00: And what's the condition of your seed?
SPEAKER_00: Because I when I was praying the other day, I really got this strong sense, and I'm going to include myself in this, guys, that I really don't think most of us know who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We really don't know who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We think we know, based upon you know our circumstances and the things around our life, the kind of vocation we have, the our family and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: But we but I honestly, if if somehow God could come down and shake us and really help us see ourselves through his eyes, I I think we'd never be never be the same.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is how does God want me to plant?
SPEAKER_00: How does God want me to sow?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is our mission in life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand in here if you're in full-time ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, no, no, no, you didn't understand my question.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask that question again.
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you're in full-time ministry.
SPEAKER_00: That's better.
SPEAKER_00: Because, guys, I'm gonna tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're all we're all in full-time ministry.
SPEAKER_00: You remember the burning bush?
SPEAKER_00: When did Moses see the burning bush?
SPEAKER_00: What was he doing?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, talk to me.
SPEAKER_00: What was he doing?
SPEAKER_00: He was at work.
SPEAKER_00: Moses at work.
SPEAKER_00: It was a normal workday for Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that God showed up in a normal workday.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: God's showing up in every one of your work days, whether you're home, whether you're retired, whether you're in work, whether whether you're in a workplace, whether you're in school, that's where God shows up.
SPEAKER_00: But we're not seeing the burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: It finally said that Moses turned aside from his workday and he and he and he saw God in the burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: It was during a normal workday.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, let me let me draw your attention.
SPEAKER_00: If you get your Bible, whether you turn to Matthew 28, 18.
SPEAKER_00: Just turn to Matthew 28, 18.
SPEAKER_00: Your Bible, your um, your electronic device, whatever you may have, and let's look at this verse.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if they have it on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Let's read it together.
SPEAKER_00: Let's all read it together and aloud.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
SPEAKER_00: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Stop there for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, we could we could take the rest of this, the rest of this time and just unpack that verse.
SPEAKER_00: All authority.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Jesus is saying, I've got everything.
SPEAKER_00: All authority has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you don't have to worry about anything, because the next word, therefore, means as a result of that, he is saying what?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, what?
SPEAKER_00: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing 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, and surely I am with you to the very end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, guys, this is the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you and I are called to do.
SPEAKER_00: And the question for us this morning is are we participating in this?
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to have real joy in your life and a real feeling of accomplishment until we're involved in some way in this.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean going to a work for a full-time ministry, guys.
SPEAKER_00: It just means understanding that Jesus is our source, discovering how He has made us and equipped us uniquely, and moving out in that, not worrying about all the other ancillary things around us, just doing our part.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what this world would look like if every Christian just did his or her part?
SPEAKER_00: Wow, what a difference we could make.
SPEAKER_00: We all have a calling.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just go through these very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: I've shared this with you guys before.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it was last year sometime, I think I brought these three unalterable facts.
SPEAKER_00: Our ministry has had these three unalterable facts for the last 25, 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: Fact number one is that God knows you and has created you for a special purpose.
SPEAKER_00: He knows each and every one of you and has created you for a special purpose.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot deny that fact.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 1, 5, listen, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
SPEAKER_00: Before you were born, I set you apart.
SPEAKER_00: I appointed you, Jeremiah, a.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you and I were Jeremiah, and we are, God is saying that to all of us, we would want God to say, Okay, please, Lord, could you finish that sentence?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what did you appoint me as?
SPEAKER_00: Of course, in Jeremiah's case, he says, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations, but he's appointed each and every one of us in this auditorium to something.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 44, 2, this is what the Lord says, He who made you, formed you in the womb, and will help you.
SPEAKER_00: Your eyes saw my unformed body in Psalm 139.
SPEAKER_00: All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them even came to be.
SPEAKER_00: God knew it before you took your first breath.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 1.11, in him we are also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
SPEAKER_00: So God knows you and has created you for a special purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Fact number two, God has equipped you with special gifts toward the satisfaction of that purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where, as a church, we can help you in discovering what your special gifts are.
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I've been reading this book, and by the way, I want to highly recommend this.
SPEAKER_00: This book is entitled Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton.
SPEAKER_00: And Pastor Steve is interested in it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to order a few copies for some of the folks in our home group, but it is a really, really good book, and I highly recommend it.
SPEAKER_00: But I read a couple things in here.
SPEAKER_00: One of them I want to share with you is from page, let's see, here, page 80.
SPEAKER_00: What she does is she unpacks the life of Moses as a leader and talks about all the victories and all the blunders.
SPEAKER_00: And he's just a normal man like any of us.
SPEAKER_00: But he he, even though God showed up, listen, it says, even so, Moses, when he found out what God wanted him to do, listen, Moses tried his best uh to argue his way out of his calling.
SPEAKER_00: And interestingly enough, most of his questions and objections had to do with identity issues and the lack of a sense of self that continued to plague him.
SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: He says.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: What do they what if they don't listen to me or believe me?
SPEAKER_00: What if I'm not good enough?
SPEAKER_00: What will I say?
SPEAKER_00: Sound familiar?
SPEAKER_00: Moses' unhealthy patterns, particularly his confusion about his identity and his ability to clearly define himself in relation to others, showed up most fully here.
SPEAKER_00: In his interactions with God, these patterns were so deeply ingrained that he was living them out even in his most private moments with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We all do.
SPEAKER_00: We all bring the relating patterns that we have learned in relationships with other human beings into our relationships with God, and it is here that these patterns must be undone.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know about you, but I've been guilty of that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, feeling and sensing maybe God has unique me, equipped me in a certain area, and and and wants me to move into that area, and for whatever reason, most of the time it's fear, it's insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure I have all it takes.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is that really?
SPEAKER_00: That's a lack of faith in the God who built you, the God who wired you.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 12, 4 to 6, just as each of us has one body with many members, all these members do not all have the same function.
SPEAKER_00: We're all different, guys.
SPEAKER_00: We all have different parts.
SPEAKER_00: We're all different parts.
SPEAKER_00: So in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
SPEAKER_00: We have different gifts according to the grace given us.
SPEAKER_00: All over the Bible, there's talks about gifts.
SPEAKER_00: There's uh in 1 Timothy, do not neglect your gift.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter, each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.
SPEAKER_00: That's why God wired us that way, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.
SPEAKER_00: This is an area where we really want to help you.
SPEAKER_00: We have a natural gift test on our website.
SPEAKER_00: If you go, it's on my website personally, but we've we've linked it to our website under iServe on the church's website.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to the road.org and you go and you track over to iServe, there's a gift test that you can take.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the things we're gonna do at the end of my teaching time here is we've got some cards that you were handed when you came in.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure you're hanging on to them.
SPEAKER_00: If you need them, we'll pass out some more later.
SPEAKER_00: But we really want to get your information because here's the desire of our heart, guys.
SPEAKER_00: This is really what it all boils down to.
SPEAKER_00: We as a church understand that our role here is to equip each and every one of us to be the best that we can be for God.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way we can do that is not through crowds, it's through having a personal relationship and getting to understand how unique you are in the Lord, helping you understand that, and encouraging you in that ministry flow.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want to do at this church.
SPEAKER_00: We've got people and volunteers ready to place phone calls to help you understand how precious you are in God's eyes, and we want to help move you into that area.
SPEAKER_00: So God has equipped you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's made you for a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't it be sad if he didn't equip us for that purpose?
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he made you for a purpose, he's equipping you for it.
SPEAKER_00: And the third unalterable fact is simply this that God wants us to discover his purpose for our life.
SPEAKER_00: That's an unalterable fact.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God is desiring of all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1.18 says this.
SPEAKER_00: I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but guys, let me let me tell you the reason why most of us don't really know any of these and don't understand who we are in our identity is because we're violating a formula that I've been trying to violate for most of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the formula.
SPEAKER_00: The formula says, intimacy with God equal strength of vision.
SPEAKER_00: Intimacy with God, in other words, as I become intimate with Him, He reveals who I am and what the vision is for my life.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm not willing to be intimate with God, let me just say to you this morning, you will never discover who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You will never have your true identity.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be talking to your false self your whole life.
SPEAKER_00: Intimacy with God is the key.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to begin this journey, if you want to find out, here's what I suggest.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, it starts with examining your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Examining your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read another passage out of this book that I thought was kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00: And this is again talking about Moses.
SPEAKER_00: When God was sure that he had Moses' undivided attention, and that's of course, that was very hard to do, and it's hard to do for many of us.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing he talked to him about was his calling.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, the true God was able to address the real Moses.
SPEAKER_00: In our day, it is easy to dismiss the idea of calling as a mere concept, but God called to Moses out of the burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in effect, I know the questions, the question about your identity has been a little confusing for you, but I have always known who you are, and that's what God would say to us.
SPEAKER_00: You are a Hebrew, he says.
SPEAKER_00: No matter where you live, no matter who raised you, no matter how anyone tries to beat it out of you, no one can take that away from you.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is to be displaced.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is to live your life on someone else's terms, to see the injustice of it all around and want to do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: In the very essence of your being, you are someone who is not willing to let injustice go unanswered.
SPEAKER_00: Your care for your people and their well-being is deep and genuine.
SPEAKER_00: Now that you know who you are, listen, I am calling you to do something out of the essence of your being.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm calling you to do something out of the essence of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You have submitted to the rigors of the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt, out of the essence of your being.
SPEAKER_00: This is really, really important for us to understand.
SPEAKER_00: God, if you're if you're wondering who you are, what I would encourage you to do is to examine your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Examine the rhythms of your life, what you've been through, and begin to journal, begin to write some of those things down.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give you a kind of a practical application in my own life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was with some folks the other day, and everywhere I go, I have people that are trying to encourage me to write another book.
SPEAKER_00: I I my my main writing, my main published work was done back in the early 90s in a book called Wired to Work, and I've been thinking about rewriting that book.
SPEAKER_00: And I went a day, I went away for a week to fast and pray to kind of take that old manuscript and and rewrite it and bring it up to date.
SPEAKER_00: And I I prayed and I fasted and I was I was getting ready to write, and God interrupted me, and he said, I didn't bring you up on this mountain to write to write your book.
SPEAKER_00: If if you want to write your book, it will become your book.
SPEAKER_00: It was like, whoa.
SPEAKER_00: He brought you up here to crawl up in my lap and to get close to me.
SPEAKER_00: And it's out of that that I will show you what I want you to write.
SPEAKER_00: And that was a few years ago.
SPEAKER_00: And even to this day, I I have three or four different books I could write, but they're just kind of my ideas.
SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know that you don't want it to be your idea, do you?
SPEAKER_00: You want it to be God's idea.
SPEAKER_00: So the other day I got I got the idea of maybe asking other people.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's really difficult for us to understand who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We certainly don't see ourselves through God's eyes, but one way God can demonstrate more and more about how he sees you is to ask other people in your life, to go to your family members, trusted people, Christian folks, and say, What do you see when you look at me?
SPEAKER_00: And I've been doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I've been talking to people who know me really well, and they and they've been watching my messages over the years and the the change and the flow of the messages and the rhythm of them and what had happened ever since Cindy almost passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know that story, the big changes God made in our life, and I've been going to them and saying, What help me understand?
SPEAKER_00: What is my message?
SPEAKER_00: I think I know what it is, but I want you to tell me what you are getting from my message.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to encourage you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Have other people who know you, who are close to you, and look at your life.
SPEAKER_00: You might be very, very surprised.
SPEAKER_00: I've already had a couple of people tell me things that I had never thought of.
SPEAKER_00: Say things like, Vince, I know, you know, did you guys remember when I did this?
SPEAKER_00: That time I did this?
SPEAKER_00: You don't remember what the message was, but it was like putting God between you and your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: These are my circumstances, there's God.
SPEAKER_00: Remember?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, the great exchange.
SPEAKER_00: Put God here.
SPEAKER_00: So now I see my circumstances, which didn't go away, by the way, through God's lens, not my own.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people have come and said, That's one of the most profound things you've ever shared.
SPEAKER_00: It's simple but profound.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm thinking, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'll kind of register that.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes it can be very helpful if you do that.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask other people.
SPEAKER_00: You know, starts with examining your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, then number two, discover and exercise your gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And again, if we go in and remember, Moses did not know his gifts, did he?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have a clue.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he didn't really know who he was.
SPEAKER_00: God had to really uh come on him pretty strong and say, Moses, don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be okay.
SPEAKER_00: And as Moses obeyed, the way God wired him uniquely, it just began to flow and it began to work.
SPEAKER_00: This is the area where we want to help you.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2.10 says, we are God's workmanship created in Jesus to do good works.
SPEAKER_00: Not to say clever things all the time, but to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's prepared us.
SPEAKER_00: He's got the plan that were written in his book before one of us took our first breath.
SPEAKER_00: I already mentioned that.
SPEAKER_00: So, out of the rhythm of your life, try to discern what God has been teaching you and doing in you.
SPEAKER_00: Take a gift test, do something, discover how he has wired you uniquely.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, number number three is through prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I've shared this with you guys before.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go through them very quickly and close here in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Line up the four things.
SPEAKER_00: Line up these four things.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just go through them very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Before you can know that God is leading you into a particular area, you need to make sure all four of these things are present.
SPEAKER_00: This is a really good pattern, and you may want to write these things down.
SPEAKER_00: They're in the notes, by the way, on the app if you want to go there.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is that you think God is calling you toward now, if you're ready to move out, are you reading it in the word?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, as you open up the word of God, is there a pattern that's emerging out of the word confirming that yes, this is a direction and a course that I want you to be on?
SPEAKER_00: Number one.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, are you hearing it by his spirit?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but that's always the most difficult one for me.
SPEAKER_00: Am I hearing God?
SPEAKER_00: I want God to just yell at me, tell me what he wants me to do.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, is it being affirmed through wise, godly counselors?
SPEAKER_00: Wise, godly counselors, that's why a moment ago I said, find people in your life that you can trust that know God to give you input.
SPEAKER_00: And number four, is it consistent with current circumstances?
SPEAKER_00: All four of those things need to be present before you move out.
SPEAKER_00: That's my recommendation for you.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, husbands and wives, the other thing I would say is to make sure you're both on the same page.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times I've made that mistake.
SPEAKER_00: Cindy would attest to that, of going off because I think I'm the spiritual head of my home and going off when I got a check from my wife, and I just went and bulldozed my way through and it bombed.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I want to tell you something, and especially for you men, I'm talking to you men right now.
SPEAKER_00: You go, you go on your journey without your wife, you're gonna you're in deep danger.
SPEAKER_00: Your wife not being on the same page with you is not your problem, that's God's problem.
SPEAKER_00: You give it back to him.
SPEAKER_00: And if it's right, you say, Lord, make us one, because that's what he intended for you to be one.
SPEAKER_00: So be careful, but make sure all four of those things are lined up.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna kind of close out my time here by sharing something that happened in my life that is probably the most profound thing that has ever happened to me in all of my years.
SPEAKER_00: And um it's going to shake and rattle many of you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna believe the story, but I'm just being honest with you, I'm telling you exactly what happened to me, and I'm not sure I can explain it all in a right way either, but I'm sharing it with you for a reason, because I truly believe that if you pursue God with all of your heart, he will show up sometimes in profound ways to show you what he wants you to do or what he wants you to consider.
SPEAKER_00: It was back in June of 1993, uh, and I was or I'm sorry, June of 1994, I was uh praying about leaving the Ministry of Every Home for Christ and starting our ministry on target ministries.
SPEAKER_00: And it was, and I was trying to line up, I was trying to live this out, line up these four things in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you remember the last time I spoke here, I had the little puppy dog illustration where I was praying that day, and the puppy dog was lying on my foot and looking up at me, and it felt so wonderful, and God challenged me and asked how that felt.
SPEAKER_00: It was born out of a really sensitive, precious time of worship with God, and God was trying to impress upon me how much he loves it when we worship him.
SPEAKER_00: It was born out of that time frame because Cindy and I were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't know if this was really the direction God wanted us to go.
SPEAKER_00: And Cindy did have a check, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Three out of those four things were rock solid.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we were reading in the word was pointing towards starting this ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, things were jumping out of the pages of the word, feed my sheep, all kinds of different verses talking about the importance of going out and doing what we've been doing now for 30 years.
SPEAKER_00: Being affirmed through wise godly counsel.
SPEAKER_00: All of the people in my life that I trusted.
SPEAKER_00: Back then it was uh it was Pastor Jack Hayford, it was guys like Ted Haggard back then, we were at his church.
SPEAKER_00: They were all saying, Man, you this is a no-brainer, Dacola, you need to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's really easy for them to say, of course.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they didn't want to have to start a ministry with no money.
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, they were all saying, this is affirming, affirming, and I trusted them.
SPEAKER_00: And then consistent with current circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we were okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're empty nesters, uh, you know, going on empty nesting at that around that time, and and um, and we and we did have some financial resources where we could plant.
SPEAKER_00: We had people that wanted to uh give us money to get it started, but I wasn't hearing it by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And I was crying out, Lord, I need to hear what you believe, what you want me to do.
SPEAKER_00: So, June 4th, 1994.
SPEAKER_00: Pat Maguire is here somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not sure, Pat, if you're in the audience.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he's upstairs.
SPEAKER_00: Pat and Cindy.
SPEAKER_00: Pat and Cindy uh Maguire uh know this story because they were with me when it happened.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I kind of hired Pat when I first started the ministry, but he said to me six months prior to this date, he says, Vince, if you're thinking of starting a ministry, you need to go to this meeting up in Denver in six months by the Rocky Mountain Christian Fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Who were they?
SPEAKER_00: It's a loosely formed group of leaders and pastors from the Greater Denver area that you need to network with and get to know.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay, and I put it on my calendar.
SPEAKER_00: The morning of that June 4th, I got up uh to go to pick up Pat and Cindy and go to this meeting.
SPEAKER_00: And on my way downstairs, I felt that, you know, I'm not sure I want to go.
SPEAKER_00: So I got ready to go call Pat and I was gonna cancel.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel like going, I want to go back to bed.
SPEAKER_00: And on my way to the phone, um, we had phones that were like on the wall, you know, that's board.
SPEAKER_00: And so on the way to the phone, I got a check, kind of in my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You guys know what I'm talking about, I think.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it was like the Lord saying, You need to go.
SPEAKER_00: So I called Pat, he and Cindy came, they actually picked me up, and we went.
SPEAKER_00: We got to Denver and there was an auditorium.
SPEAKER_00: We walked in.
SPEAKER_00: I did not know anybody.
SPEAKER_00: The room was probably about the size of this auditorium, big room, and there were all round tables.
SPEAKER_00: There were about 80 people in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Most of them were pastors, but many of the pastors had their wives with them, and they were seated around all these tables.
SPEAKER_00: I'm at a table with Pat and Cindy way in the back of the room, probably as far away from the platform as from here to the back corner of the room, way back there.
SPEAKER_00: So I got to meet a few people and they introduced the speaker for the day.
SPEAKER_00: The speaker's name was Mark Di Bernardo.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: First thing I noticed is he's an ethnically advantaged guy, like me, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, they've introduced Mark Di Bernardo and they introduce him as a prophet from Florida.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know what you do when someone is introduced as a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you what I do.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately, antennas go out of every kind of orifice of my body.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and by the way, it is not, listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: It is not because I don't believe in prophecy, because I do.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know about you, but I've seen a lot of weird stuff in the name of prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's hard to discern what's from God and what's from flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Are you tracking with me?
SPEAKER_00: Am I safe here?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's kind of my attitude.
SPEAKER_00: Mark Di Bernardo gets up and he says, God spoke to him and told him to come to this very meeting and pray over pastors with churches with less than 75 people.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, that's kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00: But I know pastors with churches that are smaller churches tend to struggle sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: So I thought, okay, we'll see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: So he he he speaks for about 45 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: He gets all done.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Okay, I want all the pastors that churches with less than 75 to stand to their feet.
SPEAKER_00: And I counted them.
SPEAKER_00: There were eight of them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, How many of you are here with your wives?
SPEAKER_00: Several of the wives stood up.
SPEAKER_00: And he went down and he started prophesying over these pastors.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm watching this, and the hair on the back of my neck is sticking straight out.
SPEAKER_00: It was like, what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't like going over and seeing a ring on a guy's finger and saying, God spoke to me and told me he wants to work on your marriage next month.
SPEAKER_00: Give me a break.
SPEAKER_00: What marriage doesn't he want to work on next month?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was nothing generic.
SPEAKER_00: He was hitting home.
SPEAKER_00: It was it was like the pastor, the men were shaking.
SPEAKER_00: Wives were weeping, and I'm thinking, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going around one after another after another.
SPEAKER_00: So, as that was happening, I want to tell you what I did.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody knows I did this except me and God.
SPEAKER_00: Pat doesn't even know.
SPEAKER_00: I told him later.
SPEAKER_00: I bowed my head, and this was, I'm gonna kind of paraphrase my conversation with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Lord, it's me again.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I know, Lord, that when you look at me, you probably think I'm kind of dense and I just don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, I'm struggling.
SPEAKER_00: Cindy and I are scared, we don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: We need to hear your voice.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I'm going on for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm technically whining.
SPEAKER_00: And you guys know I'm a pretty good, pretty good whiner.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I'm whining.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I I just don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: We know we I'm so desperate for hearing a sign from you, from hearing your voice.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going on and on and on.
SPEAKER_00: And then I said this.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Lord, look, I I know this Mark Di Bernardo guy, I know, I know you didn't send him here to give me a word.
SPEAKER_00: I know that.
SPEAKER_00: However, we're talking giant fleece, okay?
SPEAKER_00: If somehow, somehow, this man would have a word from thee in this very meeting, I promise you, Lord, uh, that will be it for me.
SPEAKER_00: I will move on and I will get it done, and we'll I'll be so thrilled, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I got all done praying that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I looked up and I felt kind of like really self-conscious.
SPEAKER_00: I got this picture of God up in heaven looking at me and just kind of like shaking his head.
SPEAKER_00: Mark Di Bernardo ran out of time.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't prophesy to all about three pastors, and he apologized and said, if you want to come up after the meeting's over, I need to close the meeting.
SPEAKER_00: So he goes back up to the platform.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting at this table, as far away as from here to the back of the room, with my back to the podium.
SPEAKER_00: Mark Di Bernardo starts into his closing prayer.
SPEAKER_00: In the middle of his closing prayer, in mid-sentence, he stops.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: You know how uncomfortable that is.
SPEAKER_00: Let it let it go on for a few seconds and nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And people are going, you know, is he having a heart attack?
SPEAKER_00: Or whatever, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, nobody people were, and I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: The next thing I experienced was a hand on this shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: That man walked directly from that pulpit to my table.
SPEAKER_00: He's never met me, never laid eyes on me, had no clue who I was, and put his hand on that shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: And I now everybody in the room is looking up.
SPEAKER_00: And I look up and he sees me, he sees my badge, it says Vince, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And he reads my badge, says, Vince, and I and I said, Yes.
SPEAKER_00: He said, God just interrupted me in the he says, I've never had this happen before, Vince, never, in all my years of doing this.
SPEAKER_00: But God just interrupted me in the middle of my closing prayer and told me to come over here to this table and give you a word.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was numb.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know why he did this, but he said, Could you stand up?
SPEAKER_00: And I stood up.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Come with me.
SPEAKER_00: And he brought me to the center of the room.
SPEAKER_00: I followed him to the center of the room, and I turned around, and this is what he did.
SPEAKER_00: He did, this is exactly what he did.
SPEAKER_00: God is stirring the gifts in you.
SPEAKER_00: And he names there's seven natural gifts on our gift test.
SPEAKER_00: He names the one and two gifts that I score the highest on.
SPEAKER_00: You figure the mathematical odds of that alone, it's scientifically impossible to guess it.
SPEAKER_00: He names those two gifts, and then he goes down a litany of every single specific fear I had from starting this ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He even names family members who were living in a different state that would come back and help, and actually did a few months later.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, This whole list, and I'm standing there, and I get this picture, by the way, of God up in heaven going, eh?
SPEAKER_00: Anything else you want, Bacchioli, or is that going to be good enough for you?
SPEAKER_00: So I shared that with Pat and Cindy, and I mean we're all blown away.
SPEAKER_00: I come home, and honestly, I said, Lord, prepare Cindy's heart if this is right, let her feel it.
SPEAKER_00: Got home, shared it with her, and it was like the next day I turned in my resignation, which we knew was happening or coming anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Turned it in, and the rest of the story is the journey that we've been on for 25 years.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would I share that?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm sharing that.
SPEAKER_00: Because I believe in the from the bottom of my heart, when our hearts are right and that we're really seeking God and not our own wisdom, that no matter what it takes, listen to me, guys.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what it takes for God to communicate his desire for you and to whisper to you, he will do it.
SPEAKER_00: He will do it.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to have an open heart to all of this.
SPEAKER_00: In your notes, there is a uh devotional.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just read it real quick because I think we're good on time here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's uh it's in the app, but let me just read it to you here.
SPEAKER_00: This is Oswald Chambers, um, My Utmost for His Highest from June 8th.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to, if you have the My Utmost for His Highest, then go to June 8th.
SPEAKER_00: It says this, John 13, 17.
SPEAKER_00: If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
SPEAKER_00: Be determined to know more than others, he says.
SPEAKER_00: If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea.
SPEAKER_00: Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of his purpose, and your eyes will be opened.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor full of joy, but always tied to the dock.
SPEAKER_00: You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God and begin to know things for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Begin to have spiritual discernment.
SPEAKER_00: When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more.
SPEAKER_00: Examine where you have become sluggish, where you began losing interest spiritually, and you will find that it goes back to a point where you did not do something you knew you should do.
SPEAKER_00: You did not do it because you there seemed to be no immediate call to do it.
SPEAKER_00: But now you have no insider discernment, and at a time of crisis, you are spiritually distracted.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens to us guys, instead of spiritually self-controlled.
SPEAKER_00: It is a dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and knowing more.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's what Pastor Steve has been trying to teach us.
SPEAKER_00: The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to sacrifice yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times I've done that.
SPEAKER_00: It is easier, listen, to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12, 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: It is much better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning his will than it is to perform great acts of self-sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Beware of paying attention, listen, or going back to what you once were when God wants you to become something you've never been.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 1 6 says, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will what?
SPEAKER_00: He will carry it on till the day of Christ Jesus.
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