SPEAKER_08: Your identity in Christ, who you are in Christ, always precedes discovering your destiny or your purpose.
SPEAKER_08: And guys, I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_08: I've been trying to violate a formula that I know is true for most of my life.
SPEAKER_08: The formula says, intimacy with God equals strength of fiction or purpose or destiny.
SPEAKER_08: I've been trying to find my purpose and my destiny apart from intimacy with God and apart from an understanding of what he really wants.
SPEAKER_08: I've been trying to find a purpose and a destiny that I like.
SPEAKER_08: It's being shaped more by the world and my circumstances than it is by God.
SPEAKER_08: And how many of you know if you really love God, that leaves a hole in your heart?
SPEAKER_04: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_04: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_04: We hope you are encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_08: For those of you who are due this morning, I am not Pastor Steve.
SPEAKER_08: He is up in the mountains today and enjoying some uh rest and some time away with his family.
SPEAKER_08: Um I'm Vince Daccioli, one of the pastors here, and it's my privilege to come this morning and share a little bit with you guys.
SPEAKER_08: So okay.
SPEAKER_08: Last week, Pastor Steve came and he shared the new vision for the road uh at Chapel Hills.
SPEAKER_08: And I I'm assuming that's gonna be up on the board here in a minute.
SPEAKER_08: The title, by the way, is Mission, the Pathway to Destiny.
SPEAKER_08: Steve shared the new vision, uh which says this the road exists to bring kingdom uh revolution to the Rockies.
SPEAKER_08: The road exists to bring kingdom revolution to the Rockies.
SPEAKER_08: That is the new vision statement.
SPEAKER_08: I'm going to unpack our mission statement, which is really the most important part of our process as we move forward, and hopefully be able to tie that together with what that means for us corporately, but more importantly, what does that mean for us individually as people?
SPEAKER_08: Because we are the road.
SPEAKER_08: Those of us who are here and call this our church, we're the ones that are going to carry this forward.
SPEAKER_08: So think of it this way: the vision, in a military context, it would work like this.
SPEAKER_08: The vision is we're gonna conquer that hill.
SPEAKER_08: The mission is what it's gonna be required in order to make that vision a reality.
SPEAKER_08: In other words, what are the ordinances I'm going to need?
SPEAKER_08: What kind of special training am I gonna need?
SPEAKER_08: What kind of people and specialties am I gonna need in order to accomplish the objective?
SPEAKER_08: So the mission really is what we communicate to the to our body, what we communicate outside the church is hopefully what draws people.
SPEAKER_08: So the mission really is quite simple.
SPEAKER_08: The mission it says that uh we are empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_08: Now that's a pretty simple mission statement, and I'll unpack it here in just a moment.
SPEAKER_08: Empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_08: I don't know how many of you were here, but I guess it was about a month or two ago.
SPEAKER_08: We had a service and it kind of blew us away.
SPEAKER_08: Pastor Steve was talking about the importance of having more of the Holy Spirit in us.
SPEAKER_08: And he asked the question how many of you would say, I sure would like to have more of the Holy Spirit in my life, be better equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, and most of us in the auditorium raised our hand.
SPEAKER_08: And then at the end of the service, he asked for those of us who wanted more of the Holy Spirit to come forward.
SPEAKER_08: I don't know if you guys remember this, but probably about 75% of the church came forward.
SPEAKER_08: It was like, whoa, it blew us away.
SPEAKER_08: And so it was telling us where is the need?
SPEAKER_08: Where do our people, where does our family feel like they have a need that needs to be met?
SPEAKER_08: Someone once said, if um if you don't scratch people where they itch, you're just another irritation.
SPEAKER_08: And I I've always liked that quote.
SPEAKER_08: You really have to scratch people where they're itching.
SPEAKER_08: And what you're telling us is that you really desire, you want to go out and make a difference, but you're not sure you're completely equipped to do that.
SPEAKER_08: So empowering people really, what we're what our what we want to do here at the road is we want to empower all of us to go out and make a difference in our world.
SPEAKER_08: And here's how we're going to do that.
SPEAKER_08: We're gonna do that, we're we really are taking kind of a two-pronged approach.
SPEAKER_08: The first step toward empowering people is helping us grow in our relationship with God so that we can have more of the Holy Spirit in our life to empower us.
SPEAKER_08: So we really get intimate with God, we get to know how God wired us uniquely and what our purpose is.
SPEAKER_08: We'll get to that in a moment.
SPEAKER_08: But we also need to worship God.
SPEAKER_08: The Bible says in what?
SPEAKER_08: Spirit and in what?
SPEAKER_08: Truth.
SPEAKER_08: So we worship God in spirit, and it and basically I believe it's in that order for a reason.
SPEAKER_08: As we worship God in spirit, the truth becomes a lot easier to understand.
SPEAKER_08: And so we need to worship him in spirit, have his Holy Spirit in us, and then we need as we read the word, that is where we become equipped to go be able to go out and make a difference in the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_08: Um, many of you know that in in this church we are really serious about going out and making a difference in what we call uh the seven cultural mountains.
SPEAKER_08: And if you don't have one of these little brochures, I think this they're all over the facility.
SPEAKER_08: They're at the Welcome Center and over where the gift boxes are.
SPEAKER_08: The seven cultural mountains, uh uh, and this is a little brochure helping us how to pray for all of these cultural mountains, the mountain of business, education, church, military, uh, arts, and entertainment, uh, government, um, marriages.
SPEAKER_08: They're all in here.
SPEAKER_08: So our approach is we want to help you first grow in intimacy with God so you can discover who you are in Him.
SPEAKER_08: Again, we'll get to more of that in a minute.
SPEAKER_08: And then we want to equip you on how to go out and take that love of God into the world around us so that we can realize the vision of the road.
SPEAKER_08: So here's an example of what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_08: How many of you, just by a show of hands, how many of you would currently be involved in the cultural mountain of education in any way?
SPEAKER_08: I'm not talking about as a student, I'm talking about as a teacher, a worker.
SPEAKER_08: Go ahead, raise your hand all over the room.
SPEAKER_08: Okay, look around.
SPEAKER_08: A lot of you.
SPEAKER_08: So imagine this.
SPEAKER_08: Imagine us coming to you, uh, and we're gonna be doing this in the near future, and saying, we want to invite you to a gathering here at our church.
SPEAKER_08: We bring you all together.
SPEAKER_08: Now, you have that cultural mountain in common with each other.
SPEAKER_08: And you can the fellowship will be wonderful.
SPEAKER_08: We can share stories, but the the purpose of gathering you together is to get to know each other, to begin to encourage you, to begin to pray for you so that you can be uh better equipped with God's power when you go forth, but more importantly, to begin to talk about strategies, and believe me, there are lots of them.
SPEAKER_08: There are people that have been doing this all over the planet, and there are lots of them that are pretty cool.
SPEAKER_08: So we can encourage you that now when you go back into the place where you work, you're better equipped to take the kingdom of God with you there.
SPEAKER_08: Does that make sense to you guys?
SPEAKER_08: One of you guys nodded your head.
SPEAKER_08: Does that make sense to you guys?
SPEAKER_08: Okay, so that's what we're looking forward to, and we'll do that with government, and then hopefully we'll find people that want to kind of spearhead that.
SPEAKER_08: That we might uh ask some of you if you're interested in being a leader, maybe over that area, so that we can begin to meet on a more regular basis and really make a difference.
SPEAKER_08: I have a friend of mine, Alan Platt.
SPEAKER_08: He has a church in South Africa called Doxadeo, and they have gone into what they call the eight spheres of culture.
SPEAKER_08: And what they do is they measure actual results.
SPEAKER_08: They will tell you that in the two or three years they've been doing this, for instance, in the educational area, that they can look and they can see they have placed, get this, four headmasters.
SPEAKER_08: They call them headmasters there, we call them principals.
SPEAKER_08: As a result of them going in and loving on the system, loving on the teachers, getting involved, they can see actual, tangible results.
SPEAKER_08: And I can get really excited about that, guys.
SPEAKER_08: So I don't know of another church that I've encountered that is that serious about doing those two things.
SPEAKER_08: And by the way, this just happens to line up with two words you're hearing a lot: worshiper, warrior.
SPEAKER_08: Pastor Steve gets it.
SPEAKER_08: The idea that you've got to be a worshiper first before you can be empowered to become a warrior and go out and make a difference in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_08: So that's kind of the direction we are going and the approach that we want to uh want to take.
SPEAKER_08: Now, um, I want to switch gears and tell you a little bit as I kind of work through this material today about how we start that process.
SPEAKER_08: In our ministry, uh which we on target ministers, which we've been doing now for probably 30 years.
SPEAKER_08: My my wife and I also do uh couples seminars all over North America called Couples on Target, and we'll talk we'll tell talk to you more about that as we as we move down the road here.
SPEAKER_08: By the way, just a quick announcement.
SPEAKER_08: We were looking at doing an actual couple seminar on Valentine's Day Day weekend, and we've decided with all that's going on, we're not gonna do that, we're gonna push it into the fall.
SPEAKER_08: But we are also thinking about starting uh what I call a connections class.
SPEAKER_08: It's a God-centered relationships in a self-centered world.
SPEAKER_08: And it's all about relationships, and uh, we're thinking about doing that maybe midweek, and we'll talk to you more about that as we move forward.
SPEAKER_08: But in all of our work and all of the things that we've done in 30 years, our ministry is founded on what we call three unalterable facts.
SPEAKER_08: Let me read them to you.
SPEAKER_08: Fact number one is that God knows you and created you for a special purpose.
SPEAKER_08: That is a fact.
SPEAKER_08: Here's some verses.
SPEAKER_08: Jeremiah 1, 5.
SPEAKER_08: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
SPEAKER_08: Before you were born, I set you apart.
SPEAKER_08: I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
SPEAKER_08: Now I'm sure this is God talking to Jeremiah, and he said, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, but he could be talking to any one of us.
SPEAKER_08: But insert your own name there.
SPEAKER_08: I appointed you a, and of course, most of us would like to say, okay, God, could you please finish that sentence?
SPEAKER_08: I mean, isn't that what we want to know ultimately?
SPEAKER_08: God, what what is my purpose?
SPEAKER_08: What is my destiny?
SPEAKER_08: Okay, that but but God makes it clear that he knew us and he has a destiny.
SPEAKER_08: Isaiah 44, 2.
SPEAKER_08: This is what the Lord says who who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you.
SPEAKER_08: Psalm 139, 16, 17.
SPEAKER_08: We all have seen this verse over and over.
SPEAKER_08: Your eyes saw my unformed body.
SPEAKER_08: All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
SPEAKER_08: Ephesians 1.11 says, In him, in him, you and I, we, were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him.
SPEAKER_08: By the way, I call that real planned parenthood, right there.
SPEAKER_08: The plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
SPEAKER_08: God knows you, and he has a purpose in mind and a destiny for your life.
SPEAKER_08: That is an unalterable fact.
SPEAKER_08: Fact number two, God has also equipped you with special gifts toward the satisfaction of that purpose.
SPEAKER_08: Can you imagine what it'd be like if God gave us a purpose and he didn't equip us to be able to satisfy the purpose?
SPEAKER_08: That'd be pretty frustrating.
SPEAKER_08: So, what you need to know by this is that you are uniquely wired for that purpose.
SPEAKER_08: I wrote a book in the early 90s called Wired to Work, answering the two most important questions in life.
SPEAKER_08: Um, how and why.
SPEAKER_08: Lord, how did you wire me uniquely?
SPEAKER_08: In other words, when you look at me, Lord, what do you see?
SPEAKER_08: Boy, is there anybody here that wouldn't want the answer to that question?
SPEAKER_08: Okay, what do you see?
SPEAKER_08: I I know you made me, but and you made me special, but uh how do you see me?
SPEAKER_08: And then the second question, why?
SPEAKER_08: That has to do with purpose, that has to do with destiny.
SPEAKER_08: That's kind of where we're going.
SPEAKER_08: Okay?
SPEAKER_08: So God has equipped us with special gifts.
SPEAKER_08: Romans 12, 4 to 6.
SPEAKER_08: Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
SPEAKER_08: We have different gifts according to the grace given us.
SPEAKER_08: So it there's all kinds of verses in the Bible about uh spiritual gifts, by the way, and and we'll be unpacking that more and more as we move forward as well.
SPEAKER_08: Uh and I'll talk to you more about that in just a moment.
SPEAKER_08: But number three, God simply, the the third unalterable fact is that God simply wants you to discover his purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_08: Ephesians 1.18 says, 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_08: But here's what you have to remember, though.
SPEAKER_08: You have to remember this.
SPEAKER_08: And if you if you don't hear anything else I'm saying today, please hear this.
SPEAKER_08: Identity comes before destiny.
SPEAKER_08: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_08: Your identity in Christ, who you are in Christ, always precedes discovering your destiny or your purpose.
SPEAKER_08: And guys, I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_08: I've been trying to violate a formula that I that I know is true for most of my life.
SPEAKER_08: The formula says intimacy with God equals strength of vision or purpose or destiny.
SPEAKER_08: I've been trying to find my purpose and my destiny apart from intimacy with God and apart from an understanding of what he really wants.
SPEAKER_08: I've been finding trying to find a purpose and a destiny that I like, that's being shaped more by the world and my circumstances than it is by God.
SPEAKER_08: And how many of you know if you really love God, that leaves a hole in your heart?
SPEAKER_08: You really desire for it to be God's purpose, God's destiny for your life.
SPEAKER_08: So the important thing is that's where we are going.
SPEAKER_08: And one of the first steps toward getting there is we're going to be launching uh an exciting new program.
SPEAKER_08: And I'll tell you, let me just tell you a little bit about this program before I show you a brief video.
SPEAKER_08: It's called I Serve.
SPEAKER_08: And it's a way to begin to bring together more of us in this body that want to be part of the mission moving forward, that want to grow deeper with God, discover how they are wired uniquely, and then uh that want to be helped in moving into ministry and service areas where you're hitting on all cylinders.
SPEAKER_08: You're really doing it for God.
SPEAKER_08: And the way we're gonna do that is by starting this program called I Serve.
SPEAKER_08: Now, let me let me say before we get into that, there are about a hundred of us of this body that serve pretty regular.
SPEAKER_08: In fact, you'll be seeing more of these statistics unpacked later by Pastor Steve.
SPEAKER_08: But last year alone, we totaled up the hours of service from all of you, and uh we totaled up what the value of those hours would be if it were payroll.
SPEAKER_08: It was a hundred and eighty thousand dollars of service.
SPEAKER_08: We appreciated from those of us who are serving on a regular basis in this body.
SPEAKER_08: We've broken it up by departments, and it is absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_08: But we want to double and triple that.
SPEAKER_08: And part of the reason is not just to get work done, but to help you grow in the area and in the way that God has wired you.
SPEAKER_08: So let me roll the iServe video and then I'll come back and tell you a little bit more about it.
SPEAKER_08: Hello everyone.
SPEAKER_08: Here at The Road, we've decided to launch a very special new program.
SPEAKER_08: It's called iServe.
SPEAKER_08: In order to get it started, we came up with a question that we wanted to ask a number of people who are already serving here, faithfully serving here.
SPEAKER_08: The question is why?
SPEAKER_08: Why do you like to serve at the road?
SPEAKER_01: I serve.
SPEAKER_06: I serve.
SPEAKER_01: We serve we will have a cup of coffee for you.
SPEAKER_06: I serve in hospitality because this is what happens when you say no to Vinnie.
SPEAKER_00: We will have a donut for you.
SPEAKER_06: I'll tell you what, I do it for the donuts.
SPEAKER_00: So I serve at the welcome death, and I find it a joy to serve people.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not serving, you're missing out.
SPEAKER_00: We get to.
SPEAKER_00: Not I have to.
SPEAKER_03: Whether it's serving with the women's ministry, the men's ministry, or even kids' prayer, or even the homeless ministry here, it's something that we do together as a family and it draws us closer together.
SPEAKER_05: I serve so that I can give my talents to the road.
SPEAKER_00: I really love it because it gives me great joy to serve other people and to get out of myself and to help others.
SPEAKER_05: We are here to protect, we are here to serve, we are here to sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad for iServe because I love the donuts.
SPEAKER_02: We're here to welcome you with open arms, always.
SPEAKER_02: I love the coffee.
SPEAKER_05: And they keep my coffee mug full so that we can all be well grounded.
SPEAKER_02: I love doing this stuff.
SPEAKER_04: I serve on the tech team because it's fun.
SPEAKER_02: I love the passion that everybody brings in the lobby.
SPEAKER_02: I serve because it's in response to God's grace and mercy to me.
SPEAKER_06: Because I like encouraging people, and that's why I serve.
SPEAKER_02: We'll have a donut for you.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why I serve.
SPEAKER_02: And it also enables me to go hunting and fishing sometimes, so I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_05: I'm on the life safety team, that's why I serve.
SPEAKER_05: I serve because I love to learn, and the best way to learn is to teach.
SPEAKER_01: I will bake on occasion.
SPEAKER_05: I serve here at the road, and one of the things I do is the PBJ.
SPEAKER_05: And that's not peanut butter and jelly, that's prayer, Bible, and journal.
SPEAKER_01: I am getting ready to start in children's church.
SPEAKER_05: And that's why we serve.
SPEAKER_05: That's why I serve.
SPEAKER_01: We are here for you just as God would be, and that is why we serve.
SPEAKER_08: I I don't know if you recognize that the theme song from the elf was in that movie.
SPEAKER_08: We actually planned on showing that around Christmas time, so I apologize for it, but I really do love that theme song anyway.
SPEAKER_08: But anyway, so here's what we're gonna ask you to do.
SPEAKER_08: I want you to pray about this.
SPEAKER_08: We did not distribute the iServe cards today, but they're all over the place.
SPEAKER_08: Um, if you're interested in becoming part of this, here's the first step.
SPEAKER_08: You can either go online and go to the serve uh menu and fill out the card because it's gonna ask you for some of your information and ask you some ministry areas that you may be passionate about that we can begin to plug you into.
SPEAKER_08: But today, what we're gonna encourage you to do, if you're sure you want to be a part of this, is go to the welcome center.
SPEAKER_08: I'll probably be there after the service as well, and there are cards there for you to fill out.
SPEAKER_08: It'll only take you a moment or two.
SPEAKER_08: And what we're gonna do is we're gonna take all of that information and it's gonna go into a computer database.
SPEAKER_08: Those of you who fill out those cards are going to be contacted.
SPEAKER_08: We're getting ready to bring on board uh an iServe coordinator, and that's all that they will be doing is coordinating this program.
SPEAKER_08: We're going to get back in touch with you.
SPEAKER_08: We're gonna send you to our website uh on Target Ministries website to take uh what we call the natural gift test.
SPEAKER_08: Let me just tell you a little bit about that gift test.
SPEAKER_08: Um there are a lot of temperament analysis and kind of different kinds of gift tests that have been floating around for years and years and years.
SPEAKER_08: But I uh have always liked this particular gift test because they're the seven natural gifts that are found in Romans.
SPEAKER_08: And we've been uh I put this test together about 30, 40 years ago.
SPEAKER_08: I've actually used it in the business world.
SPEAKER_08: Uh focus on Family, ask actually paid to have our test scientifically validated, and they actually send people there even to this day to take this test.
SPEAKER_08: You're gonna be given that test.
SPEAKER_08: It takes like 15 minutes uh to go through the entire test, and it produces a report and helps you understand the uniqueness of the way God has wired you.
SPEAKER_08: Uh, and we're gonna take that information and talk with you and help you discover how to live those gifts out in the actual service that you may be plugged into here in our church.
SPEAKER_08: So that's kind of the process, and then from that point on, uh, we're gonna be uh helping you discover ways that you can serve.
SPEAKER_08: And sometimes, listen, guys, sometimes one of the ways that you discover God's destiny or purpose is by just stepping forward and beginning to live out the way you are wired uniquely.
SPEAKER_08: An example might be, let's say you're wired heavily on the administrative side.
SPEAKER_08: Maybe that means to stepping out and taking on a project to do so that you can begin to see if God might open up the greater opportunities.
SPEAKER_08: Or maybe you're wired more on the ministry side where maybe you should go on a missions trip, and maybe that's where God helps you discover the big bigger picture.
SPEAKER_08: So we're gonna help you and guide you through that process.
SPEAKER_08: But again, I I want to emphasize this before I move into something really practical here: the importance of drawing near to God first in order for you to really begin to discover how He has wired you uniquely.
SPEAKER_08: Once you begin to discover that, then the next step in the process is okay, Lord, now that I know how you've wired me, I know how you see me, why?
SPEAKER_08: What is my purpose?
SPEAKER_08: What is my destiny?
SPEAKER_08: I want to switch gears for a moment.
SPEAKER_08: I want to share with you something that I believe will be very practical for many of you.
SPEAKER_08: Because I know that most of us are always asking that question, Lord, what is my destiny?
SPEAKER_08: Or here's another one.
SPEAKER_08: How do I know that the road that you have me on, or the journey that I'm on and the place where I'm headed, is really your idea and not mine?
SPEAKER_08: Anybody ever asked that question?
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, most of us.
SPEAKER_08: And I know, listen, the desire of your heart is that you really want it to be God, but how many of you know there's also a flesh part of us that says, I think I want a destiny that I'm comfortable with, that I'm happy with, that is kind of uh designed by my own inclinations and my own kind of leanings.
SPEAKER_08: But in the in the in in the closer we get to God, the more we know that God, I I want to give up all that.
SPEAKER_08: I just want what you want.
SPEAKER_08: Now, I want to read to you something that George Mueller, a remarkable man of faith, he lived a A couple of hundred years ago, George Mueller had a unique six-step plan to discover God's purpose or God's will for his life.
SPEAKER_08: This is not going to appear on the overhead.
SPEAKER_08: Let me just read it to you and kind of that it's written kind of an old English style, so forgive the way it flows.
SPEAKER_08: But here's what he says.
SPEAKER_08: I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter.
SPEAKER_08: Whoa, is that hard or what?
SPEAKER_08: I mean, to get my heart into such a state to where I'm not inclined one way or the other, it's in neutral.
SPEAKER_08: That's pretty hard right there.
SPEAKER_08: Two, having done this, I do not leave the result to feelings or simple impressions.
SPEAKER_08: If I do so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
SPEAKER_08: Three, I seek the will of the Spirit through or in connection with, listen, the Word of God.
SPEAKER_08: And then next, I take into account providential circumstances.
SPEAKER_08: These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with his will and spirit.
SPEAKER_08: Then I ask God in prayer to reveal his will to me aright.
SPEAKER_08: And then finally, through prayer to God, the study of the word and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge.
SPEAKER_08: I remember reading that probably 40 years ago.
SPEAKER_08: And what I did as I put a teaching together way back then that we've been doing for men for years and years, and actually for couples as well.
SPEAKER_08: And what I've done is distilled out of that the four things that I believe need to be lined up before you can be sure God's calling you in that direction.
SPEAKER_08: And what I'm saying to you is be careful.
SPEAKER_08: Even if three of the four are there, be careful that you don't move unless you really feel comfortable with all four of these things.
SPEAKER_08: Okay?
SPEAKER_08: Now, here we go.
SPEAKER_08: The prerequisite is that you're praying, you're fasting, and you've got an intimate relationship with God, and you're beginning maybe to sense his purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_08: Here's principle number one.
SPEAKER_08: Is whatever you're sensing, is it being revealed through God's word?
SPEAKER_08: In other words, um, is God's word beginning to have a pattern as you read it that's shaping up, that's kind of having you lean in one direction.
SPEAKER_08: In fact, let me go through these uh one at a time and kind of further explain it.
SPEAKER_08: Is it being revealed in God's word?
SPEAKER_08: Here is what I am not saying.
SPEAKER_08: Here's what I'm not saying.
SPEAKER_08: Oh, Lord, I'm struggling to find your purpose for my life.
SPEAKER_08: Speak to me, Lord.
SPEAKER_08: Now, I'm I'm not saying God can't work that way.
SPEAKER_08: He's God, he can do anything, right?
SPEAKER_08: But I'm sorry, that kind of an approach borders more on superstition than it does on any common sense application of God's word.
SPEAKER_08: You guys know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_08: You guys know that you can read the word sometimes, read a Bible verse, it doesn't mean much to you.
SPEAKER_08: Read the same verse a year later, and what?
SPEAKER_08: All of a sudden, because of the circumstances in your life and maybe the direction you're going, it has a whole different meaning.
SPEAKER_08: So when I say, is whatever it is God is calling you toward being revealed in the word, what I'm saying is, as you're studying God's word, is there a pattern that is beginning to emerge?
SPEAKER_08: That's why it's so important, guys, to get in the habit maybe of journaling and writing some things down, maybe that God is placing on your heart while you're reading the word.
SPEAKER_08: Number two, and this is the most difficult one for me, are you hearing it by his spirit?
SPEAKER_08: Are you hearing it by his spirit?
SPEAKER_08: In your quiet times with God.
SPEAKER_08: And listen, I don't know about you, but the times when I hear God the most is when I'm outside of myself.
SPEAKER_08: I leave myself somewhere else.
SPEAKER_08: I may be in a time of worship, and we're gonna have a chance here in a few moments to practice this as we enter into a time of worship, and that may be part of your prayer.
SPEAKER_08: God, I need to hear you.
SPEAKER_08: I think you're re you're you're revealing this in your word, but honestly, God, I need to hear your voice.
SPEAKER_08: I need to hear that still small voice of your spirit encouraging me and leaning me into this area.
SPEAKER_08: Are you hearing it by his spirit?
SPEAKER_08: And I've met a lot of people that have the you know, thus saith the Lord kind of thing.
SPEAKER_08: They're coming up and saying, I the Lord spoke to me last night and told me to do thus and such.
SPEAKER_08: Well, are you sure?
SPEAKER_08: Are you sure?
SPEAKER_08: Was that really God?
SPEAKER_08: Or was that a you know, maybe a bad piece of pizza you got somewhere or something?
SPEAKER_08: You know, I mean, you know, there's no such thing as a bad piece of pizza, I guess.
SPEAKER_08: But anyway, you guys know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_08: You got you gotta test these things, okay?
SPEAKER_08: Number three, is it being affirmed, listen, through wise, godly counsel.
SPEAKER_08: In other words, I may be, I may think I've got a pattern emerging out of the word, and I may be sensing that maybe that's God's whispering to me, and I'm always having a hard time struggling with my own inclinations, whether that's God's voice or Vince's voice.
SPEAKER_08: But sometimes you have to gather around you wise, godly counsel, people who love the Lord and love you and have your best interest and mine, and don't have a halo effect when it comes to who you are, that are willing to be honest with you, that you can go to.
SPEAKER_08: And by the way, let me let me just say something, um, let me put a comma here for just a sec second and parenthetically say this.
SPEAKER_08: For those of you who are married, husbands and wives, let me just say this, and let me say it as strongly as I can.
SPEAKER_08: If the two of you are not on the same page, what whatever the direction is that God you may feel God is calling you, don't go.
SPEAKER_08: Don't go.
SPEAKER_08: And men, please hear me.
SPEAKER_08: I know that we're called to be the spiritual hell of our home, but we're not called to be a bulldozer and to say to our spouses, this is what I really believe God's calling me to do, and you need to follow me.
SPEAKER_08: No.
SPEAKER_08: I and the reason I'm saying that is because you're looking at a man who's been guilty of that.
SPEAKER_08: And let me tell you, it's not, it's not the best way to go.
SPEAKER_08: And it's not about, you know, the I told you so is it come later.
SPEAKER_08: It's about being in the center of the will of God.
SPEAKER_08: Listen, how many of you guys know that when we're together and we're married as a couple, we are one.
SPEAKER_08: Okay, and we have to have that singular mindset before God.
SPEAKER_08: And if I've got an idea that I think God's calling me in a direction, and my wife is not a hundred percent behind that idea, what I do now is I say, Lord, that that, Lord, first of all, that's not my problem, Lord.
SPEAKER_08: That's probably your problem.
SPEAKER_08: I, you know, if if this is the direction you want me to go, Lord, I know you are perfectly capable of loving my wife and encouraging my wife and speaking to her in a way to where she becomes affirmed that this is the right direction.
SPEAKER_08: Is this is it wave at me if this is making sense?
SPEAKER_08: Okay?
SPEAKER_08: Be very, very careful that you're on the same page.
SPEAKER_08: God is a big God.
SPEAKER_08: He can bring everything together if your heart is right.
SPEAKER_08: Okay?
SPEAKER_08: Is it being are you reading it in the word?
SPEAKER_08: Are you hearing it by his spirit?
SPEAKER_08: Is it being affirmed through wise, godly counsel?
SPEAKER_08: And the fourth thing is, is it consistent with current circumstances?
SPEAKER_08: Is it consistent with current circumstances?
SPEAKER_08: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_08: Well, are the circumstances of your life right now such that this is a direction that seems logical?
SPEAKER_08: Uh, ah, God spoke to me and told me to move to Africa and be a missionary, and you got a wife and 12 kids.
SPEAKER_08: Uh, and uh something in your current circumstances area might need to be evaluated a little bit before you make that decision.
SPEAKER_08: Or any number of different circumstances.
SPEAKER_08: It could be financial, it could be in your family arena, it could be in the education of your children, it could be any number of things.
SPEAKER_08: It could be that you're maybe not fully equipped to go to that right now.
SPEAKER_08: So always, always put together and evaluate your current circumstances.
SPEAKER_08: And if all four of those things line up, then I think that's a pretty good indicator that maybe this is the direction that God is calling you in.
SPEAKER_08: So I offer that to you as just a tool for you to examine, maybe make some, uh write those things down, make some notes, and in your journey, maybe especially as a family, get together and say, hey, out of these four things, where do we feel like we're really hitting it, and where do we feel like we maybe need some more help?
SPEAKER_08: And let that be something that you might be able to talk about.
SPEAKER_08: Uh because at the end of the day, God wants you to discover what that what that place is.
SPEAKER_08: You all remember the story of Balaam?
SPEAKER_08: Balaam kicking his donkey.
SPEAKER_08: You remember that story?
SPEAKER_08: I really, I really kind of am puzzled by that story.
SPEAKER_08: In fact, when I get to heaven, Balaam's the first person I'm gonna talk to.
SPEAKER_08: And here's why.
SPEAKER_08: The Bible says that he kicks his donkey, and the donkey turns around and talks to him.
SPEAKER_08: But that's not that's not the part that gets to me.
SPEAKER_08: It appears as though Balaam is not surprised that the donkey's talking to him.
SPEAKER_08: So, I mean, when I get to heaven, that's one of the first things I gotta discover.
SPEAKER_08: I mean, what is going on there?
SPEAKER_08: What is happening there?
SPEAKER_08: He's kicking his donkey, and and finally the Lord says, Why have you kicked your donkey these all these times?
SPEAKER_08: I've come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me.
SPEAKER_08: And sometimes, guys, it's an illustration of what we do in our lives.
SPEAKER_08: We kind of kick at the direction that we think we're supposed to go, and God is saying, No, listen to me.
SPEAKER_08: That is not the direction I want you to go.
SPEAKER_08: Please hear me.
SPEAKER_08: And and how many of you guys know there's somebody else that does not want you to discover God's purpose for your life?
SPEAKER_08: Who's that?
SPEAKER_08: Who is it?
SPEAKER_08: The enemy.
SPEAKER_08: No.
SPEAKER_08: Do you think he's perfectly capable of taking you off course?
SPEAKER_08: What do you think?
SPEAKER_08: Lee, come up here for a minute.
SPEAKER_08: I want to come over here for a minute.
SPEAKER_08: Just stand right here for a minute.
SPEAKER_08: Come here.
SPEAKER_08: I just want you.
SPEAKER_08: I'm sorry, I I know it's it's it's a big chore, but come over here.
SPEAKER_08: Trust me.
SPEAKER_08: You trust me, Lee?
SPEAKER_08: You trust me?
SPEAKER_08: 100%?
SPEAKER_08: I didn't it doesn't sound really hard.
SPEAKER_08: Turn around and face the everybody say hi, Lee.
SPEAKER_08: Now, Lee is a picture of you and me.
SPEAKER_08: And Lee is walking through life every day, and every day the enemy's beaten on.
SPEAKER_08: On and on and on.
SPEAKER_08: He seems to be sometimes relentless, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_08: It seems like, can I ever get any relief?
SPEAKER_08: I've got all these circumstances in my life, I'm going the wrong direction.
SPEAKER_08: And the devil is like an energizer bunny, man.
SPEAKER_08: He just won't stop.
SPEAKER_08: He goes on and on and on.
SPEAKER_08: And every time, and then sometimes we get into the cadence and we kind of roll with it a little bit and we make it as comfortable as we can, but then once we get into the cadence, the devil messes it up and moves some stuff around.
SPEAKER_08: Is he is he still smiling?
SPEAKER_08: Okay, and he goes mmm and mum and mum and mum and mum.
SPEAKER_08: He warms them up.
SPEAKER_08: It's brutal, it just goes mum and mum and then mum and mum and num.
SPEAKER_08: You think I don't know if I can take this anymore.
SPEAKER_08: Where did that sense of peace come from?
SPEAKER_08: Did it come from God?
SPEAKER_08: No.
SPEAKER_08: Come on, are you guys getting this?
SPEAKER_08: The enemy is cunning.
SPEAKER_08: He can give you a sense of peace, albeit false.
SPEAKER_08: All he has to do is work on you a little bit and all of a sudden back off and let you feel like maybe that feels good.
SPEAKER_08: That's the direction to go.
SPEAKER_08: Guys, I can't tell you how many times I've fallen for his traps in that way.
SPEAKER_08: That's why the Bible says in 1 John 4 1, dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
SPEAKER_08: Because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
SPEAKER_08: Test the spirits.
SPEAKER_08: That's why it's important to get other people around you and wise godly comes.
SPEAKER_08: That's why it's important that we're together, guys, as a family.
SPEAKER_08: And at the end of the service, we'll pray that way as we leave this morning.
SPEAKER_08: So line up those four things.
SPEAKER_08: Now, God's promises.
SPEAKER_08: Here's some promises from God.
SPEAKER_08: Romans 8 to 29.
SPEAKER_08: For those God foreknew, you and me, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son.
SPEAKER_08: God's desire for our life.
SPEAKER_08: Okay, Philippians 1.6 says this being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_08: He loves you and he's going to complete that work in you.
SPEAKER_08: But the key is that we surrender to him, we crawl up in his lap, get to know him, become intimate with him, and discover how God has wired us uniquely so that we can move on.
SPEAKER_08: Now, before we bring this part of the service to a close and we go into worship, a couple of weeks ago, I don't remember what it was, two or three weeks ago, I was here and I was uh speaking, and we talk about another incredible part uh or process in the journey that we need to unpack before we can move on.
SPEAKER_08: We need to know God intimately.
SPEAKER_08: We need to be able to offload all of the garbage and all of the sin and all of the all of the negative uh influences from our past.
SPEAKER_08: Then we need to move on and discover how the beauty of how God sees us today and discover his and then ultimately discover his purpose.
SPEAKER_08: A couple of weeks ago we dealt with letting go and offloading some of the stuff from from our past.
SPEAKER_08: How many of you guys were here and remember that?
SPEAKER_08: How many of you guys filled out the brown rice?
SPEAKER_08: You remember the brown rice card?
SPEAKER_08: Raise your hand if you filled out those.
SPEAKER_08: But there were hundreds of you.
SPEAKER_08: Okay, for those of you who weren't here, I think you can still see the video online, and there are still some more cards out there if you want to pick them up.
SPEAKER_08: So we talked about the importance of letting go of the stuff from your past fear, anger, unforgiveness, guilt, shame, all those sorts of things.
SPEAKER_08: You guys filled out all the cards, and I promised you that uh we would pray over them and then we'd destroy them, get rid of them.
SPEAKER_08: And the way we chose to get rid of them is we took them out to Pastor Steve's house, and he has a big fire pit there, and we just burned them.
SPEAKER_08: We just threw them in the fire pit and burned them.
SPEAKER_08: But uh, as we were doing that, we prayed for all of us as a body that we'd truly be able to come to a place where we would not be hindered any longer by some of those issues.
SPEAKER_08: And uh, this is just a symbolic uh uh little thing that we did at Steve's house in order to do that.
SPEAKER_08: And and Pastor Steve uh is not here today, but he sent a message about those cards and what it what he's encouraging uh those things to mean for all of us in this little brief video I want to show you because before we bring this particular session to a close in Andrew worship.
SPEAKER_08: So let's go ahead and roll that video.
SPEAKER_02: Men and women, a couple weeks ago at the road, Vince had a sermon where he talked about leaving the past behind and starting afresh and anew in the new year.
SPEAKER_02: And many of you filled out these cards.
SPEAKER_02: I haven't looked at many of these cards, but I can tell you right now that I know that many of you went to communion and you wrote down things of fear and unforgiveness and anger and shame and guilt in your life.
SPEAKER_02: And we talked about we were gonna burn this stuff up, and that's what we're gonna do right now because this is the old stuff.
SPEAKER_02: This is the old life that you've been forgiven of, that you've been set free from.
SPEAKER_02: You have a new heart.
SPEAKER_02: Jeremiah says that when we put our faith in Christ, we've been given a new heart and a new spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And that old stuff is gone.
SPEAKER_02: It is forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: It is it is in the past, and we forget that.
SPEAKER_02: The battle's between our ears, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: Because we think that we still have to hold on to that stuff because we've been deceived by Satan and demons.
SPEAKER_02: And we're burning this because it's a symbol of the truth of your life, that you are set free, that you're a new creation in Christ, and that 2019 could be the best year of your life.
SPEAKER_02: 2019 could be could be the year in which you find freedom that you've never found from your childhood onward.
SPEAKER_02: All of us have made mistakes, all of us have shame in our life.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the greatest things we can do is confess that and be vulnerable about that before the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're burning this stuff up.
SPEAKER_02: And these are full of declarations that people have made where they felt this pain and this guilt and this shame.
SPEAKER_02: And we're burning this up because you've got to believe that it's true, that you're set free, that you're a new person in Christ, that you've got a new future, you've got new relationships that are coming your way, that you have promises from God that are yes and amen.
SPEAKER_02: And you need to believe that.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm burning these up because they're burned up.
SPEAKER_02: From God's view, it's all burned up.
SPEAKER_02: From Satan's view, he's gonna tempt you to believe that this stuff's still true and it's just not.
SPEAKER_02: So quit believing that.
SPEAKER_02: And that comes through spending time in worship, spending time in prayer, and saying, God, renew my mind.
SPEAKER_02: I am beloved.
SPEAKER_02: I'm a new creation.
SPEAKER_02: You gotta say that, you've got to declare that constantly, that the manifold wisdom of God is yours.
SPEAKER_02: God's gonna give you so much innovation, so much creativity, and such a fresh, new, spirit-inspired imagination in your life this year because you're giving this stuff up.
SPEAKER_02: And it'll affect all of your relationships, it's gonna affect your your life as a single adult, it's gonna affect your life as a divorcee, it's gonna affect your life as a widower, it's gonna affect your marriage.
SPEAKER_02: God's gonna transform you this year because you are going to experience in 2019 an encounter with God that's gonna bring a kingdom of God revolution in your life.
SPEAKER_07: How many of you are grateful that we have a pastor who really loves us and is passionate about us?
SPEAKER_04: You've been listening to The Road.
SPEAKER_04: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_04: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_04: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_04: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_04: Thank you for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road.