SPEAKER_00: Anthony Rivera, so let's put our hands together and welcome him to the stage.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Tieron.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: How are we doing this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Hey you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Man, it is such a gift to be with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you are new, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: If you are new or we just haven't had the chance to meet, um, as Tyron mentioned, I stepped in and served started serving as our executive pastor about six weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: And so my family and I were on stage.
SPEAKER_00: You guys prayed us in and commissioned us in.
SPEAKER_00: But if we haven't had the chance to meet, I just want to introduce our family for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And so behind me, um, you'll see a photo of our family.
SPEAKER_00: And so um my wife Erica, um, who just delivered our baby boy Ruel Lake Rivera.
SPEAKER_00: And so give it up for my wife.
SPEAKER_00: 35 hours of labor.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, man, what a woman.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then our son in the middle, Elisha, six-year-old, um, and then our daughter, Ember.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have just felt the love and the warmth.
SPEAKER_00: And man, even it's so funny.
SPEAKER_00: Like we got commissioned in six weeks ago, but it feels like I'm I've barely been here.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I had some time away with them, had some paternity leave with my family, just getting to love with them.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm so grateful um that you guys have just been such a blessing to our family and been praying for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd love to get to meet you if I haven't had the chance.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, if you're new today, or if this is your first time, we have been journeying through this series called This We Believe.
SPEAKER_00: And so, really, what we've been doing is we have been unpacking um some core beliefs that we hold as a church and really exploring in scripture how those beliefs shape who we are, because we believe that um what we believe actually shapes who we become.
SPEAKER_00: And so today I get the joy and privilege of opening our scripture today and actually diving into one that is so exciting, which is um natur uh naturally supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, really what that means today is we're gonna be exploring what is God's word, what does it actually have to say about the supernatural life?
SPEAKER_00: And so um, before I jump in, I just want to ask a question.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone in the room, by a raise of hands, raise your hands.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember being a kid reading I spy books, raise your hand, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You got a few of you guys, okay, most of the room, iSpy books.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I remember those books as a kid, and even my son now, he's reading those books and really exploring what he's able to see, right?
SPEAKER_00: What he's able to locate.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that is so much fun, um, but there was actually a practical thing that happened for me where I was looking one day um actually at a logo, and I'm gonna put the logo up on the screen for you, and I had really like an eye spy moment because maybe you've seen this for honestly years or decades, um, and maybe you've just never seen it, but I want to point your attention actually between the E and the X, and you're gonna notice there there's an arrow, and that is so intentional.
SPEAKER_00: FedEx actually designed that um to point to speed and directiveness, and so maybe you've known about that, and maybe you haven't, but let me tell you one thing that is true.
SPEAKER_00: You will never see it the same again.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna leave this place, you're gonna look at your packages, you're gonna look at that diesel, you're gonna be like, man, there's the arrow, there's the arrow, that's what he is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: And I say that in all seriousness because I think a lot of times that's what God is trying to do in our life.
SPEAKER_00: I think you walked into this space, and maybe you have been asking yourself the question, man, is God really moving?
SPEAKER_00: I hear this church talk a lot about how God is moving, how God is on the move, how God is healing people, how God is transforming lives, but I don't see it.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer today is that with something incredibly ordinary with your life, that the way that you see, I pray that God would do something so powerfully and so rich in your life that just like you you never have seen that arrow, that God would show you things in terms of what he is doing in the supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, as we dive in, I actually want to show you how this was incredibly tangible in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And so turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 6, and it's actually gonna be up on the screen, 2 Kings chapter 6, verse 15 to 17.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna read this with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Today it says, Then the attendant of the man of God arose early and went out, and behold, a military force with horses and chariots was all around the city.
SPEAKER_00: And his young man said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do?
SPEAKER_00: So he said, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
SPEAKER_00: Then Elisha prayed and said, Oh Yahweh, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.
SPEAKER_00: And Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to see this today because when we read this text, I think it's easy to recognize that God had um oftentimes you can believe that God had supernaturally provided this army, these chariots of fire.
SPEAKER_00: But the scripture actually shows us something dramatically different.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle wasn't actually that God suddenly put something there, the miracle was that he actually opened up the servant's eyes to see what was always there.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if that's true of your life today.
SPEAKER_00: That maybe as you've been asking yourself, man, God, where are you moving?
SPEAKER_00: My prayer for you today is that you would have eyes that are open to see where he's already been moving, where he's already been moving in your life, where he's already been moving at your work, where he's already been moving in every space that you find yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's important because when we look at the text, it shows us a glimpse of something is that God may not actually need to change the circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: He may not actually need to change anything outside of our ability to see.
SPEAKER_00: And so my question to start us off is what do you see?
SPEAKER_00: What do you see around you?
SPEAKER_00: When you wake up in the morning, when you go to the grocery store, whenever you find yourself at work, what do you see?
SPEAKER_00: And our prayer is that just as the servant's eyes were open to the reality that he could not see, that we would see clearly what the Lord is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Because I believe that the Lord is always at work.
SPEAKER_00: We actually see in the life of Jesus that he says that the Father is always at work.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as a church, I know who I'm preaching to today.
SPEAKER_00: I know that we're a church that is faith-filled, I know we're a church that has seen the miraculous, I know that we're a church that has faith to believe in a miracle and supernatural works of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that to be true because not only have I seen it in this space, but I've seen it in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Yet I want to open up the text because I actually want us to be encouraged today and realize where do we get this foundational belief as a church that we are called into this life to be naturally supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: And so open your Bibles with me to John chapter 14, and this will actually be the foundational text that we're gonna be in today.
SPEAKER_00: And so, John chapter 14, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: So, important context to realize is that we are really at the end of Jesus' life, and so within 24 hours of this text, Jesus is about to go and die.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, what he is doing in this moment is he is really giving a farewell discourse to his followers who have followed him for the last three years of his life and have been faithfully with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is where we find ourselves is that Jesus is is talking to the disciples, and he's really giving giving them some clear instructions before he goes.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to read this here.
SPEAKER_00: It says John chapter 14, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also.
SPEAKER_00: In greater works than these, he will do because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read that one more time.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also.
SPEAKER_00: And greater works than these, he will do because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to see something here is that when we understand this idea of the works of God, Jesus brings us into the fold and he actually says something really important that we grasp onto today.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I don't know about you, but I am incredibly grateful that the standard of being invited into the work of God isn't that you come from the perfect family, because let me tell you, I would not qualify.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't that he is calling the most qualified person because I wouldn't be invited to that party.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't that you are the most gifted, it isn't that that you are the leader or the pastor of a church, but it is that you have placed your faith in him that allows you to actually have access into the work that he has made available to you.
SPEAKER_00: That is such good news.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think there's a lie that the enemy would make in your life and my life that would lie to us and tell us that, man, we are not good enough, that we don't we don't even have access to this work, but Jesus makes it really clear here who's invited to participate in the work?
SPEAKER_00: Those who believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see something here because when we study this idea of the works of God, um, there's actually something that John is doing here.
SPEAKER_00: John has mentioned this word up to this point about 27 times in the scripture, which actually means it's incredibly important.
SPEAKER_00: But there's four key markers that we see John using this phrase.
SPEAKER_00: And so I have it here on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the first part is that the father is giving the son works to do.
SPEAKER_00: Then we see a progression where Jesus actually says that he is doing the work that the father has given him.
SPEAKER_00: The third thing we see is that Jesus gives a clear indication in the book of John where he says, What are these works for?
SPEAKER_00: The works reveal the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And it leads us all the way through this progression in scripture where it lands with this.
SPEAKER_00: It lands with this truth, that the works of God that have been revealed to the Father from the Father, accomplished through the Son, revealing the Son, we now get a part to play in that.
SPEAKER_00: As followers of Jesus, we actually get to participate in that work that He has available to us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, simply put, it's it's like this the work is not new, but the participants are.
SPEAKER_00: And so, even though Jesus has died and resurrected and is now in heaven, we know it to be true that we now have a part to play in continuing that mission.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say it plainly, this invitation is not for the elite, it's not for those that feel like they have it all together, that they have all of the supernatural gifting.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for the person that has some sort of feeling or inkling of God moving.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is available for everyone who places their faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think we just gotta follow for a moment because I think about the fact that I can encourage you in that truth that God wants to move in your life, that He has invited you to do the work.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe some of you today have actually bought into that already.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you today have actually started to walk in that reality, but you have not seen it played out as we see in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this has happened to me personally in my own life.
SPEAKER_00: See, I want to ask the question is what happens when we realize that we are invited into the works of Jesus, the works that he is inviting us into?
SPEAKER_00: But what happens when we pray in faith for God to move, but he doesn't move?
SPEAKER_00: What happens when we pray for the healing or the breakthrough and we don't see God move the way we think he should?
SPEAKER_00: What happens when we pray for an answer and yet the answer is not yet?
SPEAKER_00: See, that happened incredibly personally for me.
SPEAKER_00: About a year and a half ago, I got a call, and my grandmy mom had called me to tell me that my grandpa um had a severe case of sciatica that actually left him immobile.
SPEAKER_00: He was checked into the hospital, the doctors didn't know what happened, they didn't know what led to this, but he was hospitalized and he was only 63 years old.
SPEAKER_00: And my grandpa, I knew him as an active man, as a mobile man.
SPEAKER_00: He just loved anything to do with outdoors.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember hearing this news, and I was incredibly heartbroken.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, um, they live about three hours north, and I just said, I need to get in the room.
SPEAKER_00: My grandpa is hospitalized, he's immobile, there's there's this loneliness to him.
SPEAKER_00: I just need to see what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And so I drove up north to visit him, and I remember sitting in the room with him and seeing a picture that I thought I would never see of my grandpa.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing him immobile, realizing that he can't even get up from the bed, realizing that he can't even uh move his legs.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember seeing the tragedy, my my my bones would ache and my my body would hurt.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember looking at my grandpa, and I just felt the the Lord begin to stir my faith that this wasn't the end, that this wasn't the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember in that moment, I looked over to my grandpa, a man of faith, and I said, Grandpa, I want to pray.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for healing.
SPEAKER_00: That even though the doctor is saying right now to you that you will never walk again, even though the doctor is telling you you will be having to live supervised at a hospital for the rest of your life, I believe in a God that can heal, that can transform, that can bring a miracle right now.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember looking to my grandpa and I leaned into him and I prayed and I prayed specific prayers, faithful prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, my heart was stirred, and I felt like God was about to move.
SPEAKER_00: And I went home that night and I just said, Lord, would you would you move?
SPEAKER_00: Would we hear a positive testimony?
SPEAKER_00: Would we hear that you you've released him from the hospital?
SPEAKER_00: And I remember getting a call about a week or two later, and my mom called me and she said, she said, God moved.
SPEAKER_00: Your grandpa was healed, he was released, and I remember praising God for the miracle that he brought to my grandpa.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember my faith was so stirred in that moment about the fact that God can move, that he can move in power, that he can, even though a doctor can say one thing, my God can say another thing.
SPEAKER_00: I remember being so stirred.
SPEAKER_00: But then about a year later, just a few months ago, I got another call.
SPEAKER_00: I got a call from my mom that unexpectedly that my grandpa had passed away.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember in that moment living in the tension of the wrestling with God and saying, God, why would you heal my grandpa?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you move?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you lead me on like that to see your work, but only for it to live in a devastation like this, a short-lived life at the young age of 64, why would you take his life?
SPEAKER_00: And I remember I had to wrestle with God, I had to sit with that tension that God had moved, yet his life was taken away from me.
SPEAKER_00: And it was in that moment that I rem was revealed to this truth is that when we see the supernatural, when we see the works of God all throughout the scripture, the miracles are not the destination.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus'.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the truth is that although my grandpa was healed supernaturally and a year later he died, I'm reminded of the faith that that man, that miracle in itself was not the destination, but it was showing me and pointing to a day where there was gonna be no more tears, there was gonna be no more suffering, there was gonna be no more pain, there was gonna be no more darkness, but there was gonna be a day of everlasting where I get to step freely with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say this because I think there's people in this room that have been judged and ridiculed for the lack of faith that you might have had in a moment of prayer for healing.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's people in this room who have scars when we talk about this because you know that this thing has been abused, this thing has been used, this thing has been manipulated.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just tell you something is that in a moment of prayer, in a moment of believing God for a miracle, sometimes the most supernatural thing is actually watching God not take the cancer away.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the most supernatural thing is not watching him move in the way you thought.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the most supernatural thing that we can do as followers of Jesus is believe what Jesus has said, even when we don't see or feel what he is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Man, and I think I wonder what would happen as a church if we shake off the lie of the enemy that we have to be something that we're not.
SPEAKER_00: See, because I've seen it done in my own life that Jesus, he invites us into this work, yet the signs they're pointing to something greater.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how do we receive this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in John chapter 14, I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes on to say in chapter 14, 16, and 17, as the disciples are wondering, okay, you're giving us the work to do, you're allowing us to continue the mission, but how do we receive it?
SPEAKER_00: How do we step into that?
SPEAKER_00: And so he says it here in 16, verse 16 in chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, that he may be with you forever.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, you know him because he abides with you and will be in you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see those two words right there.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible or you're taking notes, I want you to see that it says at the end there, he will be with you and he will be in you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see that because as we follow Jesus, as we place our faith in him, maybe you're asking yourself, how do I actually receive this power?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first we're placing our faith in Jesus, but we're also resting in the reality that he has now given you his spirit forever.
SPEAKER_00: He's not given it to you occasionally, he's not given it to you when you say the right words, he's not given it to you whenever he feels good.
SPEAKER_00: No, he has given it to you forever.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that is such good news for us today because I think a lot of times we are praying the wrong prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of times we're saying, God, will you come?
SPEAKER_00: God, will your spirit move in this place?
SPEAKER_00: God, will you meet us here?
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus has already promised his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who have placed your faith in Jesus, he has already given you his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The question isn't, will God move?
SPEAKER_00: The question is, will I yield myself to the God who has already placed his spirit within me?
SPEAKER_00: Will my life be marked and sent by the Holy Spirit that has been placed within me?
SPEAKER_00: See, I think a lot of times as believers, this is the tension.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we wrestle with, is that we can belong to Jesus, but we can still resist the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We can we can actually have the spirit, um, but we can actually quench the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You can have the spirit, yet you can ignore the signs of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as Christians, how do we see the supernatural lived out in our life?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't start by asking the question, will God move?
SPEAKER_00: He's already in you.
SPEAKER_00: If you place your faith in him, he's already in you.
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, will you yield yourself to the workings of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: See, because I believe that as we see in scripture that the supernatural life, it isn't about becoming powerful, but it's about becoming available.
SPEAKER_00: See, I wonder what would happen today as a church.
SPEAKER_00: If we didn't just pursue a supernatural life for the sake of power, but we stayed surrendered and available to the working of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what would happen in our schools, I wonder what would happen in our workplaces, I wonder what would happen in our marriages, in our families, if we just said this simple thing, Lord, I don't want to be powerful, I want to be available.
SPEAKER_00: That every place that I find myself, I'm available for your work.
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm being honest today, I think we have really good intentions.
SPEAKER_00: I really do.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I really believe we have good intentions.
SPEAKER_00: So much so, I want to explain it in an ordinary way.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone in this room love receiving gift cards for their birthday?
SPEAKER_00: You know, raise your hands, a few of you, a few of you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are the cash people.
SPEAKER_00: You open that letter up and you're like, oh, I didn't see all the cash fallout, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Man, when I receive a gift card, um, it's super sweet.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, recently I received a Regal Cinema gift card.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, I received that thing, I'm like, thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been in the movies in years, but praise God, and got this gift card, and I'm not, I'm already thinking to myself, like, all right, how are we gonna use this thing?
SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, the person who gave me that gift card, if they talk to me today, you know, they might be hurt knowing that I haven't used the gift card.
SPEAKER_00: They might feel just disrespected that I haven't utilized it, that I haven't gone to the movies.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm being honest, I have good intentions.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm saving that gift card for the right night, the night that I can get dressed up with my wife and drop the kids off with the sitter and have us a little date night.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm being really honest, I'm saving that bad boy for Avengers of Doomsday, man.
SPEAKER_00: I I've got a plan in a place.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys are not Marvel people, but it's alright.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get you there.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm being honest, I think a lot of us we have good intentions.
unknown: I think.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us we love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us we love the Spirit's working power in our life.
SPEAKER_00: We love seeing the Spirit work among us.
SPEAKER_00: And I think we have good intentions.
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm being honest, I think a lot of us we wait for the right moment.
SPEAKER_00: We wait until we have the right thing to say.
SPEAKER_00: We wait until we feel something.
SPEAKER_00: We wait until we see something.
SPEAKER_00: We wait until we have it all put together.
SPEAKER_00: We wait until we have a sinful checklist where we're like, okay, I haven't sinned in seven days.
SPEAKER_00: Now God wants to use me.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, similar to my one unused gift card, would you know it to be true that Business Insider says that across the United States,$33 billion, billion with a B,$23 billion of gift cards are have unused value in them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe today your assignment from today is to go home and go check that dresser or go check the cupboard and find that unused gift card.
SPEAKER_00: But I say that jokingly because I just imagine what could that$23 billion be used for?
SPEAKER_00: Think of the types of movements we can see happen.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the the causes that that money can go to just sitting there unused.
SPEAKER_00: But I think there's a greater tragedy in the church today.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't that we have$23 billion stored away, it's that we actually have received the Holy Spirit in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Yet I think sometimes we're not being accessible to its movement because we're waiting for the right moment.
SPEAKER_00: And that could not have been any more true from what Jesus wants for us.
SPEAKER_00: What would happen if you walked into work tomorrow and didn't wait for the right moment, but you just said, Holy Spirit, I'm available.
SPEAKER_00: You walked into school tomorrow and said, Holy Spirit, I'm available.
SPEAKER_00: Show me, give me eyes to see what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's already working.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder what he would do.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how he would move.
SPEAKER_00: Because for those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, he has already moved in with us forever.
SPEAKER_00: He's sealed inside of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It's our turn to get yielded to his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this because we see this in the book of 1 Corinthians, there is spiritual movement happening.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see this text.
SPEAKER_00: It's 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 31, and we're gonna read through chapter 12, 1 to 2.
SPEAKER_00: But there is spiritual activity happening in the life of that church.
SPEAKER_00: In Paul, he doesn't respond to them and say, hey guys, cut it out.
SPEAKER_00: We we we don't believe in that supernatural thing here.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't tell them, hey, cut it out.
SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't want to see you working in the gifts.
SPEAKER_00: No, look what he says.
SPEAKER_00: But you earnestly desire, I want you to see that.
SPEAKER_00: But you earnestly desire the greater gifts, and I will yet show you a more excellent way.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us, we if I'm being honest, sometimes you you feel like you've got penalized for wanting the gifts, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where you you kind of can feel like, you know, with my kids, when I take them into a store, I'm like, don't touch that, don't touch that, don't you know, the whole the whole time we're in the store, it's like don't touch that.
SPEAKER_00: No, but Paul is saying here, earnestly desire the gifts.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to see, he goes on to say, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clinging symbol.
SPEAKER_00: And if I have the gift of prophecy and know all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't put he doesn't put love there by mistake.
SPEAKER_00: He actually is putting love in its proper place in connection to the spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: See, because supernatural power without love is not the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so we receive the spirit, but how do we how do we do this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it starts with love.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus, he models it, the spirit manifests it, and love governs it.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is when you study the scripture and you study the life of Jesus, scripture often will say that Jesus was moved by compassion, so he healed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was moved by compassion, so he went to go deliver.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was moved by compassion, so he fed the 4,000.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what would happen today as a church if we were moved by compassion for our city.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what would happen when you see that person who's annoying to you, who feels like an inconvenience.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if you would start with, man, I am moved by compassion, and watch what will happen.
SPEAKER_00: This happened to me at an early age of 16.
SPEAKER_00: I remember being a young boy, and I said, Man, God, I am seeing the radical move of your power on display in Africa and India and all these different places.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you move here?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you move now?
SPEAKER_00: And I remember God saying, You haven't made yourself available to me.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't yielded yourself to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember seeing people, and I was I was marked.
SPEAKER_00: My heart was broken anytime and every time I would see people, hear people that were in the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember telling my friends, I said, We're gonna do this thing called Friday Night Lights.
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be football.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna see the light of God shine in the darkest places.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember gathering a bunch of friends, and we went to the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: We go to the hospitals on Friday nights, we go to the intensive care units, we'd go to the ER, and I'd just sit there with people and cry.
SPEAKER_00: And my heart would be broken because as Friday nights, as people are celebrating and out partying and outside, there's people broken here.
SPEAKER_00: My heart was was bent with compassion and conviction for my city.
SPEAKER_00: And man, I I could tell you story after story of where where someone was had experienced cardiac arrest, was losing their life, and with the family allowing me and inviting me to pray for that person where God supernaturally intervened and pumped life into their body, were broken bones that were physically broken at the mention of a touch that God had supernaturally intervened and healed someone, but it wasn't because I wanted to become powerful, it was because I wanted to become available.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be marked with compassion, I wanted to be marked for the people that God has placed in my city, the people that God has placed in front of me, the the people that God has placed around me.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder, I wonder what would happen in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what would happen if you're in your life if you didn't just see people as a distraction or an inconvenience, but you would allow the Holy Spirit to allow you to have eyes to see and ears to hear, what would happen?
SPEAKER_00: And I want to make this truth really evident right now.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we think of the miraculous, when we think of the supernatural, when we think of desiring the gifts, we receive the spirit and we step out in faith through compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Let it not be confusing to you right now that all things point to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The supernatural is not the destination, Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the destination, Jesus is the point, Jesus is what miracles point towards, Jesus is what the gift should reveal, and Jesus is who the Holy Spirit glorifies.
SPEAKER_00: And if I didn't have that truth resonating in my heart the moment my grandpa died, I would have lost all trust, I would have lost all faith.
SPEAKER_00: But I knew that that miracle, that that sign, that that supernatural intervention of God was pointing to someone greater, and his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a man who died on a cross who looked up, looked at my life and said, I don't care how broken you are, I don't care how jacked up you are, I love you, and I see you.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you're like, why is he getting so excited?
SPEAKER_00: I just have seen this in my life.
SPEAKER_00: The supernatural, it must be filling us with compassion first and recognizing that Jesus is the destination.
SPEAKER_00: See, because the supernatural is always missional before it's experiential.
SPEAKER_00: It's not look at how great I am, look at how powerful I am, it's not look at how amazing it is.
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, I would encourage you today that when God moves supernaturally in your life, would you actually ask yourself, did this build people up and did it point them to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because anything less than that, anything less than that is just a circus.
SPEAKER_00: You're just coming to be pleased, you're coming to get excited, but we're not a circus.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that we're a supernaturally filled people that is seeing supernatural works of God to point people to Jesus, to point people to Him.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because He cares about them, because He loves them, because He sees them.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know how many times that God has given me a word for someone, He has spoken something about them to me, and that the focus is not, man, that's awesome that God uses you, but the focus is that there's a Jesus that sees them, that knows them by name, and that knows what's on their heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder what would happen to us today.
SPEAKER_00: See, because I know as we talked about the FedEx logo in the beginning, you could see something that you didn't want to see, and now your life will be forever changed.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are gonna go home today, you're gonna look at that FedEx box and you're gonna be like, There's the arrow.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are gonna go drive by a diesel and you're gonna see that arrow.
SPEAKER_00: You're not even gonna see the FedEx logo anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna see the arrow.
SPEAKER_00: Because someone had to walk you through to point something out that you didn't see on yourself, you didn't see it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what God's gonna do in your life tomorrow if you make yourself available to Him.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna show up with the same job, you're gonna show up with the same school, you're gonna show up with the same marriage, you're gonna show up with the same kids, you're gonna show up to the same grocery store, the same gym.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's gonna change around you circumstantially, but what would happen if we're a church that says, Lord, open the eyes of my heart, open the eyes so I can see where you are moving.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what would happen if we're a church that steps out and leans in where he is inviting us today.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to close with this thought because I don't want you to hear, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna leave today and I'm gonna go to the grocery store and I'm gonna look for all the first five people, I'm gonna give them a word of knowledge, or I'm gonna give them a prophecy, or I'm gonna, you know, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go looking for the supernatural.
SPEAKER_00: Go looking for Jesus and stay surrendered to his presence.
SPEAKER_00: That way, when he wants to do something supernatural in your life, he finds you available.
SPEAKER_00: That's the that's the key.
SPEAKER_00: Don't go looking for the supernatural, don't go looking for the sign.
SPEAKER_00: The sign points to something greater, and that is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Stay so surrendered to his presence that when he wants to do something supernatural in this world, he finds you available.
SPEAKER_00: What would happen in this city?
SPEAKER_00: What would happen in St.
SPEAKER_00: Clemente?
SPEAKER_00: What would happen in this region?
SPEAKER_00: If we weren't just a church who had awesome gatherings and revival nights and prayer rooms, what would happen if we are a church that is marked by our yes and surrender to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Man, some of you guys gotta just go home the next time that your child irritates you or aggravates you, you gotta start prophesying over them, not just saying what they're doing wrong, but you gotta prophesy the truth over them.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in your marriage, when things are getting frustrated and you're getting annoyed with that spouse, you gotta prophesy the truth over them.
SPEAKER_00: And I just I wonder, man, I wonder what would happen.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what would happen in our marriages.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what would happen in our families, and I wonder what would happen in our city if we said yes.
SPEAKER_00: Changing our prayer from God, would you come to God?
SPEAKER_00: I'm available.
SPEAKER_00: Send me where you need me.
SPEAKER_00: What do you guys?