Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.
We hope today's message is encouraging to you.
Wow, I, I am just blessed and honored to be a part of this
church. And like they said, nothing's
changing there. We love this church family and I
just want to personally say thank you, Pastor Tim, Pastor
Christine, Pastor Kim, our elders, our staff, and to all of
you, I am so blessed to be a part of this family.
We're, we're staying here. We're just getting to do some
different ministry, but we'll, we'll be here every Sunday.
So we, we love illuminate churches.
Our family, you guys are our family.
We're blessed to be a part of this.
And yeah, I, I, I'm proud and will always just proudly say I'm
a son of this house. What the Lord has done in, in my
life, in my wife's life, these last 10 years is they're,
they're the greatest years of my life.
And I've grown more in Jesus than I ever did before.
And I'm just so thankful that I get to be a part of Illuminate
Church. So, so thank you all.
Thank you for what you've meant to me and what the Lord has done
through you in my life. What a blessing.
OK, I could blubber all day
about that. I, I, oh man, I love you all.
But yeah, we're going to dive into the word today.
We didn't plan it this way. We had pre planned that that I
would just get to bring the word today.
But just so happened it aligned with the the sending.
So glory to God. Very excited about what he's
doing, but also sad. I'm not going to see these guys
every day in the office, but yeah, so we're going to we're
going to pray and we'll get going.
Would you mind praying with me? Holy God, you are here.
You are moving. Lord, I pray your presence would
set on this place because it's true, you're here.
But Lord, that we would, you would help us to be aware of
what you're doing in each moment, the power of God resting
upon this house, upon this people.
Lord, it's not by our power of might, but it's by the Spirit of
the living God. And I ask that you would speak
today, the hearts, I ask that he would do what no person can do
but the Holy Spirit. But but those who who are able
just to step in just to receive what you would do in their lives
today, God, I pray you would, you would bless every heart with
you. I pray you would help us to see
that you are a supernatural God. You've given us a supernatural
calling. And we need your water.
We need to be filled with your water.
So we're overflowing with it in order to live it out.
God, I pray this blessing over our hearts in Jesus name.
Now if you would right where you're at, if you would ask
Jesus, Jesus, if he would speak to you today, just you and him,
just take a moment. And then if you would pray for
me, that God would give me words that would help you.
God, we love you, we trust you, we step in believing in what you
can do today. Thank you.
God, pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
So do you know what this is
People in the back are like, I don't know, it doesn't look like
much. I can hardly see that.
But other people in the front are like, Yep, you're going to
mansplain a candle to us faster, Drew, And yes, I am.
I am going to try this is like a pinkish purple candle.
I can't really tell if it's pink or purple.
All y'all are like, he's colorblind.
What's happening? But by itself, we look at a
candle and and it's not all that extraordinary, right?
It's just like this stick of wax, but when you put a flame on
it, it becomes extraordinary. It lights up a room.
It's what it was created to do, right?
And every person, we were created to host the flame of the
living God without Him. Honestly, you are extraordinary
already because you were made in His image.
But when the Spirit of the living God is put on our lives,
we become supernatural in what He does through our lives and
what He fills us to do. And that's what we want to talk
about today. You and I are the light of the
world, a city on a hill, salt of the earth.
And God is calling us up today. He's saying rise up, rise up.
I've given you a supernatural calling for I'm a supernatural
God. And we're going to talk about
how we step in to that today. So we're going to start in
Matthew 10, verses 7:00 and 8:00, and we see Jesus, this
master disciple, Maker, He's helping his disciples learn how
to do ministry. Now, up until this point, He's
been preaching the gospel with power, right?
He's been healing the sick, cleansing the leper, raising the
dead, casting out demons, and He's freely giving the Kingdom
away. He's doing this powerful
ministry. He is the Messiah, the Son of
God. And then we come to this passage
and he tells his disciples what they're called to do.
And let's read what he tells his disciples to do.
He tells his disciples as you go proclaim this message, the
Kingdom of heaven has come near. He's like, it's not out there.
It's not some idea that oh, I hope God moves because he's kind
of in heaven, but I don't know where he is.
No, he says the presence of God, the Kingdom of God, his power is
here. It's right here is what he's
saying. And then he says in verse 8, he
says, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have
leprosy, drive out demons freely received freely gift.
So I don't know if it's as startling to you, but when I
first saw that this what this was actually saying, I was like,
wait a minute, Jesus is saying that the same ministry he did is
the ministry is calling his disciples to do like that just
blew my mind. I was like, wait, it's not a
lesser ministry. It's it's not, it's not like
Jesus did this and he's calling his disciples to do this because
they're not him. He's like, no, it's the same
power, it's the same spirit. It's the same Lord that is in US
working in and through. And so as disciples, when you
see what they did, you can look in Luke 10 and see how they went
out and, and they did what Jesus is saying.
They went out and they ministered just like Jesus and
they came back and they were astonished.
They're like, Oh my goodness, we did it and and we're doing all
the things that you were doing and even the demons were
listening to us and we commanded them in Jesus name.
They did what we told them to do and Jesus being the master,
disciple, maker and encourage her that he is, he's like, gosh,
he's like when you were ministering, he's like, I saw
Satan fall like lightning because my Kingdom has come.
We're doing this and like he's pumping him up.
He's helping him see what he's empowered to do, what he's
empowered him to do. So they were able to live the
same ministry Jesus lived. And then we come to Matthew 2819
through 20, which is what we know is the Great Commission,
right? This is Our Calling.
This is Jesus calling all disciples after his disciples
and what he's calling them to do.
And it says this, It says, go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. So he says, go, make disciples,
baptize them. And then he says this, teaching
them to obey everything I've commanded you, for I'm with you
always to the end. Now what did he tell his
disciples to do? He told his disciples to preach
the gospel. He told him to say that God is
coming close through Jesus, through what he did on the
cross, through his resurrection. The veil was torn and all
separation from God was removed and God came in close once
again. And now we have access is what
he's saying. He said go preach the gospel.
And he said heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out
demons, raise the dead freely, give the Kingdom away just like
me. And he's telling us, he's
saying, all right, disciples, now when you go make disciples,
I want you to teach them to do the same thing, not a lesser
thing, not a lesser calling. It's the same Spirit.
It's the same Lord. It's the same one who empowers
us to do the ministry of the gospel that empowered Jesus.
This is the Holy Spirit in our lives and for all who have
trusted in Jesus. This is Our Calling.
Now for some of us, we may be like, what in the world?
How, how are we supposed to do that?
Like you're asking us to do something impossible with.
Let me just encourage you with this.
There is a reason that your calling is bigger than your
capacity. You, you remain that way on
purpose because we need Him. We need Him in order to live out
what He's called us to live. Look, I really don't care about
the supernatural unless Jesus cares about it.
But because it's a part of the calling He's given us, I care
about Him. I want what is in Him and what
He's called us to, to fill me and to fill you so that we can
go out for His glory, so we can do what he's called us to do, to
be a light into the world. Now you may say, yeah, but Drew,
why don't we see this happening as much?
And I'm, I'm going to testify something to you.
I don't say this out of anything, but just what Jesus
can do. I see this all the time and so
the question is, who are we hanging out?
We may think we don't see as much supernatural, but it's
happening. The Kingdom is still moving.
He's the same God yesterday, today and forever.
And I see people get healed and I see people get prophesied over
and I see demons get cast out a lot.
Again, this has nothing to do with me, has everything to do
with what Jesus has called his people to do.
And when we receive this gospel, receive what he wants to do, the
fullness of Christ in me. This is Galatians 220.
When we receive not, it's not I who live, but Christ who lives
in me, what God will do through our lives.
It's wonderful, but there's a reason why Our Calling is bigger
than our capacity. It's because we need the Lord.
One more thing and then I'm going to talk about how we get
filled up with the Lord. That's how we live the
supernatural life. John 1412, some of y'all might
be here today saying, OK, I don't know about this.
That's crazy. We're called to do the same
things Jesus did. John 1412 says Whoever believes
in me will do the works that I do in greater.
Now, what's awesome about this is he doesn't say the 12 are
going to do the works that I do in greater.
And he doesn't say the religious elite will do the works that I
do. And even greater, he doesn't say
the pastors and the elders are going to do the works that I do.
And even greater, he says all who believe, whoever believes in
me, that's, that's all of us. Whoever believes in Jesus will
do the same works. And even greater, I, I want to
hopefully burst some bubbles in here this morning that the
hierarchy of the Kingdom is 2 levels.
There's Jesus and then there's everybody else there.
There is no religious elite. There is no, oh, that person can
do it because they're, I don't know, pastor, priest, whatever.
I don't know what we think, but I'm no different than you.
I have no more access than to Jesus than you.
We have all been given full access to the living God and he
comes upon us and he wants to move through it.
Praise God. And I joyfully say this because
this is the good news. Jesus is accessible, just as
accessible to you as he is to anyone.
I want to demolish some things this morning, some some lies
that the enemy has told us. And I feel like the enemy is
trying to whisper it even now. But yeah, I feel like the enemy
is trying to say, yeah, but you're unworthy.
And this is the lie that I believe for years that I was too
unworthy to embrace the Lord in this way, that I was too
unworthy to let God move in my life in this way.
And and the Lord, he kept convincing me of how close he
is. And he, and he told me, he said,
he says, Son has nothing to do with how unworthy you are.
He said, yes, you have sinned, but my I have paid the price for
your sin upon the cross. And I just want to speak this
over hearts this morning that it's not about how deep of sin
that we are in. It's about how great of a savior
he is that his blood can wash us clean.
And for all who trust in Jesus, it's not about whether I can be
enough. It's the fact that he is enough
for me. Now, on the flip side of that,
we think, yeah, but he's holy. And I'm, I'm, I'm imperfect.
Now, maybe this is just me that has felt this in the past, but
maybe some of you can identify with this, but you feel
imperfect coming before a holy God and wanting to embrace
whatever he wants to do, wanting to embrace his presence in your
life. And what the Lord taught me was
that he created Adam and Eve in the garden.
He created them so he could have companions.
He doesn't need them. He doesn't need us.
But he loves Adam and Eve and he loves us and he wants to be with
us. So the point of whether I am
worthy to be with him is less important than he wants to be
with me and he wants to be with you.
And I kept doing this to God. I'm not.
I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy God.
And he kept saying what about me?
He's like what, what what about what I want?
I want you. I want to be with you.
And I would encourage every heart this morning that feels
like I don't know how to get past this wall of unworthiness,
this wall of feeling like I can't because he's too great
when he is coming to you and he's saying I love you and he's
like this, just step in. I've loved you all your life
than before and I just want you to step in.
So we have a supernatural God. He's given us a supernatural
calling and I'm trying to just whet our appetite to see, for us
to see what it takes to live out that supernatural calling.
And it's, it's as simple as this, to drink the living water
that Jesus would give you to get filled up to overflowing with
Jesus. And This is why I'm trying to
remove these walls, remove hindrances that would keep us
from coming in close to Jesus because he wants to be with you
and he's so close. But let's look at John four.
I want to talk about the woman at the well and Jesus's
experience with her. Now, I don't know if any of you
can identify with this, but this woman, she comes to this well
and she is pretty cynical. And we know from the story,
she's been married at least four times.
The guy she's with right now, she's not even married to Jesus
knows this prophetically and speaks it to her.
But from this, we know women, they can't even they weren't
lawfully allowed to divorce their husbands back in that day.
So she was rejected 4 times. So she feels this relational
trauma in her heart and she steps into this conversation.
She's coming to the well at a time in the day when no one else
is there and that reveals that she didn't want to be around
anyone else. She wanted to be alone.
She wanted to get her water and and go about her business and be
at home. She didn't want all the
judgmental looks. She didn't want the to feel
misunderstood as she continually felt misunderstood.
Maybe we have some people that I felt misunderstood in life today
here in. Jesus is waiting, just as he did
for the woman at the well, and he wants to give you living
water. But the woman, she, she walks up
and Jesus is there now. Now, I don't know if you've ever
been around someone that's filled with life and filled with
joy and, and every time they see you, they're excited to be
around you and they love you. And, and I, if you want, if you
want some more of this, then one of the most wonderful examples
of this that I know of is Pastor Valdemir right here.
If you would hold your hand up, Pastor Valdemir, this man is
filled with the joy and the love of God and when you get around
him, he, he genuinely wants to be around you.
He's like Jesus and like she gives you a hug, you know, it
makes you feel special. He's like, I love you.
I'm like, I love you, you know, like thank you, you know, but
this is what I believe Jesus being there at the well was like
that day. He's filled with life, he's
filled with joy. He knows God the Father's about
to change this woman's life and he's pumped, he's filled, you
know, the overflowing. And he just got that
anticipation. You know, he's like, it's like,
have you ever seen the people on planes?
You get on a plane and, and if you ever sit next to someone
like this, they're so happy. They're excited.
They just want to talk to you. And maybe you just want to mind
your own business, you know, and, and, and they're like,
they're like, hey, you know, how you doing?
You know, and you're like, Oh my goodness, you know, I got one of
these today. Yeah, it's good to see, you
know, and they're and they're like, they're like, where are
you going? You know, you're like, I'm the
same as you, you know, I'm going to the same place.
But it's good to see you, you know?
But anyway, the point is we know these people when we're not
feeling like talking, it can kind of rub us the wrong way.
And you see this happening in the conversation with Jesus and
the woman at the well, she starts talking to him and
everything he says, she kind of combatively comes back against
it right now. If you haven't read this story,
I just don't have time to go through the whole story today.
But she's coming with a cynical view.
Jesus is coming with his living water.
He wants to give her living water and he knows it's
happening and it's coming and he's talking to her.
He begins by saying, will you give me a drink?
And finally they go through the conversation.
Verse 10. Jesus answered one of her
questions and said, if you knew the gift of God, who it is that
is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him
and he would give you living water.
Verse 13 Whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never
be thirsty again. The water that I give him will
becoming him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Fast forward in the conversation.
This woman came in wounded, feeling hopeless, wanting to be
alone. Jesus speaks words of life,
words of identity, words of love.
He speaks of of the one that she had always hoped would be the
Lord that she worshipped. He speaks of how she would
worship Him in spirit and truth, that it wasn't about being of
this people or this race, but but the the way she comes to God
is freely and fully and that he has invites her into this.
And something happens in that conversation as she's in the
presence of the living God, as he's so close and he's speaking
these words of life, she gets transformed, so much so that
when the conversation ends, she doesn't even care what she came
there for, which was jugs of water.
It says. She leaves them there and she
runs into the village filled with new life.
And she starts saying, hey, come and see the person who told me
everything about I never did in life and and he is the Messiah.
He's got to be the Messiah. And she's filled with something
new. This is what it's like to be
filled with the living water. Now, I believe in the American
church, the majority of the American church anyway.
We get Jesus in our hearts, in our lives and, and, and in the
very beginning, we get saved and, and we, we get a drink,
right? That's good living water, right.
Thank you, Jesus. Oh my goodness, I've never
experienced this, this hydration that is good for my spirit, that
that brings life into me. And that's why when people get
saved and Jesus put their trust in Jesus, they, they're, they're
ignited. There's something that comes
alive in them, right? We've seen it again and again,
but we've also seen again and again people after they get
saved, they kind of just start going.
They're like, was that as good as it gets?
But the reality is people, I believe people stop drinking the
water. They stop drinking.
And most people, they believe there's this high when you get
saved, but but there's nothing else after.
But it's only that we're not drinking the water.
We walk around, we're like, I got Jesus, you know, we think
we, we got him and we do. He's right here.
But proximity doesn't get the water in me.
I've got to get the water in me. And God was telling me again and
again, Come on. God was telling me again and
again when I prep for this message, drink the water.
Tell him to drink the water. Drink the water.
God is a supernatural guy. He's given us a supernatural
calling. Now the only reason I tell you
about the calling today is I want you to feel motivated to
step in to drink the water because here's what's happened
in my life. The closer I get to God, the
more I come into contact and receive that He doesn't just
want to be with me, but He's closer than the air I breathe.
And I come in and I commune with Him, and I get to know him.
The more I do this, the more the reality and my heart and my mind
begins to expand. And what I thought love was
before expands. And the lid I had on my life
that was limited me just gets tore off and the walls fall down
and I find myself in wide open spaces.
For this is God that rules my life.
And when He rules my life, it's no longer I who lives and all
that I thought I was limited to before.
I'm no longer limited to anymore because all things are possible
in Jesus, because Christ in me can do it.
And now when I step into a situation and I'm not perfect at
this, I'm still growing in the Lord.
But when I step into a situation, if I was step in
filled with his living water because I've been drawing close
to him, if I was step into that situation and not ask what can I
do? But I can now ask, what can
Jesus do? It's Christ in me.
It's Christ in you. It's no longer whether whether I
can accomplish something, or whether a miracle can be done,
or whether a word can be spoken from His Spirit.
It's Lord. What do you want to do in this
situation? And then as he helps me discern,
boom, God does something because of Christ in me.
So how do we receive this water? Say Drew, OK, I get it.
You're saying he's a supernatural God.
He's given us the same calling as Jesus.
But how do we receive this water so we can be filled?
And that's that's really what I want to encourage us in today.
Now, as I've told you, just as He came to the woman at the
well, He's standing before us today and every day offering us
this water. But we have to be willing to
receive the water. I have to be willing to say I'm
not just going to know that Jesus is there.
I have to let Him love me. I have to let Him pour into me
so that I can love others the way that He loves first, John
419 says. We love because he first loved
us. I can't love the way Jesus loves
unless I'm I'm willing to let him love me.
Peter wrestled with this concept just like I do.
And Jesus is washing the disciples feet and Peter's like,
you know, you don't wash my feet.
I wash your feet. Your Lord, I'm, I'm unworthy,
you know. And Jesus, he tells Peter this
thing he says, Peter, you don't understand.
If you don't let me wash your feet, you have no pardon me.
If you don't let me fill you, if you don't let me love you, you
have no pardon me. You see the the power that to do
what God has called us to do doesn't come from us trying
harder. It comes from us drinking deeper
of the water that he gives us. It comes from stepping in closer
with Jesus. OK, so how do we do this?
1st, I must become aware that He actually wants to be with me and
I would encourage you. Just as I said, He wants to be
with you. He created you so you could
enjoy him. He wants you, He loves you, but
not just this He is. He wants to be with you, but
He's so close. Just as I said before Jesus,
when he died on the cross, the veil in the temper that divided
God's presence from us was torn, and now there is no division.
Now God is coming close. Ephesians 26 says He seated us
with Him in the heavenly places. It says in four and five that he
was so great in his love and mercy that that that he raised
us from our trespasses and sin, our death, and he raised us up
to life in him, and now we're seated with Him in the heavenly
places. This means that are your spirit
and his spirit are like this. We're like this close.
We're so close to him. So he wants to be with you and
he's so close. Now if I know that he wants to
be with me and that he's so close, then I read a passage
like Psalm 23 and it is totally different.
It's totally different because he's right there with me and I
and I begin to read the Lord is my shepherd.
Thank you Lord, you, you were right here.
You were my shepherd. I shall not want.
Thank you God, because you provide everything I need.
He makes me lie down in green pasture.
He leads me besides Stillwater. He restores my soul.
Thank you God, You're actively restoring my soul.
You love me and and you've come in close.
He loves you. He's coming close.
And these words are true. Do we see how this is different?
It's different when Jesus walks in the room then thinking of
him, he's, he's out there somewhere.
I hope he gets involved someday, but I don't know when I think of
him out there and then it's like, OK, Psalm 23, the Lord is
my shepherd. I shall not want.
Oh God, I need this to be true. You know what I mean?
But when I recognize who he is, his goodness and His love, that
He is here now, He's moving in power, He's resurrect y'all.
He loves us so much that he went to the cross for you.
He's like, what stands in the way of me being with them?
I'm going to pay that price. I'm going to do it so they know
how much I love them, so they know they have total access to
me. We've got to know that He's
accessible, that we can just reach out.
He's there. The Kingdom of evidence.
It's right here. So if we want to drink the
water, know that he wants to be with you and know how close he
is, he's right here. And then I encourage you to pick
up your word. Pick up the word and drink.
Just drink it in. Start taking big gulps, start
drinking His love and affection for you.
Start drinking of His goodness in his life.
This takes on a totally different flavor when we start
getting how much He loves us and how good he is.
And what he wants to do in our lives is fill us with him and it
starts to, to transform and change us into something we
didn't think was possible. So I encourage you to drink the
water. I had this old thing planned for
the end and I'm, I'm just going to skip it because I think the
Lord wants to do something else. But I want to walk us through
something that just reveals how close he is.
And I hope that the the Holy Spirit will just fill you with
his living water. As I said before, Ephesians 26
says that we are seated right next to Jesus in the heavenly
places. And then Hebrews 416 invites us
into his throne room. He invites us in.
It says come into the throne of grace.
We receive mercy for your time of need.
He's inviting us. If you've never felt invited
into the presence of God, He's inviting you today.
He's standing before you with living water and he's like,
drink up. Because when we drink up, we
become like him. We get filled with him.
Lord, I pray that I'm making this clear enough for hearts,
but I ask that you which speak what I can't.
All right, if you would, we're just going to close our eyes
right now. Remember, Jesus is so close.
He's so close. As Paul says, no longer I who
lives, it's Christ who lives in me.
He lives in you, He's with you. And so right now, I would just
encourage you to visualize Jesus before you visualize him in his
throne room, just as Hebrews 416 says, where he invites us into
the throne of grace. Step into his throne room and
picture your King, who is so close in the Spirit to you.
Picture him right there. And as He's right before you,
I'm just going to ask you some questions.
They're rhetorical questions for your own heart, just to ponder
as you look at Jesus, what does He look like?
What do you see? Encourage you to gaze upon His
face, to look into the eyes of the One who loves more than we
can comprehend, the life giver, the one who is willing to do
anything to rescue you. And look into his eyes.
And what do you see there as he looks at you?
What do you experience in his presence?
And now is you're with your King.
If you would just I'm going to ask him to speak to you and I
would just encourage you. Let him tell you whatever he
wants. Holy God, I pray that you would
give each heart in here your living water.
You would speak your words over their hearts or do whatever you
want. Lord your Lord, you know what
you want to do. I'm just going to give you a
moment with the Lord. Just you and Jesus.
For some of us, we don't really know what's happening.
I just want to encourage you, we're not trying to get spooky.
I just am inviting us to practice how close we are with
the Lord. For some of us, you heard the
Lord speak to your hearts today and the Lord is is moving in
you. He's speaking his life, He's
speaking his identity, He's speaking his love over you.
He's calling you up, he's saying rise up, He's saying come into
my arms and be filled and I hear him saying I love you.
Now it's one thing to read how God loves us in the Bible and
that is what we find our faith on.
We it's founded on the Bible, but it's another thing when we
meet with Jesus and we hear a spirit whisper I love you and
he's saying this today to you. He's saying I love you and my
love transforms everything. He causes everything to to
change. You didn't know it, but you were
made to fly. He's giving you wings so you can
rise in him. You were made for more than what
you thought you were made for. It's not just the purpose of
life that He's calling you to, it's to Him.
He is everything. He's calling you into His arms
where you find life so you can give it.
Holy God, I pray for every heart in here.
And if, if you're willing, if you would just hold out your
hands as if you were going to receive a present.
Holy Spirit, you are our Lord. You are the one that comes in as
our best friend and our counselor, the one that helps us
beyond what we even knew we needed help with.
And Lord, you want to fill and to bless every heart and Holy
Spirit, I pray you would come upon every heart and life right
now with what they didn't know they needed.
That you would draw every heart unto you, as this is your heart
and your passion. Lord, we receive what you would
give us. Would you say that I receive
what you give me? Lord, I receive your living
water. I receive you as Lord.
You are the life giver and I want to be filled with You so I
can love you and love others in the way you desire.
Thank you God for what you're doing in each heart.
Lord, I pray that you would bless every person in this room.
Now, if you are here today and you said that prayer, you, you
declared Jesus is Lord for the first time.
I just want to welcome you into Jesus's lordship, into what he
will do in your life. And so I'm not very good at the
invitation part of this and I just confess that, but wow, God
is moving in your life. If you've received him today and
stepped into a relationship with Him, He is now in you.
He's with you and I pray the joy and the life of Christ come upon
you. Thanks for joining us today.
We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.
If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to
407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.
Have a great week.