One great thing about youth camp is it gets them like out of
their environment and then places them in a new one.
And sometimes, obviously, as we all know, you know, new things
kind of breathe new life. Sometimes just switching
something up can can make you feel like a completely different
person, whether it's, you know, shaving your beard down to a
mustache or whether it's, you know, trying out some new
outfits, like whatever it is, sometimes you just need
something a little new in your life to kind of breathe some
energy. And a lot of times that's what
camp can do to teens is they get out of this environment.
And for our kids, it's, you know, a little different because
it's still our worship team. They still have some of our
speakers and still have some of that stuff.
So even though they're in a new location, they still have a
little bit of familiarity. But, you know, it's always
exciting to do that. And as I was kind of chewing on
that, you know, it kind of brought me to this realization
of how easy it is that we can sometimes make the things of God
common to us. That if we're not careful, we
can make the call of God common, right?
If we're not careful, we can become.
So we can get so used to our structure, our seat in the
sanctuary, our our Sunday routine, our Wednesday night
routine, that it just becomes familiar.
And so I was looking at this passage of scripture in Luke
1416 through 24 and it says, but he said to him, a man was giving
a big dinner and he invited many.
And at the dinner hour he set, he sent his slave to say to
those who had been invited, come for everything is now ready.
But they all alike began to make excuses.
The first one said to him, I have bought a piece of land,
then I need to go out and look at it.
Please consider me excused. Another one said I have bought 5
yoke of oxen and I am going to try them out.
Please consider me excused. Another one said, I have married
a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.
And the slave came back and reported this to his master.
Then the head of the household became angry, and said to his
slave, Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city,
and bring in here the poor, and crippled, and blind and lame.
And the slave said, Master, what you commanded has been done, and
still there is room. And the master said to the
slave, go out into the highways and along the hedges and compel
them to come, so that my house may be filled.
For I tell you, none of these men who were invited shall taste
of my dinner. So here we have Jesus telling a
story of a great banquet, of feast that's being prepared,
ready, and invitations are sent out.
But then the invite, the people who were invited respond with
excuses. Reasonable excuses.
Right. They respond with awe.
I just, you know, I just bought some land.
I got to go take care of it. Oh, I just got some new animals.
You know, I got to get them broken and I got to figure this
out when I was like, I just got married, right?
And so, by all accounts, every single.
Excuse that was given is reasonable, but the master in
this story says the invitation was taken lightly, right?
There was a call to be invited to the banquet, but because they
didn't have a reverence for the invitation, they let something
good become godless distractions.
They let something that seemed harmless devour them from
fulfilling the invitation. Then we see that he goes out and
he says, fine, if they're not going to come, go out and invite
all these people in, right? Get them, get them to come, get
them to running, get them to get here, right?
And if we're not careful, we'll treat optional what someone else
is desperate to receive. If we're not careful, we can
make optional what someone else needs so badly.
There was a time in each and every one of our lives before we
accepted Christ that we needed Him so.
Badly. And it was each and every person
in this room fulfilling their part on a Sunday morning or a
Sunday night that maybe changed someone's life forever.
But the minute we start to then become common to the move of
God, right, we start to make the things of God common, then we
will lose the reverence for His presence.
If we're not careful, we can treat a Sunday morning service
like just something we're doing, and then worship moves and the
spirits here and everyone's on their knees and we're in the
back not receiving anything. I tell my youth this all the
time. I said, some of you will come to
the current and you will be here for 4 to 8 years and you'll
leave and you'll say I never felt God.
It won't be because his presence wasn't there.
It'll be because you chose not to enter into it.
And if we aren't careful, we can do the same thing in this room
where we can come and let the worries of the world choke out
the word that's being spoken. And this just becomes something
we've done that we've checked off church, and the call becomes
unimportant. Never forget the call on our
life. We we got to remember that just
because something's good doesn't mean God's in it.
And often times it's the good things that pull us out from
where we're supposed to be. A lot of us think it's the
storms that can knock us out, and storms can, and storms come,
and we know that, but often times it's the thing that seems.
Good, that pulls us away. And familiarity makes that scene
more important. Well, I've been coming for a
long time. I've been doing this for a long
time. It doesn't matter if I miss
this, and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you got to be at
every single thing, but what I am saying is make sure when an
invitation is sent that we weigh the response.
What I'm saying is don't just default to I've been here, I've
been busy, I've done this, it's Sunday morning, it'll be OK,
right? We do.
Every Sunday morning, I also kind of double as like our
service producer, our coordinator.
So I help make sure. And what I mean by that is like
we kind of have like a, you know, it's more like guidelines
of like what the service is going to look like.
And then from there, when the spirit moves, we kind of go.
And one of the reasons we do a welcome song isn't just because
we like, oh, let's get them ready.
It's because we know that it's going to take you guys like 5 to
10 minutes after the countdown to actually get in here.
And so like the size of the room from the welcome song to like
actual worship. Is a big shift difference,
right? But one thing we got at camp,
which is so exciting, is like these kids sitting at the door
of the sanctuary waiting hours to get in.
I'm walking through a group of kids to try to get to a sound
check because they're so hungry. This generation isn't lost.
They're hungry for something. They're hungry for something
real and they're looking to you as their example.
And what you treat as optional they will eventually negate all
together. Parents, what you treat is
optional. Your kids will leave all alone.
Going up church was not optional for me and I did not hate my
parents for it. There might have been times
where I wanted to do something. There might have been times
where I had other things that I've thought in my mind, but the
words spoken each and every week ultimately sits in.
There's times where I've told pastor, listen, I'm like, man, I
just feel like this message just so like just.
Flopped. It just hit like it's like no
one. It's like none of the kids were
engaged. I was like, it just felt like I
was trudging through trying to finish this thing.
Like did I miss it? Did I hear it?
Like did was this the right word?
And the next thing you know, a couple weeks later a kid reaches
out to her or me and they're like, man, I remember this from
the message. Like man, it doesn't matter how
it feels in the moment, they stick and there's words imparted
in you and your kids every week that when the time comes you
need it, the Holy Spirit will bring it back. 123123123 So the
more common we. Make God the less sacred.
We will treat his presence. Never forget the call.
Like I said, there was once a call on your life as well.
There was a. Time that you needed to take
that invitation seriously and then how we treat the
invitation, how we continue to live in the invitation will
help. Others enter in.
But. Whether you want it or not, the
way you enter in worship, people who are coming for the first
time see and they say, oh, worship is this way because of
this group or worship isn't this way because of this group.
How we respond to the invitation is so important, Psalms 11960
says. I hastened and did not delay to.
Keep your commandments. I hastened and did not delay to
keep your commandments. When an invitation is sent, we
have to treat it with priority. We have to treat it with the
priority it deserves, right? Because when we want something
from God, we want something from God now.
But when God wants something for us, oftentimes we need like 3
confirmations, a bird in the sky.
The tide has to be at a certain depth like.
Well God, if I wake up and my left shoes rolled 3 feet then
I've got it. Right.
But then when we need something, we're like, where were you, God?
Where were you? No, we have to treat the
invitation just as we expect God to respond to us.
We hasten and did not delay. I think it's interesting that
this whole passage in Luke was Jesus obviously speaking and
giving this parable. And the very next thing he
transitions to, he goes from this call where he says, hey,
I'm giving you an invitation. Don't take it lightly.
Take it serious, be there, answer this call, and then the
very next thing he transitions to is the cost of answering the
call. Because if you jump to Luke
1426. He says if anyone comes to me
and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children
and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot
be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not
first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to
complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a
foundation and is not able to finish all who observe it will
begin to ridicule him, saying the this man began to build and
was not able to finish. Or what king, when he sets out
to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and
consider whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to
encounter the other one coming against him with 20,000, or
else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation
and ask for terms of peace. So then none of you can be my
disciples who do not give up all of their own possessions.
Therefore salt is good. But if even salt has become
tasteless, with what will it become seasoned?
It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile.
It is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him
hear. So Jesus says, you can't just
follow me casually. He's saying, look, I've sent out
a call and then I want you to respond to this call with haste.
I want you to respond to this call with reverence.
I want you to respond to this call with importance, with the
importance that it is because what is more important than the
call of God on your life? But then he says, now once you
respond, there is a cost associated with this response.
And this cost is that you cannot take it casually.
The invitation is free, but discipleship will cost you
something. The invitation is free, but
discipleship will cost you something.
To carry the cross is to choose him over your comfort.
When he says you have to pick up your cross and follow me, He's
saying look, you've got to leave your comfort behind and choose
to follow me daily. You want to be my disciple.
It's going to cost you choosing me over you.
Every time. Man, I'm so honored to be a
youth pastor here. I'm so honored to have the
great, amazing team we have who took a week of their vacation
and chose to honor a call at the cost of their own time, at the
cost of sleep, at the cost of decent food, at the cost of
attitudes, at the cost of so many things this week.
They said this call to respond is more important than what it's
going to cost me to give. May we not forget that the coal
is worth the cost. Carrying the cross is not in
burden, but in. Reverence to the King.
When you carry your cross, it's not in burden, but it's in
reverence. To the King.
Right. We always say it's, it's, it's
always easy to to help someone when it doesn't really cost you
anything. But the strength of friendship
is tested. At inconvenience, right?
It's one thing to pick someone up on the way, it's another to
drive 45 minutes out of the way, right?
It's one thing to be there for someone when you can.
It's another to say. This is extremely inconvenient
for me, but you're worth it. And God's saying, look, put down
yourself. Put down your own time.
Put down this. Pick up this cross and say,
follow me. I'm worth the cost of
discipleship. Your call is worth the cost of
discipleship. There is nothing more pressing
that can come up than the calling God's place in your
life. There will be nothing more
pressing than that call. But we have to choose to answer
that daily. We have to choose to walk in
that daily. You have to choose to walk in
that at moments of inconvenience.
I'm so thankful for all the people who had inconvenient
times. To to to pour into my life.
I'm so thankful for the people that had awkward conversations
to pour into my life. I'm so thankful for the people
that could have been doing something else but chose to
invest in me. I would not be here today
without people who chose to invest over doing their own
thing. And we're always, the thing
about excuses is we'll always have them.
There's always something that can draw on our attention.
There's always going to be something that could be more
pressing or more important than what we think we need to do
right now. But often times the greatest
points in your calling will come at the most inconvenient time
for you, right? You're going to gain the most in
your calling through the most inconvenient moment.
You're going to go to something, you know?
And I was joking because we were dealing with some situations
that can't because we like managing everything.
And I was speaking on Tuesday night and we had something come
up and I was like talking. And I was dealing with Pastor
listen, I was talking with Pastor Dennis and I was talking
with Pastor Daryl. And it was like one hour before
I was supposed to go speak. And so Pastor Alissa was talking
to me and pastor and she was like, hey, man, you know, we can
maybe take care of this. Like, Nah, I need to be here.
I'm going to be involved. I'm going to handle this.
I'm going to take care of it. I got done maybe like 20 minutes
before it was time for me to be in there.
And I remember I looked at Pastor Alissa and she's like,
you're right. And I was like, I'm great.
Can't be anything else. I said this word has got to be
amazing tonight. Otherwise there would not have
been so much distraction before, right?
If God, if, if something is trying so hard to pull me out of
this zone, then what's going to be tonight's got to be
important. And so I'm not going to let
something distract me from the place I've been placed right
now, right? So in this moment, I'm going to
know that, hey, I'm called to be here.
I'm called to handle and I'm. This is inconvenient, but this
is. Important to handle, so I will
handle it and then I'm going to step into.
A grace and we're going to run because this is where we're
supposed to be. Right we.
Can't let inconvenience keep us from our call, Philippians 37
says. But whatever things were gained
to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of
the Kingdom. More than that, I count all
things to be lost because of the surpassing value of Christ, of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may
gain Christ and be found in Him not.
Having a righteous. Business of my own, which is
from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God upon faith, that I may know him
in the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order
that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
There is nothing we can try to pile ourselves that will ever
amount to what God's call can give us, right?
There is nothing you can try to build on your own that the call
of God won't give you better of. There is nothing you will
collect in this life by yourself that God's wouldn't have been
better had you followed. Right.
And when we take the call and we weigh the cost.
Of it, we can then pursue into the crown and into the reward
that God has for us. We can push into further steps.
We can push into more of our relationships.
See, the cost of discipleship is obviously laying down our own
self to pursue Him, but God is never going.
To let you lay down. Your own self in pursuit of him
just to only be miserable because it does let us know that
hey, in this life you'll have trials and tributaries.
But don't worry, for I have overcome the word.
I like to tell our kids that, you know, God never promised us
easy, but he did promise us victory, right?
And so although the path of Christ is not the easy path,
it's the victorious path. And as a competitor, as a
competitive person, I'm never looking for easy anyways, but I
always like to win. And I know.
If I'm walking in my calling and I'm pursuing after the thing God
placed in my life, then victory has to follow.
You know, I started running a while ago because I was playing
a game with my oldest daughter who's, you know, athletic and
getting into athletes. And, you know, honestly, I was
kind of running around with her. And by the time I got done, I
was exhausted. And I was like, man.
I can't be having her outrun me. I'm going to have to figure this
out. You got to put a little more
cardio in that Pastor Mike has been harping on me up for years.
So I started running. I set a goal, I set out, I got
this app that, you know, helped is like from couch to 10K.
And I was like, that's me because I can't, I've been on
the couch. So I'm like, click that thing.
The first run was like, you know, 5-1 minute intervals, like
run for a minute, walk for a minute.
And it was miserable. Like I started, I got the first
three no problem. But like, by the time that
fourth round came, I was breathing so hard, I was
sweating, I was drenched. I was just like, this is
ridiculous. Like I had never felt more out
of shape than I did in that moment, but I was like, man, I'm
going to stick with this thing. I'm going to keep pursuing this
thing. It tells me to run three times a
week. I'm going to run three times a
week. My goal is to get this 10K.
So I'm getting there, I'm building, I'm trying.
We finally get to like a milestone about halfway through
where it's like time for me to run a 5K.
So because I'm a competitive person, I grabbed my phone and I
Google what is a great 5K time and it says the world record is
like 14 minutes and something seconds.
And I was like, never mind, what is the average 5K time?
And they were like, oh, if you're, you know, a male in your
30s, it's like 28 to 32 minutes, something like that.
I said I can beat that. I will not be average.
I will not be world record, but I will.
I refuse to be average. So I was like, it came time to
run. I took off.
It took me 32 minutes, but I ran an extra mile because I was just
feeling it that day and then I felt it the next day.
But I gave it everything I had cuz I'm like man, I refuse to
just be average. I've been working for this
thing, I've been training for this thing.
I've been in it. I'm texting people who are
running and trying to get their times and they're sending me
their times and it's just insultingly fast.
He's like, let's go run. I was like, I don't think you
understand that when you say run, it's a completely different
speed. I felt like I was running, but
now I feel like I'm maybe just quickly jogging, right?
And then I meet, you know, we have some friends at camp and
their daughter runs and she's like, yo, she was talking to me.
I was like, yeah, how'd you do? She goes, I ran a mile in 558
and I was like, wow, that's awesome.
I have not ran a mile that fast ever in my life.
And you are 12, you know. So then I got to resort to like,
I'm, you know, 100 lbs heavier than you.
So, you know, kind of thing, right?
But like, you don't start something until you count the
cost. So when I got into this, I knew
it's going to cost me time. And when I wanted to stay in it,
there was multiple days that the running was extremely
inconvenient. It was, it's Florida.
It is hot. I could not get a run in the
morning. Now I'm running in the afternoon
in the dead of the heat just trying to get, I went to like a
baseball game and I came back and I was like I got to get my
running. Like I've got to do it today
because I can't tomorrow. And if I skip today then I'm
just going to be off. So I'm like I'm just I'm going
to go do it. And so I get off and I'm
running. I'm just like sweat.
It's hot. Slowest mile ever because it's
just 1000°. But I'm like I'm dedicated to
this. I'm counting the cost of the
extra 3 workouts I'm doing every week because the reward of being
a healthy person that can continue to play with my kids is
it was worth it to me, right? It was worth it.
So I'm like, I'm gonna pursue this thing at the cost of a lot
of discomfort and a lot of inconvenience and a lot of time
and a lot of different things. And when you're doing those,
it's amazing how God begins to then just reveal things to you.
And I've told my students, it's like I was running, then I
pushed for this 5K. And then I'm like reading some
books at home and I'm reading this, you know, a book just
trying to grow spiritually, studying up on some stuff.
And I just like, I'm tired. So I read a chapter, I close it
and God like kind of corrects me.
He's like, amazing, you pushed an extra mile today, but you
can't read an extra chapter. I was just like, it's amazing
how often we can like physically push for our own personal goals,
but then the spiritual goals hit and we're like, we can negate
them. So it's like, all right, I won't
read 1 chapter again. I'm a 2 chapter guy, right?
I'm like, I'm just going to pursue this thing.
I'm going to continue to grow. I'm going to continue to go.
But the, the, the reward, the crown that comes after the cost
is so worth it. It's so worth it.
First Samuel 2 three or 2:30. I'm kind of read like a little
section of it says for those who honor me, I will honor and those
who despise me will be lightly esteemed.
So God honors those who honor him, which means when you take
time to honor him, God honors that honor brings honor, right?
And when we count the cost of what we're giving up to pursue
the call, God honors that. And He will never leave you out
because of that, right? He will always understand that
man. They're putting themselves down
to be here. Like we said earlier, it's
always easy to help people when it's convenient, but it also
means more to someone when they know it's inconvenient.
But a lot of times when they know that that you went out of
their way to help them, it, it shows them how much more.
And God's like, I see all that you're putting down to continue
to pursue me. And I will honor that because
honor brings honor. And when we bring that, that
means we're bringing our supply each and every time we walk into
this room, all right? Each and every time we walk into
this room, we're bringing our supply to service this see
church isn't just about worship team and speaker.
The Bible lets us know. When two or more gather, he is
here. It doesn't say.
When two or more gather on the platform, he is here.
It doesn't say when your pastor spent extra time in prayer,
he'll show up. It says when two or more gather,
which means you bring your supply, right?
You bring your supply. If you are a joy person, then
bring some joy and let that joy seep through the sanctuary.
You've, if you've been here at Anchor Faith Church for any
amount of time, then you've seen gifts get used on on the
platform all the time. People who have words during
worship, There's flow to it, there's an order to it, but
ultimately gifts can be used and you bring your supply.
The supply you bring God honors. So we don't have to wait for a
moment. To honor God, we get to create a
moment to honor God. I don't have to wait for the
team to get to All Hail Kings. Just be like, oh, I love this
song. I can worship here.
I don't need the perfect atmosphere before I can step in.
No, I create an atmosphere for myself.
I come to service with expectation.
I listen to the songs I love the most before I get in here.
I prime myself up for the rest of the set, right?
I bring my supply, and when I bring my supply, God honors the
supply. I bring in what you honor you
protect, what you esteem you prioritize, and what you value
you will respond. To with urgency.
What you honor, you protect, what you esteem you prioritize,
and what you value, you respond to with urgency.
When you truly. Honor something You will make
sure to keep this sanctuary sacred.
When I honor the presence of God, I will keep this sanctuary
sacred, meaning I will not let the worries of the world and the
different trials I'm going through and the different
situations I've seen and what's happened to affect my.
Time at this altar, because these moments are sacred.
My worship is important and I'm not letting anything distract me
out of that. Right, I esteem it too much, so
I prioritize it. Meaning this is so valuable to
me that on Sunday mornings, I prioritize making sure I'm
getting myself ready. I'm not rolling out last second.
No, I'm waking up, coming hungry and prepared for something.
Because we all believe God's word is alive and active, right?
And it's sharper than any truth. And it pierces between.
Joint marriage means every word spoken, even if you've heard it
has a way to affect. You a new way.
This is why we do the Bible reading plan in Anchor Faith
Church because it's amazing how every year you read God can
speak something different. That year I personally started
highlighting my years on my app in different colors.
So I go through an all year I'll use one color, then the next
year I'll use a different color just because I like how I can
kind of see last year this spoke to me, but this year 2 verses
down spoke more. Right, because I have a hunger
and I have an honor for the word.
God sits there and he looks at it and he says, look, I'm going
to continue to invest here. There's always something more to
learn. You will never attain
everything. You'll never know it all.
So that means when we show up, we say, God, what do you have
for me today? What do you have for me right
now? God does not overlook your
honor, He. Responds to it.
He's not going to overlook the time you spend prepping for
service, the time you spend serving, the time you spend, you
know, investing. God honors those times.
You know, camp is kind of a weird thing because you pour out
so much, but yet you leave so full.
Like as a worker, you can sometimes be so tired, but yet
so full and ready at the same time.
You know, I'm sure everyone of the workers responded a little
differently. We had a group chat going and
they're all kind of telling you either what they ate when they
got back or how much they slept. Some people slept more than
others, some people slept less. You know, I'm kind of a routine
person. So I just got up and went like I
was ready to get back, get my stuff clean and get back on what
I'm doing. But like, I personally, this
year probably did the most I've ever done yet feel the best
after camp I've ever felt. Right?
Because God honors the investment.
And God says, look, I'm not going to leave you stranded when
you're pursuing me, Romans 828 says.
And we know that for those who love God, all things work
together for good. For those who are what called
according to. Who's his purpose?
This is one of those scriptures that we love to quote halfway,
right? Well, God's going to work all
things for the better. But there is a second-half
that's pretty important here, which is.
For those who are called according to his purpose.
So God is obligated to work things for your good when you
are called and working according to his purpose.
God is not called to make your own personal side mess.
Good y'all wanting. Some of you are wanting him to
bless these message you. Created outside of his purpose
and will. Well, God said he'll work it
out. No, God said he'll work out
anything you're doing called according to his purpose, He's
going to work it for good. Meaning when situations happen,
God will work him for good. When you're standing righteous,
when you're living right, when you're pursuing God, when you're
doing these things, he's going to work those out.
So when you answer the call and you count the cost, then God's
obligated to say, no, I'm going to work this out.
Good for you. I'm going to see you through
this situation. I'm going to turn it into a
place that you're going to get there, man.
What I love about camp is not only do we get to invest, but
our leaders get to invest. And some of our leaders got to
see this time that their stories and their testimonies and what
they've gone through and their experiences started to started
to impact the kids around them as well.
And God said, look, I know you did this stuff and I know it was
bad and you've got your life right and you're walking on
track. And now I'm going to use that to
help keep these kids from ever experiencing what you've
experienced. And now I'm going to work good.
What mess you had right? And so we get to see these
things that come together when we count the cost, God honors
it. Second Timothy, 47 through Aces
I have. Fought the good fight.
I have finished the course, I have kept the faith in the
future. There is laid up for me the
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
will award to me on the on that day, and not only to me, but
also to all who have loved His. Appearing right as we continue
to fight this life of faith, as we continue to walk in this life
of purpose. And we understand that, look,
there's a cost, but there's a crown.
There might be a cost, but there's a crown.
But this life with Christ will be worth everything I go
through, and God will reward all that I do when I'm doing it for
him. God is never going to leave you
hanging when you're pursuing him.
God's never going to leave you abandoned when you're pursuing
him. God's never going to leave you
alone when you're pursuing Him. God says, look, I've seen your
struggles, I've seen what you're going through.
I've seen your pursuit. And I will honor that there's a
crown at the end of the cost there's.
This life is. Worth living?
This pursuit is worth it, right? Your calling is worth everything
it'll cost. It's worth everything it'll
cost. Because in the end, what does it
really cost? Because is there anything really
better than his call in the first place?
Are we really going to find anything better than the purpose
God made us for? We've all heard the saying
before. It's like, oh, when you love
what you do, you'll never work a day in your life.
And it's like as silly as it is, you know, I've come to find that
the more I step into my purpose, the easier it is to just run,
the easier it is to just do it. Like it is true.
I love what I do, and so doing it is easy.
No matter how late it goes, no matter how long it takes, no
matter how many events we've got scheduled, it's just easy
because this is me. This is why God created me.
This is what I'm here for. I've stepped into this thing.
I'm going to run with it. Some of us might be struggling
with where we're out because we're just not where God placed
us, right? And storms don't just come to
those who are doing something wrong.
They can come to you when you're in the right place.
So sometimes you're there and you just got to continue to
fight through and that's fine. But sometimes we've got to
assess, am I continuing to have I answered the call that God's
put on my life? Am I where God placed me to
continue to pursue? Or did I find myself here and
I've just kind of been here and I've just kind of wandered here
and I've and now I'm just here, right?
We want to check ourselves and say, man, am I actually where
God placed me to be so that I can pursue him wholeheartedly?
Am I where God put me in this place so that I can continue to
love every second? Every chance I get to invest the
word, every chance I get to minister to someone, every
chance I get to be a light to someone, every chance I get to
be joy for someone, right? This is part of bringing your
supply. You don't just bring it here,
but you bring it outside, You bring it into the workplace.
You should look different. You should be different.
You should act different. People should be wondering
what's different about you. Why are you always like this?
How come every, everything, everything's tough.
But yeah, you're always happy. Because I got the joy of the
Lord in my heart. Because I know in the end
there's victory. Because I know in the end
there's a king coming. Because I know in the end, no
matter how any of this unfolds, my King's going to win.
Because I know in the end, when I'm doing what God's called me
to do, the only outcome is victory.
When I'm walking his course, the only outcome is that God is with
me, Romans 818 says. For I consider that the
sufferings of this present. Time are not.
Worthy to be compared to the with the glory that is to be
revealed to us. The cost may be real, but so is
the crown. The cost may be real, but so is
the crown. And anything you go through in
this life will be so worth it with all the glory that's been
to be revealed. Anything you experience in this
life, you'll look back and be like, man, it was worth every
second. Like I said, our leaders come
back and we're exhausted, we're tired, but then we look back and
like, man, I would do it again right now.
I would do it again right now because the outcome was worth
it, because there's no suffering in this present time that will
not be worthy compared to the glory.
And what it costs doesn't compare to what He gives you.
What it costs will never compare to what He gives you.
The call from God is something we have to continually esteem,
continually Revere, continually keep in awe of that man.
God called me. God shows me.
God freely gave me this gift. How could I not continue to just
be in awe of this moment? I will never take this call
lightly. I will never take this call
lightly because I know where it placed me.
I know where the call of God got me.
I know where I would be without it.
If I had not had this invitation, I know what I would
have gone down without it. And so, yeah, when we accept
that call, we then start to lay down ourself.
We then place ourself down. Piece by piece, God starts to
pull things away from us. Why?
Because those things are things that only pull you back to who
you were before. And now we're trying to get to
this new place God wants us, this better place God has for
us. The more fullness God has for
your life, He's called you out of it, right?
The invitation was a call out of something.
Not a call for you to straddle the line, Not a call for you to
try to be halfway. Like I said, This is why
discipleship isn't casual, because it requires all of you.
It requires your full heart and devotion to it.
It requires you taking time to be in it.
It requires that X those extra moments when everyone else is
sleeping, that you're studying, when everyone else is doing
something. You're praying when everyone
else is here, right? It requires me putting myself
down at moments and saying, man, I'd rather be asleep.
I'd rather be this, I'd rather be doing this.
But in the end, this little bit of a cost is worth the crown
that comes at the end. This little bit of cost that I
have now, this little bit of suffering.
Like I said, for those who do run and have done those, we
understand that even though like at the end, your shins hurt and
all this kind of stuff, you know when you see the difference.
I started doing this journey with a barely one minute able to
run and now I'm out there and I can run like 45 minutes
unbroken. You go from such like such
little to so much and God's doing the same thing in your
life. He's like, hey, you might have
started and just a little bit of prayer seemed like forever to
you. But the more you continue to
pray, the more you enter into prayer, the more you start
sacrificing your time to set here, the easier it becomes to
enter in. And now some people can testify
to praying for hours is easy. Because they get in and I'm no
different. I remember I was drugged to
morning prayer with my dad and then I spent like 5 minutes in
the opening prayer praying and then sitting there trying to
keep myself awake. It.
Took growth and development and time and there's still times
when you come to prayer and you're extra tired and you're
like, I've got to do something to stay awake.
But it's worth it. It's worth the time.
I know the outcome of me sacrificing this is worth what's
coming. The crown is worth the cost.
And I just challenge you guys today to make sure that we
aren't letting the things of God become common in our lives, that
we aren't allowing His presence. We aren't missing His presence
because we're so consumed with other things at the moment.
I tell our youth this all the time and then obviously expands
to adults, but I say, hey, I'll never discount that you guys are
going through very real things, that there are serious things
happen, but the answer is always the same.
It's the word and His presence. And that doesn't change at any
age you get to. We go through real stuff.
We have real problems, we have real needs, but the answer is
always the Word and His presence.
And if we start to treat these moments common, that's when we
start to be like, oh, well, you know, I didn't feel like the
worship was that great. Today.
Worship's always great because I bring my supply.
The words always great because I'm looking for something.
The moments are always there because I'm bringing them,
right? I can, I have no problem.
I've been, you know, I get to travel with pastor, I get to go
to a place. I've been to some churches where
worship by music standard isn't great.
You're like, some of these people could maybe use a little
more practice. We're glad that they have the
gift, but maybe practice a little more, right?
And so I've been to places where it is impossible to clap because
you're just like, I don't know where I'm clapping.
There's a couple different time signatures going on right now,
right? But it doesn't hinder me from
then getting to my own place saying, OK, I'm going to bring
it here and I'm just going to worship myself because I still
won't miss an opportunity with God because we got a lot of
joyful noise going on, right? Sometimes you got to find your
own moments in that joyful noise.
But I bring my own supply because I don't ever want.
To. Let God just become common in my
life. You know, sometimes I've had
people ask me, especially at camp, they're like, man, you
ever get nervous? I'm like, nervous isn't the
right word. I don't, I'm not nervous about
speaking because I'm going to be honest, I'm a pretty good public
speaker. Like I took classes.
I understand how to build like speeches and get that kind of
concept. And I'm pretty confident that if
I really wanted to just deliver speech, I can.
But what I do take very seriously is that I'm delivering
the word for the moment. And that way I always feel that
I don't ever want to just fall back on a word I could say when
there's a word that needs to be said.
And that moment and that way, because I won't let God become
common, I take very heavily. So it's not nervous in the sense
of like, oh, will I have a good speak?
Like, yeah, I'll have I'll say good things, but will it be the
right thing? That's what I make sure I
pursue. Will it be the word for the
moment? Will it be the word that these
kids need or that these people need in these seats will be the
word for today? Those are the way.
Because I refuse to let God become common in my life and I
refuse to let it just become like a background noise.
I refuse. To let the holy.
Things in my life become just background noise.
All right? Like I said, we can so quickly
kind of come in and have so much going on that worship just
becomes like white noise in the room because we're processing
our own thoughts. We're processing different
things that happen throughout. We're processing different
information. Next thing you know, you've
missed an entire experience with God because we just got caught
up in our own head, right? We want to set an expectation
when we come into service that we're ready to receive
something, that we're ready to hear something.
Because when I don't make it common and I count the cost and
God's victory follows behind us, right?
So we don't just want to take that invitation lightly.
We're not just taking a call lightly, but we're showing up
with our whole life. God's call will cost your whole
life, but the rewards of that cost is so worth it.
The reward of that cost is so worth it.