ey, let’s give Jesus a good hand clap. Can we? Y’all glad to be here?
Well, man, it is so good to see you. So good to be with you. You can be seated.
And um yeah, I am a grandpa now. All the grandparents in the room say what’s up.
And we are all in a club that the rest of you know nothing about. And I did not know that the club existed until Gio
came uh just over a year ago. We just had his one-y year birthday recently. And I am addicted.
It’s all I want to do. Every day I’m obsessed. I’ve actually told the kids if if they would just allow me to move into the basement closet
and be a full-time nanny. Can I don’t know, can a guy be a nanny? You call them nannies? I don’t know. Um, so, uh,
he is he is our world and I’m so proud of of all of them. So, yeah, glad to be here with you and it’s an honor to me one that I get to spend time with you.
It’s always a privilege to look God’s people in the eye and encourage you and open up the word with you. Uh, but the
second reason is your pastors, Pastor Kevin and Sheila are are really a hero. They’re heroes of ours.
I can remember being a youth pastor sitting way back up in there looking at all these pastors that had these huge
churches felt this big.
But your pastor always encouraged me, loved me, helped me. He’s been a confidant. He’s been someone I could process with in a million different
ways. And so, uh, we love you, Pastor Kevin. uh Sheila, wherever you’re watching. I think she’s in Belleview, right?
So, thank you so much for being there for us and our families. We would not be that be where we are without you. And uh I
could say so many things about your pastor. He is proven. He is withtood the test of time. Uh he’s a man of
integrity, of course, wisdom and insight. Um he is a pastor’s pastor. He
is a man of of incredible tenacity. He is not a quitter. He does not give up.
He is full of just unusual amounts of courage. Uh insight, revel. We could
just keep on going. Of course, Sheila is uh a little shy, you know, a little timid.
Sheila is just I mean she’s like walks in the room and it’s like dynamite went off, you know, and she’s just incredible. So we we love you guys. You
inspire us. Thank you so much for leading the way. It really is a big deal.
If you’ve got your Bibles, turn with me to Philippians chapter 2 and I’ll get right to it. Philippians chapter 2.
And I want to say hello to all those hanging out with us in Belleview at the DuPont location at Yakama. Yakam. Yakama.
Yeah. What what’s wrong with me? I can’t pronounce normal words right, let alone city names. Yakama. And then of course
anybody that’s watching from online. I love the fact that the church is one church, many rooms. and that God shows up in the unique way that he does in
children’s rooms and youth rooms and nursery rooms uh all over the place in living rooms and hospital rooms. Isn’t
that amazing uh that God right now is speaking the same thing in so many different places and so uh so hello to all of you that are hanging out with us.
God bless you. Let’s give them all a good hand clap. Let’s all celebrate one another.
I want to talk to you about the raw material of greatness.
You know, if you have ever wondered, you know, what does what does greatness look like? How do I
how do I find it in myself? How would I find it in somebody else? If I were to look and try to see what is the raw materials of greatness, what would it
look like? Maybe even more importantly, what what does God look for when he defines greatness? I want to talk to you for just a few minutes on that thought.
Philippians 2, let’s look at verse 13.
For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Everybody say his good purpose.
To fulfill his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing.
You can just give a quick huh.
That’s the little aha moment or what do they call that? See moment.
See law. So that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.
We are living in that time.
I could say so much about that, but the bottom line is we are living in a time where the
generation that we live in is absolutely confused in a million different ways.
But this is what the Bible says. Then you will shine among them like the stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
then you will shine like the stars among them.
It’s impossible to miss that God guides us throughout scripture has always guided his people through stars. I’m not
speaking about astrology, but if you look back at Genesis chapter 15, God would take Abraham and he would say, “I
want to speak to you about how I’m going to use you.” you. And so he took him outside of his tent and he said, “I want you to look up at the stars and I want
you to start to count them.” And so Abraham looks up. He goes, ” 6
20 30 100. I don’t know how far he got, but at some point he gave up.” And he
said, “God, it is impossible to count all the stars.” And God says, “Exactly.
What I want to do in your life is innumerable. It is immeasurable. You can’t limit it. You can try to get out your calculator. You can try to get out
your tabulator. You can try to in some way measure what it is that I want to do in your life. But when I do something in someone’s life, they should put all that
aside because who I am and what I can do in someone’s life is without measure. It is without limits. It is nothing that in any way you and I can calculate.
And so he said, ‘Your seed will be like the stars in the sky. Abraham is the father of our faith. So we would be the
answer. We would be the fulfillment of that dream and that vision. We are the seed of Abraham. We are the stars
without number in the sky. In the same way that people can walk through the darkness of a night and look up and
receive guidance from the stars, they can look at the beauty of the stars.
They can grasp hope by just looking up at the stars. So it is with us in the midst of a perverse and warped and
crooked generation. In the midst of a dark world, people has God has a way of raising up people so they can look up
and see someone and somehow in the midst of their darkness, in the midst of their struggle, in the midst of their desperate places, they can look up and
find hope and find beauty and find light in the midst of their dark places.
And so God speaks through the stars. In Acts 2 and verse 19, we know the prophet Joel was
was referred to there by the Apostle Simon Peter and he talked about how in the end days or the last days, God will pour out his spirit on all flesh. How his sons and daughters will prophesy.
How the old men will have vision and the young men will dream dreams. But it doesn’t stop there. It says there will be wonders in the heavens above. Luke 21
and verse 25 Jesus himself said signs in the sun, the moon and the stars will be there in the last days. Psalms 147 and
verse4 teaches us that not only did God make the stars, but he numbered them and he gave them each their name. Trillions
of stars, he gave them each a name. The entire Bible message when we get to the New Testament is centered around Jesus
being born in Bethlehem. And the idea that God would light up a certain star out of all the billions of stars that existed or trillions of stars, he caused
one star to shine especially bright so the magi could travel 600 miles just by looking to this star to be their guide.
Jesus’s birth is centered around that sign in heaven, a star. Revelation 22
and:e 16 calls Jesus our bright and our morning star. I’m trying to get you to see that God is a star maker.
The opening verse said, “Hey, listen. In the midst of a crooked and warped and perverse generation, what I’m going to
do is I’m going to raise up people that will shine like the stars to their generation.” And God is still the maker of stars.
NASA says there are millions of stars born every day in the universe. An average of about one new star is born
per year and one star dies each year in the Milky Way. NASA estimates there’s about 100 billion galaxies in the
observable universe. Therefore, there are about 100 billion stars being born and dying every year. It corresponds to
about 275 million per day in the observable universe. In a simple way,
they say that all stars are a result of a balance of two forces. There is an inward force of gravity and then there’s
an outward force generated by the fusion reaction. And if these two forces remain stable, they remain equal, they remain
balanced, a star is born. So you have to have these two forces. There has to be a pull. There has to be this gravitational
pull and then there has to be an outward push. There has to be a pull and then there has to be a push. There has to be
a a receiving and then there has to be a giving. There has to be a a drawing in a filling up and then there has to be a
pouring out. And if those two forces are balanced and there’s the raw materials available, a star is born.
Now if these two forces are unbalanced is what’s called a supernova and a star
dies. The core of that star the very center of that star collapses and causes the star to explode and die. And there
are two reasons why the star gets unbalanced. The first one is when a star begins to steal matter from the other
stars and they gather more and more material, more and more. And the idea would be that the more material, the
more stuff, the more the more it can gather, the more it can gain. In our minds, that would make the star greater.
That would make the star uh shine brighter because of all that it’s amassed. But it says that that star
because it takes and takes and takes, receives and receives and receives, it becomes what’s called a dwarf star. And
because the dwarf star has so much matter, it collapses, explodes, and dies. All it does is receive. And that
actually instead of making the star greater, makes the star smaller and more insignificant. And eventually it’s completely gone.
Number two, a star runs out of fuel and collapses. In other words, this star just gives and gives and gives and gives and never receives.
It explodes and dies. So a star knows that there must be a balance of the pull
and the push. There must be a receiving and there must be a giving. If the star does not equally pull and then push,
equally receive and take in and then pour out, that star dies or it runs out of fuel and it burns out. So it is with
the stars, it is with us. There must be a balance of these two forces. A gravitational pull. Remember the story
of Martha? Remember how she begins to have an issue with her sister Mary because she’s not doing the work that Martha’s doing? And Martha’s just
pouring herself out, pouring herself out, giving and giving and giving. And then all of a sudden, she starts to get a little bitter on the inside. I don’t understand why she’s not working the way
I’m working, why she’s not investing what I’m investing, why she’s not giving what I’m investing. And Jesus had to correct her. Because there has to be a
gravitational pull. There has to be a desire to receive, to be filled up, to pull on God, to pull on his word, to
pull on his presence, to pull on his grace, to pull on his power, to pull on his word. That’s why we’re here today.
We’re pulling on the anointing. We’re pulling on the gifts of God. We’re saying, God, we know that we’re here today and that we’re going to go back
out to a world that’s filled with all kinds of difficulty, all kinds of struggle, all kinds of trouble, all kinds of problems. And while we’re here,
we need to pull on you so we can be filled up so we can go back out there and be poured out.
But remember, there must be an equal force to the receiving, to the pulling.
And that is we have to have equal to that an outward force that’s generated where we’re pushing to reach. We’re
pushing to serve. We’re pushing to say, “God, here we are. You’ve gifted us with all this time and these gifts and these resources, and you’ve given us breath,
and you’ve placed us on this planet for such a time as this. And our job is to push the gifts that you’ve given us into
a broken world. Our job is to be pushing to reach, pushing to love, pushing to do everything that we can to serve and give
ourselves away because of what you’ve given to us.
If we do not have a balance of the two, then our star potential dies. You see this in church life. You see this in
home life where someone just takes and takes and takes and pulls and pulls and pulls. You see this on jobs. You see
this in relationships. You see this in your body. You can see this in your mind. People are collapsing everywhere.
and they’re asking the question, how did I get in this kind of a place? Because you cannot just take. You cannot just
pull on others and never add value and never contribute and never give back.
Because even though you’re thinking the more you take, that means the greater you are or the greater life will be, the truth is just like that star, it dwarfs
you and it makes you smaller and smaller and smaller. But you also cannot just give, give, give, give, give give give
constantly and never refuel because eventually you’ll burn out.
But if we can balance the two out, which is my goal to talk to you about how we balance these two things out, then we can have stability and we can have longevity.
Paul said we are like a shining star in the midst of a crooked generation.
So God is still raising up people in this day like he always has to shine.
He’s saying, “I need to give you the keys. I need to give you the ideas. I need to give you the truths on what it’s going to look like as the world gets
darker and darker for my people to shine brighter and brighter.” And God does still make stars. Every single one of
you in this room are filled with immeasurable potential. You are significant not just to God but to his
purposes in the earth. It is immeasurable what God could do. If we could take some time and pull back the veil that is over each and every single
one of us where people see limits, where people see what you maybe can or can’t do. Maybe even the way you see yourself
is filled with limits. But if we could pull back the veil for just a minute and see what God sees, we would see all
across this room there are stars in the making. we would see star making material all around us. Right now, you
are sitting next to a star waiting to be born. And God wants to take each of us and he wants to raise us up to shine
like the stars in the midst of this crooked generation.
I want you to look at the person next to you and say, “You’re sitting next to a star.
I don’t look like it yet, but God’s trying to work it out.
We’re not talking about stars like those that are made in by Hollywood
who might get their name on a sidewalk for everyone to walk all over talking about how they’re great, who they are is great.
Not talking about your fame. We’re talking about the greatness of his name and living a life to make his name
famous. And any greatness we do receive according to the Bible, any greatness we
do receive, our job is to do what? Our job is to realize God has blessed us to be a blessing. And the Bible says if he
does give you greatness, it is so through you the nations of the earth can be blessed.
And so three thoughts, three thoughts on raw materials of greatness from Philippians chapter 2. The first one is the raw material of purpose.
Why are we here? What’s the point?
It said in that verse that God works in us to fulfill his good purpose.
His good purpose. The word works in Greek is energet which is where we get the word energy
from. And it speaks of a divine power that produces noticeable change moment by moment.
That there’s a divine power that’s at work within us that produces noticeable change moment by moment. It’s not an
event. It’s not a one-time thing. It’s not an overnight thing. But as you begin to allow God to work his purposes in
your life, you’ll look back over time at who you used to be and you’ll know that that was you. But you’ll hardly
recognize the way you thought, the way you went at relationships, the way you went at yourself, the way you went at trials and strug. You’ll look back and
you’ll say, “I know that that was me.” But you will see noticeable change that happens moment by moment. You and I are
here because God is doing something in us to fulfill his good purpose. And that
is where your purpose begins is when your why becomes bigger than you. It is his good purpose. When you find that
why, you find your way. When you find your way, you find your will. You find a determination. You find what Paul called the mind of the spirit in Romans 8:27.
It’s the divine power that lives on the inside of us that has a determination of its own. It has a a a mind of its own.
You can’t ignore it. You can’t push it aside. But when the spirit of God is moving on the inside of you, it has a mind. It has thoughts. It makes
decisions. It has ideas. It orders your steps and it orders your stops. It says, “Nah, now is not the right time to make that call. Now is the right time.” It
says things like, “No, that person, nothing wrong with them. Not evil, not demonic, but that’s not a destiny relationship. Don’t lean that way. This
one is. Pursue that. Do what you have to do.” And the the mind of the spirit is working within us to fulfill his good
purpose. Acts 20 and verse 22 says, “We are compelled by the Holy Spirit or Paul was compelled by the Holy Spirit to go
to Jerusalem.” In other words, the Holy Spirit told Paul, I want you to go to Jerusalem. There’s difficulty that awaits there. There’s going to be chains
and imprisonment. It could even get worse. There’s going to be beatings there. And even though Paul knew all of this awaited him, he was compelled, not
blindly. He wasn’t he wasn’t naive to what was coming. Clearly, with great detail, God said, “Hey, I need you to
go. It’s not going to be all great and wonderful.” And Paul, in spite of all the trouble that awaited him, was
compelled by the divine inurgio. He was compelled by the mind of the spirit.
There was a divine determination that pushed him no matter what he was facing.
And you and I are the same way. We will never fulfill our true potential unless we have a divine determination, that
inurgio on the inside of us that’s compelling us to say, “I cannot settle.
I cannot stop. I got to keep reaching. I got to keep pursuing. I’ve got to keep saying, God, I know that you want to
raise me up to shine like the stars, not for my own sake, but for your great name’s sake.
You’ll never reach a city as a church until you are compelled by the spirit to reach that city.
You’ll never reach a generation until you are compelled to reach your generation. I’m so grateful as we look
at team church and what’s coming this weekend that you as a church are compelled by the spirit to reach out to other churches. We are one of those
churches. We are in Cincinnati and we are beneficiaries of your willingness to be compelled by the spirit. It’s hard
work. It’s difficulty. It takes your team time. It takes effort. It takes energy. You have to open up your world.
You people have to serve. People take off time from work and they do all of these things and it doesn’t make sense.
Why are we giving to this church and that church? What about our church? What about our needs? What about what we have? But there is a compelling that
gets on the inside of you and you’re looking at the world and what’s going on. God’s saying in the midst of all these churches that are out there, I’ve
got to raise one up to be especially bright that others when they’re struggling and others when they’re down, they can look to that church and say, “That’s an example. That’s a model.
That’s one I can follow. They’re not giving up. They’re not quitting. They’re not compromising. They’re still reaching for the best. And that’s what we’re
doing. We’re compelled to do what we’re doing.
Acts 13:36, David, after serving the purpose of God in his own generation.
The Bible says he fell asleep. The only generation David could serve was the purpose of God in his own generation.
We cannot serve how it used to be. We cannot serve how we wished it would be.
We can’t serve the good old days. We can only serve what is. And we can only serve the purpose of God in our
generation. And you want to know what purpose is like? You want to know when he’s get he’s working that thing in you.
It’s it’s almost like grabbing a hold of a 220 volt wire. You get it and you just can’t let go. You want to let go. You
want to stop. It’s not always comfortable, but you just cannot let go when God gets a hold of your life.
I’m gonna for time sake, I’m going to jump to number two, the raw material number two of gratitude.
The verse starts out by saying, “Do everything without grumbling.” Do everything without grumbling.
So interesting to me. Then you will shine like the stars. The word grumbling in the Greek speaks of silent resentment and resistance.
It depicts an ungrateful or negative spirit.
This is so interesting to me because when we allow resentment, even if it’s
silent, or resistance to get a hold of us, we are immediately disqualifying oursel
from ever being able for God to raise us up to a place of greatness.
If you go back to Isaiah chapter 14 and it talks about Lucifer or Satan and we know the story, if you don’t know the
story, he was of all the angels, he was the most beautiful. He was the most powerful. He He had a breastplate filled with all kinds of beautiful stones,
emeralds and rubies and diamonds. And when he would lead worship in heaven, the glory of God would shine forth from the throne and it would hit that
breastplate and like a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors all throughout the heavens. This beautiful display of color would shine forth from Lucifer.
But at some point, the scripture teaches us he be to have some resentment and he be to have resistance. It wasn’t spoken.
It was just he felt like he should have something more. And the Bible says because of that he fell from heaven. And
the Bible calls him a fallen star. That silent resentment and resistance is the
very thing that caused him to stop shining in such a way that he would be a beautiful star in the darkness
of the universe. And people will never shine as long as they live in resentment and resistance.
So when God goes looking for greatness, he’s not looking for natural talents and abilities. He’s not looking for the
things that we think that you would look for. He’s not looking for the things that that many times the world is focused on. The outward appearance is
what the Bible says. When God goes looking for greatness, if he sees a grateful heart, he even says we
shouldn’t even come into his presence if we don’t do it with thanksgiving.
But when God goes looking, if he looks down, he sees a grateful heart. It doesn’t matter what you have in the natural. But if he sees that, he says,
“There is the raw material for greatness.” But you could be filled with all kinds of talent and opportunity and blessing and privilege and you name it.
But God comes walking by and he sees that resentful, resistant spirit. He looks by. He says, “You know what? Right now, they’re not quite ready. I’m gonna
let them figure some things out. They’re not ready for me to raise them up and do something great with them.” Second Peter 1 and verse 19 says, “We also have this
prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it as a light
shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the morning star rises in your heart.” He said, “This is a prophetic message.
Pay attention to it. It’s completely reliable.
If you want to know what the raw star making material looks like, ask yourself the question, how thankful are you? How
grateful are you?” Again, worship is all about the push and the pull.
The Bible begins by saying, “You enter his courts with thanksgiving.” Jesus taught us you pray like this.
Hallowed be your name. Hallowed be your name. It it it starts with an outward push. There’s there’s something where I’m just saying, God, I’m I’m grateful.
I’m not going to make it about me. I’m going to make it about you. Then you could say, “Give me this day my daily bread. I want you to forgive me. I want I want to pull. I need your forgiveness.
I need your Okay. Okay. Okay. But there has to be the outward push, right? The outward push of as you have forgiven others.”
Wow. Colossians 2 and verse 7 says that we are to overflow with thankfulness. It depicts something that pours forth from
your heart with zero effort. It’s almost impossible or very difficult at a minimum to hold it back or restrain it.
When you come into the presence of God, in spite of the trial, in spite in spite of the sickness, in spite of the home life that may be wrecked, in spite of
whatever it is you’re facing, you cannot help but say, “God, thank you. Thank you for what you’re doing in my life. Thank you that even in the midst of the
struggle or the trouble, somehow someway, you’re working all things together for my good. And I know that about you. And I know you’re faithful in spite of all this other stuff.
So greatness is only trusted in the hands of the thankful.
It’s the raw material that’s needed. But if God can find someone that’s thankful, he looks down and he says, “Greatness is
safe in that person’s hands.” Number three, the raw material of teachability.
It goes on by saying, “Do everything not just without grumbling.” It then adds without arguing. Then you will be like the stars.
The word arguing in the Greek speaks of inward criticism. It speaks of being unteable.
It talks about how you can have a madeup mind. There’s no curiosity. There’s no openness. You have a closed mind and a
closed spirit. You’re right. Everyone else is wrong. No one can teach you anything. This reminds me of what’s
happening in our world today. They call it cancel culture. And the idea is I don’t want to talk about I don’t want to have a conversation. I don’t care what your thoughts are on it. If you even in
the smallest percentage don’t agree completely with me, even no matter how bizarre it might be what I’m saying to you, you are immediately canceled and I
give you some crazy label that makes you look like the greatest demon on the planet.
So, I can’t dialogue. We can’t talk through things. I can’t try to understand one another. 1st Samuel 25,
David is protecting Nibal and he goes to Nibal. says, “Hey, listen. My men who have been protecting you are hungry. Can
we have some food?” He says, “No.” And the Bible in that chapter defines wickedness as this. No one could talk to
Nabal. You couldn’t talk to him. You couldn’t get through to him. There was just a wall immediately. Just no matter what you said, you were running into a
wall. And so here the Bible says that if you want to shine like the stars, you
have to remain curious and hungry. You have to still have something in you, no matter what’s going on, that you desire to learn and you desire to grow. You
want to be teachable. None of us know it all. None of us have it all together.
All of us are still learning. That’s the reason pastors are coming in because we’re all here to learn and to grow and realize we’ve got limits. We’ve got
areas where we need information. We need knowledge. We need wisdom. Daniel 12 and:3 says, “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the
heavens, and those will lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.”
Wisdom, Proverbs says, is the principle thing.
And the way it says you get wisdom is by in all of your getting, get understanding. Do you notice the pursuit? and all you’re getting and
whatever you’re pursuing, whatever you’re going after, whatever you’re hungrying for, hungering for more of, make sure that the principle thing is
you’re trying to get understanding and wisdom and insight. It’s more priceless in rubies than any precious stone.
Wisdom says, “I must stay hungry. I must stay in a place where I’m learning. I must maintain my teachability. I’m
always a student. I’m not just a teacher. I’m always going to school. I wake up every day and I get up and I say, “Where are my books? Where’s the
bus at? I’m going to school today.” Every day I must remain teachable.
And when God looks down, I want you to see this and I’m done.
He looks down.
I want to raise someone up. I’m looking for some raw materials.
And he says, “I can just find gratitude and someone that stays teachable.
No matter how broken the world gets, no matter how dark the world gets, I have the raw materials needed to raise that
person up to be an example, to be a ray of hope, to be a ray of light, to shine bright and bright and brighter in the midst of so much darkness.
any quitting point I’ve ever come to, any point I’ve ever said, “I can’t take the pain. This is too much. It’s gone
too far.” And sometimes even with God, I’m like, “You, you overestimated me on this one. I’m done.”
If I would humble myself and not overly focus on the one thing
that was causing pain and pull back, I see goodness there. I see goodness there. I see goodness there. I see goodness there. I see goodness there.
And if I could develop a grateful spirit even in the middle of what I thought was the worst thing I have ever faced.
And then right beside that I could say God I know I don’t get it.
And that alone tells me through this you are going to teach me something I didn’t know before I went through it.
And if I’ll maintain a teachability no matter what I’m going through I continue to pass test. I continue to go through
the and then what’s God do? He says, “Okay, I’m going to raise you up a little bit higher. I’m going to use you in a little bit more of a great way. I’m
just going to keep on doing it and then you’ll hit another pain spot. You have to humble yourself again.”
His divine inertio, that determination is at work within me for his good purpose.
And then he said this.
If you still don’t get it, hold fast to the word of life.
I want you to bow your head and close your eyes.
And I want you to imagine with me, the service is not over. This is to me the point of what Paul was talking about.
I want you to allow your mind to go with me for just a minute.
I really want you to to use the gift of your imagination and I want you to think through what Paul was saying. The world’s dark.
There’s all kinds of issues in our world and God needs to raise people up to shine like the stars. He needs to find greatness.
So he says, “If you want to know what greatness looks like, hold fast to the word of life. Hold fast to Jesus.”
The greatest star in the universe is not hanging in some expansiveness, some distant galaxy.
If you would go with me, we could find the star that’s being talked about. We’d have to
go to Jerusalem, go to the outskirts of that city, and look up to a hill called Galatha.
I know you’ve heard this before, but I want you to see it in this light. And there they hung Jesus on a cross.
And the idea, the thinking was if we can kill him, if we can stop him,
we can stop this light from shining in the darkness. So they beat him.
They tortured him. They tore his flesh from his body. Every lash was determined to stop the bright and morning star from shining.
Because the world had never seen a man loved like this. Not in the midst of love, not in the midst of honor, not in the midst of being celebrated. The world
had never seen a man love like this with nothing but hatred all around him. Now, I want you to look at that man.
I want you to see him broken. I want you to see him as he hangs there.
There’s no grumbling. There’s no resentment.
There’s no arguing. There’s no criticism.
There’s no cancelling. The more savage they became, the more Christ shined. And we still see that star shining 2,000
years later. And you know what that star is still doing? It’s teaching us. It’s calling us to have a divine determination on the
inside of us to shine in the midst of our generation. And by the way, that star, no matter what they did, never
ceased to shine. And the Bible actually says when we get to heaven, that the sun, the there will be no su n sun that lights up the city of the new Jerusalem.
It will be the sun, the s o n that is the light of that city.
And this is the bottom line. He didn’t die so we could just exist. He didn’t die so we could just survive. He didn’t die so we could settle and be some
mediocre group of people. He died because he’s still making stars. He’s still looking for the raw material of greatness so he can raise you and I up.
And if ever be, like never before, God needs some people that will say, “I’ll be that star in my family. I’ll be that
star in my school. I’ll be that star in my workplace. I’ll be that star as this church. We’ll be that star in Tacoma,
Seattle area. We’ll be that star in Belleview. We’ll be that star in Yakama.
We’ll be that star in Dupont. We God will be that star in our city and in our community. You can find a grateful people and you can find a teachable
people and you can find a group of people that have a divine inertio, a determination to say, “We’re going to
allow God to work his good purposes in our life.” But how does this work?
You can look at me real quick.
There has to be a pull and a push.
God, fill me up and then pour me out. That’s what Paul went on to say. He went on to say that
you can pour me out like a drink offering because of the service and sacrifice of
their faith. In other words, Paul because he had received from their sacrifice and their service,
he said, ‘Now God can pour me out like a drink offering. This is how it works. We
pull so we can push. We receive so we can give. We say, “God, fill me up. Not
to fill me up just for filling me up’s sake, but I have it in my mind so you can pour me out.” And that’s what we’re
asking God to do with you this week. I’m not your pastor, but I know the pastors that are coming. I know how far in over
their head they are. I know how they’ll come in looking like they got it all together, but they’re insecure and they’re scared out of their minds and
they’re going through just unusual amounts of pressure and they’re coming into this place. And we’re going to say, “God, this morning, would you fill us up? Would you would you fill us up?
Would you would you get us so full of your presence and your anointing? Would you get us so full of gratitude? Would you teach us whatever you got to teach
us so this week you can pour us out to help other churches? And you know what God’s going to do when he sees
that? He’s going to say, “Okay, now I found those people. I’m going to continue to raise them up like the stars.” Can we stand up on our feet? I
was standing on the front row this morning and I felt like the Lord told me a couple quick things.
Number one, I felt like there were some parents in here whose sons and daughters are lost. And I didn’t even know how it fit with my sermon, but I was like, I
felt like the Lord wanted me to say he’s going to he’s going to use you in an unusual way. And and it’s going to be
it’s it’s not, of course, we always know that, but I just felt like the Lord was saying, “Hey, I want you to pay close attention right now to every
opportunity, to every situation, to every conversation.
be sensitive to it because that light that you didn’t think was breaking through is going to break through.
And I want you as a parent to realize, listen, it’s not over. It’s not done.
God is using, he’s raised you up to be the star in that family in Jesus name. If you’re here and you
say, “Pastor, you I feel like the devil’s been attacking my children.” Just lift your hand up real quick. Just lift your hand up real quick. He’s been
attacking your family. You’ve been attacking your children. Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, I’m asking that you fill them up this morning. I’m
asking that you you completely overwhelmed them with your grace, with your love, with your wisdom. I’m praying that you give them even a vision now of
their son or their daughter coming back home. whatever stronghold the enemy has grabbed them a hold grabbed a hold of their life with. Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, we declare freedom.
Father, use them as a light in the midst of that darkness. Raise them up to be the star in that family. Father, I thank
you that they’ll remain grateful and teachable. and as they walk through this struggle and this dark time with their family. God, we thank you that you’re
going to use them to make those crooked paths straight in their famil family’s lives in Jesus’ name. We bless you and
we honor you. I don’t want to end yet, but can we just lift our hands right now and hold fast to that word of life? And can we sing this? Worthy is your name.
Come on, sing that with me.
Jesus, you deserve the praise. Worthy is your name.
Worthy is your name, Jesus.
You deserve the praise. Let’s pull on it. Come on, pull on his presence right now.
Every hand lifted, every voice raised. We can do nothing without you. You deserve praise.
Worthy is your name. Worthy, worthy, worthy is your name, Jesus.
You deserve the praise. Oh, worthy is your name.
Worthy is your name, Jesus.
You deserve praise. Oh, worthy is your name.
Oh, just want the the keys in the voices. Can we do that?
You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name.
Worthy is your name, Jesus.
You deserve a couple more times. He’s filling your name.
Bless you, Jesus. Fill every person.
Fill those who will serve this week back in the nursery in the children’s area.
Our youth leaders, fill this place with your glory. Praise God.
Worthy is your name, Jesus.
You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name.
Now, right where you’re at, can you ask God to pour you out? If you’re going to be a part of team church this week, just ask God to pour you out. Let him know
there’s no limits. You’re not going to measure it. You’re not going to say, “I’ll do this and not do that.” We’re just going to just completely give of
ourselves, not because of of any other reason than we’re being compelled by the spirit
to lift and to love and to serve in Jesus name. Heal pastors this week.
Heal some youth pastors. Heal some children’s pastors.
Lord, use this worship team to be a light, to be an example, to be a star to other worship leaders in Jesus name.
Humility and kindness, anointing and power, confidence,
blessed Jesus. Every eye is closed, every head is bowed.
There’s three things, three words they say that causes the human brain to light up. I love you.
I forgive you. And I like this last one. Dinner is ready.
And some of y’all are thinking, “That’s right. You got to shut up because I got lunch.
I love you. I forgive you. And dinner is ready.” Isn’t it amazing that the last thing we see Jesus do, of course, he sets the table. He breaks the bread.
Says, “This is my body. He takes the fruit of the vine. This is my blood. Dinner’s ready.
And the message of the cross is I love you and I forgive you. I love you and I forgive you.
With every eye closed, every head bowed.
Maybe you’re here today and you’ve never known the love of God. You’ve never known the forgiveness of God. Maybe you feel like you’ve been too far gone or
you’re too far away or there’s no way God could reach someone like you. Or maybe at one point you were close to God and you you’ve become distance and
distant and condemnation and guilt and shame has got a hold of you. I just want to announce to you that he loves you. He
forgives you. And you can come and partake of that grace. You can come and partake of that new life. Dinner is ready. You don’t have to go one step
further. Feeling empty, feeling hungry, feeling like you’re on your own. He’s prepared the table. Whatever you need
today, God provided a way for you to know he loves you. He’s for you. And he wants to forgive you at every location,
wherever you’re at. If you’re listening to me and you say, “Marcus, I’m not right with Jesus Christ. Jesus is not the Lord of your life. You’ve not put
your trust in him.” And today you need to. Today you want to. Today you need a new beginning. Today you would say, “I I know I need a fresh start. I can’t keep
moving in the direction I’ve been going.” But today you want to come home.
Today you want to get right with God. On the count of three, wherever you’re watching from, I want you to quickly lift your hand as high as you can. I’m
not asking you to lift your hand for my sake. I’m asking you to lift your hand and make a statement to hell. Make a statement to yourself. And most
importantly, be telling God, “God, I know you love me.
I know you’re here for me. And I need a new beginning.” On the count of three, would you quickly lift that hand and say, “God, I’m coming home in Jesus
name.” One, two, three. Lift that hand up as high as you can. Lift it high. Lift it high. Don’t put it back down.
Keep it raised. Keep it raised. You say, “I’m getting right with God today. I want to leave knowing I’m forgiven. I have a new start. I have a new beginning.” Lift that hand as high as
you can. All across this room with hands raised, I want us all to put our hands on our hearts. If you lifted your hand, I’m going to ask you to pray this prayer with me.
The Bible says in Romans 10:9 that you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth. So, I can’t determine the condition of your heart, but I can
lead you in a confession with your mouth. Just a real simple confession, and it’s that Jesus is God’s only son, and then he raised him from the dead.
It’s simple. It’s so simple it puzzles people. This is a supernatural miracle that’s about to happen. Old things, the Bible say, are going to pass away. And
behold, all things are going to become brand new in your life. And so, right where you’re at, put your hand on your heart. We’re all going to pray this with
you, but you have to make this a meaningful moment between you and God.
From your heart, say this with me. Say, “Jesus, I believe that you died on a cross and that you shed your blood for my sin.
I ask you to forgive me, cleanse me, wash me. I know you love me. Thank you
for making a way that old things are passing away and all things are becoming
brand new in my life. I believe that you’re God’s only son and that he raised
you from the dead. I surrender my life to you now in Jesus name. If you’re thankful for that, you believe that,
would you give the Lord a good hand clap and thank him for all these new beginnings today? Thank you.