Called to Surrender || Victory Church [Who Is Jesus? #5]

Jesus said, you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that. He then added, very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Who is Jesus? I grew up, my parents divorced when I was very, very young and I made the decision that if I was perfect, my parents would be happy. Not fully understanding all the stuff that was happening at the time and I then used that with just about every other person that I connected with. That if I gave things or if I hit all the right notes or if I overachieved on a project, then people would like me. I just didn't really believe that people liked me for me. Kind of that happens as well when God blesses you with any sort of gift or ability and people see that, then you identify yourself by your ability to do that ability perfectly. Otherwise people see the small cracks and say, ha ha, see, you weren't that. So I used to work really diligently to be worth people's time and really just to see myself as someone that people wanted to be around. When Jesus interrupted perfectionism in my life, I realized I couldn't keep up the weight of being perfect. I was trying to do this and trying to be here for that person and keep all of this stuff in order, which then caused me to make some really bad decisions to find spaces where I could quote unquote be myself, which actually was the worst version of myself. And the Lord really caught me at some of my lowest moments. I almost lost my marriage, I almost lost my ministry. And he was like, Hey, do you see where you are? And I finally had to say, this is not where I want to be. The Lord and I had a really great argument and I said, Hey God, I'm doing all this stuff. All these people see me, I'm doing the right stuff. And he said, I appreciate that, but I never asked you for the stuff and I never asked you to be perfect.

I didn't send my son to die for your gifts. I gave you those gifts. My son died for your heart. So when are you going to give me what I paid for? And so that's when I started the process of learning not just to be a servant, but to be a son. When you submit yourself and surrender yourself to the Lord and actually surrender to his call, his call is not a profession. His call is not perfection. His call is surrender. So for many years, I thought that because I sing that my calling was to be a singer and to be the greatest Christian gospel singer that the world has ever known. And everyone's going to know me for that. And as I grew in my relationship with the Lord, I came to understand that responding to the call of the Lord has two pieces. One, it doesn't mean that what he called you to in one moment is calling you consistently. I've gotten to the place now and I'm in my relationship with him. I'm not just responding only to him calling me to sing in a moment. I respond to the fact that he's calling me to serve at all times. So that may mean singing in one moment. It may mean mentoring in another. It may mean being a great dad in another moment. It may mean preaching in another moment. All of those things are responding to the call of God. The second thing is recognizing that he never calls you to a specific title, but he always calls you to a perspective. Because I am learning to surrender and submit to him more, some days I might sing, but I'm not called to sing. I'm called to help create culture. And whether that's done via singing or loving on people or serving people or praying for

people or praying for myself and getting in my secret place to ensure that I'm prepared to do what he's calling me to do, that's what it takes. I'm not called to be a title. I'm called to be a vessel. He's the one that gets to pour in and I pour out. Who is Jesus? Jesus is my way, my truth, my life. I'm nothing without him. He's the one that constantly reassures me, constantly says who I am, constantly holds my hand and tells me that I'm loved. Thanks for being a part of Victory Church on the Pando app. We hope this content was a blessing to you. We want you to know that you're not done yet because we want to hear from you. So send us a letter and tell us things like what God is doing in your life, how we can pray for you, or even content that you would like to see us create in the future. We just want you to know that we see you, you're important to us, and we'd love to continue to create some things in the future that will bless you. Bless you. So send us a letter and we hope to hear from you soon.