Closer | Vision Month Part 1

My name is Earl and you have made your way to Vision, not just Sunday, Vision Month now. First time we've ever done a Vision Month. I am excited about this time together. I pray that your heart is already really encouraged. We've been praying for you that God would do something significant in your life today. So this is not just a normal Sunday. We believe that this is a strategic, important Sunday for every one of our lives. Turn to your neighbor and say, today's going to be a good day. Tell them today's going to be a good day. Turn to your second choice. Tell them it's going to be a good day. It's going to be a good day. Glad all of y'all are here. I got some high-level things I want to share with y'all real quick. First one is this. Here's a definition of vision that I love. It's my favorite definition of vision. It is, vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be. I did not come up with this. I stole it from somebody. Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that it should be. I'm not on the gram all that much, but when I am on there periodically, I'm scrolling through and there's inevitably some guy without his shirt on with a 14-pack eating a cookie. When this guy yells at me and he says, hey, stop, stop, you want to look like this and eat cookies? I'm like, you had me at cookies, bro. We'll click on the link here and then you could, so I click, just kidding, I don't. But the idea is, here's a vision.

You can look like me and I want to take you on a journey so that you can look like me. The world here is throwing out a lot of messages saying click on this and if you click on it, you can look like this. Now, the problem is a lot of these things are mirages. It's not actually true, but we all want something better for our lives. You want something better for your family? Want something better for your physical health, your mental health? Want something better for your finances? So we see these different pictures out there and we're clicking and we're looking because the vision is compelling us to want to do something. So we understand if you're starting a business, you got to have a vision for the business. You understand if you have a team that you're leading at your company, you got to have a vision for your team. Where are we going? A clear mental picture of what could be fueled by the conviction that it should be. Sometimes people disconnect this. They don't really ever have a vision for their dating relationship. Can I just encourage you? Make sure you do. What do you want your dating relationship to be about? Why are we even together? After we're done here, can we still be friends? What if we don't get married? Can we still go to church together or is one of us going to have to leave the church? You want to have a vision for your dating relationship as well. We're not here just to hook up. We're here to make it on earth as it is in heaven. We want people to see our relationship and we want them to think about the goodness and the grace of God. A vision there.

So every area of your life can have a vision and ought to have a vision. Some of us didn't have a dad growing up or didn't have a mom growing up or our parents were divorced and now we're like, I'm hoping, I'm hoping I can, I can break that cycle. You see a vision for your future. It's a clear mental picture of what could be and it's fueled by the conviction that it should be. That's what we see with Nehemiah. We saw Nehemiah, we looked at this all last month with the we're builders series. There was a wall that was torn down and Nehemiah had a clear mental picture of what could be and it was fueled by the conviction that those walls needed to be rebuilt. My concern with all the vision talk in our day and age is a lot of the vision talk has you at the center. It's about how to make your life better. How to make sure you get ahead and I hope you do get ahead and I hope your life does get better. That's my prayer for you for sure, but I am not here as some self-help coach. This is not some self-help church. This church here is centered on Jesus Christ and lifting him up. We're not a self-help church. We would be a God help church. God help God. We want you to be at the center. We want you to be at the center of our marriages and our finances and our relationships and our physical health and our mental health. We want God at the center. So here's the statement and the question I have for you today. The statement is this. God has a vision for your life. The question is, are you living your life? alignment with that vision. God has a vision for your life. But are you living

in alignment with God's vision for your life? Go with me to Jeremiah chapter 1. We ready to grow today? Jeremiah chapter 1 verse number 4. It says, the word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. There are four Hebrew verbs in here that we get and which they're obviously translated into English for us, but I formed you. Verb, I knew you. Verb, God is saying, I set you apart. Verb, I appointed you. Verb, God is saying all of these things to Jeremiah and dare I say, God is saying these things to us today that I formed you. I knew you. I set you apart. I appointed you. This is the vision that I have for your life. But now look at Jeremiah's response. Alas, Lord, sovereign Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak. I am too young. But the Lord said to me, do not say I am too young. You must go to everyone I send you to and say, excuse me, and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you, declares the Lord. God says to Jeremiah, I formed you. I knew you. I set you apart. I appointed you. He gives Jeremiah a vision for his life and Jeremiah gives an excuse. I can't speak and I'm too young. I see the vision you have for me, God, but I got an excuse of why I can't fulfill that vision. And we do the same thing Jeremiah does. God gives the vision and we give the excuse. God gives the vision. Write the book. And we give the excuse. No one's gonna read it. That was my excuse for years. God gives a vision. Hey, take the step of faith. And we give the excuse. I don't have the friends. I don't have the money. I don't have the education. I don't have the connections. God gives the vision. Lay down the dream. And we give the excuse. I'll be insignificant. No one will know me. This is my way to make a name for myself. God gives the vision. Get planted in church. Get connected. Get involved. And we give the excuse. I'm busy. Or I've been hurt before. And since I've been hurt before, God, I can't take that step. Over and over and over again, God is articulating vision. And over and over and over again, you and I are making excuses. So again, the statement and the question is, God has a vision for your life. Are you and I living in alignment with that vision? Not are you living in alignment with what your parents said

about you? Or even, how about this, what your pain says about you? Because your pain has a vision for your life, too. And many of us are living our lives in alignment with our pain and our hurts and our sins and our shame. And that is what is directing the course of our lives. And we are in alignment with that thing. But I'm praying today, in Jesus' name, that we would be a church family that would no longer align ourselves just with the different whims of today's culture. But we would be a people that says, God, you can have all of me. And I'm gonna follow hard after you with all of my heart and my life. I got some high level scriptures here to help you help crystallize for us what would be God's vision for our lives. Go with me to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, verse number 29. It reads, for those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. Here is the vision that God has for your life and for my life. To be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus. That means in every area of your life, as a father, as a mother, as a friend, as a business. leader, whatever area of life you are in, single, married, that you would be conformed to the image of Christ. That you would lead like Jesus and walk like Jesus and talk like Jesus and you would have an anointing and a power and a strength around you that when you walk into rooms that things change because you're not representing yourself anymore. You recognize that you're representing God when you walk into those rooms. He wants to conform you and I to the image of Christ. I don't know about y'all, but I feel like I got a long way to go. I look at Jesus and I read about his life and I go, okay, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. That's why we say discipleship is not a class you take. I can't give you a four-week class that's all of a sudden gonna make you into a committed follower of Jesus Christ. You're gonna look like Jesus in every area of your life. This is something that you and I sign up for for the rest of my life. Jesus says you take up your cross daily. It's not just some one-time thing. Yes, I got saved once, but God keep on changing me and rearranging me every single day of my life. Keep on forming me and molding

me. That's the high level here of what God's picture is for your life. For some of y'all this is brand new. You thought church was an add-on. You thought maybe you were doing God a favor by showing up at church. Little did you know that God gave you and I the very breath in our lungs and he's saying I want all of you. I don't want just your Sunday on an hour. I want your whole life to be conformed to the image of my son. Go with me to Romans chapter 12. A couple pages over. If you have your Bible, if you're scrolling in your phone just tap a couple times. Romans chapter 12 verse number 2. It says do not conform to the pattern of the world, of this world, but be transformed. Everybody say transformed. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Over the years I have had people say things to me like I want God's will for my life, but those same people also say in how they live I don't want God's way for my life. I want his will, but I don't want his way. I want God's will, but I want my way. I want God's will for my family or I want God's will to be married one day and have a fantastic husband or wife, but I want my way that I can sleep around with who I want to sleep around with. Come on don't get too quiet on me. I want God's will for my finances or God's will for my mental health, but I don't want God's way. I want God's will and God says forgive, but my way is to hold a grudge. And as you and I keep competing and fighting against God when he is saying hey I've got a pattern for you. I've got a way that I want you to operate in this world. When you and I get in alignment with his will, we all of a sudden say okay God I want my way, the way I live my life, the way I think, the way I talk to also change to get in alignment with your will and that's actually where you will begin to walk in newness of life. You and I right now have a lot of disconnect and since we have so much disconnect that's where a lot of times our mental health issues can come from or emotional issues can come from or relational issues can come from there. Not all the times but a lot of times because we're not living our lives in alignment with God's will and God's way. But we're told here don't conform anymore to the pattern of this world.

This world is trying to tell you how to be a man or how to be a woman. I don't want you conforming your way to that pattern. I've got a different pattern for you. I've got a way that's a kingdom pattern and I want you to get in alignment with this and as you and I stay in this word and learn and grow you see God beginning to mold and shape and going okay okay I want to deal with that. I want to deal with that. I want to deal with your attitude. Well this is how I am. Okay I know I know. I want to deal with that because you're not representing me properly in the world. I want to deal with how you get offended so easy. I want to deal with that. I want to deal with your victim mentality. I want to deal with that you think everybody is against you. I'm telling you I'm for you and if I'm for you I don't care who's against you. I can move mountains in your life. I want to deal with that in your life. I want to work on things and what God is trying to do is conform us not to the pattern of the world but to his pattern his will and his way. So this is the journey that you want that's why I love a Vision Sunday. I love a Vision Sunday. It helps reset us. It helps reset us from going through the motions. A lot of us are just living our lives day in and day out. I wake up, I go to the gym, or I don't go to the gym, or I'm thinking about going to the gym, but I don't go, and then I'm going to say, I'm going to go next month, and then we make our breakfast, or we fast until whatever time, because I'm doing my fasting, I've got a six-hour eating window, and whatever your flow is, we just kind of go throughout our day. But a vision Sunday, a vision month helps us go, whoa, time out here. Who am I living my life for? I don't want to live my life for my own vision. I want God's vision for my life. God, what are you saying about me? What did you call me to? What did you call my marriage to? What did you call me to as a man? I want to be in alignment with that for the rest of my life. And the reality is the world is not trying to encourage you to look more like Jesus. The world is trying to encourage you to look more like self, or look more like the flesh, or look more like the darkness. But thank God for his grace and his power that says, if you've been going your own way, you can start fresh and new today. Jesus gives us—I love Jesus so much. He is a second-chance kind of Savior, and a third-chance kind of Savior, and a fourth-chance kind of Savior, and a fifth-chance

kind of Savior. How high can you count? That's how many times Jesus will give you an opportunity to turn, because his grace and his power is inexhaustible. You have not sinned so much that God has now thrown you to the curb. He is saying, son, daughter, you're hearing this message. It's because I'm after your heart. Conform to my will and my way, and come alive again. And some of us, we've been on our own path, right? We've gotten off track. We're going our own way. And today is the day that you can get off of that dirt road of selfish ambition and temporary pleasures, and you're looking. You can see that there's a dead end there, but God today is inviting you to God's super highway of vision and purpose and grace and redemption. And you can get off that road that you're on and get on his road, because his yoke is easy, and his burden is light, and his mercies are new every single morning. And they're for you, not just for the person next to you, but they're for you right now. You're not too deep in the addiction or the pain or the brokenness. God is on your side, and he's bringing you to this moment to help you come alive again. I'm talking vision. God has something he's wanting to do in and through your life. Now go with me to another verse. Proverbs chapter 29, verse number 18. Y'all still with me? As you turn there, my Bible is NIV. It's the New International Version, and I'm going to quote this verse here from the King James Version. King James, this is back in the day. King James for you. Your grandma had that really big Bible. That's King James. In Proverbs chapter 29, verse number 18, says, where there is no vision, the people perish. There's no vision, the people perish. Now, I've been a Christian for a minute now, and I've heard this verse a bunch of times throughout the course of my life. Usually when I heard this verse, it had to do with like setting a goal for your life. Have a goal, because if you don't have a goal, then you're going to perish. And I understand that, and I do think there's some merit to you and I setting goals. I think it's a kingdom principle for sure, but this verse, as I've been studying it, is not just about you setting some goal or some target for your own personal life that you can meet. I want to lose 10 pounds, or I want to gain 10 pounds of muscle, or whatever. This here is more in line with the word that God would give to a prophet, a vision that God would give to a prophet. And He would give that vision to the prophet, sometimes for the prophet's own life, and many times the vision would not just be for the prophet, but for the people. But there was a download. There was a vision. There was a picture that God was giving that He wanted the people to receive. It's like when you read in Ezekiel, I believe it's chapter number 37, that Ezekiel the prophet has a vision of a valley of dry bones.

There are dry bones everywhere, and God asks the prophet, can these bones live? Ezekiel answers, I'm not sure. You know, God. God tells Ezekiel, I want you to begin to prophesy to dry bones. I want you to talk to the four winds and tell these four winds, come into these slain that they may live. Live and Ezekiel begins to prophesy and there's a rattling sound and and something that was dead Begins to come back to life The vision was not just to get out of that and I pray you do get out of that The vision was a picture that god had for his people and the prophet was called to articulate it Vision If you don't have it the bible says you you perish or you cast off restraint There's no boundaries with no vision Because once you actually get a vision a vision I wrote it down like this a vision demands decisions It demands decisions The second you get a vision And you're you're actually in on this vision. Like are you actually committed to it? It will demand you to make some other decisions If you got a vision for your physical body that you want to get in shape That it will demand that you can't eat a cookie every time you want to My strategy is to eat a cookie about two or three o'clock because then I think in my head Well, I can burn that by the time I go to bed That's what I tell myself in my head my belly tells me something different But but but whenever you get a vision It requires you now to say yes to some things and no to some things The vision demands that you make decisions if you don't have any vision then you can just do whatever if your company has no vision Then you're saying yes to every single opportunity But the the downfall of a lot of businesses is not that they had uh, uh, not enough opportunities It's that they had too many opportunities They didn't understand what to say yes to and what to say no to what a lot of people in their relationships The problem that we're having is we don't have a vision for the relationship and since there's no vision

We just say yes to everything and you're being pulled every which direction I am praying that in the name of jesus christ We would get such a vision download from heaven that it will demand we make some decisions So we don't live our lives just recklessly, but we go the direction that god is calling us to go I I can I talk to the men for just a quick second ladies. You can listen in on this, too I I do not like when I hear or when I see a man that is Calls himself a follower of jesus, but this man lives an apathetic Life, he lives a life of inferiority He lives a life where he just wants to sit back and just relax and this is not every man But i've seen it too many times that they don't want to take the initiative and just kind of Going through the motions and I just want to tell you the reason for that Sometimes is you don't understand the vision of what it means to be a man of god, you know You don't see a navy seal or an army ranger just floating through life Why because they understand the mission and the vision that they have for their lives and whenever you get a mission that compels you to do Something you can't put everything in your backpack There's some things that you have to leave behind Because you can't carry that extra weight on the mission that god is trying to take you to And too many of us don't have a clear picture and since we don't have the clear picture We're just adding everything into our backpack and no wonder we're so weighed down get a vision for your life It'll help you understand that I gotta say no to that. Yes to this and be who god has called me to be Now it's not just for the men. It's for the women, too But I want to make sure When we read this verse here we understand That this not this is not just about your life goal It's about what is god speaking to his people So our church now is 14 years old It has gone by so fast, uh I remember when we started and it was just a couple of us in a living room And to see what god has done over these 14 years

I i'm shocked and blown away just like anybody else and i'd love to take credit for it like oh i'm awesome I love that But I know I'm broken down on the side of the road It's been the grace of god and a beautiful team that has helped put all of this together It's been miraculous and holy in so many ways serve team and staff team but over these uh years Uh, we always had our our like vision statement as a church Which is connected to the great commission Jesus says go into all the world to make disciples of all nations we have Adopted that from matthew chapter 28 and and made it our own and we would say it like Oh, we're gonna we're here to raise up christ-like leaders who make it on earth as it is in heaven That's our way of just Contextualizing what jesus called all of us to be doing but inevitably Almost every single year since the beginning of the church Underneath that overall vision and mission that god has given us God has spoken a word, sometimes it's a phrase that helps shape the course of a given year. But over the years, this is not something that I've been trying to think of some cool slogan or something catchy to kind of get people's attention. I don't feel like we need any gimmicks. The gospel is strong enough to do what it needs to do. But inevitably, the Lord would just drop some things in my heart, a prophetic vision, something for the people, for me, for the church family. And in years past, the word or the phrase, it's almost been like an explosion.

It's like something so powerful, it kind of shakes things. But this year, I didn't get a word like that. I didn't get a word that was like an explosion. I got a word that's like an arrow. It's very precise, very specific, very intentional, very pointed. I'm praying as I share it that our hearts would be open and our ears would be open to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Because this is, if you call Shoreline City home for every single one of us. And the word that God spoke to us and to me this year is the word closer, closer. I heard it so clearly in my soul. And this is a vision that if we say yes, will help us to live our lives in alignment with God's dream for our life. And not just our own dream. Go with me to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation 22, verse number 17. The Spirit, man, I can sense God's presence even in this moment. The Spirit and the bride say come. And let the one who hears say come. Let the one who is thirsty come. And let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. You see the Spirit saying come. Then the bride saying come. Then everybody in the earth who's hearing,

they're saying come. Then it says everyone who's thirsty. And shoot, don't we live in a day and age where people are thirsty? Man, thirsty for so many different things here and all these things that are so temporary but we're not being offered here a bottle of Dasani or smart water. No, we're being offered the living water that flows from the throne of God and the life of Jesus Christ. And this is a type of water that actually satisfies a soul. The Spirit is saying come and the bride is saying come and everybody in the earth is saying come. And as we all are hearing this, we're being drawn closer. I asked God, give me some understanding of this word for us as I'm on my knees and writing in my journal and have my Bible open. And I felt God helping to define this word closer because if I don't define it, you will. And it can become something different than what God was intending it to be. So closer for us means this, closer to Christ, closer to his church, and closer to his mission. Closer to Christ, closer to his church, and closer to his mission. Closer to Christ. I do not have the aim or the goal to get you closer to me. My aim and my goal as the pastor of Shoreline City

is to get you closer to Jesus. I am so passionate about this that I want your heart to be so wrecked with love and connection and devotion and zeal to Jesus that when your prayers are answered, you keep on. following him, and when your prayers aren't answered, you keep on following him. I want you to have a faith in Jesus that is unshakable and immovable, that if everybody else around you chooses to turn and go another direction, you will still be standing there or kneeling there with your hands held high and your voice lifting loud, saying, Jesus, you're my everything, where else can I go? You alone have the words of eternal life. That's what I want running through the veins of your life. I want you closer to Christ. The reason we have growth plans and invite you to go to join and have masterclasses and do all these things, we're not trying to give you boxes to check. We're trying to help you get closer to Christ, and I don't want you and I dumbing down Christianity to be I go listen to some person talk on Sunday and there's my box to check. You weren't called just to listen to somebody teach. You were called to follow the way, the truth and the life and to live your life for something greater and bigger than just a temporary. Closer to Christ, closer to his church. Please stop doing this thing that I hear people doing

and they're trying to disconnect Jesus from his church. When you read the New Testament, the followers of Jesus were called a number of different things. Initially, we were the ones who were a part of the way, and then in Antioch, you can read this in the book of Acts, that's when we were first called Christians. These little Christ, these followers of Jesus, and then the Bible used some other language, the Bible used some other language like a body, and no body walks around without a head. If Christians are the body, Christ is the head, but then there's this other language that's used, and it's called the church as a bride, and Jesus is the groom. I ask you, is there any husband that you would say is a good husband that looks at his wife and someone is talking bad about his wife and he just stands there? Any husband that you would respect would see people demeaning, disrespecting, disregarding his wife, and he's just gonna sit there and let it happen. That's not a good husband, that's a punk. That individual, come on, come on, can we be real here? As a husband, you step up for your wife, you have her back, and not only that, any great husband is trying to help his wife be all that she's called to be, trying to lift her and cover her and support her and speak life over her and help her be

and walk in the fullness of Jesus's call for her life. Our wonderful son, our oldest son, we got two great sons, but our oldest son is now married. This is crazy, I can't even believe it. We are so excited about this, and he's been married for just almost a couple months now, and to have a daughter-in-law is amazing. I actually now like my daughter-in-law more than I like my son. It's awesome. Angel is a literal angel. We love her so very much. It's been so fun to watch Parker with Angel, and when he sees someone talking to Angel, and they are encouraging Angel, and they're speaking life over Angel, Parker does not feel diminished. Parker smiles, puffs out his chest a little bit. That's my girl. There is this joy that comes to him when he sees his bride being celebrated, because he's a good husband, and for whatever reason, some of us in our day and age are spitting on, disrespecting the bride of Christ, and why would you think that any good husband like Jesus would just let that continue to happen? No, this is the bride, the husband, that has a double-edged sword that can come out of his mouth and shut down what needs to be shut down at any point in time, so when we're talking

about the church, we're talking about the bride of Christ, closer to Christ, closer to his church, and closer to his mission. The mission, for some of us, is for our career to take off. And again, I hope your career takes off. Maybe you don't have a job right now. You're like, man, I'm on Indeed right now. Shoot, I'm waiting for that text back. I'm waiting for that notification. I hope you get the best job you've ever had this year. I'd love that for you. I hope if you're starting a company, or if you're running a company right now, that you set records in the best way possible this year. That is my prayer and my dream for you. I want you to flourish. But understand that God's ultimate mission for your life and my life is not for our thing to be elevated. If our thing is elevated, it's because God is wanting his kingdom to advance in that thing and to influence the people that are on the other side of it. So when we talk about the kingdom of God, understand that we're talking about heaven coming to earth in a person and around a person. So if you have a company, as the kingdom of God grows in you, when you step into your business, the kingdom of God is there. And you're now there to establish that said kingdom in your place of employment. If you are just an employee and you're like, man,

I don't run the company. Don't don't dare think you get to take a step back. You don't get to take a step back. The kingdom of God is in you. And when you walk in with your coworkers, you are establishing the kingdom of God there. That's why you don't get in the same gossip that everybody gets into. That's why you're not talking about people behind their back because you're a kingdom ambassador. When you go to your job, everybody else is trying to cut people off at the knees and disrespect people. But you and I don't do that because we're not of this world. We're of another world representing a different kingdom. So when everyone else is trying to stab each other in the back to get ahead, you're actually the one that's celebrating other coworkers and people like, what are you doing? Because you understand that God is the one that promotes you. It's not a man or a woman that promotes you. It's God that will elevate you when he wants to elevate you. So I live my life differently because I'm living with the mission to make it on earth as it is in heaven. Can I talk about missions trips for just a quick second? This year we're taking a few trips that I'm really, really excited about. We're going back to Kenya. Can't wait to go back to Kenya. We just purchased that 10.1 acres of land over there and are

in the process of putting a big fence up around it to make sure all the stuff we build there is going to be safe and sound and protected so we can serve the community really, really well. So we're going back to Kenya. We're going back to Guatemala as well to build some houses there in Guatemala. And we're doing something this year that we've never done before and I'm so excited about this. We're going to do our first ever family mission trip. What is that? What we're going to do is ask moms and dads and their kids to serve together. The first one here is just going to be local here in Dallas. But we're going to go into the community and help feed people and clean up things and build things and moms and dads and their kids. And we're going to do this together and pray together. We'll have a devotional time together so the whole family can move forward together. I can't wait to see this happen. Now as we jump on, and if you want information on that text mission, it's the 72,000. I think that's behind me. But as we are on this journey to make it about Christ, closer to Christ, closer to his church, closer to his mission, I've got about, I've got one story and one scripture to share with you real quick. Go with me to Mark chapter 10.

Mark chapter 10. Y'all still with me? Mark chapter 10. We can start off with verse number 48. This is the story of blind Bartimaeus and he's shouting out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And verse number 48 tells us, many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus stopped and said, call him. Everybody say call him. So they, whoa, here's the word again. Call to the blind man. Cheer up on your feet. He's, here's the word again, calling you. Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. This might sound elementary, but I think it's very, very important. When blind Bartimaeus was called by Jesus, he does not throw his cloak aside and move away from Jesus. The calling brought him closer to Jesus. I have found over the years people telling me that Jesus has called them to do said thing but when I look at their lives they are not closer to Christ they are not closer to his church and they're not closer to his mission so I think one of two things has to be true either Jesus did not call you to do that or you're living out your calling incorrectly because anytime Jesus calls you move closer go with me now to Genesis chapter 3 here's our last verse

for today then we got a new song we're gonna share with all of you Genesis chapter 3 verse number 8 first book of the Bible Genesis 3 8 then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden look at me for just a moment Adam and Eve have sinned God comes to move closer to them in Adam and Eve are now hiding but this jumped off the page at me look where they're hiding they're hiding amongst the trees of the garden the very place that God gave them as a gift is the place where they are now hiding and I thought about how many of us have received gifts from God and we're hiding from God behind the gift the promotion was a gift from God and now you're hiding from God behind the promotion the child was a gift from God and now you're hiding from God behind the child the relationship was a gift from God and now you're hiding from God behind the relationship God did not give you that gift so that you would move further God gave you that gift so that you would move closer to him closer to Christ closer to his church and closer to his mission so I gave the team kind of an impossible task I thought I said hey can we write a song called closer and it be have all these themes in it it tell this story just through song like it'll have this revelation part in it and can I have blind Bartimaeus part in it can I have coming out of hiding and Genesis in it is this even possible and I threw it out at the team they prayed and got together and we started working and the the reason I asked for this is songs have a way of of capturing hearts in ways sometimes just talking can't so the team wrote the song together and I want you to hear it and I pray it washes over your heart and as you listen I pray that all of us begin not just a 2026 journey of drawing closer but we would draw closer for the rest of our our lives the lead is taken you'll be where you are the world is full of options many roads to take but Jesus is our focus

in this moment we pause and wait return from the distractions We lay our pride aside Jesus be our anchor In your presence we come alive All who hunger and thirst Come and drink from the well The Spirit is calling, calling us closer So come out of hiding and lay down your burdens Jesus is calling, calling us closer He is calling, He is calling Our eyes stay fixed on Jesus Our fullness on display Our hands are in surrender In this moment we pause and wait Jesus, we are living in your love Walking, walking in your glory Come reveal your power We were made for your story We were made, we were made for your story All who hunger and thirst Come and drink from the well The Spirit is calling, calling us closer So come out of hiding and lay down your burdens Jesus is calling, calling us closer Oh the Savior is calling, He's calling us Closer to Christ, to His church and His mission All our hope is in Christ Our deep love for His bride When He calls, we will go

Where He leads, we will follow All our hope is in Christ Our deep love for His bride When He calls, we will go Where He leads, we will follow All our hope is in Christ Our deep love for His bride When He calls, we will go Where He leads, we will follow All our hope is in Christ Our deep love for His bride When He calls, we will go Where He leads, we will follow All who hunger and thirst Come and drink from the well The Spirit is calling, calling us closer So come out of hiding and lay down your burdens Jesus is calling, calling us closer Oh the Savior is calling, He's calling us closer When you call, we respond to you To Christ, to the church and His mission Calling us closer All our hope is in Christ Our deep love for His bride When He calls, we will go Where He leads, we will follow All our hope is in Christ Our deep love for His bride ♪ Because we will go where He leads, we will follow ♪ ♪ All who hunger and thirst, come and drink from the well ♪

♪ The Spirit is calling us closer, so come out of hide ♪ ♪ You can lay down your burden, Jesus, Jesus is calling you ♪ ♪ He's calling, calling us closer, oh, He's calling ♪ Some of us are coming to new life, even in this moment. Coming out of hiding, you can sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I don't want that to turn to guilt or shame. Do not allow when the Holy Spirit is trying to draw you closer for your mind or the enemy to twist that into you hiding even more. Even when you're convicted, it's an invitation that God is saying, come on home, son or daughter. You can start again. If you wouldn't mind, family, bow your heads. I'm asking that the grace of God would capture our hearts in such a profound way that there would be a zeal and a revival in this church to draw closer. But what needs to be done, we're not trying to manufacture ourselves. It's a work of the Spirit deep within us. So Lord, we give you permission, not that you need it, but we give you permission. Come on in and draw us closer. Take us out of hiding. Remove the shame and the guilt. Rearrange our priorities and help us to live in alignment with your vision for our lives. As your heads are bowed just for a moment,

online in this room and additional seating, if you have never given your heart and your life to Jesus Christ, today is the day. You already sense God's grace working on your heart. That's not just some butterflies and those aren't just random goosebumps. That is the Lord saying, son, daughter, it's time for you to come home. If you're under the sound of my voice and maybe there was a time you were following Jesus but you slipped away, you've gone another direction. And today you're saying, I don't wanna go my own way. I wanna go the way of Christ. I wanna rededicate my life to serving Christ. So if that's you, you've made that decision. So if that's you, you've never given your heart to Jesus or at one point in time you did and you slipped away. And today you're saying, I don't wanna go my own way. I wanna go his way on the count of three. I want you to do something simple, but something bold. I just want you to throw your hand in the air. That's a sign of saying, God, I hear you talking to me. I wanna give you my heart and my life. Ready, one, two, three. Just lift your hand up. You're saying, yep, that's me. That's me, I'm giving my heart to Christ today. And for the first time, I'm rededicating my life to serving Jesus. Lift your hand up high.

You're saying, yeah, God, it's me. I want you to have me. I want you to have all of me. I'm turning for my own way and I'm going your way. I'm gonna ask everyone to do me a favor. Put your hand over your heart if you would not mind. Please repeat this prayer out loud after me. Say, dear Jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all my sins. I admit I've made mistakes. But today I give you my heart. I give you my life. Give me the power to live for you. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Can we lift our heads up, clap our hands. Come on, church.