Stewardship

There's a lamp unto my feet. Your way is the only way for me. There a world that leads to a life I want to be on it. There a world that the mercy is wide, because you're good on your promise. I'll take you as your word. If you said it, I'll believe it. I've seen how good it works. If you started to complete it, I'll take you as your word. [Music] You just go and the chaos fell in a light. [Music] I know, 'cause I've seen it in my life. [Music] There a world that leads to a life I want to be on it. [Music] There's a mirror on the tireless side, and you're part of your wonder. I'll take you as your word. If you said it, I'll believe it. I've seen how good it works. If you started to complete it, I'll take you as your word. You said it, I'll believe it. I've seen how good it works. If you started to complete it, I'll take you as your word. You're good on your promise. I'll love you. You're good on your promise. Take it out. You said your love will never give up. You said your grace is always enough. You said to your heart, you'll never forget your first name. You said I'll say, you call me yours. You said my future's full of your hope. You never fell, 'cause I'll know that you'll never fail. You said to love will never give up. You said to your grace is always enough. You said to your heart, you'll never forget your first name. You said I'll say, you call me yours. You said my future's full of your hope. You never fell, so I'll know that you'll never fail me. I'll take you as your word. You said it, I'll believe it. I've seen how good it works. If you started to complete it, I'll take you as your word. If you said it, I'll believe it. I've seen how good it works.

If you started to complete it, I'll take you as your word. You get on your promise. You get on your promise. You get on your promise. I'll take you as your word. [applause] [music] I feel it to flam, let's see what we can do. How you will be my shame Oh, my way, I have a soul Oh, I'll always stay You're still in control, I will not be afraid I'll clear back up and save You, come on, sing The Lord is free The Lord is free of the present In my hour of need The Lord is free Yes, He is And you never said it wouldn't be fine You promised that you would be right by my side No matter how it seems I can't believe, shall we? The Lord is with me The Lord is with me Ever present In my hour of need The Lord is with me Come on, the Lord is with me And the Lord is with me Ever present In my hour of need The Lord is with me

Yes, You are Come on, praise Him right now If the Lord is with you and you believe that, praise Him Thank You, Lord The fear may tell me to tremble I'm not gonna bow I may be throwing to find a unicorn But I'm gonna walk out The heat of the flame won't consume me It's nothing but smoke And it may look like I'm surround But we know that I'm not alone The fear may tell me to tremble I'm not gonna bow I may be throwing to find a unicorn But I'm gonna walk out The heat of the flame won't consume me It's nothing but smoke And it may look like I'm surround But I'm not alone The Lord is with me The Lord is with me The Lord is with me Ever present In my hour of need The Lord is with me Come on sing it to The Lord is with me The Lord is with me Ever present

In my hour of need The Lord be telling me to tremble I'm not gonna bow And I may be doling to find her But I'm gonna walk out The heat of the flame won't consume me It's nothing but smoke And it may look like I'm surround But I'm not alone The Lord is with me The Lord is with me Come on you sing Come on and buy this presence in here The Lord is with me (singing in foreign language) ♪ This what we're learning is with you ♪ ♪ We're swinging about your presence ♪ ♪ We're in about your presence ♪ ♪ Overtakers today ♪ (humming) Come on, let's keep that going. Let you're with us today. We invite your presence in this room. Come change our minds and change our hearts. Come change the position that we stand in, Lord. God, no matter what the enemy has stacked against us, Lord, we know that you're bigger, you're stronger, and there's more of you than there is of Him. So God, today, we just declare over every anxious thought,

bow in the name of Jesus. We declare today over every stressful habit, bow in the name of Jesus. We declare today over every fear, bow in the name of Jesus. And we declare today that the Lord Jesus is above all, through all, He has created all, He is the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end, are the author of our salvation. And God, we just declare today that you have authority over this room. You have authority over our minds, you have authority over our hearts. Come on, some of y'all just need to sing that chorus again. ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ Come on, sing it to me. ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ Come on, lift it up louder ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ ♪ The Lord is with me ♪ - God, we thank you that you never leave us. You never forsake us. Lord, you're walking right by our side through the fire and the flood. And we give you glory and honor. And all of God's people said, "Hey, man."

Come on, come on, give him praise this morning. Give him praise. (congregation applauding) - So real quick, you guys can sit down, that's fun. (laughing) Hey, I want to say a special prayer for our worship leader's wife, Brooklyn. She had to be carried out today into an ambulance to the hospital. And so let's just, can we all just pray and just lift our voices to the Lord for her healing? Let's pray right now. Heavenly Father God, we lift up our voices to you right now as a church. And we pray for Brooklyn. God, we pray that you would heal her body. We don't know what's going on. God, you do. And so Father God, we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit and the stripes that were on Jesus' back. Lord, you said, "By your stripes, we are healed." And we declare healing over her body right now. Even as we pray God, let it enter her body. Lord, your peace, your comfort and your healing, Lord Jesus. God, we give you the glory, we give you the honor and we give you the credit. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you guys for praying with me. So, hey, a couple of things. We took the scrubs off the bench.

I'm leading worship today, huh? That was, it felt weird, y'all. I'm not gonna lie, it felt weird. (laughing) (congregation applauding) So, real quick, we got two awesome things coming down the pike. Number one, next Sunday is what? Can somebody help me? Connect one. If you are a new visitor, if you are new to our church or you just haven't had time to get down to connect one, next Sunday is your Sunday at 1130 at the pavilion. Make sure that you sign up and you get to it 'cause we'll be able to meet Pastor Pacer and Connie and some of the staff. Also, you may just come for this. I don't know, Cracker Barrel. So, biscuits and gravy, that's the only reason I come. You know, I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. And then also, our membership ceremony is going to be this coming worship night. And I don't want you guys to miss it, so make sure that you sign up for that. And if you don't sign up, you just want to be a part of it, let's come celebrate all the new people that are joining our church, because that's crazy. It's crazy. I wish y'all could see the numbers. I don't have the numbers on me. It's going to be awesome and obviously a night of worship, right? So we get to lift up the name of Jesus to the highest, and so we're excited about that. Also, if you're a new guest with us today, there should be a connect card in the back of your seat.

Make sure that you fill that out, drop it in the bucket on the way out, because we want to connect with you. We don't want you to just be in the back row, slip in and slip out, right? We want you to get connected to the church, and here's why. The Bible tells us that we are all parts of the body of Christ. And when we use our giftings as the body of Christ, it pushes the church forward. So it is so important that you connect with the church and you start using your gifts here. And so make sure you do that. Secondly, we have free Bibles for those of you who make the best decision of your life. Let me tell you, it is the best decision of your life to make Jesus the Lord of your life. And if you do that today, there is a station out there with Bibles. Make sure you pick one up, and that's what they're there for, to make sure you can read God's Word so you can carry it around to Kroger, and Walmart, and Target, and all those places. And so you can spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, amen? All right. And then finally, real quick, this is our time of worship to the Lord. Not just in song, but from our pocket books today. And here's what I want to do. A lot of times, there's a stigma around giving, but honestly, I see it as worship for myself. When I give, it's a worship. I love it. Does that make sense? It actually brings me peace as I release to the Lord. And honestly, if you guys have never done that before, today's the day. You know, the Bible talks about the woman who poured out all the anointing oil, all of her perfume on Jesus' feet. And it was seen as a waste. Can I tell you something? Anything that you spend on Jesus is never wasted. It's never wasted. Now listen, I'll tell you what is wasted when you spend it on Netflix. When you spend it on Burger King and their new chicken nuggets, y'all see that commercial?

I don't believe it. I don't believe they're that good. All of those things are wasted, honestly, right? But here's the deal. When we give our funds and our ties and our offerings to the Lord, not only does it make us feel good, but God multiplies it beyond our comprehension. Let me tell you something. Some of y'all are funding going in to over 800 correctional facilities. That's what your ties and your offerings are doing. And I just want to remind you that at this church, we give, give, give. We give to our community and we give to those that are hurting and broken. So here's the deal. Whenever you release your funds, it goes beyond what you could even perceive as to what could happen. And I have actually personally read some of these letters from the jails. Let me tell you something. There are people getting saved. There are people leaving years of addiction. There are people walking here from the prison to come in here and be, right? Come on, somebody, come on, stand up. Stand up. This is a living testimony of what giving does. Thank you, bro. Look at that. He's got the parking team thing on. Let's go. That wasn't even planned, y'all. Let me tell you something. When you give, God will do more than you could ever imagine. Let's go and release what he's, by the way, what's already his. Release it back to him today and see what God does with him.

All right. So we're going to stand up because I think this is a time of worship to the Lord. We have several ways to give. We have a tap tag on the back of the seat. We've got offering buckets in the back. You can give on our website. You can give on our app. There's so many different ways to give. But here's what I would have you ask the Lord. What do you want me to give today, Lord? As we pray, I want you to ask that question to him and listen to, let's pray together. Heavenly Father God, we give you our worship today. We give you all of our life, not just the peace of it. We give you our finances, God. We give you every single part of our home. And Lord Jesus, we ask you to multiply what we give. God, do more with it than we could ever imagine. God, allow the kingdom to expand as a result of giving. And Lord Jesus, I pray for every person that has a weird feeling about giving because Satan has convinced them that it's not godly. Lord, I pray that today you break that chain in Jesus' name. I plead the blood over their mind and I plead the blood over their heart, give them a conviction from you, God, that could only come from you. In Jesus' mighty name we pray, amen. (upbeat music)

- Welcome Revolution Church, I'm Whitney. And this is Amanda. And we are so thankful that you're here today. If this is your first time visiting us, we are so grateful that you're here and we would love to welcome you and we would love to give you a free gift. If you can stop by the connect table and the foyer, we can do that for you. Also, if you are a new believer and you have made the best decision of your life, we are so excited for that. And we wanna give you a free Bible and we also wanna talk next steps. So please go to the foyer at the new believer table and we can do that for you. If you've missed anything that we talk about here today, feel free to go to our website or the QR code and you can register or look at any information there. Also, we have connect one next Sunday. This is when Pastor Pacer's there with his wife Connie and you're able to come and meet them. So this is really important to get connected with the church. You can meet them and hear about their vision and their heart for the church. Not only can you meet them, but you also meet the elders and some of the staff. It's really wonderful. So you register on the app for that. Yes, and also join us for a membership celebration.

Worship night, October 7th at 7 p.m. We will have snacks and we'll have certificates. We'll also pray for the new members along the same lines. Remember that we have worship team open auditions on next October 29th, next month, sorry. For more information, go to the church center app and you can register for that, yes. And we do have trunk or treat coming up October 24th. That's five to seven and you can go and register on the app to host your trunk. So there's so much going on. It's very, very exciting. It's wonderful. At the end of the service, if you need prayer, the prayer team is always available for you. Yes, and I think that's all we have for today. So please enjoy the service. [MUSIC PLAYING] How's everybody doing today? You doing good? Man, it's great to see you all in the House of the Lord. Welcome to Revolution Church. Come on, somebody. Anybody come to worship today? Anybody have a reason to praise the Lord, amen? So much. I'll tell you what, I'm going to give you about 30 seconds. Introduce yourself to three new people you've not met before. Come on, you've got to stand up, get up, move around, three people, introduce yourself.

Don't forget their names and while they're doing that, I want to welcome all of you that are joining us online, streaming today. Thank you so much for being our guest. We appreciate you. And I would love it if you would do me a favor and consider sharing the link, because what happens every single weekend, when we share these links, we're seeing people come to Christ, born again, saved for the first time. And so, if you're not mind doing that, just share the link, tell someone about it, tell them to join the service today, because I believe God has a word, not only for you, but also for those people who will be joining us today. All right, man, it feels good to be in the House of the Lord. Can I hear an amen if you believe that? All right, help me welcome everybody that's streaming today. All those that are watching from live stream, including the correctional facilities. Come on, somebody listen to me today. We've added 57 new prisons, 57 new correctional facilities. That puts the total at 945, 48 different states. Come on, somebody, praise the Lord. And we're just grateful that you're with us. We're grateful for all of you that are joining us. I'm looking here today, and I see one individual that came from Florida, followed us online, showed up here. Now he's in Emerson Ministry doing an incredible job, man. It's good seeing you. Come on. Come on, amen, God's moving.

So many testimonies, so many great things happening. Man, I loved it. I loved bringing my chainsaw to the church house. Hey man, I just felt so at home, you know, until that little saw wouldn't start in the third service. I cranked and I cranked and I cranked and then I realized I had it in the off position. And you know what happens when you crank a saw in the off position and give it gas, you flood it. And then honestly, I didn't think it was gonna start. I thought, there's no way this thing's gonna start. So I asked everybody, I said, listen, we need to pray hard. Come on, pray hard. And eventually after a lot of cranks and a sore arm, it fired up and we cut through the log and we were able to connect the dots. So last weekend we talked about connecting the dots and we talked about purpose, grace and potential. And when those dots are connected, we believe it reveals your calling or your assignment for life. And so today we're in chapters three and four of this book, you were called by John Bevere. Each week we're taking two chapters next week. If you'd like to kind of know where we're going, you can go ahead and read ahead. What we're doing through the week though is we're discussing these chapters in our life group. And so hopefully you guys are having some great discussions there.

Today, the title of the message is stewardship. Stewardship and when we hear the word stewardship, where do our thoughts naturally go? Help me. Money, money. When you hear stewardship, it's naturally money. But I want you to realize that stewardship is so much broader than finances. It actually encompasses every area in our life that God has entrusted to us. Things like our health. How many of you realize that God wants us to be healthy? Do you understand that? That God wants us to be healthy because when we're healthy, we can maybe more effectively minister. So He's interested us with that health. Time. Time is another thing that we're to be good stewards. Gifts and talents. We should be good stewards with our work, with relationships, spiritual disciplines. There's so much more when it comes to stewardship. But stewardship is ultimately about how we faithfully care for and manage the things that God has entrusted us with. Webster defines the definition for stewardship as the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. Take a look at that for just one second. It's the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.

So all the things that we steward are truly not ours. They're really not ours. We've been interested to manage them. So I have three points today. The first point that I want us to look at is this. Number one, everything, say everything. Everything belongs to God. Everything belongs to God. My job, my health, my family, it's all his. Can I hear your name in if you believe that? It's all his. Look at Psalm 24 one. It says the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. The world and those who dwell therein. So we see this whole principle of stewardship all the way back in Genesis. Genesis chapter one, God entrusted Adam to steward the entire earth. Imagine having that responsibility. Well, guess what? You have that responsibility. And so this makes us stewards of the land, the water, the air, the animals, the fish, everything. But as far as ownership, who owns it? Somebody help me. God owns it all. God owns every bit of it. And so I want you to think about something. How many of you today have a title to a car in your name or truck or whatever?

Let me see your hand. You have the title of a car truck in your name. Okay, many of us do. And some of you have deeds to property, your home, land, whatever, you'll have deeds that are in your name. Some of you will have bank accounts that are in your name. But I want to give you a thought. Think about this for a second. Let's fast forward 60 to 80 years from today. And none of those titles, none of those deeds, none of those bank accounts are going to be in your name. You realize that? You're only stewarding what you currently have. It's not yours. Now, in some cases, you know, land, maybe it's passed down to, you know, to children, to family members or to friends or whatever. Someone else, you pass it down. But then it's their responsibility to steward it, right? So currently, as we're living here today, we're responsible to steward what God has placed in our, That's crazy, isn't it, when you think about it. So, I want you to look at John chapter 3 verse 27. John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him." Where? From Heaven. Okay, so everything that we've been given has come from Heaven. James 1 17, "Every good gift and every perfect present comes from Heaven." It comes down from God. So, everything that God has placed again in our possession has come from Him.

Every good thing, every pleasant thing, every perfect gift has come from the Lord. So, point number one, I want all of us to realize that everything belongs to God. Amen, it's all His. And none of it, even though we may have a deed in our name, it's not ours. Point number two, second point is this. As stewards, we're entrusted to use our gifts to minister to others. Use our gifts to minister to others. Now, I want you to listen to this. It's obvious that we are to use our gifts in the body of Christ. Pastor Chris talked about it earlier, we're the body of Christ, and all of us have different gifts. And again, that's a given. That's obvious. But what we don't talk about enough from the platform are the gifts that we use outside the church. And so, John Bevere has done a great job in this book identifying some of these gifts, talking about them, and how they work to use these gifts outside the church. So, Thursday night in our life group, I asked the question, the question to our group was, I want you to think just for a second, where do you spend the majority of your time? Where do you spend the majority of your time doing what? And so, we had some different answers. Most of the people that are still working, it was related to their work. But there were some awesome answers, and here was the point of that. How much time do you spend at church in terms of your time? It's a small percentage, right, of your life. Do you spend in our weekend services? And it's important, and it's awesome, and I'm not taking, I'm not devaluing our time together, and the gifts that we use here at the body. But, again, do you think that if we, since we're spending all this time outside of the church, do you not think that God would not gift us for what we're doing out there? Come on, think about it for a second. I believe that honestly, He has gifted us for what we do out there, and that it's pretty obvious these gifts are important. Now, John Bevere calls them the non-platform gifts. Like that, the non-platform gifts. So, when we talk about platform gifts, they get plenty of attention.

I get plenty of attention. You hear from me on a regular basis. When I'm in my life group, my goal is to talk less than the person that talks least. You may say, well, why is that? Because I talk all the time. You guys know me. I get plenty of attention because I'm on the platform. The worship leader gets plenty of attention. The gifts from the worship leaders get plenty of attention. The musicians, their platform gifts, the singers, the teachers, things like that. That's what He's referencing as platform gifts. But when you talk about the non-platform gifts, how many of you realize these non-platform gifts are just as important, if not more important, than the platform gifts? Are you guys with me? I got a couple people that's going to give a little clap. That's the courtesy clap. If you go to clap, come on, let's give a clap. Thank you. Thank you. So, my wife was a cheerleader, and she's always the one to initiate the first clap. I love that. You're awesome, Connie. Come on. Between you and Clinton, we get it going. And John Hakey, wherever John's at, there he is. So, then I want you to look at 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 10. 1 Peter, chapter 4, verse 10. He says, "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." Three words right there that I want you to look at closely. Three key words when it comes to callings, and it's this right here. Number one, it's gift. Number two, stewards, and number three, grace. So, gift in the Greek is charisma. And grace is carus, meaning God's empowerment, God's favor. And then you've got stewards, and we know the definition of that. And so, question real quick, who has, according to this? Somebody help me.

Say each one, it's everyone. Oh, okay, what is the purpose of your gift? What? Are you reading the verse? Come on, help me. It's to minister to who? To others, it's not for you, it's not for me. It's to minister to you or to minister to others. That's the purpose of our gifts. And so the grace that comes with these gifts, they empower you to be successful. How many of you realize God wants you to be successful in the area He's gifted you in? Are you guys with me now? Now, I want to share an example. I've got a good friend who's a plumber. And this individual, he and his brother were in business. Their father had started a plumbing business, very reputable, very well known throughout this county and this community. And the father passed, the sons were running the business and then one of the brothers passed. Well, my friend, his older brother had kind of been the lead in the business. So he didn't feel he had the ability or the giftings to keep this business going. And so he had been debating, do I just shut it down and go to work somewhere else? He had thought about it. As a matter of fact, he came down to the point

where he was ready to make a decision and he had several men that worked for him. He gave him all a call on a Thursday and he said, take tomorrow off. I need the weekend to make a decision. Now he had already told them that there's a possibility that I'm shutting this business down. And again, the reason was he didn't know if he had the ability, the gifting to keep it going. So Thursday told the guys, stay home. I'm gonna pray about this. I've got a decision to make. And that weekend, as he was praying, I want you to know that God spoke to him and God said, I've got this. You've got this, keep it going. So Monday morning, guys, come in. What are we doing, boss? We're gonna keep it going. We're gonna trust God. And we're gonna believe that God's gonna help us. So now I want to fast forward. So today, years later, this business has become a thriving business in our community. And everybody that's ever used him would tell you that, yeah, that's a good company. And so when we look at this, God gave him the gift or the ability. He does this now. I talked to him, he does this.

He'll sit down with a set of house plans, multi-million dollar house plans that would blow your mind if you look at him. He'll be able to sit down with those plans and bid him off and then figure all the, all the utensils, all the plumbing, what do you call that? Materials, there you go, materials. Plumbing materials, you see, I'm not a plumber. Everything that's needed for those house plans, it's unbelievable what God has allowed him to do. And so as a result of that, God has used that gift to advance the kingdom of God. You may say, well, how does that advance the kingdom of God? This particular business financially supports our prison ministry that's now in 945 different correctional facilities. Do you understand what I'm saying? Now, today some of you are looking in and you're saying, well, I couldn't do that. He must be a smart guy and he is a very smart guy. You know, but I'm not that way. I want you to understand something. This guy didn't finish high school because he was too smart for the teachers to teach them anything. And so that's what he tells me. He said, I just couldn't teach him anything. So I went ahead and, but what this shows me is that God will use anyone who will ask him.

God, I need you to help me just like that high school basketball coach that desired a state championship, 18 years couldn't do it. But when he prayed and said, God, will you give me the grace? Will you give me the power to do this? I want you to understand something. You today, every single person that can hear my voice, God is just waiting for you to ask him, will you give me the grace, God, to do this assignment that you've gave me? And God's saying, yes, I will and he will. Can I hear an amen if you believe that? So last point. will use someone else if you refuse your assignment God will use someone else again this is the most sobering thought of today's sermon as I was working on this and I and I wrote this point down man it was just it was like wow this is this is where the rubber meets the road if I'm not willing God will use someone else and then I will have to give an account for not being willing when I stand before you understand we're responsible for our assignment and so I want to give you an example of this seven years ago roughly seven years ago God gave me a specific assignment made it made it obvious made it clear and used other people to confirm it and and as a result of that the assignment was this God said I want you to write a book on discipleship has God ever asked you to do something you you felt like was just way bigger than you could accomplish or you could do is he ever yeah he does that many times and I won't believe me I had a lot of excuses one of those excuses was this I'm not a writer another excuse was well there's all kinds of discipleship books out there I've already used two of them to disciple men there's a lot of good discipleship books like discipleship essentials rose discipleship guy God and on and on and on and so

and then then mainly my main excuse was this I don't have time is anybody ever said that anybody ever said I just don't have time that's just here's what I would say is you make time for what you value okay you make time for what you value if you value it you will make time for it it just it just happens and so so what happened right here is you know I felt like Holy Spirit said write a book and it's like why there's so many others but he specifically tell me I want this book to put a strong emphasis on being filled with the spirit on disciples being filled with the spirit I know there's a lot of books out there but and and so chapter 17 in this book it's the whole reason I wrote it is because we talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and before Jesus would allow the disciples to leave Jerusalem he said listen guys stay in Jerusalem until you be endured with power from on high and when you're filled with the spirit then you go into all the world you see the spirits what gave the grace the empowerment to accomplish what God wanted to do and and so I started I started on this book and I don't I want you to understand something it was extremely hard okay it wasn't an easy assignment I would start and and it was like I would maybe write for one hour a week and I would try to schedule time and and and then I would get preoccupied on something else I just didn't have time anybody ever started a project you're all gun hole you're ready to go and then the longer you're into it it just starts taking a back seat anybody ever been there anybody ever been there you know what I'm talking about well that's kind of a few years ago many years ago I was working at City of Maryland I was driving down pepper peppermint road over here by Mount Lebanon Church and I saw a car sitting out in the in a field and it it had some surface rust on it but man it was a 1956 bell air and it was sitting out in the field and I and I'd never seen it before so I stopped I knocked on the door and I asked the guy I said would this car for sale out here and he said actually it's my father-in-law's he bought the car brand-new and he's moved it to a barn in Knoxville so I've just have it out here I said well is it for sale and he said it is he said he walked six for it I said okay so I go back out there and I'm crawling under it

I'm looking at the bones of the car to see with this big good project and so I'm out there looking the guy comes walking out and he said hey you know that six thousand not six hundred don't you I said well I I soon I assumed that was right but but anyway decided to buy the car picked it up in Knoxville and it was going to be a family project okay Connie and I even our young boys we're gonna work on this thing together and and and honestly that was our goal and so we started with the trunk lid and it was Connie and I and man she had the mask on She had the nine-inch D.A. Sand. women the Bondo Queen and we were tracking do you remember Connie we were tracking our time we spent 40 hours on the trunk lid just getting the original paint off and then putting etching primer on it and preparing it to build it back up 40 hours and man it was it was a family project and then we started down the quarter panel and some were down the quarter panel I lost my wife. She disappeared and and and then by the time we got to the door I disappeared and the car sit there and it sit and it sit and it sit and it was over four years because in that what we do sometimes we get fired up on a project and then we go well it was very similar to that with with this book. I'm ready to go okay I've committed to it I'm gonna do it I started and I'm into it and I'm trying but then things started coming up and a year goes by and and I'll be honest with you if it wasn't for key people I wouldn't have finished it and one of those being Don Stevenson kept motivating me kept talking to me kept asking me questions like we're yat in the book we're yat in the book and I knew that was another way of saying let's go let's get it going you need to finish this book and then and then my brother Steve and Tina we were getting close only liked about four chapters or so and they said hey we've got a place in Florida you can get away for two weeks and do nothing but write but people like that Stephanie Walker that met met us so many hours editing and doing all these things but what I said is many times God will give us an assignment but it it also takes other people to help us along amen and and so today when I look and I see that it took five years but I realized that it was God who gave me the grace to

complete it and I want you to understand something when when I said yes to this assignment I didn't know John Bevere I mean I knew of him I had all of his books in my library but I didn't know him only God would have known that through this process be saying yes to that assignment that eventually I would be able to meet John Bevere and he would be the one to endorse the book that's God only God could have done that and so here's what I wanted to say this for is that your assignment matters and and it matters to other people let me give you just a quick message I received this message just a few days ago from pastor JP Wilson he's in Gulf Shores Alabama he pastors the Summit Church thriving church down in that area here's what his text said wanted to give you an update since I started taking people through the discipleship process using your book I have now personally discipled 14 guys they have discipled 73 people thank you so much for investing your life and time into this Christ mandate it's changing lives and teaching a culture of discipleship within our church thank you pastor pacer I want you to understand the things that we do it's for other people it's ministering to other people it's not for ourselves it's God's gave these gifts so that we could minister to other people but the sobering thought again is if you don't do it God will use someone else can I hear name into that so let me give you a biblical example Esther we've read about Esther in the Bible Esther's she's a young lady and she's absolutely beautiful God has blessed her in such a way that her beauty is incredible but I want you understand something God had not gifted Esther with beauty for her to be glamorized or idolized but God had blessed her to further the kingdom of God and here's how it happened the king select was looking to select a queen and Esther was selected little did she know that later on she would have the assignment of saving the nation is of Israel from genocide the entire nation but when it comes down here's her assignment here's how God's gifted her now it comes down to the point of her exercising that gift and she was reluctant how many of you have ever been reluctant you know guys called you to something but it's you know she was relaxed she was indecisive she was

questioning whether she should do it because it was gonna risk her life "Have you ever realized that maybe God's called you for such a time as this?" And by the way, Esther, if you don't do it, God will use someone else to do that. That's sobering, isn't it? Esther heard that. She went before the king, and as a result, she found favor, and the Lord used her and used her giftings to save the nation of Israel. You may say, "Well, I'm not Esther. I'm not an author. I'm not a singer, a musician. No, what you are is more important because God has gifted every single one of you. He's gifted every single one of you to fulfill the God-given assignment." And so, I want you to look at 1 Corinthians 7-17, last verse. Here's what Paul said to the Corinthians. He said, "Only let each person," there we see, each person again, "only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him." Notice the word here says, "each person." It doesn't say, "each pastor." It doesn't say, "Each life group leader, each elder, each deacon, each worship leader, each youth pastor," doesn't say that. What does he say? Help me. Each person. So, that's every single one of us. Would you agree? He said, "So, only let each person lead the life that God has assigned to him." So, God has placed an assignment on your life. Do you realize that? Do you understand that? And so, each one of you have a God assignment. Here's my question for you today. Is what is your assignment? Okay? Think about it for a second. What is your assignment? There's one person that can answer that, and that's you. What is your assignment? Are you fulfilling it? Are you walking it out? Have you said yes to it? You see, your assignment starts, I believe, at the point of surrender. See, God's looking for people that will surrender their will in their way. But I'll be honest with you guys, a lot of us. We love convenience. We love what we love. We want to do what we want to do. But to surrender your will and your way to the Lord, we have to be willing to lay those aside. He said, "Okay, God, I'm going to serve you with my gifts. With whatever you've gifted me, I'm going to serve you." And so, that's my prayer during this series, seven-week series that every single person that hears this message will understand what their God assignment is and that they'll be able to follow the Lord in that calling. If you guys would, let's stand. It starts with surrender.

I text a young man six o'clock this morning. Doesn't attend church, not saved, but I know the Lord's been dealing with him. So, I sent him a text and I said, "Hey, I look forward to seeing you today. Sometimes we have to encourage, right? Not are you coming, but look forward to seeing you today." And he came. He was in the last service and I love it because the Lord wants everyone to be saved. Maybe you're here today and you've never surrendered your life to Jesus. You may say, "Well, why do I need to surrender my life to Jesus?" Sin separated us from the Lord, but God had a solution. He sent his son Jesus to this world. And the Bible tells us that Jesus lived about 33 years on planet earth without ever sinning. He was crucified. He laid down his life for all humanity so that if we would receive that sacrifice, we'd all be saved and have any eternal home in heaven. And I don't know if you've done that yet, but God is waiting on you. And today would be an awesome day. Amen? Would it not? I believe that with all my heart. And I can't think of a better time for someone to surrender their life to Jesus. Is the Lord dealing with you? If he is, I want you to know that you're loved. He's not here to condemn you. He's not pointing out all your failures. He's saying, son, daughter, I love you. And I want a relationship with you. It's God dealing with anybody in this room right now. I know he is on line. I'm convinced 100% that people right now, the Lord's dealing with. Is there anybody here right now? I'm not asking you to bow your heads in this service. I'm asking you to boldly say the Lord's dealing with me. Praise the Lord, amen. Anybody else should say the Lord's dealing with me. I heard that vocally come out of your mouth. Anybody else?

This young man said, I know I'm not the only one. Is there anybody else? Just yell out the Lord's dealing with me. [MUSIC PLAYING] [APPLAUSE] The Lord's dealing with a lot of us. And I want to ask the prayer team for you guys to come. We're going to sing this last song. [MUSIC PLAYING] If the Lord's dealing with you about anything, whether it's your salvation, it's your assignment, your gifts, your calling, I want to invite you to come and pray. If you'd like, you don't have to, you can pray where you're at. It's totally up to you, but I want you to know that you're welcome to come. And during this last song, if you would just not leave the building, if you don't have to, just so people aren't distracted, that would be awesome. Somebody here today needs to pick your assignment back up. Need to pick it back up because there's other people depending on you to complete it. The Lord's talking to you, let's do that. Let's worship the Lord this last song. Anybody would like prayer we'd love to pray with you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) I love you, Lord. Oh, your mercy never fills me. All my days, I've been held in your hand. From the moment that I wake up, until I lay in my head,

I will sing, of the goodness that I am in. All my life, you have been made new. All my life, you have been so, so again. Every person that I am in, I will sing, of the goodness that I love your voice, you have led me through the fire. In darkest night, you are close like no other. I've known you as a father, I've known you as a friend. I have been in the goodness that I'm in. All my life, you have been made new. All my life, you have been so, so again. ♪ And so, so good ♪ I will see Of the goodness of God Your goodness is running after me It's running after me Your goodness is running after It's running after me My heart's laid down I'm surrendered now I give you everything Your goodness is running after It's running after me Your goodness is running after It's running after me Your goodness is running after It's running after me My heart's laid down I'm surrendered now I give you everything Your goodness is running after me

Your goodness is running after me All my life you have been made All my life you have been so So again With every breath that I am in I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see I'm gonna see 'Cause all my life you have been made for And all my life you have been so So again With every breath that I am in I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see

Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see Of the goodness of God I'm gonna see