This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar driving directions and more audio recordings. Thanks Jason. Good morning. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. You seem a little pessimistic. Not sure. Isn't it going to be happy New Year or not? Let me assure you that if you are in Christ Jesus, it is a happy New Year indeed. I am just going to go ahead and answer one question. One question I have to bat here that has already been asked me this morning. And that is, am I wearing bifocals? The answer is, and paddacle no. These are not bifocals. Okay? So let's just clear that out right here from the beginning. My contacts or new ones are being ordered and I do not have them yet. I will have them soon. Maybe one day I will need bifocals soon. But today is not the day. So it is a happy New Year. I have entitled this morning sermon called a captivating work. It is a New Year. Probably many of you have made resolutions or you have kind of revamped resolutions from the past. Whether it is Satan money, losing weight, exercising more, restoring your relationship with somebody else or trying something new. I do not know what your resolution has been. But I want to tell you and remind you, because it is a great time as well too, that there is a work that my God has prepared for you to do if you are a follower of Jesus Christ. And it is a captivating work, which I am going to unpackage here a little more this morning as we look at that. I preach on this passage several times. And the more I read it, the more I think there are probably thousands of sermons in this passage. But I wanted to look at a certain angle of it this morning in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 16, because it seems particularly relevant to our church and congregation right now. As we are going through some transitions, as many of you know, if you have been around and you are part of our church family and not a guest here this morning, you know that the economy has been challenging. It has been challenging for us. We are scaling back on things. But even though we might be scaling back on staff and everything is like that, we are not, and I say emphatically, more emphatically than I am not wearing bifocals, that we are not retreating with the call of God on our lives and on our church at all. And the time, more than ever, is the circle of the wagons, lock arms together and look for the opportunity that God has before us, because it is an opportunity I assure you, not a threat that God has placed us in. God has plans to prosper us in, not to harm us, plans to give us a hope in the future. And that is the true, as a promise, as the one that Jesus came to save sinners, in which we all are. And we all have been saved for those who follow Christ this morning. So let's look at this passage. Let's look at the hope that is there in Christ, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 16. This is God's holy and inspired work. As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is overall, and through all, and in all. But to each one of us, grace has been given, as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says, when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train, and gave gifts to men. Whether he ascended mean, except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions. He had descended as the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. It was him who gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets, and some to be evangelists, and some of the pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up, until we have reached the unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the way. It's a blown human there by every wind of teaching, and by the cunning and craftiness of men, and their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth and love, we will, in all things, grow up into him, who is the head that is Christ. From him, the whole body, join and held together by every supporting ligament, grows, and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. This is God's holy and inspired word. And what you pause for a moment of silence with me is we pray, and we ask the Holy Spirit, to continue to speak to us this morning, and to speak to me as servant. The following we ask you to give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and that your word will come alive by your spirit, and that your word will not return void, and that you would speak, your people are listening, and are desperate, for the same power, the same words that spoke creation into being when it said let there be light. For the same word that became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory of the only begun, full of grace and truth. From the same one that says in his word, that we are new creatures in him, and gives us a new name. God, do your transformational work this morning in our hearts. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you're following along in your outline, number one, Jesus sets captives free, and I bet if you've been in church in any length of time, especially if you've gone up in the church, you've heard that, said many, many times before, and it is true. Jesus does, indeed, set captives free, looking for a seventh or eight. But to each one of us, grace has been given us, Christ has portioned it. This is why it says when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train, and gave gifts to men. Jesus sets captives free. Two things you must realize here this morning, for this truth to have any meaning to your life, is that one you gotta believe as a scripture's teach, that you are a captive. And especially in this country, in this day and age, it is not popular, and it is not politically correct, to think of yourself as someone who is in bondage, as someone who is a captive. Defusions 2 tells us very clearly that we are dead in our trespasses and sins, and Romans does without, you know, at least, ad nauseam, to tell us that there is a sinful nature that is in control and that seeks to devour, and it's opposed to the things of God. And as good as your behavior might be, and your outside performance might be, and how you try to step in and help out people in Haiti when that thing's tragic like that happened, and how I bet you wanna turn down a neighbor or a friend if you knew they were in need, you try to reach and help them. Those righteousness, even your most righteous things that you do in your own eyes, or as filthy rags before a holy God, because we stand in rebellion and our relationship before Him. We stand captive to sin. And the very best things that we do if they're not done out of obedience and faith in Christ, what does Hebrews 11 tell us without faith that's impossible to please God? Meaning no matter how good you might look on the outside, how good your actual action might be in and of itself. If it's done outside of faith in Jesus Christ, it is an abomination before a holy God. That's the reality what scriptures teach. You can either reject what God's word says this morning because I guarantee you it's a lot more comfortable to reject it. It is a lot more emotionally and intellectually easy and satisfying, at least at first, to reject it. But you will remain a captive. You will remain in bondage. You will think that being set free is like most people do in our country, especially. Being set free is you have the freedom to do whatever you want. Whereas God defines freedom as real or real freedom is, you have the freedom to do what is right for the right reason before your Creator. And there's a world of difference between those two things. Jesus sets people free, captives. You must first understand and believe that you're a captain. You must first or second rather believe and understand that he truly does set us free. Romans 6, 18 says this, you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. See, there's two parts of the curse of sin that happen in the Garden of Eden, according to the scriptures. The first part is this, we are free from the guilt of sin through Jesus Christ. We're no longer condemned for our sinful choices and behaviors and thoughts and words and actions, but Jesus is condemned in our place. That's called mercy. We're set free not only from the guilt of sin, but we're set free from its power, which displays God's grace, and he gives us the power to live in righteousness, to live for his glory and honor, to live not trying to be self-righteous but trusting in his full righteousness and responding to it in love and gratitude as new creatures, as adopted children. The curse we then set free from it, he sets captives free from the guilt of sin, he sets captives free from the power of sin. But understand this, whenever you are set free from something, you're always set free for something else, right? Let me think about an example here, if you're a convict and you're set free from prison, you're not just set free from prison, let out of prison but you're set free for something. You're set free to re-enter society as a responsible law-biting citizen, and interestingly many will wander right back within a matter of days to find themselves back to the place of comfort and place that they know back into captivity. But if you're set free from something, it is set free for something else, and God calls us to do that. I like what the former US Senate chaplain, Peter Marshall, said back, this was back around the middle of the 20th century, when he was speaking before the US Senate. He said this and I quote, Lord Jesus, in his prairie, said this, Lord Jesus, thou art the way, the truth, and the life. Hear us as we pray for the truth and shall make all free. Change us that liberty is not only to be loved, but also to be lived. Liberty is two precious thing to be buried in books. It costs too much to be hoarded. Help us see that our liberty is not the right to do as we please, but the opportunity to please and to do what is right. It's the world of difference of what it means to be set free in Jesus Christ. You see, the alcoholic thinks they are free and lives as they're free, as lives as alcohol is a choice of theirs. But I bet many of you in the room to size, I bet many of you, most of you probably know somebody who is or has been, well, who is an alcoholic, and you know that they're freedom that they think they have at the time is really not a real freedom at all. But it's not until somebody goes and has been set free from that. It actually has the ability not to drink alcohol that experiences the real freedom. Jesus sets captives free. Jesus' power to set you free from the guilt of sin is real, and Jesus' power to set you free from the power of sin is real, and he offers that to us. Well, secondly, I'll ask you to ponder something else. Jesus sets captives free, but he leads only captives. He leads only captives. Whereas this first point this morning is often, and usually taught in churches, and it should be, it's foundational. The second one often is blurred or missed, that Jesus leads captives free. Look at the terminology here in verse 1 of chapter 4. Paul talking about himself. He says, as a prisoner, and he was a prisoner, he was in house arrest, we think, in Rome at the time, but as he say, as a prisoner of Rome, or the name of Rome, or those who have found him in Rome, are my enemies. Was it the same verse 1? As a prisoner for the Lord, yes, Paul was in house arrest and under Roman Empire authority and control of that time, but Paul saw a much bigger picture. The he was imprisoned for the Lord, the he belonged to the Lord, the he was captured by the Lord, and he'll use this terminology in many other places, throughout the Ronnie's New Testament, as well, as we look there. Look in verse 8. This is why it says, when he ascended on the high, he had captives in his train. Jesus working the cross leads us free from death and sin and how as captives, not as those who used to be captive, but he brings us those who still are indeed captives. You see, the terminology here, if you look about this, if you understand much about battles back in the old days, when a king went in and conquered an enemy or a warring area, or apart, there wasn't part of their kingdom and their providence. What they would do is they would cap, if those enemies that weren't killed in the battle, those would be captured, those would be brought back in, and with the great victorious march, parade back into the home city, the king would come in with his military, and he would march through the captives, those who had been captured, those who no longer were citizens of their country, but now had been assumed and consumed to be citizens of a new country, not citizens, those that were now slaves. These would become the workforce. These would often be the ones that would be helping to build the empire, to build the castles or the walls. They would come in and they would do the hard-forced labor. They would be brought in as captives and paraded as part of the spoil of victory, the bounty shared with those. That's the picture that's given here. We're led victoriously in Christ's parade, but as captives back to him. So a common question, or at least a common thought, often prevailing in Christian minds is this. Is it optional? Can you be set free as a captive from sin and not become a captive of your king, the one who set you free? We don't often ask that. We don't say that out loud, but it's often thought, hey, I don't want to be a captive to sin. I don't want to be held responsible for my sins against God and held in judge one day, in final judgment. But that's not the coming and having to serve a new king and be obedient to him, and worship him in all that I say you do. Can sometimes be challenging as well. We certainly don't want the condemnation, but do we want to be captives to a new king? Do we want to be captives to fall in line under a different rule? Well, the question was not just asked today in our minds and thoughts. It was asked thousands of years ago. It's why Paul in Romans 6, verse 1, asks this question because they were struggling with it then too. He says, what shall we then say? This is Romans 6, 1 through 4. Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? Can you kind of get that question? It's like, all right, Jesus forgives me all my sins. I've got kind of like a go-free card. Meaning that I can sin as much as I want. And all I've got to do is at the end of the day, come to my own little personal confessional and confess it before Christ and claim this forgiveness. This sounded like a really good deal. If you wanted to remain captive in a sinful nature. Forgiveness and everything I do at the end of the day, and I get to do whatever I want during the course of the day. Is what is his answer to them, verse 2? By no means. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Don't you know that I have us who were baptized in the Christ? Jesus was baptized into his death. We will therefore have buried with him through baptism into death. And all of that, just as Christ was raised from the death of the Lord of the Father, we too may live in new life. What does Paul say? They are saying, don't you get it? If you are set free truly by the love of Christ and are forgiven by him, you identify with him in his death. The death he died on a cross in your old nature, in your sinful nature, in your captive to sin nature dies with him as well. And what happens three days later? Something new is resurrected. The power to live as a new creature in Christ Jesus emerges for those that are followers of Jesus Christ. You can't be set free by Jesus and have been a captive to sin and not be totally reoriented as much as it would be if you were to die physically and have to be resurrected with something new. It's something brand new. And Jesus displayed that through his resurrection. And what is it to be captives of a new king to follow him? That's actually a friend of my dad. He's still alive. I mean, he was sharing with his name's Archie Parrish. He's a leader in our denomination. And he shared one time, was a little bit disturbing when I first heard him talk about this, but he would talk about going as he often did to pray for people as a pastor, a pastor's often do, with people at the hospital. And those that were on the verge of very serious illnesses, those that were praying for God to spare their life, which most of the time was the case. If somebody was there with cancer or struggling with something big, before he prayed for their healing, he would ask them, why do you think God should heal you? From this cancer, from this tumor, from this illness or disease? Why should I pray and ask God to heal you? I remember thinking about first, I was like, that's not real sensitive. You know, you have my hair that's on the deathbed and already has gone through a lot. And they just want to be prayed for. But you're going to stop and pause and ask them that. But what he would do with that, he would say, you're asking me to go before the God, to create the universe, to preserve your life, which my desire is to do that. But why should he do that? Why should the king of kings and the lord of lords grant your request so that you can continue to live in a distant, non-relationship with him, so that you can continue to live in a simple life and a pattern? So that you can continue to ignore and acknowledge the fact that there is a holy, creator God that you're responsible for, that one day you'll stand before him. Well, as you can guess, he got lots of different thoughts and answers when he did that. But he did a wonderful job, I think, looking back of trying to reorient and saying, what is it? Why do we want the work of God in our lives and what's the purpose for it? Now maybe your prayer request this morning has nothing to do with sharing your life and I hope it doesn't, from cancer or any kind of disease like that. But let me ask you the same thing. Whatever you pray and ask God, is it for your own personal glory that you want the answer or is it for the glory of a God who created you for his purposes? Understanding that you have been bought with the price. When he gone and read in Romans chapter 6, where Paul empactures a little bit more. He says, you've been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Let me say that again. You've been set free from sin and become slaves to righteousness. And nobody likes the idea of being slave to anything. But can you imagine the freedom there is that in Christ you can become a slave to righteousness? That something can rule over you, that is holy, and that is pure, and that is not self-serving or selfish in any way, that produces the fruit of spirit, that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Maybe that is not such a bad thing, to be enslaved to that righteousness, to become captive now to a new nature. All those things we seek, all those things we desire and we want and we crave and we look for in this world, but where do they come? They come from out of this world, they come through Christ, and they come to becoming his captive, becoming slaves to righteousness. Paul goes on in that same passage and says, when you are slaves to sin, you are free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time and the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death, but now that you have been set free from sin, and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, and Jesus Christ our Lord. The longing of every human heart is not to not be a slave, but longing of every human heart is to learn and understand and know what it means to be a slave to righteousness, to be a slave to God. The thing that will blow your mind is rather than God just inviting you to be a slave, which in and of itself is perfectly legit of God. God says, I want you to be a son, a daughter. I want you to be a co-air with my son, Jesus. That's what should blow our minds here this morning, to see his hand, to see his work, to see that Jesus still leads captives, unlike Oswald Chambers, what he writes, talking about this passage that we're reading this morning, he says, to fulfill God's design means entire abandonment to him. Whenever I want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. It would be a big humiliation to realize that I have not been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ, but only about realizing what he has done for me. Let me read that last line. It would be a big humiliation one day to realize that I have not been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ, but only about realizing what he has done for me. Do you get the difference? It's not that you don't realize and recognize what God has done for you, but that is not the point. The point is Jesus Christ has in his mercy and grace come and set you free and come as we've sung about, came to your rescue. But the point in what will allow angels to glorify him day in and day out and us to join with them for eternity is that he is a God who is merciful. He is a God who is gracious. It is who God is, unless you're totally wrecked or understanding of life and transform it for the glory of God. First Corinthians 6 says this, Do you not know that your body is a temple of a Holy Spirit that is in you, whom you have received from God, you are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. So here's the point. Jesus hasn't set you free so that you can continue to live as a captive or slave to sin. He has set you free to live as a captive son and daughter in his kingdom as a co-air with him. What holds you captive today? Is it more sin and death or is it more life and righteousness than Jesus Christ? One of the two does and will hold you captive. But it doesn't have to be sin and death. Well, a third last point this morning. Jesus not only sets captives free, Jesus leads only captives, but number three, Jesus gives captives gifts to include them in his work. Look in verse 9 through the rest of the chapter. He says this, What does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens nor to fill the whole universe. It was he who gave some to be apostles. Some to be prophets. Some to be evangelists. Some to be pastors and teachers. To prepare God's works, God's people for the works of service. So the body Christ may be built up. Until we all reach the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to become mature, attaining the whole measure of a fullness of Christ. And then verse 16, From him the whole body joining hell together by every support of ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Now, what is all that? You got to go back to verse 8. When he ascended on the high, he led captives in his train and he gave gifts to men. What are the gifts he gave to men? Leaders, pastors, teachers, and so on. What else did he give to men? We read from other places in Scripture and Corinthians and Romans. He gave the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Why? For the building up of the body of Christ. So that the head is exalted, Jesus Christ. He has given you gifts and the point is to glorify himself. 1 Corinthians 12 says there are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now, to each from the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. Of who? The church, the body of Christ. God has gifted each of you if you're a follower of Jesus Christ with special skills and abilities. And even if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, by your creation and design, being made in his image, you've been gifted as well, too. Now, those won't be understood fully and realized until you become a follower of Jesus Christ. You won't see the purposes for them, but by your very creation and design, and especially when you become a follower of Christ and your spirit is poured out and your gifts are realized in your life, and are poured out for you to use, not for you, but for the body of Christ, and not just for the body of Christ, but for the exaltation of the head of the body, which is Jesus. Here's a question, what gifts has God given you? Let me ask you, are they gathering dust on the shelf as we speak? Do you only use them in the secular world activities? Has fear kept you from stepping out in faith and using them at all or only minimally? Jesus gives his captives gifts to include them in his work. Well, here's a question, what if you don't use them for his work? What if you use the gifts that God's given you and you just do whatever you want with them? You know the Bible addresses that question directly? First Corinthians chapter three, Paul, right, verse 12 through 15. If anybody builds on his foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each man's work if what he has built survives he will receive his reward. If it is burned up he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only is one escaping through the flames. It's talking to Christians, he's talking to the church. He's saying, one day the fruit of your labor should work here on earth will stand a test and they will even be burned up and consumed as being not part of the kingdom, not honoring your king, or they will remain. What of your gifts and talents and abilities right now if you were to go home and be with the Lord would be burned up as done for self righteousness, as done not in accordance to God, not honoring him, not serving him in his church, not serving his purposes, what would just evaporate and what would remain? Jesus gives his captives gifts to include them in his work, but he would ask this morning he does through his word, are you using him for his purposes and for his kingdom? You see what is built up, why the body is to be built up is so that it will show the glory and the lightness of Jesus Christ. And here's an important principle, the more and more the body of Christ, the followers of Jesus display and use their gifts and abilities and talents, and they're equipping, they're calling from God for his glory and his purposes, the more you get the picture of who Jesus is, the more you get the full realization of who he is. So let me get real practical and real personal. If Christ can't in church, all of you who call us as a church home, and if you're a guest here today, I'm glad you're our guest, and I don't want you to feel like you're being lumped into this group here right now because you're not. All you're invited to join us on the cause is that God has called this church, this manifestation in East Orlando, to demonstrate and be a picture of who Jesus Christ is. So not, not, you shouldn't be able to get a picture of that fully by just looking at angel, and who's a godly woman, or just looking at Gabriel Hart, a godly man, or John Fane, a missionary. That won't give you just a picture. You can't put this three together, and get the full picture either. Yeah, you can throw Aaron Connellan on that. She's married to John, and she's a saint. You know, she's right up there. Just mess with John. You can throw down it on that. The picture gets more clear, and the Lord of Escobin, you get a bigger picture. But you gotta have Jackie in there, or you're not, you're gonna miss the picture. You're gonna miss the fullness of Christ. I guarantee you, you don't have Sheila, you're missing it. Am I goodness, Jason, Jacob, and Reese? These three have a lot to offer, to be used by God to display his glory and honor. And then you'll think, well, we're just one church though, right? You better believe it. That's why we converge. That's why we lack arms over the church in this community. Because one church alone cannot display the glory of the head of Christ. And by the way, God won't ever let it do that. Because as we've already read, there's one church. There's one faith. There's one baptism. There's one Lord of all. And that's why it's not gonna just happen by the church in East Orlando. But it's the church around the globe that is displaying the glory and the honor of who the head is. And don't mistake the head is not Presbyterian churches. The head is not anything, but Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus gives His captives gifts to include them in His work. The funny thing about it is that if you saw a human body that was not working well with the brain, you would call it diseased or unhealthy. You see somebody who's paralyzed and you look at them and you go, you feel compassion and sympathy because here's somebody that the brain cannot communicate with the rest of the body. And you have compassion and you should have compassion. And thank the Lord of their follower Christ. They will one day walk with new bodies in heaven. But you go, that is a diseased unhealthy body. Or you look at a body that has cerebral palsy. Somebody can't hold their limbs or walk straight. And you go, well at least they're not paralyzed, but my goodness, that's not a healthy body. There are signals from the brain that are not working well the rest of the body and the control of the body and the muscles aren't working well together. And you would be right to have compassion and to pray for somebody like that. I had a kid like that named Craig in my youth group, the first church I worked at back in 1993. And he actually had a mile form of cerebral palsy that most of his upper body looked pretty normal. But sure enough, as you walk with his legs, you can't help but do this kind of thing. And I remember just as walking, trying to know him, he was a great kid and nearly had a firm walk with the Lord. But he got the news that he would have to have surgery on his legs. And that if they broke both his legs, they could readjust him in position while he was still a teenager, pretty young, and they would help him and serve him the rest of his life to make him be able to walk better. And I think about that. And I remember walking through this with him as his youth director. We're going to go in and let the doctors break both of your perfectly, as far as bone wise, perfectly bone healthy legs. And they were going to twist him and turn him, and allow him to regrow and attach. And it was going to take like six months before he'd be really to even walk, like he would not even walk a normal ever, but to walk even close to what he's been. And I remember as he made that hard decision, of course his parents, made most of that decision for him. But as he had a walk and trust God and faith in that, it was a difficult year. Craig continues to follow God today and Craig walks better with God today. But they took a breaking process through that. And God will do that too, as well with us individually, as well with us as a church. He will not miss an opportunity to break us sometimes, so that he can reform and heal us, so that we can be a better visible presentation of who he is in Christ. I'm not sure if you know of the woman Jennifer Rothschild. She's a singer, songwriter, author, motivational speaker. You can often see her on TV shows in the course of a typical day. She's a strong follower of Christ as well. Well, she had a dream as a child of being a commercial artist. She loved art, she loved drawing, and she desired more than anything to do that one day with her life. The problem was around age 15 that she was a diagnosed with a very rare degenerative eye disease that left her blind. And then the dream and the hope and the idea of being this artist was quickly whisked away.
What was in her blind is that God used that to open up an entire other part of her life and gifting. It was the day she comes home from the doctor that she says, even though she's only taken two years of piano lessons at age 15, she sat down and started playing for the first time. She didn't read the music anymore, but by ear. And she played the song from memory and ear best she could as well with my soul. And she said, as hard as it was, the reality at that time, there was nothing well with her mental thoughts on it and her anguish and the thought of losing her sight. Now, what little bit she had left was going to be gone in a matter of years completely. And her dreams were crashed. But as she knew there was still something right with her soul. And she had her faith in hoping God. Listen to what she writes in talking about here looking back. I quote her. She says, one of the hardest lessons I've had to learn is that God uses painful circumstances in our lives for good. My hero, Johnny Erickson Tata, who has been in a wheelchair since she was a teenager makes this point well when she says that God allows what he hates in order to accomplish what he loves. I know that God's heart is broken when he sees our heart breaks. I believe that just as Jesus wept at Lazarus tomb, Jesus weeps when he sees us in cries, tears of loss. I'm convinced that God is well acquainted with the sorrow and struggles that I experience. Yet at the same time, he loves me enough. And this is why I'm so loyal to him. To let me encounter sorrow, taste bitter emotions and feel loss. He trusts me to be a good steward of that sorrow. He loves me enough to let me experience that pain so that we can accomplish something he loves. Which for me has been a deeper character and more eternal perspective. I am convinced that God's grace has sustained me. If he were more sufficient, God would have provided it. If deliverance were sufficient, God would have delivered me. But he's allowed me to live with blindness. Yet live equally with the sufficiency of his grace. And that grace shows up in different ways on different days. But in whatever way it shows up, it has always been truly sufficient. What gives Jennifer Rothschild that ability, that perspective is knowing that as well with him, knowing that she's in the right relationship with God. Knowing that God is not just powerful enough to create the universe of the spoken word, but he's powerful enough to take her blindness and to use that for his glory and honor. And has done so in ways that she never would have probably as a commercial artist. Thank God that he crushes our dreams sometimes. Thank God that he re-orients us with the challenges and the problems of life so that he can instead bring real life, bring real hope in the midst of those situations. Here's my challenge to you this morning. Reinterpret the difficulties and struggles and challenges in your life right now. Reinterpret them not as something that is a picture of God's absence. But will you have the faith this morning to reinterpret those things? It's just the opposite. God's presence in your life. God's engagement in your life. God's reaching out to you. You know, in those moments we often say, God, why God? Where are you, God? What if you could reinterpret that and believe as the Scriptures teach, then when he says he works all things together for good, that he's there in those moments, that he's more engaged, that he's reaching into your soul, that he's drawn you to himself, and he would only allow you to go through a difficult, hard thing because he really loves you and because something better will come out as a result. I challenge you to reinterpret and I challenge you to rediscover that grace and gifts that God is resurrecting and creating through those moments. You see, she never would have realized, and never would have gone into the area of singing in her music if it hadn't been for the blindness. Speaking of blindness, I think as John talked about last week, the Apostle Paul, until he experienced an encounter Christ on the road to Damascus and was blinded for several days, and that sight was restored when he had a new vision for who God had called him and made him to be. What is it in your life? Where is God's glory trying to break in? And he's drawing you to himself. Right now I'm going to ask Usher's, Jeff, and maybe some help. They hand out a card. Now granted, this is really designed for those who call Christ's Kingdom Church home. So if you're a guest here this morning, feel free to take a card, look at it. And this practice is still very beneficial, I think, to you. And if God might be calling you at our church home, it's really, really appropriate. I'd like for every person in this room to get their own card. I'm going to challenge you to do something here in the remainder of our service. There at the top, there's a quote by Dr. Howard Thurman from the 20th century, who is a theologian and a writer. He says, don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive. You've probably heard that quote at some point or another. It's a great one. Because the first question I want to ask you to consider here this morning. And this is a direct challenge if we're your church home. Number one, understanding that God has made each of us unique and gifted. Us uniquely to serve one another in Christ. What makes you come alive? What makes you come alive? As you think about serving God and serving His purposes. You might say, I just love reaching out to people that are hurting. You might say, you know, I'm kind of a tech geek. What makes me come alive is I love making systems and processes work together on computers. You might say, you know, I don't have kids in my home, but I sure love hanging out working with students or children. I don't know what makes you come alive. But here's the point. There's nothing that would be an inappropriate answer there. I want to challenge you to write this down. For those that are comfortable by the way, I'm going to ask you to drop this in the offering basket a little bit later in the service. And if you need more time, you want to turn it in later or email me your answers. That's fine too. Here's the second question. Are there any areas where you sense the Holy Spirit maybe calling you to serve for a season to meet the needs of His church? No, no, that's a little weird. I'm asking you to ask yourself what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you in the quiet place of your heart. And you may not be quite attuned to listening to God in that way. But I want to encourage you to do so. I want to encourage you to believe that He does speak by His Holy Spirit. You may say, you know, I don't think I have any gifting at all in this particular area. But for some reason or another, I sense maybe just this morning, or maybe you've been sensing it for weeks or months, that God's calling me to step up and maybe help in this particular capacity. That's very important that the Holy Spirit is prompting that. And you may not be sure. You can just jot something. Jot it down. Nothing you put down here in these two answers is committing yourself to anything in particular, other than you're taking a step of faith to communicate it. And by the way, I didn't put a place, but please write your name on this card. Having great answers and not knowing who you are is not going to help me at all to know how to follow up and encourage you. And what's our goal? Our goal is to be a church that has a live people following their calling in Christ. Our goal is to be a church that has people who are listening to the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit may be telling you to start or do something or move in a direction that we're not even currently doing as a church. Well, I want to know, because my job, as you've already heard read, is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. You will be a part of shaping the vision of this church and how we go forward and what the Holy Spirit is saying to you is extremely important. You might find there are others that he's speaking to on the very same thing. Sorry, I'll ask the band to come back up. We have a chance to continue to respond in worship. And we'll hold off and collecting the offering Jeff until after the first two songs here. So you have a chance. But I want to encourage you to listen now, I want to encourage you to respond. I want to encourage you to embrace the routing of the truth that you've been set free. That you're captive to him, your son or daughter of the king. And he's giving you gifts for his work, for his purposes. So use this time to listen. If you want to sing along with us, that helps great. But if you just need time to be quiet and be still before the Lord, you do that as well. Let me pray. I would ask that you would continue to meet with us now. I pray that you would speak by your spirit. And God as we respond in worship as we draw near to you as we seek your face. God, would you come and make your presence known? Would you come and equip your church and guide us? Would you bring your kingdom truly in the midst of your church? In the ministry here this morning. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.