City Central Church Podcast
When God Builds pt. 2
Adam Narciso
We'll get the ball rolling on that. Are we ready for the Word of the God? Well, God's tonight. All right. I'm excited. Let's pray Father, we just thank you this evening. We thank you Lord that your Word is true We thank you God that your Word is true and And God that you take these truths that have always been ancient truths and you make them present day Realities Lord you you make them relevant to even thousands of years later God these these things are still true and We pray holy spirit that once again you take the word of God this timeless reality And you you penetrate our hearts in this present moment of history and something inside of us would change even tonight God In Jesus name we love you God amen All right, so check it out quick summary of last week if you weren't here It's very simple. We took a look in first chronicles chapter 28 and first chronicles chapter 29 And we looked at a movement that God started on the earth and it was the it was a worship and prayer movement That started when he when he called King Solomon to build the temple you might recall that it was actually David who originally wanted to build the temple Solomon's father But the Lord said you can only gather all the materials But your son after you who takes the throne he's the one who's going to construct this temple So you remember when we looked in first chronicles 28 and 29 that saw David was there in front of all of Israel And he's giving this speech in front of the nation and he's commissioning his son Solomon saying this son after me Is going to be the one that God has called to build the temple now you might not think you might think that hey Building a building a building constructing buildings not that big a deal But you have to understand that this would be the building where God's spirit would dwell on the earth for For thousands of years this would be the central place of worship for the entire nation of Israel All the people of God would come here. There'd be sacrifices daily. There would be 24/7 prayer and Worship there'd be teaching in the outer course there It was a it was a worship and word movement and prayer movement that started when Solomon chose to was called to build the temple Are you with me and we recalled last week that when David was giving this speech in front of Israel and he was commissioning Solomon and son he we learned a couple import insights that give us insight into what God looks for when he's when he's Wanting to build something on the earth What God looks for when he's wanting to build something on the earth and in first chronicles 29 one David said Solomon my son You are young say young and say inexperienced And say this word and the task is great The first thing you must recognize is that when God is looking to build something on the earth when he's looking to start a movement on the earth He doesn't necessarily call those who are perfect who have perfect resumes He doesn't necessarily call those who are even experienced about what they're going to set up set up be set out to do He doesn't necessarily calls those who graduate from seminary or Bible college and are so familiar with the Bible through and through But we know that when God wants to start a movement on the earth like when building the temple building the prayer and worship movement He called one man his name was Solomon who at this point in his life was young and in an experienced and the task before him was great And that should be encouraging to you and I because so many of us as young adults feel like we can't evangelize We can't share our faith. We can't you know be expressive about our beliefs and and and preach the gospel You know in schools or you know in our community in our families and our home and in our job place because we feel like we're not Experienced enough in God's we're like I don't know all the answers. Do you know what I'm saying? But you have to understand when God calls some he looks for someone on the earth to build something He doesn't necessarily look for those who are experienced Instead he takes those who are experienced and all he needs in them is this word whole-hearted devotion Whole-hearted devotion in in chapter 29 of first chronicle chronicles verse 19 David prayed for his son He said God give my son a whole heart or a perfect heart after you that he would obey all of your commands So check this out God can take someone who's young raise your hand if you're young He can take someone who's inexperienced raise your other hand if you think you're inexperienced in the kingdom and as long as you have Inside of you something of that's called whole-hearted devotion Desire to serve God with your whole heart fully devoted to him He can take that that kind of person and start a movement on the earth that Impacts the nations around you I'm telling you it's just Bible remember we looked at that word heart and biblically the heart is the place where it's the seat of Emotions and passion it's that place of fire inside of you and Then we took the word devotion and we realized that devotion has to do with Decisions of the will in daily discipline and commitment and when you put these two together It's like dynamite when you put someone to when you take someone who has a burning heart for God Like I may not know much, but this I know he saved me He changed my life and I'm different and I want the world to know when you take someone with a burning heart and You introduce devotion into their life like daily discipline I may not feel it like it every day, but I'm committing myself to walking with God I'm committing myself to growing in my relationship with God through prayer through Worship through the word of God when you take these two things are like dynamite and I'm telling you That's the only qualification that God looks for on the earth when he wants to start something big when he wants to build something on the earth He looks for someone not necessarily who's aged or who's credible who has the resume or whose experience But he looks for someone who will wholeheartedly devote themselves to follow him You see what I'm saying? And so we looked at that last week Whole-hearted devotion three things we talked about is Regarding whole-hearted devotion if you weren't here, I said this word you just won't stumble upon whole-hearted devotion by accident you know, it's not like oh I Just I just came into the church, you know And all of a sudden man. I'm transformed my heart is wholly devoted to God You know, I have this burning passion and fire for Christ, and I'm daily pursuing him with all of my heart You don't just stumble by accident into whole-hearted devotion, but instead we said oftentimes Pressing into this type of devotion with God requires regular daily violent acts of your will save violent We talked about things like private prayer, you know per fasting. That's abstaining from food Going without food, you know for a period of time to give yourself to prayer into the worship of God Daily oftentimes regular violent acts of the will and we have to we remembered we we recognize this last week is that Whole-hearted devotion is not developed overnight or in one per time So even last week we said God give us whole hearts after you in prayer when we're praying that prayer corporately But we have to understand that because we prayed that for last Saturday doesn't mean that when we wake up Sunday morning Hey, I'm ready to build the temple Do you see what I'm saying? But it takes instead daily violent acts of the will when I don't feel like it I Make the decision to do it When I feel discouraged. I still make the decision to obey when I feel hopeless. I still make the decision to obey When I'm intimidated by the prayer meeting I still go and I put my buns in the chair Do you know what I'm saying? I was kind of ridiculous. We had a three hour Well, really like a four hour for you can't the pre meeting meeting four hour prayer meeting Thursday night You know for the last few weeks and if you think about the nature of this is that's completely un-American You know, it's like we're used to like the hour-long, you know Seekers and seeker seeker meetings where it's like you come in they sing the two songs one sitting down one standing up The man gets up to preach they pass the bucket around with another cute song in the background You sing another song on the end and then he prays and then boom It's one hour and you're out the door off to watch this the Seahawks lose Didn't I'm saying and so to say we're gonna have a three hour note if you come early It's gonna be a four-hour meeting some people are already in their worshiping for two hours prior to that So a six hour pressing into God and then we still every night for the last three weeks have had, you know 100 plus people pack that room And so it's pretty un-American. Do you see what I'm saying? But sometimes to break into a whole hearted devotion you have to do things that are not American In fact, you have to do things that most Americans will look at and go you're crazy And all that is is just whole hearted devotion, it's just normal Christianity So normal Christianity is you know, I mean normal like Bible Christianity truly lived out Is as complete completely un-American Are you with me? And so tonight we want to look at in Matthew chapter 3 We want to look at someone who lived a great example of this lifestyle of whole hearted devotion unto God Matthew chapter 3 we're gonna look at this man John the Baptist Those of you guys who've been with me even years ago. Remember we called him Johnny B back in the day Johnny B Say Johnny B And Matthew chapter 3 verses 1 through 12. I want to read these 12 verses and then we'll get back I'm will teach and then I'm I'll preach Bible says in those days John the bee came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying this Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand For this is he who have spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said the voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight Now John were a garment of camel's hair and the leather belt around his waist and his food was locust and wild honey Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in The river Jordan confessing their sins for seven But when he saw many of the Pharisees in the Sadducees coming for baptism He said to them you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come bare fruit and keeping with Repentance and do not presume to say to yourselves. Hey, we have Abraham is our father for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham even now the axe is laid to the root of the tree Every tree therefore that does not bear good for it is cut down and thrown into the fire. He's pretty intense verse 11 I Baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is my dear than I who sandals I'm not worthy to untie He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire His winnowing fork in his hand he will and he will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire Pretty intense Kind of not like a seeker seeker message, you know, it's like So here's a wild man who's not preaching a seeker message, but yet we see this in verse 5 and 6 entire cities pouring out to hear him The Bible says that all Jerusalem Judea and these cities these towns poured out into the wilderness to go and see this wild man And they came to be baptized by this wild man in the wilderness check this out people left Jerusalem the place of worship The place where Solomon Solomon's temple was built The place where they sacrificed daily where there was 24/7 worship in prayer They left the house of prayer To go to the wilderness where the where the real fire was They They left the place Jerusalem where everyone migrated on an annual basis to go there and worship They left that place that city that holy site to go into the desert to meet a man who really had the anointing and This is John the Baptist cities poured out to him in verse 7 He you see he didn't even preach he even preached against the primary religious voices of the day So he didn't have a cute sermon You know so when all the pastors and all the apostolic people came out all the conference leaders came out to see him You know in the wilderness Instead of saying yeah Let me baptize you you can join the club and then you can lead these small groups over here and we can have a Johnny B Conference in Jerusalem Johnny B Conference in Judea, you know, we'll just use it. We'll call it something cool, you know I don't know The Johnny beatizer baptizer. I don't know something, you know the Johnny baptizer ministry, you know He didn't he didn't try and network with other existing ministries instead when they came to him He said you brood of vipers Wow Who warned you to free flee from the wrath that's to come he had this violent message for these people who called themselves religious But we're really using religion instead of to set people free. They were using it to bind people Trading all these rules and regulations that were nonsense, but saying you have to do these things to have relate coming to relationship with God Johnny B came against them violently say you brood of vipers, so he didn't preach a kind sermon You follow me it wasn't a secret sensitive moment. It wasn't like hey, I love you. You love me We're all one happy family You know with Nick Nick patty wack give your dog a bunk kind deal. It was just like You brood of vipers you poisonous serpents It was violent in verse 8 or Actually in verse 7 he also preached you don't see this in Matthew But you see in Luke he preached against Herod the tetrarch who was like the governor of the land because Herod was having an affair with his brother's wife He's this man of power who is a Roman an authority in in Rome and John the Baptist called him out publicly For it for sleeping with his brother's wife here it ended up putting him in prison because of it But he wasn't afraid to preach against the leading religious voices of the day He wasn't afraid to preach against the leading political ruler of the day and Still you see cities pouring out to him to receive ministry from him. He was a fearless man Verse 8 he preached an unpopular message say this word repentance He was calling people to turn from their sin no longer steal, but to now give your give your goods away You know no longer lie, but to tell the truth to speak the truth in love. He was preaching repentance He had an unpopular message who knew that when you would preach an unpopular message face the religious giants of the day face the political You know serpents of the day and preach this word repentance that an entire cities would come to you Isn't that a thought a lot of times in the church we think oh man if we preach repentance the crowds will dwindle You know like we'll have less hide in the bucket You know or I can't bring then my friend who doesn't know God into the church service because the message is too intense But here's John the Baptist You know just man of intensity and the crowds crowds exploded and Then in verse 9 he said he shows he confronted the religious mindsets of the day He said though by the way don't say to yourselves we're children of Abraham in other words He's telling the Pharisees don't just believe that you're okay with God because you were born into a Hebrew family Because your family was Jewish because your family goes to the synagogue. They get they worship at the temple. I Hate being around people and they say yeah, I'm Christian You know I was pretty much born in the church pretty much was saved from day one Actually, you're born into sin Do you know I'm saying you're born? You're born a sinner separated from God your hellbound and you need it to be radically transformed in order to come into Christ And so he John the Baptist was confronting in his sermons the religious mindsets of the day It's like if he came right in here and he picked apart all the things that we think are true and he said don't think this but think this way Don't think that you're saved you're because you're a son of Abraham because God can take these stones here and create descendants Out of those he said don't don't lie to yourself. You're hellbound and you need a savior John the Baptist Johnny B and cities empty to him. I Want to paint this picture because typically we glamorize John the Baptist ministry Do you know what I'm saying? It's like oh cities poor hot to him. Here's this guy He's baptizing folks left and right, you know all these Hebrew folks coming out, you know and And the reality was his ministry was very very uncomfortable Kind of like the pew you're sitting in right now You imagine we had a five six-hour prayer meeting in this building Hard pews on your backs, you know little tiny cushion barely worth anything under your buns His ministry was highly uncomfortable Check this out his diet consisted of eating insects and honey locus like I've never seen a locus, but I think they're insects Grasshopper mixed with a bumblebee or something like that, right? Grasshopper mixed with the fly So he eats it think about the the gooey-ness inside of Inside of something thick enough to eat. There's lots of protein, but lots of Do you know I'm saying? This was his diet the honey thing I can do with wild honey Bring it on Let me spread that on my My toast, you know puts a little peanut butter on that business. Maybe throw it in some oatmeal You know I can work with that kind of weird diet, you know oatmeal honey little piece of bread there but instead he took wild honey and insects the gushikine she I he would put man versus wild to shame survivor man all those people for the fear factor. Here's Johnny B Do you see what I'm saying? We have this glamorous picture of John the Baptist's like you see him in the paintings There's Jesus with his staff and all these white sheep following him And there's John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord Making straight his paths and he just has this kind of fuzz he has a robe like Jesus, but it's more fuzzy Do you know I'm saying no one shows him carrying around a jar of wild loca of locus and honey Just taking the guts of the business Missing teeth doesn't brush his teeth. There's no plumbing in that day. He's a Nazarite. He has long hairs never cut his hair You know I'm saying he's got dreadlocks down to his buns. Do you know I'm saying his goatee is longer than his knees No one shows him like that all messed up eating bugs, you know People coming up on him in the caption over the beautiful picture says you brood of vipers who fled who taught you to flee from the wrath to come Do you know what I'm saying? We have like this glamorized version of the scriptures and John the Baptist ministry was highly uncomfortable Hi his diet bugs and honey his clothes wild camels hair I've never worn camels hair But I do know that it's not comfortable It's not like velvety silk business, you know, it's Calvin Klein never put out anything with camels hair Here comes John the Baptist thing about this His tidy whiteies were made out of camels hair Okay in an era where there was no gold bun on the face of the planet Nothing to help a brother out Just rough say rough rough animal skin His tunic that he wrapped around himself Was not an REI or North Face little puffy down Business that's filled with all the wonderful gushiness that keeps you warm in the snow time Camelskin chafing your body left and right When it's cold outside and you're shivering your skin shivers against the insides of a camel When it's hot outside and you're sweating in the wilderness, you're sweating inside the skin of an old camel By the way your sweat smells Uniquely different than any other Jew person around you because you don't have a steady diet of like things like hummus and falafel and lam instead Instead you eat bugs you eat honey And how many of you know when you met that Italian person that works in the Italian restaurant garlic all up and down they smell They reek of nastiness Italian nastiness You know I'm saying I used to work in an Italian restaurant I used to wait tables all through high school and I remember we took every table We took roasted garlic roasted peppers all of oil balsamic vinegar and some Chabata bread we put it there on the table Okay, I'm telling you you put you touched enough garlicky plates You walk in the kitchen enough times where it's just fumes of garlic nastiness You walk in and out of that place. I used to take showers in the morning Until one time when I woke up in the morning I burped And I got up and I thought what is that rank stench there must be something dead in my room no It was because I was so wrapped up in this garlic environment. I my sweat started smelling Like the food that I served. I'm telling you it happens There well what happened was I realized I need to take showers at night get that business out of me So that when I wake up in the morning, I don't have to wash all my you know I'm saying So John the Baptist is here on the steady diet of locusts, okay gushy kind the gushy insects and honey living in camel skin a Nazarite from birth. He's never drank any wine probably hasn't cut his hair He's an ugly man Okay, let's say it again. He's an ugly man So you need to right now take away every other painting you've ever seen That just paints him as his cute little man in the water dunking these little cute little, you know Hebrew people Jews he's an ugly man living off a very very little Baptizing literally thousands in the Jordan, okay now picture the skinny little man in Furry camel skin Scratch marks everywhere long nasty hair long nasty goatee And you know what he's you can only imagine what he smells like now. He's in the water almost all day baptizing folks His skin is pruned okay by the way when he gets out of the water to dry off He's just in camel camel skin so it's prune skin getting rubbed against by hard surfaces You have to step into the scriptures. Do you see what I'm saying? He's in the water all I baptizing thousands of people that came out from cities miles away Think so he has biceps, you know because he's doing this all day long. I mean, there's probably some heavy set Hebrew people But he's just like I mean, I know you're lighter in water and all that stuff But I mean he's doing this all day just baptizing folks Do you see what I'm saying? And so his ministry was highly uncomfortable The message that came out of his mouth made those around him shudder It offended the religious minds that whenever he spoke just the sight of him probably offended the religious And still the city's emptied because there was such an anointing on his voice That when he preached Multitudes couldn't help but come they were attracted to this man who is completely Completely utterly different than anything they'd ever seen in the temple They had been used to worshiping God all you know every day or once a year in the in the temple But when they can't come out into the wilderness outside that that the environment of worship and and 24/7 prayer they came into the wilderness and they saw a man who put all those other deep preachers to shame You were to put John the Baptist in our midst right now, I don't know that you would call him whole I don't know that you would say Yeah, that's whole hearted devotion We probably say that's whole hearted crazy Do you know I'm saying I? Bet I want to propose something to you tonight that if you would take your definition of whole hearted devotion and our brother Johnny bees definition whole hearted devotion They'd be still radically different That doesn't mean God's calling us all to wear some nasty animal skin and start eating bugs Do you know what I'm saying? But it's like I mean think about it if Johnny bees right here in our midst and we had a panel and we said okay Talk to me about how you're wholeheartedly devoting yourself to Christ in this season, you know We're fasting. We're praying 50 days of prayer, you know, well, you know I fasted yesterday one meal He's like cool Well, you know, I went on a Daniel fast 21 days where I just ate vegetables. That's it. That's a sweet fast, you know Johnny B goes I eat bugs Do you know I'm saying I eat I eat bugs. Oh Okay So you just can't you can't weigh it, you know, there's no way to measure his his level of devotion compared to ours, but yet It was it was this man that God chose to use to prepare the way of God To walk the earth and when when we talk about a movement coming on the earth of John the Baptist type people who would prepare the way for the second coming of God and a great move of God on the earth You know thousands of hundreds of millions of you know people coming to Christ We have to assume that we're that God's going to call some some people to live a little more radically than they currently are All right So how was so you know when God wants to start a movement he looks for someone that's whole whole hearted Holy fully devoted to him So how does God build whole hearted devotion in someone? That should be an important question. We have to answer you know I'm saying so in the coming weeks Sean Hughes in the next two weeks gonna be talking about how God what God does when he builds whole hearted devotion in someone But I want you to turn in your Bible for a second here To Luke chapter 1 verse 80 Luke chapter 1 verse 80 How was this whole hearted devotion developed in John? All right, here we go Luke chapter 1 verse 80. This is how this is John the Baptist and the child grew and Became strong in spirit and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel And read that again the child grew and became strong in spirit. He was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel Check this out When God wanted to raise up a man on the earth to be a force to be a force on the earth One of the one of the very first things he did was he moved him out of the city Stuck him in the wilderness Isolated him from all other religious influence Isolated him from all other community Isolated him from the normal religious experience of the day in Jerusalem He stuck him in the wilderness even though his dad was a high priest and had to minister in Jerusalem John the Baptist stayed in the wilderness When God wants to raise up someone on the earth when he wants to use someone for a mighty work on the earth Oftentimes the thing he does is he takes them out of their environment. That's normal Takes them out of their environment. That's comfortable takes them out of their environment. That's just common Sunday morning church And he sticks them in a place like a wilderness in a community or or in a place of isolation where they can grow Uninfluenced by the Sunday morning mundane thing that God wants to change Do you see what I'm saying? Check this out Always when you look at the scriptures when God raised up someone to do crazy crazy thing on the earth He put them in the wilderness for either years or days Moses 40 years Joshua 40 years David the caves at a lamb somewhere between 10 and 20 years Jesus 40 days fasting in the wilderness Paul probably 10 years before he he really came into that apostleship Elijah After Mount Carmel goes lives lives alone in a lonely lonely place For a long time. Do you see what I'm saying? Always in the scripture when God wants to do something radical and he wants to raise up someone and use them He always takes them to a wilderness and I'm telling you right now If you want if you think you know why I'm gonna just be a church attender or I'm gonna be you know This kind of calling probably so you can get away with a little bit of preparation Just normal deal, you know Puse it or you know attend church do that kind of thing but if you're signing on for a real move of God and You took the CD from Thursday and you said this is what I believe God wants to do You better be convinced in your heart of hearts that God is about to ready to throw you if he hasn't already into a wilderness Separating you from normal life you might still be a student you might still have a job You might still live in the same place, but in the spirit. He hides you in The spirit he changes the way you think in the spirit. He surrounds you with people that what that aren't able to influence you Negatively anymore in the spirit. He's surrounded. He puts you in a community where it's like fire It's like do you don't say it's burning people's hearts are burning and we want something more we want something different And you might go well, I want to be on the mission field in Fiji. I want to be in Asia I want to be doing XYZ and God saying well You will but understand if you really want that if you really want to enjoy that when that day comes You must embrace the wilderness John spent at least 30 years in a wilderness Living outside the temple and when the time came for him to be publicly manifested in Israel God flipped a switch And he said now you preach now you baptize now you proclaim and he stepped up on a rock somewhere in a wilderness Who knew the Bible doesn't say he wanted to Jerusalem said we're handed out flyers. Hey, we're gonna have a conference Here's my website www.not created yet calm Do you know what I'm saying he didn't go anywhere he stayed in the wilderness in the city's empty to him So here's a man who changed the city from the wilderness Here's a man who changed the cities, but he was prepared in the wilderness Here's a man who changed the way they did things at the temple, but he never stepped foot in it Isn't that wild? When God really wants to change things on the earth He takes a man or a woman or it takes a group of young people and he throw chucks him in the wilderness Have fun. I'll see you in 10 years. Have fun. Have fun. I'll see you know And then he calls him to lifestyles of whether it's uncomfortable Yeah, I want you to miss meals so you can pray and seek my face I want you to attend regular worship. I want you to be in prayer meetings I want you to be calling on my name day and night. I want you to be in the Word of God when everyone else is just watching TV I'm calling you out of that place of comfort and Calling you into a life that's really gonna make you discomforted and It's only as you embrace that that you're able to stand before people You brood of vipers and Deliver the messages God gives Think about this. How uncomfortable are you when you even mentioned the name of Jesus like in a classroom full of people or in a Workplace or among friends, you know I'm saying you know that feeling of discomfort Don't lie and say you're Captain courage. Okay, you know that feeling of discomfort when you when you spoke Oh, yeah church, you know into church someone says you go to church, you know, yeah Do you know I'm saying where do you go and they're all of a sudden they're driving the conversation You're like I'm supposed to be the evangelist here and there. What what shirts you go to? Um, it's called new songs city central downtown Yeah, we meet downtown. Oh cool. Okay. Well What when do you meet? Saturday nights And this is up air of uncomfort discomfort And then and then some of you some of us have the nerve after that moment to go and talk to our friend Oh my gosh, you never believe it so-and-so is asking about church Their hearts are so soft. Oh, wow praise God I've been praying for them. I've been praying for that. I totally I totally it was a total divine appointment The funny thing is God told me that was gonna happen in my quiet time two days ago. I've been praying for it You You're laughing because you can relate you're laughing because you've done the same thing Okay, you know the the the level of fear that's confronted inside you even at the mention of the name of faith or religion or church Here's John the Baptist the leading religious people today you brood of vipers Here's John the Baptist laying it all in the line rebuking the public politician of the day current politician of the day with no shame Do you understand the level of fearlessness? Actually, you don't we don't understand the level of fearlessness he he operated in we don't understand the level of courage he operated I'm here to tell you. I think something of it was related to the fact that he spent a lot of time in the wilderness He spent a lot of time just embracing his training and So if if the picture was if you holding on to you know You know like a teddy bear, and that was your training. That was your wilderness. How tight are you squeezing that thing? Is it under your bed? Is it just sitting on your lap and you're saying oh do you see how cute this thing is? You've got a ninja grip on that thing Kung-fu business no, no one's gonna pride out your hands Or do you set it on the ground when you're hungry do you put it on the ground? When the net the desire for to do something else comes along. Do you see what I'm saying? But how well do you embrace your wilderness John was only able to embrace his wilderness because of this check this out in verse chapter 1 verse 76 through 79 This is after he was circumcised on the eighth day after he's he's eight days years old day eight days old excuse me In his dad's his tongue opens he prophesies the word of the Lord He says you child will be called the prophet of the most high For you go before the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins Because of the tender mercies of our God he goes on and on and on then verse 80 the child grew and became strong in the wilderness I'm here to tell you that I think John was only able to stay and survive in the camel skin eating the bugs eating the honey not cutting his hair in the wilderness away from civilian life simply because he had really heard from God What he wanted to do in his life Simply because he was utterly convinced that God wanted to do something powerful on the earth And he wanted to use him and he knew if that date when that day comes he needed to be fully prepared He needed to be fully prepared So I'm here to tell you the your greatest need right now is not to muscle in more devotion I want to be more whole hearted devotion follower of christ Your greatest need right now is your eyes to be open To what God really wants to do till you become utterly convinced Regarding what he said about you and and what he said about the world and where we're at and then you go If that's really true and I believe it is then all of a sudden whole hearted devotion just makes sense And anything else is stupid Because if God really wants to give me a voice And use me in xyz or if he really wants to give me an influence in the business world use me xyz Then then whole hearted devotion makes sense There's a difference between someone who trains for a marathon and someone who just works out I would never run a marathon in my life 26 point however many miles. I don't even like driving that long I don't But you know when you're in the gym those who are training for triathlon and marathon because they've got the little number on them Skippy shorts or running the weird things, you know And they're in there for hours multiple times a day swimming running biking, you know When you're training for 26 michelle you ran a marathon didn't you or how you ran a marathon anyone else ran a marathon in here Yes, I didn't think so Okay, but you have to you understand that there's a greater cost for someone who runs a marathon So one of my buddies said he's running a marathon. I wanted to puke on his feet Because I immediately had these pictures in my mind of strenuous exercise day after day after day And I thought that sucks Running 12 miles a day for the next month Let's walk oh, I'd rather watch it on tv Do you know what i'm saying like that sounds more fun than doing it, you know And complete a completed marathon sometime about four or five hours how long does it take? Four or five hours nine hours for some of us. It's like just just a dumb idea Who thought of it? I know let's have a race From this pole to that pole no no no Let's go 26.2 miles Stupid just bottom line like Why do they go of 26.2, you know Who knows but anyway The thought of something like that just sounds like a lot of work now We need to change the way we think about recalling because when someone says i'm an evangelist I'm a pastor I'm a pro you know i'm going to be used to speak the word of god. I i'm going to be used in this way We should start thinking oh, that means they've got a wilderness If it's true, it's not just some cute, you know I took over the youth pastor role for this guy because I went to bible college and that made sense, you know I have a degree in youth ministry I went to four years of spu and I owe $80,000 to the school And i'm going to take a job that pays $20,000 a year as a youth pastor Do you know what i'm saying? It's like whoa, that's big cost, you know And so but if you truly believe that your voice is going to do something on the earth you will then Be convinced. Oh, it's that's a marathon call So that it probably requires marathon level preparation Are you with me? And so I want to end there. I want to park on that. Okay. I just want that to sit in your soul right now That this week you would be challenging your guts going oh man Do I really believe About a youth movement do I really believe that god wants to do something through me? If so then that probably means that there's going to be some radical Training and I know i've been faithful but some that probably means i've got to get even more crazy Pastor's not asking you to put on a camel's hump on your back, you know Not asking you to eat bugs Or drink honey, you know But i'm asking you to adopt a lifestyle that that might be more uncomfortable A wilderness type experience where you where you you want you refuse to surround yourself with the thing that that that drives you away from closeness with god and instead you surround yourself with a thing that just Fills your heart with his fire and his passion. You see what i'm saying? So simple word, but I want to get that in your spirit because when god wants to start something on the earth He looks for someone who's wholly devoted to him The way he develops wholehearted devotions he sticks him in a wilderness And the person that embraces their wilderness is the person that truly believes that they've heard from god Regarding what he wants to do many people are chucked in wildernesses Because they're called but very very few people actually sit in them 30 years a lot of them say well I think i'm just going to go to the mission field now I right daniel, I think i'm just going to do dts You know What's that? Sometimes that's the wilderness now six months not long enough. I think i'm just going to move to And they try and move their way into their column god saying well Okay, all right All right You guys doing right? Praise the lord here's what we're going to do. We're going to we're going to stand up and pray daniel's going to lease in some worship Some of you guys are going to play soccer. I think after this Some of us are going to go get something to eat praise the lord daniel i want you to get up here brother [ Silence ]