A Gateway sermon.
Gateway Church's Podcast
Progressive Development
There's nothing like a little pong before a message, right? Father's Day is next week and every year about this time, I kind of take a little time to reflect on the 12 months that I've had as a father. I have two children. This will be only my fourth Father's Day. But every year I learn a little bit more about what it means to be a father. And truthfully, the more I learn about being a father, the more I'm reminded that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I celebrated a birthday last week and it just kind of reminded me what being a daddy is all about. My daughter went to great lengths to learn Happy Birthday. She wanted to sing the song for me on my birthday and she's only three and a half so she was extremely excited to jump into my bed, wake me up on Wednesday morning, and sing Happy Birthday to me. Well, she got a little shaky in the middle and I had to continue. I had to sing with her. She got to the end and I could just tell by the look on her face. She was just waiting for me to say, "Great job, Riley." So at the end, you know, I'm thinking, "Okay, now remember to say great job." But I'm also thinking, "Where's the gift?" I hear the song, but honey, where's the gift? She finishes the song and says, "Great job, Riley." She says, "Daddy, guess what? My mind is reeling. I've got a list of things I think are about to walk through the door." She says, "Daddy, guess what?" I said, "What, baby? We're going to Snooty Pig for breakfast." Honey, I don't even like Snooty Pig. Daddy, we are going to Snooty Pig for breakfast. But, baby, what if I want to go to McDonald's for breakfast? Daddy, we are going to Snooty Pig for breakfast. But honey, it's my birthday. Don't I get to pick where we go for breakfast? But daddy, you told me I'm the princess and I get to pick. So if you're wondering what I'll be doing on Father's Day this weekend, I will be doing the exact same thing I was doing on my birthday and that's being drug around by my three and a half year old daughter doing whatever she wants to do on Father's Day. How many of you know this morning that your Heavenly Father wants to speak to you? Do you know that? Do you believe it? Let's pray and ask Him to do just that. God, you are the ultimate communicator. No one communicates truth like you do. God, I pray you take my mouth and take my heart and communicate your heart and your truth to us this morning. We open our hearts to hear from your words. Speak to us in a way you never have before. In Jesus name. Amen. Pastor Robert started this series titled "Simply Devoted" several weeks ago. I want to continue this series with a message entitled "Progressive Development." Progressive development. Did you know that you were created for a specific purpose? That you were born for more than just breathing? That the creator of the universe took his time creating you to accomplish something that no one else could accomplish but you. Inside each of us there's something, there's a part of us that knows this. There's something that just says I know I'm destined for great things. Inside each of us there is a desire to leave where we have always been and go where we've never gone before. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says this, "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." If you desire to leave where you've always been and go where you've never gone before, there are several things you must do to ensure that you get there. The first thing is you have to know what he expects. If you're going to go somewhere you've never been for the Kingdom of God, you have to know what God expects of you. Have you ever wondered what God expects of you? This week just getting ready for this message I asked a handful of people what they thought God's expectations of them were. I asked some who had been believers for not very long and some who had been walking with the Lord for over 50 years. I was amazed at the answers I got. The most common answer was this. I think he expects near perfection out of me. People who've been walking with the Lord for 50 years think that if one little mistake shows up in their life that it alters God's plan for their life. A while back I got off the courage, just asked the Lord, what is it exactly you expected me? I had just had one of those moments where it was like God pulled back the curtain of my life and gave me a glimpse of all that he had created my life to accomplish. I was overwhelmed. It scared me. I wasn't scared by the size of the scope of my purpose because truthfully the size of my purpose is not any bigger than yours or anyone else's in this world. Our purposes are equally important because they're ours and because God gave them to us. But I was overwhelmed because I was looking at where I was right at that moment and I was looking at where he was telling me I could go and I didn't see how it was going to be possible for me to get there. Until God showed me where he created me to go with my life I was completely content with where I was. But how many of you know that when God shows you a glimpse of your future it becomes incredibly difficult to sit still in the present? It becomes impossible to be satisfied with status quo. So I just asked the Lord, I need you to tell me exactly what you expect. What is it that you expect of me? If that's where you're wanting me to go I need to know how I'm going to get there. Truthfully my expectation of his answer was a three and a half hour discourse of all the things I wasn't doing that I was supposed to be doing. He shocked me with his answer. Here's what he said. I desire pursuit and progress. Pursuit and progress. And notice I asked for his expectations. He gave me his desires. I desire pursuit and progress. This series simply devoted is all about being a fully committed follower of Christ. And there is one side of devotion that is the passionate pursuit of God's heart. And to this point Pastor Robert and Pastor Brady have done a great job teaching us what it means and what it looks like to passionately pursue God's heart. But there is a side of devotion that involves personal growth. That's what I want to talk to you about this morning. Progressing in your purpose. Moving forward to the kingdom of God. Look in 1 Timothy and what Paul says to Timothy, "Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with a laying on a fence. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all." Once you determine in your heart to leave where you've always been and go where you've never gone before and you know what he expects of you. Here's the second thing. You have to know what is coming. Anytime we determine in our hearts to move forward for the kingdom of God we have to know this. There is an enemy of progress. Without a doubt the devil is the number one public enemy of progress in your life. He will stop you at any cost because he knows this. If you are moving forward in your purpose then you are advancing the boundaries of God's kingdom. If you are advancing the boundaries of God's kingdom you are shrinking the boundaries of the devils. He will stop you at any cost. When I was in college I had the opportunity to play a little basketball. When I say little I can't overemphasize just how little basketball I played. My wife loves to tell the story of the first time I got into a game. Have you ever seen the movie Rudy? You've seen exactly how I got into my first collegiate basketball game. First game of the season. 38 seconds to go. Never forget it. My roommates decide they want to get me in the game and the best way to do it is to pull a Rudy and start chanting my name. And one by one almost a thousand people in our little gym start chanting my name. Now the average man would have been utterly humiliated that it took nearly a thousand people to coerce their coach to put them in the game. Not me. Most people would call the last 38 seconds of a game trash time. I call it an opportunity. So coach put me in the game. What was he going to do? A thousand people are staring him down. He puts me in the game. I scored two points. If I recall the paper the next morning, called it a heroic effort on my part. At the end of the game, I went to my coach in the locker room and I said coach, I scored two points in 38 seconds. If you just would have played me 40 minutes, my math tells me that I would have scored 63.15 points. My coach said Morrison, if I put you in the game for 40 minutes, your defense or lack thereof would have cost our team twice that many points. And my math tells me that that's 126.3 points. But my coach taught me something. Before every game, we would take film of our opponent. And we watched several games worth of film to study our opponent. We were looking not just to see how to stop our opponent. One of the main reasons he taught us to watch film of our opponent was to see what their strengths were so that when we were face to face with their strengths, we weren't afraid. It's not any different with the devil. If I were to give you the devil's playbook this morning, and you were to open up to page one, tactic number one of how the devil tries to keep you where you are so you never get where God created you to go, you'd see in big bold capital letters, the word lie. John chapter 8 verse 44, Jesus says something kind of insightful about the devil. He said this, "He the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and he has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character, for he is a liar and the father, the father of all lies." The devil is a liar, so don't be surprised when the devil comes to you and lies to you about your purpose and your progress. He's a liar. If you were to turn the page from tactic number one, and you were to look at the devil's favorite two lies that he tells us to keep us right where we are, here's what you'd find, lie number one. Convince them that they cannot so that they will not. The devil tries to convince us that we can't do something so that there's a greater chance we won't do it. My wife when we first got married said to me, "I don't think I hear God the way that you do." She had this overblown idea of how I hear from the Lord. I think she thought that I'd sit down in my room and just all of a sudden the Lord would begin speaking audibly to me and the angels would be singing from behind him. She said, "I don't think I hear God the way that you do. It costs her to start questioning whether she heard God at all." Let me tell you this, when the devil starts to convince you that you can't do something, God gives you an opportunity to prove that you can. Several months later, we had the opportunity to give to gateways very first miracle offering. So we sat down, we had no children at the time, and I said, "Let's just take two weeks and let's just individually pray and ask God to give us a number and then in two weeks we'll come back together." I'll never forget where we were two weeks later. We were in the parking lot at Tony Roma, so I'm 114, about to eat dinner with Pastor Robert and Debbie. She was driving, she put it in a parking spot and I said, "Well, do you feel like you've heard God? Do you feel like God has given you a number?" Extremely timidly, she says, "I think so, but I'm really not sure if it was God. It may have just been me." I said, "Well, tell me the number." She gives me three numbers. Since then I've learned that's what she does. When she goes away to hear God for a number, it's always at least three times as much as I was thinking. The good news was God had given me three different numbers. She added up all the numbers and it was the exact same number to the penny that God had given me. We decided weeping. It wasn't about the number. God was teaching us something and God was teaching my wife that she could hear his voice. I could just imagine, right at that moment, God picking up his cell phone and calling the devil, dialing him up and just saying, "Hey, I'm sorry. Did you tell Holly that she can't hear my voice? Hold on, just like one, two, three numbers. Look, let me add them up. Hold, carry the five. Oh, she got the number right. Oh, she can't hear my voice. So stop convincing her that she can't shut your mouth. The devil will try to convince you that you can't do it, that you can't go where God created you to go because he knows if you listen to him too much, you'll start believing him and you'll never get there. Here's line number two, convince them that they will not so that they do not. Line number one really deals with our ability. The devil convinces us that it's impossible to go where God is telling us we should go. Line number two says, "Well, maybe you have the ability, but you're not going to do it." When I was in the seventh grade, I felt the Lord really challenging me to begin devoting the first part of my day as a time just to communicate with him and to hear him speak to me and study his word. Every night before I'd go to bed, the devil would taunt me with these thoughts. Preston, you're going to have to get up at 6.30 in the morning. You're not a morning person. You miss the bus four out of every five days. You never wake up in the morning and beyond that, you've never woken up in the morning to talk to God. And because you never have done it before, you are never going to do it. Because if you could, you would have by now. See the devil gets us to focus on our past because he knows if we're focused on our past, it's absolutely impossible to focus on our future. He'll convince you that you will not do it so that there's a greater chance that you won't do it. You know what God's response to line number two is? He says, "You know that never have stuff that the devil throws at you, you never have so you never will." That's outdated information. You need to understand that the devil sees you as you used to be, but I see you as you are to be. The devil calls you what you once were. I call you what you've always been, mine. And my sheep know my voice. We have to know what's coming from the enemy because he will lie, lie, lie to convince us to stay right where we are and never move forward for the kingdom of God. If you're going to leave where you've always been, to go where you've never gone before and you know what he expects and you know what's coming from the enemy. Here's the third thing. You have to know what you have. If you are determined to go where you've never gone before for the kingdom of God, you must know what he's given you to get there. Have you ever heard people say that humans use 10% of their brain capacity? Have you ever heard that before? There are a couple of wives sitting next to their husbands right now going 10%. A dream of the day he hits 10%. Men, if you're wondering if she's thinking that about you right now, if she's leaning to you going like this, that's not you. You're 15%. I guarantee you she thinks you're less than five. I think that 10% is a great representation of the amount of what God has given us that we actually use. You see when God showed me a glimpse of all that my life was to accomplish, I was overwhelmed at the fact that I saw where I was right at that moment and couldn't see how it was possible to get where he was telling me to go. I was looking at the 10% thinking this is impossible. Let me tell you something. God is not overwhelmed by your purpose because he's looking at the other 90% that is inside of you. God said to Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9 and he says this to every person here this morning who may be sitting there thinking, "I feel like God's created me to go somewhere. I think it's bigger than me, but I do not know how I'm going to get there in spite of all my failures, my weaknesses, my shortcomings. Listen to what God said to Paul and he says this to us, "My grace is enough. It's all you need." My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Paul responds with this, "Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was the case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride and with good cheer. These limitations that cut me down to size, abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over. And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. In other words, God has given you everything you need to get where he has created you to go. We just have to start believing that there's 90% more to be used than what we're presently using. You know what the best part about being a pastor is? That it's my job to convince you that you are 10 times more capable than you think you are. And that you have 10 times the amount of talent and gifting to get you where God has created you to go. That's the easiest job in America. All I have to say is it's already in you. God knew where he created you to go. And the good news is he's given you everything you need to get there. But I don't know about you when I read God's word. I don't have a problem believing God is who he says he is. My real problem is when I am faced with believing that I am who God says I am. It takes faith to believe that you are who God says you are because he says you are so much more than you think you are. But faith in the words that he speaks over you isn't enough. If you desire in your heart to leave where you've always been and go where you've never gone before, you know what he expects of you, you know what's coming from the enemy, and you know what he's given you to get there. After all of that knowing, here's the point of action, get going. It's absolutely impossible to actually go where God has created you to go without getting up and going. Matthew chapter seventeen, great story. I know you know it. Where Jesus says to his disciples, listen, if you just have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible to you. You see, Jesus was saying you don't need more faith because it only takes about this much to do kingdom things. You don't need more faith, you need more go. That word faith in Matthew chapter seventeen literally means belief that demands action. The word picture tied with that word faith means this, so ask to take a spoon and move that mountain one spoonful at a time. I don't know how many times I've been guilty when God's told me to go somewhere, he's created me to go and my immediate reaction is to pull up a chair and wait for him to do something. I'm a professional waiter. It's sad but it's true. For some reason I pull up that chair and I sit there either waiting for God to do something or waiting until I have everything all figured out. Let me tell you something. If you wait to move until you have everything all figured out, you will never move. When Pastor Robert was interviewing me for this job six years ago, I was dating Holly who is now my wife of five and a half years. Thank God. How many of you men would say today, I am grateful to God that my wife married me for whatever reason. Let me just see your hand. Keep those hands up. Let me see you. You know what I'm doing right now? I'm giving every father in this room the perfect opportunity to score points with his wife before she buys his father's day gift. I'll take thank you cards after the service, men. A high five will do. But Pastor Robert asked me, do you plan on marrying Holly? My response was, "Yeah, have you seen her?" I'd be dumb not to. He said, "Well, when are you going to ask her?" I said, "Well, when I have enough money saved up." He said, "Then you're never going to get married because you'll never have enough saved up." Now, was he telling me don't save money? Have you ever heard him preach on money? You know he would never say that to me. He knew how much I had saved up. What he was saying was, you have more than enough. You have everything you need to make the next step. You just need to get up and go. You have everything you need to go where God has called you to go. In the mornings before I go to work, one of my favorite things to do is to go into my daughter's room. I'll just stand there. I'm one of those sappy dads. I'll just stand over. She's totally asleep. There's no idea I'm there. I'll just pray over her. There was one morning several months ago. When I just walked into her room and I was overwhelmed, I saw her blonde hair, blue eyes, the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm just standing there overwhelmed that she's mine. I'm just responding to the overwhelming feeling of love that I have for her. I'm just telling God how grateful I am to have her in my life. God whispers this to me, do you realize that I do this with you every morning of your life? That I stand over you with great anticipation, that you'll just open your eyes, tell me good morning, and that you love me? Do you realize that God stands over you every morning of your life listening to the cry of your heart that you want to leave where you've always been and go where you've never gone before? And do you realize that He says to you, I've given you everything that you need to get there and do not be afraid because I'm going with you? God, you are so good to us. It's amazing that you created each one of us with such a unique purpose to accomplish with our lives. God, I pray that there would not be one person that walk out of this sanctuary this morning without knowing in their heart, number one that you are passionately pursuing their heart, but number two that you have destined them for greatness, and that you've given them everything that they need to get there. This morning there are going to be some people down here at the altar to pray with anyone who'd be here this morning saying, "I feel like I know what my purpose is, but I don't know how I'm going to get there. I need more confidence to believe that I am who God says I am." Or maybe there's someone here this morning who would say, "I've never met anyone who would stand over me every morning of my life, overwhelmed with love for me. I've never met anyone like this Jesus that you're talking about. If that's you this morning, please do not allow the enemy to walk you out of this room without linking your faith with someone up here at the altar and hearing the heart of God for your life." When I'm done praying, I want to ask our altar ministry team to come forward and anyone who'd like just to pray with someone to hear God's heart for your life. God, we're so grateful that you took your time creating each one of us and that you knew exactly what you were doing. Lord I pray that as we commit our lives to move forward in the purpose that you created us to accomplish, that you would give us all that we need to cross the finish line. In Jesus' name, Amen.