Inland Empire: Riverside
Inspired By Needs - Audio
Happy Valentine's Week! It's a good week to give out some love, right? Love those that are near to us. I got a chance last night to go to the all L.A. Church of Valentine's. The campus ministry does a big Valentine's dance to really encourage one another. We don't believe in worldly dating in the church, but we do believe in what I like to call planned fellowship, right? Because the Bible talks about planning things out and it talks about being devoted to the fellowship. So we planned the fellowship and we have great times together and even special times together. And I was really proud they did a themed event called Moment in Time. And people came dressed up as, you know, couples and, you know, with different themes, different decades. I saw Rodney there and April dressing the 20s outfit and their hair still done up a little bit like that. They looked awesome. Rodney had his hat on. I thought it was great. And, you know, just looking cool. Roaring 20s and Jake and Kelsey, they were dressed as like just 70s. I don't know, cool people. I don't know. He had his blazer on, his sideburns. He had grown a mustache and it really fits you well. I think, you know, you missed that decade. I think we got to bring that back. So, you know, and there's always a need to love those near us and know our husbands and wives. It's a great time to plan some special time to really encourage this week in particular. Amen. So grateful for my wife and I. We have our 18th anniversary next week, 18 years really excited about that. It's amazing and we're more in love than ever and that's the Holy Spirit working to just help us to really rejuvenate the love that God gives you. Amen. You know, yeah, and helps her to love me, right, right. She needs the spirit to stay in love with me. That's the point. You know, there's a lot of needs around us. One of the needs in my life was I want my son to be involved in basketball. The challenge of basketball is these days our city canceled all the teams in the junior high schools. Really, you know, there's no, our school district didn't have the money. So I have to have them on travel basketball teams. And the challenge of those is they always play on Saturdays and Sundays. And the challenge also is, you know, a lot of you know, if your children are in sports, it's hard to control the schedule, the sport. And as disciples, we're devoted, you know, practically every night of the week to doing something, you know, worshiping, serving, giving, certainly our Tuesdays. We come together every Tuesday, campus ministry, every Friday, singles ministry, every other week, there's something going on. We're always doing a lot of things and saw that this is going to be really tough. And I realized, you know, one of the needs we had is I wanted to have, you know, some great training so that it can be a tool for his life to impact people for Jesus as he grows older and to really great gain and confidence and just have fun, right. Your team life is a great time to just enjoy your body getting stronger and enjoying the gifts that God's given you. But I realized it's hard to do. So I, you know, I thought, well, what can I do? Well, you know, we have a great brother in the ministry that's been a basketball coach for years, Gary Johnson. And of course, being a disciple, he likes to work the schedule around the disciple schedule. I definitely want Kyle on his team and I want to continue that. But I realized it's hard to get it all going. And so the need arose for there to be a team manager to organize because Gary's a busy man. He can't really do all that. He's donating all his time as a coach to these kids in the community. So I was like, all right, there's a need. I'm going to volunteer. I'll be team manager. And which, you know, everything else I got going on, I'm like, okay, but, you know, there was a need. And I was inspired like, you know, I got to do this because that way, you know, I can control the schedule a little bit. So I can serve the Lord and yet meet that need of that I see fit in my son's life. And it's been a great blessing and, you know, we're continuing on and it's a great thing. But, you know, needs in our life inspire us to step out of our comfort zone a little bit, don't they? Today, I want to talk about that. I did a sermon several weeks ago entitled "Inspired by Words." And we've been talking about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit, you know, moves us. Last week Mike talked about how the Holy Spirit moves, you know, the Spirit moves. And it moves us to love God. It moves us to speak about God. Today, I want to talk about how the Spirit really will inspire us through needs around us. And God, even in His Old Testament, did this all the time. Let's go to God in prayer as we study and reflect on how we can be inspired by needs. Father, in heaven, thank you so much for this morning, this time to come and worship. Father, thank you for the singing and just the chance to lift our voices and sing out that blessed really be your name, God, that you are worthy of all our best, our heart, our soul, our mind. Thank you so much for the dreams you give us. And Father, thank you for this morning to gather to study, to worship, to clear away everything that tears us down spiritually and to focus on you and your word and being inspired about the plans that you have for us and the things you're doing in our life. Be with us now, God, as we study your word, open our hearts and minds. May your words impact each of us, we ask, in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, I really have one main thing I want you to learn today. And that is just simply this. You are needed. Whoever you are, you're needed for a great work that God has in store. You're needed. Number two, I simply want you to act on that knowledge, and that is going to be this. Start meeting those needs. You know, meet the need. And you know, God's Spirit wants to inspire us to see these needs so that we can meet those needs, so that we can make a difference in the world. And as we turn to the, I want us to turn to the book of Nehemiah. And we're going to look at an example in the Old Testament of a great hero who saw the need. And it was inspired by that need to do something great. So turn with me to the book of Nehemiah, and I want to begin reading just as intro verse from God's word version, verse 12. Thank you very much, Michael, for getting that up there. It says, you can look up there, but please turn to Nehemiah one as you're doing that. I like the God's word version because it uses the word inspiration. Your NIV will use what God put in the heart. But it says, during the night, I went out with a few men without telling anyone what my God had inspired me to do for Jerusalem. God feels the pain of the world. He feels your pain. And he needs us, not to give him and his being is totally complete without us. But his heart is filled with compassion for the world. And he desires to use you to meet the needs around us. And Nehemiah was a great example of this. So that was to turn out a chapter one. I want to begin reading there in Nehemiah chapter one, in verse one. It says, the words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah in the month of Kislev in the 20th year. Well, I was in the citadel of Susa. Hannah and I, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men. And I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire. When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said, "O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps this covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer. Your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, the crease and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, "If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations." But if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. They are your servants and your people whom you redeemed by your great strength in your mighty hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this year's servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revereing your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. I was cut bare to the king. And then we're going to read a little bit of chapter 2. It says, "In the month of Nissan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought before him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before. So the king asked me, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill?" This can be nothing but sadness of heart. I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, "May the king live forever!" Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies and ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? The king said to me, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of heaven. And I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it." Then the king with the queen sitting beside him asked me, "How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?" It pleased the king to send me, so I set a time. I also said to him, "If it pleases the king, they have letters to the governors of transuphrades so that they will provide me safe conduct until I arrive in Judah. And I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's force, so he would give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple, and for the city wall, and for the residence I will occupy. And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. So I went to the governor of transuphrades and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent army officers in cavalry with me. When sent Baal at the horror knight, and to buy the Ammonite officials heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. And of course we read the part there where he had in his heart to rebuild it. God had inspired him to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. You know the name Nehemiah, it means the Lord comforts. The Lord comforts, God felt the pain of his people. And he had ordained Nehemiah, had prepared Nehemiah, maybe as a child even for this time. You know God wants to meet needs through us. You know this passage is very interesting as we study and see how God can inspire us to meet needs. You know, where are they? They're in the Persian Empire, Babylon. And it says that they're in Susa, which was the winter lodging for the Persian kings. It's located in modern Iran, not far from the Iraqi border. And we know in history that he was speaking to King Artaxerxes, there were three kings. Artaxerxes one, two and three. From history scholars know that it was the first one, Artaxerxes one, in the year roughly 445 BC that Nehemiah was called in his spirit to do something great. What's interesting is this. You know, if you know a little bit of history about the ancient Israel, you know, the Babylonians had come in and knocked down his Jerusalem and knocked down the walls years and years before. In fact, in 587 BC 142 years before Nehemiah had asked his brother, you know, about what was going on, that had all happened. In other words, this wasn't new news for Nehemiah. Here I'm coming here. It wasn't like, oh, hey, what's going on over there? It was 140 years ago. He knew that the walls were down now. They had tried to rebuild. Under Ezra, if you read that book a little earlier, they had tried to rebuild a little and it got stopped. So maybe there was a little bit of him reflecting on the work hadn't continued the way he'd hoped it would. But in general, it wasn't really new news, the state of his homeland and of his people. So why was he so profoundly affected? I mean, we do think probably there was some, you know, hope inside him that more was being done, but, you know, they didn't communicate quite like us. He couldn't go on the internet and check out, you know, Google Maps and see the live picture of what was going on. So maybe he had hoped that more was being done, but essentially he was in a high position. He would have heard something, but it moved him. This was really old news. And it moved his heart. What about us? Can old news move you? You know, oftentimes we get catalyst to the news around us, don't we? To the state and the condition of things around us. And yet, Nehemiah, as he hears this news, he's moved to do something great. You know, it's God who begins to work in our hearts. We're not sure all the things that were going on. We do know that when he asked that question, we see that he just heard him, and he began to fast, and he began to pray, and he began to care in a way that it seems he hadn't cared before. You know, God moved that we must be open to him moving. We got to open up our eyes to the needs around us, and we got to stay humble in order for God to reveal to us the plan he has for us. We need humility to see the direction that God has in store for us. We got to be receptive to it, because there are great needs around us. And I appreciate it, Jake, in the communion, just being vulnerable about sins that he had, even as a young disciple. Even as an older disciple, that God's had to change him, he's had to see a simple nature, and I appreciate that. The needs around us can inspire us to solve great problems in the world if we have a humble heart. Man named Bob Pierce, who founded this group called World Vision, quoted this. He said, "May my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God." What about you? Can your heart be moved by the things that move the heart of God? Notice the humility of Nehemiah here. Even as, you know, we know he wrote the book, or if he didn't write, you know, it looks like somebody's quoting either the very things he wrote in a journal, or he himself wrote the book that was transcribed by other scribes. But what's interesting here is we don't learn that he is in a high position as cut bear to the king until the end of chapter 1. So, you know, he's writing this and all the great things he does, but he doesn't really reveal his position. The first thing he reveals is his concern, his heart, his brokenness, his receptivity. And then in the end you go, "Oh, and I was cut bear to the king," which is a chief advisory position, right? He had to taste the wine before the king tasted to make sure he wasn't being poisoned. I mean the king didn't just let anybody have that role, so he wasn't a very prestigious advisory or oral role to the king. And yet he's had a humility to be concerned. I mean, he was comfortable. The nation of Israel had been decimated by problems, and he had a great and comfortable life. And yet he allowed this news, not new news, mind you, but news that was out there already to begin to stir him. How about you today? What's stirring your heart? What needs are moving you to do something in your life, to get out of comfortability? And we all get caught up in American comfortability. You know, God saw the needs of the Israelites and sent Moses to lead them out. God saw the pain of humanity and being enslaved to sin, and he sent Jesus to lead us out. You know, Paul said that he was moved. He said it's about ambition to preach the gospel where it has not been heard. This world is lost. Is that new news to you? That's not really new news, is it? I always remember as a young man beginning to learn the word of God, and as I learned that the Bible was in fact true, that Jesus is in fact the Lord that history proves it. So much evidence proves that that could be multiple sermons. But the thing that really moved my heart was when I started reading the front page of the newspaper as a 23 year old and reflecting on God's word versus the world's perspective, and all the conflict and drama and pain and hurt and just everything the media tells me is just ungodly. And what was I basing my sense of purpose and mission and value in life on? The American dream is just a farce. It's a lie. It's fake. It's cheap. It's empty. And many are the casualties of that false dream. We just heard and prayed for the family of Whitney Houston. You know, she passed yesterday, a famous American singer. Live the American dream. And yet the dream is a lie. This is old news. But if you let it move your heart, where are you at this morning? You know, I have a picture of the state of the religious world. You put that little graph up there for me. There's the state of the religious world. We see that 33% of the world claims Christianity. Some form. In other words, 33% claim some kind of belief in Jesus. Jesus would be the center of their thinking. That's every single background. But that means you've got 67% of the world that does not claim any kind of belief or understanding of Jesus. Now, you know, there are 7 billion people on the earth right now. So that means there are 4.7 billion people who have no faith at all whatsoever in Jesus. 4.7 billion people on this earth have no idea that God walked the planet, revealed the truth to us, resurrected from the dead, and is waiting for us in the spiritual realm for us to respond to the truth. And we will all die and learn that truth at one point because the scripture says clearly that every knee will bow and say, "Jesus is Lord." Every knee will bow, whether on earth or after life on earth. This is really old news. Is it moving your heart? You know, a lot of us have a heart. You know, we think, "Man, there's so many people in America. I can't be worried about world missions. I don't be worried about the people in my neighborhood." And that's true. But a lot of us might feel that way. You know what Steve, I just want to evangelize my town, my neighborhood, and just America. That's it. And yet here's a scary stat. If that's your heart, just to do that. To only be concerned about that, not practically. Not all of us can just go everywhere in the world, but somebody has to. And our heart needs to be like God's heart. You know, the US population is about 300 million, which is only 4.3% of the world. So if your heart is only for America, you only have 4.3% of God's heart. That's it. Why is my, our Mike and Libby out in the Middle East right now? Why do we as a congregation give every year, very secondary, and have, you know, I have for 21, 22 years, because we got to have the heart of God to change the world. You know, here's the scary thing. Of that 33% we were looking at that claims faith in Jesus, it's nowhere near being true faith. And we know that for a fact. Just talk to your neighbors that believe in Jesus and get into depth of their life. And it'll reveal that. I remember for me in college when I didn't have faith in Jesus and didn't really know what I believed about him. I had a friend who every Sunday just went to church very consistently. But on Saturday night, I would, I would regularly be getting drunk with him or be smoking pot with him. And he'd be having an immoral relationship with his girlfriend talking about it freely. And yet every sunny faith went and he said, "Oh yeah, I am a Christian. I've been since a kid." I pulled up some statistics on professed Christians from the Barna group that does polls around the world of religious convictions. Listen to this, a recent survey of professed Christians. Only 38% think that sex outside of marriage is wrong. Only 38%, which means 62% of professed Christians think, "Hey, it's fine to go and have sex with someone you're not married to. It's okay. It's just fine. It's morally acceptable." Now, and that's an obvious one. We even have a whole agency in the United States government that for a while was promoting monogamy and not having sex outside of marriage. Even the government realized that statistics show that it creates better families. It's healthier. It's just statistically it works. So you have professed Christians. 52% think it's okay. So who's really right with God and not right with God? What percentage of the earth is really walking with God and understanding his way? What about true discipleship? How many percentage on that graph are true disciples of Jesus? I mean, God looks down only. He knows. But let me tell you, it's slim. It's low. We know in the story of Noah, he saved eight people right through the flood. That was it. That was all he saw fit to let live through the flood. How many are right? How many on the boat? How many are on the ark right now? The ark of God's kingdom? God knows, but it's slim, which means there is a large need for your life to be a testimony to God and for God. Amen. There's a large need for your life. You know, Nehemiah, he heard about the situation, he cared about the people, and he went to God and took responsibility for his part of the problem. And he became a solution. What's interesting in the text also is if you read the text, you find out that he heard about it. It says in the month of Kislev in verse one, it says, and then he had the prayers for many days he fasted and he prayed and we hear about his prayer, which certainly he prayed more than that. I'm sure that was a synopsis of the main things he was praying about. And then we find in chapter two that it's actually four months later, the month of Neeson is four months later, that he had in his heart to do something and he didn't let it out of his heart. See, he followed through. When he actually finally approached the king specifically and talked to him about this, it was four months later. How easily we get excited and fired and I want to get you fired up today in the sermon, but I want you to follow through. Oftentimes in our ministry, we make plans. We plan in a Bible talk. We plan an outreach event. We get excited about it. It's motivating and then we don't follow through. That hurts our faith. It hurts the faith that people around us. It prevents God from meeting the needs. Nehemiah wouldn't exactly follow through. We need to ask ourselves, what are we going to do about this large need in the world? And you know, a lot of times the way you got to handle this is you got to look at, okay, let me look at that large need. I need to care about it, but also what are the needs nearby me? You know, what about your own family? What about your own personal life? Pain in your own life will inspire you to do some great things. People get inspired to do great things by pain that they have felt and pain that they're feeling. You need to embrace that. Certainly, you know, we continue to be praying for the campus student, Chris, Chris Lee. You know, we pray for that. We pray for his healing for the miracle of God to transform and heal him. You know, but the pain of the students feeling their dear friend hurt is inspiring them to seek God a little bit more. Are you in touch with the pain around you? You know, Jesus was moved by the problems in Jerusalem. Paul was moved by people being lost. What about us? What is the Holy Spirit telling you to work on? What is the Holy Spirit moving you to do? You know, I have some really encouraging news that I want to ask for your prayers about. My little sister, Hannah, she's a student at Cal State at UC Santa Barbara. And for years, it's been on my heart that I want one of my family members to become a disciple of Jesus to respond to Jesus. And, you know, she has begun to study the Bible in depth with the disciples up at UC Santa Barbara. And I talked to her this past week, and she's in the throes of wrestling with what it's going to look like to really be a disciple. She's gone through the Bible studies about how to give up everything to Jesus, and she's counting the cost of, can I do it? Am I ready? It's not going to be easy. She's not, she doesn't want to be, you know, impetuous with it. She wants to be thorough, but I see God working. I'm like, oh, it's so exciting. And it's made me think, you know, I can't give up on the rest of my family. I'm like, okay, if she makes it, she's going to help me with my dad, you know, we're going to go after dad. I'll probably get him to church at some point, so you don't share all the things I always share about him. I'm going to go after my atheist dad, okay? And I think with her together, you know, we can make some inroads. He's a 70-year-old, and it's just time for him to look up and go, listen, you can't play games with my eternity. What's moving you? Does your family move you? Do your neighbors, the needs of your neighbors move you? You know, in my neighborhood, I've seen divorces. I've heard of two within six houses of mine. There's needs all around us. There's people in pain. You know, I don't know if you've been doing the Quiet Time series back on track, but it's been phenomenal. They've been doing it? So awesome that you're doing it. Did you like that one on digging? I thought that was a home run. Digging. If you haven't done it yet, do that one. You got to dig, right? What? We dig the holes. We dig the ditches. And God fills them with water. There are needs. There are lost souls all around us. There are hurting people. There are depressed people. There are broken relationships. There's needs for leadership. There are needs for healing. There are needs for teaching. You know, I read an article in the plane this past week. We were going to an evangelist to treat out in Phoenix and on that short flight, I read an article about the number one need that all leaders in our culture need to be concerned about. And it's not a spiritual need necessarily, but I thought it was very interesting. It was the need for new jobs. That's it. Cross the globe. The number one thing people are wanting and figure out what they want, cross the globe, is they want a job. You know, 50% of the earth is unemployed. That's scary. Now ultimately, we know that even if you have a good job, you don't get eternity from that, right? We know that that's not our ultimate need. Now, it's nice to have a job and God even made men. He says in Genesis, He made men to work the land. We feel productive when we work the land. I mean, we need a job. You know, we live in the land of prosperity, men. We need to go after. I believe God will open doors. We've got to be faithful and diligent and are working to find the job that God has informed us, but that's not ultimate fulfillment. What's our greatest need? Our greatest need is for a relationship with God. You know, we find in 1 Timothy 2, it says God wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. The greatest need for our high school students. The greatest need for our college students. The greatest need in the Inland Empire for young, single professionals. The greatest need for married couples. The greatest need for retired individuals living, you know, maybe they have their whole retirement covered. Their greatest need is to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. When Jesus went into the home of Mary and Martha in Luke 10, we read about this. Martha was busy preparing the meal, right? And she was frazzled by all the preparations and details. And yet, Mary, her sister, was sitting at Jesus' feet, listening to the words of Jesus. And Martha's like, "Tell her to help me. I got all these things going on." He says, "You're concerned and upset about many things, but only one is needed." What does that need to have a relationship with God? To sit at the feet of Jesus to know God, to be near God, to worship God, to know that we need Him for everything we do. Amen? So that is the great need around us. Where's your heart and desire and inspiration to meet that need for yourself by drawing near to God? But number two, to pass along just the goodness of God to other people. In Luke 19, verse 41, as Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, it says in verse 41 that He wept over it. He wept over it because He was concerned about it. And the people were resistant. He says that in the days to come, verse 43, "Your enemies will build an embankment against you and circle you and hem you in on every side." They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. You know that happened 30 years later. Roughly 30 years later, Titus the Roman general marched into Jerusalem and tore the city down, tore the temple down, destroyed it. And Jesus foresaw that and He wept. When's the last time we wept? Wept. You know what I meant. When's the last time we wept about our family being lost? When's the last time we wept about our children and where they're at spiritually moms and dads? Kids right in our congregation, right here, been going to church their entire life. You know how easy it is to let this precious time pass by and not put in them the foundational conviction and heart that can change their eternity? Who's going to stand up and make a difference? You need to. You got to weep over it. You got to have a heart that's like I will do anything to help the most important things be put in the people that I love. It's hard work and there's always opposition, right? Me and Maya faced it. There's a lot of opposition out there. There's a lot of opposition to teaching the truth. There's a lot of opposition to help people understand who Jesus is. One of the biggest things we have is opposition is just our own sinful nature, right? The laziness, when's the last time you brought a friend with you to church to hear the word of God? I'll be honest that I haven't brought a personal friend that I met and it's been a little while. I don't even remember. I mean I know I'm bringing I'm hanging out with guys and I'm studying but like somebody one of my friends and I met it somewhere. It's my guy, the guy I'm reaching out to a neighbor, a co-worker, somebody that a friend of one of my kids, a parent of one of my kids. What have I brought one of them? What about you? Church, we've got to repent. I've got to repent. I want to bring some friends. I want my neighbors, my friends. I want new people I meet. I want a new best campus friend. I want a new, you know, teen friend. We have a teen Bible. I want to bring some of these kids in the neighborhood. I want them to come to church with certainly with my kids but I want them to come. They're my friends. I care about them. We've got to repent because people are dying out there. We've got to overcome the feelings inside of us that stop us. The bitterness maybe, maybe you just don't feel inspired, maybe you feel a lack of motivation. Maybe like me, I feel at times overly busy. So busy, how can I get involved in somebody's life and help them become a disciple because I know how much that takes. I do it for just a couple people. That's what I do. And I forget, what about the people that are near me that I have a heart for? What about my older brother, my father? Have I done much for them? And my little sister, amen. You know, I called her. Amen, I called her. I probably could have done a lot more. Thank God for the disciples in Santa Barbara that are calling her every day and studying with her and loving her and pulling her in. But I know I could care more. I want to bring a friend because this world is dark and I am needed. You are needed. What is stopping you from meeting the needs? I think of a poem that inspired me and poem by Dylan Thomas. It's entitled, "Do not go gentle into that good night." And I love the beginning and then it says, "Do not go gentle into that good night." Old age should burn and rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. That spiritual light that the world tries to snuff out inside of you. Don't go gentle into that good night. Be willing to see that need and understand. You are needed on this earth to make a difference in people's lives. We have to break out of the things that snuff our energy. Look in Esther chapter 4 verse 14. Esther chapter 4 verse 14 says, "If you remain silent at this time, turn with me." He is only going to put it out. He is going to force you to turn to your Bible. I printed it out but I am going to wait for you. Turn to Esther chapter 4 verse 14. You guys there? It says, "For if you remain silent, what is the background here? The king of that land has issued a decree to kill all the Jews." And Esther is a Jew who happens to be the queen. And Mordecai, her relative, is telling her, "You have to do something about this decree." And she is afraid because you have to be asked the king for something. He doesn't like the idea. You get killed in the spot. But then in verse 14 he calls her out. He says, "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place." But you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this? Teens? Who knows that you are in your school for a set reason for such a time as to change the eternal destiny of someone else? High school situation is people are self-focused. They're consumed with sexuality and perversion and a lot of disgusting stuff on the internet. Drug use is rampant. There's depression everywhere. And there's just a lack of purpose in the hearts of the students. And those students that are here, you've seen the light. You understand there is a light. There is an answer. And you are needed. God wants to use you. Now first of all, you need God. You need him to break your heart and soften you and see that your symbol is going to keep coming out like Jake's did. But God wants to transform you. But imagine if Jake hadn't drawn close to God. I guarantee you would not be married. He would not have a happy marriage, be a future evangelist. Guarantee you. If he hadn't drawn close to God, his life would be in disarray. But God transformed him. He's helping him overcome who he is just as he does for you and I. High school students, junior high school students, you need God. You need him desperately. And then your friends need him just as much. Same thing on the campus. The decision in their life right now will affect the futures of their life. They're young and have anything they want to do in their life. Get in their career wherever they want to go. They're unfettered by the so many other things in life. They're like, I'm going to change the world. Yeah, we'll change it the right way. Realize you are needed. For such a time as this. You know, it's exciting today. We're going to have two college students baptize into Christ. (Applause) Right after church, right up here, right after the conclusion of the lesson in the announces. We're going to have David Woody from Cal Baptist University, baptize into Christ. (Applause) And you know, it's exciting. He was sharing with me how Marlin, one of our married sisters, she's going to school there. He saw her example, the way she carried herself in her faith and she saw something different. And he asked her, hey, can you teach me the Bible? And she's like, well, I'll get my husband to do it. I'll get Chris to do it. Amen. And he got in there and then they worked with them and Michael and all the guys worked with them. Brought them to the campus. The campus got in there. Today, he's becoming our brother. And then later this afternoon at 4.30, a young lady at UC Riverside is going to be baptized at 4.30 today campus right back here. And that's April Rio. Say, man, we're really excited for her. (Applause) You know, whatever stage of life you're in, you're needed. And there are needs around you that God's calling you to meet. Our singles ministry have a vision. We got to believe and go over a hundred faithful singles, at least. You know, the Inland Empire is the 12th largest metropolitan area in the United States. There are four million people in our ministries, four million that we reach out to. There are millions of singles who are desperate for answers in life. We got to understand there's a need and God's calling us to meet that need. Marrieds, we know the challenge with lack of fatherhood in our culture. We got to step up as men and be the fathers that we need to be. You know, a lot of us are growing older, we're empty nesters, we're out of that realm of life. You know, we got to go, okay, am I willing to give it all up and use this special time in life? Not just to be a great grandpa, which we need to be our great-grandma, but to just pour out all this extra time, needing each serving, shepherding, guiding, going on mission teams, whatever is needed for you. I want to call on some of us that are empty nesters and retired. Now can be the most effective time in your life to serve God. We have needs. We need more campus shepherds, single shepherds. We need to see that teams can use more workers, more shepherds. You know, every ministry need it. There's a lot of needs. And I started thinking about our congregation as we close. And I started thinking about the parable of the sower. You guys ever read that? I said Matthew, it's in Mark as well. The parable of the sower and there's four soils. The first is that hard heart. The word is preached to them and they're hard and they just let it bounce off. So what's the need? Well, to get a soft heart, how do we provide that need? Sometimes it's by tough love. Sometimes God just softens the heart, right? But what about are we willing to have the hard talks with people to soften the heart? Or we want to have the hard talk, the tough love. You know, as a parent, if you just always pick your kid up off the floor and solve all his problems for him, he's going to be debilitated in many ways as he grows older. They have to have some emotional development of suffering. We got to break the heart, right? We got to do things to help break hearts through hard words or prayer form at the very least and then preaching the word, right? What's the second heart? It's the shallow heart. What's the need? Some of us are shallow and we need deep teaching. Some of us can teach and we're not doing, we're not putting ourselves out there like we need to. There's more that can be done. Some of us can do more. Some of the older disciples in here, you got to put yourself out there to really train the younger disciples more and more. Make yourself available. We got to get deep convictions. So we're not shallow and every wind of teaching blows us away. The third one is maybe the biggest one, right? That's the soil where we get choked out by all life's worries and riches and troubles and issues. I would dare say most of us fall into this category because our lives get so busy. That's why I'm not bringing my friends that you're, I love when people know God, why am I not bringing them? Life's worries and troubles are getting them away. We got to clear those out. Because see the fourth soil was the heart that you know is noble and good heart and follows through and sees focus on the stuff that really counts on the one thing that's needed. Walking with God and helping other people walk with God. And that's what we need to be a ministry that is walking with God, that knows we are needed because God loves us and calls us to this great purpose and there are needs to meet. I hope today you can be inspired by the needs. Amen. [Applause] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Sunday lesson by Steve Lounsbury