Doubting Myself

How are you doing today? Good to see you. Good to see you at church. It's beautiful outside. It's California weather.

It's not too hot. It's not too cold. It's perfect beach weather. Thank God for that, right? How many of you are heading to the beach after this?

Amen. Yeah. All right. How many of you are going to lunch with Leon after this? Yeah.

Okay. We got a few people. All right. Just to let you know, we are having a guest lunch at 12 o'clock right after service. If you're new with us, please do join us.

I want to send you over. If you want to participate, you can send you over to the Next Steps area. And you got Becky over here. Becky, wave your hand real quick here. And Tammy, or is Tammy in here?

Is Tammy still? She's still working hard outside greeting people and stuff like that. But connect with those two right after church. We'll get you ready to go to guest lunch, lunch with Leon. We'll provide food.

We won't keep you long. We just want to introduce ourselves, share a little bit about the church, and if you're ready to kind of see more, take the next step. We're prepared for you today. Amen? Amen.

All right. It'll be great to see you today. Great to see you. And if you're a guest with us, we have one of those guest cards. And those of you online, I saw a ton of you, our regulars online today.

Thank you for still being with us, even though you're not able to make it in person today. We're so glad that you're with us today. But if you are a guest, fill out that connection card at saltchurch.org slash card. And those of you that are here today, if you'll hold up those blue cards real quick so everybody knows what they are.

If you're new with us today, do fill one of those out. And you can connect with Becky or Tammy over at the Next Steps area. And they've got a gift for you. And we also send something in the mail to you as well. You're going to like it.

So you might want to fill that out. And I promise you, we won't harass you. We just want to give you some information about our church and what's going on. Also, I want to mention this real quick. You need to write down this date, July 16th.

It's a Saturday, okay? We are doing a salt the city serve day. All right? Yeah, that's always a fun time in the summer where we'll have different groups going out to different areas. We're going to do a project.

We're going to serve our city. And we would love for all of our church to get involved. This is a great way to give back. We like to give back. And we do that every July.

So last year, we weren't able to do it because of the pandemic and all the things that are happening and moving around so much. But this year, we're so glad to be able to bring that back into the picture as a part of our church. So we're excited about that. And happy Pentecostal Sunday, guys. It's Pentecostal Sunday.

Oh, man. Yeah, the day that the Holy Spirit anointed 100 people, they went out and proclaimed the gospel. And the church was launched that day. Thousands of people in one day. And what a day to remember the launch of our church.

2,000 years later, we're still going. Amen. And we're going to continue to go. Amen. I'm super excited about what God has in store for our church.

And so the message today is in our Doubting God series. We're going to actually close our Doubting God series. We'll start a new series next week. It actually isn't a series. It's stand-alones that we invite different people to come in.

I'll be launching it. But we call it Summer of Salt. And it gives us an opportunity to allow some of not only the people in our church, on our staff, to speak and share, but others that are friends of our church to come in as well. So we're excited about that as well. So, you know, get ready because we've got some good things coming this summer.

I'm super excited about that. Okay, guys? All right. But we're in our Doubting God. We're closing our Doubting God series this week.

And as we know, some people find themselves doubting God. And we could go on and on and on with this series. We could talk about all the different reasons that people doubt God in many different areas, not understanding, you know, how He works, His nature, and what's going on in the world. Why does bad things happen to good people? Why do the wicked prosper?

We could just go on and on, and I could just spend the rest of the summer talking about reasons that many of us walk away from the church. Many of us give up on God, or we just don't understand, right? And we all doubt God. I mean, I get that. On occasion, I doubt God.

I doubt God. But more often than doubting God, I find myself doubting me. Doubting me. And I often doubt God because I doubt me. Because I know the me that nobody else sees.

I know that me. And I know that voice in my head that I don't want to hear, you know? The one that says, that shouts out my insecurities, that shouts out those critical thoughts, the things, the times I dislike myself that keeps coming back to me. Sometimes I don't like myself because of something maybe I said, or something I did, or something perhaps I didn't do. And those things come back to my thoughts.

So I get it, and I'm sure you get it as well. And worst of all, I know that God knows all my thoughts. He even knows the ones that I don't know. He knows they're there. And I know He loves me, but I can't imagine why He'd use me.

Why would He use me? And if you've ever felt insecure, inadequate, and insufficient, this message is for you, okay? For those of you who are very adequate, who are confident, who are assured, yeah, you're assured. I mean, you're the best of the best. You're the brightest.

You're the top of your class, right? You got it all. I mean, you were the valedictorian. You were the homecoming king, queen. You're all those things.

You got 100,000 Instagram followers. Everything's good in your life. I got good news for you. God can still use you, all right? But He specializes in using people that are unlikely.

He specializes in using people that need His presence, people that really need His power to do His purpose. He specializes those. So truthfully, most of us battle insecurity and inadequacy. Raise your hand if you battle insecurity and inadequacy. Okay, I'm raising my hand high.

Yes, many battle those things. If you're online, just put that thumbs up. Oh, hallelujah. Yes, I battle insecurity and inadequacy. And the reasons we do, there's a lot of reasons we battle our insecurities.

But a few of those is, and two of them specifically, it's what other people say about you. You've allowed other people's opinions of you to find what you're capable of doing in Jesus Christ and what He's called you to. And it's just how you feel about yourself, your circumstances and things like that, right? And you think, if God wants something done, if He wants to get something done, surely He can use somebody way, way, way, way better than me. He can use, He's got somebody, because I don't know a lot about the Bible.

You know, I'm learning, but I don't know a lot about the Bible. Perhaps that's you, or I don't feel prepared to share my faith, or I don't feel comfortable praying out loud. I don't feel, you know, doing these things that are common in Christianity, but much less lead a ministry or lead a salt group or sing on stage. Hallelujah, we need some more singers on stage up here, amen. Some of you got some voice.

I bet there's some diamonds out there that haven't come out yet that are ready to come up here and lead some people in the Holy Spirit, right? But you're held back because you have insecurities. Well, you don't know my past, Pastor. You don't know what I'm going through. You don't know what I've done.

And you've... You pulled back for that reason. Some of you have just pulled back. Some of you actually stepped in, you know, you took baby steps in, and that was a good thing, but then you took full steps back because your past started reminding you of things. You started becoming insecure, and not only have you pulled back from serving, not only have you pulled back from ministry, you've stopped talking to God.

You've stopped reading your Bible. You've stopped attending church regularly. Because those things have come back into your life, and those thoughts have come back from your past. I had a young man here who was serving in our church not too long ago, and he was excited, passionate, loved being here, and then some things from the past came back in, and he stopped. He says, I've just got to pull back.

I had coffee with him and talked him through it and stuff, thought everything's good, but because of the past, because he felt like he was specifically a failure, he pulled back. Insecurities, inadequacies, the things I've done, and I know what I've done, and I know who I've hurt, and I know that I've fallen short. Let me remind you, God knew exactly what he was doing when he made you. God knew exactly what he was doing, and like the bumper sticker says on those junk cars, God don't make no junk, okay? God don't make no junk.

I know that's bad grammar, but it's a really good quote, okay? God do not make any junk, all right? And I need you to know that today. And here's what Paul says. We are God's masterpiece.

We are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ, okay? In Christ, we are made new in Jesus, right? So we can do the good things. And I love this last part.

He planned for us long ago. He planned long ago. So what are you? You are God's masterpiece. You are God's workmanship.

Masterpiece in the original Greek is poiema, and it means the creation with a design purpose, a workmanship, a masterpiece. It's like poetry. You are a poetic statement from God. You're beautiful. You're valued.

You are custom designed. You are tailored by the master's hand, and he gave you the right personality. He gave you the right gifting. He gave you the right mindset, the right temperature, born in the right time. Hello, you're born today.

As crazy as things seem right now, you were placed specifically here in this time, in this place, in this season, at the right time, the perfect time to do what? The good works that God's called you to do in Jesus Christ. And he planned this before you were born, before you even knew, for you to do his works. And here's what the devil's going to do, because here's the devil's tactic. He wants to tear you down.

He's going to say, God can't use you. God, you've done too many things in your past. You might have found Christ. You may know Christ now. You may have walked into that place of knowing him, but there's just too many things, and you're a mess.

You know what you need to do? You need to shout back, I was a mess. But I'm not a mess anymore, because I have Jesus Christ. I'm not a mess anymore, okay? See, here's the thing.

Many people are trapped in a mentality of, I'm a sinner. Oh, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner, and we're creating our own prisons. Yes, you are a sinner, but you're anew. You're made new in Christ.

You have to walk in the newness of Christ. You have to walk in that new creation. You are no longer who you once were, and you're calling forth your past, and you're creating things that are there that don't need to be there anymore. Yes, we make mistakes. Yes, we fall short at times.

Isn't that a good thing, because we have to depend on Christ in order to do what he's called us to do? I was a mess, but now I'm God's masterpiece. Don't call forth your past. Don't call forth who you once were. You've got to say, I was a mess.

But you know what? I'm a masterpiece now, and God wants to use me, and God wants to do something in me. So what does God most often use is the question today. I'm going to give you a few people. Look, I could use every example in the Bible.

I could give you a whole series on people that apply to all three of these areas, but I've chosen a few today. And as you look carefully at Scripture, you see three types of people that God chose. The first one is God uses the unlikely. He always uses the unlikely. You may remember God told the prophet Samuel to appoint the next king of Israel.

If you look at 1 Samuel 16, 6, you'll see that, as you remember, he went to pick out the king. God led Samuel to the house of Jesse, and what did he do? He walked through several men. In fact, the older brother came in, and he's like, surely that's got to be him. That's got to be him.

He's handsome. He's tall. He's beautiful. He looks like a king. It's got to be him.

And he said, no, that's not him. He walked him through the next one. He walked him through the next one. He walked him through the next one. And here's what the Lord said to Samuel.

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. That's it. God looks at the heart. Don't consider his appearance or height.

I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at those things. He looks at the unlikely things. And as we know, the story goes, there's got to be another one. Oh, no, not that one.

Not that one, Samuel. That can't be the one. That's David. He's out in the field. He's with the sheep.

He's kind of smelly. He's a shepherd boy. He's out there tending the sheep. We kind of put him out there because he's a little bit raggedy, and he's a little bit this and that. No, no, no, no, no.

God doesn't look at the outward. He looks at the inward. He saw the heart of David. He brought him in, and obviously we know the rest of the story. David becomes king.

How about Moses? He was insecure, flawed, unlikely candidate to be able to stand before Pharaoh because here's his insecurities. Exodus 4.10, it says, Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in my past nor since I have spoken of your servant. I am slow to speech and tongue.

He wasn't a likely candidate. Oh, yes, he was born in the house of Pharaoh. He was raised by the... But he was a murderer. He was sent out.

His people didn't even accept him, right? I mean, he was just an unlikely candidate to be the person who would rescue his people. All right? He had excuses. What are your excuses?

What are excuses? Perhaps your excuse is, well, I'm just, I'm not an outgoing person. I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm terrified of crowds.

I don't feel like I know enough or I don't feel like I have what it takes. There's all kinds of things that could be there. I don't have a lot of confidence is probably what you're saying. I just don't have a lot of confidence. Well, that's a good thing.

You don't need a lot of confidence because you have God-fidence, okay? You need God-fidence. You need God's confidence in you because God knew what he was doing when he made you. He knew what he was doing. And here's what he said to Moses.

He said, the Lord said to Moses, who gave men his mouth, okay? Who gave you your mouth? It is not I, the Lord. That's what he called. Now- Now...

Go I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say. Some of you need to hear that. God wants to show you. God wants to teach you. He wants to push you to the next level.

God is looking for the qualities people overlook. God is looking for the qualities people overlook. Because God loves to use those who are overlooked by others, number one. David was overlooked by others. There is no way he could be in the king.

Of Jesse's sons, there is no way. But God doesn't work that way. God looks at the heart, not the outward appearance. And God specializes in using the unlikely to accomplish the impossible. He uses the unlikely all over scripture.

And let me encourage you, stop believing what other people say about you for a minute, okay? Stop putting that in your head. Stop believing what you think even about yourself. And start looking at how God thinks about you. You need to go to scripture.

You need to proclaim the promises of God over your life. And what he says about you. Because God specializes in using the unlikely. Amen? He uses the unlikely.

We are unlikely people that God would use. I am so glad that I am unlikely. Man. Because I know I have to depend on God. God.

And he also uses the insecure. The next guy was not only unlikely to be used, but he was insecure about who he was and what he was called to. And you remember in the book of Judges, there was this guy named Gideon. And he was a simple man. He was the weakest in his clan, as we'll see in scripture in a second.

He was actually hiding from these Midianites. In the Old Testament, Israel sinned against God. The Midianites came in, began to take over the land. These were not pleasant people. These were like real aggressive people that would come in.

They were mean. They would take out entire Israelite villages, take over their towns, burn their crops, take everything that they had. They would come in. Very, very, very scary people, okay? These were scary people.

And Gideon didn't want to have anything to do with them, so he hid out. He actually ran away, hid out, and he was doing his job being a simple man in a wine press, pressing wine, making wine. That's what he did. And it's interesting when we're just kind of doing our own thing and following our own way, how God can kind of just show up. And that's what God did.

An angel of the Lord came in and said, mighty warrior. He said, mighty warrior. I want you to touch your neighbor and say, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Say, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Touch your neighbor and say that real quick.

Come on. Come on, encourage each other a little bit. You are a mighty warrior, amen? The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. An angel appears and says, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

And God has chosen you to rescue Israel from the Midianites. Oh, you would think, wow, Gideon's like, wow, an angel just visited me. Wow, that's powerful. Wow, God spoke to me. Man, I've got a plan.

I mean, I've got that. You would think that, but no, he didn't. He immediately began to shout out his insecurities. But his insecurities shouted way louder than what God had to say about him, the affirmation that God gave him. Instead, we need to allow God's affirmation, which is a whole lot louder, if we allow it to overcome our insecurities.

And many of you are allowing the insecurities to come in. And this is what Gideon said. But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? How can I do this? My clan is the weakest of the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family.

Not only is my tribe weak, I'm weak. I'm like the weakest. I'm the wimp in my family. I can't be used by you. And God's affirmation and calling should always be louder than our insecurities.

We should never allow our insecurities to keep us from what God has for us, to give God an opportunity to really do something powerful, to blow our minds. Because God wants to take the opportunity to blow your mind. And at some point, God is going to call you. God's going to stir you. God's going to move you.

He's going to call you to share your faith with somebody. He's going to call you to serve in the church. He's moving you to do something, to be a witness at work, to be a witness in your school. But here's what you're going to do. You're going to say, but Lord, I'm not the best person for this.

I mean, I can't share my faith. I can't serve in the church. You know, I got, look at me. Look, look, look at what I'm, and they're going to get those whispers. You're going to have those whispers in your life.

And the devil's going to start to do everything. The greatest tool of the enemy is to hit your self-worth. He's going to hit your self-worth so hard. He's going to keep you. You're not worthy.

You're not the one. You can't do this. Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are stepping into this? Who do you think you are in, you know, Christ, you're not good enough for Christ.

He's actually sitting at the court as Jesus is petitioning for your self-worth before the Father. He's saying, that is my child, the blood of, this is your child, Father. This is your child. I died for him. The devil's like, well, they're not worthy.

They're not this. Look what they've done. Look what they've gone through. Who do you think you are is what he's going to say. And if God didn't want to use you, the devil wouldn't be fighting so hard against you.

If the devil's fighting against you, if he's hitting you hard, that means he's got something big for you, brother and sister. He's got something for you. And if he's fighting you and he's tearing you apart and he's trying to hit your self-confidence, guess what? That's a good thing. It's a great thing because confidence in the original Latin is con means with and fide means faith.

So that means having confidence doesn't mean you believe in you, okay? You know, a good life coach would tell you that. You can just believe in yourself, you know? That's really, you know, that's all you need is to believe in yourself. If I just believe hard enough into myself.

But that just lasts. That's just temporal. It doesn't last that long, right? But real confidence is when you put your faith in what God says about you. Because his word never fails.

What he says about you is real. And Gideon said, I'm the most likely, least likely person there is. And Gideon was about to learn that God often uses the least to do the most. God uses the least to do the most. Because in Christ, things, you've got to allow him to do things in you that will just blow your mind.

So what happens? Long story short, Gideon takes an army of 300 that God shaved down from 32,000 men. And he conquers the Midianite army of 135,000. God used him to do big things. And it's not just, as Andrew was sharing, it wasn't just the Red Seas being parted.

That wasn't just for them. He wants to do it now. He wants to fight armies of 135,000 with just little you. He wants to use you to build his kingdom, to bring people to him. And you've got to stop allowing your insecurities and your lack of faith and your lack of trust and your doubts to keep you from all that God has for you.

We've got Gideons all in this room. And some of you are in the wine press hiding away. And God's calling you out and calling you out and stirring your heart. Step out and watch what God does. Step out and watch what you have.

Go on the air to the passar side. God uses the unlikely, He uses the insecure, and He uses our failures. Man, that's really encouraging to me. He uses my failures, man, because I failed a lot, okay? I failed so much.

I fail people all the time. And if any of the disciples thought that they were going to do this, if any of the disciples thought they were ready to be used by God, it was Peter. Peter said, I'm going to be used by God. Look, I've got my sword ready. If you've watched The Chosen, you know how it is.

He's like his bodyguard walking around with him. He's ready. He's ready to fight. He doesn't have any training at all, but he has a knife, you know, and he's ready to go. He's like, I'll go with you.

I will die with you. This is the kingdom of God. We're ready to take over. Let's do this. Peter, if anybody, was ready to do this, but you may remember right after Jesus was arrested and taken to the high priest, Peter was gathered around a fire with a bunch of people, and this little girl looks over and says, that's the one that was walking with Jesus.

And Peter's reply was this, man, I don't know who you're talking about. Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter because Jesus was nearby, being arrested, was being tried. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him. Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.

And he went outside and wept bitterly. He was so ashamed. He felt so unworthy. I won't ever deny you, Jesus. No, I refute that comment that I'm going to deny you three times.

And here he is. He's embarrassed. Have you ever felt embarrassed and ashamed and not worthy? Have you ever blown it? Okay.

How many of you have blown it in here? We've blown it from time to time. Big time. Yeah. All the time.

Not just one time, right? It might have been a public failure. You might have lost your temper in front of somebody. And you said something or you made a bad financial decision and it cost you and your family a lot of pain. Maybe you lied to somebody or you hurt somebody you loved or you betrayed a family member or you battled addiction or you crushed someone you loved.

It could be anything. Maybe you're just allowing that to weigh on you. Maybe it's a secret sin. Maybe it's a sin that you've struggled with for years and a secret addiction that you've had. And it weighs on you daily.

Daily. Peter denied Jesus. But what did Jesus do to Peter after the resurrection? Did he say, well, you blew it. You know, strike one, you're out.

Well, you know, in fact, strike 10 probably or 20 or 30 because Peter made a lot of mistakes even in Jesus' teachings and through his ministry. You're too much of a failure, Peter. You know, we're just not going to use you. I'm not going to use you. There's some other people out there I can call.

You know, I can come back in visions and call people like Paul and stuff like that. So I'm going to add two Pauls instead of one. I'll just do that. No, he didn't do that. No, Jesus loved Peter, forgave Peter.

Peter and used him to reach countless thousands of people. He used him to launch the church. In fact, God chose him to preach Pentecost. Today is Pentecost Sunday. This is the day that Peter stood up, anointed by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit and stood before the people.

This is the one that denied him just not too long ago. He denied Jesus and here he is full of the Holy Spirit, full of power, preaching the gospel. And here's what it said. He said, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And then it goes on in chapter 2, verse 41. And those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. Peter denying Jesus, he failed so many times. Who better to preach about forgiveness than Peter? Who better to understand sin than Peter?

God uses people who fail. God uses people who've sinned. God uses people who are insecure. God uses people who have really messed up. And there aren't any other types around.

There aren't any. Every one of us have fallen short. Every one of us have done something wrong. Every one of us. You can't find one in the Bible.

You can't find one. Jacob was a cheater. Moses was a murderer. David had an affair. Jonah ran away from God.

Deny God. Ran away from God when he was called to do something, right? Elijah was depressed. He was depressed. Miriam was a gossip.

Martha was a warrior. Thomas was a doubter. And Paul killed Christians. Are y'all feeling any better? Because God used them all, right?

God used them all. And God can use you. Let me share a little bit more of a contemporary story. Maybe not super contemporary. But one of my favorite stories is a man named Nicky Cruz.

He was a Puerto Rican immigrant in Puerto Rico. He grew up in Puerto Rico. His mother beat him. His father put him in a pen naked with pigeons and said that he was possessed by the devil. They didn't want him.

They sent him off to New York to live with his brother. He quickly ran away and he lived in the streets of New York and rose through the ranks of a warlord very quickly as one of the most dangerous gangs in New York in his time. He was full of hurt. He was full of neglect. He was full of anger.

And he said this, I wanted everyone to feel the way I did. I wanted everyone to be hurt, to be angry, to be neglected. He had no love in his heart. And this man named David Wilkerson runs into him, a street minister. And David told him that Jesus loved him.

Jesus. Jesus loved him. You know what Nick's response was, Nicky Cruz's response was? He slapped him, cursed at him, and said, I'm going to kill you if you don't get away from me. David's response was, you can cut me in a thousand pieces and every piece will still love you.

That really sank in his heart. As angry and bitter and hurt as he was in life in general. He held on to that and eventually he gave his life to Christ. He came back and he gave his life to Christ. And he eventually became the leader of what we call Teen Challenge today.

Many of you know the ministry team challenge. Nicky Cruz was an evangelist. He started the ministry. And thousands and thousands and thousands of people have come to Christ through Nicky. God can't use a gang warlord.

Yes, he can. God can't use simple me. Yes, he can. God can't use inadequate me. Of course He can.

Throughout the Bible we see, we could just go on with stories and stories and stories of different people. We can go from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah. We can go on and on and on of the stories of God using people who had issues, who had problems, some greater than others, but inadequacies, fear, and God used them. The unlikely, the insecure, and those who failed. And God can use them.

God used them. God can use you. And God wants to use you. In fact, my challenge for you today is not to cover up that thing in your heart that's been stirring, because God's been moving to take steps to do something bigger than yourself. Maybe it's to serve in the church.

Maybe it's to start, I don't know what it is. But I can tell you this, great place to start is right here in this house. You want to take steps to doing things. Imagine a church that all inadequacies and all fears and all failures were pushed to the side in order to pursue a God who could do more than we can ever think or imagine. Imagine that we would tap into what the Holy Spirit has in store for us.

Imagine a church like that. What we could do, we could change a city, we could change a state, we could change a nation, a church that comes together, because you were made on purpose for a purpose. You were made with gifts. You were made with abilities. You have strengths.

You have weaknesses that others fill in with. We are a church that is made on purpose for a purpose to extend His kingdom. And until people begin to step out of their comfort zones and out of their fears and out of their insecurities and step into what God and allow Him an opportunity, a chance to blow your stinking mind away. He wants to do that for you. He wants to do that through you.

And it gets quiet here when we talk about these things because people just don't know. And what you don't know is a place that you don't want to be. Because God has so much more for you. And maybe this is the time. Maybe this is the time for you as a believer.

I'm tired. I'm not just a seat filler. I'm not just coming to church on Sunday and just filling up space out there, in there, wherever it is. I'm not just that. God has more in the spiritual realm than I can even possibly think or imagine.

He has something on purpose for a purpose for you. And the devil is going to say, you know what? The reason it's quiet here is because he's speaking to you and he's whispering to you because that's what he does. That's his tactic. Well, you can't.

You can't possibly do this. You can't possibly make that happen. You can't possibly join a serve team here. You can't possibly do an outreach project here. You can't possibly go to your work and share your faith.

You can't possibly go out to wherever you are and begin to speak to people in the world because, you know, you're inadequate. But listen, you are not what you did. You are not what they say you are, okay, or what they said about you. You're not what people think about you. You're not your past or what you were put through.

You are a child of God. You are made the best of the best in Jesus Christ, in Christ Jesus, that his most perfect and holy son has made you right, made you, put you. God can still use you and he prefers to use you the way you're broken. He prefers to use you that way, the unlikely. So God created you and God wants to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

So let me just say this. I'm ready to go. Are y'all ready to go? Are y'all ready to do this? Let's go.

Let's step into our callings. Let's step into our ministries. Let's step into the things. You were not called just as a place-sitter in this moment just to make money and live and die and go to heaven. That's not what you were made for.

You were made for so much more than that. You were made for so much more than that. And my prayer today, and some of you, the Spirit is already stirring you and already, Stop it, Spirit. Stop it, Holy Spirit. Stop doing this.

Go away! No, God's not going to go away. He's ready for you. Because he loves you and he wants to use you just like he used Peter in all of his failures. So, Father, as we pray together, God, I pray, I pray in the name of Jesus, as you're stirring hearts, Lord, as you're stirring lives, God, that we would begin to take steps into our purpose.

That we wouldn't just sit back in our seats and just pretend that this is just it. That many of us are just, we don't have, we're missing something. So, God, today, today's the day that some people will go to that table and start saying, hey, I want to start serving. I want to help grow this church. I want to reach the kingdom of God.

I want to do things that other people may not. I have gifts and I have abilities that God has placed in my life that I can step out and do. And I'm not going to let my insecurities and I'm not going to let my schedule and I'm not going to let anything else get in the way of what God has for me. So, today, I'm committing. I'm rolling forward.

I'm going to start getting involved. I'm going to start doing things. I'm going to start sharing my faith. I'm going to go out, Lord, and I'm going to do what you called me to do. You said, go into the world and make disciples, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and do all that I have commanded you to do.

That's what we're called to do. So, God, we're doing that. We're not going to deny you. We're not going to disobey you. We're going to just simply obey you and watch what you do as you strengthen us and give us the ability to do all these things.

And there may be another set of people in here today as we're still all praying and seeking you, Lord Jesus. Maybe the Spirit's dealing. Some of you said, I don't even know if I'm close to God, much less serving God. But I don't even know if I'm in right standing with God. I don't even know if I have a relationship with God.

I've got good news for you. That stirring that's in your heart today, that stirring that's making you pursue Him, that thing that's just getting you right now because you've walked into His presence today. You've been here today. That's the Holy Spirit saying, come to me. Come on to your true self, your true identity in Jesus Christ.

You are the masterpiece. And you can make that decision today. If you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. Those who believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. You're not promised everything in this world.

But you are promised a life beyond this world. And today, you can make a decision. Because outside of it, there's no hope but in Jesus Christ. So pray this with me today. Lord, I believe and I receive You as my Lord and Son.

Jesus Christ, You died on the cross so that I could be made right with the Father. And I believe that through Your blood I could be sure. So today I surrender my life to You, Jesus. I surrender my life to You, Father. I give my life to You.

And I place my trust in Jesus Christ. And this day forward, I walk with You. Change me from the inside out, Lord. Doubting so much, Lord. Lose so much to gain so much.

So today, Lord, we surrender ourselves because we gain so much. We lose. You say, I'm Yours. I'm Yours. I'm Yours, Jesus.

We're here today. Come on.