How To Discover Your Identity

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Happy Mother's Day from me. And also we would like to welcome all the beautiful people, men and women, who are watching us through the Pando app.

Love it that you're here and confident God is able to minister to you even through a mediated way. And also because it's Mother's Day and I have the microphone and I can. But I. I did get permission. Hello, Ford. Hello.

Sienna Kennedy and the crew Manchu.

These are my grandchildren. J.J. loves you and misses you, and I will see you soon. Let's pray. Hallelujah. Glory be to God.

He's worthy to be praised. Thank you so much, Father. We can gather without fear. We can praise your name unhindered.

Thank you for your presence.

Thank you for your word. It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths. And its truths we will hide in our hearts that we might not sin against you. Sanctify us with your word, Lord God, your word is truth, Father, in everything we do and everything we say. Let us bring glory to your name.

And on a personal note, I invite the Holy Spirit here.

I need you to breathe on my words. Because without you, I am nothing. Without you giving life to words that come out of my mouth, they are fruitless. I ask you that they be planted. Because it will be your words that will be planted in the hearts of these precious people.

And they'll bring forth from fruit. Thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. And amen. You know what's particularly difficult when you have multiple services is to sound sincere when you say the same things that you said the first service.

It's awful. So for the first 10 minutes, you guys play on your phones. Don't pay attention to me. Cause you know the shtick that's coming. So here we go.

So anytime there's a guest speaker, right? Any church, any pulpit, anytime, you hear pretty much the same thing, right? It's common courtesy to say what an honor it is to be speaking here at this place. And maybe they even feel a little bit obligated to say your pastors are wonderful here. And it's just, you know, you know what you get.

But I can tell you that it is not common courtesy that I say it is an honor to be here. Because I'm a member of this family. I'm well aware of the quality of ministry that comes from this place. And it's humbling to have been asked to minister today. And I don't feel obligated to say how wonderful your pastors are, because I Know them.

I'm not just saying that so I get invited back another time. I'm a member of the family here, and all of these men and women are beautiful, and their hearts towards us are so good. My husband, Michael and I appreciate you so much. And you know what? I could say that every day and mean it, because I do.

So, a Mother's Day message, you might think. Ooh. But, you know, it's hard because it's a quandary to figure out what to say. My concern was that if I delivered a message that was too mothery or womanish, I would lose you guys. Oh, you'd pretend to be interested.

You might even compliment me at the end, but it won't be because you mean it. It'll be because you're Southern.

And Southern men are raised to be polite and courteous. I'm from the North.

You know, we're a different kind of folk.

Don't get me wrong. Love my roots, love my people. But when it comes to conversation, we feel like pleasantries are unnecessary and, in fact, even impede good conversation. So since we're in a church setting, I'm going to give you a church example. So my husband and I were part of the same ministry for 27 years back in Ohio.

It was a beautiful ministry. Taught us every good thing we know. My husband served first as children's pastor there, and then as head of pastoral care. And I was on the teaching team. And so as part of the teaching team, I was in the rotation to do the weekend services when the lead pastor wasn't ministering.

So one weekend, I had done the services, and I came down, I was just milling around with folks, and a gentleman came up to me, beautiful man of God, a friend. And he looked at me and he said, hey, I didn't know you were doing the services this weekend. And I smiled at him and nodded. And he said, because to be honest with you, when I hear you're preaching, I just stay home.

Huh. You know, I didn't know. I didn't know what to do with that because, you know, absolutely. I know I'm not going to be everybody's cup of tea. I accept that.

But do you say that to a person? I don't know. I thought, oh, he didn't say that. Did he say, wait a minute, am I having a stroke? Is this what a stroke feels like?

I was feeling for my pulse. I thought I was going to go down. But you know what? He wasn't done. I didn't let him finish.

He finished by Saying, but you know what? You're not half bad.

And I said, thank you. And I want you to know that you can count on me to deliver that to you this morning. Not half bad.

Voila. All right, thank you very much.

So anyhoo, back to my dilemma about what to minister. I mean, I was getting stressed out. It was like the sweet. The spirit said, hey, yoo hoo, Janet, over here. He said, how about instead of ministering to natural mothers, how about if you minister as a spiritual mother and just give them some wise counsel from my word, what a great relief that was.

And so this morning, I'm going to try to do that for you today. Given the average age of our colleagues congregation, I could so be a lot of your mamas, and there's any number of you. I could be your meemaw, RDS students. Yes siree, my beautiful RDS students. Nowhere is my advanced age more evident in the fact that I am going to minister from paper notes.

It's a wonder I didn't come up here with clay tablets. So be glad about that. Well, on Mother's Day, it's a wonderful opportunity for me to talk about my oldest grandson. And I have to stay on script because those of you come on Wednesdays, you know, I could wander and I could drone on for an hour. So pray for me.

Put your hands toward me right now. Sha ba ba ba ba ba. All right. When my grandson 40, he's my oldest grandson. When he was nine years old, he told his dad he wanted to play flag football or football.

And there was a flag football league in their city for 9, 10 and 11 year olds. So my son signed him on, signed him up, and Ford was assigned to a team. And one day at practice, my son took a picture of Ford with his teammates and he sent it to me. Voila the picture. Maestro.

Yeah. Ford is the one circled in red. You notice anything about Ford? When compared to the rest of his teammates, he was the handsomest one there, but he was the smallest boy on the team because not only was he put on a team where he was the only nine year old, the rest of the boys were 10 and 11. He was put on a team with boys whose parents clearly feed them children chicken injected with growth hormones, because who gets that tall?

I don't know. My baby eats organic. He does not eat any of that. And you got some nephilim descendants up there. I don't know what's going on.

I have to tell you, when I saw that picture, my heart sank a bit and I wasn't concerned that he would be hurt physically. I mean, it's flag football, after all, and he's a tough kid, but I'm a mama. And, you know, what was my heart concerned about? What was I concerned about? His little heart.

Right. You know, was he going to be demoralized by the fact of what he could see, what he saw, and would he feel not as good as the rest of the boys, or would the boys tease him? Because you know how kind children can be. And to be sure, he got off to a little bit of a slow start, because, after all, he'd never played organized football before. But as the practice season progressed, he started to improve, and I think that was due to a couple of factors.

Number one, Ford never left his coach's side. I mean, it became obvious even when Ford wasn't actively involved in whatever group the coach was working with. You see him at the coach's side just standing there watching or asking him questions. And number two, he had a great coach.

And I say that he has a great coach because he helped Ford and really all the boys on the team tap into, discover, develop what they were naturally good at. In Ford's case, he saw that Ford is really smart. He can remember what he has to do, and everybody else on the team, he's good at catching the ball and holding onto it, and he can run like the wind. So Ford's natural skill set made him fit nicely into the position of a running back and a receiver. I teased with Pastor J in the first service, as I was going through my notes.

I thought he should ask me to do Father's Day, because this is. I'm sorry, moms, if you don't watch football Anyway, so at practice, that joke was so much funnier. The first service. Do you find that some. They don't work.

You just. You don't know. Different crowd. Different crowd, Absolutely. All right, I'm getting it.

I got your thing. Now I got to see where we're going. Okay. So at practice, the coach had Ford work at the function of a running back and receiver. He didn't try to make Ford a defensive lineman.

And for those of you who may not know, these are these guys that are 6 foot 8 and weigh 395 pounds, right? Ford's not going to be that. Ford's part as a member of the team was to hold on to the ball and run, gain yards, maybe get a touchdown. And so at practice, the coach trained Ford and all the other players to maximize their natural skill set and gain mastery of their Individual positions. Now, why?

So they could get an nil contract? I didn't say that for service, but it just came to me now, right? No. Why did he train them in that way? So they could each maximize their contribution to the goal of the team.

And what is the goal of the team? Win games. And Ford got really good at his position. In fact, all the boys got really good at their position and completing their assignments. Some threw, some blocked, some kicked, some ran, some caught.

But all of that individual work was for the larger mission of the team. The mission of the team was to win games. And as a team, they excelled together at accomplishing the larger mission. Not only did they get into their super bowl, they won their championship. Now, I love my Ford.

What in the world does this have to do with all of us this morning? Well, let me explain. When each of those boys were physically born, they came into the world with a natural skill set that they inherited from both of their parents who created their bodies. Yeah. Now, at football practice, it was a process to identify those skill sets and teach them how to use them to the benefit of the team to accomplish the larger mission.

When we are born again, when we are spiritually born, we come into a new world. The Bible tells us we come into out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear Son. And we come equipped with a spiritual skill set that we received from the one who created our inmost being before we were born. The Bible tells us he knew us before one of our days came to be. He already had them written down in his book, the spiritual skill set.

That spiritual skill set, it marks our identity, what position we play, and defines our mission, the function we are to perform on the team called the church, the Body of Christ. So before the chaos and trauma that unfolded in your life, he knew you and he marked you for a purpose. And nothing that has happened to you has disqualified you from that purpose.

Because the word of God tells us that the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. They can't be taken away. So the individual members of the body of Christ have specific positions and particular functions to perform to accomplish the larger mission of the church, which is to win souls, make. Make disciples.

And discovering our spiritual skill set and our function is likewise a process. So the question I have for you this morning is, do you know what your individual position is in the body of Christ?

Have you tapped into your spiritual skill set and are you using it? So with the heart of a mom and the help of the Holy Spirit, I'm Going to use my skill set and perform my function as a member of the body of Christ and try to help you discover, develop function in your part as a member of the body of Christ. And listen to me closely.

This is important. What happens here for an hour and a half on Sunday morning? Hi. We used to pray together. No, you.

I'm looking right at you. It made me feel joyful to see you. I'm a first service person, so I don't see second person. I'm so sorry. That's so unprofessional.

All right, So what happens here for an hour and a half on a Sunday morning or on a Wednesday night is practice. This is the practice field. These are the coaches, the pastors. This is where we learn who we are and what we are to do when we leave this building. The game is out there.

Many times in the church, there is the false notion that the goal of winning souls and making disciples, that's on you guys and gals. We come here and you feed us, but you got. You carry the head. No, no, no. The Bible tells us that the Lord has put what apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of God's saints to do the work of the ministry.

So we come here and we get to know who we are, and we go out and play the game and we win souls and we make disciples. Before we delve into this topic a little more deeply, I want to. You know, since it's Mother's Day, I'd like to say something here to the moms who are in the thick of raising children. Embrace your identity as a mom and the mission that accomplishes accompanies that. Pouring your time into your children does not keep you from pouring your time into God's work.

It is the Lord's work. And there is an anointing that accompanies that. It's exhausting and it's unglamorous work. And we have this false notion, especially in the church, that if you are mothering well, your children won't be fighting each other day and night. They won't be sassy or disobedient.

They won't eat food that rots their teeth and raises their ldl. No, none of that. No, instead, if you are mothering well, they'll be in a good mood all the time, especially your toddlers and teenagers.

They will eat what's put before them and wash their own dishes. They'll do their homework and clean their rooms without you even asking them. If you are mothering your Children. Well, your family will be like the von Trapp family. Your kids will be dressed in look alike clothes that you hand sewed from old drapes.

They'll be holding hands and skipping around Kannapolis while you play the guitar. And you're all singing Doe a dear.

That's not reality.

I said this in first service. I don't think she's here now. I think Brittany Ray does that though. So she plays the guitar and she sings, right? Am I right?

But I think she's the only one.

Mamas, you are in a war zone and the fight isn't against your children, although that's exactly the way it feels. You are fighting against the systems of this world for the souls of your children.

And you only have a window of opportunity to be and to do what your children need during those formative years. Listen to me carefully. It is a window that will be open, open, and then it will close.

So any dreams the Lord has put in your heart, by all means hold on to them.

I promise you'll have all the time and the opportunity to see those things come to pass. And you'll be able to sing, see them come to pass without regret. Amen. Amen. All right, let's look at our core verse 15.

If you have the Refuge app, you're going to find material there. And if not, they will be on the screen. Our core verse for this morning is First Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 27. All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you are a part of it. So in the preceding 14 verses, right?

12 through 26, the apostle Paul uses the analogy of the human body to explain what healthy relationships look like at church. The physical body has individual parts with varying functions. Those individual parts perform their functions in cooperation with the body as a whole. Because if the individual parts of our physical body refused to work together, our body would be in chaos, won't be able to accomplish a thing. Worse yet, if an individual part of the body decides to battle another part of the body, I think that's called an autoimmune disease.

What is the result? The body gets sick. Likewise, the body called the church is made up of individuals who are uniquely and spiritually equipped to perform varying functions. Each part of the body of Christ, that is, each person should perform their individual function in cooperation with the rest of the body and in a way that contributes to the larger mission when souls make disciples. I mean, it's kind of sad to observe that the church, big sea church in certain places, is suffering from an autoimmune disease.

We war against each other. And a sick church cannot win souls and make disciples.

Nevertheless, the takeaway from that verse is this single thing. You do not just have a part. You are apart. And it doesn't seem like Paul is talking about the nine gifts of the Spirit in this section 12 through 27. In reference to the nine gifts of the Spirit which he talks about in verses 1 through 11 in the same chapter, he makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is the administrator of those gifts.

What does that mean? It means that the Holy Spirit decides to whom and what when he will give those gifts. Right. How they will operate. It's on the Holy Spirit.

What Paul is referring to in verses 12 through 27, and we'll discuss again in other passages, are gifts that give a person their functional identity. Functional identity. For example, Pastor Jay, as a member of the Body of Christ, is a pastor. He does not have to wait for the Holy Spirit to determine when he will pastor. He knows how to do that.

I mean, he's obviously better at it with the assist and empowerment of the Spirit. But just as a hand could be a hand anytime it wants, Pastor J can pastor anytime he wants. So what I want to do for the rest of our time together is I want to give you the ABC sample. I don't know why I'm doing that. I'm losing my mind.

This second service is hard. My mouth doesn't work right and I'm getting punchy. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. The ABCs of. Let me see what I wrote here.

Discovering your identity and your purpose. Yes, Sire Reebok. And I'm sorry I do not have the skill set that your pastor has. I can't make them sound cute or start with the same letter. Please forgive me.

It's all about content. I hope I deliver there. Okay. A. Of discovering your purpose and identity.

This is a weighty theological concept. I was a divinity scroll when I learned this. Show up, show up. The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4, verses 15 through 16. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way, more and more.

Like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work. It helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. You know what these verses tell me?

You cannot have a casual relationship with with your local church and expect to fully know and develop who you are. Not my opinion. I think that's what that means. The state of your health, growth and love are in proportion to how connected you are to the other members of the body of Christ. And for some of you, depending on your personality and so forth, that is very appealing to you.

And to others of you, you're like, I'd rather do things myself. It's not how it works.

Healthy, thriving, useful. Christians don't get that way because they have a special calling. They get that way because they are, first of all, present.

So Ford's success on the football field was fueled by the fact that he was at practice and he was always hanging around the coach.

So back in the day, when Michael and I first started attending church, it was in the mid-1980s. We were at church every time there was church. And I'll tell you, they weren't playing because we had church Monday morning. I said that last service too. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.

And we started just taking one baby and then two babies. And honestly, we had no other ambition than to learn about the Bible and how to be good Christians. Today we still love and serve the Lord. Our children and grandchildren love and serve the Lord. And let me tell you a cool coincidence.

My godly, beautiful daughter in law who my son had the good sense to hunt down and make marry him. She is ministering the Word at her church this morning. And all that started 41 years ago because we just started showing up A show up B Serve in different ministries. Let's see what Peter Peter had something to say. Some things to say about spiritual gifts and such.

First Peter 4, verses 10 through 11 God has given each of you a gift from his say great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them to serve. I don't care what your spiritual gift is. Its purpose is to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking?

Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping or serving others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ, all glory and power to him forever and ever. These two verses are so rich.

As a studyer of the Word of God, I want to go through every word almost. But it is sufficient just to make three observations about it. Number one, your spiritual gift is going to fall under two broad categories, speaking or serving. This is not to say that those who speak never serve or those who serve never speak. But as a rule you will derive the most pleasure and be at your most useful in one of those two broad categories.

Number two, both speaking and serving are spiritual gifts. I mean some of us have the wrong notion about what kinds of functions in the church are spiritual. That is, only those who speak the word or prophesy are spiritual. That's spiritually. That's biblically inaccurate.

Spiritual gifts here in this verse is translated from the Greek word charisma. And many of you are very familiar with that word. A charisma is a divine enabling. According to the Bible, both speaking and serving are divine enablings. Well, let's just say.

But they can be because there's some qualifications to it. It says for those of you who speak, you should speak as though God himself were speaking through you. And for those who serve, you should serve through the strength and ability that God provides. All that means is whenever you're doing, whenever you're doing what you're doing, you are fully aware that you are only the dispenser of the grace of God. You are not the originator of the grace of God because the goal is to.

Was that verse say, bring glory to him. When you have that attitude in whatever you're doing for the Lord, there's an anointing that accompanies that. Let me tell you this. Whenever you say or do anything under the authorization and in the name of the Lord, it is anointed. Now, I'm going to throw a little something out here for my homies.

And when I say my homies, I mean those of you who like to study the ba. Ah. For you, my brother. Here we go. This will be.

This is going to be a throwback from the. I teach an RDL class here. This will be you. You got this.

Do a word study on the Hebrew word mashiach.

You impressed? I thought so. I thought so. That Hebrew word is the word that we English transliterated into Messiah King. Cyrus, some of you may or may not know who is.

He was the pagan king of Persia. And in the word of God, he is called. Fasten your seatbelts. A Mashiach. Now, our English translations translate that to anointed one, but it is the Hebrew word mashiach.

If you will study out that word and how it is used in the Hebrew Scriptures, AKA the Old Testament, the lights will go on for you about why people couldn't really wrap their minds around who Jesus was and what his mission was, you'll have sympathy for. Even those who were closest to him weren't sure what was going on. It's why John the Baptist would send some people to ask Jesus, are you the one to come? After he identified him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world after he heard God say, after he baptized Jesus, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Still asked, are you the one to come, or is there another one?

Study that word out in the. In the Old Testament. I think the lights will go on for you. Anyway, with regard to serving, in the book of Acts, there's this guy named Stephen. He's one of the early disciples in Jerusalem, and he was signed the task of bringing meals to widows.

He was a deacon. He served. And this is what the Bible says about him. It's not in your notes. So Acts 6, 8.

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. And what was that happening? What? When he was serving food to widows. Now, the third principle we get from these two verses is you are responsible to use your gift well.

That is, you put your gift to use. It's your responsibility to initiate the process. So what do you want to do? Well, come on in. Go through next steps here and, and then just try stuff.

Try greeting, try production, try children's ministry, try outreach. I will tell you, the process of elimination is an effective tool in discovering your spiritual skill set. You will know more quickly what you don't like to do than what you are called to do. But what you are good at doing and enjoy doing is a good indicator of your gift. And you don't have to be a certain age age in the Lord to offer your gifts to him, because even a baby's hand knows how to pick up stuff.

There's something inside you that will be intuitive, that we. We just need to discover that and tap into that and see. So we have to show up, volunteer in different ministries, and see. Read your Bible. You are are in there.

Let's look at the book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verses 16 through 21. And he, Jesus, came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. So they gave him the Bible.

Yeah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Those two verses in Luke are quoted from Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2 Old Testament verses that he quotes.

And he rolled up the scroll Jesus and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Now let me ask you a question. How do you think Jesus knew his identity and purpose?

Do you think he was born with an adult brain in a baby body? Was he omniscient as a 2 year old? I don't think so. I think it's more likely that he chose to grow in his understanding of who he was for the same reason he allowed himself to be baptized by John, so he could set the pattern for us to follow.

Jesus found himself in the Bible, and certainly not that one passage, but many, many passages in the Bible you will find the shape of your identity and purpose. I say shape because although we will have share similarities in our giftings with other people, there will be no one exactly like you. I mean, a hand's a hand, but look how many parts make up the hand. Yeah, it's beautifully unique. Have you ever wondered, how is it even possible that unless you are born an identical twin, nobody looks like you?

I mean, there's got to be an algorithm for that. Like what are the odds of that? That is the miraculous work of a creator. So I remember the day I was reading the Bible and I came across this verse, Ezra 7:10. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

I read that verse and I was like, oh my gosh, that's me. I'm Ezrina, but that's me. I love to study the Bible. I feel compelled to obey it and I love to teach it to other people. I found myself in the Bible and you can too.

So my brothers and sisters, if you would do A, B and C, wrap that up in a bow of prayer, you will know who you are. And while why you are here. You know, Paul again writes about the spiritual gifts in the book of Romans, chapter 12, verses 6 through 8. And I will say body parts, spiritual gifts. And here he lists seven gifts.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our serving, the one who teaches in his teaching, the one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. When any of these gifts are in Operation in their great variety, the opportunity will present itself to win souls and make disciples. So I thought instead of taking the approach of explaining each of those seven gifts, I would give you examples in the word of people who seem to operate in that. I want you to see as you hear some of these people, do you recognize yourself in one or several?

And also see if you recognize any of your children, because your children will have tendencies that are based on on what God created in their inmost being. So are you the Watchman of Ezekiel 33? Do you serve others by being the early warning system? Do you sense when danger is ahead and compelled to cry out to God for mercy on behalf of people and cry out to the people to repent on behalf of God? Are you like Martha or Bethsolel?

Like Martha? Do you serve through hospitality or in any other way that you use your hands to help?

I know some of you have children, right? You know, you had that one child that has to always be right there with you when you're making dinner or doing and you're like, oh, this is not making my life easier. Trust me, allow them to do that. That's God's gifting in them. Beth Salel was a skilled artisan.

He was a builder and he served by contributing the furnishings in the first tabernacle. And God said he was filled with the Spirit of God. He served with the skill set in his hands. Are you a Paulist who was a teacher of the scriptures in the early church? Do you love the written word of God and do you love to help people understand it?

I was born a good talker and liking to learn. Are you Joanna, the wife of Herod's business manager? She contributed from her own resources to support Jesus and his disciples. Do you serve by supporting the work of the Lord through your personal resources? Do you enjoy giving gifts to people?

And this is above and beyond the tithe? The gift of giving is gift of tithing is that's for everybody. Are you Joseph, the Israelite in Egypt who put systems in place that saved that part of the world from starvation? Do you serve by leading? Do you know how to organize a large task?

Are you the Good Samaritan? Are you moved by compassion to action to bring comfort and relief to the broken? This is going beyond sympathy and empathy. You are compelled to do something about it. Now to close, let me just say that finding your identity and fulfilling your purpose as a Christian is not optional.

It's not for just a select few who are called. And the Bible makes it clear we are all called. If you are not actively pursuing your function as a member of the body of Christ, it will be ruinous to you on this side of eternity, you'll go through the motions of church and you will live in the margins of your life on the other side of eternity. Oh, I'm pretty sure you're going to get yelled at by Jesus and that's going to be the least of your problems. Read the letter to the church at Laodicea.

In the third chapter of Revelation, the biblical witness is clear that each of us will stand before the Lord and give an account of what we did with what he deposited inside of us. Well, let me go back to my grandson. The first day he showed up on the practice field, he had a lot to learn and obstacles to overcome, but he showed up, he paid attention, and he carried out his assignment as a member of the team. As a result, the last day, Ford walked off the playing field. He walked off a champion among champions, having made his coach very happy.

So are you familiar with the saying that a picture paints a thousand words? Well, I want to show you a picture. Maestro.

He's yummy, isn't he? He's just yummy. Looks like his dad. That's Ford and his coach after they won the championship. And when I stand before Jesus, that's how I want it to look.

Both of us filled with joy because of a job well done, my friends. Jesus is coming back soon. And when he does, the window of opportunity to get in the game will have closed and you will have to stand before him alone. And if I can speak to you as a Northerner for a moment, there are any number of reasons we embrace that prevent us from going after our God ordained purpose. And it is with fear and trepidation that I tell you that on that day, no excuse you offer will cut it.

That's not my opinion. That's the witness of the Bible. With all my heart, I want to spare you the consequences of not being ready when he comes. You know, the writer of the book of Hebrews says this. Hebrews 12:1.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.