What are you here for? Is there not a cause?
Opening illustration: My wife and I pioneered and were instrumental in reviving the underground church in the Middle East. We served there for 14 years. No news media will ever tell you that the Spirit of God is moving in a powerful way in the Middle East. Many non-Christians are coming to Christ every day. They are hungry for God’s Word. Many Muslims walking on the road to pilgrimage in Mecca and Medina are encountering Christ and are being radically changed. Many Hindus in India devising to kill Christians encounter Jesus and are profoundly transformed. Tonight we are here to witness the same move of God as is being testified around the world. Are you ready to open your hearts and minds to Jesus Christ today?
Introduction:
• I want to turn your attention to today’s text found in 1 Samuel 17 … articulate the background.
• I do not esteem myself above you or below you. I am one from among you. Whenever God gets ready to do exploits He will raise one from among you. And I do not ever want to be separated from you. You are my brothers and sisters.
• Eliab the older brother of David asks him why did you come down here for? I know you just came down here to look. You will never reach your goal if you have just come to watch.
• And we have got too many folks who have spent too many years just looking at life. Watching other people get into the fight, watching other folks engage their lives. They are wandering around as vagabonds and joy riding in life.
• It is no wonder that this evening God would galvanize us and congregate us to authenticate and solidify that all of us have come here to step into a mission in life. Not just folks who came to watch.
• I refuse to watch my life go by sitting on the sidelines complaining about who did not love me, who wasn’t there for me, who doesn’t like me and who doesn’t believe me. I do not have time to deal with my critics or straighten out my enemies. God has given me a job to do and I am a man following a vision to accomplish. What about you?
Prayer:
• Whenever God wanted to do something here on earth, He always found someone to do it through.
• When He got ready to establish the world He formed Adam to do it. When God got ready to destroy the earth and save the righteous, He found Noah. When He got ready to establish His covenant, He found Abram. When He got ready to take the children of Israel from Egypt who were in bondage for over 400 years to the promised land, He found Moses.
• God took Moses and made him a deliverer. Moses was not necessarily a good man. He was not a perfect man. In fact, he was an outlaw, criminal and reject. God had a plan and purpose for his life. Moses was on the backside of the desert running from the law.
• Moses was exiles from Egypt because he did not understand his MISSION. Anytime you don’t understand your mission in life, you can end up trapped anywhere.
• God appeared to him through a burning bush and told him that I AM that I AM and I have a purpose for your life and there are some things I want do in and through your life. As Moses started to understand God’s MISSION in his life, it radically changed his life.
• Joshua who was mentored by Moses did not know his mission and when Moses died God said to him, just as I was with Moses, I will be with you. And God started to use Joshua in a significant way.
? Our focus for today is on David. He was rejected, ostracized and aliened. He is the 8th son of Jesse. He is not preferred by his father nor acknowledged by his brothers. Our text demonstrates that his brothers did not even like him. He was not even popular. You do not need to have everyone to affirm you to step into your calling. In fact, people can resent you and even then you can step into your mission.
? David was anointed to be king. He had gone back to take care of the sheep until God created an opportunity for him to come to the forefront. Here is where he learnt his MISSION and he learnt his mission by his obstacles.
? You will never understand who you are until you see who is fighting you. Who is fighting you, defines who you are. Nobody will come at you with a machine gun or a machete if they think you are a wimp. If you are a person who has been fought with heavy artillery, it is only because the enemy knows you are strong a person with much potential.
? The level of your attack must be of some indication to you that you are special and that God has a purpose for your life. It is not easy to be special because you are fought by your enemies and you are fought by your own siblings. If you don’t believe it, ask Joseph.
? When God sets you apart and when you begin to step into your calling, you got a giant to fight. Just because you got a giant to fight does not mean that you cannot win. Just because all odds are against you or someone has said you are at great risk, does not mean you cannot win.
? You have to define yourself as a man who is pursuing a mission. Many of us struggle today because we have never identified who we are, whose we are and what our mission is? Until we identify what our mission is, we will continue to stay in trouble.
? In Psalm 127:5 it talks about men having children and equates it to … “Blessed is the man who has his quiver full of them …” The children are like arrows which means the fathers role is to do the same thing that an archer does with an arrow. It is to pull you back and aim you at a target and shoot you so that you come forth of the womb aimed at something. Moving towards something with a goal and a mission.
? But not all of us have had the privilege of being in the bow of an archer. Not all of us have had the benefit of being shot toward a goal. Not all of us were aimed at anything significant or important. Many of us here this evening have not had the benefit have having a father is our lives.
? 85% of inmates in American prisons do not have fathers. Only mama, no daddy aiming them at something. 80% of the prisoners are high school drop outs and 82% were born to teenage girls. So they had no aim. The streets aimed them. The gangs aimed them. The drug dealers aimed them. Many of you here know exactly what I am talking about. Can we get an AMEN!
? But if are enraged and frustrated with what your dads didn’t do, you miss the point. Especially many of you here are old enough to produce your own kids and some of you are doing the same things to your kids that was done to you.
? So we raise another generation of ARROWS THAT FALL TO THE GROUND. Never hitting their target! Never becoming what God intended them to be. Because nobody stretched the bow and aimed them at a target. They never knew or even understood their mission.
? I want to talk to you today like a father, older brother and a friend. I did not come to entertain you or hype you or take you on an emotional high. Neither did I come to establish a reputation. I came to CHALLENGE you what God has placed upon my heart for you and for Cedar Rapids.
? There is a reason why God wanted you here tonight. God wants to do significant things in your life. These things will NOT HAPPEN till you become a person who is focused on a vision and pursuing a mission.
? Life is asking you a question. What did you come down here to do? Why are you on this planet? Why are you here? Weeks are turning into months, months are turning into years and years are turning into decades.
? You cannot spend the next 20-30 years’ joy riding through life trying to see what happens? Are you looking for the next thrill? The next one-night stand. The next game! The next opportunity. You have to identify yourself as a person on a mission. Tell the person next to you that you are here for a reason.
? I am not a mistake or an accident. I am not an outcome of some man and woman who copulated my existence. That’s not what brought me here. I am not something that wandered onto the stage of life as if there was no plan. God has a plan and a purpose for your life.
? God told Jeremiah that He saw him being formed in the belly of his mother. He knew him even before he was conceived or born. He said, “I have ordained you, sanctified you to be a prophet unto the nations. I set you apart. I will for you to live and that is why you are alive and here.”
? You may have been raised in rejection or whatever you were raised in … God allowed you to here tonight. He has a plan for your life. Until you understand your mission in life, you are just a joy ridder in someone else’s car, wandering through some else’s neighborhood, sleeping in someone else’s bed, wearing someone else’s clothes, playing someone else’s game and there is no one to aim you at something that life did not give you.
? The mission is not about being a Christian. The mission begins with being a Christian. Christianity is not the destination. It is the beginning. You may be saved but my question to you is now what? What are doing with your life? The reason why God left you here is that He has something for you to do.
o In John 18:37 Jesus tell Pilate His mission, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." Jesus knew His mission. Eliab asks his brother David what did he come down here to do? David answers him, “Is there nor a cause?”
o If you profess to be a Christian it means you are Christ like. And you have to be a man with a mission just as Christ was a man on a mission. He clearly understood what He came to do. Because when you understand what you came to do, you will also understand what you DID NOT come to do. You can never figure out what you are not supposed to do until you understand what you are supposed to do. Until you understand your mission, you are vulnerable to fly with anything in life.
o When you know why you are here, you can safely say not this or that but I know that God has called me for this. “For this cause I came into the world.” Then you know that you are a man/woman on a mission. You have a purpose in life. Once you find it … grab it and run.
o Without a MISSION you spend all your time for feelings just for feelings! Living for the weekend … living for the next woman … or for the next man … or for the next party until your life starts repeating itself and it will remind you of your own parents who did the same things as you are doing now.
o You will be spending a lot of gas and burning a lot of energy and you will not know where you are going. It takes as much gas to go in circles than being directed and going somewhere. You can jump into car and keep riding it till you run it out of gas but that does not mean that you are somewhere.
o A lot of people are burning a lot of gas and are not going anywhere. They think they are Christians so it is OK. They think that God is going to come and get them while you run around in circles. You are more important than that. God has something more important for you to do. It doesn’t mean that you pick up your briefcase and start preaching. We don’t need another turn around caller.
o There are too many people out there who sit around and look real important. They talk big and their whole life is to make everybody understand that they are important but they are not doing anything. Nudge your neighbor and say, “Do something significant with your life.”
o As a Christian we have a common understanding of the mission. We have a mission to win the lost. We have a mission to carry our brother or sister to Christ. You know the men who carried the man who was sick with palsy up to the roof, ripped the roof and lowered him in the presence of Jesus. You do not have to go on a prayer vigil or a fast to find out that God wants you to win souls. The word of God clearly defines this call for every Christian.
o You don’t need me to tell you that must be a radical man for God to bring the lost to Jesus. Whether it is with your guitar, your keyboard, your voice or whatever you are gifted with to bring people to the presence of the Lord. Even if it means that you have to cut the roof off.
o God give us some radical people tonight. I am tired of hearing people coming to the door and say, “I cannot get in … I can’t do it … I don’t have this or that to do it … I can’t make it … I will just drop the ball and run.” God give me some folks who will climb up the wall.
o I have got sick and tired of people who are laidback, lukewarm, intimated, frightened people who won’t stand up and get into the fight … get into the game. Yes, I got a big attitude. Because however these folks got this brother on the stretcher and carried him up a straight wall. And they did not drop him. I am sick of us dropping one another. There was something wrong with the man but they did not let him down. I don’t know how they held on to him but they got this brother to some help.
o Woe unto us if anyone goes out from here strung on crack … and without knowing the Lord. It is every Christians business to drag the lost to the Lord! In my Bible it doesn’t say that Jesus carried the man in but the men carried him in. I need some folks tonight who will witness for the Lord!
o Much of your mission is locked up in your giftings. If you do not know your giftings, you won’t know where God is directing you. So you have to surround yourself with people who are not intimidated and afraid but are willing to help you to understand your giftings. Someone who will discern your call and assist you in stepping into your mission. One who will put you in the bow and aim and stretch you to hit the target. It is possible to be gifted and not know it.
I am going to ask you four questions and get out of your way … let us get a little more deeper.
1. What is your MISSION? (Luke 4:18)
? The Bible says, ‘without a vision the people perish.’ Without a clear understanding of your mission, you begin to perish. You become vulnerable to everyone’s agenda and possess a scattered mindset. You become double-minded. You are all over the place but do not achieve anything. You have to identify and define what are you here for? Why did you come?
? In Luke 4:18 Jesus says He came, “To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;” Jesus knew why He was sent to this planet.
? There some people who just changed their highs. You went from getting high on drugs, get high on liquor and now you come to Bash to get high on Jesus. You think that might look like a nice worship service. I did not come here to get high. Because when you get high, you don’t get anything done. I don’t want you to come and get me high. I came to give direction.
? The Bible says, “Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He shall direct your paths.” I want to be shot toward something. Are you looking for the next high? This is not a time to numb me, this is a time for all of us to be woken up. Wake up sleeper! It is going to be a rough weekend. Are you sure you are in the right place?
? What is your MISSION? The only place you can know it is from God Who has His giftings locked in you. He has put something in your hand which is for the benefit of His Kingdom. What is your mission? Specifically? There is something that when you do it, you know that you were born to do this. You are bad when you do it!
? The understanding of your mission will make you great and it will stop you falling short of your prize. You might be thinking I have no hope; I already blew it. There are a number of folks in the Bible who blew it but they did not stay down just because they blew it.
? You have to have something to fight with. If you don’t have your weapon to fight with, you cannot win the battle. And every person here tonight has a battle. You have to find out what weapon God has placed in your hand. That weapon that is specifically given to me that which is uniquely given to you to fight the battle.
? David knew he had something unique in his hand. It did not look much to other people but he was really bad with it. If you find that something that God has gifted you with. Don’t let anyone laugh at it. For Goliath started out laughing but he did not laugh long.
? How many young people under 21 years old here this evening? Aim high my brothers and sisters. Do something greater and better than what your parents did. Woe to you if you do what they did.
? Tell your neighbor, “I got something to do.”
Illustration:
? Whatever God has placed in your hand, use it for His glory. It doesn’t matter where you start. It matters where and how you finish. Turn what you have into an art form and refuse to complain what he didn’t get. Be a person with a vision pursuing a mission. What are you going to do with your life? Don’t look where you are, look at where you are going. Have the big picture in focus.
? Forgetting those things that are behind and reaching for those things which are before … When you have a mission, you don’t let people slow you down and you don’t let people destroy you. The gift that God has given you is your TICKET to the next level.
2. What about SUBMISSION? (Matthew 8:5 ff)
• Most guys think that it is for the women.
• The centurion when he came to Jesus he was a heathen; he knew nothing about religion but he knew something about authority. He stopped Jesus in the middle of the road and said, “You don’t have to go to my house. I am a man in authority and under authority and I got a revelation out of authority.”
• For all the rebellious folks … you will never understand or go along with your mission until you learn submission. All those who can’t be taught, can’t be trained, got a chip on your shoulder don’t fit in the mission. You know this is one of the things fathers will do for you. They bring discipline into your life. Don’t think that discipline is abuse.
• You cannot have direction without discipline because direction is discipline. It helps you in deciding not this, not that but this! With the absence of discipline in your life, you have to get it from God. Let all of us say, “God teach me submission.”
• SUBMISSION: Bringing everything up unto order to the MISSION. Until your mission becomes more important than your method, than your feelings, than your attitudes it will not move. You have to have a MISSION that is bigger than you. The mission that I pursue is more important than anything else because I was born to do this. So I bring everything under submission to the mission.
• In your mission you will never hit the target till you learn submission. Because every part of you that goes in one direction there is another part of you that is in rebellion against your own MISSION. And a house divided against itself will surely fall.
• It is not about the external forces that are against you. You can tear goliath up. It is those enemies inside us that are going to kill us. Are you trying to get other people submit to a mission that you are not submitted to?
• All of us have things inside of us that could destroy the mission, that threaten to eat up our purpose and our goals and our life. All of us have a cancer to fight that if it is left unattended and not controlled, it will destroy you. You have to get # 3. If you don’t get # 3, you will never make it. It deals will remission.
3. What do you need to see that thing to go into REMISSION?
• It is a term doctors use for the cancer that was eating you from the inside stops eating you.
• This is what God has laid upon my heart for many of you who have just come to watch or even engage yourself. Those who have been eaten up by stuff … someone’s cancer is ready to go into remission. God wants to take your past and put it into remission.
• There are some whose old habits are eating you up and won’t let you go, eating up your family, and your life. I come here to cast a notice on it that it is all going into REMISSION tonight. God is going to tear it up. It is going to go into remission.
• The thing that was out of control in my life is going into remission. The thing that threaten to kill me and my family is going into remission. The thing that was about to destroy my life is going into REMISSION. It was out of control but God is going to burn it. The ANOINTING of GOD is going to be your chemotherapy. God is going to possess you.
• The thing that is eating at you from the inside. Your enemy that is within. The anger and frustration that is eating at you. It will come out in your attitude. It comes out in your personal life. It comes out in your disposition. The thing that keeps destroying you. Every time you try to get your life together … here it comes again like a cancer to devour your life.
• Many of you came here just to watch and many do not even know why they are here. Let me tell you why you are here. God is about to send you into total REMISSION. Tell your neighbor, it is got to go. Your dad had it, your uncle had it, your grandpa had it, your great grand pa had it and some of your aunts had it too. But God says it is got to go.
• Many Generations have gone by embracing the curses upon their lives. This is the last generation. Not another generation! You are going into total remission. I am man/woman having a vision following a mission.
• Shout it from the roof tops, declare it from the mountain, let the redeem of the Lord say so. I know I had it. Every time I shout it out to the Lord, He has sent me into remission. It is dying! Every time I fight back, it is dying.
• Every time the old habit shows up to destroy you, look him in the face and say, “No more! I am in remission now.” I want God to have everything of me. You will not get anything from me now. Are you ready to get a new man/woman out of the old man/woman?
• I need to get to # 4 which goes beyond the mission, submission or remission. The question arises how can I get admission?
4. How can I get ADMISSION? (John 3)
• This is a question of Nicodemus to Jesus. He asked, “How can I get in?”
• There is obviously something going on here. There are my black bothers, black sisters, white folks … are praising God right beside each other, holding hands and blessing one another. In the last 8 years our nation has been the most divided ever. There must be something divine going on here.
• Old folks and young folks coming in together and shouting to the Lord together. All kinds of folk here worshiping God together. The protestants and the Catholics are all praising God together. Tell the person next you, “How can I get ADMISSION?”
• There is no cover charge and there are no hidden charges. It has been prepaid. More than 2,000 years ago Jesus shed His blood on the cross so that any man who believes in Him and articulates with his mouth that He is Lord can get admission.
• How can I get in? Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily I say to you, “You must be born again.”” I am too old for it … I am too young for it! Jesus said, “I am the way, the door and the life.”
• This is a place where the blind will see, the lame will walk, the dumb will talk and the deaf will hear. This is a place where the sinners (all kinds of wicked people) can come and drink the living waters and quench their thirst. They can eat at the Master’s table.
• This is a place where the junkie can call on Jesus, the drug addict, the potheads and meth-addict experience Jesus in a new way. The power of God is surely going to fall upon all flesh.
• This is a place where a Muslim can find safety in the arms of Yeshua, where a Hindu or Buddhist can walk in and worship Christ. There is something missing from my life. I am coming home.
• Just as I am without a plea but that Thy blood was shed for me and Thou bidst me come to thee. I have professed to be a Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist … you can still come. God doesn’t hate you. He loves you! John 3:16
• Christianity is not a religion. It is an experience and a relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ gives you back what life took away. He will restore all that the worms and locusts ate away.
• He says, “You don’t have a father, I will be your daddy. You did not have a mother; I will be your mommy. You did not have a counselor, I will be your wonderful counselor, almighty God.
• It is not a message of hatred. It is a message of hope and love. The black man’s face is in this book, the white man’s face is in it, the brown man’s face is in it … the reason you can’t see it is because all our faces are smeared with His blood.
• Stand to your feet. I did not come to Christ to go to heaven. I came to Him because no one could tell me why I was here except Jesus. What do you want me to do? Show me and give me stuff that I need for the reason that I was created and why I am here.
• The blood of Christ covers everything, even that we think that it will not cover. Jesus, I come!
