My question to you today, Church, is what are you rooted in? Because we're all rooted in something. Our roots are going into something. Maybe it's people's opinions or maybe it's approval. And I want to challenge you today, Church, that our roots are good in God because it brings confidence and good in community so that we are challenged, encouraged, and strengthened.
It took one step to step out of comfort, to decide I was going to be bold, strong, and courageous, and to allow God to work in me so he could work through me.
When we are people who are planted and say, I'm going to be strong and courageous, we rewrite the future because they see our faith worked out through us.
As you are strong and courageous and follow God's call on your life, he will equip you, he will strengthen you, and he will guide you. And I believe, when the church does that, our future is different.
If you are full of fear today, if you're thinking about the future, even if you're thinking about purpose, and you're fearful, know that that's not from God, that he didn't give a spirit of fear, that he doesn't want you to shrink back and feel alone, but actually, he wants you to be strong and courageous, to step forward and know that he goes with you.
But to be courageous, you have to do something about it. You can't think courageously and have courageous ideas. Yes, I'm courageous. You have to do something about it.
We have to be courageous when we talk to our friends about our faith. We have to be courageous in our workplace when we stand up for truth. We have to be courageous when we step out where God is leading, even when we don't know the full picture.
If you want to display and reflect the supernatural God in our lives, we have to do courageous acts. We have to step out courageously and say, God, I'm committed to you leading me the way you want me to go. But also, I'm a little bit scared, so give me a lot of courage.
Courage means doing something that scares you. It's stepping out of your comfort zone. It's doing something where you say, I'm going to give it a go, but I'm not sure if it's going to work out. You have to be committed to being courageous.
God is speaking to who you are, not who you think you are, not who your mum has told you to be, not who you think you're going to be in the future. God is speaking to who you are right now and who he has created you to be.
If you are full of the Spirit and you are connected to God with all your heart, you are more than what you feel because the Spirit will help you do everything God is asking you and calling you to do.
We create a social connection of church experience but that's not what God is asking us to do. He's asking us to put deep roots in connection with him and connection with each other. As we put down deep roots, it brings confidence. It brings confidence to your faith when things aren't working out for you.
When we are full of the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves able to do things we didn't even realize we could handle. There is a responsibility to put roots down. Why do trees put roots down? Because it's in the desert and there's a need for water. Because it's about survival and I don't want to just survive.
Our purpose is less about us and more about knowing God and letting him work through us. And how we do that is through being filled with the Holy Spirit, it's through asking and saying, God, would you fill me, would you strengthen me? And as God does something in you, he is able to work through you.
I want to encourage us to make that proximity with God non-negotiable, that we include God with what we've got. Yes, we need to pray to God and deal with the circumstances and the situations in our life, but simply, we need to pray to be with him, to understand his nature, to spend time in his word and to get to know who he is. And as we do that, he transforms us.
Your purpose is not about how well you can perform or what you can do for God. Your purpose is to display, to reflect the one you have relationship with. You see, I can't reflect something I'm not close to. I can't try to put the point out there because you won't be able to see it either in my speech, but when someone is close, when that proximity is there, that's the one I can reflect.
Because of who we are with, it affects who we are. We need to understand that God wants to be with you. I don't know what your experience is, I don't know if you come into this environment and you say, oh I don't know what's going on, but what I know, I know, I know, and our church believes that God wants a personal relationship with you.
