Formed in Waiting: From Ascension to Spirit Power

There's too much to be done to sit around, but instead God goes, nope. I need you to wait. I need you to pray. I need you to allow me to continue this preparation. I need you to examine yourselves. I need you to to wait and see what it is that I'm doing. I need you to sit and wait until I give you everything you need for the assignment. They've already gotten the assignment but now what they need to do is come and sit and examine and be together and be united in order to receive what they have or what they need for the assignment. [00:51:43] (42 seconds)  #WaitAndPrepare

They walk out and they go, have you heard about Jesus? Jesus? Let me tell you about Jesus who lived and died and rose again so that you could be saved. I wanna promise you that God is probably a 100% of the time going to do things in a way that you wouldn't do them. And if you get stuck on your way, if you get stuck on this is the plan that God gave me and I'm gonna do it exactly like this, you're gonna find yourself spinning your wheels. The best thing you can do is allow yourself to sit in these moments and be formed by him and allow him to go, it is not about you. [01:15:03] (48 seconds)  #TrustGodsWay

And the very first line in that is it's not about you. Pretty sure that's the opening line of Rick Warren's book too. Which one? Purpose Driven Life. It is not about you. It is not about you. It's not about you. It's not about you. It's not about me. And I know that can sound harsh and especially in a church here where we're constantly saying, you have purpose, you have significant, you are worth it, God sees you, he knows you, he wants to work in your life and I truly believe that. But I also believe it's not about you. [01:13:37] (41 seconds)  #NotAboutYou

Right? Because if the wind comes, I know that these forts, however awesome they are, they're built on sand and they will end up instead of protecting my kids, they will crush them. And the truth is that a house built on sand can stand in certain conditions. But when the wind comes or the storms come or the tide rises, suddenly they will come to ruin. And I believe that many people are making this mistake themselves but many of us are following them, following the influence rather than the anointing. And that's the last point as we close-up today is we need to go and it's not that we ever leave abiding but we need to stay abiding in Christ before the anointing. [01:23:44] (52 seconds)  #BuildOnTheRock

Not only because I think it's so disgusting and wrong because that is not what biblical leadership is. Biblical need leadership is not narcissism and self centeredness. Biblical leadership is servant, go low. Count others as better than yourselves, not look not only to your interest but to the interest of others, that's biblical leadership. But I've also been deeply grieved because as I look around I go, I actually think that's true. I actually think that so many leaders, not all of them but so many leaders, Christian and non Christian alike but I think it's especially devastating in the Christian community, so many Christian leaders are narcissists and they've act we've actually what we've done is we have replaced influence with anointing. [01:20:57] (48 seconds)  #ServantLeadership

So many of us wanna jump to the assignment, jump to the anointing, jump to the let's go out and pray for people before we've allowed ourselves to sit and abide with Christ. The last scripture we're gonna look at is John chapter 15 verses four through 11 and it says this, abide in me. Jesus is speaking, abide in me and I in you. So as we abide in him, as we make space for him, he comes and makes his dwelling place in us. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. [01:24:35] (47 seconds)  #AbideInChrist

I'm like, yeah, a house built on sand when people, you know, suddenly because they get the most followers, they have all this influence but they have not been formed in the quiet. We went on our Sabbath on our day off this last Friday, we took our kids to, Ventura Beach and they found a bunch of driftwood and they started making forts. Isn't that cool? It's awesome. So they made these forts, and and set them up and it was so cool because they could go in them and and you know, if we had had more time, I think there would have been like a mansion built. And I love that so much. But let me tell you, if it started to get windy, do you think I would tell my kids to run into the fort or away from it? [01:23:00] (43 seconds)  #FoundationsMatter

And that's that I believe that in the waiting and it's not just in these ten days but I believe in their entire time with Jesus but especially especially you'll notice after the resurrection when he appears to his disciples and then especially in that ten days, I think that he takes the disciples from fearful to faithful. I think he takes them from people who are running away from the cross to people who stand up on Pentecost and Peter who's the one who denied for fear of ending up at the on the cross right next to Jesus. He was so afraid and yet on the day when he receives the holy spirit, the baptism of the holy spirit, he is the one standing up and preaching to everybody. [01:06:19] (40 seconds)  #FromFearToFaith