Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - You Got It - Pastor Tim Doremus

Episode Date: December 29, 2019

When you have big goals, it’s difficult feeling like you can make a difference when you don’t think you have what it takes to reach them. But God has given you the gifts you need to make the dreams He’s given you a reality. Join Pastor Tim Doremus for this week’s message, and find out how when you’ve got God, you really can make a difference. NEXT STEPS Have you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: http://www.life.church/next SIX STEPS TO YOUR BEST YEAR OF LEADERSHIP Could this be your best year of leadership ever? Before you ever start talking about what you want to do in 2019, the start with who you want to become. Discover how here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhlXJyAmLI8 ABOUT LIFE.CHURCH Wherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, welcome today. Life Church family, happy almost new year. Let me tell you about next week. Next week we're launching into a brand new message series. It's called the Warrior. If you were here 11 years ago, yes, it's been 11 years. This was one of the biggest and strongest message series we've ever done. We're speaking a lot to the men, but we're also talking to everybody. We're going to help you prepare to win the battles that matter most as we launched into 2020. and next week is The Warrior. Today, I've got great news for you. I've chosen one of our campus pastors, one of the greatest preachers we have at Life Church, who launched the first location in Wichita

to bring us into 2020 with God's Word today. Would you please help me welcome? Pastor Tim Duremus. Well, hey, Life Church. As Pastor Craig said, my name is Tim. I'm honored to get to be here with you today. Wherever you're joining us from, you're one of our life church locations, church online. If you're on YouTube, you're a part of our

church family, and we love you. Speaking of being honored, I want to stop just for a second and say to Pastor Craig, Pastor Craig, you've been my pastor for the last nine and a half years. And along with my wife Katie and our kids, I can say that we are better in every single way. I'm a better husband. I'm a better father. I'm a better leader. Most importantly, I'm a better follower of Christ because of what God has done in my life through this church. And I want to say thank you for being our pastor. I know every single person listening would want to say the same thing. So we're in this really fun season where we're coming out of Christmas and we're getting ready to step into New Year. And here's what I know, coming out of Christmas, a few of you probably

opened Christmas presents this past week. And I hope here's what didn't happen, but experience tells me may have happened. There may have been a present that you opened up. And what you said out loud was this, oh, you shouldn't have. Because what you thought is like, no, seriously, you shouldn't have. It was the vacuum cleaner you didn't ask for. It was the tie you're never going to wear. It was the socks that wouldn't even fit if you tried to put them on. And at that point in life, you had to make a decision of what group of people you wanted to be in. You're either going to become an exchanger or a reluctant holder-honor. How many of you, I'm asking for a little bit of participation, how many of you, when you get a present that's a little bit underwhelming, you just

say, you know what, I know that person would want me to be happy. So I'm going to take it back, exchange it for something that would make me happy. Yep. They want you to be happy. It's okay. How many of you go, you know what? I even wish I could be in that group. I just can't do it, though, because I care about that person's feelings. So it goes in the closet in case they ever come to visit. I pull it out. Yeah, you love people. It's okay. You can say, hey, that's me. Yeah, you love people. God wants us to love people. But you know when you don't get to make that choice when you're a kid. Because when you're a kid, you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit. Every single year, starting at about eight years old, I experienced that because I knew I was getting

one present after the first year that I was not excited about. It came from my grandmother. It was in a box about this long, this wide, this thick. When you would shake it, there was nothing exciting going on in the box. No clanking, no clunking, just the gentle whooshing of clothes, because every single year I got a sweater from my grandmother. My friends were getting remote control cars, video games. I got a sweater.

I actually brought a photo of me in one of those sweaters along with me. Yep. Turtleneck in all. Some of you are saying, bro, the sweater's not the only problem in that photo. But it does answer a few questions you may have had about me before. Like, you ever thought about shaving the beard? The photo answers that question. Hey, why don't you smile more when you preach?

The photo answers that question. The one question it does not answer is this. Those who meet my wife often ask me this question. like, man, she is super smart. She's wicked funny. Not only how did you get her to marry you, how did you ever get her to go out with you in the first place? I have a photo of my wife that hangs in my office

that I brought with me today. This is when I met her. She was 18. As a point of clarity, the guy in the sweater did not meet the girl in the photo. That would be illegal, but awesome, if that was what happened. We were both 18 when we met,

and when we started dating. Let's go back to the sweater photo. All I can say is, I don't know God is good. God is good, and that is what answers the question of why did she marry me. But we've all been to that situation where we open the box and we think what? We think, I wish I could change what was in here. I wish I got something that was different. I wish I got what she has or what he received.

But my question for you today is this. Not only have you ever felt that way when you opened up a Christmas present, but do you ever find yourself looking in the mirror saying the same thing? I wish I could change what was on the inside. I wish I was a more patient parent. I wish I was more successful at work. I wish I knew more about God's word. Maybe I wish I was more like him or I was more like her.

And so what I want to talk about today is this, is that I think God's word has something to say to those of us who felt that way when we look in the mirror before. But what I'm not going to talk about is, hey, how do we cause change in our life? Because as we step into a new year, here's what statistics tell us that 60% of us will make a resolution. and a resolution is saying, I want to change something about me, but change is hard.

Only 25% of us will make it 30 days. Only 8% will actually reach the goal that we set because change is hard. But I want to be super clear as we start. If you recognize there's a gap in your life that will sink your boat in 2020, if you don't address it, it would be wise to address that gap. Pastor Craig in his leadership podcast, Episode 50, talks about how to start new habits or stop unhealthy habits. If that's where you find yourself, man, that would be a great resource for you, but that's not what we're going to talk about. What we're going to talk about is this. We're going to talk about

something that God has been showing me in my own life for the last couple of years that I think could help you as you step into a new year. In doing so, we're going to look in the Bible at two guys. Because these two guys share some similarities, but they also have some key differences in their life. The first is Saul. Saul is the first king of Israel. His story begins in 1 Samuel chapter 9. The second is David, who's the second king of Israel. And what you're going to see is is the stories start. They're so similar. Right? They're so similar. There's three truths that are true about both Saul and David as we begin their stories. When we're introduced to Saul, here's what's happening. His family's lost some donkeys. So he's gone out with some other people to look for their

lost donkeys. They've not been successful in finding him when Saul has this idea and his idea is this. there's a prophet of God who lives nearby, his name Samuel, I'll go to his house and say, Samuel, do you know where our donkeys are? So he shows up to Samuel's house, he knocks on the door, and Samuel meets him and says, I have a message from God for you. Here's the message from God in 1st Samuel chapter 10, verse 1. Samuel, the prophet says this. It says, then Samuel took the flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul's head. He kissed Saul and said, I'm doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be what? he's appointed you to be the ruler over Israel, his special possession. So Saul shows up looking for lost donkeys, but Samuel says God wants to give you the keys

to the kingdom. Imagine that, looking for lost donkeys, and the prophet of God says God wants you to be the first king ever over his people in Israel. So that's Saul. David shows up about six chapters later in 1st Samuel. His story starts not with him looking for lost donkey. but instead he's watching over his family's sheep and goats because he was a shepherd. Samuel, the very same prophet who anointed Saul to be king of Israel,

shows up at David's house looking for the second king of Israel because that's where God told him to go. He got there and he met the seven siblings of David who were at home, but each time he said, this is not the one that God's chosen to be the second king. Let's go to the next one. They run out of kids and he said, do you have anybody left? And they said, well, there's David, the youngest, but he's out watching the sheep and goats, and Samuel says, well, wait, go get him.

David walks into the house and here's what happens. In 1 Samuel, chapter 16, verse 18, or rather chapter 16, verse 13, it says, so David stood among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive oil he had brought, and he anointed David with oil. Does this sound familiar? Like we just read this about Saul. And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David from that day on. and then Samuel return to Ramah.

You see, in these stories, we're introduced to Saul and David, and three truths begin to stand out about their lives that are true about both of them. Those three truths are this, that they're called to it. Both Samuel and David have a calling on their life. God has a purpose for them, and it's clear because they're anointed with oil, and they're told God wants you to be the king over Israel. They're called to it, but they're also gifted for it. Gifting in the Bible is the means that God gives you to.

carry out the calling that he's placed on your life. It says in both stories that the Spirit of God came powerfully upon them. God gave them what they needed to be who he called him to be. So they were called to it, they were gifted for it, and others could see it. God could see it. Samuel, the prophet, could see it. The rest of Israel could see it. We're told that Saul on his way home, the Spirit of God came powerfully on him. He began to prophesy and people who passed by could see the hand of God, the thumbprint of God on his life, and they said, what, is Saul one of the prophets too? They could see God was all over him. We just read where it said that the Spirit of God came powerfully upon David, and everybody there recognized it. In fact, one day, Saul is looking

for somebody to help him. And one of his servants says, I know a guy. He said, this guy is a great musician. He's a man of war. He's a leader. He's good looking, and the Spirit of God is all over him. He was talking about David. Why? Because others can see. when God has gifted somebody. It's easy to see when God's gifted somebody, isn't it? It's easy to see when God has gifted somebody. I remember the first time I had that thought, hey, God's gifted that person. I was in seventh grade and I was playing middle school football. In middle school football, I played free safety. So I was the last line of defense trying to keep the offense from scoring. And every day in practice, this exact same scenario would take place. Here was the scenario.

the quarterback would snap the ball, he'd turn around, handed off to the running back. The running back's name was Lamarcus. In the seventh grade, Lamarcus was 510 and 180 pounds. He would get the ball, he would bust through the defensive line. The linebackers, the biggest, meanest guys on the team would try to tackle them. He would literally throw them to the ground by stiff-arming them. He would get into the secondary. It was my turn to try to tackle him.

He's 5-10-180. I'm 4-8. pounds dripping wet. And so one of two things would happen every single day. If he was feeling kind, he would run around me. If he was feeling mean, he would run flat over me every single day. One day I'm in the locker room and I look over and Lamarcus was putting his shoulder pads on it. It becomes clear to me that there's two things that Lamarcus has in life in the seventh grade that I don't have. The first thing is muscles. Right? And not just muscles. He has man muscles in the seventh grade, 180 pounds, and he's ripped, and he's never touched a weight in his life.

The second thing that he has that I don't is he has armpit hair. I can only dream about having armpit hair in the seventh grade. So I go home and I'm like, Mom, Dad, he's huge and he's fast, and he's strong, and he's got man muscles, and he's got armpit hair, and I'm supposed to try to tackle him. And they looked at me with all the empathy they could muster, and they said, Tim, God has gifted Lamarcus to play football, right? He's giving him a gift. And God's given you a gift. It's just not football. It is so easy for us to look at somebody else and see what,

see the thumbprint of God on their life and to say, man, God has gifted that person. We don't have to look that far. We saw Mother Teresa and we say, what? God has gifted her to serve people. We saw people like Martin Luther King Jr. And said, what? God gave him a gift to motivate and inspire action. And people, we look at our pastor, Pastor Craig, and say, what?

God has gifted him. It's easy to look at somebody and see that God has gifted them. So why is it so hard for us as followers of Christ to look in the mirror and see that God has gifted us too? Why is it so hard to look in the mirror and see God's thumbprint on our life that he has gifted us, just as he's gifted Saul and David in the Old Testament? But instead we look in the mirror and we see what? We see every single gap in our life. And the problem is if we fixate on our gaps, we're going to fail to see the gift that God has given us.

If we fixate on our gaps, we're going to fail to see the gift that God has given us. Because here's the truth. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, the three things that were true about Saul and David are true about you too. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you're called to it. God has put a calling on your life. Jesus didn't just save us from our sins. That would have been enough, but Jesus also saved us for a purpose. He's given you a purpose to walk this earth. you're called to it. Some of you are going, man, that sounds great, but like, I'd settle for a job, not just a calling. I'm not talking about your career. I'm talking about your calling. What purpose has God placed you here for? As followers of Christ, if you've made that decision, we all share some similar

callings. One of those callings is to follow Jesus, right, to become more like Jesus, because at some point you had an encounter with God, and Jesus said, get up and follow me. And if you're not a follower of Christ, maybe you're here today to answer that call of Jesus to say, get up and follow me because God created you for a purpose. Not only do we have the calling to follow Jesus, we also have the calling as a follower of Christ to love God and love others. Jesus, what's the greatest commandment to love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and the second is like the first love your neighbor as yourself. We're all called to love God and love others. We're called to make disciples. Therefore, going to all nations, making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. We all share some similar callings, and you as a follower of Christ may even feel a specific calling from God. Maybe you've seen kids in the foster care system and you say, hey, I don't think that's okay with God and it's not okay with me. And so you've opened up your home. Why? To show them the love of an earthly family, but also the love of a father in heaven who cares for them deeply. Maybe you feel called to step out and to start a business so that your employees know what it's like to work in an affirming, uplifting work environment, and every person who walks through your doors is served just as Christ served you on the cross. Maybe your calling is that you're a stay-at-home

parent, and the calling that God has given you is you're going to raise up kids to be fully devoted followers of Christ. Maybe you're here today, and you don't know what that specific calling is, and that's okay, because here's what I know. When God calls you to something, he's going to make it clear. Right? When God calls you to something, he's going to make it clear. But the truth, is this, that God's called you to it. But he's not only called you to it, he's gifted you for it. He's given you the means to carry out the calling

that he's placed on your life. Romans, it says this in chapter 12, verses 6 through 8. This is the Apostle Paul to the church. He says, in his grace, God has given us what? God has given us different gifts. We're not all gifted the same, but we're all gifted.

God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God's given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you're a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, then be encouraging. If it's giving, give generously.

If God's giving you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. What the apostle Paul says is this. If you're a follower of Christ, God has given you a gift, so do it. You got it. I was telling my wife about this message, and she said, babe, I love it. But like, what would you say to those of us who don't know what our gifting is? And I started to laugh.

I haven't learned a lot in 17 years of marriage, but I have learned if she's not laughing, it's not a joke. So I said, like, seriously. And I said, babe, let's start with this. Let's start with all of the people who come to our church. And I started naming names, who you met out in our community. And you built a relationship with them, not because you wanted something from them, but just because you cared about them. And along the way, as they're sharing their story and opportunities,

opened up and you stepped in that opportunity, you said, hey, why don't you come to church with me Sunday? And they walked into the church and they sat next to you. And it was there that they met Jesus Christ for the first time. It was there that they got connected to a church home and other followers of Christ so that they could grow in their faith. I said, God's given you the gift of building meaningful relationships in life. And I said, then let's look at the fact that God has given you a gift with details. So if we ever take a vacation, whenever we get in the car, there's like a seven-page space vacation guide waiting for me on the console of the car, and it is awesome. Some of you are breaking out in hives when you hear that. You're like, that's not vacation.

It's vacation because two things are true when I sit in that car. Every detail has been taken care of, and I can just relax. I said, babe, God has given you the gift of details to make everybody around you better. You're called to it, you're gifted for it, and others can see it. If you don't know what God has gifted you with, here's my encouragement for you. Ask somebody, what a great life group discussion. Hey, what do you see that God has gifted me with?

What is it that I do? Or when is it that you see God is working through me? Because God has left his thumbprint on your life. What a great discussion on your car ride home today. Not just with your spouse, but with your kids as well. Here's where I see that God has gifted you. What a great discussion with your friends. Get two or three followers of Christ together.

Hey, here's what we're talking about at church. How do you see that God has gifted me? Because you got it. God has given you what you need to carry out the calling that he's placed on your life. But what are you going to do with that gifting? Because Saul and David did two drastically different things. And because of it, David was mentioned in the New Testament 60 times,

and Saul was never mentioned once. What are you going to do with the calling that God has placed on your life? So one of the next times that Saul is mentioned in the Bible after being anointed to be king over Israel, Samuel has gathered the whole nation, so all of Israel gathered together to publicly select who's going to be king. But here's the deal. Two people already know who's going to be selected. Samuel and Saul.

He's already been anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel. They know what's going to happen. So they pick the tribe that the king's going to come from. Whose tribe do they pick? Saul's tribe. They picked the clan. It's Saul's clan. They pick the family. It's Saul's family. They pick the individual. And here's what happened. 1 Samuel, chapter 10, verses 21 and 22. And finally, Saul, son of Kish, was chosen from among them. But when they looked for him, he had what? He had disappeared.

So they asked the Lord, where is he? And the Lord replied, he is hiding among the baggage. So Saul is selected. He knew he was called. he was gifted for it. Others could see it. Saul is selected to be king, and where is he? He's literally hiding among the baggage. The luggage that the people brought to gather together, they can't find him. The guy who's described as being head and shoulders taller than anybody else in Israel

is hiding behind the baggage. Like it's almost humorous, this big huge guy who's called, who's gifted. Everybody could see it is asking the question, and God, I don't think I have what it takes. Like, it's almost humorous, except for we do the same thing. Like, we're called to it. We're gifted for it. Others can see it.

And yet we still find ourselves hiding behind the baggage, the baggage of our past. God, 2019 didn't go so well. I don't know that I want to step out in faith in 2020. God, that last marriage didn't work out so awesome. I don't know that I want to follow where you're calling me this year. We hide in the baggage of our past. hide in the baggage of our insecurity. Well, God, I don't know enough about the Bible.

Like if I knew more, if I'd been a follower of Christ longer, then maybe I could do what you've called me to do. We hide in the baggage of security. Well, God, what if I step out and I fail? What does that say about me and what does that say about you? Maybe it's not security. Maybe it's the one I see the most often as a pastor. Maybe you're hiding in the baggage of busyness.

God, I know you've been. delivered me from addiction and you've called me to help other people with their addiction, but like, work is super busy. I know you've called me to help students on Wednesday nights at Switch, because that's when you changed my life, but like, my kid's sports, God. Like, they're really busy right now. Or maybe for you, the baggage that you're hiding behind is comparison. Well, if I was more like him or more like her, then maybe I could be who you've called me to be. But here's the problem. If we're buried in our baggage, right? If we're buried in our baggage, we're buried in our baggage, We can't go where God wants to take us in 2020.

Right? If we won't leave our baggage behind, we won't be who God has called us to be in 2020. And I know it because I almost missed it. Years ago, I was wrestling with this in my own life of God. Who have you called me to be as a follower of Christ? How have you gifted me? And I began to sense that God was calling me to be a pastor, but there was this problem. And the problem was I didn't have what it took.

I began to compare myself to the people who were pastors. And I would look and I'd say, well, God, that's. That pastor over there, like you've gifted him so that when he walks into a room, like, he just takes control of the room. And everybody instantly looks at him. But like, I'm just happy to slide in on the back wall and just observe. God, I don't have what it takes. Or look at this person over here. God, you've gifted that person so that when they speak, it's just like these spiritual flowing words just come out of their mouth.

But when I speak, I say all the wrong things. Like, God, I don't have what it takes. But fortunately for me, others could see it. I'll never forget a conversation I have with my wife. We've been married six months. I was wrestling with this and we were McAllister sitting at a table for two with our sweet tea. And I looked across the table and I said for the first time what I'd been struggling with for a long time. I said, babe, I feel like God's called me to be a pastor. But I was an accountant. And she said something that shocked me to the core. She looked at me in the eye and she said, I know.

and I've known for a long time. And I said, if you've known for a long time, why didn't you tell me? And she said, because you're a man and you wouldn't listen. Here's the good news is that because you're called to it, you're gifted for it, others can see it. So if you're struggling with the baggage in your life, the best thing that you can do is surround yourself

with other people who'll speak truth into your life and say, you know what, God didn't call you to live among the baggage. He called you to step out because there's a different way, and David responded differently than Saul. You see, the next time that David is mentioned in Scripture, after being anointed to be the king of Israel, he was showing up to the battle lines to deliver some dinner to his brothers. It's while he was there that he saw the Philistine army challenging the people of Israel. His people, he was called to save from the hand of the Philistines that were standing across the battle lines.

He saw the champion, Goliath, challenge his people. He saw nobody respond. And here's what David, the little shepherd boy, did in response. 1 Samuel chapter 17 verse 26 David asked the soldiers standing nearby what will a man get for killing this philistine and ending his defiance of Israel who is this philistine anyways that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living god you see when saul was called to it gifted for it everybody else could see it he hid in the baggage saying god i don't feel like i have what it takes but david stepped up for battle right david stepped up for battle not saying god i don't feel like i have what it takes

but saying, God, take what I have. Because here's the deal when we say, God, I don't feel like I have what it takes. We're basing the outcome upon our ability. God, I don't feel like I have what it takes. But when we say, God, take what I have? We know what? We know that if we're a follower of Christ, the war's already been won. Jesus Christ won the war on the cross.

The war's been won. I can't promise you how the battle and your life's going to go this year. But the good news of Jesus Christ is whether you win the battle that you're in or whether you lose the battle that you're in, is that Jesus Christ has already won the war for you. You see, David understood this truth, that being gifted and make no mistake about it, if you're a follower of Christ, you are gifted, you got it.

Being gifted means that you have something to give. Being gifted means that you have something to give. And I want to be really transparent today. There are some days I wake up in the baggage. God, I don't feel like I have what it takes to be the husband that you've called me to be. I don't feel like I have what it takes to be the father that I know you want me to be. I don't feel like I have what it takes to be the pastor you've called me to be. But the outcome's not dependent upon me.

It's dependent upon the one who's with me. And the Spirit of God came powerfully upon David. And the Spirit of God, if you're a follower of Christ, has come powerfully upon you as well. and he's gifted you for what he's called you to. But here is my fear in this message, right, is that you would come to church, you would get on church online, you would get onto YouTube,

you would watch this message and you would say, awesome, more to do. I already want to lose seven pounds this year. I want to be more successful at work. I want to spend more time at home. I want to be at every one of my kids' sporting events. I want to be the friend that I'm supposed to be to others. Now I've got to figure out what my calling is,

and find out what my gifting is, awesome, something else to do. And here's the problem with that. It's exhausting. But the good news of Jesus Christ wasn't brought to you to add something else onto your life. The good news of Christ should bring freedom to our life. When you understand that you're gifted by God for a purpose, it brings freedom to your life. Here's the freedom that it brings to your life. It brings the freedom from comparison.

the freedom from comparison, I don't have to be him or her. It brings the freedom to celebrate other people's gifts. Man, that is awesome that God has gifted them for it. And it gives you the freedom to concentrate on what God has called you to. God hasn't made us awesome at everything, but he has made you gifted in some things. So like every single one of us has opened up those Christmas presents and had that feeling of I wish I got something different in the box. And every single one of us has looked in the mirror and said, I wish there was something different inside of me. I remember one year, I was nine

years old. I got a Christmas present like that. It was a calico vision, which I actually brought a photo of a calico vision because I knew no one would remember what a calico vision was. It came out in 1982. I was not nine years old in 1982 because the calico vision that I got, was pre-owned, which is a really nice way of saying, somebody had it before I had it. But when I was nine years old, you didn't want a Kaliko Vision. What you wanted was a Nintendo arcade system. With Zelda and Duck Hunt and Technobol,

glory be to God who is in heaven. That's what my friends were getting. I didn't get that. I got a used Kaliko vision. You would be tempted to think about my used Kaliko vision and say this. That's not the most spectacular Christmas present you probably ever received and you'd be right.

But don't you dare tell me it wasn't significant. Two days before, on December 23rd, me and my mom and my brother were at home when I heard my brother's voice from the back of the house and he said, Mom, the house is on fire. And I came around the corner and the house was on fire. We ran out of the house taking only what we were wearing. I had on a t-shirt, sweatpants, and white athletic socks.

We stood in the snow on our dry, and watch our house burn to the ground. And as a nine-year-old, all I could think about were the Christmas presents that had already been picked out, wrapped, and put under the tree that I'd already shaken to know which ones to be excited about, and they were gone. So 36 hours later, I woke up with a little bit less anticipation than a nine-year-old should on Christmas morning. I'll never forget, as I walked down the stairs of the house that we were staying at, there's

an image that's just burned in my mind. because as I came downstairs, somebody had set up a Christmas tree. And under that tree were 63 presents. There was no Amazon one-day delivery when I was nine. How did we ever survive? There was no store that people could go to. These were presents that people had taken out

from underneath their tree. Taking the name tag off, put our name tag on, and given them to us. One of those presents was a Calico vision. I knew the family who gave us this Calico vision. They were in our church. And even at nine years old, I knew this, they didn't have a lot.

It would have been real tempting if you were that family to look around and say what. I don't have what it takes. But instead, they looked at their TV and saw their calico vision, which they still used, they unplugged it, put it in a box, wrapped it up, put it a bow on it, and said, take what we have. Here's what I know is that sometimes I feel like a calico vision. Sometimes I look in the mirror and I go, well, I'm not as spectacular God as what you did with that person or with that person. but don't you dare confuse spectacular with significant,

because God has given you a significant gift to carry out the purpose that he's called on your life. And in 2020, here's what I know is that God will take that significant gift, and if you're willing to say being gifted means I have something to give, so God, take what I have, he will take your significant gift and write a spectacular story. Because being gifted means you have something to give. if you'll bow your heads and close your eyes with me today

into spirit and attitude of prayer. I know that some of us came to church or logged on to church online or on the YouTube, and we feel a little bit like that calico vision. We've made a decision to follow Christ, but we find ourselves maybe hiding in the baggage saying, God, I don't feel like I have what it takes. I don't feel all that spectacular.

And yet in 2020, God wants you to step up for battle, to step into the calling that he's given you because he's given you the gift to carry it out. If you're here today, if you're watching this message today, and you're ready to say, God, take what I have this next year and write a spectacular story with it. I'm going to ask that you raise your hand right now so that I can pray alongside of you. My hands up alongside of you. Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, please remind us that you have given us a gift for a purpose. We pray that we would feel your spirit as we step into the New Year. and even those days that we wake up in the baggage

that you would call us out into the calling that you've placed on it because you've given us a gift to live that out as well. As we continue in an attitude and spirit of prayer, I also know that there's some of you who are watching this message today or you're at church today and you haven't made a decision

to follow Jesus Christ yet. You see, but God has a purpose for your life and the ultimate purpose for your life is this is to be in relationship with God. But unfortunately, because of my sin and because of your sin, that relationship with God has been severed. But the good news is that God looked at the distance between me and you and him and said, that's not okay with me. So he sent his son, Jesus Christ, into the world to live a perfect

life, to die on the cross and be raised from the grave three days later. Why? So that we would no longer be separated from God, but would be an eternal relationship with him and have a purpose to live for today. If you're here and you're saying, I'm ready to receive God's grace, I'm ready to receive his forgiveness. I'm ready to have an eternal relationship from God and to be forgiven of my sins. I'm going to ask at all of our life churches that you raise your hand right now saying, Tim, that's me. I want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I want to be forgiven of my sins. Back here in the back, I see a hand going up. Praise God for that. Somebody else over here. Church online, if you'll just click right here below me saying, yes, I'm ready to have a relationship

with Jesus Christ to receive his grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Life Church, I'm going to ask that you pray alongside of me. As today, we get to pray alongside people who are made. a decision to follow Jesus Christ. So every voice together, praying out loud, Heavenly Father, I'm ready to turn for my sin and to follow Jesus. Because I believe Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the grave so that I could be saved. Thank you, Lord, for the new life you've given me. And thank you, Lord, for the celebration that's happening in heaven.

And it's in Jesus' name that everybody said, amen, Life Church, why don't we worship and worship big?