(congregation applauding)

- Father God, we stand in all of the fact

that centuries afterJesus walked this earth

we can shout his name andthe room's electrified

and it rocks with the Spirit of God.

That's not us, that's theHoly Spirit alive and well

and moving on thiscampus, and we thank you.

We're here because we wanna worship you.

We're here because we neednourishment for our souls.

We're here because we knowwhen we don't follow you

our life veers way off track.

And we wanna represent youwell to those in darkness.

And we thank you for this gathering,

for the word we're going to hear,

and the opportunitynow to pray for people.

In Jesus' name, amen.

If you would all remainstanding just for a moment.

My name is Andrew Knox, Iwork for "The 700 Club,"

and a two-time Regent grad, I might add.

(congregation cheers)So welcome, everybody.

You were probably given somesheets of paper like this

when you walked in.

And if you don't know what that is about,

twice a year we gathercorporately like this

for a week of prayer

and we encourage CBN partnersand those who support Regent

to send us the deepestcries of their heart

because they know we will pray for them.

It's one of the greatest privileges

we can do here at Regent and CBN.

And you may have some of these now.

I encourage you to take a look

at what people are struggling with

and what they're depending onus to bring before the Lord.

I have one that says,

"My 31-year-old son'sheart is failing fast.

"He's in need of a transplant.

"We're praying for restoration."

"My daughter and her husband

"have been trying to havea child for two years.

"Please pray for them, Godwill send them a blessing,

"whether it's a child born to them

"or a child given by another means."

"I'm recovering from colon cancer.

"Please pray for my CT scanand the tests turn out good."

And also, "For the Lordto heal me from diabetes

"and to bless my finances."

So I encourage you now to please

hold these requests before the Lord.

There are people watching thisstreaming service right now

who are listening to us pray for them.

And we know God answers prayer,

don't we?- Yes.

- Father God, we leavethese cries and requests

before you now.

And we believe that JesusChrist can perform miracles.

You know the needs.

You know the physical needs,

the financial fright people are in,

the loneliness, depression, anxiety,

and some even in suicidal thoughts.

Lord God, we rebuke the enemy

who seeks to kill, steal,and destroy and lie,

and we thank you that Jesus Christ

gives us abundant life and victory

through the blood shed on the cross.

And Lord God, for allthese needs before us,

we bring them to you becauseof the power in Jesus Christ,

and we stand with those whodesire us to stand with them

and we look forward to good reports.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen, thank you.

Please be seated, thank you very much.

You may have noticed that on our calendar

we had a pastor, John Lindell,

who was gonna fly in here fromMissouri, I believe it was.

He is ill and couldn't makeit so he's being rescheduled.

But you know the great thingabout Regent University is

there are many, many pastors and preachers

who can step in like that and give a word.

And so I asked my friend Mark Lawrence,

gave him a little bit of notice,

I asked him if he wouldpreach for us today

and give us a message,

and he's about to comeup here and do that.

Let me tell you a little bit about him.

He was born and raised inJersey City, New Jersey.

Any other New Jersey natives out there?

(congregation cheers)Come on.

And he attended OralRoberts in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Mark served as youth pastorand senior staff pastor

at Cavalry Revival Churchin Norfolk, Virginia,

for 17 years before establishingMark Lawrence Ministries.

He also began ministering

in Norfolk's Youth Detention Facility

while also serving as a chaplain

on Norfolk's Police Department.

In 2004, he graduatedwith a master's degree

from Regent University'sSchool of Communications.

In November of 07 he wasordained to be the senior pastor

of Kingdom First MinistriesInternational in Virginia Beach

which later merged withNew Life Providence.

And most importantly, he has been married

to Dr. Dawn Lawrence 34 years.

(congregation applauds)

Give a wave, come on, there she is.

And they live in Chesapeake

and they have two adultsons and three daughters.

Please welcome your Directorof Campus Ministries,

Mark Lawrence.

(congregation applauds)

- Praise the Lord, good afternoon.

I wanna talk about today,

our topic is selflessin spiritual formation.

When I think of something selfless,

first I think of the opposite

that really kind of describesmy and our human nature.

'Cause pretty much we are selfish.

As you heard, I've beenmarried to that beautiful lady

for 34 years, and I can proudly say

for that 34 years I havenever, ever been selfish.

(congregation laughs)

Except, wait a minute, (laughs)

except every fall, secondweek of fall through February,

Sunday starting at one o'clock.

Okay, you get the rest.

Stay away from me, Ineed my time and space,

I'm commuting with the Lord in football.

But anyway.(congregation laughs)

But we all have selfish tendencies.

Our whole society is builtand pointing to self.

Okay, I have a confession to make,

I am referred to bysome as the Selfie King.

I like to take selfies ofme and my grandchildren.

I like to take selfies of me and my wife.

I like to take selfies of meand Regent University students.

As a matter of fact, do me afavor, take out your phones,

real quick, and just very quickly,

I know some of you havebeen waiting to do this,

let's take a selfie with theperson right next to you.

Okay.

Just go ahead and do that.

Let's just get that out of the way.

Okay, I didn't say 10,I said take a selfie.

(congregation laughs)

Because here's the deal, here's the deal,

okay come back, come back, come back.

Here's the deal.

It's so easy for us in our culture today

to be self-absorbed.

I've seen a certain age group of people,

I'm not gonna say who,

who go to concerts and ifthey get near the celebrity,

they're taking thepicture of the celebrity

with them in it, I mean, it's a selfie.

And if we're not careful,

that mentality will creep into the church,

into the kingdom of God where

I'm gonna go to churchtoday and park in my space,

sit in my favorite seat,

and hope that the worship team sings

my favorite songs, why?

Because it's all about me.

And what we've even reduced God to is

my God has come to supply all of my needs

according to his riches and glory.

And we've so far taken it out of context

because we believe Godis here to make us happy.

We think God, his soledesign and his sole intent

is to make our life wonderful and grand.

But I wanna challenge that thought today

because I wanna talk to you andI wanna explain and show you

what being selfless inspiritual formation looks like.

I want you to see how important that is

in light of what's going on in our nation.

In 2 Timothy, the third chapter, it says,

"But know this, in the lastdays perilous times will come.

"For men will be lovers ofthemselves, lovers of money,

"boasters, proud, blasphemers,disobedient to parents,

"unthankful, unholy,unloving, unforgiving,

"traitors, headstrong, haughty,

"lovers of pleasure rather than

"lovers of God,

"having a form of godlinessbut denying its power.

"From such people turn away."

Why is it so important forthis generation here and now

to understand what selflessness is?

Why is important for you to understand

what spiritual formation is?

When I look back at thissummer, just this year in 2019,

how tragedy came to VirginiaBeach, right in our backyard.

Seeing the faces of those victims.

'Cause prior to that it had been, where?

Florida, California.

It'd been in Texas, it's all over.

But it came to visit ushere in Virginia Beach.

And then again thissummer in El Paso, Texas.

My heart breaks for theparents who saw their child,

their precious child, that morning,

not knowing that thatwould be the last time

they saw their child.

The last time somebodysaw their mom or dad.

The last time they saw a grandparent.

Why is it important that weunderstand what selflessness is?

Why is it important that we understand

that it's really not all about us,

that there's a world dying out there

without Christ, without a hope?

Here we are in the body of Christ,

we're having a grand old time.

Having church.

There's nothing wrong with having church.

There's nothing wrongwith a community of faith.

But when it's all aboutyou, Houston, we have,

we've got a problem,from God's perspective.

'Cause he didn't call us together,

he didn't send his Son,

his Son didn't die, shed his blood,

so that we could just have a good time.

Tickle each other's fancy.

We've got, say these two words with me,

we've got a kingdom assignment.

Look at somebody and say,you've got a kingdom assignment.

But if we don't know what that is,

we'll be so self-absorbedbecause we'll just think

my success, I'm going to Regent

so that I can get a good education

and so that I can get a good job

and so that I can meet aspouse maybe while I'm there,

so that I can have a life anddo all these wonderful things

and live comfortably and usherin the presence of Jesus.

Ahh.

No.

I wanna just give you adefinition of narcissism.

It's an inordinatefascination with one's self,

excessive self-love.

What's that last word?

Vanity.

I wanna show you in the Word

the example that Jesus set for us.

This is in Matthew, the fourth chapter,

starting at the 18th verse.

"And Jesus, walking by the Seaof Galilee, saw two brothers,

"Simon called Peter,and Andrew his brother,

"casting a net into the sea;for they were fishermen.

"And he said to them."

Come on, what did he say to them?

And verse 20 says.

Every time I read that,that blows my mind.

'Cause here Jesus iswalking along the shore.

Of course, they didn'tknow him, but he knew them.

He created them.

And he called them out of there

in the middle of their profession,

in the midst of doing whatthey did, their livelihood.

And he said, "Come follow me.

"I'm gonna make you rich,I'm gonna make you famous.

"Man, you're gonna neverhave to fish again."

He didn't make it about themfrom the very beginning.

He said, "Come follow me

"and I will make you fishers of men."

What is Jesus saying to you today?

What is he saying to us today?

I'm gonna ask you somerhetorical questions today.

I just want you to think about it.

Because I want to know, first of all,

I wanna know that Jesus is calling.

He's speaking to you, he'sspeaking by his Holy Spirit.

He's speaking through the Word of God.

But we can get so busyand be going so fast

and have so much stuff going on,

it'll be like

in the house, if thereare a few housekeepers,

they can relate to this.

And they're vacuumingand the phone is ringing,

it's lighting up.

And then they stop vacuuming.

They actually pick up their phone.

"Hey, you called me?"

"I've been calling you for the last hour.

"What are you doing, what's going on?"

"Oh, I didn't hear you."

So many of us, ourresponse to the Holy Spirit

should be today, you werecalling but I couldn't hear you.

I couldn't hear you becauseI'm so stinking preoccupied

with my stinking phone.

God, if you're not textingme, we're not there.

Now, just a moment ago, whenI asked you to take a selfie,

and most of you complied.

Some of the baby boomers were like, what?

What's even a selfie?

But you took your phoneout, you pressed the camera,

and you had to designate tothe camera what kind of mode.

What mode did you put yourcamera in to take the selfie?

Selfie mode, thank you,this is not a hard question.

The problem is, in life,

we set our lives on selfiemode and we never change it.

So life becomes about us every day, 365.

People hurting and dying allaround us, it's about me.

My needs, my hurt, mythis, my disappointment.

People are going to a Christ-less hell.

And every day, God has givenyou a sphere of influence,

God, some of you, he'sbathed you in his Word.

Come on, some of you have a testimony.

Where are the people on this side,

your life is a testimony.

Some of you, it's amiracle that you're here.

Okay, they're quiet,let me go to this side

where the sane people are.

Some of you, God has done someradical things in your life.

(congregation cheers)

Honestly, that's everybody,even the balcony.

Anybody in the balcony, Goddone anything for the balcony?

(congregation cheers)

Okay, we're gonna start the alter choir

with those people up there.

(congregation laughs)

But listen.

We all have a testimony.

If God has done something in your life,

it's significant to somebody else.

But if you're in selfiemode, you'll never know.

And listen, let me just giveyou some rhetorical questions

to kind of think through this.

Let's process this.

My first question is,where did you come from?

That speaks of origin.

The next question is, what can you do?

What's your ability, what's your gift?

I believe that everycreation on the earth,

God has given us a gift.

Some of us, multiple gifts.

Did you hear that worship team today?

Can we thank the Lordfor the worship team?

(congregation cheers)

Under the direction of Joy Windham.

(congregation applauds)

I and many of you aren't in that group

of multi-gifted people.

But there's something you can do,

there's something that you have

that can make a significant contribution

to help somebody whofeels like they're nobody.

Who feels like they havenothing, nada, zilch.

And the last questionis, why were you born?

Why are you on this earth?

It seems like we are

dealing with a generation of people,

some have no idea whythey're on this earth.

Or at the very least,

their understanding of why they're here

is misguided and distorted.

Where did you come from, the origin?

You know what, I've beenlistening to Dr. Hugh Ross

and I love the way he teaches

and how he brings thebiblical in the science.

But if they would've asked me,

the science community that's spent

countless billions of dollars

trying to find the originof the earth and mankind,

I'd just have taken them toGenesis 1:1 and say, together,

(congregation murmurs)

God created--- The heavens and the earth.

- Thank you very much.

So God created us.

Number two, what do youhave, what can you do?

He's given you a unique ability,

he's given you a unique gift.

But your assignment isfinding out what that is.

I grew up in the era,I'm a big sports fan,

and they were what I call spiritual icons.

I'll never forget, as achild, going with my family,

my parents had seven children,my dad was an Evangelist,

so when he would come home,

it would be a big splash and let's do.

And this one day he said, "Let'sgo to Madison Square Garden

"to see the Harlem Globetrotters."

Now, you guys may not know alot about the Globetrotters,

but in the 70s, 60s,

(congregation applauds)what?

And we got dressed, putmy shirt on backwards,

put shoes in the wrong feet,

and we got in our stationwagon and we went over,

'cause we lived in Jersey, wewent over to New York City.

I'll never forget, the show had started

and we were going down thehall in Madison Square Garden

to the ticket office.

Nobody was anywhere in sight

and we could hear in the hallway.

(Pastor mimics crowd roaring)

My heart is pounding, I'mgonna see the Globetrotters.

My dad is at the window.

We're waiting, oh my God,what a dream come true.

And after about fiveminutes he walked over to us

and said, "I'm sorry, they're sold out."

I said, "Great dad, thanks!"

No I didn't, I didn't say that.

(congregation laughs)

I wouldn't be here if I said that.

(congregation laughs)I'm just saying.

I'm just putting that out there.

But.

I remember being crushed.

I remember thinking that myworld would come to an end.

Now, growing up in NewJersey, I was a Knicks fan.

And they had just finishedplaying the Lakers

in the championship thatyear, like the week before.

So we're walking downthis deserted hallway,

going back to our car, and literally.

I had my head down.

And I saw some feet and Istopped and I looked up.

And up and up and up.

Into the face of Will Chamberlain.

(congregation cheers)

He smiled at me, we exchanged a few words.

But I really believe Godlet that happen to me,

the only real big sports fanin my family, to say, "Mark,

"your feelings, they matter to me.

"The gifts and abilities I'vegiven you, they matter to me.

"And I haven't forgotten about you."

So down through the years,I think about sports,

of men like Will, like MichaelJordan, and other sports.

I mean, come on guys, any asport, when you think about it,

I don't believe that's whywe were put on this earth.

I don't.

And I would even go far as to say,

and this is just my personal opinion,

I don't think that's necessarilythey're greatest gift.

Because when your gift can'tor does not bring God glory,

when it doesn't point people back to him,

well, there must be somethingelse you can do, bro.

I don't know if there aregonna be any basketballs

or footballs or golf balls in heaven.

But I do know what I have in my hand

God wants me to use for his glory.

Can you say amen to that?

Come on, give the Lord a hand praise.

(congregation applauds)

So why were you born?

You were born

to serve him and to expand his kingdom.

We were born to expand the kingdom of God.

You've been given a gift,a talent, an ability by God

to use for his glory.

So when we come out of selfie mode

and we realize it's not about us

but it's really about God and his kingdom.

Would you look to theperson next to you and say,

it's really not about you.

Yeah, thank you, thank you.

Let's just get that off thesystem, just get that out there.

Look at the scripture inMark, the first chapter.

"Now after John was put inprison, Jesus came to Galilee,

"preaching the gospel of thekingdom of God, and saying,

"'The time is fulfilled, thekingdom of God is at hand.

"'Repent, and believe in the gospel.'"

The time is fulfilled, thekingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, somebody say repent.

- [Congregation] Repent.

- And believe in the gospel.

We live in a nationwhere we need to repent.

God birthed this nation.

God established this nation.

One nation--- Under God.

- Indivisible,

with--- Liberty.

- And--- Justice for all.

- That's a great thought.

But in reality, we'vegone so far away from God.

And he birthed thisnation to bring him glory

and to be a light to the entire world.

This is how we should do it.

This is the God of the Bible,this is the one who we serve.

And he will bless youand he will prosper you

if you're faithful to him.

So as we read thisscripture, I think, Lord,

it's not about me, it's about the kingdom.

Listen, "The gospel of the kingdom

"is the realm of God's active goodness

"in forming us in Christ to follow him."

I wanna say that againand I really want you

to kinda grasp this definitionor this explanation.

"The gospel of the kingdom

"is the realm of God's active goodness

"in forming us in Christ to follow him."

So there's a process.

Can I just see a wave.

All the moms in the house,just give me one of these.

Moms, moms, moms, thank you.

So you understand thewhole formation process

and understand that well and intricately.

Us dads, husbands, not so much.

We don't understand thatprocess as much, anyway.

So being formed in Christ

is something that Ibelieve is intentional.

We need to understandthe gospel of the kingdom

as the realm of God's activegoodness in forming us.

So when I come into the kingdom,

when I give my life to Jesus Christ,

when I'm filled with the Spirit,

the formation begins.

It doesn't end.

I don't reach any specialstage of maturation overnight.

It's a life-long process.

Of course, one of my favoritescriptures, in Matthew 6:33.

"But seek first the kingdomof God and his righteousness,

"and all these things shall be," what?

"Added to you."

I'm seeking God.

My next rhetorical questionis, what are you seeking?

Where is your energy, your time?

Where's your focus going to?

I know we've gotta work.

If you work at CBN, you'vegotta work every day,

you've gotta work.

If you work at the university,every day you have to work.

I get that, trust me.

But that can't define you.

That can't be your end all.

For many of us, this is a season,this is a training ground.

And whether if you're anemployee or if you're a student,

wave at me, students.

You're on this journey and thisis a season of preparation.

Because it was in the heart ofDr. Robertson many years ago

to have an institutionto raise up students

in Christian leadership.

Christian leadership.(congregation cheers)

To change the world.

But who's changed you?

How's that working for you?

What fruit are you bearingfor God and his kingdom?

What does your life looklike after you leave here

in the company of friends and coworkers

and you're dressed nicely?

I mean, on the outside,exterior, we can fake it.

What do those times looklike when you're alone

and you feel likeeverything that can go wrong

is going wrong?

Listen to this.

We live in selfie mode whenwe're in bondage to sin,

and that's manifested sometimes by anger,

by unforgiveness, by anxiety and fear.

These things, the enemywill use to get a toehold

and to keep us spiritually incapacitated

so that we are no good to anybodyin terms of being a light,

in terms of being an encouragement

because we're dealing with this stuff.

And it comes to all of usin some way or another.

But we get stuck there.

And many of us, because ofpride and pride-related issues,

we don't open that door togive anybody else a peek.

We won't have a level of accountability.

Where are the men in the house.

Men, are you here?

(men exclaim)

I'm gonna give you one more chance, guys.

Come on, just one more chance.

Men, are you here?

(men exclaim)

Every man oughta haveanother godly man in his life

that he needs to be accountable to,

that he can open up hislife and say, "Look in here.

"Call me out where you need to."

This is the good, bad, and the ugly.

Help me be the best that I can be.

So listen, in Colossians1:13 and 14 it says,

"He's delivered us fromthe power of darkness

"and conveyed us into thekingdom of the Son of his love,

"in whom we have," what?

"Redemption through His blood,

"the forgiveness of sins."

He's delivered us fromthe power of darkness.

Do you know what that, did you hear that?

Do you understand that?

That power that kept you in bondage,

some of you under thesound of my voice today,

you are in that bondage, youare shackled hand and feet.

But listen, hold on another minute,

'cause good news is coming.

Those chains in your lifeare about to come off, baby.

They're gonna be brokenin the name of Jesus.

(congregation applauds)

But he's delivered us fromthe power of darkness.

That word power, in the Greek,(speaks in foreign language),

it means authority or right to act,

it means ability, privilege, capacity.

The enemy was just, he was,pardon this expression,

but he was punkin' someof us, just getting over.

He was taking advantagebecause we didn't understand

he was trying to exert his(speaks in foreign language)

when all in all, as children of God,

as women of God, asmen of God, guess what?

We've got the power.

Come on, I said, we've got the power.

Somebody shout as loud as they can.

I've got the power.- I've got the power!

- Some of you needscriptural validation of that

so here we go.

Mark third chapter, 13th verse.

"And he went up to themountain and called to him."

Excuse me.

"And he went up to themountain and he called to him

"those who himself wanted,and they came to him.

"Then he appointed 12,that they might be with him

"and that he might sendthem back to preach,

"and to have," what?

"And to have power to healsicknesses and cast out demons."

You know what I think theDevil's biggest nightmare is?

Somebody who's had a revelation of this.

A sickness-healing, devil-castingout woman, man of God

looking for somebody whoneeds to be delivered.

(congregation applauds)

Because some of you were in that place

and God sent somebodywith the Word of the Lord,

they might've had oil,they might've had essen,

I don't know what they used.

Oil or no oil, the Wordof God set you free.

But they released it in your life.

And God is calling fora generation of people

with the Word of the Lordin their mouth to release it

and set the captives free.

Look at our nation.

It's just almost intimidatingto watch the news

'cause there's nothing good about it.

It's called us to be light bearers

and to be difference-makers.

Jesus gave to his followers

(speaks in foreign language) to preach,

teach, heal the sick, deliver.

He invites us to repent,believe, and follow him

in discovering the beauty of his kingdom.

So a very simple definition of repentance

that I want you to remember is

this is your life and you'regoing in the wrong direction,

you're going away from God,

you're wrapped up in selfiemode, it's all about you,

and you hear the voiceof Jesus calling you.

You have that encounter.

And repentance is turningaround and going the other way.

I talked to somebody recently who said,

"Mark, I was on that wave sin,I was on that trail of death.

"And the Lord touched me andI made a 360-degree turn."

(congregation laughs)

Yeah, I've got some 360s in here too.

You don't need to make a 360, baby.

What do you need?- A 180.

- You need a 180, you need to turn around

and go the oppositedirection, come to Jesus,

and get delivered.

(congregation applauds)

Here we go.

I want you to see in the Word of God

how everything that Godcalls and expect us to do,

he models.

Jesus models in Luke, the fourth chapter.

Listen to what he said afterhe'd entered the synagogue.

This, okay.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

"because he's anointed me

"to proclaim the good news to the poor.

"He's sent me to proclaimliberty to the captives

"and recovering of sight to the blind.

"To set at liberty those who are," what?

"Oppressed.

"To proclaim the yearof the Lord's favor."

A friend of mine.

If you've submitted yourheart to Jesus Christ,

if he's your Lord and Savior,

if you're filled withhis Spirit, guess what?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.

And guess what, it gets better.

He's called and he's anointed you

to preach the good news to the poor.

He's called and equipped you

to preach the good news to the oppressed,

to the angry, to thesuicidal, to the hopeless.

Listen to this.

"To proclaim liberty to the captives

"and recovering of sight to the blind."

One of the most tragic things to see today

is a person with no vision.

A person with no vision, no purpose,

no understanding of whythey're on this earth,

you know what they're doing?

They're just wandering aimlessly.

I don't know how many of you are used

to sailing or being on a boat,

but if you could just imagine in your mind

just a little boat on the water

with no one on it, nosteering, no direction,

and it's just going aimlessly.

That's the lives of some of us

who have not come into theknowledge and understanding

of the spiritual formationthat God's calling us to.

This scripture in Galatians,the fourth chapter,

it's kinda like one of thefoundational scriptures

we're gonna use this year,and it's Galatians 4:19.

"My little children,

"for whom I labor inbirth again, until," what?

"Until Christ is formed in you."

Let me just take a minute

to give you some definitionsof this spiritual formation.

I got this in my studyfrom "The Kingdom Life"

by Dallas Willard.

The first one is,

"Spiritual formation is thetraining process that occurs

"for those who are disciples of Jesus."

Any disciples here, just give me a wave.

I'm a disciple, I'm adisciplined follower.

I belong to him and he belongs to me.

"Spiritual formation in Christ

"is the process ofgrowing in kingdom living

"and participating in God's mission."

Let me say that again.

"Spiritual formation in Christ

"is a process of growing in kingdom living

"and participating in God's mission."

There's a lot of missions,there's a lot of projects,

there's a lot of stuffgoing on everywhere.

In this region and community,

the CBN community and outside.

And some of them are really great causes.

And there are some thatwe need to volunteer

and be a part of.

But the most important mission

that you will ever be apart of is God's mission.

Because that's why you're here.

For those of you that have children,

and I know many of youhave adult children,

but when you have children and they're

six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years old,

they're starting to feelthemselves a little bit

in the fifth grade, sixth grade.

And you come out and say,hey, that room's a mess.

You might wanna clean that room,

you might wanna make that bed up.

"Why do I need to make that for?"

Excuse me? (laughs)

Well, the classic answerI got was, because.

(congregation murmurs)

Today you have to give this dissertation

on why it's nice to have a clean room.

(Pastor mimics kicking sound with mouth)

No, no, don't do that.

I'm just kidding.(congregation laughs)

But the point is this.

I'm sorry, come back, the point is this.

What was the point?

Spiritual formation in Christ

is a process of growing in kingdom living

and participating, that'sit, got it, in God's mission.

So in order to participatein God's mission,

guess what you have to know.

You've gotta know what that mission is.

You've gotta be connectedto a spiritual community

that's got a vision for God's mission.

And then, after you'reconnected to that community,

you've gotta get your handsto work and do something.

Next one, "Spiritualformation is your ongoing,

"continual growth,development, and maturing

"in the kingdom and community of God."

It's your ongoing, continual growth,

development, and maturing in the kingdom

and the community of God.

I thank the Lord he's so patient with me.

Because even afterbeing a PK, a double PK,

my grandfather was the pastorof our small church growing up

and my dad was hisco-pastor, an evangelist.

And here I come along.

I thought I had this whole

growing and maturity thing down pat.

Until I got to ORU.

And I saw a communityof different cultures

from all over the world

and different faiths fromall over this country.

And I was like, oh.

So you mean my spiritualcommunity is not here, it's.

So why are you here, students?

Can I just talk to you for another moment?

Students, take this opportunity to grow.

Take this opportunity to learn and mature.

Take this opportunity to listen.

And you don't need to debate

and be argumentativeabout every little thing.

Just listen and consider.

Last one, "Spiritual formation

"is your painful, uncomfortable,inconvenient stretching

"and development into the image of Christ

"for the purpose of expanding," what?

"God's kingdom in your," what?

(congregation murmurs)

If I wanna boil it down to itssimplest common denominator,

I wanna be prepared toexpand God's kingdom

with the sphere of influencethat he trust me with.

There are people every single day,

unless you stay home and live in a bubble,

you cross the path of somebody

who's in need of an encounter with Jesus.

I didn't say somebody inneed to come to church.

I didn't say somebody in need

that you can read Bible scriptures to.

All those things may be truebut there are many people,

the overwhelming majority of people,

lost people in this communityand around this world

will never come into a chapel like this.

They'll never come in the Shore Chapel,

they'll never come into your church.

They'll never hold or read a Bible.

What about them?

I'll tell you about them.

Your life should be a living epistle.

When they see you, they should see Jesus.

When they hear you,they should hear Jesus.

And as you grow and asyou're formed spiritually

on this ongoing basis,

it'll be affected.

You will see through.

You will develop, and I'm telling you,

it's not gonna be fun,

sometimes it's uncomfortable,sometimes it's inconvenient.

But God is calling us to grow up in him.

Last scripture, I wannabegin to end with this.

Spiritual formation issurrendering your life to Christ.

It begins with you surrendering

and asking the Holy Spirit to fill you,

lead you and guide you.

When you feed on God's Word

and allow the light ofGod's Word to guide you,

you will begin to be a great candidate

to be formed in his community.

This last scripture I wanna read because

this is I think one of the disconnects

of not just this generationbut for all generations

who really aren't doingwhat God's called us to.

It's understanding whatGod's priorities are.

We have priorities, wehave a list of things

that are important in our lives.

But I want you to see from the Word of God

what are his priorities.

One of the last thingsJesus said, Mark 16:15,

I'm gonna go through this very fast.

"Go into all the world and

"preach the gospel to every creature."

In Matthew 28:19,

"Therefore go makedisciples of all nations."

And this is one of my favorite,

in 1 Timothy, the secondchapter, the third verse.

It says, "This is good and acceptable

"in the sight of God our Savior,

"who desires all men to be saved and to."

- [Congregation] "Comeinto the knowledge."

- "Come into the knowledge of the truth.

"For there's one God,

"one mediator between God and men."

- [Congregation] "The man Christ Jesus."

- That's God's priority.

Last one, I'm gonna close with this.

Do you know what it means

when the preacher with the mic says,

"I'm gonna close with this"?

You know what that means?

Absolutely nothing, okay, here we go.

Last scripture, honestly.

2 Peter 3:9.

"For God is not slowin keeping his promise,

"as some understand slowness.

"Instead he's patient with you,

"not wanting anyone to perish,

"but everyone

"to come into repentance."

Remember we talked aboutwhat repentance looks like?

I wanna close with a prayer,

but before we pray I wantto just speak a word of hope

for somebody who's listening today,

somebody who's watching,

and you are in an absolutely

impossible-looking feeling situation.

I wanna talk to that person

who is completely emotionallydestitute and bankrupt.

I wanna talk to the person

as we heard in some ofthose prayer requests.

You need a miracle.

My word to you is

God will never leave you or forsake you.

My God will never leaveyou or forsake you.

He's a good God and he will bless you

according to his riches and glory

and he'll bless you according to his Word.

I wanna give you hope today.

I want to lift your spiritstoday and I wanna encourage you

as you decide to live for Jesus

and to be spiritually formedinto the image of Jesus Christ.

You will produce fruit in Jesus' name.

Father, I pray for your people today.

I thank you, Lord, for this time

to just hear from you, Lord.

I thank you for the chancetoday for us to grow up in you.

I pray for every personunder the sound of my voice

who needs a miracle.

We speak life, we speakhealing, we speak restoration

in the name of Jesus.

And I thank you, Lord,

for the testimonies and calls coming in.

For those of you that might be watching,

you say, "I'm not even abeliever in Jesus Christ,

"I don't even know this Jesus Christ,

"but I want to know him."

Right now you can ask him into your heart.

I pray Lord God for every personunder the sound of my voice

who doesn't know you,

they're living in thatkingdom of darkness,

that this will be the momentand this will be the time

when they open their heart.

And you can simply say right now,

Lord Jesus, come into my heart.

I turn away, I renounce my sin.

I believe you're the Son of God.

I believe you died forme and you rose again.

Come into my heart and bemy Lord and be my Savior.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

(congregation applauds)