Read-along
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Hey, Rock Point. Happy New Year. My name is Daniel. If I have not had the chance to meet you, it is great to get to join you today in the comfort of your home. Quick reminder, if you were not aware, we don't have any weekend services at the building. This is our chance to gather together
next weekend. We will have services again. We're super excited. But for the next few moments that we have together, what I want to do is as we start this new year, I want to just give us some encouragement to really recalibrate where we're going with our lives. 2020, gosh, even 2021, it seems like it's been
a bit of a throwaway year. And I think the hard part is when we go through seasons like this, if we're not intentional to just pause and kind of recalibrate and really think and shift about where we want to head. We'll end up just going somewhere that we don't necessarily want to go. I
apologize if you you've been around Rock Point before you've probably heard me tell the story, but one of my favorite stories that will illustrate what I want to talk about for the next few moments that we have together is when I was growing up, we took a road trip from San Diego to go see my sister up in Tahoe
And my my dad had this great idea
to all get into a motor home, which I don't know why anybody allowed him to actually put us in a motor home and do it, but we we decided to get in this motor home and go. And me and my dad made a silly competition. We were going to drive, I would drive there, he would drive back, we could see who do it the fastest. And I get in the motor home, family's in the car, you know, it's chaotic,
but I've got one mission, I'm just going as fast as I can, and I'm just hauling, I'm like, you know, going by grandma's. They're giving me the number one sign out the window and we're just making great time. I'm like, this is awesome. I've made this drive a bunch of times. For whatever reason, I don't have GPS. It's not like we were in the stone ages. There was definitely GPS available, but for whatever reason, wasn't using that. I don't know why. But we get about four hours into
what is a seven hour drive and I look up and in the distance, I can see the Las Vegas Strip. And I know that on this journey,
Las Vegas is not a normal destination that we stop at. And so I'm kind of having that like, oh, man, what are we doing kind of moment? But I'm like, whatever, we stop, we get food, we're in Carl's Jr, I pull out my phone and I punched in my sister's address in Tahoe,
and my heart sank when the GPS said that we still had seven hours to our destination. Now, we had just started four hours ago on what was supposed to be a seven hour drive and yet four hours in, we were not one minute closer
to our final destination somehow. Were now sitting in Vegas and I was in this dilemma where I knew but my family didn't know they're all in Carl's Junior getting food. They don't know that we've still got seven hours to go and I'm like, do I tell them do I not tell them but I end up telling them right and they all yell at me and tell me I'm the worst human around and pretty normal part of my childhood. But
the reason that I tell you this story is what happened was
in my haste in trying to just get there as fast as I humanly could I missed a critical turn and I missed a freeway and by missing that one turn it took us essentially for three hours in the wrong direction and we ended up at a destination
that nobody wanted to be at and I think it's symbolic that it was Vegas, but we ended up in this place that's we didn't want to be at and it took us much longer to get to where we ultimately wanted
to be. The the reason that I say that is here's the reality that I've just come to understand the older I get is that all of our lives. End up somewhere all of us whether we're intentional or not our lives are going to end up somewhere,
but I think if we can be intentional and actually think about where we want our lives to end that we can massively impact that and what I want to do is again as we start this new year twenty twenty two
with everything that's happened these last few years in a world that is more divided than ever what I believe is that you and I should take a moment really press pause and ask God to give us what the Bible talks about being
arguably the most important thing to guide a spirit filled life that's making an impact for the kingdom of God.
It's not setting goals. It's not going through checklist. The Bible talks about this thing that we all need that is a complete necessity for our lives to live and do something greater than our ability to do on our own. The Bible talks about this thing called vision.
The question that I have for all of us that are sitting at home today
is what is the vision of your life? And I would encourage you set some goals make 2022 the best year ever and then all of us in three weeks will you know, realize that none of the goals we set out are actually going to get accomplished. But what I really do think we can move the needle in is really asking the question God. What is the vision for my life?
What is the vision for my finances? What is the vision for my marriage? What is the vision for my children? What is the vision for my future family? What is the vision for my sexuality? What is the guiding principle for my life? And I actually
believe in the story. We're going to look at in the Old Testament story. There's a there's a guy named Nehemiah and Nehemiah is a really incredible story because he was he was really a nobody. He was a guy that had no influence. No wealth. He didn't come from prosperous family yet. God used him
in incredible ways and what I ultimately believe was the driving force that led Nehemiah to create an impact greater than his ability to do on his own is he had a really clear picture of what it is that God was going to do in and through him and it's what guided him to get there. You're taking notes, here's how vision
is defined. Vision is essentially being able to see a picture of where you want to go. Vision simply is being able to see a picture of where you want to go. And I believe that the vision especially a vision given to us by God and again, not like woo woo spiritual stuff, but like a deep soul level Holy Spirit fueled Vision.
Will do a couple things for us. It will give us confidence to know who we are.
And it will give us an ability to say yes to the right things and say no to the wrong things because it's fueled out of a greater vision. The reason I don't do this is because I have a vision of where I want my life to go. And I also think that having a vision and living a life fueled from that vision is the way to regret
proof your life. Just like in my story. Ended up in Vegas. If I had known that the ultimate goal wasn't necessarily speed. But the ultimate goal was safety and was getting there intentionally. I could have avoided a lot of pain and I think the same is true about our life. So what do we do?
If you have a Bible go to Nehemiah. I want to read through a couple verses and I'll show us what we can learn from the story of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah chapter one. Here's what it says. It says these are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah. Just a side note if any of you are having kids and you're thinking about names Hakalayim is not a good one. Okay? Whoever named this guy, he has some parents that owe him an apology.
In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes' reign, I was at the Fortress Of Susa. Han and I, one of my brothers came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah.
And I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. They said to me things are actually not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They're in great trouble and disgrace.
The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down and the gates have been destroyed by fire. Let me kind of set up where we are in Nehemiah chapter one. Okay. The story is being narrated obviously by by Nehemiah. Nehemiah will see at the end of this is is the cup bearer to King Artaxerxes.
King Artaxerxes is the the king of the Persian Empire. The the most prosperous wealthiest strongest army nation that the world has ever seen King Artaxerxes is a powerful man leading a powerful nation. Well, the nation of Israel God's people some seventy five years before this story took place
had been put in Exile. God had sent them prophets and told them, hey, if you don't stop living the way that you're living, if you don't begin to return back to me,
I'm going to allow you to be given over so that you will learn the lessons I'm trying to teach you. Right? Sometimes God patience runs out, then he teaches us a lesson that comes with a little bit of correction. Well, the nation of Israel had just come out of living in Exile for seventy five years. They
had been living in Exile. The Persian government the Persian Empire had just come in and overthrown the Babylonians who were keeping the nation of Israel captive The Persian Empire didn't have the same negativity towards the nation of Israel. That the Persian King King Artaxerxes
basically told the Jews you're free to leave. You can go back to your homeland, But the problem was it had been seventy five years since their Homeland had been occupied. And what Nehemiah is asking is he's getting a report about what's happening at home.
He's asking what's happening. His brother comes back and he's saying, hey, how are things at home? Because a lot of the people in the nation of Israel had gone back to the homeland. They had gone back to occupy the place that they were always supposed to occupy.
And his brother gives him a report and says, hey, man, things aren't going well. The walls have been destroyed.
Things just have not been able to be restored in the same level that we thought that they would be able to be restored in. And again, you have to remember when a city, especially in this day, had no ability to fortify their walls. Meant that they couldn't protect themselves. They couldn't set up commerce. They couldn't establish their farming systems.
They they were essentially living amongst the rubble. And so what would begin what began to happen is a lot of these Jews who were living in slavery. They
had been set free and they went and they started to experience this new freedom and they were like, man, this isn't what I thought it was going to be. So they actually chose to go back and they lived again under the occupying governments that had just set them free which
is pretty crazy to me because it shows me a powerful thing about our humanity. You
and I have this uncanny ability to convince ourselves that something is better than nothing. It is incredible the things that we're willing to settle for and how comfortable we can get living a life of slavery, of living a life without freedom
because compared to what this is, at least, man, here I have some food. I have some sustenance. For some of you as you start this new year. My encouragement to you is man. Might not need some huge big compelling vision to begin to live out God's best for you
for some of you. You need to just stop settling for what it is that you've been settling for. I don't know for you if this is some type of addiction that has just kind of been there that you've been justifying or maybe for you. It's a relationship that you've been in that, you know, is not healthy
That you know is not God's best for you. But for whatever reason, it seems better than what's over here. My encouragement to all of you sitting here today Is that God has a plan for your life that the Bible says that it's
like a thousand times better than anything that you and I could ever hope for or dream for or even try to imagine. But the hard part is often we as humans we won't actually change or do anything different until the pain of changing becomes less than the pain of staying the same.
My encouragement to you today is to take an honest analysis as the as the year is beginning, a fresh slate, a clean start. What are the things that we've settled for? What are the things that we've accepted that were never supposed to be a part of God's vision for our life that we've allowed to be here.
If we can just begin to walk away from those things, I believe that life is on the other side of those beyond our wildest dreams. For the rest of us,
the beginning of this story shows me something powerful. I believe it's one of the first things that we have to understand if we're really gonna begin to grab hold of a compelling vision that will lead us to a life beyond our wildest dreams. The reason that Nehemiah was so concerned about what was happening
in the homeland in Jerusalem is because Nehemiah knew that God's plan was for the nation of Israel to be back there that this is where they were supposed to be Nehemiah knew what God was doing in the earth. Here's why I say that for all of us that are here.
All of us have unique calling all of us have unique gifting some of you are dentists. Some of you are attorneys. Some of you are homemakers. Some of you are construction workers. Talk for a living all of us have different skill sets, but every single one of us has to also pick up the mantle
of caring about the thing that God cares about in this season of history, right right now. God's primary concern for humanity isn't necessarily moving us to a new geographical location like he was during the the the reign of King Artaxerxes during the book of Nehemiah.
What God is concerned about now in our day is reconciling lost believers lost sons and daughters back to him. The reason that I start there is I believe that anything we try to do any goals that we set any benchmarks we try to achieve.
If they don't start with the framework of going God make my heart break for the things that your heart breaks for God, begin to center everything that I do. Let me begin to figure out how to leverage everything that I have to further the kingdom of God. Let my heart be aligned with yours. I think if we don't start there,
I think anything else that we try it will be at best futile and truthfully. If we don't start there and we go out and we have some incredible year without it coming from a place of going God, let it be aligned with your heart for what it is that you're trying to do.
It will oftentimes look a lot like the day after Christmas and you'll end up going man. Is this it? All these gifts all the preparation all the hard work all the wrapping all the stuff, But at the end of the day, it's just more stuff. And there seems to be this thing that isn't super fulfilling about it.
That's what I believe 2022 could be for us, But I think that there's another opportunity that's there for us to really go God. Would you begin to break my heart for the things that break your heart that breaks your heart? Look at how Nehemiah responds
when he hears about how bad it is at home in Jerusalem. He says in verse four that when I heard this I sat down and I wept in fact for days. I mourned I fasted and I prayed to the God of heaven.
And then I said, oh God, Lord of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands.
Listen to my prayer. Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned. We've all sinned terribly by not obeying the commands decrees and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.
He says, please remember what you told your servant Moses if you're unfaithful to me. I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth. I will bring you back to the place that I have chosen for my name to be honored.
He says the people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. Oh Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to the prayers of those of us who are delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today
by making the king favorable to me the king of Persia the most powerful man on the face of the planet put it into his heart to be kind to me in those days. I was the king's
cup bearer. The reason that I love the story and man, would I would encourage all of you. I wish we had a few hours together and I could teach through the entire book of Nehemiah because it's just such an incredible story. It's such it should be a story that
lets you and I all believe that doesn't matter who we are. Doesn't matter what our background is. It doesn't matter what our pedigree is our socioeconomic class. Color our skin is that all of us
have the ability for willing to leverage what we have around us. If we can see the opportunity around us that all of us can live a life that makes an incredible impact on this side of eternity Because Nehemiah sees this thing
that all of these other people already knew about. Right? He wasn't the first person to know that the walls around Jerusalem had been destroyed. It was something that most people were already aware of yet. Thing about it was when Nehemiah heard it it broke his heart to a degree that he starts crying. He starts weeping.
He can't eat like he literally is so emotionally distraught over the thought of the nation of Israel not having a place to call their own that he can't physically eat, and he cries, and he just begins to cry out to God saying, God, you have to do something.
The reason that I think this story is so important for us is because it gives us some massive insight into how we can begin to find the thing that I think we spend so much time and energy searching for going God. Why am I here? God, what is the point of all this? What is the point of my life?
I think sometimes how we can begin to see that how we can begin to make 2022 a year that is one of the most impactful ever that begins to set us up for a life of impact
is if we begin to realize that there are going to be things that you look at that when you look at them for whatever reason it impacts your heart differently than somebody else.
One of the ways I used to say as a youth pastor when I told people like, how do I know if I'm called the youth Ministry? I'm like if you go to summer camp and at the end of summer camp, look at a junior high kid and you're like, man. I love this kid that summer camp was awesome. Like you're called to youth Ministry because most people that go through that experience of not sleeping and dealing with kids trying to sneak out into the forest and make out and deal with all the stuff that happens in cabins.
Knee jerk reaction is no. I'm going to strangle a kid. But for whatever reason, there's all these people that goes man that breaks my heart and I want to be a part of this.
What I believe is sometimes we spend so much time searching going man. God. Just don't know what it is. But I think if we're intentionally we begin to filter through the
experiences that we've had I think really discovering God's purpose is for our life in the deepest levels of meaning the compelling vision for our life. Isn't always an act of discovery where we just wake up one day and God's like, hey, you're meant to be a circus clown.
I think that truly understanding our purpose is more an act of recovery of really searching through the moments and the experiences that we've had and go why would I went through this? Why would I did this experience with this this Foster Care group? Why was I so moved and compelled maybe just maybe
it's because God has given you a unique burden to actually do something about that. Maybe just maybe God has wired you in a way where he's built your entire company.
He's allowed you to have the the prosperity that you had at work so that you can leverage that to fulfill the thing that is the greatest need inside of your heart that will give you purpose, but will also further in advance the kingdom of God. I believe that if all of us begin to do this and go God, what about my life
can align with the things that are happening in this world. What is it that I'm uniquely gifted and wired to do?
If we begin to do that and then go awesome. I'm going to step out and do that. I believe that's how we live a life where in a year from now. We're not sitting there going man. It's just another year where I didn't do anything impactful. I think goals can be awesome. I think all that stuff is incredible,
But I think we have to start with going God. What are you up to? What are you doing? Let me get on board with that.
And the Bible is very clear. New Testament. What God is doing is he's in the process of redeeming people. So let's start there. That's step one for building a compelling vision for our life. What is step two? To find your unique individual specific calling.
I think we have to begin to go God. What is it about this that breaks my heart? And then let's begin to leverage everything that we have to make that happen. My hope my prayer is that every single one of us as we sit down and go, what do we want out of 2022? That it would be something more
than just financial goals and weight loss goals and you know, different benchmarks of success that I think all of that is awesome and it can definitely be a part of it. But I I wonder what our our our church would look like.
I wonder what our communities would look like. I wonder what our families our state our country, our world would look like. If we took the people of Rock Point Church and we began to go, you know what we're not gonna settle for? We're not gonna settle for just playing church anymore.
We're going to actually begin to go, God, you've uniquely wired me in a specific way. How can I leverage everything that I have to go after that and really begin to build the kingdom of God? I believe that if we do that, friends, we can truly genuinely change the world for Jesus.
My hope and my prayer for you is that this would be the best year that you've ever had. I wanna take a moment right now. I wanna pray for all of us. I want to encourage you and then stay in touch so I can tell you about what's coming up next week at Rock Point. So father, God, I thank you for everybody
that's here with us today. God, I pray that right now in this moment, god, right on the other side of Christmas and the holidays and all the celebration, that god that we would have a moment, maybe just us, just ourselves. And we would just ask you, God, what is it that you've wired me to do?
God, how can I live the life that the bible says I was called to live in John ten ten? That you've come to give me a life that is abundant. That doesn't just mean an abundance of money, an abundance of things, an abundance of joy, an abundance of impact, an abundance of significance. Father, would you show us
how we can leverage what it is that we have to further your kingdom? It's in the mighty name of Jesus that everybody said, amen and amen. Hey, you guys are awesome. Again, just quick reminder. If you show up to church this weekend, it's going to be a solo party.
Nobody's at the church building this weekend, but next weekend, we would love for all of you to join us January eighth and ninth as we start a brand new series called rebranded. You guys are awesome. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend.