so when I was in my early 30s it was like the busiest season of my life you
know thousands people coming to the church I had a few kids and my life was
just busy and I just felt like everything in me wants to get away and
be with God because I've never been on a trip where it's just me and Jesus so I
went out into the woods for four days just alone with him I didn't talk to
another human being I didn't see another human it was just me and God talking and
reading his word and I'm telling you it changed my life
it really did and I got to this passage in Jeremiah chapter 1 the first day my
Bible just kind of opened up to Jeremiah 1 and I when I got to verse 5 I was just
blown away by it because it says some things that I had never heard before
where God looks at Jeremiah and said before I created you I knew
man remember the first time I read that I'm like wait before he made me he knew
me and then he says to Jeremiah before you came out of your mother's womb I
consecrated you and I determined that you would be a prophet to the nation's I
appointed you a prophet before you came out of your mother's womb the reason why
that's such a big deal is that I started thinking God is this true of me did you
seriously know that you were gonna make me and that you have things for me to do
like he made Jeremiah because he knew there were things that needed to be done
on the earth that he was gonna need in 30, 40, 50 years so I'm gonna make this
person for that task it's like in Ephesians 2 when he says we are his
workmanship and we're created in Christ Jesus for good works which he determined
beforehand that we should walk in them I remember when I first got that I'm going
no way so God you knew what you were doing when you made me and you knew
that there were things on the earth that need to get done and that's why you made
me and you made me for those things this is such an important truth for us right
now that means that God knew that you and I would be in Hong Kong right now
during the time of the protest during the time of the pandemic and he says
there's something you were supposed to do I made you for this time do you
believe that about yourself because I'm telling you I started to forget these
truths I started listening to what other people say about me and what I think
about myself rather than what God says in his word about me that I'm not
destined to this average life and just kind of survive this time just get
through he goes no I made you for for something so special it's like when
Moses was like whoa but I don't speak well and God says who
made your mouth i made your mouth you think I messed up when I made your mouth
we can all look at ourselves and think about all the things we can't do well
and God says no I put you here at this time sometimes we have like this
disconnect when we read the Bible we go oh it isn't the story of Esther so
awesome where she goes I think I was made for such a time as this we go yeah
Esther but then we don't believe it about ourselves we don't believe wait I
was made for this time guys we have to believe these things Jesus did not die
on the cross so that you and I could live ordinary lives he died so that my
soul could be cleansed so that my body could become completely clean so that
his Holy Spirit would enter into me and just like I wouldn't dare ever refer to
Jesus as just an ordinary guy none of us would are you kidding me he was a man
and somehow he was God all at once you can't call him ordinary but don't you
understand that's what he's saying about us now like right now you're looking at
a person who is not just a person somehow God is in me and there's a sense
in which I am like God and man all at once his Spirit dwells inside of me it
makes no sense then if my life resembles a person who does not have the Holy
Spirit in them look at your life now is it ordinary you guys we have to be
careful of this because in hebrews hebrews chapter 10 verse 38 it says my
righteous one shall live by faith and listen to this if he shrinks back my
soul has no pleasure in him oh I hate that phrase God says if he
shrinks back my soul has no pleasure and
that is the last thing I would want you guys it makes me think about the 12
spies in Exodus remember how how they're sent in the promised land
where God says I promise you this is your inheritance and you got
Joshua and Caleb they come back man the place was amazing but then the other 10
spies they said there's no way we can pull this off think about
it these guys were huge and there were so many of them were just going to walk in and
take over their land see and he started reasoning they started using their own
logic and going wow look at them look at us this isn't gonna work and remember
God gets furious with them and he says every one of you are gonna die in the
wilderness now you didn't believe my word I told you with me you could do
this and you didn't believe me so all of you will die except Joshua and Caleb
they're going to the promised land with me I read that story and I just look
at my life I go God I don't want to be one to trust my own logic over what you
have said in your word I want to believe this remember what Jesus promised
he says I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell won't
stand against us he promised that one day he would build a church that was so
United where their love was gonna be off the charts like what no one had ever
seen and that they would do these miracles these supernatural things
and that's exactly what happened you read about the church in acts 2 and
acts 4 and it talks about how they were one
one heart one spirit because all the people man they didn't consider not a
single one of them considered their own possessions their own like this is mine
this is mine is no they go that whatever whoever had a need they would
take care of it and that says there was not a single needy person among them
because whenever someone needed something someone would sell and give it
to them and they walked around with this fearlessness this boldness and it
says that miracles began to happen in everyone was feeling a sense of
awe now many of us we read that passage and go man I wish I could live in that
church I believe that could happen today and then there's others that go well
that can't happen that was just for that time but I don't even want to get into
that right now my bigger concern is that there are people who don't want that to
happen today honestly do you really want to be a part of that kind of church
where you are so intimately woven with others in your family and you look at
all your possessions go I could care less about this stuff I care about you I
care about the mission because some people go I really don't want to
share my stuff with everyone I kind of like having my own stuff I like having
privacy and also in that early church I read about suffering and I am not going
to suffer and there have been people like this all through the centuries that
don't want to suffer for following Christ they don't want the commitment
that Christ calls them to they really don't want to live like that first New
Testament church and that's why by the time the church was passed on to our
generation it morphed into church is a place you go to it's a building for an
hour or a week you sing three songs you listen to a message you go home and come
back the next week and many of us would read this book and go
that doesn't make any sense that's not what I seen here but it was almost like
what do we do we can't change these last few hundred years I mean this is
what people think of church now I can't just tell people hey stop gathering and
calling that church so I'm just going to a building for a week and calling it no
one's gonna believe us how could we change things and then the virus hit and
then this time of isolation happened and suddenly people are starting to think
and we have a decision to make right now see some we're thinking wow this is even
better I can sit in my living room and watch it on screen so let's just reduce
Church even more now it's not even an hour in a building now I can just watch
it on my computer and go further from what God says his church was meant to be
but then there's others of us man I've talked to so many people especially in
Hong Kong that are so sad about those who are dying with this pandemic
but they're so excited about what's happening in the church because they're
going I think God's taking us on a journey I
think that he's going to use this time so that we actually think through what
does it mean to be the church and when this isolation period is done
I don't want to just run back to Egypt I don't want to go back to that controlled
environment I think God's leading us to something new it's like
Christ wants to take us on this journey to new places experience new things and
others are like well I want to stay close to my neighborhood though can I just you
know keep it or Jesus can we just get a couple of treadmills in my
house where I can turn on the air conditioning and there's no danger and
we just run together and have a conversation for the rest of my life
till I die and God's says come with me I'm taking the church somewhere we
have this window of opportunity and I really believe that Hong Kong has an
opportunity to be an example to the church and the rest of the world the
reason why I say that is Hong Kong people should know of
all the people on the earth that we as a church cannot we'd only have we don't
even have the option of going back to the way it was because we're changing
and our future in some ways is said we just don't know how how long we have and
we know the church has to change we know there needs to be a more resilient form
of his church that will make it through anything man this this isolation period
shows us how unprepared we were I mean imagine if we didn't have the internet
and what would we even do this is our time for leaders to start equipping
people so they can survive in any context and we can set the example of
this to where even if we're not allowed to gather ever again it's okay because
we've been equipped and we know the Word of God and we know how to make disciples
and we know how to gather our friends together and break bread and experience
the presence of God and love it love it love it and isn't there a part of you
that knows your life has looked too normal man I just want to challenge you
right now before you even have the opportunity to make things normal again
I challenge you to truly get into the presence of Almighty God don't just
close your eyes and pray some token prayer I mean really come into the
presence of God and say to him God I believe I believe you made me for this
time and my life has looked way too ordinary way too much like people who
don't have your Holy Spirit in them and that has to change
and I believe your church is destined for something so much greater and you
want to use me and you made me for this so speak to me now God show me what you
want me to do this week this day in this season because I was made for this and
I'm not going back to Egypt I am not going back to a normal life