Was it because I was bad? No. I was 27, and there's no such thing as a smart 27-year-old. I chose to ignore the guidance of the people in my life, that God put there with wisdom and correction, and they were there for my blind spots. I couldn't see it. They were trying to help me see it, and I just ignored it - and look what it did. I'm being that open and honest with you to tell you this: I made a decision six years ago to never ignore their advice again. Even if I don't get it, I will blindly obey them - because they do not abuse their power. They're my dads. I'm encouraging you to be open to correction, and teaching, and discipline. Don't ever hate it - unless you want your head to look like this. Be open to teaching, correction and discipline; but also on the flip-side, when you see darkness, be willing to engage it; not in a way that just talks about it, but in a way that comes alongside of it, and commits to it, and says: we are going to make this right together. That's what the kingdom of God is about. You want to be a kingdom person, we have to establish these things in our heart. Let's pray together.
Lord, You're wonderful and we love You. We honour You, and we proclaim You're king. There's none like You. Lord, we submit our hearts to You again today. Why don't you pray a prayer, just right there underneath your breath, why don't you just pray this prayer if you mean it. Lord, give me the courage to see things differently, and the irresistible urge to respond to what I see. Lord, put people in my life that are these kinds of people. Let me be this kind of person. May we create this environment here at Bay City Outreach Centre, in Jesus' name, amen.
Grace and peace be to you, God bless.
[Mike Connell] Man, wonderful. Well if you just took away that one message and applied it your life would change. I've been around a long time, and seen exactly this principle at work. I can remember very early in my ministry one of the - our life would have gone completely off track, except it came to a point where I actually listened to the feedback, sought the feedback of a senior leader. It was completely contrary to what I thought. I just recognised, that if I honoured what he carried, and just submitted to it, then I'd be safe; and so I changed what I was doing, and it turned out we were safe. If I'd followed it through, we'd have ended up in another city, under a ministry that went off the rails and collapsed, and we'd have ended up away from God. It was just coming to a heart decision, and it wasn't about the person. There were so many holes in their life, I could easily have reacted to them. It was just recognising within the kingdom, when you align with God, when you align with Him and His authority over your life, you then automatically look to align yourself with people who can speak into you. It's just part of understanding the kingdom, yet it requires a decision to do it.
I can think of a number of decisions, choices we've made, where it was the counsel and advice of someone else that helped me not make a terrible mistake. I just encourage you, if you did nothing else this weekend, and I hope you'll come to the other meetings because, this is going to build from one thing to another; take that, get the tape of it, download it, buy it, whatever and go through it. There was so much he went fairly fast and so in the end it's hard to take it all in, but some of those points, just go right through them and say: wow, I want to put that in my life, I want to put that in my life, I need to put that in my life. Lord, who was talking to me, and I never listened? What a mess that turned out. Who came to me, and tried to tell me something and I wouldn't listen, and that really turned out a mess. Boy I paid a price for that. The dilemma is: so often we just walk on and on and on, making the same mistake. Don't make that mistake. Get this, this is a powerful message, and I want to thank you Shane for bringing that message today, just very, very powerful. It can help change every aspect of your life, if you'd apply it. Let's listen and apply it, amen. How many know God was talking to you tonight, had your number tonight? That's fantastic.