Reach for the Impossible

Please remember to pray for Pastor Tim. I always say that every time I get up because pastor of this church has a tremendous vision to reach many, many, many people, up to a billion souls for Christ throughout the world. And part of that is happening as we leave tomorrow morning for London, England, where there's about 1700 people have signed up that are with us.

And probably many of them are with us tonight online and being part of the service, part of what God's doing here. And it's gonna be nice to get to see some faces that go along with those that are behind the cameras. Now, tonight, what I'm bringing to you is not a message, it's a word from God for somebody.

There are moments in people's lives where the Lord, messages are good. If I were to bring a message, quite often, it can stir your heart or it's just information that you can grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. And that's a good thing.

There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But there's a certain time when a word comes. And when a word comes from God, you know it's for you.

There's a burning comes into your heart. God begins to draw you into something that's perhaps bigger for your life than you've ever considered before. We're being given in this country and perhaps in other places throughout the world, we're being given a season of mercy, a moment of mercy, I call it.

And it is really time now for the Church of Jesus Christ to be the Church of Jesus Christ. It's time for you and I to stand up boldly, proclaim who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us, and not just vocally, but be a demonstration of the reality of God. That's what I wanna talk about tonight in a message or a word, may I put it this way, that I've entitled, Reach for the Impossible.

Reach for the Impossible. First, 2 Kings 6, if you'll go there, if you have a Bible with you. Father, I thank you, God, for the touch of heaven tonight.

I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for your presence here and the people that you have gathered in this sanctuary. It's not by happenstance. Lord, you determined who would be here tonight and you're gonna speak directly.

You're speaking to my heart first, God, about this. Lord, I want to reach for something deeper now than I've ever known in my lifetime. I'm asking you, Lord Jesus Christ, to grant more influence, Lord, for my life, for the life of Pastor Tim, for this church, for the elders, the pastors, the leaders of our campus churches.

Lord, would you stretch the borders of our tents, each one of us, God, and give us a greater depth in you than we've ever known, the desire, Lord, to begin to walk in a deeper cooperation with the Holy Spirit, to be taken into a place that's larger than we've ever dreamt in our lifetime. Lord, not for our sakes. Lord, it's good enough that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, but this is for your heart's sake, because it was your heart that sent you to a cross, and it's for the sake of those that are lost that need to know that there is a Savior.

God, give us the words, give us the actions, give us the testimony, give us the life. God, take us into the place where we need to go now as the body of Jesus Christ. Let this not just be the gathering of more information, but let this be a divine moment in people's lives where we actually move beyond everything we've ever known before into something that's impossible for us, but entirely possible with God.

So Father, I thank you for this, and I praise you and bless you in Jesus' name, amen. 2 Kings 6, beginning at verse 1. And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, see now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. Please let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a bean from there, and let us make a place where we may dwell.

So he answered, go. Then one said, please, consent to go with your servants. And he answered, I will go.

So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water.

And he cried out and said, alas, master, for it was borrowed. So the man of God said, where did it fall? And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick and threw it in there, and he made the iron float.

In other words, the axe head floated miraculously up to the surface of the water. Therefore, he said, pick it up for yourself. So he reached out his hand and took it.

We're talking now about taking a journey into the impossible. These are things that are not possible for you and I with any amount of natural human wisdom or strength, but these are things that are entirely possible with God. And may I be bold enough to say, these are things that God has destined for your life and for mine to become as a testimony of the reality that we serve a savior, but also a supernatural God.

We serve a God who can take people into places that they can't go in their own strength. He makes us into what we could never hope to be in any amount of human effort and gives us what we could never hope to possess with any amounts of our own initiatives or ingenuity. We never could achieve these things that God wants to do for us.

Now, the journey begins in chapter six with the sons of the prophets. Those are, it's symbolic in a sense of the people who have a touch of God. They are called of God and they recognize something.

They said, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. This is where the journey begins into the impossible. It's a recognition that the place where I am living is much smaller than what is available to me.

This is a too small a place. I don't know how you feel tonight, but sometimes I feel that about my own life. God, you have so much more that you want to do that you're able to do.

But the place where I'm dwelling, is the place where you're dwelling right now in God big enough for you? Or is there an inner thought in your heart? There's got to be more than this for the Christian life. I feel inside that God has more for me than I have realized, than I have known up to this point in my life. Thank you, Lord, that my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, as scripture says.

Thank you that I am redeemed. Thank you that when I came to you, you forgave my sin and you gave me your Holy Spirit. But now I'm living in a place that's too small, in a sense, for what I believe that you want to do through my life.

That's where it all begins. May I call it a holy discontent comes into your heart. It's not an unholy discontent.

You all know what that feels like. No, it's a holy discontent. It's like I feel that something is just ahead.

If I have the courage to make the journey to where that place is that God has destined for my life to be enriched by his presence and to give glory to his name. Now, Elisha, to these prophets, would represent the presence of God, the word of God. He was a servant of God, but there was an unusual anointing on this man of God.

And it would represent to them the voice of God. And so let's just take it as a type, as a picture, where those that are called, they said to this man who represents the voice of God, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. I've been praying that lately.

I prayed it today, actually, a good part of this morning. I prayed it last night and yesterday as well. I said, God, I have only a small season left ahead where I believe I can preach to God.

A small season might be 10 years. I'd be 81 and a half by then. And God help you if you still have to listen to me by then.

I don't know if I'll, hopefully I'll make sense when I'm 81 and a half. But I have only a small window and I've had great victories and known the tremendous journey. It's been miraculous, but there's more in God.

And so I'm putting myself in the story and say, God, I want to go to a bigger place than I've ever been before. I want more of an influence in my generation than I've ever known. I want to reach more people.

I want to be on the journey with my pastor and I want to be part of reaching a billion souls. However you choose to do that through us collectively or through each of us individually, I want to be part of that journey. I don't want to be a Christian and live in a small place.

You remember a lot, the angels took him out of Sodom with his family and told him, go to the mountain, which is in my mind, it's a type of Calvary. Go to where the victory of God is, go to where the safety of God is. But he settled for a little town called Zoar.

So here's a man who's called to a high place, but he settles for a little place. And I hope that's not you tonight. I hope with the calling of God that's on your life that you're not going to settle for a little place and just be content to dwell in a place that is too small for you.

Please, they said, let us go to the Jordan. Let every man take a beam from there and let us make there a place where we may dwell. And so he answered, go.

Now the Jordan represents a willingness to cross over from the familiar in an established way of living into something God himself is drawing us into. Remember, it was the Jordan that the people of Israel had to cross over when they came into the promised land. It's the Jordan where John was baptizing as people were, in a sense, crossing over from a life of trying to please God through human works to a life of repentance from that to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's the Jordan where Jesus Christ himself was baptized at the beginning of the larger place, in a sense, the ministry, the three-year ministry that was ahead of him that would lead him to the cross and the redemption of humanity. The Jordan has always represented dying to one way of living and coming out the other side alive to something that God has for you. And this is what they said, let's go to the Jordan.

Jeremiah 29, 11, God says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Psalm 139, verse 17, the psalmist says, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. Verse 18, if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.

Did you know that tonight, that God's thinking things about you and about your future that are so beyond your natural mind, you can't even begin to comprehend them all. God has something way bigger for your life than you think your life is supposed to be. We all have a thought process, but our natural thought process is very, very limited.

We put limits and boundaries on the things that we feel perhaps that we can do for the kingdom of God. But God says, that's not what I'm thinking about you. I'm thinking thoughts way, way beyond that.

In other words, the place where you're dwelling with me right now is too small for you. Now, the question for the year 2025 that we find ourselves living in, is am I living in a place today that is less than what God wants to give me tomorrow? Am I content to be where I am, or do I believe that God has more for my life? And if he does, am I willing to make the journey to where that place is? It's a decision that you and I are gonna have to make, because this generation needs to see the church of Jesus Christ again. They need to see the demonstration of God's power.

Don't forget the church began in an upper room. The church began with 120 ordinary people, just like you and I. There's no superstars in that room. Peter's boast of love and loyalty had fallen into the sand.

John's declaration of the depth of his love for Christ had melted in the time of need. Everyone there had been more or less, the ones who were at the cross, the scripture tells us they worshiped almost at a distance. So there's no superstars there, but they knew there was a bigger place that God had for them.

They knew there was a promise that God's Holy Spirit was going to come upon them, and God was going to turn them into a living testimony of who he is in the earth. And suddenly when they were there with one accord, they were desiring to go into that place, the presence of God came, and they were empowered to go into the marketplace and do things that they never could have done in the natural and subsequently because of them, we have the gospel here today. It makes me think, it makes me wonder, if we'll go all the way with God, what will happen to people in the future? If we choose to live in a little place, then maybe a lot of people will live in a great big place of darkness.

But if we make the choice, if you make it and I make it, God, I'm going to go, I want everything you've got for my life and I'm not going to settle for less. Many, many people will come into light because we chose to take that journey. And in 2 Kings chapter six and verse two, they said, let's go to Jordan and every man take a bean and let us make there a place where we may dwell.

So he answered, go. Every man, every new house begins with a one piece of wood. Did you know that? If you're going to build a new house, a new place, there's one two by six or two by four, whatever it is that starts the whole journey.

And everybody said, let's go to Jordan and everybody's going to cut a tree and everybody's going to take a bean. And just as many before me have done, I'm crossing over into this place of promise. And the bean represents the first promise of this new place to dwell in.

The first promise to me is John chapter 10, verse 10. Jesus said, I've come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I didn't say I've come that you may have life just eternally, which is wonderful in itself.

Thank God. And awesomely, if that's all it was, that would be good enough. But he came to not just give us eternal life, but an abundant life, a reason to live.

Something of God in us that brings his own name to reputation in the earth. You and I are not called to live in mediocrity as the people of God. We're not called just to be struggling every day to try to get through our day or focused on paying our bills as important as all of that must be.

We have a higher calling than all of this. There are people out there in California, for example, that are losing everything. They need the church of Jesus Christ now.

They need people who have a supernatural testimony of the caring and keeping power of God. They need people who can speak with authority into the emptiness of having lost everything that many people have worked for and trusted in. It's gone, but they need people who can speak into that.

It's not the time for mediocrity. It's the time for the church of Jesus Christ to stand up and let the redeemed of the Lord say so in this generation. Let the redeemed of the Lord stretch out their hands to see those that are sick in mind and body heal.

Let the redeemed of the Lord speak into broken marriage situations, wounded hearts. People are behind prison doors, captivated by addictions. Let the redeemed of the Lord begin to speak in the authority of God.

We don't have to hang our heads. We don't have to hide our testimony under a bushel or under a bed. We know the truth.

We know the end of the story. We know the savior of humankind. We know the power of God.

We know our commission on the earth. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. It's time for God's people to rise.

It's time for God's people to speak. It's time for you and I, not to be an argument, but an actual demonstration of the reality of God, that we have calm in the midst of the storm. We walk through the fire with everybody else, but we're not burned by it.

We go through the flood and it doesn't drown us. By the grace of almighty God, we have a song that can't be taken from us because it's birth of God in the soul. It's given to us by the spirit of God and it can't be taken away from us.

We have a confidence that is not dependent on the circumstances of life. I know what I'm talking about. I've lost two and a half houses in my lifetime.

I've gone through seven to 10 years of sickness. I've suffered in other measures. I know in measure what this is all about, but I do know what it feels like to trust in God.

I do know what it feels like to walk through these valleys of the shadow of death. I've come to give you life and that you may have it more abundantly. In the second Kings chapter six, verse three, then one said, please consent to go with your servants.

And he answered, I will go. And it's a type of the believer that says, God, I'll go if you go with me. Like don't send me and leave and stay behind God.

I recognize I can't take this journey without you. And that's in a sense what these prophets were saying. You are the one that God speaks to this generation through.

You are in essence, the voice of God to us in this generation. Don't let us go alone, go with us. And Elisha said, I will go.

Just as Moses once said to the Lord, he said, I'll take these people on the journey to the promised land, but not if you don't go with us. If you don't go with us, he said, what makes us any different from the people of the nations around us? We'll be relegated to just being an argument. It's your presence that makes the difference.

It's the miracles you do. It's the power. It's the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

It's the transformation of people's lives that makes the difference. God, we're not interested in just being another argument, another opinion about life and eternity. No, God does not call us just to be an opinion.

I'll go with you. He says, I'll go. It's a type of God not sending us to build this new life alone.

Listen to what he says through the prophet Isaiah chapter 43, beginning at verse one. But now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, fear not for I have redeemed you. I've called you by your name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned nor shall the flame scorch you for I am the Lord, your God, the Holy one of Israel, your savior.

I will be with you. I will not leave you. I will not forsake you.

I will not send you out there believing for an abundant life and leave you in mediocrity. If you go, God says, I'll go with you. As a matter of fact, I'll go ahead of you.

I'll walk behind you. I'll be beside you. I will surround you.

I will be God to you. And I will do through your life that which only God can do. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

The second Kings chapter six, again, verse four. So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down the trees.

In other words, these are a group of people that said, we're going with you and we're going into a larger place than we've been dwelling in. And we're gonna take this initial promises that you give us. We know it's gonna be better than it is now.

And we're gonna take this promise of an abundant life with us. And so they all cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water and he cried out and said, alas, master, for it was borrowed.

In other words, I lost what was loaned to me. I lost my life. The innocence that I had as a child.

The sense of wonderment that just the stars, the sun. I remember as a little boy, I remember it as clearly as yesterday. I would go out in the backyard and I probably was three years old.

And I would lay on this stone patio on a sunny day and I would look up and I just felt God's presence. I can't explain it. I think he foreknows those that are going to walk with him.

And I had a feeling in my heart that my life was set apart for a purpose greater than I understood. I never lost that feeling. Oh yes, sin tried to take it away and teenage years and depression and anger and everything else came to try to stifle it and push it down.

But I never lost that sense in my heart. And I know I'm speaking to somebody tonight. I know I'm speaking to somebody that you feel like you lost what was given to you.

Your life was loaned to you by God. Do you know that? You didn't deserve it. God gave it to you.

And he allowed you to be born in your mother's womb. Whether you, you weren't an accident. You might think, or maybe people told you you were, but you were not an accident.

God permitted you to be born. He foreknew you before you were formed in your mother's womb and he allowed you to be born for a divine purpose in this world. But there's so many people that come into the church and they say, God, that which was lent to me, you lent me life and I lost it.

I lost innocence. I lost hope. I lost heart.

I lost a sense of self-worth. I just lost it all. It seemed to slip through my hands.

And there's others that say, well, I set out to build something. I heard this a long time ago. Some of you are not novices in the kingdom of God.

And you set out to build something that you felt God wanted to do through your life. And it just slipped out of your hands somehow. That's what happened to this man.

He had borrowed an ax head and he was cutting down the promise in a sense. The tree represented that initial promise of dwelling in a bigger place. And as he was doing it through probably carelessness, the ax head slipped off the handle, went into the water and sunk down to the bottom.

And he cried out to Elisha and says, oh, what am I gonna do? I lost what was given to me. I lost what was loaned to me so that I could dwell in a bigger place than I was in before. I set out to build and the ability you gave me slipped out of my hand and beyond my reach.

And there's so many people sitting in the church of Jesus Christ today that would just say, I once had a call, but I blew it. I lost it. I was casual with it.

I let sin take over my life. I lost focus and I lost the calling. You know, through the cross, the scripture tells us that our captivity was taken captive and gifts were given to each one of us.

In Romans 11, 29 says, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Now the whole chapter of Romans 11 is about the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel was given an ax head.

The nation of Israel was given a promise on the earth and a purpose on the earth to bring glory to God. But in their crossing over the Jordan as it isn't going into what was supposed to be the promised land, they lost the ax head. And because of it, they were cut off in a sense and the Gentiles were grafted in.

That's what the whole chapter of Romans 11 is about. But God says in Romans 11, lest you think I have forgotten the nation of Israel, I have not forgotten them. They were called of me for a specific purpose in the earth that through them, all the nations of the world were supposed to be glorified and were supposed to be blessed.

And he says, they feel like they have lost this calling of God, but I'm telling you, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. In other words, God's saying, I have not forgotten Israel. And there's a season where the time of the Gentiles is going to be fulfilled.

And I'm gonna turn my focus to Israel. And those people are gonna start calling out to me. There's a day coming not long from now when the nation of Israel will call out to Jesus Christ.

It's coming. God says, I gave them a calling, I gave them giftings and I have not taken it away from them. My gifts and my calling are irrevocable.

Though you may have failed, Jesus Christ is committed to restoring you and bringing your life to his intended purpose. You may have failed, but the gifts and the calling are irrevocable. It may be 10 years since you feel you lost the calling of God, but the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

The calling is still there. The gifting is still there. God has not forgotten his promise to you.

And he will, if you will get up from where you are and go into that place where he's calling you, everything that you thought was lost will come back to you again. The man cried out to Elisha, he said, alas, master, I lost the ax head in the water and it was borrowed. So the man of God said, where did it fall? And he showed him the place.

So he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron to float. You see, there's power in the cross of Jesus Christ. There's power to redeem.

There's power to forgive. There's power to call us when we think the calling has been lost. There's power to take us to a bigger place day by day, line by line, step by step, mile by mile, to take us to a bigger place than we've ever known before.

To those who are willing to make the journey, there is power in the cross of Jesus Christ. There's power in the blood of Jesus Christ. There's power to make us in to that which only God can do.

There's power to take us to places that only God can take us to. There's power to give us what only God can give us. There is power.

It's not by human effort. It's not by human intellect. It's by the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, by the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

God delights in taking failures and making them into successes. Because I'll tell you what, if you've known failure, when God touches your life, all the glory now goes to him. There's no more me and Jesus did anything.

The only testimony is Jesus did everything in my life. Jesus is everything. Jesus is all.

Jesus is my redemption, my wisdom, my righteousness, my power, the cleanser of my past, the restorer of my present, the hope for my future. Everything I have is because of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah to the lamb of God.

Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of Jesus. I told a friend of mine recently, you don't understand grace until you've known failure.

You don't under, grace is only a word until you've needed it. But when you find this amazing grace of God, it changes everything in your life. It changes the way you preach.

It changes the way you teach. It changes the way you reach. It changes everything.

The way you deal with the failures of others. Changes the way you deal with the members of your own family and your own house. The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable.

You may feel you've lost it, sir. But you see, you throw the tree into the water and what you thought was lost floats miraculously back to the surface. What you thought was gone forever.

What you thought that God gave you that you lost is not lost at all. When you add the cross of Jesus Christ, the mercy, this incredible mercy of God. You start out young like I did.

God helped the people that had to listen to me the first few years. I think they get a special rubber room for all these people up in heaven. While I pounded and spit and shouted and screamed and yelled and oh God.

It's almost like they're assigned to it so the preacher can grow in grace and knowledge. It's all about doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, which is great. You need good doctrine and human effort.

Then you go on in life and the older you get, suddenly the fog clears and you realize, wow, this is all about mercy. It's all, and then you suddenly see yourself in the light of God through time and it's like you feel healthy. You know, you're one of those weight club guys and you go in and you push the weights and you're pumping, you're looking at yourself in the mirror which they all do and you're flexing your muscles and boy, I look good today, I look good.

Everything's tucking into place the way it should and then suddenly you don't feel good one day and you go to a doctor and he sets you in front of an x-ray machine and then you find out what's really in you. Sometimes it's not good. And then you begin to realize God, as David the psalmist once said, God, if you marked iniquity, who would stand? God, if you held us accountable for our thoughts, if you held us accountable for all the things that we wanted to do, we didn't do, but we wanted to do them, if you held us accountable for all these things, who would stand in your presence? But he goes on to say, but there is mercy with you that you may be feared.

This is a kingdom of mercy, folks. It's a kingdom of grace. It's a kingdom where failures come in and get the victory.

It's a kingdom where captives get free and become the agents of preaching that freedom to others. It's a kingdom where broken hearts are mended and start reaching out, even to people that broke their hearts. That's the kind of a kingdom that the kingdom of God is.

A friend of mine once said it. He said, Carter, he was a minister, and he said, it's so strange. He said, you finally get this thing right and you die.

And he was right, he died two years later. He said, all these years, I was Jeremiah the prophet. And he says, now I'm older and I realize, oh God, oh God, how I so misrepresented you.

I was preaching only 10% of the character of God, most of my life in ministry. And he said, I missed an understanding of how gracious and how wonderful you really are. Lord, when you stood in the pulpit that day in the synagogue, you didn't say the spirit of the Lord is upon me to reach the intellectuals, in the middle to upper class people in society, as much as he wanted to.

And all of these things he could, the rocket scientists, if they, of course, they wouldn't have known what that was. He did, but they wouldn't have known. He didn't say the spirit of the Lord is upon me for all these objectives that men can get themselves involved in and women can.

But he said, it's about the poor. It's about the addicted. It's about the imprisoned.

It's about the broken heart. It's about the spiritually blind. These are the people I came for.

And if you can hear it tonight, this was going to be his church. Hallelujah, hallelujah. It wasn't the people that, it's great to have good theology.

We have a Bible school. It's great to have good theology, but I don't know if I'd rather, if I had the choice between knowing Hebrew meanings of words or just saying, I used to be blind. Now I can see.

I think I'd choose the second. That's a more powerful testimony. It's a testimony that God gives to those who just, they decide, they say, God, I want to go into a bigger place.

I don't want to live in mediocrity. I don't want to go home and hate myself every night looking into the mirror. I don't want to get up in the morning depressed about having to face the day.

There's a higher calling of God on my life than all of these things. I want to be used of God. I want to have a life that brings glory to the name of Jesus Christ.

And so Elisha threw a tree, which represents to me the cross of Christ into this place where the calling, that which was borrowed had been lost and it floated to the surface. And so you'd say tonight, well, then what is my part in this whole thing? It's really simple. He said, pick it up for yourself.

Elisha didn't reach in and get it for him. He said, you get it. You pick it up.

And the scripture says, so he reached out his hand and he took it. He reached out for the impossible and it now became possible in his hand. The impossible became possible.

You understand, if you are willing to reach out for the calling of God on your life, the impossible becomes possible. The giftings of God are either given anew or they resurface in your life. If you feel like they sunk and you lost them somewhere along the way.

And everything that you thought was impossible becomes possible in your hand one more time. All because you made the choice to live in a bigger place than you've been living in up to this point in your life. That's where it all begins.

God, and I know I'm speaking to somebody. I know it. I felt it all day today.

God kept saying, this is not a message. This is a word. This is not a message.

This is a word. It's for somebody here tonight. Some young man, some young woman, some older man, some older lady that just says, God, I want back what I once had or I want what I've never had before.

I want the calling that you've placed on my life. You know, God's not gonna just play with your emotions. Do you understand me? He's not gonna play with your emotions.

He doesn't call you to come to an altar just so he can make you go away and wake up the same tomorrow morning. No, sir, that's not the way God works. I know this from experience.

My life has been so transformed over the years that I don't even recognize who that person was that came to Christ 45 years ago, whatever it was. God changed my life. God put abilities in my life that I never had.

Gave me giftings that were not mine. And it gets to the point where the old person has died and a new person has been born. I thank God for that with all of my heart.

But let me tell you, it wasn't through, I studied, yes. I studied for the ministry, but it wasn't through study this happened. It wasn't through dogged determination it happened.

It happened when I reached out for a bigger place than where I was living. I wanted to be a better father. I wanted to be a better husband.

I wanted to love people. I wanted my life to count for the glory of God. I wanted to be used of God to see people turn from darkness to light.

I wanted to make a difference in my generation. I wanted everything that God has for my life. I told my wife one day, I said, if this is true, I want the full package or nothing.

I'm not going halfway with this. I'm not dipping my toe in the pool every Sunday morning. I'm going off the high diving board into the fullness of what I feel that God has for my life.

And I'm telling you, God has not disappointed me. And it's been an amazing journey. It's taken me all over the world, folks.

But there's more, there's more. Maybe the word is for me, I don't know. There's more, there's more.

I've got maybe 10 good years left to preach, but I'm not living in the past. I'm not gonna talk about yesterday. I'm going into tomorrow because there's more in God.

There's more. There's an accent for my life. There's something supernatural that God can do and wants to do.

And he says to me, just reach out and take it. I will make it come to you. He didn't give him a diver's suit to go find it.

Didn't give him a set of waders or a net and say, try to find it on the bottom of Jordan. No, he made it rise to clear view and said, you reach out and take it. And the word tonight to somebody here is there's more for your life.

There's more. And not only will it satisfy your heart, it will satisfy the thirst of so many in this generation for the reality of God. So many people need it now.

This is a mercy moment for America, folks. It's a mercy moment for New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, wherever you're from. It's a mercy moment for your neighborhood.

You need the power of God now. You need that presence of the Holy Spirit. You need the supernatural giftings of God to do the work that God's given you to do.

And he will not withhold. If you want to live in a bigger place, that's where it all began. They said to Elisha, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us.

In other words, we've settled for too little. There's more. There's something bigger than this.

So then down to Jordan, they went. Down to that place of crossing through from one way of living into another. They took that first promise and miracles started to happen.

Praise God. My brother, my sister, may I have the courage to say it tonight. What I'm speaking about is not just about us.

It's about others. If our gospel is hidden, the scripture says it is hidden to those who are lost. We're not called to light a candle and put it under a bushel, but we're called to put it in a place, a prominent place where people can see the light that is in us.

God has so much for the church in this generation. He has so much for you. It doesn't matter if you're lame or blind or maimed or wounded or bruised or in prison, whatever you are.

The gospel is for you. And you are the one that is called to be a messenger of God's goodness in your generation. So tonight I want to challenge you.

I know a lot of you came here and you're on fumes and you're just looking for some kind of encouragement. And I'll just say, I'm going to church tonight because I'm going to die if I don't get a word of encouragement. I get that.

And instead of just getting encouragement, you're being called to something much bigger than that. Much, much bigger than just being encouraged. But you have to reach out and take it.

That's your part. God makes it available, but you have to take it. It's really that simple.

When I was a young believer, I remember sitting on the edge of my seat and I heard messages somewhat similar to this. I remember thinking, if that's true, God. Sometimes I was, one time I was almost the only one that went forward in the church, but I wanted it.

I wanted it. I had a lot of stuff going on in my life that wasn't glorifying God. I had a really, really bad temper.

I didn't even like people. What a candidate for the ministry. I was a lousy husband, not a good father.

Selfish to the core of my being. And the thing is, I knew it. I wasn't hiding it, but I wanted what God had for me.

And I saw the ax head float and I reached out by faith and said, God, I want the full journey. Whatever it is you have for my life, that's what I want. And because of it, I don't know how many people have found Christ in my life.

I think I'm safe to say it's in the thousands. Please, for somebody else's sake, get your ax head. Get your ax together, how's that? That would have been a good title for this message tonight.

I'm gonna give an altar call tonight. Not only do you want, perhaps, this deeper life in God, but he wants to give it to you. He won't force it on anybody.

He doesn't force it. He's a gentleman. In Revelation, he says to a church, I stand at the door and knock.

He's almighty God. He could have kicked the thing right off its hinges, but he's a gentleman. He will never force you or me into anything.

He just says, here it is. I've come to give you life and to give it to you more abundantly. The choice is yours.

Reach out for the impossible tonight. What is impossible to you is possible with God. Let's stand right now and I'm gonna ask you if you want to reach out for the calling of God, a deeper place to live in Christ, would you come? And we're gonna pray together at this altar.

Just slip out of wherever you are and make your way down. You are the church of Jesus Christ. You are the plan of God to bring the gospel to this generation.

You came in here thinking one thing about yourself, but God says, that's not the way I see you. I see you as more than a conqueror. I see you as an evangelist.

I see you with the giftings that I'm willing to give you. I see you with the word. I see you with giftings of the Holy Spirit.

I see you with a whole set of different eyes than you see yourself. Reach out, just reach out, just reach out. Would you do that as a symbol? Just take your right hand or left if you're left-handed.

Just reach out, just reach out and take the action. Take that calling of God. Take that gifting that God wants to give you.

Reach out for the impossible in your own life. God is not going to play with your emotions today. He sent his word and he will fulfill his word.

He always does. ♪ I love you Lord ♪ ♪ For your mercy never fails me ♪ ♪ Through all my days ♪ ♪ I've been held in your hand ♪ ♪ From the moment that I wake up ♪ ♪ Until I lay my head down ♪ ♪ Oh I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Lift your voice and sing ♪ ♪ All my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ I love you Lord, I love you Lord ♪ ♪ You have led me through the fire ♪ ♪ And the darkness night ♪ ♪ You are close like no other ♪ ♪ I know you as a father, I know you as a father ♪ ♪ And a friend, I know you as a friend ♪ ♪ And I have lived in the goodness of God all my life ♪ ♪ All my life, all my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ So good with every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Your goodness is what matters to me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is what matters, your goodness is what matters ♪ ♪ It's burning out to me, my life laid out for me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is what matters, your goodness is what matters ♪ ♪ It's burning out to me, it's burning out to me ♪ ♪ All my life, all my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ The Lord is not going to disappoint you. God does not play games with his children.

He doesn't say one thing and do another. He's not sitting in heaven looking for the reasons not to anoint you. He died for you.

He died. He died for you. He didn't die because you had it all together, he died because you didn't.

He didn't die because you could get to heaven, he died because you couldn't. He loves you. And now, until he takes you home, where you will have a mansion.

You have a mansion. Already be prepared, that's what he said, for you. And unlike California, it can't burn.

You have a mansion, I'm not making light of that, I know that's a hard situation for many people, but the things in heaven can't be taken away, you can't lose them. But until that day, he says, let me empower you, let me give you my Holy Spirit, let me enable you to do things that only I can do through you. Let's cooperate, let's walk together.

You stretch your hand out and I will heal. Now, this is God talking to you now. He says, you stretch your hand out and I will heal through you.

You speak and prison doors will open. You tell people that I love them, God says, and I will reveal my love to their hearts. You are my ambassadors until the day I come.

And we're not ambassadors because we have it all together. We're ambassadors because we're just like everybody else out there, but we're forgiven by God's grace. And then once we're forgiven, our hearts are now open to God doing a work in us that only God can do.

And we don't become just an argument about God, we become a demonstration of God. We have a testimony, this is what I used to be and this is what I am now. And people look and say, wow, can God do that for me? And you say, yes, he can.

All he needs is an open heart. And don't write yourself off by age or by education or by circumstances in life. Don't write yourself off.

The ground is level at the cross of Jesus Christ. The hungry heart gets the victory. Praise God.

I think God's let me live long enough so I can tell you that. Because I've lived it. I've lived it.

It's not just theory with me, I've lived this journey. And you can live it too. And I'm hoping God will give me 10 more years to tell 10 more generations that God can do this for you.

So let's pray right now. Father, I just pray in Jesus' name. God, the gifts and the callings that are here are amazing.

The things that you're willing to do through the men and women, young and old, that you brought to this altar tonight are just amazing. They're astounding. The numbers of lives that could be transformed if we choose to go into a bigger place with you.

So I pray tonight, God, that everyone here at this altar will reach out and take their own axe head, whatever that means, whatever it represents. This impossible thing that you caused to come to the surface one more time, that they would reach out and take it in the name of Jesus. And let it begin tonight on the way home.

Let it begin tomorrow when they go into their neighborhoods and whatever it is that they do throughout the day. Just let it begin, God, that this gifting and this calling and this bigger place begin to be made known. Give them words, Lord, that they would know are not their own.

Give them a heart, God, for people that they know is not their own. It has to be your heart beating inside of their bodies. It doesn't make sense otherwise.

Take them into places they can't go in their own strength. Give them things to say they would never think of saying. We are your church.

We are your testimony. We are the voice, God, of your redemption in this last generation. God, we refuse to live in a small place when you have something so much bigger for each one of our lives.

Oh, Jesus Christ, let this be the beginning of something, God, that we will never let slip from our hands again. And, Father, I thank you. Thank you for the young and the old that are here, God.

Thank you for the ministries you're raising up. Thank you for the good things you're going to do for people's lives. This is a good day to be alive.

It's a good day to be called by Jesus Christ. God, this is a good day. And, Father, we give you thanks and we give you praise, God, for what you have done in so many hearts tonight.

This has been a word and not a message. And I thank you, God, for the people who have responded. Give you praise and glory in the mighty and unmatchable name of Jesus Christ, the living God.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Do you have the victory tonight? Do you have the victory? I said, do you have the victory? Praise be to God. Bless the Lord.

Can you imagine that man? Can you imagine that man when he went to his friends and says, This thing floated, man. This thing floated. And people will say, Well, you know, axe heads don't float when they sink.

And say, Well, maybe they don't. But mine did. The man of God threw a tree into the water and it just floated up.

And then he said, Take it. And I took it. Here it is.

I got it back. I lost it, but I got it back. I got it back.

Let's give God a shout of glory tonight.