Saying Yes to Jesus: Unleash Your Potential and Soar Beyond Limits

Candidates' Sunday  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Discover the true essence of discipleship in this compelling sermon. Explore the parallels between living as a chicken and embracing the fullness of life with Jesus. Are you ready to leave the crowd, offer your all, and soar into the transformative journey of discipleship?

Notes
Transcript

Introduction (5m)

Living beneath my God-given potential

Remember times sitting at my desk in Cheltenham and just having no motivation to work.
Difficult to get up in the mornings. Journey to/from Dudley seemed to drag. Law was no longer the fun it once was.
Didn’t know why. Until one evening in 2009, when God renewed his call to officership.
Then that I realised I felt the way I did because deep down I knew I was living beneath my God-given potential.
My story is that ever since I answered that call and said yes, I have never looked back.

God calls every one of us to live up to the potential he has placed in us by answering his call and finding his purpose for our lives

If we don’t, then like:
The old fable of the eagle egg which was shaken out of its nest by an earthquake and rolled down the mountainside into a chicken coop.
Instinctively, one of the hens sat on the eagle egg until one day it hatched, and an eaglet was born. Unfortunately, it didn’t realise that it was an eagle, it thought it was a chicken. And being raised by other chickens, the eagle just copied what it saw, and learned to strut around pecking for grain.
The eagle was quite content with its life as a chicken, but often looked up and saw the eagles soaring above and would tell his chicken family how much he’d love to be able to soar like that. Of course, the chickens told him that it was impossible; chickens just aren’t made to soar, they just peck grain. And so that eagle, with all its potential, lived its whole life doing nothing more than strutting around and pecking grain.

Does that describe any of you this morning?

Proverbially living ‘grain-pecking’ lives when God has created and called you to soar?
Have you been content to live far beneath your God-given potential?
Are you held back from fulfilling God’s calling on your life because of doubt, fear, peer pressure, or cultural expectations?
If you sense that you’re pecking when you should be soaring, then God’s message to you today is that perhaps it’s time to get out of the chicken coop!

Explanation (5m)

To those stuck in the chicken coop but with the potential to soar like an eagle, just as he said to his first disciples, Jesus says:

Matthew 4:19 NLT
Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”

This call to discipleship is the radical demand of the Kingdom of God

It was a call to let go of all human sources of security - home, family, friends, money, identity.
Life would have been pretty good. Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John and families would have made a decent living. Not rich, but small businessmen making enough to live on and a little left over.
Fish plentiful, good markets. In a cosmopolitan area they would have found many customers amongst soldiers, those journeying from one town to another, pilgrims, pedlars, and the local population.
Jesus called them to give it all up.
Jesus’ call was to let go of all human aspirations - of finding a life partner from the local community, of taking over the family business, of settling down and making a decent living. And instead, to embrace wholehearted obedience to God.
Jesus was calling them to leave the chicken coop and soar like eagles. To realise their God-given potential by embracing his call on their lives.

This was nothing less than a promotion from the chicken coop to the open skies

Jesus: don’t fish for salmon when you can fish for souls.
Don’t catch minnows when you can capture men.
Christ’s call was about more than their own salvation. It was a call for the salvation of others.
This is what the call to discipleship is: it is the call to mission.
It is the call to offer others the fullness of life with Jesus that we experience ourselves.
It is to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to those around us, knowing the difference our relationship with God makes in our lives, and not wishing them to miss out on it for themselves.
It is in the difference we can make in the lives of others that makes it feel like soaring rather than grain pecking!
It’s life giving. It gives life meaning and purpose.
It is worth the sacrifice.

And what was it that made Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John immediately say yes to Jesus and leave everything behind to follow him wholeheartedly?

It was Jesus’ sovereign command.
The command to Come, follow me, came from the same mouth that said, “Let there be light, and there was light; let there be stars and there were stars, let there be fish, and there were fish”.
If creation cannot resist God’s call, then how can we?
Jesus is Lord. He has all authority.
We cannot say anything but yes to him.
If Jesus calls, we must come.
If Jesus calls us to leave the chicken coop and soar like an eagle, then we must flap our wings and take off.

Application (5m)

On this Candidates Sunday, we must embrace Jesus’ call on our lives

Do you believe Jesus is Lord?
Is he Lord over your life?
If so, do you recognise what that means?
It means you recognise the spiritual difference that exists between you and him.
He is holy, and you are not.
That’s why each of us who recognise Jesus as Lord must repent of our sins.
And in this instance, the sin Jesus is calling us to turn away from is the sin of following anyone or anything more than we follow Jesus.
Of being content to stay in the chicken coop, leaving our God-given potential unrealised, instead of soaring like the eagles he has made us to be.

What is first in your life?

Is it Jesus? Is it his call on your life?
Or is it the fish? The nets? The boat?
The career? The income?
Is it the family? The mother? The father? The brother? The sister? The spouse? The children?
Are you willing to break away from the comforts, the familiar - occupation, friends, family, even your corps family if Jesus calls you from it - in order to wholeheartedly serve him?
Are you willing to do whatever Jesus says?
Are you willing to go wherever he wants you to go?
Are you willing to fly the chicken coop?

We may not all be called to leave our jobs and homes in order to follow Christ’s call

But some Salvationists are.
And I know and feel deep in my heart that there are some Salvationists - maybe many Salvationists - who are not answering that call today.
We see it in the shrinking numbers entering officer training.
We see it in the increasing number of corps being left unofficered.
And I dare not assume that there is no one in Maidenhead Corps or who is watching or listening to this who is called to full-time ministry as a Salvation Army officer, or Territorial Envoy, or pioneer leader, or other spiritual leader.
If you have an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of your stomach as you listen to these words, then it’s probably you!
Don’t delay! Make plans to leave the chicken coop and soar like an eagle!
But Jesus had many believers and disciples in his lifetime, and only the twelve apostles were called to leave their jobs and homes to follow him in his ministry around Galilee and towards Jerusalem.
But each one of us must evaluate our service and do what Christ requires of us.
And if you say yes to Jesus, I can guarantee you will be disrupted from your ordinary life!
But that’s what Jesus asks of us:
Romans 12:1 MSG
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Don’t give Jesus some of your life. Give it all to him

Think of Jesus’ call on your life like the farmer’s birthday.
On his birthday the animals got together to discuss what they might be able to give the farmer as a gift.
Several ideas were discussed, but then the chicken spoke up with what seemed to be an excellent plan. ‘I’ve got it,’ said the chicken to the pig. ‘How about we provide the farmer with breakfast for his birthday: bacon and eggs?’
To which the pig responded, ‘That’s easy for you to say; for you it would just be a gift, but for me it would be a total sacrifice!’
Are you more like the chicken or the pig this morning?
Are you providing gifts for Jesus out of your abundance, or is your life fully given over to him as a sacrifice?
Jesus has given us everything. He gave his life on the cross for us. He has set us free from our sins and made right our relationship with God.
Our response surely must be to return everything to him. To offer our everyday, ordinary lives to him, for his service, to whatever he calls us to.

Imagine how different our world would be if every disciple of Jesus fully embraced Christ’s call on their lives

Imagine the difference it would make in our families, neighbourhoods, communities, schools, colleges, places of work.
Imagine the transformation that would take place. Imagine more and more people finding the fullness of life there is in Jesus.
Imagine the love and truth of Jesus spreading to every corner of the earth.

So, don’t conform to the world’s call

Don’t stay in the chicken coop. Don’t live for yourself. Don’t just do what feels right. Don’t go with the crowd. Don’t try to fit in. Don’t try to get away with just offering Jesus an egg or two.
Turn your eyes to the skies. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Allow him to change you from the inside out. Recognise what he wants from you. Understand the call he is making on your life. And quickly respond to it.
It’s time to soar!

Next Steps

SB 568 - All that I am, all I can be

All that I am, all I can be, All that I have, all that is me, Accept and use, Lord, as you would choose, Lord, Right now, today. Take ev?ry passion, ev?ry skill, Take all my dreams and bend them to your will. My all I give, Lord, for you I'll live, Lord, Come what may. (Last time only) All that I am.  1 Often I come with my problems and cares, Running to you when distressed; But I must bring you the whole of my life, Lord, I must give you my best. 2 Life has no purpose unless it is yours, Life without you has no goal; All that fulfils me is doing your will, Knowing that you?re in control. William Himes © Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 135015 Copied from The Song Book of The Salvation Army Song Number 568
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