Influence for the Kingdom

NEW: 2 points

***100 words per min

2500 words is 25min (10 pages)

1500 words for intro and close (About)

4000 Total

TEXT KEY:

Red Text - Scripture on the screen

Orange Highlighted Text - Main Points

Yellow Highlighted Text - Content for screens and NOT notes.

Listen - podcast

Apple/Spotify/google

Watch - Video

FB/Youtube/ChurchCenter app

Series Description: Join us for our Global Impact series as we lay the foundation for partnering with caring ministries both locally and globally this year. This week, Pastor Shawn shares how we can use our influence for the Kingdom. Don’t miss this powerful message on how passion and purpose collide to create lasting Kingdom impact!

Altar Instructions: make your way up when I begin point 3 “Be willing to take a LEAP. This is a very quick point.

Series | Global Impact

Missionary Window: Kelvin Co

Transition to Message: Landon

Pre-Message Welcome

Grace Place family! It’s awesome to have you here with us today, whether in person or online.

I’m Shawn, and along with my wife, we serve as the Co-Pastors of this incredible church.

At The Grace Place, our mission is clear: we are Caring People, Caring for People.

We pray that you experience God’s care in our time together and in your life.

I hope you have enjoyed you time with us so far…

Spanish Welcome - 2nd Service ONLY!

A nuestra familia de habla hispana .... … es-pera-mos - que - usted… y-su-familia.. se-sien-tan bien a-tend-idos también.

To our Spanish speaking family... welcome, we hope you and your family feels cared for as well.

Transition: We’re are beginning a mini series called….

Series Title | Global Impact

This series will set the stage for what we are going to do this year to partner with Caring ministries locally and Globally. To date we partner with over 130 missionaries and organizations that are:

Caring for Needs,

Planting Churches

Defending the Orphan

and…

Sharing Gods Word

Did you enjoy meeting our friend Kelvin? Him and his wife and some of the kindest, honest and refreshing people I know. I am really looking forward in partnering with them this year.

Well…. This week… we are going to share with you our vision to make a Global Impact.

next week my former Pastor and one of my ministry Hero’s… that I served for a little over 10 years Tommy Barnet will be with us. God uses Pastor Tommy all over the world to inspire people to dream big and reach people for the sake of the Gospel. You do NOT want to miss next week.

Friends… what our church does becuase of your obedience and generosity when it comes to the Great Commission… is absolutely amazing. It is NOT normal… it is a God thing.

In 2024 we gave _____ to our Local and Global Partners and this year I am so pumped to share with you that I believe we will be able to significantly increase this.

Pre-Message Welcome

We are going to ask you to begin to pray…. Next Sunday -we are asking 2 things of you:

First... we’ll be asking for a

1. A 1-time generous offering -2k

·     This will go to pay the expenses of our Global impact series, take care of the expenses of our special speakers and give their ministries a generous contribution.

·     Last year you stretched hard and we raised just about 20k for missions... this was the best offering yet! I believe we can do the same this year

·     My wife and I will sow the 1st generous seed into this offering. 

We  are going to stretch… but we have also planned to give… We are inviting you to join us in this gift.

t…he 2nd thing we’ll be asking for is a

1. Faith Promise What is a faith Promise?

A faith promise you are saying... Lord over the next 12 months - by faith we plan to give 50-100--500 to missions- so together we can make a global impact.

God… as you provided it.. . we will give it.

Krista and I plan to give when it comes to missions,.

Krista and I believe as we partnered with God in his work around the world, he will take care of all we need right here at TGP.

Another way we can do this is because , we believe that MORE is not always for me

See… you might get a raise, a bonus, a surprise gift, extra work, capital gains, etc... when that happens for us we consider more what we do for the kingdom.

Message Intro  

Let’s open our bibles like we do every week… Today we’ll be looking at ???

Text: Acts 1:8(ESV)

The context for our passage today is simply God empowering the Church for the Mission of God- which is to spread the Good news about Jesus around the world.

As we come to our text for today… I want you to notice that the bible climaxes around a few HUGE events…

The Death and resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Gods empowering Holy Spirit

in fact….Jesus spends his last days of life on earth telling his disciples to prepare for this great arrival.

and What does Jesus say we expect to happen when the spirit of God comes? … lets read about it… Acts 1:8…

Acts 1:8 ESV

But YOU(The Disciples, the followers of Jesus) will receive what? POWER when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, what will you do with this empowerment? and you will be my what? witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

What do we notice here?

We notice that when the Holy Spirit comes… which is the Spirit of God… he will do a couple things first…

He will EMPOWER the Church,

Yea… He wants to EMPOWER the church for special mission… we are his PLAN A - most of us understand that mission is to participate with God and GO into all the WORLD and Preach the Gospel to all Nations.

This is how you were introduced to Jesus… it’s becuase someone obeyed this mission.

This is why we offer Salvation nearly - every week, this is why we partner with caring ministries around the world.

Why does he empower us?

He empowers us to….

to be a INFLUENCE

Why? Becuase without his help… we lack the ability to be effective at our tasks.

Why do I say influence… because that is the ultimate purpose of a witness.

See… in a count of law… the most effective and credible witness is someone with FIRST HAND EXPERIANCE… they are invited to approach the stand… and share their story… for the purpose of what?…. To influence the Jury… to beleive.

Our church is part of a large fellowship of Churches called… The Assembilies of God… this network of churches was started with this mission in mind… all becuase a group of believers took this thing about being an INFLUENCE for the Kingdom seriously.

So today… Im going to share with you how I plan to be an INFLUENCE this year…. and use my story to make a greater KINGDOM Impact.

I have been asking God for the last couple years…. and I believe its a great question for every person to ask themselves…

QUESTION: How do you want to use me in this season of my life?

God… how can you use the unique passions and gifting of my life…. to be an influence for the Kingdom purposes of my life?

A couple years ago vision started stirring in my heart… as I pondered this Idea

Many of you know that one of my unique passion is the cycling.

I wondered…

God how can you use this passion I have for cycling… for a greater Purpose to serve your Kingdom?

This is when I realized… IN YOUR NOTES

When PASSION and PURPOSE collide, there is KINGDOM Impact.

For me…

When My Passion for Cycling…. collided with my PURPOSE for the Kingdom… I realized this is how God wanted to INCREASING my Kingdom IMPACT.

Transition: the title of our message today is...

Influence for the Kingdom

***Feel free to encourage people to listen to the Holy Spirit speak to them personally as the message is preached

LETS PRAY

Friends… usually… when your passion and purpose collides… it will SCARE you.

I have often heard… if a God given vision does NOT scare you then it’s probably not from God.

The vision God was beginning to show me was INTIMIDATING - my insecurities tried to stop me…

Becuase after all…

Who would listen to me?

Would my voice even matter?

PART 1 : LEADVILLE STORY

Many of you know I am an avid cyclist… it started with mountain biking for me

Pic/Collage 1: of TGP Riders:

Coming to TGP I have met a lot of awesome cyclist and got into road endurance cycling mostly becuase my friend Randy.

This is a pic of some of our

Some older guys who have ridden Hotter than Hell 100 several times.

I had never ridden more than about 15 miles on my Mt Bike…

These guys had me riding 100 miles on the road bike! My father in law would say… you know they have cars for traveling those distances lol.

As I have gotten curious how my passion for cycling was connection to my Kingdom purpose… I realized I could use one of these rides as a platform to get sponsors and raise money for missions…. but the timing has never felt right…. until recently.

Transition: The title of our message is…

Influence for the Kingdom

Friends… when our passion and purpose collide… we need to be ready…

as we looked at The EARLY CHURCH in Acts….. we see they were…. ready when their time came…. to use their influence for the kingdom.

There are 3 things I notice they did in preparation to to be an INFLUENCE for the Kingdom.

If we want to be ready when our passion and purpose collide… IN YOUR NOTES we need to….

Be willing to LISTEN to God. Acts 1:8

When the early church heard the plan of God in Acts 1:8… you are going to be empowered… to be a Witness… to influence regarding the Good news of Jesus…. they listened.

Friends… there is no doubt they had questions- concerns… so did I… and so will you… God is just asking us to LISTEN and trust him

Even some of our greatest biblical hero’s were intimidated by the task they we’re called to accomplish

When we look at people like…

Joshua, Ester or Moses- we know Moses was FEARFUL… he felt inadequate and was afraid to speak… for God.. he said, “WHO AM I that I should represent you? He went lead Gods people out of slavery and gave us the 10 commandments.

and the list goes on and on….

Remember this: … IN YOUR NOTES USUALLY…

Whatever God CALLS you to…. will be BIGGER than you.

Becuase of this it will be INTIMIDATING

This last year I entered my 1st MTB race in many years… it was intimidating…. I was just hoping to finish and do a good job for me. I had a friend who had raced this event a few times, so I decided to join him in racing the Austin rattler… a 60mile MTB race. Its the equivalent of riding about 120 road bike miles.

I heard this was a qualifying event for some epic mtb race called Leadville that only insane people sign up for.

I didn’t think much about Leadville becuase the only way to qualify was to be a pro…. and I was not.

The other way was through a lottery system… If I qualified at the Austin Rattler by finishing within a respectable time… they give a way 20 lottery coins… I didn’t think I would finish within that time from… but even if I did… the chances if me getting a coin and that was less than 5%.

Also… I had no aspirations to do this event… and honestly… I was NOT no ware near the shape I needed to be in and didn’t even know if my body could get there.

Well… as a joke…. I looked at the date before I went to the event to see if our calendar was free…. in the wild chance I qualified.

So… this Last November, as I was completing my final lap at this qualifying event… I realized I had finished just-under… three-minutes within the qualifying time—barely making the cut! 😂

Pic/Collage 2: Austin Rat - Finish and ride pic

I don’t know why… but I ran over to the stage area where they we’re about to announce the Lottery winners.

I didn’t my lottery tag on me to let them know I completed and I wanted to enter to win a spot at Leadville…

So I ran over to the nearest food truck and asked for an old receipt or piece of paper and pin to write my bib number on. Ran it over to the race organizers… handed it to them with confidence.. he looked at me and surged his shoulders like… ok- You get an A for effort lol

They start reading off names… we’re people are cheering as if they one the lottery! I was just chillN by myself… enjoying the race event vibes

They are about 15 names down… and suddenly I hear bib number 1530…! I looked down at my race tag… and it was me… my number… jumped up in shock… and excitement… as the crowed cheered… may of the people trie to get into this event and it can take years… and my first ride NOT really knowing much about Leadville or even interest… SUDDENLY IM IN…

I one an entry COIN to the Leadville 100! (HAVE IN HAND)

Pic/Collage 3: Austin Rat - Qualifying Coin

I could not believe it… as I was driving home.

I was thinking… this is insane… what am I thinking… IM NOT READY FOR THIS… then I started adding how much money it would cost me to do the event… I was ready for that…

Then it hit me…

This is where my passion and purpose collide… Leadville was it… this is the event… this was the platform God would give me…to do something great for the Kingdom.

Friend… I don’t know what your passion is… and I don’t know what your unique purpose in the kingdom is… but we all have one… and sometimes we will do many different things in our life time.

But the only way we will do significant things with God is by ….

Listen to God.

Perhaps he has dropped a seed in your heart like he did for me….

Maybe you didn’t think you had it in you like me… but its not about what we have in us… its about what God will do through us as we respond.

Here is a question to ask yourself?

Question: What is my passion? What is my purpose?

How might God want to use you… to do something significant for His Kingdom?

Now… I don’t know about you… everything God has every called me to… has been bigger than me…

I have never really felt qualified when God asked me to do something with him.

It is usually terrifying… but I have learned that when I step out to do something big… when it is his idea… he always provides the courage, the strength, the guts, the grit…

It’s through this journey to Leadville journey that what I am calling… The DRIVEN CAMPAIGN…. was BORN…

Pic/Collage: Driven Campaign Logo & Slogan (YOU HAVE THIS ALREADY)

I am being driven by God to make a bigger Kingdom Impact…

Friends…. things like

The Driven Campaign…. is what happens When passion and purpose collide.

I am starting the

​​The Driven Campaign to connect others to meaningful causes - friends… we have amazing missionary partners like Kelvin… doing amazing things.

These missionaries are the real heroes… on the front lines… caring for people.

This is how I am going to INCREASE my Impact this year…. by inviting others to be an influence with me… you can think of this as a no-profit arm of The Grace Place fulling our heart for missions.

The Driven Campaign hopes hope to raise $100,000 to support these heroes in three specific areas… disaster relief, orphan care, and minor advocacy.

We want to help our Hero’s to go further faster….

Transition: We’re talking about

Influence for the Kingdom

God as inviting me to use my INFLUENCE for the Kingdom…

How about you?

Friends… when our passion and purpose collide… we need to be ready…

the 2nd thing we need to do… if we’re are going to be an influence for the kingdom… IN YOUR NOTES we need to….

Be willing to LABOR with others. Acts 2:42-47

When the disciples we’re invited to spread the message of the Kingdom in the book of acts… God didn’t just have the 12 of them in mind to do this work… he would use them to leverage every resource they had…. every ounce of favor they had… every gifting, every ability

We see how the The early church… did this… as formed tight night communities… and lived and LABORD together for Kingdom Impact.

Why did they do this? Becuase they know to accomplish what God has asked them to do would take more than just what they had.

Here is what I have learned through the years…. IN YOUR NOTES

Alone we can do a LITTLE, together we can do a LOT.

Friends… God does NOT invite us to GO ALONE….. you will never have all the gifts, talents, and abilities to accomplish it on my own. It always takes working with others.

Someone once said…

If you want to go fast, go alone…. If you want to go far, go together.

When we look at scripture we see that often… the call of God requires us to go together…

Our calling often requires others.

For Moses to accomplish his call… he needed Arron..

For Joshua to accomplish his call… he needed the spies to assess the Land.

For Paul to accomplish his call… he needed people like Barnubus, Timothy and many other Co-Labors.

As I I begin to calculate what it is going to take to accomplish Leadville in August… and the DRIVEN CAMPAIGN to be a success… I have quickly realized that I can NOT do it alone.

So…. I’M not going to ride Leadville 100 just for me - the personal investment is way TOO GREAT… but to do it for the Kingdom… I will take the task on… but I can not do it without you.

Pic/Collage 4: Driven Campaign logo w/ slogan

As I have counted the cost of me doing this event… before I raise a penny for the Heroes of the Driven Campaign our missionary partners… to make this event happen I need

To have the right training equipment, the right racing equipment, nutrition needs… I had no idea the coaching I would need.. a coaching team for on the bike… strength training nutrition coaching and mental fitness coaching.

I need to raise money for the race fee’s… the support team on the day of the event….

Friends… Before I raise a dollar for missions… I have to raise 12,000 dollars personally to just get there.

Check out how amazing God is… I have invited some very close friends and mostly family to be apart of my personal support team… they are the Driven CAMPAIGN CHAMPION TEAM.

As the Champion team has labor together…. with Gods help… the 12k needed for the Race…has already been raised.

So…Don’t worry Im not asking you for another offering lol.

My family is… in on Leadville… and the Driven Campaign… which is scary!

Here is the magnitude of this event…

The goal is to complete Leadville within the cut off time which is 12hrs

Pic/Collage 5: Leadville

I’ll began my training around Thanksgiving… this last year and will train for a duration of about 8 month & race in Aug of this year.

I will be riding one of the hardest Ultra MTB events in the US - for 105 miles on a Mountain bike.

The race is like no other professional MTB race… in that we will be starting the event at an elevation 10,000 feet - dealing with altitude

I’ll be climbing a total of 12,000 feet in elevation throughout the race.

To help you understand what that is going to be like…

Pic/Collage 6: Mt Everest-***I think opt 2 might be best

Mt Everest, the tallest Mt in the world…

As you can see in the image…

From the 1st base camp to the top of Mt Everest is a hir over 11,000 feet.

We are riding just a hair over 12,000’

This means… this event is the equivalent of…. riding my bike up Mt. Everest.

I know… I’m trying not to think about it either…

This is where you come in… The Driven Campaign needs an INFLUENCE team…

This is a team of people, who will help get the word out… who will raise their voice and use their influence to help raise the 100k… not with their own resources… but through the influence God has given them with others.

Thats right… for clarity… I am NOT asking you to do anything for the DRIVE CAMPAIGN Financially… Our TGP family will continue to do what TGP does for missions. But I am inviting you to step outside of what you can do alone… and invite others to invest in the DRIVEN CAMPAIGN.

God has given us an inspiring story… a great event to use as a platform for mission… I believe this could be a powerful arm of our missions efforts..

Transition: We’re talking about

Influance for the Kingdom

God as inviting me to use my INFLUENCE for the Kingdom…

How about you… will you use yours?

THIS LEADS ME TO MY LAST POINT… if we’re are going to be an influence for the kingdom… IN YOUR NOTES is… I am inviting you to…

Be willing to LEAP with me. Acts 2:14-41, Acts 13:1-3

Every biblical figure that God used… invited had to leap out …. and to join others…. to make a Kingdom IMPACT

Paul invited Barnabas to leaped out with him and go on a missionary journey - to take the Gospel beyond Jerusalem

The 72 leaped out with the 12 to evangelize the world…

What would it look like for you to LEAP OUT in faith as your passion and purpose collided?

-Maybe you have your own driven campaign project…share it with others.. go for…leap out!

But for us… I believe The DRIVNE CAMPAIGN is going to be an amazing way for the TGP family to use their INFLUENCE for the Kingdom.

Martin Luther King jr. Said this…

“Faith is taking the first STEP even when you don’t see the whole STAIRCASE.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

Friends… I don’t see the entire stair-case… I rarely have…

Here is my call to action today

Will you step with me…?

Will you JOIN the Driven Campaign INFLUENCE Team - will you labor with me… will you leverage your influence to introduce the driven campaign to your friends and family?

Joining the INFLUENCE TEAM.

What does the influence team do? We are asking you to..

USE your Influence

To leverage the favor and influence God has given you introduce the driven campaign to your friends and family?

We are asking you to

SPREAD the story -

and 2nd… joining the Driven Campaign Influance team means to… use your influence and

SIT-DOWN with other influencers.

Sit down with them to… Personally Invite people to financially partner with the Drive Campaign.

Give a personal ask to join the drive Campaign.

We all have friends that are generous kingdom minded people.

Some will do 100.00 without thinking… many will do 500.00

Some will have the gift of giving and be able to do 1000.00 to 5 or 10k.

Many Business owners are looking for trust worthy non-profits to invest in for chartable giving. I think the Driven Campaign could be one they invest in.

I have learned that its actually easy to ask people to partner with Kingdom things… God is in charge of the results we are not, we just throw out the invite. Watch God build your faith as he has mine every time I have thrown out an idea to someoen regarding the Driven Campaign.. God has jut been flying doors open.

For example:

Several weeks ago I reached to a friend who has a friend with a successful company and with out hesitation… a person who is a non-believer and his start up company gave 10k to the drive campaign to help our HEROES go further faster.

I would be happy to sit down with any of your friends.. and I will equip you with some helpful tools in the coming days to share with people to invite them to the driven campaign.

On the bottom of your notes you will notice the question…

Question 1: Will you join the Driven Campaign Influance Team

Check-box 1 YES

***ADD QRCODE to screen- -I am working getting you a ULR

I wan to invite you pull out your phone

Scan the QR code on the screen or select the link in the church center app…

You will see the 4 ways you can make an influence

the 1st is this…

Step 1:SIGN-UP for our news letter 

the 2nd is this…

Step 2: FOLLOW us on socials - you will see a link to all of those

Youtube / Instagram / Facebook 

Step 3: SHARE the Drive Campaign story:

We will send you a simple video to share on your socials about the Driven Campaign story!

Then follow along and stay connected as I release a mini documentary series on the Leadville Journey and Driven Campaign.

Here is the next question and Call to action that I have for you today is to ask you this…

Question 2: Who are 3-5 people you know right now that are potential Driven Campaign supporters?

Person 1__________________

Person 2__________________

Person 3__________________

Person 4__________________

Person 5__________________

Step 4: INVITE others to give

We all know friends, family and business owners that are looking for TRUSTED Non-profits to invest in.

I’ll be sending you a short video you can share with them that will introduce them to the Driven Campaign…. I’ll handle the ask!

I know I am asking a lot of you… but really… its not a hard ask… when its for the Kingdom..

Here is how I would like to end the service for everyone else….

Call to Action Altar Call

SALVATION MESSAGE

We’re going to end the service with A question as we do nearly every week.

HAS GOD SPOKEN TO YOU-

I want to pray over you

Pray over the Driven Campaign

and pray overALL ACROSS THE ROOM – HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT spoken to you in anyway today?

Going Deeper

What is my passion? What is my purpose?

Will I join the Influance Team?

Who are 3-5 people you know right now that are potential Driven Campaign supporters?

What might the Holy Spirit be saying to you in light of this teaching?

How might the Holy Spirit want to transform you in light of this teaching?

What actions might the Holy Spirit want to take in light of this teaching?

Tongues & Interpretation

1. To STRENGTHEN the Church (1 Cor. 14:5)

For prophecy is greater than SPEAKING in TONGUES, unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church will be STRENGTHENED.

Believers, God has operated through this gift today to strengthen you today. Let your faith be strengthened and know that God is in control and using supernatural measures to speak to us.

2. Is a SIGN for unbelievers. (1 Cor. 14: 21a, 22)

1 Corinthians 14:21–22 (ESV)

In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.

22 -  So you see that speaking in tongues is a SIGN, not for believers, but for UNBELIEVERS.

The Bible explains to us God has chosen to use this gift to be a sign for you. A sign for what? It is a sign of his realness for those of you who have been doubting or questioning the existence of God. He wants you to know he is REAL and he wants to bring you spiritual life and health. If you're in here today and you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior... he wants you to know he has gone to great lengths to show you his love today. (Great opportunity for a salvation altar call if it fits).