Bridgeway Community Church
Anthony Patton
Next Gen Faith
November 14, 2021
Next Gen Faith: LEVERAGE
Unleashing a Movement of Love
GOAL:
The goal of this message is for the Body to awaken to the Call of Christ and LEVERAGE every gift that He has given.
Defining LEVERAGE: Merriam-Webster says:
- influence or power used to achieve a desired result
- the increase in force gained by using a lever.
Working definition: Using something to increase potential.
Leverage is beneficial when you have to move weights. And Jesus in His infinite wisdom knew that we would have weights that we would seek to move on our own. Weights that we wouldn’t believe He was all that concerned with. Weights that we wouldn’t know how to or even want to surrender to Him but we would be forced into submitting because it broke us underneath the pressure and intensity of it. He knew what those weights would so to our souls and He offered us an opportunity to
LEVERAGE.
Matthew 11:28-30
[Jesus teaching] Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Jesus uses His influence to produce rest from lifting burdens you were never meant to carry. He offers us His power so that we can disengage from fruitless battles. The writer of Hebrews understood that when we LEVERAGE His strength, we would be able to run with purpose. He encourages us to:
Hebrews 12:1 ESV
… lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run
with endurance the race that is set before us.
The race is to enter the Kingdom, to be transformed from glory to glory, to be transformed by the Word of God and not by the tasks and works you perform. God doesn’t want your qualifiers He just wants you to come to Him and learn how to LEVERAGE what He gave you.
Question: Do you know what’s in you? Do you know who called you? Do you really?
- I often have to remind myself
- I forget that He’s outside of time and space so He TRULY knows what tomorrow brings.
- I forget that He has designed me and knows even the secret things I try to hide.
- I forget that He knew me before the foundations of the world, that He spoke over me when I was in the womb of my mother, that He is my portion and refuge and strong tower.
- I forget that although I opened my mouth to pray the prayer that saved me it was by His will that I am saved.
- Maybe you forget, too.
Jesus saves us. We don’t save ourselves.
Jesus tells us what He told His disciples, “You didn’t choose me, I chose you,’ so we
must lean in and LEVERAGE His why for our success.
John 15:16 ESV
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
This is the same chapter where Jesus tells us,
John 15:4 ESV
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
This is important because when we aren’t making the mistake of trying to save
ourselves we’re trying to LEVERAGE our relationship with Him in manipulative ways;
Holding our decision to give our life to Him as some Golden Ticket, thinking that the
exchange rate is the same. We said some words and fight against His Spirit and
leading at times and He was in the garden praying so hard that His sweat became
blood because of the anguish of the torment of the Cross. The difference is He was
obedient even unto death and we usually have to get so broken down that we just
wave the white flag of surrender, tired of doing it our own way, exhausted and out of
possibilities.
God is LEVERAGING this moment for us all to see His power and sovereign love for us.
Takeaway: LEVERAGE the Vine to bear fruit that’s Divine
PSA
Question: For all my people looking to find their purpose… Focus on bringing glory
to God. How?
John 15:8
[Jesus speaking] By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit
and so prove to be my disciples.
To clarify let’s address “fruit” and “disciples”:
Fruit – Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 ESV
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things
there is no law.
Disciples – Disciplined Ones
So, what glorifies God is the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, goodness,
kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), which can only be bore from LEVERAGING the Vine. Having these prove that you are Jesus’s disciples; and
disciples means to be disciplined.
The key to finding your purpose is to first LEVERAGE the Vine and become disciplined.
Purpose is a responsibility and without discipline we are unresponsive to the purpose.
Takeaway: LEVERAGE the discipline, and then carry out the mission.
A TRUTH: God wants you to find purpose in Him. He built us as vessels and
containers to hold His purpose.
PERSPECTIVE: How we perceive what’s IN us determines what we pour OR ISN’T
poured out of us.
- You either trust that God has given you the substance and will continue to give it
to you - Or, you don’t believe you’ve got enough so you hoard what you have until it
makes equates to your idea of enough - The first outlook is LEVERAGE-driven
- The second outlook is fear-driven
LEVERAGE-driven believers put their trust in the One who is able.
Fear-driven believers put their trust in acquiring enough to finally feel adequate.
God’s not pointing to what you don’t have, He points to what you do.
The key to being a LEVERAGE-driven believer is being resourceful.
• The Widow with a little bit of oil
• Ezekiel in the Valley
• David with his sling
• The Children of Israel with the plunder of Egypt
• The little boy’s lunch that feeds the 5k
• Moses and the Staff
• Elijah building the altar before the miracle
We all have something. We all can do something.
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Matthew 25:21 AMP
[Jesus teaching a parable] His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and
faithful servant. You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little, I will
put you in charge of many things; share in the joy of your master.’
Takeaway: LEVERAGE what’s in your sphere. Live above the fear.
So, what do you have? The Holy Spirit, the Cheat Code!
In John 1, we hear that Jesus is the very Word of God that not only was there in the
beginning but was the thing creating.
John 1:2-5 ESV
He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him,
and without him, was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was the
life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness,
and darkness has not overcome it.
John is eluding to the Book of Genesis during creation. Before light was spoken into
existence the Bible tells us that everything was chaotic: the earth was void and without
form, darkness was on the face of the deep. After light is spoken if you pay attention to
what God is doing throughout the rest of the chapter, He is putting chaos to order.
Genesis 1:2-5 ESV
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of
the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw
that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there
was evening and there was morning, the first day.
So, the Word of God is not just creative in nature but the heart of God is to speak to
our darkness, speak to our chaos and bring order to it.
This is why He wants us to LEVERAGE Him in the Vine.
This is why He wants us to LEVERAGE Him to pull our weights.
Because Jesus wants to eliminate our chaos. He wants to speak to it.
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But wait… there’s more!
This same Word, this same Light became a man and walked the earth for 33 years and
lived a sinless life. He was able to commune with His Father, the one who spoke Him in
the beginning, through His connection with the Spirit. That same Spirit was in Him as
He was cultivating and employing the power that resisted every temptation that this
world allows and that same Spirit is the thing that allowed Him to resurrect from the
tomb on the 3rd day!
Jesus says this of His Spirit:
John 14:16-17 ESV
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with
you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells
with you and will be in you.
John 16:13-14 ESV
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he
will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak,
and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify
me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The Apostle Paul tells us:
2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the
power may be of God, and not of us.
Ephesians 1:19-20 AMP
and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and
unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us
who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty
strength 20 which He produced in Christ when He raised Him from the
dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places
LEVERAGE what’s within so you can come out
The Holy Spirit is the Cheat Code because it is the culmination of the Power and Truth
of God through Jesus and the same tool that raises dead things back to life!
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If there are areas where things have died, if there are areas where things have been
broken, if there are areas where things are chaotic, where they lack order and structure,
where darkness abides, where betrayal abides, where disappointments abide
• LEVERAGE the Holy Spirit.
• LEVERAGE the Cheat Code.
• LEVERAGE the life-giving force.
• LEVERAGE the gift that was given when Jesus said on the cross, Father into your
hands I commend your spirit.
• LEVERAGE the gift that took an ex-fisherman, who 40 some odd days ago, denied
knowing Jesus three times to those who were in the mob that wanted him executed,
but used that same man to utter from that same mouth the words that would spark
revival that has not stopped since that mighty rushing wind came in the room and
rested cloven tongues of fire on their heads.
• LEVERAGE the reason why He died and resurrected.
• LEVERAGE for the generations that are in your loins.
• LEVERAGE for your neighborhood, for your family and friends.
LEVERAGE because that is the call and you can’t do it alone.
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