Craig Groeschel is pastor of LifeChurch.tv.
Joel 2:12 – Return to the Lord for he is gracious and compassionate.
Have you ever met someone so full of the love of Jesus, so passionate for the things of God, that you walk away and say, “They get it”?
Have you ever been to a church that you walk away from and say “They get it”?
Have you ever walked away from a church that is dead, that just didn’t have it?
LifeChurch.tv started without any of the cool stuff.
The 13 LifeChurch campuses are all under the same leadership, all have the same feel but with widely different results. Some had it and some didn’t.
What is this it? I don’t know. It has something to do with the Holy Spirit, but it’s not only the Holy Spirit.
You don’t have to have technology or cool videos or whatever. That’s not it.
IT – The something special from God.
You know “It” when you see “It.”
God makes it
You cannot create it.
It is not a model. You can’t simply recreate it.
Upside: Lives are changed because of it.
Downside: It attracts critics. When things are happening, people shoot at you.
For those of you that have it, there’s no guarantee you’re going to keep it
For those of you that don’t have it, you can get it.
For those of you who don’t know what it is, you’ve probably never had it.
For those of you who have it, your spiritual enemy is plotting to steal it.
There is one thing necessary for you to have that something special of God. The most important ingredient is that you have it. It’s not about money, buildings, location, video screens, the right musical instruments. You must be overwhelmed by the driving force of God using you to change the world. If you want your church and ministry to have it you must have it.
Jesus hung out with sinners; I got saved out of bars. If Jesus were alive today, he would hang out in bars, so I went to bars. Drunk people love to talk about God.
I had it, and at some point the ministry started to beat it out of me. It is like a very slow leak in a tire that you don’t notice until time goes by. Things changed. When I looked back I could realize that my motives changed. I wasn’t about building His Church; I was about building my church. It was about me. I had become a full-time pastor and a part time follower of Christ. I had it, and I lost it. And so have many of you.
You have to do something drastic, because if something small would have done it, some little tweak, you would have done it a long time ago.
The prayers that I prayed for God to bring it back were painfully simple. “God, stretch me.” Stretch me again, God.
There is more in you, and don’t let any board talk you out of it. Don’t let anyone who’s complaining complain you out of it.
Before God stretches you, he needs to heal you.
I am addicted to things that are much more acceptable in the church: people pleasing, adrenaline.
Some of you are addicted to progress. Some of you are addicted to looking in the mirror and making your hair look just right. Some of you are addicted to eating. Some of you are addicted to other things.
I submitted myself to counseling because I needed healing; I needed help.
I used to get so nervous before I preach that I would always vomit in a trash can.
I don’t get nervous anymore before I speak because I realized I cared more about what you thought than what God thought. Now, before I speak, I take a step forward. I step out of Craig Groeschel and step into the power of God. I am being healed of this.
I am addicted to adrenaline, and I am being healed of it. I will neglect the rest of the world and give my attention to my wife and my six children because God is healing me.
Some of you are jacked up, and you need to get as open and as honest as you can. Who or what will stretch you? Who or what will bring you healing in your life? You need to get around that person.
People pleasing is idolatry. That is making people in your life bigger than God, and that is idolatry.
Before God can heal you he must ruin you. Return to God with weeping and fasting and mourning.
I used to think I had to be above the pain, separate the emotions. Now I joyfully and willingly step into it. God, break my heart, crush me, make me miserable. I want it back, with weeping and mourning and fasting.
I was listening to a sermon, and I was so far from God. And no one knew it. The message spoke to me, and I got down on my face before going to preach for the weekend and asked God if I was even saved. I knew I was, but at that moment I wasn’t even sure.
I was at seminary the day the Oklahoma City bombing happened, and I should have been in my office. I should have been injured or killed. I rose above it. God was trying to break me, but I wouldn’t have it.
My mentor killed himself, and his wife and two children moved in with us. Still I rose above it. I wouldn’t let God ruin me.
I broke my son’s femur on accident, and I cried for the first time in a long time. I couldn’t do anything about it. I went to another country and held a baby who was going to die after I left, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I’m living this stupid life of luxury with this big church doing virtually nothing. Don’t you dare think it’s about anything outside of you. It is about having your heart break for the things that break the heart of God.
For some of you it’s been way too long. You had it. You wouldn’t have gone into ministry if you didn’t have it.
I pray that some of you encounter the presence of God in your hotel room tonight, and you are never the same again.
Some of you are a senior pastor and you don’t have it any more and you don’t want your congregation to know it. Some of you are student leaders and your students have it and you don’t.
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