When we choose to follow Jesus, and commence the forging of a real world faith, Christ leads us deep within ourselves. It’s the beginning of a process in which an interior renovation of our inner space begins. Do we journey inward, or do we try to keep all the things we carry, the issues of our past, the scars we have received, the brokenness we feel buried. Forging means taking that deep dive, recognizing what we carry, and allowing Jesus to do the necessary work of redemption and restoration.

We've all been in the wilderness. But sometimes it's God's hand that drew us to the wilderness. It was God that brought Israel to the wilderness, John the Baptist, even Jesus. And all three came before a major breakthrough. Forging a real world faith is working through the loneliness in the wilderness. God's fulfilled promises are on the other side of the wilderness. But, first there is an emptying of what you brought out of Egypt. Is God enough? He wants to meet us in the wilderness and wants to show us what happens when we have been stripped and have nothing left but him.

Intellectually agreeing with God is only the starting point. True faith reveals itself in our daily habits.  We have a danger of passivity.  A faith that sits still and never takes a risk for God eventually becomes fragile and cold. What does forging look like? What does working it out mean?

Worship of the Lord is our act of defiance against the lie that anything or anyone else could fulfill us other than God - To worship is to offer our best. It is so easy for money to inhabit the place that only God is meant to. When we offer and surrender our finances to Him, we acknowledge that God is God and we refuse to bow down to idols.

Romans 12:1-2 is our anchor...The Message version: “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." Your pain has purpose. God is your refuge. Your worship can and will sustain you.

Worship is a posture of your heart and an overflow of the relationship you are cultivating with God. At the heart of worship is the posture of Heneni - Here am I, ALL of me. It is an awareness of God - who He is and what He has done - and then a whole life response to God. In order to live a life of worship, we need to understand that we were actually created TO worship.

AW Tozer said, “The purpose of nature is to lead us to the Creator and to worship Him. The purpose of man’s feelings and emotions is to lead to the One who implanted those within the heart of man, to the Creator. Everything in all of creation is to point to the Creator and evoke within adoring wonder and admiration and worship. Wherever we go, we can worship."

Harvest is when we realize, it’s not about us. It’s not about how much we have or don’t have. It’s when we realize that to have a harvest, we gotta become sowers. We got to invest into others, to scatter seeds, to tend to the soil, and see what God might do through our efforts.

Today we’re going to hear some stories of people that have been trying their best to embrace it, and to not only examine their own soil, but to begin scattering seeds and see their own harvest in their lives.

You might remember the story of the Prodigal Son, the son had made a mess of his life. His harvest was ruin. He wants to make a change and he goes back to his Father whom he’d insulted and disowned. 

The harvest is the Father running after the son. The Feast is getting to be home together. Your harvest might begin with getting up and running towards something new, someone new. We invite you to join in our stories of harvest. Jesus told us, there’s so much and we need you in this with us. Let’s harvest together.

"You will be with me - in the Garden." : Where - What - Who?

What is our awareness of the everlasting presence of God? The thing we are looking for IS 'Jesus'. You can be with Him now and here.

God doesn’t need your eloquence, He wants your faithfulness. Trying to be eloquent in your faith can become a barrier to truly knowing God. The Kingdom doesn't need more "good Christians" but faithful followers of Jesus. What does "faithfulness" really mean? 'Faithful' isn't what God asked of me, and now He’s doing what I expected of Him. 'Faithful' is our ability to stand firm with God, whether the outcome is what we thought or not.

Esther spent a lifetime doing what she was told and letting others dictate what she did and didn't do. Then the moment came where she was called to shape not only her own destiny but the destiny of a generation. There was every reason for her to say 'No', but she trusted God's timing, His positioning, and His faithfulness and changed the course of her entire people. Who are you in your story?