From Acorns to Oak Trees: Building God’s Kingdom in Community
This post is part of Blackbird Mission’s 2025 Summer of Sermons series, featuring Daron Earlewine’s most impactful church messages.
Have you ever watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” and wondered if your own life would pass the George Bailey test? You know, that moment when you get to see what the world would look like if you’d never existed—would you discover that your life had been truly wonderful after all?
The truth is, a wonderful life isn’t found in pursuing your individual dreams, but in sacrificing to serve and love the community around you. And here’s the thing that might surprise you: following Jesus was never meant to be a solo journey. Despite what modern American Christianity often teaches, faith isn’t just a “personal relationship with Jesus”—it’s about joining God’s family and changing the world together.
The Paradigm Shift We All Need
Life has a funny way of making us cynical. The longer we live, the more we disappoint ourselves and get disappointed by others. But here’s the choice we all face: we can either embrace hope-filled grace for ourselves and others, or we can become cynically jaded and old.
The world is desperately looking for a place where they can find grace, love, and hope for their future. And what draws people to authentic Christian community isn’t perfect people—it’s messed up, broken, redeemed, slowly-being-transformed people who choose to stay together and learn to love one another as they give their lives to serve the world.
This requires what the Greeks called metanoia—not the guilt-ridden repentance many of us grew up with, but a paradigm shift. Meta means “above and beyond,” and nous means “thinking.” Jesus is asking us to think higher, to see things the way God sees them, to experience a complete shift in perspective about what life is really about.
The Bottom Line
Your life could actually join with Jesus and change the world. But that will never happen until you believe it could happen.
The seeds of a great Jesus movement are in every single one of us. The question is: Will you choose to be an acorn that dreams of becoming an oak tree, or will you stay small because you don’t believe God can use you?
You were created on purpose and for a purpose. It’s time to stop making excuses and start taking steps—together—into the wonderful life God has planned for you.
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To connect or learn more about joining a Rogue Collective band, visit RogueCollectiveCoaching.com or email me directly at daron@daronearlewine.com.
Episode Summary:
What if following Jesus wasn’t meant to be a solo journey? In this powerful message, Daron challenges the Western individualistic mindset and re-centers us on Jesus’ actual way of making disciples: in close community. You’ll be reminded that spiritual formation happens most deeply in relationships, and that your calling, while personal, is never meant to be private.
Key Takeaways:
⚡️ Being with Jesus means being with His people
⚡️ The longer you live, the more you realize how much you need grace
⚡️ Repentance isn’t guilt—it’s a paradigm shift
⚡️ You’re not just saved from something—you’re saved for something
⚡️ Movements of God start with everyday people who say yes
Notable Quotes:
⚡️ “God created you on purpose and for a purpose.”
⚡️ “Following Jesus is not an individual pursuit—it’s a family invitation.”
⚡️ “Disciples make disciples, and they do it together.”
⚡️ “Every acorn carries the potential of a forest.”
⚡️ “We want to be with Jesus, be like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.”
Episode Resources:
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TRANSCRIPT
Hey welcome back to the Daron Earlewine Podcast, Daron Earlewine your host and hey uh one thing I love to do in the summer is shake things up a little bit right you got four seasons and everyone’s a little different and and uh I like to change things up in the summer and that’s what we’re going to do here on the Daron Earlewine podcast so here’s what we got for you uh you know we do a lot of purpose development stuff whether it’s at schools the purpose paradigm with what we’ve been doing doing now and and kind of communicating the uh the future of Rogue Collective as we’re doing purpose and and personal development in the marketplace and one of the other things that I’ve been doing well shoot now for like I don’t know since I was 16 is uh going to churches or being a part of faith communities and uh and sharing uh sermons uh out of out of the Bible and so what we’ve done uh this summer is uh gotten maybe some of the greatest hits over the past year or so of me speaking at local churches and we’re going to put them together we’re going to share them with you here on the podcast and here’s what I hope i hope they inspire you i hope they help you understand how much God loves you okay i hope they help awaken within you the fact that God is near you right that God is for you and as we say every week on the podcast that God has created you on purpose and for a purpose so lots of different topics that’ll be coming this summer but hopefully just great content that’s going to inspire you and we always love to hear from you uh very easy way for you to do that just email me Daron D a r o n at daronearlewine.com we’d love to hear what you’re learning love to hear questions you have maybe there’s a a topic you’d love to hear us jump into on the podcast please reach out daron@daronearlewine.com and enjoy the 2025 summer of sermons.
Tagline: Created on purpose and for a purpose.
My name is Daron Earlewine i get to be one of the teaching pastors here uh appreciate your grace uh getting into your parking spaces uh they said I preached too well last service and set off the fire alarm uh I don’t think it had anything to do with my preaching uh I’m not sure what happened uh but uh it happened at the end of service so it was uh it was better than at the beginning and so uh appreciate your your grace and and patience being able to get in and get a place and and and sit down we’re glad you’re here if you’re here all the time we’re glad you’re part of what God’s doing here at Mercy Road Northeast and all the Mercy Road family of churches if this is your first time we’re really really glad that you’re here uh we know uh trying church out uh whether you’ve maybe been at church before and this is a new one or you’re saying “Man I’ve not really been doing the whole God thing and and something feels like this is something I need in my life.” It means a lot to us uh that you would choose to be here uh today and and one of our core beliefs is we believe there’s nobody that’s too far away from God to experience life change uh through Jesus uh we really believe that and have seen it happen time and time again uh in our own lives in the lives of uh of others and even more than that we we don’t just believe that your life uh on earth here is just something that kind of like you you you you meet Jesus and then uh you experience his love and his salvation then you just kind of stand around and and wait to die uh we actually believe that God has created you on purpose and for a purpose and equip you with gifts and abilities talents and certain passions that as Katie was talking about in the announcements we actually uh are invested in helping you discover those and then empowering you to actually use them in partnership with Jesus to change the course of human history and that’s just a little bit about us.
And uh what I was thinking about what would be a good intro for a springtime almost kind of it’s spring is maybe thinking about being spring in Indiana uh the a great intro that would kind of connect with that would be Christmas movies uh not really but I was thinking about Christmas movies this week and I was thinking about my favorite probably one or two my f my my favorite or my second favorite movie Christmas movie is It’s a Wonderful Life right i love the classics and in my home I have three boys and my wife we have a dog and and no one likes It’s a Wonderful Life and no one will watch it with me so every year by myself I watch It’s a Wonderful Life and laugh and cry and Merry Christmas just to myself okay there’s plenty of reasons my my my kids won’t watch it i don’t know if it’s because it’s black and white and old or whatever they just don’t like It’s a Wonderful Life and this year my youngest son asked said “Dad why do you like this movie so much and you ever have something that you just love something but it’s been a while since you thought about like why do I actually love this and so I had to think for him i was like “You know what I said I think the reason I love It’s a Wonderful Life is if you don’t know the story okay basically you got this guy named George Bailey and and and he’s he’s given his life to serve this small town and and some things go wrong and he gets to the point where he’s so depressed he’s he’s standing on this bridge thinking about jumping in and and God sends this angel named Clarence to jump in the water and and and kind of save his life.” And as they’re interacting Clarence gives uh George this opportunity he says “Okay you’re going to be able be allowed to see what the world would be like if you didn’t exist.” And the rest of the movie is George going back and trying to like interact in his life that he thought he had but he never existed and it’s all different and and it was interesting because I think I I I as a kid and maybe even as adult I I I saw myself in George like George had all these aspirations all these dreams he wanted to travel he wanted to do big things and and throughout the the the movie you you see is how many times he’s sacrificed what he wanted to serve his family to serve his friends to serve his community and in that he he felt like maybe he had lost himself maybe he had missed the great life he could have lived if he lived it selfishly for himself and at the end of it he realizes that the best life the good life the wonderful life is found as you sacrifice to serve and to love community around you and so like I just wonder if you were given that opportunity like would you get to the end of it and say to yourself “Wow this really is a wonderful life.” Is your life defined and shaped by the way that you serve with others for a cause greater than yourself that’s what we’re going to explore today.
We’re in this series called Dust: Practicing the Way of Jesus and we’ve talked for weeks now that that the goal is we want to follow Jesus so closely that that if we were following him we would kind of be covered in the dust coming off his sandals cuz we we are spending so much time being with Jesus and trying to be like Jesus and then eventually to do the things Jesus did and today we’re going to talk about what that looks like as we do that together because contrary to kind of modern American Christian thought this whole deal with Jesus is not like an individual pursuit like we say a lot stuff like well this is I have my my personal Lord and Savior this is my personal faith like I just kind of got this thing with me and Jesus and I hear it say often like you know I’m pretty cool with Jesus i just don’t know about the church and I grew up in church i’m a pastor’s kid i’ve been doing ministry for my whole life and um I I I’ve been there before i think a lot of days I’m still there i was talking to a friend uh on staff here we were flying down to Florida went to a great conference two weeks ago and and I said “You know when I was at staff on staff at another church I was in my 30s and there’s this guy on staff and he was 44 i thought he was ancient unfortunately I’m much older than he is at this point.” And uh we would sit in meetings and talk about church stuff and he was always negative and I would I would say “Man you’re just cynical and like jaded like why do you always have like the negative view of things like just pep it up a little bit and he would often say to me I’m not that negative I’ve just lived longer than you and uh what I said to to to my friend as we were in the airport is I am older than him and I said you know the tough part is is my friend was kind of right and kind of wrong because have you noticed that the longer you live the more you disappoint yourself and like the longer you’re around people that like often times the cynical view actually works out like I think the natural gravitational pole of life in relationship with other people is to move towards cynicism and being jaded and um when you get a bunch of people together and they gather regularly around Jesus stuff we call it a church and what happens when you get a lot of human beings together and you try to do relationships you know what happens often you get hurt and disappointed and somewhat disillusioned by other people because they’re just as fallible as you are.
And what I was just even thinking about and praying about this week is that as I’m getting older and I’m still following Jesus and trying to be with Jesus and be like Jesus and do what Jesus did there is no option for it to be my own deal that I just kind of do on my own we’re going to look at the scriptures today jesus gave us no uh no such option because he was actually trying to start a family the family of God and family’s messy and family’s tough and so what I’m realizing is that I have a decision to make in my life going forward and I think you do too is that I can either decide um to have hopefilled grace or maybe gracefilled hope for you and for me and for us or I can just become cynically and jaded and old and I think what the world is looking for is is there actually a place where I could find people that would show me grace show me love and actually have a vision of hope for my future and I think what we see in the church and as we see stories of of the the movement of God changing the course of history that’s what happens is these messed up broken redeemed slowly being transformed people choose to stay together and choose to learn to love one another as they give their life to serve the world and there’s something about that that draws people in and they say I want to be a part of something like that.
And I think in the process there has to be a process of a Greek word called metanoia was with a mentor of mine as we were down there in Florida he talked about this new book he just written called metanoia and metanoia is the Greek word they use in the New Testament that actually means repentance to repent metanoia and I think often times at least for me growing up the word repentance had really negative connotations usually when I needed to repent it meant I just got caught right so repentance was this bad thing it’s where I really felt bad about the thing I did again then I had to apologize to someone or apologize to God and then beg him to forgive me and then to promise that I would never do it again it just had this negative connotation and so it’s tough when Jesus says things like “Hey the the kingdom of heaven is is here it’s at hand that’s available repent and believe what Jesus is actually saying there in that word metanoia that the word meta actually means above and beyond and the nous there the root word there is is thinking and so really what Jesus is saying is here’s what I need you to do if you’re going to be able to enter into the kingdom of God that is actually available it’s right here it’s at hand you need to begin to experience a paradigm shift you need to begin to think higher and above the way you’ve been thinking to come to the place of saying you know what God I want to see things the way you see them and when I do repentance is saying I agree with how God sees this.
And I think as this series has gone on and we’ve talked about what does it actually look like to be with Jesus what does it actually look like to be like Jesus what does it actually look like to do what Jesus did there have been some opportunities I know at least for me to experience moments of repentance as I’ve looked at the principles and we’ve talked about and compare it to the way I’ve been living or the way a lot of times we see North American modern Christianity function i think there’s been opportunities for us as individuals and as a community to go it’s time for me to have a paradigm shift to begin thinking higher to begin thinking above to begin thinking about the way that God sees this to experience repentance and I hope that that continues for us today because as we look at this idea of being covered in the dust of Jesus to be with him to be like him to do what he did the question comes like well then what should we be doing as a community what does that look like because there’s not really an option for us to do something different if the whole goal of this is to be with him to be like him and to do what he did.
[Prayer section follows with the actual prayer content]
If we’re going to be with Jesus be like Jesus and do what he did we got to say what did Jesus do and the first question I want to ask is why did Jesus come to earth it’s pretty good question why did Jesus come to earth because if we’re trying to be like him his why would inform our why especially if we’re a follower of Jesus so why did Jesus come to earth there’s lots of reasons but one of the ones he gives us is in Luke 19:10 and he says this “For the son of man came to seek and save the lost.” Why did Jesus come to earth to seek and save the lost therefore if we’re going to be with him be like him and do what he did a big part of our why as individuals and as community needs to be to seek and to save the lost.
Now notice the word lost there i I I I like that picture because the idea is that uh we at one point were lost and and and God found us and then now invites us to go help other people that are lost and I I think it’s important to think about the idea of loss rather than uh to seek and save the the the terrible bad pagan sinners that are living in the house next to you right to go help the people that aren’t quite as good as I am and I’m really good and I’m no to say here’s what it is i’m not better or I’m not somehow you you know just a perfect human being what it is is that I was found by Jesus and he brought me hope and love and peace and guidance and what I get to do now is join with Jesus as I am with him trying to be like him and I’m doing what he’s doing and what I see is he’s going “Oh my goodness that person is lost.” I know we don’t get lost all that often anymore because uh GPS which is great isn’t it but can you think back to the last time you didn’t have GPS and you were just lost how terrible it feels like I don’t know where I am i don’t know where I’m going and how great it is to have somebody that could maybe come alongside of you in a relationship in that moment and say “Hey I’ve been here before i know where we’re going i know how to get to where we need to be.” What we get to do as we’re with Jesus trying to be like Jesus and doing what he did is we get to look through our life and find people that are lost and in humility and love say “I want to help you be found.”
It’s something that’s really important to us as a church so we try to create environments opportunities for you to do just that to do that effectively you have to answer this question i’ve asked you this question multiple times because it was very very influential in my life about 20 years ago is the question I want to ask you is this is do you have any influential relationships with anyone who doesn’t know Jesus speaking to if you’re a follower of Jesus do you have currently any influential relationships with people that don’t know Jesus here’s how you know if you have an influential relationship they invite you to their home and they invite you to their parties you said “Oh no Daron i’ve got people at work uh another guy you know he’s two desks down total pagan we have a good friendship right we eat ham sandwiches next to each other every every week at at work you know uh but you may work next to this person but are they inviting you into their life?”
And I and I had to to come to this realization many many years ago i remember I’ve told you guys the story before i was trying to go hang out with my neighbor and trying to watch a Cubs game with him and after about 10 minutes it was just awkward and I just went back home cuz I didn’t know how to have a conversation with a normal person and I went home and asked my wife and she said “That’s because you’re not a real human being anymore which was very loving and sweet of her to say.” She said “Daron you’ve become this cartoon character called Pastor Daron and unless you’re at the church doing church stuff being churchy churchy church guy you don’t know how to be regular you don’t know how to be relatable and she was right.
And the tough thing is if we spend too much time doing religious church stuff we become weirdos and then when we can’t have good friendships we excuse oursel and say “Oh it’s just cuz I’m just too holy.” No you’re not right because do you remember that time in Jesus’s life when people who were lost didn’t want to hang around him because he was too weird and too holy no we don’t we see people that were drawn to be in his presence because he was loving and relatable and real he had really good relationships with really lost people and if you’ve gotten to the place where you don’t have influential relationships with people that don’t know Jesus you’re going to really struggle to be with Jesus to be like Jesus and do what Jesus did to help seek and save the lost how do you grow in that that’s your journey that’s your joy it probably starts with something like this jesus help me to figure out how to have influential relationships with people that don’t know Jesus maybe find somebody that you’re in community with that does a really good job and go how do you uh still be a real person and maybe they can mentor you in it.
And the tough thing is if we spend too much time doing religious church stuff we become weirdos and then when we can’t have good friendships we excuse ourselves and say “Oh it’s just cuz I’m just too holy.” No you’re not right because do you remember that time in Jesus’s life when people who were lost didn’t want to hang around him because he was too weird and too holy no we don’t we see people that were drawn to be in his presence because he was loving and relatable and real he had really good relationships with really lost people and if you’ve gotten to the place where you don’t have influential relationships with people that don’t know Jesus you’re going to really struggle to be with Jesus to be like Jesus and do what Jesus did to help seek and save the lost how do you grow in that that’s your journey that’s your joy it probably starts with something like this jesus help me to figure out how to have influential relationships with people that don’t know Jesus maybe find somebody that you’re in community with that does a really good job and go how do you uh still be a real person and maybe they can mentor you in it.
We’ll give you a a an opportunity okay uh this summer we’re bringing back the event we that we do called Worship on the Water okay uh our partnership with Pub Theology a ministry that that I’ve run for a while and here’s what it is we do the thing called Worship on the Water we’re going to do it three times at Wolfies on Geist right down the street we’re going to do it three times at Wolfies in Noblesville your first date is June 11th june 11th okay it’s a Wednesday night at Geist Wolfies on Geist the band for the night is the Flying Toasters which is going to be amazing okay uh I’ll be speaking at it here’s how Worship on the Water works first hour is like a worship service outside in the beer garden at Wolfies a little bit of music i talk for a little bit and here’s the cool part your friends right now that are lost that don’t know Jesus but you influence their life right they may be really uncomfortable sitting here doing this like I don’t know about church bro like can’t I don’t know but if it’s like hey about if how about if like we’re in the sun and there’s some boats and like if you get really stressed out you can have a cocktail and just sit there right you’re going to have some neighbors are going to be like you know something has been kind of stirring I’m curious you want to know why they’re curious because they’re created in the image of God and he’s drawing them back home to himself and you get to be a part of that process okay so we do a little church stuff there outside and then for two hours the Flying Toasters just play some of the greatest rock and roll pop hits you’ve ever heard and we hang out and build relationships okay that’ll happen three times this summer at geist and three times in Noblesville those are just some opportunities for us to say you know what if I’m going to be with Jesus be like Jesus and do what he did I’m going to seek to save those that are lost.
Fair next question we got to ask ourselves all right next question is this what did Jesus do what Jesus did is he lived up in and out you may have seen this triangle before we talk about it all the time here at Mercy Road and that we live up in a relationship with God we live in relationship with community and we live out in our influence in the world so we look at Jesus’s life in Mark chapter 3 it says as he climbed a mountain okay he climbed up in his mountain to pray and to spend time with the father as he climbed he invited those he wanted with him he invited people with him in deeper relationship and then he settled on 12 and designated them apostles the plan was that he would be with them that he would send them out to proclaim the word and give them authority to banish demons up in and out the word apostles means the the sent out ones that Jesus had these men that he called together so here’s what we’re going to do we’re going to get really close to God we’re going to abide with him we’re going to spend a lot of time together in deeper relationship and then I’m going to send you out with the power of the Holy Spirit to actually represent me on earth that is what he did that’s what we try to do as a church.
Where did Jesus do it great question where did Jesus do what he did he did it in community the word we we have in the Bible there is this word oikos which literally means household jesus did what he did in this extended family household we talk about it here at Mercy Road you’re 8 to 15 the 8 to 15 closest people in your life this is a paradigm shift okay because at least I grew up in a Christian community where we would hear phrases and even massive ministries that talked about focus on the family not focus on the oikos it was focus on the family and so many of us grow up thinking that our our greatest calling and our only discipleship is our 2.5 kids and a dog that share our last name i have battled against this and talked to people who need to move past this paradigm shift my whole ministry hey we’re going to do this thing we want you to be involved in helping disciple people well right now I’m just discipling my kids so if your kids only see you caring about their life are you discipling your kids to be with Jesus be like Jesus and do what Jesus did or are you discipling your children to become spiritual narcissists where they only think about them and your family and their own spiritual growth and how are they going to actually learn to be with and be like Jesus unless they’re thinking about how does our family impact people outside of our nuclear family some of us need a paradigm shift of what that looks like that’s what Jesus did.
And he tells us you’re going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you’ll be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth how did Jesus do what he did in Jerusalem that was his like hometown right he did it there and then he would travel outside of that to Judea and then to Samaria and Jesus didn’t really get to the ends of the earth before he finished his mission but then he said to us as disciples he said ‘Here’s the deal is is you’re going to receive power and you’re going to do even greater things than I did which I think that’s a paradigm shift some of us need to wrestle with when’s the last time you woke up and thought to yourself “Today I will do something greater than Jesus did i’m going to go with never.” What do you mean I’m going to do something greater than Jesus did well I’m just saying that’s what Jesus said his perspective on the life that you could live what is possible for you is that you could do things even greater than he did because his spirit would be within you and you would be able to take his love and his message and his strength to the ends of the earth.
What does that look like for us josh talked about this a little bit last week like Jerusalem would be like you know your town right that’s like Fishers or Fortville or Ingalls or Pendleton right where you are you you do the Jesus stuff in community there then Judea that would be your surrounding area that might be like the northeast kind of area of Indie samaria might be the entire Indie area or maybe the state of Indiana and to the ends of the earth would literally be to the ends of the earth this is the way we we want to change our paradigm to see where do we do this Jesus stuff we do it here we do it in our city we do it in our country and we’re open to the idea that we might even have impact all the way to the ends of the earth how because Jesus says “I’m going to give you power to do this question for you where are you willing to go next?” Josh said it last week right it’d be great if we could plant Mercy Road in another continent would you be willing to go would you be willing to lead a new Mercy Road church in another state where are you willing to say yes to where Jesus may invite you to go you say “Well Daron I don’t know about me i’m just a normal person like God’s not going to send me over to start a new church in like Scotland i mean I’m just I’m just a normal lady.” Yeah you’re right uh I don’t know if you guys have noticed but the only option God has to do a miraculous amazing God stuff is to start with normal regular people like you and me right there aren’t like superhuman people and then there’s us there’s just us and what happens is we receive power by the Holy Spirit and we actually move in humility and courage and go yes to following Jesus wherever he’s asking us to go to become who he’s called us to be in any context and guess what your life could actually join with Jesus and change the world but that will never happen until you believe it could happen.
How did Jesus do what he did jesus made disciples who made disciples who lived in spiritual community how did Jesus do what he did he made disciples who made disciples who lived in spiritual community that’s what we’re trying to do as a church why because we want to be with Jesus and become like Jesus and then do what Jesus did in Matthew 28 he gives us this therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptized in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this i am with you always even to the very ends of the age these disciples went and actually began to do this and then as the church began to grow they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to the fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs uh performed by the apostles all the believers were together and had everything in common they sold their property possessions to give to anyone who had need every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts they broke bread in their homes together and ate with glad and sincere hearts praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved how did Jesus do what he did he made disciples who made disciples who got together in spiritual community and did what Jesus told them to do and they changed the world they’re still changing the world.
We want to invite you we’ve got a couple environments that help with that rooted it’s one of our first environments okay if you scan the little barcode in the back of your seat it’ll take you to this and you get some information about it it’s a 10-week experience it provides the opportunity to connect with God in the Mercy Road community if you’re new in your faith and you want to grow up with God start with Rooted why would you do that because we’re trying to be with Jesus be like Jesus and do what Jesus did and so if you want to grow in that to become a disciple who makes disciples who lives in spiritual community Rooted might be a great choice for you.
Another thing that we offer here at Mercy Road is a thing called huddles these are small groups sometimes six to eight people they meet for a year and they grow in their spiritual life to be able to effectively answer two questions what’s God saying to me today and what am I going to do about it okay we’ve got ton of people that are interested in being in huddles here’s the struggle one of the commitments you make when you go through huddles is within 12 to 18 months of being done you will start your own huddle okay i’ve been leading huddles for for over 10 years now i’m on my eighth huddle right now and most of the people that go through huddle don’t actually follow through and start their own huddle our whole staff has been huddling people since the church began here’s the deal we have more people that want to get in a discipleship huddle to be a disciple who learns to follow Jesus but the problem is we don’t have enough disciples that are stepping up to make disciples and all the people I know that have been in a huddle that said they would lead a huddle that aren’t currently leading a huddle they all have really good excuses the difference is excuses are kind of like I won’t do that one okay you have reasons and you think they’re good uh I had reasons that I thought were good of why I took a break leading huddles and it took me three years to get started again you want to know why because there is an actual spiritual resistance keeping us from leading huddles from doing what Jesus asked us to do what he told us to do yeah but you’re I’m not going to be very good at it you’re probably not okay you weren’t very good at riding a bike the first time you tried to do it either but you learned why cuz it became one of the funnest most joyfilled freedom giving experiences you had as a kid i promise you you actually step in with courage and humility and start leading the huddle you said you would lead it will be something that will change your life and it will bring you joy it will bring you freedom it will bring you hope as you lead it poorly with the help of the Holy Spirit and then in eight years you’ll be better at it you know who was pretty terrible at being a disciple when they started all the disciples.
Last thing we have is outpost you guys can come up we can get going becky. Outposts outposts are when people step into the mission that God has put on their heart something that is on God’s heart something on God’s mind he’s looking for somebody that he can let borrow one of his dreams and we put people together in an outpost in a small community and they step into that i love we put this catalog together the team has put together not just what the the outposts do but actually stories of impact so you can hear what’s happening we do our best to equip and empower these people we actually even invest money to help them get these missions off the ground some of you right now have something that you would like to there’s a passion something that you see in the community something that that could be something that should be different and God is calling you to step in and start that we want to help you do that if you’re not maybe a have to start something person and you’re looking for something to be a part of to be with Jesus and be like Jesus and do what Jesus did flip through here and find something read some stories find something that brings your heart to life there’s brand new ones that are starting right now in the next couple weeks if you want information stop by the hub and we can tell you about it we do everything we do as imperfectly as we do it as a church to create environments where hopefully by the grace of God we may stumble our way into being with Jesus and being like Jesus and doing what Jesus did.
I’ll end with this this is an oak tree beautiful beautiful tree what’s interesting about an oak tree is it doesn’t start like this right this oak tree at one point was an acorn and I think the paradigm shift I want to encourage some of you to embrace is that you see yourself as an acorn and you admire oak trees here’s one thing we believe at Mercy Road it’s the same way in in this nature is that in every every acorn and every small piece of an acorn is a forest of oak trees and in every oak tree is still the seeds of that small part of an acorn but if you only feel like a little acorn I can’t do those things i couldn’t be a part of whatever that is if that’s your paradigm you will never become an oak tree but what I want you to know is that God sees your potential and in every great movement of God it started as individuals saying “Here’s what I’m going to do i’m going to try to be with Jesus i’m going to try to be like Jesus and then I’m going to get together with other acorns and we’re going to do what Jesus does some of you may be the next people to start outpost some of you may be the next great huddle leader some of you may be the next people that plant Mercy Road churches around the world because the seeds of a great Jesus movement are in every single one of us that come together to be with Jesus to be like Jesus do what Jesus did.
Heavenly Father we thank you for this opportunity this invitation and God I thank you for the seeds of movement that are in this room god I pray for somebody that that that that the step they need to take they need to join rooted give them the courage and humility to do so folks that need to start their huddle god give them that gentle nudge that invitation into the into the action where the where the action really is and may they step into that folks that that need to join an outpost God I pray that you would nudge them by your Holy Spirit to go this is where the fun really happens folks that have a vision that have something that they feel like could happen that should happen i pray that you would nudge them to that this must happen and they would join you to do what you have done and do it with others we love you we ask these things in Jesus name amen.