Blessed is the Nation Whose God is the Lord

Transcription

1 Keynote Nick Vujicic

2 I really quickly want to thank you if you've ever prayed for our ministry of Life Without Limbs, it's been an incredible journey. We, now based down the road at Lindero Canyon Road down here, I've now lived in Los Angeles for 10 years, I still sort of am holding on with both hands my Australian accent as much as I can, it is withering away whether you like it or not, but it is just so beautiful to be in this part of the world and from LAX, it's such a great airport to travel from. In 2013, by the grace of God, He opened up doors for us to preach in 26 countries, and I was able to talk with, up to an hour, 13 presidents. And 12 countries put us for an hour on TV to preach the gospel to a total of 400 million people, the full gospel of Jesus Christ. When you see Joni and when you see what God's done with her and when you see a man without arms and legs being the hands and feet of God as well, it just God, you know The Bible says that He uses the foolish things to confound the wise, amen? It just doesn't make sense in how. Obviously, the only thing that makes sense is the door only opens up a little bit and I get my little foot in there and kick it open. But, other ways it absolutely doesn't make sense and there is nothing that really I have been given by God that I deserve. There is nothing that I've been given by God that I come close to deserving. The greatest blessing that I've received as a 32-year-old man now, and seeing what God has done, and seeing ahead maybe a glimpse of what's to come, the greatest focus of all is that I just want Him. I want to pursue Him. I want to pursue more of Him. I want to have a deeper intimacy with Him. I want to learn more about all that He has to say for me, that I may try, by the grace of God, to the best of my ability, let the whole world know that Jesus loves them, that they're not forgotten, and when I was looking at this video that was just shared up here, it's so encouraging. You know, I've been in 54 countries and been on a lot of planes, I know how it is when you can't feel your legs, Joni, after a while on the plane. But, it's just amazing that as we've gone 54 countries, it's not just awakening a nation to the justice that should be there for the disheartened and the forgotten and the needy and the handicapped, there are nations and presidents that I've met face-to-face and they look at me and say, Can you help us, too, on this? In Liberia, in 2008, I was with the Nobel Prize winner- two years ago she got it, I was able to meet her in Liberia and the tribal beliefs are such that if a baby's born with a birth defect as minimal as a birth rash or a cleft lip or a missing ear, they actually bury the child alive. It's not because they are evil people. It's not because the government doesn't want to change things, it's about bringing truth and light into a darkened situation, and that can only be communicated with love and the greatest way to communicate love to someone is to let them know that you care. To let them know that you care, you got to take time, you got to initiate an engagement of a communication of truth, or revelation, or initiation for the next season, for any country. Nick Vujicic Page 1 of 9

3 As Steve Bundy and the team here at Joni and Friends have given each keynote a verse, I would like to read Psalm 33, I'd like to read the first 12 verses and I normally don't have notes up here, but I have to say I misread my calendar and it said that I'm speaking for 90 minutes, and I don't speak for 90 minutes normally, so that's why I have my notes up here, and so if you see me going up and down it's because I'm trying to fit in, in 35 minutes, what I thought I should say in 90. And so, the pace is going to be a little bit different for me, so excuse me as I look at my notes at times, and that was fully my fault as I reflect on it now, but hey, God knows what he's doing, amen? It's good, because I got to study the Bible a little bit more last night. Psalm 33, I don't know if you normally follow with the keynote speaker, if you do, Psalm 33. It says, Rejoice in Jehovah, O righteous ones. Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to Jehovah with the lyre. With the harp of 10 strings sing psalms to him. I think the how do you say in American? Lyre? L-Y-R- E? It's a flute, right? Sing to him a new song, play skillfully with a joyous shout. For the word of Jehovah is right and all his works is done- all his work is done- in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the lovingkindness of Jehovah. By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made and all their hosts by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the water of the sea like a heap. He puts the deep waters into storage places. Let all the earth fear Jehovah. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spoke and it was. He commanded and it stood. Jehovah brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the intentions of the peoples. The counsel of Jehovah stands forever. The intentions of his heart stand from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah- or the Lord- the people whom he has chosen as his own possession. When you come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, whether we are talking as a nation, and a nation who honors God, God honors the nation. There are times where the nation wants to honor the poor people and try to help the needy, but they just either have no resources or direction, and Joni and Friends is one of the pioneering ministries who's helped nation upon nation, time after time, year after year, giving direction, giving counsel, giving love, and really being active in sharing that love. Love is an action. I want you to know that the greatest thing that engaged me into a relationship with Jesus is His love. He died for me, now I live for him. Why? Cause there's nothing else better to live for than the purposes that God has for me. He has a plan, He has graced that as sufficient strength through Jesus Christ that enables me, by His grace, to do all things. How many things? (Audience): All. Nick Vujicic Page 2 of 9

4 There are amazing, beautiful things of this Earth that we can admire and see, but the greatest blessing of all, above all, is knowing Him, receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior, seeing that undeservingly we are forgiven and renewed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. In that transformation, the renewing of your mind happens. Where you strive by the grace of God to forgive your enemy, to heal from the past, to lay down everything we have, and say, God, not my will, but your will be done. To present your requests to God, and let His peace guard your heart and your mind in Him. Lord, give me arms and legs, but if you don't give me arms and legs, your will be done. If God says no to something, He says yes to what? Something better. He will never shortchange you, and I've seen 13 miracles, I've prayed for 300 people face-to-face in my travels and seen 13 blind people seeing, deaf people hearing, lame people walk, and crooked backs come straight, but that is no greater of a miracle than a soul coming to Jesus Christ. That is no greater of a miracle than for someone who's still dealing with terminal cancer, but smiles and shows the peace of God that transcends all understanding, that guards their heart and their mind. Why are you smiling? Because I know the truth of my identity, my value, I'm a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords, I'm not forgotten, I have angels around me, God can't stop thinking about me, He has more precious thoughts of me than all the grains of sand in the world, He knew me before the Earth began by name, and that is the God that we serve, Jehovah, who is our Heavenly Father. He is a Father to the fatherless, and He sees and hears the pain of the world, and He looks around in rooms and He says, Whom shall I send? I heard about the hope of Jesus because someone engaged in communicating the truth and the love of Jesus. I wonder if the people who were not in my life who did that, if they were not in my life, how would I have known otherwise? The world has come alive for me on a whole new level as a father. Now he's two years old, he's my height. His name's Kiyoshi. Let's put a photo up here, this is my wife Kanae, she's half Japanese, half Mexican, Japsican. We got married in Kiyoshi was born at one year and one day after we got born (sic), and so we celebrate anniversary on the 12th, his birthday on the 13th, Valentines on the 14th, and so that was last week, it was pretty fun. My wife Kanae and I are expecting a second child now. It is because of God's love that I am who I am. He transformed me, amen? Every good gift comes from God and any good thing that you see in Nick is not of Nick 's nature, is not because of positive attitude, is not because of karma, is not because of anything else, but the power of the Holy Spirit, and it's His love that transforms. That Heavenly Father's love. Nick Vujicic Page 3 of 9

5 When my wife Kanae was pregnant with Kiyoshi five months and everyone was feeling him kick, I was getting a little jealous and so I asked my wife, Hey, can you let me know when he's kicking again? He turns and she says, he turns over in her womb, she's like, Babe, I think he's going to kick! So, I went to her straight away and put my little foot on her womb, and boom, you know? And it takes a lot for me to cry, and tears came straight to my eyes, looked at my wife in her eyes with full emotion and I said, Babe, I love him. I was in, just words came out. That is the unconditional love that the Father has for each and every human being on the planet. My son did not have an opportunity to even try and earn my love. I don't know what his future is, I don't know what his personality's going to be like, I don't know if one day he's not going to like me. True or not? Okay? But guess what? I'm going to love him. No matter what, because he is mine, and I am his. That's the love of the Father. It gives you a desire to change, to repent. I want to ask you, put your hand up if you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior. Go, put your hand down. Do you remember when you started that journey with Him? Do you remember the feeling that you had? I do. I was 15. John chapter nine, a man was born blind, no one knew why he was born that way. Jesus said it was done so that the works of God would be revealed through him, and what I realized was I didn't need to know God's plan for my life. I just needed to believe that he had one. Amen? It's His plan. He doesn't need me to design it. I mean, I suggested a plan B, but He said nothing about that. And so, when I gave my life to Jesus, I remember I couldn't sleep cause of the joy, and then I started thinking of all these people, that I just want them to know. I want them to experience that love, that joy. And in our life we know that we can't change people. We can't. We can't even change ourselves. But, we can love. And in I John 3:18-20 it says, My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth, and this we know that we are of the truth- and by this we will know that we are of the truth- and shall assure our hearts before him. Why is that being said? Because a couple verses behind, it says, Whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? When God and His love abides in you, all you see then are your greatest priorities. The greatest priorities, the greatest commandments, is commandment number one, what? It was summarized in two. Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And then, what's the second one? Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, as an evangelist who has many invitations to go around the world- it is a whole new chapter for me in my life- and as an evangelist, to travel without my family sometimes And for me, I've discovered, and I'll say this for me, I've discovered that there's a silent commandment in Nick Vujicic Page 4 of 9

6 between those two commandments. It's love God, then love your wife, love your family, and then love your neighbor as yourself. Now, technically they could be your neighbor, but there's obviously a little bit more of a special relationship between me and my wife and my son than my neighbor. And so, for me, what I've realized, that I want you to hold in whatever ministry capacity that you have, that number one is your pursuit in your active relationship with Him, and grow and get refreshed as much as possible. That's number one. Number two, make sure that you are the best husband, the best father, the best wife, the best mother, you can be. God does not love you for what you do, God loves you because you belong to Him, and your greatest ministry are those closest to you first, and you can't bang him over the head with the Bible sometimes, your cousins and uncles and aunts who refuse to go to church, but you can pray with them. You can plant seeds of love, and that's great, and unless I was faithful with my own backyard, with my own uncles, with my own aunts, with my own cousins, with my own neighbors, in our suburb of Sunnyvale Gardens, Queensland, Australia, when I was faithful in that neighborhood, only then God expanded the territory. Amen? Now I don't know where you are in this, but where I want you to see now, that I want to urge you to move forward, is into more. I want you to dream bigger. When we see nation upon nation upon nation coming in a transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit, maybe you can't picture that right now. Maybe you can't see that right now, but I'm telling ya, God is moving, and He's ready to move, and He's ready for us to dream big, bigger than we could ever ask, imagine or attain. I'm not just talking about the scale of, Oh yeah, this eight year old limbless kid, oh yeah, what's he going to do? It's amazing to see what happened and where we're at, but what about you? God can do miracles with your broken pieces when you give God your broken pieces. He does miracles out of broken glass. He does miracles out of the lonely depths of suffering in your heart, in your mind. And when you don't get a miracle, He prepares you to be a miracle for someone else, and when we're talking about nations, we're talking about nations. I don't know if you know this, but in Iran, 2009, one million people went to the government, filled out a form, why they're changing their religion from Islam to Christianity, and they all said the same thing. They met Jesus in a dream. One million gave their life to Jesus in a year in Iran, where missionaries can't really go. God loves the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God's dream is to reach and save the lost, the world. And I just want you to dream and ask God to open up our eyes, our hearts and our mind that He would help us to see where, in His great plan of these last days, does He want you? Be faithful with what you've been given. Honor God Nick Vujicic Page 5 of 9

7 and He will honor you. One step at a time. Know that God really is ready for us to take a bigger step forward. I can talk to you about so many things. About what God has done in the ministry around the world. We can talk for weeks and weeks on end, in all the things that Joni and Friends have done, but in the end the love of God to cover the world is up to me and you. And an illustration that helps me to really make sure, am I a better evangelist today than I was yesterday, am I a better husband today than I was yesterday, am I a better father today than I was yesterday? You know, I look at the world geographically, how it's mapped out, and I sometimes wonder if Heaven is geographically mapped out like Earth, and there's an Agoura Hills and there's a Thousand Oaks and there's a mall park and there's your city and there's your street. And I wonder if, when I come to see God face-to-face, we already know what He's going to say, for those who are faithful He will say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome home. But, I wonder if He's going to say, Hey, welcome home. Well done my good and faithful servant. Looking over my shoulder, Who else did you bring? I wonder, when I go see our mansions that we have in Heaven, imagine if it's geographically mapped out like Earth. Which blocks of land on your street would remain blocks of land? Mansions that were not built, because those neighbors down the street did not hear. There are many who need Jesus. Widows, the sick, the handicapped, and the wealthy and the healthy, if you will, but you are commissioned for this mission. Where Jesus has a compassion, again and again, within the world of God. It's because you're helping a child of God see the truth that they're not forgotten. That Heaven is real, and as you read Psalm 33 verse 12, the one that I'm supposed to talk about. The second part of it, it says, The people he has chosen as his own inheritance. You know, being a father changes your life, being married changes your life, but he's my inheritance, he's God's, but he's now the joy that I can experience. We are God's inheritance. We are God's inheritance, and I don't know what title you have in your ministry, but I'll tell you right now, if you ever wanted to be a real estate broker, you are. You're brokering mansions being built in Heaven every single day. With every hour, and every act of love, that inheritance of what they get, of what God gets, that we don't live for us anymore. We live for God and His perfect plan for us. Life, salvation and family. I love that song in Casting Crowns, that band, I don't know if you know that one, but if we are the Body, why aren't His hands reaching? Right? Do you know what the biggest answer is to every single problem in the world? The Church. Everyone say, The Church. (Audience): The Church. Nick Vujicic Page 6 of 9

8 Who's the Church? What Church? What denomination? Who's the Church? You are. I was with Michael Reagan, the son of the President Reagan, at a lunch and he said, Nick, the Church is the answer for every single problem in the world. He has an amazing testimony himself, but he said, Nick, there are- I think he said- 117,000 churches registered in America. And he said, If every church in this country actually took care of two fostered kids a year, two a year, there would never have been a need for one single foster home. Foster care. Adoption. Hunger. It's always been there in the world. Hunger a billion people are going hungry today. The food that we have they could only dream, but we, the Church, I believe are the answer. The unity of the Body of Christ is the key for nations to change and transform. And it's not just about the pastors, and whose pastors working with who, and who's not. I'm talking about you and me who will stand together as one, as an army on the front line, locking arms. And if I can't lock arms, you're going to carry me and catapult me forward. And I want you to know that we are commissioned by God to go out and make disciples. Be the light, be the solution. It's not up to the billionaires. It's not up to any rich people to end world hunger, it's up to me and you. How could it be, that we still haven't ended world hunger? There are 1,000 high schools in America who deem to be a Christian or Catholic school, 1,000. Okay? What if the youth realized that there is something that they can do, and the Church awakens? There are seven billion people in the world. What if 400 million people agreed to end world hunger and give one dollar a day to actually do it? That little thing called Ebola, you heard about Ebola? Four hundred eighty or 500 million dollars was raised by three governments against Ebola. That was their financial big plan. If 400 million youth in the world says, Enough is enough! We want to reach the hungry, they could do it. And they could raise 400 million dollars every day if we just came together and woke up and realized the power of one vision. Whose vision? God's vision. God's dream. God wants all the nations to see His glory. We are the agents of change. We are the light bearers, by the grace of God. Got nothing to do with us, in what we have or not have, it's all about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. There was one more thing I wanted to say before I throw away the notes. Justice. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Why? Because when a nation honors God, they know Him. They know His love, they know His compassion. They know that He leaves the 99 to go for the one. We are all the different parts of the Body of Christ, and I want to encourage you to keep going. Do not grow weary of doing good. You're talking about changing a mindset of a nation. Well, if it's only God who can change one person, it's God who can change a nation. It's just us being faithful with what He's commissioned us to do. People's lives are changed because of His love, and that's Nick Vujicic Page 7 of 9

9 what we need to pray for. Fasting and praying of continued favor. Dreams that go bigger and bigger and bigger, because there are seven billion out there who need to hear that message. I've met a lot of disabled kids. I've broken down and cried in front of sex slaves who were kidnapped at 10. When you know the compassion that Jesus has for every soul, it becomes burdensome, but you ain't carrying a thing, except the love and joy and strength and truth of Jesus. Jesus carries you, as you carry Him in you. Don't be afraid to dream big, to keep going, and fight for justice, stand for love, and pray for the world that we live in. May God bless every single one of your ministries that's represented here geographically. This is exciting. To me, Heaven's around the corner. Do you know when Jesus is coming back? Pretty soon. The Bible says very soon, but He does come back when all the world has heard about Jesus. True or false? True. When you take the top 10 ministries around the world, who's had the biggest international impact? I tell you if this little guy and Joni has seen millions of people touched by Jesus, and it's getting faster and faster and Jesus is visiting people in their dreams? I'll tell you right now, it won't be very long before we all raise our hands, and I'll be the first one to raise my new hands. I'll just leave with one more thing and go 60 seconds over, you can handcuff me later. The first hand that I hold is the pierced hand of my Savior, and that's why I live for Him. There is no one like Him. Never will be, never was, just Jesus. When you get discouraged, think of one person who will come up to you in Heaven, and look at you and say, Thank you for being faithful in the ministry that God gave you. You maybe don't remember me, but I am so-and-so from such-andsuch and I want you to meet my wife. And here are our children, and here are our children's spouses, and our children's children, and children's children's children, and one of them became a Billy Graham. And there's the whole tribe of a million other souls who heard the gospel because of our great-great-great grandchild, and it all started because you were faithful with the call that God's given you. When you're making a difference for Jesus, it's for the one, but it's for the whole world. For the generations and generations to come. Let me pray. God, we ask that you would help us and equip us to be God-honoring sons and daughters, generals in the army of God. Going in love, shining your light. We give you all the praise and glory. For Joni and Friends, for the ministry of Life Without Limbs, thank you, Lord for each staff member and board member and volunteer of both ministries, many of them which are here today. Thank you, Lord, for those who pray for our ministries, who support our ministries. Thank you, Lord, for the leadership that you bestowed upon each ministry. And we pray, Lord God, that at such a time as this that we would be ever so close to your heart and your voice and your leading and your guiding and protection. Lord, we uplift the Nick Vujicic Page 8 of 9

10 United States of America that has done many, many things for the disabled, but Lord, may we become a nation where we don't just sing God Bless America. You have blessed this nation. May America bless you. May America be once again a nation that honors you in everything we plan, say, and do. Thank you, Lord, that we can show the world that you love us. Lord, nation upon nation, generation upon generation, help us, Lord Jesus, to be a part of your great plan, that all may know you and that all would be saved. Thank you, Jesus, for all these things. In your precious name, amen. Nick Vujicic Page 9 of 9