God’s World Changers

Are you a world changer? Are you a self-governing follower of Jesus? The Holy Spirit, whom God gave to us when we dedicated our lives to Him, is a force that transforms not only you, but also the world! World changers live for the honor, the glory, and the goodness of God!

With a country divided, the Republican risk and morality being redefined, it’s time to gather round a camp fire, get back to basics, and spark the revival that this country so desperately needs.
This is the American Camp Fire revival with Cook Cameron.
I want to, uh, talk with you about this concept that we’ve been really diving into and unpacking of the self governing follower of Jesus.
Jesus was a a a more than just a world changer.
He, uh, the scriptures say that that he created the world and and the world was helplessly hopelessly lost in bondage and darkness and tyranny and selfishness and pain and shame and guilt, and he came to set the captives free.
And he does that to us individually.
He sets us free, to love god, to know god, and to love one another.
And he also sets families free, and he sets communities and churches and nations free.
And we’ve been talking about how god unleashed the greatest force in the world And that is the self governing follower of Jesus.
But some of you might be saying, hey, Kirk. Wait a second.
I go to church and frankly, a lot of the people that I see sitting in church, they don’t look like world changers.
Uh, in fact, some of them are hypocrites. In fact, some of them are just kind of lame.
Some of them are just people who are are taking up some religious space in a few.
And they talk a big game, but in the real world, they they they’re they’re having a a big enough challenge, uh, just changing their their attitude or their own personal behavior or their marriage, let alone change the world So what are you talking about?
Well, let’s let’s get a little deeper into this and talk about exactly what god talks about In his word, when he talks about the self governing follower of Jesus, you see, when someone comes to faith in Jesus, when they come to the end of themselves, when they lay down their excuses and defenses for their selfishness, and they say, oh, god.
I need you to overhaul my heart. I believe in Jesus, you sent him to die for my sins.
I believe he he was raised from the dead, and he’s conquered death and I want to live for him because he died for me.
God sends something into your heart that is a world changing force. Called the Holy Spirit.
It’s the spirit of Jesus that lives inside of you.
And it is a force that can transform not only you, but your world.
And you do it for the honor and the glory and the goodness of god.
So we’re gonna be talking about the self governing follower of Jesus.
And and this is a person, um, who who by the way, is more than just a person who who knows that he should be good and not be bad.
I mean, that’s good, but that’s that’s entry level. Follower of Jesus.
Uh, that’s that’s kindergarten Christianity when we talk about being good and not being bad.
That’s that’s that’s the entry level understanding. Of course, we should be good. Of course, we shouldn’t be bad.
We wanna grow and mature and become fully devoted followers and self governing members of the family of faith So before we get into that, let let’s talk about what this term self government really even means.
I mean, when we when we talk about the word government? What do we think of?
What do you think of? When I say government, who is the government? You’re thinking of Washington, DC.
Right? You’re thinking of uh, the, uh, the congress. You’re thinking of the president.
You’re thinking of governors of your state, the legislature, the the the the supreme court, you’re thinking of them out there.
And so often we think of government as being external. It’s them they’re the governments.
And I either like them or I don’t like them, but they’re the governments.
Well, god has a whole different concept of governments in his word.
When we talk about self government, it sounds a little strange because we think, well, I’m not the government.
Well, no. God expects you and me to think of government first in terms of governing ourselves.
And god puts his spirit within us so that we can govern ourselves.
You see what Adam in the garden did not do well. He didn’t govern himself well.
There was no police there. There was no president there. There was no congress there. There were no judges there.
He was expected to govern himself, and he did that very poorly. He didn’t govern himself and protect his wife.
He didn’t stop on the head of the serpent who was lying and leading him down a path of deception and destruction.
That’s what a man should do. But hadn’t didn’t do that.
And so other forms of government needed to be put into place, and a spirit of god himself needed to be placed inside of his heart and that’s what Jesus came to do.
And when we talk about governing ourselves, it’s very important to understand that this idea of of of just being a a rogue individual, true self government is not just doing your own thing, free to govern yourself any way that you want apart from the moral standards of god.
That does not lead to liberty. That leads to anarchy. And we’ve seen that in our culture.
People just saying, I’m free to do what I want. It’s a free country.
I can do anything I want, and they don’t do it voluntarily submitting to the moral standards of god.
Like, treat others as more important than yourself. Love your neighbors.
Jesus took it a notch higher and said, love your enemies.
And pray for those who persecute you when we don’t submit voluntarily to those standards and we govern ourselves according to our own lower nature our selfish and prideful nature where it’s all about me, that results in anarchy and destruction and lawlessness.
No. True self government as understood by the founders of our country who took their cues from their spiritual leaders who were members of the family of faith who looked to god and to his word understood that they would govern themselves in a way that honored the good principles of heaven.
Jesus’ government is internal.
Before it’s anything else, it’s internal.
He puts something within your heart that is a great power that enables you to overpower the external outside forces that look to drag you down.
Have you had forces like that in your life that look to drag you down?
Health forces, financial forces, uh, addictions to substances, to behaviors, to relationships, things that seem to bring out the worst in you and and and be like chains around your ankles and and and things that throw you into prisons that keep you in bondage.
Jesus came to set you free from all of those things.
First, by setting you free inside of your heart.
I love I love the way that, uh, pastor Tony Evans talks about that internal power that he who is inside of you is greater than he who is in the world speaking of the devil and all of his his his strategies against you and me.
And he and he likens it to a a kernel of corn. My wife loves popcorn, by the way.
Almost every evening, she makes sola olive oil in a pot with some colonels of corn over the stove, and she makes popcorn.
It puts a little salt and pepper, and we eat that in front of the fire, and and we talk about the kids and and the day.
But what makes that popcorn explode inside of that pot is he says there is a little bit of water inside of that kernel.
And when you heat that water up, it begins to get hotter and hotter and hotter, and that water begins to turn to a vapor and that vapor is steam that is begins to exert a pressure inside the kernel of corn.
And when that that pressure of the steam becomes so strong.
It eventually becomes more powerful then the atmospheric pressure on the outside of the kernel, and it pops.
It explodes. And that little kernel now becomes this big white puffy kernel of popcorn because the outside pressure cannot contain the pressure on the inside of the colonel.
I’m starting to sound like Tony Evans right now. I could just hear him. One of my favorite preachers.
And that’s what happens when god puts his spirit inside of you.
The spirit in you overpowers the pressure on the outside of you, and it cannot stop and you are set free to love god and to love your neighbors and you’re no longer a prisoner of your lower nature that wants to drag you down into sin and bondage.
And imprison you. My friend that I was paddle boarding with this morning is a pilot and he understands this in a different way.
The law of aerodynamics is amazing.
What are the chances that a machine made of metal that weighs tons and tons and tons is gonna be able to fly through the air.
I mean, I take this this stick right now, which weighs almost nothing, and look, gravity pulls it down.
But the but the law of aerodynamics does the impossible with an airplane.
Because of the law of aerodynamics, the shape of the wing and the speed of the airplane it can overpower the law of gravity.
The law of gravity doesn’t disappear, but it is superseded by the law of aerodynamics.
And you and I can get in a plane and safely travel across the world because we are confident that there is a law that is higher than the law gravity into the law of aerodynamics.
And god tells us in his word in the book of Romans chapter 8 verse 2, because through the law, because through Jesus Christ, the law of the spirit of life.
That’s the new life that god puts inside of you.
The spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
The law of sin that leads to death spiritual death separation from god.
We will perish under the judgment of god if we are not brought to life and we are not brought out from under this law of death that we brought upon ourselves by rebelling against god, but praise god Jesus Christ has sent the spirit of life in us, which sets us free from that.
The spirit of life in you and me supersedes the law of sin and death.
So you and I do not crash and burn on the day we stand before the judge of the universe.
How awesome is that? Johnny Cash, you’re singing about that.
Before we started, this is the power inside of you that is greater than the power outside of you and this is the power of life that supersedes the law of sin and death.
And it can happen for anyone who comes to god in humility, Turning away from what you know is that sin that leads to death and embracing the spirit of life in Jesus.
By faith. This is god’s world changing power and it can reside in you and it can reside in me.
And it can empower our families and it can transform our communities It can give new dignity to your role as a mother as a father.
It can transform your workplace where you become an ambassador from heaven to those you work with, and it can eventually transform our politics and government because it all starts with self government.
Lord, we thank you for these these liberating truths.
These things that can set us free and give us hope in times of despair Lord, these are not dark days.
These are exciting days. These are the days that force character growth in us.
God, thank you that we live in a country that is still free.
Lord set us free as individuals because it is our personal character that will determine the character of our nation.
And we wanna be a shining city on a hill that is does not need to hide its face in shame.
But can shine for the whole world so that they could see our good deeds and praise you father in heaven.
This is the desire of our heart. Amen.
And, uh, if anybody asks you, uh, what’s your plan?
You remember to tell him it’s all about a campfire.
It’s all about the power of god working in the hearts of his people.
When we gather to remember his mighty deeds in this country and in other countries around the world and how together as the family of faith, we can call down the blessings of heaven.
Because we have a king whose executive orders are, love god with all your heart and love your neighbors yourself, and he will come to our age.
God bless you.
Thank you for listening to the American Camp Fire revival podcast.
Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode.
If you’d like to learn more and join the movement, visit kirkcameron dot com.