VOUS Church

Rich Wilkerson, Jr. — The Book of Romans: Confidence From Clarity

Have you ever lacked confidence? In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes "I am not ashamed of the gospel." He always seemed so confident, yet this was a man who went through obstacle after obstacle. He was shipwrecked, stoned, and persecuted by so many. Despite the challenges, he was still able to profess “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” Where did his radical confidence come from? If we go back to the start of his letter, we find Paul makes a bold declaration in Romans 1:1, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.” 

In a new collection of talks based in the book of Romans, Pastor Rich Wilkerson, Jr. will explore Paul's self-proclaimed identity in a sermon titled "Confidence from Clarity." Without clarity, we lack the confidence to proclaim God's word.

There are three things we need to clearly define in our lives to walk in confidence. The first is to know who we serve. We should serve God but oftentimes we allow good earthly things to compete with God's position. The second is to know what we are called to do. We all have an occupation or vocation but we're called to proclaim the word of God in those positions. The third is to understand why you're set apart. Sometimes we think God is punishing us when He removes people or things from our lives but He sets us apart to speak to us and use us. Ultimately, the information we receive by having a relationship with God combined with applying it to our lives will result in a transformation.

Rich Wilkerson Jr. — Down And Out / VOUS Conference 2018

VOUS CONFERENCE 2018

 

SESSION 1

 

RICH WILKERSON JR

"DOWN AND OUT"

Pastor Robert Madu - Get Out

What if the power in a miracle was in more than just the miracle itself, but also in the atmosphere? How many times have we called for a dead situation in our lives to get up? We may not consider that it's actually the people or things around us that have to be removed for us to find the healing we seek.

In a sermon titled "Get Out," Pastor Robert Madu breaks down the story of Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood, two seemingly different situations on the surface, but at the core they were connected. Ultimately, they had the same mission - to seek intervention from Jesus. Both desperate, they stopped at nothing to get His attention and help.

Sometimes we may not receive what we asked for because we don't believe all that God is able to do, and as a result, our faith suffers. But if we attach our faith to God's power and authority, we can trust that He will come through.

Brooke Ligertwood — The Path of His Presence

God has given us access to his reality through the blood of Jesus Christ and there is a path to his presence and it is a path that is accessible to every one of us, and God has invited us to walk it.How do we walk in the path of the presence of God? Brooke Ligertwood teaches us that we can do so by finding ourselves continually in the word of God, filling our hearts with the truth that is found in scripture for our lives. As we worship God we discover more of who God is and more of who we are. We find a continual revelation of who Jesus is. A true encounter with God is transformative. When we step into the presence of God and have an encounter with him it changes the way we walk.

Losing Your Ship - Rich Wilkerson, Jr.

In a perfect world, we'd be able to control every aspect of our life. But in the end, would planning every detail and knowing the outcome of a situation really benefit us?

Oftentimes, the things we so desperately seach for to fulfull us, leave us empty and helpless. So we look for the next "thing" to complete our lives.
But when we decide to follow God, we have to stop seeking control and find the courage to allow God to do His will in our lives. In order to receive all that God has for us, we have to lose our thoughts on how our lives should play out and step out of our comfort zones.

The ship of life that we're on is sometimes the very thing that holds us back. In order to get to our destiny, we have to abandon the ship and trust in our Savior. It's in God we find the security, hope and love we seek and the sooner we let go of our "ships", the sooner we can walk in what God has called us to.

VOUS Values: Don't Pass on Passion

What does it mean to have passion and how do we know we're passionate about something?

Pastor Rich concludes our collection of talks "VOUS Values" with a sermon titled "Don't Pass on Passion."

 

Usually, when we're passionate about something, it pours out of us. It's something that we can't stop talking about. Something we have an undeniable enthusiasm for. But passion is more than mere enthusiasm, it's the driving force to making our dreams become a reality. 

 

In order to make those dreams come to fruition, we have to know where our passion is pointed. When life becomes difficult, it's often our passion that helps us to prevail - especially our passion for God. When we're able to confess our downfalls, it's our proclamation of who God is that makes all the difference.

VOUS Values: It's A Heart Thing

In our continued collection of talks on VOUS Values, Manouchka Charles explores our sixth value. To say that honor is our calling is great, but it’s another thing for us to act it out. Honor is not something we only do when we have a positive attitude and life is going great. It’s even more important to encourage others when we’re not feeling our best. When you’re a part of a team, you have the ability to create the culture and in order to do so, your habits have to match your intention.

So what are the habits that rule in your life? Do they reflect that of a person who honors others? Once you identify them, then you can decide whether they should be replaced or have a vision for them. Honoring others means not being stingy with your words. When we make honoring others a reality, we do it whether we think someone deserves it or not and we are not led by our emotions. Ultimately, when honor is our calling, we are truly honoring God in all that we do.

VOUS Values: Preparing The Way

 

At Vous Church, servant leadership is our identity and impacts every part of our lives.  On Mother’s Day, we honor our moms who exemplify servant leadership by giving their lives to serve. As we continue our collection of talks on Vous Values, Pastor DawnCheré delivers a powerful message entitled: Preparing the Way. She discusses the iconic servant leader John the Baptist and takes a closer look at his beloved mother Elizabeth who paved the way for her son. Elizabeth prepared John for his purpose by walking out her miraculous FAITH, being BRAVE, and showing HUMILITY.

Before he recognized Jesus, SHE recognized Jesus. Elizabeth even recognized Jesus in the womb of Mary! All along, Elizabeth was preparing the way for John to walk out his purpose. So how do you raise a world changer? You be a world changer yourself.  

VOUS Values: From Obligation to Opportunity

Have you ever had to do something that you really didn’t want to do? Maybe it was a chore or an assignment at work. Obligation rarely creates passionate, productive, exciting results. And the truth is, if we’re not careful, we can approach the majority of our lives from the posture of feeling obligated.

Continuing our collection of talks, "VOUS Values," Pastor Rich expands upon our 4th value, Generosity Is Our Privilege. He reveals that the act of giving can often be viewed as an obligation instead of the opportunity that it actually is.

Generosity becomes an opportunity when we discover the privilege it is to give. By activating generosity, we take the power away from greed in our lives and give God access to more of our hearts.

VOUS Values: Louder Than Words

What do you think of when you hear the term, "excellence"? Maybe you are reminded of attention to details and the work ethic of a person. Yet, excellence has much more to do with your spiritual development than you might think. 

This week Pastor DawnCheré Wilkerson continued our collection of talks, "VOUS Values," with a sermon titled "Louder Than Words."

Being excellent in whatever we do is something we should all strive towards, knowing that God doesn't want perfection but our complete devotion to pursuing his best for our lives. In the Bible, Daniel demonstrates what it means to strive towards excellence. In order to produce excellence, we must pay close attention to details, embrace all tasks whether big or small and stay true to our unique purpose.