Intentional | We Want You Here | Chad Veach

0:00 Hey, what's going on, everybody? Thank you so much for listening to the first Sunday of 2026. We are praying a blessing over you and your family as you prepare for all that God has for you in 2026. I'm excited. We're going to jump into the Bible here in just a moment to Isaiah chapter 53. I'm preaching a new message today called Intentional. and before we jump in i want to encourage you start your year off by tithing start your year off by giving set up reoccurring giving go to our website and you can give there but we honor the with the first fruits we honor god with what he asked for and what he's worthy of so i want to encourage you start your year off giving go to our website and you could do that and don't forget to subscribe to wherever you're listening to this message from hit the like button share it if you feel comfortable. But let's jump into this week's message from Isaiah chapter 53.

0:59 Go in your Bible to Isaiah chapter 53. Go there, Isaiah chapter number 53. We are starting a brand new series today. We are so excited for the year, so excited for the conference, and so excited to fast and pray for 21 days. nope okay who's excited to fast and pray for 21 days and around here we try and encourage everybody to do a Daniel fast so it's celeries for Christ it's carrots for Jesus it's no meats no sweets no treats no fun because we love Jesus. But I'm excited to start this new series because I really believe that it's not just the theme of the conference, it's really the theme of our life.

1:53 We want you here. We want God in our homes. We want God in our relationships. We want God in our marriages. We want God at Zoe Church. We want you here. you are our desired and our welcome guests. Look at Isaiah chapter 53 as we jump into week one. Isaiah chapter 53, this is the prophet Isaiah. Before Jesus came, he prophesied. He says, who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant, talking about Jesus, my servant Jesus grew up in the Lord's presence like a tender green shoot, like tender greens. okay are we gonna have fun today or now my god take a week off and you guys just stop laughing like a root in dry ground.

2:48 There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected. We're gonna come back to that. He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised and we did not care. I like that part so much right there in verse three, or sorry, in verse two, that there was nothing beautiful or majestic about Jesus. That when he was here on earth, if you would have walked past him in the mall, you would have just walked past him in the mall because he didn't look the way that everybody thought a Messiah was supposed to or going to look. He was an average person. There was nothing beautiful or attractive about him. That's why the Jews rejected him as the Messiah because they said our Messiah is gonna come and he is gonna be like, do you remember the first time Abercrombie and Fitch was popular?

3:49 And do you remember you go to the store and the guys that were outside the store, the people that worked there didn't have their shirts off? And I just hated it because it's like looking at myself in the mirror. there was nothing beautiful about Jesus, nothing attractive about Jesus in the physical, but anybody attracted to his beauty and his radiance, his name, there's just something about our savior. His name is Jesus. I want to preach a message in the first installment, write down the title. It's called intentional. I like this word intentional because I'm telling you we're starting our year off with intention. We're starting our year off with purpose. We're starting our, I heard this years ago and it's still true today. If you're not deliberate, you'll be default. If you're not deliberate about your marriage, if you're not deliberate about your parenting, if you're not deliberate about your lifestyle, you'll default back to whatever's comfortable, whatever's familiar, whatever's convenient. I'm not called to live in the comfortable. I'm called to live in my calling. So I'm going to live with purpose and intention.

5:05 I am going to intentionally say no to meats, treats, and sweets for the glory of God. I'm going to live with intention. Why? Because every time Jesus was rejected, it was intentional. every time Jesus was accepted it was intentional in fact put this on the screen I love this thought people don't reject Jesus because he's unclear they reject him because he's confrontational every time Jesus was not welcomed every time Jesus was rejected they rejected him on purpose because Jesus put it on the screen he doesn't ask for something he asks for everything he doesn't want part of your life he wants all of your life he said anybody that wants to follow me must pick up their cross daily and deny themselves and then come come follow me the reason why jesus was rejected is not because jesus was casual or flippant is because he confronted what was comfortable to man i want to encourage you today get rid of your comfort step into your calling 2026 will be the best year of your life if you don't live for you but you live for god come on everybody clap and give him a praise we're not living for our name. We're living for his name. We're not living for our comfort. We're living for the glory of God. We're living with intention. We're living deliberate. We're living on purpose. Oh, I'm excited. Anybody excited for the fast tomorrow? I'm excited to fast and pray.

6:34 Why? Because I want to know, God, what do you have for my life this year? I'm telling you, you're going to get three days into the fast and it's going to become clear to you how far you've drifted away from the will and the plan of God. Come on, we're going to say no to the flesh, yes to the spirit, live with intention, and watch God work. Clap if you're excited to live for God. I just like this because every time Jesus was accepted, it was intentional. Every time Jesus was rejected, it was intentional. I want to show you four places today where Jesus was rejected in his life. Number one, he was rejected by his own. When Jesus went back to his hometown where he grew up, Jesus tried to perform a miracle. and when Jesus tried to operate in his gifting and in his calling, his hometown looked at him and was like, Jesus, come on, man.

7:34 Like Jesus, we knew you in middle school, bro. Come on, bro. Jesus, come on, man. We were at your high school graduation. Stop it. They were married to the Jesus that they were familiar with, but once Jesus outgrew their expectation of him, they couldn't accept it. They wanted Jesus to be good at making bed bunks and making coffee tables, but once Jesus stepped into his anointing and into his authority, they mocked him and laughed at him and they couldn't receive from him. I'll put it on the screen. I love this. John 1, verse 11. He came to his own people and even they rejected him. What about John 7 verse 5? For even his own brothers did not believe in him. Look at Matthew 13. Then they scoffed. He's just the carpenter's son. And we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas, and all his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things? And they were deeply offended, and they refused to believe in him.

8:45 They said, come on, Jesus. You stop all that. You're not that great. You're not that anointed. See, you're not that called. Remember, familiarity breeds contempt. They couldn't receive from him because they didn't believe in him. I wanna preach to somebody today. You're about to outgrow some friends this year. You're about to outgrow some people that don't want you to become who God has called you to become. Come on, clap a little bit louder. Don't listen to the naysayers. Don't listen to your haters.

9:14 There's some people in your life that want you to stay where you've always been and be who you've always been. But I hear God calling you into greater things. I hear God calling you into a greater lifestyle, into a greater authority, into a greater anointing. And here, once Jesus started to perform a miracle, they go, come on, stop it, Jesus. You stop that. We know your sisters. We know your brothers. We know you. There's some people in your life, they feel like they know you. They know the old you. They don't know the new you. they know who you've been they don't know who you are and I pray that we're a church where we give room people for people to grow I pray that we're a church that we don't hold people hostage to who they were three years ago that we give people room to become all that God has called them to become that in our church we don't go no I remember you did this or you did that or you once said, you once posted. No, I don't know about you, but I need room to grow. How about you? I'm not who I was before the pandemic. I'm not who I was last year. I'm not who I was since last week. I've changed. I don't even got a voice no more.

10:30 but see the moment Jesus starts to step out and operate in his gifting and operate in his calling his own people said you come on Jesus we know you there's some people in your life that want to see you stay small and want to see you stay bitter and want to see you stay offended and stay stuck, but don't go by what they say about you. Go by what God says about you. come on we know you Jesus we know you can't you hear the haters sometimes it'd be your own people that hate you the most I saw this video of this man that's trying to start a new year's workout and he was in his bedroom doing sit-ups and his family barged in the room and videotaped him and laughed at him and he stopped doing the sit-ups and went to the bathroom and he was like to his family like y'all suck and and like sometimes it's your own people that hate on you sometimes you're trying to grow you're trying to fast you're trying to pray you're trying to get right don't care who cares if they record you you live for the glory of God not for the opinions of man And when it's your own, they try and hate on you.

11:50 They try and say, you've changed. You're different. You used to be one of us. We loved you when. Listen, it doesn't matter what they say. It matters what God says. Stop living by their opinion. Live for God's opinion. And so his own people from his own hometown rejected him. Don't care what they think about you. When I first got really radical about Jesus, I was 16 years old. And I'll never forget, I'd wait for my whole family to go to bed late at night and I'd get by my bedside, I'd open up my Bible and I'd put on my headphones of worship and I was getting serious about God because I was afraid what they were gonna say about me. They knew the good, the bad and the ugly about me. They knew all of my issues and I was just not secure enough to show them this is who I am now. I'm praying confidence over you.

12:43 in 2026. I'm praying security over you in 2026. I'm praying the fear of God and not the fear of man over your life in 2026. So if his own people rejected him, your own people are going to reject you. So he was rejected by his own. Write down number two. He was rejected by the crowds. The crowds rejected him. Crowds in different cities. He would go somewhere and he would perform or he would do something. And remember, crowds only like you if you do something for them. Crowds only like you if they benefit from your gifting. And he would go and he would preach, he would teach and he would heal and the crowds would reject him. They would drive him away. They would say, we don't want you in our city. Oh, put up on the screen, I love this, Matthew 8, verse 34. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus and when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

13:40 One time Jesus, he's confronted by a man named Legion. He's got all kinds of demons. He's filled with demons. And Jesus drives out the demons from this man. He actually allows them to go into some pigs. The pigs go, they throw themselves into the water, and they drown. It's a lot of wasted bacon. it's a bad day unless you're vegan i respect i'm gonna be vegan for the next 21 days hate it and you know when when jesus frees somebody from when he delivers somebody they went up to him and instead of thanking him they said you got to get out of here we don't want no part of you you got to leave our region we do not want you are not welcome in our city jesus look at this next one john 6 verse 66 from that time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

14:46 Luke 13, 34, Jesus, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were not willing. Jerusalem rejected him. All kinds of cities rejected him. The crowds turned away from him. Put on the screen, Nazareth heard him and then drove him out. The Gerasenes saw freedom and then asked him to leave. Jerusalem welcomed him and then handed him over. See, the Bible is proof that you can be around miracles and not want to follow the miracle worker. See, we live in a generation that's like, man, we need more miracles. We need more signs. We need more wonders. Which, by the way, I'm believing for miracles during 21 days of prayer and fasting.

15:38 Anybody else? Come on, clap if you're believing for a miracle. Let me see your hand if you've ever seen a miracle, witnessed a miracle. Let me see your hand. I'm just telling you, the same God that's in the Bible is the same God here in L.A. Jesus Christ is the same. Yesterday, today, and what? Spanish speakers. Ayer, ahora, siempre.

16:07 Andale pues. Gloria a Dios. Espíritu Santo, el Rey, el Paz de todo el mundo De esa la gana Forgot what I say? see we are believing for miracles but don't think that just because you see a miracle everybody's going to start following the miracle worker we've seen miracles this last year of marriages being restored of people free from addiction we've seen prodigals come home we've seen people get pregnant we've seen we've seen people find their spouse. Come on, clap and praise God for all the miracles he did last year. Clap if you're going to believe he's going to do greater things this year. Come on, Zoe, give him a praise. but don't think that just because you see a miracle means everybody wants to follow the miracle worker because in the bible jesus performed miracles and they said we want you out of here just because you turn water into wine and fed 5 000 and raised the dead doesn't mean you're desired in this city so he was rejected by his own he was rejected by the crowds right down number three. He was rejected by the leaders. The leaders rejected him. The leaders didn't want any part of him. And the leaders wanted him out of their life because he threatened their control.

17:40 He threatened their bank account. He threatened their position. The leaders of his day did not want Jesus to thrive. In fact, look here, Mark three, he looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts. And he said, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand became completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Jesus performs a miracle and the religious leaders go, we need to kill this guy because they thought it would be better for this man to die than for us to lose our control. I'm praying over these 21 days of prayer and fasting that you would relinquish your control, that you would surrender your control issues. Some of us, you are control freaks.

18:33 You need to surrender your life, your children, your bank account, your future, your calling, your life over to the living God. In fact, look at John 7. The Pharisees said, are you carried away like the rest of the rabble? You don't see any of the leaders believing him, do you? Or anyone from the Pharisees? It's only this crowd, ignorant of God's law, that is taken in by him, and they are damned.

19:09 Next verse. So from that day on, they plotted to take his life. the leaders. I don't know if you've ever been rejected by a leader, but leadership represents opportunity. Leadership represents promotion. Leadership represents the current system that's in place. And Jesus was rejected by the leaders. The leaders of the religious area, the Pharisees said, we do not want you here. You are not welcome in our city because the way we run things, the way we operate, if you start getting your way, we're gonna lose our position. We're gonna lose our power. We're gonna lose our authority. I pray this year that you don't fall in love with your position. You fall in love with the power of God. I pray that you don't love your title. Come on, you love the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

20:03 Everybody give him a praise. If you're down to lose some control and give God the best praise of your life this year. See, they were threatened. The religious leaders were threatened by Jesus because Jesus was preaching all about the Father. He's preaching all about the kingdom of God. Jesus was praying things like this,