Leaving the Grapes: God’S Call for Us All

By Jonathan “Jay” D. Scutt

Have you ever wondered what your purpose in life is?

Have you been bored with God or with your spiritual life?

These questions were the same ones that Pastor Jay was dealing with in his life. He had just joined his new church in South Florida when he took advantage of a great opportunity-the chance to go to Kenya. In Leaving the Grapes, he shares a collection of short stories from his life and the encounters that followed.

Join him on this adventure and learn how to Leave your grapes and walk in the adventure that God has planned for you

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490888521

Jonathan “Jay” D. Scutt

Jonathan “Jay” Scutt is on the board of Haiti’s Hope and one of the teaching pastors at Awaken Church, Florida. He has been working full-time in ministry since the age of nineteen, and he has spoken at churches and events throughout the world. He lives with his wife, Princess, in Central Florida.

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Copyright © 2015 Jonathan Jay D. Scutt.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Except where noted, all biblical references are to the CEV edition of the Bible.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8851-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8852-1 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/14/2015

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Foreword

1 Give Me Your Eyes

2 The Grapes

3 The Stranger

4 Orphans and Widows

5 Why Bother?

6 Final Thought (Who’s Your Guest of Honor?)

More Information

Author Endorsments

About the Author

A Note About The Author

Study Guide

To my amazing wife,

Princess Scutt,

and to

Michaelle and Fortuna

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book is set aside for orphans and the work of missions through various organizations. Thank you!

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

—Ephesians 2:10 NIV

Acknowledgments

I want to give a huge thank-you to all my friends—and all the other pastors in my life—because I know that being my friend can be hard at times.

To my church family, I can’t name you all, but thanks for having me and encouraging me every step into my life. Huge thanks to my amazing youth group. All you guys bring me more joy than you could possibly imagine. The same goes for you guys from my youth groups past who moved on to greater things. Change the world.

To my mom and dad, thank you for being such a wonderful example. Furthermore, thanks to Andrew, Aimee, Jamie, Heather, and all my family. Thanks, Jamie, for always supporting me and being my best friend. Nothing will ever come between us. Keith Wheeler, thanks for the texts and the balance you bring me.

Thank you Princess, my amazing wife, you have always held me up and have loved and encouraged me in all my crazy adventures. Sorry for a few of them. Ha Ha!

Special thanks to Jesus, You are my everything and in chasing after You, I found what I have been looking for.

Preface

I pray this book does one thing—inspire. We live in such a hurting world. So much around us is just pain—hunger pains, social pains, pains of worthlessness, and so on. Jesus came to help with some of these troubles. We are to turn them over to Him, as He does a good work in us (and one day wipe away every tear from our eyes). He also asks us to help others with their pain and in our work bring them to His healing and saving power.

However, it is not easy to help others. It takes a lot of sacrifice, forgiveness, love, and patience. People will let you down, hurt you, and even abuse you and your help. Even so, always remember that Jesus sends us, and He is with us. Our reward is with Him. We do this for His glory and His glory alone, not for ourselves.

In my life, I’ve always been willing to help the hurting and the poor. I hope these stories move your heart and show you, the reader, just how easy it can be and how big the problem really is. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until I went for a trip to Africa in 2007 where God really opened my eyes to see that helping the poor isn’t something that should be done one week out of the year. Being a Christian is a total change in lifestyle and commitment to God and others. You lay down your wants for God’s. Your heart breaks for the things that break God’s.

Paul called himself a bond servant. In saying that, he gave up his dreams for God’s. The thing is that God’s dreams and plans for you are much more amazing than what we think is best. Some of these adventures happened before my great awakening, and I hope they show you that if I can do it, so can you. I also hope your eyes open to the calling that God already has for you. In truth, God needs you right now—not tomorrow, not when you get it together, and not when you feel ready. No, He needs you right now. He has a plan for you right now, and I promise it involves the world’s hurting people. Even if you are one of the hurting, if you let Him, He wants to use you beyond your wildest dreams. So be inspired and then stir others. Watch the world change in front of you.

I hope you realize this book is not a work’s gospel. I’m not saying that you must work and serve others to receive salvation through Jesus Christ, or that you must serve to have your prayers answered or for God to love you. That is the furthest thing from the truth. I believe salvation is a gift that you receive by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. The Bible is clear that nothing can ever separate you from His love. I also believe that if you have received Him, your life will change, and your wants and needs will change to His wants and needs.

The Bible is very clear that helping the poor is a direct result of salvation. I just want to encourage you in your calling. You might not even know it yet, but you are called for good works. And in your good work, the light of Jesus will shine through you, and the multitude will come to know Him. Let His glory shine!

Foreword

I first met Pastor Jay was over the phone. Pastor Jay and I met via some mutual friends who thought that since each of us had the same ministry vision and dreams, we might benefit from knowing one another. Our initial phone conversation lasted for over three hours and, as we shared our individual passions and goals for ministry, it was clear that God had brought us together for one purpose: To help people discover their God-given purpose.

To be sure, the journey of the discovery of one’s purpose is the central focus throughout this book, and it is the central theme of Pastor Jay’s ministry efforts. But what is purpose, and, how do we know if we’ve discovered it? Simply put, purpose is the reason that anything is created, and the emphasis of said created thing’s design. It is, therefore, the discovery and application of one’s purpose in life that gives the things done in that life meaning and significance.

What you are about to read is not a how-to kind of book, nor is it a book that promises you a better, or easier life, should you apply the principles written hereafter, and really, such is the beauty of this book. If this were a how-to book, then discovering our purpose would be the mechanical result of an impersonal and programmatic evaluative system. But discovering the God-given purpose for your life is so much better than that. In discovering God’s purpose for your life, you will discover that you were created specifically and intentionally by a highly relational God who loves you more than you know. Therefore, your purpose is not (nor can it be) determined by random acts of chance, nor is it discovered through any kind of academic or scientific survey. You were created by God on purpose, with a purpose, and while sin may have blinded you from knowing your purpose intuitively, sin’s blinding does not have to be permanent.

Leaving the Grapes is a journal of how Jesus leads a person to His purpose for their lives. At the root of it all, it is God that gives people their purpose, since God is the creator of humanity. Furthermore, God has designed each and every one of us in accordance with our purpose, and it is only when our purpose and design line up, and flow into and out of each other, that we begin to experience the significance and meaning of life that we all so desire.

I invite you to take this journey of discovery with Pastor Jay, and I pray that just as he discovered his purpose in Christ, so you too will discover yours.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly that all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." – Ephesians 3:20-21, ESV.

Sincerely,

Andrew Southwick

Teaching Pastor, Awaken Church Florida

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GIVE ME YOUR EYES

P robably one of my favorite Christian songs is Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath. The singer begs God, Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing. This is a very powerful plea. Just take a moment and think about it. In another part of the song the singer claims, All those people going somewhere, why have I never cared? ¹

This song truly ministered to me. I’ve never before asked God to let me see people the way He [God] sees them. With all the ministries I was involved in during my youth, whether it was feeding the homeless, visiting the prisoners, or going on mission trips, when the mission was over, my work was done. My teams always did a lot of good. But even doing all these things seemed somewhat futile. I still came up empty in my search for purpose with God. I’d always ask these questions to God: What is my purpose? What am I supposed to be doing with my life? Have you ever asked yourself similar questions, including, Who am I, and why am I here?

Even when