02/20/2022 | Sunday Morning Worship

invite y'all to stand and let's go to the lord ask him to be with us this morning in our midst amen lord we love you thank you mighty god for your goodness thank you for this day that you have made we will rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it god we love you we thank you lord for the privilege it is to come into your house and have the liberty and the freedom to lift up our hands to lift up our voice oh lord to the king of kings and the lord of lords jesus we praise you and we magnify you lord and we pray that your will will be accomplished in this place today in jesus name we pray everybody say [Music] it amen [Music] [Music] hallelujah yeah [Music] [Music] i [Music] i hallelujah [Applause] [Music] [Music] my hallelujah hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] hallelujah hallelujah [Music] [Music] your name we lift up your holy name god i pour out my praise to you today jesus oh you're so worthy god you're so worthy of my praise hallelujah [Music] you bring light to the darkness [Music] is broken by you i love [Music] you restore [Music] it's your is in our lungs so we pour out our praise pour out our praise it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our [Music] so we pour out our praise pour out our praise it's your bread in our lungs so we pour out our praise you oh [Music] [Music] you restore every heart that is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] only to you jesus all the praise and honor all the earth will shout your prince our hearts will cry these bones will sing [Music] great are you lord all the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones will sing great are you lord [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh is [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] praise you our hearts will cry let's cry out to him today [Music] i'll pour it out to you jesus oh it's is [Applause] [Music] [Music] so are you lord [Music] i praise jesus god [Music] hallelujah hallelujah lord we pour out our praise to you this morning we magnify your holy name o lord and we lift you up jesus hallelujah hallelujah for you alone are worthy o god you are great hallelujah and greatly to be praised oh hallelujah hallelujah did you come to lift him up this morning did you come to magnify the king of kings and the lord of lords did you come to praise our savior hallelujah jesus we worship you woo hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah praise god praise god amen thank you praise team for leading us in that's a beautiful worship this morning amen it's good to be in the house of the lord why don't you greet somebody before you're seated tell them you're glad to see him today amen amen amen for all of our guests we are glad that you are here today whether it's your first time to be with us or even your second or third time we have a special reception for all of our guests immediately following the service this morning if you exit out the front foyer here just make a left-hand turn down the hallway if you go out this door over here just make a right hand turn because right behind this wall over here is our connection cafe we have some people back there that will meet you and greet you they have a gift back there for you so we hope that you'll take time after our worship service this morning to stop by our guest center amen well right now i want to turn your attentions to the screens for this week's announcements [Music] welcome to eastwood this morning we are so happy that you have decided to worship with us today and we invite you to join us for a special service tonight as we welcome reverend jeff arnold to minister in our evening service at 6 30 pm you are sure to be blessed by his anointed ministry so make plans to join us this evening this week we are celebrating and we want to wish a very happy anniversary to pastor david and sister amy myers on this monday and also this week we want to wish happy anniversary to bishop and dr meyers coming up on this wednesday this saturday you are invited to the wedding ceremony of bethany weaver and jerry alex the wedding will begin at 2 30 p.m right here at eastwood in the sanctuary come and celebrate this special day with them starting in march we are going to offer a new class called celebrate recovery to help those that are fighting addictions this will become a part of our breakout classes on wednesday nights and if you are interested in attending sign up using the tear off form in your bulletin to get involved in this great resource to help you become an overcomer in jesus christ men's conference and ladies conference in ocala florida are coming up soon and we are working to securing hotel rooms at a decent rate for our groups from eastwind if you plan on going to men's conference or ladies conference you must sign up to guarantee a room today at the information desk after service we are excited about the palm bay outpouring that is coming up in just over a month on april 1st through the 3rd at the bayside high football stadium we are expecting there to be great miracles and an outpouring of the holy ghost so begin to invite your friends and family to be a part of this special event and we also each saturday want to start a special initiative for you to wear an outpouring t-shirt to help spread the word in our community and you can buy those t-shirts today in the back foyer for just 15 apiece now it is time to worship through giving and we have a number of ways that you can give today you can give digitally at give.eastwind.church or you can use the app called tidally or you can give by texting 321-339-1333 or you can use a traditional offering baskets in just a few moments [Music] amen [Music] amen hallelujah and bishop and dr meyers have been married for 65 years wow they must have got married really young amen 65 years that's a great milestone amen we're so thankful for our leadership aren't we and we're blessed to have these two great men leading us through these times amen praise the lord well in just a few minutes we're going to receive our offering and i'll ask you to get ready for that and some of you have already given online and so we're thankful for all those that have already given we welcome those that are watching online amen and i ran across this little story the bible you know teaches us that our giving is a type of worship and it's a way that we show our trust in the lord it's a demonstration of our trust to the lord but i ran across this little story back in the middle ages i think it was they said that churches would sometimes go to go to war and i thought well that's kind of weird but it gets even weirder as you go on they would hire what they call mercenaries or these soldiers that would go out and fight their battles for them but before they would send them out they said these soldiers needed to be baptized so that's kind of weird too amen and so these guys would get baptized but they said that they would hold their right hand and their sword out of the water when they got baptized and that signified that they were willing to give the lord their body but their sword they wanted to keep in control of their own selves they wanted to have to control and we know that that's called backwards amen you really want your sword baptized amen you want the lord in all of your life amen but sometimes we live out our life of faith like that we want to give the lord part of our lives right but we hold on to this one little area and sometimes it could be finances amen but the lord says give all give all give all to him amen trust in him demonstrate your trust and we do that partly in our giving amen so i just have this one question asked you today is your wallet baptized has your wallet been baptized amen our ushers are going to come right now and wait on you for our sunday morning tithe and offering we're going to ask the lord to bless us and if the lord speaks to you we just pray that you would give accordingly amen lord we love you we thank you jesus for the privilege it is to give to the kingdom lord we pray that you'll touch each and every heart this morning touch our lives help us oh lord to increase our faith and trust in you we pray that you're going to bless this offering in a special way bless your people and the remainder of this service and we'll give you all the thanks for it and everybody say in jesus name god bless you this morning as you give hallelujah praise god and when you give the lord everything he will fight for you amen he is always there for you the victory is the lord [Music] he's always with me [Music] [Music] all he's done victory he's always with me [Music] [Music] he's always with me [Music] victory victory is the lord victory is the lord with his word victory [Music] is bigger than me oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] word in is mouth [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] victory oh hallelujah victory is the lord oh bless the name of jesus [Music] hallelujah hallelujah victory is the lord [Music] oh hallelujah how many of you found the lord can be your victory in a time of trouble in a time of crisis i'm going to ask you to help me pray for a family in our church that had a death in their family this weekend we need to pray for brother eric and sister melissa leblanc uh sister melissa leblanc lost her uh brother over the weekend and we need to pray for that family would you uh just lift up the names of eric and melissa right now lord we're so thankful that we have the strength of the body of christ that can help us lord in a time of trouble we pray for our brothers and sisters right now lord i pray for eric and melissa i pray god that you would comfort them in this time of loss i pray god that you would bring strength to them lord just speak peace into their lives wrap your arms of love about them o god be with them and keep them according to your word in the name of jesus christ hallelujah everybody said praise the lord amen god bless you this morning thank you so much for being here in the house of the lord we're excited about tonight brother jeff arnold will be with us amen we're going to have a great time i was with some pastors in texas here a week or two ago and they were wanting to list the uh top five sermons that they had ever heard it was amazing that every list of the top five sermons from all of us different pastors all had a jeff arnold sermon on it it wasn't always the same sermon but it always included him and we loved bishop arnold and pastored for many years in gainesville such a blessing to the united pentecostal church but he'll be with us tonight and then next sunday brother tom trimble will be with us so we're going to have a great time next week as well but this morning it's just bishop and pastor as my dad would say old meat and potatoes [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] my favorite place to preach is eastwind love all of you so much i turn your attention to romans chapter 8 and verse 15 romans chapter 8 and verse 15. i just want to read one verse in your hearing romans chapter 8 and verse 15. i want to say a big thank you to brother tyler and sister amy ritchie and their team for an unbelievable weekend that we had in orlando with a hundred and three bible quiz teams came from all over the country and uh we're going to be honoring our kids in tonight's service but we had a number of teams but we had teams from i think over 20 states they estimated over a thousand people came into that hotel for that tournament and it was all day friday and all day saturday and then to turn around and have everything ready for today's services we are blessed to have a great team a great staff here at east pentecostal church would you give them a big hand what a great job they do so many areas romans chapter 8 and verse 15 for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry abba father have of course meaning dad or understanding this close relationship i want to speak this morning on this subject the risky business of relational living the risky business of relational living and you may be seated thank you for standing in honor of the word of god the hang glider rides the tramway to the top of sandia peak which overlooks albuquerque new mexico and at the tip of the peak he stretches the gossamer fabric over a lightweight metal frame and leaps off the mountain into the clean air that individual enjoys the rush that comes with the risk of hang gliding yet the glider trusts that the warm thermal currents coming up from the valley floor beneath him will sustain the flight i remember a number of years ago when we had a group of men from our church that were going down to peru and we were helping to build some churches back after that a tremendous earthquake and many times as we will do in our missions trips with our men that are building after the church has finished building which we can do in usually five days or less then we all go and do something fun and we were in lima peru and they have this deal where you strap yourself onto a stranger that you've never met before and you run off a cliff with nothing but the ocean below and the currents hopefully the warm currents of air will come and lift you and you have a big parachute and you sail around and then you come back and land and uh so a number of us men went and did that and i can remember that some of the men did really well but as they got ready to strap me on to one guy the man had a very very nervous look on his face and he said no matter what we do when we take off running don't stop running and i said okay he said we're going to run run run run run right to the edge of the cliff and when we do we're going to just jump but don't stop running so here i am running toward a cliff with this guy strapped to me and me strapped to him and after we jumped off the cliff and sailed around successfully and landed back in the area where we took off from when we got off he said gringo promise me you will not eat any more cheeseburgers [Laughter] even the wind can't support everything i guess every year 4 000 more people take up the high risk sport of rock climbing using the grace of a ballet dancer and the strength of an athlete they jam their toes and fingers into the cracks of the vertical rock face and they seek to defy the law of gravity sometimes even stopping and and building a little hammock or tent that they can rest on the side of the rock face i i have seen people even spend the night that way can i tell you that if i'm on the side of a vertical cliff and i am hanging by some threads of a hammock or bungee cords there's not going to be a whole lot of rest going on i can't imagine doing that but yet 4 000 people a year are joining that sport 25 000 people a year shoot the rapids of the colorado river rising and falling with the swirling current they enjoy the thrill of of beating the odds and taming the river this is uh a culture this is a generation that enjoys the um the euphoric feeling of taking such a gigantic risk but if we were to even back down from those extreme sports and just talk about life in general we would all have to agree that life is risky starting a business is risky buying a car is risky and perhaps there's nothing as risky in life as relationships it's a risk to be in a relationship you risk your heart being broken you risk rejection you risk a hurt tomorrow's sister amy and i will have been married for 19 years and um i was thinking as they put that picture up there how i used to have more hair and it used to all be black and i'm not sure what happened i guess we'll just blame it on the kids because i feel like i've had the best 19 years of my life the last 19 and and i think if you would ask my wife that she would say the same thing she's nodding so that's a good sign oh we were so young honey at one time i don't know what happened but uh it it was a risk to start a relationship it was a risk to fall in love it was a risk uh to to get married and i heard her talking to one of her friends uh the other day and i'm not sure what all the context of the the story was but at one point she said i put all of my eggs in one basket his name is david myers and i thought oh my goodness what a risk that is and i felt the weight of that responsibility all over again but all the reward is proportionate to the risk isn't it and so from a natural standpoint human relationships are a risk and we understand that what we see in the natural illustrates the spiritual what we don't often focus on is the risk that's involved in having a relationship with jesus christ perhaps it's the greatest risk of all and i know in many ways it seems contradictory to mention risk in the same sentence as having a relationship with christ but indeed we know that you can't have relationship without risk and we know that whatever we see in the natural it's an example of what's happened in the spiritual it's even exacerbated by what happens in the spiritual so we know that there is extreme risk in starting and maintaining a relationship with jesus christ so the question for all of us is is it worth the risk is it worth the sacrifice we read in your hearing from romans chapter 8 and verse 15 and it says for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry have a father this verse in the middle of this incredible letter that paul wrote to the church in rome it it illustrates a very powerful principle that fear and bondage go hand in hand if you live in the spirit of fear you will live in bondage that's the bible there's no way to get around it if you live in fear you live in bondage but what i love about the scripture is that it's contrasted and the contrast of living in fear and bondage is the spirit of adoption abba father relationship that's what's wonderful fear is bondage but relationship is the opposite of bondage it is freedom but it is also risky because bondage and fear go together so relationship and risk go together let me give you an example as we focus on this word adoption for just a moment because i feel like that paul was intentional in including this word adoption god is not stuck with you and i he chooses you he chooses me he has adopted us into the family of god the bible describes us as gentiles as being that wild olive branch but he has grafted us in oh hallelujah and i'm so thankful that he has he's adopted us he he loves us on purpose uh i i was thinking of my experience with tupelo children's mansion for the last several years i've been on the board at tupelo's children's mansion and of course our church through our go ministries uh helps to support this but this is a an orphanage for children in the city of tubular mississippi and it's uh it's been with the united pentecostal church for a number of years and they do a phenomenal job good friend of mine steven judd is the director of it in fact a young lady from our church is actually uh there on staff as well sister stacy jones and it's a great program and we have learned more about it even though the last several years that we've been a part of their board and going to the campus annually for board meetings meeting the students i remember even as a young evangelist uh every year we would go and have a youth week there and i would get to know these kids and their stories and you just you just sit there with them and cry it's an amazing thing but the majority if not the majority at least many of the residents that are in tupelo children's mansion are there as a result of failed adoptions and failed adoptions is just people that attempted uh to have relationship by adopting a child and for whatever reason it didn't work out maybe they they didn't think it was going to be what it was or it didn't work for the child didn't work for the parents whatever reason it's a failed adoption i never had any idea this was was so prevalent but the majority of adoptions fail they're not successful so what do you do it's not like you're you you buy a a piece of clothing at a store and you take it back i mean this is a human life and so many of these failed adoptions these kids they don't uh they don't they don't have anywhere to go they go to two little children but they gotta deal with the rejection of a of a family that went to adopt and then for whatever reason changed their mind or it didn't work out so you can imagine the pain and the scars and the and the emotional trauma from that and this this this home this staff these people they do an amazing job is it's so worthy of our support and they uh they love these kids and they take them in and and uh they begin to teach them the the word of god one young man that was there uh it was just a young teenager and uh my friend i just started was having this conversation my friend started to teach a a bible study to uh uh this young man this young man knew nothing about the bible and he said you know i'm gonna give you a bible he gave him a bible he opened his bible and he said i'm going to start teaching you the bible before they could even get to the first lesson this this young boy said to my friend who was going to teach him he said you know here's all i want to know i just want to know about the apple he said about the what he said the apple i just want to know about the apple and of course he was talking about the the fruit in the garden of eden all he knew all he'd ever heard his whole life is there's something in the bible about an apple that's all that he knew and that there was some problem with the apple of course my friend started to teach him about sin and redemption and and started to teach him that the problem was not with the apple on the tree it was with the pear on the ground we'll be here all week [Applause] the problem is not with the apple the problem is with adam and eve it's with human nature it's with free will and of course humanity that's out of uh relationship with god is bondage but these young people uh that are at this home that that does an amazing job duplo's children's mansion they're having to learn to take risk again to take the risk of of learning to have to love again and having to trust again and to open up their heart again and all of that is risky especially if you've been hurt in as amazing of a place and as amazing as the ministry as they have at tubular children's mansion every one of those children if you were to interview them they would all say that they want to belong to what they call a forever family a family that will love them forever with unconditional love a permanent place of belonging but to belong is risky i'm so thankful ladies and gentlemen that they can teach these young people about a forever friend by the name of jesus christ and though it is risky to have a relationship with jesus i'm here to tell you that he is a forever god he is a forever friend and he gives each of us a forever family called the church oh i'm so thankful for my brothers and sisters but he is the common denominator that has brought us all together it's his love for us that made us part of the family of god but to believe is risky it's risky even coming to the house of god this morning especially for visitors it's risky it's risky to step out from where you're standing and to come down to an altar it's all risky to achieve anything to move forward to believe is risky but oh my friend can i tell you that there is a reward that goes with the risk and the reward is a loving savior and though you may have been heard in past relationships and though you can't serve god effectively without having a relationship with the king of kings and the lord of lords and i don't propose that that's without risk but i'm just here to say there's great reward when you take the risk and open up your heart and say god here i am with all my mistakes and all my scars and all my shortcomings and everything that i've done that's not right lord i still believe and i trust in you [Applause] every field moves forward at the point of those willing to take risks early in the 19th century dr david kane o'neill had a hunch that surgery performed under local anesthesia might be safer and the recovery would be quicker than general anesthesia which is of course when they put you out the only problem was nobody really wanted to be tested on to prove this only monkeys wanted to help him prove his point and even some of those were reluctant so he did something that was very very risky it certainly is something that if we think of today we think it almost would be impossible but dr david o'neill administered to himself local anesthesia and removed his own appendix to prove a point and he was successful and medicine moved forward from that point because of the risk anything advances at the point of risk the space program we would have never made it to the moon without people being willing to take the risk and any time there's risk there's danger but we would have never even have what all is coming now in spacex and blue origin all this stuff that's happening just up the coast because of people that were willing to take the risk it all advanced at the point of risk and if we choose to avoid risk we live in bondage we live in fear we can't live this life that god intended for us to live without risk involved in it and if we are to advance in our relationship with our savior we have to come to a point of risk where we say you know what i don't understand at all but i'm gonna trust in you lord i'm gonna believe in you i don't know why i'm facing these circumstances i don't know why i'm dealing with sickness maybe even the loss of relationship at home but oh hallelujah i'm willing to take a risk and say god i still trust in you i believe in your word it's risky but i'm putting all my eggs in this basket [Applause] jesus illustrated this principle with a parable that he told in matthew 25 i turn your attention to verse 40 where we begin our reading for the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered them as goods and and under one he gave five talents to another two and to another one to every man according to his several ability and straightway took his journey then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents but you don't take five talents and make an additional five talents without taking risk and likewise he that had received two he also gained another two and he that had received one went and digged it in the earth now that's the guy that decided against the risk he just went and buried it and he hid the lord's his lord's money after a long time the lord of those servants cometh reckoned with them he's going to see what they've done with it and so he that received five talents came and brought the other five talents saying lord thou delivers me five times behold i've gained inside thee five times more his lord sent him well done well done thou good and faithful servant thou has been faithful over a few things i will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of the lord he also had the two talents same thing happened but then they got to the guy with the one talent and he says something that's very interesting he said i knew thee that thou art and hard man which showed that he didn't have relationship because he didn't really know him but his perspective was that he was a hard man how many people have the wrong perspective of who jesus is and because of that they don't have that relationship they're not willing to take the risk but oh my friend you've got to have a relationship to know that he's a good god he's not a hard task he's not some you know being out there that's got three heads and he's got horns growing out of his head and he's got a zap stick and he's just looking to zap you up you mess up that's not the kind of god that you and i serve that's not the creator of humanity we serve a good god the bible said every good gift cometh down from the father of life he's a mighty good god oh hallelujah he said i was afraid i went and hid the talent in the earth and he said i didn't want to lose and the lord answered and said to him thou wicked and slothful servant the point of this parable is to teach us that if we want to have a relationship with christ then we have to be willing to take a you risk have a relationship with christ and stay in your comfort zone you got to take a risk but if we operate in fear we don't please the master we're in bondage and there's no relationship so the parable the talents as this story is referred to doesn't have so much to do with what one does with their talents as much as it has to do with the risk that we're willing to take for the work of god and the kingdom of god at some point in my life and at some point in your life we have to be willing to say lord whatever it takes i'm putting it in your hands i'm willing to take a risk and say god i'm going to serve you anyhow i may be facing some things that i don't have an explanation for but god is a mighty good god [Applause] i want to say one other thing as we're talking about this most of the wrong decisions that you will make in life if you go back and look at i've done this with my own life most of the wrong decisions that i made in my life were made in fear and being in ministry all these years i've talked with enough people that i realize it's not just one or two people most of the bad decisions that we make we made them because they were based in fear but i'm here to tell you that if you'll look to the bible we've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear when i operate in fear i am put in a self-made cell i am in a bondage of my own fear but fear is not of god living a fearful risk-free life will warp our perspective of god and the church and sitting on the sidelines of life will give you a different perspective from those that are actually playing on the field you can sit on the sidelines you can sit in the back you can stay somewhere other than getting in the action as one old preacher said under the spout where the glory comes out but all the joy when you say i'm coming to an altar oh the joy when you said i'm going to lift my hands and worship god all the joy when you say i will baptize my wallet i will give you everything o lord. [Applause] the story is told of a a farm family from whom the the big event of the year was the arrival of the mail order catalog some of you may not realize the joy that comes from getting the mail order catalog because you're a city slicker that i was raised in port st joe florida about 2500 people up in the panhandle of florida before my family moved here in 1971 and and port st joe didn't have like a walmart they they they didn't even have a 7-eleven they had one grocery store and it was called piggly wiggly wiggly wiggly and if you went there often enough you would become a piggly wiggly there wasn't a lot of health food there wasn't like a whole foods there in port st joe we didn't have any kind of stores per se that you'd go and shop at i think maybe there was a some sort of small hardware store but there were i remember that sears was not really there but they had a presence they had like a store front and it was only a store that handed out the sears catalog and all the joy when we would get that catalog that big thick catalog and we'd hope this was long before the internet and all that we'd open up that and we just flip and we'd see all the things we wanted for christmas and my sister and i would start to make a list of all of our christmas presents and all the things that we wanted and we just fell in love with that mail order catalog this family they were so excited with the arrival of the mail order catalog they found something in that catalog they wanted and they ordered a telescope oh they were so excited they were going to set this telescope up and they were going to be able to view the countryside all around their home but no sooner had they brought the telescope home and they got it in their house and set it up but as soon as they started to look out the window in this telescope they saw a hideous monster that was perched up on a nearby building and it's so frightened them all that they locked all the doors and they fastened the windows and they waited for doomsday a monster is here sitting on top of a building in our very area except the youngest lad in the family he figured out how to operate the telescope and he figured out that the family was not actually looking at a hideous monster but instead it was just a praying mantis on the window screen but with this new found telescope it had warped their perspective to the point of view of what was around them oh my friend when you don't have the perspective of the word of god when you don't have the clarity of god's spirit leading you and guiding you you can get a warped perspective of the world around you you can see monsters everywhere you live in fear and bondage but oh when you back away from all of it and said i gotta get my attention on the word of god you'll be able to see jesus for who he is he's a faithful friend he's a faithful god and though you may be facing trouble and trial and even sickness god's gonna bring you through [Applause] those who sit out on the sidelines unwilling to face the risk of having a relationship with christ they find themselves with a warped perspective a skewered view of the challenge that's immediately before us because ladies and gentlemen every one of us all of us sitting in these seats breathing air today every one of us have been given by god a quantity of the stuff of life talents as it were that stuff is what's given to us our relationships it's our time it's our talent it's our our treasures it's free will it's the ability to love the ability to believe god has given us the same 24 hours a day god has given every believer a talent a capacity he has entrusted us with resources and in reality this parable is about our willingness to take risk to take our time talent and treasures and to put them in the hands of god and say lord i'm putting all my eggs in this basket all too often the last uh entity in the community that is identified with risk is the church of the lord jesus christ but look at how romans 8 continues uh we read in romans chapter 8 and verse 15 our text but now let me draw your attention to romans chapter 8 and verse 16. it says the spirit itself capital s referring to the holy spirit it beareth witness with our spirit smallest human spirit that we are the children of god paul is saying there's an agreement within our own spirit and within our own personality and understanding that we are in relationship with the mighty god in christ we're not just floating around through earth here mark in time we are the children of god we have an eternal nature and a divine purpose [Applause] that's relationship then verse 17 says and if children in other words if you understand verse 16 it builds on and if children then heirs heirs of god so we're not just in relationship with god but we are his children and with that relationship comes reward so we have an inheritance we are heirs with him but then as paul writes more and more revelation is coming because he says not just heirs of god but we are joint heirs with christ you see let me explain this if you're in heir that means that you're going to have some blessing maybe some windfall that takes place at the death of the testator but if you're a joint heir oh that means you've got a present reward it doesn't mean it's a future reward paul has given us a revelation when you serve god it's not just the reward of heaven it's not just when the trumpet sounds but every day that you get up that you've got a revelation that his name is jesus and at the name of jesus every knee is going to bow and everything's going to confess when you get that revelation every day is a gift every day is joy unspeakable and full of glory we are joint heirs with him we have relationship we have reward if so be that we suffer with him here comes the risk if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together reward so this is the simple mathematical formula plus one equals two relationship plus risk equals reward relationship plus risk equals reward and we understand that risk and reward go hand in hand so the greater the risk the greater the reward that's why sometimes you got to step out on the water hallelujah only peter would step out of the boat everybody else said we'll just stay in the boat and roll faster eventually we'll get to christ but oh there's somebody that's going to walk on the water and it's peter the guy who runs his mouth sometimes before his brain's in gear the one who often times made mistakes because of his impulsive nature but he's also the one who's willing to take a risk and he's the one that the lord said upon this rock i will build my church what is the rock it's the relationship why did peter have relationship because peter was the one willing to take a risk oh i feel boldness in the holy ghost that god is calling some members of eastwood to take a risk and say god whatever it takes i will put it in your hands calling us to come out of our comfort zones verse 18 continues for i reckon that the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us shall be revealed in us wait a second there's something extra to this formula it's not just relationship plus risk equals reward it's relationship plus risk plus reward equals revelation it's one plus one plus one equals three we got a relationship we've taken the risk we found the reward and now there's revelation the relationship brings risk and the risk brings reward and the reward brings a revelation you think about it it was risky for the lord to robe himself in flesh so that he could come and be in relationship with man that's why he came it was based on relationship but it was a great risk that the god of glory would robe himself in flesh when the messenger angel appeared to the virgin mary with this incredible pronouncement that she would be with child but without a husband this hebrew teenage girl took an incredible risk in a society that at worst would stone her and at best would shun her she agreed to take the risk of being the human instrument of the birth of the lord jesus christ oh my friend the universe is not some cybernetic computer that's spewing out some kind of impersonal fate for those that accept risks in the name of christ the game has been tilted by the nail scarred hand of one who took the ultimate risk for the sake of the kingdom of god and overcame death hell and the grave and oh my friend when we risk something for god we have the great assurance that the great risk taker of all time has gone before us and has dealt with the realm of grace and has been successful victorious and so here we are and we understand that if we're willing to take a risk we get the reward of a revelation we know there's power in the name of jesus we know that any time day or night you can call upon his name and he is as close as the very mention of his name we have a revelation that he is a friend that is close to us he's not some for awful beyond the milky way somewhere he is a god that is die unto his people and when you and i are in trouble he is not further away he comes closer in a time of need revelation that comes but watch how it unfolded even in his own family when they went to jerusalem for the feast of the passover in luke chapter 2 verse 41 says now his parents went to jerusalem every year the feast of the passover and when he was 12 years old so jesus is just a 12 year old boy they went up to jerusalem after was the custom of the feast and when they had fulfilled the days as they returned the child jesus tarried behind in jerusalem and joseph and his mother knew not of it but they supposing everybody say supposing they assumed him to have been in the company how many of you from big families accidentally left your kids somewhere we only got one honest man in the whole church rather they supposing him to have been in the company went a day's journey and they sought him among their kinfolk and acquaintance or there's three things that jump out from this passage number one the most unlikely people to lose christ would be his own family but yet they did because he's just jesus sometimes i believe church when we are constantly in the presence of god it is easy for us to take for granted the relationship that we have and we can lose sight of the wonder of god's presence we can we can just assume that when we come to the house of god god's going to be there all know my friend the bible says the spirit is like the wind it comes and goes wherever it wants if the spirit of god has blown into this place we ought to thank god every day when we feel the presence of god and we sit in heavenly places we ought not to just assume he's among the brethren we should just assume that he's here with the family we ought to say hey have you felt the lord i can feel him here he's in this place today he's here to do a work he is here to give us something from the word i don't want to lose him by being a family member the second thing the most unlikely place to lose christ would you lose him in the temple i started looking at this and i thought was it in the temple where they lost him i got to study in this because i wanted to know are we at greater risk of losing the lord when we come to the house of god i found that really it wasn't in the temple that they lost him they lost him when they just assumed that he was there with the others but here's what's really clear from scripture they found him at the temple you say i don't feel like i have the relationship like i used to with the lord well guess where you'll find him in the house of god when they went back to the temple that's where they found him oh my friend when you get back to an altar of repentance when you get back in the temple when you get back in the house of god you say oh i feel like i need more of the lord this week i've been going through some things and i don't think the lord has been close to me but oh my friend when you get back to the house of god he's there where you left him he's still there he's still here he's still working and he's still rich [Applause] if you lose jesus go back to the church you'll find him there the most unlikely time to lose christ was on their way home don't lose jesus on your way home we're getting too close to the coming of the lord it's just about home time oh the old song says see the bright lights shine it's just about home time i can't see my father standing ooh see that's relationship at the door this whole world has been a wilderness but i'm ready for deliverance come on can i get a witness in the house of god oh hallelujah when you have a relationship with him it's worth the risk it's worth every sacrifice it's worth obeying the word of god don't lose him on your way home we're too close to heaven now luke chapter 2 and verse 48 and when they saw him they were amazed when the family found him and his mother said unto him son why hast thou thus dealt with us behold thy father and i have have sought thee sorry he said on them how is it that you sought me wish you not that i was about my father's business and they understood not the saying which he spake unto them the full revelation had not yet come and he went down with them and came to nazareth and was subject unto them and then this little part of verse 51 is what lodged in my spirit but his mother kept all these saiyans in her heart something about a mama she knew something was up he's only a 12 year old boy but he's talking like no 12 year old we have ever seen there's something special she's reminded of that angel that visited had to be times in that first 12 years when she thought that angel was just some sort of a hallucination jesus he got dirty diapers like everybody else so jesus is in the tub like everybody else jesus is throwing rocks at his friends like everybody else there had to be times in the natural when she doubted but oh when he said i gotta be about my father's business she kept all these things in her heart she knew something was up though she didn't fully understand it at this point he's just 12 years old they had the relationship and they were learning the risk of that relationship with revelation was on its way oh my friend i'm here to tell you that the risk is going to bring revelation up because just a few years after that before he had ever done his first miracle he's at the wedding in the city of cana and they've had a big turnout and a lot of people have come and they run out of wine for the guests and they said what are we going to do and they just started pouring water in the pictures as jesus instructed them to do and he said serve it to the guest that would have been a great insult to do the water was very unclean everybody would have gotten sick the wedding the master of the wedding ceremony the the one who was in charge of the wedding feast uh that individual was a little dubious of the instruction of jesus so hunts down jesus his mother and mary says do whatever he tells you to do i know it's risky to just serve this dirty water but do whatever he tells you to do i know sometimes it's illogical to follow the principles of the word of god but just do whatever it says to do i know it doesn't make sense in the midst of my hurt and heartache and rejection to turn the other cheek to obey the principles of god's word it's a risk to do it but just do what jesus said [Applause] because there's a revelation that's going to come and when they started pouring it all they started smiling and laughing and they said well most weddings they serve the best stuff at the first but you've saved the best for last and she looks over at jesus and jesus looks over at her it's just beginning mary because everything jesus is involved in is better than what man was doing on his own hallelujah whatever man does on his own it may have a certain limited level of success but when god puts his finger in it when god puts his thumb on the dish with god says hey let me be involved in your plans i know it's risky but whatever god's in he's gonna multiply it he's gonna bless it [Applause] [Music] mary is never the same she may not have had the full revelation at this point but she knew that obedience was a risk worth taking and then we find that it's mary in the upper room after her son has been crucified and risen and then was on earth for 40 days and then ascended to heaven can you imagine the emotional rollercoaster up and down but i'm so glad acts chapter one says that when they gathered in the upper room they named mary as being there she's understanding now relationship gonna bring revelation because she was willing to take the risk and the holy ghost is poured out and she receives the spirit of god that's in her that is a forever spirit the gifts and callings of god that are without repentance a forever family a forever friend a god who adopts us into the royal family yes it has risk but all the risk is worth it the reward that comes with it the revelation that comes with it but then ultimately the revelation gives way to resurrection i said the revelation metastasizes into resurrection and when you get the holy ghost you not only get a revelation of jesus as the mighty god in christ but you have got a resurrected spirit that one day one day this corruptable is going to put on incorruption one day this mortality is going to put on immortality and the bible says if you've got the spirit of god he's going to catch you hallelujah the dead in christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet him in the air hallelujah but if the spirit of him that raised up christ from the dead dwell in you he that raised up christ from the dead is also going to quicken your mortal body if you don't have a relationship with god that doesn't make any sense if you don't have a relationship with god you won't be willing to take the risk but oh when you take the risk you're going to get a reward you're going to get revelation and ultimately you're going to get a resurrection [Applause] would you stand to your feet right now i feel the holy ghost in this house risk will bring reward the reward will bring revelation and the revelation will bring a resurrection is it worth it yes i know it's a risk to step out of where you're standing and make a commitment to the lord today i know it's a risk but it's worth it i know it's a risk to believe god's gonna heal your body it's a risk to pray it's a risk to witness but it's a risk that's worth it i know it's a risk to even open your mouth and raise your hands today in a public place like this and to say god i exalt you but when you do you feel the presence of god won't you practice that right now come on even if you've never done it before just raise your hands and just say i love you jesus i love you jesus i love you jesus i love you jesus [Music] i love you jesus come on can you feel his presence [Music] i don't want to live this life in fear and bondage come on i want to live knowing that i'm in relationship with my creator [Music] i wonder how many in this building would take the risk right now just stepping out from where you're standing make your way down to this altar do you need the holy ghost if you need a healing in your body you come up against an obstacle that you can't move it on your own he said i've tried everything else pastor i wonder right now if you just let the lord direct you come on he'll make it better he'll renew all things he can make it all brand new oh that's it just take a risk today come on just take a risk god won't embarrass you he won't hurt you he won't turn you away come on he's as close as the mention of his name oh yes jesus oh yes jesus here i am god come lord with all of my mistakes i'm not a perfect human but you've been so good to me it's worth every sacrifice it's worth every prayer [Music] i will see of the [Music] [Music] goodness all my life all my life you have been so so good with every breath that i am [Music] oh [Music] the moment that i wake from the moment [Music] of the goodness [Music] all my life you have been faithful all of my life you have been so [Music] good [Music] i love your voice [Music] [Music] i have lived in the goodness [Music] [Music] i will see of the goodness of god [Music] with every breath that i am is is [Music] everything your goodness is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] is [Music] oh yes you have all my life you have been so good [Music] of the goodness of god [Music] you have been so is [Music] is is [Music] [Music] your goodness is [Music] [Music] oh yes all my life [Music] of the goodness [Music] [Laughter] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] are is you are good forever your kindness your kindness [Music] your mercy calls me to be like you in your favor your favor is [Music] every day [Music] are good you are [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is you are good your mercy is forever [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Eastwind Pentecostal Church of Palm Bay, Florida

Views: 486

Keywords: first, pentecostal, apostolic, sermon, pastor, david, myers, palm bay, melbourne, brevard, county, florida, upci, upc, bishop, j., e., jackson, ellis, Eastwind, Eastwind church

Id: gp52THA3el0

Length: 91min 49sec (5509 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 20 2022