04.19.20 | The Pursuit | Sunday 11AM

hey friends welcome to another incredible Sunday here at the pursuit we want to thank you for joining us again here on our online campus we're expecting God to do some incredible things and so from wherever you're watching today welcome and thanks for joining us for worship god bless [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] on the praises of lord and not fear [Music] this [Music] are in this bridge [Music] Jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh you away [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] jeez [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] upon the praise the boughs and a two see [Music] [Music] ever be ever be [Music] ever feel [Music] have a feel [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] time is me [Music] [Music] Beauty profession [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and it's why I see [Music] ever be on my [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] attached [Music] always get to see [Music] and needs [Music] okay [Music] [Music] my chai [Music] because I just [Music] and I'm sure I know they [Music] my faith and I'm saying [Music] you take [Music] [Music] because my child [Music] is our trust seen again [Music] because [Music] [Music] overall Church nor our community pijo [Music] here's the sing good [Music] now we'll see and now we'll see [Music] now we'll see [Music] again [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] macho [Music] I just [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a fred is true in every season and in every circumstance man we have reason to give fakes and give praise to a good God who is still sitting on the throne yet God hasn't taken a day off he hasn't forgotten about you in fact King David says it this way The Book of Psalms when I was young and now I'm old but God's people are never Forsaken and the righteous never go hungry friend we remind God of his faithfulness this morning not because he forgets but because we have a temptation for a tendency to forget ourselves we get in the middle of busyness or in the middle of life's storms or a difficult circumstance and all of a sudden we allow that stress and that anxiety to begin to convince us of another outcome and I want to encourage you today to interact with this spiritual exercise and giving thanks to a good God who begun your journey he gonna finish your journey at Fred he is not done yet I'm reminded of what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 15 as he prays for the church he says that you would have found in hope having all peace and all joy that you would be empowered by the Holy Spirit and that's my prayer for you today as a pastor and as a friend and as a leader that you wouldn't allow life circumstances to steal your joy or to steal your propensity to praise or give thanks in this season friend giving thanks is one of the weapons of our warfare for our battle is not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers in one of the ways that we conquer principalities and powers in this world is that we give thanks not based on what we see in the physical but what we no in the spiritual and as we pray it as we worship and as we do church in this context the best way that we know how we are reminded in every season in every circumstance I've got reason to praise coz God's not done he's not done with my life he's not done with my family he's not done with my story I may not be where I should be but thank God I'm not where I used to be God's been faithful come on we're gonna sing this again and we're just gonna declare praise to Jesus come on would you join us [Music] come on friend let me pray for you this morning as we close out this type of worship would you just agree with me today father we love you God we honor you we thank you that you are at work even in places we can't see and so God this morning we count you faithful we count you true in fact scripture says all of your promises are yesterday men you are not slack concerning your promises not one of your words will pass away father we thank you we have found it on the rock that is higher than us thank God you've already seen me on the curb you've seen into the next season and the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob yes it's true he is faithful in every generation and so God today we interact with your faithfulness in this way now we thank you you know every need every issue every concern before we even pray it but in faith today we gather in faith and we pray and go we we ask that that that that and we understand the scripture says that when your word is sent forth it accomplishes everything has been set forth to do and so God we send forth the word of healing for those who are sick a word of resource for those who are in need a word of strategy and wisdom for those who are making decisions about the season of life that you're empowering presence and spirit which is limited by no man which is limited by no issue no virus no circumstance will begin to work in the hearts of men and women who are interacting with this broadcast today we say Jesus do your best work in our lives and we'll give you all the praise we'll give you all the glory we'll give you all the honor in Jesus name Amen hey bad thanks so much for joining us to pursue good morning pursuit family thank you so much for joining us this morning welcome to the online campus if you haven't done so already make sure to drop a comment in the comment section below if you're tuning here on YouTube make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and make sure to hit that notification bell down below to make sure you get notified every single time we upload content here every week if you're on Facebook make sure to like and share our page with all your friends and family and if you actually are new here to pursue go ahead and text pursuit guests to nine four zero nine zero that's the best way for us to get in contact with you and get your information and get to know you again thank you so much for being here with us this morning we'll see you guys next week hey friends I just wanted to say thanks for investing in this church even during this different season that we're in together we're continuing to believe like the Apostle Paul says to the church my God will supply all of our needs we not only believe that for for our church but for your family and for even the difficult circumstance you might find yourself in today we believe that God is at work even in the midst of it and he's gonna see us through there's a couple ways that you can engage in giving first is through our online giving and secondly is through our text to give program you know people can mail in envelopes to the church as well however you so choose to continue to engage we just encourage people to do it we couldn't do this without you we mean that literally and I really believe that even in in in what is a difficult season for many of us our souls are gonna prosper our families are gonna prosper and we're gonna see God do incredible things so hang with us and we're counting down the days to having you back here on location here at the pursuit family god bless we'll see you soon hey friends this morning we're gonna be in the Gospel of John chapter 1 as many of you know of course John the last of the four Gospels is written by the Apostle John who is the closest disciple to Christ referred to in this gospel is the one whom Jesus loves a term of endearment nearness and in John 1 the Apostle John begins his gospel by writing about another figure also named John but this one being John the Baptist John the Baptist is a cousin of Christ in one of the last of the Old Covenant prophets preaching repentance in the wilderness as a fulfillment of prophecy and of course one day Jesus shows up and is baptized and some of you are familiar with that story others of you have been with me to Israel to the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized and have experienced that as well but today that's where this text picks up and in John 1 starting in verse 35 the Bible says this again the next day John stood with two of his disciples and looking at Jesus as he walked he said now watch he said behold the lamb of God John the Baptist in this context is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy in the book of Exodus in the Book of Isaiah and in the book of Malachi scripture says this behold I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight and in that prophetic word was fulfilled in the life and the Ministry of John the Baptist now most people associate the ministry and the message of John the Baptist with the idea of repentance and he certainly preached repentance but the last cry of John the Baptist was not repent it was behold behold the lamb of God here's why that's important for us this morning it might fear or worry or concern as as a pastor is that many of us never graduate out of perpetual sin management we manage our sin only to fall back into the same patterns and routines over and over and over and friend hear me this morning unless we marry the art of beholding with the act of repenting we can't ever develop past our proclivities it repentance is a changing of our mind a renewing of our perspective essentially this I get the opportunity to think different about the contents of my life where is that term beholding means in the Greek to look upon to perceive or my favorite to experience you can't properly behold him and tell you repent but if all you ever do is repent you'll miss out on an opportunity to be transformed and that's why there is urgency on the message of John the Baptist in Matthew 3 for he says repent for the kingdom of God is at hand meaning this that unless you change the way that you think you're gonna miss out on the kingdom that is already happening all around you it's not repent so the kingdom can come its repent so you can be a part of what is already here and in John the Baptist's ministry he marries these two concepts change your mind change your thinking renew your perspective and then secondly behold him in his beauty and his glory and his majesty it's in fact similar to what David tells us in the Psalms one thing I ask and that which I would desire to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord to enquire in his temple and in my time of trouble he would hide me in his pavilion can I tell you that Christian maturity and development happens when you marry the sacred act of repentance to the holy art of beholding who he is and his beauty I don't believe in guilt or shame and those are demonic entities meant to control and dictate the outcomes of your life in fact the gospel is not shame on you it is shame off you but I do believe in humility that regularly says to God and to others hey I missed the mark on that help me do better in the future forgive me for my wrongdoing Fran I want you to see the pattern of Scripture this morning in John 8 when Jesus is interacting with a woman who was caught in the act of adultery the scripture tells us this story when Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman he said to her woman where are those accusers of yours has no one condemned you she said no one Lord and jesus said to her neither do i condemn you go and sin no more then Jesus spoke to them again saying I am the light of the world and he who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have light of life I want you to see the pattern description Jesus doesn't tell the woman go and sin no more and then I won't condemn you he says I don't condemn you and that revelation will actually empower your holiness from this moment and I think if all we ever do is have relationship with a God who judges or micromanages the details of our life we will live in perpetual repentance but never take the second step into renewal I believe in repentance I believe in humility I believe in needing forgiveness and sometimes twice three times a day but friend if we don't marry it to the art of beholding him and gazing upon his beauty then we miss out on the opportunity to be transformed more fully into his image and into his likeness as sometimes we have become so sin conscious and it's actually limited or subdued our ability to see him for who he really is could you hear that type of God speaking to you that type of way this morning I don't condemn you now I know the world condemns you I know religion condemns you I know society condemns you and if we could be honest this morning I know that we condemn ourselves a lot but here the words of Jesus that set this woman free I do not condemn you therefore go and sin no more see that's a God whose grace empowers us under righteousness and see sometimes we're afraid to talk about grace and mercy because we feel like people might miss abuse it or use it as a license to sin fred grace is a license for empowerment and righteousness and paul talks about this in Romans he said the harder I try the more I mess up and the more I mess up the harder I try and it's this vicious cycle of feeling like I can never break free from the bondage of life I would encourage you in this moment to begin to reimagine what actually transpired in your life when you confess Jesus as Lord the old Jew was buried the new you okay you're a new creation in Christ Jesus are there still things that that war against your spirit sure absolutely but in this world you are not just a conqueror you're more than a conqueror you're not just one who overcomes you're more than an overcomer and God forecasted every single mistake you would ever make and he still put his anointing upon your life and Paul says in this way in Romans the calling and the gifting of God is irrevocable and without repentance meeting this God saw every speed bump you would hit and still counted you were fit enough to send his one and only Son to pay a price to buy you back and when you begin to understand God from that perspective it's less about him managing my sin and more about the idea that grace and humility empowers me under righteousness and confession as a part of that but secondly and most importantly I behold him I gaze upon his beauty I experience his transformative presence and in doing so my life is never the same as we gaze upon his beauty we are transformed by what we see when you behold you entered into the process of becoming I think we understand repentance a lot more than beholding and let me give you a few scriptures this morning on what I think can maybe help you develop a construct for this concept today Moses on the mountain with God as he looks upon a bush that's on fire but it refuses to burn out and hears a voice calling him from that place Moses comes down the mountain his face glowing as he has beheld God in reverence and glory in fear a transformation begins in his life the most important transformation wasn't the glow on Moses's face it was fresh hope renewed in his heart for 40 years he attended his father-in-law's sheep in the wilderness and then a voice came from the fire Moses I'm not done with you see there's somebody watching this broadcast this morning and you think your moments passed you by you think you're too old or you're too broke you made too many mistakes or God could never forgive me or maybe I could never forgive me and I'm telling you there is still a voice that speaks from the fire there is still a God who calls us and renews us and restores the years that the enemy has eaten up and destroyed and that God still speaks fresh identity over your life and I think we look at some of these stories in and we get caught off guard by the least important parts it wasn't that his face was blowing it's that his heart was beating with fresh purpose for the first time in four decades and God said to Moses well I still got a call in your life no you going back to Egypt but this time not as the son of Pharaoh but as the son of God you'll say to that Pharaoh let my people go now afraid what about the Mount of Transfiguration but Jesus is with his disciples on the mountain and as Peter and his and his James and his John and all of a sudden they see Jesus transfigured right in front of them and Elijah shows up Moses shows up and man Peter is so starstruck by what he sees he tried to build three temples right there and then a voice comes from heaven listen to my son the disciples come down from that experience shook by what they just saw a beholding of the beauty of God I wonder for me and you in this season where it feels like everything has been put on hold I wonder if we've taken time in stillness in quietness in in in in in sanctification just to just to gaze upon his beauty essentially this God I'm not here to ask you for anything now I know you're the giver of every good and perfect gift I know you go take care of me and there is a time where I bring my petitions and my prayers and run my request before the Lord but just for a moment I'm gonna sit in the stillness and the quietness and gaze upon a God who formed the worlds with his spoken word a God who holds the nation's in his hand a God who secured my destiny forgiven my past empowered my present just for a moment almost said and I'm all days upon that God an animal look upon his beauty and I'm gonna allow that revelation that realization to begin a transformative work in my life I think so many of us fall into the temptation of having a really big devil in a really small God and a big Devils out to get us and out to trip us up and out to cause us harm and out to tempt us in every which way and Fred the devil is a defeated foe and yet you serve arisen Jesus who just last week we celebrated the one who crushed death who swallows hell who conquers sin that God is as faithful today as he has ever been we gotta take time just to reflect on his beauty what are you gonna do with with a God like that in John 17 Jesus prior to his crucifixion is praying the high priestly prayer and he prays that his disciples would share in his glory and that concept I think is difficult for many of us yet we know that all glory and honor and blessing is do unto his name but in John 17 he prays father that I would share in my glory with those whom you have given me and then he tells the father in this I haven't lost any of them except the son of perdition who is Judas which was to fulfill prophecy now I so sincerely believe in a God who not only is going to keep our community together through this crisis but actually going to grow our community through this crisis new people added to the family of God people who have never known Jesus as their Lord and Savior confessing him as Christ confessing him as the Messiah and God is good enough to keep us together and he's good enough to share in his glory and his brilliance in His Majesty in the way that we do this is by beholding him in our honor and our affection in our intellect in our constructs and our priorities it means to see him watch as he actually is let me give you an analogy that I think might be helpful for you this morning it's all about perspective three people can look at the same tree one sees the potential for a piece of furniture the other sees the potential for firewood and yet another just sees a tree see your perspective determines what you do with that tree if you're a wood worker you chop it down you take it home you work with it you cut it you treat it you oil it until it becomes what you have envisioned now watch similar to faith three people can look at Jesus and they can all see different things see some see an antiquated religion and and yet others see him as one of many paths or options and yet others see him as the Messiah the son of the Living God and isn't this why Jesus asks his disciples who do you think or say that I am the subset your Elijah or or one of the other prophets Peter says but I say that you're the son of the Living God see what you say based upon what you see determines how you honor what you behold see if I treat him as worthless then he's my last priority not my first if I treat him as one of many options then he's one of the things that I consult not the first thing that I consult see what we begin to honor him for what he actually is it changes the way that we interact with his presence and that's why I'm so convinced that even in this season of lockdown while you're at home God can give you a fresh love and a fresh honor and a fresh reverence for al holy and beautiful and awesome that he is because even right now as you're listening to this broadcast Jesus himself his presence and his power friend it doesn't just fill you it fills your home what are you gonna do with a god like that and Jesus asks who do you say that I am continuing on in John 1 the Bible says this the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus Jesus turned to them and seeing them following said to them what do you seek and they said to him rabbi which is to say teacher where are you staying he said to them come and see and they came and saw where he was staying and remained with him that day now it was about the tenth hour Fred let me ask you that question today what are you seeking I think a lot of the gaps in our development come from seeking a Christ who doesn't exist a Christ who is only interested in our comfort a Christ who never convicts a Christ who never compels a Christ who never commands what type of Christ are you seeking better yet what type of church are you seeking better yet what what type of community are you seeking we serve a God who was intimately involved in every area of our life in fact I love how scripture communicates about his sovereign lordship in our life that he actually knows us better than we know us he knows my deepest desire my deepest need my deepest sense my deepest insecurities he doesn't just see who I pretend to be on the outside he knows who I actually a.m. when you strip away everything else you take off all the filters when you put down all the identity tests and the ideograms and the spiritual gift matrixes and and and when you just get down to just really who you are God knows you even better than that and I love that these disciples have John the Baptist's are following Jesus and he turns around and he asked them this question what are you seeking and I love how they respond where are you staying on this church plant journey over the last number of years that has in all sincerity been the cry my heart God where are you staying where are you resting upon where is your presence I get his glory fills the horse I get there is no environment in which Christ isn't king but I also believe that at certain times and in certain ways he manifests himself and my heart has been like that of Moses if you go we'll go and if you stay we'll stay but we're not going to do this without your presence and I love how they respond they they they don't even have the full revelation of who he is but this is what they say where are you stay and the Bible says and they stayed with him the question is not is God still with us the question is are we still with him are we walking in the way that we ought to walk never departing from it now he's the one who's faithful scripture says he's closer than a brother now he's the one who was faithful when we was faithless it's not where is God Fran it's where am I I've been invited close and so have you branded disciple is one who is disciplined into Christ followership let me say this to you this morning friend you need patterns even in this season if you don't have a schedule I don't know about you but I've had this experience over the last number of weeks like I'll forget what day it is because our schedules have gone out the window the normal work schedules the normal social interaction calendars the normal events everything has been disrupted by this virus and although my schedule has gone out the window in order for me to continually spiritually develop my patterns need to stay the same and by that I mean this how many times do we fall victim to a Matthew 26 lifestyle the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak see if I were to be honest this morning my spirit is a lot more interested in prayer than my flesh is my spirits a lot more interested in self-control than my flesh is if my spirits a lot more interested in in fasting than my flesh is and you see even Jesus verbalizing this in the garden not my will but your will be done see those moments are character carving opportunities where two tectonic plates are colliding together and one is this inner will in your old life to maybe go in a direction you shun it go back to an old pattern go back to an old relationship gold go back to an old way of thinking allow your spirituality to go in a degenerate direction instead of a regenerate direction and yet Jesus demonstrates this struggle even in the garden not my will but your will Michelangelo said it like this every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it I saw the angel in the marble and carved the stone until I set him free watch the pattern friend in Luke 1 Jesus is calling disciples and he has an interaction with a man who we later know to be Peter Peters out fishing and he been fishing all night hasn't caught anything Jesus calls to him from the shore and says hey catch him out on the other side Peter's like nah we've been fishing all night it's not that our nets on the wrong side we've been fishing there ain't any fish here but at your word I'll do it and of course many of you are familiar with the story in Luke 5 Peter cast his net on the other side and pretty soon then that is so heavy with fish that's almost breaking and watch how peter responds depart from me for I am a sinful man Oh Lord watch this Jesus gonna perform the miracle any way that he saw fit but he asks his disciples to engage in the pattern but this time it was infused by his presence he asked them to do the same thing that they had been doing but this time it was infused by his presence see when we think about spirituality we'll break through miracles I think we tend to expect that it will be so supernatural it won't follow a pattern and can I tell you Fred more often than not it's the consistency of our patterns covered in his presence where we see the most breakthrough in our lives isn't that human nature we always want development without pattern istic behavior we want the weight loss treatment that works overnight we want the online degree that we just have to pay a fee and get a certificate we want the overnight success we rather win the lotto than manage our finances that is the temptation of humanity and I love Jesus interacting with the disciples Jesus could have performed this miracle anyway and in fact he does multiply food in different ways and in different miracles but in this context he tells them continue to engage in the pattern but here's the difference now I'm standing on the shore and I just feel like when God invites us into development oftentimes he comes close to our pattern let me break this down for you it's like that nine-to-five job that you go to every day maybe not in this season but in the season prior and you're just like god I just wish he make me more significant and man I'm just real tired of this and what is my life really gonna start and am I really making a difference and God in those moments draws close to the broken in the contrite and instead of delivering you out of what annoys you he develops you in the midst of it and you find significance in the desert that's the story of Moses he finds significance in the desert way before he ends up in pharaoh's court and Fred that's how God works with us as we find significance in the patterns yes even in the mundane yes even in the resting seasons of life as God draws close things begin to change in us and through us now watch this as I close [Music] continuing in verse 40 of John 1 the Bible says this one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew simon Peters brother he first found his own brother Simon and said to him we have found the Messiah which is translated Christ and he brought him to Jesus now when Jesus looked at him he said you are Simon the son of Jonah you shall be called Cephas which is translated a stone the following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said don't follow me now Feld was from Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter and Philip found Nathanael said to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph and Nathanael said to him can anything good come out of Nazareth Philip said to him come and see Fran there been some people in your life some naysayers some detractors some cynics and critics some people in authority who have said that very thing over you can anything good come out of my family can anything good come out of my pain can anything good come out of my history can anything good come out of my shortcomings and I love the faith of Philip in this context as he says to Nathaniel come and see come and see Fran I'm inviting you to draw close to Jesus in this season through the patterns of discipline behavior now I know you don't got a schedule I know you can wake up and go to bed whenever you want I get that we're in a very unusual time in history but my hope for you is that you come out of this season more developed than you went into it that you allow the spiritual patterns that got downloads into your life to be transactional in this way that you are more developed disciplined the individual on the other side I'm not saying live addicted to a schedule but I'm saying use this opportunity to draw near to God in such a way that your perspective is cleansed your conscience is purged and you take time to in a fresh way behold him in the beauty of His Majesty and in doing so walk away with a fresh appreciation for who God is and how he's working in your life I think maybe that's what I'm most struck by in this season things that we have taken for granted that I will freshly appreciate once we can do them again and I hope for you and for me that as we walk through this together the best way that we know how we come out the other side with a fresh appreciation for Church of fresh appreciation for community of fresh appreciation for God in His brilliant work in our lives knowing this that our best days are not behind us ahead of us Fred come and see in this season draw near to Christ and see his goodness his brilliance displayed in your life I love you guys prayed for you believing in God's best for this season we'll see you soon thanks so much for joining us again today make sure to join us again next week an 11 a.m. to stay connected with us and make sure follow us on social media Instagram Facebook YouTube or you can text pursuit update to 9 4 0 9 0 we'll see you guys next week and stay safe stay healthy [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Pursuit NW

Views: 558

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: the pursuit, the pursuit nw, pursuit snohomish, russell johnson, pursuit church, pursuit seattle, pursuit, pursuit worship, bethel, bethel music, bill johnson, kris vallotton, pentecostal, steven furtick, elevation church, elevation worship, zoe church, chad veach, view church, kyle veach, vous church, rick wilkerson, upperroom, upperroom worship, mercy culture, landon schott, jesus is king, creative churches, churchhome, judah smith, jake hamilton

Id: _Fy09SsVr04

Length: 62min 25sec (3745 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020