6.9.21 | Wednesday Service |Pursuit Yth

[Music] i know you will feel me [Music] open up the gates let heaven on it [Music] do it again open up when you move you're here [Music] me [Music] us [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is you're here [Music] when you move you're here holy spirit [Music] [Music] holy spirit holy spirit [Music] you're [Music] oh [Music] come on [Music] is [Applause] on us [Music] is [Music] would you place your hand over your heart we're just gonna take a moment to invite jesus into the room because without him there's no purpose without him there's no reason to be here yes i love you yes i love worship and i love what we do but we show up every wednesday because we want to have an encounter with jesus so come on place your hand over your heart [Music] oh would you say holy spirit come on [Music] it's right here my life is here and i'll be a living sacrifice for you you're a fire the refiner i wanna be consumed i wanna be tried by fire purified you take whatever you desire [Music] you take whatever you desire [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] you take [Music] so clean my hands purify my [Music] as a heart [Music] take my life as a sacrifice purify my [Music] my heart [Music] take my life as a sacrifice my hands purify [Music] you take whatever you desire lord here's my life i wanna be tried by fire pure if i you take whatever you desire lord is [Music] take my life as a sacrifice [Music] only for you take my life take my life as a sacrifice [Music] hands my life as a sacrifice [Music] you take whatever you desire yeah lord here's my [Music] [Music] you take whatever you desire lord here's my life beneath the surface of what my eyes have seen [Music] [Music] come on to fall a little deeper to fall a little deeper than i've ever known [Music] i'm coming [Music] i'm coming back [Music] i'm coming back what's every other option when i know the sweeter side [Applause] [Music] but my spirit knows your voice and i won't be satisfied [Music] with temporary pleasure come on [Music] [Applause] i'm coming back to you i'm coming back [Music] i'm coming back to you i'm coming back i'm coming back to jesus [Music] come on i hear the song you're singing i hear the song [Music] and i'll stay where i belong i hear the song you're singing [Applause] and i'll stay where i belong i hear the song you're singing [Music] come on [Music] i'm coming back i'm coming back come on students all over the room let's print the class our hands lift your hands to heaven come on tonight we're inviting the holy spirit in and we're saying and declaring tonight god i'm coming back home come on some of you guys you make a decision right now to follow jesus but i'm telling you god is in the room the holy spirit's in the room it's so friendly we would just reach out to him he's running after us so come on let's declare that we're running after him come on let's sing this out let's figure it out [Music] here i come [Music] here i come running [Music] here i come [Music] and i won't look back though here i am [Music] [Applause] i'm coming [Music] come on engage [Music] this is our declaration tonight we're coming back to home we're coming back to jesus christ come on [Music] is [Music] put everybody in here about your head close your eyes well for a moment would you forget about the person on your left and on your right can we just focus in on the holy spirit you know tonight friend god is here and he wants to encounter you and so friend i know that you might be like well alex you don't know what i've done you don't know what my life looks like but friend i'm telling you tonight christ has come and is it is longing for relationship with you tonight and so friend would you for a moment would you just forget about the friends that you brought came here with would you forget about what everybody thinks about you hurt you for a moment just give everything you have to jesus so right where you're at with everybody's head bowed everybody's eyes closed why would you slip your hands straight to heaven and can we just for a moment just engage with god and just say holy spirit come would you say that with me would you say holy spirit come come on would you say that again would you say holy spirit come on would you say this you say spirit of god come and rest on me let me feel your presence tonight let me know that you're here speak lord your servants are listening and right here right now i'm going to pray for you god right now with every student's hand lifted lord i thank you god for unlocking the supernatural in this room so holy spirit we just give you full reign and full permission to speak what you want to say to us tonight and god i thank you all for breaking off lies to the enemy false mindsets are going tonight i i feel so strongly some of you guys have been lied to all week by the enemy i'm telling you tonight it falls off it leaves tonight you've been dealing with guilt and condemnation you've been so like lied to and thought that i'm not anything worse that god would ever love or if anybody knew what i was really struggling with or if anybody knew who i really was and they wouldn't want anything to do with me friend i'm telling you tonight christ has come and he is saying to you tonight that he wants you he wants relationship with you and he wants to forgive you tonight and so right now before we've gone any farther i know all we've done is worship but i thought this was my spirit when we started that we're supposed to give a call for salvation right here in the middle of our service and so friend with every head bowed every eye closed and tonight i'm speaking to you and you're saying alex i need to come back home to jesus with you with everybody's head bowed everybody's eyes closed if that's you and i count to three would you raise your hand just so i can see who you are tonight if that's you you'd say alex man i need to have i need to get my life back to jesus i need to come back home to jesus that's you when i count to three would you just lift your hands so i can see you one jesus loves you so much two your life will ever be the same three is that anybody in here you're like i see a hand awesome anybody else i see a hand i see a hand four five awesome anybody else anybody else can say yes to jesus you in the back six seven i see you back there anybody else awesome everybody said about eyes closed would you say this i see you on the side would you say this or you say dear lord jesus why would you say this not enough so you can hear yourself say it say this say dear lord jesus thank you for loving me and thank you for saving me i believe you died on the cross i believe you rose from the grave and i believe you live forever so lord come and save me come have relationship with me come live in my heart i give you my life in jesus name amen can you give it up for the seven people who just said yes to jesus it's incredible incredible we're gonna stay here for just a couple more seconds if you would just by your head close your eyes you're like alex why do i need to bow my head close your eyes because i know teenagers and you are easily distracted and so this is just our way of just saying hey focus in for a moment can we actually have the tracks just brought down a little bit josh so tonight i just really feel like the lord just wants to minister to some of you guys in the middle of our set in the middle of our service you know before we go any further and ministering to you could look like just simply him speaking to you and saying i'm real ministering to you could look like some of you guys having some sort of emotional response and crying or just being overwhelmed in the presence of god but i really feel it's so strong as soon as we started worship tonight i mean we're singing best friends which is just a fun song and i'm like getting wrecked in the presence i'm like okay god what are you doing tonight and so the holy spirit is really strong tonight and i just want to recognize that and give him permission to do what he wants you know tonight we didn't come for you and we didn't come for me we came for him and if he wants to speak to us then we're going to make room for him to speak because friend we don't make room for the holy spirit we give him the whole room i'm so right where you're at come on would you just repeat after me just just between you and jesus would you say holy spirit come and speak to me come and touch me with your love and with your mercy [Music] i'ma pray for you god right now lord i just unlocked god the supernatural in the room holy spirit we just acknowledge your presence thank you jesus thank you jesus holy spirit we just acknowledge that you're here thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord well if you're like i don't know what to say what am i supposed to do what am i supposed to do come on would you just begin to just tell jesus who he's been to you who he is to you want to see a healer is he a redeemer is he peace is he your joy come on who is jesus to you come on all we're doing is we're just declaring who he is tonight come on friend we're we're pressing in tonight i believe god's got something special for you guys we're just pressing in we're just pressing in let's go on just who is jesus to you just thank him for who he's been god i thank you lord that you've been redeemer for my family god i thank you lord that you've been a faithful god in my marriage god i thank you lord that you've been a provider god when i didn't know where i was going to make money god i thank you lord that you've been a healer god in my family god i thank you lord that you've been so faithful jesus there's no one like you and god i just thank you god that when i didn't know where to turn to god and everybody else rejected me and turned their back on me jesus you never did so god i just thank you lord for being consistent god i thank you lord for being a faithful friend god i thank you lord for always choosing me god and always showing up for me god i thank you lord that knowing everybody else god didn't want anything to do with me i feel that's so strong there's a spirit of rejection in the room so god right now i just take authority over the spirit of rejection people who feel like everybody's left me nobody wants me everybody's chosen somebody else over me god i take authority over that now in jesus name and holy spirit i just invite the spirit of adoption into the room come on if that's you right where you're at everybody's looking around everybody's eyes are closed so that's you you're saying man i need i need that man i've been feeling like everybody's left me i need i need some i need the holy spirit my life why would you send your hand straight to heaven if that's you god that's you nobody's looking around nobody's looking around come on that's you you're saying man i just need a touch from god man i feel like everybody's left me everybody's chosen somebody else over me god right now those students with their hands lifted holy spirit we say come right now in jesus name holy spirit i thank you god that you are so faithful god you are the friend who sticks closer than a brother so holy spirit come god thank you lord for being the comforter god for being our strong tower our shelter god lord i thank you for hiding us in the shadow of your wings god i thank you lord that you are faithful so holy spirit come and speak to students tonight god we thank you we praise you holy spirit we praise you god we just give you full reign and full permission to do what you want tonight god we love you we praise you we praise you jesus come on if you love jesus in the room would you just give the lord a handcuff of praise awesome awesome awesome awesome you guys can start making your way back to your seat say hey to someone on the way back thanks for joining us a pursuit awesome just start making your way back to your seat we're about to do some announcements tell you guys what's up what's going on how's everybody doing tonight everybody excited to be here is anybody excited for the finale of fear factor oh my gosh fear factor has been wild it's been absolutely crazy and this week is going to be no different actually tonight is our most wild night of fear factor uh who thinks who thinks that uh tonight's gonna be won by a girl who thinks the lady is gonna win oh okay okay who thinks the boys are gonna pull it out who thinks the boy's gonna win oh no okay it sounds like the ladies are going to take this one home tonight i just believe it i got faith for that i'm just kidding so tonight a couple announcements um youth camps coming up everybody say youth camp youth camp is on july 11th through the 14th and tomorrow prices are going up to 300 so if you want to go to camp you're like alex i need to go to camp i don't want to spend 300 bucks but i want to go i'm telling you there's two options for you number one number one option is you get your uh you get your deposit in today so you're like alex i need money well go home beg your parents tell them hey it's just 75 today and then by on the 23rd of june it'll be the rest of the money all right so uh there's that option the second option is if you are honestly saying alex i want to go to camp but i have no money i asked my parents and money is an issue in my family i have good news for you everybody say good news that's the gospel y'all no i'm just i have gospel news for you concerning camp uh if you want to go to camp and you're like alex i don't have any money i really need to go but i don't have any money to go to camp we have a sponsorship option online when you register and so all that you would need to pay is 75 total okay and that there's a few spots for that i think we have 20 25 slots reserved for that so if that's you you're saying alex i need to go to camp i really really want to go or maybe your friend wants to go maybe a cousin whatever but they just don't have money in their family to go to camp they can't afford it uh i'm telling you we have an option for you so if that's you and you need help registering we're going to have registration for camp underneath the pursuit sign in the foyer when we get food and then after fear factor and so there's two times for you to get that uh second thing is uh internship or we say internship all right summer internships coming up and man our internship is a blast all right so if you're like hey i go to church here but i really want to make this like my crew i want to make this my family i really want to like invest here summer internship is for you it's only 30 a person and that is for the whole summer so all you're gonna do is just uh serve with us one day a week on wednesdays you're already here and so if you like hanging out on wednesdays like hey i want to be a part of what's going on i want to learn how to do like cameras i want to learn how to you know do stuff one be a part you know then join our internship it's gonna be a blast and that is for everyone going into sixth grade all the way through going into your senior year and so if that's you uh come and join us it's gonna be a blast uh and also talk about internship if you're graduating this year but you're saying alex hey i don't not going away to college i'm going to be here and i'd like to still be at youth uh if that's you join our leadership team because we have an awesome leadership team and it would be awesome to have you still be a part of what god's doing here even though you're technically too old you know our old folks uh uh all of our senior citizens uh that are coming up and so anyways if you want to do that it's gonna be great uh the third thing that i have to tell you about is worship everybody say worship all right is our worship not the coolest thing ever like it's not the best man stephanie's killing it bobco's killing it we have a great team um and if you're saying uh if you're in the seats you're saying hey i play a musical instrument i play guitar i play drums i play bass i play keys whatever if you'd like to join our team we're also going to have signups for that underneath the pursuit sign right after service uh when we're getting food and also after our after party so if you're saying if either one of those three you're wanting to go to camp you're wanting to go and join our internship or you're wanting to join our worship team um then we would love to speak to you and it's gonna be all three of those gonna be under the neon pursuit sign in the back in the foyer cool cool okay uh let's go to family groups so if you're online is our online group you're still online okay cool if you're online we have a family group for you too so join your family group you're gonna get zoom code in the link in the chat uh and then also uh if you're in the room anybody thankful we don't have to be online like i'm thankful that we have online but it's really thankful to be in the room man there's something special about being in the room and so uh if you are in sixth seventh or eighth grade and you are a boy you're gonna go right back here all right right back in this little area all right sixth seventh eighth grade boys you're gonna go back towards the back i know you're normally in the front but we moved you because there's too many of you which is a good problem all right if you're in sixth seventh or eighth grade and you're a girl you're gonna go back in underneath or around the nine square area back in the nine square area sixth seventh eighth grade girls and nine square area cool if you're in ninth or tenth grade and you're a boy you're gonna go right on the other side of this curtain ninth and tenth grade boys on the other side of the curtain other side of the curtain ninth tenth grade boys [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] man welcome to youth man if this is your first time i just want to say welcome my name is alex i am so excited that you're here tonight uh if i haven't met you yet i hope to meet you at some point tonight but tonight's gonna be a blast uh let me give you a rundown of what's gonna happen after service uh this is your first time you may not have heard but we do this thing called the after party ever say after party all right so our after party tonight is we are having fear factor who's excited for fear factor okay all i'm saying is we've done terrible things to people throughout this time and tonight is the worst all right uh i think we've had people eat pig rectum uh we've you're like oh oh wait it's like that it's like yes it's like that uh we have people eat dog food with worms in it uh the gold fit did we do goldfish i think we did goldfish this year uh people ate half an onion last week uh so i mean it's just bad and so tonight's gonna be no different in the sense that it's still gross but it's gonna be very different in the sense that we feel like this is our worst night and if you take our previous worst night and then multiply it maybe by five then we're close all right so tonight's gonna be really bad but uh the winner of tonight is going to get this nice pair of air pods anybody love airpods hey yeah sponsored by apple uh apple give us a sponsorship uh and uh we're also going to be giving away a 100 nike card to the winner uh and then the winner will also receive i know you're like but wait there's more yes there's more uh but we're also going to be giving away a free slot at camp and so man it's going to be a blast and i cannot wait for the after party and tonight we got taco bell in the house my friends taco bell's in the house i love it all right you have your bible let's turn to john chapter eight john chapter eight we're gonna this is our last part of our stronghold series everybody say strongholds so strongholds we've been really talking about and diving into uh really the demonic and really uh spiritual things that have a stronghold or a foothold in our life meaning that uh maybe you're like alex i don't even believe in the demonic uh well first of all i think it's interesting how people love to believe in the angelic but hate to believe in the demonic because the same bible that gives us context for the angelic is also the same bible that gives us context for the demonic and so again you can't pick and choose can't cherry pick what what verses you want to believe in what verse you don't want to believe in it's either you believe in the whole uh inerrant scripture or you believe in no scripture at all and so that's between you and the lord though but anyways let me just let me just say this uh a stronghold is a way that the enemy has a hand in your life and really i think what we've all learned throughout the past several weeks is that all of us have some door that we've opened to the enemy and it's time to close it like i think sometimes we think that oh well only people who foam at the mouth and have their head turn around like eight times are uh influenced by the demonic and that's not entirely true like if you're fearful the spirit the scripture says this that god does not give you a spirit of fear right but of power love and a sound mind meaning this that if you have uh in your life made decisions influenced or because or based out of a spirit of fear then friend that's a foothold that you opened up to the enemy another one that we talked about was unforgiveness unforgiveness is something that simply says i choose not to forgive you for what you did to me and honestly friend that's a stronghold that some of us have opened up in our life and so tonight uh i don't want us to go into this and say well i don't have demons in my life so i'm safe i want us to go into this tonight saying maybe possibly there is an area of my life that i opened up to the enemy that it's time to close tonight right anybody in here tonight want to close the door to the enemy okay that was like two of you but that's okay all right let's read our bible john chapter eight starting in verse two here's what it says early in the morning jesus came again to the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and he taught them the scribes and the pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery or having sex with someone that wasn't her husband and placing her in the midst and they said to him teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery now in the law moses commanded us to stone such a woman a woman do you say this they said to test him that they may have some charge to bring against him but jesus bent down and wrote in the scene with his finger on the ground and as they continued to ask him he stood up and he said to them let him who was without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her and once more he bent down and wrote on the ground but when he but when they heard it everybody say heard it when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him jesus stood up and he said to her woman where are they has no one condemned you she said no one lord and jesus said neither do i condemn you go and from now on sin no more title this sermon is simply this i won't stand for this i won't stand for this let's pray god we thank you for tonight holy spirit i thank you lord that tonight you want to speak to students so holy spirit we say open up our ears to hear you our minds to understand you and our hearts to know you and god speak to us through your word and let us learn something and god help us to become better christians by the end of tonight we love you praise you if you believe what you say amen amen uh i remember being a kid going to church i'm a church kid i grew up in church i know that some of you guys didn't have that experience and i think some of you are like thank the lord that i didn't grow up in church because church is boring but uh uh that's you that's that's your own prerogative i guess you know but uh for me i liked going to church and uh but i remember being like six or seven years old and not really understanding worship you know like i remember uh being in the room like when worship's going on like some of you guys and you know everybody's up the front or everybody's lifting their hands and i'm just like when are they singing there's another there's another song okay seeing another one all right cool i thought we were done but okay we're still singing and some of you guys are like can i just sit like why won't you let me sit like i just want to sit down and i remember being with my mom and my mom uh well i would start sitting down with my with my mom does this like aggressive snap you know does anybody have a snapping mom you know uh yeah okay you know all right my mom is a snapper and my mom is a pincher all right she pinches all right uh and so my mom's in the house tonight can we give it for my mom my mom's never here she's here tonight yeah my mom's on the front row man i'm thankful my mom's here uh and so my mom would snap at me or she'd pinch me and then i would be like mom ow god you know and so i would stand back up and i'd say i remember asking her i said mom when can i sit down and she pointed our lead pastor and she said you can sit down when he sits down it's like someone's saying it's like coming on a sunday morning or coming in on a wednesday night and then being like hey when can i sit down and i'm going you can sit down when alex sits down it's like this dude never sits like what am i supposed to do you know i remember having that conversation like thinking that in my mind like this guy is not sitting anytime soon like when am i supposed to sit you want me to stand the whole time like i just didn't understand it right uh and i i remember like thinking like man my legs hurt i'm bored i don't understand why we're doing this this is in the 2000s so like the music wasn't great like it was just like its own thing like i'm just like there's no cool lights like when i went to church it was there was no lights it was just band and white lights and it was just like like like being in a classroom you know and then like there's red carpet and like pews everywhere and like i just remember thinking myself like well this isn't fun like i don't want to stand up like i don't understand why i'm standing and some of you uh have been sitting though when it's time to stand like friend can i tell you tonight it's time to take a stand against suicide as a generation it's time for us to take a stand against drug addiction in our community it's time for us to stand against witchcraft and the demonic that takes a hold of all of our friends like i'm telling you friend it's time to take a stand and there are things in our culture that honestly should make us stand up there are some of you guys the culture's running rampant in your friend group and in your family but all you can do is just sit there and say i'm just bored but friend there's an enemy going up against our friends and our family and it's time for the church to stand up and be willing to stand against the works of the enemy is anybody with me tonight does anybody want to stand up against the enemy see in worship i just stood until the pastor sat down so i literally just did that i would just stand up and then when he would sit down i would sit down but the problem is is that this guy he just never sat you know i would just be standing the whole time like all the songs are going on like someone's praying he's still standing the offering is going sometimes he would still be standing and i'm like can i sit down now and my mom's like i guess you can sit down now but this dude never sat down like i was standing longer than anyone else in the room like everybody else is sitting down and i'm still standing there just like looking at him like please sit dude like just sit down uh but but some of you guys hate it though when we make you stand up and worship like when you come into the room and you're like i just want to sit in my chair like during worship the music's loud i don't understand this and i just want to sit down you're like i don't understand why i have to stand because we'll have leaders that'll come up to you and say hey can you please stand like do you mind like please even though you're not going to the front because we don't make you come to the front but when you're in the room we do ask that you stand why because the king is in the room like friend think for a moment if joe biden president joe biden walked into the room out of respect even if you're republican independent democrat whatever you hate him you love him out of respect the whole room would stand up why because a person of authority who demands our respect walked in the room but isn't it interesting how many times the holy spirit walks in the room but you don't even stand up for him he's in the room the king's in the room and friend all we're asking is just can you just show a little bit of respect even if you don't understand it even if you don't agree with him even if you don't like him he's in the room so it's time for you to stand up see jesus is in the room and he deserves to be respected but some of us have been standing for things that jesus wouldn't stand for see some of you stand in support of things that scripture clearly say leads to death i think of this in the sense that some of us stand for compassion but it's compassion void of truth here's what this looks like it's compassion and it's void of real truth and it's full of my truth friend can i challenge you for a moment you don't have a truth you have an experience all you're just like wait what what do you mean see experience equals perspective but truth is found in scripture see some of you think that you're more compassionate merciful and loving than god is i'm going to say that again because you didn't catch it but here we go i'm going to say it again some of you think that you are more compassionate more merciful and more loving than god is you're like alex no i don't yes you do because you read scripture and you think that's too harsh i wouldn't do that you read scripture and you say well that excludes certain people god what are you doing i if i was god i wouldn't have wrote that scripture what are you saying i'm more merciful than god is i have more compassion than god does and friends see the problem is is that he is not separate from his word because what we like to do is we like to take our ideology of who christ is and then project that on just who he is but reject the fact that scripture say that that's not who he is see we say well god's merciful and loving so because of that i'm just going to ignore all the verses that i don't in my perspective and my truth line up with compassion truth and mercy and so we end up ignoring scriptures so that we can back up our world view but our worldview is skewed just because it's skewed out of our experience it's not based in any concrete or any truth it's just based off of my truth and friend that's not truth i know i'm going fast let me slow down john chapter 1 says this it says in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god so friend we cannot separate god from the word of god if you want to know who god is read his word before we start making assumptions about who god is let him self-define based off of what he declared he is through his word does that make sense yes okay see let me go one step further there's no verse that jesus is ashamed of which means that there's no verse that i need to be ashamed of but alex i thought that god was love yes scripture does say that in first john chapter 4 it says let us love for one another for love is from god and whoever loves has been born of god and knows god and anyone who does not love does not know god because god is love and then you're like okay alex god is love you're saying that he's love scripture he's self-defining as love then why doesn't he act more loving and i think the problem is that you're asking the wrong question the question isn't why doesn't god act more loving the question should be where is his holiness am i viewing his love through his holiness notice first john is where it says that god is love one verse in scripture says that god is love lots of verses verses say that god is loving but hundreds of verses say that god is holy and what we want to do is we want to try and create a love-based theology but remove love from holiness i know i'm saying a lot of words some of you guys don't understand let me let me explain this see see we say we stand for righteousness we don't stand for emotionalism we stand for holiness we don't stand for living any way that you want we stand for self-denial not for self-fulfillment so what does jesus stand for jesus stands for justice but his justice is filtered through a lens of holiness see ju uh love he is loving but he is his love exists through a lens of holiness he's compassionate but his compassion flows through a lens of holiness and then we have so we have one camp who says well god is love and that's all he needs to be he doesn't need to be truth but then we have a whole other camp which is equally as crazy by the way that says god is all truth and he is no love see jesus isn't standing in full support of people whose actions separate them from him but he's also not standing with the bull horn saying they're all going to hell i'ma say that one more time jesus does not stand in full support or full affirmation and he doesn't affirm everything that people do because he knows because of his holiness that certain actions according to scripture separate us from relationship with god and so he's not going to celebrate someone's lifestyle that he knows ultimately leads in death and destruction and alive separated from who he is but he doesn't also partner that with a lack of love because that's truth but then we take what some camps do is they take all this truth and they go on the street corners and then they and you'll see us on seattle uh they'll be on the street corners they'll just be yelling at people saying here's all my truth and if you don't believe my truth then you're going to hell but friend jesus doesn't stand with either camp jesus isn't found saying hey i'm affirming everything you are and everything you've done and everything you'll ever do because i just love you and blah blah he's not in that camp but he's also not found on the street corner yelling at everybody else who he thinks is going to hell see jesus doesn't stand with the pharisees but instead he stands with the broken and friend jesus is actually in scripture called a friend of sinners but i think sometimes we think that's a compliment but friend in the context of scripture being a friend of sinners was the highest insult see jesus isn't called a jesus is called a friend of sinners but friend he's not called a friend of sin jesus is called a friend of sinners meaning that tonight no matter where you're at in the spectrum of life if you're in relationship with jesus you're in full right standing with god you're you're actively pursuing him you're wanting to be the disciple of christ if that's you you are just as much loved as the person who is on the other end of the spectrum who is actively opposing him and going the opposite direction both parties have as much mercy extended towards them but friend jesus even though he is a friend of sinners is not a friend of sin i know i'm talking about a lot tonight and you're like alex i don't like what we're talking about tonight i thought i was going to come and we're just going to be having all this fun because see friend tonight i want to talk to you about the spirit of religion i want to talk to you now about the spirit of religion let's go back to our text john chapter 8. she says that they brought this lady brought a woman she had been caught in the act of adultery he placed her in the midst of them and then they said teacher this one's a cotton act of adultery can we stone her like this is craziness this is where we find jesus in this text see i think it's interesting though that the religious leaders are the people who brought her and these are the people who are supposed to be the most like god isn't it interesting how the most christian people can often be the people who are often the most judgmental and for some reason we wear that as like a badge of honor like like look i'm calling out sin like friend if your whole tick tock account is you just telling people they're all going to hell you're not helping i have a few questions with this story though first of all why did they bring her to the temple to stone her isn't this interesting because let's go back to the context of when this story is written the temple is a place that was a holy place only people who uh who are going to perform sacrifices and have right relationship with god can even enter into the temple it says uh in scriptures that there are people who are literally outside of the temple begging because of their body deformities that they have or like sicknesses or diseases or or something they were born with so they were considered cursed by god and not able to enter into this temple but isn't it interesting how the how the the pharisees pull someone who is dirty and walk past people who aren't allowed to go in and then bring her into the temple while bypassing all these people it's like they're breaking the rules just to prove a point it doesn't make any sense see see they would have passed by people of the gates who weren't even able to go into the temple because of their sickness friend friend religion bypasses what i'm doing wrong to focus is on to focus on what you're doing wrong religion bypasses what what's wrong with my heart to focus on what's wrong with your heart see religion has a phd in everybody else's sin but a ged in their own and the second question i have is why do they have to ask jesus's permission to carry out what the law already commanded them to do have you thought about this see i think sometimes we read scripture too fast we're like we're like okay a lady comes in they ask jesus or jesus draws in the sand and then jesus is like uh uh who's who's whatever without sin cast the first stone they all leave and the story's over and we don't even ask like questions to go through the text so the second question asked was why do they have to ask jesus permission to carry out what the law already commanded them to do see there's no reason to ask for jesus permission in this matter but they're asking because they want an audience friend religion the spirit of religion has to make a spectacle out of obedience the spirit of religion has to create a spectacle out of obedience friend i want to ask you tonight do you post scripture reading just to show how holy you are or just simply because you love scripture do you post a pic of you at church just to prove that oh look i'm going to church and so god loves me more or whatever or are you doing just because you had a good time right because see religion carries this undertone of guilt and of shame it makes sure that everyone else feels shame because all i resonate with is shame notice this tonight if you're saying alex i can't struggle with the spirit of religion because i struggle with feeling guilty and shameful i think it's interesting how the people who feel the most guilt in their life are often the most religious people it's like have you heard of this phrase that hurt people hurt people i would say uh i would say that people who feel guilty make other people feel guilty so if you're like saying like if you've had a bad experience with a christian you're like alex man christians are terrible they're the worst i hate them all like you know whatever uh first of all i just want to say i'm sorry but secondly i just want to recognize that like the person who made you feel dirty the only reason they did that was because they feel dirty like i think sometimes we can get so caught up on like our own experience that we can forget like or forget to ask ourselves why did this happen why are they why are they attacking me like this and friends shame is not from jesus it's from the devil and i know this sounds so basic but i think it's something that we need to recognize because out of your own guilt you'll be you'll feel forced into relationship with jesus but friend that's manipulation and that's not god's heart see god wants to have relationship with you because he loves you and he wants you to have relationship with him because you love him like it's like this like have you ever had your parents tell you to do something and you did it but you know you didn't do it like out of the right heart you know you just did it because you had to do it right and you're like the whole time you're like you're like mumbling on your butt like you know whatever you know is that just me like if i have to clean the bathroom i'm married and but been asking me to clean the bathroom that's that's the only way i clean the bathroom it's just angry uh i just hate to do it uh but um but i think sometimes like have you ever noticed how your parents respond differently though when when you clean something or when you do a chore or you do something and it's just simply because you want to do it and it's like it's like oh cool you had a good attitude about this i i believe that in a similar fashion that's how god views us when we obey him or we we act in accordance to his word just simply because we love him not because we have to do it and frank can i tell you tonight that you don't have to read your bible and you don't have to worship and you don't have to pray and you don't have to like come to church you don't have to do all these things we get to do these things i get to read my bible i get to encounter jesus i get to worship him i get to sing songs to him i get to show up to church like all these things are a privilege that i have that i get to partake in just simply out of relationship with who he is and it's not something that i have to do because if i don't do it then i'm going to go to hell immediately that's not the case at all the case is this is that i can operate out of grace and mercy and grace and gratitude towards god just simply because he's shown grace and mercy towards me like i don't have to do this i get to do this see when you accuse and attack other sin i want to tell you tonight you look more like the devil than like jesus i need to say this again because i i again some of us we think that we are helping the lord out by being this beacon of truth and we're going up to everyone saying you're so wrong you're going to hell can you believe what your actions are doing to you and like we're just like terrible people like uh and we think that we're that we sound like jesus but friend we don't find jesus doing any of that in scripture and in fact the only person that we have accusing people in scripture is the devil and so friend if your main mode of bringing people to the lord is guilt and shame you don't look like jesus you look like the devil see the motives though of these religious people were wrong see it says right after after they brought this lady to him and then it says then they they said this to test jesus that they might have some charge to bring against him and jesus bent down and he wrote with his finger in the ground i think it's interesting jesus does this thing he starts bending down and he starts drawing in the ground and i i there's so many people that will read this text and they're like all they get caught up on is well what did jesus write you know i bet he wrote the ten commandments you know i bet he wrote a bet he wrote a fish you know on the ground uh i bet he drew a cross you know um i don't know there's all these speculation about what jesus wrote like like did he write the names of of god did he write you know a psalm did he write something in the ground i think what's interesting about this is some so many people will read this story and the only thing they get caught up on is what did jesus write and maybe that was what jesus was trying to do maybe jesus's whole point of kneeling down and riding in the sand was to remove the spectacle from the woman maybe he was just saying hey actually look at what i'm doing because you're putting all your attention on this poor woman so i'm gonna change the attention and i'm gonna make you look at me see friend religion tries to put all the attention on who's wrong but can i tell you tonight jesus deserves all of our attention see jesus kneels and if their motive was pure the attention would have still been on the woman but instead all their attention focuses on jesus it shifts to jesus see jesus kneels almost as if to say what is your motive why are you really doing this like what's the point of this because see the intention of the accusation wasn't even for this women woman like so many of us we will we will pull we will like be the worst like to people online and all in the name of christ right we'll we'll say all these really mean things or we'll be like well they just are a gossiper they just do drugs and they need to blah blah blah blah you know we're just like so holier than that and all this nonsense and and we're like you're like but but but i'm trying to care for them but in reality you look like the religious people who don't even care about the woman at all notice this they bring her to jesus but they don't bring her because she's so dirty they bring her so they can accuse jesus i wonder this i wonder how many people lie in the wake of your religious spirit because all she was to them was collateral damage she's just a way she's just a stepping stone along the way to get to jesus but friend can i tell you tonight that the the people are not meant to be used as some way for you to flex how super spiritual super spiritual you are people are meant to be treated as people like honestly hurting people like what drove this lady to have a an affair or to have this uh a sexual encounter like what was the reason why she got to this point like how many layers did it take for her to get to this point before someone finally found out and instead of coming alongside her and trying to help her on the way to recovery instead what they do is they bring her to jesus they say finally we got one now we can trick jesus friend how many people lie in the emotional wake of your religious spirit trying to show off how spiritual you are because friend people don't deserve to be treated just simply as a stepping stone for you to flex on how super spiritual you are because friend you're not that spiritual and it says as they continue to ask him he stood up and he said to them let him who was that without sin among you be the first casted stone and once more he bent down and wrote on the ground but when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him see they all realized that they had no reason to stone her because religion places everyone else's sin at the met at the center of the focus spirit of religion places everyone else's sin at the center of my focus and then what does jesus do he says hey who whoever in this group is without sin you can start the stoning i think it's interesting that jesus doesn't even say not to stoner he says if you okay you want a stoneless woman go ahead but let's start with whoever doesn't who has never sinned before why is this interesting why is this interesting because it's easy to look right as long as you're only focusing on who's wrong and religion paints everyone else is a sinner while making sure that i remain the hero can i challenge you tonight maybe in reading scripture you're not jesus you're judas maybe when reading scripture you're not moses you're pharaoh maybe when reading scripture you're not david you're saul see then jesus stood up to her and he says woman where are they has no one condemned you she says no one lord he says neither do i condemn you go now and for no or go and from now on sin no more see the only person left is jesus which is very interesting because jesus according to his own rules that he set up is the only person worthy of the stone hurt he who was out without sin cast the first stone so jesus jesus clears the room and everybody else leaves but i wonder if suddenly this woman had a realization as to who god was like who jesus was in this moment and saw all the stones laying around her and said this guy's gonna stone me see the spirit of religion though can't stand in the midst of mercy the spirit of religion cannot stand in the midst of mercy jesus choosing to str to let mercy triumph over judgment makes a clause to the law that says hey okay we're going to stone her all right i'm in game but you can't stone the first one to stone her actually has to be those who is without sin so then everybody else leaves and then jesus in an act of mercy chooses not to stone her himself see but i think it's interesting that he doesn't then say notice this he says neither do i condemn you it doesn't say later it says go and from now on sin no more why is this important because jesus never affirmed her sexual sin but he still chose to uh but he still refused to condemn her see religion condemns you because you are what you do and friend can i take this one step further and say this culture affirms you because you are what you do religion condemns you because you are what you do but culture affirms you because you are what you do but jesus refuses to condemn but he also refuses to confirm or affirm see the spirit of religion is a celebration of my own holiness at the expense of another person's reputation [Music] can i go one step deeper do you mind if i go another layer deeper okay a spirit of religion is most toxic though because it is a spirit of pride in disguise the pharisees took a stand for the lord but they were standing for things that jesus chose to kneel for see when we make a stand for god we are standing to elevate him not standing to elevate us friend and you're reaching out to your friends and you're reaching out to community and spreading the gospel and doing your part you have to make sure that christ is being platformed not you because you're not the center of the story jesus is see the goal as a christian should be to love our neighbor more than we love ourselves but some of us are so afraid to love anyone that sins differently than us but friend jesus isn't found among the self-righteous but instead those who receive his righteousness ephesians chapter 4 verse 14 says so we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried out by every wind and doctrine by human cunning by crafting us in deceitful schemes rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every way to him who is the head into christ see truth without compassion is religion but friend compassion without truth is still religious i'ma say that again because you missed it truth without compassion is religion but compassion without truth is still religious why because both keep you at the center of the conversation i'm right because i'm truth or i'm right because i'm compassionate friend i think it's interesting how in culture today everyone wants to be so compassionate but it's not because they actually care about people it's just because they want everyone to know how compassionate they are isn't it interesting how um people who are actually quite racist are the first people to post about blm not because they care about black people but just simply because they don't want other people to think that they don't care about black people how many people this month have posted about pride just simply so they can get everyone else to think that they love gay people but in reality they're homophobic now i'm stepping on all y'all's toes see because both have us at the center of the conversation it's simply religion but religion is a fruit connected to a tree of pride pride though is not praised in the bible pride is never praised in the bible and i think it's interesting and i'm not this isn't the main point in my sermon so please don't take this as the main thing that i say tonight but i just want to make an observation scripturally about the month that we're in we're in pride month i think it's interesting how the homosexual community has chosen uh has chosen to make pride their main statement when pride according to scripture is nothing to celebrate let me read you some verse about what scripture says about pride scripture says this god god opposes the proud it says that pride comes before the fall he said pride brings disgrace peter says this the prideful are an abomination to the lord but we're entering into pride month and something that is interesting about culture is that it thinks that its form of compassion is more compassionate than jesus and you're like alex no i don't believe that yes you do because you ignore six scriptures and you ignore six verses in scripture so you can affirm all of your friends lifestyles see we change scripture to make jesus into something he never was and friend let me just step on all your toes tonight and let me just nail this cup this last nail in the coffin you are not more loving than god you are not more loving than god and the only reason you would ever think that is just because you haven't experienced how good he truly is if you knew how if you knew my jesus then you would know there's no way no matter what i believe or affirm or support there's no way that i could possibly ever be more loving than god see you have a viewpoint though that is void of watch this your viewpoint is void of consequence your viewpoint is void of eternity and your viewpoint is void of god's holiness why is this important because consequence eternity and god's holiness tells me that sin separates people from god says that his pr that he provided a way to enter into relationship with him meaning this if i don't put my reach my trust and faith in jesus then no matter what i affirm or who i am i'm not going to heaven if unless i let jesus be the final deciding factor on my holiness i don't have relationship with jesus and i will not spend eternity with him but because of how valuable we were and also because of how sinful we were jesus had to die on the cross for us see friend this is the love of god but friend encouraging a life that leads to death is not loving your friends it's loving you so that you can look more loving to them it's pride [Music] and i wonder when we get to heaven who has to answer for all the people who were deceived by the christians who affirmed and supported every lifestyle that christ said leads them to hell when we get to heaven who's answering for those souls friend think about this tonight we as christians are called to call the world to a higher standard through the lens and the filter of god's love and mercy we're supposed to invite people into relationship with jesus but friend because we are so afraid of being cancelled we have to affirm everything else that the world chooses to affirm and see friend the problem with our thinking though is that we're more loving than we think that we're more loving than god because it's it's rooted in a spirit of religion i think it's interesting that the more that i look at the spirit of religion i see it plainly in the culture of today's society as much as i do in the church because friend culture isn't anti-religion culture is a spirit of religion i'ma prove it i'ma prove it you don't believe me i'm approve it see religion receives offerings so we donate to the lord through our tithes and through our offering but culture also receives offerings through donation to organizations [Music] coming for all y'all tonight see churches have a place to worship here it's called a church but the culture also has a place to worship and it's called social media see the reason culture fights so hard to purge social media of unclean or hate speech posts is because they're trying to purify their place of worship see you're not sharing an alternate opinion you're rejecting their worship and their love of themselves we also have a definition of sin in church it's whatever the bible defines us in but also culture has a definition of sin and it's anything that opposes my lifestyle see you're like alex i don't believe you i don't believe you okay well let's talk about salvation in church we have a sacrificial lamb we have a sacrificial lamb that gave his life so that we could be then may be made pure friend this is cancel culture cancel culture is the sacrificial lamb for the culture why because i'm sacrificing you so that i can be made clean and then you're like alex i still don't believe you what about procedures of worship see we worship god through song through scripture reading through encountering his presence but the culture responds or worships the culture through virtue signaling because the spirit because well you're like alex how is that how does that make sense i don't understand see we worship through through through saying that god is good and that is merciful we we worship by placing and acknowledging who he is but friend the the culture worships through virtue signaling which is why it's such like have you ever noticed that like when you say someone is like like when you when you oppose someone's viewpoint in like a comment section how quick they are to respond and how angry they get so quickly why because you're literally keeping them from worship you're opposing their worship like i don't understand this i don't get the worship i don't understand what's going on you see the spirit of religion though is rooted in pride and pride is found outside the church just as much as it is inside the church but friend tonight uh i'm reminded though of my my pastor back home who would stand all through church and it was like please just sit down and i remember being a kid and being like the only time that he didn't sit down was literally during worship when he's like laid out on his face that was like the only other option it's either he's standing and he's engaging with the presence or he's on his face and i wonder tonight i wonder tonight how many of us it's time for us to start finding ourself on our face for our friends see friend tonight some of us need to take a stand for our religion for our faith but others of us we need to take a seat we need to find ourselves on our knees and on our face for our friends who don't know jesus because friend without someone telling people about jesus friend people do not hear about jesus this is why we're called to be disciples that's why we're called to be the mouthpiece of god scripture says this that we are ambassadors of christ making his appeal to the world around us when we say come back home to god this is what we're called to do and so friend tonight i know i'm hit i know i'm talking a lot i know i'm saying a whole lot of things but friend tonight i i really want you to know that tonight it's time to really sacrifice and nail pride to the cross because it's time for us to like say hey and i'm not talking about homosexuality i'm not saying like tonight if you're gay you don't have a space here that's not all what i'm saying absolutely if you're home if you struggle with homosexuality more than anybody you have a place here like absolutely you have a sea of the table but friend at this table your sexuality isn't the guest of honor jesus is and so tonight if you're saying alex man i i struggle with pride man i just been making everything about me like everything revolves around me like if i was to be honest man like that's my life like if i be honest everything that i view everything i do to help social justice is really just to help my own my own ego or man anytime i do anything it's really not to help my friends it's really just to help me and i just want to look good and if that's you tonight man i just want to give you courage and encourage you tonight that those things we can give over to jesus and tonight we can actually step into a real relationship with god where we can actually have real relationship with people or we're not seeing people as a means to an end but we're seeing them as people that jesus so loves would you stand up with me tonight [Music] i want to address something because i know that i said a whole lot of things that some of you guys are like i am offended i don't like you i just don't like you and that's okay but what i want to address is this is that if you disagree with me and you're saying alex i don't agree with anything you said everything you said is wrong i just it's all wrong it's all wrong then my challenge to you is not just to get offended and then just like go home but like get offended and actually start questioning is this guy right and then go to the scriptures and then look for yourself because friend here's the reality i'm not here to give you my opinion on all this stuff i'm here to teach you what the scriptures actually say and if you don't like the scriptures that string you in god and honestly friend here in pursuit we're going to stand with jesus and some of you would say well alex you're going to end up on the wrong side of history but man i don't want to end up on the wrong side of eternity [Music] it's all about our head close our eyes snap that's you tonight you say alex man i got pride in my heart and i need to man i got to give this thing up i need to sacrifice the spirit of pride the spirit of religion in my heart i need to give that over to jesus i need jesus to set me free well that's you tonight you'd be honest with me would you just lift your hand just right where you're at when that's you say man i'm prideful i got pride in my heart i just i just struggle with this man i got pride all over me i just struggle with this it's all about me right where you're at everybody in the room would you just repeat this prayer after would you say dear lord jesus i repent for having pride in my heart for having a spirit of religion for having everything be focused on me instead of on my friends and on people that you love so jesus tonight set me free from the spirit of religion in the spirit of pride and in jesus name all pride in my heart loose me now and let me go in jesus name i'm gonna pray for you god i'm in complete agreement with all my friends and right now in jesus name we take authority over all pride and in jesus name i say all pride spirit of religion loose them now and let them go in jesus name take a big deep breath for me all we're doing is breathing in the presence of god and letting go of all the junk if you start yawning if you're like i don't know what's going on but i feel goosebumps you know whatever that's just the holy spirit you're just cleaning out house it's going right where you're at would you say this would just repeat after me would you say dear lord jesus thank you for forgiving me thank you that i can't earn your forgiveness thank you for your mercy thank you that it comes to me regardless of what i do so jesus reveal your love to me right now show me who you really are in jesus name i'm gonna pray for you god right now i'm in complete agreement with my friends and right now lord i just thank you lord for the perfect love of god coming into the room right now and holy spirit i asked lord that you would show students right now who you really are come on i feel like some of you guys you've been struggling with uh uh just doubt doubting of god is really real and i'm just telling you right now god is coming into the room and he is showing you who he really is right now i believe the lord is speaking to some of you it's gonna feel like a thought that you're having in your mind uh but that's the holy spirit speaking to you and what it's gonna be it's gonna be a thought that's different than something you've been thinking uh and so if you've been thinking like hey uh god isn't real or i really don't think god is real and then you you hear this thought that says i'm real i'm telling you that's the holy spirit speaking to you so right now speak lord your servants are listening god speak to us and tell us who you are tell us what you want to tell us tonight go give the lord a couple seconds just speak to us come on that's you you're saying hey man i'm struggling i i need the lord to speak to me come on that's you man let's just let's just let them speak to you thank you god thank you lord jesus thank you jesus thank you lord thank you lord all right if you would all look up at me if you be brave and you say that the the lord just spoke to you something would you just lift your hands that's you you say hey i see that hand in the back anybody else see those hands over there see the hand over there see a handle back a couple hands here cool that's awesome it's awesome got speaking in the room telling you guys god is revealing who he really is and some of you guys there's so much misconception about who god is the whole time that i was speaking you were hearing it through this lens like i saw about the lens of holiness but you're hearing it through a lens of offense and you're just offended at church and i'm telling you man god is so much better than you think he is and he is so much merciful so much more merciful and so much more kind than you think he is i want to pray godly thank you for tonight thank you for all my friends god is thank you lord for another great night at youth and lord we just give you full permission full reign to speak to us this week god we just thank you lord for who you are we love you we praise you in jesus name you believe we say amen amen awesome awesome awesome all right guys we're about to make a quick change all right so if i can have my leaders that are serving food go back to get the food ready and then also leaders who are going to be helping students sign up for camp and for a worship team and for internship uh oh also thank you online campus can we get up for our online campus our friends send me online [Music] awesome guys thanks for tuning in we'll see you later you

Channel: Pursuit Yth

Views: 60

Rating: 4.4285712 out of 5

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Id: qtywh8boUkk

Length: 98min 54sec (5934 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021