Acts 14: Do You Have the Right Image of God?

good morning thank you very much I want to welcome you to sandals Church I'm so glad that you guys are here man this morning I made the mistake of turning on Oprah and I was watching TV on Soul Sunday and a lot of what Oprah does is great and it's good stuff and she makes us feel better and she's had an amazing TV run but a lot of what Oprah gets wrong is her over generalization of spirituality on however you know whatever is right for you whatever's helped you whatever's benefited for you somehow that's great and she always seems to avoid the specific specificity there we go big word of Jesus she kind of avoids that like the plague and so let me just say that some of you ma'am you've you've gone through a a and you're clean and praise God I'm glad you're clean but I want you to know that the higher power they talk about from the very beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous was Jesus from the very very beginning and we've drifted from that and let me just tell you something every hot not every higher power is good power and so you need to be very very careful with what it is that you attach yourself to because having the right idea about God will determine how you live your life if you have the wrong idea about God you're going to live the wrong way in your life and so today we're gonna look at how hard it is to transition from our preconceived notions of who God is to the truth of who he is because every single one of you has an idea about God even atheists have an idea about God a lot of people don't realize that this is what atheists do atheists create a picture of God of who they think he or she is or it is and then they reject that picture they say this does not exist their preconceived notion of what God is they say that is not real and the Bible says you have no idea who I am you have no idea what I'm like the bite the God of the Bible says my ways are not your ways my thoughts are not your thoughts I am as different from you and is far from you as the heaven is from the earth that is Who I am God says and the Bible is all about revealing his true nature to us and so I don't know where you are today in terms of your belief or God or your understanding from God but I know this God wants you to turn today for whatever your pick sure of him is and he wants you to turn from that and repent of that and turn to who he really is and by the way for some of you that includes you who call yourself Christians because even Christians can get a warped sense of who God is and we can create our own God and slap a Christian or Jesus label on it and what you need to do today is let God out of the box and worship him for who he is not for who you think he is CS Lewis one of the greatest thinkers of the last century said this the most dangerous prayer a Christian can pray is not to pray to whom God we think God is but to pray to whom he knows himself to be he says when we pray to that God we unleash the power of heaven and we expel the powers of Hell and that's my prayer for you today because you need the real pet prayer you need the real power of God and in order for that to happen you need to invoke the real name of God and that is my prayer for you today so let's begin with a word of Prayer at Sandals we bow our heads and we close our eyes out of respect for God let's pray together Heavenly Father we come before you and God we don't want to pray to our preconceived notion of who you are God we want to worship you as you are as you have always been and as you always will be help us today to turn from our image of what you're supposed to be like what we think you're supposed to do and Lord how we think we can control you God and help us to unleash you for who you are so that you can unleash your power into our lives we pray this in Jesus name Amen now it's open our Bibles to Acts 14 real quick infomercial today we're going to talk about two cities Iconium and Lystra this summer I'm going to be leading a trip a Bible trip as we follow the footsteps of the Apostle Paul as he goes on his missionary journey and we're gonna go to the countries of Turkey Greece and we're gonna end up in Rome so if you have nothing to do this summer and a couple thousand dollars sitting in a closet you're like I don't know what to do with this come join us this summer it's gonna be a great trip to the cities that we'll visit or the cities we're going to talk about today Iconium and Lystra you will be there this summer if you want to be a part of that journey with me so let's take a look at our Bibles Acts chapter 14 verse 8 if you don't have your Bibles with you all of the notes are right in front of you it says this so while they were at Lystra why are they at Lystra because they had to run from Iconium they preached the gospel and Iconium and it didn't go really well and literally people rose up to kill them and they had to flee so now not only are the authorities try to kill them but local populace is and local cities are trying to kill them for whatever reason the preaching of the gospel brings out the very best in humanity and the very worst in humanity for often for many of us it unites us and for many of us it has divided us against family members friends and people that we love and that's what the gospel does the gospel drives a wedge between people who accept Christ and people who reject Christ for some of us it's the best news we've ever heard and for others of us it's the worst news we've ever heard because we reject it and so they go to Lystra paul and barnabas these are our two key characters who's Paul the Apostle Paul one of the most famous Christians who's ever lived wrote half of the New Testament and then Barnabas write not a lot of barnabas is running around people don't name their children after him anymore but he was famous for a time not nearly as famous as the Apostle Paul but he is Paul's companion they came upon a man with crippled feet he had been that way since birth underlined these words he'd never walked okay this isn't like televangelism you know TV miracle this is gonna be a real miracle this guy didn't like eat something nasty on Friday and couldn't walk until Sunday this guy has been crippled since birth he'd never walked listen as he was sitting listening as Paul preached so he's listening somehow what Paul is saying is connecting with this guy now this is what I want you to understand we all live in a world where most of us have a pretty good clue as to what Christianity is about the Apostle Paul is preaching in a place where no one has ever heard anything about Jesus matter of fact these people have probably not even heard about the Old Testament the Hebrew God the God of Abraham the god of Isaac the God of Jacob and so the Apostle Paul is talking about God in ways that they understand so he can get them to understand about Jesus and so this handicapped individual is listening as Paul preached looking straight at him but Paul realized that he faith to be healed Paul realizes there's a connection going on Paul realizes that something is working in this guy's life this guy's believing this guy's connecting with this story even though he's never heard about Jesus even though he he's never heard about God he's connecting and Paul says stand up and the man jumped to his feet and he started walking look verse 11 then the crowd saw what Paul had done and he started shouting he started celebrating and their local dialect right anybody ever traveled to a foreign country when people get really excited anybody ever done that and they start yelling and chanting I remember one time I was with some friends of ours in Africa and they spoke Swahili and everybody got really excited and they're chanting and yelling and everybody's excited and I don't know if they're saying this white guy is great or killed a white guy I don't know what they're saying and I'm just kind of like I hope we're not all gonna die this is gonna be good so Paul and Barnabus right they don't know what the like own eum's are speaking because like oh liam is a really really small dialect that's no longer spoken they're not speaking Greek they're not speaking Latin and they certainly are not speaking Hebrew and these are all the languages that Paul would have understood so they're all really excited but they don't know why or Paul and Barnabas don't know what they're saying so they're jumping around they're screaming and this is what they're saying these men are gods in human form now why would they think that because they're Greeks and Greeks believed that gods can come into human form and these are the old mythology stories that many of us have read and studied in school this was the Greek understanding that many many times gods took on human forms oftentimes did terrible things kill people had sex with people destroyed people cursed people walked around his people this was their understanding and so they thought oh my gosh Paul and Barnabas are Greek gods that have come to visit us now why is this because it's really really hard to move from your preconception of who God is to who he really is and that is just as true for these individuals that from Lystra as it is for you today some of you guys have God cemented into a box and you have said this is who God is and he can never ever change and the REE holiday is even if you wrap that in Jesus wrapping it's still not God you may have the right name but you have the wrong God you may have the right name but the wrong understanding and so before you judge these people you need to understand that many of us this is what we do every day we claim to have faith in Jesus but in reality we have faith in someone who's not Jesus we just call him that and so these individuals are celebrating and they say oh my gosh the gods have come down and visited us they decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and Paul was Hermes so who are these guys most of you guys have heard of Zeus he's a really old guy with a white beard Barnabas is older than Paul so they figure he's Zeus and they figure Paul is Hermes because in the Greek pantheon of gods Hermes is the God of Greek mythology who invented language and so they say oh that's why that's why he's Hermes and now the temple of zeus was located just outside the town and this is where the story just gets bizzare so the priests of the temple and the crowd brought bulls and wreaths and flowers to the town gates and they prepared to offer sacrifices to the Apostles isn't that bizarre hey God did a miracle what should we do I don't know kill a cow that's like I I would be a little uncomfortable at a worship service can you imagine what works being we're praising God although Justin just did a weird dance that was really but at least he didn't kill a cow right that would've been awful and weird and most of you would pick another Church like okay that was it was a little bloody and disgusting but that's what these people do because they don't know what to do this is how they worship they assume that the god they've always known is the God that they're hearing from and here's the reality they have no idea who this God is they worship a false God they worship idols they worship lies they worship demons but they don't know any of that and that's what some of you today worship you worship a false God you worship a demon you worship something that doesn't exist you worship a lie you worship a story and God wants you to stop worshipping and ignorance and he wants you to worship in truth God wants you to know who he is that's why he wrote the Bible that's why he sent Jesus Christ so that you would know who he is but when Paul and Barnabus heard what was happening ie they figured it out right they tore their clothing in dismay tearing your clothing was an ancient symbol of rejection it's saying I don't agree with this this is wrong and so they tore their clothing in dismay and they ran out among the people shouting friends why are you doing this we are merely human beings just like you and let me say that today if you're visiting sandals Church I'm just like you I'm just like you if you're married I'm just like you my wife and I have marriage problems just like you I have financial problems just like you I have problems sinning just like you I'm just like you sandals Church isn't about Matt Brown sandals Church is about Jesus Christ and here's the reality we're all idiots and we all need to be saved and nobody in here is perfect except Jesus Christ and here's where churches get weird they start worshiping the preachers rather than the one the preacher is preaching about and we need to be focused on Jesus and you need to trust me in that okay you need to trust me I'm just a struggle in many ways just like you do and this is what's so weird about us as human beings we we're made to worship and so we don't worship God and you know what we do we worship people as God's we do this all the times right one of the most popular shows for the last ten years in America is called American Idol do you understand the Bible says turn from idols we have a show called American Idol and what do we do we worship talented people we don't give credit and glory for the one who created the talent we worship the talent think about how stupid that is let's say you have cancer and the doctor cuts out all the cancer and you're saved and you go oh my gosh where's the scalpel I've got a worship it can you imagine what an insult to the surgeon who removed the cancer all the scalpel is is a tool in the surgeons hands all the beautiful voices is a tool in the hands of God God has created your talent God has created your abilities God has created your skills and we need to stop lifting each other up and we need to start lifting God up because he's the one who made you he's the one who made it no one is meant to be worshipped you ever wonder why rock stars and celebrities get so weird you know why that is because it's not good to worship anybody you wanted to destroy somebody's life worship them like some of you have an enemy like I want to run their life don't kill them you'll go to jail worship them and then they'll be in hell because no person is meant to be worshipped we're not we're not wired for that we're not wired for that it's amazing the adoration that we can pay celebrities if we're not careful be careful and so they think oh my gosh these guys these guys are awesome they're incredible they did wonders they did miracles they're powerful they must be God and listen to what they say he said friends why are you doing this we are merely human beings just like you we have come to bring you the good news so what's the good news here it is underline this that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the Living God if you're not a Christian today if you know nothing about the Bible this is God's will for your life turn from the stupid things you live for and start living for him so many of you are worshipping worthless things it's amazing the stupid things that we worship okay 10 years ago I never had a cell phone today some of you would have a heart attack without your phone literally you haven't prayed to God in a year if you don't look at your phone every 30 seconds you hyperventilate right we are overwhelmed oh my gosh oh my gosh my phone I almost got ran over this week by a horse you want to know why because the young woman riding the horse was texting somebody while she was riding the horse and I was running on a horse trail I literally can you imagine if I died out how did Matt Brown get killed he got hit by a horse but what was going on she was texting isn't amazing I mean surely riding a thousand-pound animal requires two hands okay no now she's got a text her friend oh my gosh look at me it's amazing it's amazing the things we live for you know some any of you guys you're miserable and you blame God why do you blame God you're the one that's living your life you work a job you hate to buy things you don't need to impress people you don't even like you'll get that later on the way home yeah he's right I don't like you you're walking home from church right yeah well why do we do this why do we do this I mean you worked so many hours you can't even joy this stuff you buy and you don't even like the people you're trying to impress what are you what are you doing we live for things this past year I got to go to Nashville a couple times and one of the times I went there I went to the Johnny Cash Museum and I don't like country music but I do like Johnny Cash why cuz so does Jesus it's just true the man in black right so I went to the Johnny Cash museum and I walked through and I saw all his accolades you know the Johnny Cash was a celebrity in the 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s into the 2000 truly he is literally a decade for over her excuse me a celebrity for over half a century that guy just was immense and then you go to the last station as you leave the museum and it's him playing his very very last song singing in the last video he ever made you know what the songs about his kingdom of dirt that's what he sings about I've done all this and I've built a pile of dirt that's what Johnny Cash says he had women drugs money fame his life was a mess he said I live for dirt what's Johnny Cash saying turn from your idols and turn to Jesus that's what he's saying man I was in tears as I walked out of there I hope it doesn't take you until you're at the end of your life to figure that out some of you are living for dirt it's what you worship it's what you live for it's what you crave and he says listen you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the Living God who made heaven and earth the sea and everything in them don't worship stuff worship the God who created the stuff he says in the past God permitted all nations to go their own ways but he never left them without evidence of himself in his goodness everywhere you look even if you're not a Christian you got to look at the Sun the Moon the Stars you got to say there's got to be a god I mean it's just it's so silly how we ignore the evidence of God I mean today on your way home look out and look at the Sun and just think for a moment that right now you're on a rock traveling at thousands of miles an hour that's floating through this thing we call it space which let me translate that for you it's nothing this is space you're floating on a rock in space oh well that doesn't freak you out we're circling around a nuclear fusion bomb we call the Sun and we sing songs of joy about this nuclear bomb the sun will come out tomorrow' me can you imagine Russia will drop bombs tomorrow don't you worry bet your bottom dollar that Putin will tomorrow kill us all right now you know I'm not on a worship team yeah does that bother anybody that right now we are circling the most powerful collection of nuclear energy in our universe some of you worship it I don't have enough radiation I need more radiation gosh it's all evidence of the glory of God you can't you can't look at that okay this thermo this this nuclear fusion bomb doesn't bring depth to the earth where does it bring life why cuz God's funny this is funny can you imagine hey Jesus look what I'm gonna build it's a bomb you're gonna kill people no I'm gonna bring a life it's awesome he made heaven and earth see and everything in the past he permitted all the nations to go their own ways but he never left him without evidence of his goodness for instance he sends you rain the good crops he gives you food and joyful hearts do you know that happiness was God's invention but even with these words Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them why this is how hard it is to get you to leave the God you worship and to worship the one true God some of you right now worship idols you're addicted to idols you're consumed with idols pornography in this country is a billion-dollar industry do you know what pornography is it is worshiping the idol of the human form that's what it is some of you have fallen in love with the creation and you have abandoned your love for the Creator that's what addiction to pornography is we've all we've all gotten sucked up into this ladies that's why many of you dressed the way you dress because you've just submitted to this culture that says all you are a sexual when God called you to be a daughter he called you to be his child and guys were right there with it and we encourage the ladies we ignore the women who dress appropriately and we give attention to those who feed our need to worship the human form this is our culture this is where we live and it's hard to reject that it's difficult right it's difficult I mean some of you you tweet me you Instagram me you you've got a post I'm like oh I'm gonna see who that is and I look at your site and your site says I'm all about Jesus and your appearance says no you're not no you're not you're all about yourself you're all about drawing sexual attention to yourself you see you can say you worship Jesus and rap his name all around your Idol it still doesn't mean you're right with God it's hard to leave idols and worship the one true God then some Jews show up and they arrive from Antioch and Iconium write a little note here some of these Jews walked a hundred miles a hundred miles they followed parl and a Barnabas to get these people in Lystra to not believe in the one true God isn't it amazing how passionate non-believers can be you ever wonder why atheists are so fired up like why are you why are you dedicating your life to fighting something you believe does not exist like in anybody in here imagine you spend your whole life to inform people that the Easter Bunny is not real like you spend your whole life literally you run up and down the aisles of Target during the spring he's not real he's not real you're protesting you want the Easter Bunny removed from schools you don't want you don't want eggs collected on the White House lawn right literally you plot and plan how to kill the Easter Bunny on the White House lawn because they have a life-size Easter Bunny because you want the world to know it's not real why isn't anybody passionately trying to eliminate the Easter Bunny from everything why is it that are solely focused on God here's the answer the Easter Bunny doesn't try to tell you how to live God does and in the depths of our hearts you want to know what sin is sin is God you cannot and will not tell me how to live you will not tell me what to do with my body as Christians we say this it's not my body it's yours and you bought it with a price you paid for me with the blood of your son and that is offensive to the world so these individuals come they conveys in this great this isn't amazing how fickle we are like isn't it amazing how we can just turn on a dime some of you sports fans a lot of football jerseys today my team's the best team next day might eat stocks hey my chain right one day oh my gosh the other great thing about that bums is it it amazing it's in an amazing how fickle we can be as human beings so so the people at Lystra are gonna worship Paul and Barnabus as gods then there's an argument now we got to kill him they went from being idolized to demonized in one argument why because they didn't fit in to their understanding of what God was supposed to be so they dragged Paul out of town and stoned him potheads they didn't smoke a joint together they threw rocks at him okay potheads will get that in about five minutes all right see they're just getting it right now all right they stoned Paul and dragged him out of town underlying this thinking he was dead okay they threw so many rocks at him they thought they killed him they dragged him out of town unconscious and left him probably where they buried people but believers surrounded him probably to pray but before they could pray he popped up and he was awake and he went back into town to preach the gospel again whoo why because we worship a living jesus so let's talk about this why is it so hard why is it so hard to accept God for who he is here's the answer because everyone has an image of God right now every single one of you has a picture of who God is in your head I said before even atheists have a picture who who God is so they create a picture they say this God does not exist and they shoot that God down even little kids have pictures of God I read a story about a teacher who gave an assignment to a kindergarten class draw a picture of anything you want and she found one little girl coloring a picture that was exceptionally bizarre and she said sweetheart what are you coloring in the little girl said I'm drawing a picture of God and the teacher said sweetie nobody has ever seen God nobody knows what he looks like and the little girl said well they will after they see my picture right it's cute but it's true you have an image of God something that you've painted in your mind and you said this is who God is here's the problem some of you are wrong why it's easy to have the wrong images of God it's easy to create a false image of God this is why the Bible says don't put your trust in idols or make metal images for yourselves I am the Lord don't create an image of me because it will be wrong it'll be wrong look you can't contain God you can't put them in an idol and you can't contain him in a building God says I cannot dwell in a house made by human hands the Bible actually says I put my foot on the earth it's a footstool for me that's how big God is that's how amazing God is only the heavens declare the glory of God that's who he is that's what he is no little statue that we carry or carry around or we worship or we pray to you could ever contain who God truly is so I can develop images of God based upon really three things first of all how you were raised man you have no idea how influential your parents were when you were little now for some of us that was really really good and for some of us that's why we really tweaked right because we had some whacked-out parents I mean some of you turn 18 and your parents went just kiddin everything I told you it was a lot like thanks mom dad that's why I'm in prison all right but our parents had a huge a huge role that's why some of you if you had a terrible dad it's really really hard for you to pray to God his father it's hard for you to imagine that a father can be good for some of you women it's really really hard for you to trust men because of what you've experienced in your life so it's hard for you to conceptualize and think of God as father but that's how God reveals himself as a good father as a safe man as someone who can be trusted and someone who protects you but our views of God based upon how your race can messed us up next is this we develop images of God based upon things we've heard now in the age of internet and information in the Oprah show everything else right everybody has an idea that God is and we live in this collective soup and everybody just kind of throws in their flavor their vegetable whatever it is they kind of throw it in there and we're like this is the American God I'll prove it to you right now I'm gonna say a sentence and most of you will be able to complete it okay god helps those who help them why do you all know that you know it's not in the Bible you've memorized a verse that doesn't exist why have you memorized that because you've heard it over and over and over again I Got News for you know what the Bible says God helps everybody even evil people praise Jesus right that's what the Bible says he helps everyone he loves everyone the rain doesn't just fall on good people right God blesses evil people because God is good and he won't hold us all accountable until the very end and tell then he blesses all of us and he loves all of us but here's the sinister motivation I can develop images of God based upon listen to this write this down how I want God to be listen if you have created an image of God for who you think he should be you are not worshiping god you're worshiping yourself do you understand how dangerous that is well I think God is well what does that make you if you are the author of who God is what does that make you you have to ask yourself are you in God's story or is God in yours who's writing the story and many people in the world today think they're the author when the Bible says God is the author and he is writing the story and we are characters in his story he is not a character in ours we're a part of his existence he is not a part of our existence he does not exist because we've created him in our minds but we exist because he created us in his mind and we've completely flipped this around why because as human beings we worship ourselves rather than God and that's why we live in a world today that says this God would never give me desires he didn't want me to act on God would never create me in this way if he didn't want me to live out the desires of my life God would never give me these passions if I wasn't supposed to act on them you see what we've said is I know better then God does about what I'm supposed to do and that is so dangerous one of the saddest verses in the Bible is this every man did what was right according to his own eyes that's not a good thing the people of Israel were lost and that's what our culture is doing everybody you just you just do what feels right what seems right the Bible says this yes they knew God but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks underline this and they began to think of foolish ideas of what God was like some of you have a very foolish idea of what God is like for some of you God is nothing more than a genie in a Bible Anna bought a bottle when you rub the lamp he comes to you and he answers your requests I mean literally most of you will spend your entire life and you'll only call out to God when you need him like get your high school exams what I need you college exams god I need you see you again when I get cancer right we only call out to God when something goes wrong we only call out to God and we think the plane is crashing Jesus need you to save me we have foolish ideas of who God is and they began to think of foolish ideas and as a result underlying this their minds became dark and confused you want to know what culture we live in we live in a dark and confused culture you won't know what God looks like only Jesus is the exact image of God I was reading this article about college students who were asked what God is like and one college student said it would be so helpful if God would just take a selfie right he did his name is Jesus listen to this verse Colossians 1:15 Christ that's Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God Jesus makes the unseeable seeable Jesus makes the unknowable knowable Jesus makes the untouchable touchable Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God he existed before anything was created in a supreme over all creation for God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ hebrews 1:1 through three long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets and now in these final days he has spoken to us through his son the son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God what's God like Jesus how do I know God get to know Jesus how do I experience God invite Jesus into your heart Jesus Christ is God and he reveals God fully to us so what's the problem why do we have Hinduism Buddhism Islam atheism and everything else Satan the Bible says who is the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe how is it possible that the men and women of Lystra could see the miracle that Paul and Barnabas did on the one hand want to worship them and with the next hand throw a rock at them because they're blind listen faith isn't just the absence of a belief in God it is the presence of the Prince of Darkness in your life do you understand how scary that is a lack of faith is not just the absence of belief but it is the presence of spiritual darkness they are unable to see the glorious light of the good news they don't understand this message about the glory of Christ who by the way is what the exact likeness of God the exact likeness of God listen Christians we are not in a bit of debate where we stand on a platform and our words can save people we are in a battle for the eternal salvation of people's souls and the world has been swallowed by darkness and it is only the light of Christ that can open their eyes and let me just tell you something Christianity is not the only good religion in the world and we need to be honest about that you know that Hinduism can help people do you know that Buddhism can make a person a better person did you know that Islam can give an individual purpose all of those things are true all religions may help you but only Jesus can save you that is the difference Christianity doesn't make us better it saves us and that is what the world needs the world doesn't need a self-help magazine the world needs salvation and Jesus and Jesus can save us last point God wants to imprint his image on me why is it that we're so insecure why is it that we're so worried about what people think why is it that as women we never feel as weak women we as women you Wow you know ladies what we deal with all right okay all right hey where am I why is it that ladies never feel beautiful and as men we never feel manly why is that here's why because the Bible says in the beginning God created you in His image and in his likeness you were like him his image was imprinted upon you but something happened and Genesis chapter 3 we sinned and that image was tarnished we went from being perfect and perfectly loved - perfectly broken and sin has separated you from God it has separated you from each other and it has separated you from the real you and only Jesus Christ can restore the real you can restore right relationships and can restore you with God only Jesus can bring Shalom and the way he does that is by repenting of your sins and placing your faith and trust in him you see God wants to imprint his image back on me that's why the Bible says imitate God therefore and everything you do because you are his children you are a son and daughter of the king let's close with this Romans 8:28 and 29 and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose I think most of us know this verse this is the verse we quote to people when you go through divorce when you're going through cancer you lost your job you're battling depression one of your loved ones is facing addiction you find out your spouse has been unfaithful Romans 8 is the chapter we read when life's not great that's what I say read Romans 8 when life's not great Romans 8:28 we know that God causes all things to work for good listen to it very carefully God doesn't cause your cancer God doesn't cause your divorce God does not cause your suffering what God does is he causes your suffering to work for good no matter what the evil is that you're experiencing in your life God uses that hell in your life to get you to heaven and that is what Romans 8:29 says why does God work all things for good according to those who love him and are called according to his purpose Romans 8:29 for God knew his people in advance and he chose them to what to become like his son listen to me if you're a young person young people always ask me I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life I don't know how to pick a career I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life here's my question to you if you're a young person why was Jesus a carpenter you know what the answer is young people it didn't matter what Jesus did what mattered is who he was God does not care about your career he cares about your character he is not in the business of choosing a career path he's in the business of imprinting his nature upon you God is not interested in what you do he's interested in who you are here is the will of God for your life become like Jesus become like Jesus this is the will for your life so whether you're a truck driver or a brain surgeon you need to become like Jesus that is God's will for your life from the very beginning he chose you to become like Jesus the problem is many of us don't want to be like Jesus we want to be saved but we want to stay ourselves we want to experience the miracles of God but we are not ready to receive the message of God why were Paul and Barnabas almost killed because people want the miracle but not the message people want the blessings of God but not the burden of following God if you want Jesus you need it all you need to accept the miracle of salvation and the message of suffering for his name this is the call of the gospel listen church I love you and I know some of you are going through difficult difficult things God will use whatever hell you're going through to transform you into the heavenly person he's called you to be this is the will of God a love you sandals Church let's pray Heavenly Father I just pray for those first of all who are struggling believing struggling shedding the false images of what you're like I pray Lord that they would repent of their picture of who they think you are and I pray that they receive who you know yourself to be God whether we're a Christian or a non-christian all of us need to repent of our false idols and images of you all of us need to repent of living for things and we need to start living for you god I pray that we would know that salvation is only found in you God who we truly are is only found in you help us to repent of this life that tears us down and pulls us back and help us to experience the life Jesus that you promised you said in your word that we can come to you when we are heavy laden and full of burdens and in need of rest God that is who we are today we come to you Jesus we worship you not for who we want you to be but for who you know that by for who you know that you are we love you Jesus Christ you are God's one and only Son and you are our only Savior we worship you and we love you and we pray this in your name amen

Channel: Sandals Church

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Id: TDExU3QCqQ0

Length: 43min 37sec (2617 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 19 2016