Beyond: Measure Up

[Music] we praise you o god with all that is within us we lift you high we lift your high you are the most high god you are the most high god hallelujah glory thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus you're wonderful just tell them how wonderful he is you're marvelous you're magnificent you're special you're holy you're holy he loves it when you call him holy you're holy god you're holy you're holy you're holy we magnify you oh god we give you praise in this place we give you praise in this place we give you praise in this place hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you jesus thank you jesus [Music] thank you jesus thank you jesus isn't he wonderful father we thank you now hallelujah we give you praise now hallelujah we honor you now we honor you in this place and as we step into this time that you have set for us to receive your word but we pray that our hearts will be open our ears our eyes open to see you our ears open to hear from you thank you jesus thank you jesus we counted done now in the name of jesus amen amen bless you you may be seated in the presence of the lord thank you jesus hallelujah hallelujah thank you lord isn't god good thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus hallelujah just want to settle in this moment sometimes we want to rush into stuff sometimes god like you just wait on him wait on the lord and be of good courage wait on them hallelujah how many of you need the lord to do something also magnificent not nothing ordinary i mean i know some of us just living good some of us living really well but some of us need the lord to do something do a miracle in our lives how many let me see those hands though i mean you really need a miracle i'm not just thinking i'm talking about no fake miracle no i need a miracle let me see your hands let me see your head all right all right we've got some folks that need a miracle online if you need a miracle put your hand up put your hand up thank you jesus come on if you need a miracle just raise your hand and just say with me lord i need a miracle come on now i need you to say it like you need it hallelujah you say lord i need a miracle and i'm going to give you praise right now because i know you are more than able to do it come on come on come on say it again so lord i need a miracle and i'm going to give you praise on credit because i know you're able to do it come on so give him your praise give him the praise right now give him the praise right now come on give him the praise for your miracle in advance come on give him the pray if you already believe you got it give him a praise like you got [Music] it if you believe you got it give him a praise like he's already done it just imagine in your mind oh that happened that miracle happened now what you gonna do i want to see how you gonna praise him if he already blessed you come on praise him like you got your miracle [Music] globally global glory i don't think that's your best praise but i'm going to leave you alone i think you got a greater praise than you i think you got anybody got a greater praise in them come on come on you know god's got something greater than you come on [Music] thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus all right all right hallelujah wasn't planning on going there this morning oh hallelujah but god's got something special for us today hallelujah come on just smile about a sick guy's got something special for me today god's got something special for you today oh jesus come on come on y'all about to make me have church up here by myself i said y'all y'all ain't gonna make me praise them by myself are you didn't the bible tell you to o magnify the lord [Music] with me oh magnify the lord with me come on don't make me praise him by myself thank you jesus thank you jesus so i know he's gonna do it for me i know he's gonna work it out for me hallelujah y'all don't have to know what i'm praising him for but i'm gonna give him praise because i know he's gonna work it out hallelujah hallelujah oh my god oh thank you jesus open your bibles open your bibles ephesians chapter number four open your bibles ephesians chapter number four thank you jesus i'm well i can have church all by myself it's all right i have church before i come to church i i have church before i come i pray and then y'all praise the lord before you get here you don't wait till the praise team get up hallelujah you don't wait till the musicians get in place but you can praise them all by yourself come on we got any any mad praise god people who don't care what's happening in the world you still can give god a praise come on give god a shot of glory this morning [Applause] hallelujah i want to put my foot on the devil's neck today glory hallelujah hallelujah i want to put my foot on the devil's neck he been trying to rise up and take stuff from me and i want to put him in his place the lord said i would tread him under my feet shortly so i got to put the devil in his place this morning anybody else want to put the devil in his plate come on put your foot down this morning put your foot on the devil's neck in the name of jesus y'all don't want to praise him y'all don't want to prove come on come on come on see the devil ain't been trying to attack you so it's okay for you to sit like this it's all right you can sit all cute but if the devil been trying to attack your life then try to attack your marriage when trying to attack your body i dare you to get up on your feet and give god a praise that makes hell tremble it makes the devil back up off you [Music] come on make the devil back up tell the devil to back up back up devil you can't handle my plays back up devil you can't handle my god back up there open your bibles open your bible open your bibles [Music] [Applause] hallelujah i see victory in the house i sense victory in the old glory i sense victory in the house hallelujah thank you jesus glory ephesians chapter number four we got to go ephesians chapter number four we have to go hallelujah now these are the gifts christ gave to the church the apostles the prophets the apostles the prophets the evangelists and the pastors or shepherds and the teachers their responsibility is to equip god's people their responsibility is to equip god's people to do his work oh not their work but to do his work and build up the church the body of christ this will continue hallelujah this will continue until we all come to such a unity in our faith and knowledge of god's son that we will be mature in the lord measuring up to the full and complete standard of christ let me read the last phrase again this will all continue this will continue verse 13 until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of god's son that we will be mature in the lord measuring up to the full and complete standard of christ come on everybody say lord i want to measure up come on come on come on sit again lord i want to measure i want to measure up the holy spirit i pray now even as we sit in this place and praise you and give you thanks for what we expect you to do that our hearts will rise up to the level of your expectation our faith will rise up to the level of your faith our love will rise up to the level of your love hallelujah we'll rise up to the full measure of the statue of christ in the name of jesus amen amen amen bless the lord i know football this is first football sunday everybody first football sunday of 2021 and all the men said hey man i know y'all already planning we got to be out here you know about 12 o'clock i got to stop by and get my my snacks before the game starts and i believe the eagles are playing they go they're playing somebody today right at one o'clock i know i know we'll get you out of here before one if it's 12 59 it'll be all right we don't know what the lord gonna do see if the lord starts breaking out miracles you don't care do you do you care how long it takes to get your miracle see we got to get we got to get this in our hearts you know it don't matter how long it takes to get my miracle i'm willing to stay to get my miracle because the eagles ain't gonna get me no miracle the cowboys can't give me a miracle but before before uh the season started they uh had a combine an nfl combine earlier uh in the year where the rookies would come and they would show off and showcase of their athletic prowess how high they could jump however far they could how fast they could run how strong they were how many bench presses they could do we live in a world that likes to measure things and we can become so inundated with it through social media through images even through songs because the world is trying to shape our hearts so that our minds uh and our hearts will be conformed to the image that the world says is success the image that they that they say we ought to pursue what's beautiful what's what's desired what's to be pursued what's what is success they put us a picture in front of us all the time day after day after day you can't leave home without it now you got your phones and all kind of images that's telling you this is what success looks like but god's standards are different from the world standards let me say that again your heavenly father's standards are different from the world standards and as follows of christ we must aim to measure up to heaven's standards come on come on lift your hands just do like that i gotta measure up come on everybody take your hand here and say i gotta measure up come on again i gotta measure up i got to measure up he said he says as follows of christ we must aim to measure up to heaven standards and live our lives by his standards and he says here in ephesians chapter 4 verse 13 that he will give us apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers until we come to the knowledge of god's son or the knowledge of god's sonship or the knowledge of who we are as sons of god that we would then measure up to the full stature of christ or his standard and uh in doing so we we have to recognize what other standards that we're living by now what what are the things that we aim for now what are the things that we pursue now last week pastor talked about what are we seeking to set your affections on things above and the world will tell you there are basically three things that you need that how they measure our standards or measure your successes either uh by your performance how good you can perform whether it's in athletics or uh whether it's in uh some form of a media whatever business endeavor or career you have chosen how are you performing that's their measure of success or it could be your popularity how popular are you measure your success by how popular you you are and it's it's easier now than ever to measure your popularity you know a few years ago we didn't have social media so you didn't know how popular you were but now you just go on your phone and look how many likes did i get today how popular am i or it may be not popularity but it may be how many possessions you have measure yourself by your possessions how big how many square feet do you have in your home how many cars and what model do you have in your driveway how much do you have in your portfolio we measure ourselves by our possessions by our performance and by our popularity but god doesn't do it like that and there's a young man by the name of thomas merton who said people may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find once they reach the top that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall i'm trying to make it i'm trying to get up trying to make it to the top but they can get there and oh wait a minute this really doesn't matter what would it profit a man to gain the whole world y'all know those and lose his soul we can pursue so much but if we're not pursuing what god has intended he says that scripture says that he has prepared works beforehand for us uh to do them and it's a responsibility to the apostles prophets advantages pastors and teachers to equip us to do his work but if we're doing our work he says when we get to the top of the ladder it would be for nothing the bible says it would just be wood hay and stubble wood hay and stuff that's worthless wood hay and stubble so i'm just going to share with you quickly five things that the holy spirit gave to me to share with you today on how god measures success all right now this is not a limited version this is just for us today these are the five things he gave me to give to us today are y'all ready because how many of y'all want to be successful in god's eyes all right all right all right so let's let let's see if you really mean it all right let's see if you really mean it so let's turn to luke chapter 16 luke chapter 16 and we're going to read verse 13 through 15. i'm going to start reading a little bit ahead of that i'm going to start reading in verse 10 but then they're going to put up verse 13 uh on the screen luke chapter 16 verse 10 says whoever can be trusted with the very little can also be trusted with much and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much so if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth who will trust you with true riches oh god and if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property who will give you property of your own verse 13 no one can serve two masters either he will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other you cannot serve both god and money now the money people got angry the pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at jesus do he think he is talking about that he don't know what he talked about he ain't got no money that's why he and jesus said to them you are the ones who justified yourselves in the eyes of others but i love this verse because everybody says this all the time but god knows your hearts he said god knows your hearts but catch this phrase this is really powerful what people value highly is detestable in god's sight what people value highly what people is sting what what people lift up what what people clap for in the door he says is detestable to god that word detestable in the uh new kingdom version it says it's an abomination in his sight it means it's foul it stinks it rotten it's no good it's worthless what we value god says i don't want to be nowhere around that how many i want to know what god values all right he's he values he says this he says what he values is he says whoever is trusted with very little can be trusted with what god values is faithfulness that's what he measures everybody say faithfulness the first thing he mentions he measures our faithfulness and i'm going to give you to the order that he gave them to me in uh and i'm not saying which one is greater than the other but just like if you go to uh the taylor to get a suit made or to get a dress fitted they measure you they they fit you for what you desire to wear and there are things that god measures in our lives because he wants to fit us with his glory come on come on come on come on he wants to fit us with his glory but we have to measure up to the standard that he has already said he so we we need to we need to grow up so he can put his glory on us so that we can walk in the glory that he is already ordained for us but we have to be able to fit all right all right so he measures faithfulness everybody say faithfulness he he measures our faith when he says in other scriptures well done my good and faithful servant faithfulness has to deal with your dependability your your reliability your trustworthiness how can we depend on you and very often if we are not getting praise or appreciation or getting thanks or someone's not you know uh putting us up putting our name on the screen and saying this one did that or we we can do something for a little while but if we don't get the praise that we are anticipating or the glory we are to participate or expecting but we are i can't do that no more they don't care about me they don't appreciate me we want glamour we want fame we want to be noticed but god says i want you to be faithful over little so if he has you in the student community and you're supposed to be there at nine o'clock on sunday morning be faithful it's just the kids i don't have to go today somebody else could take my place on your job nobody's watching so let me take an extra launch oh they don't they don't know i'm gonna be a you know two hours two hour lunch today it's all right god is watching are you faithful he talks about moses he says i i show up for moses when moses asks me and shows up he said i show up for moses because he is faithful in all my house i love that scripture he says i can't count on the rest of y'all to do nothing but i can count on moses i can count on david i can count on joseph i can count on jesus he said jesus is our faithful high priest can god count on you i'm going to ask you again that wasn't a rhetorical question can god count on you i got a couple of yeses over here see because you ain't even sure if he can count on you what is he going to ask me to do that depends on what he's going to ask me to do if he can count on me i don't know elder mike you trying to get me to step out and confess something i ain't too sure about i don't know he might ask me to leave my family and leave my home and go to another city and be a missionary he can't count on me to do that he might ask me to give up half my my portfolio and sow it into the kingdom oh he can't oh he can't count on me to do that neither faith what if i say faithful hey faithful faithful i'm not gonna i'm not gonna hurt you i'm not gonna stay out there too long i know i know you're itching like oh god i'm not i'm not gonna hit you too long because the next one is coming the next one is he measures forgiveness come on open your bibles matthew okay no no no no no no didn't i even got the scripture i don't even take it because you might hurt you too much i'm just going to read it for you is that all right i'm going to i'm going to read it for you in matthew chapter 18 you you study us when you get home matthew chapter 18 verse 21 uh peter came to the lord and said lord how often i got to forgive my crazy knucklehead brother seven times i got to do it seven times and jesus said unto him no peter peter five was like yeah not seven times jesus said 70 times seven oh i knew i shouldn't ask you ever you ever asked god a question that you didn't want to really know the answer peter thought jesus peter thought he was doing good by saying seven times y'all know what we say three strikes that's so peter was doing good i'm gonna give him seven i'm gonna go above three and jesus says no you're way down here you can't measure up to my standard you only want to give him three strikes say you wanna give oh you're gonna get a little seven he's no i need you to give him 70. in other words i need you to stop count stop counting because i ain't counting how many times i've forgiven you come on he come on you if god had to forgive you for something from yesterday come on just wave your hand i didn't act like i wasn't thinking right got upset with somebody at the grocery store come on come on come on you know forgive me jesus how many times was that lord it don't matter it doesn't matter see this is one thing we when we do uh premarital counseling we we i we counsel couples and we tell them listen if you are not if you have a struggle for giving please don't get married please do not get married if it's hard for you to forgive you will be miserable the rest of your marriage because the person you have to forgive the most in your life will be sleeping in your bed until you kick them out put them on the couch then they'll be sleeping in your house come on come on come on he says 70 times seven and this is something very often couples have to deal with they're challenged with because your partner can can hurt you but here here's something the bible says in verse 34 and 35 of matthew chapter 18 he says this and he gave up the parable of someone the lord had forgiven of a great debt and the man would not forgive someone else who had a much lesser debt and god says the lord was wroth or angry with the man and he turned him over to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due and then verse 35 you need to get this in your bible write it down take it home take notes matthew 18 35 says this so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you if you from your hearts don't forgive everyone your brother's trespasses help us jesus come on just raise your hand help me lord just help me lord to measure up so lord help me to measure up help me to measure up to he says i need you to forgive them else you'll be turned over to the tormentors that means when we hold unforgiveness in our heart we begin to we torment ourselves you torment yourself you're not you do i ain't ever gonna forgive you for that i know couples who've been married and we start counseling them and they say oh he did he said this to me 12 years ago he said that 12 years ago what else has he said since then it don't matter what he said he said that i knew he meant it then he still meant it now so the marriage can't even go even further the marriage won't be healed because they're not healed right write this down write this down your capacity to forgive directly impacts your ability to heal personally and to help socially my capacity to forgive directly impacts my ability to heal if i can't forgive then i'm holding onto that torment that wound is still open and every time somebody say her name oh god every time he he says something it takes you back 12 years ago the wound is still there it's still open because you won't forgive and allow the lord to heal it and what it also does it prevents you from helping others because you think somebody else gonna do you the same way it stops you from being a servant and serving god what he wants you to serve because you think you know what i ain't gonna do that because they sure enough they're gonna turn on me they're gonna do this i know they're gonna cause that that happened to me 15 years ago i gave somebody something and they never said thank you i ain't doing it no more everybody say forgive forgive forgive forgive we hold things in our hearts because sometimes people haven't even done anything to us they just didn't do what we thought they should have done for us they didn't do anything to you but y'all they should have done this and now you're mad at them because of what they should have done how you know what god told them to do maybe he told them not to help you so that you could trust him to do something forgive forgive jesus i want you to be like me i want you to be able to forgive have a forgiving heart he measures our capacity for to forgive because if we can't forgive then he can't trust us with power because we will use the power against the person we can't forgive you know if you got in some position or some authority you know what you would do i remember them i remember her i got my little black book on my phone out i remember i got all the people who heard me written down in my phone everybody say forgive he measures our capacity to forgive i'm gonna i'm gonna step off of this one i can't hold you there too long but but he wants us to understand that he he we have to trust him with vengeance that was that serious was all about god's trying to take us to another level another dimension but if we still hold on to unforgiveness in our hearts then he can't equip us for the next dimension let it go everybody say let it go come on just tell you touch your heart and say let it go if there's anything in your heart let me pray that right now lord if there's anything in my put your hand on your heart right now if there's anything in my heart lord that i've held against you or held against others some of us have unforgiveness against god in the name of jesus lord i ask you right now to open it up and heal our hearts release it today in the name of jesus some of us we got unforgiveness against god lord you you did me wrong you you told me to do this and i did that and it didn't work out like you said for years we can be angry with god because he didn't do it like we thought he was going to do it or can be angry with with our family members disjoining this this dysfunctional we haven't talked to family members in five years because they did something or they said something forgive say lord help me to forgive help me to forgive because we want to measure up we want to measure to his standard okay next one y'all ready y'all ready for the next one all right all right here's the next one turn to philippians chapter number two philippians chapter number two i knew y'all was gonna be jumping and shouting over this message you see everybody running around that's why the lord had us praising beforehand because he knew this stuff was coming it's coming hard woo jesus philippians chapter number two verse five says let this mind be in you let this mind be in you who's also in christ jesus who being in the form of god did not consider it robbery to be equal with god but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of man and being found in the appearance of man he humbled himself unto death and became obedient to death even the death of the cross therefore god has highly exalted him who and giving him the name which is above every name now look at romans chapter 12. look at romans chapter 12 they're going to get that for you i hope they're going to get it i believe i gave that to them all right yes i did yes i believe i did romans 12. did i give that to them nope i didn't give that to them either all right y'all get your bibles out y'all got to look at the for i say through the grace given to me this is what god measures he measures everybody say humility humility write that down he measures our humility this is in romans chapter 12 take these notes i say unto you that through the grace given to me that to everyone who is among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to but to think soberly as god has dealt to every man the measure of faith so he says he needs us to be humble if i say humble he requires humility out of us he requires and this was this is what was distinctive about the life of jesus who was the most powerful person to ever walk the face of the earth that the bible says he humbled himself unto death he became obedient to the he humbled himself he was more powerful he he could have said oh no no no i'm not i don't want to do that i don't want them to slap me i don't want them to strip me i don't want them to beat me i don't want them to humiliate me in the front of my family my my my mama gonna see me my brothers and sisters are going to see me be whipped beyond recognition i don't want that but he humbled himself and became obedient he said lord yes father whatever not my will but your will be done him god measures our humility uh in other words god god looks at whether we are willing to submit to his direction because he will direct you into some place where you do not want to go and we have to humble ourselves and sometimes we can't get where god wants us to get because we can't humble ourselves where we are right now i don't believe they asked me to sweep the floor don't they know who i am i'm deacon mighty blue they got me trying to sweep a floor around here humble yourself humble and he says he will exalt you in due time in due time but when we try to exalt our own self then we got to keep our own self wherever we exalt ourselves but if he exhausts you if he puts you in a place nobody can put you out so he says let me put you there humble yourself because i'm going to take you higher than you thought you were going to go anyway i'm going to put you in how many of you are in some places right now you thought you would never be let me never see you guys have put you in places you thought you would you never imagined he was gonna have you in that place but you had to humble yourself where you were so he could exalt you in due time and why don't we want to humble ourselves pride everybody say pride oh jesus now write this down write this down here's your takeaway here's your take away in order for god to trust us with greater glory we must develop a high level of humility let me say that again in order for god to trust us with greater glory we must develop a high level of humility why why do i say this because the lord the bible talks about the lord putting on his glory on us and that's one of the things that was prayed early this year and prayed over this congregation us walking in the glory and carrying the glory of the lord but in order for him to put his glory on us if he puts his glory on us and we don't have humility then when we get the glory on us when people see the glory on us and they start praising for the glory on us we think they're praising us and it's his glory and we start taking the praise to ourselves because you want to be lifted up you want the attention you want the praise you want the glory and so when god puts his glory on you and people praise you oh that's my glory look at what i did and so we become blind because of the glory that he put on us the light that he puts on us blinds us to ourselves and then we start thinking we're great and it's his greatness we become like the devil who wanted to exalt himself above god why he thought i want the praise so god says i need you here the bible says in this scripture he says i want you to be clothed in humility if i say humility that's the next thing so the next verse we we have to have humility and then we have to have submission that's number four he measures our submission he measures our humility whether we're willing to bow humble ourselves to him then are we willing to submit to those that he puts over us come on just move your feet i know i'm stomping on your toes it's okay it's okay it's okay everybody say submission submission i'm gonna read verse ah five of first peter chapter five it says this in first peter chapter five verse five likewise you younger people submit yourself to your elders oh all the young people said hey ain't nobody saying nothing oh y'all old [Laughter] oh everybody old in here nobody no let me ask you all the young people where are your hands under 35 where's your hand all right i'm going to count you all these young it's so amazing the older you get the higher the level the young people get i'm going to leave that alone right that was just a tangent that's a tangent he says likewise you younger people submit yourselves to your elders yes all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility for god resists the proud but gives grace to the humble ha ha look at that he says i resist the problem but i give grace to the humble so he in our in our humility and when we submit then he says i can give you the grace you need to accomplish the assignment see sometimes we think okay well you know someone gives us an instruction i'm going to do that i was in the meeting i remember vividly so was giving an instruction and the young lady said well i'm going to do that but i don't like it i'm going to i'm going to do it i'm going to do it but i don't like it i that ain't submission what you're doing you're still you're doing the work but you get no reward for that work because your pride will still stand up i gotta tell you what i think about it i don't like doing that i'm just gonna do it cause you said so you get no reward for that nothing you still measuring down here see everybody let's grow up we trying to grow up y'all know that i know it hurts i'm sorry i'm trying to get you where god wants us to be we have to measure up measure you so even if i don't like it i don't have to voice the fact that i don't like it i said the lord lord help me to like it oh lord help me to like it help me to do because i trust that you're gonna work it out for my good anyway because i'm gonna do it for you jesus he says work as unto the lord so i don't have to like it i'm working it for him so he's gonna work it for my good so i ought to like it all right all right y'all ready y'all can't take that one submission all right i'm just gonna give you a little bit on that oh god jesus had to submit himself y'all know that the bible says he submitted himself to his parents he knew more than they knew he knew more than his parents knew but he submitted himself to his own parents now here's here here's the last one y'all say thank you jesus the last one the last one the last one you ready go to first corinthians chapter 13. first of corinthians chapter 13. and this this this i hope this don't hit you too hard first corinthians 13 we're going to praise him it's all right that's all right we praise him ahead of time it's all right first corinthians chapter 13. verse 3 says this and though i bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though i give my body to be burned but have not love it profits me nothing the last measurement is sacrifice like sacrifice when we sacrifice love has to be in the sacrifice write this down i'm just going to give this to you if we sacrifice can we write this down y'all write this if down sacrifice i'm sorry in the kingdom our sacrifices are worthless if they are for selfish purposes let me say that again in the kingdom our sacrifices are worthless if they are for selfish purposes this is interesting he said if you give your body to be burned or if you give all you have to the poor but it's not because of love but it's because you want to be seen it's because you want some acclaim it's because of uh of you you're the tension you want if it's anything other than what love he says it's worthless it's useless to me he said i i count it as nothing it's it's wasted because you didn't do it for me now it may bless the person but you get no we will i get no reward if it's we sacrifice in our sacrifice is for selfish purposes yeah i'm going to sacrifice because i know if i give them that then they go give me this if i do that for them i know they're going to do this for me he says no no no i want your sacrifice to be done out of love for me because you love me so much you you'll sacrifice for me because i sacrificed for you i gave my life for you now he says present your body as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto the father which is your reason he said this ain't hard this is reasonable this this is not hard for you to present your body as a living sacrifice to me he said i i measure your sacrifice i measure is it is it good is it worthless is it powerful is your sacrifice does it amount to anything in the kingdom because sometimes we sacrifice but it's so that people can give us praise god says that's worthless to me oh jesus thank you lord everybody say thank you jesus so i'm sharing this with you because god he he told me and he shared this and he's confirmed it last couple of days he says i'm going to stretch you i'm going to stretch i'm going to pull you but the things with in these these areas god's going to start stretching you can you be faithful and times are going to get difficult and you i don't want to be he wants you to be stretched they talking about they're talking about you at work but you're stretching you you you you want to leave the job and just quit he's stretching i want you to be faithful he'll stretch you with your sacrifice he's going to stretch us with humility can you humble yourself when somebody tells you to do something oh i don't wanna i ain't doing that no because he's he's stretching us because he's getting ready to fit us with his glory i'm saying he's stretching us because he wants us to grow up to the full measure of the statue of god he's going to start stretching you in your home can you forgive your husband can you forgive your wife can you can you love them can you honor them can you pray for them even when they've hurt you can you sacrifice can you submit even when you don't think it's right oh lord trust me help me lord to agree with you and agree with my spouse help me to agree with my job help me help me lo how can you stretching you and that stretch is going to hurt a little bit it's going to hurt it's hurting me right now i promise you it's hurting me it's hurting me but he's growing us up everybody come on give god a praise right now if you want him to grow you up stand up if you want him to grow you up stand up if you want to measure up to his measurements or the full stature of christ would you stand up with us now hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you jesus the glory is coming hallelujah the bible says in romans chapter 8 i reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us i i he said i reckon that's that i reckon is an accounting term i calculate i tabulate i i add it all up and and what i add up with the suffering it don't even compare to the glory he said the suffering of the suffering that you're going to go through to something that you have to deal with that that it's just like a little little piece of sand compared to a diamond and you can't you can't you can't even come compare that everybody say the glory is coming the glory is coming hallelujah the lord put your hand in say lord i want to measure up just right i want if you know that you're challenged in one of these areas faithfulness forgiveness humility submission or sacrifice you know your challenge you guys just raise your hand no judgment we're just going before the father to give us strength [Music] hallelujah thank you jesus let us pray father we thank you keep your hands raised you want him to see you keep your hands waiting lord i thank you for those who have raised their head they recognize i need to grow up i need to measure up lord and i feel you're tucking at me [Music] thank you jesus thank you jesus i feel you tugging at our hearts lord you want us to change you don't want us to stay the way we were five years ago you want us to measure up you have so much planned for us store rooms in heaven waiting to pour out your blessings help us to mature so that we can do the works you have a sign for us come on just lift your hands right there right there hallelujah we want to build our life on you jesus we want to build our life on you we want to build our hope on you jesus thank you we bless you now god [Music] that we kind of done in the name of jesus amen give them praise right [Music] [Applause] thank you lord hallelujah if you are here and oh jesus thank you lord come on just lift your hands hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you jesus thank you lord hallelujah thank you jesus i will put my trust in you alone hallelujah i will build my life on you right now just says the lord if you're here praise god thank you jesus thank you jesus hallelujah give lord of praise hallelujah thank you [Applause] if you have not made the lord jesus your savior your king you have not given your life to him more or if you have strayed and been hurt by god and said you know what i'm done but you just happened to come to church on this sunday happy to tune in this would you raise your hand would you raise your hand if you're here we want to love on you we don't want to judge you we want to love on you praise the lord if if you're here i praise god bless the lord all of y'all good places give the lord a praise you're in a good place thank you jesus [Applause] so let us prepare our hearts to give unto the lord amen give the lord this time offering time hallelujah the bible says the widow gave jesus said there was a widow who gave and she gave she sacrificed she gave less than she gave like two pennies because of two mites that was a sacrifice for her and jesus said she has given more than all her sacrifice was greater than everybody else that gave that one and the disciples were like jesus what what kind of accountant are you doing [Music] see god when we sacrifice he doesn't measure how much it is [Music] i gave two dollars you gave two thousand dollars this blessing blessing but he measures our heart and he measures the percentage that we gave i gave you gave two dollars that was all you had you gave a hundred percent somebody else may have given two thousand dollars but if they got two million he says that you only gave 0.1 sounds like a whole lot but he says i don't measure like you do i measure your heart to give and not even here it's not even how much is how much he told you to give because sometimes god would tell you to give a thousand and you give 700 yeah i did good no you only did 70 percent you didn't give up would you give your all today whatever the lord is speaking to you to give this morning give all just let him speak to you unless father i thank you that as we prepare our hearts to give if you need an off and overload raise your hands or you can share online if you need an envelope you need to offer an envelope you can raise your hand now thank you jesus father we thank you for this opportunity to give into the kingdom and i pray lord that this word has touched our hearts so that we will commit to measuring up to your standard not what the world says not what our friends say not even what our parents say but what you say should be our standard that we will be faithful to your word we will forgive those who have even wounded us we would humble ourselves under your mighty head we bless every gift today we bless every heart that is given and sown in the kingdom these blessed be ask in the name of jesus amen it's offering time bless the lord [Music] [Music] yes [Music] we can trust and believe [Music] all things are possible when we believe in all chains of legal when we receive you keep your promises if you said it we believe it if you said it cause if you said it we believe it [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] all things are possible when we believe [Music] you keep your promises if you said it we believe it if you said it oh if you said it we believe it we believe [Music] if [Music] this is why and we have this confidence that you finish what you started god you have never failed and you won't start with me you're present in every step you're present in every heartache that you have never felt you won't start with me hallelujah [Music] you're you're true [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and we have this confidence that you finish [Music] god you have never felt [Music] word you say [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] cause you said [Music] we can trust you lord if you said it we believe i am who you say i am who you say i am i am who you say i am who you say i am i am who you say i am i am who you say i [Music] am love i am i am [Music] treasurer am [Music] [Applause] [Music] glory glory glory i love that we don't have to be concerned about how we're going to measure up if god said it we just need to believe it right we serve a god that genesis chapter 1 made plain he can call light from darkness he looks at chaos he sees dark he says this disorder he sees a mess and he's still able to say light be he's just able to call it out of us and so i don't know about where you are right now many of us probably feel like we are in the midst of chaos and darkness with reports of death looming all around and not just looming all around touching some of our lives we got to look past the darkness and the chaos and look right into the eyes of god himself who made us in his image after his likeness and he says don't look at that look at me look at me i know how to get glory out of darkness i know how to get glory out of you so are you ready to measure up to that just looking up to god the author and the finisher of our faith he's got good things in mind for you be encouraged this morning it's been a difficult week it's a difficult moment in the body of christ in the nation in the world but now more than ever it's time for the body to rise and shine the glory of the lord right needs to be seen on us the hope of glory is in us we are the light of the world and so we can't be consumed with the darkness and get swept up with the world we need to be the light that god is calling out of darkness and so may we measure up this week god bless you god bless you if this is your first time attending a service here at the perfecting church you enjoyed a good word by minister michael dixon on behalf though of our pastor kevin brown i'd like to extend you greetings and say hello if this is your first time can you just stand for us so we can recognize you welcome yay welcome welcome welcome please continue to stand so good to see you you look stunning and orange [Laughter] so good to see you we just have some news and announcements that we'd like to share with first time guests as well as all of our family here at the perfecting church and we've recorded it now so i don't have to do it so we could just cue that video and share these news and announcements with you thank you so much for gathering with us welcome tpc family at tpc we recognize that the church is not just a building so we look forward to connecting with you we also invite you all to subscribe to our text alert service by texting the word perfecting to the number 856 4387 to stay up to date on news and announcements also be sure to register for downl and track your giving visitors make sure you fill out our connection card it can be found on the seat in front of you and then you can turn it in to receive a special gift at the visitor's desk in the connection hall the perfecting church is participating in an effort to meet the basic needs of our afghan neighbors being resettled to the philadelphia region and we need your help so between september 12th and 26th please bring in your toiletry items for men women and children and you can also visit our tpc social media pages or website for more details a new member class called perfecting people begins next thursday september 16th at 7 pm via zoom you can register on our website by clicking the stay connected tab then the events tab and you can register from there for all our teacher administrators and students september 19th we will be holding a special service just for you we want the opportunity to pray over you as you get ready to start this new year and encourage you with the word of god so that this year can be fantastic football season is around the corner so you know what that means our engagement with local schools from our men's group of few good men is almost underway we need eight to ten men who are willing to volunteer to be mentored coaches if interested you can email rose de bell rose the perfectingchurch.org for more information on how to get involved as of next week on wednesday september 15th we will have a new prayer number of 271-624-7118 so if you or someone you know is in need of prayer they can contact this number to be connected with someone who will pray with them also we are looking for anyone interested in media to join our team to help and learn how to create visual content for various social media platforms as well as presentations to be shown to our church congregation if you're interested you can email me at christianityperfectingchurch.org for more information on getting involved i hope you all have an amazing rest of your day and i can't wait to see you all next week i think i'm the one rejoicing the most it's been 10 years of me doing the announcements a whole decade and i can finally retire thank you christiana she did an amazing job so thank you we have an incredible new generation of people within a perfecting church that are stepping up and embracing their assignment in the plan of god and so she did an awesome job but thank you thank you to those first-time guests this video will be available on our social media handle so please please follow facebook follow twitter follow on youtube follow on instagram so that you can get all of these details how you can connect but also those first time guests if you can complete the card in front of you on the seatback and then return it to the table in the lobby there'll be a special person and a gift there waiting for you because as declared in a video we recognize here church is not a building we are so we really really look forward to getting to know you and i'm certain pastor kevin would like to do so as well so hopefully we'll see you next week if not this week in a peace cell so p cells short for perfecting cells small groups gathering online via zoom you can zoom one in wherever you are you don't have to be a member of the perfecting church but you definitely have to be someone who's committed to live this so zoom on in we'll do a review of the message together and talk about it tease it out and apply it to our lives because that's what we do we live this here at the perfecting church and lastly happy anniversary to the to the family church they're celebrating five years and pastor kevin is there with them to usher in their fifth anniversary and so we miss him can we just say we miss you pastor kevin he's gonna love that let me get out of here i'm so excited i don't do announcements anymore while we all stand to our feet we're gonna welcome minister michael dixon who's had a jam-packed weekend can we say we love you michael dixon they had an awesome time in perfecting marriages yesterday so he's been serving hard this weekend and then came in and preached but please also come back next sunday because i will be here to minister for our back to school rally it's going to be such an honor for me to pray over speak into the lives of our students as well as the parents and the teachers the administrators that have returned to the classroom for such a time as this god is with us he's blessing us he's ready to use all of us so let's just get ready we don't have to worry about measuring up we just have to look up look to him and he's got us amen praise god thank you thank you uh and thank you for if you came out yesterday for loving the park well i married couples picnic would you give yourselves a hand man we had a fantastic time awesome time uh the we because of the wind uh levels we weren't able to do the balloon hot air balloon right but we're looking to uh bring them back when the maybe the wind comes down a little bit but yesterday one of the couples with our longest married couple uh at the attendance attendance yesterday uh the uh manganos were married 41 years so they got the one award for that prize for that elder ed and sherry weren't there so they missed their prize you know they always holding it down uh but we just want to also honor uh elder mary this week just thank god for her her father went to be with the lord but he was married to miss iona thomas for 72 years that's faithful y'all come on 72 years some folk ain't making 72 days 72 years of marriage i love it i love it god bless you god bless you thank you jesus you all ready to live this you ready to live this father we thank you for how much you love us and care for us you watch over us and you forgive us we appreciate you so much i pray that you would give us a heart to forgive like you a heart to love and sacrifice like a heart to serve like you our heart to humble ourselves and submit like lord in our heart to be faithful in every area of our lives like you that we would walk according to your standards and not the standards in the world thank you jesus our minds are changing and shifting we're lining up with your word and will for our lives and as we leave this place but not your presence send your angel before us make straight the way that we may arrive at our destination safely and we give you all the honor of the praise and the glory the people of god said amen and praise the lord god bless you [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] i [Music] ready [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: The Perfecting Church

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Length: 81min 35sec (4895 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021