Beyond: Seeing But Not Seeing

[Music] hey happy hump day to you good to see y'all we are on live for youtube only tonight so uh we d we're not live on facebook so if you got some folks that typically join but you know they join on facebook if you could help me in getting the word out that would be incredible if you could just help get the word out that we are on youtube only tonight that we're not on facebook uh if you'd be patient with me i'm gonna try to put up a post on my page that hump day is on tpc's youtube there it is youtube only tonight so if y'all could help me uh get that out that would be amazing and if you would share this link with some other folks rolanda how you doing good to see you i trust all is well with you and your family good to see you on tonight so if y'all would just share that with me that would be so greatly appreciated we had a couple of uh technical hurdles tonight and uh we were able to overcome several of them but we were not able to overcome the hurdle of uh getting live on facebook with the stream tonight so we are just jovette how you doing jovette i'm asking y'all if y'all can help me let folks know that uh youtube is on um i mean the hump days on youtube only tonight that would be amazing and uh i would greatly appreciate it i'm gonna try to update uh this post tammy martin how you doing thanks tammy i appreciate it give be patient with me y'all i'm gonna try to share this on uh my uh facebook page so just be patient with me for a second because i know uh a lot of times folk come over there so just be patient with me then we're going to pray we're going to get underway all right all right all right all right all righty perfect got it i'm done hey cindy good to see you what's going on girl good to see you tonight uh share the word hey y'all if y'all would just share on your own facebook pages that hump day is on youtube only tonight and then um share this link so just like cut and paste this link put it over on your facebook page and just tell folks we are on uh facebook i mean youtube only tonight hey mom good to see you so i'm in i'm in your land now mom you always complaining i don't pay enough attention to the folk on youtube it's all youtube tonight so for y'all faithful youtube folks it's your night let's pray and uh we're gonna get underway and get started father god we bless you praise you thank you god that you are the great overcomer you've overcome death you will become hell you've overcome the grave and thank you lord that you have equipped us by your spirit uh and by ministry gifts training and teaching us how to flow in the anointing and the person of the holy spirit that we too are overcomers because you are an overcomer thank you god for helping us to overcome many many hurdles tonight to be live to be able to have this incredibly important eternal discussion uh about seeing without seeing so father we bless you we praise you we celebrate and acknowledge your goodness at work tonight and uh thank you for causing us to overcome every obstacle that was set in our path and we glorify you tonight for god we glorify you in the simple we glorify you in what appears to be the big and most significant it all counts in your kingdom and uh bless you jesus for being a very present help in a time of need amen hey hey stella bay good to see you good to see you on tonight uh thanks everybody for sharing the link and uh inviting folks to come on and join us tonight if you didn't hear uh i have mentioned everybody that we are on uh youtube only tonight uh because we um we had technical difficulties with our facebook page tonight so we're with tpc's facebook page so we're on youtube only and i was asking people if they could share uh like this discussion tonight comment in the youtube discussion tonight because we're just there and invite some other folks to join us tonight is a very very foundational conversation as it relates to uh what it means to live with an eternal perspective and i really want to go slow tonight in this discussion i hope that we'll be able to get through the whole conversation hey elder mary good to see you thanks for sharing that on your facebook page i appreciate you so much but i want to take this conversation slow because this dialogue is absolutely critical to what it looks like for us to walk in a eternal perspective on a day by day daily basis if you've got your bible run with me um what's happening frank martin son of pearl good to see you brother if you've got your bible run with me if you would over to second corinthians and meet me in chapter four of that book second corinthians and meet me in uh chapter four of that book second corinthians chapter four and uh let we're gonna hang out tonight in verses uh four through 16. second corinthians chapter four we're going to hang out in verses i'm sorry 16 through 18 tonight second corinthians chapter four and we're going to hang out in verses 16 through 18 at night let me read that slow this really is paul he's writing a letter inspired by the holy spirit to the church at corinth and in his writing to the church at corinth paul is really expounding on the idea that they are encountering opposition in corinth that opposition is both natural and supernatural they're encountering opposition uh physically they're encountering opposition spiritually and and paul is encouraging uh his audience the corinthian church and of course the new testament church he's encouraging his audience to be encouraged in the lord basically saying that the outward or external or temporal uh obstacles that they are facing are actually working together for their good to help bring glory to god and his kingdom uh and and how much can we identify with with that message tonight paul as a leader in the new testament church you see the sun is setting here right it looks like i'm turning into my glorified body here tonight but the sun is setting in our local cafe and the sun is just rising up on me so i don't know what this is going to look like later but hey let's go with it i'm being glorified tonight right in front of you but paul is writing in 2nd corinthians chapter 4. he is writing under the inspiration of the holy spirit to the church which is at corinth and he's ministering to this church uh and sharing with this church that is in corinth that he is experiencing incredible opposition incredible hardship people accusing him of hypocrisy people accusing him of being a false prophet people accusing him of of wrong teaching and all the while paul and his apostolic team are persisting through this and carrying through on the message uh that god has given them to preach the gospel and and it's such a an appropriate and timely word because here we are the new testament church in the midst of a global pandemic in the midst of racial unrest in the midst of some of the most unsettled division in the church itself that i've ever seen in my lifetime of the southern baptist um conference uh which is the largest denomination in the united states the southern baptists are in turmoil right now themselves uh the southern baptists just had a vote last night where they disagreed uh with the direction and the vote of of their lead and they literally have opposed the vote of their constituency and said that they're going to stop an investigation which was looking into uh impropriety immorality in the southern baptist conference i mean there's just so much unrest going on in the new testament church right now but i should say with new testament believers because the truth of the matter is the church has always been uh and will always be stable quite frankly i'm talking about the people that are leading the new testament church in this moment are unstable jesus who is the head has has been the same yesterday today and forever y'all see i'm getting my glorified body as the sun is setting i literally am being consumed by the by the glory up in here so it's gonna be an interesting night but we're gonna fight through y'all i have been through every obstacle that there is today and our god still reigns so i appreciate your prayers tonight but these verses second corinthians 4 through 18 of the crescendo or or culminating thought as paul talks about what it is for him to face temporal adversity in a temporal world uh he he's crescendoing these thoughts with these three final thoughts found in second corinthians chapter four verses 16 through 18. let me read those because those set the foundation for our convo tonight um therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal my god let me read that one more time slow and with some added emphasis second corinthians 4 16-18 type that in the chat y'all so that folk can follow along with us tonight second corinthians chapter 4 verses 16-18 therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal i just pray god bless the the hearing of your word being read and uh bless as we expound conversationally god tonight on what it means to live life with an eternal perspective when i say live life with an eternal perspective what definitions come to mind for you how would you define living life from an eternal perspective somebody in your words uh in from your from your understanding what does it mean to live life from an eternal perspective because somebody type something in the chat here on youtube tonight how would you define it what does it mean to live in a temporary world because this world is passing away revelations tells us what does it mean for us to live in a temporary world with an eternal perspective smite give me something talk talk to me in the chat what does that mean define that right write down something what does it mean to live in a temporary world from an eternal perspective can somebody uh talk to us about that tonight what does it mean to live in a temporary world with an eternal perspective what is an eternal perspective thanks for typing that in the in the chat there mom i appreciate that what does it mean to live in a temporary world with an eternal perspective somebody type something in the chat i want to give you a moment to think about this before i start to talk about this so that we can come to a place of shared understanding on what it means to live an eternal perspective but in a temporary world and and then we're going to talk about why that is so critically important to us as followers of jesus as ambassadors of the kingdom of god let me give you a minute type in the chat um if you haven't done so i want to encourage you to go back and watch the message from this sunday as we prepare for this upcoming week because this past sunday sets a foundation for us to take a deep dive now we started out with a picture of heaven but now we want to talk about how do we participate in bringing the kingdom of heaven here into the earth uh as and we know one day god is going to fully uh coordinate if you will his kingdom here in the earth i don't see any y'all talking to me tonight so let me define it tonight to to live from an eternal perspective here in the earth means to live with our eyes fixed on the unseen realities and truths of god's kingdom to live in this world which is temporary passing away with an eternal perspective actually means for us to live with with our eyes and our hearts fixed on the unseen realities and truths of god's kingdom uh adrian abdul thanks for weighing in tonight uh adrian and by the way adrian i need to talk to you tomorrow if you could give me a call up at the church uh the main number at the church is eight five six seven three three four tpc adrian if you can give me a call tomorrow i need to talk to you about uh a subcommittee that i would like you to be a part of uh i wanna share that with you give me a call tomorrow at tpc it's 856 733 for tpc so so adrian says that living with eternal success living with the future in mind living as an alien so not living as though this is a home living future mine that's good that's good um uh terry brown says although we live with an expiration date we look unto jesus who knows the end from the beginning that's good who knows the end from the beginning that's who we're conversing with that's good i don't know who cb is but cb says uh view every decision we make and how we choose to live through the lens of the viewpoint of the kingdom that's great that's great i love it thanks adrian i'm glad you got that write down that number that's great i love that who's cb who is that who is cb is that clayton bailey um is that charles bass who is cb um but good that's a good answer so so catch this y'all because this is critical well with what happens in our life moment by moment day by day to live with an eternal perspective means rather than living with our eyes and minds fixed on the factual evidence that is happening in front of us we literally live with our eyes or our hearts as it were fixed on the eternal unchanging truths of god's kingdom uh for example if if the doctor were to tell me that i was sick unto death god forbid and that that i only had a few days to live to live with an eternal perspective would be for me to go to the scriptures for me to go to the promises of god for me to go to the word of god and for me to go to the person of god in prayer and seek god for what he says about my physical condition so it's actually to see without seeing i see what the doctor said but i look beyond what the doctor said into what god said concerning my situation that's partly what it means to live with an eternal perspective to live with an eternal perspective also means that i view this world as something that is temporary to live within eternal perspective means i view this world as something that is temporary something that is passing something that is subordinate to something that supersedes it in excellence in glory in value in dignity which is the kingdom of heaven so it doesn't mean that i don't see the world it doesn't mean that i don't live in the world it doesn't mean that i don't even enjoy living in the world but i realize that the world ain't all there is like this isn't it this this is just a reflection of it this world and a poor reflection of it now since sin and death has come to contaminate the world so a second way one way is i see the facts and the evidence of the natural realm but an eternal perspective looks beyond the facts and evidence of the of the temporal realm and looks into the eternal truths and principles of god and fixes its eyes and affections and attention on what god said and what god is saying that gives us an eternal perspective additionally it is seeing this world as not the end all be all and not all that there is but seeing this world uh as secondary to some some other thing that is superlative or supreme to this world which is the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of god uh a third truth about eternal perspective it's a longing that we live with it's a longing that we live with that god's kingdom would come it's a longing that we live with that god's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven it's a looking forward maranatha is a word they used to use back in the day come jesus come we don't hear christians saying that as much it is also me looking forward to the new heaven and the new earth although i live in the present with the present heaven if you will and the present earth so so it's three things it's eyes that are fixed on eternal truths and principles it is a heart and affections that realize there's something that supersedes my earthly experience and it's also a longing for the full coming of god's kingdom when god will be present as revelation 21 tells us that god will be present with this people and we will be present with him uh fully we will see him as he is uh revelations 21 encourages so that kind of encapsulates what it is to live with an eternal perspective talk back at me how does that impact you just to think about living with that kind of perspective rather than living with a perspective that whatever is told to me in this world is absolute truth rather than living with a perspective of this is all there is i'm living my best life now there there is no other life and the earth is all that there is and then also another faulty or temporal view is to live with the idea of there there is nothing after this at once this experience is over this is all there is there is no longing for another kingdom it's just longing for a better life but there's no longing for an eternal life uh how's that impact y'all how how would that have impacted your day-to-day if you had lived from that perspective kia hints our our newest member what's going on kia good to see you kia said it is to be in the world and not of it absolutely uh let me let me let's i'm reading it but i'm not posting it uh christopher coley says that um that it i i've started to say to myself when unpleasant things occur that romans 8 28 is real that's that's helping with an eternal perspective for sure um that's good that's good talk to me y'all what else you say how does that impact you to hear that yeah yeah that's a true statement now hi pastor i love it kia what an incredible honor and privilege it is to be entrusted with caring for your soul and helping to helping you to discover to develop and launch out into the unique assignment god has for your life i i take that as a high honor and a high responsibility kia hence for you and your mom welcome welcome to tpc mary says that perspective means and and it always is in it all that perspective means it is always well with my soul i see what you're saying mary that no matter what comes my way it really is all good for real i love it mary it really is all good coley says i often think about steve jobs parents uh where do i fit into the narrative in this life for everyone that i'm attached to that's good once when coley says thinking about steve jobs parents steve jobs was from minnesota his mother got pregnant out of wedlock while she was in college at the university of wisconsin i think his mother is from minnesota she then moves back home to minnesota when she moves back home to minnesota her family tells her she can't have that baby and she starts to work on giving up steve jobs for adoption and steve is adopted by paul and claire jobs who live in silicon valley and just by who he's adopted by it ends up changing everything to do with this young man's life and ends up leading to uh him actually changing most of the modern world with the inventions that was brought through his life uh by the common grace of god if you will because i don't know that he was saved but certainly the common grace of god was at work in his life angela henderson says that hope gives her perspective or that perspective gives her hope constantly that's what my prayer is for us um that as we learn to live rooted in an eternal perspective that that eternal perspective becomes a source of constant hope strength for us and it actually brings us to the place that we become a source of constant hope and strength for those that are around us because we have another view of life that's literally what paul is getting to hear when he says therefore we do not lose hearts even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day and uh and and i talked about uh bruce lee's movie enter the dragon i don't know how many of y'all were fans of bruce lee and his movies but enter the dragon was one of bruce lee's iconic movies and uh the the the plot around enter the dragon is that they're all involved in fighting in a tournament a martial arts tournament and they actually on one significant scene are on a boat traveling over to a isolated island where they would train for the tournament and then ultimately fight in the tournament and while they're on that boat traveling to this island there is a bully on the boat who is abusing and intimidating uh everybody on the boat and and taking their heart before they even get to the place where they're gonna prepare to fight this guy's taking everybody's heart before they even get there before the fight even start he's owning their mind and and he finally realizes that he can't get bruce lee he can't impact bruce lee the way he's impacting everybody else and and he finally out of frustration but also out of curiosity asked brutally bruce lee what is your style of fighting you know he sees something unique about him what is your style of fighting to which bruce lee answers the art of fighting without fighting and bruce lee literally believed that he would use his opponent's strengths against his opponent bruce lee believed this his philosophy of fighting was if i'm extinguishing or exerting too much energy then i'm not fighting correctly because good fighting is making your enemy work against themselves rather than you working against yourself and i think there's the perfect lead-in to what it means to live um uh seeing but not seeing the art of of living by life where you're seeing but not seeing what i'm really saying is that we experience the same physical uh natural world that everyone else experiences but because we know that there is another world to come and because we're living from another world we're in this world as kia hintz said but we're literally living from the kingdom of god i'm living in the world but i'm living from the kingdom of god and when i say that what i'm really saying that there's the king that reigns over all of creation seen and unseen and we are called as followers of jesus to live from an eternal perspective where we're living from the kingdom that is to come now and by doing that not only do we have an otherworldly experience but god is also using us to usher in his kingdom into the world and this is what paul is getting at in 2nd corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 through 18. and i want you to grab this first thought i would love if somebody would type this in the chat for us this this first thought about how do we develop natural blindness so that we can have supernatural sight and i've got a few thoughts about how we do that that i'm drawing from this text from paul how do we develop the appropriate level of natural blindness so that we can develop supernatural sight how do we develop the appropriate level of natural blindness so that we can develop supernatural say i'm glad you asked because i want to talk about that tonight the one of the first things we have to do and i think is what paul is getting at here because paul says my outward man is perishing day by day but my inward man is being renewed and and a surface view of what paul is saying there will say oh paul's getting old so what paul is referring to is the fact that he's getting old and as he's aging his outward man is wearing out he doesn't have the same energy he doesn't have the same vitality he doesn't have the same agility so paul is wearing out and and paul's inward man his spirit man instead of it decreasing it is increasing and that would be true but i think it would be a surface view of what paul is is stating here i think it would be a surface view of what paul is stating because there's a deeper thought that paul is stating you have to understand who paul was for young jewish men when they finished their formal uh schooling they would do one of two things they would either enter into a trade which was typically a trade of their families or they would go and sit with a rabbi with the hope that the rabbi would see that they had enough intellectual acumen enough spiritual acumen that the rabbi would commit to allowing this young man to be a follower of him and the rabbi would train and prepare the young man to be a rabbi there was nothing more prestigious and influential and significant in the first century a.d uh family than for your child to be accepted by one of the prominent rabbis or any rabbi for that matter and for them to have a profession of rabbinical teacher and scholar and paul just to give you an idea of of who paul was paul was was accepted by one of the most prolific teachers and thinkers and writers of his day paul was a student of gamaliel and gamaliel was one of the most respected rabbis of his day and and paul was successful that would be the equivalent of paul going to an ivy league school paul was a brilliant thinker paul was a brilliant communicator paul understood cultures paul paul understood how to write in different languages paul was a brilliant well-exposed well-versed thinker and i think what paul is also saying when he's saying therefore do not lose heart even though the our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day i don't think we read this verse properly without also understanding that paul was moving his dependence from his depending on his own brilliance for everything depending on his own intellectual ability for everything depending on his own know-how and ingenuity for everything his outward man was perishing in its value in its uh dependence that he was placing on it but his inward man his spirit man was growing day by day because his dependence was being transferred onto a spirit man this should be our lives as well one of the things that should happen in our lives is our outward man and our dependents upon our outward man outward woman however we want to say it our dependence upon our physical abilities should be decreasing not that we stop using them but we just use them as something to flow through rather than something to go to uh our physical ability should be something that we flow through not something that is our go to our go-to should be the lord jesus uh via our inward man and then our inward man begins to flow through our outer man where there was a time when our our outward man was our go-to we could go no further than our intellectual ability we could go no further than our natural gifting where our our s.a.t score told us what our limits were our physical abilities told us what our limits were our physical beauty or attractiveness told us what we'd be able to do or be and all that is a lie when we start to live with an eternal perspective and transfer our dependency unto christ so many beautiful examples of that in the scriptures so many of people whose physical attributes were not noteworthy were not unique and were not outstanding but in letting their outward man perish and their inward man be renewed if you look in the hall of faith you see everyday people being used for incredible things in the kingdom of god this comes from tapping into a view that is beyond the natural realm where we start to live with an eternal perspective holy says i believe it comes with relationship with him the quality of the time seeking his face starts to open our spiritual eyes you ain't never lie coldly on that one that i detect no untruths with that statement christopher coley says he believes that eternal perspective comes with relationship with jesus uh the quality of time seeking the face of jesus seeking his presence singing with him starts to open our spiritual eyes as a matter of fact a regular regimen of daily time with jesus begins to build up our inward man build our awareness of our inner inner man build the strength of our inner man who is the one that communes with the spirit of god and and the word of god with depth and dependence and the more that we regularly go and commune from our inner man with christ the more our outward man and the dependence upon that perishes and our inward man is built up and renewed day by day i just want to encourage you if you don't get anything else out of tonight that we need to spend more time in the word of god regularly not to get something that we like like for me i'm not not spending time in the word of god so i can give it away to preach in the sermon or for something i have to do i'm spending time in the word of god because he is someone i have to be with i'm spending time in the word of god because i want to hear from him i was praying today holy spirit helped make me more capable of discerning your voice help me to be able to distinguish with even more clarity even when it is you subtly speaking to me give me the ability to hear you with with stunning clarity that that i don't ever take a thought that that was just me or just them or just came out of nowhere but but i recognize with stunning clarity when it is you speaking to me i would and and by the way that's not going to just come from prayer it's also going to come from me spending time in the word of god as i spend time communing with the word of god which is alive it attunes my ear and my heart to god here's one truth i want us to get or on one way we need to lose our sight in the world so that we can build our sight in the eternal here's way number one that we need to lose or become more blind to our natural ability to see so that we can increase our supernatural or spiritual ability to see write this down somebody type this in the chat please we must stop seeing every setback as loss we must stop seeing every setback as loss if we are to develop the ability to see the hand of god ordering our steps we we must stop seeing every setback as loss if we are to develop the ability to see the hand of god ordering our steps we must stop seeing every single setback as lost if we are to develop the ability to see the hand of god ordering our steps simply put if we interpret everything that happens to us that doesn't go our way as a setback or worse yet as god working against us it will undermine our confidence in god it will thereby undermine our consistency in god and and it will thereby undermine our willingness to commune with god or undermine our confidence our consistency our willingness to commune if every time something negative happens to us we view it as a as a setback as opposed to keeping our eyes on god no matter what happens in our natural experience keeping our eyes on god and giving our attention and heart to him as the lord of all who was able to order our steps there it goes uh terry brown my mama called it tonight we must stop seeing every setback as a loss if we are to develop the ability to see the hand of god ordering our steps rely on the psych says we must stop seeing every setback as lost if we are to develop the ability to see the hand of god ordering our steps christopher coaly sharing the testimony says this daughter blew him away last week when she prayed to hear god's voice when she's afraid and confused that was a heart check for me and a hard reminder on how to live yeah man that's stunning and uh so shout out to perfecting kids for for working with uh chris coley's baby girl shout out to perfecting kids and all those people that are investing their lives in the lives of uh this current generation of leaders uh that are in another age group i i'm excited about that thanks for sharing that testimony chris but we must stop seeing every setback as a loss how many you do that what what happens to you holler back at me what happens to us when we start to see every setback as a loss if i explain you how many setbacks i had today even just trying to get to you to be online and share this moment with you tonight i experienced setback after setback after setback to get here but i did not allow my eyes to fall to the thought that or maybe the lord's trying to tell me not to do this tonight or or maybe this setback is true no i i fixed my eyes on what i knew god had called me to do tonight and began to ask god for wisdom for how to accomplish what he called me to do tonight and it just increased my dependence on watching him order my steps as opposed to me receiving a setback kia hint says i've been meditating on this troop since sunday setbacks aren't negative yes that's good i love it here total perspective changed that seeing without seeing that's right that is seeing without seeing uh mary jackson says that mindset makes god more of a genie than than a shepherd come on mary who leads and god's alive he is the same god on the mountaintop that he is in the valley that's so good ladies i appreciate the comments of kia tonight uh that's so good on the perspective change i appreciate mary with that that picture of seeing god either as a genie or or a shepherd we we can't be judge and jury for everything that happens in our lives to try to judge as god being good and is he worthy of our continued fellowship if we view that we are going to have con inconsistent up and down lives in christ jesus we must view him as good all the time he is a good good father he is a good shepherd and he's leading us into eternal realities of which we fully don't know of and from a whole different lens than the way that people progress and move in this world and if we're going to walk and live from an eternal perspective we have to get accustomed to moving and doing in counter-cultural ways so paul was not only perishing in his outward man because surely he was but paul was also allowing his dependence upon what he could see think touch feel smell reason on his own he was allowing his dependency on those things to change and shifting his dependency onto christ and the inner person of his spirit angela henderson says setbacks can cause us to behave in a carnal way if we don't intentionally think eternally it's so true it's got to become a supernatural reflex for us that when stuff doesn't go the way we need it to go as we understood it or doesn't go the way we anticipated to go as we planned it that that is a call to prayer that is a call to communion with god not for us to get stuck in our flesh and in our feelings and then end up letting our feelings and our flesh dictate what to do to us that's why so many of us end up living cyclical i mean cyclical lives that every time we eat a setback we go back and and we gotta stop letting setbacks make us go back and start having setbacks make us go to him so that he can direct us and lead us and guide us uh minister latoya says we've got to trust the heart of god when his hands moves in ways that we would not she said we got to trust the heart of god when his hand moves and we're not it's so good because how is god going to ever be able to do exceedingly and abundantly above what we ask or think as ephesians 3 promises us he will if every time he does something that we can't understand or that we wouldn't think about we draw back and run from it javette is being honest tonight she said that uh uh that jovette is being honest tonight she's saying that she lost faith in god when she was facing many a setback and what we're saying is rather than losing faith in god as many of us have during setbacks that that is the time to increase our dependence upon god this is what paul is driving home to them paul is going through hell there but he is drawing from heaven paul is going through hell in corinth but he is drawing from heaven while he's in korean ernest sykes i saw rolando was on here i didn't see you and ernest said god is always has what's best in mind for us even when we don't understand it we got to get this tonight y'all because if god can only move in our lives when we understand it uh and another word is when we think we can control it then he's not really lord of our lives we are still lord of our lives or at least we're living in the false reality of believing it i'm trying to catch up with y'all y'all talking to me tonight oh that's celeste now i got a celeste says it can cause you to abort the promise that you are pregnant with and the process that we must go through to give birth to what god has for others in us come on celeste you preaching tonight girl so she's about if we take a setback and then draw back to dependence upon self it can cause us to miss and abort what god is trying to deliver through our lives um elder mary says and who has defined it as a setback perhaps god is oh that one went off yeah elder mary you're right so often what we define as a setback is actually the next step uh from the perspective of god i i i'm not arguing with that uh my mother terry brown says that we've got to learn to ask god at any setback what do you want to be for me here in this circumstance father you are a healer you are my peace you are my joy you are whatever i need you to be and sometimes when we use that phrase whatever we need is to be he knows our needs better than we do we just need to know that you're right cindy i remember that too when uh cindy i remember with that phrase she said that past lamont said that when you get a setback then you take a step back and get ready for a comeback i remember that phrase when you experience a setback you take a step back and get ready for a comeback i remember that pastor of monks bless god for that man of god terry brown said ask god in a setback what do you want to be for me here that's so good oh elder mary finishes this thought for who defines a setback perhaps god is refining us and we are referring to refining his setbacks no doubt that's true no doubt that's true because god uses what we would define often as setbacks what he's really doing is transferring what he's really wanting to do is transfer our dependency from ourselves to him often what we define as setbacks is it's not going the way i intended it's not going the way i planned it's not going the way i can manage and control it but oftentimes god is even at work in the setback to transfer dependence from ourselves to him look at verse 17 i think we're gonna go home on this one tonight verse 17 for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working just just stop right there for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working working what paul he says is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory he says listen to this y'all he says verse 17 for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory for our setback which is but for a moment for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us what if we took on that mindset see paul is teaching the art of seeing without seeing first he tells us how to see outward afflictions and difficulties as opportunities to transform our dependence onto our inner man then secondly he says that the afflictions that we face in life are actually working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory um said said in a way that that might be more palatable for the way that we talk what paul is literally saying is that we've got to move away from this idea that convenience and comfort are synonymous with the will of god we got to move away from seeing convenience and comfort as synonymous with the will of god so that we will be able to see through a heart that hears and obeys we we got to stop seeing through eyes of comfort and convenience so that we'll be able to see through a heart that hears and obeys how many of us have said no to god because we were saying no to pain and discomfort and inconvenience not realizing that pain and discomfort and inconvenience would lead to god being able to bring us into new realities and using us to usher in new realities we must get this y'all and i'm really gonna go and spend the next few weeks going really slow through these three lenses that paul is giving that create an eternal lens because if we grab this the way we experience our earthly experience changes and if the way that we experience our earthly experiences change then the conditions and circumstances of our lives can be transformed so that we can start causing the spaces that we occupy to look more like heaven as we usher in the kingdom of heaven adrian amder says so so then setbacks are like being on the potter's wheel no doubt elder mary says though then pain has a purpose that's it and angela henderson is cheering us on a good word so god is working in these grossly dark days that he has ordained us to occupy he's teaching us how not to live seeing everything that is in front of us that every bully of circumstance that comes to try to push us around that that bully of circumstance or that demonic bully ends up catching our mind catching our hearts and getting us off track for what the real fight at hand is the only fight that we need to be involved in is the good fight of faith which is faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god we need to be focused on hearing receiving communing with god so that we are equipped to see beyond the natural realities that are limiting and dictating to everyone else and we're able to usher in eternal realities so next week we're going i mean this weekend we're going to dig on this real deep so bring your your work boots when you come next week because we we're digging deep wear your timbs or where you don't wear your high heels wear some old snakes because we're going to dig deep this weekend and and really begin to build a firm eternal perspective so that we can move with god and and move away from all these interruptions in in our relationship with god so um it's time to live beyond so coley said amen to that so i love you good being with you tonight yeah bring your hard hat and your lunch bill that's right i love being with you tonight thank you for all your interaction with us tonight i pray you heard from jesus tonight and i pray you go back and listen to last week's message because and meditate on it as kia said she's doing use it for your devotion this week because it is going to be the setup for where god has taken us so love you bless you share this if you can cut this paste this somewhere send the link to somebody this is going to help not only change our lives but impact bringing about transformation to our cities our communities our families in this world let me pray over you father i thank you that there's no such thing as simply hearing your word lord your desires that we would hear and obey father i pray as we've heard tonight i pray that the person of holy spirit would grab the words that have been spoken tonight by me certainly by the scriptures and by those that have talked and shared in the chat line and i pray god that you would use these things that you might reshape reform renew our way of seeing uh in this world teach us god the art of seeing without seeing for your glory and our delight in jesus name amen love you bless you see you on sunday and uh put the word out that beginning on october 24th we are resetting and uh starting fresh in a familiar place we're going to reset our 9 a.m and our 11 a.m services our our attendance has been getting to the place that we need to get back to another service in order to be able to have room for everyone and also be able to maintain uh the some of the protocols that we've put in place with our kova task force so please invite some folk and get everybody ready october 24th we're going to be uh resetting uh beginning fresh in a familiar place with a 9 a.m and 11 a.m service our student communities will be at 11 a.m i love you bless you i will see you on sunday happy hump day to you

Channel: The Perfecting Church

Views: 210

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 1O4EGh_-8Ng

Length: 52min 52sec (3172 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021