"Born to Battle" - Paul Brown

amen we're so excited to continue our series and to really dive into what the word of god has for us in this season because i believe he has a word for us amen because it's an uncertain season it's unstable but we have a god who is stable who is faithful always amen and i want to kind of practice that word amen because it means i agree and let it be done so on three one two three amen and that's telling our soul ourselves that yes i agree with this word but it's so interesting that in this time in this season god has called us to be a light in fact in this season we need light more than ever in fact god says this that they will know that you are my disciples by the way that you love that's the light that we have but in this time in this season we are more divided than ever aren't we from country to country to nation to nation to state to state it's even in our homes that we see this division we see it again and again and again and we really are in a fight and i believe this that we must choose our fights correctly though we need to make sure that we're fighting the correct enemy but there's so many things going on in fact there's this thing called a syndemic which refers to multiple pandemics all at the same time so many things happening all at the same time politically socially economically we feel it but today i want to talk about is the the sickness that's in our souls the sickness that is in our hearts and first we're going to go a little bit into what it is the reality and it's kind of dark it's kind of hard but then we're going to talk about the hope of jesus amen so the first thing is that we're we're facing so many things we're facing anxiety we some of us feel that we're forgotten angry confused overwhelmed even paralyzed by fear we are feeling alone in fact this is true that we are dying from loneliness in fact hrsa health resource service administration came up with the article and it's titled this loneliness epidemic there's a loneliness epidemic and 28 percent of seniors live alone totaling more than 14.7 million people five million men not 9.7 million women loneliness and social isolation increase the the risk of dementia by 50 percent and heart disease increases by 29 mental health disorder increases by 26 premature mortality 26 health effects of loneliness are equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day we're feeling alone and this is not just for our kupuna this is not just for our adults this is also for our young people i said this this the cdc took a survey in in 2020 june and it says this according to the survey 63 percent of young people are suffering significant symptoms of anxiety of depression nearly a quarter of respondents reported that they have started to increase their abuse of substance including alcohol marijuana prescription drugs to cope with emotions we are dying from loneliness aren't we and we need people to have our back we need people to encourage us to know what we're going through the hardship that we're going through that we can mutually encourage each other in fellowship but many of us are okay with relationship we're we're like i love relationship you know what people are the problem in relationship if i didn't have to deal with people relationship would be great but we're going to need people in our lives that when we want to give up on our family they say keep on going when we want to give up on our faith they encourage us in our faith when we want to give up on our lives they're willing to say i'm going to walk with you every step of the way we need here it is battle born friends battle born friends proverbs 17 17 says this a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for a time of adversity that a friend a brother is born for a time of adversity and we need to continue to lean in to what god is calling us to do as battle born friends or battle born buddies to encourage each other because the enemy has a plan just like god has a plan the enemy has a plan doesn't he for all of our marriages for our businesses for our families but god has a plan but paul the apostle actually encourages us but it also warns us of the conflict that we have within the church or within ourselves galatians 5 15 says this if you bite and devour each other watch out or you will be destroyed by each other watch out and it's so interesting that the devil does not create he mutates he doesn't create something new he takes what god made and mutates it he takes relationship and mutates it he takes marriages and mutates it he takes sex that's beautiful and mutates and makes it weird and dark and he takes godly relationship in community and he mutates it and then guess what we do the work of the enemy for him because we destroy each other god is calling us to now not fight against each other but fight for each other so what's the solution here's the solution and i love this because the enemy gets afraid when the church recognizes who the real enemy is he's like oh my goodness they're recognizing that the real mission is to love the real mission is to save the real mission is the disciple and if we do that it says that god will heal our land second chronicles 7 14 says this if my people who are called by my name that's you and i shall humble themself and pray seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then i would hear from heaven and i will forgive their sin and would heal their land amen that's the promise of god so our victory is not when we win an argument our victories actually when we come together collectively we get on our knees and we say god we repent and god promises that he will heal our land this is such a beautiful moment because i believe this i believe this and i pray that you can agree with me is that i believe we're born for this i believe we're born for the darkest moments why because the light shines brightest in the darkest of places this is the time that we can love and choose to love when the world's fighting the church will stand apart because we're continuing to love to encourage to build up why because god's love is in us and now it's through us because we are becoming battle born friends because we can't church hop anymore because we really want true connection with each other we need each other in this season so how do we do this well point one here it is learn from the battle born friend named jesus we need to learn from the battle born friend named jesus matthew 11 28 to 36 to this come to me all who are weary and burdened and i will give you rest 29 take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and humble and hard and you will find rest for your souls 30 for my yoke is easy and my burden is light here is the key the key to rest is actually learning learning from god i love pastor john i love that he said i finally remembered one of my dreams and what i love about that is that that was way better than any night's rest wasn't it way better why because revelation leads to rest revelation leads to understanding what god is doing and we need to learn from him but let's be honest we don't go to him first so that's the first point is this and it's not in your notes but you can write on the side learn to go to jesus first learn to go to jesus first because this is true that we must be informed but don't allow yourself to be deformed be informed you need to understand but don't allow yourself to be deformed in fact some of you guys i've talked to some of us and we'll talk and be like hi how you doing they're like praise god thank god god's good like oh wow that's awesome and then i'll talk about a specific topic most likely political and i say what about this we go from informed to deformed in fact i believe it we looked i love lord of the rings and i feel like in 2019 we look like this just a happy oh my gosh god's so good amen amen we're all excited then 2020 came and then 2021 came and we looked like this we look like gollum and we we went from like so excited to we went from informed to deformed and i'm saying you need to understand what's going on but we must look from the perspective of heaven we must look through the perspective of what jesus says but a lot of times it's difficult why because we are carrying burdens we weren't made for we are carrying burdens right now that you can't control you weren't made for but we hold on to these burdens about things you can't we can help we have a responsibility to do and a burden to take on but there's certain things that we are carrying that we weren't made from point one at point two actually is learn to let go of burdens that aren't made for you not point to it's a sub point so you can write it on the side learn to let go of burdens that aren't made for you how many of us right now we're holding on to burdens that aren't made for you they're made for on only one shoulder and that's jesus and we gotta let go of our burdens and we have to must recognize that we have to let go of these and i love this story because i this is the story is about elisha and it's a story of elisha and his servant gehezei and they're surrounded by the arameans and elijah's that's just relaxing on the side like okay and his servant is like pacing like oh my goodness what's going on if we're gonna die and he's starting to worry worry worry and i love elisha because elisha starts talking to gehazai and this is what the conversation went with elisha and gehesai and this is a hazard his sermon this is hopeless anybody else been there this is hopeless my master what are we to do and elijah said don't do not be afraid for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them those who are with us are greater than those who are with them in fact he said this would you open the eyes of gehezei and then he saw around them a plethora of chariots and angels ready to protect and i almost think sometimes what we need is just to have our eyes open to the greatness and the faithfulness of god our eyes have to be open in fact i feel like sometimes we have weights oh my goodness can we say thank you [Applause] i'm impressed good job and a lot of times what we do and it's not on purpose we do this i do this we all do this we watch the news and then we start picking up burdens i was going to do this for 30 pounders i just couldn't there was it was going to be too many services and then we take up another weight and this is another weight we're trying to control different things in our lives other people's opinions and we start living life like this and guess what you can kind of do it but you live life crippled because you're holding on to weights you can't hold on to in fact when you worship you're trying to raise your hand ah got a cat i can't sense you ah where are you but you haven't let go of the weight and you try to raise your hand to surrender again and you still can't let go and god is calling us to let go of the burdens that aren't ours and i almost feel like god is telling us that it's in it's when we remember how great he is that you can actually have trust that he can take care of the things we can't take of is when we remember his promises his faithfulness that he was faithful to abraham isaac and jacob that he was faithful to us amen and that's not in those moments until those moments of devotion prayer and in worship where we say and we say god take my burdens amen those are the moments we have to choose to say i'm going to worship i'm going to remember the faithfulness of god and it's not that easy so we have to practice it we actually have to practice remembering the faithfulness of god so we're gonna do a little just a little not test but just a little practice of how to meditate on who god is in the midst of hardship can i tell you the psalms are great because the psalmists do this all the time they yell out to god where are you then they say you're you've always been here you're so faithful it's hard lord i can't handle any more oh but you lead me by quiet waters is this contrast of reality and of what you're going through and then the promises of god so what we're going to do is i'm going to sing this song and it's him as greatest thy faithfulness and all i want us to do is they're going to sing and i just want you to to meditate on what's going on in your life i'm going to sing this verse once and then i want you to join in on the second time does that sound good amen so i'm going to say it one time and then you join in the second time but just ponder onto things and allow god to be great in the midst of your storm greatest thy faithfulness greatest thy faithfulness mourning by morning new mercies i see all i have needed thy hand has provided is thy faithfulness lord unto me together great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness morning my morning new mercies i see all i have needed thy [Music] great is thy faithfulness lord unto me can you sense his peace in the midst of the storm in the midst of the hardship can we give god some praise amen amen thank you so much can we say thank you to doreen one more time i didn't know you're gonna lift those weights good job so there is a burden though there is a burden that we have that god is calling us to hold and it's a light burden and this is the primary call in which we do all things he says to do all things from a place of love this is the primary call as christians to love god and love people and there is a burden and i love this story it's in matthew 22. you've probably heard this verse but i'm going to give you a little bit of context in this context the sadducees and the pharisees hate each other but on this day they're friends because they hate jesus more and they're friends today and they test jesus saying this teacher which is greater or which is greatest commandment in the law jesus replied love the lord god with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind 38 this is the first and greatest commandment 39 and the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments wow the call of the church in this season is to be a light to love each other right as we are to learn to go to jesus first honest sometimes i'll wake up five o'clock in the morning on my sabbath just because i know i need to go to jesus first i need to bring everything to him all the hardships all the difficulties and then i get to surrender them because i trust right we try to surrender but we have to recognize how faithful he is that's why the israelites would always tell look how great our god is he's the god he's faithful and then in his faithfulness we could say i can surrender and then we can take up the burden of the call of god on each of our lives to love each other amen point two choose to recognize that you're made to be a battle born friend about a born friend john 15 12-14 says this my command is this love each other as i have loved you greater love has no one than this to lay down his life for one's of friends once friends you are my friends if you do what i've commanded and the command is this that we would love each other the evidence that we are friends of god the evidence that we are lights is that we would love we speak truth in love for amen but we get to love each other and one of a depiction of what this looks like to me is i love movies i just do they're great but there's a a movie called saving private ryan and it's a fictional story based on true events and really it's about this soul survivor and he has four brothers and that's ryan on the right-hand side and they have tom hanks in the center and he has four brothers all of his brothers dying and this group is charged to get him back to get ryan back and what's so interesting is that they're all on this conundrum and they're saying why in the world are we gonna risk our lives for one why are we risking our lives for one what if we all die is he worth our lives and they're asking the question why in the world will we risk our lives for one and it's in my mind i'm like god risked his life for all he came for us and they're all going to this point and finally the multiple of them pass away almost all the the group passed away and finally the ending scene i'm going to spoil alert i'm going to tell you then they seen that the ending scene tom hanks character grabs ryan by the lapel and says earn this earn this but god says this you can't earn it it's a gift give it away encourage love i've died for you now go and love other people and there and it it goes to another scene at the very end of the movie and he's an older gentleman standing in front of the the tombstone saying i hope that i live the life in light of your sacrifice hey i hope that we will live a life in light of god's sacrifice for us that we would love people that we would decide i'm going to be a battle born friend that we would all do this and i love the story in luke and it's a reflection of this battle born friend these people that are willing to lay down their lives there's something so good about that honest that's what wanted me to to be a part of ministry that people would lay down their lives for each other i need to be a part of something like that that we would love each other amen but there's a story of four friends that brought their paralyzed friend to jesus and they did everything they could and this is how the story goes he says some men carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before jesus 19 when they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd they went up on the roof and lured him on his mat through the tile into the middle of the crowd right in front of jesus when jesus saw their faith he said friend your your sins are forgiven and i love this story because you can imagine with me imagine if the paralyzed man could talk if you're if you live in hawaii a lot of us we don't ask for anything because i'm filipino so my mom would say don't ask for anything and even when i would see people you know pastor wendy have you ever done that you're like i don't want to bother pastor wayne oh i don't want to talk and you get you're like no i don't want to and imagine if the the paralyzed man said i know i don't want to go i don't want to bother him it's it's always been like this and it always will be like this but i love his friends i can imagine that these are like some friends that just would do anything for him and they say no we're gonna find a way and they start digging through the ceiling can you imagine with me imagine somebody who's digging through the ceiling right now pulling the metal parts apart and luring a man to be healed he they did everything it took to be about a born friend can we ask you a real quick question do you have battle born friends in your life maybe three four that man you know it's not a matter of when the storm you know if the sermon hits it will hit it's really when the storm hits do you have battle born friends that will be with you you have jesus but then do you have those battle born friends and could we make it our mission to to put battle born friends in our lives to be one and to invite others into our lives because when we can't get to jesus they will get us to jesus when we can't get to jesus they will get us to jesus and when they can't get to get jesus we will get them to jesus amen i love this story because there's this story of this woman came up to me and she gave me a little story after service right there and she said me and my friends said we had to get here we were gonna we were determined to get here this morning because i know i felt like the lord had a word for me i said okay so what happened and she gave me the story and so the first thing that happened they were driving down the road have you done this before put your phone on the top of your car and drive down the road that's exactly what they did and the phone fell off it went everywhere on the freeway they go back just go find the phone find the phone it works then they get back on the road and lo and behold their car overheats and the uh the the carburetor carburetor what is it called radiator blows up and i let me tell you if that happens i'm not going to church today you know that's it i'm that's done she said no and her friends are all with her we're like we we're we're gonna get you there if you think you need to be a church today we're getting you to church today and i love this because after the carburetor blew the radiator blew up because i know my car so well uh they go find another car and finally get here and then they're thinking it's so late they said you know what it doesn't matter we're gonna get there and he sat right here and it was so beautiful because she said pastor the lord had a word for me today the lord and she had a group of friends that said you know what car blew up another car phone we're going to get you to jesus do you have four friends three friends that you say are battle born friends that are gonna get you to jesus when you can't point three and we're gonna come to a close make space and invite battle born friends into your life make space invite battle born friends into your life first corinthians 15 33-34 says this do not be misled bad company corrupts good character come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning for there are some who are ignorant of god and say this to you in your shame and really that what's happening here is that there are other people coming with different ideas of what god was doing when it came to resurrection and they were telling lies and there was a moment where he says hey be careful of your company because who you will be in the future is determined of who you have right now who is in your circle and there's there's certain people that you say i'm gonna i'm gonna allow them to do what they're gonna do but i'm gonna follow jesus and is there certain people that you have to say man i need you in my life can i can we do a small group can we go to service together in fact maybe you have people right now if you don't see them you see kalani or kalani is not a church and you got to call kalani because you're so in tune of who he is and i need to make sure he's whereas where jesus is and maybe that's who you're called to be in this season and so there might be some people you need to let go but can i encourage you would you always leave the light on for them that's what i love about new hope is that no matter what what we do around the world there's always a place to say this is home so that we can be a lighthouse and a lighthouse what i love about a lighthouse a lighthouse is made for the storms it's not made for the days where it's blue skies and the sun is out it's made through the hardships would we be a lighthouse to other people and so in the midst of gathering friends and gaining more people around us that love the lord and love us that doesn't necessarily mean we're going to continue to be friends right you can have maybe you guys have left churches just because of bad relationships hardships to go along can i tell you this is going to be a good way maybe one of the tools that we can use to really lean into relationships and is this and it's this colossians 4 6 let your conversations be always full of grace season with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone and that understanding season of assault there's two there's a preservation of the scriptures but there's also a preservation of the conversation would it be full of grace one statement that we probably all heard multiple times is this people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care and we have to show that in fact god says this in romans that it's his kindness that led us to repentance you want to change the metanoia change the mind of somebody show kindness it's his kindness and this is my last encouragement for us today and it's this would you have the courage to be vulnerable with people to be vulnerable with people to share your fears your joys your insecurities it's scary tim keller says this to be known and not loved is our greatest fear but to be fully known and truly loved well it's a lot like being loved by god to be known and and fully loved is to be fully connected a lot of us you've had friends associates but you haven't had deep relationships why because you have to allow them to know you know your hurts your fears your insecurities because in that moment and then they say i'm here for you that's when you're fully connected and there's couple ways that you can do this and it's these are just opportunities to be in this relationship and it's going to take courage it's going to take humility to do this but i tell you not this is what we're made for and it maybe it's online and small groups men's ministry women's ministry why why our youth and young adults are fijians study but to get around people that will love you and love god amen because this is what i believe i believe we're born from moments like this when it's darkest is when the light shines its brightest and when we love each other and stop fighting and say oh going to love you i'm going to hear you i don't necessarily understand everything i don't necessarily agree but let me hear you i think in that moment the world will see that this is god's family amen and we're going to pray and they're gonna have pastor john come up and close father god you're so good you're so awesome that we get to be battle-born friends lord jesus battle buddies lord jesus that would come together and say we want to be the church not a facade not play church but be the church and that only happens when we say lord jesus help me to be a friend help me to now love people as you love people and help me to find people with the likeness of you so father god i pray that we would be encouraged to lean into your love today and forever if you're in this place right now and you would say paul i just want to say i want to get involved with the church i just want to get i'm connected to people that love god and will love me if that's you with no one looking at would you just raise a hand to say that's me amen yeah totally amen amen yeah you put your hands down so father god i pray lord jesus that real community real relationships would be developed in this place and your holy name everyone said amen would you give god some praise amen

Channel: NewHopeOahu

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Id: xid46CCdBEw

Length: 32min 17sec (1937 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021