Born to Save Us All From Satan's Power / Insoo Kim

[Laughter] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Laughter] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] scott what's that's not a christmas movie oh okay oh my gosh if it's not a christmas movie it's an advent movie like people are awaiting a savior on christmas and he comes what's up vineyard columbus and everybody who's joined us you're early you're super early we're early yeah anyway hey i'm scott i'm kristen and it's christmas this week you are so excited about that that's so exciting i'm excited about that i just can't believe it's christmas already i know what a year yeah what a year and here we are at christmas which is crazy to me but um so a couple weeks ago you were on in this same spot leading services this way and you were talking about you're newly married but that was after christmas is that right yep one year ago so this is your first christmas any new traditions um yeah we actually decided to do the live the whole shebang the live tree and everything so um dennis and i cut our first live tree down together we do that too we do that too yes yes so it's one of our traditions go ahead in the chat right now tell us if you're a live tree person and if you're not go ahead and repent we want to pray with oh i shouldn't have done that i'm just kidding go ahead and put in the chat if you're a live tree person or you're an artificial tree person calling you guys out yeah but it's in love it's in love and a little bit of joke anyway so you cut the tree down very cool yeah yeah it was it was it was a great i think we're gonna do it every year it was a great it's a great tradition yeah do you guys have any other traditions that you yeah so other than i mean we got a bunch of them we do we cook some lefse which is a norwegian uh potato pancake bread norwegian very clearly anger bretz and i am norwegian i have all the appearance of a norwegian totally yeah yeah so i haven't taken an ancestry.com or anything like that but i'm roughly 94 and a half percent norwegian i would guess so specific yeah anyway but nevertheless yeah so we do that so that's always fun and it's just something that we do but the other thing that we've been doing is we always do an advent thing with our kids and so we always like lead our kids through advent we read some scriptures together we probably drive them crazy but we're trying to form them into you know disciples of jesus and so we do a advent calendar we do an advent wreath where we light some candles they read scripture so we've actually been doing it for the sawmill community oh wow inviting them into our home through our facebook page digitally so it's been fun that's awesome i've actually seen a couple and you guys have great worship too i mean they are killing it there was one i think i saw that you guys did with there was someone on the violin and the piano honestly colleen i mean it was amazing i was like in tears i was like this is so beautiful yeah you know at all of our campuses we have such great worship leaders so many people who are just gifted and um and yeah so one thing that people don't know about colleen and thomas they were in one of our groups and over the last year i actually taught her how to play the violin anyway that's not true at all but um we'll post the link in the chat so you can uh be part of that or you can get access to that video because it's it's really good it's been shaping us and that's why mallory and her team uh have created those so it's been really good and really sweet so yeah yeah it's good but i'm just excited about the fact that here we are at christmas um all the traditions are are in place but we're gonna celebrate that jesus has come i'm so excited yeah and that's what today's service is about we're so glad that you're here with us and uh we are just delighted that you're here yeah and we have christmas eve services too and um i know that our our kids ministry is doing something awesome before each service um they're doing a what is it called a very very vc kids christmas yeah and i am so glad that i got that right because i i get tongue-tied over those things a lot but yeah so it's going to be super cool it's 45 minutes before each service so tune in if you've got kids tune in it's going to be really really fun a lot of hard work has gone into that yeah and we have a couple new pastors over in our kids ministry and they're gonna be there and it's gonna be really awesome yes indeed it's gonna be fun it's gonna be fun so they'll be in the chat they'll be hanging out wanting to connect with you just like our folks are in the chat wanting to connect with you today yeah and so why don't you in the chat right now tell us your favorite tradition like what you and your family do for um your christmas season um what what traditions do you love most and uh we've shared ours so go ahead and share yours totally one another tradition that i've always done with my family is we watch all the harry potter movies do you i've not seen all of them i have this like huge problem of falling asleep during every movie so when people ask me have you seen that movie i'm like i've seen like the first five to seven minutes of it and then i'm out do you have a favorite christmas movie a favorite christmas movie publicly is that what you're asking i do have a favorite christmas movie it's the grinch or charlie brown christmas not what we were talking about before we went live yeah i love the grinch yes the new grinch is like really good really good anyway so drop in what your favorite christmas movie is uh we just want to interact and hang out so we've created this space for you but totally we are going to move into our service and so we are really excited that you're here if you're just joining us my name is scott engebretson i am the sawmill campus pastor and i am kristin i'm the assistant pastor of our small groups ministry and we're just so glad you guys are here we have leaders and pastors who want to connect with you right now so why don't you take a second and say hey in the chat if you haven't already yeah just so you know what's coming we're going to sing together we're going to receive the offering we're going to hear a great message from one of our pastors pastor insu kim and uh and it's going to be a real great opportunity to prepare our hearts for what we're going to celebrate this week both at christmas eve services and the birth of christ and and so we're so glad that you're here listen we know it can be a little bit strange or a little bit awkward to lean in and worship where you're sitting from your home but we would just encourage you today we're going to start out singing joy to the world we would love for you to lean in and sing with us yeah that would that would be really awesome and we're normally one church that meets in multiple locations around our city but right now we're just one big church family meeting here online yeah and so we're glad to have you wherever you're tuning in from you might be in central ohio you might be from somewhere throughout the u.s or you might be somewhere throughout the world we are glad that you're here and we want to connect with you and so the best way to connect with us is for you to take out your phone and just text the word hi to 98977 we would love to connect with you just text hi to nine eight nine seven seven yeah and when you do that we will actually donate five dollars to a community organization that's serving our city because we just wanna be a best friend to the people in our city um so when you fill out that digital connect card you'll have the opportunity to choose from one of four organizations that are serving our city yeah it's such good news so what we'd love to do is just pray before we begin to sing together so just let's pray together father thank you for meeting us yeah jesus thank you for meeting us holy spirit thank you for meeting us right now by the power of your holy spirit would you just meet us as we sing would you meet those who sing with us in their homes or wherever they might be tuning in god you would just pour out your holy spirit as we do sing that because you have come there is joy in the world even though it's hard even though the season has been hard there is joy to be had and so god pour it out on all of us we pray these things in jesus name amen [Music] amen come let us adore him come let us [Music] let us adore him come let us adore him come [Music] joy to the world the lord is [Music] and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature [Music] joy to the world [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] no more lessons [Music] [Applause] [Music] he rules the world with truth and grace [Music] righteousness [Music] [Applause] [Music] heart prepare him and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature [Music] let it open up [Music] so we open up [Music] again [Music] the glories of his righteousness [Music] [Music] of [Music] i love you jesus [Music] just wanna tell you lord i love [Music] i love you jesus [Music] lord [Music] i love you jesus [Music] just [Music] [Applause] [Music] i just wanna say that i love you more than anything [Music] i just wanna say that i love you more than anything [Music] i just wanna say that i love you more than anything [Music] let praise its rise from the inside from the inside in the inside [Music] from the inside of me to be on fire [Music] from the inside from the inside of me you to be glorified [Music] you to be lifted [Applause] [Music] till all they see [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is my life be lifted high in all [Music] worlds be lifted high [Music] higher in my life [Music] be lifted [Music] lifted we live [Music] is [Music] is [Music] peace [Music] [Music] is for you for you to be [Music] glorified [Music] well we're going to continue to worship through the giving of our ties and offerings and you know we're coming to the end of 2020 and we're looking forward to next year with hope and all sorts of uh joy and hope of what a vaccine may bring or or what a new normal might bring but before we get there i i think it's good to remember that even in hard times even in challenging times god is good and god is generous towards us i want to read to you from psalm 34 just the first few verses here says this i will extol the lord at all times his praise will always be on my lips i will glory in the lord let the afflicted hear and rejoice glorify the lord with me let us exalt his name together let the afflicted hear you know even if you feel afflicted and this has been uh a particularly hard year for you god is still good and that's the response that we give out of that god is good and he's generous with us no matter what and so just want to pause just for a second and give you an opportunity right where you are right in your home to think about where god has been good to you at some time in this year even though it's been hard right now nothing came to mind maybe it's the breath that you just took or or maybe as we're moving towards christmas it's that god has come and given himself to us given everything himself for us again that's the posture out of which we give we give out of a response to who god is a whole bunch of ways that you can give i think the best and the easiest is to text the word give to 98977 just text the word give to 989 777 some other ways to give will come up on your screen i'm going to pray in just a moment but i want to remind you that the end of the year is coming and so if you want to do any end of the year giving we would love for you to partner with us as we partner with christ to bring healing to the world just a reminder those gifts have to be in postmarked or online given by the end of the day on december 31st and so hey let me pray and uh and just bless your generosity and bless more than that god's generosity towards us so god thank you for your generosity towards us thank you that even when things are hard even when we feel afflicted you give us grace to respond with joy and rejoicing and so god we bless your name we give out of the abundance of what you've already given us and so god meet us as we give to you build your kingdom pray these things in jesus name amen amen i'm going to turn it over to pastor in suit him now so he can preach the word for us it is so great to be with you today for those of you who don't know me my name is in su kim and i am the new pastor of the lane avenue campus and we just returned recently returned from vancouver after being sent by vineyard columbus to church plant there and and i want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of you who supported us prayed for us encouraged us in our church planning journey these last five years and we really could not have done this without you so thank you thank you so much we are thrilled to be back in columbus and to be a part of what god is doing here at vineyard columbus this church that i love and i really loved what pastor eric shared in a sermon about a month ago when he said that what's happening right now is really a relaunching and replanting of vineyard columbus and this is very much what's happening with the lane avenue campus as well we are getting ready to sign papers for a new building for our campus and we really believe that god is doing something really beautiful and special in our midst during this time and the the history of vineyard columbus is filled with stories of god's goodness and god's faithfulness and we believe that he will continue that in this next season and as you know last summer we made the decision to not meet for in-person weekend services through the end of 2020 and i want to share with you our plans for the reopening in january and some of you may be asking why now and well we know much more about covet 19 now than we did back then we know how to limit the spread and the behaviors that cause the spread and when practiced safely we can mitigate the risks of transmission and for the last four months we have been safely serving folks at our midweek services at our food pantries and our free health clinics and in many other venues as well and and as multiple vaccines are being released in the first half of 2021 we believe that many of us will begin to safely gather for in-person services as a church so the first three weeks of january are going to be a celebration of our senior leadership team transition and culminating in the first in-person service on sunday january 17th which is when the pastor eric and julia will be installed as our new senior pastors and we've been diligently preparing all of our buildings and campuses and our staff and volunteers have been working so hard and to gather as safely as possible and we know from your survey responses that many of you will continue to participate online and while others have indicated that they are ready to join for in-person service so we want you to join in whatever way you feel comfortable doing at this time and for those of you who are interested in coming to our in-person services at one of our campuses you can find out what to expect on our website that we created vineyardcolumbus.org welcome back we look forward to being in person with you soon so when this whole pandemic began we were still in vancouver and i remember thinking at that time man this is going to be a few tough months few rough months but we'll get over it well here we are nine months later and it feels like it's been more like nine years right people are coping with the pandemic and the quarantine in different ways and many are fighting for joy in the midst of it all and there are some funny things that people have shared about how they are coping with the pandemic and the quarantine one person shared this they said after years of wanting to thoroughly clean my house but lacking the time this week i discovered that wasn't the reason another person wrote this i went to a restaurant called the kitchen you have to gather all the ingredients and make your own meal i have no clue how this place is still in business and of course uh couples are struggling uh you know through the pandemic and the quarantine and uh and one person shared this i fiercely fought with the husband over which day of the week it was we were both wrong and one husband shared this i'm no longer allowed to chew or swallow in our presence and of course parents are trying to figure out how to you know how to be a good parent during the pandemic and how to keep sanity in the midst of it all and one mom wrote this she said i just wanted five minutes to drink my coffee so i went to my so i sent my kid in the other room to look for a toy that was in my pocket and i'm sure each of you have your own stories of coping with the pandemic and the quarantine we are currently in a sermon series for our advent called comfort and joy and boy do we need both during these challenging times in the series we are looking at lyrics from famous uh christmas carols to dig into the story of jesus there's a famous christmas carol called god resty mary gentlemen also known as tidings of comfort and joy and the first verse of the song goes like this god rest ye merry gentlemen let nothing you dismay remember christ our savior was born on christmas day to save us all from satan's power when we were gone astray oh tidings of comfort and joy comfort and joy oh tidings of comfort and joy and i want to call your attention to the fifth line in this song which says this to save us all from satan's power and that's what i want to talk about today so let's pray together and we'll dig into the word of god let's pray father we are so grateful for the opportunity to worship and and pray and even though we are spread out all across the city god we are one family and we're so grateful that you have given us a church family especially during these challenging times and lord as we dig into your word today god we pray that you would just awaken our hearts and our minds to the things of your kingdom we pray that you would meet with us each one of us exactly where we are we love you lord we worship you in jesus name we pray amen amen please turn with me in your bible to colossians chapter 1 and verses 9 to 14 colossians 1 verses 9 to 14 and it says this for this reason since the day we heard about you we have not stopped praying for you we continually ask god to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that this the spirit gives so that you may live a life worthy of the lord and please him in every way bearing fruit and every good work growing in the knowledge of god being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of this holy people in the kingdom of light for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins amen this is a beautiful passage from one of my favorite books in the bible the apostle paul wrote this letter to christians living in the small city of colossae it was written around the year 62 and he was imprisoned in rome at that time and this was around the same time that he wrote ephesians and philemon and like his other prison letters you can really sense paul's deep affection for those he's writing to it's like a proud dad looking at his son and and he's just so so fond of them he tells them that he is praying for them all the time and he shares this beautiful list of all that we get to experience as children as sons and daughters of god all the beautiful things of bearing fruit growing in the knowledge of god great endurance and patience sharing in the inheritance of the kingdom of light and after he lists this beautiful things paul says this in verses 13 and 14. he says for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins all the good and beautiful things that we get to share in the kingdom of god as followers of jesus paul says that all of this is possible only because jesus has rescued us from the dominion of darkness five years ago we were sent by vineyard columbus to church plant in vancouver bc canada and never in a million years that that i think we would be church planting in canada so when the first nudge of us moving to vancouver was stirred in our hearts we prayed and we prayed and we prayed and we also had a lot of conversations with godly people in our lives and this discernment process took three years but the more we pray the more we sense god inviting us into this adventure and especially in vancouver which is one of the most secular cities in north america where less than three percent of the population attend the church of any kind so on july of 2015 our family along with the florey family we packed all of our things into one u-haul truck and we drove to vancouver and i have to tell you vancouver is one of the most beautiful places that i've ever experienced it is this wonderfully amazing diverse city surrounded by water and mountains and it is consistently named as one of the top cities for livability and quality of life and it is also one of the most expensive cities in north america which sucked for us as church planters but like many other cities around the world vancouver like columbus underneath all of this beauty there is a dark side it wasn't long after we moved to vancouver that we met a woman in our neighborhood who i will call sarah one of the things that our church planting team enjoyed doing was throwing these parties in the park so that we could meet our neighbors so we would cook a ton of burgers and hot dogs and we would invite everyone in the neighborhood to just come out and hang out and just get to know each other and it was at one of these uh parties that we met sarah and we began developing this beautiful friendship with her my wife angela and i invited her over to our place for dinner one night and we got to hear more of her story on the surface her life was amazing she ran a very successful business she lived in an expensive condo and like many others in vancouver she worked her tail off to pay for it all and also like so many others that we met in vancouver while she knew a lot of people she was desperately lonely and during our dinner as our conversations became more intimate she opened up with us and she shared with us that many years ago she was deeply involved with occult practices including satan worship and she said that a lot of her friends were also deeply involved in these occult practices and though she was no longer involved she was now living with this constant sense of fear and anxiety all the time she told us that she would regularly hear voices in her bedroom that would keep her awake at night so like we do in the vineyard angela and i shared the gospel with her and then we had a little ministry time and we prayed for her we prayed that she would experience the love and the power of god we prayed that she would experience freedom from the darkness and as we prayed she experienced the presence of god and that night she gave her life to jesus the next day she wrote us this long beautiful email saying that she slept peacefully for the first time in years and that she was no longer afraid and over the next few months angela and amy met with her to study the bible and to pray together and soon afterwards she was baptized at our beach baptism service jesus rescued sarah out of darkness and brought her into the kingdom of light praise the lord all over the world cities that look beautiful on the outside are covered in darkness and people who look like they have everything together struggle with loneliness depression and darkness things are often not as they appear to be dallas wheeler one of my favorite writers wrote this amazing book called divine conspiracy and i would highly recommend that book to you and he begins this book by sharing a story about a fighter pilot who is practicing these high speed maneuvers and on our jet and she pulls on the control and she thinks that she's gonna fly you know high into the sky but instead she flies right into the ground she was unaware that she had been flying upside down willard says that this is the parable of our human existence most of us do life without even realizing that we are flying upside down and this upside down this is amplified even more in a city like columbus where people are living at such high speeds pursuing that degree that promotion that first million and the saddest part of it all is that we've gotten so used to doing life upside down so used to living upside down that it no longer bothers us friends do you know do you realize that there is darkness all around us do you realize that much of the world is not as it should be do you realize that we have an enemy prowling about actively working against us do you realize that evil is real the signs of the dominion of darkness is all around us but darkness is not something that this world likes to talk about right in fact we live in a world that puts all kinds of efforts to cover up this darkness i was born in south korea and our family immigrated to miami florida when i was eight and then i moved to chicago for college and eventually seminary and that's where angela my wife and i met and that's where we had our firstborn elliot during my college years in chicago i did a lot of ministry with the poor and the homeless and a part of downtown chicago called lower wacker there was this large homeless village literally underneath one of the wealthiest areas in chicago and for a couple of years once a week my friends and i would put together these sandwiches not very good sandwiches but still we put these sandwiches together we would take these and go to lower wacker we had times of worship we did bible study sometimes and over time we built some great relationships but all of that changed virtually overnight when the city of chicago decided to make a bid to host the olympics there so in an effort to make the city more presentable to the olympic committee the city kicked out all the homeless people from that area the little homes that they had made out of cardboards and tents were all destroyed and they put up fences everywhere so that they cannot come back and this is what we do with darkness right we try to cover it up we try to ignore it we try to hide it we try to hide the fact that over a million children are sold into sexual slavery every year we try to cover up the fact that nearly 16 000 children around the world die from hunger related causes every day we try to ignore the fact that one in four north american women are sexually assaulted during their lifetime we don't talk about how two hundred thousand americans are classified as porn addicts and the civilized modern world's way of dealing with the darkness only goes so far we put millions of dollars into the prison system thinking if people were punished every time they do something wrong then they will begin to behave so let's build a great prison system others may say yes prisons may help but that's not enough what people need is better educations if people are just better educated then things will get better and still others are convinced that it's all the rules and restrictions that are causing people to act out in bad ways do they say we just need to let people do whatever they want then you will see that our world will get better but think about this in our advanced world of great wealth and education where we have tried putting more people into jails we have tried giving people all the freedom they want do you know that we have more slaves today than any other time in history a report put out by the u.n says that there are 40 million slaves in the world today 40 million and these slaves are not found only in third world countries the vast majority of these slaves live in developed cities darkness is all around us the world is not just upside down that is engulfed in cosmic warfare there is an epic spiritual battle happening right now and we are smack in the middle of it there are no bystanders in this war everyone is under attack by a real enemy ephesians 6 11 and 12 says this put on the full armor of god so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly realms first peter 5 8 and 9 says this be alert and of sober mind your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour resist him standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings our enemy the devil the spiritual forces of evil are waging war against god's creation and tries you made to cover it up to hide it or run from it the fact of the matter is that we cannot escape it this is the dominion of darkness that paul is talking about you may be seeing right now in sue this is the most depressing sermon ever and to thank you so much for this uplifting message well just stick with me for a minute here i'm just getting to the really good part let's go back to our christmas carol god rest mary gentlemen because here is the good part it says this remember christ our savior was born on christmas day to save us all from satan's power and this is what we read earlier in today's passage for he jesus has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins friends the great news the gospel story is that jesus has come into the world to rescue us from darkness jesus came to save us free from the prison of the evil one and he declares i have overcome the world this is the whole arc of the bible from genesis to revelations like noah jesus rescues us from the flood that is raging all around us like daniel jesus rescues us from the lions then like shadrach meshach and abednego jesus rescues us from the burning furnace like david jesus rescues us from the giant goliaths of our lives and like moses in the great exodus story jesus hears our cries for help he delivers us out of egypt he parts the red sea he leads us through the wilderness and he brings us into the promised land and friends one day jesus will return he will crush the darkness once and for all he will establish his eternal kingdom and evil will be no more jesus will wipe away every tear heal every wound and he will make all that is upside down right side up again praise the lord i want to make this message much more personal for you yes it's exciting to hear what god is doing at a cosmic level but what about at a personal level yes it is true that the darkness is all around us but it's not just around us and out there but the darkness is also inside of us it's inside of us alexander schoznitzin a russian novelist and historian said this the line separating good and evil passes not through states nor between classes nor between political parties either but right through every human heart and through all human hearts i think one of the most humbling things in life is to come to the realization that we are not as good as others think we are without fail we all make mistakes we all do things we know that we shouldn't do and we are the masters of coming up with excuses for our actions i came across some of the funny excuses that people wrote to their insurance companies to explain why this accident happened here are just a few one person said going home i drove into the wrong house and collided with the tree that wasn't there another person wrote the guy was all over the road i had to swerve a number of times before i hit him and another person said this the pedestrian had no idea which way to go so i ran over him we are the masters of coming up with excuses some of you are addicted to drugs some of you are addicted to alcohol some of you are struggling with pornography some of you are struggling with anger and resentment and bitterness some of you are on the verge of having an affair and even though you know it's wrong even though you know it's going to destroy your marriage and crush your kids still you can't seem to stop yourself some of you like sarah who i shared about earlier are involved in occult practices and maybe like her you are living in this sense of constant fear and anxiety the thing about darkness that's inside of us is that we do not have the power in and of ourselves to remove it we do not have the capacity to create the light to shine into the darkness but it is exactly in our powerlessness that jesus comes to us and he says to us i have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness for those who put their trust and faith in jesus christ you have the light in you jesus does for us what we cannot do for ourselves he and only he can deliver us from darkness and bring us into the light if you are not yet a follower of jesus i want to talk to you directly for just a minute maybe you consider yourself a skeptic or maybe even a seeker maybe you're watching this message right now because you got dragged by your boyfriend or girlfriend but even if that's the case i don't believe that that was a coincidence i believe that god wanted you to hear this message maybe all the quarantine has made things a lot worse for you lately maybe you have been struggling with addictions maybe you're about to have an affair maybe you're hear voices in your bedroom and you're filled with fear and anxiety and if that's you towards the end of my message i want to give you an opportunity to let jesus come into your life and to deliver you from darkness into light i'm going to give you an opportunity to begin this relationship with jesus in just a few minutes throughout his ministry jesus taught his disciples about life in the kingdom using a lot of parables and there's one in particular that really resonates with me he says that the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls and when he found that one pearl of great price he went away and sold everything he had and he bought this pearl of great price he encounters something so wonderful and so beautiful that it makes everything else in his life look worthless by comparison he sells everything he has for this one treasure this pearl and jesus says that this is what it's like to encounter the kingdom of god friends have you discovered this pearl of great price have you come across this magnificent kingdom of god have you experienced the reality of this beautiful kingdom wherever jesus taught signs and wonders followed him to heal the sick he gave sight to the blind he cast out demons he loved the outcasts he raised the dead but it didn't stop there he then commissions his disciples to do the same thing that he was doing they were to proclaim the gospel heal the sick and demonstrate the kingdom of god and this story continues with you and me we who have been delivered from darkness to light we now get to participate in the great rescue story of jesus the world desperately needs the people of god to proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom of god and invite them into the kingdom story the merchant in this parable once he finds this pearl of great price we are told that he sells everything he has for this pearl friends can you say of yourself that you've sold all that you have to attain this pearl of great price in cairo there is a tombstone for a man named william borden he was the heir of the borden milk company and it is a big company now but back then in the 1920s it was one of the largest companies in america and william borden was to be the heir of this big company when he graduated from yale but something happened to him in college he encountered the kingdom of god he found the pearl of great price and he became a devoted follower of jesus and as he read the bible he was so overwhelmed by the gospel story that he wrote this in his bible he wrote no rivals no rivals after graduating from college instead of taking over the borden company he felt called by god to go to egypt and to share the gospel there and when he shared this news with his family they all said he was crazy and in his bible he wrote this no refusals so borden traveled to egypt where he passionately and wholeheartedly preached the gospel but just four months into his ministry he contracted spinal meningitis they put him on a ship to take him to where he could get medical help that he desperately needed and on this ship man asked him about the decision he made in his life and borden said this no regrets no regrets william borden died at the age of 25. on his tombstone in cairo it says this apart from faith in christ there is no explanation for such a life when you encounter the kingdom of god when you experience the beauty of jesus christ all you can do is sell everything you have and follow him no rivals no refusals no regrets apart from faith in christ there is no explanation for such a life friends can this be said about your life this was william borden's yes story borden said jesus i give you my yes wholeheartedly unreservedly completely use my yes and do with it whatever you wish friends what is your yes story what is your yes story here's the thing about selling everything to purchase the pearl of great price it's not just a one-time event in our lives the choice to sell everything and embrace the kingdom is presented to us again and again and again it is a decision we must make every day john wimber the founder of the vineyard movement put it this way he says the economy of the kingdom of god is quite simple every new step in the kingdom costs us everything we have gained to date every time we cross a new threshold it costs us everything we now have every new step may cost us all the reputation and security we have accumulated up to that point it costs us our life a disciple is always ready to take the next step if there is anything that characterizes christian maturity it is the willingness to become a beginner again for jesus christ it is the willingness to put our hand in his hand and say i'm scared to death but i'll go with you you're the pearl of great price if you're watching this right now and you are a follower of jesus i want to give you an opportunity right now to give your yes to jesus again no arrivals no refusals no regrets and i want to encourage you to pray with one of our pastors by texting pray to 989 777 and one of our pastors will pray with you and if you are not yet a follower of jesus i want to give you an opportunity right now to begin this journey with jesus this journey from darkness to light this journey from death to life god can rescue you from your prison of unforgiveness your prison of loneliness your prison of fear he rescues you he rescues you from your darkness no matter where you've been no matter what you've done no matter how badly you've blown it he is chasing after you and he will never ever give up on you revelations 3 20 says this jesus says here i am i stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i will come in and eat with that person and they with me if you want to open your heart and your life to jesus right now who is knocking at your door would you just close your eyes right now and pray the simple prayer with me and say jesus i invite you into my life i invite you into my story i ask you to come and deliver me from my darkness and bring me into your kingdom of light i repent of the ways that i've gone my own way but i want to follow you now so come and fill me with your holy spirit with your love with your power if you prayed this prayer would you please do me a favor and text believe to 98977 we would love to know that you made this decision to begin your journey with jesus and when you do we will email you an e-book entitled learning to walk with jesus that will help you in your journey we're going to sing one more song as part of our ministry time and as we do if you want prayer for anything about anything that i shared today if you have any sort of needs please text pray to 777 and we will pray with you let's worship together [Music] god rest you mary gentlemen let nothing you dismay remember christ our savior was born on christmas day to save us all from satan's power when we were gone astray oh tidings of comfort and joy comfort and joy oh tidings [Music] [Music] tidings [Music] of comfort and joy [Music] of comfort [Music] of comfort [Music] of comfort and joy well that's it for our services and don't forget we'd love to see you back here this week for our christmas eve services happening at 5 00 and 7 p.m on the 22nd the 23rd and the 24th yeah and don't forget that before each of those services 45 minutes before we have a kids program so if you've got kids we would love for you to join us for a very vc kids christmas it's going to be great it's going to be awesome and we'd love for you to share this service with your friends and family on your social media pages it's as easy as sharing a youtube link on on your facebook page or instagram or twitter whatever you got yeah but we'd love to see you yeah it'd be great hey have a wonderful day we hope you have a merry christmas thanks for joining us for this worship service yup thanks [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Vineyard Columbus

Views: 1,431

Rating: 4.7777777 out of 5

Keywords: Church, vineyard columbus, worship, Comfort And Joy, Advent

Id: Jg0LeV6PX4c

Length: 83min 55sec (5035 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 19 2020