Called Christians

presence in here on the day I'm gonna ask if you would open your Bibles to the book of Acts if you haven't noticed by now on Wednesdays Wednesday afternoons we have been looking at the Acts of the Apostles some say others call it the Acts of the Holy Spirit as I'm calling the Acts of a church and we're in Acts chapter 11 and this is I'm reading from the New King James Version on the day Acts chapter 11 verse 26 listen to what God's Word says and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch the soul it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch and that's what I want to talk about called Christians called Christians those of you who are familiar with my preaching and teaching you know I like to play with words and I like to have a play on words that's my attempt to do that today with this title called Christians not just somebody calls you a Christian but we are called Christians the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and talked about holy calling we've been called he said to a holy calling and then he wrote to the believers at Corinth and said we've been called peace then he wrote to those that the book of Colossians and he talked about we've been called to one body and then in Galatians he said we've been called to freedom in Ephesians he said we need to know the hope of his calling we need to know the hope of the calling of Jesus not just that people call us Christians but we have been called Christians it's a calling on us it's a part of who we are it's a part of our identity and the and the first time that children of God were called Christians was in Antioch and in chapter 11 of the of the book of Acts children of children of God are called several different things called believers because of our faith in Jesus Christ in chapter 11 we're also called disciples disciplined ones followers learners and we're also in here called the church Greek word is ekklesia means to be called out and called together so as the church we've been called out of a world of sin called together with other believers so we are believers we're disciples we're the church we're not going to look at those today we're gonna look at the first time that the children of God were called Christians and that's so significant because it speaks of it speaks of our identity it speaks of who we are to be a Christian that is you know the suffix that I am it is to have the the same properties ass so we know what Christ is son of God Christ Messiah Christ Anointed One and then the suffix means the same properties ass so as Christ ends we should have the same properties as Christ so it's more than just saying I'm a comma Christian but I have that I have the same DNA as Jesus I have the same makeup as him when you put your the way to become a Christian is you put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation you believe Jesus died on the cross you believe God raised him from the dead and receive him by faith the moment you do that the Holy Spirit moves inside of you and then the Holy Spirit times you he he places you into the body price so the holy spirit moves in you and then you move in Jesus and so you a Christian and the and the way we live Christ like we're supposed to have the same properties that Jesus had and hopefully whatever else this does today it helps you to shape your identity in Christ 61 I just read this recently 61% of the people living in the United States are depressed and I know that the prayer line of things can make you depress but I think part of the reason that some of us are depressed is because we try to find our significance and our status and our satisfaction in the wrong stuff and then when they don't work the way we think it should work with we're we're depressed we're dissatisfied we're down with dismay and we should be getting our satisfaction and our self-esteem in Jesus Christ most women not all but most women you can do your own research on this I won't get into it too deep when they have bad self-esteem it is based on a relationship with some man y'all say man go do your own research so if your relationship with your man is going good then you feel good about yourself because my relationship with my man is good and then if it's not good I feel horrible I'm so I'm down cuz you find yourself esteem in a man and I'm not saying that to be judgmental most men not almost men when we have issues with our self-esteem it's with work we find our self-esteem our self-image our significance and status we find it and work that's why when your man is all happy and you and y'all you and your man y'all stuff is all jacked up you depressed he's happy you know why are you happy I stuff is jacked up though he don't get his self esteem from you he gets it from work well he just closed the case of where he just got a raise at work things just went well it worked so y'all stuff all jacked up you think he should be depressed no but then when he has to take a cut in pay now he feels back as my stuff you know our self-esteem doesn't need to be in work and it doesn't need to be in another person it needs to be in Jesus well he's the same yesterday today and forever so now your self-esteem your satisfaction your status can be the same every day when I got called from East when I got called from Terre Haute in Indiana to Indianapolis Indiana and I was in a bigger situation and picked some people saying man you think you something now no I thought I was something man cuz it's not the size of the place I'm in did I get my self-esteem from I was with Jesus in Terre Haute the only units today so it's it we are called Christians and so we should have the same properties as Christ and and and what that really means is in this text in acts 11 we are a go like price what do you mean go like rice Christianity is to be a Christian to be called a Christian is more than coming the church and sitting on appeal or is more than sitting at home stream in a church or is more than sitting at home saying I don't have to go to church to be a Christian because if you are Christ like Christ went to church right he went to the synagogue went to the temple upon this rock I build my church he went into physical structures that were the house of God so we all had that same kind of property but - when you look at Jesus he's always on the go very seldom did you see Jesus sitting around doing nothing right he was on the go he's and my friend we're in the Gospel of Mark on on Sunday mornings at at the main location and in the Gospel of Mark every chapter has Jesus on the road every single chapter he's on the road cuz he's always on the go so you seem in Cana then you see him in Galilee and you see him in Nazareth then you see him in Jerusalem you see him at Bethesda he's he's in Samaria he's always on the go and then look at us we always sitting around doing nothing - my I'm a Christian you oughta had a saint but you always saying they met another we're gonna have the same properties of Jesus and if that's the case we ought to be on the dole then I'm gonna read verse 19 to you in Acts chapter 11 verse 19 this is what it says now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to no one but to the Jews only you see how they were scattered out of Jerusalem and then they end up going to different parts of the world including Antioch in Chapter 11 now I want to say something about the very next verse it mentions some people came from cerini as well to deal with the preaching in Antioch and I want to bring that up because Sarina is black Africa and there are those who suggest that black people are our first exposure to Christianity at Christ was in the 17th century in slavery in America where the slave master was used twisted to scripture to try to make slaves more docile and slave masters did twist Scripture I told him last night at a conference I said listen yo the Bible doesn't lie but people lie about the Bible so people lied about the Bible to make slaves more docile and there are those who suggest that that was our first introduction to Christianity and the church was in the 17th century in America as black people you know this was this was written in the first century in Acts chapter 11 and it mentions black Africa cerini and it wasn't people taking the gospel to cerini it was people from cerini taking the gospel to other places these are black Christians these are black preachers these are black missionaries that took the gospel to Antioch and that's the first place they would call Chris and here's what that's not what I want to talk about I won't talk about that persecution in verse 19 just because you persecute it doesn't mean you're not a christop thinking you miss God coz you're going through a problem some must be wrong with my salvation no the first ones called Christians was called Christians in the context of persecution here's why their persecution I believe their persecution came because of this in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 jesus said the Holy Spirit come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem in Judea in Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world that's what the Lord told them in acts 1 & 8 y'all all the way from Acts chapter 1 through acts chapter 7 they only witnessed in Jerusalem he told him to go to Judea Samaria and everywhere else so this is only they were operating in partial obedience Jesus was clear on where I told you to go but you decide it when I'm doing this wheel because I'm witnessing at home okay cuz that's where Jerusalem was for their poll this is alright it says you won't obey me on your own in acts 8 and 1 it says and great persecution arose against those disciples and when that great persecution rolls against them acts 8 and 1 they were scattered and guess where they went Samaria Judea and everywhere else here's my point had they gone when Jesus told him to go he wouldn't had to bring in the persecution to push them to go somebody right now Jesus already told you to do something and you you just doing a party so you got partial business okay you're not gonna do it on your own you'll bring great persecution to get us to go like Christ to where he wants us to go I don't remember what year it was but Oprah Winfrey this was for oh boy who is the first black female to have a nationally syndicated talk show it was I mean it was number-one show right she used to bring on Elizabeth ette was married to Senator John Hitler's and all that stuff that went on protect but I guess Oprah liked her she would always have her back the first time Oprah had her own Oprah said before we get started Elizabeth I heard that you had a fall you broke a bone and had to go to the hospital I just wanted to know and let you know I heard about that and I want to ask how you doing and Ann Elizabeth Edwards told Oprah I'm glad I fail and I'm glad I broke my bone and Oprah said wait maybe what how can you be glad you fell and broke your bone she said because it was that trip to the doctor is when they caught my cancer and they called it so early that now they're able to cure it she said but had I not fallen I never would have broke my bones and had I not been broken I never went with him into the hospital and I never gone to the hospital I never would have known I had cancer and I've never known I had cancer I'd be dead in a few days your it was the brokenness that led to a blessing I don't know this may not be helping y'all but it's helping me y'all just because you go through persecution doesn't mean you miss God it may be God setting you up for a blessing to get you to where you need to be so we're going to be Christian Christ ends like Christ we got a gold like price then we gotta have gospel like price well you mean gospel like price it we already read verse 19 and when they scattered and they went as far as Antioch and they preach the word keep reading it says again and they preached the gospel the Greek word is the yuan Gilley odd some translations say the good news that's what it is it's the good news of God's salvation in Jesus Christ so when they got scattered they didn't go complaining they didn't go talking about people your God ain't really good then love me that you know what they went doing preaching the gospel preaching the good news telling people about the salvation in Christ that's why people begin to get saved that's why people were turning their life to God because the same gospel Christ had is the same gospel these believers had that's why they were called Christians because remember when Jesus first started his ministry in the Gospel of Luke chapter 4 but Jesus first started he was thirty years old when he started his ministry and the first thing he did is went to Nazareth where he spent part his childhood and he went into the synagogue and he opened the book and when he opened the book he began to read and he read out of 61 the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news and watch what the folk in Antioch adorn their preaching the good news because they have the same properties as Jesus and that's why they are called Christians so if we want to be called Christians we need to be spending some time in the good news and sharing that goodness 61% of us are depressed because all you hear is bad news I watch the news all the time every day I take my little smart device and I read newspapers from across the country I'd do it every day and I was I started off doing it because I want to be relevant and hear what's going on get people's different take and is I'm some green all this stuff there and that stuff you got I was reading it every day I was reading it then I kept reading it longer and longer and my mind wasn't right he mostly I went around like something right and that's when the Holy Spirit said Jeffrey Johnson because you're spending more time in the bad news then you are in the good news y'all got to look at me all holy like you all day in your Bible don't be looking at me like that so I had to come to a determination I'm going to spend more time in the good news to help me feel read the newspaper I still get news from what's happening in the world but I made up in my mind if I spent an hour reading news from the newspaper I'm gonna spend our e-news from God's newspaper that good news helps fight off that depression I was getting from the bad news so that's what was happening people were getting say people were getting delivered is because they had the same gospel that Jesus had and then we have to grow like Christ verse 21 grow like Christ and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number of believed and turned to the Lord yo when you're reading about the church the first church and pastor Jay were talking about he and I were talking about that earlier today on the radio and we were we were celebrating not just Eastern Star Church but we're celebrating the early church that they were in that Upper Room I filled with the spirit began to speak in other language as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability they began to preach the Word of God one 3,000 people 3,000 people got saved on one message they were growing and then they continued steadfastly in the Apostles dr. we already went through all of that right next up - and the Lord added daily to the church those that were being saved then you get over here the church scatters after that persecution get over here to Antioch and the Lord still had their there growing because y'all when when we're like Christ there ought to be some kind of growth about us something is not right when we're not growing some of y'all you know y'all got a green thumb and you do plants and all that kind of stuff and you put a plant in the pot and after certain well you see this thing ain't growing then you say something wrong with this okay some of y'all got a pet you got to you wouldn't got that that big old whatever it is she's got a big dog you wanted the dog just sit in the yard keep people from coming in the yard and then after two years that supposed to be a big dorm room and pincher now he didn't little he ain't growing first thing come your mind something wrong okay we just blessed bunch of babies on Sunday include Jeffrey Jeffrey Alan Johnson the third about 26 inches right and if in another year he's still 26 inches y'all get me so when I look at Christians who are the same level they were five years ago with no growth what comes to my mind is y'all got it because if we have the same properties as Christ there ought to be some kind of growth in that let me show you what I mean and you don't have to turn there I think they gonna get it on the screen Luke chapter the Gospel of Luke chapter 2 verse fit and you can't order if you want to Luke check if you can hand me your Bible Luke chapter 2 verse 52 this is this is after Jesus went to the holidays to Jerusalem with his parents went to the temple and then when the holy days was over when holiday was over his parents went back thinking 12 year old Jesus was with the other relatives they all got back home and Jesus wasn't there twelve your Jesus wasn't there he went with the other relevant so they went back do you see I'm I'm about my father's business and here's here's after that here's what it says in verse 52 and Jesus increased he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and me and watch this here's how Jesus grew here's how Christ 12 year old Christ here's a group he grew in wisdom that's intellectually he grew in stature that's physically he grew in favor with God that's spiritually and he grew in favor with people that's socially if we have the same properties as Christ we ought to be growing intellectually that's why Maggie's got senior said when you preach if you've been to school preach like you've been to school stop letting people pull you down to their level you ought to be trying to pull them up to your left so it ought to be we ought to grow intellectually we ought to grow physically right we ought to their exercise it's good for the body helps your body to grow into wood it's supposed to be that's why I'm tripping I don't trip about how big I am and literal I am I just try to eat right and exercise and whatever size that is exercise God wants me to be even if you don't like it but physically right and then grow spiritually in your relationship with God you don't spend some time in the word you're supposed to tithe fast you know spend some time praying you spent some time so that you can grow spiritually and if you grow spiritually you ought to also have favor with people you ought to grow socially and the trick of the enemy is to try to keep you from growing in the things of God so we ought to grow like Christ the older I get to me the more I look like my oldest brother for I have two brothers Tony and Frank but Frank is my oldest brother and them and them the older I get the more I look like my big brother to me my big brother to me yeah that's them right there I call him my big brother he's the shortest one in the picture so the one on the left that's my that's my big brother Frank and of course the youngest one in the picture is the tallest one the pitcher that's me the older I get to me I look like my big brother now y'all never met my biological father my big brother looks just like my father just like him my big brother looks just like my father every day I'm starting to look more and more like my big brother the reason for that we have the same DNA my father provided seed and that seed that DNA has a predisposition so that my big brother looks just like my father and the older I get I look more and more like my big brother here's what the Apostle John said the Apostle John said that God's seed it's in you when you believe Jesus died on the cross you believe got raised from the dead John said the seed of God is in you what that means is his DNA in you and you ought to have a predisposition that you ought to be looking like your father you always saying a man to this ok let me do it like the I'm ass i'ma ask y'all quest put that put that image back up with my my big brother put that image by mass y'all honest question and be honest with me do I look like my big brother just if yes no just do this or do this okay so I'm saying yeah you do kind of look like him others are saying how many you look nothing like him that's how I'm doing y'all with Jesus I'm looking at Jesus then I'm looking at you now I ain't gonna tell y'all but when people look at you they'll be able to tell you're in the family you got the same DNA and of course the older act the more mature I'd become I don't think I look like him ten years ago but the more mature had to come I'm starting to look more and more like my big brother that's why and in Romans eight and twenty eight says and and we know all things work together for good to them who love God to them who are called according to us for and we keep thinking that means you go you know you you went through some issues but you got a house out of leith you know the divorce was terrible but I did get the house it worked out for my good now that may be good but that ain't good Paul's talking about where the accident was terrible and all I said but I got a new car out of it so it worked out for my good that may be good but it's not the good if you want to know what the good is in romans eight and 28 read romans eight and twenty nine that we might be conformed into the image of his son all the stuff we're going through is so that God will make us look more like our big brother cuz our big brother looks just like our father Phillip said Jesus you trying to get us to follow you you're trying to get us to be your disciples Phillip it Jesus just show us the father and we'll be satisfied they said show you the father when you see me you've seen the father I look just like my father and I'm trying to get y'all to look like me you know what the seed of God's one doing being growing like rats a little the the greatest compliment you can give a father about his children it's when you say those children look just like you and I know that cuz people tell me that even to this day with my sons no matter which son I'm with somebody's at man Hey look just like you that's the greatest compliment you give me about mine you talk about their degrees and jobs and what they do it and I'm proud all that but the greatest compliment you give me about my children I'm their father they look just like me the worst thing you can tell a father about his children man l is nothing like you now man how would you feel if somebody said your children don't look nothing like you and that's what's happening God is our Father and the way some of us live and act we don't grow in trying to grow is that polka saying to God your children don't look anything like you and the way you would feel that's the way God feel man I had another illustration i'ma i'ma going to the next one since we are called Christians we ought to have grace like Christ verse 23 when he came and had seen the grace of God he was glad and encouraged him all that with the purpose of heart they should continue with the law here's what was going on church scatter they went to Antioch their preaching and teaching lives of being souls are being saved lives are being changed people turn their hearts it was a it was awesome and people were excited about all of that and and so when when the mother church heard about this in Jerusalem they said man we gotta send some help down there and so they sent the son of encouragement they sent Barnabas down there the son of exhortation and when he went they sit him down there so that he could encourage the people and and when he got there the first thing it says with with Barnabas is he when he saw the grace of God he looked at the people he looked at the believer he looked at the Christians and saw the grace of God y'all when people people ought to be able to see God's grace we ought to have the same grace that Jesus had right I'm gonna do it like this and I move on to the Sunday I preached at this location I preached out of mark chapter 2 and the mint the foot that before me and carried a paralyzed man Jesus is in the house preaching the word right and nobody there was so full people couldn't get in they went up on the roof tore it up Lord the man down and here's what Jesus said when he saw their faith here's what you said to the man son your sins are forgiven now that's great because whatever that man did was so messed up he couldn't walk right now they don't mean everybody that's sick you sick because of sin but every time you sin there's gonna be some kind of sickness something's gonna the wages of sin is death this man evidently his sin was so messed up he couldn't walk right but when Jesus saw him he didn't start rehearsing his sin he said your sins are forgiven you and I have the tendency of appointing out people sin rather than pointing them to God's forgiveness and I know I'm not on social media I'm not social social media I'm not so I don't I don't want 2,000 fake friends I just don't mean anything that doesn't do anything for me I want real if i'mma get a friend I want a real and some of y'all know this by the time you 50 you'll wonder more friends you you that's it I'm done I got all the friends I want I ain't got no job openings for new friends but on social media is so much negativity about what somebody did wrong and ain't this a name in it because we we're quick to point out people's sins but if we got the same properties as Christ's people are be able to see our grace the unmerited favor of God we ought to be pointing people to their forgive yo you've been telling somebody for five years how sinful that I think they got it by now when are you gonna walk up to them and tell them your sins are forgiven when Barnabas got to any on the same grace he saw in Jesus he saw it in the believers no wonder they kit and then Barnabas went and got the apostle well here to get the Apostle Paul he wouldn't got Paul he had just got saved in Chapter nine this would be Paul's first opportunity for full-time ministry because the son of encouragement made that happen and that church Paul and Barnabas spent one whole year there preaching and as a consequence that church was growing and growing and when that's hurt when whenever you have a growing church and I can testify to this people come from everywhere to see what are y'all doing so people were coming from everywhere at a man that a prophet came because he was he was coming to check out what was going on AGGA bus and so agamous shows up and and these people that he comes and when he gets there he comes in from Jerusalem to Antioch verse 27 into verse 28 when he shows up Barnabas a man I know you're gonna be in town we want you to preach for us and when when Agatha's got up to preach he said listen the Lord has showed me something he's a prophet the text says agamous is a prophet and when he got up to prophesy I want y'all really look at what he promising prophets of the 21st century they always prophesy positive every prophet I've heard and you have always prophesied positive you're gonna be delivered you gonna be healed you're gonna be rich everything won't work out but when I read the prophets in the Bible prophesied like that they saw my war is coming a storm is coming the trout's coming that's why they kept blocking them up in the Magellan put the big pits and all that kind of stuff and this prophet in Chapter 11 he prophesied a famine a drought is give a hit this area and when he prophesied that a drought was getting ready to hit this area I want you to see the response of the people of the of the Christians in Antioch this is in verse in verse 29 in verse 29 then the disciples each according to his ability determined to sin relief to the Brethren dwelling in Judea and they collected an offering gave it to Saul and Barnabas and told them y'all take that on back to Jerusalem when y'all go because they had the same properties as Christ because they were willing to give like Christ no wonder they were called Christ's teams because they would give like Christ and some of us call ourselves Christians we don't give like Jesus you ought to have same DNA you look like him now to have same property see ya Jesus was a giver right God gave his son and his son gave His life then the son gave salvation gave us the Holy Spirit and the son gave he gave sight to the blind he gave hearing to the deaf he gave the ability to walk to the lay he's always giving and then when it's time for us to give we got an excuse why we don't give watch the people at any watch these Christians they're the Prophet prophesied all he'll hear a break loose it's going to be a trial well in Antioch it's a state of the city light they got commerce they got financial institutions they got businesses and merchants they got all that kind up there but in Judea is rural life they're farmers they're agricultural people so when the drought hits they knew a drought was coming ephemeral sky and a famine did come that's how you can tell a true prophet because after they prophesy it comes to pass if they preface that it'll come to pass they false prophets the Bible's teaches us that he prophesied trout coming famine coming it's gonna be a mess and it did come and before it came the Christian said we gonna take up an offering not for us in Antioch we're gonna be fine we see the city life but the people in the rural areas they're gonna have an issue with their farming and their agriculture and they began give like Christ now I want to show you how they gauge and then I'm weekend going to get out of here here's how they gave here's how they gave where was that verse 29 then the disciples each everybody say each they gave individually they didn't look at the person sitting next to them and say man shoot they ought to be given all the money they make and if they given all that and I'll have to give anything a whole lot of us talk about at each of our church what we are doing right we give scholarships we have fed millions of meals in Haiti we have given technology to Arlington woods we have built new betwee and I guess it is we we are one body is we but each individually gave each of it so as an individual I can't and I know the numbers of the people yeah we got some people that give very and I can't give like them but I still got to take on my responsibility to give so each they gave individually according to his ability so they gave proportionately here is why when the Bible says bring the tithe that's the tenth that's 10% here's why it's so fair because it's not equal giving it's equal sacrifice it's proportionate so if you make a million dollars a year you get 10% if you make $30,000 a year you get 10% it's according to your ability so if God if God has done nothing for you then give nothing if God has done a little for you then give a little but if God has done for you what he's done for me and open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you don't have room enough to receive it to whom much is given much is expected much is required so they gave proportionately and then it said they were determined they gave disciples they determined they made up in their mind they didn't give him ocean alee yesterday was a crazy day I went to a funeral at the funeral somebody told me somebody got shot then somebody else died and it was a mess and somebody was all this bad news I was getting yesterday and if I came in here and started crying about somebody got burned out it was terrible y'all their old family and we've had that before and and I come in and and I am sensitive I cry over everything but most of y'all would be moved emotionally and we'll give most of you because we're good giving emotionally but these people gave decisively they determine they I made up in my mind I'm gay cuz y'all when you do it emotionally here's what happens with emotions and you found this out in your relationship emotions run up and down the scale sometimes you feel like it y'all ain't helping me so you just give it a God emotionally sometime you feel like that's no it's decisively and it is I'm making up my mind I'm determined I'm participating in this and then they gave preventively what do you mean preventively the drought hadn't come yet they just believed the prophecy and they said here we don't take up this offering well y'all go back to Jerusalem and Judea y'all take this this droughts good but y'all don't need that down there that's how y'all we don't have to wait to a tragedy hits before we start do if we do what we're supposed to do with regularity when the issue comes we'll be able to sell right through it you don't wait till your tires go flat before you rotate them you rotate your tires to prevent them from going you don't wait til your engine locks up say man I better go get this all change I hope that you changed your oil to prevent it so that's what he's talking about they were doing I'm a clothes like this either I didn't mean the whole job this long they they were able to give like you Oh Mount Hermon lady shearing I went to Israel I think it was two years ago and we went over there and and I I didn't know this but in in Israel I'm thinking is always desert and always hot but in Mount Hermon it's a beautiful mountain mountain ranges act is beautiful and it's snow-capped in the winter and then when the Sun melts that Sun comes out and it will get 100-plus degrees down there it melts to snow on on on Mount Hermon and then that water comes rushing down Mount Hermon and it rushes into the Sea of Galilee it goes into the northern end led of the Sea of Galilee and it goes straight through the Sea of Galilee into the northern inlet of the Jordan River and then it keeps on going and it goes out the southern outlet of the Jordan River the same water from Mount Hermon and it goes into the Dead Sea now the Dead Sea if we can get that image of the Dead Sea to me it looks beautiful but nothing can really grow in the Dead Sea in the Sea of Galilee lady Sharon and I stayed at a hotel right outside to see if we came out stood on the balcony and watch where Jesus walked on water and watch where Jesus did miracles right at the Sea of Galilee and the water is rich real and refreshing they got a fish st. Peter's fish it is delicious out of the Sea of Galilee but now the Dead Sea nothing can grow in it my fact that's why they called it the Dead Sea here's what I was wondering how can the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee have the same water source one is rich real and refreshing and the other is D it came then go in and Canaan flow in and came down grow in it and it's the same water source how is that here's why because the Sea of Galilee receives the water then releases it the Dead Sea it has a northern Inlet but no southern outlet it receives it but it doesn't release what it receives so everything it gets it holds on to it it won't go it won't flow and it won't grow have you ever wondered how with some Christians our lives are rich really refreshing and in your life nothing will go nothing will flow and nothing will grow it may be because you have a receptive mentality but no release everything God gives you you try to hold on to it but if you have the same DNA the same properties as our big brother Jesus when you receive you would also give and what I learned is when you give got to give back to you good measure pressed down shaken together and running over everybody say man all right I just want us to be Christians that's that's all I want just be a Christian you are called Christian not just a sayin it but us being like Christ Laura thank you for the truth of your word thank you did God for Jesus our big brother thank you for how he demonstrates how we need to be on the move for you thank you to God for our big brother Jesus help us understand it every day we need to mature and start looking more and more like Jesus become conformed into the image of the Son of God what help us to stop pointing out everybody's sin and like Jesus to start pointing them to your forgiveness your God and we pray that you'll help us to take the same gospel Jesus preached and share it with other people so that they can hear the good news of God's salvation in Christ and Lord we ask for your forgiveness then after you poured into our lives that we try to just keep everything you gave us we're so sorry but now we're ready not just to receive but to release to you Lord even as you bless us I pray will bless somebody else as you open doors for us that we open doors for somebody else that even as you help us to overcome that will reach back and help somebody else to come on over well let somebody be saved in here today let some light be change then lord I pray that as we leave as we walk out of here we'll walk out of here called Christians in Jesus day amen

Channel: Eastern Star Church

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Id: UhBN-igubxU

Length: 45min 8sec (2708 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 19 2020