Changing Seasons (2021-08-08)

is [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] good morning city sanctuary why don't you stand up to your feet as we honor the lord [Music] good morning [Music] [Applause] scene [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] your glory on a place [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we want to see [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] show us your powers [Music] your glory lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] show us [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we want to see [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] from your heart [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] show us [Music] [Applause] [Music] us your glowy [Music] [Applause] [Music] we [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] but we want the glory of the lord so much more in this atmosphere in this time in situations that we face the lord's presence is all we desire and it's all we need anybody in this place know that god is your provider of everything all we've got to do is to reach out and to grab onto him and to touch touch the hymn of his garment if you will and trust him in all things for we call on the name of jehovah jireh he is our provider [Music] i'll never be more loved than i am right now wasn't holding you up so there's nothing i can do to make you down it doesn't take a trophy to make you proud cause i'll never be more loved than i am right [Music] you've never been closer than you are right now [Music] you are [Music] you are [Music] forever enough always [Music] i won't wanna forget how i feel right now i can clearly see [Music] when the sun goes down [Music] oh [Music] new [Music] i know who i [Music] am already more than i could imagine [Music] cause i know who i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i am [Music] [Music] you [Music] you're are than enough [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] how much more than you are [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] content in every circumstance [Music] in every circumstance [Music] hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah this worship here come on and just first ship him [Music] oh yes [Music] hallelujah jaira you are enough just begin to declare that even more right now just lord you are more than enough [Music] lord you are more than enough you are jehovah jireh you're more than enough hallelujah hallelujah you see i'm practicing you just offer a sacrifice this is what happened in this song it's it's genesis 22 1 when god tested first time the word test is in the bible and it referred to worship abraham go and worship me take your son and offer him as a sacrifice you know the bible doesn't record that he ever mentioned that to sarah i don't think sarah would have let him left he said where he was going with isaac as he was preparing to sacrifice worship the son asked the question i've got the fire and the wood but where's the sacrifice many people will teach you that it was isaac that there was a sacrifice but really the sacrifice of praise was going up through abraham he already had the sacrifice on his heart you see i want to tell you that worship when you win the super bowl doesn't mean as much as worship when you don't have any money in your bank account come on somebody [Music] that's when you have to offer a sacrifice worship [Music] and what did he say the same thing that you're singing the lord will provide himself a sacrifice [Music] oh jira you're more than enough come on worship him you're more than enough [Applause] [Music] you're more than enough so whatever it is this morning you look the enemy in the face and life in the face and you say the lord will provide for me he's more than enough [Music] i'll tell you there's victory in your worship right there this morning remember chris boyer who is intensive care this is an assistant director of the volusia county school transportation department under mitch moyer his assistant is critical condition remember renee melendez's sister deborah kurt dies is a praise report because he's gone from pneumonia and coveted in intensive care to out of intensive care and only on one percent oxygen so we praise god [Applause] i also remember randy and kurt dye's father bob who fell from a ladder is in a erie pennsylvania hospital today got to heal and restore him remember elaine simmons sister joy fatigate and whatever other need that seems to be on your heart don't just pray about the need but praise god for the provision can we all pray together our father we thank you you are jehovah jireh the lord our provider oh lord as we walk up the hills of life with things heavy on our hearts we know that you will provide and so we give praise we pray for these that are sick or in need and those that have funerals we just had here lord remember the claudette zadrawvee family and many others lord the smiley family and lord many of those that have lost loved ones in recent weeks come we pray for them but lord you're more than enough you are jehovah jireh our provider so today we give praise and we thank you i said today we give praise oh hallelujah you're more than enough you're more than enough lord praise you you're more than enough hallelujah you're more than enough [Music] oh you're more than enough you are the good shepherd and we shall not lack let us buy green pastures and still waters and restore our soul and our faith you are jehovah jireh more than enough we pray and we praise today in jesus name everybody said amen amen let's give him a praise give him a praise the house oh give him a praise in the house we give you praise in the house hallelujah hallelujah [Music] i'm beginning to feel a little inebriated here this morning viewers share the love and the joy of jesus by just waving to somebody give them a thumbs up or something smile at them as the lights come up as you're receded today and welcome them into the house of god god is good you might be receded when you're done doing that and god bless you for being with us online and we welcome you online and god bless you as you are online worshiping him today our prayers are for your blessing god is so awesome amen amen we stay in touch also by asking you to download our city sanctuary church app from the app store it's completely free and so if you would do that you would help us by then going onto our app and pressing the connect tab there are five big tabs press the connect tab and then when that pulls up press the check in tab and give us your praise report and your prayer request before our offerings today our times and offerings today which you can give online and give also by text to give or give in that cute little model church in the lobby your way out we want to introduce special missionary guests and friends of delta and mine that is jp and cheryl gradon and they are business executives that have gone crazy they've been serving in nairobi the last several i guess a couple of years at least if not more and uh again take it marketplace ministry to all new levels and they have been friends of ours since west virginia days amen and you heard a song in west virginia almost heaven well it was almost heaven with the gordons being there for the trades great friends and we also served together in birmingham and so it's a joy to have them back as they are itinerating and getting ready to leave the country and he is a sim missionary and again he is heading into a new position a global leader for missional business if because you know your workplace your business is a marketplace ministry and embassy for the lord i didn't do too good but the lahaina convincing anybody here but it's true so jp and cheryl we welcome you love you you come now would you welcome the gordons as they come this morning [Applause] [Music] thank you pastor mark real real honor to be here this morning um been over 20 years we've known the schrades and they're just very special people it was while we were serving in their church that the lord called us in the full-time ministry so very special place in our heart and um i'm going to let cheryl talk a little bit and then the lord's kind of led me in a different direction so praise the lord good morning it's such a good it's a good day to be in the house of the lord and it's such a wonderful treasure and pleasure to be with our dear dear friends we go so far back and we've had i could i wish i could just spend time telling you all the amazing ways that these two have been faithful in serving god and that is important to know faithfulness and that sermon this morning i was like i miss that i miss that i'm so glad to be here but you know i am mostly very surprised at god i'm very surprised first of all you know the bible says that god takes the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and i say this sincerely i was foolish i didn't i was following jesus but foolish in the sense that i did not know but he has taken someone like me someone like me i'm a wife i'm a mother i'm a grandmother and he would use me in ways that you just can't i can't tell you every way especially since we've been in nairobi and then the other thing i'm so surprised is how god causes all things to work together for good because i love him we love him and we are called according to his purposes not ours we have given up on our purposes and we are so surprised how god has kept his end of the bargain which he can he will always do um one of the things during covid that was so surprising and we live on a mission compound with other people in our organization but during covet i had not one but two different groups of discipleship with women my fellow missionaries that's surprising just surprising and the other thing that is very surprising is about that is that i was surprised that they didn't know what i was teaching i never began to teach anyone thinking that they don't know anything but i am always surprised at how jaws drop when they look into god's word and i want to tell you that delta schrade right there she taught me how to stand in the word you were always in my thoughts and her mom right behind her those two women are in my mind all the time and i'm so grateful but you know god carried us as the word said when he delivered egypt they said he carried us i carried you on eagle's wings man i'm telling you i'm surprised that we live in nairobi because we said we can't do this and he carried us i wish i could tell you the whole story and we're there the the other thing that i'm so surprised is that god would give me the nations and just in february a surprise i started teaching english as a second language to these beauty beautiful people they are from a neighboring country of um kenya and it's a very harsh country it's not a country that is well loved by the world and yet here i'm with them and if you could show the next slide it's the whole group look at the the women took their veils off i only knew them by their eyeballs i had to look at them and say wow who are you and the tall guy is the same age as my firstborn child i said you're my son he goes i'm your son forever i'm like wow the love of jesus transcends nations tribes tongues i'm not trying to change them i'm loving them and the love of jesus making bold statements for my lord jesus is this close he's going to save them and i'm going to be right there but you know i just want to tell you that living in nairobi is no different than living right here it's god's world i'm not afraid teaching i go into the worst area of nairobi they tell in the embassy they say don't go there americans don't go there i go there every week every day i'm like what am i afraid of nothing because my jesus is with me so this is my aim in my whole life if i can i'm going to live each day not pleasing myself [Music] but pleasing my god knowing who he is what he wants of me not do i want from him he's already provided everything what does he want from me and then i need to love others because if i say i love god and i don't love others wow what does the bible say i'm a liar wow that's strong but i'm gonna do it for jesus and i want to finish well when we came back in february i said lord give me every day i'm 62 if you give me 20 25 more years i'm living every day in this exciting life following jesus going where he says to go saying and loving everyone he says i'm telling you we don't know the half of it take a step follow jesus follow jesus you will never be put to shame you know we sang that song that jesus he's all that we need i'm telling you it's time folks for us to yes praise the lord we need to know how much jesus loves us we know it we sing songs how about we change now the focus and let's love jesus just tell him how much you love him think of one thing that he's done for you today and tell them thank you get on your knees and just say thank you so i just i could keep going but i know my husband wants to say something but just what's the main point love jesus follow him never look back keep your eyes on jesus move forward amen praise god you met the preacher in the family i you can show that first slide but those other slides um i'm not going to do those i was sitting here and don't know why but i feel like i have to share a little bit of my story uh this morning i was reading in acts 4 13 and it said um the the pharisees they they recognized that peter and john were just ordinary people they were amazed because they were just ordinary people who didn't know the scriptures and we are just ordinary people and first 20 years of my life i spent in the business world the first 10 of those i separated my business life from my christian life it's called the the secular sacred divide i did it very well i was a good christian on sunday even wednesday nights but monday through friday i was just a businessman lord changed me 10 years into that and i recognized that the business world is a great marketplace that very few people look at and so the lord began to use me and i'm not i'm not an evangelist i don't go around witnessing but just through how i led and things like that um it was was really you know just very encouraging through those years we moved a lot corporate america kind of does that to you and twice in those moves actually both churches we moved from i was in church leadership the pastors asked me if i would stay on staff to be like a business manager administrative pastor and you know what i i laughed at them i didn't even pray about it it was not even on my radar i honestly i did not want i loved i was in leadership in church and i loved church but i didn't want to be a pastor for me that was just that was not me i'm just an ordinary guy so i came to beckley we are come by i changed companies landon and beckley i'll never forget the first wednesday night i came visited my family wasn't here yet i met pastor mark and it just started there and we knew that's where we belonged it was during those five years there that i began to really see ministry in a different way still didn't want to do church work i worked really closely with pastor mark helped him but i really loved the business and then february 22nd on a saturday morning 2003 about nine o'clock in the morning i get a phone call from a church that we attended down in florida and they asked me if i would come and be their executive pastor and i laughed at them and i said you know you're kidding right and no they said no and i i you know we talked a little bit and i said let me get back with you and i hung up the phone that day is like so vivid in my mind and i went to go tell cheryl and i felt a little bit like zacharias i could not get the words out and within a short time i knew we had to go i knew it would be very difficult because i i knew what what i was walking into and i knew that of course we would take a large cut and pay of course it was at the very top of my career i was just had you know i wasn't traveling as much and i was making more money than i thought i could ever make and that's when the lord just plucked us out of there and then i worked into i was executive pastor for about 15 years but i say all that not so much about what i did but what lord has done recently and i'm sorry i've been crying a lot lately because you know what i'm just an ordinary guy [Music] there's you know grew up with i don't have a lot of initials by my name like mas and phds that's why i go by jp because i don't have any other initials and um so i just got a bachelor's degree in business and and god's blessed me in that and god's blessed me in ministry and so now a few months ago unsolicited by me when my mission organization which is in 70 countries comes to me and says would you lead the global movement of our missional business and i said not me there's people who've been in our organization who are far more qualified than me and they unanimously the executive leadership of our organization said no we want you and everywhere i've moved in my corporate life and even in my ministry life i felt fairly adequate because it was kind of what i've always done but i just did it in a different element and so it felt kind of natural i got to tell you i have never felt more inadequate or more unworthy to do this to be able to determine and strategize how we bring basically businesses mission is when we bring businesses into countries where they do not allow missionaries but they welcome business and so we bring businesses of high integrity we develop businesses with christians that have a missional mindset and we go in these communities and we begin to bring value to the community we begin to meet the social needs and bring christ to these areas that are we're not able to get into i've never done anything this i never traveled outside the us until i started going to africa three or four years ago so i have no experience in this and so um every time i think about it i've talked to people all over the world in the last few months i have to pinch myself and say god why me and i say all that because i don't know why the lord is asking me to do this but you know wherever you're at whatever age you're in this didn't happen to me till i was 59 and at that point in my life i thought it was all over i thought i thought i was and there's no no offense to this but i thought i was just going to be pushing carts or bagging groceries at walmart i mean i really thought and i thought man god you've put more in me than that so i don't know where you're at if you're 15 if you're 55 the lord sent us to africa at 61. was that in my career plan no way as a matter of fact when i first agreed to help them in africa part of the condition was i will not move to africa but then again i said i would never move to west virginia so i think i'm learning not to say never to the lord but what i really want to say is what god did is he took all those years and i'm recognizing a time of what i would call spiritual convergence everything that the world taught me about business everything i learned from ministry including from this man right here have all come together i don't know what it's going to look like but god's given us the opportunity to really to impact countries regions of the world maybe millions of people who who am i to do that but what i say that because you might not think you're much and you don't have much to give to god it doesn't mean you have to go to africa or another country because let me tell you there's so much of diaspora here in america all you need to go is to near to a college university and you have the most expanded mission field in the world but take what's in front of you what god has laid in front of you and just take a step just a step it might mean just talking to your neighbor and if you're retired your life isn't over it's just beginning i mean i feel like a kid again some people say i've turned over a new chapter no i've got a completely different book i have never been more excited about what the lord's called us to do than ever before and you know the interesting thing is it's requiring a whole new set of funding but you want to know something just in the last few weeks man god's just like we haven't asked for anything and you know what that to me says okay i called you and here you go and now he's asking us to move he woke me up in the middle of the night gave me the city gave me scripture and we're moving to a very different world a a muslim majority country restricted access we're not supposed to i could better not say too much more since we're being recorded so anyway so god's moving us to a new place our kids are supportive and so i know it's crazy because most time it at our age you're moving closer to your children and we're moving eight my 8 thousand miles away but our kids are supportive we are having the time of our life and all i want to tell you is we're all ordinary people there's nothing special about any of us but god in this extraordinary grace takes ordinary people and does extraordinary things to glorify him and we're just honored to be simple people who he's chosen to do this and he may be chosen choosing you today maybe not to go across the world but just in your spirit of influence so i just want to encourage you with that god bless you thank you pastor mark [Music] that that was the letter of the lord right there god has a message for you in what they shared today and i'm so thankful that you shared what you did i think god is up to using you in a greater way than he's ever used you before no matter where you work or if you don't work i believe god uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things and i hope this opened up your spirit when we have our alter time we're going to have prayer for if you're a business owner for your marketplace ministry or you're you're working someplace we're going to have prayer for you at the end so today it's time to give let's again on the screen you can give by text to give or giving online or you can give a little model church as you go out and uh if besides your regular times and offerings if you will please support in prayer first uh the gradons and then if you want to give to them you can put that in your memo portion of a check or on the notes in your online giving or you can put 10 40 window 1040 is a longitude and latitude of the most unreached geographical area in the world today and that's where they're going somewhere somewhere they can minister to that area so again if you will put 10 40 window or you'll put the gradones uh in your giving every penny will go to them let's work the door with our giving today our father we thank you for jp and cheryl we thank you for the call of god upon all of us thank you for their testimonies lord that you have turned marketplace ministers into missionaries we thank you lord that we can be a missionary from the marketplace we can reach out and touch people from our neighborhood from the gym from various places in the grocery store wherever we go we can be a local missionary to that area at that time so lord use us and to guide be in every way you bless the gradons we pray for them lord use us to bless them financially as well and send them for that we give you praise in jesus name amen god bless you hey good morning city sanctuary family let's take a couple of minutes to make sure you're staying connected this week today begins our 21 days of prayer and fasting we believe that god has called us to this mid-year time to seek him humble ourselves and to seek the lord during these next 21 days and we ask you to be a part of that you can take a look at our citysanctuary.church website it has a fasting guideline and a prayer guideline as well and then you also want to make sure you have our city sanctuary app for daily devotionals and other information as we go through these 21 days of prayer and fasting hey go ahead and make plans to join us on august 22nd we have special guests eddie james and dream life ministries that are going to be with us in both of our services that morning and then we also have some special time with him that evening you'll hear about that in just a second but join us 9 30 and 11 in our 11 a.m service we're going to take time aside and pray over our students and our teachers as they return back the classroom so come on out be a part of that that's 9 30 and 11 on august 22nd you don't want to miss it eddie james and dream life ministries and that evening at 6 00 pm august 22nd the entire family is invited back to be a part of our back to school bash with eddie james and dream life ministries they're coming back that night at 6 00 p.m we're gonna have an awesome time of worship there are gonna be giveaways a pizza party in the gymnasium at the conclusion of the service so come on out and be a part of that it's just going to be a great time as we get all back into the school mode so come on out that's going to be 6 p.m august 22nd we're asking families to pre-register you can find that link in your staying connected bulletin on facebook so go out there register and be ready for an awesome day august 22nd two services in the morning and our back-to-school bash at 6 p.m with eddie james ministries hey get ready for get out of your cave small group sign ups and you may say what is that listen you'll hear more about that in the coming weeks and pastor mark even has a message entitled get out of your cave here and we are going to be looking at how we can re-engage we talked about gathering the scattered of the last few weeks and we are going to be re-engaging each other in small groups and in ministry teams so if you've been looking for a way to get plugged in to what's happening here at the city sanctuary this is your time to do that so august 22nd and 29th small group and ministry team time sign ups you're gonna be a part of that get out of your cave small group sign ups all of it's gonna be done on the city sanctuary app so we're gonna show you exactly what you need to do get that right now if you don't have that app yet here's how you can get it if you're in the auditorium this morning right in front of the seats in front of you you're gonna see a sheet with two of those qr codes if you're watching online then right now they're on your screen all you need to do is take your camera from either your phone or your tablet and scan that code and if you have an apple device you'll want to scan the one that is for apples and if you have an android device or a google phone make sure that you scan the green one that's outlined in green for the android devices that's going to take you either to the apple store or the google play store and you will be able to download the city sanctuary app get ready for get out of your cave small group sign ups coming up in the next couple of weeks and we are looking forward to seeing how we all can be a part of what god's doing here at this city sanctuary hey one just one one second i'm sorry i know this is awkward pastor mark just just give us one second here i apologize there was one more announcement i needed to make and the outro came too early but but i need some theme music in order to do that so let me get the theme music going here just just wait listen for it there it is all right you recognize that theme song hey listen we are going to take this time something we seldom and by seldom i mean never in this tenure have we been able to do this our very own pastor mark schrade celebrated a milestone birthday this week his 60th and we want to take just a moment out of our service this afternoon and honor and celebrate you pastor i know this is not what you want you're probably trying to get back up the stage and turn the lights on but listen we want to take just a moment to allow us to do that and you can tell me i'm never going to do announcements again after this but we want to take this time honor and celebrate you on your birthday i have a quick video that we want to show and while this video is showing if pastor james if you'll go ahead and prepare a song and randy you'll prepare as well we want to take this time please watch this video and we love you happy birthday pastor mark we celebrate and honor the man that you are to this church to your family to the community and to every single individual here in this church body we love you happy birthday from st louis what an honor it is to be part of your celebration you know it simply cannot be overstated that i would not be in my calling if it were not for me for you you gave me my first opportunity and they were so gracious to mentor me and even today continue to cheer me on and encourage me i am forever grateful for your contribution i'm also grateful though because i got to see your life maybe like few ever have not just the the masterful preacher on a stage not just the pastor in a crowd but i got to see you who you really are and it makes me love you and admire you even more i got to see that you're an incredible father that you are a very dedicated husband and that you are a man of god your integrity is second to none there's no one i personally would trust more with the most valuable things in my life than you and the reality is this you're a man of god you love god with all your heart you want to please him above all other things and for that reason i just sense he's so proud of you kayla and i simply would not be where we are today if it hadn't been for your deposit in us so please know this that though you may just have seen it as you giving us an opportunity what you've really done is invest in thousands of people across our campuses and around the city of st louis we celebrate you today and i know that's not comfortable for you but we celebrate you and we consider it the highest honor to be connected to you and we consider it the greatest opportunity to continue to learn from you so here's our prayer we're believing that your best days are ahead that your greatest impact is just around the corner and that there's so much more fruit that is gonna come from your life so we celebrate you today happy birthday we love you happy birthday to you happy birthday [Music] you can all be reseeded thank you first thing we're going to ask for miss delta and i are going to ask for prayer so there's no retribution [Music] the tap dance that i did between services was classic i'm going to tell you fred astaire couldn't have done a better job so but listen this is a rare opportunity you all know the pastor as well as i do and that he doesn't take these things very well right so we didn't he wasn't included in the planning obviously so um it is our opportunity to express our love and gratitude for to you and um we are all grateful that you're here and the leadership that you provide there will be an opportunity for those that are on um facebook uh you know we're running long and we're we we apologize but not really we love him and i know you do too so after the service there'll be a reception uh immediately following kind of get out there yeah and you're coming with us so just so you know okay um an opportunity for you to express your uh your love and affection for our pastor and this milestone 60th birthday that he's had and i'm jealous because i'm a year older than you are so now if you dare you can preach [Music] [Applause] [Music] please keep your seat thank you [Applause] well to my wonderful staff and elders whoever did this you guys were all fired i said [Music] thank you so much for your conspiracy treason and uh your overwhelming kindness and love to share this is a shock i uh don't get surprised a lot but this this was definitely a surprise i'll tell you what to see my family come in i i just can't uh thank them enough for being here thank you for they all have places to be this is a great sacrifice for them to be away from where they're supposed to be so many thanks to them and of course we you know uh my wife and her mother seem to think that they're young and children's pastors and so they're usually doing children's church but here they are today they finally took a break and now i know why sneaky sneaky family people uh again i uh i just uh i have to stop but you know i have didn't didn't know this was gonna happen today and i have to express my appreciation and my love uh for first of all my wife and my family and then of course for my wonderful elders and staff and this wonderful congregation certainly we came here uh when we came here we came here a bit wounded and uh this was the greatest place of love that we could have ever asked for and i i can't thank you enough if you would have passed by my prayer closet in birmingham you would have heard me saying shut up a lot and that was uh basically uh trying to stop all the negative thoughts going through my head so because there was a lot of a lot of struggles there church had been through a lot and we had tried to deal with a lot and so i was constantly in a spiritual battle and certainly it's been so therapeutic to come to a place of love and grace you are a special place you are a sanctuary right a sanctuary is a place of protection a place of communion with god and a place of safety and so it is you are a sanctuary you truly take and as a refuge those that are needing healing those that are needing grace and i want to thank you for being the kind of people and church that you are i didn't know my father-in-law he just had a pacemaker put in he he's here today but i tell you what i'm glad to have got to have him back in the house of god you know again god is good and and god has blessed me with a wonderful family and has blessed me with a wonderful congregation and i am indebted to you for your love and your expression and i don't know who's paying the bill for the refreshments today but all are welcome to come and enjoy yeah i'm gonna take it out of somebody's hide right but we are don't worry about it okay there we go don't worry about it okay don't worry be happy so praise god at least jp you and cheryl preach so i don't know how much i'm going to preach but thank god you got a message out of that but i just can't let a moment like this go by unpunished i mean unthankful and uh and i appreciate uh all of you and uh tell you how much i do love you and pray for you daily and carry you on my heart like the priest carried the ephod on their chest so again my heart is with you and again i rejoice with you and thank you for being that congregation that has ministered to us as well as any ministry that god has done through us and i do believe that the best days are ahead and i do thank god for for that [Applause] so i am as old as this church and i think there's a prophetic significance of me being here at this season where we will have unprecedented growth in the future and things that will take place that god has in mind so again i thank god for a prophetic setting for him to do great and mighty things so i want to attempt to give a devotion today it's going to be a devotion and this this guy on the screen is pretty pretty special to me as well as joe dobbins is passes a three three campus church in st louis missouri and he was also part of our our team in west virginia so again that that is so meaningful as well so i give thanks to you pastor joe and for now him having his fifth child somebody needs to explain that to him i don't know if he understands what causes that to happen well where are we i don't even know what day it is i don't i'm not sure what there you go always willing to cut me off that's good [Music] all right so i uh will give a short devotion at my wife's urging so it'll be short matthew chapter 5 33-39 the disciples of john often fasted and prayed and they asked jesus that is the pharisees asked jesus why are you not fasting and praying like all of us super spiritual people and he said you cannot oh you cannot make the attendance of the groom fast while the groom is with them can you but the days will come when the groom is taken away and in those days they will fast we are beginning as a congregation 21 days today of prayer and fasting great time to have a reception just saying whoever thought this up was definitely not spiritual [Music] just having fun nobody lose your religion father we thank you for your goodness and the goodness of this church thank you for how they've loved us and we give i give you personal thanks today for a loving congregation and for loving staff and elders and a tremendous family give you praise for all those involved and all those that are going along with it even though they didn't know what was going to happen today bless them so lord today we just asked in a few minutes you just help people to step into a new season and launch us off into these 21 days with you in jesus name amen and thank you for singing happy birthday my friend many times we get stuck in a season of our life because we are either traumatized by something that's happened set back by something that we didn't plan on something that seems to take us into a stuck or frozen position and yet in that state like israel was in the wilderness for 40 years they weren't supposed to be in that season you've ever been in a wilderness and realized that you really shouldn't be in that wilderness there are going to be things that you can do and the lord will lead you to do that will lead you out of that today we are not just beginning the time of prayer and fasting to mourn and groan about the death culture of kofit and the 33 or so funerals that we've had in this church in just the beginning of this year to today but today we are about entering into a new season we're about engaging in the season that god has for us you look at this little discussion here in luke chapter 5 verse 33 the disciples were or jesus was come to by the religious leaders of the day and said hey you know john's disciples fast and pray like we do and yet you and your disciples are not praying and fasting the jews had three national days of fasting the day of atonement the day before purim and also the day the ninth of of the ninth of all was a day of real disaster for the jews that's the day that the first and second temple were destroyed the same day in that calendar year and month not in the same time obviously several hundred years between but on that day on the calendar the day they were dispersed from spain all kinds of negative things took place on that day so they fasted they mourned over the negative we come to the context of this passage it was a time when not only the national fasting but these religious superheroes the pharisees as well as the disciples of john were fasting on mondays and thursdays of every week as well they weren't really fasting to be more spiritual as much as they were fasting do in john 12 43 to get the approval of people they were going through religious right or or a routine but it was not changing their life at all if you read the stories at least of the pharisees jesus began to set the record straight that you can't get stuck or you shouldn't get stuck in a season that you shouldn't be in and that season was according to what jesus said that how can the attendance of the bridegroom fast when the bridegroom is with them if anybody ever has read about a jewish wedding or been to a jewish wedding you know first of all before the wedding there is the the seven blessings and then there is the ring ring engagement that ring engagement is followed by the breaking of a glass breaking the glass under the foot is supposed to symbolize the very fact that in life there are times of brokenness but our love is going to continue through it all and yet what we find in these pharisees is they were having a time of a disposition even though the bridegroom was there they had a disposition of mourning they had a disposition of sorrow they were having that kind of coveted depression and dissatisfaction in their life they walked around in a in a morbid face jesus even says when you fast don't disfigure your faces you know you can tell sometimes when people are not happy because their faces are disfigured right they walk around like eor on winnie the pooh you know oh no you know oh but this is bad you know all that kind of hee-haw gloom despair agony on me deep dark depression excessive misery singing all that was what the pharisees were walking and living in even though the bridegroom was there jesus was there jesus was basically announcing to them because the old testament terminology he was announcing to them that that god was the husband of his people and that he as the bridegroom was the messiah he was saying to them right to their face but yet they could not accept that they couldn't accept that season they wouldn't allow themselves to accept him or accept the joy that he was going to bring when you go to a jewish wedding there is a lot of dance satan and the the horror is a dance where they lift up the the bride and groom on chairs and they carry them around it's a dance to encircle them with dancing with joy before them over what has happened in god bringing them wonderful marriage partners so it is that when we understand the season that jesus was trying to communicate to these pharisees that you know we aren't fasting because this the bridegroom is here this is not a time for fasting this is a time for rejoicing when you understand what is being said there it is basically the fact of the jesus is saying that we are coming from a place of victory where you see this little circle where the man is stepping on the foot of the head of the serpent that is that we don't fast anymore for the messiah to come he's already come we don't fast because we are mourning because of the season like they did over the destructions of the temple and our own destructions in life but we are fasting and we are fasting because of a new dimension the messiah has come and we are here to rejoice at his victory we are here to celebrate first of all with joy how that he has come so yes the bible talks about the attitudes that blessed are they that mourn they shall be comforted well that mourning is not just a mourning over over over sin in our life it is a is a yearning for god's full life to come into us he said right before that blessed are they the hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled it is about that we now have a new wine he talks about there's an you know put new wine into old wineskins other wise that will burst they can't take the change you have to have a completely new experience and one of the things that he was bringing was joy it was luke 4 and 19 where he said this is the time of jubilee this is the time of god's favor when he wrote triumphantly into jerusalem before his death he was symbolizing not that the physical messiah was coming but that the spiritual messiah was coming that he was going to die on the cross defeat satan and sin and our proclivity to both of those things and he was going to give us liberty he was going to give us victory he was going to give us a new quality of life within our heart that's why he talks about joy so much he talks about joy and in fact in john 15 he talks about joy in john 15 11 that he said that these things have spoken unto you what things are those those things that they're let not your heart be troubled you know there's going to be i'm going away but let not your heart betray because my joy i'm going to put within you the old story of nehemiah chapter 8 where they had come out of babylonian captivity and then they found the book of the law read the book of the law and they all felt guilty because they failed so miserably but then when they began to say no this is a good holy day because now you are seeing the restoration of god come into your life and we have rebuilt the walls and now is the day that you need to have the joy of the lord to be your strength but you'll find three times in that same right around verse 10 verse 7 verse 11 and verse 9 it says that when they explained it to them when they understood that this was because they spoke babylonian and again it's like hebrew we need to translate this for you but when they understood then they understood that the joy of the lord is to be their strength you see we can live in a time of law where there's a bunch of condemnation like the pharisees did but we need to also live in a time of grace where there is the grace of god that's been poured out upon our lives and jesus came because of our condition and he died and he was raised again from the dead now we have a new season to walk in even though we're in a climate of death of coven 19 we are internally in a new season of a messiah that has come we're in a wedding celebration and praying for him to return again the second time right but we are in a time where we realize his victory yes he broke the glass yes he stepped on the serpent yes there's going to be times when you go through the difficulties of life and of the enemy but thanks be unto god we are not fasting just because of mourning we are fasting because jesus has come and we have a new season to enter into so therefore fasting is for the believer new wine the new wine is that we fast not just about the messiah coming we fast because he did come we fast because we're yearning for entering into the newest season that he has for us to enter into you see it was it's an oxymoron for a child of god not to hunger for the presence of god it's an oxymoron for a child of god not to want to have more of the bridegroom's presence in their life it's an oxymoron for the child of god to not want to seek more gifts than power of the spirit in their walk with him and so what are we doing we are saying we are going to fast he said in those days when the bridegroom's taken away then they will fast well what are we fasting for we're fasting first of all to celebrate a victory but we're fasting because we're yearning for the power of that victory to enter a new season in our life greater than ever before fasting is not just an event of a starvation hunger a thing that you try to starve out and try to put god's arm behind his back it's about getting yourself in a place of hungering for the fullness of what christ already came to bring us so let me tell you a city sanctuary as we enter 21 days of prayer and fasting it's not just a time for you to just figure your face and mourn about oh this has been a terrible season of death and many of us have lost people in this season i've lost my father but yet in all this we have to understand that we have a new season inside of us that is that the lord has come that the joy to the world because born this day the city of david is a savior christ the lord it's time to have the joy of the lord to be your strength it's time to have the fullness of joy in your heart because we have a different dynamic we have him and we have the power of the kingdom to give us the new life and the new joy to live in a world of death to live with new life and to live it more abundantly so fast and pray and press in to the next season that god has for you at this time of our world today give him a praise if you would amen if you come to the piano please hallelujah you see we have to secondly not lose our grip on grace the grip on grace is that god saves sinners of which all of us are or were we look at the grip on grace this whole scene of religious people took place because of matthew's party matthew was a tax collector he was a notorious sinner worse than the herodians which was like you you deserted the jewish nation to join herod who was a roman uh you know leader to oppose the jewish people a tax collector was extorting money from jewish people and all the time we see a new wine skin what we see is jesus come he goes by matthew's tax collecting booth and he says matthew come and follow me what is that saying is that there is a season of grace that entered when jesus christ came to this earth we are in the church age we're in a season of grace which means praise god now all the gentiles like us can come in you look at how that he called him and then matthew decides to throw a big party that big party is full of publicans and what these religious people called sinners what we find is that in this time in this season we need to understand it's a time of the harvest it's a time for us to be aware of all those who need the answer to this season which is jesus christ you see today friends if you walk around and you're all sad and all just like the world what would the world want what you have for after looking at you after looking at me what we have to understand is this was a teaching moment that we don't need to just focus on the external environment which they had oppression from the romans we need to focus on what jp and cheryl talked about and we need to focus on the harvest that's all around us every day you see if we are in a season like the religious leaders of condemnation that is the law the law basically kills it is if you have law without grace you're basically going to be critical and you're going to complain about everybody who lives ungodly and all you're going to do is complain and criticize and not do a cotton-picking thing to win anybody to jesus christ you see what we need yes we need grace to give us the bonding because god loves us more than he he he hates the sin that's in us right he loves us more which bonds us to him but then that truth gives us the boundaries that we need yes when adam and eve left they sinned yes they broke the boundaries but together grace and truth bring intimacy that when we both have a bonding of god loves us no matter what we've done no matter who we are but then boundaries say this is how you need to live and how you can live abundantly that's the kind of life but many times we don't feel like we can win anybody to christ unless we have learned 3 000 scriptures from the bible oh i don't think i'm qualified well matthew was not qualified then right matthew was not qualified to win anybody because he certainly being an evangelist does not mean that you're mature some people say well you know i have to get mature before i'm ready to witness to somebody matthew just said hey come and see a guy that gave me redemption because matthew's other name was levi levi was the name of the priest the levites matthew had been disassociated from the church because of his sin because of his rebellion but yet he had redemption in him god has redemption in every single person that he made upon the earth and just because somebody is living notoriously as a sinner does not mean that god doesn't love them and god doesn't want to reach them to give them the kind of grace and truth that they need to live an abundant life so many times we just get lost in all this of what they are doing that's not conforming to god but let me tell you what jesus came to bring here in this text we find there's two different greek words used for new in fact in luke's rendition of this seven times you'll find the word new but yet you have to understand what god wants to bring when we talk about losing our grip on grace and that is that god wants to bring a new kind of quality into your life when he talks about that the new wine new one is in the greek word neos which is the word for a quantitative new not just a quantitative not a qualitative quantitative means it's new in succession if you were to buy a new car all of a sudden you see many other cars that are the same car maybe the same color right well you may have bought one that came off the assembly line earlier than the other ones but they're basically the same that is what's called new that but then you go into kainos kinase in the greek means knew of a different nature that is if you buy a car today it's a lot different than a model t that you would have bought many years ago right it's it's completely different in its nature how how it works and runs and how it looks right and so when he's talking about the new wine he's talking about the holy spirit you see you can't improve qualitatively on god you can't improve qualitatively on the holy spirit he's the new wine right but what he says needs to be made new kynos is the wine skin he uses a different word there and he talks about that the wine skin if it is old it can't just put a patch on it he was saying hey judaism doesn't fit with christianity christianity is something brand new praise god it's not just rule of laws it's a bunch of power of the spirit it's a relationship so he's talking about that the wine skin needs to be made new and i'm telling you that to get to the new season that god wants you to have you've got to allow the holy spirit in your life you got to allow him to do a new work inside of you you can allow god to come in through the word of god through the spirit of god you've got to allow him to change you some marriages won't make it unless god changes you some people that are in a wrong thinking about their business about their life and about their debt won't change unless god changes you we need the qualitative change of the holy spirit in our life he is that new wine that needs to come into a new wine skin to make us different than we were before you can't get to the new things unless god makes you new this is saying corinthians 5 17 that if any person be in christ he is a new the greek word kainos he is a new creation he is made completely different old things pass away and all things become new you see i'm not talking about religion today i'm talking about you letting jesus change your life i'm talking about you letting the power of the holy spirit come in and do a brand new work in your life some of us have been wanting a new season but clinging to the old wineskin still keeping the same prejudices the same doubts the same fears the same words the same bad attitude it's time to say god would you please change me in these 21 days would you give me a new wine skin that i can again receive the new wine live a new life get into a new season have the new things that god wants me to have oh god please provide the change final thing is this whole idea about the new season is your choice you choose the new season choice if you have the last slide put that up the new season god wants for you you can choose to have it or not you see there's plenty of people like cain cain decided to live in the old season because he loved it more than the new season that god wanted to give him that is that he loved his anger and his hatred for his brother more than he loved what god said hey you need to master this or it's going to send you into a season of being a vagabond and you're going to go into a season because of your unrestrained anger that you were never meant to go into jacob went into a season of grief that he stayed in because the bible says that he refused to be comforted when he thought joseph was dead and some people could get stuck in a time of loss in a time of grief you hear me because they refuse to get over it they refuse to be comforted oh listen we all will mourn the loss of loved ones we all will mourn tragedies that take place i've lost my own father i mourn his loss every day but yet i rejoice well i know where he is right i know what what a life he lived my point is this that you can stay in a negative season if you choose to stay in a negative season so we can go on to many through the bible you can take job's wife who refused to believe that god could be good in her life again and so she stayed in a season of bitterness just curse god and die naomi believed again that she was going to be consigned to live in a season of loss of victim mentality all of her life you hear me today so she said don't call me naomi which means pleasant but call me mara which means bitter can i appeal to you today god is trying to get you out of your season the negative season he's trying to get you out of a negative season to get you into a positive season that's why you have to understand people like abraham so powerful genesis 18 after 24 years of not getting the promise that he wanted that promised child yet he still at 24 years later in genesis 18 is still entertaining god god comes by and it says that he began to put the big spread on the fattest lamb the the biscuits and gravy right the milk that he brought out all the various things that he could get the best that they had they were entertaining god he was still having a sweetheart still had a worship in his heart after 24 years of not having an answer to prayer can god say that about us can he say that about you that even though i've had things that i haven't got god do for me then i still have a sweet heart of worship inside of me let me tell you david worshipped his way into his new season he may have been running from saul but he didn't give up to bitterness he didn't give in to defeat and discouragement he kept on worshiping in those caves he worshipped in and out i'm telling you worship can put you into a new season this is what we find all through it won't go through the rest of them but i'm going to say but esther prayed and fasted her way into a new season of victory for god's people the jews so it is that we can come to this particular passage and what we find is that they were again taking matthew matthew was a guy a guy that was way out there away from god but yet he had a redemptive name he had a redemptive name named levi god came by in the form of his son jesus christ and said levi i want to change your season back to what it was originally intended to be and levi did what he got up from where he was he immediately left everything behind and he followed jesus what does that say it says that you can change your season you can change the season the pharisees wouldn't change their season but there was a guy named matthew who said i'm going to change my season i've got an invitation from jesus to make a quality change in my life i've got an invitation to get into the right season that god wants me to live in not in depression not in mourning but to live in uh jubilation for the victory that the messiah has come the savior has come he has given me victory in life over sin and satan over the things of life and i'm going to rejoice in that and my fasting is yearning when the when the bridegroom is taken away then they will fast what are we doing we're saying god i am wanting to burst something new in these 21 days come on somebody i'm wanting to enter into the kingdom of god like never before these 21 days god i am fasting and praying for you god to bring me into the right season the new season that you have for me oh god i pray for city sanctuary that we don't just like many like the guy with the parable of towns we don't think churches about protecting what we've got and that we bury the berry the very thing that god wants us to develop friend don't try to just protect what you have look at what all that god wants to give you next look at what he wants to do next in your life come on somebody hear what jesus would say to you get out of the old season get into the new season have a qualitative change in your life seek after the things that i want to bring you now and you will live above the current season of covet 19 of all the government politics all the racism all the things going on friend you can live above it and you can change it all because you are living by a new reality that reality is that the savior has come and praise god i'm going to rejoice i'm going to rejoice because i have a wedding celebration to look forward to but right now i'm going to do the the the jewish dance i'm gonna have the fun i'm gonna rejoice in my heart i'm gonna have the joy of the lord and then i'm gonna wait for him to do something great in my life as i by faith pursue him if you believe that today give him a praise right now but we praise you amen that's that's it will you stand with me please beloved thank you for enduring [Music] my heart today first i'd like every business owner and uh like for anybody in their business that you felt when jp and chair were sharing with you today you felt that god was going to use you for marketplace ministry where you work i want you to get out and join me right here jp and cheryl come please if you will come and join me i want to have you pray because god is wanting to use your business and use your place of employment as a marketplace ministry in these last days if you either wherever you work if you own a business whatever if you don't own a business wherever you work you feel like you need to come i want you to come and stand in the altar right now we're going to pray for you right now it's a new season folks it's a new season it's not a time to be a victim it's a time to be a victor it's not a time it's not a time to live in depression it's time to live in joy it's not a time to back up it's a time to go forward [Music] hallelujah his destiny here today secondly i want to ask [Music] if you have how many of you believe god has a new season for you personally why don't you raise your hand [Music] all right and guess what he's going to give you he's going to give you the direction either now or he's already given to you or in the days these 21 days he's going to give you direction about how to how to enter that new season amen i first of all before we pray for these business leaders and workers i want you if you will right now just if you if it's putting your hand on a shoulder beside you i want you to pray that the persons around you will enter into the new season that god has for them i want you to be connected today because we need to go through this personally but corporately father i pray in the name of christ that for everybody here the lord there would be a shot there will be god a a common bond that we all not only ourselves but we will pray for this entire body to go into a new season god the season of prosperity the season of joy the season of fruitfulness the season of answered prayer the season of god that you have ordained for us lord we pray together that as as your people we will go through and go into the season that you have prepared for us or we receive it right now by faith in jesus name thank you lord thank you god thank you lord thank you god thank you god now j.p and cheryl i'm going to ask you to to begin to pray for those coming through come and stand right here if you pray first start here if you will for praying for the new season business begin to pray for a new season business we're gonna we're gonna ask jp and chair to come around and pray for every person in business every person standing here we want them to pray and impart that blessing i believe that anointing is upon them for their business marketplace ministry and again if you haven't come down yet you want to just come on slip on down we're going to take our time and pray for that new season that got to use your marketplace experience whatever you do in the marketplace he will use it like he did matthews he'll use it to reach the lost he'll use it as a place of ministry some of you have been hiding your scars some of you have been hiding your story some of you have been hiding the things that have hurt you and you need to open up and share those things as a testimony so that you can again minister to people who are going through the same thing father i release the wounded healer concept i release the ministry of the wounded healer across this room or for everybody that's been wounded god may i release that not only healing but i release their ministry to minister to those that have also been likewise wounded we in jesus name release a new ministry of healing a new ministry of healing come on somebody believe god with me we release a new ministry of healing through this body then lord what you brought them through you will also use them to heal others lord lord this is a day when many people are just trying to bunker down but god we are going forward to heal the sick we're going forward to heal the inner the inner traumatized we're going forward to heal the family we're going forward to heal the finances we're going forward with the ministry of healing that you put within us praise god in jesus name we are receiving that ministry of healing to the name of christ that we can share with others in jesus name father we give you praise today for that i know i can't keep you because they say cakes wait but whatever's waiting i want to tell you please stay here all the businesses please stay here come on pray come on and pray come on pray come on come on come on pray come on pray [Music] thank you for wishing me a happy birthday can i wish you a happy new season happy new season [Music] happy new season happy new season nobody can come to my reception and frown everybody require to smile your smile is prophetic i'm entering a new season and i'm happy about it amen i'm happy about it amen father thank you we give you praise come on praise him together right now we praise you lord we thank you god we praise you god we thank you lord oh hallelujah yes you're up to something great we give you praise we thank you that we can rejoice in these seasons of answered prayer coming up thank you lord that as in john 16 24 that you told us to ask that our joy would be full may every person begin to ask and pray in faith and may their joy be full as you answer the prayers god we go into a season of answered prayer we go into a season of yearning for the hunger of god to move in our lives like never before we go into a season of expectation we go into a season of change god that we are expecting a new thing we're expecting a great thing we're expecting a joyful thing we're expecting fruit today fruit in these 21 days we're expecting breakthrough god we're expecting divine healing we're expecting divine salvation we're expecting god you have divine grace we're expecting divine provision oh you're more than enough we are expecting this to be a happy season a year in time and season of jubilee we praise you we magnify you and lord in all things that god be the glory great things he has done in jesus name amen god bless you look forward to meeting you give him a praise before we go god bless you have a great lord's day wednesday night prayer time be sure to join me here [Music] [Music] is [Music] it's a new season [Music] it's a new season you

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Length: 120min 2sec (7202 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021