Eric Mason at Linger 2018

good morning linger afternoon my bad good afternoon how y'all doing amen y'all having a good time at this conference amen amen amen before I begin and get started make sure you all give me a countdown clock ASAP thank you thank you so much I want to I want to I don't want to hurt the people amen amen thank you let's give it up for all those who put on this conference and got this together for us to be able to come together thank you Shana Shane and the whole team who put this together the men and women who put this together every year to give the body Christ a chance to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of life but a commitment of pausing somebody say pausing how many you knew a pause in your life is a good thing appalls and to press pause and to press in to the lord god almighty I'm glad to be here this is my third year I believe here so I'm glad to be here again with you guys also I got a special guest with me tonight I have a caramel coated queen with me her name is Yvette Mason there she is right there that's my wife yes sir that's my better whole won't be leaving that better half a mess that's God don't make half she makes holes somebody say he makes holes a man I don't want to be how many of you want to be half of anything how many of you want to be made hold on yeah him I don't believe the Bible say do you want to be made half I don't see that in description so I want to be made whole and I'm thankful that God has brought me on a journey with the woman I get to do life with and we get to journey with Jesus Christ together raising our four children and excited that we get to raise them together we just celebrated 20 years two months ago of marriage 20 years I know we look mad young you understand what I'm saying I know y'all thought I was 25 I mean it's all good but we um but we've been married 20 years and I'm grateful and wouldn't rather have a journey with anyone but her Amen let's um do me a favor I'm turning to second Corinthians chapter 6 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and if you don't mind if you don't mind maybe though it's passive somebody said don't say this I'm gonna say it anyway I'm old school can you stand to your feet stand to your feet as I'm reading from the sea s be version of the Bible CSB verse didn't you have a good word last night Pass assembler then you have a good word Amen second Corinthians chapter 6 I'm going to read from about the third to the tenth verse since we are not giving anyone an occasion for offense so that the ministry will not be blamed instead as God's ministers we commend ourselves in everything by great endurance by affliction by hardships by difficulties by beatings by imprisonment by riots by Labor's by sleepless nights by times of hunger by purity by knowledge by patience by kindness by the Holy Spirit by sincere love by the word of truth by the power of God through weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left through glory and dishonor through slander and good report regarded as deceivers yet true as unknown yet recognized as dying yet see we live as being disciplined yet not killed as grieving as grieving yet always rejoicing as poor yet enriching many as having nothing yet possessing everything I would like to talk about in our time together the Holy Spirit it empowered life the Holy Spirit empowered life let's go before God one more time father it is extremely necessary that we who are weak in understanding the Spirit would be strengthened in his role in our life and God I pray that you would press into us today fill a little eye I know some things I want to say well just prayed you with guide me guide me with my siblings with my brothers and sisters as we as we work through spiritual formation as we work through the furtherance of our walk with you through Jesus Christ so that we can look more like him and so that we can love him more deeply love one another more intentionally and engage the world more prophetically god we thank you and we bless you let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight O God my strength and my Redeemer in whom we trust in Jesus Christ name we pray everybody grew that's it amen you may be seated one of the things that I am constantly wrestling through is my self dependence one of my greatest challenges in my life I think is I depend on my capacity too much not that I have that much of one but there are times and in my life are constantly and maybe you can identify with it where you just pop into your life as if you can do your life now in other words you pop up in the morning whether it's early or late and you pick up your phone and you make you a little ritual and you end up opening up something and you end up getting your mind raptured into something that's not the best thing to start your day with anybody been there before anybody got text messages and you finally and you get into text but do you get text messaging you're engaging with the text messages but then as you begin to leave and get on with your day you feel this sense of conviction even if you may have prayed afterwards even if you may have gotten in the Word of God there's this sense in which you feel just all bound I said I'm not trying to be legalistic if you will there's something about starting our days with God there's something about us pointing north if you will that helps us to be able to deal with the good the bad and the ugly of our days and to be something for others and as I look in my life and all of us who are working through the things in our life where we're trying to work through wanting to have God's grace and favor and strength in the midst of ups and downs I mean I don't know anyone that doesn't want to have some time to just make sure that I lingered well and when I know that I've lingered well I can lean into the Lord it's just a whole nother way during the course of the day you don't said what I'm saying I can I can deal with my children a to the dog or a man I can deal with my children I can deal with my unnecessary anger outbursts with them that are ungracious I can deal with understanding the seasons of a woman's life if you've been married 20 years you understand what I'm saying no no no no don't cuss me out ladies I know y'all are gonna be like say well would you what you about to say about us okay but but dealing with the seasons of a woman's life whether it's all of those different things that causes different levels of emotional commitment to vary see how I worded that and in working through all of those different things as a husband our tendency is to just go into the emotion that we experience in the challenge that we've experienced versus stepping back and looking at things there's so many things whether you're a single person and you're dealing with the frustrations of the ups and downs of your life and you you sometimes are bogged down to what your life isn't versus what you want God in other words that that's the nature of our life is being able to step outside of our life and look at it in light of God says that's a very difficult thing to do but I believe Paul is very skilled at it one of the things I love about Paul and particularly in second Corinthians it's he's very aware of the need to have a holy spirit empowered life because of the ways that life turns and goes topsy-turvy you need all kinds of Holy Ghost yesterday what I'm saying just like the dude on Forrest Gump he said broiled shrimp barbecued shrimp break you need baked holy ghosts you need persevering Holy Ghost you need love Holy Ghost you need lifted hand you need all types of manifestations of the ghost of God to get through the mess and challenges and difficulty of your life I saw there three passages in 2nd Corinthians that exemplify the hellacious honest of Paul's life that shows you that he was a very broken man but pointed north a lot towards getting perspective out of the brokenness that happens in his life the mess that happens in his life I mean the Christianity that we see Paul framing and focusing is it really a focus in our day and age because we got this flat Christianity nowadays you know this top-shelf Christianity you're saying I'm saying but the Bible teaches a whole nother level of it when you're gonna shop before you know how to turn in chapter 4 chapter 6 chapter 11 of 2nd Corinthians Paul talks a lot about having a difficult time yet he talks about the way that God the Spirit uses those times to make him live in a will occur often the rich calls a constant state of God neediness that constant state of God neediness is what we call brokenness brokenness and so when we come here to this passage it's unlike that is some folks that's doubting that Paul is who he's supposed to be and in doubting that Paul is a good teacher you know back in their day they like their preachers to look good they like their preaches the wear nice tailored suits and you understand what I'm saying they like their their preachers they have Bentleys and you're gonna say what I'm saying MTV Cribs houses and type things right but Paul doesn't seem to have that type of resume he has he gets jumped constantly he gets kicked out of sounds constantly he has he goes to the hospital a lot because he always getting knocked out in a Senate sneeze outside of a city for a day and knocked out believers have to wake him up with some swelling sauce he gets back up and he goes back in the city and preach like we don't have that type of stuff in our repertoire because that looks like failure but biblical failure in man's eyes looks like a biblical success in God's eyes so we come to this passage and I have really just one point in one point only and I'm out your way one point if you're gonna live the holy spirit empowered life you must recognize that Holy Spirit empowered life is marked by healthy sensitivity it is marked by healthy sensitivity look what he says here he says it powerfully he says we are not giving anyone occasion for offense once ran sense I don't know if it's the NASB or the or the NLT it says we live in such a way I think it's the NLT in order that no one will find fault with our ministry Wow clean Paul basically says I want my life to be marked by people not finally fought with my ministry because of stupid things that I do in order to invite their criticism and he says I want to make sure that my lifestyle doesn't get in the way my commitment to Jesus Christ doesn't get in the way of the gospel being heard to the masses of people that God has positioned me to communicate the gospel to one of my concerns today is I don't know if the church is as concerned about that as we should be many ways I don't think we're as concerned about whether or not people find fault with us as a gospel come I think we want to promote finding fault with everybody else but we're not looking at what does it mean to remove things out of the way in order that there would be no type of obstacle that gets in the way of the way people view us in order to make the best use of our life by the power of the Holy Spirit so that people can hear and see the beauty of the gospel of peace I don't want anything getting in the way of people seeing Jesus in my life I don't want anything to be a challenge that is within my power to be committed to as it relates to people seeing no one but the unadulterated power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ so I want to submit my life on a constant basis to remove anything to be excavated of anything and to even be challenged of anything that would challenge the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ by the Spirit in my life and as Paul begins to sort of work through this and we'll see some ways in which he's viewed because the reason why he didn't want anything to get in the way is because the type of fly stuff that happens during his ministry let me just name a few things Paul was shut down idolatrous businesses he freed people from human trafficking it's in the Bible he he confronted racism he shattered legalism and religion he crushed licentiousness he unveiled false intellectualism he preached Jesus as the Living God he was countercultural and he was connected with culture yet he transcended culture in other words he said those are some beautiful things that I would love to be more of an outburst if you're angry with me I hope you're frustrated with me because of the way God is working in and through me versus the things that I do that's an unnecessary obstacle to our relationship and so as we look at this and we see Paul saying this he says I don't want anybody to find a fence or occasion with my ministry this comes from a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit but look what he says next he says so that the ministry will not be blamed listen he says he says instead as God's ministers we commend ourselves end everything now this is the hard part right here what makes this difficult is to commend yourself in every way means to open yourself up for criticism so that doesn't mean that doesn't mean you're hyper vulnerable well you're wearing your heart on your sleeve but but what it means is I want to open myself up to good criticism and good holy spirit community where we linger together to challenge my foolishness that gets in the way of Jesus Christ being seen in my life okay let me see if I can make plain y'all are gonna be funny um so I had a friend of mine hit me up you know you I hate when people send me those text messages you got a minute it's almost the marital can we talk slang she got a minute and eat and eat and I pick up this I say yeah I got a minute he calls me and when he calls me he begins to unearth some things that I didn't like now he ticked me off so bad that if he was in front of me he'd have lost all his teeth but I remembered I'm not a violent man I'm just hypothetically saying when I saw me I was like wow but what I began to realize is that I didn't open my life up enough to him and to others so that I can function as a person that's constantly opened to those types of criticisms that would help me grow spiritually and that's why you need community that knows you will is committed to you well that you linger with that you cheer with that you hang with that's able to speak into your life and you open up your life not just for the things that are challenging that you need to hear but also the community of commitment courage Minh that's what Paul says listen I rolled Paul's like I roll with a group of people that constantly opens up their life for good godly criticism and so in committing himself in every way he commends himself in every way because he knows that the blessing of God and the strength of the Spirit of everything that God wants to do in this life is tied to him having an open life I'm telling you right now as a pastor sometimes it's frustrating because when you see an email from a member you don't know what's in the world because to think when you get an email usually and so sometimes if a member has something good to say to me that I really didn't want to hear and they had some good to say to me I have ways of configuring my theological framework in order make them wrong instead of just embracing the truth of what I might needed to hear from them that was truth that were actually helped me in the church so on one occasion we got a multi-ethnic church I told y'all yesterday i'm a black black dude and we have a multi-ethnic church and i made a statement about Chinese people I didn't think it was anything off the grid and one of one of our members is Chinese we have an aging small Asian population in our church and she wanted to meet with me and when she sat down with me she sat on the cross to the desk and she began to weep and she said I know you didn't mean this in this particular way pastor but what you said that was the first time that Chinese people were able to publicly communicated at our church with so many ethnicities and the way you communicated it was in a negative light and that really hurt me and I sat on the side of the other side of the table and I began to look at her and I began to weep myself and I realized that I said something to her that hurt her I didn't go into well I didn't mean it that way and I tried to justify my communication that's not what I did what I began to do is I began to say you know what I apologize for that and can you be a help to me to make sure I don't say any other stupid things to the highest level of stupidity in the church in order to hurt the Asian community nor make there be a view of any group of people in our church that would impact an overall Church view of that and so I'm very sensitive now so I got a lot of good Chinese illustrations now that helps the church I collected them I collected I'm gonna give me some good ones you know some good ones and I see the smile on her face every time I say something good about Chinese people because you know I'm applying what she taught me in that session in other words you have to be surrounded by people and you'll see what this looks like in Paul's life in a second but but but when you commend yourself and everything you open yourself up to criticism somebody say open that's what the general body of Christ we need to begin to do and that's why we're having so many unity challenges where we can't functionally lean I linger together whether it's cross even economically whether it's cross thickly it's because we don't come in ourselves in a way where we are willing to hear the hard things from one another when you come in yourself that means that means it's not just you individually again most of the time we look at scriptures as an individualistic personal spiritual formation format for what needs to change in our life but if you look in the Bible most of the greatest change that happened in the people of God didn't happen merely with them along with God but them in community being flagrantly fouled by one another and as these things happen as we see these challenges we commend ourselves and open ourselves up to whatever type of criticism now as that happens this is what's so amazing about this passage and I love uh-uh-uh-uh-uh what we're Paul begins to say this type of commendation which is praised and sometimes challenged builds a fortitude for what's needed when things come your way that's not actually true because sometimes in your life there will be things that happen in your life that you need to have the spiritual skin by the spirit to endure through in order that you won't get discouraged from what God wants you to do so what Paul begins to do is he goes further in the passage and gives us some beautiful things and he gives us I guess usually he gives worthless things but interesting lean enough he gives us descriptive listings here look at what he says he says he says instead as God's ministers instead as God's ministers we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance I love this by afflictions this is good stuff right here by great endurance by afflictions and not only that by hardships and difficulties in other words the first thing where Holy Spirit empowered life is marked by is this mark by consistency in the midst of adversity it's marked by number one consistency in the midst of adversity Paul gives this small little cluster listing and he gives three categories of a Holy Spirit empowered life he says you know your life is empowered by the Spirit when you're able to show off God's glory in spite of the circumstances that you go through if so what he begins to say is he says this commendation he says now not only that and what we've gotten before the situation but now that we're in it so what he says is when we get in difficult situations it's an opportunity for God to challenge us and show us what we're made of in order that the way we're dealing what we're going through creates an opportunity for a spirit true check up for God to develop you and like I said yesterday you're either in a trial coming out of one or going into one that's the stages of the Christian life ain't no eight you're not padding lilies and swinging in the field and you know that's not the whole of your Christian life and you got a you know piece of wheat in your mouth and you just fall back in the grass that's not the Christian life the question life is a constant war zone and because the Christian life is the constant war zone God does give you breaks I love the fact he gave you brace oh we would be lost in this I mean we'd be crazy if he didn't give us breaks but here Paul begins to talk about we commend ourselves to ask you see how we act when hell breaks loose in our life and assess whether or not we're authentic believers and we're committed to the Living God I'll never forget um my wife and I we spent a decade in this area and I refer get it was one of those you know many hospital visits where we we spent time in the hospital and um and one time we was I think I don't know if it's bill I think it's being on All Saints and so we wouldn't bail on All Saints out in Fort Worth and and uh my wife had been in the heart this were like her eighth surgery so she's in the hospital and people were weirded out by her lack of frustration with being in the hospital she was just laying in the bed waiting for her little food waiting for her little medicine chilling now when all of the text and the different people would come through um through her hospital room to engage her a lot of times they were very confused because they know us I mean we knew everybody by name we've been there so but how you doing sue how you doing today you want shifts three right yeah I mean that's how crazy our situation was that we knew the entire staff on the entire floor and we didn't know any of the patients cuz they get out quicker than we did that's not crazy the seasons were right but a woman from the Ukraine came in there woman came from the Ukraine she was in there and my wife is just in there and what I love about the graces is on her is she God was giving her that grace during difficulty to have a spirit empowered life so my wife I'm sitting there I'm trying to get some sleep I mean hospital sleep on that little fold our plastic vinyl thing is the worst right and so they gave me and I didn't want to lay on like it flat I'd had to put some over it because germs is everywhere I don't want my feet to touch the floor I don't my face to touch it I just want to get I'm trying to write so my wife's in the bed my wife's in the bed Ukrainian woman comes in and she begins talking to my wife and my wife you know she in all kinds of pain she starts sharing the gospel with her might be I want to go to sleep we need to my wife starts sharing the gospel with her and the woman starts going back and forth with her then my wife is like you know what you don't know Jesus you can't speak or you can't speak English well okay my wife goes on the phone cause one of her mentors who did ministry in the Ukraine all of a sudden my wife gets a Ukrainian Bible the next day gives it to her shares the gospel with her gives it so she breaks down crying and my wife looked at me and said that's why we're here when you when you live the holy spirit empowered life I ain't go act like it was all like that all the time no you know some people try to get in front of y'all like we were super in the mug we had capes on fly tights no they were I mean I'm gonna let you know that was one of those good times will where the God of heaven gave us a pound that time you know I'm saying I was like I like that I like that Yvette I like the Eric you were stripping you were stripping but we love you that we love you vet but but but but when you you know you're living the Holy Spirit empowered life when you allow the season that God has placed you in to do what it's supposed to do versus frustrate you because many of us focus on what's happening to us instead of what is supposed to happen through us it's so Paul is laying these things out it's not like some type of bragging rights like see how see how I'm killing it that's not what Paul is saying here he says no the way the Holy Spirit works in your life is he does supernatural stuff makes you feel in ways that you shouldn't feel in the midst of very very difficult things that should be worse in feeling and emotional stress and trauma than it should be however somehow some lingering with him he infuses you with strength from nowhere and when he infuses you would strength from nowhere and you get massive amounts of fortitude from the Living God you're able to stand and not just be in the trial and the challenges but to be a witness in the midst of it so he says he says listen man let me see party gives the worst list like this is like the worst list in the world for proving that you walk with God this is some crazy stuff he says endurance afflictions that means getting jumped in the Greek hardships it does literally surrounded by crowds yeah like he said I get beat for a living I get beat up I get imprisoned they high-five each other like what is wrong with these dudes right but but but as he goes on he doesn't just leave it to what happens to him next he lays out what's going on inside of him look what he says next he says oh oh he didn't finish I'm sorry by riots by Labour's and sleepless nights let me say some of us sleepless nights just very briefly sometimes sleepless nights is God calling you to linger with him you know what I hate you know yeah I had to go to bathroom at 3 o'clock in the morning 3:30 and you were holding it to the morning I'm just being honest and you were like I just want to go back to sleep but the situation you're scared you may have a baby moment so so see like look I'm gonna just go so you kind of keep your eyes closed keep all the lights off you're like I'm gonna go do this real quick and then you come back later I'll get up under the covers yeah yes yes sleep the Holy Spirit is like wake up wake up I want to talk to you you ever had the Holy Ghost like see the Holy Ghost can you put the top off too like three hours from now like and and sometimes I'm not saying I heard the audible voice of God but there are times when I can sense the spirit saying I have something for you not like a car like some of y'all like I'm excited like like like I'm talking about like I need to get with you to work some things in you right now no sleepless nights here could come from the trials but also could come from his spirit just wake up applicational II just keeping you up and sometimes he's calling you to linger with him at the most inconvenient times in the world yet for him is the most convenient because he wants to invest in you I got a move look at what it says he says about times of hunger but then he shifts and he goes internal he goes from situations that happen to you or marked by consistency in the midst of adversity he transitions from there and goes to marked by integrity he says the holy spirit empowered life is marked by integrity right so what is integrity integrity is who you are when no one's looking in other words are you able to feel God's eyes on you because you live in a constant state of God's presence that says stuff like God said the ace of the eyes of the Lord go to and fro across the earth to give strong support to those whose hearts are fully here psalm says no good thing will he withhold from those who walked up rightly I mean that sense of of God I want to wow the heck out right now but I know that your eyes watch and your presence in my life through lingering reminds me that you're actually present not just theologically omnipresent and I want you act like I know you're looking at me that's what this means so look what he says he said he's our life he said this is type of stuff we marked by purity in other words we're marked by a ferocious gospel commitment through what it's not you give in other words these things aren't things you you make happen in your life that's my second Peter chapter 1 verse 3 says seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness in other words these are things that flow out of a believer based on what they already have from God not what they're trying to get from God in other words when you get saved you get downloaded a brand spanking new operating system on the hard drive of your soul and that knew that that that that new operating system is the mechanism to grab the things in you that God already has for you in other words there's no new anointing that's gonna fall from heaven you got everything you need already inside of you the issue is you have to grow spiritually to maximize what it means to grab and use those things so what he says here is he says we got purity in other words we're clean because of what Christ has done for us yet in being clean we walk in that cleanliness and a knowledge of that cleanliness and commitment cleanliness doesn't mean perfect it means we utilize what Christ has done for us to keep us pure that means when we mess up with repenting we're repenting for real not just confessing and repenting because he will confesses and forsakes finds favor I repent therefore purity come the fact that you can repent comes from the purity Christ gives you good stuff nets knowledge knowledge knowledge is the right information that informs the purity you got to be at your doggone Bible people got to be in the scriptures and the Scriptures have to be in you know words beep did this idea of the Holy Spirit empower life is yeah I like the way jesus said the Holy Spirit will bring back to your remembers all the things that I taught you but if you don't remember anything the Holy Ghost don't have nothing to get this is that simple he doesn't like bring the Word of God into you you gotta get the Word of God put it in you and then he grabs it as it's in you right then he says with patience Oh Lord in other words we're marked by our ability to have patience that's that's well some of us like I might as well leave now he says by kindness he says by kindness being a giving person look at Nelson X he says but by patience by kindness then he then he puts this hinge I like the way the commentary say this is the hinge in here he says by the Holy Spirit we're marked by the holy spirit that's that's great we're marked but I mean this is a big this is too big to talk about now but everything that has to do with the holy spirit is infused in this verse he said he said the way we commend ourselves open ourselves up it will mark my integrity with my purity knowledge and we're marked by like the holy spirit in other words the the Spirit of Truth who brings all of the things that are necessary for us we get that but not only that it's the power that comes by the Holy Spirit that means in and being in a state of God neediness and working in a state of commitment that means doing things in concert with the ability for the Holy Spirit to actually get it done even though you're moving forward in it being an inner city ministry I feel that going all the time let me tell you sometime in Texas I'll be jealous of y'all and that's for like y'all got everything I never forget when I first came in sex I saw a bowling alley in the church I was like wow a bowling alley they had a skating ring they had um rugby they had a movie theater I was like if God just give us like their foyer as a church space to do ministry I'm just blown away but one of the things that got nurses in me through my covetousness of Texas is he nurtures me in many and us lack that causes dependence lack and I'm not saying I'm not putting you down stop bless y'all you know you can send some resources up there I could pray y'all do with Jim somebody say yeah Cal go to Philly poor but and I and everybody has their own holy spirit lot where they have to depend on this power no matter how many resource resources can't get you out of the place where you don't need the spirit however there's a way in which God utilizes those things as mechanisms to open up things for me to and us to have to pray and they have to need God in a way that opens up his work to powerfully move when we first started epiphany fellowship I was like we're gonna be a church planting church we're gonna be a church planter I didn't know how that was gonna happen all I knew is God had called us in some action after 14 verses 19 through 21 we fast-forward almost 12 years in now I didn't know how a lot of stuff was gonna get done but now by God's grace we planted a church in Camden New Jersey worst city in America planted another Church in the Germantown section of our city they just move to the northeast section this plant of the church in South Central LA in the Crenshaw area planted Church in Delaware planted a church in a woman's in gentlemen Baltimore Maryland they planted church in bedford-stuyvesant section of Brooklyn then recently you know who would have thunk it we planted another why south central guy he's a white guy but all our other guys is black they black did emerge is black right but then we got two white guys that came out of nowhere so we got say well we can't reverse this thing we got a blast boom so we gonna black shirt black leg Church gonna plant a white church interesting okay God do you think right this is Holy Spirit stuff and he wants the planting ends up planting in a place called Gloucester City New Jersey now that means nothing to y'all but Gloucester City you got to understand there's a highway right here on this side is black and Hispanic on this side is white now poor this is poor city in America here poor white people here middle-class working-class to man he plants over there in a bar in their community they're having bonfires they're doing things that my wife siblings do that I don't understand they doing stuff I'm like go for God over over there in Jesus name I'm I don't understand it but dudes coming in with head tats on rings all up in this just all over going like this sitting down here in the gospel come in racist than a mug like racist like people in there he got people in there the family members been cut up put in freezers like we some of those type of situations they coming to Jesus Christ putting their confidence in him why am i mentioning that holy spirit empowered ministry let me tell you some old life man always does stuff that you don't calculate and I can tell you story after story after story but I got this last little section to go through here we go after that it's also lastly marked by being encouraged in the midst of being misunderstood smart by being encouraged in the midst of being misunderstood liberal Paul says he says this is by sincere love this is by the word of truth he says by the power of God through weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left hand I like the warrior analogy their offense defense type stuff but then it says listen to comparisons here I want you to linger on these things he says through glory and dishonor through slander and good report regarded as deceivers yet true unknown yet recognized as dying yet see we live as being disciplined yet not killed as grieving yet always rejoicing as poor yet enriching many as having nothing yet possessing everything that's how you know the Holy Ghost got you Paul talked about this early and I'm closing on this Paul talked about this earlier when he talked about is he says we're perplexed but not despairing this is what Holy Spirit empowered life does the Holy Spirit empowered life allows you to experience what he's applying here perplexity versus despair now let's compare the two despair is a comprehensive commitment to hopelessness because of what's happening to you that's what despair is despair is being on the brink of suicide or being in a place where you're giving fully up on life or despair in essence isn't having an encouraging vision that God will do anything preferentially to where you are or the other side perplexities like God I don't know wouldn't worry you're allowing to go on in my life I don't know why you're allowing this to happen to me but I trust you that disposition where you're able to be on the optimistic side of faith versus the pessimistic side of faith that means that you don't live in a space where you don't see evidences of God's grace heck he's talking to the Corinthians that's the greatest evidence of God's birth the craziest most licentious foolish wild out church in the New Testament yet one of the things he says to him in chapter 1 verse 3 is he says I see God's grace to bug you that's crazy if you knew what kind of people these were you wouldn't see that but what does that come from it comes from a commitment of life where we can see that there are times in our life as a believe it as a person individually and as a community we will go through Heights where we experience honor and dishonor will experience times in our life where we get slandered and good report will have times in our life where we go through regarded as deceivers yet we found it's true unknown yet recognized as dying yes in other words you can't let what you're going through challenge your ability to understand who God has made you into for as glory how does that happen through being in the power and working in the commitment to the Holy Spirit and allowing their enduring power of His grace to fill you in every single area of your life I'm done let me tell you this I was watching you know every now and then or watch a video and so it is God I can run for like three days like how does this cat run for three days some awesome forest type stuff right you just run for three days just kept running non-stop and he has this disorder that allows for him not to experience the lactate in his muscles where he can lie can you imagine working out and never getting sore like right now I did a leg day the other day and I feel like it's still leg day right now oh my god leg day but he can continue to work out and be built up and not feel the brokenness of the work out even though he's gone through excruciating excruciating enduring and painful workouts the power of the Holy Spirit in our life gives us the ability to have an ordered disorder when you're walking with God and the Holy Spirit is fueling you with these things by his power you have the ability to endure and to and to deal with pains and to deal with challenges and to deal with ups and the deal with downs why because he's the one that is the one fueling your Christian life for you to be who God called you to be that's why you can go through ups and downs of your marriage and keep on going that's why you can deal with challenges in your singleness and keep on going that's why you can deal with challenges in your family work wherever you are and keep on going you can go through hospital challenges and endure why because the Holy Spirit empowered life as you sit with him and as you sup with him and as you observed from him working out with God is actually lingering with God and the more you linger with him in the training vestibule of the Ark of Prayer and the Word of God in the presence of God and worship what God will begin to do is he will encourage your soul in ways that you were never seen that's why the Bible says encourage one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs why because we get filled with the spirit by being around others worshiping and God takes total control of every single area of our life my prayer for us as believers is that we walk in a ferocious commitment just saying no matter what happens to me because this is the mark of our life we're gonna have these types of challenges of ups we're gonna have these type of challenges of Daren's well my prayer with us as we linger with him and as we press into him we find ourselves empowered by the holy spirit to have a comprehensive life that's committed so father we thank you and we honor you for your mercy and for your grace and kindness that has no end and God has you empower us with this type of life help us to sit still to experience the fuel that comes from you that's what Paul is talking about here the food fuel that comes from you because of the evidences of grace as you work in our life and on our souls in Jesus name Amen [Music]

Channel: lingerconference

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Id: zkqGE70Zg9E

Length: 48min 52sec (2932 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018