God Is Love Pt. 2 - Pastor Greg Simas 9.6.20

so good morning everyone welcome those of you who could be here and also welcome everybody who's joining us on the stream i just want to invite you guys wherever you are just enter into his presence this morning jesus we just love you so much i thank you that you're here thank you that you're always present god we love you we love you jesus you are so good we thank you for what you're doing in our lives we thank you for what you're doing in the background jesus we welcome you here today come and do what you want to do jesus here we are god we're right here we give you our hearts and our minds god we surrender to you you are so so good jesus just come we welcome you jesus you're such a good father we love you we love you so much jesus [Music] [Music] i've [Music] [Music] i will of the goodness [Music] [Music] i love your voice [Music] i know [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] you have been so good with every breath that i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] is my god [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] you're so [Music] of the goodness [Music] [Music] so [Music] so you're so good to me [Music] just let us get this pass before you right now [Music] we lean into your goodness [Music] so [Music] um hearts are open my heart is open lord come and do what you want to do come and do what you long to do father so [Music] so lord bless you lord place you and keep you make his face shine upon [Music] the the lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord turn his face toward you and give you peace [Music] [Music] i [Music] i [Music] the lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon you and be gracious peace [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] today [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] generations [Music] [Applause] in your family [Applause] beside you [Music] [Applause] rejoicing is [Applause] [Applause] is [Music] is this morning [Music] [Music] is [Applause] ah [Applause] [Music] i'm [Music] um [Music] keep singing that on me [Music] to every promise [Music] [Music] his presence before me and behind me and beside me all around me and within me he's with me in the morning [Music] just make it personal this morning he's for me he's he's for me [Music] he wants nothing less than the best for you [Music] he wants nothing less than the best [Music] all your [Music] for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm trading my chains for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm trading my chains through all your own promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm trading my chains for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm training my chains for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm trading my chains for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm trading my chains for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm trading my chains for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm shading my chains for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm training my change for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm training my change for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm training my chains for all your promises is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is you jesus [Music] i'm is my trains for all your promises every good thing i'll find in you i'm training my chains for all your promises i'm is every good day is is all depression's gotta go all [Music] we're trading that's jesus that's jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is all your promises for your promises they're yes [Music] is is [Music] is is is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is this place no matter what's going on no matter the circumstance no matter the chaos we stand on your love your promises yes you are all your promises [Music] [Music] is me [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] for all your promises [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] just let him refresh you this morning give you that joy that hope i've got a river of hope that's rushing through me [Music] i've got a river of hope that's rushing through me i've got a river of hope that's rushing through me it's your love to love [Music] so jesus jesus [Music] jesus jesus [Music] you are my treasure [Music] it's all i wanna do i just wanna stand in no matter how much the cost i freely give it all to you [Music] jesus jesus [Music] my [Music] to sacrifice you [Music] i just wanna move your heart it's all i wanna do i just wanna [Music] no matter how much [Music] presents [Music] it's all i wanna do [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i just want to stand here [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] me [Music] tell me [Music] it's what we were created to [Music] can give you everything jesus [Music] um [Music] um [Music] oh [Music] can [Music] let's just make that our declaration this morning [Music] [Music] am [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] six oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh jesus [Music] lord you're worthy of praise as we're as we're worshiping this morning at singing these songs like what is it god what is it that you delight in he brought me to psalms 51 and this is a psalm of a prayer of repentance and i think it's very clear in scripture of what he delights in don't you love that about the lord he makes it so plain and simple for us he's not confusing he doesn't make things complicated he's a really good loving father who cares about his children good parents do not confuse their children good parents challenge them [Music] and oftentimes we can be challenged with the deepest parts of ourselves [Music] here it says deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed oh god the god of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness o lord open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise for you do not desire sacrifice or else i would give it you deny delight in a burnt offering the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart these o god you will not despise [Music] you know i sometimes i find myself feeling like i've got it all figured out feeling like i have the best answers for all the all the questions to the world but when we stop and humble ourselves and take a moment to look inward i believe he delights to see that us as people we do not have it all figured out and that we still depend on his wisdom his love and his mercy see that's why jesus came because the pride of man was so arrogant that it tainted the hearts of even people who claim to be god's people and it was in humanity's own heart posture that we chose to walk a path away from god and in these moments on the earth i see that we can still do the same thing we can create our own wisdom and be so enlightened by it that we forget to look inward and truly find those tender places and live in those from that place not of brokenness but the victory that comes from knowing how much we need him the truth in how much we need god and not our own understanding so i saw this morning a presence that was like a puzzle piece falling and resting i believe the piece to the puzzle that is missing [Music] is us being willing to say god we trust you through it all and we remember that we are broken people and though we might think we're smart we realize that you know everything and you have infinite wisdom and you are way smarter than we are [Music] so would you join me this morning as a quick prayer of repentance and that is actually a sign of worship so let's pray together father we recognize our own brokenness and our own need for your spirit and your guidance and we asked lord that you would look in us today look at the places where we've created a hard part of us a place that is almost like you can't even mold it anymore because it's a heart of stone or a place in our spirit that's just begun to grow callous it might be towards our neighbor it might even be towards ourselves and we asked lord that you would tenderize our hearts this morning would you till the soil that has turned to clay back into a soil that can be fruitful and full of growth would you till the soil with your presence with your spirit your loving mercy and kindness father we repent we repent for feeling like we know it all we repent for gripping on to fear to feel like maybe it brings us some security and we repent from man's type of boldness to feel make us seem like we can prove a point and that we're right god we repent of it all lord let us be found on your side this morning let us be found on god's side not man's side we ask that you would use us as a voice would you use us to bring fame to your name let this be our ultimate act of worship with our lives jesus and we thank you that when we are broken you still don't despise us but it is something that you can use for your glory we love you lord amen amen well thank you so much for joining me thank you worship team go ahead i just want to welcome everyone viewing on youtube you guys are so awesome we miss you but we're so happy that you're here joining us and i just wanted to um invite you in this moment we're not going to be passing around offering buckets but we still will take our offering through push pay or through the convergence um we have a planning center app sorry not plan it's called church center you hop on there you could give online or if you still want to give in some sort of paper physical form you can drop it in um we have a offering tray in the hallway just open that thing up it's like a little mailbox and then there's gonna be something in the back as well one of the ushers will have a a bucket that you could drop there so just welcome you guys so happy you're here does it feel good feel good to be here amen so good so good we're gonna keep rolling on my name is pastor andrew if you did not know i know most of you in the room but online how you doing wherever you're at we're so happy you're here we would love to get connected with you and to get to know you more we have online in the link in the description below you can fill out a welcome card where we can actually connect with you and it in the room if i don't know you or you don't know any of the pastors come say hi we would love to meet you um with that said i have a couple more announcements but it's going to be in the videos so let's go ahead and roll the thing and i'll see you guys later what is up converges fam kenny here and today i will be giving you some announcements so without further ado let's get to it have you been plugged into an e-group we have incredible family hosts all over the bay area who have opened up their homes to you the ecclesia once a month we gather in person or on zoom to build each other up and grow in community together we connect eat together worship pray and declare god's word all over our cities and so much more egroups is next week so if you haven't been plugged into a group yet click the link in the video description below to find one closest to you do you have the church center app it's the quickest way to stay updated on events here at convergence connecting to groups doing mobile givings and way more download the church center app and search convergence in fremont to find us alright that's all the announcements i have for you today please welcome pastor greg as he gives us today's message speaking of which i should probably get in there um doodles all right well good to see everybody on online and uh if you want to add a comment to say hi you certainly can and uh so it's good to see our church family online i want to bless you guys and i just want to say god is good and god is good and we uh just have we have a couple things on the front end uh first of all um i i i had caitlyn put together these 15 active choices that we must make during this current season and it's something i i preached i don't know gosh months and months ago but i keep referring to i keep looking for it because i need to continually be reminded uh and i'm like why am i why am i keep looking here i just have it printed and so we did actually printed is the word um so it's like choose faith over fear then there we we just threw a scripture verse in there we didn't just throw it in we intentionally put it in uh choose worship over worry you know those things that we talked about and so um we do that we do have those in the church lobby and we also pastor aaron did a great job uh on the web page where we have them on our convergencehop.org website and then uh he linked them to some blog posts i wrote on each one of them and so man that'd be that's just really really cool so i said good job pastor aaron you rocked it and if you guys want that resource it's there for you because i i need it i have it right here in my bible because i need to with all the stuff that's happening i need to go and check that out on a on a regular basis so um second of all we have some super great news you guys ready for some great news some good news um so first of a second the third whatever it is um sec well anyway i'll just get to this part we had awakened last night uh come on man that was awesome and uh we had we had over 180 people out again last night and we just we had our full worship team i just really want to say great job to our convergence worship team you guys are amazing thank you so much i mean we were here last night i mean and then pastor jordan you're you were here like from 11 a.m all the way until 9 30 setting up and having a team and the team that helps thank you for all the volunteers who helped put it all together we had drums bass we had the whole team we had you know the monitor we had the whole we must have had a thousand wires um in the parking lot you know so cables i guess is cables in the parking lot and so but it was just a great time to see everybody um i know it was 95 degrees uh yesterday it's even hotter today my prayers are with you guys uh if you don't have ac my prayers are with you guys if you guys don't get affected by the rolling blackouts or whatever they call them these days uh prayers are with you guys and i just pray we don't get a rolling blackout at our house i you know so um so it's gonna be harder today but we had a great time last night and the beauty about having it like super hot during the day the nights are pretty pretty nice and so we just kind of hung out so all for all you guys i feel like the lord is uh saying amen to uh the awakening and or the awakened nights and and i think we're going to do another one or two for sure before it goes into fall so um so be looking out for the we don't have a date yet but um i'm thinking maybe the end of september we'll do another one so people are like do it every week okay we can't do that every week so um but but we do feel like the lord's really breathing on it and and it's good to be in the presence of the lord third thing is that we have uh new youth pastors these guys so hopefully you guys um hopefully you guys received uh you read the email that we sent uh to you and we are super excited to have uh job and jesse roscoe with us everyone say roskong rascon all right so uh joe and jesse come on up i want to introduce these guys i get the wireless mic [Applause] the mic hope he has it hopi you're so cute all right i love her um anyway come on up here you guys so uh job and jessie well jessie jessie was part of our youth group for a number of years uh while she was a youth makes sense um and and so we know jesse for forever and then jesse met job and job was involved pretty significantly with lou engle and uh the call and uh if you guys know about lou and the call and it was involved with ecbalo uh i say right okay all right which is a which is a missions movement uh which is to go i think that's right right and so they were involved in teaching there they were involved in discipleship there and um and so we've had relationship through the through through the past and especially with jordan and andrew and aaron and all that so we just feel like it's a super amazing fit and we're super excited for you guys and i just feel like it's important that we we lay hands on them and we commission them and so but i want them to just to greet you guys really quick and just say hello and then we want to pray for him you guys go you can't pray you know i know you can preach but you know what i'm saying you give a latino with mike you know what i'm saying you gotta go for it no we're just super excited um super blessed and honored um you told me not to preach but i know you can't i gotta share it you can't you can't i think what not what i think i know there was a significant dream that i had in 2016 uh that i completely forgot about until andrew hit me up about about seven seven months ago maybe eight months ago and uh in the dream just and i were leading in the youth room and there was about five to six hundred kids crying out to god the hallways were all packed out and we knew that that was really significant and in the dream i'm just like everybody let's engage in prayer right now and i stopped the whole service okay lou we forgot to do this i stopped the whole service and i point to andrew and hannah i said andrew and hannah i said this is the fruit of your sacrifice and we honor you as fathers and mothers and then we went right back into prayer and i knew that that was a significant dream but i just brushed it off that was in 2016 and so this dream came back around about eight months ago and it just started to burn on my heart again and we're just super honored and super excited uh to really just pour ourselves out on the next generation on our generation and to see what god is going to do in fremont in the region in the bay area we're believing for wild outpouring of the holy spirit and we're just super excited for that baby you have anything to say i agree she agrees so we love you guys and we're super excited to run uh and run hard and uh yeah we love you guys so much thank you guys for all the love and pastor greg and wendy we love you guys all right okay well that's exciting man so you guys come on up set wendy if you can come on up uh any other staff members you guys can come on up we just want to pray for you lay hands on you and uh we want to we just want to commission these guys so why don't you guys all stand up whoever's in the room you can stand up and then um and then we want to pray over them yeah for sure so father thank you for for job and jesse thank you for the passion that burns in their heart for a generation and job and jesse we release you we release authority from my office from this staff lord we just thank you for them and we just released the authorities so they could just run wild i guess is the word uh and minister and go after a culture right now that is being uh seriously the enemy has a plan for the culture and god we want to bring a plan of redemption bring jesus into the culture in the name of the lord and so we just release you in uh in full power and authority to do what god has commissioned and put all in your heart to do in the name of jesus amen amen all right [Applause] wow that's exciting i'm excited i said i'm excited amen all right well i hope i don't step on that um all right how do i make this transition so i'm making a transition oh one other thing i have to make a note of first of all that means that pastor andrew and hannah are starting a new ministry called family life so what yes so we're bringing family life we're paying uh andrew and hannah full time to minister to young marrieds marrieds families to develop ministry and those and that's something that's been burning on their hearts to do and so we are super excited that they're going to lead that so be looking for stuff you might be invited to be involved in leadership uh and all that good stuff but but um i think more than more than ever there is a serious very blatant and clear attack on the nuclear family on the biblical family and so we uh we want to be intentional in developing and helping and supporting and biblically equipping our families and so we're super excited for andrew and hannah to do that and then lastly pastor jordan over there jordan is all of our staff is amazing jordan is going to expand his role and so he does worship and he does young adults among other things now he's going to be overseeing uh local church ministries so uh we're widening that so he's gonna have um he's ministering and he's equipping staff um getting involved much more in the overall picture of what's going on at convergence and so um we know he's an equipper and uh so he's he's going to be doing that role as well she'll be involved in worship in young adult and local church ministries so we have local church ministries we have marriage and family and children and then we have pastor aaron over kids and then uh and he's amazing where's aaron is he all right there okay yeah you guys and then uh we have joe and jesse over our young people and so so we we are believing the lord for revival and in the middle of all this stuff that's going on the lord's going to build his ecclesia it's going to build his church and the gates of hades will not prevail and so we're just going to we're going for it and we're believing that god's going to provide the increase so you why don't you guys just believe along with us and let's believe that what the lord's doing all right so i do want this is the only time i'm going to say this i do have a clock in front of me and i know i said that three or four times last week and so it says i have 22 minutes so um if you believe that okay so last week we talked about god's love we talked about that god has given us choice and you can't have love without choice love has to operate in a place of freedom so when god created adam and eve he created us differently he created us created us with a sense of morality so we call it amoral which means that like when he created the the reptile kingdom and he created the animal kingdom he built in he locked into them something called instinct they don't have the ability to choose morally like um humans have the ability to choose morally so birds do birdie things cows do cowy things they migrate cows don't migrate birds migrate um you know the animal kingdom is the animal kingdom and but when he created adam and eve he created them with this this uh ability to actually choose love and and he's he built us with the capacity to love so um people can make people or force people to do things but no one can force you to love somebody love operate in a place of freedom though that you can be you can be uh controlled or even manipulated or told what to do and there might be compliance god has put it in the heart of every human being this ability to love or not to love and so we have we have a choice that's in front of us so god is love that doesn't mean that god you know doesn't say god knows about love the very essence of who god is is love he is not only love he's perfect love and love always seeks the highest good for the object of their love that's how i define love love is not a love is not a feeling though it embraces feelings love is actually a choice it's actually seeking the highest good for the for the object or the person that we love and when we begin to stop looking and choosing the highest good for the object of our love that's when we fall into things called selfishness and then the relationship actually begins to erode so we have to understand foundationally that when we say god is love his affection towards us is perfect his affection towards us his love for us his his pursuit of us is not about conforming into what we called in the old testament the law but actually his pursuit for us comes out of a reckless abandon and a love for each and every single person that's in this room of viewing online so we have a choice either to reject god or to accept him and we don't have time to get into the fact that we sinned in the garden and the old testament is laid out with all kinds of crazy things but it's still god pursuing the heart of his sons and daughters his creation so much so that he himself in the person of jesus christ emptied themselves emptied himself according to philippians chapter 2 came as a man and he died on a cross as god because he became the perfect sacrifice even then at that point dying as god being fully god and fully man dying dying on the cross he actually paid for the the penalty of our sin so that there would be a place for mankind to receive what we call redemption and the holy spirit which is the the third person of the godhead the holy spirit's not an it and the holy spirit is not god junior the holy spirit is the third person of the god fully god so he is pursuing mankind relentlessly to bring revelation of his love in the hopes and in the prayers and in the heart that they would turn from their sin and come into their divine purpose that god laid before them does that all make sense so that's kind of what we talked about kinda what we talked about last week so the foundation then is that god is love that means that the moral laws of god are born out of perfect love the laws of god are not binding and restrictive the laws of god are actually designed for us to live out of a place well to live out have uh how we have been designed to live so when we see things in the first commandment second commandment we see things and you know the the ten commandments we see all those are not to restrict us it's actually to provide freedom to live as god has created you and i to live we have to understand that when god created us he created us with a specific design and purpose in other words when we begin to live outside of what the creator has designed us to do and be then we begin to short circuit we begin to fall into a lifestyle that is outside of how we've been designed that's why i've said for how long how long we've been here 24 years we started this okay a long time all right like i said for many many years that's why sin is unnatural sin is unnatural now we have a sinful nature that propels us to slants us a certain way thanks to adam and eve we have the sinful nature that kind of pushes us or propels us a little bit that direction but sin is unnatural because that's not how god designed us god did not design you and me to walk in or sin sin to the human spirit is cancerous it begins to destroy us and it begins to destroy how he has designed us god despises sin not only because he is holy which we understand but because sin actually works against who we are and how we're designed to live we are designed to live in the presence of the living god we are designed to live in the glory of the living god that's what we see in the garden that god walked with adam and eve this is our purpose but because we've sinned we've actually come short of the glory of god and we have quote missed the mark this is why jesus came so we understand that god is love that means that the moral laws of god are born out of perfect love then the bible then is born out of the affection of a perfect heavenly father who wants to protect and provide for us everyone just say online and some of you that are in the room protect and provide god's love seeks to in seeks and it functions in two ways if i can get my words out be great to protect you and to provide for you i know of no good parent a good parent not even a godly parent but just a good parent that does not want to protect their children and to provide for their children pursuing the highest good always has in mind protection and provision now my kids are all grown up but i have grandkids there they are but when we had our kids we when they were younger we still have them when they were younger we would teach them before you cross the street stop look and listen did anyone else do that stop looking listen very stop looking listen stop looking listen you know so so when somehow if they got out if we were out in the front whatever stop look and listen why did we do that number one we wanted to protect them we wanted to protect them from cars coming down the street accidentally not seeing our kids and somehow an accident takes place we want to protect them and we also want to provide for them we want to provide a long life we want to provide health the reason why god has created you is to live in glory to live in presence the laws of god come to us to protect us and to provide for us what we see in scripture is to actually protect us and provide for us to provide life now here and now but also to provide eternal life when we leave this place so the laws of god serve us out of a place of love when i talk when i talk about the laws of god let's just talk about biblically the bible the things that are written in the word of god are serving us in the way of we maximize how god has created us and the laws of god the principles of god whether it's the old testament with the new testament with saul's written i mean paul's written is is there to protect and provide for us period so let me leave you with four thoughts in the 11 minutes that i have number one the bible leads us the word of god leads us to our creator defining our purpose and meaning and teaches us how to live from that reality when we live outside of the word of god we begin to live outside of our original design we begin to live outside of our purpose we begin to live outside of our of our say our mind or our heart our desires we begin to self-destruct just look at our culture just read the headlines we see a a world that's falling apart we see revenge we see envy we see unforgiveness we see jealousy we see adultery we see lust we see greed we see hatred we see resentment we see bitterness those things are not natural though they're very present we are not to live from that kind of a root system they're not natural regardless of what you see on netflix what we see on netflix what we see in our movies especially now especially today i shouldn't say just kind of dating me is their narrative on trying to communicate to us what is normal that is not how god's designed you and me to live so when we flip on a movie they're trying to teach us they're trying to normalize behavior i mean shows like green leaf that's on netflix i think i got the title right i get the title right i don't know it's about a ministry family a black ministry family that's involved in greed adultery uh homosexuality these things are all sprouting from this ministry family because the producers are trying to create a normative a narrative that this is normative and it's not we are not designed to live with nor carry any of the things i just read their cancerous their disease to the soul and to the body to our life and that disease actually spreads if we don't have jesus within us then our identity is found in something other than our creator our creator is our heavenly father who is our source of life he's god the father can we say amen identity found in something else or in someone else will only short-circuit our life then it's if it's not found in god our creator and our father then there's a search to find out who am i and what is the meaning of life what's the purpose what's my significance so we look elsewhere so we look to work we look to race we look to social status we look to gender or even we look to someone else's thoughts or opinions about what they say and what they think and those things begin to define us you're not defined by race you're not defined just by gender you're not defined by your social status you're defined by your creator you're defined by your heavenly father who created you in his image and likeness so if i were to ask you a question tell me about who you are your first response is i'm a son of the living god and if you're a woman i am my daughter of the living god that is your identity and everything else flows from that identity it's not i'm black or white hispanic it's not about my my my social status it's not about this it's not about that it's it's not about all those kinds of things we have a a culture that is orphaned we have people who are riding our streets who are burning flags they're burning bibles they're doing crazy things in our cities because but my heart reaches my heart is broken because they're just orphaned kids now you can put a political spin on it i understand but if you dig down to the root system there's pain that's associated with their behavior and there's also a sense of pride that's associated with the behavior because it says in romans 1 that the unrighteous suppress the truth but i would tend to build i would tend to fall on the side that there's so much pain because we have such a fatherless nation we have we have homes that have been abandoned of father and mother and we have broken kids who are responding in their brokenness trying to figure out some trying to figure out their identity and they're searching for their identity and their race and everything else and your true identity is found in god and god alone that's our message to the world that's your message to the world but if we don't understand our purpose as god our father has designed it if we don't understand the revelation that we're sons and daughters of the living god then we're going to seek meaning somewhere else that's all they're trying to do yes it's yes the gasoline has been put on it yeah yes there's been fuel added to the fire but if you're completely disconnected and you're trying to find purpose and meaning you will jump in organizations that you sense has purpose and meaning they're just outside of the covering of god does that make sense so then we're left with defining ourselves any way that we want to looking for love looking for acceptance and looking for significance and the one who created you is the only one who can define you now we can create we can even create falsely we can create genders we can create ways of governing our lives we can reach for power but it does not nor will not fulfill the space the longing in the human heart the reason why we're alive the truth is this every single person has a private life that true so when the rioting is over they go back to their private life they sit in a broken room and they're wondering what's the purpose of all this and they can maybe drown it up another night another night but you know there's only a space god can fill why because he created you in his image and likeness the scripture says he's actually written his laws on our heart and our mind and all these things that we just talked about seek to replace how god how we are designed by our creator our heavenly father on how to live so the bible the word this is the point that was all introduction yikes the bible the word of god is giving is given by a loving father to lead you and me to jesus say amen who is the way the life the truth i didn't get that all right to give us purpose meaning and significance then the word and the spirit from that reality the word and the spirit teaches us how to live the life that god has predestined you to live from the very foundations of the world to come into your purpose and your destiny here on earth and forever because there is a forever you are meant to live forever now that's mind-blowing because we live in an orphaned culture we fight for causes many are fatherless and we've misplaced many are functioning and living out of a misplaced identity that's why we are the salt of the earth that's why we are light on a hill city on a hill we are our light to the world because we have the answer to their identity crisis any reason why they want to shut the doors of the church whatever they try and do whatever they try and legislate it will not work um i'm about to get rowdy and i don't have enough time now it does say in romans 1 that some have rejected the truth for a lie in other words the love of god will continually continue to pursue you and you actually will have to make a choice on either to accept that or to suppress it i mean romans 1 paul right out of the gate doesn't mess around read it so he says the unrighteous suppress means this it means to it means to push down like this you just truth comes you push it down truth comes you push it down truth comes you keep pushing it down and you reject it in romans 1 says you become foolish because you exchanged the truth of god for a lie people who don't and only god can judge we love we don't wave our finger i don't wave our finger at people and say you're going to hell you know it's the kindness it's the goodness of god that draws men to repentance but it's the reality of when truth comes we do have choice and sometimes we have to understand too that god is just and god is fair and god is righteous and god is all those things and that his kindness is reaching us very very uh specifically and very very intentionally to every individual where they live you don't fully know my world and i don't know yours but god does yeah you don't understand my pain not fully and i don't understand your pain not fully but he does he knows if you've been abused neglected he understands the deep parts of your heart that no one else knows about he knows about it but he doesn't know about it in wrath he knows about it in love so the bible lays on the foundation of god's love not his wrath so if i took my bible this is only point one and i'm i gotta wrap it up we'll hit more of it tomorrow oh my gosh see this is what happens when i have a light service saturday night and then i come in here all right you know this is very very super simple like the foundation to the word is the love of god it's not the wrath of god what is the wrath of god well here's how i define the wrath of god of course there's a lot of probably differences in opinion on what it is but here's how i define it out of romans 1. wrath of god is not the baseball bat father who clubs us and for some reason that has been perpetuated in our culture that god is continually ticked off and upset that's not a picture of what i see in christ i see a continual reach so much so that he i mean come on he left heaven and came down and died for you and me i mean that's unfathomable the uncreated that's how much he's pursuing us the wrath of god is us continually suppressing the truth and stepping out of the umbrella of grace he's continuing to pursue us but because of our pride and arrogance our rejection of god for whatever lie we're believing we step out of the umbrella of his grace and we step into things outside of that which there is pain envy resentment greed evil and even though we stepped outside of that that becomes the wrath of god not because god is pounding us over the head over something we're actually stepping out intentionally making choices to step out of the the the boundaries of his word right right and we step out of the the grace of god that that he has provided for us and we can't take these slow steps out before we know it the bible says we become reprobate is it god's fault absolutely not it's our decision does god ever stop loving you absolutely not i mean he'll put you'll have divine encounters he'll put people in your life he'll put he'll the word will be preached to you some way somehow he will demonstrate his love for you even in your pain he'll demonstrate his love for you continue to do so we have to actually er how can i say this this is really getting heavy we actually we actually earn our way into hell hell yes there's something called the lake of fire yes love demands justice so that's our intention that's what the word of god says so oh how do i wrap this up on a very good note it's only when we trust jesus as our lord and savior that he puts within us a desire and gives us the power to live according to his word and that's how we're wired to live psalm 119 105 your word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my path jesus gives us with the holy spirit all of heaven gives us the power and the ability to live according to how he has designed us to live i might not understand i'll end with this because i'm asking the lord how do i want to end this and i want to encourage everybody i do want to encourage you guys hope you guys feel encouraged oh my gosh all right if i have the understanding that god is love and everything that he has written in this book comes out of that design he is love that means that everything that is written in this book serves to protect me and provide for me so if i'm reading in philippians and it gives me instruction that instruction is to actually propel me into my purpose and to provide for me and to protect me if i'm reading in colossians if i'm reading in ephesians and i come across something that is very very clear but i don't understand i trust him enough to know that he knows what he's saying and doing and i really don't a child might not understand when a mom and dad say don't do this and they're usually their famous thing is why and they don't say it like that they might say really why and so you you try and communicate why and they say why you know one pastor said you know the the kids kept on asking why and he went back to all the way back to like the the devil hates jesus you know it started with you don't eat this and then it went down to devil his jesus right so so because it kept on going because of sin and why why sin then because of this why is that because because the devil hates jesus so there's things in scripture that are laid out that i don't under i might not understand i ask for revelation on but even when i don't understand it i know he's a good dad i know it's in scripture for my highest good is to bring me into the my purpose and my destiny now and through eternity so i read that and i and i say father give me revelation on this i don't understand it but i'll clearly obey it why because i understand is the love of god as the foundation for the word of god it's not the wrath of god it's the love of god so now when i pick up the scripture it's a love letter from my dad it's teaching me how to live it's teaching me how to raise a family it's teaching me how to have a amazing marriage it's teaching me about what is a family [Music] it's teaching me about what what is true sexuality is teaching me about violence about non-violence is teaching me about walking in peace is teaching me about how to receive joy is t these are all things that god has designed us to live by this is why there is such an attack and there will be on the word of god because this is central to how we're designed to live and no matter what form of government has been taken through hundreds and even thousands of years it has not it has not destroyed the pages that are in between this leather and it will not [Music] so when russia's formed they burn bibles when communist countries i i read this years ago they burn bibles they burn bibles in china they get rid of bibles they're trying to stamp out how god has designed us to live in god being the ultimate authority in our life but it will not work the word of god will endure why because god is the one who governs the nations and he'll see to it that his love letter to humanity endures because he keeps reaching and as time moves forward you will see a continual attack on what is written right here and we're going to have a choice as americans we're going to have a choice as believers do we believe this or do we believe the popular narrative we're going to have to make a stand but it's not just to stand on the word of god it's an understanding that is born out of the love of god [Music] now that provides fuel for me to preach the message of the gospel because it's born out of a heart of a heavenly father which is infinitely amazing and it's there to provide protection provision and eternal life for the person i'm bringing the word to culture will teach us that this is restrictive that this is not fair that this is unloving couldn't be any further from the truth [Music] in fact it's the complete opposite but because their minds are darkened and because they're orphaned that's how they view god you are the light of the world you're the salt of the earth we have the message i encourage all of us to bring the message listen not only do we carry the message we have all of heaven supporting the message do you understand what i'm saying like the holy spirit is working on the hearts of every person on the planet drawing them to jesus and he needs messengers when you're commissioned you're commissioned but if we see the word of god as restrictive and unloving will be almost ashamed of it and not deliver it oh man there's so much more to say but i'm out of time i'm 15 minutes behind [Music] jordan tries really hard oh sorry son i think the [Music] well let's stand for those of you that are in the room let's stand if you're at home you can stand too [Music] second timothy chapter 3 16 says listen all scripture is god breathed all scripture is god-breathed [Music] it's far more than a book it's a book that has the breath of god on it and it's life for you and me [Music] especially when you just pray a simple prayer holy spirit open up the pages of this book simple prayer the lord will bring revelation father thank you for the living word which is jesus and thank you for the written word thank you lord god that the word of god though persecuted tried to be eliminated burned thrown out buried the word of god will endure the written word and the living word for sure thank you lord that even when people are trying to do these kinds of things you have written your laws on our heart and mind we're actually born with these [Music] and we want to pray for an orphaned culture that is looking for purpose and meaning we want to pray for an orphaned culture that is seeking out their true identity and we just say to that culture [Music] are we declared to that culture that jesus is your purpose your meaning and your life god i pray that you would raise up people who would carry the love of god into the darkest places they would carry the love of god into the darkest places they would carry the word of god into the darkest places i mean i'm talking about not just these the riot-filled cities at this point but i'm talking about [Music] those the little rooms where people sit down and they just try they're just weeping because they don't they don't understand their purpose they're crying out they're empty god may we carry the light of the gospel preach the gospel share the gospel to a broken world and i want to pray for anyone who is possibly in this room joining us online that if you're if you're far away from the lord you feel a resistance to the word of god i want to pray that there will be a breakthrough for you today truth is never afraid of questions truth is never afraid of questions so if there's a barrier if there's resistance talk to your father about it talk to your heavenly father about it because he's never afraid of a question he wants to draw near would you let him would you let him draw near lord i pray that there would be a growing hunger in every believer's heart especially not just in this place and but around in our nation for sure around the world a passion for the word of god god we ask that you put it in our hearts memorizing the word writing the word singing the word because it's your heart to us we receive it in jesus name amen amen well i got through point one so that means i'll give you two three and four next week right it's just gonna get gooder and gooder i said it i know i should say greater and greater but it's gooder and gooder thank you for joining us online we love you guys we miss you guys can't wait to see you god bless you guys also there's a link there's a link if you need prayer our prayer rooms are open virtually via zoom click on that link if there's anything you need healing in your body what prayer for whatever it's on your heart we want to pray for you god bless you guys we'll see you i just wanna move what moves you i just wanna love you lord you're my desire i just wanna touch you embrace you i just want to know you to feel what you like you are is [Music] [Music] everything [Music] i just wanna i just [Music] i just wanna judge you [Music] embrace [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] bye dreams [Music] so [Music] [Music] hello [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is ah [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you i just love you you i just you are just [Music] good [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus you're taking over treasures and crowns down at your feet honor and fame only belong to you you are before everything grasping it all together one just one just one foul worthy [Music] [Music] your glory fills the temple is the lord on high holy is the lord on high we join in with the elders holy is the lord one [Music] again our jewish [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] holy is the lord on high your glory fills the temple [Music] is the lord on high your glory fills the temple [Music] [Music] is [Music] high high high oh the earth [Music] reigns [Music] glory to god we praise [Music] we praise your glory [Music] holy [Music] [Music] forever [Music] this beautiful man who reigns forever [Music] [Music] somebody with piercing life you broke through [Music] when sin had shadowed our side of you you pulled us out [Music]

Channel: Convergence Church

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Id: I84xj5Jv2BQ

Length: 128min 39sec (7719 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 06 2020