God's Not Done - Sometimes Less is More (with Alfonzo Greene)

[Music] [Music] thanks for joining us for our worship experience today please remember to keep your mask on always stay six feet away from people not in your group and wash and sanitize your hands frequently also please don't gather in the lobby after church we want to keep this space safe for ourselves and everyone around us here's the announcements for today we're having a labor day weekend block party today at 6 30 right in our parking lot outside come join for a safe fun time together with our community on wednesday september 8th the hart child ministry is having from adoptee to advocate our support group meeting we'll be having nicole chung who was adopted when she was five years old and raised in a strong support group of fostering and adoptive families just like ours here at rubido nicole's worked as a youth and child advocate life coach counselor and author please visit our facebook page for more info on how to join our zoom meeting on saturday september 11th ruby glow will be meeting our topic is life after a pandemic we have two special guests chaplain sonia shockley and therapist eva bryant the conversation promises to be informative lively and practical so tell your friends visit our facebook page for more info on how to join the zoom call if you're interested in being in pathfinders this year or volunteering in some capacity please sign up on our website our first meeting will be on sunday september 26th please join us for an introductory meeting for those interested in working with our youth lunch will be provided and you'll have a chance to meet with the leaders of our main youth ministries if you can't attend but you still want to help connect with pastor kyle the family and life department is recruiting qualified and licensed mental health providers to serve as facilitators for our support groups if you're interested please connect with nisa gurier her info is on the end screen the media team is looking for new members to join some positions are compensated if you're interested text zanette her info is on the following screen the ruby reed book club is meeting on saturday september 24th we'll be talking about the book assemble the tribe by leah dean our facebook page has more info both our high school and junior high classes for sabbath school will be virtual and in person come to room 100 at 10 am on sabbath or visit the website to sign up for the online group 2020 and 2021 graduates the education ministry wants to celebrate you on saturday september 18th during our worship experience from kindergarten to a phd if you're a grad or you know one please send their name school grade or degree to doctors kyle and olivia boyle by september 18th their contact information is on the following screen for our church leaders here's just a friendly reminder that all october announcements are due on september 15th our new website is here type in this link right now this one you can stay up to date with new events watch our videos but not just sermons we have ruby nation kids clubhouse music videos documentaries and other fun stuff you can also donate join our growing support groups and more check out the site and tell us what you think that's it be sure to like us on facebook follow us on ig and subscribe on our youtube channel to stay up to date with all of our events videos and more as always thank you for loving growing and serving with us [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] amen good morning everybody happy sabbath today is another high day uh we there must be something in the water here at rubido because we're dedicating another baby to the lord jesus christ and so at this time we want to invite the richardson family as they come to dedicate little vivian to god today [Music] hmm [Music] now well it appears everyone's here but the baby so there there we go come on out front come on out it is my privilege today to bring little vivian before the lord it's my great privilege to be able to dedicate my granddaughter to the lord we're happy that all the family and friends are able to be here today for support but i'd like to say to david and to the congregation and to naishi that children are such a tremendous blessing from the lord and in biblical times the parents wanted to bring children to jesus so that he could touch them and lay hands on them and the disciples felt like this was really a bother to jesus and they they didn't want the children to interrupt his very important ministry mark says that jesus got angry when that happened and said no no allow the children to come to me and don't stop them because such of such is the kingdom of heaven he said in fact if you don't become like a child you won't even be able to see the kingdom of god so jesus said no this is my privilege my desire that everyone understand unless you have child like faith in me all of your religious understanding and your practiced rules will not get you into my kingdom i need you to trust me like a trustworthy father so david the only god vivian knows right now is you and your mother and her mother that's the only god she knows so when you begin to talk about the goodness of the lord they're go she's going to compare you to what she understands the lord to be so you must set the right example you must set the right example and all of the family what you say to vivian will mean much less than what you do she's going to see who you are when you're not in front of the church and she's going to make decisions about how important god is by how she sees you live and so we're going to dedicate you as well to the lord and then the congregation everything you do has impact on people that are watching you even when you don't know they're watching you claim to know the savior you claim to be a christian what is your life people are going to watch who you are not what you say and there are so many children who are not going to be in the kingdom because of our hypocrisy so today we're going to rededicate you as well so if david you will hold the mic i will attempt to hold the child and let us pray father right now we bring little vivian before you we're not introducing you to her because you're the one who created her you know her you knew her before she was in her mother's womb and you know every day that she's going to live on this earth you know what she's going to face and you know how you're going to help her get through it we ask that you would put angels all around her that excel in strength and keep her from the evil that is in this world protect her help her to know who you are because her parents not only teach her but show her who you are so we dedicate vivian to you today we dedicate david and naisi to you today help them to be able to set the example before vivian that is one that is salvific one that's going to show her the importance of a personal relationship with god and that she would choose it when it's time for her to make those decisions bless all of the family and friends help us to realize the influence we are having even when we don't know it we dedicate this congregation where vivian will be growing help every single person here to seriously pursue their relationship with you and let the spirit of god change us from the inside out so that everyone who has any interaction with us will know that we are truly children of the king now lord there are many things that i probably should say but holy spirit continue this prayer in our behalf so that everything you have in mind you will manifest in our life for we ask this in jesus name amen so david and naishi uh on behalf of the mount rubidoux 70 at venice church and on behalf of the children's ministry department and uh on behalf of sugar who made a custom-made quilt for little vivian hallelujah her first quilt hallelujah and her first bible we have a first bible in here and then we have a science certificate by pastor jackson on doggett and uh it's more of an act as a it's more of a statement as opposed to an act what we're really saying through this gift is that we are here to come alongside you and your journey from crater old class to the collegiate class to say that we are your community and thank you so much for being a part of our community so on behalf of the mount riverdale church we say welcome thank you and if you look on the back it has her name and her date amen [Music] amen can we give god another handcuff of praise it is always just such a blessing to see a little one dedicated to the lord jesus christ congratulations to the richardson family uh just so i want to welcome you again to the mount rubidoux seventh day adventist church i'm pastor alfonso green we are excited that you've come here to worship with us and i just want to just take a few moments to just share with you some brief announcements from the pastoral staff today as we get ready to ignite our service and spend our time in praise and worship to god first for those of you that have been journeying with journaling with us for the last 21 days amen this is the last day of the fast um but what we want to do is we want to make sure that we pivot from the fast in a way that's going to be beneficial to us spiritually so i know some of us right now don't don't look to the writer don't look to the left some of us right now you're just like man today is the last day of this fast i'm about to just go all in right but just pray and ask god lord what would you have me to do because some of the things that happened during this fast you want to continue amen anybody feel a little closer to the lord amen yo anybody got a little bit deeper connection with jesus christ and so you want those things to continue so just ask god god what are those things that need to take place that need to continue in my life and so one of the next steps that you can kind of pivot into from the fast is we have something here at rubido called growth groups what that's everybody growth groups how many know that you cannot grow spiritually in isolation like the whole idea of like i can grow spiritually all on my own that that's the trick of the devil the only way you can grow spiritually is you've got to also be in community and so we have something here called growth groups where you can do life do community with other believers within the body of christ if you would like to sign up for that you can go to our website at mount rubido sda.org on the homepage there's like a little yellow strip just click that fill out the form and you can be a part of one of our growth groups also we're excited we want to give it up to our media team amen for our media team y'all um we will be uh relaunching our live stream youtube uh our youtube page hey man come on put your hands together for the media team amen so we praise god we've been rolling on facebook live we also have a stream on our website but we're also gonna be adding our youtube channel as well for us to do a live stream there and so we're excited to be launching that on next sabbath uh tonight we're going to be doing uh something uh to bless our community and bless our businesses at 6 30 tonight we're going to be doing a block party right here in the parking lot outside and i think all of us knowing and aware just of the tremendous hardship that the pandemic has had on upon many of our businesses and so what we want to do is we want to just do something to be a blessing to them when just pour some dollars into their business and so businesses and so a number of different um businesses will be out here to this evening just to name a few of them some of the vendors are c blithe clothing line tupperware black box candles fans from the fatherland love and layla's lol pops one love carrington case legacy media productions just muff and then some food uh island breeze taco in the toe tag one to toe okay casey vegan pushing pies squeezed lemonade and then there'll be some activities for the children here tonight put on by our children's ministry department they'll be doing an egg hunt and there'll also be some train rides for our children and so it's going to be a good time in god we haven't really had an opportunity as a church family to really spend some time in fellowship because how many know that a church that not only prays together but plays together stays together and so we just wanted to spend some time pour into some businesses and spend some time um just as a church family fellowshipping and so that's going to be tonight at 6 30 p.m come on and spend some dollars as we try to bless some businesses so at this time what we want to do is we get ready to launch our service today is uh we want to see if there are any first or second time guests that are here with us if you're here just raise your hand we just we want to just have a word of prayer over you today you don't have to get up you don't have to say anything but if you're a first or second time guest just hold your hand up praise god come on put your hand together for the first and second time guest praise god and so what i want to ask you to do if you're a first or second time guest is on the screen behind me uh there is a little a little uh slide there that says ruby connect we want to stay connected with you and so if you could just pull your phone out and just text ruby connect to that number a form will come to you and it's a way for us to stay connected with you um so um we would love for you to just kind of continue to get more information about all of the great things that are happening at mount rubido and so what we want to do at this time saying to god wherever you saw a hand whatever direction that was in just extend your hand in that direction wherever that person was and we just want to pray a prayer of blessing over our guests that are here today let's fire our heads and pray together father we just want to say thank you for being king of kings and lord of lords and father you've brought these guests here to this place for such a time as this lord i don't know what they stand in need of today i don't know what they are seeking you for but you know in our prayer today we partner with them our prayer god is that what they're seeking for from you you will not fail to grant all these things we pray in the name of jesus amen and amen man uh i i the word of god says i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord we are here to lift up the name of the king of king and lord lord can you put your hands together for jesus christ no no no if you were clapping for me that would be appropriate can you put your hands together for our lord and savior jesus christ let everything that has breath praise ye the lord if you'll bow your heads with me once more time father right now we come with just praise and thanksgiving in our hearts and now god we just ask that you would just inhabit the praises of your people have your way o god in the name of jesus we pray amen amen praise the lord everybody for praise and worship hallelujah anybody glad to be in the house with the lord today come on anybody glad you come to worship god [Music] [Applause] [Music] sanctuary [Music] is could be yeah be a sanctuary [Music] what you want me to be what you what you want me yes [Music] [Music] and i will say yes [Music] yes [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah jesus thank you you're worthy god your blessing of god i thank you lord you're warning god hallelujah when you bless them you'll feel better come on if you bless them you'll feel better about your situation [Music] we trust you jesus [Music] anybody trust the lord hallelujah we trust you god real quick [Music] glory i will be with you i will be [Music] [Music] that's what god's saying to you [Music] you [Music] you will trust me [Music] trust me brothers and sisters as we just pause just for a moment to uplift praise and thanksgiving to the lord's name i would like for each of you all to look inwardly into your own heart you know your shortcomings you know your needs so as i proceed please reflect on how the lord what you're asking the lord to work out in your life it's interesting trust trust me how many of you trust your financial planner to take your resources and multiply them how many of you will trust your physician to guide you in the path of optimum health what about that friend or that family member who you continually turn to they're broken they're bogged down by the cares of this life but you find yourself placing your trust in them have mercy lord i want to encourage each and every one here today to place your trust in the god the creator of heaven and earth the sustainer of each and every one of us here we've been in a 21 day period of prayer and fasting and in one of the chapters was obedience oh have mercy obedience i just have to read it i i i have to share this with you obedience this is christ himself who is one with the father says here he had supreme trust that every step that his father told him to take was the correct one he trusted that every directive that his father gave him was the right one he trusted the vantage point of his father that vantage points is looking down from heaven the father looking down from heaven upon his son and seeing what christ's own human eyes could not see [Music] heaven have mercy he trusted his father over human counselors his own instincts and even his own common sense samuel solomon says it's just a little different those are the words of man but let's let's let's just go to the word of god solomon says it different in proverbs proverbs 3 verse 5. begin verse 5 through seven trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not on unto your thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths verse 7 be not wise in thine own eyes fear the lord and depart from evil at this time if you would like to kneel if you would like to bow your heads if you would like to even come a little closer to the altar i want to petition the holy spirit this morning to come and feel this place in a way that only he can let's borrow our heads holy spirit oh holy spirit rain down on us holy spirit fill us with the blessings that we are so need of father we've come into your house this morning we've come in with the cares and the wants and the desires of our heart but more than anything lord we need the indwelling of your spirit oh father the challenges of of the members here this morning i was just speaking with one just in greeting i know that we've had deaths oh mercy this is this thing called death that the enemy continues to confound us with father i would like to pray for the health of your church just not the physical health but i would like to pray for the spiritual health because we we need a renewed relationship with you we we nee we need to be able to hear your voice some of us are distracted by jobs by family members be at the outside noise but lord let us hear your voice may this be our prayer speak lord so that we can hear your voice their physical needs as well i don't know how many of you all know that the hospitals are full don't try to go to the hospital they have a terminology that they use it's called bypass you attempt you you you with your you with your loved one approach the hospital and there are no beds they tell you to bypass and go to the next one you go to the next one and that's full as well bypass and go to the next one lord jesus the healer we're praying on you this morning oh father heal your children heal them in a way that you can that only you can just with a touch or even with a word oh father have your way in our life lord i i would be remiss if i didn't uplift the speaker the man of god this morning who has a word not his word but your word father i pray that you are preparing our hearts even now lord may the silliness the silly things of life remove themselves so that as your word is spoken as your word is read we will internalize it and it will enrich our lives father in heaven i pray for this nation i pray for our communities i pray for our leaders i pray for this world lord you're still on the throne may we may each and every family that's represented here choose not choose not to trust in our own might but to truly be able to say lord we trust you god bless your precious and holy name and these things we ask amen amen [Music] [Applause] am i am [Music] i will deliver [Music] please trust me [Music] please trust me trust me [Music] trust me [Music] hallelujah how many have been blessed so far raise your hand praise the lord what a blessing to be in the house of the lord well today is the end of the children's story series uh that i've been presenting i hope you enjoy it but more than anything i hope it is meaningful to you uh you may now play the children's story and there you have it men women boys and girls who have turned the world upside down a cloud of witnesses why why did they do it what drove them to deny themselves and take up their creator's cross from burning bushes to tame lions from arks and marks and marks the wars and roars and doors they found that there's nothing more important in life than being obedient to his will [Music] even at the cost their own lives it was their faith that allowed them to subdue kingdoms bring about righteousness obtain promises stop the mouths of life quest the violence of the fire escaped the edge of the sword out of their weakness they were made strong they stood valiant in fights turned and chased entire armies [Music] women seen their dead children rage to life again [Music] and others were tortured not accepting deliverance [Music] knowing that they would receive a better resurrection they had trials of cruel mockings and beatings and even more bonds than imprisonment they were stoned they were cut in half they were tempted they were slain with the sword they wondered about in sheepskin and goat skin being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and mountains in dens caves of the earth they turned the world upside down because of their faith [Music] but what about you how does your life testify of your creator what will it take for you to make his normals your normals is your time too precious are your talents reserved have you given him your temple what about your treasures right now right now is the time for you to give him your all your all he gave his all for you amen amen he gave his all for you now it's time for our offering and you know it's amazing that the lord even allows us the opportunity to give to him i mean like what can we give to our creator like what what is it that he asked for he asked beyond just your your finances he asked for your all and at this time you have an opportunity to give not just monetarily and i just want to highlight this is a giving church you have been giving let's give the lord a round of applause you have been faithful in your giving and this past week because of your giving we were able to deliver to 65 students backpacks that were filled with supplies let's give the lord another round of applause that is so amazing as a matter of fact there are two schools right across from our imani campus and on the back of that one vehicle uh the security is going to take it to the middle school and then those are the two principals with my daughter that are going to take that cart to the elementary school and they were overwhelmed with excitement because of your dedication let's give the lord one more round of applause i just want to say to you thank you so much for your giving um right now though i want to appeal not just for your giving but for your time we do need more volunteers we want to start the new year with many ministers in many places amen so we want to get you prepared now not just your time not just your temple not just your talent but with your treasure at this time i want to pray over the gifts that you will present to your lord and the deacons will now will serve us after the prayer lord we thank you so much for all that you've given on our behalf you gave it all and our hearts are truly grateful and now we want to just give back to you we are so blessed and we give with cheerful hearts i pray this prayer in jesus name amen [Music] [Music] give on any device with online giving from securegive simply enter your amounts and choose between a one-time or recurring donation sign in sign up or give quickly as a guest select your payment method and complete the transaction giving is easy on any device with online giving from security so praise the lord everybody can i get you guys to stand at your feet one more time for praise and worship we get ready to uh usher in the presence of the lord can you get them on your mind [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh worthy [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] peace [Music] [Applause] i am [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you know [Music] all the glory and the praise [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] all he will [Music] on the say [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] to your day yes [Music] [Music] [Music] glory and the prayer [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] lift up your voice and worship him hallelujah [Music] [Music] [Applause] come on come on thank you jesus i can't wait to get the church to clap my hands and open up my voice i'm serious about this i love to praise the lord i love praising him i can't tell you how many situations i've gotten out of through praise and that's not an emotional thing because you do it when you don't feel like doing it it's times when it's like lord i don't know what's going on but you're worthy god i don't know what's happening with me right now but i give you all the praise the angels cry holy holy holy all day long for eternity they're outside of time crying holy right now hallelujah anybody want to worship the lord and if god been good to anybody out here for real for real i'm so grateful that you got breath in your body right now and so many people that are dying quick because of everything that's happening in the world so we thank you jesus that you haven't listened that you if you had it and you survived bless the lord if you haven't got it and you bless the lord thank you jesus glory [Music] glory to the lamb glory to them glory [Music] we're gonna cry [Music] because your god [Music] [Music] come on if you know that singing with us the dead [Music] forever [Music] foreign [Music] this morning [Music] i want you to get whatever problem you have in your mind [Music] [Music] forever [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] oh is [Applause] oh oh [Applause] oh [Music] lift your voice lift your voice lift your voice lift your voice come on make them sound make a sound that heaven will hear for you don't they make a sound let them know you're grateful for that [Music] to on last round look quick if you know it have a seat [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey [Applause] [Music] open up your mouth real quick and say god i thank you thank you jesus even through the mass just saying god i thank you you're blessing you keep on blessing me god thank you [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] [Music] come on put your hands together again for the king of kings the lord of lords [Music] i told y'all a few weeks ago man it's worship that's getting me through right now just so much that's happening in our world but man when i just take some time to fix my eyes on jesus man everything gets it's all right he gives me the strength to keep on going today um and so we praise god for our praise team for all those that are serving at our church can we just affirm their ministry just affirm the ministry we praise god for each and every one of them i'm going to just uh just ask that uh you uh just bear with me we're going to be starting a new series today um and i'm i'm really excited uh that god's not done that god is not done um i'm just looking forward to just the next few weeks as we just explore unpack this um as we just look to god's word uh just for encouragement and reassurance that he is not done that he is not done um i want to just uh before we get to our text what i want to do is i want to just uh take some time to set up uh this uh this message today and so i'm gonna just have a word of prayer it's a little bit i usually read the text and pray but i'm gonna pray first and then after i do this intro then we're gonna get into the text for our consideration for today is that all right okay all right um let's bow our heads and pray father right now we just want to thank you for who you are you're king of kings and lord of the lords god glory to your name god we we are we honor you we adore you today so father right now i just asked that you would just hide me behind the foot of the cross i pray that i would not be seen but that you would be seen and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight my lord my strength and my redeemer in the name of jesus christ we pray amen and amen god's not done god is not done and so what i want to do today to set this this particular series up is i want to i want to begin with just i want to give some of you all that may not be familiar with this experience a window in to the black barber shop the black barber shop y'all is a unique experience so if you've never been to a black barber shop y'all y'all about to get a little intro all right so how many know if you've ever been to a black barber that there's some unwritten rules about the barbershop did anybody did anybody know that like that there's some unwritten rules now i'm not going to go into all the rules today but there's some unwritten rules when you go into a black barbershop one of the rules that's kind of unwritten but you kind of know is that whatever barber you start with in that particular shot [Music] don't you dare switch from that barber to another one in the same shop now maybe that's there may be there's some other ethnicities here today maybe that's the same rule in your shop but i can tell you if you want to have some challenges just man you ain't really feeling your barber no more just switch from him to somebody else in the same shop and you're gonna have some problems and so man i i can just think back to somebody just in my life man where man dudes be starting off good y'all know how it is right joker's right they trying to keep you as a client they i mean they and they are cutting the fate is crisp the lineup is nice but then joker's getting a little lazy fading is crisp anymore you tell them don't take your beard down and every time you go like it goes down a little bit more until you have like an abraham lincoln beer like you know it's just so one of the unwritten rules whatever rules just going into a barber shop is that you cannot switch barbers in the same shop another unwritten rule though is if you're walking into a new shop i know i got some witnesses if you walk into a new shop what you have to do is you got to get a lay of the land so you you step back and you kind of look in the shop and you're looking and you're you're kind of sizing things up and you're looking and you're seeing okay those brothers right there or those sisters right there they have multiple clients so most likely they can probably cut hair but if you go into a black barber shop and there's a barber just sitting in this chair nobody is going to them they have no clients they occasionally pick up the broom and start sweeping that you may want to kind of kind of not go that direction right so i remember i was in i was in florida and i was i was trying to trying to get get a cut and my old shop had actually closed down so i was like okay let me go to this new shop so i go into the shop and i'm trying to get a lay of the land i'm getting a look to see what's going on in this particular shop so i get in there and i see a number of brothers and sisters in there they got multiple clients i'm going through my list of stuff okay this is what i got to do when i'm in a new shop so i see a guy um he only has one client so i said okay let me just see how he does with that guy so i took my time he finished up that cut i was like okay yo that brother can fade okay that dude's lying ain't all the way back you know he he kept the line i was like okay i i feel like i can actually go to this particular barber so i went when it sat down man he had just cut the dude who's fresh off the chair looking good everything was fine so i sit down and he begins to start cutting now the thing that should have tipped me off right at the back was that his process was a little off it wasn't the same process that i'm used to and so he's there and he's cutting and you know most barber shops you got mirrors all around and you can kind of see and so for most of the cut like i wasn't really able to see but about halfway through this thing y'all i finally get a chance to glance at the mirror and and what i saw there in the mirror i was just like i was about to just say like i was literally about to just get up from the middle of that cut and just be like yo i'm done let me just go to one of these other dudes i was almost going to be like man just cut me ball like it's done it's over i have no there's no hope for this cut uh i'm anxious i'm wanting to get up out of the chair i'm wanting to bounce i'm wanting to get up out of there like i'm just like just about to lose my mind um but something just says to me man just stay in the chair so i man y'all i just i stick it out just kind of against my better judgment i'm there and he's still cutting and when i get to the end of the cut when when he finally completes my hair the joint looked tight yo it was it was a crisp cut like the fade was just right the the lineup was just right and it i was i thought it was going to be a mess while i was in process but because i was willing to stay in the chair because i was willing to fight through my anxiety because i was willing to fight through somebody doing it in a different way that didn't line up with my process i was able to get a nice cut and so man when he finally finished my hair y'all when he finally finished my hair i didn't like his process but what i learned is that i shouldn't pre-judge because he wasn't done yet and are there any folk just this afternoon just in the building today that like that that we recognize that we collectively are in heaven's barber's chair like and and when god is working with us like his processes are unfamiliar his his ways are stuff that we don't quite recognize and the temptation for us is to jump out of heaven's chair because we're anxious to jump out of heaven's chair because we're fearful because it's not something that we recognize the temptation for us is to bounce out early instead of hanging in there with god and when we hang in there with god even though he takes us through some unusual processes we can take comfort because god's not done and i need you to know today saints of god god's not done with your family right now i need you to know today that god is not done with your career that god is not done with your relationship that god is not done with your life he's not done with our church god's not done and so what we're going to be doing y'all is we just we are we are in a rebuild we are in a process that sometimes does not make sense that sometimes as we look at it we want to bail out we want to quit we want to just pull the ejection cord but i just want to challenge you this afternoon that if you would just hang in there with god if you would just trust his process the way that he's working in your life the way that he's working in the church that god will show you in the end that it was him working all along and that he was not done but that he's working it out for our good if you're with me just say amen and so what we want to do today is we want to we for part one we want to go to the book of haggai somebody was like yo for real is that where we're going for real yeah yeah hag yeah hag yeah that's kind of towards the end of the old testament and we're going to look at chapter two of haggai hagia the second chapter and we're reading verses one through nine reading verses one through nine for our first part in this series god's not done and here's what the word of god says i'm reading out the english standard version of the bible in the seventh month on the 21st day of the month the word of the lord came by the hand of haggai the prophet speak now to zerubbabel the son of shiato governor of judah and to joshua the son of jehozadak the high priest to all the women of the people and say who is left among you who saw the house in its former glory how do you see it now is it not as nothing in your eyes yet now be strong goes rubble declares the lord be strong o joshua son of jehozadak the high priest be strong all you people of the land declares the lord work amen work for i'm with you declares the lord of hosts according to the covenant that i made with you when you came out of egypt my spirit remains in your midst fear not but thus says the lord of hosts yet once more in a little while i will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and i will shake all the nations so the treasures of all nations shall come in and i will fill this house with glory says the lord of hosts the silver is mine the gold is mine declares the lord of hosts the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former says the lord of hosts and in this place i will give peace declares the lord of hosts y'all we uh for our first uh for our first part in this series guys not done we want to just talk about the subject sometimes less is more sometimes less is more now we as humans we all want more that that's just how we're that is how we're wired we all just as humanity we all just want more the only word that's in most of our vocabularies the only thing that kind of appeals to our appetites is the word more like and when we talk about appetites immediately like we think of a number of things you know i can think of when we talk about appetites uh food and sex and um food and and set i i'm not sure how many others there are but yo i mean we all want more we all want more and look for a man there's basically about three appetites right there's about three appetites for brothers amen brothers amen amen brothers it's about three appetites for brothers right guys are real simple y'all don't don't don't we're not complicated the sisters y'all complicated we simple three appetites one food that's that's food sex for for the brothers amen and sleep so if you give a man enough to eat and if he has enough rest he pretty much okay amen the reality is say to god that we are just a big bunch bundle of appetites and desires and appetites can go beyond these three things right their appetites for security their appetites to be loved their appetites to be respected they're appetites to be cherished and to be successful there they're all of these different types of appetites but with each one of these appetites all of them create a tension in our lives because the way that we were designed the way that we were shaped all of us with whatever appetite we are dealing with all want more we want what everybody we want more and the tension that many of us hear me now the attention of many of that many of us deal with every day is having an appetite that wants more when god has us in a season that gives us less see we can be like yo god i i want more like we're we're trying to get out there we're trying to get our brand out there and so god i want you to to like help me to blow up on social media or god i need a better job it's time for me to have that promotion or it's time for me to get married now god i've been single for all this time and and i'm a good person and lord i mean they should know that i'm like like just a real high value sister and but i still don't have a husband and and the truth of the matter is that for many of us we feel like god is constantly doing less in our lives but i want to challenge you with this truth today and that is the truth of the title of this message that sometimes less is actually more and and i know this truth is going to go against our appetites i know that it's going to go against how we are wired but sometimes i'm telling you states that less is more could it be better for us right now not to buy a bigger home because the financial strain will put um some some some added like stress on your family right now could less actually be more could it be better for you not to take the promotion on your job because of what it's going to do to your marriage could it be better for you right now to remain single rather than to jump into marriage of a person you know you have no business marrying just because you didn't want to be lonely but it's so difficult because the way that you and i are wired the way that we are shaped is that we constantly want more and you see psychologists they've studied this thing they've like they've been they've broken this thing out and one of the things that they talk about is they look at why humanity why humans want more is they studied this phenomenon called impact bias and what impact bias is is is what it simply is is when like our brains the way they're wired takes a simple appetite hunger or desire to be loved to be respected to be held whatever that simple appetite is and magnifies that thing to some scale that's out of proportion so what happens is basically your brain lies to you right that that's what happens because our our brains are telling us that we need more and so your brain tells you with impact bias that if you can just get that car if you could just get that house if you could just get in that relationship that like literally right now you feel like you're on a level three but if you could just get that thing like you're going to be like on the next level with that impact bias and so your brain is going to tell you that if you get that dress or if you get that that those those clothes or if you get that particular vehicle if you get that degree like if you could just get that that everything is gonna be all right that you're gonna feel better that you're gonna feel good and what happens is is that the appetite it gets blown up out of proportion you're thinking that that thing is going to really provide for whatever that need is but that's why we have the phenomenon called buyer's remorse because marketers understand this they understand how the mind works and so they know that we are susceptible to what's called impact bias and so they get us feeling like if you could just get into this ride right now or if you could just get into this car right now man it's going to just solve so much but when you actually buy it you're like man this thing is not all that and it's worse when you are just bigging up a relationship and you're just like oh snap like i just got up in this thing and it is like a disaster because we always constantly want more but i need you to know again that sometimes less is more as we look at the word of god today in an obscure book that many of us probably don't read we look to the prophet haggai and we look and we see a people children of israel who've been navigating through a season where god has assigned them to be less but they actually want more so let me provide some context so we can understand the content this afternoon the people of god have just come out of a pandemic i mean they've just come out of captivity they've been captives in babylon for about 70 years and few have decided that they actually want to go back uh to rebuild their homes in the city of jerusalem that was destroyed 70 years earlier by king nebuchadnezzar and so the book of ezra nehemiah which is one book and the books of zechariah haggai tell the story of this particular rebuild it's a season of rebuilding it's a season of new beginnings folk are just happy to be back in jerusalem they just like yo there's praise and worship happening in jerusalem like i actually see people even though they got mask on in jerusalem like they just happy to be back in jerusalem and folk they've been looking forward to to to getting back to the way things used to be so the rebuilding of the temple it's there and and the walls uh they've been broken down and so to rebuild the walls to rebuild the temple is kind of like a a a a a thing of national pride like if we could just get this temple up if we could just get jerusalem back like man the surrounding nations will know that we back yeah yeah israel israel we handling business but they gonna know we back and so in haggai chapter two as the people start to rebuild the temple they discover that this is not a season of more but at the season of less for the bible says in verse 3 who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory how do you see it now is it not as nothing in your eyes and so here they're trying to rebuild they're trying to rebuild and they're trying to rebuild this temple and man they're just disappointed they look at this thing and they're just like yo is this it god for real like that we back we're in jerusalem like is this really all that we're gonna get out of this thing god it just it just seems like less i don't know if you've ever been there before where when like you were kind of hoping for god to to work in a certain way but it was less well you're hoping for god to transition you out of a certain season but you're still in that season it's less so here they are they're disappointed they're frustrated they're ready to throw in the towel on god and and the bible says that now they look at the temple and they say man we know how it was back in the day we know how the former glory was but this thing is nothing in our eyes this is trash this is garbage and so the question for us today is we're just trying to like like deal with the process as god is taking us through a process of yeah he's not done he's still working like how do we manage the tension of having an appetite that wants more when god has us in a season that gives us less and so there's some just some few things i just want to just drop on us real quick as we're just introducing this series this afternoon and the first thing that i believe that god is wanting to teach us out of the text today is that we got to remember that god has never been limited by less he's never been limited by less look at what the word of god says in verse three again we just read it it says who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory how do you see it now it's nothing in your eyes what was the former glory of the temple well the temple before was destroyed was solomon's temple right and so when you read in the bible about solomon's temple that thing was amazing he had all the best artists and all the best craftsmen come in to build a temple unto god the word of god declares that they take this bronze and they they take all of this wealth and they they make a bronze labor in the courtyard and they have like this this altar of incense out there and the bible says that inside of the temple is just gold all around when you walked in there and the and the lamp was on like you just saw like light just just reflecting off all of the gold walls and it was a magnificent thing the bible says that people from all over the world came to see this temple it was more it was that and all that it was amazing like people came to see it we read about the queen of sheba she comes and she's just wanting to see this temple to see this amazing wonder that solomon has built and so the word of god just gives us a little picture into the mentality of the people now that temple has been destroyed they've just in the process of rebuilding and what's happening here is the elders are struggling with this new temple because they don't think the work of god can be accomplished with less how's god going to do it with less this is nothing like solomon's temple it drew everybody solomon's temple it was an amazing glory like it was full in solomon's temple like all the ministries where all the volunteers were there in solomon's temple like there was so much money in solomon's temple there was so many resources in solomon's temple we were the talk of the world in solomon's temple how's god going to do it with less this is nothing we can barely find volunteers in the new temple we're just trying to get some money in the new temple we're just trying to do ministry in the new temple how is god going to do it with less this is nothing and so what happens is the people begin to start getting discouraged and we're going to read it in a second but they're just like yo man this thing is trash like we remember how it used to be we remember how god used to operate we remember how it happened in the old temple this new thing right here is less what can god do with less and how many know saints of god just in our own personal lives just outside of church but in your own personal life that many times we're disappointed with god because we think god needs big oh he needs more to do big things and we look at our lives and we look at our stuff and we're like yo we're disappointed with god we're angry with god because we have less and we're like how can god work with this less we look at god and we're just like man like god i don't have the resources that i should have i don't feel like i have the talents that i should have i don't feel like god i have the money that i should have i don't feel like i have the degrees that i said god how you gonna work with less but man is there anybody in the building that knows that your last does not limit god how many know that less actually equals miracle territory see while while they were complaining while they were just like yo this is trash like remember how the former glory was remember how it used to be they don't even recognize that they're literally standing on miracle territory that what god's about to break forth what he's about to do in their less is going to blow their minds but because they're so focused on their less they're not prepared for what god is going to do in the miraculous and there are some of us right now in this room you've been complaining against god you mad at the lord you're just like god how come my ship never comes you spent all your time come comparing yourself with others looking at other people's journey oh lord the temples come look at how the temple's working for them god they got that new house they got that new car they got all this stuff god we can spend all the time comparing oh they got married this year i'm still singing like we spent all of our time comparing and god is saying god you standing on miracle ground look let's just bring it home here some of us we look at what the church used to be and we wonder if god can really use less but i need you to know that now is the season to still do ministry with excellence impact and relevance but it must be done by focusing our resources on the few things god is calling us to do well instead of complaining about all the stuff we used to do and maybe we can't do that anymore do you not realize that god is a master of streamlining god is a master of getting the junk out of your life getting the extra out so that you can operate with maximum efficiency there's some stuff right now you're like god why the lord is like if i did not remove that you would not be able to move forward in maximum efficiency and productivity and so what god has to do and what i believe he's doing in the church is that we got a lot of stuff that we have just accumulated over tradition and this stuff over the years and what god has brought us to he's like we're going to whittle this thing down it's going to be less but what i want to do in less is i'm going to blow your imaginations because when my spirit is poured on those that are willing when my spirit is poured on all flesh the word of god is going to go forth with such power and authority with less that people will have to conclude it was god and so while you're complaining about less right now god is saying you are standing on the very ground that i want to do wonders for you don't complain about less settle into it and watch god do amazing things and see the thing is that we we get so caught up we feel like god has to have this amount of people to do this or god has to have that amount of dollars to do that or god has to have all these different things we get caught up with that stuff god ain't caught up with that yo have y'all seen god's resume like yo guys it's like for real like les you you about to complain about that yo check check me out go go to linkedin and look at my look at my status on linkedin like for are you really going to talk to me like that like like he is the champion of doing more with less oh come on say to god let's review the resume of god yo he took 300 guys against thousands with with gideon and the bible says that as they're facing this army they don't even bring swords they only bring some torches and some trumpets but because we serve a god that is a master of doing more with less the bible says that when they blow the trumpets and they crash down these things like they just the people start fighting themselves and it's over yo can we go jonathan can you come testify come on jonathan come testify yo jonathan and his armor bearer they're like facing an army just two people they could have been like yo god we got less here we can't we can't even fight he's like he's like perhaps perhaps perhaps god is going to do something and here's the thing he's this is what jonathan says he said god can save by many or god can save by few he said man and then jonathan is so crazy so josh is like yo we gonna pray and his prayer isn't that lord that you lower the challenge he said the sign is going to be that if if they ask us to climb up a cliff where we're going to be tired when we get to the top that's the sign that the lord is in it now if it had been me i'd have been like yo god it's you if they come down and i got all my energy and i got all my strength but see jonathan knew something about how god works he knew that when you're relying on god where god shows up is when you're at your point of weakness and so he said the sign is going to be when you climb up and you've got no strength when you climb up and you got no energy when you climb up and you can't do it by yourself that's going to be the side that's how you know that i'm going to deliver yo can we just review david this little boy he says you know what everybody's shaking in their boots he said man who is defying the armies of israel our god whom i serve is able to deliver and the bible says he goes with those five smooth stones and he takes a giant out because we serve a god that specializes in doing more with less he's not limited by our less you know i just look guys you know and and i praise god it's good to see every last one of you here one of the things that churches are wrestling with all over the country and you just heard one of our pastors just mention it's like yo where are the volunteers where are the people it's like nobody wants to serve and you're like man lord how will it get done with less but god specializes in using less and he says in his word that if we don't cry out the rocks will cry out if we don't get activated he's got folk across the street downtown in the hood he's got people everywhere that as soon as he makes that call they're gonna be like here i am lord send me because we serve a god that's not limited by our less and so here they go they're just they're they're just they're here man and they're frustrated but god has been like dude you this is me like what you talking about this is this is what i do like i 12 disciples that's that's what i do five barley loaves two this is this is what i do like that's this is how i do it second thing real quick i believe is we're in this season of just living in less but wanting more it's found in verse four and it says this god says to the people yet now be strong oh zerubbabel declares the lord be strong o joshua son of jehozada high priests be strong all you people of the land declares the lord work for i am with you declares the lord of hosts now just real quick y'all the reason why he says that is because in chapter one because they got tired of their assignment in the season of less they said you know what we tired of this guy so you know what we gonna do we ain't gonna even be we're not gonna be involved in this rebuild we're gonna stop working what we're gonna do is we're gonna build our own houses we're going to handle our own business we're going to build up our own brands we're going to make sure that our that our 401ks and that are that that our income stat that that thing increases like we don't have time to fool with less right now god so we're going to make sure that this this this house stuff that we're doing the stuff that's going to help build up my my income and my wealth and that kind of stuff like we're going to pour into that we're going to make sure god that that like literally we're going to make sure we got the likes and the and and the focal retweet we're going to make sure that we're handling that right there we don't have time to be a part of the rebuild and so here's what god does god's like okay like we're at this point now like like literally like dude we we're here we're rebuilding you're mad at the season of less but what i'm saying to you is to take courage and i need you to work see like before they had decided that what they had was bigger and better than god they were tired of less look y'all right now god is literally looking for some folk like the people in in the time of haggai that are ready to get to work they're like you know what like man yeah lord we kind of frustrated with less and we kind of really liked not working and not being a part of the kingdom as far as within the with collectively together we really like that i like just chilling and watching online we like it lord we love it and it's not like we are actually fearful of covid because we go to the malls and we go to the theme parks and we see you on instagram on vacation like that's not that's not it it can't be that because like you everywhere else you're going to your job but the only thing is like you're tired of god and that lust though and so god is saying like yo dude i can do more with less but i need you to go ahead and get back to work and saints honestly like with all the stuff we see happening around us for real like man we really have to have some really hard hearts to not really be like man i need to be about my father's business now we're not saying like we can we're re-engaging in the exact same way we did before absolutely not that's a losing proposition but man we got to be willing to understand that man when we're working for the master there's going to be some sacrifice when we're working for jesus like it's gonna take some effort and we cannot allow our american like comfortable not wanting to be inconvenienced like selves miss out on the move that god is trying to make right now he says get back to work in your season of less finally i'm just going to close with this last thing is this remember looks aren't everything verse 9 says this and the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former says the lord of hosts and in this place i will give peace declares the lord of hosts and so they're looking at this thing lord it's less lord i got all this other stuff going like i'm gonna handle mine because your stuff is trash god it is it's it's trash and so i'm judging it because of how it looks because it doesn't seem like it's anything and god says no dude actually my stuff is all that because this is what i specialize in don't judge it by how it looks right now because i'm letting you know that the latter is going to be greater than the former don't judge the appearance now but god is going to do a new thing i'll never forget one of my young adults he was sharing with us meant how he never wins anything at like a raffle right like he he never wins anything this is just kind of his thing so he's telling me he goes to this christmas party at his job and they have all these different things where you can put in like your name for a particular raffle and they select his name and he had been wanting this drone he told me like there was this particular drone this particular model that cost thousands of dollars he said yo pastor like they had it there and i won i said yeah boy you go ahead and then he said pastor but that's not the full story i said okay what happened he's like yo bro like pastor he's like they said you can keep this drone i said doc why why are you going to gamble with that thing brother doc is a bird in the hand like he told to keep that thing brother he said man pastor they they said man you can keep this drone or you can go for this this box over here now dude do you know this drone costs thousands of dollars you've got it in your hand you've been saving up for this drone i'm like bro you been talking to me about the drone all the specs and stuff like but dude keep the drone they say dude you can keep this drone but you can also choose this box but you can't keep both so he i don't know if he had a vegas anointing that day like like he was he's like yo man i'm going i'm going for it so man this box comes out it's all jacked up all tattered whatever so he's like they're just doing that for a fact there's nothing you know they're just doing that for effect please there's got to be something good in there and so he tells me he reaches down into the box there's just a bunch of papers and stuff and he reaches down and when he gets to the bottom of the box there's nothing in there so he's like no there's no way because you know how the joker's been trying to set you up right you know how they say yeah the box looked jet broke the box was jacked so you're like okay surely there's gonna be something good in here he reaches all around the box there's nothing up in that joint but papers so he's just like oh my gosh i just traded this 3 000 drone for this doggone box of just newspapers but then they said yo open up that box and when he opened up that box and he put his hand in it was just a hundred dollar bills and so he's pulling this joint out 100 one thousand one hundred two thousand two thousand three thousand four it was five thousand dollars in that box and he said yo pastor i was just so excited but it was like i learned a valuable lesson because i was looking at that box and i was just kind of like man i don't know i'm hoping it's there but he does it by his appearance is there anybody in the building that knows that although right now it looks pretty bad although we look like we're in a season of less i need you to know that looks aren't everything that god in this final hour saints of god is going to do a new thing that god in his final hour although it may look ratted and tatted and messed up that god is saving his best work for these last days is there anybody that's thankful today that man you can't even judge anybody else some folk are going to come in this door and they're going to be looking a certain way but looks aren't everything because my bible says that man looking for the outward but my god look upon the heart and i'm so excited right now guys that although we've got less resources although it does not know how it does not we don't know exactly how god is going to unfold this thing that god still not done that his best work is still before us and the challenge for us is to be on assignment right now in these last days some of us in this building right now you you've gotten very comfortable over the last year in something and god is saying it's time to get back to work god's saying it's time to get your hand back on the plow god is saying man it's time to make some sacrifices for the cause of god some of that may be financial sacrifices like man maybe maybe god like the cable i'm spending right now maybe that can go towards really helping us reach lost people for jesus like i mean just coming into this community of california it's man as i just look at this community i'm like lord man there is just there is just so many people that god has positioned us now to reach and he wants to use everybody in this room if you're willing you don't have to be the most gifted and talented but if you're willing god wants to use you and he wants to use me but you can't get discouraged because you're in the season of less because god specializes in that season to be able to do more i want to invite you to stand with me real quick as we get ready to close out today and we're not going to ask you to come forward today but i don't just i don't know what god may be saying to you right now but on the screen we have a slide that you can text a decision to i don't know what god may be saying to you i don't know if he's like yo you seem to get back to work i know god is saying to you man i i need you to actually just rededicate your life to me i don't know what god has been saying to you but while we're in this rebuild y'all there's some stuff that god wants to work out in our lives and so that's you today if that if if you are here and you're just like yo i need to make a decision to to give my life to the lord jesus christ i want you to simply just if you're online if you're in the building i want you just to text that that that number on the screen and a form will come to you and one of our bible counselors over the course of this week they're going to reach out to you it could be for special prayer you'd like god i i want to i want to move past looking at the less and trusting you in this season to eventually do something that i can't even imagine or think so i wanna pray over you right now you can text that at any point and make that decision for jesus christ let's bow our heads together father right now in the name of jesus we come before you god just believing that you are god that can take less and do amazing things and so i pray god for somebody on the sound of my voice today that lord you may have spoken to and said man i i got to stop focusing on this season and recognize that that god's got it i maybe need to get get back to work in the work of god lord maybe i need to stop judging things by how they look on the outward appearance i'm praying god today that you would be with that man that woman that boy that girl as they make that decision for you in the name of jesus we pray amen amen you may be seated [Music] thanks for joining us for our worship experience today please remember to keep your mask on always stay six feet away from people not in your group and wash and sanitize your hands frequently also please don't gather in the lobby after church we want to keep this space safe for ourselves and everyone around us here's the announcements for today we're having a labor day weekend block party today at 6 30 right in our parking lot outside come join for a safe fun time together with our community on wednesday september 8th the hart child ministry is having from adoptee to advocate our support group meeting we'll be having nicole chung who was adopted when she was five years old and raised in a strong support group of fostering and adoptive families just like ours here at rubido nicole's worked as a youth and child advocate life coach counselor and author please visit our facebook page for more info on how to join our zoom meeting on saturday september 11th ruby glow will be meeting our topic is life after a pandemic we have two special guests chaplain sonia shockley and therapist eva bryant the conversation promises to be informative lively and practical so tell your friends visit our facebook page for more info on how to join the zoom call if you're interested in being in pathfinders this year or volunteering in some capacity please sign up on our website our first meeting will be on sunday september 26th please join us for an introductory meeting for those interested in working with our youth lunch will be provided and you'll have a chance to meet with the leaders of our main youth ministries if you can't attend but you still want to help connect with pastor kyle the family and life department is recruiting qualified and licensed mental health providers to serve as facilitators for our support groups if you're interested please connect with niece lee gurier her info is on the end screen the media team is looking for new members to join some positions are compensated if you're interested text zanette her info is on the following screen the ruby reed book club is meeting on saturday september 24th we'll be talking about the book assemble the tribe by leah dean our facebook page has more info both our high school and junior high classes for sabbath school will be virtual and in person come to room 100 at 10 a.m on sabbath or visit the website to sign up for the online group 2020 and 2021 graduates the education ministry wants to celebrate you on saturday september 18th during our worship experience from kindergarten to a phd if you're a grad or you know one please send their name school grade or degree to doctors kyle and olivia boyle by september 18th their contact information is on the following screen for our church leaders here's just a friendly reminder that all october announcements are due on september 15th our new website is here type in this link right now this one you can stay up to date with new events watch our videos but not just sermons we have ruby nation kids clubhouse music videos documentaries and other fun stuff you can also donate join our growing support groups and more check out the site and tell us what you think that's it be sure to like us on facebook follow us on ig and subscribe on our youtube channel to stay up to date with all of our events videos and more as always thank you for loving growing and serving with us hey man if you just bow your heads with us as we close service today father we just thank you for your grace and mercy today lord we ask that you be with us as we leave this place may we not leave your presence in the name of jesus amen our ushers will dismiss you god bless you [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] uh you

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Length: 122min 23sec (7343 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021