Great news (Isaiah 61) - Pastor Daniel Fusco

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so I think it's a universally accepted truth that all of us love great news don't we I mean I was I was searching online I couldn't really find the answer to this but you never hear that phrase like you want the good news or the bad news first I'm pretty sure that for most people they take the bad news first because they know that bad news is coming but they want they know because you're something good is coming after it right you know that when the good thing comes whatever the bad thing is the good thing offsets it so I love great news now whether it's you hearing for the first time that your your spouse is going to have a child and it's yours and all you got tighten those things up a little bit you know or whether it's you hear something great about your favorite sports team great news is great news I remember I'll never forget where I was on November 21st 2012 where I got some bad news I was actually driving home from crossroads and I'm in a gas station and the radio is on in the car and I don't listen to the radio very much because well because they don't play great avant-garde jazz on the radio it's like there's no market for that so I had on my a my on my iPod and stuff like that but I never forget it was the worst as I'd ever heard that they were discontinuing making Twinkies and I was like a bad moment now listen if you've been around this place at all you know that I love Twinkies don't hate me because I love Twinkies you've heard me say it before I believe that Twinkies or the manna that God gave the children of Israel from heaven they thought they said what is it and anyway so I love I love me some Twinkies but I remember when I was sitting there and and it was like I was at a gas station I just finished her nun and I said you'll never believe it they're they're no longer making Twinkies and I thought to myself the first thing that I heard in my head was that song from the 80s migrant a group called Cinderella you know guys who look like Cinderella but they were dudes and her hair and the whole thing and the song was you don't know what you got till it's gone you know as a first you guys know that song it's the first thing I went through you don't know what you got it's gone and so so sure enough I'm supposed to go home but I'm like if Twinkies are not gonna be made anymore I gotta find me some Twinkie so I started driving around and I there was none in Safeway none and Fred Meijer none I even tried the dollar store I'm like it means got the Twinkies in the dollar store there's no Twinkies anywhere I even tried gas stations like you unload can be like I couldn't find a Twinkie anywhere and then she's text me said where are you I'm like I'm trying to find Twinkies and I remember I went home and I'm and she's like why are you trying to find tweeks I'm like they don't make them anymore I can't believe this but sure enough the great news was they were only out of production for about four months glory glory say praise God I gotta say praise God that's I I says when they came back at night now you guys know what it is not only you have Twinkies you have banana flavored Twinkie strawberry flavor Twinkie get Twinkie ice cream get Twinkie ice cream cones but the great news of hearing they were going back in production now I started thinking about this all simply because you I know it's crazy but there's like an expiration date on the box of Twinkies so I just had it so so like if you watch the two-minute messages that we do on Facebook you know we have Mon on YouTube as well you know and a lot of them there's a Twinkie box it's like kind of a random Twinkie box it's it's kind of like a fun little thing that we do and the reason that is is because you know wherever I go we bring Twinkies with you know and so but in my office is a box of Twinkies and so sure enough my assistant Diana there's a box of Twinkies and now my God look at those Twinkies they look so beautiful she's like well they're expired and then this began this whole discussion about expiration dates and and so my wife Lynne is the same way we're like if it expires on this day it's like it goes in the garbage and so I'm like no no no you don't have to throw it out that's just their way of getting you to buy more you know like total guy you know what I mean like like where you're like not gonna throw it out could you paid for it you'll eat it even if it's half bad you know and so sure enough Diana it's like well no no no those things go bad I'm like they really don't go bad I'm like look I know it if there was a nuclear fallout everything would be radioactive except em Twinkies you know I really so you keep those things and no matter what you eat them and so then I because now she's like no no they go bad and you can't eat them and and so I was argumentative because it's Twinkies and I'm an expert oh really but sure enough I ended up looking up online and sure enough it says that according to the you know there have there are 21 days of freshness I'll be honest with you I don't think I've ever eaten a Twinkie that was eaten before the expiration date and they always taste exactly the same so I'm just gonna keep I actually read an article about a teacher who put a Twinkie in his classroom and he kept it there for 30 years so I don't know if he ate it or not but I think I'm gonna do that I'm just gonna put Twinkies everywhere and I'm gonna put dates on it and now this eat one a year and just to see how they do so I mean this long rabbit trail is all just to say doesn't I was great news when I found out that Twinkies we're coming back yet but we all love great news don't we you look like when you get great news you love great news and today I want to share with you some of the most amazing news I want to share with you the greatest news in all the world no we're doing this series that we're calling echoes do you think of an echo and echo is a sound that's been made in the past that reverberates into the present time and the prophet Isaiah might be no more profound example of a voice from the past timeless truths that have a present reality for us so do you wanna hear some great news today open up in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 61 Isaiah 61 as we continue this echo series in from the prophet Isaiah so so open up those Bibles of course if you're online don't forget you open up your your you version or you know or however you like to read your Bible from Isaiah 60 we're gonna take this whole chapter and this I've entitled this message this isn't just good news this is great news today Isaiah 61 if you're new to the Bible I want to get you the Prophet I say it's really actually easy to find if you're just flipping the Bible around you're either gonna see Psalms or Isaiah because of the two largest books in the Bible so if you find Isaiah just go to 61 you find Psalms go to your right and you'll find there's Isaiah is what the first of what we call the major prophets and I always like to say that major prophets aren't more important than the minor prophets they're just majorly more verbose so so I say 66 chapters the minor prophets are all shorter books but Isaiah cuz Isaiah and then of course Zeke Jeremiah Ezekiel and Daniel your four major prophets so it says this in Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1 it says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim Liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn to console those who mourn in Zion to give them beauty for Ashes the oil of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they may be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified now that's a pretty powerful start to a chapter isn't it now here's what you need to know about these verses this speaks of Jesus that's what you need to know here these verses here this speak of Jesus now what's beautiful is in the very beginning the very first sentence the Spirit of the Lord is upon me here we have all three persons of the Trinity explained here in this verse now again there's only one God but that one God reveals himself eternally existing in three persons father Simon son and spirit so what you have is known as the Spirit of the Lord God so the spirit that's the third person of the Trinity the Holy Spirit the Lord God if you notice it in your Bibles it's capital L or L o rd God so some of you're trying to say sovereign God or or the Lord God so this speaks of the father is upon me that speaks of Jesus the son so you have all three persons of the Trinity the one true God the God of the Bible the creator and sustainer of all things is right there in the beginning now some people say well the word Trinity isn't in the Bible and you're not you're absolutely right the words not in there but the concept is absolutely in there that's the word that they use for this concept of one God in three persons you might say well how do you know that it's Jesus well quite simply Jesus quotes this in Luke chapter four verses 16 to 22 I'm gonna read it to you because Jesus applies this in an amazing way it says this Luke 4 verse 16 so he's speaking of Jesus came to Nazareth and when they where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book he found the place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim Liberty to the captives the recovery of the sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and then it says then he closed the book and he gave it back to the attendant he sat down and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed upon him and when he began to say to them today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing so all bore witness of him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth so this is after Jesus was driven by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil he did not give in to that temptation and then it says he entered into where he was from and he went into the synagogue as was his custom and it was the time for the reading visiting rabbis and teachers could stand up and Jesus tended they hand him the scroll of Isaiah and it says he found where this was and then he begins to read Isaiah 61 but he stops after to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord he doesn't finish the verses he closes sits down everyone stares at him they're like what because remember in that culture you couldn't just read anywhere they were following almost like a Liturgy of reading so Jesus went out of order everyone's looking at him he said today the Scriptures fulfilled in your hearing BAM everyone who's sitting there just like mind-blown why because this is about Jesus she'sa saying our Messiah the spirit of the true and living God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me and then this whole long list of things that Jesus has come to do to preach good tidings to the poor that good tidings is good news it's it's it's the idea of the gospel to preach it to the poor to those who are on the margins Jew he sent me to heal the brokenhearted those whose hearts have been broken he's gonna bring healing is gonna bind up those broken hearts he's gonna proclaim Liberty to the captives those who are in prison whether literally or spiritually could proclaim Liberty to them the opening of the prison to those who were bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and then if it keeps going it says and the day of vengeance about from from our God they might say why did Jesus stop after to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord he answer simple Jesus's work comes in two advents two comings in the first coming Jesus to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord - to proclaim grace but when Jesus returns again that will be the day of vengeance of our God where God will bring to justice all that has been wronged so we see the Ministry of Jesus takes place in two advents that's why he stopped in the middle of these verses and that's probably why they got caught they were like why did he stop right there but notice as it goes on I'm gonna comfort all who mourn I don't I can soul those who mourn in Zion I want to give them where there's ashes I want to give them beauty where there's mourning I'm gonna give them the oil of joy although they have a spirit of heaviness I'm gonna give him the garment of praise that they may be called trees of righteousness now listen if you're here today and you're a follower of Jesus when you put your faith and trust in Jesus the Bible calls it that you're born again that you are reborn spiritually that although you are spiritually dead because of your faith and trust in Jesus now you get made alive again now if you're not a believer here today you're gonna have an opportunity to say yes to Jesus by the end of this service and I'm excited for you to respond that you might be made alive again in a way unlike you've ever been alive before true life the abundant life that leads to everlasting and eternal life but for those of us who have already received Jesus Jesus invites us to partner with him in this work that he's doing this as he is proclaiming the good news to the poorest he's comforting those who mourn as he is taking a spirit of heaviness and he you know away and he's giving a spirit of praise and the way that we do that is through self sacrificial service in God's kingdom now what I love is that in all of our campuses today in our Southwest Portland campus here in our Vancouver campus today's a day that we call connect and surf which is an opportunity for each one of us to join Jesus in the transformational work that he's doing and we'd like to say here it crosses that because Jesus is real we're a family of faith that's fully engaged and what that means is that every single one of us has a necessary part to play in the work of God's kingdom but the problem is of course is that we aren't a fully engaged family yet because there are many people who are serving right now I mean you look at our VBS at our Vancouver campus we had 300 volunteers we had our VBS in our Southwest Portland campus the week before tons of volunteers but we're a church of many thousands of people and God wants all of us to be engaged in the work of the kingdom this is why we're having connect and served today and through next week because I believe that Jesus is inviting all of us not just some of us all of us to step into the work that he's doing now in just a moment I'm gonna show you guys a video that I think is so important because this past Wednesday night we commissioned some missionaries who are Crossroads missionaries we're gonna be stepping on out into the mission but before I tell you any more check out this video and I'll be back with you in a sec we believe that because Jesus is real he's making us a family of faith we met this amazing couple Michael and Jill Joshua and God has been stirring in their hearts to go to one of the largest unreached people groups in the entire world and we're excited tonight to commissioned them as missionaries of crossroads and so we wanted to bring them before all of you so that we can Commission them as a church family so you guys excited to meet the Joshua family so because we believe in a culture of appreciation I'm gonna invite Michael and Jill all the girls let's all stand to our feet let's give a round of applause to our brothers our sisters here [Applause] father we want to thank you so much for the Joshua's and God we ask that you would do all that you want to do exceedingly abundantly above all that they could ask her think and how we ask not only for your protection but your blessings on this family god your word tells us that you want to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think and the Lord we realize that you're exceeding abundance is beyond our comprehension and so god I just ask that as that Joshua's are heading on out you would give them knees bent heads bowed hands raised and that word they would be gained for all that you have for them as they stepped into the field that you have ordained before the foundations of the earth they would walkie so god empower them by your Holy Spirit give them great favor bill lifetime friendships for them with people that they meet on the field and Lord and let them never forget that they are cherished and loved and prayed for not only by the cross with them but the family of God is all in their corner excited for what you're doing in their lives Lord because of this journey you're sending this family on so where we commit them capable hands and they ask it all in Jesus name and all of God's family agreed together and said [Music] [Applause] so I wanted you to see that video because when we commissioned a family I mean so literally they're going to a muslim-majority nation one of the largest unreached people groups in the world less than 1/100 of 1% Christian how does somebody end up there well when I talked with Michael and Jill their story is a lot like lying where they showed up at church started kind of poking around and along the way started serving the Lord and as they took a step of faith God did it work and then God opened up another door and they served and then they took a step of faith and then before you know it he becomes an assistant pastor at the church that he's add up in in Tacoma area and then God starts to turn their heart because they just kept serving that's my story see nobody ever just ends up a missionary and missionaries are builds nobody ends up a pastor they're built nobody ends up a mighty man or woman of God it's something that you build every single day and I believe that God wants to build up all of us I mean I've never once met a believer who didn't say I want God to mightily use my life we know what happens for many of us we want that but we actually never want to do the work to be in a place that God can use your life it's like you have to take a step of faith to do it and I believe that deep down in when the still small voice of the Holy Spirit speaks to each one of us you want to say I want my life to mightily impact people for God's kingdom and I'm here to tell you connect and serve is to step in you know how I know this this past week at our VBS here Vancouver campus my two oldest Obadiah Maranatha both surf and I'll never forget so oh but I was doing like the little kids the mini VBS and I remember I saw oh but I on Monday morning I said Obadiah I you excited about VBS he's like well I don't know if I'm excited I don't know what I got myself into classic it's like totally my boy you know he's like a thinking advisory I'm not really sure that I don't know what I'm doing but you know and and so sure enough he didn't know what he signed up for but sure enough he's playing in the mini VBS and by Friday he was like dad I totally want to serve in the nursery after this is over because he took a step of faith and and our culture says serve me and Jesus says you're more blessed to give than receive my daughter maranatha she loves to worship she loves to sing you know she loves she's just such an active amazing young woman and she got invited to to be on the worship team for VBS you know and literally like after the week's over she's like dad I need to talk to pastor Jason I want to get on the worship team across roads you know and now she's like I want to take piano lessons nobody voice lessons and you know because she realizes like it's so much more it's fun to worship it's another thing to help others worship see my kids learned by serving the very things that Jesus says in his word and I believe that God wants all of us to learn these things I believe that God wants each one of us to step on out so that we can join him so after the gathering say all of our campus connect and surf step in take the step of faith because this is what Jesus invites us all into now what I love about this is when when you hear an encouragement to like connect and serve for many of us like whoa listen that's great and all but like what good am i you don't know where I've been look at what it says next verse 4 of Isaiah 61 it says then they shall rebuild the old ruins and they shall raise up the former desolations and they shall repair the ruined cities the desolations of many generations strangers whereas five shall stand and feed your flocks and the sons of the foreigner shall be your Plowman and your vine dressers but you shall be named the priests of the Lord they shall call you the servants of our God you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and in their glory you shall boast instead of your shame you shall have double honor and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion there in their land they shall possess double everlasting joy shall be theirs my friends what we learn here is that it's comeback time see the children of Israel here the idea is that it's now it's so it's it's it's they're coming back after the Babylonian exile the greatest calamity in the history of Israel and it says but they shall rebuild the old ruins and they will raise up the former desolations they shall repair the ruined cities the desolations of many generations not only that it says that strangers shall stand and feed your flocks and the sons of the foreigner shall be your Plowman and your vine justice this is speaking about slavers speaking about they've been so blessed that now they have employees the other nations are now coming to them to to work in their fields to help them with all that's God's doing and I think for many of us when we think about connecting and serving maybe along the way you tried to serve and it didn't go well and you got hurt or maybe you feel like your life has been such a train wreck what do you have to give and what we learn here is that when God anoints and empowers us by his Spirit even if we have a bad track record God does a comeback restoration type of a work and what I have learned in my life is that when somebody reengage is after whatever it is that's going on and they begin to serve that now because of the experiences that they've had God can leverage those experiences because it humbles us and helps us to be more reliant on the Lord less puffed up and proud all things and all of a sudden now God can use you in greater ways because you're not thinking of course God's gonna use me because I got it all going on but now all of a sudden you start to realize God's got great power and you can use anybody I believe that it's your comeback time today I've less time for for you to be the comeback player of the year I believe that God's plan is to leverage whatever happened and he wants to strengthen you through what happened or what never you never stepped in because you have so all this stuff you're working through and you will find the healing that God wants to give you in the midst of serving others and that happens for many many people doesn't have I like to say this way the church is the hospital and the church is an army the ideas we all showed up a little mangled right what's also interesting is that if you hang in the hospital long enough you have a tendency to get mangled all over again because there's a lot of sickness and church right but in the hospital God is the great physician and we're all patients and we're all doctors see no one's perfectly well except for Jesus so we help one another as we are but it's not just the hospital it's also an army see Jesus isn't interested in just being like doing triage for life at some point you get well enough and now there's a battle that's going on in the world and not a battle with guns but a battle for the souls of people and God wants all of us to be engaged in that work so I think it's comeback time for some of us I think today's the day you're gonna finally trust God with your history so that you can step in to what God has for you and now I know this look at what it says in verse 6 but you shall be named the priests of the Lord and they shall call you the servants of God see when God called the children of Israel all the way back in Sinai he said you are all gonna be all priests a kingdom of priests and a priest job was to stand before people in the name of God and stand before God in the name of people it was a immediate oriole role of the role of a mediator to be able to present God into the world to people and also to stand before God in the name of other people interceding for them that's the role of a priest now what's amazing is in Peters writings he says that the church is a kingdom of priests what it means is all of us not just some guy with a backwards collar you know you notice I don't wear those bad boys praise God I'll be hard to talk with that thing I'm there ma'am I'm not knock I mean I'm knocking him a little bit but here's my collar here you know my scarf but you know what I mean it's like we're all designed in Christ recreating Christ - to mediate God to people and people to God Jesus is the mediator but he lets us partner with him in that mediatorial we're all that we others and they shall call you the servants of our God how can we be servants of God if we're not servants of God's see it's come back time God wants to usher all of us back in to where we're supposed to be notice in verse 7 instead of the shame you should double honor that speaks of the blessings of the firstborn who got double honor the double portion of the inheritance but the double portion of the inheritance also comes with twice the responsibility because the first foreign was designed to be the new head of the family see if you're here then you put your faith and trust in Jesus the spirit of the Living God is in you you have received that double honor but with such an honor of being people who can contain the Spirit of God and these earthen vessels there's a responsibility now you don't hear this a lot in church because you know if you read the church growth books they say you need to make it low commitment for a low commitment culture but guess what you're never gonna get that here across the rounds you know why cuz God's not content with your church attendance and a little financial generosity God wants your whole life and God wants your whole life to be leveraged to the hilt for the blessings of humanity and God's own glory and that's never gonna happen kind of messing around with it it's never gonna happen so brothers and sisters it's combat call see what I've learned is that all the brokenness in my life Jesus has healed but he oftentimes works that stuff out in the midst of the journey in the midst of the journey of marriage in the midst of the journey of being a parent in the midst of the journey of being a pastor serving the Lord whatever your details are it's in the midst of the journey all the experiences you have now all of a sudden he begins to work these things out now notice what says in verse eight for I the Lord love justice I hate robbery for burn offerings and I will direct their work in truth and I will make with them an everlasting covenant their descendants shall be known amongst the Gentiles and their offspring among the people all who see them shall acknowledge them that they are the posterity whom the Lord has blessed my friends God wants us to love what God loves see notice these words here it says for I the Lord love justice and I hate robbery for burnt offerings I will direct their work in truth and will make an everlasting covenant with them see God loves justice now the idea here is that God wants us to value the things that he values when we love what God loves we begin to act in the same ways that God would act because love is the great motivating factor on how we live our lives see the idea here is when it says I hate robbery for burnt offerings you realize that burnt offerings was an act of worship to God in that culture but people were using injustice they were being dishonest and their business dealings doing all these things so they could worship God you know I mean so it's kind of like in one way their life was not integrated in their faith they were like well I want to worship over here it doesn't matter if I'm a little shady over here and what God is interested in is he's like no no I love justice and I actually hate it when you're the hypocrite when you're like oh I'll come here to worship but really my life's not living that way at all and isn't that our problem today that we have a life that is not integrated we have a life we don't have a holistic Jesus spirituality but we have a compartmentalized one where it's like you can go home tonight and you can go on your on your computer and you can involve yourself in all sorts of garbage and then tomorrow morning you're like sharing a two-minute message but you realize that the world has a almost no tolerance for hypocrisy that's why whenever there's a religious leader who doesn't follow through on their message they go nuts right well you know I our culture has a low tolerance for hypocrisy you know why it is right because all of us hate seeing our sin when other people commit it the problem with humanity is it's so easy to be hypocritical right it's so easy to say one thing and do another thing it's it's so easy to say I love God and to rip somebody off and then still worship it's easy to do that it happens all the time but when we love what God loves all of a sudden now we be that we have the same motivation that God has and we live totally different do you love what God loves see Jesus was the most aggressive with the Pharisees and the scribes because their hypocrisy in the name of God they were pushing people away from now listen when he says in Matthew 23 verses 23 and 24 woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law justice mercy and faith these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone blind guides who strain a gnat and swallow a camel do you know si si he's saying look it's so much easier if you believe in tithing to tie everything but neglects the weightier matters of the law justice and mercy and faith he's saying you should have done those while still doing the others he's not saying we'll do those instead of the other things right he's saying it's good to remember that all that you have comes from God and so you honor God with your firstfruits you should do that but don't do that at the expense of the weightier matters of the law and if Jesus said that the greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all how do we not grab hold of that and say well I probably need them what sir but when you love what God loves see God loves justice see justice is when the things are working the way they're supposed to be working see justice is when what is right and true plays itself out in real time as right and true and that happens the justice takes over a society when individuals walk humbly with their God and they love mercy and they do justice as Micah the prophet Micah 6:8 says but we need to make sure we love what God loves and we don't want to be hypocritical we don't want to make the mistake of having a form of this stuff without having it be holistically integrated see notice when this happens I'll direct their work in truth God's saying he's like look when you take that step of faith then I will direct your work in truth and I'll make an everlasting covenant with you their descendants shall be known amongst the Gentiles their offspring amongst the people all who see them shall acknowledge them that they are the posterity whom the Lord is blessed see this is about witness in the world see that's why for us here crossroads we'd love to say it that because Jesus was real what we're a family of faithfully engaged which is why I'm trying we want all to connect and serve doing what transforming our community in our world because when we as a family of faith are all involved are all at work all of a sudden God is doing a transformational work in us and then we become transformational agents in the world we're talking about right here all the stuff is just biblical reality because all of a sudden when this is happening and God is directing our works in truth and and and and and and we're living in the everlasting covenant of who Jesus is now so never one to be like well I don't know about all that stuff for those Christians man like God's at work in their myths God's bless them I don't even know if I believe in God but there's something about those people and that's about the witness of the church in the world now this chapter ends in the most beautiful of ways look at how it ends verse 10 if Isaiah 61 it says this I will regreat Li rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful and my god he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and a bride adorns herself with her jewels for as that earth brings forth its bud as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations brothers and sisters you and I just like this final two verses we need to respond with worship we need to respond with worship notice after all this is said and done Isaiah is now speaking I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful and my god this is why here across those we place a premium on worship now listen worship is not like the warm-up for the Bible teaching it's not like oh yeah we'd used to say we worship because we were created to worship one does I love about what God is doing in our midst his goddess we've been praying that God would make us the most vibrant worshiping community and I believe that God is doing that I believe that God is inviting all of us the worship is it's you're ascribing worth to God and when you and I realize what Jesus has done for us the only thing we can do is rejoice in God's presence the only thing we can do is magnify him in worship and praise why because we have received the most phenomenal gifts and that's why we not only worship at the beginning of our gatherings we worship at the end of our guys why because we believe that once the good news of who Jesus goes forth we have to praise God for it just the way if you go to someone's house and they make an amazing meal there's a gala here in our in our in our congregation she's an amazing she can make treats desserts right she made me a sunflower but all the petals were twinkies and the center was chocolate cake with Hershey Kisses on top now when I saw my sister you don't think I praised her for that you know I did it was so good and if you praise someone who can serve you up treats if you know when someone doesn't how much more should we praise God do you spawn to your life with worship the good and the bad in the midst of the storm you raise your hand you say God you are a good god I don't know how you're gonna work this out but you are a good god and you're faithful and you're trustworthy with something amazing happen that you've been praying for do you forget to stop and say lord thank you so much that even though I was fearful God you have been faithful processes we were created and we will spend eternity praising God and we won't get bored of his amuse like it for all we're doing is praising God in heaven is that's gonna be boring no it's not you're boring we we see through a glass dimly right now when we see the whole thing of what God's plan has been for all of creation we are gonna be so a stunt it will take eternity to adequately praise God for who he is and God wants us to let heaven touch down right here where we live the Crossroads family and he wants our lives to be a perpetual response with worship we were created for this I love this why should we greatly rejoice the Lord why should our soul be joyful in God Lewis has at verse 10 for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteous as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and the bride adorns herself with her jewels this reminds me of Ephesians 4:22 224 Paul uses the same idea but that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which goes corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed and the spirit of your mind that you may put on the new man which was created according to God and true righteousness and holiness all brothers listen right here right now call if you're in Christ God has robed you in righteousness he has adorned you with the garments of salvation he put off your old life he put off like just an old outfit like when you come in from work in the yard and your head-to-toe dirty or whatever you take that thing off and then he puts you in brand-new perfect robes of salvation and if you're here today and you've already been clothed in the righteousness of Jesus ah then it's comeback time we want to love the things at college we want to be worshipers vibrant worshipers white-hot worshipers we want to be the Khedive who shows up to the worship gathering and even before the worship team starts to play we're already praising God don't need them don't need the song the song just ends up being part of the experience and God wants us to be those type of people he created us in Christ to be those type of people but if you're here today and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus listen God is offering you a forehand new life fresh life he's saying look all the shame all the tears all the junk whatever it is I want to remove it off of you just like an old set of clothes and I want to give you fresh stuff and I want to robe you in Who I am the Lord is saying I want to do a work in you that transforms your life and that transfers happens when you say Lord I will receive what you have to give me and that what he has to give you a salvation he wants you to be cleansed he wants you though your sins are scarlet to be made white as snow he wants to put off the old life and he wants to give you a brand new life that is so absolutely riveting you couldn't even fathom it until you experience it and if that is you today and you're saying I kind of want that I'm going to give you an opportunity whether you're in our Portland campus with your here in our Vancouver campus whether you're on Facebook live online wherever you're hearing this God is offering it to you and all you have to do is say yes please I might say well what I think we'd have to do for it nothing you just say thank you and you receive it and then God transforms your life as you go that's all he asks is that you respond with yes and then he does the rest so shall we pray together let's bow our heads in our hearts

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

Views: 7,852

Rating: 4.5229359 out of 5

Keywords: Crossroads

Id: lCKnTlE0090

Length: 44min 42sec (2682 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2017