HAVE YOU BEEN WITH JESUS? PT 1 | Pastor Eddie Vargas

[Music] hey everyone welcome to our youtube channel my name is cora and i'm the media ministry leader here at restoration life our prayer is that today's message encourages you and lifts you up in the most powerful way let's take a listen wandering into the night wanting a place to hide this weary this bag [Music] i'm he told me [Music] [Music] forever got no choice but to believe [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] forever thank you [Music] i am [Music] i am free [Music] uh yeah [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] get up here [Applause] thank you up [Music] he [Music] not the changed i think the master [Music] oh [Applause] so here it is [Music] it's only just the start so here it is were you worthy for [Music] to beyonce it rise [Music] my [Music] yes [Music] i can't [Music] let it believe [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] rise [Applause] [Music] and every breath [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so let it rise [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my heart cries all these [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] laid it all down this we morning it to you this morning so worthy come on right now why don't you just lift up your own song of worship to him [Music] we wait on you cause you can have it all [Music] yes you can have it all [Music] oh you can have it all [Music] you can have it all [Music] all fear all shame won't give we give it to you this morning all praise all worship we give it to you [Music] [Applause] [Music] again [Music] we've come to bless your name [Music] so let it rise like insane my whole life a fragrance every eyes hear spilled out at your feet and every breath is my offering my heart cries oh these lungs [Music] [Music] this world could never satisfy [Music] i'm coming back to your presence [Music] is [Music] i need [Music] [Applause] [Music] stronger than before you are the one that i [Music] desired [Music] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] me with you [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] not anymore [Music] [Applause] [Music] can you still be hungry [Music] can you still be hungry after all these years can you still be desperate after all these years can you still be longing after all these years [Music] [Music] thank you now [Music] [Music] [Music] fears [Music] tell me the more i seek you [Music] the more i find [Music] the more the more i seek you the more i find the more i find you [Music] [Music] against you [Music] is [Music] against this love is [Music] is [Music] me [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] good afternoon church we're going to transition into time of communion right now but you can go ahead and grab your emblems i'm going to read out of first corinthians 11 20 26 it says whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes a little earlier um in first corinthians 10 21 paul talks about two tables the table of the lord and the table of demons and in the context of scripture the table of demons had to do with eating food sacrificed to idols and that was a social practice at that time and many times we personally can actually erect idols in our lives by the time that we give it could be so many different things in our lives that can either take our attention our time our money and we take our eyes off of jesus and place them on these things that have taken the place of our relationship with the lord they become idols and hear what paul's talking about these two tables it was a practice at the time but spiritually speaking we need to be able to turn away from the things that pull us away from the presence of god and the time that we spend with him and going into his word and feasting upon his word this table of idols that many times we've allowed to be erected in our lives has to be destroyed and if we look at [Music] the this table that has these idols that many times we get so engulfed in and we have to think about when we hold communion in our hands these emblems that represent what jesus christ did on the cross for you and i so that we can be free we need to be able to destroy that table of idols spiritually speaking if we've allowed that to take place in our lives and focus on the table that he has provided for us so that we may feast upon the goodness of god and all that he has in store for us because when we feast at the table that the lord provides for us by remembering what he did on the cross we are we are acknowledging acknowledging that the devil is defeated he no longer has a hold on our lives and if we do that and we face at the lord's table we celebrate with heaven the victory of jesus christ being risen from the dead and is now in our hearts if we receive him as lord and savior and that we nourish we are nourished at that table alone and no longer the table of idols that take place the presence of the lord so let us remember as we hold those emblems in our hands what christ did for us let us partake from the goodness of the lord and let us never forget allow anything in our lives to take that place let's pray father we are so grateful for your presence in this place for you allowing us to be able to feast at this table lord to remember you what you did on the cross for us so that we may be forgiven and free from our sin we are so grateful for that sacrifice we thank you in jesus name and the church said amen we want to welcome you to restoration life church if it is your first time here we want to say welcome home and if you are watching online thank you for joining us why don't you turn around and greet somebody say hello for and look for somebody that you've never met before [Music] oh come on let's give god a shot of praise in the house this morning [Music] oh come on it says you've got a shout of praise in the house this morning look i know i know you sleepy you know you woke up like early that little hour got you done it's all right you're here you made it praise god you guys you have a two sunday grace period two sunday grace period you got this sunday to be late you got next sunday to be late after that i want to hear like this the time change you're fine all right we're excited to have everybody in the house today so good to see everyone we're going to take this opportunity right now to give the offering envelopes if you want to get by cash or a card that way is right there on the front of your pew you can also give online through our website and you can give our app that's one of the most convenient ways to give and also you can just use your qr code reader just hold your phone up to the screen and you can give that way um last week i talked about maturing in our faith and an area that a lot of maturity needs to happen is in our understanding of tithing and generosity because sometimes when we come in and we come to this moment there's this feeling that comes over us and often it's because we don't understand what it is we're actually doing you know as a pastor i get a lot of crazy emails from all over the world i get you know the nigerian prince who checks in like lets me know there's like 10 million in the bank account for me to get with them we get asked to support different things where like hey we're starting a ministry with crystals and we want your support for our crystals and all these kind of things so i get crazy stuff that comes but a couple of weeks ago i got an email from someone in the philippines and my initial response was uh here we go again let me just keep scrolling but i started to read it and it said hey pastor i just want to say thank you me and my family we live in the philippines and we're able to watch you guys on sunday and we've been tremendously blessed by the by the messages and you know i started to get my neighbors and we gather our family and we just love what you guys are doing the only thing we ask is can you please send us what you guys teach on okay it would help us so much can you just send us some teaching because we want to continue to grow with god here and be connected to you guys and also we ask that you pray for us that we're able to build a church here in the philippines and it just warmed my heart so much and it just let me know like what we sow a seed into matters it matters that we invest into the church it matters that we invest into the right things because it goes well beyond just these walls we are literally reaching people all around the world church we are literally sharing the gospel this very moment right now we got people tuning in from all over the world who are hearing the gospel for the first time and we would not be able to do that have we not sown seeds here investing getting the right people getting the right equipment getting them right in technology that does come at a cost but now we're able to continue on the mission that god gave this house and so that's the maturity in our understanding of generosity and tithing we should never give out a reluctancy or compulsion but give out of the goodness of our heart and joy knowing that the gospel is moving around the world amen father we just want to say thank you thank you for all your provision thank you for blessing this house we thank you for every single person watching online around the world and their generosity god continue to have your hand upon them continue to allow your word the gospel of jesus christ to move around this world and use restoration life as a vessel father we ask that you be here with us this day and we give you all the glory all the honor and all the praise and everyone said amen come on give god some praise today [Applause] hey real quick all my fellas make some noise [Applause] that's what i'm talking about tomorrow night tomorrow night 7 30. let's get here let's pack this place out let's be excited we got jeremy johnson coming to be with us he's going to minister for our very first man up monday of the year i cannot wait i'm so excited we also afterwards we're going to spend some time fellowshipping we got tacos ek so we're going to eat good and you know what we're going to do we're going to pre-sell some tickets so we don't have to wait in line get you guys taken care of everybody's going to grow up we're going to hang out we're going to fellowship and enjoy each other coming up really soon is our good friday service this is going to be something you don't want to miss out on it's not like a regular church service we're going to get into it breaking down the crucifixion of our lord and savior jesus christ in a very unique and beautiful way we're going to do it two times on good friday one at 6 00 p.m and one at 8pm what we're asking from everybody is that you take the time out to go online at rsvp there is no cost to this whatsoever we just want to make sure we don't overload one of the services and we have enough space for everybody so if you can go online that'll be available uh probably next week so be sure to stay tuned with our social media and then check on our website and you'll be able to go on there and rsvp as well as for easter sunday which we'll be doing three services on resurrection sunday at 8 a.m 9 30 and 11 30 you'll be able to rsvp for those as well for all my ladies [Music] check it out i know some of you like you try to go online and register for radio and it was out listen we were able to add some more slots but they're going very fast so if you want those slots i suggest you pull out your phone right now before pastor eddie gets into his message and you miss your opportunity without further ado would you please welcome up our lead pastor pastor eddie vargas [Music] hey good morning everyone it's so good to have you here and watching us online and man god's doing some really cool stuff here at restoration life and before i go any further i just just want to say thank you to everybody who serves every sunday um you guys make everything look so effortless but we know that there are hundreds and hundreds of hours of preparation that goes into everything that everybody does on sunday morning so can we just thank them church just thank everybody that just serves and and and with that in mind um i'm gonna i'm gonna ask um i don't know as is is david is david here cora is he here where is he where's david where's i don't see him where sir where's sir where are you at where are you at oh there you are hey can you come here for a sec can you just come here for a second in fact do me a favor and and just come up here can you just come up here for just a second um years ago what a lot of people don't know and i i'm not doing this to put you on blast because i know that you hate this kind of stuff yeah you do um but years ago david stepped into a position of leadership um because we had a transition that took place and um man you did such a remarkable job at stepping in at a critical time in fact we wouldn't have a media team with everything that we do at restoration life to help your worship experience be the way that it is without without david and his heart and his gifting and i think there's some people that want to come up and say thank you um real quickly and and again you can take off your mask you're in a safe space now um sir and um i just i just honor you we want to honor you and say thank you and so um david um released the ministry decorah and cora has been leading um the media team and i think i think the team has something for you if you guys maybe could just bring bring it up to him like yeah look at how many people there's a lot more that make up this team but um they they've i don't know if you if you guys got a mic or anything that's cool if not but really this is come here you nobody ever gets to see you guys because you guys are like behind cameras you guys are in you know the social media room you guys are producing planning organizing shooting setting up taking down editing um just this is this is your media team church this is all the people that are on your media team and um david led this team at a very critical time and we just we honor you and now uh i found out that you're transitioning out of the team and you're going to be doing something new yeah and here at restoration life and um but we wanted to make sure that we honored where honor is doing so cora david hello thank you so much we thank you so much for all the sacrifice that you've done um that you and your wife have put in um for the team hello um and you made this so effortlessly to just step right into this role and to um go right into this um with all the tools and necessarities that i need the team has totally grown and that's all part of your fruit and we just thank you so much you and your wife theresa and your family for just putting in the sacrificing so we wanted to just honor you and thank you so much for everything you've done and we can't wait to see what god does in your life and in your family from here on out so david thank you so so much so there's a one-way ticket to the death [Music] star you guys never get to see everybody that lives in that fish tank every sunday morning but there's a lot of people there's a lot of people a lot of amazing families and members of your church that labor in love on saturdays and sundays and monday and every special event they're grinding away and so thank all of you for all that you guys do you guys are incredible nobody ever really gets to see you guys but thank you so much david now what a blessing you are bro love you man love you i just we just felt like we needed to honor you you're welcome what did what what an incredible family of god here at restoration life and we just want to honor all of you for being here with us today and um i need i want everybody to do this just everybody do this just kind of loosen it up a little bit because i need you to shake off your feelings for this service is that okay come on shake it up shake it off shake it off because i need to say some things that i think are going to equip you and help you and hopefully empower you to do what i believe god has called and anointed all of you to do as the church we are the church we don't go to church we are the church and i thank god that we have a church that was willing to do everything that it could to honor god by serving his people and uh we're going on a year that we've been in quarantine and and now the nation is starting to open up but aren't you glad that your church opened up early to be able to serve one another and love and so thank you to everyone that that made that possible without all of you it's impossible for us to do together what we know that we should be doing um but i want to share a message that i've entitled have you been with jesus have you been with jesus and before i i get into this i need i need you to license me like last year you guys are early this year you licensed me to pasture you to equip you to train you to instruct you to to rebuke you if need be but more than anything else to teach you what the bible says so that your faith can increase in christ and you can fulfill god's plan and purpose for your individual lives and our corporate lives together as a church so i just want to pray if i could have every head body in every eye clothes for just a moment we just want to pray because we we don't we don't want our emotions to get in the way of truth and we don't want our paradigms to get in the way of truth and we don't want our preferences and our opinions to get in the way of truth but we want to hear the truth because if we know the truth it'll set us free as the holy spirit speak our hearts and minds are open to instruction we thank you father for your living word we thank you that you're with us even now that we're never alone in anything that we go through because you love us you're always with us so father we give you this next 45 minutes and we ask that you speak to us individually right where we're at speak to our marriages speak to our parenting speak to our social status speak to who we are in you so that we can better reflect you to a hopeless and dying world we thank you for that in jesus name and everyone said come on can somebody celebrate jesus for just 30 seconds come on just for 30 seconds we just celebrate jesus come on can somebody make a joyful noise unto the lord we love to celebrate jesus if we're going to make anyone famous it's going to be jesus and years ago i was asked by a very dear friend of mine he said this he made he asked me this question if your church were to ever to if your church were ever to close with your will would your city miss you would your government government officials know that you're not there would anybody care if your church closed down and after this year of quarantine and you know we're getting ready to enter into a new season of life at least here in the united states or maybe even more so in california i would say that our church would be extremely missed if we weren't here in the south bay and so i thank god for all of you standing beside us through every decision that we've made in order to stay open and be the church that god loves to use and move through so in response to that question if your church were to leave or your church would close down would your city miss you i would respond with a hard absolutely yes we know that we've made a lot of impact together as the bride of christ here in our community when it goes to feeding families counseling brokenness in families and in marriages and individuals but even more importantly than anything else by advancing in the spreading of the gospel of jesus christ and so i'm honored to lead a fearless church that was willing to lay its life down for others because many of our our families and many of our people at restoration life literally put themselves in harm's way to bring you the good news literally put themselves in harm's way to remain open and to broadcast and to film and to edit and to work in honoring the will of god for our church for this season that we're living in and so we've been unashamedly testifying of the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ and we'll continue to do so but as i think about that i think about where we're at as a society i think about where we're at as a nation i think about where we're at is angelino's i think about where we're at as a government and as a superpower i think about all those things but what i want you to hear real quickly and i need to kind of just lay this foundation a little bit because i don't want anybody to misinterpret what i'm saying because i know that in our church in this house of of of a beautiful multicultural environment of families that there are people that sit on the diff on different aisles of politics you know i know that there are people here that that are on tick tock or on instagram or on facebook on twitter on snapchat on all of these different platforms or on some and not also there is a grand variation of people here at our church that represent restoration life i know that there are liberals in our church i know that there are republicans in our church that there are democrats in our church that there are conservatives in our church i know that our church is made up of a lot of different people with a lot of different political bias and political opinions and and social justice warriors and and you know want to want to tackle a lot of systemic race issues and and and listen to me clearly when i say this that those things are worth having a conversation about but they're not worth allowing division to come into our church we are a kingdom people the church is a theocracy not a democracy we don't have a congress we don't have a senate we don't even have a president we have a king and his name is jesus we are a kingdom people and so the king will always have say so over everything and anything else in our life and so i honor those that sit on different aisles of different different issues i may not agree with you but you're my brother or you're my sister in christ and i will never allow any of those things to bring division between us by the same token i pray and i hope as as a citizen of the united states of america that i am allowed my own political preference as well but it will never take precedent over the message of the gospel of jesus christ in fact let me break it down to you this way before i am a citizen of the united states i am a citizen of heaven and if i am a citizen of heaven being a son of heaven god has called you and i to be of heaven in fact the bible teaches me that i am not of this world that i am just a pilgrim passing through there's an expiration date on my life and one day it's going to expire and what's most important to me as your pastor is not that i swayed you from one party to the next from one individual to another individual the only one that i want to make famous is jesus the only one that i care about that you follow is jesus the only one that i care about that you submit to is jesus and so i come and communicate with you whether it be live whether it be in on on broadcast it whether it be through a social media platform from a kingdom perspective now i understand that there are a lot of people that are more submerged into what's happening globally nationally domestically politically and and hey do you boo but he should never take precedence over the kingdom of heaven it should never be more important than who we are as a church in christ god always comes first in all things always and what i want you to do this morning is i want you to grow some very thick skin for the season that you and i are living in because we're too emotionally fragile as the body of christ i'm not talking about our church i'm talking about the church in general but we've become very fragile in our feelings and we're easily offended let me say to you this and let and i hope that you receive it in the right spirit that the gospel is offensive to those that are perishing that jesus offended a lot of people not because he didn't love them not because he didn't care about them not because he wasn't willing to lay down his life because we know that not only was he willing but he did but he's offensive because what truth does is that exposes darkness and when darkness is exposed it's offended by the light and so i want you to learn to have some thick skin for the season that we're living in because i don't think america is necessarily going to get better i think more things are going to be exposed and are going to be brought to light and this is why god desires his church to be about his father's business or the the father's business this is our responsibility and so when you see me post something proclaim something teach something or preach something i'm not coming from the perspective or the position of an american citizen i'm coming from the perspective in the position of a citizen of heaven and as an ambassador of god that's trying to get you to think outside of the paradigm that this world has taught you to think in because we're not of this world we live in the world we're not going to be taken out of the world in fact jesus prayed for us god they're going to be living in this world they're going to have to deal with certain things but i pray for them look at the book of john you see a beautiful prayer of jesus praying for not just the christians of his time but christians throughout the millennia until his return for the bride of christ and so i want to ask you this question once again have you been with jesus because how you answer that determines what your life is like how you answer that determines how much authority and anointing you're walking in how you answer that determines how you respond to people on social media to co-workers to bosses to family and extended family and friends when it comes to worldly issues whatever it may be you fill in the blank could be systemic race issues could be critical race theory could be social justice issues could be political bets could be all that but listen to me clearly when i say to you the gospel must always come first and then as you serve god and love his people a byproduct of that will be that you will address injustice that you will address things that are not okay and listen throughout the old testament and the new testament christians were not quiet when it came to governmental issues we know that in the old testament that every king had a prophet and every prophet was an oracle of god and that oracle god would speak the will of god to the king over israel now when it came to kings that were living in adultery or in wickedness the prophets of god would confront them and speak out against them not because they didn't care about them but they needed to expose the devil in the details and so prophets would speak about kings and about rulers and about nations the word of god in the new testament we know that saul of tarsus who became paul the apostle used his own citizenship to stand before rulers and testify of the goodness of god in his life and so for those of you that may say that we're not supposed to be political you're absolutely right we're not being political we're being biblical by confronting sin for what it is [Music] and just because we're the church doesn't mean that we're supposed to be silent about it and so if you get mad when we expose the the darkness that's happening then don't get mad and leave get mad and talk because the bible says be angry but sin not so if your political bent or your feelings get hurt instead of allowing the devil to push you out those doors allow the holy spirit to draw you close to come into a open conversation with each other even in the church listen it's okay to disagree and still be in the same family it's okay not to see everything the same way and still love each other and honor one another stop being so sensitive we're in covenant together you're not allowed to divorce me and i'm not allowed to divorce you in fact jesus said in scripture throughout god hates divorce and so my thing could you imagine if me and roxanne every time we got into an argument we couldn't confront our feelings and our disagreement and have some kind of conflict resolution and we're like that's it i'm gonna go to another woman but that's what people do when they leave the bride they go to another bride because they were unwilling to confront an issue that more than likely was a misunderstanding a misinterpretation an assumption instead of just confronting it with the motivation of restoration is this okay can we talk about this stuff because if we're going to be the church of jesus christ if we're going to be a spirit-filled bible teaching demon casting soul reaching church we're going to have to get over our feelings and we're going to have to get over ourselves and lay down our arrogant pride and say god not my will but your will be done and so i'm coming to you as somebody who cares about you and loves you but i'm sick and tired of the division i'm sick and tired of the divisiveness that we've allowed not in our church but in the body of christ as a whole because we don't allow that stuff here do we no sir why because god hates division god hates divisive people he didn't say that he hates people with different of opinions he didn't say that he hates people with different perspectives and paradigms he says i don't like people that cause division in my house and this is his house and we are his body we are the church we don't go to church we are the church and so let me say it again have you been with jesus because how you answer that determines how you're living life right now how you answer that determines whether you're living in victory or defeat how you answer that term is whether you're living in faith or fear how you answer that determines whether you're republican a democrat or a christian acts chapter four let's go there acts chapter four let me give you a little bit of context and i'm gonna be able to finish this today we're gonna talk a little bit more about next sunday but i just got to drive this home because you're the body of christ you're the modern day expression of apostles teachers evangelists prophets pastors you're the modern-day expression of the fivefold ministry that's been activated by the power of the holy spirit and should be evident amongst the body of christ and if we're not careful we can diminish church too well i just go to church on sunday because it's good for my family we can diminish church to just well i it makes me feel good we get to church to like i leave with you know an encouraging word no this is a spiritual boot camp for an army this is the army of god this is the family of god this is this is heaven's response to sin it's the blood of jesus working in and through the body of christ sharing the good news to the whosoever's of this world and if we if we're not careful we've already been socially conditioned to live apart from each other think about that with me for just for just a minute you've already been socially conditioned to live separately and isolated and far away from brothers and sisters in christ you've already been socially conditioned to fear certain things that you may or may not have to fear any longer you've been socially conditioned to think a certain way about certain people because they keep saying it over and over and over and over again if they could just say it enough you'll start to believe it you've already been socially conditioned by social media to view things and not to view others because of algorithms that are privy to who you are and how you're wired as a human being and if we don't expose the devil in the detail you'll find yourself entrapped by the snare and the strategy of satan over your life and the devil is real and he's running rampant right now and if we're not careful as the church as the body of christ as a fellowship that's moving forward into god's purpose and plan for what happens next we can get so distraught and so vexed by what we see by what we read by what we hear and this is why i want you to zone into what god has to say because how you respond to have you been with jesus determines how you're living your life right now acts chapter 4 peter and john had just performed a miracle they were out ministering the word of god they were on outreach they were like in the streets of lawndale throughout the south bay just sharing jesus with other people tell me have you heard about jesus oh man he took your sin and he took my sin and he nailed it to a cross he took on all of our shame and crucified and he became the full payment for our for our disobedience and and for those who would receive him he would restore into a right relationship with the father so that you could spend eternity in heaven and eternal love forevermore and if you accept them right now all things will pass away all things will become that brand new and you will have an experience like any uh unknown to any other experience that you've ever had in your life and they're sharing this with the community of people that are under roman rule and and they're out being bold as lions and and telling them about the wonderful good news of the gospel of jesus christ and then they're arrested the bible says the priest and the captain of the temple guard and the sadducees came up to peter and john while they were speaking to the people and they were greatly disturbed because of the apostles teaching to the people proclaiming jesus in jesus the resurrection of the dead now you got to remember this was blasphemy this was blasphemous to the to the to the uh uh to the jews and to the pharisees and said to this organized religion this is blasphemy to them his penalty is punishable by death in fact how do we know that because they killed jesus they killed them for loving people they killed him for raising people from the dead they killed them for proclaiming that he is god manifest in the flesh these are the same people that peter and john are standing in front of and the bible says that they were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in jesus the resurrection of the dead they seized peter and john and because it was evening they put him in jail until the next day but listen to what verse 4 says but many people who heard the message believed and so the number of men who believed grew to about 5 000 i don't know about you but a revival was taking place in jerusalem they were sharing the good news of jesus christ they were declaring the good works of god they they were telling people about how jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and they were exposing it for what it was and people were were excited to receive this because they were living under roman rule and they were living under the oppression and they were living in their sin and they were living in a darkness and here's god the messiah a prophetic promise that came to pass and he dwelt among them and when he dwelt among them what did they do did they celebrate him did they honor him did they make him king no they killed him the bible says they seized peter and john because it was evening but many who heard the message beliefs of the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand the next day the rulers the elders the teachers of the law met in jerusalem and annas and the high priests were there and so were capheus john alexander and the others of the high priest family that peter and john brought before them and and began to question them and said this by what power or what name are you doing this in because they were bewildered get the picture with me they were bewildered they were like wait a minute these guys are laying hands on people they're praying for people and miracles are taking place now i don't know if you know this we still believe that god still does miracles we believe that we serve god the same god who's yesterday today and forever more the same we believe that god is still doing miracles because you're sitting next to a miracle and so here we read that they asked by what power like how are you guys doing this like what demonic god what demonic idol are you guys worshiping that's giving you the power to do this and i'll show you why they said what they said because the bible continues to say the rulers of the elders of the people we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and were being asked how he was healed then know this you and all the people of israel it is by the name jesus christ of nazareth whom you crucified but whom god raised up from the dead that this man stands before you healed now now they're standing with the lame man that was healed by the power of god that was working in them and through them and they're making the declaration the very same jesus that you killed is this the very same jesus that gave us the power to lay hands on this lame man that he arose and he began to walk and this miracle didn't come from us but it came from the father of heaven and they're making this declaration and it's interesting to me that as they're making this declaration they're telling him you killed jesus the one that we speak on behalf of is it the name of jesus christ whom you crucified but whom god raised from the dead it is this man who stands before you healed jesus is a stone you builders rejected which has become the cornerstone salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved listen mary the mother of jesus won't save you muhammad can't save you come on gandhi has nothing to do with salvation there aren't many ways to heaven there's only one way and his name is jesus he said i am the way the truth and the life there aren't many ways to god there's only one way and it's only through the blood death burial and resurrection of jesus jesus said no one goes unto the father except through me the apostle said there is no name given under heaven by which we can be saved there's no other name in fact the bible says that one day every knee shall bow whether you're still alive on earth or where you're dead standing before god in heaven and every time come fast that jesus is lord that's why i'm telling you what i told you in the beginning of this message [Music] have you been with jesus because in verse 13 the bible says when they saw the courage of peter and john they realized that they were unschooled ordinary men they were astonished and they took note watch what this says that these men had been with jesus there was something about peter and john that distinguished them from everybody else there was something different about peter and john that resembled and reflected jesus christ of nazareth there was something about peter and john that gave them the authority and the boldness and the gifting to lay hands on the sick and see them recover it didn't come from them it didn't come from any any natural training it didn't come from their own personal gifts and talents it came from the power of god working in and through their lives and the same resurrection power that was in jesus the same resurrection power that was in peter and john is the same resurrection power that lives inside each and every single son and daughter of heaven this is who we are [Applause] [Music] but these were unschooled ordinary men and so they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with jesus but since they could see the men who had been healed standing there with them there was nothing that they could say so they ordered them to withdraw from the sanhedrin and then come conferred together what are we doing with these men in other words like like i want to kill them but i can't i was watching gladiator yesterday one of my favorite movies and caesar wanted to kill the gladiator maximus [Music] wanted to kill him and he said i won't make him a martyr because they'll love him even more so i have to figure out another way i gotta i gotta find another deceptive way to get rid of him this is exactly what they were trying to do with peter and john like how do we get rid of them like they're telling everybody about jesus 5 000 men now if if you know this about the hebrew people if men lead their way the way the wives and the children will follow let me talk to some men right now if you lead the way spiritually i promise you your family will follow but you have to live a surrendered life to jesus and you just can't take certain scriptures out of the bible to fit your narrative honey the bible says submit the bible says wives were made to submit hold up the bible says to submit to one another now we do know that there is there are roles that men hold in the house they are the spiritual leadership of the home i'm going to talk to some feminists right now [Music] let your man lead and you'll see the favor of heaven on your home if he leads well you'll be blessed if he won't lead then by all means lead let me say that again god ordained it this way that the husband is the pastor of the house he's the provider he's a protector he's a spiritual leader but he won't take up that mantle wife lead honorably and respectfully so that god's hand could be on your house but if you won't let him lead then you're quenching the spirit in your house [Music] god called us to lead together hand in hand roxanne and i lead together hand in hand hand in hand we're submitted to one another in christ but these five thousand men probably had wives and they had children so the revival was more than five thousand probably more like fifteen or twenty thousand because we know that they had a lot of kids they were like latinos they had kids everywhere just but these men were a problem and they asked what are we going to do about these men everyone living in jerusalem knows that they have performed a notable sign and we cannot deny it but stop this thing from spreading any further among the people we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name what name the name of jesus then they called them again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of jesus but peter and john replied we're just right in god's eyes to listen to you or to listen to him [Music] you be the judges as for us we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard now when the pharisees and the sadducees and the religious leaders of that day said that these are unschooled ordinary men they weren't like wow these guys are unschooled ordinary men and they're doing miracles signs and wonders they're proclaiming the name of jesus wow that's awesome they weren't complimenting it i want you to get the tone of the scripture because sometimes the american language loses the tonality of scripture because the tonality here is like and i'm going to put this in the ev translation eddie vargas translation [Music] they say it in this way how can god use people like that there's nothing special about them like those two guys are fish they smell like fish like there's no like that [Music] that guy works in a cubicle in the office there's no there's nothing special the guy's that guy's a mechanic there's there's nothing special that that that woman she's she's a teacher she's nothing special that person is a musician there's nothing special about them like these are unusual choices for god to use like why would the god of the heaven and the earth the creator of all the universe the one that breathed life into dirt and became man the one that opened the side of a man and pulled out a rib and made a beautiful woman the one that gave us the ability to birth children out the miracle of birthing out a living being the one that that put the stars where they belong and told the ocean where to stop and how high a mountain can go and why would why would he use a person like you you're like you were a drug addict like you were you're a dog like your wife is still a thug like [Music] like what like no like they're white they're black they're hispanic they're age they're polynesian they're there's that special that that's the tonality that these religious leaders were saying it in [Music] but you know what was special about those two guys is that they were with jesus in fact let me read it again because i don't want you to lose this now the leaders were surprised and confused they looked at peter and john and realized these were typical peasants uneducated utterly ordinary this is the voice translation fellows with extraordinary confidence the leaders recognize them as companions of jesus so what was what made the difference what made the difference is that these men not only spend time with jesus but they were being obedient to jesus they were serving jesus and they were out doing what jesus commanded them to do because how you respond to have you been with jesus will determine the way that you live your life will determine the way that you love your family will determine the way that you treat one another well determined by what you post on social media will determine by how you forgive people will determine how you serve within the body of christ will we determine how you you resolve conflict in your life when the jewish leaders were astonished by the boldness of peter and john they weren't impressed by who they were but they were impressed by what they were able to do because of who they were and it's incredible because they realized something powerful that they had been with jesus it wasn't in their education although we honor and know that education is fantastic they had no formal religious training it wasn't in their credentials i mean even saul of tarsus who became paul the apostle if anybody could boast about credentials paul said i could boast i was a pharisee and the son of a pharisee i grew up learning the levitical and mosaic law i grew up teaching it and i grew up protecting it in fact i was on my way to condemn some christians on the road to damascus and then i had an encounter with the king of kings and the lord of lords and my life was never the same again peter john lived with jesus for three years we're discipled by jesus himself but we know that peter ran and hid in fear when they were like wait a minute like aren't you one of the disciples of jesus christ you know the story right like no no i don't know him but there was something different in acts chapter 1 verse 8 jesus promised them listen go to jerusalem and wait because my father is going to send you the holy spirit he's going to baptize you with fire and you're gonna speak with boldness you're not gonna be afraid not even unto death and we know that every single one of them died a martyr with the exception of john who was banished to the island of patmos but they weren't it wasn't like like they were afraid to talk to people out on the street hey can i tell you about jesus it wasn't like they were like in front of people that are at school or at college or in junior high or heist it wasn't their co-workers they were standing in front of the very people that murdered their savior and with boldness they were like are we gonna listen to you or we're gonna listen to god with boldness they're like are we gonna listen to the government or are we gonna listen to god are we gonna listen to what the president has to say or we can listen to what god has to say are we gonna listen to what newsome has to say or what god has to say do we listen to what our culture has to say or what god has to say are we going to listen to this party or that party or or that movement or that movement who are we going to listen to we're going to listen to god we prefer god over you and guess what guess what [Music] i fear god more than i fear you these guys are talking to murderers he's talking to the very people that can have him put to death on that peter who ran it's not like sup [Music] and you know what i pray i pray that in this new season that we're moving into as a church that our church every single man and every single woman and every single young adult every single marriage and every single kid would stand up with boldness and be the salt and light that god called us to be that we would proclaim the good news regardless of what everybody else is doing look this is not a gym this is not a social environment where we come together in kumbaya this is where we learn how to fight it's where we learn how to use our sword here's where we learn how to use the gift of the spirit that god's given us because you all got gifts [Music] then peter filled with the holy spirit said to them i think some people in our church need to get baptized with fire because the fire of the holy ghost is what sets you apart from everybody else now hear me clearly hear me clearly matthew chapter 3 verse 11 through 12 john the baptist says his indeed baptize you with water unto repentance this is an open confession of your faith symbolizing the washing away of your sin [Music] and when you come back out of the water you've been made new but then he says this but he was coming after me is mightier than i whose sandals i am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire his winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn but he will burn up the chaff with unquenched unquenchable fire you know what john is saying john's saying i baptised ties you with water with repentance of your sin but somebody's coming after me and he's going to baptize you with his holy spirit and with fire now when we surrender listen to me clearly when we surrender to god and we accept the gift of salvation by grace we are saved when we receive that gift the holy spirit comes on all of us and cleanses us from all of our sin and makes us brand new and seals us for the day of his return we are saved by grace but hear me clearly you will not experience the fire of heaven until you're fully submitted in obedience to the call of god on your life because there were a lot of people that were walking around telling people about god telling people about jesus telling people about the cross and then the disciples roll up and go have you heard of the holy spirit do you have the holy no and he's like bro you need the holy ghost you need the holy spirit they were like well give them to me and they laid hands on them boom fire came on they started speaking in tongues they started to prophesy they started to bleed with boldness and nobody could stop them nobody could shut their mouth because they were living in fear they were living in faith because they knew who they were in christ jesus i pray that the church raises up some men and some women that would surrender fully to the outpouring of the baptism of the holy spirit with the evidence of the miraculous on their life so that we can be the church that god called us to be for such a time as this we need to be that church because there is no other church that i know of in the south bay that's preaching this gospel maybe one or two why don't why am i telling you this because you're not going to be able to do anything that we're supposed to do on your own strength not going to be able to do anything with your i know that you're all extremely gifted human beings i know that all of us carry talents and abilities that we can celebrate within the body of christ that they're limited and when god's holy spirit comes upon you and he baptizes you with the gifts that he wants you to have you're already saved you already have the indwelling of the holy spirit but now what you need is the baptism of fire and that only happens to a fully surrendered life at least in the last 30 years of my christianity 32 years of my christianity that's the way that i've learned to understand it and i've seen it manifest in christians and so if i could just have every head bowed and every eye closed in reference to god [Music] i think it's time to put away our feelings i think it's time to put away our democratic biases i think it's time for us to stop walking on the eggshells around each other and start scrambling some eggs and making some really good omelets i'm asking you as your pastor to be the man that god called you to be to be the woman that god called you to be to be the family that god called you to be to not allow the culture of this world the ways of this world to creep in to your life to your ministry to your church to your ministry to the way that you serve because god is about to do a new thing and i want us to be fully prepared to receive it and to be a big part of it now i'm talking to some people that may be maybe dealing with some issues and for whatever reason right now there's been this fear about covet there's been this fear about life there's been this fear about finances there's been this fear about who's in government and what's going to happen and you know what we don't have any control of any of that our job is to be ambassadors of heaven so we need a fresh outpouring of the spirit's fire and if you would be honest and say pastor i want that i want that in my life i want that in my family i want that on my kids i want to walk in that i want to live in that i'm going to lead from that that's you i want you to stand to your feet and say i want the holy spirit i want the baptism of the holy spirit i want that fire on my life i want that fire in my life i want him to burn away all the things and all the impurities and everything that he doesn't want in my life anymore i want him to separate the wheat from the chaff i want him to cleanse me and empower me and lead me and guide me and direct me and anoint me and empower me and fill me with that fire that peter and john lived in that same fire that paul the apostle lived in the same fire that jesus talked about that same fire that we've seen under them and i want that for my life i want that for my future and if that's you i want you to get out of here [Music] together [Music] [Music] yes come and help me [Music] i want more [Music] [Music] i want more [Music] is [Music] release [Music] now really surprised [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] let us experience the glory of your goodness [Music] [Applause] let us experience the glory of your goodness [Music] [Applause] [Music] the glory of your goodness [Music] let us [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] holy spirit holy spirit [Music] holy spirit we honor you we know that it's impossible for us to be who you've birthed us to be without the breath of life that you give to your church so father i pray [Music] that we remain steadfast [Music] and unremovable unmutable [Music] as we live a surrendered life to you we want to be led by your spirit we know that it's easy to sing when we're on the mountaintop but lord we want to learn how to sing in the valleys because you are with us we don't fear any evil [Music] come on ray sing them [Music] [Applause] if you're in the valley begin to say come rest on us you're in the valley come rest on [Music] us come on if you're on the [Music] come mountain come on [Music] [Music] oh [Music] please is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] i apologize for keeping you a little bit longer but i discern in my spirit that there are people here that are hurting they're hurting from past issues they're hurting from what's transpired over the last year the loved ones that they've lost the finances that have been taken the businesses that have been closed jobs that have gone away there's been bad habits that have been formed addictions that have started to take root positions and paradigms that the holy spirit wants to break right now [Music] i see god breaking chains right now that there are chains that are being broken because where the spirit of the lord is there's freedom there's freedom and the spirit of god is so tangible right now in this place and if that's you and you need freedom i want you to raise your hands to heaven and surrender because i believe the holy spirit wants to break some chains right now i believe that the spirit of god in this room right now i want to save your soul you would just close your eyes by your heads maybe you're here you don't know jesus but he loves you oh my does he love you but you're not walking with him and so if i were to ask you have you been with jesus your answer is no i go to church but i haven't been with jesus i believe in the word but i haven't been with jesus i'm serving in ministry but i haven't been with jesus and i just believe god wants to break some chains god wants to set some people free maybe you're here and it's your first time and you're like i don't even know what to make of all of this all i know is that i know that i'm not right with jesus and i need to be rescued this morning and if that's you would you just kind of wave at me and tell me that i need you need jesus right now and so father as gentle as you are as powerful as you are break every chain in this room right now set your people free from the brokenness of this life helping them to understand that they're no longer subject to the pains and the hardships of this world that you are with us and you are for us and you're leading us out of the valley even now because no weapon that's ever been formed will ever prosper it'll be cast down i see i see the fiery darts of hell being extinguished by the presence of the power of god even now come on if you want more if you want more of god if you want more of this you're gonna have to spend more time with jesus [Music] there's no other day [Music] to break every chain break every chain break every [Music] [Music] all the reach [Music] break every day [Music] is [Music] me [Music] rising [Music] break every chain break every [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] break every day [Music] isn't god good come on i said isn't god good is it okay that we have these kind of church services in the south bay i don't know about you but i want more [Music] i want more and you know what god is always ready to give you more but if you want to experience more of god you got to surrender more to god he said again if you want to experience more of god you got to surrender more to god and if you'll do that i promise you you won't leave that space the same i'm excited for what god is going to do through restoration life we want to welcome you home i just honor you and i need to honor the time because we have our spanish service coming in right behind us but listen tomorrow night where's the army of men in the house right now [Music] tomorrow night 7 30. get here early we're gonna have a phenomenal time we love you god bless you have an amazing week we'll see you tomorrow night thanks so much for tuning in with us we hope that this message spoke to you in a very personal way and if it did please don't forget to like share and subscribe also if this is your first time tuning in we want to connect with you head over to our website at restoration.life.com or our our live church hot click church online fill out one of our connect cards hit send and we'll see you next time

Channel: Restoration Life Church

Views: 460

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: RLC, Restoration Life Church, Southbay, Lawndale, Torrance, Reach Restore Release, Pastor Eddie Vargas, Pastor Max Youell, Church, Jesus, Pastor, WORSHIP

Id: -xYfXQEOiao

Length: 113min 41sec (6821 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021