Hope for Tomorrow | Joel Richardson

this morning I want to this first service we were essentially talking about the nature of the biblical descriptions of who the Messiah is who Jesus is and what he is coming to do and we were talking about the nature of the age to come the reason that we embrace the cross every day and all of these kind of things this is the primary focus of what we call the end times okay the end times is not primarily about things like the Antichrist and the mark of the beast and the Great Tribulation and the plagues and pestilences and all those sort of things those are the sort of the classic things that most people think about when you say the end times and they go I have enough nonsense in my life right now I don't really want to talk about some future tribulations and so we kind of put that stuff on the shelf and I get that but the primary focus from a biblical perspective on the end times is not the events that precede the return of Jesus but it's the return of Jesus himself and then the kingdom that will be established after he returns so this is exactly why the Bible uses the language of birth pains birth right and so you know if you're pregnant you're expecting your first child the primary focus is on the birth it's not on the birth pains if you're someone who you know your husband comes home from work and he's like honey man the due dates coming up well he doesn't say man honey dude my kids for some reason started calling my wife bro might see me like hey bro she's like don't call me bro but the husband comes home from work and and he's like honey you know the due dates coming up and man the birth pains are just right around the corner you go like what is wrong with you and I think it's for some reason a lot of Christians are like that we're like yeah let's talk birth pains I'm like yes the Lord wants us to understand the birth pains he wants us to understand the events that precede his coming absolutely but that's not the main focus so that was sort of the primary emphasis of this morning and I think it's important for us to sort of have our priorities straight this morning I want to talk specifically about Islam and Muslims and the reason that I want to talk about this is because I personally believe that Islam will Perret play a very significant role in the end times there's sort of a coping mechanism in all of us that when we see something that scares us or worries us we look for some type of story or mechanism whereby we can stop worrying about it this is part of that whole process of grieving you know there's first thing is denial and so within the church there are a few different ways that a lot of Christians have tried to ignore the looming reality of global radical Islam and one of those is through sort of some ideas that have been developed within Biblical prophecy and so there are Christians to say oh Islam is just gonna get wiped out it's just gonna get eliminated in a series of battles you know they go Ezekiel 3839 the battle of gog magog islam is just gonna go away nothing to worry about so this is just a coping mechanism whereby we don't have to face reality we don't have to face the reality of what the future holds that's sort of one mechanism in on the much more that's sort of the biblical prophecy side on the more charismatic side it's more of like oh the whole Islamic world is just gonna be swept by revival they're all gonna be speaking in tongues they're all gonna get saved Islam is going away and for clarity there is a revival there is a movement in the Islamic world but it's not enough to make the giant of Islam just go away and so my primary heart is trying to help the church to come to terms with the reality of what lies in front of us I want to see a generation of David's if this is the great Goliath if this is the greatest challenge that we will face before the return of Jesus then I want to see a generation if David's rise rise up that will say let's take this Goliath on however let's do it in a Jesus centered Jesus focused way we live in a day and age where you know I do a lot of work in the Middle East again with Muslims I'm part of the largest underground network in Iran I help give some partner in leadership with a ministry that's doing all kinds of work there and I love seeing Muslims come to faith we do a lot of work we're partnering with the IDF the Israeli Defense Forces to send Christian doctors into southern Syria and minister to Muslims there in southern Syria and what's happened over the past several years where prior to the Arab Spring so 2010 in in previous to that there was a political ideology that sort of held the Middle East together and it was called Arab nationalism and this was the ideology the political ideology that these various autocrats dictators would use to keep their people in check so they would say we're all Arabs you know we're all Syrians it doesn't matter if you're if you're Druze or a Christian or a Sunni or a Shiite or hollow-eyed or you know whatever all of various sects and different people we're all Syrians and so this sort of held together we'll say Syria for for many years for generations but since the Arab Spring the ideological winds of change have blown through the Middle East and so now what we've had since 2011 is now Syria has broken up it has balkanized it has broken up into smaller increasingly hostile little camps and units now it's we're no longer Syrians now we're Sunnis Shia all whites Christians Druze Yazidis Kurds Arabs you know I'm saying it's all these little units and now we've had close to a million people dead okay so this is essentially what's happened in Syria and this is the this is the plan of Satan and believe me Jesus said in the last days again before he returns he said we would see is one of the primary signs we would see kingdom rise up against Kingdom and ethnos against ethnos that's a nation against nation the word there in Greek is ethnos against ethnos so you can you can guarantee you that Satan wants to do exactly what he's done in Syria you don't think he doesn't want to do it here in the United States of course he does and and so we live in this age right now where there are voices that say which camp are you in you know are you are you're liberal are you conservative you're Republican are you Democrat and the idea is that the world is so simple that you're either in one camp or the other and the truth of the matter is is that life is complicated the world is complicated people are complicated and there's no such thing I'm just this is sort of a little sub sermon it's on my heart there's no such thing as black people think this white people think this the Republicans think this no it's not that simple people are complicated in any thinking person in a world that's so complicated is going to have a wide variety of opinions on a lot of very complicated issues well where do you stand with regard to the night thing because that will determine whether or not I want to kill you or not and so this is what Satan wants to do sane wants to put everybody in these increasingly hostile little angry subunits and we have to resist this so sorry that's just something that's been on my heart but it's the same thing with regard to Islam is within the church people say well either you need to hate Islam and Muslims or no you need to love Islam and Muslims and I go guys it's a little bit more complicated than that it's a little bit more complicated than that and so in essence this is sort of an issue of one of these no you know you hate the sin you love the sinner we are called to confront something that I'll just come right out and say it it's very evil but that doesn't excuse us from loving people the way that Jesus loved us and so it's essential that we come together as believers a gather around the Scriptures and say how do we address this you know because life is nuanced how do we address this complicated nuanced issue so we're gonna jump into a whole bunch of Scripture the first verse passage that I want to look at is Romans 8 verse 15 it says ye have not received the spirit of bondage to feed but we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry daddy Abba Father I'm an adoptive father I have two adopted children I can very much relate to the power of adoption in that spiritual bond that happens when you become the father to a child that needs a father it's a it's a powerful powerful thing all of us were once formally enemies of God so the scriptures say he died for us while we were his enemies in order that we could no longer be his enemies we would be adopted as his children we're children of God we were formerly his enemies this is what God did for us so we understand that with a background jump to Genesis 16 one through three and we're gonna again read a whole bunch of Scripture now this is the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah and Isaac and Ishmael and in my opinion this is the biblical story that sort of tells where judaism christianity in islam sort of began where did this whole thing come from where did this where did this mess start with if i can call it a mess and so we begin with a story this is before it was Abraham and Sarah it was sari and Abram the Lord had not changed their names yet and so in verse 1 through 3 it says now Sarai Abrams wife had borne him no children but she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar so she comes up with this great idea hey Abram the Lord has kept us from having children because he had promised that they're gonna have children hadn't happened yet they became impatient she goes here's a good idea Abram the Lord has kept us from having children go sleep with my maidservant perhaps I can build a family through her and it's interesting that they this is the way we all are we try to put a fig leaf over something we try to act as though it's sort of the spiritual godly thing we try to cover our sin by using a religious language here's an idea maybe God wants to bless us through you sleeping with Hagar that was bad idea number one bad idea number two Abram agreed to what Sarah I said so now notice the language Sarah his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife there's the language Oh she'll be your wife the Lord this is how this is how the Lord's gonna bless us verse 4 through 6 he slept with Hagar and she conceived when she knew that she was pregnant now here is the beginning of the snowball snowball that just immediately rolls out of control and you know right away that this was a bad idea when she knew that she was pregnant she began to despise her mistress then Sarah says to Abram you are responsible now for what it's worth it's true Abram should have been a man he should have been a leader and he should have said Sarah Hagar that woman is nasty that that would have been the godly thing to have done right off the top just like what are you even talking about but he didn't and so now she says you're responsible for all the wrong I'm suffering I put my servant in your arms and now that she knows she's pregnant she despises me may the Lord judge between you and me now here's another very literally thing Abram goes your servant is in your hands do whatever you think is best you know I didn't have anything to do with it then Sarai turns around and starts mistreating Hagar and so Hagar is like I'm out of here and she flees she flees from the camp verse 7 through 10 so the angel of the Lord found Hagar and he said Hagar servant of Sarah where you come from where are you going it's very reminiscent of the garden as if the Lord didn't know where she had come from where she was going she says I'm running away from my mistress Sarah and she answered and then the angel the Lord says to her listen go back to your mistress and submit to her go back and submit to her and then he adds I'm going to increase your descendants and they will be too numerous to the point is this I'm gonna take care of the child that's in your womb don't worry don't don't be in fear go back submit to her I know this is rough because you can't have a multitude of children unless the one that's in her womb survives this is you're gonna have a multitude he goes look I'm gonna take care of the child and then in verse 11 the angel Lord says listen you're with child and you're gonna have a son you shall name him Ishmael which means the Lord hears now the Lord does not just randomly name children because he thinks it sounds cool he's not like oh I'm gonna call you Apple or whatever going at Paltrow I'm not sorry if anyone here is named Apple or you know whatever blade or something you know like the Lord doesn't just go yeah that sounds cool he speaks meaning because there's only a handful of people in Scripture that the Lord names before their birth and one of them is Ishmael which means the Lord hears because that is the essence of who the God of the Bible is he condescends he lowers himself look he's God Almighty in heaven he's transcendent he is more than we can begin to even fathom or wrap our heads around I mean he spoke in the universe came into existence but he has chosen because he's good to reveal himself and philosophically in order for the unfathomable to be comprehended or revealed to lowly humans he has to condescend he has to lower himself veil himself in order that we can begin to see a little bit of his glory of who he is he lowers himself to hear our misery all of these the he is the God who's constantly coming down he shows up throughout the scriptures verse 16 through 16 so then Hagar gave this name to the Lord this is amazing she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her and she said you are the God who sees me you are the God who sees me now how many wives here in the room want a husband who does not see you no one right everyone's looking for someone who he see me he hears me he feels me he gets me he bothers to listen and all of us husbands are generally pretty bad at that we're working on it forgive us and then she said I've now seen the one who sees me again this is the essence of the God of the Bible he is the one who sees us when you lay on bed your bed at night and you're an agony something's going on in your life circumstantially he cares and it's not just for you it's for the millions throughout the earth that God is condescending he's lowering himself he sees us he hears us this is how the Lord of the Bible continually reveals himself expresses himself throughout the Scriptures so Hagar bore Abram a son and he gave the name Ishmael to the son that was born he's 86 years old 86 years old now we're skipping forward to chapter 21 a few chapters later and now their names have been changed to Abraham and Sarah and now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said because he's always faithful very rarely is he faithful according to our timeframe because this by the way is like 14 years later so 14 years ago they got impatient with the Lord's promises and like hey maybe we'll do this whole Hagar thing and then 14 or so years laters when the Lord actually fulfilled the thing that they got impatient about 14 years ago I mean this is the Lord is always faithful he always fulfills his promises but almost never according to our timetable it's an important lesson the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised because he always does Sarah became pregnant she bore a son to Abraham in his old age Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore when his son Isaac was eight days old Abraham circumcised him as God commanded him Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born so again as I as I said I I have three biological children three biological daughters and then my wife and I adopted a son and then a daughter we got them both as infants and so with every one of our kids we always we would go like you know we watch these videos on how to be good parents and we would take them home from the hospital we're like this one's gonna sleep in the crib oh you can bet this one's gonna they're not gonna interfere with our lives we're gonna get a good night's sleep they're gonna sleep in the crib and then like day one they're in bed and I don't say anything because she's doing like 98 percent of the work anyway and at first it's kind of neat you know cuz even though I know it's people are like it's dangerous but you know there's this cute little they then they smell me they're in bed and you're excited and they're new and fresh but they're in between Joel and his wife Amy and and then they start like growing legs and arms in the weeks and the months start expanding and then you're like so how long and then eventually they kick you out and then and then I end up down here this is real in this little space it's like this big between the bed and the wall and I'm down here with my blankets with the spiders at night they're like running across your face and then you like come up on the bed you're like hey what are you what are you guys doing and they're like get back down there in the hall and they like throw a bottle at you or something like mine and everyone it was just I'm exaggerating a little bit but literally my son my son would take the bottle because he was adopted so he's nursing I mean he's not nursing he's and then when he was done with a bottle he would be like he would just spike it over the edge of the bed and like milk would get my face and I'd be like what are you guys doing so verse eight the child grew and was weaned the point in all that is I can very much relate to father Abraham and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast what are you guys doing this weekend you guys want to have barbecue Sarah so now here's the snowball Sarah saw the Sun Hagar the Egyptian had born to Abraham was mocking so now Ishmael is mocking Isaac now Paul later in Galatians says that Ishmael was persecuting scholars wrestled with what exactly was happening but something was happening where the first son was giving the young son difficulty now remember it began oh hey here's a great idea Abram she'll be your wife here's that notice the language now get rid of that slave woman and her son Sarah is mad get rid of that slave when women I thought this was his wife get rid of that slave woman in her son for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac okay so the thing is already completely out of control the matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son Abraham loved Ishmael this was a son 14 years old at least and he was really upset and God said this and this is one of those harsh passages in the Bible where the Lord says listen Abraham I know this is rough but you have to understand I have a plan I have a plan to redeem all of the world and I chose you and I turning you into a family I'm gonna turn that family into a people who will become a nation they'll become a holy womb and out of which comes Jesus who's gonna restore all things and you have to understand that this is tough but there's a bigger thing at work here and and and it can't be thwarted and he goes listen don't be distressed about the boy listen to whatever Sarah tells you because it's through Isaac that redemption is gonna come it's through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned and I'm gonna make the son of your maidservant I'm gonna take care of Ishmael he says but you're gonna have to kick him out of the camp so early the next morning Abraham took some food and water and he sends off Hagar and Ishmael and he sends them out in the into the desert and essentially what happens Genesis 21 14 through 16 is that Ishmael is dehydrated he's out of water Hagar goes I can't watch him die and she sticks him under a bush and she's just takes off about a bow shot away and she goes I can't list I can't listen to him as he's as he's dying and she's sobbing and so he's sitting there just like his father has just abandoned him he just got kicked out of the camp he lost his family he lost his inheritance and now his mother abandons him he's sitting under a bush and then the angel shows up again verse 17 God heard the boy crying and the angel of God said Hagar what's the matter don't be afraid like don't you remember I told you I'm gonna take care of the boy she said the Lord says lift him up I told you I'm gonna make him into a great nation so God opens her eyes and she saw a well of water she's about to let her son die and then she's like oh there's a well right here it's like one of those like honey have you seen my phone yeah oh sorry so she went and she filled the skin of water and she gives the boy water to drink God was with the boy as he grew up and it just you know we got all these details and just kind of fast forwards it's just zip zip-zip he lived in the desert he became an archer while he was living in the desert his mother got him a wife from Egypt everything's okay so here's the thing the reason I ever wanted to read this whole story is we hear these kind of stories like Old Testament stories we learn about them in Sunday school and it's almost like they become almost like fairy tales we're detached from there just a story but they're so far removed thousands of years you know ago and the thing of it is is is as much as this visit has been imprinted into our Bibles you know and it's been read millions of times all over the world this actually happened to a real little kid like we don't really think about this this little kid Ishmael this is his life story like this actually happened to a real kid and it's in our Bibles and so we have to sort of put ourselves into Ishmael shoes for a minute he didn't make the decision for Abraham to sleep with Hagar like that wasn't his fault he was just born he had a father he had a mother he had an inheritance he was living at home you know all this and all sudden in one day his whole world gets turned upside down and he's out in the desert his father's just kicked him out he doesn't really understand what's going on and then his mother abandons him and he's literally dying and then the Lord intervenes and saves him this was a you know to use modern counselors this was a traumatic event this was a traumatic event in his life and so here's what's interesting is that today Islam you know we look at the world today we Christianity Judaism Islam what's this all about and I go guys this thing is completely rooted in the biblical story in the seventh century you had a guy named Mohammed he lived in Arabia the Arabian Peninsula and he believed that he was a direct descendant of Ishmael most of the Arabs of the Middle East today believe that they are literal bloodline descendants of Ishmael and so they have this Ishmael light identity and Mohammed was this young guy who when he was young when his mother was pregnant his father died then he when he was a little baby his mother died he went to go live with his grandfather so he had he was orphaned I mean he kind of had some similar trauma in his life to his ancestor Ishmael it's actually interesting that that sort of orphan abandoned spirit story was in Muhammad's life and then even his grandfather died when he was pretty young he ended up marrying this woman named Khadijah who was like 15 years older than him she was a real successful businesswoman and he became her primary worker for her caravan company he's out in a cave fasting and praying during Ramadan because in Arabia even before Islam even the pagans used to have the holy month of Ramadan where they would seek their various gods make pilgrimage to Mecca and as the story goes according to the Islamic story this angel shows up to Muhammad in the cave and it starts choking him crushing him again this is not a Christian retelling of the story this is according to Islamic source documents it's crushing him and it demands of him in Arabic it says Quorra which is recite in Arabic this is where you get the word Quran it Quran was the recitation and he goes I don't know how to recite because the idea was in seventh century Arabia you had these estatic poets they would allow spirits to sort of channel through them and they would recite Arabic poetry and he thought that's what the Spirit was saying is allow me to speak through you because I don't know how to do that a second time it chokes him and he describes it as this dark presence to where he thought he was gonna die and it says Achra and he says i don't know how to recite the third time it happens and on the third time this presence demands recite and he opens his mouth and the first words of the quran began flowing out of his mouth this is the beginning of islam this is then essentially he went back by the way as the story goes he was he believed he was demon-possessed Muhammad believed he was demon-possessed he thought that experience was demonic he believed he was suicidal he was shaking trembling for days for weeks he goes back to his wife Khadija again she's going oh great my new husband my primary worker for my company has gone crazy and she goes no no no no no you're not demon-possessed you're a prophet go with it and she encouraged him to allow this to start taking place this is how the Quran we got the Quran today the Quran is like the Bible of Islam now that's the story you don't need the discernment of a log to say that was not an angel right I mean let's just be honest that was not an angel that was a deceiving demonic encounter today in the world you look out the world is you know riddled with religious conflict let's step back for a minute look at the biblical story look at the story of Ishmael look at the trauma of his life look at this this vessel named Mohammed who had a lot of the same experiences and what does Islam teach what what are the doctrines of that revelation that came out of that experience God has no Oh Sun God is not a father this is the essence of what islam teaches and then interestingly ishmael not isaac is the true heir of abraham so essentially in my opinion islam is the is the doctrine eyes creed alized expression of Ishmael's brokenness expressed through Mohammed all of the trauma all of the pain of abandonment that orphans spirit actually was birthed as a religion through a broken crippled individual who allowed that spirit to begin speaking through him and it's gone on to now become the world's second largest religion which again you go why is that evil because at the core essence of what the God of the Bible has revealed is that he is indeed a father who has a son and it's through that expression through that revelation that he has chosen to adopt his enemies in order to become his children this is how redemption is gonna come out to all the world and Satan comes out and he doesn't make any qualms about it he goes right for the essential most foundational important doctrines of the historical Christian faith and he says no God is not a father God does not have a son I'm gonna tell a story I call it a tale of two fathers it's it's a sort of analogy I use to try to express the difference between the God of the Bible and the God of the Quran see the god of the Quran expresses himself as the god who is transcendent he's big he's great he's unknowable he's unfathomable he's unreachable so therefore when Christians say God is a father they go no no no Muslims say you're trying to liken the unknowable Almighty just something on earth you're trying to lower him you're trying to diminish him don't do that that's blasphemy it's the worst form of blasphemy they go no no no just allow God to be great great great great great and throughout the scriptures I mean sorry throughout the Quran the Lord is Allah is constantly the god of the Quran is constantly saying don't do that actually rebukes Christians it actually says don't say that God is a father if you do the earth is about to crumble like it's such a blasphemy right so this is sort of the doctrine of Islam over here you have this God whose great great great great don't lower him over here you have the Bible which says that God is choosing willingly revealing himself lowering himself that's the essence of who he is right okay so one day a father comes home from work and he's tired he's been working all day and his kids are like Danny you know will you play with me and he's like you know he's tired but he gets down on the carpet with his little kids and of course you know I had daughters at first so what is that what do they always want to do there what do you want to play Barbies awesome cuz that's what I love to do that's what good and so you know you down there and you know you're tired and you pretend that you're playing but actually you start sleeping so as long as you're giving it a little effort but here's the funny thing too with Barbies if you're a new dad is when you have an avatar or like a puppet ten seconds they forget it's you you can extract any information from them through a Barbie until a certain age so is already boys in your class that you like they'll tell you they won't say it to you they'll tell Barbie what I mean it's funny he actually kind of works with adults like you get the guys up there and they're like you're such a jerk and like here's all the audience go mean that puppets mean you know he'll I know it's so anyway the dad gets home he gets down on the carpet he plays with his kids why because I love playing with Barbies no it's cuz I don't mind looking like a complete cuz I love my kids you don't even think about it you know think oh yeah I look like a complete idiot it's my kids and now with my son I get down and I fight him I let him I pretend that he's beating me of course in like another year he will that's what dads do that's what a father does now the other father comes home from work and he's like you know he's tired and the kids like daddy daddy well you know daddy's home daddy will you play with me and he goes don't you know who I am I'm the executive of the highest paid rubber manufacturing plant in the tri-state area whatever you know like don't you know who I am no go play with your siblings right I'm too important I'm too big to get down there and play with I'm to humiliate myself I don't do that so you know it's a simple simple analogy now by the way with my adopted children I've kind of modified it because like with my son my first adopted child his biological mother was amazing we love her and you know we were in relationship with her and she just had some really hard times and asked us if we would adopt Levi and but the father you know by age 25 he had several kids none of which he had anything to do with like my son will know his biological mother growing up you know she's maybe kind of like an aunt figure but he'll never meet his dad like he'll know that he exists but he'll never ever meet him like he doesn't the truth is like this analogy between the two is one comes home and plays with his kids humiliates himself because he loves his kids the other one really he doesn't even come home like I shouldn't even have him come home and say no I'm too important like he doesn't even show up this is a perfect analogy between the difference between the God of the Bible and the God of the Quran one God loves his children the other one is too gray now who do you want to be your father it's a pretty simple question which one is greater which God is greater which man is greater the one who humiliates himself or the one who's trying to protect himself from humiliation true greatness doesn't need to be protected god is great you can't diminish him you can't lower him he is the creator of all things now here's the point Islam the doctrines of Islam it is the greatest Antichrist doctrine the greatest Antichrist religion that mankind has ever produced it swept up a large percentage of the world into this false counterfeit false religion Islam will lead no one to it to heaven not a single person is not going to come through the doctrines of Islam however if I was to come up here and put up pictures on the screen of you know little children you know on the side of the road with the empty bowl and a fly on their brow and this sort of thing you go oh you know they're so they're so needy you know they're so helpless I just want to rescue them and you know cute little kids target our heartstrings but here's the thing Muslims from a spiritual perspective from God's perspective I think through God's eyes Muslims are the spiritual orphans of the world they're the spiritual orphans of the earth because they are working so hard and believe me most of them pray more than most of us most of them do all the religious hoopla much more than a lot of Christians and at the end of the at the end of their life they're working for a God who's not even showing up and the reward for all of that religious hoopla is the lake of fire they're searching for God believe me the majority of Muslims that I meet are searching for God but they're looking in the wrong places and here's the thing guys we have the message that they need we have the words of life we are the stewards we are the stewards of the message of the God who is not he's he doesn't mind humiliating himself it says he actually made himself a servant he took on the form of a servant he allowed himself to be mutilated because He loves us so much and if Muslims are ever going to come into the relationship with God that we have we have to start seeing Muslim as people just like us who need the mercy of God just like us and say yes let's let's approach this from a more nuanced perspective the doctrine of Islam is evil yet there are elements of Islam of things that we agree with it's not like every doctrine of Islam is is evil there Satan always candy coats is poison let's just be honest but by the same token Muslims are people just like you and me and there's not a single person in this room that deserves to be saved more than the worst most evil terrorists in Isis no one in this room deserves to be saved we deserve hell but the Lord gave us mercy that's a hard pill to swallow but if you think you earned it then you are you haven't embraced the gospel so this is the great challenge of the days ahead is this giant of Goliath is rising up and we have to approach this thing Satan's coming at us with both barrels blazing it's going for the jugular vein we're gonna come at it like David - Goliath we're going after this thing but we're gonna do it in the spirit and the attitude with the mind of Christ we're not gonna go after it with the carnal fear-based mentality that so often defines the current age that we live in amen so amen I'm gonna pray and we're gonna break for this afternoon father I thank you for this house we thank you that this room is filled with people who know you you've saved us you've opened our eyes you made us your own we ask that you would help us to see things the way that you see it we ask that you would help us to see Muslims or Democrats or Republicans or conservatives or lera you name it we ask that you would help us to see others the way that you see them as people in need of the mercy of God we ask that you would help us to be vessels conduits of your holy spirit that you would do for them what you did for us and that you would help us give us courage to open our mouths that be excited about the message that we are stewards of we asked that this house would be a house of salvation where new people would be brought into the kingdom where the invitation to the wedding feast would be extended throughout the week throughout the city we commit ourselves to you and we thank you for these things in the name of your son Jesus amen

Channel: ResLife Church

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Keywords: Resurrection Life Church, Series, Church, Grandville, Michigan, ResLife, ResLife Church, LINC, Joel Richardson, Joel's Trumpet, The Underground

Id: -Pgp8be2i50

Length: 40min 15sec (2415 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 14 2018