Infinite Possibilities In God | Equippers Auckland | Shane Willard

thank you very much if you're the flake likes following an actual Bible revelation chapter three I'm gonna unpack this incredibly clear easy-to-understand book tonight see if we can find ourself in it when we when we read scripture we want to ask a couple questions what happened but more importantly what is happening in me right now because of it what difference does it make if we get our head around these things if it doesn't fundamentally change the way we see our whole world after that and so I want to I want to preach a sermon tonight hopefully we'll find ourselves in the in the middle of it as always afterwards our table set up outside that's how we give to missions and and to the poor and the afflicted I'm not being antisocial at all I have to run very quickly because I'm preaching in the Manukau campus tonight so I'll be down there so I'll see you guys next time I'm through so before I even get into that you guys have been so gracious and so kind and your leaders have been so good to me and I count in an honor and a privilege to minister and equip her and equip or anytime I get a chance and for all the equipping live streamed in tonight it's so good to be in your churches tonight as well I do not take that for granted it's an honor and a privilege I hope over the course of the weekend Jesus got bigger the cross worked better the resurrection is central and scriptures got bigger not smaller okay whoo Revelation chapter 3 this is a famous part of this book where Jesus is giving a revelation to the early church now this should be this should be obvious okay but the early church was started under persecution it was illegal if you got caught operating in it but the sentence was death and and the trial was based on atheism okay so early Christians were killed for the charge of atheism the reason is is because they weren't Judaizers nor did they believe in the Roman gods it was very very difficult if you've ever thought man it's hard to start to get a church going in Auckland what are you talking about okay Oh and this is Masterton what do you know no no no wait a minute man this was Sardis all right and Ephesus and Corinth and Philip I and places like this where Paul said when we were there we were shamefully treat treated in much conflict all right so so Jesus is trying to right the ship in some of these early churches and this just happens to be on the one that is written to the church at Sardis here's what it says if you could bring that first one up to the Angel of the church in Sardis write this these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars to the angel of the church at Sardis now there's so much going on here first we have to understand and discuss geopolitics of the day we're gonna have a quick history lesson now if you just suddenly the old no I hated history I think the Ottoman Empire's a furniture store relax relax we're gonna be we're gonna be very interesting with this tonight okay because we have to understand the history underneath the underneath this to understand this so the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars is not a boring line that we get to read over this was a subversive moving thing written by a guy named John who's been exiled on the island of Patmos under the authority of a Caesar name donation donation now but the seventh to say historically he held the seven spirits of God and a Hebrew understanding would just be like saying this is the testimony of the one who was full of the Spirit of God the full of wisdom understanding counsel power knowledge in the fear of the Lord this is the testimony of Christ this is the testimony of Jesus but then he throws this this massive subversive line and he who holds the seven stars now to understand this we have to understand demission demission was the caesar of the day and he was a particular narcissist he made everybody call him king of kings and Lord of lords and the propaganda around the Roman Empire was that Domitian sits on top of the world holding the seven stars in place now how do you get that around the empire here's what you did you printed it on money because money would make its way from Spain to India there's no electricity no printing press let me just show you one of the official coins of Domitian of that day if you could bring that next slide up this is the Domitian star coin and you can see it says around it it's this Caesar Domitian God saves right but right there it's donation sitting on top of the world juggling the Seven Stars in place so when John says this is the testimony of the one who is faithful and true it is he who holds the seven stars this is not something boring for us to read over this is a guy that's been exiled by a Caesar who says he's got in flesh and he's going to metioned thinks he gets the last word but he doesn't Jesus does donation thinks he holds the seven stars in place huh uh this is the testimony of the one who holds the seven stars see the propaganda on Domitian was was that he wasn't just a man he was fully God incarnate and in no other name on earth by which men can be saved other than the name of Caesar Domitian they said he was full of the spirit of two gods the male God Jupiter and the female goddess Roma let me show you another coin where he proclaims this loudly now yeah this is donation on the left side that's the best ahead side of the coin and on the tail side of the coin is him projecting the image of Jupiter on the tail side of his coin so here's what he did right here's what he did he had this idea and his idea was was that Jupiter has his own Olympic style game so here's what donation did he he instituted a bi annual celebration of his divinity by instituting a biannual olympic-style games to his honor and he humbly called it wait for it the donation games now let me tell you this story and tell me where you've heard this before here's what he did he to show his dominance over the Roman Peyer he divided the entire empire to twelve districts huh and each district had to give up two delegates to travel to the capital city to participate in the Domitian games the only district absolved from giving up delegates was the capital city and these twenty foot is a sounding familiar anybody and these 24 delegates would come together and participate in an event by event fight to the death to celebrate the divinity of Caesar Domitian whim you attended the games Domitian wanted to create the greatest choir ever created to sing his praises so when you attended the games you were given two gifts a white robe and a gold crown why because he wanted to create the greatest choir ever created to sing his praises they would enter into the Roman Colosseum Caesar Domitian would stand in front of them and they would all stand and sing a hymn of praise to him it went something like this we praise you o Domitian o son of God for you alone or worthy of all honor and glory and power and blessing we praise you o Domitian o son of God for you alone or worthy of all honor and glory and power and blessing at the end of the song they would cast down their golden crowns at his feet think about your Caesar movies the Roman Caesar standing there like this and there showering him down is this making some of the book of Revelation makes sense oh by the way Domitian hired 24 people to follow him around and tell him how awesome he was right think about this think about this John says and I saw the four and twenty elders sitting around the throne and we were wearing white robes and gold crowns and we were casting down our golden crowns around the glassy sea but we were singing a new song in other words I've seen how this ends and Domitian doesn't get the last word Jesus does this was not some boring doctrinal bullet point this is a guy exiled on an island going up yours Domitian you're not gonna get the last word here oh by the way uh are you guys bored okay good good good cuz here's the thing right here's the thing donation that the Domitian games check this out the Domitian games had 24 delegates when 20 died that left four and the final four was a four horse horse race of four horses of a different color pink been her and they go around in these chariots and horses until everybody was dead except one and they were proclaimed the champion of the donation games I never give an honorary Roman citizenship you have twenty three dead bodies laying around the Roman Colosseum the last scene of the Domitian games was two characters come in on horseback one was called death and one was called Hades and death and Hades came in on horseback can you see how this is forming some of this stuff oh oh by the way by the way the the goddess that they said filled Domitian was the goddess roma Roma was the goddess of virtue and justice the coinage on Roma shows her coming into Rome on horseback dressed virtuously holding the scales of justice and there's seven hills on the coin because rome was called the city of seven hills do you see where john says things like and I saw a great descending on a horse to the city of Seven Hills this is not something that's supposed to be seen like literal like oh but honestly if you're waiting for a literal to come out of the sky on a horse what are you talking about right that is cuz let's just be honest there's nothing scarier than a on a horse right crazy no no no no no this is John going this is John going hey that goddess of virtue that you think fills your Caesar not only is she not virtuous she's a she's the opposite of that this is not some boring doctrinal bullet point this is a guy banished to the island of Patmos going up yours too the entire Roman Empire system and for planing a new way to live and some would call that good news to the Angel of the Church of Sardis write this now a quick history of Sardis next slide so Sardis was an important part of the Lydian Empire in Persia it was a main road on Ephraim emphasis to the main parts of Asia Minor thus making important its inner buying and selling they give it as Wall Street of the day it was built as two parts a Lower City and an upper City 1500 meters high of a 1500 meter rock Club the best example I can give you from New Zealand is if you've ever seen cape kidnappers right where there's a flat spot on top of these 15,000 meter high whatever it's there's a city way up there and then a city way down there so if you were sort of of the poorer social economics that as she lived down there but the rich and the affluent they lived high it was considered the most fortified city in the entire Roman Empire it was impenetrable because it was 1,500 meters high there's no way an enemy could attack you without being covered from an elevated position now to understand this better we have to go back a bit because Sardis really hit its stride under the rule of a guy named Croesus let me tell you about him next slide so under the rule of creases even today in the news sometimes people might say they were rich as Croesus Croesus was one of the richest people who's ever lived in the history of the world how rich he actually is no one really knows but let's just agree together if you're in that discussion that makes you flippin awesome okay it was the first place in the world to master the art of spinning wool so what they would do Croesus be if you watch movies that are set before creases people were walking around with whole animals on what what priestess worked out is is that if you shear the sheep and spin the wool in the clothing the next year the sheep grow more wool and then you could do it again and again and again genius stuff for that day today we're like well duh we're New Zealand we understand these things right right it was the first place to make coin in such a way that standardized the amount of gold and silver in each coin so before Croesus you never really knew how much gold or silver was in there you had to do all this measuring and and you never knew when you were being ripped off Croesus developed a way to standardize the amount of gold and silver in each coin and then something crazy happened next slide right here's what happened they discovered the largest deposit of gold yet found in the world up to that time underneath the upper city so if you're following this here's what happened Croesus figured out a way to standardize the amount of gold and silver in each coin and then after that they found the largest deposit of gold ever underneath his own City which literally gave him a license to print money the entire world was looking to him to make their money now you have a problem why because if you have the largest deposit of gold ever found in the history of the world up to that time underneath your feet lots and lots of people are going to want it so what do you need you need a big army to guard it here was what was helpful they were 1,500 meters high so they were they were impenetrable anyway here's what Croesus did Croesus started this large army to protect his stuff and then he had a 40-foot wall built on top of the 1500 meter rock face to make it completely impenetrable he actually went on record to say my city is unattackable by the Roman Empire days they put all the archives there to protect their there their actual official records because it was that impenetrable here's the issue next slide oh go back yeah in 546 BC Cyrus the Persian attacked and plundered the city with a surprise attack here's how that happened Cyrus the Persian sent spies to find a way into Sardis and here's what he told them he said you know what you guys go and if you can't find a way in the Sardis don't come back don't bother coming back okay yes stay there and die or come back endives you're gonna find me away into Sardis here's how this story goes there was an army man whose job was to be the Watchmen on wall and would you agree with me that if your job is to watch the wall of Sardis that's potentially the most boring job ever right and the way it went is is that the way the story goes his head he fell asleep and when he fell asleep his head bobbed and his helmet came off of his head and went down the face wall and then down the 15-hundred meter rock face to the valley below instead of going to the army barracks and admitting he had fall asleep or just make up a better story like I was fiddling when the helmet dropped it haha he went down to the valley and fetched his helmet through a secret passageway that was dug for the military only from the middle of the city through the mountain and into the valley he goes down there to fetch his helmet not knowing anybody's watching puts his helmet back on and comes back up into the city through this secret passageway which revealed to Cyrus the Persian spies the way into the city right so 546 BC while everyone was asleep Cyrus the Persian comes up to the middle of the city and Robson plunders the place and when everybody woke up they did not know what hit them because he came as a thief in the night in 398 BC Antiochus the Great performed a surprise attack through the same tunnel in other words once everybody was dead that remembered that once they forgot and got complacent again the same thing happened in 334 BC Alexander the Great did it again this group of people kept getting complacent because of how safe they were and being surprised when all their stuff was taken from them which leads me to this question is auckland new zealand much different than Sardis you live in one of the top ten most affluent places on earth a nation with motorcars paved roads stores that prepackaged food for us clean water in our tap machines that do washing other machines that do drawing world-class healthcare right down the road and it's largely free and your detected with a military alliance with the United States of America if someone came to attack you America would be here within hours okay and that's a good thing for New Zealand because I think you have one fighter jet all right but but listen listen you're protected you're relatively like none of us here are living in fear of being attacked by a warlord none of us here are living in fear of military onslaught none sir and here's the problem right when we're affluent and we have money I bet I bet in the last 30 days every person in this room paid $5.00 for a cup of coffee at some place I bet I've bet in the last 30 days everybody in this room went to a shop and had someone cook food for us I bet we did I bet we did and when we live with that kind of influence this is how much money we have now there are people in Auckland making a full-time wage massaging people's shoulders when they feel tight that is a lot of money there is somebody in Auckland this week making a full-time wage permanently removing women's facial hair that's a lot of money my great-grandmother didn't have that much money right you should have seen him it was unbelievable here's what happens right here's what happens we're living with affluence none of us none of us in this room are going hungry this week we're living with affluence like heck even if you're Eve even if you have to be on the dole in New Zealand you're still in the richest 7% of the whole world we have affluence protection power privilege our biggest worry is where do I charge my phone did the 4G go out and what happens in those situations is we get complacent and we fall asleep and before we know it somebody swoops in and steals what is rightfully ours I don't think we're much different than these folks that was under the rule of Croesus this happened now that was the political side let's talk about the religious side next slide so the religious rule Sardis was dominated by the religious rule of Qibla the daughter of Zeus and twin of Apollo killer kibble is also known as Artemis to the Greeks and Diana to the Romans so Kimble of was this female goddess actually I found a picture of Kabbalah let me show you a picture kibble oh here she is and all her there she is there's the Qibla she was that she was the main center temple of Ephesus Sardis right you can see she's quite sexual she's quite sensual she's she's got like 20 sets of breasts right very very central sort of Goddess and let's just be honest even when they're 3,000 years old and made of stone or 20 breasted woman is just awesome right just awesome [Applause] she received worship through all these crazy things these outdoor immorality parties right let me just be clear about this whatever the sickest craziest thing going on in Auckland tonight is it's Nickelodeon compared to what was going on in Sardis okay Kimball Oh was the goddess of fertility like she could obviously she can maintain a lot of life that was the idea right she she was the goddess she was also the goddess of the hunt so so before before you went and remember there's no grocery stores back then so so before you went as a hunting party to go find food for your family here's what you would do you'd go by the temple of Qibla and you would give an offering and ask Qibla to trick small animals to come into your path so that you may have food to eat she was the goddess of the hunt here's the other problem she was also the goddess in charge of protecting small animals right so there's a pretty a conflict of interest right now here's here's what happened right here's a heaven right this is one time and here's the one time in Sardis where they had a famine they couldn't find food now think about this right if you're an ancient primitive superstitious sort of group of people if you can't find food who have you ticked off kibble oh she's obviously upset you haven't given enough so here's what they did the men of Sardis went to the temple of Qibla begging her for help they still couldn't find food they gave more money they still couldn't find food they gave more money they still couldn't find food so here's what they did at the last straw 1,500 men in one religious frenzy because how does a group of men prove to a female that they're loyal to her what do you do what's your most prized possession here's what they did 1500 men in one religious frenzy self castrated and then they took their testicles and they put them on the altar - Qibla and allowed them to be burned so that they could find food by the way in 1918 archeologists found the temple of Qibla and they restored it and it is now tourist attraction in Turkey so if you're ever in Turkey on a tourist tour and you find the altar to Qibla don't sit on it it has a lot of history right by the way by the way Paul built a thriving Church there let's talk about that for a second Paul went into Ephesus Sardis places like this and built a thriving Church how do you build a thriving Church in a place with that kind of debauchery and paganism what's not hard here's what Paul did he walked in and instead of telling everybody why she's evil he saw her as powerless and so he gave that no air at all here's what he did he walked in and said hey I serve a God who loves you whether you do rituals or not I serve a God who will feed you because he loves you I serve a God who will bless your women with fertility just because he loves you and he will provide food for you and you can keep all your bits intact join us hey just a much better story right this ticked them off so here's what they did they had Paul arrested how do we know that because it's recorded in acts 19 they have Paul arrested and they bring him to the pagan judge and they say we want you to put him in jail and the pagan judge says what do you want me to do with him he has not robbed our temple nor has he blasphemes our goddess one time that's the kind of church I want to build could we do that could we build a church to the glory of Jesus Christ without having to let the whole world know everything we're against right right come on right right look it's like it's like wait I don't need to attack kibble I'm just gonna be for a lot of good things I throw up in my mouth when I see Christians on the internet explaining everything we're not for it's not compelling if we actually believe it doesn't have power then treat it like it doesn't have power and ignore it right my god good grief by the way Jesus overcame Sardis what more could he do in Auckland a place with religious freedom and protection and affluence like we're not your Christians so the Christians faith in God is so small you know your Christian Christians today they talk cuz they've never been persecuted right so they have to make up something to be grumbling about we're sick Oh God what are we gonna do oh no what if Labour takes over what Jesus is like what labour we overcame sardis bro the Roman Empire let me just give you a quick history the Spirit of God okay this is the God that you're connected with overcame the Egyptian Empire the Babylonian Empire the Assyrian Empire the Persian Empire the Roman Empire the rule of the Greeks the Dark Ages I think he can handle Donald Trump right oh no what a flavor listen if labor took over everything it's still better than that and they were able to build a thriving Church of Jesus Christ without saying one bad thing about the other gods may we be those people a people who makes Jesus so good that you don't have to empower it with being negative about everything else now with that as the historical backdrop of the geopolitical situation in Sardis let's see if this makes Revelation chapter 3 make any sense next slide I know your deeds you have a reputation of being a lie but you're actually dead that's you can also say asleep wake up strengthen what remains and is about to die for I found your deeds and finished in my sight remember therefore what you have received and heard hold it fast and repent but if you do not wake up I will come like a thief and you will not know at what time I this is a city who has a history of falling asleep and people robbing from them right Nick next like yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes they will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy the one who is victorious will like them be dressed in white I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life but will acknowledge that name before my father and his angels keep going whoever has ears let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches so you might be thinking Shane ok first pretty interesting history lesson fairly funny cool photos so what 2019 it's all corn what do we do with this graduates next light wake up what are you doing have you gotten complacent wake up but you didn't think God was done with you but in a room this size it is improbable that there's not at least a few of you who are thinking about quitting don't you quit don't you get complacent what happens what happens in affluence and relative security is that we lose our sight on how much we actually need God and this message is just as relevant today as it's ever been it might be time for us to wake up and only you know if you've fallen asleep at the wheel and you're just going through the motions only you know if you've lost sight of the infinite possibilities that God has for your life because here's what happens at some point when you start your relationship with God there are the voices of the infinite possibilities of what God could use for your life it's loud inside but then discouraged 'men disagreement that one loud plunker on the internet something happens budget struggles government codes that don't allow you to move in certain things a mortgage banker says you're not worth the risk something happens something happens that the discouragement makes the voices of the infinite possibilities begin to die and on the inside they get lower and lower and lower and my prayer for you tonight is that the voices of the infinite possibilities that God has for your life comes alive inside of you again and you wake up and you grasp this thing because what you do matters how you live matters God has a massive plan for this nation that's going to require the next generation to get on board with what he's been doing before to be firmly connected to the past while Reed reaming what God might be doing in the future to be firmly connected to the past while reimagining what God might be up to in the future it might be time for us to wake up maybe they say it this way next one your deeds are not finished your deeds are not you're not done if done 20 years or so you've been going and as a movement 100 and something well in the whole world this movement really well staying firmly connected to its roots while reimagining what God might be doing in future generations but you're not done no way you're not that you I would even go to say as much as I'm inspired by your movement and by what you do and I've preached and equip Earl as much as I'm inspired by it and it's one of the best movements in the world make no mistake about it but you're not done your deeds aren't finished you can't rest on the laurels of yesterday no way you got to wake up and dream again move again ask again believe again create that dream again see we get complacent we we sort of fall asleep at the wheel but Jesus is calling Sardis and often to wake up and realize are our deeds are not yet finished you haven't begun to experience what God might do the best days are definitely ahead of it and here's the thing right if I was to ask this question are the best days for equip our head of it or behind it what would we quickly say yeah if you have to think about that you're in the wrong place okay the best days are yet ahead of it well if the best days are yet ahead of it does it stand to reason that the best people who are going to take it to the next place might not even know you exist yet and we have to create space for those people we have to create room for those people we have to create space for their talent and their energy and their passions and their personalities we have to believe that our deeds are not yet finished which means their deeds aren't either and they're gonna be welcome here wake up your deeds are not yet finished maybe say it another way next like remember and hold it fast remember sometimes we just forget to remember remember what God has been up to take take a count of what's going on some in your life like for most of us there might be an exception but for most of us right for most of us if God never did one more thing for any of us our life still awesome right it's just going really really really well our life's going fantastic and we need to remember that we need to remember what God called us to we need to remember that dream Jesus to sardis says remember come back to that vision and hold it fast this is ancient rabbinical teaching okay what ancient this mirrors it so well what ancient rabbinical teaching says is that a fleeting imagination will not harm you nor help you right so if you just have a fleeting lustful thought so AB a destructive thought comes in your mind and it's fleeting so some sort of lust just happens and it comes in and it goes oh that will not necessarily it's not gonna hurt me but when that lustful thought becomes a disciplined imagination and I create her as an object of my lust now I don't destroy me but a fleeting imagination is not gonna hurt me but nor will it help me this is why we get so frustrated when people show up every week with this God's gonna do big things cos could do awesome things and then the next week they're on to something else like God's gonna do something more over here right and they can never ever hold that vision fast what the rabbi's thought was was that a fleeting imagination cannot hurt you nor help you but a disciplined imagination will draw your reality to where you're seeing it if you can hold it fast is there a gap between what you're believing God for what you're actually experiencing I hope so because if there's not a gap between what you're believing God for what you're actually experiencing then you don't have any faith in operation faith requires us to deal with that gap between what we're believing God for and what we're actually experiencing and we need to hold it fast Equipe as in Auckland needs a building let's hold it fast do you have a building right now no but that's where we operate in faith and we keep seeing it declaring it visualizing it feeling it feeling it if equip as a movement wants to start five more churches and all these locations in the next few months that is awesome do you have it yet no you don't but you can remember and you can hold it fast you can hold fast discouragement begone and let the voices of the infinite possibilites come alive inside of us I may say in another way next life repent simply return to your dream repent if I could do anything for us tonight I'd I'd like to remove the shame of repentance see often in our imagination when we say repent we limit repentance to I've done something bad and I need to be sorry for it so it's shame and guilt based and look if you're doing something that's going to destroy your life turn around no question but repentance shouldn't just be done when we've done something bad repentance just means to turn our shoulders and start heading towards our destiny again it just means to return to turn our shoulders around to change the way we think about something there's a way that you could be doing nothing wrong but God is calling you to change the way you think about something and that is just as much repentance as anything else which leads me to this is there anything God's calling us to change the way we think about something is there any is there any place that we've been urged we're uncomfortable with it it makes us uncomfortable cuz because it's requiring change but maybe we're called to repent and return to our dream look look Netflix is good but it's not what it's cracked up to be fortnight is good but it's not what it's cracked up to me it's not that next promotion is good but it's not what it's cracked up to be the only thing that's cracked that's what it's cracked up to be is when we intentionally pursue those things that God has called us to do in our world right and he's reminding these people he's like hey hey wake up your deeds are not yet finished remember and hold it fast and then return to it maybe we could say it this way one last way next slide be encouraged by each other I think it's interesting the way Jesus ends this with John he just says hey it's a weird sort of sentence he says hey look around you there's a lot of people who haven't sold their clothes what a weird sentence in the middle of all that but not when you think about historically could you imagine trying to pioneer this new Jesus movement in a place called Sardis where at one it was illegal to you could be put to death for it three your very presence intimidated the the system of Temple worship of the day could and by the way everybody around you has lots of money and security could you imagine trying to explain to people who had everything they ever need why they need Jesus it's very difficult did you imagine living in a place like that imagine living in a place where people at everything they ever need so to try to explain why they need God is kind of difficult a little bit hey could you imagine in the middle of that where a neighbor doesn't really understand why you give to the poor intentionally why would you give to people who can't do anything in return for you why would you do that and trying to explain why we do things like that trying to give an answer for why we live the way we do could you imagine some of the discouragement and you might at some point start believing that you're alone no one no one cares about God anymore no one cares about this stuff is our message outdated what's going on with this jesus says to Sardis I think he'd say the same thing to us look around lots of people haven't sold their clothes you'd start to be you start to think it's artists I think everybody has sold their clothes which was a metaphor for entering into wickedness entering into this kibble and debauchery entering into this Roman Empire system entering into the worship of Domitian be easy I think everybody so I think everybody I'm just alone and there's nothing more demoralizing in the world than feeling alone actually in the Bible the first thing God ever said wasn't good was loneliness go read it it is good it's good oh it's good it's good oh yeah it's good let's go that's not good it's not good loneliness the feeling of loneliness and I think if I could piggyback on what Pastor Kathy did in her session and equip her which I thought was brilliant she did a whole session on being encouraging you being encouraging to one another that actually building a thriving church culture can be complicated but it doesn't have to be it can sometimes be as simple as reminding each other that you are not alone because here's the problem with something like this here's the problem with a church environment that is as awesome as I just experienced right you can experience to me the best worship in New Zealand some of the best worship in the world everybody's up here jumping josh is getting him round up moving his head back and forth them like I've watched that man do five sessions of equip her get up this morning to do this morning he's not even on the stage tonight and I'm watching him I don't really know what to call that but I know I'm impressed that he had that much energy and here's here's the problem right here's the problem there's a way that you can come in to something like this and for an hour and 15 minutes actually experience it you can you can actually experience and cook man that was also but then when you leave you're lonelier than ever before and as a church we got to make sure that doesn't happen how do we do that we join a group right we intentionally find the outsider here and give them a word of encouragement and right my challenge to you tonight is before you leave that you find someone and give them a word of encouragement it might be something as simple as you're a good mom you're a good dad hey you are not alone when that spirit of encouragement comes over us like you are not alone to Sam and Cathy and the leaders here you're not alone you're not now don't care what you go through you're not alone cuz I'm in your life which means I'm one flight away well actually I'm a one-hour flight by a six-hour flight by a 12-hour flight so in that sense you're alone for a day but but you're not alone watch this watch this let me show you this next slide watch this this is from this is Elijah and he replied I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty the Israelites have rejected your government turn down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword I'm the only one left I'm the only one left now they're gonna kill me four verses later watch what God says to him next slide yet I reserved 7,000 in Israel all whose knees have not bowed to Bill and his mouse have not kissed him in other words you think you're alone no way 7,000 of you sometimes our perspective feels alone not alone look around you you're in a great place look we're all in this together look to the Angel of the Church of Sardis maybe we can say this way to the Angel of the Church at Oakland say this wake up wake up have you gotten complacent your deeds are not yet finished remember and hold it fast return to the voices of the infinite possibilites God has for your life believe again dream again act again and realize you are not a until I see you next time everybody grace apiece god bless

Channel: Equippers Church

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Length: 43min 8sec (2588 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 31 2019