Jungle Cruising - Rethink the River

the man brought me back to the entrance to the temple and i saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple towards the east for the temple faced the east the water was coming down from under the south side of the temple south of the altar he then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east and the water was trickling from the south side as the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle deep he measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep he measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist he measured off another thousand but now it was a river that i could not cross because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in a river that no one could cross he asked me son of man do you see this then he led me back to the bank of the river when i arrived there i saw a great number of trees on each side of the river he said to me this water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the arabah where it enters the dead sea when it empties into the sea the salty water there becomes fresh swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows there will be large numbers of fish because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh so wherever the river flows everything will live fishermen will stand along the shore from engetti to n egg laying there will be places for spreading nets the fish will be of many kinds like the fish of the mediterranean sea but the swamps and marshes will not become fresh they will be left for salt fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river their leaves will not weather nor will their fruit fail every month they will bear fruit because the water from the sanctuary flows to them their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing ezekiel chapter 47 verse 1-12 [Music] oh please give it up for our musicians and dance team loudly come on church wow gosh so much fun hey if you're a guest welcome my name is david i'm one of the pastors here at cbg and uh we launched a new theme it's kind of obvious it's an homage to one of the best disney attractions in my opinion the jungle cruise jungle cruise any fans of the jungle cruise in the house make a little noise come on make a little noise any fans put a fist bump in the chat some of y'all like the jungle cruise i love me the jungle cruise the jungle cruise is one of the original disney world attractions going back to a 1971 but you may not notice also when the original attractions in disneyland back in 1955 when the first rides they had and i do love it i do love it now if you've not been on the jungle cruise there's not many of you but it's hard to describe it's not really a thrill ride it's not scary it's it's not remotely educational walt originally wanted an educational experience what is the jungle cruise it's it's cheesy it's wonderfully beautifully cheesy i like the fact it's campy yes it's nostalgic and it's a classic but like the fact they just embraced the cheese sometimes in life you're gonna embrace the cheese i mean cheese is fine sometimes church by the glades we're cheesy we have a little fun with that we don't take ourselves too seriously i like the jungle cruise makes fun of the jungle cruise all right so i like the fact it's cheesy in fact i think some of the best actors in all magic kingdom are the jungle cruise skippers they tell bad jokes really well and every dad in the room appreciates that so bad jokes really well so again has a great history in researching the jungle cruise attraction i found out this that walt disney and his designers now called imagineers had to think and rethink the jungle cruise over many many times it went through a number of evolutions and redesigns in fact in some of the earlier conceptual drawings the jungle cruise was not a cruise it was a walking experience to a through a garden and a jungle then early on walt saw it as as not not an amazonian or african jungle but the florida everglades it was a swamp and the swanny river once upon a time they had boats but the first boats were speed boats that would change the ride a bit uh but the craziest rethink of all is walt was determined that the animals on the jungle cruise would be real animals they'd have real rhino and and elephants and monkeys and howdy gators and only after some time his team talked to him out of that would not be practical again animals you know sometimes they sleep and sometimes they're in their burrow and so the closest ride to walt disney's original vision for the jungle cruise is what it's it's animal kingdom safari ride so it went through a number of renovations even you know the name the name uh the names they changed the name some of the names they thought early on how about this one was this a terrible name tropical waterways of the world another suggested name early on was the rivers of romance i like jungle cruise way better than that right uh so anyways during the conceptuals and construction even completion began to rethink and rethink time and time again and redesign the jungle cruise hey i want to rethink a big idea in the bible not a theme but a theme park that shows up many times so if you're reading your bible right now in english or creole or portuguese or spanish i want to think with you and rethink the idea of blessing the idea of blessing the idea of blessing is a big idea in your bible it shows up somewhere in the neighborhood of 430 different times old testament and new testament so that's the topic today is blessing so when i say three let's shout the word blessing loudly together ready one two three excellent put blessing in the chat i want to talk to you about this desire of god this willingness of god to bless us in spiritual and even tangible ways so i want to talk about this idea of blessing and again so this series of jungle cruising with the creativity um what's it really about the rivers of the bible the rivers of the bible now i could have called the series the rivers of the bible and y'all wouldn't have come for that but it's actually a great topic a great theme to study because some of the best stories happen in the context of a river think about the story of moses he's a little baby his parents recognized he was special that god had a purpose for his life that he should be protected by the way that's true of every baby and so his mama when they couldn't hide him any anymore he was getting too big about three months old because sometimes god is doing a work in your life so big you cannot contain it or conceal it they made that little bitty boat and put him in the river what river the nile river and that's what that happened uh god directed his pathway to pharaoh's household uh we're gonna study in one of the sessions of jungle cruise john the baptist baptizing in the jordan river but other times you see a river in the bible it's symbolic often symbolic whenever you see water or river especially fresh water check out john chapter 4 john chapter 7. is symbolic a blessing life or favor so we're going to be in ezekiel chapter chapter 47 ezekiel chapter 47. and i've been with you guys now over 20 years i've never taught this remarkable passage when ezekiel a jewish man who lives in babylon has this divine vision of a river a massive river of life and blessing ezekiel chapter 47 so listen we're going to talk about blessing and without apology i want to say this this topic intrigues me i am not a prosperity preacher at all except in the rare moments the bible promises to prosper us now by the way it's not just financial don't make god this boring dull one-dimensional god this is a way bigger idea than just financial or material things blessing is a huge idea but i will say this about blessing if heaven has a blessing for me i want it if heaven has any blessing with my name or if god wants to invade my life with his favor his goodness his grace his blessing i want i want everything that heaven has for me if heaven has a blessing for my life i won it put your hands together loudly if you say yes if heaven has a blessing for me say in the chat me too me too right if heaven had by the way that doesn't make us selfish or greedy it makes us smart i don't miss out on any good thing that god has planned for my life and so let's study this idea we won't cover everything just just kind of the foundation today but this vision and by the way if you're like okay what is the blessing hard to explain it is is god getting all up in your stuff is god invading your life in powerful practical ways is supernatural it's impactful it's more purposeful than materialistic it's this incredible thing that you do want so i think as we study it it'll become clear but you want this idea david how do i qualify for blessing how is it just for certain people how about this maybe i've messed up so big in my life i don't i i can't get a blessing i will show you i believe that god is not arbitrary nor capricious about the way he bestows blessing he's not random it's like god's in heaven goes i'm gonna bless everybody at church by the glades on tuesday his last name start with a through m that's not the way it works right by certain steps of faith and obedience i position myself to be blessed i render my life blessable i put myself in a spiritual position where god can choose to favor me right so yes it is not arbitrary but have you messed up too much are you beyond the boundaries and the borders of god's blessing simple answer is no i don't care what happened yesterday and what you did this week what you did but if you'll make certain key god decisions today god can begin to bless your life no matter where you are as you hear this message and right now we have thousands of people watching this message in prison and uh look maybe you think because you're in that limited environment that somehow you're beyond the ability of god to bless this limited environment has limited god from blessing you and i don't know why you're there i'm not sure what happened or had a bad attorney or cut a bad break or made a bad decision but i'm telling you this the unlimited god can bless your limited environment he can step in to your reality and fuse your life with blessing right where you are right how do i know that ezekiel we're going to study ezekiel i can't give you the whole background but the people that ezekiel was trying to encourage felt like they were hopeless the time setting is the same as our last series we had no excuses remember the story of daniel shadrach meshach and abednego how they were trafficked there were exiles ezekiel is another exile he's been taken from his home in judah in jerusalem he's been taken to the kingdom of babylon he's not an immigrant he's more of a prisoner and the people with him in his village they're all jews they feel like game over we're never going home we've never seen our family all the good things god had for us we're back in israel we're beyond the boundaries and the borders of blessing and god by the way of chapter 47 says through this vision of a river you're wrong i can bless you anywhere i can bless you regardless of your regret regardless of your shame regardless of your decisions regardless of your ethnicity regardless of your geography i can bless you right where you are if you'll make certain decisions so today it's just the appetizer let me set the table let's talk about this idea a groundwork theologically the idea of blessing and by the way sadly you'll hear a lot of preachers say a lot of weird things about blessing i'm going to try not to do that right a lot of preachers reduce god to our spiritual atm our aramboy our concierge service no he is god he's a sovereign unlimited god he doesn't serve us we serve him but he's generous he's gracious and maybe you don't even believe in god you don't love god but he believes in you and he loves you and he made you he loved you to step into a relationship with him and he even endeavors to bless you that's a blessing i'm blessed right got your attention blessing here's what i talk about today simple framework ask these blessing questions how big how big how big is it god bless him this is i don't know i prayed for parking space at the mall i got it for christmas was that a blessing right how big how big next question how about quantity how much how much how willing is god to do this like one or two my life how how much how big how much and then once we discuss how big how much how do i get in on it how do i get in on this because if heaven has it i want it all right so we read this passage before let's try to tackle some of these questions again ezekiel is trying to encourage his audience and they're in a hopeless position so let's cover how big how big and by the way really quick i'll take two seconds of this i think the prophet ezekiel would be great with all this i know other churches don't have led boats and waterfalls and stuff and that's fine i don't think other churches probably should but this is what god's cause we love creativity and the reason i think is zeke when we get to heaven and sit down and have starbucks with ezekiel like i love that it's because he's one of the most creative communicators in all the word of god in fact true to the prophetic tradition the old testament he would use creativity he would use props and visual aids all the time you read read the first few chapters he's trying to communicate to the people of god that because of their sin that god's going to take off the force field right it's going to take off his hand of protection and the babylonians are going to come lay siege to the city of jerusalem so god tells him to build a clay model of the city and then you go on this city clear square and here's the sermon he just lays down on his left side like he's an army for 390 days straight and then just for fun he lays on the right side for 40 days gets the left side fell asleep or something trying to communicate creativity wise that there's a siege coming that's bizarre that's wow that's not typical that's an orthodox he does this god calls him to go out in the city square and to shave his head bald take a third of the hair set it on fire take another third of the hair and and blow it to the wind signifying the people of god will be scattered and then take the last dirt and get out of the sword and attack it whack it you're like oh what an interesting bible story are you kidding me if he stared at me if i did that next weekend if i came out on top of the boat like porsche and shave my head in front of everybody and set some of my hair on fire and attack some of the sword and blew the rest on the first and second row you'll be like oh my gosh we need an intervention for the pastor need to get lisa and his mama and a therapist and sit down because he has lost his flipping mind sometimes i'm taking too long with this but sometimes you know you might look at our church go oh they're kind of edgy they push the envelope david is provocative i dare you for homework to read ezekiel chapter 23 verse 20. ezekiel 23 read it you go read ezekiel 23 verse 20. he says something he says something preaching that is don't look up now don't do it now because i'll lose you for the rest of time he said he just did it he said i thought about putting the verse on the screen to let you to don't look at him doubt vitor not now not now not now don't leave now i'll lose you he says something so outrageous so so inappropriate here's a crazy thing it's not just ezekiel popping off because he was mad at the congregation we believe the bible is god's word we believe in something called the inerrancy of scripture it means that every single word in your bible god put their own purpose god never stutters nor stammers there's no typos in your bible so meaning this that verse it is harsh as provocative is exactly what the holy spirit meant to be in the bible so why should the preacher be that edgy that provocative simple reason the people the audience they were in rebellion they were in spiritual rebellion so guess sometimes you got to pull out the stops when the audience is in rebellion and by the way i don't think the people we're trying to reach in south florida are in spiritual rebellion listen to me i don't think people in south florida are mad at god i don't think i've lost people i'm not going to church because as a kid church hurt my feelings they don't think about church in south florida they don't think about god in south florida do you know my strategy doing all this stuff and the leds and stuff i'm trying to get their attention we're trying to enter the cultural dialogue we're trying to give you a reason to invite your neighbor who never thinks about church to come check out church right that's the reason creativity is a biblical and powerful thing amen can be such a good thing amen all right that's not the sermon but i can help myself how big first question is how big how big it's on the screen ready how big give me that on the screen guys ready let's read that together one two three how big so how big are these blessings let's go back quickly to chapter 47 ezekiel hope he found it let's go to verse 1. i've highlighted one word it says the man who is the man the man is an angel probably maybe it's jesus showing up before bethlehem the man the supernatural being brought me back to the entrance of the of the temple so this vision begins at the temple aka the house of god and i saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple so this river begins at the temple this river of divine blessing and life begins at the house of god a jew in ezekiel's day would value and esteem being at the house of god if you lived in jerusalem you were there all the time for worship you were there for corporate gatherings but even a jew who lived far away man many times a year during the high holy days maybe you pack up the family and pack up the family camel and you travel for days and you try to find lodging but if you couldn't find lodge and you live in a tent because you had to be at the house you recognize there's something very special and very sacred and very powerful and very blessed about being in the house give it up for your neighbors right now who are at our campuses give that person tonight come on loudly sitting next to you there's so many things on a sunday morning at 40 you could be doing but you are in the house of god right now that's a biblical thing to do now stay with me now god goes christian with you everywhere you go amen psalm 139 there's no place i can go to escape the beautiful presence of god uh first corinthians chapter 6 because of jesus christ and i accepted him i am now the temple of the holy spirit so god goes with me to the golf course or when i go fishing right god goes everywhere i go man that's a great thing at the same time that is no substitute for what we're doing right now because it says in ephesians chapter 2 verse 22 that the modern day equivalent of the temple in the bible is the church of jesus christ and while god can do powerful and personal things alone with god i can spend time every day with god alone there's something that happens when we come together there's a faith fusion there's spiritual synergy we come together i mean one thing i love when we come together i love the worship when we come together i love worshiping with you i love singing with you i love singing with you for many reasons but one reason i love singing with you is because i sing terribly i'm a terrible singer but you singing you drown me out not singing me louder because i can't hear myself i love the way we worship together i love the way we pray together so if you're watching online right now thank you for watching online a great thing you're doing washington online but if you are in south florida now if you're sheltering and play still if you're working from your laptop if you're not going out i get it keep watching online but if you are out and about why would you cut yourself out cut yourself off from the house of god get back to church come on back you want to sit by yourself there's some place in the corner man you can sit by yourself get back to that get back to a campus now if you live and you're watching this online and i don't know nebraska or nepal thank you for watching but this is your supplement not your substitute find a local church you need the gathering i mean god pours out his power he pours out his blessing as we gather to get why would you cut yourself off this should be a holy habit every week not legalism we need this we need this god how many times you walked out of here it's like man that message was from me that worship song was for me that was exactly what i needed y'all get i'm not that smart right we're not hacking your email we're not that's the holy spirit working through this gathering called the church so this this miracle blessing begins in the house of god immerse yourself in the river that be and by the way it starts in the house but it doesn't stay in the house it starts in the house of god but it's too big for the house of god to contain it affects the culture it affects your life every single day of the week all right quickly now so it's going to get really big it's going to get big but it starts small so it's a big blessing but it starts out like a little trickle starts you notice as a it gets deeper and deeper as it goes so it starts small listen many times in life god does something your life is going to be big but it starts small that's why it says in zechariah do not despise the day of small beginnings because i mean right now you're doing something you perceive as small and you think god has not blessed you know god has given you something small to master before he gives you something larger jesus said be faithful to small and god might entrust you with large so what's that small thing right now that you have disesteemed that small thing you have devalued because it's small like i don't know david i'm just like i'm just the assistant knight manager wendy's i'm just the assistant night manager at such a small job a small rep could be the best assistant night manager they have ever seen what's that small thing i'm a sophomore i don't know the algebra 2. pastor how's algebra 2 ever going to help me in life it won't i've never used it one time but that's a small thing god's given you master and maximize small opportunities so it begins you know disney's a multi-gasquillian dollar corporation has theme parks in different countries on different continents of the world has cruise ships has movie studios has streaming services has now once upon a time walt disney and disney corporation was so small he worked out of a garage his office disney began his work in a garage he leased from his uncle for a dollar a month his first designing and drawing table he built himself with his own hands on that very same hand-built table he would later draw steamboat willing the first animated cartoon was sound it all began so small do not despise the day of small beginnings i don't care you're in a cubicle you're in a classroom you're an apprentice it's an unpaid internship blow it up do it well now start small and it gets big why because god's good was small but he's really good with big god does things are god's size so let's go to verse nine verse nine by the time there's so much life in this river in verse nine look at the language here in verse nine on the screen right now ready one two three swarms one two three swarms the living creatures will live wherever the river flows there will be large numbers of fish what a beautiful first large numbers of fish because the water flows there and makes the salt water fresh so where the river flows everything swarms and large numbers and everything i love the lavish language of the bible and that is not unique to ezekiel throughout the scripture you see god make these big promises and by the way god never exaggerates for effect never embellishes to get your attention never over promises oversells and under delivers not one time so when jesus says in john 10 10 i've come that you may have life and have life abundantly need resourcing need resource in your life when it says in philippians chapter 4 verse 19 uh where it says and my god shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory that he's going to meet your needs he promises he self-obligates to meet your needs according to his riches and glory and inexhaustible an eternal supply speaking of resources would anybody like to have a little help we've got a resource in your life and so put your hands together clap if you'd like to have god resourcing your life if you're watching online that's like 40 of the room the other 60 you're fine don't need god's help i guess would you like god to help you resource your life would you help like god yeah put like little hand clap emoji in the chat all right check out this and check out this one this one kind of starts out kind of heavy so stay with me don't don't log off don't y'all tap out it gives us something we do and by the way if you don't do this thing there's a consequence but if we do the right thing there's a blessing so malachi chapter three is on the big screen behind me verse eight and the spokesperson here this is god speaking in the first person and it's kind of weird he says will a man rob god yet you rob me that's kind of funny how in the world we like tiny little finite people rob god how do we mug god how do we extort god right but you're robbing me how uh in ties and offerings and ties and so you're not bringing the tithe what's the type the tithe is giving back to god the first 10 of everything he entrusts to me now don't don't log off stay with me i know i'm talking about money and you guys get freaked out when i talk about money i'm not after your money on a very micro like personal lover i don't care if you ever give anything to church but we'll be fine if you don't give anything nobody here is you know fat enough high enough roller if you choose not to give we got to turn off the church no okay turn off the church funny idea how do you turn off the church right i meant to off the lights let's turn off the church i'm going to turn off the church this is just between you and god and you robbing god and robbing yourself of a potential blessing and because you're not bringing the tithe you are under a i don't know what that means but i don't want it i don't want heaven working against me right this kind of a financial verse i don't want him working against me financially conversely check out the next verse this first rocks verse 10 says on the other hand bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that's a temple store house there may be food in my house that we can do ministry and then like the next statement test me in this test me god hey try me go ahead go ahead it's god talking smack it's god talking trash test me in this says the lord almighty and see if i will not throw open the floodgates of the lavish language here the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it you don't want that like no i'm good i'm fine got it and by the way i want to make the promise here it's not me or the church or you know the financial team it's god saying if you do this is talking about money david i don't know maybe i've found in my life the best blessings and the biggest blessings you can't put a price tag on but he promises to bless you so based on this verse based on verse 8 9 and 10 how many christians are living under the tyranny of a self-imposed micro-recession because you're not trusting god who promises a big blessing how big how big how about how much how much how big how how much how many times will god do this is like a bunch of little blessings add up to a big blessing or a couple of big blessings a whole bunch of how much we can't quantify what god does i resist anything formulaic that turns god again to our servants but but how many let's keep working through the passage quickly uh this is exciting uh verse 10 chapter 47 ezekiel fisherman will stand along the shore of engetti and elim uh there will be the place of spreading the nets i like this little phrase ready it does show that fishing is the biblical sport right here that fish will be of many kinds many kinds like fish of the great sea so here talks about how much that god is not just like a big blessing but he's very diverse in the way he blesses us and so the fish we like the dead sea assuming like the great sea uh now why is it dead sea was this you backtracked to verse eight and the terminal destination of the river of blessing is the dead sea i've never been to israel some of you have been to israel facts have you been to israel with me um the dead sea is a beautiful place but it's barren it's not really a sea it's a large inland lake but all the water flows into it nothing ever flows out so it becomes very mineral dense and it's also 1300 feet beneath sea level it's the lowest place on the planet not covered by ocean and because that is incredibly salty it's about six times saltier than the ocean translation nothing lives in it if you look at the pictures there's no trees or plants even around it is that toxic that the toxicity is contagious it's so toxic it poisons everything around it you know people like that don't you you know somebody they're so toxic kind of every place they go man they bring that they poison everything okay i hope that's not who you are but i love what god promises to do in this river of blessing it's gonna it's gonna dump out into this dead place and turn this dead place into a living place because again the audience was hopeless they were exiles they thought were beyond the borders and the boundaries of blessing we're in a far away place we don't understand the culture nor the language and all the blessings are back in israel but we're not in israel because of our sin and our shame and god says guess what i can still bless you no matter where you are and a lot of blessing see because the dead sea literally has zero fish there's not a single species of fish that can survive in the salt content of the hyper salinity of the dead sea but i notice this verse doesn't say so i'm gonna make you like uh the jordan river the jordan river is just north of dead sea and the jordan river has fish you can fish the jordan river there's like 24 25 different species of fish but then verse 10 it says no i'm gonna make you multiply with fish like the great sea that's the mediterranean sea there's thousand different kinds of fish in the med i'm gonna bless you that much and verse 11 says now uh i'm gonna keep the swamps salty god why are you gonna keep the swamps can't you do swan you're not good with swamps you can keep verse 11 it says that well guess what you need a little salt in your life amen you need some sodium chloride to stay healthy uh good good good church should be what full of grace season with salt every once in a while i don't step on your toes i'm probably not doing you a favor doing a disservice and then verse 12 verse 12 says this verse 12 talks about the life that spreads around that fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both sides of the river so now this once dead place is a living place you saw the topography it looked like a moonscape and now there's trees and fruit trees everywhere their leaves will not wither nor will their fruit fail every month they will bear bear fruit because the water of the sanctuary flows to them their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing it's both substantial and medicinal but like you can harvest this fruit from this river of blessing every month every month now i live in south florida we don't we don't grow anything here we don't have farmers in broward county amen any farmers in the house not not a single one so i don't understand this the only thing we grow in broward county is some people grow a little weed in the backyard shouldn't do that so i don't understand how you harvest i got friends watching iowa they're farmers you guys can you know fact check the preacher but i think you harvest like once or twice a year right harvest in the fall but when god blesses your life you harvest all the time becomes this incredibly cool self-sustaining self-producing ecosystem in your life more random jungle cruise fast more random jungle crews when they're building the jungle cruise back in the early 50s in disneyland one of the biggest challenges for the jungle cruise was the jungle because walt back in the 40s went to the amazon had this vision for an amazonian kind of jungle with all these tropical plants that's tough enough to do in orlando but in california even southern california gets really cold during the winter nights and so it got so cold those freezing temperatures the plants wouldn't survive so they built these giant towers with heaters and fans for the first years to keep the plants alive because the jungle and the jungle crews could not survive the harsh environment stay with me they no longer need them because the jungle the jungle cruise even in california now is so dense and the canopy is so thick that the canopy protects the other plants and all the plants of course recycle co2 and oxygen and that also creates a degree of heat so now the jungle in the jungle cruise in california is a self-sustaining micro ecosystem no matter how harsh or cold the outer environment is it's fine that is a beautiful picture of a christian who's rooted in the word of god and under the canopy of protection that is called the church that no matter what's happening out there in the greater environment the political environment the sociological environment the financial environment the economic environment we are fine god can bless this ecosystem called the church with protection and provision and prosperity because that's the way he's designed this he can bless us that big and that much how big how much so how do i get in on this how do i make this mine i want this answer i will tell you in a coming week when you come back for a jungle cruise at church by the glades because my clock says i have three minutes and six seconds i can't cover it that short a time because it's too important so when you come back guess what you're gonna come back amen go come back right oh david i have vacation plans uh you can watch online man gather up the family they're in the rv and watch online gather up their grandma's house and mirror on the tv and watch it you don't want to miss this information because again god does not do this for everybody and he is not your aaron boy so how do you position yourself how does how's the river flow i'll talk to you about every river has a source and a course and then it has the force the force is the fish and the fruit the forces that result that bounty that blessing we want so how do i position myself so i'll tell you i will tell you this much the first step if you've never given your heart to jesus as your lord and savior is you make that brilliant decision today when i'm done talking in two minutes and 15 seconds i might take an extra minute because the last part is important too or you text the word salvation to the number on the screen or if you're watching in prison you indicate in the app you want to give your heart to christ best move it will bless you for all of eternity talk about blessing most blessed and brilliant decision you will ever make is trust christ cross the threshold verse one there's a threshold cross the threshold of salvation and faith today all right so i'll tell you that when you come back next week i promise you last week if you came back this week i kind of wrap up the talk last week because i've i've been writing more sermon than i have time to preach so i told you last week recall about john the baptist and we talked about being secure because it's so easy these days to be insecure i don't know about you maybe i just wrestle with this but i look at people sometimes colleagues or or neighbors or classmates for you or especially social media as you scroll social media you look at people the way they present their life and you you can't help you kind of measure you measure yourself you measure against what you see and you feel insecure because you measure and you feel like you don't measure up and i get it we all know social media is the highlight reel it's the best dub but still i mean you know that and they have so much you feel bad and we found this example in john john chapter 3 of a guy named john the baptist that everything in his life is kind of going downhill his ministry is declining his fame is is fleeting and his followers had all these followers his followers were loosely unfollowing him and following the new guy jesus and when his friend said how do you feel about this john man the new guy's taking his church is getting bigger your church's getting small john says in the 29th verse man i have joy in fact he said my joy is um is full and my joy is complete and my joy is now i got right now joy we're like how's he so secure and i thought how do you get that because what's his secret sauce when he discovered there are three things he was doing that god was blessing one was he understood god's purpose if you missed last week go to the website and watch it it's a good talk it's very important gina you're right people should share that talk last week he knew god's purpose he knew that he was not the messiah he was called to be the forerunner of the messiah he was called to point people to jesus love your lane man ryan you're right love your lane love don't look at someone else's lane and long for their lane man love the lane love your calling god's anointing is always associated with god's calling for your life and then number two don't worry about what people say about you because people don't get you man people drop hate in your comments or something just just go on about it man they don't know you they don't get you you're extraordinary you're god made you're god loved you could be god blessed and so they didn't get john man the people thought that john was a prophet and the pharisees thought that john was a fraud and uh herod thought he was a ghost later on that's kind of funny but jesus said john was the goat matthew chapter 11 the greatest of all time and so go with what god says about you and i shared verses what the bible says about you so your purpose give me those flies guys your purpose what heaven says about you and here's the one i promised last week this is the advanced class one right here i'm almost done um you want to have a proper sense of self-worth and value and your purpose your call what does hell say about you what does hell say about you someone like hell you believe in the devil david you believe in hell you believe in hell hell yeah i believe in hell i mean how do you explain the wickedness and the evil in this world the genocide the racism human trafficking soul yeah of course i believe in hell jesus believed in hell but listen for a christ follower they marry the two messages the rivers the two streams we get together so that was about purpose last week and it's about blessing this week i want you living your life with such passion for god's purpose that you're so fixated on counting for your king and your kingdom at the same time i want you're living your life so blessed by heaven so blessed by god that they talk trash about you in hell i want hell complaining about you i like that she is so blessed she is pointing people to jesus she's so impassioned about the pr that pers i want the demons of hell complaining about you trying to find a strategy to stop you or a quick quick be close final illustration and i want to confess i told you last week not to brag but this is a dad brag dad brag i love all my three kids my kids all do different things well victoria is really smart and charlie's really talented and uh zane's my athlete zane's my athlete zane's a ballers now zane's 12. and all my kids did little league sports for our weekends they're so bitty busy we didn't really push him and so the two big kids were mildly athletic mildly athletes so going to little league sports like we're like oh hey go charlie victoria i hope they get off the bench at some point get a play right because they're okay they're not great they're okay and uh but zane during covet i've told you all man during coven he just went out to our hoop and our neighbor's hoop and just started shooting and shooting and checking his form and on youtube working on handling skills man all of a sudden he got that good i mean he's like a baller now in past years little league sports he was he was like my other kids he's okay he's pretty good he's fine you know look at he scored woohoo this year he's that kid this year parking no wait stop stop i'll tell you this little league sports are way more fun when your kid is that kid man you're a kid i mean he just could take over he could dominate it was it was so fun so i took this picture y'all that picture i took this picture i i didn't post it i don't think but i wanted to post it but i shouldn't have taken the picture because this team actually had lost the game they lost you shouldn't take a picture of your kid from the scoreboard when their team lose the game but so we lost 24 to 15 but zane scored all 15 points i mean he's no stop stop i shouldn't stop but here's what was fun as we're like at least not watching the game go oh my gosh zayn's good saves dane's really good ball player this is great it was fun to hear the other parents say oh your son's really good well thank you very much thanks after me you know i you know you hear the coach like making plays for him like to hear that hear the refs go your kid's good right but the best thing was after a while i started listening to what the other coaches were saying about him especially the first time they played every new team right like hey hey get on zero stop zero double team zero triple team zero everybody collapse on zero i mean like make zero pass don't let them shoot like they're doing everything to stop i love their frustration and eventually they stop him he can't beat three players i to see you living your life for god's glory not your glory god's going i want to see you living your life with such a sense of divine purpose that hell is talking smack about you hell is trying to strategize to stop you the hell's saying oh my gosh look at her get the rock out of her hand let's triple team her hey temptation get her trouble get her trial get her but guess what they can't stop you because you're empowered by god and you are resolved and you are committed and they surely cannot defeat your team because your team is the church we are that beautiful spiritual ecosystem that we protect each other and god can provide for us oh they can't stop you but they can try because you are favored and blessed how big how much and how do i get in on it give your heart to christ father god thank you so much for a defeated person with a distracted and despondent and defeated audience they thought they were hopeless beyond the borders and boundaries of god's blessing but they weren't they were a dead wrong god you can bless us no matter where we are it will just make some pivotal decisions and the first one is to say yes to christ so the prayer partners in place help someone choose jesus today help someone text the word salvation the number on the screen and father if we do you will bless us with grace you will bless us with freedom you will bless us with heaven you have blessed us with adoption we want nothing less than everything heaven has and we make this prayer in jesus name amen

Channel: Church by the Glades

Views: 1,373

Rating: 4.1999998 out of 5

Keywords: church by the glades, cbglades, fort lauderdale, coral springs, tamarac, margate, sample road, lake worth, miami, broward county, church, church service, sermon, creativity, music, south florida, message, fun

Id: 7vUALtEzwc8

Length: 42min 54sec (2574 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 26 2021