Let's Grow! Part 18 - Pastors Sean & Erica R. Moore

morning everybody great to see everybody this morning i want to say uh welcome to all of our guests all of our visitors if you're visiting with us for the very first time i want to thank you so much for taking some time to hang out with us today hopefully you've enjoyed the worship experience so far hope you've felt welcome felt loved and hopefully your heart has been prepared for this incorruptible seed the seed of the word of god is gonna be planted in its own on the inside of your heart today uh to all of our regulars always great to see you guys every single week thank you so much for coming and hanging out with us again amen praise god hope you guys have had a fantastic week you had a good week this week hey man if you didn't guess what you got another opportunity today the bible says this is the day the lord has made and he gave us he gave us two instructions [Music] he said rejoice and be glad amen all right well let's uh bow our heads for a word of prayer obviously i got my my wife up here with me today and so we're going to kind of tag team today love you girl all right let's go before the lord father in the name of jesus we thank you so much for the opportunity to come boldly to your throne that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need and god as we come today we come in faith we come trusting and believing that both your grace and your mercy has been made available for us we thank you so much for the word of god your word is a lamp unto our feet and it is a light unto our path god it settles all questions it resolves all doubts it causes faith to come alive on the inside of our hearts and god as we look into the scriptures today we pray that you would open up our understanding shine the light of your word on the inside of us today we thank you so much for what you are doing on the inside of us the transformative process that we are involved with now and becoming more and more like your son so we ask that you reveal him to us today take the remove the veil remove the cover show us god what you desire to show us help us to see with greater revelation and greater clarity what your will and what your purpose is for our lives we acknowledge the person of the holy spirit we thank you holy spirit for taking us on the journey for leading us and guiding us into the whole the full and the complete truth make us like flies on the walls let us speak with specifics and details that transcend our human comprehension but speak specifically into the hearts and the lives of those that are present today we covenant with you in advance to give you and you alone all the glory honor and praise for everything you do in this place in jesus name and if everybody in agreement with this everybody in agreement with this prayer today shout jesus is lord thank you jesus praise god hallelujah amen [Applause] you can be seated praise the lord y'all was like what are we supposed to do that well listen we have been in a series over these last i don't even know how many weeks it's been now but this is part 18 of the series called let's grow [Applause] so we've been in a series on spiritual growth and uh we uh we've had a a a myriad of different a whole variety of speakers that have you know we we've talked about so many different things over the last uh several weeks i'm not going to take time today you know to try to go through all that information but obviously the blessing of youtube the blessing of you know facebook the blessing of our church website is you can go back to all of these sites you can look at the messages they're free of charge amen so go back and binge watch these messages and if you are interested in growing in your relationship with christ i promise you something was shared over the last several weeks that will give you the tools that you need in order to do so so we're going to continue along those lines today uh we've you know talked about how you know what spiritual growth is spiritual growth is is simply the process of becoming more and more like christ and we begin this process of spiritual growth when we receive jesus christ as our personal lord and savior so when you say jesus come into my heart come into my life when you receive him you become a babe in christ now that's where you start but that's not where you're supposed to stay amen we are supposed to mature in the things of god so spiritual growth should lead us to spiritual maturity where we are no longer children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men amen we are no longer shaken by the things that come against us in this life but we are grounded and solidified in our faith as we mature and gain a better understanding of what it means to live our lives as christians on an everyday basis now so no matter how long you've been living for god none of us ever get to a place where we have arrived spiritually the bible tells us in philippians 1 that holy spirit is going to be working on the inside of us all the way up until the time of christ's return so if holy spirit is working on us and that means we need to be putting in the work on a regular basis to make sure we're going from glory to glory and from faith to faith now when we talk about spiritual growth you don't have to be perfect in order to grow don't you allow somebody in the world to get you into this trap in thinking that you have got to be perfect in being a christian spiritual growth is not about perfection spiritual growth is about progression amen spiritual growth is a choice it is a discipline it is a process and it requires intentionality now last week we did a panel and we answered uh questions that were submitted prior to the service as well as some of the questions that were submitted live now i planned on just kind of ministering another single message on today but we had so many questions that came in on last week that we decided to just continue answering some of those questions today how does that sound all right if you were in the weren't an agreement with it well that's what we're gonna do anyway because that's that's what we have planned all right amen so question number one since spiritual growth requires accountability what are some practical ways to find and keep reliable accountability partners well i'll start with that um what stuck out to me was how do you find reliable uh accountability partners so i'm thinking you know in order to know whether or not someone is a reliable accountability partner you need to know what the bible says about people their character and their fruit because jesus said you will know a tree by the fruit it bears and so you know we should be able to look into the life of someone not to judge them and talk about them behind their back and then smile when they come to see you but we should look at the fruit of their life and be able to tell if their personality if their character if the way they govern their life mirrors what we're seeing in the world not perfectly matches because i don't know about you my life doesn't perfectly match i'm doing my best to get there but they should be bearing fruit it should be evident to you that they've been with jesus one of the descriptions of the disciples when the pharisees looked at them and they observed how bold they were how honorable they were how they were living a holy lifestyle how power went out of their life when they ministered they could tell that those men had been with jesus and so if you're trying to connect with someone you should be able to tell that they've been with jesus and it's always astounding to me when someone comes up to us and they say oh i'm dating somebody or oh you know i'm about to partner with this person in business and then our question usually is are they born again and their response is well i don't know and i'm like that means no because you should be able to tell that this person has been with jesus it should be slipping out of their mouth it's funny we we joke about it we're talking to people who are not saved completely agnostic atheist whole another religion whatever and we'll just accidentally slip oh thank you jesus praise the lord amen we're just it leaks out of us and we're like oh man you mean to say that why because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so when you're just talking to this person do f-bombs just slip out or do glory to god slip out okay all right amen all right well as far as like uh how to find a accountability partners particularly when you become a part of a faith community uh just some some some practical things to do number one get involved volunteering you'll find that when you start volunteering i always say that fcc is a completely different church behind the scenes and so when you start volunteering you're going to meet some people and build relationships with individuals that will become some of your accountability partners number two get involved in some small groups uh number three when the church has an event show up number four don't be so quick to leave the property after service you know for somebody else like all right we'll see y'all next week and y'all like gotta get to the car i mean it's it's it's you like zero to 100 like you can't wait to get off the property and i'm gonna tell you the way that this this this church thing works is in order for people to trust you they need to first of all see you around [Applause] because you don't show up in places that you're not committed to how to keep accountability partners you know number one i would say number one be accountable sometimes people say well i want an accountability partner then when you get ready to hold them accountable well you know i'm grown you know what i'm saying i don't know how to be led by the spirit myself and i don't necessarily need you you know speaking into my life i know how to hear from god myself you know you've heard me talk before about the three different levels of relationships we should be reaching up we should be reaching out and we should be reaching down we should be reaching up those would be our mentors leaders uh people that we admire look up to that we see something in them that we want in our lives reaching out to our peers because we sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron and then reaching down to pull somebody up to the level that god has you on right now and to be honest with you all three levels of relationship should be able to hold you accountable it shouldn't just be the only people that can speak into my life that can hold me accountable to what i said i want and so the promises that i've made to god or to myself are people that are over me no your peers should be able to hold you accountable if you're a parent your children should be able to hold you accountable [Applause] see those three levels of relationships should be able to either correct redirect or ask questions that's some good manner right there number two you mentioned god meets us where we're at what if you don't know where you're at well this is vitally important in all healthy relationships and that is whether it's your relationship with god your relationship with your spouse your relationship with your kids relationship with friends one of the things that's vitally important in all healthy relationships is that you have to possess a level of self-awareness amen what helps us with self-awareness number one is knowledge of the truth or knowledge of god's word see god's word will show you where you are hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 tells us the word of god is alive it's powerful it's sharper than any two-edged sword it's able to pierce between the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and joint and moral and as a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart you look at that verse in the amplified translation and it says that the word will analyze and sift through and judge the very thoughts and motives of our hearts it will separate our mind our will and our emotions from our spirit which is made in the image and the likeness of god and it will help us to see why we're doing what we're doing the the reasoning and the motivation behind some of the decisions that we're making so the knowledge of god's word knowledge of the truth helps us to be self-aware number two is that you have to get to a place where you are 100 honest with yourself about where you are and also about how you got to where you are you know if you can't be honest with you who are you going to be honest with the worst deception is self-deception and i'm gonna tell you truth you have to develop a palette for truth truth can be very hard to stomach but if you can stomach truth what you'll find is that truth will bring more freedom into your life than anything else and and what i love what god said is that in first corinthians 11 he said listen if you will judge yourself then you will not be judged shoot when i got a revelation of that verse i was like well ain't nobody got to tell me what i'm supposed to do i'm going to deal with myself people say oh don't judge me well listen to me if you did a better job judging yourself then other people wouldn't judge you but if you're not going to be a hundred percent honest with yourself then what what's gonna happen is that god's gonna send other people into your life to be honest about you uh thirdly what i would say is you've got to take responsibility for your current state you know you're never going to get too far by blaming other people for your current state when adam made of the tree of knowledge of good and evil the bible tells us that god showed up in the garden and he was like adam where are you and how many you know god didn't ask the question because he didn't know where adam was at look he he knew what bush he was hiding behind he knew you know exactly where he was located in the garden his geographical location and he didn't need google maps in order to identify his his his specific location god was giving adam an opportunity to take responsibility for his decision and and he wanted adam to locate himself and see a lot of people lie to themselves about the reality of their situation and how they got there you can you know putting back at your past okay that that helps you to kind of understand maybe why you might have made some of the decisions that you made looking at the complexities of your situation okay that may help you to understand you know maybe why you might have made the decision that you made but folks at the end of the day you've got to own it and this is one of the things this is one of the things as as parents that we're trying to teach our kids is listen don't blame the world for the decision that you made because you're not going to grow as long as it's somebody else's problem as long as you are pointing the finger at somebody else for your current state of affairs you are not going to grow from that situation you have got to own it put it on deal with it even if you weren't a hundred percent wrong just god i own my peace in this and show me what i need to learn from it so that i don't end up in this same situation again that's so good because as long as it's someone else's fault forever well we can't change other people the only person we really can change is ourselves and so until we take responsibility we can never improve in that area it's not until we say okay what was my part now god like you just said show me now change can be effective but there's no change until there's ownership and then lastly what i would say is you know i would encourage you to rely on the leadership of the holy spirit we have to remember that we're not the only one living in here and sometimes sometimes what we're feeling is the nudge of the holy spirit the prompting of the holy spirit the grief of the holy spirit the vexing of the holy spirit the peace of the holy spirit sometimes god ester something on the inside of you and you won't know what it means and what you've got to do is you've got to pray it out you got to continue to walk by faith you got to remind yourself that listen i know the voice of the shepherd and the voice of a stranger i will not follow god i acknowledge you in all my ways and i believe that you're going to direct my path sometimes what you're feeling is not you sometimes what you're feeling is the god that lives on the inside of you that's so good next question what are some resources we can use to help understand what you are reading in the bible i'm going to answer this question from a few different uh a few different angles number one i have a very extensive library study library i like information i like study materials uh i like to be accurate when i minister you know i don't i don't wing it when i get up here there's hours hours of preparation that goes into you know me me delivering a sermon delivering a message uh some some basic tools that i would suggest and and i give these because i feel they help to simplify the bible enough i don't i'm not necessarily interested in pastoring a congregation that is so deep that nobody knows what they're talking about nobody can relate to i want to take the bible make it simple and plain so that you know how to apply its principles to your everyday life so that this is so this is why i'm giving you this advice so one of my favorite study materials is nelson's illustrated bible dictionary you need to a good bible dictionary where you can look up terms look up places uh find out you know the background what was going on culturally uh you know geographically where do these different cities fall you know uh on a map and and then you'll be able to kind of tie it into your understanding of scripture so i recommend nelson's illustrated bible dictionary one of my favorite commentaries is the king james version bible commentary that's what it's called kjv bible commentary uh uh i encourage a good dictionary don't assume that you know what anything means uh minister angela she mentioned on last week biblehub.com i also will go to i use blueletterbible.com you know it gives you the access to the hebrew and the greek and some of the uh and then um i would encourage too that you um before you get into all of this though let me give this other piece of advice i encourage that you find first of all a good bible translation uh i when i got saved king james and amplified were my go-to king james amplified classic edition now i love the new living translation i use the new living translation to read to read through the scriptures most of my bible study today is i read through whole entire books so if i'm doing a study like right now i'm finishing up the book of judges before judges i was in uh what did i read i think i read i read isaiah before isaiah i read the book of psalms so i read through entire books because oftentimes people pull out verses of scripture and they don't study scripture in its context and a lot of times in order to properly understand what's being said you have to look at what it's what was stated contextually what was going on at the time that this verse you know was was stated uh organic bible study is so important and what i mean by that is when i first started all i had was a bible the king james an amplified bible in a dictionary and you need your own personal relationship with the word of god and and i say this because it's it's so important that you develop a love for the word first it's important that you learn how to search the scriptures and watch this the bible is a standalone book let scripture confirm scripture so what i would do when i would study and i still do this today is i let i find something in one part of the bible and then i cross reference it and see does it say this same is the same truth communicated in another part of the bible because the bible tells us out of the mouth of two or three witnesses that every word be established and i recommend that you do this before you start adding all the study guides and all the commentaries and all these other things because what that what's going to happen is that these things are just going to shape the way that you see scripture and what you'll find is that you'll be referencing a scholar and you don't even know what the bible actually says about the subject you'll be referencing a commentary and you don't even have two or three or four verses to even have a a good understanding of what god himself has said about the particular subject i remember one time we were talking about you know we were talking with somebody one time and uh and they kept referencing this scholar and it was like okay you're referencing the scholar but what does the bible say about it and don't get me wrong i reference scholars i study what the scholars and other theologians have to say and use these in my sermons but there are sometimes when i study a subject where i say god i'm sitting down with this subject and i'm asking you holy spirit to visit with me during this time leave me and guide me in my study and i'm going to find out what does the bible say about this subject i'll do a topical study i'll look up every verse on a subject i remember one time i did a study on the spirit i looked up every verse on the spirit it was i think it was like 600 and something verses why because the the wisdom of god is manifold it's multifaceted i wanted to first of all find out what does god have to say about it before i started getting into some of the commentaries and some of the other things i recommend that you familiarize yourself with scripture by developing a base knowledge and the way that you do that is just read through the bible just read through the bible don't try to understand everything that you're reading invite holy spirit into your time in the verses that he points out to you are the ones that you should pay attention to i'm telling y'all that's that's his major wisdom because a lot of christians today all they're doing is echoing what they heard somebody else say and what that tells me is you're not they're not studying you're not studying for yourself to see what the bible says you're just repeating what you heard somebody else say you need your own relationship with the word yeah and the word tells us to study to show ourselves approved you know a workman who can rightly divide the word of truth this is so crucial especially in the last days because jesus warned us that there would be many false teachers and so if we're only looking at what the teacher is saying and not what the original teacher said we won't be able to identify what's true and what's not um the other thing you might be thinking well how do i develop an appetite for the word my husband was saying you know you have to develop an appetite a hunger for the work spiritual things kind of operate a little differently than natural things in the natural if you're hungry and you eat you're no longer hungry right but in the spirit it's the opposite the more time you spend with god the more time you're going to want to spend with god the more time you spend in worship the better a worshiper you're going to be the more time you spend praying the more time you want to pray the more you start reading scripture the more you're going to want to read scripture so um if you find yourself feeling dry you need to increase your dose not not decrease it you know if you feel dryness you need to intentionally jump in god's presence even more until the appetite reawakens it's good it's good amen so next question how can you continue to grow in a secular sphere like arts and entertainment when you're the only one who's walking with god all right so so daniel is a perfect example of someone who thrived in the secular environment under three different kings so daniel started over three times but there were some details about daniel's story that i think we need to pay attention to before we get into that the first question that i would encourage you to ask yourself is is this what you want or is this what god wants for your life and i say that because arts and entertainment is not just entertainment and the people that are in this industry they know that and i think that christians a lot of times are in denial about the influence and the impact that arts and entertainment not only has on culture but how but the impact that it has on shaping the minds of people today and and you have to understand arts and entertainment mountain is the devil's turf so you can't play games with this mountain now i will say this god is not sending you somewhere you are not already delivered from first god is not going to send you somewhere that you are not delivered from first god told paul he said i deliver you from the people and from the gentiles from whom now i send i now send you to them in other words god said if i didn't deliver you first i can't even send you in as a representative that's uh that's acts chapter 26. he tells that he tells the story in acts i think it's acts chapter eight or acts chapter nine and he gets into more detail about his conversion experience on the road to damascus in acts 26. god the second thing that i would ask is are you still tempted by this industry [Music] this is this is your readiness check that does not mean that you are not called it just means you may still have some proving to do and i'm going to tell you do not underestimate the power of luke chapter 16 which tells us to be faithful over that which is least before god makes us ruler over that which is much that we need to be faithful over that which is another man's before god commits to our care that which is our own an example of this was gideon gideon had to first of all deal with the idols that were in his father's house before gideon was ready to deliver the nation and i'm gonna tell you it's just unwise to launch out in a public battle against goliath if you don't have first of all a personal testimony of being delivered from the lion and the bear first man that's so good the other thing parents use wisdom with your children too in this mountain because some of us have children and we see gifts and talents and we're like oh you know we should we need to develop that we need to expose them to that area we need to put them out there and i had we had one child in particular i don't care where we took this child people strangers would literally stop me every time i took this child out in public and say do you have this child in modeling do you have i mean from newborn all the way up until i don't know um almost 10 years old do you have this kid in modeling do you have this kid in modeling do you have and i started saying god am i supposed to put this child is this you am i supposed to put this child in modeling or should i put them in acting should i do this should i do that and every time i got ready to pursue it i got a strong no strong like not no little like no not this kid and i was like but but they're talented they got this they got that no now usually god tells us what and he doesn't tell us why yeah and that's annoying right we want the why we want the detail description we want to pin you know we want like a a powerpoint presentation and god is usually just like do this and and he don't tell you why he doesn't tell you what will happen if you don't he don't so i just kept praying and asking well why why am i i feel like a parent's job is to expose their children and to pull out their gifts and talents they clearly have a gift and talent that you've given them in this area so then why would you have me let my kids sit on that why and and finally god was like so i didn't move forward because i had a clear no even though opportunities just because the opportunity presents itself doesn't mean the opportunity came from god so plenty of opportunities presented themselves but i just kept not not leaning into it because i still have that firm no um and then you know you if you're married you need to bounce that off your spouse and he's like well shoot if you're getting noted don't do it so okay and finally one day god said they don't have enough on the inside of them right now enough foundation to be able to handle what they'll be exposed to in that mountain yet so god didn't tell me your child isn't called to that mountain what he said is they are not mature enough to handle this yet so no i'm like all right so we look at an example in daniel's life daniel was a slave in a foreign land but daniel knew that he was different and he honored his convictions while in uh what in the land uh while in babylonia under king nebuchadnezzar despite the potential fallout also daniel was not star struck by the king or by his palace i mean you remember the story when daniel was under king battle to shazar and bow to shajar said listen if you can tell me if you can uh interpret basically kind of what's going on he said i'm going to entrust you with riches i'ma put a gold chain around your neck put this you know beautiful robe on you and daniel was like you keep all that stuff and this is what i'm talking about you cannot be so impressed by the people that you're called to minister to that you are that you don't share what you're supposed to share because you're so in awe about what they're doing and the level that they're doing it on and then daniel also had his own community while in a foreign land and this was huge you need to be able to step away from it while you're in it you need something that grounds you you need to know who your community is versus who you're supposed to be doing ministry to like jesus hung around the disciple he did life with the disciples he ministered to the multitudes people always said with jesus around the centers he went around to send us all the time he was around the disciples most of the time he ministered to the multitudes and he understood who his group was um lastly daniel had a serious prayer life daniel prayed three times a day up to the point where they told him listen if anybody makes any kind of petition to any god over the next 30 days you know they're basically gonna be killed their house would be turned into a dung hill daniel was like uh well i'm about to just keep on praying amen and i'm gonna tell you this was important he had a serious prayer life because when you talk about getting into the arts and entertainment mountain you bet to have a serious prayer life i ain't getting no amens in here today you gotta sign i'm telling y'all this is no game you guys this is no game and it's time out for the church thinking this is a game [Applause] lastly the person said you know um they felt like they were by their self by themselves i'm going to give you scripture on that elijah thought the same thing and the lord was like nah i got 7 000 that haven't bowed their knee so the the truth that i would share with you today is that you are never by yourself it's just that right now you might be standing alone because some of the others that may be in that mountain understand they've got to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves and not show their hand before their platform is established that's wisdom amen next question how do we combat the enemy in the workplace and how can we empower ourselves to say no to the enemy all right so when you work in a sacred or a secular environment you understand that you were brought on first and foremost to do your job and to do it well every christian should go to work with this mentality i am an ambassador for christ i am not here representing myself i am here to represent the kingdom of god and i do that first and foremost by how well i do my job i do that by learning my craft developing a level of mastery at what i do being on time [Applause] not leaving early being a great teammate and a great leader understanding that they you know i'm letting my light so shine before men that they may see my good works and glorify my father which is in heaven now this applies to work and this applies to school now don't ever be surprised when god sends you into a dark place to be alive that's what the light is for like i don't know why i'm in this dark place [Music] you're there to be light [Laughter] and watch this don't think that every place god sends you into that you're there to change the company oh praise god can you say that again [Applause] don't think that every place that you go into you're there to change the company every assignment is not a kingdom takeover for the company sometimes you are just there to be an example to your colleagues amen but what's important is that you don't forget why you're there and and if you don't know you should ask god why i look back at some of my other jobs that i had before i got into the ministry my uh my when i worked for a group home at one time i my assignment in the group home that group home was like an incubator for me i had just got i got just got saved just gave my life to christ the whole purpose for that job was what what happened is the owner was a christian too so once i finished my job i could read the bible i could listen to the bible as much as i wanted on my job the purpose for that job was to help solidify me and my faith everybody that i worked with was saved before when i was when i was when i was leaving work and going to the club my co-workers who were saved were praying for me to get born again my whole purpose for being on that job was just to get to get solid in my faith my next job i worked at a clothing store that was in business for like 120 some odd years it was a high-end men's clothing store and uh when i worked on that job my purpose for being on that job was to be able to go to bible school that's what it was for and secondly to test everything i had learned at the last job it was those two purposes once i was finished then my ministry assignment opened up and then i've been in ministry now for like 22 years uh i'm saying all of this because you need to ask god why you're there you need to make sure also that you um are mindful of your interactions with other employees what kind of conversations that you engage in oftentimes i remember when i worked in in the secular world i would listen to some things but i was selective about my comments sometimes people would share things and i'd be like oh okay oh is that right that doesn't mean i agree that doesn't mean i'm signing off on what you're saying that doesn't mean that i'm supporting what you're saying and this is important because watch this if you become the individual that just agrees with everything that's shared around the office said around the office about other colleagues about supervisors then you are creating this reputation that may not necessarily reflect the kingdom that you come from and i'm gonna tell you in a dark place people need to be able to find the light [Music] another thing is uh you need to manage you need to manage flirtatious um interactions with other people when i when i worked when i worked in the clothing store i had one employee she was extremely flirtatious with everybody no she worked there she was extremely flirtatious and i'm and i mean bold like grab guys by their stuff and just look at you like yeah oh no i'm serious i'm not playing lord jesus no wonder the lord had me praying for you before i met you and watch this this is my last test before i go into full-time ministry because see if if i don't pass these tests then i just become a pastor that's got extra-curricular activities going on in the church [Applause] [Music] so um so so you know she was she was real bold with it and i had to i had to let her know from jump street nah that's not how i fly this this ain't gonna work i'm gonna let you know right now my body is the temple of the holy ghost which i have of god and it is not my own i will glorify god in my body and in my spirit which are gods and it's funny how that devil looks straight up be like oh you're so silly son you're so silly i ain't playing [Music] you got to be careful with your social media because now your colleagues can just go on your social media and see what you're all about come on in and and with your mouth you say you represent christ but your social media says something completely different whoa you praising what you do after hours [Applause] how you handle yourself at company outings to christmas parties folks drunk on the eggnog your christian witness is going to be severely limited in its effectiveness if you have a poor work ethic bible tells us that you to do what you do is unto the lord perfect examples we have that is is daniel and joseph they both walked in favor because of their work ethic and god's hand was upon him like everything that he did it prospered and it got the world's attention in a secular environment you got to be on your a-game every single day you need to go to work prayed up you need to pray for your co-workers you need to pray for your supervisors i don't care if you don't like them that's why you're there to be a light in a dark place you need to stay ready for temptation you need to stay ready for personal attacks and you need to stay ready for strife that breaks out in the office and listen to me they will test you on purpose because the enemy's goal is to discredit your christian witness i love what you just said on purpose thinking not strange the bible says when you fall into diverse types of temptations or challenges or afflictions of other people what what always amazes me is when christians are so shocked and surprised when attacks come there's a devil and he doesn't like you there's going to be attacks and here's the kicker too the attack could come from another believer it could you know and they may mean well i mean peter literally told jesus no don't go to the cross don't go to the cross jesus i rebuke you i rebuke you jesus and jesus was like get behind me satan his name dude so what we need to make sure is that number one we want to try to be the type of believer that the enemy can never use [Music] that's good i mean we're so connected to our vine jesus christ that if we get tempted by the enemy to lead another brother or sister astray we recognize it immediately we bite our tongue and we don't say that okay and if we know we did we go back and we make it right with them that's good okay don't be shocked the devil doesn't like you do you want to keep going yep i want to keep going we're going to keep going i believe it's going to be the last question you all ready for more we'll see oh amen just follow me honey just follow me how can someone how can someone grow in faith that only fears god but does not have much of a relationship with him and i'm gonna tell you they're not gonna grow much and the reason why i say that is psalm 103 and 7 tells us that israel knew god's acts but they were not familiar with his ways when you read through israel's time in the wilderness what you'll find is that you won't see much you won't see much teaching on worship you know why because you work you praise god for what he's done but you worship god for who he is and it was clear that israel did not know god otherwise they would not have acted the way that they did in the wilderness and so and other scriptures is that god doesn't give us a spirit of fear god doesn't god doesn't use the devil's tools to try to teach us things about himself so god isn't going to try to scare you into obedience he's gonna nudge you into obedience lastly it tells us that perfect love flushes out all fear so the more you mature in god god's not trying to get fear to grow in you god's trying to flush fear out so that fear doesn't shut you down and hinder your true potential next question the scripture about wood hay and stubble says that our works may burn but we will be saved does this mean that all the stuff we were doing during those years of supposedly building means we were never growing all right so they're talking about the time when the bible says that our works will be tried by fire we're going to read the verses in a minute before we get into it there are five particular judgments that you will find in the new testament one is the judgment of the nations number two is the judgment of national israel because they were of course god's chosen people number three is the judgment of the wicked dead which is also known as the great white throne judgment uh number four is the judgment of satan and his fallen angels and then number five is the judgment of the believer also known as the judgment seat of christ now the judgment seat of christ is different than the judgment of the wicked dead in the sense that it's not a judgment of condemnation but it's one that um it's it's but it's one that will determine whether or not you will be rewarded for your efforts here upon the earth so to give you some verses on that first corinthians chapter three beginning in verse number 10 it says because of god's grace to me and we'll make this the last question i have laid the foundation like an expert builder now others are building on it but whoever is building on this foundation must be careful for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have which is jesus christ anyone who builds on the foundation may use a variety of materials gold silver jewels wood hay or straw but on the judgment day fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done the fire will show if a person's work has any value if the work survives that builder will receive a reward but if the work is burned up the builder will suffer great loss the builder will be saved but like someone who barely escaped through a wall of flames all right let's read verses nine and ten and we'll come back and break this down verse uh second corinthians chapter five verse nine and ten therefore whether we are at home on earth away from him or away from home and with him we are constantly ambitious and striving earnestly to be pleasing to him for we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of christ so that each one may receive his pay according to what he has done in the body whether good or evil considering what his purpose and motive have been and what he has achieved and been busy with and given himself and his attention to accomplishing so let's break this down a little bit so god said anyone who builds on the foundation may use a variety of materials what he just said is you and i have a choice in how we decide to build upon the foundation that we have received who is jesus christ and how you know it's up to us to choose whether or not we lay up for ourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust of corrupt and where thieves break through and steal or we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust of corrupt and what thieves do not break through and steal it's up to us to decide whether or not we seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and everything else is just added on to us or whether we seek something else and then just conveniently pursue god at times when we've got time to actually do it it's up to us whether or not we set our affections on the things which are above or we set our affections upon things which are upon this earth it's up to us whether or not we choose to acknowledge him in all of our ways so that he can direct our path or we choose to just kind of do things our own way and ask god to put his blessing on top of it and see the thing about it is that when we receive jesus christ as lord of our life the foundation is already set up but now my question is how have you been building since you received that foundation that's a choice that all of us have to make and watch this you'll still get into heaven bible tells us that the builder will be saved why because salvation is by grace and not by works you can't earn your salvation so it's not what you do after you receive christ that determines whether or not you get into heaven but what's but what happens is what kind of rewards you receive when you get over to the other side is based upon how you built your life after you receive christ come on somebody now i know some people might say well shoot i'll just be glad that i get into heaven i get in the heaven mission accomplished but i'm gonna tell you when i read the scriptures i get the impression that that is not how people feel when they get over to the other side because look at the example that he gives he gives the example of someone who has been in a house fire whose life was preserved but all their stuff was burnt up all their memories all their mementos all the diplomas all the personal items everything that was of value to them while they were upon the earth was burnt up in the fire so you imagine you survive the fire but you start all over again you remember the the the parable about the five talents the two talents and the one the one who had five talents and one who had two they not only produced the bible says that the the master said to them well done thou good and faithful servant you've been faithful over a few things i'm gonna make you rule over many things enter thou into the joy of thy lord each of those cert neither of those servants had to start over when they were rewarded they got to keep what they produced and god added on top of it come on somebody so [Applause] i would dare to say that um we have it a little backwards especially here in america sometimes because we think god was added to my life so that i could live my best life did you get saved yes i did why so i could live my best life you were selected to please him he wasn't added to your resume so that he could please you you were selected so that you would please him and i think that we've got to we got to make sure that we we don't forget this so my life is not my own [Applause] i got saved so i could live for him what do you need sir what do you need today what do you need me to do how do you want me to leave my family how do you want me to govern my finances where do you want me and my family to live when do you want us to move what businesses do you want us to start when do you want us to start those businesses what do you want to do in your church how do you want me to lead it what do you want me to teach on what are some of the decisions you want me to make what is it that would please you in this life sir i'm here to serve you sir [Applause] and i can almost hear some some uh wow god sounds really selfish it's all about him my goodness it sounds like a dictatorship i don't know if i want to live for a god where it's all about him well the reality is god is everything good that everybody wants [Applause] he doesn't offer love he is love he doesn't offer joy he is joy he doesn't offer peace he is peace he doesn't offer satisfaction he is satisfaction so if you want to live your best life you need to connect to him or you can't jesus said without me you can do nothing yeah so call him selfish if you want to but it's in your best interest to surrender to his will amen you know when i when i look back over my life there there are so many moments you know i'll be by myself and i just be like lord i just i never knew it'd be like this being a christian has been the most challenging thing that i've ever done but it's also been the most rewarding thing that i've ever done every thing i have is because he gave it to me [Applause] and not only have i received the things that i've asked for but i've received the things i didn't even think of [Applause] and it's there are times when i just sit back and i'm like i love what pdub says all the time peter how you doing better than i deserve and that's how i feel i'm doing better than i deserve to be doing and it's just because i i've surrendered my will and i'm convinced the reason why i acknowledge him now is not because i don't want to get in trouble so i don't want to get in trouble the reason why i acknowledge him now is because i'm 100 persuaded that his way is better than mine [Applause] would you buy your heads with me today maybe you're on the fence maybe you're not 100 percent sure if being a christian is the way that you ought to go and i'm going to tell you the honest to god truth before i gave my heart to christ back in 1995 there were some uncertainties that i had and i remember the enemy tried to paint the picture like bruh this is the wrong decision like you giving your heart to christ and i remember he tried to paint the picture like you can't do this anymore you ain't gonna be able to do this anymore you ain't gonna be able to do this anymore but what he wasn't telling me is all the stuff that i was going to be able to do by surrendering my life to christ and i'm going to just tell you if you're on the fence about jumping all the way in you're never going to know what's available to you until you fully commit now i can make this promise to you if you make a full commitment in your heart to jesus christ i promise you you will never regret that decision ever ever ever if you're in here and you you've never received jesus christ as lord of your life but you want to do so today i want to say a prayer for you secondly if you have received jesus christ as your personal savior but in your what some people call a backslidden state you've drifted away from god then my god let me be the voice of mercy in your life today beckoning you to come back home why would you stay away from a place of love why would you stay away from a god who has proven to you already how much he loves you by sending his son to die for you you might have some great friends but i promise you you don't have you don't have a friend who died for you you don't have a friend who became something that he wasn't so that you could become something you could never become by yourself and god has already proven all of this stuff to you already so if you don't know jesus but want to receive him today or you want to recommit rededicate your life i want to lead you in a prayer one of those two areas and i ask that you pray this prayer from your heart and mean it and i believe god will meet you right where you are father in the name of jesus i believe that jesus christ is the son of god that he died for me on the cross at calvary i also believe that jesus is alive that he's ascended into heaven jesus come into my heart come into my life forgive me of my sins and deliver me from sins dominion i receive your forgiveness i receive your love thank you lord i'm born again i'm a child of god and you're my father transform me now from the inside out so that my life is never the same ever again in jesus name god i pray for those who have prayed this prayer and i pray for the believers that i pray for the believers that are recommitting rededicating their lives to you right now come on believers i want you to talk to the lord about the thing that came between you and him this is what believers do we take responsibility for our decisions and the blood was shed so that we can confess our sins god isn't shaming you he isn't giving you a guilt trip he isn't condemning you but he's asking you to take ownership about the decisions that you've made ask him to forgive you right now god forgive me of my sins cleanse me god from all unrighteousness i receive your love i receive your forgiveness today god i thank you for cleaning them up delivering them from shame delivering them from guilt delivering them from condemnation may the conviction of the holy spirit come back alive on the inside of their heart right now in the name of jesus we thank you for this if you're in agreement with this prayer why don't you say amen all right well listen if you prayed with us for one of the invitations that we're just given we want to say congratulations praise god and uh we want to be able to help you take the next step all right so there should be a qr code on one of the seat pockets in front of you one on the screen uh behind me praise the lord and uh also if you want to fill out a physical card you can do all of that you got options here at faith christian center this is important this is vital when i got saved i was not by myself somebody walked with me in my early days to answer some of my questions and it wasn't bishop butler it wasn't my pastor it was somebody sitting out in his congregation listening to the same teaching i was listening to amen someone came alongside me helped answer my questions helped challenge me to grow in the faith they encourage me man get your focus off of you know god wanted to send you a spouse you know sometimes the first thing people want to believe for when they get when they get saved like i need to get married nah no what you need to do is you need to find out what is my purpose and they encourage me find out your purpose one of the first things that i did and that's why after a few years i knew what my purpose was and for the last 22 years i've been in my purpose amen so you need someone to come alongside and help you take the next step and we want to either help you to do that or connect you with someone that can and then we want to really see you grow in your relationship with jesus christ anybody interested in growing now listen to me this is not just for those who made a decision for those you that have been around faith christian center for some time amen you ought to be helping people take the next step don't just talk to the folks in your circle and that's it don't just be lying out of here just because you saved and your name is written in the lamb's book of life take some time to get to know the people that are new here at the church thank you for those three or four amends praise the lord next message lord help me get my mind off myself my name's in the book i ain't worried about nobody else come on you need to go back and start with part one of let's grow all right you know i know i know you may see some of the seriousness and the passion behind some of the answers provided for today but it's just because man our hearts is we want to see people grow we're tired of seeing believers getting taken out by the enemy and all that other stuff we want to see testimony of the fact that you've been serving god for 20 25 30 35 years and you're on fire today like you were 35 years ago all right well listen if you're a first time guest we want to thank you so much for coming please make sure you stop by our guest experience 10 on your way out today located to my left your right if you are a knee prayer for anything you

Channel: Faith Christian Center

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Id: UsZHYiSD1o0

Length: 61min 39sec (3699 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021