Listen. Learn. Love.

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] well welcome to Valley Creek welcome to our online service hey let me tell you this is not an accident that you are here right now we've been praying for you we've been preparing for you and hoping for you and we believe that God has something amazing for you today so welcome we are so glad that you're here let me start with acknowledging that this has been a very difficult week for our country for our state in our city and for our Valley Creek family and for many of us in our personal families how do we respond in moments like this how is the Church of Jesus to respond in moments like this well let me tell you this in Ephesians 6 it says this it says that our battle is not against flesh and blood and for us to clothe ourselves in the full armor of God the spiritual things that means with clothe yourself with truth and righteousness and peace and faith and salvation so that when the enemy comes you will not give in to that you can stand firm and whenever whenever you've done all that you can stand and so today we are gonna remind ourselves that our battle is not against flesh and blood it is a spiritual battle and we can stand firm in his truth and his righteousness and his peace and have faith in Him and have salvation in him and so what I want you to do church and how we are gonna respond today is I want you to stand I want you to stand in faith in your home where you are at we know how to worship in a building together but we are also learning how to worship Jesus in our homes right now so we stand in faith reminding ourselves of how good he is and all that he has done let's invite God into our homes and into our lives [Music] we're standing in your friend Jesus [Music] moving in are worse worse [Music] you are here working in this place I wish I were you of we make me Riku his kids the job is my god who [Music] birria cool the job is is who you [Music] she [Music] see [Music] [Music] [Music] that is [Music] in the dark [Music] [Music] don't see it you okay even when I don't feel it you work it you never stop you never stop working you never stop you never stop even when I don't see it she working even when I don't feel it you work it you never stop you never stop with you you never stop you never stop [Music] stop [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] that is who you that is who [Music] mirakl Luke Oh Faithful Gillian that is Julia I got a key [Music] we're still in your presence all the noise down Lord speak to me you have all my attention I will listen I can't be [Music] No [Music] hard in this it's ready [Music] it's too my desire is deeper find this before [Music] whoa Wow [Music] you're the fire [Music] neener breathing muscle you're the [Music] there is in your [Music] News [Music] you [Music] the my breath [Music] oh Jesus me I hope in my heart [Music] I advise you in [Music] Jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] by [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] being done by who you desire to eat deeper [Music] yes she's desperate for a touch of heaven for a moment for an encounter with you because in your presence everything is different Lord so today we open up our hearts we invite you in we are ready to receive your kingdom in your will in our life Jesus thank you you are so good and deserving of worship and we praise you today it's in your name Amen [Music] well hey everybody welcome to Valley Creek online I am so glad that you are here with us wherever you are in the world and what I want to say to you is hope is here everyone is welcome and Jesus changes everything and now I know you hear us say that week after week and that's not just a cute little phrase that we say we really believe that that hope is here because Jesus is here that everyone is welcome regardless of where you've been what you've done or what your life looks like you are wanted and you are loved here and that Jesus changes everything he doesn't just change our situations and our circumstances he changes us and so I'm so glad you are here with us today and last week we kicked off a series called 167 activate your faith where it matters most and we started talking about how we need to live the additional hundred and sixty seven hours of our week outside of the church gathering and activate our faith and but what what I want to do today is we're gonna take what we were originally going to do today and we're gonna bump it to next week and what I want to do today is I actually want to activate our faith where it matters most you see this has been a hard week for a lot of us there's been a lot of pain and grieving and heartbreak and in particular for our black brothers and sisters this has been a really hard season there's been pain and grieving and brokenness and weight and the gravity of it all and so this weekend what we're doing is we're creating some space to honor our brothers and sisters and stand with our brothers and sisters and we're gonna do what we at Valley Creek do we're gonna be Jesus focused spirit filled and life-giving but we're gonna look to Jesus we're gonna be filled up fresh with the Spirit of the Living God and we're gonna and release his life in our world together and so but what I want to do for the next few moments is I just want to share a few things with you and then we're gonna have an experience together and we're literally gonna activate our faith today and so what I want to just ask is that wherever you are whoever you are will you just open up your heart and will you listen from your heart and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you today couple simple things that I want to tell you the first thing is this racism is evil and rooted in darkness racism is evil and rooted in darkness it is a demonic tool used by Satan and his kingdom to steal kill and destroy it has no place in our hearts it has no place in our homes it has no place in our society our church our businesses our schools and in our world it is a demonic tool from Satan to divide that's always been what Satan has been out to do to divide us from God and divide us from each other and that's the tool that he uses in racism and it is a sin it is the sin to judge someone because of the color of their skin it's to dishonor them it's to dishonor the image and likeness of God in them and it dishonours God himself racism is a demonic tool it is evil and it is rooted in darkness and what I want to say to you and what I want you to understand is racism is a rejection of the love of God the Bible tells us that we love because He first loved us so racism thereby is a rejection of the love of God for self and the rejection of the love of God for others because if I'm not receiving God's love for me I have no love to give to others so it's a rejection of his love in my own life and in the world around me to say it a different way racism comes from the orphan spirit the spirit that believes I don't have a father that I'm on my own and I need to take care of myself so I will hide I will hoard and I will hate but the spirit of sonship living as a beloved son and daughter like we talk about all the time in this church is the spirit of adoption the spirit of love that we have a good father who loves us and because He loves us we can freely love others this is why Jesus tells us that blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God the sons of God the daughters of God have peace with God thereby they spend their life making peace with everyone else because they live in and release love to the world around them but the orphan spirit is all about looking out for self and so it uses people and hurts people and abuses people and steps on people this is why the Bible tells us that it is impossible to love God and hate your brother and so I don't know how to say it any stronger to you than this racism is evil it is rooted in darkness it is a demonic tool used by Satan to steal kill and destroy and it has no place in our lives and in our world the second thing that I want you to see is simply this the pain is real the pain of racism and what you're seeing is real so many of our brothers and sisters in our family they're hurting this week they are grieving this week the body of Christ that we are a part of is hurting and if one part of the body hurts the whole body hurts and what you need to understand is you may not understand it it may not be your pain you may not get it but the pain is real and it is undeniable and we stand with our brothers and sisters who are hurting and so if you're here and you've been hurt by racism if you've experienced the judgment the oppression the abuse the shame the brokenness and the pain I say to you I'm sorry and we are sorry and what we want you to know is that we see it we validate it we acknowledge it and not only do we see it and validate it and acknowledge it more importantly we see you we validate you we acknowledge you we are for you we love you you are our brother you are our sister we have the same father and we are a part of the same family and in Jesus name we thank God for you and we love you see the pain is real in fact this week talking to one of our key leaders he told me that in the midst of all of this stuff his son went running into his room and said I don't want to be black anymore that kind of pain is real and so we as the people of God and as a family we need to acknowledge that the Bible tells us we mourn with those who mourn and we encourage each other when we're down and we comfort each other when we're hurting and we bear one another's burdens and right now for some of your brothers and sisters this is a burden they've had to bear their entire life so we bear it with them and if you haven't experienced racism in your own life that can can I just encourage you as something then this is not the time for your opinions and your perspectives this is the time to listen to learn and to love this is the time to listen to your brothers and sisters and what they've had to experience and and and and what they feel and what the reality of their life is like this is a time to learn and about what they have to say and what they have walked through and then this is the time to love to actually meet the needs that they are expressing in the are bringing up not the needs that you want to meet no no the needs that they say are important to the is the time to listen to learn and to love and I'm so proud of our church this week I've heard of countless conversations in small groups and in serve teams and in and in friendship circles and in groups of people having conversations about this for the first time listening learning and loving and bearing the burden with our brothers and sisters whose pain is real we love you but more importantly God loves you and he sees and he knows and he cares and he has come to be with you today which brings me to this that Jesus is still our only hope that even in the midst of that kind of pain Jesus is still our only hope you see we have hope against all hope in hope we believe hope is here because Jesus is here and if Jesus is the Living Hope then hope is still alive and active today regardless of what is going on in the world around us we have hope and our only hope is in him the Prince of Peace the Lord our righteousness the God of reconciliation you see Jesus is the king of the kingdom and in his kingdom there is righteousness peace and joy justice mercy and grace faith hope and love and what I want you to know is there is no hope outside of Jesus and his kingdom hope is not found in politics hope is not found in society hope is not found in the human heart hope is found in Jesus the king of his kingdom and he has come to bring a hope into our lives in fact I love this verse Luke chapter 4 Jesus talking it says the Spirit of the Lord is on me in other words he says I supernaturally empowered because or via the spirit of Lord is on me because he has anointed me supernaturally empowered me to preach good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to release the oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor in other words Jesus is supernaturally empowered to heal to restore to reconcile to bring things back together to set us free there is hope and he's a person and his name is Jesus and so today we take our eyes off of the world and we look to the one who is the living active hope and because he is our hope he empowers us with the same mission that he's been on in fact if you remember the story of Moses and the Israelites after a hundred years of slavery hundreds of years of oppression God shows up and he says the Moses Moses I've seen the misery of my people I've heard their cry and I'm concerned of their suffering so now go I am sending you I think that's a great message for us today that he has seen the misery of his people he has heard their cry is concerned of their suffering so he has sent you you not only have an opportunity you have a responsibility to bring the hope of God into this world and that's why we talk all the time about being hope carriers about bringing the kingdom about living a life bigger than ourselves with a sense of urgency it's what we've been preaching for years in fact look at our graphic that we're so familiar with the kingdom of God is a movement of hope Jesus and his kingdom it is a movement of hope and he is bringing that hope in every area of life and he wants to do it through you and me through the church the people of God the family of God with the father who wants to bring all children home and he wants to send us into the areas of love he wants to raise up moms and dads and sons and daughters with righteousness peace and joy and family he wants educators teachers and students and administrators to go with faith hope and love he wants health care workers doctors and nurses and administrators and amazing people to go with justice and mercy and grace he wants business owners and business leaders and employees and managers to have faith hope and love he wants government officials like police officers and fire departments and mayors and City Council's to go with righteousness peace and joy media people who tell the stories who make art and music and beautiful things to talk about faith hope and love people in sports to unite us together and bring us together around a common cause people in technology to use technology to glorify God and speak the message of faith hope and love and every day you're in one of these areas and you have an opportunity and you have a responsibility to steward the hope that God has put in you as a hope carrier and maybe with the pain of what we've been seeing around us we can catch the urgency of the one six seven and how much it matters in Jesus name and what I love about our church is we have amazing moms and dads and sons and daughters and teachers and educators and and health care professionals and businesspeople we have amazing police officers and mayors and City Council members and people in the media and art and music and sports people and technolo we have amazing people in this space that are going out there bringing faith hope and love righteousness peace and joy justice mercy and grace in the name of Jesus and so that may that inspire you today to rise up to a new place to say God we want your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven in fact I love this next verse that says he has showed you O man what is good and what does the Lord require of you to act justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God what does God require of you what has he empowered you what does he sent you to do to act justly to love mercy and walk humbly with your God and if you have no interest in justice and mercy you're kind of missing it because that's what God is saying he expects of you and me and if you're all about justice and mercy then you have to understand that that only comes if we will walk humbly with our God if we will allow him to be the Lord of our lives if we will obey and submit and surrender in other words it's justice and mercy that rests on the foundation of walking with God justice and mercy flow from the fountain of a humbly walking in relationship with God if you are all about justice and mercy you have to understand that if you want to see the kingdom out there it starts by bringing the kingdom in here because the kingdom always brings more of the kingdom and so what I want to do now is I want to actually activate our faith together I wanted to say all that stuff and I wanted you to catch the heart of that but I want your faith to be activated and to lean in fact in second chronicles maybe one of the most famous prayers in all of the Bible it's as if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land and so what I'd like to do right now is invite you to activate your faith and I would like to invite you to pray through this prayer with me for your life for your brothers and sisters who are in pain for our city for our nation and for our world so maybe wherever you are would you maybe close your eyes and just open up your hands as a sign of submission and surrender and just humility before God and let's just break this down piece by piece and you can either pray out your own prayer or just agree with me if my people who are called by my name so father right now we say to you we are your sons and daughters that we have the same father a good father who sent His Son Jesus into this world to die to bring us home that that we may be adopted into your family and we are called by your name which means we are made in your image and your likeness and we carry your identity and we walk in your purpose and everything that is true of Jesus is now true of us so we are your people called by your name and you invite us to just humble ourselves and so today Lord we humble ourselves can you humble yourself wherever you are right now can you tear down the pride and the arrogance and the foolishness and the ignorance and the selfishness and the self seeking and life being Oliver can you just humble yourself for a moment before the king of kings and the Lord of lords if we will humble ourselves and seek his face lord we seek you right now with everything we got we cry out to you we need your kingdom to come and your will to be done we seek you not in this just in this moment but in our lives by reading your word and by praying and by worshiping and saying god we want to know you and we want you more than anything else so together as a people we seek you we cry out and you say if we will seek you and turn from our wicked ways in other words if we will confess and repent so right now can you confess and repent to the Lord can you confess and repent any areas of wickedness in your life any areas where racism may have been tolerated in your world or in your can you confess and repent any place where where you've where you've judged others where you've abused others or you've been critical of others any area in your life right now that's out of alignment with the kingdom can you confess and repent of that because if we want to see the kingdom come we have to start by allowing the kingdom to come in us to resist the kingdom in one area of life is to resist the kingdom altogether so Lord we confess and we repent and we believe that right now in Jesus name you are hearing us from heaven that in Jesus name we have been forgiven and cleansed and made whole and that you are healing our land we ask that your kingdom would come that your will would be done that you would bring hope to the despair and light to the darkness and breakthrough to the obstacles and healing to the pain and supernatural to the impossible [Music] and then I just want to ask you what does he now want to say to you [Music] wherever you are whatever is going on in your what does God want to say [Music] and so if you would just stay in that posture with me for a moment because what we're gonna do is we're gonna take communion together and whatever elements you have in your house no problem it's okay it is not about a cracker and grape juice it is about the spirit of receiving the broken body and the spilled blood of Jesus you see the ultimate unification is the finished work of Jesus that he was broken and torn apart and poured out so that you and I could be put back together so we can have the same father and be children of the Living God in fact in Acts chapter 2 when the Spirit is poured out right after Jesus resurrected Jesus rises from the grave do you know what happens that they were all unified says my spirit will be poured out on you your sons and your daughters you're young and you're old and a whole bunch of people from all kinds of different nations were there and in that moment when the Holy Spirit was poured out on them all of a sudden he United genders generations and Nations because the same spirit that is in you is in me and he unites us together by the blood of Jesus as the body of Christ and the family of God you see if we're honest we all have of them a group of people that we look down upon and think are different than us and your them might be based on race your them might be based on a lifestyle your them might be based on education a socioeconomic status where they grew up what part of town they live in how they live their life what political party that we all have of them somebody that we look down upon and think we're better than but can I remind you that the same blood that Jesus poured out for you was poured out for them in fact catches one last verse with me revelation talking about Jesus and his kingdom it says for you Jesus were slain died on the cross for us and have redeemed us to God brought us out of the world of darkness and pain and destruction and despair and sin to God by his blood ready out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God see if you can catch this with me the finished work of Jesus the blood of Jesus that was spilled out on the cross for you and me brought every tribe every tongue every people and every nation into unity under the lordship of Jesus as citizens of his kingdom as sons and daughters of the Father and if you've ever wondered why are there different tribes and tongues and people and nations throughout the earth it's because one tribe or one tongue or one people or one nation cannot fully reflect the glory of God when God made Adam and Eve in the garden he had to make male and female because male nor female was enough to fully reflect the image and likeness of God the masculine and the feminine brought together better reflected the beauty and the glory and the grandeur of God okay that's true of every tribe and tongue and people and nation God made all the people groups of this earth because one people group could not fully reflect his beauty his glory his splendor his radiance and so he made every tribe tongue people and nation and brings them all together to say now unity in diversity reflects Who I am my nature my likeness and my glory which is why in John 17 Jesus says father I have given them our glory that they may be one when we come together as people unity and diversity we radiate the glory of God to the world and not only that but he has made us kings and priests in Jesus name you are a king and you are a priest his blood has made you a king which means you are royal honor you have dignity and Worth and authority and empowerment and you are a priest which means you are holy righteous set apart to God seated at the right hand of the Father every tribe tongue people and nation in the name of Jesus our kings and priests so the question is are we treating each other like kings and priests with honor and dignity royalty and worth holiness righteousness empowerment every person regardless of the tribe the tongue the people the nation the role they fill the job they have the place they serve in Jesus name is a king or a priest a king and a priest and if they're not currently in Jesus then guess what God is inviting them into his family to become a king and a priest so the question is is are we treating everyone as either they are kings and priests or God is inviting them to become a king and a priest in Jesus name you see what if we just treated each other the way that Jesus treated us the Bible literally says when we will hostile when we were enemies when we were against God he did this for us but if we just gave each other this kind of grace it's kind of mercy this kind of love and compassion [Music] in Jesus name a we live as sons and daughters with our good father I'm a we receive and release that love everywhere we go is hope carriers in a world that is desperate for all you see on the night the Lord Jesus was betrayed he took bread and he broke it he gave thanks and he said this is my body broken for you in other words Jesus was going to be torn apart so that we could be put back together so can we just receive the unity in the midst of diversity that is only available in Jesus name [Music] and in the same way after the supper Jesus took the cup and he said this is my blood poured out for you this blood reminds us that we are forgiven that we are cleansed this blood reminds us that we are beloved sons and daughters with the spirit of sonship brought into our father's family so can we not only receive forgiveness but adoption spirit of sonship into our father's family because he is good to you so Jesus today we come together as one family from every tribe and tongue and nation and people on this earth we say you are our Father we are your beloved sons and daughters and we cry out for your kingdom to come your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven and we thank you for the hope that we have in your name Jesus Lord I speak healing I speak hope I speak blessing and reconciliation and redemption over every person who's listening today in Jesus name we pray amen hey I am so glad that you came today because today was an important day for our family and what we just did together that's a movement of hope you want to know what a movement of hope for the city and beyond us it's what we just did it's praying it's worshiping it's seeking god it's confessing and repenting it's allowing his truth to shape our perspective and setting things down that are of this world and picking up things that are of God and moving forward with faith hope and love and to the world around us you can do that anytime on your own and my hope is is that this shows you that you don't have to be led by the world's emotionalism but you can have kingdom thinking about any and every area of life we are the beloved sons and daughters and we have a great family and an amazing father in Jesus name and so here's what we're gonna do is this is gonna be the official end of service today instead of having response questions our worship team is going to go ahead and they're gonna lead through one more song and if you want to worship if you want to bring that spirit into your house you want to linger in the presence of God that's great if you're good and you're like I want to end here man that is so okay we bless you and what we want to say is if we can pray for you for anything please go on our website let us pray for you what's happening in your life or your world for those of you that want to give you can give online at Valley Creek org part of giving is just saying god I want your Kingdom in my life then it might be released into the world around me but we're gonna rap here for a moment if you want to be done you can be done if you want to worship it's gonna be one more song to worship but I pray Valley Creek there you go this week knowing that God is good Jesus has forgiven you you are loved and everything is possible he is with you he is for you and he is an amazing father and we have an amazing family in Jesus name [Music] I was see this craze real to me heels and teeth [Music] funds are being replace my dog with pain here the truth that sets me free and since my heart in rest repentance our salvation Jesus who so hearing you come change / spare oh Jesus you in those Jesus you know [Music] [Music] you saw [Music] this side [Music] [Music] yes for me this is the invitation that Jesus is extending to us now to let go of the things that we're holding onto so tightly to let go of fear in anxiety to let go of an anger even our pride so that we could receive with an open heart the grace that he has for us when we receive His grace he changes the way that we see things he changes the way that we live our life he changes the way that we love the world around us so as we continue to or should want to encourage you to let go of the things that were holding on to and to receive the grace that Jesus has for you and for me to let Jesus change the way that we walk through life and love those around us so if repentance means salvation [Music] and if repentance means redemption count me and if repentance means forgiveness our mall and if repentance means true freedom calmy it I'll let it Oh already [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] cuz I was blind but now I see this great reavie to [Music] mijo too soon [Music]

Channel: Valley Creek Church

Views: 4,817

Rating: 4.9466667 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 7hma_0AUuc4

Length: 58min 0sec (3480 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2020