Look Up & Look Ahead | Pastor William McDowell

uh and so if you're ready for the word you know what to do shout out in this realm since you can let's go deeper yeah all right so um you know what we do we stand and read the word of the lord i've had to imagine this uh for quite some time and now we have you know a smattering of people in the room and we're actually standing together and so um i just want to read one verse of scripture uh it's very short it's one verse of scripture we'll come back to it and then you can sit back down as we pray together that will be proverbs chapter 23 verse 18 proverbs chapter 23 verse 18. and it reads this way you will be rewarded for this your hope will not be disappointed i'm going to read it again you will be rewarded for this your hope will not be disappointed this verse does have a context that we will revisit in just a moment let's pray together family father i thank you i thank you for this day i thank you lord that this is a historic moment in the life of our church and our family lord i thank you for what you have brought us to i thank you for the prayer that you've answered i thank you lord for the justice that you have rendered lord i thank you for the way that you've heard and answered the cry of your people lord i thank you for the faithfulness of your people and what it is that we have seen as a result and lord i also thank you for the power of your word i thank you that your word is life to us and lord i pray that in the next few moments as we declare your word lord that you would anoint this time for every hearer that it would produce a harvest that it would produce fruit that the roots would go deep father i pray that by the power of the holy spirit you would take these words of mine from this feeble vessel and you would translate them in a way that everyone who hears would hear exactly what you want them to hear exactly what you need them to hear and father i pray lord that you use me as a vessel to proclaim and declare your word lord i thank you for the privilege of preaching i thank you father for the privilege of being called by you you know that it is my desire to make you proud and i pray as always that the words of my mouth and the meditations in my heart will be acceptable in thy sight o lord my strength and my redeemer and because you are so good so merciful so loving so kind would you reveal by the spirit would you reveal jesus to those who have yet to come to saving knowledge of christ lord would you reveal their need for you and i pray that you would save people in jesus name amen amen well you can be seated you can be seated we'll jump right in to this i actually um was wrestling quite a bit uh just kind of with a number of things i've been feeling and sensing and and there's some things that i feel like the lord wants to to begin to stir us in to prepare us for uh to to raise our expectation and so there are a number of things in that way that i'm preparing for and and studying ahead of time for and and reading ahead of time for because i know that there's some things that the lord wants to declare over us to begin to engage uh our spirit uh to engage us prophetically to begin to elevate uh our expectation for what it is that he will do in the coming days and so because of that i was thinking okay are we there yet but i i got this sentence i hold it not just yet not just yet and then i was also wrestling with kind of where we are and all of that stuff and then thinking about the significance of the moment that we're in it's a significant moment for me uh personally to to go from saying yes to god reluctantly uh to being in my living room to being here uh that is quite uh a journey uh in the last decade or so that has had been pretty mind-blowing to me but in all of that um i was also wrestling with a number of different things and and the spirit of god just kind of arrested me uh with with just something i've been uh feeling as people have been asking me how do you feel about this and my feelings have been um unfortunately tempered and as a result of my feelings being tempered the lord began to encourage me by his word and and conversely has to begin to encourage me um i wanted to pass this encouragement to you so therefore what i have for us today is an encouraging word from the lord um i've repeated uh this reality multiple times throughout this year and it's worth saying again that this year of teaching that we've been in in 2021 has been a necessary year of grounding and making sure that our faith is tethered to the truth of the word of god it's been very very important particularly being among a company of people or a tribe of people uh who fully embrace um the the declaration of the prophetic word of the lord we expanded our understanding of that not just to be the foretelling or predictive nature of god and the way that he speaks or the preceding word of the lord but also the forth telling the mind of god as revealed throughout scripture and history because we have been a people who have affirmed uh that we we embrace prophetic things but yet being surrounded by um those things which are truly prophetic and those things which masquerade as prophetic we found ourselves in a need to make sure that in order for us to not be drawn away not to wander off and to not drive that we were tethered to the word of god um this is an important moment for us now this is not just being tethered is not a seasonal thing uh it is something that is to be our lifestyle it is to be how we are to live out and walk out this christian faith uh that we do that but oftentimes in in in gatherings of people communities of people uh that embrace supernatural things it's extra important that if you're going to embrace supernatural things that you don't wander off into the strange and weird in the name of the supernatural and find ourselves untethered from scripture so it's important then for us to to know that since we came out of a season where there was a over abundance of things that were um giving credit for being supernatural that ultimately revealed themselves to be not true you can have a lot of bewilderment that happens in the body and whenever the possibility of bewilderment happens in the body uh any good shepherd or any good group of shepherds any good group of teachers would then say listen we will not allow you to continue to be in this way instead what we would do is we will make sure that your faith is anchored so we we have acknowledged the sad reality of wandering and drifting away from the faith that is taking place at least in our nation at an alarming rate now as dr eric mason pointed out last week there is a lot of deconstruction going on there is healthy deconstruction and unhealthy deconstruction um just to remind us again deconstruction as he defined it last week is the process of re-evaluating your core beliefs or really asking do i really believe this or evaluating if the religious system i was raised in is really what i believe now what he brought out to us i think wonderfully was the fact that healthy deconstruction is necessary so that we can own the faith for ourselves um we find this quite a bit you know people um will ask me at times you know when were you saved what was your conversion experience and my conversion experience uh was very very early um uh therefore um i used to feel like well man i don't really have a testimony because you know people would have the testimony to say well i was out there doing this and out there doing that and then one day a bright light shine and a voice spoke from heaven and i fell to my knees in the middle of the club and said this and you're just kind of like whoa that didn't happen for me and literally what happened for me uh was um i i i've told you this story before um a long time ago but my earliest and one of my only memories of my grandfather my mother's father because he passed away when i was three years old one of my uh earliest and only memories of him uh was telling him at three years old that i'm saved but my parents don't believe me because i wanted to to when we would go to church and and they would have communion um i wanted to partake in the communion and i would say i wanted to take in the community and they would say not yet you have to be baptized not to your saved not like i am saying and i remember him believing me telling them this boy is saying and telling them then what i did not know about myself and as this boy will preach now i did that's the only basically the only memory i have of him is him proclaiming over me that i will preach the word of god that was my early conversion experience i remember then at five years old being baptized and this faith has been in me since an early child it is it is it and now i've understood that that even though i used to think i didn't have a testimony because i grew up in church and all that kind of stuff i thought i didn't have a testimony of course that was before i understood the true power of the gospel that we all have the same testimony we just have different stories we find out in ephesians chapter two but but we we we have this and so because of that what i did recognize is that basically because of the call of god on my life he didn't have time for me to be messing around in the world so therefore he snatched me early thank you jesus and so so that was a part of it now now part of this this when i talk about this um the secondary thing then becomes and and many people have heard this testimony um uh because i told it at a church in knoxville tennessee years ago for a video that i never intended on being out and never thought that it would be anything and yet millions upon millions of people have watched the video and the funny thing was i never wanted to be out and i was actually embarrassed of how it sounded but i've discovered that there are several people who are even a part of this church that the way you came to know me was my testimony and so it's so interesting how god will use something just to say i want to show you that it's not what you do it's not your well-produced stuff it's not your this it's not anything that you did with excellence i'm going to use something that you never intended and part of that testimony was that even though i grew up in church even though i served the lord even though i never missed a time even though i was uh playing i used to play to oregon i used to play the drums i used to do all that kind of stuff but when i went to college that was when a healthy deconstruction happened for me because the healthy deconstruction now was i'm not serving the lord because i'm in my mother's house i'm serving the lord because i love the lord that was a a moment of healthy deconstruction for me and so healthy deconstruction is okay now there is unhealthy uh deconstruction as well which people are just kind of throwing off the faith and asking questions that have answers but not seek any answers so so so the truth of the matter is as we have been hearing about this as we've been hearing about how not to ship wreck your faith and we've been hearing about maturing we've been hearing about a number of different things and then even last week coming into deconstructing uh the faith um the truth is when we have right perspective messages like the ones we've been hearing this year are deeply encouraging and they make us feel good a different perspective unfortunately causes some to only feel good when the message is about them or what they can receive in the here and now and so this is one of the reasons why our response addicted preaching is so popular because it's really really easy it's very difficult to be able to excavate the word and people are getting it but not responding it's it's the easier thing to do is to say the trite cliche that makes everybody jump up and shout but nobody's growing that so so the thing is um anyone who's been preaching for any length of time recognizes um the difference between staying true to the word and pulpiteering which is this this idea that we'll say and do whatever we can in order to get people to respond in fact when they're not responding we make them respond via simon says even the things that don't deserve a response all right i got more people in the room and they're just as quiet as a church mouse ain't that a mess [Laughter] thank you thank you i'll take a baby giving amen why is there so much drifting and wandering some of it is due to an untethered faith now when i use this term untethered of course i'm sure that most of you can surmise its meaning essentially it means not connected to or free from anything that can pull you back when drift occurs um if you watch any movies about space travel and and the astronauts have to go out uh for a space walk usually they fix themselves or they fix something uh that they're having to go out to fix something that was damaged and so they are tethered to the vessel the entire time now um i we will watch certain movies like that and and and usually when they have to go out for a spacewalk like everything in a spaceship is fine you know and then what happens it's kind of like every movie you know every movie carries the same plot to some degree something happens on the outside of the vessel something breaks some sort of space debris space junk asteroid hits something somebody got to go out and fix it right every space movie [Laughter] so so when they have to go out and fix it i'm literally they have to to be tethered to the vessel because you can't space walk being untethered or you drift away and so literally that part of the movie always stresses me out by the way because it's always like you know either really quiet because they're trying to to replicate the quietness of space or it's like oh david left i was going to give me a theatrical something um or it's like a single note string line or something like that it's just like letting you know that some impending thing is about to happen and typically it is somebody's about to become untethered and possibly drift away um i hate those moments in the movie because sometimes they drift away usually they're safer they come back or whatever but but drifting happens when we are untethered sometimes family and life we hit things that cause us to lose our grip and in those moments it's our faith being tethered to the word of god in eternal truths that allow us to stand um you haven't lived life long enough if life doesn't hit you in a way that caused you to lose your grip uh the the advantage of me not dying my hair black like my children want me to do it it also speaks to those to say i've lived life a little bit when i was younger um you felt like you were impervious to everything you could do everything life was just going to be easy it was going to go in a straight line but it doesn't go like that as you get older as you go through life you discover uh that that sometimes things happen in life that punch you in the mouth or punch you in the stomach you lose your breath and you let go you lose your grip on reality you you lose your grip on on what you are holding on to and it is in those moments when life hits you this way and you lose your grip that it's important that you be tethered because even if life hits you and you lose your grip when you're tethered it will bring you back i'm watching a friend right now go through the toughest season of his life but every single morning before prayer call he's up posting scripture that is revealing what he's holding on to or even better what's holding on to him and it is it is revealing this is what is keeping me i'm not doing this for show i'm saying this is what i need because life hit me in a way that i would have let go but i'm tethered to the truth of his word another reason for drifting and wandering are roots that never took people that that that made a confession but the roots never went deep and so when life hits you it causes you to drift or to wonder and the other thing that will cause this is misplaced expectation which leads to disappointment misplaced expectation which leads to disappointment misplaced expectation uh is a trip it really is i remember this is in honor of pastor caleb would tell stories i thought of one i remember and it actually ties into the message which is really cool because typically if i that's a candy will tell a story and it ties to the message directly and you're like oh i tell a story it's just a story he said i got it so so i remember um and i told you this is a word of encouragement for us stay with me we're going somewhere good um i remember the first time we took my son joshua to disney world i took my son joshua to disney world you know as you know most parents at this point we're probably more excited than our kids about disney world because the disney characters particularly the traditional ones are the ones we grew up with and our kids have no idea who these people are so we're all excited there's mickey and they're like okay it's a mouse that's pluto and you're like okay who is pluto you know that kind of thing we we we those are the characters for us but but for them it's it's other people and so they you know incorporated obviously other lands other people other movies stuff like that but we were so excited to take him to the magic kingdom and i remember we got into the magic kingdom we're like we're going to disney it's going to be great come on you know whatever and most parents understand that if you really if you have young kids um you are inviting yourself to be worn out by the end of the day your feet are going to hurt you're going to spend a ton of money you're going to sweat and your kids are going to cry and it's going to be and all of that for a picture that says we're in the happiest place on earth [Laughter] and everybody's picture is like two seconds earlier because i want to go home you know they're asking for your phone to play something um yeah so we went to disney and we were so excited and we we got in and you know we're on main street and they're starting to parade and we're like setting up for the parade and we're just kind of sitting there and you know the parade is coming down main street and all this stuff is really exciting we're like look there's something such and look there's this and look there's that and you know this is like if you've been up to the magic kingdom you know this is an immersive world this is an immersive environment like this is supposed to be the happiest place on earth because for the time that you are there you are separated from the reality of your life you're separated from everything else that's going on you're immersed in another world of make-believe so we're thinking this is great this is awesome you know we're in disney the music is playing the parade is going the characters are doing their thing and joshua is looking so unimpressed and we're like like what is going on like he i mean he's not excited at all about this and we're just kind of like okay now now you know and to be honest every parent is like i spend too much money if you have to smile so i demand that you smile because i paid for that smile you're gonna smile and so so so he's he's not he's not doing that and so we're just kind of like what is wrong and so finally we decide the parade is over and you know we're like you you want to go to such-and-such and i guess and we're like what is going on so we ask him joshua what's wrong and his response was where are all the toys and we're like what do you what do you mean where are all the toys and he he and it dawned on us that there was a particular character that he wanted from the lion king movie that every time he went into any other store whether it be target or or any other store in the mall or something like that we would go look for this particular character and it'd have all the other characters but they would not have this one character and so our typical response to him at that age was they probably have it at disney they probably have it at disney and so as a result in his mind disney was a giant toy store because we had placed this thing and his expectation was that disney was a toy store so no matter what else was there because of his misplaced expectation he had disappointment and so even though we're at disney because he had a misplaced expectation he was disappointed and so we understood that in order for him to enjoy the rest of disney we had to find that toy [Laughter] what we had to do essentially was raise his expectation we had to raise his expectation so in order to raise his expectation we had to encourage him to have the right perspective which is to change how he sees it how do we raise our expectation how do we receive a new perspective or more specifically a divine perspective the answer is obvious this is if this was a this was a fill in the blank quiz you'd probably get it right um it doesn't have to be multiple choices the answer is obvious it is the presence of the lord where we receive divine perspective in the word of god that is how we receive divine perspective now now here is the truth of the reality of where we've been and where we are and where we are going the truth of the matter is god gave us context for the season but if many of us were to be honest we still didn't expect that the season would feel like this he gave us perspective for the season that we were entering he gave us biblical perspective for the season that we were entering but if we were to be honest many of us didn't know it would look like this we didn't know it would feel like this we didn't know it would look like this and we certainly didn't know it would be this long and so as a result um we start looking around at things and and and people uh who have decided that they're going to do something that's contrary to what it was that we originally heard what it was that we originally embraced and as a result of that we begin to look around and when we look around we begin to say okay wait a minute um something doesn't feel right because god you you invited us into a time of repentance and you invited us into a time of prayer and you invited us into a time of being uh introspective and to walk humbly and circumspectly and you you we invited you to to gaze into the areas of our heart and you we you you invited us to pray for national revival and global revival and now we're seeing this and it seemed like things are going one way and now they're going another way and now everyone's basically saying that that they're ignoring what's happening and i don't get it and why do i have to be like this and why is it still like this and why am i going through this and why do i think this and why do i feel this and the truth of the matter is most of us we don't want to be honest with our feelings because we're almost afraid that if we're honest with god he'll rebuke us even though he won't and then you're certainly afraid to talk to other believers about how you feel and so therefore what is happening family is because you won't talk about what you feel because you want processed trauma because you won't process it in the presence of the lord because you won't process it in prayer it is affecting your expectation the truth of the matter is you you wouldn't say that it's affecting your expectation but one of the ways that i can tell you and how you will know that it's affecting your expectation how much do you talk about the future anymore [Music] how much do you begin to proclaim the prophetic promises of the lord so you you see before 2020 you were pretty bold about talking about what the lord showed you before 2020 you were pretty bold about talking about the steps that he showed you the dreams that you had the doors that you expect to walk through and what it was that you planned on doing by such and such time by the time i'm this age i'm going to be doing this by the time i'm this i'm gonna go on this missionary trip by the time i'm this i plan to do this and now you don't talk about it at all because the truth of the matter is your expectation has been dulled in addition to the fact that your expectation has been affected by the season that we're in it's been affected by what you're looking at in addition to all of that this this has caused you we understand it for some of us because we need to talk honestly about to see that for some of us we find ourselves in a place where literally you're like hey pastor i would love to talk about the future but i'm just trying to get to tomorrow that's just the truth people's margins are are are not as wide as they were that they're they're struggling and they're they're stressed and there's a number of things on their mind and and they're just like i listen i listen to the prayer call because i can't pray we understand but i want you to understand that just like we're not the first generation to go through a pandemic we are also not the first generation of people on earth to have these kinds of feelings we're not the first people on earth that look around to other people who don't seem to be struggling with what we're struggling with and it makes us struggle if we were to be really honest sometimes we kind of wish we could have the hakuna matata life and we we wish we could we could we could live like it seems like other people who don't even know god live we're in the middle of a pandemic and you you feel like these people can go and lick a pole and be fine and you like i'm afraid to breathe but the truth of the matter is people historically throughout scripture have felt this way and they found their remedy in the presence of god look at what asaph says in psalm 73 um psalm 73 reads this way and i'm going to read the entire thing truly god is good to israel to those whose hearts are pure but as for me now let me just help you here you you you have to understand now you're not just reading asaph he's he's speaking uh what you experienced too so so for some of you who felt like you could not be honest with god i need you to know that the psalmist was honest with god and he he wrote it down for all generations to see so it's not just my own personal music i'm letting you know like listen i was frustrated when i looked and saw how people were living so let's let's keep going truly god is good to israel to those whose hearts are pure but as for me i almost lost my footing my feet were slipping and i was almost gone for i envied the proud when i saw them prosper despite their wickedness they seem to live such painless lives their bodies are so healthy and strong they don't have troubles like other people they are not plagued with problems like everyone else they wear pride like a jeweled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelty these fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for they scoff and speak only evil in their pride they seek to crush others they boast against the very heavens and their words struck throughout the earth and so the people are dismayed and confused drinking in all their words what does god know they ask does the most high even know what's happening look at these wicked people enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply and verse 13 right here a number of people you you you've probably said it in your heart you've just been afraid to say it out loud but i need you to know the bible says it did i keep my heart pure for nothing did i keep myself innocent for no reason i'ma just stop right there for a second because i know some of you feel this way because after your response to what the lord has given us to preach over the last 18 to 19 months it can start to feel like that to you as you begin to look around and you begin to see what is happening at least in our nation alone and in the different uh various viewpoints that people are taking and the way that people are living you start to say well wait a minute i don't understand because i've seen people who are godly die while i've seen people who shake their fists in the hand of god living life like nothing's going on right now and they're never affected they never seem to be affected nothing ever happens to them and you're like wait a minute god you invited us to do all of this you invited us to posture ourselves you invited us to do this and it feels like we kept ourselves pure for nothing and we kept ourselves innocent for no reason and family before i keep reading let me just say that if you start to feel that way it's not that you're alone in feeling that but i also want you to know that it's probably having an effect on your expectation because the reality of it is i would love to come in today the first day preaching from this platform the first day in front of several of our leaders who are all my friends and be able to prophetically proclaim all these great and wonderful things that god is going to do from this place and he is going to do it but what i also recognize is that for me to do that to a group of people who are struggling to make it to tomorrow whose expectation has been den and dull because you've been frustrated either by misplaced expectation or because you've seen the wicked prosper you're struggling and so therefore for you to hear a prophetic declaration be like whoo [Music] and so my assignment is to prepare you for what god has in store for us because he has something so great in store for us but we have to wrestle with how we feel so that we can agree with what god has said let's keep going here asaph writes and he says i get nothing but trouble all day long every morning brings me pain if i had really spoken this way to others i would have been a traitor to your people so i tried to understand why the wicked prosper but what a difficult task it is now look where his perspective changes then i went into your sanctuary oh god and i finally understood the destiny of the wicked now i want to give us some context for this in just a moment because if you if you if you read this with wrong context what will ultimately happen is you'll begin to root for the demise of people and that is not what we are called to do i just want to stop and say that because it's very very important because um we i my wife and i were talking uh and i'm so grateful that god doesn't listen to some of the stuff we think and say because some of us walk around like we have super powers and so therefore we we read what happens to to elijah when the bears come out and all the people that are making fun of him we're like okay see you make fun of me that's what's going to happen to you listen thank god that he's merciful he don't listen to you because you know how many people would be dead because you got offended so grateful we and we we have people teaching that kind of thing don't you mess with me you mess with me oh man to god are you going down listen let me just help you they are a childish are you same father okay so i want to help us as we read psalm 73 and some of the other psalms that we're not like see see it's in there sick them god is not your watchdog like that there is an overarching context to this is very important as it relates to expectation let's keep going then i went into your sanctuary oh god and i found and finally understood the destiny of the wicked truly you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over a cliff to destruction in an instant they are destroyed completely swept away by terrors when you arise oh lord you will laugh at their silly ideas as a person laughs at dreams in the morning then i realized my heart was bitter and i was all torn up inside i was so foolish and ignorant i must have seen like a senseless animal to you yet i still belong to you you hold my right hand you guide me with your counsel leading me to a glorious destiny whom have i in heaven but you i desire you more than anything on earth my health may fail and my spirit may grow weak but god remains the strength of my heart he is mine forever i can preach on that alone those who desert him will be perished for you destroy those who abandon you but ask for me how good it is to be near to god i have made the sovereign lord my shelter and i will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do now even with prophetic insight about why we are here i'm not sure any of us are ready for what it would feel like to be here or especially to still be here and what compounds the difficulty is emotionally watching those who seemingly shake their fists in the face of god essentially daring him to do something while it seems like nothing happens to them and they go on living their lives which is why i brought out verse 13 to us where people feel like i kept myself pure for nothing because that becomes really real really fast in seasons like this people just out there living life while i'm inside praying and waiting and repenting and believing asaph said i almost slipped for some of you it wasn't almost you like i didn't almost slip i i did slip like i i i can't i get it they we find ourselves he said i almost slipped um people have slipped they've looked around at life and they've said they're living life i'm going to live life too if they're having fun i'm going to have fun are they going out i'm going out you're not going to do anything i don't do because i'm not going to live in a christian jail see most of you would not admit to the the reality that looking around has affected how you live but i want to deal with what happens when we look around i'll get to that in just a moment it'll be basically my final point because we're not just to be looking around jeremiah wrote about it too in jeremiah chapter 12 verse one and two he said lord you always give me justice when i bring my case to you so let me bring this complaint to you why are the wicked so prosperous why are evil people so happy you have planted them and they have taken root and prospered your name is on their lips but you are far from their hearts david also wrote about it in psalm 37 also another lengthy song um i'm going to read the whole thing too i'm not going to do a bunch of exposition on it so don't worry our time is not going to increase david wrote about it in psalm 37 there's a lot of verses in psalm 37 but it all makes sense um you you king james people [Laughter] fret not yourselves because of evildoers just um when's the last time you said fred not but okay don't worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong i just gave you your king james fix for the day don't worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong four like grass they soon fade away like spring flowers they soon wither trust in the lord and do good then you will live safely in the land and prosper take delight in the lord and he will give you your heart's desires or delight yourselves and lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart that's your second one for the day all right commit everything you do to the lord trust him and he will help you or bring it to pass all right that's the third one for today y'all should be happy he will make your innocence radiate like the dawn and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun be still in the presence of the lord and wait patiently for him to act don't worry about able people who prosper or fret about their wicked scheme stop being angry turn from your rage i'm giving you some scriptures you can hold on to by the way do not lose your temper it only leads to harm for the wicked will be destroyed but those who trust in the lord will possess the land soon the wicked will disappear though you look for them they will be gone the lowly will possess the land and will live in peace and prosperity the wicked plot against the godly they snarl at them in defiance but the lord just laughs for he sees the day of judgment coming the wicked draw their swords and string their bowls to kill the poor and oppress the slaughter of those who do right but their swords will stab their own hearts and their bowls will be broken it is better to be godly and to have little than to be evil and rich the strength of the wicked will will be shattered but the lord takes care of the godly day by day the lord takes care of the innocent and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever they will not be disgraced in hard times even in famine they will have more than enough but the wicked will die the lord's enemies are like the flowers in the field they will disappear like smoke the wicked borrow and never repay but the godly are generous givers that's one of the reasons why we know you're godly people amen those the lord blesses will possess the land but those he curses will die the lord directs the steps of the godly he delights in every detail of their life though they stumble they will never fall for the lord holds them by the hand once i was young i would give you the fourth one and now i am old yet i have never seen the godly abandoned or the children begging for bread and i know you king james new king james people are having a nervous tic i once was young but now i'm old and i've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for bread the godly always give generous loans to others and their children are a blessing turn from evil and do good and you will live in the land forever for the lord loves justice he will never abandon the godly he will keep them safe forever but the children of the wicked will die the godly are you seeing this juxtaposition here the godly will possess the land and live there forever the godly offer good counsel they teach right from wrong they have made god's law their own so they will never slip from his path the wicked wait in ambush for the godly looking for an excuse to kill them but the lord will not let the wicked succeed or let the godly be condemned when they are put on trial put your hope in the lord travel steadily along his path he will honor you by giving you the land you will see the wicked destroyed i have seen the wicked and ruthless people flourishing like a tree in his native soil but when i looked again they were gone though i searched for them i could not find them look at those who are honest and good for a wonderful future awaits those who love peace but the rebellious will be destroyed they have no future the lord rescues the god that he is their fortress in times of trouble the lord helps them rescuing them from the wicked he saves them and they find shelter in him i know i just read 40 verses that are very good but some of you need this i just the entire thing is good but i want to draw out something in just one of these verses verse 37 look at those who are honest and good for a wonderful future awaits those who love peace when we began today we read one verse of scripture we read proverbs chapter 23 verse 18. if we were teaching things out of context when we read proverbs 23 verse 18 that's enough to shout and we could talk about it being a prophetic promise and all that kind of stuff we'd run all around the room and everything else but its context is also enough to shout we don't have to take it out of context in order to be excited about it the verse said you will be rewarded for this your hope will not be disappointed that's a spot right there to say thank you jesus you will be rewarded for this your hope will not be disappointed the context of this changes our perspective because in pastor matt's favorite version the esv it says this surely there is a future thank you lord and your hope will not be cut off surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off what is the context and perspective change of this staying in the esv verse 17 right before verse 18 says this now we dealt with this in psalm 73 we dealt with this in jeremiah 12 we dealt with this in psalm 37 so now you see that there's multiple people uh asaph is having these feelings jeremiah is having these feelings david is having these feelings asaph wrote psalm 73 prophet jeremiah wrote jeremiah 12 david wrote psalm 37 so we're saying this is not just one woeful individual but multiple people who look at things and say i'm struggling with this and so now king solomon also dealing with this same reality because the truth of the matter is we deal with this even if we don't want to admit it verse 17 esv says this let not your heart envy sinners but continue in the fear of the lord all day all the day surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off the nlt said it this way don't envy sinners but always continue to fear the lord you will be rewarded for this your hope will not be disappointed let's be clear and simple here the remedy to end being sinners is the fear of the lord the remedy to envying sinners is the fear of the lord to fear the lord means to be obedient and submissive to him it is the fear of the lord is a state of mind this is important for us because um i know uh that we we talk about you know the fear of the lord uh and and we see terms in the old english like the lord is great and terrible and and things of that nature and it's using it in a different context and we would use it in our modern day vernacular but i need you to understand that the fear of the lord is not just the turning away of your face because of his holiness it is also a state of mind uh it is a lifestyle it is a lifestyle the fear of the lord is a state of mind if you haven't written anything down you can write this down in which one's own attitudes will feelings deeds and goals are exchanged for god's that's the fear of the lord the fear of the lord is a state of mind in which one's own attitudes will feelings deeds and goals are exchanged for god's view on these things let me say it again because i see some people writing the fact that they're writing it here means you might be writing at home the fear of the lord is a state of mind in which one's own attitudes will feelings deeds and goals are exchanged for god which means now that you receive god's attitude god's will god's feelings god's goals this is what it means to walk in the fear of the lord and when you walk in the fear of the lord you do not envy sinners when you walk in the fear of the lord you don't envy sinners this is why family hear me with this kind of contextual definition this is why you will hear people say when they hear erroneous teaching about any number of things whether it be prosperity or any other thing that people say they must not fear god that's why they say that they must not fear god they don't have a state of mind that doesn't end the centers so you teach what you teach because you envy sinners you try to get people's money because you nbc [Applause] because you don't fear the lord and when you don't fear the lord what do you do you end be sinners you look at them and you say i want what they have i want the seeming peace that they have i want the seeming happiness that they have i want the riches that they have and we've forgotten what the scripture says to us in this verse surely there is a future so this gives us a complete perspective change it is then that we see like asap and david and solomon that the future belongs to the righteous uh that might be something you want to hold on to the future belongs to the righteous the future belongs to the righteous the future belongs to the righteous now it may not appear that way and i'm almost done it may not appear that way to the natural eye because the way that the natural eye looks at things we're like i don't see how the future belongs to the righteous it seems like the future belongs to the powerful it seems like the future belongs to the wealthy it seems that the future belongs to the conniving it seems like the future belongs to the liar it seems like the future belongs to all of these other things and it seems like those who live righteous are under and they're they're oppressed and they're suppressed and they're put down and they can't advance and you look at things like that but i need you to know what the future the scripture is talking about is different than your tomorrow proverbs chapter 24 verse 13 and 14 says it this way my child eat honey for it is good and the honeycomb is sweet to the taste in the same way wisdom is sweet for your soul if you find it you will have look at this a bright future and your hopes will not be cut short very similar uh to proverbs 23 18. when you jump down to verse 19 to 20 it says this don't fret because the evil doers are you seeing a thing don't fret because of evildoers don't envy the wicked for evil people have no future the light of the wicked will be snuffed out now again i told you contextually that what we're not doing is we're not proudly preaching about something that we hope and which happens to people because if we hoped and wished that these things would happen to people there'd be no reason to evangelize right the future that the scripture is referring to or the bright future of verse 14 of proverbs chapter 24 is speaking of eternity the bible says this in proverbs 11 7 i want us to understand that the wicked only have hope for this life but the righteous having eternal hope i want to wake up something in you in the last couple minutes that i have the bible says in proverbs 11 7 when the wicked dies his hope will perish but the expect and the expectation of wealth parishes too no matter how much money you have on earth you can't take it with you if someone ever got buried with their money i promise you shortly after that somebody would dig it up because they can't take it with them though the present often seems dark the future is bright and glorious for the sons and daughters of god that we could only have hope for this life but the righteous have eternal hope commentator derek kidnapper says it this way the remedy is to look up and look ahead i said to us earlier that i wanted us to david you can come i said to us earlier that that part of what's affecting us right now is that we're looking around and when you look around it will affect not only how you feel but how you live and ultimately your expectation because right now the lord there's a moment of prophetic stirring there is there is a sense for those of us who are tapped in that that there is a level of divine breakthrough that is about to happen uh for certain places uh in the earth for people who have literally cried out to him postured themselves and waited he is going to meet us in significant ways and it's not just going to be in the corporate expression alone you're going to see it in your individual life the problem is because you're looking around it's hard for you to see so even though i would want to come to you today and and give us some excited prophetic proclamation i don't want it to not be able to take root in your heart because you're still looking around because when you look around you say i hear that but do you see this other thing i hear that but we're still in this thing i hear that but i've been praying this whole time and i've been fasting and i've been repenting and i've been believing and i've been standing and i've been careful and i've been this and i've been that but when i look around and other people they're doing none of that and they seem to be doing so much better than me so i'm struggling to see that and i can't just put that in my pocket this time because my stew is conflicted because my heart is envious of what i see i want to be able to go and do what everybody else is doing right now i want to talk about what everybody else is talking about i want to i want to go where everybody else is going and i'm kind of tired of staying this way because it seems like i've kept myself pure for nothing and so now you're about to lay on top of that i'm tired pastor i've been struggling with this i'm i'm holding on but but but it's the tethering that's holding me right now because i have things that just kind of made me want to let go and so now i can't necessarily see beyond tomorrow because i'm struggling because i'm looking around and the remedy to that is not to look around family is to look up and look ahead it's to look up and look ahead how how do you stop this envy you fear the lord yes but you also stop looking around at everybody else you look up and you look ahead look how the amplified says this verse and then we'll wrap it up amplified brings out proverbs 23 17 to 18. it says don't do not let your heart and be sinners who live godless lives and have no hope of salvation but continue to live in the reverent worshipful fear of the lord day by day surely there is a future and a reward and your hope and expectation will not be cut off [Music] looking around family the truth of the matter is it affects your expectation it affects your expectation if you were to be honest and and maybe some of you you're beyond this and you're like okay this is this is encouraging for some of you you're like i needed this so bad because i've really been struggling to see maybe i i you know i wish i could prophesy like y'all you can but you just didn't recognize it and i i wish i had the gift of vision to be able to see and everything else god wants to give it to you but you can't see it if you're looking at everyone else it's uh one of the great challenges of the day that we live in family one of the great challenges of the technological age that we live in is the fact that the advent of social media in the last number of years has caused us to be able to look around more we begin to question the timing of god for our life we see other people doing it younger better bigger and we're like i know god promised me that but it doesn't seem like it or we see an idea that we felt like god gave us and we didn't recognize that he he released it in the earth for whoever would catch it we just thought it was ours and we'll see someone else do it we're like i guess i'm not going to do that anymore and so we struggle with this why because we're looking around and beyond that that's just the unhealthy comparison that happens in the body but when you start to look at the world and you see how people live and what they do it can make you feel like asap you can almost slip and stumble like what am i doing all this for a few weeks back i got to do something pretty cool with my family spent some time together in a very special way um and we were passing by some very wealthy wealthy extremely wealthy folks and if you if you don't embrace godliness and contentment you can start to say what am i doing all this for [Music] i jokingly said maybe i should just i will not this was a joke let me just tell you now i will not but i said maybe i could just preach prosperity for a few years then come back to the truth and then i could live like them a little untethered for just a second somebody come get me you know [Music] the truth of the matter is [Music] like i thought to myself in that moment like this very special thing that we were doing like i had enough money to rent that life for four hours some people live that life that's how they live every day the yacht is parked to next to their house [Music] not just their car and we're like okay and we start to look at people and we enter into a season like this we enter into a moment like this where there are still prophetic promises over you there are things that the lord wants to do for you and through you and in you that he wants to awaken but because of the length of the season the feeling of this season the emotion of this season the thoughts of this season the envy of this season you are cutting off expectation and i want to declare to you that the lord wants to awaken your expectation because he wants to create a context for you to be able to receive what he's going to be saying to us in this next season because what the lord wants to do is begin to speak to the people who have kept themselves he wants to speak to the people who have repented he wants to speak to the people who have been praying he wants to speak to the people who have been fasting he wants to speak to the people who have been standing he wants to speak to the people who have been believing and i came to speak to you now to say listen i need you to awaken the expectation let go of the envy allow your vision to be re-awakened why so that you will be able to receive the things that the lord wants to say to us over this next season it is for this reason that the lord wouldn't allow me to say it yet because there are things that he wants to prepare us for he is making us ready for what he has ready for us because to be honest i was struggling too that's i i'm not preaching to you something that i just overcame and didn't deal with we've talked about it amongst ourselves for quite some time we we would prophesy that the season of distinction is coming and didn't know the distinction would look like this didn't know the distinction would feel like this we knew there'd be separation we just didn't assume that would be our own friends and people that we know and so we're in it and we're still in it and we didn't know that that we'd be in it so long that we as a church and as a leadership would be trying to figure out how to navigate the season while things are still going on and things are still raging we didn't know that and after a while it could begin to affect your expectations and your vision and then you stop talking about the future and all you can talk about today but i need you to know there is a future both eternal [Music] and there is a future that god has for us but we cannot embrace it if we are going to continue to allow envy to dull our expectation so i want to pray for you because i want you to understand that looking around can affect your expectation both near-term and eternal because for some of you in this moment of deconstruction looking around has affected your ability to see eternal perspective now you're wondering when people say where's god you're like i don't know you won't be honest you see people making fun of god and making fun of the people of god making fun of this season making fun of what you believe making fun of what you held onto as truth and looking and saying what you do all that for you see that happening and sometimes it can frustrate you to the point where you're like i don't know perhaps maybe it's not what i thought it was but it is his word is true the hope of the wicked is short-lived the future of the righteous is eternal which is why the future belongs to the righteous and don't give up your expectation can i pray for you was this helpful family [Music] father i thank you for my brothers and sisters who are watching from literally around the world some of them who are so faithful and yet so wounded so faithful and so down so faithful and yet unable to see in front of them it's been hard for them to see because their hearts been so burdened by everything else they see when they look around i pray father help them to look up and to look ahead help us to look up and look ahead so that we can see with right perspective and so that we can see what it is that you want to do in the earth we do want to be a prophetic people who know your heart who know your character who know your history who know your mind about things and even know the future we want to be able to embrace it and walk in it so father i pray awaken expectation in the hearts of your people lord i ask you to awaken expectation in the hearts of your people lord i pray if you need to bypass our awake hours speak to us in our dreams do whatever you need to do in order to awaken our expectation show us your heart show us the future show us your mind give us your insight give us your perspective because we are a people who fear the lord as a state of mind and lord i pray and for the people who do that you would prepare us for what you have ahead of us because there are some things that you are going to say over us that we need to receive we need to embrace and we need to walk in and so lord i pray that you help us prepare our hearts for the coming days in jesus name amen family my sense from the lord in this moment in this exact moment is that they're going to be things that are spoken over deeper fellowship church in the days ahead prophetically that are going to astound us [Music] god's going to say some things to us that are going to wow us and it's going to take our agreement we're going to have to be a people who say lord i see it and we're gonna have to see it in a timing because the word i'm hearing is acceleration don't think that god has lost any time he has not lost any time he's not beholden to time he's not a servant to time he created it and he lives outside of it that which he wants to do he can do quickly he can do suddenly he can do immediately he can do now it's going to take a people who are willing to live with expectation and not continue looking around at everybody else but determine you're going to do what it takes to live in a way that allows the lord to begin to resurrect expectation in you by looking up and looking ahead now as i was preaching the reality is there is a major thread of truth in all of this passage of scripture the future as i said before that the scripture is talking about in this moment is an eternal one it is not a temporary future we're not just talking about tomorrow next week next month next year next decade we're actually talking about an eternal future but that eternal future belongs to the righteous who are the righteous those who have been made right with god how are they made right with god by placing their faith in jesus that's how we're made right with god that's what the scripture says to us we are made right with god by placing our faith in jesus christ and this is true for everyone who believes no matter who you are for the people who believe in jesus the future is glorious because it is with jesus it is not apart from him it is not separate the goal of life is not to amass whatever you can hear this life is short it is brief it's brevity it's clear we don't know how long we have and even if you have what's considered to be a long time now in the grand scheme of history it's short we don't know when our last breath will be what we know is that we have now and what we do with now determines our eternity so if you're watching me and eternity is not settled for you in other words it's something that you're hoping for it's something that you wish for you're thinking that if i do good enough if i do enough good deeds if i live good enough maybe somehow some way uh the good will outweigh the bad on the scale and and and old folklore um peter will let us into the pearly gates [Music] no no it's not how this works god's seen the condition of the world seeing the condition of my life in your life knowing that we had no ability to live up to his righteous perfect holy standard knowing that there was no other person on earth who could be the intercessor for our sin why because the payment or the wages of sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life which was to say that the penalty for sin is a life for a life but you and i didn't have the ability to lay down our life and pick it back up but the one who is life the one who spoke life into existence out of himself came himself to earth to live a perfect and sinless life for all of mankind to do what we could not do for ourselves and he knew it so he did it for us so that if we would place our faith in him there would be a transfer that would take place but the bible says that god made him who knew no sin to become sin so that we could become the righteousness of god through christ jesus which is to say that jesus took our place and took our penalty so that he could give us his righteousness his life it is a great exchange that takes place god did it because he loves us because the bible says to us for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but through him the world might be saved jesus did not come to condemn us he came to save us so no matter where it is that you are no matter what you've done no matter how far you've fallen if you've fallen all that means is that you're just like everybody else the bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god of god's standard of perfection but there's one who didn't it's jesus himself and when you place your faith in him he transfers his righteousness to you you say don't i have to do something first no ephesians 2 tells us salvation is not a reward for the good deeds we've done unless anyone would boast but god saved us by his grace through faith if it was good stuff that we did that gotta save family you'd see people saying i'm saved because i did this but i am saved because not because of what i've done because of what jesus has done and that's amazing it's amazing grace so if you find yourself watching me right now and you've never placed your faith in jesus christ what you are doing is you are taking the biggest gamble of your life what you are hoping is that you live good enough perfect enough to literally warrant being saved and i want you to know no one has ever done it but jesus what he does is he says you come to me as you are place your faith in christ god gives you his righteousness in exchange so if you're watching me right now you've never placed your faith in jesus christ this is your moment here [Music] god's giving you the ability to believe in jesus that is an invitation by his spirit that is him drawing you making you aware of your need for him we don't know that intuitively on our own we were created to know that we need god but but the way that we live the way the enemy of our soul operates he tries to blind us from this need but if you're in this moment right now and you know that you need him that means the door is open to you he's knocking on the door of your heart and this is not based on a feeling family so even if you don't feel anything if you're a person who says i know that i need him this is your moment so i just want you to do this i want you to make a public profession of your faith just in the chat i can't see you but that's okay the lord does if you're a person who wants to place your faith in jesus christ for the first time or you've walked with him at some point in your life but you became untethered and as a result you've been drifting and wandering but you want to come back home just either one of those just put in the chat i'm coming home i'm coming home i'm coming home i'm coming home you're making a public profession at that moment that god sees and the other thing that you'll see is that brothers and sisters from around the world will probably say something like welcome home or congratulations to something like that it doesn't end there it's not just putting something in a chat we want to pray together now as we pray i want you to understand that this is our honest communication to god he takes that and he does something supernatural with it this is the way that you are expressing your faith it is not our prayer or some words that we say that bring about salvation that's a work of his spirit but i do want to help us if you don't have the language for some of you you may say i'm ready to pray right now you just you you close your eyes you say god i'm yours save me and he does the rest he's not waiting on you to be the most articulate person he's just waiting on you to be honest but for those who need help with language because you're saying i've never prayed before i don't know what to say to god i know that i need him i know i want to come home i feel like i'm supposed to but i don't know what to say i want to help you with language again it's not my language or the language that you say now that does it because scripture does let us know in romans that we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart the lord jesus and then god raised him from the dead we will be saved we we understand that that is a reality of our confession and the belief in our heart well that's want to help us with language so if you don't have the language in this moment let's pray together you can repeat after me or you can use it as a template for how you pray but whatever you do do it honestly before the lord and he will save you so let's pray together family say father in the name of jesus i come to you just as i am i ask you to save me i surrender to you because i do believe that jesus is the son of god that he came and lived a perfect and sinless life in my place was crucified and rose again on the third day so that i could have new life in him so today i place my faith and my trust in jesus take the key to my heart and keep it forever because i'm yours and with your help i will live for you for the rest of my life in jesus name amen family if you prayed that prayer honestly and sincerely and you believe it with all of your heart i get the privilege of being one of the first to say welcome to the family of god welcome to the family of god this is your new birthday and uh if you've done that i want you to do something also in the chat just do this would you put hashtag i met jesus hashtag i met jesus if you would do that um one of the things that will happen is a bunch of people are going to congratulate you obviously if you're online right now so it's not like a bunch of people are going to come and do anything to you just want to congratulate you but in addition to that they'll be praying for you as well and then our moderators that are there on the chat they'll send you a link that you can fill out um so that we can keep up with you uh and help you in this journey so uh i would encourage you to do that but hashtag i met jesus this has been an amazing day to be in our home and very very soon uh more of you will be able to be together in our home but of course you will all be able to be in our virtual home which is growing and expanding and we're so grateful for the deeper global family as well we're going to be right back here same time next week family what an amazing thing just do this before you before you log off or whatever just take time to thank god for his faithfulness where i'm standing right now is literally a miraculous answer to the faithfulness of god let's not let the moment pass and not thank him for it so let's just thank god for it until next time we love you so much family don't forget dgf you have the opportunity in just a few minutes uh for those of you who are coming from out of town for dedication weekend and the coming home weekend that link is going to go up for you and so make sure you take advantage of that we love your family blessings until next time

Channel: Deeper Fellowship Church

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Length: 79min 9sec (4749 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021