My Deliverance - Ps Shane Willard

[Music] thank you so much you can be seated if you like likes following at an actual Bible Philippians chapter one if not I've created some slides and we're going to move around a little bit in this early service as pastor sue said I have three completely different messages that are set aside for today and as well as Monday and Tuesday I've spent time preparing these are all new talks that I specifically wrote thinking this is what the Lord wants to say to us and in this and in this church and so we're gonna we're going somewhere with it so if you're not otherwise engaged it would be worth your while to give an hour and 15 minutes for the second service as well that's a brand-new message I just finished I mean I just wrote it six days ago and I can't wait to share it with you as well as tonight I'm on the weeknights because I know their work nights as always I'll make a commitment we do not do long services if you're new to this we do not do long services for long services sake that doesn't mean we don't wait on God that doesn't mean if somebody's getting out of a wheelchair that we don't stay and celebrate that it just means that you know what I mean everybody's got to go to work it will be it will be a succinct it will be it will be meaningful it will be powerful but it won't be it won't be long for long sake so you're well within safety to give it to give us those nights I promise you I promise you to change your life if you if you give us an hour if you give us an hour each night hour in 15 minutes each night if it doesn't change your life I'll personally out of my own pocket refund whatever they charged you for tickets so whatever you paid whatever you whatever you paid whatever I don't I don't remember how they do things here so whatever whatever you paid I'll sort that out if it's not meaningful if you don't know me this is all I do for a living I travel the world and speak I've had the incredible privilege to be a mentor by a pastor with his rabbi training so all my stuff comes from that bit I also have a master's degree in clinical psychology so I am qualified to sort your head out so be careful what you say to me I can see through all that stuff you know on your way on your way out in the foyer all the way on that next wall is is our resource table if you walk out there and you can't find my resource table seek medical help okay it's taking up half the four-year out there if you look at that and you go why would you carry that around with you the answer is we make a lot of money from it and the answer the reason we do that is because we live with a conviction that we are not simply called to go to heaven when we die we do embrace that part of the story we call that good but that's the only part of the story the other part of the story is on our way there we should be saying yes every day to the infinite possibilities God has for our life to bring heaven to every place we see Hell here your children are learning today about how to care and the priority of caring for people who are less fortunate and and that's what we live for what else are we what else are we here for other to make somebody else's life better and so it's a hundred percent of what we'll make from that today will be giving as will be giving the Prophet away to orphanages in China that look after mentally handicapped kids to in hanyang one in Changsha later we will be giving two we have a rescue home in Cape Town that gets girls out of sex trafficking and so all I'm saying is before you go eat something let me put something in your hands now to change the way you look at God and it's so doing you put something in our hands that helps us feed clothe shelter and educate mentally handicapped kids get women out of sex trafficking it helps us do good things do justice in the world it helps us do do things like do things that give life and energy and dignity to other people since the last hours here we've released four brand-new ones right I'll always be writing something new because I could not cope with the thought that I had nothing new to say I would just I would just just I'd have to quit I don't know so we're so there's a lot of new stuff out there that you can avail yourself to of course if you've if this is your first time being a part of us everything's new so have at it all right so yeah go for it so this is Philippians chapter 1 Philippians chapter 1 now Philippians before I read this it requires a bit of history lesson just to get the full context Philippians is one of those letters that Paul wrote and it's known theologically it's known as the prison epistles now sometimes that just rolls off our tongue like oh yeah yeah yeah Paul wrote this while he was in jail like la dee da dee da hell oh wait a minute do we make a habit of reading letters from inmates and making doctrine out of them hold on just a second and and if I was to say hey yesterday part of my day I went and spent time with a friend of mine on death row down here at the jail before I came here the natural question would be what did he do what in the world how did he end up there so Paul is writing a letter back to these people from prison the question is why is he there let me see if I could paint a picture this is not a la dee da dee da thing Paul is chained to a wall with a dog collar he's awaiting a death sentence that would have been carried out under the authority of a Caesar named Nero Nero is interesting because when you read history Nero required every person to address him as my Lord and Savior Nero so when Paul starts his prison letters by saying grace and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ this was not simply intended to be a bullet point of doctrine this was him in Chains knowing he's gonna die shaking his fist at the oppressive Empire saying and bring it on you do not get the last word Jesus does and so Paul's in jail for that truth but the way he got there was you can if you want to read about this later there's a whole thing but if you wanna read about this later you can you could read the story in acts 21 the the way the way you got in jail was is that the short story is is the Jews in Jerusalem couldn't cope with Paul the Jews in Jerusalem didn't like his Bible interpretation Paul and and let's be fair neither would we if we were them Paul was saying things like I've had such a radical encounter with the risen Christ I don't think circumcision matters much anymore right but Leviticus says you should circumcised on the eighth day eternally yeah but the resurrection was so powerful let's give the eternal an expiration date right and they didn't like that so much Paul was like ah if you want to eat bacon whatever who cares which if you eat to the Lord you to the Lord the Jews in Jerusalem could not cope with this so here's how they handled it they forced him to come back to give an account for his preaching we know from other writings that Paul stopped in Corinth and took an offering for them because he knew they were struggling financially so he stops at Corinth on the fluent city and takes an offering to bring it to the Jews in Jerusalem and the thought was if I bless them it'll help go a long way for reconciliation and peace and hopefully they'll that I'm trying to build the Church of Jesus Christ in Europe where you can't tell 30 year-old men that they have to go through a surgical procedure to below that is counterproductive you can't tell 30 year-old men coming to Christ okay it's good you just came to Christ but we've got this small surgical there's a little man back there with a small guillotine you'll figure it out right no can't do that right right and hopefully they'll see that well the Jews couldn't cope with this right the Jews couldn't cope with this so here's how they handled it how do you to get a guy like Paul out of your hair here's what they did they turned him into the Romans and accused him of being an ambiguous figure in history called the Egyptian the Egyptian was a messiah that came around 10 to 15 years after Jesus and the way he stood against oppression of the Empire in the occupation of Rome was he started a secret revolt of 4000 secret assassins called the sicker I they'd fit in during the day and then they come out at night dressed in black and they'd slit people's throats like high-ranking government officials Roman occupiers people like that and the dead bodies there and then they'd put their little Xaro symbol there right and it's like little like that we take we take responsibility for this and of course the next day when the light comes out and everybody sees the dead body and there's no such thing as CSI Jerusalem that's like well there that right and so and so the Egyptian was this guy wreaking havoc on the Roman occupation so what they did is they turned Paul in to the Romans and said he's the Egyptian you've been looking for if you want to read the whole story you read about in acts 21 when the Roman the chief of police for Rome says are you not the Egyptian who rounded up a secret a secret revolt of 4000 secret assassins Paul's like ah no I'm a Roman citizen you anyway so Paul ends up in jail under the authority of a man named Felix then Felix gets replaced by a man named Festus highly unfortunate name Festus says look I don't think he's the Egyptian but Paul sees the corruption and Paul appeals to Rome which was his right as a Roman citizen so Paul ends up in jail as an enemy of the state in Rome awaiting the death penalty it gets worse they didn't feed you if you were an enemy of the state in Rome you had to depend on your friends and family to feed you here's the problem Paul's not from Rome so who's gonna do this evidently at the time of writing out of all the churches Paul started the church at philippi was the only church to send a guy named a Pafford itís to feed and clothe Paul give him blankets things like this at by the way at great risk to himself because if Paul's an enemy of this state and he's gonna be put to death and you're the only guy showing up to help him it would stand to reason that you might be an enemy of the state as well and so Paul is writing this letter back to them to thank them for their generosity and the fact that he's alive so if you missed any of that just here we go he's chained to a wall with a dog collar the the entire Romans sewer is going between the jail he is gonna be put to death we know that this happens by a sea by a Caesar named Nero who forced people to call him Lord and Savior the interesting thing is is the way Nero put people to death you could read about this in history he would take a wooden stake and he would shove it up your rectum and then he would cover you in tar and set you on fire to keep his backyard alight so if there's ever any thought in your mind that the world's getting worse it's not okay this it's not so so let's just say this this is a very bad day Paul's having a bad day seven a bad week bad few years actually and it was all because his theology was too progressive now we've evolved past it we would never be hateful to somebody because we disagree with them about the Bible that would be stupid right we would never we've never seen that or anything like that we've we've evolved are you not catching my sarcasm there right all right this was this was like this times times 5 now it's in that context that we read this this is Philippians chapter 1 he's writing back to these people yes and I will rejoice that's an odd sentence in it given in fact these chained to a wolf for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus this will turn out for my deliverance if you're a note-taker that's the sentence we want to look at this will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed but with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain now this will turn out my deliverance here's the problem it didn't in 57 a date he gets killed by the Caesar in Rome under the capital punishment of the Roman death penalty so if Paul's being prophetic here and going I have enough faith to get out of this situation he missed it he missed it and this is where I want to stop and would be very careful and I want to speak slowly because this is going to be an encouragement to you sometimes in Christianity it can be subtly inferred that if you just had enough faith your child wouldn't be sick if you just had enough faith your marriage wouldn't have some stress if you just had enough faith that client wouldn't leave you if you just had enough faith you could pray that problematic adult child of yours back to righteousness if you just had enough faith you wouldn't be going through what you're going through and there's in listen that's nothing new there's a theological word for that if you're a note-taker is a very important word you never want to forget this word it has a Latin root the Latin root is bola mus crap from us okay if you want the translation with that you can see these guys all right you listen this is the idea great faith is not evinced by being having enough faith to get out of a bad situation great faith is when people go through anything and they're able to keep their head up their shoulders back their hands clean their heart pure their tastes sweet and they go for those people are inspiring so here's the question when a first century rabbi said this will turn out for my deliverance what was he talking about let's look in to some of that by looking at the context next slide so Paul's in prison Romans seen as an enemy of the state due to one false accusation and one true one the Philippians were the only church to reach out and send someone to feed and resource him and he's awaiting a trial that would bring execution we talked about that next one Paul lived in a day where the world believes Caesar is Lord they ruled that way with military might that was their evangelism strategy we come in with an army you either convert and say Caesar is Lord or we kill you it's very effective Christians were social justice juggernauts who were standing against the Empire and the lordship of Caesar so poles in this situation he wait a minute huh this will turn out for my deliverance what is he talking about well Paul is a first century rabbi training by Gamaliel and he he is directly quoting specific scriptures from the wisdom and the poetry books so in the Old Testament there was five wisdom and poetry books these are poems plays sayings things like this and the books are job Psalms proverbs Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon this is a direct quote from the book of Job the book of Job is a story about a guy that loses everything and when he loses everything he has three friends that come around and they're experts and what they would do if they were him how many of us have somebody like that right but you don't hear from them for a year but they hear you're in trouble and then they show up right and then they're like you know what if I were you I would do this and if I were you I would do this and there's so many opinions from people who aren't vested at all with any consequence of whatever they're saying right and job sort of takes it until about joke thirteen one of the friends suggests that job did something evil and essentially he said maybe you're going through this because you did something bad and God is paying you back and it's at that point that Jobos is back and here's what he says in job 13 though he slay me I will hope in him yet I'll argue my ways to his face in other words if God lets me live if God kills me that is God's business and it is none of mine if God kills me that will not wait for my faith in him one bit because that is God's business but it isn't because of something I did if God kills me I'll go stand in his presence and argue my ways to his face now watch watch the next sentence this will turn out this will be my deliverance that the godless shall not come before him so in the book of Job the phrase this will turn out for my deliverance has nothing to do with having enough faith to getting out of the situation it has everything to do with keeping your hands clean and your heart pure in the middle of whatever situation for this will turn out for my deliverance the other place that's quoted from the from the wisdom literature has its roots in a history story from the book of Samuel about a guy named David you guys are pretty familiar with this she is David kills Goliath here's the basics of the story David kills Goliath gets very popular the the King looks to kill him David becomes a fugitive from the king and of course if you're a fugitive from the king you're also a fugitive from all the Kings friends what we find with the story is that when it comes to hand-to-hand combat David is like really awesome like he's a bad dude he's like Jack Bauer on speed right he's like bears no problem Wow right lions right big giant Goliath foreign warriors no trouble at all David is an amazing hand to hand combat artists but what you also find is that he's terrible at hiding everywhere he goes people knows where he is he he ends up in a cave at agile 'm and 4 it says 400 people were waiting for him there which leads me to this observation as good as you are a 10 in combat when you when you flee to a cave and there's 400 people that already know where you are when it comes to hiding frankly mate you suck right right and so he ends up in an encounter with this guy named a Kish the king of Gath and he realizes this an ally of Saul he's terrified and he acts insane to save his life watch what it says next life in the service of a Koosh they didn't is this not David the king of the land did they not sing to one another him and dances and saw struck down his thousands and David tens thousands get keep going and so David took these words to heart and was much afraid of a Koosh the king of Gath so he changed his behavior if you're a note taker that's the sentence he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and he made marks than the doors of the gate and let spit run down his beard he's that insane to save his life it's actually a great survival technique I have a cousin who spent more time in jail than he's not been in jail he's a bad dude like he's like he's a collector for like the crystal meth people or something I mean anyway like III enjoy having one cousin like this because if anybody ever messes with me so I was talking to him once and I said I said bro if I ever get arrested how would I survive it yeah cuz I'm like fragile you know like in jail all my skills are sort of they don't matter you know and he said oh and he lit up eyes got crazy-looking he said oh this is how you survive in jail Shane you just walk in and act crazy he said I'm telling you he said walk in say nothing to nobody the first person who speaks to you just punch him right in the face try to bite his ear I'll start scratching your face and go oh yeah bring it he said they'll leave you alone they'll think you're crazy I said I'll just I just won't get arrested that'll be that sounds nice right it says it says he changed his behavior but but in Hebrew it says something else let me show you the Hebrew this is what this is what it says in Hebrew the word is Tamil which is taste everywhere else taste it literally says he changed his taste now the translator does a good job here this is a metaphor we would use it today if somebody is behaving in a way that is inappropriate for the context we would say they're acting in poor taste oh is that wrong not really wrong but for the context that's poor taste that's that's just bad taste so the metaphor of taste to behavior has been around for a long time the writer here said that David got afraid and he changed his taste he started acting nuts scratching his face letting spit come down his beard you know crazy and so he flees to a cave where 400 people already know where he is now what do you do in that kind of stress if you're trying to hide and 400 people know where you are and they're gonna later write a book about it you gotta know you're stuffed he knows where you are and what do you do with that kind of stress well evidently you write a poem so David writes this poem this song about how his heart needs to move and here's the poem the poem has been recorded in the book of songs this is the poem I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth my soul makes this boast in the Lord let the humble hear and be glad keep going oh magnify yeah oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together I sought the Lord and he answered me and what did he do he delivered me not from the situation but from my fear something happened in my heart my fear left those who looked at him their radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles keep going and the angel of the lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers him oh what taste and see that the Lord is good so in the wisdom poetry and in the wisdom literature this will turn out for my deliverance had nothing to do with having enough faith to get out of the situation it had everything to do with keeping your hands clean your heart pure and your taste sweet in the middle of whatever circumstances you are going through Paul is chained to a wall awaiting certain execution and he goes huh-uh through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus this will turn out for my deliverance now let's talk about what that means and what that doesn't mean next slide so Paul is not saying that he'll get out of prison he does it he's not saying that he said that his sufferings gonna end it does it he's not saying that he's going to avoid death he doesn't he is saying that no matter how bad this situation gets my hands will be clean my heart will be pure my taste will be sweet this will turn out for my deliverance if I die my eager and earnest hope is that Christ will be honored in my body whether by life or by death for me to live I'll live like Christ live but to die that'll be gained oh if God kills me that is his business but I'll argue my ways to his face I will get through this and if I die in this I will stand in the presence of God knowing that I never lost the plot I never did know this this is a resolute decision by a guy in great pain saying this will not beat me I am still here this is this is that let's be let's be very specific nextslide no matter how difficult this it's I will enter into a way of thinking that I'll regret like how many of us we go through some great stress and we get through that great stress and then two years later we look back here we go what was I thinking Paul's like no no I don't want to do that I'd rather I'd rather keep my hands clean my heart pure my tastes sweet I want to I want to do this thing right no matter how this turns out I'll keep my waist clean before God no matter how big the stress gets I'll stay focused on God and keep my life straight no matter what I'll praise God this is gonna come out of my mouth this is I'm not changing my taste for the Emperor I'm not doing it I'm not changing my taste for the Caesar I'm not doing it this if my message is Caesar doesn't get the last word Jesus does my life had better show it uh-uh no no no no Caesar doesn't get the last word in this Jesus does this will turn out for my deliverance which leads me to this question how do we miss this how can we miss our deliverance and I think three things can put us in a situation that let us miss our deliverance I think we miss it by generalizing the particular like we miss when we get caught up in stressful situations we get we can tend to generalize the particular and if we generalize the particular we we make matters worse we can miss hands clean heart pure taste sweet here's what generalizing the particular is generalized particular is taking one specific situation and then convincing yourself that all other situations from here on out are gonna be like that I was a part of a group of people that were controlling so all churches must be controlling and manipulative oh oh oh my husband cheated so I guess all men cheat oh my wife my wife abandoned so I guess all women are that way Oh or you you go out and you invite someone to church you say you know what we have a great church full of it you'd seem like the type of person that we would love to have around there it would won't you come to church with me and they say oh no way oh no way I hate church like I can't stand it Church hurts people you go Church hurts people what are you talking about the church down the road feeds 1,500 people a week they're getting girls out of sex trafficking in Burma what are you talking people help people oh no I don't mean them I mean there was this one lady I went to church once and there's this lady on the third row and she started a rumor about me people believed it hurt real bad I just can't I just can't do that wait a minute so you went into one church at one point at one time and at one lady did something and you're gonna generalize that to everybody it's generalizing the particular when we generalize the particular we can tend to do the second thing which is freeze the present when we freeze the present and we become convinced that tomorrow is simply going to be a repeat of yesterday that's called despair that nothing no new possibilities are available in the resurrected Christ this is this does this doesn't work we for in its and it is in all of us our default button is to tend to freeze the present look even if we get a bad enough cold you get a bad enough cold or flu four days into it we start thinking I'll never breathe again of course you know you're eventually gonna get over that or with something you know we all would remember our first breakup right you know you're 14 or something and you feel in love every time the wind blows you know and I remember my first breakup I did of course it was mutual of course right and gut-wrenching I thought I thought oh I'll never find anybody you know I was 14 gut hurting crying my dad you know so full of compassion saw me crying over a girl he thought that was stupid he's like you crying over a girl I was like yes I loved her dad yeah he handed me a small potted plant and he said if you're gonna cry over a girl at least cry in the plant so your tears will matter I've got issues we think we feel that Hardacre we think I'll never not feel this it's not true you go through some horrendous divorce and you sitting there in despair you think the next day's just gonna be the same the same the same it didn't at some point though you realize you wake up one morning and there's new possibilities and something comes to live alive in you get but when we generalize the particular and freeze the present we run the risk of losing the plot and we make things so much worse we get our hands dirty our heart gets all jaded our taste changes we get we get convoluted we get cynical right and that's not my deliverance my deliverance and Paul's saying no no no no I'm chained to a wall I'm gonna die for this I'm telling you but this will be my deliverance my hands will be clean my heart will be pure my taste will stay sweet this will turn out for my deliverance and what does this have to do with us I think this has an individual application which in case you've missed it up and talking about for 15 minutes that note that the individual application is is no matter what you go through if you keep your head up your shoulders back your hands clean your heart pure your taste sweet that is your deliverance and think about this is just true what's more inspiring people who just have everything handed to them you know people who show up and go life is awesome right like or or like look nobody in this room no person no person in this room would say this you know what when I think about my past pretty much nailed it right right no no and if that's you we don't want to know you right like stay away from me right inspiring people are people who whose attitudes and demeanors in tone every think about people who are experiencing some great injustice or great suffering but their hands are clean the heart is pure their taste is sweet those people are moving this will turn out for my deliverance so there's a individual application but I think there's also a systemic application systemic just means all of us I think it's an application for what it means to be a church watch Paul's sentence just before this next slide through your prayers and God's provision of the spirit of Jesus through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus this will turn out for my deliverance what's interesting to me is Paul doesn't say you know what I'm in a mess here but God's giving me extra grace and because of that extra vision of the Spirit of Jesus this will be my deliverance he does say that B says something extra he says through your prayers I think this has a lot to teach us about togetherness about being the church about what we I think I mean I will speak slowly here I think we run the risk as a church of copping out of our responsibility to be vested in other people's deliverance if we feel like we can't solve the problem so we feel the pressure of the pain and we go I literally have no solution here so instead when we have no solution instead of engaging it and just being present in it we tend to retreat from it and absorb ourself of that responsibility and that's damaging to the church it's not what the church is all about we cop out on all kinds of things if we can't fix it and what what would happen if we absolved our if we absolved ourselves from the pressure of fixing all the problems and just said yes to Jesus is call for us to be present with people in it first thing Jesus said first thing God said wasn't good was loneliness was loneliness and so sometimes well what if we're not called to fix it what if we're just called to be present in it to let them know you're not alone you're not by yourself you're not by yourself I can't solve this but you are not by yourself like we do there's like look I'm 42 and I'm single and I like it okay I I do I like my life I I travel the world I've slept in my own bed 25 days I'm hardly lonely I have friends everywhere okay I like it but you know what some single people find great pain in it like they they're suffering in it they really they're stressed about it and this is very real and then we cop out because we can't solve it we copped out we go oh oh don't worry sweetie you're not alone you've got Jesus and I'm telling you she's thinking you flippin weirdo what are you talking about Jesus doesn't cuddle what are you talking about and so in because we can't fix it we just cop out with all you need is God and listen to me that is not the message of Scripture or your experience the message of Scripture and your experience is yes you need extra grace from God but you also need people doing it with you knowing that you are not alone so what does this teach us next slide let's say this way what does this teach us about community together nests identifying with pain instead of having to solve all the problems what if we just made a commitment to pay attention and not let people suffer alone what what about accountability like like I can't solve your problem but you know what I am vested in your deliverance it's so when I when I hear you generalize the particular I'm gonna challenge you on that when I hear you freezing the present I'm gonna challenge your thought on that because it's not because I don't love you it's cuz I do I want you to know you're not alone I want you to get through this with clean hands pure heart and sweet taste which leads me to a story about Richard Warren Richard Wurman bran is one of my heroes I got the opportunity to meet Richard worm Ram persley 21 years ago if you don't know who Richard worm bran is he's the father of the church in Romania he was tortured on a regular basis by the Romanian authorities fighting for religious freedom in Romania I got to meet him obviously once religious freedom came to Romania because of him ironically I've gotten to speak in the in the largest Pentecostal church in Romania which is a place that he had a hand in starting myself and another ACC pastor named Matt Heinz and so we we've been going there on alternate schedules on a regular basis it's very moving very very moving they when I met Richard worm brand he was in a wheelchair and his feet were up his feet were size 22 even though they were meant to be size 10 the reason is is because part of his torture was they would lock his feet down in stocks and they would take canes and beat his feet asking him to deny Jesus they would put him in a room with no windows and deprive him of knowing what time it is when I was talking to him he was saying he was that you can't believe what that does to your psyche when you don't know if it's day or night just little things like that they would tell him you may as well give up we've already crushed the church there's nobody left it's just you know and you don't know if that stuff's true and so they'd come in and and and and they beat him and I won this sort of drawing where I could sit with a small group of people with them and it was amazing inspirational experience and I'll remember two specific questions we asked him and one was how did you handle your torturers when they came in and beat you what did you do this was so moving he said well that's easy because we handled it the same way he said they would do things like beat my feet they would strip my wife naked and dipper in ice water she'd shiver and they'd be asking me to deny Jesus and it was just all part of the the torture he said but when the torture was leaving we always responded the same way and that was this we love you jesus loves you we forgive you Jesus forgives you go home tonight knowing there's nothing between you and God that man is redeemed that's a whole lot different then I'm gonna call out fire from heaven and destroy you now right doesn't work then they come in and torture him again I love you jesus loves you I forgive you Jesus forgives you go home tonight knowing there's nothing between you and God that's a man with pure heart clean hands great taste and he said what would happen is is when you showed them kindness on a regular basis sometimes these guys would get saved they give the heart of Jesus because they'd never felt nothing like that before a unconditional love it's almost like that's compelling or something and they give their Jesus a he said it so the second question was was how did you get through it yourself and I expected him to say when you're in the middle of something like that God gives you a special unction of the grace of the Spirit of God and it gets you through it that's why I spent him saying and he did say that just like Paul did but he but you know what he also said he said what actually got me through probably more than that was sometimes these saved torturers I used to he said I used to love it when the saved torturers were on the docket because they come in I'd look and I know they were the ones that gave their heart to Christ and then they would they would hit the wall and stuff like that night scream it was big acting but no I wasn't getting hit and he said what they would do at great risk to their life is they would smuggle in letters from the church on the outside and those letters would say things like Richard you're in here you're in there we're out here but we are in this together this is working revivals breaking out keep going keep going keep going and it was that sense that I was not alone that got me through all of that and birth to church in Romania maybe we don't need to solve it maybe we just need to clearly tell people you are not alone you are not alone we are vested in your deliverance let's say this way what does this teach us about communion next slide identifying with the grace of Christ once we've experienced grace we never let people suffer alone that God isn't just putting you back together he's repairing the whole world now great sermons are not meant to be agreed with or disagreed with those are declarations a sermon if you say if you come up to me afterwards a I love that why because I agree with you miss the point if you say I hate that why because I disagree with you you also missed the point great sermons are not meant to be agreed with or disagree with great sermons are meant to be wrestled with they're meant to be questioned if the value of a sermon can be evaluated in the amount of time it took to deliver it it was not a good sermon great great sermons cause conversations over coffee great sermons start conversations amongst friends that say what are we gonna do about this it's one thing to believe something it's a whole nother thing to out work it what are we gonna do how does this has this change everything it's not just something that happened it's something that's happened that's gonna change the way we see every other happening from here on out that's great sermon and so I want to give us some questions that as you're meeting in life groups with your journals and stuff when you start talking about what God is doing in your life we should discuss these things we should question certain things let's talk about this next life what has happened to us that we need to resolve will turn out for our deliverance you guys are really big on journaling here and I think it's awesome so if you're a note-taker here's what you do I want you to write a blank line and then write the sentence will turn out for my deliverance and then fill in the blank what needs to what do you need to know will turn out for your deliverance hey this medical test stopped waiting on you no waiting on a medical test is way worse than getting it it's like Wade this hey if it's positive it's positive if it's negative its negative but this will turn out for my deliverance one way or the other hands clean heart pure tastes sweet do that hey hey this situation with my adult kid I can't control it but this will turn out from hey this meeting tomorrow with this client and it's an important client I hope he doesn't leave my business but I've done everything I can do in the natural this will turn out for my deliverance no matter what my hands will stay clean my heart will stay pure my taste will stay sweet this will turn out for my deliverance we can say it this way can we resolve to have clean hands pure heart and great taste is there anywhere we're tempted right now to lose the plot is there anywhere that that within your life group you could say you know what I just got to be honest I was close to losing the club I don't want to do that you guys let's pray together let's bring this to the foot of the cross I know I don't expect you to solve this but I want you to hold me accountable for keeping my hands clean my heart pure my taste sweet let's say this way next slide is there any place where we froze them to present is there any place where we believe tomorrow will simply be a repeat of yesterday and I would just simply say there's a bigger truth in that and that trees his resurrection new possibilities birthing for bursting forth in the middle of this one is there any place where we've generalized the particular I think maybe the biggest application for today is this is do you need prayer and I don't mean I don't mean in the okay I'll remember you in my prayers man keep that stuff that's I'm talking about I'm running low on hope and you look like you have a lot of hope can I borrow some of your hope sense of the word prayer people aren't mind reader's they can't know what's going on part of being a community systemically is being brave enough to walk up to somebody and go you know what before I leave today would you pray for me and I don't mean to say a trite prayer I mean I am running pretty low on Hope here and you look like you have a lot of it can I borrow some of yours and they'll let you they will and if they won't steal it you're not alone we're in this thing together let's stay this way Nick next slide this will turn out for my deliverance where do we need to say that until we feel it where do we need to confess that until we feel it one of the things I like about the Pentecostal tradition is that we like positive confession and it's good because it works starts changing your mind and so as an altar response this morning I want to do a couple things but the first one is I want us to do some confessing all right so I want to give us a positive confession and here's what we're gonna do my prayer is we're gonna do we're gonna do it three times and I hope it moves from your head then to your heart then into your gut you get it down deep into your emotions right the first confession is this this will turn out for my deliverance so with some go Maroons gusto let's try that together ready go this will turn out for my deliverance now let's move that from our head to our heart ready go this will turn out for my deliverance and now down into your gut go this will turn out for my deliverance let's let's say this together my hands will stay clean go my hands will stay clean now let's move that down into our heart ready go my hands will stay clean and then into our stomach my hands will stay clean and the next one is this my heart will stay pure go my heart will stay pure now let's move it down into our heart my heart will stay pure now down into the stomach my heart will stay pure let's remind our self again one last time this will turn out for my deliverance let's say that again this will turn out for my deliverance may you my brothers and sisters go through whatever it is with your head up your shoulders back your hands clean your heart pure and your taste sweet let the praise always be on your lips this will turn out for your deliverance let me say a prayer for you Lord we love you we honor you and all around this room if you could make a container of hope and just let this place be a dwelling place for your name the compassionate gracious slow to anger abounding love God and let that hope settle over us would you revive us with a sense of infinite possibilities again let the voices of the infinite possibilities come alive inside of us again tomorrow's not a repeat of yesterday if you're here this morning and you've never made a decision to make Jesus the Lord of your life and you could no I'm talking to you if you're sort of if you just know that hearing there's something going on in the atmosphere and you could feel God tugging at your heart I never want to manipulate God I just want to cooperate with what he's doing and if God's moving you to respond I would just urge you to respond right now and and and it's nothing magical it's nothing spooky it really is nothing ritualistic or transactional it's not even about the words you say if you if you need words to say you could say something like this Lord Jesus I'm gonna make a choice today to trust your version of my life story instead the one I've been writing on myself I've been writing my own life story and and you know it it's not it's not that bad but you know what I believe that your version of my life story is better and I'm gonna trust your version of my life story it's there the one I've written for myself and I'm gonna submit myself to your way of living I'd like you to be the Lord of my life and if that's you and you'd like to do that would you just ever nobody's lookin around anyway everybody's got their head Bell you're not gonna be embarrassed would you just slip your hand in the air just to acknowledge you know that's me I'm gonna trust Jesus's version of my life story today more than my own I'm gonna submit my life to Jesus today would you just you just just slip your hand up in the air just go and do that now just go and do that now okay I see over here good good good and over there and there's two up there that's awesome yep and in anybody else yep yep so for those of you who raised your hand I want you to know that we affirm your worth before God we affirm that you're a full part of what we're doing here and what God is doing in Toowoomba and in this nation and we we celebrate with you the decision that says you know what Jesus's version of my life story is far better than the one I could ever write on my own I would encourage you to take whatever next step they give you to get involved around here to start your journey to be transformed would you look this way thank you so much for let me be a part of your life you're so kind to me I love this church I love your leadership you just very very special to my heart and I can't wait we just keep coming back until you say I'm boring you say these a shame you're boring don't come back we'll keep coming back I bless you to be people no matter what you go through hands clean heart pure tastes sweet I encourage you that this will be your deliverance if I could give you an authentic invitation back tonight it's an our service tonight it'll be full of energy come on back tonight and Monday and Tuesday come on back tonight well not what do not stay home tonight and to watch NCIS okay this is rerun season by the way Gibbs is gonna get the bad guy that's all it's gonna happen that says it just just DVR it watch it later I promise you coming back tonight it'll change your life we're gonna talk about the the the the infinite possibilities that comes from a belief in the resurrected Christ I can't wait to share that with you tonight if you can stay for the second one it'll be worth your while grace and peace everybody god bless

Channel: New Hope Church

Views: 5,643

Rating: 4.8431373 out of 5

Keywords: shane willard, pastor, new hope, church, toowoomba, preach, preaching, sermon, message

Id: 94zGG3EzhHg

Length: 46min 39sec (2799 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 17 2018