My Head is Somewhere Else | Debleaire Snell

all right and so what we're going to do now as we get ready to go into god's word i want to invite you right there in your home i know you're at home and i can't see you i can't hold you accountable but we'll encourage you to go to stand to your feet as we get ready to give uh make our almost home covenant statement and what we want to do is we want to just uh claim some things declare some things as we get ready to make our transition and so as you get ready to do that if you're right there on your phone or your device do me a favor be an electronic evangelist if you're on facebook share uh just hit that share button so that the message goes as far as it can send the youtube link to somebody via text message so that they can go ahead and join in be an electronic evangelist a digital disciple as we get ready to make our declaration statement today so right there in your home or if you're right here in the church let's say it together uh today i make my decision about eternity permanent i consciously choose the eternal over the temporary i select the narrow way and reject the broad road my body may be on earth but my mind is in heaven my loyalty is in heaven my investments are in heaven and my love is for heaven today i put those things from the past behind and i reach for those things that are ahead i refuse to quit i refuse to get tired i will not be weary defeated discouraged distracted or deceived i've got too much to lose and even more to gain my mind is made up i won't turn back i'm clothed with determination i'm closer than i've ever been thank god almighty that i'm almost home if there's somebody with you in your house give them a little fist bump let them know you're almost home glad to be home amen amen so do me a favor thanks to god as you are right there in your bibles let's go in our bibles to the book of colossians colossians chapter 3 colossians chapter 3 and we're going to begin reading together at verse number one colossians chapter 3 and we're going to begin together verse number one colossians the third chapter and we will begin our study together at verse number one i'll be reading from the new king james version of the bible colossians chapter three we're going to begin together in verse number one and this is a very critical word i think it's going to encourage us but i'm going to be honest with you it's going to challenge us uh as we get ready to to maintain or put on a heavenly disposition colossians chapter 3. we're going to begin together at verse number one when you get there just say amen the apostle paul speaking to the church says this and i'm gonna ask if my sound man will turn my monitor up just a little bit colossians chapter three and verse one the bible says if then you were raised with christ seek those things which are above where christ is sitting at the right hand of god and he says set your mind on things above not on things on the earth let me read that again he says set saints of god if y'all are home look at this set your mind on things above and not on the things on the earth for you died and your life is hidden with christ in god and when christ who is our life appears then you also will appear with him in glory therefore put to death your members which are on the earth fornication uncleanness passion evil desire covetousness and which is idolatry because of these things the wrath of god is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them but now you yourselves are put off but now you yourselves are to put off all of these anger and wrath malice and blasphemy and filthy language out of your mouth but again i want to read emphasis verse number two what the bible says set your mind on things above and not on things of this earth today saints i want to talk to you for a little while under the subject my head is somewhere else my head is somewhere else let's pray together father as we look to your word lord i want to ask for permission to join my human weakness to your divine strength father what we need is an extraordinary anointing to preach to these extraordinary times to help us to lay claim to the extraordinary promise so lord i'm praying once again that in the hearing of the word that faith would be multiplied and so lord i am praying that you would challenge us i pray that you would convict us and that you would give us direction about who it is and what it is you want us to be and what it is you want us to become so lord once again would you please hide me in the shadows of the cross that jesus alone might be seen that christ alone would be heard and at the end of our time together may jesus alone be praised we ask this in the name of him who is altogether lovely it is in the name of jesus that we pray let god's people say together amen and amen you may be seated there in your home or right here in the house of the lord again talking under the subject my head is somewhere else you know saints when evaluating people what matters most is not their physical location it's their emotional and mental location in fact a person's physical or financial or logistical activities they just reveal or reflect their mental address so that when your child comes to you and says monday i'm dropping out of school it means that they dropped out of school probably two or three months before that when your employee comes and they gives you their two-week notice it means their mind has been on somebody else's job well before you got the letter in fact young people when your boyfriend or girlfriend comes to you and says i think we should see other people it's because mentally they're already seeing somebody else in fact your ex-wife may have sent you the divorce papers last month but the fact is that her head has been out of the marriage for probably about two years in fact even when people transfer their membership in or out of the church we may read the the name on a particular day but the fact is they've made that decision well before that and the fact is that these transition moments just reveal where a person already is in fact i've seen this up close and personal in my own life uh you've heard me reference the fact that back in november my parents relocated here to the huntsville area and and i need you to know saints that when you are raising small kids there is no greater joy than to have the reinforcements or the grandparents close by in fact if you if i seem like i'm in a better mood if my spirit seems lighter if i seem less irritable it is because on saturday night the kids are at grandma's house though i have a witness and i need to be clear that that my parents are lifelong floridians but once they decided to move it was interesting watching them undergo the shift of disposition you see once they decided on a particular house it was about four months before they were actually able to move and what became clear saints is that even though they were still living in florida their minds were already here in huntsville and so for months they began letting go of their ties to the things in tallahassee even though my dad had a job in florida he was already looking for employment in huntsville even though my mom lived in florida she was looking for places to shop in huntsville even though they had a barbershop and a salon in florida they were researching salons here in huntsville in fact they would ask me to go and check on the house here in huntsville and what becomes clear is that even though they were living in another location their hearts were already in this location their zip code was 32304 but their emotional zip code was 35810 before the interest rate was locked in they had already claimed this as home before they got to closing they had already claimed this as home before they got the keys they had already claimed it as home and even though they were physically in one location their minds were already here so that when the moving truck came all it did was bring their bodies where their mind and their investments already were you see i need you to know saints that this speaks to what paul is talking about in the book of colossians that when it comes down to going to heaven how many of us know that there has to be a spiritual transition before there is a physical transition in fact he says your mind ought to be set on heavenly things right now and what i need somebody to understand is that when jesus christ comes my transition is not commencing when he comes my transition is just completed let me say it again when jesus christ comes that doesn't begins the transition it just completes the transition and i just need to know is there anybody that can testify that even though you live down here your head is already somewhere else there is somebody that has already began a mental and spiritual transition you can say like paul i'm already seated in heavenly places you can say like peter i'm a nomad looking for a city whose builder and maker is god is there anybody that stops storing up treasure on earth where thieves break in and steal and wear mock and rust dust corrupt there's can somebody that might be able to say your physical address is huntsville atlanta or orlando but your spiritual address is already in the new jerusalem and see how many of us understand you know that somebody is serious about moving when they decide to forward their mail in other words when they serious they go ahead and forward their mail to the new address in other words they're saying don't send me nothing here anymore go ahead and send it ahead to where i'm gonna end up and can i suggest saints that spiritually we need to go ahead and start forwarding our mail to our new address in other words don't send me nothing that's going to make me comfortable down here go ahead and send it ahead because just in a little while i'm going home is there anybody excited to know that this earth is not permanent but soon and very soon we're going to see the king can the church say amen and so let's go back to the book of colossians and let's unpack this a little bit further today colossians chapter three and i'm gonna pick it up again at verse number two colossians chapter two and three three and verse number two when you get to let me say amen listen to what the the apostle says to the church he says set your mind on things above and not on the things of this earth now i need you to understand saints that this text it teaches us a number of different things but the first thing it shows us beloved is that heaven will not be accidental now what you i need us to get that in the book of colossians the apostle paul is espousing some theologically heavy motifs and when you look at it on its surface the language may seem very ethereal and very heady but i need god's people to know that there are some implications that go affect our lives right now in the present and so the first thing he does is he says set your mind on things that are above and what he is doing saints is he is challenging us in the level of decision see i need you to know that the word set in the greek is the word for neo and it literally means to direct it literally means to regulate and when he says set your mind on things above he's letting us know that your minds won't just drift to heavenly things you've got to give them direction the implication is intentional choice are you hearing me saying and i need you to get that this is very critical for us to understand because f man's fallen nature is so corrupt and through access to media our portals are assailed by such concentrated wickedness that our minds will automatically never drift to heavenly things your mind will never just get heavenly through osmosis the corruption pollution and toxicity of this life has to pull us away from heavenly things see i need you to know that everything in this life tries to render heaven obsolete too far away or unattainable in other words saints you will never just wake up with a yearning for heavenly things you'll never just wake up with this insatiable desire for spiritual things you'll never just wake up and automatically your spirituality kicks in i need you to know that a heavenly disposition is not the result of accident it is the result of decision are y'all with me today thanks and i say this specifically for the benefit of the newly religious or maybe the young people who are watching today's service who are still trying to figure their way around the christian journey and the reason that's important because if you're like me when i was younger when i saw really spiritual people i thought it was because they had access to something that i didn't have access to i thought that maybe they had a nature or an appetite for things that i just did not have an appetite for and i thought that once i reached a certain age that the flesh and carnal powers would just be weakened or diluted but i've learned that anyone who is spiritual they're not spiritual because they have enhanced natures or appetite at some point they simply had to make a decision that was against their carnal nature in other words they reached that point not by chance but they got to that point by choice are you with me today saints and do i have a witness out here in this space that knows that there's just never a time where your spirituality just kicks in against your will there's not a certain age or a certain amount of years where your flesh just lets you go in fact what i'm learning is that the older i get the more entrenched my flesh tries to become in fact the more i age the more my carnal man fights against the designs of my mind in fact i need just to tell the truth that the older you get the more your flesh refuses to be moved in certain areas i used to think that the older you are the more spiritual you are but the truth is young people it's easier to be spiritual when you're young as opposed to when you get older because see the older you get the more settled you become in some things and you literally become like that dirty dish that's been in the sink three days and that stuff inside the bowl has gotten hard and when you try to move it you gonna have to scrub hard in order to get it out am i preaching to anybody today in fact i need the young people to know that being spiritual is easier now see you know how it is when you're young it's easy to forgive when you're a child in fact you know how it is that when kids get mad at each other they fight in the morning and they're best friends by nightfall but when you get a little older your flesh holds on to some stuff your flesh keeps a record of those who've done you wrong your flesh holds on to offenses in fact the truth is that even when it comes down to the vices of life it's easier to kick stuff like drinking and smoking when you're in your 20s than it is when you get in your 50s because once certain things get ingrained in your flesh you begin to develop a dependence in other words when you're young you smoke and drink to get high but when you're old you smoke and drink to feel normal y'all not here with me today you know how it is that even as kids we are not born with fears we actually learn our fears and the reason some of us are 40 and 50 and 60 and so anxious is because we've been gathering and collecting apprehensions our entire lives are y'all hearing me today and i guess what i'm saying today beloved is that the difference between an old sinner and a young center is a young center don't know no better all sinners just don't care no more in other words what happens is after you've been in the church a little while if you don't tame your flesh you'll get to a place see a new believer the reason it's hard for them is because their spirit man and their carnal man is in conflict but what happens after a while and being in church is that your spiritual man and your carnal man form a partnership in other words y'all learn how to get along y'all begin to function like roommates in other words lest you stay on your side spirit i'm gonna stay on my side and the reason some of us don't grow is because we've got harmony where there ought to be conflict but see my larger point that i want somebody to get is that there is nothing spiritual that happens by accident in other words i need you to know in the same way you won't graduate from college by accident the same way you don't grow wealth by accident the same way you don't become learned by accident it's the same way you won't fix your mind on spiritual things by accident are y'all with me today saints in fact when you look at the word to set your mind as i said it is the greek word for neo which literally means to regulate where it is your thoughts begin to settle and i guess what i'm saying saints is that if you regulate what you put inside of your body if you regulate the type of gas you put in your car if you regulate your passwords on your account so you don't get hacked then certainly you want to regulate where it is that you set your mind in other words you've got to be careful where you set your mind because where you set your mind determines where you settle okay let me say it again you know that the word settle the root of that word is actually that short word set so wherever i set my mind on is where my fears is going to settle in other words saints you can't set your mind on the evening news you can't set your mind on on the disease or all the symptoms you can't set your mind on the mortgage payment don't set your mind on the enemies that mean you harm in other words what sense does it make for us to set our minds on the problem instead of setting our minds on the solution and god is saying don't set your mind on the limitations of this world you've got to set your mind on things above because where you set it is where you're going to settle okay let me say it this way i remember like back in the day rasheed me and some of my friends we was watching that old movie speed about the bus that's going to explode if if it gets under 50 miles an hour and it's a very intense action movie where there is a build and it gets more exciting as the time goes and it got to a point in the movie where it just felt like the hero was not gonna win and so one of our friends what they did was they just decided to pause the movie and we were like what in the world are you doing they were just like man it's too scary it's just too exciting i just can't take no more and i was just like how you gonna pause the movie and not see how it's gonna end in other words they were ready to just set their minds when things were in a place of defeat but i said we can't get no peace unless we watch it all the way to the end in other words i need you to know when you set your mind on the things of this earth it's like pausing the movie where it is but how many of us know that if you read the whole script and you know how the story's going in and you know who's gonna come out on top you don't get discouraged by how it looks in the moment you don't pause right here where the bills are unpaid and the sickness is overwhelming and your enemies got the victory you've got to watch that thing all the way through to see how god is going to come through are you hearing me today saints so so so let me say it this way because i want to be clear on something when we say set your mind on things above i want to reiterate something we said the first sabbath of the month that when i set my mind on heaven that is not a call to heaven watching naval gazing idleness in other words this is not a call for me to live in a religious bubble completely detached from all of the affairs of this life in other words this is not a call for us to get to that place where we're so heavenly minded that we have no no earthly good and see i need you to understand something saints you can tell where my head is not by what i'm watching but by what my hands are doing so you see the problem is some of us say the problem with your live business is that all you do is watch for the second coming but not that that's not really the issue the problem is not that we're watching the issue is that all we're doing is watching and not working but i need you to know that you can tell where my head is not just by the posture of where i'm looking but by what my hands are doing are y'all hearing me today so go with me of your bibles if you don't mind to matthew chapter 6 and verse number 19. you can see my values in this matthew chapter 6 and verse number 19. when you get there let me say amen matthew chapter 6 and verse number 19 the bible says do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break a in and steal and so the bible says to our saints that we ought to store or lay up our treasure in heaven and where in heaven so now i'm one of those brothers that like man that don't seem practical to me i don't really understand what does that mean how do i store up treasure in heaven so go with me to proverbs 19 and verse 17. i talk about this in the book proverbs 19 and verse number 17. the bible says he who has pity on the poor lends to the lord and he will pay back what he has given are y'all catching that now remember matthew 25 and verse 40 jesus says that which you've done to the least of these you've done it also unto me so how do i store treasure in heaven in other words is there a drop-off box where angels and gabriel comes and picks up my stuff and takes it to glory no i need you to understand that the poor are god's bank account [Applause] i need you to know that the financially distressed that's god's vault and whenever i pour into them it is counted as my bank account in heaven in other words the way i store of treasure in heaven is not just by sitting here on a mountaintop looking at the sky waiting on jesus to come but the way i store up treasure in heaven is by not just pouring into my wardrobe or into my driveway or into my living room but when i feed the poor and clothe the naked and visit the in prison and show mercy to the disenfranchised i need you to know that their full belly is god's fault it is his fort knox it is his storehouse and when i pour into them it is accounted to my credit in heaven and the good news is i never grow go broke by pouring into the disenfranchised because matthew 6 says give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down shaken together and running over are y'all hearing the word of god today so go back with you if you don't mind to to to colossians chapter three and i'm gonna look at verse number three so the first thing the word is teaching us is that there is nothing that happens by accident for colossians chapter three uh verse number three so he says this for you died and your life is hidden with christ in god y'all catching his saints and he says and when christ who is our life appears then you also will appear with him in glory so the second thing this word teaches us beloved is that there comes a point where you gotta put your life out of reach it's gonna get good here in a minute so the word says he says if so there's a big if that he starts out the chapter he says if you have been raised with christ there they're gonna be some things that are to be the result of you sharing in that resurrection he says if you then have died he says your life now is hidden with christ in god and when christ who is your life appears then you will appear with him in glory now i know some of you at home may find this a little bit vague and difficult to digest but now what you've got to see is what paul is trying to address in the letter to the colossians you see one of the purposes of this epistle is to teach god's people how to maneuver through the agitations of life in other words in colossae they got a whole bunch of drama going on the first thing they have is they've got judaizers that have infiltrated the church and they're trying to get these born-again members to go under old covenant practices even though they're under a better covenant the second thing that's happening in colossae is that you've got some that have walked away from christ and they've gone back to their old life because the promises of god seem too far away but then the third thing is you've got some that are easily agitated because of what they have had to suffer for the cause of the gospel and what happens is the saints in this church get easily agitated whenever life gets too hard and so paul mountain brings this thing home it is all contingent upon the if in verse 1. he says if you have been raised with christ then guess what you have died and when he talks about the death he's talking about a death to your former life a death to your old way of living and he says if you have died then your life is hidden with christ in god now catch this he is not describing what has happened he's describing what should be happening and so he is saying that if you have been raised with christ then your life is hidden with christ in god now i need you to understand saints that when he talks about your life being hidden he's not talking about your physical life he's not talking about your heartbeat he's not talking about your pulse he's not talking about you your ability to inhale or exhale because your physical life is visible are you with me today thanks in other words when he's referring to the life he is talking about your inner world he is talking about your priorities he's talking about your values he's talking about your meditations he's talking about your peace he's talking about your joy he is talking about your identity when he talks about the life that is hidden he's talking about who you are on the inside so watch this saints he says when your life is hidden that word hidden in the greek is the word crypto by which we get the word cryptic are you still with me the word crypto does not mean concealed it means laid up or stored out of reach it's going to get good in a second it is a reference to what jesus just said in matthew chapter 6 19 where he says don't lay up for yourselves treasure on earth where thieves can steal or where moth and vermin can come in and corrupt it but you've got to store it up where it's not accessible to the things of this light so then why then does the apostles say this to the church remember these are people that are easily persuaded easily agitated colossians where he literally says you're too easily bewitched what he's trying to help them to understand is this is the reason your life is so frustrating is because your life is too accessible so when he says your life the essence of who you are your joy your peace your identity the way you've got to do this is you've got to store it out of reach where your enemies can't access it okay in other words what he's saying as long as your life is hidden or stored in glory as long as your life is not connected to earthly things it can't be accessed by earthly powers but he says when your life is centered on the things of this worth this world is accessible to all your enemies what do you mean pastor if your joy is connected to what you drive then all i gotta do is take away your car and then guess what i can take away your joy if your peace is connected to what you do for a living all i got to do is take away your position and i can confiscate your peace if your security is connected to what you have in the bank all i got to do is touch your money and i can have all of your security if your sense of identity is connected to someone's approval all they've got to do is withhold the approval and guess what they can have your identity if your confidence is connected to what you wear all i got to do is take your wardrobe and guess what i can take your confidence but when what brings me joy is heavenly things when what brings me peace are spiritual things when i get my identity when i get my hope when i get my peace when i get my strength from things that are above guess what there ain't nothing that my enemies can do to take it away cause they ain't got no access because it's stored out of their reach see i understand now louis why the old folk would say this joy that i have the world didn't give it and the world can't take it away see i need somebody who is watching to understand that if you didn't give it to me then guess what you can't take it from me you're looking at a man whose peace comes from god my joy comes from god my sense of worth comes from god my self value comes from god and because you didn't give it to me you can't take it away and because all of those things come from god they're not accessible to my enemies so guess what saints i need you to understand it doesn't matter what they withhold it doesn't matter what they withdraw it doesn't matter what they repossess it doesn't matter what they break in and steal it doesn't matter how stingy they are there is somebody that needs to let the devil know you can have the car you can have the wardrobe you can have the house but you can't have me because my life is hidden with christ in god now y'all hear me say see see i need y'all to say y'all realize the major issue with samson and delilah it wasn't that he told a secret it was because the issue with samson is he didn't even know what the source of his strength was and because he didn't know the circus horse of his strength he became accessible to his enemies y'all read judges for 14 15 and 16. whenever samson did something you realize the bible always said and the spirit of the lord came upon him so that when he killed the philistines with a jawbone of a donkey it was it wasn't because his hair grew it was because the spirit of the lord was upon him when he tore a mine in half with his hands it was because the spirit of the lord was upon him when he picked up gates by literally their pillars it was because the spirit of the lord was upon him and see the reason the spirit left when he told the secret was simply because samson had made himself too accessible to his enemies are y'all hear me today saints in other words if he had just told delilah that god is the joy and the strength of my life there wouldn't have been nothing that she could have done in order to stop him the philistines could not have come upon him but it was when he conveyed the secret that he made it too accessible to his enemies are y'all hearing me today saints let me say it this way it's funny because i remember when uh when our kids was a lot smaller uh you know how it is like whatever you have in your hands are playing with the kids are gonna always try to get a hold of that same thing and so i would always be walking around frustrated because whenever it was time for me to go with my keys the keys were somewhere in a toy box or underneath the thing uh the kids always had my cell phone and i would always get upset because when i'm trying to sit down and watch the game the remote control is somewhere in some obscure place and so they always would have my keys my phone or the remote control and i remember one day when i couldn't find something i got i got frustrated and i was like gianna when you see them are with my stuff why don't you take it from them why are you always letting them play with my keys and my phone and my remote control they got a whole room full of toys but you let them play with my keys and my phone and my remote control when when you see them with it why don't you just take it from them but then she asked me an important question she says if you don't want them to have it why do you keep leaving it where they can reach it in other words she says you ought to put it up high so even if they see it they can't reach it because they ain't tall enough to get there and i'm saying to the church you mad because they keep taking your peace they keep taking your joy they keep taking my um tranquility they keep trying to steal my peace and the question to you today is why do you keep leaving it where they can have access to it but if you lay it up in heaven if your joy is in heaven and your peace is in heaven even if they want to get it they ain't tall enough to grab it because it's stored out of their reach are y'all hearing the word today saints you gotta store it out of their reach when you make your investments in heaven can the church say amen so the word says right here in verse number five look at this so paul says therefore put to death your members which are on earth watch this fornication uncleanness passion evil desires covetousness which is idolatry because of these things the wrath of god is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you once walked when you lived in them but now you yourselves are to put off all of these anger wrath malice bless me filthy language and uh blasphemy and filthy language out of your mouth now i need you to know third thing this word teaches us is that if we gonna go home saints we gonna have to retrain our appetites now i'm glad we rejoiced a few minutes ago see see i couldn't give this point number one and number two because y'all click off and y'all go somewhere by the time i'm done with this sermon gonna be yo we we gonna be done by the time you get ready to click i'm gonna be the appeal music gonna be played now y'all hear me saints now let me just say this this is gonna be a little tough to hear for a second because the there's a principle i need you to get that both heaven and hell they are not destinations they are culminations [Applause] he said let me just say this for some i need you to understand that heaven is not a destination it is it is just a culmination in other words i need you to understand what heaven is heaven is simply the last stop on the road i'm already traveling say i need you to know what hell is hell is just the last stop on that broad road that somebody's already on since i need to know that hell is just the place where you've already forwarded your mail you know lord help me holy spirit see i need you to know that hell is not a location it's just the address where you've already forwarded your mail so that even sometimes the language we use is improper we say oh man god is going to send him to hell no god ain't sending nobody to hell no he's made provision for you to have eternal life hell is just the last stop on the road that the lost have chosen and see even for those who go to heaven i need you to know that's just the last stop in other words we get to a point where the road has run out there ain't nowhere else to go heaven is just the last stop on the journey i'm trying to reach i see and that's why paul says when my life is hidden with christ in god when christ who is my life appears guess what i appear with him in glory so that at the second coming jesus is just the moving truck that brings my body where my mind already is are y'all hear me today saints so this is why i beloved it the word says you gotta put to death look at the language saints everything that's in your earthly nature sexual immorality impurity lust greed anger slander filthy language and make sure saints you understand the purpose for he says for this reason the wrath of god is coming upon the sons of disobedience now what i need you to understand says is that paul is not giving you a list of things that is going to cause you to be lost what do you mean pastor because you realize that the list is incomplete there's a whole lot of sins that he left off of this particular list but i need you to understand that these are not things that are going to cause you to be lost these are things if they are a practice they are a reflection of the fact that you might already be lost are y'all hearing what i'm saying saints in other words these things are to let you know what streets you're on these are the road signs that let you know what direction you are heading in the reason he identifies these things is not to say these things are going to cause you to go to hell these things are the indication that you need to get off the exit are y'all hearing what i'm saying and one of the things he's saying beloved is that oh this is tough our appetites need to be retrained so so so so and and don't hear me too literally on this but like this month so as we finish the book almost home and and we've been talking about heaven in our bible class at home i've been talking to my kids specifically the last two weeks about heaven we've been learning about the new jerusalem and the details there and it's crazy we had the strangest conversation where the kids was just like well what daddy would there be pizza in heaven and i was just like well i don't think there's gonna be pizza in heaven and they were like well well will there be cartoons in heaven and i was like well i don't think they're gonna be cartoons in heaven and they were like well can i bring my nintendo to heaven and i was like no there's not going to be a nintendo in heaven and it's crazy because even though they didn't say it i could see as their minds were processing that heaven became a little less attractive because of what was not going to be permitted now stay with me saints because again i had a chance to talk to them about what it is that we're going to receive is greater than what it is we're going to be missing out on but i begin to have the conversation with myself on where i had to ask myself is there anything that has so perverted my appetite in the present that it makes heaven feel less appealing because it's not going to be permitted there so i need somebody to understand this because to the person whose appetite is not retrained heaven will be held to them the reason our appetites have to be retrained is because see you notice that we only shout on some of the promises of heaven we only shout on there's gonna be no more sickness and no more sorrow and no more pain and no more bills and no more mortgage payment and no more cancer and no more diabetes and no more of going to work and no more sickness and no more blood pressure it is amazing how we shout on there'll be no more godlessness but we don't shout on there'll be no more gossip we we shout on there'll be no more bills but but we don't shop on there'll be no more beyonce i know it's gonna get quiet out there we we shop on no more negativity but we don't shout on no more netflix i'm losing my audience i we we shot on no more insulin shots but we don't shout on no more insecure and issa ray we we we shout on no more racism but we don't shout on no more real housewives we we shout on no more cancer but we don't shout on no more call to duty we we shout on no more curse but we don't shout on no more cursing we shout on no more sadness but we don't shout on no more social media and see don't again don't mishear me because he's adventists we tend to be very behavior-centered but i think the point i need you to get in the principle is this is that if i hold any practice if i'm so attached to anything on this earth that heaven feels less appealing because it won't be there then maybe i need to evaluate how attached i've become the certain things in this life are y'all hearing what i'm saying saints see i need y'all to understand something beloved that jesus gives a very chilling kind of reminder says like when this other man comes it's going to be like it was in the days of sodom and he simply says remember lot's wife it's going to get a little tough in here but y'all remember y'all remember lot's wife where god literally says i'm gonna send angels to deliver i'm sending angels to deliver the righteous out of sodom and so they roll up on lot his wife i mean his wife and his children and their their families say listen listen the city is about to burp this joint is going down we got to get on outside of the city and he says listen when we go i don't even want you to look back but you remember these chokers are so tied to the city of sodom and the lusts and the desires of sodom that they penalty them right they're pilling around taking their time and the angel has to grab them and drag them on the outside of the city and the word simply says he told them not to look back but your girl lock's wife was so attached to the the vice and the sounds and the taste of sodom that she looked longingly upon sodom and the word says she became a pillar of salt now i need you to know that this looked back into sodom it was not a look of curiosity it wasn't i just want to see how this is going happen in other words her heart was so attached to sodom that she couldn't see herself happy outside of it and i guess what i'm saying is are we so attached to this life and its vices and its principles that heaven doesn't have the appeal that it should on us because we can't see ourselves happy outside of hbo and cinemax and our songs and our boo and if it's got that much of a hold on us then we need to do some reevaluation about what it is that we are prioritizing about what it is that is now consisting or comprising of our lives are hearing me today's saints and it's funny saints this is the good news like that was hard but this is good news see it's it's crazy we shout over no more sickness and no more sorrow no more pain and no more death and we should because see what we do is we shout over everything that brings an end to pain but we don't shout over the stuff that brings an end to sin now why should we rejoice that god is going to bring an end to sin because it is only when he makes an end to everything sinful that it guarantees an end to everything painful oh god it is only when he puts an end to everything that is sinful that there is a guarantee that there's an end to everything that is painful because you realize that if god permitted things that were sinful that heaven would simply be a reduplication of everything painful that we have right down here on the earth but i rejoice today that nahum 1 9 says that affliction shall not rise a second time and when we make the transition the reason there is no more sickness and no more saying sorrow no more pain and no more kleenex is because god is going to put it into sick sin and everything that could cause the curse to be revived are y'all hearing me today saints and what i'm saying to us today beloved is that we got to get to a place where we we gotta retrain some appetites we i mean there are some stuff like well let me let me let me not be afraid to use this word there ought to be some reformation amongst the people of god where where these lists of things where am i sowing into my impurity am i sowing into fornication am i sowing into lust am i sowing into slander am i sowing into anger am i sowing into malice or am i sowing into eternal things see it's crazy because you realize see people think that heaven see see we don't see heaven as a culmination we see it as a cure see we think the pro the reason there won't be no sin in heaven is because we can't you know that when we get to heaven god ain't taking away the power of choice the reason there won't be any more sin in heaven is because god is getting people whose appetites and minds are already there and the body is simply going to follow where the investments already are see i love how dr rupert bushner he talks about how you know the reason god can't let thieves into heaven is somebody gonna break into your house and steal your golden crown and just be wearing it inside this head walking down the golden street y'all hear what i'm saying but the reason there won't be any more things that are painful is because god is not permitting anything else that is sinful and what i'm saying to us beloved i'm not saying see because y'all says yo y'all get all twit don't go home pass it shut down netflix no that's not what i'm saying i mean you know where the spirit is leading be obedient but what i'm talking about is our attachment what i'm talking about is have i become conformed and shaping in the image of the things of earth or to the point where i'm losing the imprint or the impress of god in my life where where i mean you know amy i i i can liken it maybe to this like i remember when i first became adventist you know we have this wonderful tradition of substituting meat food and how many of us know you got to retrain oh yeah oh y'all second generation y'all but maybe when you first taste some chocolates and you've been eating pork chops that's what it tastes like a tire do i have a witness in here i mean that that's i mean there is some adjustments [Applause] but you have to retrain because there's a time where i didn't have an appetite for certain things but because my appetites have been retrained i can't go without some tofu because i have a witness in this thing our appetites need to be retrained and it's funny because paul says he says literally put to death this is not he says put to death everything that's in your earthly nature he says put it to death now again again he's not talking about masochism he's not talking about cutting off members and plucking out eyes and all that kind of stuff but what he's literally talking about is the fact that there's a civil war on the inside of us anybody know what i'm talking about you wake up every day your spiritual man that that colonel man that carnal woman said remind you and some i'm still here still here but literally the word says you got to put to death certain things that that word in the greek death is is the word necro and it's crazy because it doesn't literally mean to murder or assassinate it means to render impotent it means to weaken and so the only way beloved that i can build my spiritual man while while killing or weakening my my carnal man is i've gotta decide even though i'm one person what the diet is gonna be so that my mind is my life is filled with the word the songs of zion the word of god is feeding one while simultaneously starving the other and what i'm saying to us beloved see the reason we have see let me uh see this is why spiritual life looks like this one step forward three steps back you know what that is is because we create our own conflict because we try to feed the spiritual man and the colonel man at the same time in other words we create the civil war we entrench both sides and i need us to understand that it's not gonna really work because see the reason the enemy wants you to be one step forward two steps back two steps forward three steps back the reason he wants to keep you in that cycle is because you'll only stay in that cycle so long eventually you'll get tired of the back and forth the up and down and before you know it you'll quit and god is saying that somebody you just got to come to a place because see the back and forth is going to weary you that's why he doesn't say tolerate it your early nature he doesn't say pacify your earthly nature he says you gotta kill it because if you don't kill it it's going to kill you i know this is this tough word today saints but god is calling us to a place where we make it up in our minds and say okay i don't want to just focus on a location i need i'm closing now you can play something i'm you what i'm focusing on is having a shift in my disposition i'm i'm i'm asking god to retrain my appetite i'm wanting to get to a place where my focus and my concentration is not so much on the things of this earth but my mind is set on the things above i want to get to a place where where my inner person who i am who i am in essence is not accessible to men but i want to lay it up i want to store it outside of man's reach and what i'm saying is beloved listen listen i don't want you to focus so much on on on behavior here i need you to focus on becoming i need you to focus on your disposition who you are because who you are is just simply going to be revealed in how you behave and that's why the call for somebody today is not just say throw away this throw away that and discard the other that that's going that's going to be the inevitable result but what i'm saying is what the focus has to be is a change of heart a change of mind because if you change the behavior without changing your mind guess what you're just going to pick up the behavior in a week or two or three or four but you got to let god change your mind you got to set your mind on things above and not on the things of this earth young brother young sister older brother older sister if there is anything any practice that when you think about heaven and you say man that ain't going to be there i'm going to miss that you need to rethink you need to look at how much value is attached there if heaven seems like it's knocked down a notch in your mind because this ain't gonna be there that are gonna be there you you we gotta evaluate we need to reevaluate because so a person that does not have retrained appetites heaven will be hell we gotta start all over again you see this thing says i don't know if we realize that it's so easy to become ensnared in this life it's so easy to become entangled in this life it is so very easy to just get caught up to the point where you don't even realize how deep you are in and how far you have gone and before you know it you've gone further than you ever said you go you stayed longer than you said you would stay and you're more ensnared to a point where freedom just feels way too far away and i need you to understand that even though we tend to kind of focus on you know the coming of persecution and the stuff that's going to happen at the end but i need us to understand that like you know the devil like you know he he doesn't always just attack us with fiery trials sometimes it is the stuff that we come into easy that is the most dangerous thing it's crazy i remember uh we talked about this over the holidays i remember you know for our family joined church we would uh uh family gatherings we would we would eat and we would cook uh live crabs and i remember you know my aunts they would go and they would put a big pot of water on the stove and it would be boiling i don't know if you know some of us may not relate but if you ever seen live crabs and and you get them to that point where they can feel the steam and the heat coming off that water they're gonna crawl back up in that barrel i mean they're gonna fight they're gonna crawl all on top of each other like even if they pour down and they hit that hot water some of them are gonna try to jump out of the pot and it's crazy if they get down on the floor you're gonna have a hard time getting them back in and it's crazy because one of the mistakes we made is we tried to put them in boiling hot water but then we learned something that they gonna fight hot water they gonna resist it because the threat is too obvious so what we said is we're not gonna boil the water we're not gonna let them feel the steam we're just gonna put some lukewarm water on the stove and guess what they just went in the lukewarm water voluntarily they didn't even fight against what was lukewarm they didn't push against what was lukewarm they just got right down into lukewarm without any struggle at all and it's crazy because even when we tried to put the top on lukewarm water they little claws they didn't try to crawl out because the water was comfortable and you know what we did say we didn't turn it up from zero to broiling just like that we just turned it up a little bit at a time from two to three to four and and guess what there ain't no protests there ain't no fight because they're adjusting to the temperature of the water and by the time it reaches broiling they ain't got no fight left in them and i need us to understand saints we're fearing fiery persecution but maybe what the laodicean church ought to be fearing the most is the lukewarm comforts of this life i don't see no threat in the movie theater or with the video game cartridge or the cd or in the partner that you're entertaining it's cause the devil he says i'm just gonna make it comfortable for you and i'm just gonna turn it up a little bit at a time and a little bit at a time and you're not going to even realize it because you're adjusting to it you get comfortable in it you settling there and by the time you realize it's as the old evangelist will say it's gonna be everlasting too late [Music] it'd be much easier for me to just preach heaven and joy and clouds and hearts and and all the easy stuff but god needed to make somebody uncomfortable today somebody needs to rethink how you're living somebody needs to re-evaluate what you're prioritizing you need to reevaluate where your investments are and if there is anything that won't transition from earth to glory that you just feel too attached to almost like lot's wife almost so far i don't even want to go where salvation is intimidating to me because i'm so attached to that there needs to be a loosing there needs to be a releasing there needs to be a turning around you need to be making it up in your mind today to say lord i need you to help me to set my mind on things above so today if you're hearing the word of god and you feel the spirit of god moving upon your heart there is somebody today as you as you listen to what paul is talking about and lust and impurity and fornication all that stuff again see don't worry about that stuff there is an answer to all sin problems but those things are not necessarily the things that are going to cause you to be lost those things that god is pointing out those things are the indications that you're on the wrong road and soon and very soon there ain't gonna be no more exits for you to get off of and so today my brother if you're hearing the voice of god my sister spirit of god is speaking to you right now you need to make it up in your mind to say we are almost home i've got too much to lose and i've got even more to gain and i need you to understand that again heaven again it's not a destination it's a culmination it's just the last stop on the road you're already heading but i need you to know that there's a bible word called repent it seems like a fancy word but all it means is to turn around all you got to do is get on a different road i need you to know that salvation has been made available to all who simply believe upon him so today you want to make it up in your mind and say i want to be born again i i want to experience salvation i want to get on that road where the last stop on that road is heaven the last road is glory the last road is eternal life that's my exit and if that's you today you want to make it up in your mind right now i want you to email me at prayer at bells first sdachurch.com prayer at firstsdachurch.com or maybe you're on youtube or maybe you're in facebook and you see a link coming up in the comments that says type form you can click on that link right now and and make known your decision to be baptized to be rededicated to begin studying the word of god so that you can get on that narrow road that culminates in eternal life so right now you're emailing us a prayer don't say tomorrow don't say later see i need to know when you say later or see later it's just cold for never later is just cold for never and satan just wants to make you a little bit more comfortable and he's going to keep turning up the temperature until it's everlasting too late we are almost home but you got to make the decision today to set your mind to set your mind on things above to set your mind on things above so right now i'm going to get ready to pray but before i pray is there anybody who you've already always believed you've been in church but but you're making up some decisions you're saying my flesh and my spiritual man they didn't got too comfortable with each other we roommates i let him stay on his side i stayed on my side now i'm i'm going to start the fight back up i'm going to create the tension again there's somebody who is too easily agitated and god has said this because your joy is connected to things that can be stolen and repossessed and withdrawn and withheld god is saying to somebody you got to retrain your appetite god is saying i made the provision for you to be saved but your appetites are saying that that maybe heaven doesn't have the appeal that it should in your life so yeah there should be some revival there should be some reformation sometimes we got to be made uncomfortable so that we can receive our eternal comfort right now we're praying father we thank you so much for your word your word is a lamp into our feet and just a light unto our pathway father i ask in a very special way that you would do some things for all of us jesus would you help us to realize that a heavenly disposition is not an accident we got to make a choice to set to regulate our minds to fix our minds on eternal things help us to stop being to not be so easily agitated because our inner world is attached to things that can be withheld or repossessed or taken away where thieves can break in and steal but help us to store it out of sight where they can't reach it any longer help us to put our hold hope and our whole focus upon you dear god lord i pray today dear god that that you would do a work of helping us to retrain our appetites i pray that you would do something new on the inside of us so that we have an appetite for the things that are spiritual and a greater disdain hey oh lord help us to develop a disgust for the things that are coming help us to retrain the appetites help our eyes to be more easily offended help our ears to have a greater sensitivity lord help me to not be able to digest certain conversation any longer help me lord to to get to a place where certain things don't have the same appeal that they used to have helped me to put to death the things of this world so i can be raised with you when you do come and lord this is not something that is just being preached to the people lord this is the conviction that you started on with me let the retraining begin with the shepherd and lord may it be revealed and manifested in the sheep so lord thank you for your word would you bless us and keep us help us to be obedient until the day you come we prayed in jesus name let god's people say together amen

Channel: First Seventh-day Adventist Church

Views: 22,639

Rating: 4.9376621 out of 5

Keywords: sda, church, sda sermons 2020, fcsda, prayer, first sda church huntsville, first sda church huntsville alabama live, first sda church huntsville youtube, first sda church huntsville, sda sermons, snell, first sda church huntsville al live stream, sermons by great preachers

Id: FQ9JMDuOm2o

Length: 68min 14sec (4094 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 30 2021