POA Wednesday - Recover

hey poa family i am super excited to be sharing with you tonight the word of the lord and i know from wherever you're watching this as you watch that god is going to open your mind to some things he's going to encourage you with some things and refresh your spirit soul and body i'm super excited to be able to share the word of the lord tonight we do want to remember september the 26th is all nation sunday that sunday we will be receiving our missions offering that's such a wonderful sunday in which we give and then across the world our giving goes and shares the good news of jesus christ to people who may not have had the fortunate uh message that we've heard the blessing to hear the news that we've heard and that they are able to receive through our giving and we're so blessed to be able to share the good news through our giving that sunday pastor jerry dean is going to be ministering to us in our 9 a.m service and in our 11 a.m service so be in prayer on that pray that god will give us favor that day and i'm looking forward to that day and the opportunity to give sacrificially of our finances to the kingdom of god we do want to receive our tithe and offering tonight and we are looking forward to the testimonies of you being blessed as you give if you're an online member thank you so much for always giving we are so blessed that you consider us part of your family and as you're watching you can see there are ways to give there and so i trust and believe that as you give god is going to bless you in your giving september is national recovery month and so this month here at pla we are celebrating those who are in recovery to all that are struggling i want to encourage you there is hope and do not feel alone there is a world of people that are struggling every one of us struggle but the difference is some believe there's hope and some don't yet believe there's hope but i'm hoping through tonight that was intentional i am hoping through tonight as we share the word of the lord your hope will be increased and i'm looking forward to that every single one of us can recover and through jesus and his word can find healing in our mind body and spirit you'll notice this month on our poa conversations that we have seven conversations about recovering that are both challenging and encouraging these conversations come through the lens of our seven ministry which is a ministry here at poa that is is very helpful in our community with hell with hurts habits and hang-ups so those are going to be some interesting and encouraging conversations you'll want to sign up on our poa conversations that's available in our podcast and so you can sign up through that also through social media we will provide support for christ-centered recovery so if you'll go follow our social media platforms we would appreciate that and if you've been blessed by that share that with someone who you think would enjoy that and we appreciate that each wednesday this month our teaching will encourage and challenge every person to recover whatever your habit whatever your hurt whatever your hang up is we want to look at the scripture and teach what the scripture is revealing to us on recovering in a christ-like way tonight i want to share with you from this subject and if you haven't noticed already i've mentioned it a few times that i do want to share from you this subject there is hope have you ever wanted a restart now when you think restart immediately or when i think restart immediately let me say it that way immediately i think of my phone or my computer or another electronic device when it is not operating to the extent that i want it to operate after i've hit it a few times and it's still not working i just simply hit the restart button and most of the time after i've restarted that device it will go back to operating in the way that i want it to and if it doesn't then i just simply throw it away and go buy a new one now we understand unfortunately concerning our personal choices that is impossible with us we we cannot just hit the restart button in our life we can't just do a reset a soft reset when we want that's not possible for us only god has the power if he desired to reset the system he could if he wanted wipe the slate clean he could wipe it new he could start fresh if he wanted the beautiful thing about god is he does not choose to restart he does not choose to reset rather he examples divine hope he does something better than a reset he makes new the broken he makes new the hurting and he gives life to those who are dead in sin he gives new life and for that we are so thankful and we celebrate the hope that he gives us we have hope now your future is fueled by your relationship with hope you should not confuse hope with optimism many times we are optimistic about things and and that is psychological a glass half full is not hope that's psychological you can tell yourself things are going to be great all you want but if you're in a bad situation you are a delusional optimist you can tell yourself things are going to be great all you want but if the situation is bad it's a bad situation it's not a good situation i look at it like this hoping that pie pies is healthy is ridiculous i love popeyes popeye's chicken is amazing pie pie's mashed potatoes is amazing popeye's rice is amazing pie pies biscuits with honey are amazing and i can hope all i want that that pie pies is healthy but that's not hope that's delusional pie pies is is in the portions that i eat it not healthy and for me to think it's healthy is optimistic hope acknowledges the situation is bad that's what hope does you know optimism believes that popeye's is healthy but hope acknowledges that the situation is bad in fact it is really bad the situation is really bad is what hope will acknowledge but hope will take it a step further and hope will say but i believe optimism denies reality but hope acknowledges divine preeminence hope believes and hope lives in a manner that god exists hope believes and hope believes and lives in a manner that you are important hope believes and hope lives in a manner that he has ultimate power and so i want to look at those three things tonight god exists you are important and he has ultimate power that is what hope believes and that is how hope allows you to live god exists that's what hope tells us now personally i believe god exists and for that we can have hope in any circumstance i am confident through the testimony of my life i am confident that god exists now the further away you distance yourself from god and from hope the less god is revealed in your life so as you align yourself away from hope in the same retrospect god is going to be further away in your life conversely the closer you align yourself with god the more easily hope is revealed in your life now i'm not sure about you but i need hope in my life in the situations that we face today in our current events in the world in which we live hope is something that we need in fact hope should probably be a priority in our life so in doing so i'm going and i'm choosing to strengthen my relationship with god and to enhance my relationship with god through friends through the study of the scripture through church services in person uh through church services my hope is is strengthening and so i am thankful for that i am thankful for those of you watching tonight because your hope you're choosing to strengthen your relationship with god and in doing so your hope is strengthening now it's very important for us to realize from where we do not get hope and from where we do not receive increased hope our hope is not in politics and i'm not taking a shot at any politician in fact i'll pray for our leaders as the scripture instructs us to i pray for our leaders but my hope does not come from government and my hope is not settled in government my hope is settled and my hope is strengthened in my relationship with almighty god my hope is not increased or my hope is not governed or my hope is not established in social media and unfortunately many people are looking to social media thinking and believing that their hope is going to be enriched through social media that's optimistic that's delusional optimism your hope will not increase through social media your hope is not going to gain influence through social media rather your hope is going to gain influence through the almighty god because our hope is in the god man who died on the cross and resurrected himself after three days that is where my hope is on him is where i choose to place my hope now i was doing some thinking a culture with hope has to take on some type of image and a culture without hope has to also take some type of image and so i was thinking and trying to prioritize some things in my life and i begin to think a culture without without hope looks like this and you may want to write this down or commit this to memory but a culture without hope looks like this and it's it's scary to think how familiar some of these things sound as we go through this and it really uh was a was a point of uh emphasis for me and and i was alarmed at how real this was portraying itself and revealing itself in our society today because a culture without hope prioritizes wealth now proverbs teaches us to trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct our path a culture without hope says priority is in our wealth and not in god a culture without hope truth is negotiated how readily do we see how easily do we attain any type of belief that we want today as long as it fits our prerogative or if it fits our personality or if it fits our our whims we can find a truth that we want but a culture with hope recognizes that his word is true the culture without hope life is trivial my spirit is alarmed at how easily we are trivializing life in our world today life is given by god life is a blessing life is full of promise from god life is not trivial life is a breathing soul that god has created but a culture without hope says life is trivial a culture without hope we see that media is vulgar never before have we seen the vulgarity in the media aspect of our world than we see today a culture without hope our conscience is deluded or our conscious is dulled or our conscious isn't sensitive to what god is speaking into our life if you're watching tonight from wherever you're watching there is a conscious a spirit of consciousness that is given to you from god and a culture with hope our conscience is dulled but god wants us to feel his presence god wants us to understand his leading and his directing through his word and as he speaks to us and so our conscience must be sensitive to what god is speaking to us and that is done through hope a culture without hope morality is optional and i would raise my voice and and really uh highlight and put an exclamation point on the need for more morality in our world since when is immorality something to look forward to or something to to appease our our flesh when is morality an option or a choice but that's what a culture without hope breathes and births and gives life to in our world though a culture with hope is full of promise is full of life is full of a relationship with god this is what a culture with hope looks like hebrews teaches us hebrews chapter 11 and 6 teaches us what a culture full of hope looks like a culture of hope draws near to god and believes that he exists that god exists and that he rewards those who seek him surely do we need wealth to sustain us and provide for our families so i'm not taking a shot at wealth surely do we need an opportunity to express our self and and across the world through different things so i'm not taking a shot at any of those things but never should those things that we previously mentioned supersede our relationship with god a culture of hope allows us to draw near to god and believe that he exists and he rewards those who seek after him the age-old cry of people filled with hope in god has resulted in a testimony of divine favor i have yet to have an experience with elders with strong believers with with people who have immense hope in god i have yet to have a testimony and hear a testimony from them that their hope in god failed them never have i seen a hope in god fail anyone so i want to encourage you tonight put your hope in a god that exists believe in a god that exists and believe our second point of hope tonight believe that you are important there needs to be a cry in our spirit in our soul in our body towards the value that we have in the kingdom of god you are important in the kingdom of god you are important you are his prized creation there is nothing more valuable than you you are his priority i can't say that loud enough tonight there is nothing more valuable to him than are you he didn't give his life for creation other than you he didn't give his life for elephants he didn't give his life for lions he didn't give his life for the mountains he gave his life for you and greater love has no man that he gave his life for you now i love to listen uh when when i am in my time of study or devotion i love to listen to songs that that breathe my importance or my value to him and as i was preparing for this uh i was listening to a song and it really gave me encouragement so i want to recall that around the idea of him of value and importance in your life and it's a familiar song it's a great song go listen to it uh or if you're if you're a place where you can pause and listen to it now pause and listen to it and then come back but at some point in the next 24 hours listen and put these words into your spirit soul and body why should i feel discouraged why should the shadows come why should my heart feel lonely and long for heaven and home when jesus is my portion a constant friend is he his eye is on the sparrow and i know he watches over me you need to make that personal his eye is on the sparrow and i know he watches me and so for that reason i sing because i'm happy i sing because i'm free his eye is on the sparrow and i know he watches me his eye is on the sparrow and i know the author was convinced i know he watches me i sing because i'm happy i sing because i'm free his eye is on me and for that i can have hope the great king david psalm 31 and 7 gives us testimony to to where the psalmist and the psalter felt he said it this way i will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy for thou hast considered my trouble that is powerful thou hast considered my trouble thou hast known my soul in adversity now we're not talking about your best friend knowing who you are and understanding where you are in the calamity that you're in they may or may not realize the greatness of the situation in your end they may or may not realize your hurt your habit or your hang up but the psalter here says i know and i have confidence that he has considered my trouble that he has known my soul in adversity now surely when we examine the life of king david we recognize the adversity and the trouble that he had from his youth to his elder ages until his elder age in life to his elder years in life we know the story of the lion and the bear that's my kind of god we know the story of goliath that's my kind of guy we know the story of him dealing with loss but in every one of those situations his hope never faltered i can imagine it this way that that maybe david in those situations said not today not today you're not getting my hope today today i'm going to defeat the lion and the bear i'm not optimistic about it i have hope in it i'm not optimistic today that i'm going to beat the goliath that has challenged the nation of israel i have hope because of my relationship with god and i know that i'm going to conquer goliath through the hand of the almighty god even in his season of loss even as his habit even in his hang-up even in his hurt david refused to give up on his hope because he recognized that god considered who he was and even in his adversity god knew the soul of david now it's obvious that that through those situations and the only reason that david could have hope in those situations is he had a relationship with the father and quickly was i recalling in my mind as i was perusing through this and studying through this situations and hurts and habits and hang-ups that i'd had in my life i recall one instance when i was just a young boy and an older older boy was tormenting me bullying me trying to and you know really it's just boys being boys and he was picking on me but i'll never forget after i'd had enough and i'd taken all i could take i looked at that boy and i said i'm gonna tell my dad and then i got to thinking on it what would happen if we in our relationship with life in our relationship with hurt and our relationship with habits in our relationship with hang-ups if we would look at that adversity and quote psalm 31-7 and say it like this my dad knows or my father knows what you're doing to me and i want you to remember that he has considered my trouble and he has known my soul in adversity i want to encourage you tonight that god is aware of your situation he has not turned his back on you let's say that again god has not turned his back on you he knows the good and he knows the bad he knows and he cares his eye if his eye is on the sparrow by no means will i be convinced his eye is not on me if his eye looks to the sparrow i am persuaded that his eye is towards you i am convinced that god is with you i am persuaded with you and i feel the authority of the spirit the this altar goes even further in this i love this this passage leaped off the scriptures at me psalm chapter 56 verse 8 thou tellest my wonderings put my tears into thy bottle are they not in thy book i can't help but rejoice on that not one of your tears has escaped his purview now consider that not one of your tears has fallen to the ground and he not know that god loves you he cares for you jeremiah 31 3 the lord hath appeared of old unto me saying yea i have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have i drawn thee i am convinced back to the the psalm 56-8 i am convinced that in your hurt in your habit in your hang-up in your deepest darkest moment when you're alone and you think nobody is hearing nobody is understanding you have no friends you are isolated and that feeling of aloneness is creeping in and pigeonholing you into one little empty room of darkness god sees your tears and they are not falling in dismay they are not falling in destruction they are not falling in waste he is keeping them and he is putting them in a book and at some point at some time according to his will you are going to be encouraged because he loves you finally we believe and we know that god exists we believe and we know and we trust and we are confident that we are important and finally we know and we believe that he has power psalm 34 and 18 the lord is nigh unto them the lord is near them this is powerful the lord is close to them i'm paraphrasing obviously i'll get to the point a little bit but i want you to gather the emphasis the lord is with them who are of a broken heart and he saves such that are of a contrite spirit he saves the hopeless what a testimony to the body of christ what a testimony to the believer and the unbeliever if you do not have hope if you have a little bit of hope if you just have a fragment of hope if you just have just a small bit of hope he saves anyway and he is a power that is greater than you there are times in your life that god changes you through his power faithfully at a point early in my life god changed my life through salvation i believed that he was greater than me i believed he had power to save me i believed that i was important to him i believe that he existed and as i believed i began to change some things in my life at an early age i repented and i asked him to forgive me for the person that i was and the transgressions and the heirs that i had made against him and in doing so i followed his plan of salvation i was baptized in the name of jesus christ for the remission of my sin and i received the baptism of the holy ghost evidence of speaking from from his spirit speaking a heavenly language through through my spirit and through my body i began to speak in his heavenly language and god changed my life because of the power that he has then there are other times that god changes the situation in your life because of the hope you have there are times where where you are helpless and and not hopeless you are helpless and you can't change the situation but god who has the power changes the situation i'll give an example i was involved in a terrible accident when i was just a sophomore in college i had a terrible accident totaled the car that i was driving i had no power no means to to save myself at that point but because i had a relationship of with christ and because i have had a relationship a testimony of hope with god god intervened at that moment and i was miraculously saved that night didn't have a scratch on my body because of the hope and the relationship that i had in god his power saved me and then there are other times in our life where god does a combination of both he changes both ourself and he changes the situation that we can't control i i battled when i was young i battled a a sickness and i went and and i i saw doctors and and gathered their help and through their help and through uh their knowledge they were able to provide a comfort for me but it was not a healing comfort it was just a comfort that would get me through and i'm extremely thankful for our medicine and and for our medical studies that we have today and if you're in the medical profession and you're watching i want you to know that i value your your sacrifices that you make in life and i value what you do for our world but there was a moment we as people and we as humans we don't have the ultimate power that god has and and so i was needing help from another source and i couldn't control the situation that i was in and i'd exhausted the the help of doctors in the medical profession and they had helped me to where they could help they had got me to a perfect place they had they had put me in a perfect position of where they could do and they were fantastic and i thanked them for that but when they couldn't help anymore god said i'm going to help you and i'm going to help your situation and the reason i am here today is because god has the power to help in both situations our hope in him and our hope and his power is settled in ephesians chapter 1 verses 19 through 20 2 verses 19-22 what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us word who believe according to the working of his mighty power verse 22 says it this way and have put all things under his feet and have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things our hope is in a god that everything is settled under his feet i can't help but the imagery of something being under his feet and that imagery is brought to me by when my my baby girl emma claire she was about four years old she was terribly frightened of a bug that was in the house and she came to me and said daddy this this bug and i looked at her and i said you're way bigger than that bug just smash him with your foot and when it dawned on her that she was bigger than the bug and more powerful than the bug she did the greatest foot smash i've ever seen a four or five year old or a six-year-old do in my entire life i do believe the entire house rattled when she smashed that bug and she smashed it and she just didn't leave it smashed she just smudged it in and then i had to clean up the mess but then i started thinking what would we do and what would happen if our in our life if we would recognize the power that is in us through him the power that he has given to us through his spirit the same power that raised him from the dead is living in us if we would get that that settled in our mind and settled in our spirit and settled in our body our actions would be like that of my imaclair we would stomp on that hurt we would stop on that habit we would stomp on that hang-up and not only would we stomp on it we would smash it we would rub it in we would let the entire world know that it was dead in the same manner i want us to begin to know and to recognize that christ is superior in our life as a believer his power is part of your identity philippians chapter 2 verse 13. i love this translation from which i'll take the scripture it is god who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure i can't help but think in the heavens right now god is strategically placing my life in a manner for his good pleasure that is such a celebration of me and for that i am hopeful so finally in conclusion upon the foundation of hope you can embrace the promise of john chapter 10 verse 10 and it is unfortunate in my opinion that too many people are not living john chapter 10 verse 10 the thief comes to steal to kill and destroy but jesus came to give life and life in abundance now i don't want to argue and i don't want to banter back and forth on who the thief is in that scriptures there's different opinions different different scenarios different options we can choose that's not the point the point is jesus came to give you life and life in abundance and my hope tonight my hope my entire presentation is that my hope is preaching my hope is teaching my hope is speaking that you will start living a life not of hurts not of habits not of hang-ups but you will receive and you will start living a life that is full of abundance why because you have taken on there is hope in jesus there is hope for life there is pure life there is pure life in jesus there is life that is free and there is life that is full hope is forward-looking so choose to focus on the promise of hope instead of your past of disappointment instead of the hurt instead of the habit instead of the hang-up choose to acknowledge the god that exists the god that knows you are important and the god that is full of power regardless of the pain and the suffering of yesterday there is a promise from this book that you can have life and life in abundance and so if you believe that with me i want you if you can to close your eyes i want you to raise your hands to the heaven i want you to lift your voice maybe fall on your knees maybe stand in a proclamation of victory whatever it may be but i want us to look to the father right now and i want us to give attention to him through prayer father in the name of jesus we believe and we profess that there is hope god in every habit i speak hope right now in every hang-up i speak that divine hope would represent itself in every hurt right now in every habit and every hang up in every situation and every circumstance let the authority of heaven begin to demonstrate the magnificent power of who you are of your existence of your belief in our importance and of who you are in the power the omnipotence that you show let the let the entire host of heaven begin to celebrate and demonstrate and reveal that in our life for god i am convinced and nothing else can convince me otherwise your word your promise is that you came to give us life and you came to give us abundant life and so through our hope in you not our optimism but through our hope in you we will believe that in all things you are the supreme and living god so let favor rest on everyone as we go our separate ways wherever our lives take us let us know and let us live in this truth there is hope in the name of jesus i pray amen you are blessed you are highly favored and i pray that the god of hope would be with you in a magnificent way i look forward to worshiping with you sunday this sunday at 9 00 a.m or 11 p.m until then go in the protection and the favor of the almighty god [Music] you

Channel: The Pentecostals of Alexandria

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Length: 37min 42sec (2262 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021