Positive in a Negative World (2021-09-19)

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning city sanctuary why don't you stand to your feet in this place as we honor the lord with our thanksgiving anybody grateful to be in the house of the lord for i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord for we serve a great big god and it's all offering time for us to offer up our praise to the father there's nothing that our god can't do he's a faithful god that is true to his word every one of his promises are yes and amen but i believe that when the the faith of the believers come into union together we will see god do greater things is that your level of hope today is that your level of expectation so father in the name of jesus we thank you for this day we thank you for the moment that we have to cast out all fear and anxiety to trust you regardless of what is we're faced with we open up our eyes to see that you're doing a good and marvelous thing and we give you glory on purpose even in this place today in jesus name [Music] oh we praise your name father there is no fear cause i believe there is no doubt cause i have seen your faithfulness [Music] my fortress over and over there is no hope outside your name there is no strength outside your grace your faithfulness my fortress over and over let's sing together make way through the water [Music] [Applause] i believe in you god i [Music] inside of me unleash your power for all to see so spirit come and fall on us over and [Music] through the over [Music] foreign [Music] all things are possible [Music] [Music] name is powerful unstoppable [Music] [Music] come on [Music] lord i believe in you [Music] there is no doubt cause i have seen your faithfulness my fortress over and over over and over i've seen your faithfulness over and over i've seen you move jesus over and over i've seen your hands [Music] god of exceedingly god of abundantly more than we ask or think lord you will never fail your if [Music] foreign [Music] do what you are famous for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] if you believe in the lord given some glory in this place [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] there's nothing impossible if we believe amen [Music] there's nothing worth more that could ever come close nothing can compare cause you're our living home [Music] thank you lord it's your presence lord [Music] i've tasted and seen are the sweetest of loves where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone [Music] your presence lord [Music] holy spirit [Music] jesus [Music] there's nothing worth more there's nothing worth more that could ever [Music] i'm [Music] becomes free [Music] your presence [Music] holy spirit [Music] is [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] there's nothing like your presence [Applause] [Music] your presence [Music] the glory [Music] [Music] [Music] one [Music] let us become [Music] [Applause] let us become more aware just one more time let us the glory of your goodness [Applause] [Music] the [Music] is [Music] [Laughter] [Music] we're going to put our trust in you we're going to put our faith in you we're going to believe you for all things can we do that today can we do that this morning can we lay every care aside and lay it at his feet [Music] they say this mountain can't be moved [Music] they say these chains will never break thank you but they don't know you like we do cause there is power in your name [Music] they haven't seen what you can do there is power in your net [Music] [Applause] are we [Music] god we believe [Music] foreign [Music] so much power [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] know foreign are the way when there seems to be no [Music] way you are the [Music] [Applause] when there seems to be no way we trust you [Music] [Applause] [Music] god we believe [Music] god [Music] foreign [Music] release your face [Music] [Music] it is [Music] it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] believe it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] that we believe [Music] come on and praise him right now come on praise him like the altar workers to come please all the altar workers come quickly please this jesus said in john 11 40 if you believe you will see the glory of god [Music] believing comes from your heart not your head [Music] i'm going to ask those that i know the holy spirit is inviting for a breakthrough all of us i'm going to ask you if you feel the nudging for a breakthrough to take another step while they sing this some more let's fill this altar with praise and begin when you come faith always has a response faith without works is dead now i know you can respond where you are no problem with me it's between you and the lord i'm just i'm just telling you that i know lord the lord wants to break through today with this moment right now and i believe that a step of faith will help us declare we're not taking any of the enemies attacks on us we're not taking any of his his uh reports on our lives we are believing the report of the lord amen and this takes a boldness this takes a i don't care get out of my way devil i believe god so i'm going to ask you if you feel nudge of the lord to come and join us up here [Music] i want you to come in response to the spirit and i want you to come to declare and receive the breakthrough lord i believe that you still do the impossible and it doesn't matter if somebody's been sick for a long time it doesn't matter if people are battling in the hospital right now with covet like our own brandy cooper or also sue buttofuco and others i still believe in the god that does the impossible amen it's just time to act like it it's just time to do it so i want you to join me up here if you want special prayer find one of our prayer partners if you just want to come and declare your faith and praise him you see you you made me you've blessed my heart because as you were dancing in the lord that's an evidence of your faith god does the impossible you can't have joy unless you believe you can't raise your hands and praise him if you don't have faith and believe god oh hallelujah beloved this is a good day this is the day the lord has made i'm going to rejoice and i'm going to be glad so there's no pressure on anybody it's about you and the lord as they're saying just you feel prompted to move up here you can praise god in your seat you can break through right where you are just respond to the holy spirit okay let's sing it come if you feel led [Music] let's worship come on let's praise him lord i believe [Music] belief [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] glory [Music] [Applause] [Music] it you is i believe you said it is [Music] it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] happy [Music] we [Music] [Music] god we [Applause] [Music] oh i believe yes i believe [Music] yes i believe tell him today yes i believe oh yes yes i believe [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] her hands are lifted like most she shall prevail say i shall prevail i shall forbid i shall seek the goodness of god amen i believe i praise you oh yes i believe [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] yes i believe yes i believe yes [Music] it is done amen you said tell him and i believe you said you said it is done one more time [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh hallelujah come on and praise him like you mean it praise him like you believe it thank you god hallelujah you have less than broken truth like a breaking through of water oh hallelujah [Music] hallelujah amen praise god david said you have broken through like a breaking through of water you may return to your seed if you are able if you need somebody to help you back you're a little inebriated we've got some able-bodied ushers around here to help you well praise the lord are you glad you came to god's house this morning oh lord we praise you today thank you god we needed this we needed this we need the presence of god amen [Music] this is not a club you don't have to pay any dues here this is the body of christ we take joy in his presence amen praise god say aren't you in a hurry no i'm not in a hurry in case you didn't notice see you know in this church we prioritize the presence of god he sets the agenda and we just try to follow him [Music] oh thank you spirit why would you grow weak and weary my people lift up your heads and give me the praise that is due by name have i not given you my word have i not given you my promises my spirit is even among you today worship me and draw strength from me for i am your god and i lead you triumphant in battle says the spirit hallelujah thank you lord thank you jesus come on just praise him just a minute get that old song i love him because he first loved me that's an oldie you know how to sing it yeah i'm going to pull a tim hill on you i love him can you just worship him for a minute [Music] me purchase my salvation [Music] sing it again [Music] oh [Music] it beautiful just to worship him today you see this is what abraham did in genesis 18 he entertained god he stopped what he was doing to prepare a sumptuous meal to give him the very best that he could and that's what we are trying to do we're trying to be a community of faith that is more interested in entertaining god than we are with our routine or what we have planned to do i just can't tell you how much i love him how much i need him do you love him today amen amen would you give him one more ovation and praise again thank you lord amen [Applause] he's the best he's the best well we i don't know where we are what time of day is it i guess it's time to worship the lord in giving we we're going to skip the app you know how to get on the app and get connected and i know everybody's tired of hearing me saying and i'm tired of saying it myself so let's just go on to worship and giving father we thank you for giving to us now just bless your people as we worship you not just in our hearts and spirit by as a spiritual priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices today may we also offer that monetary or monetarily blessing that offering that tithe that will bless you as well bless your people as they worship in this way as well in jesus name we pray amen god bless you for your worship hey good morning city sanctuary family let's take a couple of minutes to make sure you're staying connected this week candyland fall festival and family blitz is back you've been hearing about that for the last couple of weeks saturday october 16th we are gonna have an awesome day here for the church and our community registration is open you can find that link in your staying connected digital bulletin and also if you would like to serve during this community event you can email volunteer citysanctuary.church or sign up in the lobby today again that's candyland fall festival october 16th we're looking for volunteers you can also register your entire family we're also looking for candy donations just drop those off right in the lobby hey are you ready to become a member here at the city sanctuary we have scheduled membership this fall for sunday november 14th in the 11am service and if you'd like to become a member here at the city sanctuary or if you have any questions regarding church membership then please email heather omran her email is right at the bottom of that screen we'll also have a membership orientation to attend on sunday october 24th at 4 p.m in the student zone hey it's not too late to sign up for one of our fall growth groups or ministry teams you can find all of those wednesday night classes and growth group classes that happen throughout the week in your staying connected bulletin and on our website and on our app just go to citysanctuary.church you can sign up right there and be a part of what's happening here at the city sanctuary on saturday october 2nd from 9 a.m till 12 p.m we are going to have an estate planning seminar right here in our student center registration begins at 8 30 that day and it will go again from 9 until 12. thank you we'll be addressing issues of health issues financial issues legal issues related to elder care law and we have special guest ray donadio from sheffield and lowman who will be present for legal presentation and q a this is organized by our very own rob casada who is going to be organizing and helping you understand the professional process and equip your next generation so come on out be a part of that estate planning workshop that's saturday october 2nd from 9 a.m until 12 p.m all right if you can put up the next slide here how to stay positive in a negative world i'm going to read in his presence from the book of numbers how many of you like the book of numbers right next to your love for the book of leviticus right i i hear you so we're going to read this blessing speak to aaron and his sons saying in this way you shall bless the sons of israel you are to say to them the lord bless you and keep you the lord calls his face to shine on you and be gracious to you the lord lift up his face to you and give you peace so shall they invoke my name on the sons of israel and then i will bless them father may we continue in the canopy of your grace and may you complete this service as it pleases you we ask in jesus name amen the book of numbers is couched in a barren transition it's couch in the wilderness and if you see the picture on the screen you begin to get a picture of the environment that god's people were living in in that period of time the book of exodus excuse me the book of numbers has the word murmuring recorded in it ten times people were act absolutely not happy they were negative weeping's recorded seven times mourning two times and complaining one time the words rejoicing joy and gladness are never mentioned in the book of numbers it was indeed a very pessimistic time a barren time geographically but a greater barrenness in the souls and the emotions is it possible for your emotions and your soul to keep you out of the promised land god has for you it is we understand pessimism pretty well people use phrases all the time if anything can go wrong it will go wrong right the other line always moves faster than the line that i'm in if the shoe fits it's ugly or the wrong color someone says that a pessimist feels bad when they feel good for fear that they'll feel worse when they feel better a pessimist though is not so negative that they can't see some good in somebody else's trouble on a pessimist tombstone was the words i knew i'd wind up this way two boys were given a choice to enter a room of toys or a room full of manure the one boy chose the room of toys began to play excitingly with the new toys the boy chose the room of manure and immediately asked for a shovel i said why would you choose a room of manure when you have this room of toys you say well with all the manure in this room there's got to be a pony under here somewhere that's optimism look at god's people in the book of numbers what you find here is that both good and or rather positive and negative people existed in the people of god in the nation of israel and if you haven't noticed by coming to church and rubbing shoulders with other believers there are some that are positive and some that are negative you have to ask yourself which which company you're in but both the positive and the negative believers experienced the same thing they went to the promised land the 10 12 spies and 10 of them came back and said you know it's really good it has all the land flowing with milk and honey but there all we saw was calories and cholesterol you know all we saw was the walled cities and the giants and the strong people in the land so they both experienced the same thing but some people respond in faith and see the good and some people respond negatively and see only the obstacles number two negative people quickly turn the positive into a negative negative people like these ten negative spies said yeah the land is good but but but there's always that exception you know i'd like to rejoice but there's all these obstacles there's the giants there's the people are strong there's the walled cities also negative people exaggerate and instill fear in other people they said that the the walls in the cities went up to the heavens well obviously that wouldn't happen so it was an exaggeration the people or the land devours the people that come into it that wasn't true as well it was an exaggeration so it was that they gave a bad report in verse 32 of numbers 13. negative people also foster a negative or faulty self-image and as they said that we also were like grasshoppers in our own eyes and then so we were in their eyes as well so many christians don't really know their identity in christ and won't accept their new identity in christ won't accept that they are to be the head instead of the tale they've been raised to be the tail or they think they're the tail and so they continue to not let god redeem their thoughts and give them the faith to know who they are in him negative people also foster negative emotions we'll see from chapter 14 of numbers in verse one through three that all the people after they heard the negative report from the ten negative spies lifted up their voices and cried all night long they wept all night long that's what i call a real despondency and in all that they began to talk negative they said let's stone moses he's our problem let's go back to egypt god's not being real and true with us he wants to kill us out here in the wilderness they thought bad things about the people around them and they thought bad things about god who loved them because they were in a negative emotional state and you know the story they missed that generation missed the best that god had for them is it possible for us to have a negative bias is it possible to us since the fall of man when there were no negative emotions or negative thoughts in the garden of of eden but yet after sin there came the first negative default emotion of fear and fear has been the number one tool of the enemy to try to bring god's people into bondage and not have faith to do what we did with that psalm we believe in the god of the impossible we believe in the god of miracles i do believe amen so this is what happened this is a real scene as we are in this coronavirus negative environment we look at the negative bias we fixate on our own mistakes on criticisms not praises we think about the insults not the compliments that people gave us we think about the negative traumatic things that have happened to us instead of all the good things that have taken place why is that because because of our chemistry because of some biological things that take place a negative traumatic experience is three times more powerful in being recorded by the chemicals released in our body and brain than a positive memory so when we look at overcoming the negative these are slaves they had been slaves for several years and so with all that negativity it was hard for them to overcome the the fact that god could give them this promised land that seemed impossible god can give you the dream life that you uh that he envisions for you god can give you the breakthrough he can give you whatever it is he promises in the word of god he can give it to you amen and you can do all things through christ who gives you the strength so default emotions come into play that when we are born we have they say these seven default emotions that are set by the time you're 18 months of age by the environment you were raised in these are not things you choose because you're too young to choose but these are things that are set and there's only one positive one there right happiness and joy is in there as one of the seven but all the rest are rather negative emotions and this research points out that depending on what takes place in a young child's life or we might make the analogy in a young believer's life that they have a default emotion that seems to be set we look at what happened with this children of israel they had been slaves they had a default emotions that were negative and particularly one that was based in fear which was the strongest they were afraid of their taskmasters we look at then the fact that many of us may have a negative default emotion that is it could be anger it could be sadness could be depression could be anxiety fear or you could have reset all that uh and you could have a default emotion of joy of peace right of the fruit of the spirit all the things that is mentioned there and so we look at this whole brain science thing we understand that there is indeed a science to what goes on number one joy is crucial for our development that is that our brains were designed to live on joy in fact we are told by research scientists that our eyes scan every day all the time looking for something that will bring us joy and particularly looking for other people who will smile at us or will seemingly be happy with us and we will look for that to again get joy because we know from nehemiah 8 and 10 that the joy of the lord is your strength right if you don't have any joy in your life then you tend to feel draggy and down because it's an actual and i won't go through all the chemistry stuff in your bodies you all know about the serotonins and all the various things that go on in our bodies that give us energy when we have positive joyful things that take place in our life so number one joy is something that jesus focused on when jesus was going to leave the disciples he would focus on joy and he would begin to talk to them about john 15 11 that my joy is going to be in you john 17 13 that your joy i ordain to be full and complete you can't serve god and have the energy to serve god first of all through all the trials of life if you don't have any joy if you don't have any any kind of joy in your life to strengthen you then again many people will fall out of that whole attempt we look at even the fact that the right brain left brain you've heard about you know the right brains just for the creativity and left brains you're more of your logical and uh your strategic thinking well it's true that left brain is for your logical strategic thinking as but the right brain is does more than just do creativity the right brain is actually the processor when it gets to your left brain has to go through your right brain first so that means that it processes faster than the left brain and it is relational and it is uh looking for again those things that will kind of shape what goes into the left brain for example you put your kid in school and maybe they have a good experience with teachers maybe maybe the teachers that they just fall in love with certain teachers their teachers smile at them their teachers are kind to them and so that that kid may have talent to do a lot of different things but because of that relationship with that teacher and that positive right brain it may influence that kid to go into teaching because they are so shaped by that positive experience from that teacher or let's say they you have a good accounting teacher when you're in high school you know and so you like the teacher you like the way they teach and you you seem to be fairly good at the math so again it shapes those two together right brain relation let brain cognitive it shapes how you're going to go forward from there so it is that discipleship is not just you learning the ten commandments it's not just left brain but discipleship is also jesus saying i'm calling 12 to be with me i'm calling you to be with me it's it's calling you to also not just be a lone ranger christian but you know it's first john you say you love god okay well great well how do you love your neighbor right there's got to be a relational component to discipleship as well as the the left brain information of it all so jesus was calling 12 to be with him to form them to shape them giving them by doctrine teaching them the things of god left brain but relating to them and loving them smiling on them to bond together in a relational way when we look at spiritual formation then we understand also that it helps us joy helps us endure suffering the bible says in hebrews 12 and 2 that for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross and despised the shame for the joy that was set before him paul said in corinthians 7 4 in all of my trouble my joy knows no limits what is this it's a supernatural bonding with god it's a supernatural empowerment by the holy spirit whose fruit is joy right the fruit of spirit love joy right and so it is the supernatural work of god and so when we serve the lord psalm 100 we serve the lord with gladness not with sadness right that we come before his prince with singing not whining right that we have to come out of what god created us in isaiah 35 to have everlasting joy upon our heads and upon our lives so god's created you to live in joy to live in faith and that's where we come into this guy this guy who's the einstein of psychology they say dr alan shore talks about the fact that people look for and a lot of joy relationally but joy primarily says comes from relationship and that joy is when we scan and look for people who are smiling at us people that seem to like us and that gives us more joy than anything else more than money more than other things if we don't get relational joy we substitute it with food with shopping with sex with substance abuse with other things because we're not getting the relational joy that we were ordained and created to get so when we come to our passage today what does that say to us beloved it says to us that in the middle of the desert in the middle of a negative time after they failed to go into the promised land in the middle of 38 and a half years also of traversing the wilderness what did god tell the priests i want you to bless the people well wait a minute lord they failed you you know they didn't go in you know they're you know they should just be shamed and they're no good you're going to go shame on you shame on you you said no that's what i want you to bless the people and i he made atonement for their sin and he said i want you to do this i want you to say the lord bless you keep you the lord caused his face to shine or smile on you the lord lift up his countenance and the lord be gracious to you and the lord give you shalom or peace what he's painting the picture of here of god's people who had been slaves for hundreds of years had been abused had not thought much about themselves had also failed god of course when he gave that in number six they hadn't failed him yet by chronology they were going to in a couple of chapters but and all that being said god knew they would fail and so he still said i want them to have this picture of me always smiling at them [Laughter] how can that be i've sinned i've messed up i've done this because god has already sent his son to provide the forgiveness for your sin and to be the sacrifice for your sin so that god can keep smiling he was smiling when he made you and he's smiling and when he redeemed you and he's smiling all the time at you the lord lift up his countenance and smile on you amen come on and smile at somebody it'll make you feel better and make them feel better as well so we look at the job relation lean we have to ask ourselves are we a tigger or an e or if you're sitting by your spouse try to control your elbows at this point in the message if you're a tigger you say hey happiness is a choice so choose to be happy right you say look on the bright side or smile god loves you right but if you're a e or you might say it could be worse but i'm not sure how you could say no one can be cheerful all the time you could say i wish i could say things will get better but [Music] so are you a tigger or are you an e-or that is the question well how do you get out of that you have to change not only your focus on how you view god and your relational aspect of joy comes from seeing god smile at you every morning when you get up every night when you go to bed god is smiling at you hallelujah say oh i don't know if i can believe that well then disagree with god disagree with the bible and say i just don't believe that but that's exactly what the word of god says well then also why were some of these believers negative because they chose to look at the negative instead of looking at the promises of god they actually told the truth that as they came back and said you know the land is full of good stuff you know and they they were telling truth about some of the things they're giants in the land there are obstacles of walled cities they were telling the truth the problem is they forgot to tell the truth about god's promises in face of the giants and the walled cities and the difficulty in the land they forgot to emphasize that god wanted to give them a word to change their thinking that they were no longer slaves but now god was going to fight for them right and god was going to the battle is the lord that's what we believe today and i believe in the impossible i believe in miracles i believe that he is able right that's what we that's what we say that's what we receive today and so we see that again sometimes you know we just won't obey when it comes down to the negative mindset listening to negative things will make you negative you just listen in studies that were done if you just listen to five minutes of a negative broadcast everybody did they did this study of people who in one group listened to five minutes of negative news and one group of people then they listened to this positive news uh they found out that people listened to negative news were more negative about the world they were more negative about themselves more negative about other people and more negative about the future just five minutes of negative news today how many minutes of naked news do you listen to just saying we look at this aspect of thinking about uh thinking you're old will cause you to act old uh you know if you've ever watched any any television all the commercials about senior moments and all the all the things that there are drugs and things out there to help you start thinking if you didn't think you had memory problems you start thinking you do after you listen to all those commercials when you look at even a study done with young adults where they had one group of young adults read a negative paper on the negative effects of aging and they had another group of young adults read a uh paper on the positive things that are done in old age like uh this guy john uh guten now who won the uh nobel prize at 95 years of age and other people who excelled all throughout their aging process even john glenn was still going uh in orbit at 77 years of age right so one group read that and the other group of young adults read the negative parts about aging and senior moments and all the all the things that can happen there well that was done but then the experiment unbeknownst to them was to watch them then walk down a long hallway after they read those two different perspectives and amazingly the young adults they weren't old at all who read about the negative effects of aging walk two times slower down the hallway than the other young adults that read about the positive effects of aging don't think old you'll start being old they even said if you think you're older if you feel older than you actually are that you are more likely to be hospitalized or to die earlier than those that don't what is that all about it's about the way that you think again thinking negatively is bad for your health and we'll i'll probably just make comment on that as i go to these others for time religious religious beliefs on the positive side produce better health and longer life that if you attend church uh once a week as opposed to those that don't attend at all you are twice as likely to be more healthy and live longer than those who don't attend church at all so it's just research folks i mean it's just it's just what you you can find it anywhere smile you'll live longer they did research on smiling and that if people who learn to smile and be happy you know it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile so quit working out so hard right so basically if you smile they say you can live between two and seven years longer than people who don't regularly smile unbelievable about how that you need to really be full of faith number three people who focus on the positive lived longer other studies point out that if you focus on the positive you recover from surgeries faster you overcome difficulty faster and you're less likely to have health problems and you will live longer than those who focus on the negative things in life it was one of the principles of war that was mentioned by sunday zoo that said that the object of war is not to kill the enemy but to wound them because if you wound the enemy then it takes three soldiers to take care of one wounded soldier so the enemy the devil is about trying to still kill and destroy but he's out to wound you right he wants you to be a wounded person the bible talks about the wounded or wandering people that they wander aimlessly because they're fixated with a fixated mindset i'll never get through this i'll never get over this instead of having a growth mindset that they will get over it that's what we find in this guy bj miller bj miller was a princeton student and he came back one night probably out partying and got on top of a streetcar that was where he was electrocuted with 11 000 volts of electricity and uh it uh caused his legs to be amputated and also one of his uh his left arm part of his left arm he uh barely lived they airlifted him and he finally he did live but he came back to princeton went through graduated but he had changed his major he changed his major and now he was going to focus on palliative care pain care and he was going to then spend his life as a doctor helping other people through the pain that they went through because of all the pain that he went through they asked him in an interview that said if you had to do all over again would you change what you did that night and going up on that streetcar and what happened to you he said no i would not change i thought a lot about it and i there's so much good that has come from that bad that i would not change it because i wouldn't have been helping all the people i've helped if i had not gone through that horrible traumatic experience if an unbeliever can say that my friends why can't the church say that if we can have other people in the world that basically will say you know hey i grew through my trauma i grew through my pain i grew through the coronavirus period of time in american history in the world history then why in the world can't the body of christ grow through whatever it is that the devil has tried to throw and life throw in your path you see they said that post-traumatic stress can produce post-traumatic stuck uh condition or post-traumatic growth you can either grow or you can have a fixed mindset to where i'll never get over this i'll never get through this i'm gonna like jacob i refuse to be comforted well what do people do to get through it they think differently about life they treasure life they treasure others they treasure god they also change their priorities about the way that they're living they also reconnect with others realizing people are important and that again will add more joy to your life if you choose the right people right and then also to have a stronger faith they found out that again coming to america rather was the only nation out of the industrialized nations that people in america said that their faith grew stronger coming through the coronavirus they're the only nation that said that where there were a majority of people more than any other nation that said that i have grown stronger in my faith coming through the coronavirus now friend i want to tell you that is a supernatural work of god's spirit that is a supernatural work of god and i want to tell you that it is possible beloved for you to get through the trauma that you've been through it is possible and probable that god has intended to use that for someone else's good for you to minister to someone else as the wounded healer concept it is possible for you to come through the coronavirus you come through the political period come through the racism the divide of our country come through all the things that we've been through in the last two years it is possible for you to come through and not be negative not be bitter not have regressed and backslidden on your faith not to become a negative person that does yells at the television set it is possible for you to inherit the promises of god and not allow the emotional drain and the negative emotions to keep you from believing god and having joy in this season which seems to be a wilderness and for you to have the strength to overcome and to share that with somebody else i'm here to tell you that god said i've got good plans for you look at my face i'm smiling at everybody right here and i can tell you that i've got a good plan to lead you out of this wilderness and lead you into a promised land so it's time for the church to lead the way in america that god is good and god has a good plan for your life america come on and give god a praise hallelujah come to piano my friend as we conclude today we have to say say that to go from being negative to positive includes a real vibrant relationship with jesus christ you you can't you can't just find joy or you may pick joy substitutes in the world but you real joy was meant to be in the face of god he is smiling on you just get up in the morning smile on me and say that's god smile at me right because it's true i mean god is perpetually smiling at you secondly you just have to change your thinking those negative spies were people who they were right about a lot of things that that were going on in the promised land the good and the bad but they were wrong about not believing god and his word so they had to change their thinking the guys that did go into the promised land did that but third and finally you have to change your faith i look at changing faith you know i thought about this guy who went on vacation didn't know that there was a bear on the other side of that tree you know he's calm cool and collected but there's a reason for him to get real concerned real quick you know i think about i think about that because i believe that we can be just as calm in the midst of coronavirus even though the dangers all around us come on somebody psalm 91 right i believe we can be calm cold and collected and we can be positive in the midst of a time of danger and i believe that's god's plan for life we look at psalm 119 where real life meets a real god it was during rosh hashanah the jewish new year that they read psalm 119 it's also during the 10 days of all from rosh hashanah to to yom kippur the day of atonement where they read psalm 119 and it is setting their year it is setting them to i guess have victory and to have joy in the new year that they're going to embark upon how is that well everybody knows that jesus said in matthew 6 34 that every day has enough trouble of its own no truer words ever spoken right every day has enough challenges of its own every day does have challenges right but we are overcomers so we always overcome this is what psalm 119 says if you read psalm 119 there's 176 verses taking about 15 minutes to read it longest chapter in the bible 22 stanzas based on uh 22 letters in the hebrew alphabet uh eight verses for every stanza two lines each uh very methodical penned out uh instructional psalm for people to live their life by so here we go he begins by saying that ten times as it relates to the word of god he records my delight i delight in the word of god well now some people say well let me i guess i haven't read the bible for a while let me see what let me read some here okay that's good okay good let's go that's not delighting in the word of god the light in the word of god is is like job says i esteem the word of god more than my necessary food testing it is it is really like i i got to have this this is a part of my day this is a part of my life part of my joy i gotta have this right so ten times my delight seven times my rejoicing my joy he's talking about the bible which many people say you know it's irrelevant uh you know it's hard to understand uh you know i just don't have time for that so hence we get some people that are negative when god has put his positive promises and spirit within us instead of them being positive so let's begin as we're going to conclude and these are the verses we're going to end with he starts out with real life in verse 25 and he said my soul is cleaving to the dust and that's just well that's encouraging praise god my soul like dust in my mouth my soul is cleaving to dust clear reference to the fact that dust is death this is where we would go back to dust right so he's talking about i feel like i'm about to die you know a lot of things people face in this coronavirus is they wonder about are they going to die they're going to get the disease and diet they're going to you know somebody else they love going to die there's all this going on that produces all this fear the bible talks about it my soul feels like it's cleaving to dust but he said the word of god revives me when i start thinking negatively like that the word of god gives me new life in fact in verse 28 he says my soul melts with heaviness i'm telling you if this this period of time has done anything it's like a heaviness people just ah the the the the possibility of death and disease and and and the economy and and all the things that all this is going it's just a heaviness that seems to be permeating the world we live in right now he said that my soul is is melting with a heaviness this is in the bible these are spiritual people who are saying this but he says that the the word of the lord strengthens me you see real life real god real life real god he moves on as he begins to talk about in verse 49 it says the word of god brings me hope verse 50 the word of god brings me comfort in the things that i go through in verse 65 he talks about what you have dealt with me according to your word and you have blessed me with your word that is that god will make sure every one of his believers everyone that he will answer a prayer he will fulfill a promise he will make sure you have a foundation for your faith in him he will do whatever he needs to do to build that foundation then it's going to be up to you to build on top of the foundation yes he's the author and the finisher he keeps working on us praise god but yet we have to recognize like he said hey i'm going to tell you verse 65 the lord has dealt with me good according to his word i've seen the blessings from his word and so in verse 66 he says this and i believe his word i believe his word but then he goes another step that a lot of believers miss verse 70 he says but now i delight i have joy in his word you see joy for the believer comes through faith faith comes through the word of god come on somebody preaching the word here reason some of us are negatives because we spend too much too much time in the light of the television not enough time in the light of god's word come on somebody oh yeah hallelujah to that one huh so he goes on to say that i have moved into joy because i believe the word of god and i reflect on how god has been good to me through the word then he goes on to verse 71. he says you know even though i was afflicted afflict is not sickness it's just trouble even though i went through a troubled time it was good for me to go through trouble time because then i began to learn more i began to study more of the word of god well hey i'm in this difficulty where's the scripture for that where do i need to have faith now what do i need how does god speak and dress that he said it was good for me to face some trouble because then i learned to study the word of god more hallelujah and then we come to the verse that's up on the screen and that is in verse 92 and he said what he said if your law had not been my delight well you know i don't like really reading the bible i don't understand it much you know and you know i you know i got sitting right there in the coffee table but you know we read it every time at christmas we read about baby jesus and you know that's good that's about all i can use it for well let me tell you you're missing it because he said if it had not been that i had joy in your law if it would not been that i had my delight my joy in your law i would have perished in my affliction i'm here to tell you that when you go through trouble if you can't find the joy and you can't find the strength and like you said that word revive you can't find that life friend you're going to be perishing under depression and doubt and fear and all the negative default emotions that are going to come crashing in on you no wonder people get negative and then they try to find joy substitutes like america got drunk during covet right alcohol sales went skyrocketing because america tried to find a way to cope friend people are looking for ways to cope they just don't know that we have found the answer they don't know that we know how to cope they don't understand that it comes from a person it comes from being renewed in your mind it comes from finding the joy of the lord that's why verse 93 i will never forget your precepts for by them you have revived me well maybe it's like it's like jeremiah you've forgotten me days without number jeremiah 2 32 right we've forgotten the word of god but you know he said but no once you taste it once you know it once you understand its power i will never forget the word because that's what gives me new life that's what revives me in the time of a trial in my life and then he goes on and he begins to talk about it in verse 154 oh lord revive me according to your word again according to your word it goes on verse 162 i rejoice at your word in fact verse 164 seven times a day i'm going to praise you because of your word oh praise god i want to tell you we like to worship god but why do we worship god because our worship is based on our faith which is based on the word of god and i'm telling you as your faith goes so goes your worship if you don't have much faith in god's word so goes your worship you don't have much worship but when you have faith and they sing that song i believe that he can move the impossible the immovable and i believe and we start singing that we start repeating that yeah i believe i believe and we start hey i want to worship god hey praise god i believe the hands go up people start worshiping god seven times a day seven times a day i'm going to praise him it's not seven times a day i'm going to get mad at the television and the talking heads it's not seven times a day i'm gonna say something negative about the world and america and about coronavirus and about my inconveniences no it's about changing your life it's about changing your atmosphere in your home it's about changing your self-talk it's about changing your inner disposition and that default emotion from being negative to being positive and saying my emotion is going to be joy my emotion is going to be praised seven times a day i'm gonna praise him because i have a good report from the lord is psalm 165 but it says verse 165 that says great peace [Music] great peace have all those who love your law and they shall be offended by nothing if there's ever been almost two years of offense we've just lived through it two years of name calling two years of division and it's been going on before that i'm just saying if we've ever had a chance a reason to be offended you have a perfect chance to say i'm offended [Music] come on somebody quit buffing your halos out there i know you're probably yelling at your television set great peace have those who love his law and in nothing shall they be offended [Music] that is offended is in nothing shall they stumble and nothing shall they backslide no matter how negative the politics no matter how negative the coronavirus no matter how negative the job world is no matter how negative things seem to be and social distancing and things you can't do things you miss things that will never be the same again all those things in nothing nothing nothing those that love the law will never stumble never fall over and say i give up my faith i'm going to turn in the towel i'm going to basically go back on god in nothing why what is the security friend the security is in the word of the lord and he has magnified his word even above his name it is basically saying you know what i'm going to have to for the times i'm gonna have to get uh down deeper in the word of god for the times i'm gonna have to be more relational in my uh relationship with jesus christ i'm gonna have to see his face smiling at me all day long smiling at me all day long what about when i mess up he's still smiling at me all day long because i i told you even though i knew you'd mess up amen in fact i know you're going to mess up some more time but i'm still smiling at you because i've already provided for your forgiveness so i can still smile at you amen so i'm smiling you all day long so why don't you come and worship me and i'll put a smile on your face and when you renew your mind and you begin to see that hey listen you don't have to think negative like the world you don't have to focus on the negative things you can focus on my promises in a negative world you can focus on the fact that i am promising you a promised land i am promising you a life full of abundance i am promising you a life that is blessed i am promising you that you are going to be the head and not the tail you're going to live above only and not beneath the promises of god i am making promises that if you will just believe them you will start feeling a little bit better you'll start having joy in your heart you will start overcoming in your life i'm here to tell you today that the lord gave me this message and he said this my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge and my people are depressed for a lack of joy you test that and that's why this is important to him yeah all of you are probably going to heaven but i don't know how many of you are going happy [Music] some of you probably complain when you get there well that's not the kind of gold i thought they'd have up here and bless god i don't know how to look better than this [Music] i'm trying to tell you the heart of the father is that you are not captive to unbelief in a negative world you see it's not our president it's not it's not our nation it's not coronavirus and the cdc it's not in those people it wasn't egypt back then that was their control it wasn't any nation that controlled god's people it was god who controlled god's people and it was god who said i am going to supersede the nations i'm going to supersede whatever's going on in your environment and i am going to bring you into that good and spacious place flowing with milk and honey and it says time to say oh god i believe you all it's time to say god i praise you i'm gonna praise you seven i'm gonna praise you perfectly all day long because god i'm gonna trust your word your word is gonna be a joy and a delight to my heart oh god may i never default to a negative emotion again may i never live in fear again may i never live in bondage to the things that have traumatized me in the past may i never ever say i can't get through it or i can't get over it may i never ever say this can never change may i always believe in you and trust your worth and may it always be the joy of my heart oh god don't let me be a cranky old christian god made me me a joyful christian make me be a believer that gives you praise may i be a believer that shines my light may i be someone that this world needs to see somebody who's not bound up in fear because god hasn't given me a spirit of fear but a power and of love and a sound the delivered mind that i am the head and i will walk abundantly in his grace and i will live to praise him all the day long oh blessed be the lord oh blessed be the lord blessed be his name oh blessed be the name of the lord blessed be the name the lord blessed be blessed be the name of the lord let's all stand together beloved prayer workers come if you you didn't get prayer the first time hey we got a round two coming up you can come around for a double dip [Music] if you don't know christ we always give an invitation we like to always give an invitation please know that every service you are the priority if you don't know christ he came to seek and to save all of us who were once lost we didn't know how we were supposed to live everything's been figured out in life except how to live jesus taught us how to live you confess your sin what's sin i've i haven't been living for god i've missed the mark i've come short of the glory of god that he hadn't for my life i confess and repent of my sin please forgive me lord come into my heart save my soul i receive you now into my heart will come in and save you heads bowed those online you can let a prayer worker know online if you've been bound by negativity some have been bound by hurt and trauma some have been made fun of in school and ridiculed by spouses some have been hurt by rejection some have been so self-critical because you haven't measured up to a sibling or you haven't measured up to some of your peers are all devices the devil has used to keep you bound but jesus is smiling at you jesus has come to set you free jesus has come to heal the brokenhearted set every captive free [Music] and in the quietness of this moment [Music] would you let him in would you let him into your heart would you let him into your life would you let him into your brokenness would you let him see your stuff and invite him in to uproot the strongholds and the lies the devil has told you because god is smiling at you he's smiling at you you say pastor that's me i need to just let him in i need to let him into the stuff i need to let him heal i need to let him change me i need him to pull up the old route of bitterness resentment and brokenness and to plant the new seeds of his glory his face his word and my life he said your bowel you say pastor that's me i want you to lift up your hand if you if that's you today god bless you god bless you [Music] god bless you over there god bless you so three or four hands go on [Music] father [Music] father i feel that you've come to meet with your children you provided a family meeting today to have a family talk to talk to us as your kids and to raise us up in your righteousness your love and your grace lord you gave us the truth today i pray that the truth would set us free [Music] i pray that we would return to the word of god may we return to the word of god may we return to your face return to your joy return oh god to your love [Music] and may you heal us and may you raise us and may you use us to shine a light in a dark world through the face of jesus christ lord may today make a change we praised our way through the breakthrough and now we pray that you will renew our minds and hearts through the word of god that we would be that metamorphosis not conformed to this world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds through the word of god and may we never be the same lord may we never live in a negative default emotion but may we always live in the freedom of your love and joy and peace [Music] we pray in jesus name and everybody said amen amen praise god let's give him one more praise today beloved amen hallelujah amen our altar workers are here as always if you would like special prayer they're going to sing us out but it's been great to be with you in the lord's house today may the lord bless you and keep you and the lord cause his face to shine upon you may the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace shalom is may the lord destroy that one that causes chaos may he give you peace shalom god bless you beloved have a great lord's day [Music] really you

Channel: City Sanctuary Deland

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Id: QRYiEDcyR2c

Length: 97min 7sec (5827 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021