Special guest at Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

[Music] there's a road that's been made to walk upon just like a song that was meant to be sung [Music] or there's a guard that speaks gently to his sons [Music] come to me [Music] but there's a rage [Music] in an unforgiving sea [Music] a night sky [Music] patiently [Music] oh [Music] with the power come on [Music] hi you guys this is steve wintering from calvary chapel tri-cities and i just wanted to thank you for tuning in online um we're especially blessed by the fact that we've got people from all over the united states that are tuning in and all you guys in other countries that are tuning in just really blows us away we've got some we've gotten some really neat emails from you um i just want to give you an invite to be more involved with what's going on around here especially in areas that we can serve you so if you have anything that we uh can pray for any needs that you think we might be able to meet for you we'd love to be involved in that and you can let us know by sending an email to calvary chapel tri-cities at gmail.com and so again we'd love to hear from you uh tell us how we can minister to you uh we just like to be of service for all you guys that are listening in in our area online again just just a great opportunity for us to be involved in your lives and to be able to minister to you i want to encourage you though if you're staying home because it's convenient and you don't really have a reason not to be in church you know that fellowship is something that we need as believers in fact the word koinonia in greek is a word that means a community it has the idea of assembly in fact the the word for church is assembly and you're not involved in church if you're not assembling and so i understand the need to stay home if you're in danger with the whole covid crisis and uh that's obviously the reason that we're doing this but if that's not the case with you you guys need to get to church we need to see you and so just want to encourage you in that area also in any case uh in all these areas we'd love to serve you glad you're listening in uh just pray that god blesses you through the studies whether it's me or one of the other guys and again uh we just want to be a servant to you so god bless you check this out it's going to be a good time we're going to be in the word well welcome to calvary chapel tri-cities wednesday night service um announcements tonight the only thing i have is if you can see in here we got i don't know what two three hundred operation operation christmas child boxes were lined up here i believe you have this coming sunday that you can still bring your boxes to to distribute and other than that we'll welcome those of you here this evening and also those of you online to our service and i pray that you have a blessed time tonight let's pray lord god we just thank you for your love for us thank you lord that we can worship freely and we can worship you in spirit and in truth pray lord that you would bless us this evening with your presence and [Music] that we would hear your words spoken in jesus name amen if you would please stand [Music] is [Music] everyone needs a passion [Music] [Music] is [Music] my jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] mountains is jesus christ [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] earth [Music] yes [Music] is [Applause] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] right in this [Music] [Music] [Music] yours [Music] is [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] everyone by the blood [Music] everybody [Music] is [Music] [Music] worthy [Music] in jesus foreign worthy is [Music] is [Music] to him heaven's mercy sir [Music] you are my everything [Music] closing rainbows [Music] lashes [Music] holy holy holy [Music] of kings filled with wonders [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] you are my everything and i will [Music] is [Music] and i will adore you are you hurting [Music] jesus [Music] to the is of yourself [Music] was bought with the precious [Music] leave behind your regrets and mistakes come today there's no reason to wait jesus from the ashes [Music] come is the altar the father's arms precious blood of jesus christ [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] is the father's arms are opened forgiveness was bought with the precious [Music] forgiveness [Music] there you cross as you wait for your crown tell the world of the treasures you [Music] we just pray that you would bless us with your presence tonight you can have a seat and visit just pray a blessing of reach one of us here and ask us in jesus name amen i'm going to talk about fellowship a little bit and probably a lot of other things who really knows where i'm going yet i'm not totally sure i could go anywhere um last time i was here i talked about love meaning uh love for one another and how we're supposed to when we become a believer how we're supposed to love brothers and sisters of the lord and how we're supposed to uh how that's supposed to work in our lives one another and it goes even further um sharing in fellowship with god's love or in god's love you know um it's it's funny sometimes how that works when you first become a believer you you're not really sure you know you're a little bit out there a little bit and depending on where you came from it can be a little intimidating and but there's always awesome people in church that are willing to bring you in receive you you know and help you to guide you into the right location help you with things mentor you and whatever god always has people in your life like that and in first john 4 10 through 12 tells us that this is real love not that we loved god but that we loved us and sent us his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins dear for instance god loved us that much we surely ought to love each other no one's ever seen god but if we love each other god lives in us and as love is brought to full expression in us john 13 34 so now i'm giving you a new commandment love each other just as i have loved you and you should love each other so that's a pretty big deal when he's telling us he's giving us a new commandment that we're to love each other just as he has loved us he loved us so much that he gave his life so you think about for a minute um i mean in in reality it's saying that everything that's mine is yours everything that's mine is yours right something like that meaning that we are um as a body of christ we are once we become believers we're all in this together we're all brothers and sisters we're all one blood we're all in it together and fellowship is part of that fellowship we could have fellowship here in the church that fellowship in a small group you have fellowship in numerous different ways and you know in today's times right now with what we're going through you're hearing a lot of of don't have fellowship you're hearing a lot of you know stay home stay here don't do this do it all on online and all these other things where people are getting kind of uh worn out with it honestly uh whether you agree or don't agree with it however that goes it's affecting people it's affecting people uh heavily you know at work we noticed that the morale change of of the guys over the past you know nine months or so has been pretty significant and it has to do with a lot of things not just a lack of or a shorter income or something like that but it's literally not being able to go out and fellowship with the and do the things they used to do all the time freely okay there's always restrictions and that causes a lot of problems but you know the thing in christ is that there are no restrictions other than who you fellowship with on a regular basis that's to do it with brothers and sisters in christ and and uh you can witness to the rest of them but best to do that with the brothers and sisters in christ because that's where we need to be ephesians five one and two tells us imitate god therefore in everything you do because you are his dear children live a life filled with love following the example of christ he loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us and a pleasing aroma to god uh the word koinonia a greek word we need to be drawn together by intimate participation is often used to describe the idealized state of fellowship prayer and service within the early christian church so there's lots of ways to fellowship and when we look at that we realize that [Applause] if you're not doing it you're missing out i don't know how many of you go to small groups i'm actually going to start i've gone for years to different ones over the years since i've been here in calgary for many many years i haven't gone to small groups but they haven't and they're actually pretty awesome the guys that lead them are really good and they're very worth going to there's a lot of growth that can occur in small group where you get taught here you get some amazing teaching here right all the pastors here and you can take that and what your own studies at home are and in small groups you're in a smaller environment where you can you can you can grow with that there's a lot of opportunity to have relationships there that you may not make normally because of the size of a church or you know the the fact that you're coming and going at different times but in small groups you're able to overcome that and you're able to have those relationships and god will bring you to the right one so if you're not going i'd pray about it and think about it because they're they're definitely worth going to i went to many small groups over the years and i can tell you that my kids uh there were places my kids went for many years and they there were people there that became grandparents to them you know i mean things like that there was just a lot of different things that went on in those groups that it wasn't just bible teaching which was awesome part of it obviously but there was also that relationship that fellowship eating together just all the different things that we did together and how that just all really comes full circle with christ and what he wants us to do as believers being 100 together i mean it's like tonight we're here worshiping tonight together and there was a lot of people singing actually and uh you know and now it's amazingly awesome to me when we hear worship like that um it's just something that's soothing it brings a quietness over your spirit it just kind of levels things out at the end of the day you know and uh not having that is something that uh i think we would sorely sorely miss that's for sure um when we're talking about fellowship you know it's funny when i first got saved i came from a pretty rough environment my family was awesome but i came from a rough environment that i had done on my own different things and choices i'd made and i first got saved i made a commitment to christ and god completely delivered me from an alcohol drug addiction just just delivered me 180 or 100 just gone and the next day i walked out of a room and i was looking around and i was seeing how you know this sky was blue i mean there were just things i hadn't seen for a long time and in that i began to realize that uh you know i was gonna have to make some changes and one of them was that uh i took what i had put it in a car and i left where i was living at the time i just walked out and then i left a lot of stuff behind i didn't really care for any of it i didn't i didn't care at all because i felt you know i got to get out of here i got to get away from the situation and the people and that i was wanting to further myself and just cling to god as close as i could and that's what i did and god honored that i'll tell you because i spent every night reading the bible living in my car you know and this thing and i was working for a gentleman that goes to church here at the time it started working for him he was actually a guy that witnessed to me and was part of that part of that whole situation so but what i was getting to is that i walked out of that fellowship with those group with that group i had which you know we were together all the time but they weren't the right people to be around anymore and so i left that behind and you know as the scripture tells us that don't team up with those who are unbelievers for how can righteousness be a partner with wickedness how can light live with darkness what harmony can there be between christ and the devil how can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever and what union can there be between god's temple and idols for we are the temple of living goddess god said i will live among them i'll walk among them i will be their god they will be my people therefore come out from among unbelievers separate yourselves from men says the lord don't touch your filthy things and i will welcome you i will be your father and you will be my sons and daughters this is the lord almighty so what i'm getting to is that the fellowship that i was having there wasn't going to work anymore and i had to pull out and i the only fellowship i had at that time was was uh rob actually and god and that was my fellowship and uh it was amazing because about three i was about a month later i ran into these guys some of them and they said hey you know let's let's go do this and that and i said nope man ain't me no more i don't do those things any longer oh you got to go and finally after a lot of persuasion i said okay i'll go so i went and what i found out is that walking into this this this party i see these things going on and what i see is that that's not for me anymore and it's like god said hey here's your sign you know you're done with this you don't have nothing to do with this any longer and i'm watching all these things going on in the room and some pretty wild stuff and uh i said hey guys i'm out i'm with jesus now i'm not with this anymore and i got to go and i left and i never looked back and um you know the bottom line was if i stay then who knows where i am today okay because i've chosen a fellowship with the other side and there is another side now i can witness to those people i can pray for those people i can talk to them about jesus i can do all of those things and should do all of those things but for me to to have one-on-one fellowship with them on a regular basis hanging out doing this doing that not a good idea because those are the things that will turn you and believe me the devil likes to hit below the belt okay he's not he doesn't he doesn't play friendly you know uh darkness doesn't play friendly it it hits you where you're weakest and that's where it's going to get you and uh god knows my weaknesses he knows everybody's he knows everything we do and we all know that the flesh is weak but the spirit is strong and when you're in those situations the best thing to do is just walk away you know and i had a lot of times in my life early on after i got saved where i had to just walk away i mean literally just turn and walk away things were right there in front of me that could have pulled me right into the gutter and i said nope sorry but the reason being is because god was speaking to me and i'm listening thank you for the first time probably and saying you know what um there's a better thing on this side god has awesome things to give what god did for me with jesus dying on that cross was greater than anything that ever happened in my life minus adding my family into that and it was a another part of that but that's what comes when you when god blesses you in your life this is the things that god does for you if you listen and pay attention god does amazing things that's for sure it's there's no end to it okay a friend of mine had gotten saved up in yakima at a um a big deal with mike wernicke he came home and uh he had a girlfriend who was up there with him who actually went to church but wasn't really a believer and he had to basically tell her cheer out and she's like what and he's like i don't want to be unwickly yoke you read it in the scripture cannot be unequally yoked god says you know you got to make a decision either serve me or not which is it you know what you're going to do and so he gave her the ultimatum and man she wasn't happy but it put him in a different spot and then god brought him the exact person he was supposed to marry and be with the rest of his life very short time later so when you do these when you have these situations and god's putting something right in front of you it's uh it's amazing when we listen to god and hear that and heed to that and be obedient and see the the blessing that god has for us when we do when we are obedient um it is amazing so um hanging with yum seed will get you into trouble quick the flesh is weak the spirit is strong it's not witnessing though we should witness that's for sure um let's see moving on so fellowship with one another talked about small groups a little bit let's see here let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do but encourage one another especially now that the day of his return is drawing near that was hebrews 10 24 and 25. so we're supposed to motivate one another into acts of love and good works and you know there's all kinds of love and good works that we can do all day long i mean how many times we run across people that are in need that aren't believers that are believers i mean you never know but you run into people that need something you know grabbing a basket at the store and saying hey i can take that for you or you know giving up your parking spot or whatever it might be helping somebody with stuff in the car i mean even today people will still let you do that you know there's a lot of things that you can do i remember one time me and rob was out hunting and another guy he was not a believer and he was mad at us all day because we kept stopping and pushing people out of the snow you know we were way out there by ringgold right and all these farmers and everybody are out there trying to get out some of these guys are trying to get out of driveways and they're stuck you know we stop stop we jump out we push them and quit doing that you guys got to quit stopping and we're like no we're not going to do that we're going to do it all day and so the more he said it the more we poured it on but um yeah so we thought hey why not you know he wouldn't get out of the truck either he's just sitting there tracking watch us but like whatever man we're doing it but you know that made it sure help people out you know i mean little things like that you know what's going on in a guy's life i mean you have no idea what's going on in their head i mean those guys can be having the worst day in the world for them and little things like that might make it a difference in their life to say you know i'm going to go a little further now you know i'm not going to give up right now sometimes people are in positions where they're ready to just give up they're done and the little things that we do the kind word we might have for them you know you go through some of these check lines with some of these people that are working retail right now and some of them are just getting beat up you know and you give them a kind word say the right things to them and they feel pretty good you know it helps to brighten their day a little bit because i mean you got to imagine some of the storage stuff that people are going through right now with all the people just grabbing everything off the shelves and going crazy at the counters and everything else and wanting things done a certain way and it's there's some pretty impatient folks out there right now and you know they're dealing with all the same things that we are so acts 2 42 tells us that the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship and sharing and meals including the lord's supper and to prayer and that's a portion of acts where they're all meeting together and the church is beginning to grow and they were meeting in small homes but also in one big open area or one big one big room at one time and they were still dealing with a lot of different things government-wise and people chase them around not liking them but they were moving forward and they were building they were growing and they were changing a lot of that comes from fellowship fellowship people bringing in new people people bringing in people that aren't saved yet guys here in the word they're changing things are growing uh there were healings going on there were all kinds of things happening god's spirit was there i mean things were hopping and they were excited about it and that's the way church is i mean we we go here most of us here probably go on a regular basis and we know why we come you know it's not just because we like the chairs it's because there's there's there's there's a reason we're here we like the fellowship we like to hear the word we like to hear the singing we like to do things we're we're part of what's going on here and it nourishes something it fills us it puts that fills that thirst it takes that hunger away and um it gives us that energy to move forward and continue on you know it's it's a day-to-day thing and uh i'm just it's just amazing to me when you think about all the different people in a building like this in a church and how many different people go here with all the different walks of life we all have one thing in common and that is that we all have like-minded and like-hearted because we love jesus christ and we've accepted him as our savior and that is an amazing thing when you think about it and there's so much power in that it's incredible you know the amount of power in prayer is amazing what god will do when men pray a righteous man prays when we all get together and we all sing i remember coming here to phil wickham concert you know the first one they did here and the place was just back all the way in the back you know and out there in the doors and and it was uh people from everywhere a lot it was half of almost calvary half of the room was churches from everywhere and everybody was worshiping together you know because he's a worship leader you know that's what those guys do right i mean he doesn't just come up here and play guitar i mean the guy's a worship there and so he's playing and it's just we were in the back back there and i mean it was it was just amazing to hear and be involved in that type of worship you know where everybody is just involved everybody's like one voice you know uh pretty awesome it really is and you hear the same thing when everybody's in the same same mind in prayer you know there's strength in that it really is and uh that's why we're to go and and get prayed for when we need it because the body is here for that reason you know that's what we do we pray for each other we we love each other for a reason and that's part of that love is loving each other and knowing that you know it's like small groups you know you sometimes you have an idea some people where they're kind of afraid well i want to go there and get like a name tag and then i'm going to have to say something when it comes around to me and just tell some spill the beans you know that's not what small groups are small groups are home fellowship that means that they have fellowship together in somebody's home they're going to have probably some teaching they're going to have some other things going on whatever that is maybe they play cribbage i don't know but kickball or something but they they have a little fun together they do their thing they get to talk they get to you get to rap with people that are like-minded like-hearted like believing you also have people coming in there that may not believe that are learning guys that are on the fringe i mean you get all kinds you know i had a guy i was helping with a small group in family many many years ago and a lady would bring her with broader son who was older actually he was in his 30s and uh he was old as we were and they said he was kind of a troubled he had some problems you know he wasn't uh i don't know she she wanted him there because he wanted him to to learn who jesus was okay so i said well that's fine bring him in here i don't care you know so we're teaching the way they said but he's been a problem everywhere i go with them and i said okay so whatever so we're we're teaching away and he just keeps coming at you you know what i mean everything's a contradiction everything's this everything's that and it's gonna take everything you say stops you and then he turns it around and goes backwards with it and finally i just and i just looked at him and i stopped and i he was trying to tell me what that he was a believer and a lot of other stuff and i said you know i said uh truthfully i said i'm gonna tell you something i said i said you don't believe any you don't believe in god at all do you i said you're a total atheist man i said you don't believe nothing about jesus christ i said this whole book is just nothing but paper to you isn't that right and he just looked at me you know and his eyes got really big and he just kind of looked at me and he said yeah that's it i said he goes you're the first person to tell me that and i said well i said i don't know why not i said you're sitting here listening to you know it's obvious that you're not a believer and um i don't know if you ever became one because he didn't become one that night but he did listen and we did talk to him and he did settle down and was able to hear some of the teaching that we had at that night about jesus and so i don't know where he went because i never did see those guys again but that's kind of what can happen sometimes you're going to have people that are different situations but they're there for a reason and you're trying to get the word into them that's also part of it but you got other people there with you so sharing and fellowship is of a common devotional life okay uh worshiping together kind of care with that but we let the message in colossians 3 16 says let the message about christ and all this witness spill your lives teach counsel each other with all wisdom he gives sing psalms and hymns and spiritual get my paper up here where am i at sorry i lost my spot there so quiet in here i'm used to teaching fourth graders they make a lot of noise they're never that quiet i should have got my suckers out we could have thrown them out for you know got that question there i had two points so um there it is let the message about christ in its richness fill our lives teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives saying psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to god with thankful hearts which is what worship is and you know i looked at some of the psalms that we have listed some of them one of them is psalm 42 which david looks like david wrote to the sons of kara but it's an amazing song that's one that starts out with a deer panda for the water and they last time i was here they sang that song the guy did i remember when that song was when i first heard it was back in back in the 80s mid 80s when i was first saved and i was probably been out forever obviously because it's a psalm but what it is really is an amazing song and you know in that psalm itself when you go through it uh for somebody that's looking to return fellowship to god that's a really good one because psalm 42 talks about all of it the thirst we have for god the need for that water the need for that spiritual nourishment and all the different things that david had looked at i mean you look he was kind of an exile at the time and you see how he was you know the different things he was like man i just wish i was still in the place where i could worship god freely and in freedom you know and uh it's just an amazing psalm as you go through that so i would encourage reading that psalm 42. psalm 54 14 tells us what good fellowship we once enjoyed as we walk together in the house of god that's also david um actually in first corinthians 14 says well my brothers and sisters let's summarize when you meet together one will sing another will teach another will tell some special revelation god has given one will speak in tongues and it will interpret what is said but everything what it's done must strengthen all of you i think steve talked about this last last week and i heard uh somebody on the radio talking about people barking like dogs the other day and that's probably all that toronto stuff but um and i've been to some different places and yeah i've seen a lot of different stuff because i used to go with there was a there was a crew of us that used to go to the streets and minister a lot and uh one of them was miss clara upton from uh morningstar who's passed away she'd be like well over 100 by now but she was in her 70s and she would go to the street with us all the time it was really awesome actually and then judy guyer would go with me and uh she would go and we would go to different churches too because there were some folks over in richland at some of the different places and we would go to a lot of different churches and just go to they'd have like a revival or they'd have some kind of uh meeting or something you know and saw a lot of different things going on but uh some real interesting stuff but however it needs to be done in order orderly you know and that's the thing when it's not done in orderly it gets to be chaos and i've been on a few buildings when it was chaos and it's quite interesting um it it's like okay i'm gonna stay over here to the side and hope i don't get wrapped up in this somehow and maybe i need to get out the door i'm not sure but it's it's it can be chaos i don't think that's the way god really wants it i think he wants woman orderly is in the sense that when things are done like this when there are prophecies and so they're they're repeated there's an interpretation or it's interpreted through when i was in israel i lived over there in israel for about four months five months me and another guy did in bethlehem and we went to baptist house was one of the churches we went to and david teeter was the interim pastor at the time and they would post prophecies on on a big board but it was my understanding that the prophecies would come and you can imagine israel probably everybody's got one right there's there's all kinds of crazy stuff over there i mean it's not ending never ending uh we were over there there was a guy that said he was elijah and he was walking around the mount of olives had a big following and all kinds of stuff going on but lots of real stuff over there obviously but at baptist house it would take and then they would take these prophecies and they would pray over them and read over them and so on and so forth and if they deemed it you know real real i guess they would put it up on the board and then everybody could read it and that's how they did it there they would have singing um every couple of every sunday they had like a special group there and i've been there when we had different people from all over the world would come and sing uh that were there because you know you always got people traveling around and they're in israel right they're tourists and so on or they're coming there to do things and there was some amazing groups of worship teams that came in there when we were there that would sing but by far the the coolest church we went to there for fellowship was actually a lutheran church in the old city and it's down in the old c jerusalem we spent a lot of time in the old city then the new city was not very much was there because this is a 1986 late 86 early 87. and it has a upstairs like that and you can sit up there and look down but the pastor at that church was pretty awesome guy very charismatic spent a lot of time traipsing around israel going to different places but it was just a neat place to go and we had a lot of a lot of fun there we used to go there with one of the other missionaries that we were working with there he he attended there on sunday and they all attended the baptist house on saturday and so we would uh we'd go to both but uh baptist house was an ultra-orthodox neighborhood so that was kind of a tough gig there because they burned it down a few times because they were doing things in the neighborhood when they weren't supposed to be on saturday which is sabbath and so they would get pretty upset but however the fellowship was good lots of different people from all walks of life um converted jews we had all kinds of people there and um so it was pretty awesome actually and worshipping again with that group of people together was just amazing you know and we were able to share that fellowship of a common devotional life and when you're able to do that with others it just strengthens you and you grow you learn you grow there's mentors there there's all kinds of things that god brings into your life you know for sure um praying together so john james 5 16 says confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed the earnest prayer of a righteous person or a man has great power and produces wonderful results and i think that it's so often that we we look at prayer you know sometimes i wonder if and and i've done it i think everybody might have maybe i'm the only one i don't know but where you sometimes you take it for granted you know prayer is real though and does work and one of the things we teach in the kids over there and we've done it for years is we started doing something many years ago share in prayer when the kids come in we have them sit down the first thing we do is we guide you up on the board and everybody says you gotta we got something to pray for we put their name up there and then we ask the other kids to pray for that a different child about something else we kind of switch around and it's amazing how how the the kids uh respond to that i mean they like it they love it and what they're learning is that prayer does work because they're praying for things yeah they got some weird stuff you know you know a guinea pig or whatever but it doesn't matter because they're praying for something that matters to them okay right you know sometimes i'll tell you know the cat's been gone for five years and it's like well i need to tell you this but you know you probably ain't coming back yeah wiley coyote probably got him by now right so but you just say okay you know whenever you get somebody to pray for him because we're not really interested in all that we're interested in learning teaching them that you know what uh prayer does work prayer matters and if it matters to you and it's something in your heart that needs to be done then you need to pray for it we need to go to god and ask for what we need and bingo and get other people involved you know in in situations like that you know the earnest prayer of a righteous man availeth much is what this says and that's an amazing thing i mean you've seen had lots of different things happen over the years where uh you know the little things that we pray for it's amazing you know day to day at work and i'm always praying for stuff at work and i mean it it's just stuff i mean that you know somebody at work it's an unbeliever that they have a bad attitude that their attitude is going to change wow you go in there the next day and they've got a great attitude it's like thank you god you know you just worked it out and that's the way it works you know and and it it just god does things for you okay but you gotta ask and you gotta go in there and uh you gotta be and it also talks about confessing since someone on there so if you're having trouble you know when you're struggling don't struggle on your own until you can't do it no more and you don't know what to do when you leave seek out some people for help man get get a get a get a uh if you don't have anybody that you know that you can be confident in then you know get an appointment with one of these pastors down there they've got lots of them here you know matt matt matt and they got you got you know yeah you got the three mats and you got zach and you got mitch and you got steve and i mean you got a lot of people around here that can definitely help you they definitely will sit down with you and they're more than willing to do so okay and uh if you don't have any close enough friends that you feel like you can share those things with because sometimes you're going through stuff you don't want anybody to know about i mean that's just where it is sometimes you're a little i don't know you know and then you're going to god on your own but it just isn't working you know because you're still doing the wrong things and whatever it's going on it ain't happening you know and get with somebody don't just let it sit you know a guy told me many many years ago you know when you make mistakes man don't run from god but run to him and and there's a lot of truth to that because the first thing we like to do is to take off you know we want to get out we don't want to be caught well god's already seen it so that's done right so whether we know it or not i mean isn't it amazing some of the things in the bible when you read you know look at david you know what an amazing amazing leader right king i mean he's done so many different things in his life and then we got beersheba right yeah that whole thing what a menagerie that ended up being and what a mess it ended up being for the long years later because of that one instant but you think about it you know um you look at the different stuff that happened there and you see his heart you see how he repented and you see the different things he did but you also see that if he's capable i assure you that i am that is a fact if moses can slam the rock i guarantee you i can do it there's no question you know so that's why we humble ourselves and we put ourselves in that spot where we know you know that we're always capable of blowing it it's not like we live every day wondering you know am i gonna break am i gonna do something today that i shouldn't do it's not about that it's just understanding in your heart that you're capable at all times of being as dumb as you ever were right and uh the reality is is that if we pray and we do have issues we have an out we have an option the option is god the option is going to him and like i said if you can't if you need help you get with somebody that's going to help you you know and you go to the right people it's all done you know quasi under the under the table nobody knows except you god them and it's not a done deal and i will tell you that that's something here in this church that they're very big on and that is not talking about that stuff meaning that there's high confidence here and it's an awesome thing because it's not the way it is everywhere that's a fact you know these guys are awesome with that and it's uh that's the way it should be you know things like that so they get dealt with and they're done breaking bread together so we could look at that in a couple ways fellowship meals or you could also look at that as communion communion is something that i was always taught that communion was a situation where if we all take communion together then we're all taking it together all one you know you're sharing in christ's blood you're sharing christ nice body and basically what's mine is yours and yours is mine i guess what i mean by that is that we're all one in the blood we're all part of that together in that same body and when we do those things that's exactly what we're saying you know and communion is a serious thing and i think sometimes it's it's a thing where uh it can get where you don't take it as as as serious it really is but it is serious it's a it's a big thing you know you're you're doing something that says that this is in recognition of or you know imitation of his body and his blood that was shed for us and his body that was broken for us and so um there are certain things that i always do i always pray for everybody in the room whenever i take communion everybody if i'm outside the amplified theater then i'd be out there praying for everybody i mean that's what i'm doing i'm i'm praying for everybody first and then praying for myself second and then i'm i'm i'm making sure that you know i'm i'm open with god and my hurt that repentance is there and that i don't have anything to hide you know and uh i'm always doing that when i take communion i've always been told that you know it's a it's a serious issue when you read the scripture it's pretty clear on it and i think we've all done that and uh look at it that way but that's part of fellowship too see that's all part of that fellowship that we're all taking that together as one together party together and that fellowship is part of that and it puts us all into the same same room together you know and uh there's strength in that there's strength in the body that's together you know and that's someone earlier with the worship when we have churches that are together like they had the empire theater thing this summer where they had a couple times where they came and they were able to use the amplified theater all day pretty amazing wasn't it okay pretty awesome actually because these are other churches coming in here utilizing the facilities to to feed their fox and do what they did and that's really cool that everybody together can understand that we're all in the same all the same body here just one big body just because the science says this or the science says that right doesn't mean we're not in that you know um we're all in it together now i will tell you that i've been in situations where not so much you know years and years ago we used to spend a lot of time down in uh certain parts of pasco and we were down there on the street and every once in a while you'd have this crazy group come rolling down there one guy's got a cross with a wheel on it he was trying to be arthur blessed i guess but that spot was already taken and they would come down for a two-day stint they'd go running all over the place and but the funny thing was is that we would we would talk to them and say hey okay so we've been down here every day that's great and we've been here for months and this is what's going on and well we don't want to hear that you know and they're always about something that they got going on rather than just being about what the lord wants to do which is reach these people we're all trying to do the same thing we all come from believing churches with jesus but we're not in competition we're actually down here for the lord to try and reach people for jesus that's what we're doing here so we can all work together but nope can't do that and so it was always like okay whatever you know go take your corner i don't care you know have fun over there we're okay with it you know if you want to do that that's fine but that's not the way it's supposed to be and it's honestly not the way it always is because like i said i used to go with uh there was uh two ladies from richland from a church over there there was uh from a church of god there was a woman from east paschal used to come with us all the time from a from a church over there had another woman from faith assembly or not faith assembly was a road 100 church at the time used to be the dome you know that was a and it was a church of god uh way way back and uh and other a few other folks and then we were all from a different church so we'd all go together all the time we go down and witness you know and uh we didn't have any common goal other than to reach people for jesus and together we fellowship see you know and i'll tell you over that morning star man they had some good food after sunday that's for sure go downstairs in the basement when they had them they had all kinds of good food down there it's hard to leave but um unfortunately both those people are her and her husband both are past or we were pretty elderly at the time but awesome people love jesus so that's something you can do true fellowship means sharing with those in need we kind of talked about that a little bit but hebrews 13 16 says and don't forget to do good and to share with those in need these are the sacrifices that please god um you know you can you can help your neighbors you can help anything there's always opportunities to bless you know i started doing is i built these bags these blessing bags and i bought a bunch of stuff and a lot of people know what that is i'm sure i'm not the only guy i'm praying the last one but um but i'll tell you something i got a whole box of bibles the other day and they were really nice i paid four bucks for them they're on sale and they're a fake leather bound they're beautiful and they're fat big and they'll fit in these bags and uh they're a nice print red leather and i got them on uh sale on a site that was selling them out uh their hcs hcbc hsbc bible sir that holmen king james bible that's uh it's a good one and uh but i can fit them in there and i got the bags off amazon so i can actually get the whole bible in there and all this other stuff you know and so the bag becomes pretty pretty big but it's got all kinds of things oh you know what else is cool is have you seen this card card detergent anybody seen that okay so you know what a index card is right everybody knows what that is okay so the detergent comes like like this like a card and it's about as flat as this piece of paper right here and that's the size of it and you can perforate it and you tear it in the middle you throw it in your washing machine it washes your clothes yeah so why am i saying that well because those guys don't have any way to wash clothes so they got to buy detergent they got to do all this other stuff and they sometimes do want to wash some of their clothes believe me uh once in a while and so one of the things i did was i bought these things like 48 pack of them and then i slipped four or five of those in a in a ziploc and stick it in there that way they can wash clothes with it and it doesn't take up any space and you don't have to carry it it's not liquid it's not a bunch of powder and all this sort of weird stuff and they can cut it you know you can cut it into little chunks and you can wash as much as you want with it but this stuff works it's pretty amazing actually so uh these are things you can do for helping people out on the street and you get an opportunity to talk to them about jesus most guys that are homeless on the street are not that hard to talk to that's a fact you know um they're very willing most of them to talk to you unless they got something really going on um which sometimes is happening but when it's not most of them are more than happy to just talk to somebody because a lot of them don't talk to people okay going to the mission for the last since 1986 every month i will tell you that there's a lot of people down there that will talk until there's no end they'll talk all night long then there's a lot of people down there they'll never say a word there's guys down there that you won't even hear them speak a spoken word to anybody in the building never i mean almost never over years and years but um you remember a lot of these guys get so used to being on their own out there okay and they they have their little world you know and that world is living out there on their own and they've gotten used to it to the point where they're they're okay with it and uh they've kind of forgotten what the other world was like and they you know they hunk around and for whatever they whatever reasons are there there's a lot of different things that go on in people's lives that cause them to have to end up to be in these places whether it be drug addictions or alcohol or you know despair or mental illness or i mean there's just a ton of different things that go on in people's lives some people just have tragedy in their life that's so big they don't they just can't do anything else or they just became homeless because they lost their job and they had nowhere to go and they just you know there was just nothing there they couldn't couldn't do it anymore they just had to leave the thing is is that they're there and there's more and more of them on a regular basis for whatever reason that is you know and we also notice that there's a lot of younger these guys are younger now seems to be is what we're noticing and so for whatever reason that is and i've heard a lot of different things on that one but you know i don't know each guy is a little different i don't really worry about that i'm just going to go there and i'm going to try and bless these people and then give them something that can bless them and then hopefully we'll be able to speak to them about jesus and offer them something that they can go forward with we might be planting seeds and those seeds okay got a water they might go to another town which most of them end up in another town they don't just stay here forever a lot of them travel back and forth to salem and other places like that where they have these huge missions where they get a lot of good stuff and they get a train pass and they're down there right now the cove would may be stopping some of that i don't know but uh the reality is is that they're still here and that is one way to deal with it now i'm talking about the guys with the cardboard on the side of the road i'm talking about snatching these guys up they're out in the parking lots that are all in these back areas that are just hanging around you know they're not really wanting to be a part of people and uh these are guys that are a lot of times willing to talk and willing to receive something and sometimes like steve said you know you can offer him food rather than just say her here's a hundred bucks you know because i can hear you where that's going but um you give them food i'll take and give you something to eat would you like to go and they're like um i remember a friend of mine gave a guy is her sam he gave her his she gave judy one time gave a guy down on the street lewis street gave stopped and gave this guy her lunch and he jumped up and down on it so he wasn't really looking for anything to eat okay he was for looking for something else and she just kind of like um okay so she i think she read in the riot act actually but you know most likely but that's not the norm most guys are more than receptive and they're definitely looking for uh help and sometimes that kind word you're putting words into them i had a guy one time he was riding if he was riding his bike on finland it was clear out there by the long branch and i'm like he was trying to go to oregon and i said uh hmm i said well you're going the wrong way man i said that's you're not going to make it here and he's like hmm well i was talking to him i had a bible had all this stuff but the guy couldn't read and he couldn't read a lick so we sat down and read the word for a while and i gave him i still gave it to him and off he went the other direction well he had made it as far as a long ranch and they had a big sign out there about going to oregon for the years uh not years but for quite a while about that guy on the bicycle because he had been out there evidently he didn't he stopped by there trying to find oregon and i caught him on the way back up i saw him on the side of the chemical drive and i was like what are you doing out here on that bike man you're gonna get run over and so we give him a ride up to town and got him on the right right spot and off he went but you know i read a story at keith green one time picked a guy up going to arizona and drove them all away all night long spoke to him about jesus all the way in his van though i mean that's the kind of commitment he had so kind of crazy when you think about it but not really because he felt the need to witness to this guy and speak to him about jesus and so he said you know what what an opportunity let's put him in a van let's take him to i'm going to take him to arizona he's a hitchhiker and i'm going to talk about jesus all the way he got a chance he ain't got a choice he's got to listen you know right what's he going to do jump out you know i mean you know that's the best you can do that's a fact so you know so that's that's that's the kind of things that can happen when you start witnessing all kinds of different stuff can happen a lot different things that get pretty funny sometimes and you just never know what's gonna what's gonna come from things you know i remember it was downtown there and it was it was raining ice and we were standing out underneath the out underneath the uh the overhang you know down by the palm tavern and this guy come flying out of the palm tavern and he's just flying all over the place he the sidewalk's covered in ice and he's slipping and sliding he's doing all this stuff and he's got a gun in his hand and the gun goes flying up in the air and he flips up in the air and he lands on the curb and bounces his head off the curb boom he's knocked out clear cold and what he had done it had so he pulled the gun on somebody inside the there and he had ran out into that ice and he just did like these cartwheels and so he was just laying there you know so we went over there looking at him the gun's laying there and people come running out and they're falling all over the place and me and carl are kind of looking the guy over like oh well he's not dead okay so police come and he scarfed him all up and out he went but you see a lot of different things when you go down to those places and uh sometimes they're quite interesting characters down there that's for sure um so you can be a blessing to others and that is uh in a lot of different ways and uh meeting needs and you know meeting needs in the church is another one uh that's that's a big one also which we'll talk about in a little bit showing hospitality romans 12 13 when god's people are in need be ready to help them always be eager to practice hospitality so you know when your brothers and sisters are in need whatever it is you need to be ready and that could be anything you know they might need might need uh car help house help i mean shoulder and help might need money help might need any kind of help who knows what people all do different things to have different situations you know be ready to help be ready to be hospitable you know i know some people that are very hospitable and i'm sure everybody in this room does more than i am at times you know i'm i'm pretty good at how being hospitable but there's other times when i might have my focus is so focused on something i may not even look and that's where you got to stop for a second and say okay what are they asking me of here you know i talked about this last time i had a situation where i was at a gas station i was going to spokane and a guy came up and talked to me and uh he needed something and i said i never wanted money and i i don't do that but i could have put gas in this car that i could have did and i could have did some other things so i and i opted not to that was me making that choice and then after i was done i was like where'd he go and i told my wife we gotta go find this guy and i'm driving all over it's like i can't find him okay well let's go so we laughed and i said i told god i asked god i said please find somebody else because i said i blew that one sure enough this guy walks up to the car i'm sitting in a spokane in the car of course because my wife's in some goofy store and i'm not gonna go in there and and uh you know i'm watching this and i was like what is that place called the world market or whatever it is yeah yeah okay so i'm watching this and people everyone here this guy walks up so me and him had a long conversation about jesus and uh i went down there and got him some food and off he goes so i was like thank you jesus i was able to help that guy you know and and uh but that's because of god i mean that's what he puts in your heart if it wasn't for god i wouldn't have that in my heart to probably do that i'd be doing something else but like get out of here man i got something else to do but god puts that hospitality whether that's part of that fellowship and that's why it's so important we do that with believers especially not just on non-believer but believers also because at fellowship that's part of fellowship you know there are many that are very hospitable which we never hear about and they are seeking god not seeking god's glory uh they're seeking god's glory not their own about what they can what i can get it's not uh give me give me my name's jimmy my good name my good friend shirley so she had a scripture she stood by this is a lady that was a friend of mine's mother that always every time we were in that woman's house when it came the right time she would have us at the table and we talk about jesus every single time and it was never uh never condemning it was always just here's jesus this is who jesus is but she had a scripture hebrews 13 1-2 keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters don't forget to show hospitality to strangers for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it that was her favorite thing man she would always say oh that guy's coming down the street we got to get him in here because you never know and she would she would everybody eat at her house i mean everybody doing this now she was one of the most hospitable people you'd ever meet and you know when the rest of her family was very good at it but not as good as her let me tell you she was amazingly good at it and she loved people she did not have any preconceived judgments about them she just treated them like they were family everybody okay and it was always amazing watching that and we were part of it lots of different times and she's like you think it was an angel no we're not angels i can tell you that so how would we know devil's angels maybe yeah that was about it right first peter 4 9 says cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay and yeah i've done that as many as many of us here have done the same thing when that when these were necessary but i'll say once i had a family lived in a little two bedroom apartment and many many many years ago and i had a we had a family live with us i think was about six in that family didn't even know they were there it was amazing they were amazing family and they were just it was just crazy and then when it was time for me they were out you know they were so clean and they escaped you come home and all this food's cooked and it's like man this is great stuff you know oh it's good stuff sharing money and possessions god's people reflect his concern for the needy in society so again you know that's that's we tithe and that's one of the big things for me because i know it's going where it's going to go you know you know you've got missions you've got church stuff you've got everything going on administration all these different things that money goes into and it's god's money and it's getting put in the right place i have a very frugal staff here who who does amazing job with with everything they do and uh i mean it just they just are and that's a really really cool thing actually they really they really take a serious look at the way these things get done and where money goes and where it's going to and what it's supposed to do and so that's one thing there's also you can share with other missions and there's other things and we all know what those are we all do it i mean there's lots of things and now with social media there's opportunity all the time i mean donate donate donate the cool thing about that is is that there are people out there that really need that that are able to do that and able to get that money and able to do something with it and it's it's real you know i mean for me to be able to donate to somebody in africa in five seconds you know right and i know who they are i know where they're coming from i know that i know the ministry and i know where the money's going um it's just amazing a need pops up you got a family that needs something and you can give that money to them just like that and you can bless those people with that and it's just so cool honestly that we're able to do that you know it really is and um there's so many other ministries out there that and ministries we have running in this church that are uh just so good and need at times and when that need is there we are able to take and do that for them without having to put go through a lot of different hassles and run all these different things and they don't have to run the money the way they used to it's just they're able to just take it and use that money and put it in the right spot and so that's an amazing thing uh honestly in today's world so that is a good thing about technology that's for sure and being able to get the word out you know with the different ministries you know that's for sure there's there's just so many different things well we just had the thing on the adoption right yeah the adoption ministry and that's an amazing thing you know when you think about it i look at all the kids that we've had in that sunday school over there in my class alone that have come from foster families adopted family and been adopted and so on what an amazing thing these are kids that probably who knows where they end up we don't know but i can tell you that they're not starting out on the right foot and it's not because they they had choices to make it's because other people made choices and uh but you know the awesome thing is that there's people in this church that believe in that strong enough that they they bring these kids into their home treat them as their own and then they become amazing people of god i mean i could there's kids in this church i mean i could name their names i'm not going to but they're awesome and they've grown and we've watched them grow for the last five six seven eight years or whatever it's been and you're just watching them and you're just going wow this is really cool you know and you see the blessings that that is and how they've changed that family now that that person is going to change for life on they continue to follow god and you look at the amazing things that are going to come from that you know that's that whole thing that's been going on all these years and their family possibly has now broken and now you've got somebody that's following god and that's a whole different thing for them and a whole different thing for their family coming down the road you know and so um it's so it's a it's an amazing thing and uh i like i it's just cool and we get so many kids in there that are just a lot all the foster kids are just fun you know actually uh they're a lot of fun and they're fun to be around and they're fun to have fun with so they're good kids so they're awesome um so that's something that can be done society-wise and so on and there is a lot of scriptures on that which i might read a couple of those let me get to that so yeah i got all these papers not even not even using them strengthening the weak where am i at i had my laptop but i decided not to use it it's the one thing that keeps me organized right kind of oh there it is oh luke 311 john replied if i have two shirts and give one to the poor if you have food share it with those who are hungry matthew 25 35 through 36 as far i was hungry and you fed me on cersei you gave me a drink i was a stranger invited me into your home 36 i was naked you gave me clothing i was sick and cared for me i was in prison and you visited me and that that scripture's been used quite a bit obviously because it says a lot and uh keith green wrote a whole song about that so deuteronomy 15 10 through 11 says give generously to the poor not grudgingly for the lord your god will bless you in everything you do there will always be some some in the land who are poor that is why i am commanding you to share freely with the poor and with other israelites in need and you know what it's it's it's something that you do these things and you do it so that people don't feel less because they're not less they just don't have something that you do you know what i mean and um i don't like it when people feel like that it really bothers me when uh people are treated less maybe that's when i like the homeless guys so much but uh it it's something that i don't i don't like that at all people get looked down on and it's not something i'm in i'm ever involved and i don't like that at all i hate it honestly i just don't like it and uh there's no reason for that ever you know and people are awesome and uh they're all different and they all come from different places and when we're in christ we're all together and so if somebody doesn't have something and you do then you help them get what they need that's where that's at pretty much right there um acts 2 44 and 45 all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had they sold their property possessions and shared the money with those in need so that was a big deal all the believers united in heart and mind and they felt that what they owned was not their own so they shared everything they had apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection lord jesus and god's great blessing was upon them all there was no needy people among them because those who own land or houses would sell them and bring money to the apostles and give those to those in need so obviously we had a lot of people at that time that were really involved in getting things rolling and they had options and they used those options and they sold what they had but they didn't care anymore so off they went and that was their choice to do so and they did it and it worked and it obviously fed people and did different things to further the church that they needed and so that was pretty amazing um let's see what time does this get done anyway does anybody know eight eight o'clock okay so i got i got six minutes all right um did that one strengthen whenever strengthening one another and fellowship together bearing the week galatians 6 1 and 2 dear brothers and sisters if another believer is overcome by some sin your godly should gently and humbly help that person back into the right path and be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself share each other's burdens and in this way obey the law of christ so we we kind of touched on that earlier you know that's that's definitely something that can happen and you know you don't want to fall back into the same trap in other words don't treat your brother or your sister like it's something that nobody's ever done because you've probably done it yourself you know that's that's definitely most likely what's going on it's not about that it's about getting them fixed meaning helping them to find jesus in this situation so that they can be um so that they can get right with god whatever they need to do and if they're coming to you then they definitely are trusting you and confident in the fact that you're going to leave that between you and them and that's what needs to happen okay you don't talk about it to nobody it's just between you and them and if that if you're part of that you know that's the amazing thing about witnessing and doing things for people you get a blessing that's amazing the blessing might just simply be seeing their face when things happen or knowing that you know what i was a part of that person god was able to use something do something with me to help these people get right again or whatever it is god does the work god's it's god's spirit that's doing the work it's god's spirit that's fixing these people healing these people doing these things but when you're involved in that you're part of it it's amazing that god lets us be a piece of that there's a blessing in that just being a piece of it just being part of that is you know all the years preaching at the mission you know i've had i can count on my hands how many people go down with me i can tell you that right now over since 1986 you know less than 10 um because people are kind of scared of it some of them are some of them just don't know about it someone don't realize that you're packing a room full of people that have to listen to you they gotta hear jesus i mean you you go in there and they're all in the room they're all there just waiting for you to say something you got an hour well we we had a half hour for a long time then we had an hour and now we're back to a half hour well now we're not doing anything because they haven't got us back in there yet but i think that's coming here maybe after january so it's amazing how many guys you see god touch with things you're saying and you have no idea that that's going to happen but it's going but it does and people come up and different things happen and you're able to pray for people and see things happen in their lives and then they go somewhere else and who knows where they end up going you know but um it's it's a real blessing to see god work right in those places in these men you know it really is and being a part of that is just something that's uh you can't it's it's a feeling that you're just like man it's that's pretty awesome that god is doing those things and i was able to just be a piece of that you know not that i do anything but now we know it's god 15 1 of roman says who we who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this we just what we must not just please ourselves okay uh galatians six one and two we talked about that first little psalmians 5 14 brothers and sisters we urge you to warn those who are lazy you encourage those who are timid take tender care of those who are weak and be patient with everyone be patient with everyone some days it is not easy is it yeah at work i have to be really patient and it's pretty good until i get home and then it's gone probably by that time so my family has to deal with it but encouraging one another hebrews 10 24 and 25 let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of loves and good works and let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do but encourage one another especially now that the day of his return is drawing near i think it's obviously a testament everybody's here tonight so that's awesome um with all the stuff going on and all the things we've been told to do and not to do and nobody knows what to do and you know i mean you get up in the morning you know whether you do or don't do should i do should i not do it should i go to grandma's should i not go to grandma's what do we do right should i go to work should i not go to work i mean it's all this craziness going on in this chaos but i think that uh the way i've gone through the whole thing is simply this is that um you get up every day and you put christ back on i mean you get up and you go to bed with rice and you wake up with him and you pray that god's going to direct you in the right direction and i'm just going to go where i need to go and do what i need to do i'm going to go to work i'm going to do my job all day and i'm going to help others do theirs and you know basically my trust is in him you know it's not in whoever they've elected or anything else i'm not really interested in that and that part of it my trust is in christ you know and uh what he's done for me and i'm going to continue with that and uh serve him because he's the one that ultimately is going to make all the decisions for me at the end of the day okay putting the needs of others first romans 15 2 we should help others to do what is right and build them up in the lord uh we've kind of talked about that true fellowship means living in harmony finally all of you should be of one mind sympathize with each other love each other as brothers and sisters and be tenderhearted and keep a humble attitude so that's a uh keeping a humble attitude is a big one and uh there's times in our lives when you get unhumble and when you do that you find that there's always failure prior to coming before a fall and it's not hard to do everybody can do it it's easy you know but there's you stay in prayer continue to read and kind of continue to understand look around be patient pray and continually be in the lord and be in this be in in his presence and you find out that it's a lot harder for those things to happen so we get out of that we start acting in the flesh that we start having those issues and um again that's not hard to do but it's something and as you mature you learn to do it less and less hopefully and you find that showing equal concern for all is something that uh comes with it and you begin to find out that you know things don't matter as much as they might at one time you're not as critical as about this or that but you're just simply out there doing the things you need to do to help people further their their christian life and or find just in the first place you know that's definitely it so a few examples of of fellowship one was david and jonathan which is one that has been all spun up in different ways but one of the things that um we look at is you know a kid came to me the other day and we were talking about you know what does it mean when she just says you know that are you you know you're willing to lose your life and you gain your life you know what i was talking to him about is that you know basically to me it's saying this that i need to be willing to accept the fact that i love jesus so much and i'd rather be there than here okay that my life here in the world is nothing compared to what it would be to be with him okay so there's no trust in what we're doing here this is just a place that's going to burn up and be gone one day it's all gone out of here you know i won't be able to bring any of my fishing poles with me none of my tackle it's all staying here right all that stuff it's all going to be gone does it matter nope it doesn't because what is there is greater than anything we have here you know greater is he using us and he was in the world so when we look at that you know we're willing to to fully shuck the world fully shuck the flesh and fully leave it behind and say man you know um i'm ready to be with jesus today i'm ready to be with him right now i'm ready to be there is that what our heart says it's not what says on my mouth but what does my heart say what is it what does it feel you know where where am i really at with it and that's something that i've grown into to tell you the truth you know you know i really have and that's what me and this kid was talking about is how that is uh that is where we're at with that and he was like oh okay so any you know he kind of got it he's not a christian yet but we're working on him so he's got some got some time good kid in some areas so we're working on him but that's something that um i think that as a believer you you you really began to understand that your walk with christ is further is more than just what we're having right here and right now there is a new there isn't there is a new kingdom coming there is a whole different place with god that we're going to be someday can you imagine what it would be like to be in the presence of god i think about in the old testament back in moses and the time when god was out in the tent all those things and the ark and the covenant all those different things that they think wow i mean it's just crazy when you think about it but there's a day coming when we're all going to be with him and it's going to be a different time in a different place and what an amazing feeling it's going to be to live in his presence without all this junk and with all this stuff going on you know it'll all be gone and uh we're gonna live in total harmony with him with christ with god with all of them together right all right guys let's pray thank you father for today and thank you for each one of us and uh bless each one of them tonight as they go and keep them safe and we ask all this in jesus name amen amen okay

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 524

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: VlKirWOIJ2A

Length: 96min 32sec (5792 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020