Strength to Lead [Assertive Faith]

for our offertory prayer today we're going to rearrange it a little bit i want to pray for these children and students but i also want let's imagine that they represent the children and young people of our community to be honest i grew up in this community but i had to leave town to find a group like this um and i believe they'll have a faith that is more live and robust and dynamic i believe it'll impact our community i thank god for you all look at those back there can you see the crew at the back don't miss them i bet somebody get a camera angle on them huh and last night we had a whole nother set up here little bitty folks but a second service this morning was a bit much in their world so um but they had to be here early this morning and their parents are heroes because they've been here really early and you know not too long ago we had the expectation that our children would get a christian worldview in schools and in public settings and even through media and broadcast and that has shifted and what the church represents in the lives of children and young people today is essential and there are hundreds of you who help work with them every week and i thank you for that parents you're such an important part of that to make it a priority to have them here and then they can't stand up here much longer they'll melt but if you'll just stretch out and there's children in the aisles and wherever you are just reach a hand out towards them and we're going to imagine not only them and their families but the children across our community across our nation father i thank you for these young people i thank you for their lives and their faith for the talents and gifts you've given them lord the abilities i thank you for their willingness to stand in public and acknowledge jesus of nazareth as lord and king i pray you give them a revelation of yourself far beyond church far beyond religion far beyond formal settings may they have a revelation of jesus that will shape all the days of their lives may they never look beyond him i pray that he would minister to them in power and strength that they would grow strong body soul and spirit with an anointing from the living god we thank you for them i pray for their parents and their families that they would have wisdom lord with the challenges that come with family and parenting in this unique season we pray for the children of our community of our nation lord be merciful to us may we once again honor them not with great liberty and great abundance but may we we honor them with the truth and the courage to to share the truth with them and to live it and model it for them we ask your blessing upon them today we thank you lord lord restore what they have given so generously to us all weekend in jesus name amen hallelujah i think they deserve one more hand huh all right you should have got an outline when you came in most of the scripture references we will use are included there this is really a companion to a a message we began in the previous session last night on strength to lead it's i'm of the opinion that we are in desperate need of leadership in our nation we need it in the churches we need it in our communities we need it in our school boards we needed the highest offices of the land there's a need for leadership leadership's not about titles or positions or offices we've all known people that had a title or a position or an office but they weren't leading leadership ultimately is about influence and if you have a title or a position and nobody's following you're not a leader you're just taking a walk and we know a lot of people are out there taking a walk telling us they're leaders we are in a place where we have a desperate need for people who will lead with a christian worldview they may do it they may be a butcher a baker or a candlestick maker but we need you to approach all of those assignments with a biblical perspective with the world view that is informed through scripture and there is a huge need for that in this session i want to talk specifically a bit about assertive faith i think it's so easy to think of our faith as something that's passive and we think of darkness and evil or ungodliness as being a bit more assertive then i think that's a misunderstanding we don't have to be angry we don't have to be aggressive we don't have to be belligerent or condemning or critical but i think it's it's essential in this season that we understand for our faith and our biblical perspective to flourish we're going to have to be a bit more assertive with that we've been able to be passive because it was the predominant cultural influence for decades you know there was a time in this community if you visited downtown you might find a church or a community like this anywhere in this region downtown area there'd be a church on four corners and on sunday morning there'd be people dutifully filing into their churches politely looking across the street at the other people thinking we're better than you just because that's the nature of church folks but it really informed the social fabric in which we lived that's not true any longer and it's more important for us to understand who we are and what we believe and why and have the courage to talk about it god created you to make a difference not just to absorb his blessings but to be a difference maker for his kingdom i want to start in second chronicles 32 and verse 7. it says be strong and courageous don't be afraid or discouraged because of the king of assyria in the vast army with him for there is a greater power with us than with him with him is only the arm of flesh but with us is the lord our god to help us and to fight our battles jerusalem had a problem an army has approached jerusalem that is superior technologically and they also outnumber any force that the the israelites could marshal so there really is no hope if you look just at the confrontation between the two armies and the strategists there is no chance for the inhabitants of jerusalem and the message comes from the prophet isaiah to the king be strong and courageous don't be afraid and don't be discouraged the only resource they have is their strength now that's a sizable resource in this case but the resource that we have is the help of god almighty that's my message today if you don't hear anything else if you heard the kids sing and worship and you take this sentence away you're pretty much good to go be strong and courageous don't be afraid and don't be discouraged because the power that's greater with you is greater than any force that is arrayed against god in this earth even if you feel like you're outnumbered and your number is insignificant or you're just one or your voice is heard small or you work in an office where you may be limited in the influence that is allowed to you or maybe you have a lot of influence but nobody wants to listen i don't know whatever i know there's discouragement and fear are at epidemic levels we have a pandemic of fear and discouragement and it's time to change our attention to believe what god has said to us greater is the one who is with us than whatever is arrayed against us but the requirement of us is strength and courage now that's up to us god won't give us that we'll have to choose it we have to say no to discouragement we have to choose to stand with trust in god it's an assertive response to life i know you're tired i'm tired i'm tired of every day circumstances shift and the decisions are fresh and routines are gone and habits don't work anymore and you want to forget it you want to just pretend like it's not happening and force yourself back into your old schedules and routines and habits and vacations and i understand the temptation but the reality is the world has changed and i don't believe it's going back to its previous shape i'm not really mourning that i think there's something better ahead for us but it's going to require of us strength and courage in acts chapter 9 and verse 15 saul of tarsus has been interrupted in his life planned by jesus he was on the road to damascus and jesus interrupted him but now jesus is recruiting a disciple to go pray for saul he's reluctant to do so because saul is arresting and having christians murdered i understand why ananias didn't want to go but we get to hear god's perspective on saul he said the lord said to ananias this man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the gentiles and their kings and before the people of israel and i'll show him how much he must suffer for my name two things in there intrigued me he said this man is my chosen instrument i have chosen him and i'm going to show him what he will have to suffer see i think we have to acknowledge something and it's a little awkward because i've spent my life in church and i suspect many of you are in a similar place and an enormous amount of energy over that season has been focused on how to receive god's blessings all the good things that god wants you to have and i believe that i i believe god is for you and intends good things for you but it doesn't mean that we're not going to have to walk through some difficult places we won't have to accept some assignments that aren't fun the god is interested in more than us just getting on the happy clappy train every morning that sometimes he'll ask us to stand in a difficult place or walk through a shadowed valley so all he said is my chosen instrument and i need you to go pray for him and i'm going to show him all the things he will suffer for my name not dissimilar to what isaiah said to hezekiah be strong and courageous if there's not something frightening intimidating and discouraging nobody needs to tell you to be strong and courageous if it's your birthday party and there's a cake in front of you and a table filled with presents nobody has to come up and say oh now be strong and courageous they may need to tell you not to be gluttonous and try to stay humble but if somebody's saying be strong and courageous it's because there is an apparent threat and it isn't just momentary or you wouldn't be discouraged chosen for the purposes of god and they're going to require something of you first peter chapter 4 this is the fisherman that jesus recruited therefore since christ suffered in his body arm yourselves also with the same attitude this is peter now this isn't paul this is pete since christ suffered physically you should arm yourself with a similar attitude because he who suffered in his body is done with sin as a result he doesn't live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires but rather for the will of god are you willing to endure some physical discomfort for the cause of the kingdom of god we'll do it to earn a degree we'll do it as good parents we might do it to achieve some sort of a success in business we'll endure things in pursuit of our hobby it's an outdoor activity you'll you'll endure inclement weather and difficult circumstances and things that are physically unpleasant for whatever the goal is do we have a similar mindset for our faith you see if we're going to have a faith that's going to lead us towards change we're going to require some courage and some strength it's a different attitude than what we've had in church church has been when we brought our leftovers we bring our leftover clothes we're tired of them we give them to somebody else our leftover appliances when we're upgrading somebody can have those it's our leftover energy if we don't have anything better to do and the weather's not too inclement maybe we'll worship together and god's asking us for something different revelation chapter one this time it's the apostle john we've heard the message to saul of tarsus the apostle paul we've heard the message from peter and now we get john's perspective john's near the end of his life he's been exiled to an island because of his faith he's entrusted with this amazing vision of the end of the age the beginning of that book says that god has a message for his people in the earth and jesus said i know to whom i can give it i give it to my friend would you like to be trusted by the lord so much that if he had a message for a group of people he would give it to you and know that you would faithfully report it don't you want to be that kind of christian you don't want to be a frightened christian or a discouraged christian or a passive christian or just a weekend warrior i don't want to be a holiday christian or an occasional christian i want to be a christian that's tolerating so much ungodliness that i know full well god couldn't entrust me with anything we're not perfect folks there's a struggle in our lives and all of our lives attention i understand that but choose the lord with your whole heart so when god has a message he can trust you with it that's not my job we all need to be leading with our faith listen to what john says i john your brother and companion wow that's amazing to me john said he wants to stand next to us you'll see him one day imagine having coffee and a donut with john dude what did you think when jesus walked up and said follow me what'd you think when peter climbed out of the boat and said i want to walk too did you roll your eyes i bet you did how did it feel when jesus looked down from the cross and handed you the responsibility for mary how did you get over that heartbreak what do you think on the day of pentecost when thousands of people who just a few days earlier had shouted crucify him said what do we have to do to be saved you're going to see him one day this is not some game we're not just passing time to be socially polite john said he's our brother and our companion but then he gives us some specific categories i don't like them as well your brother and companion in the suffering and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are ours in jesus name i would have expected him to say the triumph the victory the abundance but that's not the path he chose he said he's our brother and companion in the suffering and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are ours in jesus he said i was on the island of patmos because of the word of god and the testimony of jesus i've been imprisoned i've been exiled because of the word of god and my testimony for jesus you'll have a hard time when you talk to paul or peter or john or many of our friends from the old testament if you imagine that your faith is not going to require strength and courage because it's very clear that the people speaking to us that knew the lord and walked with him directed us on this path in fact did they tell us we're looking for a new city that a life of faith means we're looking not just at what we see but we're looking beyond time not in not avoiding time we have an assignment in time but the full evaluation of our life will never be understood just with our days under the sun because there are other priorities we have there are other rewards that we're looking for our goal is not to maximize the reward opportunities of a life lived under the sun that's the perspective of someone that doesn't believe there is a god there's no need to make any choices other than what you can get now get all you can can't all you get and sit on the can but if you believe there is an eternity and there is an eternal god then we make life choices based upon that set of realities look at hebrews 11 hebrews 11 you remember is the hall of fame of god's people it says these were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been promised god had planned something better for us god planned something better for us than the heroes of our faith you need to hear that god has planned something better for you than he planned for moses or abraham or david or ruth or esther god's plan something good for you if god is saying be strong and courageous it's because he has a purpose and a plan for your life that's good well it might not be easy duh folks the best things in life don't come from easy when general boykin was here a few weeks ago i heard him say to the men teach your children to do difficult things and i thought yes and he said don't intervene the kind when they're suffering consequences from knuckleheaded choices you missed a great chance for an amen that's how we grow up it's important god is playing something better for us look at chapter 11 again a little earlier in the chapter verse 13 all these people were living by faith when they died that's a statement we don't meditate on much when you come to the end of your life you want it to be said you're living by faith you're still looking at what you can't see you're living with a hope beyond time looks when you come to the end of your days under the sun i've been there with many many people the promise of time and the promise of what you can do under the sun has slipped through your fingers you want to be living by faith at that point there's something better ahead they didn't receive the things promised they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance please hear that they when they when they faced death they were still living by faith they had not received the fulfillment of what had been promised to them they're not angry or dissuaded or discouraged they're listed as heroes for us god has something far better for you than anything you've experienced to this point you have something better for us than anything this present world system has to offer us and it has some remarkable things to offer they're they're remarkable temptations be foolish to say otherwise but god has something better for us they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth temporary residents that their citizenship was someplace else i've traveled a good bit i enjoy traveling i did before colvin i like to go new places and meet new people and see new menus but i've never been tempted to relocate i enjoy being in the philippines and hearing themselves balut on the streets they're fertilized chicken eggs they're crunchy but i wasn't tempted to exchange them for a quarter pounder with cheese and i knew i was there for a few days or maybe for a few weeks or occasionally a few months but i was headed home were aliens and strangers in this world system people who say such things show that they're looking for a country of their own and if they'd been thinking of the country they had left they would have had opportunity to return instead they were longing for a better country a heavenly one that's the idea that i want to plant the seed i want to plant in your heart that we're anticipating a better place than this present world system that we're longing for it which means it minimizes the impact of this present world order to discourage us or to dissuade us because our hope is centered someplace else and we recognize we're just aliens here temporary residents here so what's happening here affects us and we want to take our place in this present system but our hope is secured someplace else that takes some strength and the courage to live that look at second timothy 4 this is the apostle paul near the end of his life he's in a roman prison he's been abandoned by most of the people who've been his supporters he's been on trial once already and narrowly escaped condemnation to death so he's anticipating condemnation this time in verse 16 he said in my first defense no one came to my support everyone deserted me may not be held against them but the lord stood at my side and he gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it we met him just a moment ago way back in acts chapter 9 when ananias is going to see saul of tarsus not the apostle paul to say that you're my chosen instrument but now paul's got decades invested and he said in my last trial the lord stood at my side the lord stood at my side because this message has to be fully proclaimed and the non-jewish world has to hear it i was delivered from the lion's mouth and the lord will rescue me from every evil attack and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom to him be glory forever and ever he's headed someplace other than wrong his destination on his ticket is not a five-star hotel in rome in fact he may be in a prison abandoned by people who shouldn't have abandoned him but you don't hear in him anger or resentment or bitterness he said may god forgive me not be held against them and god will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom are you living for that kingdom i don't want you to disconnect from the world i have a calendar and a schedule and responsibilities and a to-do list that fills my weeks most weeks but i built that to-do list with one eye on a kingdom beyond this present world order if my only hope was in this present world order i'd be in a cave somewhere in a i wouldn't be in the middle of middle tennessee revelation chapter 21 i saw the holy city this is very near the end of the book i saw the holy city the new jerusalem coming in out of heaven from from god as prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband and i heard a loud voice from the throne saying now the dwelling of god is with men and he'll live with them and they'll be his people and god himself will be with them and be their god he'll wipe every tear from their eye there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away the scripture clearly tells us that this present world order will pass away it's temporary not leaving you're not going to spend eternity in heaven we'll spend eternity with a new heaven and a new earth with the lord ruling in righteousness on this earth you know some of those messianic passages where the lion will lay down with the lamb and we'll beat our swords into plowshares and we'll make war no more and in this particular passage he says there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain sign me up i want to be there folks i've endured enough of that i've stood with enough people with broken hearts i've had my own heart broken i have mourned and wept and i've watched suffering and have walked alongside people who have endured with the courage that that leaves me speechless i have no words but there's a day coming when those things will be in the past i intend to be a part of that kingdom i want to order my life in such a way i'm grateful for this nation i pray for it every day i don't believe there's any place like it in all the world i would defend it with my life if called upon to do that but i have an allegiance to something higher than this nation [Music] to a kingdom i want to order my life in such a way that i am i i may participate in that kingdom easy for me to say and i hope you'll do the same that's entirely different than sitting in church that's entirely different than trying to fool the people around you to imagine that you behave like this all the time this isn't about being socially correct i'm not overly interested in that my goal is to be intentionally a rebel but i have a higher aspiration for my life than to be acknowledged as socially acceptable we're often not looking for that new city because we're just a little bit too comfortable in our current location life is difficult it's not fair it's unjust things will come to you that you don't plan they're incredibly disappointing if you make room for the disappointment it will grow into discouragement never turn loose to the notion that we're looking for a new city there were aliens and strangers here the reality is that this present world order brings enormous suffering to humanity now we've missed most of it may we suffer and we endure much but we have lived a very insulated life we have more abundance more freedom more liberty our children have for the most part have health care and education many freedoms and liberties we are so blessed we we spend extraordinary amounts of energy and resources on entertainment it's difficult to even understand how most of the world lives as i said i have traveled a bit i have friends in many places and it's given me a little window into the suffering of humanity beyond that that you and i experience in the course of our lives i i just quickly sat down and and kind of pulled together a handful of things that i'm aware of that have happened in in recent history not ancient history we don't need to go beyond my lifetime for these i heard a friend speak he's chinese he immigrated to this nation when he was a young man and he reminded me of the some of the tremendous suffering of the chinese people largest nation by population on the on the planet today the chinese people have suffered greatly in 1958 mao zedong their premier is a communist country folks a casual review of the impact of communism in our world will show you the the almost unimaginable suffering and death it has brought to human beings it's a failed system don't be deceived mal launched in 1958 his great leap forward it's his dream for the people of china and with the launching of that in the next few years more than 50 million people in his nation died 50 million many of them by starvation my friend shared that he lived in china during the cultural revolution that's another time period that was from 1966 through about 1976. the chinese premier was afraid that the the young people were gaining too much education and that they wouldn't follow obediently so the order was issued that the high schools in china would be closed that the high school students would be not be denied the opportunity to continue their education and 20 million chinese students were sent to the most remote areas of the nation and put to hard labor their education canceled a whole generation pushed backwards it's hard to imagine that's just china my brother and i were studying in israel in the late 80s their economy was in shambles they were trying they were a socialist nation at that time they hadn't yet privatized their their industry and their marketplace and they were struggling economic incredibly inflation was just beyond control we got up one morning and they devalued all their currency 10 overnight it's hard to get ahead when the government's doing that tremendous economic suffering because of a failed system i spent a summer in the philippines some years ago it's when ferdinand and imelda marcos were still in power he was duly elected president then he was re-elected but he liked the power so much he declared martial law so he couldn't be removed from office our laws are intended to protect us from the government our framers understood that government wherever it's been implemented throughout human history doesn't like to relinquish power that's why that statement that we're a government of the people by the people and for the people is very important for us to us to understand amen but anyway i was in the philippines by the time i'd gotten there the marcos has had controlling interest in the only beer in the country the only laundry soap in the country the the soft drinks in the country they controlled the military and the media it was not a good place if you had a dissenting opinion in fact i was a short-term visitor i was just there for a few months but in manila you could feel the fear it was not a good place to have an opinion it wasn't the state opinion we have friends in rwanda it's an african country probably couldn't find it on a map unless you studied just a bit but in rwanda in a hundred day period of time between april and july of 1994 there was a million people murdered in rwanda a hundred days a million people it's a genocide primarily a conflict between two tribes there the u.n wasn't interested they stepped aside and in a hundred day period a million people lost their lives the reports are that as many as a half million women were raped in that same window of time it's more staggering if you if you have just a little bit more information the population of rwanda at that time was about seven million people seven million people a million of them in a hundred days were murdered we did a rough approximation with the current population of the united states it means in 100 days we would lose about 30 million people in brutal murders can you imagine the fear the suffering the anguish sudan another african country they've been embroiled in another civil war through the 90s the late 90s especially they've taken place earlier in their history but this was the most recent the estimates are as millions as many as 2 million sudanese dies in that civil war and another 4 million have been displaced multiple times these are just a handful of places where i happen to have personal connections or no people that were involved or in some way have been engaged in the story folks our world this present world order spawns tremendous suffering of university professors convening symposiums to comb through our history to find the things that we don't like and they're there they want to make us conscious of microaggressions most places in the world wouldn't understand what you were talking about and the church struggles with this i think it impacts us and how we understand our faith and how we're to respond to our world we're living through a difficult season right now it's brought a lot of confusion to us trust is it a is it an epic low chaos deception immorality has resulted so many people in the christian community think well the lord's return has to be imminent things couldn't be this bad in our lives unless jesus is getting ready to come back and one of the reasons that's our default position and i think we should live in anxious anticipation of the lord's return i don't want to diminish that but the reason that's our default button when things get difficult is we've been told that we're not going to have to suffer that christians shouldn't imagine we would suffer to hold that position we're either very uninformed or we're willfully ignorant because suffering describes the human condition if you've imagined that suffering and trouble are not a part of life's journey because of your christian faith we have to lift our eyes a bit begin to pray with compassion for our world it's why we're encouraged to be ambassadors advocates for jesus because the freedoms and the liberties we have have not come to us in theory they're not because of our natural resources they're not because of our founding documents our founding documents were formed by people with a biblical worldview and to the degree that we cooperate with god's perspective we enjoy those freedoms and liberties if we diminish his role in our society we will lose those freedoms and liberties jesus reentry into time he's coming back the bible says in galatians that the first time he came he came at just the right time roman empire's in place there's a common law over much of the civilized world the roman roads and transportation made it the easiest it had been in human history to disseminate an idea broadly and at just the right time god sent his son well he'll be just as strategic when he sends jesus back the second time he's not coming back randomly he's coming back when the church has completed our assignment our assignment is to preach this gospel of the kingdom in the whole world matthew 24. when we take that seriously and we have executed that assignment he's coming back but because of our commitment to that it will create an environment in this world the new testament describes it for us the advancement of his church will have so threatened this present world order that the church will no longer be tolerated jesus followers will be hated by all nations it says we'll be banned from the public square we'll be refused the privileges of buying and selling that's the story not simply because of random hatred but because of our effectiveness for the cause of christ strength and courage lead with our faith folks we've led in business we've led in athletics we've led for the schools and universities of our choices it's time we lead with our faith it's an opportunity before us the specter of difficulty shouldn't diminish our strength and our courage in fact i would submit it should be quiet to the contrary it should embolden us to use our freedoms and resources to relentlessly advocate for the uniqueness of jesus of nazareth nothing else will bring true fairness to the human condition we need a transformation from the inside out there's no governmental system that will do that we're watching that on a daily basis as our own nation deteriorates into lawlessness i've been encouraging you for months on a daily basis to watch to listen to think and to act pay attention don't spend hours dwelling on what's happening in the world it's overwhelming a few minutes is plenty spend much more time meditating on what god has said he is doing and what he will do it will fill you with hope but i would submit to you it's time for us to move let's go let's go when i was a little kid i grew up before we had to have car seats can you believe that i survived i jumped out the car window one day and landed on my head that explains much does it not you've been wondering that's the answer my mom had a habit she put the car in park and she said let's go and she said that and i did i ran across the car seat and jumped out the window church let's go we've been sedentary too long that's not how we do it it's not the way we've always done it i'm going to sit in the same seat where my grandparents sat i'm going to sing the same choruses that they sing i love the history of the church i earned a degree in it i'm not opposed to that i don't want to take that away we need the history to inform our presence we can make the best decisions for the future that we're headed towards it provides some stability to us but we can't respond to the opportunities of this day with the attitudes of a decade ago you can't do it in business you wouldn't want them to do it in the hospital and we don't want to do it as god's people moving day i want you to think about that abraham genesis chapter 12 the lord said to abram leave your country your people and your father's household and go to the land i'll show you abraham you can't do what you need to do and maintain the status quo let's go son he's 75. he's not 18. he's got a business and family and relationships and investments and god said we've got to go where are we going i'm not telling you just get the u-haul fill it up tell sarah you're moving wouldn't you like to be there for that conversation honey we're moving okay where are we going don't know and the fight started all the way to canaan joseph in genesis chapter 37. now he's a young man and he begins to have dreams joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers they hated him all the more he said listen to the dream i had we were binding sheaves of grain out of the field when suddenly my she froze and stood upright and your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it and his brother said do you intend to reign over us will you actually rule us what's the answer to that as a matter of fact they hated him for it joseph is not going to fulfill what god created him for by living in a familiar place doing the thing that he anticipated would define his life in order to find god's call for him he's going to be hated by his brothers sold by them as a slave be mistreated in a foreign land it's not an easy journey now it's a remarkable outcome but he had to move moses in exodus chapter 3. he's having a little encounter at a burning bush and god said now go i'm sending you to pharaoh to bring my people to the israelites out of egypt and moses said who am i that i should go i tried that there's a grave in egypt for the last time i tried it and a wanted poster with my picture on it i'm good where i am thank you he argues with god i got a new business going i got a family my kids like it here i tried with those folks that are in slavery they didn't particularly like my leadership style god said moses i need you to move moses never regained the routine of his life every day after this is different almost every day is filled with a challenge an opportunity an obstacle resistance somebody grumbling somebody complaining we don't like the menu we don't know how to do that you've made our life harder we want another leader and all of it at god's invitation the courage to lead with our faith folks we've saved our best efforts and our most our great sacrifices and our ambition for other things god is worthy of our best let's go church joshua in joshua chapter 1 after the death of moses the servant of the lord the lord said to joshua moses my servant is dead joshua already knows that he's been grieving he's the greatest leader in the scripture until we get to jesus parted the red sea all the plagues in egypt he went up on the mount sinai and came back with ten commandments he spent so much time in the presence of god his face glowed anybody here had that problem moses had to wear a veil because the glow was distracting fellas as your wife said that to you your holiness is distracting only the women chuckled and now moses is dead and he didn't finish the job they're not in the promised land and god says to joshua now then you and all these people get ready to cross the jordan you've got to move the manna train is over i'm not feeding you anymore what you've done for 40 years is finished joshua you're going to have to learn to walk a new path wait a minute i'm just figuring this one out moses is gone yes he's gone your turn let's go church david first samuel 16 samuel takes a horn of oil and anoints him in the presence of his brothers don't you know his brothers love that and from that day on the spirit of the lord came upon david in power the spirit of the lord came upon him however you like the spirit of the lord to come on you in power i saw three hands now that's a legitimate question how many of you'd like the spirit of the lord to come on you in power that's a little better right the prophet came and the spirit of the lord came on not just the oil the spirit of the lord you think yes before he's done he's got to face a giant with a slingshot he's out gunned and then the king hates him and he spends more than a decade being hunted as a fugitive he has to feign insanity he had to flee his homeland go to a foreign country the foreign king wants to kill him so he plays like he's crazy he drools and lets the drool run down on his beard and he gnaws on a door he acts crazy enough they say he's crazy send him home not for a week or a month for years he is hunted he secures the throne does some remarkable things yields to sin has a man murdered to cover his adulterous relationship he has a son who rapes a daughter another son who leads an insurrection a real one he has to flee the palace his enemies lined the street to mock him the spirit of the lord came on him in power a man after god's own heart god said you've done such a good job one of your descendants will reign on the throne forever jesus comes from the line of david not an easy path he had to move he had to leave he had to change not an easy path it goes right into the new testament as well it's not just old testament stuff i just gave you a sampling in matthew 4 jesus is recruiting he's walking beside the sea of galilee he saw two brothers simon and peter simon peter and his brother andrew and they're casting their net into the lake they're fishermen come follow me i'll make you fishers of men. and they left their nets and followed him he went from there and he saw two more brothers james and john they're in a boat with their father preparing their nets and jesus said called them and they left the boat in their father and followed him they never went back oh they fished some more they went back to the lake but they're not life never went back to the shape it was in before they met jesus they became something else a transformation from the inside out well they'll tell the stories they'll reflect on the lessons learned let's go church you see we want different outcomes but we don't want to be different we want guys to raise up a voice we want god to anoint somebody we want somebody to do something we want somebody to stand up we want somebody with some courage to speak but we need to get to the lake or how long is this sermon going to last aren't you about don we're looking at the clock yes would be the answer because there are children around the house and those working with them will come find me paul maybe says it with the greatest clarity paul is good with words philippians 3 he said if anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh i have more good middle tennessee language he said my resume is better than yours i like paul paul will pick a fight he will fight at the drop of the hat and he carries several hats i have more i was circumcised on the eighth day i mean he goes back to when he's eight days old saying he's better than you i have been a good religious person since i was eight days old of the people of israel of the tribe of benjamin a hebrew of the hebrews my family is better than your family in regard to the law of pharisee my training's better than yours as for zeal i persecuted the church my attitude's better than yours as for legalistic righteousness i was faultless but whatever was to my profit i now consider loss for the sake of christ what is more i consider everything a loss to compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing christ jesus my lord for whose sake i've lost all things i consider them rubbish that i might gain christ is it safe to say paul is looking towards another city that he's focused on another outcome see i don't believe we will fulfill god's purpose for our lives unless we're willing to move a bit unless we're willing to change a bit change the pace change the cadence change the objectives the message never changes but the challenge of every generation requires it to fit the shape of a new set of hands we've got to be willing to go folks we've got to be willing to move for too long we have we have been sold an idea that if you say the right prayer and you make that one decision right you don't have to think about it anymore and i believe in the new birth i believe in conversion and salvation but but that's the entry point that's the beginning point it's the starting line it's not the finish line we got to move we're going to have to lead with our faith it's going to take some strength and courage we'll have to realize we have set our hope on something beyond this present world order if your goals and aspirations if the evaluation of your life are indistinguishable from people who aren't people of faith you need to reconsider your goals so how do we get prepared one last passage colossians chapter 3. if you've been raised up with christ if you're in christ if you've made a profession of jesus one out of duty or obligation but if you have made a personal decision to yield your life to the lordship of jesus keep seeking the things above keep seeking the things above don't stop with that one choice keep seeking the things above don't get professional athlete syndrome i hear it more in the nfl but i don't watch that much anymore but i think brett favre was the one that woke me up to it at the end of every year you'd hear brett favre say i just don't know if i can do this again i think he said that what 15 years in a row and i just don't know and then when they're finished everybody says the same thing they were the best days of my life i'd give anything if i could do that if i could play one more game best days of my life they required a lot i'm sure a lot that i don't understand focus discipline sacrifice but the things they took away when they look back on it were the the the highlight of their lives the greatest honor of a human being under the sun with your journey through time is seeking the things of god god will give you everything else if you'll seek him first those were jesus words not mine keep seeking the things above where christ is seated at the right hand of god set your mind on the things above not on the things of the earth that's the assignment that's not easy that's not easy for me i don't think it's probably easy for you i think of all the messaging that bombards us what we need and what makes us okay and what'll make us be approved and what to eat and what not to eat and where to visit and what to look at and which phone to have and if you don't have this one the messages come at us all the time and we're given an alternative here set your mind on things above you need one another tell me what god's doing in your life i need to hear it tell me about the prayers you're praying tell me about your kids and how faith is incubating in their lives i need to hear it because the pressures and the messages and the problems and the challenges sometimes they're overwhelming and i need to think a little bit about what the things above set your mind on things above not on the things that are on earth for you died and your life is hidden with christ look at verse 6 it's because of these things that the wrath of god is going to come upon the sons of what because of what things because of immorality and purity and passion and evil desire and greed which amounts to idolatry he's describing things in the church not outside the church he's asking us to change what we think about he's asking us to move to be willing to consider be considered a little odd because of some of our life choices and our strategies and our plans and our sacrifices to think about a city beyond time he said in them you once walked when you were living in them but now put aside those things and put on the new self who's being renewed so here's the assignment set your mind on things above consider your physical body and all of its demands your emotions the temptations the temptation comes to us physically mentally and emotionally recognize it as temptation and say no i will not choose ungodliness because of that prompt you understand this kind of discipline if you work if you exercise at all you know that when you begin to exercise your body screams at you stop quit it your muscles complain your lungs complain and then your brain will get involved oh i think you're going to die or maybe you just decided to eat a little healthier your body betrays you on that too whatever you think you're not going to eat you crave it you can smell it and you're trying to eat the right thing and it doesn't look good it doesn't taste good and so you eat it for two meals and you still look the same so you quit right i ate clean monday from 10 till 2. then i went to taco bell you understand that there's a battle but we haven't taken it seriously in spiritual things because we thought we had signed a document that we didn't it didn't matter how we lived would you say oh i'm sorry strength and courage we're gonna have to lead with our faith it's time we have to put off that old self set our minds on things above put on a new self cooperate with the spirit of god that's bringing renewal to you you won't regret it let's go church let's go i'm not looking at the darkness but isaiah had his vision of the throne room of god he said woe is me i'm a man of unclean lips and i live amongst a people of unclean lips some of you remember it's isaiah 6 and god sent an angel that took a coal off the altar and touched isaiah's mouth with it and he heard god say who will go who will i send and isaiah said here i am send me i want to close with that to say how many of you've got the courage to say to the lord here i am well all that i'm not all the places i've stumbled with all the junk that describes who i am lord here i am if you'll take me on as a liability i'm in i want to walk with you i want to follow you i want to set my mind i want to think about you i don't just play church and sit in the building and sing a chorus and fool the people around me there's no prize in that they're not that clever well i mean the ones around you are but here i am i want you to stand with me we're going to pray let me raise your hand of the lord say lord here i am i believe god can see us i'd give you an invitation but we can't all crowd down here somebody'd see it and my mailbox would blow up but the lord knows father thank you for your word and its truth and power and invitation lord i thank you that you placed us in this strategic time in human history to bear the name of jesus that you've prepared us for it you've given us the gifts we need and the resources we need and the talents we need to be a generation to proclaim the gospel in the whole world may we not ever be content again just to convene a worship service or to pretend to be religious or to try to convince our friends or our neighbors that we're something lord we want to be pleasing in your sight lord i pray that we're retired and discouraged we're more aware of our weakness than we are of your strength that you would begin to give us a revelation the revelation of jesus and his glory and his majesty and his power a revelation of what he made available to us through the cross and his resurrection may we be more conscious of the redemptive work of jesus that has been unleashed within us than all the forces that are arrayed against us we praise you for it today i thank you for it lord we stand in your presence to say here we are send us send us into this community to the offices and the classrooms and the courtrooms to the school boards and the grocery stores and the job sites and the floors of the factory lord send us may your name be lifted up may jesus be honored we thank you for it we praise you for it lord may a new anointing come upon us to lead in the name of jesus to lead with courage and faith and diligence and perseverance we thank you for it teach us to encourage one another may not one of us turn back in jesus name amen hallelujah god bless you

Channel: World Outreach Church

Views: 2,116

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Keywords: World Outreach Church, World Outreach Church Murfreesboro, Pastor Allen Jackson, Pastor Allen Jackson Sermons, Online church service, live church service, christian sermons, Murfreesboro TN, Jesus Christ, Interdenominational Church

Id: 6SzTtXQ5PDg

Length: 57min 49sec (3469 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021