Sunday Morning Service

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] come on bro christian church stand your feet it's great to have you here in the house of the lord are you ready to praise him today amen come on here we go here we go come on put yours together [Applause] [Music] my feet [Music] i can hear the how many lies [Applause] [Music] is my feet are on the rock oh yes i stand on solid ground let the waters hallelujah [Music] is [Music] dancing again to let the waters my feet yes yes come on all over this place let's celebrate jesus today it's why we're here it's why we're here hallelujah father thank you for your presence for your goodness your grace your mercy your love [Music] you can have it [Music] every darn night every morning i'll lay my life down before you you can have it my life [Music] how great you are [Music] watch cry out i'll shout it from the mountain tops let everything i am how great you are i'll pray [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] let everything go [Music] foreign is [Music] every is [Music] holy [Music] the snake the amazing name the incredible name oh jesus for jesus [Music] see i'd rather have jesus [Music] i'd rather have jesus then [Music] faithful [Music] jesus [Music] to be the oh oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] today [Music] is the spirit is moving burma healing raise it up feel the sky yes the chains will fall mountains move we lived in mine so speak the name the name above all other names speak the name the name the wizard ways obey cause all of heaven's coming down filled the earth the name of jesus [Music] [Music] our darkness is raining down is is is [Music] there's [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] all my fears jesus is [Applause] [Music] his name is jesus his name is jesus he's all that we need he is all that we need he is more than what we need he is what we need before we even know what our needs are [Music] oh jesus oh jesus oh jesus [Music] we call on your love we declare your goodness we are so thankful for this time lord this time that we can gather freely corporately in one accord to lift up your name to magnify your name to glorify your name father let us not forget who you are in the midst of our busyness in our distractions that we keep our eyes on you how could i explain [Music] i [Music] [Applause] praise you again [Music] except for a heart i've got one response there's only one [Music] i will worship [Music] is [Music] except god [Music] [Music] louis can you put the words to the next part of this song on those screens and i want to call your attention can you flip to the next one i want to call your attention to the word lion and i want to be very clear that the lion that is inside of our lungs is not an animal it's got a capital l in front of it we're singing about the lion the tribe of judah and the holy spirit is dwelling inside of us and within us and is ordering our steps so the lion that is about to roar is not the king of the jungle but is the king of kings and is the lord of lords so as we sing it i want you to sing it with the lion of the tribe of judah singing through you and giving you a song and giving you joy and giving you peace and giving you love and giving you everything that it is that he wants for you so come on my soul don't you get shy on me come on let's raise it up oh [Music] [Music] oh is is is he is the king of kings he is [Applause] hallelujah [Music] we serve a god of peace not anxiety we serve a god of comfort not distraughtness and we have an enemy who has come to kill to seal to destroy to distract us to confuse us and right maura i want to encourage you this morning just to keep your eyes on jesus he is the lion inside of our lungs so when distractions come our way and they're going to come our way in this world you will have trouble but be of good cheer because he has overcome the world so father i thank you for that for that promise all of your promises they are yes and they are amen lord keep our eyes our minds our spirits on you our feet on the solid rock you are our solid rock you are a truth father we love you we praise you as you have been with our worship as you have been in our worship as you have been the source of our worship i ask that you will be the in the remainder of our service be with havilah as she brings forth your word even right now lord a fresh anointing on her a fresh anointing lord pour out your spirit on your people as only you can we will give you the glory the praise and the honor and it is in your matchless name that we pray a men come on are you in agreement this morning amen amen amen well it is fantastic to have you here men and women alike because we had a lot of women here over the weekend so it's kind of nice to see some men in the house of the lord this morning right it's great to have you here why don't you turn find somebody you might know or you might not know greet them and then you may be seated [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you call me exceptional incredible powerful wonderful made in your image is [Music] again [Music] all right how many ladies had a great time this weekend come on let me hear the ladies that were here man i'll tell you what i had a great opportunity to be able to sit through the conference and close the 2 000 ladies were on campus this weekend and what a fantastic time that we have and i just got to tell you how it warms my heart that the first time in a few months recovering from surgery i have my wife now back at breitmore christian church so kim it's great to have you back here and yeah stand up they want to make sure because i was dr jamie for the last three months so she's doing great thanks for all your prayers that you guys had and uh what an incredible conference that it was just being able to hear all of the speakers that took place and jillian blackwell havilla huntington and lisa harper so many people i i couldn't even begin to think how many people that it takes to be able to put on a conference like this from the sisterhood team to the tech team to the creative arts team you'll see some of the elements that they were able to be able to put together uh today for that and so it's just an exciting time kim and the team have always come up with a theme the first year it was called priceless which then branded the conference so it's the priceless conference in the past they have had the theme ice for one they had the theme rise and this year's theme was significant and that every woman would know that they are significant in the eyes of god how many can say amen to that and i know that that speaks to all of us but in particularly for the ladies we want you to know that you are significant you play an important part in the kingdom of god and that god has a role for the ladies in the church can all the men say amen to that and so what a great conference that it was i know that we had our friend david weiss you're going to be able to hear from him shortly how many know that we love david all the way from nashville to be with us so kim began to talk to him over the phone the team began to talk to him and tell him about the theme and he actually wrote a specific song for the conference called significance and you're going to be able to hear that matter of fact that song is on itunes right now you can download that this song that you're about to hear and it'll look it up by saying priceless conference and you'll be able to find it there download the song but how many of you want to hear the theme song from this year's conference called significance come on give a big hand for kylie she makes her way out here kylie dean all the way from nashville come on give her a bright more welcome today [Music] you'll never [Music] [Music] you take the things that are broken [Music] i am significant [Music] [Applause] [Music] i am yours forever god you are good god you are faithful and never receiving he never changes lord of my life lord you are faithful in every way i am a part of the story i am who you made me to be i am you take the things that are broken you give them purpose you again the reason i am who i am i am [Music] significant i am significant [Music] you call me exceptional incredible beautiful powerful wonderful made in your image you give me love to speak hope to bring life to give a song to sing until your work is finished you call me exceptional incredible powerful wonderful made in your room is [Music] you take the things that are broken you give again you are the reason i am who i am i am significant [Music] i am significant [Music] [Applause] all right thank you kylie thank you so much all the way from nashville give her a hand if you guys don't mind that song is i love it she's a worship leader a mother what else she's a mother yes mother cancer survivor worship leader all of those things faithful come on give kylie a big hit if you don't mind thanks for coming and singing that you can download that on itunes and i love the song significance all of the ladies were given a necklace with a puzzle piece on it showing that they fit how many ladies are wearing their pieces right now let me just see let me see a show of hands thank you for doing that it's a great reminder that you are significant and you play a significant part in the lives of other people as well and so it's just a joy to be able to have you guys here at brightmore christian church hey those of you that are watching us online man we'd love to have you back in the house on the corner of m5 and 13 mile but if you're on youtube facebook off of our app or website we'd like to take a moment and say thanks for joining with us man we're glad you're on the online campus there's a phone number that's going to come up 248-780-7807 and if you are new maybe watch them for the first couple of times text the word new if you want to connect to the church text the word connect but if you need prayer we don't want you doing life alone out there make sure that you text the word prayer we will call you this afternoon we will pray with you and there's power in agreement can you say amen to that bright lord and so those of you that are on campus we want to welcome you as well and if you're here for the first time or maybe a couple of times we have a guest reception area for you that is out in the lobby next to the welcome center we encourage you to go there they'll share some information about our church with you they'll give you a gift card for you and everybody that came with you and your family or your friend group and all of that so make sure that you go there connect with the brightmoor family i think i hear somebody that's saying yes i want to get a free gift card so we'll make sure of that but anyways grow track week three is happening today make sure that if you haven't gone through grow track that you are doing it join the almost 2 000 people that have already gone through it pathway to membership baptism but it's also remember our core foundation our doctrines our non-negotiables the vision of what breitmore is all about so make sure that you are part of that and going through grow track make a commitment that this fall if you haven't done it make sure that you do it okay we encourage you to do that our wednesday night we'll be back this wednesday i'll be back in you don't want to miss it listen end times matthew 24 is where we're going to be we've been going a year and a half longer than a year and a half verse by verse by verse to the gospel of matthew we're now in matthew chapter 24 jesus starts addressing what the end times will begin to look like for as it was in the days of noah so shall it be when the son of man returns again how many know jesus is coming back i mean you can be prepared for this life but i'm preparing for the life after can i get an amen on that so make sure that you're here wednesday don't forget if you're part of our student ministry group they're having their 90s outreach so make sure that you have your kids here your grandkids it's going to be a fantastic time as well man i think we got close to 200 men already signed up for our breakfast this saturday so make sure men that you sign up it's this saturday we're going to have the giveaways the men crates that are going to be kind of part of that drawing oda sammons is here otis will you be out there in the lobby afterwards so otis and the team will be out there so make sure that you are part of that kids night out is going to be coming up also as well so make sure that you register october 8th make sure that you have your kids part of that i know that every friday night they do it 150 160 kids are part of that it's a great night for you to get away with your friends or your spouse or maybe a significant person in your life so make sure that you are part of that i'll go through just really quickly that we're going to have lisa turkish with us as well coming up in the month of november you can begin to register for that a one night event that'll take place in november so sign up for that as well and groups are starting now i got to be very honest that we need to make sure that we are in a group a life group not just attached to sunday morning as well but to make sure that you're attached to a life-giving group join our 24-hour prayer which is also going to be taking place my goal is that we will tip over a thousand people that are praying remember the first day of every month we have corporate prayer together so make sure that you sign up for your slot and to be part of that receive the email how many know that god hears the prayers of the righteous and god honors a praying church my house will be a house of prayer and one last announcement we will be having our annual business meeting in the month of november we will be electing deacons as well and if you would like to nominate somebody that is in good standing you can go out there as a member of our church and you can nominate somebody as well what will be taken under the advisement of the nominating committee and then we'll release those names in october and we'll have our annual report i got to tell you next week i'm starting a new series i'm going to ask brian moore not to miss those next four weeks if all possible i think that it will be in my 16 years some of the most important four weeks that i'm going to teach because what i'm going to teach what our initiative is going to be for the future that we've been working a year and a half on this is going to set breitmore up for the next 100 years i guarantee it so you want to make sure that you're part of it we have a plan in place we know what god is calling us to do can you say amen to that and how many know that when we're in heaven if god hasn't come and gotten us that we're going to have a church that's standing tall right here on the corner of m5 and it's going to be a witness to all of metro detroit say amen to that so we appreciate well thank you drummer for joining me i appreciate the do that again i think i should have that like when i preach you know [Music] i like all that stuff but hey we make giving easy around here thanks for your generosity you can do it in person on your way out at the giving boxes in the main tunnels in and out of the campus you can drop it in the mail of course many people are doing it online and with our app and all of those things but thanks for your generosity as well david weiss a great friend of our church been part of our church family i would say now for eight or nine years is gonna come this is one of the special elements that was taken place yesterday at the priceless conference we want you to be able to be blessed by it as well shall we pray together so heavenly father we thank you for as the word says this is the day that the lord hath made we're going to rejoice and we're going to be glad in this moment right now and lord we just thank you for the seed that was planted in the hearts of many women over this weekend here on our campus now i pray lord as i often pray that the enemy will not come and steal the seed that was planted but that seed will now find fertile ground and will grow into a harvest of righteousness that the ladies in the metro detroit area now walk in the confidence that they are significant in their father's eyes and so father i pray a special blessing over the gifts that are received your tithe that is brought into the storehouse and our offerings that we bring that you would continue lord to set breitmore in a financial position to be able to be a great witness to not only detroit and michigan but around the world and we thank you father for doing that we pray this now in jesus name we pray amen and amen enjoy [Music] [Music] i've had good days i've had bad days taste of victory and defeat i've had problems as big as planets turned to pebbles when you speak i've had enough into my name never lacked for anything cause you were there with me [Music] [Music] my mother and my father brother sister and friend everything i've needed lord you've always been everything i've needed lord you've always been when i stand before you guilty oh your mercy bears my blame when in pride i think i'm worthy you point out the price you pain when i wander far away you keep calling out my name you [Music] lord you've always been everything i've made [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you are my strength my rock jesus you are my hope my song jesus before my heart knows what to pray you've already [Music] [Music] [Applause] is again again everything everything i need all right come on right more show your appreciation to all of them all right and show it for the string section as well man isn't that fantastic i got to tell you they did exactly as i taught them exactly what i wanted them to do so you know that don't you you know pastor solomon you continue to amaze us your wife posted on social media that she has been married to you all these years and never even knew that you knew how to play the drums so congratulations your wife is learning some new things about you that solomon is multi-talented he's more than just a musician to lead the band and play the instrument but he can play the drums give it up for our drummer solomon casper if you know if you know pastor solomon's personality he hates it every time that i mention his name you know that don't you so with pastor norm being gone for the last two years i've got to find a new staff person to be able to get like every other week so how many think pastor solomon makes a great person for me to be able to i love it he's he is out and hiding right now but hey thanks for joining us listen the priceless conference registration is open right now and i gotta tell you we ended up closing the registration selling out we left a few seats to be able to do social distancing that we wanted to be mindful of some of our sisters that that was important to them but we feel like by this time next year we will be completely out of covet somebody say amen to them and it will probably more than likely completely sell out so if you breitmore don't wait we literally had other churches calling us crying because it was sold out and there was nothing that we could do about it so i want it to first be a blessing to the breitmore family and yes we are becoming a regional influential church but i want to first bless the breitmore ladies can you say amen to that so make sure ladies that make that a priority to be part of that and it's the first time it's our fifth year celebrating our priceless conference so i say congratulations to the sisterhood that is here first time that we've actually had one of our speakers stay over for sunday morning and i know that you are going to love havila her husband ben sit right here on the front row all the way from reading california so they made their way here we were hearing their stories they were in the midst of the fires that were breaking out many of their friends lost their homes so it becomes a reality as we have prayed for all of that but would you give a great bright more welcome this morning to have a look huntington and she makes her way right now come on brightmore show your appreciation to her thanks for being here with us god bless good morning good morning oh it is so good to be with you my name is havela cunnington and my husband is with me and yes he is the brains of the operation and he is my favorite travel partner often i get to travel by myself with which you have four kids that's like a vacation like literally i don't have to share my food i don't have to share my bed it's just amazing but this weekend i was here about i want to say three years ago i came for pastor kim she invited me and i came all the way to detroit which i'm like from california feels like another country and i came all the way out to you guys and honestly was just amazed at how beautiful your area was i walked out by the lake over there lakes lake one of the one of the water parks and um and just thought if i come back i'm gonna bring my husband and so i came all the way back to do a conference now you may not realize that this room was packed full of worshipping women and if you feel that anointing in the room it's because we brought it and how many of you women were there just wave at me all right if you're in your living room right now just wave at me god sees you um if you're there i want to thank pastor jamie and pastor kim for having me here it is an honor i always think it's an honor to share a message on a sunday specifically when you have such an incredible communicator and gifted leader you know oftentimes we get to be we travel all over the world and we get to be in back rooms with a lot of leaders and when you meet ones that you think i would go to their church they're the kind of leaders that are integrist love the lord pushing the envelope to reach a city uh it's such an honor so i really really believe that if you're visiting or you're watching online come come back come in the room come sit with us come hang with us and come learn we need the church come on we need the church we don't need more screens we need the church and so if that's where you're at and you're able to come we recommend that you come in the room but ultimately it is okay wherever you are watching we love it if you have your bible will you turn to the book of of um hebrews actually i'm going to have you from the book of matthew i'm just going to read out of hebrews if you are a quick turner you can go to hebrews chapter 12 and uh matthew i'm going to also have it on the screen matthew chapter 14. i think i have a picture of my family we have four boys so we had four children in five years it was terrible and so uh i had four c-sections in five years if you don't know what that is ask your wife but um my husband and i have been married for almost 15 years the love of my life i committed my life to christ which i'll talk about in a little bit and i also gave god my dating life which for some of you might be a groundbreaking idea but how many of you know god cares about every aspect of our lives and so as a young woman i committed to give my life to christ in every aspect of my life and i prayed for my husband every day and he it took him a while to get here he got a little lost but he finally made it and uh we got married and three months in had a baby judah who is now 15 14. hudson is 13. grayson is 10 and beckham is nine and i'm so glad i'm not having any more children can i get an amen for that um i will pray for you i'll be happy to pray for you but i also i believe in adoption if i could just adopt one of my children out i would be very happy with that just depends on what day it is which child it is but i live with men i live with five men and people often ask me what is that like and i i said well it's uncomplicated it's very uncomplicated if there's a need it's usually a food or silence or needs to be outside or it's very complex if a woman is not happy we don't even know what it is so we're going to go on the journey together to figure it out if a man is not happy it's usually pretty straightforward you go through the basic five needs and they will get to one of them and then it's also just a little gross but that's another story if a man says that's gross it's definitely different than a woman a woman says that's gross it's like a broken nail or i spill a drink if a man says that's gross you should just say don't tell me i don't ever want to know and if you look at it there's many times in my house that i say if that's the last thing i see i'm never going to make it to heaven so please don't show me anything like that but i love them and i'm praying for their wives that they will forgive me every single day let's jump into the word so uh today i want to read out of the book of hebrews i'm going to read out of the message version and i know that this is more of a paraphrased version i get that but i like some of the terminology that it uses and the context of the story and the picture it says this in verse 1 keep your eyes on jesus who both began and finished this race were in study how he did it because he never lost sight of where he was headed that exhilarating finish in and with god he could put up with anything the cross shame whatever and now he's there at the place of honor right alongside god i love this passage and for some of you this is one of your favorite verses but it says keep your eyes on jesus who both began and who will finish this race we're in and then it says to study how he did it because he could put up with anything as long as he kept his eyes on the finish line he could put up with pain and the shame and the pandemic come on and the the the critical political season he could put up with any of it because he had his eyes on the prize and so nothing could deter him from where he was going and what i want to do today is i want to talk to you about keeping your eyes on jesus i want to remind you of who you are as a christ follower you carry the name of jesus and that that you are a christian which means you carry the name of christ and everywhere you go you have a fixed fixed view on where you are headed and i want to talk about your finish line in fact i would suggest that if you don't have a compelling future you will not live present you will not live a purposeful present if you don't have a compelling future of where you will land you will not be able to stay focused on what matters most and you'll be more focused on what you need and what other people think than really where you're going and the purpose you're called to and so i love this because it reminds us that even jesus could have put up with anything remember jesus fully god fully man walked the earth he didn't have to do it he did it for us so that when he says i understand your suffering it wasn't some obscure god ahead up in heaven going i love you and i could see you and do the right thing but he's actually god who walked with us emmanuel god with us walked with us and now he can say whatever you're going through i get it you can do it and i love the compassion of god for our lives so what i want to do today is talk to you for a few minutes about a man named peter now many times we can teach and i know your pastor is an excellent teacher and communicator but many times we can teach an expository word which is line by line we might even go through a certain story in the bible like david and goliath or the birth of jesus but then there's also the movement of scripture which means we start in one section and we kind of show the hand of god as a movement through scripture there's also the mystery of scripture so you might have somebody who teaches the moment the david and goliath moment you might have somebody teaches the movement and then there's those that have a gift in the mystery of scripture i don't have that gift i'm just trying to keep up with what i do know rather than to talk about things i don't know and so i want to talk for a few minutes about the movement of peter's life and how critical we could really learn some of the the decisions that he made so peter is a unique man i love peter i relate to peter peter's impulsive he's kind of one of those guys that talks uh it talks before he thinks has anybody someone like that anybody married to someone like that yeah okay so peter's just this like kind of aggressive rough around the edges guy um and we we watch his life and we see a few moments of lessons that jesus was teaching him so the first moment we see in peter's life is we see him come to a place where jesus comes to the shore and he's fishing and jesus says come follow me and he drops everything and he follows jesus now how many of you were raised in church are you you kind of been around the bible for a little bit when i grew up i was raised in church and i was a minister's kid and so i always thought that that meant he dropped everything and he just followed jesus around from there on out but it doesn't quite mean that it was it was that he he dropped everything but he continued to do his job but also followed what jesus had for him so he had this kind of dual thing going on and eventually he would leave it all to do that but there was this moment when jesus calls him he drops everything and then we see we don't really see anything of his life until the next scene in scripture is jesus heals peter's mother-in-law now i don't know if that was a gift or that was a threat i don't know but somehow in the middle of it jesus heals his mother-in-law right and then the second part we see is jesus is now in the book of matthew and he's he's talking to the crowds and he's he's healing he's healing and he's feeding and then there's a moment that we kind of come to this this kairos moment with peter so i want us to go right to the book of matthew and i want us to look at matthew chapter 14 verse 22. can we pray okay jesus help amen so matthew chapter 14 says this and immediately jesus made the disciples get out into the boat go on ahead of him to the other side verse 22 while he dismissed the crowd verse 23 after he had dismissed them he went up on the mountainside by himself to pray later that night he was there alone verse 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it shortly before dawn jesus went out to them walking on the lake when the disciples saw him walking on the lake they were terrified yelling it's a ghost they cried out in fear verse 27 but jesus immediately said to them take courage it is i don't be afraid verse 28 lord if it's you peter replied tell me to come out to you on the water come he said and peter got down out of the boat walked on the water and came toward jesus verse 30 but when he saw the wind he was afraid and began to sink crying out lord save me immediately jesus reached on his hand caught him said you of little faith why did you doubt and when they climbed into the boat the wind died down now i love this story because jesus tells the disciples you guys get in the boat you go across the water and i'll meet up with you now why did jesus leave the disciples this is important because jesus's cousin had been beheaded on behalf of him now that would affect john the baptist a lot being beheaded you'll get it later and so here it is in this moment where jesus has to grieve and he goes away to grieve how many of you love that reality that even jesus had to go be by himself to talk to his father in a season of grief i love that reality and then we see jesus comes out to them much after much time and the the disciples have hit a storm in their boat now i want to give you some context for this because like we live in a mountain town called reading california it's up by all those fires and we hunt and we hike and we fish and we go to lake most often and that's how we live we're very much outdoorsy i have maybe a couple pairs of heels i put on when i see real people but in general we wear flip-flops and we bring our kayaks out to the water and we are we love it there's always people fishing there's always people hunting it's just how we live and so when i read a passage like this i think of oh like a a fun hobby of fishing like they're out in the boat and sometimes they fish when they want to but that is not context what's so cool about this is that they were born into fishing peter would have been a part of a fishing family his grandpa would have been a fisherman his uncles he would have had a fleet of boats and he would have been used to being around the water in fact he was the kid that smelled like fish when he went to school that's who peter was and so when we hear that they get into the water and they get into the boat and they go across and they hit a storm and the storm is so bad they think they're going to die you have to understand that these aren't some guys that are nervous on the water these are guys that are more comfortable on the water than on shore and so when they hit this storm they think it's the big one you know how you always hear about the big one there's the big one nobody lives through it this is what it's going to be and so when they hit this storm they think they're going to die in fact if you read commentaries you'll find they believe this storm was nine hours long so these men got out of the boat they hit the storm it's nine hours and they think they're going to die this is the storm that they have talked about that gets passed on from generation generation this is the big one and now they are faced with a storm where they think they're gonna die now let me ask you a question and it is not a trick question and if you are watching online you can participate because god sees you okay so here's the question who invited them in to the boat jesus who told them to get in the boat jesus who told them to get out into the water jesus so are you saying that jesus invited his disciples to get into a boat and he invited them into the storm so are you saying that sometimes when we face storms it's not a sign of disobedience but rather a sign of obedience come on are you saying that jesus invited them into the darkest hardest place of their life why would jesus do that because jesus is you know he's sadistic he wanted to hurt them no no jesus is fully god fully man but yet loves them is teaching them and jesus invites them into the storm and they think they're going to die why would jesus do that i would suggest that maybe jesus wanted to teach them another side of him maybe the jesus of the shore is very different than the jesus of the storm and maybe maybe for many of us in the last two years we have seen a side of jesus that we have not had to see in all of our lives we have not been in the storm and may i say that it's very different to have a second hand conviction from the shore than it is to have first hand knowledge in the storm and here we see that jesus is teaching them a leadership lesson that they're going to need for the days to come and i might suggest that enduring this covet and political and all the things that we've been facing if you've just grinned and beared it and hoped it would go away i would suggest that maybe you haven't taken advantage of a side of jesus's face that's been available to you and i in the middle of this dark season of america and so we see all the sudden jesus comes walking out to these disciples they think they're going to die it's been nine hours and peter sees him and peter is an idiot peter looks at him and goes if it's you i'm coming out on the water like peter what are you doing you're hallucinating come on so jesus says its eyes so peter climbs out of the boat and starts to walk to jesus now why was why did peter walk on the water and why did jesus allow him was it that jesus was teaching peter how to walk on water no you'll notice that we don't have classes like we're gonna have the baptism class and then we're gonna have the walking on water class it really changes your lake day it's incredible like no nobody else walked on water that wasn't the main point of scripture the disciples didn't walk on water that wasn't a sign of being his disciple why perhaps jesus was teaching peter about focus perhaps jesus was teaching peter where to look when the wind and the waves feel like they're going to take you out and i would suggest that jesus was showing peter that as long as you look at me and you keep eyes locked with me you can go through many wind and waves and storms and things that beat you down and wear you out and make you think you're gonna die but if you keep your eyes on me you'll be able to walk on the water so why is this so critical it's critical because jesus was teaching him about focus and he was giving him a leadership lesson that peter would need to use in the days to come and would be part of his life so we see all of a sudden that the storm is not a sign of disobedience and the darkness is not a sign that they're going the wrong way but rather they're seeing a sight of jesus that they've never seen and now he's learning the leadership lesson of focus you see one of the greatest one of the greatest distractions that we will face in our life is fear and unbelief that is a distraction that jesus was teaching peter he was telling him hey i want you to understand that you are going to face fear and unbelief and if you look at fear and unbelief you will sink because fear and unbelief they're real how many of you know that when we come to christ he doesn't ask us to deny fact like oh there's no covet you love god oh there's never coven oh there was never no there was no that's delusional no one's asking us to deny what actually happened come on no one's asking us well that was never real in the kingdom of god no no i think we all lived through it yeah we experienced it so we we see it but we don't let fact define our truth we have fact but we let heaven define the value and the truth that we stand on no matter what's happening it doesn't give us the the final say fact is not the final say truth is and so we see this minute this distraction now i remember early on when i had to learn about fear and unbelief you see i was a 17 year old girl who grew up in a christian family my dad was a traveling minister and he ministered on the road for about 20 years and ended up pastoring for 20 years and my dad is actually on caleb you might hear a pastor's hour called francis sanfuso and that's my dad and he i don't know if you've heard of him but he does have a a voice that you probably would recognize and so i grew up in a minister's home but i never wanted to be in ministry and it may not be for the reasons you think you see i grew up in a very educated family a very brilliant family my grandfather was an italian immigrant who came over to staten island lived in a one-bedroom apartment with five siblings put himself through law school and eventually became supreme court justice of new york state for four terms his five children grew up to conquer the world even when they got radically saved at a thanksgiving dinner after an hour and a half prayer over the food even as they got radically saved they turned around and they created and built these amazing ministries worldwide global ministries i have a uncle who started ccli which is the the number you see on worship music every every musician that writes songs and gets paid for it is because of my uncle i have another uncle who does forward edge it's a missions movement so i was around these incredible aunts and uncles that loved god and created these amazing things and yet in third grade i came to realize after being tested that i had learning disabilities and not just that i was dyslexic and i had reading and comprehension issues and by high school i could not read out loud and by high school you could never have read my handwriting it was something that i hated about myself in fact by the time i began to feel the pull of god for my future i began to say i would love you to use me god but i'm broken i'm i'm uneducated i'm illiterate i don't do these things and so at 17 i was i'd used all of my energy to hide i was hiding in church and i was hiding at school and i was trying to deflect i i used to be outgoing that might shock you i used to be a little loud and i would deflect with humor and my voice and all the things but really i was hiding this self pain and hatred toward the way that i learned and so at 17 i get in the backseat of a car to go to a party my sister and i do to go to a party with some guys one night and i get into the car and all of a sudden as i'm sitting in the backseat of this car i i hear the voice of god speak to me it wasn't audible but it was that clear still voice that's not anything you're smart enough to think and i said i hear him say havola what are you doing you need to get out of here you have a call on your life and i didn't know what to do so i told the guys in the front can you turn the music down i did not practice this i didn't know what was going to happen i have my twin sister next to me and we're sitting there and all of a sudden uh they turn the music down it's pitch black it's dead silent and i say this with a with a shaky voice i have a call of god on my life which was terribly awkward there was nothing there's no piano player there was no quartet it was just you know me and as i say it i begin to get emotional because how many of you know when you begin to believe what god says over you and you stop living in two worlds all of a sudden it it affects you so i say to them and i start to cry well i look over at my sister and i don't know if she's really mad at me because i'm killing the vibe in the car but i look over her and we are identical twin sisters so i know we can kind of read each other because we've lived very similar lives in fact we are mere twins uh ten percent of identical twins are mere twins so i'm left-handed she's right-handed we were married six months apart our first babies are nine days apart our second babies are three weeks apart and our third babies are three months apart and they all have the same dad no i'm kidding they don't i'm kidding you're like i knew this church was weird i knew it no she's a wonderful husband and um yeah anyway and so do i so i look over at her and i'm i'm like uh oh and i i look over her and she's crying so we're like okay god is doing something in this car and so i say to the guys i'm going to follow god this is what i'm going to do i'm but i'm going to serve him and i look out and i realize these guys had taken us home without us asking right before anything so i climb out of the car it's pitch black i go into our bed one of our bedrooms and i kneel down by my bed and i lift my hands up with tears jumping down my face i say god i am not much i'm young i'm 17. i'm a girl last time i checked i have no special gifts or graces on my life like i don't have anything to offer you that would wow you but if you can use anyone you can use me and the heavens didn't open there was no jacob's ladder nothing like that turned off the light that night and went to bed but i learned a valuable lesson and that is if you believe it in your heart you say it with your mouth it's as good as done and heaven begins to move on your behalf and that's why i'm here today but i found that in my own life the distraction for fear and unbelief were a part of it i had to actually look at fear as my enemy and say i'm not going to bow down to two people in a car that are never gonna go with me to eternity i'm not gonna bow down to two people in a car that don't get to define my value i'm not gonna bow down to two people in the car that don't think that i'm worthy of this moment i'm going to bow down to the creator god who made me shape me for me and is the most excited about his call and purpose in my life as same for you and so now i realize that as peter is looking at the wind and the waves he's shrinking but as he looks at jesus face he realizes that he can walk on many waters now the second part of scripture i want to take you to for a few minutes is the the part where peter he's been following jesus jesus has been on the earth for 30 33 years 30 years of preparation three years of ministry and now all of a sudden jesus's tone is beginning to shift so there's one minute where jesus is feeding the ten you know thousands of people and it's like a buffet and everyone's there and get the kids he's feeding people for free and everyone's there and then all of a sudden jesus begins to say if you drink my blood and you eat my flesh and people are like honey get the kids this is getting weird and then all of a sudden he's saying there's somebody in this room that's going to betray me and they're saying it's not me it can't be me and then all of a sudden jesus is beginning to talk about death and they don't know quite what's happening but he says let's go to pray so he takes three of his disciples and they go to pray at a garden of gethsemane and all of a sudden he comes back and the three are sound asleep he wakes them up he's about to leave the garden and he sees one of his disciples judas walk into the garden and he comes over and he kisses jesus's face and peter instantly knows this is the guy that's going to betray you now i love peter because peter grabs his sword the bible says and it's not in this one specific passage in matthew 26 but he grabs his sword and he cuts the soldier's ear off now i want you to understand when i used to read this as a young single woman i did not understand this i was like okay yeah that's kind of weird that he would cut his ear off maybe he was ready to start something but not until i've lived with five men do i understand this passage you see what peter was doing was he was warning the guy he wasn't like missed his head no he cut off his ear to say game on let's do this like boy this is let's come on i've been waiting for this moment to fight somebody so as a girl we're like oh maybe he just was like that's how he tried to do it but no no no peter is in for blood he's like let's fight and i love jesus because in the middle of this whole thing could you imagine peter grabs the sword cuts the guy's ear off there's the ears sitting on the ground there's blood down this guy's body and jesus walks over and he grabs the ear could you imagine this is the vhs i want to check out in heaven and he puts it on the guy's face and all of a sudden he's healed could you imagine like really like i would be like okay i'm just kidding you are the son of god like this is a real thing but and i love it because he looks at peter and i love jesus he goes peter this is not what i'm doing i'm not doing that right now this war will not be won with swords and violence and all those things no no i'm gonna win this in a totally different way and you guys want to know what the second distraction that we are faced with as believers today the second distraction that we are faced with is injustice now i want you to follow me on this for a minute because i believe that this is really critical did peter have the right story yes peter had the right story in fact peter was the one that understood this was going to cost jesus his life this was not good but peter takes a minute and he goes this is wrong i'm going to fight this way and we're going to win this and jesus says no no no if i fight that way we only have a small part of injustice solved but if you let me fight the battle for you i will solve the entire injustice of all humanity and he knew that him going to the cross would actually diminish all the injustice that we would face as believers and it would heal us and give us hope and give us eternity because that was the main goal of the cross so this is what happens is peter as all of us do when we see something that's unjust and not right we get our swords and we're like let's go we get our keyboards and we're like facebook here i come i'm going to tell everybody what i think i'm going to re-post repost re-post right i'm going to get in there and i'm going to i'm going to fight and i'm going to post this and i'm going to talk about this and when people mention this i'm going to get it and i'm just asking this question is this the way that god has invited us to fight is this what he's actually asking us to do some of us want to start wars and then ask god to bless it don't look around but you know what i'm saying we want to say well this is what it needs to be and we need to fight this and we need to do this and god i just believe as a culture that even injustice can be a distraction to the face of jesus even in the midst of the right battle right at the right moment we could still get so focused on what's right and wrong and how this is not good and this shouldn't be happening our eyes can be there and you have to understand even facing injustice can take our eyes off the only one that can save us and heal us and set us free and i believe even as an american church we've been distracted by injustice of things that are right or wrong and we've been so focused on that and our hope is not in the son of god but it's in a political party or it's in the right movement or the right place or our hope has been in the way that you say a certain thing and i'm saying you know what guys the safest place for our gays in this generation and in this culture is to get our eyes back on jesus the author and the finisher of our faith come on the safest gaze is not to look at fear and unbelief how many of you have faced a little fear and unbelief this year come on i always say if you haven't faced fear and unbelief stand up we want to beat you up right now all of us have faced fear and unbelief have you faced some injustice in this year have you seen some things that are unjust and not right absolutely but the safest place is to get our eyes back on jesus perhaps the enemy of our soul wants us to be so focused on the wrongs and the rights that we don't actually have our face to the savior and this is what i've come to remind you as believers just like we are believers in california i'm i'm reminding you as believers let's get our eyes back on jesus and then the third and final scene that we see peter and i'm just gonna quickly go through this part we see peter goes to the end of jesus's life and all of a sudden jesus is getting crucified and we see peter is sitting at the cross and jesus said told him you're going to deny me three times and peter's like i'm not going to do it i'm not going to do it i'm not going to do it. and we see peter they go to him aren't you with him were you with him and jesus is being crucified and drug through the streets and then by the time peter says it for the third time the rooster cry grows and he knows i did it that's he was right you guys want to know what the third and final distraction were faced as believers self-preservation peter at the end of his jesus's life as he's watching everything going on you guys us as believers can i just say us as believers we are going to have to be very clear on who we serve who gets our loyalty who gets our authority who gets the final say over our lives over our money over our decisions over our marriages over our children come on over our city over our state and over our nation we have to decide and for many of us us standing up for truth and with truth is going to be a moment where we either have to preserve ourselves or we have to preserve our faith and so i believe and i i not to to be not to bring fear but i believe we are we are going to be facing specifically anyone in this next generation if you are in your 20s if you are in your teens i want you to understand something you are going to face something that we have not faced i believe this next season is going to be critical for you to understand what you believe and why you believe it because self-preservation is going to be your greatest distraction your greatest distraction will be but really did he really say that did he really and we're gonna eat of the fruit of the enemy if we are not wide awake and sober and so for many of us we need to understand that self-preservation is still not the right focus and then lastly we see peter he just oh i love peter it's like everyone's like okay peter we love you why don't you head out now you haven't had these really great moments in scripture you're sinking in the water you're cutting the guy's ear off you're denying jesus at the cross we love you let's give him a good christian burial and let's let's be done with him and i see peter it's amazing because if you watch it you'd be like oh i see all these terrible betrayals and sadness that peter has not been able to do what he was called to do and bet those critical moments he hasn't been the jesus following person that he desired to be and then jesus is crucified the bible says he dies a sinner's death drug through the streets a thorn of crown of thorns pierced on his side dies yes he does die he dies for the sins of us not for the sins he committed but our sins our sins put him on the cross and then jesus is buried wrapped in grave clothes put into a grave is resurrected three days later a few people see him he's ascended to the to the to the heavens is standing at the right hand of the father and this is so important he says to them before i leave i'm going to send a spirit it's a twin spirit it's a spirit that's like me but it's going to rest on the inside of you and you're going to be able to have him and it's going to be the holy spirit and so the disciples gather in a small room about 120 people and they begin to pray for the spirit they don't know what it's going to look like they don't know what it's going to seem like but they're they're praying and they're believing and they're hoping and all of a sudden in the book of acts it says that the spirit of god comes in the room and it fills the entire room and there's tons of fire over their heads and they begin to speak in another language right and then a crowd begins to gather like what is going on aren't those those people that were like the weird believers that believed in this man named jesus who was dead and then they said he rose again i mean this is really odd but the evidence of the spirit was all around them and so they begin to gather and the bible says there's this large crowd that's witnessing the power of god happening on the earth and they say we should send somebody we should send somebody to go talk to this crowd and who do they pick peter the one who looked at the wind in the waves and sunk the one that cut the guy's ear off at the critical moment of the garden the one that denied jesus at the cross three times and they go let's send peter and the bible says peter gets out and he begins to preach jesus he begins to talk about the truth of jesus and i love this listen listen i could just see it in the spirit peter comes out and instead of looking at the the fear and unbelief that's still in the room instead of looking at the injustice that's still in the room instead of looking at the self-preservation because listen his life was still at stake i mean they could kill him many of those would believe his of his team would die for the name of jesus it wasn't like all of a sudden they had security and now all of a sudden he begins to preach jesus but i could see his eyes are back on jesus the author the one that began on the shore and said come follow me the one that's gonna be waiting for him in heaven at the right hand of the father and his eyes are set on him and he's saying he is the way the truth and the life no man goes to heaven but by jesus you have to believe in him and confess his name and make him lord of your life and he's beginning to talk about him that wasn't his exact words but that's his message and then he says you can follow him too and he re he actually leads the first world wide revival that we've ever saw and it's the reason you're in the room today was because of peter it's the reason we're in the room today because of this man and so i want you to understand that in 20 end of 2021 2022 i want you to understand something the safest place that we can have as believers is the face of jesus the safest place that we can draw all men to him is to keep our eyes on him to keep our finish line we have a compelling future let me just remind you heaven is a real place and let me remind you that when you get to heaven it's not going to be some weird place where there's naked little angels sliding down rainbows when you get to heaven it's going to be like you are home for the very first time the bible says when you are absent from the body you are present with the lord and the bible says when you get to heaven you're going to know your creator the one that made you informed you and created all that you are and when you get there you're gonna you're gonna come into a place of glory where there is no more pain and no more tears and no more heartache and no more loss and no more grief and no more abuse come on and no more addiction you're gonna come into a place and you're gonna go this is what i belong my whole life i'm finally home i want you to know the enemy doesn't want you to believe that you have an eternal home if he can get you to not believe that then he can get you to live any way you want but i'm telling you heaven is the place you belong and it's the reason why you'd feel the agitation on the earth it's the reason why things feel difficult it's the reason why you can't seem to shake the struggle it's because you're not made for this world you're made for another world and when you get to heaven you're going to make it to your compelling future and your compelling future is going to be a place where we will know it was worth it [Music] listen if you if you live for no one you will die for no one but if you live for christ come on you will live with purpose have you denied christ in this season of conflict have you been caught up in self-preservation have you been caught up in fear and unbelief are you believing more of the negative fearful messages than the message of truth in the word are you in a place where you're so focused on injustice that you're not even looking at justice himself and so today i want to invite us as a church i want to invite us to get our eyes back on him you go what does that mean you know what it means i can't tell you what that means for you but you do and for some of you i believe that you may have been leading your family for many years and you think you are a good christian man or a good christian woman but i'm telling you it's time to get your eyes back on him with humility with grace to say okay god i'm in some of you were raised in church and everyone thinks you're a christian and you've just always done this and i'm telling you but your eyes have never really been on him you've never surrendered your life to the lordship of jesus christ and so you don't get the grace that comes with it and the reality and the truth that comes when we say yes to him and for some of you you've been so hurt by the church this season by what has happened in the walls or outside the walls or in social media and i want to remind you that our we are a flawed people with a perfect savior and so the best place we can get our eyes on is not to find the perfect place the perfect pastor and the perfect community no no we are flawed but our eyes are on a perfect god who loves us has created us and is going to be with us through all eternity amen let's just let's just stand for a minute if you can just take a minute let's respond to this word let's activate it i know sometimes we get to this point and we're like all right i'm going i'll get the kids you do them food but i just want us to take a minute it would be such a waste for me to share this message and us not activate it us not actually make it alive and ask and so just bow your heads close your eyes if that helps i want us just to get alone with our hearts for just a minute just i want you just to kind of look inward for a minute and i want you to ask this question lord [Music] are you really lord of my life [Music] if you've never given your life to jesus christ you've never had a going public moment you've never been in the back seat of a car and said i am following christ [Music] you've never said i want to follow him and you've maybe had one foot in and one foot out maybe you've you know all the right things to say and do but you've never said i'm gonna follow jesus with my whole heart my whole life my no turning back my gaze is on him and you have never done that in a public setting you've never gone public i want you and this is all i'm going to ask you to do is i want you just to lift up your hand and wave at me and say that's me i'd like to do that today just wave at me and say that's me good anybody else good anybody else yep good anybody else you've never done it publicly good lots of hands yes yes i see you i love that lots of hands some of you today would say you know have a i have given my life to christ but i've lost my faith in the last year and a half i've lost my faith i've gotten my eyes on so many other things and to be honest i'm not following him and he is he's not you remember if he's not lord of all he's not lord at all and so what is the area that you're saying i want him to be lord and savior of my whole life i want to come home i want to return to my faith if that's you just wave at me and say that's me i want to return yep anybody else yep anybody else just wave at me say that's me good be courageous be creative don't bow down to fear and unbelief at this moment this is the time when you stand up for it say that's me even if you're online i want you to make sure and respond online and write it in the comment or go into the dms and let us know and then for some of us today you would say you know habilit i've given my life to christ he's the lord of my life but to be honest i have lived a distracted life this year has been filled with distraction whether it's fear and unbelief whether it's self-preservation whether it's injustice and i want to get my eyes back on him and if you're saying i want to make a commitment today to get my focus and gaze back on him if that's you i want you to wave at me and say that's me it's time for me to get my eyes back yep yep the majority of us saying that's me good i love that i want us just to close i want us just to close with this prayer we have a prayer team here that would love nothing more than to pray with you but if you if you are giving your life to christ for the first time or you're returning can we as a church pray it like a statement of faith because we've already lived this out so let's pray together anyone who's praying it for the first time or praying and again you join us let's say this lord jesus i give you my life i believe you are who you said you are and you did what you said you would do [Music] i surrendered to you i asked you to come in forgive me of my sins heal me set me free and fill me i'm going to live for you no matter the cost help me in jesus mighty name and all of us that would say you know i've been distracted but i want to get my eyes back on him just lift your hands i'm lifting my hands with you there are things that i need to get my eyes back just lift your hand say that's me i want to get my eyes back on him just lift your hands with me just say lord jesus i'm getting my eyes back on you the one who began this journey and the one that ends this journey my eyes are on you my compelling future forgive me for looking around forgive me for believing that if i can just look at it harder then i'll somehow fix it and i ask that my eyes my spiritual eyes would be gazed at you god fixated on the reality of who you are lord i ask that you would help me to be the kind of dad and the mom that shows my kids what true gaze looks like i ask that you would help me be the grandparent that shows my kids and grandkids what a true gaze looks like lord i asked for the young ones in this room that i would be a man or a woman that shows this generation what it looks like to look at jesus so we ask you for this in jesus mighty name and everyone said amen and amen god bless you guys pastor [Music] [Applause] [Music] to show your appreciation to have a lot thank you ben for traveling all the way from california to be with us and um it's more than clapping i mean that that's a great word i mean you know here at breitmore i rarely hand this pulpit over but i feel like that is a timely word for many that are in this room and many that are watching us online right now that man we've got to get back to that hebrews 12 to fix our eyes on jesus the author the perfecter of our faith we throw off every hindrance that stops us from running the race that is marked out before us and we've got prayer partners i know you've been prayed over but there is power in agreement as well and you might feel like you've been blinded by injustice or blinded by fear or blinded by self-preservation was that not a great word that we cannot listen we cannot as a church retreat in these last days but we got to be able to stand for truth and if you need special prayer whether it's online you can text 248-780-7807 and we'll call you and pray with you and reach back out to you you're here on campus listen i asked darlene and pastor solomon they just sing this song as we respectfully if we're released make our way out of the sanctuary but if you need prayer these are godly men and women that want to join with you while others are walking off make your way this way so heavenly father thank you for what has been planted in our lives thank you for that word oh god in these last days may we not become unfocused by fear and circumstances by injustice that is there by the need that we have for self-preservation may our focus be clear may our focus be 2020 on the lord jesus christ and i pray that blessing over my family why others will leave bless them this week and bring us back safely on wednesday oh god why others respond and come forward grant our prayer partners the gift of faith to believe for the miraculous we committed to you now in jesus name we pray and everybody said amen amen and amen hey god bless you have a great week in christ [Applause] [Music] and the things of earth will grow strange in the light of his glory and grace so turn turn your eyes upon jesus [Music] and the things of earth will grow strangely in the light of his glory and grace and the things of earth will grow strange in the light of his glory and grace [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Brightmoor Christian Church

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Length: 110min 57sec (6657 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021