Sunday Morning Worship | Divine Reset | The Road to Life | 04.11.21

[Music] the kingdom agenda good morning ocbf family and to those of you that are joining us around the world we want to welcome you to our online worship experience as well as our in-person worship experience ocbf can you stand to your feet let's honor the lord this morning today is going to be a special day and we pray that you have the same enthusiasm as you had last week on on resurrection sunday and so today we want to make sure to remind you that at the end of service we're going to have communion time of fellowship with the lord as dr evans leads us at the end of service so grab your juice water crackers bread whatever it is that you need because we'll have that time of fellowship with the lord but right now we want you to get situated in your house you might need to move your coffee back just a little bit because we're going to get into the presence of the lord and you never know what might happen when we start losing ourselves in his presence go ahead and put those hands together if you know that he's good come on somebody worship him how many appreciate our god come on put those hands together we love you holy spirit [Music] come on put those hands together let's [Music] [Music] it's in your hands it's in your hands it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] lord we love you holy spirit [Applause] [Music] holy [Music] [Applause] jesus lord and savior you came to set us hurry by your nails [Music] somebody [Music] we [Music] yes [Music] teach us to stand [Music] it's in your hands [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] up your hallelujah come on somebody magnify the name of jesus how many are thankful that there's the father and the son and the holy spirit that's with us today i don't know about you but i'm so glad that he's all three in one he's power packed and he's come to hang out with us and so father this morning we abide in you we rest in you and we begin to tell you who you are to us can somebody just call them holy right now because somebody's just calling by his name jesus maybe you need to call him healer call him faithful [Music] i call you holy your name is holy you are so holy to me oh i call you holy your name is holy holy [Applause] [Music] i [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] sickness [Music] god [Music] i [Music] i like this right here [Music] out of sickness [Music] [Applause] how many know that god is all that come on sit here [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] say jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus sees easy jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus now right there i want you to think about that name the name above every name how many are thankful that invention of his name that every demon in hell has to flee you don't have to wait for a prayer call you don't have to wait from a word from somebody you've got authority in your voice right now to just command the enemy to be removed from the situation our god is faithful he's holy his name is jesus he's righteous he's a healer can somebody just lift up your hands this morning as a testimony to his goodness come on somebody in the balcony that you barely even got here today but god's faithfulness guarded you and protected you and kept you jesus prayed is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness [Music] morning by morning brand new mercedes [Applause] [Music] provided great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness great is thy faithfulness [Applause] hallelujah somebody just lift up those hands this morning hallelujah come on somebody let it come out of your mouth oh good god bless you father we love you bless the name of jesus magnify his name somebody just said he's faithful he's faithful hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah amen god is faithful you may be seated glad to have you in the house for our time of uh worship on sight each week we open it up a little bit more and uh as i said a few weeks ago some of you i haven't seen in a year but we know as people are becoming more comfortable and less uh hesitant that uh we will continue to open it up more and uh expand our on-site worship experience and of course we're online on sunday at 10 o'clock and so it's good to be in the house of the lord because it's special when we can gather [Applause] together the bible says to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together and so we don't want to abandon the church but we also want to be responsible to the saints and so putting those two together as we come out of this season is uh quite the challenge and quite the opportunity but we're so glad to have you here for our members we want you to know that this wednesday we will be going back to our uh our zoom meetings for women and for men the ladies will be studying uh galatians with jada jada uh conway uh jade edwards actually conway's husband jada edwards will be leading the women in the study of galatians and that's going to be a great time at 8 o'clock on wednesday and then the men will start the study of my new book kingdom men rising calling men to to rise up you know god calls the men be part of an army in the old testament women were not allowed to fight in the army only the men because the job of the men was to protect the women and the children so if the men were supposed to be protecting women and the children and the army is not working then everybody else in the culture is in trouble that's what's happening today culture and trouble because too many men have flatlined and haven't risen to their kingdom calling so we're gonna begin that process this wednesday night at eight o'clock for men so you be there if you want to get the book you can you can do so online on the bookstore but uh that's coming up this this upcoming wednesday night at 8 o'clock of course we have a program for children and youth that precede that on sunday and wednesday that's online as well and if you're in the metroplex and you are looking for a church home need a church home need a place to to make yourself at home then you can go online ocbfchurch.org forward slash membership and find out about our online membership process we would love to have you find out about us i'll find out about you we all find about him and uh grow together kingdom disciples who are kingdom servants that make a kingdom impact that's what we're trying to do here and a lot of things are going on that you'll be hearing about and that you're going to be excited about as we move toward the summer and plan our summer gatherings and special celebrations because in a month and a half we'll be 45 years old as a church so so we pray we praise god for that and we praise god that he is our source here at oak cliff we believe there's only one source multiple resources multiple mechanisms but we only have one source that is our great god and so we trust him we trust him to touch the hearts of his people to faithfully give of their tithes and thanksgiving offering if you're not a member of our church we want you to support your local church your local church needs you if you have an offering over and above that and this ministry is ministering to you then you can feel free to go online to one of the areas that are on the screen now and let us know that you are being blessed by this ministry regardless we're going to do all that god has called us to do as long as he calls us to do it and we're going to keep running this race till the end run in this race till the end and it's always good when you're running a race that you're not running it alone father i bring before you this house every man and woman who is seated here now and who will by the thousands be online tomorrow will join us on sunday who will celebrate our great god i ask lord that you will favor us in the midst of all manner of confusion and calamity that you will show yourself strong you will meet us at the point of our deepest needs individually and collectively and that we will be the church that you died for not merely a gathering for our own convenience so lord here we are limited by our humanity but before an infinite god crying out to you to make your presence known in this house today and we will not refrain from giving you the glory because you alone are worthy in jesus name all god's people said amen and amen let the king of my heart be the mountain where i run the fountain i drink from oh he is my song let the king of my heart [Music] you are good can you stand with us and say [Music] you're good [Music] thank you jesus [Music] you're good [Applause] how many know that our god is good [Music] now how many are thankful this morning that he's never gonna let you down i said he's never gonna let you down you're never gonna let me you're never gonna let me down no you're never gonna let you're never gonna let me down just say that's it right there come on how many know that you can trust him you're never gonna land come on [Music] you stood the test [Music] let's see it again come on [Applause] [Music] i've seen it over and over again [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes [Applause] [Applause] [Music] you are good good with your hands embracing good [Music] oh you are good yeah come on just the ladies just the ladies come on lift it up say you are yeah now where's the kingdom in at right here say you are good a man you're good yeah say you are good you're good god is so good [Music] god is so good come on you know it god is so good he's so good [Music] too everybody to send your voice and say that say god come on that's your church testify see god [Music] this is the way my mom used to say it back in 80s she said and he [Music] never failed fails come on somebody just encourage yourself he's so good he's so good too now let's see it like this i love him so i love him so right here [Applause] yes good too [Music] come on if he's been good to you just bless the lord come on church bless him hallelujah [Music] the largest bulldozer in the world is called kamachi the kamatsu is 16 feet tall 22 feet wide weighing 291 000 pounds holding 440 gallons of diesel fuel and in a 10-hour shift can pull 250 000 tons massive machine they brought the komatsu to cullen county but so much trash had accumulated they had to do something about it so they got the kamatsu to build one of the biggest holes in the world so the kamacho dug the hole picked up the trash put it in the hole then covered the hole with dirt it was as if there were no trash at all because the komatsu and all of its strengths had buried it all jesus christ is god's camacho all the trash the sins of the whole world has been covered in that hope but in order for you to experience a gift of eternal life you must receive trust place your confidence depend on throw your eternal destiny into the hands of christ alone [Music] a young man was hired by a forester to chop down trees with his axe some years ago and he started off with the bang i mean he was getting the job done at warp speed he was being effective he was being efficient productive and the supervisor was very happy with his work but as the days and weeks went on he became less effective until he got to the point where the supervisor said to him i'm really going to have to let you go because you started off great but now everything has been waning for quite a while and i won't be able to keep you on that's when the young forest has said i i don't get it i've been working harder and harder and harder and being less and less effective how could i be working so hard and achieving so much less that's when the supervisor asked him a question he said well over these weeks that you've been working have you bothered to sharpen your axe they came to an understanding that the reason why he was working harder and achieving less is he was using a dull tool to get the job done some of us can remember the fire we had in earlier days of our christian experience perhaps when you first got saved or when you rededicated your life and there was a fire for god a fire for god's word a fire to be a witness a fire to be a testimony only to discover over time things were going downhill and you weren't achieving as much even though you may have been working harder in the church or with your life and things just weren't hitting a bull's-eye like you had hoped spiritually so the question to the forest there's a relevant question are you trying to live your christian life with the adele axe has the sharpness gone we've been talking about a divine reset these parrot these pandemics that have been one on top of another has reset the natural order of things and we described some time ago that when god resets the natural order of things he creates a disturbance or allows a disturbance in order to reformat things in our culture in our church and in our lives and so he's done it globally so it's a global reset but he's also wanting us to do it personally he wants us to sharpen our acts so that we are being effective and not just being worn out by our faith in acts excuse me in luke chapter 10 same guy who wrote acts in luke chapter 10 we have a very familiar event in the life of the lord it's a well-known story not merely a parable but a true-to-life event it says in verse 25 and a lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying teacher what shall i do to inherit eternal life he has a question what do i have to do give me the job description so i can inherit eternal life there is some theological confusion that i want to clarify about inheriting eternal life eternal life is more than entering eternal life inheriting is more than entering you enter eternal life through faith alone in christ alone his finished work on the cross and your personal trust in him for your forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life you don't earn eternal life so that's not his question his question is what must i do to inherit it because inheriting eternal life has to do with enjoying and experiencing the benefits of eternal life he's not asking an entrance question that's not his focus his focus is getting the benefits the bible talks about the benefits of eternal life i've come to give you life and then he says to give it to you more abundantly in john 10 10. he's talking about a life on top of entering the bible talks about the fact that some people who go to heaven won't inherit eternal life it doesn't mean they won't be in heaven he means that the benefits that accrue the loss of reward the gaining of rewards won't be equal for everybody because they did not inherit sometimes this is done with our wills based on the nature of the child you may give one child one amount another child another amount another child another a male because of the nature of the relationship that has nothing to do with whether they're a child that has everything to do with what they inherit so i threaten my children regularly he is asking an inheritance question now we're told he's a lawyer he is in the legal sphere he's concerned about justice issues legal issues and he is as lawyers tend to be precise in his language what must i do give me the job description of being an inheritor in time and of course rewards for eternity what's the job description for that now we're told in verse 25 it was a test probably not a good idea to test jesus he wants to put jesus to the test we'll talk about that in a moment and his goal for putting jesus to the test we're told in verse 20 25 he wants to test him and the reason that he wants to test him is that he wants to justify himself he wants to validate himself verse 29 did it to justify himself to to proclaim that he's met the qualifications he puts jesus to the test now in mark chapter 12 verses 28 through 31 it says that jesus was asked the question what's the greatest commandment and jesus answers the same answer he's getting ready to give here in both cases there is a singular question given with a dual answer so stay with me what do i have to do to get this life working for me from heaven on my behalf while i'm in history and more reward when i go to heaven he answered and said in verse 20 6 what is written in the law how does it read the lawyer asked a legal question because the lawyer is concerned about the law jesus flips it and asks him a question what is written in the law you want to test me let me test you how does it read the lawyer answers you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself i want to share with you how to take advantage of this divine disruption for your divine reset he says how does it read mark 12 wants to know what's the greatest commandment jesus says the greatest commandment revolves around a word and the word is love there are ten commandments the decalogue the ten commandments are supported by 613 statutes and ordinances so there was the constitution ten commandments 613 guidelines statutes and ordinances which were the application of the ten commandments in the life of israel so if you wanted to know how to apply one of the commandments you looked at the statutes and ordinances the statutes and audiences told you how to act on the commandments the commandments didn't give you the particulars the statutes and ordinances gave you the particulars but there were 613 because they were designed to run the whole nation of israel i'm glad you said amen to that you usually don't get amens for that jesus says if you don't remember the 10 and you don't know the 613 if you get two right you're good because the ten commandments were divided between these two your relationship with god and your relationship with people your vertical and you're horizontal he says all of the old testament can be summed up in the great commandment and the great commandment is summed up in one word love if you want to know how to get god working for you you need to learn how to love problem was not his ability to know scripture it was not his ability to quote scripture because he quotes it he wanted to test jesus over the bible now how you test the living word about the written word that he wrote i don't know but he wanted to justify himself he wanted to show that this lawyer knew what he was talking about jesus knowing that was where he's going say why don't you quote it and this was an opportunity to show his strutted stuff he says i can quote it because i've been in the bible study at oak cliff bible fellowship so i know how to quote it i can quote me some bible man he quotes it he he takes in fact not only did he quote it because this is not found in the same verse he took two different passages of scripture and wedded them together deuteronomy 6 5 love god leviticus 19 verse 18 love your neighbor he grabbed deuteronomy he grabbed leviticus put them together and he said whoop there it is love god love your neighbor and you got the whole old testament straight up and it revolves around the word love and when he says this jesus says to him you have answered correctly in other words you got it right you have you passed bible class you you've you've you've got the exegesis exposition and bibliocentricity correct you are theologically astute and you are academically on target you got it you got it but then he says at verse 28 do this and you will live now he asked how can i live how can i inherit eternal life so inherit eternal life has to do with a quality of life now we know in heaven there's the perfect quality of life but how do i have a quality of life because you don't get eternal life when you go to heaven you get eternal life when you come to christ so eternal life is something you possess on your way to heaven not when you arrive there so what do i have to do to get life working for me isn't that the question that so many people how do i make life work jesus told the lawyer here's how you make it work you take the ten commandments you take the 613 statutes and ordinances and you narrow them down to the big two wrapped around one word love let's talk about that for a moment the question is what love got to do with it what what what is love i love chocolate cake i love ice cream i love that movie what is love bibliocentrically speaking to love god since god is love god is love which means god exists for his greatest glory because god loves himself so there's only one way to love god and that is to love god means you are passionately pursuing his pleasure if you're not passionately pursuing his pleasure since all things exist for the glory of god and the glory of god refers to his self-exaltation and expression to love god means you are passionately pursuing his glory whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of god if god's pleasure and his glory is not your passion you do not love god the loving of god has to do with the pursuit of his pleasure so if the question is not asked how am i pleasing you how am i making you happy today then you do not love god now you can shout you can say amen praise the lord hallelujah you can wave your hand in the air like you just don't care but if his pleasure is not your passion you do not love god he says the first commandment is the love of god you must decide to love god now in mark 12 he only asked him what's the greatest commandment singular the answer came back the second is like it he didn't ask him about two he asked him about one but the two are so intricately tied you can't have one without the other says the second is like it it's it's it's attached he says then you must love your neighbor you must love your labor he says do this and you will live so love is something you do not merely something you feel do this love involves an action of motion that expresses itself visibly not just verbally it's uh it's uh it's an action concept how have i pleased god in my action today how have i served my neighbor in my action today he says if you do this and live now wait a minute he already knew the bible because he quoted the right verses but knowing the bible wasn't enough do this and live don't just know this and live so one of the reasons that we're not inheritors of eternal life one of the reasons that we're not experiencing more of the life that we possess if we are already converted because we've entered into eternal life is we not yet learned how to do love we've learned how to talk love he said do this this is biblical love is something you got to do you must do it toward me love god and then you must do it toward your neighbor now this causes a question to be raised because he's answered correctly he's got his bible straight one of our problems today in our culture in our lives and our family is folk who know bible who don't do bible they know bible if they've been exposed in to a to a biblically uh a biblical orientation sunday school they know bible like the lawyer did but they may not do bible and so they may not be living they may not be experiencing eternal life which is the life of god embedded into the redeemed believer so wishing to justify himself wishing to say wait a minute come on now i'm i'm i'm a i'm a good guy he raises a profound question about the horizontal nature of love he's asked verse 29 who is my neighbor he wants to know who is my neighbor he wants to know if i if the only way i'm going to live experience eternal life is to love my neighbor i need to know who you're talking about because i'm confused because there are people everywhere are you telling me about the man next door you tell me about the man across the street are you telling me about the man around the corner i mean you look at television and you see all these needs all these children all these broken hearts all these broken lives all these broken uh cultures all this this uh treachery the children i you know you see all of this who are you talking about because as long as you leave neighbor general you don't have to deal with nobody because the problem is everywhere and you'll be walking around just feeling guilty because cause you just you just never can run out of problems because they are located everywhere so he wants jesus to be precise who are you talking about because if if you're using a neighbor generally i'm good so i i need to know what you're referring to so jesus does what he does and that is give him a story you know it as the story of the good samaritan the the famous story that deals with who is your neighbor now remember why this is critical this is critical because it has to do with whether you're going to inherit life it has to do with whether you're going to experience god's life and it must go beyond your knowledge of scripture it should be based on your knowledge of scripture but functionally empirically it must go beyond your knowledge of scripture and so this man says who is my neighbor this leads to the famous story walk with me through this story once more a certain man a man was going down verse 30 from jared from jerusalem to jericho fell among robbers stripped him beat him he went away leaving him half dead the jericho road is a 17-mile journey descending 3000 feet so it goes down 3 000 feet from jerusalem to jericho and it covers a 17 mile distance okay and so here is a man and he's going down the jericho road now this particular road had a nickname it was known as the road of blood because there was so much violence so much iniquity so much uh terrorism associated with this road so he's going down from jerusalem to jericho and he falls among thieves they rob him they beat him and he's half dead now this means that his problem can go either way he's half dead so that means like a glass that's half full i mean this thing can go either way he can he can be brought back to life or he can be left there to die but whatever it is it was about to destroy him this beating this injustice if you will so jesus picks this illustration this story not at random he's talking to a lawyer and lawyers are concerned about justice and so the question is who is my neighbor by the lawyer jesus talks about a situation that requires a just response and so he says to him there is a man whose life is health is half taken from him now there are a lot of things in our society today that make folk half dead you can have evil people as they had here you can have evil structures you can have predatory loans you can have catastrophe foreclosures you can have people robbed of opportunities people underserved with health you can have people destroyed with uh inadequate education you can have folks abandon you can have men walking away from their families you can have folks who have been left out and cast out in other words a lot of things that can rob you of your future a lot of things that can steal your hope grab your dreams destroy your future there's so many things that can leave folk half dead they're still alive because he's still alive but but he's half dead which means his future is in jeopardy so the circumstances related to this man on the jericho road jeopardized his future his future is up in the air and up for grabs now along the jericho road because the question is who is my neighbor stay with me here comes a priest on the jericho road behind him comes a levite who is on the jericho road it says in both cases they saw the problem they saw him pass by on the other side the levite saw him pass by on the other side now we're not told two men came we have been identified as the who they are they're a priest and a levite these are temple workers the temple is in jerusalem so they're coming from church see he could if they just come in for the trip it's just two men but to tell me it's the priest the interpreter of the law and the servant for the temple and the levite who was an assistant to the priest so he got the pastor and the assistant pastor coming back and they saw him and passed by the other side now i wonder why they did that coming from church wonder why i wonder wonder why they did that well a couple couple of things first of all they're on the jericho road so they're on a questionable side of town to begin with they see the man now they didn't see what happened to him well those same robbers could still be in the vicinity so rather than jeopardize me and wind up like him i'm not going to pass by but i'm going on the other side because i see the side they jumped in or to come in contact with death based on old testament law was to become ceremonially unclean so if i go over to this man and this man dies i'm ceremonially unclean so this man has jeopardized my job for a period of time so i oh wow i'm pretty busy fella i got you know i've i've got places to go people are seeing things to do i got to keep going so the folks leaving church folks who even in a leadership role leaving church skip the situation but now something else happens because we're told in verse 33 but a samaritan who was on a journey came upon him and when he saw him he felt compassion and he bandaged up his wounds poured oil and wine on them put him on his own beast brought him to and in and took care of him on the next day verse 35 he took out two daenerye gave them to the innkeeper and said take care of him whatever more you spent when i return i will repay you okay we got a priest we got a levite these are two jews now we'll enter a third guy this is a samaritan now if you've been here for a while you've heard me talk about samaritans samaritans uh if you were a jew if you were like a super jew say it loud i'm jew and i'm proud if you were a jew to deal with the samaritan would be like using the n-word these are folk you don't deal with these uh one way of calling them was the samaritan dogs these were half breeds now time will not allow me to get into all the history this goes back the 722 bc when assyria invaded the northern country of israel intermarried with the folks reducing producing a whole new race of people that became known as samaritans the jews hated the samaritans john 4 the samaritans hated the jews and this went on for year after year after year so you find the same problem coming up from 7 22 to john 4 which is the first century when jesus is talking to the samaritan woman so this problem has been going on for a long time we have a racial problem on our hands it's a racial problem here because you're dealing with folk who don't like each other folk who don't get along but jesus is telling this jewish lawyer who knows the bible who can quote it if you want to live if you want to experience my life you're gonna have to reset your thinking so let me help a brother out the samaritan comes the samaritan who you folk hate bandages up helps him puts oil on him takes him to the end and tends to his wounds the man that you won't eat with the man that you won't deal with the man or woman that you resent that was the one who addressed the problem when it comes to experiencing life ethnicity is not god's first concern as long as satan can keep us illegitimately divided then what we have done is canceled life because whenever there is the rejection of the second part of the commandment related to your neighbor and jesus is saying your neighbor had nothing to do with skin color history background or culture that's got nothing to do with who your neighbor is your neighbor is not first where you live you can live next door and may not be your neighbor who is the neighbor jesus wants to know he asked the question which of these three do you think prove to be a neighbor to the man who fell in the robber's hands okay let's go back to the q a here the man said who is my neighbor jesus says who proved to be a neighbor i don't know if you missed that the lawyer says in legalese who's my neighbor jesus tells the story and says who proved to be a neighbor see some of y'all still didn't catch that i can tell who's my neighbor that's what the lawyer wants to know jesus wants to know something else not some amorphous concept of neighbor who stepped up to the plate and proved what neighbor looked like who who acted neighborly is the question the question is not who is my neighbor the question is what kind of neighbor are you that's the question let me define neighbor biblically so that we get this straight biblically this story tells us a neighbor is the person whose need you see because all three saw him whose need you feel the samaritan had compassion that sadness about the situation and whose need you're able to meet let me repeat that again your neighbor is the person whose need you see you feel and that you address some things you never see some things that you see you don't feel some things that you see and you feel you're unable to address but when you see feel and can address it you became a neighbor and everybody can be that kind of neighbor when we take the mindset that the holy spirit of god will lead me to what he wants me to see wants me to feel that i can do something about what you just invited god to do was give you life because life is tied to love he says if you try to love your neighbor without loving god that's just uh altruism that's just philanthropy that's just a nice thing to do it is a good thing to do you can you can reach out to a person without concern for god non-christians do that all the time but if you try to love god and you skip the opportunities god brings you away then you are separated from the life of god because that's how he rolls since god is love and if we can get christians to love like that that's why we hand out our members to our members the act of kindness cards for you to ask the lord today is there a neighbor you want me to speak to somebody whose need you bring across my path that i feel it i don't just i see a lot of homeless but i felt that one can't dress them all but i saw i felt that one and i could help that one or that elderly person or that lonely person or that broken person or that person that lost their job that person that lost their hope that person has been abandoned by their mate that child that's been abused by their parent you see neighbor needs come in all shapes and sizes but what the god wants us to do is be open to see him open to feel them and open to address the ones he brings across our path now the samaritan could only do so much he did a lot he tended to him bandaged him up he took him to the end and said y'all hold him here for a while the end was a place where he could get a bed he could he could get greater support the samaritan is an individual the end is a complex did you know the church is supposed to be god's end like a hospital last time i checked sick people are welcome last time i checked if you sick and you're not welcome that's called a hospice see hospices make you comfortable they don't do much to make you better you're in hospice because they've decided they've done all they can do so all they want to do is make you comfortable till you die that's hospice god hasn't called this in or any end to be a hospice he's called us to be a hospital now last time i checked hospitals aren't just there to make you comfortable they better make you better that means medicine that means surgery that means correcting that means encouraging because it means whatever is necessary to be done for you to be better tomorrow than what you look like when you came in here today so he did what he could do but he dropped them off at the end churches are not to live in gated communities where they hide from the needs of the people and they should be filled with spiritual doctors and nurses who knows what it's like to have been sick gotten healed and are available to help somebody else whenever the church becomes so seditive and sophisticated that broken people bruise people hurting people needy people can't come here because we are in a gated community then we're not god's people and we will not experience god's life now you do that in a responsible way you do that in a in a way of accountability but you never become so sophisticated because if you think hard enough long enough through your rear view mirror there was a time there was a time when you needed the mercy and the grace and the goodness and the forgiveness and the help of almighty god to take you out of your situation there was a professor who told his preaching class i want you to come and i want you to preach on the sermon all of you are preaching on one sermon the good samaritan there were five guys in the class they were to preach on the good samaritan the professor put a homeless guy with a bagging cup at the door of the class the five preachers came into the class and preached their sermon with expositional exegetical excellence their koine greek was impeccable their syntactical analysis was right on their structural movements flowed after the fifth preacher he said to all of them you all failed you all failed because if you were paying attention to the sermons that you were direct developing you would have seen that this is something you do not just something you say and i put a man out there to see who was gonna stop on their way to the pulpit to meet the need that they were going to preach about he was telling the lawyer it's one thing to say i love god it's a whole nother thing to love somebody in his name to responsibly personally corporately and collectively declare that we are not just here for ourselves and if you want god to reset your life so that you begin to live you cannot come through the door and only say bless me [Applause] we live in the day of the blessing cult it is the blessing cult because people come sunday after sunday looking for their blessing not understanding that the biblical blessing in the bible always had to be a conduit not a cul-de-sac god told abraham i'm going to bless you so that through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed so if he can't flow through you he's not that interested in flowing to you so when you leave church however that's formatted in this season ask god who do you want him who does he want you to see today that you also will feel who on some level you can address you say but there's so many needs so much pain and you're right you're right a father one day was walking along the beach with his son and thousands of starfish have been washed off onto the to the beach there's thousands of them because of how the tide rolled in they were just everywhere as they walked along every now and again the father would reach down pick one up and throw it in the water and walk a little further he reached out pick one up throw it in the f water walk a little bit further reach down pick one up throw it in the water son had a question he said dad there are thousands of starfish out here what does it matter that every few steps you pick up one and throw it back into the water when there's so much he said son i'll tell you this much it matters to the ones i throw back [Applause] there are thousands of needs you cannot meet them all but if we get enough of god's people who'll pick up one one here one there one over here but you get enough christians who are no longer living for me myself and i and who love god enough to love those who god brings across their path you won't fix them all but for the ones you do touch it'll make all the difference in the world says that's the way you live you live on love [Applause] and with that in mind we go to the lord and we give thanks for those who are prepared we want to give thanks as the song says with a grateful heart because i want you to think about what god has done for you where you could have been if he hadn't rescued you if he hadn't saved you if he hadn't brought some solution to you and i want you to you to tell the lord thank you for blessing me and now help me to be a blessing to my fellow saints and to those outside who need a word from god remember when you touch a person you pray with them you don't just meet the need you pray with them because you're doing it in the name of christ and then you share the gospel if they're not saved or find out if they are saved because we want food for heaven not just for earth sometimes it's got nothing to do with food it's got to do with encouragement or strength or validation or just companionship can be a lot of different things it can happen on all levels i'm talking about an attitude i want us as a church to be not asking the question who is my neighbor but answering the question i want to be a neighbor because jesus was a neighbor for us when he died on the cross so let me give you a moment to meditate and give thanks i love you forever with all my heart oh lord i love you forever father you died on the cross for our sins because you wanted to turn us into servants may we not be a sediti christian going to a sediti church but humble servants of a great god who calls us to responsibly wisely but clearly be a neighbor not just ask who is a neighbor so we eat in celebration of you and by the bloodshed on calvary we celebrate you because without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sin and sin is our problem forgive us for not loving you or our neighbor like we should and we'll give you the glory in jesus name and so lord we love you we celebrate you but you alone are worried in jesus name all god's people said amen amen you

Channel: Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship

Views: 39,838

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Id: dtz4EjCUQN8

Length: 78min 31sec (4711 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 11 2021