Sunday Morning Worship | Losing is Winning | Pretenders are Winners | 08.23.20

[Music] my name is roya and i am ocbs my name is shawna ellison and i am ocbf my name is joyce reed and i am ocbf my name is michael johnson and i am ocbl my name is erleen stearns and i am ocbl my name is lee clements and i am a cpf hi i'm vesta rogers and i am ocpf hi my name is michelle robertson i am ocpf my name is micah shepherd i am ocbf my name is katrina butler and i am ocbf we are cliff and linda pierce and we are [Music] ocbf [Music] good morning i'm seth johnson my life has been transformed because of the free from anxiety and depression support group here at ocbf you see when i was a little boy a mean and terrible bully called depression used to harass me something serious a little later on in my 50s this bully came back meaner and stronger than before but god would have none of that he sent me to the free from anxiety and depression support group here at ocbf those loving counselors using the blessed word of god sent that bully packing once again so if that bully called depression is harassing you get in touch with the free from anxiety and depression support group here at ocbf thank you and may god richly bless you and i am ocbf [Music] the kingdom agenda [Music] well good morning oak cliff five fellowship family and all of you who are joining us from around the world we are so excited and thankful that you chose to worship with us today my name is chris will i'm the executive director of the outreach ministry at oak cliff bible fellowship church and the turnaround agenda which is the social outreach arm of the church now again we recognize you could have chose to worship anywhere today online but the fact that you chose to worship with us today is so special not only is it special to us but a special to our pastor senior pastor dr tony evans as most of you know he's away in the month of august getting much needed rest so we're going to continue to pray that god will just encourage him renew him strengthen him so that when he comes back he'll be ready to give us a powerful word also after the word today we're going to ask that you would get your communion cup or bread and cracker or juice or water to join us for time of communion now dr evans did not leave us without a cook in the kitchen as a matter of fact he left us with his son jonathan evans who prepared the last three sunday meals for us and today's meal is pretenders are winners all right now it's that time for praise and worship so i want to encourage you to get on your feet i want you to make a joyful noise it's okay nobody's listening you're in your house by yourself but god's listening and that's what's most important because the bible tells us that god inhabits the praises of his people as a matter of fact it says where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty and in the presence of the lord is the fullness of joy and we know what it says about joy the joy of the lord is our strength so if you want god's presence if you want to be strengthened if you want to have joy if you want to be liberated so that you can praise and worship join us right now as we go into our praise and worship [Music] come on clap your hands with us clap your hands with us there you go there you go right there in your seat come on come on pop those hands [Music] say where would i be without your grace [Music] without your grace is say i am holy one more time together everybody [Music] without your grace [Music] [Music] is you paid me the chains are broken chains are broken i am saved [Music] this morning [Music] save and it's amazing amazing you're great your [Music] amazing [Music] it's amazing amazing your grace god bless your grace your grace save me your grace your grace save me save me if you're excited about that gift god praise in the house this morning hallelujah come on right there in your home just begin to declare he is king and lord of everything of my family the blood of jesus covers us thank you lord [Applause] let the king of my heart say [Music] yes you are jesus [Music] let the king on my heart be the wind inside my cells the anchor in the waves so here's my song let the king of my heart be the fire inside yes somebody just tell them you're good lord the fountain i drink from oh he is my song let the king of my heart be the shadow where i hide the yes yes [Music] you're never gonna let you're never gonna let me down stay with me [Music] you're never gonna okay yes you are yes you are [Music] yes again yes yes thank you jesus [Music] thank you jesus father we thank you lord that you're moving among your people that we can call on your name that we can call you king we thank you that you're moving in this house that you're moving in our homes and in our houses we give you praise for it lord [Music] you are here [Music] moving in our midst and our worship you i worship you [Music] you are here working in this place [Music] i worship [Music] somebody just say it like this say when we make a miracle work promise keep lying in the darkness oh father we thank you that your name is great he is my god that is [Music] you are here [Music] you are here [Music] father we worship you jesus say we need how we make a miracle work lying in the darkness oh my god that is who you are [Music] my god [Music] oh that is who you are is who you are father we thank you that in your word second corinthians 5 chapter 7 chapter 5 verse 7 it says for us not to walk by what we see but we walk by faith we walk by faith and not by sight and so this morning whatever state you're in however you're feeling you need to go ahead and put on your spiritual glasses this morning and see what god wants us to see not what the media wants us to see not what the latest facebook feed tells us but what is god saying to us in this time we thank you for your word lord that your word is alive and active on the inside of us we thank you that hebrews 12 tells us to fix our eyes on jesus because he's the author and the finisher of our faith he's the alpha he's the beginning of the thing and he's the omega the end of the thing so we thank you lord that you have the final say and so regardless of what we see regardless of what is put before our eyes we know that you're working even when we can't even see it and so far that we make this declaration this morning right here father we love you even when i don't see it you're working even when i don't feel it you're working you never stop you never start working you never stop you never stop working even when come on somebody just testify even when i [Music] even [Music] [Music] earth is keeper light in the darkness just one more time just one more time [Music] yes it is that is who you are come on see that again with me that is who that is right there so your enemy can hear you come on lift up that voice and say that as you [Music] god we love you we believe you we trust you that is who you [Music] [Music] are [Music] well hello friends i'm so excited to be with you here again on sunday morning to worship our great god and while we have to do it virtually right now because we want to keep people safe we still want to make sure we give you our very best in worship well we're excited that my son jonathan has been stepping in for these weeks during august while i prepare for my fall series called kingdom voting that's right we're going to jump right into it and give you god's perspective on voting based on his word but he's been preaching a powerful series from joshua chapter seven and and chapter eight and today he's going to talk about the series losing is winning and focus on pretenders are winners okay what do we mean well we're going to have a powerful word for my son jonathan evans today but in the meantime we want to let you know we care for you whether you're local to our congregation or you part of our our virtual community we we do care about you and we want god's truth to impact you well i want to remind you that on wednesday night we have some meaningful conversations and this wednesday at eight o'clock central standard time and so you want to make sure you join us uh for this powerful powerful wednesday night presentation and meaningful discussion it will change your life in the meantime for those of you who want a quality education for your children that's biblically centered yet 21st century in what it teaches and how it teaches then you want to investigate kingdom collegian academies kingdom collegiate academies really if you're local you can do it on site you can do it remote from wherever you are for your children or you can do self-paced learning and even if you're not local you can still do self-paced learning so this this kind of biblically based education can be available to you no matter where you are go on kc academies dot org forward slash apply and get the information available to you now this ministry comes to you because you support it our local church is faithful with its ties and offerings because our folks at oak cbf are grateful people and if you are grateful you know take a deep breath get that oxygen in there you know why because god is a giver and every day you get it right because you're here so let him know that you're grateful not just by saying it you should say it but through what you give you're a blessing and not just one seeking to be blessed and so your tithes and offerings to your local church first and then over and above that to that which ministers to you so if this broadcast is ministering to you after you've met your responsibility to your local church would you sow a seed so that we can keep ministering to you especially during this difficult challenging times because god really is good even though things are challenging and sometimes even bad but it is a great joy to come to you and to bring to you god's word and to to believe that god is going to use his word to change your life you've seen all the ways that you can give you've seen the various formats for giving whichever one works for you but keep us strong so we can keep you strong because the word of god is strong well god bless you as we now continue in the worship of our great god and his eternal son [Music] there is only one name there is only one name with power the same with power [Music] with power [Music] is [Music] [Music] forevermore [Music] forevermore [Music] the word declares and every tongue will confess jesus that christ are [Music] oh forever is the king of kings and the lord of lords he reigns in glory honor and majesty right there in your seat i want you to lift up your hands literally create an atmosphere of worship right there in your seat somebody said hallelujah father we honor your presence in this place we give you glory you are our king we love you we magnify you it's very simple simply says be broken break out holy spirit come now heaven opened [Music] change of adversity change hey holy holy spirit throw your weight around holy spirit [Music] our god is champion he reigns [Music] everyone's saying that see our gods say hi god [Music] how long [Music] one more time our god [Music] over your situation and your circumstance he raised forever forever hallelujah all right everyone i'm excited to be back with you this morning for session four we're talking about losing is winning in our series our series losing is winning learning how to take a step back in order to take a step forward submitting ourselves to god's will and not just our will and we're looking at the battle of ai with joshua and the people of israel and the reason why i'm excited about today is because joshua now has a new plan from god joshua now is in the position to win joshua now has the opportunity to experience victory where he formally experienced defeat and so today what i want to talk to you about is pretenders are winners pretenders are winners and i know you're thinking wait how in the world are pretenders or winners and where are you seeing that but that's at joshua chapter 8 verse 15. joshua chapter 8 verse 15 says joshua and all israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled by way of the wilderness i just want to talk about this one verse simple verse simple concept but i think it has huge implications in our faith and how we overcome our battles and the things that we're going through it says that joshua and all israel pretended to be beaten before them and they fled by way of the wilderness now you got to understand that this is the beginning of joshua enacting god's plan that god has given him god now has given him the plan in the previous chapter joshua gave himself a plan and he got defeated but now god has given joshua a plan and it calls for joshua to pretend to lose his plan calls for joshua to not be a warrior but to be a runner his plan calls for joshua to not do what he did in his previous chapter even though in his current chapter he's facing his former problem god is calling him to do what he's calling him to do to not revert back even though he's facing something that has come back from his past and now that's something that we can learn from because god's plan for joshua is found in joshua chapter 8 verse 2 and he would tell joshua hey i'm going to have you set up an ambush i'm going to have you set up an ambush on the west side of the city now i need you to come up from the north side of the city and that's what joshua would do chapter 8 talks about how joshua would come up from the north side of the city having set an ambush on the west side of the city and then you see in joshua 8 15 that joshua pretended to be beaten before the men of aye because when the king of ai saw joshua and he saw him in his vulnerability to god's plan joshua came up from the front when the king of ai saw that he pursued joshua and joshua fled but understand that joshua is operating by faith he's not operating by his feelings he's operating by god's word he's not operating by his feelings simply because he's facing a past problem he's not operating as a warrior he's operating as a runner because in order for there to be an in a vacancy for god's plan to occupy joshua would have to be obedient by faith not obedient by feel he would have to take a step back in order for god's plan to take a step forward now that god's plan is totally different from joshua's previous plan that's why we have to learn that god's ways are not our ways god's thoughts are not our thoughts as high as the heavens are above the earth are his ways from our ways and his thoughts from our thoughts that's why jeremiah 33 3 says come to me so i can show you the unsearchable things that you do not know because god's plan was totally opposite from joshua's nature god's plan would ask joshua not to operate on instinct but be spiritually responsible god would tell joshua again not to be a warrior but this time i'mma need you to be a runner because i have something set up on the west side of this circumstance i have something set up and ambush on the west side of this situation and if you go forward instead of going backwards you won't get to experience the victory that i have set up in ambush we have a lot of people right now that aren't experiencing the victory that god has for them because they keep operating by feeling instead of operating by faith they keep wanting to take a step forward instead of being willing by faith to take a step back because god has a plan set in ambush and a lot of people aren't experiencing victory we are experiencing constant defeat in these situations from our past that continue to come in these situations that we don't seem to be able to get over simply because we don't have the faith that if we use god's plan to take a step back that his ambush that's waiting to occupy will take its step forward the question is do you want to experience victory god's way or do you want to continue to try to do it your way joshua has learned his lesson joshua has understanding now you know what i tried to be a warrior on my own but right now i'm going to do what god says and be a runner because i want to experience his plan even though his plan is confusing to me even though his plan is not natural to me even though his plan makes me feel like a pretender because whenever you're not doing what you feel you want to do but you're taking a step back from what you feel to do what god says it makes you feel like you're pretending but you're actually in the position to be winning and even though it's confusing sometimes his word we're to never let our confusion be the criteria of our devotion we're to never let our confusion be the criteria of our devotion because even though god's plan may be confusing it's the right plan for your victory joshua has to do the total opposite in this current chapter that he did in the previous chapter god says i do not i do not want you to be instinctive i want you to be obedient i don't want you to operate on the field because you tried that in the last chapter i want you to operate on faith now i know there's many people who will say in their situations when things come up you'll say listen i'm just trying to stay saved y'all know that saying i'm just trying to stay saved i'm just trying to to stay in my the spiritual atmosphere right now i am just trying to stay saved and really even though that's a funny statement what people are are talking about is the crux of being the christian that god is calling us to be when we're trying to decide between our old self and our new self when we're trying to decide if we're really going to operate as galatians 2 20 says i've been crucified with christ it's no longer i that live but christ that lives in me the life that i now live i live by faith in him who gave himself up for me the life that i now live is not like the life that i used to live even when i'm facing problems that make me feel like i used to i hope you're keeping up with me because when you're facing problems that make you feel like you used to you got to realize that you're still crucified in christ in your current chapter and god is calling you to operate by faith he's not calling you to operate by instincts god is telling joshua i'm not interested in you being a warrior i'm interested in you being a runner i'm interested in you taking a step back so that what i have for you can take a step forward i have an ambush waiting for you i have an ambush on the west side of your circumstance that your circumstance is unaware of but if you keep putting your hands on it then my ambush is nullified if you keep moving forward then what i have for you is nullified and you stay in defeat joshua you will lose to ai a second time even though you have a plan to win that's been made evident because you're not willing to run you still want to go to war that's why deuteronomy 20 verse 4 says i fight your battles and i give you victory that's why ii chronicles 2015 once again we need to know this that the battle is not yours it's the lord's well if it belongs to him no wonder why god is telling joshua i'm not interested in you being a warrior i'm not interested in you putting your hands on it i'm really not interested in you stepping up i'm interested in you stepping back so that you can create the vacancy that's needed for my power to occupy my ambush to move forward the things that i have for you to actually give you victory so that i can get the glory jesus christ god emptied himself watch this he's the perfect example god emptied himself into the form of a bond servant taking on the likeness of men jesus was almost pushed off a cliff by in his own town by his own people he was they tried to stone him and they most certainly crucified him the people that he came to save and more than that the people that he that he created even in luke 22 he says not my will be done but your will be done by feelings he said lord if there's any other way let this cup pass from me if there's any other way to go about this i i would like to to to take a step forward but i'm gonna go ahead and take a step back i'ma be vulnerable to your word and believe that what you have set up believe what you have set in ambush will give us victory and he says not my will be done but your will be done and y'all know that he was crucified and and the enemy saw him when he was that vulnerable crucifying him and and putting him to death and and putting him to shame and it looked like jesus lost taking a step back it looked like jesus uh did not win at all and and didn't have a chance but wouldn't you know it acts 2 24 says but god raised him god raised him and on the third day he raised and he's seated with god in heavenly places and now he all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth the earth is his and the fullness thereof it seems to me that taking a step back and doing god's will and being vulnerable to god's word and allowing god's plan to ambush this situation gave him and all of those who are in him even greater victory jesus is the perfect example that's why hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says fix your eyes on jesus the author and perfecter of faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross and despised the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of god let me say that backwards he seated at the right hand of the throne of god because he despised the shame he didn't care about how he was perceived he he despised the shame and he was seated with him despising the shame and he was crucified but why for the joy set before him in other words he knew that there was something that god had set up he knew that god the father had sent something set up so he can say not my will be done but your will be done i i'm feeling it this is a hard battle but i'm gonna take a step back because i know god's gonna raise me from the dead i know that i'm going to win and give victory to everyone who will lose themself so that they can win in me what does this mean joshua having to be a runner and not a warrior you know what the bible says in matthew 16 25 it says those who try to step forward and save their own life will lose it but those who take a step back and lose their life for my sake they will find it it's the upside down kingdom matthew 23 12 those who exalt themselves and want to push up themselves they will be humbled but those who humble themselves will in fact be exalted which is why philippians 2 after god emptied himself took the likeness of man then it says and god highly exalted him for this exact reason god is going to give joshua victory but he's waiting on joshua to take a step back he's waiting on us to take a step back he's waiting on you to say you know what this is god's battle you know what i've been trying on my own for so long to try to conquer this thing this is god's battle you know what i'm not winning i need to take a step back and operate by faith and no longer operate by feel because god's plan requires me to take a step back so that what he has for me to have victory can ambush what i allow to be vacated because it gives space for him to occupy one of the reasons we're not experiencing god in our lives and in our situations and experience him experience winning in the things that we're going through is that we will not get out of the way god is telling joshua get out of the way i know what you did in chapter 7 and you ran up but you got beat back down because you used your own hands this is god's territory get out of my way operate by faith totally coming to me understanding that it is my battle and the reason why we lose our minds the reason why we're um losing it in these situations and we can't figure it out and we're so frustrated by what we're going through is simple you stepped in god's territory it's very simple the reason why you're so frustrated in losing your mind and what you're going through is because you are not god and you can't win this battle you my friends and i have stepped into god's territory and he tells joshua don't be a warrior i need you to get out of my way and be a runner and when you are vulnerable to my word the enemy will see you verse 14 says the king of ai saw joshua and pursued him perfect because that is going to create the vacancy for my ambush to occupy your situation so that you can have victory and you can give me the glory now if it says that joshua was pretending to be beaten how is he pretending to be beaten how is he actually pretending to lose simple he knows he's going to win you can only pretend to lose if you know you're going to win you're only pretending if you know the opposite is going to take place he can't pretend to lose and lose that's not pretending that's real pretending means if he's pretending to lose that means he knows that he's going to win god gave him a plan that told him to run he had faith in that plan because he knew that there was an ambush set up that was going to give him the victory so it wasn't hard for joshua to express faith in god because he already knew that he was going to win so it was easy i keep saying it it was easy for him to pretend to lose you know why because he knew he was going to win and i don't know which i know what you're thinking you're thinking oh wait a minute now that's easy to say for joshua because it's clear that god gave him a plan that there was going to be an ambush so it's easy for him to run and be a pretender because he knows that he's going to be a winner he knows that he has victory that i'm different than joshua are you first john 5 4 says all those who are born of god are overcomers romans 8 37 says you are more than a conqueror in jesus christ romans 8 29 says those that he foreknew he already pre-destined to be conformed in timothy to the image of his son those that he predestined he called those that he called he justified those that he justified he glorified so what then can you say if god is for you then who in the world can be against you that's why philippians 1 6 says that he who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it until the day of christ jesus that's why john 16 33 says yes there will be troubles in this world but be of good cheer because i have already overcome the world it seems to me that god has given you victory it seems to me that you know what joshua knows that god has already stated that you're a winner it seems to me that there's no reason for you to fear to have faith and there's no reason for you to think that you can you still have to be a warrior in your circumstances there's no reason anymore for you to think that you have to go forward instead of taking a step back because god has already given you victory listen you have already won and the reason why we keep going forward is because we don't believe that we've already won the reason why we keep taking a step forward and trying to handle it ourselves and using our own intellect using our own way using our own people using our own relationships using our own money to try to get ourselves away from the defeat of ai get ourselves away from that situation that you're facing is because we don't have faith that god already has something set up on the west side of our problem on the west side of what we're going through that will come through when we step back it's an issue of really believing what god said is true because if you believe what god said is true and you believe that you are already a victor we don't have any problems i'm good i know it's hard i know it's tough jesus expressed that in luke 22 42 in the garden of gethsemane it was hard it was tough i feel it but not my will your will be done i'm good you know why because i already know i won why would i try to go beat something that i already beat how are you going to try to go get victory when you already got it it's frustrating when you're looking for something that you already have i can't tell you how frustrated i was looking for my phone around the house and i'm running around looking for my phone i said babe can you call my phone can you call my phone and she called my phone and it rang in my pocket that's frustrating to go try to get something you already got guys where are you going what are you doing we're supposed to be fighting from victory not for victory what why are you so stressed you can be stressed or you can rest the situation is still the same but if you operate on feelings you'll be stressed if you operate on faith it doesn't mean that you won't be feel it doesn't mean that you won't feel but at least you can actually rest that's why god says come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden i will give you rest matthew 11 28 psalm 55 22 says cash your cares on me and i will sustain you it seems to me that god is trying to take responsibility but he will not take responsibility from those who will not step back because as long as you don't step back your situation is still occupied and as long as it's occupied god's ambush can't come in and we sit in defeat guys you already won like the game is how you gonna go play a game and the game's over you already want the victory is already yours where are you going what are we doing joshua i don't need you to be a warrior i need you to get out of my way i need you to be a runner joshua pretended to be beaten and the only way he can pretend is because he knew the opposite was true it was easy for joshua to express faith because he knew he was going to win thus it should be a lot easier for you and i to express faith because we know we're going to win i can pretend to lose and take a step back because i know that when i pretend to lose and take a step back to the way i feel that i just create a vacancy for god to go get the victory joshua was not concerned with his perception of victory joshua was more concerned with the reception of victory joshua was not concerned with the perception of victory joshua was concerned with the reception of victory and we have a lot of christians today a lot of people today in the day of social media and me myself and i we're more concerned about the perception that i'm victorious and not the reception of the actual victory well i i don't i don't want help i don't want accountability i don't want counseling i don't want to go to rehab i don't want to do those things because then people will find out that i'm hurting then people will find out that i'm being bruised and defeated then people will find out that things aren't working out so you actually have to take a step back from your pride take a step back from your ego and no longer worried be worried about being seen no longer be worried about the perception of victory because if you're no longer worried about the perception of victory then you're taking a step back to yourself so that god can actually give you victory there's a lot more people who are worried about perception than they are reception and so they don't receive because they're worried about the wrong thing when you're vulnerable to god's word you will be seen but at least you will win when i got on planes before the coronavirus listen anybody who came on the plane with a mask before the corona coven 19 i thought they were sick i said uh okay something must be wrong they must be sick but now that we're in coven 19 and everybody has to wear a mask i realized oh maybe they thought i was sick maybe they were wearing a mask because of me not because of them maybe they weren't concerned with the perception of being sick they were more concerned about the reception of their health maybe it was inverted maybe it was opposite maybe it was upside down and now that we're all wearing masks it's not because we're sick it's because we want to stay healthy we're taking a step back so that we can take a step forward it's the opposite don't worry about the perception worry about the reception which means we have to take a step back joshua pretended to be defeated he wasn't worried about the perception he was worried about the victory and that's exactly what he was going to get finally my friend jeremy jeremy hurd who goes to ocbf here locally listen he is the greatest high school quarterback of all time he was the quarterback for duncanville high school the quarterback for duncanville high school i remember it like it was yesterday because he was my idol not like idol in the bible that kind of thing i just looked up to him so he didn't really know this but he was my guy i would be blocking for jeremy as a tight end and i'm blocking for him and then i would see this 4340 number 13 go whizzing by and i'd be blocking my guy and i'm blocking my guy but i'm watching jeremy because i'm a fan i'm blocking my guy and i'm saying oh look at jeremy that boy fast dime him up jeremy come on jeremy get there so i'm cheering for jeremy while i'm blocking my guy because i was a fan and i still am jeremy i still am your fan i am a fan of jeremy heard greatest high school quarterback of all time in high school we ran the option offense now i know many of you may not know football like that but let me explain it's real easy that means jeremy the quarterback has an option he can keep the ball or he can pitch the ball that's it that's the whole offense jeremy has an option he can keep it or he can pitch it to the running back it's his choice it's his option one time i miss my block tragically and my guy hit jeremy so hard the whole crowd said oh it looked like jeremy lost big and when i tell you it looked like jeremy lost big it looked like he lost big his face mask was twisted to the side his shoulder pads were all unbuckled i mean he looked like it was a tragic accident on the football field and everybody had was holding their heads and said oh and then suddenly the crowd said yeah and everybody cheered and i'm confused because i don't know what just happened i'm looking at jeremy look like a loser and everybody's cheering and then suddenly i looked up and i saw our running back running down the sideline the score touchdown jeremy took the option before he took the hit he took the option and he pitched the ball so even though he looked like a loser the entire duncanville panthers were winners i'm letting you know today that you have an option you have an option to keep the ball and take the hit or you can pitch the ball to the one who can actually score and god is waiting with his hands up it's your choice it's your option but let me remind you it's his battle let me help you pitch the ball for all of you who are struggling in battles right now and you're trying to figure out do i pitch the ball or do i keep it because i really need this to end this is really hard i'm really suffering i want to help us all in our faith i want to end today just by praying for you heavenly father we love you and honor you we give you the praise and glory for who you are if you don't do anything else lord we're not entitled to anything because you've already done enough when you sent your son jesus christ to die on the cross for our sins but we are coming before you asking for help we're coming before you lord wanting to express faith and be vulnerable to your word help us all to express faith by taking a step back to who we are so that we can create the vacancy for who you are we pray for every believer and even those who are still considering the faith and even non-believers lord to put themselves down so that they can pick you up and have victory both here and in eternity help us ultimately lord to give ourselves to you we love you and honor you in jesus name amen wow what a powerful message today from jonathan as you know he already told us pretenders are winners and i like to take notes whenever i'm listening to the message and it was just a couple of things that stood out to me faith is the criteria for our devotion not clarity wow it's pretending when we know we have the victory step back to create the vacancy that god needs to set up an ambush for the enemies of our life and then the other thing he said focus on the reception not the perception i don't know about you but i want to sit down right now because my toes are sore and then lastly it says we have an option to keep the ball or take the hit and pitch it to the one who can score for us and that's jesus christ now some of you right now after hearing this message you're probably thinking to yourself lord i'm tired i'm tired of being a warrior i'm tired of holding the sword i want to put it down and i just want to worship and that's a beautiful thing one of my favorite disney movies is the lion king and there's this part where simba is called to remember who he was to remember the victory that he already had we want to remember the victory that we already have in jesus christ and communion gives us an opportunity to be able to remember what christ did for us on the cross so i'm going to ask that you right now will take your communion cup and that you will get that now if you don't have that you can get some bread or cracker or juice or water but i want you to join us in a time of communion now that we have our commune elements this is a time that we want to create space where we can go before the lord and be able to let him know they were thankful for what he's done for us in the nba when a player is trying to create space between them and the person that's defending them they will take a step back because they recognize that's the only way that they can be able to take the shot that we need well i'm thankful today that we don't have to take the shot ourselves when we create space and take a step back we can pass the ball off to jesus christ who's already taken the shot for us as a matter of fact he took the shot for us on the cross the bible talks about that he was bruised for us it talks about that he was piercing on the side for us and why did he do that he did that so that we might have the opportunity to have a relationship with the father well right now as we take this bread it's remembering the shot that christ took for us so let us take bread together the blood the blood that jesus shed for us the bible tells us without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness of sins i don't know about you but i needed to be forgiven and when we remember what christ did for us when we remember the fact that he died for us that he shed his blood for us we can be able to have encouragement to know that we are covered by the precious blood of jesus let us drink together [Music] well the good news is he didn't stop at the cross as a matter of fact it says that he was buried but then it didn't stop there three days later he rose again with all victory in his hand i don't know about you but i'm excited that jesus christ is now on the right hand of the father and because of that we are able to celebrate the victory that our savior rose again and gave us new life in him well let us pray together father we just want to thank you lord for the fact that for many many years we've probably been walking around struggling trying to fight our own battles when all we had to do was remember to take a step back so that you could be freed up to fight the battles for us the bible tells us the battle is not ours it's yours and we thank you that we were reminded today through the word that when we pretend we're not pretending because we don't believe we have the victory we're pretending because we already know we have the victory in other words the enemy thought that he had us defeated but we thank you father god that you have given us the victory in you and so we ask that you would just take this day and that you would allow for us to go forward to be able to share the truth and love but also we pray that over the course of this week that you would be with us and remind us of the fact that you will never leave us nor forsake us so lord we thank you we bless you we praise you and glorify and magnify you and as in your son jesus name we pray amen church family and those of you that's watching it's been a pleasure to worship with you today and if you want to know more about any of the things that are going on with oak clif bible fellowship join us at ocbfchurch.org again that's ocbfchurch.org there you can get information about our church but also get a chance to go back and listen to this message invite somebody to watch this message with you and then share the reason for the hope that is within you god bless you family we love you [Music] you

Channel: Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship

Views: 23,900

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Id: qAzhaascIyc

Length: 64min 52sec (3892 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 23 2020