Sunday Worship

learn how i give you everything [Applause] [Music] is [Music] of the goodness [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] oh the goodness [Music] welcome home good morning everybody we're so happy to be with you today and we might be a little bit late to those of you in our viewing audience out there that i may have told may or may not have said yeah ten till but okay couple glitches happen and you know when those things happen it allows us to just pause and say okay god this is why you're in charge and we're not exactly right so um welcome home and it's so good i i got to i'm teaching a book on james right now with um i've been up in sunday school and so what's been so much fun for me teaching that is i've been getting some comments uh through facebook and some other ways and one of our people one of our online viewers said we love when you say welcome home and she's a church administrator at another church and she was like i work here and i do all this full-time but so i don't oftentimes get to worship that is so fun yeah i feel like i get to worship with y'all and i feel like i'm a family member because you all say welcome home well just a few weeks ago my husband found a sign and it just says welcome home and put it at our back door and it's kind of that even for me this is my home but when i walk in and i see that welcome home i'm like okay yeah that's that's pretty welcoming yeah and yes it's a great feeling to have that there's a ton of incredible things we want people to be welcome at their own home absolutely especially here at church and we know that sometimes church isn't that place you might have had an experience where church wasn't that place but this is a place whether it's online or whether it's here in person we love having you and um we accept any and all i can remember whenever i started coming here and i saw all these people who were sitting down front i thought that they were i thought the bumper sticker that um the the gospel the arrows can you tell me that what the arrows are i forget the arrows arrow up and down then then the tomb okay and then he's coming back again then we're going back up okay so i thought those arrows i thought those stickers were for cr because i was brand new here yeah and so it's fun as you you get to be a member of the community is you get to be a child of god learning the different you get to know the inside thing you know this um we happen to have somebody living with us as we often do and just recently i was introducing her to someone else that we're friends with and kind of giving the history okay because we've been here a long time and she was so sweet to point out how she's never lived any place long enough to have a history and how much she's loving watching us interact with people that we've literally interacted with for 50 years right you know and we don't think about that we just think that's our life but what that just made me realize what what a history i have with so many people here and i value that and and you're a little bit new to the history but five years six years but still you're becoming a part of the history of wfr and here i am with you so fun yeah the wise but here's what's so fun when you say 50 years i like i know you and your husband only because johnny last week in sunday school or maybe it was the first week he i'd say something he said a couple things and i could tell the wisdom in his voice and i loved what he shared and so what's crazy though is y'all act like y'all are like maybe in your twenties oh yeah i mean you know yeah i have like grandkids and i'm like how do these like y'all have more energy and y'all are always doing things like i get tired watching your facebook page we have like great grandkids that is so sweet for you to say that about johnny because you know the wife of 50 years i leaned over and i said i'm pretty sure this isn't a uh discussion class but he was adding his little voices of wisdom and of course he really did say some great things and you were so great to handle them because in our online classes as those of you who watch know you can't hear the audience right so clay or grant they have to repeat that so that you understand what's going on and so you guys did a great job and um and johnny did add the wisdom he does yes he does so that was sweet and i just learned about a little wisdom right right before we came on as well because there were a couple glitches and they were starting over some streams and so we're up here and we're not sure if we're going to get to even speak and so i said look let's pray right now and so chris immediately kind of turned and and and i was like are you a hand holder and and i was like yes i am so i was like me too i said usually i'm i'd make you know i'm not worried about men we live in a very um different society so you have to ask people these things now and so i was like um i with men i'm like hey this might make you uncomfortable but i'm going to hold your hand let's pray but you know so she held her hands i was like you're a hand holder and i said why are you a hand holder and you started sharing well it's just so natural for me and honestly it started at and i'm looking at lenny over there at camp chiyoga because we would hold hands with our fellow teen believers in faith together praying to god and my sweet husband johnny was one of those and so we started holding hands at camp chioka and we continue that today and even our family when we gather up for sunday prayer before lunch we're gonna reach out and hold the hand of the person next to us so it's very natural for me so okay maybe it shouldn't have been but no no no i love it and so what we have to do like so one of the reasons we give shout outs like david diggs and kathy nolan is that's our way of hand holding right so since we're we're online and we can't necessarily physically hold your hand we're saying hey nicole we're hand holding by saying good morning to jennifer and denise and victor and misty and chris and victoria and joseph and shauna and heidi i'm terrible with names is that sherry stanley and sherry abbott you're you're doing good it looks like sherry and cherry we've got two cherries yes and william yeah i'm gonna let you do that next one and the next one i have no idea but mcdermott's oh you're so good and georgia and ginger and shirley and tony and uh that's that's why we give shout outs it's because it's like we can it's the best way we can hand hold that's right over the air and if you're in your room with your family and we are saying a prayer reach out and and touch on the shoulder or hold a hand and just show that connection in your family it's just a sweet spirit and i think that there is power there's power and touch and that's why touch in the wrong way is so negative but touch in the right way wow god's spirit can work in powerful ways speaking of working in powerful ways why don't y'all join us for worship right now all right thanks guys hey let's be standing in here we're gonna sing everybody else on in here with the song jesus you are so good jesus you are so good there's nothing to fear cause i'm here [Music] jesus you were so so good and i just want to thank you with every beat of my heart sing it again jesus jesus you are so good there's nothing to fear cause i'm here in your presence jesus you were so good jesus you are so so good and i just want to thank you with every beat of my heart you've given me eternal life and your words are light my way you've given me a spirit with new mercies every day jesus you were so good jesus you were so good there's nothing to fear cause i'm here in your presence jesus do us all good jesus you are so so good and i just wanna thank you with every beat of my heart [Music] you've given me a confidence and my soul is filled with peace for you and my provider you supply my every need jesus you were so good jesus you were so good there's nothing up here cause i'm here in your presence jesus healed us all good jesus you were so so good and i just want to thank you with every beat of my heart sing one more time jesus you are so good jesus you are so good there's nothing to fear cause i'm here in your presence jesus you are so good jesus you are so so good and i just want to thank you with every beat of my heart i want to thank you and i just want to thank you with everybody good morning guys man is so glad to see you guys here this morning thank you for choosing to have your worship time with us whether you're here in the sanctuary with us or you're out there in the world of the internet we're so glad that you uh have uh elected our church to be the the time you spend in worship today hey i just came down from the second floor up here and the blue line has already crossed in and passed through kingdom kids and is heading up to the third floor that means we have more and more money coming in for our friends in the philippines this is a wonderful chance to give to teach your children how to give to give in memory of others or anything we thank you for supporting that we ask you you continue to support that as well as that in our just regular tithing and giving times we have boxes set up in the back and throughout the lobby as well as outside the instrumental service center too we ask that you please be sure and continue to go donate and to give into the service of our lord's kingdom hey we're great to have you guys today let's be standing again we'll continue our worship this morning bless the lord o my soul oh my soul worship his holy name [Music] the sun comes up [Music] again whatever [Music] bless the lord [Music] my soul worship his holy name sing like never before oh my soul [Music] your name is great and your heart is high for all your goodness i will keep on singing 10 000 reasons for my heart to find the lord bless the lord [Music] i'll worship your holy name [Applause] [Music] still my soul will sing your praise unending ten thousand years and then [Music] the forever of my soul oh my soul worship his holy name how are you gonna sing sing like never bless the lord my soul oh my soul worship his holy name [Music] sing my never before oh my soul i'll worship your holy name i'll worship your holy name [Music] i see the king of glory coming on the clouds i see his love and mercy washing over all our sins the people see the people see joseph [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jose [Applause] [Music] i see a generation rising up to take their place with selfless faith with selfless faith i see an revival stirring as we pray and see we're on our knees we're on our knees [Applause] highest [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] heal my heart and make oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] within my heart is a melody that was not [Laughter] in the darkest night it still goes on [Music] the anthem of my god within my heart is a treasure that cannot be [Music] boughted it will not presence of my god oh magnify the lord let us name together no one beside you lord honor and praise are yours forever before your throne in the mystery [Music] [Music] how glorious you are you are the one who redeems the wrongs that i have done raiding your how glorious you are [Music] no one beside you honor and praise are yours [Music] [Applause] forever and praise forever [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] is [Music] honor and praise are yours forever [Music] no one beside you [Music] [Music] [Music] and we come [Music] we place you [Music] we bless you we place you [Music] your feet we bless you [Music] [Music] i am [Music] [Music] worship [Music] become [Music] worship god morning church this is the time if your first time here is our time to gather around the communion table and to remember our lord's death and he comes again and that's what he told us to do by the jews as his blood and the cracker as his broken body we remember you know remembering is illustrated over 164 times in the bible so god takes it pretty serious for us to remember right and i've talked to you about his love i've talked to you about his name and i've talked to you about his power which is the holy spirit so what i want to talk to you about this morning is his word his word never comes back to him void and it's the good news it's the good news of the gospel it's the best news that we have the best news so [Music] remember the good news a lot of times we see on tv not good news a lot of times we witness not good news a lot of times we imagine not good news but we have the best news of them all the best news remember the good news remember his word remember his word you know i want to give you an update just a short update and i'll close about ben his oldest brother had taken over his church when he died and it was standing room only 350 people but they added on to the church now it holds over a thousand people in its standing room only his younger brother that he also witnessed to and brought to jesus has a church across town and it's standing room only 300 people and they're adding on to that church and his sister told my probation officer when the phone call came to me she said tell mr randall we're going to turn juarez mexico upside down for jesus so understand this even though bad things happen god uses it and allows it for good for his purpose and his glory winning souls for jesus remember his word because it's good news it's the best news father we love you and we thank you so much for today we thank you for your blessings of this life we thank you so much for giving us this opportunity lord to share thank you for your blood thank you for your body thank you for your promise of coming out of that grave that one day we'll be with you thank you for dying for us because you didn't want to live without us and help us to remember always and it's my precious in your precious name i pray sir said is [Music] i could not climb in desperation i turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night then through the darkness your loving kindness told through the shadows of my soul the work is finished the end is written jesus christ my living hope who could imagine so great a mercy what heart could fathom such balanced grace the god of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shape the cross has spoken i am forgiven the king of kings calls me his own beautiful savior i'm yours forever jesus christ by living hope hallelujah praise the one who set me [Music] [Applause] [Music] praise the lord who set me [Music] [Laughter] [Music] the [Music] then came the morning that sealed the promise your buried body began to breathe [Music] jesus [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] jesus christ [Applause] [Music] jesus christ jesus christ [Music] [Applause] welcome good morning glad to have everybody here uh i am the other guy or the other gentleman uh somebody told alan the other day he did a great job preaching and tell that other guy or that he did good too so uh welcome here and uh glad you're here today and here are the announcements for this morning september 24th campus prayer walk this is something we do every year to pray for our schools so we'll be gathering at 6 00 p.m that night at ocs at ulm and at west ridge this is something we do with community prayer partners and we cover all the campuses please join us for prayer for our schools hey guys i'm pumped about this we are having october 8th through the 10th uh celebrate recovery homecoming hey we got some special guests mac and mary are going to be here and so we're going to celebrate change lives and so i'm telling you you don't want to miss this not only friday night there's some activity saturday then sunday morning we're going to have a special gathering so check the app for more information we'll be getting some more stuff to you later hey guys uh we're getting that blue line longer and longer all the time uh of course this goes toward our uh special one kingdom contribution missions day our children's ministry are doing it they do this every year and i'm so excited a quarter for an inch so write your checks make sure don't make the donations whatever we have to do to help our children's ministry reach its goal once again thank you for being here this morning i'm really pumped about i know allen's gonna have a great sermon for us and so welcome home this is our forever family and we're so glad you're here [Music] be a cheerleader i'm gonna play this game it's not that kind of homecoming there's no football game there's no cheerleaders and there's no dance are you serious yeah so what it is is a celebrate recovery homecoming so basically anybody and everybody that's ever been a part of celebrate recovery we want you here friday night october 8th and then saturday october 9th who's going to be here so friday october 8th we're going to have every generation of ministry leader and we're going to be inviting some of our old friends back with us so mack owen the global director of cr who also started this celebrate recovery is going to be speaking that night and we got a huge announcement for everybody you don't want to miss this announcement you do not want to miss this announcement also the following day saturday october 9th we're going to have a family and fellowship event food and gardens food and games all nine photo booth be with us friday october 8th and saturday october 9th for some celebrate recovery homecoming events you do not want to miss this opportunity to come out fellowship and fun and listen we're all part of celebrate recovery that's right every single person so we love you can't wait to hang out with you see guess what time it is the blue line this year our children's ministry is going to help raise money for the people in the philippines this is the gonzalez family they live in the philippines help us help them help us tell the philippines about jesus help help us help us bring us your clothes [Applause] [Music] good morning church waiting on the lights to rise right jesus christ really is our living hope amen what a blessing for us to be together uh thank you rhonda for what you said what a great follow-up to that story um you can't you can't kill us we live on through christ amen what what a story there in juarez mexico welcome to the fellowship center as well that you guys are with us today also our live stream audience is always a blessing to have you tuning in from all around lisa's down there in alabama somewhere watching hey babe um what a blessing to be together this morning kaylee bird would you come on up she's going to read our scriptures yeah how about a hand in advance [Applause] it says here that kaley is 15 and in driver's ed so look out west monroe oh you finished it have you got your license yet no are you ready to drive do you know how no that's not not quick enough not quick enough i know your buddies with carly and she's getting hurts as well so i'm just going to say a prayer for wes monroe no they're going to do great all right you can read our scripture [Music] but after me comes one who is more powerful than i whose sandals i am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire thank you how about another round for kelly [Applause] i still remember when her dad was half her size leading singing out at our little church out at luna what a blessing to be able to have generations of faith uh worshiping here today ephesians 1 paul said praise be to the god and the father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in christ for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through jesus christ paul said in galatians 4 when the set time had fully come god sent his son born of a woman born under law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship john 1 says in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he was with god in the beginning through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made in him was life and that life was the light of all mankind the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us we have seen his glory the glory of the one and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth so everything in all of human history before the creation of the universe led up to the moment that we're going to look at today in matthew 3 and matthew 4. we know that jesus had been miraculously conceived because of his divine nature and yet he was born as a baby boy he lived basically under 30 years of obscurity and anonymity we know hardly anything about his life on earth he was seen as the oldest son of a carpenter living in nazareth in galilee until this moment his time is now we're going to be in matthew chapter 3 chapter 4 today if you'd like to follow along when you have a magnanimous moment like the one we're about to witness today there are certain things that need to happen to really show you how great and awesome it really is so we begin by having what i call the announcer you know when you see movies about you know the old days of monarchs and kingdoms and you remember whenever there was a great declaration that was coming from the king someone would say here ye hear ye and then they would make that proclamation right it was an announcer someone usually dressed colorful to get your attention so that you would listen to the message that the king had for you we have such an announcer here in matthew chapter 3. it's a man who was born in the spirit of elijah one of the greatest prophets to ever live in fact the very last words of the last book of the old testament written over 400 years before matthew 3 said this see i will send the prophet elijah and he will come to you before that great and dreadful day of the lord coming he will turn the hearts of parents to their children in the hearts of children to their parents or else i will come and strike the land with total destruction which is exactly what happened in 80 70. all that history and everything that led up to that moment but everyone had 40 years of opportunity to listen to the announcement to change their destiny some did many didn't in john chapter 1 the priest and the levites they asked john the baptist they said are you elijah no are you the christ then no are you the prophet no well who are you they asked him and that brings us to matthew chapter 3. in these days john the baptist came preaching in the wilderness of judea and saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is near that was his message over and over this is he who was spoken of through the prophet isaiah a voice of one calling in the wilderness prepare the way for the lord make straight paths for him the forerunner the announcer what did john look like not much he'd fit in around here right it's our way john's clothes were made of camel's hair and he had a leather belt around his waist his food was locust and wild honey they weren't coming to him because he looked like a fancy preacher in fact they had to go and find him looking the way he did with that simple message and they came people went out to him from jerusalem and all judea and the whole region of the jordan confessing their sins they were baptized by him in the jordan river a season of change is coming repent the kingdom of heaven is close it's near and poopy began to say oh man it's finally messiah time is going to happen and lies were changing hearts were changing people were drawing close to god but this man who looked like he did with the message that he had was also unafraid to speak power to authority verse 7 when he saw many of the pharisees and sadducees coming to where he was baptizing and why were they coming to get baptized no to observe to decide whether this was okay to decide whether they would make a rule whether this couldn't happen or could happen and he said you brood of vipers there's a good opening line for a sermon a pit full of snakes who warns you to flee from the coming wrath produce fruit in keeping with repentance and do not think that you can say to yourselves we have abraham as our father which is exactly what they were going to say i tell you that out of these stones god can raise up children for abraham you're nothing but a dumb rock that's what he said man this was a suitcase sermon the axe is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire and that means you was his message to them now that's a man who's not afraid to speak on behalf of the almighty that sort of boldness would wind up costing him his head later in matthew but that's what prophets do they speak the truth whether it's popular or it's not popular and they're not afraid to call those in authority what they are tyrants and that's what these people were he went on to say i baptize you with water for repentance but after me comes one who is more powerful than i whose sandals i am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire his winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor gathering weed into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire what an announcer all true for some jesus is great news as randall said for others it's fake news and they don't believe for them stands judgment that was the announcement look at verse 13 after the announcement we find out that there's an anointing and an affirmation jesus came from galilee verse 13 to the jordan to be baptized by john now this would tell you something about the character of this man god who we follow he never sinned so he wasn't coming to be baptized for repentance from anything he was the son of god but he came and submitted himself anyway and that says something about our lord in fact it shocked john so much in verse 14 john tried to deter him saying i need to be baptized by you and you come to me and look up until this point he didn't know jesus was the messiah he just looked at his life and looked at his character and he said look you don't need to be here if anything he was saying john you need to be baptized at me jesus replied let it be so now for it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness and then john consented to fulfill all righteousness to do the right thing to have a moment of affirmation and a moment of anointing i find it interesting that jesus would pick this same sacrificial symbol the same one we still participate in today to recognize our submission to christ right to recognize our anointing of the holy spirit to recognize the authority that god in heaven has given to christ that now we bow the knee before baptism as soon as jesus was baptized he came up out of the water at that moment heaven was opened man would that have been something to see what if you'd got to be john the baptist in that moment i mean you come up out of the water and you look up and i mean i've seen some really cool stuff here for baptism never seen this he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and the lighting on him so whatever that looked like he actually saw the spirit spirits of hearts see but in the moment he was allowed and then a voice from heaven and it wasn't a tommy human voice it's a deep powerful voice sorry evan i just want to make sure you're watching this is my son whom i love with him i am well pleased man what words of affirmation you see in this powerful moment for the first time ever in the history of all creation we see the sun as a human being we see the spirit of god coming to him to indwell him that would indwell us as well when he poured it out and made it available for us and then you see the authority of the almighty yahweh jehovah god who had been the voice throughout all of human history said this is the guy this is your guy listen to him wow that's powerful anointed affirmed and given all authority but here's something really interesting hebrews chapter 2 verse 17. the hebrew writer said he had to be made like us in every way and because he himself suffered when he was tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted jesus christ never succumbed to temptation that makes him different from all other men and women on the earth in the history of all people and all the time till he comes back but he understands temptation because he himself was tempted and it the bible says he suffered as a result of it so that's why we come to chapter 4 and we see the first thing out of the box for jesus now in this new anointing in this new ministry in this new kingdom is his adversary our old pal who's been around since the garden the devil look at verse one of chapter four jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil so he purposely was taken here he was led there by the holy spirit after fasting 40 days and 40 nights it's hard for me to fast 40 minutes he was hungry yes the tempter came to him now this tells you something about the character of our adversary he loves to make his move when you're at your lowest weakest terrible time whether that's something physical something spiritual something emotional something going on it just seems like one thing after the other and when's the other shoe going to drop and what's going to hap in that moment that's when he's going to approach you you know how i know this because if he was bold enough to approach the son of god why would he worry about al he coming the tempter said to him if you are the son of god in other words i've been hearing things you're the messiah and i remember the bible tells us satan doesn't really know why god has come to earth he didn't know the plan you know he's got to be hatching a lot of stuff because the evil one is very devious and he's very good at schemes and setting traps but he doesn't know why he's here what else could he be possibly doing becoming one of these creatures if you are the son of god and you're hungry tell these stones to become bread i mean show us something all the miracles that were asked for all the signs of authority that were asked throughout this book of matthew and all the gospels and the very first sign asked for was by whom the evil one show me something you see he appealed to jesus's humanity a moment we can all understand being hungry happens to me every day it's as human as breathing air you get hungry you put some fuel in your body right so he appeals to him at a base level eat but jesus said it is written man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of god you know what he's saying if you just took that and changed a little bit you don't have to be controlled by your flesh you see we believe the fake news lie that we only can be driven by our fleshly desire if i really want something if i desire it if my body is telling me i need it then i have to have it jesus says no you don't the spirit is stronger than the flesh the word of god is stronger than your flesh you don't have to do anything you see our soul and spirit makes us different than an animal that just reacts on pure instinct and exactly what's in front of it that's not us we have a choice we have a conscience if we hadn't seared it that says you don't have to make that choice and jesus shows us the way out appeal to the word of god it's greater it's changing there are so many people that have been trapped for so long and some addiction or something else and then once they finally figure it out and the word of god is now ruling in their life they realize they don't have to be driven by the flesh and jesus shows us that first but if you try to do it on your own well i'll just come up with my own plan for this thing that's what takes us to verse 5. so the devil fails in the first attempt the devil took him to the holy city we're going to jerusalem he had him stand on the highest point of the temple i mean he's way up there on the at the most holy place in all of israel he picked that place for a reason if you are the son of god throw yourself down for it is written the devil's fixing a quote scripture are you kidding me he knows the bible yep he knows it well apparently he quotes psalm 91 he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone not only did he know psalm 91 he knew it was a prophetic text about jesus her enemy is pretty sharp but he's not as smart as he thinks he is jesus says it is also written i got a verse for your verse devil do not put the lord your god to the test you see the first attempt was at his humanity but this one is literally to his divinity he recognizes he's from god he's known it through the whole time israel may have missed it but the devil didn't miss it and so now he's saying why wait i don't know what you got planned but just jump off of here now nothing's going to happen to you everybody's going to know my plan can be better than your plan jesus said nope because the will of god is always greater than our will the plans of god are always greater than our plans how many times have you just known that you were doing the right thing only to find out later it was not the right thing and you forgot that one simple start god do you want me to do this i've started working on sermons before and just beating my head against the table and i can't get this thing going oh wait i didn't ask the holy spirit to be in charge of the planning and then it becomes much easier so that's failure number two verse eight the devil took him up to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor man that must have been something all those fire lights and sparkling things out there all this the evil one said i will give you as if it was his to give if you will bow down and worship me you know i understand that going after the humanity i understand the divinity even to a certain extent this one is a low blow because you know what he's appealing to now jesus's love for you and me he knew that instinctively that's why i said you want all these people which is exactly why jesus came here was for all those kingdoms and all those people he loves every single person so much that he wants every single one to find salvation and the devil's not trying to use this against him because he said look we'll work together on this deal i mean this is the art of the deal i'll do my thing you do your thing we rule this world together jesus said and finally this is the final because he says away from me satan i'm done with the temptation for it is written third time is used scripture worship the lord your god and serve him only that tells me there are no deals with the devil there's no halfway in halfway out there's no we're going to hold hands and walk with the devil for a while to make good and have good things happen will not work you serve god or you don't there's no middle ground there's no shortcut to salvation the devil leaves him and the angels come and they attend him and that's such a beautiful scene you know what that man they had some food some water so you think would i want the devil to be replaced by angels in my life wouldn't it be great to feel like you were being attended by angels that somehow people some being somewhere outside was lifting you up that you feel that presence i've talked to so many people that said you know in this moment i just i felt prayer and i felt strength and it was almost just like there were angels there holding me up in the moment it happened for jesus i sure would rather the devil leave and that happened for me wouldn't you so how does that happen well i'm going to have to quit being led by my facely desire i can't follow those desires and find jesus i'm just going to find more trouble i can't live my life by my own will and my own plan will not work i can't take shortcuts i can't cut deals i can't submit my will to anybody except my lord and savior jesus christ that's what i learned from this and also that the word of god is always the answer to the evil one always i get notes from all people all around the country listen to our podcast and they say you know i just don't y'all know the word and man it's just it's so good it's encouraging but i just i just don't know anything and then usually some point later they say and i'm just struggling so bad yeah those two go together because if you don't know how to respond to the evil one and what to say and what god has given you through your holy spirit and also through the spirit's word that he wrote down yeah you're gonna stay in a vicious cycle of struggle the word of god is the perfect answer well we get to verse 12 through 25 of chapter 4 because now jesus has been announced he's been affirmed in power in authority he's been anointed by the holy spirit to now carry on this ministry for all of us he's faced the adversary and won and he will win again on the cross and coming out of that tomb so now there is what i call the advance and there's three things that happen the rest of this chapter and we'll leave it there in verse 16 of matthew chapter 4 it says it was as a quote the people living in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned from that time on jesus began to preach just like his announcer repent for the kingdom of heaven is near oh it's getting close and he's going to unlock those gates to it and it's going to change everything not just for the first century but for us you see he shined his light in verse 19 he found began to found 12 people they were going to be his disciples that were going to have a lot more disciples beyond that and he said come follow me and he told the first ones because they were fishermen i will make you fishers of men all mankind you see he was building a future with faithful followers and we're still doing that to this very day i mentioned that get a third generation young lady up here reading scripture today that's how you pay this forward generation generation generation and you think well that's pretty easy to do no it's not if you want to know how not easy it is to do just take a good look at our culture for about a week and you see how quickly people forget to teach their children and their children's children it can happen to us if we're not vigilant to build faithful followers and then verse 23 jesus went throughout galilee teaching in the synagogues proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people the last thing jesus did was to fulfill his destiny he had the authority and the power of god he could do great miraculous things but it wasn't the miracles it was him that's what saved people people got well but guess what they're going to get sick again it's called living and then dying you need jesus to be able to conquer both and that's what he showed us last sunday i was near shanksville pennsylvania just a few miles away from where aircraft united flight 93 crashed in some woods and then some of those rolling hills there's a huge memorial there now there were 40 people that woke up just like they did every day some were going to work some were flying to go on a vacation some were just doing their job flight attendant pilot and four men of course changed everyone's destiny that day because they realized in a moment that they were being used as a weapon against our nation against those things that we hold dear and institutions and so they had a decision to make in just a few short minutes now i've been on a lot of airplanes i've experienced some scary things but i haven't been sitting there knowing that we're about to be used as a weapon to kill a bunch of other americans and so in that moment people are crying people are upset they're making phone calls to family telling them goodbye and four men led by one man of god todd beamer decided that their destiny today would not be to be a weapon but to take out evil and confront it head on a man of god said the final words that we were using as a rally point last sunday let's roll let's roll jesus began this ministry to change hearts and lives he's changed mine i was 18 when i finally submitted when i finally succumbed to jesus and said let's roll are you there today has even used the fleshly desires to just get in your way your destiny is more than just a fly along and run into a building your destiny is to confront evil with the power of god and know that you will live eternally and you can do that every single one of us has that capacity jesus began this ministry for us if you have a need today whether it's prayer requests whether it's to commit your life to christ whether it's to be baptized and same symbol say we are anointed and affirmed and we're going to go forward today's your day why don't you do that while we come and while we sing [Music] well i'll tell you why al thank you so very much and all the live stream folks what a great blessing this lesson has been i know it has been to me and this work of jesus that's just started uh it goes on to change lives and that's what we're about and so if you need your life changed today then we want to pray for that uh contact us if you need to be baptized into christ and we'll figure out how to make that happen uh if you have some special needs send them in we'll be praying for those specifically so if you would by your head with me please father we love you we do give you glory and honor thank you father for this one called jesus that we're learning about and how to follow him and how to be like him we know that it's not for the fantastic healings although those are great it's the simple following for the forgiveness of sins that we submit our hearts and lives to jesus so i pray father for our live stream audience and for i pray for rick and deanne or out with covid i pray father for jerry madden who's in the hospital right now as well as christy barker others in our church family father we just lift them up to you for every person listening to my voice i pray a blessing for them in jesus sweet name amen thank you mike and thank you alan we talked earlier about our history at this church and i go way back with mike and alan both and lots of ministry work and a lot of great things and we just appreciate their ability to share the word with all of us and that we can grow and learn and new things every week they are incredible men and i i can't tell you how much camping is meant in my life i know that oftentimes we talk about camping but you mentioned it earlier about you and johnny you know and and praying and and the years y'all gotten to pray together and what's amazing to me is i saw a picture the other day and it was y'all out at camp and it was al and mike and you and um i don't think i'd ever seen mike or al's legs before but one of them was wearing shorts and it was you know i was like whoa um but uh it's it's amazing the journey that you all have had together from from this church and from camp and just serving god yeah exactly and i was thinking about during um balanced talk about how many places i've been able to witness baptisms you know from my bathtub to camp okay hold on i'm sorry but you just said your bathtub yeah i'm gonna need a little more i'm gonna need you to flesh that out just a little bit for me here we had a baptism in the bathtub we had a man actually he's an artist his name was pierre matisse who was one of the great greats of andre matisse and he was studying with willie and wanted to be baptized and it was the winter time it was too cold for any place else so we warmed up the bathtub and willie got in there with him and here we go there it was i i love your family i love that if somebody says hey i want to be baptized what's i mean it reminds me of that unit what's stopping that's right find the spot and it's been the river down it feels it's been the swimming pool in our backyard it's been the lake at camp it's been the bathtub it's been in romania and whatever we could find it's been all over the world so i i just the whole time i was talking i just kept thinking about all the many baptisms i've been able to witness and how to make this precious each one are you know each one that's so that thank you for sharing and i'm gonna have to hear again so what's so much fun to me about getting up here and learning and talking with you and and talking with all of our folks and i know there's a lot and and i see um just real quick before i go on but i see um shelby fortenberry's on here and she's on our our team here she helps with the kids a lot and she's up in arkansas right now because she lost her dad and so um y'all throw some some haze out there to shelby uh and there's a lot more there's melanie and mark and tina uh beverly inman um liz who's been sick for a long time our prayers are with liz and so many todd and jamie brian and susan from montana i love seeing these different states and jamie kane i think she's got a wedding coming up i mean there's a lot of lot a lot of people there so good morning glad you're here and uh so you were you were talking about these things places you've you've seen baptisms or been a part of them and i didn't even know you've been to the country of romania and so there's just so much i can't wait to learn and to hear over the next weeks months years as i get to learn uh continue to dive deeper into what it is to be a disciple here at wfr well that it's all about learning to follow jesus and when you learn to follow jesus you get your passport ready and you'd be ready to go when god says i'm going to send you and you say where where and i love you know a couple weeks ago we had our back to school and in the back to school one of the guys who was speaking and i wish i could remember his name i can't off the top of my head but he literally was like hey the college campus is one of the greatest missionary places because instead of getting your passport ready people are coming here i love that and i i yeah that spoke to me me too and the very next week we were in the worship service uh and i was across the way and this this couple came in and they came in with their family and i knew they weren't from here but i didn't know where they were from but they um they just in louisiana we can tell um an accent that's not from louisiana and likewise when we go someplace else they can yeah yeah yeah we got a lot of boudreaux you know we have a lot of different accents in louisiana anyway this one wasn't from louisiana turns out they were from egypt and i said why are you here you know visiting and would you believe they were here visiting from egypt because the sun and the daughter-in-law they were here at ulm so there you go here for college and the family had come for the whole month of july and they wanted to come because they had over in egypt they knew about um the different shows that have gone on before and so they were coming to hear al preach that is amazing so i am by the way if y'all are online and you're visiting ever i'm a great picture taker i'm not ever offended whenever you say hey i want a picture with them i get it i'm not them and so uh i can take really good pictures and i'll always will point that out to you if you do come and you say hey can i get a picture i was like hey that guy can take a good picture there you go i love that well we do welcome you this morning and we're so glad you spent some time with us you've been able to listen to god's word you've heard a few of our stories some of you were in our class earlier that grant and clay are teaching and and remember that's always at sun at nine o'clock on sunday mornings then at 10 o'clock we're here with you and uh wednesday night we have peak of the week and lots of things online for you to be a part of and we want you to be a part of it so we ask you to join us and everything that we do and we want you to have a great week amen and so i love to close with this just remember may god bless and keep you may god make his face shine upon you and give you peace amen [Music] i was buried beneath my [Music] it was my tune till i met [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it was [Music] [Applause] [Music] out of the darkness into your glorious [Music] [Applause] into your glorious days [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] out of the darkness into your glorious day called my name and i ran out of that grave oh yeah into your glorious days [Music] come on now we sing a little louder [Music] [Music] hope [Music] [Applause] hope will [Applause] the presence arise my enemies [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] hope will arise [Music] i when i was broken [Music] [Applause] out of the darkness into your glorious day [Music] [Applause] out of the darkness into your glorious days [Music] hallelujah [Applause]

Channel: Whites Ferry Road Church

Views: 1,859

Rating: 4.9669423 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: umjJjkWF3zo

Length: 85min 6sec (5106 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021