The Power of One [Who You Are in Christ]

[Music] it's good to be with you again our topic in the session is the power of one we are walking through a season of unprecedented disruption and there has come with it i think a sense of despair particularly to the people of god we recognize that there's so many things happening that have an undercurrent of ungodliness and immorality that it has left us with a sense of almost hopelessness well i have good news we're not alone the same spirit that brought jesus to life again is at work in you and me and we're not just randomly sprinkled throughout the earth we're here on an assignment for the king of kings and the lord of lords with a divine purpose for every day so i have an announcement just in case you didn't know you are of great significance in the eternal kingdom of god well that's our idea today we're going to open our bibles and open our hearts and most of all before we go we're going to accept an assignment from the lord himself to be a difference maker in this generation enjoy topic for this session is the power of one and it's a little different than some of the the things we've been doing recently i'm we're going to walk through some scripture verses and talk about them a bit but then we're going to do our best to implement some things tonight so that we're not just hearers about god or the word of god but we're going to begin to practice if there's anything i'm convinced of that we're in a time and a place where we need to not only know about god we need to know how to interact with god we need to know how to hear from him and understand who he is and what his invitations before us are and how to be in touch with him how to cooperate with him most of us have spent our lives as churched and religious people you know with lessons and sermons about god and about the bible and about the things of god and the history of god's people and all good stuff i've been a part of that big chunk of my life but in these days i i need to know how to hear from god and i need to know how to communicate with god and how to have what god's response looks like for us now and so in the heart of this is that you do make a difference in fact i want to very purposefully and we'll we'll put that stake in the ground at the beginning i want to do everything in our power in this particular session to combat despair that pervasive sense of hopelessness that things have been unleashed in our world that are beyond me and there's just really nothing i can do and attached to that despair i think there's a pervasive sense of fear it's paralyzing i bump into some expression of that almost every day people that have been paralyzed by fear and i keep suggesting to you and i'll continue to suggest it that you think of fear as a person without a body not some nebulous emotional response when you feel fear beginning to take hold of you your thoughts or your emotions or or your own self-determination recognize it as a person that's intruding someplace where they have not been invited and respond to them with the same intentionality and the same purposefulness and the same directness and the same sense of authority you would that if you left church tonight and somebody was sitting on the hood of your car and when you walked up they said i think i'm going to take this one no i don't think you are and if you're bigger than me i'll go get help and i'll keep getting help until there's no more doubt about who's taking that vehicle home but you're not and and fear is every bit is unwelcome so we want to combat despair fear and the third component that i seem so prevalent is indifference it's as if we don't talk about what's happening and we don't look at what's happening and we pretend like nothing's happening maybe nothing's happening if you want to fancy your word we can just say we're kind of stuck in an ambivalent place but it's really we're just indifferent i want to do what i want to do i want to go and do the things i like to go and do and i just don't want to look at the rest of it now that trifecta despair fear and indifference are having a very significant effect upon the people of god right now and the response to that the antidote to that i believe begins with understanding the power of one that you can make a difference you can make a difference in how you feel and how you respond this isn't about the government changing or the political party changing or the economy changing or the pastor changing or the church is changing or the school's changing or something else changing you and i have been empowered by the creator and i with god's help we're going to unpack it i have this imagination of of understanding what's happening around me right now and it's as if at the sometime at the beginning of last year 2020 we embarked on a journey and and you can choose the journey that's your favorite if it was if you liked the cruise you got on a ship if you felt like to fly we got on a plane if you liked the walk we took a hike but we we embarked on a journey and initially we thought it was kind of a short journey going to be a short cruise or a short flight or a short walk but about the time we just got lost touch with our point of from which we embarked we realized it wasn't going to be short and we've continued to bump into things there was if it's a ship we've been into all sorts of unstable seas if it's a plane we keep hitting pockets of turbulence if you've been on a plane when that happens and you drop a few feet and you're bouncing around like a ping-pong ball and you get the very clear sense in a hurry i'm not in charge of this thing and if you're walking i like to walk and you know when they mess with the time sometimes it means in the mornings i'm out walking when it's dark and i was walking through a field the other morning and i stepped in a hole fell on my face in the dark but you still look around and see everybody saw you and then i finished my walk with a limp because that sudden stop didn't set real well now i don't know how you see that but here's what i know we began this journey and we thought we were going back to port or going back to our home base or and the reality is we're not going back to normal normal can be a part of the description you used for a season of your life that preceded 2020 but something began in 2020 and you're not going back there i don't like that duly noted but we're not in charge of that so we've encountered all of these things a coronavirus they don't want us to say wuhan so a coronavirus not wuhan not a noobs we name diseases by where they originate that didn't start in 2020 and it's it's not an expression of anger or hatred towards any person but our schools completely disrupted from the daycare centers to the most prestigious universities and everything in between there's billboards in our community advertising for mtsu saying this fall we'll be back in person mostly [Music] if you told me when i was going to college i could mostly not be there our businesses have been disrupted how we do business how business is transacted how you interact in restaurants and food service how you shop how we do business i work with companies every week who have not been back to their offices in a year we've seen things that i never thought we would see censorship on widespread basis a refusal to allow the few the free communication of ideas without any apology for that without any embarrassment we're seeing expressions of hatred and violence manipulation from the highest and most powerful places in our nation from institutions that we have trusted for fairness and equality we don't even like the word equality anymore equality is too taxing it means we should treat one another the same now we want equity so we can define who gets an advantaged position be certain of this if you allow that into the mainstream they'll keep changing the definition of who gets the advantage until the person with the power gets all the advantage immorality celebrated in more brazen ways than we've ever seen intolerance for all of our language around tolerance and inclusivity we're more intolerant as a culture than we've ever been lawlessness it's impossible to run through the litany of ways lawlessness is being expressed we have an immigration crisis that we don't even want to talk about it's not only affecting our nation and affecting our states and affecting our population it's affecting nations of the world say it's not easy to solve duh but we don't want to talk about it we're not attempting to solve it and we have the birth of a new religion and understand this the religion is growing faster and gaining a more pervasive influence than christianity and we've been a christian nation since our inception the religion of woke i could go on and on but we set sail or we embarked on a journey about a year ago and the place we left is no longer available to us to return to so the question is what are we going to do what kind of people are we going to be and i don't believe the outcome is clear just yet i don't believe the final destination has been charted i i don't believe the flight plan has been fully filed because i think the distinguishing factor in the difference maker will be the hearts of god's people we're not victims in fact i believe god's probably the one that loaded the ship or boarded the plane or invited us on the walk i believe god initiated the disruption because if we had continued on the tragic path we were on we were all headed for a great deal of destruction and so god has stirred us first peter 5 and verse 7 says cast all your anxiety on him he cares for you so i want you to think with me for just what to cast all your angst how much are you going to keep no you're going to cast it all on him so you can't worry about the kids or the grandkids you can't just keep the anxiety over their retirement or you can't hold on to the anxiety because i liked it the way it used to be and i don't i want to no we've got to cast all of our anxiety on him every bit of it so worry and anxiety and frustration whatever your church word for that is because you know the things we're not supposed to do we have a church vocabulary that makes them acceptable jesus said do not worry five times in matthew 6. so we don't come to church and say you know i'm really worried we come to church and say you know i have a burden [Laughter] agree with me in prayer god has just put this on my heart and we have a whole set of words and vocabularies that make it okay for us to worry well i'm just sensitive and disobedient so let's let's take peter at his word let's cast all of our anxiety that's our target lord we're not going to carry it we're going to follow you when jesus said to the disciples follow me and i'll make you fishers of men do you think they understood what the journey was going to be about i promise they had no clue now they had an imagination and they had a set of expectations and dreams but they're constantly being realigned and reshaped and reformed and then they keep butting into things that surprise them or disappoint them or hurt their feelings or frighten them or terrorize them and jesus rebukes them and says are you really that stupid uh do you really have such little faith today i do cast all your anxiety on him we're on a journey all we have to do is follow him he loves you he cares for you i'm not asking you to join a church i'm not asking you to decide a pledge card i'm not recruiting you for some new something or other i'm telling you almighty god has asked us to follow him on a journey and you are powerful influential a difference maker say well nobody knows my name it would do you think that would make it easier stop saying i don't matter repent of that jesus died on a cross for you understand how offensive it is to say i'm not important god gave the most precious thing he had so that you or me could be a part of his eternal kingdom and then we say well i'm not very significant no that's not true that's not even humility it's rebellion cast all your anxiety on him now i wanted to establish so that there's there's no lack of clarity around it because when we get into the the practical application of this we're going to push back on some things that push on us we're gonna push back on some things that push on us we're gonna push back on some things that push on us we're not just gonna be passive we're not just going to gather and discuss the facts again and go home and go isn't that wonderful we're going to take a hand in what's happening but i think the premise that underlies that is the recognition that there's a conflict that's unfolding in the heavens and oh by the way on the earth now heavens throughout the bible from the opening verse of the bible through the conclusion of revelation the word heaven is used in the plural there's more than one there's the heaven that is god's throne and they're not stacked like a layer cake it's it's easier to think of them as differing realms of existence it's like saying we have land and sea they're not necessarily stacked one up on the other they they're different realms of existence with different principles that govern them but the the clearest definition we talked about it in an earlier session recently that there's a the bible talks about a third heaven so there must be by logic a first and a second and if that third heaven is the place of god's dwelling and the first heaven is the space contiguous with the earth's surface where we see the clouds and the stars and the moon then that mid heaven the scripture suggests to us is the place where satan has set up his kingdom again not stacked like layers but different realms of existence but there is a conflict in the heavens and it very much influences what's on earth now i can support that in great detail from scripture but let me just give you something of an introduction in luke chapter 10 jesus is training disciples you know he's still doing that do you know jesus of nazareth is still training disciples i hope you're conscious that you're one i don't just attend church or read my bible or pray i am in training by the one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is lord because he's the head of the church of which i'm apart he's my lord luke 10 the 72 returned with joy they said lord even the demons submit to us in your name and he replied jesus replied i saw satan fall like lightning from heaven satan was an archangel the scripture would seem to suggest perhaps the most beautiful creature god ever made and in pride led a rebellion against god and forfeited his place in god's heaven and jesus said i saw him fall like lightning from heaven so if you don't believe in the devil you have a problem with jesus because he said he saw him lose his place of authority we get some things in our mind strongholds in our minds because we imagine we're sophisticated or intellectual or we bow to the pressure that comes on us from secular culture you know the bible says that knowledge puffs up but i think the more we learn sometimes the more we think we're diminished as persons if we really just take god as his word don't apologize because you believe in god jesus believed in the devil maybe just here's a thought so should you just taking a leap right there i saw satan fall like lightning from heaven i've given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy nothing will harm you however do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven now jesus is training disciples he sent these 72 out we don't know their names they're not a part of the inner circle they don't get the private lessons that jesus is giving to his closest friends but he's recruited these 72 and he sent them out in pairs he's teaching them how much they matter he's teaching them the power they represent in the earth because when they come back the first thing they say is even the demons submit to us we had no idea we didn't understand we go to synagogue three times a year we make a pilgrimage to jerusalem we celebrate passover or sukkot we had no idea the demons were subject to us jesus is teaching them he's teaching us we knew how to go to church we knew how to have a small group we knew how to have a bible study or to teach a class we had no idea we had any spiritual authority or that we would need it because our lives were secure and our lives were constant we didn't really have to bother with all that stuff that was for the lunatic fringe for the crazy zealot people we didn't want to be one of those and now they come back said lord even the demons submit to us so jesus pulls the curtain back a little bit and he said i saw satan fall from heaven he had a heavenly assignment he had a place of tremendous authority but then he says something that is of enormous significance he said i have given you authority i have given you authority a lot of debate these days in our nation about authority and exercising the authority you've been given or exercising authority that you haven't been given in the proper use of authority i believe every one of us will give an account for what we've done with the authority that's been entrusted to us and i don't think at that point where you're being given that evaluation you'll want to go well you know i didn't know oh well in that case come right in i have given you authority [Music] to overcome all the power of the enemy now again jesus is teaching them he's inviting them into this notion that there is an enemy an adversary to the purposes of god and that adversarial position is sometimes expressed through demonic activity not uniquely through demonic activity but sometimes again many of us think we're a bit too sophisticated to intellectual we believe in psychiatry or psychology or emotional and being unsettled so we don't have any room any longer for demonic activity well some demons caused physical problems does it mean every physical disease or malady has a demonic origin no but clearly at least in the new testament some do so i'm thinking in the 21st century some do i saw satan fall he lost his place and then jesus very quickly redirects their attention because we tend to gravitate towards power it's one of the aspirations of the fallen human being it was the temptation in the garden if you'll eat of this tree you'll be like god you can be all-powerful and you watch that carnal part of us it will scramble to get power in every possible setting so jesus redirects it so they're not overwhelmed with this you don't want to spend your time meditating only on that he said however non-rejoice in spirits submit to you he said that gift of authority you didn't earn it you didn't deserve it it was a gift don't focus on that rejoice because your names are written in heaven you're a participant in a kingdom that transcends this place we're on a journey and some days it's bumpy and uncomfortable and threatening when he says to them nothing will harm you we know he doesn't mean they're not going to face stress and physical violence and challenges and hunger because that's a part of the journey it's in the story but nothing will have the power to disrupt god's purposes for you you have an authority over those things you see we have misunderstood we've tried to build our spiritual journey around comfort and convenience and ease and promotion and accumulation i'm not opposed to those things the goodness of god certainly brings the blessings of god with it but sometimes we're asked to make choices that put us in a place that's uncomfortable that is sacrificial that's inconvenient you can't serve god on the basis of convenience then in matthew 4 this time it's jesus himself and the devil took him jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor all this i'll give you he said if you'll bow down and worship me again satan wants that place that is reserved for the lord himself and jesus doesn't debate with him about the fact that he the authority that he's saying he has jesus says away from me satan it's written worship the lord your god and serve him only and the devil left him and angels came and attended him again our topic is the significance of one in this particular little vignette in this window that we're looking through one person is presented with an opportunity to influence the authority that presides over this earth do you understand that one person now i grant you you and i haven't been called we're not the messiah but i assure you god is entrusted to you as fear of authority and your choices make a difference in that sphere in your home in a family in the place you live in the place you work you have been entrusted and your your presence in that place your choices in that place the authority that you represent in that place makes an enormous difference so i've never thought about it okay change away from me satan again jesus is not confused about the devil's existence we shouldn't be either then in ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10 says finally be strong in the lord and in his mighty power put on the full armor of god so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes now verse 11 is uncomfortable because the implication is the devil's going to scheme against you you wouldn't need armor if he's only going to scheme against them you'd need a seat in the bleachers and popcorn and some dr pepper right if you need armor it's because you're in the the the attack plan put on the full armor of god so you can take your stand against the devil's schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood we talked a moment ago about fear being a person without a body it says that our struggle isn't with flesh and blood some translations say we're in a wrestling match i think it's the message it says we're in a wrestling match with persons without bodies so there's something other than physical don't let that particularly stress you have five senses those are your portals interact with the physical world in which we're in you can hear it see it taste it touch it smell it but those five senses don't define all of reality if they did the virus isn't a reality because you can't see one without some assistance you can't see oxygen but you need it please don't be so naive don't think you're following the science when you say that spiritual things aren't real it's very naive our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world he's describing a hierarchy of spiritual darkness principalities and authorities rulers against the spiritual forces of evil where in the heavenly realms again it's plural spiritual forces of evil at work in the world we embarked on a journey about a year ago and we left a place that had been relatively stable had many attractive components to it many many people were as content as they had been in a long time and we didn't ask for a ticket we didn't get invited we got pushed out we got hurt it under the plane or the boat or under the walking path whichever mode of transportation you prefer and along the way we've been increasingly awakened to the reality of this struggle no you don't have free speech unless that you have the courage to stand up for it no your children won't go to school as normal unless you care enough to see to it no truth will not be told in the public square unless you are committed to being a truth-teller well i thought it was my right you were confused it may have been your right where we used to live but we're on a journey to some place new and we can't act like the folks in the book of exodus and say we liked it better before we left and grumble and moan and complain because it didn't work out well for them and more miracles doesn't make you happier because you'll still bemoan where you were and some of us are still a bit grumpy about it each of us has a struggle but we were designed to be overcomers and we've been asked to accept an assignment the fact that is presented to us is not presented to us as a for debate is that there are spiritual forces of evil arrayed in the heavens and they impact what happens on earth if they didn't impact what happens on earth we wouldn't be told to put on the full armor of god if they didn't have any influence over us we wouldn't be told to take a stand and we have arrogantly thought well you know this might affect places in the darkest jungles of the least inhabited wherevers but certainly not in our sophistication folks if you were responsible for deploying the forces of evil would you send them to the least inhabited least educated persons on the planet or would you array them around the centers of communication and the centers of power and influence i think there might be a little spiritual conflict in silicon valley i'm not picking on them we can pick a whole lot of places so my question to you is how are you addressing them you engage in avoidance i just don't go there denial i'm not sure i believe that that's just not how i believe you know i grew up in church and that's just not the way me and my people believe will bless your heart i bet you when you were growing up in church you and your people didn't have a digital phone either but i bet you've changed how you communicate if you're still communicating with a phone hung on the wall and a cord welcome to the 21st century some of us address them with indifference i just don't like to think about it i've been able to negotiate life pretty well without having to think about that i've been able to outwork it or out accumulate it or outsmart it and i'd just rather not think about that so you put yourself on the sideline we ignore the direction of scripture we refuse jesus invitation because the people jesus recruited he purposely and intentionally led them towards this awareness he sent those 72 people out with a very specific directions so i want to take the balance of the time we've got and and and look at some responses that you and i can engage in i'm going to give you three and we're going to practice a little bit the first is praise now we think of praise typically in the context of a public service and it requires music and vocalist and instrumentation and if we like the song they choose we may sing and if we don't we won't because that's wrong but for the most part that's kind of where our imagination of praise begins and ends we call it a praise service and some of us are a bit more demonstrative than others and we'll lift a hand or we'll move or some get happy feet some of us are less demonstrative it has nothing to do with loving the lord some of you if your pants were on fire would have a hard time raising the voice i'm a little warm and so those people probably aren't going to be into a lot of this and you know some of you if you see a match lit you start screaming fire so it's not hard to get you to do this and but when i talk about praise i'm not really looking it does have a part of our physical response to god but it starts with an attitude of our heart but praise is expressed through the words of your mouth there's a spiritual authority in words for good or for bad now you you know this intuitively people have said things that have brought physical pain to you or people have withheld words from you that have brought pain to you so you understand this we're just a little reluctant to apply it to spiritual things because we understand it could be misused or mis misunderstood but that's true with almost anything that has the potential for good salt makes your food better but too much salt will make your health bad so don't avoid it because it can be misused or you've known someone who's misused it this notion of i've seen somebody misbehave therefore i will avoid it folks if you see somebody overweight are you going to quit eating if you see somebody that can't drive are you going to park your car and walk we've held some really goofy ideas as a means of excusing our own inactivity praise is a powerful tool the bible talks about putting on a garment of praise taking off a spirit of heaviness and we started by talking about a spirit of despair some of us need to purposefully take off the spirit of despair it begins by stop filling your mind with those thoughts that feed the despair whatever those outlets for that information is spend less time with them and begin to say you know i'm not yielding to that i'm not giving place to that that spirit will not dominate my thoughts in my mind you're not welcome here the joy of the lord is going to fill my heart in my mind and then you take a passage of scripture if you do the daily reading maybe you'll find a passage that ministers to you circle it stay with it until you you feel like you have finished that you may stay with the same passage for three or four or five or six days and find that it brings renewal to you and strength to you and hope to you you keep saying say it out loud over your life as an expression of praise to god i brought you psalm 135 it says praise the lord praise the name of the lord praise him you servants of the lord that's plain english folks if you imagine yourself to be a servant of the lord you're supposed to be engaged in praising him it says nothing about church and the worship team you who minister in the house of the lord or in the courts of the house of our god praise the lord for the lord is good well what do you mean praise the lord you could start saying lord thank you you're good god i'm sorry for a long time i thought you were bad i thought if i ever really served you you'd take all the fun out of my life oh because serving the devil is so fun some of us oh god an apology well i thought honoring the lord would be dull oh and honoring the devil that would be a joy ride we really need to talk to the lord of it lord you've been good to us sing praise to his name for that is pleasant the lord has chosen jacob to be his own and israel to be his treasured possession i know that the lord is great that our lord is greater than all gods the lord does whatever pleases him in the heavens and on the earth in the seas and in all their debts lord you started me on this journey and i've grumbled for a good part of it but lord i know you're good and you're taking me to some place good and whatever's in front of me it'll be better than what i left i don't want to stop i want to walk i want to follow i want to open my heart and my life if it means i turn loose okay i'll turn loose lord i want to walk with you i want to travel with you i want to sail with you i don't want to stay where i am lord i thank you for your goodness to me i will not give in to the heaviness and the despair i will give glory to you you have been good to me i brought psalm 136 i'm going to ask you to help me with this the party in bold is yours i didn't want to stress you there's only four words but you get to repeat him 26 times so you ought to figure him out all right your line is his love endures forever his love endures good good you were smarter to come inside tonight so we can handle this i'm confident and then there's a series of statements about god and every statement is followed by this repetitive phrase his love endures forever because each of these statements is an expression of god's love to his people at some point in their journey and every one of those expressions won't resonate with you but one or two or three or four or six or eight or 12 may i would take those and i would write them down separately or highlight them or circle them and i'd walk around for three or four days going i'll give thanks to the god of gods because his love endures forever so we're going to say this one out loud okay i'll read my part and you'll say yours all right now don't you've got 26 so i don't want to start out like his love endures forever and get down to twelve goals [Laughter] all right because i want god paying attention every time i'm calling out right all right give thanks to the lord for he is good give thanks to the god of gods give thanks to the lord of lords to him who alone does great wonders who by his understanding made the heavens who spread out the earth upon the waters who made the great lights the sun to govern the day the moon and stars to govern the night to him who struck down the firstborn of egypt you know we live in a time where people tell you if you trust in the lord you're a little naive and a little simple they ought to study egyptian history they discount our boss you need to meditate on it a little bit you say i'm not important you are important that whole egypt story got started with one guy by the name of joseph and he came from a torqued family i mean he suffered horrible things and god took all of that suffering and pain and disappointment and heartache and turned joseph into a portal of deliverance for himself and becomes the story of a deliverance in all the bible until we get to jesus oh and brought israel out from among them with a mighty hand an outstretched arm to him who divided the red sea asunder and brought israel through the midst of it but swept pharaoh and his army into the red sea to him who led his people through the desert who struck down great kings and killed mighty kings cehon the king of the amorites and og the king of bashan and gave their land as an inheritance an inheritance to his servant israel to the one who remembered us in our low estate and freed us from our enemies who gives food to every creature give thanks to the god of heaven good for you you little fanatical praise people you use your voice out loud in front of other people to talk about our god as a deliverer and a restorer we will give thanks to him make time in your schedule to give praise to the lord you have alone time you in your car doing chores taking out the trash there's spaces in your day standing waiting on a copy machine or a coffee pot you don't have to have a 45 minute of unbroken uninterrupted time you can have a four-minute window where you stand there with your verse that's in your heart and say you freed me from my enemies your love endures forever let the praise of god begin to rise up within you the power of one one person standing in your neighborhood in your office in your classroom giving praise to god on a regular basis makes an enormous difference [Music] then there's profession not your job profession is you using your words to give affirmation to what you choose to believe belief represents a choice that's why the bible talks about unbelief emerging from an evil heart just out of the abundance of our heart our mouth speaks if your heart is filled with evil your words will be unbelieving words skeptical doubting ungodly so we want to cultivate the habit of giving voice to what we believe securing it in your heart and one of the ways through the centuries that the church has been grounded is by taking professions that are centered in the primary tenets of our faith because the same things come under attack in every generation the uniqueness of jesus and the divinity of jesus was under such a great assault in the first three centuries of the church that the church almost didn't survive the physical persecution against christians was so great in those first three centuries that the early church almost didn't survive there was enormous pressure upon them to say that jesus is god but there are many gods there are many ways to god if the early christians would have just submitted and been willing to say jesus was one of the god options they could have avoided the persecution rome was a very diverse place religiously they had a pantheon a whole assortment of gods they even built a building in rome you can visit it today the the periphery of the building is filled with these little niches where where the statues of the gods were put and jesus was offered a place in the pantheon no harm no foul but they understood intuitively they understood that if they surrendered the uniqueness of jesus there would have been no church you and i wouldn't gather on sundays and they refused the invitation i'll spare you the latin but the church was declared illicit outside the law and they suffered horrible persecution folks we'll have to be willing to profess our faith even when there's a cost so i brought you the apostles creed it's one of the oldest professions of faith in the christian church we're not exactly sure about its origin the original post was lost on instagram but many scholars think it was the baptismal creed for the church in jerusalem so before being accepted as a candidate for baptism you would have to publicly affirm that you believed these things to be true without these things it isn't christianity this is not a menu where you can choose line 1 4 11 and 12. if you don't accept these tenants if you don't believe them it isn't christianity not new with pastor not new with the 21st century not true with western christianity it dates back to the church in jerusalem it begins with a statement about god the father and his ultimate power and authority and then there's a middle stanza that is centered in the person of jesus and every line there that it gives some aspect of jesus life or has been challenged through the history of the church and then the final stanza is a collection of affirmations and belief in six very specific things let's read through it together all right how many of you grew up in a tradition where you said the apostles creed good how many of you never said it at church no harm no about half and half okay i grew up saying it and i learned it kind of like the pledge of allegiance if you let me start and go all the way through i could do it but if you stopped me made me start in the middle and broke my rhythm i was lost because i had no idea what it meant i just kind of knew the cadence like the alphabet song so let's say it together i believe in god the father almighty the maker of heaven and earth and in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy spirit born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified dead and buried he descended into hades the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of god the father almighty from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead i believe in the holy spirit the holy christian church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen now the words you choose to speak over your life become it's like defining the boundaries of your property you have a house that somebody did a survey and there's a description of your property so that you could defend it against someone who'd say no that's not really your property now you've got a legal document and we still have some semblance of the rule of law some semblance and it says this describes my property well that profession describes the boundaries around your belief and you need to say it until you and think about it you can as you do your bible reading you can start to write verses down that give affirmation of those different statements i believe in god the father almighty the maker of heaven earth i'll give you the first one genesis 1. and then the statements about jesus and then there's the the versions on this will change a little bit because the english language has changed through the years and a couple of the words that i plugged in here were to give a more contemporary reading you may see a translation that says he shall come to judge the quick and the dead as if he won't judge the clumsy he'll only judge the quick ones so you want to move in a more sloth-like fashion and you can avoid judgment it's an old english word it means living and then some people get a little upset it's i believe in the holy spirit in the holy catholic church and they'll think i knew it they subverted the faith but catholic doesn't mean roman catholic means universal trust me you can check me later ask rabbi google so it just takes a little of the antagonism out if we say the holy christian church and we don't mislead anybody or cause them to stumble over that but know what you believe don't just say i go to that church or i joined that group your profession of faith will determine your eternity it's it's worth a little investment of time and then finally there's a third tool that's available to us and they're proclamations and that's what's when you choose to give authority and voice to what god has said about you so i don't know why it matters if if i say it or not well that's really not complex jesus work on the cross is complete and entire there's nothing we can do to add to it and there's nothing we can do to detract from it do we agree on that okay anybody disagree with that notion i doubt it it's a complete and entire work that's a fundamental principle of scripture so the price has been paid for every human being to be included in the eternal kingdom of god and if everybody participated there wouldn't be any human beings in hell but the bible tells us that there will be because even though god has made provision some of us in our stubbornness and rebellion will refuse to confess with our mouth and believe in our heart and we will forfeit god's provision it has nothing to do with god's desire or god's will or god's grace or god's mercy we have stubbornly refused the provision of god it's like being in a car in a hot summer day excuse me it's hard to graciously sneeze when you have a microphone pinned to your and in 2020 that's an act of aggression but it's like riding in a car on a hot summer day with the windows that hold up and refusing to turn on the air conditioner the provision's there but you have to implement it and when you refuse to give god's worth the authority of your voice you forfeit the benefit so i don't believe that your choice now god's you're not going to manipulate god with his word don't be flippant with it don't be childish with it you can be childlike but don't be childish don't say well i said the verse twice and my circumstances didn't change that's like saying i did two push-ups but i don't look like a professional bodybuilder takes four so i brought you two proclamations one about god's protection and one about hope and encouragement and they're built out of scriptures let me read you the scriptures and then we'll say the proclamation together you can build your own i put these together we share them on a weekly basis with prayers and battle plans and there's prayers typically with every session we have prayers attached i hope you're accumulating a whole collection of prayers while you begin to formulate your own comfort level with building your proclamations god's protection it seems to me on this journey we're currently engaged in it's good to know that god is our protection isaiah 54 no weapon forged against you will prevail and you'll refute every tongue that accuses you this is the heritage of the servants of the lord and this is their vindication from me declares the lord or psalm 91 a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand but it will not come near you you'll only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked if you want to circle that little preposition if you make the most high you're dwelling even the lord who is my refuge then no harm will befall you and no disaster will come near your tent for he'll command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways the verse the devil quoted that verse to jesus do you know the devil knows the bible he doesn't want you to now out of those passages and some others i built you this proclamation of god's protection let's say it together i rejoice in the protection of almighty god over my life i'm the lord's servant i rest in the completeness of his strength and care no weapon formed against me will prevail i will refute every tongue which rises against me this is my heritage as a servant of the lord a thousand may fall at my side but destruction will not overwhelm me i have made the most high my dwelling place god is my refuge and my security no harm will befall me no disaster will overtake me god has commanded his angels to watch over my life my life and my future are secure through the strength of my lord and my redeemer amen now if you need take a picture of it put it in your phone make a voice recording of yourself saying it and play it when you're driving and say it along with yourself let it begin to fill you spend more time with that than the goofy stuff that's robbing you of your joy and your peace and your hope i'll give you one more hope and encouragement isaiah 61 he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners this is what the spirit of god does to proclaim the year of the lord's favor and the day of the vengeance of our god to comfort those who mourn did you know god comforts us in our mourning amen god is a comfort to provide for those who grieve to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes and the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair they'll be called oaks of righteousness a planting of the lord for the display of his splendor god intends for his splendor to be displayed through your life you are powerful and important and significant psalm 34 18 the lord is close to the brokenhearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit the righteous man may have many troubles but the lord delivers him from some of them from all i'm sorry i'm from all now let's make this proclamation together i put on the garment of praise and hope i choose the joy of the lord as my strength i lay aside the spirit of heaviness and raise my voice in praise of the living god may my eyes be opened to the provision of god and my ears attentive to the sound of his deliverance holy spirit help me in you i find power in revelation god has restored my broken heart and set my feet on a path of victory i have hope for today and the strength to complete the course you have chosen for me let the people of god arise triumphant and may the name of jesus be lifted up throughout the earth in jesus name amen hallelujah [Music] hey this is pastor alan thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it like it and most importantly share it with your friends if you want to be notified when there's new content when we post new material if you'll just subscribe to my channel and hit the bell you'll get the notification most of all i pray god blesses you as you continue on your spiritual journey and open your heart to the lord god bless you

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

Views: 8,248

Rating: 4.9247651 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, allen jackson ministries, world outreach church, alan jackson, sermons, preachers, how to be saved, Finding Jesus, pastor allen jackson sermons, The Power of One, Who You Are in Christ, emotions, emotional, depression, anxiety, fear, dispare

Id: VbqPYmB9g-Y

Length: 58min 44sec (3524 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021