The Pursuit | 07.19.20 | Sunday 11AM

[Music] so so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] good morning pursue whether you're joining us here in person or online we just welcome you i'm excited for church this morning come on if you'd like to work the first up here in the front you're more than welcome to join us i'm expecting big things why don't you sing it i raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies [Music] i raise a hallelujah louder than the unbelief louder and louder then i raise a hallelujah with everything inside of me i raised i will watch the darkness [Music] i raise a hallelujah on me [Music] is alive is [Music] a little louder [Music] sing a little louder a melody will watch louder darkness [Music] you're gonna hear my louder and louder [Music] is a little louder [Music] a little louder [Music] coming down right now [Music] invade this place so invade this place oh we lift you high we lift you high god [Music] oh we look on [Music] and as the spirit was moving over the water spirit come move over us come rest on us come rest on us as the spirit was moving over the water spirit come move over us come arrest [Music] you're here and i know you you're here and i know you are moving oh on we come down me oh [Music] [Music] the holy spirit you you're here i know holy is so calm down spirit when you move you make my heart pound when you feel the room you're here and i know you are moving i'm here and i know you will feel me calm down me oh i know you will fill me come and move again open up the gates they're heavy [Music] [Music] come rest on us [Music] oh the wind of god is blowing all across the earth the spirit of god is pouring out on all flesh come on let's lift those hands in this place this morning holy spirit come and blow on us again have your way come on let's sing together blow my breath of god upon this place [Applause] mighty breath of god empowering grace upon these [Music] streams of mercy streams of mercy falling down [Music] [Music] falling to the ground upon this place [Music] oh come and breathe again lord passion for your holy name every day blood and water washing all blood and this again water from the cross jesus upon these oh today up oh god all the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones today these it's [Music] is me [Music] are you [Music] come on let's declare one more time all the earth jesus every hello oh [Music] spirit of god come along and we wait for you oh god now we wait for you oh god [Music] oh [Music] we've seen what you can do oh god of wonders your power has no end the things you've done before in greater measure you will do again cause there's no reason why you can't break through no mountain you can't move all things are possible but there's no broken body you can't raise no soul that you can't save all things are possible the darkest night you can light it up you can light it up [Music] death is overcome you've already won you rose in victory and now you're seated forever i will trust in you all things are possible things are possible the darkest night you can hide it up is again come awaken your people come awake in this city oh god of revival pour it out pour it out [Music] oh people oh oh this will come in this city [Music] the scripture tells us that where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom for those who are in captivity i felt like this morning the spirit of god spoke to my heart it it reminded me that our past is a place of reference not a place of residence our past is what we learn from it's not where we live and this morning come on if jesus lives in your heart scripture says you are a new creation he's come alive to the fullness of life that he offered you're not just a better version of what you were before you've been made completely new you might not feel it this morning it may not be the prominent thing in your own mind this morning but scripture says let god be true that every man be alive that means that what god says is the highest truth is the highest reality and we receive it by faith in our hearts and we know that in order for god to awaken a city he first starts with his people right regional awakening starts with personal renewal and friend as a as a people who are so in need of god in this hour more than ever before what we're asking is god can light the fire in me first and as i'm in play by who you are god through my spirit of influence do your best work in people's lives come on friends just as an act of faith would you just raise your hands all across this building come on i want to lead us in a prayer for renewal i want to lead us in a prayer for infilling we're going to sing this again but i just believe in a special way this morning god is pouring out afresh of the new not yesterday's bread not yesterday's anointing not last season's impartation but something new for you and your family and your life this morning father you see every hand raised you see every heart and god we say come and do what only you can do god come and do what only you can do now you see the contents of every life father we pray that your consuming fire would take residents inside of us father we say awaken us awaken this church awaken this region awaken this part of the world god we come to you in humility and in spiritual poverty and we say god only you can help if you will be our god we will be your people and wherever your presence goes we will follow and if it doesn't go don't send us out from this place but god wherever you go we'll follow and we declare over every lives surely goodness and mercy will follow you the days of your life and so we say god blow up this place blow on our hearts god awakening awakening in this hour come on i people come awake here [Music] i felt like this morning the lord told me he was dealing with two spirits two spirits to support him the first was the spirit of boredom people who have grown bored or stale in their faith it's like man worship doesn't move me anymore preaching doesn't move me anymore the word of god doesn't capture me anymore i'm just it's not that i'm backslidden i'm just kind of bored i'm just kind of over it and i felt like the lord reminded me this morning that in his presence mountains of boredom and lethrigy they melt in his presence and if you're here this morning i feel it especially in my heart over young people young man and young women if you've grown stale in your faith allow the fire of god to relight that thing on the altar of your heart this morning that the spirit of boredom would lift number two the spirit of suicide there's something in this region come on there's something in this part of the world over self-harm and suicide and self-hate come on we break that in the name of jesus i speak life over you i speak abundant life over you i speak over you power love and a sound mind we come against the enemy who steal kill and destroy and instead we release life in the northwest over hopeless situation i even see in my spirit people watching this broadcast depressed people watching it shutting their homes feeling like i'm overlooked nobody cares about me and in this moment with the spirit of god even fill your house and fill your heart that freedom will come to your life so we come against suicide we come against depression anxiety stress and we say where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom come on church say it with me where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom come on let's sing this one more time come on let's declare it as an anthem in the northwest that awakening is here and awakening is coming come on [Music] oh oh [Music] oh father we thank you scripture says whom the sun sets free is free indeed so we receive that freedom that comes from god alone and we say god do your best work do your best work we'll give you all the praise we'll give you all the glory we'll give you all the honor that's due to your name both now and forever come on in jesus name all god's people said hey baby come on would you take a minute say hi to a friend on the way back to your seat thanks so much for joining us for pursuing [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] hey good morning pursue family thanks for joining us for church today and if you're joining us online welcome back we want to thank you again for following all of our cdc guidelines by staying six feet away from each other covering your face and covering your mouth and make sure you're not touching the person next to you if you didn't already know we have pursuit masks available in the foyer as soon as you walk in if you don't have a mask go ahead and grab them we have disposable ones we have pursuit branded ones so pick one up if you haven't done so already a couple of weeks ago we launched our pursuit preschool that's launching this september 2020. if you want more information or you would like to enroll your child you can go to pursuitpreschool.com coming up july 26th at 6 00 pm we have our very next revival night we gather from people around the region to worship and pray it's going to be an amazing night that you don't want to miss out on also if you are an artist or creative we're going to be having an info meeting of thursday night july 23rd at 7 p.m if you want to be involved and you have a creative expression that you'd like to share make sure you're there so you can understand the feel of the night the vibe of the night looking forward to meeting all of you we'll see you soon that's all the announcements that we have for today thanks so much again for joining us make sure to stay connected with us on social media by following at the pursuit nw or if you want updates on what's going on here text pursuit guests 94090 thanks again for joining us we'll see you guys next weekend awesome thanks brian hey well we are glad that you are here and like many of you we're following the news the best that we can i know that there's different updates and and different mandates and press conferences and i feel like every time there's a press conference my blood pressure raises a little bit i just i just don't know what's coming dex but as of today obviously you're here and we are planning on holding service again next sunday 9 a.m and 11 a.m uh but please stay up to date on our different social media accounts we're letting people know trying to follow best we can all the rules and the regulations but it is my conviction in this season that if there was ever a time that the church needs to gather for worship and prayer it's now and so i know that it it kind of feels like the sky is falling sometimes and and we kind of live new cycle to new cycle and there's so many experts on facebook i've noticed there's a lot of a lot of experts on facebook a lot of opinions yeah i feel like they've all gone to school and gotten degrees during the shutdown because everybody's an expert and we hear a lot of opinions as well and it's i'm not trying to be callous with them but opinions are like farts everybody has them most of them stink and so we all you know we all have opinions uh and uh it just don't matter what we do you know we cancel service then we're sellouts if we hold service we don't care about our neighbors and if we have mass and people are mad if we don't have mass people are mad and so i would just encourage you if you go be mad just go be mad by yourself but when you come to church be happy right be glad you're here scripture says i was glad when they said come unto the house of the lord not i was mad not i was upset uh and so we're encouraging people to engage as best they can we know that a lot of our community is still watching online which we are grateful for grateful for the ability to live stream on a lot of platforms here this morning and so anyways we just want to encourage you thanks for hanging with us thanks for being here thanks for praying with us in this season we know that god is at work in ways that we can't really quantify and in those moments of things that we can't understand we just do our best to give him glory and praise and i really think that he is working things out for our good and so that that's our mandate in this season god is working all things together for the good of those who love him and so uh that's where we're at and we'll keep you updated uh if things change in a moment we're gonna receive an offering but you actually had a financial testimony miracle yeah and i think it's important for you to show that this morning yeah i was um i didn't say this in first service but um as pastor russell said um you know about the past being something that we look to uh how important is it i mean who's who's been in in like a living room when someone's given a testimony and like your heart just wells up and like you can attach yourself to that faith and that hope and and and i and i remembered this testimony and uh you know when katie and i were were younger were when we were younger i'm not going to talk about years we wanted to get mayor we we were married but we wanted to start a family and we were in no financial situation to do so and uh there were there were there were things that were against us we were both working katie wanted to stay home you know i wasn't making that much and we just sat and agreed together and prayed for a financial miracle and we knew it would take time but let me tell you what happened over the course of the next year from that moment that we agreed together and prayed and believed that god would make would move mountains for us i got promoted like three or four times we got a house we went from an apartment to a home we paid our car loan off and we were able to live on one income and start a family and and i say this because many of us are in a situation right now where we need that kind of faith and hope for what we're facing and we can look to our past we can look to what god's done we can look to the scripture and that he fulfills every word and as we come to agreement together and believe that he will do what he says he will do we have the faith and the hope to believe that what is right around the corner is way better than the situation that we're in right now so as we give you know think of your situation not as much about the gift that you're giving but the word that god has for you that you can agree on and how your future will change we have some very specific goals financially on what we want to do now and we're agreeing and believing that god's going to do what he did and even more so and it's going to be awesome all right so let's in faith give you know we have the ways to give up on the screen online texting mailing in right here so when i put the envelope in the bucket give but give knowing that god wants the best for you and he will move mountains for you if you agree with his word that says he will bless you amen yeah you could this is the time to come forward and give this year if nobody gives will you'll only see us online next week [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you have a bible open to the gospel of matthew chapter 4 matthew chapter 4 the first book in the new testament the first one that we often read as we work our ways through scripture that tell us the story of the birth life death and resurrection of christ as many of you know we don't have a lot of information on the growing years of christ we know the miracle surrounding his birth we know that wise men come to offer gifts we know at the age of 12 his parents leave him behind in the temple on accident how many you ever been left behind at church by your parents if you grew up pentecostal you've had some of those experiences and then really the story begins to pick up in matthew 4 where jesus at the age of 30 is baptized in the jordan river by his cousin john the baptist and you know the story or at least some of you would be familiar with it this morning the heavens open up a voice from heaven says this is my son in whom i am well pleased the holy spirit like a dove lands on his shoulder and from that moment on thus begins the public ministry of christ that public ministry will last for about three and a half years prior to his execution by the roman government and three days later his resurrection and then some days after that his ascension into heaven and matthew 4 picks up in a place that is immediately following his baptism the first thing to happen after his baptism is not preaching at a conference it's not taking a large offering it's not writing a best-selling book it's not collabing on the next best worship cd jesus right after his matthew 3 baptism experiences what we now call the temptation of christ in matthew 4. here's why it's important for you to understand the temptation of christ because some of us feel like it's hard to relate to christ because he doesn't know what it's like to be human and that friend would be a wrong assessment of the nature of jesus jesus through the incarnation is both fully god and fully man he's not half god half man he's not man sometimes and then god other times he is fully god and fully man in fact the writer of hebrews tells us that jesus who is our great high priest is able to sympathize with us in our weakness because he likewise was tempted and tested in every area but did not sin it's not a sin to be tempted all of us are tempted and face temptation of course it's a sin to give into temptation but matthew 4 records what we now know as the temptation of christ i think the temptation of christ is more than just a historical story it's more than just a moment in the life of jesus it's a moment that teaches us about his character his nature and how we ought to live in our world today remember jesus is our model it's not just some sort of pseudo spiritual historical figure if you read it in the life of jesus it serves as an invitation for you to enter into scripture says this as he was in the world so are we and so christ is our model the way that he deals with people the way that he deals with sickness the way that he interacts with the enemy the way that he responds to the father jesus is our model jesus is at the center of the story he is at the center of our theology he is both the foundation the center and the head of the church it's all about jesus and so when we read the story it's important for us to reflect on what this reveals about the central character of christ and and i want to share some of those thoughts with you this morning matthew 4 starting in verse 1 this is what the bible says then jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry i don't know if you ever read a passage of scripture and then take a step back and reflect upon why the holy spirit felt it was necessary to inspire what would otherwise seem as ancillary details and and i i think at least the way that i walk away from this set of verses is with this piece of knowledge the idea that sometimes the only thing that you feel after fasting is hungry and sometimes the only thing that you feel after tithing is poor and sometimes the only thing that you feel after going to church is tired but every time you engage in a spiritual discipline it serves as preparation for the unseen battle that lies ahead and jesus who is fasting it doesn't say and he came out of this fasting experience and he had a halo around his head and he was floating in the air it says and jesus was hungry and i think sometimes for us we have these experiences with god in the past that we think will always be copied or replicated in the future and i've had some tremendous experiences with god and i still continue to do those things but they're i the older i grow the more that i recognize that uh some of the most spiritual things that happen in my life don't feel very spiritual at the time like getting fired from that job or facing that valley of disappointment or experiencing that unexpected death in the family it doesn't really feel spiritual at the moment but you get two or three years removed from the incident and you're able to look back and recognize that god did his best work in places i couldn't see it recognized in matthew 4 and verse 1 it doesn't say and the devil led him into the wilderness it doesn't say and the demons decided to give him a wilderness experience it says the spirit capital s spirit the spirit of god takes jesus into the wilderness for a season of testing and why or how could that be true maybe just maybe the carpenter of heaven the one who holds the blueprint for your life who knows you better than you know you knows that there are some things that you can only learn in the wilderness that you can't ever learn in the promise you think there is a reason why god led the hebrew children in the wilderness for 40 years every day was another opportunity for them to glean and learn about the faithfulness of god the cloud by day the fire by night the one who leads them in the way that they should go that they would never depart from it for the hebrew children the wilderness experience was just as important as receiving the promise and what we want to do is we want to jump over the wilderness get to the promise and then enjoy the land but jesus knows unless you develop on the way to your promise you won't be able to hold on to it anyways the wilderness serves as your development where you learn to trust god in every elevation and season of your life in fact fred it's impossible to bring god a sacrifice of praise unless you learn what it's like to worship in the wilderness man life isn't good right now but god is still worthy man life is difficult right now but i'm gonna make a decision to come to church raise my hands sing my guts out it's not what i feel but it's who i know oftentimes in spirituality we're led by the nose with our feelings and i love the feelings but felix are so fickle they are an unfaithful lover they're here one day they're gone the next i don't feel it anymore and if our worship is reduced to how we feel about every individual song or every individual season we will lose sight of a god who commands the worship of the nations he is their desire they just don't know it yet you don't prepare the nursery after the baby is born but while the woman is pregnant we are in a season of preparation which will be tested by what's coming come on can you feel it in the air it's a wilderness season can you feel it in the air man it feels like god is developing and discipling and encouraging and admonishing and a little bit of everything all at once and it's not comfortable and it's not awesome and we're having to learn how to adapt and and and evolve and and and be flexible and all those things on this journey but god is teaching the church something now that we can't learn later and if less like the sons of israel we learn the times and the seasons of our anointing we will be ill-prepared to receive the promise this is a waste of time it's wilderness time and the spirit of god leads jesus it's not because god doesn't trust god it's because even jesus needed to experience the wilderness and if he didn't escape it why do you think you'll escape it sometimes we over glamorize the bible like well you know of course jesus did that because he was jesus and of course the disciples did that because they were the disciples and it had been a lot different to be back then because we would see jesus he'd be just walking around us in fact scripture says though you live in a better covenant because you don't just see jesus walking around you in fact his holy spirit takes residence in your life we actually live in a better time not a worse time we live in the best time to be alive why because you have become a temple of the holy ghost that veil of separation was torn when christ hung on the cross and what it represented is that you and i now have access to the holy of holies and what would kill sinful men before now invites them to be made new that's how the covenant of death has become the covenant of life we've been invited in now jesus is in the wilderness interesting the bible says that he's fasting well some of us have heard that term before others of us haven't but the fasting is essentially a physical discipline that represents an interior spiritual condition it says i'm setting aside what i need in the physical for what i desire in the spiritual and listen sometimes people become religious about following christ they become religious about their systems that govern their life my encouragement to you is that what you develop intentionally is of christ followership that is emblematic of a continually stirred desire right if you engage in spiritual systems without spiritual intimacy what you will end up as is a religious robot remember the pharisees even criticized the disciples and jesus they said we're fasting why don't your disciples fast and jesus says you don't fast when the bridegroom's here they had become so religious about their system they missed out that the entire point of the system is to get you to see jesus and sometimes we think that we can manipulate god into moving in a certain way if i just pray for x amount of minutes or fast x amount of meals or read x amount of chapters then i really get what i want from god and maybe just maybe he is after something so much more sacred than your religious system it's good to have systems we all have systems and patterns but unless your systems and patterns point you to jesus you will become the god that you serve okay so watch what happens here in luke 4 and verse 14 in the retelling of this story the author says jesus after this experience returned to galilee in the power of the spirit the same spirit that leads him into the wilderness now empowers him for public ministry outside of the wilderness can i tell you friend in our culture we tend to reject hiddenness we re we we intend we we we we we often reject wilderness because it wars against our flesh which craves affirmation exposure accolades and attention but god does his best work in places people can't see things are conceived in private birthed in public have you disciplined yourself enough to be alone with the father that there could be some things conceived in your heart so that when you get where you're going they could be planted in that soil yeah i saw somebody say this on facebook this week but but they said you need the holy spirit to get to heaven i was thinking to myself you need the holy spirit to go to walmart i don't know if you've seen the world today walmart's got a mask policy they need a pants policy as well i mean they've got we've got a situation in our world today like being spirit empowered is not an option for believers today it's not like man if if it works within your theological framework and if you could really make time for jesus and and if you really feel emotional today like be spirit empowered fred this is the bare minimum qualifier to be a believer in our world today we need christians unashamed unembarrassed to be spirit-filled in power making a dent on the world around them we have served the world powerless christianity and where has it led us tombs filled with dead men's bones but when the spirit of god begins to breathe on the bride flesh comes back to the bones and the world begins to shake that's what we were created for we were created for awakening it's in our dna it's what we crave it's why we lean into songs like revival because it's imprinted on the molecules of our body you were created for awakening you were created for love you were created for intimacy with god it is who you have always been created to be and that's why for some of you this morning you're visiting it's your first time or second time or third time here and you're here in this environment and you're feeling something come alive in you it's like you're leaning in you're having a loop 24 burning heart experience i haven't heard this before or seen this before and that guy's a little passionate and he's a little foolish but i was made for this dogs printed something on the inside of who we are it's an awakening it's a deep that cries out onto deep it's a living water it's a jaw it's it's a john 7 out of our innermost being will flow rivers it's something that we were created to be see you were created for this now you don't know it yet but you were created for this but we need the spirit's work in our life and the spirit does his work in consecrated places like the wilderness some of us pray for development but then curse the desert and what if the desert is a necessary place that you must travel through i didn't say camp in but i said travel through to get where you're going maybe the wilderness is as important for your spiritual development as anything else god i just want to grow god i just want to develop god i just want to be everything that you want me to be and all of a sudden the spirit drives us into the desert the wilderness of discipline the wilderness of admonishment the wilderness of consecration the wilderness where we feel like i'm losing friends the wilderness where i'm like man some of those old things don't satisfy me anymore the wilderness of feeling like is everybody against me am i all alone i feel isolated confused and all turned around and god says i have you right where i want you because i tell you what when god gets you alone he can deal with your heart you can hide in your living room just as easy as you can hide in the church oh i'm here with my hands raised but really my heart's closed off i want to allow god to have access to those deep things inside of me i look all spiritual on the outside but in reality i'm suffering and when god gets you alone he has you right where he wants you why do you think there is such a war for your time and your attention in this world today we are always connected and never alone and then god grab you by the hand and it'll lead you in a place using a myriad of circumstances where it's just you and him and you'll reach the end of your rope you'll have nowhere to go you'll realize that jesus is not only all you have it's all you need and in that moment things are imprinted in your heart friend there's a reason why you went through that addictive portion there's a reason why you went to that rehab there's a reason why that relationship didn't work and you felt like you were crushed and you got hurt in that church there's a reason why you went through those things because god was weaving even the broken part of your narrative into the beautiful fabric that it is today and god uses the moments of wilderness to craft the promise we have so focused on getting where we're going we forget that god doesn't just lead us by green pastures and still waters he's also with us in the valley of the shadow of death where we fear no evil so if you feel scared to death alone isolated nervous anxious cast your cares on him for he cares for you and then instead of asking god to deliver you out of difficulty ask him to develop you in the midst of it god just raptured me home got him go hide in my cell just wait till this world improves the world ain't improving friend you'll be waiting for a long time so you can either be a victim of the darkness around you or turn on a light god just rapture me out of here my friend you've been placed here on purpose yeah 2020 difficult on us too i don't know what tomorrow holds they're saying tomorrow the governor's going to come out probably shut down all the churches again 2020 hasn't been easy on any of us but i know that jesus is still lord today as much as he was yesterday and as much as he will be tomorrow and so if he is unrattled by governments and politicians and kings and rulers come on let me tell you friend the church has survived a whole lot of totalitarian rulers over the last 2000 years if rome couldn't kill the church neither can this government and we're going to be everything god has asked us to be in this season and you know what if you read the church fathers the church always flourishes in the midst of interference it always flourishes in the midst of difficulty why because it's not what we avoid it's where we flourish yeah throw me in the lion's den they're going to be on a daniel fast throw me in the prison in philippi that's okay we're going to worship throw me in nebuchadnezzar's fire that's fine because there's a fourth one like the son of man who always shows up locked me in an upper room jesus walks through walls the church flourishes this is our time if we can't find our voice now let's pack up and sell ice cream friend this is who we were created to be this moment in history is not the end of the church it's the beginning of the next great awakening i'm telling you i'm telling you i'm telling you in a hundred years church historians will write about this moment in 2020 when they thought all hope was lost and god raised up a remnant this is who we are oh it's a good time to be alive no i know none of us if i would have told you six months ago we would be facing what we face today you would think i was crazy conspiracy theorist wild but here we are there's one like the son of man who's in the midst of it and when we come out the other side unsinged by the flame it's a testimony to this babylonian world that jesus is the highest name and the highest authority so god develop us in the midst of this why couldn't god just take the three hebrew boys and just rapture them out of there why did they have to go to the furnace in order for god to prove himself faithful because it wasn't just about them it was about a pagan king and an entire nation of people who would see that jesus is king okay so why why watch this hang with me for a minute don't tweet out hey with me the bible says this the tempter came to him and said if you are the sango verse 3 the tempter came to him and said if you are the son of god tell these stones to become bread and jesus answered it is written men should not live on bread alone but on every word every word that comes from the mouth of god i want you to see what the tempter starts in verse three he says this if you are the son of god one of the most important tools in your spiritual battle is a settled identity friend the damage of sin is not found in the act but instead in the shame that attaches to your identity after the act that's why it's so important that we communicate the gospel is not shame on you it's shame off you you can't shame people into relationship with god because shame isn't a tool of the father it's a tool of the enemy and in this moment enemy is trying to get jesus to question his identity and that's the problem of sin and air in our world today is that we get into seasons of darkness and we begin to question who we really are maybe i am this way maybe i'll never get better maybe i'll always be an addict maybe i'll always be a problem maybe i'll always be broke maybe i'll always be sick we begin to question what god has already settled in eternity the law says you are what you've done the gospel says you are what christ has done culture says i was born this way but the gospel says you must be born again family systems say this is the way it will always be but the gospel says you've been adopted into a new family with new patterns and new processes and new ways of thinking essentially this what i was before pales in comparison to who i am now i'm not a cleaned up version of who i was pre-christ i've been made completely new and when you've been made completely new it leads you to reframing your world now through the lens of christ watch how jesus responds man shall not live on bread alone but every word that comes from god essentially this i won't survive if all i ever do is feed on the natural but there is something supernatural that happens in my life when i hear speak confess god's word over my circumstance friend let me give you a word from the lord this morning you will not survive this season if all you do is feed on the outrage from social media everybody's upset about everything if you get on there and say i love god they'll say well why don't you say you love your neighbor you get on there you say you love your neighbor well it doesn't really look like it you can't say anything right you can't say anything wrong because what we have is a spirit of the age that's attached to the way that people think because they've been more discipled by instagram than the bible so they gonna comment and like and share and tweet and if you don't do exactly what i do and if you don't do it in this way and if you look this certain way it's a spirit that's been released on the earth you will not survive this season if you feed on the perpetual outrage that comes across them social media clicks i'm not saying facebook is evil but it's darn near close and everybody has an opinion it's almost like this worship of self man the world just really needs my opinion if i disagree do you know let me just let me interject a novel idea into your life this morning do you know that you can disagree with somebody without even telling them that you disagree with them did you know that you could have a different opinion with somebody than commenting that you have a different opinion to somebody and most of the opinion you just keep to yourself you're gonna be okay you'll be fine see we need everybody to know that we're right it's like the old cartoon of the man up late at night pounding away on the keyboard on his computer his wife says come to bed he goes no somebody was wrong on the internet i've got to correct him we're like hamsters on this wheel running exhausted oh man where did all my energy go it's only 10 a.m yeah but you've been three hours scrolling and it's all negative and i tell you what we we could we should be concerned about coven but you should be more concerned about the spirit of the age that is rewiring how christians think and if you allow fear anxiety opinion arguments to dominate your framework what you don't have room for is perfect peace those cannot coexist so you ought to make a choice isaiah 41 he is my strength and hope john 16 and him i've overcome the world psalm 37 he is my direction and strategy second corinthians 12 his grace is sufficient philippians 4 he's the one who guards my heart first peter 2. he's my healing portion exodus 14 he fights on my behalf romans 8 he's working it out faith declares things that aren't as if they are and if you ever feel crazy being a person of faith welcome to the club you stare into the void and you see substance you stare into the darkness and you see light you stare into what is formless and you see a spirit hovering over it as people of faith we come we become professionals about declaring things in an opposite spirit the world brings what you meant for evil god meant for good see faith requires you to take this word and allow it to become the manifestation of your life there are things that you will have to declare over your life every day but that's what it means to be a person of faith well i don't feel saved this morning okay well i don't feel married this morning okay well i don't feel happy this morning okay well i don't feel like his strength is sufficient okay join the club we're there man we're on this boat together we wake up and feelings are fickle they're there one day gone the next you can feel like a champion on monday a loser on tuesday but if scripture is your foundation then you've got a weapon to use that frames your world and it's by faith that we declare i know what the world confesses but my question for you today is do you know what god says about your life and your circumstance you know we live in a world that loves the saying my truth i got my truth you got your truth that's okay i got my truth can i tell you today fred you don't have a truth sorry you don't you have a perspective on truth but you don't own the truth and we have allowed post-modern dialogue to become what has framed our moral output in our world today and i'll tell you what there is an argument in this world today a fight over definitions in language and language is one of the building blocks of culture why do you think when nebuchadnezzar and the babylonian empire carries off the hebrew children into slavery the first thing he does is change their clothes change their language and change their diet he understood something about culture that the church hasn't learned now i'm not going to submit my definitions to to to to to kind of this blended synchronic world that we live in it's not going to happen jesus says not i am one of the truths i am one of the lights i am one of the ways i am the way i am the truth i am the life and watch no man comes to the father except through me essentially the road that leads to destruction is broad there is a way that seems right to a man but it ends in death but through christ you have life see that's why i reject on its head universalism see there's this movement some some places today some charismatic environments today you know what i'm talking about it's a movement towards universalism god is just so good just everybody in the end and fred you ought to be you ought to be bible-based fred you ought to have your mind renewed by the word i don't think that we save people by preaching hell i'm going to preach jesus but i believe in a real eternity and there's only one way to come to the father is through the son you know when you're talking to people like i believe in god and you know the conversation always boils down to who is jesus most of us operate with some concept of god in our world today in our culture a lot of people operate with some sort of deistic concept i believe in a deity i believe in a god sure call him god yeah friend but who is jesus that's what it boils down to for us who is jesus and what we know is that the holy spirit leads us into the truth that is christ it doesn't mean that we become dogmatic about things that we don't need to make dogmatic it doesn't mean that we make mounds out of mole hills but i'm telling you fred if we can't agree on jesus we can't agree on much there's only one way to the father and it's through the son and jesus is that truth here's the problem you don't have a truth you have a perspective my truth is an idolatry of self as a follower of christ friend you have given up the right to self-define and this is why deconstruction as a sociological framework isn't ultimately helpful because unless you plan on allowing the carpenter of heaven to rebuild your life what you end up with is a mess i want you to think about this this morning friend every person nobody is exempt has a form this form is made up of your beliefs your values your principles your emotional iq your family systems your heritage your background your ethnicity your political beliefs it's a form and it helps frame the world that you live in and if you follow christ for long enough what you will recognize is not everything in my form is wrong not everything in my form is bad but eventually one day my form will bump up into god's form and when that happens i've got to make a decision i will either be conformed to the world or transformed into his image and that word transformed literally means to trade an old form for a new form see what we've tried to do is we've tried to add everything new to what's old but how can new wine go in an old wine skin it doesn't work lest the wines can burst and fred i'm telling you if you follow jesus long enough what you will recognize is that there are some things in my system that don't make it into his kingdom and when my form comes into conflict with his form it's like two tectonic plates that collide ultimately one will have to decide to submit to the other and when your form bumps up to his friend what will you decide romans 12 do not be conformed to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind watch jesus is the living word he is quoting the written word to defeat the imitation word of the enemy you need both if you have the written word but not the living word you are dried up religious hypocrite if you have the living word but you ain't anchored to the written word you'll get wild you'll start a cult you'll form some things that you don't want to form you're going to think you're always right pretty soon you become the god that you worship jesus the living word is quoting the written word we need both now watch what happens in verse five now well i'm not almost done but anyways i say that for your benefit i'm almost done watch verse 5. then the devil took him to the holy city had him stand on the highest point of the temple he said if you are the son of god again with this identity stuff if you are the son of god if you are the son of god throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you they'll lift you up in their hands and you will not strike your foot against the stone jesus answered them it is also written do not put the lord your god to the test friend let me tell you this even the devil can quote scripture meaning this scripture devoid of context will lead you to bizarre conclusions but you know what else will lead you to bizarre conclusions relationship with god and not community with others see we are really good at either or we're really bad at both aunt and the devil through the scripture pulls something from the life of david quotes it out of context to jesus as if the imitation word can deceive the living word and jesus responds you will not test the lord your god fred my encouragement for you is not that you just have context in your hermeneutic which is the way that you understand scripture but you have context in your christian life and discipleship meaning that what you don't form is an echo chamber where your voice always sounds awesome all the time you know why everybody's a good singer in the shower because nobody else is there you ever sing in the shower you're like i could be on american idol yeah i can always tell people who don't have good friends when they audition for american idol and the people are looking at him like this is not the voice of an angel i'll tell you that much see we've formed our own echo chambers where all we hear is our voice and pretty soon every idea we have sounds like a good idea and pretty soon you believe everything you think friend it's dangerous to believe everything you think there are some things you think that you shouldn't believe that you ought to submit to the lordship of christ because you take captive every vain imagination and the enemy quote in scripture see some of you've been hurt by somebody who has quoted out of context scripture and shut something down in your life and can i tell you friend just because you were hurt in church doesn't mean you were hurt by jesus so don't hold him hostage to the hurt of people and there is nobody who has been hurt in church more than jesus and he still shows up so can i tell you friend today would be a real good day to forgive to release forgiveness to release grace to release healing to somebody who used something out of context probably unintentionally but ended up hurting you in a real sincere way and in order to walk out of the tombs of unforgiveness you got to let things go it doesn't mean that you don't have boundaries it doesn't mean that you aren't smart in the way that you lead your life but can i tell you the people in here today he had a pastor a leader a friend a youth pastor a youth leader and somebody said something and it hit you wrong it was in the wrong spirit in the wrong context and you didn't have the tools at that time to combat it but you know it did damage to your life and fred today's a really great day to get freedom in jesus because even the devil quotes scripture watch watch what happens there's a temptation that we got to be careful of in our charismatic movement and it's this if i am not constantly entertained or thrilled by what i experience at church then this whole christian thing is just not for me we've reduced spirituality to an experience that only serves our need to be amused the devil's telling jesus throw yourself down it'd be the ride of a lifetime the angels they'll catch you doesn't matter come on look at the thrill of life look at the thrill of this moment and some of us have had these really powerful moments in church but what we haven't developed is an honor for the commonplace of spirituality and so we're always looking for a pastor to send us to a level 10 or a worship team to play our favorite song in the right way to send us to a level 20. and if we don't get there man i probably won't show up for another two or three months because it just really didn't do it for me anymore but here's the problem if you use that same logic in your marriage you won't be married long if you use it in your friendships you won't have friends for long if you use it at your place of employment you won't be employed for long because there is never the thrill of something new when that thing has become more of a common ingredient in your life so you got to make a decision in this moment will i discipline my spirit into a place where i can honor the commonality of what it looks like to follow christ there's gonna be some days where you're like dude this christian thing is awesome i love it there's gonna be a lot of days where you gotta discipline yourself into following jesus i don't feel like it it's not great it's not awesome i'm upset the lockdown sucks but i'm gonna make a decision to worship jesus i'm gonna honor the common it's like a person who always tries to recreate their honeymoon it's not possible because that was a moment in time it doesn't mean that there's not good experiences down the road but i feel like we're often trying to turn back the clock because we worship nostalgia more than we honor discipleship and frank can i tell you when you make a decision to be a disciple a disciplined person into christ followership no not every day feels like a honeymoon but i'll tell you what every day that you draw closer to him his truth and his revelation takes a deeper hold in your heart the deep things you know what i mean the deep things of god when he does a deep work in your heart friend let me close with this watch watch again the devil took him to a very high mountain showed him all the kingdoms he said all this i will give you if you bow down and worship me and jesus said to him away from me satan for it is written worship the lord your god and serve him only the devil left him and angels came and attended him friend our culture wants unlimited options zero consequences and no one to tell us that we could ever possibly be wrong but friend what does it profit a man to gain the entire world and lose his soul i know the temptation well the spirit of the age just go along with the world play their games submit to their values and look at all the things that you will gain but my worship and my allegiance belongs to jesus and watch the devil is telling the king of kings the one who the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kings of our lord and savior the devil is trying to tempt the king of kings to bow down and worship him to inherit the kingdoms can i tell you friend the devil always try to come and hang things in front of you to try to get you to submit in disobedience to earn [Music] those types of things but jesus who has inherited all the kingdoms of the world gains his inheritance through obedience to the father and i think sometimes for us we're worried like god doesn't have good things for me in my future like i can't trust god for a relationship so i've just got to sleep with the first guy or the first girl who looks at me i can't trust god for an education so i get real frustrated when i don't get into that school that i want i can't trust god for a good job so instead of waiting for the right thing i take the wrong thing i can't trust that god has good things for me in my life so instead of staying in a place of worship i enter into a place of disobedience to try to gain through disobedience what i already own through inheritance i already have a secure future i already have a plan and a promise i already have those things those resources those open doors i already have those and if i'll stay in a place of worship if i'll stay in a place of allegiance to jesus if i'll stay in a place of honoring him above all others if i'll stay in that place everything that my eye is set on the promises of god which are yes and amen will be applied on my behalf matthew 4 teaches us about the season of life we're in friend do not bow to the music of culture do not bow to the mom fred do not trade your worship for jesus to allegiance to any other organization friend let's be those type of people who in the midst of the noise keep our eyes set on him the author and the finisher of our faith would you stay with me as we close let me pray for you i want to pray courage into your heart [Music] we're going into another unprecedented week we'll take it one day at a time but i tell you this no matter what tomorrow brings jesus is still on the throne and our worship and our attention and our allegiance belongs to him god i pray that you would help us in both big ways and small ways god that you would do what only you can do not by our mind or by our power but instead by your spirit and god for those who find themselves in the midst of a wilderness experience this morning that we pray for your supernatural grace which is more than sufficient for everything that they face well we pray for your empowering presence on our church in this season god i declare over this community that it will grow in favor and wisdom and increase during this season that what the enemy has meant for evil that god in fact would use for good and god i pray that you would keep us steadfast persevering i set on the prize never wavering knowing that god who begun is faithful to finish and he's not done yet so we say god do your best work in us do a redemptive work in this region and god somehow some way would you bring the circumstances of our life to glorify you and father we'll give you all the honor we'll give you all the praise in the wonderful name of jesus come on all god's people said amen amen thanks so much for joining us for church friend we're going to keep you updated we'll let you know stay tuned on our social media platforms we'll let you know what next week will hold but as of right now i'm planning to see a lot of you back here 9 a.m 11 a.m next week let's fill god's house let's do it together god bless we'll see you soon thanks so much for joining us for pursuing you

Channel: The Pursuit NW

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Id: Tx4xRAzsNec

Length: 106min 35sec (6395 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 19 2020