"Throwing Shade Won't Make You Shine" | Pastor Debleaire Snell

[Music] i know most of us are watching at home but if you heard the words of that song that he has no right no equal that there is none like him and all the earth i believe right there in your living room you are just stretch both hands to the heavens and just sit in awe of our great god who is above all who is before all who outlast all what a beautiful name it is that at the name of jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that there is no other name amongst heaven given amongst men whereby we might be saved and so if you love the name of jesus just put your hands together right where you are and give jesus a great praise today for he is worthy of all glory he is worthy of all us and he is worthy of all praise to god be the glory great things he continues to do for his children and if you were blessed today by the ministry of sister bodhi praise team our own just give them a virtual amen right there in the chat let them know you appreciate their ministry they minister not just in gifts but in the power of the spirit uh we thanks mr tan for coming down from nashville to be with us today uh she is she is one of we consider us part of our consider her part of our family in fact uh we secretly if this was 1980 we would call her the singing evangelist uh because she wins souls through the gift of songs and so we thank you tam for your ministry today and uh she'll be back to bless us once again and i want to encourage you all uh many of us know that she is a recording artist after the sunset go into your apple library look her up uh if you got some of you along the adams and you got some karen clark and you got some kimberle get some tambodi in your phone i promise you it's going to be it's going to be a blessing to you and we want to encourage you to support our own and then as we do each week we just are thankful to be able to bring the gospel to your home i want to just say a special word of thanks to our audio visual team they've been working hard all week long to make sure that the message gets to you so i thank god for them for our sabbath school team for pastor wright who led us in prayer our deacons and our deaconess that set us up for our baptism and baby blessing our clerks that work hard along with our band that is awesome give them a virtue amen and just briefly i want to just say a special word of thank you and i'm not sure if they'll even be able to hear this uh but i want to give some props to our community service team i get here on saturday mornings around 5 00 a.m we were doing a special thanksgiving grocery giveaway turkeys and the like i want you to know that cars start lining up around this church around six o'clock for an initiative that wouldn't start till eight o'clock and today we serve hundreds on hundreds on top of hundreds of cars with food and so i just want to thank our community service team they've been heroes they've been mvps during this season of pandemic and so we just want to encourage you to keep them in prayer and that you keep them encouraged as they continue in service from week to week and month to month as we go into this holiday season and one of the things i want to just say to the body of christ this thanksgiving week i just want to say to our first church family to our first church family and to all of god's people i want to encourage you to have a blessed but also a safe thanksgiving weekend we've been encouraged to make sure that we maybe limit our travel and the size of our gatherings to make sure that we can maneuver through this pandemic season safely and so i know we have that urge to fellowship and connect but we just ask that you do so in a safe and responsible manner this holiday season and so today we're excited to be with you uh for those who are joining us for the first time need you to know that we're in part three of a a sermon series now we didn't mean for it to be this long the holy spirit just wanted us to kind of take our time and talk through some things but two weeks ago we started a sermon series from daniel chapter two called god and god alone and there we learned that sometimes god creates some circumstances that he and he alone is able to address and then on last week we talked on the subject why seasons have to change and one of the things that we learned from the story of nebuchadnezzar and daniel is that nothing can outlive its season and then we learn also that god is not wasteful with his resources and so we have some interruptions with our stream last week but after you finish listening now go back and listen to last week's message why seasons have to end because then it'll help inform some of the things that we're going to talk about today so go back with me if you don't mind today to the book of daniel chapter 2 daniel chapter 2 and we're going to begin together at verse number 24. daniel chapter 2 and verse number 24 again we're looking here in the context of god had given king nebuchadnezzar a dream that he could not recall or remember he told all of the astrologers and the wise man he said listen i need y'all to tell me uh not just the interpretation of the dream i need you to tell me what i in fact dream and if you don't do it all of you are going to die and it's amazing how the astrologers and the wise men told the king that no such requests have been ever been made of any seer or wise men or astrologer it's impossible uh there's a god who's able to do it but his dwelling is not amongst flesh and so daniel went into his prayer closet he began to call upon the name of the lord and then the lord began to give him the interpretation and this is where we're going to pick it up here in verse number 24. daniel chapter 2 and verse number 24 when you get there just say amen the bible says therefore daniel went to ariak whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of babylon and he went and said thus to him do not destroy the wise men of babylon take me before the king and i will tell the king the interpretation then aria quickly brought daniel before the king and said thus to him i have found the man of the captors of judah who will make known the king make known to the king the interpretation then the king answered and said to daniel whose name was belshazzar are you able to make known to me the dream which i have seen and its interpretation then daniel answered in the presence of the king and said the secret which the king has demanded the wise men the astrologers the magicians and the soothsayers they cannot declare that to the king but there is a god in heaven who reveals secret and he has made known to king nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days but i just want to look at verse 24 and pay attention to something really spectacular therefore daniel went to ariak whom the king had appointed he'll have pointed him to destroy the wise men of babylon and he went and said unto him do not destroy the wise men of babylon take me before the king and i will tell the king the interpretation today saints for a little while i want to talk to you under the subject throwing shade won't help you shine throwing shade it won't help you shine let's pray together today father in heaven we thank you so much for your word your word is a lamp unto our feet and it is a light unto our pathway and so father my prayer today is that in the hearing of the word that faith will be multiplied exponentially and lord my prayer for somebody hearing the word that is where insecurity has settled where jealousy has settled where the root of bitterness has tried to settle in the heart i pray to god that you would prune those things that the joy of the lord might be our strength so once again lord would you please hide me in the shadows of the cross that jesus alone might be seen that christ alone will be heard and at the end of our time together may jesus alone be praised we ask this in the name of him who is all together lovely let god's people say together amen and amen again saints talking to you today under the subject throwing shade won't help you shine throwing shade won't help you shine you know saints there are two types of people in the world uh the first type of person is driven by their god-given assignment or their purpose the second type of person is fueled by competition the need to be number one and the thesis of the message is that the person who is driven by competition will never be as happy as the person who is driven by their purpose and the reason the person who is fueled by person purpose will always be happier is that they use a different set of analytics by which they measure success so that when you're in competition you're fueled by insecurity but when you're in purpose you're fed by inspiration in competition you've got to always monitor and know what everyone else is doing but when you're in purpose you just have joy about what god has told you to do when you're in purpose you are fueled by man's approval but when you have purpose you rest with god's approval when you're in competition you see other gifted people as a threat but when you're in purpose you see other gifts as an asset when you're in competition you can't celebrate other people's success but when you're in purpose their success becomes a model of best practices that helps you know how to improve competition causes you to draw success through comparison but when you're on purpose you know you're successful because you're being completed and when you're a competitor you have to throw shade in order to shine but when you have purpose you don't have to throw shade because you shine because the light of jesus is operating inside of you and the issue saints is that most people in life are fueled by competition rather than purpose in fact we compete with our siblings we compete with our friends we compete in business we even compete with our our family we compete with other couples we compete as parents and most of this competition is unspoken the scoreboards are primarily in our heads and each and every day we are robbed by our joy because it what fuels our compound competition it does not build us it actually depletes us in other words at some point comparison gets exhausting keeping up gets exhausting trying to be first gets exhausting trying to have dominance gets exhausting and today i want to call somebody out of competition and into purpose because shading them is not going to help you shine are y'all with me today in other words you need to look to the scriptures for proverbs 18 and verse 16 says that it is a man's gift that is going to make room for him proverbs 22 and verse 29 says that if you see a man who is skilled in his labor he'll serve before kings and not before obscure men psalm 75 6 lets us know that promotion does not come from the east or from the west but promotion comes from the lord ephesians 3 20 says now unto him that is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all you can ask or think according to the power that is at work within you proverbs 3 says trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding but in every way you acknowledge him god will direct your past and what i'm saying to somebody is if you focus on your assignment if you focus on your spiritual growth you can come out of the shade and enter into the sunlight and god's word to somebody is you gotta shift your focus you gotta shift your emphasis from their flaws to where god is moving in your life because you need to know by throwing shade on them it's not gonna help you shine and what i need somebody to get is that the happiest man in the world is not the one that's trying to keep up not the one that's trying to get ahead not the one that's trying to be first but the one that can just have joy where god has them on their journey are you hearing me today in fact let me say it this way see you won't have joy until you understand what you have in christ i i remember uh when the kids were a little younger tim uh we were driving down county county line road and we stopped at this red light and as we were at the red light there was this bright red corvette that pulled up next to us and so my little kids was like daddy let's when the light turns green let's race them let's beat them in a race and it's crazy because now i'm allowing myself to be influenced by five and six-year-olds and and it's amazing this guy next to me got his top down playing his music at the red light but i'm at the red light i got the steering wheel all grip i'm idling my engine my disposition is all tense because i'm getting ready to race this guy and i need you to know that when the light turns green i burst out in acceleration and i get a nice head start and i need to know that my kids are cheering me on but quickly the victory becomes hollow because you can never be satisfied with winning a victory when they ain't even competing with you in other words i need you to understand that this brother wasn't thinking about me he didn't care about me he wasn't trying to race because he knew what he had in a corvette y'all not hearing me in other words he knows he's faster than me i know he's faster than me and because he knows what he has he ain't rushing he goes slow because he knows what he has he's cruising because he knows what he has he ain't got to be first because he knows what he has and can i suggest that when you know what you have you ain't got to compete with nobody else because you know what you have and can i suggest that there's a bunch of folk competing with you and you ain't thinking nothing about them because you know what you have and when i suggest that when you know what you have in jesus and you know what you have in your marriage and you know what you have in your gifts you ain't got to try to outrun anybody else you can just praise god because you know what you have can the church say amen today and so go back with me if you don't mind to daniel chapter 2 and i want us to just look here in daniel chapter 2 and verse 24 daniel 2 and verse 24 when you get element you say amen daniel chapter two and verse twenty four the bible says therefore daniel went to ariak whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of babylon and he said unto them watch this do not destroy the wise men of babylon take me before the king and i'll tell you the interpretation and verse 27 shows what he says in front of the king then daniel answered in the presence of the king the secret which the king has demanded the wise men the astrologers the magicians and the soothsayers cannot declare this to the king but there is a god in heaven who reveals secret and he is made known to king nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter times now watch this church because i think that this story shares with us some things that i believe to be noteworthy but the first thing that this story teaches us is that sometimes you don't always have to kill the competition see the first thing it teaches us is you don't have to kill the competition now now i need y'all to get saints that this is the crux of the sermon right here don't miss it so remember now that after daniel gets the interpretation and the content of the dream notice that his first move is to run to aryak and let him know don't kill or destroy the wise men in babylon in fact his first move once he gets in front of the king is to let the king know that this matter is not their fault in fact the first goal of daniel is to make sure he does not kill the competition his goal is to remove the shade from the competition in other words daniel does not shade them what daniel does is he actually shares his light with them now i need you to get how big daniel has to be saints in order to do this because understand that these wise men and these astrologers they hate daniel shadrach meshach and abednego number one they hate them because they are hebrew number two they hate them because they have gained status and station in the babylonian empire and you got to understand that these magicians and astrologers they see daniel as their competition as their antithesis as their rival in fact it is the presence of these hebrews that's keeping them from having the undivided loyalty of king nebuchadnezzar and rest assured that if they had gotten the interpretation of the dream first that they would not have come to daniel's aid in fact it is some of these same counselors in chapter three when nebuchadnezzar says bow down to the image or die these are some of the same ones that are quick to point out that it is these hebrews that you have set up that don't bow down or give due regard to the image that you set up but notice what happens that when daniel gets the king's ear and daniel has the leverage and daniel has the upper hand daniel does not kill the competition but daniel saves the competition because daniel knows that shading them won't cause him to shine y'all didn't get that saints in other words he understands his role he has joy in his assignment and the reason that daniel doesn't kill them is he knows that his prosperity is not connected to their demise y'all didn't get that his prosperity is not connected to their demise his prosperity is authored in god he knows that getting even with them is not going to help him he knows that tearing them down is not going to lift him up he realizes that what god has for me it just is for me and i ain't got to throw no shade on them because saving them ain't gonna help me shine and what i'm saying to somebody today is that you'll have more peace if you stop trying to kill the competition can you say amen cece does anybody realize that tearing down your co-worker ain't gonna help you get the promotion you realize that by dogging their business it's not gonna help you grow your own you realize that by hating on her it's not gonna make him like you you realize that by dogging him it won't make her you the man of her genes you realize that by hating on her voice it's not gonna make people like your voice you realize that by tearing down her cooking it ain't gonna make nobody want your food you realize that sometimes we misplace our energy because we put our energy in the shade and not in the sunlight and see let me just say this to somebody because some of us spend a whole lot of time trying to sow tares in somebody else's garden instead of putting good seed in your own see see i need to say to somebody get out of somebody else's garden and try to develop something for yourself in other words get out of their house get out of their job get out of their marriage stop trying to count their money stop worrying about what god is doing and sow something in your own house are y'all hearing me today in other words i want to encourage somebody start pruning what's overgrowing in your own house start putting your vision in the sunlight start pouring some water on your dreams start putting some investment and what god has told you to do because all the energy that you've sown in putting tears in their garden you could have had an abundant harvest by now if you invested in you instead of tearing down them can the church say amen i see the thing that i need somebody to learn is this the reason it is foolish to try to sabotage somebody else's garden is you need to know that you can never sabotage somebody else's favor oh oh you're not human today see i need you to understand that there ain't nothing you can do to sabotage the favor that god has given me in other words when god's hand is on somebody's work when his hand is on their career when his hand is on their family when his hand is on their dream you can talk bad about it you can come for them even when they didn't send for you i need you to know you can form the weapon but it will not be permitted to prosper because when you try to sabotage their favor you realize that inadvertently you pick a fight with god and i need you to know that when you try to sabotage a child of god all you do is make mad their daddy in other words when you sabotage a child of god you get on the wrong side of his daddy and you realize that when you come from me a child of god you get on the wrong side of my daddy so that if you mess with me at some point you're gonna have to pay and give an account to him are y'all hearing me today saints and in fact let me say it this way it's just kind of like this in my house there's this unique tension uh because my sons feel like my daughter gets more kudos and props than anybody in the house and it's crazy because my daughter she just got that spirit she's always asking how can i help help daddy what can i do for you daddy how can i be of assistance and there's a certain amount of props that she gets and i try to teach the boys all the time because what they try to do is point out whatever she does wrong they want to bust on her whenever she falls short they always want to point out when she's not perfect but i need them to understand that her favor is not because i'm not aware of her flaws she gets favored because she's willing to do what i ask and the thing i need to them to understand is don't spend any time pointing out her flaws because throwing shade on her it ain't gonna help you shy are y'all here in this world today and see the thing i want somebody to understand about this principle see you're gonna always walk in jealousy and in bitterness and in resentment if you don't understand that god is such a great provider he's provided enough so that all of us can eat okay let me say it this way in other words god provides enough so that there's enough for all of us to eat in other words god didn't just provide enough for your business to eat god provided enough for all of us to eat some of us didn't get it god didn't provide just enough good men for her to eat no no god has provided enough for all of us to eat god didn't provide enough just holy spirit for me to have he's provided enough anointing for all of us in other words there is no shortcoming in jesus okay so let me say this way it's kind of that's funny like only the folks who live in huntsville kind of get this y'all know that downtown huntsville there is this pond downtown and there's this little red bridge and over that red bridge there is a big pond full of fish and they will allow you to go and feed the fish now if you've ever been to the pond downtown whenever you throw the breadcrumbs in the pond all of those fish they will begin fighting and moving toward the breadcrumbs and they'll fight over the provision that's tossed in but one of the things i noticed one day is that when they were fighting over the breadcrumb all the biggest fat fish they wouldn't be there in the scrum fighting they would just be cruising around the outskirts and the reason i'm wondering why these big fish on the outskirt when all these babies fighting for the food and one of the things i learned is that sometimes while they were fighting over the provision some of the excess just floated to the outskirts and so guess what the fattest fish they weren't in there trying to fight for the provision because they realized that you're misprovisioned when you fight for provision but if you just let it come to you then guess what you'll have more than those that are fighting for it every day and what i'm saying is beloved you ain't got to fight for what god has for you you just gotta get in the right position and be still and what god has for you can't nobody keep it [Music] from coming your way because god has provided enough so that everybody can eat can the church say amen now i need y'all to understand beloved now because i know y'all think that the pastor's deceiving y'all i need y'all no i'm gonna get to the medals and i'm gonna get to the stone that's going to destroy the statue but i need to know that this week god cemented me right here in verse 24 because there were some character things that god wanted us to see so the first thing where it teaches us is that you don't have killed competition second thing the word teaches us is that all people are god's people now i said something last week that i think many of us overlooked now remember if you read the prophets uh prophecies of ezekiel and jeremiah one of the things that the prophets foretold is that the king of the chaldeans or babylon that god would use him as a chastening tool to chasing israel because of their sins and so what god set up was he wanted to use nebuchadnezzar's brutality to drive them back to god but then he wanted to use israel's presence to point them in babylon to jesus so the purpose of this merger is actually salvation so god wanted nebuchadnezzar to drive them to repentance and god wanted daniel to drive them to conversion now i can't overstate it enough how big daniel is in this moment because understand that from a secular standpoint the wise men or the astrologers they are daniel's direct antithesis or competition in fact they are daniel's oppressors but the reason that daniel does not deal with them as oppressors is because daniel recognizes that they're just in a different kind of bondage see daniel nor god regard them this way see the situation is this see we see it as daniel versus the wise man we see this as god versus nebuchadnezzar oh we see this as god's people in competition with the wicked people but do you realize that this whole arrangement of the dream that they could not recall or interpret god did not set this up for their destruction god set this whole thing up so that they would realize that salvation came from jehovah oh lord see remember you got to remember the purpose of israel when god called abraham in genesis chapter 12. he says abraham i'm gonna make of you a great nation and in you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed in other words israel was not to function as a container of god's blessings they were to function as the distributors of the blessings of god and so the purpose of israel is that god wanted to use them to draw foreign or or ungodly nations to himself now the problem is sometimes when we read certain bible stories we shout over the wrong things what do you mean pastor you know that ezekiel 33 lets us know that god says as i live says the lord i take no delight in the destruction of the wicked but that the wicked turn and live for he says why will you die in other words god takes no joy in the destruction of the wicked and it's amazing though how we shout when god say daniel and the three hebrew boys from being killed but we don't shout that he saved the astrologers from being killed we shout when god cuts off god david cuts off goliath's head as if god didn't love goliath we shout when god saves lot and destroys those gays in sodom as if god didn't love the gay men there in sodom we shout over samson killing the philistines as if god didn't love the philistines and the things that caused us to rejoice are the very things that cause god to mourn because god takes no death even in the soul of the worst sinner and see the problem is because we have an us versus them theology you realize that that is not the way that god views the wicked that's why matthew chapter 5 and verse 45 god says i cause the sun to rise on the evil and on the good i cause rain to fall on the just and on the unjust and the reason god gives you sunlight whether you're good or whether you're bad is because even when you're bad you're still his child the reason he gives you some brain whether you're good or whether you're bad is because whether you're good or bad you are still his child and i guess what i'm saying to the church is instead of trying to build another wall of partition maybe we ought to just thank god that no matter where somebody is in their journey no matter where you are in your walk even when you're far away from god he still considers you one of his children see the problem with us man is is when we've been in church too long we create this us versus them dynamic so so that especially those of us who've been adventists too long we we think that because we keep sabbath we are more god's children than those that worship on sunday but how many of us understand we are all god's children see we think that your homo heterosexual sin is less offensive than their homosexual sin but how many of us know that we are all god's children it's gonna get quiet in here you think that not smoking or not drinking makes you more of a child of god than those that do smoke or they do drink but you realize that even when you drink you're still god's child when you're shack you're still god's child when they party they steal god's child when they do this they steal god's side that behavior doesn't disqualify you from your inheritance now i need y'all to get this because i'm not saying that lifestyle and beliefs don't matter because one day probation is going to close but you know what the close of probation is probation closing is not where god rejects the wicked it is where god simply accepts their rejection of him oh god yo god regard god the second coming is not where god rejects the wicked it is what he says finally i'm going to accept that you don't want to have no relationship with me or y'all hear me today saints and i guess what i need somebody to understand about god the reason he reveals himself as a parent is because every good parent knows that there is no way you can reject your children it's crazy because my parents modeled this for me remember about 10 11 years ago and i would often at times ask you all to pray um you know i have two younger brothers and you know how it is your your oldest child is going to always be your best child do i have a witness out here today and it's crazy because my journey it has been crooked it's just been less crooked than my two youngest brothers and it's crazy because like a while back my youngest brother just drifted and got off into some stuff and i remember at that time i would try to tell mom and dad yo y'all don't need to keep doing this for him and y'all don't need to keep doing that and the reason i did that is that as the oldest i want to despair them of disappointment but see at that time i didn't have no kids i didn't realize the kind of love that god gives a parent for a child and even though i'm saying cut them off even though i'm saying don't keep making stuff available it's crazy how they kept the door open how they stayed on their knees in prayer they always were gonna leave the light on for him they were going to always be there as a resource if he needed it and what i didn't understand then what i do understand now is that no matter what your child does they are still your child so that when they bad you'll love them when they smoke you still love them if they ain't in the church you still love them because behavior uh your status as a child is not earned it's inherited and what i'm saying to us instead of saying it's us versus them it ought to be us for them so we can introduce them to the amazing love of jesus christ all y'all hear me today saints now third thing i need y'all to get about this thing so so real quick let me let me let me throw something at you let me let me throw something at you because see it is only when you understand that god doesn't see the wise men as enemies but children when you realize that this whole situation is not for their destruction but so that they can see that it is god that saves them it is only when you look at it in that context that you can see that this uncomfortable situation that is produced where they either tell the dream or they die they really you'll realize that god doesn't do this to the wise man god does this for the wise man so there's some things that god wants to do two things real quick in order to save them see the first thing that god has to do is he has to help them to understand that their false gods will fail them when they need them the most okay so god reveals the dream to nebuchadnezzar and then he snatches the dream from him and then he hides it from the eyes of the wise men of the astrologers and understand that the king says listen i need you all don't just tell me the interpretation of the dream i need y'all to literally tell me what i dreamed and it's crazy because immediately the wise men say this is an impossible thing there is nothing that we can do but understand that these wise men are under satanic rule they they worship the gods of babylon but understand that at this point it's not out of rebellion they worship false gods out of ignorance so that as chaldeans guess what they're gonna serve the god of anu which is the god of heaven they're gonna worship the god of eo which was the god of wisdom they were gonna worship marduk which was the babylonian national god the the god of their embassy and that's these astrologers like some in our time they believe that if you put a certain energy into the universe that a certain energy is going to come back to you in other words it is all that they know now watch this because just like god just like satan gave the the magicians in egypt power so that when moses came and threw his cert rod down it became a serpent they threw their rods down and it became a serpent in other words in the same way satan infuses power into the occult in other words they don't serve these gods because these gods have not produced anything for them in other words these gods have pushed them to a place where they've been able to steer nebuchadnezzar to being the most powerful man on the planet these gods have provided some guidance these gods have provided some infrastructure these gods have got them up to the point where they are right now at this point they are satisfied serving false gods because these gods have gotten them a modicum of success but what god does is he creates a situation that these false gods cannot satisfy so when nebuchadnezzar says listen don't just tell me the interpretation of dream tell me what i dream these cats is automatically shook they're like dude okay nobody has ever asked any seer or any soothsayer or any wise man to do such a thing relent on the decree but you notice that nebuchadnezzar will not negotiate he won't be budged not even a little bit and in nebuchadnezzar's mind god uses him to expose the faultiness of their beliefs in other words just go ask your gods go to your gods and your gods will give you the answer and just like daniel goes to his prayer closet they go and they begin mixing their potions but guess what their potions can't do nothing and guess what they go and conjure up spells but the spells still can't do nothing and guess what they begin to make chance to anu and marduk and marduk still can't do nothing they begin to call on er which was the god of wisdom and he ain't got nothing to give them they begin like the prophets of baal they begin to make sacrifices they put stuff on the altar they begin to foam at the mouth they begin to cut themselves they begin to do all that they know how to do and understand that the gods have gotten them to this point the gods have given them material success the gods have gotten them positioned in power the gods have gotten them notarized but when it came down to life or death the gods they were serving failed them when they needed them to come through the most are you hearing me saints and see i need just to understand that sometimes god uh sets us up because we've relied on some things that have gotten us to a certain place but he lets us come upon some stuff that reveals that that false stuff will fail you when you need it the most see there are some of us they're at this place where we have an interesting mix of religion and superstition but i need you to know that every now and then you're going to come up on some stuff that's going to make you put down your horoscope and it's gonna start making you pick up your bible am i preaching anybody out there today every now and then you're gonna come upon some things that are gonna make you stop looking to the universe for answers and you're gonna get on your knees and you're gonna start calling upon the god that created the heavens and the earth and the fountains of waters only the god that made the universe is going to be able to see you through what you're dealing right right now there's going to be a time where you get away from this stuff that teaches that black men are gods and that we were meant to rule the earth that's going to come upon some things that's going to cause you to come face to face with your mortality and you realize that god is not inside of you you're going to need a help that cometh only from the lord and can i suggest that whether you learn to trust in scientology or wisdom reason education or the like i need you to know that at some point you will get knocked flat on your back because it's on your back that you learn to look to the heels from which come with your help and realize that your help comes from god who made heaven and earth so what he does is he exposes the faultiness of their gods but then the second thing he does is he exposes the danger of misplaced loyalty now i need you to get that these dudes they are on team nebuchadnezzar they are loyal to the king in other words they're so loyal to nebuchadnezzar that his ambitions become their ambitions his dreams become their dreams his desires they make them their desires in fact his hat their hat their happiness hinges on his happiness are you with me they have stood by nebuchadnezzar they have counseled him they have walked with him they have helped him to build a transcendent empire but understand this situation is shown to expose that their loyalty is misplaced because see your boy deputy cadet he's so volatile he's so unpredictable he's so he's so unstable in fact nebuchadnezzar is like another leader i know that as soon as you don't do what he wants he just gets rid of you he he's like another king that i've heard of that when you don't fall in line and you don't do exactly what he wants he he's going to fire you i mean get rid of you yeah i need you to know that the spirit of nebuchadnezzar is alive and well that these temperamental leaders that need yes men and yes women and as soon as you don't say yes they don't have no need of you no more hearing what i'm saying and see the crazy thing that god is showing them is that they see nebuchadnezzar as essential but what becomes clear is that nebuchadnezzar sees them as very optional do you realize that as soon as they couldn't do what was asked his first move was to proffer them with the threat of death in other words what he is teaching them is that your environment is so predatory that your value is not inherent your value has to be earned every day in other words net working for nebuchadnezzar is a daily audition every day they've got to prove themselves every day they've got to remind him of their worth every day nebuchadnezzar is going to try to draw an infinite supply from a very finite source and in other words he's going to tap them out until they have nothing else to give and what it is teaching us is you never treat anybody as essential that sees you as optional and see the point that god does is sometimes he has to expose misplaced loyalty because the fact is that some of us have developed soul ties and we treat certain things and people as essential when those same things of people see us as very much optional in other words there are some of us that are tied ourselves to friends and those friends still see you as optional there are some young people that you're sleeping with folk and giving your heart to people and they still see you very much as optional there are certain ones that show loyalty to jobs and as soon as you have the first amount of slippage you're going to see how optional you actually are there are some of us that show loyalty to brands that show no loyalty to the black community there are some of us that show loyalty to group and cliques that see you very much as optional and be careful about attaching yourself to people that will draw from you and draw from you and discard you as soon as they cannot get anything else from you because see you learn your value to people when you ain't got nothing else to give it's kind of like this man at times with my kids they'll be they'll be come and ask my phone and they want to play games on my phone they'll be all about daddy's phone until the battery dies and this is batteries eyes they want to go put that down now they want to play with mommy's phone in other words they didn't really want my phone they just wanted it to give until it can give no more and see that's some of our value to certain groups and people and entities where they draw simply until they can't get nothing else and see what god is showing them is that you're seeking validation in the wrong place he's teaching them that you're loyal to the wrong kingdom he's trying to teach them that you're too loyal to the wrong kind of king in other words he's saying you're in a place where your value has to be earned he said you need to come on my side where your value is inherent he's saying over there your value is something you have to continue to prove but i want you to know that i have a value for you that is apart from your gifts and it's apart from your works and it's apart from your performance and it's apart from whether you're good or bad my value for you does not change based on how you perform and see in this moment beloved we see the difference between the kingdom of god and the kingdom of this world are y'all with me today saints so i need you to know young person in order to be accepted in the world you got to change who you are but in order to be accepted in christ you just come exactly like you are do you realize that in the world you got to act like you got it all together but in christ his strength is made perfect in your weakness in the world it is your bling that says you're somebody but in christ peter says it is the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit that of great price in the lord you realize that in the world you're measured by your bank account but in christ you're measured by your price tag in the world you get have to wait on friends to accept your friend request but in jesus he's the friend that sticks closer than a brother you realize that in the world you gotta apply to school or a job but in christ you are recruited and he invites and welcomes you in that on social media you can be unfollow or unfriended but in christ he says i'll never leave you and i'll never ever forsake you i'm with you always to the end of the earth because your value in jesus never ever changes and so i need you to know as you play something softly for me that god is trying to get you to a place where you stop trying to chase and be a part of the systems of this world where we're a young person a young adult you you giving up so much for yourself to to to apply and break into this this little little little social clique or the frat or the saturn fraternity where you got to prove your value to them god says no you ain't got to prove nothing you you chasing them but i need you to know you got so much value that i'm recruiting i'm chasing you he said listen out there you got to change who you are but when you come to me you come to me just like you are he's saying listen out there you got to act like you got it all together but in here you can come broken empty and weak and my strength is going to be made perfect in the midst of your weakness he's saying to you today that you're out there your value has to be constantly proven it and earned and you got to constantly audition to be down and to be cool and to be valuable and to have worth but god is wanting these wise men to understand that you misplace your loyalty because over there your your the loyalty is only reciprocated when you perform well but god is saying over on this side i have a love for you that never ever changes because your value doesn't come from what you do but your value comes from the fact that you've been created in my image that's what gives you value that's what gives you worth that's what gives you significance the fact that you have been created in the image of god i see the problem is too often we've looked at this story as us versus them like god put them in a situation to embarrass them no no see i don't i don't think we've we see like we we shout over man god said daniel and he said shadrach meshach and abednego and we shot over that because we see them as deserving but do you realize that god didn't just set this up to save them god brought it into being so that he can save the wicked and the reason he was able to willing to save them even though they didn't serve him they did not acknowledge him they didn't consider himself themselves part of his children is that god would even set up a situation to save them why because god even deems the wicked as worth saving so i need y'all to understand something see we we operate with this thing where people say man pastor being saved is so hard and being lost is so easy no that's devil is a lie you realize the easiest thing in the world is salvation romans 10 says if you confess with your mouth and believe with your heart that god has raised you from the dead you shall be saved that salvation is not something you earn it is not something you perform in order to receive and it's based upon your belief in jesus and your confession in him but you realize that in order to be saved you got to say no to god you got to resist the holy spirit you got to push past so many desires the same way watch this sanctification is the work of a lifetime do you realize that eternal damnation is a lifetime of pulling away from the hand of the almighty god and i need you to know that god set this whole thing up because he thought he exposes their false deities he exposes their misplaced loyalty he doesn't do it to them he does it for them why because he thought that they were worth saving and god is bringing some of us to a place where he's exposing the flaws of the deities that you're putting trust in that god is exposing some of your misplaced loyalties and you are thinking that god is doing it to you when in fact god is doing it for you and the reason that god does it for you is because he loves you with an everlasting love the reason god is working so hard to put circumstantial boundaries and barriers around you is because god believes as flawed as you are that god still believes that you are worth saving and guess what what god believes won't matter until you believe and you come to accept and know that because you are a son a daughter of god that you are worth seriously my prayer [Music] my career my prayer is that you would come to fully believe that you are worth saving [Music] and and my fear is that some of us might have missed it that when we what we stand in awe of is god saving daniel from lion's den or or or god causing sun to stand still or god calls in the winds and the waves to obey but you know what constantly amazes me about god is that god would look at some cultish wise men [Music] that should be considered enemies of his kingdom that they live at variance with him and god turns the whole kingdom upside down [Music] just so that they would know that even in their foolishness god wants to save them to i think you know we're amazed by the miracles and the resurrections and the healings but i'm amazed by his grace how sweet the sound that saves even a wretch like me it is a call for the body of christ to stop saying us and them but to realize that we're all children of the most high god and the only reason we are and us is because when we were them god kept arranging things and appealing to us and drawing to us so that we can now say we are children of the most high god and my prayer today is threefold is that there's somebody god has given you vision he's giving you dreams he's putting stuff in your heart but you've spent so much time trying to sow tears into somebody else's garden god is saying water the vision i gave you give sunlight to the dreams i gave you prune your own house instead of trying to prune theirs because they're trying to say don't shade them that ain't gonna help you shine but the most important thing is that there's somebody today that maybe you have been estranged from god you've been separated from god and you uh maybe you just never received god and and you live with the voice of accusation constantly screaming in your head that you're not worthy that you've done too much that the the the standard of religion is too high and too lofty it's too great for you that that you you can't do it but i need you to know that salvation is not the work that you do for god salvation is the work that god does for you and see you simply take steps to say i can't save myself god came it is a step to say i believe that his grace is sufficient and it is a step that somebody says lord i surrender i give myself to you and so today if you're in the greater huntsville area you're you're listening to the word of the lord and you want to say i want to make a decision to follow after jesus christ i i want to go all the way through baptism i want to get some bible studies i want to get settled in one church i don't want to continue bouncing around and floating i want to make a decision today if that's you i'm going to invite you to email me at prayer at firstchurch.com somebody will connect with you to begin walking you through the step of discipleship or maybe you're on youtube or facebook there is a link coming up in the comments that's called type form if you click on that link it'll give you an opportunity to make a decision to join the church through baptism professional faith or transfer you need to make it up in your mind to be a member even before we open back up so you can hit the ground running and we can start marching toward the kingdom of god together so my prayer for us today is that there's somebody come out of bitterness come out of jealousy come out of competition come out of comparison move into purpose that's where your joy is going to be not when you keeping up with what everybody else is doing but just when you're glad with where god has you and lastly there's somebody that just simply needs to say yes lord i'm yours i believe i'm worth saving and today i receive the lord jesus christ as my savior lord i want to pray for you father in heaven we thank you so much for your holy word and lord i pray that we didn't miss it i pray we didn't miss the miracle the miracle is not that you revealed the dream you gave the dream but the miracle is that you reach beyond israel you reached into babylon to reveal yourself to pagan kings and men of the occult and we're thankful that even in our time you reach beyond the walls of the church and you reach into broken communities where there are men and women who who are estranged or in ignorance or in darkness who know not the lord and you still appeal time and time and time again and you draw us into fellowship and into light i thank you lord that even those of us who've been in the way a long time when we us when we stray when we are prone to wonder and prone to leave the god we love like a great gps you don't drop your hands and say i quit but you keep reaching out you keep on appealing thank you that you keep calling our names it is beyond comprehension that you think we are worth saving so we just accepted by faith and so lord we just ask lord that we will live a life that is committed this week we're going to live a life that is dedicated we want to live a life that is consecrated lord we give ourselves holy unto thee thank you for your love jesus thank you for your amazing grace [Music] and made the truth settle in some sinner's heart today may they leave or close out a device or turn off a television with the assurance that they are worth saving this is my prayer this is my plea we offer it in jesus name let god's people who love him say together amen amen god bless you we look forward to seeing you next week bringing the gospel to your home have a safe and blessed responsible thanksgiving holiday we'll see you next week and in the weeks to come

Channel: First Seventh-day Adventist Church

Views: 10,247

Rating: 4.9503107 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, sermons, church, bible, churchonline, powerful sermons, trusting god, faith, healing, preachers, 2020, series, sabbath, worship, worship songs, praise and worship, God, Holy Spirit, sermons by great preachers, sermons on healing, best sermon on healing, best sermons on relationships, let the church say amen, sermon on thanksgiving, sermon central, thanksgiving sermon, advent celebration

Id: PM6zqQC1xuU

Length: 60min 22sec (3622 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2020