Transformation Church | Holy Habits | Royal Priests are Shaped by Scripture | 11am Service

dance [Music] dancer [Music] dance [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] uh [Music] help me believe what you say about me that i can be free that i can be called your own help me believe what you say about me [Music] good morning my name is pastor paul and i'm steven stack and we want to welcome you this morning to transformation church whether you're with us online or you're in the building we want to say thank you for joining us for this next uh sermon in the series holy habits today we're going to be talking about royal priests are shaped by scripture very good very good and i actually got some great news membership classes are back so september 16th and 23rd is when they'll happen it's on online only so if you're thinking about taking that next step please sign up and you can register on our website or using the app that's right stephen and we're looking forward to seeing you and as those classes also if you're already a member and you're looking for opportunities to serve i want to encourage you to check out our tc kids many of the parents know that we didn't have an opportunity to meet today because we're short servant leaders if you'd like to do that then i encourage you to go online or send an email to any of our leaders in that area and want to make sure you know that christine kane will be speaking next week you don't want to miss it she's a wonderful woman and author an international speaker and an activist she does a phenomenal job of communicating a message of hope she has a heart for the lost and she champions the cause of justice that's right stephen can't wait to hear and if you haven't listened to our other two messages in this holy habit series where pastor derwin and vicki shared we encourage you to go online and check those out well now it's time for us to get together with those online and those in the building to worship so let's all stand together and join our music team good morning family it's so good to see you all this morning um whether you're in the room or watching online i want to welcome you personally um it's just amazing to have you guys with us today let's stand and worship um and give god glory amen [Music] who could carry that kind of weight it was [Music] i was breathing but night [Music] oh [Music] cause when you come by [Music] is [Music] is [Music] my soul [Music] is [Music] cause when you come by [Music] is [Music] to your glorious day [Music] how many of you are excited this morning that jesus rose from the grave now we are living in light let's sing this out [Music] my sin [Music] chains was at the weight of your glory i need a shelter i was an orphan now he calls us a citizen of heaven when i was broken you were my healing now your love is here [Music] is [Music] you call me [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] i have a future [Applause] [Music] [Music] thank you jesus that we can walk into life thank you jesus thank you [Music] jesus you jesus [Music] you jesus [Music] jesus we thank you we thank you this morning that we have an opportunity to step into light that we have an opportunity to to leave the darkness behind and step into the light of your truth and your love jesus we thank you we thank you that you so freely give that to us this morning amen amen what is so good to see all of you in the building this morning and if you're watching online we're so excited that you're tuned in with us as well um if you are in the building you'll notice on the back of your seats um there's a qr code that we would just love for you guys to scan with your phones this is just a way for us to get to know you a little bit more our goal is not to spam you our goal isn't to to be annoying but it's truly just to get to know you because we actually care about you as the body of christ we actually want to be intentional with you we want to love you so um if you're watching online you'll see a qr code pop up on the screen you'll just take out your phone and go ahead and scan that um and again we're just so grateful that all of you are here this morning we know that um times are not easy that um that there's heaviness and it's it's just amazing that um that you guys choose to continue to want to worship worship together as a body so let's continue that worship with reading this scripture and today we're reading psalm 34 verse 17 through 20 and it says this the righteous cry out and the lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles the lord is near to the brokenhearted the lord is near to the brokenhearted he saves those crushed in spirit one who is righteous has many adversities but the lord rescues him from them all he protects all his bones not one of them is broken jesus we thank you that in our brokenness you hold us together [Music] we thank you that that even though we may be crushed in spirit you're a god who who sees us in that and doesn't turn away but god your word says you are near to the brokenhearted you are near to the brokenhearted that means that that we're gonna have broken hearts sometimes that means that we're gonna go through pain sometimes but god i thank you this morning that you are emmanuel i thank you this morning that you are good that you are righteous that you are strong in my weakness that you are god over the flood that you are seated in majesty that there is nothing in this world that can ever remove you from your throne that is your dwelling place jesus so we thank you we thank you god that you don't fall off of your throne we thank you god that in our brokenness you're not looking at us intimidated by all of the things we're going through but you are actually near to us that alone is a reason to give you praise today god you are worthy of adoration you are worthy of honor you are worthy of glory you are worthy to hold your name jesus we love you so much and we worship you amen [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] you are worthy [Music] so you deserve the glory [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] you were [Music] god jesus you're worthy [Music] [Applause] who you are [Music] [Music] jesus no matter what i see no matter what i feel you worthy [Music] day and night night and day [Music] day and night night and day let me is day and night night and day [Music] you are [Applause] [Music] you deserve the glory you always [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] is [Music] deserve the glory you were always worthy and then he said situation you were [Music] jesus your faithful friend your trustworthy savior [Music] and i know you're good in all things [Music] god i'm my future you write my story you hold it all together [Music] write my story and you hold it all come on sing that out of faith [Music] [Music] [Music] you write my story [Music] you're in the middle you hold me all together again [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] for from you are all things you deserve the glory yeah you're worthy [Music] from you are all things until you are all things you deserve the glory [Music] [Music] lord jesus you do deserve all the glory [Music] we thank you that you are so different than us [Music] burdens that are too heavy for us to carry you say i'll do it a future that's so hard to know you say i know [Music] santa would you uh graciously lead us about the god of our future and would you let this be our prayer because um with all the things that are happening and i know there is unspeakable hurt and pain that people are going through on multiple levels we don't know what people brought into this service [Music] watching online and so as we as anna leads us this is this is our prayer um i'm praying that in your anxiety god reigns buckets of peace i'm praying that in your brokenheartedness god reigns buckets of grace i'm praying that in your confusion god brings and reigns buckets of clarity [Music] god of my future you write my story you hold it all together god of my present [Music] you hold it all together god of my presence you write my story [Music] [Music] you hold it all together [Music] [Applause] you hold it all together [Music] you write my story [Music] you hold it all together [Applause] [Music] you hold it all together [Music] [Applause] lord that's our prayer [Music] you hold it together you hold it together you hold us together you you hold the universe together you hold our situations together you hold our circumstances together your grace is efficient your grace is sufficient lord we bring ourselves to you we bring ourselves holy to you as we are knowing that you hold us together the difficult circumstance you got it the pain we feel you got it the disenfranchisement we feel we got it our vulnerability you feel you got it lord you got it you hold it together that's our confession that's our prayer in jesus name and god's people said amen can we give our music team a round of applause for leading us to the throne of grace and mercy all right well welcome welcome all our guests that are tuning in and on uh here physically can we give a transformation church welcome to our guest thank you so much and let's give it up for the mighty men and beautiful women of our correctional facilities partnerships and to the tc family so good to to see everybody so we are in week three of our brand new series holy habits now depending upon what background you come from the word holy if you come from a christian background could mean women don't wear makeup it could mean that women can't wear pants uh let me pause here in fundamentalist religions whether if it's islam or fundamental survivion uh religions like christianity why is it always that women are the ones who have to carry the buck no seriously it's like women you can't wear this because men will lust that's his fault not her fault no seriously that's that's like wrong that's idolatry to go well what you're wearing is making me lust no you have the holy spirit the fruit of the spirit one of them is self-control that we have the ability to control our selves so but but but but the word holy um it it it means set apart it it means utterly different that that god is utterly different from us and what is the difference the bible says that god is love and love is not just gushy and mushy love is i desire what's best even in difficult circumstances and god has said that that that when you are adopted into my family by faith i share my holiness with you i share my presence with you i share my love with you so understand this god is not waiting for you and i to become holy because if he was waiting that would never happen god didn't wait god came to us and god says i'm going to make you holy by my holiness i'm going to share my life with you i'm going to set you apart i'm going to give you the difference and the difference is jesus himself the difference is the power of the holy spirit so we want to develop holy habits so that we can be holy loving people never forget this the way you and i love or the way you and i don't love not only affects us but it affects those we're in relationship with and so our spiritual maturity our selflessness our compassion makes other people's lives better or worse so that's why we want to develop holy habits let me give you a quote here from an author by the name of james clear he's written a best-selling book called atomic habits and this is a really good quote he says this success is the product of daily habits not once in a lifetime transformations um now if you are a high schooler if you are gen z or younger millennial this is really really important we live in an instant world right um we live in an instagram world where you can put a filter on and make yourself look so much better than we actually look and it's so important for us to understand that these are daily habits that we grow in uh let me give an example and this is from my former life of of a long time ago you know god used football in amazing ways in my life not only to play the game i love but to come to know him and so the position i played was called safety so right now i can tell you how a safety is supposed to stand in a game let me let me say we're just playing cover two you don't need to know what that means but there's a particular body posture and so what you do is you get here and immediately my weight is on the ball of my front foot you're like why does that matter pastor darwin because i have to push off now if my weight is on my heel i'm gonna do this and if i do this guess what happens a receiver that's really fast has already beat me so one little step i gave ground if i didn't push off then next i got proper bend and my gluteus maximus which you know which is my butt that's the steering wheel that's the steering wheel because if it's too low i can't move if it's too high guess what i'm gonna do he's gonna go by because i'm gonna fall down so you have to have this posture and for some reason you always gotta do your fingers like this i'm not sure why but but but you just have to but notice this i have been doing this since ninth grade it became a habit it became a habit and god wants to develop holy habits so that when you and i getting the game of life we ain't got to think about it we already oh we already my back feeling good too we're already ready to play we're already in position and posture for some of us because we haven't developed holy habits we're on our hills or we're too low and god is saying i want to mold you and shape you that it becomes automatic but here's a question though teenagers what what exactly is success is success having a great job it could be um is success making a ton of money it could be but jesus said these words what does it profit a man or a woman if you gain the whole world and lose your soul so the way we define success here at transformation church is the way jesus defines success two thousand years ago a religious leader asked jesus what's the most important commandments and jesus said this love god with all of your heart with all of your soul with all of your mind with all of your strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself the way we say it here is upward inward outward so in response to god loving us in response to god's mercy in a response of god pulling us out of a pit what do we do we love him with all of our heart mind soul and strength now watch this we love our neighbor as we love ourselves and the most difficult part for all of us is loving ourselves and here's why because we think that loving yourself means arrogance when actuality loving ourselves biblically means this all that who i am is found in jesus um i don't deserve him but he gave me grace um lord you know all my failures lord you know all these things but yet you declare me righteous but yet you declare me a friend but yet you declare me forgiven those are things i didn't earn or achieve those were gifts that i received and what happens is your hearts get softer and then you grow in humility that moves you into the world to love your neighbor compassionately the word compassion means to suffer with so you know what success looks like it looks like as you go into the world as you go into school upward inward outward is happening you are loving people because god so loved us typically we think success is other things and god is going to know i have a greater success so um i got some ideas and and i kind of jotted this down this is a familiar framework and i just added courage because every action we take every habit we develop in order to get to impact and all of us wants to make an impact it starts with thoughts the sin of the crime is your the scene of the crime is your so never forget this your thoughts are not your mind your thoughts can come from your mind or it could also be demonic influence we don't have to act on our thoughts we're not held prisoner to our thoughts okay we want to sync our mind with god's mind through god's word so that our thoughts will follow after this pattern but here's here's the thing once we have the thought of what's right oh y'all in the words of martin lawrence oh this is where it gets hard courage the courage to do the right action the courage to have a hard conversation friends don't avoid hard conversations because if you do that avoidance gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger it it takes courage to do the right thing teenagers listen when it's unpopular it takes courage to do the right thing when people may not understand it takes courage to put god's words into action by his spirit when it's hard so you got thoughts courage then you got actions and all of a sudden those actions become habits and then a habit leads to character character is who you are when no one else is looking good and character leads to impact all of us are going to leave impact in the world um i bet you've never heard of mrs terrell mrs terrell was my second grade teacher at ira ogden elementary school on the west side of san antonio texas only thing i remember about mrs carroll cause it was a long time ago and she had black and gray hair and she wore the teacher glasses and a long ponytail she had to be 219 years old but there's not a year that goes by that i don't think about mrs terrell how many teachers are in the house if you're a teacher raise your hand if you teach raise your hand put them up put them up high we want to celebrate you we want to applaud you we want to thank you um just like um parents and kids in school with covet and teenagers and teachers i don't know how you're doing it other than the grace of god so i want to applaud that and i think that is beautiful but i want to encourage you teachers with this what if the most important thing you ever do and for all of us what is the what if the most important thing that you ever do is make someone else famous that's a good life and so you may be in the shadows you may be unknown but god sees and god knows and people's lives are being touched by you not just teachers but all of us but in order to have that type of impact we have to develop holy habits now holy habit number three is we are the bible shaped people of god in christ we are the bible people of god in christ now when i say bible-shaped that's really specific words that we want the bible to shape how we navigate and move in the world the bible is very very important the bible is a big book it's actually 66 books the bible is actually a library of 66 books okay now that can be overwhelming when my wife and i first began to read the bible and we were not christians we were like genesis is pretty cool the flood there's some good stories uh we went through exodus we're like whoa man god ain't playing with pharaoh that was pretty cool then we got to leviticus and said now wait what and we're like we're done so we're not going to encourage you to go that route but just understand that we understand that it is incredibly challenging ah but this book this isn't going to be one of these messages where i try to intellectually prove that this is the word of god we've done that in the past we will do that again but this is a message on we want you to fall in love with the bible because the bible points to the god of love who wants you to know him and who wants you to be loved by him so that you can love him back we want you to fall in love with the god of scripture now listen netflix may be one of the greatest inventions in the history of work of the world besides the tire okay so i deal with a lot of stuff like many of you and so i like to zone out i love sci-fi movies and stuff and so i get on netflix and i'll binge and sci-fi and i like zombie movies too i'm not quite sure why but i guess just to survive but nevertheless um there's a lot of things that we binge on i hope we start binging on the word of god i hope we start binging on the word of god okay so this was in the early 2000s hadn't been a christian very long and getting a physical every year is important and one year i got a physical and my doctor said hey there might be some stuff going on with your liver so let's do some further tests i was like okay now i'm not recommending for young athletes to do this at all as a matter of fact i say don't do this but towards the end of my career my body was so beat up that even for practice i would have to take a pain pill called toradol i didn't have to but i chose to knowing potential damage could take place because i wanted to play i was willfully doing that because i wanted to play and i wanted to keep my job was it the smartest thing to do no it was not but that's just what i did and so when the doctor said you may have some liver issues i'm like oh the piper has come to get his pay that when you have wrecked your body into other human beings for a long time payday is going to come and it ain't the kind of good payday it's the bad payday so i'm going oh my gosh so i fly to florida and my doctor calls me and this is in the early days of ministry where i would travel around the country and drive and get there and they'd give me a t-shirt and a coffee mug and say good job so please understand is if you are young in ministry i didn't one day just step on this stage right like it's been a lot of years of traveling speaking in front of four and five people mike skirt like you remember i'm preaching at a basketball game and a microphone yelling at folks it was awesome maybe not but anyway here's my point i'm in florida and i've got to go into the jungle where this camp is and the doctor tells me this news and where we were cell phones didn't work so i couldn't call my wife my wife's my best friend my wife's my rock my wife is my confidante but i could call jesus and so that night not knowing how much more time i had to live i just put the bible near my chest and i got in a fetal position i just cried myself to sleep with the word of god that that regardless he rose from the dead i will too regardless all things work together for the good of those who love god and called according to his purpose for whom he for know he predestined to be conformed to the image of christ then no matter how i feel that's true because the word of god is true so that's how i fell asleep and when i woke up the next morning there was this conviction that okay you don't know how much time you have left so you and your wife better get to planting this multi-ethnic multi-generational mission-shaped church which eventually would become transformation church this book taps us into the heart of the god that loves us and the god who calls us check this out second timothy 3 16 and 17 says this all scripture is inspired by god is and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives it connects it corrects us when we're wrong and teaches us to do what is right oh man for some of us particularly in our culture and even for me like that one that part like the first part is good you know tell me what's wrong and it's like but you got to do what's right god uses it to do what to prepare and equip his people to do every good work and so this scripture god's word has a shaping purpose to it and god wants us to develop the holy habit of spending time in it daily so watch this how are we shaped by scripture i want to give us three practical steps whether you're in middle school or whether if you're 80 whether if you've walked with jesus for a long time or whether if you're just beginning i want to give us three practical steps number one daily we join all those who've gone before us and celebrating the god breathe inspiration of the bible understand this transformation church is a small speck of dust in the big church of jesus and the church of jesus didn't just start in the book of acts according to ephesians 3 10 the church of all people in christ is god's eternal purpose and so our history actually extends beyond time and will go beyond time so so we're a part of this long historical thing with with brothers and sisters in in nigeria and and turkey and afghanistan and fort mill and so we join in this historical long tradition of appreciating the epicness of god's word watch this i want to introduce you to one of the heroes of the face his name is irenaeus he was born in turkey a few years ago 130 a.d and this is what he said about scripture and and he went on to be a bishop or a pastor of an area of that used to be called gaul which is france and he said this we should be most properly assured that the scriptures are indeed perfect now the scriptures are perfect but my interpretation and your interpretation is not and so we have to have intellectual humility and curiosity to always learn since they were spoken by the word of god and his spirit a few weeks ago we're getting ready to take our son jeremiah college he's 21 he's a junior but man it's still hard so if you're a teenager getting ready to go to college in a few years if you are in college would you allow us as parents just to be sappy this is a hard time for us man it's tough seriously like these people you care for your whole life and then they just they gone and so you know uh he's getting ready to leave we got like a week left with him and i'm starting to get sad and i look down at an area where i save important things and i find this letter from 2003 and it's from my grandmother my grandmother passed away in 2006. my grandmother and i were incredibly close my grandmother stood in the gap matter of fact is there any grand mamas and granddads that are standing in the gap and taking care of kids and loving kids if that's you just raise your hands right where you are can we give them a round of applause because ain't none like a grandmama and grandfather's love and my mom and i have a beautiful relationship but man my grandma right and so i i found this letter and and i'm just going to read a little bit of this this is from october 5th 2003. hey dewey and family dewey's my nickname uh thanks for the gift of love tell vicki thanks well son i'm feeling pretty good today she was battling cancer and she was not going to the doctor she was making me smuggle cigarettes to her in hospice god has lifted my burdens and i don't cry or worry any longer we're all doing pretty good just the usual things that most people have to deal with in life and and and as i read you that guess what i hear her voice i smell her smell her tenderness when when no one was encouraging me senior year i didn't think i was gonna get a football scholarship i had read something in the paper didn't mention my name i was like it's over and she was like baby it's gonna be all right listen when grandmama say baby it's gonna be all right baby it's gonna be all right well when i think of this letter it is a love letter that reminds me of her well god has written you and i a love letter for us to be reminded of who he is and he wants you to hear his voice through the power of his son listen to this first peter i'm sorry second peter chapter 1 verse 20 21 above all you know this no prophecy of scripture comes from the prophet's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the will of man instead men spoke from god as they were carried along by the holy spirit the biblical doctrine of inspiration simply means this in common language god took multiple authors over multiple centuries used their time use their experiences use their context to communicate through them his perfect word of god that this is a book that we can trust because jesus is the truth and the truth will set us free and god is saying i want you to commune with me i want to spend time with you he wants to spend time with you he he he wants to talk to you he he wants you to hear his voice my grandmother is in his presence uh her body is physically dead our lord is alive he is alive and well he is on his throne and he wants to have coffee with you every day he wants to talk to he wants to share his heart with you he wants to share his will with you he wants to share his purpose with you [Applause] all scripture is inspired by god number two number two daily we read the bible knowing that the spirit of god is forming christ in us through the bible so let's so let's pause here reading reading the bible is not a um a natural thing not like you know you go to english class and you read shakespeare no this is a supernatural transaction where the holy spirit the spirit of god if you're a follower of jesus you have the spirit of god in you and the spirit of god is ministering to you the spirit of god is calling you to respond to jesus and the father the the spirit of god is what allows us to apply what god is saying to us the way dr tony evans one of my heroes and mentors says is this when we get in the word of god the spirit of god transforms us to the son of god for the glory of god the father there's a transformative effect that takes place so this was probably 2 000 i don't know three fours it was the early days of ministry my vicky and i had a ministry called one heart at a time ministry which meant i traveled and spoke i spoke anywhere gymnasiums rodeos prisons anywhere they wanted to hear the gospel i had a microphone and went vicki organized it and and we would go and at this time presley was really small jeremiah was really small so basically i would get home after being celebrated for preaching the gospel and she was at home being terrorized by children and so i'd get home hey how you doing honey hey i'm gonna go upstairs and get me a bowl of vanilla ice cream with pecans put a little bit of milk in there stir it stir it up and go watch tv cause i've been out preaching the gospel and if you know anything about my wife vicki gray that did not go so well she was like hold on wait wait wait wait wait wait wait no i don't work like like like like that so so we got into a little bit of argument so i called my mentor the man who who who taught me a love for scripture his name is alan bacon and i called him and i laid out my case of of why it was okay for me to eat vanilla ice cream after she'd been chasing kids around and and as i'm laying out the case he he stopped me and he said derwen what does ephesians 5 25 say because we memorized it i said oh ephesians 5 25 it says this husbands love your wife as christ loved the church and then he said uh we memorize philippians chapter 2 verse 3 that says do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but consider others better than yourself so in light of what are you telling me in the light of scripture who's right by the way who in your life speaks to you that way be careful if you don't have anybody in your life to speak to you that way be careful if everybody in your life tells you everything that you want to hear that's not really a true friend a true friend will tell you what you need to hear even when you don't want to hear it he loved me enough to tell me the truth of what it meant to be a husband what it meant to be a father and he said darwin if you going out and preaching makes you too tired to clean diapers to wash dishes to love your wife and to serve your wife then you preaching the wrong message you need to preach up in your house and from that moment on our marriage is our first ministry i was like yes sir i didn't like it but it was true in week one we looked at how jesus defeated the devil jesus could have sinned y'all in his humanity jesus could have sinned hebrews 4 says we don't we have a high priest who can sympathize with us in every single way jesus could have sinned but he didn't sin because he walked in the power of the spirit and look what he did when the devil attacked him but jesus told him no the scriptures say on the count of three would you read with me those last three words the scriptures say one two three the scriptures say so jesus if jesus needed to use scripture to defeat the devil what must we do the scene of the crime is your mind if the devil can get your mind he'll get your heart he'll get your actions jesus can get your mind he'll get your heart he'll get your actions people do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of god i'm hungry i didn't eat this morning hey hey guys can can y'all bring my breakfast really quick this won't take long uh we got plenty of time the baptist's already out the method has been out presbyterians i don't know what they did today but uh thank you so much so i'm gonna you know some of y'all looking at this biscuit like oh my gosh he's eating carbs yep i sure am and you know eggs with the protein got you the protein now listen i don't know where you are with bacon but i hope you know bacon well now one of the greatest things that ever happened the history of god's people as god told this jewish man peter don't call unclean what i call clean get up and kill and eat go eat some bacon man can you imagine when peter was hanging out with the gentiles they're like peter i'm about to rock your world man taste this you know what jesus is doing here guys he goes the same way you need food to live physically you need the word of god more question are you spiritually malnutritious because you haven't been eating the word of god honey you know what the ancient rabbis would do the ancient rabbis from over a thousand years ago when they were teaching little jewish boys the torah which is the first five books of the bible they'd be like six seven years old as they would get honey they would pour it out and before the rabbi began to teach he would tell all the little boys come and dip your finger in the honey mmm taste and see that it's sweet and then he would read this scripture how sweet your words taste to me matter of fact some of you mom and dads may want to do that yourself right how sweet your words taste to me they are sweeter than honey but here's why they're sweet don't miss this here's why the words are sweet why god's word is sweet your commandments give me understanding no wonder i hate every false way of life do you see that god is going when you see that my word is sweet what's going to make it sweet is not necessarily its taste but what it produces in you all of a sudden you're going to begin to hate things you once used to love all of a sudden you're not going to want to do those things anymore that hurt other people all of a sudden you're going to see life for what it is and life is about loving life is about humility life is about sacrifice life is about pouring your life out for other people that's what's going to make it sweet funny story here when when presley was small i kind of took that to an extreme i didn't use honey i i i used beef jerky and i would cut up beef jerky and every time she memorized a scripture i throw one in her mouth like a little seal i have apologized to my daughter for that so don't y'all don't do that okay don't do that illustration number three daily we read the bible to have communion with jesus so so teenagers and young adults and for all of us we don't read the bible for more information we don't read the bible so that we can beat people over the head with the bible we don't read the bible so that we can win arguments because you can win an argument but lose a person we don't read the bible just to read it we read the bible so that we can commune with jesus did you know that you can actually love the bible and not love jesus you can actually love the bible and not love jesus as a matter of fact check this out this is john chapter 5 verse 39 and 40. jesus is in a conversation with the religious leaders of his day now i want you to understand as this is so important uh the pharisees that word pharisee means separate ones there was a group of about seven thousand men and they felt like their task from god was to help the nation of israel live all 613 laws found in the torah because they believed that if we could live all these laws then the messiah would come he'd kick out the romans and israel would be the promised land it was meant to be by the age of 12 teenagers listen this by the age of 12 those who became pharisees knew the bible from genesis to malachi not every word but they knew the story and the theme of every single book so you and i would not want to get into a bible competition with them they knew the bible but they didn't know jesus check this out look what jesus says to them you pour over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them friends the bible does not give us eternal life the bible points us to the one who gives us eternal life don't miss that the whole point of the bible from genesis to revelation is that there's one star one savior one king one great love of our lives and he's saying i want you to know me i i want you to meet with me i want to mold you i want to shape you i want you to know that all those who are heavy-laden burden come to me and i will give you rest because my burden is light and my yoke is easy come to me come to know me and look what he says and they testify about me so from genesis to malachi to revelation the scriptures testify about jesus isn't it sad that they spent their whole lives reading the bible and jesus was right in front of him and they didn't see him they didn't see him he wants you and i to see him he wants you to know his heart he he wants you to know his compassion he he wants you to know his truth we we want to develop the holy habit of spending time in scripture um what i want to do now is i want to show you a video and i want to give a platform for it in this uh one of the most expanding things that have helped me mature and grow is like leaving america and seeing other christians in other places going to india was mind-blowing to see these beautiful christians is amazing even going to germany where it's pretty secular to see these incredible christians and even going to norway and i mean it's just absolutely astonishing right and i'm going to show you a picture of christian or a video of christians in china getting their first bibles now by 2060 there's going to be more christians in china than just about anywhere in the world and here's one of the reasons why christianity is growing so fast in countries that are islamic in countries that are communist is there is a hunger for god's word now this isn't to condemn us this is to encourage us this is an invitation for us take a look at this video okay foreign straws in my office i probably have three or four physical bibles at home i've got bibles all over the place my hope and our my prayer for us is that we would make room for the lord i mean isn't it an interesting request like hey god i'm gonna make room for you i get it there there's so many things that are going on we're living in an unprecedented time for us but jesus is going would you would you make room for me would you would you would you would you commune with me [Music] is that too much to ask as your savior as your king like we have to put it in those terms like like jesus is not just the ordinary person like he's the king he's he's the lover of our souls he's the one who saves us he's the one who redeems us he's the one who allows us to breathe and he's saying just make room and here's what's beautiful when you and i make room for him he opens up rooms in our souls that we didn't even know existed the worship team is is going to sing and as they sing let's let this be our prayer and then i'm going to be back out and lead us in a time to pray [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] this is [Music] to do whatever you want to jesus [Music] do whatever you want to jesus [Music] jesus you can have your way [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is my surrender this [Music] is surrender [Music] to do whatever you want [Music] for you just [Music] just for you jesus i will make you [Music] do whatever you want to do [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] and change what you want to change [Music] [Music] [Applause] your way [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] here i will be [Music] cause yours is [Music] [Music] it surpasses all understanding i know yours is [Music] the better way yours is a better way i can trust your way yours is a better way [Music] yours is the better way help us believe and help us believe it increase something to believe that your way is the best way [Music] [Music] oh [Music] up rise up [Music] so i will make room for you you can do whatever you want to [Music] do whatever you want to jesus and i will make room for you for your spirit to move jesus do whatever you want to do whatever you want to jesus [Music] lord we recognize that we have cluttered our lives with distractions [Music] this is our hearts cry and for some of us you're going well pastor it's not my heart's cry but we want to hold your faith and say lord make it their hearts cry [Music] and we want to make room for you because you're worthy of it we we exist for your pleasure we exist for your will we exist for your love we exist for you you don't exist for us you're the reason for our existence uh miss alana could you could you lead us in just a cappella of we want to make room for [Music] for you to do whatever you want to to do whatever you want to [Music] sing that one more time that's our prayer we're going to make room [Music] who i want to pray for first is for those who are saying hey pastor um i haven't made room for the word of god and by the holy spirit's power because jesus has been so good i want to begin the holy habit of being shaped by scripture i want to i want to daily celebrate the inspiration of scripture this god's word i want to daily allow the spirit of god to form me into the son of god for the glory of god daily [Music] i want to commune with jesus i don't want to just read the bible for information but for transformation i want to see his face i want to experience his grace i want to know him hey if that's you and this is like one of these moments of saying i'm i'm ready to make a commitment to daily spending time in scripture not because i have to be because i get to and i want to [Music] i would like for you to say this to him the silence of your heart whether if you're here in person or online lord jesus [Music] i want to know you more give me an insatiable craving to spend time in your word to spend time with you to allow the spirit to shake me and move me i'm i'm making room for you [Music] occupy and take over next i want to pray for those who are watching those who are physically present and you're saying hey pastor i don't know jesus i don't know him i know about him but i really don't know him the way you described i'm ready to stop playing religion and i'm ready to start a relationship with him i'm ready to have him forgive me i'm ready to have him love me i'm ready for him to bring me into the family i'm ready to make room in my soul for him for him to save me for him to forgive me right now if that's you this is this is your moment i want you to say this to him [Music] lord jesus saved me i confess with my mouth and i believe in my heart that you died on a cross in my place you were disgraced to give me grace you bled and died to forever forgive me sins erased and removed i am loved and on the third day when you walked up out of that tomb i walked out of that tomb with you and into your kingdom and i thank you for this free gift in jesus name and god's people said amen amen amen can we give god a round of applause can we give him a round of applause can we let him know that we're that he's great yes yes uh before i go into the soul tattoo um if you're watching online i want you to get your camera app on your camera phone open it up point it at the tv set and the connection card will come all right and also here at transformation church on the back of the seats is also our connection card with the qr code the qr code will show up point the camera app at it boom everything's online if you prayed said hey i'm gonna daily commit to being shaped by scripture just let us know be like i'm committing to reading the bible and then if you pray to receive christ if you made room for jesus like jesus i surrender i'm giving you my life would you check i prayed to receive christ fill out that connection card let us know because in that way we can know how to better serve you family here's our soul tattoo we don't read the bible for information but for transformation the action step is cultivate the holy habit of daily scripture reading start today okay we gave you some research sources that will be on the app and also our website the you version of the bible uh how to read the bible the bible project watch that with your kids and watch how much you learn they're short they're creative and it'll give you a great understanding of the bible the bible story how we got the bible it's epic also a free bible commentary y'all hear that free gas eight thousand dollars a gallon this free and then we also have some study bibles for you as well we are a people shaped by the book that book is the bible that points to the god who loves us can you welcome pastor paul and stephen back up as they close us out [Applause] [Music] what a great message that challenged us to really develop this holy habit of reading the scriptures and how the scriptures can talk to us about god's love how they can encourage us how they can challenge us how they can be a place for us to go to learn more about our family as children of god and that we're so glad that we were able to do that pastor darwin also shared on the action step to cultivate that holy habit of daily scripture reading and we do have several resources online and he shared some and thought stephen why don't you share a couple of resources you like yeah so uh ones that are highlights for me uh pastor darwin talked about the uh how to read the bible with the bible project i think that's really helpful and another one that stands out for me personally is there's a study bible by dr tony evans someone i grew up listening to from way back in on the radio in my dad's furniture shop so really encouraged me through uh he did through uh guide so you want to check it out it's going to be on our website it's also on the app to access it that's awesome so make sure you check those out and also as we read scripture they encourage us how to live and one of the ways that we live as christ followers is that we are people of generosity and i want to say on behalf of the team to all of you transformers both here and online thank you for your faithfulness and your generosity it's because of that we get to be the heart hands and feet of jesus not only locally but around the world and so because of your faithfulness people are experiencing the love of god so don't forget as you give that we have several different ways to give we enjoy the online giving because it's nice and easy and consistent for us but choose any of those there's also the boxes at the doors as you exit today but let's pray and ask god's blessing on our generosity father we thank you for the opportunity and the privilege we have to live lives of generosity lord thank you that as you transform us as we read your word as we understand who you are through scriptures that lord we see that as you have freely given to us we can be expressions of that giving as well in every area of our lives lord thank you for the generosity from your people your bride called transformation church and thank you for the lives that are being changed on a regular basis we pray that you would bless each one we pray this in jesus name amen amen amen amen if you would stand with us we are going to read some scripture this is just going to be to set the tone for our week we do this at the end of the service we'll read a passage from numbers chapter 6 verses 24 through 26 and it's really like a prayer over us as we get the we kicked off so say it with me may the lord bless you and protect you may the lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you may the lord look with favor on you and give you peace what a great blessing over each of us today thank you so much for joining us here at tc and online and don't forget we look forward to seeing you again next week when we welcome christine kane as our guest speaker fantastic well for those who've been here for a while you you know how we like to close the service for those who are not i'm gonna walk you through it so we do our benediction which is really a good word and it's really how we live so the first thing we say is we say upward which means that we will love god completely then we say inward which through god's spirit enabling power we learn to love ourselves correctly and then finally we say outward so that we can love our neighbors compassionately now i'm gonna point at you you're gonna point at me and we're gonna say transformers roll out because this is just the idol and now it's time to go play the game all right so on the count of three three two one

Channel: Transformation Church

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Length: 90min 36sec (5436 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021