What is Essential?

[Music] [Music] all right what's up everybody welcome once again to I Town Church it sure is an honor to have you joining us today go ahead and grab something that you can take some notes with whether it's a piece of paper or your cell phone cuz I believe God's gonna speak to us as he always does from his word today and there'll be some things that you need to jot down so please take a moment to do that as you get those things together I want to give you a plug for our home church kids curriculum it is fantastic if you've not been participating in that please take a moment after this message to go to our website and watch the preschool or grade school curriculum or both we watch them both at our house every single week and I have to tell you I'm so proud of our kids team they're doing an extraordinary job my kids actually are more concerned with what's happening with mr. Blake and Nettie than they are with the pastor of this church in fact they last weekend on Easter were like can we just watch the kids stuff do we have to do we have to have dad on the television like is there any way that we can have I town kids and so a great job team and thank you so much for making my own family not listen to my teaching it's fantastic they're doing a great job I promise you guys will absolutely love it I want to have a discussion today about something that really has been growing in my heart for the last several weeks Kate and I started having some pretty intense conversations around Easter last weekend about this next season for our church and where is the Lord leading us of course that's a topic of daily conversation at the leadership table here at I town of course in our home as well as Kate and I lead our church and our family and I kept coming back to this thought that is the basis for the message today what truly is essential we have a lot of conversations around that the different businesses and the different things you can do or that you should do or that you shouldn't do and we're watching kind of things unfold around the country is people get arrested for playing in the park or get ticketed for driving in to the parking lot of the church for an Easter service and it's really interesting to see what's developing in the world around us and I have this thought that I keep coming back to from second Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 11 where Paul writes I don't want Satan to outwit us after all we are not ignorant about Satan's scheming so the truth is we know that he is a schemer we know that the devil is a deceiver and that he's always working to bring destruction into our lives and I like Paul I'm just concerned that we may get outwitted as the body of Christ as we walk through this pandemic together I think it's very important for us to be fully aware of what's happening and the first thing I want to say about that is that we have to acknowledge the fact that we are at war there is no doubt that the devil has come to steal kill and destroy and even just the coronavirus itself is an attack from the pit of hell all sin sickness and disease came from the devil we have to be aware of that but then there's all this cultural fallout that surrounds the pandemic with fear and loneliness and anxiety and depression and addiction and possibly even persecution of the church we have to acknowledge is all from the devil and we need to make sure as we walk through this together that we are not outwitted by what the devil is doing first Peter says it this way be alert and of sober mind because your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour this will be our text for just a few moments as we unveil really what the devil is working to do I believe in the world around us because he has the same tricks that he's been using since the very very beginning but I want to give you some context for this verse because Peter is actually in Rome when he writes this letter first Peter and he's writing it to Christians who have been dispersed in a season of great persecution Nero was the Emperor there in Rome and he had just a crazy temperament and set the city on fire just for the purposes of watching it burn just really a sadistic leader and and so two-thirds of the city burns to the ground and thousands of people died and the city realizes that he's the one that set fire to the city and so they start to revolt and his response to it was to persecute the Christians he blamed the Chris for the fire told everybody it was the Christians fault and then began to gather up Christians by the boatloads and keep in mind this is just Peter still alive this is hardly 2nd generation after Jesus has gone to heaven the church is really in its infant out stage it's really starting to grow and to take off and now this massive the greatest persecution sets in that they have seen today where Nero is putting them in the ring of the Colosseum and lions are eating Christians he's covering them in wax and then lighting them on fire being burned alive to illuminate his dinner parties I mean just a sick horrible torture and Peter died as a martyr under Nero just four years after he wrote this letter crucified on a cross and so this is the context that this letter was written in you can kind of say that it's similar to today's culture but it's really radically different because people are actually giving their lives for what they believe and in the midst of all that Peter saying hey we need to be alert we need to be sober because we have an enemy and there are several principles here I want you to see John sits down if you're taking notes the first one is that your enemy wants to deceive you I want you to know that he is a deceiver in fact even Jesus said in John 8:44 when he lies he speaks his native language free is a liar and the father of lies now the reason why he's so good at lying is because he takes if you go all the way back to the garden and then all throughout scripture and watch the devil in his deception he takes truth and twist it so if the devil tried to sell you something that obviously is a lie you'd never fall for so what he does and what he did with Adam and Eve in the garden especially Eve is that he took truth and he just slightly twisted it so that it was definitely wrong but it was grounded it felt in truth so it felt right and that's what he does he is the father of lies he is the chief deceiver and every time he speaks it's in a nature of deception but as we look at the world today you and I would have to agree that the greatest deception his greatest trick is convincing the world that he doesn't exist which is why Peter starts off with your enemy the devil you have to remember that you have an enemy as a follower of price pair is spiritual warfare that is taking place against your life and that word enemy as he writes in the Greek is adversary it means literally your direct opponent the devil is in direct opposition of God's plan and purposes for your life that's why Ephesians he writes in chapter 6 our struggle is not against flesh and blood you're in a struggle but it's not against people it's not against your boss it's not against the economy it's not against the government your struggle is against rulers and against authorities against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms so the devil isn't operating alone the Bible tells us he took a third of the angels with him that we now call demons and he's got these forces that are strategically aligned and assigned to destroy your life and the body of Christ and we have to be clear about the fact that he works through deception to destroy your life so we have to make sure that we are alert and aware so that we don't fall into the deception we have to make sure that we're not outwitted as we walk through this season the example of Hezekiah in second chronicles is a good one chapter 32 verse 1 Hezekiah saw he was the King of Jerusalem he saw Sennacherib an enemy had come he perceived his presence and he understood that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem and so Hezekiah was able to consult his officials and military staff here's the principle Hezekiah as the leader of the nation of Israel and the king over Jerusalem saw the presence of an enemy and understood what his intentions were so he's able to make sure that he made the proper adjustments and he did well protect the City of Jerusalem in the nation of Israel and overcame sin accrue that's very important it's important that we don't get lulled to sleep by the devil and become convinced that he doesn't exist and just get ourselves looking at this entire pandemic in the world around us through the lens of the natural and only talk about facts and science and forget that this is very deeply spiritual and we are at war with the devil we've got to remember and here's why because when you are not aware of the enemy then you don't prepare for a fight judges chapter 18 it says so the five men went to the town of elation they noticed how secure everyone felt not that they were but how they felt they felt secure their manner of life was Phoenician they were very wealthy a lot of times prosperity and wealth like we have in this country lulls us to sleep false sense of security they lived quietly and were unprepared for an attack because they couldn't see the danger they didn't think anyone was strong enough to try it and so they lived a great distance from the relatives they didn't put any effort into relationship it's just a little bit too hard it's a little bit too difficult it's too much of a sacrifice and so they had little to no contact with the nearby villages so guess what happens verse 27 somebody comes and attacks with the sword and they burn the city to the ground and verse 28 says there was no one there to rescue because they lived a long way they didn't put any energy into building relationships and they didn't have relationships to anybody else and so what happened was they didn't perceive the threat of an enemy they got deceived thinking that they were fine and then all of a sudden they end up all alone and destroyed second thing I want you to know about the devil is that he wants to isolate you jot it down the devil wants to isolate you it's absolutely true you can see it all throughout scripture but if you go back to our text first Peter chapter 5 and verse 8 be alert and of sober mind because your enemy the devil is like a roaring lion when Lions hunt they love to get the prey that's on the outside of the herd are the ones that have wandered off by themselves in fact if they can get one isolated that's really a death sentence for that animal because the Lions will pounce on the one that's alone and I just want you to know the devil does the same thing to us he tries to get us isolated we've talked about this in every context ever since I've pastored any church in my entire life don't get alone somebody's got to know what's going on in your life you need relationship you need community but now more than ever I need you to hear that the devil is working if we take the veil off of our eyes I'm not saying that science is wrong I'm not I'll be done for the last several weeks isn't important what I'm saying is if you get deceived by the devil and stay in a place of prolonged social distancing and self isolation then you will be desperately in trouble in fact look at it this way Cleese Jesse's chapter 4 verse 12 this is the modern day version I'm gonna translate a person standing alone in other words a person who's practicing prolonged social distancing and it's too afraid to get out of their house can be attacked and defeated you're in trouble but two can stand back-to-back not cell phone to cell phone not computer to computer back to back and conquer and three are even better the more people you get in on this the stronger you are going to be that's Bible and I don't know what the new normal is going to look like but as I look at the world around us and as I listen to the experts and the professionals with their man-made wisdom as much as I honor that and respect that and I'm thankful for the lives that we have been able to preserve I just want you to know if you stay alone huddled in your house gripped with fear you are going to suffer from depression and anxiety and addiction and there is a world of problems on your doorstep and the devil wants to convince you that you're doing what's right in fact Isaiah chapter 5 says it this way what's sorrow for those who say evil is good and good is evil what we're living in that time was sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever you see that's the arrogance of America I know better that was the mantra of our country leading into this crisis we know better than God we know who we should love we know what gender we should be we get to decide for ourselves what we do with our lives and where we spend our money and how we we're gonna walk away from the archaic beliefs of God's Word because it's Neanderthal type thinking and it's so sad that you crazy coke Christians haven't graduated or evolved to our level of intellectual thinking but so sad for you because we're so smart but the Bible says you're gonna live in a time and it's going to bring sorrow on the people that fall for this that evil is good but listen to me the world tells you that we're alone together that makes no sense you're just alone you're not alone together with anybody you're just alone and you're vulnerable to attack and so what the world will probably say in the weeks to come is that if you do what's right if you do what the Lord can vix you to do that you're doing something wrong you're endangering the lives of others you're being reckless you're being selfish in fact doesn't that sound like the world today if you don't look like us act like us talk like us and believe like us then you don't love see we live in a culture where I'm not allowed to disagree with you and still love you that's what the world says that love is conformity but it's not I don't have to conform to what everybody tells me to say think and say I have to conform to what God's Word says and in the midst of that actually truth brings love culture is changing we have to be aware of it hey I don't want us to be deceived I don't want us to be caught off guard we have to make sure that we are not outwitted as we walk through this season together where evil is good and good as evil we have to make sure we are clear so we go back to our text and he says be alert because it's a roaring lion I want you to know in this process of isolation and what the world tells you is going to be good for you in the weeks to come their voice will be very loud the lion roars to intimidate its prey and I just want you to know the devil would love to intimidate you and how long has it been since the church has taken a stand and said I don't care what the world says I don't care what people think about me I'm gonna live the life that God has called me to live I'm gonna honor scripture above all else I'm not gonna be blown by the winds and waves of this world and I'm especially not going to be influenced by what is popular in sir groupthink will always get you into trouble you'll find yourself far from God and if you allow the roaring lion to dictate the actions of your life you will never honor God with the decisions that you make I just want you to know if the church continues to allow the government and the doctors to dictate the future of the body of Christ we will not honor God's Word we will not do what God's called us to do all because ultimately the devil's goal is just to destroy us he wants to steal to kill and to destroy go back to our text first Peter 5:8 he's looking for someone to devour that word devour isn't like just to eat like a lion would eat a person the word devour that Peter uses there is this really vulgar word that's the idea of drinking someone's blood what he's saying is that these hungry lions the devil actually wants to suck the life the essence of life directly from you and that's what he's trying to do and I wonder how many of you are already in that place watching this service in the privacy of your home and you're already plummeting into loneliness and fear and addiction and depression and anxiety and there is no one there to help you because you are all alone and the world is trying to convince you that you're doing something right the devil is trying to take your life and I just want us all to be aware so we are not caught off guard by what's happening in the world around us our culture is changing and the mantra of the day is that you need to distance yourself from people in order to love and to protect them and that is not the truth of God's Word is exactly opposite of what the Bible says and if you fall for the lie you will be devoured so the Bible says you got to be alert be alert and sober mind I love those words because they speak to today alert means to watch out and to be aware wake up is what he's saying and it's time for the church to wake up it's time for us to see what's actually happening in the world around us and then of sober mind that word sober mind is not to be carried away in your own thoughts or by the thoughts of others don't be carried away by your own thoughts just like Kate said don't focus on all the facts and allow the fear to enter your heart and your mind to race and to meditate on the wrong things I'm not saying that we ignore science so that we ignore what's happening in the world around us bury your head in the sand and don't watch the news that's not at all what I'm saying what I'm saying is that we understand that Jesus's name is higher than everything that we face in this life and we will bring it under the lordship of Jesus Christ and we will not live our life just based on the facts we live our life based on faith and the promises of God's Word we're gonna be alert and we're gonna have a sober mind as we walk through this crisis together that's the devil's goal is to devour you and so then we have to as we look at this whole pandemic through the spiritual lens not just the natural lens the spiritual lens the devil is trying to take people's life through sickness but then he's trying to steal a whole bunch of other people's lives and marriages and careers and joy through isolation so then my question for you comes back to what's essential what's essential and this honestly is where I go round and round because the Lord gave us a brain and I like to use mine I don't like to believe everything I'm told and I don't like to just follow every directive I'm given blindly so it doesn't make sense to me I look at the list the things that are essential some of them make sense like it's important that you get your groceries seems essential to me but then you get still buy lottery tickets doesn't seem so essential you can still buy alcohol definitely doesn't seem that essential in some states you can still have an abortion but you can't have a hip replacement you can go park and target's parking lot right next to anybody you want but in some states you're not allowed to go to the church's parking lot at all and in others they tell you have to space your car appropriately next to the so what's essential because we're told the church can just have services online it's all the same just have to do all that you've been doing but do it online okay that's great so I look at these other places that are essential like Target well praise the Lord for Target right they're amazing it's amazing how you can order something in their online app and they'll bring it out to your car 37 seconds later I mean it's really extraordinary gratulations Target great business plan you're doing a good job it's pretty incredible but wow they could perform nearly everything that they offer online they choose not to because there's some things they make you come to the store for and I don't know white toilet paper is such a big deal right now because there's a lot of ways to deal with that situation but toilet paper is the thing not milking by as much milk and eggs as you want cheez-its for days meats fine still all of its great but toilet paper so help you God if you run out of toilet paper you are in trouble like we would if we had a toilet paper ministry right now that I town it'd be the thing can't buy toilet paper online you got to come to the store and walk inside and when you come to the store and walk inside you will be there with hundreds of people and they will stand wherever they want and they will buy whatever they want they will park wherever they want and there's not a single person telling them what to do but you can't step foot inside of a church the body of Christ universally has willingly closed its doors thinking that we are doing something right you tell me that it doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense that Walmart parking lot is full and that Costco is full and that Sam's Club is full and that Kroger is full and the golf course is full and the church is empty doesn't make sense so what's essential government tells us the church is essential it's essential well I agree with them but I don't agree with their definition because unlike anybody else I'm not gonna let the government define for me what the church is I think we ought to go to scripture so we have to spend the rest of our time wrestling through the question what is the church if the church is essential if we're really trying to figure out what's essential I think it's essential that we are able to buy groceries and a burbot provide for our families I'm not sure why bicycle stores are in the list but liquor stores lottery tickets you can go to places as hundreds of people but can't go to church what is church well you got to go to the biblical definition and the very first time it's used it's this conversation with Jesus we've studied it before here at I town Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples who do people say the Son of Man is in other words he's like hey guys how's our Twitter campaign our Instagram Facebook people we get any traction do people know that I'm the Messiah how're we doing in our public relations campaign verse 14 they replied well some say John the Baptist others say Elijah still others Jeremiah and some of them say them one of the other prophets that should have been like a really depressing leadership moment for Jesus like zero I got zero nobody believes the right answer and half of them don't even make sense John the Baptist they were alive at the same time they were cousins how in the world is that even possible so total failure here on the part of the Jesus campaign right total failure nobody got it right which makes me feel better when like people don't click on our stuff or we run an ad campaign that doesn't work like even even Jesus team missed it so we're okay right so he says verse 15 jesus is totally unfazed doesn't even skip a beat it's like boy what about you guys who do you say that I am and Simon Peter answered you are the Messiah the Son of the Living God and Jesus says to him blessed are You Simon son of Jonah for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my father in heaven now you know in the south my wife is southern and so I learned in the South like up here we're like men that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard that's just what we say we're a little more blunt here in the Midwest but in the South they go Oh bless your heart when you say something real dumb I'll bless your heart that's a nice soft way saying that's that's really not intelligence and so what Jesus did you thought southerners came up with that no Jesus did he was like Oh bless your heart Simon he actually got the answer right but I know you're too dumb to come up with that on your own there's no way that anybody else told you that that clearly was a revelation from heaven and I tell you on that revelation Peter I will build my church there's the word and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it the gates of Hell will not overcome what Jesus came to establish but what is it that he came to establish church well the word church and the Greek New Testament is the word ekklesia he probably heard me talk about that before ecclesia but here's the problem too many people have the wrong definition of the original greek word when we think of church we think of the wrong thing I went back to the original definition as I was wrestling through all of this what is the right response what is God calling us to do what is essential who are we as the church how do we really love and care for people you got to go back to the words of Jesus this is the word that Jesus used in the Greek New Testament it means a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into a public place an assembly that's the Bible definition of church that's not my definition I didn't make that up so check it out Jonathan if you take a knows number one the church according to the Bible is a gathering which means I'm thankful for technology and the fact that you and I can connect today but this ain't Church this isn't Church this isn't the same you got to be in the room we have to be together there's a gathering there's something special that takes place when we gather and the devil knows that so the gathering is always under attack sometimes it's through physical persecution but most the time it's through philosophical persecution because he is a deceiver so he wants to trick us into giving up our right and our spiritual responsibility of meeting together the gathering do you know several generations after Jesus this Jesus gathering this movement with a message is picking up steam but all of a sudden just as people typically do it's becoming political and the leaders are trying to figure out how to control people through money and power and so they begin to reshape the perspective of what Jesus came to begin the easiest way to do that is to change definitions we see that happening a lot we change the truth of God's word just by changing definitions I'm not gonna get into that but you can let your mind decide exactly what that means but the world loves to change God's definitions of things so they changed the definition of this word ecclesia they changed it to the word we have today called church which really makes us think more institutional governmental organizational that's not what Jesus intended for it to be at all do you know that William Tyndale came along and he said the Bible needs to be in a language that everybody can read because at that time they had the Bible in Latin and normal people couldn't read it in English they didn't have access to it so they had to have someone else tell them what the Bible said and that's always dangerous it couldn't read it for themselves and he said everybody needs to be able to read the Bible and he went through and translated from the original Greek to English the Bible when he got to that word ecclesia he translated it appropriately as congregation which means a gathering of people but the church the powers-that-be knew that it would change the way people saw the institutionalized church and they burned him at the stake as a heretic and the wrong word survived so to this day we have become convinced even in modern day Christianity that we can have Church without having Church because church is a gathering of citizens called out from their homes rallying together in the presence of one another that's what the church is and we have fought for generous and through persecutions and plagues and difficulties and everything else the Devils try to bring against the church to keep this thing alive and yet here today we're not Gathering believing that we're doing the same but we're not online is not the same churches are gathering go back to it that text Matthew chapter 16 blessed are You Simon son of Jonah this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but it was a revelation from my father in heaven I need you to see that it's a revelation and on that revelation Peter I will build my church on the rock of this revelation I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not overcome it number two you need to know that not only is this a Jesus gathering but it's based on the revelation of who Jesus is Peter had a picture divinely of who Jesus actually was so it's not just practicing a religion it's literally sacrificing our lives to be in relationship with the Savior he saw you are the Christ the Messiah the Son of the Living God the Lamb of God has come to take away the sins of the world and if you think about it to this day it's the only thing that we still agree on we've got Catholics and we've got Protestants and we've got a million different ways to be a Protestant today Lutheran's and Methodists and Presbyterians and charismatic Sande nondenominational and everything else you can be whatever you want in the midst of all that but we all have one rallying point one revelation and that is that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God it's the one thing that we still agree on it's the foundation of his church that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against that's the promise that he's given us so we're supposed to be a gathering this Jesus gathering we're supposed to be a movement that is constantly moving and adding people winning people to Christ based on this revelation that we know who Jesus actually is so Jesus gives his life he comes back to life the disciples actually didn't believe in the teaching think about this for just a minute it was just about the teaching the disciples would have had a totally different perspective but they didn't in Matthew chapter 28 and verse 18 they weren't there they weren't there when the tomb was empty and Jesus was alive the disciples weren't there and so then he appears to them and he says all authority now has been given to me and so I'm telling you go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you and surely I will be with you always until the very end of the age so Jesus literally appears to these guys and gives them what we call the Great Commission all right guys listen I know you're afraid and I know you're hiding here's the deal now I need you to go this is a message that's supposed to go to the four corners of the earth and the disciples now have seen Jesus Acts chapter 2 and verse 32 the day of Pentecost comes and Peter is up telling people about this message of the gospel and he says God has raised this jesus to life and we are all witnesses of it you need to understand number three Jonathan if you're taking notes this thing is fueled by an experience of Jesus it's fueled by an actual encounter with the presence and the power of God it's not fueled by the teachings of Jesus I think the teachings are great it's very important for us but I'm just telling you if your life right now is based on a teaching and not an experience you're in trouble the disciples had an experience with the Jesus that came to life because the teaching weren't enough to carry him think about this for a minute Jesus taught him for three and a half years they were there for his public ministry how many times did he say I'm gonna give my life and then I'll be raised to life three days later I'm gonna give my life and I'm gonna be raised to life three days later how many times he say that they heard it over and over and over and not one of them believed it you know why because not one of them was there on Resurrection morning you'd think that these guys would be huddled outside the tomb just in case what Jesus said was real but they weren't there they were huddled in their homes hiding but then all of a sudden they had an experience an encounter with Jesus and it changed everything in their life because they weren't fueled by what Jesus taught they were fueled by what Jesus did Jesus overcame death hell and the grave he came to life three days later with the keys of all the hell and all the death that you and I would ever walk through in this life and he gave the disciples an experience that would carry them and that same experience has carried the church through persecution after persecution after adversity and hardship and plagues they were willing to die because the experience that they had that's why Paul said in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10 I want to know Christ because I want to experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead see that's my prayer for you church not that you know God intellectually but experientially that you know him by his touch by his presence and by his power and that happens when we gather our gatherings are not religious rituals and they're not non-essential their spiritual experiences when we gather together the presence and the power of God fills our church fills our presence and it changes people for generations they've been willing to fight and to die to defend that ability for us to gather together experience so I ask you today to examine your heart because I don't know what comes in the days and weeks ahead I don't know what the government will say I don't know what the court of public opinion will say I have a feeling I know what the doctors will say about your faith about how essential the gathering of the Saints is and you're gonna have to wait for yourself this simple question are we Christians for convenience are we Christians of conviction what do we actually believe do we do this because it just makes us feel good because it's easy and convenient and maybe the social pressure in your world was to attend church or is this thing fueled by an experience that we would be like the early church that would say you know what it doesn't matter what comes against this it doesn't matter what persecution faces us this is worth fighting for because it's the presence of God it's an experience with Jesus we are a citizenship of people that are gathered together rallied around the hope of heaven understanding that this earth is not our home and that presence and power of God is what we need now more than anything else and it doesn't matter what the government says it doesn't matter what culture says it doesn't matter what our neighbors say what matters is what God's Word says and he said I will build my ekklesia and the gates of Hell itself will not prevail against it the local church is the hope of the world and if you are huddled at home hiding you will not find hope in that place Peter concluded his thought before we go in verse 9 and said resist him speaking of the devil standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same sufferings everybody in on planet Earth is going through this right now it's a worldwide pandemic and churches across the world are closed verse 10 says and the God of all Grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ after you've suffered for a little while man I do wish we could just take that one sentence out after you have suffered for a little while which can I just tell you they're not releasing lions at your church all right it's not gonna be you're gonna have some online trolls you're gonna have some public opinion you might get a ticket you can tell Paul when he's like yeah I got beaten and stoned and shipwrecked and left for dead several times like man I got a ticket that one Sunday I went to church who I was scary the Bible says God himself Jesus himself will restore you and he will make you strong firm and steadfast I said this when we started this whole rapid response campaign we don't go to church we are the church but the church assembles the church gathers it's the words of Jesus and you need it so do I so I can't tell you exactly when whether it's next weekend or the weekend after but we will gather probably sooner than it's popular and maybe sooner than it's legal but they're hurting people and maybe you're one of them and Jesus didn't live for what was popular what was accepted came for broken people and this churches doors are open for broken people I want to pray for a minute that God would give us the boldness that we need to walk through this season together if you just bow your head where you're at Lord Jesus we thank you that your word promises that you're an ever-present help in times of trouble none of us would ever believe that we would have come into a season in our world where it would seem logical and even right for us to close the doors of the church god I pray that you give us wisdom as we navigate the days and weeks ahead because we recognize that you came to establish a Jesus gathering that has the revelation that you're the Christ the Son of the Living God based on an experience a direct encounter with the presence and the power of God Lord I pray that we would experience the power of the Resurrection that it would fill our lives that the boldness of the Holy Spirit would fill your church and that we'd be willing to carry the message of the gospel to those who are hurting no matter what the price now we don't want to be Christians out of convenience we want to be Christians out of the conviction of your word we want to honor what you have called us to do and who you have called us to be we will not bow our knee to the opinions of the government or culture or the media or anyone else because we don't live for their approval God today we let gladly lay down our lives I had the foot of the cross maybe you're watching today and you have never truly experienced the power of God in her life the Bible tells us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead can live on the inside of you if you'll just surrender your life to Him he wants to make you brand new I would love to take a minute to pray that simple prayer with you if you'll just repeat these words after me just say Lord Jesus please forgive me today for all of my sin and mistakes I repent I surrender my life to you fill me with your presence make me brand new help me to experience the power that raised Jesus from the dead today I make you my Lord come on pray that prayer I make you my lord in Jesus name God we thank you that you'll give us wisdom and boldness as we walk through the days and weeks ahead but more importantly God I pray that you would help us to be a light to a world that's hurting and lost and dying we speak to those that are hurting today those who are isolated today those who are lonely and depressed and full of anxiety and fear those who are sick in their bodies in the name of Jesus we thank you that your power would touch them I prayed that you would fill their homes with peace and joy strength and healing God we thank you that no matter what comes our way that you personally will come and strengthen us and so just this Kate said we fix our eyes on you the author and the perfecter of our faith we get our eyes off of the circumstance we will not allow our lives to be dictated by anything but our faith in your word thank you that you never let us down we love you today in Jesus name we pray amen and amen

Channel: ITOWN Church

Views: 355

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: ks0490UZ4yc

Length: 43min 22sec (2602 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020