What Is Your Life? | May 30th, 2021

greetings in jesus name i'm bishop chester wright and it is uh my privilege to be with you today on antioch west virtual life um this is a special day special weekend uh i served in the military my dad was a 30-year navy veteran who fought in three wars so i give him special honor today along with all of you who who have also served i have something a little different i to me i think it's a little different um i'm going to say this to you um some of you may not like this today others may believe it's about the best thing you've ever heard that's not going to have to do with me and my delivery it's going to be where you are uh it's going to be determined by where you are in your faith or lack of it in your relationship with god or lack of it um the lord pointed me to these verses a few days ago and i waited and wondered when i was supposed to use them and he made it very clear that this is the day i'd like to read you some verses and uh they're taken from james chapter four beginning with verse 13. james says go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gained whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow for what is your life it is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away for that or for that reason for this cause you ought to say if the lord will we shall live and do this or that but now you rejoice in your boastings all such rejoicing is evil therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin now some have taken words like this turned them into platitudes platitudes are things we repeat we say them with our lips but our heart is not connected to our words what what our real life is is not expressed by our words the bible says also in james it's be not uh a be a doer word of the word and not just a hearer deceiving your own self it's uh this is the question the lord asked when i read these words he says what is your life that's the question we're asking today what is your life he asked that question and there's a lot of facets to that question but today i want to focus on the fact that when he asked what is your life there's two basic answers to that question one would be that my life belongs to him i am his i was a i was bought with a price his shed blood i am not my own the other is my life is mine that's the opposite of this again there are many facets to this but i'm focusing on these two the other is my life is mine i will do what i want when i want how i want it james under the inspiration of the holy ghost is actually pointing out the fallacy of the second and encouraging the first you know it's not really my life i drove here this morning it's raining a little bit here in maryland and uh there were signs on the side of the road with numbers on them 50 45 35. 25. those signs dared to presume to tell me how fast i could go to get to pastor joel wright's house today to be able to be with you he dared to do that now i can look at those signs and say they're just inconveniences they are i can ignore them i don't have to look at them but then again there is an authority behind those signs that says we do have the right to tell you how fast you're gonna drive on this road i mean i like it and you know if i get away with it i can think okay well i got away with it uh see there i can do what i want but we all know it's possible and sometimes likely that we will not get away with it we'll not get away with it so the point being in this conversation today is the lord is speaking through the apostle james and he's talking to us today that we should soberly soberly there's not talking about the fact whether or not you're drinking a lot of people don't drink at all but they're drunk they're drunk on their self-importance they're drunk on their self-will they're drunk on their likes and dislikes and those things all cause them to not be as clear thinking as possible they're drunk on that i like i want uh i don't i don't like so i can express all of that and to a certain degree god has allowed some latitude in the fulfillment or us being able to basically attempt to fulfill our likes and dislikes but it's a very limited window there's a verse in the scripture that says man makes the decisions but god determines the outcome of them this is basically the message of this passage from james you can decide and say i'm going to go to here i'm going to do there i don't care what god wants i don't care what anybody else wants i can i'm going to do what i want to do when i want to do it but james is saying is that really possible i don't know anybody that is able to accomplish doing everything they want to do when they want to do it how they want to do it i don't know anybody because it's not possible now some people resent the fact that god is expecting them to acknowledge that he's god but when i when i when i look at this verse it says what is your life and i apply that question to myself i wouldn't change anything the good days the bad days the laughter the tears all of those things are seasonings in god's process to bring me to the place he wants me to be in him all of those things allow me the opportunity to not only know him but to know me all of those things and and we have a tendency to want our lives to be pain-free problem-free pressure-free that's what we like well the lord said to me many years ago he spoke in my vernacular he said this ain't heaven on purpose it's not heaven because my the life he has promised is eternal life not a a wisp of a vapor now uh you may know what clout what what fog is but if you fly much you know that fog is just clouds that are down at the at elevation zero ground level and when you're flying and you're flying through those clouds thank god for instruments thank god the pilot's got instruments because if you're flying through those clouds you don't know where you are you can't see where you're going it's just the vapor those tabs are just vapor but they block my ability to see where i've been and where i'm going and it's a it never ceases to amaze me when you take off on a a cold rainy day from the airport and it's there's rain falling and there's rain on the window of the of the plane and and you're looking out the window at the ground and and you're taking off and you begin to climb and then you reach a certain altitude you go into the cloud you can't see anything in various leaks of time you come out of that cloud and on top of that cloud on top of that vapor you break through into cloudless sky sunshine on the ground that's not what life looks like you come through the vapor you know on the other side it's a different world all together and then if the weather is similar to that at your destination you come out of this bright clear sunshine you go back into that vapor that you can't see where you're going that's why the pilot has instruments that let him know uh what uh what the uh uh whether the plane is level or not or if it's descended what altitude it's at whether it's descending or ascending and all of that that's how he gets through the cloud safety safely then he comes out of the bottom of the cloud you see the ground again but you don't see blue sky anymore but the lord equated my life to the cloud it's just a vapor actually uh a couple of translations uh get a little more specific james chapter 4 verses 13 through 17 and the amplified says come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money yet you do not know the least thing about what may happen tomorrow i don't even know what's going to happen in the next 60 seconds i can assume i know i can plan to know but i have no idea what may happen in the next 60 seconds and trust me 60 seconds is a long time when in a a fraction of a second in a moment in the twinkling of an eye everything could change i don't have i don't have any guarantee of what the next moment's going to be forget the next minute the next hour the next day now you may not like the idea that someone is in control of all of that that i can't control but to me it gives me great comfort great assurance great peace to know first of all to acknowledge that i'm not in control of anything i can't even make my my uh heart beat the next second now i've got this apple watch and it's got a heart rate monitor on it and uh sometimes i'm in a situation where i'm kind of bored and i'll what i'll look at the heart rate and i've learned that i can get still enough and slow my breathing rate down enough i can watch my heart rate drop uh but i don't start my heart i don't speed up my heart slow it down really i'm not in control of the next beat of my heart the instrument can measure how many times my heart is beating each minute but i can't make my heart beat i'm not in control of all of that now there are people that resent that they're not in control there's a platitude that goes you need to get a life i got a life the question is so do you you've got a life too the question is what are you going to do with that life what are you doing with that life the absolute total deception that some people live in that they think they're in control you you have a right to make your decisions you have absolutely no ability to determine how they're going to turn out you can't make your decisions turn out the way you want them to you can't do it i can't do it nobody can do it well of course those that don't want to acknowledge that there is a god and that he is the lord of heaven and earth god of heaven and earth that he is the lord or the greek word is supreme ruler of heaven and earth if you resist that because you want to be god because you want to make out your own decisions then hey that's your privilege for here and now that's your privilege for here and now it's not your privilege after death in fact the bible says no man has the power to retain the spirit and death so while your heart's still beating and you're breathing you've got a measure of control at least in just making decisions but when it comes time to die i can't hang on to my spirit say wait a minute i'm not dying what is your life so verse 14 the amplified says you do not know the least thing about what may happen tomorrow what is the nature of your life you are really but a wisp of vapor a puff of smoke a mist that is visible for a little while and then disappears into thin air now of course my soul is eternal is eternal my soul's a part of me it is me it is eternal this flesh this body is only the house that i live in my the real me is my soul my me i live in this body that's why as you get older you wonder why it is i look in the mirror and i i can't relate to that person i look at pictures i go who is that because my soul is eternal and doesn't age only the house it lives in ages god allows that for those who will even consider the facts instead of living the opposite of sober not clear thinking not seeing things the way they really are but the way that they want them to be i can so persuade myself that things are the way i want them to be i become blind to the way things really are and so i if if i am if god is trying to get my attention and he uses his word like this to get my attention that's why he said take here he how you hear he also said take heed what you hear because they you know who they are they are the people this nameless faceless group they that we use as the excuse to justify us thinking and doing and not thinking and not doing we justify that if i don't want to think this then they don't think this if i don't want to do this well they don't do this well if i want to do it well they do it if i want to think this well they think it and so i use this faceless massless you may be able to put a face on it but the they that is our perpetual excuse it's not a they there's an i am and he is the point of reference you can use they as a point of reference you can use the i am as the point of reference you can't do both you're going to do one or the other the i am gave us his word so that we could see things from his perspective because his perspective is eternal his perspective is eternal not temporary my life is temporary it's just a vapor well i've lived 75 years that's not a vapor and compared to the infinite god i don't even know if you can call it a vapor in comparison to the infinite god in comparison to the to the eternity that's coming you can't call you can't call my 75 years much more than a vapor compared to endless time in eternity and yet the problem is the temporary nature of this life is very deceptive it allows us to lose ourself in the temporary the temporal and not even see beyond it and that's what the lord is trying to get across to us the next verse in the amplified says you ought instead to say if the lord is willing we shall live and we shall do this or that thing but as it is you boast falsely in your presumption and your self-conceit this is the amplified i'm not speaking i'm reading all such boasting is wrong let me read read that verse to you again verse 16 amplified but as it is you boast falsely in your presumption and your self-conceit all such boasting is wrong it is easy to act like you're the end all to be all till you get cancer or even covet and you find out you don't have any choice over all that how many people do i know do you know that had clear indicators that something was wrong but they didn't know they didn't want to know what was wrong with them so they didn't go to the king go to the doctor and the doctor does the diagnosis and says you know if you would have come in months ago we could have dealt with this but you waited too long why didn't we wait why is it we don't want to know what the doctor says or the lawyer says or the preacher why is it we don't want to know what they say because we want to delude ourself in believing we're in control we're in charge we want to do what we want to do and by the time the situation gets to the point that it's beyond our ability to continue to deny it way too often it's too late all because we don't believe that god is ultimately in control the last verse of the amplified says verse 17 so any person who knows what is right to do and does not do it to him it is sin i i i know way too many christians that have adopted the world's definition of what sin is and isn't and they call it morality but in god the worst things sins we commit are not the things we do we shouldn't do but the things we should do that we don't do because we don't want to do them because obedience just the idea of obeying god is is an acknowledgement that i'm not in control that somebody has the authority to tell me what right and wrong is somebody has the authority to expect me to do the right and not do the wrong and so obedience alone is humbling all by itself because it means i'm not in charge this is this is memorial day weekend giving honor to those who have served in the military in our country ask any military person if they like every order that's given to them on any level by their immediate supervisor or anyone up the chain of command ask if they like that no in fact every military person knows the likelihood is far greater that you're not going to like the order whether it's a temporary one or a major one then that you will like it you know they call it a dream sheet it's coming time for you to get transferred and there's options out there and you write down on your dream sheet the place you'd like to be stationed the ship the squadron or whatever it would be and what you what what you'd like to do in my opinion most of the time that's an exercise of futility because it's it's called the good of the service you can put anything you want on your dream shoot but they're going to put you where they need you to be they're going to give you the job to do they need you to do you signed up for it you didn't sign up to get what you want to go where you want join the navy see the world yeah i guess technically that happens but you don't get the vacation when you see those places in the world you don't get that privilege why is it why is it that we will sell our soul for money i don't sell my soul you got an employer do you show up when you want to leave when you want to go work do whatever you want to well you know there may be some that are getting away with it or they think they are but hear me your employer probably has an expectation of when you're going to start working when you're going when you can get off what time your breaks are and he's got tasks he assigned you he doesn't say why don't you think of something good to do today for the company rarely does anybody have that kind of latitude but everybody's got parameters that they have to work in in order to get a paycheck so it's okay i'm gonna sell my soul to somebody else's will for money but i'm not willing to obey the one that gave me life in the first place and that's you know oh everybody wants to get out of high school yes sir buddy we want to we want to finish school we want to get out we want to be free and i've said the kids over the years you're enjoying the freest your life is ever going to be right now in high school yeah yeah you got assignments and all that stuff this is the freest it's a it's ever going to be this past friday was graduation at the naval academy and i was riding along with a friend of mine who was visiting from out of town and i said these guys you know you you count the days to your graduation from the induction day the first day you show up there you know how long it's going to be to the day when you're going to graduate and you point to that but i said to this person no matter how much those guys getting their diploma and and giving and swearing in again to serve and being commissioned and throwing their hats in the air no matter how much they think they know what's coming they have no clue they don't have any clue they don't have any clue what their life is going to be like yeah there's a whole lot of rigidity at the naval academy and they go overboard teaching you it's not your life you asked to come here we gave you permission to come we put you through a rigid process to determine whether we thought you were qualified to be here you asked we didn't come after you and you're here now and we're going to prove to you that your life's not your own we own you we're going to tell you when to get up we're going to tell you when to go to bed we're going to tell you what to wear we're going to tell you what you can't wear if the uniform of the day is carry rain gear you don't go out without it you're out of uniform if it's raining but they haven't changed the uniform of the day to wear rain gear you put on your rain gear and they haven't changed uniform of the day you're out of uniform if it's sunshine and 90 degrees out but the uniform of the day is wear rain gear and you take it off pack it up your little bag and carry it you're out of uniform that's ridiculous no it's disciplined and the whole purpose of discipline is to prove you're not in control and there are thousands and thousands of people every year that try to get in to the one of the academies and submit themselves to that discipline and all they're going to do is give you an education a job that may get you killed and yet my god gives me life and health and strength and he watches over me every day through the difficult days he allows in the in the sunshine days that he blesses me with and he's in control and he loves me i've had people who were in charge of me in the military that i knew didn't even like me and gave me orders and demonstrated their power and ability to give me orders and i knew they were doing special little things to prove to me i don't like you and i'm gonna prove the power i've got over you that's not my god that's not his motive and attitude he he's not trying to play some power play he's not strong army me he knows what's best for me he knows what's best for me and he wants me to have what's his best now his best sometimes includes pain his best sometimes includes sorrow so his best sometimes includes difficulty and you know the cliche but it's not a cliche diamonds were one-time cult pieces of coal and great great pressure turned those pieces of coal into very valuable gems the lord designed all this in this life so that you know no pain no gain now why do we believe that when it comes to practicing football why do we believe that when it comes to weight lifting why do we believe that when it comes to power walking or jogging no pain no gain why do we believe all that embrace it even glory in it no pain no gain but then when god practices as a principle that he brought into existence we want to resent him for that see that's the problem when you live in this one life instead of the other when you're living believing you're in charge everything god does is wrong everything god does is bad and that's what we humans do i've said this many times we take the credit for all the good in our life blame god for all the bad we don't have any responsibility for the bad it's not our choices it's not anything you know we're just these helpless little pawns that's why we have bad and it's all god's fault but you let anything good going look at me i deserve this i produce this i get all the credit so we take the credit for the good give god the blame for the bad that tells the kind of life we're living that tells our mentality and i don't mean to be offensive our deceived mentality the lord is trying to say something to us here that's very very important and then the whis expanded translation says it this way i'm going to read the same verses again come now you who are saying today or tomorrow we shall proceed to this city and we shall spend a year there and buy and sell and make a profit you are the class of men that does not know what shall be tomorrow and of what character is your life for you am you are a mist which appears for a little time and then disappears instead of your saying instead of your saying or in it i'm kind of dividing it wrong here instead you should be saying if the lord so desires it we shall both live and do this or that why because you're not in control of your last breath you're not in control of the last time your heart beats you're not in control of any of that and if i'm not going to trust god with what we might call the little things how am i trusting the big thing like breath there's no bigger thing in your natural life than your next breath except the next beat of your heart your next breath the next beat of your heart are the two most important things in your life in your natural life they're the two most important things and you don't really control them oh yes i do really hold your breath for five minutes go ahead choose to do that prove to me you're in control just prove to yourself you're in control don't hold your breath for well i can hold my breath for 30 seconds yeah yeah yeah maybe some have practiced and they hold their breath for a minute and a few weird individuals have learned to hold their breath for two or three minutes but let me tell you something 99.9 of us before we get to the 62nd mark against our decision it will we're taking a breath because i don't control it i don't control it my father in heaven and in earth my father who loves me he provides all these things for me the next breath i have is a gift from him the next beat of my heart is a gift from him the good things are a gift from him the testing things they're a gift from him all of these things are making me understand what i'm not and who he is also that i can be in a relationship of fullness of life with him jesus said he came to ring life and that more abundantly you don't you you may be have become a christian and therefore you've got life from the spiritual dead but let me tell you what you don't have abundant life if you're running your life if god's not in control of your life you're not you don't have abundant life you don't have it because the only source of abundant life is the absolute confidence that my god is in control and i can trust him and that nothing is going to happen to me that he doesn't know about in advance and give his permission to those whether i call those things good or bad so i can trust him david in this one of the most famous of all psalms the 23rd psalm says part of that is yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff may comfort me you read that 23rd psalms it's the confession of a person that knows i don't i'm not in control of anything he's in control of everything and and i don't i don't choose to resent him for that i choose to embrace that he is my shepherd as a sheep in the in that metaphor uh or allegory he is a sheep speaking of his shepherd and david was a shepherd of natural sheep he knew how much care he gave he provided everything for those sheep he protected them he led them he made sure they were in pastures that were green to eat he led them besides still water so that they could drink safely if they fell he picked them up he checked them for any kind of parasites or injuries or wounds he took care of them the lord's not going to wrestle you for control of your life in this life he's not going to do it you want to be in control then you take all the credit and the blame for everything going on in your life you want him to be in control then you can trust him that even on those bad days he knew about him in advance he permitted him for a purpose and he wants you and i to know he's in charge he's in control he's saying to us i got this i got this i know exactly the beginning of it i know the end of it i know the outcome of it and he promised us this paul said and we know that all things work together for good to everybody oh no that's conditional to them who love god and to them who are the called according to his purpose i can't have faith that all things are going to work for good but the bible doesn't say all things are good but it says all things are going to work for good if he's in charge if he's in control amen i'm going to read to you uh one last translation before i close this is the it's a newer translation called the passion translation beginning with verse 13 listen those of you who are boasting today or tomorrow we will go to another city and spend some time and go into business and make heaps of profit but you don't have a clue i'm reading this is what it says but you don't have a clue what tomorrow may bring for your fleeting life is but a warm breath of air that is visible in the cold only for a moment and then vanishes instead you should say our tomorrows are in the lord's hands and if he is willing we will live life to its fullest and do this or that if it's his will if he is willing but here you are boasting in your ignorance for to be presumptuous about what you will do tomorrow is evil actually jesus called it iniquity so if you know of an opportunity to do the right thing today yet you refrain from doing it you're guilty of sin matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 23 jesus said many will say to me not everyone that says unto me lord lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in thy name in thy name cast out devils and thy name done many wonderful works then will i profess or pronounce judgment unto them i never knew you i never had a relationship with you or you never came into a relationship with me that i approved of depart from me that is the execution of the sentence and then he told all the reason why you that work iniquity what is iniquity doing my will and not the will of the father so we may go to church today we may read our bible we may even go through something we call prayer we may be the most moral person there is but if we run our lives we're denying who god is we're denying what we're doing here we're denying his plan his purpose we're denying his kingdom and we're believing that all of this that he's done is only for the purpose of making our lives better by our definition of what that life is so here's the question today in this context what is your life what is your life this is so very important for you and i to know this and understand this today and to respond to him he loves you he loves me the scripture says that he said i know the thoughts that i have for you thoughts of good and not of evil to bring you to an expected end the journey in my 75 years has had far more difficult days far more difficult days than what would be called easy days but the confidence has always been he has a plan he has a purpose for me and he's bringing me to an expected end in him not only in this life but in eternal life so which life are you living today the one that fully acknowledges him that's fully surrendered to him that's fully committed to him or are you living the life today where you're you're deceived into believing that you're in control which life is that father i thank you for this day for this privilege for this opportunity i thank you for every person that is watching this this ministry right now live and those that will watch it at any point in the future i am trusting father that your spirit by your word is speaking to our hearts and opening our eyes and letting us see what's fact what's real and not this cloud of deception that we've been living in believing things that are lies in jesus name in jesus name you promised that you came to give us life and that more abundantly you've also promised that you would show us the way of life that in your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore in the name of the lord jesus christ i loose the spirit of grace the spirit of the love of god the spirit of the fear of the lord the spirit of conviction of our sins upon everyone who is hearing and receiving this word today that we might walk with you in this life and for eternity in the name of the lord jesus christ amen god bless you

Channel: Apostolic Iron

Views: 1,568

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Keywords: Apostolic, Apostolic Iron, Jesus, Prayer, Pray, Praying, C.M. Wright, Bishop Wright, Pentecost, Pentecostal, UPCI, Call To War, God, Lord, Preaching, Apostolic Preaching

Id: 0flowvolGzY

Length: 44min 41sec (2681 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021