What You Love the Most | Knowing Jesus | 08.29.21

[Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] welcome to life church 7 so glad that you made it today if you're in person if you're online however you're joining this gathering i am so glad that you're here today his presence is here he's gonna touch you it's gonna be amazing and whatever you came here for whatever you're saying hey i need this today i believe god will meet you right where you're at and not only give you what you need today but give you more than you need because he's the god of more than enough if you're watching on youtube man i want to encourage you click that subscribe button or if you're watching through facebook click that share button so more people can experience the hope that we have in jesus and by the way if you're here in person we want to get to know you grab that program fill out that connect card we want to connect with you we have some announcements for you before the service starts hey live church 7 amazing things happening here and i just want to let you know your last chance to sign up for lssm the supernatural school ministry is on tuesday coming up so make sure you sign up it is going to be an amazing time for you to be empowered to serve and grow more like jesus so make sure you sign up for that it will be so worth it yes and ladies this wednesday is our zoe gathering so grab your gal pals come and join us we're kicking off a three month series first wednesday of each month we're gonna gather and we're gonna be doing a series continuing and marvelous masterpiece on taking care of our temple and so join me and some friends as we do some q a panels we're gonna talk about how we can take care of our temple that's awesome tonight we are having our baptism in the park at 5 00 pm you can sign up online or just show up and we're going to baptize because we believe there's an it's an outward declaration of an inward transformation so come and join us for this incredible evening of celebrating all that god's doing it's going to be powerful don't you miss it see you there thank you pastor nate pastor miele for some great announcements well we got a great service in store right now so let's worship god together good morning life church 7 will you stand with me this morning we're so excited that you're here that you chose to worship with us this morning i was um this last week uh i heard some news and i was a little bit troubled by it and i was like lord we need a word from you about what's happening in our world right now anybody feel that we need a word from the lord for what's happening in our world cecilia would you put that verse up for me it's it's psalm 34 and the whole chapter is incredible this is where the chapter is that um talks about taste and see that the lord is good but before that she's got my verse for me talks about how the the praises of the lord are continually coming in our mouth so so i will praise the lord at all times i will consistently speak his praises i will boast only in the lord amen let all those who are helpless take heart come let us tell of the lord's greatness and so right now let's just focus on the lord let's just lord we focus on your greatness we thank you that we serve the almighty the all-knowing the all-powerful one god that you are above every other name you are above every circumstance even the ones that are happening right now god in our in our world today in our even in our state today and god you know all the things that are happening god and we can trust you with our circumstances we can trust you with our lives lord you are trustworthy so god we give you honor this morning we give you praise let's just praise the lord this morning we give you praise this morning god you are so worthy yeah come on you are so worthy of our praise god we thank you god we lift you high we lift you up lord because you are worthy of our praise [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] oh jesus as the spirit was moving over the water spirit come over us come rest on us come rest on as the spirit was moving over the water spirit come move over us come rest on us come rest on us [Music] me [Music] me [Music] is [Applause] [Music] open up when [Music] when you [Music] me [Music] you [Music] on us [Music] us [Music] us [Music] [Music] i'm here [Music] i'm here and i know [Music] i'm here [Music] oh come and fill me [Music] [Music] come and feel [Music] come and fill this place [Music] come and fill this [Music] i place care what it looks like i'm so in love [Music] i don't care what it looks like [Music] i don't care what it looks like [Music] [Applause] [Music] i don't care what it looks like [Music] like [Music] i don't care what he looks like [Music] rest on us [Music] rest on us [Music] holy [Music] [Applause] [Music] holy spirit [Applause] [Music] you're [Music] holy spirit come [Music] come rest on [Music] our desires that he would come and rest on us [Music] your only one [Music] [Music] you see my victory [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] oh god that'll be [Music] lost me for jesus [Music] you see the beauty [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] lay out your feet through the [Music] [Music] as you go before [Music] nothing [Music] nothing can stand against the power [Music] nothing can stand against the power of our god [Music] [Music] [Music] time [Music] oh [Music] belongs to you [Music] just [Music] to go before us [Music] nothing can stand against [Music] nothing can stand against the power of our [Music] nothing can stand against [Music] oh [Music] to you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yes and i dare not trust [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] trust in jesus name christ the lord cornerstone weak may strong in the savior's love through the storm he is lord lord [Music] darkness seems to hide his face i rest on his [Music] my [Music] [Music] through the storm [Music] is [Music] he is lord [Music] oh [Music] stand before [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he is lord lord [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] so [Music] jesus won't you sing out his name jesus [Music] we praise you there's no one like you jesus [Music] [Music] jesus is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] with all of heaven we are singing [Music] [Music] [Music] we're so thankful for your love for [Music] [Music] with all of heaven we are singing [Music] with all of heaven we are singing with all of heaven we are singing [Music] oh we can't help [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Applause] [Music] and all the angels [Music] all the angels [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] hey would you raise your hands let's just partner with what rachel's leading in right now just begin to sing to the lord right now yeah just sing out holy come on [Music] [Music] hebrews 12 1 says therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off the weight or the sin that easily entangles us and let us run the race mark before us with perseverance and let us fix our eyes on jesus the author and the finisher of our faith [Music] satan is like a spoiled toddler who just wants our attention the enemy is just wanting our attention sometimes we can get so enemy focused that we begin to shift our attention away from jesus and how many know that never ends well right now with all that's going on we need to fix our eyes on jesus and so when we don't just sing songs this isn't a song set this is worship because worship is actually an expression of where our focus is isn't it when we worship jesus it's our focus it's on him let's just close our eyes just for a minute yeah we need an upgrade in our trust you know that god's got this whole thing he hasn't changed his mind on revival he hasn't changed his mind on the plans for america the plans for you for life church 7. nothing's changed nothing's changed what should change is maybe our hunger a little bit for the kingdom to come and his will to be done right yeah we fix our eyes on jesus we take our focus off the plans of the enemy it's not that we're unaware or we don't know how to pray or that we're aloof but we fix our eyes on the one who has already won the battle and he's pulling us into that reality [Music] thank you god [Music] you know he's already won [Laughter] have you ever worried about something just to find out that you never needed to worry about it to begin with no just me yeah yes close your eyes i fix their eyes on you jesus we trust you we trust you [Music] we love you we love you just tell them come on church just tell them we trust you we trust you we love you we love you just tell him you love him he loves you with an everlasting love and unconditional love his plans for you are to prosper you not to harm you we trust you we [Music] you we trust you jesus so good so i just pray for every person watching online joining in with us we welcome you we pray for those at home whatever you're facing everyone in the building just pray for an increase in unity god in this house and across america and this world we think we lift up the church around the world that's facing persecution right now what a privilege it is to partner and pray with our brothers and sisters around the world we lift them up to you jesus we thank you we thank you we fix our eyes on jesus amen i'm gonna try that one more time we fix our eyes on jesus amen it's so critical in this season to fix our eyes on jesus before we conclude this time we just give the worship team a hand by the way so so powerful thank you guys amazing [Applause] we continue our worship with tithes and offerings just in this moment such a privilege to give back to jesus he's given us so much uh we teach at this church scripturally from scripture that we give a tenth a tithe and uh and so that's just an extension of our worship we give because we love jesus we love to sow into the kingdom of god what he's doing so i just pray god right now whether we give through texting or out in the celebration boxes in the lobby however we give father our heart is to combine our heart with yours with our finances to advance what you're doing here at this church in this area in this region and in the kingdom in your kingdom that you're establishing and you're advancing and so we partner our resources with yours in jesus name and we thank you amen amen as you're seated there's going to be a video that comes up with pastor west he's going to be back next sunday by the way so it's going to be awesome and have him back in the house and uh a quick video and then pastor mark is going to come up and give us a word this morning good word [Music] hey good morning it's so good to be able to share with you some of the things that we have coming up this fall um i wanted to take an opportunity and just share with you my heart and vision for our supernatural school of ministry we came to the richland the tri-cities areas about 15 years ago and when we came here just before we came here the lord put into my heart that this is a rich land it's a land that flows with milk and honey it literally is we have such an amazing area that we live in but it was to be a rich land spiritually a place where lives would be transformed and hearts would be changed about eight years ago as i've been seeking the lord and looking around within our own church and our church culture the lord put it in my heart that a a supernatural school of ministry would really put in place um the the thing that would meet the thing that he put in my heart of a rich land a supernatural school of ministry would equip people to participate in this seventh city region and to become all that god's designed them to design them to be some people i think get hung up a little bit with the word supernatural but the truth be told we live in a natural world with natural consequences and god sent his one and only son jesus supernaturally to come to die to be rose raised from the dead to ascend to the father to make intercession for us and so truthfully jesus designed us and called us to do supernatural things he said to lay hands on the sick the sick would recover to cast out demons to uh that the blind would see that those that are oppressed would be made free so in the kingdom of god the atmosphere is supernatural here on earth we live on our natural earth but with god's presence and his goodness you are designed you are designed as sons and daughters to walk in the supernatural presence and the power of god here on a natural earth to bring hope and life and love we have developed and put together a school with those essentials in mind we have a first year second year and a third year we have an amazing equipping staff and team and i'd love to have you come and be a part of this school if you know and love the lord you may go to a different church you may not attend a church yet at all you may be a part of life church 7. i want to invite you this year to lc7 supernatural school of ministry to come and be equipped to be a part of the answer it's been a rough season kelvin 19 and we're moving out of this into this new day and this invitation is to get equipped filled with the presence and the power of christ i've seen so many lives changed so many families we have such amazing stories and testimonies i think you could be the next story think about it i'd love to have you come and be a part of our supernatural school of ministry god bless you [Music] all right so good i'm pastor mark welcome to those who are watching online welcome you guests in the house welcome this morning we are uh finishing a series here in the gospel of john which we find you just saw the video pastor west our school of supernatural ministry this will be our fourth year doing this school it starts here in three weeks and we want to encourage you you have till tuesday to sign up for that so my own personal life i've been radically changed by doing this school and i believe it can happen in you too so we already have 160 people signed up to be a part of our school i thought that was pretty cool i don't know about you guys i think that's pretty exciting to see that many people doing the school and we want to still invite you there's still room for you to come and be a part of it so i want to encourage you go in the lobby there's a spot for you there if you're watching online or you want to go online mylssm.com and you can go there and sign up for the school well next week pastor wes will be back we'll be starting a new series called overflow very excited to be hearing from him actually pastor drew said this i think it was a little over a month ago that he just felt the lord saying it's going to be a september to remember so i'm agreeing on that for our church but i also feel prophetically that's also a word for our nation that god's going to be doing something there's something happening there's a shift happening in our nation that's uh going to be a turning point and so if you agree with that would you just say amen amen amen and hopefully maybe you need that for yourself too at a turning point you can just grab that word but we've been in the gospel of john the entire summer knowing jesus loving jesus and now we're in a series called serving jesus i got to start the series uh at the end of may and i get to end the series i was teasing the staff that i am the alpha and omega the beginning and the end of this series i know you're so excited about that church is fun you got you getting a lot you're allowed to laugh it's okay we can have fun in church maybe you need to like do a stretch or something i don't know just something but we're gonna have some fun today i believe god has a word for you god wants to speak to you so let's pray holy spirit wow we love you we love your word we love joy we love that a third of the kingdom is joy so would you come and fill us with joy this morning it fills with peace and righteousness god that we would just have an amazing time that we would encounter you god we did not come here just to check a box we came here to meet you jesus so would you come and meet us as you did in worship and as you will through the word in jesus name amen amen we'll be in john 21 new king james version if you want to follow with that it'll be on the screen too but before we get going i want to share with you the big idea the big idea is this what you love the most you'll serve the most what you love the most you'll serve the most and as a believer and i think you'll agree with me i love jesus more than anything and if you're a believer i think that's true in you that's a declaration you can make i love jesus more than anything why would you say that out loud together i love jesus more than anything yes what you love the most you'll serve the most and we love to serve jesus john 21 verse 1 it says after these things jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of tiberias and in this way he showed himself simon peter thomas called the twin nathaniel of cana in galilee the sons of zebedee and two others of his disciples were together simon peter said to them i'm going fishing every person that loves fishing said amen i'm going fishing they said well we're going with you also so seven of them together they went out and immediately got in the boat and that night they caught nothing nothing you know what's funny about the gospels is every time the disciples go fishing they catch nothing have you have you noticed this literally every read it every time they catch nothing until jesus comes so verse 4 but when the morning had now come jesus stood on the shore yeah the disciples did not know that it was jesus then jesus said to them children have you have you any food they answered him no and he said to them we'll cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some so they cast and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish somebody say abundance abundance yeah god is a god of abundance so without jesus they had nothing and with jesus they had abundance i wrote this down this morning i want you to write this down when i love jesus more than anything i'm filled with abundance i'm filled with abundance you see god's not just the god of enough he's the god of more than enough if they just needed a little bit they could have just caught a little bit of fish and it would have fed them all but later we'll read they caught 153 fish they caught 153 fish so when we cast our net on the side of the boat that is our own ambitions our own wants our own dreams my my my my thing that i love the more whatever it could be when i cast that net what do i end up with nothing when i'm obedient to jesus you see without jesus i'm nothing without jesus you're nothing but with jesus i have abundant life i have come to give them life and life to the full god wants you to have a full life full of joy full of power full of life filled with the holy spirit that's what god wants for you and when i love him more than anything he gives me that because he gives me himself what had what would have happened if they wouldn't have listened to jesus and just kept fishing on that other side this is a pretty simple answer nothing would have happened it would have had more of the same i don't want more of the same in my life do you i want more of him i want more of him some of you here you've been needing something to happen you've been needing an encounter you've been needing breakthrough in your life more of the same isn't the answer it's jesus he is the answer and now let's cast our nets on him let's listen to him so be obedient to him and watch what god does in your life you're going to experience abundance you're going to experience breakthrough you're going to experience him so after that they're filled with this and then verse 7. therefore the disciple whom jesus loved this is john said to peter it's the lord don't you love that it's the lord it's the lord you see when you experience abundance in your life there's this temptation to say it was me have you ever done that before that was well you're not that good that was me right that was that was me that promotion that was me that big contract that was me that house me but the truth is i think it's really difficult when you're in seasons of great success to recognize and realize this isn't actually me this is the lord this isn't me this is this is the lord actually jesus said it's harder what do you say it's harder for a camel to go through the irony of them for a rich man to enter in the kingdom of god it's really difficult when you're in a season of abundance but when you know it's the lord wow your life has changed so here's what i want you to do if you're in a season of abundance in your life would you just praise god and say thank you lord it's the lord it's the lord it's him he's doing it he's doing it it's him because here's what happens when you when you give him the glory because that's why you're getting blessed is to give him glory i'm blessed to give him glory you're blessed to give him glory it's the lord so they say it's the lord and i love what happens with peter when simon peter heard that it was the lord he put on his outer garment before he'd removed it now in those days they fished naked i'm really glad nobody does that on the columbia river if you ask me to go fishing with you i'd say it's a big no for me but they they fished naked and then he put his outer garment on thankfully and plunged into the sea somebody say plunged now we use plunge for other things now but he plunged into the sea he jumped in he jumped in because it's the lord now what was it about this moment that would make peter jump out of the boat what was it now here's what i think luke chapter 5 when peter first got called to follow jesus he was fishing and he fished all night and jesus asked him did you catch anything and he said no nothing nothing jesus said why don't you go out again i know a honey hole right over here go fish there you're gonna catch a lot of fish they catch so much fish that one boat can't hold it they have to put it in two boats and then the two boats are sinking and peter goes up and says it was me no do you remember what he does remember what he does he goes up to jesus and he says get away from me i'm a sinner and she says no no that's not that's maybe that's who you were but that's not who you are that's what you're going to be follow me and i'll make you a fisher of men i think peter is flooded with this memory in his mind those are your believers i just want you to think about the moment you first got saved just want you to think about get that in your memory the moment you first encountered jesus maybe you need to close your eyes and just think about this moment see i believe today the lord is restoring the joy of salvation remember psalmist david said restore to me the joy of my salvation i believe today god's restoring to you the joy of salvation just go there go to that place where you first got saved can you remember are you familiar with it have you forgotten go back to that place maybe we never forget the moment that god saved us go back to that place remember that moment for me i was at overlake christian center 13 years old at an ag youth conference and god god met me and he said mark i love you and he gave me love he gave he filled me he changed me oh this week i was just praying thinking about this passage and the lord just brought me to that moment i was just moved to tears remembering how god saved me how god saved me i think one of the struggles for us as christians we can we can tend to forget the goodness of god all throughout our lives what was the problem with the israelites as they were traveling through the wilderness they forgot oh today maybe it's just a moment maybe you came here just to remember the goodness of god in your life so peter remembers he remembers jesus now the context of this moment is peter with jesus at the last supper he said i will never betray you and then within 12 hours he betrayed him three times whoops three times betrayed him and now here's jesus what was it about jesus that peter knew he wasn't going to be confronted with shame or guilt or judgment you see when we walk in thinking that god's the one that's going to fill you with or it it wants you to be ashamed or feel guilty or judged we won't jump out of the boat will we but when we know god is actually a god who's not here to condemn you but to love you and to set you free and to set you on a new path and change your life i'll jump out of any boat that i'm comfortable in and i'll go to jesus because i know that's the place i need to be that's the place i need to be that's who i need to be with and this is what i wrote down when i love jesus more than anything i want to be closer and closer to him i want to be closer and closer to him plunging in is uncomfortable but god didn't die so you'd be comfortable he died so you'd be powerful my wife and i we went we went with uh my wife's entire family went to whitefish um this summer and there's whitefish lake but there's also a river there and we were with all these kids there was my uh nine our families there's 12 kids nine and under we all stayed in one house lord jesus come we all stayed in one house and one of the days were out of this river and they have this little dock and all the kids like have their water wings on and they have all their you know the life jackets on and none of them will go in the water and i'm like let's go let's go in the water i'm not ready to swim but i'm like you know what let's do it so i just jumped i just jumped in with my clothes on you can i tell you something this was uncomfortable i had no change of clothes that was wet the whole day but there was something there was a joy in actually jumping in and seeing and then the kids were like boom i'm gonna jump into some of you parents the key to your kids breakthrough is actually you jumping in closer to jesus some of you want breakthrough in your family but you're still comfortable in the boat and it's time to jump out of the boat because in that moment you're going to release something over your whole family over your friends over the people you're around so we got to get comfortable god did not we got to get uncomfortable god did not die for us to become comfortable the greatest comfort in my life is in the boat it's in the comforter the holy spirit the holy spirit is my comforter and as i walk in radical obedience and risk and faith with him he's gonna give me comfort so let's jump out of the boat i don't know what boat you find yourself in but it's way better to be closer to jesus than in the boat verse eight the other disciples came in the little boat cause there's a big boat there's a little boat so they were not far off from land about 200 cubits dragging the net with fish there was so much fish they had to drag it i love that then as soon as they had come to land they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on it and bread jesus said then bring some of the fish which you've caught which you've just caught verse 11 simon peter went up and dragged the net to land full of large fish 153 all there there were so many the net was not broken don't you love that somebody there had been like how many fish is that let's count 153 just for the record so beat that you know whatever right 153 fish verse 12 jesus said to them come and eat breakfast yet none of the disciples dared ask him who are you knowing that it was the lord jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them and likewise the fish this is now the third time jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead i love this that jesus is resurrected and yet he's still serving do you notice all throughout the gospels jesus is serving pastor west said at the beginning of the series serving jesus actually begins with him serving you that jesus is serving us and he hasn't stopped even today jesus is serving you he's serving you today he's loving you today and he's serving these disciples breakfast and it says in verse 15. so when they had eaten breakfast jesus said to simon peter simon son of jonah do you love me more than these and i want to talk about this this morning do you love me more than these this is the question of the hour this is the question of our moment in time and in history do you love jesus more than these do you love jesus more than these now i want i want to think about this what are the these does jesus define the these i kind of picture do you ever like when you read scripture you kind of picture what they're doing i kind of picture like looking at something and like point out that do you love me more than these but we can't see that when we read the bible so what are these could that these be fishing peter was a fisherman and he went back to fishing maybe he loved fishing more than following jesus because he ended up back there could the these be the hall of fish the 153 fish the greatest catch well the second greatest catch of his life could these be success abundance could these be the leadership that he was given remember he was the leader of the group maybe what he loved was the position what was the these here's what i know is there are these in our lives that tem that we're tempted to love more than him i wonder what what could be the these in your life today could these be a relationship last service a woman came up to me and said i i just broke up with my long relationship and it was the these in my life i was putting it before god i wonder if there's a relationship in your life that's the these or or i wonder if that's it's a a money your bank account your job your comfort your plans your control what are the these in your life there is always a temptation to love these more than him in fact the enemy wants to get you to love these more than him but when i love jesus more than anything when i love jesus more than anything i love him more than any of these in my life when i love jesus more than anything i love it more than any of these in my life i was reading first john this week we do the bible reading plan life journal bible reading plan i was reading the bible reading plan this week we were reading first john same author i was reading at the end of first john 5 verse 21. he says it's the final thing he wants to say in this letter to church he says be careful not to let anything take god's place in your heart keep away from anything that might take god's place in your heart there are things in the world today that want to take god's place in your heart right there are many things ideas ideologies there are things that want to take god's place in your heart and john says be careful these are the these i was talking about other translations say stay away from idols stay away from idols and he says simon do you love me and jesus is asking you the same thing this morning do you love him do you love him do you love him more than these i always want you to think for a moment this morning just think what are the these in your life just just take a moment right now just ask holy spirit because we we came here to encounter him right i came here for jesus i came here for for the lord for holy spirit so just take a moment right now just close your eyes just ask holy spirit are there any these in my life that is trying to take your place yeah in the balconies just just take a moment right now just close your eyes ask the lord online right now are there any these in my life i hear the lord just calling out addiction if you have an addiction that's clearly a thing that's trying to take god's place in your life i feel like today god's breaking addiction if that's of these today as you come to the altar at the end of the service god's gonna break the power of addiction on your life just lay it before them these these one more thing is the lord speaking if you need to stay in that moment just just stay there but one more thing that i just see in this passage do you notice that he calls him simon wait i thought he changed his name to peter why is he calling him simon what's going on here this what jesus is doing is he's addressing identity now he calls him simon now does anybody grow up in a home where your mom like when you knew you were in trouble you get the full name any moms do that no shame there's no shame in this do it yes mark wayne middleton you know my mom uh i have five brothers she was in the last service i was teasing her because my mom would just shout all of our names until she got the right one and i have like five five brothers of six boys and four of us are matthew mark luke and john i don't know what happened to the other two that's all right god bless them but she was matthew mark luke you know i'll just play lord encounter her she's saying the gospels you know so i don't get in trouble what jesus is addressing here is identity he doesn't call peter peter he calls him simon and he's asking him i think are you going back to your old self are you going back to your old ways now my the lord's done a great work in my life in the past like four years totally worked in me set me free i've got deliverance i've gotten healing it's been amazing but every once in a while i'll i'll say something or an attitude will come up and my wife and i have a funny saying we call it old mark old mark will make an appearance and she'll just nudge me hey old mark you're not welcome here anymore oh yeah man anybody have an old version of yourself sometimes pop up simon simon love jesus he he's so loving he says simon do you love me more than these simon here's the beautiful thing about jesus he's never gonna force you to love him he's always gonna give you a choice because you're a powerful person you are a powerful person this will help some of you who are parents your kids are powerful people give them an invitation to choose give him invitation to choose god jesus gives us an invitation to choose and then peter says this yes lord coming up on the screen yes lord you know that i love you and he said don't feed my lambs he said to him again a second time simon son of jonah do you love me he said yes lord you know that i love you he said to him ten my sheep then he said to him a third time simon son of jonah do you love me and peter was greed because he said it to him a third time do you love me and he said to him lord you know all things you know that i love you jesus said to him feed my sheep moses surely i say to you when you were younger you girded yourself and walked where you whisk but when you're old you'll stretch out your hands another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish this he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify the lord and when he had spoken this he said to him follow me do you remember what he told him at the beginning follow me here's an invitation a choice follow me wow follow me what you love most you'll serve the most what you love most you'll serve the most now three times you ask them do you have no no most people connect this to the denial most people connect the three denials to the three questions this is about restoration god is the god who restores we have a god who restores no matter your story no matter your life no matter what you've gone through peter denied him like a few days earlier god's not waiting for you to figure it out he wants you to come to him and he's gonna as you're with him you'll be restored so if you're hearing like man i just need to get this thing figured out i just need to stop and say no just come to him and he'll figure it out with you he's the god who restores but then he says this he says okay you love me feed my lambs you love me tend my sheep you love me feed my sheep there's action involved love looks like something serving is love expressed love is expressed through serving so if you you love some if you love the lord i'm gonna serve it i'm gonna serve him if i love the lord i'm gonna serve him and do what he asked me to do if i love myself more than these well i'm gonna serve myself i'm gonna be self-serving and that's the invitation the world has for you but in the end it leads to death but there's a way that leads to life it's a narrow path of just loving jesus more than anything else and when i love him more than anything i wrote this down it's easy to serve it's easy to serve it's easy to serve when i love jesus more than anything some people might say well i i found it hard to surf it was difficult sir well when you love jesus you get into his presence he makes things hard become easy it makes things hard become easy i'm convinced that the more i'm in the presence of jesus the more i'm compelled to serve him one pastor said it this way he said what's the sign he got asked this question what's the sign of a mature believer he said that's easy are they serving are they serving are they serving for simon to become peter again jesus was instructing him to serve for simon to become peter again jesus was instructing him to serve for you to become who you were made to be jesus is instructing you to serve i know this is such a fun message this morning man this is so good i want to just worship again but it's true like i don't want our church to just be present hungry christians that don't surf because in the presence that i get instructions i get this heart to serve because i just love god i just love i can't imag i can't believe all that he's done for me god i just i want to serve you i want to serve you it's in his presence in his presence that i just shower my affection on him and he gives me instructions on how to love him well jesus was addressing identity with peter and he's addressing identity with you it is our identity to serve it is who we are we love to serve now one of the things that's interesting the word love do you love me now the word love in our language is interesting because i can love my wife and i can love pizza i can really love my wife and i can really love pizza you know and it kind of doesn't do you know what i mean like it just it's not a defining it's a really generic word but in greek there are four loves eros which is sexual love story story is that how you say it story which is a uh um it's a familial love there's phileo which is brotherly love and then there's agape agape which is unconditional love jesus is asking i'll just read it again jesus is asking him do you agape me and peter says i fully owe you do you love me unconditionally peter peter says the most i can give is phileo second time second question do you agape me peter says i fully owe you finally jesus changes it and the third time he says well do you follow me and peter says i fully owe you but what god was asking for was an agape love an unconditional love but what's fascinating in the story after this jesus says go wait in jerusalem for the gift of the holy spirit and in acts chapter 2 he is filled with the holy spirit and then he goes on to write first peter and ii peter and you want to know the word he uses for love in describing his relationship with god nine times in peter agape so something happened from this moment and the moment he wrote and became the leader you want to know i believe happened he had an encounter with the living god he was filled with the holy spirit you want to know how to serve well you got to be filled with the agape love that comes from god and some of you here this morning you need to come forward at the end of this service and you need to just get filled with a fresh fire and love for god and that's going to be the thing that compels you to serve you see religion says i got to serve to get something no relationship with god says i serve because i already got something the agape love of god we're not a relig we're not about religion we're about a relationship with god and god wants to have a relationship with you i want to invite the band to come up and i just i really feel like there's a moment for you this morning as i was praying in between services i just really feel like there's a moment for you this morning to get touched by the lord to get anointed to get anointed by god now before we do that i just in in your programs there's a serve card looked like this and i just want to share with you where we're at as a church because i think it's important for us to know right now about 20 percent of our church serves i talked to pastor claire she says i need 20 more volunteers and kids last week there was 55 kids and three volunteers i just want you to think about that like that that's a reality so we got to serve we got to serve in connections that's the ministry that i get to lead we need about 20 new volunteers i'm not even sharing the other ministries and if you're saying this is my church and i love god well here's the invitation serve serve but don't serve out obligation please don't do that we want people to say well i just i just need to serve because i feel guilty don't do that we only want people to serve out of love we want people to serve out of love i believe this church loves god i believe you love god more than anything so my invitation to you is to agape love god and in agape loving god you'll feed his sheep you'll tend to sheep and you'll feed his lambs and you'll go from simon to peter and you'll find your identity but it comes from a fresh fire of the holy spirit so i want you to stand with me we're going to sing a song and i just i want to take a risk because i think the lord's on this so will you risk with me you take a risk together i want to invite the pastoral staff to come forward up here the team sorry i want you guys to grab some anointing oil and i believe you're anointed to serve you're anointed to serve [Music] you're anointed to serve god has called you to serve he agape loves you but if you're like man i've just felt through this last season through schedules changing and things changing i just got out of rhythm of serving and i just need a fresh fire fresh infilling of the holy spirit man as we sing this song i want to invite you i want to invite you to come forward come find one of us pastors we're going to anoint you and pray over you for a fresh fire from god and i believe every one of us probably wants more that's why we're here so i also invite you right now if you guys would go ahead and begin to sing rachel sing this song if you feel compelled by the lord just get just get prayed over would you just come now come now come now our our team will pray for you just come down the front as you get prayed over you can go back to your seat you can stay here and worship let's go ahead and let's worship the lord together and let's get prayer [Music] [Music] lover of my soul [Music] with all of heaven we are singing [Music] i [Music] all of heaven we are singing [Music] [Music] with all of heaven we are singing with all of heaven we are singing we are singing [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] all the angels [Music] all the angels [Music] [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] [Music] thank you jesus if you're praying with people please continue to pray one of our values at life church 7 is that we never want to go through a service or our moment without offering people a chance to respond to jesus so if you're here today and you want to become a fully devoted follower of jesus today's your day maybe you're like peter and maybe you've done things that you think there's no way jesus would want me back peter denied jesus three times and yet jesus still loved him still said i'm choosing you so if you're here today and you want to receive jesus as your personal lord and savior we had three in the first service and i believe it for more this second service and maybe online at home if that's you would you just raise your hand we're not going to make you do anything else but raise your hand and i want to pray with you right where you're at if you want to become a christian you want to follow jesus would you raise your hand i want to pray with you awesome just making sure there's anybody that wants put their hands up all right maybe there's someone online but let's just pray together would you repeat after me church lord jesus thank you for loving me thank you for pursuing my heart today i repent of my sin and i turn to you i surrender my life and i'm gonna follow you all the days of my life in jesus name amen amen hey if we could clap for that there's probably people online that did that people the first service [Music] make sure if you feel if you uh raise your hand or you receive jesus as your personal savior that you uh follow up with us just go to lifechurch7.com and we would love to follow up with you and make sure that you get connected but as pastor mark preach such an incredible message i want to just encourage you grab the card out of the program this morning and look at all the different ministries he mentioned kids youth also if you're a lady there's zoe happening this wednesday it's an opportunity for you to jump in as well at 6 30. there's youth as well but i want to make sure that you jump in it's going to be awesome also tonight at 6 30 or 6 30. no no just making sure you're paying attention five o'clock there's a barbecue and water baptism it's gonna be amazing yes now you might be asking where is that well it's on here but also it's gonna be down at the river um it's going to be at the pavilion right behind sterling's at howard amon park so make sure you come out there will be food worship and baptisms and if you want to get baptized it's not too late we'd love to baptize you hey we love you have an amazing day if you still want prayer we'll be up here we'd love to pray with you and uh make sure you fill out a card drop it in the celebration box on your way out have a wonderful day we'll see you tonight [Music] what a life-transforming service we are so glad you joined us for church today we are praying and believing that god is filling your home your room your car with his presence and you are feeling his love for you today and if you gave your heart to jesus we are so excited that's the best decision you will ever make in your life and we want to connect with you to help you take those next steps on your journey with jesus so email us at connect lifechurch7.com so we can get connected with you and help you grow and help you get connected to our church family it's important that throughout the week you stay connected and there's so many incredible things happening here at life church 7 we want you to be a part of it so come join us tonight at the river for baptisms 5 pm come and join us to celebrate the outward declaration of the inward transformation that's happening in so many people's hearts also ladies join us for our zoe gathering this wednesday grab your sisters there's child care come and join us for an awesome night of sisterhood we're going to dive into the word and we're gonna learn how to take care of our temples the temple of the holy spirit we hope you have an incredible week and we'll see you back next week [Music]

Channel: LIFECHURCH7

Views: 200

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: rX_nH6QeGhk

Length: 86min 36sec (5196 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021