When Life Doesn’t Add Up - Part 6 with Dr. Efrem Smith

[Music] so so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] welcome to church online at midtown church i'm pastor tyrone from our elk grove campus and i hope you are enjoying a restful three-day weekend wherever you are i'm so happy that you're tuned in this morning and i'm really excited for a great sunday service today see this is midtown where we get down and if you've been around you already know our midtown worship is going to be kicking it off with a few songs so sing along if you're in your car your living room your kitchen wherever you are get your praise on with us and then my man turner will be giving you the latest church updates and pastor ephraim smith will be bringing an encouraging message the stages of life with god he's going to be wrapping up our um our sermon series and numbers now this is midtown church and and if you're new to it we just want to welcome you introduce yourself in the box our our staff is online they want to meet you they want to chat with you and so we're just glad that you tuned in today now if you want to learn more about our church just go to our website midtownchurch.org for more information now all right it's about that time to get started so enjoy the service and be blessed today less worship hallelujah good morning did you come to worship today come on stan take your feet let's give praise and honor to where honor is due let's bless the name of the most high god he is worthy of all honor all glory and all praise and we just come to bless him [Music] oh god we love you we praise you we bless your name cause there's none like you there's not like you again i will bless your name i will bless the lord at all times and his praises will continually be in my mouth no matter what i see or how i feel as long as i'm breathing oh yes i'm breathing i'll bless the lord as long as i'm breathing oh yes i'm breathing i'll bless the lord oh god we just want to give you all the praise today come on let's lift it up together say i will bless the lord oh magnify the let us lord down come on midtown let's do it together hey one voice one song let's do it together [Music] see i don't know about you but i know that he's been better than how could you god me he's been better than good to me he's been better than god yes better than i could have been to myself for me thank you [Music] hey you've been better than god let's do it together [Music] hey everyone good to see you today my name is turner i'm on staff here at midtown and here to give you some church updates first and foremost we want to thank all of those who have been giving generously to our fire aid relief fund last week we announced that we're joining efforts with mikuni sushi to raise funds that will go directly to aid caldor and dixie fire relief we've all seen the news help is still needed so let's continue to show up for our neighbors you can simply text fire aid to 51400 to give easily from your phone and let's continue to lift everyone up in prayer who is being affected by these fires if you need prayer or support we're here for you visit midtownchurch.org care and submit a message it will go directly to our prayer team and they read every single message they receive in today's message pastor ephrem will be talking about the stages of life and we know that one of the biggest and most important stages of life is pre-marriage there's a lot to navigate in that stage of life and we are here to help our very own pastor rich is teaching a five-session pre-marital class for couples considering marriage or those who are engaged the pre-marital class is both online and on-site beginning september 19th and you can find all the details and register right on our website as you can see we have a lot planned for you at midtown in addition to that there are yp meetups for our 25 to 35ish crowd men's and women's meetups in elk grove and fun fall events for the community it's a lot to remember so to make your life easier download our app that's right we have our own app all you got to do is pull out your phone and visit your app store or google play store then search for the church center app it looks just like this install it then search midtown church click midtown church and you're in it's super helpful to have the app not only to track classes and events but also to express check in at kids ministry watch church online and to take notes during today's message not only that but you can manage your household profile give online and keep track of your giving history speaking of giving right now is when we take a moment to worship god through the act of giving as you know here at midtown you don't give to the church you give through the church we're so thankful that we get to be the church together and to make a difference in our communities your act of worship and giving has been key to the ministry impact we've been seeing if you're new to giving it's easy give what god is asking you to give and start today you can give one time or set up recurring giving commitments on our app or website you can text give today to 51400 or give through our app just go straight to our website thank you church for your faithfulness now let's get back to worship hallelujah how many of you know we serve a big god a god who will show up for you a god who does everything he said he's going to do his word does not return to him void so come on midtown stand to your feet let's declare it today hey what a mighty god we serve my god [Music] everybody [Music] hey come on is [Music] everybody that's right is again [Music] is is he can do it for you yes he can he'll do it for you yes he will trust and believe his word will be fulfilled hallelujah i'm here to tell you today that you'll do the impossible if you'll only trust him and believe he'll do in here [Music] his craziness he loves you again [Music] hallelujah [Music] hey midtown church this is pastor ephraim and i'm here with pastor tyrone of our elk grove campus and we have a great announcement we are bringing on a new pastor that's right bringing on a new pastor just when you thought our team couldn't get any better any stronger man we're going to a whole nother level i want to introduce to you otis amy and uh otis amy is uh married to tai three beautiful kids uh has history here in sacramento played football at sacramento state went on to play for the san francisco 49ers and as of recent he has overseen the northern california ministry of the fellowship of christian athletes i used to work for fellowship of christian athletes in minnesota man you can't do any better when it comes to bringing the gospel of jesus christ to athletes in middle school high school college and the professional ranks so otis we are so excited you're going to be with us uh like why did you decide to do this our family is incredibly excited to be a part of the midtown family it was easy to say yes to my former college roommate uh pastor tyrone here and just when you read the bible you see in revelation it talks about all nations we're worshiping together when you walk into a midtown service that's what you see every age every ethnicity all worshiping the lord together and i'm excited to be a part of this family so i can continue to grow in my faith but also lead others to christ as well as having a safe place for a lot of the student athletes and from the different schools and colleges that fca is a part of and bringing them here over the course of the last five years i've overseen the entire northern california region for fca we've seen over 3 000 kids transfer their trust to jesus christ and also be connected to different churches so it's easy knowing that as our our vision and mission is to connect kids to the local churches to be a part of a church like this pastor tyrone how excited are you that pastor otis is with us like you said i am excited you know my roommate 20 years ago we were roommates so it's crazy to see full circle that we're on a football team together and we've always been on the team of christ but now we're in the same home again so i'm just excited for what god is doing in this season i have my brother with me his family man it's going down so you probably have two questions one did we fire bob bellion no pastor bob valian the founder of midtown church is still on staff amen and the second thing is what will this brother be doing well he's going to be partnering alongside pastor tyrone at the elk grove campus that's going to be exciting because hey they're going to be going every single week soon and we're going to need a strong team there he's also gonna be helping between both campuses with college ministries some youth ministry young adult ministry man there's plenty to do at this growing thriving church so we are so excited pastor otis amy is now on the team yes [Music] hey midtown church it's pastor ephraim so good to be with you and we are coming to a conclusion on our series when life doesn't add up hey if you're just joining us no worries we'll pull you in and you can always go back on our youtube channel on our website and you on our app how about that right throw through the midtown church app through uh the midtown youtube channel through the midtown facebook page through the midtown website there are all kinds of ways that you can go back and you can listen to the entire series of when life doesn't add up experiencing victory in unexpected places we've been in the book of numbers so for today we are going to go to chapter 33 of the book of numbers join me in the 33rd chapter of the book of numbers it reads as follows here are the stages in the journey of the israelites when they came out of egypt by divisions under the leadership of moses and aaron at the lord's command moses recorded the stages in their journey this is their journey by stages the israelites set out from ramesses on the 15th day of the first month the day after the passover they marched out defiantly in full view of all the egyptians who were burying all their firstborn whom the lord had struck down among them for the lord had brought judgment on their gods from this text i want to speak to you on the title the stages of life with god the stages of life with god god i pray that this would be your message that ultimately you would be preaching and i would just be the vessel the vehicle that you have decided to use to say what you want to say to these your beloved children my sisters and brothers god i desire to be obedient to your word so please let it be done in jesus name amen the stages of life with god you know um i uh used to have this uh this this goal this vision of my life uh at one particular stage of my life i i was a theater major in college and my goal was i wanted to be on soap operas that's right i want to be on soap operas because i figured you know actors on soap operas have great job security i mean you can check out a soap opera like you were watching it during the summer when you were a kid or when you were sick from school and you would watch a soap opera during the day and then you you get a little older in high school and you might have a day off and see a soap opera and it's the same actors on there man you're in college the same actors on the soap opera man you are grown and married same you're in your middle age years and it seems like victor newman is still on young and the restless so there was a stage in my life where i that's what i wanted to do i wanted to be an actor and i thought i would be on soap operas another one of my uh soap opera memories one of the soap operas that my grandmother uh on my mother's side loved was days of our lives days of our lives and there's this intro when days of our lives is coming on and there's this hourglass you know and there's sand coming from the top of the hourglass to the bottom of the hourglass counting time passing by and a voice comes on and says like sands through the hourglass so are the days of our lives you and i are living life through stages that's right we're born and then we move progressively through stages of life until life in this body in this shell as we know it is one day no more uh the stages in life development if you study life demand development you you learn about birth childhood the adolescent years or what we call the teenage years or youth then there is the adult years and then you get into the adult years and there's what they call the the middle age stage of your life your elder years these are the stages of our lives uh i heard one pastor uh he he described it this way to me he said life has these stages there's spills you know when you're a baby and you're just spilling everything on the high chair on your bib on your parents on your other relatives and friends there's drills uh you're learning to walk you're you're you're you're learning to say some things there's skills so you're developing actual skills and competencies you're you're learning to function in in good ways in life then there's there's there's the the thrills those parts of your the stages of your life when you feel like you can do anything you're adventurous you're not scared of nothing you think you can do everything uh there's the thrills and then there's the ills those that stage of your life where man my body just don't feel the same you know my head don't feel the same you know there there's ills and and then for some people in these stages there's pills and then there's wills man that's an interesting way to describe it right i could say birth childhood adolescent adulthood elderly years some people say spills drills skills thrills ills pills and then there's wills you know um stages of life they just happen you can't stop it some people try to deny the stages of their life you know as they get older some people try to pretend they're not as old as they are they're like i'm gonna get some stuff done i'm gonna do some stuff because i might be this age but i'm not gonna look like it i'm gonna do everything i can to not look like the age that i am you know i just there's certain things i just stopped fighting i'm losing hair i just stopped fighting it getting gray i just decided i'm not going to fight the gray i'm just going to receive the gray i'm just i'm just receiving but but some people they just they're in denial about the stage of their life and other people try to jump into a stage before they should so you know it's not good when somebody's 13 trying to act like they're grown somebody seven trying to talk to their parents like their parents are their friends no no no no you you need to be true to the stages of your life or you could get in trouble uh you you you got to get out of denial you got to take in you got to receive you got to know how to live in the various stages of life but what about stages of life with god what does that look like what do the spiritual stages of life look like what does that mean well in the bible we are presented stages of life that are spiritual with god especially in the new testament in in christ jesus in christ jesus there is a stage of new life jesus christ brings salvation his death on the cross his resurrection from the grave he brings salvation new life new birth so spiritually we are born again and then there's another stage of of publicly declaring being born again through baptism and then there's this stage of learning new spiritual disciplines learning rhythms learning new behaviors and traits so that our life aligns with what we've confessed with our mouth what we say we believe that that i accept jesus christ as my lord and savior so you're born again you're baptized you you begin to uh develop disciplines christian formation and then there's this stage of maturity you know i i don't think the way that i used to think i don't i don't feel the way i used to feel totally and even if i have these feelings that are natural i also have this experience of being with god and so i'm growing i'm maturing and i become a disciple maker which means this good the good news the gospel of jesus christ that transformed my life through me transforms other lives i i i see the multiplication uh in others lives of what god has done in my life so there are these spiritual stages so here's the question are you living the stages of natural life fully on your own or are you living the stages of your life in alignment with the spiritual stages of life what i'm really asking is are you living your life by yourself with your own agenda or are you living life with god does god have any influence in your life does god have any say in your life is god relevant in the stages of your life uh who's in charge of the days of our lives as as the sands through the hourglass so are the days of our lives but not just sand through an hourglass but an intimate relationship with god ah here in numbers the book of numbers is coming to a conclusion now the people of god are very close to entering the promised land they've come out of slavery in egypt they've been in the wilderness for 40 years they're on their way into the promised land but moses is not going into the promised land with them no he's not moses and aaron they're not going to see this promised land but moses has the opportunity to record the journey as they are about to enter into the promised land this journey from slavery in egypt freedom all the way now on the edge of stepping into god's promise for their lives ah this is an opportunity to reflect on this 40-year journey because here's the deal what should have taken just days weeks at the most should have only taken months took them 40 years a journey that should only at the most should have only taken months took them 40 years there's an opportunity for them to reflect on the journey and why they were in the desert too long there's an opportunity for you and i to reflect on our lives to reflect on those parts of our lives that have felt like we've been in the desert there's even an opportunity for us to reflect back on what has been a tough year and a half the pandemic political division and brokenness racial unrest and brokenness uh to look at at the past year and a half and reflect on some things and ask ourselves did we surrender to god and all of the stages of life that made up even the last year and a half there's an opportunity for the people of god here in numbers to acknowledge behaviors in the stages of life they they have an opportunity as moses is recording the stages of life in their journey in the desert in the wilderness to to ask themselves did we really behave that way why did we behave that way and what were the consequences of behaving in ways unwise unhealthy not good when you're in the desert of life there's an opportunity of learning for future generations could it be that the reason god wants moses to record the stages of the journey from egypt to the promised land is so that future generations could read these records they could study them and not make the same mistakes that their forefathers and their foremothers made on the journey ah yes as the people of god are about to enter the promised land god calls moses to record the stages of the journey so this is what i hope we glean from this text in this message here living the journey of life with god this is what i hope we can gain some more insight in knowledge of what does it look like living the journey of life with god or here's the question what will be said of our lives all right let's go back here to the text and i want to give you uh just a few points and i'm going to get out of your way so here's point one life with god brings freedom life with god brings freedom let's go back to the text numbers 33 beginning with verse 1. here are the stages in the journey of the israelites when they came out of egypt by divisions under the leadership of moses and aaron at the lord's command moses recorded the stages in their journey this is their journey by stages the israelites set out from ramesses on the 15th day of the first month the day after the passover they marched out defiantly in full view of all the egyptians who were burying all their firstborn whom the lord had struck down among them for the lord had brought judgment on their gods so life with god brings freedom uh god sees our lives of sin and suffering in the stages of our natural lives uh there is sin there is sin in the soul of human beings there is sin in the world in in this this world in which we live but but god has a solution to sin to brokenness to to oppression so god sees our lives of sin and suffering and provides a way of deliverance ah for us today that is jesus christ we are liberated in the soul and we have an opportunity to live liberated lives in society by saying yes to jesus christ as our lord and savior jesus christ is the best expression the best picture of a god who sets us free a god who delivers a god who liberates life with god brings freedom not only does god see the captivity the enslavement that comes from sin and the soul and sin in society but god provides a way for deliverance and freedom god saw the israelites enslaved in egypt he saw them he heard their cry and he says to moses through a burning bush i will deliver them we are going to go to the systems and structures of oppression and power you're gonna go to pharaoh and say let my people go you're gonna say the god of abraham and isaac i am has sent me to you pharaoh that you might set the israelites free god provides a way for deliverance and freedom so why wait for another stage of your life to say yes to god are there issues in your own soul right now where you're enslaved are there ways in which you're navigating the world in which you live but the way you're navigating them is just bringing defeat and anxiety and stress and brokenness are you finding yourself in situations that you don't need to be in because you have not said yes to god so don't wait for another stage if you're a child before you get into adolescence say yes to god if you're a teenager in adolescence say yes to god before you get into your adulthood if you're in your young adult years before you get into your elderly years say yes to god if you're in your elderly years why wait another day say yes to god whatever stage you are in your life right now this is the day that the lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it but how can we acknowledge that this is the day that the lord has made how can we rejoice and be glad in it unless we say yes to god right now don't let another stage of your life come to an end without saying yes to god because god brings freedom and maybe that's what you need in your single life that's what you need in your marriage that's what you need in your parenting that's what you need in your career that's what you need right now in your manhood in your womanhood that's what you need right now as you're navigating life you need to know the god who sets captives free his name is jesus he is the messiah say yes that's point one life with god brings freedom ah here's point two life with god doesn't eliminate suffering yes as moses is recording the stages of life he has to record freedom deliverance from slavery in egypt but he also has to record some tough moments in the journey how suffering how pain shows up in the journey how hurt shows up in the journey how grief shows up in the journey because life with god though it sets us free it doesn't fully eliminate in this realm in this natural life it doesn't eliminate suffering go with me in numbers chapter 33 to verse 37. it says they left kadesh and camped at mount hor on the border of edom and the lords com at the lord's command aaron the priest went up mount hor where he died on the first day of the fifth month of the 40th year after the israelites came out of egypt aaron was 123 years old when he died on mount hor this is telling us about aaron you know aaron was with moses when they went to pharaoh when they were enslaved in egypt and said pharaoh let us go uh aaron was with moses when they left out and and and when they they came to the waters to the red sea and god divided the waters and they walked through aaron was with moses when when the waters closed in on the egyptian army and killed them uh aaron was with moses when god gave the the the ten commandments when god gave additional teachings on how they would live as they were moving on their journey to the promised land but aaron would not make it into the promised land again remember this a journey that should only have taken months less than a year maybe even weeks took them 40 years and so because they were in the desert too long because they stayed in bad behavior too long because they lived life making their own decisions without god for too long they experienced more pain more death more suffering than they should have received and some of them that should have experienced the promised land didn't and so what we see is even though god was always on the journey with them god gave them the freedom to decide in the journey if they would live for god or not god gives you and i the same freedom god is not going to force you and i to surrender to god in the stages of our life we have to make the choice we have to make the decision will we say yes to god in our life's journey or will we live life on our own and if i'm honest if you're honest i can look at stages in my life possibly you can look at stages in your life where you weren't surrendered to god where you could have cared less what god's word said you were gonna make your own decisions because you were grown you thought you knew better than anybody else you were you were so confident of your own strength your own skills your own intellect your own journey that you were the god of your own life i know that i can say that about me that there there are times when i try to sit in the seat of god over my life and so when we do this there's suffering there's pain now i gotta tell you they're suffering regardless you you can be i don't know if this is possible but let's just say you're 110 obedient to god every day of your life but as long as you're in this sinful world you're going to experience suffering we experience suffering because of a sinful soul so we experience suffering because there's sin in the soul of human beings but we also experience suffering and pain and death and brokenness because the society the world in which we're in is sinful sin i've said this before maybe you're hearing it for the first time if you're hearing it for the 16th time it's because you really need to get this rooted in your mind and in your heart sin is in the soul of human beings and sin is in the institutions the structures of the ideologies that human beings build and develop so the world is upside down our lives are upside down but one day jesus christ will return and set everything right our upside down lives will be set up right forever this upside down world will be set right forever and so the reason why it's important for you and i to align our lives with god now is so that collectively we provide sinful people and sinful society a preview of what this world will look like when it's set right forever so until jesus returns we are to be a picture of jesus until we experience god in full we are to be a sneak preview of god that's why you and i must get on these stages of spiritual growth of spiritual life the stages of being born again of of developing disciplines being formed having this rhythm of prayer and worship and study meditation intimacy with god slowing our life down enough to be spiritually emotionally healthier than we've ever been in our lives to spend time in god's word to spend time in prayer to push ourselves away from from the material things of the world in moments that we might experience the supernatural more so that our very beings can be a preview of the kingdom of god in this broken world it doesn't eliminate suffering but what ought to happen is the saints ought to act differently in the midst of suffering than those that are not living for god as they're experiencing suffering i have seen people with cancer all through their body showing me what a beautiful glorious life with god looks like i've seen people unemployed i've seen people in poverty not happy about being unemployed not happy about being in poverty striving that they would not be but yet i see joy and peace and humility and kindness gentleness and patience flowing through their being but then sometimes i feel like i see more joy in peop with people in countries where it's illegal to be christian than in a country like the united states where we're free to be christian i don't understand it sometimes i have met people that have that have come here from countries where it's illegal to be christian and they look at us and they see how we're acting crazy just because we have to wear a mask we're christian they see how as christians we're acting immature and discriminatory and prejudiced they see that the people that say jesus is my lord but when we feel the pinch of pain in our life you can't tell the difference between us and an atheist ah life with god doesn't eliminate suffering so how will we live as saints in the midst of suffering how will we be vessels of truth and love and grace and kindness and humility and compassion and justice in the midst of suffering point three life with god includes opposition life with god includes opposition go with me to numbers 33 verse 40. says this this is one simple line the canaanite king of arid or arid who lived in the negev of canaan or the negev of canaan heard that the israelites were coming that's the only line there the the canaanite king of arad he heard that the israelites were coming why is this line important why is it recorded because on the journey towards the promised land the israelites kept facing opposition they they had battles with kings of nations that did not want them to go into god's promise for their lives so sometimes their opposition were themselves sometimes their own sin their own rebellion was their opposition but there were other times when there were actual nations that were trying to block them keep them from going into god's promise for their lives there are people and forces who will attempt to stop your progress god has a plan for your life you are loved by god you are gifted by god uh you are talented there is a purpose god has a vision of future for your life but you need to know this there are forces in this world there are people in this world that don't want you to be successful i've been in ministry for almost 30 years and i i'm i'm i'm a witness i've seen i've been around people who had people trying to block them from greatness block them from achievement i i have visited young people in the juvenile detention center who told me stories of their own mothers their own fathers beating them for going to school instead of being on the corner selling drugs because the family they were all a drug dealing family a drug selling family they were a gang family so i've talked to young people who and and this is what's sad to me is because sometimes we just look at people and we just say oh it's your fault you're in prison it's your fault you're in jail you don't know their story what what about those who were born into sin born into righteousness born now we were all born into sin but there are some people that are born into sin in distinctive ways that that are just tougher for other people that are born into sin some people are born into drug dealing born into gang activity born into domestic abuse born into racism born into sexism born into uh human trafficking born into it born into corrupt governments born into injustice there are some people that are born in the darkness and and so there are these forces and that's why the church should not just sit back and judge people in trouble we should come alongside people in trouble because we don't know their journey jesus did it gospel of john chapter 4 jesus went to samaria and he sat at the well and he looked up and had a conversation with a woman that had been married five times he didn't judge her by her scandal he liberated her from her scandal into sainthood my god life with god includes opposition so sometimes the opposition is in society but sometimes the opposition is on our own soul so i have to ask you the question are you your own opposer are you the one blocking yourself from a blessing are you the one keeping yourself from achievement are you the one keeping yourself from empowerment sometimes the opposition sometimes we are superman and lex luthor at the same time sometimes we are batman and the joker all in one person my god sometimes you wonder woman and cheetah see how i snuck that in there so i get the sisters into sometimes you are the hero and the villain in the same body don't block your own blessing don't stop your own achievement don't keep yourself from stepping into god's purpose for your life see ultimately even though there is opposition you are not alone in the battle you're not alone ultimately god is with you in the fight because here's the deal man can't block what god is determined to bless man can't block what god is determined to bless my wife and i we were watching one of those espn 30 for 30 stories and uh they're they're talking about a a wnba superstar athlete maya moore played for the minnesota lynx from my home state in the wnba won championships she stepped away from basketball because through her godparents she found out about a young man that had been incarcerated for something he hadn't done he was in prison for 21 years went to an adult facility as a teenager for a crime he did not commit maya moore stepped away from uh the basketball the the limelight the money she stepped away from it to advocate for this young man who was in prison for 21 years for a crime he didn't commit she used her platform and her resources to get attorneys involved that maybe this young man would have never been able to get involved by himself and he was set free from prison they're married now he loves the lord he gave his life to christ while he was in prison you and this is a wonderful story i know it doesn't happen like this all the time but sometimes we get the glorious opportunity to see an example of how man and man's systems and man's structures cannot block what god wants to bless it can't stop god's will and finally life with god calls for the destroying of idols yes numbers 33 uh beginning with verse uh with verse 50. on the plains of moab by the jordan across from jericho the lord said to moses speak to the israelites and say to them when you cross the jordan into canaan drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you destroy all their carved images and their cast idols and demolish all their high places take possession of the land and settle in it for i have given you the land to possess life with god calls for destroying idols now you know we have to be careful with texts like this because you know sometimes i'll just be honest i struggle at times when i'm reading texts where there's a lot of violence and you know the people of god are going into a land and god says destroy this and destroy that and kill this and get rid of that and i said man it's so violent got to remember two things about these tough texts one is that in the old testament there are times when we see god show up in a culture among a people in ways in which they would understand that this is god almighty in the midst of false gods in the midst of injustice deep sin in the world but it's not the full representation of god to understand the full representation of who is god is to know jesus to know jesus is to understand the fullness of god to understand the will of god to understand the nature the characteristics of god in in full into eternity because when we are in eternity when you and i are in the kingdom of god in heaven forever we won't experience a god of wrath and anger and judgment we will experience a god of healing and love and justice and truth and freedom and deliverance there'll be no pain there'll be no poverty there'll be no division there'll be no dysfunction ah we will be in the fullness of a great god so what is god calling for ultimately what is god saying in this text that means something for us today it instead of it being totally about what's on the outside it's about what needs to be destroyed on the inside what are the idols what are the false gods what's the bad belief system what's the dysfunction that's living on the inside of you and i that needs to be destroyed that need that needs to die we need to look inward but also we need to look at our habits are are there things that are becoming gods in our lives are we making gods out of people are we making gods out of material things have we made a god out of money have we have we made ourselves the god of our own lives and that must be destroyed yes what must be put to death in our lives to live with god this is not about because people have taken texts like this in numbers and used it to oppress people to enslave people to colonize to do evil wicked things that are not of god so we have to put this in the proper context of what it means for how we live our lives today this is about changing behavior this is about maturity this is about putting to death some things in our soul and some external habits that keep us from walking with god let me close with this story right here sisters and brothers um i have a friend named adrian years ago my friend adrian who's an evangelist and i we're in a restaurant and the whole entire time we were in the restaurant my friend adrian as he normally does he was trying to share jesus with the young lady who was serving us in the restaurant you could tell she was getting frustrated with him she just wanted to serve us a meal she didn't want to hear about jesus but as she brought the bill and adrian paid for the meal which i praised god for uh he said look i know that i've been talking to you about god i'm probably getting on your nerves he said but just give me one last chance he took a napkin and he ripped it up in pieces he said pretend this piece of the napkin is your life at work he said pretend this piece of the napkin is maybe who you're dating right now pretend this piece of the napkin right here is life with your family members pretend this piece of the napkin is your life at college pretend this piece of the napkin is your life when nobody else is around pretend this piece of the napkin is your past this piece of the napkin is your future if you were going to give a piece of your life to god which piece would you give god and the woman got real mad then y'all and she said if i was going to give a piece of my life to god i wouldn't just give god a peace i would give god my whole life that is ridiculous i'm not going to give god just a piece of my life if i'm going to give god something i'm going to give god all my life and he said exactly and he put all the pieces of the napkin in her hand right then tears began to come from her eyes down her face and we prayed the prayer of salvation with her in that restaurant that day just so happened a young lady was walking by that adrian knew that went to a church in that same town they entered they they met each other and that young woman said i'll take you to church this sunday oh when we give our lives to god we're not given a piece of our life we're to give our whole life so give all of the stages of your life to god today i pray pray that you would accept jesus christ as your lord and savior if you're already a christian you would commit to keep going and keep growing so let it be done in jesus name amen [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you

Channel: Midtown Church

Views: 998

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: Xm7cpyhl3o4

Length: 64min 37sec (3877 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021