WHERE LESS MEANS MORE | MIKE SCHNEPP - The Fire Remains

[Music] [Music] it is a good day to be in the house of the lord are you excited to be with the people of god today every location joining us everybody joining us online listen if you're new to vox we are one family of faith one church we meet in a number of locations across connecticut and massachusetts and of course people joining us live online as well so new haven can we just put our hands together and say good morning to our middletown hartford every location good morning we love you welcome to church we're so glad you're a part of our services today if you're in the balcony we love you especially yeah that's wonderful yeah we love you up there one guy one person i can't really see you with the lights but i'm sure things are good listen uh so thankful so thankful for what the lord is doing in our midst right now when you walked in at every one of our locations you received a welcome pack with a lot of little pieces of paper in it but i want to just highlight a couple of them for you today see if you can find this one all right this one it says 10 years at vox if you haven't heard the news we've got coming up on september 12th the biggest celebration we have ever done as a church at the westville music bowl one service 10 30 a.m outside september 12th every single campus coming together for our 10-year anniversary it's gonna be great for our 10-year anniversary and i really want to challenge you this is an incredible time to invite a family member invite a friend invite a co-worker to come to church they've probably never been to church in an outdoor arena before and i really believe that this is an opportunity just to be able to show the love of christ to somebody in your life and so i'm using this card personally for five people in my life i just want to encourage you use this card in your life what does that mean what it means is you take a few moments you can do it right now with the pen in your hand and write down the name of five people that are in your life who maybe need a touch from god right now maybe they're not a part of church maybe they kind of have drifted during this crazy last year and a half that we've had and so i just want to encourage you write their names down and then put this somewhere that you're gonna see it and start praying for them every day just asking god would you open their heart would you give them a desire to know more about you jesus and then stretch out and invite them to september 12th meet them there sit with them and have a time of celebration where we worship jesus and honor all that he's done it's going to be an incredibly special day but i really believe that many of us your family member your friend your coworker they're going to meet jesus that day come on somebody's saying man they're going to meet jesus that day and it's gonna be a powerful time in their life and so i just encourage you take some time pray every day for five people and then invite them to come with you it is gonna be a time of miracles i really believe that a time of miracles second thing i wanna tell you about and then we're gonna jump into part four of this teaching series the fire remains talking about how to burn bright without burning out right how to live a life that's sustainable for the long haul and we'll have this sermon today about that and then next week we'll wrap up this series but today you're going to be hearing in just a minute from mike schnepp who has just got an incredible word i am so encouraged by the word that he's going to share with you today so prepare your hearts but i want you to find this card now the second card i know that we gave you a lot of paper today forgive us but this second card it says i'm ready to host a community group i just want to talk about this for a moment if you've been with vox any length of time you know that the fall is a really important time for us this next couple of months and on september 26 after our big 10-year celebration we're starting an eight-week teaching series called bury your ordinary we're gonna be talking about seven habits that will cause incredible spiritual growth in your life and i am convinced that these eight weeks are going to be some of the most transformative weeks of your life that maybe you're here and you're like i feel a little stuck spiritually i feel a little like i need a jolt i need to focus again this last year and a half is kind of spent you know spun me around i'm telling you these eight weeks are really going to be life changing but in order to experience the full impact of this fall series that we're going to be doing it's so important that we join some community groups and so if you're here and maybe you've been coming to vox every week or joining us online every week september 26th is your time to start being a part of a midweek small group that meets in somebody's house that really starts to engage the materials that we're looking at on a more you know consistent deeper level and so uh in our lobby at every one of our locations or at the table in the back you've got these really aren't these snazzy looking boxes these very nice looking boxes and who are these for let me explain it just for a moment okay for everybody that's not in a group today you can sign up to be in a small group all right you'll be able to have an opportunity to sign up next week and the week after as well but we want to encourage you if at all possible sign up today to be in a small group but there might be a few of us here that you're actually interested in hosting a group at your house you'd say you know what i could have three or four or five or six people come over my house and we could do this material together that might sound super intimidating to you i promise we make it so easy all right there's an introductory video there are questions outlined for the host to lead through it doesn't take a phd in theology all it takes is an open heart that's all it takes okay and so if you're interested in hosting a group go to the table at the back of your location today and ask for one of these boxes they'll sign you up they'll give you this box inside the box has everything you need to be able to host a small group starting on the week of september 26th all right so before i get out of the way i need you to turn the person next to you and tell them you need to join a group come on just tell them you need to join a group you need to join a group can we just put our hands together and welcome pastor mike as he comes to share right church we don't do this often enough can we just honor our lead pastor just say thank you to him for leading us come on take a second and do that he's good it's good it's good welcome to church so glad to have you if i have now the opportunity to meet you my name is mike schnepp get the great honor of serving as the executive pastor here at vox church and so excited for what god is doing among us as justin mentioned we've been in the sermon series called the fire remains how to burn bright without burning out what an incredibly important concept topic for us to be wrestling through as we ask that question in a world that is ever increasingly fast paced how do you burn bright without burning out so i'm glad you're here welcome to vox church god is doing a lot there is an enormous amount of things for you to plug into get involved with and so i hope that you'll do that if this is your first time a special welcome to you welcome to vox church so glad you're here we have been studying a great leader the life of moses as we've been in the sermon series called the fire remains we're gonna pick it up again today the book of exodus so if you've got your bibles to me turn to chapter 18 where we will pick it up in verse 13 says this says the next day moses sat to judge the people and the people stood around moses from morning till evening when moses father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people he said what is this that you are doing for the people why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning to evening and moses said to his father-in-law because the people come to me to inquire of god when they have a dispute they come to me and i decide between one person and another and i make known to them the statutes of god and his laws moses father-in-law said to him what you are doing is not good you and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you you are not able to do it alone now obey my voice i will give you advice and god be with you you shall represent the people before god and bring their cases to god you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them known the way in which they must walk in what they must do moreover look for able men from all the people men who fear god who are trustworthy and hate a bribe and place such men over the chief over the people as chiefs of thousands of hundreds of fifties and of tens and let them judge the people at all times every great matter they shall bring to you by any small matter they shall decide among themselves so it will be easier for you and they will bear the burden with you if you do this god will direct you you will be able to endure and all this people also will go to their place in peace part four of the fire remains is called when where rather less means more where less means more let's bow our heads together and let's pray so god in heaven we come before you right now we thank you for the power of your word we thank you for your holy spirit applying it to our hearts right now god i thank you that every single time we open your word we have the ability to leave changed and so we ask for that right now god i pray that you would take this and apply it directly to each and every single heart we invite you holy spirit and your name we pray amen amen amen you have probably heard the name roger bannister he was famous for in 1954 becoming the very first person to break the four minute mile as a runner you may be less familiar with the name elliott kipchoge eliot kipchoge is the modern day version of roger bannister for years now scientists have been debating and wrestling is it possible for a human being to run a marathon underneath two hours that's 26.2 miles at a mile pace of four hours and 35 seconds i mean four four minutes and 35 seconds i mean many of us could not even do a single mile like that and he set out to become the very first person to run a marathon in under two hours in october of 2019 after a bunch of fanfare they made a documentary about it was kind of a big deal he broke it and i was actually watching the live stream of it and i was struck yes by the by the uh the achievement but also every single place that you could see on his shirt on his social media on the screen signs everywhere was his slogan no human is limited no human is limited everywhere everywhere the inspiring message no human is limited and on the surface you hear something like that and you say yes yes no human is limited it actually it actually seems to awaken some sort of inspiration inside of us and there's there's something in us that says the world lies before me and and i can achieve any dream that i want if i if i'm willing to sacrifice enough or or dare greatly enough we hear these incredible stories of entrepreneurs who built something like amazon out of their garage and we think i could totally do that limits are meant to be broken they stand in the way of my dreams when i was growing up i was in second grade when i joined the michael jordan fan club i saved up 17 to join the michael jordan fan club and i had dreams of joining the nba one day spent a lot of time going to basketball camps spent a lot of time playing on a lot of different teams and the problem for me was when i had about 15 i was as tall as i was right now and i didn't grow any taller so i get to senior year of college and they're like my man you can play a little bit but you're you're a little short you're a little short for that next level i could jump and just barely clear a credit card and i realized that my height had become a limit to my dreams somewhere along the way we began believing that limits are actually bad for us but what i want to i want to say to you today is that limits are not inherently bad that actually inside all of creation god has designed limits to be lived within if you are going to experience the fullness of the life that he has for you you walk in today you may not even realize it you have emit limits based on your on your age on based on your income based on your season of life you have more or less time depending on if you're married or if you have young kids at home there's all sorts of limits a part of your life see the problem is for so many of us though we like to live as though they aren't there like they aren't true and so so we blow past the limits of time many of us here can attest to what it feels like to have a calendar that's a little too full to have lives that are a little bit stretched too thin to be to be feeling like i'm a rubber band getting stretched where where everything in every relationship in my life is is a mile wide but it's only an inch deep because i only have so much time to give to so many things we live day by day stressed anxious frazzled moving from one thing to another not feeling like i've got really time to invest in anything meaningful at all some of us we ignore the financial limits of our stage of life and we have a certain amount of income but but we we're not going to live by that budget because i want something now and the instant gratification and so we rack up the credit card debt and we go into various types of debt only to realize that by not living by the limits of our stage of life that debt becomes a shackle that keeps us from the very dreams that we set out to achieve let's get real some of us are are unwilling to live within the limits that a healthy marriage requires in terms of relationships and we're on the verge and the precipice of making some decisions that will will wreck the lives of people we love because we're not willing to live inside those those limits how do you burn bright without burning out see somewhere along the way we stop believing that god actually had our best in mind we either don't believe it or we just don't care and we believe that these limits that we see all throughout scripture that god has hardwired into the creative order limits on you limits on me limits that that drive our holiness our decisions limits that drive how much we can take on and all the various things we came to believe that instead of god being out for our good he's actually trying to keep good from us and so rather than submitting to those things rather than embracing the limits that god has hardwired and written about in scripture we blast through them only to realize that he actually had our good in mind all along and if we had actually chosen to live by them our lives would have flourished limits limits is not incredibly fun topic for many of us to think about there's something in us that just wants to push back against them but i honestly believe this idea of the fire remains of burning bright without burning out if we do not understand the limits that god has put on us and we refuse to live within them we will never experience that abundant life of peace and joy that god promises and that jesus shares in john chapter 10. so what i want you to understand today is that in all of our lives there's a lot of different ways that this plays out and i can't i can't tell you exactly how it's working out for you you know the areas that are causing friction you know the areas that are causing you anxiety you know the areas that are causing you to live worried about tomorrow fearful or or the relationships that are a little bit broken because of the the choices you're making or or the relationships that aren't getting the investment because you're spending time in other places you know what that is and i believe that god wants to highlight for you and pinpoint for you today some very practical changes that he would like you to make because what i want to try and show you in just a couple of minutes is that god has not created order and limits for your removal of fun for your removal of joy but actually in order to see those things maximized to see your joy and your peace and the abundant life he promises actually flourish gk chesterson is a famous theologian who writes about this idea and he says this he says the more i considered christianity the more i found that while it had established a rule in order the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild god's not trying to hold you back i come to you this morning as a fellow pilgrim on the journey as i've been thinking about this and reflecting on this in the last week or two it's not news to me but i know i've got a propensity to fill up my calendar a little bit too much i typically tend to take on a little bit more i can manage and then feel the stress and the anxiety and all of that beginning to come out and i was thinking about a time i was sharing with a friend not too long ago my senior year of high school where it was winter time and so i was beginning to think about college and applications were due and and to get ahead i was taking some classes at the local community college and i was working 20 hours a week to pay for car insurance to get to the job and i was playing on the varsity basketball team also playing on three different indoor soccer teams and i found myself completely worn thin and you'd think i would have learned when i told my wife that i was preaching about this she goes great you should preach that to yourself first touche mrs schnepp to shay see i think most of us here would know what it's like to feel a little bit overburdened and stressed out and anxious because we just keep expanding our lives to the degree that become untenable and what god wants you to see this morning is that he has designed limits around your life and if you will live inside them you will actually experience the things you dream it's not by going past those limits that you get to experience that it's by submitting to him saying yes and then living a life according to that order and according to that purpose and you might think that as you hear this that this is a bit of a modern phenomena but honestly this idea of limits is all throughout scripture and as we meet moses here in chapter 18 we see he has completely blown through the limits of time and physical and emotional energy because what's happening here is he's leading the people of israel and they are two to three million people right now two to three million people like like connecticut and he is the only person presiding over disputes between two and three million people i mean imagine this moses that guy killed my goat okay take care of it next one moses he stole my shirt moses i lent her money and she didn't give it back i mean for two to three million people and it says that there was people standing all day long just waiting for moses to preside and jethro comes who's his father-in-law and he goes my man what are you doing what are you doing he's in this untenable situation and he doesn't seem to even know that it's broken that that he and other people are suffering as a result of it i was reading this week the reason that jethro is here in chapter 18 is because he was bringing moses family back to him moses because of his responsibilities in leading the people of israel had actually sent his family off to his in-laws because he didn't have time for them and i just stopped isn't it so true that the people closest to us often bear the worst effects of our lack of limits that when our lives begin to get out of sort or we begin to make choices that that don't align with what god has for us it's actually those closest to us that feel the effects and so moses family on the outside we think boy what a noble thing he's doing he's leading the people of israel god is using him but his wife is waking up every day without a husband and his kids are growing up without a dad why because breaking limits in this way they never just affect us there are always cascading ripple effects and we've got to understand this that sometimes we think well it only affects me nonsense over the last year and a half i know many of us have experienced what it what it has felt like to be pushed to the very limit and beyond in terms of the amount of stress we can carry the amount of anxiety we've had this has been an incredibly difficult last 18 months and i know for me personally that there have been probably dozens of times where i have felt myself just overstretched just too much going on unable to carry everything in a way that's healthy and there have been days if i'm really honest that though i wasn't physically absent like moses was i can tell you about some days that i was emotionally absent i can think of some days where i'd get home from work and and we'd have dinner and instead of investing some quality time in my kids my wife and i have a seven-year-old and a four-year-old i would uh i'd say who wants to watch a documentary or animal planet or something like that my kids are like oh dad you're the best the truth is i just don't have anything to give them so i'm putting on the tv because i'm too far stretched i don't have anything else in the tank and i see that and i think back on that and i think god has better for me and better for my kids than that in church i think the same is true for you i think pretty much every single person in the room knows what it's like to be stretched a little bit too thin and there are probably some of you here who are like nah man i've never been stressed in my life i i sabbath four days a week you are getting the game then okay because i think most people know what it's like to be a little bit too busy and a little bit too stretched and i just want to say church what if we refuse to accept that what if we refuse to say that's good enough for me i just imagine what would our lives be like i think you know the experience of my girls growing up would be better if i lived more within god's limits and i think the same is true for those in your life as well you see so so moses moses has got this kind of untenable situation going on life is insane and kind of crazy and jethro does show up and he goes my man what you are doing is not good not good and i was thinking about this week how many of us have a jethro in our life who could say this to us you know we're talking about community groups we're talking about investing in community and i so love how jethro is able to see it because he's close to it and then has the courage to speak it into moses's life who in your life right now would look at what is going on and say hey i love you too much not to tell you that that's not good as you take stock and you take inventory of the people in your life if you don't have a jethro right now don't wait any long it's a reason that we are so passionate about community groups about core groups because god has has interwoven our lives with one another so that we are the people who can come alongside others when they're struggling and go man this is not good let me help you with a plan just like jethro did and so if you're not in community if you're not in a community group this is a tangent sign up begin to take those first steps into community so that you can develop a jethro in your life as well so jethro comes and he he pushes moses on this my man not good it's not holy it's not noble this is actually not good and what does moses say it says and moses said to his father-in-law because the people come to me to inquire of god when they have a dispute they come to me and i decide between one person and another and i make them know the statutes of god and his laws see moses gives us a peek into how he got here there's a thrill of being needed there's a thrill of feeling important and wherever you are today you've got to ask yourself the question in this area of life that is beginning to be a little bit too much or stretched or whatever why did i get here because if you don't know how you find yourself in situations like this you don't know how to apply the gospel to it and allow yourself to be healed you know i've got a friend who works 80 or 90 hours a week incredibly successful never goes on vacation i asked him the other day i was like my man how can you never take your wife away on vacation he said honestly i'm afraid that if i leave the office for a week they're going to realize they don't need me and i'm going to be out of a job what is that speaking it's fear he had allowed his his work-life balance to get out of sync because he was afraid that god wouldn't take care of him maybe you're here and your calendar is so full because you say yes to everything people ask you to do every time they ask you to come over every serving opportunity you say yes to every single one of them and on the outside it looks like you're being a kind person but on the inside you just can't stand disappointing people because their approval means more to you than the approval god has given you as a son or a daughter of god see if we're gonna begin to develop a new life that lives within these parameters god says we gotta understand the thing in us that pushes us away from that so then we can invite jesus into that how do we respond when god pushes on us really reveals the core of our relationship with him for so many of us fear is dominating us or the approval stuff i just talked about or the need to achieve so that i can be somebody and i wonder how many times god is just looking at us going if you would just believe me if you would just receive what i have told you i'm telling you it would be better and every parent knows the frustration of this right i remember a couple of years ago we were telling my then maybe five-year-old like hey no scissors all right no playing with the scissors all right you're going to cut yourself whatever well did she listen no no so one morning we go up to the bathroom and we found she'd given herself a haircut it looked like she got an attack with a weed whacker right and so it's like your hair is kind of like where pepper it's like why don't you just listen to me now i got school pictures and you look like you look a little crazy and i wonder how many times god says the same thing to us where he's like my man will you just listen to me i have your good in mind i'm like taylor i set the limits with the scissors for your good just listen to daddy so you don't have to go to school looking crazy and how many times is god saying the exact same thing to us will you just trust me stop going around what i've said stop going past what i've asked you to do don't you know that man i'm for your good you know there's something that seems to be hardwired into the dna of of humans it goes all the way back to adam and eve you remember adam and eve they they're in the garden they're enjoying the presence of god every day they're enjoying fruitful work and relationship and god then says to them hey here's one tree that i don't want you to eat the fruit from god doesn't really give them a reason he just says hey this tree is off limits okay i want you to trust me i want you to believe that i have your good in mind look around you can see that i'm good leave that tree alone and yet that thing in us that doesn't like to be held back that doesn't like to be pushed against led them to get to a place where they said you know what of all the fruit we have here i think we're going to go eat of that one tree god told us not to because there's something inside our hearts that wants to be unlimited that as limited people doesn't like being limited rather than trusting god in that moment what do they do they give in to the temptation so that they can know good and evil so that they can be like god and they break and sever the relationship with god that they had and creation has felt the same effects of that ever since and there's something that's just wired itself into our hearts to do the exact same thing god has spent thousands of years and written it inside the bible in this incredibly uh beautiful story of love known as the scriptures in which he proves in a hundred different ways i love you will you trust me even here in adam and eve's mistake in genesis chapter 3 god begins to promise that though you have made these mistakes i will come one day and undo them and he promises his son and 2 000 years ago jesus comes the unlimited one who bows to the limits of god in order that you and i could experience freedom and wholeness and choose again to trust and submit to him jesus the unlimited son of god in the garden says god not my will but yours be done when jesus is being arrested and peter lops off some guy's ear he says don't you know i could call 12 legions of angels right now peter i am submitting to the limits of god because he's good the scriptures will be fulfilled and i wonder how many of us have gotten to a place where we actually believe that god has our best in mind that he actually is good he's out for our good that he's moving in incredible ways and if we will just align ourselves with these various things that we'll actually see the goodness of god i wonder church you think of the places of your life that are just out of sync and and out of out of whack begin to ask yourself what would it look like if if i if i got my finances in order what would it look like if i if i said no to a couple of those relationships and began to just focus on the most important ones what would it look like if i began to stop flirting with that co-worker at work and my marriage could really flourish what would it look like if i took my calendar back and invested in the most important things what would it actually look like if we took out of his word and said okay i'm going to choose to submit to you what would it look like well jethro tells us i love this listen to this and receive this for yourself if you do this i believe god is saying the exact same thing to you right now jethro to moses represents what god is saying to us if you do this listen to this god will direct you you will be able to endure and all this people also will go to their place in peace see god wants to flip on its head the idea that limits are meant to hold us back and instead they're one of god's main graces and gifts for our good and so the three gifts that they give us are right here the first thing he says is this god will direct you if you can't remember the last time you felt you you got direction clearly from god it's probably because you're not carving out the time to sit and be quiet see i find the first thing to go when i get a little too crazy and a little too stressed and a little too busy is my my real time where i just sit with god and receive where i hear from him you know the wisdom that we need to move through this life is promised in james 1 5 it says if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask and god will give it to him generously if we're not asking because we're too busy then we are not receiving divine wisdom daily mother teresa is famous for saying this in the silence god speaks silence takes time silence takes work when you're sitting alone quiet with god in the morning it means you're not doing something else what would it look like to begin to experience the direction daily from god you know we get a really beautiful picture of this in mark chapter one where jesus has been really involved in ministry it says the night before what i'm going to read to you jesus was healing and all this really beautiful ministry and then it says this in mark chapter 1 in verse 35 about the very next day says and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed and simon and those who were with him searched for him and they found him and said to him everyone is looking for you and he said to them let us go on to the next towns that i may preach there also for that is why i came out and he went throughout all galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons see because jesus had had lived submitted to the father he had carved out time to be with god that day and the voice of everyone was quieted see so many of us we're living according to the voice of everyone we are playing defense with our calendar and our time and our spending and all those things rather than saying listen i know what god has called me to do and so i'm stepping forward in it and so when jesus hears everyone is looking for you the voice of everyone gets quiet because the voice of god had made it clear you're not to go on to the next town see that's what it means to live directed by god and so i just wonder if you're not experiencing what it means to be led by god every day you might just be missing out see the first gift that living within god's limit gives us is clarity god directs my steps clarity god directs my steps but that's not it second thing jethro says is this he says you will be able to endure church there's something inside me that when people ask like what do you want to be known for there's this thing in me that says i want to be faithful to the end we live in a season where we're watching church leaders or just friends or people who are are faithful to serve and love god and love their families for a season and then after a decade or two they blow it up and their life is never the same and there's something in me that looks at that and goes god not with me god i don't want to get to the end of my life and have half of it have been living in the reality of some mistakes that i couldn't come back from what would it look like for you and i to get to the end of our life and have done this christian walk faithfully year after year after year the cadence the pace the rhythm to do this over the long haul you know i mentioned last time i spoke my friend carol who's been a part of our bridgeport campus and has really spent her life discipling women and investing in the kingdom and praying for our church and she did lose her battle to cancer this week and we have her calling hours today and in her funeral tomorrow and i don't know as i've been thinking about this if i've ever met someone who was so faithful to the end like i've watched her everything out of her mouth is glorifying god and praising jesus and now she's in his presence faithful to the end don't you want that don't you want that for yourself for your family this this ability to endure i tell you listen it's like a stretched rubber band it can only stay stretched for so long until it's permanently damaged if you're gonna if you're gonna get to the end faithful you've got to figure out that pace of life that god has called you to so that you can endure it's the second thing he tells us the second gift i'm going to call this longevity a life that goes the distance a life that goes to disney there's something in you just awakened to that idea man i want to be faithful for decades and decades until i see jesus face to face and if being directed by god and living a life that was faithful to the end wasn't enough there's actually a third thing that that limits allow us to do it says this it says and all this people also will go to their place in peace that word peace there is the hebrew word for shalom which many many of you perhaps have heard it really means more than just peace it means wholeness it means completeness it means a rhythm of beauty and rest and what they're saying here is that moses if you'll do this not only will will you benefit you'll hear from god you'll endure to the end everyone in your sphere of influence will be blessed as well see what moses began to understand here is that boy by by pulling back on some of these things i was able to actually maximize what god had called me to that by simplifying my life i was able to accomplish more and so what we've got to see is that god has put inside each and every one of us a sphere of influence aunts uncles co-workers friends what would it be like if every person who came in contact with us experienced shalom experience what it's like to to be in contact with someone who walks with the holy spirit who brings the kingdom of god into their life in every conversation that's what limits allow you to do don't you want to be that type of person you can bring strain or you can bring shalom which is it going to be for you because when we get to the end of our lives it's not our accomplishments that god will be talking about with us it's not going to be the businesses we started it's not going to be all the various things that we fill our life up with he's going to say how well did you love me and how well did you love others how often did you bring shalom into the lives of those and i guarantee that if we'll make that investment boy we will never regret that so many of our relationships i really believe are being starved to death by velocity because we're moving at such a pace that we can't love the way jesus would have us love what do limits do they give us space to love well limits give us space to love well that's a third gift we're going to say this it gives us legacy a life of lasting influence legacy a life of lasting influence i just want you to get a picture of that right now what would it look like if you took this today and began to adopt some changes begin to to put things back inside the box that god has called you to what a beautiful picture that is to live directed by god to be faithful to the end and all along the way to be a source of blessing to everyone god brings into contact with you church i believe that as we do this individually and as a church family we learn to do this that everyone around us will see it and notice you see in order for us to see the dreams come true that we have as a church community to see new england reach with the gospel it's going to take time this is not a one-year plan or a 10-year plan this is a rest of the lifetime plan and so if we're going to do that if we're going to be faithful to the end if we're going to love well we've got to learn to live inside the limits that god has set for us because i believe this that embracing god's limits creates a life of lasting impact and if a church can do this then it creates a church of lasting impact as well would you stand with me moses comes to the very same place that you are today faced with a decision to make faced with the reality of a life that is getting away from him with decisions that have left him and others hurting the decision that's left his family absent from him and he gets to a point where he's got to make a choice the very same place you are right now god has been pinpointing and highlighting certain things in your life and in your heart that he wants you to make some adjustments to and you stand at the same precipice that moses did that day saying what do i do it says this in verse 24 and 25 so moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he said moses chose able men out of all of israel and made them heads over the people chiefs of thousands of hundreds of fifties and of tens two words in that verse just stuck out to me so much moses chose moses chose if you're here about 10 weeks ago one of our board members lance whit spoke and he said something that has lodged inside my head you are ridiculously responsible for your own soul it's not your boss's job to manage your calendar it's not your wife's job to manage the budget you are responsibly in control responsible you are ridiculously responsible for your own soul you have the same choice moses had will you say yes will you humble yourself and submit yourself to the plan of god whether it makes sense to you or not would you humble yourself and submit yourself to the limits god has put on your life and your season even when it doesn't make sense would you humble and submit yourself to the limits he's put on relationships even when it doesn't make sense will you humble and submit because there is where true freedom is found i want to give you a little piece of homework in your time with god this week which you're going to have because you're making some changes to your calendar right church you're going to sit with god and i just want you to ask three questions very honest questions between you and your pen and the paper that you're writing on god what areas of my life are overextended right now you probably don't have to think very hard about that they probably came to mind pretty quickly when you went oh shoot he's talking about limits what areas of my life are overextended second question why did i let them get that way why have i allowed this to happen it's an important question like we said a couple minutes ago because in that as god reveals that to you maybe for you it's a need for approval maybe for you it's a need for achievement maybe for you it's that you don't trust god it's a thousand different things in that moment you invite him into it you apply the gospel to your heart in that moment right there you receive sonship daughtership you receive trust you receive promises like max the matthew 6 33 that says i will take care of everything in your life seek me first that's the promise of matthew 6 33 fear bows at that promise doesn't it where you find yourself just bowing to the approval of others i don't want to disappoint people so i say yes to everything god says you already have full approval in me don't you understand you don't need to find it in others when you go looking for it elsewhere it messes everything up and you apply the gospel and then the third thing ask him for a vision what would my life look like if i made these changes i tell you church god spoke this so clearly to me this week as i began to see just very clearly laid out what are those three gifts man i so badly want don't you to hear the voice of god every single day i want to know what it's like to be led by my savior who knows me and loves me i want to get to the end of my life and i want to have done this well don't you don't you want to get to the end of your life and say i've done this well and then lastly man i want to be a source of grace a conduit a delivery system of grace to every single person in my life don't you want that that's the invitation from god to you this morning will you choose will you say yes let's pray god we confess there's that thing in us that just pushes against us it just says i'm not sure if i want to do that i think i know better i'm not sure god's good i don't know all these things god we just for a second we just push those things aside and we just say god we will step out in faith and say i trust you and god i thank you that's not blind trust i thank you that you've shown us in so many different ways that you are good and faithful and merciful and kind and you love us and know us better than we love or know ourselves and so god we just say yes we say yes to you god we do humble ourselves we submit ourselves to your plan god we invite you into the practical things that these types of prayers offer and we thank you for the confidence burned into our hearts because of what christ has done on the cross that you are good and you can be trusted thank you jesus amen amen god let's sing it back to god you

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Id: A03CNtGFm_g

Length: 46min 18sec (2778 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021