Who and What Pleases God - The Revelation - Brad Powell - 9/26/21

[Music] um [Music] you [Music] um [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] time [Music] uh [Music] hmm [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] welcome to northridge we're so glad you're here this morning are you excited to be in church today awesome let's stand we're going to worship together [Music] me [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] god we choose today to worship you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] i choose [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] and yes we have to choose to worship god because in the bible david says i will bless the lord and here at northridge it is always our intention to worship in spirit and in truth and then one of those ways to do that is by reading scripture together as a church family so if you want to put your attention on the screens and let's read some scriptures together from the book of psalms and revelation together and if you're watching online we'd love for you to join us psalm 19 verse 1 let's say it out loud together the heavens are telling of the glory of god and the expanse is declaring the work of his hands psalm 19 verse 14 let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing in your sight oh lord my rock and my redeemer revelation 3 verse 15 19-20 i know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot i wish you were either one or the other so be earnest and repent here i am stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i will come in and eat with him and he with me so let's let this scripture yes let the power of his word just rest on you today and let's posture our hearts as we worship him through this song just to be vulnerable to have a heart of expectation and open ourselves up to what he wants to say to us today amen let's lift our voices [Music] brokenness [Music] oh is [Music] [Music] i just wanna see you come on [Music] i am [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] jesus [Music] here i am here i am come on [Music] to lift it up you don't have to carry it anymore [Applause] [Music] here i am foreign you can [Music] nothing is a sacrifice [Music] excuse [Music] i [Music] is [Music] he cares for you he loves you he is for you come on let's lift up a shot of praise because we have victory in jesus name we can have joy we can have peace we can walk in the fullness of the glory of who god is amen [Music] amen what a beautiful song to sing and to read those scriptures with you it's just so life-giving so thank you for lifting your voice as it encourages even my heart to hear your songs out to him today and right now we're going to continue in our worship by receiving an offering and this is just an opportunity for us to give back because we just acknowledge who god is how great he is and all he's provided for us and just out of a grateful heart we want to give back because we acknowledge what we have comes from him and it's all for him so let's pray [Music] god thank you for who you are that you meet us right here right in the journey of where we are at whether we're carrying heavy things god or we're in a season of joy and celebration god that you're walking with us that you hear our voice god and we thank you for the praise in this room it just fills our hearts up and right now we just pray over this offering lord and we're so grateful so so grateful that we can be a part of it we're humbled to be a part of your kingdom god to bring hope around the world to bring the good news to everyone around us let me give you all the glory all the praise in jesus name amen you guys can have a seat [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] have you ever had a moment where you just really wanted maybe even felt like you absolutely needed jesus to literally just show up and speak into your life and circumstances had that kind of moment yeah me too it seems like these days i'm living in that moment more and more in fact given the importance of living for jesus and how we live for jesus and given the importance of what god i believe has called me to do and leading a church family like this i find myself desiring to know what god thinks about what i'm doing and what i'm not doing more than ever i have a desire to know what god thinks about you know our church and what we're doing and what we're do not doing more than ever and and as much as i'd love that to happen you need to know this is exactly what we get to experience in the next two chapters of the revelation revelation chapter 2 and 3 to a church world very much like we're experiencing now to a world owned by darkness to a world ever declining to a world that was dangerous and painful and disappointing in a world where it was so easy to feel like god was missing the whole event or god wasn't even real jesus showed up and he spoke into their lives he showed up and he dictated his thoughts to john in what we call the revelation this this book that we're looking at during this series and he told them what it was they were doing that was pleasing him and what it was they were doing that was disappointing them and as we read these letters we need to know that he didn't just do it for them because in our lives we're experiencing the same thing they were experiencing and he's really speaking to us we get to hear jesus views and thoughts on what's going on in our lives what's going on in our world what's going on in our churches it's amazing but before we get into his specific messages pleasures and disappointments with these churches with us i think it's important for us to take a universal picture a more general look and realize what is happening in that jesus actually showed up and spoke to these churches so just a couple of general lessons that i think are important especially in the world in which we live today and the first one is this god places great value on church god places great value on church we're living in a world where it's easy to feel like the whole church thing is kind of worthless the world dismisses it many people in the church are saying hey don't really need it that much anymore i mean there's this wave of people out it seems and it's just like all we hear is the negative and it's like maybe church isn't so important to stained by religion two stay no longer relevant in our lives but in a world just like ours when jesus wanted to speak where did he show up to the church god places great value on church in his first letter he does it all the way through but in his first letter he was writing to ephesus look what he says in revelation 2 1 to the angel of the church in ephesus now before we go any further we're going to find an angel at every one of these seven churches and if we don't kind of figure out who that angel is we really don't know because they're the stars in his right hand and just so you know right up front i believe very clearly not everyone agrees with me you need to go to the bible and figure it out yourself but i believe very clearly when he's talking about the angel which is the word for messenger as well he's talking about the pastors the ones called to lead and teach god's people in local churches and if you want to get there with me then this last thursday on thursday live i did about 30 minutes on that to show you why i thought that and how you can get that from scripture and all you have to do is go to our youtube channel northridge church youtube channel and check it out and if you want to go deeper great if you just want to accept what i'm saying well you're going to get yourself in trouble because uh i'm not always right but but it's the pastors of these churches so to the angel of the church in ephesus so from now on i've decided i want to be called angel here at northridge church yeah i know but when you see this it's talking about the pastors so to the pastors of the church in ephesus right these are the words of him who holds the seven stars the pastors in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands and he already told us in revelation 1 that the golden lampstands are the churches so general listen where is jesus in this world of darkness in this world of suffering in this world of disappointment in this world owned by evil back then where where is jesus he's walking among his churches that's where he is when he spoke who did he speak to his churches why because that's what he values and i feel like it's so easy for us even in the name of jesus even as followers of jesus to start getting a couple clicks off in what we value from what jesus values and the minute we do that we've lost jesus entirely he values the church he values it more than he values anything else in this world because the church and nothing else in this world is what he's chosen to build and where he's chosen to put his hope his people in matthew 16 18 he says you want to know what i'm doing i'm building my church to prevail against the gates of hell if you want to prevail against darkness it's the church you want to you want to experience hope it's the church you want to be where i'm building where i'm working it's the church i value the church so when he speaks it's through his churches when he works it's through his churches the world that we live in today doesn't value the church but god does supremely the question is how about us sadly a lot of people these days many who call themselves christians discount the importance of church and churches they talk about loving god and loving his word and loving jesus but not loving or valuing the church but here's the problem that's impossible you cannot genuinely love and value god without loving and valuing what he does you can't do it and he loves and values the church supremely a lot of people say well i love jesus but i don't love the church because jesus is perfect but the church is so filled with flaws and problems and they mess up and that is true by the way the men of this church called me to be pastor they were cursed with a mess up for the rest of their life you know it's like it's true church isn't perfect it's filled with people church is flawed it's filled with people but jesus knew the church wasn't perfect we're going to see it especially next week he talked about all the fatal flaws that these churches were and all the things that were disappointing about the church he knew it was a mess and yet warts and all he loves the church spoke to the church use the church so let me ask you how about you if you're a believer you need to know he wants you to be faithfully committed to what he's building his church that's why he inspired the writer of hebrews in chapter 10 verse 25 to say let's not give up meeting together as so many are doing but let us encourage one another by getting together by gathering together and all the more as you see the day approaching are you do you value the church like he does another general lesson and this is really important for me it might be important for you god always knows everything and he knows about everyone at all times and you might say well that's really a simple truth move on but it's not it's not so simple in practice and i know about you this is very true of me i start getting in a mess in my life kind of getting you know eeyore attitudes a little bit of darkness starts filling my life a lot of doubt starts creeping in because i'm seeing all that's going on in the world and i get this idea this very human very natural idea that god's missing what's going on and if he would just see it then he would fix it like i would are any of you like this and i can tell you that you know where it happens most for me in my prayer life my prayer life is very often reporting to god all the things that are going on down here that i'm pretty sure he's missed you know lord with this you know what's going on in this country don't you god oh my gosh you know about our church you know what these people are you know what these people are doing you know what i said and he's going yeah and so when he showed up and spoke you know what he said he he just reminded us i know and just so you know read every single letter to the seven churches and in every one of them he says i know i know i know i know the good i know the bad i know the pleasing things and all the disappointing things in these very personal letters to the church he wanted us to know that he knows he knows what we're experiencing he knows our circumstances he knows our hurts he knows our strengths and our successes he knows our weaknesses and failures there are some things in our life that are bringing in pleasure and there are some things in our life that are disappointing him he knows this weekend we're going to look at the aspects of each of these churches as it relates to what jesus said pleases god what pleased him and this is really important because of this truth that i want you to understand it becomes the foundation of our conversation this weekend the truth is simple god's pleasure leads to his blessings and fullness in our lives when we're experiencing his pleasure it's then that we're experiencing his blessing his fullness in our lives when we're not experiencing his smile his pleasure that's when we're not experiencing his blessings and fullness and i can prove this scripturally jesus was teaching in the parable of the talents it's called in matthew 25 and look what he says to one of the people who actually brought pleasure to his master speaking of the father and matthew 25 21 his master replied well done good and faithful servant you've been faithful with a few things i will now put you in charge of many things come and share your masters what yeah let's try that again come and share your masters yeah you see when we have god's pleasure that's when we're experiencing his blessings that's when we're experiencing his fullness are you quite often in my prayer life i'm begging god to give me his blessings and he said you don't have to beg me to give me blessings i'd love to it's just you have to live for my pleasure oh the reality is that most people miss god's blessings and faithfulness because they don't know what pleases god i'm finding in this world so many i listen to people as many of us in the church we have no clue what pleases god and then if we do know we don't live for what pleases god so we're having to beg him for his blessings and beg him for his fullness something we don't have to beg him for all we have to do is live for his pleasure are you beginning here in the revelation jesus tells us straight up what we need to know who and what pleases god straight up he speaks it if we're wise we'll sit up and take notice the first specific lesson and i'll go on the order of the churches he writes to the first church and this is what he tells us god is pleased with believers who zealously serve and remain unswerving in their allegiance to his truth all right so who what pleases god who pleases god those believers who zealously serve and then remain unswerving in their allegiance to his truth look at revelation chapter 2 verses 2 through 3. jesus is writing to the church in ephesus and he said i know your deeds your hard work very important term your hard work and your perseverance i know that you cannot tolerate wicked people that you have tested those who claim to be apostles messengers of god's truth but are not and have found them to be false if they're going against my truth you've found them to be false you haven't been deceived you have persevered and endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary and i just want you to see it in two places i hope you'll spend more time in this letter on your own but hard work hard work what's god pleased with their hard work not they're sitting around as an entitled community waiting for god to deliver everything their hard work so speaking of the kind of work that takes everything a person has to give and what's clear in jesus letter here to ephesus is that people who serve please god not people who consume givers not takers you see without christ all we can do is keep taking because we're empty without him but when we have him we're supposed to no longer be takers we're supposed to be like him givers but wow look at christianity around isn't it just a bunch of people who want to consume more and more and more and when they're not getting exactly what do they want what do they do they cuss me out write me a letter and they go to some other church well god bless them you know what they're going to find there as much crap as they're going to find here but it's about consuming i want it to be about me i want it to be about me and if it's not about me then it's not good enough for me it's all about me guess what it's not all about you it's not all about me it's all about jesus and when we make it about jesus the world will be a better place we have to we have to give everything we have to serving others and this is where i really get excited about many of you at northridge so many of you serve the lord so diligently in this ministry and it's an awesome thing to me we look at three areas in the church in the community around the world we think we should serve in all places and man so many of you serve in the church so grateful so many to serve in the community and i'm so grateful so many of you serve in the world i love being a part of a church like that in fact right now this week a team's just getting back from nicaragua today in fact just getting back from nicaragua from serving down there and i i it's really exciting on friday i got together with the staff and we started getting pictures we've been two years investing big time as a church significantly investing money and people and service giving all we can offer hard work in nicaragua with a team down there and they wrote us friday and said the water's on we took water and sanitation and health to these communities down there in the name of jesus i want you to see some pictures here's some pictures and that's part of the family the uh of people who serve down there look at the next pictures we have some of our volunteers and our team getting all wet and then we have some nicaraguans that are in the water and it's i mean my gosh this brings god pleasure for all of you who are serving here i want you to know that your hard work and your perseverance in ministry is ultimately what is helping make this church strong and bringing god a smile that's what it's doing you see we are never more like jesus than when we serve jesus came to serve not to be served not to consume and god himself when jesus was serving spoke out loud and said this is my son in whom i am well pleased and then jesus showed up to the churches and says man your hard work i've noticed it it's pleasing to me when we serve god is pleased and so all of you who are serving you bring god a smile i know it can get discouraging i know it can get hard it can feel redundant it can feel like there's no reward don't you buy it god's smiling and if you haven't found a place to serve yet i want to encourage you to find it god knows and cares about whether you're serving or not and i just need you to know i'm not telling you this so that you'll fill a position we have that's not filled so we can get you serving this organization i could care less about that that's not the reality i only want to connect you to serving so that you can experience what comes with it god's smile god's blessings god's fullness and we want to make it as easy as possible because sometimes it's hard you know to find places like this not here when you came into our live services in grow seal or brighton or here in plymouth we gave you what we call a ministry wheel and one side says get connected where you can find places where you can grow spiritually with other people the other says get involved and i really want you to take note there are lots of ways here to get involved and this isn't about our need it's about your need and i encourage you we've put banners up in 16th century here in plymouth and all you have to do is find what you might be interested in go talk to people they'll be there after the service this weekend at our regional same thing going to the lobby and we'll have signs there and if you're online that's awesome write it we'll try and help give you ideas for how to serve in the community but here's the deal it's through hard work of serving that we experience god's blessing are you experiencing it and of course the second thing he says brought god pleasure to the church of ephesus he says that you have an unswerving allegiance to god's truth i mean ephesus was standing on god's truth in a world that mocked god's truth it was so important that paul the apostle who ministered in ephesus for three years when he was leaving look what he said in acts chapter 20 verses 29-31 i know that after i leave savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock even from your own number from within the church at ephesus men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them i mean there are wolves everywhere in and outside the church so be on your guard he said remember that for three years i never stopped warning you each of you night and day with tears the truth well this mattered to god with the church at ephesus and it matters to him with us we need to be a church that recognizes the wolves and refuses to be deceived by them whether they're inside or outside the church how you doing and then jesus wrote to the next church and he says you want to know what god's pleased with god's pleased with believers whose love for and loyalty to him outweighs everything else in their lives i mean that's who he's pleased with those whose love for him and loyalty to him outweighs everything else look what he says in revelation 2 9-10 and speaking to the church in smyrna this is what jesus said i know your afflictions and your poverty i know that you're suffering you're hurting you're empty you don't have any of the needs that you feel like you have in this life i get it but don't forget you're rich because if you have nothing in this world but you have god you have everything you need for all of eternity and he says i know the slander of those who say they are jews people of god and are not but are really though they claim to be god's people they are really this is jesus talking they are really a synagogue of satan in the name of god they gathered and sang and taught and instead of being about god what were they a synagogue of satan who's saying this jesus and by the way can i just say this you don't hear much about the devil or satan anymore you don't hear it outside unless it's a joke and inside christians pastors even are afraid to talk about the devil because it makes them sound stupid in our culture it makes them sound ignorant people don't believe and say oh satan made me do it oh but when jesus showed up in a world where evil had taken over and his people were wondering why he said i'll tell you why the devil is owning the culture and you need to be aware of it they're a synagogue of satan inside and outside the church there are wolves like this don't be afraid of what you're about to suffer i tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer persecution for 10 days he's not saying 10 literal days here's what he's doing it feels like forever but it's only going to be brief you know i mean it feels forever but it's only going to be like 10 days compared to eternity be faithful even to the point of death and i will give you life as your victor's crown the suffering that believers endured and this is important for us in this world the suffering that believers had to endure in smyrna was great in fact many believers were mercilessly tortured because they would not deny faith in jesus and worship caesar their culture some were strapped on racks and torn apart others were burned in oil other were used to sport for lions before spectators jeering and cheering and as jesus told the church that was bad but smyrna was going to experience worse and it did when jesus gave us the revelation the angel of the church at smyrna the pastor of smyrna was a guy named polycarp and polycarp's life and ministry ended in ad156 somewhere between 60 and 70 years after jesus gave the revelation and his life ended as the result of the persecution that jesus said would be coming for ten days this pastor was brought into the amphitheater where a mob was chanting and cheering for his death and the governor before polycarp commanded that he deny christ and polycarp this pastor said 86 years i have served him and he never did me any harm how can i then blaspheme my king and savior and it really ticked the governor off and he shouted i'll have you destroyed by fire unless you change your attitude and polycarp answered a pastor like me in that day you threaten me with fire which burns for an hour which burns for ten days and after a little is extinguished but you are ignorant of the fires of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly but why do you delay bring on what you will he said and with the crowd cheering and glee they lit the fire that would consume this guy's life and as the flames burned him he prayed this prayer aloud i thank you god that you have graciously thought me worthy of this day and of this hour that i may be part of the number of martyrs to die for christ let me ask you where would you place your love and devotion to christ on a scale of one to ten does it outweigh everything else in your life is it bringing god a smile or would you say oh maybe maybe not we want to know what he thinks right we want his blessings and fullness right well this is what pleases him we're not even willing to have a world reject us because we believe in the devil and we believe in the bible and we believe in truth and we believe in what jesus said let alone what polycarp did maybe that explains why we're not experiencing his blessings so jesus showed up and he wrote to the third church god is pleased with believers who keep their faith and remain true to his name even in the toughest of times but he says in revelation 2 13 here he's speaking to the church at pergamum and he said i know where you live again he says it where satan has his throne satan owns that community yet you remain true to my name even though darkness owns it and you suffer for standing for me you remain true to my name you did not renounce your faith in me not even in the days of antipas my faithful witness who was put to death in your city where satan lives uh tradition tells us the antipas was slowly roasted to death in a bronze kettle and i think it's worth noticing what jesus called antipas faithful witness you know whose name that is whose title that is that's jesus title he says this guy suffered and died but he was just reflecting me a faithful witness let me ask you what happens to you when things don't go your way i'm going to tell you when things don't go my way i hate it i'm a controller i like to manufact i mean i this by nature i'm not real good when things don't go my way just drive slowly in front of me on a highway you'll see exactly how i feel when god allows you to experience times that seem unfair how do you react do you keep on trusting and living for him or do you start kind of maybe pulling away in disappointment from him getting a little angry a little bitter those in the church in pergamum kept their faith and remained true to his name in the worst of times in the times of greatest disappointment and you know what jesus said that pleases me if we want to please him we need to learn to keep our faith and remain true to his name in tough and disappointing times are you and then jesus wrote to the next church and he says god is pleased with believers who continue growing in their faith who keep growing not natural it's not easy it's difficult but they keep growing in their faith love and perseverance in christ look at revelation 2 19. in speaking to the church in thyatira he said i know your deeds your love and faith your service and perseverance and this is the important phrase and that you are now doing more than you did at first it speaks of growth right continued but you're now doing more than you did at first that's not a simple phrase for those of us who are human beings because the reality is by nature we tend to do more at first and not in the last and all i have to do to prove this is illustrate it through human relationships think of the difference between a young couple beginning a relationship versus the old married couple that's been married forever i mean when they're dating and courting it's like the guy in particular i'll do whatever you want oh my god i'll do whatever you want and then after they've been married forever it's like no i'm gonna watch golf i mean this is true of me it's like when when roxy and i first got married man i was like this is the greatest thing on the planet you know and it's like she she likes going to the mall and shopping not to buy just to do it and she liked doing it with me and so every friday night first couple of years we were every friday night we'd go the mall and hand in hand and shop it was awesome she just cherished it i wouldn't go to the mall if she paid me money anymore i mean it's like you got to be kidding me i just forget that and she talks about 42 years later she goes you know every friday night we used to go to the mall it's like you used to love me here's the thing she would tell you she thinks i love her more today than ever and i do deeper things but the truth is it's more natural to do more in the beginning than it is as time goes by and you know why because in the beginning you've got adrenaline whether you're growing in love it's exciting but in the end you lose ground sadly this is what happens in our relationship with jesus i've been a pastor here for a very long time i've seen tens of thousands come in and tens of thousands leave coming in the most excited they've ever been in life and leaving going i need a new fix let me tell you jesus isn't a fix he is the redeemer the king of kings the lord of lords and you need him within forever and he's pleased when we grow when we do more over time not less are you i mean is your faith getting stronger or weaker is your love growing deeper or are you becoming less passionate for christ is your commitment strengthening or weaking weakening is your value and love and commitment to what he values and loves his church bigger or smaller ouch and then he wrote to the next church and he says you know what god's pleased with you want to experience his blessings and fullness god is pleased with believers who keep themselves pure this is a rough one in our world you don't hear the word purity much in this world anymore in fact it's almost a joke in our world purity a lot of christians are really afraid to talk about purity because it puts them on the side of ignorant full victorian carryover uneducated pure but when jesus showed up in a world of impurity and the darkness of evil you know what he said god's pleased with the few that remained pure and just so you know you can read his letter to the church of sardis the vast majority of people and he's not talking about the people outside the church he's talking about people inside the vast majority of people inside the church at sardis had allowed themselves to be totally soiled by the culture the culture's belief the culture's values the culture's view and they were missing the whole point they were soiled with impurity but then jesus said in verse 4 yet in sardis you have a few people who have not soiled their clothes they've kept themselves pure they will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy jesus was pleased with those who had kept themselves morally pure in a world that mocked moral purity he was pleased with those who stood on god's values in a world that rejected them as foolish and i just need to say it and i want you to know this isn't a condemnation this isn't a judgment i am a flawed and failed sinner but it is my job as a believer first and as a pastor to tell the truth of jesus as is laid out jesus is pleased with those who had kept themselves morally pure today we live in that kind of world sadly most people including many of us who claim to be christians just like those in sardis have begun throwing god's clearly expressed moral values out rejecting god's views of purity in order to be accepted in and by this world and you can see it i'm sorry in people's views on truth we're living in a world where it's not there is no absolute truth there's my truth there's your truth and we have to respect each other's truths and hey we live in a free country you can believe anything you want to believe it doesn't make it true it just doesn't make it true so what we have to understand is jesus gave us absolute truth absolute values absolute morality and it's for all of us but many christians are going oh whatever you believe is cool i believe this and whatever dude and all that that's not what jesus thinks and it doesn't please him you can see it in people's views on generosity there are jesus was all about giving and generosity and sharing and so many are hoarding and pulling in you can see it in people's views of debt and spending you can see it in people's views of racial prejudice there are people who claim to love jesus who are prejudiced against different ethnicities that is as far away from jesus as you can get it's ridiculous it's just not even valid you can see it in people's views on abortion you can see it in people's view on sex and sexuality you can see it on people's views of gender and gender fluidity you can see it in people's views on marriage and you know what there are people who care more about their political cultural views than they do about what christ says you can do it but it doesn't bring god pleasure and you'll never experience god's blessings and fullness when you do i mean that's the key now there are some people who embrace that and like it there are other people who are feeling bludgeoned by it but let me just tell you i'm flawed i'm failed i'm not here to bludgeon anyone i am here to tell you that god's pleasure leads to his blessings and fullness and the only way you'll ever experience it is by bringing pleasure to god and it won't be by surrendering to culture and its dismissive values it'll be by living out god's values and truth are you here jesus makes it clear that those who keep themselves pure who stand against the world they don't go along with it are the ones who experience his pleasure i wonder how are you doing in this area of your life and let's just be honest it takes resolve it's hard you know what i want to do i want to tell you everything you want to hear so you love me and when you see me in a restaurant you'll buy my dinner and you know you'll vote for me as pastor you know i mean that'd be great but that's not why i'm here i'm here to tell the truth you see to keep yourself pure in a world of impurity you have to be willing to be very different than most people you have to be willing to be rejected by them considered a fool by them mocked by them dismissed by them you have to be willing to swim against the current of our culture and you know i don't have the strength to do that on my own and nor do you have the strength to do it either but we can do it in his strength and his grace and when you see god smile i know you can be one of the most horrible things to be the odd person out in a world but when you see god's smile it'll make it worth it all polycarp suffered in the fire of humanity but when he stepped into jesus presence it was worth everything what moment are you living for this one or the eternal one then jesus said you want to know what brings god pleasure god is pleased with believers who find their strength through faithful reliance on his name and his word not in themselves not on their traditions not on their politics but in his name in the word look at revelation 3 verses 8 and 9 and speaking of the church in philadelphia he said i know your deeds see i've placed before you an open door that no one can shut i know that you have little strength yet you've kept my word and have not denied my name i will make those who are of the synagogue of satan who claim to be god's people jews though they're not but are liars i will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that i have loved you first thing i want you to see here those who live for jesus today are going to be the minority today the dismissed ones the ostracized ones the rejected ones the mocked ones it's true and it feels horribly but what jesus says that's ten days worth but in eternity every knee is going to bow to me and every knee is going to call me lord and when that happens i'm going to bring all the ones who rejected my people and my truth before you and acknowledge that these that i called fools are the ones that jesus really loved and he says what are you living for that's what brings god pleasure the only way though we can make it the only way we can live with purity in this world of impurity is in jesus strength which is why paul said in philippians 4 13 i can do everything through him who gives me strength it's the only way i can stand and deliver truth in this place it's the only way i can get emails that celebrate me and not let my ego be boosted and it's the only way i can get emails that destroy me without being destroyed by it is in his strength i can do everything through him who gives me strength are you living in a strength that's what brings him pleasure then jesus says god is pleased with believers who faithfully faithfully reflect and represent god in this world of godlessness not through their religion and their tradition and all that junk but through an authentic relationship with him it's the only thing that matters in the end you see if you have a religion enough disappointment and suffering comes in you're out you have tradition same thing it's outside stuff doesn't do anything but when you have an authentic relationship with jesus christ he fills you overflowing even in the midst of a world that's taking from you look what he says in revelation 3 and speaking to the church at laodicea he says i know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot i wish you were one or the other he actually says but you're just lukewarm i'm gonna spew you out of my mouth so many people misunderstand this i did a whole talk on this actually from laodicea one time but what he was doing he was saying you see that city over there that's known for its cold mountain water ah refreshment you see that city over there that's filled with hot springs where people go for healing you see as a christ follower you should bring refreshment to the world or healing to the world but you're bringing none of it to the world he says you need to be earnest and repent and he says there's only one thing that can make you refreshing or healing give you fullness and blessing here i am i stand at the door of your life your churches and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i'll come in and eat with that person and they with me let me ask you how's your relationship with jesus these days would you be as ticked off at the things you're ticked off about if your relationship with jesus was the most vital thing about you would your social media feed be the same would your choices be the same would your view of the church be the same is it truly your relationship with jesus authentic or is it just like the people in sardis um it looks pretty good but i'm really soiled you see it's the difference between believers who are reflecting jesus in this world and those who aren't any different from the world the fact is the depth of our relationship with jesus christ ultimately determines everything else about our walk so i want to encourage you to nurture your relationship with jesus don't shut them out i know as truth's hard i know as absolute morals and values are at odds with the world i know that makes life difficult i know that's hard from within because we're broken and from without but it's the only thing that's worth it in the end i want to encourage you to nurture your relationship with jesus i want to encourage you don't allow your faith to be surface but let it go deep into your heart if you maintain an authentic growing relationship with jesus if you keep yourself fully open to jesus you're going to experience god's pleasure so let me give you this application if you want to experience if we want to experience god's blessings and fullness we have to make the choice to live for what pleases god we need to make the choice to live for what pleases god are you and you know where it starts whether you've already been a jesus follower or not you know where it starts by realizing he's knocking because you've shut them out and you need to open your heart to him again and let him in this truth is hard god but your truth sets me free i'm letting you in i'm disappointed god but it's only 10 days eternity is a lot longer i'm going to let you in he was talking to god's people when he said i'm knocking you've got to let me back in northridge he's knocking we need to let him in and then there are some of us who've just never opened the door of our life to him we need to let him in so just before i bring this service to a close would you bow with me in a word of prayer and as we pray i just really want to encourage you talk to god open your heart to him and if you're here and you've never done this i'm going to ask you please pray with me take my words and make them yours just say jesus i'm i'm opening my life to you right now i need you in me i've failed i haven't pleased you i know i've sinned against you but jesus you died on the cross for my sin and rose again to give me new life so by faith i'm opening my life to you confessing my sin to you and trusting you to forgive me and give me new life in jesus name amen if you just prayed with me please let us know we'd love to give you some thoughts about next steps you can take in your relationship with god and and all you have to do is text us one word the name of our church northridge to the number 16 16 3 16 16 and we'll send you information no threat no manipulation you don't owe us anything but we'd love to know that you took that step as i was putting this talk together i knew it would be difficult hard for me for you for all of us for the world and yet so important and so i started thinking what can i do to help process this because hearing at one time is not going to do it what can i do to help process this and one of my team members came up with this idea why don't we put together a an online document a digital document with the things that please god so that we can have it on our phones and our ipads and on our computers our desktops you know that whatever and that's a great idea and this is what they came up with what pleases god and each of these points in the passage it comes from so we can go oh oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah and we can spend time evaluating ourselves and all you have to do to get this it's really simple pleases god is the idea so we said just two two letters pg that's all you have to do pg that's the message you sent to us pg not g not r not n c 17 p g and you send it to 3 16 16 that same number we own that text number so it's interacting with us and we'll send you this and here's the action step i want to encourage you to take this week spend time evaluating god's pleasure quotient with you remember i said 1 to 10 what's god's pleasure quotient with you on each of those areas i think like the churches back then he's going to say to you this one you're pretty good at and then there'll be another one who goes bad and you can know that god's blessings and fullness flows from bringing him pleasure let's be believers let's be a church that brings god's pleasure and then gets to share him with a world of darkness let's do it together thanks for coming hope to see you next week [Music] hey [Music] oh [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] one [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: NorthRidge Church

Views: 2,762

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: NorthRidge, NorthRidge Church, Plymouth MI, Michigan, Church in Michigan, Church in Plymouth MI, Brad Powell, Faith, Hope, Bible, God, Jesus, Love, Worship, Live Music, church live, Pete Wilson

Id: 3BVfogEWtlw

Length: 75min 5sec (4505 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021