Alright, we're gonna stand up. Shake your arms out a little bit.
Shake your hands. Act a little silly.
Here we go.
Come, now is the time to worship. Come, now is the time to give your heart.
Come, just as you are to worship. Come, just as you are before your God.
Come, now is the time to worship. Come, now is the time to give your heart.
Come, just as you are to worship. Come, just as you are before your God.
Come, one day every tongue will confess you are God. One day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those who manage to look him down.
Come, now is the time to worship. Come, now is the time to give your heart.
Come, just as you are to worship. Come, just as you are before your God.
Good morning, good morning, good morning. We gathered in the house of the Lord.
It's just a big old building, but here are the hearts of God's people.
Here, the Holy Spirit of God fills up his people.
And we go from here, and we take him everywhere.
And I trust that you will follow him every moment.
Come on, let's go.
Alright, we're going to pray together. We're going to worship God.
He deserves more worship than we can give him.
He deserves more praise than you can lift up today.
Your voice cannot be loud enough to honor God the way he deserves.
And I am in the same place. So we will unite together. We'll try to do it together.
We'll try to do a better job together than we can do apart, given him glory.
We're going to let go of the things that will distract us.
I will remind you, it's not our main focus today, but I will remind you that this day, 21 years ago, there was a great tragedy.
Our nation was struck by a great terrorist attack down the Twin Towers in New York City.
That's a good boy.
And we're not going to forget that event probably ever until Jesus comes again.
It is not as significant of an event as what took place on Yilgah.
Obviously when Jesus was crucified it was a much more significant event.
When you got saved, when I got saved, if you're here today when you're a Christian, that was even more of a significant event.
Because that made us into eternal beings. And we're grateful for that.
But terrible, terrible things happened that day. Thousands and thousands of people lost their lives.
Thousands of people suffered. And many heroes rushed in and gave their lives to try to save a few more.
And we mustn't forget the sacrifice of that day.
Also as a stark reminder that we have an enemy. There is evil in the world.
And so it's wise to keep your head about you. It's wise to keep your eyes open.
It's wise to follow Jesus because tomorrow is not promised.
And so as you pray this morning I'll remember that tragic event.
We'll focus on God. We'll let this time be about not what has been in the history.
Not what has gone on yesterday, years ago.
So we're going to pray thanking God for what's going on right now in us.
Father in heaven, you're an awesome God. You're a protector God, provider God, a purposeful, powerful God.
You have seen us in our daily walks. You've seen what we're about.
We know as a man thinks in his heart so is he. And you read what is written in our hearts.
You know it even when we don't know it. You know what's coming before we see it coming.
Father, that day in 2001 a lot of people went to work thinking it was just another ordinary day.
That nothing crazy was going to happen.
That means there were Christians and non-Christians alike who went to work in those buildings.
Who went to work at the fire station or police precinct building or in a taxi cab.
Lord, there were people who went to work thinking it was just going to be an ordinary day.
The truth is because of your love for mankind, because of the wrath that you have against sin,
because of the enemy of mankind, there really is no such thing as an ordinary day.
We don't complacent. We accept things and think that they're just going to always be that way.
Nothing like that is going to happen to us.
We think there's nothing special that we need to do today. But that just isn't so.
We're given an opportunity to be a light. We're called to be in relationship with you.
We have had sin and some days now we have sin and we may have sin tomorrow.
Because of that we need a great Savior. A Savior who can pay the price for all sin.
A great Lord. Someone who can lead us to places that we need to go and ultimately into the ultimate place that we need to be.
And we have that in Jesus Christ.
But we know that probably some died that day who didn't have Him.
And that is probably the greatest tragedy of all.
Whatever bad things happen here on this earth, they are but fleeting.
You're someone who never comes to know you.
So bad just doesn't seem bad.
Father we ask you to bless this time together.
Even as we remember tragedy, let us yearn for great things.
Let us long for you at work in our lives and the place that you're taking us and keep our eyes on Jesus and not on what's going on around us.
Let's put our focus in the right place. Let's lift our voices up this morning to honor you the way you deserve.
And you know we're weak by comparison to what you deserve.
But as weak people we come together and we experience your strength together as we praise you.
We thank you for what you're going to do in this place today.
We pray for the lessons. We pray for the songs. We pray for the preparations that have already been done.
We pray for those who already had a big day this morning and they're here because the most important thing.
We pray for those who overcame burdens and struggles and strife and drama to be here this morning.
That we can put our focus where it belongs. We give you all honor and glory and praise. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Alright if I could have everyone on their feet this morning. You are able to do so.
Notice I left out the winning. Get up boys. Let's go.
So I have a challenge for you this morning. We've been doing motion songs for a while now.
I like it. It gets the kids involved. It gets me moving. It gets the blood flowing.
But I'm a believer in learning something. So we're going to learn some sign language this morning as we go into these songs.
They're a bit of a challenge. You're about to see a tongue twister in sign language form.
So just brace yourself. But we're going to do some learning first.
So the first word that I have for you is love. So make sure you can see me.
We've got two fists. We're crossing them over our chest like this. This is love.
Lord. You're going to have to make an L with your hand.
Cross from your shoulder down. That's lord.
God. Your palm. Straight and down. God.
Heart. You're drawing a heart. Nice and simple.
Soul. So you're going to take two hands like this and the top one moves upward.
So I usually do it here. I'm just trying to make sure you can see.
Mind. You're tapping twice.
And then strength. From your shoulders and down.
And then all is a circle.
So that's it for the first song. We're going to go through just the first line just so you can see how it goes.
So it goes. Love. The lord. Your god.
With all your heart. With all your soul.
With all your mind. And with all your strength.
It's going to go kind of fast. Follow along the best you can.
It repeats a few times. And we'll get through it. Go ahead.
Got some vocal parts to be getting here. I need to see some dance moves.
Here we go.
You saw your soul. Without your mind. Without your strength.
And the lord your god. With all your heart. With all your soul.
It's on your train
Without your heart
Without your soul
Without your mind
Without your train
Hold the launch of your gun
Without your heart
Without your soul
Without your mind
It's on your train
I'm a simple life
Without my heart
With all my soul With all my mind
With all my train
I'm a simple life
With all my heart
With all my soul
With all my mind
With all my train
With all my heart
With all my soul
With all my mind
With all my train
I'm a simple life
With all my heart, with all my soul, with all my might,
with all my strength.
Oh, yeah.
Woo!
All right.
Don't go anywhere.
We've got one more.
I'm going to add three more words to your vocabulary real quick.
The rest of them are the same.
So you're going to see some that you've already seen before.
So first we've got life.
Give me two L's that are going up like this.
Life.
Hope.
And then praise.
So, yep.
And then down.
That was in the last one.
I just missed it.
Carry on.
They followed it.
Most of them are getting it.
I'm impressed.
So the rest of them are the same.
What are we going to do?
Yeah.
Woo!
Oh, yeah.
Yes.
All right.
So we're going to take a moment where we ask ourselves, how has the Lord been speaking
this last week?
What have you seen in His Word?
Remember that we are emphasizing prayer.
So I hope you've been talking to God.
And maybe even a more important part of prayer is listening to God.
So how have we been listening?
What have we been hearing?
What do you got?
Brother Tony Tate.
And it's like a recapping, I was talking to someone the other day and I don't know if
anybody's ever seen it, but it's really, really good.
It's Cards 3.
Just wanted to start.
Sorry.
That was part of the video.
But in Cards 3, the movie is based on basically the whole time, him trying to get back at
it, him trying to be better than the younger crew and racing it.
So what happens is there's this trainer that's training him all the time, but he finds out
that she wanted to be a racer, but she's really, really small.
She's not strong enough to be a racer.
Well, at the end of the movie, and I'm going to spoil it, the idea is that she gets on
the track.
He sees that she could possibly do this.
Well, at the end of the movie, she's doing great.
She's overcoming some of the obstacles.
And then the younger guy or the faster guy says something to her and says, everybody
knows out here that you are not a racer.
And then she begins to just slow down.
And she's done.
Everybody starts passing her, and she's not going to make it.
And the one who's going to drive, he's the coach now.
He's got a headphone, and it's in his ear and a headphone so she can speak to her.
And I always feel like that's God.
He's our coach.
He's got the Holy Spirit.
He's got his headphone on.
I mean, it's not like that when we can think like that.
And he's speaking to her.
And he says, I see something inside of you that you don't see.
And I was just reminding myself, what is that that God sees in us that we don't see?
And I just thought about it.
One is redemption.
God sees that we're redeemed, that He's purchased us.
We are not who we used to be or what we used to be.
We are who He says we can be, who we are now.
We're no longer what we're a who.
The second thing is that God sees His perfection in us.
Not that we're perfect by any standard, but God has made us perfect, holy and true and righteous
because there's no blame, there's no fault in us anymore.
Through Jesus' blood, He traded that sacrifice, our unrighteousness for His righteousness.
And so when He sees us, He sees us perfect and being perfected into His image.
And the other thing that He sees, you know, and not saying that God can't heal
and that God can't do amazing things, is that whether it's healing or, you know, there is a miracle,
before all that, it's because God sees you as amazing.
That's right.
He sees you every day, that He cares for you.
Just like He says, a sparrow falls from a tree, just one little sparrow.
Who notices that?
Somebody does, but I never, but God sees just that sparrow fall from the ground
or anything that is suffering.
How much more are you than the sparrow?
And the idea is that how much more value, not that God doesn't value any creature, that's not the point.
It's when I'm saying how much more it means because to Him, not to change anything, but to Him,
to how He sees you, you are more.
Amen.
As you were speaking, what popped into my head, and I think sometimes we miss this,
it's one of the big pieces of the Christmas story that we tend to miss,
but that when the angels come on the night of Jesus' birth and they're announcing Jesus' birth,
this is before the death, burial, and resurrection, before Jesus' public ministry,
before the repent to the Kingdom of God is at hand of Jesus,
because even though John also taught that message, John was being born just months before Jesus, most likely,
but he says this of everybody on the earth, he says, of man, that Jesus would be the Savior of man,
with whom God is pleased.
So despite your sin, God loves you.
God will resist our sin.
Here's wrath against sin, that's a reality, but the reality is God loves you before you were ever saved,
and if you were saved in this room, you can look back at your life before you got saved and know that that was true.
You can see how He was working, He was protecting, He was leading, He was guiding,
and He loves you before you knew enough to love Him back, and that's also, we love Him because He first loved us.
I keep finding voices in my mind saying I'm not enough
Every single life it tells me I'll never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?
Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know
You say I am strong when I think I win
You say I am hell when I am falling short
And when I'm going wrong, oh, you say I am yours
And I believe, oh, I believe what you say I believe
The only thing that matters now is everything you think of me
And girl, I find my worth in you, I find my name
You say I am strong when I think I win
You say I am hell when I am falling short And when I'm going wrong, oh, you say I am yours
And I believe, oh, I believe what you say I believe
Taking all I have and now I'm laying at your feet
You'll have everything you got, you'll have everything you want
Oh, you say I am hell when I can't feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I win
You say I am hell when I am falling short And when I'm going wrong, oh, you say I am yours
And I believe, oh, I believe what you say I believe
Oh, I believe, yes, I believe what you say I believe
I believe, yes, I believe what you say
In working through the book of Deuteronomy, we have seen a number of what I would say defenses against the dark arts, if anybody in the room is a Harry Potter fan.
We're talking about the real dark arts, not the dark arts that an author designed. It is very possible for you to fall into idolatry despite your best efforts to remain pure.
It's very possible for you to find something in your life that you value so much and it rises and looms large and you start to declare its worth and let it govern your calendar, your schedule, etc.
It's very possible for a human being to fall into that and God was warning the Israelites as they were going into the promised land to avoid falling into that and then through his holy scripture, thousands of years later warned us to avoid falling into that.
It's very possible to fall into the trap of comparing yourself with someone else. I think they are smarter or they are dumber or they are stronger or they are weaker.
They are prettier or they are uglier or whatever. It doesn't matter how you compare yourself with someone else, but it's very possible to slowly absorb enough of comparing yourself with someone else to literally kill yourself and your walk with God.
And we have been warned against those things and today as we look at a little bit more from the book of Deuteronomy, we are going to get a little bit more on how to stand against the dark arts.
How to stand against the efforts of the enemy and the efforts of the world to sort of pry us out of the loving hands of God.
Never forget in all your Christian walk, and this is free, not part of the message, but the Spirit impresses upon me at this moment. Never forget in all your walk with God through Jesus Christ that Satan wants you.
Everywhere, everything, everything that there is, every place on the earth, every moment in time, every dollar ever given, ever spent, ever saved, if God wants control of it and God indeed does have control of much of it, then Satan also wants control of that thing.
And so never forget that there is a great effort afoot to try to get control of us. And I am for one here saying, and I think the Lord has been saying this since we've been together today, that if we believe, he just can't have it.
Now go with me to the scriptures, if you will, and we're going to look at, maybe you'll say amen or hoot or holler or something, because Sean take a deep breath right now.
Deuteronomy chapter 10. Yeah! Alright, this is God's word, good man.
Deuteronomy chapter 10. The blessing of this is we're only going to read the first nine verses. So we did chapter nine last week and we did really seven and eight the previous week.
Both of that was a huge chunk, as seven really helped us understand eight. But today we're just going to read the first nine verses of the book of Deuteronomy chapter 10.
But then we're going to go to several other places in scripture to understand how this relates to us directly today and why this thing that we're about to read is so powerfully a direction for us as God's church in 2022 and as long as you should live upon the earth.
So here we go. Deuteronomy chapter 10 beginning with verse one.
At that time the Lord said to me, remember this is Moses speaking and he's relating the story of what happened and you might say, you might have said back in the day, right? This is what happened.
Moses is telling us what had already happened back in the day. So at that time the Lord said to me, cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me.
Also make an ark out of wood. I will write upon the tablets the words that were on the tablets that you broke and you shall place them in the ark.
Also I made an ark of acacia wood and cut two stone tablets like the first ones and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
The Lord then wrote on the tablets as he had written before the 10 words the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly and the Lord gave them to me.
Then I turned and came down from the mountain place the tablets in the ark I had made.
There they have remained as the Lord commanded me. Now there has been a dispute over the years as to who wrote the second set of 10 commandments and here as Moses is relating it to them he is saying the Lord wrote.
The Lord physically wrote. We know the Lord made the first tablets and wrote on the first tablets.
If you go back into the book of Exodus it says that Moses essentially wrote them. I submit to you that I wouldn't make a big deal out of it.
It's kind of irrelevant. They are God's word. This is a replacement set of tablets because Moses broke the first one.
That is what's important. You could even say this is God's word and I would submit to you that this is my replacement Bible today because the Bible that I normally preach out of I left at home.
Does that make this replacement Bible any less powerful or packed with God's word or inspired by God's holy word that it was made by a different company than the one that I would have brought or that's been written?
It's the same exact translation. The words would be exactly the same inside. The footnotes are the same. Everything is the same.
And it was the same for Moses. So don't get hung up on that if you read that and people think that's kind of a contradiction.
Moses is saying this is the holy inspired commands of God. That's what he's saying.
He says I turned and it came down from the mountain and I placed the tablets in the ark that I had made. There they have remained as the Lord commanded me.
Now verse six. The Israelites set out from Beiroth Ben-Zhaken for Masurah. Aaron died there and was buried.
His son Eliezer succeeded him or succeeded him as priest. So he became the priest.
From there they set out for Gadgadah or Gadgadah and from Gadgadah for Dabbatha. A region where there is water in the Wadi.
The Wadi is a stream that only exists when the water is running down off the mountains.
Verse eight. At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi. And this is where it really begins to kind of get thick for us.
I want you to think about this. At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
Now very technically it wasn't the Levites who were going to carry all the ark and all of its implements necessarily.
They carried the ark and I think it was the Korahites carried everything else. So it was the Levites carrying the ark.
But the bottom line is he says at that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
So what is the ark of the covenant of the Lord? What was it? It's the box in which the commandments were placed.
On top of it you see two angels with their wings sort of pointed toward the center.
It was representative of the position or the touching down if you will of God's Holy Spirit on the earth. You follow?
That's what it was. So in there between those two angels pointing together that was representative of where God touched down on the earth.
And the Levites were the ones who were assigned to carry it. So they were essentially if you'll follow my logic they were carrying God's presence on the earth.
You follow that? That's what they were doing. They were carrying the ark of the covenant and that represented where God's presence touched down on the earth.
And so they were assigned to carry God's presence on the earth. No one else was allowed to touch it.
In fact later some guy touches it supposedly out of the good nature of his heart and he's killed instantly.
Later two Levites or young Levites offer unauthorized fire to the ark in the temple and they are immediately destroyed and die. Aaron's sons.
So it had to be done right and they were the people assigned to carry God's presence on the earth. Let's go a little further.
I'll start back in 8. At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
To stand before the Lord to minister to him. So now we have they are given the right to go into the presence of God.
They are going to have that first hand communication with God. They are going to be a people that have a proper relationship with God.
And actually are people that intermediate if you will or that stand between the rest of the Israelites, the rest of the people and God.
They are given the right to stand before the Lord to minister to him. So first they are going to carry the presence of God on the earth.
Then they are going to be given the right to stand before the Lord to minister to him.
And then it says and to bless in his name. And to bless in his name. So they could go around and they could declare God's blessings.
And you know they could declare it on the holy water. They could declare it on the various implements of the temple.
And they could declare it on people. So I could say be blessed and if I am a Levite that blessing of God has now been declared.
Now already I think you are seeing, look at these three things. The similarity to the job that they have been given and the job that Christians have been given.
So real quick in a synopsis you could say that Christians have been given the responsibility of carrying around the presence of the Lord God.
And I will come back to that later. And the responsibility to walk into or come into his presence with prayer. And we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And we talk to God first person first hand. I don't call him on the phone and I don't talk to him through somebody else.
I don't give my prayer request to somebody else or I will make a note of this so later on I can pass it to somebody else.
I talk to God as a Christian through Jesus. And then we are able to bless in his name.
And it says as they have done to this day, that was the ordained people of God to do that thing.
Christians do all of those things. That has now been given over into our hands to do.
Verse 9 and we will stop here in the book of Deuteronomy for the day says this.
For this reason, hold on to your hat, Levi has no hereditary portion with his relatives.
Or in other words will have no possession in the land. They wouldn't go in and have like if you look at a tribal map.
Where all the tribes settled, you won't see Levi on the map.
He wasn't given a possession in the promised land that they were headed into on the earth.
He would have no hereditary portion with his relatives. The Lord himself is his portion.
In other words, instead of getting a part of the promised land on the earth, they were given God himself.
And how were they given God? Again, they were given God to carry his presence on the earth.
To stand before God to minister to him and to bless in his name.
And because they were given those aspects, if you will, they were given God himself as they played out in those aspects.
They were given no hereditary portion with his relatives.
The Lord himself is his, meaning Levi's, the tribe of Levi's portion.
And it says, as the Lord your God promised him.
And I submit to you that God has promised us through his holy word.
And I'll show you enough of that to believe it by the time we're done if you don't already.
That we would be now as the Levi's were then.
Okay, so I hope you brought your Bibles with you and you'll kind of stick with me as we go along.
So the first place we're going to go is to John chapter 18.
So grab your Bible, flip. If you didn't, it's okay. If you don't own a Bible, see me.
I'll remedy that. Just not right this second because I'm busy right now.
Okay, John 18 verse 33.
John 18 beginning in verse 33.
I love it when we can plug together what God taught us through the Old Testament.
Very closely, very simply with what Jesus taught while he was walking the earth.
And that is exactly what you're going to see here.
So this story comes from when Jesus is on trial in front of Pilate.
Okay, so Jesus has been accused of being, quote, the king of the Jews.
And the Jews really brought him not on that, but on the fact that he claimed to be God.
That's why they really accused him.
In fact, they tried to find people to pair up and witness against him on a lot of different things that he had said.
And a lot of different things that he had done.
And they couldn't. They couldn't get any two people to match their stories.
They'd have two adult males of testifying age to match their stories against a man in order to sentence him.
And they couldn't.
But when they got to the fact that Jesus said he was God in the flesh, they could.
They found people. And so then that they wanted to sentence him.
But they weren't allowed to put him to death under Roman law, even though they'd broken that law before.
So they brought him to Pilate to accuse him so that Pilate can have him put to death.
And that's the story where we're at.
So verse 33 says this.
Pilate, therefore, entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews?
Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me?
Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you up to me.
What have you done?
Jesus answered, Listen, listen closely.
My kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered up to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.
Pilate, therefore, said to him, So you are a king?
Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king.
For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.
Pilate said to him, What is the truth?
Jesus at the moment of his potentially being sentenced to be crucified points out this fact.
My kingdom is not of this world.
Bear in mind then that if you are in his kingdom, that biological extension, number one, you are not of this world.
If you have become a presence bearer of the living God, able to come into his presence and make known your request to him,
able to bring his blessing upon people of this earth, then you, brother, you sister, are not a member of a kingdom that resides upon this planet.
Your feet still walk here, but your heart belongs in the kingdom of God, which is not of this world.
Bear that in mind then, because a lot of Christians are acting like their kingdom is of this world.
Don't you think?
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Luke chapter 14.
So if you're following along, you're going to go back to the left one book, Luke 14.
Luke chapter 14 and we'll begin in verse 25.
Again, from the teachings of Jesus, Luke chapter 14 beginning in verse 25 says as follows,
Now great multitudes were going along with him.
So a lot of crowds following him, a lot of people with him, and he turned and he said to the crowds, to the multitudes,
he said to all those who were gathering around him, he says,
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters,
and yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Huge crowds following him, and whatever their logic or reasoning was, Jesus says,
There is literally only one way that you can be my disciple, and he frames it as this, he says,
Hate your mother and your father and your wife and your children and your brothers and your sisters,
and yes, even your own life, if you want to be my disciple.
Verse 27 says, Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
And don't be surprised, don't think that they didn't know what he meant.
The cross was a symbol of only one thing in the day that Jesus lived.
It was a symbol of crucifixion, it was a symbol of being nailed up in public until you can no longer breathe or bleed out and die.
That's what the cross was a picture of.
It was not a picture of, let's go to the movies and see this movie or that movie.
It was not a picture of, let's drive our car to the grocery store and buy more buns.
It was not a picture of anything that we do in our daily basis.
It was a picture of dying for what you have done.
Now whether you were rightly accused or falsely accused, Jesus is saying,
Unless you take up your cross, you cannot be my disciple.
In other words, if you do not die, if you are not willing to die for what you have done, you cannot be my disciple.
He goes on, verse 28, For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
Otherwise, when he is laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him.
Everyone is going to mock you if you all say you are my followers, but you are not willing to go the length, is what he is saying.
You haven't looked at what it is going to cost and you know in advance that God willing, God empowering, you are going to stay the course.
Verse 30 says, They will mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.
Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel,
whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000?
Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace.
So therefore, no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
So what do you get to have? As Jesus' disciple, what do you get to keep? What do you get to have?
Jesus said, wait for it, nothing. First he said, My kingdom is not of this world.
And then he said, If you are part of my kingdom and following me as my disciple, you get to keep literally nothing.
Now I firmly know that many people have misused these verses over the years, but I don't want to do that today.
I want to understand what Jesus is saying to me about what it is that I have possessed while I am on this earth.
Well, it seems pretty point blank. If I would be his disciple, I must give up all my possessions.
He started with saying, I have to hate my father, mother, children, brothers, sisters, even my own life in order to be his disciple.
Then he said, I have to carry my cross, willing to be willing to even die for what I believe in or for what I've done in my life.
And then ultimately I can keep nothing. That's pretty harsh. We'll go on.
James 4, going to the right in your Bibles back into the little books, if you will. James chapter 4.
In the day of James, who was the brother of Jesus, who wrote this book, he was addressing a problem that had developed in the young church.
I submit to you it exists in the old church, almost the same. James chapter 4.
And we'll begin. Let's see. Let's begin in verse 4. You adulteresses or adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?
In other words, if you're meshing well with the world system, you are literally being hostile toward God.
You're an enemy of God if you're a friend of the world. Simple.
Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scriptures speak to no purpose?
He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. Remember who we are?
We are those people who are the bearers of God's presence, His Holy Spirit in us.
We are those people who can willingly, openly, simply, carefully, but not worryedly come into the presence of a holy God
and pray to Him and expect that He hears what we have to say and answers our very prayers.
We are those people. And we can walk around and bring God's blessing on people. We are those people.
And in being those people, the Holy Spirit in us, God jealously desires His Spirit which he has made to dwell in us.
I submit to you today, and this is almost a side note, don't take God's Spirit into places that God's Spirit don't want to go.
Because you will offend the Father. Verse 6 says, But he gives us a greater grace.
Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Be miserable and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you.
When we think we're doing okay, when we feel like we're happy and up, when we're excited that things went the way we wanted them to go,
we must never forget that hell was our eternal destination if it were not for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If it were not for the virtually infinite forgiveness provided for by the
Lord Jesus Christ, we would have been in the same place.
Now standing at the right hand of God making intercession for us, Savior Jesus.
Turn with me, Ben, back then to Matthew chapter 6.
We're going all the way back to the beginning of the New Testament, the very first book in the New Testament.
Matthew chapter 6, back into the life of Jesus.
I quoted her a verse to Jesus that said, can you narrow down to four books of the Bible where that verse appeared?
She said, well, how could I possibly do that?
I said, well, because there are four books of the Bible in which the life of Jesus is essentially told.
You know what they are?
She said, no, was John one of them?
I said, well, yes, it was, as a matter of fact.
I said, it's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John because those are the gospels.
Those contain the life of Jesus.
And so if you get a quote of Jesus, almost always there are a few exceptions, but almost always if you get a quote of Jesus, you're going to get it from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John or Revelation.
And there are just a very few exceptions other than that.
All right. Now we're in Matthew 6 beginning of verse 19.
Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth.
Don't keep stuff here that belongs to you that you relish.
Don't save up. Don't prepare.
Don't do all those kinds of things.
So don't do that where moth and decay destroy and thieves break in and steal, but store up treasures in heaven where neither moth or decay destroys nor thieves break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.
Now skip to 24.
No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon and mammon is basically money.
Verse 25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body.
What you will wear is not life more than food and body more than clothing.
Look at the birds in the sky.
They do not sow or reap.
They gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying at a single moment to your lifespan?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wildflowers flowers grow.
They do not work or spin, but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothed the grass of the field which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, what are we to eat or what are we to drink or what are we to wear?
All these things the pagans seek, your heavenly father knows that you need them, that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things, all those things that you need,
will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.
And so here is Jesus alive on the earth reminding us that we do not need to be collectors of things.
In fact, he is saying, do not possess things on the earth.
Do not make that your habit or your intention. Rather possess things in heaven.
Store up for yourself treasures. He is not talking about metaphysical treasures.
He is not saying, you know, people say, well you cannot buy love.
Well that is true. You cannot buy love and you cannot earn it either.
You cannot trick someone into loving. You cannot manipulate them into loving.
Love is a thing that a person really needs to know God to truly have love.
And once it spawns in your heart, you cannot stop it even if you wanted to.
He is not talking about those metaphysical things. Those things are produced by the fruit of the Holy Spirit that is in us.
He is talking about stuff. He is saying, do not worry about your stuff.
Do not worry about where your stuff is going to come from. Do not worry about where you are even.
And he uses food and clothing as the example because everybody needs that, right?
But we do not just have food and clothing. Most of us, we have lots of other things that we are concerned about, worrying about, wanting to have, etc.
And he is saying, do not do that. Store up for yourself rather treasures in heaven.
Now, 1 Corinthians 10. We have got two more and then the conclusion has won.
1 Corinthians 10. So you are going back to the right.
1 Corinthians 10. Not quite all the way to the small books in the right.
1 Corinthians 10. Now this is Paul and he is writing to the church at Corinth.
Now, it is an interesting history point about the church at Corinth.
There were so many people in Corinth who were so wrapped up in idolatry and sinful behavior that the word Corinthian almost became synonymous with the word Cretan, which you have heard.
They were literally living in so much debauchery. It was so bad there.
But then when the church came in, they were a stark difference.
Paul could see a complete difference in them and the world began to see the same thing.
And now Paul is writing to that church, which is so powerful and it is standing up, but it has some problems.
He says in verse 23 of chapter 10, so it is 10.23.
All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. In other words, you can do anything you want.
You can do anything you want on the earth. You are saved, you are saved. That is not going to change.
Not all things have become lawful now. We do not have to go to ourselves.
You know, look, you can't cuss. If you cuss, you are going to hell. You can't do that.
It is not true anymore because now you are saved. If you are saved, you are going to heaven. Period. It is settled.
He says all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.
All things are lawful, but not all things edified. In other words, not all things are good for you or good for the kingdom.
And not all things are going to be lifting up and encouraging and making you strong.
Verse 24 says, let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.
In other words, you should not be working to better your own position, but rather better everyone else's position.
Verse 25, eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience.
Eat anything that is sold in the meat market without asking questions for conscience.
They had this stuff sold in the meat market that was previously sacrificed to idols.
They were like, oh, that is going to make it unclean. You can't do that.
But if you don't care about that, then you don't care about that because an idol is nothing.
An idol doesn't do anything. It doesn't change anything about the food.
He says, for the earth is the Lord's and all it contains.
OK, now I get this. I'm beginning to understand. Are you beginning to understand?
That stuff that you're trying to take for yourself, to whom does it belong?
It actually belongs to God.
Jesus is saying, unless you let that stuff go and let it go into the hands of God, you're actually stealing from God.
That stuff that you're managing, the best you understand, the best you know how, the best way you know how, that actually belongs to God.
He says, all things for the earth is the Lord's and all it contains.
If one of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go eat anything that's set before you without asking questions for conscience sake,
but if anyone should say to you, this is meat sacrificed to idols, do not eat it for the sake of the one who informed you and for conscience sake.
So in other words, if they thought it had become ungodly and they said, are you going to eat this even though it's ungodly?
Then you decline. Not because you can't eat it. Not because it's changed that meat somehow or changed what it is somehow,
changed that possession into something that you can't possess.
But because the person who spoke to you has a conscience that's been wounded by the fact that it was sacrificed to idols.
And if you now eat, then he says, well, what about God? What does that actually say?
In other words, everything that's on this earth is okay for you to possess it as long as you don't possess it.
Oh, my goodness. This seems hard. One section left. It's Romans chapter eight.
Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse 31. So you're going back to the left. Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse 31.
I love this chapter. It's spoken to my heart so much over the years.
We're just going to take a couple of verses out of it. Romans chapter eight, 31 and 32.
831 says this, what then shall we say to these things? Okay, so what are the things?
Let's go back for one second and look at 29. For whom he foreknew that God knew us in advance, he also predestined,
that means God said it would happen, to become conformed, that means we would be changed, to the image of his son,
which means we'd be like Jesus, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren,
so that Jesus could be the first of us to be like we are, and whom he predestined, these he also called.
So the ones he chose in advance, he also called them to himself, and whom he called, these he also justified.
So he made it as if you were innocent, he called you and then made it as if you were innocent,
and whom he justified, those he made as if they were innocent, he also glorified,
that means he took you to heaven when you die and live forever. Get all that?
What shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, will he not also with him, that's Jesus,
with Jesus freely give us all things. Okay, so I think I got this.
God owns everything, and if I try to take it and use it here on the earth,
then I'm not really following Jesus the way God would want me to, so therefore I cannot be a disciple.
On the other hand, if I commended all over into God's care, which it actually is his,
so it's only right that he would care for it, then through Jesus, as he eventually gives all things to Jesus,
he will also give all things to me. That kind of makes sense.
We've got one set of verses left that we'll read in a moment. It's in 1 Peter, so it's to the right,
and you can work on getting there, we're not going to be there just yet, but we'll get there before we're through.
1 Peter, and it's in chapter 2. 1 Peter, chapter 2, verses 9 through 11.
1 Peter 2, 9 through 11. So here's what I want to know. Having looked at this and attempted to digest it,
having read about the Levites and realizing that I am like them, if I am,
I want you to resonate with me on this, think about this for a second and see if it applies to you.
If I am a presence bearer of the Lord. In other words, if God's Holy Spirit is in me, and wherever I go, God goes.
Now, you can say God is everywhere, I get that, yet God says he's in me.
So he is intense in me in a sense that I am bringing his presence wherever I go.
I submit to you that if you go into a household of lost people, after you're there for a short period of time,
they should recognize something different about you, because you brought God with you.
Someone says, well, I'm going to do this. And you might want to say, well, this is what God says about that.
Take it or leave it. I'm not saying I'm not here to control you, I'm not here to be in charge of you,
but here's what God says about that. And that ought to make you different from somebody else who's not living for the Lord, right?
So if I am a presence bearer of the Lord, wherever I go. I remember some years ago we were over on Main Street,
there was a young man who came to our church for a while, and he felt called to witness, to tell people about Jesus.
And him and I got together and prayed about whether or not we, him and I, because he wasn't a member of our church,
whether or not him and I could go out, he and I could go out and share the gospel with people,
and just walk to the neighbors and talk to people. And the Lord specifically said to me, He said, yes, you can go.
And I'm like, OK, I'm going to go. And he said, I will go with you. I'm like, OK, awesome.
I said, I feel like that was kind of a given, but I'm really grateful that you said that, you know.
It really makes me feel more comfortable doing this. And he said, and wherever you go, my light will shine.
When you walk into the darkness, people will be able to see for the very first time ever.
I'm like, yeah, that's it right there. I'm in, baby. Let's do that. Let's take the light where the dark is.
If I am a presence bearer of the Holy God, what am I supposed to do to walk the walk to the end of my life until Jesus comes again?
Man, if I am a presence bearer of a Holy God, that ought to be the way it is.
I ought to arrive at the moment where Jesus comes again and ought to be, yes, Lord, let's go. I've been waiting for this moment.
That's what I want to be. If I'm a presence bearer of the God of the universe, if His Holy Spirit is in me,
I'm dealing with everything that is around me. If I am a presence bearer of a Holy God,
then what should be going on in the transactions or as the King James calls it, the conversation of my life?
If I am a blesser, if I can come into your life and share a word that can draw you closer to God,
that can help you better understand the Lord, that can maybe forgive your sin.
When Peter was being handed the keys of the kingdom, which I know that got confused over the years a little bit,
but when you get right back to the scripture, he said, everything that you bind on earth will have been already bound in heaven.
And everything you lose on earth will have already been loosed in heaven.
In other words, if I am like that, if I can come into your life and pronounce a blessing, and I can say to you,
I believe God loves you, I believe God forgives you for what you've already done through His Son Jesus Christ,
and all you need to do is believe in Jesus as Lord, which means He tells you what to do,
as Savior, which means He paid the price for your sin, and follow Him proclaiming that God raised Him from the dead.
Understand that if I am a blesser, if I am a blessing of God walking around on two feet bringing God's blessing,
how should my life be going on? How should I be dealing with all these things that God has brought into my life
that I own, that I want, places I've got to go? What should the conversation of my life be like?
If I am a presence bearer and a blesser, then what should my life be like? I want to know.
And summing up all of these verses, here is my answer. 1 Peter chapter 2, beginning in verse 9.
It says, but you, and I'm in there, it's a very small word you, but it includes me, and if you are willing it includes you,
but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, holy means completely different than any other,
a holy nation, a people for God's own possession that God would own us. God owns me.
You can't mess with this because God owns me. You mess with me, you're trespassing on God territory,
a people for God's own possession that you may proclaim, that I can tell people, remember?
I can bless, I can tell people that I may proclaim the excellencies, how awesome God is,
and how awesome it is as a relationship with God, and how awesome it is to be imbued with God's Holy Spirit,
how awesome it is to deliver His presence, how awesome, that I may proclaim how awesome,
the excellencies of Him who has called you out of the darkness, that I may proclaim the awesomeness of the God
who called me out of the darkness into His marvelous light, for, or because once you were not a people,
I wasn't part of the people of God at one time, but now you are the people of God.
Saved, I've been brought into the people of God. You had not received mercy, you hadn't been forgiven for your sins,
but now you have received mercy, fully forgiven.
Beloved, I urge you, here it is, as aliens and strangers, okay, I'm going to ask you just plainly,
when an alien or a stranger comes to your house, how does he behave?
Does an alien or a stranger walk into your refrigerator and begin to feed themselves or get drinks for themselves?
Does an alien or a stranger come in and sit down on the couch and just grab the remote from wherever you store it
and start flicking the channels, turn off your football game, and start turning on whatever they like to watch?
Does an alien or a stranger get in your checking account and begin to spend your money?
Not legally, right, ain't the way it's supposed to be, right?
Does an alien or a stranger come in and tell you what to do?
That's your house, it's your kingdom, right?
Wrong, that's wrong.
Now you want to say it's your house, then your name is on the deed.
You want to say your driver's license is your driver's license, but that's not actually true,
because it's not talking about other people behaving as aliens or strangers,
it's talking about us behaving as aliens or strangers in this world.
It isn't your driver's license, it isn't your house, it isn't your TV, it's not your channel or your remote
or your stuff in your refrigerator.
You're supposed to be behaving as an alien or a stranger.
That's what the Word says.
He says, beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts.
In other words, that means don't go after what your body wants, what you want, what you think you want,
which wage against your soul.
He says, keep your behavior excellent, very good, recognized as good among the Gentiles,
among those others who don't know yet, who can be, they can be brought into the family of God,
just the same as you, we're all Gentiles in this room, unless you happen to be a pure-blood Jew,
so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, the very same thing they come against you,
they may, on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Now I get it.
As a presence bearer of God,
as someone who is able to bless in His name,
as someone who is able to come into His presence with my prayers and entreat Him to move, and He will.
How am I supposed to be living on this earth?
Well, as an alien and a stranger.
When something comes into your possession, you seem to own it,
you must never forget that you don't really own it.
We literally read, all things on this earth belong to God.
In case you're confused about that, who will own your clothes when you are done with them?
Who will own your house when you are done with them?
Who will work your job once you're no longer there?
Who will have the money that you took to the bank to put in your bank account after you no longer have it?
See, always someone.
Everything that you own, someone owned before you.
And everything that you own, someone will own after you.
And when they owned it, and when you own it, and when they own it, who actually owns it?
The God of heaven.
You are to behave as an alien and a stranger, and stop taking for yourself stuff on this earth.
Now, I understand that God gives us, as Galatians, I believe at 6 says, many things to enjoy.
And God is not saying that you cannot enjoy the things of this earth.
What he's saying is, you can't possess them.
You're only here for a little while.
Hopefully it's near on a hundred years.
That's what most people think.
But the truth is, if Jesus comes again in 15 minutes from now, I'm ready to go.
Because you know what I got here right now?
Nothing.
When I was a little bit younger Christian, the Lord had called me into the ministry.
I was going to Great Lakes Christian College.
And first they told me I would never be able to finish my degree there,
because there was a class that I had to take that was four days a week.
And I was driving up there two, three days a week.
We were living in Perrysburg.
And it was just getting to be too much.
And they said, well, you're going to have to be here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, every morning at 8 a.m.
I'm like, what? Are you kidding me?
It's a two-hour drive.
I leave my house before 6 and then turn around and drive back after.
So that's literally a full-time job.
I'm going, that's crazy.
And I said, I know God's going to do it somehow.
And ultimately, God changed that class.
I was able to get my degree.
But I still had to drive to campus two to three days a week and then drive home from campus two to three days a week.
And so they heard about it.
It's a Christian college of godly people, pretty much, and most of them.
And they heard about it.
And they said, well, this has got to be really hard in there.
So, yeah, it is.
I'm driving up here sometimes at five.
I'm getting here at 530 and then I got a class run six to 840 and then I'm driving home at nine o'clock.
And I said, it's hard.
And then the last two semesters, I had a class that ended at 840 at night.
And then I had a class that began the next morning at 9 a.m.
So I'm driving home, getting home just before midnight, turn around, driving back at 6 a.m.
I'm like, this is going to be rough.
It's going to be really hard.
So they heard about it and they said, you can have a dorm room for free.
We'd have no money.
We were struggling out of the financial hole that we had thrown ourselves into.
And we kind of missed the leading of God, did some things we weren't supposed to do.
And so God was working and he was bringing us out.
He gives a job and a part.
We had a place to live while our houses were going into foreclosure that we own.
Couldn't pay for either one of them.
God was providing in a miraculous way.
But here we go.
And I've got a free dorm room.
So I go in the dorm room.
In the dorm room, there's some bunk beds, shower curtain.
And somebody had left me half a roll of toilet paper.
I'm like, yay me.
I have bunk beds.
I have somewhere to sleep.
I have a shower curtain if I need to take a shower up here, which I eventually will almost certainly have to take a shower.
So that will keep the water from going out on the floor.
And if I got to, you know, use the restroom, I've got toilet paper.
If I had a runny nose, I've got a little toilet paper.
I'm like, yay me.
I've got a lot of stuff.
I'm feeling pretty good about this.
And then I went one day and I bought some pizza from Little Caesars.
And I had some leftover.
And so I brought it with me when I went up there thinking after class I could have pizza.
And I thought, well, you can't warm, how am I going to warm up this pizza?
I don't want to eat it cold.
I don't like cold pizza.
Never have.
So I dug around in my truck and I found a saw blade, circular saw blade that was in my trunk.
And I cleaned it as best I could.
I had a little bit of dish soap by that time.
It was in the room.
I think somebody left the dish soap too actually.
I had a little dish soap and I washed it up real good.
And I heated the pizza up on a saw blade.
And it was good.
I did it like two, three more times that semester.
Every time worked perfectly fine.
But I didn't take a pan.
And I would drive up there and if I was going to stay there I would take my toothbrush and toothpaste.
And I had somebody off me.
They said, well, we'll give you a sleeping bag or covers and stuff.
And I brought a comforter from home.
So when that semester ended, this is what I had in that bedroom.
It was really a one bedroom apartment is what it was.
I had a comforter, half a bottle of dish soap, a circular saw blade.
I did not leave my toothbrush there.
I took it every time and brought it back out.
Every time after I left I put it back in the car and brought it back home and used it at home.
And then I took it back up there every time I went up there I would take it back up there.
And I think I had a three prong adapter because it had a two prong outlet was in the room.
And I had a shower curtain.
And I was still on the same half a roll of toilet paper.
Sixteen weeks later.
And now I look back at that and I realize the reason I did that was because that was not my home.
My home was with my wife and my kids at home.
But I submit to you that's not really my home either.
I love my home.
I like my house.
I like the things we've done with the house.
Every room in the house has got little issues because I have done most of the renovations myself.
And I look at it and I realize there's a little crack there.
That didn't quite line up.
I didn't get that cut quite.
But I walked through almost every room in my house.
And either I bought the furniture shop for it helped do that.
Or I put the flooring in.
Or I helped build the tub.
Whatever.
I did everything.
So I love my house.
I do.
But that's not my home.
I don't own it.
And odds are sharing I will both die.
And then after that maybe it will be one of my kids.
And then all my kids will die.
Maybe my grandkids.
And then maybe eventually someone will sell it.
And someone else will own it.
The clothes that you're wearing right now, those are not your clothes.
They belong to God.
And if we start living as strangers and aliens in this world and realize we don't need half as much as we think we need.
We can stop collecting.
Because you don't need it.
Because you're not staying long.
You're going home.
And when you get there, the clothes there, if we can do clothes, don't know if we can do clothes there.
But what we're going to be dressing, the robes, the beautiful white robes, they're so much better than what we're going to have here.
The food, so much better there.
The entertainment, so much better there.
The praise of God, so much better there.
The first person relationship with God, so much better there.
So here's what I'm saying to you.
You want to be a presence bearer of God according to Jesus.
You want to be a presence bearer of God.
You want to be a blesser of God.
You want to be able to come into the presence of God and request.
Which means you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Stop trying to own everything.
And commit it over into His care.
And here's the great beauty.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
And all these things, everything that you truly need will be added unto you.
It's just going to fall in your lap.
Now, does that mean you get to be lazy?
No, if you don't work, you shouldn't eat.
That's what the Bible says.
Does it mean you get to be disrespectful and say, well, here I have this thing that cost me a hundred bucks.
But I don't really, I'm just going to throw it away?
No, because it belongs to God.
You're a good steward of whatever God puts in your lap.
But your house, your cars, your relationships, your money, your food, everything it all belongs to God.
So, when you're overeating, you're overeating what belongs to God.
When you're undereating, you're undereating what belongs to God.
When you're over spending, you're over spending what belongs to God.
When you're under spending you're under spending what belongs to God.
When you give, you're giving what belongs to God.
It literally said all things under heaven belong to God.
Now see, won't that change the way we think about the way we walk, talk, act?
If it doesn't change it today, it better change it the next time some God of Heaven decides
to give you some blessing that you don't already have, because it belongs to Him.
That's how we ought to walk.
Because we are the equivalent of Levites in our day.
We own nothing in this place, because we literally possess God Himself.
Now here is the really challenging part of this.
Could it be that we are not carrying the presence of God where we're going?
Not blessing people the way we should be, and not able to come into His powerful presence
for His action like we should be, because we are tied to the things of this earth that we think we have control of?
I submit to you, according to Jesus, the answer to that question is yes.
Because He literally said, you cannot be My disciple unless you give up all of your possessions.
I didn't say it. He said it.
So if you're feeling challenged in your walk with Jesus, if you're feeling challenged in your ability to live your life
in the way that you know God wants you to, then I suggest maybe you need to go back and look at how you treat
the things that have been given over into your care, and the people, and the places that you go,
and realize they belong to God.
Take off your shoes, brother. Take off your shoes, sister.
This world in which we walk belongs to the Lord.
We walk to the Myers quite often, and we'll pass garbage on the ground, and we're picking it up all the time
and putting it in the garbage can. And Ariana's always like, and it was Arden when he was young,
and it was Alicia when she was young, and we're like, why are we picking up this garbage?
And during COVID, we're picking up garbage with plastic gloves on while they still thought COVID could be transmitted
by people's stuff and whatever. We're picking up stuff off the ground with plastic gloves on.
Why are we doing that? Because this world does not belong to us, and it certainly does not belong to the literars of the world.
It belongs to God. That's why we're doing it.
You'll be a good steward. You'll be a good witness.
You'll love people as yourself when you start remembering that that idiot that cut you off in traffic,
that person who said that thing to you that cut you so close and quick that you almost felt like you had crumbled
because of what they said, or that person that stepped up in your face and disrespected you,
that person belongs to God.
And if you behave as an alien or a stranger in that relationship, and you remind the Lord, say, Lord, I understand.
This person belongs to you. Then you can bring the presence of God.
Then you can go to God's presence and ask Him for what you want, and He'll listen to your requests.
And then you can give the blessing of God unto the people.
I know who I'm carrying around, and now I know how I want to be while I'm carrying Him around.
And I would ask you to join me.
We're going to have the praise team come forward and lead us a final hymn.
And it's kind of an invitation, it's an opportunity for us to say, you know, look, have I been taken this seriously?
Have I heard from the Lord today? Is the Lord correcting me with how I handle the things in my life, or the relationships,
or the King James and Savior conversation, the way I can even live my life? Have I been doing that?
Because if you haven't, you better repent.
The crowds, they got real nervous, and many of them left during that teaching and some others.
I submit to you, this is the cost. Jesus said, will you count the cost? This is the cost.
The cost is, will you think of everything you ever touch, everything you ever have control of,
everything that ever comes into your life as brisk in the middle, as letting Jesus use it?
You can give more than you ever could before, you can do more than you ever could before,
you can be more than you ever could before, if you will just let Jesus do it all.
Would you stand with me as we sing this song in response to the Lord has laid it on your heart.
If you're here today and you're not a Christian, give your life over to the Lord now.
Let him be Lord of your life and Savior.
If you're here today and you are a Christian, you know you've not been doing this,
then commit yourself today, put everything back in his hands, to think of everything as it feels,
to think of this world as if you are a stranger and an alien in it.
Draw me close to you, maybe let me know, lay it all down here.
Please say that I'm your friend, you are my desire.