Turn your Bible to Deuteronomy 6. We're gonna get in the word tonight. Last week we began a series of messages on the kingdom and what the kingdom is like. And it was really an intro, and we have this prayer in our hearts as church leadership, is that God would give us the kingdom.
He would show us the kingdom. And we're trying to discover where did this desire come from? Because we know he put it, he kind of stamped it with us, stamped us with it in the last season of Lord. We want your kingdom and its fullness.
And so as a people we begun to pray Lord, show us the kingdom, we want to experience it in its entirety and for some of us that grew up, you know, Baptist, maybe Lutheran, not Lutheran renewal, but just like straight lace Lutheran. You start experiencing a rubbing shoulders with people that have experience the gifts of the Holy Spirit, right? And you use some of us evangelicals and you start hearing about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and you start going, I don't like the sound of that, you know? And then, but you have a little bit of a wondering and a fascination in your heart and you just say, Lord, if it's real and if it's from you, please protect me if it's not, but I want everything that you got, right?
And many of us, maybe you grew up from a concerted background, but you're hungry for Jesus and you're like, anything that God's got, I want it. And I want to encourage you to continue to have that prayer, give language to that prayer. Lord, any gifts that you've got, I want them, any power that you have so that I can proclaim your gospel and see miracles and signs of one, I want it. And you can continue to believe for that and ask for it because God is the one that generously gives to his children.
He says that if you ask and not receive, he's a good father and he's gonna give it to you, right? And the same thing is true for us with the kingdom. We want the kingdom and we've got a prayer in our hearts, similar to that that many of us have prayed, just like Katie and I, we grew up and we weren't really exposed to things of the Holy Spirit, but we just heard about it and we started praying and all of a sudden the hunger got started, it gets stoked in our hearts. And we feel at a fresh right now for what does it look like for the kingdom of heaven to come to the earth in the Twin Cities?
What if heaven and that the Lord's prayer, part of the Lord's prayer actually started happening on earth as it is in heaven and there started to be a picture of what heaven looks like in our city? What if our city started looking like the city where God is there? And that was like the title for the whole city. All I know when I leave Minneapolis and St.
Paul, the thing that I'm leaving with is not that there's disunity, not that there's racism, not that there's widespread, whatever and not that it's even cold. But the thing that people leave with, sorry, man, there's the Lord was on that. If you heard that in the sound system, that it's not known for any of those things, it's known for, I don't know, but God was there. That's what we want.
And so as a people were hungry for that and we're just wondering, Lord, you open our eyes, open our ears, open our minds to perceive what you're saying, and we want to steward what you're saying. And so I was going to jump into a parable this week and we're gonna jump into parables. And then I think we need to do another intro. I don't think we're ready.
And so let's just jump in. Deuteronomy six, as a review from last week, no, we're not gonna jump into a number six right now. I just wanna review. Last week we talked about the kingdom and talked about what does it mean when we say the kingdom of God?
And the answer was, it means the reign of Jesus or the reign of the king, okay? So interchangeably, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven means Jesus is in charge, Jesus is king, okay? So that's what the kingdom of heaven is defined by the king. The king is the main event.
He is the main descriptor of the kingdom of heaven. He's the one that sets the culture, he's the one that sets the policies, he's the one that's in charge, and he doesn't have suggestion boxes. That's what we talked about last week. There is no suggestion boxes, there's no Google reviews for King Jesus.
We come up under his leadership. He does not get integrated, listen to me, he does not get integrated into our lives. We get integrated into his life. We are the branch, he is the vine.
He is not the branch, and he doesn't get plugged into our lives. So he is the way fully, and that means he's in the driver's seat when you say yes to Jesus. It's not, Jesus doesn't write along with you. He's not a right along.
He's not just the guy that sits in the passenger seat. When you say yes to Jesus, you hand over the wheel and you go, where do you wanna go Lord? Does that make sense? He's not the add on.
He is the Lord. And those that make him Lord, that's like entry into the kingdom, is believe in your heart, the gospel, and make him Lord. That's like, that's it. That's how you get in, is you surrender to Jesus and make him the King and the Lord.
So we talked about that last week. Now we're gonna get into it, and we're gonna read Deuteronomy six here. So read with me, it says in verse four. Here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. That sounds familiar. If you've read your Bible enough and you read in the New Testament, you hear the, you've heard about the first and second commandment, you remember that? Jesus says, this is the first and the greatest commandment.
Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, right? And then the second commandment is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Well, if we could go back to verse four.
That first phrase here, oh Israel, is actually the word listen in some of your translations. And in English, it looks to us as Westerners. When we see the word listen, we think I hear with my ears, right? So there's sound, it goes into my eardrums, makes them move, and then I heard them, right?
That's what listen means to the American, Western, English speaker. But for anybody that is a Jewish Hebrew that's listening to this, or reading this, as Moses is writing it to the whole nation of Israel, right before they go into the Promised Land, right before he passes away, he gives them this prayer, and he starts out with listen. And that word listen is the word shema. Everybody say shema.
Now this prayer that we just read is actually called the shema. So it's a very common prayer that was prayed, it's probably been prayed billions of times throughout history because this is a prayer that every young Jewish boy, young Jewish girl, and every adult prayed multiple times. And they still do it today, it's the shema. You pray this all the time, you recite it, okay?
So they're reciting this prayer all the time, and it starts with the word shema, listen. But in Hebrew, it doesn't mean listen the way that we understand it. It means listen and obey. It doesn't mean just hear it, hear God, it means listen and obey him.
It's one continuous thought, because if you're listening to God, then that means you are gonna obey him because he's Lord, do you hear me? And so we have to understand, I just wanna give you context again, why are we even talking about this? Because we are gonna start learning about the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of heaven is themed by King Jesus, reigning. And if he's wanting to tell us about the kingdom, we need to know how to steward what he says, how we respond to his enlightenment and his understanding that he releases on our souls.
We need to know how we are going to respond to our King, because Jesus has expectations. He expects us to respond to him in the way that a King expects his subjects to respond to him. We are the servants of the Lord when we surrender to Jesus. And so when Jesus starts talking about the kingdom, we are going to be a people that shemas.
You are going to be a people that listen and obey. You're not gonna be a people that just listen. You wouldn't do that, right? We wouldn't do that.
No, you're gonna be a people that listen and obey. But we have these hurdles. There's a couple of hurdles here. Oh my gosh.
There's a couple of hurdles for us even understanding what Jesus is talking about, right? 2000 years removed, how much of communication is nonverbal? Then just send me an actual study, 93% of communication is nonverbal. This is a hurdle for us.
If we are gonna listen, no, no, no, no, beta God and 93% of communication is nonverbal communication. That's stacked against us a little bit, right? We don't know his tone. We don't know what his facial expression is, his nonverbal communication.
The other hurdle is we don't have cultural understanding of what he's actually talking about most of the time when we read in the Gospels because we are not for century Jews. And so he might be talking about something and we take it at face value and it doesn't have anything to do with what we think he's talking about. Because we are not for century Jews. So that's a hurdle, right?
The other hurdle is our biblical illiteracy. The reality is that Jewish boys and girls before the age of 10 had memorized the first five books of the Bible. I'm talking about like every child in Israel memorized the first five books. And if I had people stand up, all right, who has 40 chapters memorized?
Or all of the book of Genesis memorized? And that's just one of the first five. I'm pretty sure none of you, unless, stand, no, I'm just kidding. I just wanna honor you.
But listen, they were built different, but the same brains, but there was a greater commitment to the scriptures. And so there is an illiteracy that we have as a culture and as the church in America that we have to overcome. Now we've got tech, hey, we've got the internet to help us out, praise God. But the Lord is wanting to actually build history with us in the scriptures, okay?
And so we can, there's things that we can help. We can study, we can grow in the scriptures. But as a people, these hurdles are not an excuse, even like, man, I don't know his nonverbal communication. It doesn't really matter, but it's right here written.
So it's okay if God prophetically, I don't care if you're prophetic or not. If you hear the God's voice or not, you could keep busy for your whole life, just walking in obedience to the written word of God. All of us cares, Max, we're like, but what did he say? And most of us need to just go, well, what did he say?
Right? We don't have to make it too complicated. I don't know what the will of God for me is. And it's like, well, it says in the epistles that the will of God for your life is to be thankful in every circumstance.
So just go with that, man. You know, like, but I need to have some profound revelation from on high. I need to have some prophetic dream. It's like, well, just go and obey him.
But that's, is that really my call? You know, I'm not going to discount that, but I just want us to, we make it complicated, man. Let's be obedient. He will lead the way, right?
Okay, so we've got some of these things that we're coming up against. We're Westerners and Jesus is talking to an Eastern audience and my goodness, do you know what most of us, when God says something? Or when we read something in the word, oftentimes the Western listener, the Westerner that's hearing, they start going right into, well, let me wrap my mind fully around this idea. I will understand it.
I will think about it a little bit. And then after I understand it a little bit more, I might obey you. I might actually do what you're telling me to do. And it's just like, if you're a parent and you tell your kids, hey, buddy, go clean your room.
And as a parent, we're thinking, clean your room with joy in your heart and a smile and do it right now. And the child is thinking, mom and dad made a suggestion. Maybe I'll clean my room after some time. Maybe if I feel like it when I want to.
And we sat in Sunday school and we learned Bible stories. And some of us had flannel graphs. They were amazing, amazing flannel graphs. And we know the stories of the Bible.
But we were taught to know the story, but we weren't taught to obey the story. We weren't taught to listen and obey. We were taught information. Because we live in the West, we assume and think, knowing information is the end, rather than the very beginning into what God has for us.
We are stuck in Western thinking. And it's actually cutting us out at the legs, as the people of God, in what God has for us. It's an enemy of our souls to gain knowledge and get puffed up. Listen, as a people, like this community, there is a, I think we are not as lean as we think we are.
There is a puffiness to our souls, because we have feasted on knowledge. But my concern for us as a people is have we gotten humble to actually be doers and not just hearers. The Lord is calling us to Shema. The Lord is calling me to not just mull over what he's saying to me, but to actually do it.
To not think about it. To not delay. We are to be those that listen quickly and do quickly. Obedience, the very best thing for us is to obey fast.
Do you know what I've been struggling with? And Katie knows this, but we haven't talked about. You haven't been in front of you about this. For the less, you know, for maybe the first, I don't know, 11 years, 12 years of our marriage.
When the alarm would go off, I'd get out of bed right away. I used to. For like years, 12 years, at least. The last three years, my alarm goes off, and I might wake up soon.
Does anybody, does anybody got an amen? Come on, somebody give me an amen. I'm just like, I'm just like, that's the moment. Yeah, that's where you start clapping.
Man, that preach good. No, listen, I have concern that that's how we respond to the Lord. It's the alarm of the voice of God, the leadership of the Holy Spirit, internally, the voice of God. And it's going off internally.
And I know it's him. I know his voice. He's speaking to me. He's nudging me.
It's just like what we talked about a couple weeks ago. He's at the door, right? And I'm snoozing him. We're snoozing him.
More than we think. We're putting him off, more than we think. And as a people, there is an invitation for us to begin to sham on, where it's not, listen, delay, snooze, take some time, obey. But it's one word.
It's one action. Listen in obey with no delay that rhyme. Let's go, receive it. This is our expectation from our King.
And this is how we're led by him. I want to read a couple passages when Jesus, this isn't like a side idea in Jesus' ministry. This isn't something where he's like, talked about it once. This is a theme of Jesus teaching.
And that's you seven, 24 and 27, 24 to 327. This is just a portion of that. He says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Man, when I grew up hearing this story, Jesus has done the story about a wise man doesn't build his house on sand.
He builds his house on the rock. And I've always thought the rock is Jesus, Jesus is the rock. So I build my house on Jesus and what Jesus did and then no matter the storm, I'm going to be good. No matter the difficulty that I face, I'm going to be good.
But that's not what Jesus says. Jesus says the one that actually does what he says builds his house on the rock. He doesn't say, just build on me. He says, build on what I say and do it.
If you're going, man, I don't know why this storm completely destroyed me or side on me. The question is, have you been living a life of surrender and obedience to him? And you're kind of wondering, man, why is my life completely feeling like it's falling apart because of my circumstances? And I have to ask you the question, have you been hearing God but not obeying him?
Because when you hear God, it actually puts a resilience in you because it's been costing you something to obey him. So when there's a costly circumstance that hits you, you've already been weathered because you've actually been beating your soul and your body into submission through submitting to the King of Glory and what he says. So then when a storm comes, you already got resilience. It's like strength that's been put into your spine.
2 Corinthians, or chronicles 16, verse nine. It says, the Lord's eyes are searching too and fro throughout the whole earth to find those that he can strengthen those that are fully devoted and wholly devoted to him. What that means is his eyes are looking. He's searching, who can I strengthen?
Who can I actually fill with courage and strength? Who can I come upon and be like that foundation, that rock? Those that are wholly devoted to me? Those that have a heart that go, I'm all yours.
It's always yes, Lord. And then his eyes are like a flame of fire and he's going, it's like a tractor beam of grace. It is strength from on high and he's ready to hand it out. He's going, it's yours.
You've got that wholly devoted, set apart thing, commitment, and you're going, I want it, Lord. My answer is always yes to your voice. Oh my goodness. He's gonna strengthen your yes.
He's gonna give you grace. Let's look at John 14, verse 15. If you love me, keep my commands. If you love me, you're going to obey what I say.
And why do you have to say that? I like when he says, if you love me, you'll tell me that you love me. I like, if you love me, you're going to sing love songs to me. But then he says, if you love me, you're going to keep my commands, right?
How would that work out in your relationship if you're married? I just tell them I love them, but then I never show them with my actions. How's that gonna work? Oh, I love you, sweetheart.
But I'm going to sleep around. I love you, sweetheart. But I'm never going to serve. I love you, sweetheart.
Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart starts meeting nothing. And this is a different story because he's actually, that's like a marriage covenant picture. We are covenanted to him as our bridegroom. We are covenanted to him as our master.
And we are his servants. We are covenanted to him. And he's our father. And we are his children.
So there is multiple layers of this covenant. And in every single one of them, there's submission. We receive his love. And in reciprocation, we love him in return through obeying him.
My goodness, our experience, my experience, is that I screw up on this all the time, that I'm not perfect, that I don't, that yes in my heart, I snooze the Lord sometimes, me. Just like you, we all make mistakes. We all commit sins of commission and omission, intentionally and unintentionally. We are all in process.
Listen, if you're starting to feel shamed, if you're starting to feel guilty, if you're starting to feel condemned, I want you to know that this is not by works that any of us can boast. We don't earn our right standing before God. He has justified us by his blood, not by our performance, not by how we can maintain our righteousness. He has made us the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
This is all his work. He's done it. He's purchased our identity. Our identity is sure.
Even if I disobey him again and again and again, he can, I can never outdo the blood of Jesus in what it's accomplished for me. Okay? So we are not talking about your right standing before God. You can't change anything about his love for you.
You can disobey a million times and he still loves you. You can make a mistake after mistake and you're still justified by the blood of Jesus. Okay? So hear me right.
This has nothing to do with your salvation, but has everything to do with your sanctification. You are being shaped and formed by the Holy Spirit to look like Jesus. You wanna experience the kingdom, start submitting and surrendering and coming up under what the Lord is saying and doing. You wanna know God, you follow him like a disciple.
We are, we're in the kiddie pool of, we're still trying to figure out, am I saved or not? Am I righteous or not? Am I holy or not? Am I, what does God think about me?
No, that's the gospel. That is good news that Jesus established and he says, I'm showering you with love. I'm showering you with unmerited favor. I'm giving you mercy.
I'm giving you grace. It's finished. It's done. The work has been completed.
Now you're seated with Christ in heavenly places. And now it's not you who live. It's no longer you who live, but me in you. And now we actually have to submit under that work that he did it all.
He did all the hard work. So that's good news guys. See, I have to remind us of this because all of a sudden we're so soft as the American church that I start talking about obedience and we start getting a little uncomfortable. It's like, does he not believe in the gospel anymore?
Why is he talking about obedience? Why is he talking about submission to God? Why is he talking about us being servants of the master? Our Lord Jesus, why would he talk like that?
Isn't, does he not believe in the gospel? No, this is part of the good news. Submissions, Jesus. This is the way.
This is the truth. This is the life. This is what you signed up for. You give your life to Jesus.
This is what you signed up for. To make you righteous and then have you live into it. Body, soul, and spirit. Okay, Romans six.
Here we go. You knew that was coming. You knew I was gonna go there. You guys get a bonus of Romans six.
But two, 30 didn't get Romans six. Romans six. Let's look at verse 11. Hey, consider yourselves dead to sin.
Think of yourselves being deceased to sin. When sin is around, think of yourselves being dead to it. And then consider yourselves alive to him. Verse 12, let not sin therefore reign.
Don't let sin be king. You're part of a different kingdom and you're under a different ruler that's reigning over you. You have a different king. His name is Jesus and your king is not sin anymore.
But sin is a power that will try to knock on your door to try to take that throne over, even if you're a believer in Jesus. Sin will try to take the throne and be in the driver's seat of your mind. Don't let him do that. Don't let the power of sin do that.
Don't let it reign in your body. Don't let it make you obey its passions. This is what I want you to present your members to sin. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.
So don't let your body parts be instruments for unrighteousness. But present yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life. And your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have, look at that, that's so great.
No dominion over you. You, your body is a domain. It's like a piece of land. And what the Apostle Paul is saying is that your land has been purchased with blood.
Your physical land, your body, your, like, what is that called? Not your volume, but your mass. Your mass has been purchased. This is like a physical mass that's been purchased.
It's some territory and it's Jesus' land. He took it, he purchased it. So don't let sin have, it's domain. Verse 15, what then are we to sin because we're not under the law but under grace?
Should we, like in verse one? Are we to continue in sin? Are we continuing to obey whatever we feel like, whatever we want to? No, by no means, by no means because we are those that obey the Lord.
Do you not know, verse 16, that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey. Okay, we're just talking about listening to obeying. Either of sin which leads to death or of obedience to Jesus which leads to righteousness. But thank be to God that you who are once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching which you were committed.
And hey, you've been set free from sin. I gotta remind you, you've already been set free from this. My goodness, you've been set free from sin and now you are slaves and servants of righteousness. Your master is righteousness.
Your master is right living. Your master is the right way under Jesus rule. I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations for just as you once present your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness and rebellion leading to more lawlessness and more rebellion. Now look at this, present your body parts.
As slaves to righteousness, it's going to lead to you becoming transformed into Jesus image becoming more and more like him. So sanctification is okay. We're kind of going like, how? How do I do it?
You start concentrating, you start presenting your body to the Lord. You start like dedicating your body to the Lord, offering your body to the Lord. And he's talking about it, members. I'm just saying, and it feels crass, but I'm wanting to be more specific.
Like I'm, when I'm saying presenting our body parts to the Lord, that feels like weird, but I have, I'm being intentional with it. Okay? So if your eye is causing you to stumble, if your thumb is causing you to stumble, if any part of your body, if your tongue is causing you to stumble without you talking about, we can just go down every single part of our body. If your tongue or your stomach or your gut is causing you to stumble and you're being driven by your carnal appetite and you just have no limits, it's like, we get to go, you purchase this part of my body for yourself.
I am not my own, I am the Lord's, and that includes every part of me. Gnosticism says it's only spiritual part of me. The gospel says, body's soul and spirit, I'm the Lord's. How do we know this?
Well, at the end of the story, Jesus regenerates us and he gives us new bodies. He cares about our bodies. And he's going, I purchase you fully. And so I present myself.
So I start naming this, my eyes are your sword. I offer my eyes to you. You might do that right after you screw up. You go, my goodness, that was not me.
I am a son of righteousness. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And my eyes are set apart for the Lord. I don't know what that was, but I know who I am and who you purchase me to be.
And I'm one that will sham on. That was so uncharacteristic of a son of God. And it starts feeling like all those carnal things are foreign because I'm not of this world. I am of a different kingdom.
I'm under a different rule. I'm under a different reign. I'm of it. I'm going to get better at it.
But I don't want to cheapen this. I don't want to cheapen it because listen, this is our call. We are of a different kingdom. It's the kingdom of our Lord, our Lord, not just our Savior, our Lord.
Luke 17, 20 through 21. The kingdom does not come with observation, nor will they say, see here or see there. For the kingdom indeed, it's in you. For indeed, the kingdom of God is in you.
Jesus reign in this age. Yes, he's enthroned above the circle of the earth, but Jesus' reign is expressed in us. He is ruling and reigning in our lives by the Holy Spirit. And we submit under his reign.
Look at Luke 6, 46 through 49. Why do you call me Lord, Lord? And do not do what I say. It doesn't make sense to him.
That we would call him Lord, Lord, and then not do what he says. We are a pretty rational bunch. We're Americans. Jesus is helping us understand that this doesn't line up.
This is like a simple equation. He's saying, if I'm Lord, then you do what I say. John 10, 27. My sheep listen to my voice.
My sheep, Shama, my voice. I know them, they follow me. My sheep, Shama, my voice. They listen and obey my voice.
That's how they're known. That's how they follow me. Matthew 13, 23. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it and becomes one with it.
This is the one who produces a crop. James 1, let's turn to James 1. I just heard a groan in the room. James 1.
I'm just wanting to show us. And I want you to remind us, this is all part of the good news. This is really good news. When we obey him, even Luke 11, Luke 11, 28, I didn't read this.
He said, blessed are those that hear the word of God and obey it. Blessed are those. Do you know what the word blessed means? Happy.
Happy are those who hear the word of God and keep it. They make it their own. They listen and obey. They're going to be really happy.
See, we think we're going to be happy if we go out and wait. I just want you to know there is so much joy we're missing out on. There is so much happiness. There is so much good in store for us because even how God made our brains for children when they obey mom and dad right away, there's actually, have you ever had a kid, or like you remember this when you were a kid and your parents or your guardian told you to do something and you did it right away and you felt so good about yourself?
You were like, you kind of, your chest went up big and you were like, I just obey you mom really fast. And then they maybe praised you a little bit or something like that. And it felt good. I want you to know it feels good to obey him.
It feels so good. It feels so much better than rebelling against his leadership. Oh my gosh, it's completely different. It's pleasure.
It's like it releases actually how God created our brains. It actually releases serotonin when you obey God. When you obey him and you make the right decision, it actually releases chemicals in your brain that are good feeling chemicals in your brain when you obey him. He designed you to obey.
This is so great. This is, I'm coming in alignment with how I'm even designed. This is the best way. This is the best way to be human.
This is the most excellent way, profound way and healthy way to be a human is to obey God. God says he promises long life to those who obey their parents. How much more does it obey God? All right, James 1.
I don't even think we need to read James 1 because it's all clear, you know, but we'll read it anyways. 21, 1, 21, therefore put away all filthiness, rampant wickedness and receive with meekness his word, which is able to save not just your spirits, but even your mind will in emotions. There's 22. He doers of the word.
Don't just be hearers because you'll deceive yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's going to be like a man who looks intently at his face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the law and the words and the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed and made happy in his doing.
Jesus has a way for us to experience his kingdom and it's through Shama'in. It's like a verb listening and obeying that we get to live a life of Shama. When as we get into these parables around the kingdom, his expectation, and this is the whole reason why rabbis would even say parables, the whole reason why rabbis would teach in parables is not to reaffirm what the hearers are already thinking. The whole purpose of the rabbis teaching parables is not to be like, hey, you're thinking exactly the way that I think.
No, he's going, I'm telling you a parable so you can change and get on my bandwagon because there's a flaw in how you're thinking and I need to correct it and I have intention of changing you with the parable. As we are responding to him teaching and his parables, I'm telling you how we are signing up as a community. This is such a waste of time. We're probably going to be this for two months and it's a complete waste of time.
If I just get up and tickle your ears with some good ideas and good parables and I've teach the word and then there's other people that teach the word and we get up here and we wear the Britney Spears mic and it's a pretty cool thing. Then we go on like we've always gone on. It doesn't make sense. I don't want to be a puffed up people.
I don't want to live in deception and I'm afraid that I might be more deceived than I think I am and that I might be putting the snooze button on the voice of God and the word of God more than I think I am and I might be slumbering more than I think I am and I want to receive the implanted word of God in meekness and not in arrogance thinking that I already know and thinking that I can just hear it and listen to it and gain knowledge as a Westerner and not actually do it. There's an accountability to it and I don't even want to go there that I'm actually going to be required of me that knows more and then I have to be a teacher that teaches and then there's a higher level of accountability. Listen, it should freak us out. Not because he's going to bring judgment on me because I've been washed clean and my standing is sure and I'm confident in that and the blood of Jesus and what's accomplished but my goodness I don't want to stand on that day and go, but Lord I preached in your name and I said a lot of good things in your name and I repeated your message in your name and I even saw one or two people heal and then I saw some people can meet Jesus and then I had a good job and I was a good husband, I was a good person, I was good this and a good that and then the Lord says, hey great, here's I can't wait to give you some rewards and it's the bamacy, it's beautiful and he goes, all right let's pile up all those good works and then he piles up all my good works and I'm like wow, okay yeah and I look at him, I go more than the other guy and then he lights a match and it's a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be and all that's left is gold and silver, so like the imperishable works and it was those things that I did in obedient love to him and I started realizing all of the good works that I thought I did, they were selfish, done in my own strength, I did it my way and I'm going man I want to receive his word and I just want to be a good and faithful servant, I don't know about you but I want him to just be like good and faithful, serve it, I don't want him to say good and faithful, son, good and faithful, leader, good and faithful husband, I want him to say good and faithful servant because that's what he says to those that have been good and faithful, that's his title that he gives us and guys I want to get listen, I want to get to this spot here and other people are leading every day and if the Lord tehries and I'm in my 80s and Katie's going to look beautiful, she's not going to look not a day older and I'm going to be all saggy and wrinkly it's going to be weird, okay, it's going to be you're going to be like oh no, you're going to look at me and go oh no, okay and I want to get to that day and I want to have a tender heart of love and affection that was actually founded on I just obeyed him, I listened to him in and out of season, I listened to and obeyed, listen the days are evil, when I look we are one day closer to the return of Jesus today and we are getting closer and closer and closer and when I look at human history there's an acceleration of every part of human history and we're seeing it like a hockey stick and I believe that we are drawing closer and closer and closer now you can't challenge me on that because it's true, we are every single day, okay, so some of you that you're like well yeah that's what they said 100 years ago, yes and it was true then and it's true now, we're getting closer every day but I want us to actually be aware of the day and the hour we are living in and I want you to know that Jesus talked about this right before he went to the cross in Matthew 24, Matthew 25, he's talking in the Olivet discord and he says that your hearts, many hearts will grow cold, many hearts will grow cold because immorality will increase and I want to call us as a people to go I want in the day of immorality increasing I don't want to be living in compromise I want to be living in listening and obeying and shimine so that when the day comes where it actually is going to cost me something when it's going to cost me my child because I have to choose obedience to the Lord and trusting him to provide for my kids or I have to do something and compromise my conscience and actually do it the world's way and I'm going to have to choose is it Jesus or is it my family, is it Jesus or is it my reputation, is it Jesus or is it impact, is it Jesus or is it money we have to have a fear and a sobriety trembling as a people and I'm not saying I don't care if persecution comes to America or not I'm not even saying any of that and I don't want it to be like oh see even pastor says persecution is coming I don't care if persecution is coming or not what I care about is that we prepare our hearts no matter what that when the storm comes I'm not shaking because I've been obeying all the time because I built history in God I built history in listening and obeying him so when the cost is great it's always been a yes for decades build your history now to those that are under 25 build your history now in God don't wait till you get settled don't wait till you get married don't wait till you have kids build a resilience may the Lord find your eyes looking at him and looking up at him and may his eyes find you having a commitment to go my yes to you is sturdy and strong would you strengthen me and you fall and you get back up again and you go Lord I'm coming to you and I just want to follow you I just want to listen I just want to obey God is calling us to obey him and it's not something that's going to add to your salvation it's just the way of God this is the gospel of Jesus this is good news this is going to make you happy this is so good for us and I plead with you not to do it in your own strength but do it with a lean Lord I can't do this would you strengthen me just go humble in me and receive his word and obey it and if you mess up you just bounce back you just bounce back and you come to him you always come running to him you are a person that shamaz this is your destiny in God this is our destiny we it's not going to be it's not going to be white knuckling it he says I'm going to give you a helper man we all need help we need help we can't do it right you present my body to the Lord I'm going to offer him my full self no strings attached he's going to be knocking and all of a sudden it's always a yes it's always open to him whatever you put your finger on it's yes Lord God is consecrating us as a people he's going you are my set-apart bride and if you want heaven on the earth if you want my kingdom to come my will to be done on earth as it is in heaven in Minneapolis and Saint Paul it's not going to be done in your own strength and it's not going to look the way that it's always looked and you can't just listen and never do and think that it's going to change anything I feel a I feel that the last five minutes was fatherly that Abba father was affirming us like who am I for him to even use me but I just feel this like it was the heart of a father for us it's the father best way I'm not mad at you I'm not talking down to you I'm scooping you up and going hey obeying me is the best way so the father is saying to us obeying me is the very best way I know it's gonna be good for you you just trust me and we're gonna we're gonna go together I'm not gonna leave you I'm not going to I'm not going to accuse you I'm not going to abandon you I'm going to father you into this that's all stand thank you Lord it's just all close our eyes just you can spread out throughout the room Lord would you lead us would you lead us into a lifestyle of Shama Lord would you make us a people of Shama I want to listen to your voice I want to follow you I want to do what you say Jesus thank you that you purchased my identity in you with your blood and that I don't have to earn your affection or you're delighted me thank you that I cannot add anything to my right standing that I can't take away anything from my justification before you that it's not by my works that I should boast but it's by your good work and by your blood that you've made me righteous Jesus I thank you that you have removed my sin from me as far as the east is from the west you've removed my transgressions from me I'm so thankful that you've made me clean that you've made me the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and that you've seated me with you in heavenly places to put on display your immeasurable riches of kindness towards me because I believe thank you for being so generous with your kindness you want to show off your kindness for eternity and make the powers and principalities of the enemy's camp embarrassed because of your kindness that you're showing to me Lord I thank you that you silence the accuser over us and Lord I thank you that you're calling me to not just have a standing with you that's righteous you're calling me to walk in connection to listen in obey just all throughout the room just begin to whatever is in your heart to the Lord Lord just give us the prayer of consecration just Lord whatever whatever you've put in the hearts of your people Lord I ask that you would bring that to the surface we are your people the sheep of your pastor just want everybody in the room to feel like you can just give language give function to whatever the Holy Spirit has put inside of you as a response whatever you want to communicate to the Lord I'll throw at the room you can just share with him pour out your souls before Lord pour out your heart to him and just tell him tell him what you want in your relationship with him tell him how you want to Shama how you want to walk in surrender and submission and obedience them just do it in your own words I'll throw the room Father is woman six it was us in this room we are all like in this near circle around the throne and we are surrounding the throne of Jesus and we are all holding up like parts of our bodies before the Lord and we are presenting parts of our body to him and I saw the Lord it was like incense it was like worship arising to the Lord as we are presenting our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to him and he was receiving it as worship and so Lord we come before you and we all throughout the room you can just pick a body part that the Holy Spirit is highlighting for you whatever it is Holy Spirit all throughout the room would you highlight what is that that space that area in our lives part of our body that we are to offer and present to you as a member of worship that it's set apart it's been purchased by you that we are temples of the Holy Spirit and just all throughout the room I just want us to in our imagination just picture yourself in the throne room and I want you no matter how how messed up that part of your body has been no matter how much sin that part of your body has participated in I want you to present it to the Lord as a part of your body that's been washed by the blood of Jesus and you're giving it to the Lord and you're saying this is yours Lord I am not my own and I give this to you and I present and I offer this part of my life the part of my life that maybe is felt unclean the part of my life that I've maybe been said and has been secret the part of my life that has not been confessed and you're bringing it to the Lord and you're so I'm giving this to you Lord I'm bringing this into the light of the light of the world and bringing this into your presence and I surrender it to you and I give it to you just all throughout the room in your imagination and I want you to stay say the statement out loud enough for your years to hear and I want you to say I choose to offer this to you you can just make that choice and verbalize make it a choice you're no longer a victim this is not a victims choice this is a servants choice to surrender this to him and say I choose to give this to you and offer this to you just do that all throughout the room thank you Lord I want you to begin to listen to Holy Spirit all throughout the room begin to listen to Holy Spirit asking this question what do you think about this part of my body and he wants to begin to unravel what he thinks about this part of your body we're gonna have a conversation and we're gonna receive his truth in this area thank you Lord we are present to you we surrender to you Lord thank you Lord would you just continue to move in our hearts Holy Spirit we acknowledge your presence even in this room right now Lord we thank you that you're present that you're here and you're moving over the chaos you're present over the chaos you're present in this place and so Holy Spirit we acknowledge your presence that you're among your people we acknowledge you and we honor you in all of the work that you're doing we ask would you we're just humbly we ask would you continue to do an even deeper work in us all throughout the room we just welcome you and invite you in your fullness to be fully yourself as you're walking in through the aisles as you're moving in the rose Lord Holy Spirit we welcome you your manifest presence in this room we welcome you the Lord the ancient of days the Lord Yahweh the worthy one we welcome you Holy Spirit to make yourself known thank you Jesus