Pastor Brian & Jacque Lother
Brian: Well, welcome back everybody. It's so good to be here. It's so good to be with you, Jacque.
Jacque: It's good to be with you out of the house.
Brian: Yes, out of the house; finally after… How many days has it been? Almost three weeks.
Jacque: Three weeks.
Brian: It's so good to be with you. I'm excited to share with everybody today, a message that... I'm not going to give you the title of it quite yet, but you'll see why in a moment when we get to a little bit into it. Throughout history, mankind has had an aversion to taking responsibility for how things are. Wouldn't you agree with that?
Jacque: Since the very beginning.
Brian: Since the very beginning of time. We just want to not take responsibility for where things are at, how things are. It began as early as the garden.
Jacque: I remember.
Brian: Yeah, as early as the garden. We know the story. Adam and Eve fell, they disobeyed God. God showed up that evening or whenever it was, and looked at Adam and said, “What have you done?" Adam's response, five short words, at least short words in English was "The woman you gave me..." In five short words, he blames God and Eve.
Jacque: And it continues.
Brian: And it has continued to this day on and on and on.
Jacque: For women too.
Brian: And you know what, I want to tell you a story. I don't know if you even know this story. It is about me when I was about two and a half years old. I don't actually remember this story because I was too young. I really don't have a memory of it, but I was old enough to talk. So I'm assuming I was around two/two and a half years old. My mom would bathe me and then would set me on this kind of counter top to dry me off and so forth. She had this thing full of powder. I was always fascinated with this powder because she would put powder on me after and whatever. I remember she was doing something. I was sitting on the counter top there and I grabbed this powder thing. She said, "Put that down. You are going to spill it, put that down." Sure enough, it just went out of my hands. It went all over the place. There was this big white cloud of...
Jacque: What a mess.
Brian: What a mess; powder everywhere. Of course, she said, "Now, look what you've done." As a two and a half year old, I remember saying this to her, "Why did you have it so full?” Why did you have it so full? As a two and a half year old, my nature was to deflect blame, to not take responsibility for what I had done. In our hearts, we don't want to take ownership of our failures. In our hearts, we don't want to take ownership of our mistakes. I've tried to, as a pastor, reflect upon church history and see where we as the church have made mistakes, so that we hopefully won't repeat them in the future. But it's much easier just to blame other people for our failures, mom, why did you have that so full? Or God, you are the one who made her. You are the one who gave this woman to me. It's so easy to blame. We blame God and we blame everybody else. We don't have the courage to embrace the difficult task at times of actually changing to make a difference.
Jacque: And admitting.
Brian: And admitting.
Jacque: Which takes humility.
Brian: So I say all of that to kind of say this; when COVID hit some eight, nine months ago, whenever it was and our various local and state and federal government agencies were trying to figure out how to deal with this pandemic, things are being shut down and things were being defined. There were basically two classifications of businesses; one was essential and one was non-essential. I remember my frustration as to how churches were being defined as nonessential and yet liquor stores were defined as essential. Yet, if you look at the last 8, 9, 10 months, and you see that actually liquor stores, revenues have increased by at least 20%. During a time where people couldn't go out and do things, liquor sales have actually gone up. Revenues in churches dramatically dropped, dramatically dropped.
I had to ask myself this question; are churches being defined as nonessential, because we are the target of some sinister scheme to put churches out of business? I'm sure the enemy of our souls would certainly want that. Is that really what our government's trying to do, just to put churches out of business? Or is it more because that's how we have actually been living as Christians the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years.
Jacque: That's how we are viewed.
Brian: And that's how we are viewed, because of how we have lived. Have we really lived our lives in such a way that we have modeled, church community life is essential for me?
Jacque: It's a big question.
Brian: It's a big question. Of course, we reflect back on this very well-known scripture, which we've talked about the last few weeks in church in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Why don't you read that? Again, it's very familiar, but let's read it; 2 Chronicles 7:14. We'll read from the NIV here.
Jacque: If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Brian: I've landed on this verse a lot lately, because I'm a type A personality. I'm a like a problem solver or fixer. I see problems and I automatically try to fix them. Sometimes it gets me in trouble when people want to just come in and talk to me about their problems and they really don't want a solution, they just want to talk, and my mind is going about how I can help fix their problems. When I look at this portion of scripture, there are some things embedded in this scripture that maybe aren't completely on the surface, but I believe we can just say they are there. One of them is this that the need for healing of their land was something that was needed. God's words to his people were that if his people were to humble themselves... That's tough, isn't it?
The very, very first sin, the real fall, not the fall of Adam and Eve, but the fall of Satan happened because of pride. We don't want to take ownership of our failures. We don't want to have to admit when we are wrong. Yet the very first thing that God says in this verse is, will humble themselves. What does that mean? That means we have to start acting as though we don't have it all together, that we are all in the right, but maybe we've been wrong about some things.
Jacque: We have to be open.
Brian: We have to be open.
Jacque: To listen.
Brian: Absolutely, and then of course, to pray and to seek his face, and then of course, turn from our wicked ways. I began to think of this scripture and who he is addressing this to. He says, if my people… I remember for many years looking at, I use the word, the world, meaning people who didn't believe in Christ and people who weren't followers of the Lord, people who didn't go to church or whatever, all the different ways that we categorize that. I was always thinking they need to repent. They need to turn from their ways. They are the problem. They are the problem with what's going on in the world. And yet, when I look at this scripture, God is saying I'm the problem, that I'm the one that needs to humble myself. I'm the one that needs to turn from whatever wickedness there is in me. It's so easy to look at... We have these lists of really bad sins. Yet when you look at the things that God says he hates, most of them aren't on any of our lists. Most of them aren’t on any of our lists.
Jacque: He also said that we need to seek his face.
Brian: Seek his face, absolutely.
Jacque: Look to him.
Brian: Look to him. It's up to you and I, as the body of Christ to be willing to say, you know what, there is some wickedness in me. I need to admit that. I need to turn from that. I need to turn from that wickedness that's in me and not always be looking out there at the wickedness out there, but the wickedness that's in here. And so then I felt like the Lord brought me to another verse. We find it in Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24. Let's read that one, sweetie,
Jacque: Search me, God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Brian: Wow. Search me, oh God. You know why he doesn't say you need to self-examine yourself, because you know what? Our hearts deceive us. Our hearts deceive us. We think we are better than we are. We think we are more holy than we are. The Psalmist here actually says it this way. Lord, you search me. Lord, you search me. Father, you look and see if there be any offensive way in me.
Jacque: We need God to help us know what our motives are, because sometimes it's so hard to discern them.
Brian: Half the time, I can't even judge my own motives and know my own motives. How am I supposed to know the motives of somebody else? And so see...
Jacque: We think that we can totally know their motives, but we have a hard time knowing.
Brian: I know. I would just ask all of you who are watching today, let's camp on this verse for a few weeks. Let's just pray this every day; every day, search me, Father, search me, oh God and see if there be any wicked way in me. Help me, Lord. See if there is any offensive way in me and then lead me into the way of life everlasting.
Jacque: And then we have to follow.
Brian; Right. And then follow.
Jacque: Follow him.
Brian: We know the story of David; a man after God's own heart, anointed from the time he was a youth. We know the history of his accomplishments. He is now King, Saul is gone, dead. The scripture says that he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. He falls into sin with Bathsheba, but not only commits adultery and gets her pregnant, but he also then connives to murder her husband. There is a part of me that likes to idolize David, but there is a whole other part of us that if David would have been a pastor or a priest in our culture today, he would have been frocked and just complete… defrocked and completely cast aside.
One of the things I'm grateful for about the word of God is that it doesn't hide the failures of some of the main characters, or actually all the characters of the scriptures. Moses, himself murdered an Egyptian. We kind of sometimes just dismiss that because life wasn't as sacred in a sense back in those days. Life was cheap. I still think that life isn't as sacred as it ought to be in our culture, but that's a discussion maybe for another time. As David began to feel his remorse and Nathan, the prophet came to him and basically said you are the guy that's wrong, not these people out here. You are the guy that's wrong. David was convicted in his heart. Out of that season in his life.... and we don't really know, at least, I don't know how long that season was. Some people think it was maybe at least a year, maybe longer of really coming to a place of full humility and ownership of his personal failures. He wrote this Psalm, Psalm 51. I want to read the first 15 verses. I'm going to read it in the message Bible today. It gives it a little bit of a different flavor than maybe what we are accustomed to, but let's read it together.
Jacque: Generous in love, God, give grace.
Brian: David knows something; that in spite of him being a murderer and an adulterer that God's love is still generous to him. We need to hold on to that when we find ourselves with hatred in our hearts, which Jesus said is the same as murder, when we have found ourselves in sexual compromises in our lives, whether it's with pornography or infidelity, whatever sexual sin it may be, pornography, whatever it might be. We need to understand that there is a God whose love is generous, and he will give us grace. The grace isn't just not getting what we deserve. That is part of what grace is, but grace is also empowering us, giving us this presence of God to help us overcome the sins that have easily beset us. Let’s go on.
Jacque: Huge in mercy, wipe out my bad record, scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry. I know how bad I've been. My sins are staring me down.
Brian: I like that image. I do the laundry a little bit more often at our house.
Jacque: You do the laundry. Yay!
Brian: And there are times when I walk in and the washing machines do nothing. I thought, is it broke? No, it's just in the soaking cycle. It's in the soaking cycle. And I like this image that is created here, soak my sins in your laundry, and you know what, again, one of the things I kind of took from this is that sometimes our sins are so deep and so ingrained in us and so hidden from us that some token, oh God, forgive me of my sins doesn't really do the trick. We need to really soak in the presence of God and we need to soak in the word of God so that we can be completely saturated by this cleansing process that he has for us. Let's go on.
Jacque: You are the one I violated and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you. Whatever you decide about me is fair. I've been out of step with you for a long time.
I like... I'm going to go back to that. Whatever you decide about me is fair. Wouldn't we all be better off if we had that perspective? Because we would never question God, if we had that perspective, but the fact that we have this propensity, this inclination to almost always question God, what was God thinking? Like one of my favorite movies, Return to Me. What was God thinking? What are you thinking of, God? How can you do this? That whole thing is rooted in the truth that we don't trust him. We don't trust him. You know the full extent of my evil and whatever you decide about me is fair. Here is something that we would do well to embrace. I've been out of step with you for a long time.
Jacque: In the wrong since before I was born. What you are after is truth from the inside out. Enter me then conceive a new, true life.
Brian: Yes. Enter me and conceive in me a whole new, true life. Wouldn't that be great to pray that every morning? We do pauses several times a day, oftentimes together. One of the things that I've been more camping on the last number of months is that God and I would become one in the same way that Jesus prayed. He said, "I pray that they will be one with me as I am with you, Father." When I was younger I would just kind of read over that and just kind of dismiss it as an insurmountable mountain that I couldn't climb. Yet when you think of, did Jesus ever have a prayer that was never answered? Did Jesus ever pray a prayer that was amiss or out of the will of God? Not at all. So here is his prayer, I pray that they will one with me as I am with you, Father. The prayer of Jesus is that you and I would be at one with him.
Jacque: So our minds, like we have the mind of Christ, like thinking like him.
Brian: That's right. Yes, yes. So then he can conceive in us a whole new light. Let's go on.
Jacque: Soak me in your laundry.
Brian: And we go back to this soaking again.
Jacque: The laundry. Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean. Scrub me and I'll have a snow white life.
Brian: So who is going to do the scrubbing? God is going to do the scrubbing. Cleanse me, oh God. God does the scrubbing. Our problem is we leave it up to each other or we expect each other to clean each other up, but we really aren't capable of it. We need him to clean us and we need to submit to it and let his presence and power come into our hearts and our minds.
Jacque: Even when you were talking earlier, before that song, I was thinking, there is somebody out there who is thinking, I just have to be a little better and then I can come to God. I just have to stop this and get a handle on that, and then I can come, but no, we come now. I remember... This is how foolish that is. Years ago, I was going to join Weight Watchers, but I thought, oh, I'll lose 10 pounds and then I'll join Weight Watchers,
Brian: You’ve got to lose weight first.
Jacque: But that was keeping me from the place that was going to help me lose that.
Brian: That's right.
Jacque: It's the same thinking.
Brian: Yes. Yes. So scrub me then I'll have a snow white life. Let's go on.
Jacque: Tune me in to foot tapping songs.
Brian: Don't we need that today? Wouldn't you say we need that across the world today? There is more oppression, depression, relational issues. He is saying tune me in to foot tapping song. Set these once broken bones to dancing. Wow.
Jacque: Don't look too close for blemishes. Give me a clean bill of health. God make a fresh start in me. Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Brian: What a great description, because when you look at the book of Genesis and the first few verses; in the beginning was the world and the world was without form.
Jacque: Darkness.
Brian: And darkness was on the face of the deep. There was no shape. There was just the material stuff that the universe is made out of. In the beginning God created, and he had spoken. He created all the elements, but there was no structure to it. There was no light. It was just the elements. It was basically chaos, and then the scripture says, "And then the voice of God spoke." That word means to hover over like waves, almost like sound waves, in a sense, light waves and sound waves. His spirit began to hover over the chaos, and the chaos began to take shape and form. That's what David is actually saying here. He said, "God, make a fresh start in me. Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life."
We may feel like our lives are falling apart. We may feel like our country or our world is falling apart. I'm telling you, my friends, there is a God who is going to hold it together. There is a God that will hold your life together. There is a God that will hold this world together until it's the end of this age. We are not at the end of this age yet. So put your trust in the Lord. Don't fret. Don't worry. From the chaos of your life, he can bring order. You may not see how it will happen, but he will bring order into your life as we allow him to soak us in his laundry, to allow his presence to change us from the inside out. Let's go on.
Jacque: Don't throw me out with the trash or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Brian: Again, holiness doesn't come from us trying to strive and have more laws in front of us. Holiness comes from God. He places his empowerment, his spirit in us and his spirit, Christ in us, the hope of glory. I may preach on that next week. Christ in us, the hope of glory is where our strength and our righteousness and our Holiness will come from.
Jacque: Bring me back from gray exile. Put a fresh wind in my sails.
Brian: I like that picture, just being... If you've ever sailed, the wind is hardly there. And then all of a sudden this gust of wind comes in, the sails get just filled and you can just feel the surge going across the sea or the waves. That's what the spirit of God does in our live. He puts that wind into our sails. It's like What About Bob? I'm sailing. I'm sailing
Jacque: Old songs and old movies today.
Brian: Old songs and old movies today, I guess, right? He puts wind in our sails. He puts fresh wind in our sails.
Jacque: Give me a job teaching rebels your ways, so the lost can find their way home.
Brian: There is our song today. God wants you and I to not so much think of them as rebels, but look at these people who need to come home, and we need to teach them and show them mostly show them. That's the best way we can teach them; show them what Jesus does in our lives. If Jesus doesn't make you a nicer person, you don't have Jesus. I'll just flat out say that.
Jacque: You could say that again.
Brian: You know what, when you have Jesus in your life, you should be a nicer person than before you knew him. You really should be. Let's go on.
Jacque: That's good preaching. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation, God, and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. Unbuttoned my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with praise.
Brian: Wow. So after reading some of these scriptures and answering some of the questions that I had, and that maybe the Lord was asking me, these questions from the Lord, I just really asked them. Maybe we haven't been living as the church that model that we are essential. We have token attendance, token giving. We leave each other in droves. We don't work out our differences at times with each other. What have we modeled? So this is the question, getting back to our first, 2 Chronicles 7:14, and what do we really need to do as the body of Christ and as the church? What have we really modeled for the world to see? Have we really modeled how we live and how we live weekly and monthly and yearly, maybe daily?
Jacque: I think that when somebody thinks of church, a lot of people that are not as spiritual, that are involved in church, they think of the word judge. They feel judged.
Brian: They feel very judged. So as I began to ponder, maybe we deserve this definition of non-essential because of how we have been for the last 30, 40, 50 years as a church, as the church. Not just our church, but as the church. I asked the question to the Lord, well, what do we do now? What do we do now that we are here? I felt like he brought me to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11 is interesting. It starts by the disciples saying to Jesus that John taught his disciples how to pray. Would you, Jesus, please teach us how to pray? I thought about the fact that in the heart of people, we want to commune with God. In the heart of people, there is this cry to be able to speak to God, to be able to talk to God. We call it prayer, and it's certainly is that. I don't think you have to have this very narrow definition of prayer to come under the category of talking to God. But the cry of these men's heart, these fishermen, and this video series we watched recently...
Jacque: The Chosen.
Brian: Yeah, the chosen. It's really, really good. Jacque and I went back and re-watched this while we were in COVID. It's a good thing to do. I was tired of Andy Griffith reruns, so we watched The Chosen. Boy, I really appreciated how they created all the different characters and what they were like in the disciples. Matthew, this tax collector, he was a little, I guess, on the autistic realm or whatever. I don't know if that was accurately true or not, but what they did paint was how ostracized he was as a Jewish man being a tax collector, and all the different people that were there. All these men came together and they had one desire. They wanted to be able to talk to God. And so that's where this begins. So let's start with verse one of Luke chapter 11.
Jacque: One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples. He said to them, “When you pray, say Father, hallowed be your name.”
Brian: By the way, in this particular portion of scripture, Luke, this is written later. It's a later book, and he leaves out some of the essential other aspects that are in the Lord's Prayer. He just does it because he just assumes that it's been quoted so much that people would what actually comes next. So when he said, Father, hollowed be thy name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and so forth, that's all there in, in other texts.
Jacque: Hollowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each our daily bread, forgive our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us and lead us not into temptation.
Brian: So he begins this portion of scripture with what we call the Lord's Prayer or the Our Father. One of the key parts to this prayer is thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So then with that in the kind of the context, he begins to teach this next aspect about prayer and asking from God. So let's go through that.
Jacque: Then Jesus said to them, suppose you have a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, friend, lend me three loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have no food to offer him. And suppose the one inside answers, don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything. I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you bread because of your friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity, or yet to preserve his good name, that could be another reason, he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. So I say to you ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks, receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion? If you then though, you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
Brian: This last verse, verse 13 here gets lost in all of this. What Jesus was really talking about here is keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, but it wasn't to just get a better job or houses or some other materialistic item that we desire, but it's right here in this last verse, verse 13, he says, if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give you the Holy Spirit to those who ask? This whole is about the power that God makes available to you and I through asking of the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. The whole focus of this section is God's willingness to give us the gift of the father, which is what Jesus calls it, the gift of the father. I must go, so the gift of the father can come is what he says to his disciples, and that's Holy Spirit.
All throughout history, man's attempt at being holy can basically be summed up as this; let's look at the law and then let's do it. Whatever the laws are there, let's do it. The most successful people in the whole world at this kind of holiness were the Pharisees. They were the most successful at it. They had it down to every jot and tittle. They had it down. And what did Jesus say? Matthew 5 verse 20. He said, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will never see or enter the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God." So our righteousness can't be about looking at more things to do, or what does this law say and I've got to do that, but it has got to be something entirely different where we are infused with the power of Holy Spirit in our lives, where we are saturated, we are baptized.
I don't care what term you use. It depends on what camp you = come from. If you are a Pentecostal, you use the word baptized. Maybe if you are charismatic, you use another word or whatever. If you are a more mainline denominational person you say receive or whatever. All I'm saying is this; I don't care what camp you are in. All I'm saying is that we need to be saturated with Holy Spirit. Jesus is saying our father is more than willing because his reputation is one of a giving God. He is more than willing to give you and I a full measure of Holy Spirit in our lives so that our transformation will come from the inside out, like David was praying. Create this Genesis week in my life, Lord. Create this in my life. I would just say this.
There is one more portion of scripture I would like you to read. It's found in Matthew chapter 5, and then we'll be coming to the close here, but let's read Matthew 5, 38 to 48. This is the teaching of Jesus. This is really the Sermon on the Mount, but we need to now take into context, this sermon with what he said in Luke 11. By the way, if, when you keep reading, Luke 11, Jesus brings deliverance to a man who is mute and he can't speak, and then he brings deliverance. And then the Pharisees begin to say, "Oh, he is casting out the devil in the name of the devil." And that's when Jesus basically said, well, who do you cast out the devil in? And of course, they didn't. They didn't. Of course, he says a house divided against himself can't stand. That's the whole rest of that chapter. But then we kind of go back to Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount, which is one of the most incredible teachings, but we have to understand the only way to be able to do the Sermon on the Mount is to be filled, saturated with Holy Spirit. So let's read it.
Brian: This is from the Message. Here is another old saying that deserves a second look- eye for eye tooth for tooth. Is that going to get us anywhere? Here is what I propose. Don't hit back at all. If someone strikes you stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit for tat stuff. Live generous.
Brian: I would submit that we can't do that without Holy Spirit in our lives.
Jacque: Oh, we need Holy Spirit.
Brian: We can't do that. Let's go on.
Jacque: It goes against our nature.
Brian: That's right. Our nature is to blame, not take responsibility. Why did you fill that so full? The woman you gave me... That's our nature. That's our fallenness and our nature. We need something from within us, not just an external code that we have to grit our teeth to try and comply with.
Jacque: We need a supernatural nature, a new one.
Brian: That's right. Let's go on.
Jacque: You are familiar with the old written law, love your friend, and its unwritten companion, hate your enemy. I'm challenging that I am telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer. For then you are working out of your true selves, your God created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best, the sun to warm and the rain to nourish to everyone.
Brian: Who does it give his best to?
Jacque: To everyone.
Brian: To everyone.
Jacque: To everyone, regardless.
Brian: Regardless.
Jacque: The good and bad, the nice and nasty.
Brian: Oh, he gives his very best to not only the nice, but the nasty.
Jacque: If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anyone can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run of the mill center does that. In a word, what I'm saying is grow up. You’re kingdom subjects, now live like it. Live out your God created identity, live, generously and graciously towards others the way God lives towards you.
Brian: So I would submit to all of us, and I would argue not in an arguing sense, but just as setting forth my case here, that without the gift of Holy Spirit, this is an insurmountable mountain to climb. You are not going to be able to love your enemies. You are not going to be able to give the coat off your back. You are not going to be able to do these things without Holy Spirit in your life, but with Holy Spirit saturating us, nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible. I want to finish with the story of Stephen.
Stephen, as we know, his probably main claim to fame is he was the first martyr. The scripture says that he was full of faith, as well as being full of Holy Spirit. He was full of Holy Spirit. His last words, the very last thing we see Stephen say in Acts chapter 7, verse 60 are these. Then he fell on his knees and he cried out. You've got to remember, he is being stoned at this moment. The scripture says that the Pharisees looked at him and he had the face of an angel in the midst of being killed in that moment. He fell on his knees and he cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had finished saying this, he fell asleep, he passed.
I needed to ask myself this question; In the light of being defined as nonessential, the thing that I love, I've given my life to, I've given my life to serving in the church, and I had to ask myself this question; when is the last time we prayed a prayer like that? When is the last time we got on our knees and we said, father, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Is it probable that until we come to that place of faith, that place of commitment, that place of intimacy, that place of the fullness of the spirit of God in our lives, is it probable that until we come to that place of fullness, of Holy Spirit that Stephen had, I think it's probable that we, the church will remain as non-essential.
But the good news today is if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, they won't deflect, they won't blame, why did you fill it so full? They won't do that. We will take ownership and we will say to the Lord, my heart has deceived me when I thought I was so righteous, but I didn't have the moral fiber and the strength and the love and the compassion to pray to you, Father. Hold not this sin against them. So let us ask of the Lord today, is there any wicked way in me?
When Isaiah was pronouncing woes on all the different people that he was seeing as failures and evil and unrighteous, and the angel took a coal off the altar and touched his lips, and his response became, woe is me, not woe is everyone else. Woe is me. Let's ask for Holy Spirit to come and take a coal off the altar and touch our lips and touch our minds and touch our hearts. Let us begin to cry out to the Lord, woe is me. Change my heart, oh God renew a right spirit in me. You know, the apple-ness of the apple comes from the Apple tree. The apple-ness of the apple comes from the apple tree and the holiness we need in our lives comes from Holy Spirit in us. The same way that an apple reflects the very nature of the tree that it comes from, you and I will only reflect God when Holy Spirit is saturating our hearts and minds.
I encourage you today to pray Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24. Search me, oh God and know my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me and create in me a clean heart, oh God. Let us take ownership of where we are at. Let's take the ownership of where we as the church are at. Let us give ourselves fully to the infilling of Holy Spirit in our lives and let’s allow Holy Spirit to make us essential again, by how we will love each other and how we will love him and how we will serve these people in the world. Matthew 5. Read 5, 6, and 7, but especially Matthew 5. We can't live this way apart from Holy Spirit. The Pharisees couldn't and there were a lot better at it than we are.
Today I implore you, would you join me in asking God to search our hearts, to see if there be any wicked way in us. Let us humble ourselves before the all mighty God, and maybe just maybe in due time, he will exalt us as the church, but let us take ownership of the fact that we have been defined as non-essential. I don't want to dismiss any demonic strategies behind, but I would submit to you my friends, that we have been defined as non-essential because of how we have lived, how we have valued or not valued our communities of faith, our houses of worship. Today, I pray that whoever hears this message will have their hearts convicted as mine has been. When I first heard that definition I was angry. I was angry at the governor. I was angry at different leaders. I didn't want to take ownership of being defined as non-essential.
The question is, and the title of my sermon today is simply this, Are we Essential? Are we essential? If we are, then the only way that it's going to be reflected is first for us to be saturated with Holy Spirit, and then secondly, to begin to conform to the teachings of Jesus. Let's go back and read the words in red again, and let's see where we are not really doing the words in red, and come before him with humility and grace, and say, Father, search my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me. Create in me a clean heart. Create in me a clean heart. This, we pray in your name, Jesus, and for your sake.
Thank you for being with us today. I pray that you were blessed by the worship and the presence of God and what Jacque and I have shared with you today. We love you. Please stay in touch with us. Reach out to us, write us, send us an email, send us a text, and we look forward to connecting with you again real soon. Let's raise our hands together. Now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. This, we pray, in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 11-8-20. If you would like to watch the full service, click one of the links below.