Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Robert: Love you. Praise the Lord. Good morning. Good morning, Hope. How's it going this morning? Some of us are a little tired. We had a great party yesterday at the pastor's house, but what a great time of fellowship. I was glad to see all of you there and that all of you made it today. I want to greet all my wonderful friends. I have a lot of years of friendship represented here this morning. I want to greet you and just say what a joy it is to see your faces. Some of you haven't seen for a long time, and I'm glad you are here. I'm glad you responded. I get to brag this morning for a minute because I gave the congregation an assignment two weeks in a row.
The first week, you got off by just inviting one person. Most of you said yeah, that was good. Then last week I challenged you to invite two people and I'm being easy on you because you can do more than that. I have about seven or eight people here this morning who responded to the invitation. To give some of you encouragement, some of them, as they know, they will nod their heads. I've been inviting them for a whole year. So it just doesn't happen one time. I've been inviting some for a year. But it doesn't matter. Keep inviting them. We have something special here. We believe that, right? We have something special here and we want people to come and fellowship here. It doesn't mean that they come permanently as a part of Hope, but they are a part of Hope in some way, because we have a lot of friends of Hope. Whether they become members or not, we love to have you here because Jesus loves to have you here. Amen.
I want to thank you for being here. I don't take it lightly and I pray that you are blessed today. Men, we have a wonderful men's ministry, a men's council. I see a few of them here today. I see Sean and Brad were up here playing. Brad, thank you so much for organizing the men's retreat we had. We went to Camp Lebanon. I hadn't been to Camp Lebanon in probably 12 years, but I remember all of its splendor and it didn't disappoint and the men's retreat didn't disappoint. So thank you. Thank you to all the men that were there. We had about 12 men. We are looking for more. We are planning ahead already for next year. Brad is working on that to put another powerful retreat.
We had such a wonderful time on the retreat, a lot of bonding, a lot of sharing, a lot of God moving, hearts were changed and has given us a great momentum for the men's ministry. We want to capitalize on that and continue, so we are going to start our monthly men's breakfasts again. Praise God for that starting next month, Saturday, October 15th from seven to nine. Men, we want you to come out. We want you to save the date right now. It's just a time. We are here seven to nine, so we are not taking up all of your Saturday. It's a time for us to get together, come eat, fellowship, pray, love on one another and we can go back to our families after that, but we'll go back to our families changed. Because we are better together as we get together. So that's what we want to do. We are going to do some more planning and we are going to recap the year and end this year strong with our fellowship. So we want to see you October 15th here at the church building at 7 o'clock and we'll have signups in the next few days, but we want to get the word out, so that you can save the date and prepare for that.
I also didn't get a chance to publicly thank Sean Jones. He currently serves as the president on the board of Crossroads Chapel. They invited me this year to preach at the state fair at the Crossroads Chapel. That was such a wonderful experience. I just got a big vision and revelation even more. You guys know about me wanting to go out and do outreach and minister the people. But it's another thing when you are standing on a stage like that, and you see all these thousands of people walk past that need Jesus. It was a wonderful time for that, and we are looking for good fruit to come from that as well.
I want to thank Pastor Brian and Jackie for having us here to do work again. Work in the word iswhat we love to do. I pray that you'll hear the heart of the message this morning, as it's one of those messages, again, that my inner parts are bubbling this morning. So pray for me and bear with me. I thank my beautiful wife, who I'm so grateful to have in my life, especially in this season, as we continue to grow as a family as a couple. I wouldn't choose anybody else to do it with right now. She is great. She is great to me and great for me. I'm blessed to have her by my side.
Speaking of inviting people to church, we thank God we can invite friends that we know, and that may have started following Jesus and just need a little break from their church homes or haven't been to church for a while. But hopefully in that mix of invitations, we are inviting people who don't know Jesus that are lost to come and fellowship with us and to experience the Lord in their lives. I know that can be difficult sometimes and discouraging because we hear all kinds of excuses. People say things like, "I'm not ready." or "There are some things that I need to get together because I don't want to be a hypocrite." The one that I like the most is "I don't have any church clothes." Well, apparently they haven't been to Hope because you guys have to work on me.
No matter what the excuses are, it gives us the impression that somehow the church has given the wrong impression about what it is to come to church. Somehow, we've missed a mark. Somehow, we've given the impression that you have to fit some type of profile or something. You have to measure up to come and to be a part of the household of faith. That's just simply not the good news. If that is the good news, the gospel message has been lost. The gospel cries out to all who would hear and who would respond to it no matter where you've been, no matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter what you have done, no matter what family you've been a part of, no matter what mistakes you have made, no matter what sins you've committed. The gospel goes out to all.
There are no prerequisites to the gospel. There are no restrictions to the gospel and those of us like Hope Community, we embrace the gospel message. We even have signs around on the wall that says, "come as you are amen". There are churches today that have the moniker of come as you are, because there are no limitations or restrictions for the invitation to come to Jesus Christ, but__ everybody say, "but" that message is incomplete without his tagline. That tagline goes something like this' come as you are, but leave transformed by him. That's the title of our message this morning, because it's not simply about coming and being a part of some fellowship or some social club.
The invitation to come says, it doesn't matter who you are, where you are. Jesus invites you to come. You don't have to try to fix yourself up to come to Jesus. If that was the case, you don't need Jesus. The invitation is to come so that he can fix you up. We have to make sure that we continue to send the message out, come as you are. It doesn't matter.
I remember over my years of pastoring and counseling people and people would come into Starbucks, Caribou at my office and people would come to talk to me about their struggles. A lot of people would come and they would have their heads hung low and not want to make eye contact and be full of shame. And I said, "Don't come to me like that; hold your head up. I'm not worthy of you feeling shame." My wife knows one of my sayings is "I didn't always wear the collar." Pastor was not always in front of my name. I didn't always know Jesus. I have a life, a sinful life that I__ anyway, that's another sermon. I'm not worthy. Okay. But he is,
Something happened in my life that Jesus got a hold of my life. I had an encounter, women. I had an encounter with Jesus that transformed my life. So I'm no longer the same person that I was. I'm an entirely different man, an entirely different person, because I did come to him with all my brokenness, with all my pride, with all my deceit, with all my shame, with all my rejection and allowed him to do work amen in my life.
We have the wrong expectations, people. Jesus doesn't expect you to change before you meet him, but he expects you to change after you meet him. There has to be evidence that we've encountered the master. There is evidence of following Jesus. We are going to talk about following. The evidence of following Jesus is a changed life, a transformation. If you look at the Bible, read the Bible__ and hopefully, we are reading the Bible. That's why I thank you, pastor for allowing me to teach on Wednesday nights, Pastor Jeff. Thank you, Micah, for being here with the live streaming, allowing the body of Christ, our Hope Community to come and dig into God's word. I've been enjoying it just as much as you are. I'm growing each lesson that we have. I invite those that are watching today, and those that are here. We have building blocks of the faith that we do every Wednesday night, every other Wednesday night at 6:30 and we live stream it. It's basically a bunch of us getting together to dig into God's word, in the precepts of his word, so that we will become more like him.
This transformation, I like that word transformation because we don't like the word change. So I'm going to try to stick with transformation as much as possible because our flesh doesn't like that word change because we don't like to change. But one thing that I know, if we come into a relationship with Jesus, change, transformation is inevitable, but coming into a relationship or following Jesus goes far beyond just mentioning the name of Jesus or claiming to believe in Jesus. There is a following. There is a relationship that has to happen. As that transformation journey, as I love to call it__ it's a journey. That's what following speaks of. It's not a one-time event.
We were happy for a while in the church when we had these great evangelism meetings and we had all these people stand up and give their hearts to the Lord and you know what happened? We dropped the ball. We got so happy and proud and we could write numbers on a piece of paper to say how many people we led to the Lord, but we forgot one important thing: discipleship. To disciple folks, Pastor Jeff, in the ways of Jesus. Amen.
The salvation message is not complete just by the invitation and people responding. There is a following that Jesus said, "Follow me." And we have to continue to follow him__ because as that transformation journey happens, as you presently come to Jesus by faith, and it is by that faith, when you are broken and double minded and poor and abused and rejected, and you allow him to transform your life, change happens. When that transformation journey begins and when we begin to follow Jesus, and the key here again is follow, he transforms you in your mind. He transforms you. He transforms your desires. He transforms your relationships and he ultimately transforms your purpose for living.
Now we can begin to preach. The transformation of your minds only starts when we are truly born again. Let's say that born again: born again. We need to bring that back in our vocabulary in the church. Transformation of your mind only starts when we are truly born again, which allows us to live by the spirit of Christ. You can read the gospel of John.
TaQuaris: John chapter 3, verses 3, and then 5 through 7. Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth; unless you were born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God." Jesus replied. "I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water. And the spirit humans can reproduce only human life, but the holy spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again."
Robert: We need to bring the born-again message back. Because as believers, we must be born of the spirit. We must be led by the spirit, by the spirit. What distinguishes us. There are several things that distinguishes us from the lost, as we taught in one of the classes. The natural man, the man, without God, without Christ is lost. The lost man cannot understand the things of the spirit. We can expect if you are lost to be people of the spirit. You have to be born again. Jesus says you have to be born again. You have to be born from above is what Jesus was teaching. The first entrance into following Christ is that regeneration of who we are, that lost natural man. When we accept Jesus Christ, God's spirit, holy spirit resides in us, it dwells us, which allows us then to communicate with God, which allows us then to understand God and understand who he is and what he expects of us. So we must live by the spirit.
You've been in this fellowship for a while; you understand, and you've heard that God doesn't expect us to live by external sets of rules, but he wants us to be guided from within, in our inner men, in our spirit man, God's heartbeat is inside of us so that we understand the way that we should go.
TaQuaris: And again, you heard us say this before, the motivation is love. It's not fear. When you think about what God has done for you, that he found you, you didn't find him and and you think about what he's doing in your life, what he's doing in your family life, and you are humbled. And you say, "I'm not worthy of this, but you still are always there for me. You love me that much." And because you love Christ, you want to change. It's not about, oh, I can't do this and I can't do that because the Bible says you can't. I don't want to do that. I want to try to be more like you. I want to try to be formed in your image because I love you. And so again, the motivation is love and relationship. It's not the dos and don't. I have to go to church. I have to pray at this time of day. You can do all of that and that's just actions. That's not a relationship. So just keep that in mind that the motivation is the love that we have for Christ and the love that he has for us.
Robert: As the Lord wants to transform our minds, there are things__ you know, this transformation. As we read the scriptures, oftentimes, what is our part? In the different translations, there are all these actionable things. But a lot of times the actionable thing is “let, allow”. We make a choice. We have to allow the Lord. We have to cooperate with what he wants to do in our lives. That comes with our minds. As he's transforming our minds, he's giving us everything that we need for the renewing, for the transformation of our minds, but we have to allow God to work, but we also have to reject some things. One of the things we have to reject is the way that we used to think, and we have to reject the way that a lost world. Romans.
TaQuaris: Romans 12 verse 2. Don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Robert: Look what this scripture says. First, it gives you the don't: Don't copy the behavior of this lost world. Don't copy the behavior of this lost world, because it's not rooted in Christ. To mirror, Pastor Brian a little bit here: Religion tells you what to do, what not to do, but it doesn't give you the answers of what to do. Jesus may tell you what not to do, but he offers you another way. Amen, a living way. The scripture says, don't copy the customs and behaviors of this world, but do it on your own. No, it said, let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. So we can't do this without the Lord. We have to allow God to do that work of transformation. It says only then, only when you do the work of letting God do his work, will you then understand God's will for your life?
TaQuaris: The transformation of our minds starts when we are truly born again, but it doesn't end there. We need to continue to renew our minds so we know what God's will for our life is, what is true. I like the King James version a little bit better because it says to prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. Verse or the saying, the perfect will of God, actually suggests and is an existence of a not so perfect will of God, which is known as the permissive will. God's perfect plan for your life is to give you the ultimate plan for your life regarding relationships, regarding your purpose, regarding your job, your careers. But however, just note this, keep this in mind, just because it's permitted, it doesn't mean that it's his will. God, he's a perfect gentleman. He's not going to force us to do anything. That's why our motivation, again, is love.
Robert: Amen. Not only does he transform our minds, but he transforms our desires. A lot of people struggle with their desires. And I like to put it this way: People want to do what they want to do. Yeah. Especially in the west, especially in America. We have this independent spirit. We want to do what we want to do and we don't want nobody to tell us what to do. We want to do what we want to do. But the transformation, if we are going to allow the Lord to transform our desires, another thing we need to bring back in our vocabulary is the Lordship of Christ. I love the song, "I am a friend of God". I love that song. I love the concept of being a friend of God. My son calls me his best friend, but my son also knows I'm his father in our relationship. He respects me as his father, as an authority in his life. Let's not mistake our inheritance in God without understanding or losing the fact that Jesus is still Lord and should be Lord of our lives. And in that, as we are transformed in our desires, we have to choose to reject sinful desires.
TaQuaris: Roman 6: 12 to 13: do not let sin control the way you live. Do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourself completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
Robert: Sin is always still, whether you are born again or not, knocking at the door to try to take control of your life, your actions, your behaviors. Those of us who have come into fellowship with Christ, we have the ability to choose. When you are lost, you don't have that ability to choose. Your sinful life controls you, period. Your sinful desires control you. Those cravings have to be met. Those lusts have to be fed. But in Christ, you have to choose to reject those things. As you continue to follow the Lord, as you allow your mind to be renewed, as you allow yourself to be molded by Christ, it gives you the strength to do that. We are not saying that you have all of this empowerment within yourself.
The world tells you that you are all of that. Man, you are all of that. And you can do all of these things. That's an incomplete message. I can do all things through Christ. For the believer, that's what we know to be true. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can reject sinful desires, not in my power, but through Christ who strengthens me to be able to say no to my flesh.
TaQuaris: I was also thinking why you were saying that, that there are some desires that are from God, but the scripture also tells us to seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all other things will be added to you. So even though something is of God, that's not our motivation to get things from God, right? So we need to seek him first is what the Bible says and then his righteousness. Because we are not righteous within ourselves. We have to put on a breastplate of righteousness. We have to continue to walk this thing out every day. We have to continue to kill our flesh every day. Trust me. The more you seek God and his will for your life, the more he gives you the strength or the power, the spirit of God inside you gives you the strength to resist the sinful desires and pleasures and the sinful nature.
Robert: The scripture is replete with reminding us that we have something special when it comes to our relationship with Christ. One of the things I want to get us to really understand is we have the ability to choose. My fellow saints, this idea of "the devil made me do it" is really not telling the truth
TaQuaris: Or "that's just how I am." What is Christ?
Robert: "The devil made me do it." No, the devil didn't make you do it. You had a choice. Coming into Christ's fellowship gives you a choice. The way that we have a choice, as much evident to me as I continue to read scriptures and what the scripture says. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 4.
TaQuaris: Verse 22 to 24, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.
Robert: All of those verses indicate choice to me, choice to do an action. It says throw off. So you are making the choice to throw off your sinful nature. It says, “Instead, let, allow, the spirit to renew your thoughts and minds.” And then it says, “Put on.” You have the choice to go through this process of allowing the spirit to show you the way to go and to choose the way that the spirit is telling you to go. That's how we, as believers, as we are led by the spirit live our life. I don't wake up in the morning and on my refrigerator is a post-it with the 10 commandments, and I go over the 10 commandments. Because that posted list on the refrigerator is not going to help me when I drive away from my house and I'm in the moment where I need to choose the way of life. The way I'm going to choose the way of life is not from those lists on that refrigerator. It's me listening to that voice, to their inner voice, to the spirit saying, "Robert, I am showing you the way to go now, choose ye in it." That's how we are to live the life in the spirit, in Christ.
Another thing we've been talking about, we are seeing worldliness. I won't even say creep into the church anymore. We've opened the door wide open for the spirit of worldliness to come to the church. What I mean by that as a church culture, we are allowing worldly influencers to influence us in the church in the way that we think, in the way that we respond to things that we already know is not a new and living way. The scripture very plainly tells us that we have to reject the worldly system, the worldly way of thinking, because it doesn't come from God. It doesn't represent God. And so we don't entertain it. We reject it. And there is a reason why we reject it: 1st John 2.
TaQuaris: 15 through 17: do not love this world nor do things. It offers you from when you love the world. You do not have the love of the father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave, but anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
Robert: Let me give you the Pastor Robert 2022 translation of this verse, so we can make it plain. The scripture is telling us that we cannot allow the world to offer us solutions for our problems. We cannot allow the world to guide us in our council because the only advice, the only solution that the world is going to give you is that which feeds your flesh. It is never going to give you anything that is nourishing to your spirit. It is always going to give you things that are sensual and that gives into the cravings of your fleshly desires. It is going to offer you a quick fix. It's never going to tell you to go through the process. It's always going to say you can be gratified now and whatever you think is okay as long as it pleases you. That's what the world says. That's what the world offers. But what it doesn't show you on the front end of it is death comes with it. That's what's on the back of the label of the package: warning, toxic, poison, death.
You may have good symptoms at first. It is going to do a slow work of death in your life. It's going to uproot everything that God has desired to produce good fruit in your life. It is going to do an undermining of everything that you've built in your life thus far. We as pastors, especially, have seen men and women of God who have grown up in the faith and are departing from the faith because they've lost hope in the message of the gospel and they've taken on the advice of their flesh. We have to allow the Lord and go through the process. Whatever the process the Lord has for us is the best process. Because at the end of that process is renewal, transformation, life, new beginning, flourishing, a strong foundation, victory and we are changed and transformed for the better.
We look different. And I'm not talking about our external clothing or our hairstyles or things like that. Sometimes that goes with it, depending on how the Lord is ministering to you. But what I'm saying is when I say we look different, there should be a distinction church. The message of God has not changed. He says, "Be holy for, I am holy." What does that mean? Holiness has nothing to do with our pants length or our hair length. Holiness has to do with us being set apart in our hearts, in our heart's desires, so that we no longer mimic the way of the world, the way of worldly, deathly thinking. We are not corrupted in the way we treat people. We are not corrupted in how we talk to people. We are not corrupted in our motivations. We look differently. We respond differently. Notice I said respond. We don't react. We respond.
Reaction equals flesh. Respond equals spirit. Because when you are in the spirit, there is a pause. What is that pause? That pause is allowing your voice to be rooted out, your will to be rooted out, your desires, to be rooted out. And that pause is the gateway for the spirit to come in and show you the way to go. That's what that pause is for. That's how you respond in the spirit. We are no longer people that react in our flesh even though it's tested day by day. I've had plenty of time to react in my flesh this past week, but there is a pause. Sometimes that pause is manifested in silence. Sometimes you just have to shut your mouth and just allow the spirit to do its work, and then you can see the Christ-like response that comes.
TaQuaris: I'm just going to say we want to decrease so God can increase in us. And also, we don't just have good intentions; now we have godly intentions. And the only way to have golly intentions is to commune with the father so he can change us. The Bible says that we are in this world, but we are not of this world.
Robert: Amen. I'm going to move on to our next point. There is a transformation that takes place in our relationships. The transformation of our relationships begins when we yield to Jesus's way of interacting with others, no matter if it's friend, stranger or folk. Outside of Christ, we would take those three categories of relationships and we will have three distinct methods or ways of interacting. The world says, the flesh says, I act one way with my family, one way with friends, one way with strangers or one way with my enemies. Jesus comes and turns the whole world upside down and gives us a new way. Matthew chapter 22.
TaQuaris: Verses 37 through 39. Jesus replied, "You must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: love your neighbor as yourself."
Robert: Love your neighbor as yourself. And who's your neighbor? Your neighbor is not just the people that you know; your neighbor is all those that you would have a relationship with, that you come into contact with. And Jesus says a radical thing: love your neighbor as yourself. Love this stranger as yourself, love this enemy as yourself. That's foolishness to the world. The world does not under__ do you realize how much of a stumbling block that is to the world? It is a stumbling block. The church has been ridiculed for it. I've been mocked for it. What are you talking about? Love your enemy as yourself. Yeah, your neighbor. Your enemy is your neighbor. Sometimes our enemy is right next door, across the street, in the next cubicle. Come on now. The professor__ never mind. Sorry, Scott. Sorry. Sorry.
And it's a challenge for us. For us, it's a challenge, but let Jesus show you the way. Jesus has the way on how to do that. It takes heart work, heart work for you to be transformed into that. It takes an effort on our part not to take things personally because when we take things personal, more times than not, we are going to react in our flesh, because it's personal. We have emotions attached to it. Someone accuses us of something. Someone blames us for something. Someone rejects us. Someone abuses us or steals from us. We take it personally and we want to wish not so good things for them. Pastor, I'm just telling on myself. This bunch is too saved. Maybe some of my online community can relate to what I'm talking about.
Sometimes we don't have good thoughts of people who do wrong to us. You can't deny that you can't deny that you have those feelings. If someone stole a thousand dollars from you, are you going to feel a good way towards them? Someone slap you in the face, you are going to feel a good way towards them? No, you are going to be angry. You want to lay hands on them? I don't know if it's holy hands or not.
But see, the world's way is if someone does harm to you, you do harm to them. Jesus's way is if someone does harm to you, you allow me to do a work in them so that they can see the error of their ways and then change. The mechanism that the Lord gave us is for us to show them the way by the way we respond.
TaQuaris: Jesus gave us the perfect example when he was on a cross and they were crucifying him. He looked to the father and said, "God, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And that couldn't be nothing but the spirit he is so divine. Because who can think that? They are crucifying you, they are trying to kill you and you say, "God, forgive them." You have to have the spirit of God in us to behave that way.
Robert: And we have to have fellowship with the Lord for us to behave that way. I don't know how many times I've said to the Lord, "Lord, I don't know how to forgive this person, but show me the way." Come on, people! I know it's not an easy thing to do. We don't sit there every night and we pray loving prayers towards our enemy. Come on! But when you've given your life over to the Lord, you have the ability to pray. Lord, show me the way. Help me. I don't know how to do it. In myself, I don't have the capacity to do it and if I'm perfectly honest with you, Lord, I don't want to do it. Oh, don't get quiet on me.
Jesus showed the way when he was sweating droplets of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Lord, if this cup can be passed from me, I'll be the first in line to receive the passing of this cup. But never nevertheless, let your will be done and not my will. If you haven't prayed that prayer, you better pray that prayer or you are going to give into your fleshly desires every time. Lord, this is what I want to do to this person. This is what I want to say to this person, but let not my will be done. Let your will be done. Because the way the Lord sees it, he has you, but he wants them. You don't want to be a stumbling block getting in the way of the Lord getting them. So though, you've been hurt, you've been rejected, the world, excuses it and pacifies you in that rejection. The Lord doesn't excuse us. Because the Lord said, "I offered you a way of comfort and healing so that you can be used for my glory. And so that I can get glory for someone who is the abuser." Because God wants the abused and the abuser just the same. That's his way. That's his way.
TaQuaris: It doesn't mean you have to be a doormat. God can give you wisdom on how to deal with people. So keep that in mind.
Robert: I think of all the points we've made so far; I think the greater point when it comes for this transformation journey is what happens in this last point we are making you see because of Jesus dying on the cross because of his burial and subsequent resurrection, he changed the destiny for mankind. Therefore, he changed our purpose. He has given us a higher purpose for living, a higher meaning for living. The world tells us that your purpose for living lots of time is manifested in making ends meet or what your social status is, what your economic status is and your climbing of those statuses, and that you have to make it to a certain point, and here are the steps to success. You gain all of these things and you win friends and influence people. Hey, great read, but that's not your ultimate purpose in life.
God has a purpose for you and that purpose is attainable because of what Jesus has done for us. We have a destiny. Do you know that? We have a destiny. We have a destiny and everything that happens in your life. Everything that happens post Christ in your life is moving you closer to that destiny. But I want to tell you about something along the way and where the scriptures will tell you about something along the way.
TaQuaris: 1st Peter chapter 2, verses 9 and 10: but you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a royal priest, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God for he called you out of the darkness into this wonderful light. Once you had no identity as a people. Now you are God's people. Once you received no mercy. Now you have received God's mercy.
Robert: Let's read Romans 8 also.
TaQuaris: Romans chapter 8 verses 28 through 30: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them for God knew his people in advance and he chose them to become like his son so that his son will be the first born among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Robert: Your life in Christ brings glory to God. And God wants has a destiny for you and I who call ourselves Christ followers to share in that glory. There is a song. I think it's by Sandy Patty. We shall behold him in all of his glory. Face to face, we shall behold him. That's your destiny. Everything that happens in your life is all for that glorious moment for you to fellowship in that splendor of light with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Amen. That is what this life is all about. As we are on that journey__ let me backup. We have that destiny because of what the Lord Jesus did. And therefore, God wants us to be molded into the image of his son. It pleased God what Jesus died so that he could be the forerunner for us. He could pave the way for us to be in God's glory. Everything that we do in this life into that moment is molding in us more and more like Jesus.
If we are to be molded in his image, we have to do it his way. We can't be molded into the image of Christ doing it our way. We can't please the father doing it our way. We have to do it Jesus' way. The only way that happens is if we are transformed in the things that we talked about earlier in our minds, in our desires, in our relationships, because the world may have its desires and goals and purposes, but God's goals and purposes are unique for his people.
TaQuaris: We love to quote the first part of verse 28 regarding all things working out for our good. However, we forget about the end part of the verse. It's working out for our good number one, because we love God, and number two, because we are called according to his purpose, not our purpose, his purpose. It's clear that God created man and it's also clear that he created man for his own glory. So therefore, the ultimate purpose of mankind is to simply glorify God. The more we get to know our creator and the more we love him, the better we understand who we are and our purpose.
Robert: So come as you are. Come, as you are with all of your baggage, with all of your hang-ups, with all of your pride, with all of your abuse, with all of your rejection. Jesus can handle it. Come as you are. Come with all your prejudice. Come with all of your presuppositions about life. Come! The invitation is there, but the Lord wants to do a work in you.
TaQuaris: And you have to allow him to do the work in you. That's the key. But like I said, he's a perfect gentleman. He's not going to force himself. He didn't create robots, where he just created these people just love me, love me; do what I say. No, he wanted it to be out of our heart. It has to matter. And so I was thinking for all you fishermen out there. When you are out there catching fish, you catch the fish, then you take it home., then you clean it up and then you cook it or whatever. That's kind of how God does with us. He catches us first. Then he cleans us up. But we have to allow him to do the cleaning, because what our motivation is because we love God.
Robert: And to truly love God is to trust him. We have to trust him in our most vulnerable spaces. We've heard all of the council and wisdom of man and it did nothing for us. But God is not a man.
TaQuaris: You know, this is really on my heart, and I know my husband's as well. It's so important as followers of Christ that we are representing Christ in a dying world. This world is going to end one day. We all have a purpose. We are all put on earth to not just to live, take care of our families, just go to work every day, just going through the motions. We are here to do something and do something for Christ. Whether we are on a job__ I work at Park Nicollet. I come across mean patients everyday and mean coworkers everyday too. But at the end of the day, you know what? I have to tell myself, I have to die. I have to die, so I can be an example so I can be the light, so I can be the salt in this world. So they can know that there is something different about me. Because you know what? I care for their salvation.
You think about it. We are not selfish people. Jesus wasn't selfish. He died on the cross for us. We have to die to our flesh, so we can also be an example for the people that's in the world. I just plead with you guys to just really ponder that and really think about that because some people get intimidated. You know, oh, you are judging. We hear that so much. You are judging. God held the disciples accountable in the word. How come we can't be held accountable as well? We have to be held accountable, so Jesus can shine brighter in our lives. We want to witness to people. We don't have to beat them over the head with the Bible, but we can just love on them every day even the ones that are mean to us. I'm going to love on you every day, so you can know that there is something different about me. If God gives me the opportunity, I'm going to share that good news with them. Because at the end of the day, God wishes that no man should perish. So we have to really think about that.
Look at this world and look at all the things we hear and all the things we are seeing and all the different changes in the world. What are we? We are the body of Christ. He resides in us. That dunamis power is inside of us. Our ultimate goal is to glorify God so we can help witness to people. We have to think about that. We have to put people ahead of ourselves. It's not just, oh, I want to clean up for myself so I can say I look good. I did all the great things. It's not even about that. We have to be a witness. We can't witness to the world if we are looking and talking and sounding and doing the things of the world. We just cannot, you just cannot. The Bible says don't let your good be spoken evil of. So some things are okay, but you are putting your brother ahead of you, so I'm going to just set that aside because I don't want to fear my brother. I want to be a good witness and that's my motivation. It's just to be a good witness. We are not perfect. We are going to make mistakes. We are not saying you have to be perfect. What we are saying is just open yourselves and allow God to continue to transform you.
The Bible says we are going to go from glory to glory, to glory. We are to continue to want to change every day. Want to be a better believer or follower of Christ. That should be a motivation for us. So I just wanted to leave that with you. When you are walking outside, when you are at jobs, when you are at the grocery store, look at these people. It's important that we live a godly, holy life, that we be the example that we be the salt, that we be the light. Because the world is saying that the church has lost his power, but we aren’t lost power because power is God. And we have it in him. That's why it's important that we know who we are, and we know that our identity is in Christ, that we love him, that we spend time with him, intimate time in our word, praying to him daily, just building our relationship up with the Lord.
I just want to say one other thing, because you were saying about the Lordship, we have lost the Lordship. In Proverbs, the Bible says that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. That's not fear, I'm scared. It's the reverence of God. So we really need to bring the reverence of God back into the house.
Robert: Let's pray. Dear, heavenly father, we thank you for accepting us where we are at, where we've been and not rejecting us, and that the door was open unto us for us to enter in. And Lord, as we continue to follow you, we pray that we will continue to allow the transformation process so that we can be renewed in our minds, that our desires would be healthy and holy. And as you give us the desires of our heart. You would be pleased by what we do and by what we say. Father, help us in our relationships. Let us prefer our brother, even in proper boundaries, let us still represent you in how we interact with one another. Lord, let us cherish our destiny in you so that it can be a constant banner that we are to raise and as a calling card to all those that don't know you and so that we can point them to a higher purpose in their life and that their life has meaning and that their living is not in vain. And Lord, give us the humility to realize that we can't do it without you. As we stumble, as we fall, as we misspeak, as we lash out, let us not be condemned, but be convicted with the anticipation that we'll have another chance to get it right.
So holy spirit, you are present with us, but we can always use a refreshing so that we can be charged up to continue on this journey. Thank you, Lord, that I'm not in this alone and that you guide me every step of the way and Jesus' mighty name. Amen.
Brian: I was thinking of all the different people that Jesus encountered. The woman at the well, she came just as she was, but she left different, didn't she? The demoniac of the Gaderines, he was just as he was when Jesus came to him. But when he left, he was an entirely different person. Bartimaeus was a different person. The blind man was a different person. The paraplegic that was let down through the roof was a different person after they encountered Jesus. And so we need to let his presence come and let him do his work in us so that we can become like him.
Thank you, Pastor Robert and TaQuaris for this wonderful message today. I think this is one you want to go back and listen to a few times. Wouldn't you say? Let's raise our hands together. We will have people to pray with you at the altar if you need prayer for anything. I'll be serving communion this morning. For those who would like to have communion, I'll be there shortly after the service.
And now may the Lord bless you. And may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine up upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace. And may you encounter the presence of the living God and begin a transformation from the inside out. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God bless you. Thank you for being here today.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 9-18-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.