Living Word Interdenominational Church
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Living Word Interdenominational Church
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Desiring the UnObtainable (Sermon Notes)
In this world we live in today filled with how to programs and instructions on everything from: How to become rich To buying and selling homes Losing weight Being more confident Well the list just goes on and on doesn’t it! But you will notice that all of it is obtainable. With your hands with your mind you can obtain it and it’s reachable! Now yes there is some things that seems like we just cannot do, like lose weight or get rich but others are doing it. So it is not that is not obtainable it is just that we as an individual have not achieved it yet. But what I want to discuss with you today is something that I feel God wants for you and me. Yet this something is not obtainable by anything we can actually do with our hands. Lets look at Isaiah 66:1 again, this time taking it all in. Isa 66:1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? We talked about this scripture before but today we are going to go deeper! God wants us to go deeper! Do you want to go deeper with God? Are you satisfied where you are at? It is important that you understand that what God is asking us to do is absolutely unobtainable by anything we can do or say under our own power or abilities. So many times what happens is that we the church have adopted and embraced the ways of the world and we have brought those ways into the church! So many of the churchs - the majority of them have become so man centered that there is literally is no room for God. The church is filled with programs and ministries all with God like terminology but all empty and void of anything of God! They feed the flesh! Michael Howard shared with us on Tuesday morning that he met a Pastor in Washington that had a huge flourishing church. 20,000 members! While speaking with the pastor the pastor confided in Michael that he was actually called to be a missionary in India but since the church was so successful he had stayed! Can you imagine! Michael stated the only reason a man would stay if he was actually called to the mission field would be vanity! Look at what I have done! Look at what I built! The world says that you cannot argue with success! But in God’s kingdom you can Imagine the absolute horror that man will experience when he goes before God expecting crowns and instead gets rebuked! You say but pastor Jesse doesn’t the Spirit move there yes But the Spirit moves in the midst of secret sinning Pastors as well! God’s grace and mercy is what dictates the move of the Spirit. You also have to take into account that churches today when they have that kind of money, seem to cater more to the flesh than to God. Starbucks and gyms and large parties Yet they seem to try to balance the budget between missions and evangelism and their congregations amenities! There is no balance!!! We are to seek the kingdom of God first!!!! That is scripture, hey I have no problem with coffee Lord knows we need it sometimes! But do you really think that Starbucks not only pays them rental space but also pays 10% of their profits to the church? We need to stop doing the doable and start pressing in for the unobtainable just like God asks us to. God is looking to and fro from the north to the south for a people that he can come and inhabit! Unfortunately though there are many magnificent buildings and ministries he is having a problem finding anyone that might fit the bill! We are all caught up with programs and ministries that were created for man by man. But listen it takes more than agreeing with me it takes much more. We have to come to a point of desperation A point of pain and uncomfortableness! Isaiah 66:1 God is asking where can I lay my head and rest! Where can I find my house swept and kept clean? Where is my bride without spot or blemish? I seek a place to rest I seek a place to inhabit! Are you that place today? Can you say that you seek the kingdom of God first in your life? Not many of us can if any. We are so caught up with work and bills and family and relationships. I challenge you to call it what it really is in comparison to Christ! Phi 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, All things! All things are nothing in comparison to : Knowing Christ!!!! Do you want to know him?!?!? How badly? Do you go to prayer do you anxiously wait for The next time you go to church or prayer! How bad you want to know him! How bad do you want to have a real knowledge of Christ!?!!? Paul said he suffered the lost of ALL THINGS so that he could KNOW HIM! In fact he called everything else that he had or could ever achieve dung do you know what that is? Gk – skoo-bal-on – means what is thrown to the dogs or literally refuse Did you know that church buildings and ministries and programs are but dung in comparison to knowing Jesus our Lord and Savior in a real intimate way!?!!?!? They are nothing and are easily destroyed with a flame or strong wind. Yet we have so much pride in them don’t we? We have such pride in those things that we can obtain with our own skills and hands. But they are scraps for the dogs! Refuse in comparison to knowing the God of all of Creation! We need to become broken and humble so that the God that I am speaking of will come into you and rule and reign in completeness in your life! He wants to rest in you ! Rest in you and me. Isn’t that wonderful? That the God that uses the earth for his footstool and the heavens for his throne would desire to come into a dirty stinky sinner like you and me and rest! Hey that tells me we truly are the righteousness of Christ if he wishes to dwell in me! I am clean I am righteous! Cause he said so!!!! Now the apostle James wrote that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble! Jam 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Pro 3:34 Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. Jesus was the ultimate servant. The word says he was meek and lowly of heart. If you wish to be a resting place for him you must embrace the value of humility and discover the mystery of God’s grace. ***Grace speaks of the supernatural endowment from God to help us be what we are not and do what we cannot do. To acquire the unobtainable!*** Those who are humble shall be great in the kingdom because they have learned to keep themselves within the plans and purposes of God’s intensions. They have learned to deny themselves in order to serve Jesus more fully! One of the greatest dangers in the kingdom is spiritual pride. Those who wear humility find that God has granted them a shield against this foe of the kingdom. They do not worry about proving themselves to others they are totally secure in the fathers love and acceptance of them. They have it right! When asked who is our covering for Living Word simply state – Jesus And take pride in the fact that we do everything unto him and answer directly to him and do not worry how man perceives it or even if he accepts that answer from us! God’s names are at stake in our lives? Did you know that? People will see God and the manifestation of him in our lives everywhere that we go. In everything that we do. Listen very closely: God will always remain where he is established. He becomes comfortable in his habitations, when he finds a place of rest. It is us his people that must become confident in remaining in the presence and essence of an Almighty God! Remember Isaiah 61? He is looking for the house that was built for him OT that was the temple but now in the NT it is you and me. 1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Are you getting the reoccurring theme here? You are not your own So stop living like it and start living for him and him alone! Start witnessing to everyone you possibly can and start praying everyday for more than 5 or 30 minutes. I do not want a visitation I want habitation, I want more don’t you? I need more than what I have now how about you? Are you satisfied with your life and where your relationship with God is. You shouldn’t be, I have not personally seen anybody that I would consider perfect when it comes to their relationship with God including myself. Many of you may feel but Pastor Jesse we do not feel confident in approaching God. That is just our lack of understanding that causes this. When we become established and embrace the disciplines that come with being a partaker of the divine nature. We become deeper and remember “Deep calls unto Deep” Confidence comes when options have been done away with! You no longer have options because you know that his presence is where you want to be and need to be. There is no other option but him, but him and him alone!!! Confidence comes when you cannot be moved or swayed in any other direction No but your face is set to the wind and nobody and nothing can deter you from him. Its all about the kingdom! It’s all about him and his needs and his desires and his wants. You must decrease so that he might increase. Oh but so much more than that you must die that he might live in you!!! Those that remain in the presence learn to live their life from the presence ! When this happens you will do things that are found hidden in the presence of an Almighty God! Hidden treasures so that you and all around you may know that the Lord God Almighty is truely God!!!! You can only do what you see God doing – John 5:19 If you cannot see him then you cannot do his will! If this was only for Jesus why would have he given us this example to learn? This is why we need habitation with God understanding he wants to rest with us. Listen if we are only visitors which all of us are right now there will always be options. Should I stay or go? How long should I stay? If options consistently remain…..You and I will become confused with all the options that remain from us to choose from. Visitors are not committed for the long haul. Visitors already have a set priority within them and are not necessarily about the best for where they are visiting. It’s like we walk around the kingdom with visitors badges on so we can return to our lives as soon as we walk out these doors. When your heart is already established in your own identity as well as your own perspectives of life, culture and experience, habitation is so very far from your mind!! When one becomes a resting place for the Almighty and no longer has visitation but is inhabited he becomes the essence of the kingdom and the Lord’s dominion. That person functions and lives their lives from that very identity…what is that identity A dispenser of God’s Glory – A child of the king!!!! We need to stop working on obtaining his holiness Cause we never will We can only do one thing right if we are going to be all that God has called us to be…… Humbleness Brokeness and being Submitted Not to man but God! A visitor has no authority in a place that is not theirs. Authority is only with those who are inhabiting the kingdom. We walk around so defeated we seem to latch on to scriptures about our adversary but do we consider the rest of scripture that calls you more than a conqueror! Listen I know it states that our adversary walks around as a roaring lion. Seeking whom he may devour! Key word “AS” Because he is not a lion he is already defeated there is but one Lion I said one lion he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah His name is Jesus Jesus Jesus! He is Lord and wants to inhabit your life and mine! The kingdom is not over there or over here It is within you and your adversary is defeated on the cross of calvary 2000 years ago when Jesus yelled out Tatllistine - - It is finished! Come on lets start living and desiring the kingdom! It is unobtainable under our own power but if we will become humble and broken and submitted by his Grace By his grace he will inhabit us Lets press in this worship time coming up and ask God to let us see what he is doing. Let’s pray!!! |
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Last modified: 06/13/05 |
