Thank you for listening to the river.
Bend Church podcast Reverb in church exists.
Delete all people to know love and live New Life in Jesus
Christ. We hope that you enjoy this
message. I'm Micah one of the pastor's
here if I didn't get a chance to meet you and you didn't get a
bag and it's your first time, get one on the way out, I'll be
out there, some of our other staff and be out there.
That's just our way of saying we're so happy.
You're here. Here, we don't take it for
granted that you're here. Look, if you're new to this
church thing, we don't take it for granted.
We know it's not easy on a Sunday, to come to a place where
people claim they worship with God that exists, right?
There's a lot of us in this room that believe that.
And so, we just want you to feel comfortable, we want you to feel
like you can enjoy and God can work in your life and we are so
happy, you're here. So we've been in see you in a
series titled, what if? And we're in week 3 this week, I
would venture to say, we've all asked this.
What if question, right? Four times of our life, we ask
questions. Like what if I'm not enough?
What if what if the light at the end of the tunnel is just too
far? And it's gets farther and
farther away as I live my life. What if all my chances are up,
these are questions that we often ask.
So here's the idea, the big idea.
What if we went to God with these questions?
Like if we have these questions, if they're going to be there
whether we like it or not, what if we brought them to God and
said God, what do you say about these questions?
These questions that we have, what do you say, all-knowing God
of the universe? Verse.
What do you say? What if we put the ball in his
court and said you take care of my?
What? If questions?
I'll trust you. So that's what we're going to do
today over the last few weeks we've been doing that by looking
in the body. The book of the Bible called
Exodus following the life of a guy who's a prophet named Moses
and Moses, his life is absolutely insane.
We've seen Moses go from a baby in a basket floating down a
river because his mother feared for his life where he finds
himself in the Egyptian, royal family, pharaohs family, he
grows Up in the royal family. And then he murders an Egyptian
and we see him chased out of Egypt by pharaoh.
And that's where the famous story of the burning bush
happens in God, meets him there. Talk about some ups and downs,
right? Like if anybody had, what if
questions it was, this guy Moses.
So that's what we've been doing. Today.
We find ourselves in chapter 17 and exit is up to this point.
God has done some amazing things.
God has literally brought them out of Egypt, the people of
Israel. Out of slavery.
He even brought them through the Red Sea.
So, we heard that story last week, that God literally, and we
believe that God literally parted the sea and allowed these
people to walk through just mind-blowing stuff.
He gave them food from Heaven. If you've ever heard the word
Mana, maybe you've heard that in like, modern vernacular, but
that just literally means that in this time in Exodus, that God
sent Birds down from heaven, just dropped them down, and they
went and ate and then food came up from the ground.
It's unbelievable, the stuff. That's happened.
So put yourself in their shoes for a moment.
God has finally brought you to a place of Peace.
God is finally got you to a place where you're like, okay,
maybe along the way. I got mad at this guy Moses, you
know, who was in the desert for 40 years and came back and said,
hey I'm going to free you and you're like, who are you?
You know, but maybe you're finally like, okay, I have some
peace. I have some peace, my family's.
Okay, I have water to drink, we are safe.
Well, let's look at Exodus 17 8 through 16.
I want to That here. While the people of Israel were
still at resident the Warriors of amalek attack them, Moses
commanded, Joshua choose some men to go out and fight the army
of amalek for us tomorrow. I will stand at the top of the
hill holding the staff of God in my hand.
So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of
amalek. Meanwhile, Moses Aaron and Hur
climb to the top of the nearby Hill.
As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the
Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his
hand, the amalekites gain the advantage.
Moses, his arm soon became so tired.
He could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone
for him to sit on then they stood on each side of Moses
holding up his hands. So His Hands Held steady, catch
this until sunset all night. As a result, Joshua overwhelmed
the army of amalek in battle. After the victory of the Lord
instructed, Moses, write this down on a scroll, as a permanent
reminder and read it aloud to Joshua.
I will erase the memory of amalek from under heaven.
Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh Niecy, which
means the Lord is my banner. He said they have raised their
fists against the Lord's, Throne.
So now the Lord will be at war with amalek generation after
generation. So, man, if you're the
Israelites here, what are you thinking?
Gosh, like, God, finally brought me out of captivity and I'm
finally have some peace. I finally have some peace and
quiet and then out of nowhere, these amalek people come and
attack us. Like what the heck?
Right? And that's probably not that far
off to Israel. Lights.
We're really confused because it seemingly came out of nowhere.
What's really interesting about this section in the Bible is
that it's the first time in Exodus, we see the Israelites
fight after leaving Egypt. And a lot of times in scripture
when you're reading your Bible and you see a first it's really
good to lean in. It's a moment where we want to
we always want to lean in the scripture, but in these moments
it's good to go, okay? God probably has something
really specific here to teach me.
And what does he say now in this passage about how we Is our own
battles. First of all, this battle
seemingly came out of nowhere, right?
So right out of the gate, there's two things we know that
a true from this passage this Battles are coming and we will
win or lose based on who we surround ourselves with.
So we know this battles are coming right?
Battles are coming and we will win or lose based on who we
surround ourselves with two, things battles are coming we
will win or lose based on who we surround ourselves with let me
say something real quick. The overarching theme of the
story is not. I'm going to surprise you.
Here is not How to do help the Christian Community, the
overarching theme of the story is not how to love your
neighbor. The overarching theme of the
story is how to let God fight your battles.
That's the overarching theme of the story and you may ask well
from this statement here it seems like you're going to
preach a sermon on Christian relationships not dating
relationships but communal relationships that you're right.
I'm really glad. You asked me that question.
Because Moses couldn't hold the staff without people around him.
How do you get a sermon on relationship from this passage?
He could not hold the staff, which was their Victory.
He couldn't hold it without people around him.
This is what I love God. Strategically, guys.
In strategically set the world up in such a way that his glory
will be made known. That's the most important thing
for him. Most important thing for his
glory to be made known because it's the best thing anyone could
ever ask for but he set it up in such a way.
Let's look at how Jesus puts it. He set it up in such a way that
his glory will be made known through Believers.
Loving one, another absolutely crazy.
Jesus says this, your love for one another will prove to the
world that you are my disciples. Wow I think we can gather from
that that statement their relationships matter.
Here's my heart today Church. Going to make it through this
without crying because I didn't in the 9:30.
I love our church and I love our people and over the last few
months I've been. So my mind has been so blown.
By the way, you have loved one another.
By the way you have loved our staff by the way, you have loved
our community, absolutely mind-blowing.
So when I speak to you, I'm speaking to a group of people in
9:30 and now and 11 who love each other really well.
And that's not the patch on the back because if that was the
case we could walk out and say awesome.
We're done, right, relationships, done.
We got it, figured out. Here's the reality.
Leti, there's always more depth to be had and it's not just
about having these loving relationships.
But it's about having relationships that stand the
test of time. It's about having relationships
that not just deepen our own personal love, but deep in one
another's. Love and not just do that but
proclaim the glory of God in our city and Beyond.
Amen. 11:00. Let's go battle ready
relationships. That's what we call these kind
of relationships battle-ready relationships.
How do we face our battles with one another relationships that
stand the test of time. Let's jump back into the story
here. So Moses sees the amalekites
coming to fight him. He commands this youngish man,
Joshua to fight who Scholars? Think was probably around 40,
but we know Moses was extremely old.
So let's call him young today. He has this great plan, right?
He says you go and fight Joshua, you go and fight.
I'm going to Stand at the top of this hill.
Anybody got friends like that. Anybody got friends that are
like hey I think it's a great idea to go climb to the top of
this waterfall and just Swan Dive off.
Right. I think that's a great idea and
you climb to the top and your feet hurt because you didn't
wear the right sandals and they have all the rights Andals and
you get to the top and they're taking a video of you and you're
like, whoa! You're going first.
This was your idea. No, no I just got you up here
and if any body in this room knows me, well, they know that
I'm I tend to be that person to get you amped up.
Do you? Go and get you on top of the
mountain, and then be, like, go for it, you got it because in
some circles, we call that empowerment.
But anyways, here's the reality Moses did that?
Because he knew their power was in his staff.
Well, not in the staff, but was in, what the staff resembles,
what the staff recognize we've seen over the story.
When when God calls Moses to lay down his staff, we see that it
signifies his surrender to God and His saying, your people will
be led by you and you alone. And so the, the Going to the top
of the mountain, makes more sense.
When we realize that in verse 10, we see them go and do that.
And so, here's the first observation I want to make today
battle-ready relationships, are intentional, notice something
here, wasn't, until they got to the top of the mountain, in the
battle had started. That they saw Moses needed help.
So think about that for a moment, what if they had not
been there? What if they not been there God
is faithful and God would have fulfilled his promise and his
people. But what would have happened?
That leads me to think this Christian Community and you can
write this down. If you're taking notes,
Christian Community is not for emergencies, it's for
sustainability Community with one.
Another is not just for times that are tough Community for one
another with one. Another deep relationships is
for a deep sustainable, love that walks with us, week after
week and day after day and year after year.
So Anything comes, we're battle-ready, right?
We're battle-tested. Here's the thing, I know from
from preparing there's probably two types of people in this
room. There's those who find
relationships too easy. There's those who finds
roulette, find relationships, too hard.
And I want to tell you, both are dangerous.
Let me speak first to my extroverts, in the room, who
find it too easy because I'm one of them.
If you know me, you know, that I had 16 grams of my wedding and
if you're not familiar with weddings, that's too many.
That means that I probably have lots of relationships, but that
doesn't mean they're all deep. So, for me, it's dangerous
because I'm really good at making friends, but that doesn't
mean I'm gonna remember your name next week.
Like, let's be honest. That doesn't mean that doesn't
mean that I don't love you, but have I chosen to really step
into you your life? It's dangerous.
You may have three thousand friends on Facebook, but who's
going to stop and change your tire for you, right?
You're going to call one of those 3000, friends.
You nigga, you gonna call the random dude from Sopia that
follows you on Facebook and he's going to come and help you
nothing wrong with that. But you know what I mean?
It doesn't always mean you have deep relationships, there's more
depth to be had, let me talk to my introverts in the room as
singled out or extroverts, because they deserve it.
But introvert, to listen to me. You were made and everyone in
this room, you were made for Community.
You were made this God that we serve, this God, that we serve
is so good that he set us up in such a way in And in his core of
who he is one of the one of the facets of who he is is
community. We believe in something called
the Trinity, right? The the father Son and the Holy
Spirit Before Time began, I'm not going to go into Super
detail there, don't worry but Before Time began the godhead
was in perfect communion and so when he created us he said I
want them to be like we are I want them to know.
I want them to know me and also know me through the way, they
love one another. That's the way he set this whole
thing up, battle-ready relationships are found in that
found in our understanding of who Jesus is Introvert.
I want to say this really quick. You can do it.
Those of you in this room, that's a mica, you don't
understand. I don't want a thousand more
problems, right? Have 99 problems.
And a friend is not one, and that's fine.
The older I get, the more I understand and I'm with you, a
lot of times church ministry. If you're not careful can do
that to. You can cause you to get callous
towards people. But that's not the heart of God.
I'm not saying all introverts do that, by the way, but I'm
saying, you may be there and I want you to know this, I'm not
asking you to get 1,000 friends. I'm Asking you who's the core
people in your life, that know you, that know you from the
inside out that are ready to step into your situation with
you ready to love you, who are those people?
So, here's the word for everybody this morning, here's
the word unique community. And I don't know if you like
that, and I don't care because it's not up to us.
This is a calling from God, which God has made us in.
Such a way to say you need Community.
When you were born, you needed other People with you to walk,
you long to keep you alive and unique Community.
Now in your old age now you feel like man, I got this.
I'm grown. I'm an adult man.
I got it figured out. No, you don't, and that's
awesome. That's awesome.
Because that's where we turn to God.
Let's look at chap, that's look at verses 11 through 13 and go
further. As long as Moses held up the
staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage,
but whenever he dropped his hands, the amalekites gain the
advantage, Moses, his arms soon became so tired, he could no
longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone
for him to sit on then they stood on each side of Moses
holding up his hand so His Hands Held steady until sunset as a
result, Joshua overwhelmed. The army of amalek in battle.
So wasn't enough, right? It wasn't enough that they were
there. They were they were intentional
that got them there. They're intentionality got them
there. Listen to me students in the
front row. Love you guys.
They're intentionality. Got them there.
But that wasn't enough, they had to once they were there, make a
decision to love their brother. They had to make a decision to
do something about what God saw and allowed them to see through
their intentionality. You ever been there?
You ever see a friend in any, maybe you're having coffee
together and somewhere in the midst of the relationship.
I've been Somewhere In The Mists of the conversation, you start
talking and you're like all of a sudden you hear that your
friends you kind of zoned out and maybe you hear your friends,
just saying some wild stuff and you're just like, you're having
this inner dialogue and you're like, what, what?
And you're, maybe also in a quiet coffee, shops, or like,
quiet down, like you were saying, some wild stuff.
Like you are airing Your mess out in that moment, your maybe
like, okay, maybe tomorrow. I'm not going to answer their
phone to call. Like after this lunch is done,
this is we are no longer friends with this person but if you're a
good friend, what do you do? You step into it?
And you say, I'm going to sit here, I'm going to finish this
meal, I'm going to continue on, I'm gonna call them in the
morning. I'm gonna have a conversation
with them about what's going on in their life.
That's where it moves from intentional to what I call
committed. Battle ready?
Relationships are this? Our second observation is.
This are committed. If we're talking about
commitment here, we need to talk about.
What's at stake. If if I'm calling you to have
committed relationships with one another, there has to be
something that's keeping you and that's dangerous for you.
If you need to commit to it, right?
There's nothing to commit to if there's not something that
happens if you don't commit to it, right?
That's really basic. So for Moses and Aaron and Hur
here, they knew that if they didn't help one another, if they
did it get arm and arm together. We're not going to say that they
would have lost the battle but they probably would have lost a
lot of men. They probably would have lost a
lot of women and children. They probably would have lost a
lot of their Nation. If they did it make this
decision there, they their life's were literally at stake.
So, what's at stake for our life?
Had this quote here, it's really interesting.
According to the National Institute on Aging, the health
risks of prolonged isolation are equivalent to smoking 15
cigarettes a day. Social isolation and loneliness
have been estimated to shorten. A person's life span by as many
as 15 years. Our lives are quite literally a
steak and I don't mean to get super heavy for no reason, but I
get heavy because that's reality.
A life's are at stake. And here's what I love.
Like I know there are lives are at stake and it seems insane to
say that because of relationships and the importance
of them. But here's an idea that I
thought of this week that just encourage me so much are very
loneliness proves proves to us from our inner inward being of
who we are our soul. It proves to us that we are made
for Community. Listen, if you never got lonely,
if you and I never got lonely, and we could live our whole
lives on our own, We would most likely not be made for
community, and that's not how God made us.
But look the very reality that we get lonely, the very reality
is that that we need people in our life proves that we are made
for this. Listen, I'm not just saying
because I'm a pastor that you need Community.
I'm saying it because it's who we are from our from our
innermost be. We are longing to be with others
longing to be with others. It's who we are.
I see two things if we're talking about this commitment
here. There's two Two things happening
in this passage first Moses had to what he had to allow them to
help him. He had to be there and he had to
say, I need your help. We don't know if he really said
that if they saw it, but either way, he had to allow them to
help him. That's the first thing that has
to happen. Did you know that?
There's a difference between vulnerability and transparency?
There's a difference there. I'm transparent, right?
I'm a person who, if you meet me out front, I'll tell you
everything you want to know, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna let
you in. Like I may say.
Yep. That's me.
I'll go to the counselor and say
yep. Uh-huh.
But that doesn't mean I'm letting him say but let's try to
fix it, right? Let's do something about it.
That's what vulnerability is Moses.
Here we can assume was not just transparent.
He was allowing his brothers to open him up and say, I'm a
totally inadequate. We see that through Moses, his
life, his life was built upon this inadequacy.
Like, how can that make any sense?
Why are you preaching that? How is that?
Good news, because God is, All we need, he's everything we
need. The more we realize we're in
adequate, the more. We realize we need God.
And the more we finally see God, and we stop acting like we have
it all. Together are an adequacy proves
that God is good and know, that seems crazy, but there's the
other side of the story, not only do we need to be
vulnerable. But Aaron and Hur, they had to
be ready to help. They first saw the need then.
They went searching for a way to help him and they found a rock,
but they didn't stop there. And I want to get honest for a
second with some faithful well-meaning Christians in the
room. I'm gonna get honest for a
second. How often, how often do we do
this? How often do we?
We put a chair out, a rock and we say.
All right buddy, sit down. Sister.
Sit down. And then we do this.
See ya. We walk off.
We oftentimes our chair. Iraq is, is the word of God?
Oftentimes, it's, it's a prayer and listen.
The word of God is the words of Life.
The Bible has the words of life in it prayer.
Is a work that's powerful more powerful than you and I will
probably ever understand and if we would take it and use it
more, oh, the things we would see in our life.
But what I'm saying, is, what if we gave them that?
What if we said, okay, take a seat, right?
Take a seat, take a word, take a prayer and then let me get a
brother with me. And let's sit right here and
let's hold your arms up and just say look to Jesus.
What if we as Christians, stop just giving blanket fixes and we
said, I'm gonna walk with you. I'm gonna walk with you, I'm
gonna help you. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
So we need to be vulnerable. You have to be able to sit in
the seat, and then you need people next to you, who, when
you need to sit in the seat can sit next to you, and hold your
arms up and say, I'm hurting to listen, Erin and her.
Imagine the pain, they must have felt right.
Imagine the pain, it says until sunset until sunset.
They sat there, they probably thought, Division, I know what's
happening. I know God.
I know what you said. I know you would probably win
this battle, but it hurts like my arms are dying.
We see the victory happening, but it's really hard.
We need one another. I want to ask you this.
Are you ready to do? Whatever it takes to see someone
win. Think about that for a second.
Are you ready to do? Whatever it takes to see someone
else win. Leads me to another observation
today, battle-ready relationships are purposeful.
I'm not if you knew this but who you surround yourself with
matters? Whether you like it or not
relationships, serve a purpose, whether you like it or not, I've
said that probably a thousand times a day Relationship.
Serve a purpose. Listen relationships, either.
And that I just believe this to be true either push us towards
Jesus. Christian relationships, pushed
us towards Jesus, they keep us forever.
And I'm being generous, he's a lot of people in this, In This
Crowd, made see me after, and say, they don't just keep you
where you're at, they pull you back.
So, I'm being generous today, at least at the, at minimum, they
keep you where, Or they push you towards Jesus.
God intended. God has an intended purpose for
his people. He desires on a relationships.
Would push us to become more like Jesus.
Look, we are way more malleable. Way more shapeable when were
multiple, if those are words than we could ever imagine.
So the people we choose to do life with not just minister to
but do life with and let's speak into our life, they can change
the way we think. Ink.
And when you, we know this, to be fact, when you change the way
you think you ultimately change the way you act people can
change you, man, and that's good.
And that's scary. That's two things.
They're battle-ready relationships.
They look like this. This purposeful idea, they look
like a group of people, a church who has one win that already
relationships in a church model. Look like a group of people
bounding themselves together. Not worried about a building,
but worried about being arm and arm and looking to Jesus and st.
You Irwin is mine, went often I do this when I'm going on a way
to maybe have coffee with someone.
I'm about to have a hard conversation.
I tell myself a lot of times in marriage, I say this, I say
Micah be prepared to take an l and those who don't know the
modern sayings and today, that just means loss be prepared to
take a loss. I tell myself that all the time.
Why? Because this relationships, this
relationship the their win is my win.
And I care more at that point about God getting the glory in
their life and about seeing them look more like Jesus than I do
winning a church, a church following.
Jesus looks more like a bunch of people who are set.
I'm ready to be wrong. You just say, I'm ready to be
wrong. I'm ready to lose every
argument. If it means that you come to
know Jesus, if it means that you get closer to Jesus, and I'm not
saying we just need to E flippantly walking around having
no truth. I'm talking about when we're in
our pride and we have this desire to prove to someone who
we are. We have this desire to prove
that that person's wrong and God says, no reconcile.
Turn the other cheek, you don't have to be right?
I'm right. I'm truth.
Let me ask you this, who is winning because of the
relationship with you. Who's winning who's winning.
If you can't think of anybody don't get discouraged, this
could be true for you. Someone could win because of
their relationship with you. What is winning looking more
like Jesus, who can look back and say this person or that
person was with me and loved me so well, and they are the reason
in the Holy Spirit walking with me.
They're the reason that I am who I am today.
They are the reason who can, who can say that of you.
So I want to, I want to do this, I want to acknowledge something.
We've talked about some pretty heavy stuff because it's a heavy
reality, but I want to know something.
It's impossible. It's impossible to have
battle-ready relationships. On our own.
It's impossible to have battle-ready relationships.
These kind of christ-centered relationships on our own without
Jesus. Look, you can, you can see here
all the work that has to go into this.
I just want to run through a couple of these things.
Let's go through the list. You have to love others, more
than yourself. You have to put others before
yourself. So you're not just love them
mentally, but you have to do you have to position yourself in a
way where they're over here and you're behind.
You say, you win. I want to see you look more like
Christ and this is one. I'm not going to get an amen on.
You have to give flawed people the ability to speak in your
life. That's tough.
You have to give people who are flawed just like you, the
ability to speak into your life. It's impossible.
So I set you up for failure.
If I haven't given you this last observation here, let's look at
it. Battle ready?
Relationships? Are Jesus focused.
So the staff that, that, that signified, the Lord's victory
for Moses and Aaron and Hur as as long as they held it, it gave
them victory victory was in their hands and all they had to
do was hold it up. All they have to do is say God,
you are my victory. You are the win here, you
deserve the glory. You got us out of Egypt.
We just want to see you glorified, all he had to do was,
lift it up for us for us? This is the easiest Sunday
school answer ever, for us. We have Jesus, those of us who
have Place our faith in Jesus. We have Victory living in US.
Amen. Victory living in us at any
given moment at any given time. I can attain that Victory and
say, yes, I have Victory. I have victory.
I have Victory in Jesus. A lot of us in this room who
have that new life, understand what it's like.
We love to talk about this thing new life.
What that means is that a lot of us in this room have said,
Jesus, you are my everything, and you're the best thing.
You're the only thing. The first and foremost, I want
you to get the glory. And then what happens, what
happens you do that one Sunday night or, and then you wake up
the next day and you go to work and you're loving the person
that you hated last week, makes no.
It makes no sense. You're loving the person that
you despise and you're like, oh wow, God changed me and it
doesn't have to make sense. This is a little side.
Note, we need to stop trying to make sense of God.
We need to start. It's not our job to make sense
of God. We're going to spend eternity
trying to figure it out and we will search.
The word. We will try to understand truth
and we will put truth on on the banner of Our Lives all the
time. But listen, we need to stop
trying to figure it out and we need to start just trusting God
and saying God I want to live in wonder.
And all of you, if you look all through the Psalms all through
the Old Testaments, the power was found in fear.
It says, in Proverbs that, the fear of God is the Fountain of
Life. What that means is that all of
God, the say, the, the god you were big and I'm small as a
Fountain of Life. Why?
Because we get outside of ourselves for a moment, for
just, for a moment. And finally, we are aligned with
Heaven. We're like, okay, this is what
the universe screams about. We cannot have healthy Christian
Community in relationships. Without that look, you cannot
love people without Jesus into story and that's good because
Jesus is Arms Wide Open. Come to me, come to me, I'll
give you New Life. I'll teach you how to love.
Like I love, I'll teach you how to do what I do.
I'll give you my burden. I'll give you my yoke.
I'll give you my plan for your life.
Just trust me. You don't have it figured out.
That's what these kind of Ships are stem from.
So as we close today, I love this idea and you know, I would
love to just come right out the gate with this but you know a
good speaker holds his greatest news at the end and keeps you
hanging on. But I want you to know that in
this story, as Moses stood on a mountain, with the staff and
that signified, God's Victory. Jesus stands on the mountain.
Jesus stands on a mountain and he's holding a banner, like a,
like, a dad at a soccer game. He's holding a banner that just
says, I love you. I have your Victory!
I love you. And so, when we have this chair
out and we're letting people sit and we're holding their arms up.
We're like, hey, just look to death, look to God, look to him,
he loves you. He cares for you, he wants you.
He just wants you to see his face.
He just wants you to see that he's worthy of everything, he
wants you to see that he loves you, and you have no idea how
much had happened and you just looking to his love, man.
We try to figure things out. We try to understand it and we
try to worry about how to act out his love, but look, what if
we spent more time in his love, then we did trying to figure it
out and trying to act it out because look, I believe that
when you get in his presence that's when you become powerful.
That's when you go into the world and you're like, man, I
don't care. Like we sang earlier.
David said, I became courageous because of my love for God.
He became less powerful when he turned his face from God.
If you look at the life of David, our power is in the face
of God, because his face is good, and it's enough.
That's all we need. It's what we've been longing for
since birth. Our relationships guys
Riverbend, there's so much more depth to be had as a church.
Look, God is with us and there are great.
Things ahead and God has the best things ahead for eternity.
but it's gonna take us loving one, another really well as you
already have done, It's gonna take arm and arms.
It's gonna take. Hey, I want to go deeper.
I want to go deeper with you. I want to know you.
I want you to know me. I want to be known, it's going
to take join in a small group. It's going to take serving
inside outside of the church, you've got to get to know people
because in that is where we see the presence of God in the
world. Finally sees this, God, we love
through our love for one another.
Here's some questions. I want to ask as we close First,
is this where you going? There's a lot of people in this
room who are not there yet with Jesus.
You just don't have your faith in him.
You don't really understand him. And I want you to know that that
we call this an altar here and it really just just means it's a
place to signify what God is doing in your heart.
And like, there's so much room here to come and lay that down.
Lay your life down and stand up a new person, because Jesus is
just there with a banner saying. I just love you and then you
stand up with a purpose. We can't lead purposeful
relationships. If we don't have that inward
purpose that we don't seek the glory of God in our life. when I
ask you this, who's going with you, Who's going with you?
Who do you have in your life that are going with?
You better? That say I believe in the same
thing you believe my win is your win I believe in Jesus going
forth in our city who's going with you and let me finish this
way. Whose arm do you need to hold
up? when I want to say that maybe
you think of people, maybe you think of people in your small
group, Maybe you think. Okay, I know that that person I
need to love really well. Maybe you're that person that
needs to be loved really well, and you need to allow others to
love you. Who's armed, you need to hold
out. So here's we're going to do.
We're going to, we're going to worship.
And again this altar is open as it always is come come talk to
me. I'll be over here.
Come talk to someone you know in the room who loves Jesus and
just let God work. Let God do whatever he wants to
do in your life church. God has so much for us.
He has a depth of relationships and a depth of his presence that
we haven't even understood yet. Amen.
God is with us and wants to work in our life.
Let me pray for us. Jesus.
Love you, God. You are the center, all our
relationships fall on you. God, we're going to let one
another down. We're going to hurt one,
another, we're difficult, we're difficult people.
But you love us. And we've been saved by grace,
and we've been changed by grace, and your life.
So, Jesus Lord, would you reconcile hearts in this room
who were are not reconciled together?
would you bring people closer together not just for the sake
in that, we feel good about it but For Your Glory so that we
could actually be a perfect representation of Heaven for our
city for the people, we love the most God, would you unify people
this morning? Would you unify around a
mission? We thank you, God, finally.
Just that you're here. I thank you that we didn't have
to Usher you, and now we didn't have to burn incense and we
don't have to bang symbols together to get you awake.
God, you've been here. You've been waiting.
You filled your spirit and all these chairs before.
People came in this room, you are the best thing.
You're the best thing. Be the center of our world.
Be the center of our universe. Be the center of our hearts.
God work in our life this week. We just love you and pray.
All this in your holy and Powerful name.
Amen. Thank you for listening to the
river. Bend Church podcast.
Learn more about who we are as a church and how to connect you
can head over to our website Riverbend Church dot life.