Well, today I'm going to open with a couple of scriptures I
actually shared on Wednesday night.
Typically if I'm reviewing something, it'll be from the
past Sunday, but I'll be picking up with some scriptures from
Wednesday night going a little different directions.
So it won't matter that you missed Wednesday night.
Although if you want to enlarge a little bit on your
understanding, you could go to that on YouTube as well.
But here in the book of Hebrews Chapter 7 it says this.
But he Speaking of Jesus Christ, because he continues forever,
has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore he is all able to save
to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since He
always lives to make intercession for them.
To me, this is such an important scripture because it talks to us
about the resurrection ministry of Jesus Christ.
It's very interesting to understand because we know in
reading the Gospels that Jesus had three years of ministry.
That was a glorious ministry. It's a very good example that
each and every one of us should look at and say, What part of
that could I pick up and use in my world today?
When you look at his natural life for the 1st 30 years of his
life, that was a forming for his ministry.
One of the things Ashley mentioned last week was about
compassion, which is the ability to feel what somebody else feels
and have a passion that you could share with them.
Jesus Christ went through a life that made that possible for him
because the Bible tells us He grew up as a root out of a dry
ground. He had no form or comeliness or
beauty that we would desire Him. He was a man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief. So the first part of his life
prepared him for his earthly ministry of those three years.
Now, after he came to the cross and he died, the Bible says he
rose again from the dead. Now sometimes people think of
that as the end of his ministry per SE.
And we think about how Jesus said I'm going away, but I'm
going to send the Holy Spirit of my name.
And we think about the ongoing ministry only being about the
work of the Holy Spirit that's in our lives.
But that's not what the scriptures tell us here.
The scriptures tell us that after Jesus Christ rose from the
dead, he then engaged in his heavenly ministry.
The Bible says he sits on the right hand of authority on high
because on the cross he defeated the power of the the devil.
He defeated principalities and powers, the Bible says, and made
an open show of them. And also, as we know from the
scriptures we just read, he died on the cross for our sins.
How many? Glad Jesus died for your sins.
But the Bible says after that, when he took his position on the
right hand of authority on high, the Bible says that he didn't
just sit there and his throne waiting for the end to come or
when he's going to return. The Bible says he has a ministry
of intercession for us. And that's amazing because each
and everyone of us should know that whatever we're going
through in our lives personally or even what's happening in the
world, it should come for you to know Jesus is praying for you.
Isn't that awesome church to think about that?
And so he ever lives that he can make intercession for us.
Now, the reason it says that is so that we can be saved to the
uttermost. And again, I really believe with
all my heart, we're moving in a new day in God.
And it's so important for us to have some chains of mindsets.
That's why we have one website called From the Mountain, just
for the purpose of helping people change mindsets so we can
walk in the glory of this new experience that God wants each
and every one of us to walk in. One of the things that's very
important to understand is God's salvation because we think about
getting saved as our ticket to get to heaven, and that isn't
what God's salvation is about. It includes that for sure, but
the word saved or salvation means to be delivered.
And that's important because we need to understand that Jesus
didn't make it just possible for us to be forgiven so we can go
to heaven. He made it possible for us to be
fully delivered from everything that holds us back.
Give the Lord a praise on that. Anything that would hinder us
from walking in the fullness of what God has for us.
That's why it talks about being saved to the lettermost Jesus is
praying not just that you rejoice in your salvation and
you're going to heaven, but He's praying for you to realize
there's a great salvation if He has for you.
Now, the type of that, we can see it in the Old Testament.
The children of Israel were slaves in Egypt.
The Lord sent Moses there, and through the blood of the lamb,
the Bible says that Pharaoh said you can leave here.
So through the blood they were delivered from Egypt.
The Bible says then they went through the Red Sea, which is a
type of our water baptism. So after we have accepted Christ
in our life, we need to go to the waters of baptism so that we
can cut away that old life, be totally separated from our past.
And then the Bible tells us that they went to Mount Sinai and
there they experienced the presence of God.
From there they were called to go into the promised land to
take possession of their inheritance.
And unfortunately they were not willing to do that.
They were fearful. God became very upset about that
and he even told Moses, Moses, that's the end of it.
Let's start over again, Moses, like, no, don't do that.
Have mercy upon them and God, OK, I'm going to have mercy upon
them, but as truly as I live, all the earth is going to be
filled with the glory of the Lord.
So he was speaking and making a declaration.
It's going to be OK at this point for people not to fully
experience all that I have, but one of these days that there
will be a people that says I want to be saved to the
uttermost. I want God's full salvation in
my life, and I want to inherit all things that Jesus Christ
says I can walk in, in that which He has for us.
And to me, that's such an amazing ministry.
And that's why I want us to understand Jesus's resurrection
ministry is still at work today. And it's such a powerful
ministry. And the life he experienced so
that he can have compassion for those three years the Bible says
he also had, so that as he ever lives to make intercession for
us. He is a high priest that's very
familiar with what we're going through.
He knows what it is to feel isolated.
He knows what it is to be alienated.
He knows what it is to be rejected.
He knows what it is to have sorrow and have things come
against you. But he was an overcomer in all
things and he says I want you to be the same way.
Amen. Church now going forward here in
Hebrews chapter 2, it says this. What exactly is their uttermost
is the question I have over this, and this is what it says.
Well, we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor,
that He by the grace of God might taste us for everyone.
So that's the first thing he did for us, for it is fitting for
him. For whom are all things, and by
whom are all things in doing what?
Read this part with me bringing many sons to glory.
How many know God wants to bring you to glory to make the Captain
their salvation perfect through suffering?
For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified,
which is talking about us, are all one.
And it's for that reason Jesus is not ashamed to call us His
brethren. To me, that's an amazing concept
to think about and understand that Jesus Christ was our Big
Brother. I like to share the story about
I had a Big Brother and when I was little, he was able to watch
over me, protect me. I was kind of anxious.
He was outgoing, I was kind of fearful.
He was very courageous in a lot of ways, sometimes ways he
shouldn't have been. But anyway, he was my Big
Brother. But there came a time in life as
we got older and I entered into the ministry and he and his wife
were a part of that, that God was able to give me the
opportunity to help him through some life challenges.
And they've become a lifetime part of the ministry here at
Mount Zion. And I look at it, that's the
what God wants us to understand. Jesus is my Big Brother.
He did something for me that I couldn't do for myself, but then
He wants to enable me to do something for Him.
He wants to enable me so that in this life I can be more than a
conqueror and that His glory can be shared with us.
This is a very profound experience for me.
I shared in one of my books and I shared from time to time in
the sermon how that in 1980, after I was married and on my
honeymoon, I felt the presence of the Lord to pray.
And I always like to joke about the fact if you're praying on
your honeymoon that's really good or really bad, I don't know
how you'd want to look at it, generally speaking.
But I was an intercessory prayer.
And as my wife is getting ready and the presence of the Lord
came by me, he said, Lauren, I'm going to share my glory with
you. I had always been told don't
touch the glory. I remember hearing sermons about
that. But he drew my attention to
Isaiah chapter 42. And in that he says God makes
the declaration. I'm not going to share my glory
with another, but my praise with my servant, whom I uphold, my
elect 1 and whom my soul delights.
And of course, that's speaking about Jesus Christ.
But as you read the connotation of the Scriptures, you realize
that God wants to share His glory with all his children.
And that's how the Lord spoke that to me.
And He confirmed it. Because when I went back to the
church on a Wednesday night, my mom asked for prayer.
And as I was praying for her, I asked Lalidi to join with me.
She spoke Spanish, she's Hispanic with her mother's
sister, Ramirez. Why I was praying for my mom, I
prayed in tongues, didn't know I was doing it, but I was actually
giving them a message prophesying to them in Spanish.
Didn't know Spanish at the time, but I do know they ran out very
excited because I told them what to do and they fulfilled that
purpose. So God was very faithful and in
that he shared with me how that the glory is shared because when
you do something that you couldn't do without God's help,
I'm, you know, that's God sharing his glory with you.
Amen. Now in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus
said light your light so shine before men that they might see
your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
And of course, the second way that we glorify God is when
through his power working in us, we actually do things ourselves
that can bring glory to God. And that's what that Lord spoke
that to me in 1980. And as I had walked with Him all
these years, I have seen that He has given me the capacity to
live above my human experience and to accomplish things in God
that were only possible with His help, but things I had to be
willing to do when He spoke to me.
To walk in obedience to His Word.
And so God wants every one of us to know there's a realm that
we're going to walk in like we've never walked in before, as
we let God give us the faith to believe what He can do in our
lives. In Matthew chapter 25 in the
reading here today, it says for the Kingdom of heaven is like a
man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and
delivered his goods to them. And to 1.
He gave five challenge to another two and to another one
to each according to his own ability.
And immediately he went on a journey.
Now it's called the Kingdom of heaven for a good reason because
we have to understand heaven is about God's Kingdom.
Now we enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
The Bible says when we are born again, Jesus said if you're born
again, you can both see and enter into the Kingdom of
heaven. There is a present tense reality
that when I read the principles here, like in Matthew chapter
25, I know they actually work in this life as we're challenged by
faith. But I also know what's called
the Kingdom of heaven, because one day Jesus will come and
establish his full reign here on planet earth.
And when it does, he does, it'll be obvious.
He is our king. It is God's Kingdom that we are
part of, and it's very important for us to understand that we
don't just die and go to heaven. It's important that we're born
again and enter into His Kingdom, recognizing that's a
state that we will forever be in through first our life here on
earth, and then afterward when Jesus comes again in his second
coming. Now notice it says that He gave
each one according to their abilities.
Now, it's very important in life that we learn about our
abilities. In reality, that's what growing
up is all about. I think one of the major lessons
that we need to learn in life, especially when we're young, is,
well, what exactly is your ability?
And I've always used the illustration for me about sports
because when I was a kid, that's one of the first things that I
learned I was not good at, and that was sports.
Somebody said, well, you know, why don't you like sports?
Well, my problem is that I don't like sports.
My problem is sports don't like me when I was just a little kid
and I remember what being a little kid is like.
I remember most of my life and I remember my attitudes and ideas
I had in those days. And as a little boy, you always
want to win anytime you're part of something.
And if you can, you want to stand out and win.
So in sports, you'd often hear people say, no, honey, it isn't
whether you win or lose. It's how you play the game.
Well, when you're real old, you don't even pay attention because
that doesn't make any sense at all.
When you get old enough to understand it, you roll your
eyes and go, oh, yeah, sure, your parents might tell you
that. But then you watch them watching
the sports program on television, and you realize
they're not sitting there thinking, oh, isn't it
wonderful? They're playing.
Well, I'm, you know, they scream when they win and well,
whatever, when they lose because guess what?
We like to win or we like to lose.
No, we don't like to lose up. Forget that part.
We understand how important it is that we have this motivation.
That's what I was like when I was a kid.
So when I was in sports, of course everybody wanted to win.
So I was one of those people that nobody wanted on their
team. I would be the last one picked
or everybody would say, well, what did we do with him?
What are you getting? Somebody said to me once when I
told that story, I felt so sorry for you.
I said don't feel sorry for me. I didn't want to be on my team
either. I just didn't know how to get
around it. It just wasn't my ability, if
you would. A lot of people have their kids
in sports these days and pay for programs and they they say it's
about building the character and building the ability to learn
how to strive for a certain goal.
And I'm sure there is an aspect of that's true.
But in the end, to me, you find out it's about genetics if you
really want to get where most little boys want to go.
Now, when I was a kid, girls weren't really into sports.
If a girl was somebody that liked sports, you'd call them a
tomboy. Wasn't a derogatory term.
It was just like, that's a girl that likes sports.
Didn't make any sense at all. If you're really pressed a girl,
you have to get in sports. Which one would do you want to
be a part of? They're likely to look at it and
think, well, which one has the cutest outfit?
That's the way the girls stopped back in those days.
Was it like they were motivated the same way?
The world has changed and I've watched the world change.
There's a lot of good things that have happened in the
changing world, which I'm a part of.
But I can say what it was like as a boy and how you like to win
and how you don't like to lose and how I didn't want to be a
part of a losing operation. So it didn't take me long to
discover I have other talents. I got to find out what they are
and I feel this is very important that we learn about
our abilities. One of the things God's been
speaking to me in the last couple years even is how to be
self aware. Because when a person's self
aware, you can be aware of your abilities but also your
disabilities. I'll use that term because it's
the things that you're not able to do from a natural
perspective. Now, all of us have things that
we're able to do, all things we have, all of us have things that
we are not able to do. And it's very important for us
to make an assessment, but it's also important for us to
understand that God himself not only gives us talents based on
our abilities, but how, you know, he also gave us our
abilities. Now that's an important thing to
understand. That's why we have to look at
our abilities and say, well, what is it that I'm able to do?
Because God looks at that and he orchestrates our life based upon
those things. And so we have to understand how
those things work in our life so that we can fully experience
everything that God has for us going forward.
In the parable here, it says after a long time, the Lord of
those servants came and settled accounts with them.
So he who had received 5 talents came and brought five other
talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me 5 talents.
Look, I've gained five more talents beside them.
His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you
are faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many
things. Enter into the joy of the Lord.
Now put over this the return. Because of course, Jesus Christ
died on the cross and He left, and He also said he's coming
back two occasions in the New Testament.
His disciples are very inquisitive.
Matthew 24, When are you coming back?
Well, I don't know. That's what the Father has in
His hands. I can tell you when I'm coming
back in Acts chapter 1, as He's leaving again.
When are you going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?
I don't know the times that the Father has in his hands.
How many know? We always want to know when the
end is. We do know Jesus said that.
What after a long time now the disciples would have never
dreamed it would be over 2000 years when you read the New
Testament you can read and they they were thinking he would come
in their life. I'm sure as every generation
since that time has speculated concern his return.
But we have to understand, he said it's going to be a long
time, so don't plan for the end. Decide what you're going to do
in the meantime. Mean man church.
And so it's important for us to realize that God has put things
in our hands and we have to ask, well, what am I going to do with
what God has given me? Because one day Jesus is going
to come and we have to have a settling of accounts.
And that's very important for us to understand and quite a
different idea of what we think about when we think about going
to heaven. Jesus didn't go to heaven and
retire, and He wants us to understand.
That's what we have to understand too.
Going to heaven isn't a divine supernatural retirement.
Can I hear an Amen or this is something the Lord taught me
years ago in Isaiah Chapter 11. I was reading Isaiah 11 one day
and I read these scriptures that to me were about heaven.
It says the nursing child should play by a cobra's hole, and the
weaned child should put his hand in the viper's den.
This shall not hurt nor destroy in my holy mountain, for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as of the
waters cover the sea. I just remember reading that and
thinking to myself, there's going to be snakes in heaven.
And I'm like, Lord, I don't want snakes in heaven.
I don't know about you. Some people say, well, that's
just the ardour snake, don't worry about it.
Well #1 how do I know what kind of snake it is?
I'm not an expert and #2 they're just creepy.
I don't know what it is about them.
I don't even want to be around with gardener snakes.
Can I hear any amens on that? Well, there, there is a little
bit of a problem. And that's why I preached the
message way back then that, well, heaven isn't going to be
heaven because it's everything we want it to be.
Heaven's going to be heaven because we're going to be
everything He wants us to be. Amen, Charge.
Now the majority of people believe in heaven.
Even people say they don't know if they believe in God, will
say, oh, I believe in heaven because it is encouraging to
people when somebody dies and say, oh, I know they're in
heaven. And so for a lot of people, it's
just something they like to talk about to feel better.
But there is a heaven Amen church, and we have to
understand what exactly heaven means.
A few years back they did this survey and they were asking
people, well, what's heaven to you?
And everybody thought of heaven as something that was glorious,
something that was fun. And really, for most people,
heaven was everything that they wanted it to be.
That's why when I was growing up in church, we used to sing songs
like Just Build my mansion next Door to Jesus, 'cause we were
waiting for that heaven to come and we would have our mansion.
HG hasn't seen anything like the mansion we're going to get when
we get to heaven. And so we talked about the
streets of gold and we talked about all these things.
And most of those things, if you really look in the Scriptures,
they'll find out they're really not all that true.
I remember when I was a kid, because everybody wants you to
think heaven's a place you want to go.
And they used to say in church, you can go to heaven and shun
hell, or you can go to hell and shun heaven.
What are you going to choose? But it's much more than just a
choice of your destination. I remember one day saying to my
mom, Mom, is there going to be bowling in heaven?
Because I was just starting to get into bowling.
I loved it. Of course there's going to be
bowling in heaven. Am I going to be a good bowler
in heaven? I mean, how you know that would
take more faith to ask a question like that when you knew
that's my son in the back seat. Is he going to be?
Yes, honey, you're going to be a good bowler in heaven.
Am I going to always win? Wait a minute.
If he's going to win, who's going to lose?
I guess I'll have to bring up a group from hell every once in a
while to be the losers. So as people that want to win,
we can have the losers. Then you can go back to her
where you are. Yeah, loser.
Well, that's not exactly what it's all about.
Amen. We have to understand that he
wants us to mature in that. When the terrorist attacks
happened many years ago, they were talking about that and they
we found out that for the terrorists, they were like, if
we die through a terrorist attack, we get to immediately go
to heaven and get 70 virgins given to us.
I said 20 in the first service. My son corrected me.
He's the expert, so I think it's 70.
He wasn't sure if it was 70 or 71, but for them it was like,
the more you do bad here for God, of course, the better it's
going to be over there. Now.
I'm sure that was for the young Muslim people because I'm, you
know, you get an age where the best part about going to bed is
a good night's sleep. But anyway, that's another
story. But as we think about how it is,
we get all these ideas in our mind and we think about this,
but it's always self-centered in motivation.
And the Lord says it's time for us to get out of our
self-centered motion and begin to walk in God's word.
Now this is a very important scripture because the Bible says
therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be
well pleasing to him. For we must all appear before
what the judgement seat of Christ.
Each one may receive things done in the body according to what he
has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore, the terror of
the Lord, we persuade men, but we are well known to God, and
also trusts are well known in your consciousness.
This is a very important doctrine concerning the
judgements of God and also the judgement seat of Christ because
the Bible says that we're all going to appear before Him.
Often times when they talk about his heaven going to heaven to
movies, they'll say, you know, Saint Peter's going to be at the
gate because Jesus said he'll have the keys of heaven given to
him. Am I getting in or am I not
getting in? That's not the only question.
Actually. Jesus meets us there and he
says, now what was your aim? Was your aim to be pleasing to
me or did you think that a self pleasing life would have made
you happy? And so our aim in life will be
something that we're going to be questioned about.
And I want to stand up there and say my aim was to serve you
Lord, and to live the life that you called me to live.
Can I hear an Amen on that? Now He said in your body, which
obviously everything we do is in our body, but it is important to
see that the first level of that is letting God's sanctification
power work in our personal life so that our life can what,
glorify God? Again, that's another one of
those scriptures that makes us understand we have to have a
real understanding of how this all works.
Now continuing with the story, it says, so he who had received
5 talents came and brought five other talents.
Say Lord, you delivered to me 5 talents.
Look, I've gained five more talents beside them.
And as the Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful
servant. You were faithful over a few
things. I will make you rule over many
things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.
Now I want to emphasize that word.
Look, first of all, and I remember when I was raising my
kids, whenever they were doing something and I was around or
Bonnie was around, they want to make sure you notice.
I remember going on vacation to Florida and they'd be playing in
the pool. But when they jumped in, if they
were being daring or if they had a special jump, they would say,
look, Dad, look, Papa, look and see what's happening here.
Why? Because how do you know when we
make some type of accomplishment in life, we want to know
somebody's looking. Now, the reason I say that is
because, and this goes back to our ability, since God gave us
our abilities, we have to understand that God is also the
God who created us, Amen. And because he created us, it's
important for us to understand He knows what's going to be
satisfying for us. That's why when the Bible says
don't live a self satisfied life, but a God satisfied life,
that isn't like God's not considering you.
It's God saying I created you. I know what's going to satisfy
you and I actually know what's going to give you joy says the
Lord. And so we all have this tendency
to want people to notice what we're doing for good.
And it is no different as it pertains to God.
That's why it says enter now into the joy of the Lord.
I was working with somebody years ago who had a drug and
alcohol problem and they were explaining how that the brain
and one of these classes I attended has a reward center.
And because we need to reproduce, the joy reward center
works through our sexuality. Certainly it does through our
eating as well. Because how you know you have to
eat, stay alive and how many you know, sometimes we eat things
that aren't going to help us stay alive, but we enjoy that
too. I used to work at a grocery
store and I used to run the cash register and people were always
complaining about the price of groceries.
And as I was pushing the chocolate cake down, I'm like,
you don't need this chocolate cake.
But but there's a reward center that comes and works in our
behalf. And it doesn't just work in
physiological things, it works in psychological things.
That's why opiate addiction has been so devastating to our
country, because opiates, when they work on the brain, they
cause the reward center to make you feel as if you actually
accomplish something. That's why somebody can get
addicted to things like that and their life can be a mess and
they still have this feeling that they're successful.
That's the danger of the opiate drugs.
But again, we have to understand that God created us for a
purpose and he's the one that put that reward center in our
brain. And sooner or later we're going
to want to have this sense. Well, I've done my best.
I've tried it, this thing. And so God gives us stewardships
of our life. And he says as you look at the
different areas that you have in your life, whether it's your
marriage, whether it's your relationships, whether it's your
job or your vocation, you should always understand that putting
in a good effort is going to give you that same sense of
reward that sometimes we think we can find by doing things that
will be pleasing to us. And in the end, that self
seeking life does not bring happiness or peace or joy or any
of those things, But to the Son, he says your throne of God is
forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and
hated lawlessness. Therefore God, your God has
anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your
companions. I've always memorized
scriptures, and this is one that I certainly did memorize a very
long time ago because I read that and I found out that
there's a truth to the fact that when you love to do what God
wants you to do, there's like a special anointing of joy and
gladness that comes upon you. And I love it because as I've
served the Lord all these years, there's a certain level of joy
that I've always been able to maintain.
And I believe it's because my heart is to do what God wants me
to do. I have experienced His joy.
There's a joy we can have when we're just in the presence of
the Lord and it just kind of pours upon us.
But there's a joy that sticks with us through our everyday
life that comes when we say, I'm going to do the right thing.
Because fulfilling purpose is always going to bring much more
satisfaction than simply finding your desire.
I know I've mentioned this a couple times about Charlie Kirk,
but I think his life is such a testimony about that.
Because I watched again this week on television and there was
a guy on television and he's part of the Fox News.
And he, he was telling his testimony about how he had made
a choice to follow Jesus more perfectly.
He said, I was raised in church, but when I got older, it was
just about Easter and Christmas. But when I looked at what he
offered and I looked at what happened to his life, I realized
something. I need to have a real
relationship with Jesus Christ. And his name's Jesse Watters.
And he lived a life that wasn't Christian very much.
But when I heard that Tosman, I'm like, wow, this is amazing.
And the thing I want to point out about that is he taught
about Jesus Christ. And he certainly had his own
political viewpoints. But you'll notice as you
research what he did. And like I mentioned, I always
look in to see what, what, what's the key to people's lives
and their impact, because he had impact to such an age.
And that was because he lived according to purpose and he
taught other people to live according to purpose.
So it was a life of purpose that brings great blessing, and it's
a life of purpose that brings great success.
And a life filled with one's own desire is going to bring not
happiness, not joy, not peace, but actually just the opposite.
And then we have to love righteousness, which simply
means, you know what, I'm going to do the right thing.
And I'm going to believe that as I do the right thing, I'm going
to sense this joy. I'm going to sense this peace.
I'm going to find out how that it will overwhelm me as I walk
in the fullness of life that God has for me in that amazing
church. The plan God has quite different
in our mind, isn't it? Therefore we also, since we are
surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking on to
Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith, who what
for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross,
despising the shame, and set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. When it talks about the cloud of
witnesses, Hebrews Chapter 11 is about a bunch of people who
decided they were going to follow God no matter what the
cost. And the Bible says if we believe
that God is God, we'll also believe he is the rewarder of
those who diligently seek him. And so that chapter is about all
these people. Many of them went through some
very difficult times, but they found out in the end that God is
a rewarder. But then it goes to this
Scripture about Jesus Christ because Jesus understood as the
Father had demonstrated so clearly, when you do what he has
called you to do, there's a joy that's going to be in front of
you that's going to be worth the effort to get involved in.
It's all about our purpose. And that's why when Jesus was
getting ready to go, the cross people said, don't know it can't
help you. Peter said I'll fight him for
you. Jesus said, no, wait for this
purpose was I born. He understood the power of
purpose and the joy that would come by that life that he has
prepared for us, and also the joy that he has prepared for us.
And in closing, it says, but one testified in a certain place
saying, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the Son of
man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower
than the angels. You have crowned Him with glory
and honor and set over the works of your hands.
You have put all things in subjection under His feet,
speaking about Jesus Christ. But for in that He put all in
subjection under Him. He left nothing that does not
put under Him. But now we do not see yet all
things put under Him. Can we bow our heads and close
our eyes for just a moment? Because I really believe with
all my heart, there's a challenge that God's saying to
the church that if we will let go of our mindsets, the things
that seem desirous to us, and we make a choice to follow Him and
His way, we're going to find life satisfying.
We're going to find life victorious.
We're going to find joy unspeakable and full of glory.
The world is becoming more dark. Darkness is covering the earth
and gross darkness the people. That literally speaks about an
emotional heaviness that's coming upon the land.
And that's why there's so much anxiety and depression and all
these negative things. So when the Bible says that
we're supposed to rise and shine so his glory can be seen upon
us, cherish, he's really talking about some emotional fulfillment
and joy. The the world's going to look at
it and say, well, why are they finding peace?
Why are they finding joy? So as we bow our heads and close
our eyes for just a moment, the simple message, your desire or
His purpose, His plan or your plan, finding your desire or
finding His purpose will make the difference.
Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, move upon each and every
one of us today that we would fully understand that You want
to do great things in our life and You want to give us the
abundant life. It is an emotionally satisfying
life. It is a fulfilling life that You
have for us. Let our hearts be open in Jesus
name. This is Pastor Lauren Coburbius
from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us
today and invite you to connect with our church family by
visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.
God bless you.