Abundant Living Family Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're exciting right now.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
If you want to grab a Bible or you just
get it ready, you could get your iPhone iPad.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
We're gonna be in a few scriptures today.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
We've been in a series we started last week, a
series that we titled new Wine. If you missed last week,
don't worry. We didn't pass out wine or anything like that,
so you didn't miss too much.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
But this series new Wine we're.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Talking about comes from Matthew chapter nine, where Jesus talks
about in order for God to give us new wine,
which is the message of the Gospel purpose of God,
the plan of God, he says, we first have to
have new wine skins.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
So it means we got to kind of empty.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Out our old stuff, take out all the old stuff,
take out all the old hurt, all the old heartache,
all our sins. We supposed to wash those ways and
then come to Jesus as a new wine skin to say, God,
I'm ready for your new wine, and I'm ready for
all the things that you want to lead me to,
you want to guide me to. And so the series
is really all about the newness of God, God's desire to.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Bring freshness and newness in our life.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
If you read your Bible from Genesis to Revelation, there
is a common theme. Number one, there's the common theme,
the redemptive story of what God's plan was to save
us through Jesus Christ. But there's also weaved withinside of this,
God's desire to bring newness. You'll see it all the
way from Genesis where God brings newness all throughout Israel,

(01:23):
he brings newness all through Isaiah. There's prophetic words of newness. Ezekiel,
there's words of newness. Jesus speaks of newness. So whenever
there's a common word in the Bible, it's good that
we stop, pause and reflect and say, God, why do
you like doing new things? Why does that matter to you? Well,
I think if I brought it and boiled it down

(01:45):
to a very practical level. If you've ever gotten a
new car before, how many of you guys loved that
first couple months where your car? And you tell yourself,
since it's new, nobody's gonna be eating food in my car.
No kids can eat many of my fast food. No sodas,
no drinks. You look at your spouse, you say, no

(02:06):
farting in this car, no burping in this car, you say,
I want to keep this thing as new and fresh
and as possible. Then in your head, when it's not
new and fresh anymore, what happens. Well, one day you're
in a rush, your kids are hungry, You run the jacket,
the box, you throw the French fries in the back.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Then all of a sudden, someone passes gas.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Once they open up room for more to happen in
the car, you break the ice. And then what was
once very new and very fresh, and you were very
delicate around it, you're kind of just like, Ah, maybe
once a year, i'll wash my car, take it through
a car wash. Ah maybe once every nine months I'll
come and maybe i'll check the tires. Some of y'all

(02:49):
we're just praying for you guys to change the oils.
Still it's been nine years. But we tell ourselves when
we get that new car, I'm gonna be on top
of this thing. And I feel like that's how our
faith is. When we first get saved, we get excited,
say this is new, this is fresh. I'm not gonna
sin anymore. I'm gonna stop doing this. I'm gonna get
along with my wife. I'm gonna get along with my kids,

(03:12):
and you're sitting there and you just the moment you
want to cuss you just like the joy of the
Lord is my strength, and you just you just beaming.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
You're beaming with excitement.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Somebody at work cusses you out and say, God bless you, brother,
I love you. And then when you're in this thing
for a little bit, and the newness kinds of fade away,
and the freshness kinds of fade away, and you put
up with the first time somebody passed gas, but the
third time somebody passed gas.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
And you once had eyes to follow the Lord.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
You were in church all the time, you were worship
all the time, and then it just kind of fades away,
kind of lose the new car smell.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
You kind of lose the newness. And so when your coworker.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Would cuss you out and you say, God bless you brother,
now you're just exchanging word for word when you said, oh,
I'm gonna do better for my man, and then now
when you really think about it, you're like, they drive
me nuts. I'm gonna go at it with them. So
what was once new is no longer fresh anymore.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
But this is why I.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Think God talks a lot about newness, talks a lot
about freshness, because he understands that we're human. He understands
that we're frail. He understands that that romance gets lost
at times. He understands that life gets hard. And so
I think he likes to talk about newness. I think

(04:32):
he likes to talk about freshness because he understands that
every once in a while, you and I do need
to trade in our old Jalopy of a car, and
we do need to get something a little fresh. And
sometimes in our faith, we do need to get to
a place where we're just honest with God and we're
kind of just like God. I'm just kind of sick
with the car that I'm driving every day, just myself.

(04:54):
I'm sick of the mundane. I'm sick of the region. God,
would you do something new in my life? God, would
you do something fresh in my life? And So today,
but we're gonna talk about We're gonna jump right in.
We're gonna talk about some steps of newness that I
think if we take these new things on, we could
begin to see.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
It's almost like, you know.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
There's times that my car may be older, it may
be a twenty fourteen or twenty fifteen. But when I
take it to the car wash, they say, what car
sent do you want? I always choose new car smell.
I just like telling myself I like to leave and
it's brand new off the lot type of thing. And
so what we want to do today is, hopefully when
you leave this place, though you may be still going

(05:36):
through some things, you still may be struggling through some things,
hopefully there's a new car smell in your life. Hopefully,
Like man, God, I get it. I'm gonna approach you
in some fresh perspective. And so we're jumping into our
notes today and we're gonna read some passages in the Bible.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
So today I got three notes. If you want to
follow along with me.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Here's the first thing, a first step that we see
that Jesus calls us to if we want to see
newness in our life. And this is gonna be one
that we're gonna wrestle with just for a second. And
so if you're taking notes, Jesus challenges us to a
new command. He gives us a new command in the Bible.
You know we're gonna speak here in John chapter thirteen,

(06:15):
verse thirty four, but let me let me lay it
out real quick before we read this. Here we are
a passage in the Bible, and Jesus is actually at
the Last Supper. It's during the Last Supper, so this
is pass overseason. This is hours before Jesus would be
traded in by one of his best friends, Judas, for
just small, measley pieces of silver. And then what would

(06:37):
happen is is then Jesus would stand trial and ultimately betrayed,
all of Israel would turn on him.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
He'd be put to death.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Ultimately, we know three days later he would resurrect because
he died for our sins. But in this moment, hours
before Jesus's death, some last words he gives his disciple.
Is this sentence right here? I want you to look
at it, says John thirteen thirty four. US says, a
new commandment. I give to you a new one, that
you love one another just as I have loved you,

(07:09):
You also are to love one another. Hold on, Jesus,
You're about to go stand trial, You're hours away from
being turned in, and you look at your disciples and
you say, you know those ten commandments that we were
brought up learning. You know those ten things that we've
been shared since we were young Jewish boys. These these rules,

(07:31):
these laws of God to follow. Well, I got one
to add to you, guys that I want you guys
to do. And you would think, if Jesus is gonna
open up the door to an eleventh commandment, there's ten commandments.
You think, if it's gonna open the door to an
eleventh commandment, it would be something very fancy, it would
be something very flavorful. But instead he says this, I

(07:52):
want you when I go and you guys become the
church according to the Book of Acts, he says, I
want you guys to love one another as much as
I have loved you guys.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
What Well, when we go to read the.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Gospels, specifically First John and in the Book of John,
we understand that God is loved and God has told
us through John first John that the principle of love,
you and I loving one another, it says the Bible
says that.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
They will know us by our love for each other.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Well, that may not sound very radical, they may not
sound very profound.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
But put it in this perspective.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
When was the last time you were out in somewhere
public and someone told you that they loved you. I
can't name of a time I've not checked out of.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
A grocery store and the teller go, all right, have
a good day. I love you.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
So Jesus calls us to something very radical that, especially
in our day and age, happens. Almost no one shows
love towards each other. No one expresses his love towards
each other, No one shows signs of the fruit of
love towards each other. We only show it to a
few select group of people, family, and may be friends.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Maybe. But I want you to look at the first.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Ten commandments because it's important to evaluate these, the ones
that are back in Exodus with Moses. It's important to
see these to see how radical it is what Jesus
is saying. I want you to look at the first
few commandments that are given in the book of Exodus.
Number one is you shall have no gods before Me.
In other words, no other God should be worshiped, No

(09:38):
other God should be followed except for Yahweh. Number two,
you shall not make idols. There should be no physical
deities or physical things that you worship above God himself.
Number three, you shall not take the name of the
Lord in vain. You shall not use God in recompense.

(10:00):
You shall not abuse God's name, you shall not use
God's a name as a curseword. And number four, remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy. He calls us
to have a day of rest where we particularly worship Him.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
A lot of times people get.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Caught up with just the rest part of things, but
remembering the Sabbath is remembering the day that God rested
and remembering God created the heavens and the earth. So
more importantly than just not doing anything, it's more important
to have a day that you worship God. So for us,
for evangelical believers, we do that on a Sunday. In

(10:39):
the Jewish culture and even the Islomic culture they do
it on Friday and Saturday.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Why do we worship God on Sunday, Well.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Because Jesus resurrected on a Sunday, so Sunday is called
every Sunday is resurrection Sunday. So why do we as
Christians now go to church on Sunday? Particularly, you go
to church any day you want, but popularity, why do
we go on Sunday? Well, because that was the day
Jesus resurrected. So it's important for us to come and
worship God. So regardless of the day, it's important to

(11:10):
keep a day that you worship God.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
So right now, this is your day, this is your sabbath.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Whether you go to Lucille's afterwards or you go to
the movies afterwards with your family, it's the fact that
today is the Lord, what the Lord has made, and
you're here to rejoice in it. You're to say, God,
you create the heavens of the earth, I'm giving you
this day. So that's where that's important, and it's important
to note that. And number five, honor your mother and father.

(11:39):
God loves that we honor our parents. That is a
promise in the scriptures that he wants us to honor
those who God has called us to raise us. And
there's a promise within honoring your father and mother. And
the scriptures. Number six, you shall not murder. And so
this is another thing. What murder is in this case

(11:59):
is this is didn't kill. There's something that you can
justly fight. So you can justly fight a war and
someone could die and that's not murder because that's exercising justice.
And so if someone is in a shootout because they
have harmed people and they get killed.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Those police officers.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Did not sin. They didn't just murder someone. They exercised
justice here on earth. Murder is taking the life of
innocence someone who did not deserve, someone that did not.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Need justice to be exercised on them.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
When you forcedly impended your choice on people, that is murder.
And so that's what God sees as murder. And number seven,
you shall not commit adultery. The marriage bed is sacred
to God because because marriage represents the relationship between Jesus
and his church, God and his people.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
And so when we defile marriage, we defile.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
The viewing that the symbolism of God and his church.
So we want to keep that pure. So we must
honor each other and not commit adultery. Number eight, you
shall not steal. Don't take things that don't belong to you.
If you didn't work for it, it's not yours. If
you didn't earn it, it's not for you. The Bible
tells us, according to Genesis one, you will be rewarded

(13:17):
based off of the sweat of your brow what you
work for. So he says, do not steal to take commandments.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor don't gossip,
don't slander, don't cheat, don't put someone down so you
can get ahead, don't shaft someone so you could get
in front.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
You do not.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Bear false witness against And then number ten you shall
not cove it.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
You shall not cove it.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
During Jesus's ministry, he was once asked which of these
is the greatest. And Jesus responded, and he said, to
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
love your neighbor as yourself.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Those are the commandments.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
So he boiled all ten to this, Love the Lord
your God with all of your heart, and love your
neighbor as yourself. Then before Jesus leaves, he has a
little cherry on top, and he says, here I am.
Now I'm giving you a command. We looked at the
greatest of those ten commandments. But here's a new command
that I'm gonna give you, guys. Is when I leave

(14:21):
and I go to heaven, I want you, guys to
love one another. So, if you're looking for newness in God,
the first step you have to take is how do
I love other people? How do I care for other people?
I am I self imposed? Am I self sadistic? Do
I just care about my needs? Do I just care

(14:43):
about myself? Are all my prayers about me?

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Me? Me? Me and mine? Me and us? Is it
just all? Do I?

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Every time I go to God? It's like me looking
in a mirror every time I go somewhere? Is it?
What can this restaurant do for me? What can my
workplace do for me? What can they do for me?
Then you have to evaluate, as a believer, how is
the world viewing you? Because if you're viewed as a
me me me Christian, then we don't represent Christ.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
You know. Philip Brooks, a man, once said this.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
He says this, one who is touched by the grace
will no longer look on those who stray as those
evil people or those poor people who need our help.
Nor must we search for signs of love worthiness. Grace
teaches us that God loves because of who God is,
not because of who we are.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Don't we always do that a lot? First?

Speaker 2 (15:40):
We evaluate before we love someone or we show love
to someone, we ask ourselves are they worthy of that love?
But that's not what Jesus called us to. He didn't
call us to create a Richter scale and decision on
how much we love someone or show love. In all
of our brokenness, we all have fallen short of God's glory.
So that's why Jesus puts into perspective. He doesn't just

(16:02):
say love one another and just leave it at that.
He says, love one another as I have loved you,
and so we have something to measure it on. We
have something to measure based off of Christ's love for us.
So as we read our Bibles and we read the
Word of God, as we see that God is love
and He's called us to this, then we're called to
bear the image of this thing. So Jesus has called

(16:26):
us to a new command. So we need to start
evaluating how do I love people? How do I love
this church? How do I love the people in this church?
How do I love my community? How do I love
those around me? And God, help me when I don't
feel like loving anyone, help me to understand Jesus's love
more deeply. When I feel like I've never been shown love,
You've never been shown love by man.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
Then Jesus is the one who's shown us love.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
So you got to lean into who he is, lean
into his message.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
The second thing.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Is this is oftentimes we need to get to a
position where we get to new soils. So here's the
second point, new soil. Sometimes you just gotta change your
space up. Sometimes you got changed up. We got a
lot of people in California like that.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Now.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
I feel like every time I wonder where someone's at,
not just in church, just in life. I look online
and it was a Texas, Georgia, Nashville, Florida.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
It was like Nevada. I'm like, when did this happen?

Speaker 2 (17:19):
They're like, oh, last week, we just decided we put
our house for sale. Two hours later it was sold.
We had the money in our bank account. We are
able to get this house in Texas with three for
three dollars. Now we got five hundred thousand dollars in
the bank.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
And you're like, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (17:35):
And they say, people say, man, it was nice to
get to a new place. I got some new soil.
I'm in a new area of my life. Were just
new freshness coming out. And you're like, oh, God, bless you,
good for you, you know. But people love right now
to go into new soil, just like a change of pace.
You see, We're gonna look right now in a moment.
Moses would do the same thing when Moses would want

(17:56):
to spend time with God, he would get fresh new soil.
He'd go to a new place where other people hadn't
walked yet, where they hadn't camped yet. And what he
would do is he would begin to pitch a tent.
We got our tent back from last week, so we're
gonna visit that in a second. I want you to
look for a moment at this passage. I just absolutely
love this passage in Exodus. It's important to note in

(18:17):
this story, Israel had already fled Egypt. Israel had already
crossed across the Red Sea. At this point, Israel had
also exercised impatience towards God and Moses, and they had
already built all of their false idols and started worshiping it.
Because the old generation kept on falling to their old ways,
which was worshiping their old idols.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
And so what God said was.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
I'm gonna give you forty years in the wilderness because
I need here's the keyword, I need a new generation,
a new generation that hasn't been clouded by the fatigue
of the old generation that was worshiping the old idols.
And so he tells them for forty years. I need
that old generation to die off so the new generation
can do the newness that I want to do in

(19:00):
the land of Canaan that I'm gonna give you. And
so for forty years, there's won they're wandering. And in
this forty years, because sometimes I feel like I'm wandering.
Within these forty years, Moses never stopped spending time with God.
And here's how he would seek God's face. Here's how
he would spend time with God. In New Soil, Exodus,

(19:21):
chapter thirty three, starting with verse seven, it says this, Now, Moses.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
Used to take the tent and pitch.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
It outside the camp, far off from the camp, and
he called it the tent of Meeting. And everyone who
sought the Lord would go out to the tent of Meeting,
which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to
the tent, all of the people would rise up, and
each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses
until he had gone into the tent.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent,
and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all
the people saw the pillar of clouds. Standing at the
entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up
and worship each at his tent. Thus the Lord used
to speak to Moses face to face as a man

(20:14):
speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp,
his assistant Joshua, the son of a young man, would
not depart from the tent. It's a powerful thing that
we just saw. So here's what would happen. We got
a tent back from last week. And so what when
Moses would do is when he wanted to spend some

(20:34):
time with God, he would leave his community, his camp,
the noise, the hustle and bustle of life, and so
he would get to a place of privacy with God.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
It says he would go to some.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
New land, he would go to fresh soil, and he
would pitch this camp up. He would pitch this tent up,
and then he would begin to go and spend time
with God. And it says the cloud, God's presence, the
Chakaina glory, would from heaven. It would encompass the tent.
And then now Moses would spend time with God as

(21:07):
you would a friend, as you would a friend.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
You see, So what we looked at last week.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
What was what we talked about was that within Christ
were a new creation.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
And so if you were here with.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Us last week, if you weren't, you'd go back to
YouTube and watch that message.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
But we had this tent, and we talked about.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
In order to be in Christ, in order to spend
time with God, we have to get in this tent.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Talked about that last week that you can't be.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Around it, you can get a little bit from being
around it. So if you look, Israel was around the
tent and they would worship God by seeing God's cloud,
but they were limited by the anointing for Moses, he
got to talk with God as a friend. The rest
of Israel did it because they weren't in the tent.

(21:56):
They were outside of the tent, so they saw just
enough of God's busey, but they didn't experience God's splendor
in the tent. And so last week what we talked
about is we talked about in order to be in
this the first thing you have to do is you
have to move out some of your junk and your clutter.
So what we shared about last week is is in

(22:17):
order to get in this thing, the first thing I
gotta do. I can't take all my old and bring
it in with my tent with God. I gotta actually
take it out. I got a clean house, and then
now I can get to a place where now I
can get in this thing.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
So now that I'm in my tent to meeting with
God and I've cleared my space out.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Now I can actually start to build a relationship with God.
Now I can actually start to spend time with God.
Now I can actually start fellowshiping with God. Now I
can actually meet with my friend. I want you guys
to join me right now in the tent comes spend

(23:00):
time with me, Me and me and my friend. Here
I am, I'm in my tent to meeting. I'm spending
time with God. I'm talking to God. But the scripture
says that he met him as a friend. What do
you do with a friend when you go to get
coffee with a friend. Here, first thing I want to
do is when I'm hanging out with my friends, I
want to get the atmosphere right. So, got my candle?

(23:26):
Oh what's up God? How you been doing? Got my
candle here for us to spend time. Maybe me and
my friends we're coffee lovers. So now we're gonna get
a little cup of joe.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
What have you been up to?

Speaker 2 (23:42):
God?

Speaker 1 (23:43):
God, I got you.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
See, when you're with a friend, you don't rush it,
you don't uh you get the coffee shop. Huh uh
uh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah? Then what then what then?

Speaker 1 (23:53):
What? Then? What? Okay?

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Okay, So here's my deal. I'm moving on Friday. Can
your family come help me move?

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Okay? Thank Greg, thank you so much. No. When you
meet a friend for coffee, what do you do? You stop?
You slow down. Here's the biggest thing. You listen.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
So sometimes you and I gotta do less talking more
listening with God. They're like, man, God, that's good. God,
I love spending his time with you. You're just like
a friend to me. God, I don't come to you
as someone that I'm just making requests.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Day in and day out.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
I'm coming to you as a friend to talk to
my friend, spend time with my friend. To come tell
my friend what I've been going through. God, I had
a tough week this week. I'm going crazy. I feel
like I'm gonna lose my mind. And then I stop
and I listen to my friend. I let my friends speak.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Back to me.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
If you're not spending time with your friend, then don't
count on him when.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
You're going through something.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Because France invests time to together, they talk to each other.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
So here I am. Here's I encourage you. Here's the
first step to spending time with God in the tent
of meeting.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
First, discover a space in your life where you can
be private without all the noise. Where's some soil you
can go on? Is it a closet, is it your bedroom?
Is it a car? Is it somewhere else? Where is
it you can go? Is it a park? Is it
here at church? Where you could go and you could
spend time with your friend with that. Whenever I hang
out with my friends, I want to go somewhere where

(25:29):
we're not going to be disturbed, we could spend time together.
So where is it you could go that you can
have that time with God? Then the next thing you
could do is if you knew to church, here's an
easy acronym for you. It's called soap sap all right,
So if you're writing it down, write soap like dish
soap that you use soap. And what it means is
when I'm spending time with God. First thing I do

(25:51):
is I discover a scripture like we're doing right now.
We're reading about Moses. And when I look at this scripture,
I want to read it multiple times throughout the world
week and then I want to that's the s scripture.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Then O is observe.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
I'm gonna read the passage and say, God, what is
being said in this passage? Then the third thing I
want to do is a which is apply God, how
does this.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Apply in my life?

Speaker 2 (26:15):
We're doing it right now we read scripture of Moses
meeting with God in the tent to meeting. Then the
next thing we're doing is we're observing the passage. The
third thing we're doing, which is right now, is we're applying.
We all need a tent to meeting with God if
we want to see God do newness in our life.
You need to spend time with your friend if you
want newness from your friend, and so then that's the apply.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
The last thing is pray. You pray it out soap.
Now I pray.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Now, I say God, whatever I've discovered in this moment,
May you make it real to me. May you give
me healing in this. May you give me access in this?
May you want to open up doors. Here's what you're doing. Now,
you are spending time with your friend. You're letting God
transform you in the tent to meeting. We all need
a tent to meeting. We all need a mone like
this with God. And if your private time with God

(27:03):
doesn't reflect like this, you need some newness. You need
to approach God. And then when you're done with your
tent to meeting with God, you blow out your candle,
you put your coffee aside. Then you come out here
and you come back out to the real world. Now
join everyone else in the real world and say, oh look,
here's my wife, here's my kids. I feel like I
could breathe again. I've experienced God. I spend time with God.

(27:25):
God spoke to me. I come out of here. I'm
radiating because me and my friend we had a moment.
I spend time with God. Everybody needs a tent to meeting.
Everybody needs a tent to meeting. I want you to
look at someone say everyone needs a tent. Look at
the other person that you don't like as much. Let

(27:47):
them know too. Everyone needs a tent. We all need it.
We all need some time that we spend time with God.
We disconnect from the world, and I say, God, want
you to minister to me. I need you to help me.
It takes time. You cannot get this thing overnight. You
cannot build a friendship overnight. So Moses teaches us, if

(28:10):
there's some things we want God to do in our life,
let's get to that level. We're not only God as
our lord, but we don't only meet him as a father,
but we meet him as a friend.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
We come to him as a friend.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Instead of our prayers looking like God, do this, do this,
do this, do this. If all of my calls with
my friends were like that, hey, man, what are you
up to do? Okay, that's nice. So here's what I
need you to do. Man, I got a flight today.
Did you just come pick me up from the airport?
And hey, before you pick me up from the airport,
because you grab me a Starbucks. I don't have money
on me, so if you could pay for it, that
would be great. If you could just edit it. And

(28:46):
then one day your friend's like, no, I'm done. You're
like what, I've been a.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Friend to you. I'm always calling you.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, you're always calling me to do something. You see,
our relationship with God, it cannot reflect that way. We
may treat human friends that way, but we can't treat
God that way. We can't talk to God every time
we go in that ten. It can't be about God,
do this, do this, do this. Could just be resting
in God, letting God speak to say, God, what do

(29:12):
you want to do right now? What do you want
to do in my home? What do you want to
do in my community? And you may be new to faith.
I'm not saying that he's gonna appear, you know, as
a cloud in your room. He's gonna begin by the
power of the spirit. Romans, chapter eight. He's gonna begin
to give you utterances by the spirit, and a spirit's
gonna begin to guide you. Things are gonna begin to
sit unwell with you. Things are gonna be begin to

(29:34):
give you peace that normally didn't give you peace.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
That's how God begins to speak.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Sometimes God will give a prophetic word to someone else
and they'll come and give you that word, and it'll
it'll relate to something that you're praying.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
For right now.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
There are many ways that God begins to speak to us.
But the first thing we gotta start doing is just
getting alone with our friend and letting God talk. The
next thing is this, as we got to get some
new soil. There's the beauty of God's plan, which is
also a new Jerusalem. God has an ultimate plan for
his church. God has an ultimate plan for his believers.

(30:09):
God's plan is to dwell with you and I permanently
in the future, as Moses did with a friend, whenever
he would pitch his tents. God's desire that one day
when Christ would return, that he desires to spend this
time with us here on earth. He desires to reshape
the earth, reform the earth, come to a place, and make.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
All things new. I want you to read.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
This with our last point, it says in Revelations twenty one,
verse one. It starts with and then I saw this
as John having a vision. Then I saw a new
Heaven and a new Earth for the first time, heaven
for the first to heaven, and the first Earth had
passed away, and the sea was no more. And I

(30:53):
saw a holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out
from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her. And
I heard a loud voice from the throne room saying, behold,
the dwelling place of God is with me. He will
dwell with them, and they will be his people, and
God himself will be with them as their God. He

(31:14):
will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death
shall be no more. Neither shall there'll be mourning, nor crying,
nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away.
And he who is seated on the throne said, behold,
I am making all things new. Also, he said, write

(31:34):
this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And
he said to me, it is done. Sometimes you need
to just like confess that over your life. Sometimes that
needs to be your word for the day. Is you
may be praying for something and you need to just say.
God even tells John, he says, hold on, hold on,
hold on. You've been memorizing some things. Write this down
right now. It is done. Sometimes we just got to

(31:57):
remember that it is done. God said it is done.
And he said this, I am the Alpha, and I
am the Omega. I'm the beginning and the end to
the thirsty. I will give from a spring of water
of life without payment, without payment.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
God makes all things new.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
And there's often times, because we are humans and we
measure life by temporal measurements, we say.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Okay, how come in my eye?

Speaker 2 (32:29):
How come in these fifty years or eighty years, God
hasn't done this or this or that. If you read revelations,
God has his timeline. He does not operate on our time.
So he has a timeline where he's gonna come back
and everyone's gonna stand before him and be judged. And
those that would have this relationship with him, those that
will have new bodies, those that will be completely reformed,

(32:52):
those that were God himself will dwell with us. Are
those who say followed their son Jesus who saved our life.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
That's what we're looking for.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
And so in our brokenness, in our humanity, in are
pleased with God. Sometimes the answer is God will make
all things new in our life. There are oftentimes He
does make all things new, but there also will be
a time where He will make all things new. All sickness,
all disease will go away, all bodily brokenness will go away,

(33:24):
All hurt and harm will go away, all sinfulness will
go away.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
And what will.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Come is God's presence eternally with us here on earth.
That's God's desire. You and I weren't made to be
in heaven. We're not spiritual beings. We're physical beings. And
so Jesus's resurrection speaks to the same thing that God
will do to us one day, and he will give
us bodies again and we will be in his new

(33:50):
Jerusalem together. This is something God's desire is to do.
He wants to be in the presence, and we couldn't
because of them, and even sin, because we're now born
into sin. If God came down right now, we'd all
be judged according to our sin.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
So we need Christ to reshape us, to rebuild us,
to make all things new.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
And so there's a new Jerusalem that it waits for
us to give you hope in desperate times, to give
you joy in tough times, but the greatest things. Where
we say God, where is the starting point? Well, the
starting point is his Jesus's command. That's where it starts.
Say Okay, God, I see you guys can spend time
with you in new soil. I see there's gonna be
a new Jerusalem. But what do I start with? God says,

(34:35):
I start with new command that you love one another
as Jesus loved you.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
That's what God calls us to do. And as we
begin to close today.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
When I was when I was in junior high, there
was a there was a kid in one of my classes,
and uh, and he was picked on a lot.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
He kinda he kind of looked like Harry Potter.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
Harry Potter was big back then, and so he had
these big round glasses and just fle hair that covered him.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Real skinny, you know, small guy, and.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Kids would just always he was one of those kids
that was always picked on in school. Kids always made
Harry Potter jokes at him, and he just he just
always sat there silently, just like and I think to myself, like.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
Man, this dude, this guy always gets it. Man. Kids
are always making fun of him.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
And so one day I decide I want to try
to get into boxing.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
So I asked my dad.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
I said, hey, Dad, on on a on a over
here on baseline. Uh, there's like a little boxing place
over there off a Milliken. Would you take me there,
having like a junior's training day. And I want to
be interested in getting into boxing. And my Dad's like, yeah,
we'll go check it out. We'll check the price out.
My thing, my dad is he's a he's a he
he he acts super broke my whole life.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
He just acts like he had no money. Ever.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
So so we go there and he's like, oh, it
costs this much a month, and you know, they say,
I'm like whatever, forget it. So he buys me this
little bag for my backyard and he just tells me
to punch it three hundred times a day.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
And I was.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
Supposed to be how I was supposed to be at,
you know. So I go to this boxing place and
and so I go to this boxing place and there's
the kid that always gets made fun of and he's
in the center of the boxing ring and it's one
of the classes, I mean, and this kid's.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Like boom boom boom, boom boom, and he's with.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
A trainer and this kid is locking it in and
the whole class is surrounding around the kid, and the
coach is like.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
See, I want you to see how he docks. I
want you to see how he does this. I want
you to see how does come.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
To find out this kid is like a junior Olympic
champion in boxing. And so he gets down. I'm like,
hey man, goodness it. We're talking for a second. We're
both like thirteen years old, and I said, hey, if
you could do all that, why do you let all
these kids pick on you? Watch you just beat them up?

(36:52):
And he literallys at me, and he goes, just because
I can doesn't mean I should. And then he goes
and it doesn't bother me because I know how much
power I have. So at the end of the day,
he said, their words, honestly, don't hurt me because I

(37:14):
know who I am. And and he goes, and I
enjoy boxing. I don't need he goes, I don't, so
he goes. They could say, what so this is a
person that found his security in something that he was
good at, and he understood the power he had, so
that when he was in a space where he was
being mistreated, where he was being harmed, where he was
being threatened, he could have retaliated, He could have fought back,

(37:35):
He could have shut every person down at school that
ever messed with him, no problem. But his response was,
just because I can doesn't mean I should. And you know,
for us, God has called us to be believers. Yeah,
you you could. You could retaliate, you could go back
at them, you could hurt them, you could harm them.

(37:56):
But just because you can doesn't mean you should. And
you have the power of Christ. You have the Holy
Spirit inside of you, and so you need to be
secure that if your God is for you, who'll be
against you. You don't have to flex your spiritual muscles.
You just trust your God. You just trust him. God

(38:19):
is the one who's promised you newness. God is the
one who's promised you new wine. God has promised you
new wine skins. And so when I look at other
people who are trying to make me feel little, I
feel bad for them, not the other way around. I
think to myself, if you could just experience the grace
and favor that I've experienced, you want to be such
a bitter broken person because of God's goodness in my life.

(38:41):
So we got to start first with Jesus's new command,
love one another as he has loved us. Let's pray today, God,
we thank you so much for this message.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Lord.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
I pray Father God, that this moment transforms our heart
and mind.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Today.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Lord, I pray Lord that as we spent this time together,
may you begin to speak and minister to us.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Lord.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
May we leave this place changed, God, May we leave
this place open for new wine. I pray there's a
newness you're doing in our life. Lord, I pray there's
a freshness you're doing in our life, Lord, and I
pray first we start by emptying out that old wine
in our old wine skin. Lord, May we come to
you ready, willing and able to be filled up with

(39:21):
your spirit and your love and your grace in Jesus' name. Amen,
We're all gonna leave here together right now in just
a few moments. But this is the most important part
of the service for us. You may have walked in
here today, You may have came here just because out
of reluctancy and said God, I'm gonna give you a chance.
Or may you've been coming here on the regular giving

(39:42):
God a chance. But it's in moments like these where
God stands before us and we have a sign that
in front of our church that says, where will you
spend eternity?

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Because we want every.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Person that steps on this campus to recognize and first
evaluate that we aren't just made for this lifetime. There's
an eternity that God desires to spend with us, and
it's only through his son Jesus that we can find salvation.
Why is it only through Jesus well, because Jesus Christ
is the only one that came down and fulfilled as

(40:12):
many prophecies as he's fulfilled. He spoke the word of God,
he performed signs, miracles, and wonders. And he also is
the only one who said, I'm going on across sinless
and blameless, not for myself, but for the sins of humanity.
And he's also the only one who would resurrect three
days later, where God showed us that his sacrifice.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Was sufficient for our sins.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
So we can go to God with a clear mind
and a clear conscious to say, God, you sent your
son Jesus down for me, and I must repent to
my sins and turn to you. And the Bible tells
us if we confess Jesus Christ as our personal Lord
and savior, and we believe that he rose again, then
we will be saved. You know, a bunch of other

(40:54):
religions teach you that you need to perform a certain
amount of good works in order to get to heaven.
But here's the problem. You never know if your good
works outweigh your bad works. So by time, they say,
you'll find out when you get to heaven whether you
got in, and you'll see. With a lot of religions
they'll say, may God open up his graces his heaven

(41:14):
to you. It's a request like, oh, we hope he'll
do it. But with Jesus there's a surety, there's sureness.
You don't have to lay down your head pillow today
and say, I wonder if I gave my life to Christ. No,
if you gave your life to Christ, if you confess
to Him as Lord and savior, the Bible says you
will be saved. It's the only form of faith that

(41:37):
gives you and I sureness to know that my eternity
is held in God's hand, and I know where I
go when I stand before Him. Everywhere else is Russian roulette.
Hopefully you get in, we'll see. But Jesus is like, no, no, no, no.
I want you to know that I want to save you,
and I came down for you for your sins if

(41:57):
you would repent to those and cling to me. So,
if you're here today and you've never given your life
to Jesus Christ and you want to, then we're gonna
say a prayer out loud right now as a family.
The prayer is not the thing that saves you by
any means. What we're doing is We're affirming the work
that God is already doing in your heart. Right now,
he's knocking your answering our prayers affirming that moment right now. So, family,

(42:21):
from the courtyard to end this room, would you join
me in this prayer right now and join me out loud?
Would you say, Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment, I
confess you as Lord and Savior. I believe that you
died on the cross and rose three days later, and

(42:41):
right now I call you my Lord and Savior, and
I commit to follow you for the rest of my
days in Jesus' name.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Can we give a handclap to those that may have
said that prayer for the first time or read dedicated
their life.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Well, here's the deal.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
If you're in here, if you would go to ww
dot Grow dot Faith, that's our website. We have a
book for you from our founding pastor, Diego Mason. It's
Seven Steps of the Christian Walk. This is a great
first step for you. So if you set this prayer
rededicate your life, make sure before you leave write this
down because this is gonna help resource you to say
what is next for my faith?

Speaker 1 (43:24):
What is next for my life?

Speaker 2 (43:26):
There's next steps in everything we do, so as you
go to that website, you'll be able to discover what
it is that you can do in your faith and
in your life next. And it's a super small read,
in a short read. You could do it over one
cup of coffee. So this is your first step to
the tenth of meeting with God. Sit down, privately, pull
this up and say, I'm gonna read this in fifteen
minutes and it'll really help grow your faith. Additionally, we

(43:49):
always make a challenge. We say, if you're new to
your faith, you just gave your life to Jesus Christ,
then we challenge you for the next twelve months that
every single time you can get to church, come to
church and see how God transforms your life. Make your
first twelve months a habit of coming as much as possible,
working your schedule around this for your first twelve months,

(44:10):
and then after that see what God does in your life.