Encouraging Sermon on God's Sovereignty

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

So I'm not going to talk for too long, but all I want to do is encourage so awesome when you can

00:06

Teach a preaching encouraging sermon of course all the word of God is life But my goal for the couple minutes that I have is just to fill you all up with Encouragement how many know encouragement in the world encouragement in the church are two different things

00:23

You know anything about trying to encourage somebody in the world That's maybe telling them some nice things about themselves, and then that kind of gets you encouraged

00:31

But in the spiritual realm in the church of course in the scriptures encouragement is completely different.

00:36

It's about to encourage It's about to put courage into you and how many know it's it's so funny that the world does is if you look inside of Self you look at self as your source of encouragement your own resources your own capabilities or capacity

00:50

I don't know about you, but I don't get too encouraged because I look at me, and I say man I can't do that much. I'm just I'm a worm but if you look to God and your eyes are focused vertically upon him his

01:01

Capabilities his unchanging qualities his character, then you can't not be encouraged when we go through times

01:08

And we need to be encouraging everybody does We need to focus upon the Lord who he is what he can do and that will fill us with the courage that uh

01:19

That he wants us to have the courage that we need and the encouragement and the joyful rejoicing spirit, that's about The work of the ministry and whatever capacity that is

01:28

I was a church planner for about five years I Planted a church in City on a hill called no in San Diego called

01:37

City on Hill Church in 2009 and it was awesome. We were wonderful. We didn't grow too big, but God did amazing things through that I remember

01:48

Praying for about ten years before that for my dad to come to know the Lord And I would just every day be praying

01:54

Lord I just pray that he comes and you you save him by your grace and mercy and he's inside of the the household of faith and Reading the

02:01

Word of God and worshiping and during that time God saved him God saved my brother God saved my sister

02:08

It was so funny if you knew Des before God my sister Desi before regenerator I remember in Bible studies when she would come

02:15

She would really get up in my face and tell me that she would never tell anybody that abortion is sin

02:21

That she would never tell anybody that homosexuality is sin, but God is so radically saved her now She's on the front lines of the abortion ministry.

02:27

So all all through that God was doing wonderful things refining our character, and I'm so thankful about That time of being a church planner, but how many know church planning is it's tough

02:39

It's hard. It's the most important thing on the earth to do The most important people upon the earth doing the most important thing upon the earth are those who are planting churches right if we're gonna go about fulfilling the

02:53

Great Commission, which we're gonna get into and proclaiming the gospel and being about evangelism the most

02:59

Important thing that we can do is plant churches. We need to to own that The church is the light of the world the

03:06

Bible says everybody's sitting in darkness and it's only through the people of God as they preach the Word of God and Cooperate and function as the body of Christ does the light go out it has the exclusive message on the planet that saves anyone

03:21

It's the most worthwhile and internally important and impactful endeavor that we could ever do the

03:27

Church of Jesus Christ is what God is building. The church is Jesus Christ is the only thing that God is truly solely blessing and It's worth it.

03:37

It's worth it, right? It's worth the blood sweat toil death possibly

03:42

It's worth it because this is what God is doing on the earth and nothing can thwart his purposes

03:48

Everything that is done is gonna have not only ramifications here upon the planet, but it's gonna have

03:53

Eternal ramifications all throughout eternity. But like I said, it's tough.

03:59

It's difficult I remember when I first planted the church and the conferences that I was going to it was very romanticized

04:05

You know, they didn't really get down to the nit and gritty about what how difficult church planning truly is

04:11

But if you go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 6 through 9 The Apostle ball gives us a little snap snapshot of of what ministry 101 truly is 2nd

04:23

Corinthians 6 3 through 10 2nd Corinthians 6 3 through 10

04:33

It says we he says as we put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry

04:39

But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions hardships calamities beatings imprisonments riots labors sleepless nights hunger by purity knowledge patience kindness the

04:55

Holy Spirit genuine love By truthful speech in the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left

05:03

Through honor and dishonor through slander and praise we are treated as imposters and yet are true as unknown and yet well known as dying and behold we live as punished and yet not killed as sorrowful yet always

05:20

Rejoicing such an important aspect of that as poor yet making many rich as having nothing yet possessing everything

05:27

That's that's what ministry is. That's what life is in the Christian life. It is It's it's not easy.

05:33

It's something that is Difficult is something that takes tenacity and endurance and faith and a stick to it

05:42

Spirit is it rejoicing of course, but we we don't want to sugarcoat it right? We don't want to represent it

05:48

In some type of light why because we won't be ready for that difficulty right up church plant I mean we should dedicate if you're gonna go plant a church

05:56

You should dedicate I think no no less than a hundred years of your life into it, right?

06:01

It takes everything or nothing Is it wonderful? Yes, do we see

06:06

God move in miraculous ways? Yes But it can be difficult what I want to do is kind of share with you just two important points not a lot

06:13

Just two important points I wish somebody would have shared with me When I was planning because I know it's gonna be extremely helpful and it's something that I learned

06:20

Down the road look at this is the first point Listen to this clearly you

06:26

We as Christians are not called we're not qualified we are not able than any capacity to produce results

06:36

That is not our calling to produce results Did you know that and that?

06:41

Runs against the grain of so much that you learn out there in the Christian world because unfortunately what we'd like to do is take the standards of the flesh the standards of the world and kind of Integrate them into the

06:52

Christian life and that just wreaks havoc on anything because you think man, I I Don't see things happening

06:59

I I don't see it the way that I was supposed to see it or the way that I Envisioned it and you can become very discouraged because you think that you must now produce within yourself the results that only

07:10

God can produce Can we save a soul? No Jonah 9. Sorry Jonah 2 9 says salvation is of the

07:17

Lord He is the author of salvation. We cannot save anyone if you try to save anyone you're in you're in trouble, right?

07:25

What about sanctification is it our job to sanctify people that word means to become more and more like Christ It's talking about the lifelong spiritual progression of maturity.

07:36

No, we can't even do that. Do we facilitate these things? Absolutely, we do. We're a part of the process, but we are not the author of the results of this process, right?

07:47

We can't even sanctify people in John chapter 17 17 17 17 Jesus praise to the

07:53

Father Father Sanctify them in the truth salvation and sanctification is all the work of the

08:00

Father We are not we're not called to do that we're there's so much pressure in our lives, especially these church planners and spiritual leaders and workers to to produce

08:10

You know We look at church like a business that we have to have a certain number of people we have to have a certain

08:15

Amount of money or be in some certain you know level of Success that is absolutely outside of anything in the scriptures.

08:26

We are not a business. We are not Professionals, we don't we're not supposed to meet some bottom end

08:34

You know deadline or Quota, that's the way, you know I went to church come a lot of church planning conferences before I Plan on the church.

08:43

Like I said, it's amazing because a lot of people say, you know, it's not about numbers But then you'd listen to these guys that were speaking and they say hey how many how many churches use your church run?

08:51

You know my church runs you see what I mean? You get that that is so proud and that is not absolutely no way

08:58

That the church is supposed to work Why because all the glory all the boasting is to go to one and that's

09:04

God alone for it Right. Well, what do we what do we like to do? We like to we want to absorb that in ourselves.

09:09

We want to compete with one another That is the biggest fight in life One of the biggest fights of the Christian life is reflecting all the glory to God not assuming it for ourselves

09:17

Well, we can do that in the Christian Church, especially as church planners by by thinking that it's up to us

09:25

It's not it's all for him He's the one that does it if we try if we say, you know what?

09:30

I don't like the way things are looking this is not happening based upon my own timetable I'm gonna go out and just do it myself.

09:36

You know what we do well as When we try to be God we gather the tares in When God sovereignly saves his elect he gathers the wheat in so we don't want to do that.

09:49

And it's such a Such a restful type of understanding because we could just do what

09:55

God has called us to do Rest in his will knowing that all of his deeds are righteous All that he does is good and I can sit down and rest only doing that what she's called me to do

10:07

You know, it's is it's wonderful when people start coming to the fellowship. It's wonderful when

10:12

God saves It was amazing to see a lot of my own family members say that I'm not telling you that that's what we want to see

10:18

We want to see them. We want to see God's sons and daughters come in here We want to see people mature into the giftings and callings that the in calling that God has given them

10:27

But we can also and this is so important This is so important for me to read as I was going through this we can rejoice in the tough years

10:35

We can rejoice in those things because God is working out everything for our good

10:41

Right, even through affliction even through trial even through the beginning when it's it's it's nothing but difficult

10:47

We can rejoice in that go to first Peter 1 1 through 7 1st

10:57

Peter 1 1 through 7 says this Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles the dispersion and Pontius Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia according to the foreign for knowledge of God the

11:09

Father and the sanctification of the Spirit For obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood

11:16

May grace and peace be multiplied to you Blessed be the God and Father of our

11:21

Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy for he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by God's power and Being guarded through faith been for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time listen in this you rejoice

11:45

Though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials So that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though It is tested by fire may be found to result in what praise and glory and honor in the revelation of Jesus Christ I just goes to show you it's good

12:04

Through the good times. It's good to see people saved. It's good to see the church Grow numerically, but we can rejoice the

12:11

Bible says to rejoice in all things We can rejoice through this because God is working in into us a faith

12:18

That is to be purified so there can be rejoicing and all of it We have to understand that and let our minds go there when our minds want to take us out and say if I only could see

12:28

This or if only this were happening, then I could be content with what is God has called me to do

12:34

No, we can actually be content in all things regardless if it's good or bad or whatever

12:39

It's so absolutely important. So our job is not to produce results Don't get trapped into that that only leads to discouragement and futility yet Can't do it, but our job number two is just to be faithful That's the job of the

12:55

Christian. That's so simple our job What God has called us to do is to be faithful to his commands.

13:02

What does that mean? It's just to be obedient It's to do what he has commanded and called us to do the best that we can for his glory and in his strength

13:13

We're part of the process of it. He causes it, but all we're supposed to do is be successful all a

13:22

Truly Christian are truly successful Christian Church a truly successful Christian is just a simple servant and someone who's simply

13:30

Obedient to the commands of Scripture living out the life of Christ. That's That's what

13:36

God has called you to do and this works in every single aspect of life as a husband You're called to be a faithful husband as a wife

13:43

You're called to be a faithful wife as parents were called to be faithful to the Scriptures That is what we need to set our minds to you think about what the early church did, right?

13:53

What would they do they would just be faithful to the commands the Great Commission Right in the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel

14:00

They would be faithful and what would God do? He would add to the church. He would cause the growth in Recognition of their faithfulness to his commands.

14:10

What do we like to do? We want it to be now or microwave people, right? We want to see results immediately.

14:16

So we will try to make it happen and it never works It never works. We've tried that all throughout the

14:23

Christian Church and every single error this happens but this is something that we have to get away from our

14:29

Job is to be faithful first Corinthians 4 2 says we what is required of all stewards or servants is to be found

14:36

Faithful we want to hear on that day. Well done good and faithful servant

14:42

You did what I commanded you to do. We what we like to do is we like to turn to other

14:48

Authorities and we like to construct other authorities and be submitted to that but in that God will not bless it

14:55

It's not something that we can do and expect the Lord to bless anything God blesses us and Expands us and grows us as we are faithful to his word

15:05

Faithful to evangelize we water We sow first Corinthians chapter 3 says but God causes the growth

15:12

Our job is to sow and sow and water and water until we're dead.

15:18

He gets all the glory, right? But there's not gonna be a harvest if we don't sow and water we have to water you have to so we are a part

15:25

Of that process, but we're not the one that causes anything to grow just as you know We can only plant the seed in the ground water the seed plant the seed in the soil water the seed

15:34

We can't make a plant grow. We we cannot produce the results We have to be faithful to God playing our role and trust him with the results all to the his praise and all to his glory

15:48

When it comes to evangelism on the island, we have to do what God has called us to do boldly here

15:54

It was kind of crazy being out Open air preaching a couple days ago and just lifting up the name of Jesus I mean,

16:02

I wasn't too close to the people around there But I was really confronted by a woman and she said, you know,

16:07

I think we're out here to have fun You're just this is not the way you do this. You know, you're abusing the children, which was crazy, but You just need to go away.

16:15

This is kawaii. This is not what we do here You know what that really is It's a it's a spirit here that we cannot allow

16:24

To deter us from doing what God has commanded us to do. We can't do it Ohana There's a lot of great about Ohana about family about loving family about hospitality and in that type of full of the philosophical system of Ohana, there are a lot of good qualities, but We cannot let

16:43

Ohana which really has become an idol upon this island keep us from boldly

16:50

Proclaiming Jesus Christ to these lost people going to hell. We can't do it I was kind of thinking about kawaii kawaii is like a cruise ship.

16:58

So think if you're on this cruise ship, you know going Cruise ship on a river and you're going down this river and this nobody knew that there was a waterfall at the end of the

17:07

River and you're going up to tell everybody. Hey, we're about to fall off a waterfall and they said hey, we're on a cruise ship, bro

17:13

This is all about Just having a good time. This is all about just you know, let us be you do what you do, but don't

17:21

Impose what you're you're saying upon us. You see could we do that in that situation? No, regardless of the fact that they wanted their peace and quiet and entertainment and relaxation that cannot keep us

17:33

From going directly to them and saying no if you don't if you don't if you don't repent you're gonna you're gonna eternally die

17:40

All right. It's so important We cannot let a the spirit of Ohana or this this idol of Ohana become the authority that we submit to how do we do?

17:50

That we say if if only I could gain the permission of kawaii in its residence If only

17:56

I could make enough relationships first and gain their permission to tell them about Jesus Christ Then that will be right thing, you know what happens you are not faithful to the commands of Scripture You've made another authority system that you're that you're faithful to No, God has not called us to produce results.

18:14

God has not called us to Do what only he can do in his sovereign will and choice.

18:20

God has called us to be faithful There's a good sermon and I'm almost done here. It's called the theology of sleep

18:26

I'd really Encourage you to look it up on YouTube But it's in that chapter in the book of Mark where it says the farmer plants the seed waters the seed he goes to sleep

18:35

He sleeps and he trusts the fact that it's gonna grow based upon God's good time and God's goodwill

18:42

So encourage yourself be encouraged regardless of what happens Regardless of what

18:48

God is gonna do is going to do Let's fix our minds on the role that he's called us to and not

18:54

Be diverted into some activity that we simply can never do that'll wear us out, right?

18:59

Let me go ahead and pray Father I thank you for this time that I could spend before my brothers and sisters

19:06

I thank you for this this church that you've planted here this wonderful thing that you're doing and kapaa

19:11

Lord. I Lord through all of what I said, we do pray for souls. We want you to save Your sons and your daughters on this island.

19:21

We want you to do that We would ask you to do that Lord Jesus bring them to yourself and bring them to this fellowship

19:28

Lord I pray for pastor Claudie and Shelley Christian and Esther and everybody else. I pray that you would encourage them

19:34

Strengthen them protect them Lord Let them be always rejoicing in any type of thing that you're doing good or bad or difficult or easy

19:43

Whatever it may be we can always rejoice because we we know always that you're working for our good

19:49

That your purposes will never be thwarted Lord Your church is gonna become even more increasingly powerful not only in this world

19:56

Lord, but we know on this island We won't rest. We won't stop until once again.

20:02

This island is completely under your feet under your dominion Well, we'd ask that you'd help us.