← ArchiveSunday, October 4, 2015DateOctober 4, 2015Speaker—TextGenesis 32Passages in this sermonMatthew 50:22Genesis 316:17Genesis 31:16:29Genesis 328:19Matthew 310:56Hosea 1214:33Genesis 32:2625:29Romans 6:1325:46Genesis 32:2729:33Luke 531:26Genesis 32:2833:33TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Thank you so much. If you brought your Bible, I hope you did. Turn with me to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5. Matthew, chapter 5, and we'll pick it up at the 6th verse. But let's back up and read those first few verses prior to that to kind of set the tone.0:27Matthew 5, seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain and he sat down with his disciples and his disciples came to him. He sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for theirs they shall be satisfied.0:57Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sakes, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who, when others rival against you or persecute you or utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.1:19Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Let's pray. Father, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight today. Lord, as we unpack for the next few moments your word, I pray, Lord Jesus, you do something uniquely special in the life of this church.1:43Father, I pray that we handle your word accurately today and that we leave this place completely different than when we came. And we give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor. In Jesus' name we pray. And the church again said, Amen. There are two kinds of hungry people in this room today. There are two kinds of hungry people.2:13Now, some of us are maybe hungry for food. Kim, you're hungry for food, right? Yeah. Some of you are hungry for food. Some of you did not have a snack during your small group time, your life group time this morning. Some of you did. Some of you came back and came into my good gracious again because you decided to come back and bring food into your life group again today. When I came by to say hello, there was food there. I think that's a wise thing to do that we need to have a snack.2:41No, I'm just kidding. We don't have to have that, but it does make me feel a whole lot better when you do. Because I think some of you are great cooks and you should get up earlier in the morning and bring us something to eat here on Sunday mornings. But there are some in this room not only are hungry, but some of you are spiritually hungry in this room. There are these spiritual kind and physical kind of hunger. Today, in this moment, we are talking about spiritual hungerness.3:08We're talking about spiritual hunger. Now, we at Bethel Baptist Church do two things, and we do a lot of neat things, but there are a couple of things that we do missionally, locally, that I think are just phenomenal. The Bethel Food Bank is an amazing ministry where we're providing food, and we're providing food for those who are hungry, that are down on their luck, or maybe their situation is just where they need food, and they can come on Thursday night and take a box of food away from this place.3:33Week in and week out, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 families are fed from the Bethel Food Bank week in and week out. Then every weekend, every Friday afternoon, there's about 125 or 27 or 130 some odd children walk away with a backpack for nourishment throughout the weekend. They would not have food if we did not provide them that food on several elementary and middle school and high school campuses here in our area.4:02What an amazing ministry. We thank God for those amazing ministries that we are feeding, physically feeding those that are hungry. I'm still dumbfounded that we give about 40, throw away about 40% of all the food that is manufactured, grown and manufactured in this country. It's thrown away every day. Let that sink in. 40% of all the food that is manufactured or grown in this country is thrown away or discarded.4:30That is a tragedy when we got people that say they're hungry. There should never be anybody that is hungry. Also, there should never be a kid that doesn't have a place to sleep at night. Amen? We should eradicate hunger in the United States of America, and we should eradicate anybody, any kid, that doesn't have a safe environment to sleep in. Amen? We should be a part of that.5:00We need to be proactive in that area. And that's for another sermon, but I want to talk today about spiritual hungerness. That is what he is saying. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. When we look at that verse of scripture, I think there is one distinct message truth, and I've printed it for you in your outline. It says, I submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask him to remove any character defects.5:26You say, wait a minute, what does that have to do with hunger and thirst for righteousness? I'm about to unpack that for you, and we're going to look at five phases that I believe that will help us understand what we mean when it says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. God uses five things to change us.5:54Number one, I'm going to jump right into the principles for you. Number one, God changes us through conflict. Now, some of us have to go through some conflicts every now and then for God to get our attention. God uses conflicts to change us. Now, I want you to notice with me, I printed in the verses for you, in Genesis chapter 31, gives us the story of Jacob. You know this, if you've been in church any length of time, Jacob is a neat, neat character for us to study.6:24And listen to what it says in Genesis chapter 31, verses 1 and 2. Jacob heard Laban, a son saying, Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all his wealth from what belonged to our father. And Jacob noticed that Laban, the attitude towards him was not what it had been. Now, folks, God uses conflicts or struggles with ourselves and with others to get our attention.6:49He uses these conflictss to get our attention. God uses relational conflicts or relational struggles to get our attention. If you are struggling today in this congregation, if you're sitting here today and you are struggling in your own personal life with a relationship, or you're struggling in any way, raise your hand, would you? Raise your hand.7:19Oh, every one of us have got some struggles, do we not? We would not be human if he does it. And so, folks, let me tell you something. God uses those struggles to get our attention. God uses those to change our life. If we're struggling now, you're in the right place at the right time. Jacob's entire life, his entire life, can be summed up with one word, conflict. It can be summed up with one word, conflict. His name means supplanter or deceiver or cheater.7:48Jacob is always, is always running from conflict. Conflict with his brother. Conflict with his wife. Conflict with his father-in-law. Conflicts with his brother-in-law. And he had conflicts with God. God is trying to get his attention, and all he wants to do is run. He is between a proverbial rock and a hard place all the time throughout his entire life. So, when you look at the life of Jacob, he lived in total conflict.8:13Conflict. Look what it says in verse 6 and 7, the New Living Translation, Genesis chapter 32. The messenger returned to Jacob and said, We went to your brother Esau, and he is now coming to meet you with an army of 400 men. Jacob was terrified at the news. You see, he was in conflict with his brothers. I can't go back. So, what I'm going to do is flee.8:42I'm going to run. Now, he picks up his 11 kids and two wives. Why in the world do you have two wives? But that's a whole other sermon. Amen. He takes 11 kids and two wives and a herd of goat and sheep and cattle and all of that, and he's going to quietly leave town. Folks, let me tell you something. Listen, I got one wife and one son, and you can't leave town quietly. If you got 11 kids, two wives, and a herd of goats, you're not leaving quietly.9:07They know exactly where you're going to be. Can't go back home due to the conflict, as Jacob is saying. I can't go back because my brother and I are at odds with each other. But if I send some form of gift to him, maybe he will forget about all the stolen inheritance that I took. Maybe he'll forget that. Not a good result. Esau is coming for you. Not only is he coming for you, but he's bringing 400 of his friends along with him.9:37Folks, let me tell you something. When God can use conflict and will use conflicts to change us. One of the things he does during conflicts, when we are in the midst of that, if we are truly his children, he will use that conflict to do one thing. What? As a Christ follower, to draw us to his attention and to draw us to our knees. Amen? When I'm going through the most difficult situations in my own personal life, I find myself finding myself on my face before God.10:07Not running from God, but running to God. See, God changes us through conflicts. If I went back to week one and read the message truth of week one, it helps us understand this principle. Week one's message truth is this. Realizing that I am not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendencies to do the wrong thing, and my life is unmanageable.10:36Folks, when we come to that crisis, that moment right then, that we realize that we are in a conflict. That God Almighty is the only one that can resolve that. That is exactly what Matthew chapter 3 says. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Then Jacob prayed, O God, O Lord, I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you've shown me.11:06Save me, I pray, for I am afraid. You see, when I am going through the deepest conflicts, I fall on my face before God because I am afraid to go any other place. Some of us in this room. Some of us in this room want to deal with it our own way rather than letting God deal with it and letting God deal with it his way.11:30We see, we want to play God. So, God changes us through conflict. Secondly, God changes us through a crisis of belief. God changes us through a crisis of belief. Pick it up in chapter 32, verse 23 through 25. Now, I want you to think with me just for a second.11:57I don't know about you, but I'm not real crazy about wrestling another man. But, you know, this is interesting. They wrestled all night until dawn. That's got to be some long, I mean, that's getting up close and personal, isn't it?12:25I mean, wrestling until dawn. I just noticed that phrase, until dawn. That's a long time. When the man saw that he couldn't win the match, he struck Jacob's hip and knocked it out of joint at its socket. Now, I've had some joint issues lately, but part of that's my own just beat-up athlete, you know, over the years. Just taking hit after hit in football and those kinds of things.12:54And then trying to work out like I'm 25 years old again, and I pressured too much on my left knee and really messed it up. And come to find out after all the x-rays, it wasn't really the stress on the meniscus or even a tear, anything like that. It's just arthritis. That really bummed me out. I was hoping I was going to have to have that thing scoped because I could say, man, I had knee surgery on this thing. It was an athletic injury. No, it's because I'm old and decrepit.13:22And I felt like my knee's out of socket, right? Well, that's what he was doing. He couldn't win, and the guy just reached over and hit him in the hip and knocked his hip right out of socket. I want you to understand, God uses a crisis of belief to change us. I'm not just in conflict with others and even myself, but I am in a crisis, and I am wrestling with God. Jacob had been running all his life, and now he got caught between this rock and a hard place.13:51You know, let me tell you something. Gather in here close, brothers and sisters. Wrestling with God is not a bad thing. Wrestling with God is not a bad thing. You know why? Because you're up close and personal with God. When we are in a wrestling match with God, you say, wow, that's a little unspiritual. Well, let me tell you something. Jacob did it. Sometimes we need to understand that this crisis of belief, we need to get up, not all bad. When we're up close and personal with God, wrestling with him, that means we're not afar and estranged from him.14:21At least we're up close and personal. How do we know that it was God? How do we know it was God? Well, first of all, if you notice over in Hosea chapter 12, I did a cross-reference on this, and Hosea chapter 12 gives us the answer. In verse 3, look what it says. Before Jacob was born, he struggled with his brother, and when he became a man, the Bible says this, not me, not my words, but his words, he even fought with, say it with me, God.14:50The Bible tells us that he fought with God. So all of us as Christ followers at some point in time, we're going to come to that crisis of belief, amen? And we're going to get up close and personal, and we're going to wrestle with God. So God uses thus earnestly believing that God does exist. If we didn't believe that God exists, we would never have that ability or understanding that we're going to go through that wrestling match with him,15:20that I matter to God. He is crazy in love with us, and that he has the power to help me recover. Folks, let me tell you something. The real problem that we have financially, family, kids, marriage, name, the list, the gamut of things that we go through. The real problem, the real simple symptoms are that the struggling is with God. That's where it all starts. It's not starting with my husband would do what I tell him to do.15:50My kids would do what I tell them to do. No, it all starts with God. When we're right with God, everything. Now, I'm not saying it's going to be peaches and cream and everything is hallelujah and amen. Because they've got to get right with God as well. But you see, we will stand accountable for our own actions, not the actions of others. So, the problem stems and the symptoms are quite clear.16:16The crisis of belief is because we're struggling with God. In our own personal life, we need to think right now of all the problems that we're faced right now. And we need to ask ourselves this question. Will I trust God to take care of the situation or will I continue on like this path? Will I surrender to his lordship? I've wrestled with this idea for several years now and I've come to this understanding and I believe that I am completely correct when I say this.16:46I believe there are folk in this room today that are saved by his glorious grace. They know it beyond a shadow of doubt. If they died today, they would spend eternity in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ. They know beyond a shadow of doubt they are truly saved by his grace. But I also believe that there are some people in this room that could stand up and say that same statement, that I'm saved by his grace, but I am not surrendered to his lordship.17:08I believe there are some in this room today that cannot say that he is my Lord. He's my Savior, but he's not my Lord. Now, how can that happen? Because he's either Savior and Lord. I'm not saying that we're splitting the affinity of understanding who he really is. He is Savior and he is Lord, but we choose to make him Lord of our lives.17:36He's Lord. He is Lord. And the Bible says that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that one day, one day, every one of us will bow and say, Jesus Christ is Lord. That whack job in Oregon will kneel before the Lord and say, you're Lord.18:01I killed your children. You're Lord. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But I believe that there are some in this room today. You got to make that statement. You got to make that. You got to answer that question. Will you trust God today to take complete care of the situation?18:27And will you obey and do the things necessary, even if it doesn't make sense? Now, that's where it really bothers me right there. When I wrote that statement this week, even when it doesn't make sense, God, I like to have it all mapped out. I like to fashion myself as a strategic thinker. I like to think strategically. I have a master plan.18:56I'm working on the 2016 personal ministry plan for our director board. And I got all these things, these ideas. And then God put that in my heart today. And I say, wow, after 32 years, all these plans in person, you want me to say, even if it doesn't make sense, we're going to do it? Yeah. Absolutely. Let me just give you a prime example. This is free. Not part of the sermon. Just come out of my heart this morning, my quiet time. Our pastor search team is in the thick of it.19:26How many of y'all, I want you to be honest now. We're brothers and sisters here, right? We're family, right? How many of y'all prayed for them this week? Thank you for being honest. Thank you for those of you who didn't raise your hand for being honest. They are in the thick of it. I've served on three pastor search teams. It is the most difficult task I've ever been on in my life. It is. It's a tough job. You've entrusted these people to call the next pastor for this church.19:55Now, if we want to go out there and hire a preacher, I could hire you one the first day. But we're not hiring a preacher. We're calling a shepherd. And they are in the thick of it. And you have the privilege of being a part of it. Guess what? The privilege is you get to pray. They get to do all the work. Amen. That's a good deal right there.20:24I'm already praying so I can just add them to the list. It is imperative. I beg you that you pray like you've never prayed before. Because I have the privilege of being behind the wall. I have the privilege of being behind the curtain a little bit. Because I kind of know where they are in the process. Because I know where they are because they're kind of keeping me. They're not giving me all the information because I tell them I want a little bit of plausible deniability.20:51Because when y'all come up and ask me where they are, I can say, I don't know. I don't know everything. He's sitting right there. There's one over there. That's where they are. Where are you in the process? Have you prayed? They are in a very strategic spot. And they are searching diligently to find God's man. And sometimes it might not make sense. Let me give you a personal illustration.21:21The last team I served on was the church of Brook Hills. My home church. And we were searching to find a pastor who was our founding pastor of the church. Who took the church from 51 people to nearly 4,000 in 15 years. That's a pretty good growth span, would y'all say? I think God kind of blessed that somewhere along the way. When a great church just served a great Savior. And we happened to be in a pretty good growth area.21:48The community was kind of growing. So we had a lot of pluses going for us. But we had a pretty good church. Pretty good bunch of folks. People were hungry. They were going out there. Worship was great. We were singing about Jesus all the time. A lot of neat things were happening. And then he retires. Steps down. And then I get set on this team to find the next guy. And we start searching high, low. We did the survey. The survey said, we want one with 3.1 kids. He's got a pastor of church at least 1,500 in Sunday school.22:18We'd like for him to have this many degrees. We'd like for him to be this kind. We need him this age. Had all those neat things. Just like you did. And guess what? God sent us a 27-year-old. I said, we are about to get inundated with a bunch of hate mail. A 27-year-old. I even had state denominational leaders call me. Have y'all lost your mind? Yep.22:48Yep. Doesn't make sense, does it? I think it turned out pretty good for us. Now you say, why are you telling us this story? We've already heard this once before. I want to keep reiterating to you that whatever God leads, wherever God leads the men and women that you've entrusted to find the next senior pastor, it might not make sense. I don't know if it will or not. But let me tell you something. If we believe that Jesus Christ is Savior, and we say Jesus Christ is not only Savior, but he is our Lord, and he's Lord over this congregation, hallelujah, that it doesn't make sense.23:18Because the best is yet to come. You ain't seen nothing yet. I used to have to tell myself in the mirror every day that same thing when I was in there and said, wow, 27-year-old, we've lost our minds. And sometimes I still felt that way.23:49And he's one of my best buddies. David Platt's one of my best friends. I love that brother. Same question came up. Has IMB lost their mind? I don't know. But I trust the sovereign God that the trustees of the International Mission Board voted unanimously to pitch the keys of $350 million budget to Dr. David Platt to lead this missional organization well into the next 21st century.24:04Folks, let me tell you something. Sometimes it just don't make sense. So God changes us through a crisis of belief. We got to say, God, today, I will trust you.24:33The root of all our conflicts in our lives are because we want to be in charge. We rarely change until we come to the point of saying, uncle, let me up. No, not before I knock your hip out of socket. Folks, let me tell you something. God changes us through a crisis of belief. God changes us through conflict. Thirdly, God changes us when we make a total commitment to his care and his control.25:02His care and his control. Last week's message truth, I consciously choose to commit all my life and my will to Christ's care and control. My life and will to him. Completely surrendered to his lordship. Completely surrendered to his lordship. Genesis chapter 32, verse 26, then the man said, let me go, for it's dawn.25:29It's breakfast time. I need some oatmeal. Let's have some eggs and bacon. Jacob painted, I won't let go until you bless me. Notice what Romans chapter 6, verse 13 says. Look what this says. Don't let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life.25:57And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. Folks, delays are not denials. When God taps on the brakes and slows things down a bit, those are not denials. God will not let us up until he knows we're serious.26:26God is not a vending machine where we can drop some coins in there and get a Dolly Madison cake. God's not a vending machine to put some money in and he blesses us. We got to surrender to his total care and control. We didn't get into this mess overnight. It takes time. It's a process. It's a process. So let's trust the process.26:55Recovery of addiction is a process. Healing is a process. It's not one time event. It's a growth process. I had a phone call on my way to church this morning. Many of you have seen on the prayer list, one of my good friends who was in my wedding was seriously sick in Tennessee. He was at the point of death. Self-inflicted. Self-inflicted. Totally. Not that God put something on him. He just drank himself almost to death.27:24I've been witnessing to him for 32 years. In this past week, a breakthrough took place. He calls me on the phone. Two weeks ago, couldn't carry on a conversation with me. His brain was so swollen with alcohol, but they've just continued over the last two and a half months just to shrink his brain to medicines and strength. And God's total healing power has intervened in my friend Rex's life. And we carried on a conversation like we did 30 years ago.27:53He was coherent, understanding, asking me to come back and see him. He said, I want to make sure that I'm right with God. Folks, let me tell you something. It was a breakthrough. I said, we don't have to wait until I drive back to Tennessee. Let's do it now, Rex. And on Moody Parkway, driving to Bethel this morning, my friend Rex confessed his life to Christ today. It's a process.28:23It was a radical changing of his life today. But church, listen to me and listen to me good. There's a growth process about to happen in his life, spiritual growth process. If you're here today and you show up for the hour of sermon or the 45-minute sermon and the music that goes along with it, and you go away from this place and you're not growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ, it is on you.28:50It is not on me and the leadership. The way that you will grow is to be connected to a life group that is relevant teaching of God's Word so that you can grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Folks, growth is a process. Healing is a process. Recovery is a process. So God changes us through a total crisis of belief.29:18God changes us when we totally commit our lives to his lordship. Number four, God changes us once true confession is complete. Genesis chapter 32, verse 27. The man asked, what's your name? Jacob. He answered, Jacob. Church, listen to me. This is the breakthrough process right here. Listen to what that message truth should read. I openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.29:46Now, I don't know about you folks. I don't have any problem confessing them to God. How many of y'all have any problems confessing your sins before the Lord? Right, we all do. We don't mind doing that, right? To ourselves, we say, man, I got this situation going on. I got this sin in my life. I confess it to myself. It's that someone else that we don't want to do that to, right? We don't want to be that open book to someone else, do we not?30:17Folks, let me tell you something. We've got to come to that point in our lives where confession really becomes a reality in our life. It's that breakthrough. Why did God ask his name? Because he wanted Jacob to admit that he was a deceiver, that he was a manipulator, that he was a liar, that he was a proudful person. He was gossip, a warrior, an addict, whatever the name might be.30:41Ours is maybe bitter. Ours may be it's all about me. Ours might be I have an angry temper name. Lust, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You see, God wants us to confess openly to him, our faults to ourselves and to him, but to someone else as well. That is that breakthrough. That is that confession. Confession leads to a total transformation.31:09It clears blurred vision. Confession happens when we see our sin like God sees our sin. When God looks down and sees us like Isaiah, woe is me for I am a man of uncleanness. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Peter, Lord, I doubted your power, Luke chapter 5. I doubted that you we could fish in the middle of the daytime, but you said let down the nets and we enclose this great quantity of fish. When I stop making excuses and stop blaming myself and others and people that I love and the church that I'm attending, when I stop blaming and start taking responsibility, I'll start realizing true confession in my own personal life.31:37We've got to come to that point where we've got to stop realization or rationalizing our own life. And I start to become honest with God and I start being honest with myself and honest with those that love me the most and start being honest with my church.32:07I will realize conversion process and begin the healing process comes thereafter. Church, this is probably the most important principle in the entire sermon. God changes us through total confession of our faith. Not just declaring it in front of the people here today and walking away leaving the same way. By the way, if you think you're going to get all you need spiritually from this pulpit or your life group and not do anything else the rest of the week, it's like having this huge banquet on Sunday and then not eating another bite the rest of the week.32:35Six and a half days, you're going to go without any food. And I'm wondering why that is when it's ready available to you. You say, well, I don't have enough copy of God's words. We can get those. We can download those on your phone for you. Multiple copies if you need them.33:05So you not getting the nourishment is not anybody's fault but yours. You've got to confess that completely. Finally, and finally, God changes us through total conversion experience. Total conversion. When conversion process starts, a new identity will happen. A new identity. Pick it back up in Genesis chapter 32, verse 28.33:33Then the man said, your name will no longer be Jacob. Now, how the audacity of this. His name was Jacob for all these years and now he's changing it. And Bill, he's changing it to a name that meant something. Meant something. Radical conversion experience took place. Your name will be called Israel. Then he blessed him there.34:01Jacob called the place Peniel and saying, it is because I saw God face to face. When we come face to face with God, a radical conversion takes place. And a radical conversion experience happens. Go back to that moment when you confessed your sin and you invited him into your life.34:26I talked to one of my mentors this week. I called him up and I said, I'm preaching on this. And I'm talking about this conversion experience when God changed the conversion. But I said, brother, sometimes I just feel like I'm not face to face. He said, go back to where you were saved. Go back mentally and spiritually in your heart where you were saved. Tell me again when that was, Dan. April 1971, First Baptist Trustful.34:54Junior in high school, terrible football player on a horrible football team. Youth day that day. And all of a sudden I came to that crisis of belief. Understanding I was lost without a savior. I had religion without the relationship. And I came to faith in Christ in that moment. And my heart welled up that moment when we were on the phone this week. And Dr. Hill said, Dan, then always keep that ever mindful. That conversion experience.35:22Matthew 5 verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Folks, you are not hungry and thirsting for righteousness. You are probably not saved by his grace. If you are not hungry and thirsting for righteousness, you will not be satisfied until you confess your sins and invite him and have that total conversion experience. The sun rose up and Jacob left and he was limping because of his hip. Let me give you the last principle.35:51The last principle. God changes us through a total conversion experience. I voluntarily submit to every change that God wants to make in my life. And humbly ask him to remove any, any, any character defects that might be. Maybe you've got it. It's my way or the highway. Maybe you've got it that it's my church. We do it my way. I had a young pastor call me this week.36:20Broke my heart. He was in a committee meeting. Committee meeting at church. And he said to me, he said, one of our supposedly spiritual leaders of our church, she looked at me. She said, my generation gives all the money so we should have all the say. His heart was broken. She said, I give all the money so we should have all the say of what goes on at this church.36:51I told him, I said, brother, I am so sorry that you're serving in a self-centered congregation. Send me your resume. He said, no, God's not done with me here. I just need you to pray with me because I want to love her. And I want her to see Jesus in my very life. And maybe, just maybe, there will be a conversion in her life.37:22I said, brother, I will join you in prayer. Give me her first name. And we put her on our prayer list to pray. I'm praying that she just misspoke. I'm praying her heart was wrong for just a moment there. And that sometime today, as he preaches through the gospel of John, there will be a unique experience in her life. Folks, if there's anybody in this room today, listen to me, and listen to me good.37:49If you think it's your church, you are completely wrong. It's not my church. It's not your church. It's his church. It's Christ's church. And he anoints those that he asked to lead. And as he anoints them, he also holds them doubly accountable. And folks, whenever you do call the next senior pastor, he is not the second coming. He's the next shepherd to lead this church, to present the next second coming of Jesus Christ.38:18And he will make mistakes. But it's not your church. It's his church. And we have the privilege of representing him through his church called Bethel Baptist Church. When God does the deepest work in my life and in your life, he does the deepest work in our identity, our character, and our integrity.38:48He changes our identity. He changes our course. He changes the way we think. We start acting according to the way we see him. When we see him, we will act like Isaiah. We will act like Peter. Whoa! Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man. And what did Jesus do in Luke chapter 5?39:16He reached down and he grabbed Simon Peter. He said, Simon Barjona, from henceforth, thou shalt catch men alive. Church, when we start realizing our hunger and our thirst for righteousness, we will be satisfied in him. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they we will be filled.39:46Therefore, Paul said, if there is any man in Christ Jesus is a new creation. The old has passed away. All things have become new. Submit to the change that God wants to make in my life and humbly ask him to remove any character defects that might need to be removed.40:09Let's pray. Let's pray.More sermons on Genesis →
