SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning, before we turn to the word, I want to show you a pattern that's been turning over in my heart for a couple of months now.
SPEAKER_00: A pattern of transformation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you my message in just a couple of minutes, out the gate.
SPEAKER_00: Don't nobody leave yet.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to unpack this for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because I believe, honestly, with everything inside of me, that what God is stirring in my heart is prophetic for you today.
SPEAKER_00: That this is a pattern of transformation we see God using throughout scripture to bring his people to the place of purpose.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys know you've got a purpose?
SPEAKER_00: There's a destiny upon your life.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, David in Psalms 139 says, before a day of yours came into being, God ordained, He destined, He purposed every one of them.
SPEAKER_00: There are no such things as accidents in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's a purpose, and there's this pattern that God's been stirring in my heart for a couple of months that I've been processing and trying to get my handle on.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a pattern and a process of transformation that brings the people of God to the place of purpose so that they can step into the destiny that He has for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I just I'm telling you, I just sense this deep in my spirit that many of you are at the precipice of your purpose.
SPEAKER_00: That you're you're at at about you're about at the place where you're getting ready to step into the destiny of God in a way like you've never stepped into it before.
SPEAKER_00: Like there, I feel the moment is saturated with his anointing.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's getting ready to launch you into something that you've prayed about, dreamed about, and maybe even beyond anything you've ever imagined.
SPEAKER_00: And in the process of transformation that we see in scripture is this biblical pattern.
SPEAKER_00: And it's and it's very simple.
SPEAKER_00: It's that the glory of God reveals the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say glory reveals goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And the goodness of God reclaims affection.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say goodness reclaims affection.
SPEAKER_00: Like that all of a sudden, when we see the goodness of God active in our life, there's a the love of God begins to take root in our life in a way like we've never known.
SPEAKER_00: And when that affection begins to take root, it releases his authority in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Say affection releases authority.
SPEAKER_00: And when that authority is released, it restores our assignment.
SPEAKER_00: That when the authority is released, it's not just to make us feel better, it's to launch us into the very purpose of God for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I feel like many of you are this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The pattern we see throughout scripture, I'm gonna walk us through this this morning, and I'm gonna walk us through it using Isaiah chapter 60.
SPEAKER_00: So if you would stand with me where you are this morning and turn to Isaiah chapter 60, we're gonna read verses 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 60 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet declares, Arise and shine, for your light has come.
SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine for your light has come.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of the Lord rises upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just prophetically declare over you this morning that the glory of the Lord is rising upon you today?
SPEAKER_00: That the light of the glory of the King is rising upon you in new, fresh, and wonderful ways.
SPEAKER_00: See, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the people.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord rises upon you, and his glory appears over you.
SPEAKER_00: Can I declare it doesn't matter how dark it looks around you, the glory of God always displaces the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Darkness is around you, it covers you, but the glory, the glory of the Lord rises upon you and appears over you.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this, verse 3 nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your eyes and look around you.
SPEAKER_00: Your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on your hip.
SPEAKER_00: Can I declare over you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: If you have prodigals in your life, prodigals in your family, they're coming home in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will look and be radiant.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart will throb and swell with joy, and the wealth of the seas will be brought to you.
SPEAKER_00: To you, the riches of the nations shall come.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is God's word, and the title of my message this morning is simply this: Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Say that after me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your neighbor and say, Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to your other neighbor and say, Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Turn around the person behind you and say it's time to rise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your word this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path.
SPEAKER_00: Shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, Lord, this morning, we would not just be hearers of your word, but we would be doers of it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Caleb, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning I want to begin with a confession.
SPEAKER_00: Because confession is good for the soul.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys know confession is good for the soul?
SPEAKER_00: Like saying you're sorry to your spouse is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a second.
SPEAKER_00: You said you responded resoundingly that confession is good for your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Then when I said you repent to your spouse, I got nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, let's try that a minute.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys know saying sorry to your spouse is is not admitting defeat, it's actually laying the foundation for your future.
SPEAKER_00: That'll preach.
SPEAKER_00: That was totally the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's not in my notes at all.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody needed to hear that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Confession is good for the soul.
SPEAKER_00: I have a few things that the Lord is dealing with me about that that are kind of like pet peeves that bother me more than they should.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody have anything in your life like that that it bothers you more than it should?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody, well, I think there's about a third of you are going to heaven, the rest of y'all going to hell.
SPEAKER_00: Because we all have some things that that can get under our skin and irritate us more than they should.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you, I'll give you a couple of examples.
SPEAKER_00: Um, like like people who don't use a turn signal.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the car.
SPEAKER_00: Which means it's supposed to be used.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an amen in the house this morning?
SPEAKER_00: How about this one?
SPEAKER_00: You're in the parking lot of the grocery store, and and there's a shopping cart that's like three spaces from where it's supposed to go, and somebody just left it there.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like pushing it three more spaces to the spot that it was designed to go to was just more than what they could do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, seriously, was it that much?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, was it that much more difficult?
SPEAKER_00: Or or somebody who puts a lid on something but doesn't screw it down all the way?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's a special place in hell reserved for those people.
SPEAKER_00: If you put the lid on it, screw it down.
SPEAKER_00: Because if somebody comes and they didn't see you, just set the lid on it and not screw it down.
SPEAKER_00: And you pick it up, it's gonna spill all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: So screw the lid down.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know what I'm talking about this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Um or or this one really like you're in a public restroom and somebody just walks out without washing their hands.
SPEAKER_00: It's all I can do to not walk out and yell, they didn't do it! They didn't they didn't wash their hands.
SPEAKER_00: It's anybody am I preaching to anybody yet this morning that has some things the Lord is working on you or or this one really bothers me?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who chomps their food, eats with their mouth open.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to see it.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe the two worst, I'm sorry, I'm just this is what God's dealing with me about.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the the two worst are I'm in a store and I'm working with an attendant, and the store phone rings, and they they pick up the phone while they're talking to me and begin a conversation with somebody else, and I'm standing right here, and just totally ignore me, or or maybe something a little bit more relatable is that you're having coffee with somebody, you're having dinner with somebody, or you're having a conversation with somebody, and conversations going on, and the and the phone buzzes, and they stop everything that they're doing with you and pick up the phone and disengage in the conversation and start scrolling and start responding and start just ignoring you, and the next thing you know, you're talking to somebody, the side of somebody's head.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, it just got real quiet in here.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I I used to think this was uh rude.
SPEAKER_00: It may still be that way a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Um, or I used to think that it was a lack of discipline, but I'm coming to realize that the pull of these devices, the pull, you know, these things have a pull on you.
SPEAKER_00: The pull of these devices is the product of some of the most sophisticated behavioral engineering that has ever been created in human history.
SPEAKER_00: That these things have been created to win your affection.
SPEAKER_00: They've been created to want you to keep coming back to them.
SPEAKER_00: They've been designed by psychologists and engineers to cause you to want differently.
SPEAKER_00: Not think differently, want differently.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why that's important.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever wins what you love wins what you keep coming back to.
SPEAKER_00: We have been been sold a line that isn't quite true.
SPEAKER_00: We we've been told that the fight of this generation is over truth.
SPEAKER_00: The fight isn't over truth, it's over what you love the most.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, If you love me, you'll do what I say.
SPEAKER_00: See, the fight isn't over truth, the fight is over what has your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because what has your heart, what has your love, is what keeps continually drawing you back to it over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Previous generations fought temptation, but this generation, hear me, is being discipled by algorithms that shape desire and advertising that forms worship.
SPEAKER_00: The fight that we are facing today is a fight over what we love the most.
SPEAKER_00: And what we love the most is what we keep coming back to over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hold that thought.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to go back with me 2,500 years to Isaiah chapter 60, the passage that we read this morning was written to a people that had just returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity.
SPEAKER_00: After 70 years in Babylonian exile, God moves upon a pagan king by the name of Cyrus the Great, and all of a sudden there's this divinely inspired idea that he needs to send the Jewish people back to their homeland, back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And so he releases a decree in a moment that shifts everything for a people, and they return to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But this is not a triumphant return.
SPEAKER_00: The people that return to Jerusalem on one hand are excited to be back in the promised land, but on the other hand, the promised land is broken.
SPEAKER_00: The walls of Jerusalem lay in rubble.
SPEAKER_00: The temple is destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: The economy is in shambles, and faith hangs by a thread.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, in Isaiah chapter 58, leading up to this declaration in Isaiah 60, and in chapter 58, God rebukes the people for empty faith.
SPEAKER_00: And then in chapter 59, he catalogs their sins and concludes that there is no one capable.
SPEAKER_00: There is no one capable of setting things right in the land.
SPEAKER_00: And God does something unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: God does something miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: God does something that we don't expect.
SPEAKER_00: Just because there's no one capable of setting things right, God doesn't discard them and say, I'll start over.
SPEAKER_00: No, God says, I will now step forward and do for them what they could not do for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else thankful that we serve a God that just doesn't discard us when we haven't done right?
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, he steps up to get us right.
SPEAKER_00: That's the God that we serve, isn't it a God that says, yeah, I know you've not been the best, I know you've made some mistakes, I know you've failed, I know you've made some bad decisions, and I know the situation, the circumstance looks bleak.
SPEAKER_00: But I am a God who loves to redeem and restore my people.
SPEAKER_00: And so into this very broken, battered people, a battered uh people that are discouraged, they're they're dust-covered, they're disappointed, into this moment, God steps forward and says, I will arise and be for you what you cannot.
SPEAKER_00: And that connects with us today.
SPEAKER_00: See, the glory of God doesn't rise on Zion because Zion has earned it or finally got itself together.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God rises because God says, I am the one who will be faithful to my people even when they've been unfaithful.
SPEAKER_00: We were just singing about there's no other name, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, there's nobody like our God church.
SPEAKER_00: In both the moments, both in the exiles who returning to a broken down city, and this algorithm disciple generation that we live in today, I believe God is saying the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: I believe God is saying, enough is enough.
SPEAKER_00: What you can't do for yourselves, I'm going to do because I'm faithful to my word, and if nobody else will fulfill it, I will fulfill it.
SPEAKER_00: So the time is now to arise and step into your destiny.
SPEAKER_00: See, the promise of scripture is that God will arise and bring healing in his wings.
SPEAKER_00: And that when our affections have been reclaimed by God, it moves us into the assignment that he has for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to walk you through this biblical pattern this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the glory of God, the glory of God always reveals the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God throughout Scripture always reveals his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verses one and two.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Arise and shine, for your light has come.
SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, who is this people?
SPEAKER_00: This is a broken people, this is a discouraged people, this is a people that haven't earned it, they haven't deserved it, they've not worked their way back to it.
SPEAKER_00: No, God says, in spite of where you are, I am arising to move you into the listen, we can't do this on our own, church.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot fulfill the purpose of God for your life in your ability.
SPEAKER_00: You can't be good enough, you can't be smart enough, you can't be talented enough, you can't earn it, you can't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: All you can do is respond to his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he is saying here.
SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine, for your light has come.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of the Lord rises upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the people.
SPEAKER_00: But in spite of that, I'm gonna rise upon you, and my glory is gonna appear over you.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Stop trying to earn it or deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: Just respond to what God's already doing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: We live with such a merit-based mentality that we have to earn everything, that we have to deserve everything, that we we we have to do all the right things to get the right result.
SPEAKER_00: I have come to understand my good works aren't enough to produce his glory.
SPEAKER_00: But we live with that mentality.
SPEAKER_00: If I do X, Y, and Z, then I get what I'm looking for.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: What God is saying here, He's saying, I'm going to arise and that my glory will bring you.
SPEAKER_00: To your destiny.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is the pattern we see throughout scripture.
SPEAKER_00: If you go all the way back to the book of Exodus, where Moses said, God, show me your glory.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that God said in Exodus 33, 18, I will make my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say goodness.
SPEAKER_00: My goodness pass before you.
SPEAKER_00: So get this connection.
SPEAKER_00: Moses asked for the glory, and God revealed his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the connection?
SPEAKER_00: So whenever the glory of God shows up, it is a reflection of his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And when his goodness shows up, it always reclaims our destiny.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happened.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about what happened when God's glory appeared to Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: When God's glory appeared to Abraham, a name and a future changed.
SPEAKER_00: A childless wanderer became the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_00: When God's glory showed up, the goodness of God shifted his name and his future.
SPEAKER_00: You were a childless wonder.
SPEAKER_00: Now you're become the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's goodness, church.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing Abram could have deserved.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing that he could have earned.
SPEAKER_00: All he could do was respond to God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in Jacob's life.
SPEAKER_00: When you study scripture and you find out about Jacob, Jacob was a liar, Jacob was a deceiver.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob was not one of the best character people in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But when he encountered God's glory, God changed his name from Jacob, which means deceiver, to Israel, which means one in relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: God's glory revealed his goodness that shifted his destiny.
SPEAKER_00: When God's glory appeared to Moses on the mountain, it wasn't just a destiny being reclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: An entire nation's future was rescued from wilderness wandering.
SPEAKER_00: Every time God's glory shows up in Scripture, it just doesn't just tell us who God is, it redirects us to who we are becoming.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you this morning have already disqualified yourself.
SPEAKER_00: My time has run out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you this morning, it's never too late for the glory of God to reclaim a destiny.
SPEAKER_00: It's never too late for the glory of God to reclaim a destiny and redirect you towards his purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, church, is that we want things to happen on our time, but our time is rarely, if ever, God's time.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: God is sovereign over the timing of things, and when the timing is right, he reveals his glory, and his glory absolutely shows us his goodness, and that goodness reclaims and redirects our destiny.
SPEAKER_00: So glory doesn't ask you to earn a destiny, it reveals a goodness that redirects one.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: The time has come to arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: The time has come to step into the destiny that God has for your life.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose that he had in the beginning when he knit you together in your mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: When he was forming you and making you and everything that you've been through, God is preparing to launch you into his destiny, launch you into his plans, launch you into the dreams that he deposited in your life years, maybe even decades ago.
SPEAKER_00: He's getting ready.
SPEAKER_00: Everything has been a preparation up to this moment.
SPEAKER_00: You can't earn it, you can't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: All you can do is see it and step into it.
SPEAKER_00: And I challenge you this morning, stop disqualifying yourself for the call that is upon your life and step into his purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because his glory has come.
SPEAKER_00: His glory has arrived.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, when this happens, when God reveals his goodness, his goodness always, always reclaims our affection.
SPEAKER_00: His goodness wins our heart.
SPEAKER_00: It wins our love once more.
SPEAKER_00: And if he has our heart, he has everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 60, verses 3 and 5.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet says, Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will look and be radiant.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart will throb and swell with joy.
SPEAKER_00: The wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to the riches of the nations will come.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, look, look, look back at verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Nations will come to you like kings to the brightness of your domain.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the pattern here is that nations will come.
SPEAKER_00: Nations come not because they're conquered, not because they're persuaded, not because they're manipulated.
SPEAKER_00: They come like a moth to the flame of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: See, God's goodness always attracts people to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, nations are going to see the goodness of God, and nations are going to see, can I tell you this morning that as you begin to step into the destiny of God for your life, people are going to see the goodness of God on you and they're going to be attracted to you and ask what's different about you?
SPEAKER_00: And all you have to say, it's the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: See, see, when his goodness begins to reclaim your purpose and your heart begins to swell with joy for who he is and what's doing and what he's doing in your life, people are going to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Nations are going to take note and they're going to start coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: What's different about you?
SPEAKER_00: Why is that happening for you?
SPEAKER_00: And it serves as an opportunity to tell people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been praying, God, give me an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: When I'm getting ready to tell you, His goodness is going to give you the opportunity that you've been praying for to tell people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see happening here.
SPEAKER_00: God saying, My goodness is coming on you.
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes on you, I'm not just going to win your heart, I'm going to win others' hearts through you.
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew phrase, swell with joy, literally means your heart shall be enlarged.
SPEAKER_00: See, when God's goodness is revealed to you, it doesn't just change your behavior.
SPEAKER_00: It changes your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And can I tell you the greatest transformation we need in our lives is not behavioral modification, it's heart transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Because what has your heart has your life.
SPEAKER_00: What you love most is what you continually come back to first.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: So God's goodness reclaims a love for him that causes everything else to fade.
SPEAKER_00: It's why that I don't think the fight of this generation is over truth because truth doesn't cause you to keep coming back, but a love will.
SPEAKER_00: I remember years ago when Meg and I were dating.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, baby, I'm not going to be too personal.
SPEAKER_00: I know this.
SPEAKER_00: My love for her kept causing me to go back to her.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we may need to do a marriage conference or something up in here.
SPEAKER_00: That what you love, you keep coming back to.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually what you love will change who you are.
SPEAKER_00: We focus, in my opinion, way too much on behaving the right way.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, behavior takes care of itself when you love the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: I remember years ago I had a friend of mine that was not raised in a Christian home and lived like it.
SPEAKER_00: And he got saved as a young adult, and there were some friends around him that started telling, gave him, literally wrote down on a piece of paper about a bazillion things that he had to stop doing.
SPEAKER_00: They had great intentions, but they were way off the mark.
SPEAKER_00: You got to change how you do this, you got to change how you do that, you gotta change, you gotta change, you gotta change.
SPEAKER_00: And and he almost turned from the faith because it was too much to handle at one time.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody know what I'm talking about this morning?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, throw that away.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to read your Bible looking for Jesus, I want you to pray to Jesus, I want you to worship to Jesus, I want you to fall in love with Jesus, because if you fall in love with Jesus, everything else will take care of itself.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, he he he he grew up and he loved rock and roll music, and so one of the things they told him, you gotta stop listening to rock and roll music.
SPEAKER_00: And and so he tried right out the gate, and and it was really hard.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Don't worry about it, it'll take care of itself.
SPEAKER_00: Just love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so he started loving Jesus, and you know what happened?
SPEAKER_00: His appetite for music changed when he loved Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And now instead of listening to rock and roll, he's starting to listen to worship music.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because his love changed.
SPEAKER_00: See, when the goodness of God captures our affection, everything else takes care of itself.
SPEAKER_00: How about church?
SPEAKER_00: We do something radical and just fall in love with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read our Bible not for a new lesson.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read our Bible not for a new principle.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read our Bible looking to fall in love with Jesus and the wonder of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Because when he has your heart, he has everything else.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the interesting thing is the world is after your heart to sell you something, but God is after your heart to give you himself.
SPEAKER_00: See, the algorithms that are written into these things that are after your heart are written in such a way because they want to sell you something else.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you, this is written for one reason, and that is to give himself to you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's fall in love with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because when that happens, it changes everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, affection.
SPEAKER_00: See, when when a when God's goodness reclaims our affection, affection releases his authority in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 11 in Isaiah chapter 60.
SPEAKER_00: This is a crazy verse.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet declares over the people of God, a day is coming when your gates will always stand open.
SPEAKER_00: They will never be shut day or night.
SPEAKER_00: So that people may bring you the wealth of the nations, the kings led in triumphal procession.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now remember that your gates will stand open.
SPEAKER_00: They will never be shut.
SPEAKER_00: This this is written, church, to a people that don't even have walls.
SPEAKER_00: This is written to a people that have been conquered over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: This is written to a people that that is insecure.
SPEAKER_00: They're written to a people that that that is don't know how to be secure in who they are because everyone and everything has been after them to conquer them all their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so the idea that the gates will stand open is unthinkable in a city that has been conquered its entire time.
SPEAKER_00: But this isn't military carelessness, it's a picture of a people whose hearts are securely fixed in Jesus that nothing else can compete with it.
SPEAKER_00: Your gates will be continually open.
SPEAKER_00: How can I live like that, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How how can our city live like that?
SPEAKER_00: Because when you're in love with me, I'm your defender.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're I'm for you, it doesn't matter who's against you.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: When he's for us, it doesn't matter who's against us.
SPEAKER_00: See, when he has your heart, what he's saying is, you're gonna be so securely mine that nothing's gonna compete with me for you.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a release of authority to fulfill God's purpose for our life.
SPEAKER_00: Remember this story in the old test or in the New Testament where Peter failed.
SPEAKER_00: He failed Jesus and betrayed him, disowned him three times, and the rooster crows, and he runs away.
SPEAKER_00: Cooking some fish, and they come to Jesus, and Jesus asks Peter three times, do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love me?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Then feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, feed my lambs.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice that Jesus didn't ask about Peter's competence, he asked about his love.
SPEAKER_00: See, affection always precedes authority.
SPEAKER_00: Affection always goes before authority.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, then feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I've given you the authority to do what I've loved me, I'm releasing you to do what I've called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, then go do what I've been training you to do for the last three and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, then quit whining about the mistakes that you've made and step into the authority that I have for you so that you can do what I've called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: See, see, see, affection always precedes authority.
SPEAKER_00: And when affection is fixed in Jesus, there's a release of authority to do what God has called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: See, authority isn't a technique we learn.
SPEAKER_00: It's what happens when love is restored.
SPEAKER_00: I'm concerned that too much of our Bible reading and our strategies and discipleship in the church today are about looking for prescriptions to get the results that we want, and we miss the heart and love behind them.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean is we read scripture looking for a pattern to miracles and miss the pattern of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, authority isn't some technique that we learn.
SPEAKER_00: Authority comes out of a love relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, if you abide in me, if you love me, in John chapter 15, verse 7, if you love me, if you abide in me, you can ask me whatever you want and it will be done for you.
SPEAKER_00: See, maybe the difference in our prayers needs to come out of a technique and into a love.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, you'll obey.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me and abide in me, you can ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.
SPEAKER_00: Stop.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you this, church, stop reading this for principles to live by and start reading it as a love letter from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, it changes everything else in your life.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't something, I'm gonna step on some toes.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't something that you add to your life.
SPEAKER_00: It is the replacement for your life that I want to love him.
SPEAKER_00: I want to walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: I want him to be the first thing on my mind in the morning, in the last thing that I think about in the night, in everything in the middle of the day.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you be my life and my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: See, when you live that way, all of a sudden there's an authority to bind and to lose, to speak and to declare, to heal and to deliver.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you've got some kind of technique, but because Jesus is so ingrained in who you are.
SPEAKER_00: There's a release of his authority in your life to build his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: See, we need affection to release authority.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, number four, as the team comes to the stage, we're gonna have a moment of prayer here at the end together this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Authority restores assignment.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18 of Isaiah chapter 60.
SPEAKER_00: It says, No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders.
SPEAKER_00: Get this, but your your walls will be called salvation, and your gates, praise.
SPEAKER_00: Your walls will be called salvation, and your gates praise.
SPEAKER_00: This is a city that isn't just rebuilt or rescued.
SPEAKER_00: It's a city that has been renamed according to God's design and plan.
SPEAKER_00: Your gates shall be called praise, your walls, salvation.
SPEAKER_00: The very architecture of the city carries the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just a recovery of language, it's a recovery of an assignment that God had in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: You read in Genesis chapters one and two the assignment on man was fill the earth and subdue it, extend my kingdom throughout the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And what God is saying here is then when my authority has been released because I have your heart, there's a purpose, there's a destiny, there's an assignment on your life that is restored, and you begin to walk in the manifest purpose of God for your life, which is to extend his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's our purpose, church.
SPEAKER_00: So, what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20, says that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation, that we have been made his ambassadors, as if God is releasing his kingdom through us.
SPEAKER_00: See, see, your purpose isn't just to be successful, your purpose isn't just to raise good kids, your purpose isn't just to accumulate wealth or things.
SPEAKER_00: Your purpose as a follower of Jesus is to extend his kingdom in the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are, that you are an extension of God to your workplace, you're an extension of God to your family, you're an extension of God to this church, you're an extension of God everywhere you go, that wherever you walk and Jesus is walking with you, you're bringing the King and His kingdom to bear upon those places.
SPEAKER_00: That's our assignment, and that assignment is only restored.
SPEAKER_00: When we've been given authority based on our love relationship with Him as a result of a revelation of His goodness in our lives, we step out into something new.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do that, God says, Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Can I speak that over you prophetically this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: His glory has come.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about what you weren't able to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna do it for you.
SPEAKER_00: Arise and shine.
SPEAKER_00: Will you get on your feet with me this morning?
SPEAKER_00: I just have a couple of questions in response today.
SPEAKER_00: And my first question is this.
SPEAKER_00: What has your heart?
SPEAKER_00: What has your affection this morning?
SPEAKER_00: What is the thing in your life that keeps drawing you back to it?
SPEAKER_00: What is the thing that is competing with your love for Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because whatever is competing with your love for Jesus is a wall in front of the destiny of God for your life.
SPEAKER_00: And it has to come down.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing that God asked Abraham after he had given him Isaac, the promised child.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that God said, I want you to take your son, the one you love, and go sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Isaac had begun to compete with his love for God.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever competes with our love for God stands in the way of the destiny of God for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So what has your heart today?
SPEAKER_00: What has your affection?
SPEAKER_00: With every head bowed and every eye closed this morning, just across the congregation.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would say, as you said that, Pastor, there is something that came to my mind immediately.
SPEAKER_00: And I know exactly what that thing is.
SPEAKER_00: If that's you, we just raise your hand right where you stand.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Hands going up.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: There's something competing with your love for Jesus that's standing in the way of his destiny for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, speak to every heart today.
SPEAKER_00: Speak to every life.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal to us, Lord, what's in the way.
SPEAKER_00: What's standing in the way of the assignment that you have for our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, reveal that right now in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal it to every heart and every life.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's little or big, it does not matter.
SPEAKER_00: God, what's in the way?
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for speaking.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask my prayer team to join me to my left and to my right this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The worship team is going to lead us in a song here at the end of service today.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that we are to lay things at the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Things that are getting in our way, that we're to come and we're to sacrifice them, we're to lay them upon the altar.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the best ways that we do that is through praying with friends and family members of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes laying something down that we love isn't easy.
SPEAKER_00: And we need somebody to agree with us in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That it's broken, it's laid down, and we're never coming back to it.
SPEAKER_00: And if you raise your hand this morning, and many of you did, and even if you didn't raise your hand, but you feel the tug of the Holy Spirit, I want you to take a step of faith in just a moment to come and pray with one of our prayer team members because we want to agree with you that affection is restored.
SPEAKER_00: That the love of Jesus would be first and foremost in your life so that you can begin to walk in the assignment that He has for your life.
SPEAKER_00: You just stretch your hands towards heaven and say, Jesus, I love you today.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I love you today.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, forgive me for allowing things to get between me and you.
SPEAKER_00: God, forgive me for allowing things to compete with my love for you.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, today I lay those things down, whatever it may be, big or small, does not matter if it's in between me and you, it's a big thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, we lay those things down at your feet and we this morning reaffirm today.
SPEAKER_00: We we set our hearts again on things above and not below and declare, we love you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We love you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, God, for your goodness.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your glory, God.
SPEAKER_00: God, we come back to your heart today afresh and anew.
SPEAKER_00: If you raised your hand this morning and you need prayer, I want you to step out of your seat right now.
SPEAKER_00: Come to one of our prayer team members.
SPEAKER_00: Move, don't wait, don't delay.
SPEAKER_00: Move right now.
SPEAKER_00: People are already moving.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God, move.
SPEAKER_00: I pray God would move upon your heart this morning, right now.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to restore a love relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's move.
SPEAKER_00: Let's worship this morning.