New Life Equals New Perspective

0 (1s): We got some worshipers ready in the room, man. I love it. Let's all stand together around campus. If you're able to hello to everyone who's watching from home, we welcome you. It's good to be together. Harvest Church and worship the Lord together this morning. So thanks for being with us wherever you're watching or tuning in. 1 (22s): Let's 0 (22s): Just take a moment and center our hearts on him this morning. Would you pray with me before? 1 (28s): Okay. 0 (31s): We just ask for your presence to be in our midst, or we know that when we gather in your name, you promise to come. And so we just make space for you this morning in our hearts and our homes in this place. So come and have your way. Holy spirit. 1 (49s): We welcome you. We want you need you. Let me choose to praise you this morning. Tap 0 (58s): Into the well that never runs dry. 1 (1m 2s): Meet us in 0 (1m 3s): This place this morning. We love you Lord in Jesus 1 (1m 5s): Name. Amen. 1 (1m 9s): yes. 1 (10m 19s): We just declare your praise this morning. Thank you for everything you've done for us. Thank you. That you're the guy who makes a way through the desert pathways through the sea. For us. You are here. You are here working in this place. 1 (10m 58s): you were here. 1 (11m 8s): 0 (11m 57s): I in the dark. Oh my God. 1 (12m 1s): 0 (13m 56s): I don't see it to work. And even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop and never stop work. And it never stopped. He never stopped. Or even when I don't see it Joburg even may not feel it again. You never stop. You never stop. You never stop in 1 (14m 23s): yes. 1 (16m 17s): That's our guy. Thank you. Jesus. Put our hope in you. God. When everything else is shifting sand, we know 0 (16m 28s): That we can depend on you. We can lean into 1 (16m 30s): You. You are our hope, our foundation. 0 (16m 40s): Thank you for your presence here. Just pray that there wouldn't be any heart. Leave this place without knowing your love, knowing your healing, knowing your reading 1 (16m 50s): Damn shit, your freedom, your mercy. Let it flow through our hearts. Today. We 0 (17m 0s): All stand in need of a savior this 1 (17m 3s): Morning. Thank you. And we 0 (17m 6s): Can receive the gift that you gave so freely. 1 (17m 11s): You don't have to jump through hoops. We just have to receive it. 0 (17m 17s): So the receive the love of the father today, 1 (17m 26s): Maybe 0 (17m 27s): Some of you this morning that just really need that word. Just receive the love of the father. 1 (17m 35s): he loves, he loves you completely 0 (17m 46s): Not because of what you've done. Just you're his sons and daughters, sons and daughters. Yes. So we do receive your lap this morning. Thank you for your presence here. We don't take it for granted. When you come and you meet with us, you speak to our hearts, that manna for today that our soul desperately needs. And we look forward to these times. We get to be together in your presence as brothers and sisters and be reminded of your faithfulness towards us. 0 (18m 31s): Amen. Amen. So good family to worship together. Let's take a few moments just to greet someone around you and say hello. We're going to be back here in just a few moments with some announcements that stick around. 2 (18m 48s): Hi. Good morning. Good morning. 0 (18m 56s): Good morning. Church 2 (18m 60s): All right. You guys are routing today. Y'all rowdy. All right. If you guys can take a seat. Hello. Church my name is Jeremy. I'm one of the pastors here and what I need is everybody to free up your hand. So two hands, give me two hands. All right. Two hands. This is, this is going to bring you back to Sunday school day. All right. Do you ans interlock your fingers like this? We go like this. Here's the church. Here's the steeple. Open the doors and you see all the people are right. So that's what we were taught, but is the, Church this, the building now the church is us. The people, this is the church. 2 (19m 41s): So I'm so glad to be joining with you guys here. Welcome if you're joining us for the first time. If you're joining us in person or sorry, online, we're glad to have you as well, but this is the Church. I'm gonna pull the scout. Oh, that's loud. Sorry. We we're just glad that you're joining us here. If you're joining us for the first time, we have a gift for you just to go swing by the info station and grab your gifts and yeah. Fill out info cards so we can learn more about you, find out your story and get connected in that way. Hope we're glad you're here and glad you joined us. So we have a, we have a website as well as a app for your phone. 2 (20m 21s): So those are just other ways to get connected and plugged in. We have a celebration of life for Dave Fletcher. Dave Fletcher passed away earlier this year. The COVID times have been really strange. So we're, we're going to finally have a celebration of life coming up here, November 7th at 1:00 PM. And that will be here at Church and all are welcome for that as well. There there'll be a reception to follow on the patio. So come celebrate Dave Fletcher and his Life. Another way to serve is, is our Thanksgiving food basket collection. We are gathering up Christmas or, sorry, not Christmas. Not yet. We're gonna have Thanksgiving dinners for those in our community that are in need. 2 (21m 4s): And so th we're collection items kind of a specific list. So that's sent out in the weekly email as well as you can get that information on at the info station, but there's some specific items that we're looking for. You can pick up that there and donations. We're trying to collect them by November 15th, so you can drop those off at the info center or at the Church office. And then, you know, Jesus talk a lot about leadership, but specifically servant leadership. The greatest way to lead was to be a servant leader. And so there's some awesome ways to plug in and to serve in the life of our church. A few of those are the welcome team, cleaning team, kids, ministry team, as well as safety team. So those are some ways to plug in, to get connected to our church, as well as we are going to be starting up some Life groups in January. 2 (21m 52s): And so if you're interested in hosting at your house, a Life group, it's a great way to serve others, go to the info station and sign up for that as well. With that, I want to invite up Sherrilyn she's going to come and announce the sisterhood night of worship. 0 (22m 8s): Thank you, Jeremy. Awesome. So I just have a special invite for all the ladies in the house. We're going to have a special gathering called the sisterhood night of worship, and we're going to be doing some sisterhood nights, hopefully quarterly coming up this fall and then through the new year. And we just like it to be all generations kind of gathering together. So we're inviting gals from grade school to grandma's and everything in between. And we just want to rub shoulders together as young women and older women. And when we can all learn from each other, come here in the sanctuary Friday night, November 13th at 6:30 PM. And we're going to gather and worship, hear a testimony, kind of get vision cast for the new year together as Harvest women. And then we're going to have an after party in the Life. 0 (22m 49s): There's going to be lots of fun. There's gonna be door prizes and all kinds of things. They're not gonna wanna miss it. So you can RSVP to just help us out, go to the website, AIG harvest.org/sisterhood. And you can find us there. Some of you might've got a card on the way in, if you didn't stop by the info center and you can get a little invite card or even grab extras to hand out to your friends, be sure to pass it on and invite all your neighbors and friends. Can't wait to see you there. 3 (23m 17s): Chapter three today, turn to Colossus chapter three. As you came in today, you probably notice that the property is torn up and have we got, we got plumbing issues galore. We had a person from the city come and talk to us about 10 days ago. And they said, Hey, you're blowing through thousands of gallons of water and we need to turn off your water. So we had the water turned off and we got a leak detection company out there. And they literally, they were able to detect the leak and draw a square on the black top about the size of this podium. And they said, that's where your leak is. And so we got a plumber out there and he cut into the black top and sure enough, our water main is busted as well as our sewage drain. 3 (24m 1s): So sewage main is busted as well. So we're the process of getting that fixed. And so hopefully we'll get that done and get the bathrooms reopened and get water back on. And we're at we're out of coffee because we had to have coffee made outside of the area outside of our church. And so we're running into all kinds of snags and they were having technical difficulties on top of that, but that's all right, we're going to get through the day by God's grace. And by next week, I think the bathrooms are going to be open. We're going to have plenty of coffee and the words to the, to the songs are going to be up on the screen. Does that sound good? Gotta deal. Okay. Sounds good. That'll be the plan before we turn into cautious chapter three, you've got a couple of jokes for you. You guys ready for a couple of jokes here? I've got a short one and another short one. 3 (24m 42s): Did you hear that the Energizer bunny got arrested? He was charged with battery. 4 (24m 51s): So that 3 (24m 51s): Came from Emily, a little young gal, about 10 or 12 years old and our Church. And so she gets five bucks. Cause I said last week that if you give me a joke that I use, that I actually use on Sunday morning, I'll give you five bucks. So somebody told me a pretty bad joke after first service that I will not be using. So that person will not be getting five bucks. So that five bucks is not guaranteed, but one more joke. And this also came from somebody in our church. Did you hear that Washington DC was so cold yesterday that we actually saw a politician with his hands in his own pockets. 4 (25m 25s): So I know it's, it's, it's the season. It's the season to vote. 3 (25m 34s): That actually came from my wife so that she gets five bucks. 4 (25m 39s): Yeah. So it is 3 (25m 42s): The time devotes. Probably a lot of us have already voted, but get out there and vote by Tuesday, November 3rd. And then we'll just trust the Lord for the outcome. It it's. We can trust the Lord. Amen. No matter what happens on Tuesday and following, we can trust the Lord Colossians chapter three, the title of the message today. New Life, Equals New Perspective how many could use a Perspective shift in the course of their life? Like, like we need a new set of lenses from time to time. I know when I started wearing glasses, I was so like I realized I couldn't see before and I get new glasses on and I'm like, wow, I can actually, I can actually see. And anytime I have to go back to the doctor and get new lenses, I'm always surprised at how bad my vision has gotten with those old set of glasses. 3 (26m 27s): We just need a new set of lenses from time to time to see things with crystal clarity, American pastor Rick Warren said he used to think that life was a series of battles. Life was a series of battles followed by times of blessings. That makes sense. But he's come to realize that Life is actually on two tracks. One track is blessing and the, the other is battle and they run concurrently blessings and battles run concurrently. We, we endure both. We put up with both by God's grace. And as we look at the scripture today, God's going to challenge us. 3 (27m 7s): And as we look at our lives today, God is going to challenge us. And the challenge is too find the blessing in the midst of the battle. I was just talking with somebody after first service and we've got a couple in our church. You've got a downs boy who they've who's about 25 now. And, and it is a 24 seven job. And as I thought about that, I thought, where do you find the blessing in that battle? Right? I mean, it's just a tough, tough life to be true on 24 seven caring for precious, a young man with down syndrome. But I know this couple well enough. If I were to ask them that question, they would say there's been blessings upon blessings upon blessings because of God's faithfulness over these last 25 years. 3 (27m 51s): And I think that's, that's true of all of us. We can all point to seasons of our lives, where things have been just really difficult, but God, but God has been faithful to show himself strong on our behalf. Yeah. Faithful to meet our needs in time of need. He's been faithful to you be there when we've absolutely desperately needed him to be there. Blessings and battles run concurrently. Your life can be filled with blessings, but the battles don't let up. We need a new Perspective. We need a new perspective. New life in Christ. Equals New Perspective it means this means that as, as a born again, person, you have the CA to see life through a new lens. 3 (28m 34s): And so I just really want you to do that today and begin to do that today. And then if you are having a hard time doing that, just ask the Lord, say, God, I need a new lens. I need a new perspective because Life right now is, is challenging. Some things have come up that have been unexpected things. Haven't worked out quite the way that I thought they would work out. I need a break. New Perspective the battles may come, but your life in Christ is born. Do you guys believe that? Do you believe that? If you're not, if you're not a Christian here today, I just want to make that promise to you that when the battles CA, when you're in Christ, your life is blessed. God will bless your life. He will take care of you, right? We may face battles, but God is with you with us. 3 (29m 16s): We may go through hard times, but God is faithful times may be lean financially, but I love what King David said. He said, I've been young and now I'm old now, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his descendants begging bread. He has seen the faithfulness of God. So you can have that same confidence that King David had thousands of years ago. He saw the faithfulness of God. Then we can see the faithfulness of God now because Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And so he's reliable forever and ever a man New Life Equals New Perspective Colossians chapter three, verse one says this since you have been raised to new life with Christ, how many of you that you've been raised to new life with Christ since you had been raised to new life with Christ sets your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. 3 (30m 9s): So we've been raised to new life. How have we been raised to new life in Christ? Well, we can go back to Colossus chapter two, verses 12 and 13. And it helps us to understand how we've been raised to new life in Christ. This is what Clausius chapter two verses 12 and 13 says for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. So baptism is a picture of being buried with Christ and with him, you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away. We talked last week about spiritual circumcision, the cutting away of our carnal nature. That's what we talked about last week and go back and listen to that message for you were buried with Christ when you were baptized and with him, you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God who raised him from the dead. 3 (30m 57s): You were dead, spiritually, dead, separated from God. You were spiritually dead because of your sins because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ for he forgave all your sins that should in itself lift a burden off of us. The fact that our sins have been completely forgiven, that everything that we've ever done wrong has been eliminated from our record. He has expunged our record. He has forgiven all of our sins in Christ. You have been buried with him in baptism and raised to new life because you trusted him. God made you alive with Christ. When he forgave your sins, we read in Romans six, five through 10. 3 (31m 39s): It says this. Since we've been United with him in his death, you will also be raised to life as he is. We know that our old sinful cells were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. Some of us need to hear that we feel at times like we are slaves to the bad things that we do, but God has declared that if we're in Christ, we're no longer slaves to sin. That means we've had this spiritual circumcision. Our carnal nature has been cut out of us and that we, we have the power, like God, over God's power in us to overcome sin and to stand firm in him as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (32m 21s): For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure this because Christ was raised from the dead and he will never die. Again. Death, no longer has any power over him. Verse 10, when he died, died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus, same N your new life is actually hidden, encapsulated in Christ. When the father looks at you, he sees you the righteousness of God. 3 (33m 2s): He sees the purity of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He sees us that our sins are forgiven and that we've been adopted into the family of God. And that we're blameless before him because, because God is good. Not because we're good. Your new life is hidden in Christ. Your new identity is Christ. Some of us need to hear that. I needed to hear that this week is because I was kind of evaluating my life and thinking about things that I didn't get done or haven't gotten done yet. I thought, man, if I failed in these areas of my life, are there some things I want to see happen in my life in ministry? If I failed in these areas and I started to feel bad about these things, and I realized, well, I asked myself the question, why do I feel so bad about these areas, these things? 3 (33m 44s): And I thought, well, because my identity is wrapped up. My identity is wrapped up in these things and instead of Christ. So I realized that I needed to confess that repent of that and make sure that my identity is found in Christ so that it doesn't matter how big the church is or how small the church is. It doesn't matter what problems we come up against in a family and our family doesn't matter what our kids go through. It doesn't matter. What, what things look like on the outside. My identity is in Christ. And with that, I have great confidence. Amen. You know, all, all kinds of things can become our identity. Our past failures, past mistakes, past, past, it's usually things in the past, things that happened in our past, they become our identity. 3 (34m 27s): They begin to define us. If we're not careful, let the crucifixion of Christ define you, let the power of the resurrected savior. Define you. Let the reality that he is forgiven your sins, define you. That let the reality that you've been adopted into his family and that you are loved just the way you are. Let that define who you are as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And then when you do that, everything else just begins to fade. Oh way, your sins are forgiven because of price. And your new life is hidden in, in Christ. I want this new identity to penetrate your body, soul, and spirit. That means your total being Bible says that we're body, soul, and spirit. 3 (35m 7s): So this new identity needs to penetrate needs to, we need to be convinced on every level that this is our new identity. Colossians three, two says that that our thoughts should actually change as a result of this new life, this new identity, Colossians three, two says this. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. Think about the things that haven't not the things of earth. So the things of heaven are, are good. And they're eternal. You think about the joy that heaven's going to be the peace that heaven's going to be. Think about health in heaven. There's not going to be any sickness in heaven. 3 (35m 47s): So thinking about the eternal things in heaven, things on earth are temporal. Anxiety is temporal. War is temporal. Sickness is temporal. Think about w w when we think about, when we think only about this, Life, we're left with fear. But when we think about the reality of heaven, we have confidence. When I think about heaven in light of all of the challenges that we go through on, on, in this life, I think God is on the throne. God is on the throne. Matter what happens on Tuesday, who's still on the throne, got us all on the throne. So we, we, we vote our conscience, hopefully according to biblical our biblical awareness and instruction. 3 (36m 32s): But at the end of the day, we can believe that God is on the throne. We can believe that God has overcome, that he has defeated the enemy. Verse three, Colossians three says for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God, your real life. Sometimes we can't get past this ex this current Life. We think this is the a real thing. Listen, this is a brief time. These 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, a hundred years that we get here in the earth, whatever they may be. They are a little line in the long line of eternity. Think about eternity. It never ends. And so this brief time that we have on the earth, the thing that we feel is so real is actually not as real as eternity. 3 (37m 17s): And so what we do in this life echoes into eternity. What we do in this life impacts eternity, and that people are saved or not based on how we've lived our lives. We receive rewards or not based on how we live our lives here on the earth. We're saved by grace, but God has given us responsibility, sees our gifts and our talents much like Jeremy was talking about using our gifts and talents for his kingdom purposes. For you died to this life in your real life. Your real life is hidden with Christ in God, maybe as you're going through difficult times, you can say, Lord, I, I feel like I'm way too caught up in this life, in this little slice that I'm living right now. 3 (37m 57s): Lord, give me a kingdom perspective and eternal perspective and help me to think about eternity and how, how my life right now can impact eternity can impact somebody else's eternity can impact somebody else's life. And Lord help me to live there in that place for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God, where all your sins are forgiven, where you have eternal life. That again, this Life is only temporal, a better life, awaits you. One commentator wrote the word hidden that our life is hidden in Christ. The word hidden implies both concealment and safety, both in visibility and security. You're not glorified yet, but you're safe and secure in Christ. 3 (38m 39s): The Bible says we're going to be glorified with him. What, when, when will we be glorified? Well, when Christ appears after rapture, believers will appear with him and be glorified. We read about that in a first Thessalonians four chapter chapter four verses 16 through 18. It says this for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shouts. Isn't not going to be a good day with the voice of the Archangel and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up, caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 3 (39m 19s): Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words. Listen, when that happens, everything that we've gone through here in the earth will pale. It's going to be like, that was no big deal. He is suffering difficulty. It all pales in comparison to what will happen when we are raptured and caught up with the Lord in the sky, black back to Colossians three, verse four, it says. And when Christ, who is your life is revealed 5 (39m 44s): The whole world you will share in all his glory. 3 (39m 48s): New Life, Equals, New Perspective 5 (39m 52s): Number one in our notes. Number one we need, 3 (39m 55s): Yeah. Think about the things of heaven. More than the things 5 (39m 59s): Of the earth easier said than done, right? 3 (40m 5s): We need to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of earth, not easy, but doable. What's most naturally consumes our thoughts in this life. What most naturally, like when we're just not like in a spiritual place, but we're just in this normal place that's maybe carnal or whatever. What, what most naturally consumes our thoughts in this Life I wrote down a few things, 5 (40m 26s): Fear, fear just naturally wants to creep in right at every turn 3 (40m 31s): There's fear that wants to creep in, and then there's anxiety. And then there's the future. That's my list. Those are the things that naturally want to creep in when I'm not on guard. How about, how about yours? What's what's your list, as you think about that, let's work off my list because I think it probably has a lot to do with your list. Most what most consumes my thoughts when I'm in a bad place, will fear, fear about what fear about money. Anybody have thoughts about that fear about the Church fear about family, and then there's anxiety over decisions, uncertainties the unknown. Then there's the future retirement finishing. Well, et cetera. We've got all of these fears and anxieties about the unknown and the future is a big part of that retirement finishing well, et cetera. 3 (41m 17s): I've realized that most of these things I can do very little about, I can do very little about most of these things when I'm in a good place spiritually, when I'm got my mind fixed on Christ. And I'm thinking more about heaven than I'm thinking about the earth, what most consumes my thoughts then? Well, what most consumes my thoughts when I'm in a good place is, Hey, I'm going to heaven. So everything else pales in comparison to that, I'm going to heaven. And I want to take as many people with me as possible. So that's why I do what I do. I want to go to heaven and take as many people with me as possible. But at the end of the day, when my head's in a good place and when my heart's in the right place with the Lord, I know that God will take care of all my needs. 3 (41m 58s): Right. I know that God loves me. And I know that God knows all things. We were, we got that cough or the visit from the city. And then we had the plumber come out and he said, the plumber said, you know, it can be 50 or $60,000 to fix this problem that you have, have I said, okay. And I just said, well, let's just, you know, kind of continue to explore and see if that's really the case. So I really, I, I was, I was in, I was surprised by my lack of anxiety around that, because what I've seen with the Lord over the, over these last 17 years at the church, almost 18 years of the church has been going in the last 40 years that I've been walking with the Lord in the last 30 years of marriage and raising family. 3 (42m 44s): I've always seen the faithfulness of the Lord. Not because I'm good, but because he's good, he's just faithful with his family, with his people. And so as we hear this, we're like, wow, that's a lot of money, but if that's what it's going to cost, and that's what it's going to cost, and we'll be able to take care of that. And that's just the B it'll be what it'll be. We'll just trust the Lord. Right? So we just, the plumbers, who's a Christian. He said, why don't you pray and ask the Lord to make this not so bad. And, and we'll just see what the Lord does tomorrow when we re-investigate this whole thing. So we came back to the next day and I get here and they've been working for about 30 minutes. By the time I get here. And he said, you know what? You must have been praying all that long because now it's not going to be 50 or $60,000. It's only gonna be about a $10,000 bill right now. 3 (43m 26s): If you were to hit me with $10,000 in the beginning, it would've been like, wow, that's a lot of money. But when you can, when you're thinking about comparing it to 50 or $60,000, it's not that big of a deal. Right. That's Robin probably why he did it. Yeah. And so now we're just like, okay, we're going to get a whole new water line. New new sewage. It's all going to be good for the next foreseeable future. And it's only going to cost us $10,000. Now we'll probably have a $10,000 water bill as well, because we were going through thousands and thousands and thousands of gallons of water, the water, we were wondering where the water was going, because nothing was bubbling up. Nothing was surfacing. We didn't have any wet spots or anything. So we realized that the water main was lost it right next to the sewer main bust. 3 (44m 9s): And so all of the water from the water main was going right into the sewer. Yeah. And then interesting. So we, we, could've had a lot more damage if water was coming up and causing flooding and buildings or wherever, but even in, in, in that we could see the hand of the Lord protecting us. It's not going to be 50 or $60,000. It's going to be about 10,000 plus maybe another 10,000 water bill. But, but God has been faithful. I told that to Ron. And he said, well, thank God. We've got some extra money right now. We can take care of that. And we just, we, we, when we've got an eternal heavens heavenly Perspective, we can trust God for whatever goes sideways in our lives. 3 (44m 50s): We, we can believe God for what he wants to do in our lives. So when my head's in the right place and when I'm trusting the Lord, I know that God will take care of all of my needs. I know that God loves me. Isn't that good news. God loves me. He need to say that because it's true of you as well. God loves me. God loves me. That's an important thing. And God knows the result. The first list, fear, anxiety, the unknown of the future brings heartburn. Right? When I think about those things, it just gives me heartburn. 3 (45m 32s): And the results of the second list brings peace. The Shalom of God. So we have to intentionally change our thinking. We have to intentionally change our perspective. The reality of the new life needs to impact our body, soul, and spirit. The reality of our new identity in Christ needs to impact our total being so that we were thinking differently about the problems that we face. The obstacles that are before us, our whole being should be different as a result of our new life, our new identity in Christ. So again, we have to intentionally change our thinking so that we are thinking more about heaven than this earth. What might change if we're thinking more about heaven than the earth? 3 (46m 13s): Well, again, peace instead of heartburn, I could use some of that. Amen. We could all use some of that. We'll probably spend our time differently. Maybe not work as much because we're not so anxious about the future anxious about resources. So maybe we don't work as much. And we spend more time in kingdom work, mission strips ministry in the church ministry to our neighbors, et cetera. Maybe we use our talents differently. We use our talents to instead of, to work and make money or to serve our own personal needs. We use our talents to serve God, to help others and to help and to help serve others. We'll probably use our resources differently as well, helping others giving to the work of the ministry and the church or missions or food pantries or the homeless, et cetera. 3 (46m 59s): We have a food pantry here. And I was just curious, what was going on during this whole pandemic? What are we doing? Are we still actively serving people? And we've had conversations about that. And just out of the blue, I ran into the people who are doing the food pantry at our church. And I asked him, I said, can you just give me a list? Because they were talking about some of the stuff they were doing. I say, can you just give me a list of all of the things that we're doing as a food pantry ministry? So I wanted to talk about this because in a time when we could be hunkered down and fearful and staying away from people, this is stretching outside their boundaries and actually serving a lot of people in their time of need. So this is what they wrote. 5 (47m 37s): I said, just bullet pointed. So bold 3 (47m 39s): Bullet point it for me so that I can know what we're doing. And so I can share it with the Church. So this is why they said we're picking up food and delivering it to over a hundred people, weekly, a hundred people, weekly families and elderly up from 15 in the last six weeks. So they've gone. CA maybe six weeks ago, they were doing this with 15 people. Now they're up to over a hundred people. They're providing food for a captive hearts ministries. When they have access, they're collecting canned goods and 25 turkeys to hand out to current families and households that we support weekly. We're partnering with the foster youth program to support foster families with food for Thanksgiving alongside. 3 (48m 20s): And I love this part alongside with grace Bible and the salvation army. So grace Bible and AIG Harvest Church and salvation army, or I'll call elaborating working together. Why? Because we're all one, Church no matter where we meet we're all the body of Christ. And so we're collaborating, working together to meet the needs of those in our community. We continue to feed Church members who call an advance or show up on Thursdays. And then they said, we will be collect. We will be collecting funds and handing out gift cards on November 21st at grace Bible to the foster families who sign up for the holiday program, the event will be advertised on KSB Y and the foster youth website. 3 (49m 0s): And thanks to our sponsors, including Harvest Church in the village. So we get to help sponsor all of that good work, because people are using their resources, their time, talent, and treasure to step outside of their fearful little bubbles, maybe that they're in and say, Hey, we want, we know that there's people in need, and we need to serve those people in need, blessings and battles, run concurrently. 5 (49m 23s): Instead 3 (49m 23s): Of hunkering down, there are people who are really working to serve the needs of the people around them. I wonder how that might be speaking to us as a church. I mean, we're part of that, but in our own sphere, in our own neighborhoods, I wonder if there are people that God would ask us to serve the COVID battle is real, but so was the opportunity to bless others during this time. New Life, Equals, New Perspective number one. We need you to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. What does God want from you during this time, during this COVID time, some of us are using it as an excuse to stay home from church and stay home from other important responsibilities. 3 (50m 4s): And, and God's wanting to kind of change our perspective. He's wanting to kind of change our lens and help us to see that there are things that we can be doing to be a blessing. Even during this time, I promise whatever God asks of you. It will be followed by blessings. Anytime we're obedient, obedient to the Lord, there's a blessing that follows, but we have to battle through some stuff to get to the blessing. So put to death, the sinful earthly things lurking within your, in verse five. So put to death, the sinful earthly things lurking within you. What are those sinful earthly things? Lurking. I just wrote down fear and faithlessness. Anything of the flesh. 3 (50m 44s): We need to put those things to death. And then verse five continues. Having nothing, have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy for a greedy person is an idolater worshiping the things of this world. And I'll just say, if God doesn't have access to your money, then money might be your God and you can't serve God and money. So if you're hunkered down, holding onto all of your resources, because you're fearful, you can trust the Lord, give where the Lord asks you to give, give faithfully and watch what God will do to bless your life. There are people around you who will be blessed by your generosity. 3 (51m 25s): Amen. Amen. I don't get a lot of amens when I start talking about money, but I talk about it anyway. From time to time, verse six says because of the, he sends the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when you're lying. Life was still part of this world, but now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Wow, it's a pretty good list. Now is the time to get rid of anger. We live in a pretty angry culture. Don't we there's so much divisiveness, so much division, and we need to work against that, right? The culture of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, dirty language. 3 (52m 9s): We need to, we need to work against that by reflecting properly, the person and work of the Lord. Jesus Christ. If you're angry, don't, don't stay angry. Ask the Lord, why am I so angry? Especially in political times, like we're in, we can be so angry at people who disagree with us or people who are doing things that we don't understand. And all it does is take up, take up heart space and cause us to be hard-hearted and, and in a bad place spiritually. So if you're angry, ask the Lord to help you to forgive. Now is the time to get rid of it. Anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 3 (52m 51s): Don't lie to each other. Verse nine says for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. And so it says, put on your new nature and be renewed. As you learn to know your creator and become like him. You've got so like waking up in the morning, you're just, you're deciding to go to your closet. You say, I'm going to put on this pair of pants in, and I'm going to put on this shirt, I'm going to wear these socks and these shoes, and this is what I'm going to wear for the day. I would encourage you instead of doing that well, you got to do that because you know, you don't want to go out undressed. So figure out what you're going to wear, but also decide to put on the righteousness, God, put on that New nature that God would have you to put on, make it a conscious decision. 3 (53m 31s): Like you do the wardrobe that you wear for the day where the stuff that God would have you to wear, put on your new nature, have a fresh perspective and see what the Lord will do. Be renewed. As you learn to know your creator and become like him in this new life. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or Gentile, circumcised, or uncircumcised, barbarian, uncivilized slave, or free Christ is all that matters. And he lives in all of us. I've often said the church is about the only place where people of diverse backgrounds, well, maybe the Church and a bar can people can come together in diverse from diverse backgrounds and find friendship and find a community. 3 (54m 15s): I've told the story about the ex-con and his friendship, where they retired prison warden, but I've never told this story. I don't think I had a friend decades back and his name was Danny Barabis. And some of you remember Danny Barabis from days gone by with Danny was on the FBI's top 10 wanted list. Did you know that he was a felon in deep trouble with the FBI? He was on the FBI's top 10 wanted lists, but something happened with, with Danny brevis and he gave his life to the Lord. And, and Danny's life was radically transformed, such that when you knew him in Church after his is conversion, you didn't never, yeah, it never was suspect that Danny was on the top 10 FBI wanted list. 3 (54m 59s): He was such a tender tender, man. He loved people. He loved serving people. He cared about people. You'd see him. And yeah, you always want to give you a big hug and he'd show up. And he was in his suit and all dressed up and ready for church. And he was just ready to encounter the living. God. He had been transformed by the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He had a new garment of praise, garment of praise, garment of beauty that he wore in his life. Danny was the most meek humble and kind man that she had meat. And when I went to his Memorial service and the place was packed, it was filled with people who were going to miss this man of God. 3 (55m 41s): Danny had been transformed. And this man who was once on the FBI's top 10 wants list was now good friends with law enforcement officers throughout the church and throughout the community. Why? Because new life brings new perspective. New life brings new purpose. And this was going on in his life. We need to think about the things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. Number two, we need to look like we belong to God. Danny brevis looked like he belonged to God. His life was completely changed and that's what God desires for each of us. And I see God doing that in a lot of our lives. Our lives are being transformed by the grace of God. First 12 sense, God verse 12 says, since God chose you to be the Holy people, he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 3 (56m 34s): We need to look like we belong to God, make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends. You remember the Lord forgave you. So you must forgive 5 (56m 45s): Others. There's a class going 3 (56m 47s): On right now. And the Church office has called 70 times seven. And it's all about forgiveness. And it's a very difficult class, right? Because it's like a time to mine, your heart, to investigate your heart and to see if there's any unforgiveness there so that God can restore you to a place where you're able to forgive the person or people that you have bitterness toward unforgiveness toward. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn, to be like God, to begin to look like God. When you're able to forgive those who have offended you, when you're able to forgive those who have hurt you intentionally or otherwise, it's a great opportunity to begin to look like God. 3 (57m 29s): When we choose to forgive those who have offended us, we need to look like we belong to God. Number two, number three, we need to live with a God-sized peace and gratitude. And that is 5 (57m 42s): Totally possible. Living 3 (57m 44s): With a God-sized peace and gratitude. Verse 15 says this and let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts for as members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always be thankful, peace and gratitude. Let the message about Christ in all its richness, fill your lives with peace and thankfulness, with peace and gratitude, teach and counsel each other. With all the wisdom he gives, seeing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. When we sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, our lives will be filled with peace. 3 (58m 27s): Our lives will be filled with thankfulness and gratitude and whatever you do or say, especially in the midst of the battle, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ giving. Thanks through him to God, the father and trust this, that blessings will flow. New Life Equals New Perspective God's word reveals that to us. And I want to pray that as we wrap this up, that our new life in Christ would be filled with God-sized peace and gratitude that we, as the body of Christ would begin to look more 5 (58m 58s): And more. We continue to look more and more 3 (59m 0s): Look like God, and that we would think about things of heaven, more than the things of the earth. And so with that, let's go ahead and pray and invite the worship team forward. 5 (59m 8s): Lord, thank you for your word. 3 (59m 10s): Thank you that your spirit speaks to us through your word and I pray and thank you God that you confront our humanness, our sinfulness, God, you confront our lives so that we might be redeemed and think differently and have a different perspective, a new perspective, a born again. Perspective Lord. I pray that each of us, God, we think differently. I pray that we would look more and more like you in our daily lives. God, I pray that we'd be filled with peace and gratitude. And then when we're struggling with peace and gratitude, God that we would start to sing. Psalms Lord hymns and spiritual songs for your glorious purposes. God that we might have our perspective shifted and changed. 3 (59m 51s): Lord. So thank you for what you're doing with us and innocent through us. We love you Lord. And as we sing, whether we've got words on the screen or not, God help us to sing with all of our hearts as much as possible, or we love you. And we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go and stand up. 1 (1h 0m 48s): great. 1 (1h 5m 16s): Is your faith today, yesterday? 1 (1h 6m 46s): Yeah. Let's just still our hearts for just a moment. Maybe even close your eyes. If you need to, to just kind of tune out the noise and tune into his heart, his voice need to be reminded that he's the guy and he can move mountains for you. I mean, there's an area of your life. Are you trying out for breakthrough? You feel discouraged, man. I felt the Lord just wants to just stir you this morning. Just with hope. 1 (1h 7m 19s): smooth songs of praise do you shake? 1 (1h 7m 37s): good to see you, mate. 1 (1h 8m 29s): you made you songs to shape wrong. 1 (1h 10m 39s): 0 (1h 11m 31s): Love you. Thank you for your presence here with us today. Then as we head into this election week, may you be the rock we stand upon? And we put our hope in Jesus, God, we don't put our hope in the outcome of the election. We hope in Jesus. So just let that be our private suite. Let me look to you. We trust you. We lean into you. Just give us peace in the midst of the storm and certainty garbage. You are aware of every circumstance and you're always in control. We love you Jesus, and mean to you, pray for your will to be done and your kingdom in Jesus name. 0 (1h 12m 15s): Amen. Amen. Whew. Awesome guys. Well, we just want to make sure you always know there's someone here to pray with you. If you have any needs, please feel free to come forward and there'll be some folks to meet you. Other than that, have a wonderful Sunday, enjoy the beautiful day and we'll see you next week. Have a great one.