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Built to Last: Built For Greatness | EP1
April 9, 2024 · 58 min
Greatness is built when you conform your life to the purposes and passions of God. Greatness is built when you conform your life to the purposes and the passions of God.
Series Built to Last April 9, 2024 · 58 min · Built to Last
Greatness is built when you conform your life to the purposes and passions of God. Greatness is built when you conform your life to the purposes and the passions of God. ...more Show the full description Show less Greatness is built when you conform your life to the purposes and passions of God. Greatness is built when you conform your life to the purposes and the passions of God.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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In this video 0:00 Built for Greatness
Built for Greatness 0:00 Word among us. Would you pray with me? Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise. Lord, even as we sing about your holiness this morning, we're reminded as to the fact of how great and awesome0:11 you are and how it's such a blessing to be able to be in your presence. And, Lord, we thank you for your living and active word because we believe as a people that every time your word is faithfully and accurately0:23 proclaimed that you speak directly to us, that you have the power from heaven to talk directly to our hearts through your son and by your spirit. And so our prayer this morning is, lord, speak to me.0:35 And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the lord speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will, by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very0:44 loudly this morning by saying the word amen? Amen. In the heart of every born again believer, there is this there is a desire for greatness.0:56 The reason there's a desire for greatness is because from the moment that you repent of your sins and you believe that Jesus Christ died and paid for those, and you want him to be the lord of your life, and you place1:08 your faith and trust in him, the holy spirit comes in and dwells you. And when the holy spirit comes in on the inside and begins to do his work, there's something that goes off in your heart that says, I wanna be great1:18 and I wanna let the lord use my life. It's why when we read scriptures like Ephesians 2 verse 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in
1:30 them. We say, I want that. That that's what I want. Or in John 14 12, when Jesus tells the disciples, you will be doing what I'm doing. You'll do even greater things than these because I'm going to the father.
1:42 Ask whatever you wish in my name. It'll be done for you. We say, I want in on that. And then we read in John 15, the next chapter, how Jesus in the life of every believer, the ones that are connected to the vine, wants
1:53 to produce fruit, more fruit and much fruit. And we say, that's what I want. And even we read in Matthew's gospel in chapter 25 of the parable of the talents and how we're responsible to give an
2:05 accounting for everything that God's invested in us and that God will multiply what he does in our life when we turn it all over to him. We say, that's what I want. I I I'd love to be used by God like that.
2:17 And yet, what I find is for a majority of believers, a majority of people who have repented of their sins and placed their faith and trust in God, if they really looked at themselves in their heart, they would say, I'm
2:28 just not 1 of those great ones. I'm just not like the people I read about in church history. I'm not a pastor. I'm not a worship leader. I'm not somebody that's unique. I mean, I don't really see how God really wants to
2:39 use me. I I I can see it in other people. Maybe there's a few choice people he could use, but how could God ever use me for greatness? And if that's you here today, I believe God has a word for you.
2:52 Because I believe God wants to use every born again believer for greatness, that he wants to build greatness in the life of every single person. It's why in your heart, there's something that goes off like a tuning
3:04 fork and says, I want that. I I I'd love to be used of the Lord. Like, I just tell me how. That's what today's message is, is that you're built for greatness, and I wanna give you 5 truths that are essential
3:16 for you to be great for the Lord. Now all 5 of these have to be in place, and all 5 of these are internal, not external. The world will show you how you can have all these things and how you can
3:27 go after all these things. But isn't it interesting that whether it's wealth or relationships or influence or health, even if you achieve all that, there's still an emptiness on the inside? Where Jesus would say, well,
3:39 what does it profit you to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your soul? Or what can man give in exchange for his soul? I mean, what God wants to do is create something on the inside for you to be great that not only
3:50 is great in this life, but has a return of of investment on the next life as well. And if you wanna know how you can be great for the Lord, the Lord wants to tell you this morning. So I wanna encourage you, open up your
4:00 bible to the book of Nehemiah. We're gonna start a new series today called built to last. How does God wanna build the things in our life that stand the test of time? How can God build the things
4:12 that really endure? And when we talk about the eternal God of the universe, what God wants to build are eternal things. If you've ever been like me where you you've purchased something that you think is gonna last and it
4:22 doesn't last or you can't keep it together. It's like, I built it was built wrong. God wants to build that which is lasting. Now just a little history of the book of Nehemiah won't be much, but you need to be aware of
4:34 what's going on. In Israel's history, there were 12 different tribes. Those tribes tribes got divided up. It's called the divided kingdom at 1.10 tribes went to the north, that was called Israel. 2 tribes went
4:46 to the south, that was called Judah. And so you have kings in the north and you have kings in the south. Here's what you can know about the northern kingdom. There were no good kings. There there was not 1 good king.
4:56 Every king did evil in the sight of God. And in 7 22 BC, the Assyrians came and wiped them out and took them into captivity. On the southern kingdom, there were 6 to 7 good kings depending upon
5:08 how you count goodness. And in with those kings, when things got really bad, God used those kings to turn the nation's heart towards him for a period of time. But in 5 86 BC, the Babylonians came
5:20 in and took them off into captivity. So when you read books like the book of Daniel, they're riding from captivity back to Israel as to what's going on in their life. And here's why, because God promised
5:32 Israel he would make them a light to all the nations. And if they obeyed what he said, guess what would happen? He'd bless them so that everybody would look on and say, whoever their god is, he's god. I wanna serve them.
5:43 But god said, if you're disobedient, I'll punish you so severely that people will look on and say, whoever their god is, we don't wanna mess with him because I'm gonna get my glory either way. So if you do the right
5:54 things, I'll bless you. If you do the wrong things, I'll curse you. And either way, God says, I wanna get all the glory. And so what's happened now is Israel is in captivity. And there were 3 different pilgrimages back
6:06 to Jerusalem to reestablish the nation. And without going into a whole old testament history, you may be familiar with a guy by the name of Zerubbabel or Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel came back in 4
6:17 58 BC. So 80 years after the southern kingdom has been taken away into captivity, Zerubbabel leads the charge to come back and build the temple. Then about
6:30 then about let's see. I'm sorry. 48 years after they were taken into captivity, Zerubbabel brings them back. 80 years after that, Ezra, the scribe, the teacher of the law came back, and he was trying to teach spiritual
6:42 morality to the people. And then about 14 years after that, in about 4 44 BC, Nehemiah is called of God to go back and rebuild the wall so that all of Jerusalem is set up. Now why do I tell you
6:54 all this? Just get this 1 point. For over a hundred and 40 plus years, Israel hasn't been doing what God's wanted them to do, and God's been wanting to restore the nation. But they have to get their heart
7:06 right for God to do what he wants to do. Can I just tell you this? If you wanna be great, you have to align your heart with what God wants you to do in order to see it. And it's been a long period of time since Israel's
7:17 been doing it right. And here's the point I'm trying to make. There's still hope for a nation that hasn't been doing it right for a long period of time when God's people will align their heart with God. That's what
7:29 I want you to see. And that's what's going on in this book. So knowing that as a little bit of a background, I wanna get into 5 truths of what God uses to build greatness in and through his people. And the first
7:41 is this. Greatness is built greatness is built when you conform your life to the purposes and passions of God. Greatness is built when you conform your life to the purposes and the
7:52 passions of God. Notice what the book says. Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 1. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hechaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, when I was in Susa, the capital, that
8:04 Hanani, 1 of my brothers, and some men from Judah came. And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and survived the captivity and about Jerusalem. And here's
8:16 what they said to him. They said to me, the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and
8:28 its gates are burned with fire. Nehemiah says, when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of
8:39 heaven. So what does he learn? 1 of his brothers, Hanani, comes back with a group that had been in Judah and he's like, tell me what's going on in Judah. Now we're gonna learn at the end of this chapter, Nehemiah was cup
8:49 bearer to the king. So Nehemiah was the chief of staff for what's going on in Persia. He's a studied man. He's an influential man. He's good at what he does. The cup bearer not
9:01 only took care of all of the king's things, the cupbearer would do his food tasting and wine tasting to make sure if he somebody's gonna get poisoned, it was the cupbearer. He had massive responsibility. And when
9:13 1 of his brothers comes back with a team that had gone to Judah to see the southern kingdom and he starts inquiring, he says, what's going on there? What do they tell him? It's horrible. It's devastated. The wall
9:25 has been burned down with fire. God's people are not protected. They're they're a reproach to all the other nations. Israel is not doing well. And what does this man do? What
9:37 does this man do? He can't even stand up when he gets the news. You ever heard such devastating news you can't even stand? It just knocks the wind out of you. He he sits down and he weeps.
9:49 This word is a sobbing. This grown man is sobbing and he mourns, which means he didn't have just a really good cry. It means that he was sobbing and even after he came to,
10:01 he was mourning. And we're gonna see in chapter 2, for a period of 4 months. The month of Chislev is November December time frame. And then in the month of Nissan, when God begins to answer his prayer, for 4 months,
10:13 he's weeping and mourning. What else is he doing? He's praying and He's praying and fasting. Why is he doing that? Because he's conformed his heart to the purposes and passions of God, and that makes all the
10:24 difference. If you're gonna be used for greatness, you have to conform your heart to the purposes and passions of God. Let me tell you what I mean. The
10:36 way we're taught in our culture to be successful is to take personality tests and to figure out who you are, to figure out what you're good at, to figure out what you can do, and then it's your job to figure out how to
10:48 deploy your gifts into a way that benefits you that you feel really, really good about. Now there's nothing wrong with personality tests. God made everyone unique. I've taken probably more personality tests than anybody.
10:59 They all come back relatively the same and tell me about me. But I can tell you for years, I would take those things or take spiritual gift inventories and all this, but my construct was me. It wasn't God.
11:12 So I know I'm a pretty good communicator. I know I'm a pretty good leader. I know I like to build things from scratch. So what do I wanna be with my life? Do I wanna be a coach? Do I wanna be in business? What would be
11:22 most beneficial to me? And how could some of the things that benefit me actually help others? And so even when I was in college, I spent all my time thinking about me and what I could do with my gifts and should I be in
11:32 sales and what should I do, what should I do, what should I do. Everything began to change when I stopped praying about me and I asked God, God, what do you want done in this world? God, what is it that thrills your
11:43 heart? What are you about? What bothers you about what's going on in this world? And then, God, because you created me and because you designed me and you gave me life and you started it on December eighth 19 70,
11:55 actually 9 months before, and you brought me into the world on that day, and you're gonna give me life that's already been designed for me. How can I best use that time with the gifting you've given me to honor
12:06 you? That's when everything changed. Do you care about what God cares about? Many Christians don't. Many Christians see things in the world and when they see things
12:18 in the world that fundamentally bother them, they hope would be bothered about that too, so something could get done about it. Have you ever seen anything in this world as a Christian that you see in our world that
12:30 fundamentally chafes you, that bothers you, that discourages you, that frustrates you, that angers you, or something comes up and says something needs to be done about this. And then what do we tend to do? We
12:42 tend to find other people to try to convince them that they need to do something about that. Do you know why God's given you that holy frustration? Because that's what he designed you to do. You go do something about it.
12:55 I deployed you with certain gifts and the reason you see things with such clarity and the reason that you're so focused on that and the reason that you know that needs to be done is because that's my heart in you. And so
13:06 instead of looking around, when you see what God cares about and you begin to pray this way, Lord, show me what thrills your heart. Lord, let my heart be excited about what you get excited about.
13:18 Lord, let my heart be discouraged about what you get discouraged about. Let my heart get angry about what you're angry about. Because, Lord, I want my whole life to be consumed with what you want so that when the
13:27 opportunity calls, I'm ready to do what you want me to do. When do you want me to do it? In the way in which you want it done. And that's the reason why many of us don't experience greatness in our life because we're too
13:37 busy taking our God given gifts that he's given to us and the God given life that he's given to us, and we think we're the steward of that in the sense of, I'll figure out what I need to do and what benefits me and my
13:47 family, and then I'll do some of those things. That's not why God put you on this earth. He put you on this earth to connect your calling to the creator. Can I just tell you
13:59 that? And I didn't start praying that way till I was in my twenties. I I didn't even think about that. Matter of fact, when I was in college at the University of Illinois, somebody said, you're gonna be a pastor. I would
14:10 have cried. I don't wanna do that. That's that's not where my heart is. That's not what I wanna do. I I got other things. But go god, I'll help you out. I'll preach sometimes. I'll teach. I'll do Sunday school. I'll do
14:22 something, but don't call me to that. But it's interesting when you start to orient your life and around the things of God and align your life and adjust your life so that you're ready, then when the opportunity arises,
14:34 you you you figure it out. Like, we live in a society that says this. We we quote Confucius who says, choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life. Hey, young people. Choose what you like and
14:44 then you'll never have to work. Confucius said that. He's dead. He's in hell. You don't wanna listen to him. It's not about choosing what you like and doing it. It's about aligning yourself with
14:56 God who created you and purposed you and fashioned you with all your gifts, not for you, but for him. So how do you steward what he's given you for him? So that when you meet him face to face, it's not a resume of look
15:08 what I did. It's God to the best of my ability in the areas that you called me. I was faithful in doing the very thing you called me to do. That's what it looks like to be great. That's what it looks like to be
15:20 great. Is your heart aligned with those things? Because when I see Nehemiah and he gets the word about the city, it's a reproach. It's a disaster. There's infighting. There's
15:32 it's just not looking like the beautiful nation God designed it to be. Even though his job is secure and he's probably making good money and he's got influence and he's revered, what happens to him? He's
15:43 sick. He sits down. He's weeping. He's mourning. He's fasting. He's praying like, God, do something. This bothers me. I don't care about my position. I care about
15:55 you. I care about you. I care about what you want. What do you want done? Because here I am, God, and I'm willing to do whatever you want me to do. That's where greatness starts. Greatness starts with
16:06 understanding what God wants, what God looks at. And the more you get to know the Lord, the more you can look out on our world and you can say, God hates that. God's disgusted by that. That bothers God. And
16:18 guess what? That's now bothering me. And I can't sit back and not do that not do something about it anymore. Just so you know, sometimes your greatest frustrations and greatest places of anger may be
16:30 may be an area to which God is calling you to serve. I'll tell you my story. I I I went to church pretty much my whole life. I got saved when I was 18, but I was in the church long before I got
16:42 saved. I didn't like church. I didn't like church before I got saved, and I definitely didn't like it after I got saved because nobody told me the gospel when I was in church. I got saved outside the church. I was not in
16:52 the church. I I was bothered in church because I didn't see that pastors had a heart for all God's people. And they talk about the priesthood of believers, but they really didn't believe that everybody's uniquely gifted.
17:01 And they really didn't believe that if the church got it right, that the world could change. And they really didn't believe that Jesus Christ needed to be central, and they definitely didn't believe that the word of God
17:10 needed to be preached. And so I would go, I would check the box, I'd do the right thing, but I didn't like church until I started praying. And you know it's pretty easy to play armchair Christian quarterback and talk
17:20 about all the things you don't like about church? If you're not good at it, you just haven't spent much time at church. You can always find things that aren't right. But as God started stirring my heart, I didn't I
17:30 realized I didn't hate the church. I realized I had a passion for doing the church in a way that aligned with the word of God so that God's people could be set on mission so that the church could be the glory of God and
17:39 the donation could change. And I repented and said, Lord, I'll give the rest of my life to do that if you would let me. Right? Why do I preach the word? Because of that. Why do I pastor this church? Because of that. Why
17:51 do we start a school? Because of that. Why are we expanding our media presence? Because of that. Because that's what the world needs is the unadulterated word of God speaking to people, believing that they can actually
18:02 be the fullness of everything God created them to be. Amen? So he prays. This will come up again next week. This is free of
18:13 charge, but you need to see this. They've been waiting a hundred and 40 plus years for the nation to get right. In Nehemiah 2 1, it said and it came about in the month of Nisan. That's 4 months later. That means he's
18:24 been weeping, mourning, fasting, and praying for 4 months. That's when God answers him. And from the time God answers him, after waiting a hundred and 40 years, it took him 52 days to build the wall. Do you see what the
18:36 point is here? When your heart's aligned with God and you're praying to God, 4 months of prayer is greater than a hundred and 40 years of work. It means when a nation goes the wrong way for a hundred and 40 years, God
18:47 can turn it in 52 days. That's not too hard for him. Most people in the church don't believe that. I believe that. Alright? Pray. Seek the face of the Lord. That's exactly what Nehemiah is doing. That's number 1. Number
18:58 2 is this, greatness is built when you celebrate your primary role as slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Greatness is built when you celebrate your primary role as slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice
19:10 how he prays. He says, Lord, I beseech you. That means, I beg you, oh Lord God of what? Heaven, the great and awesome god. That's the important, large, all consuming god. He's awesome. We should
19:22 reverence him. We should awe him. We should fear him. Who preserves the covenant and loving kindness. That means he always keeps his promises and that means he's always centered on unconditional love for those who love
19:33 him and to keep his commandments. So how's he positioning himself? He's positioning God as God and him as a slave. It's why when you read Romans 1 and other epistles, Paul says, Paul, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
19:45 See here's the point here's the point. Because when you hear greatness and you're like, oh, I wanna be great. Here's what you begin to think as an American. I wanna be great. I wanna have more influence. I wanna be
19:54 great. I wanna be known. I I wanna be great. I want I want people to see who I am. I wanna be great. I wanna have more money. I wanna be great. I wanna have more health. I wanna be great. I want people to know me. I want
20:03 more fame. And that's why we're not being used for greatness. You know what God's looking for? Anonymous saints. People that care more about his influence than do about themselves. People that say, he
20:15 must increase, I must decrease, just like John the Baptist prayed. It's all for his glory. It's all for what he wants. It's all for what he get I don't care about me as long as he's glorified.
20:27 And you can't fake that. You can fake it for a while. But eventually, the truth comes out as to who you really want to be great. Is it you? Or is it Christ in you, the hope of glory?
20:40 Would you be comfortable if you were an anonymous saint on this side of heaven and nobody knew any of the good things that you did? I mean, we read about Stephen, for instance, in Acts chapter 7, I believe. And he
20:49 preaches a phenomenal message that ties the whole old testament to Christ. And when he does, the religious leaders of the day gnash their teeth at him, take him outside, throw him over a wall, stone him to death until
21:00 he's killed. And we're like, Steven, that was awesome. 1 sermon and he's killed. And it gets codified by the Holy Spirit in our Bible. Do you know how many hundreds of thousands of people have had
21:12 the exact same testimony that you'll never know their name until you get to heaven? See, we we we think, well, I'll do that as long as everybody knows that I did that. Some of the greatest saints are not known on this
21:24 side of heaven. Are you comfortable with that? Are you comfortable with the fact that it's God that looks down and says, it's for my glory. That whether you're King Solomon and you have all the wealth and wisdom in
21:36 the world or whether you're Stephen and get martyred, not to us, not to us, but to God be the glory. Are you comfortable with your position? Notice I didn't say servant because the the Greek word doulos really means
21:47 slave. Slave's even lower than servant. Slave is you're lucky to be here. If I feed you, I feed you. If I don't, I don't. Now the good thing about being a slave to the lord Jesus Christ is he's a perfect, loving,
21:58 incredible, awesome god. And even though we're slaves of his, he still loves us lavishly. And what better position can you have in this world than being a slave of the lord Jesus Christ?
22:10 There's not 1. The problem is in church we come in with our resumes. Look what I can do for you. Look at my spiritual gifts. Look at what I can be. God can't use that. But what God can use is, where
22:22 do you need? This is how he's wired me. I wanna serve. I wanna give my best to the Lord. Where can I be served as long as Jesus Christ is getting glory? What's that look like? God can use every single
22:34 person that has that attitude. God can use great God can make your life for his greatness if you're willing to do those 2 2 things as prerequisites. You're willing to partner your heart and conform your life to
22:46 the purposes and passions of God, and you'll celebrate your primary role as slave. Now what does how does a slave think? A slave understands that they're thankful, they're grateful.
22:58 I'm unworthy to even be in your presence. Thank you for making me a slave. I desire to please the Lord. I desire to live holy. I'm dependent for all things. You say, well, how do I know if I'm celebrating that role?
23:08 Here's the answer. Here's the answer. You ready? You say no. How's your prayer life? Your prayer life shows your dependence. A slave is dependent upon its master for
23:20 everything. I'm dependent upon you for food. I'm dependent upon you for finances. I'm dependent upon you for shelter. I'm dependent upon you for provision. I wouldn't have anything if it wasn't for you, and so I posture
23:31 myself before you on a regular basis declaring my dependence upon you. A lack of prayer indicates, I don't need that role. God and I are good. I'll
23:43 do my thing. He can do his thing. And if he wants to make me great, so be it. He's lucky to have me. Now we don't say this, but sometimes I've heard people say stuff like this. Pastor Jeff, wouldn't it be great if
23:55 so and so got saved? Because if so and so got saved, can you imagine with their influence what could happen? Yeah. I don't care. It's not like God's up in heaven saying,
24:07 if we don't get them saved, I don't know what I'm gonna do. And it's definitely not like he's saying, well, thank goodness you're saved because until 20 24 when you were totally living for me, I was hamstrung. I
24:18 couldn't get the job done. I'm so lucky to have you. God doesn't think like that. He doesn't need any of us, and yet he chooses to use us because he's invested his eternal
24:31 life in us through his son, and he's gifted all of us. And when we posture ourselves as a slave and we're like, hey, I don't care, God. Whatever you want. The this is your life in me, where you want me to live and what
24:43 you want me to do and how you want me to steward it and the way in which you want it done. As long as you're pleased with me, that's what I'm willing to do. When you begin to posture yourself that way, greatness begins
24:53 to come out. And God's wired all of you uniquely. There's different passions and different giftings and different understandings as to how God wants to use your life.
25:06 There's nothing wrong with greatness. Nothing wrong with it at all. Jesus taught his disciples on what greatness actually looks like on a couple of occasions. But in Matthew chapter 20 Matthew chapter 20, he was
25:16 comparing the leadership of the the Gentiles, the pagans of the day, to how his disciples should lead. And he said the Gentiles lord their leadership over people and great men exercise authority. He says this in Matthew
25:27 chapter 20 verse 26, it is not this way among you. But whoever wishes to become great, you shall be your servant. And whoever wishes to become first among you shall be
25:39 your slave. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Pastor Jeff, how do I get started with this greatness? Find somebody to serve and then place yourself
25:50 under them and preference them over you. Wanna make your marriage great? Preference your spouse more than you. Quit pointing out all the things that they don't do right, and start pointing out all the
26:02 things that they do. And even where they don't do it, quote unquote, right, whatever that means, come underneath them and preference them and give them preference. Do it with your kids. Do it at your job. Do you know God
26:13 gives you myriads of opportunity to be a slave to somebody else if you're willing to take the job? It's everywhere. Hey, I just am here because I really feel the need to serve you and make your life better.
26:25 You're not gonna find too many people that say, no, I'm not up for that. They're everywhere. The problem is too many of us, we wanna be served. We wanna be served. We wanna be known, we wanna be recognized, and that's
26:37 that hinders God's work in and through us. God wants us to flip the paradigm. Because the 1 that we say that we serve, the Lord Jesus Christ, what did he do on his first trip to earth? He wasn't just a servant to
26:48 everybody. He became a slave of all by dying on the cross. For what purpose? For your sin. He laid it all down for you. Why don't we lay down our lives for him?
27:00 Amen? So celebrate your primary role as slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
27:19 And the Lord has called you to be used by him. Amen? You're built for greatness when you conform your life to the purposes and passions of God, and you celebrate your primary role as slave of the Lord
27:31 Jesus Christ. Let me give you a third. Greatness is built when you confess and forsake the sins of others and how you have participated too.
27:43 Greatness happens when you confess and forsake the sins of others and how you have participated too. In verse 5, he beseech the lord, he begged the lord, the great and awesome god who preserves his covenant,
27:55 keeps his promise, and his loving kindness to those who love and keep his commandments. Notice what he goes on to say in verse 6. Let your ear now be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant,
28:06 which I am praying before you now, day and night. So, Lord, you know who you are and I know who I am, but, Lord, if you hear me and if you'd see me and you'd listen to what I'm saying, I'm I'm your servant. I'm your
28:17 slave. Here's what I'd like to pray. I'd like to pray day and night. Day and night does not mean I woke up in the morning, have my morning devotions, and at night I pray before I go to bed. Day and night is a metonymy in
28:25 the Hebrew language that says, at all times, all throughout the day and night. I I'm just praying. Like, this is this is my ongoing prayer, and here's my prayer. I'm praying on behalf of the sons of Israel, your
28:36 servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which we, that's me included, have sinned against you. I and my father's house have sinned. We
28:48 have acted corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses. What is he doing? He's confessing sin of who?
29:00 He's confessing the sin of the nation, but he's not just pointing fingers, is he? He's confessing the sins of the nation and he's saying, lord, I confess that that's wrong, and here's how me and my family do the same
29:11 things. And that's the part that we sometimes don't get right. We're pretty quick to point out sin in the lives of others, specifically those outside the church, and God tells us that we should. We should out loud
29:23 confess, agree with the fact that these things in our culture are sinful and that they're wrong. We should do that. We should also confess or agree with the Lord in the ways that we participate in the very
29:35 same things. Say, pastor Jeff, what are you talking about? We're Christians. Let me ask you a question. Have any of you, since the time that you've been born again, done something,
29:46 acted a certain way, said something that has absolutely no reflection of the glory of Jesus Christ? How many done it this week? It's quiet. It's really quiet in here.
30:00 We all do. It's easy to stand up and say that's wrong and they're wrong and this, but what about those things that come out of your life when your flesh is no longer dead, but you've made it alive, and you act in a way,
30:11 and you say a thing, and you do a thing where you look at yourself, and it's embarrassing because you're like, that's not who I am. I'm a I'm a saint, but I didn't act like a saint. I acted like the pagan sinner I was
30:21 before I got saved. What just happened? Can we confess that to the lord too? Or do we say, well, thank god I'm forgiven. It's okay to point out things in our culture that are wrong and to confess the sins of our culture.
30:32 It's okay to confess the fact that our god created the universe. He created everything in it. He did it in 6 literal days, 6000 years ago. And it's okay to confess the sin that many of the people in our world do not
30:42 believe that and teach our kids falsely. It's okay to confess the sin that our world doesn't believe in the 2 genders that God created, male and female, and that they're both equal in value and that they both have
30:52 distinct roles in the church and in the home. It's okay to confess the sin of the LGBTQ community that is living anti who God is and say that's wrong. It's okay. But
31:04 we also have to confess the way we participated in it. Lord, I confess to my own immorality in ways because your word says that if I look
31:15 lustfully upon a person that's not my spouse, I've committed adultery in my heart and I confess that. Lord, we confess as a church that while we're pointing out immorality in our streets that we're steeped
31:27 in pornography and all sorts of things in the church, and honestly, we don't care. We confess that too. Lord, we confess that while these people are having homosexual and lesbian relationships and that's
31:39 wrong, We confess we can't even get our marriage right because we're so into ourselves. And, Lord, we confess the fact that when people are living wrong, that's 1 thing, but we also confess it in the church. We're
31:50 fornicating and shacking up and doing all the things that are an abomination to you, and we don't even care. I mean, if we're not gonna confess our own sin, why are we pointing out everybody else's? We got
32:02 enough to deal with. First Peter 4 17 says, judgment must begin at the house of God. Let me just tell you something. There's no non Christian group that is keeping revival from coming. It is Christians who are called by
32:13 the name of God, who refuse to confess and forsake their sin. It's me and you. We're the problem. And I knew I was gonna get a little golf clap on that. I knew that.
32:25 Because this is so convicting. You have to realize when you get to heaven, the reason revival didn't happen in your generation is because of you. God's willing to do it, but you have to confess and forsake sin.
32:36 It's not a cavalier thing. I grew up in an environment after I got saved where people would say things like this. I don't know if people still say things like this. I think they do. You know, Jesus Christ is my savior. I
32:46 just don't know that I'm willing to make him my Lord yet. Where in the world is that? Kim is my wife. I'm just not willing to forsake all the other women out there for her. Are you
32:58 kidding me right now? We're in covenant relationship with the idolatry. If you've been a Christian 5 seconds, confess and forsake your sin.
33:11 Amen. That's why we don't see greatness. When we get to heaven, it's gonna be an embarrassment for some of us who came to church on a regular basis, who told the Lord we want to see revival, who came to prayer meetings,
33:22 who sat under preaching, but we had our own little pet sins that we said, that's not a big deal. It doesn't affect anybody. Well, it's affecting God using his church for his glory in advancing the kingdom in the world.
33:33 Your sin is a bigger deal than a non believer's sin. Non believers are supposed to sin. It's all they know how to do. You're a believer. You represent the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And if
33:45 you don't confess and forsake your sin, it hinders the work of God in your life personally and in us as a church. I know it's convicting, but it's true. And I love you enough to tell you that. Because in our
33:57 generation, I'd love to see the lord. I'd love to see the Lord do a work that we would marvel at. I'd love to see the Lord do a work that for a hundred and 40 plus years, generations of church have been praying for that
34:08 we get to watch in a couple months. Because the church said, we're sick of our sin and we want you, Lord. But pastor Jeff, aren't we forgiven when we trust Christ? Yeah. You're forgiven.
34:21 But you haven't stopped sinning yet. And so God gives you ample opportunity to look into your life and say, Lord, I'm so thankful I'm a saint. I'm so thankful I'm forgiven. But Lord, I don't want to stay where I'm at and
34:33 I want to continue to grow in holiness and I want the full measure of everything you have. So Lord, I'm willing to confess anything. And if we don't do that, all we're doing is spinning words.
34:45 It's okay to pray about our government. It's okay to pray against the lies that you hear when somebody says this and does the exact opposite of what they say. It's also okay to say, Lord, I also confess
34:56 at times I've used my tongue in a way, where I've used my tongue to my advantage, where I haven't said the whole truth, or where I've slandered somebody's character, or behind their back, or gossiped about them or done
35:08 Lord, I confess my own tongue too. It's okay to point out others if you're willing to point it out yourself. Or what about this 1, this big 1 we talk about in your what about abortion? Can we talk about abortion for a
35:17 second? I wanna talk about it and and I'm framing it right here. Hear me as your pastor. It's wrong every time because it's murder, because God created life. Now let me just say this before you get up and walk
35:29 out. There's forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ for every single sin. And I know I'm talking to hundreds of you that have had an abortion, and I want you to know the grace of God is greater than your sin,
35:41 if you want it. And I'm not just talking to the women because despite popular belief, it takes a man to get a woman pregnant. And I know there's several men here that look back over their past and say, I paid for this or
35:52 I had this done and I'm feeling the guilt. There's forgiveness for you too. So let's hold the standard high, but let's also hold the grace of God high that there's massive forgiveness and let's hold the standard high
36:02 which says that all abortion's wrong and that you're killing an innocent life and you you can't have a nation that slaughters kids and ask God to bless your nation. It won't work.
36:17 And we can confess the sins of our government that promote this, and we can confess the sins of our government that don't care, but we also need to confess our own sins that at times we don't wanna get involved because
36:25 we don't want somebody to hate us. And we confess the sins of us that will say, well, we just wanna preach the gospel. We don't wanna get involved in these quote unquote social issues. They're not social issues. They're
36:34 biblical issues. And if you're not involved, you're passive and you're not living out the mandate of the gospel. So confess your own apathy and confess your own lethargy. And confess the fact that, lord, we want we don't
36:45 want people to have them, but then when people are pregnant out of wedlock or they're having to make tough decisions to bring that baby in the world, we don't really care about how they're gonna survive or what they're
36:53 gonna do. And I don't wanna get involved in that cause then that would be a burden to be we don't care. Lord, we don't care about what you care about. We really don't care about the life that we say we care about. Right?
37:02 Do you see why we have to confess our own sin too instead of pointing fingers? We gotta start pointing thumbs. Because God can redeem his church. That way we can still hold the standard high and then we can preach the
37:14 love and grace of God. That's what it looks like. Greatness is not afraid of holding God's standard of holiness high. Greatness is also not afraid of saying, I'm not measuring up to the standard, and I praise God, that
37:25 he's gonna help me. Let me read you a passage. This is usually 1 that people get up and walk out on. So just hang for a couple verses. I mean, just listen to this.
37:50 Let me say it again. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Well, I think they went to a camp and prayed a prayer. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be
38:00 deceived. Here's who doesn't get in. Neither fornicators, those are people that are shacking up outside of marriage, coming together to save money on their bills. No fornicators, no idolaters, anybodyShow more
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