The source of it all

Introduction:

Well yesterday out truck or treat went amazing! Thanks to all who came out and helped! Yes this year wasnt rainy, snowy, cold, It started out hot but turned into the best afternoon, Got to meet alot of new people I met a ninja turtle, spidermans from multiple universes. Many princess, scary clowns that got to meet the love of Jesus.

Radiant ladies, Continue to lift up the leader of the ladies because the smith family is battling. Rachel and Ethan were starting to feel better than poor mike picked up sickness. We want to be praying for them, but now they are on the road to recover. and Rachel has been doing a FANTASTIC job rescheduling and keeping up to date each lady!

The anticipation for that message is going to be amazing!

On top of that! Young Adults group will be meeting tonight....the youth will......(look to jeremy_)

Today directly after our short message we are going to fellowship with one another next door celebrating all Pastor Appreciation. I know mika and I both would love to see each and everyone of you next door, we will dismiss and then within 15-20 minutes as we get settled in and close down the sanctuary…we will dive into some good ole homemade lasagna and chicken alfredo!

Chili Cook off is coming up soon, please sign up if you havent already so we can make sure we are set up for everyone! Most votes wins a grand prize!

one more piece of announcment that im actually really excited to mention this morning! and this involves each and every one of you in the room, i need your help here.

We have the privilage to honor a new member to our team. well its not just one member its two. Two devoted, loving, hardworking, God fearing, Disciples are going to be under taking a new ministry role here at Ignite!

I know today we are celebrating Pastor appreciation and i fully am grateful, but even if one person speaks it doesnt mean the partner doesnt have a role.

So when im saying we have two people coming on board, this is a couple, who has if i may so proclaim myself, fought the enemy out of their marriage, out of there family line, fought the enemy hand and hand for families salvations, this couple i see consistently giving even when they dont have much. They give there talents, but they also give where it may seem they lack.

Devoted to the word, in worship, in study and in prayer. Raising there beautiful family to serve the Lord and understand why they do so.

They are the great example of Stephen in acts 7…From servants to leaders..

These are my friends and honestly deeper than that, my brother and sister. They are quite literally family!

Can you guys help me with inviting Timothy and Leah Lee

( Speak about ministry, allow them to both speak if they want)

Pray over them - Congregation stretch your hands out.

Lord, I am making the decision to stand with the lee family in prayer! I want to join them as a sincere prayer partner and support them spiritually by praying for them. I ask You to deliver Timothy from people who have wrong motives. I also pray that his ministry will be well received; that he will have joy in his ministry; that he will make right decisions and stay in the will of God; and that he will always feel strong and refreshed in his spirit, soul, and body. Please richly bless timothy, his wife, and his family.

I pray this in Jesus’ name!

Lets read some scripture Numbers 22 1-6

Luke 10:19 NIV

19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Esther 4:14 NIV

14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Addiction & Idolatry

In his excellent book on the subject of power (Playing God), author Andy Crouch describes the connection between idolatry and addiction:

In modern, secular societies perhaps the clearest example of idolatry is the pattern we call addiction. Addictions begin with essentially good, created stuff; even the chemicals that become addictive drugs are part of God’s good creation and often have beneficial uses in the right context. But in the throes of addiction, we invest that created stuff with transcendent expectations.

It begins to hold out the promise of becoming like a god. The most powerfully addictive substances, like crystal meth, are the ones that can deliver the most dramatic sensations of godlike freedom, confidence and abundance—in other words, power. A behavior like gambling promises to give us a sense of mastery over the random forces of nature and the ability to bring something out of nothing, to create wealth without having to work. Pornography promises intimacy without risk, commitment and the limitations of our often awkward and vulnerable bodies.

Taken from Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power by Andy Crouch. Copyright (c) 2013 p.56 by Andy Crouch. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

My own illustration:

Clear table and just put Bible- Bread- Cup of Juice

Cigarette, Alcohol, Vape Pen, needle, add a picture of Tik tok, instagram, and influencer(image), snapchat, facebook, something for …Control(like being controlling)( a belt), being offended, gossip can become addicting, gluttony(biscuit from mcdys), pornography

Moab…..

Numbers 22:1–6 NIV

1 Then the Israelites traveled to the plains of Moab and camped along the Jordan across from Jericho. 2 Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, 3 and Moab was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites. 4 The Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “This horde is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” So Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, 5 sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor, near the Euphrates River, in his native land. Balak said: “A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. 6 Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed.”

1 Previous victories don’t prevent future attacks

Numbers 22:2–3 (NIV)

2 Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites,

3 and Moab was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites.

Psalm 3:1–3 NIV

1 Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 2 Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” 3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

What does stagnant mean?

Is being a stagnant Christian healthy?

What happens to water when it’s stagnant

What happens when the dishes stay in the sink?

What happens when the laundry never gets folded.

The water begins to grow bacteria harmful to the living

The dishes begin to smell

The laundry gets dirty again under a pile of more clothes and even creates permanent creases /wrinkles

Stagnation doesn’t help the living either!

When we stay stagnant in life it hurts nobody else, it bothers no one else.

So why is being stagnant bad?

It creates bitterness, resentment, envy, happiness is diluted, and fear is greater.

Ever notice when you are let’s call it standing still the enemy doesn’t care, because no disciple remained still, not in body nor in spiritual growth.

They grew they stretched out their faith to deal with the issues before them.

When you are growing, when you are moving, let’s make this simple when you are in a relationship with God.

You make an impact.

I’ll tell you right now many of you have picked me up by my shoulders and carried me, and I’m willing to do the same with and for you.

Many of you have used the Glory of God in YOUR life to pick me up.

And if you’ve done it for me. I know you are doing it for the world.

We may not see the fullness of the impact we make on an individual but I’ll tell you right now who sees it!

The devil!

You may not even know because of your smile, greeting someone here at church today, or how you reached out to your family in the last two weeks how that could have created a chain reaction to the leading of a soul to Christ. To a blessing to someone without; to providing love to someone who was lost!

Those are your unseen victories!

And when the idol sees you no longer consuming it, when the devil no longer sees you giving into idological behaviors.

When he sees your light shine bright he marks you as an enemy. He marks you as a target and he may wait a while or he may jump right away. But just because you had a victory doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on guard.

We must be on guard and keep God our shield, for nothing God speaks over you will be anything other than protection and blessings.

(this is what happens to israel in this story. baalm is a hired prophet, messing with some one he simply shouldn't, attempting to see if God will allow him to curse israel, but when baalam isnt given a word from God of curse. he goes to another theory,

He tells the advisory of another way, Baalam Suggest to put prostitutes and idolatry, put these things in Israels way and surely they will fall.

2. idols will tell you they can satisfy

Numbers 22:6 (NIV)

6 Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed.”

- You ever feel like addiction in one’s life is as a curse is upon one’s soul.

Something you can’t get out of no matter how hard you try. No matter how many times you quit, run, and hide?

Depending on what you seek for YOUR SELF the enemy will use it as a motive against you

- your motive matters motive could be your inspiration, could be your ambitions , could be the reason you work. The enemy can use it all.

We justify serving our family over serving our God.

We justify a savings account over blessing others

We justify our “good “ intentions for truth

Our motive is aligned this morning to serve God but what is our Monday morning idol tempting us with to find satisfaction?

3.

3. Self satisfaction kills, Christ Heals

Hebrews 13:5 NIV

5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

1 Corinthians 6:12 NIV

12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.

Romans 5:19 NIV

19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Let’s be honest, we get tired of the same battles, battles with addiction…weather it be an upper….like a rollercoaster or a downer like a night in….your addiction can follow you. We get tired of it we get burdened by it. This is bondage. The will each of us has to walk out of an addiction, weather it was listed today or its something else, the first step is for us to get tired and want to get rid or it. The dilemma here is when we begin to walk away from addiction/ let’s be more clear, when we begin to walk away from being consumers….shortly after we are filled with attacks. If we are more honest with ourselves we are also tired of the attacks…and when

Let’s say this too…when you give up gluttony, pornography, nicotine, or alcohol many of those first attacks/struggles you face are natural ones that have been avoided because of the consumption… It take the slightest inconvenience for a smoker to walk outside and smoke, (that has been the answer), its someone letting you down at the beginning of your day and you run to pornography for an bit of company, its the fear, abandonment that you want to forget that takes you directly to the alcohol.

When you give these things up you have to begin to face the world in a battle that seems you are all alone.

Further more you dont even understand how to deal with stress, disappointment, and abandonment anymore, especially depending on how long youve been consuming these toxic behaviors.

Some battles we face are not spiritual, some are natural, day to day issues we have to learn to blow off and sweep under the rug.

Story of the doctor

Or

The story of the rock in the sand

Carrying a Human-Sized Weight Around

In May 2018, in a Connecticut hospital, a group of twelve surgeons worked for five hours to remove a tumor from the abdomen of a thirty-eight-year-old woman. That may seem like a lot of doctors and a long time for a single tumor—until you learn that single tumor weighed 132 pounds! The patient reported that, prior to the surgery, the tumor had grown at a rate of ten pounds per week. That’s forty pounds a month! “Ovarian mucinous tumors tend to be big,” said Dr. Vaagn Andikyan, who was the lead surgeon on the team. “But tumors this big are exceedingly rare in the literature.

It may be in the top 10 or 20 tumors of this size removed worldwide.” The tumor was technically benign, but it was far from harmless. According to Dr. Andikyan, the patient couldn’t walk, she was malnourished because she’d been unable to eat, and she was at extreme danger for blood clots and other blood-vessel-related damage. Her very life was in jeopardy. “When I first walked into the examination room . . . I saw fear in the patient’s eyes,” Dr. Andikyan said. “She was so hopeless, because she had seen several other doctors, and they were unable to help her.”

Can you imagine trying to go about your day with a 132-pound weight dragging you down from the inside? Can you imagine the pressure that must have built up in and around that poor woman—the squeezing, maddening, crushing pressure? But then can you imagine what that patient must have felt like the day after the surgery? The week after? Can you imagine the change that must have taken place after a 132-pound burden was removed? “She’s back to a normal life, she’s back to work,” the doctor said. “And when I saw her in my office, I saw smiles, I saw hope, and I saw a happy woman who is back to her normal life and her family.” Wouldn’t you like to experience that kind of joy? That kind of freedom? I have. And believe me, it’s as wonderful as it sounds.

Everything created has a weight limit. That is the amount an item can hold, or a maximum capacity.

a plane has one The largest boats have one Cars have them Elevators have them You have them as well.

Why have we…God’s people…allowed a worldly mentality slip into our life.

A mentality of consumption. We must stop eating everything given to us, stop taking in all that looks shiny and tasteful.

We must sit back and strategically give ourselves a healthy diet.

A Diet is a strategic tool, one used to omit some things and limit others.

It’s not just about counting the calorie intake it’s about the nutrients we feed ourselves.

We must cut back on Tik tok, cut back on instagram, cut back at McDonald’s, cut out the alcohol, cut out on the pornography, cut out the drugs, cut out the nicotine, we must cut the head of the devoured…he found a way in.

This is not a message about what bad traits you may have or even hold….we each have some…

This is a message given to us because we must no cut out things for the sake of being good. We must not trim back on things for the promise of eternal life.

This is a message of good vs evil.

The world has entered our life. Has nonchalantly made us into consumers, made us into emotionless stagnant beings.

We are called ot more

This is even about the more…

This is a message about the deliver

My point im wanting to make here this morning is this.

We must evaluate our life

Royality.....In the New Testament church, God is calling out of the world a new, spiritual priesthood. The apostle Peter writes, "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people" (I Peter 2:9). He promises that we will be kings and priests in His Kingdom ( Revelation 5:10

1 Peter 2:9 NIV

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

He promises we will be kings.

Revelation 5:10 NIV

10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

Who has made them? Christ…

How did he make them, by giving them life through the blood that one day long ago raced through his veins, which now forever sits upon the sacrificial altar for our sins.

We have been given life not to waste away between the lines of scriptures, but instead to bore out the image of Christ walking in his authority taking back claim what ouught to be rightfully his!.

1 john 3 3

1 John 3:3 NIV

3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.