Tear My House Down

Tear My House Down **Declaration: ● ● ● ● ● My eyes are on Jesus My heart is tuned to His Spirit My ears are listening to His voice My mind will believe what He says My voice will declare the truth of His word **1 Corinthians 12:1-2 RAD 1 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know how the Holy Spirit works. 2 You know that before you were believers, you were somehow drawn away to worship idols that couldn’t even speak. Today, we are talking about spiritual things and I felt it was also important to examine where we are at and allow the Lord to remove things that are getting in the way. 2 roofs **Mark 2:1-12 NIV “A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” V6 - Now some teachers of the law(scribes) were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” They weren’t internet trolls or professional complainers coming out to hear and criticize Jesus that day. They made the 4 day trip from Jerusalem to protect what was sacred to them. All the years that God’s people spent away from the promised land, they had to have people who wrote down everything, including the word of God, so that no one would forget. Can we agree that a roof is good thing? It keeps things out of the house that might damage what’s inside, right? - A modern day example would be something many of us have experienced in some way. Your friend or family member starts going to a new church. You don’t know the pastor or the ministry, you’ve only “heard things”, so you take it upon yourself to “check it out”. That’s what these men were here to do, to make sure that people aren’t being led astray. Honestly, there are a lot of things that Jesus called out, but protecting what was special wasn’t one of them. Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”” So, two roofs were being dealt with on this day - physical roofs and spiritual roofs -what limitations have we put in place? Isn’t it interesting that what they said in praise was also the issue?! **“We have never seen anything like this!” You ever see the home improvement shows where they buy a house without seeing it? They could get an absolute mess or something that has promise. The teachers and the people had allowed oral tradition to become greater than the truth and what’s right! (Mark 3:1-6) - Isn’t it better to do good! The Sabbath was made for man! They took a gift and made it a limitation. What rules or safeguards were put in place in one season of your life, but now seem to be a limitation. Blocking you from stepping into all that God has for you? Did you know it’s just like us to take a gift of God and make it something we depend and rely on instead of Him. Then it becomes the thing stopping us from new revelation and blessing. Sometimes we’re more resistant to what we haven’t seen before. We ask, “can it be true and good for us?” We genuinely don’t know because we have no frame of reference. – a healthy marriage – good friends – A steady job Just because you don’t have a frame of reference, doesn’t mean God can’t do it! Also, just a quick newsflash - God’s power doesn’t need our permission. He will even break through our beliefs if they hinder us from freedom in Him! Who are you waiting to get permission from? **1 Corinthians 2:6-10 NIV “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” **What are you loyal to? I heard a pastor say, “Dad’s - be a good example but teach your children to not be loyal to anything that limits who God has called them to be. They should not be loyal to our limitations. They may think they should out of respect, but don’t do it! My ceiling can be their floor! -preacher story…bad back! **What you’re loyal to could become a limitation. -We learn limitations, we’re not born with them. We’re told not to play with a hot stove or put forks in electrical sockets. Those are good things!! -showers in thunderstorm… **What are you building with? (What’s your foundation?) **1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NIV “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.” **Matthew 7:24-27 NIV “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” – We often become so accustomed to a tent we don’t allow God to build something better, something more firm and long lasting. The tent in the wilderness had a purpose, but it was just a picture. The same can be said of the physical temples. Now we are God’s temple, so we shouldn’t allow a place to be considered more Holy than the spiritual home that the Holy Spirit has setup within each of us. When we grasp that, that we are the Royal Priesthood, to be set apart for His use, His glory. Your whole perspective should transform. You don’t want to do things the way you did, it just doesn’t set well anymore. Closing One evening Eli came into our room as we were all going to bed and shared a prompt that the Lord gave him. I felt it was good for what we’re discussing today. He said - When your drink is contaminated do you drink it anyways or pour it out? You must pour it out because it’s not good for drinking anymore. Another thought - When you survey a house and find black mold. Is it wiser to try and clean it up or demo and rebuild? We have the source of living water in Jesus Christ, why would we try to clean things up ourselves when we can just go to the source? I want to encourage you today to allow Jesus to do a new work in you. Only He gets to decide if He reuses anything. I believe we are here today to allow Him to remove our gifts turned idols/limitations and step into the future He’s calling us to.