You Yesterday, You Today, and YOU on the WAY!

WELCOME:

Are you being blessed by this series Assembly Required???

This series has been so vital to understand the necessity of the assembly together.

Can we take a moment and praise God for Pastor Donte!  (Talk) ((Take your seats))

We are going to continue today in this series assembly required.  Thank you for joining in here in the building and to everyone who has joined us online!

Text:

Romans 15:1–2

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”

My Topic

You Yesterday, You Today, and YOU on the WAY! ((PRAY))

INTRO

When I was 16 I got my very first job at Rally’s!

I was so super excited and didn’t know a thing about the fast food industry! Training was completely OJT (On the Job Training) and consisted of me shadowing a person for a bit who had been there for quite some time. I watched them make burgers, fries, do the register and the drive through! This person was essentially responsible to make sure I understood all of the company standards, what to do in case of an emergency, and how to do it all within the time frame allotted to serve customers. There’s no way I would have been able to walk into that Job the first day and understand what to do to serve people if it wasn’t for that employee who took the time to deal with 16 year old me. 16 year old me who was quite frankly looking forward more to the paycheck than the actual work that it was going to take to get the paycheck.

After being there a few hours, I got tasked to clean the bathrooms.

Now I’m thinking Clean the Bathrooms??? I’d rather work the register....

I get told to Clean the bathrooms and I’m given a water hose, a squeegee and some cleaner. I think they thought the rest was self explanatory and I was left on my own......

I can tell you I remember spraying everything with the cleaner, thennnnn everything with the water hose. You can use your imagination to understand that I made an absolute mess. It was water and bubbles everywhere.

Of course, when they came back to check on me.....there was a great deal of disappointment. I remember thinking well no one told me what to do in here. No one showed me what to do in this specific situation. I wasn’t done learning.....isn’t that how we do people in the church sometimes?

Our expectation is that

People know how to live right!!!!

People know how to live holy!!!

People know what to do!!!!

One of the things I always say is:

Unspoken expectations will Always lead to disappointment.

We can’t expect that people will just get it.

People don’t just KNOW!

Our Christian life is a life of example!

People need to see the Christian life lived out through us! If I had an example back then at 16, I would not have made the mess I made. If I had an example, I would not have made some of the decisions I made. If someone had stayed with me just a little longer, I would have been able to ask questions. If I had an example, I would not have fallen into some of the traps I fell into. Many of us simply did NOT have an example - someone who would go the long haul with immature us to help guide us into maturity in Christ!

Now don’t hear this and think this is a blame game because it’s certainly NOT - it is to ensure we ALL Understand our responsibility in the Assembly.

There’s a mentality of every man for themselves but The Word of God tells us that if you have any strength, IT’S TO SERVE!!!! BECAUSE STRENGTH IS FOR SERVICE NOT STATUS.

I WANT TO GIVE 3 POINTS THAT WILL HELP YOU ASSEMBLE BETTER! THESE 3 POINTS WILL HELP YOU FIND WHERE YOU FIT!

LET’S START RIGHT HERE! I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT THE YOU FROM TODAY CAN’T FORSAKE THE YOU FROM YESTERDAY!

LISTEN ALL THE GUILT AND SHAME THAT THE ENEMY TRIES TO PULL YOU DOWN WITH CAN NO LONGER RESIDE WITH YOU!

1. GOD USES THE OLD YOU!

GOD CAN USE EVERY SINGLE PART OF YOUR STORY!!!!! HE WILL WORK ALLLLLL THE THINGS (THE GOOD THINGS AND THE BAD THINGS)) OUT FOR GOOD! ASK ME HOW I KNOW.

Ephesians 2:3

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The same grace is extended to every single person here. We can’t take credit for it....it’s a gift given to us that we should want to see every single person receive

There’s a saying “We don’t look like what we’ve been through” and praise God for that but that also means No one knows your testimony of how God Changed you, restored you, transformed, and made you new!  IF you started telling your testimony to the person sitting next to you, they wouldn’t believe you!

God took so much time with us and He is STILL taking timmmmmme with us!

The transformation process took time and it is StILL in progress!

Learning How to Pray Took Time!

Learning How to Trust People Took Time!

Learning How to Stop doing things you had ALWAYS done took time!

It was NOT an overnight process!

Listen, praise God that HIS purpose and plan for our lives is not based on Man’s timing!

People counted you out a long time ago but GOD!

He patiently deals with us.

We should be able to patiently deal with others when we see our old selves.

We should be able to quickly identify an old YOU in the room.

Listen and they don’t need any help feeling shame, remember we already were shamed? We didn’t need an additional guilt trip! We already felt like we were wearing a shirt that listed everything we had done. We needed someone to love on us right in the midst of our now and love on us for who we would become!

2. God’s Using the New You

The new You has been changed. Your life is Not the same..  Some people today walked in the door for the very first time and some for the 7th or 90th time but they only see the NEW YOU!

It’s the responsibility of the. NEW YOU to testify to them about how God took the OLD You and made YOU into the NEW YOU!

Romans 12:2 NASB95

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2

NASB95

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

The NEW YOU has overcome!

We should Use every portion of that strength to show someone else how to overcome:

Time : Reaching out or connecting with someone that you see is in need. Taking a moment to see people and love on them. This is not only certain people’s responsibility!

Talent: Partnering through serving to ensure that every single time someone walks through the doors that they have everything they need within the worship experience to get to know Jesus.

Testify: Tell someone the truth about the challenges you had and how with Christ you were able to overcome them.

This is what it looks like to not just do what is convenient for ourselves. There was nothing convenient about the cross.

Within the assembly every single person given the breath of life, with strength, and with a testimony of how God has transformed you has a responsibility within the assembly. This is not about a title, this is about letting the NEW YOU be used by GOD to help strengthen someone else who is not strong in their faith. Every chance you get you should desire to meet someone new, finding the old you, praying for the old you to show up so you can introduce old you to NEW YOU!

3. God’s Using the OLD YOU and NEW YOU to Help the NEXT YOU!

Who is the NEXT YOU! We should be cultivating the next Pastors, Evangelists, Apostles, Teachers, and Prophets. The next Greeters and Kids Volunteers, and Parking Lot attendees. Who’s next!!!! We had a blast during the Big Day Back and at every single game table, someone said: “Who’s Next” and there were Partners waiting for their turn. They had been standing by, watching understanding what to do and what not to do but when their turn came - They were READY!!

HOW DO WE GET THE NEXT READY – BY TELLING OUR STORY

Revelation 12:11 (NASB95)

“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

WE CAN’T BE ASHAMED TO TELL HOW GOD DELIVERED US, CHANGED US, TRANSFORMED US, RENEWED US.

GOD CHANGED YOU FOR HIS GLORY!!!

WE GET TO THE NEXT BY HELPING OTHERS OVERCOME

Takeaways:

Trust God FULLY. ((SOMEONE IS DEPENDING ON YOU, THEY NEED YOU HEALED, THEY NEED YOU WHOLE, THEY NEED YOU TO BE THE EXAMPLE!))

Commit to GOD WHOLELY -

Tell Your Story so God can get Glory!

PRAYER:

Put your desires in our hearts and take away any desire not like you!

Remove guilt and shame that would keep us from testifying of your power to redeem, transform And set free! Let us assemble together as one body to showcase you God! Use us for your glory!