"DEEPER STLL" - Part 2

Part 2.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

2 Corinthians 6:1–13 (The Message)

1 Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. 2 God reminds us,

I heard your call in the nick of time;

The day you needed me, I was there to help.

Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. 3 Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. 4 Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly … in hard times, tough times, bad times; 5 when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; 6 with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; 7 when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; 8 when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; 9 ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; 10 immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

11 Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. 12 We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. 13 I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

“DEEPER STILL” Part 2.

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PRAY: For a spiritual depth like never before. for our church to experience a greater level of understanding, revelation, growth, blessing and truth. Pray for our online community - Even for our KidsAmen.

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Re-cap last week.

1.SPIRITUAL DEPTH COMES FROM HUMILTY: Pride keeps me shallow. God ressts prde. I am helped by God, through the Holy Spirt, in humility bedore God. To go DEEPER into the things of God.

2.SPIRITUAL DEPTH COMES FROM DISCIPLINE: Disciplined People Make good disciples of JESUS.

(6 Spiritual keys/ Rhythms for Depth: Silence, Solitude, Prayer, Reading, Listening, Doing).

GOING A LITTLE FURTHER TODAY: 2 Corinthinas 6.... paul goes into this a little more here:

“Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IN THIS NEXT SEASON TO GO SPIRITUALLY DEEPER THAN EVER BEFORE?

1. Spiritual Depth Comes with Faithfulness.

Showing up, and re-showing up. And being Consistent with your Love and Your Service to God.

Serving God was NEVER meant to be always easy. But its ALWAYS worth it.

Serving is a WAY that we GROW and BECOME SPIRITUALLY DEEPER IN EVERY SEASON. BUT itS NOT ALWAYS EASY.

In Donald Whitneys book he talks about it and uses a story i think is fantastic about our service to God.

It’s been gone for more than a century. Yet, if it weren’t for TV commercials, more people probably would have heard of the Pony Express than of Federal Express.

The Pony Express was a private express company that carried mail by an organized relay of horseback riders. The eastern end was St. Joseph, Missouri, and the western terminal was in Sacramento, California. The cost of sending a letter by Pony Express was $2.50 an ounce. If the weather and horses held out and the Indians held off, that letter would complete the entire two-thousand-mile journey in a speedy ten days, as did the report of Lincoln’s Inaugural Address.

It may surprise you that the Pony Express was only in operation from April 3, 1860, until November 18, 1861—just seventeen months. When the telegraph line was completed between two cities, the service was no longer needed.

Being a rider for the Pony Express was a tough job. You were expected to ride seventy-five to one hundred miles a day, changing horses every fifteen to twenty-five miles. Other than the mail, the only baggage you carried contained a few provisions, including a kit of flour, cornmeal, and bacon. In case of danger, you also had a medical pack of turpentine, borax, and cream of tartar. In order to travel light and to increase speed of mobility during Indian attacks, the men always rode in shirtsleeves, even during the fierce winter weather.

How would you recruit volunteers for this hazardous job? An 1860 San Francisco newspaper printed this ad for the Pony Express: “Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders willing to risk daily. Orphans preferred.”

Those were the honest facts of the service required, but the Pony Express never had a shortage of riders.

We need to be honest with the facts about the Discipline of serving God. Like the Pony Express, serving God is not a job for the casually interested. It’s costly service. He asks for your life. He asks for service to Him to become a priority, not a pastime. He doesn’t want servants who will give Him the leftovers of their life’s commitments. Serving God isn’t a short-term responsibility either. Unlike the Pony Express, His Kingdom will never go under, no matter how technological our world gets.

Whitney, D. S. (1991). Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (pp. 115–116). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

THIS IS HOW WE GO DEEPER. WE SEE THE NEED FOR FAITHFULNESS TO GOD IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES!

Concept:Serving God DOESN’T ALWAYS FEEL GOOD. We have to be EXTREMLY CAREFUL in this generation that we don’t turn our Christian faith into a Christian LIFESTYLE that suits YOU when it SUITS you. Faithfulness is not co-dependant on our feelings.

WRITE THIS DOWN: WE DON’T LIVE ACCORDING TO OUR FEELINGS, WE LIVE ACCORDING TO OUR GOD-GIVEN CONVICTIONS.

Imagine if i only brought the message when i “felt like it”? ..... What Kind of Church would we have?

Imagine if BERM only JUMPED and Led us into Gods presence PRAISING when he ONLY FELT LIKE IT.

Imagine if The generals we have at the gate and in our Parking lot only welcomed us into church when THEY FELT LIKE IT.

.... and i could go on!

So let me as this..... WHAT WOULD OUR CHRISTIANITY LOOK LIKE WITHOUT FAITHFULNESS?

CONSISTENCY, SHOWING UP, BEING THERE, STAYING A LITTLE LATER, GETTING IN A LITTLE EARLIER.... PRESSING IN

....Why is FAITHFULNESS TO GOD IMPORTANT?

IT EXPRESSES A HEART FOR GOD.......ITS ABOUT WHAT PLEASES HIM NOW: .....WE SERVE BECAUSE WE ARE CONVICTED.... OR ITS BECOME A CONVICTION IN OUR HEARTS THAT BEING FAITHFUL TO GOD IS A WAY WE PLEASE GOD AND SO WE WILL SERVE HIM.

SERVING GOD COMES FROM THE OVERFLOW OF MY LOVE FOR HIM. I DONT SERVE BECAUSE I HAVE TO, I SERVE BECAUSE .... i WANT TO.

Galatians 1:10

Galatians 1:10 (NKJV)

10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Galatians 1:10

Galatians 1:10 (The Message)

10 Do you think I speak this strongly in order to manipulate crowds? Or curry favor with God? Or get popular applause? If my goal was popularity, I wouldn’t bother being Christ’s slave.

When we are SOLD out to JESUS: We’ll do anything we can to serve him.

SOLD OUT: I remember hearing all about people who were “sold out” for JESUS when i first got saved. I was like :”wow thats a weird term” but i get it. And then i read this verse that Paul writes to the Galatians. A bond Servant. IT MEANS TO BE OWNED BY VOLUNTARILY BY OUR LORD.

SOLD OUT MEANS SHOWING UP> SHOWING UP TURNS INTO BEING SOLD OUT > TRANSFORMATION HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE FAITHFUL. LETS NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF BEING A PEOPLE WHO SHOW UP, TIME AND TIME AGAIN, TO BE IN AND AROUND THE THINGS OF GOD>

Maybe this is what you need to hear, and its time you start to honor Jesus with your time and your effort. you need to get onto a team and start to be faithful. I think showing up to church every sunday is just the first step. if you’ve made that firs step congrats, but there is MORE. NOW IS THE TIME, to GO DEEPER into the things of God, and Faithfulness is one way we do that.

ITS WHY YOU GOTTA GET ON A TEAM IN OUR CHURCH. We’ll give you a spot. A way to do something to build the HOUSE of God. To Serve the LORD.

(Team plug: On the Colonial App: Sign up to serve).

2.Spiritual Depth comes with Surrender.

Surendering to the THINGS that ONLY God can take care of. This is where worship in our lives is so vital.

The POSTURE OF RAISING HANDS.... IS REALLY AN OPEN DOOR INTO THE HEART AND THE VERY CORE OF WHO WE ARE.

HANDS THAT ARE RAISED LEAVE BODIES EXPOSED.... and thats EXACTLY WHAT SURRENDER LOOKS LIKE.

MY HANDS ARE UP. MY HEART IS OPEN. IM YOURS LORD> IM HERE FOR YOU > WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO IN JESUS NAME!

SURRENDER IS A CONTINOUS THING FOR US AS WE GO DEEPER. WHAT ARE THE LIFELINES THAT YOU ARE STILL HOLDING ONTO THAT ARENT REALLY LIFE LINES AT ALL?

Relationship?

Money?

Things?

A Career?