Good morning. Rhodes family. Would you stand with us this morning? It’s good to see you all Hillary and I have been gone for a week. And, um, we’re just so glad to be back with you guys here. And I wanted to share it a little bit this morning about kind of what we’ve been walking through and, and we’ve been preparing for our baby and we’ve been purchasing a house and all of these things and have a lot of needs. And then just looking at our world and seeing the brokenness of the need that we’re seeing in a world right now, this past week, we were in prayer and just kind of overwhelmed with all of the things that are happening. And I just heard the Lord whisper to me, return to your first love. And I was brought to the scripture in revelation two with the best from Mt. Carmel Church.
It says I know your deeds, your hard work, and your perseverance. I know that you can not tolerate wicked, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles, but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name and have not grown weary. Yet. I hold this against you. You have forsaken the love you had at first consider how far you have fallen, repent, and do the things that you did at first. And so I was just reminded that all we need is Jesus. And he’s calling us he’s, he’s yearning for us to return to him. And I was, I was just thinking about that and it, God revealed to me that the next revival that we’re going to see in the church is not just the lost coming to Jesus. It’s the, it’s the church returning to their first love.
So God is calling us today. And I want to let you know that this altar is open. Sometimes we want to sing for 25 minutes, do a testimony, and get preached to for 35 minutes before we respond and come to the altar. But God’s saying you are welcome. She said, come unto me. All you who are weary and heavy light. And let me give you rest. Let me give you peace. Trade your trade, your ashes for beauty, trade your sickness for healing. All the things that you need today are found in Jesus SOCOM drink from the well today, he is good and his mercy endures forever. So God, we just give you all the praise today. God, we give you all the worship we returned to you. God, we repent. And we look to you, God, we lift our eyes into the Hills from where our help comes from. Our help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. And today God, we boldly approach your throne. The throne of grace with the best Mt. Carmel Church. If it’s not the throne of judgment, it’s the throne of grace so that we may obtain mercy and find help in the time of need. And God, we thank you that you are good and there’s nothing better than you. We’re going to sing this new song today. I encourage you to see this out with us
Through me one more time comes on. Peace. Be still. Come on. Your mom. You can trust come on. It’s about a problem. We gotta ask to say thank you, Jesus, that you have given us authority. God, to trample over serpents. Scott, the enemy is under our feet. We are victorious through him. Who conquered death, hell, and the grave. Come on church. We’re a victorious church with the amazing people from Mt. Carmel Church. We can walk in that peace in a chaotic world. We can walk in that peace because he’s giving us the authority. Jesus, we speak your truth. God, we’re going to declare your word over our hearts over our lives and over our world.
So hard to see you take the borough and raise them to the come on. We have the authority that Jesus has given us this morning. This sings this out with all of your heart, lift up your voice church. Whoa. When I lift my boys and Shaw, every wall comes crashing down. I have the already Jesus Haskin
Well, they were marching around the walls of Jericho. The last thing the Lord instructed them to do was to lift up a shout and the walls came tumbling down. So I don’t know what walls are in your life today, but I want to let you know that yeah.
Seed in the head and the place to feed. See in the heavenly place feed with To celebrate the champion of this morning, Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You are who he says you are. You are who he says in this society, in our world, we’re trying to find an identity. We’re trying to find value. We’re trying to find purpose and have a lot of people who think they’re at the top of the Hill. Think they’re calling the shots. People have said to me, Chad, you need to be on the right side of this issue and that issue and the scale of history you want to be on the right side of things. I want to be on the right side with the best Mt. Carmel Church around. And I’m here to say that the right side is on the side of Jesus Christ. He is the one who reigns Supreme people in the world that think they’re in charge. They think they’re high rollers. How many know Jesus to create or the King of Kings is going to come back.
And there’s going to be one side when it’s all said, and, and it’s going to be those who proclaim the name of Jesus. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. It’s not a church thing. It’s not just for church people. It’s for all of creation will declare out of their own mouth. Jesus Christ is Lord. So whether a person’s religion or not, it doesn’t matter. Jesus still reigns. He’s the champion. He’s the Victor. He’s the one that we celebrate. It’s not me. It’s not anybody else here on the platform. Jesus is the one that we lift up Hawks. He’s the one we shipped. So, father, we would acknowledge you today as being the one that we focus on. The one is worthy of praise, the one worthy abortion. We lift our voice and shout, not just to be loud, not just to make a ruckus for Lord, to declare out of our own mouths.
What you’ve done to us and who you are that I am. Who you say I am. I’m not who I feel. I’m not who society tells me. I am. I’m I am. I’m not who my friends tell me I am. I am who you say that I am soloed. I just walk in that. I pray that we will walk in that I did it to you. That affirmation this for that. Jesus is the chip. God, we glorify you above all else. We’ll let your presence. Fill this place to overflowing. Fill our overflow room. All those watching online with a proper Mt. Carmel Church service. God, I pray that they will know that you are present with them. We love you, Lord Jesus. We give you all glory today in Jesus. Awesome name. Amen. Come on, lift your voice.
Give a shout of praise to God cheetah. We want to celebrate Jesus in our worship through communion. So if you want to get your communion elements right there in your seats, go, go ahead, and make your way. You can sit down. Don’t you hand me one? Sorry. I came up here equipped. Thank you. My lovely assistant. Hey, we want to worship the Lord with our communion. Jesus is the champion. Now here’s what we need to know. What is he a champion of? Why do we take communion? Why do we eat bread? Why do we drink the juice? Is it just a Christian Church? Formality? Is it something we go through the motions and just do it? No, we need to realize that Jesus overcame death. Hell the grave and sin. He’s the champion over that. And your Bible says that through him only through faith in him, do we get the victory? So Jesus has victory becomes my victory.
So when I’m taking communion, I’m remembering Jesus wanted for me. I don’t have to win it today. I don’t have to, I don’t have to win a battle today. Jesus already won the battle for me. So the bread’s going to represent the body of Jesus that was given for you. And for me, that home on the cross for us. So when you’re eating that bread, you’re partaking, you’re eating of the body of Jesus. When you’re drinking this juice that represents the blood of Jesus with us here at Mt. Carmel Church. The Bible says without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. So when you’re drinking that juice, you’re drinking forgiveness, you’re drinking the redemption that Jesus paid for. So let’s get the bread out and I’m going to pray over it. Father, I thank you for the body of Jesus Christ. I think it’s we eat this bread this morning. We’re remembering the body that hung on the cross for us, that body that was beaten for us, the body that was redeemed, resurrected, that we also could have resurrection lives. So God, we just thank you and we praise you. Jesus. We remember you and we honor you right now in Jesus name. Go ahead and eat the bread. Remember the body given to you.
The Bible says that Jesus took the cup, which represents his blood and he blessed it. Lord, I just thank you for the blood of Jesus that took my filthy sin and washed it away and made me white as snow. That my righteousness is not based on what I do. It’s based on what you did that by grace through faith, I am saved. It is all about the cross. It’s all about Jesus. It’s all about you, Lord. You are the one that’s worthy of worship this morning. So I thank you for paying the price for us. We’ve drunk today, remembering that blood applied to my sin and washes it away in Jesus’ mighty name. Come on, go ahead and drink the juice of sporty.
Remembering the blood of Jesus has washed away your sin. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We thank you for the price paid for us to make us brand new in Jesus’ name. Somebody say amen this morning. Amen. Amen. Hey, welcome to the roads church. So glad to have all of you with us. All of you watching our erodes family, watching online you in the overflow room. Great to have you with us this morning. All of our first-time guests and erodes family, can we write a search with our Mt. Carmel Church solutions? Can we give a big roads? Welcome to all of our first-time guests this morning, come on, make them feel welcome. Hero’s family. What’s up great to have you today. If you’re new to the roads, we’d love to connect with you in a couple of ways that we’d like to do that. Number one, you can text the word roads to this number (618) 243-0900.
You get this text, that one word Rhodes to that number. I just want to connect with you and help you in your next steps in getting connected here. Or you can take your connect card out. If you’re in one of our services, fill that out and market it. Then, a guest here, and you can take that to our next steps tables. We have them out there as you’re on your way out today. We want to connect. Sandra’s about attending a service. We want to help all of you in your next steps to get the top Mt. Carmel Church, in your relationship. So take that card out or text that word roads we want to make sure and help you follow in your journey with Lord. We’re glad to have you with us this morning. You bet. Glad to be in church today.
I remember I remember when we couldn’t be at church, so it’s great to be back. We love our erodes family, all those checking us out. We’re thankful for you also want to take a moment to pray over our ties and offerings. We love to worship God with our giving. The Bible says when we honor the Lord with the first fruits of our increase with our ties, Luna says that he rebukes the devour for us. Timing is a powerful part. It’s not just a fundraiser for the church. It’s a partnership. It’s an opportunity for me to give into my future, to sow into the provision of the kingdom of heaven. And we want to say thank you to all of you watching online that have given into the ministry here. We’re being able to reach people all around the world locally, be able to resource people, fun people, uh, help other ministries.
So we just want to say thank you that our generosity here collectively is helping us move mountains for the kingdom of God. We’re thankful for that. So if you’d like to give there are three ways that you can give, you can give online at our website, you can text to give, or if you’re in our services, you can give through your cash or check envelope. We’re not going to pass the buckets. You can put those into boxes on the back wall as you leave. But also don’t forget your connection card. There are prayer requests, but a place on there, tear that off and put that in our box as well. We love to pray for you every Tuesday. I’m looking for your prayer request. So if you’ve got something you’d like for me to pray for it, Mark that down, drop that in the box as well as pray for our ties and offerings.
Father, I just praise you for the opportunity to sell. I’ll pray that we’ll continue to have a generous heart. The Lord you give to us freely soloed. We sow back into you. We give it to you. We thank you, Lord. Do we have an opportunity to worship? You have the first fruits of all of our increase and we honor you mowed with the tie. We honor you with offering sweep. We pray that your seed, your, your increase Lord will touch lives and transform communities. That nation will be impacted by the seed that’s being planted in this place. God, we thank you for the blessed opportunity that you’ve given us to park with your vision to reach around the world as well as right here at our local region. We love you, Lord. We thank you that you rebuke the devour and your blessing. Everything that we’ve put our hand to do all the glory to you in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. Hey, today, we are glad to be in the house of God. We’ve got special guest speakers is going to be fantastic with our team here at Mt. Carmel Church. A good friend of mine, William Wood. You’re going to be blessed. You’ll be glad you came because he’s got a word for us. We’re going to roll the road snooze right here in a minute. Lets you know what’s happening. So you get caught up on what’s taking place here at the church and I’ll be right back out to introduce William. Be blessed.
Good morning Rhodes church. I’m Sophie, Neil. We want to welcome everyone. Joining us this morning at our North city campus, our Mount Carmel campus, and to all our erodes family joining us online this morning, we are excited to be living in Liberty this morning. As we worship in unity and give God all the glory. The road’s vision statement is connecting people with Jesus from all roads of life. And we believe that relationships make us stronger. It’s why God made us a family. He created us to be connected today. We want to do both. We want to connect you with Jesus and help you discover your next step, connecting you with people. So here are a few ways that help us help you get connected. If you’re joining us at one of our campuses this morning, we would love for you to visit our new next steps table.
On your way out today, our hosts are ready to help you. Whether you’re ready to get baptized, get more information about growth track, serve on the roads crew, or learn about freedom ministry. We believe everyone has the next step in their journey and the roads church wants to make every opportunity available for you to discover yours. If you’re joining us online today, we’d love to hear from you. If this is your first time joining the road’s church, please text the word roads to (618) 243-0900. If you need prayer today, text the word prayer to the same number of roads kids is back in session. During our 10:45 AM service at our North City campus only. I’m sad to say that currently, we do not have enough crew members for our roads, kids’ ministry. We are unable to hold road’s kid services at our Mount Carmel campus. And we have just enough crew to provide for only one of our Sunday morning services at our North city campus.
So if you are a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, if you have the gift of teaching, if you love children and you know that the Holy Spirit has been tugging on your heart to start investing in children and you truly want to invest. We want to let you know that we need you to be a part of our kid’s crew. We need investors. We need builders just like in Nehemiah. Right now we have gaps in holes in our wall here at the roads. We need builders to help build this part of Jesus’ kingdom. If you’re ready to invest in our children, stop by the next steps table after service and our host will be happy to connect you with stepping into this serving opportunity. The move youth group service for sixth grade through high school is being held on Wednesday nights at six 30, located at our North campus with us here at Mt. Carmel Church.
The move is also live on Instagram, Mondays, and Fridays at 8:00 PM. We have an amazing lineup of leaders ready to engage with you. Follow the move on Instagram at the move Y G and join the conversation. We have great tools for you to stay up to date on everything. You need to know. Take a few minutes to check out your worship guide. If you’re at one of our campuses today, grab the paper version. If you’re joining us online, our worship guide is now available on our website, along with a digital connect card. That’s all for the news on the road. We love you. Rhodes family and welcome
Come home. Amen. Thank you, Sophie. Great job. Hey, one thing I want to announce, uh, uh, uh, duh, forgot to mention. That’s what I was wanting to say. This Wednesday is the first Wednesday. So we’re going to have our first Wednesday service children’s ministry will be available. Come on and be a part of that. So a great time for us pressing in it’s going to be a fantastic service. To encourage you to come out and be a part of the first Wednesday here at Mt. Carmel Church. A lot of times we haven’t and uh, people don’t even know we haven’t announced on Sunday, so I wanna make sure I plugged that pretty come be apart for first Wednesday, everybody comes together. Are you through together with the adult children’s ministry? Uh, one year through fifth grade will have their own classes, but we will be together. I wanna introduce our speaker this morning. Uh, William Wood. We met last year almost a year ago.
This fall at the voice of apostles is Randy Clark’s conference. And, uh, William was speaking there, set in on one of his sessions. We got talking backstage and just got to know one another. And I thought, man, Hey, would you be interested in coming? And then obviously the coronavirus thing hit and we’re talking, should we go ahead and have him come back? And I’m like, yes, you need to come. You need to go ahead and come because you’re going to be blessed. He spoke to some of our leaders yesterday and it was off the hook. Incredible. So you’re going to be blessed with our Mt. Carmel Church services. Would you do a big road? Welcome to our friend William would come on. Come on. Are there any lovers of Jesus in the house? Come on. This is the King of Kings. Now, this is the Lord of Lords. This is the Redeemer. This is a healer. This is a justifier just as safe to fire. This is the one that is laid down his life for you. Are you excited? Jeez, come on. Woo.
Well, good morning family. I am super excited to be here. I have a confession to make and I confess as a minister. When your pastor picked me up Friday night at the airport and I was coming down and I saw him. I immediately repented for not working out. I looked at him and I looked at myself. I’m like, I’m a sinner I need to get right with Jesus. Sit up. How many of loving our past of the very amazing
Come on, skip on my hand. I love you guys. It must have been a privilege to get to know you even more so this weekend. So thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come and just share with you guys this morning. As the pastor said, my name is William Wood. I work with a ministry called global awakening. How many of you are familiar with that ministry? Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Dr. Randy Clark is the founder of that ministry and he is also my spiritual father. And just to give some context of what we do, we have a ministry that goes all around the world. Our main focus is training and equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Remember snow that Ephesians four says the fivefold ministry is for the equipping of the saints, not for the entertaining of the saints. Amen. That means every single one of us in this room, we have a part to play in the advancement of the kingdom when it comes to the top Mt. Carmel Church sermons. And so that means every one of us needs to identify and know what our function is within the body of Christ. Amen. And so that’s why we exist is to, is to raise up sons and daughters that can represent Jesus. Well, just this past year we saw over 500,000 people come to the Lord, come on now, come on up. I thought somebody
Be excited about that. Come on 500,000. And with that being said, I did bring some products with me. Now, keep this in mind. I do not bring the product to make money. I bring the product to make disciples. That’s why I bring the product. And I would encourage you to go out there and just look at some of the things that are brought with me at this time. I would like to sow a seed into someone’s life and to bless somebody with free teaching. Anybody that can get up here, the quickest can get this teaching right here. You’re also blessed you. And thank you for being an example of what faith looks like. How many of us know faith with top Mt. Carmel Church sermons? Isn’t about loving God. It’s about moving to you. I’ll let you think about that one for a while. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer and we’ll get started with this message, Father God, we just thank you so much for the honor and the privilege that we have as sons and daughters to gather together to worship you.
Lord Jesus obvious acknowledge you as the King of Kings and as the Lord of Lords in this, in this region, in this area, in this church, God, we lift you up and Lord, we thank you that we have the privilege to gather and to worship together as a family into, and to worship you, father Lord, even for myself, I ask that you would wear me like a glove this morning that you would communicate your word in your gospel and your message through me, with clarity, with wisdom, with a normal thing, and with understanding in the mighty name of Jesus and all God’s people said, well, this morning I wanted to talk to you about one of the most important subjects for the best Mt. Carmel Church options. The most important topic I believe there is in the body of Christ in scripture. And that is the family of God. I’m of a Snell that God has called us to be a part of a family, right?
As a matter of fact, you could even say it this way. The culture of heaven is family. Whoever snowed that the culture of heaven, his family, to get a big amen with that. That means that you and I are not just strangers, but we’re brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re not just people that gather together, but we’re sons and we’re daughters. And we brothers and we’re sisters that come together to serve and to worship Jesus cries. But now only his family, a pillar in the kingdom of heaven. I remember snow that family in its context is also a pillar in society.
Why do we think the enemy is working so hard right now to come against the context of family within our nation? I believe one of the answers that we have to bring unit teach of this nation right now to bring unity within our communities and unity within our society is the reestablishment of a healthy family. As a matter of fact, you could say it this way, 40 to 50% of marriages in America end in divorce but not here at Mt. Carmel Church, 35 to 40% of children in America grow up in a single-parent household. 25 to 30% of children in America grow up with unmarried parents. That means only 25 to 30% of children in America grow up with the potential of a healthy family.
What is the answer? It is Jesus, but who is also the answer you and I, as his sons and his daughters, you and I have his family placed on this earth to represent his values. What, what if you were the answer to the world’s problems? What if God placed you here with the assignment to bear his name, but to bear his kingdom, that’s a represent his values in everything that he is one, if you were God’s response to society right now,
Wow, You see a lot of times what we do as believers are we gather together and we pray for God to do what he is empowered us to do. I think his time right now, for us as sons and for us as daughters, as for us as the family of God to realize why are we here on this planet? That is to reveal the nature of God that is to reveal the values of heaven. And that is to re-establish within, within our society, what healthy family looks like.
So how can we do this? I believe there are two views that you need right now. I believe there are two sets of lenses that you need to put on your, on your, on your face right now and your eyes so that you can interpret life through these two views. The first view is this. We are to view ourselves as children to a heavenly father. The second one is this. We are to view people as spell old family members, let’s even make this more specific and more personal with our Mt. Carmel Church services. I am to view myself as a son to a father. And I am to view you as a brother and a sister. I believe these are the two sets of lands that we need right now. If we’re going to begin to establish family back into society, that we first need to begin with ourselves. How many of us know us?
It’s not about fixing the other person. It’s about understanding my response to what they do and see people’s bad actions and never determine your good deeds beat the way that people behave around me should never determine how Aubrey revealed Jesus and the process. You see what I look at in society. Whenever I go around every place that I go, I look at it as an opportunity for me to manifest Jesus in that region, in that environment, in that job, in that city, wherever I am, I look at it as an opportunity to rebuild my King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But if I’m going to be able to do that, then I have to view myself as a son, to a father. Does anybody know what I mean? If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter one and we’ll look at verse one.
It says God after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days, anybody think, but like we’re in the last days, we’ve actually been in the last days since Jesus went to the cross in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son who is the son of God, Jesus Christ, who is, who is our role model for Christianity, who was our role model for life? Jesus, the son, you see the words of Christ revealed the values of his kingdom because it says right here in Hebrews chapter one verse for our Mt. Carmel Church, one that he, the messenger in the last days is the messenger of his son. That means Jesus is the prophetic voice and the prophetic lens in which we are to interpret life. So the message that he carried is the same message that you and I are to carry.
And so that message reveals the values of his kingdom. It’s just making sense. And one of the things that he revealed in his words was one that I am a son to a heavenly father. Jesus would often refer to himself as a son, and he would offer, refer to the father to God as a father. Why is this important? Because we need to look to Jesus so that we can look through Jesus. You see, you first have to look to Jesus to see the model that we are to have as sons and daughters on this earth. In other words, the life that Jesus lived reveals the type of relationship you can have with God because Jesus not only lives for you. He lived like you. He role modeled the life and lifestyle of every single believer that is to walk this earth. In other words, when you look at the person of Jesus, you’re looking at a mirror image of your created purpose and value, come on.
That makes me excited, man. I knew my little Pentecostal hop would come at some point. I just, love Jesus so much. Why is this important to have this view? Why is it so important to look to Jesus? Because when I look to Jesus, I begin to see a clear picture of my purpose, of the value of my relationship, my personal relationship with my heavenly father. That’s what looking to Jesus reveals. But once I look to him, now I’m able to look through him. Isn’t that good? Why do I look through Jesus? Because now he becomes the lens in which I interpret life through. And whenever you begin to interpret life through the lens of Jesus, you know, you no longer see people as they are. You see people as they were created to be.
Isn’t that good? What would life look like around you when you are hanging out at Walmart or going to Lowe’s and remodeling your home over these past quarantined months, anybody, anybody remodeled their house? I know I purposely bought a home. I didn’t have to remodel and my wife still convinced me to remodel my house. So thank you, babe, if you’re watching this morning with our best Mt. Carmel Church sermons. So how about a Snell where we are called to reveal Jesus. And so when we go into society, we don’t need to see people as they are. We need to see people as they were created to be. And when I looked through the lens of Jesus, now I’m looking at how I’m going to respond instead of how they’re going to behave.
How much better would your life be? If you were completely set free from yourself so that you can live like Jesus, you see, this is the beauty of the gospel. This is the beauty of what God has done from us. Not only has he set us free from people, not only has, has he set us free from my own inabilities, but he also set us free so that we can reveal him and walk like him on this earth. And so this is why it’s important that we must develop this belief system that I am assigned to a heavenly father. Most people have this picture that God is in the sky, somewhere in the way that we can get his attention is if I scream louder than the next person, or by pray longer than the next person, then that’s how I capture his attention. Now, do you know when you have the attention of the father, as soon as you open your mouth to say, Papa, Oh, you see, God is omnipresent?
That means he is your personal God. He’s walking with you every single step of the way, every single moment of your life. God, the father is right there with you. And so when you look to Jesus, you saw a beautiful example of what your life can look like now, what’s your life is designed to be. And then when you look through Jesus, you look at what God’s creation was designed to be a matter of fact, it says this right here and Romans chapter eight, verse 15 with the top Mt. Carmel Church. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s spirit. When he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him ABO father, come on. Now, somebody has got to get excited in this house for his spirit, joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. Did you hear what I just said?
His spirit joins with your spirits. Wow. That is a beautiful thing. When you look to Jesus, you’re looking at fully human and fully God in a similar way. You and I as born again, believers, you’re a fully human yet. You’re filled with God’s spirit yet. His spirit has joined with your spirit. Do you realize that’s what the new creation is when I am born again? That means my spirit is now regenerated by being placed in union with God. First Corinthians chapter six, verse 17 says the one who has joined himself to the Lord has become one spirit with him. In other words, in your spirit right now, you look just like Jesus, man. That’s good news in the same way that he is Holy, you are Holy in the same way that he is righteous. You are righteous in the same way that he is pure Europe, pure in your spirit.
Right now you’re an exact image of Jesus Christ. Isn’t that beautiful? See, this is why it’s important. If we’re going to establish healthy family back into society, then I have to understand, I must son to a heavenly father, and I need to view people as created to be the second view that I want you to operate in and walk in and put on yourself so that you can see and interpret life through with the top Mt. Carmel Church services. This is we are to view people as fellow family members. We are to view everybody around us as brothers and sisters in Christ. Now I’m going to look at a passage of scripture. You may not think that this has for what we’re talking about, but I will explain this Luke chapter 15 one and two begins to lay this foundation for the parables that that is released in this chapter. And it says this.
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming, coming near to him to listen. This is referring to Jesus, both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble saying this man receives sinners and eats with them. Everybody say center, everybody says the religious person. You see this, these two verses right here, reveal number one, I value system that Jesus came to this earth for, but it also reveals the response of the religious community to that value system in this is going to be important to make this connection. What is the first thing that is revealed right here? Jesus has a value system for the loss. Come on. Now, this would make you excited. Anybody ever been lost in here? As Jesus came, listen, Jesus came to rebuild this value system of heaven in that value system of heaven is that I have come here to redeem people. I have come here to restore family because this is what you need to get by here. Jesus did not come to simply save sinners. He came to redeem, lost children when it comes to the top Mt. Carmel Church.
Wow. And what happened was that, what’s the next thing that’s revealed in this verse right here, the religious people did not like the fact that Jesus was hanging out with people that needed help. The religious people are like, why are you hanging out with those dirty rotten sinners? Why aren’t you hanging out with those drugs? Why are you hanging out with those prostitutes? Why aren’t you hanging out with those people? You see the religious person thinks their holiness is found in their separate race and from centers instead of a union with Christ. Do you see what was Jesus trying to address right here? He’s trying to reveal a value system of heaven to no longer view people as dirty rotten sinners, but actually, as lost children that need redemption, it’s. So he’s literally saying this right here. I’m putting the set of lenses on your eyes so that when you go into society and look at the world, you do not look at people is dirty.
Rotten sinners. You look at them as a fellow brother, as a fellow sister that needs to reconcile record reconciliation back onto their heavenly father. Now, does that mean every single body is going to be restorative redeem? Absolutely not. But that doesn’t mean that we should not advance the kingdom. That doesn’t mean that we should not view people as, as a fellow and sister in Christ. Does that make sense? Now in this right here, this is the context and is painted in Luke chapter 15, verse 11. He gets all the way to parable, which is known as the parable of the prodigal son. Anybody ever read that parable before? Okay you need the top Mt. Carmel Church services. Two people, Luke chapter 15, verse 11, when it gets to this parable right here. How much of a snow, but this parable isn’t just about that one lawson. It’s about three merging characters that are coming together.
It’s about, uh, it’s about two brothers or two sons and a loving heavenly father. Matter of fact, the proper heading for that parable is the parable of the loving father, not the parable of the prodigal son, because we’ve so highlighted. The one son that we have forgotten about the father’s response to the son and also the brother’s response to the brother or the other brother’s response to the redemption of his sibling. Because we all remember when we go through this parable, the other brother’s response was this, why are you blessing this brother he’s been going on? He spent all of your inheritance. He’s been doing this and he’s been doing that. And why are you blessing him? You see, that’s why a lot of religious people respond, to the redemption of those bound in darkness.
So no, you and I, as a family is to celebrate people’s redemption, not get offended that God, the father is blessing them. Instead of you, you see Luke chapter 15, verse 11 begins this parable. And I want you to notice how Jesus is reconciling the religious to the loss. And he makes a statement and he said, unto them, a man had two sons. What is Jesus doing right here? He’s trying to get the religious person to see through a different set of lands. You have been viewing these people as sinners. You’ve been viewing these people as dirty rotten, rotten people that are bound that you need to stay away from. But I have come here to put on a new set of lenses for you. If, for you to no longer look at them as something to stay away from what we have in store for you here at Mt. Carmel Church, but for you to look at them as someone to run to, do you realize that the darkness that’s in the world is the church’s responsibility to do something about it. Now some of the darkness that we see in the world is a sign of times, but I feel 50% of the darkness that we see in the world is a sign of a church. Not realizing her role and responsibility.
Isn’t this good? What would your life look like? What would society look like? What would your job look like? What would, what would your school like if you came into that arena, you came into that environment and you viewed people as brothers and sisters, and you viewed yourself as a son with a heavenly father. And you view people according to their creative purpose and value. Instead of looking at the behavior, you’re looking at the original design, what would society look like all around us? If we went through life with this set of lens families, I hope I’m painting a picture that you beginning to see the redemption that God wants to bring about through the people of God. Now for the people of God, it’s always been God’s intention to blow through his creation.
To reveal his glory, to hit this point, home a little, a little further in second Corinthians, chapter five, verses 16 through 20. It reveals the ministry that you and I are to carry as sons and daughters as brothers and sisters. It’s just verse 16. Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one. According to the flesh, even though we have known Christ, according to the flesh, yet we know him in this way, no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold new things have come. Now all of these things are from God who listens to this, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. And now he defines what the ministry of reconciliation consists of. Namely that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself with our Mt. Carmel Church solutions, by not counting their trespasses against them. Do you want to know what the ministry of reconciliation is not counting their trespasses against them home, man, this is good stuff. I love the Bible. And it’s just, and he has committed to us. The word of reconciliation, not the word of judgment.
Do you realize when you start to accuse, you’ve come under the spirit of the antichrist anyway, and he has committed to us a word of reconciliation. Therefore, we listen to this. We, as the people of God, we, as the family of God, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us. Listen to this. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled unto God. And so what is the assignment of the family of God? My not counting their trespasses against them.
Do you realize what the standard that the Bible calls you to it? Matthew chapter five, he says we are to bless our enemies. We are to pray for those that curse us. This is a new set of lands. This is a new way of living. This is how we’re going to re-establish family and society. When we stop judging and start reconciling, you see, listen to this. Listen to me, family God’s judgment is not about punishment. It’s about justice and that’s true.
And God’s justice is anchored in the fact that while you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you that while you were yet that atheist that while you were yet that drug addict, that while you are the end, that one that was bound while you, while you were that Judas, while you were that one that was bound, Christ died for you. That’s the ministry of reconciliation. Are you seeing it? Listen, family. I could stand up here and I can tell you all the things that I should be able to Harbor things against people with. I’ve buried 12 people in my family, seven of my friends were murdered by another friend that I, that I spent time with almost on a daily basis. I have things in my life that I can hold against people. I have things in my life that I can look at them and demonize them. But what we are not called to demonize humanity, we’re not called to demonize people. Listen, when we realize that every one of us is created in the image of God, then we understand the value of every person created. And when you demonize people, you demonize the image of God.
Is this hitting home with anybody? Do you see family? This is the assignment that we have as sons to a father. His brothers and sisters in the family of God are that we have an opportunity on a daily basis to reveal a new set of values from us here at Mt. Carmel Church, to reveal kingdom it’s to bring reconciliation and redemption to those that are bound in darkness. And I’m going to say it, and I’m going to say it again. Everybody deserves redemption.
You see when I was an atheist overdosed on drugs and an angel appeared to me in my hospital room and preached the gospel to me, I have a smell. I have an understanding of righteousness because I know my flaws and I know my mistakes and I know my sins and I know my unbelief and I know my darkness and I know my history. Then I know my background, but I also know a King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. They did not hold those things against me. Also know a heavenly father that says, wow, you are yet a sinner.
I know I get a little bit loud. I give him a little bit excited, but when you live the life to I’ve live to meet the Jesus that I’ve met, you can’t help, but to get excited, you can’t help, but to get the choice, you cannot help yourself. It goes on to say this in Romans chapter 12, four, and five, and even bring us into a more tight-knit function here. And it says for justice, we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function. So we’d not. I, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another, not only are you, brothers and sisters, you’re actually parts of each other’s body for your Mt. Carmel Church services. Hema takes us into a more clear definition of things. He says we are, we are to picture each other as one functioning unit on this earth, one functioning body on this earth to reveal Jesus. And so what the enemy tries to do is he tries to get you to compare your function to your neighbor’s function. Do you realize comparison is the sacrifice of contentment? You are no longer content with who God designed you to be. As long as you compare yourself to somebody else because you will often compare your weakness to their strength.
The reality is that you are so significant that the body of Christ is incomplete without you. That’s the beauty of your design. That’s the beauty of your significance. That my value, that my purpose, that my calling is divinely connected to your purpose in my life is so when I reject you, I reject an aspect that completes me. See, this is the beauty of this kingdom. This is the beauty of the way God has designed us is that every single one of us is born and original. So stop dying. I copy. When you, when you desire to be somebody else, it’s a sin against your own design. And what happens is when you desire to be somebody else, you’re robbing the world of an aspect of a nature of God that nobody else can reveal.
That’s how much of an original Gour, that’s how significant you are within the body of Christ. That’s how significant you are with them. The family of God, that without you, the fullness of Jesus can not be revealed That doesn’t get you excited. Your wood is wet. We need to drive it out a little bit. Maybe ask yourself, Well, we, and what kind of response do I need to have with here at Mt. Carmel Church? And I’m going to get to that in just a moment. I have I’m running out of time here. I want you to go all the way to Ephesians spore. I want to paint one last picture for you. Is this blessed to anybody this morning,
Ephesians four verse 11 says, and he gave some as apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some as pastors and teachers for the entertaining of the, for the work of service. That’s not what the Bible says is it, it says for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, it says this to the building up of the body of Christ until we all, I love the Bible until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the statute, which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Now, here we here, we get to the portion I want us to look at. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men with our Mt. Carmel Church services, by craftiness and deceitful skimming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supply. Now listen to this. According to the proper working of each individual part, you and I cause the growth of the body for the building up, up, up itself in
You see, do you realize that the fullness of cries revealed in this world is contingent upon your individual function operating properly. And so when you move on to give it to understand your significance within the beautiful picture of the family of God, then you will take more seriously. What my growth is within the beautiful picture of the entire scheme.
He may be asking you simple, William, how can I practically apply this to my life on an individual basis? I want to give you three values of a healthy family. These values can, you can use to establish a healthy home or these values are what you can use going into society to put this into practice on a daily basis. The first one is, is the first value of a healthy family is community. This is not the only value, but it’s the one that I want to highlight right now. Why is community important? Because it provides a place for people to belong to the best here at Mt. Carmel Church. You see community provides a place for people to belong. You may not be that extrovert. That is very good at building friends and developing friendships and creating community. You may be that extreme introvert that has better one on one, but every single one of us can create an opportunity for people to belong with us. Let me ask you about when people get around you, do they belong or do they feel rejected?
See, we have an opportunity in practical application that whenever we go into society, we send out a signal by our words and by our actions, by our lifestyle that says you belong with me. The second value of a healthy family is unity. You see unity provides togetherness. Unity provides togetherness. In other words, when people get around you, they need to know that you are with them. Even when you disagree, you see unity is not about agreement. It’s about the fact that you’re a part of the family, and I’m going to fight with you. And I’m going to walk with you and I’m going to be with you regardless. The situation I am here and I’m United.
The third quality or value of a healthy family is safety. You see safety provides protection and what the world is seeking right now is community. And what the word is seeking right now is unity. And what the world is seeking right now is safety within the context of community, within the context of family, because they know when they get around you, they can let their hair down and they can let all of this stuff come out because they know in your presence with the top Mt. Carmel Church services, they are protected because love covers a multitude of sins. Why does love cover sin? Not so that you could continue in sin, but so that you can deal with it under the protection of love.
See, I want to take a moment. I want to pray for two groups of people right now, the first group of people is all of us that are believers. All of us realize and understand that we are sons of a father, but we have failed. I’m not trying to judge or condemn, but I’m trying to bring awareness to something, but we have failed to reveal our relationship with the heavenly father to the world. And if that is you at us want you to close your eyes for a moment. I’m not going to ask anybody to highlight themselves, but I want us all to just close our eyes and bow our heads. I want to pray for your father. I just come before you as a son and also stand in the place as the body of Christ is in place as the family of God is Lord, I repent for not valuing people in the same way that you valued them. I repent for disassociating myself from the people you’ve called me to reconcile and redeem, but I asked that your, your word in your blood and your grace, and your spirit will Quicken my heart and Quicken my mind so that I can see myself as an answer to society.
The second group of people I want to pray for right now is I feel that they may be people in here right now that you do not know Jesus as savior. You don’t have a context of a family in this way that I’ve been talking about. Well, I want to give you an opportunity right now to respond. By acknowledging Jesus as your savior and with every head bowed and every eye closed. If that is you, I just want you to wave your hand so I can see you wave your hand so I can see want us all to say this prayer together. See this as a family, Lord Jesus. I know that you are the son of God That you died on the cross for my sin. You roll again, huh? Now acknowledge you as savior as Lord. And I receive you like that in my life in Jesus mighty name.
Hey, we want to give an opportunity for prayer. Our ministry team is coming forward. We’ve got some words of knowledge they want to get to you today. Want to give quick testimony last week? I don’t know if you remember. We had a word of knowledge about a Lyme disease and in Mount gutter, Mount Carmel campus, during the service, there was a girl, 10 years old who had been diagnosed with Lyme disease. Now the word of knowledge didn’t come to the end of the circus, where she’s in worship. And she was having stomach pain and sore muscles when working with the top Mt. Carmel Church employees. She was trying to worship, but she couldn’t because she was hurting. And she began all of a sudden to feel some heat on her body. And then all the pain was suddenly gone. And she went and told her mom said, God just heal me. And it wasn’t until at the end of the service they’re watching. And I give the word of knowledge about Lyme disease and the whole Mount Carmel campus, just erupts and praise
Because of what God did. So thank you Jesus for that. So here want to give some, if you want to go and stand your feet, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to end in prayer and ministry. William’s going to be available. If you need prayer this morning, someone dealing with maybe overwhelming stress in your life. It seems to just be overwhelming you in some capacity, one will pray for that. Someone was having chest pains on the right side of their body. Someone dealing with pain on the very inside of the mid to lower right shoulder blade right next to the spine. To give you some specifics on where the pain would be. I also heard the words, a Botox injection, and even look this up. Cause they were concerned about giving this, but it could be used to treat conditions such as neck spasms, excessive sweating, an overactive bladder, lazy eye, lots of possibilities for preventing migraines, Botox injections.
So you may have one perspective on what that means, but it may not. Maybe something different for you. Any of those are particular to you. We want to pray for those, but if you need healing for anything else, something’s going in your life, physically, something on your job, maybe you praying about your relationship with God. Again, William’s going to be available. If you’d like prayer, we just want to enter in her time right now. If you just step forward then us here with Mt. Carmel Church are in for a treat, if you need prayer, make your way to the front father. I just thank you that you, the healer Jehovah, Rapha, the Lord who heals, and we just praise you right now that your presence begins to do what? No one else can do pain begin to go. Even in your presence, Lyme disease just goes away in your presence. Chronic disease, pain leaves, terminal diseases, faith.
They bow to the name of Jesus. So God, we just release our faith to grab hold of your miracle. Today. When we lift our voice and shout miracle, start breaking out through the authority of Jesus’ name. I declare healing to happen right now. God give you all the praise overflow room right here in the auditorium. Those watching online, what I praise you for healing to come in the name of Jesus. We give you praise glory to your name. God glory to your name. God, come on you offer the best Mt. Carmel Church around. If you need prayer, go ahead and make your way to the front. If you want prayer to, they want God to touch your life. We’ll just let God minister right now. Lean into what God said. What’s God speaking to you through the message.
We worship you in this place. Jesus, I have the Come on Lord. We give you praise. Come. Holy spirit. Now you’re going to love people. Just receive the love of God for the people around you, for your brothers and sisters. Let the love of God deposited in your heart. We are who you say, you crown me with a calm I just pray right now that we will apply this word into our hearts. If you’re watching online or here in the room, here’s the part that I think is so powerful. What’s going on in our world. I mean, he knows that hatred and a Massetti is running rampant in our world. Who’s going to show the love of God, to people who don’t deserve it. How many of you have felt that temptation to point at the actions of people and determine your love level based on what they’re doing or not doing. God’s calling us to a higher level of love. He’s calling us to a higher level than we’re not syncing judgment, but on their behavior. We’re taking our responsibility. So, Lord, I thank you for baptizing us in the love of God, filling us with the love of God that we look at people as our brothers and sisters, we will look at each other as family members that we will walk in that identity, that we are sons and daughters of God.
That’s who we are. We are your creation. We are a family. Lord. I just thank you that you will use us Lord to be ambassadors of reconciliation. We will reconcile, reconcile people back to your love. God, we give you praise and glory for the love that you poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And I pray this week. We will love our neighbor as ourselves. We will love our coworker or coworker. We will love people that are not like us. Don’t look like us. Don’t act like us. Don’t talk like us. We will love them with the love of God the people here with Mt. Carmel Church are just. Thank you for opportunities to show them and reconcile them to you in Jesus’ name, buddy. Dave, do you agree with that? This morning? Say amen. Amen. Amen. Come on. We love you guys. If you need prayer, go ahead and make your way to the front. We’d love to pray with you. God bless you. Have a great rest of your week. Erodes family. We love you. Thank you for checking us out this morning. Have a great rest of your week.