I AM PASTOR DEB

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This morning I want to talk to you about your brand.  The word brand is defined as a distinctive characteristic, a reputation, or identity.  It can also refer to a mark or a label  which gives indication of who the  manufacturer is  and outlines the  standard of quality.

It is funny, we live in a culture where everyone is obsessed with having and wearing brand names.  We are easily impressed by the car someone drives, the designer labels they wear and the amount of money they spent or this and that.

We say we want independence, and freedom to be ourselves, but consistently strive to have another person’s name, another brand validate and define our worth.  I want to slow it down just a bit and make sure you grasp the totality of the mindset of so many.

To be considered relevant today, you are required to have certain things, manufactured by select  brands, to validate what is deemed as the perfect status, a status that declares we have reached a point of a certain level of accomplishment and all of these standards, principles and guidelines have be escalated and outlined by the quote unquote, elite,  who are just as imperfect as we are. 

But the one who is perfect, who is more concerned with our heart than our outer appearance, His validation is rarely considered.  As a matter fact if you attempt to strive to please Him, those tainted with imperfections look at you strange.

In Galatians 1:10 Paul was talking to believers about how they had turned their backs on the doctrine of Jesus Christ, how they were living their lives as if they forgot who God was and who they belong to.  Paul began to ask them in an effort to get them to see themselves.  Do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No, God is the One I am trying to please. Paul goes on to say…. If I still wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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2 Kings 22
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 13 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”

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LET'S PRAISE GOD - Always looking out for me

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Galatians 6:9 

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

2 Corinthians 12:9  

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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This morning I want to talk to you about implementation of strategies for the Kingdom of God.  Each and everyone of us was created with an assignment, an assignment that goes beyond your work, your volunteer work, your church service and your parenting.  

Each of us was created and dispatched from the Kingdom of heaven to strategically be part of the shifting of the culture of earth to implement the culture of heaven.

The problem is most of us have not embraced the simplicity of the assignment given us, so we are living our lives out of alignment.  

For lack of a better word, playing the wrong game, with the wrong motives and by the wrong rules.  It’s like we are stuck playing checkers, when we should be playing chess.

In checkers, all the game pieces move in the same way. In chess, you move each piece differently based on its ability. The Wise, those committed to the mandate of God, focus on the Kingdom of God conducting their lives like play chess, not checkers. 

Now I want you not to get stuck on the board games that you are familiar with, it's not about the board game.  Yes believers can play the board game of checkers and have a strong connection and commitment to God.  

I personally don’t even know how to play chess, but I am telling you that after doing my research and pulling all the facts together to deliver you this message, I am really going to put forth an effort to learn to play chess.  

What I want you to understand this morning is about the principles of the games and the lessons concerning the games, for they can truly help it outlining foundations principles for our life strategies.

What I learned is some people like playing checkers and have never moved past mastering the principles of checkers to explore chess, because they deem chess as too complicated, too intense, and time consuming.

Those of us who know how to play checkers likely learned when we were children, it is an easy game to teach children, and which introduces them to thinking strategically.  

But children grow into adults and have to face multiple challenges, deal with various kinds of people and situations, faced with challenges that will require them to utilize more in depth strategies to survive. 

We as Christians, as believers experience the same thing and if our life strategies, our evangelistic strategies, our approach to life is the same today as it was when we first received salvation, that means we have settled for just learning to play checkers and never pursued grasping the principles of chess.

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  

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Why has apologies become a thing of the past?  None of us are perfect, which means there are going to be times when we do things, say things, and react wrongly to situations. The godly thing to do is admit in the midst of your imperfect dwelling on this earth, once again you messed up and apologize.

Apologizing. Ugh! Most of us hate to have to do it. It’s hard to admit when we were wrong and even harder to ask someone to forgive us. Even if an incident occurs and each of you owe the other an apology, those of us who say we serve the King of Kings should apologize, whether the other person apologizes or not.  Our apology should first and foremost be done because of the relationship we have with God, because we respect His Word as true.

Apologizing is part of seeking humility, and humility is a character quality God holds in high esteem. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will exalt you.” Apologizing humbles us by reminding us that we are not perfect and we need forgiveness from God and from other people.

And here is a newsflash that I am sure we also don’t want to accept. Many times simply saying “I’m sorry” is not a full apology because it does not take into account the level of wrong done. There are times when we accidentally bump into someone or say something we shouldn’t. Those little errors, done without evil intent, are easy to apologize for with an “I’m sorry.” 

But when we have truly wronged someone,when you have intently spewed words to degrade or belittle someone that person needs us to validate the pain we caused. A real apology sounds something more like this: “I was wrong to ________. I know I hurt you and I am sorry that I did. Would you please forgive me? How can I make this right?”

King Saul gave us an example of an insufficient apology. He disobeyed a direct command from the Lord, and Samuel confronted him. Saul at first denied any wrongdoing but, when pressed, admitted he had sinned against God. Still, he blamed his wrongdoing on a desire to please the people . He was sorry he got caught but not humble enough to truly admit his wrong. God was not impressed with Saul’s apology and took his kingdom from him .

When we know we have wronged God or someone else, God expects us to make it right. We make things right with God by repenting of that sin, confessing it to Him, and receiving His forgiveness (1 John 1:9). We make things right with others by apologizing—admitting our wrong, asking for forgiveness, and offering to make restitution. When we have wronged someone else, we should do whatever we can to make it right.  (Matthew 5:23–24) Being reconciled to an offended brother or sister should be a top priority.

We have families torn, friends at odds with each other, dynamic business deal crushed all because of pride and arrogance.  Issues that could easily be solved with the admittance of wrong, an apology and forgiveness.

We were created to dwell together in a spirit of unity and since we were not created perfect, know that humility is the only path of harmony.

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We have heard the expression the writing is on the wall, not really knowing the origin of cliche. “the handwriting on the wall,” which proclaims  a clear warning of inevitable misfortune.”

The cliche’s origin comes from the book of Daniel  chapter 5  as it tells the story of the Babylonian ruler Belshazzar, a rich and debauched king, who gave a banquet to his court. During the drunken party, the sacred vessels which were stolen from the temple were being used in a  blasphemous manner. In other words they were defacing what had been sanctified, set aside as holy.

At the height of the festivities, a man’s hand was seen writing on the wall the mysterious words “mene mene tekel upharsin”. The king became terrified, wondering what is this, what is happening, how is this happening. Not only did the fact that the writing was appearing with no apparent person writing it. 

To further complicate and ignite fear no one could understand what the words meant. All attempts at interpretation by Belshazzar’s wise men failed until the prophet Daniel was called in.

Daniel was one of the captives from Judah brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was given wisdom from God to read and translate the words, which meant “numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.” 

Daniel told the king, “Here is what these words mean: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” 

The handwriting on the wall proved true. In fact, it proved fatal for the dissolute Belshazzar. Just as Daniel had said, the kingdom of Babylon was divided between the Medes and Persians, and it happened that very night. Belshazzar was slain, and his kingdom passed to Darius the Mede (Daniel 5:30–31).

The appearance of the writing on the  king’s wall is a reminder that whatever we sow, that we will also reap (Galatians 6:7–8). God is the Judge; He justly weighs all matters and metes out retribution in His time (Psalm 94:2). 

Sometimes God speaks very clearly into our lives, convicting us of sin and warning us of pending judgment (see John 16:8). It does not pay to ignore the “handwriting on the wall.”

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This is a question that was posed and it threw me for a loop for two reasons; one, because sin is pretty straightforward and uncut.  The second reason this question threw me for a lot is because I was trying to think of the mindset of the one who submitted the question.  And what possible situation the person posing the question could think of that would excuse sexual sin.

We live in a world where sex is handled in such a casual manner, it is just as much of the dating process as going to dinner and holding hands, as a matter of fact, dinner and hand holding is no longer even a prerequisite to sex. 

Sexual behavior is considered a personal choice, aligning with the decision of whether to buy a house or rent a condo. At the same time, popular opinion has ALL BUT  removed the word sin from our culture’s vocabulary. The only sexual expression considered “wrong” is what is deemed distasteful to the one defining it.

Fortunately, man has never been given the privilege of defining sin. The One who created sexuality also has the right to set the boundaries for it, and the Bible is clear about the guidelines.  

I like to compare sex to electricity.  Electricity is a phenomenal invention, without it we would stagnate professionally, and in every aspect of our personal lives.  However, as great as electricity is, it doesn’t come free; someone has to pay the cost for it to remain consistent in any situation.  Electricity also has the ability to be influential in providing pleasure as well as pain.

Electricity also comes with boundaries, and rules, which if disobeyed or ignored could lead to death, irrevocable damage, destruction of property, and ultimately darkness.

When God created Adam and Eve, He joined them together in marriage and pronounced it “very good”.  At that time, God introduced sexuality and set the boundaries for its expression. God created a union between a husband and wife that He called “becoming one flesh”.

 God designed male and female bodies differently so that they could come together in an act of physical intimacy, an act that joins them together like  pieces to a puzzle coming together to make one complete picture of beauty. 

The act of becoming one creates a new entity: a family. This powerful force of sex was designed as a gift from God to bring forth new life and lay the foundation for the establishing a godly culture shaped and form out of godly families, upon which God’s intention was to strengthen His Kingdom. 

God then defined any sexual activity outside of the husband-wife relationship as a violation of His gift.  Hence making Fornication, homosexuality, pornography, and lust all violations of God’s intent when He created the sexual act.

Now we are all aware that everything God creates as good, to bless us, Satan perverts. When we use sexuality for entertainment or for the sole purpose of satisfying our lust, we cheapen the beauty of this gift and defy the One who designed it.  Any time you violate, cheapen or take for granted what God created to bless you there are consequences of our sin. 

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I want to tell you all this morning that you can absolutely disagree with someone and still love them.  We have been duped into thinking that love is based on the total acceptance of every opinion, thought, action and reaction of another.   And that is just not true

We’ll never completely agree with another person on everything. Not even our spouse or best friend. Of the nearly eight billion people in the world right now, there’s not a single person like you. That means there won’t be anyone with your exact viewpoint on life, politics, money, relationships, or religion. You are uniquely you, and so is the person next to you.

Even though we’re all different, we can still love others. Why is it important to love people when we clearly don’t see eye to eye with? Because Jesus said so. He said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34 NIV). When Jesus commanded us to love others, He didn’t say that we had to agree with them first. So, what does love look like?

Love considers others first.

Love looks for the best.

Love shows respect.

Love seeks unity.

Love isn’t selfish.

Love offers the best.

Love displays patience.

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When I was the youth director at my former church, our  teen ministry had a “board of directors” made up of teens that kept us in the loop as to teen life, so that we could minister to them more effectively.  You know names mean something, in some cases your name ties you to your legacy.  

We decided that our teen ministry needed a name that would tie them to their spiritual legacy.  We discussed scriptures and the goals of our teen ministry and allowed the teen board of directors to come up with 3 names they deem suitable for the teen ministry and then we presented those names to the rest of the teens and allowed them to vote on the name of the ministry.  They decided on “Heirs To The Throne”.

My former Pastor and myself were so delighted when they unanimously voted to be called “Heirs To The Throne”, because of how impactful it is to know who you are, your place, your legacy and what you are entitled to. (the importance of history -what are you tied to)

We have been studying Galatians, for the same reason. It is imperative as believers that we understand who we are in the Kingdom of God and even more importantly whose we are in the Kingdom of God.  

We look around and people, are running a muck, priorities distorted, values almost non-existent, women prostituting themselves, either outright or on the low.  Our men have been deceived and have no sense of what it means to be a man.  (because they are not tied to anything, don’t really know their capabilities, are disconnected from the triumphs of their legacies that came before them)

We have men and women who say they believe in God, but don’t present themselves, physically, spiritually, or emotionally, like they are tied to who the Almighty is.  

In the entire book of Galatians Paul is trying to explain to those who are Heirs to The throne because of their salvation, that they are discounting the jewels of their inheritance by operating as if their own works, impress the one who their inheritance came from.

What impresses a King is when their heirs understand and embrace the magnitude of what they have been gifted, what they are entitled to by no efforts of their own, what they have complete access to by just being born into royalty.  

We have all heard of the tiff with Prince Harry and him distancing himself from his royal position.  Without even exploring the rightness  or wrongness, or any justification of what and why he chose to distance himself, you can best believe the attitude of the Kingdom is not favorable because they deem him as ungrateful for what was given him because of his birthright.

As children of God we have a birthright.  Galatians 4:28-29 You and I, dear brothers, are the children that God promised, just as Isaac was. 29 And so we who are born of the Holy Spirit are persecuted now by those who want us to keep the Jewish laws, just as Isaac, the child of promise, was persecuted by Ishmael, the slave-wife’s son.

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