Peter Roselle: Answer Cries for Help with the Love of God (John 15:9-13)

00:05 - It says, Peter and Trisha Roselle, the Spirit of the Lord says, “Son and daughter, I’m going to bring you into a new season in your house, (that means this church), and in what I called you to be, called you to in being a storehouse ministry.

00:21 - As I was up here on the platform, (as she was speaking to us, she said), I just felt like the Lord was unlocking vaults to you and inside the vaults are both spiritual resource as well as natural resources.

00:33 - And I feel like the Lord is saying that this is going to be a season that you’re going to move into the “more” in what God has called you to build and to establish.

00:43 - I see that God is going to cause you to be a resource to your region, both as an apostolic prophetic hub but also as a distribution center of the manna from heaven of the Word of God and the work that needs to go out to actually penetrate.

00:59 - And the Lord says, He is going to raise watchmen in your house.

01:02 - He’s going to raise a company of prophetic watchmen that are going to be in your house so they are going to start downloading revelation from heaven.

01:11 - But I also see God raising up an amazing company of business leaders in your house that are going to have a kingdom mindset to begin to break into a new season.

01:20 - The third thing I see that God is going to give you resources for worship.

01:27 - And I feel like there are anointed prophetic worship leaders that are going to start to come into the house because they’re going to catch the vision of what God has called the two of you to do.

01:39 - And that worship anointing is going to catapult you into a new place of his presence.

01:44 - And the Lord says that presence is going to bring in the younger generation (somebody shout for that one!) She had no idea what we were doing about Feeding Hands and the youth that I described that meeting when there was 150 young people here that night.

02:02 - But she didn’t have to know anything. We trust her gift.

02:05 - She’s a strong prophet and she didn’t know anything about anything that we were doing.

02:10 - We hadn’t talked in advance. This is just what the Lord was giving her.

02:13 - “And so the Lord says, son and daughter, get ready because I’m unlocking spiritual vaults over you.

02:19 - And I will resource you with everything you need to advance in this new season, says the lord.

02:28 - Amen. “ So, I would like you to keep this somewhere where you can remind yourself what the Lord is saying over us.

02:40 - If you’re new to the prophetic, you’re right to be like the Bereans and check the Bible.

02:45 - You really need to do that. You shouldn’t just trust anybody that comes along.

02:51 - If we put somebody in the pulpit here, it’s because we know them and we trust them and we’re in relationship with them.

02:57 - That doesn’t mean they are perfect but boy, are they courageous! Yeah.

03:02 - Most of us do not operate in that kind of a level of ministry where we’re putting ourselves out on the line and saying this is what we feel the Lord is going to do.

03:11 - Then what people would say is, “Well it didn’t happen - then you are a false prophet and you should be stoned. ” That’s in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 18:20).

03:19 - There is a valid point to that because people have been taken advantage of by false prophets.

03:25 - They do exist but that doesn’t mean you throw out the baby with the bath water as they say.

03:31 - I really wanted to just especially focus on the very last line there.

03:35 - “I will resource you with everything you need to advance in this new season says the Lord. ” So, we really try to trust the Lord for our provision.

03:44 - I’ve been working an outside job all the years, 22 years that we’ve been doing this.

03:50 - And the Lord has provided miraculously, when I tell you, miraculously.

03:53 - There were seasons that I was working 70 hours a week.

03:56 - I would leave at 5 o’clock in the morning and not be back til 630 and we would have service at 7:00.

04:04 - I wouldn’t able to talk to people in the church during the day.

04:08 - It was a rough season, but here we are, right? He brings us through, right? I arrived at a miraculous place in my life right now where I’m able to give much more time than I ever have been able to still have the job, still do not have to take a salary from the church and that’s completely God.

04:26 - That’s not Peter. It was me having enough faith that He could do that and hopefully, my heart is right about this.

04:36 - It’s because I love the church and if I didn’t have to take a salary, that meant we could hire more staff and there would be more resources to give.

04:43 - So, I really do trust that the Lord is going to do exactly what He said through Jane.

04:48 - “I will resource you with everything you need to advance in this new season. ” But part of that resource is going to come through you, and that’s up to you to decide.

04:57 - No strong arm tactics. Everything that we did in this chapel here - it was hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate.

05:04 - We didn’t do a capital campaign. We didn’t ask people to sign pledge cards.

05:07 - I’m not criticizing that. That’s fine.

05:10 - It just isn’t how the Lord showed us to do it.

05:13 - Like David said earlier, God loves a cheerful giver.

05:16 - She didn’t get a chance to say it but if Mary Beth was still up here or Daniella, I know what she would say…

05:22 - Clarissa, sorry. Clarissa’s there all the time too - is that you go in there thinking you’re helping the elderly missionary sisters and you walk out of there with an injection of love from God to you for having extended yourself.

05:34 - It’s like a missions trip, right? If you have ever been on a foreign mission trip, you think you’re in there to help them but your eyes get opened to so many spiritual truths as you’re serving.

05:44 - Did anybody else have that happen to you? Well, this is home missions.

05:48 - These are people right on this property that deserve to be completely honored when I tell you, (Proverbs 3:27), “Give honor those to whom it is due. ” Well, these ladies have given their lives for the service of the Lord.

06:01 - So, I am going to talk about provision. We do need more money for the renovation of the barn and I am going to ask you to be involved in that because that’s a value for this church.

06:11 - I’m again, going to unpack a little bit of my testimony along the way, but I thought that this picture summed a lot of it up for me.

06:20 - Deuteronomy 15:8 on the on the bottom left says, “Fully open your hand to your brother. ” Some of the people that we will be serving through Feeding Hands, we would never have crossed paths with these people… but because of the 7 years of work that Feeding Hands has done.

06:38 - I think that’s significant. They just celebrated the end of their seventh year.

06:42 - So, what does eight mean in in in the Bible? It means new beginnings, right? They’re starting a new beginning by coming here and partnering with us.

06:50 - So, they have built relationships with the state of New Jersey, with the Community Food Bank in Hillside, not easy.

06:58 - Not easy to become one of the places that they’ll let take food and distribute to the community.

07:03 - Because this food has been sometimes left over and it’s past the “sell-by-date,” but it’s still good.

07:10 - It doesn’t have a real long life left. I picked up 600 pounds of food from Trader Joe’s not too long ago and it wasn’t all able to be given out - not everything in those boxes was good enough to give somebody but 80, at least 85% of it was.

07:28 - Ironically, they don’t throw away the stuff they don’t use.

07:31 - They give it to the pig farm right next door to the Deaconry because pigs will eat anything.

07:37 - So, they don’t want waste anything. They don’t want anything going in the garbage.

07:41 - They are going to recycle I just think it’s so awesome that the farm “just happens to be” right next to the to the Deaconry here.

07:52 - I heard a preacher say this many years ago.

07:56 - I’ve repeated it many times. He said, “We are going have to stand before the Lord someday, and He is going to ask us to give an account for our lives. ” It’s not a guilt trip.

08:06 - Some of us feel like it’s a punishing time.

08:08 - No. It’s more like, okay, you knew me.

08:13 - And what did you do with with what you knew? Was it just a theory in your mind? Now, it doesn’t mean you work to get saved - that’s not what we’re talking about, we’re not saying that you have to work your way into the kingdom or that you can earn more love from God by working harder.

08:32 - You don’t earn more love. But Paul said it this way (2 Corinthians 5:14-15), “the love of God compels me. ” It’s the fuel in me that keeps me going.

08:40 - It’s a fire. That’s what Jeremiah said (Jeremiah 20:9), “I’ve got this fire shut up in my bones.

08:44 - I can’t stop preaching. Now, you might not be a preacher but you’re a Christian and you have the Spirit of the God of the universe inside you.

08:53 - Wow. What a gift that is and normally, that will translate.

08:58 - James was pretty blunt. That’s the Lord’s brother.

09:01 - He said, “Faith without works is dead. ” That is a pretty controversial topic because that sounds like it’s condemning.

09:10 - But the way I understand it, what we’re talking about here, and what we find as a church leadership that one of the reasons we want you to go through this class that we’re running now.

09:21 - If you’d like to be involved in any form of ministry so that you understand our values, and that we are all working off the same understanding of scripture.

09:30 - So, there’s lots of different ways you can read scripture.

09:34 - But, we’d agree that not judging people would be a really good one.

09:38 - That’s not this week. That’ll be coming up soon after that.

09:40 - That’s called Bitter Root Judgments. This week, it’s Performance Orientation.

09:45 - I don’t want give too many disclaimers here but when you hear me say that we’re going to do an outreach to the poor, that’s just coming alongside a ministry (Feeding Hands) that has already sowed seed for 7 years.

09:57 - They are coming onto this property and they’re going to be getting food from the barn.

10:02 - What do you do in the barn? You store hay that you give out.

10:05 - It’s a threshing floor in there. We’re going to sort out food so people that are already affiliated with this ministry can continue, but then also local people might.

10:13 - People might think, “We’re in Basking Ridge, it’s a high-income area. ” Yes, that’s true.

10:19 - We ran the cafe in Bernardsville right across from the train station for 5 years.

10:24 - We met lots of people in this region that needed lots of help.

10:28 - They work as landscapers and painters. They are doing the manual labor for the estates up on the Bernardsville Mountain and Mendham and all of this.

10:39 - The point is, we’re open for business and if you need help, we want to help you.

10:44 - Often people that need help are willing to hear, “Can I pray for you?” Yes! So, it’s also a ministry.

10:52 - I love this picture. I found it as I was looking to see something that could represent what we’re talking about.

11:00 - Jesus is in the fisherman’s boats often. I was a lifeguard.

11:05 - I had to save a few people in my day. There are cries for help that are always going up around us.

11:14 - You could think about COVID and addiction. How many people fell to greater addiction during the lockdown for fifteen months.

11:22 - Some of them gained a lot of weight. Some of them started taking more medication than they needed.

11:28 - Whatever, way the devil used that lockdown to cause them to have an increase in whatever addiction it that they were bound by.

11:39 - Why wouldn’t the Lord want us to be able to pray for them? It is not about whether or not they go to this church.

11:46 - Jesus said he came to set the captives free.

11:48 - Luke 4:21, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. ” Not just for people that come to King of Kings, but for humanity.

11:57 - There are lots of hurting people. They think they know what the Bible says.

12:01 - They think they know what church is about. They have checked the box and said, No way, that can’t be it. “ Maybe organized religion can turn some people off, but Jesus CAN be it.

12:13 - He CAN set people free. It doesn’t have to be with all of this circumstance.

12:19 - It’s just the Jesus in you, the Holy Spirit in you, the Word of God that’s in you, the desire in you to make an impact for God’s kingdom can cause the people that are around us to be attracted to God.

12:30 - Maybe church too. But if they got attracted to God through you and got saved, would it even matter that they came to this church? No! It’s a kingdom mindset.

12:41 - This is going to be an outpost for God’s kingdom in this region.

12:45 - It’s a Christian ministry. If you talk to Carolyn McCombs, who couldn’t be here today, but she’s one of our elders.

12:50 - She runs her own ministry up in Paterson. They are in two public schools in Paterson.

12:56 - Why? I thought the government didn’t like Christian ministries.

13:00 - They don’t - but they know they work. The government will say, “Everything we’re trying to do get’s nowhere near the results of what Carolyn is doing.

13:11 - So, let’s just invite her in and basically, we will worry about the God thing later. “ That’s what people in New York are saying right now.

13:18 - They’re sending their kids to Catholic schools because they don’t want their kids to go to the public schools because of the crazy curriculum.

13:24 - These are atheists. Their friends are saying, “Why would you do that? Why would you send your kids to a Catholic school or Christian school?” It’s because I know at least they are going to be taught there’s a difference between a boy and a girl.

13:37 - When did we think we’d ever have to defend that one? So, they’re saying, “I’m sending him to the Catholic school.

13:43 - I’ll deal with the God thing later. “ This what the atheists are saying.

13:49 - People are open. They recognize the pain in their life and they’re hurting.

13:53 - This should be our picture of who we are. The guy in the boat who’s just reaching over and I’m answering that cry for help not with “Peter Roselle’s ideas. ” The love of God that’s working in me has to be the driving force. “ That’s the only thing that will do it.

14:06 - When you talk to people who have been in a position where they needed government help and they got food stamps or they were homeless and living out of a car when they were younger.

14:18 - I I’ve talked to many and they say that when they go to get the assistance they are often shamed by the people that are giving out the food stamps.

14:27 - Or they are not treated with dignity and honor as people.

14:33 - There is just no excuse for that. That’s a form of injustice and God hates injustice, he hates injustice.

14:41 - So, if all we did differently when we gave them the food is show them respect and dignity and love and didn’t judge them and ask if we could pray for them - that would be a momentous change in their lives for many of them.

14:58 - Who are you people? Why are you so different? Well, not because we’re so great - it is because we found a God who is great.

15:07 - So, this barn needs some help. Let me just say it that way.

15:10 - This barn needs some help. I don’t even want you to go in there yet because there is still a bit of an obstacle course.

15:15 - but we filled up three full three thirty-yard dumpsters.

15:19 - I know how to fill a dumpster. didn’t waste an inch.

15:22 - That’s in my DNA. I’m a good garbage man.

15:26 - There’s still not as much left but look, we’re going to be keeping food in the barn.

15:32 - When you think of food and you go in a restaurant and you go use the rest room and it doesn’t look clean, you don’t want to eat in that place.

15:40 - That is something that we really want to keep a high priority that when we renovate this barn, that it is ready for food to be held there.

15:48 - Now, barn and animals go hand in hand, right? There have been lots of animals here.

15:53 - I think the raccoon family has fifteen generations that have been living in that barn.

15:59 - And they’re not going to take it easily that we’re taking their house and they can’t live there anymore.

16:05 - They are really smart critters. This has to be sealed off, man.

16:10 - This has to be like, we have got to be special forces out there with the night vision goggles for those raccoons.

16:15 - They are going to try to break in. The mice are only this big.

16:18 - They know how to get through all the cracks.

16:20 - So, look, I don’t want to do a halfway job on this barn.

16:25 - It’s going to have excellence or we’re not going to do it, right? Anything associated with the name of Jesus should have excellence attached to it too.

16:34 - Don’t settle for less. “Oh, it’s good enough for God. ” I’ve heard people say that.

16:40 - Good enough for God? What does that mean? I don’t know what it means but that’s not what we believe.

16:48 - So, it’s been there a long time. It needs a lot of work.

16:51 - Here is just the layout. I got really excited when I saw the layout this week because that lets you know that there’s a specific plan.

17:00 - This is how the barn is going to be laid out If you are a visionary person, you like to see it before it happens.

17:07 - It makes it easier for you to function. This is called “the use of funds. ” When you’re trying to raise money on Wall Street and talking to investors, or if you’ve ever seen Shark Tank, that’s a similar process.

17:22 - What are you going to use the money for. First of all, there is construction needs.

17:27 - The same man that was the person in charge here at the Chapel which is Dave Torres, who was just up here, his dad, Tom Torres.

17:32 - I don’t know if he’s here today but he attends our church.

17:35 - He did an amazing job on the Chapel and The bill he gave us was a big, fat $0.

17:45 - Amazing. So, he’s going to also be the general contractor for the barn.

17:52 - We’ll save a ton of money on that. Lots of construction needs there.

17:58 - I shouldn’t say that - the barn is sound. The Deaconry just put a new roof on the barn.

18:03 - They’re helping us too. It is going to be laid out like a store.

18:07 - It’s going to be like a grocery store where the people who need help can come in and walk around with a cart and pick what they need - as opposed to be given a bag of stuff.

18:20 - When they get to the register, no money needed.

18:32 - They don’t get to go in a lot of stores, so that’s going to… that’s why it should be nice.

18:36 - It’s not going to feel like a run-down place about to fall down.

18:41 - We’re going to treat people with dignity. But there are things that are needed.

18:47 - See that walk-in freezer in the middle on the right? That was just donated to Feeding Hands.

18:53 - I mean, I don’t know, maybe 25K? They got just got a donation.

18:59 - Then there was the $7,000 refrigerator that Dave and I picked up from Walmart, not too far from here.

19:07 - Amazing, right? Why? Because God loves this kind of work! You put your hand to the plow and he backs you up! Then he tells people that haven’t talked to you in a year (like Jane Hamon) what He’s doing and it’s exactly what the plan is.

19:23 - What does Jane’s word say? A resource center.

19:26 - God is calling you in a new season to be a storehouse ministry.

19:31 - Where do you get that from? You’re going to move into the more.

19:37 - I see that God is going to cause you to be a resource to your region.

19:41 - Hello. A resource to your region. Both as an apostolic hub but also as a distribution center - that’s the exact word you would use for what we’re doing.

19:54 - She had no idea of anything we were talking about here.

19:58 - So, look, I’m just probably going longer than I need to but the idea is I don’t want it to be like we’re begging for help.

20:06 - I don’t want to be begging for help because I just read it.

20:11 - God supplies what we need. But we get, I would say, it’s a privilege - we get the privilege to participate.

20:17 - We’re never going to meet all the people that will benefit from that ministry.

20:21 - That’s just how that works. That’s how it works in the kingdom.

20:24 - (1 Corinthians 3:6) “You plant, another waters, God gives the increase. ” You’re not doing it because you need to get the credit for it.

20:30 - You’re doing it because know you want - like I sang today - I want my life to make a difference.

20:36 - I want to show love to people, especially the ones that have a huge deficit that haven’t been shown much love, often through no fault of their own.

20:45 - But even if it is through a fault of their own, when do they get extended grace? Are they going to be thrown on the human trash heap for the rest of their lives or did they get a second chance? So, look, look, I’ll just go down the list…

21:00 - Insulation, HVAC, electrical, windows, doors, floors, plumbing, and I put excellence in there because I’m not doing it any other way - the goal excellence.

21:11 - We want to show people honor and dignity. There is also going to be a great chance for ministry.

21:17 - This is not some bait and switch where we’re tricking them into getting ministry.

21:21 - It is meeting people at their point of pain and being Jesus at the point of pain.

21:30 - The woman that Jesus met that was caught in adultery was thrown down at his feet.

21:35 - You think… when she was having breakfast that day did she think, “I’m going to meet God today and he’s going to save my life. ” You think she was? Do you think the woman at the well that was hiding at noon trying to get the water when it was the hottest part of the day…

21:52 - Did she think she was going to stumble upon God at the well? “I just went to get water and I met God. ” Jesus is God in case you’re not sure.

22:03 - He said, in John 14:9, If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. “ He shows up in the most unlikely places to the most unlikely people.

22:14 - Mary Magdalene is going to be the first person that sees the resurrected Christ - out of whom he had cast seven demons.

22:21 - Yes, that’s who he shows up to. (Luke 7:46) Jesus says, the people that have received much love are able to show much love.

22:28 - He said, and I know a lot of you have received a lot of love.

22:33 - Deuteronomy 15:8, this is picture of a hurting person.

22:38 - This might be a stretch for some of you, but this guy could be me.

22:44 - He might be homeless in this picture but I could get some really bad news and end up being poor in spirit.

22:52 - Even though I might have financial resources, I might be so broken because of the emotional state I’m in that I can’t help myself.

23:01 - That I’m going through the motions but I’m numb.

23:02 - If you’ve been through trauma, you know what that’s like.

23:05 - You’re not all there. You’re physically there, but you’re not engaged.

23:09 - That’s why Jesus said right at the beginning of the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:3) “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. ” Does it mean that they’re blessed because they’re poor in spirit? It means they’re blessed because they have access to this crazy group of people up on the hill over there that have this barn, and they’re willing to pray with you, with no strings attached just because they’re trying to represent the guy they serve, Jesus, Christian, Christ carrier.

23:41 - The Spirit of God inside of us drives us to love people.

23:47 - So, where that comes from is in Deuteronomy 15:11 says, for the poor will never cease to be in the land.

23:53 - Now, you might think it’s just poor and money, but it is not.

23:55 - It’s broken people. Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn,” He said.

24:00 - “They shall be comforted. ” Why? Are they blessed because they’re mourning? Am I not going to be a Christian unless I’m mourning and poor? Some people have taken it that way.

24:09 - No, you’re blessed if you’re mourning because you have access to God’s kingdom now.

24:15 - Not just when you die - now. Sorry, I feel like I’m yelling at you.

24:18 - I didn’t mean to do that. Who’s this beautiful woman coming up here? Wow.

24:27 - She’s hot. You’ll never cease. They’ll never cease to be in your land.

24:34 - Therefore, I command you saying, “Come on, do this with me.

24:38 - (extend your open hand )… Oh, that’s hard.

24:41 - I don’t ever talk about money in church and pastors, they’re going to try to fleece the sheep.

24:47 - Deuteronomy 15:11 “You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor in your land. ” They’re my poor because we put the stake in the ground here in Basking Ridge.

25:07 - It’s a much bigger community than you realize that is within driving distance.

25:11 - Sometimes, they can’t drive. Sometimes…

25:16 - I’ll just tell you one story. It’s so funny.

25:18 - We met one of the workers at Feeding Hands.

25:19 - He is Jersey guy. Do you know what I mean? He’s just like one of those guys that’s been around and he’s a wise guy, a little bit.

25:27 - He said, “Yeah, I was told my wife this religion stuff, I want nothing to do with church.

25:31 - They’re all after your money. “ She said, “Well, you come down and see the operations - it is not a church it’s a food pantry.

25:38 - He said, “No I don’t want to get near them, they are going to try to recruit me. ” He ended up going and he sees the love of the people that are volunteering there and he decides that he’ll start delivering that day.

25:53 - They needed somebody to deliver some food and he saw what happened when he delivered the food to the people who received it.

25:58 - He’s now a full-time driver for the ministry, alright? So that one of the unknown names of God is Jehovah Sneaky.

26:08 - When you least expect it, he makes himself real to you in a way that you wouldn’t have known.

26:16 - John 15: “I have loved you just as the father has loved me. ” This is Jesus talking to us.

26:23 - “Abide in my love, continue in his love with me. ” This is the amplified version.

26:28 - “I have loved you just as the father loved me. ” So, there’s that relationship.

26:32 - “But now, abide in my love and continue in his love with me. ” That’s a challenge.

26:39 - “If you keep my commandments, you’ll abide in my love and live on in it.

26:45 - Just as I’ve obeyed my father’s commandments and live on in his love. “ He’s the model for us…

26:51 - “This is my suggestion… . ” No? Is that what it says? Did you all pass the test? This is my suggestion? What did commandment mean to the Jews? This is not some light thing.

27:09 - They knew about the ten commandments and Jesus didn’t write any books.

27:14 - He didn’t write anything that we’re aware of and he’s still the most famous person that ever lived just by what other people wrote about him.

27:21 - But if I have to sum it up, this is what my commandment would be to you.

27:25 - Love others people Dick Fox, the way I have loved you. “ That’s a little daunting.

27:32 - How could I possibly love anybody the way he loved me? Well, I mean he wouldn’t ask us to do it if it wasn’t possible.

27:40 - Love one another. It would have been easy if he just said, “Love one another. ” No, the commandment is you have to love them the way I have loved you.

27:49 - I quit! What? How can I do that? Well, he is God.

27:54 - He gives you a supernatural ability to love other people.

27:58 - No one has greater love than to lay down his own life for his friends.

28:04 - Who’s my friend? Who’s my neighbor? Remember that one? Funny that the lawyer tried to trick him up on that one.

28:10 - Well, okay, if I only have to love a small group of people and then he tells a good Samaritan story.

28:15 - Who was the neighbor? The one that helped.

28:18 - So, everybody’s your neighbor. Sorry if that bums you out as we used to say.

28:25 - Matthew 25:31 says, “When the son of man comes in his glory, accompanied by all the angels, he will sit on his glorious throne.

28:32 - All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separate sheep from goats.

28:40 - The sheep he will place at his right hand and the goats at his left.

28:45 - And the king will say to those on his right, come, you whom the father has blessed.

28:50 - Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.

28:54 - For I was hungry and you gave me food. “ Real practical.

29:01 - Real practical. Don’t be the Christian that goes to the diner and leaves a fake twenty-dollar bill track for the waitress and not a real tip.

29:13 - Sorry. I don’t mean to step on anybody’s toes.

29:19 - I was talking to a guy who was in the food service business and he said, the hardest day to get the staff to work was Sunday afternoons because all the church people would come in and they were cheap.

29:31 - The staff didn’t want to work on Sunday afternoons.

29:34 - That’s exactly the opposite of what they should be asking for.

29:39 - So, somewhere from Jesus to us, something got switched around and we have got to get back to that authentic version.

29:48 - We said the sinner’s prayer when we were in Pittsburgh with our waitress.

29:52 - There’s four people at the table. They were all praying for her.

29:54 - They were all prophesying over her. The boss might have gotten mad.

29:58 - We didn’t care. She got saved. She said the prayer right there.

30:02 - “I was hungry. You gave me food. I was thirsty.

30:05 - You gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you made me your guest.

30:09 - You welcomed me. You showed dignity and respect to me when I didn’t deserve it in this culture’s eyes.

30:16 - I needed clothes and you provided them. I was sick and you took care of me.

30:20 - I was in prison and you visited me and you know the story.

30:24 - When? When did we do that? We don’t remember seeing you in any of those places.

30:27 - Lord, when? Whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.

30:36 - Is it just Christians we’re supposed to treat well? No.

30:40 - Let’s get rid of that excuse. How are they going to become Christians? Because they are going to see, they are going to know that you are a Christian by the love that you show - everybody is your neighbor everybody is your brother.

30:53 - All you can do is your half of the equation.

30:55 - You can be nice. You can love up on them.

30:58 - Sometimes being nice is being firm. You could tell them the truth in love.

31:02 - Ask the Lord to coat your words with the anointing, the oil of God.

31:07 - and what about this in verse 45: When you saw the least of these and ignored their suffering, so you ignored me. “ It doesn’t just work on the side of “we helped people so we were helping Jesus. ” It is also true that when we don’t help people, we’re not helping Jesus.

31:25 - That is a sobering word. I understand that could sound like a guilt trip.

31:28 - I’m really trying hard not to do that to you guys.

31:32 - It’s so much fun serving God. and not everybody is going to want to go and help the aging sisters here.

31:37 - I get that. We all have a different package of gifts.

31:40 - So, what happens sometimes, is that we lift up something and we say, “Look at this great thing,” and we feel guilty if we don’t want to do that.

31:46 - No, don’t feel guilty. You should be serving in whatever zone that you are in, where you gifts will cause you to flourish.

31:52 - But if we are smart as a church we will have lots of different ways that you can use that gift and grow in that gift - because that is our job - to take the people that God puts in our stewardship - we are stewards over this flock - [our goal would be] for you to look at us and say, “Wow, I’m really growing in the gifts that God placed in me!” We are all so dynamically different that it’s not going to be exactly the same for everybody.

32:16 - One thing is true though - in order to grow you have to get stretched.

32:21 - You are usually going to have to walk in an area that you’re not super-comfortable with in order to get there.

32:27 - I will go a little faster now. 1 John 3:16 “This is how we have discerned love’s reality.

32:35 - Jesus sacrificed his life for us and because of his great love, we should be willing to lay down our lives for one another.

32:41 - Our love can’t be an abstract theory that we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds. “ Isaiah, last portion of scripture I’ll go over is Isaiah 58:1 “Yes, daily, they seek me. ” God is saying, “Daily, they seek me, pretending that they delight to know my ways. ” Ouch.

33:06 - “As though they were a nation that does what is right and had not rejected the law of their God.

33:13 - They asked me to show them the right way, acting as though they are eager to be close to me. “ Whenever you see the word “acting,” that is a problem.

33:23 - You can’t say to someone “act natural,” because if they have to act, it’s natural.

33:29 - So if somebody is cool, like jazz musicians tend to be pretty cool guys, they are cool because they’re not trying very hard.

33:39 - It looks effortless the way they’re doing it.

33:41 - So, you can’t try to be cool. It’s contradiction.

33:45 - You’re cool because you are Danny Hall. That’s just the way it works.

33:50 - I have to sneak that one in there. He is cool guy.

33:59 - You can see the hypocritical thing going on here, right? “They seek me daily pretending that they delight…

34:08 - They act as though they’re a nation that does what is right and had not rejected the law. “ The implication there are obviously they have rejected the law.

34:15 - They ask me to show them the right way acting (again) as though they’re eager to actually be close to me.

34:21 - They say, “Why is it that when we fasted, you didn’t see it? We starved ourselves and you didn’t notice. ” And then here is his answer: “Because on the day you fasted, you were seeking only your own desires and you continue to exploit your workers. ” So, if God puts a meter up to us [to measure] authenticity, our actions are what determine what’s driving us on the inside.

34:43 - So, are we are fasting and praying for a breakthrough in order take advantage of more people? No, that would be the wrong motive.

34:52 - It’s all about our motives. So, when we are fasting in line with what he wants us to have, of course, he’s coming through - in amazing ways - big time.

35:02 - But when our hearts aren’t right and we’re just going through motions… the word for hypocrite in the Greek is “an actor wearing a mask. ” That is the sense many people have about Christians, and are critical of us…

35:14 - being hypocritical, acting like we think we are better than others, judging them without even knowing who they are.

35:19 - So, you could study Isaiah 58 in your leisure time, but he says, “During your fast, you quarrel and fight with others and strike them with an angry fist. ” I just got done worshiping God, praying, and fasting and then I go out and I get into an argument with somebody after church in the parking lot.

35:37 - I have a thing about parking lots. “When you fast like that, your voice will not be heard on high.

35:46 - Do you think I’m impressed with that kind of fast?” Now, if God asks you a rhetorical question, that’s serious.

35:54 - You know the answer is “no. ” “Is it just a day to starve your bodies and make others think that you’re humble and lie down in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast? Do you think I, Yahweh would be pleased with that?” Now, this is the part to take notes.

36:14 - What is the thing that makes it an authentic fast to the Lord? “Liberate those tied down and held by injustice. ” Sounds an awful lot like Matthew 25, doesn’t it? You fed them when they were hungry.

36:27 - You clothed them when they were naked. You didn’t say, “Well if you just got a job, you’d have your own money.

36:33 - Why are you tapping into my resources?” Selah.

36:38 - “Liberate those tied down and held back by injustice. ” Now look, it’s a shame that the political piece got so swamped into this whole thing.

36:47 - I’m not saying that people should just live off a free handouts.

36:50 - But I am saying there are legitimate needs and if the people are here, you shouldn’t say, “Well, you’re an illegal and you should go back to your home country and I’ll take care of you. ” No, they are here in front of you right now.

37:01 - How they got here? That is not my focus right now.

37:04 - They’re hungry and he’s asking me to feed them.

37:06 - That doesn’t mean I think they should be here.

37:08 - They might have broken the law to get here - but they’re here.

37:13 - Jesus wasn’t telling the woman caught in adultery, “Well, you know, lady, today is your lucky day because if I wasn’t here, they’d be stoning you to death right now. ” He loved her and he said, “Don’t keep sinning.

37:26 - Stop what you are doing - if you don’t, this will happen again.

37:28 - I might not be there next time. “ So, he loved them enough to tell them that they had to change their ways.

37:33 - All I am saying is we’re going to stand before the Lord someday and we can’t say we didn’t try to help.

37:39 - We might not have even been very good at it, but we can’t just say we didn’t try.

37:44 - It’s too big. . too much of an important topic in the Bible.

37:47 - So, here’s what I want. In a fast, I want you to liberate those tied down and held back by injustice.

37:52 - I want you to lighten the load of those that are heavily burdened.

37:56 - I want you to free the oppressed and shatter every type of oppression.

38:00 - A fast for me (God is saying) involves this: share your food with people who have none, give to those who are homeless a space in your home, give clothes to those who need them, not neglecting your own family. “ We need to help our own family, cousins and all they should get help from us as their family members before they have to go for aid - that is what Jesus is saying - I didn’t write it.

38:27 - Isaiah is saying it but Jesus was speaking in heaven.

38:32 - This is a really good part. I want to just qualify it a little bit because the kingdom of God is not an algorithm.

38:40 - It’s not a formula, as in, “if I do this, then this will happen.

38:44 - If I give, he has to give back to me. It’s not that he has to, it’s just a law.

38:49 - It’s like gravity. When you give with the right motive, he gives back to you.

38:53 - Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over…

38:56 - He will open the windows of heaven, pour out a blessing you can’t contain.

38:59 - Test me. This works. But if our motive is off if - I’m giving to get, it doesn’t work.

39:07 - It disengages it. So, he says a fast for me involves all these really practical things that we can all do.

39:14 - You don’t need a lot of Bible knowledge to hand somebody food and love them.

39:20 - It would be nice to know the Bible so you can minister to them.

39:25 - Then, when you do this fast with the right motives, “your light will break out like the warm golden rays of a rising sun and in an instant, you will be healed.

39:34 - That’s what it says. By doing it, you get healed.

39:39 - Wow. Wow. We’re going to try to unpack that one because that doesn’t make a whole lot of logical sense, does it? That could almost sound like God is trying to manipulate us.

39:53 - That that song that we sang this morning, “If I can’t love my neighbor like I love myself… ” That’s really where the rubber meets the road - the way we are integrating our bible knowledge and our faith into the way we act and treat other people.

40:14 - Your righteousness it says in Isaiah fifty-eight eight, “righteousness will proceed and protect you. ” That buffer zone with God is going ahead of you, “the glory of the eternal one will follow and defend you and then when you call out, “My God, where are you?” The eternal one will answer, I am here.

40:31 - I am here. If you remove the yoke of oppression from the downtrodden among you and stop accusing others and do away with mean and inflammatory…

40:41 - “Facebook posts. ” No, he didn’t say that.

40:45 - If you make sure that the hungry and oppressed have all that they need, then your light will shine in the darkness and even your bleakest moments will be bright and as a clear day.

40:55 - The eternal one will never leave you. He will lead you in the way that you should go.

40:59 - When you feel dried up and worthless, God will nourish you and give you strength.

41:04 - We’re taking it by faith, right? This is really one of those faith messages.

41:08 - I’ll end with one little story because I know I’m running over time.

41:11 - John Wimber was one of my mentors. You can find him easily.

41:14 - He wrote a best-selling book called Power Evangelism.

41:17 - He was a really amazing figure in the body of Christ.

41:22 - He was a musician. He attracted a lot of musicians to his church in California during the Jesus People movement and there was a guy in his church who was a college student and he had a motorcycle.

41:30 - He didn’t have a lot of money. He was living in somebody’s garage and he barely have money and he came to John and said, I’d really like to give but I don’t have anything and John said, well, what do you have? And he said, well, I don’t know.

41:42 - I don’t have anything. I don’t have any money to give.

41:44 - And he said, well, when you go to school, what do you have with you when you go to school? He said, I bring my lunch and John said, well, what do you bring? What do you take for lunch? He said, I’ll take a sandwich and an apple.

41:53 - He says, well, why don’t you give somebody your apple? And keep your sandwich.

41:59 - So he did that and something, you know, some transaction was happening in him and he went, wow, this is where this feels amazing that I was able to help somebody.

42:08 - So the next day, he gives half the sandwich and the apple.

42:12 - I don’t know how many days later he decides to give the whole bag to somebody.

42:17 - He’s a musician and he’s working at a wedding that weekend.

42:21 - He’s doing the job in one of these big weddings for a big family and they take their break and in between sets when they play and they’re having some food and the hostess, the lady that was running the wedding came up to them and said, hey, you guys, we overordered the food.

42:39 - Could any of you use sandwiches? He got a bag of forty-five sandwiches, okay? You think that guy will ever be the same? Right? You just, you just know that God makes himself real to you and that changes you.

42:54 - And you just know, regardless if I see any immediate return on this, I know that working this way in God’s kingdom is the best way to go.

43:03 - And this is just amazing because I’ve been in that barn a lot lately but uh it says in in Isaiah fifty-eight eleven, you will grow like a garden lovingly tended and like I said, the sisters man, they tend to this place.

43:15 - When they could do it, they tended this place.

43:18 - You’ll be like a spring whose water never runs out.

43:21 - You will discover that there are people among you who can rebuild this broken down city out of the ancient ruins.

43:28 - You will firm up its ancient foundations and all around others will call you repairer of broken down walls and rebuilder of streets to dwell in.

43:41 - Amen. What a great title that we can have and you know, it is that way in that barn.

43:46 - We are repairing that place. We are rebuilding that place but like it was said earlier, this is God’s property.

43:52 - This forty-five acres of land here that he owns.

43:55 - That’s his barn. So, when you’re cleaning that place up, you’re cleaning out his house.

43:59 - Amen? Come on, let’s stand. I’ll keep you posted.

44:04 - Um you know, David already mentioned it that you can take a more formal role if you want to uh get trained uh or wait until they get here but if you do have a heart for this, we could use your help now because um they’re going to be they’re going to go from operating one location in Raritan to two locations, one in Manville and one here, and that’s hard.

44:27 - That’s hard. That’s a hard lift to start up two new operations with an existing staff.

44:33 - So, the more people that we have that are willing to put their hand to the plow even temporarily just to fill the gap because a year from now, I mean, the lord showed me a year from now, we’re going to get people from all the different churches in the area that are going to want to be volunteering.

44:45 - It’s just in the start of time. It’s not as easy, okay? You all good? Anybody? I hope nobody’s feeling condemned today, right? That this is this great privilege that we have to live out the love of God in the way we live.

44:58 - So, would you lift your hands? I’ll just speak it and I hope you can receive it.

45:04 - Lord, we’re just so grateful that we serve a loving father and I was that guy that needed help and couldn’t help myself and I knew I needed a savior and you’re the only one that could save me.

45:15 - So lord, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to reach out to those who don’t know you, to feed those that are hungry, to give close to those with no strings attached, but just to be Jesus, be the body of Christ, your hands, your feet, here in the earth, and meeting people at their point of pain in so many other ways as well but in this way that we’re talking about today and that for those that don’t get involved.

45:38 - Lord, they can pray. I get that. They might not feel called to this particular piece but lord, I pray that they would feel a burden to pray for the ministry so that others would come to know you that that they would experience these hurting people would experience the demonstrated love of God through the actions of your people in Jesus name. .