{"id":10226,"date":"2022-01-09T13:27:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T18:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?post_type=message&#038;p=10226"},"modified":"2022-01-15T13:30:04","modified_gmt":"2022-01-15T18:30:04","slug":"belong","status":"publish","type":"message","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/message\/belong","title":{"rendered":"Belong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Below is an automated transcript of this message:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1.74\">Good <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> morning church and  Happy New Year!    It&#8217;s good to start a new series today.   We&#8217;re starting a new series today,  entitled,  \u201cMovement;\u201d   we are making disciples who make disciples.   <br \/><br \/>\nWhy do we call this series,  \u201cMovement?\u201d   It&#8217;s because, 2000 years ago,  Jesus commanded His disciples to go and make disciples. Ever since then,  the church has been called to be on the move.   You see, the church is not a place, it&#8217;s a people.  The church is not a monument, it&#8217;s a movement. If you think about it, when somebody asks you where your church is, you should ask them  a question back, You should say, \u201cWell, on what day are you asking? On Sundays we are here and  during our small group nights we are there.   On Sundays, we&#8217;re  here at 2301 Montgomery Drive.  During the week we are scattered all over the place. We&#8217;re either gathered or scattered because \u201cthe church is not the steeple, it is the people.\u201d <br \/><br \/>\n <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"62.24\">The  <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> church gathers for strengthening and it scatters for service. The church gathers for worship and scatters for witnessing. The church  gathers for praise and scatters in power. The church  gathers for fellowship and scatters by faith.  The church is walking by faith in the Lord Jesus; we are the body of Christ.   That&#8217;s who we are;  we&#8217;re on the move. The church is on the move and Jesus is on the move.  It&#8217;s an adventure to follow Him. <br \/><br \/>\n Don&#8217;t you wish you could belong to this movement?   Do you belong to this disciple making movement?  We are called to be a part of this. When someone asks where your church is,  you should ask him, \u201cWhen and what day of the week are you asking?\u201d   <br \/><br \/>\nSpeaking of movements, just so you&#8217;re informed, there is  going to be a movement of  construction workers in our building starting this week. If you show up next Sunday, and I hope that  you will, you might have to come in a different entrance.   I don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going to  happen.   We&#8217;re going to  start demolition of the lobby <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"120.05\">and <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> some of the classrooms that are off of the lobby.  We&#8217;re doing some improvements for the next eight  to ten weeks leading up to Easter.  We&#8217;re hoping and praying that it will be ready by Easter weekend.  There&#8217;s going to be a lot of demolition and construction. Get excited because we&#8217;re preparing for more people to come and know Jesus! We&#8217;re on the move now.  <br \/><br \/>\n If you want to be sure that you belong to this Jesus following,  disciple making movement, we&#8217;re going to  be talking about this today.  We would like to check our  \u201cspiritual pulse\u201d today.  It&#8217;s the first of the year. It&#8217;s a good time to get a physical and see how your body is doing <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"173.21\">. <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> It&#8217;s a good time to look at your finances to see if they are  in order.  It&#8217;s also appropriate,  maybe even moreso, to check your spiritual pulse and see how you are doing with God today and  as a body since the church is us.   <br \/><br \/>\nA good way today to check your spiritual pulse would be to give you an opportunity to get a spiritual exam. For the next ten minutes,  we are  going to  do a spiritual transformation survey and ask all of you to participate.  We&#8217;re joining four other churches, so there are  five total churches in Wilson County that are doing the same survey. A couple of them have already done it.  I called pastor Rusty at Peace Church. They&#8217;ve already done the survey at  their Sunday morning service. I asked him,   \u201cHow long did  the survey take?\u201d He said, \u201cWe gave them seven minutes and some people didn&#8217;t finish.\u201d  So,  we&#8217;re going to  give you ten <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"220.11\">minutes <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> to do it, so you have plenty of time. <br \/><br \/>\nWe&#8217;ve joined with Peace Church,   Forest Hills Presbyterian,  Impact Church  and Mount Moriah Community Church. There are five churches that are forming a core group right now;  we&#8217;re praying and working together to attract as many other churches in Wilson County so we can make it possible for every man, woman and child in Wilson County to hear the gospel.  Here&#8217;s what we believe:   We can&#8217;t do it by ourselves.  A \u201cmovement\u201d  means there&#8217;s a lot of people involved. <br \/><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s my word for the year. I always come back from my study break with a word.  The word for this year is \u201ccollaborate.\u201d    We&#8217;re going to  work together with each other because we need one another. We&#8217;re,  also,  going to work with other churches that are gospel believing, gospel <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"274.56\">preaching <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> churches.   We&#8217;re going to  pray that God starts it because we can&#8217;t do it.  Only God can start a spiritual movement in our city, so that every man, every woman and every child gets multiple opportunities to hear the gospel. The only way that it\u2019s  going to  happen will be all of us working together to carry the gospel to everyone. <br \/><br \/>\nLet&#8217;s check our pulse and see how ready we are to do this. We&#8217;re going to check our readiness.  Barna, who does regular surveys of churches is telling us things like this, tells  us that people who go to American churches are being more and more under the influence of the culture than they are of the word of God.   More and more people,  if they are asked the question, \u201cIs Jesus the only way to heaven to have eternal life?\u201d  they will  say,  \u201cHe&#8217;s one of the ways <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"331.46\">, <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> but there are many other ways.\u201d   If they are asked, \u201cIs there one absolute truth or are there many truths?\u201d they&#8217;ll respond,  \u201cWell, there are many truths.\u201d  There&#8217;s a lot of  discontinuity,  discontinuity with the word of God and people in churches today.  So,  I wanted to \u201ccheck the pulse\u201d  of the body of Christ called Wilson Community Church.  We&#8217;re also doing it at our  Rocky Mount campus, as well.  <br \/><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s our starting point. Here&#8217;s  what we believe about ourselves when it comes to reading the bible regularly and  sharing our faith.  How close do we feel to the Lord?  These kind of questions are asked.   I&#8217;m going to report back to you next week how we responded.  I know it&#8217;s kind of odd to come to church and the first thing we  do is take a test, but you do it at the doctor all the time <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"383.85\">, <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> right? You take a test and get the results later. <br \/><br \/>\nYou really can&#8217;t be part of a movement unless you belong to the movement. That&#8217;s what we want to talk about today. We&#8217;re going to  be looking at the text today from1 John 5: 11-15.   We&#8217;ll be looking for three ways that you can have assurance.  <br \/><br \/>\n1 John 5:11-15 (ESV)  11\u201dAnd this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son<span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"431.09\">of <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> of God that you may know that you have eternal life. 14And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.\u201d  This is God\u2019s Word.  Amen.<br \/><br \/>\nHow to have Assurance of Salvation as those who Belong to Jesus:\n1.  Receive God\u2019s Son.<br \/><br \/>\nLook at verse 11 and circle the phrase,  \u201cGod gave.\u201d   \u201cGod gave.\u201d He gave us a gift. What is that gift? He says eternal life. And then he says that  this eternal life is found in God&#8217;s Son.  It  is found in Jesus. It sounds like John 3:16, the gospel of John,  where he says, \u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave\u2026\u201d  <br \/><br \/>\nIf someone offers you a gift how do you have it as your own? You <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"486.29\">have <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> to receive it.  That&#8217;s the first way that we can respond; receive God&#8217;s Son.  <br \/><br \/>\nHave you received God&#8217;s Son? It says,  \u201che gave.\u201d   Literally,  the idea is He gave fully to us to do with as we would. John is very clear; he is writing this first epistle probably towards the end of his life.   He is the last living apostle at this point; he is probably in his nineties. It&#8217;s towards the end of the first century.  He is the last living of the twelve disciples.   He wrote this letter.   He&#8217;s an old man. He \u201cputs the cookies on the bottom shelf\u201d for all the little kids, all the new believers.   He wants to make it really  clear.   <br \/><br \/>\nJohn says,  11\u201dAnd this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.\u201d  He&#8217;s making it so simple and so clear.  If you have the Son, you have eternal <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"545.6\">life <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span>. If you don&#8217;t have the Son, you don&#8217;t have eternal life.   How do you receive eternal life? How do you have an assurance that you&#8217;ll spend eternity with God? How do you have that? You have to have Jesus.  <br \/><br \/>\nHave you received Jesus? That&#8217;s how simple he&#8217;s making it for us. He says, \u201cthis is the testimony\u2026\u201d  This testimony, by the way, in verse 11 is God&#8217;s testimony. This is what God is saying, \u2018I gave you My Son so that in Him you might have eternal life.\u2019 This is what he is saying.  Have you received Him? That&#8217;s the question.   <br \/><br \/>\nI know that a lot of people,  when they become a christian, sometimes have doubts. They wonder, \u2018Am I really a christian? Do I really believe? Do I really know that I know? Is that possible?\u2019 Sometimes I&#8217;ll ask someone, \u201cDo you have confidence that you&#8217;ll go to heaven when you <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"604.54\">die <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span>?\u201d   I&#8217;ll be talking to someone, sometimes in a hospital room or sometimes  for counseling,  and I&#8217;ll ask him, &#8216;If God were to call you home and He asked you, \u2018Why should I let you into My heaven?\u2019 What would you say?  Have you prepared for eternity?\u201d People will often say, \u201cWell, I hope    that He will let me in. I hope that I&#8217;ll be able to go to Heaven.\u201d They have hope, but they don&#8217;t have confidence. <br \/><br \/>\nHere&#8217;s what I want to ask you, \u201cDo you have confidence and can you have confidence? Can you know that you know?\u201d   John is telling us that we can know and he says that  it begins by receiving Jesus.<br \/><br \/>\nJohn 1:12 (ESV) \u201cBut to all<span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"664.24\">who <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span>  who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.\u201d  When you receive Him, He receives you and you become adopted into the family of God as a child of God. You belong. When you receive Jesus, you belong  and you&#8217;re adopted;  you have the rights of a child of God. It means belonging. <br \/><br \/>\nYou see, salvation is a gift and gifts are not earned,  they are received. Remember what it says in Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.\u201d <br \/><br \/>\nYou can&#8217;t earn a gift. The only way you can have a gift is to receive it. Now,  I try to work this out by \u201cputting the cookies on the bottom shelf\u201d  for myself and for you.   How do you receive Jesus? How do <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"724.35\">you <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> receive Him? How do you get your mind around this? What does that mean,  \u201cto as many as received Him?\u201d  How do you receive Jesus, so that you have this confidence that you have eternal life?<br \/><br \/>\nI started thinking about the traditional marriage vows. I&#8217;ve done a lot of weddings in 30 years of ministry.   I&#8217;ve done various versions of the wedding vows. The old traditional one says, \u201cDo you take this woman to be your wedded wife, to have and to hold,  from this day forward in sickness and in health?\u201d  Some of the more modern vows take the same traditional vows but they say,  \u201cDo you receive this woman as a gift from God as your wedded wife,  to have and to hold?\u201d  The word,  \u201ctake,\u201d  is substituted with  the word,  \u201creceive.\u201d   I started thinking about this; remember how those old traditional vows say, \u201c&#8230; in sickness and in health, forsaking all others <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"781.05\">for <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> as long as you both shall live?\u201d   \u201cForsaking all others.\u201d   <br \/><br \/>\nI forsake all others for Jesus. I say,  \u201cYou are it. I&#8217;m receiving You as my Lord and Savior. I&#8217;m taking You as mine.\u201d   Jesus  does the same. It\u2019s  like saying,  \u201cI do.\u201d  To receive  Jesus has that sense of commitment. It&#8217;s not something that you&#8217;re just \u201ctrying on.\u201d  It&#8217;s that kind of lifetime commitment of receiving. <br \/><br \/>\nA  lot of husbands get in trouble because they can&#8217;t remember their wedding day. Heaven help them, right?   They do know they&#8217;re married.  They look at their left hand and say,  \u201cI&#8217;m married.\u201d If I could get this ring off of my finger, on the inside it says R. D. C to G W. C <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"836.66\">, <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> 6\/2\/79. It helps me remember the date that I said,  \u201cI do,\u201d  to little Robin, my wife.   I know I&#8217;m married but I&#8217;m a man,  so sometimes I forget the date. I know that  ladies have that date locked in somehow.  <br \/><br \/>\nIf I try to remember the day I received Jesus, I remember it was a Sunday. I remember where I was. I was in Wayne,  Michigan at a baptist church. It was the year my father died. I was eight years old.  At the age of eight, I had a sense of the reality of life and death that year.  It brought me to a point where I was having nightmares and concerns and fears about my salvation.   I remember going forward at a children&#8217;s church in Wayne, Michigan and receiving Jesus.  Now, I don&#8217;t remember the date, but I know I was eight years old, so I remember the year.   I remember it was <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"901.97\">a <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> Sunday. You don&#8217;t have to remember the date, but you need to remember if you&#8217;re married.   You need to remember if you said,  \u201cI do.\u201d <br \/><br \/>\nHave you received Jesus?   Have you said,  \u201cI do\u201d  to Jesus?   It&#8217;s a commitment, forsaking all others. You&#8217;re committed to Jesus. Have you received Jesus? If you&#8217;ve received Him, He&#8217;s adopted you into His family and you belong. This is the first way that we can know that we belong to God&#8217;s family.   <br \/><br \/>\nHow to have Assurance of Salvation as those who Belong to Jesus:<br \/><br \/>\n2.  Believe God\u2019s word.  <br \/><br \/>\nLook what it says in verse 13. In fact, in verse 13, John gives us \u201cthe keys under the doormat,\u201d  so we can understand why he wrote this epistle.   Here&#8217;s why he  wrote this letter. This is what he&#8217;s saying in verse 13, \u201cI write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.\u201d  Did I <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"964.91\">read <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> it right? Let me take another shot at it. \u201cI write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may (work) to have eternal life.\u201d  No.  It says,\u201cI write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.\u201d  You don&#8217;t have to hope, you can know.  You don&#8217;t have to say,  \u201cI hope so.\u201d  You don&#8217;t have to be afraid. You don&#8217;t have to fear death. You can know.   <br \/><br \/>\nYou don&#8217;t have to fear anything in this life. Fear is the name of the culture today. Counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists have as much business as  undertakers right now. They <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1019.82\">are <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span>That&#8217;s why John wrote this  letter, so you could know.   <br \/><br \/>\nJohn says, 14 \u201cAnd this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.\u201d You can have confidence that if you ask anything according to His will, He hears us and if you know that He hears us, He&#8217;ll give you what you ask. I want to ask you a question.   Is it  God&#8217;s will for you to believe in Jesus?  John 3:16 says,  \u201cFor God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.\u201d   \u201cWhosoever\u201d  surely includes you and me that believes in His name.   Is it God&#8217;s will? We&#8217;re testing God&#8217;s word out right here. This is the confidence you have if you ask anything according to His will. If you ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior and you confess, \u201cI believe that that He died <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1079.68\">for <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> my sins,  that He was raised from the grave and that He lives today\u201d  is that God&#8217;s will for you to accept Him?   I believe it is. I believe that&#8217;s the story of the scriptures. If it&#8217;s His will and you ask Him, what does the scripture say? He says that you&#8217;ll have the very thing you&#8217;ve asked for. You can have confidence. If you pray according to God&#8217;s will, you have the very thing you asked for.  <br \/><br \/>\nNow, prayer is not magical. It\u2019s not a magic formula. It\u2019s the confession of your faith,  saying,  \u201cI do, I want Jesus as Lord and I believe that He was raised from the grave and lives today.\u201d   That is  what saves you. Not the words, the words are important, you say them, but it&#8217;s what activates the faith.   You&#8217;re expressing your faith. <br \/><br \/>\nThe word, \u201ctestimony\u201d<span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1135.37\">back <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span>in verse 11, is the word in the Greek, marturia. It&#8217;s where we get the word,  \u201cmartyr.\u201d  Many people in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries gave testimony and witness because that&#8217;s what the word means, it means to be a witness or to give testimony.  Many of them died for their faith, for their testimony.  The word came to mean \u201cone who dies for their testimony.\u201d But it really just means \u201ctestimony\u201d or \u201cwitness.\u201d  This is the testimony and Jesus died for it. If you have Jesus, you have life. If you don&#8217;t have Jesus, you don&#8217;t have life. <br \/><br \/>\nDo you believe that? Do you believe God&#8217;s word? Have you decided to believe God&#8217;s word? We want to believe the first part because it&#8217;s good for us.   If you believe in Jesus and you receive Jesus, you have life. We have a little trouble with the second half of that. If <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1193.17\">you <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> don&#8217;t  have Jesus, you don&#8217;t have life. We have trouble with that. We have trouble with it because we\u2019re not sure if we really believe it. We don&#8217;t behave as if we believe it when we&#8217;re dealing with our neighbors, our friends,  our family,   our coworkers and our fellow students. If we really believed it, we  would inform the way we live in front of them and the way we talk.  <br \/><br \/>\nRomans 10:9-11 (NLT) \u201cFor if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.\u201d If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,  that\u2019s the  \u201cI do.\u201d   That&#8217;s receiving and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead. That&#8217;s the believing part. You will be saved. Not maybe;  not later. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.  Paul  is making it simple for us to understand, receive and believe. <br \/><br \/>\nLarry King, the former host of the popular TV show, \u201c Larry King Live,\u201d  passed away last January in 2021.     Some<span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1255.11\">years <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> earlier, he was interviewed by Barbara Walters. She asked him, \u201cLarry, what is your greatest fear?\u201d  Without even thinking for a second, he answered with one word, \u201cdeath.\u201d  The follow up question was, \u201cDo you believe in God?\u201d   He paused for a moment and answered, \u201cI&#8217;m not sure. I&#8217;m an agnostic.\u201d <br \/><br \/>\nDo you have to say, \u201cI&#8217;m not sure I believe?\u201d  No, you can be sure.   You can know that you know that you know.   This is why John wrote the 1st epistle of John so that you could know. It changes everything when you have this, this rock of foundation, of knowing your eternal destiny and knowing that you are a child of God.  It changes your identity. You live differently as a result. It&#8217;s a way of living fearlessly and faithfully,  because faith has no room for fear. <br \/><br \/>\n2 Timothy 1:7 (ESV)  7 \u201cfor God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.\u201d  Put this scripture on your refrigerator. Put this <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1323.97\">on <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> your mirror in your  bathroom of  on the dash of your car. <br \/><br \/>\nI remember when I was young, probably in the first grade or maybe younger. My little brother  was around two years old and he had a  favorite song at church.  In the church that we grew up in,  we didn&#8217;t have a children&#8217;s church. We were all in there together and sitting together.   My little brother could sing this song and maybe you can, too.  \u201cMy name is in the Book of Life, oh <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1375.18\">bless <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> the name of Jesus.\u201d  Here\u2019s the chorus; it&#8217;s hard. \u201cI know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know my name is written there.\u201d   That&#8217;s it. You can know that your name is written in the Book of Life. <br \/><br \/>\nHow do you know?   If you have Jesus, you have life.  If you don&#8217;t have Jesus, you don&#8217;t have life.   You may say, \u201cwell, Gary, that&#8217;s a pretty amazing claim.\u201d That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re on the move. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re a movement,  to make sure the whole world knows that Jesus is the only way.  That&#8217;s why we exist. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re a movement. We can&#8217;t be static, We can&#8217;t be still. <br \/><br \/>\nHow to have Assurance of Salvation as those who Belong to Jesus:<br \/><br \/>\n3.  Desire God\u2019s will.<br \/><br \/>\nYou can believe in God&#8217;s word.   You can be confident.  Finally,  you&#8217;ll have a new desire. You&#8217;ll desire God&#8217;s <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1434.98\">will <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span>. The real mark of a true disciple is that they want what Jesus wants more than what they want. They surrender their will to Him. They want His way.  They&#8217;ve learned that His way is better than their way.  <br \/><br \/>\nIt says in verse 14, \u201caccording to his will.\u201d   John Stott wrote this in his book, \u201cLetters of John,\u201d \n\u201cPrayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God, or for bending His will to ours, but the prescribed way of subordinating our will to His. It is by prayer that we seek God\u2019s will, embrace it and align ourselves with it. Every true prayer is a variation of the theme \u2018Your will be done.\u2019\u201d <br \/><br \/>\nVerse 15 says, 15 \u201cAnd if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.\u201d  The word, \u201cask,\u201d could be translated, \u201cbeg, call for, crave or desire.\u201d  To pray<span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1502.02\">as <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span>  Jesus did.   \u201cNot My will, but Thine be done.\u201d <br \/><br \/>\nThere are two  garden stories in the bible.   One is early on and one is later on.   The one early on involves these two people, Adam and Eve. They&#8217;re in a garden and they are deceived by the serpent and they make a choice.   They  want their  will over God&#8217;s will   and sin enters in   with its suffering and death. It&#8217;s been the same ever since,  until Jesus came.   Paul calls Him \u201cthe second Adam, Son of God, Son of Man.\u201d  He comes and He&#8217;s in another garden, the Garden of Gethsemane,  late before that Friday when He was crucified.   In that garden, He&#8217;s tempted by the evil one and,  in His humanity, He prays, \u201cFather, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.\u201d You see, He&#8217;s the one.   <br \/><br \/>\nWe can be born again. We&#8217;re all born into <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1577.38\">Adam&#8217;s <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> race.  We are born into sin, born with selfishness in our  heart that says,  \u201cI want my way.\u201d   If you&#8217;ve been alive long enough, maybe you\u2019ve  learned, as I&#8217;ve learned, it&#8217;s not that good to  get  your own way. In fact, it&#8217;s terrible. It&#8217;s much better to live according to God&#8217;s will and to surrender to it.  When you pray,  ask God, \u201cI feel like I want this, can I have this?\u201d   You can ask;  you are His kid.   Ask for whatever, but be aware that you ask according to His will and pray,  \u201cGod, is it your will for me to have this? If not,  bring my desires in alignment with Yours.\u201d   What will happen is,  over time, you&#8217;ll be able to pray as the psalmist writes, Psalm 37:4 (ESV) \u201cDelight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.\u201d  Your will will be in alignment with His will and you&#8217;ll want what God wants.  When you pray,  your prayers will be answered because you&#8217;re praying according to God&#8217;s will <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1646.18\">.   <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> Oh, what a wonderful life to live, walking by faith and living according to God&#8217;s will in your life.  <br \/><br \/>\nSome of you may ask, \u201cYeah, but God can I just,  in this one area,  have an exception and just do this?\u201d  Sometimes He&#8217;ll let you do that and then you&#8217;ll be back with Him sometime later praying,  \u201cGod, please don&#8217;t ever let me do that again. I tried something I shouldn&#8217;t have.\u201d     People get upset about what God&#8217;s word will say to do and not to do.  <br \/><br \/>\nBeing a Christian is not about the \u201cto dos\u201d  and the \u201cnot to dos.\u201d   It&#8217;s about a relationship with Jesus. As you follow  Jesus, you start  saying,  \u201cI want what this says and I don&#8217;t want to buck against it anymore.\u201d  <br \/><br \/>\nHave you received God&#8217;s Son? You see, <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1711.52\">you <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> can know that you belong. Have you said,  \u201cI do,\u201d  to Jesus? \u201cI do. I want you as Lord of my life. I surrender the car keys.   You drive.\u201d   Have you believed in His word? Do you believe that He&#8217;s been raised from the grave and that He lives today? Do you want what He wants?  You can know that you know that you know that you belong to Jesus.   You don&#8217;t have to be afraid anymore. Nothing can touch you that doesn&#8217;t first pass through the fingers of the Almighty Father. When does eternal life begin? It begins at the very moment that you received Jesus.  If  you\u2019ve  got Jesus, you&#8217;ve got life.  If you don&#8217;t got Jesus, you don&#8217;t got life. Oh,   let that be confidence and knowledge for you  today. If you have Jesus, you can know that you know that you know.   It changes everything. <br \/><br \/>\nLet&#8217;s pray.   Lord, thank You that You gave us Jesus,  but it&#8217;s up to us now to to receive Him and believe <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1784.84\">and <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> to follow Him. Lord,  I pray for that person under my hearing right now, whether they&#8217;re watching online or seated in the auditorium right now, is it your desire to receive Jesus and to believe in Him? You can pray right where you are, right in your seat or wherever you&#8217;re listening right now.   It&#8217;s not so much the words of the prayer as it is the expression of your faith.   You can pray like this,  \u201cLord, I&#8217;m a sinner and I  have fallen short of Your will, but I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and that He lives today. He was raised from the dead  and lives today. Come and live in me. I repent of my sin and I ask You to come and be my Lord and Savior. I surrender my life to You.   Make me a child of God and adopt me into Your family. Thank you,  Lord,  for forgiving me and saving me.\u201d   If you&#8217;re praying that prayer right now,  believing and receiving, He&#8217;ll save you. It&#8217;s His will. It&#8217;s His desire to do so. He <span class=\"messageTimecode\" title=\"Play the video starting here\" data-timecode=\"1849.27\">wants <i class=\"fa fa-volume-up\"><\/i><\/span> you. Others are here and you&#8217;ve received Him and you believe in Him, but it&#8217;s that last part. It&#8217;s desiring His will that the Holy Spirit is bringing to your attention right now. Is there an area that you&#8217;ve gone astray,  that you&#8217;re not living to what you know He&#8217;s told you to do or not to do. Would you,  right now,  confess it as sin,  repent and say, \n\u201cLord forgive me. I know I&#8217;m saved. I know I&#8217;m right with You. I know I have eternal life, but Lord, I want Your will in  my life in every area.   I want my life permeated by the desire to follow You. Oh, let it be so,  in Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2000 years ago, the Lord Jesus told His disciples to \u201cGO and MAKE DISCIPLES\u201d and He has called His disciples, His church, to be on the move ever since. So the church is not a place, it\u2019s a people. The church is not a monument, it\u2019s a movement!<\/p>\n<p>If someone asks, where\u2019s your church? Let\u2019s learn to answer with another question, \u201cWhen? Because it depends on the time and day of the week.\u201d For the church gathers for strengthening and scatters for service. It gathers for worship and scatters for witness. It gathers in praise and scatters in power. The church gathers in fellowship and scatters in faith as the body of Christ in this world. The church is on the move. So, do you want to belong to this Jesus following, disciple-making movement?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10227,"template":"","tags":[2024],"series":[2854],"scripture-book":[1329],"scripture-chapter":[1338],"speaker":[2007],"class_list":["post-10226","message","type-message","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-discipleship","series-movement","scripture-book-1-john","scripture-chapter-1338","speaker-gary-combs"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/10226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/message"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/10226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10226"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=10226"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-book?post=10226"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-chapter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-chapter?post=10226"},{"taxonomy":"speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker?post=10226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}