Back To The Basics (Part 1 ): Love God

Welcome to the Harvest Chapel PA podcast.

We're so glad you've joined us.

Each week you'll hear powerful messages, testimonies,

and conversations designed to help you grow in your faith

and encounter Jesus in a fresh way.

Let's dive into today's episode.

So good, good morning.

How's everybody doing this morning?

Good?

Few of you are doing good.

How are you guys doing this morning?

Doing good?

All you summer loving people,

you're getting a couple more days of summer weather,

so enjoy it while you can.

I'm praying in the fall, full force, full force.

Super excited for what God's doing in our midst,

and I just am so proud of those girls

for just being a part of the service and being willing,

and sometimes it's hard to do things

to kind of get out of your comfort zone,

but how many know when you're doing something

that you're out of your comfort zone,

it makes you have to depend on the comforter

and fully just trust him and say,

you know what, God, maybe I don't wanna do something

in my flesh, but God, if you're calling me to do that,

I'm willing and able to do that,

and both of those transitions were just beautiful,

so great job, super good.

I texted KJ yesterday just to check on her.

I said, are you doing good?

I said, we're getting ready for that communion.

She said, you're really stretching me.

I said, well, that's a part of my job,

and she responded, she said, you know what,

you're actually right, so super good.

So I have a few things just on my heart

before we jump into the service,

and Zach, I actually have a word

for your little girl Brooke,

and when I woke up this morning,

and I know she's here,

and I know that she's with Courtney on the other side,

and it's cool when the Lord shows you things,

because as I was just kind of getting ready

and kind of walking through the building

and just praying and just asking the Holy Spirit

for wisdom and guidance,

I just happened to peek into the little kid's classroom

and who do I see just go like this?

Brooke, and she just gave me just a huge smile,

so maybe that was just confirmation that I needed

to be able to kind of just move forward

with the word that I was feeling on my heart,

but how many know there's no such thing

as your junior Holy Spirit?

I believe as soon as that little girl believes

and hears the gospel which she's hearing

on a consistent basis back there

in the children's ministry,

as soon as she believes

and would declare that Jesus is who he says he is,

and he came and he died,

and he was buried and he was rose again,

I believe in that moment,

those young ones are filled with the same Spirit

that raised Christ from the dead.

And as I was just praying over her

and kind of just asking the Holy Spirit,

like who is Brooke,

like who will Brooke be?

And this is gonna sound really weird,

but in the Spirit I saw the wind,

and I don't know even what that means

because you can't really see the wind,

you can feel the wind.

And the Lord says she's gonna be able to see things

that other people can't

and be able to partner with him in prayer

and have this really strong intercessor gift on her life,

but also have a very close relationship

with the Holy Spirit.

Because when I was hearing the word wind

and seeing wind,

even though that doesn't make sense,

I really believe that it was a representation

of the Holy Spirit.

So I know Zach, her dad is here,

so I just wanna pray over her real quick.

How many know the spiritual world

is more real than this one?

So when you hear kids say that they see things

and they feel things,

I would encourage you to actually listen to them

because they're very sensitive to the Spirit.

So let's just pray over Brooke.

God, we just thank you for Brooke.

We thank you for the calling that's on her life.

God, we thank you for who she is now

and who she's becoming and who she will be.

But God, I just thank you

that she will be a woman of the wind

and she will know how to move

in and through the Holy Spirit.

And God, I thank you that you've given her eyes to see

and ears to hear.

So right now, God, we just breathe over that.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So good.

All right, you guys ready?

We're gonna start a new series this morning

called Back to the Basics.

I'm gonna really talk about what does it look like

to truly love God.

But before I do that,

has anyone in the room ever made a easy thing

more complicated just because?

Just me?

Like I'm the kind of mindset,

I'm the kind of person

that like if I have to clean one section of the garage,

that requires emptying the entire garage.

And then putting everything back

the way that it should be.

I don't know why,

but that's just how the Lord made me.

But I think sometimes we make the gospel

more complicated than it needs to be.

And instead of just simply receiving God's love,

we try to work for it.

We try to strive for it.

We try to check all the boxes of Christianity

and then think that we're good enough

to receive the love of God.

And that's simply not the gospel.

So as many times as you've heard the gospel,

maybe these verses we're gonna go through today

are review, which they should be.

I'm just gonna pray that the Holy Spirit

gives us ears to hear and eyes to see in Jesus' name.

So let's look at Matthew chapter 22.

Starting at verse 36.

Says, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart, with all your soul,

and with all your mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

So the basic, the 101 of Christianity,

I believe the foundation has got to be us

receiving the love of God.

But if we're really, really honest with ourselves,

how many of us have spent a lot of time

trying to earn something

that we already had access to in Christ?

I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hands,

but if we were very honest in this room,

I believe that all of our hands would be up.

In some time of our life,

we tried to work for something

that we already had in Christ.

I love when the Holy Spirit convicts me as I'm praying,

because sometimes if I'm going

through a difficult situation,

I'll find myself asking for things

that I already have access to in Christ.

It actually doesn't make sense to say,

God, would you give me more peace

if we already have the peace

that passes all understanding?

What does it look like for us to be in a situation

where we need that internal reality to manifest,

and for us to just slow down and say,

God, I just thank you that you've given me peace

that passes all understanding.

So right now, as I'm in this situation

that requires peace,

God, I thank you that you are the Prince of Peace,

and you already gave me that peace.

So God, I'm just gonna trust you,

and I'm gonna continue to live this day

in trust and surrender to you, amen.

That's a lot different than,

God, would you please give me peace,

God, give me hope, give me joy,

all the things that are found in him,

and the more time we spend with him,

we realize we have those things.

We have access to those things.

We shouldn't be looking for those things anymore

when we've been found in Christ Jesus, amen.

And it's just about teaching ourselves that,

and sometimes preaching this gospel message

to ourself on a daily basis.

1 John 4 10, if you need convinced,

I'm gonna give you all the verses this morning

to leave here fully convinced

that God loves you so much.

And sometimes it's true that we know that up here.

We know that God loves us in our minds,

but when push comes to shove,

do we know that God loves us here in our hearts,

that we can go through any circumstance,

any situation and never doubt God's love for us?

1 John 4 10 says, in this is love,

not that we loved God, but that he loved us

and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

So if you're like me, I stop and go,

I wanna dive into that propitiation word a little bit.

That's a nice word.

God, would you show me what that means?

What that means is it's an atoning sacrifice

that satisfies God's justice and turns away his wrath.

That's something to get excited about.

In other words, Jesus didn't just cover sin.

Like in the Old Testament,

sacrifices temporarily were covered.

He paid for sin in full.

Say in full.

Satisfying the penalty we owed

so that God's justice and God's mercy

could be both fulfilled.

That's good news.

That's a really good news.

Now, if you want a modern illustration of this,

imagine someone racks up massive amounts of debt.

And I know no one in this room has ever racked up

massive amounts of debt.

Husbands, don't look at your wives.

Wives, don't look at your husbands.

It's not about that.

But someone racking up a massive amount of debt

and they truly can't pay it.

Like I don't know what they were thinking

when they allowed themselves to slide that card,

but they truly can't pay for this debt.

The lender has every right to demand payment,

don't they?

Like those phone calls that we don't like to get.

Any of you in this room

have gotten an obscene amount of phone calls recently?

Anybody?

Anybody?

Maybe it's just because I did a soft pull on my credit

and holy smokes,

didn't know what you were signing up for.

But every day it's like 10 different voicemails

from people that I did not call.

So anywho, that's a side story.

But then someone steps in

and pays this debt off completely.

Would that not be amazing?

Completely comes in and wipes away this debt.

This debt no longer exists.

What happens?

The lender now becomes satisfied.

The calls start to stop

because there's no longer a debt that needs to be paid.

That's what Jesus did on the cross.

We have to understand that when Jesus said

it is finished, he truly meant it.

He absorbed the penalty.

God's justice was satisfied.

God's mercy could be fulfilled in that moment.

Say that's good news.

If we have gone through things

and all of us have gone through things

that require us to repent, which is what?

To turn away.

So if you're going this way, you repent

and you turn away and you turn back to God

and the past is behind you

and now the future is in front of you.

But how many of us still try to

hold ourselves in contempt

and think that those debts truly haven't been paid for?

And we partner with things like shame.

We partner with things like guilt.

We partner with things like condemnation,

which all of those things are from the pit of hell.

Now, conviction is very holy.

Conviction is something that we should want to pursue.

We want to invite the Holy Spirit to say,

man, if I'm doing anything, if I'm saying anything,

if I'm thinking anything that I should not be doing,

would you please convict me of that sin

so that I could deal with it

so that I could truly become

who I'm called to be in Christ?

But condemnation says you'll never get this.

I'm gonna pick on you Colby

just because I look out and I see you.

You're never gonna get this, buddy.

What are you thinking?

Why are you even trying?

And I know we laugh because Colby knows me enough

that that is the last thing

that he would ever hear from me.

He's experienced me enough in the flesh,

me as his pastor,

but God is way a better pastor for you than I am.

He's the world's best shepherd.

It's my job as your shepherd

to point you to the great shepherd.

So if I can look at you in the flesh and say,

look, that's not God's voice, that's condemnation,

that's guilt, that's shame, that's not who you are.

When you go and you spend time with your heavenly father,

you should also be hearing those things

and experiencing those things with God

because you're in relationship with him.

We cannot continue to partner with things like guilt,

things like shame, things like condemnation,

because you will remain stuck

and you'll never become who you're truly called to be.

You've got to get out of it.

Pastor Dave, you did a fantastic job.

Men's breakfast yesterday,

he was here for men's breakfast yesterday, come on.

The food was great, but the word was better.

It was a fantastic word

and he actually had a chain attached to himself.

You know, Pastor Dave and his props,

he's the king of props.

But he starts off and he's got this big yellow chain

and he's got it on his little belt buckle

and he tied it to the speaker.

I'm like, what the heck is this guy doing?

He's preaching and every once in a while, he would stop.

It would yank him.

And he said, this is a lot of our pasts.

We allow our pasts to chain us down

and hinder us from stepping into the things

we're truly called to step into.

There's a reason why your windshield is this big

and your rear view mirror is this big.

You're called to look forward more than you are backward.

You're supposed to reference where you've been

but not let where you've been dictate where you're going.

It would be very difficult.

A lot of my young drivers in here,

if you tried to drive just looking at that rear view mirror,

pretty soon you're hitting somebody quick.

We're just called to reference that,

reference that, reference that.

We're called to keep our eyes fixed in front of us

and honestly, not just what's in front of us,

but fixed on Christ.

Because if we're looking at Christ

and his voice is the loudest voice in our life,

he's gonna dictate where we go.

He's gonna dictate how we feel about this

or how we feel about that.

And let's be really honest guys,

it's not about our feelings.

A lot of us, when we don't even realize it,

we end up bowing to our feelings,

letting our feelings dictate how the day is gonna go.

Do you know the enemy would love for you

to wake up feeling defeated?

The enemy would love for you to wake up feeling anxious,

feeling fearful, and then as you wake up

and as you're getting ready,

you have to start to take those things into consideration

and say, you know what,

why do I feel hopeless right now?

If I'm filled with peace and joy from the God of hope,

why do I feel hopeless?

What does it look like to actually have

that kind of a conversation with the Holy Spirit,

that kind of a relationship with the Holy Spirit

that you actually ask him,

Holy Spirit, why do I feel hopeless today?

And you're actually silent enough

to listen to what he shows you,

listen to what he reveals to you.

Maybe something happened the day before,

maybe last week that you just haven't gotten over

and you don't realize it,

but every day that thing pops into your head

and it just tries to take your entire day.

Anybody ever been there?

That's what it looks like to take every thought captive,

submit it to truth and say, you know what,

this thought that's in my head

doesn't line up with scripture.

Me being hopeless doesn't make sense

when I'm filled with hope.

Me lacking, me feeling like I lack peace

doesn't make sense when I'm told that I'm filled

with the peace that passes all understanding.

This is very elementary, but we need to get this

and if we get this and if we live this,

it will be shown and it will be seen

and the world will be transformed by it.

Your family looks different if you get this.

Your marriage looks different if you get this,

not your spouse getting this.

Can I get an amen?

Because sometimes we can sit here going,

wow, I really wish so and so was here to hear this.

They really need this, we really need this.

Even if you're doing really good

and you're doing the greatest you've done

with the Lord in a long time,

we need to continue to go from glory

to glory to glory.

We can't be satisfied with yesterday's encounter.

If I have a conversation with you and I'm like,

hey, what's God doing?

Well, what's he moving in your life?

Or when's the last time you encountered him

and you're starting to think and process

and you're trying to think of the last conference

you went to or the last this,

I want you to say yesterday.

Couple minutes ago, I acknowledged God

and he spoke to me.

Like that's the kind of relationship

that you have access to.

It's about having a real lasting relationship with God

and it can never get old to us

for us to realize the simplicity of the gospel

that God willingly sent his son.

God willingly sent his son to take our place,

do the things that we were supposed to do.

He willingly sent his son.

This can never get old.

We should never be sitting going like,

yep, I heard this, Pastor Matt, tell me something new.

Give me a new word.

Are we fully living out that reality with our life today?

Are you so convinced that God loves you

that on the worst day ever,

you still know that he loves you so much?

And when the enemy comes, when he will,

he will come.

He will try to steal, kill, and destroy.

That's his full-time job and he's not taking a break.

There's a lot of Christians that try to take a break

from being a Christian.

That don't work out.

But the enemy, his full-time job,

he's seeking to devour everything good about your life.

But when you realize you're filled

with the lion of the tribe of Judah,

when the enemy comes to roar,

he sounds like a kitty cat.

He's not intimidating, he's not as intimidating

as he makes it sound.

When you realize who you are,

when you realize the lion that you have access to,

the roar that's inside of you

that wants so desperately to come out,

to touch the people around you.

But how many know you can't,

the next part of this series next week is loving people.

You can't love people

if you haven't received the love of God.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

You can't love people unless you have received God's love

and you healthily love you.

It is not prideful to say, I love me.

It's biblical.

You have gotta fall in love

with who God's created you to be.

And sometimes we wonder why.

Why are things not clicking?

Why are things not happening?

When I minister to this person time and time again

and time and time again.

But are you loving them?

Are you ministering to them from a selfless place?

Or is it selfish?

Does it come with a hook?

I'm gonna love them,

but you so desperately want them to say, I love you too.

When Jesus is hanging on that cross,

saying things like, Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do.

That's the type of love that I wanna tap into

that I can truly be able to pray

for ones that are trying to come against me maliciously.

That I can actually fall to my knees and say, God,

for them to come at me and my family like that,

they must not know who you are.

And let that break my heart more

than what they're trying to do hurt me.

Because I'm either dead to myself or I'm not.

I'm not saying we don't need to stand up

for the people around us and stand up for our families,

but I wanna be able to love my enemies

and pray for those who persecute me.

And persecution is not Facebook jail.

We don't know what persecution is here in the West.

When there's people that just lost their life

for the gospel.

Just lost their life for the gospel.

This isn't just a part of our church history.

This is still happening right here and right now.

And we've gotta remember that, that we're so blessed.

We're so blessed that we can own one of these.

I just redid my office and moved some things around.

I got like 30 of these.

I'm so blessed to be able to have one.

I'm so blessed to be able to have one.

And I don't like to get like this,

but if you just read the Bible on your phone,

I really encourage you to get a real one.

Because it would be really easy for someone

to go in and change some stuff in an app

and take some things out and move some words around

and no one know the difference.

But if you have a real copy,

an original, come on.

The whole goal is for this to get inside of you

so that if there ever comes a day

that we can't have this, it's okay.

We've become it.

We've spent so much time in it

that we know what it says.

I wanna spend time with the Lord

and I wanna become more and more like him.

Don't you?

I want that.

John 1, 14 says,

and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Jesus chose to come and be a part of who we are

and he experienced everything that we experienced.

He showed us what does it look like to live a life

fully submitted and dependent upon the Father.

How many of us say things sometimes like,

man, I'd love to do that, but I'm just so busy.

I love Jesus so much.

I'm just so thankful that the day of the cross,

he wasn't like, man, I got a lot going on.

I'm just too busy.

And I love the Holy Spirit.

I have this kind of relationship with the Holy Spirit

and sometimes I'm just very, I'm very real.

I process things with him.

I talk to him.

I ask him questions and I love when he responds

and says, man, I'm really,

it sounds like you're giving me a lot of excuses

when God sent his son and in that moment,

he actually removed all the excuses.

He actually gave you everything that you need

to do the thing you're praying to me for.

How many of you have prayed for things like,

God, would you do this in my family?

Would you do this into my kids' lives?

Would you do this in my company?

Would you do this in my community?

And God's like, man, I've empowered you.

I've given you every tool that you need

to do that very thing.

You guys okay?

I know this is sharp, but this is truth.

This is the gospel.

We have everything that it takes.

We have Jesus Christ, the same spirit

that raised Christ from the dead living within us.

When we pray, things happen.

Do you believe that?

When we pray, things shift.

When we are somewhere,

the spirit of the Lord is there with us.

Oh, Pastor Matt, I don't know.

The world just getting darker and darker.

Well, this is an opportunity for us

to shine brighter and brighter.

In schools, there should be no question

on who the Christians are and who aren't.

The light should be so much different than the dark.

When you go shopping, when you go grocery shopping,

the way that you walk, the way that you talk,

the way that you carry yourself.

When people get around you, they just say like,

I don't know what this is about you,

but I just want to be around you

because when I'm around you, I just feel hope.

That should be so normal,

not just for pastors and teachers and speakers,

but for Christians.

For just normal, everyday Christians

that have died to themselves and said,

you know what, God, I don't want to live for me.

I want to fully live for you.

I want to be consumed by who you are.

Man, he bore the sins of the world.

He was beaten, he was mocked, he was spit upon for us.

We have to realize that we were the ones

that deserved that, but he took it.

Hebrews 12, two, you'll hear us say this a lot

here at Harvest, but he endured the cross

for the joy set before him.

Do you realize that we were that joy set before him?

Young people, like young, the youngest person in the room

to the oldest person in the room,

you need to know that Jesus Christ

endured the cross for the joy set before him.

Nothing about the cross was joyful.

Nothing about Calvary was joyful.

What was joyful?

Redemption, reconciliation, sons and daughters

having a way back to their heavenly father.

And we get to realize, oh my goodness,

he did that for me.

He did that for the person that is the hardest person

to be around in your life.

You fill in the blank.

The person that just really grinds your gears

or really just bushes your buttons.

He died for that person.

He died for that person to be fully set free,

fully new in him.

And the only way we could pray for individuals

just like that is if we're fully consumed in God's love

and we're not doing things for the approval of man

because we already realized we're approved by him.

You can't live on the applause of man

because what happens when they're not clapping?

What happens when they're not amening?

It's okay, I'm gonna sleep good tonight.

It's okay, I don't need a certain amount of amens

during every sermon to feel good about myself.

I feel good about myself.

Why?

Because I'm accepted in him.

I'm receiving his love.

I'm loved by him.

Every day I wake up loved.

Every day you wake up loved.

What a beautiful way to start your day.

God, I just thank you that you love me.

God, today before I do anything,

I just receive your love into my life today.

I'm not gonna work for it.

I'm not gonna strive for it.

I'm not gonna serve for it.

I'm not gonna tithe for it.

All of those things are beautiful

but all of those things we get to do

from being loved.

Loved sons and daughters want to give.

Loved sons and daughters want to serve.

Loved sons and daughters wanna go out of their way

to help individuals and do whatever they can

to stand in the gap and say, you know what?

I'm gonna fight for you

when you're not willing to fight for yourself.

I'm glad I had people in my life fighting for me

when I don't wanna fight for myself.

Anyone else in the room had a praying mom,

had a praying grandma, had a praying dad,

had a praying grandfather?

Thank God for those people.

Thank God for those people that never gave up on you.

Thank God.

And the sad truth is that many people reject this love

on a daily basis.

Many people, maybe you at times have rejected his love.

Maybe you can think about a time in your life

where you knew that God was trying to get your attention.

You knew that he was trying to speak to you

but for whatever reason,

you just kept putting them on the back burner,

putting it on the back burner.

You know what breaks my heart?

It's people that think there's always tomorrow

and then tomorrow never comes.

I don't wanna fall into the trap of,

I'll take care of that tomorrow.

Man, how many of you wake up sometimes

and there's just a random person that's on your heart,

you haven't thought about him in a long time.

Can we learn how to be quickly obedient to that?

I don't believe that's by chance.

I believe that God is trying to get you

to reach out to that person.

God is trying to put that person in your path

because then what happens is

we think about that person all of a sudden

and then we're out and about

and we run into that person.

Or we run into someone

that really reminds us of that person

and God's like, you're telling me

you want me to speak to you.

You're telling me you want me

to give you opportunities to do the things.

I'm giving you all these opportunities.

I'm trying to open up your eyes, son.

I'm trying to, now when we don't do it,

he still loves us and goes, I love you,

but realize that was me.

Next time, just do better.

And what does do better look like?

Dying to yourself more quickly.

Quickly dying to yourself to say, you know what God,

if you want me to tell that person about Jesus,

come on, I'm just gonna do it.

And you know what?

Because one, they're gonna accept it,

become brand new creations in Christ

and their entire future is transformed

because you were obedient.

Or they just say no.

That's the worst that can happen

is someone to say, no, I'm too busy.

No, thank you.

I don't want that.

Okay?

In that moment, you don't have to get pushy.

You don't have to get aggressive.

You can just say, okay.

And then you just turn your attention to someone else

because I guarantee someone else that God loves

is around that person that just said no.

And the thing is we have something called free will.

Parents, you can do everything right for your children.

You could bring them to church.

You could pray together as a family.

You could do everything that you need to do.

And then they still choose to not go the way

that you would like them to.

At the end of the day,

you have to let go and you have to let God.

That can't just be a t-shirt.

Because we can't wear the t-shirt that says,

let go, love God, have the coffee in our hand,

take the selfie, but still be traumatized

in fear at the end of the day.

It's gotta be more than a t-shirt.

It's gotta be more than a post.

It's gotta be more than a filter.

Be real, be vulnerable.

Let God into those areas of your life

that you're like, you know what, Matt?

I've been in the church my whole life.

I know God loves me,

but I don't really experience his love.

And at the end of the day, I truly don't believe it.

Because there's more people like that in the church

than what you realize.

We've been around all the right stuff.

We've been around all the right people.

But being around all the right stuff

isn't enough when push comes to shove.

When it's just you, a traumatic situation,

and Jesus, Jesus has to be enough.

Jesus has to be enough for you.

Because the person you reach out to may not answer.

The person you reach out to may be busy and inactual,

and that's okay.

But you know who's always there

and who's the same yesterday, today, and forever?

God.

He's always there for you.

All he's asking for you to do

is humble yourself and seek him.

And he says, you do that, you'll find me.

You humble yourself and knock,

I'm gonna answer the door.

That's amazing.

What beautiful promises.

But ask yourself, how much am I knocking?

If your marriage is going through some stuff,

how much are you seeking God?

Because just giving up and saying,

well, I guess it is what it is.

That's not biblical.

You gotta learn how to know how to fight

and you gotta learn how to say,

no, I'm holding the promises of God.

And I say, this is what your word says, God,

and I'm gonna believe and trust that you have a plan.

Because this ain't it, and you need to show up, God.

But the thing is, sometimes he shows up

in ways that we don't want.

Sometimes he shows up in unexpected ways.

Sometimes he shows up in places and people

that maybe we wouldn't necessarily show up in.

Amen?

Man, Romans 8.38, probably one of my favorite verses.

It's hard, do you ever have someone say,

what's your favorite verse?

It's really hard to have a favorite verse

when you read it a lot.

Because it changes by the day,

it changes by the week, it changes by the month.

It's whatever the Lord's really speaking to you

in that moment, in that season.

But Romans 8.38, we read Paul saying,

man, I'm convinced that nothing,

I'm persuaded beyond doubt.

Gosh, I love that.

In the Amplified Version, it says,

I am persuaded beyond doubt that nothing can separate me

from the love of God.

I wanna be persuaded, I wanna be convinced

because there's gonna be days where that's challenged.

There's gonna be days where the enemy's trying

overtime with you to take you and your family out.

And in those moments, I wanna be persuaded,

man, God, you love me.

And there's nothing that can separate me

from your love, God.

I know this to be true, Lord.

I've experienced this, God.

Thank you.

This can't just be a good plaque that we have hanging up.

Ephesians 3.19, may you experience God's love

even though it's too good to fully comprehend.

God wants His love to be something that is experienced,

that isn't just talked about.

I don't wanna just talk about God's love.

I wanna experience God's love.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

I'm not gonna just tell you that steak is good.

I've tasted it.

I've been convinced.

I've been persuaded that steak is good.

And so is a big rack of ribs.

Good.

You can go buy the smoker and not learn how to use it.

I told Anna a couple years ago,

I'm like, man, babe, I really want a smoker.

She's like, you don't use the grill we have.

You know what I heard in that?

If I use the grill, I can get the smoker.

That's what I heard.

I'm still having to use the grill,

just being honest, transparent.

You gotta know what to do.

You gotta taste and see that He's good.

You got a taste of His love.

You have the taste of His hope, taste of His joy.

Experience it, man.

Joy and happiness are two different things.

Happiness is circumstantial.

Happiness comes and go.

Happiness is the new car.

Happiness is the new house.

Happiness is this working out for you.

Joy is not dictated upon my circumstances.

It's an internal thing.

It's an internal reality.

It's actually the person of Jesus Christ living in me

that the enemy cannot touch.

Your happiness may shift from time to time,

but your joy, it will remain forever

if you realize it's found in Christ,

not in your circumstances.

God's love, if I had to compare it to anything, man,

God's love is like a continual rain.

It's a downpour, and all you can do is just receive it.

All you can do is just get drenched in His love.

I want His love to consume every part of my life,

not parts of my life, but my entire life.

Your job as a son or a daughter

is to not strive, but to receive.

Anytime you feel like you're working for His love,

just stop and say, you know what, God, I'm sorry.

I know I'm actually working for something

that I already have in you.

God, would you teach me how to not do this, Lord?

I just wanna receive Your love today.

God, thank You for Your love.

God, thank You that I'm loved.

Thank You that I'm loved.

When you miss it, not that anyone in this room misses it,

but when you miss it and you're having a,

I like to call them little spat,

not full on arguments, but little, you know,

you're having a spat with your spouse.

You're having a little,

you're not seeing things on the same playing field

if you know, if you catch what I'm saying.

After that, you go, man, I really missed it.

I missed it.

You have that conversation with God first,

and you go, wow, that really wasn't that important, was it?

I took it to a 10,

when I surely could have been at a five.

I let myself just scream to a 10,

and Lord, I'm sorry, I know that hurts Your heart.

God, that hurts Your heart

when I don't represent You well in that moment,

because in that moment, I wasn't very patient,

and love is patient.

And God, in that moment, I wasn't very kind,

but I realized love is patient and love is kind.

And I realized that in that moment,

I was trying to demand my own way,

but I'm realizing that love is patient, love is kind,

and love doesn't demand its own way.

So once you work this out with God,

then you have to have a conversation with your wife,

or your husband, and you go, man, I'm really sorry.

I really missed that.

I'm realizing how I handled that situation earlier

was not the best, and I've taken some time,

and I've prayed about it.

I've asked the Lord to forgive me.

Now I would like You to forgive me.

And guess what, that's on them,

because you can say all the right things

and do all the right things,

and that person still has the choice to forgive you.

And I tell Anna, please don't you tell me

you forgive me unless you're ready to look at me

as if I never did the thing

that I just asked for repentance for.

Look at me as if I've used a grill, honey.

Look at me as if I know how to grill asparagus.

Look at me as if I know how to do all the sides,

but I'm not there yet, forgive me.

Don't hold this against me, babe.

Let me get the smoker, and I'm kidding.

She's watching, not really, kidding.

Because when you receive His love, guys,

it changes everything about your life.

It changes the way you see yourself.

It changes the way you see your circumstances.

It changes the way you see the people around you.

From receiving His love, I spent so much time

trying to receive a love that was already given to me.

In my Christian walk from a teenager to adulthood,

I spent so much time trying to earn a love

that was already poured out for me

by checking all the boxes.

Me and the prodigal son's story,

I don't have time to go into details,

but he was embraced, he was restored,

he was crowned, not because of works,

but because of the Father's love.

Not because he made all the right choices.

If anything, he made all the opposite to the right choices.

Once then you receive God's love,

then and only then you can actually truly love God back.

You're loving love with the love that He pours out.

And you can't even think about loving others

if you're not receiving God's love

and you don't have a healthy view of yourself.

If you can't stand in front of a mirror and go,

man, God, I love who you've created me to be.

Man, if you're avoiding mirrors,

you're not in a good place spiritually.

I can look in a mirror and go, man,

I need to do some work, but I still love myself.

I still love myself at the end of the day

because I can see who God's created me to be.

It's okay to have goals, it's okay to go to the gym,

but how many know you can't just go to the gym

and get fit?

The same way you can't just come to the church

and be spiritually strong.

You have to actually apply the things

that are being given to you.

You can't look at your life and go,

why is my life the way that it is?

I just don't understand.

The last three years, nothing has changed.

What have you changed?

What have you done differently?

Because if you keep doing the same thing

and you want different results,

that's the definition of insanity.

You have to look at your life and go,

what can I do better?

How much more time can I be spending with God?

How much less time can I be on social media

and more time being with him?

I need to get my face in this book

before I get my face in Facebook.

Social media is a beautiful tool, it is.

It's a beautiful tool, but it can become an identity.

It can become the thing where you make a post

and all of a sudden now you're checking the post

every once in a while to see how many likes,

how many comments, how much engagement.

And I feel like God sometimes is like,

man, I wish you checked in with me that much.

I wish you looked to me for my opinion that much.

Because you're living your life trying to be validated

by the opinion of man,

but don't you wanna know how I think?

Don't you wanna know what I think about you?

Don't you wanna know how proud I am of you

for doing that or doing this?

We gotta learn how to check in with him, amen?

1 John 4 19 says, we love him

because he first loved us.

Loving God means with all your heart,

all your soul, all your mind,

that practically looks like something.

I can't just tell Anna I love her.

I have to show her with my actions.

I have to show her by being patient.

I have to show her by being kind,

selfless at times when I'm tempted to be selfish.

It looks like something.

Loving God also looks like obedience.

John 14 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments.

We all in this room know the commandments

or we know the basic principles of God's commandments.

And you have to ask yourself, am I doing those things?

And if I don't do those things,

is my heart gripped to repentance

when I don't do what I know I should do?

If you love me, keep my commandments.

Love isn't just words or songs.

It's lived out in obedience.

How many know that Israel in the wilderness

said they loved God, but their lives set off on fire?

They loved God otherwise, didn't it?

Does your life prove your love for him?

Only you can answer that question.

Your life lived and I'm not looking

for a life of perfection,

but I'm looking for a life of someone

that is never willing to get off of the potter's wheel.

God, keep me on this wheel.

Would you smooth things out in my life

that I know need smoothed out?

I don't wanna ever lose my cool or lose my,

be very careful with what you say too,

because I see things posted all the time

where people are saying, my fear, my anxiety,

my hopelessness, why are you claiming it as yours?

And not looking at it like it's

trespassing on purchased property.

Because if you've fully given your life to God,

you have a landlord that gets

to evict things like hopelessness.

You have a landlord that gets to evict things

like fear, things like depression,

things like suicidal thoughts.

That's not who you're called to be.

And if those things are going on,

you have to ask yourself,

have I truly given my life to God?

Because God is not interested in you being a duplex.

He's not interested in half of your life.

He's not interested in your Wednesday nights

and your Sunday mornings

and your events every once in a while.

He wants your entire being.

And before, when I was just playing church,

I was around church enough,

I was around God enough to invite him in to hang out,

but he was not the owner.

So when the enemy would come at me

with things like depression and anxiety,

instead of God being the one to answer the door

and say, hey, you're trespassing, you must go.

Jesus is on the couch and he's like,

man, I'd love to answer that door for you,

but you haven't submitted your life to me.

And the moment you do, I will be your landlord

and I will deal with that.

But until you do, let me know how this works out for you.

And I would answer the door to fear.

I would answer the door to hopelessness.

I would answer the door to those suicidal thoughts

and I would allow those things

to control me and manipulate me.

And then one day I said, enough is enough.

I need to surrender all to him.

I need to know him.

I can't just know about him.

I can't just know about the church.

I can't just be in the youth group.

I can't just be doing this.

God, I need you more than anything.

And guess what?

Everything changed in that moment.

It became real in that moment.

And I'm not standing up here today telling you

that things like depression, things like hopelessness,

things like anxiety,

don't try to knock on the door of my heart.

But now when they do, I don't answer it.

I let my landlord answer it.

And I take it to prayer and go, you know what?

I'm not dealing with this.

I've lived that life

and I am not living that life any longer.

I'm not yielding to the plans of the enemy.

I'm submitted to the plans of God for me in my life.

And I refuse to allow this feeling to dictate my day.

I'm going to force myself to get out of bed

even though I feel depressed.

I'm not gonna let this feeling dictate truth of who I am

because it's the truth that will set me free,

not my feelings.

Your feelings will lie to you every day.

Every day your feelings are lying to you.

Some of you have a thought that says,

nothing's working out for me.

Okay, let's sit down, let's bust out a piece of paper.

We're gonna find out some stuff that's working out for you.

But the enemy would love for you to be so consumed

with the three things that aren't working out

to get you distracted by all the things

God is doing in your life.

He is moving in your life.

He is doing things on your behalf.

He is working all things together for your good

and you don't even know it yet.

You're just in the process.

You're here, the Lord sees there

and you need to just trust him

that he's gonna get you there in time.

And then one day you'll go, wow, okay,

I understand what God's doing.

In the moment, I definitely didn't understand it.

I couldn't see it because he has a heavenly perspective

that he wants us to tap into.

Because right here, right now,

we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

That reality is more real than the bill that you have

that you don't know how it's gonna get paid.

And you go, wow, I've been allowing this bill.

I've been allowing this circumstance

to rob me of a joy that it didn't give me.

And right now, I say enough's enough.

And I'm gonna start praying from that heavenly perspective.

I'm gonna start praying and believing

like God actually has a plan

and that I can actually trust God

that he's going to work this out for my good

because I love him and I know

that I'm called according to his purposes.

But you actually have to love him

and you actually have to be called

according to his purposes for him

to work all things together for your good.

We love to quote,

all things are working together for my good

for those that, yeah.

But are you loving him

and are you called according to his purposes?

We can't just pick and choose what we want to declare.

You guys okay?

Context is key.

Context is key.

Romans 12, one says present your bodies

as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,

which is your reasonable service.

This is your calling.

Worship isn't only music,

it's actually a lifestyle of surrender.

God, I want my life to be worshiped to you.

Watch this, a candle gives light by burning itself away.

Our life poured out for him is worship.

Did you catch that?

I wanna be the light of the world

because why?

Because Matt has it all together?

No, because light itself lives within me

because I'm dead and it's no longer I that lives

but Christ that lives in and through me.

It's not about what I can do for you,

it's about what he can do for you.

Trust me, I've tasted and seen,

I'm convinced of his goodness.

First John 420 says,

this is kind of more of a next week topic

but we'll kind of just tap into it a little bit.

If someone says I love God and hates his brother,

he's a liar.

That's just not Pastor Matt being rough.

Oh man, Pastor Matt was pretty sharp this morning.

That's just the word.

Our love for God is proven

by how we truly treat people.

That's our spouse, that's our kids,

that's coworkers, that's church family and even enemies.

If his love is in us, it must flow out of us.

It's gotta be present in our lives.

Loving God I believe means pursuing God.

Psalms 27, four says one thing I have desired of the Lord

that I will seek that I may dwell in the house

of the Lord all the days of my life.

I don't wanna just visit the house of the Lord,

I wanna dwell in it.

I wanna dwell in it.

I wanna be under the shadow of his wing

every single day of my life,

not just when a weird disease hits the United States

and now we're quoting Psalms 91

but we don't truly walk out Psalms 91

now that we're past that season.

I don't wanna just dwell in his presence

when things around me are going crazy.

I wanna dwell in his presence all the time

so that when things around me are going crazy,

I am firm and I'm built on a strong foundation of Christ

and I don't have to bow to anything

and I can be confident in him and say God,

I don't know how we're gonna get through this

but we're gonna, I wanna dwell in his presence.

I wanna abide in him.

Love drives pursuit.

If you love someone, you wanna be with them.

Anna's parents are kinda in transition

and they're starting to get the house ready

for a potential sale to hopefully come a little closer

and be by us all

and Anna really wanted to take Uriah home

to see the house

and kinda get to see some of the things

that she grew up with

and just honestly just take it all in

because we don't know how quick the house will sell

and I didn't get to see my little guy for four days

and I'm like, man, I miss that little guy

and I'm watching Anna on the little GPS

and I know when she's pulling into our neighborhood

and I'm getting excited.

I got butterflies.

She's getting closer.

She took a left, okay.

I know the app is a little delayed

so I'm like, I'm gonna start going downstairs now

because she's pulling in.

Oh, there she is

and as soon as I saw my little guy,

oh, we both just got so happy.

We both smile and he just gave me the biggest bear hug

and he was wearing this Winnie the Pooh bear outfit anyway

and it was awesome and snuggly

and he just laid his head on my shoulder

and I was like, oh my gosh,

it's so good to be with you, my son.

And every time I have moments like that,

God's like, that's how I feel about you

and it doesn't have to be days.

That's how I feel about you every moment.

Anytime you look at me,

that's how I feel towards you.

I'm obsessed with you.

I gave my son so that I could have you as my son

and that gets you wrecked, man

because there's nothing that little boy can do

to make me love him less or more.

I just love him and God's like, yes, you're getting it

but that's the type of relationship that my heart

as your pastor longs for you to have

with your heavenly father,

longs for you to experience

so that when life happens and things happen,

it doesn't shift to who you are.

We have moments and we do need to mourn

and we do need to cry.

It's okay to have emotions.

You just can't let your emotions have you.

It's okay to experience things.

It's okay to grieve.

It's okay to be sad if a loved one passes

but if we're six months, a year, two years,

five years later and I believe the enemy

tries to get into there

and he tries to manipulate mourning

and make you in that place longer than you need to be.

And that's not on my notes and that's probably prophetic

and there's probably someone here

that needs to be released from that grief

because God wants to give you joy,

not just joy but unspeakable joy.

I don't even know what that is.

What the heck is unspeakable joy?

Most of us struggle with joy but unspeakable joy,

joy that can't be moved.

It only comes from relationship with the Father

and you can go, well, Pastor Matt,

where was God here and where was God here

and where was God here?

I believe he was closer to you than you realize.

We live in a fallen world.

We live in a world where things happen.

We live in a world where the enemy still kills,

steals and destroys but Jesus came

to bring life and life more abundantly

and I wanna experience life and life more abundantly.

If it's steal, kill, destroy, devil, bad,

life abundantly, Jesus, God, good.

We overcomplicate things.

We have to get back to the basics.

We have to believe.

You have to believe that God is good

because if you're trying to tell people

that God is good but you yourself

don't believe that God is good,

you are only fooling yourself.

And you're wondering why the ministry

that you've been pouring out,

it's not clicking because it's not authentic.

It's gotta be authentic.

If you talk to me for five minutes about God's love,

you're gonna walk away knowing

that man Pastor Matt is convinced

that God is good and that God loves him

and that God has a plan for his life.

And I hope you walk away believing

that God has a plan for your life

because I want this to be contagious.

Talk about epidemic.

I want a contagious of God's goodness.

The revelation of love, being loved.

And we all come from different backgrounds

and a lot of us, we believe things that someone told us.

But everything that you hear preached,

everything that you hear taught here,

take it to the word.

Take it to the word.

We're in the middle of our membership class

and we're going through the bylaws

and what we believe and why we believe it.

There's like four verses under everything we're saying

because that's the kind of church we are.

We're not just gonna say things and do things

if it's not scriptural, if it's not based into this.

Some of you are like, man, it's been a long time

since I've got a word from the Lord.

When's the last time we've cracked this open?

When's the last time we just said,

you know what God, I have some time today.

I just needed a little, I need some Jesus time.

And even Jesus, he went away to be with the father.

He's a perfect example.

He's like, I gotta go be with my father.

He was also moved with compassion,

which I love those stories.

He just ministered to how many people

and then he wants to go be by himself with the father

and then more people come

and he's moved with compassion to pray more.

What does that look like?

You're dying to yourself when you don't want

to do something in the natural, in the flesh.

Maybe your grocery shopping and you have something to do

and you have a smoker that's already on,

ready to go, Ben.

Ready.

And you're like man, the sooner I get home,

the sooner I can put this on the smoker.

But there's someone standing out in front of Walmart

and you could tell they need Jesus.

You could tell they need some hope.

Do we choose to just go, you know what,

I got what they need, I got what they need.

I'm gonna stop and I'm just gonna say how are you and I'm not gonna go how many

know that the times where someone's like how are you and like they just keep

walking I'm actually saying like ask the question like hey how are you and

actually stay long enough to hear the answer because when you're in a culture

of discernment if someone tells me that they're good but they're not I

usually can pick up on it and it may not be a follow-up question on a

morning but it might be a message on a Monday afternoon hey you just been on my

heart ever since we said hi on Sunday when I asked you how you're doing you

said you were good but yeah I just really filled my spirit let's ask you

again like how are you how are things and all of a sudden now we're getting a

little deeper well these are my job are kind of tough or things that

things are things at home are kind of tough and now we can actually have

a conversation what does it look like if everyone in this room is doing

that because we're so dead to ourselves and alive in him we're like

God I want you to move amen worship team or Andrew whoever's coming out you guys

can get ready it's all about this man it doesn't we don't graduate from this

reality like you have got to have a firm foundation of knowing that God

loves you but you can't just know it in your mind you have to know it in

your heart you have to experience it you have to know who he is you have

to be convinced like Paul said I'm persuaded beyond doubt and this is

that used to be Saul that used to persecute the faith this is this is

this is Saul was present at the martyr of Stephen he's saying yeah kill this

man and now this is the same person no it's not the same person it's a

completely different transformed individual that used to be lost but

now is found and he's writing I'm persuaded beyond doubt that nothing

can separate me from the love of God nothing why because he was the one

saying kill that man he experienced forgiveness he

experienced transformation so we have got to have this this firm

foundation of receiving his love letting our identity be restored in

him and then and only then we can then receive that love and then choose

to love God back with the love that he's given us and then when we're like

God I see myself clearly I see I see myself the way that you created me and

I love who you've created me to be and you have a healthy self-love it's

it's important to say healthy because it can get weird but you have a

healthy self-love and then you could love your neighbor as yourself and

we'll dive more into that next week but I just believe that God is doing

things in our midst and I just want to pray pray over us I want us to kind of

just honor the presence of the room so if you can just quietly stand up

right where you are just want to pray over you

if you're a part of our prayer team I want you to come forward and just

allow yourself to be open to praying with individuals in just the moment

you could come now but I want to pray first for everyone and if you need

special prayer I want you to be able to to do that but God I just thank you I

thank you for the gospel God I thank you that you sent your son to die for

me to take my place and Lord if first and foremost if there's anyone in

this room that has never given their life to Jesus man this is an amazing

moment to do that because this was a very Christianity 101 type message and

this is a beautiful place to start but if you've never surrendered your life

to Jesus and your heart is kind of thumping out of your chest in this

moment I believe that it's the Holy Spirit just speaking to you

we got some volunteers that will be over at our freedom banner they'd love

pray with you they'd love to put a Bible in your hands encourage you right where

you are but God I thank you for every son every daughter that's in this room

God I thank you for all of us that have been walking with you for a long

time that have a history with you but God I've been in the church long

enough to know that there's people that are in the church for decades and

they still have never truly experienced your love God I want them

to experience your love I want you guys to be convinced of his love like never

before so God I just ask right now that you would just sweep through the

sanctuary God you would touch hearts you would restore marriages God you

would allow us to forgive individuals that have hurt us because you teach

us to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so God I

thank you and if you're in here and you just need to say that out loud you need

to just say God I receive your love it's in my life I mean I'm up here I'm

saying that I'm declaring that because I want to grow in this reality God

thank you for loving me God thank you for being patient towards me God

thank you for being kind towards me if there's anyone coming to your heart

right now the Holy Spirit's just highlighting someone to you would you

just release the love of God over them just by name just call him out God I

just thank you for loving them for allowing them to experience your love

like never before God have your way God open up their ears to hear in

their eyes to see do what only you could do God if there's anyone here

that can relate to what I was talking about when it comes to maybe mourning

longer than you need to or just you feel like the enemy has just kind

of kept you in this dark place where you feel like you can't overcome it or you

just feel stuck Lord I just I pray that you would be the one that would

come to them and would reach your hand out but here's the thing when he

reaches his hand out you have to reach back you have to let him pull

you out of that pit he'll jump in that pit with you but he wants you out

of that pit so God I just thank you for what you're doing in this room and I

say would you just continue to do it God would you just continue to move speak

to their hearts as we go and as we transition God just have your way in

Jesus name amen amen I love you guys so much if you would like special

prayer if you have an issue in your body that needs healed please come

forward if you would just like prayer for any reason you could come now but

thank you guys so much for being with us we love you guys we'll start the next

service right around 1045 thanks for listening to the Harvest Chapel PA

podcast we hope this message encourage you and drew you closer to Jesus to

stay connected with us at HarvestChapelPA.com or follow us on

social media at Harvest Chapel PA we can't wait to be with you again next week