B.Y.O.G.

Bring your own Glory

Speaker: M.Noorhoff

Life has been hard but You are teaching me so much everyday and I know that you will work all for your good purpose for those who love You

Work has been hard but I thank You I have work. I thank you for giving me time to praise you.

The kids were a handful this week but Lord I thank you that you blessed my life with them

Money has been short but Lord I know you will always be with me I know you would never let a sparrow fall and you will not let me fall.

Lord I am so thankful for all you did all you are doing, and all you have planned for my life.

Glory to you.  Praises rise up to the God of Abraham, Noah, Jacob, Joseph, Jesus and me.

Your will be done On Earth as it is in Heaven

When you are at the throne of God, when you are standing at his feet, when you are seeing the face you have sought all your life, what will you do?

What will you do?

On Earth as it is in Heaven, On Earth as it is in Heaven, On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Have you actually considered why we go to church, why you go to church. I want you to think about it now. I want you to consider honestly why you are here every week. Why you need church? What do you take from church? What you give?.

Do you come here because it helps you feel better about yourself.? Do you come here because you think it will save you? Do you come here for mercy? Do you come he to be entertained? Do you come to be filled? Do you feel it redeems you? That it cleans the dirt away from your life? Do you come here to learn? Do you come here because of the social setting? Do you come here out of habit?

In the old testament the high priest would enter into the temple. He would go into the holy of holies carrying a blood offering. This blood offering was to be sprinkled 7 times and if he survived the alter would be consecrated and the uncleanliness of the Israelites would be cleansed.  Do we still need to do this but do it every Sunday by attending church. NO NO No for we have been cleansed with the everlasting blood of Jesus the lamb of God, the son of God and through His blood we are cleansed forever. The only sacrifice we bring is the sacrifice of praise the sacrifice of thanksgiving but that is an everyday thing not only a church thing

If we are coming to be filled recharged we are also coming for the wrong reason

John 4 In the parable of the Samaritan women at the well Jesus says to the woman

John 4:10;13,14

If you knew the gift of God and who asks you for a drink you would have asked he and he would have given you living water… for … whover drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life

Later he said John 7:37

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as Scripture has said streams of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were later to receive。Whoever believes in me. Do you believe in Jesus do you really believe cause if you do Isaiah say:

 You will be a well watered garden like a spring whose waters never fail.

So why do so many of us come thirsty? Foe we who believe have the living water. This obviously wasn’t his plan for church either. A healthy church should never need revival a healthy Christian should never need revival. The question is how to we get to this point.

The first step is to get the living water. But so many of us have never had it and never asked for it. Oh yes we may have taken a sip. But have we really drunk of the Spirit have we let it fill are entire being. Or worse do we try to block it in to dam it up. Are we scared to let it in are we scared to let it out. Do we live such self controlled lives that we will not even allow the Spirit to spring up inside us.

 Seek and ye shall find, Knock and the door will be opened up to you.

Are we continually seeking that which is already there? Are we opening and closing the door to our convenience. Well I say to you today that you should rip that door off its hinges so it can never be closed. So that when it gets to much for you or you sensibility that you can not shut it. Jesus will never shut that door but you may. When was the last time you shut him out when was the last time you closed the door because of your shame. The problem is that sometimes we forget that we have closed the door we forget we have closed the window we forget when we have dammed up the living water and then wonder why the cool breeze of the spirit is not with us. We wonder why we are thirsty.

Let me ask again why do you come to church? Do you come to learn what we should have read ourselves. What we should have ask the Spirit to teach us.

Or are we my brothers and sisters coming to church to put down some praise to go somewhere we can let out all the glory we have been feeling all week a place we can throw down some glory, a place we can raise the roof.

These are the lives we should be living a life in which everyday is full of praise and the dam is about to burst and the church is the only place we can let it all out.    

I’ll tell you that this is the life I feel God wants for us this is the church God wants for us.

On earth as it is in heaven.

We should not be saying I’m thirsty but rather that I need to go to church cause I gotta let out some of this Glory. I’m going ‘cause I’m busting at the seams. I’m going ‘cause I gotta spread the Glory around. I can’t let it out at work. I can’t let it out on the street. I’m about to burst but I can’t let it out, they’ll think I’m crazy they’ll think I’m drunk. So I’m going to the asylum with the others who are so full of the Glory they just gotta let it out. I’m going for some crazy praise I’m going for a flood of living water. I’m going to a place the dam can burst and the floodgates are opened

Malachi 3 8-10 says

 Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse that there may be food in My house. Test me in this and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room for it.

The only problem with this is the more glory that flows out from us the more glory so we end up leaving with more than we went in with.

This is Church !!!!!!!!

Its no wonder people come into our churches and leave wondering what is so special and leave feeling more drained then when they went in. When we are all in a taking mood, we suck the life out of the church, we suck the oxygen out of the building. But a healthy Christian life is one in which we should have a net outpouring of energy

In Malachi 3　God said：

Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me

But you as “How do we rob you?

In tithes and offering. You are under a curse the whole nation- because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse that there may be food in My house. Test me in this and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room for it.

To tithe and offer is not just only the money you give though that is important but it is also how much of yourself you give and also how much of the living water – the spirit - that he put in you that you let flow back out flow back to Him and the body of which Christ is the head.

If we are not satisfied with our church we must ask what have I put into it. Often the biggest complainers are those who are takers. We should ask ourselves why there isn’t enough living water enough praise and glory in our everyday lives that we need to receive it on Sunday.

If we feel the pastor does nothing for me we should think what do I do for him. Am I giving him back the Glory he needs to be filled with the spirit our am I one of the ones sucking it up.

God breathed life into man (Adam) and gave him life. It is in this same way that we who received that breath of life a life reborn of spirit must breathe life into the body of Christ the church.

Why is God going to continue feeding into you if you are not going to bring a profit, remember the parable of the talents? Why will he continue to invest his Spirit in you if all you do it take and not give back to the body. For every vine that does not produce fruit will be cut down and burned. We need this give, give relationship in the church. This is the symbiotic relationship we lead as Christians. We produce so that we both may prosper and increase and produce the fruit of the Spirit in increasing measure.

   When was the last time you went to church and a friend or a stranger ran up to you aid said

Hey you’ll never believe how the Lord has blessed me this week. Listen to what he revealed to me this week. Man, I’ve had a tough week but how I felt his presence with me all through it.

And you both shout Glory to God Hallelujah and you feel that living water well up inside you and spill out in words of praise and testimony.

Is this not what church should be?

In many catholic churches and cathedral we see an attempt to display the glory of God within the Architecture and when you walk in you feel like worshipping the setting moves your church but we are the church not the building and so the glory of God must be displayed in us. For we are more precious to him that gold or silver.　If you bring the glory if we all bring the glory then together we form a cathedral of unimaginable beauty.

Let us form a chin reaction feeding off of each other feeding each other and if we ever get to that critical mass o mushroom cloud of energy will be released like the world has never seen. Glory to God it the highest let us praise him. Let’s break the floodgates open.  ( Let it Rain- Frontliners)