By His Stripes We Are Healed

Welcome. Just hand away tagalog sermon podcast Your Daily does

some inspiring, heartfelt tagalog sermons from different pastors and speakers

all over the Philippines. We hope that this podcast finds

you in good shape. And now here's your message. I

believe that a person who is going places is driven

by three things. They are driven by character, they are

driven by purpose, and they are driven by expectancy. And

when I say that VCF Victory Christian Fellowship is going places,

it's not just a catchy sermon title. It's because we

are going to be a church that is driven, that

is compelled, that knows what we are about, and we

are headed there with intentionality. The church is meant to

be a living, breathing representation of Christ. Following Jesus is

not just a casual commitment to claim Him as part

of our lives. No, it should define us. It should

refine us when people look into our lives. A relationship

with Jesus Christ should produce character. Character is defined as

the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. What

are the mental and moral qualities distinctive to Victory? What

makes us different in one year from now, in three

years in five years, in ten years, what will people

say about victory Christian fellowship? What will be said of

those who gather here in this building, in this local assembly,

who are part of this local church. As I have

prayed over the last few months and asked God to

give us a clear direction, a clear vision, I believe

that He has called to my attention five characteristics that

will define our church as we go forward. Five characteristics

that will set us apart. Five characteristics that will lead

us down the path and drive us to the place

where Jesus is leading us. The first of those characteristics

is unconditional love. We will be a church driven by

a culture of love, love for God and love for others.

Matthew twenty two, thirty seven through thirty nine reads. Jesus replied,

you must love the Lord your God with all your heart,

all your soul, in all your mind. This is the

first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important, love

your neighbor as yourself. The first commandment is to love

God with all our heart, and the second is equal.

We like to list things, we like to prioritize. We

live in a nation where we are fast paced and

continually moving, and we like to put things in order.

But the Word of God says these two things are

not one greater than the other, but they are of

equal importance. They go side by side, hand in hand.

You can't have one without the other. Jesus said that

if a man claims to love God but hates his brother,

the love of the Father is not in him. And

if a person claims to love God, then they have

to love other people, because God loves people. Love for

God and love for others go together. And this love,

this word that is used, is sometime lost to us

because we have one word for love, and we characterize

it by a bunch of other descriptors. But in the

Greek language, the word that is used here is agape love,

which is an unconditional love. It is a love without end.

It is a love without restriction. It is love without qualifications.

It is a love that flew freely to the life

of each and every person breathing air on this planet.

It is a love described in First Corinthians thirteen, verses

four through eight. I love this passage of scripture. I've

mentioned it several times over the last few weeks. This

passage of scripture has seemingly been reduced to a citation

of scripture performed at marriage ceremonies. And while it's powerful

advice for newly married couples, that is not the context

in which that verse of scripture was written. It was

written to a church, showing them how to love, how

to live in love in a gape love, a love

that never fails, a love that always protects. It always

trust it always hopes, It always perseveres. It does not

delight in evil, but rejoices with truth. It does not

dishonor others. It is not selfish, it is not easily angered.

It keeps no record of wrong love vi agape love,

the love we're commanded to have of the world is

not keeping a list of every time they've wronged us.

It's not keeping a list and saying, well, they don't.

They rejected us, they rejected my testimony. I've tried time

and time again, and they've turned me away. The love

the Father gives us is not keeping a list or

a record of any of those things. That love tries

again and again and again despite what people do to us.

It's patient, it's kind, it's not envious, and it's never

boastful and never proud Jesus said that we would be

known by our love for one another. That what would

set the church, his church, his gathering, his assembly of

the believers, That what would set us apart from the

rest of the world would be our love for one

another and for everyone who is our neighbor. Love compels

and drives, love pushes. It takes us out into the

highways and the byeways to share the gospel message of

Jesus Christ. Because if we truly love as God loves,

and if we truly believe that he is the son

of God and that he's sitting at the right hand

of the Father making intercession for us, if we truly

believe that he came to this life, died on the

cross for our sins to make a way for us

to be forgiven. If we truly believe that, and we

possess the love of God, then there should not be

a force of hell that could keep us from stepping

out and sharing that testimony with the world. There should

not be a demon. They should quake when I come,

The ground should rumble as I walk. The enemy should

begin to shake, because I'm walking in the anointing and

the calling and the power and the authority of God Almighty.

I pray that the enemy begins to flee in terror

as I walk out and begin to share the Gospel

with the world. As I begin to take the Gospel

Putnam County, as we go out into the highways and byeways,

and we share with those who are bound in drug addiction,

bound and alcohol addiction, bound in sinful lifestyles, bound in depression,

bound in abusive cycles. God came to set them free.

It is love that drives us to share. It is

love that compels us. And if we want to be

the church who Jesus called us to be, we must

be a church that is driven by love, a church

that is driven by love. I've heard so many people

who have come to attend here over the last couple

of years and how they shared their testimony. They walked

through the door and something was different. People welcomed them.

They didn't look down on them, but they welcomed them

with loving arms. And I can tell you that that

is the heart that we want to continue, that we

want to go out from this place. That when people

speak of victory Christian fellowship, the words we want to

come off their mouth is that is a church of love.

That is a church of love. The second characteristic that

we must have is that we are unified in community.

That we are a unified community, we will be a

church of community and unity. We are all part of

one body, one fellowship, one Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

How many of you know that you can possess community

without unity. You can be part of a group of

people and there be discord. You can be part of

a group and there be fighting and bickering. How many

of you know you can be part of a family

and there be bickering and fighting. If you don't know that,

come watch my kids for a few hours. I promise

you you'll see it played out. One Corinthians twelve twelve

through thirteen says the human body has many parts, but

the many parts make up one whole body. So it

is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews,

some are gentile, some are slaves, and some are free.

But we have all been baptized into one body by

one spirit, and we all share the same spirit. I'm

here this morning to tell you that Heaven will not

be divided when we get there, neither should our church be.

In Revelation seven nine, the Apostle John says, after this,

I looked, and there before me was a great multitude

that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people,

and language, standing before the throne and before the lamb.

They were wearing white robes, and we're holding palm branches

in their hands. Will not be divided by nation. We

will not be divided by color. We will not be

divided by denomination, not by income level, not by possessions. No,

we will all be clothed in white. We will all

stand before the throne of God, and we will all

give him glory. We will stand before the throne united

in the sun, Jesus of Nazareth. The belief that one

person is better than another is the same hate filled

belief that fueled World War II and led a nation

to attempt to assassinate a race of people. And you say, well, Pastor,

I've never wanted to kill anyone. Pastor, I've never wanted

anyone to die. But Jesus said that if you hate

your brother, if you have in your heart, you've already

committed murder in your heart. We are going to see

people amongst us who have different views, different opinions, come

from different backgrounds, whatever our differences are, whether they're political, mental,

or physical. When we get together, the only thing that

matters is that we believe. We were all created by

Jesus Christ, and that God breathed life into humanity. And

if God breathed life into humanity, whether or not that

person serves the Lord, whether or not that person agrees

with you, whether or not that person is like you,

there is a piece of God inside of them. And

if you don't live accordingly and honor that piece of

God that is inside of them accordingly, then you are

dishonoring the father God came to bring unity. We are

all unified by Jesus Christ. Whether we believe now which

makes us family, because the scripture tells us that we

are adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High,

or we are someone who is going to believe. Every

person deserves the love of God, every person deserves the

heart of God, and every person deserves to belong. We

will not look down on one another for our differences,

but rather we will rejoice in them, because it is

our differences that gives us our strength. Because you can

join any group across this nation and you will find differences.

And the way they segregate and push those things out

and like to pull everybody in that looks the same

as them. But the Church was meant not to look alike,

but for each person to be uniquely and beautifully different,

so that we can fulfill the call and the purpose

that God has given us, which brings me to the

third characteristic. Because we will be a unified community, and

we will operate and unconditional love, but we will also

be intentional in discipleship. We will be a church that

proclaims the gospel, teaching God's word, leading ourselves and others

to obey God's decrees, training up every remember to find

their calling within the body of Christ, and sending out

those who were called to reach our city, our county,

our country, and our world. And Matthew twenty eight, Jesus said, therefore,

go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and the Son and the

Holy spirits. We were commanded to go and make disciples,

to go and lead people to a committed relationship with Jesus.

We were never called to believe and go to church.

We were never called to get together and sing a

few songs and clap and pat each other on the

back and tell each other what a good little Christian

we've been this week. We were called to something more,

to something deeper. We were called up as an army.

We were called up to lay war, to lay sieged

to the strongholds of the enemy. How does the scripture go?

The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by violence, and the

violence take it by force. The Kingdom of God is

pressed forward. When we have a heart and a zeal

to go and make disciples, we have to do it intentionally.

It cannot be accidental. Intentional means to do something on purpose.

We're not going to leave discipleship to chance. We're not

gonna leave people's salvation to chance. We're not gonna leave

people's walk with the Father to chance. No, we're going

to pursue it intentionally, sharing the gospel, leading them to

obey God's commands. We should live our lives in such

a way that others take notice and want to know

about the God we serve. But we are not going

to just go to church and use the cop out. Well,

I'm living my life and others will notice because brother

or sister, if they haven't noticed yet, if they haven't

noticed yet. If people don't stop you and ask you

and want to know what's different about you, then it's

time to pause and evaluate within ourselves. I'm talking as

much to myself as everyone else this morning. It's easy

to go through the motions when you've had a long day,

when things have been difficult for a long season in

your life. It's easy to just go through the motions.

It's easy when things are going our way to just

revel in the excitement and the joy and forget to

stop and give God the glory for that which He

has blessed us with. Oh, we put on our Christian hat,

just like the Pharisees put on their robe. We know

all the right things to say. We know when to

pray and when to give God glory. We have a

form of godliness, but we deny the power of Him

who created the earth and the heavens and life itself.

We have become like people who praise God with our lips,

but whose hearts are far from him. To intentionally disciple

means that each and every person is being discipled, just

as they are discipling, And to disciple means to take

someone by the hand and say let me show you

the way, let me show you the way. Walk with

me today. We don't like to do that. We don't

like to invite people into deep intimate relationship. And if

the truth is known, it's because we don't want them

to see the other side of us. Because we all

talk about how Facebook has caused degradation of society and

how everyone wants to put out a highlight reel and

put out the best image of themself and no one

ever sees the bad anymore. But that was going on

a long time before Facebook, and it was going on

right here in the church because we stopped letting people

into our lives. We stopped welcoming them to do life

with us because we didn't want them to see us

yell and scream at our wives, because we didn't want

them to see us share our fist at the person

down the road and tell them that they're number one

when they cut us off. We didn't want people to

see that we don't have a prayer time, we don't

open our Bible and study it. We don't want people

to see that our Bible collects dust in our house

and we're living off the same food that we were

fed twenty years ago in a sermon in a move

of God and the Altars, when God impacted our life

and spoke to us. We're living off that same dry,

stale word that we got twenty years ago, rather than

looking for something fresh and something new in the presence

of God. We have to have a hunger, We have

to have a desire for the things of God, because

it has to start with me first. I have to

want to go deeper in my relationship with God. If

you have no desire to get any closer to God,

then it's time to reevaluate, because it should drive us,

and then we should look to lead others to spend

time with others to invest in their lives. One Corinthians

twelve eighteen says, but our bodies have many parts, and

God has put each part just where He wants it.

You see, when we disciple, when we lead others to

a deeper relationship with Jesus, we help them find their

purpose and their calling in the Kingdom of God. We

are leading them to become part of the community. We

spend so much time in this life and in this

culture as a nation desiring everybody else's talents and gifts.

The person with straight hair wants curly here. The person

with curly hair wants straight here. The person who's tall

wants to be short. The person who's short wants to

be tall. The person who's outspoken wants to be funny.

The person who's funny wants to be outspoken. The person

who's wise wants to be well liked. The person who's

well liked wants to be wise. We spend all of

our time looking at everybody else around us, looking at

what they are, what they've done with their life, and

we want to be them, rather than being happy with

who we are. Because if I believe that God is

inside of each and every person, that He breathed life

into them, and I love that piece of them, then

I have to believe that there's a peace of God

inside of me and that God designed me intentionally. And

what I would propose to you this morning is that

the reason why we struggle to love people, why we

struggle to love others, is because we don't love ourselves

because we're not happy with who we are. We're not

happy with who God created me to be, because I've

spent my whole life wishing to be someone else. So

rather than walking in the calling, walking in the anointing,

walking in the strength and in the weaknesses, that God

created me to be, that he knit me together in

my mother's womb, and that he was intentional when he

did it. I was not an accident, but I was

on purpose. If I believe that, then I have to

begin to walk a walk of joy, a walk of peace,

and I begin to walk a walk that is driven

because I know who I am. I know who I

am in Jesus. God created each and every one of

us specifically. It is time to stop wishing that we

were someone or something else and instead rejoice in who

God has made us to be. He's called us to

be a church of unconditional love, to be a church

of unified community, to be a church of intentional discipleship.

And as I come to a close, some of you

may remember back to the beginning of this message and say, well, Pastor,

you said you had five. Come back next week. We

got two more. Just a little teaser for you, We

got two more. But this morning I wanted to focus

on these three and give them adequate attention and allow

them to sink into our spirits over the week. Every

value on this list, every characteristic directs our tension, our

attention from ourselves to others. It takes our focus off

me and mine and my wants and begins to ask

what everyone else needs. We live in a society today

of what I call church hoppers. We go from church

to church, from place to place, looking to be fed.

We go and we say, well, I didn't like the

worship here, I didn't like the preaching there. Well, I'm

just not being fed. How many of us know someone

who said that we move from place to place because

we're always focused on our selves because we're not walking

in the love of God, because the love of God

is not selfish. The love of God doesn't ask what

do I get? Love of God asks what can I give?

John F. Kennedy, on his inaugural speech, looked at the

nation and said, ask not what your country can do

for you, but rather what you can do for your country.

And I say to you that those are some of

the most powerful words, not because they sparked national pride,

but because they are biblical, because we should ask not

what the church can do for you, Rather we should

ask what we can do for the church. How do

I fit? What can I give? What role do I play?

Is this where God has called me to be? Is

this what God has called me to do? Do I

believe with all my heart that God has placed me

in Victory Christian Fellowship for such a time as this?

Do I believe that God has called me here? And

if I believe that, then it has to be for

some other reason than simply for me to be fed.

Don't get me wrong. I want you to be fed.

I want you to be equipped. I want you to

be trained up and ready to go so that when

you walk out those doors. I want Victory Christian Fellowship

to be a force to be reckoned with. I want

the enemy to quake. But the only way that happens

is when we redirect our attention to Him and to

everyone else around us. Do we live our lives in

the love of Jesus? Do we simply go to church

or are we part of the church? And do we

intentionally lead others to a committed relationship with Jesus? Or

have we just been going through life expecting others to

somehow know it? Because the answer to those questions defines

our response. Because if we ask those questions and we

are honest with ourselves, and we find ourselves to be lacking.

The answer is not to go out and work harder.

The answer is not seven steps to a better you,

not eleven steps to a deeper walk with Jesus. No,

the answer is Jesus. The answer is the King of

kings and the Lord of lords. And when we recognize

that something is out of line in our life, then

the scriptures tell us that we need to confess those

things to him. Confess those things to one another if

you're comfortable with him, and trust that he is faithful

to forgive you, faithful to forgive us. We're not perfect.

There's not a person sitting in this room right now

that's perfect. Every one of us make mistakes. Every one

of us mess up. Even people who are going places

have their share of mistakes alone. The way, The question

is do we let the mistakes become our identity and

transplant our character or does our character usurp the mistakes

and define us? Does our character change who we are?

Does our character alter our step when we step out

of line? Does our character change our course? Does our

character define our direction? I believe with all of my

heart that God is going to use this church to

impact this community. I'll go a step further. I believe

with all my heart that this church is going to

be instrumental in the outpouring of God's spirit in this county.

It is going to be instrumental, and that outpouring of

God's Spirit is going to only be for this church.

We will spread across this county. But it starts with me,

It starts with you, It starts with our desires, with

our hearts. Are we surrendered to God? Are we submitted

to Him? Do I want to be all that I

can be for Jesus? Do I want to accomplish all

that I can accomplish for Him? Or am I satisfied?

Am I content? Desiring nothing new from the Father? If

you would say, Pastor, I'm in wholehearted agreement with the

three characteristics that you've spoken, and I want to be

an instrumental part of living every day in those characteristics

in this church, please do not take this lightly. You

want to live in unconditional love, to live in unified community,

and to intentionally disciple people around you. Would you just

stand all across this room and say, I'm willing. I'm willing.

This is a commitment that you're making to God, saying

I am willing considerate marriage. Valves that we will love,

we will we will live in unified community, and we

will intentionally disciple all across this room. Can we lift

our hands if you're standing, Lord, right now, we surrender

our hearts to you. We surrender our lives. Lord. I

open myself up to you, as the others in this

room begin to open theirselves up to you as well. Lord,

and I pray that you would search my heart. Lord,

if I have fallen short of any of these things. Lord,

I pray that you would bring it into submission right

now in the mighty name of Jesus. Lord, I pray

that as I go from this place this morning, Lord,

as we go out this week, Lord, I pray, let

these characteristics begin not only to define our church, but Lord,

let them define my life. That people will be compelled

by the Gospel of Jesus that is living in me. Lord,

I pray send a revival to this county. Lord. We

pray that you would use us, use us, Lord, to

minister to those who are hurting, those who are lost,

those who are without hope. God, that we would be

a light on a hill sharing your gospel with the world. Lord,

we recognize this morning that if we just repeat these

words and don't submit them to you, that that's all

they are. But Lord, if you will come alongside and

root these words in our heart, write the scriptures on

our souls, then Lord, we should leave this place different

and changed, and Lord, we should become world changers. Lord,

I pray, let it be said of Victory Christian Fellowship

that we turn the world upside down for the glory

of God. Praise God. Let it be said of us

that we are a church of love. Let it be

said of us that we are a church of community.

Let it be said of us that we are a

church of intentional discipleship. Let it be said of us, Lord,

that as for us and our house, we will follow

the Lord God Almighty. Let it be said of us God,

that we will stand with boldness and proclaim the Gospel

of Jesus to the corners of this county. Let it

be said of us that we are a people who

have a heart for God, just as David had a

heart for You. Lord, I pray, let it define us

this morning we surrender to you. It's in your mighty

name that we pray. Jesus, Amen, thank you for listening.

We hope that you enjoyed today's episode. Don't forget to

share and subscribe to this podcast for more. God bless

you all.