How to Reset Your Standards

Who is the source of your strength.

If you haven't decided it by now, you need to

decide it really quickly, because if the source of your

strength is who you're sitting beside, you will live a

very disappointed life. If the source of your strength is

a number at the bottom of your balance sheet, something

will hit your life so hard that you can't buy

your way out of it, and you will find out

really quickly that net worth is a terrible place to

put your sense of self value. If the source of

your strength is how people look at you, or treat you,

or think about you. If the source of your strength

on any given day is the condition of your health,

you will always be susceptible.

To the elements. And so Isaiah says, he.

Will be a spirit of justice to the one who

sits in judgment, and a source of strength to those

who turn back.

The battle at the gate.

To make God the source of your strength means that

you depend on him, As one psalmist said, you lift

your eyes to the hills.

From whence cometh your health.

Your health cometh from the Lord, the maker of heaven

and earth, and he will not suffer your foot to

be moved. The Lord which keepeth. Thee will not slumber

nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is

your shade upon your right hand. And that someone not

smite thee by day nor the moon by night. He

will preserve your soul even forevermore. To know that all

your help comes from God, that all your hope is

in Jesus, That all of your help comes not from

the right, not from the left, not from the north,

not from the south, not from the economy, not from.

The job touch.

Somebody say not you, God is my source.

Now go ahead and clap right now. If you know

God's got.

Your back, I've got to stand up on your feet

and shout about it. If God is your source, ain't

every season of your life, ain't every famine.

I have a friend named Jesus. He is my source.

I am so tempted to preach on this part of

the verse that I almost forgot.

What ain't before it.

Isaiah said, in that day the Lord Almighty will be

a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of

his people. Now, what is a wreath and what is

a remnant? Besides a Christmas decoration? A wreath symbolizes victory,

and he is preaching victory to people who are.

About to experience defeat.

He's preaching, of course, about the impending as Syrian.

Evasion to the to.

The northern territory of Samaria, the crown jewel of the

Northern Kingdom of Israel, set on a Ferraile valley.

He's speaking to them about their their potential.

And he's telling them how their protection is gone, and

so now they're going.

To face a season of defeat.

And in the same breath that he promises to be

a source of strength, he warns them of a coming defeat.

But yet he speaks about victory in the context of defeat.

He says, in that day, the Lord Almighty will be

a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of

his people. God said it, He will be a wreath

for the remnant. The wreath symbolizes victory. The remnant represents

what's left. God always has a remnant. No matter what

you've lost in your life or who walked away from you, God.

Always leaves a remnant.

No matter how wicked this world gets or how dark

the times that we live in may seem to be.

God always has a remnant in every office. God has

a remnant in every church. God has a remnant in

every city and every generation. God has a remnant. God

always has a remnant. There's always a little bit of

oil in the house, even if you feel like you're

starving to death. God always has a remnant. There's always

a little boy with a lunch. If you call him

for it and put it in the hands of the master,

it will multiply because God always has a remnant.

No matter how many leave gidiot, there.

Will always be three hundred, and God is able to

win with the remnant. God said, I'm gonna bless what's left.

I will not be limited by what you lost. I

will be a wreath for the remnant. I'm gonna bless

what's left. I'm gonna bless what's left. Stop weeping over

what's lost. I'm gonna bless what's left. I want you

to shout right now over what you've gotten left. I

want you to shout right now over the gift you have,

the strength you have, the friends you have, the opportunities

you have, the time you have. God said, I'm gonna

bless what you got left. If you will not stay

stuck in what walked away.

I'm gonna bless what you got left.

You can win with what you got left. Feel like preaching.

I feel like preaching to the remnant. Where's the rimnant

at Where are the ones who went through.

The fire and came out of loud? Gonna bless what's left.

No matter what happens at the leadership level, I'm looking

for someone who will turn back the battle at the gate,

and in that day, the Lord Almighty will be a

glorious crown of beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.

And then he mentions two different spirits. Watch this in

verse six. Can we study the Bible? He will be

a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment,

that's the first one, and a source of strength to

those who turn back the battle at the gate. So

you've got the spirit of justice to the one who

sits in judgment and the source of strength to those

who turned back the battle at the gate. Study that

text all week, and I thought I was talking about

two different things. But the more I read it, the

more I realized that this is two functions of the

same spirit.

He will be a spirit of justice to.

The one who sits in judgment, a source of strength

to those who turned back the battle at the gate.

The first part of the verse is about standards. He

will be a spirit of justice. He will decide what

is wrong and right to the one who sits in judgment.

He will be a spirit of justice and.

A source of strength to the one who turns the

battle at the gate.

So the same God that is the.

Source of our strength is to also be the source

of our standers.

And here's the question that I came to ask today.

How can I expect God's strength if I do not

embrace God's standers. I'm about to throw this my brother. See,

how can I How can I call God the source

of my strength? If I have not made him the

source of my standers? He will be a spirit of

justice to the one who sits in judgment.

Now, if I have let that seat open, and I

have left culture.

To tell me what's right and wrong, how can I

look to culture for my standards and then look to

God for my strength? How can I look for the

world to tell me how to live and then expect

God to give me strength for a standard that was

not his? How can I call God the source of

my strength if he is not the source of my standards,

how can I expect his strength and resist his standards?

It's good, right. That's why I feel.

Weak sometimes because I'm asking God to strengthen me. But

I have given away my strength because I have lowered

my standard. And then the enemy comes in like a flood.

But I don't have a standard. And then I asked

God to give me joy, you know, and your present

fold is the joy.

Joy.

The Lord is my strength, and I want his strength.

I want his joy. But if I have not applied

his standard to my thought life, and I let my

mind think whatever it wants to think, and I go

to God for strength, but I did not go to

him for standards. I am asking him to violate the

very nature of our relationship.

How can he be.

The source of my strength if I won't let him

be the source of my standards?

Who set your standards? Who set your standards? Was it

was it.

God that set your standards? I was talking to one

guy the other day. It became very apparent to me

pretty quickly that he sets his own.

Standards for right and wrong.

And I admire him for that because I don't trust

myself that much. I mean, he must be really perfect

to have his own standard for right and wrong seat.

I need a God. I need a God who's bigger

than me, wiser than me, who's been around longer than me.

I need a God who can see around the next

corner and know how this decision is going to affect

my destiny.

I don't want to occupy that seat. I need a God.

And sometimes we're so crazy as Christians. We will allow

the world to set our standards as a church and

tell us what the church ought to be and not be,

and put us in a box and call us by

a denomination. But I will not be standardized by a

dysfunctional world.

I have a higher standard.

We are chosen people, a royal priesthood.

A holy nation, to declare the.

Praises of Him who called us out of darkness.

We like preaching. I'm preaching like this might.

Be my last time. Why you preached so hard? One

of my friends said, you know you preach too hard?

He said, I hollered too much. And then he said,

you know, you could take a little bit extra time

and for yourself and not prepare so hard, and people

wouldn't even know the difference.

I shouldn't tell you he was a pastor to see

what happens when leaders lower the standard.

Because, to be honest with you, I don't preach to

your standard. The only question I have when I get

done with this sermon is God, did I get it right?

If I got it right, I don't care how many likes, clicks, shares, downloads.

I don't care who gets up and walks out in

the middle of it because I made them uncomfortable or.

They wanted to watch a football game. I don't care

if they laugh, stand up and clap. I'm not preaching

for the.

One preacher one time said, I don't preach for the

praise of men.

Amen. Amen?

Who set your standard? Have you even thought about it?

Or this is just inherited? Who set your standard? You

look into celebrities for your standard?

Really?

Them the ones who are so miserable they can only

be happy when they have attention.

Really, that's your standard. Who set you standard?

Who set your standard of what you will and will.

Not listen to? Who set your standard?

Oh you think you're better than us, That's what they'll

say when you start living with standards.

Oh you think you're better than us. No, it's just

that I know how much.

I need a source that is not me, because.

I am weak without him. In fact, I'm nothing without him.

So excuse me. But the battle that I'm in is.

Too real for me to play around and live my

life with exposed places and low standards. So I gotta

get this right this year.

I like that. I like that boy right there.

He looks like a teenager with standers right sitting there,

leaning in in church. Some kids would be texting in church,

but not you. You look like you want something from God. Boy,

you look like you got a mission. You look like

God might use you.

Don't you live down to the level of your friends.

Your friends don't know anything yet God has taking you places.

Stand up on your feet right now. Yeah, you stand

up right now. Raise the standard to lower it.

We will show up at school. God walks through the halls.

We will show up at school. The presidence of God moved. Comma,

raise the standard.

You're really gonna let your unmarried friends tell you how

to do your marriage.

I'll tell you, if I had a wife, I wouldn't

uh huh, you said all I needed to hear in

that if I had a white Hart, if I wanted

what you had, I'd do what you're doing, but I

want something better.

It's your standard. Sometimes our standards need to be lowered. Yeah, yeah, no,

sometimes they do because sometimes it takes too much to

make us happy. Who set the standard for what it

takes to make you happy? Who set the standard for

what it takes to have a good day. I'm bad

about this one bad meeting and I had a bad day. No, no, no,

it's like that old man told me that time.

I said how you doing? He said, I'm alive.

I thought, well, you didn't answer me, and then I realized,

yes he did, because for him to be alive, he

woke up, it's.

A good day. He woke up, it's a good day.

We'll set your standards.

I mean, when did we come to the point when

kids had to watch a movie in the car trip

to Target. I used to have to drive ride four

hours with a crayon.

And a book, and now.

You need alsa to get the Harris Tater.

Don't set this standard. Goay of the mine.

To the time I was complaining, I preached on a

Saturday night. My friend came he's on staff in another church,

and I was apologizing to him because the crowd was

a little down because I was used to being packed

out at Elevation on Saturday night. I said, I'm sorry, man,

it was kind of it was kind of down today.

He said, your down day would be my revival.

I needed that because sometimes you let your standard get

out of control. Sometimes as the church, we want to

put a standard on the world that we ourselves don't

even exemplify. We can't even figure out racial reconciliation within

the context of the community of faith, but then we

want to judge it when.

It's in the world where God's got a remnant. God

always has a remnant.

I believe God is raising up Elevation Church as a

remnant in this day to raise the standard of what

church can be and how broad this message really is.

We're here to raise the standard. I wonder who set

your standard? See, how can you expect God to be

your strength if He didn't set your standards? How can

I expect success if I don't have a standard of excellence.

If I have not established a standard of excellence in

my life, why would I expect God to bless my

blemished offerings. You could take a little time off your sermons,

you know nobody would notice, But why would I ask

God to bless something that my whole heart wasn't in.

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