Nothing Wasted | Pastor Loren Covarrubias

I want to open with the scripture in Ezekiel chapter 47.

Ezekiel 47 · chapter mention

It shall be that every living thing that moves wherever the

rivers go will live. There will be a very great

multitude of fish because these waters go there, but they will

be healed and everything will live.

Wherever the river goes, it shall be that fishermen will

stand by it. From Engadai to Anglaim, they

will be places for spreading their Nets.

Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the great

sea, exceedingly many. But as swamps and marshes will

not be healed, they will be given over to salt.

And this has been our theme for the last few weeks, based upon

this visual that I'm sharing with you, which is a vision

given to the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet during a

time when the children were taken into captivity in Babylon.

And Ezekiel was someone who had been called to be a priest, but

all that was interrupted because Babylon came in, took over the

city, took them into captivity. So in his prophetic realm, he

began to see what God was doing in the future.

And part of that was this particular vision where he sees

the House of God. Now, in the Old Testament, to go

to the House of God, they had to go to the temple.

It was in the city of Jerusalem, and most people were not able to

make it on a regular basis. If you didn't live in the city,

for sure. So 3 * a year they would go to

experience the presence of God. God wanted Ezekiel to declare to

the people there's a change going on.

It's not just an accident that the city was destroyed and the

temple was going to be destroyed.

There's going to be a whole change in the way things are

going to happen because you're not going to come to the House

of God anymore. The House of God is also going

to go to you, and that's the pattern we have to understand as

Christians. We come to the church, which is

the House of God according to the Scripture.

The apostle poverty to Timothy and he said you need to know how

to behave yourself in the House of God, which is the Church of

the living God. It is the pillar and the ground

of truth, but God is working something in us in order that we

might become something that brings the life of God

everywhere we go. But we're talking about the fact

that the river is the source of life.

And if you notice in the vision that river is flowing from the

temple, which is the place where God's presence dwelled, then the

river flowed out from the house in order that the life of God

could go to all the nations. Remember in the Scriptures when

God came to Abraham, in the very beginning, he said, Abraham,

through your seed, every nation of the earth is going to be

blessed. So God can't dwell regionally

anymore, nor can our mindset be that he dwells regionally.

How do you know? We serve the God of the whole

earth, And the river represents the work of the Holy Spirit,

which is the source of life. And in these last really close

to 100 years now, we've had the Pentecostal charismatic

movement. We really got us poured out his

Spirit on all flesh in a whole new way.

And wherever this spirit has been allowed to go, there has

been life. And denominations of people were

transformed as they began to open up themselves through that

movement to the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it's important for us to note that wherever the river

goes, there's going to be life. That's why I'm Mount Zion and we

teach this in our New Beginnings class.

That's why we encourage people that are new to take that class.

We believe that the Holy Spirit wants to be a part of everything

that we do. So we would come into service.

We're not just singing songs, but the Bible says that as we

gather together in Jesus name, He's here worshipping in the

worshipping congregation. So when we come to a worship

service and open up ourselves to the river, how you know that's

something powerful that happens something the powerful happens

in the preaching of the word. It's not just a teaching, it's

not just an instruction, but it becomes the opportunity for you

to hear a word that can inspire faith in you.

That's only possible when you allow the Holy Spirit to do that

work as it's going forth. Same thing happens when we have

our altar calls or when we're taking communion.

We really believe it's important to understand there's a very

important spiritual work, and that only happens when we allow

the Spirit to go there. So we don't do anything just out

of tradition. We don't do anything just for

show. We should do everything to

experience the presence of God. Can I hear any men on that

church? That's so important for us to

know and understand? Now having said that, it says

along the Bank of the river and on this side and that we'll grow

all kinds of trees used for food.

Their leaves will not wither, their fruit will not fail.

They will bear fruit every month because their water flows from

the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and

their leaves for medicine. Of course, that's how the church

is going to be a blessing in every nation of the earth.

That's why we explained we have our community centers.

So we're reaching out to the Community Center through the the

community through the centers, I should say, so that we recognize

that not every everybody's going to come, but how, you know, we

should go to them. And then we do the same through

our international outreach as well, because God wants us to be

a people that are going forth now.

Each and every one of us becomes food and medicine to the world

in which we live. We are the antidote for what's

going on in the world. So if you watch news and hear

what's happening and you're disgusted about the darkness

that's covering the earth and the gross darkness of the

people, how you know we need to arise and shine so the glory of

the Lord can be seen upon us. Amen.

Amen. Give him a praise on that

church. And so it's important for us to

realize that it's not about just us.

It's also for what you can do for other people as well.

Now, having said that, I want to change the screen because I want

to focus on the tree that's next to the rivers.

And I want to focus on some very important aspects for us to

understand, specifically the roots there.

And if you notice, we put the roots system very visible, for

you can see this, it says blessed is the man who what

trust in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord.

For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which

spreads out its roots by the river.

It will not fear when he comes, but it's leaf will be green and

will not be anxious in the year drought, nor will cease from

what yielding fruit. How is that possible to survive

a drought? Well, when you have a root

system, you know that it gives you the capacity to reach out

for water that isn't necessarily visibly there.

The Bible teaches us it's very important that we would

understand our root system. Now, there's another way to

describe that. And the Bible talks about the

church as being a building with foundation stones, and that's

what we emphasize in our clash. The Bible says if the

foundations are destroyed, what shall the righteous do?

So it's very important that we understand foundation.

And of course, in this case, our foundation is understanding God

wants us to be a people with a root system that becomes our

what invisible power. That is very, very important

because you can see a very big tree and there's a very good

chance it's going to have a root system that's just as big as the

tree because the tree can't support a life on top that isn't

coming from the bottom where the nutrients come.

Now I put up a term here and it's called nutrient recycling,

which is a basically a scientific word if you would,

because it describes a process the trees go through that I

believe is very important for all of us to understand.

I've always told people how much I love trees and I think part of

that is is the Lord wanted me to focus on trees because this is a

part of our message, especially as we're moving forward at this

time, because I believe that the body of Christ needs to love

trees because we are the trees of the Lord we are as planting

that he might be glorified. That's why I had them put a

couple of trees in the main sanctuaries that come in.

There's a tree on either side just so we can think in terms of

trees, because trees are very, very important.

Now in Michigan, we are, I would say the most common tree is

deciduous trees. And what are those?

Well, they're the kind of trees that we see that start changing

color and then eventually going to fall.

And that's why people often talk about what is their favorite

season. People often say to me, oh, I

love the fall. I said, well, just think about

it, Fall, fall down. I like spring, spring up.

Amen. We all have something we like

and we have a lot of Maple trees around here.

And if you notice most Maple trees, some are Maple trees

would turn yellow, some will turn red, but that's typically

the hard maples. But anyway, and to me the yellow

is caution. Caution winners coming.

Now there is a problem in our parking lot with some of our

trees because I'm not a fan of fall and fall starts with some

of our trees about July sometime.

And the reason for that is because they're planted in an

unnatural surrounding, if you would in a natural surrounding.

A tree is going to go through this process of having leaves

and then eventually those leaves are going to fall to the ground,

but in the natural condition, and that's where nutrient

recycling comes in. After they fall to the ground

and the fungus and bacteria and everything start breaking down

those leaves, eventually what they do is they go back into the

soil. And so believe it or not, the

tree is actually fertilizing itself because plants grow from

natural things. I remember I was a kid.

I always used to talk about the fact that I used to go to our

next door neighbors of Hamiltons because they did things that

were very intriguing to be. And part of it was like they had

like a farm, not a real farm, but they had gardens, they had

chickens, they had fruit trees, they had all these things.

So I was always running over there and talking mostly to Mr.

Hamilton. But I remember one day I was

talking to Mrs. Hamilton and as she was separating their dinner,

getting ready after dinner to do her dishes, I noticed that she

had a pile there where all the peelings from the different

things that she had prepared for dinner and even the bones from

our from what they had eaten were there.

And I'm like, what are you doing there?

Because for us, everything just went into the garbage.

And she showed me how that they used to keep all that stuff.

And then afterwards, she'd take it out and they put it in their

garden and something they called a compost pile because all these

natural things eventually become fertilizer.

And so at the end of the year when they were plowing up their

garden and some of the things that were left in the garden

become a part of that as well, the compost would be spread out

because guess what? All of that becomes fertilizer.

So when you put a tree like in we do in a place like in a

middle of a parking lot, according to the Township

regulations, they don't have an opportunity to do anything with

their leaves. We have to do some with their

leaves and they don't have the ability to get all the rain

water they need to guess what they're growing underneath.

And there's asphalt there. So they're not able to get a lot

of the rain or nutrients that would normally be there.

So in our parking lot, you can see where we have a high water

table because literally there's places on our church property

where the water table is at like 2 feet down.

Those trees are very green. The other ones, they're not

doing so well and so you have to keep up on it.

But that's the way the natural order works.

Now, this is a very important thing for us to understand

because the book of Romans chapter 1 tells us that God is

Romans 1 · chapter mention

the creator of everything in the world.

And if you want to understand spiritual things, again, look at

the natural order and you can see why God does what he does

and what he's doing. And so this scripture in 61,

which I used a couple weeks ago as well, speaks about the

ministry of Jesus Christ. It's the ministry of the church.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has

anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim

liberty as the captives and the opening of prison to those who

are bound. To console those who mourn in

Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for

mourning, and the government of praise for the spirit of

heaviness, that they might be called the trees of

righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be

glorified. Now as evangelical Christians,

the term the new birth is very important.

Jesus said if you want to see or enter into the Kingdom of God,

how many you know, you have to be born again.

And when a person is born again, they become a new creature in

Christ Jesus. Now there is somewhat of a

problem with that thinking because a lot of times people

think, well, I'm born again, I'm a new creature, creature, and so

my old life is gone. I just got to forget about it

and let it be buried. Just that we use in the

symbolism of baptism. But we have to understand, well,

there's more to it than that, that when God does this exchange

that we're talking about where he gives us in exchange for

those ashes and that morning and, and the difficulties we go

through, he gives us praise, he gives us joy, He, he gives us

beauty. How many know that's a wonderful

thing God does for us? But one of the things we have to

understand is God doesn't just take those things away.

It's important to understand that just like with the trees,

part of your life becomes fertilizer for the future.

We'll miss out on how we can become the best tree that God

has called us to be. Now, one of the ways I'll

describe that to you sounds a little bit unpleasant, but how?

You know, as human beings, we also create waste.

Several years ago everybody was into bumper stickers and one

said manure happens. Didn't say manure.

I just switched that to be more polite, but I did preach a

sermon on it from manure Happens because I'm, you know, waste is

a part of the human condition. Amen.

Now, just like it is for the trees, there's a use for our

waste, but it's not for us. It also can be fertilizer, but

in the meantime, you have to learn how to handle that

fertilizer. So when you first have children

and you enjoy them as children, that's one of the messy parts.

I was always glad Bonnie loved taking care of kids because I go

here because when there was a smell, I thought it would be

better for her to handle it. She was better at it than I was.

But anyway, there's a part of that unpleasant smell that's

there for a reason, because as human beings we have to

understand that might be fertilizer some places, but it's

can be very deadly in other places.

So it's a wonderful thing when we potty train our kids and all

of a sudden we don't have to deal with that mess anymore.

And how many know it isn't just enough to teach them to use the

potty, we also want them to learn to wash their hands.

And why is that? Well, that's because if not,

they could carry some of the germs that are in the waste

products that are there. So how many know it's a good

thing to wash your hands? I only heard one yes on that.

I'm kind of a germaphobe. So when I go into a bathroom at

a public place and it says, employees, please wash your

hands. I'm think thank you, Jesus.

And I know it's not for the employees.

It's for those germaphobes that are in there that are looking at

the signs. Because one time I was in El

Salvador and they had a lot of people that were getting sick.

And they said, well, you know, it's not always the food.

Sometimes it's the poor hygiene of the people that are serving

it or preparing it. And I'm like, oh, why did you

tell me that I'll never be able to eat in this country again?

But it's also true in our country as well.

You have to know how to handle it.

Amen. Well, that's important for us to

understand because it's important for us to realize that

when we become a Christian and the old things pass away, all

things become new. We have to realize that God uses

our past experience even as being Christians.

So in that sense, you don't want to just forget your old life

because sometimes that old life becomes fertilizer for where you

are going to work for the Lord. Because some of those past

experiences are a part of who you are and that gives you the

ability to minister to others. The reason I wanted to mention

how manure happens because how many you know, you still, it

still happens after your Christian.

So often times people say, oh, I'm a Christian now and

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, you make a mistake.

Oh my God, what happened to me? Or we do that with other people.

Do you know what so and so did? Well, manure happens.

The issue isn't whether it happens or not.

The issue is do you know what to do with it?

Because even our mistakes and our failures and our

disappointments, all these things can become fertilizer for

a better you and also fertilizer for ministry to help other

people. But we have to know how to

handle it. We don't just ignore it.

We have to understand what do we do with this that's in our midst

so that we can become who God has called us to be.

So as the church is becoming more mature, hopefully we begin

to understand, just like it is in the natural, so it is in the

spiritual. There is a process of

development, a process of change, and sometimes that

process works fast and sometimes we find out there's something in

our heart or something in our life, or we face a temptation

that's way down the line from being a Christian.

And we think, how did that happen to me?

Well, don't throw your life away now.

Just recognize the same God who forgives everybody else can

forgive you. How you know the Bible says if

we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us

of our sin and it cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now another way we need to talk about this is in John chapter 15

John 15 · chapter mention

Jesus said I am the true vine. My father isn't the vine

dresser. Every branch of me that does not

bear fruit, He takes away, never branched the barest fruit He

prunes that it may bear. What more fruit for you are

already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you.

So it's important for us to have a clean condition in our mindset

about ourself, but also recognize there's this ongoing

process where the Father's working in us.

Now. In this case, he uses the term

vine, but it's the same as a fruit tree.

If you want the fruit tree to bear fruit and you want to be

good fruit, there is going to be a pruning process that's

necessary. It almost seems strange to think

that cutting off a branch or cutting back a branch is going

to produce more fruit. Might be easy to say it would

produce better fruit, but how you know it doesn't always make

sense. What happens as you look at this

fruit tree and you have to understand there's something

here you need to see in your own life because sometimes things

happen and you can't put it all together.

Why? And sometimes we get so caught

up in the wise, we don't let God do what He wants to do in the

end. Now in a natural perspective,

again, all of us in life have to learn how to self prune.

When you're a child, you act like a child.

The Bible says you play with toys and have all kinds of fun.

Then you become an adolescent, Your body starts going through

some changes and you got to adapt to a new life.

And usually it's at this time that your friends have the most

influence on your life. And so how you know you got to

prune back the kid part of you so that this other part of you

can start growing. And if it's not just something

you're inclined to do, it's something your friends will tell

you to do because there's this pressure to change and become a

different person. Well, that process continues.

And when you become an adult, the same thing starts happening.

Now, when you get ready to train for your future, whether it's go

to college or trade school or whatever you're thinking about,

sometimes you have to make a choice.

Well, what do I want to be? We have to make a choice.

I was talking to somebody the other day.

They have two very amazing skills, one that would lead for

a professional life, the other as a musician.

Now, you can't do both of those things and excel.

You're going to have to make a choice.

Now, in one side, there has to be a pruning process because we

should never get rid of our skills.

We should just realize that's just not the major focus of my

life, and I like to share. That's the place where the

church comes in because you have a lot of aspirations and skills

and desires and things that you could use in the House of God.

Especially it's easy to see with music or any of the technology

that we're using, but it's also true in the baby nursery.

My wife, Bonnie, she loved being a mom and she always liked the

best job in the church. She was a worship leader for 30

years. I asked her to lead worship and

she didn't want to do it. And I'm like, don't worry, I

just need you temporarily. So 30 years later, I said, OK,

it's time. Anyway, she went back to the

nursery. She loves the nursery.

She loves to clean too. So she's often here at the

church cleaning nurseries when she doesn't have to because she

just likes, well, you know, they're blah, blah, blah.

And And so there's all kinds of things that we can prune and we

can still enjoy it, we can develop it, we can still use it

for some purpose. But how we know, again, we have

to let certain things begin to grow and develop along the way.

And sometimes people don't want to make choices in life, and

especially because it feels like you're going to experience a

loss. But life is about both losses

and gains, kind of hered. Amen.

So those are just some of the practical ways that as we go

through life, how do you know when you're single, single and

get married, you got to prune off a branch.

A few of you realize that when you get married, you're not

supposed to act single anymore. Amen.

You're not going to hear an Amen there.

OK, That's the point. So some things you just have to

cut off because, well, they don't need to be a part of the

process anymore because you have to keep on going with life so

you can become that tree of righteousness, the plan to the

Lord that He might be glorified. Now it's important to understand

because I put here the cutting process because sometimes you

have to really just cut off parts of your life and say,

well, that's no longer who I am. I wanted to do this.

I want to get married, I want to have kids, I want to go to get a

career, I want to do this. And so there's something that's

going to be a part of the loss. Now Jesus said I am the vine,

you are the branches, and the Heavenly Father, He's the vine

dresser. So he's going to prune and he's

going to cut. And we have to recognize that.

Now there is a key difference how many We can do our own

pruning and cutting or we can let God.

The thing you have to understand is when we prune, we use pruning

shears, cut off a branch, we use a saw.

What does God use? Wind, fire, hurricanes.

I remember a few years back when all of a sudden they started

recognizing, hey, forest fires aren't always bad.

I grew up with Smokey the Bear. Make sure you get rid of that

campfire so you don't cause some forest fire.

And that would still be true. But the idea back then was fire

was always bad and they found out.

No, let's recognize it's necessary sometimes.

And so God uses fire. God uses hurricanes.

Now when a forest fire goes through and you see it, like if

you want California, from time to time, we used to visit a

church there, some friends in California, and you say, oh, no,

they had a forest fire there. When you look at where it's been

burnt, you look at and think, oh, devastation.

But from a natural perspective, it's an opportunity for a new

future. So this is important to

understand because church, sometimes you go through life

and there's been an area of perhaps what you call

devastation. Maybe there's been a flood,

maybe there's been a fire. Whatever you look at, you see no

hope. I mean, that's when you have to

have trust in the Lord, Amen. Because the Bible says all

things work together for good to those who love God and are

called according to his what purpose.

And so when we recognize that, we should understand that when

it looks like it's devastation, when it looks like there's

nothing left, we still have a God who's able to work on our

behalf. Amen.

Amen. That's where this next verse of

Scripture comes in. You can praise him on that one.

That's a good thing, for there is hope for a tree if it is cut

down even that it may what sprouting in and that it's

tender roots will not cease. Though its root may grow old in

the earth and it's stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent

of water it will bud and bring forth branches a lot like a

plant. The beautiful thing about

rebirth, and that's why I said we talked about the new birth,

but I remember Pat Grutz, who was my teacher, she came here

one year and she said God gave me a message.

It's time to be born again again.

And it's like we don't need to be reborn again in the sense,

but we do need to have times of rebirthing because just like it

says here, sometimes it just feels like you've been cut down.

There's nothing left. And that's when you say, Lord,

thank you that I have roots in the ground, Amen.

Because as long as I have roots at the scent of water, Lord, my

life is going to come back to me, Amen.

So as believers give him a praise on that church, as a

believer, we always have hope in the future.

Now it does say something about the scent of water.

Now if you know anything about manure, it don't smell too good,

so of course you want to run away from it.

But if you believe your life is like a stump and you have roots,

how do you know when you know that the scent of water is the

cure? How many know we should be

looking for the scent of water? Some people spend their whole

life just talking about the manure of yesterday, or they get

caught up in the devastation of today and they forget what the

Bible says. There's a river here.

We're not showing it real strong because we're emphasizing the

tree. But church, there's a river of

life that God says is available to every single one of us.

So we need to say, God, I want beauty for my ashes.

I want joy for the things that have been holding me back.

I want to get rid of this heaviness so that I can have a

garment of praise. Lord, send me some water because

it's the water that's going to make the difference.

What are you going to focus on? What's going to be your

mentality? We have to make the choice as is

trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he

might be glorified. This says the righteous shall

flourish like a palm. He shall grow like a cedar in

Lebanon. Those who are planted in the

House of the Lord shall flourish in the hearts of our God.

They shall still bear fruit in old age.

They shall be what fresh and flourishing.

I love that fresh and flourishing.

We need to understand God's a God of fresh starts.

Amen. And I love the Scripture that

says the blessings of the Lord are new every morning because

church, there's always something new in God.

I'm just so amazed as a Christian how that I go through

different circumstances in life and then I go to the scriptures

and I find something in the scriptures.

I didn't even see it that way before.

Or I'm writing this class. I'm writing now.

I'm like, Lord, why didn't I see that before?

I've been reading this for so many years now and then all of a

sudden you're like, what? That's there.

God always has something for us that we can flourish, but we

have to be looking for demon church and we have to understand

that the point is always that we be planted in the House of God

so that we can be what? Renewed in freshness.

Now This is why I like to talk from time to time about how I

started out young and I'm getting older because I think

it's important for us always to realize our life is always

changing. You're not the person you used

to be. You might not know it, but in

the natural, I think it's every seven years, your body goes

through a total purging of all of its cells.

So you're literally not the person you were seven years ago.

But we change as individuals. How many know our circumstances

change, People change. How many we no, we got to be

prepared for change and if we're looking for a refreshing,

there's always something that God can do for it.

So as I'm getting older, I realized that, well, I'm looking

for God to do more than he's ever done before.

I always say to people, people say when you're going to retire

and say I've retired when I was 24 and went into the ministry

because this isn't a job for me. It's a joy and speak of them

full of glory. I love it now when I say that

and I say I don't ever plan to retire.

Don't worry. I'm not going to come out here

and with a Walker one day and go the germ with me to Genesis.

What chapter is that chat? What what book was I going to

do? How?

You know, there's one thing we there's something we can always

do And one of the best things that the Bible talks about is as

elders, we can teach other people.

We can not just teach them the word, but hopefully we have some

life experiences that we can give to other people.

I remember talking to somebody about this once.

But you know, how many of you when you're know, when you're a

kid and you're learning sports that always say, oh, it isn't

whether you win or lose is how you play the game?

Well, my dad, Papa Bill, he didn't have that philosophy.

His philosophy is if you win, that meant you played a good

game. Simple as that, you know.

So we used to do family things. We used to have five of us on a

men's bowling league. And I was very important to that

team because I was the only one with a handicap.

So we needed is from time to time.

And then he'd go golfing with the boys and stuff like that.

And he always wanted to beat his boys.

And as he got older, it got a little bit harder, a little bit

more harder. Now my dad had to make a choice.

Do I keep doing this when I'm not going to win?

And he started the bowling league, the church bowling

league. We have starting again for the

fall. Another opportunity for you.

And so it's like, dad, you start the bowling league, you can't

quit. Well, what he is able to do is

become a teacher and anybody that was on the bowling league

and my dad was on the even if he's on the opposite, he he's

going to tell you, well, you shouldn't be doing this and

shouldn't be doing that. After the first service,

somebody said, yeah, your dad always said, hey, act like

you're answering your phone, you got to get that hand up there,

whatever. But it's an opportunity.

We always have something that we can impart to other people, and

so sometimes a certain branch is going to be pruned and other

one's going to grow, but sometimes you got to look for

the branch that works for you. But there's always something can

happen. When we allowed ourselves to be

renewed in the Lord. The Bible says that Christ may

dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and

grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the Saints.

What is the width, the length, the depth and height to know the

love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled

with all the fullness of God? Anybody want to be filled with

all the fullness of God? What an amazing thing.

Now the Bible says we should be planned in the House of God and

I believe what the Bible says that the apostle Paul so told

Timothy, he said learn how to behave yourself in the House of

God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and

ground of church truth. I believe we should all be

planted in the House of God. One of the hindrances to that is

because oftentimes people don't like the people connections or

the friction in their mind that comes being around people or

whatever The reason I've often heard people say, well, you

know, I love God, but I don't want to go to church because

that's too much trouble. Well, the Bible says we need to

let Christ dwell in our hearts and we need to be what?

Rooted and grounded in love. And as we grow in that love that

is rooted and grounded in us, that's when we really get to

know Christ in the way that passes our human experience and

are filled with all the fullness of God.

Church, we need to grow in love. Love isn't just something you

fall into. Love is something that you look

for. Love is something that you

develop. Love is something just like the

tree that's pruned and cut back whatever it takes and work.

And so as Christians, we need to be committed to be planted in

the House of God. And as a part of that, we need

to make a love commitment, say God.

This is the best opportunity when I'm around other people to

really realize what your Love Is All about.

Because God, I know that well. You love us no matter what we

do. Your love doesn't quit.

Isn't it good to have a God like that church?

The Bible says that God's love surpasses our human knowledge.

So if you're facing a situation where the love is demanding

something of you that you don't want to give wonderful

opportunity, you can get to know the love of God that surpasses

your choices. And you will be what filled with

all the fullness of God as you allow that to happen in your

life. And that's where revelation

comes because all of a sudden you begin to look at things from

a whole different perspective because you realize what you're

looking for is love. And love isn't magical.

It's actually very practical. It's something you have to build

on, something you have to develop, something that you have

done not just to make a choice to love, but you have to make a

choice to keep on loving. Can you say Amen to that church?

And then in closing, this scripture from Psalm 92 says

this. It is good to give thanks to the

Lord. And this thing praises to His

name almost high to declare your loving kindness in the morning

and your faithfulness every night on an instrument of 10

strings on the lute on the heark with harmonious sounds for you,

Lord, this is a key have made me glad through your work.

I will triumph in the works of your hands as we have our

worship and praise and even as we open up our hearts at the

altar time that we will go into in just a moment.

You need to hear what the psalmist said.

It's time. Not that we use lute and heart

now. We use the guitars and

keyboards. Whatever to say.

OK, God number one, I know that you are working in my life.

You're doing something. I want to praise you for that.

And I want to praise you, Lord, so much so that all of a sudden

my eyes get open to say, wow, these things I thought were only

bad are now going to be good because they're in my father's

hands. Amen.

Church. This is Pastor Lauren Corbubius

from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us

today and invite you to connect with our church family by

visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.

God bless you.