Transcript: Christian Reboot: Sunday Morning Service at Doran Wesleyan Church

Now, everything seems to be rebooted, okay? When you look at it, we're seeing that continuously all the time. There's a thing that is, in television and movies now, everything's getting rebooted. Okay, new actors coming in and doing shows over and trying to change it up and, oh, let's reboot this. Let's do this. I mean, all the time they're doing that. Something that I continuously have to remind my mom to do all the time is reboot the tone, the phone. Because maybe you're like her. I mean, you just keep using the phone and then eventually it slows up to a crawl. And you're sitting there going, it won't work. You know, and it's like, you have to reboot it. You know? You have to restart it. You've got to give it, because what happens is computers and tablets and smartphones and all this, they run low on memory, and then they can't process things, and so they have to freshen up. They've got to restart. They've got to start, you know, fresh and new. But did you know that Christians need to reboot sometimes? Yes, that's right. We need to reboot sometimes. We need to get a new start, a fresh beginning to help us fight the enemy. We need to reboot. You know, we need to reboot sometimes. And today I want to share with you the idea of rebooting for us as Christians. 1 Peter 5, verse 8. This is, of course, Peter writing to the church. He says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking those whom he may devour. The interesting word here, be sober, gets, every time we hear sober, we think that of drinking. Someone that is sober, they're trying to get off of alcoholic beverages, right? But that's not what this word here means. The term here, sober, here, means to be on alert. Be aware at all times. Because our adversary, Satan, is continuously looking for ways to destroy us. That is what he wants to do. He wants to destroy us. He wants to find ways to eliminate us, to make us trip up in our daily walk with God. He will continuously throw things at us. You ever find yourself just having a bad day? And just like everything seems to be going backwards. Let's be honest. That's not coming from God. That's coming from Satan. Satan is continuously going to find ways to throw things at us to make us get frustrated. I mean, the other day, I'm not kidding you. The other day, and there's something that just irritates me. And it's nothing that major, but sometimes there are days I can't keep things in my hands no matter what I do. You know what I mean? You ever have one of those days where you go to pick something up and it seems like every time you just, oh. I had that the other day and it just seemed like every time I would pick something up, I fell out of my hand. I usually give Jazz, our little dog, carrots, because she loves carrots. So I crush up carrots, and I put them in this little bowl that we have for her, and I let her have her carrots. Crushed all the carrots up, made them real nice and all for her, had them in my hand, the bowl in my hand, and I turned around, and the bowl fell right out of my hand, all to the floor, and it went, all to the floor. And I sat there and I went Ah! Because I sat there And tried to do other things And it was falling off I mean I was like oh Now see now that stuff irritates me It really does And it just makes me to where I just want to sit there and scream You know But let's be honest You want to sit there and you just want to go Ah! But let's be honest that ain't going to do no good You can scream all you want That's not going to help the situation. But see, that's what Satan will do. Satan will put stuff in our path and things in our way to irritate us, to frustrate us, to tempt us to turn away from God. That's what he's going to do. And that's why we have to be sober and be vigilant at all times. Because our adversary, the devil, he walks around. He's walking around. finding ways to discourage us. See, the only true threat to the child of God is Satan. It's not this world, let's be honest. This world, I mean, you know, this world can threaten the church. It can threaten our freedom with God's word. But let's be honest, is that really a threat? Not specifically, because this is not our home. this place is just a place we're passing through this is not going to be eternal the only thing that is a real threat to us is Satan because he can affect our eternity if he throws the right thing in our path and it trips us up we can miss heaven so that's why the only real threat to the child of God is Satan. Because his threats and his attacks can have eternal ramifications to them. Where this world will throw threats and things at the church and it's just here. It's not going to affect us in the long run. See, I love what he says in verse 9. He says, Who resist steadfast the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. See because sometimes we can feel as though these things that we go through it only me I know we probably all done that Why, Lord, is it only me? Why do I have to go through all this and everybody else doesn't get nothing? Right? We feel that way sometimes. But let's be honest, just because we feel that our trials and our tribulations are so terrible It doesn't mean that our fellow Christians, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are not going through trials and tribulations too. And let's be honest, our trials and tribulations seem very, very bad. But to that person that's going through their trials and tribulations, it seems just as bad, if not worse. We're all going through things, every single one of us. None of us are going to escape trials and tribulations. It's part of the cross that we bear as children of God. When we take up the cross daily and follow God, what are we going to do? Satan's going to throw stuff in our path. He's not going to let us go and just do what we've got to do. He's not going to do that because that's not going to benefit him in the long run. What is Satan's goal, really? What is truly Satan's goal in this world? I really believe this with all my heart. I do not think Satan's goal is to overthrow God's kingdom. I don't think that's what Satan's goal is. I think Satan's goal in his whole grand scheme is to take as many people with him as he possibly can. That's his goal. It's not about trying to overthrow God's kingdom. It is about trying to take as many people with him as he possibly can. That's his goal. It's interesting. So sometimes we look at the trials and tribulations that we go through and he goes like, wow, is this really happening? Can we really handle this? 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13 says this. There hath no temptation taken you but such that is common to man. But God is faithful. Who will not suffer you to be tempted that above you are able? But with the temptation also make a way of an escape that you will be able to bear it. And I want you to think about the idea there. We're all going through trials and tribulations and temptations. But nothing that we go through is going to be able to destroy us if we have God. That's the point. Verse 10 says, but the God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while. So, anytime a sinner transitions from the world of sin into the world of forgiveness, it's going to cause suffering. And that's just the truth. That's just the truth. Anytime a sinner becomes a saint, if you will, they will find themselves going through suffering. That's just what it's going to be. Why? Why? Because Satan, that's his goal, is to discourage the saint. He doesn't have to discourage the sinner because he already has them, right? He doesn't have to discourage the sinner. He already has them. So he doesn't have to discourage them. But any time we take up the cross and we follow Jesus, we're going to see suffering. There's going to be things that Satan is going to do to destroy us and try to eliminate us. Satan is not going to leave the Christian alone to serve God unopposed. It's not going to happen. He's just not. We're all going to suffer. Some may feel like they suffer more than others, but the point is we're all going to suffer. We're all going to have things that we go through. Interestingly enough While we suffer This is all for one purpose To make you perfect I love that I love what Peter says here Make you perfect Now people will sit there And Christians will sit there and say Oh we're not perfect we're just forgiven And while I understand that That statement it is all through the Bible that we are to live perfect in an imperfect world. Well, how do we do that? How can we possibly live perfect in an imperfect world? Look at what it says in Matthew 5 and 48. It says, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. So how do we get away with the fact of saying, oh, we don't have to be perfect, we can't be perfect. Well, right there it says. We need to strive for perfection. Does that mean we'll never make mistakes? Of course not. Of course not. We're all going to make mistakes. There's always going to be something that maybe will trip off a little bit or whatever. But the idea is we are to live perfect in an imperfect world. Our love for Christ should be perfect. It should be a type of perfection that says, you know what? There is nothing in this world that I look at that is more important to me than God. Nothing. If I was to ask you, and I'm not going to ask you to say it out loud today, but if I was to ask you today, do you, is your love for God perfect? Do you love God more than anything in this world? I mean, there is nothing. Absolutely. I mean, family, friends, cars, houses, you know, things that we own. There is nothing that is above God. I wonder what you would say. Would we say, well, I like my car. Oh, I like my house. My family is pretty important. See the idea is God said he would have first place or what No place We have to have God here and everything else after that That's how we live perfect in an imperfect world. And that's why there's so many people that are, so many Christians that are not victorious Christians because they have other things that are above their love for God. That's what we have to have. We have to have a perfect love for God. I love what Peter says here. He said, establish, or in our terms, establish, okay? Establish, strengthen, and settle you. What does that mean? It means we must have a firm foundation. You've got to have a rock-solid foundation. I love that. The story that Jesus told the wise man and the foolish man. The foolish man built his house upon sin. The wise man built his house on the rock. And when the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew against those two houses, The one that beat upon the house that had a foundation of sand, the one that had a solid foundation of the rock, stood strong. Why? It all came down to the foundation. And they never wonder why a Christian, some Christians can have, I mean, oh, I have seen Christians that have gone through so much. And they don't give up. And they don't quit. and they seem to keep pressing on even through everything. And it just amazes me. It makes me go, wow, really? When I look at what some Christians have gone through and they still stand strong to God, and I look at me and I see what I go through and I sometimes go, ha, ha, ha, you know? I look and I go, wow. I miss a mark in comparison. I won't go into great detail, but I will say this. There is a friend of our family from one of the churches in my dad, a pastor many, many years, quite a few years ago. And I'm not going to call the woman's name. I'm not going to say much about it. But this dear lady has gone through so much. she has had cancer for most of her life and she has to go through continual things continual things she's had to go through chemotherapy radiation, all this type of stuff bone reconstruction continually, over and over and over and I'm not going to go into very detail of this, but here recently she had something so horrible happen to her She has bone cancer in her jaws. And literally, without being too graphic, her bone basically dislodged. And she literally had to do this and get to the hospital. Now, that would scare me to death. Okay? I sat there and heard of this, and I thought, wow. I don't know what I would do if that happened to me. I know, first of all, I'd be so scared to death, I'd probably be, you know, passed out on the floor, number one. Okay? But this dear lady is amazing. She goes in for surgery. They take a bone from her leg, and they refix her jaw, and they do all that, and they get her back, and she's back, and she's doing it. And you know what? Back in church doing all this. And I'm sitting here and I'm going, wow. Wow. Because not me. I don't know if I can do that. I'll be honest with you. The amount of stuff that she's gone through, you almost feel like you'd be like Job's wife. It'd be like, boy, I can't handle too much more. God's forsaken me. but then you got to think of what Job said and Job said you know are we expected to get all good and nothing evil ever to come we're going to have evil we're going to have stuff come upon us we just have to have that firm foundation that says I'm going to put my feet upon the rock and I will not be moved no matter what Satan throws at me because greater is he that is in me than he that is in this world and there's nothing, absolutely nothing that Satan is going to throw at me that's going to make me turn back on God because I've come too far to turn back now. And that's the point. So sometimes we just got to reboot. Sometimes we just got to, like a computer, we got to reboot. We got to join our hearts back with God. We got to say, Lord, I want you to re-strengthen me. I want you to re-put it down in my soul. The joy of the Lord in my heart once again. Because it's not about our past, it's about our future. Right? And as I thought about this, I thought about four people that didn't let their past dictate their future. They allowed themselves to reboot with God. First off was Moses. Moses reboots his life after committing murder. You can read that story for yourself, it's amazing. You probably know the story, but I'm saying, do you good to read it again. When you look at Naomi, Naomi reboots with God after losing her husband and her sons. Amazing. David, David reboots after committing adultery and murder. And Peter, right here, who we're reading. Peter reboots after denying he knew Jesus not once, not twice but three times they didn't allow their past and the things, their mistakes and all that had gone on the trials and tribulations and all the bad stuff to dictate their future sometimes we need to just hit the restart button the restart button the reboot button and reestablish a good connection with God. Sometimes that's what you've got to do with your modem, right? Okay? The modem, your internet connection. You know, it starts getting clunky, it starts getting slow, and then boom, they sit there and tell you, oh, well, if you're having connection issues, If it's getting a little slow, then recycle. They call it cycling. But basically it means reboot. You unplug it, and then you plug it back up, and it establishes that connection, and then you're back running again. Sometimes that's what we've got to do. We've got to unplug from this world. Hallelujah. That's right. We've got to unplug from this world, and then we've got to plug on to God's Word. And that's what we've got to do. We've got to unplug from this world because this world is full of so much hate and so much trouble and so much stuff that we just need to unplug from the world and we need to plug into God's word. And reboot and establish a good connection with God. And when we do that, we're going to find ourselves in a much better state than we were before. So today I ask this question to you. Do you have a really good, strong connection with God? Is it really, really a good, strong connection with God? Or maybe do you need to reboot? Do you need to reestablish that good connection with God? You can do it today. He's here to help you, if you'll just let him. Let's bow our heads before the Lord. as we bow our heads and no one looking around, I want you to just focus on God for a moment and maybe there would be someone that would be honest to God today and say you know what Lord, I need to reestablish a good connection with you, I want to remove I want to unplug from this world and I want to plug up to God's word and to connect with you Lord, I want to connect with you in such a way that I feel the power of God permeating my every being, that when I look at this world, nothing, absolutely nothing that goes on in this world will penetrate my mind and my heart, but I will only be thinking of you. You will be first and foremost in my life. Above family, friends, and things, you will have first place. Is there someone that will be honest to God today and say, God, I need to reboot today. Will you help me, Father? Will you raise up the hand? Hand going up, hand going up, hand going up everywhere. Oh, that's beautiful. I appreciate that today. Almost the whole church. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Hallelujah. Maybe you're watching the video today and you're saying, you know what, you're watching this. Whenever you're watching it, you're saying, you know what, I need to reboot. I need to unplug from this world and I need to plug into God. I want you to raise your hand. Not so that somebody else will see you, but so God will see you. It's a connection to God. Raise up your hand where you're at. Father God, you saw these hands of people growing up today all over. All over in this house. And Father God, even some that maybe watched this video and did that. And they're raising up their hand where they're at. Father God, I ask right now in Jesus' name, you will help us unplug from this world and unplug into you. that we will reboot, that we will reestablish a good connection with you. Father God, right now, these ones have raised up their hand. I pray, Father God, you will permeate their being right now. Put, Father God, a lightning bolt of God's power deep down into their souls right now. Father God, set them on fire with you, that they will feel the very presence of God in their souls right now. They will feel the power of God just permeating them, Father God, that they will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that their love for you is going to increase. It is going to strengthen. And Father God, they will have a better connection with you than they've had for years. I pray it right now in Jesus' name. As they open their hearts, Father God, fill their hearts with your love that it will permeate them and then entail, go out and show to the world their love for others. I pray it right now in Jesus' name. Father God, I pray that as we reboot, Father God, that we will establish this good connection with you. That we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt, God, that this is the only way we can be victorious. I pray it right now in Jesus' name. Father God, I thank you for the reboot. I thank you, Father God, for the reconnection. and right now Father God I say as we dismiss Father God I ask that you will not dismiss us but Father God I ask that you will go with us. Father God I ask that you will keep us safe and then Father God I ask that you will bring us back safe into your house next time that we might be able to worship again again that we might be able to have a blessing of God that maketh rich and out of no sorrow with it be a part of our lives and we will come next time into your house with the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. Father God, I thank you today for all. And now, Father God, as we dismiss, Father, don't dismiss us, but Father, go with us. Keep us safe, and then, Father God, bring us back safe into your house one more time that we might worship you again. And Father, for all that you are and for all that you do, we give you praise and honor and glory for it all for you're truly worthy of it all. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. you