AMPD Band Worship Set List (Yep, that’s right, our youth band led worship Sunday!)
- Loving, Forgiving, Saving
- All For You
- More Love, More Power
- How Great Is Our God
THROW IT DOWN! Sermon Notes
(This series is inspired by Jud Wilhite’s book of the same title.)
By the way, you can LISTEN to this entire message HERE.
Luke 4:18 (NLT)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free.
As mentioned last week Jesus said we will do greater works than He did.
How can we fulfill this if we are still bound by sin and held down by habits?
“A harmful habit is rarely the result of a thing we do, but an idol we create.” ~Jud Wilhite
The good news is the fact there’s a way out!
Exodus = the road out.
We are all only a turn away from freedom.
What’s holding you down?
What’s holding you back?
“Sometimes God allows you to be placed in a position where there is nowhere left to turn but to Him.” ~Jud Wilhite
Israel cries out and God responds with compassion.
He pays attention to the pain of His people.
The cry becomes the catalyst.
Exodus 2:24-25 (NKJV)
24 So God HEARD their groaning, and God REMEMBERED His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God LOOKED upon the children of Israel, and God ACKNOWLEDGED them.
NLT
24 God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.
Go shows us that He is not only WITH us, but FOR us.
In Response to the Suffering of His People:
1. He Hears
- Think about how cool that is…that the omnipotent architect of the universe hears you!
- I wear hearing aids. Sometime I can’t hear my kids right next to me.
- God’s not deaf.
2. He Remembers
- God knows your history.
- God remembers why He created you.
- God remembers that by redeeming you He is bringing glory to Himself.
- God remembers His Word!
3. He Looks On
- God’s not watching from a distance.
- He’s watching you up close.
- God is intimately involved in the details of your life.
4. He Is Concerned
- God has a longstanding relationship with his people.
- When my kids are sick or hurting, I am concerned. I will do anything to help them.
- God’s intention is ALWAYS to save you.
The first step to recovery is surrender.
Psalm 109:26 (MSG)
Help me, oh help me, God, my God,
save me through your wonderful love;
Then they’ll know that your hand is in this,
that you, God, have been at work.
“You don’t have to be perfect as long as you know the One who is.” ~Jud Wilhite
Romans 8:2 (NLT)
And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.
When God called Moses to lead His people out of slavery, Moses made excuses.
Excuses stand in the way of God’s purpose for your life.
“Excuses are lame attempts to avoid the deeper issues blocking the potential healing God desires to accomplish.” ~Jud Wilhite
Exodus 4:1-5 (NLT)
1 But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’?”
2 Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.
3 “Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.
4 Then the Lord told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.
5 “Perform this sign,” the Lord told him. “Then they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—really has appeared to you.”
- The staff represents the identity of Moses—his career as a shepherd.
- God told him to throw it down: “Release that thing you are holding onto that represents your core identity, income, career, and life. Throw it down before me.”
- Moses went from shepherd of sheep to shepherd of God’s chosen people!
What do you need to throw down?
~PC
