Oasis Church | Acts: It's All About The Kingdom | EJ Brown | Sunday Service 04/7/2024

[Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] got about 30 seconds to the praise Mission takes off [Music] [Music] well let's all stand and praise the King this morning so good to see you guys here we want you to come in here and leave this place for the Hallelujah [Music] the night a place [Music] to I my I just can't slowly drifting back [Music] I know and he told me that I was not Pi me up turn me around you place my feet on Solid Ground I thank the master I thank the savior because you hear my heart you change your name forever free I'm not the same I than the master I than the saor I thank God [Music] yes [Music] to my friends just keep on moving you [Applause] [Music] ain't I walk straight to go sing about you sing My Soul when sun is found is oh you pick me up you turn me around you place my feet on Solid Ground I thank the master I thank the saor because you my heart you change my name never free I'm not the same I than the master I than the saor I God [Music] I am I am I [Music] am I am come on I am I [Music] am I am I am I am I am I am are free us the one I am free I am free I am free the one I am free I am free I am free the one I am free I am free wo I am free tell us one I am free w I am free I am free you pick me up you turn me around you face my feet on Solid Ground I think the master I the savior because you heal my heart you change my name free I'm not the same I think the master I think the SA I thank [Music] God get get get get up out of that gra get up get up get up get up out of [Music] out of out [Music] [Applause] [Music] of amen amen welcome back welcome back welcome back to Oasis Church and this this is your first time welcome to Oasis Church y'all see how I did that my name is Rachel and I am so glad that you decided to spend your Sunday morning with us I told you I'm going stop running up them steps cuz I'm out of breath again so if it is your first time here please fill out a blue connect card in the seat back pocket in front of you or you can use your phone and use the QR code and let us know that you're here we would love to know that you're here if you have a prayer request please write it in one y'all I'm out of breath I got to be real with y'all I'm trying to get these announcements out um please pull out a connect card or just let somebody know that you're here we would love to know that you are with us now I have made an or an observation I would say and I've observed upon myself that every time I'm up here I'm talking about food okay and that's okay because I really love food and I probably need to go talk to somebody about that but that's a problem for another day of okay and today is no different because we have snack Sunday today yes yes so we don't have to wait a week for snack Sunday it's today y'all like the snacks are going to be out there after church okay so grab a snack talk to somebody you haven't met before learn about their life learn about you know share about your life as well but have a snack on us okay there are many ways to Worship the Lord whether that is through your obedience whether that's through S song whether that's through um prayer but also through our giving that is the way we worship the Lord is through our giving and here ites there are three ways to give you can give online QR code again or you can give in the lobby in person or you can mail in a check and when we give to the church it's a way where we are saying Lord I Thank you for this job Lord I Thank you that you provided for my family Lord I Thank you that you showed up in a financial way for me and I'm giving back to you let's pray God I thank you that you are so good Lord I invite you here today and say welcome welcome back God I thank you that you reign supreme that father you have your way with this offering with this worship father you have your way Lord I Thank you for every single family that is represented in this in this place today Lord but I ask that you speak to them that you pull them closer Lord that they see you with new eyes father you open their hearts to you father I thank you for the words that you will speak through EJ today God I ask that you cover him that you strengthen him God I thank you that you are good and that you are holy that you watch over every single person here Lord in Jesus name amen amen amen let's continue to worship God is the same yesterday today and forever and he is always worthy amen so whatever you got going on in your mind and your heart right now let's just give this time to Jesus just praise the King together as a [Music] church all the saints and Angels they bow before your throne and all the elers cast The crowns before the Lamb of God and sing you're worthy of it oh [Music] you're worthy of it all for from you are all things and to you are all things God you deserve the [Music] glory oh God we worship oh King we worship you are [Music] worth all the saint and Angels bow before your thr all the ERS the crowns before the Lamb of God and see the worthy of all worthy of it all for from you are all things and to you are all things you deserve the glory you're worthy you're worthy you're worthy of it [Music] all you're worthy of it all oh for from you are all things and until you are all things you deserve the [Music] glory oh God we sing We Sing Your Praises we lift you up on high we lift you up on high thank you Jesus just sing your Praises To The King he is worthy he is worthy thank you Jesus day and night night and day let incense day and night night and day let incense day and night night and day inise day and night night and day he's wor day and night he's woring day and night night and day day and night night and day let it [Music] s day and night night and day l in s day and night night and day let it s of it all so worthy of it all you're worthy of it all everything for from you are all and to you are all you deserve Glory you're worthy wor wor every you worthy of it all you worthy of it all everything from you are all things and to you are all things God you deserve the glory for from you for from you for from you are all things and to you are all things you deserve the glory again are and to you are all things God you deserve the glor glor let's just lift up the king lift up the king with our voices lift up the king with our song Jesus we praise you this morning God you are worthy worthy worthy as the lamb father God we worship you oh we worship you we worship you today Jesus you are worthy oh God you [Music] just just worship theing thank you Jesus Jesus let's sing day and night he's worthy all the time and night night andise day and night night and day inise day and night night and [Music] day night day day and night night and [Music] day day and night night and day let is is day and night night and [Music] day and night and worthy of it all Jesus you're wor you're worthy of you are worthy for from you are all things and to you are all things you deserve Glory [Music] singing wory of [Music] it worthy of for from you are all things and to you are all things you deserve the glory for from you for from you are all things and to you are all things Jesus you deserve [Music] the from you are all things to you are all things God you [Music] deserve you are to you are all things you deserve the [Music] glory your presence Jesus thank you [Music] for caught up in your pres and I just want to sit here at your feet caught up in this holy moment I never want to leave no I'm not here for blessing Jesus you don't owe [Music] me more than anything that you can do I just want you just want you Jesus [Music] and I'm sorry when I've just gone through the motions I'm sorry but I just sing another song and take me back to where we started I open up my heart to you sing this with me again I'm C I'm C in your presence I just want to S here at your feet C up in this [Music] holy I never want to leave never oh I'm not here for [Music] see Jesus you don't know me anything more than anything that you can do I just want you I just want you I just want you nothing [Music] nothing else nothing else I just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else I just for you nothing nothing else nothing else I just you nothing nothing just for you [Music] nothing nothing you Jesus is Jesus and nothing I just want nothing else nothing else nothing else will do I just need you nothing else nothing else nothing else I just else else [Music] do sorry I put nothing in front of you Jesus [Music] father father may we not make this about anything other than you it's not about how we feel in the moment it's not about our circumstances the trials that we're going through it's about you being King in the midst of all of it holy spirit we acknowledge you we need you Jesus we thank you so much for dying a death that we couldn't but not only dying but you got up so that in you we could experience life and life more abundantly and so father right now in the name of Jesus I ask that you take over this space that you protect hearts and Minds that you remove any thing that is standing in the way of us to receive what you want to do today Lord you know the time that I've spent preparing this message but Lord if you want me to go into a different direction I ask right now in the name of Jesus Jesus that you help me decrease so that you can increase father you have a word for every single person whether they're in person online or be watching this later you know us because you created us and just like the words of this song we want nothing else but you we want nothing to but to be pleasing to you Lord so may your presence be seen today may people Hearts be captivated by your love may we never forget the time when you first introduced yourselves to us what a sweet time it was we thank you for waking us up this morning with breath in our lungs we thank you for your faithfulness in Jesus name everyone said amen amen amen amen what's up family hey go ahead greet your neighbor just say hey my name is whatever and um Slim Shady you know what I'm saying chck chck thank you bro oh man what's up family all right kids kids you are dismissed to go to your Bible study groups uh if this is your first time here we love to welcome sir we see you come on come on bro go that's my son that's my son I don't talk to your kids like that just mine um but uh each week we like to have the kids in here so they can worship with us uh so that we can model what it means to worship Jesus uh to them right uh we'll we'll show our kids how to worship the football game we'll show our kids how to worship uh our politics we'll show our kids how to worship anything that we like on TV but this is the greatest thing we can show them how to worship and that's why they're here with us amen well if you haven't met me my name is EJ uh fortunate to be the lead Pastor here and uh we're just so glad that you're joining us today uh one quick announcement um for those who know some of you don't uh we've had the pleasure of uh working with uh this guy Claude and and his family they're Builders you probably see those new apartment complexes that are right here uh We've we've had the the opportunity to work with them and and sell land to them so they can continue to expand and and things of that nature but the blessing is is that CLA is a Christian he's a Christian man and so he has opened up for us to first and foremost from 12:00 to 2: today an open house specifically for our church to go check out the new apartments to have refreshments and give away Raffles for car washes and stuff like that and so from 12: to 2 it's a come and go you know you don't have to stay there the whole time but maybe you know someone that may need an apartment or anything like that uh clouding them are open their up up their apartments for us but what I love about this is that when I first uh visited and I I was like man okay we're we're selling this land they're going to build more Apartments I was like man God you just added to our church God you literally have added to our church because Claud has said if you guys want to put invite cards if you want to come you know help people move in whatever you want to do you guys can do that and so we have a a vision here at Oasis Church that we would Bridge the kingom to the culture and and one way you do that is by loving your community right and so you're going to hear more in this message when I talk about what it's like to live a kingdom mindset but we have an opportunity to go be a part of that and and get people to see our face because for too long the church has become a bubble I'm not just saying this church I'm saying the church but I believe that God calls us to be a heartbeat in the cities that we're in amen so join us today as uh Rachel said we have snacks Sunday so get some snacks Fellowship but then let's go over there and let's show some love to the to the community okay amen I don't know who was here for Easter but we had an amazing week last week would you guys agree yeah we had we had a h a couple baptisms and I had people this re week reach out to me and say hey I was so inspired like I know that something needs to change and I want to be baptized and so I want you to know if you're here today you've made Jesus the Lord Lord of your life but never been baptized you can do that okay we're ready to receive you yes the baptistry is not up here hey if we got to go run out there grab it bring it back fill it up Jackson um um and we'll do it but please let us know reach out to us we would love to baptize you and allow you to walk in everything that God has for you amen so could I please have everyone stand as we read God's word and if you can I would love it if you read along with me acts 1 1-3 it says in my first book I told you Theophilus about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen Apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit during the 40 days after he suffered and died he appeared to the apostles from time to time and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive and he talked to them about theom of God he talk to them about the kingdom of God father we thank you for today we thank you for breath in our lungs we just thank you for your kingdom that it is present that it is near that it is at work and I pray father today whatever we've come in we would lay at your feet give us eyes to see ears to hear and a heart that is postured to receive everything that you have for us it is in your son's precious name we pray amen you guys may be seated if you were here last week I shared I closed out a series behind the lens the characteristics of Jesus and I talked about Grace I gave five scenes where Jesus met Peter and in the last scene we saw that there was a restoration of Peter but sometimes we stopped there and not realize what God now empowered Peter to do and so we're going to be going through the book of Acts Pastor Ben and I will be kind of diving in there but today my message as we saw the end of Acts 3 is titled it's all about the kingdom everyone say with me it's all about the kingdom when I ask this question or I POS this title you may be wondering what is the kingdom of God there are many commentaries there are many thoughts and Views but I wanted to encapsulate all of that information from the scriptures and I I I boiled it down to this the kingdom of God can be defined as God's Reign on the earth manifested through his sons and daughters you see if you remember in the gospel series I talked about there's my kingdom and there's God's kingdom but in order for God's kingdom to Reign and be manifested through me my kingdom has to die because the thing is we love us us amen we love us some us I was just listening to my former pastor this morning he said something so good he said um the good news can't be good to people who think they're good who that's I was listening I was like Rick I text him I said Rick you killing it today my boy because we have to realize our need for a savior my kingdom has to die so God's kingdom can live through me in Acts we're going to go back through one but we're going to go to verse five this time it says in my first book I told you Theophilus about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen after giving his chosen Apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit during the 40 days after he suffered and died he appeared to the apostles from time to time and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive when I say kingdom of God I want you to read it with me and he talked to them about the kingdom of God once he was eating with them he commanded themo not leave Jerusalem until the father sends you the gift he promised as I told you before John baptized with water but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit if you guys remember i' I've I've preached this verse quite a bit because John John 14 is one of the greatest uh verses in my life for me but it's Jesus talking to the disciples saying I'm about to leave but I'm going to send you a comforter who's going to guide you into all truth he's going to be with you he's going to empower you he's going to Advocate and he's going to intercede on behalf of the father and this is what Jesus is letting them know and so my first point is in order to walk in the Kingdom we must know the king is always with us when we think about any King on the earth the king always knows the current affairs the problems the potential attacks of opposition of the Kingdom they are ruling why is this important because if you are a part of his kingdom that means that he knows the happenings of your life too let me make this clear for you have you been struggling with doubt the king knows have you been struggling with with fear depression insecurity the king knows my favorite Psalm in all of scripture is Psalm 34 and I love Psalm 34 and4 it says I sought the Lord and he answered me he freed me from all my fears the king sees you it doesn't matter how long it's been since you've been in church or if you've never been to church the king sees you amen and as I was thinking about uh the king seeing me in the midst of my fear I'm reminded back in 20121 I was on my way from Texas to South Carolina to see my dad who was in the hospital as he was going through uh leukemia and I'm on my way and one thing about me that I haven't maybe shared is that I for a long time and and praise God I'm not there anymore but I struggled with the fear of flying anyone else in here and I struggled but every time we would hit turbulence I'd be like man my life's going to end and one specific time when I was headed over there to to visit my dad the pilot gets on the intercom and he says hey guys I want you to know that in a little bit we're about to go through some rough turbulence but we're going to be okay so we hit the turbulence and all of a sudden I start panicking because I feel like I'm about to die in that moment I hear these words EJ just lay on my chest see I don't know if you've ever heard God but for me God usually speaks to me with a with a thought and then peace comes over me when I have that thought and in that moment I realized that God saw me in the midst of just my little weak old fear of flying but again the king knows and although a good King on Earth knows the currents Affair current affairs of their Kingdom the king of King not only knows the current affairs of his kingdom but he is actively engaged in the process of guiding and caring for those who are in the Kingdom this king is not of this kingdom is not of this world it's God's kingdom let's keep reading acts 1 6-8 so when the apostles were with Jesus they kept asking him Lord has the time come for you to free Israel and restore Kingdom he replied the father alone has the authority to set those dates and times and they are not for you to know but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem throughout Judea in Samaria and to the ends of the Earth this leads me to my second point the kingdom is not held captive to our present day realities you're going to catch what I'm saying in a second see when they're asking him are you going to free Israel and restore our kingdom you have to understand the pain that that statement came with you see the the Jewish people had been enslaved all the way back to exodus by the Egyptians the Assyrians the Babylonians the Persians the Greeks and now they are enslaved in in bondage and oppressed by the Romans but here's the thing they were so focused on the state of their people instead of focusing on what Jesus was trying to do through them you see the state of our country does not determine the state of God's Kingdom right however our desire to be used in God's kingdom can determine the state St of our country I'm going to say that again the state of our country does not determine the state of God's kingdom our country is not moving God's kingdom however our desire to be used remember manifested through us our desire to be used in God's kingdom can determine the state of our country and I know we have many Christians that have got caught up in the dooming Gloom theology that we're in the last days and it's understandable when you look at Society you look at the Brokenness of this world it's easy to be fearful but what I want you to know it's not that Jesus doesn't care about our cities our nation and our world it's that we are Focus are called to focus on The Souls of humanity not the sins of humanity I don't have a heaven or hell to put you in but I know the one who does you feel me do y'all hear what I'm saying some of us need to get off social media we need to stop watching the news and we need to spend that much time in God's presence and word and I can guarantee you this you won't be as stressed out and you won't be as fearful as the people that the media has painted are bad you see when Jesus tells them you will be my Witnesses telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem throughout Judea in Samaria and the ends of the Earth he is telling them that you were about to go beyond your people you were about to go to the other side of the tracks you were about to go beyond what is comfortable for you because my kingdom desires to be manifested through you and it is my prayer that as a church we we would remain focused on the kingdom and how we can Bridge the kingdom to the culture with the word of God and through the power of the holy spirit amen let's keep reading acts 1: 9-1 after saying this he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching and they could no longer see him as they strained to see him Rising into heaven two white robed men suddenly stood among them men of Galilee they said why are you standing here staring into heaven Jesus has been taken from you into heaven but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go this leads me to my last point the kingdom is not stationary it's always on the move notice how the disciples were still looking to Jesus even when he already gave them the Great Commission to go into all the world you see their focus was still on him and he said I've given you someone greater than I that's going to guide you so that you can move this Kingdom forward and so as I was reading this I I had never thought about this but to me I'm wondering if they still doubted Jesus was who he says he was they still doubted the promises of God because they were still looking like please we need you and I think many of us do that too Jesus please come fix this Jesus please come fix our city Jesus please come fix our country and Jesus is saying I've already done my job he said it is finished he said I've given you the holy spirit for you to go so we get around in these holy huddles saying please please please please and there's nothing wrong with prayer but Jesus is like I've empowered you to go God I just pray that you would bless that homeless person do you have change in your pocket do you have sandwich in your in your bag feed them you feel me it's easy to just pray because it doesn't require us to get in the game and so we often overp spiritualize on I'm praying for you but did you really pray every conversation shouldn't be I'm praying for you it should be like how can I actually help you as a conduit of God's presence because I know the king of this Kingdom God is not interested in Spectators he's called us to get in the game let's just say we go to a game and imagine LeBron James is out there warming up he does everything through warm-ups he does his dunks He Flops he does all that he needs to do to prepare for the game I'm sorry I'm not a LeBron James fan I'm a Lakers fan though real Lakers that wasn't in my notes I just added that he does practice flopping I believe but imagine LeBron James he's in warm-ups doing his stuff say ahh you know doing all that and um as he's going through warm-ups he does everything he's supposed to do he's in layup line with the teams the the teams they even announce him in the starting lineup the ball's about to be uh put up for jump ball and he goes and sits on the sidelines and watches the game everybody in there will be confused what are you doing right because some people believe he's the goat the greatest of all time I'm not one of them but for you lost people that do um they think he's the goat Kobe yes yes but they think he's the goat and so they would be confused onto why he's not playing right here's the thing family we have the greatest of all time in us and so when we're not actively out here sharing the good news about Jesus Christ we can't think it strange when people are like these things are happening in our city where the Christians these things are happening in our city where are the Christians they're at Sunday service just worshiping God praying that things will change and there's nothing wrong with that because we're called to come together to empower one another so we could actually leave these doors and go into the world and be the gospel it's time to get in the game worship team you can come up here I'm about to close you may be wondering EJ what does this mean for me it means that you have an opportunity to live this Kingdom Life on every day other than Sunday that you can come here on Sunday you can get your praise on but you need to be praising him every single day of your life and Illuminating that praise to those around you and I have three challenges for you the first challenge is to start spending more time in your Bible this week some of you may not understand why do I need to read the Bible and it's simply this so that you have an understanding of who God is and who God's created you to be that you understand who God is and that you understand who God has created you to be if you don't know where to start read acts one that's what we're going through over the next two weeks so just go read acts one so then when you're coming in here you have a pre- understanding of what I'm about to go into amen the second thing I challenge you to do is to ask God to create opportunities in your day-to-day life where you can be interrupted from your normaly and you can share the good news about him when's the last time you ask God hey God can you give me an opportunity to share your love with someone today maybe you've never asked that I want you to know today that Jesus said if you ask anything in my name I will do it and because you're asking the will of the father that everyone would be saved guess what he's going to do it we just have to have eyes to see people the way that Jesus sees us the last thing I want to challenge you with and this will be hard is to turn off the news to get off social media and spend some more time learning about the good news of Jesus which brings boldness peace and unity and not the bad news that provokes fear anger and division amen I know what I just said stepping on some toes it's okay go see your chiropratic but um did they even do feet I don't [Laughter] know but uh what I do want you to know is that the kingdom of God desires to live through you and in you and there are people that are waiting for the body of Christ to wake up and know who they are we say all the times we want Revival we want Revival the reason why we need Revival is because the church has been dead for too long and I can give you this guarantee that I will spend the hours on my face pleading with Jesus for this city for this country for this world and all I'm asking is that you would partner with me in my family as we try to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this city it's not complex it's simple make his kingdom become real to those around us amen father I thank you for today I thank you for every single person that is here and Lord I Thank you that your kingdom is near it's here it's present it's moving it's on the Move May we realize that you are with us always may we realize that our our problems our circumstance do not hold your kingdom captive and father may we understand understand may we truly understand that you are the king of kings and that you know exactly what we need today and forever may we worship you with everything in us and may this not become motion that we just go through we love you in Jesus name everyone said amen want you stand with us as we close out this morning you're good and I've witnessed it you're strong and I've witnessed it you're constant I've witnessed it and I'm confident I'll see it again and again you love and I've witnessed it you healing i' witnessed it you say and i' witnessed it and I'm conf I'll see it again and again you're good and I'm winess you're strong and I witness you're constant I witness and I'm conf I'll see you again and again you love and I we day you healing I this day you sa I when I'm com I see it again and again I your faithfulness I see you with so I pour out my pra again you're worthy God you're worthy all of it your promise is never fail God stories I live to so pour out my prise you're worthy God your wory to the broken witness to the hurting of witness to the last will witness it I tell this tell them what I witness to my family I witness to my city I witness it to the Nations I witness it and I tell them this I tell them what I we I will tell them I will tell that but I [Music] man to think that the Lord has done something in your life today what have you witnessed was it the life-changing thing that he did in your life did he heal somebody you knew for me my dad got saved at our wedding y'all like at our wedding like literally we had an altar call and my dad gave his life to our at our wedding so my wedding pictures are done like red eyes tears makeup done that's okay I can sacrifice that knowing that my dad knows Jesus so I just witnessed to y'all y'all see how easy that was okay so what I want you guys to do besides snack Sunday cuz I told y'all we got snack Sunday out here I want you to go into the world and witness to the people Witness of what he has done in your life maybe you just practice at snack Sunday witness to somebody here of what he has done in your life and then we go to the apartments and you witness over there and then you go into the world and you witness there that's one story three different times y'all easy all right we love y'all we're so glad that you are here please meet somebody and witness to them in Jesus name amen [Music] [Music]