Inspire Ohio 2013: Look Up!

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Advent HOPE Kettering

Steven Conway

Look Up

Let's bow our heads for Prayer this morning our father and our God.

You've given us to to be alive today Thank you for bringing those who have arrived safely here to this place When We ask that your Holy Spirit will continue to be in our midst.

And I pray, Father, that not only would the Holy Spirit be in our midst, but that he would be in our hearts.

That we would leave this gathering place different than how we entered.

We thank you for the blessing of the Sabbath.

We claim all of its promises and privileges through Jesus.

I do have an affinity towards Ohio because this is where I was born and raised, not in this portion, but in Cleveland, Ohio.

And as my family and I were journeying here, I was recalling some of the areas where I big-booked in Ohio.

We were passing through Zanesville, Mansfield, Bucyrus.

In 1997, I think it was, that myself and a team of literature evangelists came.

We stayed, we began at Mount Vernon Academy and bounced all over the state of Ohio and I had a wonderful wonderful time.

My family as well as my my wife's family everybody lives here in Ohio And so this is a blessing and a privilege to be here with you.

And as I was thinking, and I want you to know it's not always easy to come to a venue like this And to present a message because things always run through your mind.

Lord, please give me a message that is relevant.

There are certain things that are on my heart and my mind that are relevant to the situations that I'm dealing with on a daily basis, but you don't always know if those things will transfer.

So we have to always trust the Lord Jesus that He will put precisely in our hearts and in our minds the things which need to be heard.

God's people have always had a problem looking up.

Even when God was hovering just a few feet above their heads in the earthly tabernacle in the wilderness, history would lead each and every 1 of us to believe that that was still too high for God's people to look.

Their stiff necks made it difficult to consistently look up to God.

In 1 Samuel chapter 8, beginning with verse 5, the Bible says, and said unto him, Behold, thou art old.

These are the leaders of Israel speaking to Samuel.

Now, that's not a good thing, a good way to start off any conversation with anyone.

You are old and your sons walk not in your ways.

Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us.

And The Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Notice in 1 Samuel chapter 8, the Bible says that the people reject God in favor of living like all the nations around them.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 13 Verse 9, the Bible says, Have you not cast out the priest of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands?

Apparently, this dilemma between looking up to God and being magnetically attracted to the nations that surrounded them and trying to follow their example and pattern was something that transferred into the New Testament as well.

For the apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 12, familiar text, verses 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not, " what does the next word say?

And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

It seems like this was still a pressing issue, even in the time of the New Testament church, the Spirit of God led the apostle Paul to encourage God's people, do not give in to the pressures that are pushing you on every side.

In Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2, I'm sure these are also familiar with you, these texts.

If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are below.

If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." the driving force behind God's church should be God, not the things that we see around us, not what is socially acceptable, not what the social norms are, but Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father on high.

Our love for Him should motivate us as God's people to do only those things which are pleasing in His sight.

You know, the series we just completed, at least the first phase of, back at home, it was called Unlocking Revelation.

And I actually didn't preach on the 7 churches portion of the book of Revelation.

But I had been doing a study in my, in 1 of my churches on the book of Revelation and in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, I was fascinated with what I saw.

Now, maybe it's just me, but I believe that I did see it.

It seemed to me that while I was studying about the 7 churches, with the exception of perhaps a few, The church's greatest struggle throughout history, and we know that the 7 churches were letters which were written not just to the 7 churches which existed during the time that John wrote, but this was an unfolding of the history of God's church down through the ages.

But it seemed to me that the church's greatest struggle throughout history has been to remain independent of the influence of the society in which it exists.

Every church throughout the centuries has had that as its greatest challenge.

And if you read the messages to the 7 churches, I believe that that clearly reveals itself.

If you read about the histories of the cities in which these churches dwelt, you will find when you read Christ's letters to these churches that they had become more reflective of the societies in which they lived than they were reflective of the Christ which they served.

Unfortunately, it's our greatest challenge today as well.

You would think that we would learn a lesson from the past, right?

You would think that we would say, okay, we've got to take our cues from God, not from society.

We should be listening to the words of Jesus instead of what's in the daily newspaper and on CNN.

But unfortunately, we too struggle in this same area.

You know, the interesting thing about this is it seems like whenever we try to follow social norms, we're always out of touch and out of date and out of style anyway.

How can you be lame while trying to be worldly?

But on some level, God's people find a way to be lame while trying to be worldly or trying to fit in with the social norms of our times.

I was in the city of Birmingham, Alabama, and I was conducting some meetings down there and I had an opportunity to visit the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham, Alabama.

Just so happens that Birmingham, Alabama was the birthplace of my mother, my grandfather.

And so while I was there, I had the opportunity to visit that Civil Rights Museum, and I was literally overwhelmed.

Now the civil rights struggle as you all know at least I hope you know it's a very fortuitous time here in the United States of America.

There was a lot of tumult going on in the cities of our nation.

But there was something that caught my attention.

It wasn't all the strife and what have you that was taking place during the civil rights movement.

What caught my attention was the young people who were involved in the movement.

The young people who were involved in the movement.

There were blacks, there were whites, there were Jews, there were Protestants, there were Catholics.

In fact, there's 1 endearing figure, perhaps not so endearing for some, of a gentleman who had, he was taking this bus ride that was taking the this group of young people all throughout the southern states and they were going to end up at a particular March I believe it was in New Orleans Louisiana And while they had stopped at 1 of the cities in order to change buses, they were attacked.

And this 1 particular gentleman, I forget his name, he was beaten to the point where he was unconscious.

His friends had to drag him away from the crowd.

And they were showing a video of it as you were walking through the Civil Rights Museum.

And this young man was laying in the bed.

There were bruises and scrapes all over his face and the cameras drew in on him and they said, are you going to continue?

And his response was, nothing can stop this movement.

I was fascinated and so when I left the Civil Rights Museum, I ended up going home and looking up this gentleman.

I wanted to find out how he had become attached to the movement.

He had been raised as a Protestant and he was attending a university in Tennessee.

And he was walking on campus 1 day when he heard he heard a group of young people and he heard them singing he was attracted by what he heard and so we entered into the meeting hall where they were.

He listened to what they were talking about.

Look Up

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