I'm Looking For A King - Dr. Dharius Daniels
Transcript
00:00 Well listen, you're about to watch a message that we did during Old School Sunday here at Change Church.
00:07 And for us, one of the reasons we do Old School Sunday is to honor and to, I think, appropriately appreciate an expression of church.
00:19 The word church, it can never mean what it never meant.
00:23 So we can't change definitions of words.
00:25 The word church, ecclesia, or ecclesia, means called out ones who assemble.
00:30 It means assembly.
00:32 And so the way in which churches assemble and carry out ministry will manifest differently in different periods in human history.
00:42 And what we're doing is honoring an expression of church that laid the foundation that many of us, at least at Change Church, we stand on.
00:52 And so it is a testament to a preaching tradition that brought us through and brought us over.
00:58 And so stylistically and aesthetically, we took that approach today.
01:02 I taught this message called "I'm Looking for a King."
01:06 The God you see is the God you get. You can't experience Him right if you're seeing Him wrong.
01:11 I hope this message blesses you. A little bit different, but I hope you enjoy it.
01:16 You can be seated.
01:22 I want you to make some noise. We're going to welcome in our New Jersey family.
01:26 Come on, clap your hands, everybody. What's up, New Jersey?
01:31 It's Old School Sunday everywhere. Man, I'm excited about today.
01:35 We gather today in celebration and in recognition of an expression of church that is one of the most honorable expressions of church, in my opinion, in the history of Christianity.
01:52 We stand on the foundation that was built by those that come before us and we salute and recognize and honor that tradition on today.
02:05 Now, I grew up Baptist. Yes, indeed.
02:13 So we talk back to the preacher. There is a preaching element in that tradition that says we don't watch the preacher preach.
02:29 We help the preacher preach. A call and response tradition.
02:37 Say a word, Reverend. Show you're right. You got the green light.
02:44 You preaching, doctor. Make it plain. Help somebody.
02:55 I want to invite your intellect to the book of Matthew chapter number 21. Will we stand for the reading of God's word?
03:07 Matthew chapter number 21. Verse one says now, when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives,
03:21 then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt wither.
03:30 Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord has needed them and immediately he will send them.
03:46 All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you.
04:01 I want to talk in this final sermon in this series called I'm looking for some for something from this subject family.
04:08 I'm looking for a king. Clap your hands at every location. I'm looking for a king.
04:20 One of the roles and responsibility of anyone who is occupying any seat of leadership.
04:28 Is to operate as a C.R.O. You may be wondering, Pasadena, what do you mean when you say C.R.O.?
04:41 I'm familiar with CEO, CEO, CFO, maybe even CMO or CSO.
04:51 But what? I can't hear nobody. What is a C.R.O.?
05:02 A C.R.O. is simply a chief reminding officer.
05:10 This responsibility is important for all seats of leadership, but it is uniquely important for those that are in pastoral leadership, because there will be seasons and situations where people are facing adversity, anxiety and uncertainty.
05:30 And the answer to their anxiety, adversity and uncertainty is not a revelation of something new.
05:40 Sometimes the answer to our adversity, anxiety and uncertainty is the reminder of something old.
05:51 This might be why Peter, who was in pastoral leadership, pins these words in second Peter, chapter one, verse number 12.
05:59 He says, for this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you.
06:05 Always of these things, though, you know, and are established.
06:12 In the present truth. Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent or in this body to stir you up.
06:25 Not by telling you something new.
06:31 But to stir you up by reminding you of something old.
06:38 Because there are seasons where we are dealing with suffering and stress and strain and we are fighting for our sanity and our spiritual stamina.
06:50 And in the middle of the fight is easy to forget who's fighting for you.
06:57 And every now and then we need to be reminded of who is fighting for you.
07:04 You need to be reminded. Come here. That Jehovah Jireh.
07:09 Y'all aren't talking to me today is fighting for you.
07:14 We need to be reminded that the same God.
07:19 That protected Daniel when he was in the lions, then it's the same God that will keep your lions from devouring you.
07:30 Pastor, I don't have any lions. You got some lions.
07:36 Lying on your slander in your talking negative about you, but the same God that protected Daniel from his alliance is the same God that will protect you from your alliance.
07:49 And is there anybody in the room at any location that will testify?
07:54 He didn't stop me from going in the lions.
07:57 I'm in the middle of lions, but he's keeping me alive.
08:02 Somebody praise him because he's keeping you in it.
08:07 Some people only know how to praise him when he's keeping them from it.
08:11 But I believe I got some Hebrew boy praises.
08:15 Hallelujah.
08:20 So if he doesn't keep me from the fire, he'll praise me in the fire.
08:25 Sometimes I need to be reminded that the God that helped David defeat Goliath with a rock is fighting for me.
08:36 And if he could help David defeat his giant with what he had in his hand, he can help you defeat your giant with what you got in your hand.
08:48 Somebody's complaining, saying this is all I got. And God's looking at your communicating, saying that's all you need.
08:58 Well, if you would have needed more, he would have gave you more. If you would have needed something different, he would have gave you something different.
09:06 But we serve a God that's going to help you do it with what you got. I don't know what you got, but you and God are enough.
09:13 Greater is he. I wish I had a Baptist church that is in me.
09:24 And he that's in the world, sometimes the answer to our adversity, anxiety and uncertainty isn't a revelation of something new.
09:39 Sometimes we need to be reminded of something more. Sometimes we need to be reminded of who God is.
09:48 And then there are other times we need to be reminded of what God said.
09:55 We need to be reminded of Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work together.
10:07 Did you hear what I just said? He didn't say some things. He didn't say most things. He said all things.
10:15 The lion is working together. The betrayal is working together. The suffering is working together.
10:22 The rejection is working together. And God's going to put all the ingredients of your adversity together in a bowl.
10:30 And he's going to work it together for your good.
10:37 Sometimes we need to be reminded not just of who he is, but reminded of what he said.
10:44 Like what he said in Isaiah 54, 17.
10:50 No weapon formed against you shall prosper.
10:56 Wait a minute, wait a minute. And every tongue.
11:01 Y'all aren't talking back to me. Every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
11:13 You shall condemn. You're not going to condemn it by your words.
11:20 You're going to condemn it by your walk.
11:27 They're judging you now. And you're not going to have to condemn them, their judgment by what you say.
11:37 What you do is going to speak for you. And you ought to have two words for those that are judging you.
11:43 Keep watching. Hallelujah. Because if you keep watching, my success is going to speak for me.
11:52 My survival is going to speak for me. My recovery is going to show you that he is with me.
11:59 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
12:04 Why? Because thou art with me. Sometimes I need to be reminded of Isaiah 1, 19.
12:17 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land.
12:25 Sometimes I need to be reminded of Psalm 34, 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.
12:37 But don't miss this, the Lord. Whenever you see the word Lord in all caps,
12:46 that is a English transliteration of the word Jehovah. And Jehovah is God's covenant name.
12:59 It is the name he gave Moses. When Moses asked, who shall I say sent me?
13:07 God says to him, I am. Moses said, okay, I am what? He says, I am that I am.
13:18 I will be who I will be. You're going to need me, Moses, to be so much that I can't articulate all of that at one time.
13:27 So I'm going to give you one name. That's a covenant name. It's a prefix.
13:33 And the name is Jehovah. And I'm going to put a blank behind that name.
13:38 Because whenever my people get to a season where they need me to be something different, I'm going to fill in the blank.
13:48 So when they need provision, it'll be Jehovah, Jireh. When they need peace, it'll be Jehovah, Shalom.
13:58 When they need presence, it'll be Jehovah, Shama. And I want to know, am I talking to anybody today that can testify he's a fill in the blank God?
14:09 Come on, let's go old school. He's a lawyer in a courtroom. He's a doctor in a sick room.
14:16 He's a bridge over troubled water. He's the lily in the valley. He's the wheel in the middle of the wheel.
14:24 He's the bright and the morning star. He's everything I need him to be every time I need him to be it.
14:31 So when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all he's done for me.
14:46 Sometimes the answer to adversity, our uncertainty and our anxiety is not a revelation of something new, but a reminder of something.
15:00 Oh, and as I was preparing this preaching presentation for Palm Sunday, I got a text message.
15:14 I got a text message from Matthew.
15:23 Matthew told me to tell you something.
15:28 Do you want to know what Matthew told me to tell you?
15:34 Matthew told me not to give you a revelation of something new.
15:39 But to remind you of something, oh, that we need to be reminded on this Palm Sunday that Jesus was not just a carpenter, but that Jesus was a king.
16:00 This this reminder can cause a revolution in your spirituality.
16:09 I've been exploring this phenomenon in the privacy of my own heart that I've affectionately entitled a theology of reductionism.
16:24 It is theology study of God. It is a view of God that has reduced God to the limitations of our own imagination.
16:38 Did you hear what I just said? It is it is a view of God that is not always incorrect, but a view of God that's incomplete.
16:49 Because it limits not who he is, because he is who he is, whether we believe it or not.
16:57 Y'all better come get me today. I said he is who he is, whether we believe it or not.
17:04 He knows who he is. He doesn't have any identity issues.
17:09 As a matter of fact, much of what we know about him, he told us about himself from everlasting to everlasting.
17:18 I am God before Abraham was I am. I am the way, the truth and the life.
17:27 No one comes to the father except through me. I am the bread sent down from heaven.
17:37 So our view of him doesn't change how he exists, but our view of him can limit what we experience.
17:50 So I can't receive right if I see him wrong.
17:59 Did you hear what I just said? My perception of him affects my reception from him.
18:10 So one of the ways the enemy stops and blocks your reception is by limiting your perception.
18:22 So this is why we can say we have the same faith, serve the same God and get two different results.
18:34 That two people can both say they're saved and one is saving and sinking.
18:45 And the other is saved and thriving. And they both say they love the same Jesus.
18:52 But their perception is affecting their reception because one of them has reduced Jesus as a one way ticket to heaven.
19:04 And that's all they get. They just see him as a carpenter.
19:15 But then there's another who sees him as a king.
19:21 And what Matthew is trying to do in his gospel here, he is writing to an audience who needs to adjust how they see him.
19:35 He's writing to an audience who simply saw Jesus as some revolutionary rabbi.
19:45 And Matthew's trying to get them to see. Why did I sound like my daddy right there? Matthew's trying to get them to see.
19:53 Matthew's trying to get them to see that this man from Nazareth is the prophetic fulfillment of prophetic promises.
20:11 He's the king we've been waiting for. This is why Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy.
20:19 If you've ever read Matthew, you'll see there's these lists of generations that Matthew outlines.
20:26 Why is he doing that? Because he's writing to a Jewish audience that is unconvinced that Jesus is the Messiah.
20:35 He's proving to them that he comes from the bloodline and the lineage that was foretold and prophesied.
20:43 He he wants them to shift the way they see him.
20:50 He's not just a carpenter. He's a king.
20:57 Pastor, what was this? What does this mean? Well, my perception affects my reception with this.
21:04 And Dr. Miles Monroe outlines several characteristics of a king.
21:09 I just want to share a few of them with you before I take my seat. One is this. A king.
21:17 A king has a domain where he is sovereign.
21:23 Now, maybe there's no celebration because you don't have a revelation of what I mean when I say sovereign,
21:31 because I just believe if you had a revelation of what I mean when I say sovereign, there'd be some celebration at every location.
21:40 Sovereign means absolute. Authority.
21:48 Did you hear what I just said? It refers to supreme authority.
21:55 What does that mean? What does that mean? It doesn't mean other people don't have a say.
22:01 Come here. I said, come here. It means God has the final say.
22:10 It doesn't mean that other people don't have power. It means that God has all power.
22:18 His sovereignty, I don't have time, is revealed in the text when he instructs his disciples to go into Bethesda and there they're going to find a donkey and a colt that's never been ridden.
22:29 Now, the donkey and the colt are not in Nazareth. They're in Bethesda. Jesus isn't from Bethesda. He's from Nazareth.
22:35 So he's going to send them to a place he's not from. To get a donkey he don't own.
22:42 And says, if anybody say anything to you about this, tell them I need it.
22:51 Because there's not a place where you can go where I'm not in charge.
22:56 And whoever has it, if I need it, when I tell them to loose it, they got to let it go.
23:03 They got to loose your job. They got to loose your opportunity.
23:08 He's got to loose your joy. They got to loose that contract. They got to loose that promotion.
23:14 They got to loose that property because he's sovereign.
23:23 He's in control.
23:30 He's got a domain where he's sovereign.
23:33 And number two, he's got citizens he's responsible for.
23:41 Kings take personal responsibility for the welfare of their citizens.
23:53 Anybody bothering their citizens is bothering the king.
24:01 Because when you touch the citizens of a nation, you have engaged in an act of war.
24:09 And the king will summon all the resources at his disposal to defend those that are under attack.
24:18 Y'all aren't talking to me here.
24:21 And if you knew that you are a citizen of his kingdom, you sleep better at night.
24:28 If you knew you are a citizen of his kingdom, you would stress less.
24:33 If you knew you are a citizen of his kingdom, you'd even praise different.
24:38 You read the Bible different. You open up the book and you see touch not my anointing.
24:44 And something on the inside will stir up on you.
24:50 Because a king takes responsibility for his citizens.
24:55 Got a domain where he's sovereign.
24:58 Got citizens he's responsible for.
25:01 Got a military to protect the citizens.
25:05 One of the names I got to go that the Old Testament uses to describe God is Jehovah Sabaoth.
25:15 He's the Lord of hosts.
25:18 He has armed forces at his disposal.
25:23 He is the captain of the armies of Israel.
25:28 I got to get out of here.
25:30 But I'm reminded of David.
25:33 When he was seeking authorization to attack the Philistines.
25:42 He asked God, he said, "Lord shall I pursue?"
25:45 And the Lord says, "Wait until you hear." I'm trying not to rhyme.
25:56 He says, "Wait until you hear the sound of marching."
26:02 Is that the book? In the tops of the mulberry trees. Wait a minute.
26:07 He says, "Wait until you hear feet marching, not on the ground, but on the tops of trees."
26:19 He says, "When you hear feet marching on the top of the mulberry tree, then my army has gone before you."
26:30 He says, "I got an army you can't see."
26:33 What are they?
26:35 It's the angelic hosts.
26:38 Pastor, what are you talking about?
26:40 Well, the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of you.
26:44 And it works in you.
26:46 Do I have a witness?
26:48 I said he works in you.
26:50 Regenerating you.
26:52 Sanctifying you.
26:54 Renewing you.
26:56 He works through you.
26:58 Using your spiritual gifts.
27:01 Your natural abilities.
27:03 And your acquired skill.
27:05 But that's not the only spirit at work for you.
27:09 The Holy Spirit works in you.
27:12 And through you.
27:14 But the book of Hebrews describes ministering spirits.
27:19 Minister means serving.
27:22 Who are sent forth to minister for those who inherit salvation.
27:27 He's talking about angels.
27:29 Holy Spirit works in me.
27:32 Holy Spirit works through me.
27:34 But angels work for me.
27:37 Let me see if I got any old school church members.
27:40 We got to go all night and all day.
27:45 Angels are watching over me.
27:49 Escorting me to work.
27:51 And getting me back home safely.
27:54 When you went in some places you should have went in.
27:57 You thought you went by yourself.
28:00 But angels went in there with you.
28:03 And brought you out safely.
28:06 Because the Lord of hosts has an army.
28:11 That's fighting for you.
28:15 I got to leave you now.
28:18 But before I leave.
28:21 There's one more thing I need to tell you.
28:26 Not only does a king have a domain where he's sovereign.
28:32 Not only does a king have citizens he's responsible for.
28:37 Not only does a king have a military to protect the citizens.
28:44 But a king has decrees that become laws.
28:51 He calls those things that be not as though they were.
29:00 When God releases a word over your life.
29:05 It has no choice but to come to pass.
29:10 Because the Bible says he watches over his word.
29:15 To perform it for the grass withers.
29:20 And the flower fades.
29:22 But the word will stand forever.
29:26 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.
29:31 And a light unto my path.
29:34 Is there anybody here?
29:38 That needs a word?
29:41 Can you testify?
29:43 I came in church one way.
29:46 And I got a word.
29:48 And I left out another way.
29:50 I came in sad.
29:53 But I walked out glad.
29:55 I came in in sorrow.
29:58 But I walked out in joy.
30:00 I came in in a tomb.
30:03 But yeah.
30:05 I said yeah.
30:07 He brought me out of the tomb.
30:10 Do I have a witness here?
30:12 Because the same God.
30:15 That did it for Jesus.
30:17 Is the same God.
30:19 That will do it for me.
30:21 I heard.
30:23 I said I heard.
30:25 I heard.
30:27 The Bible says.
30:29 That they marched him.
30:31 Down to Villa De La Rosa.
30:34 They marched him.
30:36 All the way up to Golgotha's hill.
30:39 They hung him high.
30:41 And they stretched him wide.
30:44 And he stayed right there.
30:47 From the sixth to the ninth hour.
30:49 He stayed.
30:52 Right there.
30:54 Until.
30:56 The moon dripped with blood.
30:58 He stayed.
31:00 Right there.
31:02 Until the dead in Christ got ready to rise.
31:05 All night Friday.
31:07 He stayed right there.
31:09 All day Saturday.
31:11 He stayed right there.
31:13 All night Saturday night.
31:17 He stayed right there.
31:19 But early.
31:21 I say early.
31:24 I say early.
31:28 Sunday morning.
31:30 He got out of the grave.
31:32 With all power.
31:34 In his hand.
31:36 And because he got up.
31:38 You can get up.
31:40 If you're on your way up.
31:43 Say yeah.
31:45 Say yeah yeah yeah yeah.
31:47 Say yeah.
31:50 Ain't he alright.
31:52 I say ain't he alright.
31:54 Won't he make a way for you.
31:57 Won't he fight your battles.
31:59 Won't he make a way out of no way.
32:02 Say yeah.
32:05 Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
32:07 Yeah yeah.
32:11 No he's alright.
32:13 The doors of the church are now open.
32:31 (audience cheering)