Last month, I visited my aunt’s church in Rochester, NY, The Father’s House and heard an outstanding, motivating sermon, by her pastor, Pierre du Plessis, entitled “Made for More”. This sermon was part one of a series their church is doing. While I wish I could’ve heard the following sermons, Rochester’s a bit far away for me.
Here are the highlights of his sermon:
– Philippians 3:20: we’re citizens of heaven! Stop trying to live like those around you. Don’t allow societal standards to affect your godly relationships.
– Romans 12:12: our culture does not promote holiness. You cannot mix God’s ways with the world’s ways. You have to choose!
– Genesis 2:18: Loneliness is destructive! Satan is most powerful in our moments of loneliness.
- God made us incomplete, so that we would have a constant yearning for Him. This yearning can only be satisfied with Him, no matter how much we attempt to fill it with people and things.
- As a Church, we have to move from independence to interdependence in each other, for the kingdom’s sake.
– Ephesians 3:14-15: God’s unit mist stay connected!
– God’s plan for the family unit was made perfect, but has been corrupted by the sins of man. Marriage is pleasing in the eyes of God, but He has designed us to be equally yoked and to grow together in God, not individually.
– I Timothy 3:15: the family of God is the Church. We need to be deeply rooted in OUR CHURCH.
– Dangerous Spirits that Damage the Church:
1. Spirit of Individualism: “Your needs supersede the needs of all others”
– Every member of the Body of Christ carries a unique responsibility. In order for the Body to operate, you have to carry your weight and acknowledge that it’s necessary for the function of the Body.
– We need to move to being more concerned about the Body than ourselves.
2. Spirit of Consumerism: “The man with the most money is god”
– When we take on the spirit of consumerism as Christians, we make the Church disposable.
– We are responsible for keeping the spirit of connectivity in our families as God does for us.
– Has the spirit of the world caused us to jump from church to church?
– Stop running when you should be changing!
– We have fallen guilty of prostituting the Body of Christ: milking each church for spiritual highs, paying an offering, then moving to the next church when we can’t get that high at our current church.
– You cannot shop for pastors; God appoints them to you!
– Psalms 192:13-14: Disconnection isn’t a sign of the end of relationship; rather it is a sign of the enemy’s attempt to isolate us from the Body of Christ!
o When you feel disconnected from your church draw closer to God. Don’t run to another church!
o Our growth is planted and nurtured in the house of God. If you are not rooted in a church, who’s watering the seed God’s planted in you?
Snob’s Reflection:
WOOOWWW! This sermon is just so convicting, so real and so timely for our community and the Black Church! I have fallen prey to the spirit of consumerism before. Thinking that if I feel disconnected from my church, then I can jump on to the next church, but that’s not God’s will for us. He assigns each of us to a certain body in order to match our needs and to help that body grow, in order to benefit the entire Body of Christ. Especially as young adults, the need to belong is a dangerous need that God has given us. We yearn for relationship, but have a hard time identifying what relationship we need. God’s not telling us to go find a man, find a woman, and find a different church, new house, new city. He’s telling us to draw closer to Him. If He wants you to move or start something new, He’ll be clear in His instructions. I think too many of us are lost right now, because we’ve allowed the enemy to plant the seed of disconnection in our relationships and we’ve moved when God’s told us not to. So, because we wanted to get a new “high” we jumped to the next church, the next man, the next job, the next house! And now GOD HAS TO GO BACK AND FIX UP ALL THE HEARTACHE, THE PAIN, THE EMPTINESS, BRUISES, SCARS AND INSECURITIES WE’VE ALLOWED THE ENEMY TO PLANT IN US IN THIS FOREIGN TERRITORY GOD NEVER DESIGNED YOU TO BE IN, AND PREPARE YOU FOR THE NURTURING AND GROWTH AND BLESSINGS YOU WOULD HAVE BENEFITED FROM IF YOU WOULD HAVE ONLY STAYED PUT!! (Sorry. I’m speaking from life experiences, ya). So, where are your right now? Have you moved because God told you to move? Are you staying put because God said stay put? Really think about what you’re doing in your relationships; whether they be in your church, in your ministry, in your family, with your friends, at you job, wherever. God’s predestined our moves. The more we fall off His course, the more He has to do to get us back on track! Ask yourself, “What was I made for? Am I living up to what God made me to be?” We were made for more. Open yourself to Him so you can get what He’s got for you!
Life. Lessons. Love. 
You go girl. Do you make the money from the google ads?
You can answer off line
Just emailed you back. Sorry. Didn’t have internet for like five days with the wedding and what no.
Wow this is soooo true Daphene! I was caught up in wat i wanted to do and not the will of God. No more moving but being still and knowing that he is God. Thanks for sharing!