Rock & Soul : week 4

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

Courageous Living, Even When You're Scared to Death

"The waiting is never wasted! He is in the waiting!" Jennie Lusko

Psalm 23:4

Life is full of valley's.

Put faith in Psalm 23:4 even and especially when you're scared to death!

1. His Plan

Eventually every wrong would be made right.

What's God's plan in your valley? To bring you through it!

Don't get comfortable in your valley.

You're just passing through.

Proverbs 4:18

Keep moving forward!

No pain, no sickness is permanent.

Death is not the end of the road, it's a bend in the road.

Keep moving.

Make the best of it.

Beauty to be found in the valley.

Find purpose in your valley.

There may be people there that you're supposed to bring hope to.

2. His Presence

His presence gives us permission to not live in fear.

The reason I don't have to dwell in fear is because I am never alone.

When you're hurting don't just talk about God - talk TO God!

I WILL fear no evil!

Quit paying for tomorrow's problems with today's peace!

3. His Power

Your rod - authority

Your staff - leadership 

Together = power

4. His Precedent

C.S. Lewis "It's hardly complimentary to God that we should chose Him as an alternative to hell: yet even this He accepts."

How gracious & how good is our God!

Are you ready to die?

Collection of old church notes

*I came across an old notebook that had bits and pieces of sermons. Here they are...*

Marriage :
Leaving (run to each other)
Cleaving (joined together)
Weaving (becoming one living lives together)

Fear of the Lord is living in awe of Him and being scared of hurting Him.

Do things in Thanksgiving!

Love = sacrifice

Arrows :
Any blessing can feel like a burden because they're both heavy.
Pray Deuteronomy 28:13 over your children!
"If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom."
You are the head & not the tail!
You are a leader & not a follower!
Teach your children everything they need to know :
Who God is
Right from wrong
Difficult decisions
Uncomfortable topics (sex)

You don't have to tell kids to have an imagination.
The world is supposed to be a playground.

Rock & Soul : week 3

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

The Shepherd of Your Bad Days

Psalm 23:3

What does God think of us?

What is God's reaction toward us when we "stray from the path?"

David had some very high highs and very low lows.

God is not just the Shepherd of my good days.

It's great to have a Shepherd when you're not doing great!

God is great because...

1. Our Shepherd pursues us!

Because we wander.

We all go astray.

"O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be!Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,Bind my wandering heart to Thee.Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,Prone to leave the God I love;Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,Seal it for Thy courts above."

Robert Robinson

Luke 15:4

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!"

JOYFULLY

Jeremiah 3:22a

“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”

2. Our Shepherd renews us!

Because His heart is to make us stronger!

"He brings my soul back - He restores my soul."

Excerpt from F.B. Meyer quote on Psalm 23

3. Our Shepherd leads us!

Because He wants to take us to right places.

Paths of righteousness...something better.

How does Jesus lead? Always from the front.

John 10:4 "After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice." 

We need to get good at listening to the sound of His voice.

We read His word.

We can't listen in chaos when we don't listen during the calm.

4. Our Shepherd includes us!

In something bigger!

What's one sheep at the end of the day?

What can we as individuals ultimately do?

When one sheep strays they don't think of the impact on the whole flock.

For HIS NAME's sake!

The Shepherd marks His sheep.

Stick together!

Sheep are a part of a flock!

Stick together it will keep you from wandering.