Fully devoted people start by taking steps of obedience. What's the current condition of your heart toward God? Stay tuned.
So here's how it goes. To those whose hearts are completely his extraordinary power follows on the heels of extraordinary commitment.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Today in the broadcast, we continue the message when God stops, he's always on the move, always searching for those who are fully devoted to him. When he finds one, he stops and says, I found one. Are you one of those who are hungry in your faith,
even when it's hard to obey? To keep up with our current teaching series, Fully Devoted, you can listen again to any of our messages anytime, anywhere on demand at bird-stamps.org. Now here's pastor Mark Jobe with part two of When God Stops on Bold Steps.
Verse 12. It says. In his 39th year of his reign, Asa ended poorly, being king for 39 years, Asa became diseased in his feet. We don't know exactly what kind of disease it was. A lot more than athlete's feet, believe me. His disease was severe. Listen. But yet, even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord. But only the doctors. Can I tell you there's a shift in mindset going on there. There's nothing wrong with going to doctors. If you're sick, you should go to a doctor,
he said. Pastor, I'm just going to trust the Lord. Well, you know, why don't you trust the Lord and go to a doctor, too? It's not a lack of faith to go to a doctor. How about it? The problem was that he only went to doctors when he was sick. And he didn't go to God. There's no problem that you go to a doctor. You should go to a doctor if you're sick. If your car is broken down, you should go to a mechanic. If your finances are
in trouble, you should go to an accountant. You see, when you trust in others or other people or other things, but you don't go to God. Ultimately you're saying, hey, my trust isn't ultimately in you God. I think I can solve my problems and my issues without you, God. That is the ultimate presumption and arrogance of the human heart. To think that we can do anything that's worth doing without the power and strength of God. Can I tell you something? If your marriage is in trouble, you should
go to a counselor to help you with your marriage. Ben, can I tell you something? Take the initiative. You be the one that leads. Men typically don't like to do that, but if you go to a counselor and believe that it's the counselor that fixes your marriage, ultimately it's no counselor in the world can fix your marriage without the power of God. You go to a counselor, but you need the power of the Holy Spirit in your life to change what you cannot change. You need someone to
change your heart. God can only do that. If you have cancer. By all means, go to an oncologist. Get all the treatment that you can. But if your treatment, if you if you ultimately depend on chemotherapy and don't understand that he is Jehovah Rapha, the God that heals and you're not calling upon the Almighty God to release his healing power upon your life, then your confidence is
in doctors, not in God Almighty. If you have an addiction problem, yes, go to a 12 step program, you should go to a 12 step program, but if you're confident is in your sponsor and 12 step program, then you have misplaced your confidence because that's only a tool that God uses to break the chains of addiction and set you free. You need the power of God. Asa went to doctors but didn't call upon the Lord. I'm
just wondering, is your heart fully committed? It shows up in what you go to when you're in trouble, what you go to first. When you're in trouble, it shows up in what you rely on most. I love what Proverbs chapter three verse five and six says. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. What does it say? How much of our heart? Part of our heart. What does all mean in the Greek? All. All means 100%. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. 100% of your heart. You rely on God. God can meet
the need through other people. Even our finances and our resources. If you believe that your your boss is the one that meets your need, then your boss will be your God. If you believe that God is the one that meets your need and he uses your boss, then you will put your boss in the right position and your boss will never say, suck your soul out of you because you know that ultimately it's God that provides and not
your boss. If you understand that your boyfriend loves you and it's a good thing that he loves you and you kind of overflow in it. But if you think that your boyfriend is the one that gives you worth and value, then you will always have to have a man beside you. Whether he's a good man or a bad man, whether he treats you like trash or good, you will be driven to get your worth from a man. When you understand that it's God that gives you worth, then God can use a man in your life to
love you in the right way. But ultimately, your worth is not from a man. Your worth is from God Almighty, who looks at you as a child of the living God and gives you worth and value. You see, ultimately we're looking to God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. When the Word of God. Is different than our own understanding, then ultimately it says, don't go by what you think. Go by what God says. Because ultimately, God's way is
better than your way. Your heart might may say, I want to hold the grudge of unforgiveness and hatred in my heart because look what they did to me. And God says, forgive them because it's better for you. I've forgiven you and you say, I don't want to forgive them, but God says forgive them. Ultimately, God's way is better than your way. So you forgive. You say, God, I'm going to trust you and I'm going to forgive, even though I don't want to forgive. That's trusting God. God
calls you to sexual purity. Walk in sexual purity. Well, pastor, you don't understand. If I don't like, get involved, I'm going to lose the guy. Because every guy, you know, they want a little something on the side. And I'm afraid if I don't give him a little something on the side, he's going to find a woman that will give him a little something on the side. So I just, you know, I really like him, pastor. I'm glad you like him. I'm glad you like him. But I hope
you love God more than you like him. Because if ultimately, you're just going to get him. Because he's. Because you're giving him something on the side, listen, he's not worth hanging on to. Until he puts a ring on your finger and says, for better or for worse, let's do this. You said, pastor, you, you say, well, pastor, you must not live in the world I live in. Pastor. You're kind of old fashioned. You've been in a bubble. No, I'm.
I live in the same world you live in. I'm just saying that what you define our lives is not culture. Which should define our life is the power and truth of the Word of God that supersedes culture. That's what I'm saying. The Word of God should supersede culture. And if God says it, even though it's hard to obey, follow what God says because God trumps trust in the Lord with all thy heart. Lean not on thine own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him. And guess what? He will direct your path, or he will make your path straight. I'm talking. This is hard. This is difficult. This is challenging. Is my heart. A heart that would make God stop at my address and say I found one. Because they're fully devoted. Number three, not only must we refuse to give what belongs to God to others. Secondly, we can't put our reliance on others, but God above all others, if our heart is fully devoted. And number three and lastly,
fully devoted hearts become magnets of the God's power. Verse nine says, for the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout all the earth, that he may listen to this, that he may strongly support. Another version says, strengthen. Another translation implies manifest his power to those whose hearts are completely his. So here's how it goes. Extraordinary power follows on the heels of extraordinary commitment.
You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, and there's more coming up in a minute. Just to pause here to welcome you to the program. And if you're new to the broadcast, all of what you're hearing on air is also available to hear online at bird-stamps.org. There are different options there for you to receive the daily teaching. If you are a smartphone user and prefer to listen
on demand, consider downloading the free Moody Radio app. Or you can subscribe to the podcast version on iTunes or Google, however you prefer to connect. It's our hope that this good news and teaching your hearing is challenging and encouraging you to take the needed, bold steps in your life to grow in faith and walk closer to God. So
if you can, visit Bold steps.org for more details. Down through history, those who have had the most influence spiritually were those who were completely devoted to God, and we can learn from their examples. Here again is pastor Mark Jobe with more bold steps.
Extraordinary spiritual power does not come to the intelligent, the wealthy, the resourced, First, the strategic extraordinary power comes to the extraordinarily committed. Jesus chose 12 disciples. You know what all 12 disciples had in common? The one common denominator of the 12 disciples was that they were hungry and devoted to following Christ. They weren't the wealthiest. They weren't the most prosperous. Their names were not known. The one that
would become the the leader of the early church. His name was Peter. And he was a fisherman. Not a theologian, not a businessman, not of noble birth, a man that was used to catching fish. And he would become one of the most spiritually powerful men in the early New Testament. Why? Because he was simply devoted to Jesus. He had hunger
for God. Down through the centuries, those that have turned countries around, those that have altered nations, those those that have influenced haven't always been the most successful, the wealthiest, the smartest, the those of royal blood. They have been those that say, I believe in what Scripture says. I believe in the power of God. I believe, and my heart is 100% devoted to who God is. And God says, aha! Now I found someone I can pour my power into.
David was a shepherd boy. Not a soldier. But when he defeated Goliath, he was simply a shepherd boy that fully trusted God. And God empowered him to defeat a massive warrior called Goliath. Moses was a shepherd after 40 years, an old man When he had the burning bush experience and God said, go set my people free after 400 years of slavery. And he set almost a million Israelites free from the oppression of the Egyptians. Not because he had power, but because he said, I'm willing and fully
devoted to follow you, God. Gideon was but a child, fearful when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, mighty warrior, I'm calling you. And he rose up fully devoted, and set the people of God free. All I'm saying is that those that have greatest influence in the spiritual realm are those that say my heart. I choose to be fully devoted to who God has
called me to be and follow him. I've asked myself this question what would happen in the city of Chicago if there was ten, 20, 30, 100 fully devoted followers of Jesus? What if. Come on, we're dreaming here a little bit. What if there was a church? A fully devoted followers. What if God were to move in a place like this? Yeah. An old factory converted. On the southwest side of Chicago. We have about 1500 people that
attend on Sunday morning in this location. What if 1500 people in the city of Chicago decided we're going to be serious about God, and we're going to become devoted, that our hearts will not be halfway there. Partially there. A 10th of a way there. But what if. What if a church said we are 100% ready and willing to follow God? What could God do through 1500 fully devoted people where God says, he stops and says, aha, I found one. Now let me pour some power. Let
me pour some ability. Let me pour some strength. Let me empower them. Because when God finds a heart that's fully devoted, he's not afraid to pour power into it. He's not afraid to strengthen it. He's not afraid to allow them to do things that they could never do in their own power, because he strengthens them with supernatural power. Are you tracking with me? Well, see, that's what I'm praying for. That's what I'm believing for. And what I've
discovered over the years is this. Listen, I've discovered that fully devoted people. Yeah. When we're fully devoted, we start taking steps of obedience that lead to extraordinary outpourings of blessing and power in our life. But listen, you can't expect new blessing off of old steps of obedience and commitment. I'm really glad that 20 years ago you bowed your knee and gave your life to Jesus. I'm super happy that you made a commitment ten years ago, but I'm
not talking about ten years ago. I'm talking about this year. What's the condition of our heart? Well, I'm not talking about perfection because we won't reach that until we get to glory. I'm talking about commitment. Devotion, saying, Lord, if you say it, I do it. My heart is full of yours. That's what I'm talking about. I pray that God would keep my faith simple, pure and childlike. Help me, Lord, if I ever get too professional. Help me Lord, if
it gets too complicated. Help me Lord. If, as your pastor, I overthink. It's our strategy, our intelligence, our structure, our ingenuity, our self-determination, our power, our will, our leadership organization that causes the church go forward. Help us God, if that's ever our reality. Because in the end, what drives the church of the Living God forward in the end, what causes God to show up with power in the end?
The places where the presence of God says yes, here I can show up is simply people that have a childlike faith that says, here I am. You're my daddy. I showed up to worship you. And my heart fully belongs to you. That's a place where extraordinary power can be poured out. The simplicity of the gospel. Listen. I'm believing God for to move in some extraordinary ways, like I always have. And I. And I've seen it in my own life. When I'm really depending on God, when
I really need God, I pray. When I'm walking on the flesh, I plan. I depend on self, I think I can solve it, I get consultants and nothing's wrong with that. But if you don't pray and go to God, who needs to be the first to go, go to, then really you're walking in the arm of the flesh and not walking under the arm of the spirit. And when you walk on the arm of the flesh, you always fail by the arm of the flesh. We're praying for our city. We're praying for international. But you're also
praying for you. Because we corporately come together to pray for what God has called us to do. We're praying for, for for this church. I'm believing that this church would be a place, a hub of the presence of God, a powerful place of transformation where thousands of people will
hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be transformed. Where marriages will be revitalized, where prodigal sons will come back to God, where the hardest of the heart will come, to Jesus, where people will see this as a beacon of hope, a place that is full of the life giving power of Jesus. I'm believing that for this congregation, for midway, for this factory that we have here in the next few years. But you need to pray for you. What does God want to do in your family? What
does God want to do in your kids? What does God want to do in your heart. What is God doing in you? And if you're here saying, pastor, I don't really have anything. Well, come to me. I got a whole bunch of things to give you. If you had nothing to pray for, then you're not dreaming big enough. You're not expecting enough. Some of you need to pray. Oh, God, take this heart that's kind of cold and put some
fire back into it. God. Some of you have family members that right now, you could never, never, never envision them actually worshiping and following Jesus. But you need to pray that God would bring them to a place where they'd finally be open to the things of God. Hey, I don't know what's on your heart to pray for. You may be a single woman here saying, I'm praying for a husband. I think that's a good prayer. A
godly husband. You may be a guy praying for. Who knows, there may be a guy over there and a girl over there. And during the fast, you come together and voila! Your prayers answered right there. Who knows? That's how God works sometimes, right? I don't know what the prayer is. Maybe you need healing in your life. Physical healing. Maybe you need spiritual healing, emotional healing. Maybe you need a
breakthrough in your job. I don't know what your issue is today and what God has put upon your heart to pray for, but I do know that what you're saying when you fast and pray is I am weak. God, I can't do it on my own. I'm acknowledging there's a power much greater than me. His name is God through His Son, Jesus Christ, that sends His Holy Spirit. And in my weakness, I'm calling unto God to do in a supernatural way what I cannot do in a natural way. That's what you're saying.
That's pastor Mark Jobe. And this is bold steps. Mark is there's nothing in us. There's nothing in our strength or our knowledge. It's all of God, isn't it?
It really is. And the story of Asa just reminds me, as the prophet says to Asa, it's really a rebuke, but he's reminding him, God's looking for a heart that's fully devoted. And when he finds one, he pours out his power, or he manifests his strength. And so really, God's strength and power are attracted to humility.
Thank you Mark. Today's message is titled When God Stops. And if you want to revisit any part of it, or if you'd like to share this lesson with a friend, be sure to visit Bold Steps org. When you visit that website, don't miss out on our current Bold Step gift. A transformative resource addressing one of the greatest challenges people face today the epidemic of loneliness. It's fascinating that despite being more connected than ever through technology and social platforms,
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You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Mark's YouTube channel by searching for Bold Steps Radio. Be sure to let us know when you get there. Well, that's our time for today. I'm Wayne Shepherd, thanks for joining us, and be sure to join us tomorrow when Mark presents the next message in our fully devoted series, a message titled The Power Habits. That's coming up Wednesday here on
Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.