Upset the World Part II
Tim Ross | August 30, 2020
“There is zero way you can actually love Jesus and not love people.”
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Transcription
What's up, everybody. I am so grateful that you came back to be a part of our family. We are going to have an incredible time in God's word. Listen, this is a time that we get to go into the Word of God and get our worlds upset again. Hopefully, you listen to the message from last week. If you didn't, go back and listen to it but listen, I'm here to upset your world based on the book that I wrote by the same name.
We're going to see people's lives turned up side down with the message, the love and the hope of Jesus Christ. Let's go. All right, if you have your Bibles, I want you to open them up and the first place I want you to go is the book of Ephesians. I'm going to read that in a minute, but I want to give you the title of the message. I want to jump right into the prayer because once I start, I have no intentions of stopping until we are done.
If you are taking notes on this message, the title of this message is how to identify upsetters. That's right. How do we identify upsetters? We have to stand out from the world. We have to be the type of believers in Jesus Christ that other people go, there's something different about that person. I don't know what it is, but every time I get around him, I change every time I get around her. I'm like, "Oh my goodness, there's something different about you, girl."
I want to teach you through the word what it looks like to be identified as an upsetter. Bow your hands, close your eyes. I want to pray for you, all right? Really, really quick because my prayers are really, really quick. Holy Spirit, make us stand out. Amen. I thought that was good, right? Make us stand out. We should be the type of people that our faith literally makes us stand out from anybody else with any other belief on the planet.
Now we talked about upsetting the world, and what is an upsetter? if you're going to identify who an upsetter is, let me give you who an upsetter is. An upsetter is a person who has been upset and upsets of us. Very, very basic definition. Who is an upsetter? A person has already been upset, I talked about it last week, and now they spend their lives upsetting others. The kingdom of God is upside down. Do the thing again, you're all with me. Remember the kingdom of God is upside down. It is upside down from the world system. The kingdom is upside down so it can turn us right side up.
When we come into a relationship with Jesus, we get our lives turned upside down, right side up to be the people that He planned for us to be long ago, according to Ephesians 2 and 10. I want to jump right into this. I have five points to this message. Now, if you were here last week, you knew that I said that I shoot three pointers. How you got five points, Tim? If you shoot three pointers, how you got five points?
Here's what happened, I came down. I squared up for three. I got fouled. I still hit the shot, and one, that's four points but then the person that fouled me, guys, was so mad, I got a technical. I got to shoot for a free throw. That's how we get my points. I got five points, and as I told you I did it now. All my ball players out there, you understand that I'm in the pocket. I have five points, and I want you to write down upsetters. Then I'm going to give you five points based on upsetters.
If you take a note, you got to take good notes. Upsetters: Now I see my colon, it's two dots if you don't know. The word upsetters and then colon. Point number one, please write this down. Upsetters love Jesus. You got me. Upsetters love Jesus. Ephesians chapter 6 verses 23 and 24 say this, "Peace be with you, dear brothers and sisters, and make God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you love with faithfulness. May God's grace be eternally upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ."
Upsetters love Jesus. Now, this is a huge point that I want to make sure that you walk away with because we live in a generation and we live in a culture that tries to make people that believe in Jesus Christ feel bad. about being expressive about their love. That's crazy because everybody else is expressing what they love, about whatever it is that they're into, but then we're supposed to shy away from expressing our love of Jesus Christ?
No. If you love Jesus Christ, you should make that loud, and you should make that clear, and you should let it be known that you are a lover of Jesus. Now, here's why a lot of people shy back from expressing that type of love because they feel like if they express that type of love, they have to defend that type of love. Where else you do that at? I love carrot cake from Saltgrass.
If you've never had a carrot cake from Saltgrass, you have not experienced real life. Carrot cake from Saltgrass is one of the most incredible experiences you could ever have in your life. I love carrot cake. I don't have to justify that love. I've had an experience that's changed me, and as a result of that experience, I'm in love. You don't have to love it, but I do and that's cake you all, we're talking about cake. Now I'm talking about Jesus, the person who is responsible for turning my life upside down. Now I'm talking about Jesus, the person who is responsible for going to the cross to die a criminal's death for my sins.
That type of love, I'm not dialing that back. That type of love, I'm not turning that off. That type of love, I'm not hiding it from you because you had some experience with somebody that claims to love Jesus and it turns you off. I'm not trying to be offensive with my love for Jesus or the belief in lifestyle it causes me to live but what I'm not going to do is turn it off when everybody else is turning up on what they love, who they love, the way they love, why they love, how they love. If you can do it, we can do it. That's how people are going to know and identify us as believers in Jesus Christ is because we actually love the Jesus that we talk about.
That's point number one. Point number two, please write this down. Upsetters love people. Point number one, upsetters love Jesus, point number two, upsetters love people. There is absolutely no way that you can love Jesus and not love people. I'm going to say that again. There is zero way that you can actually love Jesus and not love people. Why? Because Jesus died for people. That just seems pretty simple, right? He died for people, He died for you, He died for me, He died for we. Since He did die, then I have to be open to the fact that if He died for people, I got to love the people He died for.
Now, there's a lot of people out there that will say because you love Jesus, you automatically love Jesus, you automatically love people. Let's just test the theory real quick, shall we. Here's what it says in the book of Matthew 5:43-48. If you turn into it whether you have a Bible in your hand or an app on your phone, the letter should be in red. This is Jesus speaking Himself. Here's what it says, "You have heard the law that says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say, love your enemies." What? Oh, you thought you were going to get away with, hey, we love people, people that are lovable, until Jesus says no, but I say, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
Let me put that into layman's terms for all of my social media folks. Pray for your haters, pray for those social media commentators. You got to love them even though they're trying to persecute you or you posted something and they blew up your comments section and now you want to blow them up. God's like, no, pray for them. Pray for them? In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. I got it.
I'm going to slow down on this. Here's what Jesus said. Hey, it's really, really easy to love people that are lovable. Here's how we're going to know that you a true upsetter, you love your enemies in the same way you love your friends. You pray for those that persecute you in the same way you pray for those that like you. In that way, they will know that you are tied to your Father in heaven and that you are acting as true children.
For He gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good and He sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that, but you are to be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
I got to tell you something, one of the truest tests that you will ever have as a believer in Jesus Christ is how you treat people that don't treat you well. I'm telling you, I don't know who I'm talking to, but like there's somebody on your job that God wants to use you to upset turn over that has made you upset, angry, or mad. Are you going to match the way they upset you the same way? Or are you about to turn into a child of God and not use this love only for those that are lovable, but start using it for people that are unlovable as well.
I remember I used to work at this company back when I was in LA. When I was out there, there was a lady who was very, very terrifying because she was the boss and she would come in and she walked like this. Now here's the thing, that big, loud stomping wasn't coming from a big person. She was a tiny little something. She might have been 5 foot even, but she was probably 4'11. With heels on, she achieved 5'2.
She would walk through the office and everybody would hear those footsteps and they'd be like, "Woo, she's coming." I had just started working there. I'm like, why are we scared of this little woman? Oh, she be out here, man. She be tripping and I was like, you know what? We need to upset her world. We can be scared of her.
We can be mean back to her, but maybe we should just upset her world. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Can I tell you most people that are mean have an origin story for that meanness? I don't know who that was for right there, but most people that are mean have an origin story for their meanness, and as believers in Jesus Christ, we are called according to the book of Proverbs to get an understanding.
Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom and with all that getting, get an understanding. When you have a context to why people are the way they are, it is much easier to love them. Doesn't mean you're not frustrated, but at least you know, I know why she liked that. You know what I'm saying? Her mama left and she never knew her daddy. That's the only reason why she carries that sentiment because she don't know.
I'm telling you, this lady stop and do that and I'm like, "Why are you scared to this little girl?" She was a woman. Let me not be disrespectful. I'm not scared of this woman. Here's what I did. I started getting to the job earlier than anybody else that was there. Me and my friend started coming in early and we started praying over the whole work environment, started just praying in the spirit, over the whole work environment.
Then we went and got some extra virgin olive oil because we real saved. We went and got some EVOO, to come in through and just dab in the seats a little bit, it was like — just going to be praying for everybody that's up in here. Then I got up on the copy machine and I just put a little cross above her door. She had a really, really high door, but she was a really, really short person so she wasn't going to be able to see that up there anyway. I just put, just reached up there, put a little cross there.
Now here's what I didn't know. I didn't know that when the heater ran, it was going to make the oil heat up and like run down the door, but it was still higher than where her eye level was. She never saw the cross dripping down her door. All right, now, here's the thing, Monday, [feet stomping] Tuesday, [feet stomping] Wednesday, [feet stomping] Thursday, Friday, we didn't even hear her. We didn't even know she came to work. Then she did something and we knew something had changed because she came out during lunch and said, "Hey, I want to buy everybody pizza for lunch." We were like, "Who is this?" The prayers changed the atmosphere.
We just asked God to allow His love, to come into the building, and to upset her world. A few months later, she got connected with my friend who was my co-worker and she wound up giving her life to Jesus Christ and she's a believer to this day. You can't run away from people that don't like you, run towards them. It might be something in you that upsets their world so much that they wind up changing for the better. Man, oh, man, this is so good. Look, check this out. I just want you to think about this. When somebody is mean towards you, the expectation that they have is that you'll be mean back.
When you choose not to do that, it's too- it's completely upsetting to them. They don't even know, they're like, what is wrong with you? I just cussed you out. You're like, yes, but I love you. They're like, but I hate you. You're like, yes, that's cool but I love you. They don't know what to do with that. Now, trust and believe, you can't do this of your own strength. Because if somebody cusses me out, my natural inclination is to go ahead and match that. I haven't forgot how to cuss.
[laughter]
I asked the Holy Spirit, will you please give me your mind on this person because I know you love this person. For some reason, this person is finding it hard to be nice and to love others, but I know you love them and I want to love people like you love people, will you help me? The Holy Spirit will give you a grace to love people that are seemingly unlovable. Upsetters love people, even people who we may think are unlovable.
Point number three, please write this down. Upsetters are spirit-filled. Here's what it says in Ephesians 5:18, "Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." Now, this is a huge deal to me, especially the way Paul sets it up. Paul says don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, why would Paul compare the Holy Spirit to an alcoholic drink? Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Why would Paul make this contrast? I don't know if you notice or not, but have you ever seen somebody that got drunk? Maybe I should ask, have you ever been drunk? I'm not talking about like, oh, I'm a little tipsy. Have you ever been drunk?
I'm talking about you totally slammed, next morning, you woke up, you was like, where am I and what did I do. You're in the privacy of your own home, okay, so you could just answer that question to yourself, but if you've ever been drunk, you know that some things change about you when you get what's in that bottle in your body. You know there's some things that change about your behavior when the contents of that bottle get in your body.
Here's what Paul is saying, I don't want you to be drunk with wine, I want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit because the same things that happen to you when you get drunk with wine, happen when you get filled with the Holy Spirit. Let me go slow here. I just want you to imagine if somebody were to bring a bottle of vodka. Somebody brings a bottle of vodka out, here's what I would say. Nobody could drink that entire bottle of vodka and stay the same person.
Vodka is referred to as a hard liquor. It was referred to as a spirit. Hard liquor is referred to as spirits. If you got feel with that spirit called vodka, it would change the way you walk. It would change the way you talk. It would change the way you behave. It will change the way you talk. It will change the way you walk. It will change your behavior. If you drank and got filled with the spirit of vodka, it would change the way you walk.
It will change the way you talk. It change the way that you behave. You got filled with the spirit of vodka and you try to walk and you would be like — Change the way you walk. It will change the way you talk. Have you ever heard somebody that was drunk, drunk? Try to talk, — They came down there and —
It changes the way you behave. It will turn a really, really calm person a bit loud. They call it liquid courage. You ever see somebody that was really laid back, but then they get a little too much in and they like, what? Like a little person running up to shack. I will punch you in you knees, shack. I will kill you mad. She had looking down like, come on, you knock onto nothing. The little person, I'll kill you both. Liquid courage.
It turned somebody that's really, really turned up. That would be cool. I want to understand why are they freaking mad. How do you stay away you're mad? [unintelligible 00:22:21] Just calm down, bro. If we all can't do all we do, we'll be fine. Don't be drunk with that. Be filled with the Holy spirit because if you get filled with the Holy spirit, He will change the way you walk. He will change the way you talk, and He will change the way you behave.
You look at the book of Acts. The book of Acts full title is the acts of the apostles through the Holy spirit. These are ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things because they were filled with the spirit of God. He changes the way you walk. He changes the way you talk. He changes the way you behave. Listen, when you get filled with the spirit, you walk like this. You're no longer all over the place.
Your spiritual walk lines up, and it puts you in a straight line to go through straight lanes. You can get everything that God has promised you without deviation. When the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding you, He's leading you straight in the path of the way that God ordain for you to live your life. He changes the way you walk. He changes where you go. He changes the direction that you want to be a part of your life in.
He says, walk this way, change the way you walk. He changes the way you talk. You can feel the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit starts having you talk a little different. Somebody snap at you and you used to like go, like off. Like, "Oh, so you want to-- Oh, so you thought I was just gone." Then the Holy Spirit is like, "No, no, no. Tell him you love him." Changing the way you talk. No, no, no. Tell him you're praying for him. No, no, no. Tell him, you're taking him out to dinner and you'll talk about it. You used to hold grudges because he used to be really petty, but we're not going to do petty no more. We're going to change the way you talk.
Lastly, we're going to change the way you behave. The person that was super timid and would never share their faith and never wanted to get into a confrontation is now like, do you know Jesus? Because I'm about that life. What about this life that Jesus gives in? I want to see if you're a part of it too. Can I pray for you about something? Hey, God, gave me a word. I just want to share it with you real quick.
That - coming out of you, why? The Holy Spirit changes the way you behave. Why would you come into a relationship with Him and not take on the fullness of the power He gave you to live the life He's calling you to live? We can't do it without the Holy Spirit. None of the apostles could have done any miraculous signs or wonders. They couldn't have stood up to the persecution that Rome was putting on them had they not been filled with the Holy Spirit? Upsetters are filled with the spirit. They had the Holy Spirit on the inside of them for them to do everything that God has called them to do.
That's my three-pointer, but I got fouled. Point number four, please write this down. Upsetters do good. It's one of my favorite points right here. Upsetters do good. This is one of my favorite verses Acts 10:38. You know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. It's one my favorite verses in the entire Bible.
You know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. I grew up in Pentecostal churches all my life. I grew up around people that love to chase some demons away. I grew up around people that wanted to get caught up in the holy ghost and get the demons cast out of them.
It doesn't just say that Jesus went around casting out demons. As a matter of fact, the sequence was Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. Can I just say something? Jesus was a really nice guy. Do you know what one of the most upsetting attributes of us as believers are? Being kind. In a cynical world, one of the greatest things you could ever give humanity is just kindness.
It's just to be nice, to do good. Jesus went around doing good stuff. For example, His first miracle was not opening up blind eyes. It wasn't popping open deaf ears. It was not healing cripples, lames, or those that might've had a disease like leprosy. No, it wasn't resurrecting somebody from the dead. Jesus's first miracle was showing up to a wedding and turning water into wine at the end of the evening.
I don't know if you notice or not, but if you had a party and you all were drinking some wine and you ran out of all the good wine and your friends show up at the end, and he just run your faucet. With a tap of that faucet, good wine started coming out. I'm talking about better wine in the bottles you popped open out of your water faucet. You would just say to yourself, "This is a nice- He's such a nice man. I'm so happy He came to today. If it wasn't for you, we would have had bare wine. Oh my God, you're such a-- Jesus, you're so nice. Why you'd be doing nice stuff like this? He's just a nice man."
He showed up to Peter's house. Peter's mother-in-law was sick. You know what He did, he just went in there and healed Her. "Hey, get up, Peter's mama. You shouldn't be down here." He laid hands on her and she popped up and made them something to eat. You such a good mother-in-law. Peter's mom was a nice woman and she's just nice. Jesus walking through a city one day and He saw a short man in a tree named Zacchaeus. Jesus is so nice.
He invited Himself to this dude's house, a reviled tax collector. He just invited Himself over. He was just like, "Hey, Zacchaeus, I see you in that tree, come down and I'm coming over your house." Zacchaeus' whole life was changed. His role was upset because Jesus was just nice enough to invite Himself over. I got a pause because I feel something on this one. Zacchaeus was up in a tree trying to get a good view of Jesus.
He never expected to be noticed by Jesus. As a short man in his community, he felt overlooked. The greatest, most upsetting thing that happened to Zacchaeus was that a man of influence, that had more influence than him noticed him. Can I just say God sees you? Right where you are right now. I don't care where you're watching, why you're watching, God sees you right where you are. You might not be in a tree. You might be in the bed. You might be in the couch.
You might be at the table. You might be in the car. He sees you right now. He wants to invite Himself into not just your home, but your heart. He's inviting Himself over. He's not waiting for an invitation. He stands at the door and he's like, "Yo, let me in. Because if you allow me to come in, I can do something for your life, to your life, and in your life that you could never do for yourself." Man, do some good.
One of my favorite things to do everywhere I go is to just pay for somebody's meal behind me or groceries behind me or whatever. One of my favorite stories about this is that a few weeks ago, not a few weeks ago, I'm sorry, a couple of years ago, I was inside of my favorite store where I get all my blazers from. I was in that store and I was minding my business. I wasn't going to buy anything that day.
I just wanted to see if any new pieces came in so I could mark it and next time I came back, I was going to get it. Well, when I walked in the store, there was a young man that came out of the dressing room, had on this fly blue suit. When I tell you what is fly, this suit was so bomb. He had the suit on and he looked great. I'm like, "Man, that suit is fire, homie. This dude, he should buy that." The sales rep said, "Hey, would you like to buy the suit? It looks great on you."
He said, "No, I just got this job. I need to focus on getting some things set up and then I'm going to come back and get the suit." I thought to myself, "This dude got his priorities in order. He's not just going to live frivolously. He's not going to be a bad steward. He looked great in a suit, but he wasn't going walk out with the suit." Right as I was thinking that, the Holy Spirit said, "I want you to buy him the suit." I was like, "Come on, man. I came in here to see what I was going to get. Now you want me to buy him something?" I was like, "All right, Lord, I'll buy him the suit.
I went over to the sales rep when he went back in to change out of the suit. I said, "Hey, man, buy that dude, the suit but don't tell him I did it." He was like, "Are you sure?" I say, "Yes, buy him the suit, but don't tell him I did it." I bought the dude the suit and I left the place. Couple of months later, I go back in there and the sales rep and the owner of the store, they told everybody in the whole store. "This dude bought a guy a suit. He was just amazing."
Then I found out that that guy that I bought the suit for kept hounding the store owner until they finally gave him my name. He called me and said, "I can't believe you bought me that suit. It was just really nice. Can we just go to dinner?" We go to dinner and we have this great conversation. Few months later, I'm in the store minding my own business. As I'm checking out, I hear somebody behind me say, "That's the dude that bought me to suit."
When I turn around, it's his mom, his dad, his sister, and his girlfriend from out of town. They all came in just to see the store that the guy bought the suit from. I happened to be there on the same day his parents came to town. Well, we wound up having a conversation. Long story short, they're believers in Jesus Christ. They have a small group in their home that listens to Embassy City and transformation. Their whole life was turned upside down because I was obedient enough to buy one suit.
I didn't heal the man of leprosy. His ear didn't fall off and I put it back on. I simply did good. Whether it's buying somebody a suit or buying somebody ice cream, the effect is the same. We should go around doing good. Maybe God will use us to heal some people that are oppressed by demons but if not, at least we'll do some good every single day. Point number five, write this down.
Upsetters love life. If you're a lover of Jesus and you're a lover of people and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you decide that you're going to do good, then you are going to be the type of person that loves your life. Here's what it says in Ephesians 5:2, live a life filled with love following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
I'm going to say that again. Live a life filled with love following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice to us, a pleasing aroma to God. Upsetters love life. Here's what I want you to know. No matter where you find your life right now, you can love it. Hear me. No matter where you find yourself in your life right now, you can love the life you have, because you know whose life you hold. I didn't say you're going to enjoy everything in your life.
I didn't say everything that's going on in your life you love, but your actual life connected to a relationship with Jesus Christ, that's infectious to people. Let me tell you the type of people, people like to be around, passionate people. This is why so many of us love Mike. He's passionate. Oh my gosh. He got energy for days. When I watch him preach, I get tired. I get tired from it. I don't even move and by the time he's done, I'm sweating.
He's passionate about life. I love people that are passionate about life. They're contagious people. There's also some people that are passionate about death, and the type of people that have followed them are people that are addicted to drama and gossip and problems and pain would have got one or two use you to upset their world. What if there was something about you that he wanted to use to get them to turn their lives upside down.
I believe that after this weekend, you're going to be identified in a completely different way. To the point that there's going to be some people that literally go, I know her. I know how she used to be. She's not like that no more. I know that you would usually go to him for that, but he don't do that no more. You can go ask him if he wants to, but he's not going to do that. His life is different now. He's identifying himself by a different set of parameters.
God wants to upset you. He wants to take your life and turn it upside down with the message, the love, and the hope of Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, if you allowed Him to do that for you and in you, your life would never be the same. Upsetters, fall in love with Jesus. Upsetters, fall in love with people. Upsetters, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Upsetters, do some good. Upsetters, love your life, because if you get those five, you won't just survive, you will thrive.
Bow your heads, close your eyes. What might the Holy Spirit be saying to you right now? You want to live this upset life? You want to be an upsetter yourself? I just need you to open up your heart and receive Jesus. According to chapter 10 in verse 9 of Romans, all you have to do is that believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. That God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. If you've never heard the word repent, I don't want you to be scared of this word.
Here's all repent means. Change your mind, change your mind about the way you've been thinking about living your life, and take that out. Again, not talking about a loss, I'm talking about a cross. I'm not talking about losing yourself, I'm talking about gaining eternity. Take that L, not in a loss, but in the Lord. Make Him savior, receive Him with that, but also make Him Lord of your life. If you've opened up your heart to receive that and if you've prayed the prayer of salvation and just say, "Lord, I accept you into my heart. I believe that you are Lord and that God raised you from the dead."
We are happy to have you in the kingdom. We are happy to see you represent for transformation in Christ, the lost and found, coming into a relationship to have their worlds turned upside down. I love you guys so much. Thanks for letting me hang out with you for a couple of weeks. I'm Tim Ross. Your world's have been upset. I love you, guys. Peace.
