The Upside Down Way of God

Oct 11, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When the Ground Wire Comes Loose

A coffee cup sits full but powerless, its handle cool despite the current. The sermon’s electrical metaphor reveals how believers can have all the right connections—Scripture, community, prayer—yet lose power when the grounding wire of God’s Word frays. Vibrations of busyness, offense, or self-reliance loosen our grip on truth. Without that anchor, the light dims even as the source remains. Staying grounded means daily returning to Scripture not as a ritual but as the live wire keeping our purpose illuminated. [32:27]

“If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 2:21, ESV)

Reflection: What “vibrations” in your life have caused your connection to Scripture to loosen? How can you intentionally re-ground yourself in God’s truth this week?

Day 2: From Container to Channel

A VIP Dad mug overflows with pens, lip balm, and scissors—resourceful yet missing its purpose. Like the sermon’s coffee cup, believers risk becoming storage units for religious activity rather than channels of living water. God designed us not to hoard blessings but to pour out His love, wisdom, and hope. When we cling to comfort or control, we stagnate. True fulfillment comes when we let Christ empty our self-made clutter to fill us with His Spirit’s flow. [46:49]

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
(2 Corinthians 4:7, ESV)

Reflection: What practical item in your schedule or relationships needs emptying to become a channel for God’s overflow? Where can you pour out rather than preserve?

Day 3: Sharpie Labels vs. The Potter’s Mark

A yearbook photo labeled “Linebacker #33” fades beside a wedding ring bearing new names. The sermon confronts how we cling to old identities—sinner, victim, achiever—while Christ declares us new creations. Like the mug marked “VIP Dad,” God’s branding trumps every worldly label. Holding onto past failures or accolades distorts our true design. Freedom comes when we scrap the Sharpie of human judgment and embrace the Potter’s eternal etching. [56:38]

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
(2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)

Reflection: What label from your past still shapes your self-view? How would living as God’s “new creation” shift your choices today?

Day 4: The Upside-Down Wiring of Surrender

A light switch flipped downward powers the bulb—a paradox mirroring God’s kingdom math. The sermon’s electrical analogy meets Jesus’ counterintuitive truths: losing life to find it, giving to gain, serving to lead. Our human wiring insists on self-protection; God’s current flows through surrendered hands. Just as a cup must tip to fulfill its purpose, we thrive by releasing control. Resistance creates burnout; yieldedness ignites miracles. [01:05:16]

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
(Matthew 16:25, ESV)

Reflection: Where are you gripping tightest to “your way”? What one act of surrender could align you with God’s upside-down power?

Day 5: When the Gong Finally Sings

A silent cymbal gathers dust until love rewires its purpose. The sermon culminates in 1 Corinthians 13—spiritual gifts mean nothing without love’s current. Tongues, prophecy, even sacrifice become noise without compassion’s grounding wire. Like the pastor who rediscovered his song by emptying bitterness, we find our true voice when love pours through us. The world hears God not through our noise but through the melody of patience, kindness, and enduring hope. [01:23:47]

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
(1 Corinthians 13:1, ESV)

Reflection: What spiritual practice or gift have you prioritized over love? How can you let love recalibrate your actions this week?

Sermon Summary

God’s Word comes again and again because love is a choice that must be chosen again and again. The choice to serve God is not a one-time deal from years ago. The choice is today, and then tomorrow, and then the next day. God’s people stay grounded by hearing the Word, reading the Word, seeing the Word, and hiding it in their hearts.

The electrical picture shows how a life can have power available but still not see the light come on. The source can be good, the wiring can be there, and the vessel can look fine, but a lost ground keeps the power from being fulfilled. The Word of God grounds the believer, while the Spirit supplies the power and the body of Christ provides connection, strength, wisdom, and navigation. God dots, divine appointments with people, become places where believers encourage each other instead of pulling each other toward offense, bitterness, or worldly thinking.

Jesus came first as Savior, but Christ will return as Judge. The call to receive Jesus as Savior cannot become an excuse to reject His judgment, correction, or truth. Love refuses offense, keeps no record of wrongs, and does not try to control or change other people. The Spirit reveals what needs to change in a person’s own heart, while God does the changing in others.

The coffee cup shows that a vessel can be useful and resourceful while still failing to fulfill its created purpose. A cup was not created merely to hold something. A cup holds and pours. A cup that only receives becomes a container, but God created His people to be channels of His love, hope, wisdom, peace, and strength. The upside down way of God begins when self-reliance, pride, fear, bitterness, and old labels get emptied out so the Spirit can keep pouring in.

The new creation cannot keep identifying with what Christ has already redeemed. Sin may have happened, but sin is not the believer’s identity. Divorce, addiction, failure, anger, and the old life may become testimony when given to God, but they do not get to name the vessel. Christ makes all things new, and Satan tries to steal authority by convincing God’s people to believe old lies about themselves.

The Spirit-filled life produces more than gifts, knowledge, miracles, or words. Love remains the more excellent way. Love becomes the overflow when the vessel stays filled with the Holy Spirit, and that overflow becomes visible in patience, kindness, peace, faith, self-control, and hope. The kingdom life walks by faith, not sight, surrenders instead of striving, gives instead of grasping, and trusts Jesus as the solution in every valley.

Key Takeaways

1. Stay grounded in God’s Word [34:27] The power of God is already present in the believer through the Holy Spirit. The problem is often not a lack of power, but a lost connection to the Word that grounds the life. God’s Word keeps the heart aligned when vibrations, pressures, and old patterns try to loosen that connection. [34:27]
2. A cup must hold and pour [47:24] A life can look full and still be filled with things God never intended to occupy it. The vessel becomes a channel when it releases fear, pride, offense, and self-made identity to God. The Spirit fills believers so love, wisdom, encouragement, and hope can pour into others. [47:24]
3. Old labels are not identity [01:00:35] Christ does not merely improve the old person. Christ makes a new creature. Failure may explain part of a history, but it cannot define someone whom Jesus has restored and redeemed. [60:35]
4. Love is the more excellent way [01:23:10] Spiritual gifts, sacrifice, knowledge, and faith mean nothing when love is absent. Love does not ignore truth, but it refuses pride, offense, and self-seeking. The Spirit’s deepest overflow is a life that remains patient, kind, hopeful, and faithful under pressure.

## [83:10]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[25:49] - Choosing God Every Day
[31:07] - The Electrical Connection Picture
[33:24] - Staying Grounded in the Word
[35:54] - Crucifying the Flesh and Rejecting Offense
[37:41] - Jesus as Savior and Judge
[41:58] - God Dots and the Compass of Community
[46:31] - The Purpose of the Coffee Cup
[50:15] - Emptying the Vessel for God
[55:25] - A New Identity in Christ
[61:12] - The Upside Down Way of God
[70:00] - Replacing Worry and Opinions with Truth
[76:28] - Living and Walking in the Spirit
[82:27] - Love as the More Excellent Way
[86:52] - Prayer for Overflowing Love

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” [01:23:10]

2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” [55:25]

Galatians 5:25
“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” [01:16:28]

Observation questions

In 1 Corinthians 13, what abilities, sacrifices, and spiritual strengths are described as having no lasting value without love? [01:23:10]
What specific actions and attitudes does Paul connect with love, and what attitudes does he say love refuses to hold onto?
According to 2 Corinthians 5:17, what has changed for a person who is in Christ, and how does that challenge old labels from the past? [01:07:59]
In Galatians 5:25, what is the connection between living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit? [01:16:28]

Interpretation questions

Why does Paul place the way of love immediately after his discussion of spiritual gifts? What does this show about the purpose of gifts, knowledge, and faith within the body of Christ? [01:22:27]
How does the picture of a cup that holds and pours help explain the difference between receiving from God and becoming a channel of God’s love to others? [47:24]
What does it mean for a believer to acknowledge a past sin, failure, addiction, or loss without allowing that experience to become his or her identity? [01:00:35]
Why is it important that Spirit-led counsel agrees with God’s Word rather than simply confirming a person’s feelings or opinions? [01:13:34]

Application questions

Choosing God is a daily choice, not only a choice made years ago. What situation in the next few days will require you to choose God’s way over self, fear, comfort, or the approval of people? [29:09]
The Word grounds believers when pressure, old habits, and life’s “vibrations” try to loosen the connection. What practice would help you stay more grounded in God’s Word this week—hearing it, reading it, speaking it, or hiding it in your heart? [34:27]
Is there a relationship where you have been trying to change the other person rather than letting the Holy Spirit show you what needs to change in your own heart? What might it look like to release that person to God? [37:06]
What is currently filling your “cup” that may be keeping love, peace, faith, or hope from overflowing? Is there fear, pride, offense, worry, bitterness, or an old label that needs to be given to God? [01:28:20]
When you are bumped by stress, conflict, disappointment, or inconvenience, what usually spills out through your words and actions? What would it look like for love, patience, kindness, and self-control to overflow instead? [01:27:36]
Who has been a God-given source of encouragement, wisdom, strength, or direction in your life? How could you intentionally become that kind of support for someone else this week? [43:31]
Is there an old identity statement you still repeat about yourself—based on failure, pain, a past habit, or someone else’s label? What truth about being made new in Christ can you begin to speak and live from instead? [56:35]

Sermon Clips

29s

#BeAGodlyChannel

“So as soon as I do that, now I can allow him to what? Pour his spirit out. See, we have the spirit of God, but do we allow him to continue to pour into our life? It is something that we have to do all the time and allow him. Look at this. A cup that only receives and never pours out becomes a container, not a channel. We are here to be a channel of God.”

28s

#LetGodChangeYou

“I am not here to change her. I'm here to just have the Holy Spirit reveal to me what I need to change in me. If we live our life trying to change others, we miss the part. We can't change them. God is the one that changes them. All we have to do is let his spirit pour it out into us so his spirit is overflowing out of us to be able to touch them. That's how it works.”

42s

#KingdomMindset

“The world says, get all you can. Fill yourself with everything you need. Hold on to what you have. Protect yourself. Live for yourself. But the kingdom says, give and you'll receive. Lose your life and you'll find it. Humble yourself and God will exalt you. Become a servant to become great. Empty yourself of self reliance and depend on God. If I can't do it, if I don't do it for myself, no one else will do it. That's that's world talking, guys. That's world talking.”

46s

#IdentityInChrist

“We've all have lied. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. But I give it to him. That doesn't make me a liar. That's not the nature of God. God is a God that cannot lie. You are made in the image of God. You have the same heart. He has given you his heart. That is who you are. Why am I gonna believe a lie? Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. If he can destroy the image of God in you and your understanding of who you are in Christ, he's winning. He... Because all he's wanting to do is take your authority, take your influence out.”

44s

#TruthSetsFree

“You understand it? It had a hold of you, but you gave it to god. Now if you did it by your own strength, that's on your own strength. And I don't know if that's gonna work out. But if you give it to God, you've been made new. You have been totally recovered by Christ. You have been fully restored, the Bible says, restored, restored. Yes. I understand what you're saying. I understand the intentions of it. But as granny Elliott used to say, Jenny's grandma, the road to hell is paid with good intentions. I don't wanna go on tensions. I wanna go on truth. And the truth is what'll set you free. And the truth is all on the word of god.”

38s

#BeAHopeBringer

“Because you are going to be someone's encouragement. You are going to be someone's wisdom. You're going to be someone's strength. You're gonna help navigate someone. And so this word that the Lord laid on my heart, I believe it is for many of you, not just for you personally. It's for you to help others, to allow the love of God and strengthen and give people what? Hope. Hope, not horror. The world wants you to think of all the horror that's gonna happen, but Jesus is here to give you hope. And Jesus inside of you said, I wanna give hope to you. So what I saw was this.”

48s

#JesusIsTheAnswer

“I'm not saying there's not a problem, but I give him that problem. He gives me a solution to make a way through that valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil. Did we all have to walk through situations in our life that were problematic? A 100%. Did we walk into death's doorstep sometimes? Yes. We did. Did some of us get blown up shot, divorced, and everything else? Yes. We all did. Were those all problems? Yes. But how did you make it through that problem? was the solution? Jesus is the solution. So I just focus on that promise. He will lead you and guide you in all truth.”

26s

#StayInTheWord

“Because you're gonna have people around you, but who is that compass around you? At the same time, you have to have that encouragement, that that wisdom, that navigation. I mean, you gotta have that that support behind you. At the same time, you're someone else's wisdom. You're someone else's encouragement. You're someone else's support. You're someone else's navigation. And that only happens when you stay in the Word of God.”

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